Chapter 24 - Power Distance

Mina knocked on Grind's door again. It was a little past midnight, and a deep blue light shone through the house windows. Ever since getting home six hours ago, Grind was holed up in his room. No light shone from under his door.

"Buddy? It's me. You okay?"

No response.

"You didn't have dinner"

No response

"And I've already dried the coat that you left out"

No response.

"Grind…talk to me. Please."

Mina leaned against the door, and slowly sat down. She felt the cold wood against her back as she lowered her head in defeat. Gentle rain pitter pattered the roof of the dorm. She closed her eyes. She felt brushes of cold air seep out from below the door. From the corner, Mitsuo's door slowly creaked open, his head emerging from the crack. He looked solemnly at Mina and shook his head in defeat. Mina sighed, picked herself up from the ground, and slowly walked to her room.

"The news report says that the flooding is gonna end tomorrow. Well, there still won't be any school for you yet. It's Sunday, after all."
"Thanks for letting me stay over all this time, Tobias."

Taijin and Tobias were lounging in the living room couch, playing a video game. It appeared to be a highly technical fighting game, full of nuance and complicated mechanics. Tobias' blonde fighter appeared to be juggling Taijin's green haired fighter in an absurd forty hit combo. Every time the character appeared to be free, Tobias came back with a vengeance and extended the combo. Taijin descended into button mashing."Okay, this is bullshit."

With three consecutive high kicks that trapped Taijin in the corner, Tobias kicked away the last few remnants of his life force. Taijin's life bar hit zero, and Player 1 won the game.

"Should I apologize?"

Tobias put down his controller and reached over for a glass of iced water on the coffee table. Taijin closed the video game in subtle frustration. Hard to blame someone who lost 30-5 in a game they didn't even know to feel a little frustrated. He changed the TV input, and the local news came stories today were typical. A reporter talked about the economic effects of the flood and how that would impact the town. A story about a young, talented archer was aired. A new season of a popular anime was about to hit circulation. One story in particular, though, caught Taijin's eye.

"Hey, Tobias, what's today's date?""Hm? Spring break was quite a while ago...May 4th?"

"May 4th...according to this story, the nationals are gonna be on July 10th.""During your summer break?"

"Well, the tournament committee can't exactly risk top players stepping away from the tournament for exam prep or whatever."

Tobias stood up from the sofa and reached for a bookshelf in the corner of the room. There were an array of novels, journals, biographies, research publications and more. Despite what many may assume, these books did not belong to Tobias' parents - he himself had somehow found time to read through each and every one of them, At some point, he had planned to revisit his favorites, but he found himself lacking the time. His finger brushed upon the spine of a thin magazine, and with a single motion, the book seemed to jump out of the shelf into Tobias' hands. It was the August release of a magazine exactly one year ago. Tobias knew exactly how to navigate the book, and found what he was looking for quickly. He walked to Taijin and handed him the open magazine.
"Take a look"
The double spread of the magazine page was fully covered by a colored photograph of last year's winning Gundam. It was a beautiful, tall, green mobile suit that Taijin could not recognize. It looked vaguely familiar, like it belonged in one of those older series. But clearly, it was something that later mobile suits would borrow from, as Taijin saw remnants of the Sinanju and Strike Freedom in its odd design. Tobias placed his index finger on the head of the mobile suit and looked at Taijin with a serious glare.

"It's the Palace Athene, from Zeta Gundam. This is a custom version made by last year's champion. It's the Palatine MK-III."

"MK-III? There have been three incarnations of this gunpla?""Yeah. Every incarnation since the MK-I has had a win rate of over 75%. The Palatine even made it a decent way through the International Tournament before getting knocked out by team Italy"

Taijin looked at the mobile suit closely. This was the gunpla to beat. Its surface had a glossy sheen to it. There wasn't a single nub mark in sight. The joints that connects the elbows and knees were a different, darker shade of gray compared to the usual - custom parts. And he didn't even know where to start with whatever it was on the Palatine's back. It was partially obstructed by fire and explosions, curse the photographer, but even if it wasn't Taijin was sure he wouldn't recognize it. Custom funnels? Boosters? Weapon holsters? His inexperience with the Gundam franchise crippled him.

Not only that, if this was the MK-III, it's likely that a Palatine MK-IV will be making its debut soon.

Taijin shot a glance at his gauntlets that lay on the coffee table. He genuinely wondered if it would be enough. No, he knew it wasn't. But how much further does he have to go? What does he need to do to go the extra mile?

While Taijin sat there, lost in thought, Tobias had apparently left the room. He came back shortly after with a USB drive in his hands. A piece of masking tape was wrapped around its handle, and on it was written "July20X3 Nationals".
"Let's begin our research."

