Chapter 13: The Concluding Remark

"Tsk, this thing is a nuisance," grunted Rin when her shots missed the black IS.

Even though the black IS had a very bulky and clunky design, the number of thrusters and verniers on its body possessed a tremendous amount of raw power that was almost unthinkable. Not only was it able to lift the huge thing off the ground, but it was also capable of evading Rin cannons. Granted, the Shenlong energy was still low so the number of shots Rin could deliver was limited, but the black IS was a lot more powerful than Ichika first thought.

"Rin, careful, your energy must be quite low by now, don't try to engage more than needed." reminded Ichika to his childhood friend. He didn't want her to bleed out her energy too much and wouldn't be able to escape should things escalated.

An IS usually have two types of energy, one is for the shield and the other one is to power the other components of the machine such as the weapons and thrusters. Since Rin's Shenlong shield energy was completely depleted during the duel with him, her emergency barrier was forcefully engaged. The problem, however, was that it ran directly on the same source that powered the weapons and thrusters. If Rin used too much energy for the weapons, she may risk running dried and unable to run away when the black IS attack.

"Yeah, I know. We only need to keep it at bay for now till reinforcement arrives," said Rin, her eyes locked dead onto her target. Droplets of sweat began traveling down her forehead the more she looked at it. 'Dangerous' she feared, the more drawn-out the stand-off was, the more vulnerable they would become. Both of them had seen what that weird IS was capable of; for its beam weapons to easily punch through the Arena's barrier like that, it was not difficult to imagine what they would do if the beam made contact with them.

Once again, both sides just stared at each other. After many attacks made by Ichika and cover fire from Rin, the black IS still hadn't got a single scratch on its body. It was really aggravating for the two students to face such an enemy. Ichika's adrenaline was pumping so fast that his brain was running a thousand miles a second. As thus, he had decided to take things slower and think of a plan. Despite, that, he couldn't think of a single move. Different from the usual training and duel, the situation they were in currently could very well be a fight to the death. The teachings from Tobia, his friends, and his sister weren't to prepare him for this scenario, where taking a simple risk for a win was not an easy option to take.

Another point that he had noticed too was that the movement of the IS was very stiff, like a mechanical feeling, as if it had a pre-set number of movements for a specific action. It didn't react normally like a person would be, though, he wasn't sure if it was intentional or if its pilot was not familiar with the control. The fully concealed body armor was really making it difficult to guess.

A minute was soon dragged out to five, then to ten. The deafening silence was infuriating to the two students. Why hadn't the black IS taken any action yet? Wasn't its purpose being to attack the academy and its students? If not, what was it trying to do? The questions just kept piling up.

Until a sudden message called through.

"Orimura-kun? Orimura-kun? Do you hear me?"

"Yamada-sensei? What is it?"

At first, he thought that she was trying to persuade him to retreat, but it soon turned out that Maya was to tell him that the students had been successfully evacuated. It was good news for him as he knew that reinforcement would be coming any minute now.

But before Rin and Ichika could celebrate, the black IS seemed to have also realized something. It glanced at Ichika, who was still too focused on the transmission, before unclenching and clenching its hands again. And right when the two were least expecting, it charged forward with its cannon pointed directly at the boy.

"Ichika!" Rin was the first one to notice the sudden movement. Without any hesitation, she pushed Ichika out of the way.

Being slammed to the side, Ichika was left confused at what just happened before turning back to look. Then, he saw the black IS aiming for Rin, who was standing right in his place.

"Rin!" Ichika shouted out from on top of his lung, but it was useless, for he couldn't possibly get to her in time.

Time seemed to slow to a standstill as he watched the fist close in on her.

For a moment., Rin could see her depressingly short and painful lives flashing quickly before her eyes. Her first meeting with Ichika, the days when she usually ran to his house, the first time the two of them were paired up together, the warm fuzzy feelings both felt when fighting together.

And, for whatever reason, there was a strange noise in the background of her memories. It wasn't just her, but also Ichika who was blasting towards her at full speed in an attempt to save her.

Unknown to Rin from where did it belong, it was something that sounded very familiar to Ichika, something that he had heard a dozen times.

It was a deafening screech accompanied by an eerie whistling noise that echoed through the Arena.

Something reminiscent of a bullet.

A figure that pierced down from the sky, shattering the ground below it with a booming explosion, where both Rin and the black IS were before he could reach them.

