Floating around the edge of sleep, Tsune wanted to stay. There, a summer spirit rested against her heart, pulsing in tact. But, all things come to pass and so the tiny source of warmth gave way to cold. Unwilling to let go, Tsune held it closer to her heart, but it refused to stay. It poured away through her hands like a cloud, or a stream of water. Fearing that she would be left alone, she attempted to convince it to stay. But as soon as she tried to speak to her dream, she opened her eyes.

She saw that she held Aery with both hands and the girl's breathing was the dream's spirit. Looking further, their blonde and brunette hair mixed together, strewn all over the pillows. While her pantyhose clad legs intertwined with naked skin.

Even it was a dream, this ranked as one of the hottest situations Lyle ever saw. But there was a problem. A problem urgent enough to instantly distract her. She felt nothing.

"This is so wrong."

Not even any of the clues she came to know from the less reputable books of her previous world. Even if she chalked it up to never learning more about her body than was necessary for daily life, it was a disheartening reveal.

When Aery moved again, she let the other girl go and apologized.

Finally freed from the impressively sized prison, the brunette took several deep breaths. She had a headache, caused by her overindulgence in yesterday's light drinks, and the lack of air made it even worse.

'What's wrong with you! Seriously.'

Winning the battle for internal balance, the brunette went to her wardrobe on lightly wobbling legs.

'Get up already, our ticket breakfast discounts are starting soon. But dress casually this time, you already had enough time in the spotlight.'

When she put on her summer dress and was about to button up the collar, the other girl turned around. The traces of a rough morning were almost gone and she had a smile.

'I'll go forward with Den, so don't wait for me.'

When the door closed, Tsune went to the table to put her papers away. Yesterday's evening was a lot of fun, but she had only one day to think about the mechamonster's arrival.

-

The city nested on a downward slope, the result of an old avalanche that cut into the sea cliff, was rather small. Before the foundations laid by resort funds, it could even be called a fishing village.

But the marketing campaign, coupled with proper time and place, did its job and people began to draw in. Either by the scenic life or the pursuit of career in the city's largest enterprise that was the tourist service.

Tsune involuntarily shielded her eyes from the city bathed in the morning sun. Yesterday they arrived late enough to see the city in late evening. And while that was a sight to behold, it was far from what she saw after her exit from the hotel.

Instead of the spiral antennae used in her city, every building of Crystal Resort had half transparent prisms the size of a man's arm. And in addition to power transfer, every surface sent colored refractions all over their surroundings.

After a minute, her eyes adjusted and the sea of colors was no longer blinding. The street went through the entire city and she could see the rail station at its highest point and the beach at the bottom.

And between those points, both sides of the street were full of shops, hotels, entertainment and culinary venues. All of which easily distinguished themselves from afar. Usually with large holographic icons above their roofs.

As she walked to the central square, she met people fiddling with prisms right on the street. The crystal devices continuously changed the shape and colors they cast on surrounding people and buildings.

Her interest turned up a notch as she realized that she looked at street artists that used both the street and onlookers as canvas. And every building she passed was colored not by a lucky random image, but by precisely tuning the prisms to create a stylized painting on their walls and the street before them.

Tsune slowed down when one of these paintings caught her eye. And then stopped to take out her phone.

She was near an open air cafe that turned its floor into a rocky shore and the street around it into a green colored sea. It was a shame to go home without bringing an extra present for her mother's album.

"I think I can pass for a mermaid."

Ignoring the thought of whether that word was anywhere close to the Earth's meaning, Tsune took off her shoes.

She put the phone upright between then and sat near the front row table, with legs put together.

The green tips of her hair went into the green sea hologram and became indistinguishable, making her hum as she remembered the beauty salon talk.

"So, that's where this color came from. Did they have a honeymoon here?"

-

After a half an hour of constant distractions, that added a hefty number of photos, she finally arrived to the central square. Its center had a tower fountain array that was crowned with the city's largest prism that recolored the top floors of surrounding buildings.

The fountain's multiple water umbrellas merged into a single water wall near the bottom. And that waterfall served bpth as a big projection screen and as walls for the restaurant that took the first floor.

Once inside, her path immediately crossed with one of the members of her team, Hem. To prevent collision, he backstepped so fast that he almost dropped his plates onto his black suit.

With food safe thanks to the transparent lids, he offered one of them to her. While trying to look as nonchalant as possible.

'Good morning, Red. Take a plate if you want, its seaweed and fish. I'll get another.'

