OK, so this chapter is also pretty short. Seriously, I promise that it doesn't become a recurring thing. Besides, what does anyone care now? There's like 20 chapters beyond this point to get into.

"...the sonar is completely clear. It's not detecting anything."

"Adjust the scope of the search and scan again. He's probably sunk quite far by now..."

This exchange was shared by the two young I.S. pilots that were currently engaged in a precarious search and rescue mission, Rin and Laura. After the immolating blast from the mysterious missile that had nearly killed them, the two pilots had been forced to call upon features that rarely, if ever, saw use with I.S. these days: pressurized shells and breathing apparatus. Ordinarily, a weaker, thinner energy field contained oxygen near the pilot so they could breathe normally during atmospheric operations, but that was not enough for the deep sea.

Technically, it was possible that I.S. could use their shielding to keep the water pressure out, but for peace of mind alone, most I.S. had pressurized armor configurations that could be summoned at will, providing an aesthetic much more reminiscent of what people had once imagined mechs would look like. Some considered these features to be pointless, but it paid to remember that I.S. had originally been developed for space exploration: on top of that, the odds of getting shot down over water were quite high in real combat scenarios, and since it didn't take much to have these features available, they were kept on most I.S. just in case.

Even with all of this, Rin was having trouble breathing clearly. For one, she had been generally fatigued from her recovery prior to now. Secondly, she was in a lot of pain, having been scorched all over from the earlier explosion. Even with Shen Long attempting to automatically regulate her bodily functions, she wasn't in the best shape. Still, she refused to leave the situation: her friend's life was dependent on her and Laura. Something as minor as pain wasn't going to get in the way of Rin doing whatever she could.

Unfortunately, things looked bleak so far. Knowing that time was of the essence, Rin and Laura had split up after diving into the ocean at the general spot Church had vanished in a ball of light. With radar being inoperable underwater, they'd turned to sonar scanning to try and locate their endangered savior, but so far, the only thing they were detecting was each other. Over the radio, Rin suggested a possible issue holding back their efforts.

"Maybe his suit isn't large enough for the sonar to detect? It's only the size of a human."

More than a mile away and a few hundred meters deeper, Laura stayed focused on her HUD elements so she wouldn't miss anything. The reverberating, solemn ping of her sonar scanning made it a little hard to talk, but she managed a reply regardless.

"It's possible... sonar isn't the best for detecting objects less than seven meters across. Of course, it's also possible that he had drifted away from our position during this time: or perhaps he has sunk too deep."

Rin grimaced at the mere thought of it. "Don't say something like that, Laura... he's close, he's gotta be. He'd damn well better be..."

Shen Long's pilot was keeping her voice level, but it was a front. On the inside, turmoil ran amok unchecked. To be frank, she had not known Church for a particularly long time. But in their brief acquaintance, he'd saved her life not once, but twice now, and had done a great job of giving her a sense of validation when she couldn't get it elsewhere. He was kind and funny, and there was no way she couldn't consider him her friend at this point. There had to be something more they could do...

"What about thermal tracking?"

Laura shook her head on her end. "Not a chance. The ocean is far too cold for the relatively small amount of heat Exeter would produce, if it is producing any right now. It could be entirely disabled."

"Then what the hell do we do?! We're not picking up anything with our current methods!"

The silver haired German scowled, though it was more from disappointment than displeasure. "Rin... I think it's time we consider the possibility that he's dead."

Naturally, her brunette companion did not take this very well. "The hell are you saying?! Are you just going to give up on him like that?! We'd be dead if it weren't for him!"

"I'm only making a realistic assessment. Rin, we don't even know if he survived the blast at all. There may not even be anything left to detect! That explosion nearly killed us and we were miles from its epicenter. Church was right in the middle of it, and you know his shielding is less robust than our own. Those are just... facts."

Facts they may have been, but Laura hated acknowledging them. Rin was optimistic, but she was not. Church was dead, she knew that. The chances of him surviving under the circumstances were infinitesimal. And what a cruel joke it was: just as she was starting to realize that a friendship with him would be a worthwhile pursuit, and this had to happen. It almost felt like the universe was punishing her for considering something new. Truth be told, with the way things had been going with Ichika lately, an errant thought had occurred to her before that she could consider someone else, but today was the end of that, apparently.

Rin was not privy to any of these thoughts. She was likely still dwelling on Laura's statement of the facts. "...I'm going deeper."

Laura's immediate thought was that there was no point. At this point they were just giving themselves false hope and prolonging the inevitable. Why bother? She didn't say anything to stop Rin, however. She already knew the girl would make another attempt regardless.

