I'm hoping that by sticking to some relatively shorter chapters, we can maintain a somewhat normal update rate with this story now that its revision is finally over. Of course there will always be many variables affecting things like this, but chapter length is definitely a big one. That said, I'm never going to arbitrarily dictate chapter length for a reason like that. I'll also endeavor to ensure that the content of chapters feels organic and well-paced, with endings at proper times.

Anyway, we're back at it again.

The next few days after Church's fight with Chifuyu, things proceeded as one might expect: the two of them had not spoken since, even in situations when they ended up being near one another. Everyone had returned to the R and D room in the following days to further work on their I.S., and naturally, Chifuyu was often present for that as well. She never made eye contact with Church and also never spoke directly to him. If a situation ever developed in a way that would likely see them alone together, she was always quick to find a reason to go somewhere else.

Fully capable of reading the atmosphere, Church had yet to try and rectify this problem between them in any way. One, because he knew she wouldn't be receptive at this time, and two, because he was still pretty angry about the whole ordeal. He knew that he had likely said something hurtful to Chifuyu in the elevator that day, but from his perspective, she had been the one to initiate their bad situation in the first place. She was the one who had gone off and treated him like some sort of outcast for an accident that was not his fault, then proceeded to belittle him when he tried to have a mature conversation about the issue. As far as Church was concerned, Chifuyu hardly had any right to be upset with him for being unfair in any way, considering that her unfair treatment had pushed him that far in the first place.

Admittedly, Church acknowledged that he could try to be the bigger person and move beyond the problem to pursue reconciliation, but at the same time, he didn't see why that fell to him. Relationships were a two-way street: unless only one person was guilty of causing a problem, it shouldn't have fallen to just one person to try and reconcile. If Chifuyu really didn't want to fix the tension and agitation between them, he didn't see any reason to be the one who had to accept blame and apologize like he was the only one who had done something wrong. Why attempt to reconcile with someone who didn't want it?

This was not to say that Church was really happy with the idea, of course. Which was probably why he had been in a rather foul mood lately, something that had not gone unnoticed by the other girls, and something that didn't go unnoticed right this moment, either.

Currently, he was eating lunch with everyone else in the cafeteria. It had been a few days since everyone had put in their requests for module changes and I.S. upgrades, and by now, most everything was ready to go and test in some sparring drills. Their afternoon had been slated for this, but naturally, no one was going to get into training with new tools on an empty stomach, so lunch was the current order of business.

Church tried his best to keep his general bad mood from getting in the way of the rest of his friendships, but how well he was achieving that was unknown to him. He couldn't read their minds. But he also sensed that they were indeed picking up on his misgivings, even if they didn't necessarily know what it was about.

Laura, at the very least, was very aware that something troubled the young man. A few days ago, she had been worried that it was her fault: that he may have been in a bad mood because of the awkward situation that had occurred between them, and her relentless teasing about it. But it didn't honestly feel like that was the problem to her. He didn't go out of his way to avoid her, and even though it wasn't as prominent as the day of the incident, he still got somewhat flustered when she made some sort of insinuation. It really seemed more like he was just wrapped up in his own thoughts most of the time.

Much different from the usual, Laura or any of the others often had to get his attention if they wanted to talk to him. He was usually attentive and very engaging. But these past few days, he'd been far more withdrawn than usual. Laura was still attempting to figure out the exact reason for this, but she couldn't do anything other than guess since she wasn't going to blatantly ask him what was wrong. Part of her acknowledged that she might have been able to do just that, but at the same time, she didn't want to be too blunt.

So, while everyone was eating lunch in a relatively vocal fashion, Laura quietly observed the boy in question from across the table as she depleted a juice box. He was never actually looking around at any of them unless someone got his attention. And in the same vein, he wasn't initiating any conversations of his own, either. He had to be dragged into engagement with everyone, which was unusual. It didn't seem like he was upset with any of them in particular, just that he was preoccupied with somber thoughts.

It was almost worse that way, though. Wondering what was on his mind served to remind Laura that he was a mystery to many of them. Even after he had shared an important part of his past during the birthday party, it wasn't like they really knew that much about him still. He had said that his mother was in a coma, but what kind of tabs did he keep on that? Was there something wrong with her? Or was it something else entirely? Was it even anything serious at all, or was he just tired and spacing out?

"Laura?"

Startled from her thoughts but not reacting outwardly much, Laura glanced to her right, spying a bemused Ichika. Seeing that he had her attention, the young man pointed at the juice box in her hand.

"I think you've gotten everything you possibly can out of that."

Glancing down, Laura noted that her juice box had almost entirely crumpled in on itself thanks to the vacuum she was creating and the lack of liquid still within it. She'd been so preoccupied that she hadn't even noticed. Ironic, really.

"So it would seem."

Saying nothing more, Laura returned her attention to the conversation that was actually taking place at the table. Currently, Cecilia was dominating it.

"I'm just surprised that we get to skip class. Chifuyu hardly seems the type to allow such truancy."

Finishing off a cup of noodles, Rin briefly wiped her mouth before contributing. "I think testing these new upgrades is more important than whatever would be going on in class, don't you? The whole reason we're even doing this so suddenly is to prepare for fights that could be life and death, y'know?"

"I suppose, but still... what do you think, Church? It's awfully lenient of her, isn't it?"

Though he hadn't been paying attention much, hearing his name spoken drew the boy in question in. It seemed that he had at least been listening enough to get the overall gist of what had been said.

"As if anyone could actually know what that woman is thinking."

Laura raised an eyebrow from her side of the table, feeling that Church had said that with a bit of annoyance in his voice. Not to mention referring to someone he was friends with as 'that woman'. Surely, Chifuyu wasn't the reason for his bad mood, right? If so, the potential reason for that was somewhat alarming for the German. For now though, maybe it would be wise to not jump to conclusions. Still, would he be this troubled regarding Chifuyu unless she was overtly important to him in some regard...?

