It had been a week since the Spirit Team was formed. They were supposed to go on their first mission in the Neighboring World today. But, while the girls got dressed, Mio called Shido to meet with her.

By the way, Shido was wearing only his trousers-like plugsuit, but after the past week, it barely bothers him anymore. Well, that's not exactly true, but he learned to live with it at least.

"Here, Shin, your Spirit CR-Unit. Its name is Da'at."

What Mio gave Shido was like a dog tag necklace. Needless to say, that didn't look like a CR-Unit, nor could Shido feel the power of a Sephira from it.

"Um, are you sure you got it right?"

"Yes. This CR-Unit uses new technology to make it easier to transport around, which is why it's in this form currently. As for the Sephira… well, yours doesn't have it."

"Huh?"

Shido's surprise was understandable, after all, he had believed he'd get a CR-Unit using a Sephira at its core like everyone else on the Spirit Team.

Well, there were only 10 Sephiras, at least there were when Shido and the girls were shown the crystals, and 11 members of the Spirit Team if you count Shido. But somehow, he hadn't thought that he'd be the odd one out.

"There are reasons why your CR-Unit doesn't have a Sephira, but it wouldn't be fun to tell everything now, so let's save it for some other time. I'm sure you'll learn it on your own anyway."

As much as Shido felt like complaining, he knew his mother, complaining wouldn't change anything, so he just let out a sigh and accepted what he was given.

He hung the dog tag around his neck. Mio told him that, to activate it, all he had to do was call out its name. He thought they were done talking and was about to leave, but it seems Mio still had something to ask.

"So? How have things been progressing with the girls?"

That simple question from Mio made Shido freeze.

"A-ah, it's been going well. You know."

"Really? Maria and Marina have told me that you haven't made any advances, and that the only times you've increased the girls' compatibility levels in this past week were accidental or simply too little. Not to mention that you did not initiate, or at least meant to, any of these times."

Shido couldn't say anything back to her. After all, it was true.

Even though Shido knew what he had to do, he felt weird taking the initiative, and most of the girls didn't seem like they'd ever take the active role, which led to nothing happening most of the time. Besides, be it in this building or at school, there was always one thing or another that got in their way even when someone like Origami took the initiative.

In summary, the week passed with Shido having used his ability little to none.

"I know it seems like a joke, but I trust that you understand the seriousness of the situation. This mission is also to make sure the girls understand as well. I'm hoping everyone will be more motivated after you all have experienced the difficulties of the Neighboring World for yourselves. Of course, I'm not telling you to force them into anything, but you can't do nothing either."

"... I understand."

Shido said. It seems Mio had nothing else to say, so she let him go. Shido walked to where the girls from the Spirit Team were waiting for him.

As they hadn't gotten their Spirit CR-Units, they had already begun to equip the standard CR-Units to save time. Remembering the dog tag around his neck, Shido felt a bit bad, since it was partially his fault that they had to go through this little extra trouble.

"Ara, Shido-san, are you back already?"

"Did you get a Spirit CR-Unit?"

While Mildred was going around checking if everyone was equipping their CR-Units alright, Kurumi and Maya, who seemed to be waiting their turn, walked up to him.

Just like Shido, they have also gotten used to their high-exposure plugsuits during this past week, so Shido hardly saw them complain anymore, not that he saw them complaining before. Still, it very much still worked wonders on Shido, so he did his best to not look.

Not that it helped much, considering how close Kurumi and Maya were to him. They grabbed his dog tag necklace, which inevitably meant they were really close to him.

"Is this it? It doesn't seem to have a Sephira."

"A-ah, it doesn't. Mom didn't tell me why, but she said she had her reasons."

"But still, just being able to have it like this is very convenient."

"Y-yeah, all I have to do to equip it is call its name."

Maya and Kurumi were curiously touching Shido's dog tag, and their bodies were also rubbing on him. Maybe they hadn't noticed what they were doing. Shido was really hoping they didn't look down, since his "suit" didn't help him hide anything.

"I really want a Spirit CR-Unit now. Hey, Shido-san, since it seems like there will still be a while, how about we… get to know each other a bit?"

Shido couldn't help but gulp. Kurumi was pressing her breasts on his arm. She clearly knew what she was doing.

He recalled the conversation with his mother just now. He knew he shouldn't refuse, and frankly nor did he want to. In the end, he nodded. With a smile, Kurumi held his arm to her chest and started bringing him along.

She took him to the dressing room. It was currently empty, so they had all the privacy they wanted. Well, Maya was blushing and following behind them, it seems she was trying to hide, but they both knew she was there.

Kurumi told Shido to take a seat. He did as she asked, and then she…

Sat down beside him and started talking with him. Shido was a bit confused at first, but he replied accordingly to Kurumi's speech, and they soon engaged in conversation.

It really was just a normal conversation where they talked about nothing important and got to know each other a bit. Shido was slightly disappointed, but, at the same time, he enjoyed talking with Kurumi.

Eventually the conversation came to an end.

