Less than 10,000 words seems like such a pitifully short chapter these days. But at the same time, there's no need to add stuff just to pad out the runtime, right?

A precursor to most conversations people didn't want to have was usually an awkward silence, and as Church lay in the infirmary with Chifuyu and Tabane standing across from him, he realized this was absolutely true. Even though the visiting party from before had left about a minute ago, no one had managed to start up the conversation at hand.

It was going to be more of an interrogation really. Church knew the two women before him believed him to have had a hand in the Academy's recent crisis; and all things considered, he couldn't really blame them for doing so. Not only was he the least trustworthy individual on campus by merit of being most new to it, but he had responded to a situation that had eluded the entirety of Academy staff. Anyone with half a brain would be suspicious as to how he had known there was an approaching threat when the rest of them had not. It didn't paint a good look for him. The only good thing was that his involvement had included stopping the threat, so he had some clout as far as good intentions was concerned. Still, it wasn't unheard of for good actions to be a smokescreen for nefarious ones. Smart people like Chifuyu and Tabane were definitely aware of that.

Eventually, Chifuyu seemed to gather herself and find the words she wanted to say. Church noticed that she measured her tone cautiously; careful to keep herself from coming across as accusatory but sounding stern nevertheless.

"Church, I hope you understand that I'm not just downright accusing you of having been a player in all of this. No matter what you did and didn't have a part of, I'm still grateful to you for saving the lives of not only myself and my brother, but countless students as well. However, I have to know what really caused all of this. You were out there, intercepting that aircraft long before anyone else even knew it was coming. I can't truly believe that you could have detected it before we did unless you knew about the attack long before it actually came."

At this point Tabane chimed in as well. "Not to mention that you knew exactly how to deal with the missile. You knew how to redirect it and at what distance you needed to take it to avoid damaging the Academy with the explosion. That kind of knowledge about the weapon isn't something you could just discover in the heat of the moment unless you're a genius like me. You had information about that warhead no one else did, and that just doesn't add up."

For a brief moment, Church wondered what would happen if he were honest. Before now, he had been fine with deceiving good people that were kind to him, on the notion that the deception wasn't really doing them any harm. But now, the scope of the consequences had changed. Lying to them was actually putting them in immense danger. He hated to do that to people that had been good to him thus far, even when they had no obligation to. Rin and Laura had even risked their lives for him, the liar that was allowing harm to approach them in the first place. Acknowledging that, Church felt almost sick.

But despite all that, Church dismissed the notion as quickly as it had arisen. For one, the attack wasn't a direct result of him deceiving them, at least as far as he knew. While it seemed unlikely that an Umbra Stratum aircraft had been stolen and directed at the Academy not long after Church had arrived there, it was possible that it really was just a coincidence. Whoever had conducted this maneuver could have had no idea he was there. On the other hand, maybe it was specifically because he was there. There was no way to be sure.

Either way, Church wasn't about to compromise the mission and his paycheck because of a few negative feelings and niggling suspicions. He needed that money, and until he hit a point when he literally couldn't stomach what was happening, he wasn't going to forfeit it. That was why he lied.

"The missile was from a military element that raided an airstrip in the American-controlled Pacific islands a few weeks ago."

Church wasn't exactly an expert when it came to espionage. But he had common sense, and was fairly creative. He knew how to be plausible without allowing room for absolute confirmation or denial. The best lie was one that sounded likely, but couldn't be confirmed or denied either way by those you were lying to.

"An experimental missile was being tested there, but the plane that was armed with the weapon was taken during the raid. Intel lost all track of the craft after it was stolen, but the entire incident was covered up. Aside from widespread panic of the general public, no one wanted to let the world know a security blunder this bad had occurred. America is already in enough hot water on the world stage, so letting this incident become public knowledge was undesirable."

Tabane looked down on the kid below her with a slightly perplexing expression. It was partly mocking, but also appreciative. Of what, he had no idea. "Wow, you Americans sure suck at keeping track of your stuff, huh? First the Silver Gospel, and now thi- Ow! Hey, Chi-Chan!"