It was an overwhelming force that hammered down the Arena.

A minute of trembling for the boy seemed almost like an eternity. The vibrations themselves traveled up Ichika's legs and shook his bodies to the core. At that moment, all Ichika could do is to stare at the distorted sight.

Soon, the clouds started to part.

What he saw was the cratering the ground and the listless looks of his childhood friend staring at something that she couldn't tear her eyes from.

Smaller in size compared to its enemy, yet its imposing intimidation in stature was domineering over the other.

It was the Silver Phantom. It was Tobia.

With a dagger extending out from the sole, the Silver Phantom clamped its feet down onto the forearm of the black IS like a vice. The dagger had caught the arm dead in the air, effectively saving Rin's life.

As if an angel that had descended from the heavens, he had come when they need him the most.

The fear and shock on Ichika's face were soon replaced with a sense of calmness and relief.

"Yo, Ichika. Looks like you're having a problem here?"

This feeling of blood pumping through his veins stems from deep within. It felt so familiar.

The beating of his heart within his chest.

He could feel it again, from a deeper level, that it was his first time going back into a real battle after 2 years. The time where he used to put his life on the line for others as a soldier and a member of the Crossbone Vanguard.

With his arms holding his enemy in place, Tobia let out a sigh he didn't know that he had been holding before glancing back behind him.

Yes, it was still the same.

The image of his back facing the civilians, protecting those who couldn't fight.

It was his oath.

Looking at the girl behind him, Tobia gestured for Ichika, who was still speechless after his arrival, to help Lingyin off the ground. With the clock still tickling, Ichika immediately went for the help of his childhood friend.

As soon as both of them had retreated to where the seniors were, he turned back to the unknown machine in front of him.

"This is my only warning, turn off your weapon system and exit the machine. If not, I can't guarantee your safety," he warned, his voice baring on the line of threatening. Though as much as he wanted to neutralize the threat, he still wanted to make sure that the pilot could be captured alive so information could be extracted later.

Yet, there was no reply. Was it still not enough for the pilots to give up?

"I say again. Get out. Final warning."

Upon hearing this, something inside the black IS seemed to click as it began to struggle out of restraint even further. Just like an animal that got cornered, it would actively fight to the bitter end.

It charged up the beam cannon on its right hand, maybe even intend to sacrifice its limb.

A flash of energy beam exploded in front of him, but luckily, he was able to jump back in time. The moment they resumed eye contact with each other, the fight recontinued with a barrage of beams flying towards him.

The Crossbone rolled sideways to dodge the beams that kept coming, and lowered its height in one shot as it charged right at the source of these shots.

As the Crossbone drew its pair of Butterfly Buster and went right at it, the black IS lit the main thruster on its back and raced forward to return the gesture. The joints of the black IS quickly spun around, drawing two beam sabers from the ends of the arms - its swinging speed was too fast for the normal eyes to catch up, but Tobia could easily dodge the thrusts from his enemy with bare minimum effort.

Tobia raised the beam sabers in his hands to slice horizontally. Both sides clashed within a second, and their sabers were locked in on each other, letting out sparks, and explosive lights.

"So, you even have beam sabers? And to be able to counter my Butterfly Buster, too."

At the next moment, both sides dashed aside in the direction they were headed. They fired beams at each other, drew an '8' sign over the Arena, and headed in for a clash again. Flashes of fiery red beam spurted out from the barrels, twisting incomprehensively and heading directly towards each other end. Whenever they clashed, the momentum of both machines would create a huge shockwave and the two machines would be knocked aside to both ends of the field.

As the battle got more and more intense, the Crossbone engaged its heat radiation face vent, unleashing a shockingly demonic scream as it charged towards its enemy. This allowed the Gundam to release the extra heat that had been building up inside the unit and to increase its performance temporarily.

The thick and large beam pierced through the field, destroying portions of the arena. The Crossbone darted between destroyed sections and let out the thruster lights, charging through.

A beam saber cut managed to flash by, and the pillar of the steel frame was melted apart. The chunk that was sliced off by the beam was from the Butterfly Buster that had vaporized a portion of the black IS backpack. Though, Tobia wasn't expecting that his enemy was not taken aback by this but instead, used it to its advantage. Using its giant arm to coil the Crossbone up closed, the black IS managed to deliver a powerful shot onto Tobia.

"This again?"