Watching her instruments, Laura detected Rin moving several hundred meters below her own depth, with a sonar pulse following a few moments after. Nothing came back on it. Following that failure, Rin went even further, before repeating the process. That one didn't return any signatures either. Rin started to dive even deeper, though Laura felt the need to rein in her fruitless efforts at this point.

"Rin, you're hurt. We're not going to find anything. We should head back, the others are likely worried about us."

The brunette didn't respond, sending out another sonar pulse once she reached an even greater depth. It was pitch black down where she was. Laura tried again to recall her.

"If you go too much deeper, you'll-"

"W-wait, shut up! I think I got something!"

Laura's breath caught as she heard this, for a moment feeling a resurgence of hope emerge from her resignation. But she was reluctant to give into it right away. There were all sorts of things in the ocean. Still, she detected Rin sending out another pulse to confirm the reading. Said girl was filled with much more excitement as that reading came back.

"It's small, only a few meters... and it's definitely metallic! Laura, it's him! It's gotta be!"

Still wary of getting her hopes up, Laura nevertheless found herself rushing to dive to Rin's depth and position. Of course, Rin herself was already moving towards the signal she had picked up, something that Laura felt needed mentioning.

"Rin, the signal is at an alarming depth. Be wary of any pressure leaks, especially since Shen Long barely staved off the blast from earlier. Its integrity may not be as reliable as usual."

Grimacing, Rin couldn't prevent the thought of her suit malfunctioning and her body being flattened into a bloody mess. But then she thought of the same thing happening to Church, and her thoughts of self-preservation all but left her mind.

"I'll be careful."

Laura didn't seem convinced that that was the case, but she offered no comment on it. Rin was determined to save her friend from a watery grave. Laura wanted that to be the outcome of this expedition, but was still aware that optimism often led to disappointment.

After descending several hundred meters from where she had been, Laura caught up with her compatriot, who was looking around in the pitch black darkness of the ocean. She had lights of course, but the amount of space they were able to illuminate was not much. It was hard to see anything other than floating detritus.

"Damn it, come on... where are you...?"

Laura motioned towards her ally. "Cut your lights, Rin."

"What? Why?"

"If there's any sort of light emanating from Church's machine, it will be much easier to see it in total darkness."

Rin didn't seem to necessarily think this was a good idea, but ultimately she did as Laura said. In a moment, they were completely consumed by blackness, save for dim points of illumination on their I.S. frames.

Initially, nothing seemed to be nearby: everything seemed normal, for the ocean. Laura's spirits were about to fall to a new low, but as she swept her vision around behind her, she spotted a faint, waning red light glowing in the darkness.

Hoping against hope, the German activated her own powerful searchlight and shined the illuminating beam directly at the faint red light in the darkness, hoping it would reveal a suit of advanced armor, and not some bio-luminous fish. Despite all odds and her own doubts that such a thing could even be possible, Laura laid eyes on exactly what they had been searching for: floating among the tiny specks of matter abundant in the depths of the cold ocean was one mostly intact Exeter suit. Patches of the outer layer had been burnt away, disintegrated by the heat of the earlier explosion. These holes in the armor didn't penetrate the inner layer, so it was not unrealistic to hope that Church was still in a pressurized environment.

Rin's I.S. surged forward to gently wrap its arms around the damaged machine, while Laura conducted a scan to determine the status of the occupant. Fortunately, although his heart rate was far slower than it should have been and his body temperature was dropping quickly, Church was still alive. Laura would've allowed herself a relieved smile, but his condition was likely to change for the worse if he didn't receive some sort of medical treatment soon.

Rin seemed to have the same thing in mind, as she rocketed Shen Long up towards the surface as fast as she could, leaving a trail of disturbed water in her wake. She seemed to understand the severity of the situation. Naturally, Laura was quick to warm up her own engines to push herself towards the surface after her.

But before doing so, she let herself enjoy a moment of genuine relief. The worst outcome could still be avoided, and this time, she allowed herself to maintain a sense of optimism about it: after all, the fact that her doubts today could have cost Church his life were not lost on her, though she chose to ignore them for now.

Saying that things had been hectic back at the Academy during this time was a drastic understatement. For Chifuyu, it was probably one of the most stressful things she'd dealt with in a decade, which was saying a lot considering that the White Knight incident and everything after it existed in that timeframe. Life had been calm lately, ever since the Gospel incident had been resolved, but within the span of an hour, the elder Orimura's stress level had been cranked up to eleven.

