Side Story [Blue] 1: Blue Steel


"Guele-san, I came to check up on...my...IS..."

Kanzashi's eyelids slowly lowered as she stared at the lightly snoring figure of the mechanic, who was leaning against a leg unit of her Infinite Stratos. The doors behind her closed with a muted hiss, and the dimmed lights slowly brightened up to standard levels.

Davion was on his knees, looking as if he had just shut down in the middle of doing something to it as a few panels were open that had cables attached to them. His face was pressed against the knee plating of what used to be a basic Uchigane, and Kanzashi's brow twitched when she saw the telltale hints of drool on it. Ignoring that, the boy was dusted in soot, splashed with oil and hydraulic fluid, and had a few cuts and bruises here and there that looked recently healed.

She could only surmise that another accident occurred in her absence.

Her eyes trailed up to her unit, noting that it was looking more and more like an Astray-like suit.

In its inactive form, it resembled a humanoid skeleton that had bits of white, blue, and red armor on it. Primarily, the armor was centered on the legs and shoulders of the suit, with a crop top-like armor piece on its chest.

Her naginata was held in one of the robotic arms of the berth that housed her IS, and she gazed at the glint of its edge as she walked closer to the suit.

"zzz...Ahab...Reactor...zzz..." Davion mumbled absentmindedly amidst his light snoring, with Kanzashi not knowing what he was talking about.

The Sarashiki sighed as she crouched beside the sleeping mechanic, bringing out a pen from her skirt pocket and poking his cheek with it.

"Guele-san, Guele-san..."

The dark haired boy twitched and turned his head away from her poking-

Bang!

-which in turn made him slide off the leg armor and onto the metal floor.

"...Ow..."

Kanzashi giggled as she watched him squirm around. "The makeup matches are in a few hours, Guele-san, we need to get my IS ready."

Grey eyes widened and Davion shot up, the sleepiness washing away from his eyes as he turned around. "Damn it! I haven't fully upgraded it yet!"

The Sarashiki nearly stumbled back from the sheer passion behind those eyes, and she looked up at the white armored IS on the berth next to them.

"It looks plenty finished for me." She shrugged as she stood up.

The mechanic pulled out a cleaning cloth and spray bottle from his utility belt, sighing as he cleaned up his drool left on the armor. "No...no it's not. At least, it's not what I envisioned it yet."

"I see..." Kanzashi furrowed her brows, trying but failing to contain the disappointment in her voice.

Davion turned to her with a sly grin, however. "But that doesn't mean that the Strike isn't combat ready.."

The bluenette blinked, taking a good look at the frame as she tested the name. "'Strike', hmm...?"

The mechanic detached the cables, cracking his neck as they quickly reeled back in from whence they came. "Well, you're free to change it to its Closed Form. I'm gonna freshen up. You had breakfast yet?"

Kanzashi blushed lightly. "I was hoping that you could join me."

His own cheeks pinked as he looked away bashfully. "Uh...yeah, sure."


After a quick shower and a change of uniform...

Davion sat with Kanzashi as they ate in the food court, which was packed with various students who were caught up in their own excitement for today. As he ate his katsudon, he glanced at the bluenette as she stared at the iridescent marble that was the centerpiece of the necklace-type Closed form of her IS.

"Your food's gonna get cold, Sarashiki-san." He noted the half-eaten chicken teriyaki with mild concern.

"Eh?" Kanzashi blinked before she looked down at her food, blushing slightly as she picked up a piece of chicken. "I'm sorry, I'm just..."

He lightly bumped his leg against hers, smiling encouragingly at her. "Don't worry, you'll knock 'em out of the park. Show those stuck-ups in the Japanese Government that they missed the Golden Goose that is Kanzashi Sarashiki."

The bluenette's cheeks flared healthily as she turned away, waving her hands at him. "Please don't say things like that, Guele-san! It's embarrassing!"

"I'm only saying what I see as true." Davion continued to shower her with compliments, a cheeky grin forming on his lips. "They won't get any data out of you. Your IS is yours, the Astray tech doesn't have any obligation to be shared so it's mine, and combined...the suit monkeys can buzz off."

The two continued their little banter, unaware or outright ignoring the others in the cafeteria that were ogling at their interaction.

Across the room, Tatenashi blinked at the sight of her blushing sister. Nudging the boy next to her, she let her lips curl into a smarmy grin. "I see your friend trying to put the moves on my sister."

Ryo turned his head away from his breakfast with a raised brow. Looking over to where she was gesturing, he let out a snort. "I'm pretty sure the feeling is mutual, Kaichou." He pointed at the way the two seemed to be rather comfortable with each other. "Look, she's sitting just a foot away from him."

"Ara~"

Aside from the two, other parties had their own feelings at the sight.

Several girls frowned, switching between looking at the muscular mechanic dreamily and glaring enviously at the younger Sarashiki.

"Look at her! Hogging Guele-kun's attention..!"

"You think she's only doing that 'shy girl' persona so she could get close to him?"

"What if we also try that?"

They were all ignored by the grey-eyed Astray pilot, who was laughing as he used an arm to shield himself from Kanzashi's embarrassed slaps.


.

.

.


'Breathe in...breathe out...'

