- 7 -

"Holy Crap, Those are Boobs"

Okay, so maybe that wasn't my best idea ever. But, honestly, who wouldn't have reacted that way?! She slapped me with no reason! I breathed heavily, pushing down the anger and trying (and failing) to work up the sympathy to apologize. I could see a rivulet of blood seeping out from under her hand.

Maya collapsed into her chair, and my mother chuckled quietly. Neither was a good sign. I had a feeling I just did something a lot worse than I thought.

"Sten...," the green-haired woman muttered, "What have you done?"

"What?" I asked, throwing up my hands, "She slaps me and nothing happens! I hit her back and it's the end of the world? Maya, what's happening?"

Before she could even get a word out, Chifuyu walked in. "What happened?"

My mom stood beside her. "The idiot more or less admitted he did it."

"Did what?!"

"Maybe," Chifuyu said, "This is a discussion best had behind closed doors."

I walked away from my desk as mom helped Laura to her feet and started cleaning the blood off of her face. Her nose looked a little bit worse for wear. Maya stayed behind.

I met Houki's eyes as we left the room, and I silently apologized.

Chifuyu set us up in one of the staff rooms and called the headmaster. She then turned back to me and planted her hands on the table. "Okay, Sten. Here's the deal. On Sunday, you and Olivia were together, right?"

Okay, now I was just plain weirded out. "Yeah. What happened? Should we not have talked?"

"Well, see, that's the thing, Sten. We have it on fairly good authority that you did a little bit more than talk," she took my mom's datapad and plugged it into a screen. An image of the hallway just outside the IS storage hangar appeared. I noticed a window that showed the path where Ichika and I had walked, "This was taken just after we got out of our assessments that morning."

It was just the hallway for a moment, as the time ticked away on the clock at the bottom left. "This is when I walked by with Ichika and his friends."

But I didn't in the footage. The screen went to static for a solid fifteen seconds, before the footage came back. It showed me and Olivia leaving a room together.

"That's impossible."

I was starting to sweat a little, but I actually let out a little yelp when I saw myself turn, slam her head into the wall, and proceed to mercilessly beat her. I broke almost every bone in her body and cut her with a knife I'd pulled from my pocket, only to pick her up above my head and throw her on the ground. The recording of me winked at the camera, and then left Olivia lying there in a pool of her own blood, crying for help. My hand slowly drew itself up and covered my mouth as my jaw fell.

The room was dead quiet. No one so much as breathed. I felt like I had just been sucked into a void, and I had no explanation. I was speechless.

"I-..."

"Assaulted a teenage girl who was just trying to be your friend... Shameful behaviour, young man. Your father must not have cared much about your manners," mother mocked harshly.

"But... But I was talking with Tabane by then!"

"But you don't have a cell phone," Chifuyu said.

"She got one into my pocket! She texted me while I was touring with your brother."

"Sounds like a convenient story to me."

"Shut up, Elizabeth," Chifuyu growled, "You may think he's a monster but I think I know him well enough to say that he wouldn't do something like this!"

"I'm sure Laura agrees with you."

The Japanese woman looked just three words short of stomping over and railing my ass of a mom in the jaw. Did every girl get that thing where a vein pops on their forehead when they're angry? Houki, Cecilia, now Chifuyu.

The two women stared each other down, and Laura glared at me from over the bunched up towel she'd bandaged to her face. As far as hateful glares go, I'd had my fair share at that point, but the German girl took it to a whole new level. I could actually see the glowing, pink particles of her IS swirling faintly around her hand, and her eye...

If I hadn't faced down a ten-foot-tall IS with cannons the size of the CN Tower aimed at me, I probably would've been a lot more afraid than I was. And I was pretty afraid.

The door was pushed open, and a woman in her late fifties walked in and nodded to the two teachers. Words seemed to fly silently between them, before she held the door farther open and beckoned someone inside.

Olivia hobbled inside on crutches, with bandages over most of her body and a neck brace supporting her spine. What little of her skin that I could see, between the uniform and the bandages, was without fail somewhere between a deep purple and a sickly green.

I stood up in sheer shock, and a little part of my mind cracked a bit when she flinched and backed up against the wall, her breathing going completely erratic. My mother walked over to her and softly rubbed both sides of her neck.

Chifuyu grabbed me by the arm and dragged me out of earshot-to the back of the room. "Sten, I want you to tell me exactly what happened. Now," she whispered sharply.

"I was touring them, and the phone I found in my pocket got a text from Tabane. I texted her back, then I went back to the room. That's it, I swear!"

"So no one can confirm your story..."

It dawned on me that Tabane hadn't even been on a live line. She wouldn't know what the hell I'd been doing, and as such, she couldn't vouch for me.

"What about security footage? A camera must've caught me somewhere."

"I looked. Nothing. As far as anyone can tell, you could've been dancing in the middle of an arena and no one would know," she said.

I swallowed hard.

"Chifuyu, please tell me what to do."

"Huh?"

"Just tell me what I can do to get this to go away. I have no idea what the fuck's going on and I am... so scared right now," my voice was shaky and I shoved my white-knuckled fists into my pockets and bit down hard on my lower lip.

"Just shut up and let me talk for you, okay?"

I nodded and we walked back. Everyone in the room sat down around the table.

"Well, Miss Orimura," the headmaster said, "What does he have to say for himself?"

"He swears he didn't do it."

"Do you believe him?"

"I do."

She looked at me and folded her hands together on the table. I almost cringed when she shot me a forced smile. I could tell immediately that she thought I'd done it. "So, Mister Murdoch, what do have to add?"

