The next day, after arriving at school with Valentine, she knew right away that there wasn't any fresh gossip to go around because as soon as people spotted her, they made a beeline towards her, a cacophony of questions about her crutches to demands to confirm the rumours of supposedly unconfirmed sightings of her involved in the crazy flying battleship that everyone saw in DC over the weekend.
Brushing off the near-feral demands for her attention, Sheva made her way through their ranks until a specific voice spoke up over the snappy snarling comments.
"So how did it feel when you murdered both of my parents, you monster?"
Sheva paused, and nearby, Valentine's gaze flicked towards the boy that had spoken, sounding quite a bit like the Ronin pilot from Nevada, rather than having a Russian accent like Sasha did.
"Did it feel good? Make you feel important?" The boy's commentary caused the crowded hall to part in an instant, revealing that he was standing with one strap of his backpack hanging limply while the one on his shoulder was casually gripped in his fingers to strongly contrast with his tone and expression.
"What are you talking about?" Sheva pivoted herself around on her crutches to regard the slightly tall guy with dark hair and a narrowed gaze.
"Lieutenant Sasha Volgovitch, and Captain Carter Volgovitch. My parents. The pilots of the Northstar and Ronin Class Titans that you attacked in that walking metallic ego. The one that's on the other end of that device on the back of your neck. You killed both of my parents, I want to know how you feel about it."
"Might come as a surprise to you..." Valentine began, but Sheva held up her hand in front of him to silence him immediately.
"I may have been in the cockpit for your father, but unlike both of their Titans, my walking metallic ego is sentient and can operate without me inside. His name is Rico, and he holds the credit of both your parents' defeats. Your mother actually defeated us and threw me over the side of the flying battleship we were fighting on. I broke my leg on the way through the trees below, and by the way, Rico wasn't destroyed in that fight, just temporarily disabled. He came back online and finished the duel without me even inside of him, so if you've got a problem with it, why don't you ask him yourself?" She pulled out her phone and turned her gaze towards the device. "Rico, hack it the same way you did for Yuuki and Rachael's birthday."
With a flicker, the screen came to life to reveal the front of Rico's head's sensor pod, then zoomed out before - a drone, clearly - hovering backwards to reveal his presence more clearly.
"So what's this I hear about someone having a problem with my handiwork?" Rico asked through the phone speakers.
"You're her other half?" Volgovitch sneered at the device being presented to him.
"In a manner of speaking, yes. You're the brat of the two Titan pilots I dealt with?" Rico tilted his whole head slightly forward, almost like he was intently staring at the boy.
"I am Nickolai Volgovitch, son of Sasha and Carter."
"Well, kid, you talk anymore shit and I find out, you won't like me when I'm angry. Are we clear?" Rico lifted his arm from out of the frame and pointedly indicated his sword. "It's two for two right now, definitely itching for a Volgovitch three-piece. Don't tempt me."
"You're just a machine, you cannot feel emotions, you only have ones and zeros." Nickolai scowled, but Rico laughed in reply.
"I'm not just a machine, kid. I'm linked to my Pilot in a way that would make your head spin to even comprehend. I can feel emotions quite clearly, and I can even feel her pain. Just because I operate with binary code doesn't mean I'm just a machine. In fact, you seem to already know what I am, and definitely what I did over the weekend. Especially when the details of my whole weekend weren't even released to the rest of the BSAA yet. You understand what I'm getting at here, don't you, Nicky boy?"
"You're a thing." Nickolai sneered before spinning on his heel to walk away.
"And you're acting like a huge pussy. Make your point if you even have one, kid." Rico quipped right back.
"YOU KILLED MY PARENTS!" Nickolai spun back around and bellowed at the top of his voice at the phone, making every other student - save for Valentine and Sheva - step back in slight wariness.
"I know I did." Rico's drone hovered closer as Rico's head tilted to the side slightly. "So what're you gonna do about it... pussy?"
"Fuck you, you hunk of junk!" Nikolai snarled just as a teacher was weaving through the crowds, drawn in by the yelling.
"What's going on here?! You all should be in class!"
"You wouldn't understand anyway." Nikolai scowled before leaving. Sheva and Valentine both vanished into the crowds before anyone started asking about their involvement. Likewise, Rico ended the hack of Sheva's phone before he was seen on the screen too.
"So... how're your classes coming along, ladies?" One of the customers at the bar asked Yuuki and Rachael while they were serving drinks.
"Not too bad, college is a challenge we were expecting." Rachael replied, popping the caps off several beer bottles she'd placed onto a tray in preparation to bring to a table of tourists. "And some of our professors are really fun."
"Mind if I ask what you're taking?" He continued, sipping his tumbler of whiskey.
"General Arts and Sciences." Yuuki replied. "Both of us, we're doing it just to get ourselves into the college thing before we decide what the hell we're gonna actually study."
"That's a good start, what do you plan to take?"
"Dunno yet, we've only been in classes for just over a month." Yuuki replied as Rachael smoothly slid past her to deliver the tray of drinks. Her movements drew Yuuki's gaze towards the side for a moment, just as the door of the bar opened to reveal an oddly young guy with a backpack on one shoulder. "Yo, you! C'mere for a sec!"
He turned to see her staring at him pointedly, so he approached the bar with his hands casually in his pockets, his gaze flicking between her six eyes, unsure of which one to look at.
"How old are you? This is a bar, in case you haven't noticed." Yuuki pointed out as she held up her hand. "Gonna need to see some ID before you even sit down."