Kosetsu sat on Cindy's guest room desk, carefully assembling and polishing gunpla parts. She looked to her rough notebook sketches for reference, and constantly found herself flipping from page to page. The Sapphire Exia, however, was nowhere to be seen.

Cindy was sprawled on the bed, casually on her phone. On it was a video replay of Kosetsu's very first skirmish against Spencer.

Cindy looked at it, uninterested. It seemed as though she was fighting back a yawn.

"You know, Kosetsu, it's not like you're on the same level as these people"

Kosetsu continued sanding her gunpla's armguards. Cindy swiped right, nonchonatly looking at the other video feeds. She dismissed Mitsuo, Grind, and Mina's fights. She continued swiping right until she realized there wasn't anything more to see.

"Ah, crap. I forgot that there's no recording of the final match."

Backtracking, Cindy swiped backwards. She looked at Mina's match first. She eyed Mina's Searing Impulse with an unimpressed, judgmental look. She watched it struggle against Yuu's Destiny. Honestly, she found it embarrassing.

"Look at this, Kosetsu…how'd you guys even pull through again?"

From the corner of the video feed, Taijin's booster came flying out from the gray hangar. Suddenly, Cindy was interested again.

"Oh. I remember now. Our operator friend really pulled his weight, huh?"

Kosetsu placed down her armguards and swiveled her chair around. She watched from afar as Taijin's booster meticulously unfolded and attached itself onto Mina's Searing Impulse. Just like that, the tides turned. Cindy whistled seductively.

"That is quite a machine, isn't it? Power output increase, firepower enhancements, operator repair systems…without all these boosters, your team would have probably lost quite miserably."

As much as she wanted to deny it, Kosetsu knew Cindy was right. Though her teammates were by no means bad, they certainly wouldn't have been a match for the school's aces on their own.

Without Taijin's ingenuity, they would have had a very short final day. Cindy noticed the sad glint in Kosetsu's eyes, and turned to face her. This was an opportunity she had to seize."I've been meaning to talk to you about this, Kosetsu.

Kosetsu looked Cindy in the eye. There was something serious about them this time.

"Don't you think that the skill gap between you and your teammates is a little…overwhelming?"

Kosetsu paused, tongue twisted. Cindy continued
"It's okay that you're doing your best here in this new environment, but I've seen this happen before, y'know. Someone so good comes along that everybody else wonders if they can even catch up to them"

Cindy sat upright, and turned off her phone.

"Your teammates are good people, you don't have to tell me that. But sometimes…y'know..being THAT good…it gets into people's heads.

"Kosetsu opened her mouth, as if to form some sort of rebuttal. The words wouldn't come. Cindy waited until they did.
"I don't think that they're the kind of people who would get jealous over me", Kosetsu said, unsure of her own words.

"That's what most people say, but it's not like you can look inside their heads, right? I know you mean well, but it's not your fault." Cindy rebutted. She continued "Think about it this way. You're a high schooler living with your friends, and you've been a Gundam fan for most of your life. Suddenly, this one person comes in, leagues beyond everybody. She carries your no name team to the last day of the school championship. She pulls your mopey dopey friend out of a depression while you couldn't. She totally destroys the defending team. And she does this all in less than three months of coming into your life. How do you feel? How are you supposed to feel?"

An awkward silence loomed over the two. Before Kosetsu could respond, Cindy did for her
"You'd feel terrible. You'd feel humiliated. You'd question everything you ever stood for."
"Cindy…"
"You'd wonder why you ever even tried so hard in the first place, right?"

Cindy was surprised at how calm Kosetsu was throughout the entire conversation. At the same time, she sensed a well of unease forming. In Cindy's experience, Kosetsu was never particularly compassionate or empathetic, and she was worried that she might lose her teammates because of it. Cindy knew it wouldn't have been the first time. She thought this was a conversation they needed to have.

"Nobody's going to doubt that you're an incredible fighter, but it's like you're on an entirely different level. Your teammates can't keep up with you. Honestly, they might as well have been anybody else - Taijin's boosters would have made up for the difference."

Swiping back to the first video in the thread, Kosetsu's fight with Spencer was brought up. It was noticeably shorter than any of the other fights.

"Look, you're amazing. Like, really amazing. Easily national level. Honestly, inter-school tournaments like that are beneath you. But there's a danger to that too. When you're up so high in the world, you can forget what it feels like to be on the ground."

Cindy looked at Kosetsu thoughtfully, proud of that last line.

"What am I supposed to do, Cindy?" Kosetsu flatly responded

"Huh" Cindy couldn't hide her surprise. Honestly, she wasn't prepared for this question. She was readying herself for Kosetsu to stubbornly deny her own skill, insisting that she wasn't far beyond her teammates. She came up with the best improv answer she could muster.

