"How did it come to this...?" Fie groused miserably as she tried to focus on the windy roads leading back to the base camp.
"Aww, don't be like that." Came the annoying voice of the side-car passenger.
It wasn't Musse, either. That annoyance had decided to ride back alongside the creepy woman who had introduced herself as Angelica Rogner.
Instead her newest headache was courtesy of the Purple Lightning herself.
At first she hadn't been against the idea of sharing a bike with the older woman as it had been over three months since the two had last spoken. In her mind catching up with Sara didn't seem so bad. Worst case scenario she was at least hopeful to pry some juicy intel from the A-Rank bracer, but privately Fie felt she owed the woman a lot and wouldn't have minded building a rapport with her.
"C'mon. Tell me I'm right. We both know it's true. Tell the world how the awesome Purple Lightning saved your life~ "
The problem was that Sara was adamant that Fie made that private thought a public one as she constantly badgered the bike driver into admitting it out loud.
"Fine. I'll admit... that the food is a lot better at Thors. Some comfy beds to sleep in too." From the corner of her eyes Fie observed Sara's excited expression fade into a dejected pout, "But the rest of it? It all sucks. My classmates are a constant headache-"
"Hey!"
"...My teacher's a pain in the ass who can't leave anything alone..."
"I'm not that bad, am I?"
"...Our principal is definitely gonna murder one of us in a spar before the year is over..."
"..." Yeah. Nobody could refute that one.
"...And everywhere we go we keep running into members of the original Class VII who always show up at the last second to steal our thunder. Do you guys plan it out like that?"
Angelica gave a laugh, "She's got you there. We were watching you guys fight for like three minutes before Sara finally decided to intervene. It was fun watching you kittens fight."
"Ugh..." The teacher of her teacher let out a groan before refocusing her attention on Fie, "Stop lying!"
"Not lying. Everything I said was true." It was, too. Her classmates and teacher were both pains in her butt. But they had a few tolerable traits to them too. Traits that made her decision to remain in Class VII not the worst thing she's ever done.
But once again that was something she would never admit out loud.
"Geez. If I knew you were such a brat I would've left you in that jail cell and saved myself all the paperwork."
Fie rolled her eyes. Sara didn't mean that and they both knew it. Why was she being so stubborn about it?
The irony of that thought was lost on the younger of the two former jaegers riding together.
Well, whatever. They were almost back to camp. According to Sara these two planned to stick around just long enough to check out the place and meet up with some of the other instructors before making their way to Ordis for the night. She just needed to ignore the older woman for a few more minutes-
"I ran into the Jaeger King the other day."
It took remarkable skill for Fie to both avoid losing control of her bike or slamming on the brakes, so sudden was that statement from Sara. "What!?" After ensuring they weren't about to die in a vehicular accident the stunned girl chanced a look at the bracer, only to see a massive grin on her face. Resisting the need to scowl at her Fie took a moment to recompose herself, "D-Did you, now? When and where?"
"Hmm... Now where was it again?" Sara tilted her head thoughtfully.
The silver-haired girl couldn't stop the growl from escaping her throat, "I know you're old but you aren't that old! Tell me!"
The look she earned for that age comment was appreciably sour, but sadly for her Sara was quick to recover, "Oh woe is me. If only there was something out there that could jog my poor brain a little..."
"What do you want?" The driver asked with a groan, "Mira?" She could probably put on a pitiful enough act for Rean to pay up. "Booze?" Randy didn't bring much with him during the field exercises but she was pretty sure he kept at least one bottle in his room for her to steal. "Something else?"
"Just tell me what I want to hear, Fie~!"
She wasn't sure what made her want to punch Sara more: The annoying request or the equally annoying sing-song voice she used. Either way Fie knew she was beaten, "Ugh... Fine." She grumbled out, "You bringing me to Class VII wasn't all bad-"
"Nope." Sara cut her off, "No mumbling. Hard enough to hear you on the bike as is. Say it nice and clear for the whole world to hear."
The whole world might've been impossible, but a glance towards the other bikes let the humiliated student realize her classmates, teacher, and random guest were all listening in with varying degrees of amusement. She wanted to know about the boss and the others, yes, but did she really want to know that badly?
Unfortunately for her pride, she did. "Fine! Class VII and the rest of Thors hasn't sucked nearly as bad as I expected! Thanks for bringing me here!" She had to breath deep after letting out such an embarrassing line in front of the others, "Happy?"
