Chapter 4; The New Blonde

Sunday rolled around, and everyone was still nervous about approaching Simon about what had happened on Friday. Ichika more than the others was feeling the awkwardness since they shared a room, but he made it a point to avoid discussing it. Rin had begun to hang out with them, and that did prove to be a kind of distraction, but the arguments between her and Simon were half-hearted at best. Houki was at a loss at how to approach Simon and keep Rin from gaining any more of an advantage over her with Ichika. Cecilia also tried to cheer everyone up, going so far as to make lunch for everyone the other day. To say her cooking needed improvement would be putting it mildly. Chifuyu had questioned Simon briefly on what had happened, but he only dodged the questions and gave half-answers. Finally, she had released him, realizing he wasn't going to tell her anything meaningful. Whatever was eating at the blonde, he would have to work it out himself.

Around noon, Simon grabbed a bag from under his bed and left the room, telling Ichika he was going to go work off some stress. Waiting for him to get a bit of a head start, Ichika then got up and followed him out. Taking care to stay a ways back from him, Ichika followed Simon all the way to stadium 3, where Simon then entered the arena's field. Setting down his bag, he opened it and took several things out of it. After putting something in his right ear, he took his shoes off and put some kind of boot on his feet before also putting on a pair of weird gloves. Speaking quickly into what must have been an earpiece, he brought up a series of targets around himself and took up what Ichika realized was his stance for hand-to-hand. At a command from the blonde, the targets began to orbit him at different speeds, some moving at the pace of a leisurely walk, others zipping by like bullets. He stood there motionless for a few seconds before lashing out with his hands, quickly hitting three targets that emitted a *ding* before disappearing. Continuing in this pattern, he took out another four targets before he started throwing kicks as well. From his movements, Ichika could see that he was seasoned in at least some form of martial arts. Each punch and kick flowed into each other almost effortlessly, and before Ichika knew it all the targets had been cleared. Leaning over with his hands on his knees, Simon was clearly winded from the exertion.

Deciding that hiding in the shadows was too sneaky, Ichika made to join him on the field, but someone else beat him to it. "I had no idea you practiced martial arts." Cecilia said, coming up behind him with a towel and water bottle. "You're just full of surprises." Smiling at her, he straightened up and turned to face her fully. "You know me, always prepared. So, come to enjoy the show, princess?" Catching the slight color that came to her cheeks, he tried not to smile. "I thought you might want some refreshment. There's no need to be vulgar. Peasant." The last part was mumbled like she expected him not to hear her. "Oh, I'm a peasant, am I? Well, maybe one day I can become a knight worthy of a princess, hmm?" He teased, taking off one of his gloves with his teeth and holding that hand up for the water. Deciding the conversation was going somewhere she would rather not have it go, at least not yet, she tossed the water to him. "So, what kind of gloves are those?" She asked, trying to change the subject.

Deciding that the change of topic was in both of their interests, he looked down at his other hand and replied, "They're weighted training gloves, so are the boots. They help me keep my speed up where I need it to be." "How much do the weigh?" She asked, thinking probably something light. "About 12 kilograms, each." This earned him a rather hilarious look from Cecilia as her jaw dropped. He just cocked an eyebrow at her as way of questioning her. "H-how? How can you move like that with that kind of weight? And why? You're IS doesn't have any weapons that would require this kind of training." Laughing to himself, he took another shot from the water bottle before setting it back down. "Oh, it doesn't, huh? And I suppose that it doesn't have fang bits hidden in the wings, ether?" Puffing her cheeks in slight annoyance, she took his point. Well, he doesn't exactly boast about what he's capable of, so I guess it's possible she thought as he turned back and reactivated the training circles.