At any rate, Laura was unsure if anyone else was picking up on this feeling. At the very least, Houki, who spoke next, didn't seem to be aware of it.

"I'd just as soon not have to deal with something as serious as life and death. I really don't see why dealing with Phantom Task has to fall to us."

Laura decided to focus on this, to distract herself from her possibly paranoid anxieties. "It's not that it falls to us, so much as the fact that we don't have a choice as to whether or not we participate. Phantom Task wants rare I.S., for whatever cause they possess. Unless you are willing to give up Akatsubaki, you will be in their sights at some point, just like the rest of us."

Houki fell silent at that, pondering what Laura had just said. Truthfully, she had no desire to give up Akatsubaki. Not really because she had any sentimental value in it being a gift from Tabane. But more just because it allowed her to actually fight alongside her friends as equals. She could still remember the early days before she had Akatsubaki... days when she had no ability to help her friends in dangerous situations because she simply lacked the means. She didn't want to return to that time.

Charlotte, who had managed to sit herself beside Church for lunch, intertwined her fingers. "I wonder what it is that Phantom Task wants, anyway. I mean, I can understand that possessing advanced superweapons is valuable on its own merits, but what do they actually intend to do with them?"

To this valid question, Church answered. Maybe he realized he had been oddly quiet throughout the conversation. "Could be that they want to make some super mercenary group or something. If they became a dominant I.S. force, they could demand exorbitant sums to fight for anyone. Or who knows, they could just sell the technology they steal from others."

Rin leaned back to pop a cramp in her lower back. "Or maybe it's world domination. Isn't that what all evil organizations want?"

"That's a bit farfetched, don't you think? Even if they had possession of every I.S. in the world and had people to pilot them, something like that is still off the table. They could maybe take over a small country, but it's not like they would be able to pressure NATO or anything."

Surprisingly, it was Charlotte who spoke an opposite sentiment. "I don't know, Church. Conventional weapons are far behind what Infinite Stratos is capable of. I don't think even a world superpower could feasibly fight against more than three hundred I.S. and hope to win."

Church thought back to the Crucible incident, and the many amazing features that the fighter he had engaged that day possessed. "Conventional weapons are advancing too. Every tool that I.S. possess can be applied to other platforms. Not far in the future, I'm sure we'll have jet fighters with energy shields and inertial cancelling, and anti-air weapons using lasers. Besides, taking over the world or even a country isn't just about winning a military conflict. There are still the logistical demands of occupying even a small country, and I.S. aren't going to be doing anything on that front."

"I suppose you have a point..."

Before the conversation could continue any further, Ichika broke in while holding up his phone. "Uh, hey guys. Tatenashi is asking why we aren't at the arena yet..."

Rin scoffed as she glanced over at Cecilia. "Probably because someone is a slow eater who uses a knife and fork to eat a sandwich..."

"Excuse you! It's a roast beef sandwich and those tend to be quite messy! Sorry for not being a barbarian like you!"

The brunette raised her hands in mock surrender, though she clearly wasn't apologizing. Houki ignored the exchange entirely. "At any rate, it sounds like we should probably get going. Chifuyu may be letting us skip class for this, but I'm sure she'll be very unhappy if we're late to our excuse."

With no one unable to refute that, the group started to bus their table so they could leave in good conscience. As for Church, he tried to ignore the mixed feelings all these mentions of Chifuyu were giving him.

Once everyone got to the arena, Church found himself alone for a few minutes as they retreated to private spaces to change into their sync suits. Part of him wondered why they needed those when he didn't, but he supposed that the difference in technology allowed for some changes.

Of course, his mind was truly on more important things. Chifuyu had not met anyone personally this time. When the group had arrived, they'd been greeted by Tatenashi and Kanzashi, the prior of which told them that they should go ahead and get ready. Church wasn't sure if that meant Chifuyu was observing these tests at all, or if she was just silently viewing things from the observation platform near the top of the arena stands. Maybe she was just leaving someone else to observe.

Either way, it continued to make Church uneasy. Just how bent out of shape could she really be over the conversation they had shared? It felt so weird for her to be practicing avoidance to this extent. He kind of hated to think it, but it seemed that his insult towards her that day was kind of true: Chifuyu seemed to have some issues with the way she dealt with emotional problems. Though maybe he wasn't one to talk at this time.

In an attempt to distract himself from a situation he couldn't really do anything about right now, Church silently reached out for Cerberus.

Still hard at work, Cerb?

As had been the norm for the past few days, Cerberus was slightly slow to respond, at least by computer standards.

As ever, Operator. Do you need something?

Just curious about how your self-inventory is going.

I am currently four-hundred thousand steps though the process. Only approximately six-hundred thousand more to go.

The nonchalant way the AI said that caused Church to snort.

'Only' makes it sounds so much better, huh? Not to disparage you, but this is kind of taking a while, isn't it?

You are aware that one million has seven digits in it, yes, Operator?

I know that, I'm just saying: you're a super advanced artificial intelligence that helps to operate one of the most advanced war machines in the world. Shouldn't a system sweep be relatively quick, even when you have to go through hundreds of thousands of processes?

Perhaps realizing that Church had some sort of point, at least from the point of view of a layman, Cerberus didn't say anything too snarky in response.

Searching through computer files is pretty simple, Operator... for a common laptop. You are correct in saying that I am a very advanced machine. I not only have many processes, but many of them are incredibly complicated. On top of that, I do not know what exactly I am searching for, and must be as meticulous as possible. I am not just scanning through my processes, but testing each of them to search for potential faults. I even have to test them in conjunction with one another to determine if the fault I'm searching for only occurs under certain circumstances. The amount of troubleshooting I am going through is very time-consuming.

Taking in all of that, Church figured that he was probably out of his depth in this regard.

Alright, I'll take your word for it. Is the problem itself growing any worse?

No, it's about the same as it was when I first noticed it.

OK. Well, as long as you maintain that it's not a big deal...

