Chapter 8: The redemption

Room 0097

The next morning came by like normal, but unlike usual, today, Tobia started off with an exhausted body accompanied by a mild headache. His eyes blurred, feeling heavy from excessive agitation, and his mind was struck with many incoherence thoughts when he leaned his back against the wall as he lifts his upper body up from the bed.

"Ughh" Groaning to himself, Tobia pinched the bridge of his nose, trying to stay awake, then he looked over to the side to see that his raven hair roommate still hadn't woken up yet. He slowly brought himself out of bed and walked into the bathroom to wash his face.

Staring into the mirror, he began remembering the things that had happened yesterday. After the duel against Cecilia, followed up by Tabane Shinonono's sudden appearance and then the talk with Ichika, he was essentially reduced into quite a pathetic state. And last night wasn't great for him either as he had woken up many times during the time. Without much thinking, he decided to take a bath to clean his body and mind.

After 15 minutes, he got out of the room, with a towel still hanging on his head. When he opened the door, he saw that Ichika was standing next to the cupboard, readying his uniform.

"Tobia? You were in the bathroom?" Ichika asked.

"Ah, yeah, I was taking a bath," answered Tobia.

"Oh, okay. Also, great timing, I have just invited Houki over the phone to have breakfast together. Do you want to go too?"

"Ah... Yeah, sure."

"Then that's great. I will clean myself up for a bit too, could you wait for a few minutes?"

Tobia nodded, and Ichika happily went inside the bathroom. He went over to his table and prepared for the day classes. Afterward, he did some basic workout to keep his body started, and it was then that Haro appeared in front of him.

"Master, I'm sorry to report to you that the counter-tracking has been discovered. She seemed to have found out our intention and had destroyed it 3 hours ago."

"I see." he sighed, standing up to inquire Haro, "What was her last location then?"

"After leaving the room yesterday, she mainly moved around the academy to various places without any clear destination. At 0320, the signal was suddenly lost."

"Then check those places that she had gone to, there may be something to be discovered."

Haro received the order and flew out of the balcony. Its task was to find out more information regarding Tabane Shinonono regarding her intentions and abilities to determine whether or not did she pose a threat to its master.

Last night, when she got into the room and cause a ruckus, she had carefully placed a GPS and listening device on Tobia before he regained control of the situation. But luckily, by body scanning, Haro had discovered it when Tobia suited up his IS and told it to him after the talk between Tobia and Ichika. When Haro told him that it could trackback to its user using the GPS, Tobia let it carried out the task.

Clenching his fist together, he turned to look at his Silver Phantom laying on his uniform, 'Tabane Shinono, I don't know what's your true intentions are. But if you become a hindrance to me, I will not hold back.' he thought to himself as Ichika finished his bath.

"I'm done. Let's dress up and go."

"Uhm."

Both got out of the room and headed towards the cafeteria, where Houki was waiting. During the walk, there was an awkward silence between the two of them. While Tobia didn't say anything, Ichika, on the other hand, appeared to be somewhat uneasy about it. He kept eyeing at Tobia as he tried to put some small distance between the two when walking.

The thing was that, after the talk with Tobia the night before, he couldn't think about letting his fellow in such a state again, but he didn't know how to help without making Tobia feeling uncomfortable by bulging into someone else business. He thought that he may have made his friend sad by reminding him about his family, though he didn't know what had happened, judging from Tobia's reactions, it was definitely not something pleasing to discuss about.

Noticing that the other boy was fidgeting, the blue hair boy couldn't help but raised a brow, "Is something wrong, Ichika?"

"Ahh..." jolted Ichika, getting out of his deep thought at Tobia's sudden question, "No, nothing... I was just thinking about a few things, that's all.", 'About you that is' he looked hesitantly at Tobia's eyes.

"I see. We better hurry, Houki will not like it if we are late."

"Ye-yeah, you're right..." replied Ichika as he scratched his cheek rather awkwardly, and this time, he couldn't look Tobia in the eyes, prompting his fellow to think him as being a bit weird today.

Nonetheless, they still got to the cafeteria in time where Houki was anxiously waiting for them.