"It should be about time. It was a good conversation, Shido-san."

"Ah, yeah, I enjoyed it too."

Shido felt a bit embarrassed at his initial dirty thoughts, but he wasn't lying. He felt like he could become good friends with Kurumi.

While he was thinking about that, Kurumi moved closer to him and then placed a kiss on his cheek. He was shocked, and then she whispered in his ear "maybe next time, when we don't have anyone peeping on us, we can do something more fun."

Shido watched Kurumi's back as she left. Kurumi "happened" to run into Maya on her way out. She didn't say anything and simply smiled. Maya also quickly left before Shido did.

After a few more minutes, everyone but Shido had finished equipping their CR-Units. They were all ready to start their first mission, so Shido decided to not hold them back any longer.

"Da'at."

After Shido called out that name, his dog tag started shining. Soon, the light enveloped his whole body. A second after, he was already equipped with his CR-Unit.

Unlike Shido's trousers-like plugsuit, Da'at covered a lot of his body, only his head and little bits here and there were exposed. He felt like a human-sized mecha from an anime.

"Ooh!"

All the girls were surprised, but the one who exclaimed it the most was Mildred. The engineer in her had probably gotten excited, as she looked all over Da'at with eyes sparkling like a child's. She started checking out Shido, or rather Da'at, and asking him a bunch of questions, most of which he didn't even understand.

If not for Karen coming and restraining Mildred, Shido and the girls would have probably gotten delayed. Although Shido was made to promise to let Mildred study his CR-Unit one day. Once everything was clear, they took off and started their first mission.

Since the standard CR-Units needed to be equipped at the base, all teams needed to fly to the portal to the Neighboring World, and that was no different for the Spirit Team. Since they had to match the slowest pace, it could even take an hour or so to reach the portal.

But of course, the Spirit Team was no ordinary squadron.

[Shido, use your Territory to boost everyone. That will make you all reach the portal faster.]

Maria suggested. Certainly, if Shido were to go at full speed with Da'at, he would only need a few minutes at most. He felt like it was only logical to try and boost everyone if he could.

{Everyone, I'm going to use my Territory to make us get there faster.}

Shido said, using the communication device installed in all CR-Units to communicate with the girls, and then he expanded his Territory. All the girls from the Spirit Team were enveloped by his Territory. They felt much lighter and stronger, and soon everyone picked up the pace.

Of course, the feeling of being in Shido's Territory was something they weren't quite used to yet, and it would be a lie to say it wasn't bothering them in all sorts of ways, but they had trained enough that they could handle it.

In just a few minutes, they were able to see the portal to the Neighboring World, the place where the first Spacequake happened 30 years ago.

[Please head in this direction and enter through this point.]

Maria showed a point through their CR-Units' screen. Since the Spirit Team is still secret, even inside the NWET, Shido and the girls had to avoid coming in contact with other teams. Maria was guiding them to a good location for that.

They followed her directions and passed through the portal. They could feel the difference between worlds as soon as they passed through.

The part of the Neighboring World they were at looked like a lush and overgrown forest. There were trees as tall as buildings everywhere, and the green land stretched as far as the eye could see.

Despite that look, the air felt heavy, almost as if it was trying to strangle them. Shido and the girls tried to find a place to land, but it was a little while before they found a bit of a clearing. Once they touched the ground, they noticed it was very soft and wet, which did not give a good feeling to walk on.

"Ew. Can't we just stay flying?"

"Natsumi-san, I think we would get tired quickly."

"H-ha! T-this is nothing, just the first step onto unexplored lands."

"Disagreement. Yuzuru would rather we don't have to take this first step."

Natsumi, Yoshino, Kaguya and Yuzuru clearly were not happy, just as everyone else really, but it's not as if they had much of a choice. Using the CR-Units was tiring, and the more functions they used, the more tiring it would be.

As they got used to the feeling beneath their feet, Shido planted a probe on the ground. Probes like this were used to scan the Neighboring World and try to learn about the areas being explored.

Essentially, there were two kinds of missions performed by the NWET. One was to explore this world and learn and record as much about it as possible, the other was to collect materials, as a lot of materials from the Neighboring World simply could not be found on Earth, and entire industries depended on them. While there could be other kinds of missions, and variations of these two, these were the most common.

However, Shido heard a weird noise just as he planted the probe. He looked to his side, only to see a tree moving towards him. It stretched out its roots to try and grab Shido, but they never reached him.

That's because Origami cut them up with her sword, and then Kurumi shot the tree with her gun. It apparently died and fell over.

"T-thanks."

"No problem. Remember to be careful, Shido."

When he turned around, Shido noticed that everyone was looking his way, which was a bit embarrassing. No, more accurately, they were looking at the monster that suddenly appeared.

"I'm sure everyone's heard about there being monsters in the Neighboring World, but I imagine it's everyone's first time seeing one."

"Yes. There are all kinds of monsters in the Neighboring World. Judging from the area around us, living trees and maybe forest animals are what we can expect."

