"The itsy bitsy Gelgoog rushed down the blazing path…"

Mitsuo's Gelgoog was desperately sprinting around the flaming forest, running away from the black gundam that floated towards him from the air. The previously thick and bulky armor that the Gelgoog was covered in was wrecked, with holes and scratches covering the mobile suit's entire body. The backpack of the Gelgoog was practically destroyed – eliminating any possibility of retreating in the air. The large oval shield that Mitsuo relied on to block attacks was reaching its limit as the layers of plastic on the shield grew thinner and thinner from the intense heat that spread across the entire biome.

"Down came the missiles…"

Maniacally singing in a nursery rhyme like manner, Spencer deployed and aimed his shoulder missile pod right at the red mobile suit down below. Despite the Gelgoog's color reflecting the color of the fire, the grey joints and bulky movements easily distinguished it from the fires. With a satisfying beep sound, two red missiles shot out from the Chaos Bullet's shoulder.

Noticing the two missiles headed straight at him, Mitsuo made a risky sacrifice and threw his red shield right towards them. The missiles hit the shield point blank, and despite losing a shield, the explosion occurred right above the head of the red Gelgoog, protecting him from any further harm. Mitsuo coughed as he opened his machine's system summary, and observed that the Gelgoog was reaching its limit. Despite blocking the attack of the Chaos bullet, all of the machine's systems were in jeopardy. Without a doubt, if even one of those two missiles hit the Gelgoog, it would have been fatal. And now, with his shield, avoiding another attack would be near impossible. Spencer laughed chaotically as the fires below shone a red, maleficent light from under the Chaos Bullet.

"Well normally it's down came the rain, huh? I bet you wish it were raining right?"

Looking around the biome, more than half of the forest was reduced into a pile of black soot and ash. Although at this point, the appearance of rain would be beneficial but by no means would it be table-turning.

Suddenly, a few drops of water hailed down from the sky. More drops started appearing, slowly raining down on the flaming trees. With a satisfying hiss, the fires of the forest biome were slowly starting to die out. The clouds above in the sky were still completely unchanged, a bright blue hue with barely any clouds present – yet the rain just came out of nowhere. The miniscule raindrops were gently falling from the sky, barraging the fires and the trees with waves of water. Spencer widened his eyes in shock.

"EH. NO. I WAS JOKING."

Mitsuo gasped in shock as well – but for a different reason

"No… this isn't an environmental effect. If it was, the battle machine would announce it…so why?"

The eyes of the Chaos Bullet gunpla lit up in a dark red light. Spencer instantly pointed his missile launcher right at Mitsuo, ready to fire and eradicate the target. He hastily pulled the trigger, and two missiles came zooming right out of the missle pods.

The sound of the missile thrusters was all that Mitsuo heard. He closed his eyes, and he released his grip from the golden orb controller. He sighed hopelessly as the missiles continued to approach his red Zeon mobile suit.

"I guess this is the end of the line, huh?"

Without warning, the thrusters on the back of the missiles abruptly stopped, causing the missiles to hit the ground with a loud, metallic thud. The small, round heads of the missiles were buried in the thin soil as the rain continued to pour down on the gunplas. The Gelgoog stood, completely paralyzed with disbelief as he had been just subjected to a miracle that allowed him to live through a second wave of missiles. Spencer instantly grunted, and fired even more missiles from his shoulder. However, instead of two, eight missiles left the pods, leaving a trail of smoke as they headed straight to the Gelgoog.

"Anti-Execution: Disruption!"

Once again, the missiles instantly lost their momentum and began to topple down onto the ground, right before the Gelgoog. Mitsuo widened his eyes, as he recognized the voice that spoke before the missiles were stopped.

"That voice…Yuta senpai?"

The red Gelgoog looked behind him, only to see that the sky behind him bled red and yellow in the form of massive, terrain changing explosions. Shortly afterwards, a giant wave of water rose from the horizon, with the battle between the three ace pilots quickly migrating towards the fight between Enflamed Quintet and Team Carbon. As Raul's aquatic GM mobile suit dived in and out of the waves of the tsunami, occasionally it would launch a burst of several missiles, only to be disjointed and deactivated by the Lee gundam's unique system. Yuu's Destiny gundam was flying around with its massive pink energy wings, wielding its anti-ship sword with two hands.