I opened my mouth, but no sound came out. Mom rolled her eyes. "It's pathetic how obvious it is. He can't even come up with a decent excuse!"

I heard a pencil snap and looked over to see the two ends of one in Chifuyu's clenched fist. "Elizabeth, that video could have been doctored. Sten has no shortage of enemies; both inside and outside of this school."

"So what you're suggesting is that someone is trying to frame him?" the headmaster asked, quirking an eyebrow.

"I am."

"And do you have a way to prove this?"

"Not yet, but I have a way to keep the other students safe while we think of something."

"Law mandates that we alert the Interpol."

"So alert them."

My eyes widened. "Uh, won't that mean I'm a recognized criminal?"

"Until we clear you, yes."

"You always get me the nicest gifts."

"You're going to be implanted with a subcutaneous tracker. That way, if you attack anyone we'll know immediately."

Chifuyu's face didn't have a single crack-not one single tell that she was on my side. I worried for a second that she wasn't, and that she was just trapping me so she could finally get rid of me. But that was paranoid thinking. Chifuyu'd always been much nicer than I would've expected her to be to a male she'd only just met.

The door clicked shut, and I jolted out of the trance I hadn't realized I'd been in. Chifuyu had on elbow on the table and her head in her hand, and she looked beyond exhausted. "What just happened?" I asked.

She opened her eyes at me but didn't move. "I saved your ass. Barely."

"Thanks, Chifuyu."

"That's 'Miss Orimura'."

"Yeah, sure."

"Anyway, you're excused from classes for the rest of the day, save for having the tracker implanted."

"Balls."

- IS -

Dinner was a crazy amount of fun. Apparently someone had spread the news about my almost-arrest to the entire freaking school. So there I was, four stuffed trays on my corner-booth table and not a single girl within ten meters. I could occasionally hear bits of their conversations over my chewing.

"Did you hear-"

"To think I thought he was cute..."

"...trying to tie him to a bunch of assaults across the rest of the island."

"He's such a pig..."

I bit into a carrot and looked up at them. Almost immediately, they all looked away and pretended that they'd been doing absolutely nothing. If I was honest with myself, I'd say that I was angry. Very angry.

Not twelve hours ago all these girls had been staring at me with hearts in their eyes, and now I was a demon. They'd probably go back to doing just that once they found out I was innocent.

But in the meantime, I was angry. So, I attacked my carrot with Teeth of Vengefulness.

The door slammed open.

"MURDOCH!" Rin screamed as she marched up to the edge of my table, Houki and Cecilia and Charles just behind her.

"Hello, angry midget."

"What the hell is going on, Murdoch?" she yelled.

I finished my carrot and picked up a hamburger. "You know, I'm not really sure myself. I take my teacher's brother and his friends on a tour, and in exchange I get framed for beating my sister within an inch of her life. Then there's this," I held up my left arm and showed them the glowing green dot on the underside of my wrist. "So I'm a little bit on edge right now, and I'd appreciate it if you'd calm the hell down."

She opened her mouth, then slammed it shut and growled as she slid into the booth. Houki and Charles sat on my other side, while Cecilia sat beside the Chinese girl.

"So," Charles said nervously, "What exactly is being done to clear your name?"

"Nothing, actively. I mean, I'm definitely going to start digging around, but the school isn't doing anything except stalking me. It doesn't help that I was caught doing it on video."

"Sten," Houki said, "Tell us honestly. Did you do it?"

"No," I answered immediately, pulling a bowl of ramen in front of me.

"Then we believe you," Cecilia assured, reaching across the table and grasping my hand.

"Thanks, Blondie."

Silence fell over us, and one by one they eventually picked something up off the trays in front of them and started nibbling away. Obviously none of them had had dinner yet, so I didn't try to stop them. Beyond that, my appetite wasn't exactly up to snuff, given what had happened.

"So," I said, breaking the twenty-minute silence, "You guys still on to train me tomorrow?"

"Of course. Now that you're in this situation, a lot of other students are probably going to think that they can get famous by beating you and becoming something of a paragon of justice," Houki said, swallowing a mouthful of cheeseburger, "As ridiculous as that sounds."

"So I need to stay up to snuff. Great. Fantastic. Fabulous. Amazing."

I realized that I was starting to cry and stopped my rant. Houki pulled my hand away from my eyes before I could reach the fallen tears and wiped them away. "It'll be okay, Sten," she said.

"No it won't."

I got up, moved past Cecilia's side of the table and dumped my trays before leaving to head back to my room.

Houki stared at the back of Sten's head for as long as she could. When he turned the corner, her eyes snapped to Charles. "You."

"Ask questions," Rin said.

"Lots of questions," Cecilia added.

All three of them stared at him and demanded with such intensity that Charles was frozen in place. He tried to speak, but all that would come out of his mouth were strange noises that just got the three girls more and more manic. Finally he settled into a slow nod.

The three of them left to get their own dinners. Charles' stomach felt full for some reason, so he got up and left to wander the halls for a while. Eventually he ended up on the roof of their classroom wing and stared up at the stars. He could see every constellation he could think of, but none of them looked particularly beautiful to him as he leaned against the railing.

How was he supposed to keep doing this? It'd only been a day and already the guilt made him want to cry.

"Maman..." he muttered as he sank further and with his back to the railing, "What should I do?"

He liked Sten a lot, but he knew him well enough after such a short time to know he'd be livid if he ever found out that his room mate was stealing data from his IS while he slept. Maybe he should tell him? If he did, maybe Miss Orimura would be easy on him when he was being punished before his inevitable expulsion. Maybe he should just come clean completely and tell Sten the secret that he hated keeping the most.

