Summer Cloud

by dragonliege242

(On Hiatus) Instead of staying in one place, Ichika's kidnappers moved him from place to place, eventually ending up in Italy, where the Varia attack and Ichika makes a daring escape attempt, attracting Xanxus's interest. Smart!Strong!Multi-Flame!Ichika. Pairings undecided.

4. Target 2: Invader Arrives!

I'm finally back. It's been a while since I touched this story, mostly because of my National Service, but also partly because I was trying to work out the timeline, which contains a major plothole as you will see below.

2014, 10 years ago: Sawada Tsunayoshi is chosen as Decimo of the Vongola Famiglia. Advent of IS. White Knight Incident.

2016, 8 years ago: Orimura Chifuyu emerges victorious in the first Mondo Grosso.

March 2019, 5 years ago, end of 4th grade school year: Houki and her family are placed under witness protection program (plothole!)

April 2019, 5 years ago, beginning of 5th grade school year: Rin moves to Japan and enrolls in the same school as Ichika.

September 2019, 5 years ago, middle of 5th grade school year: Second Mondo Grosso, Ichika is kidnapped by Phantom Task. Chifuyu forfeits the finals to save him, but arrives too late. Ichika is found in Italy by the Vongola and adopted as Timoteo's fifth son, Salvatore Vongola.

2022, 2 years ago: Third Mondo Gross, Italy's Representative, the pilot of Tempest, emerges victorious.

2024, 1 month ago: Salvatore accidently activates an IS while destroying one of Phantom Task's bases, and is seen in public.

As you can see at the beginning of the time line, it took almost 5 years since the advent of IS for the Japanese government to put Houki and her family. Also, because the school year in Japan ends in March and begins in April, Houki should have moved away 5 years ago, not 6 years like it is said in canon. Was this an error that Izuru Yumizuru overlooked? Could someone please explain this to me?

Anyway, in this chapter, Rin transfers into IS Academy to investigate Salvatore, and the Class Representative Tournament begins.

Junky: Yes, Ichika's nearly blank soul was returned to his body because of his love for Chifuyu, but the short trip to the afterlife combined with the slight brain damage from oxygen deprivation during the three minutes he was clinically dead caused him to completely lose all memories of his past life. Take note, I only said memories. While they have no hope of returning, his original personality is a different story, though it would be overpowered by his new one, only occasionally showing itself.

Without any clues to his identity, even the Vongola would be hard-pressed to find his family without arousing suspicion from enemies. And why would they want to do that anyway? Finding his family means having to give him up. Considering that he possesses incredibly strong Dying Will Flames as well as a unique Flame that has as much power as the 16 Dying Will Flames put together, they'd have to be pretty stupid to just let him go. Which ties into my answer to your question about Tsuna. Tsuna is no longer just the heir apparent, he is now the actual boss of the Vongola, which means that he doesn't have as much freedom as he did before. True, his goal is to turn the Vongola back into what it originally was: a vigilante group that fought for the sake of the oppressed, but despite his strength, he is hardly a miracle worker. The Vongola have been able to hold their position as the strongest Famiglia because of their power and also because of their tyranny in crushing all opposition. Trying to turn the Famiglia to vigilantism would be perceived as a sign of weakness not just by their enemies, but even by their own allies. Thus, in order to transition the Vongola towards vigilantism safely, Tsuna has to take things slow and steady, and yes, do things that are against his moral code. That is the life of a mafia boss. It's hardly sunshine and rainbows. Having Salvatore, who possesses special combat potential, join the Varia and becoming stronger at the cost of his innocence is simply one of the sacrifices that he has to make. Sacrifice one to save a hundred.

As for why no one is questioning Salvatore's ethnicity, that is a critical plot point that I will not go into just yet.

Will: Yes, it'll be interesting to see how the plot of Infinite Stratos changes. And yes, Reborn characters will play big roles, just not yet, probably not until somewhere in the Silverio Gospel arc.

Azu-nyan: Yes, Salvatore has been raised with the mentality that the Famiglia comes first before everything else, so it would put him at odds with Houki who has a strained relationship with her sister.

Glint of Madness: I'm considering pairing Tsuna with Kyoko, or with the female boss of another Famiglia. Likewise, I haven't decided Salvatore's pairing either. It won't be any of the IS cast, that's for sure.

Warning! Extreme butchering of physics concepts in this chapter, and most likely in future chapters as well. I'm sad to say that since it's been almost a year since I last picked up my physics textbook, I'm pretty rusty. Most of the physics in this chapter is derived from what I read off and understood, most likely incorrectly, from Wikipedia.

So on that cheerful note, on with the story!

---

"Alright, first of all, let's practice basic IS maneuvers. Vongola, Alcott, demonstrate flight with your ISs."

Three weeks had passed since Salvatore's one-sided match with Cecilia Alcott, or Cecilia, as she had requested him to call her, and her open displays of affection had yet to cease, or even decrease in intensity and absurdity. She constantly pestered him outside of classes, and even that was only because of her fear of Orimura Chifuyu. After school hours, she would constantly herd him towards the tennis club which she was a member of to showcase her talent, or perhaps her sex appeal. Salvatore didn't know, or really care, which it was.

However, the worst thing was that during meals, she would pester him to come to the rooftop so that she could feed him the food that she cooked. And he used the term 'cook' very loosely. He was rather well-known in the Vongola for having an iron stomach and able to greedily devour food that most others would find unappealing or even repulsive, which was what had cemented his position as the deadly sin 'Gluttony' of the Varia core group. But the first time she invited him to eat the abomination she called food, being completely ignorant of her ability to poison any morsel of food that she touches, the moment he placed the extremely normal, even delicious, looking ham sandwich in his mouth, he suffered his very first case of indigestion and uncontrollable diarrhea that put him out of commission for the rest of the day.

The food was just atrocious, and he had told her as much, but the only thing that did was make her more determined to improve her cooking. However, it appeared that her definition of 'improve' was everyone else's definition of 'deteriorate', because the second time he ate her cooking, he actually blacked out for a few seconds. That was when he wizened up and sent a sample of her 'food' to the Vongola Research Facility for analysis. He heard that the entire research team suffered a terrible case of food poisoning and another had to take their place while they recovered, but they eventually found a solution: 'Guaranteed to work against Cecilia Alcott's cooking' antacid tablets. They did nothing to improve the flavor, but at least he didn't suffer any more side effects, as long as he didn't eat her food too often. It did spoil his voracious appetite for the rest of the day every time he ate her food, but that way, he had more time for training, so it was a minor victory in his book.

It was only through great will power and restraint on his part that he had not yet killed her, despite his instincts screaming at him to do so. She was still useful to the Vongola as long as she had access to the Alcott fortune and was the next in line to take over Alcott Enterprises, thus he would tolerate her antics, as infuriating as they were. The moment she was no longer useful, all bets were off, and Salvatore intended to kill her very slowly and very painfully.

The rest of the class seemed to take it in stride, seemingly glad that Cecilia's 'holier-than-thou' attitude had been somewhat curtailed. All except one, anyway.

For some reason, Shinonono Houki had taken to glaring at Cecilia whenever she entered her field of vision, her gaze filled with anger and jealousy. To a lesser extent, she was doing the same to Salvatore, though when she turned to him, her jealousy was replaced by confusion. Even now, he could feel her gaze drilling into the back of his head.

Despite his body aching to attack what it was perceiving as a hostile presence, he crushed that urge. Killing Shinonono Houki and incurring the ire of her older sister, Shinonono Tabane, was one of the last things that the Vongola wished to do. He doubted even a genius of her caliber could do any lasting damage to the biggest and strongest mafia Famiglia, but there was no need to tempt fate.

Orimura Chifuyu's attitude towards him hadn't changed much. Whenever she looked at him, her gaze still held that infuriating mix of nostalgia, hope, apprehension and longing that continued to confuse him. She didn't make any attempt to approach him outside of what was required of her as his homeroom teacher, but she had taken to discreetly following him around the campus whenever she had the time. Salvatore had to admit that she was good. If it weren't for the intensity of her gaze, he doubted that he would have noticed her at all, and probably would have inadvertently screwed up at some point and blown his cover, which would have necessitated her death. It wasn't beyond his capability to kill her, but the fallout of the death of the globally acknowledged Strongest IS Pilot would have brought more scrutiny than he needed, no matter how much he covered up his role. Thus, like the other two, he had to refrain from killing her as well, even needing the extra effort not to do anything that could potentially give him away, including putting away his Rings, which did not sit well with him. Not being able to access his main weapons at any given moment? That was basically blasphemy these days in the mafia world with the advent of Box Weapons.

This was exactly why he hated this mission. He spent five years conditioning his body to react automatically to hostility, and now for three years, he would be working against that conditioning. He wouldn't be surprised if he had to retrain himself after this sorry excuse for a mission was over.

Back to the present, he was standing with his class in one of the arenas for a practical lesson, and he and Cecilia had just been called to demonstrate basic flight movements for the rest of the class. Mentally sighing at the mundane chore he had been delegated, he stepped forward, Cecilia Alcott behind him, and briefly concentrated on his black jeweled ring, the standby form of his Personal IS, Nuvole Oscurate. A black light enveloped his body for a fraction of second before he rose off the ground, his body now armored in his black and blue IS.

A flash of pale blue light told him that Cecilia had also summoned her Blue Tears. The Bit Drones he had destroyed during their match had been repaired and floated beside her.

"Alright. Fly!" Orimura Chifuyu ordered them.

Salvatore shot off the ground at incredible speed, the PIC negating any negative effects the immense change in inertia would normally have caused him. He took care not to lift off at Mach 1 like he had during the test run. The engineering team needed a trip to Shamal and all available Sun Flame users after having their eardrums busted by the resulting sonic boom. Shamal had not been happy about having to treat a team that consisted mainly of guys and made his displeasure known by infecting the ones who had gone to him with Laughter Disease, which was nowhere near as jolly as its name implied. It could only be so long before simultaneous incessant, high-pitched laughter from multiple sources lost its comedic value. Even the saint-like Decimo had eventually gotten tired of it and made him cure them by counteracting it with the Depression Syndrome.

"Oh my, your IS is quite a bit faster than mine, considering that they're both 3rd Generations."

Salvatore's eyes shifted to see a small holographic terminal out of the corner of his vision. Cecilia had opened a communications channel. Without his permission. Again.

Once more, he felt the burning urge to gut her like a pig and hang her entrails all over the campus, but he crushed it down and resolved to be extra rough with the next idiots who tried to kidnap him.

[…The basic framework was based on that of Tempest, which relies heavily on speed.] Salvatore told a half-truth.

It wasn't false, Nuvola Oscurate's movement system was similar to Tempest's, but the one built into his Personal IS was far superior. The Vongola prided themselves on developing technology that was easily two or three generations ahead of the rest of the world, after all. Technically speaking, Nuvola Oscurate was more like a theoretical 5th or 6th Generation IS through pure specs alone, but since it had no features that discerned it from a regular 3rd Generation IS other than that, it was still classified as a 3rd Generation IS itself.

"Oh ho ho, I see. If that's the case, then it appears that you will not require any help from me. But, if you feel that there is something that you are not too confident in, feel free to ask for my assistance. I'd be glad to help you at any moment." Cecilia said with a smile and closed the channel. Salvatore really doubted he'd ever turn to her for help. His knowledge of IS was probably far greater than even some of the best scientists and engineers of the world. The only way she could really help him was to bequeath her fortune and company to the Vongola, but somehow, he doubted she would go for that.

"Alright you two, that's enough. Stop flirting in front of me, it pisses me off. Perform a sudden dive and stop exactly 10cm off the ground." Orimura Chifuyu said as she opened a communications channel link to both of them, her eyebrow twitching slightly.

[Yes, Orimura-sensei.]

Salvatore responded automatically as he immediately nosedived towards the ground, followed by Cecilia who seemed rather flustered that she had been called out on by Orimura Chifuyu.

As he rapidly approached the ground, Salvatore quickly flipped upright and came to a halt just as he was about to hit the ground and undoubtedly carve a massive crater in the middle of the arena, which he doubted the faculty would appreciate. Cecilia did the same, though perhaps just a minutely less smoothly than Salvatore.

"Oooooooh!" The majority of his classmates let out identical sounds of amazement as the two Personal IS pilots of their class pulled off the maneuver flawlessly in their eyes.

"Not bad. At the very least, when it comes to movement, you two appear fairly competent. But, it's still not satisfactory, not for a Representative Candidate, and even more so for a Representative! You better keep working on it! Next, deploy your weapon in the shortest time possible!" Orimura Chifuyu, following up her compliment(?) with an insult and then an order, which appeared to be the norm for her when students didn't screw up like she usually expected them to.

Salvatore felt slightly offended at being called barely competent. To think he'd be relegated such a terrible title just because he was trying to preserve the hearing of everyone else in the area…Oh yes, by the time he was done with the next idiots who would try to kidnap him, they'd wish that he had just outright killed them.

Crushing down his thoughts, Salvatore simply held his hands out and summoned his two .60 Caliber Automatic Machinegun Pioggia that he had used against Cecilia at the end of their match. Officially, other than their massive caliber, they weren't much different from normal machineguns, but their true power lay in the bullets' ability to absorb and gain the abilities of any Dying Will Flames that were pumped into them. A bullet infused with Storm Flames gained destructive power, one infused with Rain Flames would be able to slow down anything it hit, and so on. Of course, Salvatore wasn't crazy enough to use Dying Will Flames in public in front of hundreds of civilians, so he had only used Pioggia's more mundane firing mode.

