Last Time: The school gets a new student, who seems to hate Ichika's guts.

Next Time: Zora finds out a shocking revealation about his roommate

(Opening Theme: Back - On)

https://youtu.be/4FwfrXDAFyA

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Upon seeing Ichika get smacked by the new transfer student, Zora shot up from his seat and grabbed Laura's arm with an angry look on his face.

"Hey! What the hell do you think you're doing!" said Zora.

"This does not concern you, Ukashi," Laura replied coldly, not even glancing his way.

"When it involves my friends, then it becomes my business, so start talking," Zora refused to back down from this.

"Do not make me repeat myself... stay out of my way,"

"Make me."

As soon as he said that, Laura lashed out with a high kick however Zora instantly reacted by arching backwards for his hands to land on the ground then spun around to perform a butterfly kick to which Laura quickly jumped backwards to get out of range. Both glared at each other as the rest of the class looked on with worry.

"That's enough out of the both of you! Return to your seats before I hand out any punishments!" said Chifuyu with a stern look as if daring them to continue.

Zora and Laura continued to glare at each other until Zora backed away and returned to his seat, but that didn't stop him from taking a side glance at her. He also failed to notice the girls whispering amongst themselves about how cool he was when he avoided the kick and retaliated with his own.

Later on, it was time for IS practice joined by Class 2, and everyone was at the training grounds with a few practicing in the IS provided by the academy. It was there that Zora was having a chat with Ichika about what had happened early in the morning.

"Geez, what the hell was up with that girl? She nearly slapped the your teeth loose, " said Zora.

"I've never met her before in my life...wait she said that she was from Germany. Maybe she was one of them," said Ichika thoughtfully.

"Excuse me, Zora, Ichika," both boys turned to see Charles approaching them with a smile.

"Hey Charles, what's up?" asked Zora.

"I was hoping to ask if one of you could spar with me for a while? I want to try fighting Byakushiki or Solar Akatsuki,"

"Why don't you go for it, Ichika? I'll be doing a little tune-up for my IS later," Narutora turned to Ichika.

"Oh okay, then I'll be the one to spar with you, Charles,"

"Thank you," said Charles happily.

Zora watched as the two squared off before activating their IS with Ichika in his Byakushiki. Then Charles placed a hand over an orange necklace as it glowed brightly before finally dimreveal his IS. Zora took note that Charles's IS closely resembles the Raphael Revive like the one Maya uses except that the armor has been modified, there were two sets of wings and an arm sized shield attached to her left arm, but most important of all...

"...It's orange, a great choice of color," Zora gave a mental thumbs up to the color scheme.

"Here I come, Ichika," said Charles.

"Okay," said Ichika.

Both charged at each other with Ichika repeatedly slashing and Charles using his arm shield to block the attacks, then he took to the air with Ichika close behind, Charles turned around and summoned a submachine gun to his right arm before firing at Ichika who darted left and right.

"Take this!" Ichika dove in from above with a vertical slash, Charles moved to the side and flew high into the air and far from him as he switched out the submachine gun for an assault rifle "Oh no," Ichika took evasive action but Charles proved to be quite a marksman as a majority of his shots made contact.

'Not bad, Ich.'  Zora thought with a hum. 'Though, it doesn't look like Charles will let you get close to attack while at the same time chipping away your shield energy.' 

Like Zora thought, Ichika kept trying to fly towards Charles while avoiding the shots, but Charles kept on maintaining the distance between them. Sure enough, Byakushiki ran out of shield energy, and he had no choice but to accept his loss.

Afterward, the male trio was discussing the spar as well as there is.

"It seems like you've only got an idea of the nuances of long-range weapons," said Charles.

"Yeah, I've been sparring with Zora from time to time, so I've learned to evade as much as possible while trying to get close enough for a one-hit takedown," said Ichika

"Does Byakushiki not have an equalizer?" asked Charles.

Zora shook his head. "That's where the problem is. There are no slots for Ichika to install a weapon with the sword being the only weapon available for Ichika to use."

"It's a guess, but the capacity has been used on a one-off ability,"

"One-off?" Ichika looked a bit confused.

Zora was the one to explain this time "It is an ability that can only occur when the IS and its pilots are in perfect sync with each other. And like the name says, it's a 'one and only ability', which means that no two IS have the same abilities. At least, that's how Arthias explained it."

"And I'm sure that the Reiraku Byakuya is Byakushiki's one-off ability," said Charles.

"I see...then what would Solar Akatsuki's one-off ability be, Zora?" Ichika asked the orangette.

Zora smiled mischievously. "Not gonna tell ya, try making me use it during the tournament,"

Ichika smiled as well. "We'll see about that then, but the Reiraku Byakuya is a crazy ability which even utilizes shield energy, which makes it a doubled-edged sword that shouldn't be used haphazardly,"

"It's quite rare for an IS like Byakushiki and probably Solar Akatsuki to use a one-off ability as most IS access their one-off when they're in their second shift, and also Reiraku Byakuya is the same power that Ms. Orimura or Mr. Arthias used it, but it's not like they can easily use the same kinds of moves just because they're siblings."

