"Kira Yamato/Suletta Mercury!" - Normal Text.
"Strike/Aerial!" - Some Random-Ass Bold Text That I Put Just To Make It Look Cool When Other Fanfics Do It Cuz Why Not Text.
"Launching!" - Thinking Text.
"Bruh" - Comms/Mic/TV Audio/ZOOM Meeting/Flashback Text
"Rouji." Shaddiq called out to his Housemate.
"Yes!" Rouji complied as he turned to his Haro, "Haro."
"As you wish."The Haro said as the data of the Aerial and the Strike, under the name of Pleione, was transferred to Ryouji's notebook, trying to find the Permet code of both Gundams.
"There's no match for both Permet codes, but there's only one machine that's similar."
"Ochs Earth, huh?" Shaddiq guessed as Ryouji looked back to his leader.
"But that's impossible. I mean..."
"If that is the Witch's mobile suit, then we can't just leave it alone." Shaddiq said as he looked specifically at the Strike, "More importantly to the White Devil himself, or maybe the son of the original? If Kira Yamato is the White Devil at the incident then he didn't exist at that time. There's no way."
"Yeah, you have a point." Ryouji then looked back to his notebook, "It says here that the boy's mobile suit is called XVG-110 Pleione, but they called it the Strike instead."
"Could be its true name." Shaddiq said as he put a finger on his mouth, "Strike Gundam? A fitting name for that Gundam."
We then went back to the three students on the battlefield as Kira and Suletta were flabbergasted.
"What the hell did we get into, Suletta?" Kira asked his sister. After the events of the duel recently, both siblings became grooms of this tsundere. What a way to start a school.
"Why us?!" Suletta asked Miorine, "Your grooms I mean!"
"My lousy father decided without consulting me." Miorine explained as she looked away from the two pilots, "I'm to marry whoever the Holder is."
"B-But..."
"Don't worry. There's no way I'm doing that." Miorine declared as she looked back with determination in her eyes, "All I want... is to go to Earth."
"No way!/Really?/The White Devil's here?!/Guel lost?/I can't believe it!/" came the various responses of the students watching the duel. We switched to the Earth House, who are in awe at the results.
"Wow." Nika awed as she and the members of the Earth House looked at the footage of the kneeling Strike and Aerial, "They built mobile suits like those at Mercury?"
"Probably the one the two girls are at, but the White Devil couldn't be built at that place but it could be upgraded." said one of the members to Nika, "But still, who would've thought that the boy is the White Devil of Vanadis."
"But it's impossible." Nika said, "If Kira-san is the White Devil of Vanadis, he wouldn't exist at that time or if he was born. The Vanadis Incident happened at 101." the members nodded at Nika's words because it's reasonable. But hoo boy, they don't know how wrong they are.
"Yeah, you're right. He might be the son of the White Devil." then the video feed began to glitch as it disappeared.
"Jamming?!" Chuatury gawked as the battlefield began to darken with signs of ALERT showing. Then lights were targeted to the Gundams as the three students covered their eyes.
"Warning!"a DemiTrainer pilot called out, "Cease dueling immediately! Repeat! Cease dueling immediately!" the other two Demi Trainers followed as they aimed their weapons at the Gundams. Miorine then noticed a familiar emblem on the Demi Trainers' shoulders.
"The front management company?"
"Student IDs, LP041, LP010. Suletta Mercury and Kira Yamato. You and your mobile suits are to be taken custody on suspicion of using a Gundam. And more specifically to your mobile suit, Kira Yamato. It iss because you're the pilot of the infamous White Devil mobile suit."
"A Gundam? Y-You're wrong! These are Aerial and Strike-nii!" Suletta tried to correct them but Miorine stopped her, trying to order the Demi Trainers to lower their weapons.
"Lower your weapons!" Miorine called out, "Your job is to manage the fronts. This is a school!"
"Rules set by the President take precedence over all others."the pilot explained to Miorine.
"The President?" Suletta repeated as Miorine clicked her tongue in annoyance.
"That lousy father of mine!" Miorine cursed as Kira glared at the Demi Trainers, now asking himself what's gonna happen next now that he exposed himself.
