Chapter 14: Mission 4: For Honor Part 2

BANG! BANG! BANG!

"Ki! Ka!"

Hmmm? I must have heard someone calling outside. I opened my eyes in protest to my sleepiness. My nose pick up a sweet scent from Houki next to me. She had her head rested on my shoulder throughout the night and still was sleeping soundly. Her silky soft hair presenting a cool smoothening sensation on my neck. I peek onto her sleeping face. Has she always this beautiful? We had a lot of sleepover when we were kids but never once I looked at her with any admiration. She used to have the tomboyish look that became her source of bullying. I recalled I used to always step up for her and frankly speaking it was just my sense of justice.

"Houki! Ichika!"

The sound calling outside became more audible.

"Coming!" I said.

Houki was disturbed from her slumber and she rubbed her eyes in collection of herself.

"Ummm…Ichika?" Who is…it Fwah?"

"Beats me, I'm about to find out." I said.

I put myself on the door carefully blocking Houki's figure so that our small secret last night remained between us. Opening the door gently, I am taken back with the sight of many girls rushing out of the hall. I quickly glance inside to check the time just in case if we are late for the morning roll call. Surprisingly, it is still 30 minutes earlier than the time I set up the alarm which meant we still had a lot of time prior to our morning routine. Standing outside was Cecilia wearing only her see through blue negligee. WHOAAA?!

"Ichika-san! Quick! To the arena!"

"Wait! Cecilia-san, your…erm, I can see your…"

"No time to explain! Lady-sensei is fighting with Sparda-san at the arena, I.S combat!"

"Are you for real?!"

"Both you and Houki will miss it if you don't hurry up! I see you two at the arena!"

Cecilia breaks away from our conversation and joins with the other girls running in the hallway.

"Was that Cecilia?" Houki weakly asked, still half asleep.

"Uh-huh."

"What's with the noise outside? We aren't late for the morning exercise, are we?"

"No. But I think we should go to the arena, Houki. Cecilia said that Dante-san is combating Lady-sensei there."

"Huh?"

That news immediately jolts her up awake and up to her feet.

"Let's go!" She says

Along the way, it seems to me nothing particular about Dante-san can give a peace of mind to everyone in this academy. Trouble follows him everywhere he goes of vice versa. Although the pain is gone, my memory still serves me where my body welcomed his punches from last night. I don't know whether it is a merely juvenile delinquency or he's out of mind fighting against an instructor in a I.S combat, but I cannot miss this spectacular battle.

Upon our arrival at the arena, I witness Lady-sensei piloting an Uchigane and Dante-san in his own machine at the middle of their battle. Lady-sensei is on the assault with her firearms. Her Uchigane appears to be customized to engage enemies from distance by carrying more I.S guns than usual. My attention falls at something slung on her waist. It looks like some kind of long tube with something attached underneath the end of it. Whatever it is, I decide to ask someone, not Houki of course. She is an expert in blades and I doubt she can make any out of it from Lady-sensei's waist. I look around searching for the person who is an expert in this kind of thing and she also happens to be around me too.

"Say Laura, do you have any idea on that thing Lady-sensei is carrying around her waist?"

I should say beforehand that Laura's serious militaristic face is off with her sleeping pajama that comes with a black kitty hoodie on top of her hair. I admit she looks very adorable. It is Charlotte who donned Laura with this sleeping attire even to go buy another matching pair for herself. Speaking of whom, next to Laura is where Charlotte stands with the matching outfit like Laura's. Both give an aura of siblings from that outfit.

"Hmm…I still can't believe myself Instructor Lady is carrying that relic around."

"Relic? I don't understand."

Laura points her fingers. The sleeve is too long for her hand and covers her entire arm.

"That is a M72 LAW, a Lightweight Anti Warmachine single shot rocket launcher." Laura explains. "Judging from the original frame before the modifications Instructor Lady did, I dare to say it came all the way back during the Vietnam War in 1970-s."

"Vietnam War? Are you serious?!"

"Absolutely. It is strange that it appears in perfect condition. I wonder if it can shoot perfectly though. Alos, I think the underbarrel attachment on that rocket is a 150TP Plasma bayonet. But still, I don't feel it is quite right to bring that thing into an I.S combat considering that gun's generation. Perhaps she brings it along out of sentimental merit or something like that."

Laura's right. Just what are you thinking, Lady-sensei?

"Hey everyone, check this out!"

Ling's voice comes from the control panel. She brings our attention to the giant screen above the spectator's seat. Information regarding the battle is displayed throughout that enormous screen starting from pilot name, I.S machine, armaments, remaining shield points, battle logs and last but not least the close up live video feed of the current combat for naked eyes to follow.

Betweeen a standard issue and personal machine fight that is going on there, Lady-sensei is obviously taking the lead with her fully intact shield points. The battle log records the details of where she landed her shot and how much Shield Points she has chipped from Dante-san so far. To my impression, a four digits damage integers belonged to Lady-sensei, and usually appears at the climax of combat, has already recorded onto the screen before the first minute of their fight even ticked.

"Amazing!"
"Lady-sensei is so cool!"
"Kick his butt Sensei!"

