Introducing a new character for Tres Espana. Although brief here, he will make a bigger appearance in future chapters. Thanks to S.C.O.R.P.I.O.N. Mal for your help and OC.(P.S. there's another character appearance at the end of this chapter)

A figure sat on a ledge a good distance away from Ariadust academy. He was stared at the sky with a blank look on his face, when a black screen appeared nearby with the words "VOICE ONLY" placed in a big red font.

"Hey! What the hell are you doing just lying around? You need to focus! I gave you a job!"

The figure sat up and yawned before making a bow and arrow appear and checking them for use later.

"Make sure you don't screw this up…"

"Don't worry," the figure spoke. "I'll make sure to finish the job…"

A Tres Espana Ship...

"So each group is trying to persuade the other to join them…"

Muneshige Tachibana and Gin Tachibana each sat at a table, watching the meeting being broadcasted (through unknown methods). Two figures stood nearby, watching the screen along with the Tachibana couple. Each of them had a similar appearance of a muscular baseball player, however one of them looked like an elderly man with a 5 o' clock shadow, while the other was younger and wore sunglasses.

"Well, it doesn't really matter what they do," the elderly man spoke. "They'll fall to us or the K.P.A Italia at one point or another."

"Do not take them lightly Takakane," Gin warned. "Sasuke was held off by one of them, despite not using his full power"

The man named Takakane laughed loudly "Guess that young fool wasn't as strong as he thought he was! Where is the little brat anyways?"

"He's busy practicing with his techniques and skills. He appears eager for a rematch with that student."

The younger man crossed his hands and gave a small chuckle.

"He's an arrogant loudmouth, but his secret string techniques were pretty formidable, so to think that this guy could hold him off…"

There was a long pause.

"Guess we could say he was all 'tied up' at the time!"

Although the young man was giving a bright smile, the atmosphere turned cold.

"Shut up Dimitri!" Takakane elbowed the young man hard.

"Ouch…" Dimitri wheezed. "Got it boss…."

Muneshige sighed before turning back to his wife.

"By the way, I heard we had a visitor earlier."

"Tes, it appeared to be someone from K.P.A Italia…"

Ariadust Acadamy...

"Huh, looks like we're drawing in a crowd…"

As Orotorai spoke, large groups of people began to flock to the area to watch the meeting being held. Among them were Ichijou Sakai, Masanobu the Politician, The owner of Blue Thunder, and several other familiar faces.

"Father…"

Masazumi turned her head toward her classmates with a determined look. However, she suddenly began looking around confused.

"Um, where is Kazu?"

"He's unconscious from an unexpected attack last night." Neshinbara explained in a slight bitter tone.

"What?"

"Should you really be concerned? Considering you're against us?"

The young politician(in-training) dropped her head for a moment before regaining her confidence.

"Well then, who's going to face me this round?"

The class just looked at each other sheepishly. Debate wasn't exactly their strong suit, and against the only politician of the class(and possibly the whole school), the situation seemed hopeless. But just then, Tori appeared, fully clothed and with an equally determined look on his face.

"I'll do it!"

Nobody felt confident about this, but then it was a better than volunteering themselves. Masazumi smirked, thinking it was going to be an easy win.

"Then, you agree to a debate for this round?"

"Sure! The faster we get this done, the faster we can go to save Horizon!"

She sighed at Tori's naïve personality.

"Well then," Orotorai spoke up. "Who wants to go first on this debate?"

"I'll go!" The naïve boy spoke up quickly, followed by an eerie silence.

"Uh, something wrong guys?"

"The one who goes first in a debate usually has the greater disadvantage," Masazumi explained. "Do you want to take it back?"

"N-No, I'm good with what I've got!" he spoke with a bit of uncertainty which suddenly grew into greater confidence.

"I'd rather go straight to saving Horizon and ignore all this stuff, but I'm gonna need everyone's help to do it, so I need to make sure we all agree on something."

There was a heavily silence as everyone waited to see how Tori would act.

"The debate here is about whether to save Horizon or not, and there'll be a lot of problems, regardless of what we do, so…." His face changed to appear weak and submissive. "...I guess we should just…give up on saving her…"

There was a short pause before everyone shouted in surprise

"EEEHHHHH?!"

"W-Wait a minute!" Masazumi spoke suddenly. "Why are you stealing my line?"

"Um, it's not exactly 'stealing' since we're supposed to pick a side…"

"But aren't you trying to save her?!"

