Happy Holidays! As usual my gift to all of you is a bonus chapter. This one was a bit of a pain as trying to do all this extra writing was made complicated by me giving myself a new PC as a gift last week. But I persevered! I hope you enjoy!


"Heh heh heh." Fie let out an uncharacteristic laugh as she surveyed her latest work.

The boy opposite her didn't seem nearly as amused, "It's just a game."

"Sounds like a sore loser trying to downplay his defeat."

Kurt rolled his eyes, "Honestly... Still, it was a good game."

"Yep. Your knight was a pain in the ass to put down. Good thing I was able to murder everything and everyone around you until you eventually bled out."

"...Sometimes I worry about you."

The two of them – plus the rest of the branch campus – were currently on board the Derfflinger as it rode through the night towards its destination. Given that Crossbell City was at the far end of Erebonia, it meant a long train ride, even longer than the one that took them to Sutherland.

Fie didn't even have any kitchen duties, as Freddy had volunteered to handle everything for that evening and she had no real desire to figure out what was in the 'special dishes' he was failing to convince people to try.

All in all, she had nothing but time to kill.

At first she had been confused on how to spend this time so she did a little recon mission of the train. That was when she discovered a very critical piece of information that made her plans a whole lot easier:

Musse was working one of the stations in the first car that evening.

That meant she could play Vantage Masters to her hearts content without worrying about that evil mint-haired girl utterly dominating her again! And much to her joy, she found out she was pretty good at it as she successfully vanquished one challenger after another. Sure she didn't win every game, but she won enough to leave the girl feeling a little smugger and her deck a little fatter from all the prizes she was collecting.

She watched in no little amusement as Kurt grumbled something to himself before walking away from the girl. Yep. Winning felt pretty damn good. She wondered if Altina had started playing the game yet. Their fishing duel had ended in a draw, but Fie was sure she could crush the little intelligence agent at this card game.

Fie was broken out of her diabolical thoughts as the door to the second car opened and out stepped Randy. That must mean the staff meeting was over now.

Class VIII's instructor noticed her and began to approach, "You seem like you're having a lot of fun tonight."

Fie glanced down at her deck of cards before giving a small shrug, "Guess so. It's fun beating people and taking their cards. You game?"

"Nah. Not in the mood for card games. At least not the kind of card game I can play against my adorable little students."

"Fair enough." Truth be told she too was looking forward to when she could play those kinds of games. Seemed like half of Zephyr would always blow their pay whenever the corps was near a casino.

Fie eyed the Red Reaper with interest. On the surface he seemed like his usual laid-back self, but to her he seemed a little... off. It was the little things. The way his easy smile felt a little forced. The way his eyes shifted about nervously. The antsy twitch of his hands...

He certainly hid it better, but she recognized the signs as they were the same ones exhibited by Juna all week since the destination of their field exercises were revealed.

"...You really liked Crossbell, didn't you?"

"Sheesh. Was it that noticeable?" Randy let out a sigh, "I guess I need a drink or something to calm down a bit. Can't get the good stuff tonight, but maybe some coffee would help...?"

"I'm sure Freddy would love to offer you one of his special blends."

"Blah. On second thought, I think I'm good. I know we've eaten worse things in the past, but no need to put up with it now that we got better food, right?"

She nodded along. Her sentiments exactly.

"Hmm..." He pondered his words even as he took the seat across from her, "You remember how I told you about the crew I worked with, right? The SSS?"

"You were a cop, right?"

"Damn right I was! But we weren't your average run of the mill cops you see at all the street corners. Sure we did some of that, but most of what we did was more like what you would expect from bracers." The teacher let out a short laugh, "Lots of people mocked us for it, calling us bargain bin bracers. Other police thought we were making a mockery of their job. The bracers thought we were too unreliable to be trusted with their work."

She blinked, "Uh..." And he liked this place?

Randy laughed, "Yeah, yeah. It sounds bad. But it got better. Spend a few months helping the people and they'll eventually begin to trust you a little. Even little things like finding lost cats and collecting plants will gain you popularity, something which it sounds like you guys did in Sutherland and will probably be doing here, too."