"Hmm... Am I?" Sara mused thoughtfully, "Were you able to record it?"
Wait, what?
Musse giggled as she held up her ARCUS II, "Why of course I did. Every word, in stunning clarity."
"Great. Send it to me later, will ya?"
Fie had no idea why a bracer has famous as the Purple Lightning had seemingly made humiliating her her sole mission in life, but she had, and it sucked. Here she was relying on the kindness of Musse of all people to preserve her reputation.
"Hmm... I don't know. It would feel bad betraying my friend like that." Yes, Musse! Yes!
"What if I share some stories of Rean's time as a student? The kind he-"
"Deal!"
Well, there goes that hope.
"N-Now hold on a second-" At least Fie could take some solace in the fact that Rean looked about as miserable as she currently felt.
"I too would like to hear the stories of Instructor Rean's time as a student."
"Me too! Elise was too nice with hers! I wanna hear more embarrassing stuff! And Musse send me that recording too!"
"Haha! Both of you look like idiots right now!"
Come to find out sharing the misery with someone else actually made it feel a little better. She still utterly loathed her friends in that moment, but at least Rean's suffering made it a little more palatable.
At the very least she deserved to hear those stories too.
"Instructor Sara..." Came the voice of a man at wit's end, "I think you were about to pass along some intel on the Jaeger King?"
Oh! Being the butt of the joke had caused Fie to forget the actual reason she made a fool of herself. The road no longer mattered to the girl as she turned a fervent look towards her passenger.
Unlike the past few minutes Sara actually looked and sounded serious as she began, "It was four days ago. I was doing my own investigations on the jaeger groups when I came across both him and the Sanguine Ogre observing a battle between Nidhoggr and the Northern Jaegers."
"Shirley's here too?" Not entirely surprising, but bad news all the same. She thought back to their last encounter in Hamel, "Were they together?"
"I don't think so. Although they were getting along pretty well I got the feeling they were backing different sides in the fight even if neither seemed all that interested in intervening directly."
"That's... enlightening." Rean muttered unsurely, "Do you think they're still around?"
Sara hummed thoughtfully, "Honestly? I'm not sure. I haven't seen any sign of Zephyr or Ouroboros since, but my gut says they're definitely around."
Fie's gut said the same thing. Given the last two months Ouroboros hanging around was almost a certainty. As for Boss...
Maybe she was just biased in her assessment of her dad's skills, but if Sara found him it was because he wanted to be found. It was just the kind of thing he'd do. Which meant that he would probably be showing up when she least expected-
"How come you never told me the Jaeger King was such a fox?"
…
Fie's thought process ground to a complete halt. "What did you just say?"
"I said your dad is a total hunk. Such a big grizzled man. Talking to him set my heart aflutter! You think the Jaeger King is looking for a Jaeger Queen? I'd definitely leave the guild for-"
Words continued to spill forth from Sara's horrible mouth, but Fie no longer had the sanity to understand them. The mental image in her mind was too horrific to even consider, but despite her best efforts she could not purge those thoughts from her brain.
As much as she was coming to appreciate her time at Thors it was an unfortunate reality that this new life came with a lot of headaches. None of those, however, compared to the absolute menace in her life known as Sara Valestein. Despite having only spent a few days alongside the elite bracer there was one undeniable truth in life.
Sara was the real headache. All the others looked pathetic in comparison.
It took far longer then she would've wished for Sara to finally leave her alone. First they were forced to stand and watch as the two reunited with Towa and after that they needed to endure another debriefing where all their collected intel was passed to the other instructors. Only after that did Rean dismiss them for the night while promising to give Sara and Angelica a tour of their camp.
...But before she could turn in for the night she had a second debrief to give. "And that's when Sara started swooning over my dad! It was awful!"
Sandy giggled as she continued working on the food she was making behind the counter, "That doesn't really match the image I had of her, but I guess there wasn't much time for her to drool over men during the war." She tilted her head in thought, "Plus I can't really imagine any of the older men in Alster would catch her eye."
That Sandy already knew the bracer wasn't much of a surprise given the stories she'd told about how the original Class VII saved her home during the war. That she was able to take her horrid tale in stride was pretty disappointing, however.
