Author's Note: The action begins. Hold onto your seat belts, you are in for a long ride. Just for spoilers sake, Class 3-Plum students vs Makiko Oriotoria.

Arc II - Chp. 7 ; 26 - Chasing

The automaton, Amagi, ran across a shaded wooden street, sprinting towards the direction of the blue-dressed teacher as she sped by from far away. She glanced up in a brief moment to see that the rest of the students were speeding after her. "It seems class has initiated. Will begin observation now."

The students began to run after her, some slower than others. Neito made a mental note to keep her distance between Margot and/or Malga, she did not wish to set the blonde seraphic off again like yesterday. Hituro kept a watchful eye on her, concerned for the silver wolf. He couldn't say it, but he cared for her deeply, but was it because of that other girl, or who Neito is? He mentally shook his head, he had to concentrate on the task at hand.

Masazumi on the other hand, was much more determined. She had missed the last session before Toori's confession, she now wished to make up for it. As Ichijou and Tsukasa sped past her, she glanced at Neshinbara's direction to see he was formulating some sort of plan. Despite the way he felt, he still intended to help the others succeed in passing this test. "Hey, Neshinbara?"

Masazumi's voice caught Ayumi's attention as she turned to see what the conversation was about, but she'd wait before getting involved. Neshinbara dryly turned to her.

"Do you have any ideas?"

"Heh?" Neshinbara crossed his eyebrows. "Ideas?"

"Yeah..." Masazumi nodded her head and turned it forward. "We're going to need a strategy on catching her."

"Is Makiko really that good?" Ayumi called out to the vice-president. Masazumi blinked from the sudden question, but then nodded in confirmation.

"She's a brute with unimaginable agility. Not one of us has managed to land a hit on her since Grade 5, from what I hear. I transferred here only a year ago, so..."

"That's fine, don't worry about it, VP..." Ayumi closed her eyes and gave a heart warming smile. "I'm sure you'll end up helping the group here in the long run."

"Thanks... So, Neshinbara, anything?"

"Well, I think I may have something, but..."

The 'but' worried the politician. "But what?"

"Formations and attack patterns won't work on her. We'll have to try leading her to a special place, but since she's the one running, we can't lead. We'll have to take the dance by storm and take her to a place she can't easily escape from."

"And how do we do that?"

Neshinbara didn't want to say what he was going to, lest it involve hypocritism. Honestly, he hated being around so many people, yet he loved it at the same time. He must have been claustrophobic or something, but he didn't know how to put it in any other way. "We'll just have to work... together..."

Masazumi could sense the hesitation in his voice when he said that word, and Ayumi obviously picked it up as well. It must have been a girl-thing to know when guys seemed doubtful about anything, especially when it came to asking for direction... to anywhere.

"Do you have a problem with working with others?" Ayumi questioned.

"No, it is just I..." Neshinbara's mouth froze, he didn't know what to say. So he simply turned back to his sign frame with a small frown. Ayumi could only sigh.

"Don't worry about it..." She sped up ahead to the others as Masazumi attempted to go on as well.

Far ahead, Makiko calmly ran on a dirt path through the trees in Remourse Way. Then, she heard someone behind her. She turned her head to see Tenzou sprinting up behind her. "Hey, Tenzou. You will be first up, today?"

"Jud!" Tenzou shouted. He started to sprint faster. Makiko jumped out of the forest and over the trees to find Kiyonari flying right next to her. His viewable eye turned to her as he rotated his body, preparing to obtain his instructor.

"Come to me, Makiko!" the half-dragon shouted.

Surprise was wore on Makiko's face, she had never expected the class to catch up to her so quickly. She smiled on the inside as Kiyonari closed in to grab her, they have really improved since they rescued Horizon and the TRUMP attack on the vessel. But, as much as she wished to allow the half-dragon to hold her in his secure embrace, she would really make them work for it. Makiko lifted her leg and firmly placed her foot on the half-dragon's chest. Kiyonari did not prepare for this.

"Sorry, Kiyonari!" she yelled as she kicked herself away from his being.

