Chapter One: Proclamations
Disclaimer: None of the characters are mine, but the storyline is.
1 Year Later
"Zero"
"…Uhh…"
"Zero wake up this instant," a tall spectacle-wearing figure demanded as he pulled the sheets off of a chocolate haired boy.
"C'mon Clay what's the hurry?" Inquired a certain chocolate haired boy as he mindlessly groped around for the missing sheets.
"Azuma said that he had an important announcement for us today."
Finally finding the sheets, "Hmm…" was all Zero said before falling back asleep.
"God damn it!" Clay cursed when suddenly an idea struck him; he knew it had a high probability of it working too.
"You know Zero, Hied already left," Clay pressured
"So," Zero countered, pulling the sheets over his head as he tried to block out Clay's voice.
"'So', he might have acquired an important tactic or battle strategy to beat you with, so hurry up already"
Now Zero, being Zero, didn't understand most of the words that Clay used but he did understand "Hied" and "beat you" so naturally he was moving pretty quickly by the time Clay was finishing his sentence. The only thing Clay had to say was that Zero was behaving in an "Interesting" fashion.
About seven minuets later Zero was ready to go, so he and Clay headed out to their classroom that they shared with Yamagi, Roose, Hied, and the repairer candidates: Saki, Wrecka, Tukasa, Ikhny, and Kizna.
Before the class began, (Zero and Clay were actually on time!) Zero, Roose, Yamagi, and Clay were talking about their Pro-Ing battles and EX, with Clay dominating the discussion (no surprises there). Hied was in his usual corner and his mind was in its own little world doing who knows what. The girls were talking amongst themselves about what the announcement might be about.
"Well…" Kizna was saying, "Azuma did say that it would change all our lives."
"Hey Saki do you have any idea what this is about? I mean your partner is Mr. Interesting." Tukasa asked.
All the girls' heads turned towards Saki.
"Well…" She began, "Clay did try to hack into the database to see what all this commotion is about, but this is one of the most heavily guarded secret on GOA, but he was able to get access to a few of the security cameras and a broom closet."
The other girls gave a big sweat drop with Kizna speaking for the rest of them, "A broom closet? Why would he need that?" Saki shrugged again, "Who knows," she replied, "I personally think he just wanted to have a challenge. He did say that no one ever uses the one he hacked though."
"At least we'll know what the big secret is soon enough; as for the closet, I'd rather not know what he's going to do with it…. or already has for that matter." Wrecka commented, to which the four repairers shuddered.
"What if the Victim have finally been defeated? Maybe that's what Azuma's big announcement is!" Ikhny exclaimed getting all their hopes up.
"Don't be so sure Allecto," Hied said coldly shooting down all their hopes, "If that were the case than Azuma would have told us already and we wouldn't have need for classes or GOA anymore."
"Hied do you always have to be such a jackass? Or does it just come naturally?" Kizna yelled at him, her temper flaring.
Zero took notice of this and turned to watch. 'Well at least this time its Hied instead of me, Kizna has got to be one of the most vicious people I know when she's like this. But I do love it when she scrunches up her nose like that; it makes her look even cuter than normal.'As Zero's thoughts seized, for a couple of seconds, he realized what he had just told himself 'WAIT JUST A SECOND! I can't be having these kinds of thoughts about her, she's my REPAIRER, and those kinds of things just aren't allowed here. Not only that, but I wonder… how she feels' he finished his thought with a sigh.
Meanwhile Kizna was chewing out Hied for being mean to Ikhny again. While she did this she felt a pair of eyes watching her. She turned to find that it was just Zero enjoying Hied's scolding with that stupid grin plastered on his face. 'He's probably just watching the show like everybody else'. But even when she turned back to the other repairer candidates she still felt like somebody was staring bullets into her back. She turned to find a pair of sparkling blue eyes belonging to…
"Zero…"
"Did you say something Kizna?" Wrecka inquired
"No it's nothing, really" She answered her friend. 'It really isn't anything unless you count the fact that Zero won't stop staring at me with that idiotic grin on his face' suddenly she heard a sigh that caused her ears to flick in the direction it came from. 'Well now it seems that he is thoroughly confused about something, well at least that little sparkle in his eyes make him innocent like this, its kinda cute actually.' Smiling at her last thought, she gave a little giggle until she realized what said thought was about. Shaking her head vigorously, she mentally berated herself, 'I CANNOT be having those kinds of thoughts not only because he's my partner and we would be expelled, but because the guy I'm thinking about is ZERO!'