"It didn't fit my assessment of her either." Came the soft voice of the girl sitting next to Fie. They were the first words spoken by Altina since the two of them arrived in the food car, but there was a very good reason for that.
Sandy had offered to make her favorite food for the two of them and thus the quiet girl had contented herself with staring impatiently with fork and knife in hand as the Class IX girl slowly but surely created a majestic stack of pancakes. Fie was honestly surprised the girl wasn't drooling with how intently she was staring at the chef.
That settled it. She was definitely gonna try her hand at making pancakes once they were back at school. She'd be Altina's best friend for life.
"Still, despite the... ordeal you went through," For some reason the silver-haired girl didn't think Sandy was respecting just how horrible the past few hours had been, "I'm glad you all are alright. I know you've faced a lot worse, but jaegers are always scary."
"You're saying I'm scary?"
"I'm saying I don't think you're a jaeger anymore."
To that Fie had no retort.
"All finished!" She nodded gratefully as Sandy placed a nice looking stack of pancakes in front of her, topped with syrup and butter. It had been a long day and the meal looked awfully good in that instance.
Naturally that didn't compare at all to Altina who began attacking her much larger stack with the fervor of a starving military monster. The sight was both captivating and horrific in equal measures, meaning neither member of the Cooking Club could avert their eyes.
"S-Still..." Sandy eventually got out even as they continued to watch the stack shrink at an insane rate, "I feel kinda bad. You guys are constantly going into danger and I'm back here just making food. I'm no fan of fighting, but I wish I could be doing more to help..."
"Don't worry about it. Every military needs their support, even Zephyr. I remember a couple guys who I could beat in a fight when I was thirteen, but were some of the boss's favorites because of the work they did back at camp. Just having you around to keep us fed and keep the camp guarded is enough for me."
"Plus..." Altina chimed in as she took a brief break from obliterating her meal, "You can hardly be faulted for us constantly running into danger. That, I believe, is entirely the fault of Instructor Rean."
Fie nodded her agreement as she finally began eating from her own plate, "What she said."
"Hehe. Thanks, you two." Seeing her friend perk up a little was a relief, "Oh, and on that subject, Instructor Rean found me some more vegetable seeds today. Wanna help me plant them when we get back to campus?"
Fie stared at Altina. Altina stared back. The same confusion was mirrored on both their faces.
How did Rean keep finding seeds without them noticing during their missions!?
"Y-Yeah, sure. Just remind me when you wanna get started."
"Allie! Fie!" Their conversation was interrupted by the ever loud and familiar voice of their pink-haired classmate.
That in itself wouldn't have been an issue, but the presence of Kurt, Ash, and Musse with her was enough for Fie to let out a groan. All of them together meant nothing good was coming their way, "Go away. We're busy."
"Have either of you seen Instructor Rean?"
The two girls shared a look, "Uh, he was showing Sara and Angelica around, right?"
"That's what we thought, but none of them are in camp. Stark said he saw the three of them leaving camp together."
"Perhaps they're off on a scandalous evening rendezvous?"
Fie furrowed her brow in thought as she ignored Musse's stupid suggestion, "I know Sara said they were headed to Ordis after this, but I don't think Rean would bother escorting them..."
The guy was cheesy as hell which somehow allowed him to woo a whole bunch of different women, but despite her many flaws Sara was more than capable of taking care of herself, and the daughter of House Rogner seemed like no slouch either. There's no way he'd play the sappy knight and bring them back.
Which meant...
"The prick probably went off to gather info on his own. Fifty mira says he's living it up in Raquel as we speak."
Fie hated being on the same wavelength as Ash, but sadly she was. At least the others all seemed to share that same opinion so she wasn't alone with that.
"So I take it you guys are gonna break the rules and sneak out of camp to find him? You remember what happened the last time we did that, right?" Kurt looked contrite and Juna seemed a little sheepish, but neither Musse nor Ash seemed to care one way or the other. The silver-haired girl gave a shrug, "I'm in."
"Um..." All eyes turned towards Altina. The girl seemed conflicted. Although she didn't vocalize the reasoning it wasn't hard to tell why. One only needed to see how her eyes darted between Class VII and her half eaten stack of pancakes.
A grin came to Fie's face as an idea came to mind. Taking advantage of her special privileges she gave the stoic girl a reassuring headpat, "Don't worry. I got an idea."
"Go! Go!" Came the enthused cry from the side-car, "...But don't go too quickly."