Kanzashi let the cheers of the crowds be muted as she focused on her connection with her IS.

Her IS.

Her partner.

A beat...

Her lips curled into a pleased smile as she opened her eyes.

"Yeah...let's do this."

Davion stepped out from behind the IS, the cheerful grin ever on his lips.

"Go win this, Sarashki-san." The mechanic gave her a thumbs up. "Show them that Japan's Representative Candidate is no pushover."

The bluenette nodded, her lips set into a determined frown. "Right!"

With that, she stepped forward. The IS opened itself up for its pilot, and Davion helped her up into it.

The frame closed around her firmly, starting from the legs up. She tested the range of motion of her left arm as holographic screens appeared in her vision. Countless hours of practice made it easy for her to navigate through the dizzying reports and diagnostics, and she activated the 1st Shift.

With a quiet whine, more armor quantized itself on the frame, covering where there was once exposed skin. She felt the weight of each of the pieces buffeting her form but she stayed still as her helmet formed itself around her head.

Though, it was less helmet and more of an armored circlet.

It wrapped around her temple not too tightly, extending down to cover her ears and forming a form of jaw-armor. A mask slid over the bottom half of her face, and a pale amber visor slid down to help shield her eyes. A white v-fin, reminiscent of the Astray's, appeared in the middle of the circlet, just over the center of her forehead. Two yellow antennae followed, flanking an auxiliary sensor device that rested on the top of her head.

A winged backpack, not unlike the Gold Frame's Aile Pack, suddenly attached itself to the hardpoint in the middle of the IS' back, somewhat startling the pilot as a new screen popped up in the middle of her vision.

Integrating new upgrade: 53%...

"Guele-san, this is new..?" The armored girl turned to the mechanic who sprouted a proud grin as he spread his arms.

"I can tell that you needed more firepower, so I stayed up all night making a support system that had plenty of missiles for you to fire." Davion's grin was almost wild, almost slasher-like with how wide and happy it was. "I call it the Barrage Pack. It's a physical and beam-centric weapons pack, though be careful of its energy usage since the Beam Launcher is rather powerful and hungry. I also took the liberty to add some chaff drop tanks to confuse your opponent."

New upgrade successfully integrated: Barrage Pack.

Kanzashi's heart skipped a beat as the visor polarized, her IS detecting her wish to hide her face from the grinning mechanic. Before her eyes, her HUD listed out the numerous weapons granted to her by the new addition, as well as the amount of missiles she had in storage.

"Y-You're too kind, Guele-san!"

"Sarashiki-san, please get on the catapult. Your opponent has already launched." The Launch Controller's voice echoed in the Launch Bay, snapping the two from their happy mood.

The bluenette blinked before she nodded. "Right!"

The white and blue IS stepped forward, the mechanic stepping aside as he raised a fist. There was proud light in his eyes, both at their creation and at her chance of showing off.

"Go win this, Sarashiki-san!"

Thankful for the mask and visor hiding her red cheeks, she smiled nonetheless.

"I will, Guele-kun!"

The feet of the IS magnetically locked itself on the catapult, and she hunched over as the wings of the Barrage Pack snapped up into place. Her own engines spooled up, the thrusters barking and roaring with blue flames as a countdown appeared on her HUD.

"Launching in 3!"

She took a deep breath, resolve filling her as her IS responded with barely any delay to her thoughts. The CORE answered eagerly, almost wanting to be praised for its rapid replies to her queries, and she did so unconsciously.

"2!"

She could see the grey eyed mechanic behind her, thanks to the Hyper Sensors, his boyish grin easing into a confident smile as he seemed to mouth...

"I believe in you."

"1!"

Kanzashi let out her held breath, grinning as she finally said the words that she'd been waiting forever to say.

"Kanzashi Sarashiki, Strike Uchigane: Launching!"


It was a fairly cloudy day as Cecilia floated high above the ground, idly looking around the stadium as she did so. Class 1-1, or those who weren't scheduled to fight today, were cheering for her in one part of the stadium. In another part was Class 1-4, her opponent's class, and they too cheered for their representative. While saddened over the lack of a certain blonde haired Astray pilot, she instead chose to channel that disappointment and sadness into a desire to win.

Winning the matches arrayed before her would prove that she would be one step closer to Orimura-sensei, one stop closer to surpassing the Brunhilde.

One step closer to attaining her Knight's heart.

Her own heart raced at such a future, already imagining how he'll kneel before her and kiss her hand, before saying his own confession that would undoubtedly sweep her off her feet-!

"Go, Alcott! Go, Blue Tears!" Her class cheered, snapping her out of her daydream as she looked down at them. Placing a smug look to hide the flushed cheeks, she flipped her hair over her shoulder proudly. The action caused her arms to ache but not to the extent as a few days prior. Thankfully, the medical team were able to mend the minor fractures in her ribs, as well as apply some nanobots to help sew up the muscle fiber tears in said arms. She was advised to not drag out the fights at the risk of gaining further wounds, which was something she wasn't going to do in the first place.

The noblewoman placed her game face back on and reviewed the startlingly sparse information that she could gather about the Japanese Representative Candidate. It seemed as if the Japanese Government themselves held no data of her IS, and what little data she could get was from the Academy itself! And the last records were of the rampant test machine incident, which meant that it was possibly outdated.