This caught Tobia completely off-guard that his enemy would even be daring enough to discharge the cannon. By instinct, he dropped his weapon and extended his palm forwards in a second of that moment of life and death.

"I-field!"

It was the first time that Tobia was forced to use the Crossbone's shield since coming to this world. And it was his strongest one at that.

Being blasted at such a close range, the beam struck both suits directly. Despite having used the I-field to deflect the beam, due to absorbing the full force of the explosion at point-blank, the Crossbone's main cameras cracked under the pressure, and Tobia was sent flying back a dozen meters while the other one got its whole front badly burnt.

"Shit! That really caught me. But it's just the main camera that is damaged."

Having fought the black IS for more than an hour, Tobia had to acknowledged that it was one of the most difficult battles that he had ever fought. Different from a mobile suit engagement, in which he only needed to neutralize the enemy's mobile suit limbs to conclude a fight; the same could not be applied in his current situation. Other than some basic CQC and firearms training during his time in the EFSF, he had always been relying on the combat data from his bio-computer during training in the IS Academy as long as he stopped himself before delivering a fatal blow. This time, when his enemy was actively trying to kill him, he couldn't just do it like the training sessions. He had to find a way to take the black IS down without injuring the pilot inside.

And one more thing that he was also on the edge about was the beam weapon being used by his opponent. Even though Tobia had lifted off of the limiter on his reactor, yet the black IS still managed to go toe-to-toe with him in terms of power. To the full extent of his knowledge, no nation in this world so far had managed to produce such capable energy output handling. It was as if he was fighting an equal ground mobile suit.

For one reason or another, he started to grow more and more suspicious of the background of this enemy.

This was the first fight ever that he had to go dead serious.

From atop the field, explosion, and shrapnel could be seen flying everywhere, and the seniors, Rin and Ichika were staring blankly at everything in the middle as if they were utterly stunned and at a loss of words.

"What a fierce battle. It's that boy really just a student?" One of the teachers voiced her concern under her own bewilderment. Even though the others didn't reply, they couldn't help but agree that the capabilities of the pilot of the silver are was nothing to scoff at.

"Just how powerful is that IS…? Who could design such a thing?" mumbled a 3rd-year uncertainty. In response, both Rin and Ichika only shook their head and glanced towards the Arena, wincing just a little when they saw the Silver Phantom quite literally bent the shot of a beam cannon exploding in front of its face with no effort whatsoever.

"But should we just let him handle it like that? That thing is too dangerous to fight alone."

Ichika's question caused the seniors and teachers to dart their eyes away in guilt. Truth be told, before Tobia went down to save Ichika and Rin, he had explicitly told them to stay back and protect the other two. Although they should be the one down there fighting against the intruder, what they had seen displayed before their very own eyes was undoubtedly not something meant for them to handle with their current strength, even combined.

Shameful to admit, but to them, the boy, Tobia Arno, was the most capable one who could handle the situation at the moment.

Just what kind of life had that boy went through really? To be able to go into a real battle with such confidence and reliability, as if he had seen war himself. No matter how one looked at it, there was no way he was only a 16-year-old. Even the teacher still could not stand on the same ground as the boy.

Since Orimura-sensei did not have her personal IS right now, their probability of winning was low.

"Chifu-Orimura-sensei. We should help him too. It's impossible for him to win against that." plead Ichika. Despite being confident in his friend, it bugged him to no end that they left Tobia to deal with the black IS alone.

"Just leave it to him," Chifuyu spoke.

"What do you mean? We can't possibly just leave him like that!"

"Trust in Tobia, will you? He's not someone who will lose easily. Also, if you involve yourself, he will have to keep an eye on you and that will only distract him. Not even mentioning, if you are hit with that beam cannon, you will DIE! YOU UNDERSTAND?"

It was the first time after a few years of separation that Chifuyu raised her voice against her brother.

It was like a slap to his face at the confront of reality. True, they were nowhere near the level of Tobia. Bringing themselves into the fight would only drag Tobia down and risk the lives of everyone else. At this moment, he realized how simply weak he still was. He won against Rin, sure, but in the end, it was still only a sport where no one could be greatly injured. To fight in a real life-and-death battle, Ichika knew that he could not prepare for that.

