January 11th, Armory Building.

"How are we doing this?"

Phillip asked Himeko as he strolled into the control center of the armory, where people were working hard and machines sprung to life to prepare for what was coming. Himeko herself was giving special attention to one of the scans before Phillip spoke up. She raised a brow at Phillip as if perturbed by something.

"What you need to be doing is going to put on your battlesuit so we can check its capabilities." Himeko pointed to her left side, aimed at both machines and the rest of the building. "I'll be here and explain everything to you four. So, get on over there and let us do our job."

Phillip gave Himeko a stoic stare for a couple of minutes before ultimately shrugging and turning away. He walked through the double glass doors at the other end of the room and down the hallway of the small building (at least, relative to the other campus buildings) towards the equipment zone.

The armory was a rectangular building cut into three rooms: analysis, equipment, and testing zone. The analysis was filled with people and machines to study user-to-equipment synergy, equipment held weaponry and preliminary battlesuits for Valkyries to try and experiment with, and the test area is where all of this comes together. These three areas, residing as three massive rooms in the building, were held together under one roof and one encircling outside hallway.

After a few minutes of walking, Phillip reached the metallic door of the equipment room, which slid open at his presence to allow him entrance. He didn't, however, and quickly scanned the room to find the girls had long abandoned the place. Phillip wanted to follow them, but a glaring problem was apparent in the middle of the room. Knowing Gabriel would give him hell for not at least trying it out, Phillip groaned and begrudgingly entered the equipment room.

Weaponry littered the room's walls, ranging from close-range swords and spears to long-range guns and even cannons. Resting just below the weapons were lockers, each assigned to one of the trainee Valkyries. If Phillip had traveled down to the other end of the room, he would have found his locker, along with Kiana, Mei, and Bronya. However, his destination was a silver cylindrical vessel in the middle of the room.

Once Phillip reached the container, he peered through the glass seal and cringed at the sight. There was a reason he enjoyed his baggy clothing: it hid his physique so he could surprise assuming opponents. He only dropped it when he was fighting someone he was not interested in actually winning against or as part of dedicated training.

However, the suit inside the canister made it very clear that hiding was extremely unlikely, as it sat snuggly around the mannequin inside. The coloring was fine – navy blue for the main with black sides that trailed up to the low arms and stopped just before the attached fingerless gloves – but he didn't enjoy that it was a full-body suit. There was a bout of confusion as to why three golden clips were placed along both shoulders, but Gabriel was more than willing to explain.

"They're akin to absorbers. They'll take in whatever Honkai energy your body isn't capable of taking and dissipate it as heat."

Phillip shook his head at this as he leaned back and away from the battlesuit. Weren't you trying to come up with ways of increasing my resistance?

"I have," Gabriel stated, though there was little mirth behind it. "The best upgrade I could place in your genome made you relative to standard Valkyries due to your chakra."

And why does getting me a Honkai-powered suit make sense?

"Right now, taijutsu and weaponry are the only things in your arsenal that won't cause extra problems," Gabriel explained dismissively. "Having something to enhance your taijutsu so it can harm Honkai beasts without strengthening the enemy is good to have, don't you think?"

Couldn't I just stick to weapons?

"You can always be disarmed, so it's best to have a backup just in case."

Phillip rolled his eyes but decided that a continued argument wouldn't change the angel's mind. Opening the canister and taking the suit from it, he walked down the lockers' lines to find his own. There, at the very end of the room, he found his, placed between Kiana's and Mei's.

With a grunt of disapproval, Phillip shrugged his jacket off and began to change into his battlesuit.

5 minutes later, outside the testing zone

"Yeah, this isn't working."

Phillip's eye twitched violently as he traced the hallway to go to the testing area. The suit was tighter than even he thought possible. Every ab accented, every stretch of muscle felt – it even ran up places that Phillip vainly attempted to pull it out from. With this, he took his jacket and zipped it up to avoid showing anything off.

"If it makes you feel any better, there are plans to make an outer armor to this," Gabriel stated boringly. "It will take some more time – mostly because it will be the first full-armor set the techs did – but you'll be better covered."

