Jake quietly walks through the empty corridors of the dormitory building of the IS academy as he makes his way down to the changing rooms of arena four to retrieve his lucky hat after discovering that for some reason that he didn't realise that he'd left it behind. The halls were totally lifeless and silent, and after looking at his watch to check the time (21:16PM) he assumes that most of the students might have already gone to sleep by now. He reaches the end of the corridor to his floor and begins to make his way down the stairwell, the faint sound of his footsteps echo through the air as he reaches the ground floor and exits the building. The cool night air was brisk yet gentle on the exposed skin of his arms and face as he walks down the path that he remember leading him to the arena changing rooms, and he finds himself gazing up at the clear bright moon lit sky, and the faintly lit pathways that ran across the IS academy left a warming glow that just seemed to leave him in such a calm and peaceful mood.

"Man... This place is so beautiful at night." He quietly said to himself as he continues his stroll towards the arena, he makes his way over without really having any problems, and passes the time by thinking about everything that he and Ichika had talked about earlier that day.

"So... It was Ichika and his friends that shot down the Gospel all that time ago." He thought to himself, he knew that back then when the Gospel had been taken down, it was done by an outside force... But the last thing he was ever expecting was that he would be carrying out a data collection program on the very pilots that were responsible for the Destruction of such a dangerous IS.

"Jesus... The girls back at FEISAR are never gonna believe this." He chuckles to himself, he get closer to his destination... When all of a sudden. Jake stops dead in his tracks when he feels a strange chill run down the back of his neck, sensing something unusual in the atmosphere, like an unknown presence was observing him from a distance. He looks around him for a second trying to see if he could see anyone... or anything that was nearby. Then the wind picks up slightly and the cold air whooshes past Jake. Suddenly out of nowhere, a bone chilling sensation sweeps over Jacksons body when a ghostly whisper in the wind fills his ears. Whispering.

Jaaaaaack

Startled by this, Jake quickly turns around in the direction the wind was going... And that's when he saw it... standing in the middle of the pathway behind him was a strange figure, definitely that of a human form. The figure was standing out of the light of the pathway and only a faint outline of its slouched pose was seen in the dark, it seemed to be covering half its face with one hand whilst carrying a long thin object of some sort in the other. Still not sure if this was really happening, or if he was just seeing things... Jake takes a step towards the dark figure.

"Who's there... This is a private campus." He said in a stern tone, but receives no reply from the shadowy form in the distance. A few moments pass by where Jake just stands still and stares at whatever it was he thought he could see in the dark, but the more he did, the sooner he comes to the conclusion that he was just barking at shadows and turns his back to the figment of his imagination... But as he begins to walk away, the wind blows and another ghoulish whisper passes his ears.

You can't hide from me... Jack.

Hearing this causes Jakes whole body to suddenly jolt in shock, because within seconds, he realised what really was behind him... Although he prayed that he was wrong... Immediately he violently spins back round to look behind him... And what he saw next struck a cringing feeling into him. The figment of his had stepped forward into the light just enough reveal most of its body, but its head remained concealed by the darkness. Jake takes a step back from the figure as he stares at its gruesome state, the exposed flesh of its upper body was riddled with deep cuts and lacerations that left very little of its skin unharmed, blood oozed from the wounds and trickles its way down the figures body, dripping onto the pathway around where it was standing. Jakes only reaction was a speechless expression as he stares at the figures torn up flesh, and when looks down at its hand he saw that it was carrying a sword... A straight Katana blade... Looking at the blade which was soaked in blood, Jake assumed that this figure just come out of a massive fight, but knowing what that thing was... Things were never as simple as that. Then the figure speaks again through the wind.

You... Can't... Hide...

The figure points the tip of the Katana blade in Jakes direction, blood dripping from the razor sharp edge... And that was when he noticed something about the wounds that covered its body. He cautiously takes a step closer to the figure and peers at its chest... And what he saw made his own skin crawl.

Those weren't battle wounds on the figure... They were self inflicted ones... And they were sending some kinda message.

Jakes eyes widen when he soon realises that the blade in the figures hand had been used to carve those lacerations into a sick and twisted number of words that he assumed were aimed at him. The words reading out.

Lier... Fake... Lost Cause... Coward... False Hero!