'She apparently favors long-ranged combat like I do, as per her simulation results, but is currently stuck with an Uchigane...' She sighed as she hefted the Blue Pierce over her lap. 'I wonder if this will be fair...the technicians upgraded the Blue Tears too...'

《 Kanzashi Sarashiki, Strike Uchigane: Launching! 》

(BGM Start: Gundam SEED OST: Gundam Shutsugeki (Gundam Launching) )

"Strike Uchigane..?" The Brit muttered, narrowing her eyes as the Launch Pad across the arena activated, the guidance lights blinking before the hissing of the steam catapult propelled her opponent into the air.

Blue eyes trailed the blur, and they slowly widened as more and more features of it became clearer as it slowed down and flew to her altitude.

"A V-Fin..?!" Cecilia gasped as her opponent leveled herself in the air, the amber visor and armored facemask seemingly glaring at her.


The whole stadium seemed to go quiet at the sight of her opponent, many of the girls gaping at what was clearly not an Uchigane.

Tatenashi's eyes were wide as she beheld her sister's machine. It exuded power, and great untapped potential, as well as having an aesthetic that mixed both of the world's envied technology in a clean fusion. A sense of pride blossomed within her as a smile graced her lips. Flipping the fan open, she hid the growing grin as she leaned back on her seat.

"What an elegant machine you and Guele-kun have created, dear sister..."

Further below, Ichika slowly shut his jaw as his mind finally snapped out of his gawking.

"...Wow." He let out, awe heavy in his voice as Houki and Rin nodded beside him.

"That...that's not an Uchigane..." The swordswoman murmured, her eyes slowly narrowing the longer she continued to stare. Though, the longer she did, a growing discontent grew. If the Astray's mechanic was able to modify, if what she heard right, an Uchigane...perhaps he could also..?

'No!' She shook her head, clenching her fists on her lap as she kept her face calm. 'I don't need no fancy new tech! I'll...I'll prove them wrong, I'll show them up!'

"It has a V-Fin like the Astrays...Hey, do you think that...?" The Chinese Representative Candidate turned to her childhood friend, who slowly shook his head before he looked at a certain courier seated a row below them.

"Hey, Ryo!" Ichika called out, making sure to not be too loud to bother the girls surrounding them.

The green eyed test pilot turned from his conversation with Charles, raising a brow towards the three. "Yeah?"

"Did Davion..?" Rin asked, leaving the question open-ended as she knew the courier understood what she was asking.

"Yep." Ryo answered almost immediately. "He and Sarashiki-san have been friends for almost a year now, so when he heard that she didn't have a personal IS despite being an RC, he helped out."

"That's quite sweet of him to do that, no?" Charles chuckled, his sights affixed to the Strike Uchigane. "And very chivalrous too."

(BGM End: Gundam SEED OST: Gundam Shutsugeki (Gundam Launching) )

Beep!

All eyes turned to the holographic counter.


5

Despite her nervousness of fighting an opponent with an unknown IS, Cecilia's training kept her expression calm as they stared the other down. Her end goal was victory, victory at all costs. Otherwise, she wouldn't be able to uphold her self-made promise of surpassing the Brunhilde!

4

Blue clashed with amber-tinted red, as if fighting their own battle before the match. Both girls had their own reasons for winning, both born from their heart's emotions, whether either knew it or not.

3

Kanzashi let out a quiet breath, synchronizing with her IS as the timer counted down.

2

The Strike Uchigane quickly reviewed the vast amounts of information its pilot had stored into its databases. It reviewed the specs of the Blue Tears, its pilot's skills, the fight with the Gold Frame, and what scattered videos there were of its movements during Practical Training.

1

The black and blue IS stared back against the white, red and blue. Both units favored long ranged combat, with equally skilled pilots at the reins. It was going be a close match, it seemed...

"Begin!"

(BGM Start: Mobile Suit Gundam SEED - Strike Shutsugeki (SRW J Tempo) )

"Fire!" The bluenette roared as dozens of missiles quantized on the hardpoints of the Barrage Pack, all of them detaching and rocketing towards the Blue Tears in less than a second.

Cecilia's eyes widened as she boosted straight up, her Optical Bits detaching as they shot down at the pursuing missiles. Bright lances of blue light pierced several of the flying ordinance, but the majority of them seemed to understand the situation.

Hidden miniature vernier thrusters pulsed, pushing the missiles away from the path of a beam. The remaining explosives dodged and weaved, and the Blue Pierce was fired down to finally get rid of the pursuers.

Fyoom!

BOOM!

A white bolt, accompanied by the twinkling of bells, flashed through her mind.

..!

The noblewoman stopped her rising motion, just in time too as the pink cloud left over from the exploding missiles immediately cleared when something shot through it.

In one microsecond, she saw the shell, coated in yellow electricity as it passed her. It barely skimmed her shields, and she boosted back as her new smoke dischargers let loose. They exploded into a thick mist, quickly forming into artificial cloud-like formations that hid the British IS from view.

Kanzashi clicked her tongue as she kept the underslung railgun folded out, a finger on the trigger as she looked around. Several more missiles quantized on to the hardpoints, and she shot up to her opponent's level but kept her distance to her last known position.