"Anti-Execution: Disruption!"

As Yuta called out the move he was executing, the thrusters on the Chaos Bullet gundam suddenly flinched – turning off and then on again in an instant. Despite being biomes away, the radius of the technique was so extensive that it even had an effect on a battle happening so far away. The Chaos Bullet stumbled in the air clumsily as it momentarily lost control over its thrusters. Mitsuo smiled at Yuta, who had, unknowingly to him, saved Mitsuo's life. The Gelgoog instantly dived deeper in to the forest which was now extinguished with the gentle rain coming from the battle between three aces. Disgusted by the interference from another battle, Spencer snickered and instantly pointed his missile launcher pod right at Yuu, who he mistook for being the one responsible for interrupting his missiles.

"You little piece of crap, mind your own business!"

With a loud, high pitched launching sound, dozens of missile shot out from all over the missile pods on the Chaos Bullet's body. Even hidden missile pods on his ankles, waist armor and even his head revealed themselves, all for the purpose of eliminating the pesky interference. Yuu turned her head a bit to the right, and clearly noticed the massive wave of missiles headed right at her. She laughed quietly to herself in a sadistic manner as her red ruby eyes widened in excitement.

"You've really got some guts haven't you, Enflamed Quintet."

The red wings on the back of the destiny gundam spread wide, creating an illusion of an incredible pink winged angel. Spencer laughed back, confidently taunting Yuu with his cocky, irritable voice.

"Ha, you can say that after you survive this!"

Instantly, the destiny gundam charged directly towards the wave of missiles, and as if magic, it sped right past all the missiles, emerging from the other side where the Chaos Bullet stood defenselessly. The missiles, now without direction or purpose, exploded right behind the Destiny Gundam as it continued charging right at the Chaos Bullet. A crimson beam formed in the center of the blue anti-ship sword, and with a slice down from head to toe, the Destiny Gundam cleaved the Chaos Bullet cleanly in half. Spencer wailed in fear as all he could see in the display of his camera was the fiery red eyes of the Destiny Gundam.

"Get away from me! YOU MONSTER!"

Yuu coldly laughed as the destiny gundam extended its right arm right at the floating remains of the Chaos Bullet, which was now cleanly cut into two pieces. A bright blue light glowed in the center of the Destiny Gundam's palm. An azure light of death.

"Disappear. Palma Fiocina."

A high pitched sound filled the biome as the small blue light morphed into a massive laser that engulfed the entire body of the Chaos Bullet. The beam was so massive that it was noticed by every battler present in the event, even Kosetsu and Elisa, who were in space, took a few seconds to acknowledge the massive beam fired from below. What remained after the blue beam died down and faded into nothingness were a few tiny pieces of burnt, smoking plastic. Mitsuo, hiding in the forest, sighed in relief.

"Thanks, you guys."

Yuu turned her head towards the trees, directly in the angle of Mitsuo's Gelgoog. Mitsuo instantly noticed the redirection of her attention, and froze in fear. The Destiny then turned around and zoomed off back towards Yuta and Raul after leaving a few final words for Mitsuo.

"I have no quarrel with you. I'll deal with you when I have a reason to."


The Sapphire Exia, steaming hot from the Overclock system, zoomed around the Space Biome, with sharp, unbelievable turns. The Crimson Legilis followed up behind the Exia, except much slower, and missing a few limbs. The Legilis, which was directly behind the Exia, shot out a few yellow beams at the Exia, only to be evaded with turns and twists. With an instant 180 degree turn, the Exia went from running away from the Legilis to dashing straight towards it in a matter of seconds, and with a lift of it's sharp GN blade, the Exia swung down right towards the Legilis. Elisa responded in and instant, but was a few seconds too slow, costing her an ankle and a leg. The Exia rushed past the Legilis, and each time it did, it would take off a limb. Elisa, despite being on the losing end, smiled in eagerness.

"This is great! This is the same feeling!"

Kosetsu raised an eyebrow while keeping her composure completely neutral. She called out to Elisa with her usual cold, emotionless voice.

"You keep on mentioning this Exia and how similar I am to it. Who exactly is this Exia?"

Taijin, who was keeping a careful eye on the Exia's internal systems, pitched into the conversation as well.

"Now that you mention it, you have been bringing up this Exia a lot. What's up with that?"