Jake stumbles back away from the twisted sight in front of him as he struggles to come to grips with he was seeing, this wasn't real... it couldn't be... why now... As he stands dead still and struggles to find the words to speak, his mind was so consumed that he was completely caught off guard by from sudden feeling of a hand being placed on his shoulder.

"Jackson?"

A familiar voice was heard from behind him, but it had caught Jake by such surprise... So badly that he did the only thing anyone else would have done.

"GWAAAAHHH." He shouted out as his body jolts in shock, and straight after he did so, a female cry of shock was heard as well. Jake quickly turned around to see who it was that had snuck up on him... It was none other than Charlotte, who had been coming back from another one of her club activities and saw him staring at something. the two of them breath heavily for a moment as they come down from their state of shock, Charlotte pressing a hand to her chest, feeling as if her heart was about to burst out of her.

"Mon Dieu, Jackson! What was that for." She said to him, her voice stammered and shaken by the startling she just received. Jake stutters for breath, and after a few moments of realising that it was Charlotte that had made him jump, he lands his palm flat on his forehead and looked down at the ground, undeniably feeling pretty embarrassed that he had been startled like that.

"Sorry Charlotte... I just really wasn't expecting that." He apologies, sighing as he looks back up to see that Charlotte was looking at him with a questionable expression on her face.

"It's okay... But what were you doing there, I was passing by and saw you staring at nothing." Said Charlotte as she looks past Jake and at the area she saw him looking at earlier. Jackson takes a second to process the fact that he just heard the young blonde say that he was staring at nothing, even though he knew there was something out there... And as he does, a twisted chuckle slips past his ear in the breeze to leave one last whisper as he turns round to where the figure behind him had been standing.

You better wake up soon... Jaaaaaaack

And as if it had all been a dream, the figure had vanished from sight, leaving a cold chill down Jakes back as he looks into the emptiness. There was no trace of the figure whatsoever... Even all the blood on the pavement that had dripped from its wounds had disappeared as well, like Jake had hallucinated the whole thing. He mentally shook his head, knowing that Charlotte would think he was mad if he said what had seen to her, so he improvises with a fake expression on his face.

"Oh... Nothing Charlotte... I thought I heard something over there, but it must've been you in the distance and I looked in the wrong direction." He said adding an awkward chuckle at the end. In response Charlotte just raises a brow to him, seeing this Jake speaks again.

"I'm sorry I gave you a fright... that was my bad." he said apologetically to her. And in return he gains a small smile from her.

"No... I'm the one that should say sorry first Jackson, after all... I scared you first." She says with her usual modest smile. Jake give off a little chuckle as he rubs the back of his neck.

"Yeah... Lets not tell the others about that, can we."

A light chuckle of humour comes from Charlotte.

"Sure, I wont tell them... But what were you doing out here by the way?" She asked.

"I had left my lucky hat back at the locker room, so I'm just heading over to retrieve it." Jake said, patting the top of his head to indicate the missing hat. Charlotte gives an expression of understanding after hearing this.

"Oh I see, well then... I'll leave you to it Jackson, and I will see you and the others in class tomorrow."

"Yeah... I look forward to it. Have a good night Charlotte and I'll see you tomorrow." Jake said politely to the young girl who smiles brightly at him before nodding his head in good bye to him as she began to make her way back to the dormitories to retire for the night. Jake continues on to the arena lockers, but a few seconds later he peers back over his shoulder... to make sure Charlotte had left his sight. When he sees that there was no sign of her anywhere, he lets off a disgruntled groan and pinches the bridge of his nose in frustration... His mind is scrambled by the sight of those words carved into that figures body, all the twisted things they aimed at him, the sadistic nature of the words, but the one thing that messed with him the most was the fact that it all seemed so real to him... he swore he could really see it and if he had hadn't been jump scared by Charlotte then he might have been able to get a look at its face and maybe could have tried to find out who the heck that thing was... but now, it had vanished from sight and had left him wondering when the next time this thing was going to try and taunt him again. As he contemplates on the thoughts, he shakes his head and runs his hands through his hair.

"Just forget about it JJ... It was just some weird hallucination... It can't do shit to you... Just remember that" He quietly tells himself. If he was to let this get to his head then that would just leave the chance for either Ichika or any of the other girls to notice... And talking about this thing... was without a doubt the last thing he was wanting to do, breathing deeply to calm his nerves down he continues walking until he finally reached the changing rooms to the arena. As the automatic door opens he sees that the lights were still on, but ignores that as he enters the room and looks for his hat.

