The class stood there in complete silence. Their undivided attention focused solely at the front of the classroom. Maya and Chifuyu stand off to the side as the sole being who has obtained the students attention is the lone male in an IS Academy's outfit standing in the middle of the the classroom. He is a young man, about as old as the rest of the students. His body is very physically built, suggesting that he partakes in physically demanding activities on a daily basis.

Most of the girls in the class have taken notice to the build of his body, and some have to remember to periodically wipe some of the drool that starts to dribble down the side of their chin. The young man stands there blushing lightly, as he briefly glances around the room at all the young ladies whose eyes have been scanning him head to toe for the past few seconds. He finally speaks out after clearing his throat.

"Good Morning, everyone. My name is David Aramadeon. I'm pleased to meet all of you." He paused briefly and turned to look at the two adults for guidance on what to do next.

"P-please explain a little about yourself now." Maya said with her cheerful voice and bright smile. Chifuyu stood there with a small grin and nodded as David returns his focus to the class before continuing.

"Well, I have joined the IS academy to learn more about the IS and to train with you to expand my abilities in using an IS." The last part of his statement created a slight buzz among the students.

"What?!"

"Does this mean he has his own IS?"
"Expand his abilities?"

Chifuyu had coughed lightly to gain the attention of the class. But secretly she too was curious as to the meaning David's statement. Knowing that Tabane, Houki's older sister and creator of ISes, is the only one who can create the cores and has programmed them to work only for females, she too was waiting for an explanation from David.

"Well I own my own IS unit and have been piloting it for the past 7 months." Nearly everyone in the classroom let out a surprised gasp as soon as David spoke that sentence.

Suddenly one of the girls in the classroom spoke out, "But I thought that the IS cores only responded to females except for Ichika." Some of the other girls in the room collectively shared their agreement to that statement. David paused for a moment to clear the last remaining butterflies in his throat.

"Well, the thing about that is..." He began. "This is a brand new core that was personally given to me by Tabane Shinonono." Houki, Chifuyu, Ichika, and the rest of the classroom were all taken back by his answer. There was a moment of silence before he continued.

"I live in an apartment just outside of the downtown area and have been there for about two to three years now. About a year ago, I was watching the news when I saw that Orimura was reported to be the first male to be able to pilot an IS machine. When I saw him on the news, I thought to myself I wanted to build my own IS machine and hopefully get lucky to get a core that would also be compatible with males.

I spent the first month studying ISes and researching the mechanics on how some of the more popular IS models worked. Afterwards, I set out to build my own model based on the specifications that I wanted in my IS and models which had similar characteristics to what I was looking for. I own my own garage, so I was able to store alot of the parts I bought in there as well as build it there.

I worked at three part-time jobs to pay for my stuff as well as the parts I bought to build the IS unit." He paused a took a little breath before continuing. The classroom sat quietly listening attentively to his story.

"It took me 4 months to put the parts together and have it completely built. The next month I was running some computer tests on the IS to make sure everything was functioning properly before the next, but hardest, step and that was getting an IS core for it. But this is where, even to this day I don't know how this occurred, I swore I was one of the luckiest men alive." He cleared his throat a little before explaining how he had received an IS core.

"I was at a local cafe, out on their patio having a cup of tea and a sandwich when I saw a lady walking by. She was dressed like something straight out of a fairy tale. She had these metallic looking bunny ears on her head that somehow flopped around like they were real!" At this point, Houki, Chifuyu, and Ichika gritted their teeth lightly as they knew exactly whom David had been describing.

"Well I noticed a couple of unruly guys were following her from afar. After they had walked a little further down the street. I quickly followed after them, thinking she might have needed my help. But, man, I was completely wrong. The next thing I know, I turned a corner and already three of the four guys were already on the ground writhing in pain while she stood there smiling at fourth guy." David's voice grew a little more excited as he began to describe the next part of his story.

"I was standing there literally in shock as she started to just make circles around this guy as he tried to grab a hold of her. Suddenly one of the guys on the ground was able to trip her and she landed flat on her face. What was weird thought, was she just kinda laid there as soon as she smacked the ground. I thought she was unconscious, so I started to run up to them.

"I took down one of the two guys easily and ended up knocking him out. I quickly got up and was able to to take down the 2nd one as he tried to get his hands on me. The other two quickly grabbed the ones I took down and they ended up running away like cowards. When I turned around to check on the young lady, I was surprised because she was already on her feet smiling right at me. It was like she was faking her injury or something!"

"She invited me back to her lab and I was shocked because somehow my IS unit was sitting on the table hooked up to a bunch of machines that were running tests on them. At this point, I asked her who she was and then she went on some crazy flashy introduction and said she was Tabane Shinonono. I was so surprised as this point that I, like, started pinching myself thinking I was in a dream."