Elisa gently giggled as a golden beam shot out from the Legilis' left arm. She charged straight at the Sapphire Exia, who was covered in a thin layer of white, hot steam. Its eyes glowed blue in the mist that it created.

"That's none of your concern!"

The Sapphire Exia pointed it silver GN blade in response, and prepared to clash sabers once more. The two pilots kept a close eye on their opponent's weapon as the two mobile suits came closer.

Suddenly, a sharp pain shot through Taijin's head. He grunted in pain as he instantly recognized the familiar pain that engulfed all of his senses

"Crap…not again Kose-"

His desperate cry to Kosetsu was interrupted as he noticed that Kosetsu's hand was on her head, panting intensely. Her azure eyes widened in pain as she released her grip on the yellow plavsky controller. Glancing over the stadium, he noticed that Elisa was suffering the same pain, as she covered her face with her left arm, with the fabric from her Hakama gently over her nose.


Kosetsu's eyes flickered as she awoke up in an unfamiliar setting – In a grassy, fenced field under the shade of a single, giant tree. She looked around. Large, tan buildings with massive glass windows. A few high tech towers all over the vicinity. Rubbing her azure eyes in confusion, Kosetsu ruffled her hair as she stood up from the grass.

"Exactly…where am I?"

Wandering around in the field, Kosetsu looked carefully at the sky above her. It was a beautiful ocean blue with neatly arranged lines of clouds. A cool breeze rushed past her, brushing her soft cream hair. She continued walking around aimlessly in the field for a few minutes, until she heard an unfamiliar voice coming from inside one of the buildings.

"I hate you! I'm not going to accept this stupid teaching style!"

Instantly looking towards the building where the sound came from, Kosetsu noticed immediately where she was. On the building she was looking at, there was a large, concrete logo on one of its outer towers.

"The Gunpla Academy? The Academy for aces?"

Kosetsu's pace quickly changed from a stroll to a sprint, as she headed straight for the building. She didn't know what compelled her to head there as soon as possible, nor did she care. She was just strangely attached to the voice that she heard a few moments earlier. She dashed to the building's front door, and as she intended to open it, her hand simply phased through the handle. Curiously, she outstretched her hand, and just as she predicted, it phased right through the front door of the building. Ignoring the phenomena completely, Kosetsu simply rushed through the front door and proceeded up the stairs towards the origin of the voice. Despite having never been to the building, let alone seen it, she had complete knowledge of where to go and how to get there – knowledge that suddenly flooded her had as soon as she heard the mysterious voice.

Phasing through a wall, Kosetsu arrived at a packed classroom full of young gunpla builders of around 9 years old. None of the children seemed to even notice Kosetsu's presence, despite the fact that she just phased through a wall right into their class. There were packed desks in the classroom, with a young female teacher standing in front of them. The blackboard behind the teacher was filled with complex equations and battle plans – definitely not something an average 9 year old would understand. Looking around, Kosetsu failed to recognize almost all of the students in the class. Almost.

A certain black haired girl stood out to her. Although she was wearing the gunpla academy uniform and not her iconic Hakama, without a doubt the girl that Kosetsu was looking at was Elisa. Looking around, another kid stood out to her. A boy with dark silver hair and bright golden eyes was standing up from his desk alone, with direct eye contact to the teacher. He was the same age as the rest of the kids, and wore the tan gunpla academy uniform.

"Your ideology is horrible! Gunpla battle is all about having fun with your friends! What's the point of destroying them completely?!"

His young, high pitched voice shouted at the teacher in front of the entire class, with his golden eyes filled with passion and determination. The teacher, who was blonde with brown eyes, was completely unfazed at his statement, and glared at the boy aggressively.

"You don't know what you're talking about, kid. Gunpla battle is a game of victory and defeat, winners and losers."

"Shut up! You're the one who doesn't know what you're talking about!"

The entire class was silent as the confrontation between teacher and student began to heat up. Kosetsu simply stood next to the wall she phased through, and spectated the events that unfolded before her.

"Okay fine. Setsuna Shirokage-kun. I'm going to challenge you to a gunpla battle."

"Fine by me, Sensei! But if I win, you have to stop enforcing that kind of ideology! The second Meijin is long gone and we don't need another person like him!"