"It's also my first time seeing a tree monster. If anyone gets scared, just come here and I'll give you a hug~"

Maya, Kurumi and Miku seemed to be trying to explain to everyone about the monsters, as well as trying to ease their nerves. Well, Miku seemed like she just wanted to hug someone.

Yes, that was one of the dangers of the Neighboring World, the monsters that showed up everywhere. At first, there was an attempt to name and catalog all of them, but there were just so many, as if there were new ones popping up all the time, that people simply gave up on the idea.

"Onii-chan, are you alright?"

"Yeah, I'm fine thanks to Origami and Kurumi. But I was a bit surprised."

Shido hadn't gotten hurt, so there were no problems. But he wasn't able to tell them that. That's because they heard more noises all around them.

It wasn't long before they saw more trees coming their way. Of course, this meant that they had to defend themselves.

Origami readied her sword and Kurumi her gun, Miku expanded her Territory as much as she could, buffing her allies and debuffing the enemies that came too close. Seeing that, Tohka, Kotori, Kaguya and Yuzuru also readied their weapons, all of them had opted to use melee weapons, so they were using something that looked like a sword made of pure energy, similar to Origami's.

Shido wanted to join the fight, but he just realized his CR-Unit didn't come with any weapon. It seemed unlikely that it simply lacked a weapon, so did he forget to pick it up? He would have to ask Mio about Da'at's weapon later, but he decided to help as he could for now, and that was doing the same as Miku.

"Ara, looks like you have competition, Miku-san."

"Nnnnn!"

Kurumi provoked Miku, who then glared at Shido. He couldn't do much more than try to laugh it off. Having two people giving support was better than having just one, so, whether she likes it or not, they had to work together.

Origami, Tohka, Kotori, Kaguya and Yuzuru dashed towards the tree monsters. Thanks to the double buff by Miku and Shido, the girls were having no trouble cutting down their enemies.

In general, the members of the squadrons divide themselves into two types during a battle: the ones who go on the attack, and the ones who give support.

Among the attackers, there were essentially two types, the ones who preferred to attack from up close, and the ones who preferred to attack from a distance. Although most members only have the standard equipment, that is swords or guns, those who get special achievements or show good promise are given the chance to ask for special equipment.

As for the supporters, they are also essentially divided into two types. The most common type is the role Miku and Shido are currently performing, expanding their Territory and giving various buffs to their allies and trying to debuff their enemies. As for the other type…

"Kurumi, Yoshino, Natsumi, please shoot where I'm about to point."

"Please lead the way, Maya-san."

"O-okay."

"G-got it."

Maya, who had been holding Shido's hand since the battle started, began to point out locations to Kurumi, Yoshino and Natsumi, who took their guns and shot.

Their shots hit some monsters that looked like snakes, or maybe worms. It seems that they had been moving below the soft ground, trying to get a surprise attack on the Spirit Team, but their plans were fooled by Maya.

The second type of supporter is much rarer than the first. It's someone who can use their Territory to essentially scan the area, finding the enemy and gaining all sorts of information. That said, Maya was currently making use of Shido's Territory, as it was much larger than hers, which was an impressive feat by itself.

It wasn't long before all the enemies were defeated. Maya used Shido's Territory to confirm that there were no hidden enemies present, and so everyone relaxed and got back together.

[Good job, you didn't even look like a bunch of rookies.]

Despite Marina's words, her tone clearly meant to congratulate them. She and Maria ran a quick scan on everyone, but there were no problems detected.

"What should we do now? Should we just continue forward?"

Shido asked the AI girls while waiting for them to finish.

[Normally, when a big group like this enters the Neighboring World, it's recommended they split up to cover more ground.]

[Since you're mostly rookies, we were thinking of not doing that, but that fight just now was quite something. Besides, it's unlikely that there are many more monsters around after this, and this shouldn't be a particularly dangerous area, so splitting up is probably safe and could lead to everyone getting some good combat experience.]

Certainly, with everyone together like this, the ones who would always shine the brightest would be the ones with more experience, since they would be able to react faster and more precisely than the rookies. While that's not a problem per say, it's also important to let the new people get experience.

So Shido decided that they should split up, at least for a bit, and then asked Maria and Marina to come up with the best division possible, considering all of their abilities.

What they came up with was:

Team A - Shido, Tohka, Kurumi, Maya

Team B - Kaguya, Yuzuru, Miku

Team C - Yoshino, Natsumi, Kotori, Origami

While not an ideal distribution where the teams are completely balanced, Shido couldn't really think of any way to improve it. For now, they would go with that.

"Everyone, please listen to me."

Shido, with Maria and Marina's help, told them the plan of splitting up. In summary, they would divide into the aforementioned teams and each go in one direction. They were to meet back here in an hour, and of course, should any emergencies arise, Maria and Marina would be keeping an eye on them.

As no one had any complaints, each team picked their direction and then, after making sure they were fully recovered from the battle just now, they each set off in their respective direction.