Sorry for the very late upload. Got sick, got slightly better. Now here we go.

Disclaimer in chapter 1

Chapter: 4 The Duel

_Flashback_

** Arena 2, 4 Days Ago**

"What did you say?!" Mira Katane spoke in a loud and shocked tone, mouth and eyes agape. She heard Dart say one of the most idiotic things anyone has even said. What he said was both flattering to her, and suicidal to him.

"I said I want to beat Alcott using the same practice IS you're using." Dart repeated, making this comment much clearer.

"W-why? Using a practice IS model in a fight against a personal IS, especially against by a Candidate Representative will make you look like a joke and you'll lose in less than a minute!" Mira exclaimed looking at the boy with his black personal IS active. She tried to convince Dart to use his personal IS instead.

Like it was none of his business, Dart stared up into the sky deeply recalling a fictional man.

"There is a man that I once admired, Char Aznable. His philosophy told that battles weren't just won by the most impressive or powerful suit, it mattered on how skilled the pilot was, and that is what counted." He stared down from the sky and towards his tutor with a determined gaze, "I would like you to teach me how to pilot the same suit you're using so that I can relive his philosophy and take down that spoilt girl down a few notches with how defeat tastes like."

Mira blinked twice feeling a blush come onto her face being flattered. She just heard the words she can't say no to come out of his mouth, wishing to be trained by her more and having more private lessons.

"O-okay!" Mira agreed. "For the price of teaching you how to pilot an Uchigane within the next four days, you have to go on a date with me next Saturday!" She boldly announced.

"Deal," Dart replied with without a second thought. All that mattered was pushing Alcott off her high horse and if one date was the price for doing so, it was worth it. "But you'll have to be the lead because I'm new in Japan and don't know any places of interest."

Mira nodded with a small smile on her face, pleased to grab a date with a boy next week. "Fine with me. Just remember to hold your end of the deal!"

Flashback End

**Present, Arena 2**

The female crowd fell silent watching the three IS in the sky, two of which are personal and the other was a training suit. They began to giggle with ridiculousness, laughing directly at Dart for fighting in a training suit when the chances of winning are against him.

In one of the spectator rooms in the launch bay, Yamada and Chifuyu stared puzzled asking themselves why Dart would be using a training suit, when Dart even told Chifuyu he had a personal IS.

"Chifuyu, I wonder what Dart is up to using an Uchigane against two personal IS…" Yamada openly wondered sitting at a desk in front of a long control panel. Chifuyu stood behind Yamada, wondering the same thing. No, if Dart had something up his sleeve or refused to use his personal IS for another reason.

"Either Dart is a liar proclaiming he has a personal IS, or that he doesn't want to show it yet." She assumed. "Or he could have more experience in an Uchigane and wants Alcott or Orimura lower their guards, thinking he is an easy prey."

Back to the field, Dart unsheathed his Uchigane's steel katana and held it to the right side, trading focused eyes with Alcott.

'Just like Katane taught you, Dart.' The boy thought to himself in order to hype him up. He was feeling anxious due to experiencing his first battle in an IS suit. The controls of an IS were simple enough, resembling the control spheres used in Gundam Build Fighters. Press buttons located in the metal hands of an IS. In theory it was easy but moving the IS in practice was another story.

"By using a practice IS you're practically giving away your freedom, something I shall gladly take away from your beaten and humiliated body, Silver!" Cecilia loudly and annoyingly claimed with a smug look on her face. In her mind the battle was already determined, however she didn't know that Dart wasn't a simple beginner.

[Locked-on]

A prompt appearing on Dart's HUD informed he was being targeted first. So be it, Dart was ready for this blond.

"If I was using my personal IS instead of this one, your IS wouldn't stand a chance." Dart retorted. "Stop the chatter, and let's dance!"

*BLEEP*

The buzzer went off and signaled the start of the fight. Cecilia aimed her Starlight sniper rifle at Dart and fired a powerful beam. Dart evaded to the right and flew down to the ground and got some space between the two. She was a ranged pilot so staying at far as he could helped him evade the beam shots more effectively.