"Don't you get tired swinging around with that kind of weight on?" she asked as the targets began to spin again, this time much faster than before. "Yeah, but I was taught that if you're not sweating at the end of a work-out, then you're not doing it right." Though he couldn't see her face since she was behind him, Cecilia got several shades darker as some rather un-ladylike thoughts ran through her head at that. As he began his next set, she stood there, amazed that someone could move so fast with 30 pounds on each limb. Watching his arms and legs move, the muscles in his back and chest bunch and relax with each blow was definitely not helping her state of mind. Shaking her head to try and clear the thoughts, she opened her eyes right as he finished off the last three targets in a quick flurry of punches and a flying kick. This time, he was definitely feeling the workout as sweat dripped from his nose as he sat down to catch his breath. Tossing him the towel, Cecilia sat next to him and asked, "So, who was your instructor?" "For fighting? That would be Sergeant Camerine Miles, although I guess by the time he taught me he was retired. The old bastard was pushing 60 with more white than any other color in his hair, but he could still knock me down faster than I could think." Simon answered with a small smile.

At this point, Ichika seriously considered leaving the two alone. That is, until Rin and Houki came up behind him. He quickly shushed them so that they wouldn't all get busted and asked quietly, "What are you two doing here?" "Looking for you, moron," Rin said as she and Houki peaked around the corner, "We were wondering what you were up…to… Is that Cecilia and Simon?" Sighing at how the situation had spiraled out of control so quickly. "Yes, but please keep it down. I don't want to think what they would do if they found us snooping." Looking at each other, the girls nodded in silent agreement before turning their attention back to the field.

"You miss him?" Cecilia asked, interested in learning more about the boy that she was starting to crush on. No point in denying it now. "Yeah, I guess I kinda do. He could be a real hardass, but he meant it in the best way possible. When I asked him once why he was always such a salty old bastard when he trained me, he said, 'It's my job to break you now so you don't in the field, and that's what I'm going to do. Now get down and give me 20!' I think that was the point where my hatred for him started turning into respect." He explained, clearly enjoying sharing at least part of himself with someone else. Simon only realized it now, but he had never really opened up about anything personal since he came here, even though everyone around him had been. Hell, he knew more about the entire student body here through what he picked up off-hand than anyone ever knew about him, except maybe Chifuyu. And she only really knew what was in his file. And even that isn't close to everything he thought, feeling the gloom come back. Ah, screw it. Let's lance this boil now before it becomes cancerous.

Staring up at the clouds, he asked, "You want to ask me about what set me off with that rouge unit on Friday, don't you?" Looking stunned, she quickly shook her head. "N-no, of course not! Whatever that was, it was clearly personal. I wouldn't want to force you…." "It's alright, I don't mind now," he replied, turning to face her, "Translated, what it said to me was 'see you on the other side.' It was something my sister and I would always joke would be our last words if either of us ever died. We picked it up from some TV show, and it sounded so cool to us at the time." Cecilia just sat there; surprised to learn he had a sister. "Actually, she was my twin, older than me by a few seconds, but she held that over my head until I was old enough to understand that it didn't matter. When we were ten, she was scouted as a potential IS pilot, and I went along with her, determined to be of some use." He explained with a sad smile on his lips. As the silence stretched on, Cecilia finally broke it. "And, were you?"

"In a way," he replied, bringing his knees up to his chest and resting his arms on them, "I found that I had a natural talent for engineering and they quickly made me the head mechanic on her IS. I was so proud of that, I think I spent more time tinkering with it than I did sleeping or studying. It took us the better part of 2 years before we had developed what we believed to be a workable 3rd generation prototype, but…" He stopped, his eyes clouding over. Whatever came next was clearly what had been troubling him. "There was a…accident, and the IS…..didn't meet expectations." "What do you mean, 'didn't meet expectations?' What happened?" Cecilia asked, although she could already guess where this was going. "The power distribution wasn't balanced right, and the suit's capacitors quickly became charged and unstable. Her last words to me were 'ci vediamo dall'altra parte, fratello.' See you on the other side, brother." At that, he rested his head on his amrs, tears starting to fall down his own face. It made her heart break to see someone that had been a big blow-hard and yet kind person suddenly crying. Moving closer, she grabbed onto his shoulder. "It wasn't your fault, Simon. You don't have to cry." "But it was," he managed, just under his breathe, "They were pushing for results, and I didn't do enough to stop them. I knew the suit wasn't ready for practical trials. Hell, we had trouble stabilizing the damned thing in the lab under controlled conditions. And the best part was that it was because of that that I discovered I can control an IS."