IS Academy – Class 1-1

The three were currently in class, preparing for the first period. Surrounding them were the girls chattering about the duel between Cecilia and Ichika with Tobia; they were. When he heard about what the girls were talking, Ichika became embarrassed at the fact that he was eliminated at the last moment, and if it wasn't for Tobia, he would have been Cecilia's slave by now. Tobia on the other hand wasn't listening as he was browsing through the textbooks to review the lesson before classes.

One of the girls walked up to the boys and brought out her notebook, asking for their autographs. "Umm... Orimura-kun, Arno-kun... cou-could I ask for your autograph?" As the other girls heard that, they suddenly started rushing to Ichika's side.

"Eh! Not fair, I want to ask them too!"

"Me too! Orimura-Kun's fight yesterday was so cool."

"Eh? But I think Arno-Kun's IS and his last attack is cooler!"

"What are you guys talking about? Both of them are amazing in my opinion. They're the 'Knights of Sky Silver'."

"Wait, everyone..."

The sudden approach of the girls caught Ichika by complete suprise. Tobia, despites having not paid much attention to the surrounding until now, row his eyes over to look at the girl that had said something peculiar.

But then, the door suddenly slid open, revealing a blonde girl standing outside, and caught the attention of the two boys when she walked in.

"Alcott-san..." when the girls saw Cecilia walked towards their direction, they backed away, fearing that another fight would happen again with her and the boys.

Ichika, sitting in his seat, just stared at her passively and was prepared to stand up for himself if the blonde standing in front of him decide to lash out.

While many unpleasant eyes were fixated on her, Cecilia herself didn't pay it any mind. She only had her eyes locked onto the two guys that facing her, one of which was keeping his guard while the other looked at her with a stoic and calm face.

As many were viewing her in a negative aspect, she damn right knew that most wouldn't even want to talk to her right now, Cecilia bit her lips tightly and hold her hands close to her body. She took a glance at Tobia, prompting the boy to look into her eyes.

"Arno-san, Orimura-san... I … I want to..."

Hearing the hesitation in Cecilia's words, Tobia knew exactly what she was about to say, so he stood up and got closer to her, startling her a bit. "So, you have finally made up your mind then?"

His question caused her to lower her head, fidgeting her hands as she felt ashamed of herself. Without any resentment, she nodded in silence.

Even though Tobia himself didn't understand much about how to deal with a woman, he knew that right then, Cecilia's feelings were definitely very low.

He closed his eyes and left out a sigh as his hand reached out to pat her shoulder.

"You don't have to feel like that. Everyone can make a mistake, but as long as they can realize and fix it, it's okay."

For a moment, she holds her breath and clenched her hands tighter, until she eventually opened up her lips to apologize for her wrong-doings. "I'm sorry, I'm very sorry. I was wrong to be like that, please forgive me. I shouldn't have blamed you, cursed at you and looked down on you like that."

There were tears falling from her azure eyes, but she didn't seem to notice it, she just lowered her head further and turned to everyone, asking for forgiveness. And it made everyone felt heavy inside their hearts; she may have gone too far with her words, but in the end, she had apologized, and if you put her past into consideration, it was very understandable.

Tobia turned to Ichika and nodded at him, giving him the hint to help to ease out the situation. Ichika without any second thought went to give Cecilia another pat on her other shoulder. She looked up to him and cried even harder, which made him feel a tad bit awkward, so he brought her closer and gave her a hug while patting her hair.

"Tobia is right, you don't have to feel too much about it. It's okay, we never hated you nor hold anything against you. We have always forgiven you about it."

Everyone was taken aback by it, especially Houki, though with some jealousy mixing in. The green eyes boy just let out a small smile and shook his head, but he felt that what Ichika did was right.

The blonde herself was lost in thought, her heart was pounding hard and her cheek was heating up with the sudden hug.

Warm and sweet, saddening yet delightful.

She had never felt something like that before, other than when she was younger, being hugged by her mother. However, she didn't hate that feeling, she felt warmed and happy instead. After so many years, there were now people who cared about her. 'What's these feelings-?' she thought to herself as the emotions overwhelmed her.