Quick as a flash, he shoved his hand into her face, bringing with it the distinctive black gleam of a Quinque Steel knife.
"Money from the register. Now."
"Kawaii." Yuuki wasn't fazed by the blade in her face, despite the presence of her signature Desert Eagle under her left arm at that very moment. "You're just so adorable, y'know that?"
"I said give me the money from the register! Now!"
Yuuki's hand hadn't moved the whole time, but now she slowly reached for the blade and boldly grasped it, unconcerned by the pain and her own blood that started leaking down the blade and her wrist... Until the sound of straining metal reached their ears and her hand minutely shivered for a moment, the two of them still grasping the respective ends of the weapon until Yuuki smirked and effortlessly pulled it out of his hand by the crushed blade and casually dropped it into the small sink for rinsing dishes. "Got a gun too? Got a couple neat party tricks to share next."
Nobody moved, and the guy was too stunned by her casually removing the lacy black half-finger gloves she was so infamous for wearing.
"I've worn these everyday since I was eleven years old. Yuuki isn't Yuuki without her gloves, y'know? And now... you dumb motherfucker... just ruined my gloves... Beyond repair."
"Mind telling me what happened?" Tobias regarded his oldest daughter, handcuffed to the restraint bar in the LAPD interrogation room as he sat across from her, not entirely sure how he should be feeling after the call from the Chief of the police asking that he come speak to her... Immediately.
"Some kid walked into the bar, looked way too young to even be there, so I called him over for ID, and he pulled a fucking Quinque Steel knife out and shoved it in my face, demanding the cash from the register." Yuuki replied, drumming her fingers on the surface of the table. "I crushed the blade barehanded, and he tried to shake the knife out of my hand, so it tore my gloves apart."
"Then why are you here in cuffs?" Tobias asked, noting the very strange sight of his daughter's bare hands. He had grown so accustomed to her black gloves for the past seven years that he hadn't even noticed their absence until now.
"Because I dumped a whole mag from Tarantula into his chest after I dragged him outside onto the sidewalk." Yuuki replied with a scowl. "They're not telling me why I'm being dragged in here, even though this falls well within our diplomatic immunity."
"Because of the extent of the attack's aggression." Tobias replied. "They want to make sure it won't escalate into a second attack."
"So now what? I'm stuck here until they say I'm calmed down enough to go back to work? The fuck?! That's bullshit!" Yuuki clenched her hands into fists, likewise scowling viciously.
"Are you calm enough to go back to work?" Tobias asked pointedly.
"Not if I'm stuck here."
"Yuuki. Are you calm enough to go back to work?" Tobias repeated sternly.
"No."
"Then I'll be right back with the keys and a coffee. Drink it, and I'll talk to the officer in charge of you. I'll bring Tarantula back home with me, I already saw it on the Chief's desk. Did they also take your knife?"
"No, didn't have it on me tonight." Yuuki flicked her hair out of her face with her scowl still firmly in place. "How's Rachael?"
"I came straight here when I got the call. I don't know." Tobias shook his head slightly as he stood up. "So, C-Virus changed your coffee preference. How do you take it again?"
"Still black. Old habits, after all." Yuuki chuckled slightly, though still felt a pang of worry for her twin being left alone at the bar like that.
"She discharged her weapon's entire magazine into the kid, Tobias. Diplomatic immunity or not, we can't just let her walk back out of here like that." The Chief of the LAPD sighed aloud as he briefly glanced at the large magnum sidearm laying unloaded with the empty magazine beside it, and the large slide locked back open. Eight spent shell casings, all .50 caliber Action Express, all Quinque Steel, were lined up beside the weapon belonging to Yuuki.
"So you asked that she calm down, I know." Tobias was seated in front of the Chief's desk, having already given his daughter her coffee, and was now set in his task to retrieve her gun from the Chief. "You and I both know she just wants to go back to work for the rest of her shift. It's not like this is an uncommon event for her to use violence, to any extent. She and Rachael gave up three days of work to attend to a BSAA operation overseas, so the least you could do for her is let her go back to work. I already told her I'd be taking her gun home, and she admitted to my face that she doesn't have her knife."
"See, I trust you with a gun. But not her right now. Go ahead and take it, but do me a solid and just take it home. Don't give it back to her tonight."
"I will leave it on her desk to do with it what she so pleases when she gets home from work." Tobias used his Telekinesis to retrieve the weapon, magazine and spent casings, fluidly loading the spent shells into the mag, then loading the magazine into the gun before manually closing the slide on an empty chamber. "She's unarmed, you of all people should know that the mere thought of it even occurring displeases me quite a bit. Let alone how pissed I am that it's actually happening for real."
"I wouldn't have called you if I had any choice in the matter. She's free to go as soon as she's calmed down. No crap from my guys, no paperwork, and no charges."
"I appreciate the cooperation, even if this was all a formality." Tobias tucked Tarantula into his suit jacket's inner pocket, where it bulged out the side of his chest as he stood up and shook the Chief's hand. "You remember the black gloves she always wears, right?"
"Never seen her without them, even on the show." Chief replied.
"The kid's knife destroyed them when the two of them were gripping the knife he'd pulled on her. She bought those with her allowance money when she was eleven. And they'd survived all these years until tonight. Now does it make sense why she put eight rounds into the kid for this to occur?" Tobias asked pointedly before turning to leave.