Chapter 6: Knights Of Sky Silver pt.2
IS Academy, 3rd Arena – Monday
Currently, in the 3rd arena dressing room, I and Ichika were putting on our IS pilot suit, Ichika' suit consisted of a dark blue tank top and tight-fitting Bermuda shorts, whereas mine was the same one that I worn when I arrived in this world, a white and navy blue full bodysuit with red lining, accompanied by a belt with a holster and an emergency kit, though I had removed the shock-absorber outer-vest and helmet. Once we finished dressing up, Ichika commented about my pilot suit.
"Heh, your pilot suit is a full bodysuit huh? Does it feel hot in that?"
"Not really if you get used to it, and once we equipped our ISes, they will provide us with heat conditioning anyway. But are you okay wearing something like that?"
"Ehh, I don't know, this was provided by the school though, well, at least it is quite easy to move in this thing."
"By the way, how's your training with Houki?"
"Well...Houki did drill me with extensive kendo training, however, that's the only thing that she did..."
"Wait, what?"
"...She forgot to teach me about IS operations..."
Uwaa, I felt bad for him, if he hadn't learned the basic controls yet, he would get beaten by blindly rushing in to attack or being forced to be a mobile target for sure.
"Ichika... In this duel, I will let you handle the offensive, and I will act as your shield. You will hand out the orders and I will follow it. This will let you gain more experience in IS combat and commanding ability while keeping it fair for Cecilia. I know this does sound hard for you, but do you agree with me?"
"Ye-yeah." Ichika reluctantly nodded with an answer after some consideration.
Sorry Ichika, putting such a responsible onto you even though I also agreed to this duel, but I couldn't let my ability be exposed too much.
As I was still feeling sorry for Ichika, a voice suddenly ran through the speaker.
"Orimura-kun, Orimura-kun, Orimura-kun." Maya hastily called Ichika's name, "It's here. Your personal IS has just arrived."
Oh, we had been waiting for Ichika's IS to arrive for quite a while now, and it had finally come, without much thinking, we nodded at each other and both quickly sprinted towards the hangar.
When we got to the arena's hangar, Houki was already waiting for us at the launching bay while Maya and Chifuyu were in the observation room on the 2nd floor.
"Orimura, Arno, hurry up and get ready. You can only use the arena for a limited time, so make it count.
As Chifuyu finished speaking, the cargo door behind Houki started to open, letting out a heavy and blunt opening sound. Once it was fully opened, it revealed a totally pure white IS standing firmly before us, with its white armor reflecting off the light from the room's ceiling, making it look shiny and glossy; giving the suit an image of a white holy knight. Regardless to say, Ichika, Houki, and even I were quite astonished at the sight.
"Orimura-kun, that's your personal IS, the Byakushiki!"
"Get moving and start mounting. We don't have much time, so format and fit all the settings during the battle."
Being prompted, Ichika approached and touched his IS, but suddenly pulled his hand back after making contact for just a second.
"What's wrong?" both I and Houki asked.
"Strange, it's not like the first time I touched an IS. This one has a different feeling," replied Ichika, still staring at the IS.
"You okay Ichika?" I asked him, pulling on his shoulder in worry.
"Yeah, I'm still fine."
"Hurry up and get in the IS Orimura! Lean your back on the armor and the system will optimize itself." Chifuyu called out Ichika to get him to suit up.
And with that, Ichika swiftly followed her instructions. Seeing that Ichika had finally got back to himself, I also promptly began to suit myself up, I took out my 'Silver Phantom' from the holster, pointing the muzzle to the arena field, "Come! My Gundam!" and called forth my Gundam by pulling the cocked trigger.