Dart had a plan and that was to strategically stay back and observe her arsenal as she fought. The rifle was a clear sign she was a sniper, an advantage he had. He continued to fly up against the wall on the ground around the arena, evading her shots.

"Hah! Weak boys will always be weak boys!" Cecilia continued her banter as she fired at one second intervals.

Seeing this opportune time to attack Cecilia while she was distracted, Ichika charged to her with sword in hand. Cecilia noticed Ichika's attempt, stopped firing her sniper rifle and detached her four fins from the sides of her IS and launched two fins at each boy. Ichika pulled back and focused on the funnels.

'Funnels? Is this kindergarten?' Dart asked himself rhetorically having a lot of experience from combating funnels from the simulators. It was almost child's play for him now.

The two funnels pursing Dart kept firing, but due to Dart's experience with funnels he evaded left and right, dropping speed and accelerating. The mystery why the funnels were firing and Cecilia wasn't got on Dart's mind.

'Why isn't she firing her rifle? Does it need to recharge, or does it mean she can only focus on one thing at a time? But…with a sniper rifle and four funnels means she is a pure long range pilot.' Dart stopped flying around the edge of the floor and flew up to Cecilia with her two funnels in his way.

*Swoosh Swoosh*

*Boom Boom*

Dart sliced the two funnels before him twice making them explode as Dart charged towards Cecilia. She was impressed to see Dart deal with her funnels but she had a surprise for him.

"It's admirable to stay alive for this long against me in a training IS, but that ends now!" Cecilia aimed the two missile pods downward and fired two homing missiles at Dart. He widened his eyes, realizing he was going too fast and couldn't evade the missiles in time, so all he could do was brace for the impact and hoped his shields could withstand.

*BOOM*

Two small explosions hit Dart, covering his entire IS in smoke.

"Dart!" Ichika shouted after he had taken care of the two funnels after him by allowing the two funnels to fire at him directly from both sides, evading at the last second so that the two funnels would hit each other.

"Now time for you!" Cecilia looked towards Ichika and fired four missiles at once towards Ichika, who flew away with haste trying to get away from the missiles. However the four missiles cornered him a few seconds later and hit him all at once.

*KA BOOM*

"Ichika!" Houki who stood in the same launch bay yelled with worry looking up at a screen.

Out of the smoke that surrounded Dart, he flew up out of it with his katana above his head held by both hands. Cecilia has her back to Dart so when she turned around, she looked terrified.

"Alcott!"

*Swing*

Dart vertically sliced Cecilia's IS down the middle, sending the British girl down to the ground fast with a hard blow. She fell on the dirt ground and landed herself in a crater, covered by smoke.

"Awesome!"

"Maybe Dart and Ichika have a chance at winning!"

Class 1-1 girls in the crowd stuttered with awe watching Dart's performance in a practice IS against a personal one.

"Ichika!" Dart turned his head to the smoke that enveloped Ichika's IS. The smoke cleared and Ichika's IS had evolved into a new and furnished one, providing a new ability and weapon upgrade. "His IS evolved…"

"The Byakushiki…" Ichika muttered the name of his new IS.

Back on the ground Cecilia recovered from the high fall as she stared up into the sky at the two boys with rage. She glanced over to her energy shields which read 314/500. She grit with pure anger.

'I'm supposed to be Cecilia Alcott, England's Representative Candidate! But how can two boys, one in a practice IS and the other who has been fighting in the default setting this entire battle, make a Representative fall short?! This is humiliating to no end!' Cecilia thought with rage as she kept on shooting at the two boys, both narrowly dodging her shots.

Cecilia was losing her calm very quickly, fogging her mind with the only thought of beating the two boys making her disgraced relentlessly. Her pupils shrunk with outrage. There was no way she would accept defeat! Not from these two!