"She said she'd make a deal with me. If I worked for her for the next 7 months, she would give me my own IS core for my unit. So for the first half, she had me help her work on.."

"Oh by the way, who here is Shinonono Houki?" David stopped his story to ask as he looked around the classroom. Houki slowly raised her hand and David looked over at her direction.

"Hi, It's nice to meet you. Let me just say I envy you." He said with his excited tone of voice.

"U-u-umm.. Thanks?" Houki responded.

"Well..." He began. "The Akatsubaki is such an awesome IS unit. Alot of the characteristics of your IS are really cool especially the speed of it." Houki blushed slightly at his words. She politely thanked him as she glanced at her bracelet with the two bells on them. David then continued with his story.

"Anyways. Sorry about that. Where was I? Oh yes, I helped her develop the Akatsubaki and run live tests on it before she gave it to Miss Shinonono. Afterwards, she had me test a few other IS units in live combat scenarios and then she suggested I enroll in the IS academy and said that I could skip the first year and go directly to the second year, which was odd at first, but now I get it." Some of the other students were a bit surprised by the last statement and some began to whisper among themselves.

"Alright. Alright. Enough." Chifuyu said in her usual stern tone of voice. "Thank you for sharing your story with us, David. Please have a seat in back next to Laura. Laura raise your hand so David knows who I'm talking about." The young lady with platinum hair quickly rose her hand. As soon as David spotted her, he smiled and started heading to the empty desk next to young lady with her hand raised.

"Wow, an eyepatch. That's kinda cool." David exclaimed as he took his seat. Laura glanced at him and quickly thanked him as she turned her head back to the front of the classroom. Chifuyu began her lecture on the day's IS topics. When it came time for lunch, Ichika got up out of his seat and turned to head to the back of the classroom. The young ladies, who used to hang around Ichika alot last year, sat at their desk and followed him with their eyes as he headed towards David's desk.

"Hey David." Ichika began with a small smile on his face.

"Hey, you're Ichika right? It's nice to finally get to meet you." David said as he extended his hand out. Ichika gladly took his hand and shook it as David rose and got out of his seat.

"Since you're new, let me show you around later on ok?" Ichika asked politely.

"Cool. Thanks that would be amazing!" David gleefully responded.

"Cool. Let's go to the cafeteria and grab some lunch. We'd better hurry or else we might not get seats." Ichika chuckled lightly as he turned and headed towards the door. As soon as the two left the classroom, the young ladies let out a collective sigh of disappointment. Ichika still wanted nothing to do with them, they hoped only for now but were still unsure. The five of them left the classroom in a single file line all with their heads down in defeat.

Ichika and David made it to the cafeteria in time to grab their lunch and an open table they could sit at. It didn't take long before the chatter in the cafeteria turned to the news about another guy attending the IS academy. Alot of the girls started to stare over at Ichika's and David's table, and it wasn't long until they too started to notice the buzz in the lunch room.

"Is it always like this for you?" David asked as he casually glanced around at all the young ladies in the cafeteria staring at them and talking amongst themselves. Some were giggling while others were busy scanning him from head to toe.

"What do you mean?" Ichika inquired. He looked around too and waved at some of the girls who just quickly waved, looked away and blushed lightly.

"You mean you don't really notice that all the girls in this room are probably talking about us?" David asked.

"Well, I haven't really noticed any of the other girls. I think it's just because you are a new student that's all. Don't worry. I'm sure they'll get over it soon enough after they get used to seeing you around the school." Ichika happily said as he took a bite of his fish. David shrugged it off as he lightly slurped up some of the noodles from his soup.

"Hey, by the way." Ichika began to ask after swallowing his food. "You didn't really talk about you IS. So what's it like? Like what's it's name and special abilities." David blushed lightly before he answered him.

"Well... Tabane-san had named my IS for me. I was kind of upset with the name, and tried to get her to change it, but she wouldn't listen." David answered before he took another bit of his noodles.

"So what's the name of it?" Ichika asked again, noticed that David had responded without answering the original question.

"I begged and pleaded with her to change the name, but she wouldn't listen. I tried suggesting other names, but she said they weren't as cute as the one she picked." David sighed and shook his head lightly thinking back to when he was living with Tabane.

"Hey, come on now. You're avoiding the question!" Ichika said with a little chuckle. "Just tell me already. I won't stop bugging you about it until you tell me" Ichika playfully told David. David took a small sip of the broth from his soup. After swallowing it, he let out a sigh and closed his eyes.

"Flexinsation."

"Eh?" Ichika said. He felt his body getting ready to laugh, so he tried his best to hold it in.

"The what now?" Ichika asked barely able to hold in his laughter.

"It's called the Flexinsation. Tabane named it that because she said she noticed I had some pretty big muscles because of all the work she had me do carrying parts here and there throughout her lab." David dejectedly said, head still tilted downward with his eyes closed. Ichika could not hold it anymore and he started to lightly laugh at the name of David's IS unit.