In a moment, I was fully clad in the armor of the Crossbone Gundam X-0. My whole body was first supported by an exoskeleton frame from head to toe; followed by the silver armor of the Crossbone Gundam being bolted on and wrapped around my body frame, piece by piece; going up until the head armor was fitted onto my head and the face mask flipped down; and ending with the V-fin and jewel piece with the jolly roger symbol etched on, materializing over my forehead. (A/N: Imagine it like the Iron man suiting up the scene but faster)
Right now, I was in my Gundam 1st shift, though that was not how it was the first time last week. In my first time summoning the Crossbone Gundam during my secret training, what appeared over my body what was I considered to be the default setting, even though I did wear the crossbones armor, the head, shoulder, elbow, waist, skirt and thigh armors were all mixing. I ended up having to spend quite some days to figure out what had happened.
I also found out through calculations that if I let my core reactor running at normal as usual, the power of the beam attacks would obliterate an IS, so I had to tell Haro to tune both down to the safe level of an IS like when Chifuyu had scanned it. However, that greatly reduced the suit performance to only 30% of its original, though it was still great enough to allow me to fight against a 2nd generation IS with ease.
"Whoa!" Ichika, having also finished suiting up, gaped in suprise at my Gundam, "So that's your personal IS? It looks so cool! Like a silver knight."
"What are you two waiting for? Hurry up and get out there! Do you want to forfeit the match or what?" Chifuyu shouted over the comm.
"Yes ma'am!"
I took out my Anti-beam Coating Cloak and worn it over, covering my suit to hide its identity. We then both stood on the catapult, ready to fly out into the arena. And right before we launch, Ichika called out to Houki.
"Houki."
"Wha-What?"
"I'm going."
"Ah...Umm, win, and come back!"
Ichika nodded and turned to me, "Let's go, Tobia."
"Umm, Tobia Arno, Crossbone Gundam, taking off!"
Immediately, I got launched off into the arena at high speed, but didn't get affected by the G-force thanks to the PIC (Passive Inertia Control); and with Ichika following close behind.
In the Arena
The spectator benches were filled by the girls who were curious about the battle that decides the class representative of class 1-1, and more specifically, the battle between male and female pilots. Some of them were chattering about who would win while waiting for the match to get started, some of them just sat and patiently waited, and some were doing various things with their phones.
In the middle of the Arena, was Cecilia Alcott, Blue Tears's pilot, floating in midair as she was waiting for us to finally come out.
Blue Tears, I had had Haro researched about it and as its name suggested, was an IS with mostly bright blue colors, highlighted by some white and black parts. Designed around the concept of being able to overwhelm a single opponent at a distance or take down multiple enemies through the usage of the optical drones, medium-range rifle, and missile pods.
When I and Ichika got out of the hangar, we brought ourselves up to her altitude to greet her.
"Oh my, so you have finally come, I almost think that you guys already ran away."
Cecilia snorted as she placed her hand on her hip, her eyes turning at us.
"Wait what's that? Was yours IS so ugly like you that you decided to hide it and your face behind that ragged piece of cloth?" mocked Cecilia as she looked at me.
"Well, it's for wiping away your tears after you lose so I think you should be a bit respectful for it. Oh, and don't worry, I will let Ichika attack you while I defend him, so it wouldn't be an unfair 2vs1."
"Talking big, thinking you can win against me? Humm, But as a generous lady, I will give you one last chance to bow down to apology to me and become my slave, then I might forgive you."
She moved her hand that was on her hip and pointed her index finger at us, but this time a bit pissed off by me making fun of her.
"It's obvious that I will win no matter what, so if you don't want to end up in the battered and pathetic state, then that's your best option."
"That's chance isn't for you to give, you should be the one to apology instead."
Heh, nice saying Ichika, but chatting time was out as I noticed Cecilia aggressively pointing her rifle at Ichika. Ichika being caught completely off-guard, would not able to evade it in time.
"Tsk, than this is your farewell!"
A blue energy beam was fired towards Ichika, he raised his arms up, trying to block it. But I flew right in and raised my ABC cloak up to absorb the shot, and despite it unable to pierce through, the energy coming from the shot was still great enough sent both of us backward and down to the ground.
