It was rare for Fie to be one of the last students at school, but the girl had a lot on her mind as she meandered aimlessly through the almost completely deserted halls well after class had been dismissed.

Club activities had recently concluded for the day, and while her afternoon in the Cooking Club was nothing unusual a random comment from Sandy had inadvertently reminded the silver-haired girl of a goal she had set for herself a couple months back. Now seemed as good a time as any for her to pull it off.

Not literally now, of course. There was a lot of planning to do. She still needed to figure out what she intended on making, who she was making it for, what ingredients that would need, and a good night to pull it off.

Fie paused, wondering if she should ask her fellow club members for assistance. Sure the goal was hers and hers alone, but if the scope got too big it might end up beyond her capabilities. At the very least she should brainstorm ideas before-

"Hmm, hmm hmm~!" She was broken from her thoughts by the sound of someone humming from behind her. Curious, she turned to see Towa exiting the room she'd just passed before turning in her direction. The teacher didn't seem to notice her presence as she was focused entirely on the sizable stack of papers in her hands.

There was no way Towa was going to bump into her without noticing her first... right? Belatedly Fie realized that she could simply move out of the way, a small feat for someone as agile as her, but her morbid curiosity left her in a fugue state as she watched the imminent train wreck grow closer and closer...

For the student who saw it coming and had braced herself accordingly it was a minor thing. Just a small bump between two people. No harm, no foul.

But for Towa? "Eek...Ooph!" The older girl was completely unprepared for the slow collision and promptly fell back onto her butt, scattering pages all over the hall.

It was such a surreal thing to witness. Almost as if it was a scene from another world entirely.

"Owie..." But it wasn't. And right now the teacher was looking rather pitiful as she tried regaining her bearings from her spot on the ground. The halls were empty and the teacher – who was mostly at fault for the collision - still hadn't seen who or what she'd bumped into, so it would've been easy for her to slip away without being detected. Something which she sorely wanted to do as the alternative would be too troublesome.

The former jaeger let out a sigh. Curse her conscience. Even if she wasn't exactly at fault she did feel a little guilty for not evading the collision in time. She reached a hand down to assist the fallen teacher, "You alright, Towa?"

"Huh?" It was only then that the tiny girl realized who was present with her. With a sheepish smile the teacher took her hand and Fie helped her back to her feet, "Sorry about that. I guess I wasn't looking where I was going, was I?"

"It's fine." She was willing to help out, but she wasn't feeling up to admitting her own role in the accident. Unsurprisingly Towa bent down to begin scooping up papers, and Fie naturally did the same, "What are these?"

The little teacher paused in her collections to glance at one of the papers, "These are for the midterm exams."

"Oho?" Could this be the secret advantage needed to secure a win against Juna in a couple weeks? With all these pages surely Towa wouldn't notice if one went missing-

"These aren't the questions or the answers, so don't even think about it!" Towa tried to appear stern, but the pout on her face was more adorable than anything. Still, it was enough to stop Fie's devious schemes in their tracks, "These are just forms I need to take to the Main Campus teachers so both schools will be on the same page since we're giving the same exams."

How lame.

Once the pages were all collected the diminutive teacher exhaled in relief, "Whew. Glad that didn't take long. I should be able to make the next train to Leeves- Oh! But I still need to go grab the RMP forms for our shared field study next month and I promised Principal Heinrich I'd bring him the-"

Fie couldn't help but sweatdrop. Just hearing Towa muse to herself was exhausting. How was this girl able to keep going like that?

Also she got the feeling she heard something she wasn't supposed to, but if there was anything she was good at it was keeping silent with dangerous intel.

The teacher let out a mix between a whine and a groan, likely realizing all that crap she just muttered would ensure she wouldn't be in time for the next train. While the trains were frequent enough, given how late it already was any sort of delay would mean the poor girl would be in for a very long night.

"Why not take a bike instead of the train?"

Towa let out a sheepish laugh, "I do know how to drive, but I can't say I'm very comfortable with it. Guess I got so used to Angie or Rean giving me rides that I never really got used to riding the bike myself. And I'm sure Rean's busy enough as is..."

A shame. The image of Towa riding a bike around was actually kinda funny. The girl definitely gave off the vibes of someone who would be far more comfortable in a tiny car.

There was one obvious solution to the situation, but it was one Fie really didn't want to voice. Even so, the sight of the miserable teacher once again led to her conscience rearing its ugly head, "Want me to drive you there?"