"I guess..." She wouldn't deny that the last field exercise wasn't so bad if you ignore the trivial little things like dead dads suddenly becoming not dead or psychopathic little girls with an overwhelming urge for bloodshed.

"Yeah, well, it works both ways. Even as the people of Crossbell began to like us for the work we did we began to like them too. The SSS was only together for like a year or so, but during that time we got to see everything there was to see about Crossbell. We befriended gangs in the slums, the bounciest entertainers in the entire world, and everything in between."

He let out a small smile, "Eventually I stopped thinking of Crossbell as a place to survive and more as a place to call home."

"Home, huh..." She knew what the word meant, of course, but it was a word that did nothing for her. To hear a fellow jaeger bring it up like that...

Randy reached over and tousled her hair, thus earning her eternal ire, "You'll figure it out soon enough." He teased before standing up and stretching, "This trip is gonna suck for me, but you should try and make the best of it. I know a few places someone like you might enjoy, if you're interested?"

"Are they places Rean will let us go?"

"That guy? Probably not."

"Nice. I'm in." The two shared a quick laugh after that.

Once he stopped laughing Randy began to walk away, but stopped and turned back to her, "Oh, and do me a favor and keep an eye on Junie, alright? These next few days are gonna be rough on her."

"Sure. I can do that." With that she watched as he waved while walking away, probably back to his room for the night.

...Just as Rean entered the car. After glancing curiously at his coworker he approached her table, "...Were you discussing something with Instructor Randolph?"

"Yep. He was telling me about the best places to gamble and drink in Crossbell."

"W-W-What!?" Rean's dismayed cry drew many pairs of eyes, not that the frantic swordsman noticed, "Why would he do that!?"

As funny as it was seeing her teacher having a mental breakdown she wasn't a big fan of being the center of attention like this, "... Relax. I was lying... mostly."

"Oh..." He slumped into the seat Randy had vacated before breathing out harshly, "That's a relief. I already have to deal with stuff like that from Ash. I don't need to deal with it from you too."

Being compared to Ash of all people? "Rude."

"Haha..." The sheepish looking teacher glanced around before noticing the deck of cards on the table, "I didn't know you played Vantage Masters?"

Fie shrugged, "Well, I do. Wanna play a game?"

In response Rean gave a smile before pulling out his own deck. Great. She was always ready to part a sucker from his cards...

"W-What the hell!?" It wasn't even five minutes later when the game came to an end.

She had been absolutely crushed.

"...I guess I got lucky at the end there?"

"That's a load of bull." She countered heatedly, "Lucky would be you drawing the right card at the exact moment." Kinda like how Musse kept beating her, although Fie was starting to wonder if the other girl was cheating given her ability to constantly predict what was coming next... "This was a massacre. Seriously, is being good at cards some special technique of your weird sword training, or is it something that comes with being the Ashen Chevalier?"

"Haha..." That same annoying laugh of his. "I originally came to tell you that this field exercise will be similar to the last. Get some good rest because we'll be going to see the current... leader of Crossbell once camp is established."

The way he grimaced at the mention of Crossbell's leader was interesting. Person must be a real piece of work to get on the nerves of this guy.

But more importantly... "Don't change the subject! Seriously, you must be an absolute monster at gambling, aren't you?"

"I'm... not so sure about that."

She blinked as she quickly put the pieces together, "You've never been to a casino, have you?" The silence was the only answer she needed, "Luckily Randy already told me about the best casino in Crossbell. We'll need to go there once all our tasks are finished."

"Wait! I thought you said you were lying about Instructor Randy telling you about places that students shouldn't be going to!?"

"I said I was mostly lying, not that I was only lying, obviously." With that final piece said the student rose from her seat and began walking towards her room. Sure she could have hung out for a little while longer, but this worked just as well.

Rean was gonna go absolutely bonkers trying to figure out what else Randy had told her. She kinda wished she could be a fly in their room that night.

It almost made up for her crushing loss at Vantage Masters. Almost.