The caution was well advised as Altina gripped her plate tightly as she continued to eat despite the fact that she and the rest of Class VII was now speeding down the highway towards the city of sin. Fie had promised that she'd avoid hitting any bumps and it was a promise she was going to keep.
...Had she made the same promise to any of the others she probably would've aimed for every bump and hole in the road she could spy. But Altina was special. Nobody wanted to see a disappointed Altina.
Even with those restrictions it wasn't a difficult journey and soon enough Class VII – with a very full rabbit – made it to Raquel. Unsurprisingly Ash's insistence that the town was a completely different place after dark proved an accurate one as the place buzzed under the excited throngs of tourists with neon lights illuminating the place just as well as the sun had during the day.
But that left the students with a very noticeable problem, "Where the hell is Rean at?"
"Either Schwarzer came here to check out the hot chicks or he's digging up dirt on jaegers, yeah? Too bad we don't have any of the former in our class, but at least we got a hired killer to guide us."
The only reason Fie didn't slug Ash for his comment was because Juna beat her to the punch. Literally. At least seeing Musse's mask slip for a moment at the dig almost made up for the crude words. Almost.
Still, it wasn't as if the annoying punk was entirely wrong and soon enough Sylphid found herself faced with five pairs of curious eyes. The girl hummed thoughtfully, "I'd say a bar or a place with cheap grub would be a good place to check, but there are way too many of them here. Pawn shop might have some info, but I think we used up our one freebie earlier and I'm not in the mood to pay up."
She considered the other end of town, "Opera's out, obviously. Neue Blanc would be our best bet at finding the Red Constellation, but..." She gave a helpless shrug, "No chance we're cracking into place on our own. Only other place I can think of... the casino."
"Hell yeah! I was gonna go there even if Schwarzer wasn't!"
With a cheerful Ash taking point the six teens navigated their way through the teeming masses up the main road. Despite her insistence that Rean would probably be at the casino she kept her eyes peeled for any sign of familiar black hair, but if he was on the street than even she couldn't spot him.
Reaching the casino proved no problem, but they soon found themselves facing an unexpected challenge, "Sorry cuties, but I can't let you in without an adult to accompany you." Came the words of one of the 'guards' of the casino, a blonde lady wearing a revealing bunny suit capped with black bunny ears.
"Uh..." Came Kurt's hesitant voice as he wracked his brain for something to say, "We believe our teacher is in there. We just need to go in for a few seconds to check. Perhaps we could send a message instead...?"
"I would love to help you, but rules are rules." Replied the genuinely apologetic looking bunny lady.
Well this was awkward. Sure they could've simply forced their way in, but these were just a pair of scantily dressed civilians doing their job. Would the others be willing to create a distraction for her and Altina to stealth their way in? Or maybe-
"Teeheehee." Musse's giggle was both worrisome and reassuring in equal measure. Worrisome because it was the same laugh she used whenever a dangerous idea came to her brilliant mind. Reassuring because right now they were presumably chasing the same goal so anything coming from that devious brain was probably helpful, "What if we made a deal with you to turn a blind eye?"
"Sorry hun, but I'd feel bad taking a bribe from a kid."
But Musse wasn't finished, "Who said anything about a bribe? I was referring to a once in a lifetime opportunity that you wouldn't want to miss."
The sly way she put that caused both sentries to glance at each other uneasily, "W-What do you mean?"
"We're Thors Military Academy's Class VII." She announced proudly. Fie's eyes widened in realization, an expression which had she looked she would've seen mirrored on Kurt and Ash's faces.
But unsurprisingly the two bunnies were still confused, "I think I've heard of you...?" One questioned aloud.
Musse giggled, "I'm not surprised. I know a few gossip magazines have mentioned us. Or more specifically... our instructor."
"The Ashen Chevalier!" The other exclaimed breathlessly.
"The one and only. Our nation's greatest hero, waiting inside for his precious students to meet with him."
"I knew he looked familiar! How many other men would have three beautiful women hanging off his arms like that?"
Fie shared a look with Kurt. Three? Wasn't it supposed to be two?
"W-Would you be willing to introduce him to us?" Came the excited request.
"Introduce? I'm sure our dearest instructor would be glad to do that and more. Autographs. A picture, maybe? Why, just think of all the things you could do once he finds out how you helped his precious students out~"
Damn. Musse was always brilliant, but it was obvious she had these two women eating out of her hands. The girl remained as dangerous as ever.