"Ahaha..." Towa used a free hand to rub her head sheepishly, "I'm grateful for the offer, but I imagine you have better things to be doing with your evening. I'm sure I can manage like this-"

Towa was giving her an out, and yet that only further reinforced her desire to help, "No big deal. I've been kinda curious about the other school myself. Wouldn't mind checking it out."

"Well..." The teacher seemed to have an internal debate before she settled into a wide smile, "Thank you so much, Fie! I'll just need a few minutes to go grab all the other things I need, and we'll get going right away!"

Curse Rean and his bad influences. It was the only explanation for why she kept opening her big mouth to volunteer for stupid things. With a sigh the annoyed girl followed behind her teacher as they went to grab the other things Towa needed.

"...How exactly were you planning on getting all this over to the other school in a single trip?" Fie asked, torn between amusement and exasperation at their current situation. When Towa had said she needed to grab a few other things Fie hadn't expected that to mean four large bags and a heavy box, the latter of which she had volunteered to take lest the smaller woman collapse under all the weight.

"Ehehe..." Towa giggled sheepishly as they prepared a bike for the trip, "It's always been a bad habit of mine. Thanks again for offering to help me."

The silver-haired student looked away awkwardly, "It's no big deal."

"But it is! This reminds me of a night two years ago when Rean helped me with my shopping. It makes me happy to see his helpfulness has been passed to his students!"

Ugh. She had been right on the mira with assigning blame for her dumb personality shift to her teacher, but that didn't make her feel any better at all. Instead she just shook her head as she hopped on her bike, with Towa following suit behind her once she was sure everything was secure in the sidecar. Once everything was set she kicked the bike into gear. A few students sent them looks as they passed, but a wide berth ensured she avoided any possible conversation or collision.

Something which couldn't be done in town as the road to Trista meant going through the capital, and to go there meant crossing the town's bridge. A bridge that was currently occupied by a pair of fishers who Fie knew very well. Towa probably wanted her to stop the bike so they could chat with Rean and Altina, but the silver-haired girl feigned ignorance and shot right past her classmate and teacher, offering a smirk and a cheeky wave in response to their confused looks.

Served them right for fishing when she was stuck doing the chore she volunteered for!

Wanting to give her teacher a bit of a fright Fie accelerated the bike as soon as they were out of town, but to her disappointment Towa didn't seem at all bothered by their high speeds. She must've noticed her surprise despite her position behind her as she elaborated, "Sorry, but I used to ride with Angie all the time. That girl was as fast and reckless as they came."

Hmph. Fie could do fast and reckless if she wanted, but the girl was considerate enough to not go full throttle while they had a side car filled with documents and other things. Still, the pace was quick enough that the duo reached the capital in a matter of minutes. Even though Trista was on the opposite side of Heimdallr she opted to skirt around the city instead of entering, going under the assumption that the longer route would end up being quicker than the busy city, especially as a lot of people would've been getting out of work at that time.

Once to the east of Heimdallr Towa began regaling her of how most of the orbal bike's initial tests took place on the stretch of land they were currently on, with Rean serving as the guinea pig for many of those trial runs. He'd even won a race against Angelica shortly after the civil war, which explained why the humble instructor was surprisingly good behind the wheel.

Although she'd passed through Trista a few times in a train, this was her first time actually visiting the town. Her first impression... was that it was like literally every other large town in Erebonia. A bunch of houses, a few shops, and a church. Plus the school in the distance.

It was Leeves, just with a different layout. Kinda boring.

"See that building over there?" Towa pointed out as they parked the bike near the train station, "It's just a storage building now, but that used to be the dorm exclusively used by the previous Class VII."

There was one big difference between the two Thors towns.. Unlike Leeves this place held a lot of history to it. While she wasn't one to put much stock in such things, it was hard to ignore that this town once held the likes of Aurelia Le Guin, Wallace Bardias, Claire Rieveldt, many generations of the royal family, and of course the original Class VII.

Speaking of which... "Please tell me we're not gonna run into that arrogant prince?"

Towa giggled, "You really shouldn't say that out loud. Still, I am fairly certain he goes back to the capital after classes each day, so I doubt we'll be running into him."