Excited conversation roused Fie from her much deserved slumber the next morning. Any attempts at going back to rest were painfully dashed as the chatter only got louder and louder. Begrudgingly she opened her ears to the annoyances around her.

What she heard was something about a giant tower in the distance?

Once it became clear the excited noise wasn't letting up anytime soon Fie begrudgingly accepted that it was time to get out of bed. Sure enough, everyone was crowded around the train's window, gazing at something she couldn't see. Swiftly she shoved her way into the group – if they were so noisy as to deny her her sleep then she had the right to see it for herself!

Huh. Wow. That really was a big tower.

"That wasn't there the last time I was here." She muttered out loud.

Her comment was enough to catch the attention of Juna, who had been sitting at her bed, "You've been to Crossbell before?" There was a hint of suspicion in her voice.

"Mmm." Fie hummed agreeably, "Nothing bad like what you're probably thinking, but there's a shop in the Downtown District Boss loved to visit. Crossbell was always a good place for the black market and that shop was the best of them all. Plus I think he and the owner had a thing together."

"I take it that would be Neinvalli Exchange?" Altina questioned from her own bed.

"Neinvalli..." Juna muttered the word slowly, eyes narrowed thoughtfully. A second later they raised in realization, "W-Wait! Isn't that...?"

"Yup." She nodded in response, "The same shop that's in Leeves. Jingo is the daughter of the woman who runs the Crossbell shop."

The Crossbellian stared blankly at that piece of info before eventually shaking her head wearily, "Small world, huh?"

With that said Fie returned to studying the tower on the horizon. According to the other girls it was called Orchis Tower and was the largest tower on the continent. Given the fact they were still a ways out from the city and she could still see it so clearly...

Yeah. She could believe that.

Still, with a tower that large... "I kinda want to jump off it." Fie's comment earned her some horrified looks and after reflecting upon her words she understood why, "Not like that! I mean with a glider or something! Just imagine flying over the city like that..." She sighed wistfully.

She was Sylphid. Doing something like that was practically written in her blood. A shame she no longer had her goggles cause they would be so good for that.

"I... have never considered doing that." Juna muttered at last, "It might be fun, but I don't think they allow civilians onto the roof. At least not since..."

Realizing that the conversation was starting to steer into dangerous territory Fie worked to bring it back, "We need to try it at some point."

"I do not believe Instructor Rean would ever allow the two of you to do something so hazardous and ill-conceived."

Both she and Juna stared at Altina with flat expressions, "This coming from the girl who gets to fly around on her creepy combat shell all day!" Juna responded hotly.

"I do not fly around all day." A deadpanned Altina retorted, "Also, please refrain from calling Claiomh Solais a creepy combat shell. It is incredibly rude."

Further conversation was put on halt as there was a knock on the door, "It's time to get ready, girls!" Came the voice of Towa, "We'll be arriving at our destination very shortly!"

Fie let a groan. Just maybe this field exercise wouldn't be a total disaster, right?

She sent a subtle glance towards a nervously fidgeting Juna... Nah. They were screwed.


The train spent a few minutes in Crossbell station before departing once again for the final leg of their trip to their camp location. Fie thought it was kinda stupid – they were gonna be headed into the city as soon as they setup camp, so why couldn't Class VII get a little head start? Sadly for her the people in charge believed in being inefficient.

...Or maybe she was just upset that this meant she had to help setup camp again.

She found herself stuck unloading stuff from the fifth car. Annoyingly others beat her to the punch when it came to the soldats, so it was just boxes and other random junk for her. The task itself wasn't hard at all, but it was tedious.

Especially as someone in the car wasn't doing any work at all, and was instead sitting at her desk with her portable terminal, "Why aren't you unloading this junk with us?" Fie complained to Tita in between trips.

"Ahaha..." The little engineer laughed nervously under her flat stare, "Instructor Towa wanted me to connect the Derfflinger to Crossbell's wireless network."

"Say what now?" The school did have a class on computers and related technology and Fie had been putting forth some effort in that class – especially as she found it kinda interesting compared to the more mundane topics – but what Tita said made little sense to her, "A... wireless network? How does that even work?"