"Okay. But if I win, you're going to have to take part in my special training routine."

Elisa instantly stood up from her desk, whilst clenching her fist. She faced Setsuna with a serious, stern look.

"Hey, stop this! You're taking this too far! If you really battle Sensei, you're going to get your gunpla obliterated!"

Setsuna looked back at her, and argued passionatley.

"Stay out of this Elisa! You know how I feel about this kind of Ideology!"

"Of course I know, but it's all meaningless if you get destroyed in the process! Think this over, Setsuna-kun!"

"You're too scared, Elisa! Remember who I am! The ace, the one and only Setsuna Shirokage!"

"Idiot! You're an ace among students! The second you enter the realm of the teachers, you're nothing but cannon fodder?"

The teacher clapped her hands, and gave the two kids a malicious, evil look, indicating the end of the argument. She glanced at Setsuna, who was gritting his teeth in anger.

"So Setsuna? Are we doing this?"

Fixing his dark silver hair, Setsuna sighed and regained his composure. He returned the malicious look of the teacher, and his golden eyes glowed in rage.

"Of course we are!"

"Well, let's head to the battle room right now, shall we? Class, come along. This live gunpla battle will teach all of you how to eliminate squirming maggots that oppose your rule."

The teacher left the classroom, and the entire class followed her out of the door. Setsuna walked out of the door was well, with Elisa giving him a worried look as he left. Elisa sighed, and rushed out of the door along with the rest of her class. Kosetsu, who was left alone in the classroom, followed them without a single word.

Even walking down the Gunpla Academy corridor, nobody noticed her or felt her presence. She even tried to talk to child Elisa, but it was as if she were deaf to her words. Kosetsu sighed, and followed the juniors to the battle room.


The battle room was massive, which was about what you would expect from an academy specializing in teaching gunpla battle. There were so many machines of different sizes and specifications, as well as shelves lined with thousands of academy-built gunpla. The blonde teacher reached into one of the display cases and pulled out a random gundam – which just so happened to be gundam age's Legilis gundam. Snickering to Setsuna, she held up the gunpla with pride.

"So, are you going to borrow a school built gunpla? Or are you going to use your own?"

Setsuna smiled confidently, and tapped a black gunpla holder on the side of his uniform.

"I'm going to use my own of course!"

"Don't worry kid, this gunpla was selected randomly. I haven't done anything funky with it, it's just a straight build."

The smile on Setsuna's face grew as he lifted his right hand to ruffle his dark silver hair.

"The Legilis gunpla. The desperate attempt of the Vagans to copy the gundams. Fitting."

Ignoring Setsuna's taunt, the teacher turned around and proceeded to walk towards a random battle machine in the room. As Setsuna followed her eagerly, he was interrupted by Elisa, who grabbed him by the shoulder. She leaned over his shoulder and whispered

"Are you sure? You don't have to do this!"

Setsuna turned around and placed his hand on Elisa's shoulder. He smiled at her warmly.

"It's alright. Trust me, Elisa. I've got this in the bag!"

The teacher and student stood opposite a single activated battle machine, ready to fight. Their eyes met one last time before the blue plavsky walls rose in front of them.

"Please set your GP base"

Setsuna pulled out a custom student ID which also functioned as GP base, and placed it down confidently. Likewise, the teacher placed down a custom teacher GP base.

"Field 1 : Space"

The walls of the machine began to hollow out, and the particles rose from within. Fluctuating in color gently, they formed structures of asteroids, broken space debris and abandoned ships.

"Please set your gunpla"

The teacher set down the white default Legilis kit, and as the plavsky particles rose to scan it, its eyes glowed yellow. The yellow controller orbs rose and formed from within the pilot's cockpit, and the teacher gently placed her hands on them.

Setsuna reached into his black gunpla holder, and pulled out his gunpla. As he revealed it from its case, Kosetsu's blue eyes widened in shock. Setsuna placed down a custom version of the Exia gundam with twin GN drives on its shoulders as well as a GN condenser where the original GN drive was. On its waist were two GN swords, and on its right arm was a GN sword III. Its left arm also had a GN long rifle, as well as shields mounted on both arms. Without a doubt, Kosetsu could tell at first glance that she was looking at a gunpla which was of world class.

"Battle start"

"Setsuna Shirokage, Rising Exia, heading out!"