"Oh, this'll be a flashy one."

Charlotte could only nod at her friend's words.

"Both of them favor long-ranged combat but Mademoiselle Alcott has beam weaponry as opposed to Mademoiselle Sarashiki's physical-centric arsenal...She has limited ammo, though if she was smart about it, she may not need to expend everything."

"But knowing Davion, he probably integrated a few tricks into the suit." Ryo whistled lowly as the Strike Uchigane dodged a sudden blue beam from a smoke formation that was in the opposite direction of where Cecilia ducked into the first time.


Cecilia tensed her jaw as she fired Blue Pierce once more-

Fyoom! Fyoom! Fyoom!

-only for her eyes to widen.

She sharply dove down to dodge a barrage of railgun rounds that whizzed by her. The tingling in the back of her mind guided her movements, allowing her to dodge a majority of them but a fair few skimmed her shields, taking out chunks of the energy at a time.

"That thing is rapid fire?!" She yelped as she took evasive maneuvers, thankful for the smoke's displacements being the tells of the shots' trajectory. However, she knew that she needed to stop hiding soon, those railgun shells were removing any chance of cover in the first place!

Her Optical Bits surged out from the artificial cloud formation, quickly harrying the Strike Uchigane with beams.

Kanzashi growled as hidden ports on her clavicle armor opened up, releasing a stream of 12.7mm over-pressured rounds from the short-barreled Igelstellung-variants.

Brrrrrrt!

The bullets crashed against the Bits, knocking them off-course and damaging a couple to the point of disabling them.

Fyoom!

She rolled to the side, dodging another beam from the Blue Pierce as the Strike Uchigane shot forward. The Beam Launcher swung into her right hand and she gripped its handle as she locked on to the possible directional vector of the Blue Tears.

'If she wants a slugfest, I'll give her one!' The bluenette hissed in her mind, eyes darting around her HUD to check on the energy levels that were dipping.

As it charged up, a guiding line appeared in thin air for but a moment before a red stream of plasma spewed out.

The British Representative Candidate was warned by her Hyper Sensors of a buildup of energy, which was similar to that of a high-intensity shot from her Blue Pierce. It didn't take her long to realize the incoming threat and she dove down, past the smoke coverage as the red beam cut a clean line into where she would have been.

"It's only proper if I return one in full force!" Cecilia roared at the same time as Blue Pierce, a nearly white beam soaring towards the Strike in retaliation for its earlier attack.

Kanzashi smirked as she quantized a physical shield that was identical to that of the Astray's. Tossing it in the path of the beam, she boosted back to watch the effect.


All eyes were on the two as they battled in the skies above. The crowd 'ooh-ing' and 'ah-ing' at the flashy spectacle.

Plenty of phones were out to record, and one among them was the Strike pilot's older sister herself.

Tatenashi watched as her younger sister unleashed barrage after barrage, denying Alcott the chance to retaliate properly.

"Her IS' performance is simply off the charts compared to an Uchigane..." The 2nd year mumbled, narrowing her eyes as she watched the clavicle Igelstellungs damage the Bits without much difficulty. "It's on par with a 3rd Gen...has my sister been training in secret?"

Then, the Beam Launcher swung forward and released that rather flashy red-blue beam.

"Physical and beam weapons?" Tatenashi chuckled. "Diverse. Smart on Guele-san..."

Her eyes widened when the Blue Tears retaliated with an equally large beam. Kanzashi threw the physical shield that quantized in her hand in its way and...

Fyoosh!

The large beam scattered, splashing harmlessly against the physical shield.

Many among the audience gasped, pointing and yelling in awe and shock at what just happened.


Blue eyes widened in shock before they narrowed in frustration. "Oooh, you..!" The noblewoman hissed as she began to shoot her Blue Pierce. The remaining half of her Optical Bits began to fly around the Strike Uchigane, harassing the blue and white suit as it danced around the beams. Her missile pods swung forward and shot off half a dozen missiles that swarmed towards her opponent.

The shots that impacted the wings of its backpack harmlessly splashed off, though it did leave behind a heat glow that dissipated just as quickly as it appeared. The Strike Uchigane quickly cut its engines to fall under the Blue Pierce's shot, quickly igniting them again to keep her place in the air. The Igelstellungs roared as the drop tanks detached, shooting forward thanks to a hidden engine and quickly exploding into a cloud of both ECM strips and countermeasure flares that confused the missiles into either overshooting her or exploding safely a few meters away.

Kanzashi growled to herself as she boosted down to catch the shield, somewhat scolding herself for the reckless move and fangirling that she actually recreated a scene from one of her many animes.

Beep! Beep!

A blue beam crashed against her energy shields, causing her to bite her inner cheek as she let it splash and take a chunk out of her reserves. She knew she should have just left the shield alone, but now was not a time for regrets! Upon touching her physical shield, she let it quickly quantize back before she flipped over a two-pronged attack from the Optical Bits.

Both Railgun and Beam Launcher swung forwards into her hands, and the rocket pod extended over her shoulder. Kanzashi narrowed her eyes at the Blue Tears, lips drawing back into a frown as she uttered...

"Barrage."

