Data Log 2:

New Days and Strange New Friends

Kenzi woke up slowly to see the sun shining through the windows. He groaned and pulled the covers over his head. He did not want to wake up today.

"Kenzi wake up we're gonna be late for our first class!" Neil yelled. Kenzi groaned again. Katrina came out of the shower room and got into a dressing room by the bunk. Kenzi groaned, Neil frowned impatiently. Pretty soon she was getting pissed off, Neil took a deep breath. "KENZI! GET THE FUCK OUT OF BED!" Kenzi jumped up and knocked Neil off the ladder and flat on her back. Now it was Neil who was groaning, she had the breath knocked out of her.

"Uh… sorry." He half hollered. Neil had a painful face on her. Katrina just laughed and walked out the doors in a old fashioned jean jacket and pants with a light blue shirt that had the picture of a plush-like rabbit.

Kenzi jumped down and walked groggily into the shower. Neil slowly got up and, straightened her jacket and walked out into the hallway.

"Okay class now who will explain to us the main types of leg components that are available to an AC" Kenzi was beginning to doze off if Katrina hadn't elbowed him. A student raised his hand as their instructor waited intently. Kenzi could see that it was a girl who raised his hand. What also caught his attention was that that girl had a light green-blue tint in her silver hair, and it looked natural. Her right arm was also made up of cybernetic parts. They parts were light gray, metallic, and seemed very flexible. The girl wore a hair ribbon on the back of her head and had scarlet eyes.

"Yes Kasumi." The instructor simply said.

"The leg components that are available to an AC are humanoid legs, reverse-joint legs, quadruped legs, tank bases, and hovering leg platforms."

"Very good!" The instructor chimed. "Very good indeed! Now, moving on." Kenzi began to wonder about that girl, he wondered why she had cybernetic parts.

Was she involved in an accident or something, Kenzi thought to himself as he wrote down notes in his PDA. Katrina yawned, which was unusual for her since she was usually polite and quite most of the time. But he was tired as well and it became hard for him to pay attention. He yawned again and slumped down, he was tired. And he couldn't wait for the sparring matches to begin.

Later that day…

"I can't believe that Component Class was so long!" Kenzi complained.

"It wasn't all bad Kenzi." Neil said simply.

"At least you learned something, right?" Katrina asked.

"I already studied for that last night." Kenzi replied.

"So Asuka does study for his classes." Neil teased.

"Neil, don't tease Kenzi like that." Katrina said as Kenzi turned slightly pink. Neil giggle and ruffled Kenzi's hair.

"Okay." Neil just said simply.

Kenzi sped up his pace as he returned to his regular color. Neil shrugged and also sped up to catch him. Katrina just shook her head and hurried up to catch them.

Kenzi, Neil, and Katrina were the first ones to arrive at the garage where they got to witness the Academy ACs being shipped in by giant freight loaders.

"Wow!" Kenzi exclaimed. "That's so cool!" Katrina also looked on in awe at the massive size of the ACs. Neil walked over to the instructor and was asking him when the class would start.

"Wonder when we get to start?" Kenzi asked.

"I guess we'll find out when everyone gets here." Replied Katrina. Kenzi said nothing and walked over to join the small crowd of people that were starting to form around the instructor.

"Well then! I guess we should start now." The instructor chimed.

It took about ten minutes for the instructor to finish the directions and safety regulations. Then he called out the students by alphabetical order to choose their ACs and get their ignition keys. It took a little while before Kenzi was called to choose his AC.

Hmm… I should probably choose an AC with both a good defense and offense, Kenzi thought as he walked over to a red one. After the last student was called, the instructor signaled the students to get into the cockpit. Of course, he didn't need to explain the cockpit layouts and control panels because mostly all of the students already knew how to operate an AC.

As Kenzi opened up his hatch, he looked over to his right to see a girl, just about his age, walk up to him. He could tell she wasn't in a good mood, she had a slight scowl that made in uncomfortable. And his consciousness was telling that it was going to be a bad thing.

