Houki didn't feel it before, but when Haru held her shoulders and both of them were alone in the sky...
Houki didn't know why, but she felt nervous all of sudden.
Haru noticed that Houki's body got tense all of sudden which made him confused since he remembered that she was alright before.
"Houki, are you nervous?"
"N, nervous? No! I'm alright!"
Houki denied it.
"...."
Haru could clearly tell that Houki was nervous. He only laughed since she was kind of cute.
"W, why are you laughing?!"
Houki frowned since she thought that Haru was making fun of her.
"Look, your shoulders are loosened now." Haru massaged Houki's shoulders and said, "Don't be nervous, I'm here."
"U - Umm...." Houki blushed and nodded. She wasn't sure why but she really loved this kind of silly interaction. 'Even though we're about to have a mission....' She shook her head and became serious since she knew the importance of this mission.
"We're on a mission! You need to get serious!"
"Yes, yes."
"You only need to say "yes" once!"
---
The conversation between Haru and Houki was heard by everyone in the operation room.
"..."
Cecilia, Luara, and Charlotte were smiling, but the aura around them telling everyone that they weren't having fun, not at all.
"Hey.... is it only me or does it seem that they're flirting with each other?" Cecilia suddenly said.
"Hmm... Cecilia, maybe he's trying to ease the situation since Houki seems quite nervous," Charlotte said since she was quite open-minded about Haru's relationship. Though she knew that she needed to limit him since if she let him loose then he might get all of his hands on every girl in the academy.
"Even if you're my wife, I can't forgive you if you're flirting openly like this!" Laura clenched her hand tightly.
"....."
"As we said, he is not your wife!"
"......."
Chifuyu sighed and only shook her head since the tension which they felt earlier had disappeared. Looking at the monitor, she hoped Haru and Houki would be alright on this mission and come back safely.
---
Houki was fully focussed on operating her IS and she felt better after she was teased earlier.
If Haru knew what Houki was thinking that he might say that she had an M tendency, but he wouldn't say it out loud.
"Confirm the current location of the objective."
Haru received a map with a pinpoint of the location of the objective. 'Silver Gospel...' He felt quite complicated that he needed to say goodbye to everyone after he had defeated this IS.
"Haru, let's get there at once!"
"Hn!"
Houki nodded and changed the shape of her IS to move faster.
*Swoosh!*
Houki's IS's speed had become faster, and in an instant they were able to see their target.
The appearance of the Silver Gospel was mostly white and its size was quite short for an IS. The most defining feature of this IS was its wings which were quite wide and colored in silver.
From Haru's observation, Silver Gospel could travel at supersonic speeds, with a maximum velocity of over 2450 km/hr, or around Mach 2. It meant that the Silver Gospel's speed was 1/10th of Korosensei or 1/4th of Haru's speed on the water.
Even though it was fast, it didn't reach the speed which astounded everyone since most of the 3rd Generation IS was able to travel half or more than Silver Gospel's speed.
Haru had to admit in terms of speed, IS was better than Gundam, and it might be stronger too. If an IS and Gundam were about to battle then he had confidence that IS would win against Gundam without trouble.
What was his proof?
The first was size. IS's size was smaller than Gundam, but it had the same firepower as Gundam. If both of them were having a fight then Gundam would have a hard time hitting an IS since its body was small and its speed was faster.
It was as simple as that.
But in terms of appearance Gundam was better and cooler, of course.
"Haru. I'm going to accelerate. We'll be making contact with the objective in 60 seconds!"
Haru gave Houki a simple nod.
After confirming his answer, Houki increased her speed once again and moved at supersonic speed.
Haru took out his scythe and released a double crescent blade on the edge of the scythe. He stood up on Houki's back and was ready to end this battle as soon as possible.
From a close distance, Houki could tell how dangerous Haru's scythe was, and she was wondering whether she could apply it on her swords.
"Houki, don't daydream."
"Y, yes!"
Houki was a bit startled, and she made a small mistake. She was about to regain back control, but it was too late when Silver Gospel had noticed them.
The Silver Gospel turned its body in midair before moving very fast while sending out a volley of laser beams.
"What?!"
Houki was startled.
"Calm down, I'm here. Just go ahead and chase after it."
"But the las-"
Houki's words stopped when she saw him swing his scythe, destroying all of the lasers which were coming toward them in an instant.
Spinning his scythe, Haru's figure who stood on the top of Houki might resemble a figure of Dullahan that was ready to grab the soul of the Silver Gospel.
Houki was astounded since she didn't expect him to be able to control his weapon this well. She wasn't afraid and confident that she would be alright with him.
All of the lasers that were sent by the Silver Gospel vanished after being slashed by Haru's scythe.
