WHATS UP EVERYONE! Hope your all doing great and enjoying the story!

James: More than I probably will.

SHUT IT JAMES! Anyway, it's time for school! In more ways than one. Collage will be starting soon and my other story is coming along great, so I wanted to get this to chapter two as quickly as possible, but even I'm surprised that I got it done this quick.

James: Yeah… it's almost like you have no life.

Shut UP JAMES

James: Only if you don't give me a harem

Fine

James: REALLY?

FUCK NO! NOW LETS GO!

Chapter 2

First day of class

I woke up with the first rays of sun hitting my face like I had been the past few days. I really enjoyed waking up with the sun again, it was a lot better than waking up under a mountain. The few months I had spent at the SGC were a lot of fun, and very crazy, but I just couldn't sleep well there. Getting up, I quickly turned off my alarm. I really don't know why I even kept the damn thing on anymore, I hadn't used it once.

After a quick shower, I looked at the now empty extra bed in my room. For some reason, Ichika had been given a different room, probably just some mistake with the room arrangements. It didn't make sense for the only two guys to end up in different rooms. 'All well, it would probably be resolved soon.' I thought as I walked out the door and headed towards the cafeteria. In the meantime, I wasn't looking forward to whoever would end up as my new roommate, though I hadn't been told if I would even have a new roommate at all. I certainly wouldn't mind that, it would let me keep in more regular contact with my "handler" at the Pentagon.

Really all I did with him was just inform him of what had happened that day, though they were really interested in knowing that Ms. Orimura was a teacher at the academy. Apparently she had dropped off the radar for some time and they were glad to know she was here. Other than that, I was considering to just stop contacting them unless something interesting actually happened.

I walked into the cafeteria and was surprised at the lack of people. I know I get up early, but today was the first day of class, why was everyone not getting up early? Then again, there were still students who weren't here yet and some who wouldn't be here until tomorrow, missing the whole first day.

"Not the best way to start the school year." I said to myself as I went through the food line. "This, however, is a great way. So glad that this place serves foods from every country." I grabbed some buttermilk waffles with sides of bacon, sausage links, and hash browns. After grabbing a couple of syrup packets I grabbed my tray of food, grabbed a glass of orange juice, and found an empty seat near the windows. It had quickly become his favorite seat and since the cafeteria was quiet, with the exception of a few early birds like myself, I was uncontested to keep my table. After starting to eat, a girl happened to walk over to my table.

"Excuse me," she said, her voice sounding like she was from somewhere around Western Europe, "Do you mind if I have a seat here? The view of the ocean is quite lovely." After raising my hand and swallowing the bite I was halfway through, I responded.

"Sorry about that. Anyway sure, my name is James. James Reverend." I said, gesturing for her to take a seat. She sat down, taking a seat close to me, but not close enough to seem she was trying to flirt with me. Thank goodness too, because I didn't think I could handle that so soon. A bunch of hormonal teenagers coming after me is certainly not going to be fun.

"A pleasure to meet you. Cecilia Alcott, if you haven't heard already." She said, slightly arrogantly. "I'm the Representative candidate for the United Kingdom. To be honest I'm more than a little surprised you didn't invite me over to sit with you though."

'Is this girl for real?' I thought to myself before saying "Sorry, I've only really been paying attention to things like this for the past week since I found out I could pilot an IS."

"Hmm, that is an acceptable excuse, though it certainly won't last for long though." She said, taking a sip of her drink.

"Right… so why are you up this early? Wanted to beat the inevitable food line rush?" I asked, trying to make conversation.

"Heavens no, I certainly didn't intend to be up this early. My roommate set her alarm to go off far earlier that it should have. What about you? Why are you up at this ungodly hour?" she ranted.

"Oh, well I actually wanted to get up this early." I said, receiving a shocked face from Cecilia. "I came here from the military, but I also always got up whenever the sun comes up, even when it's cloudy. Anyway I'm just use to it and it gives me plenty of time to wake up so I'm not dreary during the day. Plus the non-existent food line is a big plus."

