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

Some would say the trip back home was uneventful, I prefer to be honest and call it boring. I was actually hoping to find a small swarm of contaminods on our way back to the city, I could really use that to help me work out some of the anger and stress I was feeling at the moment.

Never mind that the idiot nearly vaporized everyone, never mind that Gorneo actually made a vow that he thinks it was just for show and I would never make good on it, too bad for him that is simply not the case, and what he said made Nina give me the cold shoulder treatment all the way back to Zuellni, guess she finally understood that it was no joke, that I really participated in a gladiatorial style arena.

Had Gorneo kept his dumb trap shut, right now I could be comfortable with her leaning against my shoulder, as we whispered sweet nothings between each other, and the only thing we would be discussing is our adoptive daughter, the electronic fairy of the very city we lived and studied on, and planning our next date.

I thought that my explanation and the way she reacted pretty much told me this would not happen, it turns out however that she simply needed time for her to process all that Gorneo said and my explanation, and when the two finally came down to it, she only came up with the understanding that no matter the reason, I killed people for money.

I don't know if this is true or if it is just my imagination, but I imagine the queen of Glenden is actually laughing her head of somewhere. I guess this one mission was the time my relationship with Nina came to an end, it was a short and sweet romance, I know none of the other Heaven's Blades would believe it, but I am going to miss it.

With little else to do, I decided to go to rather secluded places in Zuellni, nobody, and I mean nobody goes to places where the shielding is weakest, nobody goes to areas that not even city security refuse to go. Since I had nothing else to do, I decided to get some of the rust off my skills, before I left Glenden before I had friends, people I consider my brothers and sisters, combat training was my only comfort, hello darkness my old friend, I am here to see you again.

The classes in the military arts were a waste of time, I managed to get placed on a different schedule than Nina down in the maintenance work schedule, and if anything Zuellni was as kind and tender as always, that is the only thing that remained the same, spending time with the electronic fairy I consider very much my daughter was the only comfort.

I trained to burn through the bitterness, the anger, the sadness, and the feeling that I should have known better, I should have known that once Nina who had never had to live through the situation I did, in reality, knew nothing of the actual hardships, and break through the dread of seeing each day as a miracle because you know you could die and not wake up the next day.

I kept working till my dite broke into a hundred pieces, and I kept training till the only thing I had to fight was my fists, I kept training hour after hour, my soul screaming, and I didn't even notice when I started to cry, or when did my tears finally stopped. "She lives her life with rose-colored lenses, I can not count of her or the others to keep herself or the squad alive if they are this naive. I have to be stronger to pick up the slack, I have to or the people in this city are doomed, and Zuellni could suffer a fate worse than death."

I kept training till the light of the morning finally appeared, my clothes were shredded, my dite in pieces, and I was barely standing when I finally took the monorail towards my apartment. I took a short shower and got a change of clothes, the food I don't need it. It was not the first time I went without eating, and I simply had to much to do."

I had a meeting to attend to and a report to give. Kalin was waiting for me seated behind his desk thinking he was the master of creation itself. I knew I had to report what happened in our investigation of the ruined city. I could tell the truth and make the like of Gorneo and his pet monkey a living hell. I could, but that means I would break my word, and that is something I did not want to do.

I stood in front of the desk, and again we were surrounded by the rest of the student council. "I gather you have recovered from the investigation of the ruins, very well, I allowed you to rest because the mission was more horrible than I had anticipated, Gorneo told me what happened but now I would like to hear from you what happened?"

I looked at him and thought of the times I had to do the very same when reporting to the Queen. "We went to investigate as planned, we found dozens of discarded shells from contaminoids, there were no survivors, when we tried to power the core of the city to try and bring the information systems back online, Gorneo, his friend and I discovered that the contaminods had done extensive damage on the core of the city, the electronic fairy was nowhere to be seen."

"Thanks to the three of us, we managed to use our skills to shut down the core and we ended up fusing the valves that were necessary for the release of energy and cause the shutdown. There are no survivors and the city without an electronic fairy to control the energy production is best left alone, the city will explode if we try to restart the core again."

I could feel this smug look on his face, he for some reason kept his face hidden from me as I said everything I could only see the back of his armchair. "Gorneo pretty much said the same thing, too bad, I would have liked it if we could at least restart the systems so that we could at least claim the mines the city controlled as salvage rights."