Suspecting that the Silver Gospel's rampage had something to do with Tabane in the first place, Chifuyu found it appropriate to smack her longtime friend over the head.

"Let him finish, Tabane."

A little miffed by Tabane's rude behavior, Church nevertheless continued spinning his false tale. So far, it seemed like his interrogators were inclined to believe it. He just had to keep it that way.

"Thankfully, intelligence efforts managed to locate the aircraft again, though it was only just before the attack. The aircraft broke stealth protocols as it neared the Academy, probably in an effort to complete its objective before anything could go wrong... being the closest American asset to the threat, I received instructions to intercept it. You know the rest."

A few moments of silence followed the end of Church's explanation, and for a moment he was afraid that neither of the women believed him. But after a few tense moments, Chifuyu let out a sigh and rubbed the bridge of her nose.

"Really, first the Gospel, and now this? What kind of terrorist group would have the resources to launch an attack of this magnitude? Moreover, what would destroying this place even accomplish?"

Church decided to supply some options, hoping that it would help cement his completely made-up cover. "I mean, anti-Infinite Stratos sentiment is pretty prevalent in many areas. I wouldn't be surprised if some sort of extremist group just wanted to take out as many of them as possible, not to mention the training institution itself. And of course, if they somehow knew that Miss Shinonono would be here... well, an anti-I.S. group couldn't do too much better than killing the only person who knows how to make the cores."

Tabane placed a finger on her chin as she looked up at the ceiling, mock confusion on her face. "Now why would I ever do that? I made a limited number for a reason, you know. Besides, those cores aren't so easy to make, it takes days just for just one, and that's only if I work nonstop! Either way, your assumption has some merit. If your intelligence was able to detect the aircraft but our own systems weren't, it's possible they had specific countermeasures for the Academy in particular. I'll have to look into that."

Naturally, the elder Shinonono neglected to mention that no one could have possibly known she was here or where she was going to be, not to mention the fact that she hadn't even been here when the attack happened. That information was need to know.

As for Chifuyu, she nodded in satisfaction, having apparently come to some conclusion or another in her head. Admittedly, she questioned how a country as militarily competent as the United States could have allowed a military aircraft and experimental weapon to be taken, but then again, crazier things had happened. Actual I.S. had been stolen by a terrorist group over the past few years, and those frames enjoyed the highest levels of security any country could muster. These days, actually going toe to toe with the military of even the strongest nations was not impossible, especially in limited covert operations.

Either way, she was mostly just happy to receive a very believable explanation from Church. Of course, she'd need to get some confirmation from government channels, or perhaps report the situation if the Japanese government was unaware of it at all, but for now, she was relieved.

"I'm glad… it felt wrong suspecting you from the start of all this. Although next time I hope you'll let us know when something so threatening is approaching."

Though he was exhausted, Church managed to smile. Hopefully it didn't look too troubled, all things considered. "I'll be sure to let you know immediately next time something comes up, Chi- I mean, Miss Orimura."

Missing the raised eyebrow from Chifuyu, Tabane apparently took this as her cue to leave and turned on her heel to head for the door. "O~kay then! Now that that's all settled, I'm gonna get back to fixing up your suit! I guess even you are owed that much. Well, maybe lunch first wouldn't hurt..."

Church watched her go, silently acknowledging that it wasn't particularly great to have Tabane working on Exeter. There were many secrets in there that Umbra Stratum probably didn't want her to learn about, not the least of which was Cerberus' processor. Church had an idea about how to at least keep that away from her attention, but it wasn't like he was able to do it right now. Hopefully she would waste time doing something else for awhile.

He didn't get to dwell on it much longer, since Chifuyu was still there and still had something to say. "Well... suffice to say, I think it'll be best if you continue resting for now. Don't worry about your suit: Tabane's a bit off-kilter, but she's never disappointed when it comes to mechanics. As for the next few days, I'm sure the girls already told you about the forced vacation everyone is going to be taking... I'm sure you'll have to discuss that with your superiors, but you have a few days before it happens. Be sure to thank said superiors for their efforts to correct their mistake while you're at it. Speaking of which, I assume this disaster will have consequences for your purpose here?"