"Ichika! This is a battle, stay focus or you will be a sitting duck!"
"Sor-Sorry."
As we were about to hit the ground, Ichika was able to regain control at the last seconds. We immediately separated into two directions to diverge her concentration and flew up again to regain fighting altitude and battle formation.
I talked with Ichika through the comm-links to devise a strategy while he was trying to avoid getting hit from Cecilia.
"Ichika, ya good?"
"I-I'm still fine, thanks to you. But I can't follow the reactions of Byakushiki."
"Keep trying, remember, you're the sword and I'm your shield. This is your first battle to gain experience, so this is as much as I can help to keep it fair."
As we talked and flew towards her, many shots came raining down on us. Most of the shots were aiming for Ichika, probably because Cecilia deemed him as a weaker target and intended to take him out first, and I wouldn't attack her until Ichika was taken out. Even though I tried to block those that Ichika couldn't avoid with the ABC cloak, it limit was only 7 shots, and I had been taking shots for him 6 times.
"Now, let's dance. Dance to the waltz that I, Cecilia Alcott, and Blue Tears are playing." Cecilia said playfully as if she was toying with us.
A shot, and another, then another. Attack after attack forced us to constantly changing course to not get hit. Despite both of us had not lost any shield energy due to the ABC cloak, but kept flying around like this will only be advantageous for Cecilia in a battle of attrition, and I may have to expose my ability more than I wanted to win. Even though with my speed, I would no doubt able to easily avoid all of her attacks, but Ichika on the other hand...
"Ichika, do you have anything in the inventory? We can't just let her pushing us back like this."
"There's only one..." Ichika replied as he then pulled out a sword by materializing it.
"Well, at least better than nothing."
Though I definitely could beat her even with bare hands, that was not my objective.
With Ichika now having a weapon, we both rushed towards her with maximum speed.
"Using a close-range weapon to challenge a long-range type suit, what a joke."
Cecilia continuously launched more attacks, but both of us managed to dodge it, drawing closer and closer to her. Ichika, now more confident with a sword, became bolder and decided to recklessly charge in first.
"Ichika, don't be too reckless!"
Despite receiving many glancing shots and his shield energy probably drop substantially, he was able to charge through and cut down the distance to only 50 meters.
"You're the first one to manage to hang out this long against Blue Tears. I'll give you credit for that!"
After saying that, Cecilia sent out four of her optical drones, they all flew forwards and started shooting at him from multiple directions. Being out-numbered, Ichika struggled to avoid the beams, with one was about to hit him, but I threw myself in at the last shot, though only glancing through, it still made the ABC cloak reach its final limit. Shielding Ichika, I fired my head Vulcans at the attacking bit-like weapons, taking out one of them.
Seeing that one of her drones got taken out, she retrieved them to a safe distance, then fired them in my direction to force me away. Knowing that she wouldn't be able to defeat Ichika first without taking me out, she turned everything to me.
But as she was so fixated on me, she didn't notice that Ichika was quickly approaching her from below. Ichika swung his sword at her with full force but missed as Cecilia's radar had detected him in the last seconds. She turned her drones at him to take him out, but in a spur of the moment, he rammed he IS at her, knocking the rifle away. When he escaped using the momentum from the ram, he noticed the drones weren't moving so he took another one out with a slash.
Cecilia having recovered from the ram, was angry that another drone was destroyed, so she decided to recall them back.
"How did you...!?"
As she looked at us, we were flying next to each other, readied ourselves to make another charge.
"At that moment, when you lost your concentration, those things stopped attacking. Meaning that without your commands, they can't attack, and by focusing on controlling them, you can't attack us either."
That was a nice analysis Ichika, though standing still while explaining to our enemy was not a smart move though. Well... I still kept my eyes on her so I thought it would be fine.
Cecilia's eyebrows twitched in annoyance, which confirmed that Ichika had nailed it.