Charles put a hand to his heart and asked again. "Maman, que dois je faire?"

Sorry-my French is a little bit rusty since I wasn't allowed to take it in Grade 9 or subsequently. I used to be fluent, though, and I can still understand the spoken language. If someone who speaks French knows what I actually should've written, could you message me so I can fix this?

Dear dad,

I bit down on the end of my pencil and cringed as the coarse and frayed eraser brushed my tongue. I had no idea what I could possibly say to him. Maybe: hi dad! I'm now an international criminal! Aren't you proud?

How about no...

It was awful. It was flat-out, fucking awful. I saved how many lives from the Obsidian, and this is how things end up?!

If not for the fact that Charles was sleeping a few meters away, I'd have stabbed the table with my pencil.

Why was I getting so violent? Was it because I had to for IS battles, or was I just becoming a testosterone-controlled asshole? Either way, I needed to calm down if I was going to get through these accusations with a big fat 'innocent' stamped on whatever file whoever was keeping about this whole situation.

I put pencil to paper.

I don't know if you've heard by now, but I was sort of accused of beating Olivia half to death. I just want to say before you jump to any conclusions, I DID NOT DO IT. I swear to god I didn't do it.

I was wondering if you could maybe visit sometime? It's been a few weeks since I was there and I miss you a lot more than I'd care to admit. I know that getting transport to Laurentian isn't exactly cheap, but maybe I can get Chifuyu to arrange-

I frowned and erased the last sentence.

I really need someone to help me sort through this. I'd ask someone here, but almost everyone thinks I'm a monster.

So yeah. Bring Foofle. I miss him to bits.

Sincerely, Sten Murdoch

It wasn't a particularly long or descriptive letter, and for that I was sorry. I'd had a very, very long day, so I'm pretty sure he'd forgive me for being a bit lost on words to put in a letter. Maybe I'd write again later in the week to make up for it. I sealed the letter, signed and addressed it, put it on the edge of my desk so I'd remember to mail it in the morning, and hobbled over to my bed.

I collapsed on top of the blankets.

"Sten?" a French accented voice said from the other side of the room.

I almost yelled in surprise, but managed to just confine my fright to an awkward, wormlike twitch. Or a writhe. A twitchy writhe?

"I thought you were asleep, bro," I muttered.

"I cannot seem to settle."

"Want some tea?"

"That would be nice."

I lazily waved a hand over the lightswitch on my night table and the bulbs overhead lit at 60% of their power. Charles and I rolled out of bed and he sat at the desk while I walked to the kitchenette.

"What's your fancy?" I asked.

"I have been meaning to try Oolong tea, so I suppose that. If we have any, that is."

I yanked open the tea cupboard and started shifting things around.

"I'm kind of partial to Earl Grey, but I think I'll have some too. Now, let's see... Red, Green, Jasmine, Birthday? Ew... Ah! Oolong tea."

I set water to boil and sat across from Charles. He was staring at the table like it was staring right back and they'd descended into a silent staring match. It was funny. his green eyes were half lidded and his mouth hung open, and his tangled hair hanging over his forehead.

I took notice once again just how girlish he looked. Hey, I know it's a mean thing to say, but come on! He was short and talked like a girl... pretending... to be a guy...

Wait, what if he was a girl?

"Charles?"

"Yes?"

"Are you a girl?"

"No," he said, not missing a beat, "But I have been mistaken for one many times before."

"Cool."

"Indeed."

That cleared things up. The kettle whistled and I finished prepping the tea, before handing him a cup. He turned it in his hands for a few moments as I sat down. Then, we both took sips.

"It's good," he said, putting down the cup.

"Yeah, it is."

To be honest, we kind of just sat there for a while, not saying anything and just listening as we sipped our tea. I thought about breakfast, and what I was going to have.

"Sten?"

"Yeah?"

"Do you miss your family?"

I looked over at him and sighed as he looked back. "Of course. My dad's the only real family that I have left, so I miss him like hell," I said, "Why do you ask? Do you miss your parents?"

He smiled sadly and I could see tears brimming in his eyes. "So much. So very, very much."

"Hey," I said, patting his back, "It's alright, man. Being homesick is perfectly normal."

"Yes, I suppose it is."

We finished our teas and settled back in bed as I waved the lights off. There was an ear-breaking silence for a few moments, before Charles broke it. "Sten, there's s-something I want to tell you about me."

"What's that?"

"I-I... I cannot right now. I will tell you when the time is right."

Odd.

"Okay, man. Take your time."

And with that, we both settled into an uneasy sleep. Tomorrow was going to be a living hell.

- IS -

"You have to go like WHOOSH and then CLANG and BANG, okay?!"

"You understand what she's saying, right? It's all about your feelings. WHY DON'T YOU UNDERSTAND, YOU MORON?!"

"For defense, tilt to your right side at seven degrees. Combine this with a backward tilt of fifteen degrees for maneuvering and-"

"GUYS!" I yelled, silencing the three girls who werre all rambling at once. I was pretty sure Rin has just off in her own world, because she kept talking. "Maybe you could explain things with a bit more English?!"

One week. In one week I'd been being accosted by virtually every girl with half a backbone in the school. I was starting to wear thin in the patience department, but I forced myself to stay calm, because the last thing I wanted was to worsen the problem. My friends had been a bit more amicable and less aggressive, but I doubted that would last much longer.