"Basically it uses a bunch of orbal transmitters scattered throughout the area to relay data between terminals like this one. It's an expensive project, but Crossbell – with support from the Epstein Foundation - was the first region to invest in the technology. It's similar to the technology of our ARCUS units, but on a much grander scale. I heard that companies like the Reinford Group, ZCF, and Verne are all working to spread it to other nations."

Fie hummed thoughtfully, "That's... interesting. So everyone will be able to connect to the network if they have a terminal?"

"Exactly." Tita seemed proud of her conclusion, "A lot of engineers are starting to refer to this era as the Second Orbal Revolution due to the rapid spread of the orbal network. In just a year or two life as we know it might be completely different!"

"Hey! Why aren't you two working!?"Turning they saw that the newcomer was Towa who was trying to look intimidating while glaring at the two girls. She wasn't really successful, but Fie decided that now was probably not the time to be teasing their tiny instructor.

"I-Instructor Towa! I was..." Tita floundered over her words.

Fie felt kinda bad. Not that she was caught slacking, but that her friend was taking some of the blame for it. So she did the only thing she could think of, "Sorry 'bout that. This one's my fault. I had some questions about Crossbell's wireless network and you know how Tita gets when she starts talking about technology."

"Oh!" Instead of being the responsible teacher and telling Fie to get back to work... Towa's eyes lit up in excitement, "I didn't know you were interested in that? I still remember the time I came here during the trade conference and got to experience their network for the first time. All the things I could do despite being inside a secure office room..." The instructor sighed wistfully, "But do you know what my favorite part of it was?"

The two girls shared a blank look, "Uh...?"

"'Pom! Pom! Party!' Of course!"

"Pom..." Fie knew what poms were, but hearing the name of those small but dangerous critters in a discussion about computers threw her for a loop.

"...Party?" Tita finished, looking equally bewildered.

Towa giggled happily, "It's only the funnest video game ever created! It's a game that can be played remotely over the orbal net..."

"Wouldn't that make it the only video game ever created?"

"...I have friends in Crossbell," Towa continued as if she hadn't heard Fie's snarky remark, "and they say that the game will be released to the general public in a few months. I can't wait!"

Fie would freely admit that the game Towa proceeded to describe did sound kinda fun, but that wasn't the important thing. Somehow they had managed to find a topic of discussion which got their teacher so excited that she seemingly forgot what they were doing. Something which meant that she was now free to stand here listening and not hauling more equipment outside.

Fie was more than happy to chat about 'Pom! Pom! Party!' Until all the work was finished. And maybe she would need to actually check out the game in the future.


"...And just where did you sneak off to?"

Wow. She couldn't believe that Kurt was staring at her with such suspicion, "You shouldn't always be so suspicious, it's not good for you." His look didn't relent in the slightest, causing her to let out an exasperated sigh, "If you must know I was talking with Towa about something really important."

"And what was so important as to get you out of setting up camp?" All four students of Class VII had met up in the middle of the camp while waiting for Rean and the mission to begin. Around them work was in full swing as the other two classes got ready for their own missions that day.

"Pom! Pom! Party!" Fie answered in complete deadpan.

Kurt and Altina shared a look. It was clear that the two of them were both silently asking the same question. And yet before either of them could speak... "Oh! Pom! Pom! Party! I love that game so much!"

Thank you, Juna. She nodded her appreciation to the local girl.

"I remember Lloyd and Tio used to talk about it so much, so when they finally installed it at the Police Academy's terminal I had to play it. It was so much fun! I used to game all the time whenever we had a break. Or at least I did until..." The happy look on her face gave way to something a lot uglier for the briefest of moments.

Crap. The conversation was drifting into dangerous waters again. Time to change the subject! "Either of you ever been to Crossbell before?"

"I have." Altina responded immediately, "Instructor Rean and I often came here to conduct missions during the early days of the occupation."

"…"

"…"

"…"

Fie liked Altina. She really did. That didn't change the fact that the girl could somehow make the jaeger look like the most tactful person in Erebonia. They were trying to shift the subject away from things that would aggravate Juna and she just had to say that!?