He also didn't realize how difficult it was for his sister to come to reach that option. Appeared to be a cold and calculative in nature as Chifuyu was, she was not a cold-hearted woman who would let Tobia go on his way into danger without consideration. He may not be a close acquaintance or even someone who came from her world, but he was still someone who had been with her brother and shown to be a good person who she could trust.

"Even so..."

The useless words came out as Ichika gritted his teeth in frustration and the helplessness that he felt. He could not say anything. But still, an impulse he could not control rose up in his body. It was intense emotion that could not be suppressed as he clenched his trembling fists.

"Even so, I still believe that we cannot leave him by himself like that! It's just wrong!"

Until now, the battle had been dragged out for too long. What was it? An Hour?

Both the Crossbone and the black IS were in their worst stage. Cut marks and melted frame were poking through the usually shiny silver armor of the Crossbone. The visor and thruster binders were also reaching their limit as deformity and crack could be seen on them clearly. On the other hand, the black IS was in an even worse condition with one of its beam cannons destroyed with its arm neutralized and its backpack completely blown off.

"It's really like back in the old days, eh? Crossbone." murmured Tobia tiredly. His strength was leaving quickly, and he may fall onto his knee at any moment. "But I really have to beat that guy. So just hang in there for me!"

As the black IS took a kick from the Crossbone, it was sent flying several meters away and crashed into the stadium. A large chunk of the Arena roof fell onto their head once the supporting beams were demolished, almost burying the two machines and trapped underneath. But the struggle didn't stop there as Tobia lit the thrusters and charged forward again. He fired his Vulcan gun, destroying the layer of concrete on top to topple them over his opponent in order to not letting it from getting back up. The black IS destroyed the falling debris and agilely dodged a strike from Tobia before jumping up and slamming Tobia into the other side of the Arena. While he was trying to stand up, a follow-up punch came crashing into his face.

Slowly but surely, the battle devolved into a fistfight, where the winner would be the one who delivered the most brute force. And lots of brute force it was that he was receiving. The impact the Crossbone took caused his muscle to groan in protest and his internal organs shaking as he coughed in pain with a spat of blood.

Given that he was receiving physical damage, that meant the Crossbone's shielding had been weakened greatly. The PIC was what largely absorbed and negated impact shock, thus protecting the pilot and the IS from catastrophic events such as high-speed collision or substantial G-force. But as it was incorporated into the Energy Shield, if the latter hits zero, then the PIC would start to lose its effect.

Since Tobia was not someone who would pay much attention to the given IS energy shield, for he believed that the moment you rely on it to protect yourself instead of learning how to counter an attack, you may as well trust in luck. Then why bother? No matter how powerful a shield could be, there would always be a stronger weapon that would rival it. Just like under Ichika's Yukihira Nigata and the Crossbone's beam weapon, an IS energy shield would be rendered useless.

"Damn it, now it comes to this does I miss that energy shield."

It was indeed hard to believe that he had been pushed to that stage.

Before the black IS could deliver any more damage to Tobia, the Bio-computer prompted the Crossbone to respond by injecting pyschowaves into its pilot, and the machine spun up to action and reached its hand for the beam saber on its shoulder rack. The silver machine glides through the vortex of black smoke, carrying its explosive thrusters that shoot out jet lights as it moves forward.

Mere seconds before the black IS could put a shot right through Tobia's chest, the Crossbone delivered a kick to its enemy abdomen at a lightning-quick speed with its dagger extend. For the pilot inside of the black IS, it should be a fatal blow.

At this point, the black IS had shown itself too much of a threat, as such, holding back would only be a death wish for Tobia.

From the side, the beam saber pierced the beam cannon that was charging up, causing an explosion that consumed both arms of the two. The outer armor may have protected Tobia's left arm from a severe burn, but the pressure of the detonation had certainly broken his bone when he felt a sharp pain that had paralyzed his limb.

Utilizing that fracture of a second, the black IS brought its beam saber up from below with its damaged right arm to aim at his neck. With a broken arm, the possibility of Tobia able to block it with his beam shield was extremely fractured.

"Shit!"

As he busted his gut out to dodge it as best as he could, from atop of his head, he heard a shout rushing down towards him.

"Tobia!"

'Ichika!?'

For that damn moment, he really wanted to cry out from the top of his lung at Ichika's stupidity of charging into the fight despite his warning but the danger in front really prevented him from doing so.

Thankfully for Tobia though, Ichika's intervened by clashing into the black IS using Ignition Boost had completely wheeled its attack off course and he was able to avoid the slash. However, ...