Silver Gospel's wings were capable of generating large balls of beam energy to attack, either in a singular direction or in a spray attack, both of which deal out major damage.
But in front of Haru's scythe everything was cleaved down and destroyed in an instant.
Suddenly it had turned into a dog fight in the sky with Silver Gospel kept sending out a laser while Haru fended it off, but at the same time he also sent out bullet of a Gatling gun at it which Silver Gospel could easily dodge.
Looking at the movement of Silver Gospel's movement, Haru had to admit the one who had controlled it was a very awesome pilot. Though he knew that no one was inside the Silver Gospel since the incident, the Silver Gospel was similar to the unidentified IS which had attacked the academy last time and he knew very well who was the cause of this trouble since he had just invited her to the "Group Chat".
Houki increased the speed of her IS once again and she had reached right behind Silver Gospel.
"Haru!!!"
Houki reminded Haru.
Haru swung down his scythe from the top of the Silver Gospel really to cleave it into two.
But suddenly an energy field appeared around the Silver Gospel blocking Haru's scythe.
Haru frowned since the information was a bit wrong. He thought that Silver Gospel would be focussed on speed and long-range attack, but he didn't expect that its defense would also be very powerful.
But in that very moment, Silver Gospel gathered a large amount of energy right in front of it and targeted Houki who hadn't gotten used to this high-speed battle.
"What?!"
Houki was startled, and it was too late for her to escape.
Silver Gospel sent out a powerful laser beam at Houki.
Even if it wouldn't kill Houki, it would definitely wound her in a critical state.
---
In the operation room, everyone watched the battle with a worried expression, especially when the Silver Gospel was about to attack Houki.
"HOUKI!!!"
Ichika was startled when he saw it. He wanted to do something, but there was nothing that he could do in this situation.
---
"What?!"
Houki only saw something bright in front of her, and her mind was blank without understanding what was happening, but suddenly she was forced to move downward by someone. She suddenly lost her balance and fell down. But when she looked up, she saw Haru who was being shot by the laser directly.
"Haru!"
Stomping Houki's back to make her able to escape from Silver Gospel's attack, Haru knew that Houki would be alright, but his eyes were clouded in anger looking at Silver Gospel.
The moment a powerful laser was shot at him, Haru closed the distance between the two of them right away.
This movement wasn't expected by the Silver Gospel since usually there were two options which people do in this situation.
The first action was to block the attack and the second one was to run away.
But it didn't happen to Haru since this guy closed the distance between the two of them and something appeared on Haru's left arm.
The shape of this thing was similar to a small coffin.
Buster Shields.
It was a shield that had a coffin-like motif on the exterior and two thrusters on the back with higher output
It was Haru's first time using it and the beam blade suddenly emitted from the front part of the shield before it was launched at the body of the Silver Gospel.
*BOOOOOMMMM!!!*
*BOOOOOMMMM!!!*
Laser and shield hit each other. The laser hit Haru's IS and the shield hit Silver Gospel.
Haru didn't expect the laser would be this powerful which made his stomach quite uncomfortable. He could see the energy on his IS decreased in very fast speed because of the Silver Gospel's laser. But he didn't back down and put all of his energy into this one attack.
*Slash!*
The scythe on his hand suddenly shone brightly and its size became larger.
Silver Gospel staggered by the shield which was launched by Haru, and tried to fight it back, but Haru's scythe cleaved it into two and destroyed it in two.
*Slash!*
*BOOOOOOOMMM!!!*
Haru, whose IS had lost all of its energy, hurriedly controlled his IS using his gravity magic and created a barrier of gravity in front of him, but the explosion was larger than he had thought.
*BOOOOOOOMMMM!!!*
Haru was blown away by the shockwaves of the explosion, but someone caught his back.
"Haru! Haru! You're alright?"
Houki, who had caught him, was crying while asking him several times.
"........"
Haru unequipped his IS and rested on Houki's chest. Even if his IS was very strong, it didn't mean that it was invisible. He made his position comfortable and said, "I'm alright. Don't cry, you're ugly when you're crying."
"What?!"
Houki was startled but sighed in relief when she saw him alright. She kept complaining and told him to not do anything stupid again.
But all of that was ignored by Haru since he really enjoyed resting on Houki's breasts.
"Haru, did you listen to me?"
"Alright, alright, don't cry alright? I'm alright. So for now smile. I like your smile better after all."
"Hmph! My smile is ugly after all!" Houki pouted and looked away.
Haru laughed and tried to appease her since he might have said a bit too much before.
"Of course, your smile is beautiful."
Houki blushed and looked away, but then she continued to complain.
Both of them talked together and went back to everyone since their battle was over for now.
Little did they know that their conversation was being heard by everyone in the monitor room.