Time to rest...


The Duck shuttle's thrusters were activated as it got ready to depart. Yuuya was already climbing up the stairs while Jin stayed behind to say his goodbyes.

Jin: " Ban-kun, thanks for everything so far."

He said offering his hand to the brunette.

Ban: " it's sad I won't have to battle you for a while, but we'll see each other soon."

He took the other boy's hand and shook it.

Ban: " I wish you luck on the path you decided to take."

Jin nodded with a smile before turning to the girl who was shifting her weight on her feet nervously, still always in her pink dress.

Jin: " Elie, I'll be looking forward for our next battle. So until then, take care of yourself."

He said with a gentle smile and the girl fidgeted around with a blush.

Ban: " come on Elie, go on, give it to him already."

Jin couldn't help the slight curiosity that manifested over his face at that.

Elie walked over to him and gently took his hand, placing something in his open palm. Red eyes looked at the metallic thing resting on his hand, it was a pendant.

Elie: " I made it myself, it's not very good. I had to rush since you announced all of a sudden that you want to leave. And... I really wanted to thank you."

He blinked at her.

Elie: " when I was still at the hospital, your visits made me really happy. I wanted to thank you for always passing by, even if you barely new me back then. It meant a lot for me."

Jin: " you didn't have to. And I really liked it."

He said tightening his grip around the pendant. Elie grinned widely as her face turned slightly red.

Jessica: " Jin! We're taking off!"

She yelled at him from the top of the stairs. Elie quickly whirled the boy around and gave him a small push.

Elie: " now go or they will leave you behind."

The boy turned his head around, he saw was Ban and Elie waving at him with bright smiles. He gently returned the gesture and boarded the ship that took off to country A.

As he watched from his seat the city getting smaller and smaller, he took out the pendant, glancing down at it.

Yuuya: " Jin-kun, what's the matter?"

Jin: " eh?"

He looked up at his friend sitting next to him.

Yuuya: " you look... Happier than usual. Just now you were smiling at that pendant."

He was?

Jessica climbed the seat in front of Yuuya and looked back at them.

Jessica: " I bet it has something to do with Elie."

Yuuya: " hee, really?"

Jin: " I'm not answering that."

He stated as he placed the pendant around his neck and looked out the window, eventually slightly smiling...


She took a sip of her juice and had a satisfied smile.

Elie: " it's the best ever, Gouda."

Gouda: " enjoy."

He told her from the other end of the counter. They were in Blue Cats Coffee where Gouda was working.

Kazu: " tsk, that Jin. Although we made him a goodbye party, he ended up running away before it ended."

Ran: " even Yuuya!"

Ban sweat dropped.

Ban: " if they waited for you to finish partying, then they won't be able to leave at all."

Ami massaged her forehead.

Ami: " well, you have a point."

Kazu: " still, I wanted to battle Jin before he could leave!"

Gouda: " me too."

Sendou: " me three."

Eva placed down her milkshake at that.

Eva: " he is surely very popular that all of you want to battle him."

Ami: " Ban and Elie though, you're surprisingly cool with it? Especially you Elie since you really wanted to battle him."

Elie and Ban exchanged looks and smiles.

Asuka: " don't tell me... You already battled him before he left!"

Elie and Ban nodded.

Ban: " well, Elie noticed when he left the party and he was practically waiting for us in the park along with Yuuya."

Ran: " but to think he is able to get out without anyone noticing him, like how he did in the BC Extras. Is he a Ninja or something?"

Evangeline: " it's just that you don't pay attention to anything when you start battling."

She pointed out.

Ran: " you're no different as well! You just disappeared all of a sudden!"

Evangeline: " I needed to go back before my curfew."

Kazu: " what are you, a kidOUUUCH!"

He winced when Ami pulled his ear.

Asuka: " then, who won?"

She asked facing both Ban and Elie.

Elie: " Jin tied with Onii-chan and I lost to him..."

Ban: " you put a good fight thought."

Hiro: " by the way Elie-san, you're going to get a new LBX soon, right?"

Elie snapped at that.

Elie: " well, yeah. I need to have my own LBX too."

Ban sweat dropped.

Ami: " is there a problem, Ban?"

He sighed.

Ban: " actually..."...