The crowds are starting to root for Lady-sensei. The battle has been running for awhile and yet Dante-san still cannot land a scratch on Lady-sensei. I think I start to understand why Yamada-sensei was replaced by Lady-sensei. Looking at the screen where I can get a better look on the ongoing fight, Dante-san's image is blurred. When the image is returned, it blurs again and the cycle repeats. Turning around, I look for someone who can provide me with an explanation but all I can see is the excitement cheering up for Lady-sensei.

"He is still holding back."

I turn around to see the source of my answer: A blonde girl with a long lock is looking in a light pink pajama. Her blue sky eyes are emitting a sharp but disdainful look at me. She looks like a stranger to me though.

"How you know that?"

She points at Dante-san.

"After getting shot by Lady-sensei, he keeps dashing like that and hasn't even bother to attack yet."

"Wait a second! A dash cannot be that fast! With that kind of speed, it's like he's teleporting around!"

"And what you suggest then?" She sounds annoyed.

"I…don't know."

"Of course you don't. You hardly know Dante after all."

"Hold on! You sound so sure about him. How do you know him?"

She let a low hiss and turn around then walk away. I want to stop her but my gut tells me to let her go.

"Besides, it's not his style to use things that don't belong to him anyway. You will understand it soon"

Her back disappears amongst the crowds as she makes her own way. Her words linger in my mind. I look back at the screen watching the ongoing fight as well as pondering her phrase just now.

Just like Dante-san, Lady-sensei is clutching a pair of identical guns unleashing a torment of gunfire at her opponent. Those shots missed their target as Dante kept on disappeared and reappeared from various sides of the arena. Lady-sensei decided to close in the gap aggressively. Despite Dante-san able to elude her shots, it seems to me that Lady-sensei purposely let her shots missed and is actually herding him to a position where she can immediately connects her shot with another attack the moment Dante-san reappears. Also on closer look, I learn that each of Dante-san's dashes can only be executed at a singular direction up to a total three times. If Lady-sensei managed to time her attack and guess his final location, then his evasive maneuvers will be neutralized.

When Dante-san reappears, he is greeted by a pistol whip coming at him with a violent speed. CLANG! Yet Dante-san managed to intercept the whipping arc with a swing of his sheathed blade.

That blade seems oddly familiar though.

Upon her attack being intercepted midway, Lady-sensei immediately rang quick consecutive shots from her other hand. With an inhuman reaction, he twisted his body like a cracked whip left then right. He pulls his upper body backward letting a bullet zipped past just above his chin. It does not end there. He strung his feet and performed a high acrobatic backflip allowing more bullets to zip pass through from where he was initially stood. I don't think that is a good move because recalling his I.S type of a full ground unit, he just made himself into an easy target in the air.

Lady-sensei does not give him a chance. She locked her aim at Dante-san and…

Click! Clack!

Her pistols barrel slid backward following with the crowds groaning in protest to the unfortunate event befalling on Lady-sensei. Whether it is a pure luck for Dante-san or he counted her bullets, I am glad that Lady-sensei couldn't let her shots loose.

Landing smoothly on both feet, Dante-san has his upper body up and down.

"Good dance, Dante. I give you that as well for your luck"

"Your clips gone dry. Too bad for you."

Lady-sensei reloads both of her guns and keeps them steady than immediately firing them.

"Not anymore." Lady-sensei cranes her neck in aware of our presence. "Lookie here, looks like we got us a crowd of audience."

"Hmph. Now I am more motivated."

"You haven't been attacking me since we began. Why don't you spice things up a little bit? Or maybe is it because of your 'rules'?"

Rules? What rules is she talking about?

"On the contrary, I am saving the best for last."

Dante moves his head sideway seemingly looking for someone. Then stops. The visor covering his eyes slid upward unveiling his eyes that out of ordinarily in blue instead of usual red nor silver. The crowd's attention suddenly turn toward me. I am standing cluelessly hoping Dante-san provide some kind of explanation soon. All he does is to raise his sheathed blade at my direction and showing it to me from the field.

Fixing my eyes intently onto his sword, where I did I see that blade before?

"As for my rules," He chuckles. "They don't apply this time."

"Huh? Excuse me?" Lady-sensei asks.

Dante slowly unsheathing the blade from its cover. The sword appears to possess a beautiful white metallic curve. At the center of the sharp white edge that erects its lethal side upward, a pitch black metal is planted inside from the middle until it reaches the handguard. I cannot understand how it the black metal could fit inside but the sword's thickness is perfectly tampered so that it seems to be able to deliver swift cuts regardless of its considerable weighty appearance.

The feeling of familiarity of that sword keeps on growing within me. A cold shudder runs throughout my body the longer I look at the blade. I dare not to say but I feel that blade is…Yukihira Niigata itself.

Or is it?

"After all, this isn't my sword." Dante remarks.

I shift my attention to the wide screen on the side of the field. Looking at Dante-san's armament information, it is written clearly the name of the weapon registered into the school's armory database:

Dante Sparda, I.S: DMC, Shield Points: 2400/3500, Damage Log: 00:07-1100

Active Weapon:

Yukihira Niigata

"THAT'S MY SWORD!" I exclaim

Dante let out a comical line, as if mocking my remarks.

"JACKPOT!"

His I.S visor slams back in place and he disappears from my eyes.

I'll put the next part soon.

Qin W.X