Chapter 29: Purpose (2)

"Kanpai"

The Valkyries' briefing room suddenly became livelier than ever. Usually, it was a strict place where the Valkyries held their conference and briefing. Members rarely brought food and drink to this place. Yet, the usually silence and strict atmosphere of the room was completely blown away due to a certain group of people who merrily toasting at the moment.

That's said, the image of people toasting always went along with the consumption of liquor. Except that this certain group of people in the Valkyries' briefing room was toasting with a variety of non-alcoholic juices and oolong tea. It may be a strange sight to other but it wasn't strange to them at least. Being soldiers and actively on the front line at the top of that, they couldn't afford to indulge themselves in such luxury.

"To our first victory,"

A blue head excitedly raised her cup high, toasting.

The clanking sound of cup met cup followed as everyone in the room merrily responded to the blue head toasting. Everyone, except one.

"You don't mind, do you?" Shirogane Takeru nervously looked at a group of four foreigners who stood next to him. After all, the victory of the Valkyries meant their defeat. Such a comment could easily hit their nerve.

"Haha, don't worry about that. We gave our all to it so we didn't regret at all. Besides we are here to congratulate you guys," Sharon smiled without a hint of grudge on her expression.

Funnily enough, Takeru was speaking in Japanese while Sharon was speaking in English. And, they still had their message gotten across, thanks to their state of art Exo suit and its real time auto-translating function.

"Yes, I must admit that it was really an eye opening. Who could have expect that a kid like you actually existed," Keith raised his cup and toasted while warmly patting Takeru's shoulder with his other hand.

"And I was scare that you guys might hold a grudge against us after that prank I pulled," Takeru returned Keith's toast with his own.

"That's hardly believable hearing it from the mouth of the person who did that. What does your gut compose of?" Leon mimicked Keith, warmly patting Takeru's shoulder.

The farce that Takeru pulled could hardly call a prank though.

"Hahaha…" Takeru wryly smiled.

Leon's words contained thorn and sarcasm, though his expression betrayed no such thing. Is this another case of Tsundere or it is because he had a sharp tongue? Takeru wondered.

"Still, it is really unbelievable that daring strategy, that OS and such piloting skills come from a kid like you. Well, I guess appearance can really be deceiving," Guylos joined the conversation with a carefree expression.

If talking about image, perhaps nobody could have expected a genius from Takeru. He didn't possess a look or aura of a mad scientist at all. Nor he looked like someone who possessed the kind boldness and skill that mesmerized people. In fact, he looked nothing like a full pledge soldier or Eishi. His appearance was closer to that of a movie star or a model.

"Thank you, I have got much to learn. Beside, you ain't shabby at all. I wish I have another chance to spar with you guy," replied Takeru.

"That makes all of us. It ain't everyday that we could fight with someone like you," Guylos answered without prior confirmation with his unit. It would be a waste of time if he was to look around and wait for a hint of confirmation from his friends. After all, they were all nodding their head in an imposing manner.

"Count me in as well," a cheerful voice made Takeru involuntarily shuddered.

Despite Hayase was busying toasting with friends and acquaintances in her own circle, somehow she didn't miss out the word 'fight' from Takeru's direction. She dexterously walked through the surrounding crowd and joined the conversation with Takeru and the Infinities' test pilots.

"It was a really enjoyable match. I had fun. If it's possible, I want to spar against you guys fair and square this time, without this guy's underhanded scheme" Hayase gallantly extended her hand in a friendly manner.

"Sure, it would be our pleasure," Keith promptly took Hayase's extending hand and shook.

As expected, they are strong and proud test pilots. Even if they hold no enmity over their lost, it didn't mean they were fine, staying on the losing side. Such was the competitive spirit and standard quality required from any good Eishi.

It has been 2 hours since Taker made his public speech. After that, he met, talked and shook hands with bunches of people of different backgrounds.

