Disclaimer: I do not own I.S. and no copyright infringement is intended.
"Speaking/Reading"
Cecilia's Perspective
"You know you're absolutely insane trying fight the school's strongest student on the first day. You do know that right?" I asked Ichika and emphasized certain details to make sure that he understood what I was getting at.
"And saying I would win in this year's Mondo Grosso wasn't? Besides, it's not the dumbest thing I've done in my life," he said rather nonchalantly.
"Oh? And pray tell, what exactly have you done that could be classified as dumber than what you are trying to attempt now," I asked skeptically.
"It's a tie between trying to outrun an I.S. and fighting four barehanded…" he said as his voice trailed off.
"… That's not even funny."
"That's because I wasn't joking."
This was the first male pilot. To the entire world, he was some symbol of changing times. To me, he was like a hammer bashing away at my common sense. I couldn't even tell if the guy was a genius or just insane because of how different his actions and words were. The only thing I could say for certain was that Ichika was definitely just a bag full of surprises.
"Anyways… Why are you even watching me prepare for the match?" he asked hesitantly to get rid of the awkward silence that he had started.
"Because Ms. Orimura wanted me to watch a 'real' pilot at work," I sighed over the implied disrespect I was receiving from our teacher.
Why exactly did I have to miss our last class of the day to simply watch Ichika fool around, and why exactly had I been looking forward to the idea? I will admit that it was an interesting idea to watch what he would do, but he clearly wasn't going to be able to do any real preparation given how he seemed to just jump into the fray without giving too much thought. To him, preparation probably only meant choosing what 'toys' to bring into the fight. It wasn't like it was going to matter though. Ichika was going into a match he was going to lose for certain.
I looked up to see the boy's back busily move about as he tried to pick a frame for such a hopeless match. It wasn't like his choice was going to make much of a difference because the president was probably going to use a third-generation model. Very few models in the second generation were able to stand up to those in the third-generation, and those that could do so usually had to disable some useful functions such as the ability to use beam weapons.
"Going to choose the Raphael Revive," I asked with an audible yawn over how tired I was just from having to deal with all of Ichika's stupidity.
"It does have high specs and the ability to store more tools," he said contently before opening a large screen concerning the core's safety functions.
"Why are you checking the safety? Are you that worried about the president accidently hurting your precious body?" I asked to pass a joke.
I wasn't too concerned of the boy getting hurt. Ichika seemed like he knew enough about the I.S. to not injure himself too gravely. There was also the fact that the president wasn't an amateur herself. It was very unlikely that she would have made such a dangerous mistake that could potentially kill him.
"Nope, I'm actually going to remove most of the unnecessary functions such as the PIC's ability to reduce the amount of force the pilot experiences when accelerating."
"Okay… Very funny," I said with an unamused expression.
It wasn't until I started to see several numbers change on the screen did I realize that he wasn't just being sarcastic to mess with me. He was absolutely serious in removing the only things preventing him from dying in the machine.
"Are you daft?! Don't mess with those things! They're there so that you don't get hurt!" I yelled.
"I know, but I need to be able to move at speeds greater than Tatenashi can. Even if she is the strongest student here, she is only able to go as fast as what her machine can go. Plus, I know what I'm doing and I know my limitations," he said rather calmly.
"So says the guy who challenged someone completely out of his league. Also, why would you possibly know that you don't need something as important as the safety features? Even better, why would you even try something so stupid?" I sighed while rubbing my temples.
"I had no choice in the matter," Ichika said rather stoically.
What exactly did he mean by that? The safety features were the functions that the suit prioritized above all else. Also, why exactly did he have no choice in the matter? It wasn't as though he had to fight his way in an actual war or battle. It would have surely shown up on the news as well if the first male pilot had not only made his presence known, but had been able to win a real fight.
Fortunately for my curiosity, Ichika continued and said, "Back when I first piloted the I.S., almost every file was corrupted to the point that all I could do was swing a sword and dash forward. Other than that, I had nothing else. I couldn't fly. I was missing some of the PIC's functions. The power supply was failing. I didn't even have the Absolute Defense shield to protect me."