No, it doesn't! Phillip hissed back. If you didn't notice, the girls here are a bit off their rockers. I'm surprised they didn't try to join in on what Kiana tried to set up on the last week of December.

Once Kiana had learned about Phillip's birthday, she attempted to celebrate it – despite Phillip's continuous protests – throughout the remaining days of December. She tried to help Mei make a cake (to disastrous effects), throw a campus-wide party, and even dressed provocatively and laid in a present to surprise him. Unfortunately for her, the honored guest never attended these things, which led to her becoming growingly disgruntled for the entire week after. Luckily, Phillip and Mei did their best to push her past the events, so Kiana didn't stay depressed for long.

After all this, Phillip decided to speak with Himeko about her reasoning for revealing the date. All he received was a smirk, and a muttered "payback" as his response.

Back in the present, Phillip entered the testing zone, the metallic door opening and closing with a hiss, and walked a little way before coming to a stop. He found the steel blue room had a firing range to his left, a close combat arena to his left – filled to the brim with various dummies and mechs to challenge – and a wide area in front of him that led to an open view of the lake. Kiana and Bronya situated themselves at the firing range – Kiana shooting with incredible accuracy and Bronya shooting a laser beam from a newly mounted cannon on Project Bunny – while Mei maneuvered around and sliced through a maze of cotton dummies.

As Phillip tried to register the trio's uniforms, Kiana noticed him, dropped her guns, and ran up to him with a giddy look on her face. "Look at this," she exclaimed while giving a twirl to show off her battlesuit. "Do I look good, or do I look good?"

Kiana's battlesuit, Phillip noted with a blush, was almost as skin-tight as his was. A primarily white suit with orange-and-black highlights along her arms and legs, Kiana's body was seen in practically extreme detail. To ignore the fact the top was uncovered – showing the valley of her C-cup – and that her suit was riding up, Phillip took notice of the star design on the outside of both legs and that the highest part of the leggings was black. These stars were also found in the hairband she now wore

Kiana leaned forward, attempting to catch Phillip's eye again, so Phillip readjusted to look over her back. There, he found the lower back to be black while the upper back was occupied by a glowing orange ring that was strapped there. He also noticed that her braids were now much longer than before and had elevating orange rings a few inches from the ends.

Phillip pulled his eyes away before he traveled too far. "It's alright," he muttered, determined to avoid any teasing from the girl. He missed the momentary pout the girl had before she moved to his other side, her orange heels clanging against the steel below, and pointed toward Mei.

"Well, what about Mei-senpai, huh? You can't say she doesn't look hot as hell!"

Phillip looked over at Mei, who seemed to hear her name being called, and turned to them, before violently turning away with a visible increase in the amount of red on his face.

While Kiana's suit was skin-tight, Mei's had been far more revealing. Her suit was separated into black leggings, gloves, and upper-body covering with transparent shorts. Pinkish-red plated armor covered her navel and sides, with clips along her arms, hips, and ankles. However, both the top and bottom of her chest were exposed, and more than enough of her thighs could also be seen.

Apparently, Mei agreed with Phillip's sentiment as he heard her let out a scream. "Kiana-chan, don't let him see me!"

"Ah, don't worry about it, Mei-senpai. The three of us will be married sooner or later."

"N-No! I'm indecent!"

"Bronya must agree with Mei-oneesama." Phillip turned a little more and found Bronya floating to his side. "These battlesuits are unstable and impractical."

Looking the youngest over, Phillip felt Bronya had no means of speaking on the matter. An indigo navy suit with a black-and-red hood and a matching short skirt that stopped just before the middle of her thigh. Her accessories were red cuffs of the short sleeves of the suit, golden aiguillettes at both shoulders, a red armor plate on her left shoulder, black gloves with silver fingers, and two massive indigo ribbons on her ponytails. Her leg braces were now silver with red indents and top, matching the new braces along her arms. To top off the outfit, Bronya had a silver bullet belt around her stomach – something Phillip questioned the reasoning of when Bronya mostly used Project Bunny to fight – and a black pair of shoes.

Of the three, Bronya's battlesuit was far less provoking, though that was for the best, really.