Cerberus paused for a moment, but did answer eventually.

Unfortunately, I can't promise that it's no big deal until I figure out what the problem is.

Church said nothing to that, as there was nothing he could really say to the contrary. Cerberus was certainly right about that, and it did worry him significantly. Man, this shit was not helping his mood...

Falling silent in this mental conversation as well, Church turned his focus back on the arena around him. Coincidentally, it was around the time everyone was returning from the changing rooms and coming back onto the field. The sight of the girls in skin-tight material akin to latex did do a little bit to lighten Church's mood, but even something like that wasn't really enough. All the camel-toes and perky peaks in the world didn't change the many burdens that weighed on his shoulders. Besides, Ichika was in a skin-tight outfit too. Kinda ruined it.

Once everyone was assembled together again, they were addressed by the arena intercom before they could say anything to each other. Notably, the voice on said intercom belonged to Chifuyu.

"Alright everyone, this is just a basic test run of your new modifications. We might do some sparring if things seem to be in order. For now, everyone manifest your I.S. and ensure that your modifications aren't pushing your machines past acceptable parameters."

With no reason to do anything other than instructed, everyone except Church began manifesting their I.S. It wasn't like he actually had any modifications to test out right now. Though of course, if people started shooting, he would need to manifest Exeter just to keep himself safe.

I.S. manifestation didn't take particularly long, so soon enough the girls and Ichika were all equipped. Most of their machines looked the same as they always did: namely, there didn't seem to be anything externally different about Akatsubaki, Byakushiki, and Schwarzer Regen. As best as Church could tell, the Mysterious Lady and Kanzashi's Uchigane Nishiki were unchanged too. But then again, he had only seen those in action once, so he wasn't actually sure if there were some minor external differences. Cerberus was too busy to compare the new visuals to what was in the database, so it was unclear.

On the other hand, Shen Long, Blue Tears, and Charlotte's Rafale Revive II had more obvious external differences, even though they weren't huge. Blue Tears was particularly subtle: ordinarily, Blue Tears had four hovering pylons at Cecilia's back. The two pylons that held her BITS in a downward V shape usually had solid black centerpieces. Other than holding the BITS, they didn't do much else. But now, those matte black centers had been changed to a reflective black surface that looked a lot like tinted glass. White lines divided this black glass into various hexes. As far as Church could tell, this was the prototype 'Starfall' weapon system that had been planned for her machine. Church knew how it was supposed to work in theory, but he was still curious to see them in action.

Shen Long's change was less subtle. Like always, it had a huge spherical, spiked Dragon Cannon hovering over each of Rin's shoulders. However, there were two, much smaller spheres similar in appearance that hovered behind the main cannons. Sans the spikes, they almost looked identical. Which made sense, since they were supposed to be just weaker Dragon Cannons that could be operated a lot like Cecilia's BITS.

Finally, Charlotte's Rafale was mostly unchanged other than the presence of the missile racks that had been attached to the outer calves of her machine. Most of the changes to her Rafale just had to do with what armaments she could manifest on demand, so there wasn't much to see on that front. But then, that was the case with machines like this these days: when you could manifest a weapon out of thin air, the armaments you could see weren't a great way to judge what a machine was capable of.

Everyone was pulling up readouts in their HUDs before doing anything else, likely judging the impact of their new upgrades on the specs of their machines. Power draw, Equalizer usage, and things like that. So far, it didn't seem like anyone was having any problems, considering a lack of statements attesting to such. Charlotte was fairly close to Church, so he heard her muttering to herself.

"Weight distribution has changed for sure, but it's not so bad. A bit of calibration on the upward thrust should compensate while airborne..."

The intercom flared to life again after everyone had a solid minute to appraise their machines. "Report issues. Stay silent if you have none."

Everyone stayed silent since there was no reason not to. Noting this, Chifuyu spoke again. "Alright, I'm pulling up holo-targets to to test the new weapons on all around the field. Find a section and get to work. If you don't have a weapon to test, move to the air to test out your performance changes. Houki, Ichika: you know what you need to test out, so hop to it."

All around the edges of the arena, holographic targets began to appear. Knowing that shots would start flying, even in a controlled environment, Church wasted no time in manifesting Exeter himself. Safety first, and all that. He didn't have anything to test out, so he'd probably just serve as an observer here. After all, he had helped devise the ideas for many of these upgrades, so it would probably help if he could see how well they worked out. He might be able to come up with some other good ideas as an outside observer.

Since everyone was going to have to split up to some extent, Rin was quick to glance over her shoulder at Church. "Hey, Church, come check out the new gear with me! I bet it's gonna be rad!"

Honestly, Church expected Cecilia to be the first to counter Rin's request, since that was usually how this played out. But surprisingly, it was actually Charlotte who did this.

"I think Church's observations would be better spent on the Rafale's new weapons. He had far more of a direct role in the devising the modifications for my I.S., after all..."

Had Cecilia been the one to do something like this, Rin almost definitely would have gotten aggressively irritated about it. But with Charlotte being the one doing it, the brunette donned a genuinely bewildered expression. She had clearly not expected to be contested by this blonde as opposed to the other one. As for Charlotte, she was all smiles, though there was a certain concealed smugness to it, in Church's opinion. Or was he just imagining that...?

Caught off-guard, it was clear that Rin didn't have a counterpoint ready like she usually did with Cecilia. Church decided to beat her to the punch and avoid the disagreement altogether.

"I should probably keep an equal eye on everyone from here. As an outside observer, I might be able to notice all sorts of things you guys might miss even as the pilots actually testing them out."

Rin frowned at his decision right away. Charlotte seemed to feel the same, but only for a moment. Her cheerful smile returned in no time. "Insightful as always, Church. Always thinking of the big picture. You're right... we can discuss the peculiarities of the upgrades to my Rafale in private after this instead."

