X
In the next day the girls headed off to school with Miho walking down the street on her own, when coming up to the school gate, Miho, spotted Midoriko checking in every girl that came in.
"Good morning, Sodoko," Miho greeted.
"Hello, Miss. Nishizumi," Midoriko greeted back not even looking up from her tablet.
"Is, Daulton, still... you know?" Miho brought up.
Midoriko looked up from her pad and turns to the hanger.
"He's still there, you can check yourself," Midoriko told him and went back to work.
"... Thank you," Miho thanked heads off to school.
\Launch Break/
"Do you think he's doing alright?" Yukari asked wondering how was Daulton doing.
"Did he really slept in the hanger?" Saori wondered.
"Sodoko said he did, so must be true," Mako brought up.
Opening the hanger doors the light quickly flood the room and the girls spotted Daulton laying on a foldable cot with a wool blanket draped over him.
"Is he even alive?" Mako asked.
Yukari took out a pencil and poked Daulton on his side with the eraser and in response they heard Daulton moan from beneath the blanket.
"Daulton, don't you think you should get something to eat," Hana told him, but the only response the florist got was a deep moan.
Hana steps aside letting Miho come through.
"Daulton, Miss. Chono wanted me to give you this," she told him holding up an envelope.
Daulton reluctantly took the envelope, the girls heard the the seal rip open, with Daulton quietly reading the letter to himself.
"... WHAT!?" Daulton suddenly shouted scaring the girls as he threw the blanket off of him and his eyes moving back and forth on the piece of paper, "... That's bullcrap!" he shouted in frustration tossing the paper to the side and Miho read what's on it.
"What? what did it say?" Saori asked.
"It says that, Daulton, has to do community service for our club if he doesn't want to face charges," Miho explained.
"Wait, Gale, has to work for us now?" Yukari said with an eager smile, "That'll be interesting."
\Later/
In the hanger Daulton was with the Automotive Club as they worked tank maintenance with Daulton sitting on top of the back of the Tiger (P) with Tsuchiya and Hoshino sitting across from him. Satoko handed Daulton the tools, and Hoshino holding a rag to clean the parts that needed scrubbing. The Automotive Club were dressed in usual attire, and this time Daulton was wearing his old mechanic uniform. And so far they kept on trading glances at one another.
"So... Gale," Hoshino spoke up trying to start a conversation, "How's your head?"
"... It itches, but fine," Daulton responded trying not to think about it.
"What school did you go to?" Tsuchiya asked about his education.
"Only morons go to school," Daulton told her not taking his eyes off the engine.
"You didn't go to school?" Tsuchiya said in surprise, "How'd you learn to work on mechanics?"
"My dad taught me, then my grandpa, same for my brother," Daulton explained.
"Really? and I don't mean to sound insulting, but how come you couldn't fix your old plane?" Hoshino asked.
Daulton was silent for a moment, but eventually answers, "Because I always put my plane in full use, so naturally the plane broke down every so often. I fix one thing and something else starts having problems."
"Sounds like you had a serious lemon in your hands," Tsuchiya commented.
"Why couldn't you replace the parts?" Hoshino asked again.
"Because dogfighting isn't as funded as tankery, so we depend on donations, but people are cheap sons of bitches, so we worked side jobs."
"What job did you do?" Tsuchiya asked.
"I used to follow fat guys around with a tuba," Daulton answered sarcastically.
He wiped the sweat from his brow and continued cranking the wrench.
Soon after the rest of the Ooarai team showed up for practice.
"Hey guys, how's everything going?" Anzu greeted seeing the crew hard at work.
"Fine, Treads are on, the ammo racks are full, the barrels are squeaky clean, and the gas tanks are all full," Daulton listed off.
"That's great, Peter, thank you for your kind service," Anzu teased, causing Daulton to squint annoyingly at her.
"C'mon, ladies, time to get to work," Anzu said and all the girls geared up.
Most of the tanks rolled out while others were still being evaluated by Satoko, while placing back the cover over the engine, Hoshino had one thing she wasn't sure about.
"Are sure about these breaks?" she questioned after Daulton decided to change the, "Don't mean to be rude, but you work on planes."
"Yes I'm sure, these ones will stop on a dime," Daulton told her.
"Hey, I'm just saying I don't wanna have some slick breaks when I need to stop," Hoshino argued.
"They won't, I bet my life on these things," Daulton added.
"Oh really? wanna put your money where your mouth is?" Hoshino challenged.
Outside the girls were practicing their aiming while moving, driving by a moving wooden cutout as they timed their shots, Hana nailed her targets everytime, only to be rivaled by, Anzu, trying to surpass her.
"You're doing great Hana," Saori complimented.
"Thank you Saori," Hana replied firing off another shot.
As the girls practice shooting, Daulton, Tsuchiya and Hoshino, were testing out the breaks, Tsuchiya started up the Tiger (P) looking out from the driver seat to see Daulton standing a few yards away from her.
"You know you can chicken out now," Hoshino remarked holding up a blindfold for him.
Daulton didn't responded to her offer instead he shooed her away ready for the Tiger (P) to take off towards him.
"GO!" Hoshino signals to Tsuchiya.
The tank takes off, treads digging into the dirt launching forward towards Daulton as he stood his ground as the Tiger (P) became larger and larger as it got closer and closer, Tsuchiya slammed on the breaks and the Tiger (P) halted just skidding right in front of Daulton. With a drop of sweat Daulton flicked the the drop off his head.
"Wow, I guess you really do know your stuff," Tsuchiya complimented popping her head out of the tank.
"I can't believe you didn't move a muscle, weren't you scared?" Hoshino asked.
"I did scarier," Daulton replied, but before he could get back to work at the hanger, he stopped at the sight of two Pravda girls.
The first was Nonna standing still and motionless as a statue and a second girl that happened to be a girl named, Nina, with a big basket of flowers in her hands.
She then cleared her throat and said this, "Our Commander wished she was the one to do this, but she had other pressing matters to tend to. So instead she sent me, Katyusha, wanted to thank you greatly for saving her dearest friend, Nonna, and so she wanted to give you this," she spoke out clearly holding out the bouquet of flowers to him.
"Uh...? thank you," Daulton confusingly said.
"And this is a 'thank you' from me," Nonna said, she then reaches over to grab Daulton by the collar, pulling him towards her, and planting a kiss on his lips.
The girls were completely dumbstruck as the witnessed Daulton receive a kiss from Nonna, from what felt like forever Nonna releases Daulton, and both her and Nina headed off, leaving an even more confused Daulton.
"Oh my god!" Soari cried out in amazement running over to Daulton's side, "You got a kiss! how was it? how did it feel?" she asked.
"Cold... as ice," Daulton described it still feeling the chill on his lips.
\Out At Sea/
On a Sunkus supply ship the crew were about prepared to resupply the Ooarai school carrier, making sure all the shipping containers were filled with the right orders.
"How's everything? are there any problems?" a supervisor asked from up high.
"Nah, everything's good, boss," the workers replied looking over their clipboards as another checked the inside of the containers.
But while everyone was busy a young stranger was wondering around the ship without making anyone notice him, his steps were light and quite, he wasn't there to cause to trouble, but seems to go to where his wondering absent mind took him. And to where was the Ooarai carrier, when the ship docked the strange danced off without raising anyone's attention.