Phillip coughed into his hand to dissipate his sudden nervousness. "Well, I guess we're waiting for-"

"Hold on, mister," Kiana said as she grabbed his jacket's zipper. "We showed ours, so you show yours." She then tried to zip it down, only to find her attempt obstructed by two pairs of hands. The pair that didn't belong to Phillip was, unsurprisingly, Mei.

"Please allow him to keep it on, Kiana-chan," Mei demanded with a completely flushed face. "I don't think my heart could take it."

"If you three are done," Himeko's voice sounded from within the room, "we can begin." Looking towards the source, Phillip found a large speaker hanging at the closest corner of the room. "We'll go through a few tests to ensure your customized battlesuits are working to standard."

Kiana gave a huff at this. "Yeah, right! I told you I didn't like stars and cat stuff!"

"And you didn't fill out the form completely, so you can stop complaining!" Himeko then cleared her throat, causing the six tangled arms to become undone as they stood straight in wait for commands. "We'll be running some simulations to run diagnostics. Listen to my demands, complete the assignments, and let's get this done quickly."

In an instant, the metallic hallway transformed into a barren desert. Craggy and isolated plateaus littered the background while small white clouds crossed the brilliant blue sky, with only a few covering the yellow dot called the sun.

The group had little time to take in the scenery before heavy thuds were heard. Turning to face the end of the hallway that once held the lake's scenic view, they found three massive mechs there, twisting and turning to detangle themselves from the crunched-up forms they had prior. Once the mechanized foes stood tall, Phillip found they were mirror mimics of those that stood in Ryoma Raiden's office.

"Firstly, simply eliminate the enemies we produce."

All four jumped into action, aiming to perform their best.

12:30 pm, on the way back to the apartment.

"Omagad, that was sooooo easy!"

Kiana strutted down the hallway as she said this, with arms behind her head and eyes closed, taking the lead of the four. Mei and Phillip hung in the middle, locked in conversation, while Bronya trailed behind with a portable gaming device in her hands. All of them were back in their original outfits and ready to return to the dorms for some relaxation.

The combat revealed a lot of the battlesuits given to the girls. They were far more durable than what they suggested and carried a plethora of different devices to go with them. Kiana's had a golden visor that came out of the headband, jet propulsion in her heels, and even a time-limited combat boost if she said the words "Neko Charm." Mei's suit seemed to have limited hovering and gliding capabilities (shown when she was thrown away by one of the mechs), though both Bronya's and Phillip's seemed lacking in that regard.

The simulation and commands had been easy enough. Phillip, Mei, and Bronya performed Himeko's demands of them to the T, accomplishing what was necessary of them (even when Mei's command was to be grabbed by a mech and tossed around to test the gliding functions). The only one who had any problems with their commands was Kiana because she focused on defeating the enemies laid out instead of heeding Himeko's missions. Himeko scolded her intensely once they had cleared out.

"Kiana Idiotka has no place in stating difficulty," Bronya called from the back, eyes never leaving the game station. "She failed all of Major Himeko's orders."

"Who cares about that?" Kiana asked as she turned to face the rest without breaking her stride. "I'm the one who beat up the most baddies!"

"Nyet. Subject Phillip defeated the majority of the opposition." Bronya shot Phillip a jealous glare as she admitted this. "Bronya managed the second position, while Kiana floundered into third place."

Kiana crossed her arms and raised a brow at this. "And how would you know that?"

"Project Bunny has a function to track individual kill streaks."

Kiana slumped over at this, stopping directly in front of Himeko's apartment. Acting first to Kiana's new dejection, Mei walked up and placed a hand on Kiana's shoulders. "It's alright, Kiana-chan. You still outperformed me in the test."

"Do not attempt to console Subject Kiana, Mei-oneesan," Bronya stated as she stored the game station away. "Mei-oneesan accomplished well given the circumstances while Kiana Idiotka spent far too much time with theatrics."

"Yes, well," Mei started as she grimaced with worry. "My fighting style is too used to human opponents. I struggled against both the Honkai Beasts and the mechanical foes. I'll need to do more training."

Kiana jumped back up at this, giving Mei a wide smile. "Ah, don't worry too much, Mei-senpai. So long as I'm around, you won't need to worry about nobody!"