Charlotte glided off to a free space in the arena after saying that in full confidence, content smile never falling from her face. Rin's confused gaze followed the blonde as she left, tumultuous thoughts likely clouding her mind. As for Church, he too followed the image of Charlotte's retreating form with his eyes, finally admitting to himself that the blonde was absolutely putting the moves on him. He'd been debating whether or not he was just misinterpreting her general friendliness before, but he couldn't fall into that delusion any longer. Even ignoring the spicy maid cosplay less than a week ago, the girl was making clear attempts to praise him, be close to him, and get him alone with her. He wasn't dense enough to believe that such things meant nothing romantic at all.

The real question was, when did that happen? He could have sworn that she was very much into Ichika not that long ago... but then again, that was technically true of all the girls that were into him right now, wasn't it? Man, he wasn't sure if he should feel good about that, or bad about the fact that so many chicks were turning towards him even over the guy they had initially liked. He almost felt like he was bullying Ichika somehow, even though he hadn't intended for any of this to happen.

But, well, maybe he had no reason to feel guilty. Ichika didn't seem to mind, and Church doubted the young man could be oblivious to the fact that the girls who had once pined after him now had their sights set on someone else. Hell, Church knew he would be distraught if all of these girls suddenly dropped interest in him for another guy... which was a bit rich, considering that he wouldn't reciprocate their advances even if they made them obvious. He didn't really have the right to be upset if they did to him the same thing they had done to Ichika.

He felt that he was rapidly approaching some sort of event horizon in regards to all of this. These girls would only refrain from hard ball for so long... in some ways, a few of them already were playing hard ball. Girls tended not to undress in front of you or imply they were good at sex to your face unless they were serious about you. Church was happy that he could get so many amazing girls to consider him worth their time, but that didn't mean having the affection of so many wasn't a problem in and of itself.

If someone took up the courage to just outright ask him out, should he say yes just because they were the first to do so? Should he stop and try and estimate whether or not he liked someone else just a tad more than the one who asked him? He really didn't want to turn any of them down, but by accepting any one offer, he was automatically doing so to everyone else.

With a frustrated sigh, Church decided to turn his attention to the sounds of weapon fire erupted from various locations around the arena. He wouldn't do much good as an outside observer if he wasn't paying attention to what anyone was doing.

Up in the observation platform that overlooked the arena, Chifuyu sat grim-faced, looking out at the area below where her students underwent trials with new weapons and modifications. She wasn't grim for any practical reason related to any of this testing. No, that feeling was mostly due to a certain someone who also happened to be down there, and who also happened to be the only one of them that wasn't a student of hers.

Chifuyu had gone out of her way to avoid talking to him or being anywhere alone with him in the past few days since their argument in that elevator. And in doing so, she acknowledged that the thing Church had said to agitate her in the first place was likely not entirely off the mark. She clearly did have a bit of a problem with how she handled emotional issues. Avoiding someone so blatantly and completely was pretty immature. She was aware of this, but that didn't mean she wasn't going to keep doing it. She honestly didn't know how else to handle it.

It had been a bad idea to ever allow a casual relationship between the two of them in the first place. There were way too many issues that had sprung up due to it, both practical and personal... well, mostly personal. The elder Orimura had only realized just how big of a problem it was the night of the party, when fate had ordained an accidental kiss between the two of them. An incident that should have been merely awkward, and nothing more.

But it had been more. It had been a hell of a lot more. Prior to that night, Chifuyu had acknowledged that she thought fondly of Church: he was intelligent, capable, and considerate. There was little to dislike, from a platonic point of view. But due to either sheer inexperience with it or willful delusion, it wasn't until the racing heart, the burning cheeks, and the flustered thoughts that followed their kiss that Chifuyu realized she actually liked him.

And that was bad.

It was bad for many reasons, all of which were connected to the same root cause. And Chifuyu knew that, for the best outcome for everyone involved, she had to nip it in the bud as soon as possible. She had been avoiding Church immediately after the party because she hadn't known how to go about doing that. And she had said something very foolish and hurtful in that elevator because she'd folded under the sudden pressure of the unexpected conflict.

Succumbing to pressure was something Chifuyu almost never did, which was how she knew that the problem was serious. If her feelings were making her that vulnerable, surely nothing good could come of them. She couldn't give Church or anyone else what they would have wanted in a relationship. And she knew there was no way to convince them of that, thanks to their skewed perception of her. So it was best to just be cold and detached about it.

Even so, Chifuyu felt guilty for insulting Church so unfairly in that elevator. Especially with something that was far from the truth, even in her own eyes.

Sighing, Chifuyu glanced towards the armored man in question out there on the field, wondering if they were just never going to talk again at this point. He had made no moves to try and reconcile with her, which, even though she was the cause of their conflict, had honestly surprised the woman. She'd never actually seen him this agitated. Had she really destroyed something valuable? And could she actually convince herself that it was the right thing to do, somewhere down the line?

He was better off without her. Chifuyu was at least convinced of that.

Fully engaged in her own ruminations, Chifuyu missed the sound of the platform entrance opening behind her.

"Down in the dumps, Chi-chan? How unlike you."

Chifuyu felt her fists clench instinctively as she identified Tabane's voice, which was exponentially more grating right now than usual. Probably because Chifuyu wasn't happy to see her at all. The woman had up and disappeared after her stunt sending explicit photos to a certain someone. Probably to avoid Chifuyu's wrath. Said wrath had simmered down a little, but Chifuyu was surprised that the elder Shinonono was feeling brave enough to show her face so soon regardless.

She didn't even turn around to appraise the woman behind her. "What do you want, Tabane?"

If the irritation in her voice did anything to dissuade Tabane from continuing to be here, Chifuyu couldn't tell. The scientist certainly didn't seem cowed.

"Just checking on my old friend. Wondering why she's been so gloomy and glum lately. Why, I'd almost think that something bad happened."

"And how would you know how I've been? You haven't been around."

"It's cute that you think I'm not always watching."