And who could blame her? Someone had fired a damn missile at the school for God's sake. This wasn't some petty, minor act of aggression that could be swept under the rug or anything. Hundreds of people, children most of them, could have been killed. Not only that, but for so many international students to be endangered... Japan was going to take a huge blow to its world image when word of this got out. And it would get out. There was no way Chifuyu could keep all of the students here quiet. Not a chance in hell.

She had organized the emergency response from within her office, giving orders over the comm channels in an effort to prevent widespread panic. Chifuyu had succeeded for the most part; all of the students on the Academy premises had been evacuated to the bunker underneath the school, and every available instructor was in formation around the installation, keeping an eye out for any further attacks. She only had one thing to worry about now...

Chifuyu couldn't ignore the fact that her life had been saved by someone else. In fact, everyone present at the Academy today had been saved from fiery destruction by the efforts of one man, and this included Chifuyu's little brother. She may not admit it out loud, but she was truly and deeply grateful to Church for the risk he had taken upon himself to do this, even if she was still suspicious of the details surrounding this incident thus far.

Naturally, the elder Orimura sibling was also greatly concerned for his safety. At this point, she was aware that the missile had detonated out at sea, but currently no one had any idea whether or not the American who had guided the weapon away had survived. Chifuyu fervently hoped that he had, mostly because she owed him a great debt, but also simply because she would be upset about the demise of someone who had not been half-bad to talk to. Of course, she was also just a good person who didn't want people dying for nothing.

Besides, Church had also done a great service for Japan itself. Chifuyu couldn't even imagine what the international fallout would be if representative students from the world over had been killed in this attack. Something like that would have not only been a huge blow to Japan's image, but more importantly, would've led to terrible reparations imposed on the nation for such a dreadful failure. They probably would lose many international privileges. Granted, the fact that this attack had occurred at all, even if it had failed, could still possibly lead to that outcome.

Thankfully, that hadn't happened, so the worst possible scenario had been avoided. However, when news of this got out, things could get nasty. Chifuyu knew she had no way to keep the multitude of students here from speaking about this incident to relatives or friends or anyone else. Word of a discreet attack against the Academy would spread fast and far, and there was little anyone could do about it, other than coming up with some sort of bullshit excuse that didn't sound quite as bad as admitting to a terrorist attack. Chances were, it would probably be the classic 'training exercise mishap' excuse.

The woman's dire thoughts were interrupted when the intercom sparked to life, followed by Kotetsu's cold, metallic voice. "An incoming call for you, Administrator. The ID is foreign."

Chifuyu wondered who could be calling at this point. A foreign ID meant whoever it was didn't possess an Academy designation, so it could have been anyone...

Either way, she would only be able to find out if she answered. "Patch it through, Kotetsu."

"Affirmative."

Chifuyu decided that she would initiate the conversation with this stranger, but unfortunately for her, the person on the other end had different ideas. Even more unfortunate than that was the fact that this person was also no stranger.

"Eh, Chi-chan, you actually answered! I thought for sure you were going to ignore me like you always do!"

Gritting her teeth as she recognized the perky, bubbly voice of one of her old friends, Chifuyu lamented the fact that she had answered this call at all. "If I had known it was you, Tabane, I would have... why are you always hiding your caller ID?"

"To get you to talk to me, of course!"

Chifuyu rolled her eyes, well aware of Tabane's knack for showing up in some way, shape, or form at the most inopportune times. "Tabane, this really isn't the time..."

The usually cheerful creator of Infinite Stratos grew serious in a heartbeat. "I know, Chifuyu. How are things over there? Is Houki alright?"

"She and everyone else are fine. The threat was nullified by our... guest of honor."

Silence crackled over the comm channel for a minute as Tabane took a moment to ponder things. "The American boy, huh? I'm glad but... don't you think it's a little suspicious for something like this to happen so soon after his arrival?"

Of course the same thought had occurred to Chifuyu already, but she hadn't entertained it for long, since Church had literally put his life on the line to stop the missile. Even though she was still certain that he was somehow involved in this incident, Chifuyu couldn't see him as the actual culprit. What would even be the angle of launching the missile just to stage an intervention? It wasn't like something that dramatic was needed to earn trust, and no one had suspected him of anything in the first place, so it wasn't like he needed such a drastic event to dispel suspicion of some sort.

No, Chifuyu believed he was involved to a degree that allowed him to be aware of what was happening, but she certainly didn't believe he was behind it. The idea was unthinkable at this point.

"I don't think he was behind it, Tabane. After all, he's the one who stopped the missile from killing us all, and we didn't even detect it until it was too late. If he wanted the Academy gone, he could have just let it happen. An intervention doesn't make sense if he was the one responsible in the first place."