Phillip shook his head at this and walked over to the door, grasping the knob and turning. "Let's rest a little before doing anything. It'll do us some good to lie down for a bit." Getting some nods from the girls, he pushed the door open and stepped inside.

"Please leave your shoes by the door. Lunch will be ready within a few more minutes."

Phillip sighed and began to take off his shoes when Kiana rushed past him; her shoes sent flying as she did. Once the other three had safely stored their shoes off to the side – Mei being kind enough to do the same with Kiana's - they followed after the white-haired girl and found her at the dining room table with a fork and knife in hand. There, in the kitchen with pan in hand, was one Rita Rossweisse.

Rita was a maid sent from HQ to aid students with living, or, at least, that was the story told to them. She spent most of her time at Himeko's apartment rather than the other student's residency, which made Phillip think her stay had more to do with Mei than anything else. Regardless, she had taken up cooking and cleaning, completely ruining Phillip's crafted scheduling.

Rita's appearance was that of a picture-perfect maid. A black dress with white frills and sleeves that stopped at mid-arm was wrapped around her slim figure with a frilly apron and hairband in her honey blonde. Along with lace gloves, dark stockings and heels, and rose accessories in her headband and sleeves, the only thing off about her was how her hair draped enough to cover her left eye. Despite this – or maybe because of this – and her constant sultry smile on her face, she appeared more sensual than needed.

That smile was also the means that she welcomed the returning trainees. "Good afternoon, dear students. Your lunches will be ready in a few minutes." With closed eyes and a bow, Rita held her right hand out to present the kitchen counter, where ingredients lay scattered on different plates and cutting boards.

Phillip shook his head at this while the others took to their seats. "Don't overextend yourself for us. The other students need you more than we do."

Rita shot him a closed-eyes smile. "You're a sweet boy, worrying about others more. However, Major Himeko was nice enough to provide me a room here, so I'll be primarily aiding those that live here more."

Keeping an eye on us, more like. Phillip didn't express this thought, however, simply taking his jacket off, hung it off the back of a chair, and sat down in wait. True to Rita's word, the lunches came out within the next few minutes, the maid placing one plate to each of them. Kiana wasted no time in devouring the meal while the others kept a more moderate pace.

"Hoo~" Kiana breathed in satisfaction once she finished her meal, rubbing her stomach to express it further. "Miss Rita may not beat Mei-senpai, but it's still really good." When she was contented with her digestion, Kiana took her plate to the kitchen to lay it in the sink, thanked Rita for the meal (who replied with a closed-eyed smile), and quickly stormed up the staircase to her room.

Phillip shot a glance at Mei, who watched Kiana do all this with suspicion in her eyes. This was understandable, as Kiana had been spending a considerable amount of time in her room the past week. Even when Bronya attempted to instigate a competition in video games – something that would force Kiana to try and show up the monotonous girl – Kiana would ignore her in favor of her room. Bronya had taken it in stride, happy to have one less person annoying her, but both Phillip and Mei were off-put by Kiana's sudden absences.

Thus, as soon as Phillip completed his lunch – a light Caesar salad – and placed the bowl in the sink, he followed after the white-haired girl. Upon reaching Kiana's door, he rapped a knuckle against the dark word.

"Kiana, can we talk?"

There was no answer. Phillip reached down, took hold of the knob, and gave a twist. Surprised to find it unlocked, he slowly pushed the door open to avoid disturbing anything as he pressed his head against it. As soon as the door was open enough to peer in, Phillip found Kiana and was shocked at what he saw.

Kiana had her head stuffed into a small brown book; her face scrunched in concentration. The book was tilted just enough to hide the title from sight. So, with little means to gather information from his point of view, Phillip walked into the room and called out to Kiana.

"What are you doing?"

Kiana jumped violently at this, sending the once secure book flying towards Phillip. He grabbed it just before it flew over his shoulder and turned it to reveal the title to him. Phillip raised a brow at it and looked back at Kiana, who had gone completely red.

"A help book about flirting with guys? Really?"