"That explains a lot, and is actually quite a good idea. I'm surprised a commoner like you was able to come up with it." She said, taking a bite of her food, where as I was about to finish already, eager to get away from the arrogant girl.

"Well, it's the common people that make the world go round and come up with some of the best ideas and inventions. The elite simply capitalize on a good situation, and I certainly can't blame them for that." I said, with a sigh as I finished my food. Damn this girl was getting on my nerves. "Well, I'm going to go find my class now. Despite getting here early, I have no clue where my classes are…"

"Don't you know that the classes here are all in the same room?" she said, raising her head in arrogance. "It's the teachers that change classrooms, and even then it's simply going to be involving information about the IS, so there's no need to change classrooms unless it involves operating an IS."

"Yeah yeah," I said, not really listening to her anymore as I walked off with my tray, "Well, I'll see you later. Hope your first day is a good one."

"Humph!" was all I heard coming from her as I walked away. Good lord was she a stuck up, arrogant girl. Back when I was living with Uncle Fisher, we wouldn't have given someone like her the respect they deserved… the same that they gave us, none. Uncle Fisher was especially blunt about respect. Thinking about him brought a twang of sadness as I started walking towards the classrooms. He had taken me in when my parents died the same day I was being brought home. Gunned down during the car ride I had been told, though I never learned why.

Uncle had also taught me a lot of helpful talents when I said I wanted to go into the military. He was slightly upset when I said I wanted to join in general, as he apparently had bad experiences with the military, but when I said I wanted to be an engineer, he quieted down and simply started to teach me. It really helped that I talked to him about it when I was 10 years old, because it let him drill a lot of things into my head well before I ended up joining the military.

Things like sensing the first flying towards the back of my head! A quick duck, pivot, and leg sweep later, the culprit was laying on the ground moaning. I already knew who it was, as I had had this sort of thing happen to me for quite some time.

"Robert, when are you going to learn not to do that?" I sighed. There were some people around and all of them were staring now.

"Ahh its fine, I'm just making sure your amazing skills aren't dying out from leaving the military." He said, getting up slowly, still clearly in pain. Apparently I WAS losing my touch, as he was normally down for a good five minutes. Eh, he could just be getting used to it. I'll have to drop him harder next time.

"Bro, I've told you. I learned that from my uncle back when I was 10. It's one of the first things I learned from him." Is said, not bothering to help him up as he knew he deserved it. "Anyway, what are you doing here? You don't have to take classes."

"Yeah, but I figured I should. There's still a whole lot I don't understand about the IS and how it works." He said, now walking with me as we headed towards my classroom. "Besides, I asked Ms. Orimura if it would be ok if I just sat in for some discussions and she said it would be fine."

"Don't tell me your going after her." I deadpanned. Leave it to Robert to go after the strongest IS pilot here. He was going to get himself killed one day I swear.

"Heh, I might be. Depends on how most of the class reacts to you and the kid. Ichika, right?" He said, grinning like an idiot.

"Please don't start that. Right now, me and him both don't want anything to do with hormonal teenage girls. We prefer staying sane and alive for now." I said as we walked into the classroom. Surprisingly, there were a couple people already here, and Ichika was one of them. "Hey man, you find out your new roommate yet?" I asked when we walked in.

"No. Not yet." He sighed. I let out a small chuckle and he glared at me slightly. Robert just started saying how he was jealous that Ichika got to sleep in the same room as a girl. After a small discussion that was cut short by the bell, I found my seat; right by the window in the back. Best seat ever. Poor Ichika ended up at the very front of the classroom, right in front of the teacher's desk at the center.

"All eyes on you Ichika. Don't disappoint." I mumbled a little too loud, as he turned and glared at me again. Ahh, if this was going to be how every day was, I think I can handle it. But ill reserve judgment for after the day is done.

"Alright everyone, would you please take your seats?" a soft female voice said as a light green haired woman with glasses walked in. Immediately I knew where Robert would be looking, as the woman had a rather… noticeable chest. "My name is Maya Yamada, and I'm going to be your homeroom teacher as well as your instructor for general IS information! Now, how about we… W-we get started with self-introductions." She stammered, noticing not one, but three males in the classroom.