"Weren't all the Gundam types disposed of?"
We're now at the hangar as the Aerial and Strike are locked in places as the mechanics are doing their jobs to the Gundams.
"It certainly doesn't look like an old machine. The White Devil looks the same but its upgraded with new armaments."
"Don't those things take the lives of their pilots?"
"Yeah, but those two are alive, aren't they?"
Then in an interrogation room, we see both siblings, now in gowns, being interrogated by an interrogator.
"Suletta Mercury. Age 17." read out the interrogator on Suletta's page then he switched to Kira's, "Kira Yamato. Age 18. Student ID Numbers LP041 and LP010. Piloting department... Suletta's father is deceased and your mother is currently assigned to Lagrange 1. Kira's parents are both deceased and adopted into the Mercury family soon after. Is that correct?"
"I already answered you." Suletta as the interrogator repeated again.
"Is that correct?" repeated the man with a stern voice as Kira reluctantly answered, "Yes."
"Do you two acknowledge that the machines you were piloting were Gundams?"
"Their names are Aerial and Strike-nii!" Suletta quickly countered it.
"And that machine of yours is equipped with the GUND Format that has been frozen and prohibited by the Agreement?"
"I... don't know what you're talking about."
Not liking that answer, the interrogator looked at Kira, "What about yours Kira Yamato? The White Devil's pilot."
"Son of the White Devil." Kira interjected, but of course, it's a lie, "My dad is the original White Devil, he died after the incident a few years after my ninth birthday."
"What incident?"
"...The Vanadis Incident."
"So you two are members of the Vanadis Institute? The same company that developed the Gundams? Or not?" Even if he asks them that, the two don't give him an answer.
Unwillingly to them, the camera that was in the corner of the interrogation room was transmitting live to the meeting of the Benerit Group officials
"So they're the Gundam pilots?" One of the Peil Technologies representatives asked, "The girl doesn't look like a witch. The boy doesn't look like a devil despite being the son of the original White Devil, or so he says."
"Any links to Vanadis?" Sarius asked.
"Their mobile suits are registered by Shin Sei Development Corporation of Mercury. We're still investigat-"One of the officials said until he was cut off by Vim Jeturk when he slammed his hands on the table.
"If that girl's not a witch, then how do you explain this?" Vim shouted as he pointed to the screen showing the name and data of the Aerial, Strike, and their pilots, "It's a good thing that the father of that boy's dead but do you think a bunch of miners at Mercury could build their own Gundam?!"
"Or perhaps... that girl's machine is the ghost of Ochs Earth accompanying the White Devil of Vanadis." Sarius said as Vim continued his rant.
"The duel results are void." Vim said, "Confiscate those machines immediately and send those two back to Mercury!"
"And then your son will reclaim the title of Holder, won't he?" Sarius guessed right as Vim glared at him. Then Delling's face was shown.
"Summon Shin Sei's representative." Delling ordered, "We will hold an inquiry."
"The duel results were voided."
"Well, they cheated right?" "I knew something wasn't right."
"I didn't expect that kid to be the son of the White Devil." "What about the transferees?" "They're probably still interrogating them." various responses the students voiced out about the duel.
"I almost feel sorry for them." said one of the girls that the siblings met the other day, "Too bad that brother of that bumpkin girl is cute."
"Well, that boy is the son of the White Devil, and they made off with someone else's prize, after all..." The trio of girls then looked to the person that's in their classroom, who is none other than Miorine Rembran.
In another location of the school, Shaddiq and Co are at the monorail terminal.
"Take care of the Dueling Committee for me." Shaddiq told Elan Ceres.
"You work awfully hard for a student." Elan pointed out.
"I'm just doing it because I want to."
"So a witch and devil trial at the head office?" asked the boy, curious about the trial.
"Something like that." shrugged his leader.
Elan then looked, "That girl... could she really be a witch?"
"What's gotten into you?" Shaddiq stood up, "Curious about someone besides yourself, Elan? Curious about that girl than the son of the White Devil instead?" then he walked away, "Don't tell me you're in love with her. Rumor has it she loves her adopted brother."