"Wait, no! Idiot!"

Ichika's overconfidence after he successfully did something was his Achilles's heel. As he charged himself into the enemy like that, he got himself caught right in the enemy's hands.

Shit, the situation just got worse for Tobia now that he had to worry about both himself and Ichika.

Slowly crushing down onto the Byakushiki head unit, the black IS manipulator somehow could ignore the shield barrier that should have protected the pilot in normal circumstances. Yet, the crackling sounds showed the obvious that it wasn't.

"That idiot! Should have told him to not get involved."

As he forced down a scream of pain as he stomped his feet down onto the ground and accelerated his boosters. The front skirt armor raised up and shot out with a heavy-duty chain attached to it, catching onto the Byakushiki's wing binder. With his broken left arm, Tobia had to ignore the extreme agony to pull Ichika out of the way and forced his way down onto the black IS.

Having pulled out from the back skirt armor, a pair of whip-like weapons with a rotating drill at their end spun to action with Tobia already putting the Black IS in choke lock with those whips rapping around its scruff.

"Go to sleep this time will ya!"

As Tobia pulled onto the trigger, an electrifying voltage ran through them both. An EMP attack that was designed specifically to counter mobile suit electronics. The power of the attack was equivalent to that of a few lightning-bolts struck down upon them.

With his limiter off, using such an attack on himself was exceedingly lethal. Had it not been for the inner-working of an IS designed to protect the pilot, Tobia himself would be completely fried in normal circumstances. All that energies were too much to be safely withstood and distributed properly throughout such a small contacted area on the size of a human, unlike a 15 meters tall mobile suit. All he had was the durability of his Gundam which was quickly growing exhausted as the energy within the Crossbone dimmed away. Patches of red formed on his body, the blood vessels beneath his skin rupturing from the exertion and his own attack. But before he went completely unconscious, however, he could hear Ichika rushing to his place.

Chuckled under his own weakened breath, Tobia slowly closed his eyes.

"Don't do something stupid again, stupid Ichik-"

"Eh? The battle is over already? How boring."

Leaning onto her chair, Tabane looked away from the screen in disappointment. She had honestly expected that her creation would have certainly forced Tobia to fight to his very last wit, but in the end, it didn't even appear that he had shown half of his cards.

"Oh well, my GOLEM wasn't designed with him in mind at first anyway."

However, she was still glad that this little experiment did show some favorable results, such as the beam weapon technologies that she had acquired from him. Despite priding herself as the number one genius, she had to acknowledge that she was completely beaten in terms of their engineering. Oh well, she could always improve and overtake them if she wanted to.

As she turned around, from the far side distant of the room, emerged another silhouette of a humanoid machine adorned in white and blue armor locked up inside a steel cage. A small smile slowly made onto her face as she placed her finger on her lips.

"Well, since you have played your role well this time. I guess this little present will be of use for you in the future."

"Wh-Where am I?"

The voice that came out from his throat was so hoarse it was surprising when Tobia opened his eyes.

What first entered his sight is the light panel that's giving off white light. On thinking about it, Tobia's head started to move slowly. He remained laying down as he moved his sights.

There was a light antiseptic smell here. There was a treatment table beside his bed, and there are also boxes with medication right next to him. He slowly stared at his numb hands, then notices that he was once again, wearing a gown for patients.

'Oh, I'm in the infirmary."

As Tobia thought about that, a voice came from beside him, and a woman dressed in black appears in his sights.

"You're finally awake."

"Orimura-sensei."

Tossing aside the medical record to Maya, who was looking nervously at him, Chifuyu picked up a canteen and returned to him.

"Here, drink it with your right arm. Your left is fractured right now, so be careful."

"Thanks. Didn't know you were that much caring." After he received the canteen and seemingly gulped the water down, Tobia turned to his wound. "Welp, I guess that it will take some time to heal, huh?"

Chifuyu didn't reply to his comment, instead, she merely nodded to his latter question, then returned to the treatment table, and sat down.

"Since I'm still alive and you guys are all here, I guess that black IS has been dealt with, correct?"

"Yes, it is thanks to you that no one was harmed during the incident. The Academy is grateful for your help."