And in the next second, the sky was filled with railgun shells, rockets, missiles, and a plasma beam that were all directed at the black and blue IS.

Cecilia opened her mouth to gasp but the first of the railgun rounds impacted her shields, chipping it away as more and more ordinance began to explode around her.

Boom!

By a stroke of luck, another railgun round knocked her off the path of the plasma beam, and she felt the energized air as it passed her. Gritting her teeth and glancing at her rapidly depleting shields, the British Representative Candidate chose to fight on rather than surrender!

Gunning the engines of the Blue Tears, she spun around the plasma beam, using her Bits to cover her approach as they shot down the missiles approaching her.

Boom!

"Nnngh! I am no loser...!"

BOOM!

Cecilia burst through the trail of explosions, flipping forward with her leg stretched as she performed an axe kick, a war cry roaring from her lips-

"I am Cecilia Alcott!"

Kanzashi's eyes widened and she reached a hand up to grasp the handle of her naginata-!

Bash!

Only to be a second too late as the leg unit of the Blue Tears impacted against her chest armor. Much of the force was negated by the TPS and the Passive Inertia Control, but it was still enough to send her down towards the ground.

The noblewoman dematerialized her rifle and she grappled against the Strike Uchigane as her thrusters only hastened their downfall. The Barrage Pack's own thrusters roared in response to the Blue Tears' but the latter seemed to have the stronger force. The bluenette growled as the claws of the Blue Tears only tightened their grip on her manipulators.

"Let go!"

"I will not!" Cecilia growled as she dodged the harsh kicks of the Japanese Representative Candidate. "This match will end in my victory, I must win this if I ever am to prove to him that I am strong enough to stand by his side!"

Kanzashi's red eyes visibly widened behind the amber visor, the words of the blonde on top of her resonating with something deep within her.

A boyish grin.

Grey eyes crinkled in mirth.

"Win this one, Kanzashi!"

"I believe in you."

"No." The younger Sarashiki growled as she swung herself around, switching their positions as they neared the ground. A surge of strength welled up within, and she tightened her grasp around the Blue Tears' claws. "I'll win this! I'll win this for Davion!"

Cecilia's eyes widened as she gasped, realizing that she wasn't on top now. "N-No! This cannot-!"

Crash!

(BGM End: Mobile Suit Gundam SEED - Strike Shutsugeki (SRW J Tempo) )

They impacted the ground heavily, kicking up a huge cloud of dust. The arena shook from the force, the ground itself cratering from the landing.

Many in the audience gasped loudly, and many stood up in shock. Plenty of them chattered and muttered in worry, their eyes squinting as they tried to peer into the obscuring dust cloud.

There was a tense silence in the arena as rubble fell back to the ground.

...

Suddenly, a dark shape moved within the cloud...

The amber visor flashed-

And the jet blast of the Barrage Pack blew away all the dust and debris.

Standing triumphantly on top of the Blue Tears, was the Strike Uchigane. It was dirtied, the white, red, and blue armor stained with dirt, but unbowed.

Kanzashi panted as she glanced at the red warnings of her extremely low shield levels. Using the full barrage had depleted a majority of her energy, leaving her with just enough to edge out from her opponent.

Speaking of said opponent, Cecilia groaned as she sat up, the remaining Bits automatically locking back into their ports in her wings.

Beep!

"The Blue Tears' shield level has hit zero. Kanzashi Sarashiki and her Strike Uchigane are the winners of this match."

And the crowd cheered.

Unable to stop the wide smile from spreading on her lips, the bluenette looked around as the audience applauded and hollered.

"Go Sarashiki-san!"

"Let's go Strike Uchigane!"

"Well, that didn't go according to plan..." The noblewoman underneath her grumbled, her expression bitter as she made to stand up. She flinched as her lower right ribs began to ache, inwardly cursing as she feared that her wounds might have reopened.

"H-Hey, wait." Kanzashi reached out for the blonde, who raised a brow at the offered hand.

Scoffing slightly and then keeping a stiff upper lip, she took it and pulled herself up-

"Who did you mean by 'him'?"

-and then her cheeks erupted in a full blush. With wide eyes, the British Representative Candidate turned her head. "N-Now, that is none of your business!"

"Is it Davion?" Kanzashi pressed on, stomping closer and surprising herself with the steel in her tone. "Is it?"

"What?" Cecilia blinked at her before shaking her head, a confused and somewhat insulted expression on her face. "Of course not! I am obviously talking about my Knight, Ephraim!"

They two stared at each other as the crowd continued to cheer, their conversation drowned out by the loud adoration.

"Oh."

Thankful for the facemask that hid her blush, the bluenette stepped back. "Um...okay then."

Rolling her eyes with a sigh, the Blue Tears pilot dematerialized her IS. "Well, it was a good match either way. Even if it ended with my loss." The blonde grumbled the last part as she walked away, a hand somewhat hovering over her lower right ribs.

Kanzashi stared at the retreating noblewoman before she turned around and walked to her end of the arena, where the tunnel and staircase leading back up her Launch Pad was.

Where Davion was.

Once more, her cheeks warmed.


The grey eyed mechanic couldn't keep the grin from forming on his lips as he leaned back against the wall. The high from watching his first foray into IS-Astray merging tech become a success was still coursing through him when the doors to the Launch Bay opened with a hiss.