'This should be interesting.' I thought to myself as the class started introducing themselves one at a time. Most of the girls were largely unnoticeable in my opinion, but I knew Robert would be interested in more than a few of them. Eventually, they got to the O's, and Ichika was up. 'AAAAAnd he didn't hear her. Bad way to make a first impression.'

"Ichika Orimura!" she somewhat yelled, startling him.

"P-P-PRESENT!" Ichika yelled, receiving a few laughs from several girls.

"I-I'm sorry. We are doing self-introductions, and were already to the O's. Could you introduce yourself?" the teacher said. I already didn't like this teacher. She was impossibly submissive and yet easily angered when Ichika didn't realize he was up. Ichika stood up, shaking slightly, and gave his introduction.

"My name is Ichika Orimura!" He said, getting everyone's attention. Don't leave it there buddy, say something else! "That's all!" Aaand down goes half the girls in the classroom, teacher included. "What, was it that ba-OUCH!" he said just before he was it in the head with a book, being held by his older sister. Wait… what is she doing here?

"Ms. Orimura! Your back! I assume that means the meeting is already over?" the teacher, Maya, said with glee. Already it was noticeable that Ms. Orimura was going to be flooded with fangirls.

"Yes. Thank you Maya for handling my class while I was gone." She said kindly to the assistant. "Alright everyone, listen up! My name Chifuyu Orimura, but you are never to call me that! You shall address me as Ms. Orimura. Is that clear?" a resounding 'Yes mam' was heard through the room. "Good. Now then I believe we were just finishing up my brothers rather poor introduction. Moving on, I see we don't have anyone until the R's. James! You're up!"

"Right." I said as I stood up, drawing the attention of everyone in the class. "It's a pleasure to meet you all. My name is James Reverend, but please just call me James. I'm from America and am currently their representative contender, though I may or may not chose to stop being one. Regardless of my choice, I hope we all have a great three years together and can get along." There was a small applaud, followed by a small yell.

"YOU'RE A REPRESENTATIVE CONTENDER!?" Cecilia yelled, slamming her hands on her desk as she stood up. "WHY DID YOU NOT MENTION THIS EARLIER?"

"Must have slipped my mind while you were being a stuck up bitc-" I said as I dodged a book that was thrown at me with my eyes closed. "My bad, a stuck up, arrogant little girl. My apologies for the rude language." I said to Ms. Orimura, who had thrown the book and looked upset that it hadn't hit its target.

"HOW DARE YOU!" Cecilia screamed. "I AM ONE OF THE ELITE! THE ONLY ONE WHO MANAGED TO DEFEAT AN INSTRUCTOR DURING THE ENTRANCE EXAMS!"

"I beat the instructor too." Ichika calmly said. Did he even realize he was probably making the situation worse? Wait, he beat the instructor too?

"No way, I did too man! How did you do it?" I asked.

"Well, the instructor just charged me, so I dodged. They hit the wall and I was declared the winner."

"Ha! I actually had to fight for mine! Ended up wit-"

"WILL YOU TWO STOP IGNORING ME!" Cecilia yelled again.

"ALL OF YOU QUIET DOWN!" Ms. Orimura shouted, silencing everyone. I could have sworn that she had mumbled something about always getting the crazies in her class. "Now, save your petty squabbling for later. Let's finish introductions and then I have someone to introduce to you all." The introductions finished up, with everyone wondering why Robert hadn't said anything. Even Maya looked concerned at why there was a third male here.

"Um, teacher?" some girl asked. "Who is that in the back corner?" she pointed to Robert, who was in the opposite corner to me.

"That's what I was just getting too. Everyone, this is Robert Winstanly. He is a IS mechanic and wanted to sit in on class to learn more about the IS and how it works. At times, he will be an assistant much like Maya, but he cannot pilot an IS. Please regard him as a fellow student unless told that he is going to be an instructor." Ms. Orimura said. "Now, Robert, would you like to introduce yourself?"

"Certainly." He said and stood up. "Like the lovely lady said," Ms. Orimura suddenly had a large blush on her face that she desperately fought to hide, "my name is Robert Winstanly. It is a pleasure to meet you all. If you ever have any questions about homework or classwork, please don't hesitate to ask for help. We're all here to learn and I'll do my best to help you all."

