Shiro let out a tired groan as sunlight hit his face. He tugged his blankets over his head, and curled into a ball to hide from the sun in such a way that one would think he was a vampire. This happened every morning, and for the life of him, Shiro could never figure out how she managed to get in. "Kyoko…"
Shiro felt the person in question ruffle his dark hair through his covers. "It's nine in the morning Shiro. Time to wake up."
"There aren't any classes today… it's Saturday…" Shiro groaned in protest, further curling into himself. Though seconds later, Kyoko tugged his blankets away, causing Shiro to groan in protest as the sun hit his face again. "Oh god! Natural liiiiiiight!"
"Now what is that going to do?" Kyoko asked, trying to stifle a giggle as she watched Shiro hide his head under his pillow, which she tugged away shortly thereafter. "Come on now, wake up."
"I don't w-AAAAAAH!" Shiro suddenly yelped, as Kyoko hit him in the face with his pillow. "What was that for?"
"Get up, or I'll do it again Shiro." Kyoko said, raising the pillow to strike once.
"Fine Kyoko I'm-" Shiro yelped as Kyoko hit him with his pillow again. "Oh, come on! What was that one for!?"
Kyoko tossed Shiro's pillow aside, as she strolled over to Shiro's closet. "Because I keep telling you to call me Kyo."
"Maybe when you tell me how you somehow are able to get into my dorm room every morning." Shiro groaned, as he sat up in his bed and stretched. Though the word 'dorm' didn't quite fit. Upperclassmen dorms at Gunbre Academy looked more like a spacious apartment complex instead of a school dorm.
Shiro's tired groan now turning into one of relief when several joints in his back popped. He'd been up rather late both repairing and modifying his Leo, but also constructing a new gunpla. Both of which were sitting on his desk not ten feet away from his bed.
"That's my little secret." Kyoko hummed, placing a set of dark pants and a khaki colored button up shirt with the Earth Federation symbol on the left hand side next to Shiro.
Shiro scoffed, shaking his head as he got dressed. "You and I both know there are no secrets in this school."
"Which is why everyone knows you made a return to gunpla battle yesterday." Kyoko remarked as to smooth Shiro's dark hair, which was a real mess thanks to his pillow.
"How could anyone have known that?" Shiro asked, turning around to look at Kyoko, who looked surprisingly like Aina Sahalin. "I was on practice mo-ohhhhh no… the duel I had with Takumi…"
Kyoko nodded, fixing Shiro with a bright smile. "Everyone's been talking about it, and the rumor around the school is that you're going to challenge Sugo!"
Shiro sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. "It hasn't even been twenty four hours, and everyone's already talking… there really aren't any secrets around the school…" Shiro then thought of his conversation with Takumi the other day. With Takumi revealing that he was being selected to be the fourth Meijin Kawaguchi.
If there really were no secrets at Gunbre, people would know Takumi's secret … but that shouldn't have been possible, the two were well off Gunbre's school grounds by that time, so Takumi's secret should be safe. Still, Shiro thought it best not to mention it to anyone but Takumi himself.
"Helooooo, Shiro. Earth to Shiro." Kyoko called, waving her hand in front of Shiro's face. Who immediately snapped back to reality.
"I'm awake!" Shiro said, shaking his head which caused Kyoko to giggle.
"Can't stay awake for five minutes?" She asked as she shook her head in amused disapproval.
"Well right now I'd still be asleep." Shiro jabbed in a playful tone. "If someone hadn't mysteriously broken into my dorm to wake me up."
"Oh please." Kyoko refuted. "You'd be late to every morning class if I didn't wake you up each morning."
Shiro sighed and shrugged in resignation. "Fair enough, but I would have been up in another hour anyways."
"I doubt you'd get that hour of rest, what with the rumors flying around the school. Kyoko's comment had a slight sing-song tone to it.
"You'd think I'd realize that after three years here." Shiro chuckled, crossing over to his desk and taking a long black rectangular plastic box one used to carry a gunpla in.
"That looks like a Gaia…" Kyoko mused, peering over Shiro's shoulder at his newly constructed machine. It did indeed resemble a Gaia Gundam in its transformed state, and Kyoko couldn't help herself. She reached around Shiro, picking his gunpla up to admire it. "Wow… nub marks are neatly sanded down and painted over. Excellent sticker placement … wait, did you use parts of the Age II for this as well?"