Some people told him that they were extremely glad, knowing a person like him could exist. It's not everyday that a person who willing to share such a state of art like the XM3 for free to every corner on the Earth. After all, different military organisations have different objective aside from beating the BETA. Thus, they aren't willing to share secrets and technology with others even if mankind's fate was clung to a straw. And that made Shirogane Takeru extremely special, unselfishly publicised his work without any reservation and regard about his own benefit.

Some bigshots offered him jobs and places in their army to which he declined all of them with 1st Lt. Elena's help. Some told him that even though he was such a genius, he was stupidly an idealist and romanticist, believing that mankind can one day threw away the differences between themselves and fought this war as one. Takeru didn't bother about those comments one bit. For he clearly understood a reality that if mankind ain't willing to act as one, Yuuko will surely make them act that way, using her own method to force such harmony on mankind…

Speaking of which, Takeru hasn't seen Yuuko's figure after that speech he made. He couldn't tell it was the result of her reaction to his speech or rather she was simply busy. But, Takeru smelled something different about her. It was as though Yuuko had expected those words would naturally come out of his mouth before he aligned that platform and delivered his speech. It was as though she only merely wanted to confirm something from his speech.

Suddenly, a serpent like object knotted around Takeru's neck in an incredibly swift movement. The warmness elicited from the contact with that serpent like object derailed Takeru's train of thought in an instant.

"What's with the long face, Shirogane? Do not spoil the mood, we have a celebration here," Hayase whose face was extremely close with him from god know when was chatting happily with her left arm wrapping around his neck in an overly familiar manner.

"No, I was thinking of something. Well, it wasn't anything worth mentioning though," Takeru frantically answered.

Her face is too close and her serpentine arm suggested that he wasn't allowed to make his escape. While Takeru thought that Hayase was being over familiar, he didn't voice it aloud. He was more worrying about Hayase's view of him. Did she even look at him as a man to begin with? Or perhaps she simply looked at him as a person of her peer, her kouhai, her squad mate, her underling and her rival. Only God will know if Hayase seriously failed to see him as a member of different gender. Or perhaps it was just the opposite? Does Hayase even look at herself as a girl?

Despite Takeru's curiosity, he didn't voice it, for he feared that the moment such words came out of his throat, they would be his last.

"Keep it for later then. Anyway, it was a good speech. I was moved," Hayase raised her cup and congratulated.

For the god know how many time of the day, Takeru replied "Thank you" while returning the toast. Even if it was only a courteous praise, coming from Hayase, it was the highest compliment to Takeru could receive, since Hayase was always so straightforward with everything.

He constantly bathed in shower of praise since the victory he attained from the Infinites and the speech he made. And Takeru could only bow his head to Yuuko in appreciation for lending her secretary 1st Lt. Elena to him and helping him out till he went back to the Valkyries.

"I heard that the US Army has signed a contract regarding implementing the XM3 to all of their test flights. Is it true?" Takeru asked, diverting the direction of the conversation to the US test pilot.

"Oh? You heard of it?" Keith asked with slight astonishment in his voice.

"There was a guy keep asking me to act as the chief supervisor for that project." Takeru deprecatingly smiled.

"Oh, I totally see it coming, since you was the inventor and developer of such state of art OS" Keith laughed

"So did you accept it?" Hayase quickly asked with her arm still locked around Takeru's neck like a dog collar.

"Sadly no, I don't think I am fitted for such important role. Besides, I have a duty to fulfil in this place," Takeru hesitantly answered while scratching his head.

"Indeed. I'm not surprise if you declined on that invitation. After all, you have distributed this OS to everyone for free." Keith unreservedly commented

"Please, I'm not that great. I'm sure I will get that project axe in no time, acting as chief supervisor of such big project." Waved his hand in denial, Takeru nervously laughed while imagining what would become of him if he ever accepted that invitation. Rather than investing his time on developing the XM3 to fit into the American made TSFs, Takeru was sure that he would indulge himself in experiencing each and every new TSF that available to him.