"What don't you get?!" Houki screamed angrily, kicking my metal boot.

Yeah. Less aggressive. Hehe...

"Well you're just making weird noises," I then pointed at the still rambling Rin, "You're making no sense, and you, Cecilia, are teaching me how to maneuver Blue Tears. Blue Tears is not Paxis. I do not fly Blue Tears. I fly Paxis."

I swear to god, she damn near snarled at me. I slapped a metal palm to my head and groaned loudly. Houki started to yell again just when another voice entered the fray.

"Good morning, Sten!" Charles called happily.

"Eeey! 'Sup, Charles?"

He had his IS deployed, so I could guess pretty well what he wanted for training today. It was a heavily, heavily modified Rafale Revive unit, coloured orange and white. Since it was 2nd Generation, the four wings that extended to his sides were attached to struts between his shoulder blades. His Hypersensor Package sat on his head, and took the form of a headband with a pair of flip-down WWII-style pilot's goggles. Overall, he looked pretty cool. A p90-like machine gun rested on his index finger.

"Oh, just preparing to beat you again!"

"Heh! We'll see about that!"

Yukihira flashed into my right hand.

I'd learned something the other day. I'd called the metal blade Yukihira Nigata and Chifuyu'd whacked me over the head. "The energy blade's the Nigata bit, moron."

So yeah. Metal blade-Yukihira.

Energy blade-Yukihira Nigata.

Charles whipped up his gun and fired a wide spray of bullets, but I was gone. I dove from above and slashed at his chest, but he jetted up into the air too.

As we settled into our mutual altitude of two hundred feet, we slowly flew in a circle around each other. I was smart enough to know he had every single one of the advantages in this fight-he had range and experience on me.

I sort of wanted to curse my IS-enhanced hearing at that moment. About ifteen other girls were in the arena, aside from Houki, Rin and Cecilia. All of them were calling out to Charles to beat my ass up through my head.

A red screen flashed to life, but I didn't need to look to know that it was telling me Charles was assuming a firing posture.

I was moving when the first bullet arrived, but he was relentless. I brought Yukihira Nigata up and slanted it to try to deflect the bullets. That, as you can probably imagine, didn't work so well.

My side pulsed as it was riddled with energy-tipped rounds and my shield power dropped to 352.

"Oh! Are you freaking kidding me?!"

"You could just surrender!" Charles mocked, dispelling his machine gun. That was the beatiful thing about his IS-it had so many bus slots that he could store dozens of weapons on particle exchange (that flashy glowy particley thing that makes the IS units and weapons appear).

The Gram shotgun popped into his hand and suddenly I was in the middle of a hailstorm. I flew straight up and cleared the weapon's effective range, but Charles followed. He struck me with his CQC weapon, Breadknife, and my shield started to flicker. "You aren't looking so good, my friend!" he called, a pistol shamwowing into his hand.

I used Yukihira Nigata to bat the individual bullets away and smirked. "Ah, but you have yet to see my brilliant plan!"

"And what would that be?" a bullet bounced off my temple.

I activated the Barrier-Null attack and fired Ignition Boost straight at him. "THIIIIIIIIS!"

My shield failed midflight and I found myself forehead to the barrel of his pistol. He had his other hand on his hip and was wearing a million-dollar smirk.

"I saw that coming from a mile away!"

"Prick," I muttered, smiling as we desended.

"I do what I can."

We walked back to the pit and I leaned against the struts that held up the runway. Both of us dispelled our gauntlets and I did the same to my wings. "So, boss," I said, "What's the prognosis?"

Charles put a finger to his chin and wore a look that said he was thinking. He took himself a minute and then said, "Well, my theory is that you didn't win because you have very little understanding of the characteristics of a shooting weapon."

"But a gun is a gun, right?"

"Not so! There a many differrent factors that contribute to a person's ability to use a specific weapon, much like a sword," he said, "Why don't we go download you a rifle to practice?"

"No can do."

"Why- oh, that's right-Paxis doesn't have space for an Equalizer, does it?"

"Nope. All my bus slots are full, but I have no idea what with."

"It's only speculation, but I would think that it's using the space for its One-Off Ability."

"I didn't think Reiraku Byakuya would actually need bus slots."

"Like I said, it's only speculation."

"You know, you're pretty good at this teaching stuff, Charles."

"Thank you, Sten!" he smiled brightly.

I reached out a palm and a screen formed with an image of an orange Yukihira Nigata rotating and giving readouts. I swiped my hand and it slid over in front of the Frenchman. He leaned a bit closer. "Interesting..."

"Reiraku's an insane attack that consumes shield energy to use, so it isn't exactly my favourite thing to hit with."

"It's the same ability that Miss Orimura's IS was using, n'est ce pas? I did not think that One-Off Abilities were so common."

"That's a common misconception," I said, swiping another screen over to him, this time with Barrier-Null data, "Chifuyu was using what's called a Barrier-Null attack. It does the same thing as Reiraku Byakuya, but in a different way."

"I'm not sure I understand."

"Reiraku completely neutralizes energy, while the Barrier-Null attack just drains a shield. It's useless for anything else. The common thing is that they both use absurd amounts of power."

"Ohh, I see now."

He snapped his fingers and a series of targets appeared halfway across the arena.

"D'accord," he said, handing me the p90, "Let's try this, shall we?"

"But I thought I couldn't use other peoples' weapons."

"Normally, no. But I have unlocked this particular weapon, so you can use it so long as you are a registered pilot," he gave me a sly smile and bumped my elbow, "Anything you're not telling me?"