Dart and Ichika looked down to Cecilia standing on the floor with her sniper rifle aimed up at them, and she was so pissed. She fired at will as each shot was intent to hurt the boys as much as it could, despite having to damage the shields first.

Seeing Alcott was going mad with attempted victory, Dart dived his IS straight down to the ground while Ichika kept evading the shots fired at him in the air. Dart made it close to the ground and then curved to propel himself forward and flew straight to Alcott, now turning her attention to Dart coming at her with swift movements.

'Silver!' Cecilia mentally spat with rage. She aimed her bazooka cannons at Dart and fired round after round of missiles at him while shooting sniper beam shots. As each missile came his way, he swerved and barrel rolled to the right and left slicing each missile in half with his katana while evading the beam shots as he could.

No matter not many shots Cecilia fired, they couldn't touch Dart.

Dart was now in front of Alcott bending his left knee down and with one swift slice he cut Cecilia's Starlight cannon by the barrel, making it inoperable. Next, he jumped up and brought his left knee forward, kneeing the chest area mixing in a bit of unarmed combat. With her IS stunned, Dart finished her off with a right punch to her face and with the katana in his left hand, he held it back in a lunging position and lunged his sword forward and hit her chest, launching Cecilia back and landed on the floor. It was after that she snapped back to reality. She was notified with something he is experiencing for the first time.

[Shields depleted. Cease combat activity.]

Alcott had lost all her shields and was out of the battle.

"I…lost?" She muttered to herself softly.

"Alcott has been eliminated." Yamada announced on the mic to the entire arena.

The girls were up in conversation with each other, witnessing the unbelievable. A practice IS had beaten a personal IS!

"No way!"

"A practice IS beat a personal one?!"

"Is Dart on the world level?!"

Dart pulled his katana back after his lunge swapping sword hands. He sighed of relief seeing that Alcott had snapped back to reality. After the controversy died down, Ichika saw this chance to take out Dart with the little shields he had left after being blown in the face with missiles. A practice IS had fewer shields than a personal IS since the practice models were purely for practice, not combat.

Ichika flew down as fast as he could with his new weapon in his hand, the Yukihira Type 2, a sword that was now a beam sword instead of a physical one during default form.

"Dart!" Ichika yelled getting close to the other male. Dart turned around and gazed his head up from his name being called out. He widened his eyes to see Ichika this close, that Dart didn't much time left to defend. However, before the strike was landed…

*BEEP*

"Ichika has been eliminated. Therefore, Silver Dart is the winner with 71/400 shield energy remaining."

"Huh?" Ichika, Dart and the entire female crowd gasped in confusion.

**Launch Bay 2**

After Dart was declared the winner, the two boys had rendezvoused with Houki, Miss Yamada and Miss Orimura at Lunch Bay 2 where Ichika had taken off to head into the arena.

"Miss Orimura, what happened out there?" Dart asked. "Ichika was about to finish off the remainder of my shields and was guaranteed to win, so why did he lose?"

"It's his sword that was the cause of that." Miss Orimura out it bluntly. "When his IS evolved he gained a special ability unique only to the Yukihira Type 2 known as the Barrier Void Attack. It's catch 22 to put it short. It bypasses the IS barrier and attacks the IS's body directly. However it drains the user's energy shields in the process, so it is used as a last resort." She explained.

"So that's why I lost…" Ichika murmured to himself in realization. "So I'll have to use it more thoughtfully from now on."

"When an IS shield has dropped to zero, that IS is out of the battle. Hence why you lost before you could hit Silver," Yamada added with a natural speech. She wasn't scolding at all.

"By the way, Silver," Miss Orimura turned her head away from her younger brother and to the winner of the IS bout. "Congratulations on winning that was an impressive display out there." She congratulated but yet again she was stoic. "However next time use your personal IS. We need to analyze your IS and store it on our system."

"Thank you, ma'am," Silver took the compliment with a slight nod. "I only used a practice IS for that battle to teach Alcott a lesson: Never overestimate an opponent you have not encountered before. She had it coming."