"That is my secret Kyoko." Shiro smiled, taking his newly constructed gunpla back, and placing it in his carrying case before clipping it to his belt.
"Oh come on." Kyoko protested, as the two exited Shiro's dorm. But no sooner had they done so, than they heard a commotion further down the hallway.
"What now?" The two of them asked, deciding to investigate. The commotion turned out to be two of Sugo's Titan-like thugs ganging up on a terrified younger classman. The terrified, and from the looks of her, highly exhausted girl had obviously entered the wrong dorm at the wrong time.
"You entered our dorm, and now you gotta pay." One of the thugs sneered malisciously.
"Whatever that gunpla box is, hand it over." The second thug said reaching for the box the girl had clutched protectively in both arms. But a split second later he was sent flying into his partner, as Kyoko had kicked him in the side as hard as she could and the two ended in a crumpled heap a few feet away.
"Good kick." Shiro nodded his approval, as the two cronies slowly got to their feet. Shiro quickly made his way over to the two. "Morning boys, I have a message for you that I want you to deliver to Sugo."
"Shiro." The first cronie snarled. "Where did you get the nerve?"
"Unless you want another kick, I wouldn't try anything." Shiro said quickly cutting the cronie off. "Judging by the way your friend is holding his ribs, I'd say that you don't want Kyoko to hit you again. So go and give Sugo a message. He's gonna bring my Hi-Zak to the school's main battle room in ten minutes."
"Well someone's certainly got their confidence back." Kyoko smiled, patting Shiro on the shoulder. "I'll meet up with you later, I'm gonna take her back to her dorm room. Kyoko jerked her head in the direction of the exhausted girl.
"Sure you want to face him by yourself?" Takumi asked, as Sugo angrily stormed towards the two about eight minutes later. Sugo was as tall as both Shiro and Takumi, he was currently wearing a Titan's-style uniform, his hair which he had obviously dyed blond was combed back, and his dark eyes were fixed angrily on Shiro. "I mean you only just completed that gunpla last night."
Shiro fixed Takumi with a small smile. "Relax 'Meijin'. You of all people know just how capable my new gunpla is."
Takumi decided to let that last remark slide seeing as how the entire place was crowding up, and Shiro's remark would have been drowned out by all the excited chatter. It looked like half the school was here. "Maybe we should have sold tickets to this."
"Or at least install a popcorn machine." The two friends shared a laugh, before Sugo slammed his hands angrily down on the large GPD machine that separated him from Shiro and Takumi.
"You're calling me out after what happened last year!?" Sugo growled, as the two cronies that Kyoko had kicked shuffled up to him. The one that Kyoko had actually kicked was still clutching his side, while the other was holding the PG Exia Sugo had used in his previous battle with Shiro.
"Yeah, I am." Shiro said, trying to keep his tone even, despite how nervous he felt at the sight of that PG Exia.
"And you won't be using this." Takumi had crossed over to Sugo and his goons, snatching the Exia away, which only drew more excited chatter from the ever growing crowd.
"Fine." Sugo growled, reaching for a black gunpla case on his belt. Shiro felt his stomach lurch when he saw the gunpla Sugo had on him. "You want your Hi-Zak back Shiro, you'll have to fight against it."
Shio felt his fists clench. This was low even for Sugo, but if that's the way he wanted to do things, Shiro had plenty of parts in his dorm to make repairs to his Hi-Zak once he won it back. "Fine by me, let's do this Sugo."
Gunpla battle: combat mode, start up.
Please set your GP base.
Both Sugo and Shiro set their GP bases into the GPD machine, causing both GP bases to activate.
Beginning Plavsky Particle dispersal.
Field 7: Ruins!
Shiro's stomach lurched once again. It wasn't just the same field setting, but the exact same field where he had lost his gunpla to Sugo.
Please set your gunpla.
Shiro reached into his black case, and took out his new gunpla, and set it on the platform just above his GP base, just as Sugo did the same with Shiro's Hi-Zak.
Battle start!
"Sugo Sado, Hi-Zak Full Armory!"
"Shiro Sanada, White Wolf Gundam!"
"Launching!"
Both gunpla rose, and were flung into the chosen field the battle system had generated. Shiro's gunpla ran along a ruined street upon entering the field, before agilly leaping from building to building, landing on the tallest one Shiro could find and letting out a long howl that drew applause from the gathered crowd, which by this point had drew attention from some of the teachers, including the headmaster.