This was quite an interesting story. While I had considered that Ichika had simply jumped into an I.S. suit in a lab for fun, I had never really known why Ichika even piloted a suit in the first place. We all had speculations. Most would agree with my version of the story since Ichika was the brother of the Brunhilde. Why wouldn't he have an interest or a spare suit to try on? But based on the boy's story, it seemed that so much more had gone on.
"Can you riddle me this? Why exactly did you even join the fight in the first place? It would seem rather foolish for a man to jump into an I.S. fight in the first place."
"I had to protect someone. If I had run away with my tail between my legs, I would have been sacrificing another," the boy said rather slowly before closing the safety screen.
"Was it your girlfriend?" I asked with a little too much enthusiasm considering it was just future gossip material.
My question was responded by a small bit of babbling, which was quite entertaining. The boy had turned bright red as he began refuting my statement out of sheer embarrassment. It was honestly quite cute to see this side of the snarky and crazy classmate that I had become accustomed to seeing and talking to in this one day. I never would have imagined that the seemingly calm Ichika could get so flustered. It was definitely I would want to hold on for later fun.
After babbling for a couple of moments, Ichika finally calmed down and managed to say, "I had only met her for one day. Ever since the incident, I haven't been able to talk to her too often. She's been busy helping her brother sort out some business."
"It's okay Ichika. It's perfectly normal for a boy at your age to take an interest in the opposite sex at this age," I teased with a sly grin on my face.
Even though I teased him, my mind was wrapped around some of the things he had said. From everything I had heard, I could gather that the boy had to have been involved in a major incident when he first became a pilot. I could also gather that it was not just big, but on a grand scale since I did recall the fact that he said he had to escape an I.S. and fight four barehanded. The simple number of suits would have at least been on the news in some form, but I could not recall any major attacks occurring recently.
As I racked my mind, I could only think of the attack on the Dunois Corporation a couple of years back. It was a devastating terrorist attack that had done significant damage to the company and the world's economy. If I recalled correctly, there were four to five pilots that had attacked the company, which would match with the amount of suits he had to fight if Ichika was telling the truth. There was also the fact that Charles Dunois inherited the company, which could have been the brother in his story but I did not recall the Dunois family having a daughter.
Regardless of what I thought of him or his stories, one thing was made clear to me. Ichika wasn't weak even if he had just entered the I.S. world. The fact that he was still standing in front of me told me that Ichika had won his first fight, and if everything he said was accurate concerning his suit's conditions, he won with a massive difference in suit spec and experience. I was still skeptical about some of his statements, but I at least knew that his first experience fighting was in a faulty machine given how reckless his current customizations were.
"Well, I hope you enjoyed the show. But I must bid you adieu. It seems like my opponent has just entered the ring," the boy said before quickly running off the launch pad.
"Silly boy, the show has only just begun," I whispered as I walked to the monitor to observe his fight from within the building.
Ichika's Perspective
"Ichika! It's not very gentlemanly to keep a girl waiting for an important date," my opponent said with a flirty tone.
"Sorry about that. I was just so excited that I had trouble deciding what I would wear," I played along to help release some of the tension that I had built up.
It wasn't a lie that I was extremely excited for the current circumstances. But all of my excitement stemmed from nervousness over how I would fare compared to the student council president. No one would have held it against me if I lost, and I had doubts anyone would have expected anything from me. In fact, the other students probably thought that I probably wouldn't be able to land a single hit. I couldn't blame them, but I would loathe myself if such an outcome occurred. It would not only have been a horrible outcome in of itself, but it would be even worse considering my goals.
It would be unacceptable for me if I couldn't at least put up a decent fight for the audience.
"Ahhhh… That's sweet of you to think so much of me. I'm sorry I didn't put as much effort for this little meet up as you did. How about, as a reward, I give you a handicap," she said with a little giggle over how I willing went with her flow.