Elan looked at Shaddiq for a moment then he looked down, "Falling in love is something I'll never do." denied the boy, "No matter what."
Then at the greenhouse, Miorine put down a red toolbox.
"Let me help you with that." Lauda said as he, Petra, and Felsi approached Miorine, who shrugged at them.
"It was your great "ace" who broke these, you know." reminded Miorine them.
"Well, my brother told me to fix them."
"Does he really mean that?" then she looked back at the three, "And where is he now?"
"He's absent today."
"Ahh." Miorine continued, "He probably got summoned after losing that duel. By his father, that is." The simps of Guel didn't like that as they countered back.
"Well, it's better than a parent who's aloof from their child!" Felsi mocked, followed by Petra, "Like father, like daughter. You just leave those transferees dangling after they fought for you."
"I never asked those two to do that." Miorine responds, "I'll tell them when they get back... not to meddle in others' affairs."
"Since you don't seem to know, we'll fill you in." Felsi said, now that they know that Miorine doesn't know about the trial, "Those Mercurian Siblings are going to be expelled." When Miorine tried to grab a tool, she stopped once she heard that "They're going to scrap their mobile suits, too! I heard my dad say so-" She didn't continue as Miorine stood up and approached the girl.
"W-What? You got a prob-" Then she was handed a wrench by Miorine herself.
"You said it, right?" Miorine then walked away, "Fix it, then." Felsi glared at Miorine, "And one more thing." She looked back to the three, "If you touch my tomatoes, I'll kill you."
Then Miorine is video calling the front management company, demanding to see the siblings.
"As I said, there's a possibility that those are forbidden machines." the operator informed her.
"I'm only asking to see the pilots!" Miorine repeated again, "Those two are my classmates!"
"It's not up to me."the operator replied.
"Who's it up to, then?!" Miorine immediately asked, now tired of the operator.
"President Delling." Then that shut Miorine up, "Now, if you would please leave." then the operator hung up. She left the room and went to the waiting area. Once she arrived, she floated on the railings and looked at her reflection in the window.
"Miorine-sama." called out her agent.
"Go back to class," right?" Miorine guessed, but surprisingly it's not what the agent is about to tell her. It's about a letter from her father, but Miorine isn't in the mood to read it so the bodyguard reads it for her instead.
"Miorine, I'm unenrolling you from the school." this caught Miorine's attention as her eyes widened up, "I'll arrange a groom myself. Return immediately." Miorine takes the agent's phone to read it herself.
"What the hell is this?" Miorine angrily gripped the phone, tired of Delling's bullshit, "It was you who decided that my fiance would be selected through duels." then she looked back to the agent, "It was Suletta and Kira who won the fight! No man chosen by that jerk will be a husband of mine!"
The agent is unfazed by Miorine's outburst, but he has a look of understanding for the girl, "It's no use saying that to me."
"He's always like this." She then looked at the ground, furious as tears are flowing down her face, "He never consults me, he never explains... Whether it's enrolling me at this school or forcing me to quit piano. Or deciding who I should be friends with. Even my own mother's funeral!"
She throws the phone at the window and rushes to the bathroom.
"Where are you going?"
"To the bathroom!"
An incognito smuggler notices Miorine. Miorine locks herself in the bathroom playing a game in her student notebook, repeating the word "Die" with every kill she makes. Then someone knocked on the door.
"You must be Ms. Miorine Rembran." Miorine then looked at the door, unsure about how this lady knew her, "Designated Colony Coordinate XY72Z53." Then she realized who that person was.
"That's... the rendezvous point for my escape!" she opened the door to reveal the smuggler.
"It's nice to finally meet you in person." greeted the smuggler, "You didn't show up to meet us the other day, so I came to check on you."
"Is this some sort of after-sales care?"
"You did pay us, after all." smiled the smuggler at Miorine, "If you haven't changed your mind, would you like to escape now?"
"What?" Miorine asked, not believing what she was hearing right now.
"If we act now, I can send you to Earth as you desire."
"To Earth?!" repeated the girl, then her mood changed after, "But..."