"Thank you, Orimura-san, Arno-san. And again, I'm so sorry for what I have said about everyone. I hope you can all forgive me and we can befriend together." she turned to everyone and apologized again.

This time, the girls just laughed it off and walked to Cecilia, giving her some encouragement and lighten up the mood inside the room.

"Come on, it's okay. We forgive you."

"Yeah, Alcott-san, don't be sad about it. We are still a friend."

"Umu, you are so lucky Alcott-san. You got a hug from Orimura-kun."

With everything backed to normal, Tobia let out a mild chuckle. "Good grief," he muttered.

With the small amount of courage she had, she glanced over to Tobia who nodded back to her with reassurance and a small smile as if he was saying 'I knew you would be able to make the right choice.'

Nonetheless, the moment came to an end when the front door then slid open again, this time, Chifuyu and Maya were the ones to walk in.

"What are you still doing? It's time for classes already!"

"Everyone, please get back to your seat."

Hearing the teachers instructions, everyone went for their seat, Cecilia was guided to hers by one girl, and the class started.

"Now, before we begin today's lessons. I have an announcement to make." Chifuyu said, gaining immediate attention from the students. "With the result from yesterday's duel, we will now all agree that the class representative of our class 1-1 will be Ichika Orimura."

"Wait! What!?" Ichika instantly stood up, surprised that he was the one to be chosen as despites being eliminated during the duel.

"Shouldn't it be Tobia to be chosen? He is the one who defeated Alcott-san after all." he retorted.

"Correct. But didn't you remember? You were the one who accepted her duel first, and the reason for it was to accept whether or not you will become the class representative, not Tobia. He only joined in after you as your support since Alcott called for a challenge with both of you." answered Chifuyu.

"Ohhhhhhh..." Ichika gasped in realization, finally remembered what he hadn't paid attention to last time. 'I f*cked up.' he thought to himself.

Tobia, while was keeping a poker face, was trying his best not to laugh out loud. He fully knew that fact when he accepted the challenge, yet it seemed like Ichika didn't. 'He's truly dumb indeed.'

It was refreshing for Tobia, pushing away the negative thoughts from the day before and gave him some mild laughing entertainment at his dense and thick-skulled friend. Together with how Cecilia had turned out now, he could say that it wasn't that bad anymore. Though, he was only thinking like that to somewhat ease off his burdening feelings.

What came next was the sound of someone clapping from behind. The students took a glance to see that it was Cecilia who was clapping her hands, cheering up for Ichika. When they saw that, everyone just shrugged off and started to follow her example, giving him many congratulations.

Ichika looked around in suprise, he even turned to Tobia for help with desperate eyes, only to be abandoned when the green-eyed boy turned away. Ichika could only sigh in defeat, knowing that he wouldn't be able to bail this out.

*Bam*

"What are you being carried away about? Buckle up!"

"Ouch!"

He was suddenly hit on the head by Chifuyu's attendance book, and immediately grope his head as he groaned in pain.

"Since you are now the class representative, you should expect to work harder. Your current level as I see it is like trash. Unless you want to be pounded by others, you better start learning properly from now on. Seriously, you youngsters are so hopeless without anyone's guidance."

Ichika rolled his eyes up at his sister's words. 'Look who is talking. Nee-san can't even clean the house nor do the laundry properly without my help. Yet you call me hopeless, you should do those yourself, you 24-year-old member of society.'

*Bam* another strike over his head.

"You were thinking about something rude, weren't ya?"

"No...Not at all, I swe-"

*Bam* *Bam*

"I'm sorry."

"Uwa" sitting next to Ichika, Tobia couldn't help but feel bad for the guy, but so did Houki and the others. In the end, they still digressed and moved on with the lesson with some laughter.

IS Academy – Practice Field No.2

After the first period, we moved on to the field training exercise for the second and third periods.

On the open training field of the school, the girls and the two boys were standing in lines, and standing before them were Chifuyu and Maya in their PE suits. The girls were all wearing a standard pilot suit like the one that was similar to Cecilia's that Tobia had seen, which resembled a one-piece swimsuit with the addition of a pair of stockings.

Ichika and Tobia were clearly standing out with their pilot suit. The former wore a dark blue tank top and shorts, and the latter wore a full MS piloting suit, the same ones that they wore during the duel.