"As reasonable as that sounds, I'll have to decline that offer. I'm here to see how well I would fare against the strongest pilots after all," I said while deploying my armor.
"Just a standard Raphael Revive? I feel kind of cheated Ichika. I thought you said you went through a lot of trouble in choosing?" Tatenashi pouted while deploying her suit.
After the bright light that was emitted from the suit's materialization, my eyes were greeted with a rather feminine machine. Tatenashi was now sporting an aqua colored I.S. machine. There were really only two things that really stood out about the machine, one of which was the fact that it was really only a large skirt and some thrusters. It was by no means weak or fragile just because the machine had a skirt. I knew this very well that simple appearance or armor really meant nothing due to the Absolute Defense protecting the pilot. The suit was definitely a weapon by all means.
Other than the skirt, the only noticeable thing was that Tatenashi was wielding the same spear that she had nearly impaled me with. The only reason why it was the only other noticeable thing left was because it appeared to be the only thing she was equipped with. After a quick look, I couldn't really see any other armament attached. It was far too plain to simply be just that. While it was entirely possible for her to hide her other equipment by simply not materializing them, it was unlikely that her third-generation weapon was hidden since it would just take too long to materialize during battle.
"Oh don't worry. I have a little surprise for you," I said before materializing a Gray Scale and two machine guns.
"I look forward to what you have to show me. Whenever you're ready," she said with a sudden shift in demeanor.
Tatenashi's Perspective
"This is actually quite boring you know," I moaned while watching my underclassman just swiftly circle around me while shooting a continuous stream of bullets at me.
"I haven't even taken a single point of damage you know," I taunted.
Though I was just trying to goad him into doing something else, I had to actually focus all my attention on the bullets to simply block the shots. The Mysterious Lady's nanomachines, though useful, were quite difficult to manipulate well. Just trying to move all the water in my shield to take on the attacks head on and make certain points in my water barrier to block bullets was difficult.
It wasn't as though I couldn't move from my position with the barrier erect. In fact, it would have been a lot easier for me to just dodge in try to attack. The only thing was that I wanted to see what type of fighter Ichika was. He was the first male pilot and he was brazen enough to challenge me to a fight. I didn't want the fight to end too soon. If I went all out, I wouldn't be able to see what he was made of.
There was also the fact that I couldn't be careless in this fight. While it seemed that Ichika was still a beginner given his standard fight patterns, I couldn't help but feel something was off. He was the brother of Ms. Orimura and I had seen how he was able to react to my attacks this morning. Just from those alone, I figured that he was hiding something.
"Why don't you come closer? I thought you would have liked to get up close and personal," I called out with my usual flirty tone as his attacks continued to no avail.
That was when the ground from under me suddenly exploded and sent dust and smoke up into the air. The sudden blast had only dazed me for a fraction of a second, but it was enough to break my concentration to keep up my barrier. Though this explosion was technically a surprise attack, it wasn't beyond my ability to recover from because I had become more or less accustomed to surprise attacks ever since I became the student council president. The only problem was that I couldn't gather enough water to erect the barrier again since there was too much smoke and dust interfering with my nanomachines. Although, it was probably for the best since Ichika was definitely going to take this opportunity to strike, and using the water shield would numb my senses in my visionless situation.
Taking a look at my shield points, I noticed that about a sixth of my energy was gone from the simple blast. What had he exactly done to cause the blast in the first place? I had been keeping my eyes on him the whole time, and not once did he do anything other than shoot bullets at me. The bullets didn't even drop anywhere near me, so it couldn't have been in the metal. I hadn't moved either, so he couldn't have placed anything under me.
Before I could figure out what he had done, I heard a quite hum somewhere just outside the smoke. It was coming from the location where Ichika would have come in to attack me given his circling pattern, and I knew he had to have come in from that direction given the amount of time that had passed and the maximum speed the Raphael Revive could go. Without putting too much more thought into it, I jabbed my spear through the smoke and struck something. The sound went silent and was replaced with the sound of shattering metal.