Chifuyu's brow furrowed as she detected an unusual element in Tabane's voice: some sort of smugness. Almost condescending mockery, even. Tabane was always a bit full of herself, but usually not maliciously so. Finally, Chifuyu glanced over her shoulder, spying Tabane in a rather uncharacteristic light. The elder Shinonono was leaning against the open doorway of the observation platform, arms folded and a smile that was not that airheaded and absent-minded one she usually sported, but rather, a bit smug.

The sight of it irritated Chifuyu greatly. "I'm really not in the mood."

"That's why I'm here. Your mood is what's ruining my hard work."

Chifuyu turned the swivel chair she was in all the way around to give Tabane her full attention. "What the hell are you on about?"

Getting off of the door frame, Tabane stepped further into the room and allowed said door to close behind her. "Your boy trouble, of course. I was expecting this drama to pull out a side of you I've never seen before. Instead it's just the same sad, pathetic you that you've always been."

Chifuyu's eyes narrowed into a scathing glare. Speaking of sides of people that were rarely seen, this was a persona Tabane hadn't exhibited in a long time. The real her that she constantly disguised with stupid jokes and an airheaded personality: a deprecating narcissist who truly thought herself better than everyone else in some way or another. Even the people that she actually liked. Chifuyu hadn't seen this side of her in many years... and admittedly, it'd been even longer since the elder Shinonono had directed this type of personality towards her.

"I really don't need much more convincing to kick your ass, Tabane."

Tabane didn't seem worried. If anything, her expression only grew more amused. "Try it. You've never stacked up to me before. You won't now, either."

"It's been a long time, Tabane. Things have changed."

"The most important thing hasn't. You're still scared. That's why you've never been my equal."

Chifuyu found herself gritting her teeth, wondering where this was all coming from all of a sudden. She had always known that Tabane was secretly like this, but why was she letting it out right now, seemingly out of nowhere?

As for Tabane, she nonchalantly gestured towards her chest. "You know what's always set us apart, Chifuyu? I always take what I want. I always do what I want. You were meant to be a perfect human, to have the best of everything. And though you fall short of that intent, you still have so many things that make you better than others. Strength, skill, intellect, inherent beauty... there's so much you could have for yourself if you'd just use those things to your advantage, but you never do. You're always too scared to go after what you want."

The scathing woman with the orchid hair and currently out of place bunny ears spread her arms, gesturing at nothing in a grandiose manner. "When your purpose for existing fell apart thanks to yours truly, you still had so much potential. But you squandered it all, and for what? You wanted to join the JASDF, but didn't want to take the risk. So I made you something even better: I made a weapon just for you, the greatest weapon the world had ever seen, and for awhile, you actually lived up to your potential. But you threw that away too. There's so much you could have done, but instead you wither away here, teaching nameless brats that will never amount to anything."

Boring a metaphorical hole into Tabane's skull with her gaze, Chifuyu offered a retort. "I gave up on those things for my brother's sake. Some of us actually care about other people enough to sacrifice our own dreams."

"You keep telling yourself that, Chifuyu. What holds you back has always been self-loathing. I know, because I've always hated it about you. Imagine having the capability to exceed all others, but instead you just hate yourself for being special. It's so pathetic..."

Lazily walking up to the window, Tabane directed her gaze down to the field and onto a specific individual. "Even now, you can't even get past your hangups enough to fuck some guy you've got the hots for."

"You're way out of line!"

Unperturbed in the slightest, Tabane raised an amused eyebrow as she looked back at Chifuyu. "Please, don't insult my intelligence. You can lie to yourself, but I won't fall for outright delusion. You want him. You're just too much of a coward to take him: just like you've always been. You can't use Ichika as an excuse for this one. It's not like you'd be inconveniencing or endangering him by having a relationship. Hell, he'd be happy for you and you know it. Your unwillingness to pursue your desires has never been because of Ichika. He's just a convenient excuse for convincing yourself that your cowardice is actually some form of respectable self-sacrifice."

To all of this, Chifuyu could say nothing. She wanted to defend herself, but she couldn't. Because she knew, deep down, that Tabane was completely right. And having that truth dragged up to the surface to be acknowledged left Chifuyu with no excuse. Tabane took another look outside before turning around and heading for the door she had entered through.

Houki's older sister stopped after opening the door, glancing back over her shoulder with that rare, conceited look on her face. "If you hate yourself for being an inhuman abomination so much, stop being a Petri dish and actually live a little for once. Otherwise, I'll be appalled to remember that you're still the closest to me in terms of human perfection. I don't know why you're so hung up on the fact that you're better than everyone else, but if you really want to feel like an ordinary schmuck, just do something you want to do for once."

After saying this, Tabane stepped out of the room entirely, allowing the door to close behind her and leaving Chifuyu in silence. The remaining woman was certainly still pissed off at Tabane for all of this, but at the same time, she couldn't shake what had been said to her just now. It wasn't like Chifuyu hadn't known these things about herself, but at the same time, she had done a damn good job of pushing them down over the years. Such a good job that she had really convinced herself it was all fine for a time.

Tabane didn't know everything, despite what she may have thought. But as much as Chifuyu hated to admit it, the elder Shinonono knew her. She had taken a keen interest all those years ago, after finding out that she was the very reason that Project Mosaica was cancelled. She had befriended Chifuyu, but part of her had always known that Tabane had done so to study her. Maybe Chifuyu had just been so lonely at the time that she couldn't find it in herself to care about that. Even today, with the hindsight to question how genuine Tabane had been back then, Chifuyu couldn't find it in her to hate the woman. Was this how it felt to have Stockholm Syndrome?

At any rate, on the back of all this, Chifuyu knew there was no way she would be able to stay invested in the modification testing and what everyone was doing down there. She needed some time to herself to think. So she pulled out her phone and sent a text to Maya. At least that was someone she could count on to actually have her back.

"How about... 'Trombe'?"

"I'm afraid I'd have to know what that word means before judging it."