"I'm sorry, David. That's just such a name that Tabana-san would come up with. She tends to be a bit of a different individual.

Tabane let out a small sneeze as she was typing away on her computer.

"It's ok. Nothing I can do now I guess. I'm stuck with it for now." David said as he took another slurp of his noodles.

"Hey Ichika. Is there a certain time where we can go out in our ISes and train with them?" David asked. Ichika took a sip of his tea and put the cup down before he answered.

"Yeah. We have the stadium, which is open all day except for when we're supposed to be in our classes. Oh that reminds me, you better not be late for class. Orimura-sensei will make you run 10 laps around the school and stadium if you are even a minute late for class!" Ichika proclaimed as he grabbed another bite of his fish.

"That's cool. Let's go after class today so I can show you my IS and what it can do." David excitedly said.

"Sure that sounds awesome!" Ichika said with a smile. They finished up their food conversing with each other for the remainder of the lunch hour.

At a table on the other side of the cafeteria, a familiar group of young ladies sat and watched as Ichika and David quickly got acquainted with each other.

Cecilia let out a small sigh as she thought back to her dream world and the fantasy she had envisioned to share with Ichika. Like the other young ladies sitting at the table with her, she felt betrayed. Both by her true emotions and the arrival of David, another male IS pilot who quickly became good friends with Ichika. She could feel Ichika growing further and further away from her. The rest of the young ladies, Charlotte, Rin, Laura, and Houki, all felt the same.

The bell rang, indicating the end of lunch. Many of the students rose from their seats, gathered up their trash, and headed out of the lunch room back to their classes. Houki got up from her chair and gathered up her dishes and began to walk her tray over to the cleaning station where one of the lunch ladies stood waiting to gather up the students' dishes.

She was looking down as she walked over to the station. She was so lost in her thoughts that she had not noticed the collision course she was on with Ichika. Ichika, as well, was too busy listening to David's story that he had not noticed he was about to bump into her.

"Whoa! look out!" David stopped in his tracks and raised his arm to stop Ichika from moving another step forward. The sudden outburst snapped Houki from her thoughts and she shot her head up to the direction of David's voice. Her eyes met with Ichika's and the two stared at each other for a split second, before the two quickly looked away. Houki sped up her pace and gave her dishes to the lunch lady at the cleaning station before quickly turning and briskly walking out of the cafeteria. Ichika let out a little sigh as his eyes followed Houki out of the cafeteria. David glanced back and forth between the two of them before speaking out, breaking Ichika out of his current state.

"Hmm. That would have been an unfortunate accident." He said. Ichika shrugged his shoulders and agreed before they continued heading back to the classroom.

"Hi David!" Maya cheerfully said as he walked into the classroom. "Here, I wanted to give you this before I forget. I tend to do that, so I wanted to give this to you now while I still had time." She handed him a piece of paper with the information for his dorm room and a key to the door. He graciously thanked her as he headed back to his desk, placing his key into his pants pocket.

As soon as the school day ended, most of the students quickly packed up their belongings and headed out of the classroom with their friends chatting away about whatever came to mind. A crowd started to form outside of the classroom. Word had traveled throughout the day that a new male IS pilot had arrived, and many of the girls rushed to the outside of the classroom where David was, waiting for him to step out so they could get a good look at him.

As soon as he stepped outside, he was taken back by the crowd of young ladies all trying to catch a glimpse of him. Some began complimenting his looks, which made David blush slightly as he tried to play crowd control and thank all the young ladies around him for coming to his classroom to greet him. He nervously waved and exchanged pleasantries with them as he tried to walk through the hallway towards the direction of his dorm room. Ichika all the while stood at the door way and laughed lightly to himself.

He remembered the first day he had arrived at the academy and receiving the same treatment from the young ladies of the school. Many of them followed him as he left the classroom and made his way to his dorm room. David reached into his pocket and pulled out his dorm room key. He put his hand back into his pocket fumbling around trying to find the piece of paper he received with his key.

His eyes widened as he fumbled through his pockets. He had lost the piece of paper that had his room number on it and now was stuck because he did not memorize his room number. He quickly turned around and made his way through the swarm of young ladies to get back to the classroom. By the time he reached the room, it was empty. He stepped inside and started to look around on the floor for the piece of paper. Many of the girls stood outside the doorway and watched him as he crawled around on the ground looking for the piece of paper with his room number on it.

As soon as he came to the realization that it was gone, he stood up and let out a defeated sigh before turning his attention to the girls standing at the doorway.

"Uh... Can someone point me to the direction of the school office? It seems I lost my dorm number." This caused an uproar among the girls all trying to get him to come with them so they could lead him to the room. He chuckled nervously as he made his way back outside of the classroom. He motioned to the young ladies to lead the way. Many of them nodded and began walking down the hallway with David following close behind.