"T-Thank you. You may sit down." Ms. Orimura said... wait, did she just STUDEER? "Moving on, we are going to nominate a class representative for the upcoming tournament. Other than fighting in the tournament, the representative will also participate in the student counsel as our class's representative. Basically they are like the class leader. I will now take nominations for candidates."

"I nominate Ichika!" a couple of girls said. Hehe sucker. There's no way I'm taking that position.

"I nominate James!" Robert said and I glared at him. "Id nominate myself, but I can't pilot an IS."

"Well then, it looks like we're going to have to have a duel between you two. I belie-" Ms. Orimura started to say.

"I OBJECT! Having a male be our class leader is a preposterous idea! I nominate myself! Only the Elite or representative contenders should hold positions of power!" Cecilia objected.

"Well, I'm a representative contender, so I could do it." I said, countering Cecilia's objection.

"I refuse!" she simply stated.

"Well, then it looks like you three will have to fight it out. Ichika vs Cecilia, the loser faces James for the fight to either a rematch or a new fight against the winner. The final round will determine the class representative." Ms. Orimura said. "The training grounds are open on Monday, so we shall hold our contest then!"

The rest of the day went pretty quietly. Ichika disappeared for a bit with some girl who looked really familiar, but I couldn't remember who it was. I beat down Robert for nominating me for a position I didn't want. Then it was lunch time. Robert, Ichika, the girl from earlier, and I all went to the cafeteria and got our food. I chose to get two hot dogs with everything on them and a side of fries. Robert got more or less the same thing, and Ichika and the girl got… I don't really know what they got, and I wasn't about to ask.

"So, who are you again?" Robert asked the girl as we all sat down. "I know you were in class with us, but I can't recall your name."

"My name is Houki Shinonono. Pleased to meet you." She said with a slight bow. "Since you two are both American, its ok for you to simply call me Houki."

"Good. I'm horrible with the whole –san, -chan, -kun stuff. It's so much simpler to just say the person's name."

"You do know those translate into things like dear and what not, right?" I asked Robert.

"THEY DO? CRAP I NEED TO STUDY UP ON THIS STUFF!" he said, pulling out his tablet and started searching the web for the proper situations to say those things. Ichika, Houki, and I all just laughed at him. I noticed that Houki was seemingly happy to have a distraction.

"Something wrong Houki?" I asked.

"N-No. Nothing's wrong." She said, taking a quick glance at Ichika, who remained oblivious as he ate. I immediately understood and gave her a sympathetic nod. She smiled lightly and nodded back.

"So how do you two know each other?" Robert suddenly asked, looking up from his tablet.

"Since we were kids." Ichika said. "I attended a Kendo dojo that her family owned and that's how we met. After the reveal of the IS however, she had to move. It's been, what, six years now since we've see each other?"

"Mmhm." She managed to get out, having had some food in her mouth at the time and being surprised at Ichika's sudden question. After swallowing, she gave a proper response. "Yeah. Six years. I didn't really enjoy the reason for moving though."

"Oh yeah! Your Tabane's younger sister, aren't you!" Robert said.

"Yes, yes I am." She said in a slightly upset voice.

"I take it that you and her are on bad terms, and that the reason you moved was the reveal of the IS?" I asked. She simply nodded. "If you don't want to talk about it, we don't have to. I can tell it's a hard topic for you."

"Yeah, it's a hard topic." She said, taking another glance at Ichika, who happened to be deep in thought. "How about we talk about your guys fight coming up?"

"Were going to die." Ichika and I said, completely in sync.

"Come on man, I've seen you fly the Rouge. You're going to be fine!" Robert said to me, trying to cheer me up.

"Yeah, but the only combat experience with the rouge was during the entrance exam." I countered. "And that's not much to go on. I am so screwed."

"At least you have flight experience." Ichika said. "I haven't even gotten my IS yet. It's going to end up getting here the day of the fight."

"Ohhh, good luck there man. Well, maybe we can spar a couple nights. That way we both get a bit more experience piloting IS's." I asked.