"I can wait for 30 minutes. Make a decision you won't regret."
Miorine hesitates for 8 seconds, due to the countdown of her notebook, before agreeing.
"I'll go."
"What?" gawked the smuggler, not expecting Miorine to answer that quickly.
"You've gotta get me out of here!"
Then at the spaceport, the spaceport controller is a collaborator with the smugglers so Miorine easily boards their ship.
"Is it really this easy?" Miorine asked the smuggler.
"It's all about timing." answered the smuggler, "We're lucky the spaceport controller was a collaborator of ours, and then you and I happened to meet."
Miorine then looked back at the school through the ship's windows.
"We'll be leaving the airspace controlled by this port in 5 minutes." announced the pilot of the ship.
"Once we do, we can't change our course." the smuggler told Miorine, "Are you sure?"
"Yes." Miorine affirms, "I've made up my mind." Then the ship went ahead to its destination.
With Delling, he signs a form with his fingerprint.
"Miorine-sama has disappeared again." informed a grown-up Rajan to Delling, who asked about the men that were watching her, "She shook them off. Shall we seal the port?"
"Have the immigration authorities spread a dragnet." Delling said, "I know she's bound for Earth, anyway. More importantly, when will the inquiry begin?"
"We've just confirmed the arrival of the Shin Sei representative."
"I see."
Then with Guel, he gets slapped in the face by his father for losing the duel.
"So a member of the Jeturk family lost a duel in a Jeturk mobile suit?" his father mocked, "And you lost to a Gundam as well? No less to the son of the White Devil and a witch?! Are you trying to destroy the company's reputation?!"
"Forgive me, Dad." Guel bowed to his father.
"This time around, I'll arrange to have the duel result voided." His father said as Guel did not seem pleased with that, "Don't embarrass me again!" Vim said as he sat down on his office chair.
"Yes." Guel leaves the office, Vim is told he has another visitor.
"Who is it?" Vim asked as his worker informed him, "It's...the representative of the Shin Sei Development Corporation."
"What?" with tea prepared, Prospera Vim's office.
"It's been a while, Mr. Jeturk." Prospera said as Vim looked back at her.
"We haven't seen each other for 3 years since your appointment as president. Lady Prospera."
"That's right."
"If you want me to talk to the President on your behalf, the answer is no." Vim pre-emptively turns down to what he thinks Prospera's gonna ask him but she is in fact there for the opposite reason.
"Not at all. The opposite, in fact."
"What?" Vim then looked back at Prospera, who kept on going.
"It's you who should ask me for a favor."
Suletta curls herself up in a fetal position as she floats in microgravity in a separate room without her brother.
"Mom..." Suletta muttered as she thought about Prospera.
The buzzer rings on her cell door and she panics as Elan enters offering food.
"Y-Yes?"
"Aren't you hungry?" Elan said as he began to introduce himself while approaching Suletta, "My name's Elan Ceres. Like you, I'm a student at Asticassia." Then he lent her the food that was in his hands, "The guard here let me do his job."
"Is it really okay?" Suletta asked, a bit wary but Elan assured her.
"Go ahead."
"I-it's so nice of you." Suletta digs in and bites a loaf of bread as she begins to cry while Elan just watches. She gulps down the drink, wipes her tears, and gives Elan her thanks.
"You're welcome." Elan Ceres replied, then Suletta then asked him if he gave food to Kira, which he did as he explained his meeting with him, which turned out to be a good interaction.
"Why would you..." Suletta questions his motives, to which Elan plainly answers, "You interest me."
"Huh?"
"Suletta Mercury... I'd like to learn more about you." This makes her blush.
The inquiry begins with the major Benerit Group CEOs in attendance in a different location in the school.
"We will now begin the inquiry." Delling announced as the inquiry began, and Shaddiq, who had tied up his hair, also attended by his father's side, "Lady Prospera, representative of the Shin Sei Development Corporation." Prospera is in the middle, unfazed by the events, "Are you a witch?"
"No." simply denied Prospera.
"Do you have ties to the Vanadis Institute?"
"No."