"Oh very cute Shiro." Sugo growled. "But unfortunately, you just gave away your position!"
An alert sounded at Shiro's console, and several monitors popped up in front of him showing approaching missiles, and there were a lot of incoming missiles. Shiro waited until they were closer to his position, before acting. Everyone's eyes including Takumi's widened in surprise when all of Sugo's missiles were destroyed.
"His fangs have gotten faster." Takumi mused to himself, a smile beginning to form on his face.
"Whatever you did, it wont work! I know how you operate Shiro!" Sugo cried out, raising the Hi-Zak's beam rifle, intending to blast Shiro as he came flying through the smoke, only to cry out in shock when the rifle blew up in his face seconds later.
"Quit playing games with me, and take things seriously Shiro!" Sugo roared, using both of the Hi-Zak's double arm mounted miniguns to fire at where he believed Shiro to be. Only when the smoke from both the destroyed missiles, and the completely leveled skyscraper had cleared, Shiro was nowhere to be seen.
"If I have to level this entire field to make you come out and face me, then that's what I'll-WHAT!?" Sugo's controls shook when something destroyed the minigun on the Hi-Zak's left arm. And in that same moment, Shiro's White Wolf Gundam leapt out, and ripped off the Hi-Zak's right arm in its mouth.
"Turnabout is fair play Su...go…" Shiro trailed off when he got a look at the part of the gunpla he had ripped off. In gunpla battle, if someone got a close up of another gunpla, they could truly see how much care and craftsmanship one had put into their gunpla. And there was something odd about this right arm. "There's still remnants of nub marks present, they haven't painted up to the elbow joints, and this isn't the same paint I used on my Hi-Zak when I remodeled it … this isn't my Hi-Zak. What is Sugo up to?"
Shiro sighed, as his gunpla dropped the severed right arm. "There's only one way to find out what Sugo is up to."
Shiro's gunpla leapt into the air, and transformed into its humanoid form which drew awed gasps from the crowd. In its animal form, the White Wolf Gundam resembled the Gaia Gundam, but when transformed, it looked more like the Age II.
"Sugo, just what are you…? Are you smiling?" Shiro's tone oozed incredulity at what he was seeing. He'd opened a communication line to sugo, who was indeed smiling.
"You've gotten so much stronger since last year." Sugo said, surprising Shiro a great deal, as he sounded so much like his old self before all of this.
"Was this all some sort of act?" Shiro asked, his fists clenching his controls.
"Some of it. But if you want to find out why, you'll have to beat me!" Sugo cried out, sending more missiles at Shiro, only to have them all destroyed.
"Attacks like that don't work on this gunpla!" Shiro exclaimed, as the White Wolf flew up past the remains of the tallest skyscraper. "You see Sugo, my fangs may be sharp, but my spear is sharper!"
"Spear?" Sugo asked, before his eyes widened. His controls shook again, which nearly knocked Sugo off his feet. Something had hit the Hi-Zak hard enough to destroy both legs, the left arm, and the thruster pack. Without the thruster pack, the Hi-Zak fell crashing to the ground. "What was…!?" Sugo's eyes widened when he saw four pointed bits flying around the White Wolf Gundam. "Those 'fangs'... those aren't fangs! They're spear bits!"
"That's right! It might be something I picked up from Takumi, however this spear was forged to smite you Sugo!" Shiro's spear bits flew out in front of him in such a way that their tips connected. A pillar of bright gold Plavsky Particles connected the spear bits to the modified Age II rifle that once served as the tail for the White Wolf Gundam's animal mode.
"That's … that's Durandal!" Sugo said, trying to get the Hi-Zak to move.
"No Sugo … this is my spear! This is Gungnir!" The White Wolf Gundam shot down at the heavily damaged Hi-Zak. Gungnir shot forward, Piercing the center of the Hi-Zak's chest, and tearing through to the pavement on the other side causing a massive explosion that leveled the already ruined city.
Battle ended!
[Winner: White Wolf Gundam]
The battle room erupted in applause, and Shiro was nearly rushed by happy students just waiting to congratulate him with Kyoko at the front. Out of the corner of his eye, Shiro saw Sugo leaving the battle room. The two made eye contact for a moment, and Sugo signalled for Shiro to meet him once the congratulating was done.