"That's not for me to say, Kosetsu. That's the kind of answer you need to discover for yourself. Only then will you find what you truly need."

"What a cop out answer." Kosetsu responded without missing a couldn't hide her embarrassment. Her face turned red.
"Anyways, just think about it!"
Kosetsu chuckled gently to herself, and then went back to building.

Mina Takahashi was the oldest member of Team Carbon, currently ranked #13th in her grade. She was stagnating at her previous rank of #21, but her decisive victories in Raizen High's tournament bumped her up a few ranks.

She lay on a bed that seemed a little too small for her. Or maybe it just seemed that way since dozens of stuffed animals cluttered what little sleeping space she had. Well, it wasn't just stuffed animals.

Mina reached over to her side and pulled out a brown notebook that hid under a stuffed bear. She pulled out a random page and sighed at its contents.

On the left page of the notebook, there was a small drawing of a gunpla stuck to the paper with what seemed like masking tape. The drawing was all in lineart and had a few rough edges, but it was sharp, concise and beautiful. On the corner of that page, "T.S". This was a drawing Taijin had created.

On the right page, a similar but imperfect drawing was drafted onto the paper. It was a clear homage to its partner on the other side - Taijin's drawing was probably used as a reference. Yet this drawing was noticeably worse. The lines were drawn over several times, producing thick, uneven outlines. The paper had an odd gray gradient which was probably the leftover of constant erasing. The bottom half of the gunpla sketch had faded away - Mina didn't even bother to finish it.

Mina sighed. She flicked forward a random number of pages. The format was the same. Taijin's on the left, hers on the right. The quality gap was closing slowly, but she still had a long way to go.

She closed the notebook and tucked it back under the teddy bear, ready for sleep to take her away.

"I think it's time I got back to the dorm."

Kosetsu's bag was already packed with all of her belongings, and all the spare clothes that Cindy lent her were neatly folded and placed on the bed. Kosetsu looked at the night sky through the guest room's window. There was no sign of rain, and there weren't even clouds to be seen. It was a plain black canvas. Cindy walked towards her and placed her hand on Kosetsu's shoulder.

"Aren't you going to bring back the parts you've already built? You've made some pretty substantial progress"

Kosetsu looked back to the large desk in the corner of the guest room. On it were the eight HG boxes, stacked neatly to the side, and a clutter of gunpla parts. The Sapphire Exia was tucked in the black gunpla case in Kosetsu's bag, undisturbed throughout the entire day. Kosetsu looked at the parts thoughtfully.

"I think it's better if I leave the parts here. I'll stop by frequently to continue building this in secret."

Cindy shot Kosetsu a knowing grin.

"You want to treat my house as your little secret base?"

Kosetsu looked at the parts, proud of its quality. She put her heart into each individual part, and it showed. But at the same time, she felt oddly guilty about it. The parts were indicative of her incredible abilities as a builder, standing far above her teammates'. With the possible exception of Taijin, it wouldn't have been an unreasonable claim to state that Kosetsu was the best building in Dorm C2. She thought about what Cindy told her earlier.
When you're up so high in the world, you can forget what it feels like to be on the ground.
She looked back at Cindy.

"If it's not too much trouble. Please."

Cindy smiled, sincerely proud. "I see you've thought about what I said earlier", she said. Kosetsu simply nodded.

"Well since you asked so nicely, I'll happily oblige. Your progress in this room is absolutely confidential."

Cindy clapped twice, and before Kosetsu could even reach the door handle, it swung open from the outside. A butler held open the door for her as she walked past, with Cindy trailing her not far behind. Cindy leaned over to the butler and whispered
"Don't let anybody besides me and Kosetsu into this room"
"Kosetsu and I, milady"
Cindy gave the butler a playful jab, and quickly skirted away, catching up to Kosetsu.
"Anyways, since you're letting me on your little secret, I might as well let you in on one of my own."
Kosetsu's pace slowed, and her blue eyes widened in curiosity. Cindy grinned.

"I'm home."
Kosetsu said, though she didn't expect anybody to hear her. It was past 2:00AM, and she didn't bother to turn on the lights. She hadn't been living in the dorm for too long, but her memory never failed her, so she knew how to navigate from the front door to her room in the dark. Before she could make her way down the corridor to the stairs, she heard footsteps approaching from within the house. From the dark, Kosetsu could barely make out who it was.
"I know it's a little late, but do you mind battling me?" Grind asked.

A.N

Hello hello!

Thank you for sticking with the story so far, and I hope you liked this chapter. I'm hoping to develop some of the characters that desperately need it throughout the story, since I've been so cruel as to neglect them so far with a bland, rice-cracker personality. Hopefully this makes this a little more interesting.

Things are moving along swiftly. Don't worry.

Have a nice day!