Right now, Ichika was thinking something, I could tell it from his serious facial expression. Considering Ichika attacks till this point, he definitely had grown more adapted to his suit since his reaction time and speed had increased. To be able to push back Cecilia like that was no slight feat, and he was fighting in a default form no less. I was quite impressed, but...
"Tobia, can you let me handle Alcott-san alone this time?" he suddenly asked me.
Meanwhile, in the Observation Room
"Whoa... Orimura-kun and Arno-kun were amazing. Their teamwork and communications were really good despite it being their first time in combat together." Maya exclaimed while watching the live broadcast on the screens inside the observation room.
"Well, not bad I guess." Chifuyu nodded.
Houki however had arched an eyebrow questioningly at why Tobia was mostly defending Ichika and only used the Vulcans once to destroyed a bit instead of going on the offensive like Ichika. Judging by his speed and excellent reaction time, he could have easily closed the distance and took out Cecilia by himself should he use a heavier weapon. And that cloak of him, despite taking many shots, it was still fine and his IS shield energy hadn't decreased at all since the beginning of the battle. Was he IS aimed more towards defense?
"But why doesn't Tobia made any attack? He had been flowing around, taking shots for Ichika, but hasn't lost any shield energy so far."
"Yeah, that's quite weird." Maya also agreed with Houki, "Doesn't he have any other weapons other than those head-mounted guns? And his shield too."
"He's doing it on purpose." replied Chifuyu, which earned her two strange looks, "Tobia is trying to lure Alcott into going all out against his defense. By doing so, he can protect Ichika while letting both of them measure her skill and Blue Tears' capabilities without revealing too much of what his IS is capable of. And by making her so fixated on himself, he allows Ichika to utilize the openings he has created."
"Heh, so Ichika is the sword and Tobia is the shield right? And by letting Ichika take the offensive, he will quickly gather more experience and commanding skills, won't he." Maya said delightfully, with Houki also had the same thought.
"Correct, though, my idiot brother seems to become too happy again."
"Eh? Is there something wrong with it?"
"He has been clenching his left hand all this time. That's a habit he has had since young when that happens, he either make a simple mistake or stupid decision."
"Whoa... to be aware of that, you two really are siblings."
Maya casually mentioned it, but Chifuyu didn't say anything in return. Houki on the other hand began to feel more worried for Ichika, staring intently at the screens, hoping that he wouldn't do something rash.
Back at the Arena
"You can't be serious right? Your shield is probably low by now, charging her alone is not a good idea."
"I know, but I can't just keep letting you protect me. I want to be able to protect others too. I'm sorry Tobia."
After saying that, he rushed forwards to Cecilia again.
"This idiot."
Since that was his decision, I couldn't stop him as I already said that he would be the one to give the order.
He was now charging in recklessly with his sword like last time, and Cecilia also sent out her drones to intercept him. But Ichika, seemed to have gotten used to their attacking patterns this time, swung his sword to destroy one, and then kicked another one away. Still maintaining his speed, he closed in on Cecilia.
"YOU'RE MINE!" Ichika shouted.
"I got you now."
She smirked in victory as two of her missile pods shifted to firing position and fired two missiles at Ichika. Taken by complete suprise, he tried to fly off course but it was of no use since they were auto-tracking him, and in a few seconds, he was hit by both.
*Boom* the explosion was so big that it completely enveloped Ichika and his IS.
This Ichika, he definitely hadn't study fully about the Blue Tears, to make such a simple mistake, it should have caught him dearly... but it the end, he got saved by his IS.
As the smoke and dust dissipated, a newly-shaped IS appeared, letting out a dim glow all over its body. Ichika's Byakushi, it was now different, the armor had expanded, the curves became more polished and refined, the edges sharpened. Now, it had golden and blue colors added onto the pure white, giving it a less bland look.
"Don't tell me... that's the 1st shift!? This means you have been fighting me in the default setting the whole time?" Cecilia was bewildered by the fact.