"Then how did you build a Gundam? And how did you gain the White Devil and upgrade it?"
"The Aerial is not a Gundam, and the Strike was given to Kira by his father's dying breath." Prospera said as she continued her explanation, "The Aerial is a product of Shin Sei's newly developed drone technology, while we were weary about the Strike because it's a Gundam-type, but we were surprised it isn't equipped with a GUND-Format."
"What?/Did she say drone?/The White Devil isn't equipped with the GUND-Format?"
"And what is the White Devil then?"
"The GAT-X105 Strike is a Multi-Mode Mobile suit, capable of changing its armaments with its Hardpoints known as Striker Packs." Prospera then continued as a hologram appeared in front of her showing the Striker Packs of the Strike, "They're the Strike's Striker Packs. They're the AQM/E-X02 Sword, AQM/E-X03 Launcher, and AQM/E-X01 Aile. The Sword is for melee, Launcher is for long-range bombardment, and Aile is for high mobility."
"As much as this information about the White Devil is useful, the question still stands."
"The Strike is equipped with an OS." Prospera said as she kept on going as the GUNDAM Acronym was shown, "Known as the General Unilateral Neuro-Link Dispersive Autonomic Maneuver. Or more specifically."
"Gun...dam?" murmured the people present as Delling told the people to be quiet.
"The GUNDAM OS seems to be an alternative to the GUND-Format, in which it wouldn't harm the pilot, when Vanadis was forced to make the GUND for military use by the Mobile Suit Development Council. This is why they built the Strike and its Striker Packs before both Vanadis and Ochs Earth were eradicated by Cathedra. Which is also why the Strike doesn't have a Permet identification." She knows that that's a bluff of course since both Kira and the Strike are outsiders of this timeline.
This information is satisfactory enough for the group, now for the other problem. The Aerial.
Shaddiq then brought up the evidence from the duel of the Aerial and Strike VS the Daribalde.
"During the duel," Shaddiq started as he looked at the Permet influx in his table's HUD, "those machines', more specifically the Aerial's, Permet influx values exceeded the standards. This is a unique characteristic of the GUND Format, the core of all Gundams. Minus the Strike, since that machine is equipped with the GUNDAM OS instead."
"If the Aerial is equipped with the GUND-Format, you should also have detected a data storm." Prospera retorts as she looks towards the boy, who can't find an answer to Prospera's retort, "Well?"
"There was none detected." Shaddiq admitted.
"Its control system is based on a conventional Permet link." Prospera explained, "I'm confident that it complies with all of the group's technology provisions."
"That alone doesn't prove that those two aren't Gundams even if one of them isn't equipped with the format but an OS." Nugen countered but Prospera countered back by looking at her and saying, "You can't prove that it is, either."
"Lady Prospera," Sarius called out, not buying Prospera's claims, as Prospera looked at the wise old man, "You are merely using the lack of evidence as an excuse. Are you trying to tell us that black is white?"
"We're one of the smallest, but still a member of the Benerit Group. We are, of course, aware of the Cathedra Agreement." then she put her fist on her chest, "I ask for your trust."
"I can't help doubting when you come dressed like that." Vim said, pretending to doubt Lady Prospera as she threw her prosthetic arm over to him as part of their pre-agreed scheme.
"This arm," Prospera began, "as well as the face behind this mask, were both claimed by Mercury's magnetic field." then she pointed her now-detached limb to Delling, "Environmental conditions on Mercury are severe. However, utilizing our drone technology, we'll be able to mine for Permet without putting anyone in danger."
Betting on her fellow CEOs' sympathy, she asks, "Please allow us to continue the Aerial and Strike's development. We are in need of the group's support."
Despite all that, Delling refuses, "No, that thing is a Gundam. Even if the White Devil isn't equipped with the GUND-Format but an OS instead, and that OS' acronym stands for GUNDAM."
"Why is that?" asked Prospera despite all that shit that she did.
"Because I said so." Because Delling said so, fucking bitch, "Any objections?"
Since all members of the group are afraid to object, and they're fucking bitches, the matter is settled.