Elie: " Dad! That's not fair!"

Jun'ichirou had to back and hold his hands up, he gave her a nervous smile and a sweat drop.

Elie: " all of Onii-chan's LBX are ones specially made for him by you, I want my own special made LBX too!"

She puffed her cheeks. Ban and Marie solely watched with a sweat drop and awkward smiles.

Jun'ichirou: " ok... I promise... I will make you a special one..."

Elie: " really?!"

Her eyes sparkled in rejoice.

Jun'ichirou: " actually Elie, why don't you design your own LBX?"

Elie blinked twice.

Elie: " me?"

Her father nodded as he placed his hands on her shoulders.

Jun'ichirou: " that's right, that way, it will be your own special LBX."


Elie: " all I have is to come up with my own LBX's design."

Sendou: " can you do that?"

Elie: " I'm pretty good at drawing, so yeah."

Sendou sweat dropped.

Sendou: " actually drawing and designing an LBX is two different things."

But the girl didn't seem to hear him, merely sipping her juice happily.

Evangeline: " she really did it after all, convincing her father to make her own special LBX."

Ban: " right..."

Elie: " oh right, Eva, I heard you created your LBX on your own?"

Evangeline: " yeah, based on some designs Jiiya-san showed me."

Ran: " Really! You made Twilight yourself!"

Ami: " you're amazing Eva!"

Asuka: " As for me, my LBX was designed and made by my younger brother."

Sendou: " it's well made though. Your brother is good."

Asuka: " and your sister too, seeing that she is the one who mostly does maintenance on your LBX."

Sendou: " I can do it myself, but she insists that she takes care of my LBX."

Elie: " to think she can bring 100% of your machine's power, she is pretty good."

Sendou: " well, she is my sister."

Ami: " having a sibling is really good, I wish I had one."

Asuka: " speaking of siblings, Hiro, weren't you going to introduce your sister to us?"

Hiro: " right, but she is coming back today so-"

He looked up at the clock before quickly standing up.

Hiro: " it's already the time! I'm late I've to go now! Bye!"

And he left the coffee running.

Evangeline: " what's with him?"

Ban: " it seems he promised to meet his sister in the airport. Anyway guys, who wants to have a battle?"

Everyone: " me!"...


The blunette was dragging a red suitcase before that she spotted a blunette woman and a blunette boy waiting by the airport's door.

The boy waved at her.

Hiro: " Nee-chan!"

She then ran to them and when she was close to them, she let go of her suitcase and pulled her brother into a hug.

Mirai: " I'm proud of you, Hiro."

He merely returned her hug. Haruka walked to them and had a soft smile.

Haruka: " welcome home, Mirai."

The blunette let go of her brother and looked up at her mother.

Mirai: " I'm back, mom."

Hiro: " alright, shall we go home and play some video games?"

Mirai: " you sure? I will beat you as usual."

Haruka: " I don't think that is happening."

She said as she restored her glasses' balance with a confident smile.

Haruka: " I'm taking part in this."

Mirai and Hiro sweat dropped.

Mirai: " Hiro, forget what I had just said, it seems neither of us will ever win this night."

Hiro: " the only one I'm sure I can't beat is mom."...

Jun'ichirou: " this is..."

He looked at the design with wide eyes. Elie smiled sweetly while she held her teddy bear.

Jun'ichirou: " it's a good one, and well designed, but why basing it on the teddy bear?"

Elie: " this teddy bear means a lot for me. You gave me this teddy bear as a gift for my third birthday before you went missing. I treasured it more than anything else. So I thought if I want my own LBX, I want it based on something dear for me."

Jun'ichirou smiled at that.

Jun'ichirou: " alright, I will make this LBX for sure, just wait and see."...


Elie blinked twice as she looked at the laptop's screen.

Elie: " when was the last time you slept?"

The boy on the other side looked half dead rather than just sleepy.

Ban: " you look like you haven't slept for ages?!"

Jin: " can you both imagine the life of a university's student?"

Ban sweat dropped.

Ban: " I can say for sure that it's hard for someone our age."

Elie: " definitely..."

Jin: " by the way, did you hear about the LBX school that will be opened soon?"

Elie and Ban blinked twice before getting closer to the laptop to the point that Jin thought their heads would pop up from his screen.