Considering that Chifuyu still believed him to be here on official United States business, Church wasn't surprised by her assumption. Ordinarily, a diplomatic mission like the one he was allegedly on would be scrubbed if said diplomat had nearly been killed while on it. It wouldn't be unusual for him to say that he would be leaving as soon as he could.

But for one, that was obviously not the case. Two, he hadn't been in direct contact with his superiors since the incident occurred. Either way, he certainly had no intentions of leaving, and he doubted his leadership would want him to either.

"I can't make contact with my superiors right now, but I doubt they'll want to recall me. It would look pretty bad if they had the gall to recall me for being in danger when it was U.S. negligence that put me in danger in the first place. Although, I'm not sure how the mission will proceed from here if the Academy is not going to be functioning as usual for a while..."

"You flew all the way here, didn't you? Would it really be so bad for you to go back to the States until things return to normal?"

"I suppose it's possible, but I don't really want to do that..."

The expression Chifuyu made at that could best be described as sly. "Well, I'm sure you could sway one of the girls to offer you room and board at this point. You might not even have to ask; I think a few of them would be open to the idea even without prompting. it is the least they could do, at this point."

Admittedly, the idea both appealed to Church and made him a little nervous. He wasn't sure what staying with a girl for such a time would entail under these circumstances. Besides, unless the girl in question happened to be Houki, it wouldn't help his objective very much.

"I guess it couldn't hurt to ask..."

Determining that there wasn't much left to discuss, Chifuyu began to make her exit. "No, it couldn't. Is there anything you need before I go? Do you have any questions?"

Naturally, none of the questions Church would need to ask could be asked of Chifuyu of all people. "No, I'm fine for now. Thank you for everything, Miss Orimura."

Nodding, the dark-haired beauty turned towards the door to the infirmary. "I'm the one who owes you thanks. Oh, and by the way..."

Chifuyu glanced over her shoulder, a somewhat wry expression on her face. "You've already broken the taboo. You may as well just call me Chifuyu at this point."

Recalling that he had done exactly that in the heat of the moment during the crisis, Church couldn't really tell if the woman was upset about it or indifferent. He didn't get to ask though, since she made her exit without waiting for a reply. Ultimately, Church figured that he liked the notion, and that he should just be grateful that she would allow it of him at all.

Sitting back to relax, Church was only about halfway to closing his eyes when the door to the infirmary slid open again, prompting him to contain a frustrated sigh. Peering over at the entrance, he saw that Rin was back: maybe she'd been waiting right outside for Chifuyu to leave. The thought was kind of touching, but damn it, Church was fucking tired right now.

Then again, this was a good thing. In fact, it was about as fortuitous as it could get, so he put on a smile as the brunette approached him, the latter no doubt intent on asking him a bunch of questions about the discussion he had just endured. Naturally, he would have to dodge all of those, once again passing the buck to Chifuyu with some excuse about 'official business.' Hopefully, that response wouldn't turn Rin off to the request he needed to make of her...

About an hour after she had paid Church a visit in the infirmary, Houki was alone in her room for the moment, engrossed in her thoughts. She was trying to think of some way to coax Ichika into spending the upcoming sudden 'vacation' with her. Her roommate was out, discussing plans for said vacation with her own close friends, so for now Houki was left on her own to think of a good scheme. Or at least, she was, until she heard a light knock on the door to her room. Houkihadn't been expecting any visitors, so she was surprised to hear it. For a brief moment, she hoped it may have been Ichika coming to check on her, but that dolt probably hadn't even thought of something like that yet…

"Who is it?"

"Rin. You got a minute? This is really important."

Houki didn't really have an idea of what Rin may have wanted with her right this moment, but they were friends of a sort, and it wasn't like she was doing anything important right now. That being the case, there was no reason to send the petite Chinese girl away.

"It's unlocked."

