Aike's full name was Ayu Aike. The first half of his life seemed to be one long string of failures and disappointments. Even his parents had been disheartened by how much effort it took him to learn to speak; he had simply learned to talk and walk far later than others his age. His first teacher also thought he was a stupid, troublesome child, because he was always disrupting class with foolish questions.
Ayu Aike had very few friends at school, and he had little interest in the school curriculum either. After completing the compulsory education required of the Gourd People, he dropped out, and because he had no diploma, his youth was filled with dead ends wherever he turned.
Even the girlfriend who had reconciled with him eventually went her own way, mainly because she disliked his lack of ambition, so she called off the engagement the two of them had made.
Yes, the Gourd People also had sexes, and they were still the two sexes familiar to humans, but their method of reproduction was different from humanity's—or rather, different from all four civilizations currently in The Great Voyage Organization.
Although they had sexes, the way they joined and reproduced was rather unusual. Their union was not a complementary fit of protruding and recessed body parts, but a direct fusion with each other.
That model was like an evolved version of using Quantum Macro Tunneling to pass through the other person's body when the two sides touched. They could merge their bodies the way two drops of water fused into one.
After fusion, the bodies of the two Gourd People would interact under the effects of a series of active and passive skills. During the interaction, both parties would experience extreme pleasure on the level of the soul, and