"You no good, lying traitor! Your family mourned for you, the rest had to walk on eggshells around them for six months, six months!, I almost went back in to avenge you and you know full well how that would have gone over with my family! I may have left for seven years to protect them but at least they knew I was alive! You had better have a good reason for what you pulled or I am going to put you in the hospital and reveal everything to your family!"

"Coranalis Kerenai-Masaki"

That stops the fight mid strike and everyone there realized that something important was going on between the two, though they weren't sure what it was

"Are you absolutely sure about this strike shadow?"

"Positive, four out of the six months spent in that desolate situation would make anyone positive"

(Sighs) "okay fine you win, government at least knows the truth and I'm sure you are planning on the truth to be revealed when possible right?"

"As soon as it's taken care of POTUS will reveal everything"

"Fine I'll keep quiet since I know the situation now, but if you need back up you call me understood?"

"Perfectly"

"Oh and by the way, if you and POTUS break your word you're on my list"

"Which list exactly?"

"The one that says you're in trouble with me, friendly forces version, basically you are to warn the white house that if there is a delay the person who had to deal with itching powder for a week got it easy, delay it unnecessarily and you and POTUS both have a month of whatever I come up with, the longer it's delayed the more months are added to it, especially since you betrayed the oath that was made four years ago the oath that we agreed we had to make for a reason"

"I may have made that oath four years ago, but there is another deeper oath that you are not aware of Clair, you left your home for seven years and we made a vow to either force you to come to your senses or...to kill you if we had no other alternative, but at the same time we noticed that everyone was acting strange in regards to your betrayal and as such we figured that maybe, just maybe you might have had a reason to betray us, as such while we vowed to either kill you or bring you back to your senses we also made another vow that is reaffirmed every year no matter where we are or what we're doing, and that vow is to do everything we can to protect our friends and family like you were doing if you truly had a reason to leave us, the only thing that has changed in our vow is when we discovered that you did indeed have a reason we changed the wording of our vow slightly but we've been holding true to that vow for over ten years Clair, you're not going to get us to break that vow now no matter how much you tried"

"Okay let's see, seven years undercover, one year spent recovering, four years spent in school and a year thanks to that incident being spent in the police academy that means...you've been keeping the vow for almost thirteen years now"

"Exactly Clair, you know just how deep that kind of vow/oath can be for someone"

(Sighs) "Okay you've made your point, however I am still adding time if needed to teach you a lesson about not revealing pertinent information faster understood?"

"Perfectly"

"Good"

"So continue the spar?"

"Fine by me strike shadow, the guys have already gotten a version of hand to hand at the start but this, this is true hand to hand, as such full contact strike shadow"

"Any restrictions?"

"Yep, no lethal blows and nothing that disables either of us for longer than seventy-two hours and you know full well why I need that restriction"

"Yeah I know, especially since you have other automatic restrictions in place as well"

Fifteen minutes later the match was over (at least to the observers) and both of them were on the ground breathing hard and the cadets and instructors knew just how hard that was in regards to getting Clair to that point, the instructors more than the cadets

"So...tie...Kerenai-Masaki?...right?"

"Sorry...no...tie...this time...need definitive...winner...for reason...and you...know that"

"Just let...me catch...my breath"

Two minutes later the match was definitively over in strike shadow's favor due to a move he used against Clair and she didn't have time to counter it

"So why did you say a definitive winner was needed, and did you let him win Kerenai-Masaki?"

"No instructor Carson he won fair and square, the reason a definitive winner was needed this time was to show you that the fight isn't over until the fight is really over with the opponent either unconscious or dead in the opponents where you have to use these skills"

"Fine, before he leaves does anyone have any questions for strike shadow?"

There were a few cadets that did but before he left strike shadow said something that was confusing to everyone but Clair since it was a special code between EDC kids

"As you know Clair that rule has been passed down for a long time between us special people and that rule is being activated"

"I understand, is a code 493 also involved?"

"Not yet, but only you and those who know my full assignment will know the emergency code"

"Strike shadow..."

"That's all you'll hear in public, but anyways I need to give you the emergency code"

"Fine, I know where we can talk in private so that you can give me the emergency code"

They go to a small area away from everyone else

"Okay so what's the code?"