"S-Shut up!" Kiana flung herself from her bed and tried to take back the book, which Phillip allowed without struggle. "What are you even doing here?! Don't you know it's rude to go into a girl's bedroom?!"

"Oh, sure, and that gives you full immunity," Phillip replied with a roll of his eyes. "Mei and I were concerned about why you've been hiding in your room. Please tell me that book hadn't been the only reason."

Somehow, against all odds, Kiana's blush grew darker, and she slowly grew nervous under Phillip's gaze. "N-No, I was just, uh." She scanned her room, hoping to find something to make a convincing lie about but failed. Soon, Phillip's intense stare pierced through, and she sighed. "Don't... tell people about this."

"About what?"

"I... don't know how to deal with guys," Kiana admitted forcefully, her eyes never meeting his. "I only knew how to get girls, thanks to..." Kiana's expression suddenly darkened as if remembering a bitter memory. "Thanks to a good-for-nothing asshole." She crossed her arms at this and let out a "hmph" as she did.

"So, your dad, I'm guessing." Kiana shot Phillip a surprised look when he said. "It's my assumption. Anyways, you were looking for help with knowing guys."

Kiana blushed again at this, now rubbing the back of her head. "Yeah. I talked to Aunt Himeko about this," - Phillip snorted at this, knowing Himeko would be unlikely to enjoy Kiana's new title - "and she gave me this book, saying she was too busy to help."

"I wouldn't trust a self-help book about men given to me by Himeko if I were you." Phillip only needed to remember the time that Gabriel alerted him of exactly how many dates the red-haired major had been on to know how helpful the book would be. "Also, consider me old-fashioned or whatever, but shouldn't the guy be making the advances?"

Kiana flinched at this and looked down at her feet in dejection. "So, you don't wanna be with me, huh?" Not a second later, she pulled her head up with a massive smile on her face. "Ah, don't worry about it! That just means I get Mei-senpai all to myself!"

Phillip's heart sunk into his stomach as an aching level of nostalgia swept over him. The quick mask was something Phillip was used to, as many people who became friends with him did the exact same thing. This one, however, managed to hurt much worse than those.

His expression must have shifted to display this pain as Kiana shifted nervously in her spot. "Look, I get it, ya know. I mean," she gave an expression of complete smugness while she jabbed a thumb at herself. "Not many people can handle this amount of awesomeness at once. So, I'ma just go back to the kitchen and snuggle with Mei-senpai now. See ya."

Kiana moved towards her door, the mask breaking slightly as a frown marred her face. Just as she was about to open it was when Phillip spoke up.

"Next Saturday."

"Huh?"

Kiana looked back at Phillip dumbly, not understanding what he meant by this. Phillip took a breath to gather what confidence he could and spoke what he wanted.

"Gabriel said he would give me the weekends off, and I haven't gone into the city yet. If you want, we could go there for the day."

Kiana stood there, gobsmacked, for a good minute. Once the shock cleared away, however, she brightened considerably.

"You mean, like a date?" Phillip nodded with a content smile, causing Kiana to suddenly burst with energy. "Yeah - I mean, of course! I-I can totally do that! Um, when do you want to go? We could go now or something!"

Phillip shook his head, both to answer Kiana's statement and in exasperation at how overexcited she had gotten. "As I said, next Saturday. I'll let you know exactly when later on in the week." Kiana nodded her head vigorously, no longer trusting her voice. Phillip sidestepped her and tried to open the door, only for Kiana to step in his way.

"I think," Kiana said confidently, an unknown look in her eyes. "We should seal it with something. You know, if we're trying to make this serious."

Phillip locked eyes with the girl for a couple of seconds before leaning forward. This caused Kiana to lose the confidence she had prior, closing her eyes in fearful anticipation of what was to come. Deciding against a full kiss, due to the last one he had, Phillip planted one on her cheek instead.

"Let's start with that," Phillip said in a low voice, his lips hovering just above her ear. "Then we'll see how it goes from there." With Kiana frozen in place, Phillip slipped past her and exited the room. Once the door closed, a squeal of delight and excitement burst from the room, causing Phillip to shake his head at this and walk towards the stairs.