Once they arrived, he thanked all the girls and quickly headed into the school office. As soon as he closed the door, he leaned against it and let out a small sigh. He could hear them talking from the other side of the office door.

"Wow! He's really cute."

"Oh my goodness, he might be more handsome than Ichika."

"Did you see his arms? He's really buff."

He chuckled lightly as he lifted himself off of the door and walked over to the secretary's desk, where a young lady sat shaking her head at the scene unfolding in front of her.

"Hi. I lost the piece of paper that had my room number, and I was wondering if I could get another copy of the room number?" David politely asked. The secretary smiled back as she told him to hold on for a second while she looked for the info he requested. After a moment of fumbling through some papers in a cabinet, she pulled out one of the pieces of paper and scanned the print on it.

"2118." She said. Then she turned her head to look over at David, who was patiently waiting for her. He quickly thanked her before exiting the office. The hallway, previously packed with many of the girls from the school, was completely empty now. He let out a sigh of relief as he made his way to his dorm room.

"Yo." A voice called out from behind David. David turned around and saw Ichika standing there waving to him. He waved back and walked over to Ichika.

"I heard you were in here." Ichika said. "Alot of the girls were talking about you going to the office like it was some kind of news or something." David lightly laughed as he rubbed the back of his head.

"Yeah, well when you're one of the only males in the school anything you do tends to be a big deal I guess." David shrugged his shoulders trying to imagine how Ichika had been able to deal with the constant surveillance by every student in the school.

"Say, do you need help finding your dorm? I can probably show you where it's at." Ichika offered.

"Yeah, sure. That sounds good. I might get lost and be wandering for days!" David joked.

"Let's see. I'm in room 2118." David said. Ichika thought about the location for a second and then helped guide him to the dorm room. On the way, he provided the route he would have to take to get to their classroom. He warmed him about his sister's strict policy of running 10 laps around the building if one was late for class.

"10 laps around this place!? That's it?" David exclaimed. This took Ichika by surprised, but then realized it was probably nothing to a young man of David's build. This was the first time Ichika really took note of just how physically overwhelming David was compared to himself.

'He looks like he could break me in half' Ichika thought to himself. He decide it was in his best interest to not get on David's bad side else he'd regret it.

"Are you checking me out?" David's question brought Ichika back to reality. He replayed the words in his head and suddenly felt embarrassed.

"N-n-no. It's not like that." Ichika stuttered as he waved his hands in front of him.

"You like what you see bro?" David teased some more causing Ichika to feel even more embarrassed. Just then, David burst out laughing placing his hands on his stomach.

"I'm just kidding, Ichika. Don't be so uptight." David said as he lightly pat Ichika on the back.

"I just noticed you weren't really paying attention to where you were going and saw you looking at me. I thought I'd say a little joke to see if you were paying attention." David grinned at him. Ichika nervously chuckled as he turned a corner down another hallway.

"Ye-yeah. My bad." Ichika said. "I just noticed you're quite the strong looking individual and was thinking about how you could probably break me in half."

"Oh? Yeah living with Tabane for a few months will do that to you." David responded sighing once more.

"Yeah. What was that like? If you don't mind me asking." Ichika asked as they headed up a set of stairs to the 2nd year students' dorms.

"Well. Let's just say, with the right pilot, that Akatsubaki IS is nearly invincible. I had to go up against that IS while Tabane was piloting it. She destroyed me each time we fought. That model has god-like speed. I don't know how Tabane did it, but that IS could break the sound barrier if it wanted to." Ichika was a bit surprised in hearing this about Houki's Akatsubaki.

"Wow. Looks like Houki has her work cut out for her then." Ichika said thinking about where Houki's current abilities were at when piloting Akatsubaki.

"Well you have to realize, she's only had her IS for almost a year. She's still learning how to pilot the thing. I think after she graduates, she'll probably be able to utilize more of her IS and it's abilities." David said as they arrived at his dorm.

"Oh cool, we made it." David said as he reached into his right pant's pocket and took out his key. "Thanks man." He put the key into the lock and turned it. He opened the door and walked in while motioning for Ichika to come in as well. His room looked just the same as all the other student's rooms. To their right was the kitchen area while the bathroom, with no toilet, was on the left. Further into the room was the two beds on the left and the giant study table on the right. At the other end of the wall had the glass doorway to the outside patio.

"Ah man. This room is gigantic." David said as he took off his shoes and proceeded to jump on the closest bed. He quickly turned around and sat up in his bed to face Ichika.

"I wonder who my roommate is. Did you already get you room, Ichika?" David asked as he sat on the bed, arms behind him supporting him as he sat.