"Is that so? Well, we still can't think of any answer even after thinking for so long, so let's forget about it for now," said Ichika with a shrug of his shoulders.

"Yeah, major thinking is mostly reserved for classrooms," Zora spoke jokingly for the others to laugh.

"You're right, so how about some shooting practice? Here Ichika, you can use this," Charles materialized his assault rifle called vent and held it out to Ichika as a couple of multi-colored holographic targets appeared ahead of them

"Huh, but are we prohibited from using the weapons of others?" asked Ichika confusedly.

Have you been reading the notes which I gave you? One of them says that as long as the user has registered the other IS pilot, they can use it as long as the owner allows it," said Zora with a quirked eyebrow.

"He's right, so in other words, I've allowed Ichika-san to use Vent with Byakushiki," said Charles.

"Oh okay," Ichika took the rifle and held it the way he normally sees soldiers hold theirs on TV. "So I hold it like this, right?"

"Let me see... close your armpit down a bit and move your left arm here," Charles moved to his back and adjusted his posture properly.

"Okay," then Ichika proceeded to shoot at the targets with Charles guiding him. Soon enough, the targets beeped to signal and displayed a score of 45.

"Not bad Ichika, your aim's pretty much average at best. It isn't a surprise as you specialize more in close-range," said Zora.

"Yeah, you're right about that," said Ichika.

"So how was it?" asked Charles.

"I can't tell exactly, but the first thing that came across my mind was fast, and the recoil from the shots took me by surprise a bit,"

"That's how it is with firearms, especially shotguns and launchers, which can send you flying backward if you're not prepared for it," said Zora.

"Yes, though IS is able to negate the recoil so it won't pose as a problem," said Charles.

"Might as well take a turn at the shooting practice even though it's different from my usual practice session," Zora walked forward and held the red bracelet on his right hand. "Soar high, Solar Akatsuki!"

 It glowed brightly until it faded to reveal him in Solar Akatsuki. "Equip Beam Rifle!" after tuning the gun to semi-auto, he took aim at the first target then quickly dashed to the left and went on one knee and fired the next target, he rolled to the right and shot once more before finishing up by activating the thrusters to launch him into the air and firing at the last target.

Charles and Ichika, along with everyone else, stood there stunned at the orangette's display of shooting at the targets while the girls were whispering about how cool he was.

"That was pretty something Zora, how did you do that?" asked Ichika.

"Need I remind you who trained me? I learned that taking different postures can affect your accuracy as well as make it a bit harder for opponents to keep a beat on you, especially when reloading your gun while on the move," Zora explained..

"Which brings me to ask, how many equalizers do you have?" asked Charles.

"At the moment, I have three or four equalizers, though I might plan to install a few weapons into the remaining slots before the class league matches,"

Suddenly, the students started whispering amongst themselves, although it didn't sound like they were talking about them.

"Hey, look at that..."

"No way, that's the third generation German model,"

"I heard that it was still in a testing phase in their country,"

The trio turned to see Laura standing at the entrance of the docking bay in her IS, which happens to be black in color with a large railgun attached to the right shoulder. Laura focused her sights on Ichika but not before glaring at Zora, who was watching her closely as well.

'Oh, it's her again.' Zora thought, narrowing his eyes.

"Orimura Ichika, I can see that you have your own personal IS, which makes things easier. Fight me," said Laura.

"I don't want to; I have no reason to fight you," said Ichika.

"Even if you don't, I do," said Laura.

"It doesn't have to be now, right? The class league match is soon, so let's do it then,"

"In that case..." Laura aimed the railgun at Ichika and shot at him, Zora instantly moved to intercept the shot as he swapped his assault rifle for Ultima and deflected it into the air much to Laura's displeasure "Again you get in my way Ukashi,"

"I get that a lot from the guys who don't like me," said Zora again, switching out Ultima for his Beam rifle.

"Thanks, Z!" said Ichika, looking relieved.

Charles readied the assault rifle and summoned his submachine gun before taking aim at the German pilot. "Suddenly challenging someone to a fight, Germans are really hot-tempered,"

"To think that the likes of a second generation French IS and a third generation American IS are standing in my way," said Laura.

"It's probably more mobile than your third generation model, which still can't be mass produced," Charles retored.

"And you haven't seen what my IS can really do, but you're welcome to try," Zora challenged.

Then the voice of an instructor spoke through the speakers of the training grounds, "You students over there, what are you doing?"

"Hmph, let's end it here, shall we?" Laura's IS glowed for a moment before reverting into its closed form, which is in the form of a garter belt on her left leg. She gave the trio one more look before turning around and leaving.

