Disclaimer: I. Still. Do. Not. Own.

AN: A horse is worth about thirteen crows but only four chickens? Something like that.


"Orimura-sensei." Seamlessly her closest ally at the school joined her and matched her steps without breaking stride. Keeping her quick pace and walking with her down the halls was an accomplishment with all the running she must had been doing across the campus.

"Maya, its good to see you safe and sound. Is everything done?" Her mind was already running through what she would need to do, things she knew her ally was incapable of completing or ill equipped to handle.

"All recordings of the incident have been edited or removed, both public and private sources, security drones have been dispatched to the area outside Ichika's room as well as across the school, and I have the students gathered in their rooms. Communication outside the academy has also been blocked for the time being but it won't last for long. The teachers have been alerted as well, most with minimum detail and have begun to patrol the halls. The more skilled instructors have been ordered to be ready to make use of her IS if a threat is detected. I have a tablet for you that shows their positions as well."

"Thank you." Half of her list was automatically removed with what the assistant teacher had managed to accomplish in such a short amount of time. Several more tasks were added once she accepted the tablet and began looking over the information on it.

"It's my job Orimura-sensei, I would never be bad at it. Is there anything else I need to do?" Maya stopped when she did, the hallway deserted. This area was delegated to Maya herself with few teachers close by. She was most likely heading up to the roof to watch over the majority of the school from it.

"Keep an eye on Houki, she's the girl most likely to react poorly to all of this." Chifuyu couldn't help her sigh as she thought of what the girl must have been thinking right now. She must have been panicked with what she had seen happen. "Make sure she doesn't leave her room. Stay with her if you have to. I'll speak with Cecil myself later and make sure she knows to keep this all to the academy."

"What about that mechanical dog?"

"What dog?"

"You called him Wolf."

She gave Maya too little credit.

"Ignore it for now. Wolf's just an extra precaution from a...associate."

"Of course Orimura-sensei."

She REALLY gave Maya too little credit. Few people would accept such a short answer but Maya trusted her deeply it seemed. At least enough not to question her for now. She hoped she didn't get curious before Ichika woke up. She didn't want to explain this all twice. The more times she spoke, the better chance that they could be eavesdroppers. The girls of the IS Academy were too curious for their own good most of the time. Ichika being here somehow just made that curiosity all the more greater. And dangerous for all of them.

"Thank you Maya." She felt she needed to thank her again but the assistant teacher only smiled at her.

"I'm doing my job Orimura-sensei." She was gone with that.

She was left alone.

The screen in her hands flashed.

The tablet nearly broke in her hands.

"I thought we were done talking." They were. There was no reason to be talking no. No reason to have to restrain herself with every ounce of self control she had.

"Your assistant is wonderful Chi-chan. You should give her a vacation." She ignored her rage. She was working on what had to be four different things at once.

"What do you want?" There was a reason. There had to be a reason.

It was only that thought that stopped her from destroying the tablet.

"I just have a little update on naughty little Jack. That little glitch is after my own heart. Hijacking my systems and integrating itself into the entirety of Raiden's OS. That's just dedication." The genius sighed, almost as if she was in love. "I can't begin to tell you how much of an accomplishment that is. Jack is basically Raiden at this point. More or less. There's a way to remove it from the systems but it's not likely to do Ichika any favors. Especially this early into the adaption stage. You remember that don't you? When you first tried out Raiden's original prototype model?"

The near instant bloodlust? The instant rage? Being angry at everything for just existing around her? Being angry at herself for existing? The sheer desire to hurt something that blossomed into an all consuming need to destroy. Trying to tear the IS off the moment she managed to surface above the sea of hatred that she had nearly drowned in? Above the insanity of Jack?

She would always remember Tabane's spiel about 'adaption' and 'normal process' when she was held down by too many of the girl's machines to count and still struggling for freedom, for that taste of carnage. Remember every word she spoke when she had no choice but to force Raiden off line. And the sheer pain Tabane's only solution caused.

"Yes." The screen broke in her hands.

Tabane's fractured images frowned at her.

"It was that bad?" The genius almost seemed apologetic. Almost. Perhaps it was sincere.

"What does this mean for Ichika?" She could prevent herself from breaking the device by focusing on him.

"Good or bad first Chi-chan?" Her smile was back. A green smiling face and a red frowning face appeared for her to choose between.

The screen broke again. Her fingers left indents in the body of the tablet.

"Don't play games with me. There's nothing good about that...thing." The red frowning face pressed itself. It moved to the center of the broken screen without another word from Tabane.

"Jack is completely integrated into Raiden's OS like I said before. And thanks to my adjustments to the neural interface, Jack has the same amount of influence on Ichika as Raiden normally would. Don't be worried. Jack can only get to Ichika, mess with him like he did in the match, when he uses Raiden to affect his level of perception. The "slow time" effect you described to me. Beyond that, expect minor personality alterations. Nothing extreme but be on the lookout and report anything strange to my puppy. I've already pre-programmed the appropriate responses in." The frowning face was replaced with the green smiling face. "Good news time!" Confetti rained down the screen. 'GOOD NEWS' lit up the screen in a variety of colors. "Raiden is 100% operational right now!"

"That means..."

"Ichi-kun is awake!"

Before Tabane had even finished, Chifuyu was racing down the halls.

Tabane followed her progress down the halls through the multitude of cameras she had installed in the school via drones.

"You know, it's rude to completely ignore your friend Chifuyu." The genius behind the IS, behind the change that swept over the world almost over night, and the one responsible for Ichika's current condition sighed. "I don't even get to tell you how much work I put into fixing Jack. Or the little countermeasures I'm putting into place. Your brother is going to get through all this because of my generosity and I hardly get a thank you."