The Rising Exia shot out of the launching pad with an elegant barrel roll, leaving behind a trail of GN particles. After a few seconds of silence, Setsuna called out to the teacher on the opposite side of the battlefield.

"Not going to even announce yourself in the battle? That's unfriendly."

Suddenly, the Exia did a tumble turn and dodged a beam attack from the Legilis which came from above. The Legilis continued to fire from high ground as the Exia swiftly regained its composure. As another beam approached the Exia, it simply raised its shield up. The shield opened up into two pieces, and was simply absorbed into the shield with a satisfying high pitched ringing sound.

"Hey, I've watched too many of your battles. This is how you always start off, Sensei!"

The Rising Exia turned around, and fired a beam from its gn long rifle. The beam was easily dodged by the Legilis, who was leisurely floating above the Exia. Brushing her blonde hair, the teacher mocked Setsuna scornfully.

"I thought I taught you that the gunpla on high ground will always have an advantage!"

"I thought I told you that I refuse to accept your teachings!"

The Exia dived further downwards, and hid behind an asteroid which was further down below. The Legilis froze where it stood as it watched the Rising Exia dash behind a large space rock. Opening its palm, the Legilis fired several beams right at the asteroid, with the clear intention of reducing it into nothingness.

The beams hit the asteroid one by one, but none of the beams managed to even destroy the asteroid. Outstretching its left arm, the Legilis' shield opened up, and several beam bits emerged from within the shield. They emerged several at a time, and within a few seconds, the Legilis was surrounded by dozens of little beam bits.

Suddenly, the teacher noticed a sound emerging from behind the asteroid. The asteroid began to rotate around slowly, and it revealed the Rising Exia in a kneeling stance, with its GN sword III unsheathed. The Legilis withheld its fire as it observed the movement, or better yet the lack of movement, of the Rising Exia.

From behind the screen of blue plavsky particles, Setsuna patiently waited as the asteroid continue to rotate slowly. He noticed the other asteroids in the field moving as well, rotating slowly and sluggishly floating in a certain direction. Mentally counting to himself in his head, Setsuna closed his eyes and let his long dark silver hair cover his face for a few moments.

"Three, Two, One."

Like lightning, the Rising Exia pounced up from the asteroid, and charged straight at the Legilis. With one clean swipe from the GN sword III, the Legilis' right knee was cut in half. The blonde fighter grunted angrily, as the Legilis hastily activated its beam blade and swung to the right – only to see that an afterimage of the Rising Exia remained.

The Rising Exia slammed its red feet into another asteroid a few meters past the Legilis, and instantly pounced again, rushing past the Legilis, and this time taking away its entire left arm.

The entire class gasped in shock as the ace pilot Setsuna Shirokage was actually beating down a teacher single handedly. Kosetsu gasped as well, but for a completely different reason. The techniques that were being used by the Rising Exia perfectly and flawlessly resembled her techniques with her Sapphire Exia.

The Legilis was missing two limbs, and the Rising Exia was barely even scratched. At that point, the battle became so one sided that even the audience could tell who was going to win. Setsuna pointed his GN sword III at the teacher one more time, and gave her one last warning of mercy.

"Sensei, this is your last chance. I can spare this school owned gunpla if you surrender the battle this instant."

Kosetsu moved around in the battle room, and she stood behind the Teacher. She wanted to closely observe what she would do when backed into such a corner. After all, she was the teacher. There was no way she was going to put up such a horrid performance in front of her fellow students, let alone allow her idealism to be modified or even destroyed by some random kid.

Noticing some suspicious movements from the teacher, Kosetsu waked towards the teacher, and observed her movements closely. Suddenly, Kosetsu clenched her fists as she noticed something that changed the way she viewed the gunpla academy teachers completely.

On her side of the machine, the teacher opened up a secret panel that led to the inside of the machine's mechanisms. Her left hand was inside the panel, but the students barely noticed at all as they were all crowded around Setsuna and his side of the room. It was clear that she was fidgeting with things that were not meant to be touched in the middle of a gunpla battle, much to the blindness of all of the students. The teacher glanced downwards at the panel, and smiled to herself slyly before lifting up her left hand and placing it back on the controller.