Across him, Cecilia did the same with her Blue Pierce, a Starlight model long range laser sniper rifle. She had summoned it almost instantaneously, as expected of a Representative Candidate, but she was holding it in an unnecessarily elaborate pose, as though she was modelling rather preparing to fire.

"Hm, good. Your equipment deployment time is also satisfactory. However…"

Orimura Chifuyu pointed at Cecilia, who flinched.

"Alcott! What's with that pose!? Exactly what are you aiming at in that position!? Change it and point at the front immediately!" Orimura Chifuyu yelled what Salvatore had been thinking.

"T-This is for the sake of my image…!"

"CHANGE IT! DO YOU UNDERSTAND ME!?" Orimura Chifuyu yelled when Cecilia attempted to protest.

"Y-Yes…" Cecilia cowered and mumbled.

"Next, I want you two to deploy your close range weapons."

"Wha-er…yes!" Cecilia said with a pale panicked expression on her face. Salvatore remembered that her only close range weapon was Interceptor, a tiny combat knife that had no special properties whatsoever. Well, that said, it did manage to block one of his attacks, even if it was half-hearted.

She held her hand out and a pale shapeless light appeared. However, it simply stayed the way it was and did not form into the blue combat knife Salvatore had briefly seen before he broke it.

"Mmmm…" Cecilia frowned when Interceptor still refused to form.

"Aren't you done yet?"

"I-It'll be ready soon…! Agh, Interceptor!" Cecilia screamed in frustration as she finally gave up and verbally summoned the combat knife instead. Salvatore shook his head at her having to resort to the most basic method in order to summon such a simple weapon.

"…How long do you think you took? Do you expect your enemy to wait for you to finish in a real battle?" Orimura Chifuyu asked in a cold voice, causing Cecilia and most of the class to shiver.

"I-In a real battle, I wouldn't allow an enemy to get anywhere close to me, so it's alright!" Cecilia said with a look of forced confidence.

"Oh really? As I recall, Vongola got right up in your face and shot you point blank. Not to mention, if you hadn't summoned your Interceptor to block one of his earlier attacks, the match would have ended much sooner. Tell me, does that happen to ring a bell?" Chifuyu said, her voice growing so much colder and yet more intense that it was a surprise that Cecilia wasn't frozen solid yet.

"T-T-That's…!" Cecilia began to stutter, but found that she had no counterargument and so turned to another target to unleash her ire upon.

"T-This is all your fault!" Cecilia said with face filled with shame, embarrassment and anger as she opened a private communications channel to Salvatore yet again.

Salvatore simply raised an eyebrow, partly in derision and the other part inquiry.

While the first flew over her head, Cecilia appeared to understand that Salvatore had no idea what she was talking about.

"I-It's because you suddenly rushed at me without warning…"

[We were opponents in a battle. It's only to be expected.] Salvatore replied with a sigh, not understanding her logic.

"Y-You had better take responsibility for this!" Cecilia stammered out, her face somehow growing even redder.

[Sure. Your problem is that you aren't used to deploying your close range weapon, so after school hours, I'll bombard you nonstop until you're able to properly deploy your Interceptor. Naturally, you aren't allowed to use any other equipment.] Salvatore replied, his lips curling into a sadistic smirk. Looks like he wouldn't have to wait to vent his frustrations on someone.

Cecilia paled at the thought of having to fight Salvatore again, this time without her best equipment, and frantically shook her head.

"T-T-That's a kind offer, but I think I'll be able to manage on my own…" Cecilia said weakly, refusing his offer. Shame, he actually had been looking forward to it.

"Vongola, stop dawdling and summon your close range weapon too." Orimura Chifuyu interrupted them, and the private communications channel closed.

Salvatore raised an eyebrow at her. He didn't recall mentioning having any such equipment. Artiglio didn't count. The energy blade generators that took the form of three-bladed shurikens had no offensive capabilities themselves, and were actually quite fragile.

"Don't give me that look, Vongola. While the data that was sent to the Academy was infuriatingly scarce, at the very least, your Nuvole Oscurate is listed as an All Range type, which means you have at least one close range weapon." Orimura Chifuyu said with narrowed eyes.

Salvatore mentally nodded in understanding. So, it wasn't due to carelessness on his part.

He also smirked inwardly at her use of the words 'infuriatingly scarce'. The data the Vongola had sent the Academy only contained what they already knew from observing his match with Cecilia, with maybe one or two additional details, including Nuvola Oscurate's combat type, which as Orimura Chifuyu had said earlier, was All Range. Their intention was to only send forth pieces of data on Nuvole Oscurate that had already been revealed one way or another during the course of his enrollment here. And the best part was that no matter how much the Academy or even the UN bitched about it, they couldn't do anything as the Vongola was completely separate from the Italian government, and thus not under the rule of any sovereign. Plus, on paper, Salvatore's enrollment was a favor to the Italian government, hardly an obligation of any sort. They didn't have to put Salvatore here, and they certainly didn't have to keep him there. In other words, the Vongola could pull him out of the Academy if he were to say the word, which was why the Academy and the UN treaded lightly around him. They didn't fancy a world war breaking out once Salvatore was no longer under the protection of IS Academy.

"Well? Are you going to do it anytime soon? We don't have all day to wait for you." Orimura Chifuyu's impatient voice shook him out of his thoughts. He shrugged to himself. He only needed to deploy it, it wasn't like he was being ordered to actually use it.

Salvatore dismissed his two Pioggias and held out his right hand. Immediately, a massive rectangular mass of light appeared and an instant later, it faded to reveal a black and purple mechanical broadsword that tapered to a sharp tip. The cross guard was circular with V-shaped protrusions, curving towards the hilt, and there were two wide extension near the area where the blade met the cross guard.

This was the High Frequency Oscillation Broadsword Divisore, Italian for Divider, an appropriate name for a sword, especially this one. The blade itself was wider than it appeared to the naked eye. The blade functioned like a chainsaw, but instead of smaller blades on a chain, what rotated at more than 15 million revolutions per second were two rows of energized photon, rapidly switching between their ground and excited states even as they moved, very much like a laser, just a lot stronger. Its speed, absurd heat and destructive power put together produced a force that was so great that at maximum speed, it was capable of cleaving through even the Absolute Defence that the world was so sure lived up to its name.

However, as incredible as that was, that was not its greatest feature in Salvatore's opinion. No, what he thought was its greatest feature was its ability to safely channel his Flame of Death without being damaged whatsoever in the process. In fact, it was one of the only three weapons in the world capable of doing so. That made it one of the most lethal weapons in the world, as whatever came in contact with it while it was channeling the Flame of Death would be obliterated without question, even the air around it, which could potentially endanger him if he used it too long.

Salvatore looked up once he was done with his internal monologue about his sword, he looked up to see Orimura Chifuyu staring hard again, though it wasn't aimed at him for a change. Instead, she was now staring at his broadsword with an almost unreadable expression on her face. Almost unreadable. Her expression was masterfully schooled into a neutral expression, but like before, her eyes gave her away. This time, her eyes were filled with shock and nostalgia. An odd reaction. Did he not look the part of a swordsman? Or was it because the sword was not what she had expected it to be?

And what on earth could she be feeling nostalgic about? It couldn't be about her past as the Representative of Japan, her Kurezakura used a katana-like sword, not a western sword like Divisore. Unless…she had piloted another IS in the past? She was reportedly a friend of Shinonono Tabane, it wasn't too farfetched of an idea that she could have acquired another IS in the past. However, the Vongola's information network indicated that all 467 IS cores that Shinonono Tabane had created were all accounted for. All except one. The original core, core No.001 itself. The fabled core of the legendary first IS, the White Knight. Could it be…Orimura Chifuyu was in fact…?

"…Ah. Time's up. That's it for today's practical session. Proceed to your next class." Orimura Chifuyu tore her eyes away from Divisore and dismissed the class before leaving the arena.

Salvatore's eyes never left her back until she turned a corner and vanished from view. It appeared he had learned another interesting tidbit about the Brunhilde.

---

"Hm, so this is IS Academy, huh?" A certain teenage girl with brown hair tied with yellow ribbons into twintails and green eyes, carrying a travelling bag that looked about two sizes too big for someone of her petite stature muttered to herself as she walked into the campus of her new school. She had just transferred in, odd considering that school year had only started a few weeks ago. Most transfer students came in later in the school year, not at the beginning. If that were the case, it would have been much less of a hassle to just enroll from the beginning.

But, the fact was that she had transferred in in the first month of the school year. It was because she had missed the entrance exam, but not due to tardiness or anything of the like, but because she had no interest in enrolling in IS Academy at that time. The only reason why she was here now was…

"Ichika…"

Yes, it was during the beginning of 5th grade that she had met that boy. At that time, she had just moved to Japan from her homeland, China, and as such, she didn't have any friends. And to make matters worse, her classmates would constantly bully and torment her because of her nationality. She was young, and nowhere near as strong-hearted as she was now, so she didn't retaliate and simply stood there as they heckled her, on the verge of tears.

That was when he, like a knight in shining armor she read about in fairy tales, appeared and defended her, fighting and beating four bullies down at the same time. Orimura Ichika, her friend and major crush, not that she would ever admit the latter out loud. Even the mere thought of him was enough to make her heart flutter momentarily.

But, fate was a cruel mistress, and Ichika was kidnapped only a few months after she had met him, and though many an effort was made to find him, mostly by Orimura Chifuyu, his older sister, and the rest by organizations trying to curry her favor, Ichika was never found. It was after his kidnapping that the bullying resumed, but her meeting with Ichika had given her strength she never knew she had, and she became more than capable of protecting herself, and laying the smack down if she felt like it. She stayed in Japan for 4 more years following that in the hopes of seeing Ichika if…no, when he returned, but at the end of her second year in middle school, her parents got divorced and she was forced to return to China with her mother.

It was after she returned to her homeland that she was found to possess a particularly strong aptitude at piloting an IS, and was therefore drafted to become one of China's Representative Candidates, and was even chosen to pilot Shenlong, China's prototype 3rd Generation IS. In the one year that had passed between then and now, she had undergone rigorous military training that had imparted to her skills that wouldn't lose out to those who had been in regular military service for much longer than a year.

At the beginning of this year, her superiors had suggested that she enroll in IS Academy to get better at piloting Shenlong and so that they could gather more data on the prototype 3rd Generation when it was pitted against that of other countries. She had declined, stating that she could just as easily do the same in the military against other pilots.

But then, the most earthshaking incident of the decade occurred. A male had been found to be able to pilot an IS, and he would be attending IS Academy. When her superiors learned of this development, they had ordered her to transfer to IS Academy. Normally, she still would have refused, and they likely would have given up and sent someone else in her place, but then she saw a video of one of his many interviews, and her heart leapt into her throat. He was a spitting image of Ichika, not to mention that he was the same age that Ichika would have been now. It was a long shot, considering that the boy appeared to have a family and there was never any mention of adoption, but it was a possibility, one of the men that he had been seen in the company of stated that he had an accident five years ago, right around the time Ichika was kidnapped, and no matter how small that possibility was, she wanted to make sure, which was why she had consented.

The way her superiors had cried tears of joy when she didn't resist still amused her a good deal.

So here she was, at the only officially recognized training institution in the world that taught potential IS pilots everything they needed to know.

"Let's see…where's the reception?" She asked no one in particular, mostly because it was already 8pm at night and everyone had already retired to their dormitories in preparation for lights out. Plus, no one was stupid enough to wander around the massive campus and risk getting lost in the dark.

She took out a small piece of paper that had a couple of words hastily scribbled on it, probably because she had rushed off to IS Academy the moment her transfer was finalized and had barely caught the last few words her superiors had said when they were telling her where to report.

"The General Service Counter on the 1st floor of the main building…but, where IS the main building!? Don't they have a map or something!?" She screamed in frustration.

It couldn't be helped. The entire campus itself was as large as a small city, not to mention there were a lot of buildings all over the campus. The main building, being the biggest one, was usually easy to spot, but when one was walking around in the dead of the night when most of the lights had already been shut off without a clue as to where she was going, it was easy to get lost.

"Agh, I should just fly around and look for the building from the sky!" She yelled to the sky and held up her right arm, where a large black and pink bracelet that was far too big for her slender arm hung loosely on her right wrist, looking like it could slip off at any moment if she was careless.

She was about to summon Shenlong, but thought better of it.

"It'd be bad if you summoned your IS before you even start attending classes! In the worst case scenario, it'll become an international incident, so please spare us the agony!" She remembered her superiors begging her on their knees while on the verge of tears. They were well aware of how bullheaded and reckless she could be, and what that personality would lead her to do.

She smirked to herself as that memory flashed through her head. Ever since her parents' divorce, she always hated how adults would flaunt their seniority over children like it was their God-given right. The knowledge that she was now a person of such import that adults, even high-ranking ones in both the military and the government, would get on their knees to beg her invoked strong, slightly sadistic, glee within her heart.

On a side note, she also hated kids who were full of themselves because they were male, an effect of her being bullied in elementary school before Ichika had stepped in. That was why the saying 'Men's physical strength is just child's play, a women's IS is true power' that had become rather commonplace in society these days. In the end, all males were on the lower end of the food chain, their rightful place in her opinion.

"Of course, only he is different." She quickly corrected herself as she thought of her crush that she hadn't seen in 5 years, but would hopefully be reunited with soon.

Her happiness was quickly extinguished when she realized that even after almost an hour of wandering in different locations, she was still hopelessly lost, and was somehow in the middle of a dense forest. Why was there even a forest on campus?

"Ah geez, just how big is this place anyway!?" She screamed to herself in frustration.

"…Hmph. If that guy was around, he would have found and saved me by now…" She quietly lamented to herself.

[Hm? What's a student doing outside this late at night?]