"Huh, lucky bastard." I sighed in relief, though, I was still against his recklessness. But thanked it, he had gained his IS 1st shift, so it was a good thing I guess?
When I flew closer to him to check, he was murmuring something, but I couldn't hear it. He was fine though, still, his shield energy was quite low currently after getting hit.
"Thanks, Tobia." he said.
"Eh?"
"This time, I will be the one to protect others."
What the heck was he saying?
"And first of all, I will defend Chifuyu-nee's name and you!"
"Wait, you idiot, your shield...!"
Without allowing me to finish my sentence, he already accelerated towards Cecilia for one more time. His sword transformed by folding out, releasing a blue energy blade over its hilt.
"Ahh geez, you're so irritating!"
More missiles together with Cecilia's last drones flew at Ichika from different angles. Yet, Ichika instantly took down all the missiles and using the momentum from the explosion to launch himself at her. Swinging his energy sword from the back, it was sure that Ichika's attack would defeat Cecilia right there, and looking at her face, even she was sure that her loss was imminent while trying to avoid the strike. However, before the sword could make contact...
"Member Ichika Orimura, eliminated." the buzzer announced.
Ichika's sword barely missed its target by few inches short and Cecilia was saved by pure luck. I felt bad for Ichika, he had almost made it, but that was where he ended.
Tsk, reckless idiot. I guess it was time to end this, enough joking around for me.
Before she took back control of Blue Tears, I jumped out from behind Ichika, panicked her greatly. She freaked out but managed to took a glancing shot at my face, looking out the cloak cover, only to gasp in horror at the sight. She got a glimpse at my Gundam's face as I fixed my eyes onto her, staring right into her soul, with my mouth-vent opened to extract the excess heat, glowing with a golden light.
"!" Cecilia was greatly frightened and couldn't move, as if she was seeing a ghost. Though, that was exactly what I was aiming for.
"Sorry, but playtime is over."
Mots of blue light converged on my outstretched palm, taking shape and form. A power aura erupted from the forming weapon in my right hand, followed by an imposing presence that could not be ignored for my opponent eyes.
Not wanting to drag this battle out any longer, I pulled out the Muramasa, with 15 of beam emitters ignited and formed into a giant beam blade.
Cecilia raised both of her hands to try blocking it, but it was too late for her.
Ripping my long sword through her shield in a single motion, I ended her fultile effort by sending her flying unconsciously down to the ground. The impact was so large that it created a crater on the ground with Cecilia lying inside, immobile and unconscious. Her IS began fading away with the final mark of the battle.
"Ending of the match. Winner - Tobia Arno and Ichika Orimura."
Ichika along with all the spectator in the 3rd Arena who were watching gasped in shock at what had just happened, but I didn't pay them much mind. What was now clear to everyone was that the duel had ended
Later in the hangar
After Ichika and I had carried Cecilia to the infirmary, we headed back to the hangar to report back. When we returned, Houki, Maya, and Chifuyu were waiting for us, but Chifuyu's face was not the pleasant one.
"Everyone was praising you, and to think you failed at the last moment, you were really an idiot huh?"
Chifuyu was quick to criticize him, causing him to flinched back like a child. Well, I had to agree with her that he was an idiot, charging in recklessly for 2 times, if I hadn't gone in for him, he would have had his ass whooped.
"I-I'm sorry Chifuyu-nee, I didn't know why I suddenly lost like that?"
*Bonk* Ichika was hit on the head by Chifuyu. That was no doubt painful.
"It's Orimura-sensei! That's because you didn't consider the special characteristics of the weapon before you used it. What you did is called "Barrier Void Attack", it's Yukihira's special ability. It negates energy-based abilities, letting Yukihira bypass enemy energy shield and cause direct damage to the host. This ability converts shield energy into offensive power. And that's how I was able to win the 1st Mondo Grosso tournament." she explained.