"Lets see..." he mumbles, walking around as he traces his thoughts back from when he was here earlier. "Where's that row?"

After a few moments of searching, he finds the roman numerals that marked the twelfth row of lockers that he remembers changing at and walks down to the middle of the isle. As he did so, Jake reaches up and runs his hand across the top of the lock as he clearly remembers that because his hat was too wide to fit into the locker, he left it discreetly perched on top of the locker he used. His fingers slid across the cold metal of the lockers until they suddenly brush over the familiar feel of leather.

"Ah ha... There you are." He said as he picks his hat off the locker and smiles brightly at it.

"Can't believe I nearly forgot about you." Saying this he sweeps his hand against the side of his lucky hat to brush off the faint layer of dust that had formed on it before he returns it to its rightful place back on top of his head. Looking at his watch again, Jake sighed as he noticed what time it was now.

"I better hurry up and get back to the dorm... I've left Ich with Tohka for way longer than I was expecting to." He chuckles as he thought about just what kind of face he was expecting to see on Ichika when he gets back after leaving him alone in the same room with that Holographic version of his IS. He knew he was probably going to be met with a hell of a lot of questions as to why Tohka behaves the way she seems to do in terms of social confrontation... To be totally honest, even Jake wasn't too sure himself why she acts this way... He always thought it was more down the fact that she spends an even amount of time learning how to interact with people from being around the rest of his squadron that made her like that... But in the end... Tohka was just, well... Tohka. The thought makes him chuckle a bit as he started to make his way back to his room. However... The second Jake turns round, he is stopped dead as he is unwelcomely surprised by the appearance of a female figure that had just walked around the corner, and was now blocking his way to the exit... But after taking a few seconds, Jake feels his gut suddenly wrench as he soon realises that this person in front of him... Was Rin.

Oh... Lord... This isn't good.

It was unaware to Jackson that when he had walked into the changing room, he hadn't noticed that Rin had been taking a shower here after staying at the arena a bit later for some extra practice after having her IS fully repaired from after her match against him. As she walks to her locker, she had not yet noticed the young boy that was merely a few metres away from her as she was covering her head with a towel to dry off her hair, humming a sweet tune to herself as she goes about her business, Jake is left motionless as he starts to panic a little after realising it was Rin in front of him... She was completely naked but mercifully wearing a small white towel that although was barely able to reach the top of her thighs, it at least shielded Jakes eyes from accidentally seeing any of her... unmentionable areas... large droplets of warm water trickle down the bare skin of her legs, leaving a shiny trail as they reach the floor around her while she opens her locker and reached for her bottle of skin moisturiser. He knew he should just made a dash for it... He knew he should have just gotten the hell outta there before Rin had spotted him... But he had been so caught off by what he was seeing, that Jake had found himself glued to the spot with no idea of what to do... Until the inevitable happened, as Rin pulls her towel off from drying her hair she swishes her head to the side to flick her hair to one side. That was when she finally notices the boy standing a few feet away from her, and the happy cheerful expression on her face is instantly wiped off into one of shock.

"J-Jackson!" She stutters.

"Uuuuuhhh..." Was all she got in response from him as he himself was at a loss for words. Then Rin looks down at her body to see that Jake was indeed seeing her in nothing but the small towel she was wearing, and upon realising this... Rin's eyes slowly widen in shock, her face burning up into a bright shade of red, before screaming out at Jake.

"DON'T LOOK AT ME!"

She throws the bottle of moisturiser at him with brutal force, and Jake just barely manages to duck in time to miss being hit by it.

"Gwah!... S-sorry" Jake said sharply as he quickly twists his body and averts his eyes from her to look in the opposite direction.

"What the hell are you doing in here you filthy pervert... You spying on me or something." Rin shouted at him, with her face bright red from the mixed emotion of anger and embarrassment, she wraps her arms tightly around her chest to cover herself up a bit more. Jakes widens as well after hearing her accuse him of such a crude thing.

"What, NO!... Why the heck would I do that." he snaps back at her. "I left my hat here and came back for it... I didn't know that you were here."