"By the way, I hope you guys won't find it hard, getting accustom to this new OS. Originally, I developed it with a Shiranui. Thus, it would take some time if people just implanting the proof of concept version of the XM3 on your Raptor." Takeru instantly changed the topic.

"I figured. But, it's our job as test pilot to do the impossible. No matter how difficult it is, we will pull it off with the shortest amount of time." Keith replied with a voice full of confidence.

Takeru smiled as he acknowledged the passion and determination within Keith's eyes were similar to his and everyone Eishi around him.

Wait

There is another way around this.

Rather than wasting more time and cost on refitting the XM3 for American made TSF's usage, Takeru suddenly saw a better answer to the future of the XM3 in the US Army.

"First Lieutenant, can I have a word with you in private?" Takeru asked Keith while gesturing Hayase that her necklock is getting on his way.

"Buu, you are no fun," Hayase puffed up her mouth like a balloon, pouting before released Takeru.

Takeru threw the whining girl a look "how could I have any fun with you neck-locking me like that?"

Though he immediately withdrew and went out of the room with Keith with just a single glare from Hayase.

"I have a proposal regarding the XM3 about to be implementing on your TSF," Takeru said once 1st Lt. Keith was the only one within his eyesight "Would you accept our in-use XM3 OS instead of the factorial proof of concept?"

"…", taken aback by the offer of the young man, Keith found himself at the lost of word, "No, we will be much appreciated if you was able to provide us such thing. But, are you sure that you will provide us something like that?"

It wouldn't surprise even if someone as coolheaded as Keith was taken aback by such offer from Takeru. Firstly, the XM3 that was distributed freely to every military organization from the contract with Kouzuki Yuuko was but a trial version, still in its testing phase. There is still a long way for something like that to be implemented within the army's TSF. Secondly, that version of the XM3 was developed with Japanese TSFs. The performance of the machine, their practical use and the way they were calibrated was totally different to those TSF of American made. Before they are determined to be ready to test to the test flights, there is a long and tedious process of reconfiguring and recalibrating to pass through. And lastly, even the XM3 was distributed freely to every corner and every military organisation around the world, there was undoubtedly a huge gap between the XM3 version that was installed within Takeru's TSF and the XM3 version that was provided freely. The arm race among the entire mankind's military organisations will surely prevent such state of art will be freely distributed in such manner as it supposed.

Being a veteran test pilot, Keith immediately understood the seriousness of Takeru's offer. A convenient shortcut to an entire process of refitting and adaptation of the XM3 in the US Army.

"Are you sure it worth the risk? You have no benefit in return."

The middle age Eishi asked, seriously wondering if the young man in front of him was joking or not.

Takeru's rank spoke for himself. Even if he was the co-inventor of such state of art OS, he has almost zero authority regarding the fate of it, being a Second Lieutenant. By making such outrageous offer, he surely went against the code of conduct as well as military order. If this conversation was to reveal to the UN Army, Takeru's penalty wouldn't stop at being thrown into the bridge for a week.

"I have little interest about such thing," Takeru scratched his head, hiding his embarrassment from Keith's 'are you a saint?' look.

He was neither a saint who willingly to sacrifice his everything for the mass or an idealist who only think of the good of people. Takeru would die for a chance to properly explain it himself to the mass and solved the misunderstanding regarding his public image.

"So why you are willing to go such length, provide us something like that?" Keith questioned with a stern look, unable to understand the drive of the young man.

"If it's Yuuko sensei, she will say 'it's only a whim.' Though, it's a bit different to me. You see, I kind of seeing this XM3 as a child of mine. So, I do not wish to see it wasting its future and potential on someone's benefit and scheme."

It wouldn't be wrong if he phrase it in such way, he being the father and Yuuko being the mother to the XM3. Though, he must admit that he was kind of neglecting his child here and there, let various people taking care of his child at the same time while fighting with the kid's mother.

XXXXXXXXXX

The first day went off without a hitch. Yuuko didn't act. Nay, she hasn't.