"How's that?" Cecilia asked, hoping to change the subject and take his mind off this. "When I went to examine what was left of the suit, the core responded to me. They quickly found another unoccupied IS and tried it's reaction to me, and boy did it react. When you're suddenly clad in metal and twice your normal height, it's a real shock. The other researchers concluded it was because we were twins that the cores believe I AM my sister. How's that for freaking irony?" Not knowing what to say, Cecilia draped her right arm around him and rested her head on his shoulder, trying her best to comfort him. They sat like that for a few minutes before Simon lifted his head up and looked over at Cecilia. Her eyes were closed, and the look of peace on her face told him that she was definitely enjoying this. Clearing his throat, he looked back up at the sky so she wouldn't catch him staring, or the light color on his own cheeks. Hearing her breath hitch as she realized what she had been doing, he felt her sit up ramrod straight and could imagine she was trying to look anywhere but at him with a furious blush. "Well, I'd better go shower, unless you wanted a demonstration of why I practice this kind of fighting?" He asked.

Though the color had lessened some, she was still blushing as she looked at her feet. "Uh..I don't have any real close combat weapons, so I don't think I would-" "That's alright," Simon said, standing up and dusting himself off, "We have a good volunteer behind us." Turning around, he raised his hand and shouted, "I know you three are there, you can come out now." Houki, Ichika and Rin all flinched as they realized they had been made. Ichika, ever the gentleman, walked out first, scratching the back of his head and grinning sheepishly. Trying to not look guilty themselves, the two girls followed him a short time later. What they all saw was Simon glaring at them, mostly in amusement, but also clearly ticked off. Cecilia was back to blushing again, her face almost turning purple. Sighing and pinching the bridge of his nose in frustration, Simon shook his head as the three lined up in front of them.

"Okay, so who wants to have their ass kicked first?" Simon asked, arching his eyebrow and looking at Rin. The three spies just stood there, looking confused. "I know you heard about my offering of a demonstration. If you make me pick someone, it might just get worse from here." Simon said, the look he was giving them promising that there was no escape from this. After waiting a few seconds to see what everyone would do, Ichika stepped forward. "I'll fight you. In fact, I've been looking for a chance to spar with you. We never really got a chance to fight." Smiling, they walked away from the two girls that were now trying to whisper with Cecilia, although she was clearly still too embarrassed to talk with them. Turning to face each other, the two boys summoned their IS, although Simon's had a distinct difference this time; his shield was missing.

"What happened to your shield?" Ichika asked. Smiling, Simon let his right foot slide back, angled himself so that his left shoulder was facing Ichika, and brought his fists up. "I said I would show her why I practice fighting hand-to-hand. That's what I intend to do." Shrugging, Ichika took his own stance and waited for some signal to start. Seconds turned into minutes as the two pilots stared at each other, neither moving a muscle. The girls had since retreated back a ways, Rin and Houki forgetting about teasing Cecilia for the moment. Finally, Ichika moved, using his Ignition Burst to close on Simon. As he brought his sword down in an overhead swing, Simon used his left arm to deflect the blow while he side-stepped and brought his right arm up into Ichika's stomach. Right before impact, the small shield on Simon's arm popped up slightly and a meter-long blade slid out from underneath it. The punch, now a stab, hit Ichika square in the chest, sending him flying back a couple meters before he stopped himself and took another look at Simon's IS. The new sword began at his wrist, and was clearly a last-resort weapon. Flicking his left hand, Simon deployed an identical one on his left arm before resuming his starting pose.