It took far longer for Shiro to break away from the mob than he had hoped. People wouldn't stop thanking him, both students and teachers. It was well into the afternoon before Shiro was able to break away from everyone … well almost everyone.
"Are you sure about this?" Kyoko asked, frowning slightly. "This could be a set up."
"Well I have you and Takumi with me." Siro replied. "If things go bad, you can kick him in the head."
"I would be happy to." Kyoko said, an evil smile was beginning to form on her face as they saw Sugo and the two goons that Kyoko had kicked by the upperclassmen dorms.
"I guess you want answers?" Sugo asked.
"Among other things." Shiro replied. "You still have something of mine. And it's not the gunpla I wrecked in our battle."
"So you noticed." Sugo said smiling, looking more like his old self which surprised the two goons. Sugo grabbed another gunpla case, and tossed it to Shiro. "I didn't repair it. Figured I'd leave that to you if and when you won it back."
Shiro opened up the case, finding his Hi-Zak still damaged from it's battle with the PG Exia the year before. "Hold tight old partner, I'll get you fixed up soon." Shiro closed the case, and turned his attention back to Sugo. "That's one, what about the change in attitude, taking gunpla and parts from other students?"
Sugo took a deep breath before explaining. "That started because I wanted to make the other students stronger. I tried and failed multiple times to do that before. I realized if I wanted to really succeed, I would have to make myself a villain of the entire school."
"And the staff?" Takumi asked crossing his arms. "The headmaster?"
"First person I went to about it." Sugo answered. "Said as long as my methods didn't cross lines, and I … or rather we documented whatever parts or gunpla we won with who they belonged to, he was fine with it. You were the start of everything Shiro. Now that you've proven I can be beaten, people are going to start improving. They'll create stronger gunpla here, and win back their parts and suits."
"So this whole thing." Kyoko began. "This nearly year long tirade of acting like a member of the Titan's, was to make the other students here stronger? Why didn't you tell us that?"
"You saw how strong Shiro's new gunpla was?" Sugo asked, pointing to the black case that held the White Wolf Gundam. "No offense intended Shiro, but do you really believe that without the motivation to defeat me, that you would have built that gunpla you used today?"
"He has a good point." Shiro said after a long quiet pause.
"You see?" Sugo asked, gesturing to the black case on Shiro's belt. "If I had told you what my plans were, if I said to you I was going to make myself the school's antagonist, the only top builder and fighter would be Takumi."
"So… what happens now?" Kyoko asked with her arms now crossed over her chest.
"It's like I said, now that Shiro proved we can be beaten, more and more people will challenge us with stronger gunpla." Sugo explained yet again.
"So … you're going to continue the act of being the school's villain until what?" Shiro asked, his head tilted to the side. "Everyone defeats you and your group to get their parts back? Also, was recreating my Hi-Zak just a psychological tactic."
"Yep." Sugo responded rather simply, but expanded farther. "Wanted you to think I had stooped so low as to repair your gunpla to use against you. Try to trip you up, but also in the same way make you realize that in order to beat me, you might have to damage what I took from you."
"That's smart." Kyoko said. "In a really low down sort of way."
"School antagonist remember?" Sugo said, before several voices yelled out Sugo's name. Several other students were making their way towards Sugo, all with determined looks on their faces.
"Better go." Sugo said. "And don't tell anyone about this."
"Well today has been crazy." Kyoko said, while helping Shiro repair his Hi-Zak back at his dorm.
"Could have been crazier." Shiro replied, painting the new leg he had just finished constructing.
"I'd like to know how that could be possible?" Kyoko asked with a small laugh.
"I'm gonna enter the Gunpla World Championship this year." Shiro said, setting down the freshly painted Hi-Zak leg, and turning his attention to Kyoko.
"What!?" Kyoko's eyes widened in surprise. "But they only let the top student at the school enter, and that's been Takumi for the last three years."
Shiro shook his head. "He's not gonna represent the school this year."
"But he's still entering?" She asked, to which Shiro nodded in response. "Okay now I'm confused."
Shiro sighed in resignation. "You cannot tell anyone else this. And I'm serious here Kyoko."
"Will you please call me Kyo?" She asked, before noting the serious look on Shiro's face. "Okay, okay, what's the secret?"
Shiro stayed quiet for a moment, before deciding to whisper what Takumi had told him the day before into Kyoko's ear.