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'Is there something but seafood here?'

'Nah, this place has to promote local food to tourists.'

-

After she finished the crunchy salad, Tsune took the small piece of paper tied to her plate. She was curious to know who made the serving.

The seaweed was the product of many years of research by a company that worked to further desalt and filter the massive water reservoirs that supplied the city. The seaweed that lost its qualities was meant to be recycled at a far off factory, but.the cargo trucks often *accidentally* dumped it off the cliff to save on transport costs.

As the number of accidents went from a mishap to a criminal case, the company became frantic in its effort to make other believe that their behavior did no harm to the environment.

When they discovered that the dumping places were swarmed by deep water fish they had their major breakthrough success. Those shallow waters made their capture easy even with simple fishing boats.

With support of the fishing industry, they proved that this species of fish could consume high concentration of minerals without a hit to the quality of their meat. Then they followed up with research that showed that their seaweed was healthy food and became an important part of the city's culinary reputation.

'If everyone ate, lets talk about today.'

Tsune reached for papers from other plates but Den's words made her sit straight.

'Yesterday was a very good start for our team. Today we will form pairs and tour the city to forge personal bonds. I will take...'

'I suggest that its important for our newcomers to become friends first'

'Aery, please.'

'I will not budge. I care about our team's future as well.'

'You could've told me beforehand.'

'But I didn't know the extent of your feelings. For you to consider me so close that you would take a partner for us. I'm blushing,'

'Not in public, Aery.'

Watching the two argue and then Aery lean in to whisper something into his ear, Tsune exchanged confused looks with the others. Eider subtly nodded, answering her unspoken question of whether it was normal, and stood up to gather the empty plates.

'No offense, Den, but today I'm busy scouting the shops. They might have high discount on marine parts.'

'I'll go with you...'

Hem was about to stand up to help him when his body jerked in pain. He quickly sat down and turned to the blonde.

'...Tsune. If you are ready that is.'

-

'So, what was that about?'

As they went out of the restaurant, Tsune couldn't help but point out that somebody stepped on his shoe.

The boy stepped to the side to scoop the falling fountain water. The tractor beam pads under the water detected his hand and switched their modes.

Now instead of making the water slow down at the very bottom to prevent noise, the slow down threshold went higher to prevent splashes off his hand. Once he had enough to clean the footprint, Hem reluctantly answered.

'It was just Eider doing whatever he wants again.'

'We are not even pilots like you three, we studied in the support class to become engineers. Then one day he said that if we wanted to become great at building mechs, we needed to know how to pilot them. And dragged me to pilot courses.'

'And you went along?'

Hem shrugged as he walked back to her side.

'I didn't have a choice. I still want to learn a lot from him. But enough about me, where are we going today?'

'Is that really a question you should be asking a lady?'

Tsune barely held her laugh as the boy's face reddened and he hid his hands in the pockets. She felt a tinge of guilt for embarrassing him, but she couldn't help it.

If she had to guess, in the game he would serve the role of a minor comic relief character. And she was glad this world was not as limited, it deserved better.

Hem suddenly straightened and took out his phone. After a brief and frantic search, he showed her the map of the region, with a circle drawn over the cliffside several kilometers away from the city.

'Then, I think we can go to this place. I heard there was an old hangar with a mech here. Maybe its pilot has some interesting tales to tell.'

Tsune's good mood instantly evaporated when she recognized the place. It was the same location as the one she found using the game script.

"Just when I was happy that the world had a will of its own. Is he here to correct my choice to stray away from the script?"

"Wait, but its not possible for me to pilot, I don't have an assistant device. Or is he here to supplant it?"

Her lips now a thin straight line, the girl looked away from the boy, to hide her expression, fearing that it would scare him.

'First, a question. I saw rail tracks damaged by mechamonsters and our train even had to fly over a missing part. Do attacks like that really happen that often?'

'Eh? It depends on the region. But if you are scared, the last attack in this place happened so long ago they no longer have a standing pilot team. Its why Den chose it in the first place, otherwise your father wouldn't allow you to go.'

Hem didn't expect the question and told her more than he probably wanted.

"Thanks again, father."

The boy realized that in his attempt to save face he dug himself even deeper and the phone in his hand started to tremble.

'Please don't tell it to Aery, he just really wanted for all us to be together. I even know it only because I really wanted to meet professor Red, so I listened in to their talk.'

Forcing her lips into a smile, she turned back.

'Its okay, I wont tell my father or Den. Lead the way.'