Standing in the center of the arena area, most everyone had reconvened after two hours of extensive testing of their new weaponry. Currently, everything seemed to be in working order, though there were some minor modifications and tune-ups that would need to be made. At any rate, the current discussion revolved around naming the new weapons and tools that everyone had available to them. After all, equipment was easier to organize with a naming scheme, and it was even easier when you didn't rely on a serial code like 'SRX R-1' or something like that.

Charlotte was the one currently pitching a name for her new missile system. "Well, it can have many different meanings, but in this case, it would be 'whirlwind!' When the missiles are spinning around through the air tracking a fast-moving target, it really reminds me of a gust of wind. Maybe it's all the vapor trails..."

Church offered a shrug to Charlotte's enthusiastic suggestion. "Sounds good to me. It's got my vote."

No one actually still had their I.S. deployed, since they were done with their tests. They were all standing in a circle, facing one another. Rin spoke up next. "OK, me next! Let's see..."

Across from the brunette, Houki raised a point. "Does your modification even need a name? They are essentially just extra Dragon Cannons, aren't they?"

Admittedly, that was the case for Rin, mostly speaking. Technically, her new equipment was not identical to her huge Dragon Cannons: they were BITS like Cecilia's, capable of operating semi-independently. They still used air pressure to fire concussive rounds, but on a much smaller scale. Still, in a manner of speaking, it wasn't inaccurate to just call them miniature Dragon Cannons. That said, it didn't look like Rin wanted to be that lacking in creativity.

"Hey, I gotta call them something unique. But they are a little similar, so I guess 'dragon' should still be in the name..."

Seeing that she was struggling with an idea, Church proposed the first thing that came to mind. "How about 'Dragon Chaser' or something like that?"

"Oh, I like that! Sure, let's go with that."

Cecilia folded her arms after Rin settled on a name for her new tool. "Well this hardly seems fair. My weapon was named for me before I even got a chance to see what it was about."

Tatenashi tried to wave off her concern. "Yeah, but come on: you know Starfall is a cool name. And it thematically matches your Starlight. Are you really unhappy with it?"

"Well, no... it is quite fitting."

Not wanting to be left out of the conversation, Laura contributed as well, though she was mostly jokingly upset. "At least you have something to name at all. I've received nothing new and exciting for Schwarzer Regen. Just tuning."

Tatenashi once again spoke up about this. "If we do get your static AIC field working, it's already got a name, does it not? AIC."

"That's just an official name. Hardly any fun."

Ichika seemed to take her side. "Then why not just think of a name now? Then you can use that when the new gear is ready."

"I suppose that's a fair idea. Though admittedly, I haven't exactly put much thought into it yet."

Thinking of how he had seen the AIC used in the past, Church raised a suggestion again. He'd be the first to admit that he often spent a fair deal of mental energy on technically unimportant things like this.

"It'll be an invisible force field type thing, right? Maybe a name to do with ghosts or spirits or something?"

His German comrade pondered over this for a moment. "Yes, perhaps. How does 'Gespenst' sound?"

"Very cool, though I'm sure that's because I don't speak German."

Since this seemed to be what everyone wanted to talk about right now, even Houki decided to join in with the theme. "Well, I'm glad you all are so good at ideas. I have no idea what Ichika and I would name our equipment."

Rin raised an eyebrow. "It might help if we actually knew what that new equipment was. I was too bust with my own stuff to check it out. Plus, didn't Chifuyu raise the idea for your upgrade personally?"

To this, Houki's expression grew sheepish. "Ah, well... I'm not even really sure how to explain it. Most of Chifuyu's explanation was pretty complicated."

Ichika seemed to agree with this, though he still tried to put things into words. "It's like some sort of long range power transfer. You know, Houki's Akatsubaki could regenerate power for the rest of us through touch, but Chifuyu was like, 'what if you could do it from father away'? And it works! Like, without cords or wires or anything!"

Once again proving herself to be strangely knowledgeable about all sorts of technology fields, Charlotte grew excited immediately. "Oh, that sounds like Wireless Power Transmission! What a great idea!"

Rin didn't seem as impressed. Probably because she didn't get it. "Sounds like science fiction to me."

Church muttered before Charlotte could continue. "Moreso than the mechs we use...?"

Everyone ignored him, including the French blonde who extrapolated on what she had to say. "Not at all. Nikola Tesla proved its viability as early as 1899, managing to power a lightbulb wirelessly from more than three kilometers away! Of course that required very large and unwieldy machinery, but the concept has always very much been reality. Nowadays, you can wirelessly transfer energy via electromagnetic waves directed by narrow beams. It's line-of-sight only, but with the speeds that EM waves move, it's hardly a concern."

Frankly, Church was a little alarmed to hear this. "Wait, so are you saying Akatsubaki could regenerate the energy of any I.S. from long range now?"

"Well, not any I.S. You'd need a specialized receiver for the EM beam to actually power anything. I'm assuming that's what Byakushiki's upgrade was for."

She said this while looking at Ichika, as she was obviously asking him for confirmation. The man in question picked up on this easily. "Yeah, Byakushiki's got a funny dish looking thing on the back now. Houki's got to be able to aim at it to do the energy transfer."

Despite this limitation being made known, Laura seemed impressed. "That's incredibly powerful. You could use your Reiraku Byakuya as many times as you want, assuming Houki had enough energy to continuously supply to you. That seems like an upgrade we should all get..."

Charlotte weighed once again. "I imagine that Byakushiki can do it because it has plenty of free Equalizer space. Not to say that we couldn't all find a way to fit such a tool into our machines, but if it was viable for all of us, I'm sure Chifuyu would have brought it up."

Silent at the moment, Church wondered if he should log this information and add it to the Akatsubaki data he currently had in his possession. But he ultimately figured that there was no need. For one, it was actually quite limited in scope and usefulness at the moment. This new ability of Akatsubaki's only aided Byakushiki, and no one else. Furthermore, he wasn't sure if he actually wanted Umbra Stratum to have this information. Granted, he had not decided whether or not he was going to give the data to them in the first place, but it seemed prudent to leave this out.