The Legilis drew its right hand beam saber and charged right at the Rising Exia. Setsuna laughed to himself at how underwhelming and unintimidating the Legilis looked. It was missing an arm and a leg, and was on the verge of being destroyed. Nevertheless, The Rising Exia drew its GN sword III and also charged right at the Legilis for one last strike.

A few split seconds before the two made contact, the yellow controller orb on Setsuna's piloting screen turned red, and displayed an error message. When Setsuna turned his wrist to slice the Legilis in half, the Gunpla failed to respond, and the Rising Exia simply froze in place as it was cleaved in half mercilessly by the Legilis' condensed beam sword.

Setsuna stared at the screen in horror. His gunpla exploded before his very eyes in a single strike, and he could not do a single thing without it. He looked down at the controller, which had returned to being normal and yellow before the particles evaporated and disappeared. The entire room was completely silent.

Kosetsu stared at the teacher in disbelief, as she smiled cockily and said

"Well you lost. Looks like you're going to have to take place in my special training. Class dismissed. Setsuna, you stay right here."

The entire battle room emptied in mere moments, nobody uttering a single word as they left the classroom. Kosetsu stood completely silently, petrified.


Two days had passed, and Setsuna Shirokage had finished his "special training". He returned back to the school as a completely different person. The positive energy that he had constantly emitted to attract all of his friends had disappeared, and was replaced with an overwhelming negative, serious and dark aura. His golden eyes that were filled with enthusiasm were now in a misty topaz trance.

He would not even talk to his closest friends, including Elisa. He became isolated and lonely, not that it was something that bothered him. He was obsessed with gaining power and becoming stronger, eliminating distractions like "friendship" and "fun". This attitude went on for days on end, and in no time at all he was alienated. He spent his lunch alone in the workshop improving his gunpla, constantly conducting tests and experiments. Any gunpla that failed to meet his standards were thrown away and burned mercilessly – as opposed to his previous standpoint where each and every gunpla should be valued.

The whole time, Kosetsu watched closely as she watched this young kid transform into a clone of the second meijin.

One day, Elisa interrupted Setsuna in the middle of his building session. She grabbed him ferociously by the shoulder and they looked eye to eye.

"Setsuna, wake up!"

The misty, trance-like eyes of Setsuna failed to acknowledge the existence of Elisa, deeming her unworthy of even the slightest moment from his time.

"I have no interest in talking to you. It will not benefit my gunpla battle skills."

He then turned around, ignoring Elisa's grip and continued to work on his gunpla. He grabbed a file to his left, and continued sanding down a particular armor piece. He showed no emotion, let alone any sign of being human. Elisa and Kosetsu stood there for several minutes, and he didn't even show any sign of sneezing of coughing. After a few minutes of silence, Elisa began to shed tears in silence. Tears that were invisible to Setsuna. She wiped them off her face, and then yelled at Setsuna passionately.

"Okay fine! I'll battle you! Just wake up already!"

Setsuna froze, and stopped sanding the armor piece right as those words left Elisa's mouth. He stood up, turned around, and waked out of the door. Elisa pouted, and followed him out of the workshop door in silence. Kosetsu sighed, and phased through the wall to follow the two students.

The two students entered the battle room, and proceeded to march robotically towards the display shelves. Elisa walked behind Setsuna, and just by looking at his back, she began to tear up.

"Setsuna-kun…what happened to you?"

Setsuna reached into the display case, and pulled out a school built High grade Exia gundam. A default exia – which was one of the least picked models in the school due to the massive number of stronger alternatives like the Avalanche Exia or the Seven sword 00. Despite this, Setsuna showed no hesitation in the model that he chose and Elisa responded just as confidently. She walked past Setsuna to the next shelf, and then reached in deep into the section to pull out a very specific gunpla. She pulled out the default Legilis gunpla, the exact same model that was used by the teacher. Setsuna glared at the gunpla in Elisa's hands, but did not show the slightest sign of emotion. He didn't smile nor frown, much to Elisa's disappointment.

The two students entered the battle machine, and they exchanged fierce looks. Elisa glared at Setsuna with pride, yet at the same time a sense of regret and remorse could be felt in lingering in her eyes, whereas Setsuna just gave Elisa an evil and heartless stare.