Chifuyu knew that Tabane was quite callous towards anyone besides her, Houki, and Ichika, but she would have thought she would actually be appreciative towards Church for his actions today. All three of those mentioned people were only alive because of him, after all. Apparently this as not the case.

"But how did he know it was coming before anyone else? Obviously you would have acted if you had known there was a threat. The enemy spoofed all the early warning systems of the Academy but this American boy detected it? How did he know something was wrong?"

Chifuyu's eyes narrowed as she glanced out of her window towards the ocean beyond. "I could ask you the same thing, Tabane. This incident just happened minutes ago. How did you know anything had happened?"

There was no hesitation whatsoever in Tabane's explanation. "Come on, Chi-chan, do you honestly think I don't have the Academy under surveillance all the time? I hijacked a spy satellite just to keep an eye on the place. I have to keep an eye on Houki, after all!"

If anyone else had said that, Chifuyu would have assumed it was an excuse. But since it was Tabane, she didn't actually doubt that this was the truth. After all, she had hacked into far more important things before, for what was, in Chifuyu's opinion, even more ridiculous reasons than the one she had just provided.

"I see... I don't suppose you plan on showing up now that crisis has been averted?"

"Oh, are you eager to see me, Chi-chan?"

Chifuyu refrained from saying her real answer since it would be a little cruel. Tabane was one of her only friends, but the woman did admittedly get on her nerves more than she would have liked.

"I just figured you'd want a hand in the investigation. Like you said, this enemy somehow bypassed all of our security measures. I'd think you would want to figure out how, considering that you designed most of them."

From her end of the line, Tabane sounded as though she was about to embark on a field trip. "I'll take that as a yes! So rare for you to invite me over, Chi-chan! I'm already on my way, so expect me soon! Ciao!"

With that, the call was ended, leaving Chifuyu alone with her thoughts again. Admittedly, this situation was extremely odd, and her intuition told her something was not right. The surveillance systems were one thing, but Church... well, she supposed any investigation into his part of this was dependent on whether or not he had survived. She hoped he had, but that reason was only a small part of it.

Right now all she could do was pray... but since she wasn't the religious sort, she instead focused on what she could do right now that was of actual value. After all, there was much to do in the school following this kind of insane incident.

Awakenings were generally unpleasant. Unless it was one of those very rare times when you slept as much as possibly needed, then were allowed to wake gradually into the world, generally by something relaxing like birdsong and gentle sunlight, waking up tended to suck. Usually, it was an alarm that dragged you from the solace of slumber. For Church, it was pain. Immense amounts of pain.

It coursed throughout his body in agonizingly slow circuits, running up and down his spine, stabbing his nerves and burning the marrow in his bones. Said pain was too real to be a dream: it hurt so badly that he couldn't even utter a sound.

Knowing full well that he was conscious again, the second thing Church acknowledged was darkness. All-encompassing, stifling, suffocating darkness that filled him with despair. He was still sinking, wasn't he? Still lost out there in the ocean, sinking to his demise. He had just regained consciousness for a moment, long enough to wallow in his fate once again.

Terrified by the thought, Church acted on instinct, thinking maybe for a moment that he could swim to the surface. Anything was better than doing nothing, right? But when he tried to move his right arm, the damaged limb jerked and trembled, and searing pain lanced through his body. This time, he couldn't withhold the cry of anguish that escaped his lips. Surprisingly, the cry of pain didn't go unanswered.

"He's awake! Someone get him some more painkillers, fast! And hold him down, we can't let him injure himself further!"

Church felt himself being gently pressed down against whatever surface he lay on as a strange pressure coursed throughout his veins following a stinging sensation. He struggled vainly for a moment, not even realizing that he wasn't in danger any longer, before the pain became too much for him. He simply went limp, his chest heaving as he fought for air. With what little energy he had spent, the young man managed to take some stock of his situation. He felt air on his skin: he wasn't covered by Exeter, and thus couldn't be underwater. But his eyes were open, and everything was still black. Why couldn't he see anything?

With the idea of something being wrong with his eyes instilling a natural sense of panic, a new surge of fear was about to drive him to movement once more, to reach for his eyes and feel what he could, but before he could do that, Church felt a light pressure on his chest. A hand, perhaps.

"Calm down, Church. You're fine now."

It took a moment for Church to place it in his state of disarray, but he quickly recognized the voice to be Chifuyu's, who was the only person he knew who could sound so commanding even when speaking reassuringly. Church opened his mouth to ask about his eyes, but his throat pained him terribly. It was tight and dry and scratchy, so much that even swallowing the minuscule amount of saliva in his mouth was agonizing. Chifuyu seemed to pick up on what he was trying to do.