"Davion!"

He turned his head to see the pilot of their hard work and he pushed himself off the wall.

"Kanzashi!"

The Closed form of the Strike Uchigane glinted around her neck as she ran towards him, a joyous smile on her lips as she spread her arms out for a hug.

The mechanic obliged her, and he spread his arms out as she neared-

She leapt.

Eyes widening, he caught her and spun her around to bleed the momentum of her tackle. She laughed into his chest, her arms wrapping around his neck as tears of joy streamed down her cheeks.

"I did it! I won!"

Her laughter was infectious, and he joined in her merriment as their spin slowed to a less dizzying speed.

"Yeah, you did!" He agreed with her, a giddy grin on his lips. "I saw all those open mouths and wide eyes when you launched out, it was brilliant!"

Red eyes looked up at him amidst pink cheeks, and Kanzashi's heart pounded in her chest. The way the light seemed to bounce off his messy hair, that little streak of oil on his nose that came from the pre-launch check of her IS, and how his muscles just feel oh so warm and right...!

Chu~!

!

Davion froze as a pair of soft lips pressed against his cheek, his face erupting in a full blush as he nearly stumbled from the suddenness of the action. The bluenette buried her face into the crook of his neck, partly to indulge in his warmth and to hide her own embarrassment.

"Thank you, Davion!" She whispered, nearly squeaking it out as she held him tighter. "Thank you for believing in me..!"

His shock slowly wore off at her tender words and he smiled, his arms holding her close. "You're welcome, Kanzashi."

"...Say that again, please?" The bluenette whispered, quietly pleading as she snuggled closer. "My name..?"

He chuckled as he buried his nose into her hair, not minding the mixed scent of sweat and mint from her shampoo. "You're welcome, Kanzashi."

The girl giggled, tightening her grip as she relished his warmth. Everything about today just seemed to perfect for her, from showing off her IS, finally participating in a real match, and then enjoying how her friend's heartbeat was so comforting to listen to-!

"Ara ara~"

Eyes widening, both of their heads snapped over to the doorway. There, Tatenashi and Ryo were standing with shit-eating grins on their faces. Both of them had their phones out, with the courier struggling to contain his laughter.

"O-Onee-chan!" Kanzashi shrieked, immediately separating from Davion as her face went bright red. Waving her hands erratically, she shook her head as her composure broke down. "I-It's not what you think!"

"Oh, I think I know what's going on here, Kanzashi-chan~" The elder bluenette stepped closer, red eyes glinting with mischief. "And I won't leave you alone until you spill~!"

"Nooo!" The younger sister cried out as she ran away from Tatenashi. "Get away from me, Nee-chan!"

Ryo stepped aside for her and she disappeared into the hallway, the older sister nipping at her heels with teases and smooching sounds. The fellow Astray pilot then turned to him with a smug smirk.

"Don't you say it..!" Davion hissed, an embarrassed blush glowing on his cheeks. He didn't need his friend to start making fun of him!

"What? I ain't saying anything." The courier shrugged, the smirk turning into a grin.

"You're thinking about it."

"Hmmmmmm~?"

"Oh, shut up. I'm not taking any lip from you." The mechanic walked past him, pulling his hood up to hide much of the blush as he disappeared into the hallways.

Ryo couldn't help but laugh as he trailed behind his friend.


.

.

.


The rest of the day went by quickly and Davion hadn't seen Kanzashi ever since. The Strike Uchigane was in its special berth in the hangar when he got here, but its pilot was nowhere to be found.

He didn't really fault her for avoiding him, what she did was rather embarrassing for the both of them. Still, that didn't stop the dumb smile from curling his lips as he touched the spot where she kissed every so often as he recharged and rearmed the Strike.

Speaking of the IS-Mobile Suit hybrid, he was compiling the data that the CORE allowed him to take. His mind was already formulating possible upgrades to the Barrage Pack, like a power extender similar to what he did with the Astray's Flight Packs.

Hell, he could probably try and build the other Striker Packs for Kanzashi's IS. The Barrage Pack, which was apparently the Strike Rouge's Ootori Pack, may include all the pros of its predecessor, the Integrated Weapons Striker Pack, but it also included all of its cons.

That being very energy hungry and somewhat complicated to use due to the plethora of weapons at hand.

Kanzashi didn't show much difficulty given her fighting style focused on ranged combat, but from what he'd seen during Cecilia's rush and grappling, she didn't get to pull the Naginata out in time.

So perhaps he could rearrange the layout of the Barrage Pack for easier unsheathing of weapons. Or maybe create the individual Striker Packs, which she would then be able to attach in less than a second. Though, it would complicate the coding and bring additional weight to the IS, not to mention take up the precious bus-slots...

He slapped his cheeks and saved the blueprints for the half-finished Striker Packs, storing them in the 'WIP' folder.

"Focus on the end goal..." The mechanic muttered to himself, as he reopened the decrypting program for the data in the Astray Suits.

The Neo-Types were on a deadline, and the mere thought of it brought a sense of unease for the Blue Frame pilot. Vague memories of their awakening resurfaced in his mind, recalling their makeshift camp in the middle of the woods.