"Well yeah, but I can't really think about any good arguments. Not mention…"

He slightly turned his head towards their teacher, who was giving a threatening aura as she smiled.

"How scary…"

"Seijun, like I said, I can't think of any good arguments, so I need you to help me out here."

Masazumi silently stared.

"So let's hurry up and finish this debate!"

She sighed.

"Fine then, let's start with the benefits of saving Horizon…"

Debate:

"If we decide to save Horizon from her execution, then we'll effectively have the right to proclaim our own nation. Since Horizon is effectively our leader, her reign can give Musashi its independence."

"What's the point of that? Does it really matter whether we're independent or not?" Tori asked confused.

"Tori, you want to help Horizon return to normal, right?"

"Yeah…"

"Well remember, her personality is split into several pieces, specifically, the Seven Armaments. Which are separated into several nations."

"Right"

"We'd probably have to go to war against the other nations to retrieve them, but to legally declare war, we need to be independent. In other words, the quickest way to possibly restore Horizon to her normal self, is to save her from her execution."

"I see. Well then…" Tori takes out a piece of paper with some writing on it, and begins to read.

"From the merchant Konishi, If we save Horizon, there'll probably be a significant number of deaths involved in the future. If that's the case, why should we save her?"

"Tori, do you understand the losses we'd face even if we did nothing?"

"Huh?"

Masazumi shook her head before continuing.

"I'll try to keep it simple for you, even though we did nothing, Musashi was charged for aiding a 'criminal' and breaking the law. Therefore, there'll be some charges and arrests made to satisfy the people who judge us."

"You mean…" Tori placed a hand over his neck.

"Probably, not to mention that there will be 'sacrifices' due to lack of supplies and insufficient numbers."

"So saving Horizon would probably save more people?"

"At the very least, it'll keep the number of deaths to a minimum."

"Hmmmm. Well let's get to the next question, from 'Mr. Anonymous', If our goal is to gather the Seven armaments and avoid destruction, then why not join other groups, such as the K.P.A. Italia and Tres Espana?"

"First off, it wouldn't save Horizon, which is supposed to be the main topic in this debate. Second, while joining another group would improve our chances of retrieving them, it wouldn't necessarily coincide with our goals; neither would it guarantee our safety in the future."

"Now then, for our next question, that comes from our very own Masanobu!"

"Huh?" Masazumi was surprised by this turnout.

"If we choose to save Horizon, it'll mean going against the whole world. Given this fact, wouldn't risking our lives to save this girl mean we would do it because it's right?"

There was a long silence as Masazumi began to think about the question.

"Ummm, I'm really confused," Kuina spoke up. "Isn't it an easy question for Seijun?"

"Not exactly…" Asama explained. "You see, it's not necessarily wrong for the execution to take place, as long as a reason and a legal charge were both given. But most of the other nations are still accusing this to be an evil act. Therefore, they're basically asking if we agree with K.P.A Italia, or the rest of the world…"

Masazumi began to bite her lip.

"I know what the answer is, but if I say something, then…" she looked towards her father, who simply stood in place without looking.

"But I can't just avoid this, I need to give them an answer…" Her hand started shaking from the terror of her dilemma.

"I….I…."

Just then, she felt something gently hit her head. She looked down, and saw it was the paper that Tori was using to hold his questions, crumpled into a round ball. She looked up at Tori, who was scratching his head and looking uncomfortable.

"Geez Seijun, why aren't you giving us an answer?"

"Huh?"

"You're the only one who legally has any rights left in this class. Even if you win, you're still gonna represent us in front of lots of other people, that's why…" he points his finger at the young politician. "You need to give an answer! Stop hesitating and tell us your reason and why!"

"But…"

As she spoke, she noticed some kind of movement among the rest of the class. Looking closely, there was a figure moving up to the front, with a familiar messy hair and a dark blue bandanna…

"Kazu?!"

She was surprised to see him out of bed already. Hearing the way they spoke about him, she assumed he wasn't going to participate.

"Yo, Kazu!" Tori spoke cheerfully. "Glad you finally made it!"

"Shut up Aoi, Ayumi forced me to get up here…"

The violet-haired girl moved next to Kazu, smiling and making V with her fingers. Suddenly, Masazumi heard footsteps behind her as Adell came up while holding a bucket filled with water.