"It's getting late so you three should be heading back to your dorms," Miss Yamada informed the trio of students. The match had taken place after school and it was getting close for students to be heading back to their dorms.

**Later That Afternoon, Cecilia's Room**

Cecilia was taking a shower under warm water that was engulfing the shower in mist. She had her head up at the shower head pouring water onto her bare chest in deep thought, and recovering from her loss earlier today. When recalling today's battle she felt something that she hasn't seen in any man since coming to Japan.

It was determination and the will to face against the odds.

She held her hands against her chest dearly, feeling her heart suddenly pick up in speed when she was thinking about Dart and his performance in the practice IS.

"I lost the battle, so why am I feeling this way?" She asked herself hoping to find an answer. "A practice IS beat me, so why aren't I mad at all? Silver Dart…I want to get to know you…"

**Same Time, Outside Ichika's Room**

*Knock, knock*

Two door knocks were head on the door leading to Ichika and Houki's sharing bedroom. It had disturbed their conversation about what happened to day and obviously seeing how Ichika performed out there, Houki agreed to teach Ichika every day after school in piloting IS, but secretly in kendo training.

"I'll get it," Ichika offered sitting up from his bed and walking around it from facing Houki on her bed and walked to the door. He opened the door and he saw Miss Yamada and Dart standing in front of the door, both with pleased smiles on their faces. Dart held a small plastic bag with his civilian clothing in it.

"Guess what, Orimura. They've organized the room arrangements so that means we'll be roommates now." Dart brought the good news to Ichika who was both happy and distraught to hear this news. Of course he was happy to have a male roommate, but trading Houki away was sort of sad.

"I'm sorry for this sudden news, but we've arranged the bedding so that Orimura and Silver can stay in the same room… Miss Yamada apologized in the most empathic tone she could speak in. "You'll have to move out."

"Wait," Houki stood up from her bed and walked to the foot of it to stare Miss Yamada in the eyes from a distance. "Are you saying I have to pack and move out now?" She expressed her concerns and slight defiant against this action. She's starting to like having Ichika, her childhood friend in the same as her.

"Y-yes, since looking at the current scene it is wrong to have a male and a girl in the same room as each other…" Miss Yamada fidgeted with her flingers getting flustered thinking about what two adolescent teens of opposite gender would do.

"To be honest…" Houki stared at Ichika with a concerned look, expecting him to have an input on this.

Ichika turned around to face Houki and saw her expression about this sudden, yet expected matter. She looked worried about it, as if she liked to have a teen from the opposite gender with her at night. He walked towards Houki and placed his hand on her head, making her flinch and then blush unexpectedly.

"Don't you worry, Houki. It'll be fine." He guaranteed with a smile, "We might not be roommates anymore, but we're still cherished childhood friends and we still get to see each other during and after school. And besides, I'm sure you want your privacy and comfort back being around the same gender as you." He finished with a genuine caring voice. It made Houki feel more at ease.

"O-okay," she nodded slightly before she started to pack up her things and walked back to Ichika. "I'll…really miss you as a roommate."

"I will too, Houki." Houki flustered with a blush on her face, as she grew a smile.

"Yeah," she then walked passed Ichika with a happy feeling, knowing Ichika feels the same way about her too as she walked out of the door with Dart entering the room. The door closed and Miss Yamada led Houki to her new room.

"If you mind me asking, Ichika. Do you have a crush on Shinonono?" Dart inquired walking further into the room, passing Ichika and claimed Houki's former bed as his as he placed his plastic bag of civilian clothing at the bottom of the bed on the floor.

"Honestly, yes I do." He came out with it sitting at the bottom of his bed. "Several years ago when we were kids, she was picked on by the other kids for being a tomboy, a girl who likes boys' things. I stepped in and defended her. From that day we got friendlier to each other and grew a common hobby in kendo. But 7 years ago her family had to move away and now here we are. Seeing each other again at the IS Academy 7 years later."

