I don't own Chrome Shelled Regios, this is a fanfiction only.

I glared at Sharnid as he entered the arena waiting area. "You have the nerve to bet against your own platoon! Remind me again can you actually kill your enemy when we do these competitions?" Nina was smiling as she too likes the idea of a little friendly fire to teach him a lesson. Hayle, on the other hand, had to end our little payback dream when he said that there was no actual way to kill each other, there was a dampening field on the arena so at most we could knock each other out.

I decided to go near Nina and asked if I beat most of the enemy would she consider going out on a date with me. "Listen here buster it is not that easy to get a date with a beautiful babe like me, add the platoon flag to that and you got yourself a deal. Do it quickly enough and I am even paying for my half if the cost."

As we walked onto the field we saw the eleventh platoon and they clearly insulted Nina, which earned them a whole lot of pain from your truly. 'Stinking bastards nobody insults the lady I am trying to woe and gets away with it.' Nina was telling Sharnid about how we could win, defeat all of them or capture the flag.

I was doing something else, I deployed my katana and as three of the enemy went after Nina, I decided to cut lose. "External Ballistic Kei: Dragon Spiral." I knocked each of them out when they leader showed up thinking that Nina was done for, big surprise I was waiting for him to land when I caught him and slashed him hard three times across the stomach destroying his armor and exposing his stomach.

I gave him a quick kick to the stomach which knocked him out cold. There was one guy still hiding but I focused in jumping up in the air, "Internal Ballistic Kei: Flashstep." I made a beeline for the flag cut it off and jumped down to where the last guy was hiding and landed right on top of him knocking him out.

I walked over to Nina who was smiling at me as I handed her the flag. "I do hope the other platoons are tougher than this, cause it was just too easy to beat them," I said that as the enemy leader woke up. We all had a good laugh as we saw the look on his face as he realized his platoon lost.

"So I guess that means we got a date, just name the time and day. I am sure we could have some real fun." Nina told me as she hugged me. I looked at Sharnid looking a bit frightened. He quickly explained that betting on his own team had the single worst odds and thus by us winning he made a small fortune. All of which was going to be used to purchase much-needed gear equipment, materials, and better tools for Hayle to work on the platoon dites.

"So you see guys, I would never betray you. I just figured we needed to improve our gear, and Hayle needed better tools and materials for our dite. See you might think I was betting against you but in reality, I was helping the platoon get ready for future matches. So come on Layfon you should take it easy, and tone down your anger. Take a chill pill why don't you!"

I looked at Nina and she had the same thought about this particular subject if her face was telling me anything. "So Nina when do we have our next day off in the machinery department?" She began looking like she was thinking hard to remember when Felli I told us we had today off since we had a match.

That made me wonder two things, first, how did Felli know our work schedule and last did she sound a little jealous when she said that or was it my imagination? I cleared my head of these questions and looked at Nina.

Why was she blushing like that? "Nina how about a traditional student date? A movie, dinner, dancing or a walk through the park? How does that sound to you?" She must have liked it because she actually suggested a rather nice place to get our dinner.

Thanks to the manipulative bastard I didn't have much in a way of civilian attire, let alone something nice to wear for a date. Since I was still sending money to the orphanage on Glendan I didn't want to waste money. I simply bought a pair of pants, shirts, and boots.

That is when I met Felli, "It is rather surprising that you haven't figured it out Layfon. The fight between those two military arts students was planned and done to test your skills. The very same day my brother had one member of our platoon quit creating a vacancy on my platoon. My brother is a despicable bastard that will use anyone or anything in order to win, and yes that includes me."

I looked at her and nodded my head, "I figured as much, there were clues to that fact all day that day. First they let me keep my Dite when I entered the city, the officer showed up too quickly to be answering to a sudden incident and last but not least the uniforms he placed in my room. My left arm is slightly longer than my right. So if they were a rushed order they shouldn't fit as well. I figured he knew I was a former Heaven Blade."

Felli looked more calm hearing me say that, "Good then you knew already. I wanted to tell you so you be ready for the future, but I see that was unnecessary. Mind if I ask you a question? Do you always have your gauntlets deployed or do you think someone will try to get revenge on you for the way you defeated an opponent?"

I looked at her with a serious face or at least I try to look serious, "Truth be told the air here is a little colder than I am used to, so I simply decided to wear my gauntlets for comfort sake. I am a master at the Lukens style of combat so I really don't need them just to defend myself."

This made her ask how could he master such a savage fighting style? I told her that I had a wonderful friend who knew the style, thanks to him and my capacity to be able to learn skills by observation it made it quite easy for me to be able to learn different fighting styles, it was thanks to my friend that I went a set further and indeed mastered the style he uses. It was something that ended up benefiting both of us.

"I learned a new fighting style and my friend gains a good sparring partner, see a win-win situation. These gauntlets I used for my steel cord techniques, I never could master it so I also tend to practice it while I walk from one place to another."

We made it to my dorm room door and excused myself, "Now Felli I hope you don't think of me rude, but I need to shower and get dressed. It simply would not do if I keep my date waiting." That was when I almost saw some emotions on her face, must have been a reflex reaction.

"So who is the lucky lady that is going out on a date with you?" I had no reason to hide it. I told her it was Nina Antalk and I entered my dorm room without realizing she actually was following me inside. I noticed when I heard the door close and I didn't close the door.