"Hey!" She half hollered. "Your name wouldn't be Kenzi would it?"

"Yeah-yeah it is." Kenzi answered nervously. "What do you want with me." He soon got his answer when she grabbed him by his collar and brought his face so close to hers he could practically see the cold fire of hate in her eyes.

"Don't get too confident just because you got high evaluation scores." She said bitterly. "No one is better that me!" And with that she threw him against the hatch of the now closed cockpit of the AC. Knocking the wind out of him.

"You shouldn't mess with Kazami Allester." A student said. "Or you'll end up in big trouble."

"I'll think of that when it happens." Muttered Kenzi.

"By the way," He said, "my name is Kou."

"My name's Kenzi nice to meet ya." Kenzi said. Kou smiled and disappeared into his cockpit.

Kenzi did the same and typed in the ignition key. He heard a humming sound indicating that the generator and radiator was online and functional.

He sighed. Here goes nothing…

"Ma'am!" The man said quickly.

"What is it Conner." She replied coldly and sternly.

The man, now known as Conner, flattened his suit (business suit) before telling her.

"There is a student known as Kazami Allester, she is one of our top students."

"And…?" The woman asked with sudden interest in her voice.

"She has changed the combat files ma'am." The man said fearfully. "Kazami has changed her opponent to student 807-M92."

"That Kenzi boy?"

"Yes Ms. Helena." He said. Helena didn't say a word. She looked at Conner.

"You are dismissed until further notice." She said sternly as the man left the room.

So… Kenzi versus Miss Allester, she thought as she walked over to the training dome, this is should be worthwhile…

Kenzi waited impatiently in his cockpit, he was watching the battles that were going on in the dome through a window that seemed to take up the entire front panel of his screen. But he wasn't watching attentively, he was too anxious to pay that much attention. In his head he was thinking up strategies against his opponent. He could hear the radio transmissions from the other students on his radio. He'd liked to listen to conversations from his childhood. So it wasn't a surprise when Neil appeared on his screen to ask him why his radio was always on.

"Cause it helps pass the time." Kenzi replied in the same smug tone that Neil used when answering his questions. Neil just looked and him awkwardly and cut the link. Kenzi relaxed and took out a manual from a pocket under the pilot seat. He turned through the pages quickly without reading all of the words.

After that he began to think about his strategy that he would be using against Kazami. Now should I use a defensive tactic, or an offensive one…

Kenzi was taking his time, as it would be a while before his battle. Kenzi was having a hard time thinking of a strategy so he decided he would ask some of the students that were also waiting for their matches to be announced.

"It's kinda hard to tell." One of them said.

"Her strategies really depend of the type of opponents." Another one said.

"I don't know, I've never fought her." Said another.

"Sorry Kenzi, don't have a clue." Kou said.

"Why are you asking me. Besides, you wouldn't stand a chance against her."

It was decided, Kenzi just made up his mind that he would vary the strategy to counter any one that Kazami would use against him.

"Next up is Kenzi Kakashi and… Kazami… Allester?" The instructor suddenly looked at the combat schedules in puzzlement. Kenzi also heard lots of talking among the students. It was true, Kenzi was the lowest class student so far. But he did have excellent test scores that rivaled the best students.

Either way he would have to fight her sooner or later. Kenzi waited for Kazami to walk up to the loading dock first before he followed suit. He slowly moved the leg pedals, and felt the rising and lowering of the cockpit as the AC walked slowly towards the loading bay. He felt very nervous but tried to push it away, as it would get in the way of his piloting ability.

Kenzi moved his AC from the garage area to the loading elevator. The feet clamps attached to his AC and slowly it was moved up to the arena. Kenzi flexed his muscles in his hands to get ready for it.

The Elevator slowly moved to the top. And in no time, Kenzi's AC had moved up to the top.