Heh, Yukihira, so that was its name. Its ability was indeed special since the attack would not be weakened by the energy shield, a single direct hit would be enough to force opposing IS to activate Absolute Barrier, effectively rendering the enemy energy-depleted.
"I see, so that's why my shield energy drops so fast to 0."
"In a battle, when shield energy reached 0, it will count as an automatic loss. Since your ability uses shield energy to cause damage, it can be seen as a double-edged sword" Maya interjected to explained it in a shorter term.
"Wait, Tobia's final attack, his sword was able to go through Cecilia shield too, it's similar to Ichika's Yukihira?"
Houki question made everyone look at me questionably, even though I didn't have to tell them anything, I decided to make a half-true statement to not complicate things later.
"Well, my sword is called the Muramasa, about its ability, you can say it's similar to the Yukihira."
"Woah, we're similar to each other right, comrade?" Ichika said, thudding his elbow at me.
Nah, I refused to be an idiot like you though. You would be a good friend to have, but a comrade on the frontline? God NO.
In the end, Ichika got some more of Chifuyu's teachings and instructions on his IS standby mode by Maya for a while before we all went back to the dormitory. But still, I decided to head to drop in on a place first.
At the Infirmary
Inside the infirmary, Cecilia Alcott was lying on a bed located in the corner near the door. Although she hadn't suffered any external injuries thanks to the PIC, she was still blacked out from being sent flying down to the ground. I was sitting next to her side on a folding chair.
"Mmnnn…." Cecilia groaned as she opened her eyes slowly, "What? Where am I…?"
"Relax, you're in the infirmary. Although your body has no injuries, some of your muscles may cramp up. You should rest."
Cecilia wakes up from her slumber as she jerked her head toward the door. Her eyes widened in surprise when she saw that I sitting next to her.
"You!... I see, so I was defeated huh? What? You come here to laugh at me?" Cecilia suddenly raged at me, glaring as she clenched her blanket tighter.
I just sighed at the girl, even at this point, she was still being like this. Jeez, did she hate me that much?
"No, I'm not here to laugh at you. I'm not that type of guy."
"Then why are you here!? Oh, to demand something from this don't ya? But I will have you know that I know enough about your kind, to know what filthy beasts you men are!"
She got heated up and accused me of such harsh words. I genuinely didn't know what was wrong with her.
"Don't get me wrong, I'm here to talk. I only want to know why you were hostile against me and Ichika and I want to help you out. But if you want to curse me right now, then I will leave." I said, looking straight at her in the eyes.
After saying that, I saw her about to lash out again, but abruptly stopped, and I was met with a long awkward silence. Just when I thought she didn't want to answer and was about to stand up to leave, she did.
"You really... want to hear it?" She asked me, genuine curiosity in her voice this time rather than bitterness and hostility.
I nodded. Again, Cecilia didn't answer me immediately, choosing to stare at me hesitantly instead.
"Ever since I was little, my mother was the person I looked up to... she was very sociable inside and outside the house. She was everything I wanted to be..." She finally spoke, her body shifting uneasily in her bed as she stared at the bedsheets.
"My father, on the contrary, was an insignificant person and virtually a shame of a man and a father. He had a spoiled upbringing, always troubled my mother. With his image, I grew up believing that men are inferior to women, weak and worthless like my father."
"One day, my mother and father asked me to go on a trip with them." A small smile crept onto her face as she looked up. "At first I was confused since I rarely saw them together, but I was happy that we could spend time together like a family."
Suddenly Cecilia's face turned grave, "But then, it happened..."
"The train went too fast... then another train in front of us..." She trailed off, not realizing that tears threatened to spill out of her eyes. "It happened so fast... I didn't even exactly remember how it happened..." She clenched her hands over the blanket.
What a tragedy, for a young girl at that age; when I asked Haro to investigate Cecilia's background and IS, he didn't tell me anything about it. But now that I had heard it, I couldn't help but feel sympathy for her. And her story was quite similar to Banagher-san's past that he had told me too.