With all of the invitation she needed, Rin swiftly entered Houki's room, looking entirely miserable with all of those burns and peeling skin she was sporting. "Hey Houki. How are you holding up?"

Houki eyed the girl and wondered if she was trying to be funny. "Much better than you, I'm sure. I know you said as much earlier, but are you really alright?"

Rin nodded stiffly, signaling that perhaps her neck was a little sore, but either way she said nothing about it. "Yeah, I'm fine. Just a little banged up, is all…"

Shifting from foot to foot uncomfortably, Rin looked as though she wanted to say something but was unsure of how to go about it. Houki knew that feeling pretty well all things considered, and decided to spare Rin from whatever anxiousness she was experiencing.

"Is something on your mind, Rin? What's this important thing you needed to talk to me about?"

Caught off guard, it took Rin a moment to collect herself and gather her thoughts. "Well, uh… you see, I need to ask you a favor. Well, actually I need to ask you for a favor for someone else, but it's basically the same…"

Houki cocked an eyebrow at the girl as she folded up another casual shirt to put into the suitcase next to her bed. "And? What's this favor and who is it for?"

"Well it's actually for Church, he's still stuck in the infirmary and this favor isn't something he wanted to say in front of everyone, but he didn't get a chance to talk to you alone..."

Now this was interesting. Houki was obviously on friendly terms with Church, but she'd be hard-pressed to say they were friends outside of the most basic definition of the word. She certainly didn't expect him to have any reason to ask a favor of her. What could he even want of someone he'd only spoken to a little bit?

"And the favor is…?"

Rin took a deep breath before putting on what Houki would have described as a slightly apologetic smile. "He needs you to find out where your sister took his suit, sneak in there, take a part of it and bring it back to him before Tabane finds it."

Houki's reaction wasn't exactly immediate, but it was nevertheless exactly what Rin had been expecting. "What?! What kind of favor is that?!"

"The kind where you sneak around and undermine your sister?"

"Exactly! There's no way I'm doing that!"

Rin had also expected Houki's rejection, but fortunately she had come prepared for it. "Alright, Houki, I didn't want to have to pull this one on you, but you aren't leaving me much of a choice. Tell me, who saved you, Ichika, and all of your friends at great personal risk to himself just a little while ago?"

Houki inwardly groaned, knowing already that she was defeated. "Really, Rin? Are you really going to stoop to such a level of manipulation?"

"I sure am. You owe him big time, and all he asks for in return is a little bit of underhanded subterfuge. Besides, the suit does belong to him, right? If he doesn't want Tabane to see a certain part of it, that's his call isn't it?"

The younger Shinonono sister sighed in defeat. The fact that she owed her life and the life of just about everyone she cared about to Church meant she was obliged to do almost anything he asked, within reason. And on top of that, Rin was right about the suit belonging to him to begin with…

"Alright, Rin, I get it. But why is he asking me to do this? Can't you just sneak in and get it?"

"Well Tabane would be less suspicious of her sister compared to anyone else. So there you go. Besides, you know as well as I do that your sis practically ignores the existence of everyone except you, Ichika, and Chifuyu."

"You don't even feel slightly bad about making me do this, do you?"

Rin grinned at her cheekily. "Not. At. All."

Houki sighed again, something that was likely going to become commonplace in the near future. "And what exactly is this thing I'm getting, Rin?"

As with all things that had to do with engineering, Tabane was eager to get back to her little disassembly project with the Exeter suit following lunch. In fact, she was so excited, that she even began to whistle a rather cheery tune as she skipped down the hallways back to the engineering room she had claimed for herself earlier that day.

Playing with new things always made Tabane happy, especially when Houki was actually interested in it too, which was a rarity: a rarity which just so happened to be taking place today. Her little sister had texted her during her meal, asking if she could sit in on what Tabane was doing. Of course, Tabane had said yes without even questioning the sudden interest: Houki willingly trying to spend time with her was so rare that she didn't really care about where this interest had come from. Besides, she had some suspicions, and none of them were terribly alarming to her, so what did she care?