"Yeah. You have to turn down another hallway to get to mine. But, it's pretty close by." Ichika responded as he looked upwards trying to envision where his room was with respects to David's room. Suddenly a knock could be heard at David's door, which caught the two off guard.

David hopped off his bed and headed over to the door. He opened the door to a blonde haired young lady with deep purple eyes. She had a slight tint of blush in her cheeks as she looked up to face David.

"H-hi. I'm Charlotte Dunois. I am the IS representative candidate of France. It's nice to meet you." Charlotte said with a smile.

"Hi. It's nice to meet you." David said. He extended his hand out to Charlotte, who was a bit taken back by the gesture. She quickly bowed and raised her hand to shake his.

"I-I think this belongs to you." Charlotte said as she raised her other hand which held a small piece of paper. David took the piece of paper and opened it, revealing his room number and some other miscellaneous information about his dorm.

"Oh so you were the thief that stole this from my pocket, eh?" David teased. Charlotte blushed a little more as she tried to apologize.

"Please forgive me, I saw it on the ground after class and didn't know whose it was. By the time I thought to check with you, you already left the classroom. So I figured I'd come by at a later time and return it to whoever the owner was." Charlotte flashed David the same smile as before.

"Ha!" David began. "I'm just kidding uh, Miss Dunois was it?" Charlotte nodded.

"Thanks for returning this to me. Not only pretty, but kind too." David grinned as he placed the piece of paper in his pocket, making sure it was there this time around. Hearing his words, caused Charlotte to blush even more and let out a nervous chuckle.

"Would you like to come in? We could make this a little party, right Ichika?" David called out behind him. Ichika was leaning against the wall trying to stay out of sight from Charlotte. He cringed lightly when he heard David call out to him.

Upon hearing his name, Charlotte's heart stopped.

'Ichika is also here. Why? Why?' Her mind raced thinking about her dream world and the promise Ichika made to her after rescuing her.

"I'm sorry, Aramadeon-san. I'll have to pass for now.." Charlotte said. "I actually have something I need to help my roommate with. It was nice to meet you, Aramadeon-san." David frowned lightly as he thanked Charlotte once more before she turned and headed on her way away from his dorm, and away from Ichika. David turned around and closed the door behind him heading back into the main living room of his dorm.

"Hey. What are you doing? Are you trying to hide?" David asked, noticing Ichika was leaning against the wall as though he wanted to stay out of sight of whoever was at the door.

"Ah no. It's not like that. I was just standing here that's all. No real reason." He nervously chuckled a little hoping his explanation was enough for David.

"I guess?" David responded, deciding not to think too much into it.

"Were you scared of her?" David asked. "A pretty young lady like that can't be too harmful. I'm sure her bark is probably worse than her bite."

"Ehh..." Ichika began. "She may look harmless, but she's very skilled in piloting her IS. I wouldn't try to mess with her she's very strong." Ichika responded thinking back to the times he used to train with Charlotte. She was a very tough and skilled IS pilot and a very good tactician when it came to combatting with IS machines.

"Hey." David began. "Are you busy at all this evening?"

"No. I'm free. What's up?" Ichika asked.

"Well I want to go check out the IS arena here at the campus to see what it's like. I also want to do a little bit of training with my IS to test out some of its maneuverability features. Do you want to go?" David excitedly asked. Even after seven months of constantly using his IS model to train with Tabane, David still had alot of excitement within him to use his IS machine and continue to grow comfortable with it.

"Yeah sure that sounds good. I could use a little training." Ichika said raising his fist to the front of his face.

"Cool. Let's go!" David happily said as he headed towards the door. Ichika nodded and followed him as he opened the door. David checked to make sure he still had his room key before closing the door behind Ichika and locking it.

"Lead the way." David said as he took a step to the side to let Ichika take the lead to guide him to the IS arena. They headed over to the arena unknown to them Charlotte had been standing on the other side of a corner listening to them.

'They seem to be getting really close.' She thought to herself. She frowned as she sighed before turning and walking away down the empty hallway.

Not long after, Ichika and David made it to the arena. They stood at the top level of the stadium bleaches where Ichika explained the layout of the arena and where they would launch. He led David to the empty locker room and went over to his locker.

"I believe this is your locker right?" Ichika said pointing to one. David looked at the piece of paper in his hand and back up at the locker. The numbers matched and he headed towards the locker. Ichika walked over to his locker, which was just at the other end of the row. David flipped up the lock and swung open the locker door. It was empty except for a lone IS suit for him to wear. He took the suit off its hook and placed it on the bench behind him.

Ichika meanwhile glanced over every now and then, watching David as he began to take off his clothes.

'Moment of truth...' Ichika said as he inadvertently stopped what he was doing and stared over at David.

Suddenly David looked over and gave Ichika a weird look. Ichika blushed lightly as he quickly turned his head back to his locker.