"Don't talk just yet. Drink something first."

As the woman finished suggesting that, Church felt the edge of a cup pressed against his lips. It was tilted carefully downwards, allowing the cool, pure liquid to pour down his parched throat. It burned on the way down, but Church knew it was a good thing. As soon as he found his voice again, he spoke to the only person in the room he knew. Any other time, he might have refrained from calling her by first name, but he didn't have the wherewithal to remember decorum at this point in time.

"Chifuyu...w-why can't I see anything? Am I...?"

He felt the reassuring hand on his chest move to his shoulder. "Calm down, you aren't blind. You've just got some bandages wrapped around your head. You sustained some sort of head injury out there, it had to be wrapped very tightly."

Church was relieved to hear it, but Chifuyu's claim also brought forth questions about his full condition. "And...what about the rest of me?"

There was a pause before the older woman answered, one that didn't do much to allay Church's fears.

"...well, most of your injuries are, miraculously, superficial. You've got a lot of lacerations and many, many burns, but beyond that you're actually alright. Furthermore, we've been treating you to the best of the Academy's abilities. Believe me when I say your injuries were much worse before we started."

Church would've nodded his acknowledgements of his injuries, but that hurt far too much. On another note, he wondered if they had been treating him with the same miraculous technology they had been using on Rin's injuries. They must have been, if he was in such relatively good shape after what had happened.

"So I won't be dying or anything... what about my suit?"

"I think it would be best to let Tabane answer that..."

Despite the throbbing in his head, Church could recognize the importance of that name. "Is she here now?"

"No, she's actually still analyzing all of the damage to your suit. You can talk to her later."

A multitude of other questions came to Church's mind, but he picked out the important ones to ask. "How long have I been out?"

This time one of the other members of the room answered: maybe it was the nurse that was usually here, but apparently there were more medical staff than usual around right now. Maybe they had called in other doctors from elsewhere? Either way, someone besides Chifuyu answered him.

"Three days, sir."

Church wondered how many things could've happened in three days. More attempts to destroy the Academy? Had anyone died? Had anyone figured out his ties to the 'unintended' aggressors?

"How... how did I live? Who saved me?"

A distinctly rare tinge of pride in Chifuyu's voice could be clearly discerned as the woman responded. "That would be Lingyin and Laura. Against their better judgment and any kind of threat I could throw at them, they decided to chase after you and save your life. Without them, you'd be lost to us."

Church felt something unusual swell in his chest as he heard Chifuyu's words. And here he was, having thought that no one would really lament his passing to this extent.

"Are they both alright?"

"Laura is fine, but Huang's health following the incident declined somewhat... she was still recovering before it happened, and she was injured during the rescue attempt. But she'll live with no permanent damage. Like you, she's spent most of her time these past few days in a hospital bed. Bored, I'm sure, but alive."

Church frowned, worried for one of his saviors. However, he also felt a new concern over how things had developed in his absence. He knew that investigations must have been going on while he was unconscious. And he knew Chifuyu was a wise and intelligent woman. There was no way she hadn't connected the relevant dots about the incident.

"I... assume you have questions for me, right?"

There was a moment of silence in which Church could only imagine what was going through the woman's head. But eventually, she responded. "Yes, I do... but we'll save them for later. Right now, you need to rest. But rest assured, you will have a lot of questions to answer when you're up for it."

"I understand."

"Well then..."

There was a moment of hesitation in Chifuyu's next words, which struck Church as odd. It wasn't the same type of hesitation as earlier: he didn't know how he could tell that, but the air between them just felt less like tension and more like something else. Of course, he was struck with even more confusion as he felt what he imagined a kiss to the forehead might feel like in the next moment.

"Thank you for what you did out there, Church. Regardless of everything else, know that I'm forever grateful to you for saving my brother, me, and all of my students."

A little too flustered to offer a response, Church had no choice but to stay quiet as the woman returned to her normal self. That was unfortunate, since the prior side of her was quite likely to never show itself again.

"Alright, I'm trusting you to refrain from anything stupid for the next few days. Take all the time you need to rest: you've earned it."

Church nodded just barely as the other occupants of the room left. He had a lot to think about at this moment in time, but he was too exhausted to dwell on anything for the moment. All he knew was that he had been doomed to die... if not for the efforts of two girls he had considered little more than welcome distractions to his mission not long ago.

And thus, crisis averted. Or at least, this aspect of said crisis. Naturally, it can't all blow over that easily, right?