So when will she start to move? Or did she?

Takeru was unable to calm himself with his thought running wild, thinking if he made a mistake somewhere in the plan.

People carelessly labelled him as a genius, considering him as Yuuko's equal. The word genius was conveniently labelled on him because people didn't understand the true of his identity and they could not measure the genius of Kouzuki Yuuko. The word "genius" may have a nice ring to it. But, it was often used as a pretext to justify one's jealousy of other achievement.

People like Yuuko and Kasumi are geniuses, bona fide geniuses. They were born with special latent gift that make a mockery over the sense of defeat and jealousy of other.

While Takeru was aware that he was gifted in a sense, he could not consider himself a genius. His talent hold no candle against Yuuko or Kasumi. He could not bring himself to brag, readily accept that he was a genius as everybody said whenever he compared to Yuuko or Kasumi. In fact, he hated it when people called him as such. His ability was merely the result of his unyielding effort in seeking strength as well as the proof of the curse that distorted his own existence and fate.

And never as he was now, he hated that word more than ever. He felt completely powerless and feeble, unable to understand Yuuko reaction or action.

"Where is that guy when I need him?"

Takeru worriedly muttered.

The old spy who was supposed to report to him regarding various stuffs didn't come at the usual time. Takeru couldn't help but smell Yuuko's hand in this matter. He wondered if Yuuko actually jailed the old spy in some cold prison or somewhere similar right now, preventing him to interfere in this fight.

Sumika, too, in the last three days Takeru hasn't seen her figure around. So Takeru could technically say that Yuuko was separating him from that idiotic childhood friend of his. And he was only allowed to be near Kasumi during trial match.

But, even without the old spy and without the help of Sumika and Kasumi at this point, Takeru could more or less handle and carry out his plan just fine. It was within his expectation. As long as Yuuko hasn't discovered it, his joker card…

Takeru's bed suddenly felt hard and uncomfortable for some reason. Despite the exhaustion that he felt, Takeru was unable to sleep. Doubt and fear continuously haunted his heart to no end, giving him not a moment of peace. Was this what it meant to fight against his Yuuko sensei, a genuine genius, unlike a sham he was.

Anyway, Takeru had declared war to his Yuuko sensei through his speech. The individuality that he mentioned couldn't anymore specific was directed at the different in his methodology and that of Yuuko's. And it was inevitable that they couldn't help but clash now, because such individuality. The day he and his Yuuko sensei joined hand together seemed quite far away… It could only happen when either of them admitted defeat and resigned their right at the player on this vast chessboard.

"Gah. Damn it. Stop thinking about it already," Takeru inadvertently growled.

In this kind of situation, the one who thought more will lose, selfdestruct on their own. This was one of Takeru's advantages over Yuuko since he has sowed the seeds of doubt all over the places, making Yuuko used her brain unnecessarily. But, he himself ended up in the similar state as Yuuko, doubting and assessing everything in a fruitless manner.

The night is still long and the trial for the XM3 has yet come to an end. It's the most logical and economical decision that he should rest, preserving and recovering his health. He would need it when tomorrow come. Takeru understood it very well. Yet, he was unable to comply with his logical thinking. He couldn't sleep.

11th December 2001

12.45 am

Abruptly, the alarm claxon wailed.

The girl and her TSF became a target of multiple auxiliary targeting systems.

But, such distressing sound wouldn't affect the girl's mental fortitude. She calmly jabbed her control sticks with little regard of her enemies' location.

Thunderous sound of machine guns erupted and echoed across the abandon ruin. Bullets pierced through the veil of dust covered the battlefield only to paint nearby abandoned buildings with a new colour. None of those paintballs came close to hit the agile TSF of the girl.

"Fox 2 sighted, 1200 meters at your 3 hours 04. Makes it count"

Calmly designated the target location to her friend, Meiya set fire on her assault rifle and fought back the enemy's suppressive fire with her own.