"What kinda dumbass excuse is that!" Rin said in anger to him, clearly unconvinced by his statement that he was really just here to retain his hat. Jackson just sighs quietly to himself... Somehow he knew that was going to be Rin's reaction to his answer, and was starting to feel like quite the idiot for freezing up so much that he didn't just leave when he had a chance. None the less, he decides to be his usual modest self in order to get out of this mess.

"It's no excuse... Look Rin, I just want to get back to my room alright... So how about this, I just cover my eye and walk outta here like nothing happened, and you can finish up what you are doing here. No one outside this room needs to know we saw each other, Okay?" Saying this, Jake raised one of his hands over his good eye and leaves the eye patched one alone as he turned around, to show to Rin that he was trying to be modest as possible to avoid any unwanted trouble. Rin paused for a moment, her mind left slightly scrambled at how to act... She couldn't help but feel mad at Jake for seeing her like this, nor could she stop thinking like letting him away without at least a slap to the face was letting him off too lightly... But at the same time, she could somehow come to respect his modesty and the fact that he really didn't seem to want any trouble only made her believe him even more. Had this been Ichika in this position, then he probably would have dramatically over reacted towards her and ended up doing something both pretty stupid and embarrassing, but it was nothing like that with Jake... And granted, he did freak out a little after first seeing Rin, he'd actually reacted rather respectively to the situation. Feeling that he should at least be given a chance, Rin sighs to herself as she takes a step to the side in order to let Jake walk past.

"Alright then... Although I should give you a pounding for this, I'll let you live this time... But if you even think of telling anyone... Then you'll pay for it, big time." Rin said to Jake in her usually sharp tone, but he just gives her a small smile.

"Thanks Rin." Jake replies as he begins to step forward and make his way towards the locker room exit, with his eyes covered as to not see Rin he takes extra caution with his steps so he wouldn't bump into either her or a locker or something... However... it seemed that no level of caution could protect him from his own clumsiness as he suddenly feels a sharp pain race through his left leg as he was unable to notice one of the benches that sat in the middle of the locker isle... And stubs his foot against the corner of it.

"DWAAAAHHH!" Jake grunts as his leg suddenly goes limp from stubbing his foot and quickly loses his balance, without thinking to uncover his eye, Jake just stumbles forward uncontrollably as he tries not to fall flat on his face... when suddenly.

CRASH!

He feels his body collide with something and Jake tumbles down to the ground with an all mighty thud that echoed throughout the locker room. Laying on the floor and dazed by his fall, Jackson just groans in discomfort as he begins to come around... That's when he noticed something unusual. Right before he'd toppled over Jake had reached out with one of his hands to at least block his face from hitting the ground first, but when he twitched his palm, he noticed that he was holding onto something... something soft and warm.

And the second he realised this... Jake felt his entire body tense up in shock... Although he didn't want to know, he had a pretty good feeling that he knew what happened, he had seen things like this happen in many of the anime's that he used to watch, that thing that the main protagonist always did at some point in the show... that one thing that always resulted in them getting the living daylight beaten out of them. And even though he knew he would regret doing this, Jackson slowly opened his eye to see if his assumption was correct... And to he fear, it was.

When he tripped over the bench, he had fallen in Rin's direction... And despite her best efforts to move out the way, Jake had crashed straight into her. His eye trails up to see that his body had landed flat on top of hers, his torso forced between her legs and the side of his face resting on her stomach. Mercifully her towel was still on and he had landed on that instead... But Jackson was far from safe, as he looks up and almost instantly freezes when he saw that he'd knocked the top of Rin's towel loose and had pushed it down and exposed her bare chest. And to add insult to the injury, when Jake reached out to block his fall... he accidentally planted he hand right into Rin's left breast... and was still holding her in his hand. Jake swallows dryly when he fully comes to grips with what had happened and looks up to see Rin staring back at him, her face a mix of shock, embarrassment... And purified rage.

Upon seeing Rin's death stare and feeling her eyes boring straight through him, Jackson instinctively withdrawals his hand from her as fast as he humanly could and with a sudden gasp for breath he launches himself backward and away from Rin. He scuttles back and puts some distance between the two of them, his expression showing how shocked he was by what he'd somehow managed to accidentally do. Rin pulls the top of her towel up to cover up her chest again, and for Jake the next few second seemed to slow right down as the two teenagers are at a loss for words. The two of them shared the same shocked expression on their face as they stare at each other... but then Rin's eyebrow began to twitch and her expression soon changes to one that expressed the anger that was quickly growing within her.