Unfortunately for me, Ichika was not wielding the vibration sword that I had just destroyed. Instead of being where he should have been given the machine's limitations, he was standing right behind me. I hadn't even noticed until my I.S. detected an object in such close proximity, and even then, my arm was extending. I wasn't able to counterattack with everything that was going on.
"Guess I was right about you liking it up close and personal," I sighed over how I was going to fall so far behind despite being cautious.
Before I knew, I felt a sudden jolt as something smashed straight into my back. While the machine barely budged given its AIC functions, the force was tremendous as it had reduced my shield points down to two thirds. Some of the attack even pierced through the Absolute Barrier; I just experienced a slamming sensation on my back.
The only weapon that came to my mind was the Gray Scale given the amount of damage I was taking.
Right after my analysis, I tried to get away in order to get away from his next attack. But before I could get so much as a foot away, I was greeted with another explosion that sent me flying back into Ichika's grasp. My stomach was soon greeted with a very familiar sensation and I watched my points drop even further.
"Rusty Nail," I cried out just to get my weapon out as quickly as I could.
I didn't even care if doing so was considered a rookie method to bring out my weapon. This was a situation that required immediate action. Any spare time was going to help, even if it was less than a tenth of a second. If I didn't do anything and just take another hit, I was going to lose and badly.
A bright light started to shine in my palm, but I didn't even wait for it to completely materialize before I latched it onto the Gray Scale to just stop Ichika in his track. While my plan had succeeded in terms of catching the weapon, Ichika ejected the arm carrying the Gray Scale and dashed off.
Following Ichika's lead, I flew straight out of the smoke in the opposite direction. I had decided to abandon my Rusty Nail as well given the fact that it was still latched onto the Gray Scale. This was clearly the right decision given how both weapons soon exploded into bits mere moment after I escaped the death trap.
"Ah… I was so close too," a disappointed said from across the large field.
"I'm not that easy you know," I said playfully as I managed to finally escape the barrage of blows that Ichika had dealing out to me.
"I know. I had to sacrifice two of my weapons and my arm," he groaned.
"Still, what exactly did you do? There were several explosions, but I never did figure out what caused the first one."
"I used a grenade for all of them," he said sheepishly while materializing a second Gray Scale on his remaining I.S. arm and katana in the other.
"But I didn't see you throw one in the beginning. If I recall correctly, weren't you just shooting at me from quite a distance?" I responded with a confused expression.
I was really confused for two reasons. I was confused as to why Ichika decided to bring grenades to the fight and how one had gotten through my defenses so easily. While the grenades proved to be quite effective in this particular match, they were obsolete weapons that wouldn't normally work in any other match. Grenades were simply too slow for practical use since the second-generation models rolled out and could only be used once. It was very rare to ever find someone who could and would use grenades for strategic attacks.
"I just materialized it right under you."
"Say that again," I said with a dumbfounded look.
"I just deployed it right at your feet."
This was quite unusual. I knew that it was possible to materialize weapons at a distance, but no one ever did so. There was no incentive to do so in any situation since materializing weapons beyond your reach was just useless. What was the point in forming a weapon that you couldn't use? The idea of even practicing that skill was just plain silly.
"Why would you even consider using grenades and long range materialization? Both seemed pretty useless in most situations," I called out in order to learn more about how Ichika formed his tactics.
"Your spear more or less told me that you had to have some form of defensive equipment in order to protect you from long-range attacks since it would be the only thing you wouldn't be able to reach easily. I also know that all defensive equipment in the third-generation have the tendencies to require far too much input from the pilot to the point that the pilot usually has a difficult time in observing the rest of the environment," he said with a smirk.
"I must applaud you for doing so much damage using such a strategy. You're the first one at this school to even get me past the halfway point, and as a reward for your accomplishment, I'll show you something I've been developing for a while now. Unfortunately for the both of us, the end has come," I said sternly before focusing on my nanomachines once more.