The former pilot himself couldn't bear looking at the girls at the moment. Even though he had already seen Cecilia wore a similar outfit before, but that was when she was in her IS armor. Now that he saw other girls without their armor, it was another different story.

'How the hell could they wear them without feeling anything? We are not at a swimming pool right?' he pondered.

As he questioned the girls' training uniforms, they also had the same reaction. Locking onto him, many of them stared fixated at his pilot suit. Both in awe and wonder, since this was the first time they saw someone wearing such a suit, it kind of reminded them of those fighter jet pilot's uniform they saw in movies and on the internet. Uncomfortable as it may look, they still thought it to be cool-looking in some ways.

"Wouldn't it be really hot to wear it right now without the IS air-conditioning?"

"Woah, I haven't seen it yesterday since he was in his IS full armor."

The girls murmured to themselves. Some of them even noticed the insignia and badge on his uniform, though they didn't get what they meant. Only Chifuyu and Maya understood them, which appeared that Tobia rank was 1st lieutenant with EFSF and SNRI badges on the shoulders.

"Well then, let's start practicing some basic IS maneuvers. Orimura, Alcott, you will be an example."

Ichika suddenly raised his hand up, earning Chifuyu and Maya's attention.

"What it's?"

"Wouldn't Tobia serve better as an example? He's a lot more experience than me right?"

The blue hair boy glanced over instantly at his friend's comment, not feeling fond of the idea of bringing his IS out for public display too much. Luckily, Chifuyu stood in for him.

"That's not needed. The only reason I asked you to set an example is for you to have more training. In fact, for a simple demonstration, Alcott's performance will be more than enough."

Ichika nodded in understanding, then proceeded to activate his IS but was hit with confusion for a moment as he remembered he didn't know how to effectively call out his IS yet, which was inevitable for him since his first real experience with an IS was only yesterday, whereas Cecilia just confidently summoned her Blue Tears without any problem.

"Hurry up! A properly trained pilot doesn't need more than a second to deploy the IS."

Being prompted by Chifuyu, he began concentrating according to the textbook that Maya had given him.

Holding onto his bulky bracelet, he focused on calling out his IS by drawing out the image of Byakushiki inside his head. He stretched his right arm out and supporting it with his left's; with full concentration, he left out a call.

"Come forth! Byakushiki!"

In a second, his entire body was enveloped in a ball of light. He felt his body becoming lighter, with all sorts of sensors began linking to his consciousness, greatly enhancing his senses. In the blink of an eye, he was now clad in Byakushiki armor.

The same could be seen with Cecilia's Blue Tears; her earpiece let out a flash and transformed into her distinctive blue armor with her bits already repaired.

"Good. Now take flight."

After Chifuyu had said that, Cecilia immediately got into action. She quickly hovered up from the ground and with high acceleration, she launched herself high into the sky.

Ichika, with some basic experience, was able to follow her. Though, he did have some initial struggles catching up to Cecilia's speed.

When he reached up to her altitude, the astonishment in his eyes was as clear as the day. Looking around him, the raven hair boy was amazed to see a beautiful sky that he hadn't been able to see prior; he had only been in a position to look up to it from before, but now, he was viewing a whole island from atop the clouds, as the wind blew through his hair.

"Oi! You're too slow! In terms of specs, the Byakushiki has superior output to Blue Tears!"

"Even if you say that..."

"Orimura, Alcott. Execute a power-dive next and then come to a complete stop." Disregarding Ichika remark, Chifuyu moved on to give them new instructions through the comm-links.

"R-Roger. Then, Ichika-san, I will be going first."

The Blue Tears came down first at high speed before Cecilia used the leg thrusters to decelerate and land on the ground perfectly. The blond-haired girl then dismissed her IS and stood waiting for Ichika.

Ichika noticed that before she dived down, she had changed the way she calls him to be more familiar, which he somewhat felt happy about. Anyway, he refocused back to the given task and readied himself. Gathering his concentration, he made a fast descend from the sky, and was able to come to a complete stop, hovering 20 centimeters above the ground.

"Woah. I did it!"