Suddenly, without warning, Setsuna suddenly lost consciousness, and collapsed right before the battle started. The Exia left his hands gracefully, and landed on the floor with a loud thud, snapping off its fragile V-fin. Elisa quickly rushed to his side, and kneeled over his unconscious body. She turned him over and felt his pulse.

"No way…is it fading...?"

Elisa stood up instantly and yelled at the top of her lungs

"Somebody call an ambulance! Quickly!"


Kosetsu blinked, and in an instant she was back fighting against Elisa's Crimson Legilis. She scratched her head, as for a few seconds she had an intense ringing headache that dominated her mind and body. She looked around. Taijin was panting desperately for air, and Elisa was coughing severely. The three pilots were slowly recovering from the incredible phenomena that just occurred – they looked directly into Elisa's past.

Elisa looked up at Kosetsu, still coughing slightly.

"You…you're a pilot esper, aren't you?"

Kosetsu glared at Elisa with shock, with her head still ringing intensely. The headache began to die out slowly, and as Kosetsu regained composure, she regained her grip on the plavsky particle controller.

"I get it. The constant references to the Exia. I understand."

"YOU'RE A PILOT ESPER, AREN'T YOU?!"

Elisa raised her voice and began to shout at Kosetsu, who was still in shock of what just happened. She placed her palm on her face, and breathed in systematically. In and out, in and out. Her pupils slowly dilated, and then with the blink of an eye, she regained focus and consciousness. All in the meanwhile, the two gunpla, the Legilis and the Exia, were still floating in space motionlessly.

"Yeah. How can you tell?"

"I've spent a good chunk of my life in the gunpla academy, as you saw. Did you think I haven't encountered any world class espers? Did you think I never witnessed their powers?"

Kosetsu's eyes widened in confusion. She recalled her conversation and experiences training with her personal expert on the topic, Cindy.

"I was told that espers don't have powers."

Taijin looked at Kosetsu as well. All this time he was told that espers were just like any other person once they evolved from error to esper. He was told that he was no different, and that he was able to enjoy gunpla battle just like every other person. And for a while – he was enjoying it. Without a shred of doubt, so far in the tournament he was content in playing. But now, just like in the past, he was unable to enjoy gunpla battle due to the massive pain involved in even standing in front of a single machine. If this was what it meant to be an esper, it was completely indifferent. He felt his love for gunpla battle fade second by second, as his headache grew.

Taijin's complex train of thought was interrupted as the MC screamed out to all of the competitors

"Time up! Congratulations to everyone! According to points, the top five teams are Team Carbon, Quiver, Sober dance, Enflamed Quintet and Hollow Turtle! If you aren't in this list, don't be disheartened! There are 11 other teams that are advancing to the next day, please check the points list to see if your team is part of the lucky 11!"

Despite the deactivation of the battle machine beginning, Kosetsu and Elisa's conversation continued across the stadium. Seemingly ignoring the loud cheering from the audience from all sides, the ace of the school and the mysterious pilot esper continued their conversation from across the stadium.

"It seems like you've been mislead. You might want to talk to some expert on that."

"I definetly will. And was that…that alternate dimension…your past? What happened to Setsuna-kun?"

"That's none of your business. More importantly, it seems like this is the first time you've done that."

"Of course."

"Go have a talk with an expert. Make it urgent. And also…I'm not going to go as easily on your exia the next time we meet."

Elisa reached across the machines, and took her Legilis out from the machine. She looked at it blankly. It was in complete shambles, missing several limbs and suffering several casualties. But more importantly, she felt like during that battle, she took a really bit emotional blow. Elisa coughed, and then proceeded to turn around and walk towards the stadium exit.

Taijin tapped Kosetsu's shoulder, with the strained Flight Sapphire Exia in his right hand. He gave her a concerned look as his grip on the Sapphire Exia tightened.

"Hey…Kosetsu"

Kosetsu turned around, and sighed at Taijin. She glanced at him with her usual, emotionless stare before declaring

"We're going to visit Cindy tonight. Urgently."


Author's note:

Yo, It's Nekronous here. I'm sorry that this chapter took longer than usual to make, I hope that the fact that this chapter is the longest one so far makes up for the time it took!

I have to thank a very special person for making this chapter possible! This person has been a huge help creating the entire character of Setsuna Shirokage as well as raising a great idea for Elisa's backstory! Thank you, Code-Emperor07, I couldn't have made this without you!

Have a nice day!