I turned around and asked her who gave her permission to enter my dorm room? "I am just going to set your clothes out so they be ready and you can shower without wasting time." I didn't believe a single word of what she said. I told her that it would not be necessary but thanked her for her consideration. I watched as she left my room looking rather upset that her plan didn't work.

I got dressed after my shower and made use of some high-speed techniques to arrive at our meeting point a little ahead of time, I still needed to buy some flowers. The sad thing was that all the flower shops were now closed. I had to improvise and using a few dozen paper sheets and the hobby I learned from watching Leerin I managed to make a rather nice bouquet with some origami flowers.

As Nina arrived she looked rather lovely dressed in those pants, shirt, and vest. I had some real trouble trying not to look down her shirt, the amount of cleavage I was feeling as she hugged me from the back trying to surprise me was nothing to sneeze at. I turned around and gave her the bouquet I just finished making.

"Sorry Nina, I wanted to buy you some real roses but it seems Felli felt it necessary to tell me her brother might want to use me for something in our future competitions. That took most if the time I initially wanted to use to buy you some flowers. You look lovely by the way."

Nina asked me how in the world did I know how to make the bouquet? As we walked towards the movie theater I told her I learned thanks to a childhood friend, I also told her that I also knew how to mend clothes, knit, cook, and do minor Dite maintenance.

She asked me why did I know so many things. "I had no assurance that I would ever fall in love, or that my future wife knew how to do these things. The Saiharden family motto is to be prepared for every situation and thus avoid regrets in the future." I guessed she must be either impressed or she was not expecting that from a guy, she was speechless for a little bit.

The movie was fun, it was a rather interesting romance, science fiction, adventure type of film, or maybe I should say it was fun for her because to me it was secretly pissing me off as the film went on. Why was I angry you ask? Well there are several reason, the first the movie was what I call a bastardization of how I became a Heaven Blade. The film depicted a greedy bastard getting lucky and winning the Heaven Blade qualification tournament through shall we say questionable means.

Second the flame implied that he was so greedy he only became a Heaven Blade either for his own financial wealth or fame with the opposite sex, and last but certainly not least was implied that he was allowed to enter the tournament because he secretly was the lover of the Queen of Glendan. Had the filmmaker not changed the names and appearance of the people in the movie I was more than likely going to go up to where this film was being stored and burn it.

Nina at the end of the torture session or should I say movie decided to have dinner in a local café while she wanted to discuss the film, apparently she didn't agree with the supposed motivations of the male protagonist and only enjoyed the actual fighting and action seems. "Layfon you have any idea how someone so greedy can reach such a honorable position? Defender of the realm and the Royal family was something I figured only extremely honorable people would try to be."

I could not help it, I had to tell her the entire film was a false representation of my life. "I am ashamed to say it Nina, but I am a former Heaven Blade wielder. I did become as you said a defender of Glendan and the Royal family, but I never even thought of my own fame, fortune or ever sleep with the Queen."

Nina was taking a sip of her drink when I said that, so she choked a little from the surprise, she if course recovered and asked me no end of questions. She asked me about the Heaven Blades, the qualification tournament and only stopped when she asked me about my family.

"I fought in underground arena fights and did do it for money, but never used my Heaven Blade or was it for myself. I was born an orphan you see Nina, and growing up in the orphanage I sort of felt like the other orphans were like my brothers and sisters. I was adopted by the master of the Psyharden Style of combat, Derk Saiharden. The city does not provide aid to the orphanage you see."

We had finished our meal and know was answering her questions, she was really interested from what I could tell. I took a sip of my tea and continued.

"I only fought in the underground arena to provide funding to the orphanage, how could I not? My little brothers and sisters were barely making enough to feed themselves. Glendan has a fate I would say, that the city while other cities avoid contaminoids Glendan actively searches to encounter as many contaminoids as it possibly can."

I finished my drink and as she finished her drink I called for a waitress and paid for the dinner. We took a walk through the park as she told me it must have been horrible to fight one wave of contaminoids after another. I told her that I did get to rest. Contaminods don't stick in large groups since if they was nothing to eat they would turn on each other.

"When you are born and grow up in that city you don't even think about it. It almost seem natural to be constantly be fighting contaminoids, fighting was a major aspect of my life. My childhood friend used to joke that I had to be a berserker in a previous life."

As we walked towards the dorms and specially her room she told me how her family didn't want her to study the military arts, that she had to run away and since the scholarship only covered tuition, and boarding costs she ended up working in the machinery department. "I like the electronic fairies, Zuellni is a good friend of mine. So I tend to go a little gung-ho when it comes to competitions. I mean what kind of a friend would I be if I didn't help my friends?"

As we reached her dorm room door I thanked her for a wonderful evening and kissed her hand as I was ready to leave, she grabbed me by my shoulders turned me around as I was about to leave and gave me such a passionate kiss on my lips that left me breathing hard when it ended. "Thank you for being honest with me and trusting in me to share your life story with me. Let's do this again Layfon."

She said that and ran inside her room and left me looking at her door as it closed. I walked back to my dorm room to find Sharnid was waiting for me. "It's not nice to use your rifle scope to spy on my date Sharnid." He told me he was not spying he was guarding.

"You might not think so but you got an enemy in this city, and after I heard you know the Lukens style of combat I had to watch out for you. The guy who really hates your guts is named Gorneo, Gorneo Lukens."