I chuckled and brought the stock up by the crook of my shoulder. "Is this the right stance?"

He raised my left arm a bit and steadied my right hand on the trigger. "Better."

Over to the side, Houki stood in a line with Rin and Cecilia watching the two boys fall all over each other. When she saw Charles press himself to Sten's back and put his hands to his arms, she felt an involuntary pang of jealousy.

"Hey," Rin said, "Doesn't it seem like those two are getting along a little bit too well?"

Houki looked at her like she was insane. "What, you think Sten is gay?"

"I'm just saying! Look at them!"

-TOTAL 43pt-

I lowered the rifle. "Oh, man. You are not getting this damn thing back."

The gun dematerialized in my hand and the particles shot back to Charles. He smiled innocently.

"You're awful."

"It is my specialty!"

I then noticed that there was a cacophony on the rise. I looked back at the three girls Id come with to see them staring up at the runway, on which rested a black and red IS. For a second, the massive railgun that hovered at her side obscured the pilot, but then she turned and I saw that it was none other than Laura Bodewig. I almost cringed when she turned her one crimson eye on me. It was a glare worthy of Chifuyu.

She seemed much more terrifying than usual, and that's when I noticed that her feet rested on bulky, stilted boots that increased her height by just under a foot, which made her seem much more physically imposing than she was.

I balled a fist and waited for her to make the first move.

And make the first move, she most certainly did.

"Sten Murdoch!" she yelled.

"'Sup, short round?"

She snarled down at me and nervous heat pooled in my belly. "So, you also have a Personal Unit... That will make things much simpler. Now fight me!"

"Why the hell would I fight you? I have no reason!"

"You may not, but I do!"

"It doesn't have to be right now, huh? How about we do this at the tournament in three weeks?"

"Or not," she simply said.

Next thing I knew, the barrel of her railgun rose and a shell had buried itself in my stomach. I was blown backward and smashed through the wall of the arena and into the hallway below the bleachers.

All of this on Absolute Defense, mind you.

I groaned as my IS disappeared and god knows how much rock dropped onto me.

I couldn't even hear as Houki and the rest rushed over to check on me, but I did see Laura's IS disappear as she walked away.

I sank heavily onto one of the benches in the locker room and ghosted a hand over the meaty, purple lump on my right side. It hurt like a motherfucker and I was not impressed.

Not only had Laura gotten off scot free, but I'd been the one pinned with instigating the fight by both the teachers watching the fight and the students in attendance! Seriously! I hadn't really ever felt particularly welcome at ISA but now people were overtly trying to get me booted out.

Charles was a row over, grabbing his clothes.

"Fuuuuuck...," I muttered, pressing an icepack to my biggest bruise.

Charles came out from around the corner and finished pulling his jacket on. His hair was tied back in a lazy ponytail and he'd slung his bag over his shoulder.

"I'm going to head back to the room to shower now, d'accord?"

He hadn't told me, but I'd surmised that he hated showering in public just because of the fact that he never did.

"Yeah," I said, yanking at my suit's zipper, "Get outta here."

He put a hand on my shoulder. "You shouldn't worry so much about the the other girls, Sten. They'll come around eventually."

"I hope so," I muttered, cradling my aching head in my hands, "I'm not sure how many more of those shots I can take."

He laughed and left.

A few minutes later found me loosely dressed-my jacket was open and my shirt was only done up to the third button. By then it was sunset, and I was walking back to the dorm building. When I say walking, I of course mean limping

My personal favourite of my injuries was the big blue bruise on my right cheek, right where Laura had slapped me. It was probably a coincidence, but I was pretty sure she'd somehow aimed the rock that had landed on my forehead. I had a ice bruise just out of my hairline.

As I passed a duck pond, I heard two very familiar voices.

"Please answer me, Mentor! Why are you at a place like this?!" The heavily accented voice of one Laura Bodewig exclaimed desperately.

"Don't make me say the same thing over and over again. I have my reasons for being here," Chifuyu responded cooly.

They came into sight. Laura had both fists clenched and looked about ready to punch Chifuyu and go find my mother to try her luck with her. I guess the only reason she didn't was because she repected the Japanese woman too much.

"What reasons could you possibly have here in the middle of an ocean?! I'm begging you, please come bak and teach us in Germany once again! You can't even exert half of your ability at this wretched place!"

"Uh huh?"

"The students at this academy do not deserve to be taught by someone of your stature! They lack a sense of danger, and have mistaken the IS for some sort of extravagant fashion accessory! I find it unbelievable that you could even give the time of day to these people!"

I really, really wanted to step out at that exact moment and tell her the fuck off. Yeah, sure, most of the girls at this school were pretty laid back, but that gave her no right to rip on them. I'd just put a foot out to step into the open when Chifuyu spoke.

"I think I've heard enough, little girl," she scathed, you've grown up quite a bit since I last saw you, but not enough to assume that you're the most talented pilot in this entire academy."

Laura balked as if hurt by the statement. "But, I was just-"

"I'm a busy woman and you need to get back to your dorm, girl."

Laura ran off, probably close to tears. I internally double fisted the air in victory.

"Male student!" I jumped out of my skin as Chifuyu spoke, "we're you eavesdropping? Or perhaps indulgingin some sort of aberrant sexual behaviour?"

I stepped out from behind the tree and stood beside her. "Yeah, Chifuyu. Nothing turns me on more than seeing my teacher bag on my bully."

She slapped me upside the head. It hurt. "That's Miss Orimura. You don't have time to be lurking around in the bushes, Murdoch. You should be out there training."