Both Tobia and Chifuyu were quite impressed seeing Ichika was able to execute the move without any problem, and it was noticeable that Ichika actually mimicked Tobia maneuver during the duel, albeit, a bit crude.

"Not bad." complimented Chifuyu.

"Okay. Orimura-kun, the next task is for you to deploy your weapon. You should be able to do that right?" Maya gave him a new exercise.

"Yes, sensei."

"Great. Then let's begin."

Hearing her words, he turned to the side. Confirming that there was no one in the way, he focused his mind once again, imagined the shape and size of the blade, and extended out his right hand, he called forth 'Yukihira Nigata', the 2nd form of Yukihira that he had used after unlocking Byakushiki 1st shift.

"You're still too slow! Practice till you can summon in a second." scolded Chifuyu.

Tobia thought that Chifuyu was being a bit too harsh at first, but he remembered that Ichika was going to participate in the inter-class tournament, so if he didn't want to get his ass handed in the first few seconds, he should better train more. During the battle with Cecilia, Ichika was lucky that she was going easy on him due to her arrogance and that he had the support from Tobia, if not, it would be guaranteed that he would lose.

"Arno, deploy your weapon."

"Eh!?"

"You and Ichika will have a practice spar. Since your weapon is similar to Orimura, it's better for him to practice some close-combat techniques and for the girls to observe, no?"

He somewhat agreed to that statement, though, he still disliked the notion to brought his Gundam out too much. However, thinking that he could test out his weapon against Ichika's one, he nodded to Chifuyu's order.

He turned to look at Ichika, prompting the boy to take a guard on him. Without much thought, he called upon the Crossbone Gundam and was entirely covered in its shiny silver armor with the Muramasa on storing on the side skirt. Earning him much awe from the girls.

"Heh... so that is his IS?"

"I believed its registered name on the Academy's page is Silver Phantom. It's so cool!"

"Yeah. Yesterday we didn't get to see it much due to the cape, now that you see it up and close like this, he truly looks like a medieval knight in shiny armor right?"

Ichika on the other side now grasped his Yukihira even tighter. Unlike during the duel against Cecilia, fighting Tobia felt a lot more dangerous to him. When he review his fight when Tobia was staying outside the balcony last night, he was both amazed and afraid of his friend IS at the same time, especially during the last strike that ended the duel. And currently, those emerald eyes were staring deep into his soul, flinching him back. Dangerous, his senses told him.

Standing ready at the center of the field while Ichika stood across from him, Tobia sucked in a breath and cleared his mind, ignoring all else but the opponent in front of him. He exuded the aura of a veteran and inclined his head in a sign of a fair duel.

Inwardly stunned, Ichika reciprocated the gesture while mulling over the fact that it was in no way fair for him at all.

Tobia struck first, his feet digging into the ground as he went in for a charge. His fighting style was not those that focused on the finest of techniques, but on the sheer power and speed, so he needed to strike fast to end the fight.

Ichika, with only some mediocre combat lessons with Houki in hand, did not dare to meet Tobia's strikes head-on. It would crush him.

He eased his body and remembered what Houki had taught him before. His mind moved through the memory and brought his body to jump out of the strike zone. Greatly surprised Chifuyu as she didn't expect her idiot brother to be able to pull that move off.

Amazing for a novice like Ichika to pull it off, it was still in Tobia's prediction. Ichika tried to use the open to striking him, but Tobia was quick to take a side step, in turn, dodging Ichika's attack. And before the raven hair boy could recover and turn to face his adversary, the Gundam's hand had already seized his right arm and threw him over its body with a force that was so great that it knocked Yukihira out of Ichika hands, and even cracked a bit of the right arm armor. Ending the battle in under half a minute when the tip of Muramasa found its way to Ichika's throat.

Now lying on the dirt ground, Ichika couldn't have believed it. Tobia was a monster. His reaction time was even beyond Byakushiki's readings and in only a matter of seconds, he had been defeated like he was nothing.

From where Tobia was standing, he glanced back at the girls, with Chifuyu glancing at him with a stoic face.

"That should be enough I guess?" he sighed before withdrawing his Muramasa and dematerialized his armor.