She jumped when a mechanical voice right behind her startled her due to its suddenness and close proximity. She turned around and let out a choked gasp. Standing there was the person she had been hoping to see, or at least she prayed that he was that person.

Salvatore Vongola, the only male IS pilot in the world and her childhood friend's lookalike looked down at her with red eyes that betrayed absolutely no emotion. She fought back a blush when she took note of his handsome face that resembled her childhood friend and crush so much. Though it was dark, she could still clearly make out his features because he was standing right in front of her.

[…A transfer student, huh?]

He asked her in the same mechanical voice that confused her. Was that his real voice?

"Um…yes, how did you know?"

[You are wearing a blue ribbon, meaning that you are a first year. You also have a Personal IS in standby mode on your right wrist, but including me, there are only three first years that possess Personal ISs, and you are not one of them. Thus there are two possible conclusions. You are either a spy disguising herself as a student to enter the Academy, or you are a transfer student.]

"Then, how do you know it's not the former?" She asked curiously.

[A spy would have been aware of the basic layout of the campus and wouldn't get herself so hopelessly lost, especially in the middle of the night.]

Salvatore said with a smirk, causing her to turn even redder.

"S-Shut up! This stupid Academy is just too big! How is anyone supposed to find their way around this place without a map!?" She retorted.

[There is a map. It's in the student handbook that all students should have received prior to entering the Academy. Even a transfer student like you should have received a copy.]

She frowned and opened up her travelling bag. Piled on everything else was the student handbook that she had tossed in without even skimming through. She flipped through the pages, and sure enough, just as Salvatore had said, there was indeed a map of the campus near the front.

"…Oh." She said awkwardly, feeling very much like a fool right now and wishing the ground would just open up and swallow her whole.

[We're near the south end of Arena 1 right now. The main building is on the north-eastern side. Now, if you will excuse me.] Salvatore Vongola said as he pointed to the southern end of the map, where they were currently located, and walked off.

She tried to call out to him and stop him. She wanted to know more about him, about the man who was possibly her missing crush. But, her voice caught in her throat, and before she knew it, he was already out of sight.

Her face fell in disappointment and she trudged the rest of the way through the forest to the main building.

"…No, I'll still have plenty of chances to talk to him! There's still three years of schooling left to go after all!" She thought to herself to try to keep herself upbeat and pumped her fists in the air.

"Alright!" She exclaimed and the rest of the way to the main building, there was a bounce in her steps.

She finally got out of the forest and came to a halt in front of a brightly lit building that was without a doubt the main building. She stepped through the front door that opened the moment she approached and walked over to the counter. The receptionist looked up with a smile.

"Ah, you must be the new transfer student, Huang Lingyin-san. Please wait for a moment, I'll finalize the details of your transfer." She said as she turned to her terminal and started typing.

"…Hey, could you tell me which class Salvatore Vongola in?" Lingyin asked the receptionist, using the opportunity to gleam more information on her target.

"Oh, the famous boy? He's in class 1. Lingyin-san, you'll be in class 2, the neighboring class. Oh, now that I think about it, he's the class representative. As expected of someone who defeated the previous Mondo Grosso champion and took her place as Italy's Representaive!" The receptionist said with a bubbly voice, evidently delighting in having someone to gossip with.

Rin did a double take when she heard her. A Representative? Not a Candidate, but a full Representative? That was…well, unbelievable to say the least. A Representative was unquestionably the strongest IS pilot of their country. For a teenager to be the Representative…was he that good? The previous Representative of Italy was the champion of the Second and Third Mondo Grosso, though the former she won by default when Chifuyu forfeited, but was most definitely one of the strongest IS pilots in the world, right behind Chifuyu, the first and most famous Brunhilde. If Salvatore Vongola was able to defeat her and take her place, that meant that he had an exceptionally powerful IS…or he was just as strong as the best IS pilots in the world.

However, the gears in her head started turning when she heard the other bit of information. So, Salvatore Vongola was the class representative of class 1, huh?

"Say, has the class representative of class 2 been decided yet?" Lingyin asked the receptionist.

"Why yes! Though, I doubt she'll be able to do much against the personal IS users. An Uchigane can only do so much…" She said without looking up from the terminal as she continued typing.

"Then, could you tell me her name and room number?"

This made the receptionist pause and look up with a frown.

"Why do you want to know?"

"Oh, I would just like to see if she would surrender her position to me." She said with a smile that did not quite reach her eyes.

---

"Hey, have you heard about the transfer student?"

As Salvatore was about to take his seat, his classmates started gossiping among each other. Salvatore normally didn't partake in such an inane activity, but in a training institution that currently housed some of the world's most powerful weapons, rumors may hold a nugget of truth that might prove valuable to him.

"Yeah, I heard she's from China!" Another replied. Salvatore nodded in understanding. They were talking about the girl he met last night in the forest on campus. After he got home later that night, he made an inquiry and the Vongola began digging into her background to find out as much as they could about another Personal IS user in his year.

"Hmph, perhaps she became wary of me and decided to transfer in?" Cecilia said with an arrogant swagger, placing her hands on her hips.

However, perhaps out of habit, the rest of the class simply ignored her and continued gossiping among themselves. Then, one of his classmates whose name currently escaped him because she wasn't on his priority list asked him.

"Hey, Vongola-kun, do you know anything about her?"

[I met her last night on my way out of campus.]

Salvatore said as he pulled his chair out and sat down. His desk had been replaced rather fast. It was only a day after he had torn it from its bolted stand that it had been replaced.

"You've met her? What's she like? Which country is she from?"

His classmates crowded around him and started bombarding him with questions. Salvatore's eye twitched. While he wasn't bothered by crowds like Hibari was, having this many people this close to him asking him questions did irritate him, making him pity one of his mentors, whose hatred of crowds was just as legendary as his strength.

He also noted that Shinonono Houki had simply gone to her seat, apparently having no interest in gossip, though he noticed that when she directed her gaze at him, it was more intense than usual.

[She's a first year like us, but since there are no empty seats in this class, I assume she'll be in one of the other three classes. As far as I could tell, she was Asian, perhaps Chinese, and also has a Personal IS, so she must be a Representative Candidate. Classes 2 and 3 do not have any Personal IS users, so if she ends up in either one of those classes, it's likely that she'll be elected the new class representative.]

Salvatore divulged the information he had picked up in the brief meeting he had with her, seeing no harm in handing them a tiny sliver of truth, though he said nothing of what the Vongola had found out in their investigation.

"That's correct!" A loud voice interjected from the door of the classroom. As one, the entire class turned their heads to look at the source, save Salvatore, who simply shifted his eyes. Standing in the doorway was the same girl he had met last night. According to the Vongola's investigation, she was…

"My name is Huang Lingyin, a Representative Candidate of China and the new class representative of class 2! I came here to declare war on class 1!" Huang Lingyin exclaimed, dramatically pointing her finger straight at Salvatore.

[For someone who got lost in the dead of the night, that's rather big talk.]

Salvatore replied immediately, causing Huang Lingyin to blush and stomp her foot like a child on a tantrum.

"S-Shut up! Stop bringing that up already! I admit it's my own fault for not reading the student handbook beforehand, but the Academy should at least be putting up signs telling students where to go-OW!?" Huang Lingyin let out a cry of pain when her tirade was interrupted by a fist to the top of her head. She turned sharply, presumably to yell at whoever it was who hit her, but she froze when she saw the imposing figure of the first Brunhilde, Orimura Chifuyu.

"It's been a while since we last met, but I see you still haven't changed in the slightest, Huang." Orimura Chifuyu said in a cool voice.

"C-Chifuy-sa-OW!?" Huang Lingyin started but was cut off again by yet another punch to her cranium.

"It's Orimura-sensei. Now get back to your own class. You're a hindrance here." Orimura Chifuyu said before walking to her desk at the front of the classroom, leaving Huang Lingyin by the doorway, nursing her bruised head and pride.

"I-I'll be back later, so you better not run away, Salvatore Vongola!" She said, trying to regain some semblance of dignity before running off to class 2.

"Now that the annoyance is gone, all of you go back to your seats! The lesson is about to begin!" Orimura Chifuyu declared.

Salvatore noted that she had spoken to Huang Lingyin rather casually, at least more casually than she did to another student, and figured that they were acquaintances. That seemed to make sense. From what the Vongola had dug up, Huang Lingyin had lived in the same small town in Japan for around 4 years before she moved back to China. That alone raised little suspicion, but what was really interesting was that Orimura Chifuyu owned a residence in the same town, and the Shinonono family had been living there before they were placed in witness protection 5 years ago. All of it led back to one common point: Orimura Ichika, the enigmatic younger brother of Orimura Chifuyu that almost no one seemed to know about. Even the Vongola had not known of his existence until they dug into Orimura Chifuyu's background. He was in the same class as Shinonono Houki for the four years of elementary school, and Huang Lingyin for about half a year before he suddenly vanished 5 years ago. He didn't know whether it was coincidence that that happened to be around the time the Vongola had found him on the verge of death in Italy.

Salvatore did not believe in coincidence. The coinciding of the timings, Shinonono Houki's inquiry about his identity, and Orimura Chifuyu's strange behavior around him. Plus, the odd timing of Huang Lingyin's transfer into IS Academy. At the very least, there was a very real possibility that he was indeed the missing Orimura Ichika.

He hadn't known how to feel about that. The Vongola had raised him with the mentality that family comes first before everything else, and if Orimura Chifuyu really was his blood-related sister…well, he would be in a bit of a conundrum. But, he eventually decided no matter his past, his loyalty was now to the Vongola, the only family he knew. The past was best left alone, which was why he had requested that the Vongola not dig any deeper into the Orimura family's background. He simply had no desire to know. Knowing any more than he already did would only cause him problems.

Pushing those thoughts out of his head, he turned back to halfheartedly listen to the lesson.

---

It appeared that Huang Lingyin was much more persistent than Salvatore had given her credit for, because when it was time for lunch, she was already waiting for him in the cafeteria and she had stuck close to him for the rest of the break. Though, the expression on her face when she saw the sheer volume of food he had ordered was quite a sight.

It appeared that she truly believed that he was her missing friend, or at least held high hopes. Which also meant he would have to watch his step around her and make sure he did not give any clue that he could possibly be Orimura Ichika. If she stuck this closely to him, he would have to be careful of what skills and techniques he used. The Shinonono Ittoryu and Nittoryu were most definitely out. He had already been careful not to use them around Shinonono Houki and Orimura Chifuyu who would be sure to recognize the sword styles in an instant, but even those two didn't keep a close watch on him like Huang Lingyin did. Perhaps it was a good thing that Nuvole Oscurate didn't have katana-shaped equipment.

On a lighter note, Cecilia appeared to have struck up some sort of one-sided rivalry with Huang Lingyin. She had approached her fellow Representative Candidate in her usual 'charming' manner, but instead of getting angry like one usually would, Huang Lingyin simply ignored her existence, stating she had no interest in Cecilia when confronted. It appeared it was the first time someone had managed to 'outsnide' her, in public no less, because Cecilia seemed to snap and declared Huang Lingyin her mortal enemy on the spot, though it appeared that she was the only one who acknowledged it.

Now, Salvatore stood alone in Arena 3, a good while after classes had ended for the day and the students were about to go for dinner, opting to practice with Nuvole Oscurate in school rather than at his residence. There was only so many times he could repair the training grounds back home before even he got sick of it. He held up his left hand and summoned his Personal IS that instantly appeared in a flash of dark light. He had made sure to disable the nearby cameras beforehand so that his training wouldn't be recorded and seen by someone else.

"Oh ho, so this is what your Personal IS looks like."

Salvatore's lips tightened involuntarily when his stalker made her presence known once again. Resigned, he turned to face her, and blinked when he found that she had changed into her IS suit.

"Hey, would you mind having a practice match with me? I'd like to see the power of the one who overthrew the previous Mondo Grosso champion." Huang Lingyin announced as she held up her right hand and summoned her IS. In a flash of pink light, her Personal IS, Shenlong, appeared around her.

Salvatore's eyes shifted momentarily to the large spherical devices hovering above her shoulders and recognized it as one of the Vongola's designed weapons that had been sold to China, the Impact Cannons, weapons that rapidly compressed air around them into an invisible barrel and then fired the resulting shockwave as a bullet. The trajectory of the bullet was linear, but because both the barrel and the bullet were invisible to the naked eye, it was nearly impossible to dodge…

…For a normal person anyway. Being an assassin of the highest level, Salvatore was extremely sensitive to his surroundings. He was one of the only few in the Varia who specialized in covert operations after all. Variables like wind speed and weather condition were vital to the success of his missions and thus, he trained himself to be able to automatically detect and adapt to any sudden changes. And it certainly helped that Nuvole Oscurate's Hyper Sensor increased the sensitivity of his five senses and had a unique vision mode that allowed it to accurately and almost instantly calculate said variables.

[I don't really mind, but are you sure? We'll eventually be fighting each other in the upcoming Class Representative Tournament. Showing all of our trump cards in a simple spar would spoil the actual fight, don't you agree?]

That was a bit of a lie. Salvatore was already well aware of the full capabilities of Shenlong, but he was unwilling to divulge too much information on Nuvole Oscurate. It always helped to have a trick up his sleeve.

Oblivious to his lie, Huang Lingyin nodded in response to his words.

"I agree. So, in this match, let's not use our weapons. How about unarmed combat?" Huang Lingyin suggested, not knowing that she had completely fallen into his trap.

[That's fine with me. However, I will not hold back just because this is a spar.]

"Of course. This wouldn't be fun unless we were fighting seriously."