"Y-y-you... Y-you" She stuttered angrily... Jake on the other hand quickly starts waving his hands in a (Calm down) motion when he noticed that the flame pink and black bracelet around Rin's wrist starts to glow bright white... meaning only one thing.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa... Rin wait... it was an accident, lets not do anything rash here." He said as he tried to calm her down, but it seemed like Rin was completely ignoring him as she activates (Shenlongs) partial deployment stage, Jackson watches as the whole of Rin's right arm is encased in her armour and one of her blades appear in her hand. Angered by what she was calling Jakes rather pathetic excuse for what had happened Rin stares directly at him with murderous intension.

"Accident... I'll show you an accident." She snapped, and straight after saying this, Rin raises her blade high above her head and lunges herself towards him.

"DIE YOU ROTTEN PERVERT!" She screams as she swings her weapon down with brutal force.

"Holy Shit!" Jake stutters as he somehow manages to dive out of the way with an inch to spare. The ground shakes as Rin's blade embedded itself into the floor, Jake is left stunned as he looks at the spot he was just standing at a second ago. But he had no time to waste sitting around as Rin rips her weapon out of the floor and swings at him again.

"Damnit... hold still you rat." Rin said in frustration as she tries to slice Jake in half, but misses him and nearly takes out an entire row of lockers when he drops to the floor to dodge the blade.

Hey... Knock it off Rin... Don't force me to fight back." He said as he warns Rin that he wasn't afraid to use his own strength in defence. However this just seemed to make her laugh at him.

"Don't be stupid... I can see that eyepatch you're wearing isn't your personal Unit. You got nothing to fight back with." She chided, calling out the fact that Jake had indeed left his IS behind and with another attack from her, Jake dives back to dodge Rin's steel blade and swore he felt the tip of her weapon clip his shirt.

"Jesus... This chick is psycho!" he mutters to himself as he bounces back up from the floor after narrowly avoiding being cut in two. He knew that with his IS left back up in his room with Ichika he had no change of fighting Rin without his partial deployment mode, however Jake wasn't a coward either and he had a trick up his sleeve for getting out of this alive. As Rin swings at him again, he suddenly jumps into the air and spins his body as fast as he could, bringing his foot round in an aerial round house kick, Jackson strikes the side of Rin's blade with so much force that he actually manages to knock it out of her hand. Rin is stunned as she watched her blade hit the floor and slide off behind her, but she soon turns her attention back to Jake who was now standing in front of her with his arms brought up to his chin in a defensive boxing stance with his fists clenched tightly.

"I'm warning you, girl... don't do it." He said to her, and this only seemed to anger Rin even more.

"Why you smug little." she grunts as she tries to punch Jake with all her strength using her armoured fist. At the last second before hitting him, Jake brings his forearms up to block Rin's fist from hitting his head, the force of her punch sends him sliding back a few metres, but he stayed on his feet.

"Damn... that one actually stung a little." Jake mutters, shaking off his forearms a little after feeling the force of Rin's punch.

"Ha, then this is gonna sting a lot!" Rin says as she charges at Jake again for another punch. This time though, Jake was ready to counter her, and right before she land her fist on him, Jackson ducks and weaves under her, grabbing her hand with both of his he uses his momentum to twist and flip Rin over him. Her body hits the floor and she is left stunned by Jakes counter move. As she lies there dazed and seeing stars around her, Jackson leans forward to rest his hands on his knees and lets off a small sigh of relief after believing that he had finally managed to cease Rin's attempt to murder him.

"(Sigh) I apologies for doing that Rin. But don't say I didn't try and warm you." He said modestly to the girl lying on the floor, then goes to pick up his hat which had been knocked off by his fall earlier. As he puts his hat back on he begins to make his way to the locker room exit to head back to his room... However when he turns his back on Rin... he soon finds that to be a terrible mistake he hears her quickly getting back up from the floor.

"I'M NOT DONE WITH YOU YET!" She shouts as she picks up her blade again. And when Jake turns back around to see her, his eye widens in shock.

"DIIIIIIIEEEEE PERVERT!" Rin screams as she throws the weapon straight at Jackson, the only words coming from him in his time to react were.

"Oh shit... NOT AGAIN!"