Then Houki, Ling, and Cecelia ran up to them with looks of concern.

"What was that all about, Ichika?" asked Houki.

"What happened, Simba?" Rin asked Zora.

"Let's say she hates him for something which was out of his control back when he was younger and left it at that," said Zora.

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After the training session was over, Zora and the others were the last to enter the locker room and change back into their uniforms.

"Yo Ichika, I'm done with the shower so you can have a go," said Zora as he came out of said place while drying his hair with a towel.

"Ok, thanks." said Ichika as he began to take off his pilot suit.

"I'll be returning to the room first, Zora," said Charles with the school jacket on.

"Sure thing."

"Can't you take a shower with us? You're always like that," said Ichika.

"W-well i-it's not l-like I don't want to," said Charles nervously.

"Come on, don't be so cold," Ichika slung an arm around Charles' shoulder, making him yelp and run away from them. "Charles?"

*SMACK!*

"Ow!" Ichika nursed the bump on his head as he turned to see Zora behind him with his towel raised."What was that for?!"

"Ever heard of personal space? Charles was probably raised differently, which means that he isn't used to stuff like this yet. Try not to be so pushy next time, okay man?" Zora said, getting a nod from Ichika.

Naruto and Kurami had left the classroom as the sun was setting and were making their way back to the dormitory. They were passing by a nearby when they heard voices that sounded familiar close by.

"Please answer me, instructor. Why are you in such a place?" a female voice spoke.

"Don't me repeat myself, I have something that I must fulfill. That's all there is to it," said another female voice.

They traced the voices until they saw Chifuyu and Laura standing at the edge of the lake, Naruto silently up onto the branch of a tree close to them as they listened into their conversation

"You have some role in this far eastern place? Please instructor, teach me again in Germany," said Laura.

"Sounds to me like she's trying to persuade Chifuyu-san to leave the IS academy and return with her to Germany. Seems rather selfish to me," said Kurami.

Laura continued to talk to Chifuyu. "This place can't utilize even half of your capabilities,"

"Oh really?" asked Chifuyu.

"In the first place, the students in this school are humans not worthy of being taught by you. Having no sense of crisis, they mistake the IS as some kind of fashion statement. Having you share your time with people like that..."

"Leave it at that little girl," Chifuyu responded sternly much to Laura's surprise "After not seeing you for a while, you've become a little haughty. I feel sorry for you. You're acting like a chosen one at the age of 15,"

"I-I am," Laura started but Chifuyu interrupted her.

"Return to the dorm, I'm busy."

Laura gritted her teeth before running off with Zora watching with interest.

"Pretty harsh of her, but then again, Laura was saying all those demeaning things,"  Zora muttered.

"...You know, it's rude to eavesdrop on someone's conversation," a voice spoke from behind, suprising the teen as he turned and saw Arthias standing beside him.

"Oh. Hey, Art." Zora rubbed the back of his head sheepishly "I merely heard shouting and decided to see what was going on."

"Well, unless you won't Chifuyu to lay you out, I'd advise for you to not do that again," Arthias told him.

"Yeah, well that before litte Ms. One-Eye Matey tried to gas light a fight."

"What happened?"

"Charles and Ichika had a practice fight and Laura then showed up and tried start up trouble."

"It doesn't really surprise me, in all honesty. The fact that she doesn't like you, that is."

"How so?"

"She sees you as a threat, since you're my cousin."

"Tch, figures."

"And I could name some more, but that isn't the point. Tread carefully around her, Z, or you may just regret it."

"Noted."

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Later on, Zora finally arrived at his room and unlocked the door before entering, though he couldn't see Charles anywhere.

"Charles, I'm back. Where are you?" asked Zora as he looked around, before hearing water running in the bathroom.

"He must be taking a bath...hang on, I remember using the last of the shower gel this morning before setting off for school. Let me go get the extra bottle and pass it over to him," Zora walked over to the drawer a blue bottle of the shower gel and walked over to the door leading to the bathroom before knocking on it. "Hey Charles, it's me. There's no shower gel in there, so I brought another over."

"Okay Zora, I'm coming over to take it," Charles' voice sounded through the door, a moment later he heard him scream in surprise, making Zora quickly open the door and rush inside to see what's happening.

"Charles, I heard you scream! Are you o..."

Zora trailed off upon what he was currently seeing. Charles was on his knees on the bathroom floor naked, but that wasn't what shocked him. Charles' pectorals were rounded and covered with an arm while the other covered his groin, which apparently is missing what is supposed to be there. Both boys silently stared at each other with neither mentioning a word.

Zora was the first to break the silence. "Dude...you need a haircut."

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(Ending Theme:  Fly Away)

https://youtu.be/aMEnBJ4iolk

Okay, this took a while. I hope you were all pleased with what happened with this chapter.

Leave a comment by PM or review. See ya!!!