With those assurances the student followed the teacher to the campus, with the latter pointing out a few of the more interesting buildings in Trista as they passed. Like the town they'd just exited the school itself wasn't all too different from what she was used to, but it was clearly a lot older and larger, both of which made a lot of sense.

This was the Thors of legends, not the trash bin run by a bunch of wackos.

Towa led them to the teacher's room where they dropped off the box and some of the other supplies before she turned to Fie, "Since none of the instructors are here I'll need to go deliver the rest of this in person. You should be free to explore the campus if you'd like."

She shrugged. It wasn't the most exciting of things to do, but it certainly beat waiting around, especially waiting in the most cursed of rooms. Thus decided, she followed the teacher out of the room before immediately splitting off to go her own way. Since Towa seemed to be staying in the main building she decided to check out the smaller buildings first.

Taking the exit opposite the main entrance she found herself staring at a large building, but annoyingly, when she tried to enter she found it was locked up. From what she could tell it seemed to be a gym so it would've been neat to check out for herself. Probably a lot better than the one at her school.

As she was leaving, however, the area next to the gym caught her eye. It was hard to tell thanks to the overgrown grass and weeds, but Fie was reminded of the plants that she occasionally helped Sandy with back home. She remembered hearing that Thors had gotten rid of their clubs starting that year. Had there originally been a Gardening Club in this spot? If there had then it had gone abandoned and was now in the process of being reclaimed by nature.

For some odd reason she felt a little sad at the thought.

Shaking away those thoughts Fie followed the path away. There was a side path that seemed to head to a really old building in the distance, but it was blocked off. Curious, but probably not anything of interest to her. Same with the large soldat hangar. After that was the cafeteria, which might've been worth checking out, but she had no desire to walk in there when there were probably a bunch of main campus students around.

She did check out the library, not because of any real interest in reading, but mostly to see just how much bigger it was compared to her school's. The answer was much much bigger. They could fit like ten of her libraries into this one and still have enough room for Ash and his gigantic ego.

The only other outdoor places were an auditorium – which she was kinda jealous of – and a rather large academy field, so instead she went back into the central building. This part of the tour was kinda boring to her because it was just like her school, albeit a lot bigger as it had rooms for two years of the main campus' five classes. There were a handful of closed down rooms on the second floor, which might've been club rooms at some point, and a roof which had usual roof things.

Bored, Fie returned to the first floor and was going to look for Towa, but the infirmary caught her eye. Given she had nothing to do and the room was currently empty...

"I am so sorry, Instructor Beatrix!" Were the words Fie heard as she roused herself from slumber.

An older lady let out a mirthful laugh, "It was a bit of a surprise, but I didn't mind at all."

As she sat up from the bed she had claimed for her own she discovered that the speakers were Towa and a woman who must've been the nurse of the place. Whoops. Surprisingly the old woman had sharp senses as she immediately noticed her waking, "It seems sleeping beauty has awoken."

"Er... sorry?" She muttered awkwardly, "In my defense you have some really comfy beds."

Her words caused the nurse to again laugh, "I shall accept that as the highest of praise." She joked.

"You should be grateful that Instructor Beatrix is so kind." Towa tried to act stern, but Fie was pretty sure the diminutive teacher didn't have a stern bone in her body, "Do you know how shocked I was when she told me you were sleeping away in here?" Fie didn't really have any defense to that so she remained silent, causing the young teacher to let out a groan, "Anyways, I think it's about time we get back home. It'll be dark soon and I know you have studying to do."

"Yeah, yeah." She grumbled even as she got up, "Thanks for letting me stay here. It was nice."

"Of course. It was no problem. But perhaps next time you wait until I'm back in my office before you decide to take a nap? I'll gladly prepare a pot of tea and some snacks if you do."

"Sure. That sounds good."

And yet as Fie left the nurse's office she felt an odd sense of melancholy. She knew she'd never be able to take Beatrix up on her offer and that left her feeling sad for reasons she couldn't understand.

She did her best to shake away those oddly depressing thoughts as she got back on her bike and drove Towa back home. At least she'd still be able to crash in Linde's office whenever she wanted.

Fie grimaced as she did the most vile and disgusting thing a girl like her could possibly ever do, one that would leave her forever scarred and her reputation in tatters.

She was studying by her lonesome despite classes being finished for the day.

It definitely wasn't her forte, but she'd spent too much time over the past three months getting her grades to a somewhat acceptable level to trip and fall at this critical juncture. She would prove to the world that there was an educated brain behind her good looks and cool attitude!