"You need something?" David asked still looking over at Ichika. Ichika nervously laughed as he shook his head.

"No... No. It's nothing." Ichika said.

"Oh ok. You just like watching other people undress or something is that it?" David said with a smile. Ichika suddenly changed his expression from embarrassed to seriousness. His thoughts flashed back to Charlotte's dream as he stood there staring into the distance. He quickly shook his head as he turned to look back into his locker. David, noticing the sudden change in his behavior began calling out to him, but his voice fell on deaf ears.

Ichika stood there staring blankly into his locker thinking back to the hacking incident when he jumped into Charlotte's dream world to see her stripping off her clothes while the fake Ichika stood there watching with joy as she undressed herself. He suddenly felt his stomach knotting up before the voice calling out to him finally reached his ears.

"Yo Ichika!" David yelled. Ichika shot his head up and looked over at David who was standing there, shirtless, with his eyebrow raised.

"Hey you ok Ichika? I was just kidding about that, I'm sorry." David said. He raised his hands trying to show that he apologized had he said something to offend Ichika. Ichika just let out a sigh and then flashed a small smile at him.

"No. It's ok. I should apologize." Ichika began as he closed his locker door and locked it.

"Remember the girl that came to your room to give you that piece of paper?" David nodded in response to Ichika's question.

"Well when she first came to the academy she pretended to be a guy. So I had some doubt when you came here and said you were also a male pilot. I'm sorry." Ichika said with a nervous smile. David chuckled lightly as he walked over to Ichika.

"Take a good look." David said. "This is all male, baby." He smiled at Ichika who just stood there confused and dumbfounded at David. Ichika let out a sigh and a small chuckle as he shook his head.

"Anyways. Let's go." Ichika said. David nodded as he headed back to his locker. He closed it and then followed Ichika to the launch area. David stood back as Ichika summoned the Byakushiki and readied himself on the launch pad. WIth great force, Ichika launched himself out onto the battlegrounds of the arena. David headed over to where Ichika stood before transforming to his IS and repeated the same process. He made his way to the center of the arena where Ichika awaited.

Ichika took a look over David's IS. It looked similar to that of the Silver Gospel that terrorized them on Houki's birthday. The unit looked just like an angel, a slim body and almost angelic like wings. The main difference was that David's IS had black wings and a dark blue body. His face was covered by a mask which feeds live data to David while in combat.

"Are you ready?" David eagerly asked to Ichika through their communicators. Ichika, with a determined look on his face, raised his hands forward as he materialized the Yukihira Niigata. David grinned as he raised his right hand in front of him to materialize his weapon.

"Come, Kanashimi no Himawari (Sorrowful Sunflower)." David commanded. His weapon began to materialize in his right hand, a reverse blade sword. Ichika grinned slightly seeing David using a close quarter combat weapon. He was glad as it bothered him when he had to fight against others who used long range weapons and he'd have to find ways to get in close without giving them the time to back away and strike.

The two commenced their fight, David going on the attack first. His speed caught Ichika off guard as Ichika barely had enough time to raise his blade to block his attack. Ichika pushed backwards and flew up into the air high above the stadium. David looked up and grinned once more as he exploded upwards toward Ichika. Ichika quickly moved out of his linear path, but just as quickly as he flew upward, he was able to stop in mid boost and alter his direction towards Ichika.

'Wow he's fast. Almost as fast as Houki.' Ichika thought to himself. He parried one of David's attacks and then went on the offensive. David avoided many of Ichika's strikes with ease, only defending himself when he had to block an attack.

"Come on, Ichika. Is that all you've got?" David taunted Ichika as he used his speed and agility to easily avoid most of Ichika's attacks. Ichika charged at David once only for David to quickly shift his IS to the side.

"Open." David shouted and in a blink of an eye he striked Ichika's IS from the side before Ichika could recover from his own attack. Stunned, Ichika began falling from the skies before he was able to recover himself in time to dodge another one of David's strikes. He quickly spun around, and using the added force of gravity, he hurled himself downward to strike David from behind.

David quickly spun around and blocked Ichika's attack as the two fell faster and faster. Ichika had a grin on his face as he continued to apply pressure in his strike. They grew closer and closer to the ground, but he kept applying force forcing David to try and and power out of Ichika's attack but to no avail. Suddenly, Ichika pushed off from his attack and quickly rotated his body so that he was upright. The bottom of his feet faced David.

Ichika quickly used his thrusters to give himself a boost upwards against his moment. The force from the thrusters help accelerated David's fall. He tried to use his thrusters to slow down his momentum, but it was too late. He was too close to the ground and went crashing to the dirt below. A huge cloud shot up surrounding David as Ichika hovered there admiring his achievement.