Having agreed to Houki's sit-in, Tabane was moving a bit more swiftly back to the engineering room than she would have otherwise, aware that her little sister would be waiting there for her. She could hardly contain herself when she turned the corner and saw Houki impatiently waiting beside the R room. The elder sister rushed up to her immediately, prompting Houki to lean away from her socially damnable proximity to her face.

"I'm so glad you decided to tag along, Houki! It can get awfully lonely in there all by myself, with nothing but the machines to keep me company. Hmm… you know, in hindsight that may be part of the reason I'm not so good with people…"

Houki refrained from agreeing with her sister on that one, if only because she was feeling too nervous to do so. Fortunately for her, Houki's tense and rigid demeanor went completely unnoticed by Tabane, who, although she was a technological wunderkind, was less than adept at reading the emotions of others most of the time. Tabane wasn't joking when she labelled herself as not much of a people-person.

Either way, the two sisters fell into silence as Tabane decided to hum a cheerful tune and Houki silently fought down her own guilt at deceiving her sister as she was. Even though she wasn't particularly fond of her sister, deceiving her like this went directly against Houki's morals. That being the case, she had only partially subdued her guilt by the time the sibling duo was able to enter Tabane's borrowed workspace.

Houki found that the room looked much like all the other R areas as her sister stepped into it ahead of her. The benches were still covered completely in a mismatched assortment of tools and manuals, and the walls were still the same dull blue that all the other workshops sported. The color made Houki feel like she was within a blueprint of some sort.

The only real difference in this room was the crumpled and charred suit of armor laying atop one of the benches, which no doubt housed the objective of Houki's little mission here. Unfortunately, she had no idea how to fake being casual, and because of that she asked a stupid question.

"Is that the suit? Well, uh, I don't know what else it would be..."

Houki trailed off, already feeling awkward and guilty about this whole thing, not to mention feeling like an idiot for asking something so dumb. She had literally seen Exeter several times before. She was so nervous about this whole thing that she was coming across like an idiot...

She could only hope her sister was as dense as she appeared to be when it came to people. But if she was aware of Houki's odd behavior, there was no sign of it. Tabane just nodded cheerfully, skipping along her merry way towards her most recent toy.

"Sure is; and I'm actually surprised to admit that I'm having a good time with it. The technology is sorta similar to Infinite Stratos along certain lines, but as far as flight and energy output is concerned, it's completely new. I'm dying to see what power source runs this suit, because the frame is so small…"

Houki tuned out Tabane's tech geek talk as she scanned the wreckage that used to be the Exeter suit for the compartment she was looking for.

Rin said it was on the back somewhere right? Some sort of circular shaped protrusion… but how am I going to get it open when I do find it? Especially without Tabane noticing…

Eventually, Houki did manage to spot what she was looking for, or at least what she thought she was supposed to be looking for. The suit had some sort of circular protrusion right in-between the shoulder blades, although it was bent and dented in several places. There seemed to be a seam going down the middle, but without power, the compartment would probably have to be pried open, which would be impossible for Houki to do without drawing attention to herself.

Having found her target, Houki brought her attention back to her sister, only to find that she was still rambling about energy shields or some-such. "-and what I'm really confused about is how any power source small enough to fit inside this thing could be powerful enough to supply energy to both shields and weaponry at the same time, because the output needed for something like that is enormous, and furthermore-"

"Uh, Nee-chan?"

"-the weapons themselves seem to be materialized on demand, which isn't too different from the Hyperspace Arsenal Infinite Stratos uses, but-"

"Tabane!"

Drawn out of her rambling by her little sister's voice, Tabane tilted her head quizzically at the younger girl. "Yeeees~, Houki? I'm sorry, was I doing it again?"

Houki could only roll her eyes, and once again wonder how her sister could be genius and a ditz at the same time. "Anyway, I was wondering if you could show me what you're doing with the suit here. I'd like to watch you work on it."