"No!" Tenzou couldn't believe their plan had failed. "Noriki, we are counting on you!"

"No problem." came a muffled voice out of nowhere which could be seen.

Makiko heard him as she flipped onto her feet, landing on a roof of a long building, and dashed the opposite way of the group. "Where is he anyway?" As Makiko sprinted forward, the part of the roof was busted into peices short ways infront of her. Noriki came into view, jumping infront of her, if only a few meters infront of her. Makiko's world froze as a revelation beset her. It's only been five minutes and they have already managed to trap me twice!

Noriki proceeded to land a blow to her, she should be moving too fast to him and be too close to properly manuever her way out of this punch. Makiko was able to tell where his fist was headed, right into her chest. Her lifted foot finally made contact with the ground, Noriki's fist ony mere inches away, she twisted her foot to the left, allowing her to elegantly and quickly spin out of the attacker's way.

"Huh?" Noriki said with a surprised look on his face, his fist still extended to nothing as the others came forward. It happened so fast as Makiko dashed right by him, her speed causing his short hair to sway behind him slightly. He stood dumbfounded, looking straight ahead of him.

"You missed me, Noriki!" Makiko called out far behind him. Noriki, plus Kiyonari and Tenzou let their heads fall in defeat.

"If you know it, then you don't have to say it..." Noriki grumbled under his breath. The others sped by him, some nodding at him in appraise of his effort.

"Sorry, Noriki!" Hituro shouted as he quickly ran by.

"Yeah, yeah..."

Far below, the automaton spy followed far behind the group, analyzing their attack patterns and team strategies. "Hmm... Needs work." She dashed forward, easily maintaining her pace with that of the students she was studying, being sure to memorize their faces and their identities.

Makiko continued to run ahead as the others began to catch up.

"Darn her..." Neshinbara zoomed out a live image of Makiko running on his signframe in front of him. "It's almost like no matter what we do, we can't seem to hit her..."

"Then maybe we shouldn't try to hit her." Masazumi stated.

"Huh?" Neshinbara tilted his head awkwardly, questioning the girl's suggestion. Masazumi then turned her head respectively.

"Uh!" she snapped. "What I mean to say is we use an inverse polarity tactic, a support style of some sort."

"That could work, but it would only buy us time."

"Well, it's something."

"Judge." the clerk arranged his glasses with a pessimistic glance and called up Margot and Malga on a sign frame. "Hey, everything okay up there?"

Margot waved to him on the interface with a smile. "Yes, sir!"

"You two think that this will be possible?" Neshinbara pulled up bits of info, info Margot clearly understood.

"Ga'chan and I will see about it."

"You can count on us, Neshinbara." Malga said.

He merely nodded, then turned to Masazumi. "Let's see if your idea bears fruit."

Far ahead, Makiko ran over a long roof top, another jump several hundred yards away. Across from her, Futayo ran full speed ahead, totally going past her. I think she's missing the point of this exercise... Then, out of nowhere, an arrow flew past her. "Huh?"

Not far back, Tomo, Kimi, and Adele were catching up. Makiko smiled. "There's no way I'm going to let them catch me." The instructor proceeded to run faster as Tomo prepared to fire again.

"Adele, now!" Tomo called out.

"Judge!" In an instant, Adele used an acceleration spell and speeded towards Makiko, lance at the ready. With a brief battle cry, she striked at her instructor with the heavy lance. Makiko dodged it with a smirk, knowing Adele could not hit her with her excellent flexibility. Adele continued to strike, not giving any kind of opening.

"Come on, Adele, you can do better than that!" Makiko boasted.

Far back, the Shrine Maiden aimed at the distracted teacher. "I'm locked on!"

"Then fire it." Tsukasa said. "Don't waste time sayin-"

Tomo released the arrow with a loud noise, causing the special unit to halt his words with a smile, and it flew fast! Ahead, Makiko was just reaching for her sword when she saw the arrow, blunt tipped, out of the corner of her eye. Glancing back at Adele, she now restricted all forms of dodging the arrow, it was either the lance, or the arrow now, but there had to be a way out.