Salvatore got into a Muay Thai stance as Huang Lingyin entered one of her own that he recognized as Sanda, a modern hybrid Chinese martial art. He held back a smirk, maybe this would be fun.

*BAM*

Salvatore's eyes lit up with sadistic glee when Huang Lingyin strained to block the brunt of the power behind his flying knee strike that had been increased by using Ignition Boost. Then he fell forward when she spun to the side to allow gravity to pull him down towards the ground and directed a straight punch at his shoulder. Salvatore twisted his body hard mid-fall and Huang Lingyin's fist glided past him, missing completely. She stumbled forward, having put too much strength into that punch and not having any resistance to stop it. Salvatore followed up by dropping to the ground and targeted his opponent's feet with a sweep.

"Urk!?" Huang Lingyin let out a strangled cry as her feet were swept off the ground and she fell unceremoniously on her hindquarters.

Salvatore did not stop there. He raised his right arm and directed an elbow strike to her abdomen. It struck the ground instead and left a small crater when Huang Lingyin rolled out of the way and shot into the air. Salvatore flew up, activating Ignition Boost again to intercept her ascent. Huang Lingyin saw that her opponent was now in her path and that she would not be able to stop in time to stay out of range of his attack and thus did the next best thing. She raised both of her armored forearms to block, just in time for Salvatore's fist to slam into them and leave cracks in both while throwing her back down to the ground, forming a large crater and kicking up a large cloud of dust as she landed.

Salvatore descended and stood beside the crater with his arms crossed, watching as smoke billowed out of it, waiting for his opponent to get up and continue the fight. There was the possibility that the impact was strong enough to render her unconscious, even with her shields, but he sincerely hoped that was not the case. That seemed far too anticlimactic as a conclusion to the spar, even for him.

He wasn't disappointed. A pink armored-fist burst out of the smoke, aimed for his face, followed by the rest of Huang Lingyin, looking slightly worse for wear. Salvatore tilted his head and the fist once again glided past him, but this time, Huang Lingyin appeared to have anticipated that, judging by the sudden smirk on her face, much to his consternation. The reason why was clear a second later when the arm that had just sailed past his head suddenly wrapped around his neck with surprising strength, preventing him from moving away. His surprise was further increased when Huang Lingyin headbutted him with all of her might, shattering her headpiece and chipping off a large portion of his own in the process.

[Mmm!?]

Salvatore was unable to suppress a sound of pure surprise and incredulity even as he stumbled backwards, stars in his vision, and his brain being split open by a horrendous headache. Huang Lingyin didn't seem to be in a much better state, having fallen on her buttocks again, holding her head like she was experiencing a migraine, which probably wasn't too far off the mark. A quick glance at his holographic screen showed that her shield energy had dropped quite a bit, down to 632. Not to mention the thin cracks along her gauntlets, caused by his attack, and her broken headpiece that lay in pink fragments on the ground in front of her. At the very least, he was in better shape than she was, his shield energy still near full capacity at 725, despite having used Ignition Boost twice, and the only visible damage on him being his partially shattered headpiece.

"Heh…heh heh heh, nob bad. As expecded of a Rebrezentative." Huang Lingyin slurred out, her speech impeded by her self-inflicted concussion, stumbling on her own feet as she attempted to stand straight. Salvatore couldn't fault her. If he wasn't specially trained, he would be in a similar state as well, considering just how much force had been behind the headbutt. Shields could absorb the impact, but it wouldn't have stopped his brain from bouncing off the inside of his skull like a demented Ping-Pong ball.

[…You too. You're doing a bit better than I had expected.]

Salvatore shot back as he blinked rapidly to get rid of the bright spots that still dotted his vision.

[Do you still want to continue? I'm fairly certain you have a concussion, and fighting an opponent that can't even stand up straight is rather boring.]

"D-Don underesdimade me! I can sdill geep going…" Huang Lingyin ejaculated incoherently as she swayed on the spot.

Salvatore sighed. Looks like the fun was over. Time to end this.

As Huang Lingyin entered a combat stance, or at least looked she was trying to, Salvatore shot forward with Ignition Boost, ignoring his head's painful protests. While the PIC would negate most of the inertia, there was still enough left behind that made his already terrible migraine even worse.

He stopped right behind Huang Lingyin, who, due to her dazed state, was not able to react in time when Salvatore struck the base of her neck. Shenlong's shields immediately activated to absorb the impact, but the force behind the action is enough to render her unconscious. She dropped unceremoniously to the ground, Shenlong dismissing itself automatically once it sensed that its pilot was no longer conscious, despite not having come anywhere close to being completely depleted of shield energy.

Salvatore sighed and dismissed Nuvole Oscurate, stumbling as his feet touched the ground, still slightly disoriented. He shook the blurriness out of his head and looked around. He figured after all the noise they made, teachers would be coming by to check on them soon. And if not, they surely would have noticed that the cameras in this Arena were down by now and would definitely check that out, so he should probably make himself scarce, unless he wanted to be the one to clean this mess. Then he looked down at Huang Lingyin's unconscious body and sighed again. He supposed that he should do the morally correct thing and take her to the infirmary at least. Not to mention, if he left her here to take the fall, she'd probably get pissed enough to annoy him even more than she presently did, and frankly, that was something he could live without. So he picked her off the ground and lifted her in what was commonly known as the princess carry and moved towards the main building, calling upon all of his training to erase his presence and make absolutely no sound as he did so.

It took a good long while longer than usual to get home, and he idly noticed that he didn't actually get any real training done.

---

A day had passed since his one sided spar with Huang Lingyin, and no teacher had called him out on damaging school property, so Salvatore figured that he was golden. Huang Lingyin evidently knew better than to blab when she would get in trouble as well.

Huang Lingyin's stalking did actually lessen after that, mostly because she took to turning beet red at the sight of him and then running off. Unfortunately, he wasn't able to tell if it was out of anger that she had been beaten down so easily or out of embarrassment that her vulnerable side had been seen by who she believed to be her missing friend. Either way, she was annoying him less than before, and he was definitely not complaining.

But for some reason, Cecilia seemed to take offense at her self-proclaimed rival's sudden 180 degree turn in personality, and started pestering him to explain himself, which was really grating on his nerves, though through sheer Dying Will, he was able to calm himself down before he blasted her face off.

It had now been a few days after that, and the participants' roster for the Class Representative Tournament had been posted. It wasn't exactly much of a tournament, considering that there were only 4 participants since each year had its own tournament, but it was a chance to show off the Vongola's technological superiority, and thus he was obligated to take part. And his opponent in the first rounds, which were also the semifinals, was…Huang Lingyin, who was also staring at their adjacent names a short distance away from him. She glanced at him, turned beet red, and pointed a shaking finger at him.

"I-I-I'm definitely going to pay back my humiliation twofold!"

And then she ran off, her twintails bouncing up and down as she took off down the corridor.

Salvatore's eyes followed her until she left his sight. Well, it certainly would be an interesting fight, to say the least.

---

The days between then and the day of the match flew by, and before he knew it, Salvatore found himself standing in the same hangar that he had used in his fight against Cecilia. Like always, he had used makeup to hide any blemishes on his skin.

His eyes skimmed over the information on the small holographic screen in front of him. He was going through all of the information the Vongola had gathered on Shenlong once more before the match, just in case he had forgotten something. As exceedingly low as the probability was, if he had missed even just one thing of Shenlong, it could potentially lead to his downfall, especially since he was still unwilling to use Nuvole Oscurate's full power just yet.

As far as he could tell, Shenlong only had two armaments, the Impact Cannons, and two close range scimitars, Souten Gagetsu, which could be combined at the hilts to form a halberd that, other than for close range combat, could also be used for throwing like a boomerang.

For a 3rd Generation IS, it certainly seemed lacking in terms of equipment, but both were certainly a threat. If Huang Lingyin was close enough to him to use Souten Gagetsu, he could easily block them with Falange, but it also meant that she could fire her Impact Cannons at him at point blank range. A single bullet at that distance would be enough to shatter one or two layers of Falange, and Salvatore did not know if they were developed enough to be used for rapid fire. If he was too careless, she might break through all of Falange's layers faster than he could generate them, which would leave him open for a vicious assault.

The best course of action would be to disable the Impact Cannons at the beginning of the match, but they were made of much tougher materials than Blue Tear's Bit Drones, and thus Artiglio would not be enough to destroy them. Which meant…

[…It's time to use Divisore.]

Salvatore muttered to himself as he thought of the only close range weapon he had. He had already deployed it in front of his class, so using it should be fine. He just had to make sure he didn't reveal that it was capable of destroying the Absolute Defense, or there would be an immense backlash from the entire world. Women would fear the implications that there existed a means through which the world's greatest weapon, which was what had catapulted them to the position of the dominant gender, could be easily defeated, and demand that such weapons and their schematics be destroyed immediately, and men, seeking to reclaim their old dominance over the fairer sex, would become greedy and demand that the schematics be released for production. He could do without all of that nonsense.

[Nuvole Oscurate. Limit Divisore's output to 20%.]

Salvatore ordered his IS, which hummed in the affirmative, glowing briefly before returning to normal. There wasn't any perceivable change, but Salvatore knew that his order had been carried out. Unless he ordered Nuvole Oscurate to raise or remove the limiter, Divisore would not be able to produce any more than 20% of its full power, which was low enough to not break through the Absolute Defence, but high enough to break any weaker defenses, such as the default shielding of an IS and most materials that IS armaments were made of, including Huang Lingyin's Impact Cannons and Souten Gagetsu.

Salvatore looked out of the open bay doors that led out into the Arena, where his opponent was already clad in her IS, fully repaired after their short spar, waiting for him to make his appearance. And now that his preparations were complete, he would.

Kicking off the ground, he glided elegantly out of the bay doors into the Arena, where he was immediately met by uproarious applause from the audience, the loudest being from those who had seen his match against Cecilia. He stopped a distance away from Huang Lingyin, waiting for the match to begin.

"Just to let you know, beating me this time won't be nearly as easy as during our spar. This time, I have access to my weapons, and I'm a lot more skilled with them than I am with unarmed combat. If you want to beg for mercy, now would be a good time to do it." Huang Lingyin said with a cocky smirk, apparently already forgotten that he was a full Representative and she was just a Candidate.

Ah, pre-battle banter. He should have known. Almost everyone he fought seemed to have a tendency to do that. Cecilia did too, now that he thought about it.

[Oh my, for someone who was beaten down rather easily, mostly through her own actions no less, you sound unusually confident. Or perhaps that's just your ego talking?]

Salvatore retorted with a smirk of his own, causing her to blush bright red visibly, even under the bright sunlight.

"S-Shut up! You asked for it! I won't pull any punches! Get ready for the beating of your life!" She stammered out heatedly and lifted her hands in front of her, getting ready to deploy her weapon the moment the match started.

Salvatore on the other hand, simply crossed his arms. His intention was to deploy Falange the moment the match started. Since it was an energy shield with no physical form, he had no need to get into any stance to deploy it.

"If both of you are ready, BEGIN!"

*RING*

The buzzer sounded and in a flash of light, the two scimitars, Souten Gagetsu, appeared in her hands and she charged at him with a burst of speed, but just not fast enough to stop Salvatore from deploying Falange. Immediately, a 10-layered spherical barrier appeared around him, the first of which stopped the massive curved blade aimed for him. Sparks flew as the blade made contact with the energy shield, and when Huang Lingyin pulled the blade away for another swing, not even so much as a scratch was left behind.

The one-sided exchange continued for a while longer, Huang Lingyin attempting to break through Falange to no avail. Even a flurry of vicious strikes couldn't so much as dent it.

"AAAAAAGH! TO HELL WITH THIS!" Huang Lingyin screamed in frustration and moved back a short distance.

Salvatore frowned when the spherical devices above her shoulders, the Impact Cannons whirred as they activated. She had reacted exactly as he had predicted, using her powerful close to mid-range weapons when Souten Gagetsu proved ineffective. Now, while she was still loading them, would be a good time to lower Falange and deploy Divisore, but Salvatore opted not to at the moment, and instead stood still, not even preparing to refresh the layers when they inevitably shattered, curious if she would detect that something was wrong when he did nothing despite his defenses being brought down one after another.

"TAKE THIS!" Huang Lingyin yelled as she fired her Impact Cannons. Salvatore's eyes briefly shifted to the holographic screen of his IS, showing the changes in the air pressure of the surroundings, as well as the approaching shockwave.

*SHATTER*

Salvatore watched as the first layer of his 10-layered Falange shattered under the force of the near point blank shockwave. The power was certainly impressive, but from the way the spherical devices started whirring again, it appeared that it wasn't capable of rapid fire like he had initially suspected. If that were the case, then this would be a very boring fight.

*SHATTER*

Salvatore remained impassive as the second layer shattered, leaving 8 layers left. But even then, he did nothing but watch Huang Lingyin. There was something about the way she was attacking that he suspected he could take advantage of, but he required visual confirmation first.

*SHATTER*

*SHATTER*

*SHATTER*

*SHATTER*

*SHATTER*

*SHATTER*

*SHATTER*

One by one, the 10 layers of Falange shattered under the force of the Impact Cannon. But, conversely, it was Huang Lingyin who was growing steadily uneasy. It appeared that not having an opponent react to her assault was troubling her and making her wonder if she should stop. But, an instant later, her expression of unease was replaced by one of resolve as she noted that only one layer of her opponent's barrier was left behind. Once again, the Impact Cannons whirred as she compressed the surrounding air into a barrel and fired it at the last layer.

*SHATTER*

The final layers of Falange shattered dramatically in a shower of prismatic light before fading away.

"I GOT YOU!" Huang Lingyin yelled triumphantly as she prepared to fire at her now vulnerable opponent.