However, he didn't get far as he spotted Bronya staring at him, back pressed against the wall next to the stairs. Seeing him acknowledging her, Bronya pushed off the wall and walked towards him, stopping just before him and looking with a monotonous gaze.

"Subject Phillip, Bronya must speak about a problematic situation with you."

1:15 pm, back at the dining room table,

"I see."

Phillip sat across from Bronya at the dining room table, contemplating what the younger girl had just told him. It made sense, really, that Cocolia would have counter-measures should her favored weapon leave her. A bio-chip, though rather cruel for a mother to force upon a child, would be an effective method of doing so.

Phillip looked across the table to lock eyes with Bronya's blank statement. "Did you tell the others?"

"Mei-neesama has been alerted of my condition," Bronya explained plainly. "Her stance on me has not wavered. Subject Kiana will be informed when her temperamental nature has lowered, and our relationship is less strained."

"I think Kiana sees you more as competition for Mei's affections than anything else," Phillip said with a small smile. "But I understand your reasoning. It's up to you, after all, when you want to tell her about it." Bronya held a tense silence for a second before nodding in confirmation.

Phillip's smile widened at this, and he stood up from his seat. He peered into the kitchen, checking to see if Rita had forgotten to handle the dishes before she, Mei (who had a clone trailing her secretly once Rita came by), and Himeko (who had just returned from completing the training analysis) went off to shop. Luckily, Rita's reputation as a Valkyrie was only topped by her effectiveness as a maid, the kitchen being spotless and the sink empty as the day before.

With nothing at the apartment to do, Phillip decided to continue from where his training with Gabriel had left off. He was now forced to walk around the island – the same weight as before – with the first gate unlocked. After a bit, the pain the first gate made decreased into barely a tingling, but that hadn't satisfied Gabriel completely. Only when the pain disappeared would he be pushed to open the second gate.

As Phillip moved to the door, he heard Bronya call out. He spun to face her and found Bronya with her right arm crossed over her chest in the form of a military oath.

"From this point forth, Subject Phillip, Bronya swears loyalty to you. Put your faith in Bronya's capabilities, and any mission will be completed perfectly."

Phillip stared blankly at her for a couple of minutes before he opened his mouth to respond.

"Put your loyalty in yourself, not me. Even I can make bad decisions, so do what you believe is correct."

With that, Phillip left, leaving the girl to stew in his words.

Meanwhile, at Soukai City's groceries story.

"Yae, Sakura wasn't lying in her report, Overseer."

Rita held her communicator in front of her as she hid in a corner of the grocery store, allowing Raiden, Mei and Himeko Murata to handle their business. She had told them that she would handle finding some of the groceries when, in reality, she wanted to make contact with the Schicksal Overseer about her progress. Rita hadn't managed a good time to do so over the last couple of weeks, as she was trying her best to patch up this wreck of an operation.

"Getting the boy alone has been more difficult than imagined," Rita explained to the holographic image of her boss. "When he's not alone, he disappears completely, even from imaginary sensors. Also, none of the poisons or drugs I place in his food seemed to affect him."

"What about the Herrscher of Thunder?"

Rita shook her head. "Similar situation. Not that she becomes hidden, but I still couldn't produce anything that affected her enough to subdue her for transport. I can't even enter their rooms for inspection for whatever reasons."

"Seems my granddaughter realized just how valuable those two would become to me," Otto stated with a contemplative expression. "...What about K-423?"

Rita held up her free hand, revealing several white hairs to the Schicksal Overseer. "I have the DNA samples you want. However, I couldn't go for more powerful samples without giving away my mission."

"Very well. Continue with your mission." With that, the hologram dissipated, leaving Rita to herself, and, with the clench of her hand, the transmitter also disappeared as if it had never existed, to begin with. Rita stepped out of the corner and continued with her duty as before.

That is, after all, what a good maid does.

Well, this has been a ride.

The next few chapters shouldn't be too hard to formulate, considering they should have something in sources to go off of. So, I shouldn't (Note: "shouldn't" is the key word here) take so long to make them. However, please don't hold me to that.

Anyway, thank you for reading my story, for following and favoring it, and I hope you enjoy the chapter.

See y'all next time.