"What's the matter, Ichika? Lost your nerve?" Simon taunted. "Hardly. Here I come again!" he said, charging him again. This time, they traded numerous blows. Simon was able to deflect Ichika's sword fairly easily with his own blades, but his own strikes were also turned aside. One moment, Simon would be giving ground and trying not to let Ichika land a solid blow, and the next he was on the offensive, sending a flury of punches and swipes that forced Ichika to back off instead. After a particulary daring attack where Ichika tried to sweep Simon's feet out from under him, the blonde was forced to jump to avoid the hit. Smiling, Simon turned the dodge into his own attack, spinning around to smash his heal into Ichika's head. As he tried to step back to avoid the kick, a flash caught his attention before something slashed across the shields around his head, sending him stumbling again. At this point, the girls were more than a little stunned since none of them had really expected that kind of attack. Simon had deployed a blade from the leg of his IS, just to the right of it's foot. "I think you now understand the nature of your enemy." Simon stated as he backed off to let Ichika recover. At this, Ichika just started grinning like a fool before he took flight to continue the fight.

"Why is that idiot smiling like a lunatic?" Rin asked, puzzled over why someone would be so happy at being blindsided. Cecilia just shook here head in confusion. It was Houki that answered, "It's the joy of having a real fight. Simon may not be a swordsman, but he is a trained fighter. And there's nothing more enjoyable that fighting a worthy opponent." The other two girls just looked at her while Houki watched the fight. Simon had deployed the blade on his other foot and was now using the same moves he had been practicing, sending kicks, punches and combinations of the two at Ichika. While he couldn't really counter most of them, Ichika did find a few openings and managed to start taking Simon's shields down a bit at a time. At least he's smart enough to not use his one-off under these condition Houki thought as the battle went on.

About an hour later, with both their shields near zero, the two boys were too tired to continue and called it a draw. Destructing their IS, they went back towards the locker room to shower off while the girls waited outside the stadium. "So, Cecilia," Rin began, "did you two, you know..?" she just let the question hang there as Cecilia took a moment to clue into what the Chinese girl meant. "W-what?! Rin, I would never! To even suggest that I would-!" This outburst just met laughter as Houki turned away and Rin fell on the ground, clutching her stomach. The British girl was so transparent, after all, that they couldn't NOT find it funny. Gathering herself first, Houki walked up to her as Cecilia just hid her blush behind her hands. Placing a hand on her shoulder, she said, "It's okay, Cecilia, we won't say anything until you do. Besides, he clearly likes you, to." The look in her eyes was more than just gratitude. Cecilia honestly hoped that her friend was right. The three had collected themselves by the time the boys met up with them and the five went back to the dorms.

"Class, we have a new student joining us today." Maya announced after everyone had sat down. Mondays are always so full of surprises Simon thought. As Maya gestured to the door, the new student walked in. The new male student. The shock on Simon's and Ichika's face was quickly replaced by looks of pain as the entire class (minus Houki and Cecilia) squealed at the new arrival. He was a little shorter than the other two boys, and had his blonde hair done up in a pony tail. "This is Charles Dunios, the Representative Candidate from France." Maya continued, starting another bought of squeals as the girls oohed over the french boy, who was clearly nervous as hell at the attention he was getting. Thankfully, the noise came to an abrupt halt when Chifuyu walked into the room. "Alright, class, we're going to have a practical drill today, so get to the locker rooms and get changed." She announced before turning and leaving. Glancing at each other, Simon and Ichika came to an agreement. They both shot out of their seats as soon as Chifuyu left, grabbed Charles and made their way as quickly as they could out of the building. "Uh, wha-what's going on? Is something the matter?" he asked, confused as to why he was being dragged out of the building.

"Trust us, it's for your own safety." Simon said as they got outside. Since they weren't in immediate danger, they let Charles go and started walking normally. "Is it always that noisy in the classroom?" Charles asked. Man, if he hadn't been announced as French, that accent would have given him away in a heartbeat Simon thought as they made their way to the practice grounds. "Yeah, but only with us guys. You'd think they'd never seen a dude before." Simon replied. "You get used to it. Kind of." Ichika added as the rounded a corner, right into another group of girls. "Crap." Was all Simon managed before the three were forced to flee from said group of girls, who where more than a little interested in 'getting to know' the three of them.