"Is that all you got, David." Ichika said with a smile. Before the dust could settle, David launched himself from the dust towards Ichika, with the same quick blinding speed. His choice of weapon had changed from his reverse blade sword to a pair of hook swords. Ichika defended against one of David's swords, and barely moved out of the way to keep the other one from striking him. Ichika pushed backwards trying to create some distance between them as David stood there watching him.

'Man this is crazy he might be even faster than Houki's Akatsubaki.' Ichika thought to himself.

'I gotta finish this soon or else I'm done for.' Ichika looked at his remaining energy level.

'I've got just enough to use Setsura. But, I have to make it count or else it's over for me.' Ichika said to himself. All this time, David just stood there watching Ichika which surprised Ichika. Before putting any more thought into it, Ichika quickly created more distance between himself and David. David stood there watching and wonder what Ichika was about to try and pull off. Suddenly Ichika began giving off a bright golden light. He went into 2nd shift and brought out Setsura's large charged particle cannon.

'As long as I have this distance between us, he won't be able to attack me. I got you now, David.' Ichika smiled gleefully believing he had won the battle. He began charging the particle cannon ready to shoot should David try to charge him and strike. What happened next, surprised Ichika to the point where he started to have doubts in his mind. David caused his two hook swords to disappear. He then materialized a long range sniper rifle bearing the same design as a Barrett XM500. Ichika's eyes widened as he readied his finger on the trigger. Once he was able to light up his sights, he fired his particle cannon at David. Then he heard David fire his gun.

'Too late, Dav-' Suddenly he flew backwards from a sudden unknown force. His shield energy depleted all the way to 0 as he came crashing to the ground. As soon as he crashed onto the ground below, his manifestation of his IS disappeared leaving him lying on the ground. After a moment of lying motionless on the hard dirt ground, he slowly got to his feet placing both hands on the ground to help stabilize himself. David stared at the spot on his display where it read the rest of his energy level, 5%.

Ichika slowly rose to his feet as David released himself from his IS and brought it back to its standby mode. David walked over to Ichika who was wiping off some of the dust from his body and clothes. As David made his way over to Ichika, he extended his hand out. Ichika looked up and accepted the token of sportsmanship as they shook hands.

"Man you're quick." Ichika remarked as the two headed back to the locker rooms.

"Ha, thanks. That was one of the biggest things that I wanted in my IS, speed and agility." David answered while lightly chuckling.

"You have some unique weapons." Ichika said. "I've never seen an IS with hook swords before."

"Thanks. Yeah, I always found them to be an intriguing weapon. Especially when used as a pair, that could be dangerous if one of the swords can hook you." David lightly gloated. "It can be hard to defend against if you forget to pay attention to them."

"But what about your other sword?" Ichika asked. "Is that a reverse blade sword?"

David expression changed at the mention of his other weapon, the Sorrowful Sunflower. Ichika noticed David's sudden change in attitude. Not thinking much of it, Ichika idly waited for a response from David as they continued to head towards the locker rooms.

"Hey David.." Ichika began. "Are you ok?" David didn't respond as he continued to walk forward, looking down at the ground beneath his feet.

"Uh.. If you don't want to talk about it, th-then it's ok." Ichika said trying to ease the tension a little. Again David hadn't responded with words nor actions as he seemed lost in his thoughts. Ichika, feeling he had done something wrong, tried to apologize to David.

"Hey, I'm sorry I brought it up. You don't have to give me the silent treatment, ya know?" David suddenly stopped in his tracks and looked up to face Ichika. For the split second, Ichika saw something that suddenly made him feel highly uncomfortable. Within David's eyes, he saw something deep within David that sent a small chill down his spine. Quickly, David's eyes changed back to his normal cheerful expressions.

"Sorry about that." David answered with a small smile. "That's one topic I don't really want to talk about much less remember too much about." Ichika smiled back and nodded, quickly trying to change the subject so as not to further upset David.

"H-h-how about your sniper rifle? Is that ok to talk about?" Ichika asked. They had made it back to the launching bay and headed through the open door to the locker room. As soon as they entered the room, David removed his shirt before he responded to Ichika.

"Yeah, that's fine. I chose this sniper rifle because I needed something to help against opponents who would try to fight me from a distance. The reason I chose to do a long-range weapon instead of a say a mid-range weapon was that because I had made the IS have a quick acceleration and a high top speed, my swords could be used as a short range or mid-range weapon. So in order to combat someone who puts alot of distance between myself and them, I would need a weapon that could shoot a projectile faster than I could travel. And that's why I have a sniper."

"Wow, that's some good thinking there. I could never think of something like that." Ichika said slightly embarrassed. David chuckled lightly as he opened his locker.

"Hey, Ichika. Is there a shower room here or do we have to shower in our dorms?" David asked.