There was a tense silence between them, mostly coming from the blonde as he stared at the choker and cufflinks in his hand. His purple eyes were narrowed, his jaw tense as his two fellow hijackers stood around him. The Astray Blue Frame was on the ground beside the log he sat on, its pilot sitting on its chest as those gunmetal grey stared at the irritated blonde.

"You saw what was in the files before we deleted them, right?" Ryo muttered, sitting down on the log next to Ephraim. His own brows were furrowed, and the sword on his lap clinked lightly as he adjusted his position. "Infinite Stratos'..."

"This is a right shit-fest, is what it is." Cursed the blonde, clenching his fists and placing the golden items within a magazine pouch. "And here I thought that we were gonna be in Starcraft. These bodysuits of ours resembled Ghost Suits so much, I was devastated when I couldn't cloak. Hell, at least give us Vindicare suits damn it, boss..."

"So," Davion started, leaning back on the cold metal armor of his acquired suit. "What should we expect in this 'Infinite Stratos' universe?"

"Shitty mechas with a shitty harem, because we're in a damn anime." Ephraim laughed derisively, a vein visibly bulging on his temple. "With a shitty end-game boss that can basically say 'Fuck you' to any efforts of thwarting her because she's a damn genius."

"Shitty how?"

Purple glanced over to him in a dead glare. "You'll see."

Ryo cleared his throat. "Right, I barely recall anything about this world other than stroke-inducing moments of rage. Care to brief us then, Ephraim?"

The blonde's teeth audibly ground against each other as he snarled. "I remember snippets of the damn filler episodes, but what matters is the 1st Season's final boss. The Silver Gospel."

The two other Outworlders turned and listened.

"The Season 1 Finale consists of a Boss Fight spread in the last two episodes. It occurs in a week prior to the start of Summer, maybe before the OVA as that took place in the week before the start of Summer proper."

"And when is summer?" Davion asked off-handedly.

"The fuck would I know?" Ephraim huffed, slouching in his seat as he leaned on his knees. There was an aura of irritation and general hostility in the Outworlder, one that even his friends could feel. As if his tendency to curse like a sailor when angry wasn't obvious enough. "The Japanese scheduling of their breaks and shit are different than...well, wherever the hell we came from."

"Anyway," He continued with a small shake of his head. "The Silver Gospel can go at speeds nearing Mach 2, has bullshit maneuverability due to it being an IS, and is a fucking Danmaku level. There may or may not be a pilot inside it, one Natasha Fairs, who is unconscious as that mad bitch Tabane hijacked it during its testing, so that means no kill shots until we can make sure that it's unmanned. I'd rather not kill anyone who gets caught in the rabbit's plans."

"What's a Danmaku?" The grey-eyed teen needed to ask, somewhat lost with the terminology his friend would use. "And what do you mean 'may or may not'?"

"Bullet hell. Silver Gospel will use plasma to fill the entire sky with bullets." The blonde ran a hand through his hair. "Just...make sure that there's no one inside Silver Gospel when the time comes to fight it. I don't want that mad rabbit to paint us as murderers or something."

"Rabbit?" Ryo muttered, tapping his chin as he dug through his own muddled memories. "Ah right. She has this Alice in Wonderland cosplay thing."

Davion furrowed his brows, opening his mouth to ask...

To ask...


Blinking, the mechanic looked around as he returned from memory lane.

'Silver Gospel...'

Back then, they anticipated that the fight would be horrendously hard due to them being in simple Base Astray Frames. Ryo would have been the lynchpin to their plan due to him having the Flight Pack but...

In a way, he was thankful for Tabane in having discovered them, despite the thought causing negative feelings to bubble up. This led to their enrollment as students in the Academy, but what was more important was his near unlimited access to the manufacturing capabilities of the school. Near unlimited, being the keyword.

He still had to privately order some exotic materials via his underground connections, after all.

Either way, this allowed him to upgrade their Astrays with what he could decrypt from the data banks and black boxes of the suits. The same black boxes which were definitely left behind by their boss for them to discover and use.

...He thinks.

But now, he has hit a roadblock.

The Mirage Colloid technology was locked behind some sort of firewall that even after a week of trying to break, was still as solid as ever. It needed some sort of 'key', a key that he had no clue of whatsoever.

He had tried to get Ephraim to help him break it, but even for all of his knowledge of the SEED-verse, the blonde wasn't able to identify just what key the damn program was asking for. Oh, he did help crack a few layers in the beginning by identifying certain images which mostly consisted of mobile suits that they couldn't even begin to produce, but in the end they were still facing a roadblock.

The mechanic grasped the formula of the microscopic prisms of the Mirage Colloid, that was true, but it was next to useless when he didn't have the technology to fully utilize it. He was missing the critical component, and as a mech-junkie it was absolutely infuriating!

So rather than risk smashing his laptop in frustration, he had channeled that anger into upgrading their suits with the tech at hand.

The Trans Phase Shift Armor.

Various upgrades to the Flight Packs and the Astrays.

The Gerbera Steel weapons.

Anti-Beam Coating.

The Aile Pack for the Gold Frame and its detachable calf thrusters.

The Inertia Dampening upgrades to their pilot suits.