Kenzi looked at the arena around him, it was entirely made up of metal. It had a huge metal wall all around the arena, the walls were silverish gray like the rest of the arena and were over three thousand feet high. Kenzi could only see the sky from above. It was light blue with some swirly, milky white clouds.

"Begin!" The instructors words cut through his daze as quickly as a knife through hot butter.

Kazami started off by firing machinegun rounds at Kenzi. Kenzi activated his boosters and dashed around the arena trying to find cover, but was hit by a barrage of machinegun rounds as Kazami fired at him with another machinegun.

"Argh!" Kenji yelped as he was thrown forward and back in his seat, restrained by the seat straps. He steadied his concentration and flew foreword dodging most of the machine gun rounds.

"You're not going to defeat me!" Kazumi shouted as she activated her OB system and smashed Kenzi's AC. She then flew around behind him and blasted his AC in the back with rockets. Kenzi felt blood swelling up in his throat as he felt his one of his ribs puncture his right lung. He coughed it up and tried to steady his concentration, which was getting harder since he could barely breath and it hurt when he did.

"Damn…" He muttered.

"What's wrong…" Kazami said cockily and coolly. "I am I too hard for you."

Kenzi tried to laugh considering the pain. "You've seen nothing yet!"

"What are you laughing about?" Kazami snapped.

"Laughing keeps the pain away…"

"What does that-" Kazami was cut off as Kenzi's AC dashed forward and tackled her AC. Then he flew backwards and fire five rounds out of his rifle. Kenzi was amazed by the power of the rifle, as it smashed Kazami's AC in the chest, knocking it back with tremendous force.

"Augh!" She screamed as her AC hit a wall that was just put up for blockage.

"Who's stronger no-" Kenzi was cut off as he coughed up more blood. Then his instructor beamed up on his display as he was hit by another rocket.

"Kenzi are you okay?" His instructor asked.

"Yeah… I'll be okay…" He said weakly after he recovered from the second blow. He dashed forward as Kazami began recovering from the extreme blow dealt to her. He activated his blade and sliced her AC's left arm clean off. Then he punched her AC, knocking it off to the side about seven hundred meters.

"Pretty good…" Kazami said bitterly. "You're the first on to pull off the "Slash and Smash" at your level." Kazami then performed the same move on Kenzi, but she used her machinegun instead, and destroyed his AC's head.

"Dammit!" Kenzi yelled as he lost his radar and all the scanning functions.

"Kenzi's at a big disadvantage now." Katrina said to no one in particular as Kenzi was hit with another barrage of machinegun rounds.

Kazami was taken by surprise as Kenzi performed an amateur feat. He activated his OB system and boosted forward towards her AC. He surprised everyone in the garage by actually grabbing Kazami's machinegun. The rounds shredded up Kenzi's left arm as he bent the front part of the weapon, jamming the weapon.

Kazami felt a kick in her right joystick and felt it thrust back as her machinegun exploded, leaving a destroyed burning piece of scrap in her AC's hand.

"How dare you-" Kazami screamed in rage as she was pushed back against the wall, smashing all of her AC's support equipment.

"It's game…" Kenzi said coldly as he finished her off with his rifle. "I win!"

Inside of Kazami's cockpit, the girl was registering the event that just happened.

"That's impossible…" She said in a breaking voice. "I can't lose, I just can't. it's impossible…"

Wow, I actually won, Kenzi thought as he released his grip on the controls. His hands were all cold and sweaty. "I actually won I actually…" He couldn't finish his sentence because he had passed out from blood loss. The last thing he heard was his instructor trying to contact him. Then everything went black…

Amazing, Helena thought as she walked to her office from the battle that she just witnessed. Conner then walked in the room, he seemed in a rush and was anxious to tell her something.

"That Kenzi kid." Conner said.

"Yes?" She asked, her wasn't full of interest as it usually was.

"He's in the infirmary. He has extreme blood loss and a punctured lung."

Helena's eyes widened as he finished. "Give him level four medical care. Make sure he doesn't die."

"Yes ma'am." Conner said and disappeared out the door.