"Sure! Just one condition." Ichika said, getting Houki and Roberts's attention as well.

"Umm, what?" I asked.

"Tell us how your entrance exam went! You said you also defeated an instructor!" Ichika exclaimed.

"Yeah, I would also like to hear this, since that girl cut you off." Houki said.

"Alright, alright, let me remember…" I said.

THE DAY OF THE ENTERANCE EXAM

"Are you ready?" the instructor said, sounding very eager to fight me.

"As ready as I can be." I said calmly. The fight was to be a first blow wins sort of fight, but we both agreed that wouldn't be fun for either of us, so the instructor ended up moving us to a larger room for a full fight.

"Then I'll let you go first, newbie." She taunted.

"Nope. Lady's first." I countered, getting her flustered.

"You're going to regret that." She growled as she shot forward, materializing a katana like weapon and taking a swing. I raised my hand and a broadsword like blade appeared just in time to block her attack. Sparks flew as our blades impacted each other's. I pushed my sword harder, sending her flying back, crashing through a barrier and onto the ground. I quickly despawned my sword and took out a P-90 like weapon and sprayed the area around her as I advanced, keeping her behind cover. A few shots got in and dropped her shields a bit.

"Looks like the first blow goes to me!" I said, pausing to reload.

"Don't get cocky newbie!" she said as she rose up with an energy rifle pointed at me. "That's what will cost you the win!"

"SHIT!" I said as I quickly dove behind cover, grateful the Rouge didn't have its wings right now so the shields wouldn't get hit by the energy blasts that almost hit me. "IS THAT AN ENERGY SNIPER?!" I shouted.

"Take a look and find out!" she said, still firing and keeping me pinned. The damn energy rifle wouldn't run out of ammo, so she kept firing and walked towards me, using my own strategy against me. I raised my P-90 up and over the barrier and let lose a torrent of bullets, causing her to duck behind cover again. I needed the advantage, as that rifle would do more damage that my P-90 and had better accuracy and range. Immediately forming a plan in my head, I spawned a pistol and quickly emptied the clip, shooting the lights that were on my side of the room.

"What are you doing?" she asked as I reloaded, preparing to shoot more lights, but on her side this time.

"It's called strategy! Look it up!" I said as I quick popped over and shot some of her lights, but left enough of them so that I could still see her. I despawned the pistol and replaced it with a small, dagger like blade and started to creep in the shadows. I was so glad that I had that ridiculous paint job redone, as my new colors were very effective at blending in with the shadows. Instead of that ridiculous red, white, and blue color scheme, the Rouge was now painted a matte black with a dark blue tint to it. Not dark enough that it meshed with the black too much, but not bright enough to be easily seen either.

"Where did you go!" the instructor said, moving to the center of the lighting remaining in the room, exactly where I wanted her to go. "Show yourself!"

"Alright then!" I shouted as I burst from the shadows, firing the P-90 and scoring plenty of hits on her shield. She turned and fired her rifle, not panicing like I expected her to and instead scored several, high damaging hits to my shields. Thankfully, she was very surprised when the dagger found its way into her shilds and rapidly started to drain them.

"HOW DO YOU HAVE A SHIELD PIERCE WEAPON?" She yelled as she continued to fire point blank. The fight was going to be extremely close, so I quick reloaded and opened fire point blank with my P-90, giving me just enough to win with 100 shield points remaining. Considering I had started out with 1000, I was embarrassed but happy at the same time. The instructor simply smiled at being beaten and passed me with flying colors.

PRESENT

"You have a shield pierce weapon? How didn't I see that?" Robert said as he opened the Rouge's weapon inventory and started checking for the dagger.

"Yeah…" I said, scratching the back of my head, "what's shield pierce?" Everyone's heads hit the table in unison. "I take it I should know this…"

"Shield pierce is the ability to rapidly drain an opponent's shields at the cost of your own energy!" Houki said. "The only IS that has ever had it was Ichika's sisters back when she was fighting in tournaments! How do you have a Shield Pierce weapon?"

