Ch. 3: Zero vs. Tatenashi

Recap: Tatenashi challenged Zero to a match and Zero accepted.

IS Academy Arena 3

Zero's sword collides with Tatenashi's lance. Tatenashi stares intensely at Zero and Zero just smiles. They push off each other. "Why are you so relaxed?" Tatenashi asks. "This is a friendly match, you need to lighten up." Zero replies.

"Not with my position as the strongest on the line!" Tatenashi yells as she fires from her lance. Zero flies around, dodging all of her attacks.

Command Room

Rin and the gang are watching Zero's match. "Come on Zero, quit dodging and attack." Houki said. "So that's his plan." Rin said to herself. "What plan?" Ichika asks. "Slow Start." Shana replied. "I see." Chifuyu said.

"What's Slow Start?" Charlotte asks. "He's not being serious right now and he's studying Tatenashi's abilities." Chifuyu explained. "He's using his Learning Program to learn her moves and acquire a new weapon." Laura said.

"A new weapon?" Ichika asks. "Yeah, a lance." Rin replies with a smile. They all look back at the screen.

Arena Battlefield

Zero keeps dodging Tatenashi's attacks. "Quit dodging already and fight me!" Tatenashi yells with frustration. Zero stops flying. "Got you now!" Tatenashi says as she summons water and attacks Zero. Zero doesn't move and smirks.

The water engulfs Zero. "It's over, I won." Tatenashi says. "You think so?" Zero's voice asks. The water is destroyed and Zero is holding a different weapon. "Impossible, how?" Tatenashi asks in surprisement. "I must thank you Tatenashi, because of you, I've gotten a new weapon, say hello to my Spiral Lance." Zero says holding a lance that looks like Tatenashi's Heavy Rain but with a spiral pattern coming from the tip to the base.

Zero points the lance at Tatenashi and it fires a barrage of bullets at her. Tatenashi raises her lance up and a water void appears to block the attack. "You won't beat me by copying me attacks." Tatenashi says. "I'm not copying you, I'm learning from you." Zero says.

"Then learn from this!" Tatenashi said in anger. A giant water lance appears. "Lance of Mistilteinn!" Tatenashi says. The lance hits Zero and slams him against the wall.

Command Room

"Zero!" The gang, except for Rin and Shana, yelled. "He's having too much fun out there." Shana says nodding her head no with her eyes closed. "Huh?" Everyone asks. "But now he's not playing around." Rin said. They all look at the screen.

Arena Battlefield

"That has to finish him." Tatenashi said. The dust cloud starts to disappear and electricity is coming out of the cloud. "What's that?" Tatenashi asks herself.

"Good attack, but sorry, this match is still on." Zero says as the cloud disappears and reveals Zero's eyes and hair in their Wind Mode colors with electricity around him.

Command Room

Everyone sees Zero's eye/hair change. "That's his Wind Mode colors, but why hasn't Zedept change as well?" Houki asks. "He's learned how to use the Element Change without having Zedept's color changing as well." Rin said.

"So he's gotten better control of his powers?" Charlotte asks. "Yeah and he can do it with the others as well." Shana replied.

Arena Battlefield

"How did you survive that attack?" Tatenashi asks. "Right before that attack hit, I summoned a wind barrier at the impact point and the attack didn't damage my shield at all." Zero explained.

Tatenashi gets angrier. "Damn youuuuuu!" Tatenashi yells as she charges at Zero with water at the tip of her lance. Zero smiles and swings his lance up and an electric wall appears and blocks the attack as well as shock Tatenashi. "Ahhhh!" Tatenashi screams and flies away. "Damn." She says panting heavily from that defense attack.

Zero points his lance at her and the lance suddenly connected to his arm. "One more attack, let's end this." Zero said. "Agreed." Tatenashi says as a water ball appears at the tip.

Zero bends his knees and his right arm back as his eyes change to a 3 colored eyes with red-orange, light green and light blue in a spiral pattern, as well as his hair, light green (right), red-orange (middle) and light blue (left). Fire, ice and electricity spirals around his lance from the tip.

Command Room

"Amazing." Ichika said. "He's definitely has gotten more control over the Element Program." Chifuyu said. Rin and Shana look at each other with concern and then back at the screen.

Arena Battlefield

"Take this, Aquatic Peirce!" Tatenashi yells as she charges. "Element Thrust!" Zero yells as he charges. The tips of their lances collide. "HAAAAAAAAAAAAA!" They both scream. Then there was an explosion from the attacks.