"I-I have never been here myself." A completely dumbfounded Kurt tried to rally himself, "I have heard many good things about Crossbell City so I expect these next few days to be quite the enlightening experience."

"Y-Yeah..." Juna tore her gaze away from Altina to look at the one male in the group, "You'll love Crossbell. I'll make sure to show you the best places in the city. Crossbell is way cooler than the cities in Erebonia!"

"...I don't understand why you were all looking at me like that. Did I say something wrong?"

Fie walked over and began patting Altina on the head, "Baby steps with you, huh?"

"Don't do that." Altina hissed out despite remaining in a complete deadpan. "You aren't Instructor Rean. And what do you mean by baby steps?"

"T-That's something else I'm confused about!" Juna yelled. "Just what is it with you and getting head pats from Instructor Rean? It's so weird!"

"You wouldn't understand it." Altina replied tersely, before her eyes narrowed in annoyance, "...Although it has recently come to my attention that there is another student he has been doing it with."

This time it was Kurt and Juna who shared a glance, "There's another one? Who?" The Vander asked in confused interest.

"Ahem!" Fie coughed loudly to draw the attention of everyone, "...Maybe we should focus on the mission? Where's Rean anyways?"

Everyone was looking at her like she was weird and she could understand why. That was so fake and out of character for her. She was obviously just saying it to change the subject before the others discovered the truth of the matter. And everyone obviously knew it.

"Haha. I'm right here." Rean said as he approached the group after exiting the train, "It's good to see you're so motivated to begin our exercises!"

...Or at least everyone except their teacher knew it.

Rean approached the group before smiling at her fondly, "You really have come a long ways, haven't you?"

Clearly she had done something to offend a deity in a previous life, because the moron decided to reward her with pats on the head, completely undoing all the work she had done to distract her friends from their questioning. Even now both Juna and Kurt were staring at her with eyes completely devoid of life.

...Still, even if she had failed the mission she was getting a good reward. Perhaps this wasn't the worst outcome.

Not even a weird sound between a growl and a hiss could break her out of that blissful moment, but she was at least coherent enough to investigate the origin of the noise. The source was surprising, "Are you alright, Altina?" Rean asked the diminutive girl.

"...You really are the worst."

"Huh?" He asked in confusion before presumably following her gaze to the top of Fie's head, not that she could tell from her current position, "Ah..."

Fie narrowed her eyes. This was her moment. Altina could just wait her turn.

Altina on the other hand seemed almost ready to summon Sammy to her side.

It was a tense standoff.

"I guess it's a good thing I have two hands, isn't it?" Fie could only watch as Rean used his other hand to repeat the gesture to her classmate.

H-He was capable of patting two heads at once!?

"T-This has to be the stupidest thing we've ever seen.?" Juna asked as she watched the scene with a mixture of horror and confusion, "We're not the crazy ones, right?"

"No. We are most definitely not." Kurt agreed emphatically before his face twisted in confusion, "... At least I hope we aren't?"

Fie glared at them. They just didn't understand.

Actually, no. She was glaring at them because their comments caused Rean to stop, "Haha... Sorry about that. Are you all ready to head out?"

"You bet we are, Instructor!" Juna answered cheerfully. "I'm so excited to go back home again!"

...Too cheerfully, in Fie's opinion. Sure the girl was a bundle of sunshine most of the time, but something about the way she was talking felt fake to her. Despite her inexperience with the matter Fie knew she was right on the mira as both Rean and Kurt were sending similarly worried looks towards the girl.

"Yes, well..." Rean coughed awkwardly to regain his train of thought, "Crossbell City isn't too far away. We are currently located just off the Ursula Road to the south of the city. If we hurry we should be able to make it within the hour to our meeting with the Governor General."

Both Rean and Juna's faces twisted at the mention of the current leader of the occupied city. Her curiosity was piqued. There was definitely something up with the guy given the reactions of her friend and teacher.

Fortunately for her, one of her classmates was a girl with a lot of knowledge and very little tact. She would just need to pull Altina aside during the march to the city and ask about it.