Unlike before, I wasn't forming a water barrier. I was instead layering the surface of my body with several separate layers of impenetrably dense water. While the concept seemed more difficult than forming a water barrier, it was honestly much easier for me to do since I only had to imagine the contours of my body and I.S. to form this new armor. As the Russian Representative, the visualization was as natural as breathing to me. As a result, my senses were more or less uninhibited from the nanomachines.
Looking forward, I saw Ichika stare intently at my new technique. What I saw was a mixture of excitement and agitation. He must have realized that his attacks would no longer be able to touch me and that nothing he could do would be able to change that fact.
"Don't stare at my figure so intently," I giggled.
"I can't help it. You're finally showing me what makes you the best," he said with no real attempt to play along with my flirty attitude.
"You ready to dance with the Mysterious Lady?" I asked while rushing towards him.
"If you can keep up!"
After yelling out, he quickly charged straight at me, but at speeds beyond what the Mysterious Lady could reach. While it was supposed to be impossible, it really didn't surprise me since he managed to get behind me before during his initial attack. In any case, it didn't matter. I had to reduce his shields too zero regardless of whether or not he was going faster than I could.
I lunged at him with my spear, and made sure to leave an opening for Ichika to strike. In an instant, Ichika simply slid towards my weak point and slashed my back with the katana. While it was true that he had used the blade with his normal arm, I still felt a dull impact as the blade sunk into the first few layers of my water armor. As I went cut deeper into the armor, I increased the density of the water and shattered his blade.
The sudden loss of his weapon had caused Ichika to stumble. This allowed me to perform my first real attack as I dematerialized the Heavy Rain and quickly deployed it in my stretched out arm, but backwards. Not even letting it deployment finish, I drew back my arm quickly and felt the spear strike solid metal. I didn't check to see if Ichika was still attached to what I assumed to have been the Gray Scale and open fired using the gatling gun embedded in my weapon.
After letting loose for a few seconds, I took a look back and saw the damage I had done. What my eyes were greeted with was the sight of a severely damaged shield with no boy attached. Ichika had clearly detached the arm like last time to escape most of the damage, but this time there was no explosion. Judging from the lack of explosion, I had to guess that he had only brought three grenades with him. Not like it mattered if he had more though since my water armor would prevent the explosion from reaching me.
"That's quite the impressive armor you have there. Perfect for defense and it doesn't seem to inhibit your movements or focus despite being a third-generation design," the boy laughed as he stood a bit further along the field.
"I'm glad that you like it, but it's still incomplete. I still have a ways to go before it's ready for the Mondo Grosso," I giggled out of delight over the fact that Ichika had not been done in by my attack.
"I see. So this technique isn't completely impenetrable yet?" he asked as he materialized two more katanas.
"No, I'm quite certain that it can't be broken. At least not with the katanas you are using as you saw earlier."
"True, but they're all I have left in my inventory. Well… other than my machine guns, but those are useless at this point. I also don't plan to use these swords on you just yet," my opponent stated before jabbing the tips straight into his legs.
"What?!"
The boy was damaging his own suit, and I couldn't fathom why. His katanas were slowly creating giant gaping holes as the metal armor on the legs was split. Several sparks soon flew out of the legs as the blade cut through several cords. I could even see the boy sweat as he tried to push his swords further down using his own strength to do so.
"We're going to definitely end this soon. As it stands, I pretty sure that my suit is going to fall apart," he laughed as he finished the deed.
"Yeah, but not by me. What could you possibly be thinking to damage your own suit?" I asked with a hint of concern over my underclassman's sanity.
"Just following a hunch!"
Somehow, Ichika had managed to appear right before me. How he managed to do so was beyond me. He had been moving fast before, but the final burst in speed exceeded even that. I was unable to even respond to the sudden change in positions. My eyes quickly moved to the blade in his hands out of sheer instinct as I ducked to avoid the blade. I really shouldn't have needed to since the blade wouldn't have been able to reach me, but the absurd fighting style had caught me off my guard.