Elie&Ban: " LBX school!?"

Jin: " I heard about it from one of my teachers, I thought you would be interested."

Elie&Ban: " We're!"

Jin: " well, it seems that they will be accepting pupils starting next year."

Ban: " can anyone enroll there?"

Jin: " that... Not anyone... For their first year, they wanted to start with a handful number of players to test the school first, and for some reason, they would only accept students from middle school. The high school section will still need sometime."

Elie: " then we can't enroll in there, how sad."

She let a wistful sigh.

Ban: " but why only a handful of them?"

Jin: " as I told you, so that they can test it, and see if the school system is working properly."

Elie: " unfortunately... I would have liked to be in such school..."

Ban: " we can't do anything about it."

He was disappointed too.

Jin: " Anyway, how are things over there?"

Ban: " the usual, everything is pretty peaceful over here."

Elie: " like if Mizel never happened. Everyone is enjoying LBX battles once more."

Jin: " glad to hear that."

Elie: " how is Yuuya doing?"

Jin: " he is fine. Seems he got used to the life in country A pretty quickly."

Elie: " good for him."

Ban: " so, we won't keep you up for so long. Go and get some rest."

Elie: " and take care of yourself, if Yuuya tells me again that you barely eat or drink anything besides coffee, your studies will be the last thing you should worry about, alright!"

Jin sweat dropped as he remembered the long lecture she gave him when Yuuya first reported that behavior of him to her.

Elie: " alright?"

Ban: " you better answer her or she will find a plane that will drop her exactly where you're."

The boy nodded.

Elie: " good, sweet dreams."

She said as she smiled sweetly and ended the call...


The blond skimmed through the papers he had received after the scanner was over.

Kousuke: " doesn't seem like anything is wrong yet."

Eva and Jiiya were currently in the office of Kamiya Crafts' CEO. It all started when Jiiya got a call from the blond young man, in which he said that Eva's presence was required.

Needless to say that the man was sceptical about that, seeing how Kamiya Crafts were actually the ones taking charge of Eva's experiment back at the Innovators incident.

But when Kousuke said it has something to do with Eva's health, Jiiya found himself obliged to take her there.

Evangeline: " what do you mean?"

The blonde finally asked him and Kousuke faced her.

Kousuke: " Eva, I'm afraid you'll have to be through annual checks for your Optima."

Eva blinked.

Jiiya: " I thought her AI was fine when we took it back."

Kousuke: " I'm not talking about the AI here. I'm talking about the very machine she is using to survive. Eva, how much time since you had it?"

Evangeline: " almost 10 years now."

Kousuke: " you should know that the Optima will have to be replaced at a certain point when it reaches its limit. We need to keep you under constant check so we can know when that time will come. As of now, it seems that it will be functional for another six to seven years, but who knows what may happen. Being prepared is better than being regretful."

Eva seemed to think about what he told her.

Kousuke: " if we've learned anything from your Optima, it would be that we can't heavily relay on it for brain damage just yet. But we have no alternative for you situation. So our R&D team are trying to figure a way to lengthen its time span."

Evangeline : " why are you willing to go this far for me?"

Her question came so suddenly, the man looked away for a second.

Kousuke: " If Kamiya Crafts is what caused you to suffer for so long, it should be the one to take responsibility for this. That's the world's rules. If nothing is done, your Optima will stop functioning one day, and you..."

He didn't want to continue. Jiiya looked back at the girl.

Evangeline: " I have two more question. I have troubles remembering things, things from around the Tokio Bridge incident and when I first had Optima. Does this have something to do with the Optima reaching its limit? Can it be fixed?"

The male shook his head.

Kousuke: " most likely, it's because of how much your brain was altered, along with the pressure of the experiments. And I doubt it can be fixed."

Evangeline : " I see."

She looked back at Jiiya before manifesting a sad smile.

Evangeline: " seems I won't be able to remember about him."...


4 years later...

As the concerned one didn't pick up, she closed her CCM, pissed off yet, worried at the same time.

Ban: " he didn't pick up?"

Elie sighed and shook her head.

Ban: " it's been three months and he is not answering any of us, even Yuuya don't know where he is. "

Elie: " Do you believe he didn't even tell Jiiya-san!"