The only way Houki could think to retrieve the item she was after was to get her sister to open up the compartment, and then distract her before she took note of what was inside. With how much of an airhead Tabane was, that shouldn't have really been too difficult, but either way it was still risky. Not like she had many options though…

Tabane smiled more gleefully than Houki would have thought humanly possible, positively ecstatic that her little sister was taking an interest in her work. Houki knew this was the case, and it definitely didn't make her feel any better about what she was really doing here.

"Alright then, let's hop to it! I had no idea today was going to be so great! I wonder what I should do first?"

Not exactly eager to sit through this entire process, Houki felt that things would go faster if she actually suggested that her sister started where she needed to. "Well, dismantling something would be pretty cool… um, what about that thing there? It looks like it's supposed to open or something."

Houki pointed to the module she needed opened, hoping Tabane wouldn't be suspicious of anything. It occurred to her that a lot of this plan relied on Tabane's social skills, or lack thereof…

"Sure, why not? I think I had noticed this earlier… let's see what's inside! Maybe it's a nuclear power cell of some sort, or a dangerous bomb or something! Let's see, let's see…"

Houki had no idea how something like a bomb or power cell could be exciting, but for Tabane it wasn't that much of a stretch… either way, if she was going to get that thing open, that was all that mattered. It took a few minutes, but with the proper tools, that being a blowtorch and a crowbar (which seemed awfully crude for a genius to use), Tabane managed to open the compartment in question.

Houki's mind worked as fast as she could to find some sort excuse to distract Tabane before she could identify what was inside the compartment she had just opened. "Uh, er… oh! Tabane, have you figured out how his sword works yet?!"

Tabane looked startled for a second, having not expected her little sister to find another query before she had even answered her first one. "W-what do you mean, Houki? The sword?"

"Y-yes! He, uh, had some sort of energy sword when he fought Ichika, and none of us had ever seen anything like it… he said it was, er… plasma, I think? Charlotte said it was super impressive..."

Any attention Tabane had been paying to her previous task was completely forgotten at the mention of such a weapon. Somehow she had completely forgotten her interest in this weapon from when she had watched the battle recordings between Church and Ichika before.

"A plasma sword! Really!? No one's ever used plasma as a melee weapon before… which hand was it on!? Quick, Houki, which one?"

Houki couldn't for the life of her remember, but this was the lucky break she had been looking for, and there was no way she was going to pass it up. "Uh, I think it was his right hand? I'm not exactly sure, but I think it was a fixed armament, so it should be on one of them, right…?"

Sure or not, Tabane moved immediately to the Exeter suit's mangled right hand, hoping to find the aforementioned weapon. It really was a wonder how she got anything done when she was so easily distracted.

Still, it was a boon for Houki right now, and she took full advantage of it. Slowly sliding over towards her goal, the Japanese Kendo warrior reached her hand into Exeter's back compartment, feeling around the rough grooves and smooth metal of the interior. It all seemed pretty solid and attached to her, but eventually Houki's slim fingers wrapped around the edges of a circular disk that was roughly the size of her palm.

She tried to remove the object gently, hoping to avoid damaging it, but the piece of equipment offered stiff resistance. Deciding for speed over stealth, Houki yanked the thing out with just a little bit of effort, resulting only in a conspicuous clang that didn't attract Tabane's attention anyway, with how engulfed she was in her new experiment with plasma swords.

Houki quickly hid the small metal disc, which was blue with silver ridges in it, behind her back, doing her best to avoid drawing attention to it. Whatever this thing was, Church really wanted it bad, and Houki did owe him big-time…

The only problem now was a personal one, that being that Houki had to suffer through the rest of this tech session with Tabane because she had promised that she'd do so. Still, it was a relief to be done with all of this sneaking around, because she was sure Tabane wouldn't notice anything amiss at such a late stage of her scheme.

Anyway, for those of you asking, "Where's the romance?" Worry not. We're getting there, slowly but surely. I don't like to rush relationships, because I feel like they lose some of their meaning if it all happens too fast. But you are guaranteed to see some lovin' before everything is said and done, all in due time.

For anyone interested in discussing the story in particular or Infinite Stratos as a whole, there's a Discord channel for that, which you can find a link to on my profile page. Always happy to have new people to talk to!