He offered his hand to Ichika and was kindly accepted. "Dude, you got me there real hard." piped up Ichika after a short moment of silence.

Smiling at that, Tobia shrugged off rather suggestively at his friend comment, while standing not far away, the girls widened their eyes in disbelief, especially Houki. They didn't expect the spar to end so fast and so one-sided; after seeing Ichika versing Cecilia, they had seen that he was indeed strong enough to be able to keep of par with a representative candidate but to see Tobia dwarfing over him was another different experience. 'No wonder he was the representative candidate of Austria' was their thought.

Ignoring what the girls behind them were doing, the two boys just went on with their chattering.

"Hey Tobia, if you were this good. Could you train me too?"

"...I don't know? My teaching skill is not that great. Aren't you still in training with Houki?"

"Yeah...but her teaching is not my style really. Her explanations and teachings are so useless for me most of the time."

"Saying that but it's still thanks to her that you managed to dodge my first strike right?"

"Yeah, you could say that. But come on, you should train me, man, two guys training with each other is more comfortable for me."

"Okay, okay. But let's get back first. We will talk about it later." Tobia agreed reluctantly, thinking that it wouldn't be bad to have a sparring partner.

With that done, the two of them walked back to the group with some laughter and the whole session went on without any problems.

Afternoon in the IS Academy - 03:45 P.M

"Oh. So this is the place..."

Standing in front of the IS Academy entrance, stood a girl with a Boston bag that didn't match her petite size at all. She bared the look of a young teenage girl with a pair of beautiful emerald-colored eyes. Her hair light brown hair was tied into twin tails and was accompanied by two matching yellow hairbands.

"Lemme sees, where's the reception counter?"

She pulled out a crumpled up piece of paper from her shirt's pocket.

"The 1st level general service is in the main building...but where the heck is it?"

Frustrated, the girl grumbled, but no matter how much she did so, she still wouldn't get an answer from the paper. She stuffed the paper along with her frustration into her pocket.

"Anyway, I just need to find it," she muttered, as her feet began to move. 'Seriously, what were they thinking, to have no one come out to pick me up, how ruthless are they leaving a 15-year-old like me here alone, in a foreign country no less?' she pondered with the fact, feeling irritated being left on her own.

At a first glance, she may look like a Japanese on the island, but after a closer look, she actually didn't look like one. Those sharp and beautiful eyes of hers spoke up the notion that she was in fact a Chinese.

Not a Japanese she may be, however, to her, Japan was like that of her second homeland as she was very familiar with it and had had many fond memories here.

As she continued to walk through the unfamiliar school ground, she was still looking around for people, wondering if she would be able to meet a certain boy that she had been looking forward to the meeting. He was one of the biggest reasons why she returned to Japan.

"I wonder if he still remembers me?" she asked herself. The boy that she remembered was an energetic one and she had never seen him being gloomy. Yes, he was that kind of person.

Suddenly, multiple voices were heard. She turned to their direction and saw a group of students walking together. She became delighted instantly and went strolling towards them, hoping that they could help her out of her current situation.

"Anyway, I'm not thinking it like that."

"Oh? Are you sure? I bet it would be."

When she got closer, she heard some male voices from that group, one of which she was familiar with. When she took a better look, a very distinct face appeared in her sight, one that she could never forget. He was Ichika Orimura, the boy that was her close childhood friend and even more. The unexpected reunion caused her heart to race all of a sudden.

'Will he recognized me? He will right? It's not that long since we last saw each other.' She told herself so, while keep being distracted by the thought of 'What if he doesn't recognize me?'

She told herself that it would be alright and that if he wouldn't, it would be because she had become prettier over the years. With the optimistic thought, she once again moved towards him, but then suddenly stopped at the first step when she realized there was another boy wearing the same uniform as her childhood friend, walking next to him, one that she didn't know could be in the academy.

To the best of her knowledge, there was only one male IS pilot currently, and that was Ichika. But then, who was that other boy? The IS Academy only had female teachers, so he couldn't be one, and he was wearing the same uniform as Ichika too. So, could it be that there was another male IS pilot that she hadn't known?