Salvatore noted that her uneasy expression had returned when she realized that he still wasn't making any move despite the imminent attack. But it appeared that her desire for victory outweighed her cautiousness, and she fired the shockwave at him. Just as it was about to make contact…

*WHOOSH*

Salvatore instantly deployed Divisore and swung his sword in front of him. With the sound of a massive volume of rapidly displaced air moving past…nothing happened. There was no impact. The shockwave had inexplicably disappeared.

"W-What did you just do!?" Huang Lingyin stammered out in shock. She wasn't the only one. The members of the audience had similar gobsmacked expressions on their faces. Though it was clear that it was only by his design, Huang Lingyin undoubtedly had been pressing him just a moment ago. When she fired her Impact Cannon at him again after his shield had been brought down, they had expected him to careen through the air and slam into the barrier that protected the audience from stray attacks.

[It's quite simple. Your Impact Cannons functions by rapidly compressing air into a barrel and then firing the resulting shockwave as a projectile. However, shockwaves require a medium to travel through, in this case, air. Even the advancements in IS technology have yet to remove that need. So, I simply displaced the air in front of me and created a vacuum. The moment the shockwave no longer had a medium to travel through, it simply dissipated. That's all.]

Murmurs echoed in the arena as everyone listened to his explanation. Physics aside, as having that level of foundation in the sciences was nothing special among IS pilots, it was remarkable that he was even able to do that. Even with an IS, it was difficult to create a vacuum with just a simple swing of a sword. That required incredible muscle strength that was exceedingly uncommon, even amongst the best trained.

"I-Impossible! Both the barrel and projectile of my Impact Cannons are completely invisible, how did you know where the shockwave was approaching from!?"

[You have a little habit that gives away the direction your attack is coming from. Your Impact Cannons, like Blue Tears' Bit Drones, are Mind Interface Weapons, manually controlled by your thoughts. But unlike the Bit Drones, like you said, the barrel and projectile are completely invisible to the naked eye. You can't see them either, which is why they cannot be aimed like how a normal firearm would. That's why you need visual confirmation of your target in order to fire. In other words, your eyes shift wherever you're about to fire, like just now, when you aimed at my abdomen. Because the path of your Impact Cannons is strictly linear, as long as I can see where your eyes are looking and therefore predict your line of vision and the target, I can easily counter the shockwave with a vacuum.]

It wasn't a lie on Salvatore's part. He had been relying on his enhanced senses to detect changes in air pressure to calculate the trajectory of the attack at first, but after he noticed his opponent's need for visual confirmation, he took advantage of that instead. It saved him a good deal of time compared to having to mentally calculate.

This time, silence completely reigned in the arena as everyone processed his words. Predicting the direction from which an attack was coming from simply by observing your opponent's line of vision? Not unheard of, but those were feats that usually could only be performed by those who had trained all of their lives. It certainly wasn't something that could be expected from a 15-year-old teenager.

[Now then, what will you do? Your Impact Cannons won't work on me unless you get up close and personal, and I'm quite certain that I'm better at close combat than you are.]

Salvatore said as he lowered Divisore, waiting for his opponent to make a move.

"You…! Don't underestimate me!" Huang Lingyin gritted out as she brought the hilts of her two scimitars together and locked them to each other, forming the halberd that Salvatore had seen in the data on Shenlong. So, that was the true form of Souten Gagetsu…

"Take this!" Huang Lingyin cried as she rushed at him, Souten Gagetsu held in a stance meant for stabbing.

Salvatore snorted derisively and activated Ignition Boost. As he moved past her left side at a speed that left behind almost no afterimage, he slashed at her left Impact Cannon. In a small explosion that shot metal shrapnel everywhere, even crashing into the barriers protecting the audience, the left Impact Cannon was destroyed and Huang Lingyin pulled back as fast as she could, creating as much distance between them as she could.

However, it was for naught, as Salvatore easily crossed that distance with another Ignition Boost and swung Divisore at her as he closed in, this time at her abdomen. As the blade was about to make contact with her mostly unarmored body, Shenlong's default shielding stopped the blade, barely an inch away from her skin.

Not stopping there, Salvatore immediately activated Divisore's true ability. The edges of the blade lit up with crimson light as the belts of photons around them started rotating rapidly as they transited continuously between their ground and energized state, creating a laser blade that instantly cleaved through Shenlong's shields. Almost an instant later, another barrier appeared. The Absolute Defense of Shenlong activated the moment it processed that its pilot's life was in danger. Huang Lingyin's shield energy fell dangerously fast from a full 800 to 326 as the Absolute Defense rapidly consumed Shenlong's energy to sustain itself while Huang Lingyin was still in danger of being bifurcated.

Of course, not even the Absolute Defense could absorb the full force of the attack, and Huang Lingyin was sent flying backwards, crashing into the surrounding barrier and causing the audience behind it to flinch from the uncomfortably close proximity, before falling to the ground.

Huang Lingyin rose to her feet shakily, still reeling from the attack, and almost immediately sank back down to her knees. Salvatore floated in the air above her.

[I'll give you one more chance. Surrender. It's rather sad watching you struggle like this.]

Salvatore said with a silent sigh. This fight was embarrassingly one-sided, very much like how his fight with Cecilia had gone. If this was the standard of Representative Candidates, he doubted any student in this school could really challenge him, except maybe the only other Representative. Unfortunately, she was a second year student, so it was unlikely he would be facing her outside of official matches that were still far off in the future. Oh, how he was looking forward to that now.

"I said…don't underestimate me! I can still fight!" Huang Lingyin gritted out as she stood back up.

[…I see. In that case, I will not hold back.]

Salvatore readied [Divisore] to strike his opponent down. She didn't irritate him anywhere near as much as Cecilia had before the match, so he decided to spare her a much more humiliating just as he was about to activate Ignition Boost…

*SHATTER*

*BOOM*

A sound akin to glass shattering was heard overhead, quickly followed by the sound of something crashing down to the ground behind him, causing Salvatore to pause and look up. The barrier around the arena had been destroyed, glass-like pieces of the energy barrier dissipating as they fell through the air.

Salvatore's eyes shifted to the ground, where a giant crater had been formed by the impact of whatever had crashed into it. Black smoke billowed from it, obscuring whatever it was that was at the center.

In the audience stands, the students screamed as they ran around in a panic like a flock of chickens with their heads cut off, trying to get away from the arena. Meanwhile, the few teachers around attempted to restore order and get the students in an orderly fashion, but since they were heavily outnumbered and their voices were drowned by the shrill, irritating screams of the students, their efforts were largely in vain.

[Warning! Unknown IS detected. Arena System hacked, all doors locked, barriers set to Level 4. Source of hacking is the unknown IS.]

Salvatore frowned as he read the warning message Nuvole Oscurate had sent to his holographic display. An unknown IS? That was impossible. The Vongola had compiled all available data on every IS in existence, whether they were in use, scrapped or still in development, and that compilation had been uploaded to Nuvole Oscurate. Even the few scraps of data that the Vongola were able to find on the legendary White Knight were included. In other words, there wasn't a single IS in existence that the Vongola didn't already know about, with their spies and extensive information network in place. Unless…

"Is it Phantom Task?" Salvatore wondered to himself. The only possible way an IS had escaped the Vongola's notice is if the terrorist organization that the Vongola had been hunting for five years had been the ones who had built the IS. Even after five years, the Vongola had been unable to completely ferret out all of them, or get any spies into the organization.

Well, either Phantom Task, or…

"…Shinonono Tabane."

The only other person capable of building an IS under the Vongola's extensive radar was the creator of the IS herself. But, why would the creator of the IS send a new IS to attack IS Academy?

Well, there was one way to be absolutely sure.

[Nuvole Oscurate, scan the unknown IS and identify the core number.]

Salvatore ordered his IS, which hummed and sent out a small pulse towards the crater. Nuvole Oscurate had a special function that allowed it to identify which core was being used to power the IS he was scanning. If the results showed that the core was one of the registered 467, chances are, Phantom Task was behind this. They had been stealing ISs from all over the world in recent years after all.

[Scan complete. Core number unknown.]

That settled it. The only ones capable of making a new IS core was Shinonono Tabane, and the Vongola, and that was only after extensive and careful research and experimentation. Even now, the cores they created were still slightly inferior to Shinonono Tabane's creations, and the Research and Development Department had taken it as a challenge to create cores that were as good as or superior to the original 467.

[Warning! Firing mechanism triggered. Energy building up confirmed. Energy shot incoming.]

Salvatore raised an eyebrow when a warning message identical to the one that had popped up during his fight with Cecilia appeared on his holographic display. He turned back to the column of smoke to find four faint glowing purple lights packed together in a diamond shape.

He glided to the side and just an instant later, four purple beams blasted through the smoke column and pierced the spot he had just vacated. The next instant, his gaze sharpened as he activated Ignition Boost and flew away as fast as he could whenever another of four beams shot at him.

[Hmm…the output is higher than Blue Tears' Bit Drones, and it's also capable of rapid fire…Interesting.]

Salvatore muttered as he dodged the barrage of beams.

He paused in his flight when he ran out of room to move. A rather unfortunate fact of Ignition Boost was that it could only be used for linear movement. He intended to find a way to change that, though it appeared that right now, he was in a bit of trouble.

The moment he stopped moving, it was already too late for him to dodge the next barrage of beams. As they rapidly approached him, Salvatore prepared to deploy [Falange]. At this range and the speed of the beams, he would only have enough time to throw up 3 layers, but considering that Blue Tears' Bit Drones were incapable of piercing even one, he was quite confident he could stop these beams, even if they were at least twice as strong.

But just as he was about to deploy the energy shield, the four beams aimed for him suddenly veered away and struck the fortified barrier around the arena.

Or rather, they were pushed aside. By a shockwave.

Salvatore turned to his opponent from just a minute ago. Huang Lingyin floated in the air above where she had previously been standing. Her remaining Impact Cannon whirred again as it prepared another shockwave. Her right shoulder jerked back sharply as she released the shockwave, which smashed through the smoke column, but failed to make contact with the invading IS that had flown out of the crater. It didn't take any damage, but they could finally get a good look at it.

Salvatore frowned again. It was an unusual-looking model, even he had to say. It was dominantly grey in color. Its arms were abnormally long and thick, reaching all the way down past the waist to the knees, and both forearms had four turrets installed at where he guessed the wrist was, most likely the main armament of the unknown IS and what had been firing those beams at him earlier.

It was covered in full body armor. The defense of an IS was mainly the role of the default shielding, extra energy shields that came in Equalizers, and the Absolute Defense. There were indeed a few ISs that had physical shields, but they were rare, and as far as Salvatore and the Vongola knew, there was never any IS model that was covered head to toe in armor without revealing even a tiny but of skin.

It had jet propulsion nozzles installed everywhere on the body. Odd, considering most ISs used wings, anti-gravity technology and the PIC together to fly.

Its head was slightly misshapen and was covered in a myriad of sensors, as were several parts of its torso. For what purpose, Salvatore could not fathom.

[…Who are you?]

Salvatore asked the intruder, though he did not really expect an answer. And just as he thought, the intruder did not respond, deigning to simply stare at him in silence as it floated in the air. It appeared that the pilot was a quiet one…if there was a pilot.

Salvatore knew what he was thinking was absurd. However, since obtaining and training with his unique Flame that could not quite be called a Dying Will Flame, the Flame of Death, he had gained a sharp sensitivity to life force. As long as they were within a mile radius, Salvatore could detect the 'life' of any living creature, as well as their intensity, the most intense when they were in the prime of their lives, and the weakest right before death. It was an especially useful technique during missions, since it enabled him to detect any enemy, no matter how well they hid or how elaborate the illusion they cast over themselves was.

However, despite the intruder only floating a few feet away from him, Salvatore could not pick up any trace of life coming from it at all. It was, for all purposes, a mere machine. But, that was impossible, as far as Salvatore knew. ISs could not function without a pilot. Then again, this was Shinonono Tabane that they were talking about. She was the creator of the IS, and knew many things about them that were still a mystery to the rest of the world. It wasn't implausible that she could create an unmanned unit. And it was not like anyone had actually tried making an unmanned unit. For one, it would use a great deal of funding just researching possible methods of creating an unmanned IS, funding that could be used to further advance the current level of IS technology.

That was the main reason why most countries and independent conglomerates didn't try experimenting with unmanned ISs. Funding however, was not a problem for the Vongola. They were the biggest and most influential mafia family in the world for a reason. If they wanted to, the Vongola could destroy the world's economy in less than an hour, that was just how rich and influential they were. Even so, the Vongola never tried messing around with the idea of fully sentient ISs or any drone for a good reason. Anything sentient ran the risk of becoming malicious, and frankly, destroying berserk machines was a hell of a lot harder than killing off rogue humans. Machines were troublesome, because every part needed to be accounted for and destroyed properly. Humans were flesh and blood. A simple destruction of a vital organ was sufficient to guarantee death in most cases.

"Vongola-kun, Huang-san! Leave the arena quickly! The teachers will be coming to suppress the intruder!" Yamada Maya yelled in a panicked voice as she opened a communications channel to Salvatore and presumably, Huang Lingyin as well.

[And how, pray tell, do you propose that they enter the arena? All of the doors have been locked and the barriers have been set to Level 4. Even if you seek help from the Japanese Government, it will take time to bring down the barriers, and doing that while the doors are still locked will leave the audience who has yet to evacuate vulnerable to an attack. The proper course of action would for me and Huang Lingyin to defeat or stall the intruder until you regain control of the system. ]

Salvatore was hardly an altruist, so he wouldn't go out of his way to protect the audience, but he was interested in the unmanned IS, and wanted very much to fight, and if possible, find a way to bring it back so that the Vongola could study it.