...Mostly she was doing it because Juna had thrown down the gauntlet. It was her sole duty to utterly decimate her current opponent, even in something as tedious as exams.

Truth be told she was actually pretty confident overall. Thanks to all her past experience she was actually one of the top scorers in the more practical classes, and she'd even gotten pretty decent with history thanks to Rean's nagging. Add to that an... acceptable performance in math, economics, and all those other number related courses and you had a passing grade.

There was just one problem. One absolutely terrible problem that threatened to undue all the progress she'd made since arriving at Thors. It was-

"Well lookie here. Never thought I'd see Selfie with her head buried in a book."

She rolled her eyes as a certain newcomer entered the room. Just great, "And I never thought I'd see the Red Reaper holding a stable job."

"Heh. That makes the two of us. So what are you reading?"

While Fie was under no obligation to actually answer that question, she couldn't help but be curious about the situation, "Hey, Randy, You're a teacher, right?"

The smirk on the older man's face faded into a straight line as realization dawned, "Err... Yeah, I guess I am. Why?"

"Well that means you should be able to help a confused student out."

"Uhh..." The red-haired man faltered for a moment before putting on a show of bravado, "Sure thing. Just tell ol' Randy what you need."

"Cool. So tell me what an accarezzevole is supposed to be."

Watching the teacher blink owlishly was pretty funny, "...Is it a new type of grenade?"

Fie let out an amused giggle, "I wish it was." She closed her book before shaking her head, "Music class is such a pain."

"Tell me about it. I like my sweet tunes as much as anyone, but hell if I know a damn thing about the actual theory and stuff. I bet it ain't easy having our esteemed principal as your instructor, either."

"That woman is a monster." She confirmed succinctly, "I feel like she's one wrong answer away from blasting us through a wall. Nothing like your class."

Randy rolled his eyes, "Says the person who looks half asleep in all my classes."

Fie gave a lazy shrug, "Can't help it. Your class is too easy. Hard to stay awake."

"Yeah, well, can't really expect the others to have our background, can we?" At her lack of answer Randy gave a thoughtful hum, "Well, I can't really help you with your music studying, but maybe doing something a little different might make for a nice change of pace. Something like a fight with your dear old instructor, perhaps?"

That caused the silver-haired girl to pause, "You wanna fight me? Why?"

"Why not? We've known my psycho cousin is active, and now we've run into those crazy knights too. Thinking I gotta shake off the rust before the shit really hits the fan, ya know?"

"Sure, but isn't picking a fight with a student a bad look?"

"Meh. If the school wanted a good look they wouldn't have hired a jaeger turned cop turned fugitive to the staff." She couldn't really argue against that point, but Randy continued regardless, "I have no desire to die, so the principal is out of the question. Instructor Michael isn't very interested in fighting. Rean's a good fight, but his straightforward nature isn't what I'm looking for right now."

"What about Towa?" Fie asked with a smirk.

Something which caused the Red Reaper to laugh, "Hah! Towee might look harmless, but I bet she's got some sharp claws on her if you somehow got her angry. All jokes aside, you and Leonora are probably the closest thing to a Shirley we have, and she's more specialized for fights in the water."

Fie nodded along. His words made sense, but she didn't like how he basically just compared her to Shirley. Pretty rude. "Alright, fine. I could definitely use the break."

As the two made their way to the field – since the training room lacked the space for a pair of former jaegers to strut their stuff – Fie asked a question that had been on her mind, "Your group fought the Steel Maiden and the Stahlritter before, right?"

"Yep. We didn't even beat the Maiden either, just broke her helmet and brought her to her knees long enough for her to acknowledge our strength. Plus we fought them all one at a time. Gotta admit I was pretty damn impressed when I heard Class VII took on the Stout and the Sharp at the same time."

The praise was nice, but at the same time Fie wasn't all that impressed with their performance, "We were just barely holding them off. We would've been screwed had Rean and his friends not shown up when Duvalie did."

"Still, from what I've heard from Rean it was a pretty good showing. A lot better than what you did against my cousin, that's for sure."

"Hah. Hah." She did not need to be reminded of that. It was fine. She'd just make find a way to make him eat his words during their fight.

"Ow..." In hindsight, trying to make someone with half a decade of experience on her who followed the same career path eat his words was a rather optimistic goal.