"The emergency code is 'I'll see you in Paris' when you hear that you know to come get me"

"Understood and by the way once this is over you're seeking therapy, period and you know full well why I am demanding that"

"Indeed I do and will gladly obey"

The cadets continue with hand to hand for the next month and the cadets also learned to be careful around Clair during that time because of an accident once. Clair had been fighting another cadet and the cadet actually managed to defeat her, unfortunately that cadet was a recent transfer and didn't know about her and as such bound her with rope, gagged her and then blindfolded her, and since the cadet didn't know her he didn't see the signs that other cadets had realized they had been seeing from the start about a bad night and Clair had definitely had a bad night the night before, waking up three times, twice with a weapon in her hand, as such she went into an immediate flashback and started fighting people who weren't actually there, kicking and screaming through the gag, and the instructor who decided to undo the bond immediately also payed the price by being bitten by Clair and also kicked in the knee

"Sting-ray Kerenai, Sting-ray"

It takes a few moments but soon all that's heard is Clair's harsh breathing from coming back from a flashback that involved fighting

"I hate it when that happens"

"We forgot to warn the transfer"

"Do it, for now...for now I think I need a break"

"Agreed, it happens again tonight you're seeing someone"

"Understood"

Strike shadow comes in for another lesson a few days later and teaches everyone some techniques that would be really useful against opponents like Quintessons or aliens similar

"By the way they mainly use Sharkticons to fight but they do occasionally fight themselves, which is why you're learning these techniques"

"True but punching those guys is hard and hurts no matter how many times you do so"

"Yeah, that happened to you how many times?"

"Don't ask, almost happened during those seven years too, but got lucky, would have been dead for sure if we ever encountered those creeps. By the way how long can you keep this up considering your current situation?"

"This is the last lesson, someone else might take over, they might not but not sure"

"Fine, and yes I remember what you told me last lesson"

"Okay just making sure"

Strike shadow does his lesson of the day and once more he and Clair sparred until there was a definite winner mainly for the transfer's sake but also as a reminder to the other cadets that they were serious when they said it wasn't over until it was over in the fights they were talking about

"By the way even though we haven't told you everything, when going up against an EDC enemy use everything you have to your advantage, because they will, as such if I have a bad night they will use that against me to try and force me into a flashback or PTSD episode, it's part of why I still see a therapist at need because I will always have PTSD, I just simply have more good days than bad days but since I do still have bad days I know to seek help at need"

"Kerenai is right, I've been up against them myself and they will use everything to their advantage, I had a broken arm when I went up against five Lorini by the end of the fight I had to have the arm recast-ed and initially they weren't sure if I would need surgery or not and I was told that it was a distinct possibility until they saw how the arm started healing, and as for her PTSD she will always have bad days, but good days outnumber bad and she knows how to handle her condition, I get that you're trying to avoid triggers and I'm sure she appreciates that but at the same time if this type of sparring is needed don't hold back and if she triggers the instructors have a means of bringing her back to the present"

"For now though today's lessons are over with and everyone can relax even though it's still the middle of the day"

"Sir?"

"We just received some intelligence from the FBI about that group that has the Russians now after them, they need to talk to us professors and even you Masaki, something about a code they have no clue how to translate and don't want to bring any of your family into it for some reason"

"Okay, by the way you might want to use the cadets for other research like they're supposed to be doing on this group, because if they move and we have no possible locations..."

"Except the FBI said they needed a break, they've been sending what research they can to the FBI since this whole mess began, the FBI said if they don't get a break soon they're going to force a break on you cadets, and it won't be a very nice way of doing so either"

"Okay they win"

"Thought they would"

Clair goes and easily recognizes the code due to the fact that it's a unique code that not many are exposed to

"Well I can easily decode this but I can't tell you how, mainly because you literally can't recognize and decode this with just one example, you have to be constantly exposed to this code in multiple formats and they're changed up constantly for just this reason by the way"

Clair decodes the message to find out that the terrorist group was meeting and planning to disrupt the United Nations conference

"Okay we've got it from here then"

"Okay, glad this ends before other cadets have to deal with this"

"Agreed"

"By the way Kerenai, we know that undercover missions are forbidden by international agreement for you but at the same time we're having some trouble with a case that was assigned to the academy as such we..."

"You know full well international law can't be broken"

"But Masaki..."

"No, I am not disobeying an international law, I am Clair Kerenai-Masaki and I will never break the law, you're going to have to figure out something else"

"At least let us finish, as I was saying as such we need some insight about what our undercover people might be doing wrong since you definitely have experience in undercover work"

"Let me look at the assignment and I'll try and help you figure it out"

By the end of the day Clair had gone to the gym and everyone could tell just how mad she was because she destroyed two punching bags, a training robot and broke her hands in two places each due to concrete walls