"It must have been a great feeling seeing her again for those 7 years, huh?" Dart said as he started to organize his things in his side of the room.

"Yeah. Hey Dart, why exactly did you pilot a training IS when you had a personal IS?" Ichika asked

"I would have loved to use my personal IS which can be summed up a good advantage against her Blue Tears IS, but I thought it would be ideal to kick her off her high horse and teach her some reality." Dart then sat on the bottom left side of his bed and stared at Ichika, "Only if I could do the same to the full grown women in the streets." Dart replied

"What do you mean?" Ichika tilted his head to the right staring at the boy who looked serious.

"Before I came to the IS Academy, I was hospitalized because of one woman drunk in her own importance." His reply caused Ichika to blink once and then show a face of worry, like he heard a friend had been in a tragic accident and is now fighting for his/her life. "I saw a man being picked on the streets for doing nothing wrong by this one woman. It was a pitiful sight to see how society had fallen from unity and peace to divided genders and dismay. No one around was there to help or to break it up. The men were to cowardly to do a thing and the woman passed by like they were actually enjoyed the sight. I was so sickened by this sight I caught up to the woman and stood up to her. She was not the responsible adult that she was supposed to be and she punched me in the nose with her IS arm and broke it. Without a second thought I charged again at her and this time she deployed her IS and kicked me in the gut, making a bruise or two. She was about to crush me with her IS's foot…but that's all I could remember before I found myself lying in hospital and met Miss Orimura. I'm just glad 99% of the females in this IS Academy are mature and kind."

This story made Ichika feel sickened too. He knew that females dominated society was horrid, but not to this ruthless degree! He frowned with absolute disgust expressing his new dislike for the females outside of the academy.

"It's terrible," clenched his fists that rested on his knees tightly until his veins were visible. "Women abusing their power using a powerful IS at their leisure… How can they be considered human? No matter what…we must bring equality to balance!"

"Damn straight!" Dart stood up and walked from the left side of his new bed to in front of Ichika sitting at the bottom of his, before holding his right fist out and offered a fist pump. Ichika glandered at the fist looking at him and accepting the fist pump with Dart, reinforcing the male camaraderie between the two alone male IS pilots.

**Morning, IS Training Class**

**Arena 1**

It was the first lesson of the day following homeroom when all the students in Class 1-1 stood at attention with legs together and arms to their sides, standing in rows and columns based on their seating arrangements. Ichika stood at the front in the middle of the five columns, while Dart stood at the far right, fifth from the front and was next to Cecilia Alcott who appeared to be looking less cocky and boastful. That lesson h taught her really got to her head.

Every girl wore dark blue leotards with high dark blue socks, with the exception to Cecilia with a blue leotard and white long socks. Dart and Ichika wore tight dark blue pants that reached to their knees and both wore a short shirt, revealing their abs and arms up to their elbows.

Miss Orimura in a white coaching gear stood next to Miss Yamada, who also wore coaching gear but had more of a teal-ish color to it.

"For today's lesson we are going to practice basic controls of the IS. Orimura, Alcott, Silver, you're up first." Miss Orimura ordered, brining Cecilia, Dart and Ichika away from the main group as they walked to the right side and began to summon there IS away from the others for safety reasons.

Cecilia had a blue earing on her left ear that looked like two upwards arrows, one handing from the other. It glowed white and Cecilia began summoning her Blue Tears and in a moment's time she was now in it after a quick glow.

Next up to summon their IS was Dart, who had all the girl's full attention waiting to see what Dart's personal IS looked like. They were dying to know.

Closing his eyes, Dart's black ring on his right ring finger glowed and one second later his Build Banshee IS was brought out for all to see. The girls gasped with joy, scanning their eyes all over the black full armor IS to the smallest detail, from the feet to the dark purple horn on the helmet.

"Dart's IS looks so awesome!"

"I've never seen a full armor IS before!"