"Roger,"

The normal weak and timid voice of Tamase Miki resounded differently from what Meiya remember. It was armoured with resolve and confidence.

With such a simple reply from her friend, Meiya let out a confident grin. Meiya had no doubt in the pink hair girl's marksmanship. She trusted her friend's sniping ability as much as she trusted her own skill with the katana. The only time where that mascot like girl failed to hit her target were when she pointed the muzzle at that certain boy's TSF.

An expected seismic reaction warning was delivered to Meiya through her retinal display, 700 meters to her left. Another one followed shortly, 55 meters to her 9 hour.

It was all according to the plan. Sakaki Chiruzu has an impressively insight in order to foresee something like this. Meiya couldn't help but admire at her squad leader's skill in logistic. If only Chiruzu became more flexible in her thinking and making strategic decision, she would be perfect.

"Fox 02 destroyed"

Tama's timely report acted like a dose of stimulant to Meiya's fighting spirit. The mascot like girl has proven her ability lived up to everyone's expectation. Without activating her auxiliary shooting assisting mechanism, Tama successfully sniped down the enemy target with a single try. It's Meiya's turn now to prove her worth.

Meiya swiftly executed a short boost with her machine, kicking dust. Within less than a second, she sighted a zigzagging first generation TSF.

Coincidently, the other party set his assault rifle on full auto almost at the same time as Meiya, spitting fire.

And in a similar manner, both Meiya's Fubuki and her opponent Gekishin's gracefully avoided the load of paintballs with little effort. It was as though that Meiya was fighting against her mirror reflection.

"He's good," Meiya admired while compelling her TSF to reduce the distance with the offending Gekishin.

Meiya's praise wasn't directed at her opponent's reflex. She complemented at the other party Eishi's familiarity with the XM3, since Meiya recognized the resemblance of a certain boy's unearthly aerobatic within the evasive manoeuvre of the Gekishin. Different from Meiya and the rest of the 207th squad who spent more than 100 hours, flying a TSF with the XM3, her opponent barely got used to the new OS within half a day. To able to pull out such movement in this situation, it was definitely praise worthy.

But, that wasn't enough to stop Meiya.

The grey colour assault rifle on the hand of the Gekishin suddenly stopped spitting fire. The umpire has judged that it was unusable, for it was painted with a new colour. The fire-trigger was locked as the result. Thus, no bullet could escape from that gun anymore.

If the other Eishi wanted to completely avoid Meiya's shot with that Gekishin, he has to do better than that. After all, Meiya's sparring partner was listed as the one of the best Eishi even among all the Eishi who reached the pinnacle of their career. Just mimicking that boy's movement doesn't necessarily make a person became as good as him.

With little hesitation, the Gekishin tossed its unusable gun at Meiya's advancing TSF while deploying its main melee weapon, the TB 74 Blade.

Meiya smoothly parried off the damaged rifle threw at her with one hand with her assault rifle, and placed the other hand on the hilt of her sword at the back.

Even the edge of the blade was coated with Styrofoam, the damage from a swing with such blunt sword could be fatal in some case.

The Gekishin stumbled down on its two knees, picking up dirt and creating a slight tremor. Its OS was totally frozen, the result according to the umpire and computer's judgement. Across the body of the kneeling TSF visibly ran a crude cut from the right shoulder to abdomen.

The veteran Eishi who controlled the Gekishin made a huge mistake in his judgement. While it was a correct decision to discard his damaged rifle and deployed his melee weapon for a CQC, it was a bad decision to fight a CQC with Meiya while deploying his sword. The correct decision should be deploying the nodachi first and then entering the CQC later.

It took the Gekishin's pilot three steps to cut down the Fubuki. First, unsheathing the blade from the Mount Pylon. Second, entering a stance. Third, attacking the Fubuki with the blade. But, for Meiya, it's only two steps. First, entering a stance. Second, cutting down the enemy. Such subtle different determined the winner and the loser.