She leaned back in her seat and rubbed at her sore eyes. The robotic bunny ears on her head twitched a moment later.

They picked up a signal.

"Huh?" She twisted her chair around and stared at another monitor, taking in the coded information flashing across the screen too fast for anyone else to even begin to decipher it. Her ears continued to twitch as more monitors lit up.

The genius turned her chair back around and couldn't help but shake her head. A small, if sad, smile crossed her face.

"I should have known you would go to him. She still can't admit she has a crush on him." Tabane decided to help her somewhat estranged sister out.

The determined look on her face as she marched down the halls of the school was just too adorable after all.

"Let's see what Big Sis can do to help."

A door here and there? Easy.

Cameras looping an empty hall for as long as it took her to get past? Easier.

Unlocking the completely normal door to Ichika's room? Easiest.

Wolf had a manipulator tail after all.

Wolf greeted her at the door.

"So what's the story?" Why should she ask the direct line to her sister what was going on? Her sister helped her get this far (bunny heads flashing on a few of the screens she passed made it obvious) so she might as well see what was happening and, more importantly, why she had given Raiden to Ichika.

"Creator has restricted your access to my data banks. Creator left instructions to play this recording once I encountered you. Beginning audio playback."

"Hi Houki-chan! Big Sis here! So, I know you're probably really mad at me and all but don't worry. Your little boyfriend is going to be fine. Okay. Not fine like fine but at least...math's a bit difficult here...I'll say thirty percent? Twenty eight at the least. Ballpark it for yourself. Soooo...go to your cutie and have fun! But you better use protection! I'll know if you don't. Bye!"

"Ending audio playback."

Houki was red.

Wolf even looked embarrassed.

Ichika was just confused.

"H-Houki? What are you d-" It was a far as the just awoken platinum haired teen got before he was forced back.

"Don't you ever worry me like that again!" Houki had him tightly wrapped in her arms in hardly a flash. She didn't look at him. Her eyes were already watering. She pulled him closer, ignored the fact he was half dressed. Ignored everything but the fact that he was awake. That he wasn't just some vegetable on a bed. That he wasn't hurt any worse than she thought. That he was still Ichika. Even with something like Raiden. "Do you have any idea how worried I was about you!"

"I'm sorry..." Tentatively he wrapped one arm around her, held her nearly as tight. The other was too heavy to lift with the vambrace of Raiden. "I don't even know what happened but...I'm sorry for scaring you."

"I'm not the one you need to apologize too for that. Cecilia is." The girl was arrogant but she didn't deserve to fight Raiden.

No one did.

"Yeah." His arm dropped to his side. "I can hardly remember what happened...what I did...but I can remember enough."

He tried to pull away then, keep her away from him. Keep her away from what Raiden had turned him into. Houki held on tighter. She absolutely refused to release him.

"Don't you dare." Her voice cut through his own growing despair. "I swear, if you do something stupid like blame yourself, say any of that was your fault, I'll-I'll-I'll do something to you, understood!"

"Yeah..." He sighed. If it was relief or something else he didn't know. He just knew there was a heavy weight gone from his chest. "Crystal."

"Good." She finally pulled back, loosened her hold if only a little. Their eyes met.

The wooden shinai bobbed him on the head a second later.

"DON'T EVER WORRY ME LIKE THAT AGAIN!"

"OW! WHERE DID THAT EVEN COME FROM!"

"It doesn't matter." Houki stepped back in full, looked away as she ran a hand through her hair to deal with nonexistent tangles. "Just meet me at the same place, same time, tomorrow for your new training."

"T-Training?" He seemed honestly surprised. She shook her head.

"You have a Personal IS now. A...strange one but a Personal IS. You need to know what it can do. I'll reserve a private training room for tomorrow. No one but you and me will be there so don't be late."

Normal. Make things normal again and everything will be alright. That's what she needs to do. Keep training him, keep helping him, and keep him from doing anything before she understood exactly what she was dealing with.

It would work. It had to work.

"It almost sounds like you two are planning a date." Neither had heard the door open behind them, let Chifuyu into the room.

She strode across the room, ignored the way the two turned red and began to sputter, and grabbed hold of Ichika's arm.

"I've been in contact with Tabane Shinonono and she and I both agreed to let you leave the infirmary as long as you keep the machine she sent with you. She calls it Wolf. It's been monitoring your condition since you passed out and will continue to do so. If you feel anything irregular or concerning, come find me immediately. Regardless, I'll want regular updates on your condition. Once a day at minimum until I say otherwise." She spoke as she examined the vambrace on his arm, looked over it in search of something, and frowned when she didn't find it.

She released his arm.

"Your training with Houki will not be suspended for now but will be supervised by either myself or Maya. I'll be responsible for seeing how far you've improved two weeks from now with my IS." Her eyes, having searched him for any hidden injuries, locked with his. "It will be as private as I can mad it."

"Thank you..." He didn't know what else to say.

His sister wordlessly embraced him. It was much shorter than Houki's but it meant almost more.

"Be safe Ichika." Her words were nearly too quiet for him to hear before she let him go.

Chifuyu stepped away and looked to Houki.

"He'll be your responsibility while I'm busy for the next few weeks." She offered the girl something as their eyes locked, a unspoken promise. "Don't let him do anything foolish in that time."

I'm trusting you.

I know.

"The students are excused from class for at least the rest of the day. Head to your rooms and do not leave it until instructed. I'll overlook your violation for now Ms. Shinonono but don't make a habit out of disobeying your instructors." Chifuyu looked to both students before she turned to the door. "I cleared away the unwelcome guest outside before I came in. They should be gone a little while longer."

She left.

The two followed her.


AN: A train is about as fast as a oiled up hog sweating like a pig sliding down a muddy hill in the middle of July?