The girls chatted amongst themselves in a gossip-like behavior.

"A full armor IS?" Miss Orimura asked herself blinking once. Ever since the IS was created there have been no reports about a full armor IS anywhere. She was getting suspicious. Where exactly did Dart the full armor IS from? No matter, she can interrogate him later when she has his IS schematics uploaded. She turned her head from Dart in the black armor IS and to Ichika who hasn't deployed his IS yet. "What's wrong Orimura? An experienced IS pilot should be able to deploy her IS within a second." She scolded.

Not wanting to be in trouble by her sister again, Ichika closed his eyes and concentrated placing his left hand on the white bracelet on his right wrist. "Come out," he raised his arms in the air while holding his white bracelet. "Byakushiki!" He then was engulfed in a white silhouette and the next second he was in his new IS. "Hey, it worked." He pat himself on the back glad to summon his new IS by himself at the impatience of his sister.

"Good. Now fly!"

"Right!" Cecilia flew up first blowing dust around where she took off. Dart bent his knees as if he was preparing to launch out of a launch bay and jumped up into the air quickly and so fast he caught up to Cecilia who had a head start.

"Uhh, right," Ichika said to himself with not much confidence. He tried to fly up and catch up to the two IS in the air, however the IS blew him back throwing him all over the place near the ground before it lead him up into the air.

"What's wrong Orimura? The Byakushiki specs say it is faster than the Blue Tears! Pick up the pace!" Miss Orimura scolded through voice comms to the Byakushiki.

"I'm still figuring out the pyramid dynamic yet…" Ichika muttered to himself.

When all three IS pilots were stopped high in the air waiting for their next order, silence surrounded the three until Cecilia thought she should get it out of the way whilst they were in private above the air. No matter what she needed to swallow her pride, apologize and make Ichika and Dart into friends, not enemies like they are now.

"Umm, Orimura and Silver…" Cecilia jittered hesitantly getting the boy's attention. "I just want to apologize for how I acted on the first day until now. I realize what I've done was wrong and immature of me. So, can you two find it in your hearts to forgive me and my rash attitude, please?" Her voice was genuinely regretful expressing her past mistakes.

Dart and Ichika looked to each other for a moment of thought, turning back to Cecilia at the same time.

"I forgive you, Alcott." Ichika accepted the apology, but now it came down to the male she was starting to have a crush on.

"I'll accept your apology, Alcott. But don't think that I can easily forget about your sexist comments and mocking attitude." Dart also accepted, though a bit more harshly than Ichika did.

"Thank you very much," her attitude brightened up having her status with the two boys either at friend or neutral status. "By the way…you can call me Cecilia." She added with a shy tone.

"Alcott, Silver, Orimura! Perform a power dive and come to a complete stop," Miss Orimura gave the next orders to the trio. Dart and Ichika had no idea what a power dive was, but luckily they had Cecilia with them to demonstrate.

"Well, ladies first," Cecilia dived down to the ground first with accelerating speed. Before she reached the ground she curved a little and flipped herself downside up, using her thrusters in her feet to help decelerate and coming to a complete stop.

"So that's a power dive," Dart mused willing to give it a try. He dived down next and followed Cecilia's example by the book. He dived down and when he curved to flip downside up, he was going too fast and instead of landing 10cm off the ground like Cecilia, he slipped in the air and landed on his back on the ground, making a little ditch. He felt no pain as his Build Banshee took the blow for him.

The girls gasped with panic as Cecilia was the most worried, deactivating her Blue Tears and came rushing over to him as fast as she could. She entered the small ditch sliding down the slope and ran a few steps towards Dart lying on his back in the middle.

"Dart dear, are you okay?" She asked with the upmost concern leaning towards Dart resting her hands on her knees.

"I a-" Dart paused and replayed what Cecilia said to him in his mind. 'Dart dear, are you okay? Dart Dear… Dear.' He narrowed down the word that made him pause. She just called him dear, as if they're already that close. "Dart dear?" He quoted back to Cecilia to see if this was a mistake or not.