Compare to Tama's Fubuki whose auxiliary tracking and aiming system was heavily modified, Meiya's Fubuki was pretty normal in a sense, without much modifying on such system. Compare to Ayamine's Fubuki whose carbon actuators and combatant frame was adjusted to maximize the instantaneous power output for Taijutsu purpose, the carbon actuators in Meiya's Fubuki was modified to increase the speed of her manoeuvrer. So it was kind of resembling Takeru's Shiranui in a sense. But, unlike Takeru's Shiranui whose body was heavily modified from head to toes so it could keep up and endure Takeru's bizarre piloting technique, the modification on Meiya's Fubuki was much simpler.

The only part that made Meiya's Fubuki truly stood out from the rest of its kin was the Mount Pylons at the Fubuki's back and forearms. Such customization was also presented on Takeru's Shiranui as well, though not nearly as complicated as Meiya's Fubuki.

Rather than serving as merely a mechanism to pack and load weapons, those Mount Pylons were among Meiya's deadliest weapons. After all, they were utilized for iaido's and battoujutsu's techniques. And thus, the Mount Pylons of Meiya's TSF were heavily modified for combat purposes instead of loading and packing weapons.

Many people surely found it hard to use the Mount Pylon for iaido and battoujutsu with the mechanism original design and located position of the Mount Pylon. Since most of the pre-war iaido and battoujutsu technique was executed with sheathed sword from the left side of the body, iaido and battoujutsu with sheathed sword at the back and forearm was practically unheard and unimaginable to some, but not Mitsurugi Meiya. As a katana expert and a prodigy to boost, Meiya could perform such seemingly inexecutable task with ease.

"All units, I'm going to lure Fox 01 toward 02. Prepare for a pincer attack"

Chiruzu's demanding voice stirred up Meiya's spirit to a new height.

"Copied"

"Copied"

Meiya couldn't hide her eagerness and confident when she responded to her squad leader. After all, the rest of her squad was in the same state of mind.

The girls of the squad 207B were on an unstoppable streak this morning, not because they were more experience with the XM3 nor their opponents were simply too weak. The opponents were teams with the highest score among participators. They were veterans and had a colossal amount of experience of actual battle.

Meiya believed that she was in the best form at the moment, just like her friends. They couldn't be any better than this.

It's all due to the leak of information from Jinguuji Marimo, the squad 207's instructor regarding the Valkyries was scouting for more Eishi to fill their formation. That's also including the fact that Shirogane Takeru was surely watching their performance at the moment.

Thus, nothing can stop them at the moment. The winning streak kept pilling up for the girls of squad 207.

XXXXXXXXXXX

"Meiya san, good job,"

A small built girl passed Meiya a towel with incredibly cheerful expression.

"Thank you, Yoroi"

Meiya answered as she received the towel.

"Miki san, good job,"

In a similar manner to how she handed the towel to Meiya, Mikoto greeted her best friend.

"Thank you, Miki san,"

Tama smiled in return and received the towel from Mikoto's hand.

For some reason, Ayamine also had a towel on her hand as she walked toward Chiruzu.

That's rare.

Meiya mentally took note, witnessing Ayamine's rare kindness to her arch rival Chiruzu.

"…Thank you,"

Chiruzu struggled to force the word of appreciation out of her throat while receiving the towel from Ayamine with a confused expression on her face.

Or it was what it supposed to be…

Ayamine immediately wiped her face with the towel that everyone believed that she was going to pass to Chiruzu in an unconcerned manner. "What are you doing?" Ayamine shot a mocking look at Chiruzu.

"…Urg…" Blushing bright red like a tomato, Chiruzu looked at her rival as though Ayamine was the arch enemy of her ancestor, "Ayamineeeeee, do you want a fight or what?" eerily, Chiruzu growled.

The everyday quarrelling scene between Ayamine and Chiruzu unfolded within the compound before everyone realized it. Something just never changed.

Or it what the girls of the squad 207B thought.