"Oh, don't worry." Ichika responded. "They installed a guys bathing area last year so we can freshen up in there. Come on, I'll show you where that's at too." Ichika said as he grabbed his clothes from inside his locker and then shut it. David hurriedly did the same and then followed Ichika to the Men's public bath area. Not thinking, David had left his shirt off as he walked through the hallways behind Ichika. As they passed a couple of girls walking in the hallway, one of them suddenly fainted upon their first look at David's chiseled body. Both David and Ichika had not noticed this as they were too busy looking out the window watching the sunset slowly in the distance. When they arrived to the bath place, David gasped in awe at the size of the room and the bath made just for them.

"So all of this was made just for you?" David asked, surprised at the size of the place when it was only made to be used by one person.

"Well actually, at the time, there were two of us because Charl had not revealed yet to the other that she was a girl." Ichika chuckled nervously as he lowered his head remembering back to that time the two shared the same bath. A light pink tint appeared on his cheeks as he remembered the contact of her breasts on his back as they talked.

"Hey Ichika." David said, snapping Ichika out of his thoughts. "Are you gonna stand there and admire my butt or are you going to join in?" Ichika's head shot up and was met with the sight of David's bare naked behind as he stood in the water.

"Hey! Not funny!" Ichika complained which drew some laughter from David. Ichika let out a small sigh as he took off his clothes and headed into the bath. The two of them got settled in as they welcomed the embrace of the warm and comfortable water. After a moment of settling in, David decided to ask Ichika some questions about school.

"So what was it like being the only guy at an all-girls school?" David asked as he sunk a little deeper in the water so that the water level was just below his nostrils. Ichika thought back to last year trying to remember most of what happened back then.

"It was very different." He began. "It was hard to find a bathroom to use since all the ones at the ends of the hallway were mainly for girls only." David rose up a little and nodded as he listened to Ichika talk.

"Then I ended up getting my own room, because the academy felt that it was not a good idea to have a guy and girl share the same room. Let's see..." Ichika tried to think back to when he first started school and all the experiences he had.

"But all in all, I've had fun here and made lots of friends with everyone here." Ichika happily said.

"Did you have any friends that you would consider closer than the rest?" David asked. "I mean like a friend that you could go and talk to about anything that you would not normally talk about to others?"

"Well..." The image of the five young ladies, he had spent alot of his first year with, flashed in his mind. "Yeah I guess you could say that. But, I haven't really talked to them in awhile." Ichika lowered his head a little to where his hair covered his eyes from David's point of view.

"What about Miss Shinonono? Tabane said that the two of you were friends long time ago?" David asked, his eyes were closed so he was unaware that Ichika's mood had changed.

"Yeah. We've been friends since we were kids. We used to talk and hang out alot last year..." Ichika softly spoke. This caused David to open his eyes and glance over at Ichika, who was blankly staring into the water.

"Looks like its my turn to have hit a nerve, hm?" David asked. Ichika looked up and shook his head.

"No. It's nothing like that. I guess you could say, I just needed a little bit of space to kind of sort things out with myself." Ichika lied. David just stared at Ichika for a moment wondering to himself.

"Anyways." Ichika spoke out, breaking the silence. "I'm glad you came to the school and I got to meet you. It was really difficult being the only guy here. Now I can share my pain with you." Ichika grinned as soon as he said that. David's face expressed irritation as soon as heard that.

"Funny guy over here." David said as he splashed water at Ichika's direction. Ichika wiped some of the water at his face, and then retaliated by splashing water back at David. After their bath, they dried themselves off, put on their clothes, and Ichika walked with David back to his room.

Just as they exited and turned to walk down the hallway, their eyes caught sight of a young lady with long black hair with a long ponytail held by a white ribbon with a red stripe near its ends. Her dark blue eyes widened as she stopped dead in her tracks. She face went from surprised, to bring slightly embarrassed as she continued walking down the hallway towards them. Ichika and David continued as well, slowly about to cross each other's paths.

'H-Hi, Houki." Ichika nervously said as he raised his hand and waved lightly as soon as they were within a few feet from each other. Houki looked away and blushed lightly as she couldn't bring herself to look at Ichika in the eyes.

"Hi there." She softly said. They stood there awkwardly silent as David shifted his eyes back and forth between the two, confused.

"Well we best be going now." Ichika said.

"Let's go David." With that, Ichika walked passed Houki with David following close behind. Houki stood there for a moment looking back as she watched Ichika slowly walk away, turn the corner and disappear from her sight. Her eyes became misty as she clenched her fist tightly by her side. She sunk her head down as she turned and continued on back to her dorm room.

"Hey, Ichik-" David began before he was interrupted.

"Let's not talk about that. Please?" Ichika said. WIthout asking anymore questions, David shrugged his shoulders and the two continued to David's dorm. Once they arrived, David thanked him and went inside. Ichika headed further down the hallway, going back to his dorm room.