"Did you forget something, freshman?" Jackson said when Josh came barging in. He seemed to be playing with something in his palm, though it vanished as soon as he entered. Was he seeing things?

It didn't matter. "There was no riot." Josh stepped towards him.

"And just how did you come to that conclusion?"

"This girl told me."

"'This girl told me'." Jackson mocked. "'This girl told me'. You freshmen never cease to amaze me at your thought processes. Tell me, what makes you think that girl is telling the truth? For all that you know, she may have been in the riot herself. Provoked it, even."

For a brief moment, Josh considered his words, as there was a point in them, and it was sharp enough to poke at his conviction to find the truth. But he believed in the girl. He believed in the Amber in her story, and he believed her gratitude towards him. The prospect of her telling the truth gave him hope. It was a feeling that he very much liked to hold onto since the passing of recent events, and because of this, he is willing to stand up for her.

"I'm going to see it myself," Josh turned back around. "If there is going to be a riot around me tomorrow, then I will leave." He started for the exit before hearing the sole listener in the gym, the cadet, chuckle. A dark chuckle at that, the sort he knows too well himself.

"So I suppose this is where it ends." The cadet colonel said, crossing his arms and leaning back against the wall. "Bryce respected your actions on the plane, so he proposed on giving you a chance to leave peacefully."

Josh stopped. "What?"

"You should have gladly taken it. This could have been avoided, if you didn't listen to that girl."

"You..."

"I'm going to finish what my brother has started. That imbecile, always leaving me clean up his messes."

Something formed in Jackson's hand and he tossed it at Josh. Cydonia punched it away, bouncing harmlessly off a wall. It was a capsule, dark-blue on the top and midnight black on the bottom.

"So you are one of them as well..." Josh backed away, leaning against the exit. "The Chinese...Zodiac Club."

"I'm surprised you know about us," Jackson, undisturbed by walking into Cydonia's range, casually picked up his darkly colored pill. "Who told you, I wonder? Was it someone at Tesla Tech?"

Again with Tesla Tech. That school is at Peregrines, the prosperous city that borders the Death Valley. Why makes him think he's from there?

The cadet colonel twisted the pill and tossed it at him again. Cydonia deflected it with an uppercut. The exit is just behind him. Would a strategic retreat do for the moment?

"Run all you want," Jackson said. "I'm not going to stop you."

The pill, still flickering the air, burst open, and a tiger with a transparent body of ice leaped out.

"He will, however."

"Deus!" Cydonia reflexively swung at the oversized feline. It nimbly tilted back its head back and clawed at Josh, who blocked the otherwise instantaneous fatal blow with his knight in dark armor. The tiger then immediately followed up with a fierce pounce. Josh considered his options. He could either dive straight for the exit and risk getting his stomach mauled or run towards the gym.

"Hah!" Using the momentum stolen from the tiger's strike, Cydonia fired a shot of the pressurized potential energy from its fist. It struck the tiger dead-on, cracking the side of its body, which resulted a roared dedicated to him and began to sprint. Josh couldn't help but notice the distinctive Chinese character for「king」carved onto its forehead, a trait the Far East believed to be shared by all tigers, fitting as it is.

It leaped at him, and Josh, using the powerful legs of his Stand, propped himself up onto the nearby bleachers. The tiger tried to climb up after him, but Cydonia wouldn't let that happen, kicking it in its face and stomping on its gigantic crystalline paws.

Jackson stood by the exit of Gym 1, watching them fight, which gave Josh an idea. Gripping on the railings of the bleachers, Cydonia ripped a portion of it apart and hurled towards him like a spear. The tiger would have to be recalled to defend its master, and that will give him more time to think of a way to beat this thing. It seems to have an inexhaustible source of energy. Facing a tiger as a human, even with the invaluable aid of a powerful Stand, is no easy feat to achieve. Beasts are naturally adapted to the art of savagery, and they will not hesitate to strike at decisive moments.

To his surprise, the tiger did not so much as to even take one glance at the flying railing. Jackson, with an alarmed grimace, jumped out of the way, frowning at his own Stand. What does that mean? The tiger snarled and swatted away Cydonia's attempts on keeping it down. It flipped itself onto the bleachers, forcing Josh to armor up as a result. He stared down at the oversized cat, who growled lowly as it encircled him.

"Hah!" He kicked at it, immediately feeling the huge difference in terms of agility when compared to his own body. He had his Stand for a little over a year now, but its sheer unwieldiness still proved difficult to master. Basic form and moves are all that he could do while encased within it.

The tiger backed away to evade the blow and mauled at him using its icy paws. Josh managed to catch it with his arms, and as heavy as it is, he flipped the cat over his shoulders, sending it crashing down the bleachers, which collapsed as a result.

"Destruction of school property," he heard Jackson comment. "All the more to justify your 'disappearance', spy."

Josh landed on the gym floor, and let Cydonia cover his front. The tiger is facing the wall, clawing frantically at every direction.

"What is it doing?" Josh muttered. Then he saw it. Its left eye, it's missing. Was it that way since the beginning?

Grabbing a sharp piece of the destroyed bleacher, he sneaked to its left, seeking to impale it through the crack on its side. Judging by its negligence of protecting its user from before, this Stand must be one of those autonomous types that worked independently. The user will either take very little damage from the Stand, or none at all, which means it's a green light for him to go all out on this one.

"Listen to me for once! To your left!"

But to his annoyance, Jackson yelled from across the gym, and the tiger immediately turned its head and saw Josh. It roared ferociously, the setting sun from the windows gleaming off its perfectly reflective body. In fact, it was so perfect, the sun's beams went directly to his eyes, and as a result, blinded him.

He heard it growl. Cydonia, by instinct, punched violently to his front, but it was only several empty strikes later that Josh realized it's not coming towards him. Where is it? He couldn't hear its steps. Cats are famous for it. The tiger could strike at him from any direction, so he placed on his armor once again, anticipating the impact. When regained his eyesight, the tiger was right in front of him. Josh moved his arms to guard against its mauling, but...

"I-I can't move?!"

The tiger struck him squarely in the chest, and the sensation felt so heavy that he thought it would explode. An intense wave of coldness rushed through his plates, numbing the momentary pain that came from the large crack in his armor. He tried moving his arms again in an act of retaliation, but they were stiff, barely able to bend them at the elbows.

"My arms...they are frozen?!"

The tiger of ice attacked him again. He was able to raise his rigid right arm a little just in time, but the connected strike made it feel even more useless than before, the frostbite freezing his nerves to who knows how low the temperate this cat is.

Jackson watched from afar, a smirk beginning to form on his stoic demeanor.