"Orimura-san, please just go with us, we bet that you will like it a lot."

"That's right Ichika-san, I also recommend that you go with us."

"Come on, Ichika, what is there to be afraid of? Are you even a man?"

This time, there were other girls that went for Ichika, two were being very close to him, one was hugging his arm and the other one was leading him. After seeing them, the confusion about the other boy was soon be quickly replaced with an icy feeling, as if an avalanche had struck, stirring her with frustration.

For her to see other girls being close to Ichika really set her up. The gripped she had on the corner she was hiding behind became tighter, and her face turned darker.

She put away the idea of running up to Ichika and went the other way to find the general service counter. She was quick to find it, however, as the main building was just right behind the building that Ichika group had just gone out. She immediately raced inside.

"Mmm, then the procedure is complete. Welcome to the IS Academy, Huang Lingyin-san." spoke the receptionist in friendly words with a beaming smile. Though, those words seemed to just go in one ear and go out the other for her.

"Which class is Ichika Orimura in?" she pouted and asked.

"Oh. That's a famous kid? He's in class 1-1. And Huang-san is in class 1-2, so you're in neighboring classes. Oh, and he is the class representative of class 1-1 too, as expected of Orimura-sensei's younger brother."

"I saw another boy walking with him just now. Who is he?" Ling hastily asked again.

"Oh, you didn't know? He's Tobia Arno. He is the second male IS pilot in this Academy and he's a representative candidate from Austria. Though, not much is known about him since Orimura-sensei had withheld much of the information for some reason." answered the receptionist with some slight disappointment in her voice.

After some thinking and considerations, Ling came to a decision.

"It's the class representative for class 1-2 decided yet?"

"Yes?"

"Oh, then could you tell me her name? I think I may have to ask her to relinquish her position to me."

A vein could be seen popping up over Ling's forehead as she smiled.

Later in the Cafeteria

Normally at this time, it was already too late for lunchtime and too early for dinner. Even if there were some students there, they might have been there only to grab a snack or have some chat. But currently, the whole area was full of party decorations and crowded with the students of class 1-1 who were having a party to celebrate Ichika's appointment as the class representative. Sitting at one of the tables were Ichika, Houki, Banagher, Cecilia, and Honne with her friends who just rained the four with confetti. Above them was a banner which read: "Orimura Ichika – Class Representative Appointment Party."

*PA!*PA!*PA!*PA!* The pops and colored ribbons landed on Ichika from all directions.

"Orimura, congratulations on becoming the class rep!" The girls congratulated him before breaking out in applause, prompting Ichika to chuckle in shyness,

"Ahh...so this is why you guys pulled me here, thanks, everyone. But you guys didn't need to go this far."

"Well it's obvious, isn't it?" Cecilia answered him first as she stood up, "Ichika-san through great effort together with Tobia-san was able to defeat me in the duel. To be able to win a national representative candidate is no small feat. Of course, we should celebrate, together with you becoming the class rep too."

"Well, I can see that point. But I still think that Tobia should be the class rep instead of me." Ichika replied.

Sitting on the side with a cup of coffee in his hand, Tobia chuckled to himself. 'Sorry Ichika, but I hate bearing responsibility, so you will have to do this on your own.'

"Oh, that's alright. You don't have to worry about that. Though unofficial, we have decided that we will appoint Arno-san as the vice-class rep. That way, he can support you on your way."

Hearing the last statement, Tobia nearly choked on his coffee, and he immediately turned to the girl who had spoken with a questioning look. "Wait...What!?"

"Yeah, since you were the 2nd choice after Orimura, it would make sense to make you the vice-class rep. So you can take over his position when Orimura isn't available." The girl replied in glee.

"Hahhh-?"

At a loss for words, left dumbfounded, and utterly confused; Tobia silently walked out of the cafeteria and back to the dorm despite the girls were looking at him. Greatly confused his classmates.

The girls had just made up another position of class authority just for him? Just what had been going on in their minds? He absolutely wanted to refuse, but couldn't bring himself to do so as he didn't want to make them feel bad.

"Nein!" Was his only word to describe the feeling. After more than a week of learning basic German to better his cover, he had now been able to put it to some kind of use.