From her usual nonchalant and stoic tone, he could tell that the situation had gone back to normal. Even though he still had some worry regarding the black IS, Tobia showed a relaxed expression and diverted his attention to the canteen knowing that the incident had at least been solved. He felt that the water was filling his originally parched body, melting away the weight that was built up within his mind. Why was he so thirsty? How long had he been asleep? No, he didn't really care about those anyway. His days of working through the night for the SNRI were much worse.

"It's fine. I was the one who said that I would help you, right? It's just me simply returning the favors that you have done for me."

Again, she didn't reply. Though, after a few seconds, she shook her head and showed a meaningful expression as she concluded. "No, what you have done for us is more than what we have done for you. You've protected my students and colleagues. So, this time, please accept my gratitude." As she finished her sentence, Chifuyu took a step up and made a formal bow to him, which surprised Maya greatly.

He, who had only been doing what he viewed was right, was rendered speechless at her sudden action. Though, he soon accepted it and decided to just move on with a wry smile.

"...If you said so, then I guess I've no other choice."

"Then, we will leave for now. You should rest well and we will handle the investigation of the black IS."

"Ah, Arno-kun. Orimura-kun and the other are waiting outside, so you can speak to them," added Maya before the two of them took their leave. As the door slid opened to review the members of class 1-1 waiting outside, all with a relieved manner, the familiar voices entered his ears and he just frantically chuckled with the sight.

Seeing him, they could not hold back the emotions swelling with words remained in their throat as they stamped the floor towards him. The most energetic, Honne Nohotoke, was the first one who was caught by Tobia as she jumped over him.

"Arno-kun!"

"Tobia!"

Ichika then also caught up. They were all bundled up and it was causing Tobia some back pain. Rin, who was standing beside Ichika, giving a wry look when she huddled up behind him.

"Ouch! Ouch! What's up with ya'all?"

"Thank you, Tobia. You helped both me and Rin out of there. But you really got us worried, you know?"

At first, the atmosphere was a bit awkward, but slowly, the skin that was tense due to the sudden hug warmed up, and Tobia began to enjoy the comfort that came with it. He used his body to embrace the warmth of his friends. The warmth, this is reality—even if the 'disjointed feeling', he would not feel shaken. It was the warmth that showed that he belonged to this world, that there were those who cared for him.

'Ah, how long has it been since I last had this bubbling feeling.'

While he was embracing them, Cecilia wanted to touch the bandage on his arm but was blocked by his hand. As he wanted to tell her that it was not too serious, she took her hand back and just put up a light smile.

"Yaa, Arno-Kun was really cool back then though," interjected Honne with her usual friends also joining. "Yeah, he saved us when we're trapped in the stadium."

"But that doesn't mean it's ok for him to put himself in danger like that. And Ichika, too!"

Even though everyone was really glad about Tobia's action, Houki actually went and took an angry toll on both him and Ichika. She was in a rather "not-so-happy-looking" mood as Tobia described it.

"You are an idiot Ichika! Had Tobia not come to the rescue, you would now be lying on the bed or could even be dead! Next time, don't pull such a rash decision yourself!"

"Ugh...Houki..." Being scolded by his action, Ichika couldn't defend himself and tried to look over Tobia for help.

"She's may have improved a lot, but that is really stupid. You shouldn't do that again next time." Tobia also agreed as he took Houki's side, though partially because he didn't want to be scolded by her.

"Ugh...I'm sorry."

Once she had seemed to accept his apology, she turned over to Tobia and extended her hand out.

"Anyway, thank you, Tobia. You really saved us all."

"It's nothing. We're friends, after all, right?"

"Yeah."

Her delightful smile was really heart-warming. It was truly rare for Houki to broke off that hardened mask of her that even Ichika was surprised at it. So today he got two tsundere actually showing their true feeling once in a while, huh? A smug made it up to him. It was enough to forget about the day's incident and his wary that he could finally rest comfortably.

Truly, being in this world for all this time had made him too lenient with himself. He would definitively miss this place a lot once he has returned to his world.

After the incident at the tournament day of the IS Academy had concluded, a full-on investigation was launched by multiple countries to determine the perpetrator behind the scene. Leading the investigation was the IS Academy collaborating with GAIA, who for some unknown reasons had come up with the offer to support their whole operation. Despite the Academy wanting to handle the incident in silence to push the press down to protect its name, pressure from other countries was the reason why they had to fully publicize it. This was due to the harsh criticisms being pointed towards the Academy for acting too passive when the unidentified unit approached, thus many of the representative candidates and VIP members were put into danger during such an important event. Though, once again, GAIA had decided to take the Academy side and helped them cut the losses.