Of course the precious mines, how could I forget about this. This is the very thing they believe would make them safe, well I knew better but after trying to explain it to Nina, and the results it brought I was in no hurry to do so again.

"The computer systems can be recovered, the main components containing that information can be retrieved, and if they are connected to a computer system on a separate server, the information can be safely taken from the information storage devices from that city, I would not suggest that you try and restart the core, however, unless you want to see a massive explosion that will end up killing everyone on the mission."

I waited for a few seconds, I was in no mood to continue this beyond what was necessary, I had classes to attend and more than likely find a new squad, considering Nina probably removed me from the seventeenth platoon already, I guess I should really check if that is the case first and foremost.

"Before you go, I do have to ask you a couple of things that have come to my notice regarding your squad. It seems your squad leader for unknown reasons has taken your name off the competition roster for the city competition tournaments, is there anything I should be aware of?"

I told him that she simply found out my sordid history and she simply reacted in a much-expected way. "Well, I will leave you to resolve that, I am sure it is a private matter and I have complete faith in your ability to solve this issue, however I would like you to resolve it as quickly as possible, I need that squad ready for any municipal challenges that may come our way."

I waited to hear if he had anything, resolve the issue like it was just a disagreement. "As for the final thing I need to discuss, I would very much like for you to come to my residence and have dinner with me and my sister, this matter is simply too important and we need a greater degree of information control."

I told him I would be there in the evening, as there was nothing else, I decided to go towards the place the squad usually gathered. I was thinking that my name had been taken off the roster, but as soon as I reached the door, I saw my nameplate was still very much displayed which means officially I was still a member of the platoon.

That is when I remembered that the entire reason why I was placed in the platoon was that because without me the platoon would be disbanded, or at least that was the official reason. I knew the real reason was that he wanted me to be in the same platoon he forced his sister to be in and wanted to use my skills.

As I walked in Sharnid was not present, Felli was nowhere to be seen, and Nina left while giving me a cold look, Harley was working hard to maintain the gear of our platoon, well this suits me perfectly. "Harley I hate to bother you when you are busy, but could I trouble you for something?" Harley stopped doing what he was doing and came towards me.

"Sure Layfon, what seems to be the trouble?" I told him that I was training last night and my dite sort of broke into pieces, I asked him if he could give me a substitute dite that I could use, the same katana type would be best.

"Actually Layfon this works out even better than I could have planned, you see from the data I obtained from your simulation and practice fighting, I came to realize that your current Dite is actually not strong enough for you to use, I am currently working on something to make a Dite strong enough for you. But I do need a few readings regarding your use of Kei through a Dite to finish this."

Of course, since I had nothing better to do, I decided to help him, he took a sword dite and began to attach cables to it, and those cables to several machines. I began to send my Kei into it and began to do some basic slash attacks, I sent as the strongest attacks at the target he told me to hit. The virtual targets were shredded and Harley looked like he was having a hard time preventing the machines from getting blown clean over.

"Great, just what I needed, I should be able to finish your new Dite really soon. Oh, man, I love having someone like you in our platoon, just when I think I know your limits you pull something like this off, I tell you as a mechanic for our platoon I am never bored thanks to you joining our platoon." He left practically singing, but not before he handed me a replacement Dite.

I went to work in the machine maintenance job as usual, and as expected Nina did switch to a different schedule, so I was pretty much alone, well Zuellni was there and she was looking at me with this rather worried look on her face. "Don't worry Zuellni, I am not angry with your or Nina, you can relax, I will be here to help her and you for quite some time."

She seemed to relax as I said this and she flew right next to my head and gave me a small kiss on the side of my face. I guess Zuellni knew I was feeling sad if anything else my little girl is as sweet as ever, even if the lady that she considers her mother still disliked me.

I did my best and I must admit I was feeling really tired and quite a bit of pain after I got done with the cleaning done, never realized that doing this job alone was this taxing but there was nothing I could do about it. I gave Zuellni a hug and watched her as she flew away to her resting place. "At least one person in this city still cares about me. If she was not present here, would I even consider remaining in this place?"

As I reached my dorm room I saw someone left me a box lunch, I also realized that I went to work and did not stop to have any food or rest, no wonder I was in this much pain. I took the box lunch and placed it in the refrigerator unit in the room. I was simply too tired to eat anything. I didn't even bother getting out of my uniform I simply lay down on my bed and decided to sleep.