"So you can repair an maintain Jake's IS by yourself so he can keep focused on fighting?" Ichika said as he lied on his bed, he'd been taking to Tohka since Jake had left the room to get his hat, taking the time to learn a few more things about her and the tasks she carries out as the second pilot of his IS. And although he wasn't sure of the idea of being left with this hologram of the (Storm Ghost), but he soon managed to calm down after he realised that she was only teasing him with that whole Acting Saucy thing earlier to mess with him... besides... what could a hologram do to a person anyway.

"Yep, that's one of the things I can do for him." The hologram said, sitting on the edge of Jakes bed she looks up at the clock on the wall and squints her face after noticing the time.

"Hmmmm, I wonder what's taking JJ so long?" Tohka said out of curiosity to Ichika as they sat in the room waiting from him to come back. Ichika looks at the clock on the wall and was a little surprised himself by how long his roommate was gone. It had been at least a good twenty five minutes since Jake left the room to go get his hat, and knowing how long it takes himself to go to the locker rooms... He knew that should have at the very latest he should have been back by now. And with no logical answer to the question asked, he just shrugs his shoulders at the hologram sitting on the bed opposite him.

"Beats me? Maybe he managed to get lost?" Ichika asks, but Tohka just shakes her head at this.

"Na, it's unlikely... JJ's actually really good at finding his way around places pretty quickly." Tohka said. The holographic variant of the (Storm Ghost) IS rubs the back of her neck as she herself tries to think of what it could be that's keeping her pilot from getting back... Then a thought pops up in her memory processor that could only make her sigh a little. "My guess... He got distracted again."

After hearing that, Ichika raises a brow at the hologram and asked out of curiosity.

"Distracted? What do you mean by that."

Tohka gives the young boy a light chuckle of amusement.

"I thought you'd react like that, seeing that you've only seen Jake when he's in what I like to call his, focus mode. Let me explain this Ichika... You see, as hard as it is to believe by just looking at him, Jackson is indeed a very intelligent and sharp minded boy... I mean if he wasn't then he wouldn't be capable of piloting (Storm Ghost) as well as he does today. However... sometimes... when he isn't on any sort of assignments or tasks... his mind can wonder away from him, and to be honest... I wouldn't be surprised if he has managed to let himself get into some kinda awkward situation."

Ichika was a little surprised to hear something like that about Jake... He didn't think about the possibility of Jake letting his mind get him into an awkward situation... but then again, he did remember him saying that it was the curiosity of his wondering mind that got him held at gun point when he was caught back at Compound (trident). But before he was about to say anything else, he suddenly began to hear the sound of fast paced footsteps from down the hallway.

"Huh" He says as he peers round the corner to look at the door and listen as the footsteps seemed to be getting progressively louder at a rapid pace... As if someone was sprinting down the hall. That was when he hears a voice crying out in the distance... A voice he wasn't expecting to here.

Is that... Jackson's voice?

His suspicions were soon confirmed when Jake came crashing through the door crying out as if he'd seen a ghost. Slamming the door behind him, Jake presses his back to the door, breathing heavily from his exhaustion... He had just sprinted from the arena locker rooms as fast as his legs could humanly take him after what had just happened to him back there, but he was pretty sure that he wasn't safe yet unless he barricaded this door with something. Ichika looks at him with a surprised expression.

"JJ... What's up with you?" He asks, but Jake just looks at him with a terrified look plastered to his face.

"Quick Ich... block the door before it's too late." Jake said as seriously as he could. Ichika just stares at him for a few seconds, completely taken by surprise from his behaviour.

What did he say?

That thought was at the fore front of his mind right now, but before he could ask Jake why they needed to block the door. Ichika body jolts back in shock when a sudden loud crash was heard as Rin, who at this point was standing outside their room after she had managed to track down Jake, Punches the door with the iron fist of her IS's partial deployment mode. The door is almost ripped clean off its hinges as it's forced wide open, and swats Jackson like a kicked ragdoll, and Ichika watches as his roommate is sent crashing into the wall on the other side of the room and narrowly avoids smashing through the bedroom window. As Jakes body collapses into a tangled heap on the floor, Ichika looks back to where Tohka had been sitting and was slightly relived to see that she had played a safe move and disappeared for the moment to make sure she wasn't spotted by whoever it was that smashed through his door. He peers round the corner to see a very angry looking Rin standing outside the room.