Maria Harfouch, the chairman of GAIA, had been having a lot going through her mind after the Black IS incident. It went without saying that after witnessing the display of strength of the Crossbone Gundam, her interest in taking it and its pilot to her side had certainly grown a lot.

It was not so far of a stretch for her to believe that the Crossbone was the strongest IS currently. The ability to redirect energy attacks and an unfathomable power capable of ignoring an IS absolute barrier.

"I think we should double our efforts in trying to recruit him. He may not be a member of GAIA, but the public doesn't know that. We really should use that to our advantage." the voice of Albert Gratz called out to her.

Maria furrowed her brows. "But what will guarantee that he will join us? Since we know that he doesn't belong to any country, the United States could very well offer a better deal for him and successfully take him in." She responded with a frustrated tone. She could already picture how difficult it will be to recruit the boy. "You see the Silver Phantom capabilities. Many countries are properly eyeing for it just the same of us."

"About that Black IS, too. Since the Academy is currently in possession of it after the investigation is over, that pie would be distributed throughout and none would be able to effectively gain a better footing than others. So-"

"-So that the only way we can take the lead is to get the Silver Phantom. I know. But the question is, how?"

Albert stressed, echoing Maria's inner sentiments words for word.

"We have supported the IS Academy knowing that he is being a friend with ex-instructor Orimura's brother, but there seems to be no progress." He continued.

"..."

Under Maria's silence, he placed his hands in front of him and leaned forward with a deceptive calmness. Scratching the ruffle of his beard, Albert pulled his mind together and assumed a proper seated position while frowning.

"If I remember correctly, your sister is currently being a member of the test team for our 3rd gen model, correct?"

"Yes, that would be correct. But why you ask?"

Albert hummed in consideration, seemingly as if a spark just went up inside his head. "Given that unit No.1 pilot in that team is the same age as him, how about we send them to the Academy? Your sister and her team could be our main way of gathering intel regarding Tobia Arno."

"Eh? But wouldn't that reveal our hands too soon?"

"That's a noted worthy point. However, since on paper, the Silver Phantom is presented to be one of our tested machines, by revealing our model now would only be viewed as just another competitive version of our nations."

Meaning that they would actually get a boost in fame having more than just one 3rd gen model in testing compared to other nations. Not only that, by sending out their unit now, they can reliably test it in real combat against other 3rd gens to further improve it. Should it underperform, it would only be listed as a weaker unit of 'their' Silver Phantom and be improved later without knowing that they are falling short on others. And during that time, if the Silver Phantom and its pilot agree to join them, those issues would no longer be of concern.

"I see... That certainly could work..."

"Don't you think?" reaffirmed Albert. The man was certain with his plan that it was the most logical option for the time being. "And to not make it a confusion on our parts, I believe appointing Tobia Arno to be the same rank as those we will send to the Academy and create a ghost program to put him under to cover it up." He hadn't been certain at first, but as this was a game of speed, the one who moved first would win; as such, he had to make his move now or never.

"Yes, I agree. Then I will get on to it. Excuse me."

Albert nodded as he reached for the coffee cup on his table and took a sip out of it. Slowly and gently, the man savored the flavor before replaying the captured video of the incident. The admiration he had for the boy during their first meeting of being a strong-will man was there, and it had only grown as he watched him fighting against the towering black IS really struck him. As if a knight battling against a monster, protecting what was important to him.

"Had I also had my own power back then to protect you, Annie, I may not have regretted it for all this time."

His gaze shifted, turning to the outside view of his office as he looked into what the future of this world would be.

Hi guys, I'm back. Sorry for the long update, I have to move my house so it kinda took a lot of my time. Anyway, this chapter may not be that very well written, so I'm sorry for that. But I still hope that you guys will like it. Also, I'm working on the 2nd chapter for the Gate-Gundam Xover right now so I will see you guys soon on that too. Now answering the comment.

Guest: Well I really don't want to give up on it because it's quite fun to write a story and has people also enjoying it, but it's really taxing with all the university works and my part-time job too. In the end, I just hope that it will turn out the best for all of us.

R reyes: Hope you enjoy the 1st chapter of Gate: Jieitai - Advance of Zeta.