"I'm so glad you said that," she ignored with a smile. "In fact I think you should head to the doctor's office to be thoroughly inspected for injuries. Even better I'll come with you." She was getting way over her head.

"Alcott, I'm fine!" Dart shot back standing back up by himself in his Build Banshee. "You go from apologetic to annoying," he muttered to himself flying out of the ditch and deactivated his IS, falling to the ground with the sound and scene of Ichika quickly falling from the sky and creating a way bigger ditch than Dart did. "I made ditches before it was cool…"

The lesson went on as usual after that, and things were going to get more interesting.

**After School, Cafeteria**

"Congratulations on becoming the class rep, Dart!"

"Congratulations!"

"The class representative tournament will be a lot more exciting!"

"So true. We're lucky to be in the same class."

The girls of Class 1-1 had organized a party for Dart, congratulation his victory as the class rep with a big bang. The entire cafeteria was reserved to Class 1-1 and a few other classes invited to attend with party decorations all over the place. Confetti was tossed around, party food was at each table and a round of heartwarming applause.

Ichika, Dart, Houki and Cecilia sat the same corner table with a few other girls sitting around it, surrounded by standing girls massing at the front of the table.

"Thank you all very much," Dart expressed his deep appreciation staring at the girls enjoying themselves as much as he was. "This is a really thoughtful surprise."

"Well, you did earn it Dart." Ichika said. Dart looked to Ichika looking at him, "Of course you did fight in a practice IS and won."

"By luck. If it wasn't for your Barrier Disabling Attack I would have been done for and this party would be for you."

*Flash*

A white and short flash was seen from both boys peripheral vision as they turned their heads from what seemed to be from a camera, a new female stood there with a camera strapped over her neck. Dart couldn't feel unnerved about this girl. She gave off a vibe that she was the type of person which would stalk someone and wait for an opportune time to get them at their weakest and post it as scandalous news.

"Hi! I'm from the newspaper club. I'm here for a special report with the much talked about Silver Dart. I'm Mayuzumi Kaoruko, a second year. Nice to meet you." She finished introductions pulling out a voice recorder form her pocket, leaning over the table and aiming it at Dart as far as she can to get the best and clear voice. "Please Silver, tell us why you wanted to use a training IS in the class rep battle."

It was Dart's chance to plant Char Aznable's ideology into this world and make a difference. Sort of. He coughed to get the frog out of his throat, making the interviewer wait keenly. "A pilot's skill isn't decided with the fanciest or powerful suit. It all comes down to the pilot itself."

"That was cool! Now what are your thoughts about being class rep?"

"I'm not sure," Dart shrugged his shoulders having no clue what to say.

"Why didn't you say another cool thing? Never mind I'll just make up something." She withdrew her voice recorder back into her pocket, holding her camera up with her left hand. "Now all three of you stand up so I can get you in a shot," she gestured for Ichika, Dart and Cecilia to stand up. The three couldn't help it so they all complied standing up at the same time. Cecilia was on the right, Dart in the middle and Ichika on the left with Houki seated next to him. Ichika and Dart wrapped their arms around each other's arms as a sign of good friendship, leaving Cecilia alone.

She wanted body contact too so she asserted her arms wrapped around Dart's right arm securely, to his discomfort, and got as close to him as she could for the photo.

Mayuzumi held her camera up to her eyes ready to take the photo shot, "3, 2, 1…"

*Flash*

She pressed the camera's button down and took the picture, but it was unexpectedly photo-bombed by the other students around the trio invading into the photo shot smiling at the camera. Cecilia was annoyed to have her picture with Dart and Ichika ruined by the others.

The surprises weren't going to stop when the arrival of China's Representative Candidate drops by the IS Academy.

**I know what most of you are probably thinking. The IS battle was awful and rushed. Honestly it was the best I could write. I'm not good at fighting scenes. **

Welp that's that… On to the next chapter!