"Oh, you guys already started huh?" she grinned embarrassed at her late arrival as she set down the bucket.

"Masazumi…"

Voices came from the bucket, which revealed to have Kuromo Algae inside. Masazumi took a handkerchief from her pocket and held out her hand as one of the Algae hopped on.

"Please save her…"

"Huh?"

"Please save her….save Horizon…"

"But…"

"Horizon said Masazumi is a Politician….Politicians help us…."

"But I…"

"Sacrifices…."

"What?"

"Sometimes….sacrifices….even if….scary…."

Suddenly, she remembered one of her first meetings with Kazu.

"Sometimes, you need to make some sacrifices, even if you don't want to"

Tears began to fall from her eyes.

"Are you ok?

She wiped her eyes with her sleeve.

"Yeah, I'm fine….Thank you…"

She smiled with confidence as she placed the Algae back into the bucket, and turned.

"That's right, even if it doesn't turn out right, even if father doesn't approve…"

"We would go save Horizon because it's right! To place her guilty for a crime she didn't mean to commit isn't justice. While it was true that Masanobu performed Mass Destruction on the nation of Mikawa, he still died from the same explosion, resulting in suicide. By law, the responsibilities would have been moved to the closest relative, but since Horizon was still recognized as P-01s at the time, she wasn't legally his child, and therefore had no close relation to him."

"Umm, then who's supposed to be the guilty party?"

"Survivors of Mikawa have moved into Musashi. Therefore, as long as they continue to hold their claim as residence of Mikawa, then the nation isn't technically destroyed, so nobody would need to be blamed!"

Masazumi paused for a bit before speaking out.

"In other words, to allow Horizon to submit to the execution is truly, an evil act!"

Everyone grinned approvingly, several people applaued, when suddenly, Kazu moved quickly and pushed Masazumi back, dodging a thin projectile which was revealed to be an arrow. The arrow was dug deep into the ground, only inches away from where Masazumi stood just moments ago.

"EEEEEEK!"

Tori cried as he stepped back from the fright. Everyone stared as they wondered where the shooter was. However, the bewilderment was short-lived as Kimi noticed something else.

"My, even with all the danger, they still take the time to do something that daring?"

Turning their eyes to the fallen duo, most of the people had devilish grins while a few others(mostly women) covered their eyes with their hands in embarrassment. Seijun opened her eyes and noticed Kazu was lying on top of her. Her face turned bright red as Kazu noticed the same thing, and began to blush while trying to avert his eyes. She screamed as she pushed him off and sat down, trying to catch her breath.

"Geez, still as innocent as ever…"

Kazu placed his hand on the back of his head to check for bumps while looking up at Masazumi. He was still blushing, but he smiled and placed a hand on her shoulder. She looked back and smiled as well, while placing her own hand on top of his. The heartwarming scene lasted a while before…

"Is this a bad time?"

A giant holographic screen appeared near the entrance, showing the face of a young boy with green eyes and wearing the standard K.P.A Italia uniform.

"Who the heck are you?!" Tori shouted.

"Greetings Musashi, my name is Micheal Heartmen, of the K.P.A Italia academy. I've come here to inform you all about the shocking news!"

"Huh?"

"I regret to inform you all, that as of three hours ago, Tres Espana has agreed to aid us in our cause to execute the criminal Horizon Ariadust. And when I say regret, I mean that your plan to save Horizon Ariadust is hopeless!"

"How did you…"

Michael smirked as he replied. "I'm a master strategist, better than my old man who personally, I'd say, is a stuck-up, overconfident, windbag."

"WHO ARE YOU CALLING OVERCONFIDENT?!" A voice roared out suddenly.

He cleared his throat. "Anyways, as a master strategist, I need to be able to read any situation and think 5 steps ahead, like a chess game. In other words, I saw you all planning to save Horizon hours before it even came to mind!"

"Then that arrow was from you as well?"

"Yes, and no…..you see, since we're allied with Tres Espana now, I've asked one of their members to do me a small favor…"

A figure appeared on the ledge holding a bow and arrow. It was a young boy with medium-lengthed black hair that was covering his left eye. He was wearing a cloak, as well as goggles that were hanging around his neck. But underneath his cloak, was the red and white from a Tres Espana uniform.

"He shot that arrow?!"

"He looks kinda dangerous!"

"What a show-off…"

Kazu and Ayumi both stared with wide eyes.

"It can't be…"