"Yeah, I know. I was, until Laura dropped half a ton of rock on me."

"What?"

"Oh, you haven't heard? I apparently started a fight while I had no shield energy and Laura only defended herself. Or at least that's the story you'll be getting."

"What happened?"

"Charles and I had a practice fight and I lost. Laura then showed up and blasted me through a wall while I was on Absolute Defense. Hence the cuts and bruises."

"It doesn't really surprise me, in all honesty. The fact that she doesn't like you, that is."

"How so?"

"She sees you as the only thing that makes your mother imperfect."

"Well, I could name a few other things."

"And I could name some more, but that isn't the point. Tread carefully around her, Sten, or you may just regret it."

My pocket buzzed as I opened my mouth to respond.

This, of course, confused me greatly, as no one but Tabane had my number and I didn't think she'd have been calling me when she was trying to keep on the downlow. Chifuyu cocked an eyebrow as I pulled the slate of glass from my pocket to see a picture of a green-haired woman behind a set of buttons. The caller ID read Maya Yamada.

I tapped the screen and put the phone to my ear. "Hello?"

"Hi, Sten," Maya's quiet voice came through like she was standing right next to me.

"Not that I don't appreciate the call, but how'd you get this number?"

"I'm not sure. It was just programmed in when I looked for Miss Orimura's number. Frankly, I'm glad-saves us the trouble of having to find you."

"Why? What's up?"

"Could you and Miss Orimura come by the third pit in arena one?"

"For sure. We'll be right there," I said, before tapping the screen again and pocketing the phone.

"What was that all about?" Chifuyu asked.

"Maya wants to see us in arena one. Didn't say what it was about."

"Well, then let's be off."

The first arena was a little bit different than any of the others. While two through six were the standard oval-shaped arenas, number one was a U-shape that tapered from bleachers in the crook to flush with the ground. It had powerful holoprojectors that, at maximum power, generated a track around the entire island.

The two pits were parallel to each other, and sat within the tapers. Maya was sitting in a chair, her nose practically in the holoscreen in front of her. I recognized the code at the bottom that signified that she was looking through Paxis data.

"Miss Yamada, you called," Chifuyu said sternly, crossing her arms and standing behind the green-haired teacher's chair.

Maya jumped and cried out in surprise, her glasses flying off her face.

"Oh, Miss Orimura! I'm sorry, I-I-I-"

"Take it easy, Maya," I put a hand on her shoulder and put the glasses back on her face.

"Sten..."

Well, I could go into a detailed paragraph on the varying degrees of furrowedness her eyebrows were cycling through, I think I'll just save it. Her eyebrows were furrowed and she could hardly take her eyes away from mine and the screen. "I was l-looking through your data and I noticed something when I checked a bit deeper."

She tapped a green button and the code shifted. A bunch of big gaps formed in the data. "Maya, what's that?"

"I don't know whether it's a glitch in the Core, or my system, or-"

"Maya."

"Someone's stealing your data."

"Like, 'stealing vital information' stealing my data, or 'knew I once flew Paxis on no breakfast' stealing my data?"

Maya sighed and leaned her forehead against her rooted palm. "Sten, this isn't a joke. If there's a student stealing Paxis' data and reporting it to their country, they could produce tens of IS units nearly identical to yours."

I guess the seriousness finally struck me, because my stomach flopped into my throat and I hiccupped. One Paxis was destructive enough. Two would be a disaster. Tens would mean an apocalypse in the wrong hands.

"Can you tell where and when the breach happens?" I asked.

She pushed her glasses higher on her nose and tapped away at the keyboard. The data shifted almost like a living thing. It pulsed occasionally, and Maya groaned in annoyance every time it returned to normal. "Whoever designed this firewall really knew what they were doing. I can't get in."

I thought about all the times that someone had touched my arm. There were too many, but one person had more than any other recently. A certain blonde that I'd become particularly close to.

Now I was just angry.

"Do you know the interval at which the data's extracted?"

She went back to the keyboard. "Every three days or so."

"When's the next sending period?"

This time it took a while to get a response. Not because it was hard or anything, though. No, Maya was shocked into silence. "Today," she said, finally.

I pushed out a fake yawn as hard as I could, a plan forming in my head.

Chifuyu gave me a hard look. "Tired, Murdoch?"

"Just a bit," I lied.

"You should get some sleep-you've had a long day."

"Thanks, teach. I'll... I'll talk to Maya tomorrow about all of this."

"Okay. Now, off to bed," the Japanese woman patted me on the back with a smile.

Maya nodded at me, too.

I left.

The door slid shut behind Sten, and Chifuyu sighed. "Well, he was totally faking that."

Miss Yamada looked back up at her. "Huh?"

"He wasn't tired at all. And I have a feeling he knows exactly who's stealing his data."

The green-haird woman blasted up out of her chair. "What?! Then-then-then we need to go and get him!"

She rushed off, but Chifuyu grabbed her by the neck of her dress and yanked her back. "Guk!"

"Sten wouldn't tell us even if we asked, Miss Yamada. This is something he feels that he needs to do on his own, and I trust him to do it."

"Miss Orimura, this is an offense punishable by expulsion! Can we really play fast and loose with the rules this time?"

"Come on, Maya. We're done for the day, so let's go do what normal people do after a long day."

"What's that?"

"Go to a bar and drink unhealthy amounts of sake."

I opened the door to my room quietly, but inside I was anything but. My brain was exploding over and over, it felt like, and a piercing headache had come and gone since I'd left the school. I was just totally stumped. He'd fooled me into trusting him without question liek it was easy. I guess I wore my need for some male company on my sleeve. Balls.

