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

I had to admit cleaning and working in the machinery department was a very nice way to relax. Compared to the things that I had to go through during my training days as a Heaven Blade this was as easy as a morning jog to most people. Some of my coworkers did look at me like I was a major weirdo when I started to sing the song from an old movie I watched with dad. I guess nobody else liked the song whistle while you work.

As I got up for my lunch break Nina made it just in time for my lunch period. 'Good thing I made extra today it seems, I wonder why has Nina been looking more tired than usual these days.' I waved at her and she tried to hide her fatigue as well as she could by smiling and walking where I was seated.

The thing that sort of caught me by surprise was that Zuellni actually became more friendly towards me as my relationship with Nina became more intimate and it almost felt like she actually approves of our relationship. I saw her trying to get a sandwich from my lunch basket. I even thought it was sort of cute in a way.

I began helping Zuellni get the wrapper off the sandwich she clearly wanted when Nina finally made it to where I was. "Seems she knew you were hungry. So tell me lover why do you look like a gang of thugs beat you up?"

She laughed and said that it probably would have felt better if it did happen, she took the sandwich and took a bite of it. "I realized that we are too dependent on you for our competitions, I been training hard to try and be better so that should you be unable to compete I can keep our squad's standing in the rankings."

I understand what she was saying but somehow I couldn't agree with her methods. Constant and continuous training was better than training like she did. Her body had little chance to recover and grow at the rate she was planning to go.

"Truth be told, the rankings and municipal competitions are the least of my worries. You may think I am wrong, but that is only because you never seen or fought a contaminoid. Those things grow meaner as they age, meet one that has given up reproducing and you will see what a living nightmare looks like. It takes no less than a three man squad of Heaven Blades to take one of them out. I should know, I been in such a squad more times than I care to remember."

I finished off my sandwich and looked like she was not sure what I was telling was true or not. "Look Layfon you might not know this but cities like this need resources and the most valuable resource comes from being owner of a mine. The municipal competitions are where we gain or lose rights to the mines. This city only has one left, and if we lose that then this city is pretty much dead."

I knew that Nina loved this city, but sometimes I wondered if it was that she loved the city or just Zuellni. Zuellni was pretty much the heart and soul of the city. Even I never met the one that lived in Glendan, even though I spent years protecting that city. I finished my sandwich and got ready to continue working.

She was about to enter the lift when I stopped her. "Look lover if you are going to train hard enough to end up this beat up, I'll take care of the rest of this shift. You relax and spend sometimes with Zuellni. Don't get me wrong but something tells me it will make both of you happy."

I continued doing my work and as I did I remembered some of the people that I once called my family. I remembered my days fighting in the underground arena fights, and also how easily the Queen decided to exile me. I never admitted it to anyone, but I felt betrayed when she told me my punishment.

I finished my shift and went up on the lift to find Nina was still waiting for me. I decided to walk her to her place. It didn't take a genius to figure out that her walking alone was just begging for trouble. I still couldn't figure out how she made it home before I met her. Probably before she took her dite everywhere with her.

"Layfon don't take this the wrong way, but in the last competitions I got this feeling you were actually holding back or that you didn't fight to the best of your abilities. So as platoon leader let me ask you a favor. In the next training session please show us how strong you are when you fight at your best."

I didn't say anything till we reached the dorm building where her place was at. "I will show you how strong I am but I have some conditions. One we keep it a secret, two please understand that I can be quite scary when I fight without holding back, and lastly don't let this make feel bad about yourself. I don't want to see you risk your life training to reach my level. This took me years of training and fighting through a living hell. I don't want you to go through that if I can help it."

It was to my dissatisfaction than the next training session was the next day. The training session involved hitting these automated target robots. The score was shown in a large screen over the entrance to the training field. The score was based on how quickly, efficiently, we disabled the targets. It also measured how powerful our attacks were and how many targets we disabled.

Each point of the score would be added and a level was given depending on the score. Typically my level without trying was a level nine, but my significant other wanted to see me fight at full strength. This was going to cause quite the stir if my score and level was ever known to the other squads.

I never broke a promise and I was not going to do that now. I took my dite and began fighting against the target robots. This was a joke at best and a sad waste of time at worst. Most targets were down with a single hit, and using kei abilities I took down multiple of them in a single strike. By the time the claxon sounded signaling the end of my session I walked towards my squad. They each had a shocked look on their faces.

"What? Do I have something hanging or did my fly came undone?" Nina took hold of me and walked me outside to see my own score. There were no spaces left for numbers in the line where my score was. I didn't see anything wrong. Level 99 didn't seem that impressive truth be told.

"The leader of the student body has the highest score of Level 60. You blew past his score and you even looked bored while doing it!" I just walked in and sat down on a bench.