"Hell if I know! I was given the IS by the US military. It's a working prototype so I'm guessing they figured out shield pierce technology?"

"No." Robert said suddenly. "Looking here, you were never given any small blade weapons. How you got that weapon is beyond me, but it's in your inventory now. The date says it was received the day of your entrance exam."

"Great, first it was a strange message on my game, now its mysterious weapons installing themselves onto my IS. Just great." I sighed as the bell rang. "Well, better get back to class." We all got up and took care of our trays, then walked back to class. The rest of the classes were incredibly uneventful and boring.

After classes, Robert and I went for a run since I happened to forgot to do mine this morning. It felt good to get out of class, and we happened to have a couple girls join us, including Ms. Orimura. It quickly became a competition on who could be running the longest and we drew quite a crowed. After an hour, and about 10 laps around the track (5 miles), it was down to just Robert, Me, and Ms. Orimura. All three of us showed no signs of slowing down.

"I'm surprised you two have lasted this long." Ms. Orimura said. "It's rare to find people that can actually keep up with me."

"This in nothing!" Robert said proudly. "Day one basic training, James and I ended up having to do a 50 mile run for making fun of our CO."

"50 miles?!" Ms. Orimura exclaimed. "That's ridiculous! What did you say to deserve that?"

"Ha, It was just as we had walked into the base. Me and Robert quickly befriended each other and started talking shit about all of the instructors we saw. One of them heard us and started to yell at us, calling us the worst soldiers he had ever seen and a whole range of creative insults." I started to say.

"So naturally, we decided to defend ourselves, seeing as we were just having good natured fun. You want to tell her what we said to him or shall I?"

"You said it last time, so it's my turn. We looked at the drill instructor and said 'listen here you shrimp-dicked fuck-nugget. You can take your opinion of us and shove it up where the sun don't shine!'" I said, hardly holding back a torrent of laughter.

"Then I said to him, 'Sweat jolly rancher, I bet his mom WISHES he swallowed him!'" Robert added. Ms. Orimura immediately stopped running and dropped to the ground, almost dying of laughter. Robert and I quickly joined her, laughing at our own story and at Ms. Orimura's almost constant snorting as she laughed. She kept saying how she was going to kill us when we all stopped laughing, but she snorted again and we only laughed harder. It look us a good ten to fifteen minutes to finally calm down and stop laughing. After the sudden laughing fit, we all agreed that we would finish our little competition on a later date and went our separate ways, since we were all sweaty and sore from laughing.

After finally making it back to my room and showering, there came loud knocks on the door and frantic cries for help. I got up and opened the door, only for Ichika to quickly run in and beg for me to shut the door quickly.

"What the hell is going on?" I asked, shutting the door and locking it for safety.

"It's Houki!" He said. Well, this is going to be good. "She ended up as my roommate."

"Ok… I don't see the problem since you two are childhood friends." I said, thinking I actually did understand what was going on.

"Well, I walked in and heard a voice from the bathroom call out. I panicked and didn't say anything. Then the person steps out and it's Houki! Wearing only a towel! I panicked, she got angry and grabbed her Shinai and charged me! I ducked and ran to her bag where she had another and tried to defend myself but it ended up having her bra on the end of it!" He explained. Damn he had bad luck when it came to girls apparently. "So she got more upset and started to attack me so I ran out and came here!"

"Well, I don't think she followed you. I'll talk to her tomorrow and say it was all just an accident and that it wasn't your fault that you got roomed with her. Just stay here for the night. You should be fine." I said, feeling sorry for both Ichika for having such bad luck, and for Houki for having to put up with Ichika's denseness.

"Thanks man. I owe you." He said as he walked to the bathroom. "Im going to take a shower before bed, if that's ok."

"Go for it. I wasn't planning on going to bed yet anyway. Still awake from the run that me, Robert, and your sister did."

"You ran with my sister? Man I feel bad for you!" he said through the bathroom door. "The way she can just keep running is unhuman if you ask me."

"Ha! That's nothing!" I said, logging on to Worlds, the MMORPG game I had played before. "When Robert and I told her how we ended up running 50 miles on our first day of basic, she toppled over and almost died of laugher." All of a sudden the bathroom door flew open and Ichika's head was popping out.