Really, he had no idea what the organization was up to right now. He hadn't even been asked to report in for a strangely long time. Why were they suddenly so patient? If the mission was no longer important, wouldn't they just recall him? Church just couldn't see any reason for them to be so lackadaisical about it.

Which, naturally, worried him. And which, naturally, he didn't want to think about right now. In an attempt to keep his mind off of it for the moment, he turned his attention to Charlotte.

"There really is an absurd amount of stuff that you're knowledgeable about, Charlotte. I can't help but be impressed."

The blonde smiled cheerfully. "Merci! I've always thought intellect is attractive, so I'm pleased to know you feel the same."

Though he hadn't actually said that, Church didn't miss Charlotte's intent to subtly flirt with him. Apparently, neither did Cecilia.

"Yes, well, I think we all have a great deal of knowledge unique to us."

Rin chuckled. "I don't know if you can really compete, Cecilia..."

"I'll have you know that rifle marksmanship is very complicated and requires a great deal of knowledge!"

"Oh come on, the I.S. does a bunch of the calculations for you. It's hardly-"

Sensing an impending spat, Church cut in. "Alright, that's enough. It doesn't always have to be a competition, you know."

With the quarrel settled before it could really get underway, Laura took advantage of the silence to turn to Tatenashi and Kanzashi. "What modifications have the two of you made to your machines? I am not entirely knowledgeable about your I.S. and what they may lack."

To this Tatenashi allowed herself a clearly exaggerated guffaw. "Now now, my Mysterious Lady is already perfect! It doesn't need anything new."

Church had only fought the Mysterious Lady one time, so he couldn't quite think of what could be used to benefit it, seeing as how he probably had not encountered its full arsenal. But he could remember that the machine was practically all legs.

"I think it could at least benefit from some actual torso armor. Although I guess that's true of almost all I.S., really..."

Tatenashi didn't seem to agree with his assessment. "And hide my gorgeous figure? Ichika would be so sad."

The boy in question responded to that before Houki, who looked miffed by the comment, could say anything. "Nah, I'm pretty sure I'd be fine."

This earned an irritated frown out of the elder Sarashiki twin, but she didn't say anything. The silence gave Kanzashi a chance to speak up. "My Uchigane Nishiki barely has anything left in the way of Equalizer space, so it was just some tuning of shield and thrust capabilities for me..."

Considering that Kanzashi's I.S. was just a moderately upgraded Uchigane, Church was not surprised to hear that. Maybe she and Charlotte could bond over their struggles in modifying old frames?

"Well, sometimes that's all you really need. Your basic stats can be more important than your actual weaponry in some cases."

Before anyone could agree or disagree with that, a voice spoke out over the arena intercom. Notably, said voice was not that of Chifuyu, but rather, Yamada.

"Everyone, if you are done with your modification testing, could you please vacate the arena? There's a class due for practical I.S. maneuvers in an hour."

Ichika raised an eyebrow as he glanced up at the observation booth, not that he could actually see who was inside of it. "Weird. Was Yamada-Sensei here earlier?"

Houki shrugged. "Well she wasn't talking earlier if she was. Maybe Chifuyu had something else to do?"

Following their gaze up to the observation platform, Church silently asked a similar question. Not that he thought Chifuyu's sudden absence had anything to do with him. She had plenty of responsibilities to deal with and plenty of reason to be elsewhere at any given time.

Even so, he couldn't help but wish he had some more insight into what the woman was thinking these days...

At any rate, they had been specifically requested to vacate the arena, and no one was rude enough to refuse. Despite not actually doing that much in the way of physical exercise, all of the girls agreed to hit the showers before doing anything else. As for Church, who had done literally nothing demanding at all for the day, he had no reason to do the same. So, upon promising to meet everyone for dinner later, he split from the group and returned to the Academy proper.

For now, he had little else to do but return to his room, to find a way to spend the next few hours until the evening. Instead of simply brooding over his many misfortunes, he tried to fill the time with more practical affairs: he spent some time discussing the possible causes of Cerberus' elusive problem with the AI, though this ultimately did not lead to anything fruitful.

He also tried to get in touch with Marcus again, but ran into the same problem as before, that being that he simply could not contact the man. There was just no one on the receiving end of his call, like sending mail to an address that did not exist. Church couldn't help but ponder what had happened to the man, and whether or not it was somehow connected to the odd behavior from Umbra Stratum lately. But short of flying back to Nevada to personally take stock of the situation, Church knew there was no way to get the information he needed.

Though admittedly, he had legitimately considered that option at least once. After all, he had successfully infiltrated the Umbra Stratum base in Sierra Leone, right? Surely he could manage it a second time for his home base?

But he honestly doubted that. The Nevada base was one of the main Umbra Stratum locations, actually home to a large number of secret projects, such as Exeter and Strelka's ADU-1 drones. He had little doubt that the security there would be much tighter, and even if he could get in somehow, what purpose would it even serve? It wasn't like he could search every nook and cranny for Marcus' whereabouts. For all he knew Marcus wasn't even there. Church supposed he could try searching the computers for information, but that wouldn't help unless said information was actually logged somewhere.

Besides, Church didn't want to run the risk of infiltrating Umbra Stratum bases too often. That definitely wasn't going to keep him painted in a positive light as far as they were concerned. He was extremely worried about what had happened to Marcus, but it was also possible that he was assuming the worst. Maybe the young engineer had quit, or moved departments, or done something else equally safe.

Church highly doubted that was true though, so it didn't help him feel any better about it.

He left a message for Doctor Warner at some point, requesting an update on his mother's state of being. They had moved onto a different experimental drug a little while ago, but since Warner hadn't called with any amazing news, Church assumed it hadn't really changed anything yet. Honestly, he expected to receive the same type of update he always did. After all, it had been years of the same news over and over again: 'no change, but we'll keep trying'.