"Excuse me"

The door of squad 207 training compound burst opened. A mature looking girl entered the room. She has a cherry like color hair and a well endow body figure. Though, her beauty was totally distorted by the anxiety and angry expression on her face.

"Do you see a guy this tall?" The mature girl descriptively raised her arm approximately 177 cm to the ground. "He has long raven color hair and a stupid look. Wait… you girls should know him right, Shirogane Takeru?"

"…"

Forget about the salute, Meiya and her friend could only offer the anxious girl a blank look. For some reason, the girls had the same question in their mind, "Shirogane Takeru what did you do?"

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Damn it, where the hell is he right now?"

The cool beauty Munakata Misae was scowling with a furious expression on her face. Her friends had never seen her as angry as she is now. Munakata has never lost her cool even in the stoniest situations, yet she is now. It took a genius to drive her this crazy.

"Isumi, did you see him?"

Munakata angrily spat into the mini headset while darting her eyes around the PX, looking for the figure of a certain guy she knew. Currently, Munakata was desperately searching a certain troublemaker who recently became her kouhai and squad member.

"No, he isn't here as well."

Isumi's furious voice replied.

"Did anyone check the hangar?"

"No he isn't here as well"

Kashiwagi replied, almost exhausted

"Damn, where the hell is he? Our next match is about to start in another half an hour. Where could he be at this moment? Shouldn't Hayase go and fetch him up this morning in his room? Ah, damn, why can't we just sub someone else into his place"

"How many times should I repeat it myself? He wasn't fucking in his room this morning when I came"

Hayase's infuriated voice resounded through the intercom, nearly render Munakata's eardrums unusable.

"Touko, did he arrive at the compound?" Munakata hopefully expected a positive answer from her best friend while exiting the PX after her fruitless search.

"No"

Kazama's resigned voice boomed. People couldn't imagine what Kazama will do to the man of hour the moment she gotten her hand on that guy with such an eerie aura she exuded. Kazama's impatient voice suggested that the fruitless search for that man of hour had begun long ago.

"Haruka, what's about you?"

"The XO hasn't seen him either since yesterday. He wasn't in her lab or her office"

Suzumiya Haruka's voice was icily cold. Surely she has long reached her threshold of fury.

"Takahara, Asakura, what's about his fan club? You got any news"

"According to the SFC leader, he was last sighted in squad 207B's training compound last night around 2330 hours."

Takahara's timid voice rang. Perhaps she was worried about the fate of that certain guy once he got caught by a member of the Valkyries.

"He totally isn't here right now, didn't I say it just now?"

Isumi's voice was unexpectedly snappy.

"…Sorry"

Asakura's apologetically replied as though she was about to cry.

"Ah, no… Sorry, you wasn't at fault here. It's that guy's fault"

Isumi's voice regained its cool for a moment, but a moment only.

"Should we make another announcement, looking for him?"

Kazama suggested as her patient ran dried

"No, we can't. This is a matter of pride. If people start using him as a measurement to our unit because of that, we…arg… I don't want to think about it"

"Where the fuck is he at this hour?"

Hayase was howling like a tigress in the intercom. Follow Hayase's bestial howl was an explosive sound and crumbling sound of hardened concrete.

Members of the Valkyries couldn't bother advising Hayase to stop vandalizing military equipment no matter how angry she is.

"How did he graduate from the Instructor's class?"

Akane muttered unbelievably.

"I will make sure to chain him into my bed tonight if I caught him"

Hayase's threatening voice was as scary as an avatar of Asura. The chilling sound of Hayase's gritting teeth suggested that she wasn't joking about that.

If this was in the normal situation, Munakata and Kashiwagi will tease Hayase about that as the blue head's sentence could also comprehend in a different meaning. Though, nobody was in the mood. Shirogane Takeru's whereabouts is their top priority at the moment.

"Wait, what did you just say Mitsuki?"

Haruka asked as though she realized something from Hayase's threat.