While the two of them were lost in thought about one another, Azuma burst through the door.
"Everybody take your seats IMMEADIATELY! That means you too #87."
"Whatever" Hied retorted
"Now as you all know I have a very important announcement that I have to make" Azuma stated as he walked behind his desk.
"Have the Victim finally been defeated?" Kizna asked knowing that Ikhny wanted to, but was too shy to ask, especially after what Hied said to her.
Azuma glanced at the pink haired repairer and gave her a 'what-kind-of-dumb-question-is-that-look', and continued with his announcement.
"No, actually it is about all of you." He said while taking a seat in his chair.
"WHAT ABOUT US?" Everybody but Hied asked
"Actually, it is more or less about some of the restrictions the Top has put into place" Azuma answered calmly.
"Which ones?" Hied asked from his corner
"Well…" he cleared his throat, "it seems that there has been a lot of tension around the base lately so he has decided to remove some of the restrictions temporarily."
"You mean like a trial phase?" Zero inquired
"Why Zero, we didn't know you knew such big words." Clay mused
"Ha-ha very funny"
"To answer you question Mr. Enna, yes I guess you could call it something like that."
"Instructor Azuma I believe that you are beating around the bush" Somebody said from the doorway
All eyes turned towards the voice
"Ah…Dr. Rill it's nice of you to join us I was just telling the Candidates about the Top's most recent proclamation." Azuma stood up and shook her hand. After a prolonged period of returning the custom everyone could see she was getting annoyed with him, and in a hurry too.
"Than hurry up and tell them already!"
"Man somebody's a bit on edge today." Yamagi commented
"Well let's see how far your patience goes when you have to confirm that the information was given in EVERY SINGLE CLASS ON G.O.A.!"
"…" Was all he said in response.
"It's a bit embarrassing for me too say this, but…" he started
"EMBARRASSING! How can it be EMBARRASSSING for YOU? THEY should be more embarrassed than YOU! Seeing that this ALL has to do with THEM!" Dr. Rill exploded.
"Well you see when I was a candidate and then a pilot I had…" Azuma started, his eyes glazing over as he relived past memories.
"Skip it old man, will one of you PLEASE tell us what's going on here? Because in case you haven't noticed none of us know what you two do." Zero interrupted, making the room very quiet. Kizna looked like she wanted to kick him for being rude, but Dr. Rill just smiled saying, "Of course. At least somebody here has a sense of urgency." shooting a glare at Azuma, "And since I doubt that Azuma is going to get to it anytime this century…"
"I was getting to it!" Azuma exclaimed
"Maybe by the time they graduate, so I'll just tell them myself."
"Fine you do that, see how embarrassing it is for you to tell them."
"Very well then, on with the announcement." Everybody got an anxious look on his or her face, while Azuma had a slight tint of red and looked like he was taking a walk down memory lane.
It seemed like a millennia before Dr. Rill spoke again, the Madonna in white speaking slowly and dramatically, "The Top has declared that the Candidate/Repairer relationship is no longer strictly platonic! Also curfew has been momentarily removed."
Nobody even heard her last sentence, as their thoughts were a thousand galaxies away thinking about what they had just been told. More than a few blushes adorned the faces of the teens as they realized the implications of this. Most of their thoughts distracting them as their Instructor chipped in, "Public displays of affection are still on the punishment list though."
A/N: I know that there should be a bit of a gap between the beginning of this and the announcement, but perhaps I'll put that in later, but I want to know if you, the readers, want to see that. Big thanks for those few of you that did me a big favor by reviewing and commenting. I expect more reviews with each chapter now that I'm back.