Church was sad to admit that such a thing didn't really bother him that much. The idea of his mother remaining in a coma didn't trouble him that much. The idea of her coming out of it didn't feel him with joy. He'd become quite numb to the situation, going through the motions, carrying out his tasks though he didn't really expect anything to change. He didn't like acknowledging this, but at the same time, he didn't think anyone would rightly be able to blame him. It had been years and years of fruitless hoping for a better tomorrow. Even if he wasn't going to give up, was it not normal to become somewhat jaded? Perhaps the real problem was just that he didn't actually expect anything to change even if he persevered.

In which case, one could ask why he kept doing it. If he didn't actually have any faith in his mom waking up at this point, why even dedicate so much time and effort to it? Why not take all of his payment and rewards from Umbra Stratum and use it for something else? Well, aside from the general sense that something like that would just be a shitty thing to do, Church acknowledged that it just wasn't costing him that much to keep trying. As long as Umbra Stratum was footing the bills, Church wasn't actually losing anything. Even if the odds of success were atrocious, it didn't cost him anything to roll the dice over and over again.

It was basically an unlimited amount of play time at a casino on someone else's dime. One in a hundred thousand, one in ten million: if it didn't cost him anything to try ten million times, why not do it?

Although, if Church was being honest with himself, he didn't even really know what he would do if the one in ten million chance actually went in his favor at some point. If his mom actually did wake up at some point, what would he do then? Continue working for the shadow organization that had been paying all of those medical bills lately? How would he explain that to her? Then again, assuming there would be a lot of rehab to pay for, Church probably would need to stick around with Umbra Stratum. Or he could possibly sell the Akatsubaki data for an exorbitant sum...

Of course, if he did quit Umbra Stratum, Church couldn't help but feel like his life would get really dull, really fast. Presumably, he'd have to give up the Exeter suit, meaning he'd lost any capability to travel the globe cheaply and quickly. So he'd probably have to return to the States and not see any of the girls again, or at least not frequently. Sure, they could still stay in contact, but he couldn't imagine going back to the social life he'd possessed before coming here. The very thought of it was immensely depressing.

And hell, he'd probably have to give up Cerberus too. And though he hated to admit to it, Church found that thought depressing too. For all the snark he got from the AI, he'd grown pretty fond of the thing.

But hey, maybe it didn't have to be all bad? He felt a little bad about the idea, but Church couldn't help but wonder if he could convince Cecilia to pay for him to stay in Japan with everyone, if worse came to worst. He'd hate to become an outright freeloader in this hypothetical situation, but it was better than just dropping out of their lives, right?

Laying in his bed in his windowless room by now, Church sighed as he glanced at the time on his phone. It was still thirty minutes nine o'clock, when everyone had agreed to meet for dinner. He didn't have much to do to fill in that window of time. Should he head down early? Go for a walk? Take a power nap?

While he was debating all of these options, Church was unable to come to a decision before he heard a knocking at his door. Well, knocking was putting it lightly: an unrestrained pounding was more like it. Hell, the hinges rattled a little bit.

Unsure of who would be doing this at this time of night, Church got up from his bed, but didn't even manage to take a step before the aggressive knocking came again, promoting him to speak before reaching the door.

"Alright, alright! Give me two seconds to actually get there!"

Now both curious and mildly agitated, Church opened his door as soon as he got there, ready to give his visitor what for. However, that plan fell through when he identified his visitor: not to mention her state of being.

Standing in his doorway right now was Chifuyu. But she didn't look anything like she usually did. For one, she was missing that black business top of hers, as well as her tie, meaning her torso was only clad in the white blouse she was usually wearing under all of that. And even then, the top few buttons were undone, meaning he could get a pretty nice view of her ample cleavage and the dark purple bra that supported it. Her hair had also been undone from the usual ponytail, allowing it all to flow freely down her back.

But more important than all of that was her overall physical appearance. Her face was flushed, her eyes glossy: she looked a little unsteady on her feet, and her hair was way more unkempt and messy than usual. She didn't look remotely like her usual proper, controlled self. If anything, Church was pretty sure this was what people looked like when they were drunk. Or at least tipsy.

Honestly, acknowledging this took precedence over the fact that Church didn't know why she was here, and so suddenly. A surprise visit would have been out of the blue on a normal day. But this was after their fight, and it had been several days since they hadn't even spoken a word to each other. That made the surprise visit even more unexpected. But despite all of that, not to mention the fact that he was still fairly upset with her, the fact that Chifuyu of all people appeared to be drunk demanded Church's concern first and foremost.

"Uh, Chifuyu: are you alright?"

The dark-haired woman didn't say anything back to this, instead focusing on him with a bleary gaze that possibly may have only just realized he was there. Then she just stood kind of silently for a moment, contemplating. Well, maybe not. Church wouldn't have been surprised if there was nothing going through her head at all right now. Or at least nothing he would equate to 'contemplating'.

Regardless, she didn't say a word. And it took her a few moments to decide what she wanted to do. What that happened to be caught Church entirely by surprise.

With no hesitation, and no seeming care for its repercussions, Chifuyu staggered right into him, pushing both of them back into Church's room, and practically shoving her tongue down his throat as she did so.

The smell of whisky was unmistakable, but Church found that to be the least of his concerns by the time they both crashed onto his bed in a graceless pile of limbs.

Surprise! Bet you didn't have this on your chapter bingo card did you? Of course, I bet some of you are going to consider this outright blueballing, ending it here, but hey, I gotta keep you on your toes.

Plus, I feel like hitting big notes like this helps mitigate the short chapter and how disappointing that can feel.

Anyway, I hope this chapter at least satisfied to some extent. Remember, if you want to engage with both me and other fans of this series (we are a dying breed after all), you can find ways to do that on my profile page. We're always glad to have more people that like robots, military stuff, and anime! And whatever else, honestly. It gets pretty wild sometimes.