"I told you Nina these competitions are next to nothing to me. I spent years fighting against contaminoids on a regular basis. That is normal life if you live in Glendan. Contaminoids only care about two things at most and that is eating or reproduction. They don't care about how many mines a city controls, just how much food can they get out of it."

The others looked at me some with a look of awe and sometimes disbelief. I didn't understand why they were looking at me in such a way. I just got up and decided to listen to what Nina seem to want to talk with me in private. I walked up to her told hold of her arm with mine and proceeded to follow her as he leaned on me.

I could only guess that they had no idea that we are in fact a couple, and for the most part I loved her dearly. As we got away she began to get more and more serious, until finally we were sitting right next to each other on a bench.

"Layfon I love you and I know you love me, but for now I need you to be objective on what I need to know. Is there a way for me and the others to reach your level and can we do it as quickly as possible?" I began to look at my hands and began doing calculations in my mind, projections about what could go wrong and probably damage control.

"Sharnid needs a wake up call, he is too laid back before we consider training him. Felli is so obsessed with rebelling against her brother's control that she would fail any training just to make her brother think he has failed in his assumed goals. Lastly you are so suicidal in your devotion to save this city that without proper self control and patience the training would kill you therefore making the reason for the training null and void."

She looked depressed as she listened to me. I took hold of her hand and smiled. "Steady training under high pressure situations will have the results you desire for this squad, but it will take no less than nine months of continuous training. This training is called by my mentor do or die training. I am not kidding Nina, if you are not careful or try to do more than the training says it could harm you and even kill you."

"I went through that training every day I was a Heaven Blade. There were times the pain was so severe I wished that I could die to make the pain stop. If I ever said it out loud he smacked on the back of my head so hard I kissed the floor. He would say never to give up, cause once your dead it's all over. Your life, everything you are or ever were gone forever."

I watched as the others came to where Nina and I were. "With abilities like that Layfon we will be the undisputed champions of this city. I can practically see all those love letters from our adoring fans." Damn it sometimes I forget that Sharnid is a womanizer.

"You want love letters from total strangers? Me, I am perfectly happy with the steady relationship I have with my lover." I sure wasn't expecting Nina to say that to the rest of the squad. She even linked her arm with mine and pulled me close enough for me to feel her press against me.

I quickly drew up a schedule for each member of the platoon. I focused on their weakest skills first, make your weakest attack your strongest and everything else will improve. I fully expected at least one of them to complain, but no one did. Felli just said that having any excuse to be away from her brother was good enough for her.

I went to the meeting and I found out the supposed meeting was happening in their home. Felli was struggling to cook as she had a hard time peeling a potato. "Let me help you with that Felli. Let's see what I can do with this."

I began cooking a meal with my badly cut ingredients. "So tell me FonFon where did you learn to cook?" I placed the chicken in the oven and regulated the temperature as I closed it. I began working on the potatoes and other dishes on the stove.

"Is it really that surprising to you? I grew up in an orphanage in Glendan. The city doesn't provide for anything to orphans, and so we had to learn to do many things for ourselves. Cooking, cleaning, repairs, first aid and such. We all had to pitch in regardless of age or gender."

She asked me if I ever cooked with girls. I told her of course I did, but at the very least they knew how to peel a potato.

As we finished eating dinner her brother did something I never expect. "Thank you Layfon, that was the best meal I had in years. I can't remember the last time I had a warm home cooked meal." Felli wanted to kick me for doing something that made her idiot brother happy, but I had a knife so she wisely reconsidered doing that.

"So what do you need to talk to me about? You know I am quite busy with work, the platoon and my love life." He just set down a diagram of the city. He asked me to look it over and think of ways to make it easier to defend against contaminoids.

"Since you lived in Glendan I imagine you have quite a few ideas as to how to better defend a city against those monsters than we do. So tell me Layfon what would you change?"

I began seeing some key weaknesses as I studied the blueprint of the city. "The city pretty much moves on these legs I would place rapid fire turrets on these points, and a few electrical plates on the exterior in case of climbers, and I don't see a sensor sonar array anywhere on it."

"The city sends shockwaves through the ground simply because of the weight it carries, a simple array of sound sensors and imaging system would pretty much warn us if the city is anywhere near an underground contaminoid nest. Those things are huge so trust me they would be very easy to identify."

He looked at me and smiled. I got the feeling he was thinking about this already. "If we had a few more mines that would be easy to implement, but sadly we only have one mine and it's not that productive for us. Any ideas that will be cost effective?"

Now I was sure that he had thought of the same thing. "Cost effective? Alright I got one. Stop training your military arts students just for municipal challenges. You need to stop babying them and treat their training as a matter of life and death! Compared to what contaminoids can do, your training regiment is a joke."