[Is that fine with you, Huang Lingyin? If you don't fell up to it, feel free to retreat to the hangar. I'll fight the intruder by myself.]

Salvatore turned to the Chinese Representative Candidate, who had floated over to him while he had been conversing with Yamada Maya.

"Who do you think I am? I'm a Representative Candidate. This was unexpected, but I've been trained for situations like this." Huang Lingyin proclaimed with a calm and collected expression on her face, completely different from how she had been acting during their match. It appeared that she was taking this very seriously.

[Hmph. You seem awfully confident for someone who was a second away from losing just a moment ago. Have you already forgotten that one of your main armaments has been destroyed?]

Huang Lingyin turned red at his reminder of her sound beating.

"S-Shut up! This much damage is still acceptable! I can still fight!"

[If you say so. Feel free to back out at any time.]

"I said shut u-!"

[Here it comes. Dodge.]

That was the only warning Salvatore gave Huang Lingyin before he jetted away from his spot in the air. Huang Lingyin hastily did the same, just in time to avoid a massive fist aimed for her. That IS certainly was fast for such a bulky model.

It turned in midair to face them, and the two quickly found themselves weaving in and out of a massive barrage of laser beams.

"Wait, Vongola-kun!? You can't do that!? If something were to happen to a stude-!"

Salvatore cut off her tirade with a small wave, closing the communications channel. Her annoying voice was going to interfere with his concentration.

"So, how do you want to do this, Mr. Representative?" Huang Lingyin asked him, deferring to him because of his higher rank, as they continued to dance around the beams.

[Hm. Usually, I would suggest that I fight directly while you provide cover fire for me with your Impact Cannons, but seeing as they're capable of rapid fire, and one of them is no longer functional…]

"I see. In that case, should we switch and I go on the offensive while you provide cover fire for me?"

[No. As you can see, that IS is unusually fast for such a bulky model. I doubt you will be able to keep up with it unless you know Ignition Boost.]

"I do. It's a fairly high level technique that usually isn't taught to Candidates until they've had about two years of experience, but the military made an exception for me."

[I see. However, your shield energy is currently at less than half of its full capacity. While you can use Ignition Boost, I doubt you've refined it enough to minimize energy consumption. You won't be able to use it any more than about 8 times.]

"Then, what should we do?"

[…Nuvole Oscurate. Remove the personnel lock on both Pioggias.]

The blue and black IS hummed in affirmation to its pilot's order. Salvatore dismissed Divisore and deployed the two .60 caliber automatic machineguns and confirmed that they had been unlocked for use by other pilots.

[Catch.]

Salvatore tossed the two identical firearms to Huang Lingyin, who dismissed her Souten Gagetsu and caught them easily and adjusted them in her grip.

"Guns, huh? A bit unconventional for me, but they'll do."

[Use those and your remaining Impact Cannon to provide cover fire for me while I engage the intruder. I don't feel like waiting for the teachers, so we'll be aiming to defeat ourselves. Are you ready?]

"Of course! What about you?"

[Hmph. Let's go.]

Salvatore paused in his dodging and deployed a 12-layered Falange and charged straight at the unknown IS with Ignition Boost. The intruder bombarded his shield with lasers, succeeding in breaking through 2 layers before moving out of the way as Salvatore charged through the spot it had just vacated.

Not pausing in his stride, Salvatore quickly turned in midair and thrust his right palm outwards towards the intruder that was still flying backwards. Immediately, the remaining 10 layers of Falange rapidly expand outwards, catching up to the retreating intruder and smashing into it, crushing it against the reinforced arena barrier. Each layer slammed into the intruder one after another before shattering, giving Salvatore enough time to stop and reactivate Ignition Boost towards the intruder, who quickly recovered from the assault and pointed its forearm-mounted turrets at him. But just as it was about to fire, a hail of bullets interrupted it and forced it to go on the defensive before being forced to propel itself upwards right as a shockwave was fired at it. The invisible bullet struck the barrier, causing it to tremble momentarily.

Salvatore was already waiting for the intruder above. He swung the once again deployed Divisore at his opponent, which quickly reacted to the threat with inhuman speed and turned sharply to propel to the right instead. The laser-edged blade of Divisore harmlessly passed through empty air.

Acting quickly, Salvatore immediately brought up 5 layers of Falange just in time to stop another barrage of beams.

[Hmph, I should have known it wouldn't be that easy.]

Salvatore lightly commented as he brought up more layers to replace the ones that were being systematically shattered. He was slightly impressed. He wasn't using Falange's full power, but the speed at which the beams were tearing through each layer was nigh unbelievable.

"This girl had the guts to bust into a training institute that currently houses the highest number of ISs in the world, not to mention right in the middle of a match between two Personal IS users. She'd have to be confident in her skill to do that, or just very stupid." Huang Lingyin said as she flew next to him, the borrowed Pioggias trained on the intruder before she unleashed another hail of bullets at it. Judging by the way she referred to the intruder as 'this girl', she didn't appear to have noticed that it was an unmanned unit yet.

Salvatore brought down Falange when the barrage of beams ended abruptly as the intruder was once again forced on the defensive and charged at it again.

Unseen by his ally, Salvatore's face was currently threatening to be split by a grin of excitement and bloodlust.

"Let's have some fun!" Salvatore gleefully thought to himself, ready to release all of his pent up frustration on the unmanned unit.

---

"Hello, Vongola-kun!? Huang-san!? Can you hear me!?" Yamada Maya screamed frantically at the terminal she was sitting at in the control room. The communications channel didn't require one to shout to be heard, which was why some of the other people in the room were looking at her like she was crazy, not that she noticed.

"Since they say they're going to fight, then why not just let them?" Orimura Chifuyu asked nonchalantly as she took a sip out of her mug of coffee before grimacing at the bitterness.

"Orimura-sensei, how can you say something like that so casually!?" Maya turned and yelled at her colleague, forgetting about her manners towards her senior in her panic.

"Relax. Vongola is a Representative, who defeated the previous Mondo Grosso champion. I doubt he'll be having much trouble dealing with one intruder. Have some coffee. You're acting up because you aren't getting enough sugar." Chifuyu said with a calm voice, even as she walked over to the tray carrying a pot of coffee, several mugs, as well as boxes of sugar and salt. Reaching over to one of the boxes, Chifuyu removed the lid and started pouring the white pieces inside into her coffee with the metal spoon that was included in the box. No one seemed brave enough to point out her mistake until Maya finally broke the awkward silence.

"Um…Sensei, that's salt that you're pouring into your coffee…"

Chifuyu paused as she processed Maya's words, and then proceeded to dump the salt that she hadn't poured in yet back into the box along with the spoon.

"…Why is there salt here?" She asked in a neutral tone that was making everyone in the room nervous. Once again, Maya was the only one brave, or stupid enough to speak.

"Who…Who know? But, there is a big label on the box that says 'salt'…"

"…"

"C-Could it be that you're worried for those two after all?" Maya continued, oblivious to the slow rise in murderous intent coming from Chifuyu's body. Everyone else didn't appear to be quite as dense, as they all stared at her with expressions that were practically screaming 'stop talking before you get us all killed, idiot!'

Unfortunately, she didn't seem to get the message, and kept talking.

"Orimura-sensei…you're unexpectedly soft."

Everyone else in the room froze when they heard a soft sound, very much like a bell ringing, almost as if it was Maya's death knell. Chifuyu's expression was shadowed for a moment, before she looked up with a smile that fooled no one.

It was at this point that Maya seemed to realize that she had signed her own death warrant and quickly attempted to change the subject.

"Yamada-sensei, please drink this coffee." Chifuyu passed her the mug she was holding with a smile that didn't quite reach her eyes.

"Um…isn't this the coffee you just put salt in?" Maya stared apprehensively at the offered mug.

"Here." Chifuyu said with a forceful tone, making Maya's eyes tear up as she had no choice but to accept the devilish concoction being 'offered' to her.

"I-I'll take it then…"

"It's hot. Be sure to drink it all in one gulp." Chifuyu said as her smile widened in a terrifying manner.

"She's a demon!" Was the collective thought from everyone in the room.

Thankfully for Maya, one of the personnel came to her rescue.

"Orimura-sensei, shouldn't we deploy the other Personal IS users? If I recall, Sarashiki Kanzashi, the class representative of year 1class 4, should be on standby in the female locker room for her match. Cecilia Alcott should also be nearby."

"That would be nice, but like Vongola said, all of the doors are locked and the barriers around the arena have been set to Level 4. Forget the students, the teachers wouldn't be able to get in. Government agents and the 3rd years that have been trained for this situation are already working on retaking control of the system so that the strike teams can go in, but it'll take some time."

"I see…"

"Well, even if we bring down the barriers in time to help them, I still wouldn't deploy the Personal IS users. They're not trained for group combat."

"But still, their Personal ISs have higher specs than the Uchiganes and the Raphael Revives the strike team will be using…"

"They'll only get in the way. Alcott's Blue Tears was built for fighting multiple opponents alone, not for group combat against a single target. And Sarashiki's Uchigane Nishiki uses a multi lock-on system. She'll end up hitting the rest of the strike team."

"So, in the end, the only thing we can do is pray that Vongola and Huang succeed, or at least stay alive?"

"Hmph, I don't exactly feel good about it either."

After that, a stiff silence reigned over the room, until one of the personnel perked up in surprise.

"Hm?"

"What is it?"

"Um, according to the surveillance system, there are still two students in the audience stand who have yet to evacuate…" The personnel said nervously.

"What!? Who are they!? Identify them immediately!" Chifuyu shouted, not quite believing there was anyone stupid enough to stay behind.

"Y-Yes Ma'am!"

The personnel quickly started typing into her terminal to identify the students who had stayed behind for some reason.

"I-Identities of the two students confirmed! Year 1class 1, Shinonono Houki, and year 1 class 1, Cecilia Alcott!"

"Tanaka-sensei, go get those two idiots immediately! …No, on second thought, just get Shinonono out of there. After that, escort Alcott to the hangar. Use the maintenance door. After that's done, go help with the evacuation effort. Use one of the Uchiganes in the hangar and break through one of the locked doors. Have them leave in an orderly manner."

"U-Understood!" The one Chifuyu called Tanaka immediately bolted out of the room to carry out the task that she had been assigned.

"Orimura-sensei, I thought we wouldn't be sending Alcott in?"

"That was before I knew that she was still in the stands. There's a manual door that's usually leads to the hangar in the stands. It doesn't run on electricity, so it isn't affected by the system hacking. The sooner this situation is resolved, the better. Yamada-sensei, let Vongola and Huang know that Alcott is waiting to assist."

"Y-Yes, Orimura-sensei!" Maya exclaimed, glad to have an excuse to not drink the disgusting concoction that had been handed to her a few moments ago. She quickly started typing the command into her terminal to reopen the communications channel to the two Personal IS users fighting the intruder.

"Oh, and I expect you to finish that coffee before we leave." Chifuyu continued with a sadistic light in her eyes.

Though she was outwardly unfazed, Maya started crying inside. Why ,oh why, did she have to open her big mouth and offend the devil in human flesh?

---

Salvatore was most definitely not having fun at the moment, contrary to what he had thought just a few minutes ago.

His opponent was not being a good sport. The only thing it seemed to do was fly around the arena while defending itself against Huang Lingyin's attacks and taking potshots at the two of them. And due to it not being bound by human limitations, it could perform extremely complicated maneuvers to dodge his sword swings, no matter how he attacked. Attempts to trap or corner it with Falange were all rendered useless. Its massive arms were not just for show. Not only did its punches already have a great deal of physical force behind them, they were further increased by jet propulsions from the nozzles along its forearms and elbows, enabling it to shatter one layer of Falange with just one punch. Combine that with its unexpected speed, and Falange was being shattered faster than Salvatore could generate layers.

Of course, he could simply box it in with him inside of Falange, but that would leave him open to powerful attacks that he would not have enough room to evade. He could also deploy his other weapons, he still had three that he had to reveal in public, and he had no doubt that any of them would be enough to defeat his opponent, but he didn't want to have to reveal any more weapons than he already had, not to mention it was a matter of personal pride to defeat this mongrel with what he already had.

Needless to say, Salvatore was not a happy camper at the moment.

"Hold still, dammit!" Salvatore mentally screamed in frustration, careful not to reveal it externally, even as his opponent dodged another sword swing from behind and threw another barrage at him, which was quickly blocked by Falange.

Salvatore used Ignition Boost to open up distance between them, falling back next to Huang Lingyin, who didn't have qualms about letting her emotions surface.

"Agh, damn that girl! If I could use my Impact Cannons properly, I could turn her IS into scrap metal! And what was that pathetic performance!? Aren't you supposed to be a Representative!?"

Salvatore bit back a growl. Her aggravating voice was only serving to further increase his frustration, and he couldn't have that.

He took a deep breath and calmed himself, trying to reign in his frustration. It always seemed to come to him far more easily than any other emotion, possibly because it was the first real emotion he remembered feeling, all the way back when he had just been recruited into the Varia and was learning to ignite his Flames. As such, unlike his other emotions that he had no problems controlling and suppressing, frustration always to leak through the walls he erected around his heart. As air left and entered his mouth, he crushed down his frustration, and felt his mentality shift back to cold, unfeeling and analytical.

This thing…it was better than he thought. Its performance level was certainly above that of a Representative Candidate. And it seemed to recognize that he was the greater threat, which was why it paid far more attention to his approaches and attacks than it did to Huang Lingyin, proven by how it sometimes seemed to be caught off guard when she attacked it with a hail of bullets, like it had forgotten she was there.