"I will chain him into my bed tonight if I ever get a hold on him" Hayase unhesitatedly replied.

""That's right. If he isn't in his room… not in the lab, not the PX, not the training compound, not meeting his old friends… maybe he spent the night in someone's bedroom. That's right. He must spend the night in his lover's room…"

Haruka excitedly said, believing she must have reached the truth. Though, her excitement immediately dried out when she finished the sentence, realizing she has said something she shouldn't. In Haruka's mind was Hayase's shocked face.

"…"

"What should we do now?"

Isumi asked, realizing the possibility of Haruka's guessing. She couldn't bother about being tactless to her friend's feeling, the name of the Valkyries is at stake now.

"We don't even which one is his lover. Isn't there too many candidates? Are we supposed to dig up the whole barrack to search for him?"

"Asakura, Takahara, check out the list of his potential lovers within his fan club's database. Who went out with him and the closest to him recently? Find that out immediately"

Isumi logically ordered, as expected from the leader of the Valkyries.

"Right away"

…

"I got it. Alright, top of the list. Hayase Mitsuki"

"He is not fucking inside my room," Hayase roared like a lioness.

People can't tell if she was furious or embarrass from such beastly roar.

"My apologies"

"Kouzuki Yuuko"

"He isn't here either"

Haruka impatiently cried, still looking for Takeru's figure with 1st Lt. Elena's help in S04.

"My apologies"

"Next, Jinguuji Marimo"

"…"

"Kashiwagi, go and check"

Isumi sensibly ordered. She can't believe she actually ordered it.

"…Roger that," Kashiwagi answered, more shocked than exhausted.

"Next, Isumi Michiru"

"Why the hell is my name there?"

Isumi Michiru tore at her cherry colour hair with both hands and growled

This is getting nowhere. Munakata couldn't help but shook her head.

XXXXXXXXX

"What was that all about?"

In harmony, the girls of squad 207 asked the moment the cherry hair beauty was out of their eyesight.

"Takeru must have done something stupid as usual," Meiya sighed.

"Probably oversleep as usual," Chiruzu replied as a matter of fact. Everyone knew just how unruly and undiscipline Takeru was, even in the face of the Instructor from Hell- Jinguuji Marimo.

"No, it looked like he wasn't in his room,"

Tama said

"Hide and seek?" said Ayamine

"That's sound just like Takeru" Mikoto nodded her head, smiling wryly.

"Let's look for him as well. His match is the next one"

Meiya suggested. Even he was no longer a squad mate of hers, she couldn't leave the guy on his own.

"Let's do that, before that oneesan will kill him." replied Mikoto

And immediately, the girls of squad 207B spread out and stated looking for their clown.

…

Just when silence returned to the training compound, a hissing sound was heard.

A supposed unused simulator suddenly opened its hatch.

"Shit, I overslept"

A boy made a mad dash, unknowing of the commotion that he made everyone went through.

1.30 pm

"All unit on standby, prepare to launch in sequence"

Haruka's chilling voice resounded through the Valkyires' intercom.

The atmosphere was exceptionally terrifying for Takeru. Running away from an army of fan girls last night was already scary, facing against the wraith of the Valkyries was even scarier. It was no joke. He thought he was about to be torn into a thousand pieces when he arrived at the Valkyries' training hangar. 1st LT. Kazama was totally handcuffing him into the door until the rest of the Valkyries assembled at the hangar. What the hell! Was she in the military police or something? Why did she have something like that at her convenient?

Then, Hayase wordlessly stuffed him inside his Shiranui's cockpit in violent manner the moment she came back without listening to his apology. Even if he made a mistake and overslept, she shouldn't treat him in this manner, shouldn't she?

However, if it's only Hayase, Takeru could bear it. This time, everyone in the unit looked at him with contempt and disdain. Though, it seemed that they had no spare mental strength, lecturing him here and there before the match. Thus, Takeru could only say that his life will be spare…until the end of the match. Hopefully, he will survive…