Something called Power Cylinders which he put into all of their suits.

His upgrading of the Blue Frame into its Second L/G configuration.

And the Tactical Arms.

'Speaking of...'

He glanced to the side, his gunmetal greys tracing the edges of the newest weapon lying in the cold arms of the Forge Unit of the hangar.

The Tactical Arms 2.

The mechanic stumbled across its blueprints when he was looking through the Blue Frame's Tactical Arms schematics. Though it lacked plenty of its tech, most of which were apparently locked behind the Mirage Colloid's firewall, it was still able to go into an 'Arrow' mode where it could turn itself into a weapon that could fire beam arrows.

It was only fitting for the 'Archer' between the three of them to have a bow and arrow set, after all.

Hiss...

The sound of the door opening interrupted any further thoughts of upgrades as he turned his head to see who it was.

!

Kanzashi stood there in her uniform, cheeks flaring when their eyes locked. She quickly looked away as she stepped inside, and he did the same when his own cheeks warmed.

"It's dinner time, Gue...Davion-kun." She whispered shyly as she played with the ribbon around her collar. "I was hoping if you could j-join me at the food court..?"

The grey-eyed test pilot had to bite his lower lip from yelling his answer. His heart raced as he calmed himself down, turning to her with the bright and easy grin he always gave her whenever they hung out in the hangar.

"I'd love to." Davion chuckled as he accessed the room's main systems. "Just let me activate the security program and we can head over."

The berths that the Astrays were in extended mechanical arms that held the suits in place, and the Frames themselves closed up with a sharp hiss. The Forge Unit shut itself close, the machine sinking into the ground before the hole was covered by a steel hatch.

He was about to do the same with the Strike Uchigane, when Kanzashi approached it and turned it into its Closed Form. The necklace appeared around her neck, the iridescent stone glimmering hypnotically for a few seconds before it settled into a prismatic shade.

Once more the bluenette refused to look him in the eyes, but there was a happy smile on her lips and a pep in her steps as she walked over to the door. Davion scratched the back of his head as he closed his laptop, trying to keep his cool as he stepped closer to her. Red and Grey met and their owners shared a fond smile before they quickly looked away again.

Both of them stepped through the door, leaving the dark workshop behind.

...

"Hey, Kanzashi..." The mechanic started, rubbing the back of his neck as they made their way out of the Engineering Bay and through the lamp-lit stone walkways of the Academy.

"H-Hmm?" The bluenette looked at him questioningly, her blush having faded into a light pink dusting. It was still somewhat embarrassing to be called by her first name, and by someone like Davion too!

"There's this movie theater in Odaiba that's gonna show Hathaway's Flare at around 10:30 in the morning. Originally, I was gonna go with Ephraim but since he dipped out due to family reasons...uh..." Grey eyes looked away, a blush resurging on his cheeks.

"You...want me to come with?" She tilted her head with a growing excited smile.

"Yeah." Davion rubbed the back of his neck nervously, feeling his cheeks warm up a bit more. He wasn't like Ephraim or Ryo, he had neither of the two's experience with women, so it was understandable that he was nervous.

"...Sure!" Kanzashi smiled up at him with fond eyes.

Davion's heart skipped a beat as he turned his head away from the pure sight, pulling his hood up to try and hide his growing embarrassment.

Inwardly, however, he was cheering for joy.

'VICTORYYYY!'


AN:

Hathaway's Flare is a spoof of Hathaway's Flash. Yes, Gundam is technically in this world but IS-fied and is called 'GunGirl', mostly as a nod to the concept name of the titular mobile suit itself, which was 'Gunboy'. However, since it's IS-fied, the trio doesn't have to worry about copyright or anything like that.

Go watch the movie, it's really nice. Actually, read the novel too!

Anyway, I've created an Imgur to post the art my friends made of the story. You can find them here:

imgur dot com [slash] a [slash] xWg35XE (Just remove the dots and whatnot, you already know FF doesn't like links.)

To the reviews!

Guest who's angry about someone not being punished: Uh, not really sure who you're referring to. If it's Lath, the whole incident was in-house and Chifuyu can't really do much since Ephraim let bygones be bygones. Of course, that doesn't mean he'll just forget this entire thing.

Rodvek97: More and more mysteries pile up that even the Neo-Types are wary of!

KnightOfZaku: Kazahana's gonna have to do a lot of carrying just so her two older siblings could get along. Phantom Task will be wily about it, that is for certain. Though, Laura does have diplomatic immunity just by being a student at the IS Academy...but, to what extent is the proper question.


...

...

...

"Did you hear that, Mu-kun~?"

"I did."

"Then let's tail my little sister on her date tomorrow!"

Tired green stared down at mischievous red.

"Why..?"

Tatenashi pulled his arm between her breasts, pressing herself against him as her lips curled into a seductive smirk.

"Because it'll also act as a date with me~? Doesn't that make your heart race, Mu-kun~? To be on a romantic outing with the beautiful Student Council President, eating lunch together, helping me out with new clothes, having a romantic dinner-"

Ryo stared down at her with dead eyes. "You just want me to be your valet again."

The bluenette playfully bonked herself with a fist, sticking a tongue out and winking at him.

"Ehe~!"

The courier facepalmed.