I looked around for a second, then remembered that he was showering. I threw my bag beside my bed and stood in front of the door, my hand on the handle. I took a deep breath, then stepped inside. "Charles, I-"

But it wasn't Charles standing in the shower. I mean, she looked like him in every way except for her fairly generous breasts and her deep violet eyes, but it was a girl.

To my credit, I only stared at her boobs a little bit.

To her credit, she didn't scream bloody murder.

"C-Charles?" I ground out, shocked.

"O-oui...?"

Same voice, same face, same height...

Charles had been a girl this entire time and I hadn't realized. I took her denial at face value.

I turned around out of respect and said, "We need to talk when you're done in there. Hurry up."

"O-okay..."

I stepped out of the room and leaned my back against the closed door. "Why did it have to turn out this way...?" I muttered, slapping my face into my hands.

A few minutes later, she came out of the washroom in a bathrobe to find me sitting on the edge of my bed with my back to her. She sat down opposite me, on the edge of her bed and I was able to make some deductions. She had a roll of gauze clasped tightly between her hands, which, I guess, was how she hid her boobs (though, those things didn't look like they'd squish down that much. She must have been in a lot of pain.)

Hell if I cared at that second, though.

"Why?" I asked simply.

"Sten... I'm sorry... I knew that I-"

"No, Charles!" I snapped, making her flinch as I grabbed her by the shoulders, "No rambling! Just tell me why!"

She gulped hard and tears welled in her eyes, but she wiped them away. Why did I just keep feeding this compulsion to scare people?

"I wouldn't expect you to understand!" I swear, she was that close to spitting in my face.

Here we go...

"You have everything you could ever want! A fancy school, good friends, and a family back home that actually gives a damn about you coming home! Franchement, je tu deteste completement! You are arrogant, cruel, and worst of all is that you didn't pick up on any of the hints that I was desperate for someone's help!"

She beat her fists pathetically against my chest as she started to cry, just cussing in French. "Bâtard! Bâtard! Bâtard! Je vous hais!"

Her fit went on for a while and I calmed down considerably, before she just collapsed into my shoulder, sobbing like a child. Maybe she wasn't to blame in all of this? Maybe- no, she was definitely being put up to this.

"Charles," I said quietly, gently stroking her hair as I wrapped my arms around her, "I need to know what's going on. I won't yell anymore."

"Promise?" her voice was muffled against my shirt.

I flicked a finger in an X across my chest. "Promise."

She leaned back out of my arms and sniffed, her eyes red and puffy. "I'm sorry I said all those things before. I didn't mean any of it."

"It's okay, Charles. I kinda deserved it."

She took a deep breath. "You know of Dunois, my father's company, oui?"

"Big, French IS company. Day 1 stuff."

"Yes. You see, this whole plan was his direct order..."

"But why would your own father order you to do something like this?"

I could hear a sorrow in his voice that I could tell went well past just his- her (going to take some getting used to) father's oredrs and my spazzing at her.

"Well, my father..." she said quietly-hesitantly, "T-truth be told... I am not the child of his wife..."

"I was separated from him for a very long time, but two years ago, he took me in. That... was right after my maman died."

"I'm so sorry, Charles. I had no idea-"

"It's okay, Sten. You did not know."

I think this was probably the most sad I'd ever seen anyone.

"The people from the Dunois corporation came to pick me up, and after so, so many tests, they found out that I was exceptionally compatible with the IS. So, though it was unofficial, they secretly made me a test pilot for the Rafale Revive program. But through all of that, I have only met my father twice. I do not think he truly thinks of me as a child," she let out a self-pitying giggle as another tear ran down her red face.

I stifled the urge to hug her again.

"And then Dunois encountered some... financial difficulties."

"Difficulties? But they rank third in the world in making IS Units."

"That is correct, but the Revive is a 2nd Generation Unit. Currently, the world is focused on development of the 3rd Generation. I think the reason that Miss Laura and Miss Cecilia transferred to ISA was to collect data for that development."

It made sense. Science was still having trouble anchoring a hovering wing to a hovering body in any meaningful sense, so I had a feeling what she was saying was right on the money.

"Dunois has already begun to develop a 3rd generation model, but progress has been slow. And at this rate, their development permit is in danger of being withdrawn."

"Okay, but what does that have to do with you coming here and pretending to be a boy-... oh, Charles..."

"Simple, yes? I'm an advertising platform for attracting attention. As for this charade, it was believed that I had a better chance of being roomed with you if I pretended to be a boy. The hope was-"

"That you could steal data from Paxis while I was asleep."

She sighed deeply. "Oui. Thanks you for listening," she finally cracked a small smile, "I feel that a huge burden has been lifted now. And I am sorry that I lied to you for all this time."

"...But you never wanted to be a part of this, did you?"

"Sten?"

I got up and sat beside her, clasping one of her hands in mine. "Look, I know that a kid is supposed to love their parents and respect them and follow their orders, but even still, no one can just use their kid as a tool like that!"

Her eyes said she was confused about why I was so intense about it, so I decide it'd probably be good for backstory time.

"Look, when I was five, my mother took my sisters and abandoned me and my father, so I know how you feel. But the difference is that I have no desire to ever see her again. But you do, so what's your plan now?"

"Well, now that you know that I am a girl, I will probably be called back to France. I'm not really sure about the rest-sent to jail, if I'm lucky."

No. No way. "I will never let that happen, Charles, I said, "You can just stay here so long as I stay quiet, right? And even if they do find out, your father and his company are powerless now."