"YOU MADE MY SISTER LAUGH?" He questioned.

"Yeah. It felt pretty easy too. Just told her how we insulted our CO on the first day. Ended up saying she had never heard of more creative insults in her life. By the way, she snorts when she laughs, which only made us laugh harder." I said nonchalantly. Ichika's jaw was damn near hitting the floor. "What, you act like she never laughs or has fun."

"SHE DOESN'T!" He exclaimed. "Or, I don't think she does! Ever since the day I got kidnapped a couple years ago and made her lose the tournament, she dropped off the radar except for holidays. When she was home she was what you saw in class. Authorative and aggressive."

"Well, me and Robert have plenty of stories like the one we told her, so you might want to get use to the idea of your sister laughing like an idiot." I said with a grin. Ichika just shook his head and went back to taking a shower. As I played my game, I couldn't help but feel bad for Chifuyu, no, it's Ms. Orimura, for never being able to laugh or have fun. I kept thinking about this when all of a sudden I got message. Ever since the last message I got from my "friend" I had been checking every single one and ran an IP address search on the player that had sent the message. The results had been non-existent for my "friends" message. When I opened my message box, there was yet again a message from the player.

"Dear James," I read out loud. "I see you have discovered that the dagger that you used during the entrance exam was not a normal dagger, and not in your weapon load out to begin with. I am slightly surprised it has taken you this long to discover that. Should you require any additional hardware, please let me know. I'm only here to help! Sincerely, your Friend… well fuck me I won't get anywhere with a search on this player." I put my hands to my head and tried to think. Who the hell would know me and how would they know that Robert had looked up the Rouge's original loadout? And why did they care? I should report this to my "handler" at the pentagon, but I had started to greatly dislike the man. I decided id send a message of my own.

"Dear 'Friend'," it read. "While I thank you for the assistance with providing me the shield pierce dagger, I am weary of trusting you when you won't share your own identity. I would greatly like to know who it is that I am working with, as this has been bothering me since you sent your first message to me. I would appreciate anything you would tell me. Sincerely, James Reverend." A quick click on send and it was on its wa-DING-. Already? I opened the message and read it outloud again.

"Dear James, while I cannot reveal my identity at this time, do know that I have no intention of harming you in any way. You and Ichika are of great curiosity to me, but you more so, since you lie outside of my predictions. As I stated before, should you require anything from me, I will happily provide it for you. Sincerely, a friend."

'Well, I'm not solving this mystery any time soon.' I thought to myself. 'It's probably safe to assume that any technology I use is bugged. And what did they mean by me AND Ichika? I know we were the only two male IS pilots, but why drag him into this? And why am I more of a curiosity?'

Deciding to give up on the mystery for the night, I quickly wrote the person saying goodnight. I didn't receve a message back so I simply logged off and turned off the computer. As I walked over to my bed, my phone, which had been ignored since I arrived here with the exception of checking for messages from Uncle Fisher, vibrated. I quick checked it and for some reason wasn't as surprised as I should have been. On the screen it read two words from an unknown number.

"Goodnight James."

WELL THERE WE GO! CHAPTER TWO EVERYONE!

James: Why did you give me a stalker… and who is it?

Because James, that's the fun of it all. And I won't tell you. Anyway, I realize that Chifuyu's charac-

James: It's Ms. Orimura.

BITCH IM THE AUTHOR! SILENCE OR ILL STICK YOU IN A PIT OF FANGIRLS!

James: ill be good…

Anyway… I realize her character is not what it normally is, but that's because I think everyone does the typical older sister that's from the anime, and I wanted to do something else. Plus I think it's nice that she gets to have fun also. Now, next chapter I'm going to be introducing a new character, someone you won't be expecting at all. Or maybe you will. I'm not sure. Regardless, I want to clarify that they will be on team James, not team Ichika, and that Houki is on team Ichika… obviously.

James: oh god, now its teams?

TO THE FANGIRL PIT WITH YOU!

James: OH GOD NOOOOOO

Have a good one! And as always, please leave a review!