Makiko stopped running and let her legs slide in opposite directions. She did a perfect split, sitting proportionatly upright, poking everything good about her body out, Hituro, Tenzou, and Kiyonari had to catch themselves. Tsukasa merely raised an impressed eyebrow.

"This chick's better than I thought she was..." he said to himself.

Makiko's new position caused Adele to trip over her leg and Tomo's arrow to fly completely over her. They failed to land a hit.

"No!" Tomo whined.

Adele slammed against the roof and skidded slightly. "Ow..." Makiko hopped back up to her feet and sprinted towards the fields west of thier position. Most of the class had caught up by this point and were hot on her tail.

"She's going to probably use the electronic windmills as her method of getting to the fields." Neshinbara suggested, panting heavily.

Masazumi was beginning to feel her fatigue settle in as well, and she agreed with Neshinbara's assumption.

"Is that where we want her?"

Neshinbara studied the area a bit, but then shook his head. "No..." He looked back ahead to the tall climb up they were taking along the roofs of various buildings. Currently, the class was chasing their teacher up a slanted inclined plane that lead to a very high level. "We want her to be somewhere high, but it doesn't need to be of important significanse like those windmills. They are large, about 54 meters tall with three large spinning "blades" to catch the wind. My plan cannont work on those, they are too expensive."

"Judge." Masasumi resumed to looking forward. "Malga, Margot, you're up!"

Far ahead, the wind feilds closing into view, Margot and Malga were approaching Makiko from behind fast. "Jud, Masa-chan." Margot chimed. "Let's go, Ga'chan."

"Mm." Malga nodded, slight hesitation present. She pulled up a eight sided signframe, it's shape resembled a jewish star, and took out her pen. "Okay, I'm tracking the target and setting the path. Remember, we can't afford to take out even one of those fans, okay?"

"Yeah, yeah, I know, Ga'chan." Margot said with a smile. "Here we go!" She sped forward with the broom they were sitting on as Makiko reached the ledge of the metal climbing ramp.

Makiko turned around to see Tsukasa pulling out a pistol. "Oh, one of the new students, huh?" She wondered what this kid could do, as this was her first time coming against him, but then, she could see he stammered, and reholstered it. "Must not be an opportune moment, what a shame." She pressed forward and took a leap off the edge, and now gleamed over 30 stories above the bright green feilds far below, then she landed on a circular ledge around the pole of the windmill, then, a coin hit the floor next to her feet.

"Heh?" She peered around to find Margot getting ready to fire another coin at her. Pleased, she proceeded on the short platform and jumped to the next windmill.

"There she goes!" Margot shouted, before beginning to fire at her.

Makiko heard the shots go off and she pulled out her sword to reflect the shots away. Not far behind, Neito in the lead, the class reached the edge of the ramp and one by one, took a jump to the first windmill. Flipping, Makiko landed on her next target and immediatly jumped to the next.

"Ga'chan, now!"

"Judge!" Malga stood up holding a purple filled glass ornament, twice the size of a hand grenade. "Go!" she yelled as she threw the circular vile at Makiko. The glass grenade flew ahead of Makiko.

"What the?" Makiko said, preparing to land in the next second.

The glass grenade landed and shattered onto the platform ahead of her, releasing a purple gas and light glowing purple liquid all over the base. Makiko landed in it not a second later and jumped off to her next destination.

"Darn it, she's too quick! That was supposed to get her all wet and sticky..."

Tsukasa emerged on a signframe to her side. "Isn't that phrase a bit graphically suggestive?"

"Wet and sticky?" Margot said, ignoring Tsukasa's blant statement. "Isn't it supposed to be an orangish color then?"

"Heh? But if that wasn't it, then..." Malga looked ahead. "Oh no!"

Hituro gulped and exchanged a glance with Kuina. "I'm going to guess that "oh no" isn't a good thing."

"It usually never is." she replied with a smile and a lifted index finger.