"W-Well, alright. I'm sure the manager won't mind, especially if we can get a picture of the Ashen Chevalier. I guess we can let you through. But... There's one thing I want you to do first before we will let you in."
"Hmm?" Even Musse was caught off guard by that last second request. Hopefully it wasn't anything too annoying-
Everyone was stunned silent as the bunny girl with the request removed her ears before deftly placing them on Altina's head, "You're too cute! I can't help myself!"
They all stared at the scene with five members of Class VII doing so with interest while one just seemed both confused and unamused, "...Why did you just place that on my head?"
"It's because you're so adorable, Allie!"
"I fail to see how fake ears make me 'adorable'."
"Eh. Not really my thing, but now you actually look the part, Little Bunny."
"Black Rabbit is my code name. It has nothing to do with actual bunnies."
"Those big ears will make sure we won't lose you in the crowd~"
"I refuse to believe that you are so unobservant as to lose track of me regardless of how full the casino is."
"We did agree to this, I suppose..."
"We never agreed to anything. Plus, this is silly and has absolutely no bearing on our mission."
While Fie could appreciate the concerted teasing her classmates were directing towards Altina she was more than ready to head on in, "I figured you'd want to find Rean the most, and yet you're making us waste our time here. Aren't you supposed to be his partner?"
Altina shot her a brief but withering glare before turning away with a grunt and walking into the casino with what little dignity she still possessed.
It didn't help her cause that she was still wearing those ears.
Having had their fun at their most stoic member's expense the rest of Class VII followed her inside. While this wasn't the first time she had been in a casino Fie couldn't help but be taken aback by the crowds and the lights and the noises, "...Wow."
"Damn right." Ash agreed, having been the only one to hear her muttering, "We've gotta sneak up here to play at least once before the weekend is over."
The former jaeger could only nod her assent.
As busy as the casino was they were still confident they'd be able to spot Rean easily enough, especially if he was still with Sara and Angelica. That they didn't see him anywhere was a little worrisome, but they still had the second floor to check. It took a few minutes to pry a curious Ash and Juna away from a blackjack table and slot machine respectively, but once they were certain the first floor was clear the group of six ascended the lone flight of stairs to the second floor.
Unsurprisingly the upstairs wasn't all that dissimilar from below. The games being played differed and supposedly the stakes were higher, but everything else was basically the same. That made it extremely easy for Fie and the rest of Class VII to scan the area for their missing instructor.
A mop of familiar black hair sitting at one of the tables drew Fie's gaze and she turned to-
She froze. Had she been paying attention she would've noticed the worried looks from her classmates – even Ash. But she wasn't.
None of that information processed in her brain.
Rean was there in front of her gaze, yes. As was Sara, Angelica, and for some reason Major Claire. For some reason they appeared to be at a table playing vantage masters.
But once again none of that left any mark on her mind.
It was who they were playing against that really caught her attention. Three intimidating men in combat uniforms that looked wholly out of place among the richly dressed civilians that filled the place.
There was Xeno. The lanky man looked as carefree as ever as he placed a card on the table. But anyone who knew him as well as she did understood just how dangerous the man was despite his laid-back appearance.
And of course if Xeno was there that meant Leo was too. Unlike his partner Zephyr's Behemoth was entirely focused on the cards in his hand. Many an opponent failed to realize the massive man had a cunning intellect to match his outward appearance, but few lived long enough to understand their mistake.
The presence of her two brother figures did pierce the haze that had taken over Fie's brain, but only barely.
And that was because everything else was focused entirely on the man in the middle facing her teacher. Although she had met him in Sutherland that encounter was all too brief and over so quickly she might've thought she had dreamed it had it not lived rent free in her memories for the past two months.
In fact it was actually a little upsetting just how casual the man was being in that moment despite having been responsible for so many sleepless nights for the girl. He must've realized someone was watching him as his eyes tracked ever so slightly in their direction, with the corners of his mouth ticking upwards the only acknowledgment that he spotted her.
With shaky steps Fie began to close on the table. This wasn't an encounter she was ready for, but it had arrived all the same. Any words she had rehearsed prior to this had completely slipped from her memory. There was only one word she could force herself to say.
"B-Boss?"