"Rin! What's going on here?" He said as he tried to get some answers on what was happening just now, but it seemed that his childhood friend was completely ignoring him as she walks into the room whilst brandishing her iron fist at Jake, calling his name out in fury.

"JACKSAAAAAAAAAAAN!" She Screams as she lunges forward with another punch.

"RIN! NOT IN THE ROOM!" Ichika shouted as he tries to tell her not to fight in the dorm room, but she continues to ignore him as she drives her fist towards the boy who was still on the floor... but what happened next was a shock for both Rin and Ichika.

"Oh no you don't" Jake said as he spots Rin's attempt to hit him, he quickly twisted his body into some kinda freaky breakdance move, spinning his legs he brings his foot round and strikes Rin's hand, forcing her to stumble past him and fall to the floor. Ichika then watched as Jake springs himself back to his feet and immediately grabs his IS unit from the data platform on the desk, the black eyepatch glows bright white as he activates his partial deployment mode as well. The light quickly wraps its way around Jakes left arm and the familiar Jet Black steel and C.N.T Muscle Fibre that made Jakes IS emerges. Rin gets back up from being knocked over by him, and the two of them drive their fists at one another as hard as they could. Ichika feels like an impending fight was about to start and instinctively dives over his bed to hide from being caught up in this.

CLANG!

From the other side of the bed, Ichika heard the sound of metal clashing again itself rang out through the entire room as he assumes that Jake and Rin had just struck each other, and he prepares to hear the punches and kicks that would soon follow, as well as having to deal with his room getting torn apart once again... but after a few seconds passed by, Ichika noticed something unusual... After hearing that first hit... It had suddenly just gone quiet after that. Wanting to know what had happened, he peers ever so slightly over the top of his bed... And was surprised by what he saw.

Jake and Rin were standing a few feet away from each other, glaring at each other through gritted teeth as it had seemed that Jackson had caught Rin's punch with his own steel fist. She lets off a small grunt and pushed against his grip, but wasn't able to make him budge due to their relatively equal strength.

"Damnit, Let go of my hand, Jake." Rin snapped.

"No flippin way girl... I know you'll just try and hit me again." Jake said in return, holding tightly to Rin's fist to stop her from using her full partial deployment to punch him again. She grits her teeth at the boy in front of her, clearly angered by him. And noticing this, Ichika quickly approaches the two of them to try and prevent them for brawling it out in the room.

"Okay you guys, I don't know what's going on right now. But I don't trying to kill each other will solve it... so lets just put away the IS's... and relax, okay." Ichika calmly said as he talks to both his friends in an attempt to calm them down and ease any tension in the room. At first, Rin was a little stubborn to budge from her stance, however she soon lightens up a tiny bit when she felt Jackson's hand slowly move away from hers as he commits to calming down first in hopes that Rin won't try a cheap shot or something. Whilst keeping one another locked in their sights, the two teenagers gently lower their arms and the Flame Pink and Jet Black steel of both (Storm Ghost) and (Shenlong) turn to light energy as they deactivate their IS's, Rin's black and pink bracelet reappears on her wrist and Jackson's eyepatch is reconstructed in the palm of his hand. Ichika lets off a little sigh of relief after believing that he finally got the two of them to cool off (especially Rin), and then looked at Jake. He let off a breath of relief himself after seeing that his friend had seemed to get the girl in front of him to stop her intentions of killing him... for now at least. Jackson then looks down at his IS sitting in his hand, tilting his head down so that neither Ichika or Rin could see his face he pulls off the white medical eyepatch that he had been wearing this whole time and returns (Storm Ghost) to her rightful place round his head, before he turns his attention to the others.

"Everyone cool now." Ichika asks the two of them, who straight away turn to look at him with a questionable expression on their faces. their stares send a chill down Ichika's back as he assumes that their was still some unsettled terms regarding them. Jake and Rin then look at each other for a second, and then to both Rin and Ichika's surprise... Jake holds a hand out to her.

"What's that for?" Rin said to him, clearly a little confused by what Jakes intentions were, but he soon answers her with a serious tone.

"As much as how annoyed I am that you nearly killed me earlier on... I'm in no place to play the innocent one either Rin, so how's this... As I said many times before while you were chasing me, I'm terribly sorry for that incident that occurred earlier... And if you would please shake hands with me, we can call this whole problem to an end... I will make sure nothing like that happens again, and you stop trying to kill me... Deal?"