A massive cloud covers the arena's field. The arena was silent. As the cloud starts to dissipates, 2 figures start to appear. The cloud disappears and Tatenashi is on the ground and Zero is standing above her with his lance pointed at her. The bell buzzes and a voice came over the arena's intercom.

"Tatenashi, shield energy 0, winner: Zero." The voice said. There was silence for a minute and then the crowd cheers. "Tch, I lost." Tatenashi said. Zero retreats his lance to reveal Zero offering his right hand to help her up.

"That was a good match." Zero said. Tatenashi accept Zero hand and he helps her up. They both return their units to standby mode. "This means you're the Student Council President now." Tatenashi says. "Nope." Zero said. Tatenashi is surprised.

"But you won." Tatenashi said. "So what, I don't want the role or any role in the Student Council. I was only in this for a fun match." Zero said. Tatenashi is shocked by what Zero said.

"Besides, the real winners are the students who were able to enjoy a great match." Zero says he looks around. Tatenashi looks around and she sees everyone cheering. "Attention everyone!" Zero yells. The arena got silent.

"I may have won the match but I will not take the title of Student Council President and I won't take the title of the Academy's strongest as well!" Zero said and everyone was shocked. "The real winner is all of you who enjoyed a great and friendly match!" Zero continued.

"Tatenashi Sarashiki." Zero said as he faces her. "It was an honor battling you and is glad that you are my kaichou (Student President)." Zero says as he extends his hand out. Tatenashi looks at him and then his hand. She looks back at him and smiles. "Thank you."

She says as she grabs his hand and they shake. The crowd cheers at the respect and sportsmanship. The gang comes running on the field. Rin jumps up and hugs him. "Great match." Rin said.

"That was awesome!" Ichika said. "Thanks." Zero said. Zero suddenly felt pain and places his left hand over his left eye. "Are you alright?" Tatenashi asks. Zero is panting heavily.

Zero gives her a thumb up. "You shouldn't push yourself like that." Shana said. "I know." Zero said as his breathing returns to normal. "Someone please explain?" Cecilia asks.

"Ever since the battle against the Gold Gospel, every time I use my element powers, my left eye hurts badly from the shifts." Zero said as he stands up. "So you just need to take it easy." Charlotte says. "Him, easy, hahahaha." Shana says and laughs. They are confused, except for Zero and Rin.

"He never takes anything easy." Shana said as she stops laughing. "It's time for lunch, let's eat." Ichika said. They nod in agreement and they start to walk. "Zero Bakushin!" Tatenashi said. They all turn around.

Tatenashi walks up to Zero. "Yes?" Zero asks. "I hope we can be friends." Tatenashi said. "Of course we can." Zero said and then extends his right hand. Tatenashi nods and shakes his hand. "Let's all go eat." Zero said. "Yeah." They all say and they leave the arena.

Dorm: Tatenashi's Room – 8:24 p.m.

Tatenashi is in the shower thinking to herself. "Why am I feeling like this? There's no way I can like him, but why can I stop thinking about him?" She thinks to herself.

Dorm: Ichika/Zero's Room – 10:53 p.m.

Zero, in his pj's, is on his bed doing a maintenance check on his arm and Zedept while Ichika is making some tea. "How's your arm and Zedept?" Ichika asks as he brings the tea over.

"So far, everything checks out." Zero said. Ichika hands him his tea and Zero takes it. "That's good." Ichika said. "If you want, I can do a check up on Byakushiki for ya." Zero said. "That would help, thanks." Ichika said.

"No problem, just let me finish here and I'll take a look at it." Zero said. "Ok." Ichika said. Zero went and finished his check up on his arm and Zedept and started on Byakushiki. "Hm, what's this?" Zero asks himself. "What do you see?" Ichika asks.

"There's a special program that Byakushiki used a year ago once by itself." Zero explained. "A year ago? It could be when I was unconscious from the Silver Gospel's attack that injured me badly, but not as badly as the one you took from that Gold Gospel." Ichika said.

Zero read the program information to find out what it is. Zero eyes widened. "So it's that program huh?" Zero asks himself. "You figured it out?" Ichika asks. "It's the Revive Program." Zero replied. "Revive Program?" Ichika asks in confusion.

"The Revive Program literally revives it's pilot from near death. Only one other unit has this program." Zero explained. "What unit?" Ichika asks. "The White Knight, IS #001." Zero answered.

Ichika was shocked that his unit had a strong program in it and that only the White Knight IS has the program. "Zedept doesn't even have this program and it can't copy it, since the Revive Program only activates when the pilot is near death." Zero said.

"Well, let's not worry about that now, let's get some sleep." Ichika said. "Yeah, I'm tired from that match." Zero said. They both went to bed.