As a result of trying to dodge the weapon, I received a solid kick to my head. The blow barely affected me for all I felt was a dull impact and a splash of water as my armor was blown away. In front of my eyes, I saw the gaping wound that Ichika had inflicted on himself leaking fluids that had previously been part of my armor. It was still sparking and was stuck in place as my hand had instinctively grabbed it to stop it from coming any closer.
Even though I was shocked over the turn of events, I still jabbed my spear with my remaining arm directly into Ichika's abdominal area and let loose the Heavy Rain's bullets. A bright light soon appeared above my head as the pixels of the shield breaking appeared. I heard a soft whirl as Ichika tried to get away, but I twirled the Heavy Rain to destroy Ichika's free leg.
Before I managed to cut off Ichika's only means of escape, he ejected from both armor parts and went soaring up into the air. This left him with only the katanas and the thrusters. Other than that, he only had about half of the amount of shield points that I had. Even then, I noticed that Ichika seemed to have been preparing for another strike. It was unfortunate for him though.
"Match Over. The student council president has won the match. Also, Mr. Orimura… Please head over to Ms. Orimura's office after dinner," a scared voice announced over the intercom.
"Shit, I'm really screwed now," Ichika groaned.
"You still did very well against a Representative," I giggled as the boy floated down.
"You don't have to pretend that I actually stood a chance in order to protect my pride. I know where I stand in comparison to you. If you had gone out all out from the start, I wouldn't so much as have gotten a single point off of your shield," he said while scratching the back of his head.
"True."
"Wasn't that supposed to be the part when you deny my claims?"
"Fine… You did managed to break through my armor, though you did essentially destroy the I.S. in doing so," I giggled while rubbing my junior's head intensely.
"Please don't do that. I'm already going to receive punishment there as it is."
"Don't worry. I'll save you from punishment."
"Can you really?" he asked hopefully.
"I'll at least see what I can do. You did just damage an I.S. beyond repair…" I whistled while looking away from the now pouting boy.
Chifuyu's Perspective
"Do you think Ichika is ready?" I asked the girl sitting across from me.
"You saw the fight. Shouldn't you be able to make a proper judgment on that alone," she snickered back at me.
"I'm asking you because I'll never think my little brother will be ready. Why should he have to be ready to fight off Phantom Task? He shouldn't even have to deal with the I.S. world in the first place," I said irritably.
"He's honestly quite good considering he's only been training for two years. I would have to say that he is right about the same level as weaker Representatives, but I can't say for sure. Most of his attacks only succeeded because they were surprising, but he was also piloting a second-generation model," the student council president said while weighing the different factors that either weighed my brother down or lifted him up.
"So he's not ready," I said while gripping the hem of my skirt.
"Unfortunately, he is probably still too weak at the moment. He'll probably be ready to take on whatever Phantom Task can throw at him by the time the Mondo Grosso comes around," Ms. Sarashiki said with a gentle smile.
"What makes you say that?"
"I have a feeling that he is going to grow to the point that he could be the next Mondo Grosso champion."
"What about yourself? You did just beat him," I said with a brow raised.
"What about you? You make it sound as though you don't believe in his abilities."
"I have faith, but I just don't want him to win," I said seriously.
"Why not?" the girl said with a genuinely confused face.
"He'll get the stupid impression that he has to protect me. It's my job to protect that idiot."
"You two are so alike; always wanting to protect something. He'll definitely become the strongest like his big sister. Maybe he'll even become stronger," the girl said annoyingly.
"In any case, please look after him when I cannot," I said with a slightly annoyed expression smeared on my face.
"So long as he needs it," the girl said as she skipped out of the room.
I was soon left in an empty room to my thoughts. While it was silent, I was unable to relax due to some of the things that the annoying student had said. Because of what she said, my mind was flooded with worry about the fact that Ichika had incessant desire to protect me. It was supposed to be the other way around. I was the older sister and the Brunhilde. It was my job to protect Ichika from harm.