She clenched her hand on her CCM.

Elie: " he did it again..."

Ban casted her a glance before sitting next to her and giving her the mug of coffee.

He couldn't help but notice how she grew up, she had changed her outfit to a uniform with black skirt, white t-shirt and a red tie. She was wearing a light brown sweater and had her hair flowing down while only holding back some of her bang's hair to the side with a clip.

She took the mug thankfully and glanced down at it, lost in her own thoughts.

Elie: " Onii-chan... Maybe he is in that school..."

Ban blinked twice.

Ban: " the one he spoke about years ago?"

She nodded.

Ban: " but he couldn't have been accepted as a pupil?"

Elie: " you don't have to be a pupil to get in a school, you can also be a staff, right?"

Ban: " you mean like a teacher..."

He closed his eyes as he tried to imagine it but he soon had an awkward expression.

Ban: " I have a hard time imagining Jin as a teacher though... And I would feel sorry for whoever he is teaching..."

Elie managed a small giggle.

Elie: " well, it's not like he can't be a one though, he has the qualifications."

Ban: " he is strict when needed, and kind when needed. He does care for everyone and won't turn his back on someone on need. Yep, he really has the qualifications of a teacher after all."

He narrowed his eyes.

Ban: " the problem is, we won't be possibly able to know if he is there or not. Students aren't allowed to leave unless they're expelled and people without permission can't go there."

Elie: " then, let's ask for permission! With Takuya-san or Yagami-san's help..."

Ban rubbed his head as he thought about it.

Ban: " hm... Let's meet up with everyone and try getting answers from both of them first. They may know something."...


Weeks later...

He let a loud yawn as he walked down the stairs and to the kitchen. Both his mother and sister were preparing breakfast and his dad was no where to be seen, to which he knew he was still asleep.

He took his seat and Elie chuckled as she saw he was barely opening his eyes.

Elie: " up all the night studying?"

She asked and he merely nodded.

Marie: " you really want to get to that LBX facility,I understand, but don't overwork yourself."

He merely nodded, or was it his head moving up and down while he was fighting the urge to sleep? They won't ever know.

All of a sudden, his eyes snapped open when his they fell on the screen of the TV in the living room.

He stood up immediately and ran to the living room. The footages were showing a certain school.

Elie: " what's wrong, Onii-"

Her eyes widened as they fell on one the photos and the mug in her hand fell down and broke.

Elie: " J... Jin..."

She said looking at the photo in which appeared the black and white haired man...

Kazu: " oi Ban! Are you watching this?!"

No answer.

Kazu: "... Ban!"

The brunette snapped at that.

Ban: " ah!... Yeah..."

He didn't know what to say as he watched what was happening. The children were screaming in fear and panicking as they or their friends would get lost.

Ban's eyes widened in horror.

Ban: " this is horrible! This is not LBX Battle at all!"

Elie held her hands to her mouth to hold back her gasps while her tears streamed down.

Kazu: " the hell are we doing here! Can't we do anything!"

Ami joined the call.

Ami: " calm down Kazu, I had already called Yagami-san and he said we can't do anything as long as they have everyone in the island as their hostages. Even the helicopters they had send to investigate the situation were all taken down."

Kazu: " but-"

" Watch closely, people of the world."

A voice called, getting their attention back to the footages.

" This is the War Time of the Second World, a place filled with lies and deceit that claims to be protecting world peace. That place has been rewritten into a true battlefield! This is the true form of war!"

The horrible fight continued even further, shacking the whole world. As soon as the War Time ended, the same voice from before spoke, this time accompanied with the photo of the speaker.

Seredy: " People of the world, this is reality. Up until now, if a student's LBX became lost, it wouldn't have any effect on their life. However, you can't avoid death in war. Now when your LBX becomes lost, you truly die. I want to bring judgement to those who believed that a petty war game like War Time could protect the world. These students are precious sacrifices for that goal. People of the world, you might accuse me of being cruel. But I'm ready to accept those criticisms. For my only wish is for you to open your eyes to the truth. Please give some thought to these questions. What's war? Why must we have them? The ones being tested with these students' deaths are you people, after all. These are today's victims. Let us take a moment to honor them."...