The situation…was still salvageable. Even if it was a machine…no, perhaps because it was a machine, it would likely be less able to react and adapt to sudden changes. And that, he could use to his advantage. He had kept his skill level to about the same level throughout the fight. It was about time he got a bit more serious.

Even if he was a human, Salvatore was a member of the Varia, composed of only those who could be considered superhuman. And he was a core member, meaning he was above even that level. Up until now, he had been dumbing himself down a bit to keep battles interesting. Even if the only opponents he had been fighting were considered to be the cream of the crop among their age group, they were far, far below his level, so much that if he were exerting his full power, they'd be left as little more than a bloody stain on the ground with just one blow.

But this…this was a worthy opponent, or at least worthier than his other opponents. Against this one, he didn't have to restrain his power so much.

And so, with that in mind, Salvatore removed just a bit of the mental limiter he had imposed on himself. Immediately, the world around him seemed to grow clearer and sharper, and also a good deal slower. Yes, this much would be enough.

He glanced at his holographic display to see that he still had a decent amount of shield energy left at 453. Rather than because of taking damage, most of the energy loss came from his liberal use of Ignition Boost. Another glance towards Huang Lingyin revealed that hers had dropped to 221, most likely a result of Shenlong being forced to use extra energy to reduce the recoil of firing the Impact Cannon from only one side. It didn't appear that either of them could go on for much longer. He would have to end this as soon as possible.

But, before that, he had to clue Huang Lingyin in on the intruder's true nature. He figured that she would be pretty disturbed if he just suddenly cut who she thought to be another human being in half.

[…Huang Lingyin, do you not find our opponent's movements oddly mechanical?]

"Huh? What are you talking about? An IS is a machine, after all. Of course its movements are mechanical." Huang Lingyin spoke with a tone of confusion, not quite catching his drift.

Salvatore sighed, but pressed on.

[That's not what I meant. Absurd reaction times, nearly impossible maneuvers, and its inability to focus on more than one of us at a time…is there really a human piloting that thing?]

Salvatore said slowly and coherently, not unlike how an adult would slowly explain something to a child. But, Huang Lingyin did not seem to notice, instead focusing on the intruder while considering his words.

"…Come to think of it, it stopped attacking us, didn't it? Now that I think about it, other than at the beginning, the only times it attacks us is when we attack it first. It doesn't do anything when we discuss how to fight it, or even now when we're not even strategizing, almost like it's interested in our words…"

Salvatore had noticed it earlier, and the only explanation he could come up with was that this intruder wasn't sent to attack IS Academy. It was only here for…

"…Analysis."

It was here to analyze their capabilities. Not necessarily them, the other two class representatives were scheduled to have their match right after his and Huang Lingyin's, but considering the representative of class 3 didn't have a Personal IS, Salvatore was more inclined to believe that it was no coincidence it arrived right in the middle of their match.

"But…it's supposed to be impossible for an IS to move without a pilot…That's just how it is…"

Huang Lingyin now sounded very perturbed by the possibility that the IS in front of her was moving by itself, without the aid of a pilot.

[…If it is an unmanned unit, would that not work in our favor?]

"How so?"

[Because it's just a machine, it cannot quickly react and adapt to changes like a human, and since it's unmanned, we don't have to worry about killing another human being. We can stop holding back.]

"You've been holding back all this time…" Huang Lingyin muttered to herself, not quite sure what to make of the fact that her opponent from just a while ago had been holding back.

[Well then, I'll fight under the assumption that it's unmanned. Try to keep up.]

With a burst of speed that had nothing to do with Ignition Boost, Salvatore immediately closed the gap between him and the intruder and slashed at its abdomen with Divisore. Though it immediately responded to his sudden advance by moving back, it wasn't fast enough to escape from his attack unscathed. Metal, wiring and oil spilt onto the ground below as its plate armor was immediately cleaved open and its inner circuitry damaged by the cut. Even as it opened up distance between them, sparks of electricity appeared from the severed wiring within the chest armor. And through that opening, it was now clear, there was no pilot inside.

Salvatore frowned as he blocked the retaliatory barrage of lasers. He meant to finish it off with that blow, but it reacted faster than he thought. Still slower than a trained human pilot, but fast nonetheless.

But, now that it had seen the increase in his speed, it would be able to compensate for it, provided that it wasn't beyond its limits. The fight still would not be as easy as Salvatore would have liked it to be.

Pushing away his train of thought, he turned to Huang Lingyin.

[It appears that my hypothesis was correct. Now that we have proven that we would not be committing homicide, shall we fight seriously?]

"Hm, I guess I could stop pulling my punches. Let's end this." Huang Lingyin said as she once again took aim at the intruder. This time, Salvatore noted that she was aiming for the damaged section that he had created, and that the output of her Impact Cannon was slowly increasing.

"By the way, your sword cut its chest plate pretty easily. Since it doesn't have a pilot, there's no point in Absolute Defense, it's just a waste of energy. Still, there should be the default energy shielding. IS cutting through shields like butter your sword's special ability?" Huang Lingyin asked with her eyes narrowed at his blade.

[…No. There wasn't any shielding at all. Whoever built that IS only gave it offensive capabilities.]

Salvatore frowned at the damaged IS. His blade had not met any resistance until it actually hit the chest plate itself. Assuming his hypothesis was correct and Shinonono Tabane had indeed built this unmanned IS, why didn't it have any shielding?

Then, the answer struck him like a bolt of lightning.

She didn't expect it to return intact.

She didn't need it back in order to collect data, which meant it was already sending data to her, even right now.

Salvatore's eyebrow twitched. Now he was annoyed. He was going to rip it into millions of pieces, just to send the creator of the IS a message.

"Vongola-kun! Huang-san! Can you hear me!?"

Salvatore paused and sighed in exasperation as Yamada Maya once again opened up a communications channel without warning.

[Yamada-sensei, you are aware we are in the middle of a serious fight? Were we exchanging blows with the enemy, a distraction like this could have cost us our lives.]

Salvatore said with a cold tone, causing a shiver to run down Huang Lingyin's spine, as well as that of Yamada Maya's, though he couldn't see it.

"Y-Yes, I'm very sorry! But, this is important! Alcott-san is on standby in the hangar. She can help you at any time, so please contact her if you need her!"

[I'm already aware of that. I saw her while flying past the hangar earlier. Is that all?]

"Um…yes. Good…luck?" Yamada Maya finished awkwardly and cut the channel immediately, embarrassed at being admonished by her student.

[Now that the distraction is gone, shall we continue?]

Without waiting for an answer, Salvatore once again charged at the intruder, who was now prepared for his increase in speed and barely avoided Divisore's blade as Salvatore swung it. Without halting, Salvatore activated Ignition Boost and closed the distance between the retreating intruder and himself and swung Divisore once more. The blade was met with resistance that quickly faded as it slashed through the intruder's left elbow. The left forearm, completely severed from the rest of the unit, fell to the ground below with a dull thud. Oil poured from the now exposed wiring in the elbow, reminding Salvatore of spurts of blood pouring from his enemies when he felt like taking his time with them rather than killing them outright like he usually did.

Not stopping there, Salvatore followed up with a punch straight to the intruder's head, sending it flying into the barrier and then down to the ground.

*BAM* *BAM* *BAM*

Huang Lingyin unleashed a hail of bullets from Pioggia and a shockwave bullet from her Impact Cannon, slamming it deeper into the ground and creating another crater.

Both of them immediately backed away when it once again let loose a barrage of lasers at them, though it was now at half of its original firing speed, a result of losing one of its arms.

Salvatore stopped dodging and charged straight at the intruder, bringing up an 8-layered Falange as he did so. As he expected, the intruder concentrated its attacks on him, blasting and slowly breaking through his shield. But not fast enough, he was going to reach it before it could break through even 2…

…Or at least, that was what he thought. Just as he reached the intruder and prepared to finish it off by bisecting it from top to bottom, Falange fizzed out.

[Wha-!?]

Salvatore released a sound of shock, before realizing that his holographic display was flashing a warning message. Falange's energy reserves had run out. He used it too many times in the course of the battle.

Salvatore barely had enough time to raise his armored arms before a heavy fist slammed into them, cracking them as his default energy shield shattered instantly and was sent flying backwards towards the opposite end of the arena. His eye twitched when pain wracked his back as it slammed into the barrier.

Blinking the stars out of his vision, Salvatore made to stand up when the intruder closed the distance between them and slammed another heavy fist into his stomach. Salvatore gritted his teeth as more pain shot through his body, even as the intruder continued to batter him with strong punches, effortlessly breaking through his flimsy energy shield every time. He really wished he had paid more attention to Falange's energy reserves instead of allowing his frustration to get the better of him. He resolved to train and get better control of his emotions once this nonsense was over…assuming he survived this.

Salvatore felt viscous liquid rapidly rise in his throat as one last powerful punch landed right in his gut. He reflexively opened his mouth and immediately spat out globs of fresh blood.

As he slumped to the ground and heaved, droplets of blood still dripping from his mouth, he looked up to find the intruder backing away and aiming its remaining forearm-mounted turrets at him. His eyes narrowed. At such a close range, there was a good chance that this blast could prove lethal, which meant that the Absolute Defense will definitely activate. It would save his life, but it would also likely drain his remaining shield energy, which had now fallen to 192. Once he ran out of shield energy, he'd basically be dead in the water. Now he really wished he hadn't succumbed to conformity and left his Rings in his locker.

Salvatore tightly gripped the handle of Divisore. Right now, it appeared that his only option was to use one of his unrevealed weapons, any of which would easily turn the tides of this battle, but would also leave him with one less ace in the hole…or he could use his One Off Ability. Unlike weapons, One Off Abilities could not be analyzed and copied, and he would not need to maintain it for long, just enough for a single blow, so no one should be able to discern its full capabilities.

Deciding his course of action, Salvatore prepared to activate it when…

"URYAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"

Salvatore blinked as a pink blur slammed into the intruder and knocked the beam off course, striking the ground beside him instead.

The intruder and the blur tumbled and rolled a good distance before coming to a stop, revealing the blur to be Huang Lingyin, who had seemingly tossed his Pioggia away and activated Ignition Boost to knock the intruder aside.

Straddled on top of the intruder, Huang Lingyin hammered it over and over again with her fists, generating a minor tremor each time they connected. So startled by the unexpected turn of events, Salvatore stared, transfixed at the sight of the Chinese Representative Candidate pummeling the larger IS into the ground, instead of preparing to aid her.

Huang Lingyin raised her fists above her and slammed them down into what he supposed was the abdomen of the unmanned IS. The intruder seemed to flop for a second before settling back down onto the ground. Huang Lingyin raised her hands back up, deploying her Souten Gagetsu in their halberd form and prepared to impale the intruder under her when she was kicked off and blasted with a barrage of lasers for good measure.

Huang Lingyin landed with a loud thud a good distance away from the intruder, which was now ignoring him and lumbering towards her with its only remaining forearm extended to blast her again. After an Ignition Boost and getting blasted like that, she'd be lucky if her shield energy was still in the double digits. Absolute Defense wouldn't hold out for even a second if she were to be blasted again at close range. There was a possibility, a good one at that, that Huang Lingyin would be killed or fatally wounded.

However, he still had enough shield energy left for an Ignition Boost, and still have enough left over to activate his One Off Ability to finish off the intruder before it could get that shot off. It was currently concentrated on Huang Lingyin, so it was unlikely it would notice him until he was already about to destroy it. That was the logical course of action but…

Huang Lingyin was in danger.

Before he even knew it, Salvatore was on the move, rushing with all of his might towards the two. By the time his mind was capable of processing and logic, he was already between the two, his back facing the intruder, shielding Huang Lingyin with his own body.

"What the hell am I doing!?"

As that thought passed through Salvatore's brain, searing pain ignited along his back.

---

It was the first time in her life that Huang Lingyin had ever felt primal fear.

She had been afraid of many things before. Cockroaches, beetles, generally any large insect in her childhood. In her elementary school years, she had briefly feared the bullies that tormented her daily until Ichika stood up to them and made them back off. After that, it had been the fear that she would never see Ichika again after his kidnapping, a fear that haunted her even to this day.

But this…this was different. This was the very first time she was staring death in the face, in the form of four high powered lasers capable of plowing through her flimsy energy shield with no effort. Her shield energy had dwindled down to a mere 42. Her Absolute Defense would at best, hold back the lasers for a second and half, nowhere near enough time to get away, considering she didn't have enough energy left for another Ignition Boost. Her Souten Gagetsu had flown further away than she had, she couldn't get to them in time, and she doubted that they would be of much help even if she could.

Her fear grew stronger and stronger with every step her enemy took towards her, seemingly growing bigger and the surroundings growing dimmer as it did.

This was it. She was going to die. Right here, right now. She would never see her mother again. She wouldn't get a chance to reconcile with her estranged father. She wouldn't be able to live her life to the fullest. And also…

"Ichika…"

She would never be able to see her first love again.

And right now, when she was about to die, she could only really think of one thing.

"Save me, Ichikaaaaaaaaaa!" She screamed out loud as the unmanned IS fired at her. She closed her eyes, bracing herself for the inevitable burning pain before the oblivion of death took her.

*BOOM*

She flinched as the sound of tremendous impact echoed throughout the arena, but the pain never came. A few seconds passed, and when nothing happened, she forced herself to crack an eye open. She was staring down at the ground, where a large human-shaped shadow was cast over. At the sound of labored breathing above her, she looked up to find Salvatore Vongola standing over her, his back smoking. A quick look at the ground behind him revealed a slowly enlarging pool of blood, dripping down from his back. His face was drenched in sweat as he breathed heavily, his body occasionally twitching as pain ran through him.