"Sten, what do you mean?"

"Infinite Stratos Academy student handbook, regulation 21. 'All students of the IS Academy are under its exclusive control, and no nation, organization or other group can interfere with their attendance here'. Boom. You have three years to come up with a plan, so long as you stick around."

"I... can't believe you know that offhand. I mean, there are fifty-five of those to remember!"

"Well, it may not seem like I really understand what's going on in class, and I don't, but I still work hard."

She giggled quietly. I took a quick breath as I suddenly realized just how much closer we'd gotten to each other. The tips of our noses were maybe two inches apart. "Sten... thank you for covering for me."

"Oh, well, you know- mph!"

Quick like lightning, she grabbed the collar of my pajama shirt and pulled me the rest of the way in. Our lips met halfway and my eyes flew wide.

Holy crap holy crap holy crap, I'm kissing a girl!

My thoughts soared in a trillion directions at once as I tried vainly to make sense of whether I should push her away or not. I hadn't even realized I was kissing her back until her tongue brushed the outside of my lower lip. We both parted our lips, and then we were Frenching. Like that. Poof.

It was without a doubt the best thing I'd ever felt. My stomach was doing backflips up into my chest and my heart felt like it was going to explode. My pulse hammered in my ears like a jackhammer.

*knock knock*

My head felt so foggy that I didn't hear it the first time.

*knock knock knock*

It finally registered that there was someone knocking. And considering the number of girls I knew who'd castrate me for letting another girl stick her tongue down my throat, I reluctantly broke the kiss and looked over at the door. "Who's there?"

"Sten, it's Cecilia," oh crap, "I noticed as I entered the cafeteria that you haven't had dinner yet. Are you feeling ill?"

The French girl and I shared a look, before she threw herself under the blanket and I jumped onto my bed like it was a liferaft.

"Sten, I'm coming in."

Cecilia Alcott, in all her haughty glory, pushed through the patched up door and looked at us, confused. I realized that I was panting hard. It was kind of painful and very uncomfortable, but I forced myselfto breathe evenly through my nose.

"What's up, Blondie?" I asked as cooly as I could.

"Well, as I said before, I noticed you haven't had your dinner either. Would you care to dine with me?"

"Uhh, sure," I replied hesitantly, not really knowing where I now stood with Charles.

She let out a quiet cough, before weirdly kindly telling us to enjoy ourselves. Cecilia then grabbed my arm.

And so it was that I was dragged outside barefoot, in drawstring pajama pants and a dirty tee shirt.

My clock read 10:19 when I got back. Charles was till in her bed, dozing I guess. She sat up as I entered the room and blushed.

Dnner had been, to say the least, hellish. Houki'd met up with us halfway there and I'd been forced to escort them both. Then. I'd had to escape the damn women and avoid a swordfight of legendary proportions. I'd managed to grab a leftover Japanese set for Charles, though. I had to admit, the salted mackerel didn't look particularly appetizing.

"Hey, Charles. Brought you some grub."

"Thank you! I am hungry."

She took one look at the food and I could see her heart sink. "What's wrong?"

"Well, uh..." she picked up the chopsticks and broke them apart, before clawing them n one hand.

"Ohhh," I said, "You don't know how to use chopsticks, do you?"

"I have been practicing, but..."

"It's okay. I had the luxury of growing up near a Chinese couple that was good friends with my father, so we ate there a lot. It's no big deal-I'll just run back and get you a fork, 'kay?"

"No, that is okay!"

"You know, you're going to have to learn to take advantage of my kindness a bit more."

"But... Well...," she looked pretty nervous, "Sten... couldn't you just feed me?"

My throat contracted and I coughed. "Henh?"

"Well, you said I could take advantage of your kindness, non?"

She seemed to be trying to route my attention away from the fact that an hour and a half ago we'd ben making out. I didn't particularly fancy incurring another girl's wrath, so I went along with it with no flippant comments. I know-crazy, right?

I smiled. "Sure, Charles."

I sat down beside her and picked up the chopsticks. I picked a piece of fish and held it out. "Open wide."

She made a face that said she was enjoying herself and ate the fish. "Like it?" I asked.

"Oh, very much so."

"Well, okay. More fish, coming right up!"

"Actually, I think I want to have some rice next."

"You want rice? Okay. Get ready."

Strangely, I wasn't embarassed by it. It felt kind of... well, right. I was enjoying just being with her, and that was something that didn't happen with just anyone.

So, I sat and I fed her. And you know what? It made my very bad day a good one.

Arena one was totally dark. If not for the light of the moon and the stars, it would've been pitch black. That was probably why Laura Bodewig had found solace there. How could her Mentor possibly side with anyone other than her on this?

Laura rose from her perch on a support girder and walked to the edge of one of the pits. She hit her lip.

Maybe... her Mentor was weak? Instructor Murdoch seemed to have adopted the correct attitude with these moronic students, so perhaps her's was the better act to follow? Yes, Chifuyu Orimura had gone soft. Not just for the other girls, either

No, Orimura had gone soft for the bastard, Sten Murdoch. She'd heard them earlier as she coddled him after he'd been eavesdropping on her conversation with the Mentor.

She tore the eyepatch from her face and swore in German. Her glowing, yellow left eye cast a glow across her hands.

"I swear upon my Mentor's name that this eye will be the last thing you ever see, Sten Murdoch."

Okay, this took a while. I hope you were all pleased with what happened, and I'll see you all next time in…

CHAPTER 8: Oh, Not Again

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