"Don't be such a baby." Randy teased as he set down a pair of drinks before taking a seat opposite her, "Most of those won't even bruise."

Fie shot him a withering glare, but the aptly named Red Reaper simply brushed her off with a smirk, "I hate you so much."

"Still, that was a pretty good fight. I wasn't expecting to need to bust out Berserker to put you down at the end there."

She hadn't expected it either. One moment she was dancing around his stun halberd looking for an opening, and the next he had whipped out his heavy weapon and had her completely pinned under a barrage of deadly firepower, helpless as the former Red Constellation closed the distance and swatted her away like an annoying fly.

"Still..." Randy gave a thoughtful hum, "This wasn't quite what I was hoping for."

"Well sorry for not living up to your expectations." She groused.

The teacher let out a laugh, "Sorry, I didn't mean it like that. Like I said earlier I was hoping to fight someone like Shirley. You're still crafty as all hell, don't get me wrong, but I think you've become more like me and less like her. Lost a bit of that jaeger edge."

"And what's that supposed to mean?"

"It means we've become domesticated." At her arched eyes he elaborated, "Think about it! We were both raised to believe that survival on the battlefield was the only thing that mattered. And now I'm a cop and you're a student. To think the once mighty Sylphid and Red Reaper have become bargain bin bracers. My old man's probably rolling over in his grave right now."

"Who knows? Maybe he's gotten bored of Gehenna and is running around like mine."

Randy shuddered, "No thank you. I'm still half-expecting Uncle Sigmund to pop out and make my life a living hell again. Don't need the War God to add onto that."

"You really think I've changed that much?" Sure Fie knew she's grown since arriving at Thors, but the way Randy was talking made it sound like her entire mentality had changed, and that was something she couldn't really see.

But then again it was hardest to see your own changes.

"Yep. I know your crew tried to keep you away from the worst of the jaeger life, but I'm sure the old Sylphid was a lot more ruthless than you are. If our fight had been a serious one I bet the old you would have turned to explosives and been willing to blow up half the school trying to get me in a trap, and while you probably would've done what you could to clear out the civilian element, well... stuff happens."

She couldn't really deny the point, especially since he was speaking from experience, "I guess so."

Randy nodded, "But now? Now I think it's different. What would you do if I told you you had to force me to my knees within two hours in a fight with no rules?"

No rules? Well that made it easy, "I'd probably call up the rest of Class VII to help out. Anyone else willing to come over, too."

"Exactly!" The teacher grinned madly, "You've got your own crew now, just like how I have mine waiting for me back in Crossbell. And they aren't just other people fighting under the same banner, either. Junie and the others will have your back through thick and thin, just as I know you'd have theirs should they need it. And that's what makes you different from Shirley or those Zephyr guys."

"Huh..." Fie mused on his words for a moment, "I guess you got a point. I mean I knew I was starting to turn into a sap, but hearing it from your mouth really brings home the point."

"Yep. Seems like the fate of all former jaegers is to fall prey to idealistic lady-killers with a penchant for cheesy speeches."

She rolled her eyes, "Could you make it any weirder?"

"Sorry. That's totally how it is. I know it. You know it. And I'm pretty sure the Jaeger King knows it, too."

The Zephyr girl gave a groan, "Maybe, but I still need to give him an answer. Not looking forward to that one."

Randy gave a laugh, "Can't blame you there. I thought I had it rough having to fight an Ogre two years ago. Definitely feeling for you."

"Gee, thanks."

"Piece of advice? If you wanna give your old man a good answer you'll definitely need to kick up the training a notch. You might not be like Shirley anymore, but if you wanna get through to him you're gonna need to be something even better."

Fie sighed tiredly at his words. She knew it all, she truly did. But hearing them from someone more experienced on the matter really brought home just how screwed she truly was.

Goodbye, peaceful free days lazing about and having fun. It was time to kick up the training even further.

"Oh, but before you can do that..." Randy paused for dramatic effect as she tilted her head, curious as to what he had to say, "...You gotta go study your music notes first, remember? You won't get the chance to give your answer if the Golden Rakshasa murders you first!"

Fie cursed audibly as the so-called teacher laughed at her plight.

Daybreak 2 is in three days. Thus this story will be going on hiatus for a while. I always come back, of course, but I'm kinda thinking about taking a slightly longer break this time. Maybe a month or so. We'll see.