After finally making it to the locker room, Simon and Ichika began to change. Strangely enough, Charles was able to change in the time it took the two to change their shirts. Neither of them had even seen the guy take his clothes off. He was also clearly a little embarrassed at seeing the other two boys half-clothed, judging from the light red Simon saw on his cheeks. "What's the matter, never changed in a locker room before?" Simon asked as he stuffed his pants in the locker. "Y-yeah, not really. I, uh, I'll just be outside." Charles stammered as he went for the exit. "Strange guy." Ichika said as he shut his own locker. Before leaving, Simon checked the padlock on his own locker. Somehow, his shirt had gone missing last week, and he didn't even want to guess at who had it. The way this school acts around us, could be one of the staff for all I know he thought as he went out onto the field, just hope it wasn't Chifuyu. She's all kinds of scary. Taking his place at the end of the line, Simon saw that there were several training IS stationed in the field.

"Today you will be practicing the basics of handling an IS on the ground. Those of you with personal IS, split up among the training IS we have out. Those without their own will form groups of five and pair up with one of them and begin going through the motions of boarding and moving one of these training IS." Chifuyu explained, then she and Maya each picked an IS to help out. Simon walked over to one of the IS, rubbing the back of his head. He wasn't exactly the world's greatest teacher. "Simon-kun?" someone asked from behind him. As he turned around, he saw his group consisted of two brunettes,two blondes and a girl with red hair. "Alright, who's first?" He asked, deciding to get this over with as soon as possible. "I-I'll go first." The red-head said, walking up to the IS. "Alright, just climb up here and put your feet in there." Simon explained, pointing to the holes in the legs.

"I can't really get a good grip. Could you help me up?" she asked. Without even thinking, Simon was halfway to helping her before he thought about it for a moment. Ah, that's the game, is it? Instead of boosting her up into the suit, which would have probably resulted in him grouping her ass, he summoned two of his fang bits without the blades active and lined them up as stairs. "There, that should help you." he said, taking note of the slight look of disappointment not just on her face, but on the other four girls as well. Sorry, ladies, gotta be a little sneakier than that. After the first two had gone through the motions without any hitches, Simon heard some yelling across the field and turned to see Houki pummeling Ichika. Shaking his head, he turned back to his class. "Simon-kun, shouldn't someone stop her?" one of the blonde girls asked. "No, whatever she's doing, he probably deserves it." He answered. The idiot could do with some creative education.

"What do you mean, I'm moving out?!" Simon demanded, looking between Chifuyu, Ichika and Charles. Sighing in annoyance, she said, "I can't have three of you in a room, and I also can't have an incident with mister Dunios here. I don't trust my brother not to do or say something stupid, so that leaves you by default." "But I-" "No buts, the decision's been made, and one of the second year students has kindly offered to take you in since she doesn't have a roommate." Chifuyu said before walking away, ending any further discussion. Sighing, he turned to the other two boys who looked like they felt guilty as hell about this. Sighing, Simon said, "Don't worry, I doubt this will be half as bad as you're thinking. Besides, if it comes down to it, I'm sure I could get Cecilia to snipe her over the weekend if she tries anything." Grabbing his bags, Simon left the two wondering if he would actually do it, since they both knew, or at least Ichika knew, that Cecilia would definitely do it.

Arriving on the fifth floor, Simon found his new room was towards the end of one of the halls. After knocking on the door and hearing a muffled "come in," he walked into a room that looked a lot like the one he had left. Except for a few posters, the light blue cups on the little kitchenette counter, and the girl with the same colored hair and red eyes sitting on a bed in nothing but a button-up t-shirt. She looked him up and down with a mischievous glint before spreading her fan in front of hef mouth and giggling.

"Oh, you're going to be a treat." She said, moving to get up. This is not going to go well Simon thought as she walked up to him, the playfulness in her eyes daring him to try something. Not well at all.

And now our brave pilot meets Tatenashi Sarashiki. Will he be able to resist her charms? I was honestly on the fence about whether to include her at all, but the fun she adds with her playfulness was too much to resist. Also, I apologize for dumping an exposition on you, but I couldn't really think of a good way to give back story that didn't feel like filler. On the plus side, there's only one more character to introduce before I can kick my story line up a gear and get some things moving. You're going to want to remember what you learn about his sister, it becomes important later.