Huang Lingyin moved to catch him as he slumped to the ground.

He…had protected her?

"W-Why…?" She began to ask.

[Don't…know. Body moved…on its own…]

Salvatore gritted out between labored breaths. She looked to find that his back was covered in terrible burns, blood pouring from them even as they smoked.

At the sound of heavy footsteps thudding along the ground growing closer, she looked to find the intruder approaching them with its arm raised for another attack. Both of their shield energies were down to double digits. If they were hit again by the lasers, neither of them would survive the attack. She immediately tried to scramble to her feet and bring Salvatore up with her, but neither of them were in an ideal position for moving, so she was just flailing around in vain.

[Alcott, now would be a good time.]

Salvatore said right next to her ear, confusing her for about a second before…

"I know." A voice that she recognized as that of the British Representative Candidate's answered, and she realized that Salvatore had opened a communications channel. In the next instant, a hail of blue lasers crashed into the intruder, forcing it to retreat and defend itself, a bit difficult to do with only one arm left. She looked up towards the hangar to find Cecilia Alcott, the British Representative Candidate lying belly flat on the floor near the bay doors, aiming her rifle at the intruder and her Bit Drones alternatively firing lasers at it.

[Huang Lingyin, would you mind letting go of me? It's quite difficult for me to move with your arms around me, considering that I'm wounded.]

She squeaked, turned red and let go when she realized that with her arms wrapped around him, it looked like they were sharing an intimate hug. Now free to move, Salvatore rose to his feet, his body still twitching with pain, this time with greater frequency, but he stood tall and readied his sword.

"W-What are you doing?"

[Finishing it off. It's already on its last legs, and unfortunately, so are we. We have to end this now.]

"B-But, you're injured! You should just take a rest, let me or that British girl finish this!"

[Neither of you have the means of defeating that IS in a single blow. I, on the other hand, do.]

Salvatore gripped his sword's handle with both hands. The intruder was still distracted, trying to defend itself from Cecilia Alcott's attacks.

In an instant, Salvatore was charging at the intruder, who had yet to notice him. As he reached the intruder, he raised his sword into a position for a vertical slash. And then…

Lingyin blinked. For instant, as he slashed through the intruder's head down to the bottom, bisecting the unmanned IS in half, his body appeared to have been covered in black flames. But they were gone now, and as the two halves of the unmanned IS fell to the ground, Salvatore dropped down to a knee, breathing heavily.

Lingyin, as well as Cecilia Alcott, who flew down from the bay doors, made to approach him, when he suddenly jerked and yelled.

[Get back! It's exploding!]

Salvatore leapt back as Lingyin and Cecilia Alcott hit the deck. A blinding white light enveloped the arena. When it died down, Lingyin pushed herself up to find that a massive crater had been carved into the ground, with only a few scraps of metal inside, the only remains of the unmanned IS after the explosion.

"That last attack must have damaged the core…" Lingyin realized, as she stared at the massive crater. Then, she realized that Salvatore was nowhere in sight. Frantically, she looked around for any sign of him.

"Salvatore-san!"

But it appeared Cecilia Alcott found him first. She turned to the edge of the arena where Cecilia Alcott had dismissed her IS and was kneeling to find her cradling Salvatore in her arms. He was completely out cold, with a small trail of blood leaking from his head. It appeared that the explosion had blown him into the barrier of the arena. His IS activated Absolute Defense at the moment of the explosion, but had only lasted briefly before his shield energy ran out and his IS dismissed itself, protecting him from the blast, but not when the force of the blast knocked him headfirst into the barrier. She wouldn't be surprised if he had suffered a concussion. She dismissed her IS as well and began to approach them.

*SHATTER*

Both she and Cecilia Alcott jumped when the barrier around the arena abruptly shattered and several teachers donned in 2nd Generation Mass-Produced Japanese Model IS, Uchiganes, and 2nd Generation Mass-Produced French Model IS, Raphael Revives, descended from the sky and spread out throughout the arena, only to pause when they realized the intruder had already been defeated and destroyed.

"That's enough! The intruder has already been destroyed, so the mission is cancelled. Bring the remains of the intruder into the main building for analysis, and someone bring Vongola and Huang to the infirmary! Huang, your injuries are light, so after your treatment, come to the staff room. You and Alcott will be submitting a full report of the incident to the Academy. Alcott, leave Vongola to the teachers and come with me." Orimura Chifuyu ordered as she stepped out into the arena, Yamada Maya barely keeping pace behind her whole carrying a stretcher

The teachers immediately obeyed her orders. One of them took Salvatore from Cecilia's arms and laid him out on the stretcher Maya had brought with her, and another came to lift up one end of the stretcher while she lifted the other and they flew off towards the main building. Out of the corner of her eyes, she spied on one side, several teachers securing the remains of the intruder while on the other, Cecilia Alcott was following Orimura Chifuyu out of the arena.

"Huang-san, I'm taking you to the infirmary to get patched up. After you submit your report, you should pay a visit to the maintenance team to get your IS repaired. Until then, I would advise you do not deploy it." One of the teachers donned in a Raphael Revive came up to her and said, and she followed her out of the arena, but her attention was completely focused on the stretcher being flown out.

He protected her, even though had no reason to. At that time, he still had enough energy for another Ignition Boost. He could have reached the intruder before it could fire at her and destroyed it anyway without having to suffer any more injuries. But, he moved to protect her instead, and judging by his words, the action had been almost instinctive.

As she walked out of the arena, her entire body aching with fatigue and pain, her lips curled into a small smile. Now she was sure. His name and attitude were different, but there was no doubt about it. She had found her first love.

---

The first thing Salvatore noticed when he woke up was that he was staring up at a white-tiled ceiling. The second thing he noticed as he tried to move was how much pain he was in, mostly originating from his back, preventing him from moving much. The third thing he noticed was that he was in the Academy's infirmary, lying on one of the beds, bare-chested and covered in bandages, which, when he felt them, were slightly saturated with blood, though it was dry. And the fourth thing he noticed was…

"Oh, are you awake?" Huang Lingyin smiled down at him from her seat next to his bed as she peeled an apple.

[…What are you doing here?]

Salvatore asked as he craned his head towards her as best as he could without aggravating his injuries.

"Technically, I'm a patient too, even though my injuries are light. The Academy insists on keeping me under observation for a day or two, so I'm confined here. I got bored, so I decided to cut an apple for you. Aren't I nice?" She said with a toothy grin.

[I see.]

Salvatore turned to stare back up at the ceiling. A quick glance towards his left hand revealed Nuvole Oscurate's standby form still on his middle finger. Which reminded him, he needed to get it repaired and recharged. And then, he would need to spend some time training with it. That performance against that intruder was just pathetic, especially for a Varia core member. If his brother found out, he would get an ass whooping the next time they met.

"Also, I want to thank you."

[Hm?]

Salvatore turned back to Huang Lingyin to find her squirming around in her chair with a light blush on her face.

"Back during the fight, you protected me even though you didn't need to. You had enough energy left for an Ignition Boost, and you could have destroyed it. In fact, logically speaking, that's what you should have done. But, you moved to protect me instead. So, I want to thank you."

[You don't have to. Honestly, I have no idea why I did that either. Like I said, my body just moved by itself.]

"I see."

Rather than being put out, Huang Lingyin's blush only seemed to intensify, briefly making him wonder if he had misspoke something.

"Say, from now on, how about you call me Rin? It's much easier than calling me Huang Lingyin all the time, and since we'll be schoolmates and take part in any operations organized by the Academy, you should get used to it." Huang Lingyin spoke up after a brief silence, causing Salvatore to ponder. She had a good point, and diplomatic relations born of a more intimate relationship with Representative Candidates would serve to aid the Vongola in the long run.

[Very well then, Rin.]

Salvatore said, making her beam brightly.

"I can't accept that!" A shrill voice interrupted them from the door. Cecilia Alcott entered the room with quick steps, marching towards them.

"I thought we agreed that we wouldn't steal a march on each other!" Cecilia said as she stomped right up to Huang Lingyin…no, Rin, and got in her face.

"What's your problem!? This is none of your business, so don't interfere! And Salvatore calls you by your first name anyway, what's wrong with him doing the same with me!?"

"Exactly! It's a privilege solely for me! A mangy mutt like you doesn't get to enjoy it!"

"You…!"

The two started squabbling like children, and Salvatore turned away with a sigh.

[By the way, what happened to the intruder?]

Salvatore interrupted their increasingly irritating argument with a question. He was genuinely curious, since he couldn't remember anything beyond the explosion.

"The unmanned IS was destroyed. The theory is that your last attack damaged and destabilized the core, causing it to explode and take most of the frame with it. What's left of it has already been secured by the Academy. Is that what happened?"

Orimura Chifuyu answered him as she stepped into the infirmary.

[…I'm not sure. I imagine that's the only plausible explanation. Or perhaps whoever built that IS designed it to self-destruct the moment it was no longer capable of continuing combat?]

Salvatore theorized. He and Orimura Chifuyu locked gazes for almost a full minute before she broke away.

"You'll be staying here under observation for the next 3 days. After that, you'll be on light duty for 2 weeks to let your injuries heal. In that time, you are not to deploy your IS. Also, you'll need to submit a report of the incident once you have been released. Is that clear?"

[Yes, Orimura-sensei.]

"Well then."

Orimura Chifuyu turned around and left. Rin and Cecilia had been properly cowed by her appearance and ceased their argument, finally allowing silence to return to the room.

Not a single one of them noticed the small smirk building on Salvatore's face.

---

"…"

Orimura Chifuyu stared at the screens replaying the entirety of Salvatore Vongola's and Huang Lingyin's battle against the intruder. She was in a special underground chamber located 50m below the main building that could only be accessed by those with Level 4 clearance.

Her face was set in an icy expression that grew colder as she saw the intruder's attack connect and tear open Salvatore's back, the output enough to break through the default energy shield and injure him, but not enough to activate Absolute Defense. She had replayed it many times, trying to gleam some answers, but did not manage to learn anything she didn't already know from watching the actual battle.

"Orimura-sensei?" A popup appeared on the screen with Yamada Maya's face on it.

"Enter." She said.

The door behind slid open with nary a sound, and Yamada Maya entered the room, carrying a tablet with her.

"The analysis of the remains of the IS is complete."

"And?"

"There was no evidence of a pilot inside. As we suspected, it was an unmanned unit."

"And the core?"

"Gone. Most likely, it exploded after being rendered unstable by Vongola-kun's last attack."

"I see."

"Is something wrong?"

"No, it's nothing." Chifuyu said as her gaze returned to the video of the battle. Once again, like she had done every time she watched the video, she slowed the footage down to a hundredth of normal speed and even then only caught a fleeting glimpse of what appeared to be black flames coating Salvatore's body at the instant at which he attacked the intruder.

"…Nothing at all."

---

[Did you receive the package, Decimo?]

"Yes, I did. Shouichi and the rest of the research team are analyzing it as we speak. I must say, I'm impressed. Cutting the frame open and using an empty Box to store the core was quite the stroke of brilliance. But, what do the folks at the Academy think happened when they saw that the core was missing from the unmanned IS?"

[They think that my attack destabilized the core and caused it to explode. As my back was facing the camera and the explosion itself was quite spectacular, the cameras did not record what I did.]

"I see. Making the frame actually explode after taking the core, you really do cover all of your bases. I assume you used a photon bomb to ignite the oil inside the frame?"

[That is correct, though I limited the output to 20%.]

"Also, from your report, it appears you used your One Off Ability for the first time in real combat. How was it?"

[Volonta Morente, the Dying Will…it was truly a magnificent power. Even though I only activated it for less than one second, I felt a drastic increase in all of my parameters and the numbing of all of the pain from the injuries I received. Very much like a shot of adrenaline.]

"I see. Speaking of your injuries, are you sure you're alright? If your injuries aren't fully healed yet, I can send Shamal, Ryohei or Lussuria over to treat you."

[There is no need. My combat capacity is still at an acceptable level, and the Academy has placed me on light duties for two weeks. That is more than enough time for me to properly heal on my own. More importantly, Decimo, about Shinonono Tabane…]

"Yes, I assure you that we'll be having words with her…"

[No, there is no need. She already knows that her hands are tied. There is after all, a reason why I am in the same class as her beloved little sister. After what happened today, I doubt she will be eager to try something like this again knowing how…displeased the Vongola is with her.]

"Alright then. One more thing, Salvatore, about the matter we discussed…"

[Decimo, I already said there is no need. I have no desire to know my past. My loyalty lies with the Vongola, and I will not allow anything that could compromise that.]

"…Very well. You must be tired. I'll stop here, so go get some rest, Salvatore. We can continue next week."

[Understood, Decimo.]

"Hmph, after 10 years of relative peace in the world, something like this happens…be careful, Salvatore. There is a storm coming. My Hyper Intuition is telling me this."

[…Yes, Decimo.]

---

And this chapter is finally done! Man, that was long. I originally planned to split this into two chapters, but I couldn't find a proper place to split this. This was hard to write because I wasn't entirely certain how I wanted to portray Rin. Definitely not as the canon tsundere, God knows there's already too many of them in the world, so I decided to make her a bit more dere.

I made the battle against the Golem a bit more dramatic, because I found it rather ridiculous that Ichika and Rin could fight and win without taking major injuries until the end when Ichika charged headfirst into a laser beam.

Nuvole Oscurate's only melee weapon has been revealed, as has its One Off Ability, though the latter was only used for an instant. And this is still not the full extent of its power.

Next update is for Butterfly Effect.

That's all. Please read and review.