But I hadn't really been too on top of things despite being the strongest. I had let Ichika fall in danger twice. Both of which were completely life changing to the point that Ichika would never have been able to return to a normal life. He was forever cursed to lie outside a peaceful life. Even if I was able to shelter him for three more years, it was still abnormal since he was going to be attending an ex-all-girls-school.
There was also the fact that Phantom Task was still lurking about in the shadows. Knowing them, they will try to take Ichika away. It was an inevitable fact that she would try to capture her most prized possession. There was no doubt in my mind since she had Alice modify him like she had done to both Tabane and me.
I needed to get my mind off of this. It was too late worrying about now since I change Phantom Task's goals. Regardless of what I wanted, Ichika and I needed to be ready to fend them off.
Fortunately for me, my thoughts were interrupted by a video call. Putting it on screen, my eyes were soon greeted by the current president of the Dunois Corporation.
"Good evening Ms. Orimura. I just called to ask how Ichika was adapting to his new life in paradise," the blond man said with a smile.
"He still as hot headed as ever. Try to guess what he did today," I smirked.
"Hit on a girl?"
"Well, he did hit our strongest student in a fight," I sighed as I remembered Ichika's embarrassing declaration from the afternoon.
"He challenged your best? That certainly sounds like something he would do, but how did he do?"
"He got destroyed at the end when the girl decided to stop playing around. I can even show you the video if you are interested."
It was the simple truth. While Ichika had done a significant amount of damage to Ms. Sarashiki, the damage had only gone through because she was too interested in seeing what he could have done. It wasn't as though it was her fault though since he was the first of his kind. I had even asked her to observe Ichika's capabilities.
"That sounds pretty harsh. But as the little brother of the Brunhilde, anything less than victory isn't good enough for the Orimura family," the man teased with an irritating tone.
"In any case, are you calling to tell me when your sister is coming? I failed to see her on the school's rosters."
"She'll show up in about a month's time. We are currently modifying the Raphael Revive Custom I," Charles said rather sourly.
"I take it that not all is going well in developing your next gen models."
"You know how it is with France not being part of the EU. Just getting enough funding is a problem in of itself since the government seems more interested in just finding and training their next potential Valkyrie," the man said with a despairing look.
"Well it's too be expected since France won the last tournament with the Raphael Custom I. It still is unfortunate that the Valkyries aren't allowed to participate after winning the Mondo Grosso. It makes the tournament much less interesting when the fan favorites aren't allowed to participate," I chuckled.
"And whose fault do you think that is?" Charles said with an irritated tone.
He had every right to be pissed. While it was because the government decided to focus more on finding a pilot that caused Charles to be in such a predicament, I was the reason as to why Valkyries weren't allowed to participate in the Mondo Grosso. It was to be expected when I took down my opponent in mere seconds during the second tournament. It was so anticlimactic that winners were banned from the tournaments, and the title for subsequent winners was changed to Valkyrie since no one could challenge me for the title of Brunhilde anymore.
"I had something to do back then. In open honesty, I probably should have just forfeited the match," I said bitterly as some memories resurfaced.
"I doubt Ichika would be too happy to hear those words from his big sister," the man said in an attempt to lighten up the mood.
"Yeah… In any case, what's done is done."
"Is there anything else that was interesting today?" Charles continued in an attempt to move further away from the heavy conversation from earlier.
"Ichika claimed that he was going to win this year's Mondo Grosso," I chuckled.
"Figures. He always was competitive."
"You should take a look in a mirror. I still remember how you two were like when you first met."
"Please, I was just playing along with your little brother."
"Sure you were," I laughed.
Author's Notes
#1: For the most part these notes will just be here to clarify some things that may not have been so obvious while reading. Please favorite and follow if you liked this story. Also send reviews of things you liked or disliked so that I can try to improve the work. Send questions and I will probably respond to some of them in the next chapter.