"After that, I was entrusted with my family's fortune..." she paused for a moment. "But there have been many rivals vying to take over my family's fortune, I was thrown into a squabble over it."
"To avoid ceding my family fortune, I studied everything to protect it. When I scored highest in the IS aptitude test, the government presented me with an offer that they would help to protect my family's fortune, in exchange for me becoming the IS Representative Candidate of England."
With a small sigh, she finished, "Ever since transferring to the IS Academy, I have sought to become stronger in mastering my Blue Tears and improving my skills, so I would not need to worry further about the Alcott fortune and the only home I have ever known."
"Then came the news I heard regarding that young male. How Orimura Ichika, a man, was able to activate and control an IS!" She huffed.
"I was infuriated-No! Insulted! It was a blow to my pride as a woman and an insult upon my..." Suddenly she came to a stop, probably because she remembered who she had been talking to and realized what she had been saying to be.
"Upon your belief since your younger day. You thought me and Ichika didn't deserve to pilot the Infinite Stratos because we defied everything you had come to believe from your parents. Correct?"
Having opted to remain silent this entire time, I had finally decided to tell her the truth of her words.
The truth was that her reason was immature and selfish. Cecilia had failed to see her narrow-minded way of thinking as she grew up, viewing the world only by her standards. Being defeated by me and Ichika, she had now been forced to confront the reality.
A tense silence lingered in the room, a silence that was broken by Cecilia, which caught me by surprise but not because of her breaking it. But because of the question that she asked.
"I'm pathetic, am I? You guys must have hated me" I've been mean to you guys, slandering you guys, All because I couldn't let go of something from the past."
"Well, you're truly pathetic indeed. Growing up in a dysfunctional family, and not getting the love you want; losing your family at an early age, then had to fight against others to protect what your mother had left. You used men as a scapegoat, to put the blame on and take it out on them."
She went quiet at my answer, her eyes were full of guilt and sorrow.
"However, we don't hate you. We want to save you instead, because if you continue to act like this for all your life, eventually, people will start hating and resenting you. You will just die lonely someday without anyone remembering you, is that what you want? Do you think your mother wants to see her child ending up like that?"
She didn't answer. Perhaps she didn't know how to answer that, or she didn't feel like acknowledging that she was being worried about by a man. So she let silence descend into the room once more.
"Well, that's all I wanted to say. I'm not here to say you're wrong or tell you to throw away your past. I'm just here to talk. You can hate us or curse us, and we won't talk to you, or you can start again and we will help you. The choice is yours to make."
Seeing that I had nothing more reason to stay, I decided it was time to leave, and walked out to the door. What she did was of her own volition now. Whether the duel or this talk had got through to her, it was all up to her. I had nothing else to do but left her be what she wanted.
"...Thank you."
"You should thank Ichika, he is the one who carries you here and is the person who worries for you the most when you were unconscious. I'm merely here telling you the truth."
"Yeah... I probably should." she smiled softly.
I wished I could have said something, but I hadn't gone through something like her, I didn't have the wisdom like my father or Tobia-san or Banagher-san, so I couldn't give her any real advice.
"Oh, and sorry for that last attack, I may have gone too far."
Before I went out of the door completely, I turned back to apologize to her for being too harsh, but she didn't say anything in return, so I just got out of the infirmary, and walked back to the dorm. The first day of the 2nd weak for me in this world was already not a pleasant one. I hoped that nothing troubling would come out of this.
Tobia Arno had thought that since the duel was unofficial and he only did a little in the battle, no one would really care, and just after a few days of gossip, the story would die out. Little did Tobia Arno knew that the story was spread like wildfire amongst the girls and teachers, they even called the Ichika Orimura and Tobia Arno duo as the "Knights of Sky Silver" because of their ISes colors. And to top it all, he had even gained a peculiar interest from a certain person that would about to show him a little suprise.