Rin looks at Jake's hand... and sighs again as she decided that his offer was probably the best thing, and their was no way she was going to let Ichika know about what happened back at the locker room.

"Fine then..." She said as takes Jacksons hand in her and shakes mutually with him. "Just make sure you stick to your end of this... Okay"

Jake nods at her, and after finally sorting out this issue he sits back down on the end of his bed, feeling exhausted from all the running and dodging he'd been doing for who knows how long. Ichika had a few words with Rin himself regarding whether she was okay, but as usual for for her, she just shuns him off (Nothing wrong with her in that case) and with pretty much nothing else to do, Rin decided to take her leave and head back to her room. After she closes the door behind her, Ichika turns his attention to Jake.

"Do I really wanna ask what the heck happened back there?" He said in a half serious tone to Jake, who just shakes his head at him whilst he still stares at the ceiling.

"Trust me... We would probably both be in for a world of hurt if you knew what happened." Jake bluntly replies through a deep breath, and Ichika thought it would be a good idea to leave it at that. Just then, Tohka reappears again after shutting off her holo-projectors to stop Rin from seeing her. The hologram walks up to Jake and she leans over to peer at the young boys tired face, then smirks at him.

"I knew you would end up doing something like this again JJ." She giggles at him, and Jake heaves his body up right to stare at his A.I.

She's always gotta troll me doesn't she?

"Hey... That wasn't my fault..." He said to her, only to receive a grin from Tohka. Jake then picks his hat off of his head, and after looking at it for a moment, he was able to find a smile himself. "But hey... I got my lucky hat back... so it's all good now"

Tohka and even Ichika couldn't help but laugh a little at him for that... Jake had to be the only person either of them knew who would go through something like that for a hat like his.

"Seriously JJ... Some day that hat of yours luck is gonna run out, just pray it doesn't happen here." Tohka said humorously to Jackson as she leans against the desk again. By now it would have been a good time to call it a night, but as Jake and Ichika think about sleep.

Clack!

"Eh…"

The sound registered in Ichika and Jackson's brain as they realized that the door had been opened again.

"Oh by the way, Ichika. I hope you haven't forgotten tha-" At that second, Rin had walked back into their room to remind Ichika that tomorrow he was going to be her partner for voluntary combat training... But is cut off mid sentence when she finally noticed the girl leaning against Ichika's desk. And when she does, her jaw nearly hits the floor. Jake and Ichika both look round the corner to see her and instantly feel a pang of fear shoot through their bodies when they realise that this wasn't a hallucination of any sort... Rin had seen Tohka... And they were pretty sure they were sharing the exact same thought

Are you Freaking Kidding me now!

In an attempt to stop Rin from jumping to the wrong conclusion, Ichika quickly got up from his bed and pulls out that same old line he's used in situations like this before.

"Rin... This isn't what you might think it is. I can explain." He said... However, it just seemed that his words just went straight through her and her face begins to burn up with anger again.

"Explain! You had another girl hiding in here when I was in earlier... YOU CREEP!" She shouts, and before Ichika could say anything to her in defence... Rin lauches himself at him in a leathal flying kick in an attempt to knock the boy out... and she did... Well... not the one she was aiming for however. As she flies towards Ichika, he instinctively dives out of her way with less than a second to spare, and as Rin shoots past... She accidentally plants her foot straight into Jackson's sternum as he had not time to react to that. The force of her kick sends him flying back and smashes his body into the wall behind him. Jake groans in pain as he clench's his chest tightly in his arms, gasping for breath as Rin's kick had pretty much completely winded him.

"Oops, I missed him." Rin muttered to herself as she looks at Jake lying on the floor, then that was when Tohka, who was shocked at what she saw dashes towards Jackson.

"Boss! Are you alright." she cried out as she kneels beside that curled up boy. Rin's mind processes what she just heard this girl call Jake... And that's when she finds herself left dumbstruck herself.

"Wait... Did you just call him... Boss?" She asked in confusion. And just then, Rin sees Jake's hand grab the side of the bed as he clawed himself back up from the floor and glared at her for kicking him.

"So much for that whole, not trying to kill me anymore Rin." He was just barely able to wheeze out in short breath.