"Then it's settled." Delling said as he stood up from his chair, "The mobile suits shall be disposed of. We'll get rid of the pilots as well."
Vim has something to say about the latter part but is interrupted when Miorine walks in, which almost everyone, including Shaddiq and Delling, didn't expect.
"What are you doing here? Miorine..." Delling asked Miorine, stunned that she was here.
"I came to give you a piece of my mind." Miorine answered, "If you made these rules yourself, you shouldn't change them after the fact! You hypocritical loser of a father!"
With the smugglers, they're at the docking bay. It was revealed that they had taken Miorine to the inquiry instead of Earth.
"Weren't you supposed to take her to Earth?" asked the pilot to the smuggler.
"I have to honor my customers' requests. And when it comes to the President's daughter, it can't be hurt to be owed a favor."
"As calculating as ever." the smuggler took that as a compliment while she was doing a makeover.
"Space is in need of new rules."
Then we're back at the inquiry.
Delling talks down to Miorine, "The only people permitted to stand in this room are the powers-that-be from the top companies of the Benerit Group." Delling continued, "But you are different. You are merely a student with no authority to speak of."
Then Miorine scoffed, "It's always the same with you. You look down and control my life without asking or explaining"
"Neither consultation nor explanation is necessary." Delling refuted Miorine's words, "I decide. You obey. Did you think you could speak out against me because you're my daughter?"
"What's your problem?! Are you a king?"
"That's right." Delling quickly accepts it as Miorine clenched her fists, "I am vested with power. And you have none. The powerless shut their mouths and obey. Those are the rules of our world."
Rajan approaches Miorine as he grabs her left arm but she throws it off while she starts to quote Suletta and Kira's quote.
"If you move forward, you gain two... In that case, I challenge you to a duel!"
"Hm?"
"If we win, you'll accept them as my fiances. If we lose, you can do as you please!"
"Were you unable to comprehend my words?"
"I'm saying that I'll fight according to your rules!" Miorine pointed her finger at her father, "At least take responsibility for your own decisions! You're an adult, aren't you?"
Vim intervenes in the father-daughter quarrel, "May I speak? Even if it was accidental, those machines defeated our company's Dilanza. Perhaps we should give it time to see what it can do."
"What do you mean?" Delling asked his motives.
"Recently, mobile suits from other companies have made market gains. Those machines could be the key to recovering our market share."
"I believe the school duels will be an effective test of the Aerial's abilities. It could also improve the Strike's pilot piloting skills." Prospera added as she put on her suit jacket.
"And will you provide us with those machines' technical data?" Nguyen asked, and Prospera confirmed that she will.
"Hold it right there!" Sarius intervened as he began to ask Prospera, "Do you intend to violate the Cathedra Agreement?"
And then a further debate erupts amongst the Benerit Group members.
"If that's how it is. Fine." Delling reluctantly agreed as the members became enraged at this, Delling quickly forced them to quiet down as he continued, "But, I'm going to change the rules a bit for the upcoming duel. Instead of a 2V1, it's going to be a 1V1. It will be Guel Jeturk against... the Strike's pilot. The son of the White Devil. Kira Yamato."
Then we're at the cell's part as Miorine bursts into Suletta's cell, startling her.
"Suletta!"
"Ah! Miorine-san!" Then they collide as they hit the wall, "What are you..."
"Where's your brother?!"
"H-He's next to my cell." Then Miorine grabbed her hand as they went to the Coordinator's cell. Once they barged in, Kira awoke from his sleep, startling him and surprised that Suletta and Miorine entered his cell.
"Eh? How are you two-" Then he and the girls made an impact on the wall, making it look like the girls were pinning Kira.
"Kira you need to duel." Miorine cut him off, "My father specifically wants you to duel Guel."
"Eh?"
"Fight Guel! If you lose both the Strike and Aerial will be scrapped! And both of you will be expelled! You have to win!"
It took a few seconds before Kira could reply, "WHAT?!"
RF2: Okay yeah, I decided to not add some scenes in the chapter cuz why not? That is why this chapter isn't 7k words. Anyway, that's all for today! Remember to fav and follow this story if you guys like it! See you!