The next week came flying in, its passage rushed by how busy Tsune was. Having split her time between pilot training and staying in the academy overtime to observe other pilots, she had only the late evening to herself.

But unlike the progress of time, the progress of her investigation has barely moved. Even after six days her list had only the people from the first two days, who were fortunate, or unfortunate, enough to own multiple top rarity parts.

And to avoid looking incapable in next meeting with her favorite pilot, today she went on a trip around the training field. She was intent on investigating people from her list closer.

-

Walking to the open hangar occupied by the last name in her list, she peeked inside.

'Hello?'

The owner, a lean girl with short red hair, showed up from inside of the robot's leg, to look at her guest. And she stayed on the safe height of the ankle armor plate until she recognized the visitor.

The stubby knight mech barely reached Griffin's waist, so she simply jumped down to greet the blonde.

' Good day. You are one of the Griffin's pilots, right?'

'Can I look at your robot closer? I was a majin pilot myself, so I'm curious.'

Tsune's question was met with a raised eyebrow but the pilot waved for her to come in.

Walking around the mech, the blonde saw every equipped part in detail. The sword, the rare tower shield, the cosmetic accessories, she had seen them already during her observations. Even after risking the owner's ire and climbing to look past the open armor plate on the chest she saw nothing new.

'So, what do you think? Anything I can improve?'

The pilot's voice reached Tsune, when she was back on the ground, revealing the the redhead's reason for complacency. The attempt to get help from the daughter of the famed professor Red. 

"Did she think that I'm a genius."

Tsune rubbed her hands against her shirt, as if wiping the dust away, to hide her embarassment.

'Sorry, I have some technical knowledge but its about making tiny robots for friendly matches. I was honestly curious.'

'Ohhh, no, its fine. Sorry for over thinking it. Did you see everything you wanted?'

Despite staying still, the pilot's voice betrayed both her expectations and the disappointment that came after. But even the latter didn't stay for long, replaced by the sheer indifference.

And after receiving a positive reply, the redhead wasted no time on being courteous.

'Then no offense but I'm busy. I have my training session soon.'

-

For the next name, the blonde planned to disillusion them from the start. But, unfortunately, she wasn't allowed even to speak. As soon as the helmet wearing boy saw her coming towards his doors he went to meet her.

'Please, I ask you to not approach my hangar. I heard the rumors about the stolen parts and I have spent too much on my robot to test if they are real.'

Putting his hands together in a pleading motion, he gave a shallow bow and waited for her answer. And of course, he received the one he expected.

-

Much sooner than she expected, Tsune was left with a single name left on her list. The one who might have the means to do it but, given how close he stuck to his role, was also the only one without a motive. Nevertheless she had to ask him as well.

'Why are you here? I mean, what brings you here, Tsune?'

Her surprise visit threw Rod off guard. He even reprimanded her for being where she wasn't supposed to be.

But the outburst ended when he fixed his nonexistent glasses.

'I mean, I'm really glad you came. If you need something, just tell me and consider its done!'

She waved for him to quit playing around with a fake persona and asked her question.

'You know about some of student inventories being hacked, right? Unless somebody wanted that academy discount so badly that he risked getting attention from this world's leading pilot, there's a very limited circle of suspects.'

'You suspect me? But a man of justice would never do something like that. It's completely opposite of what I strive for, it's the villain's way.'

Sighing as she listened to him stalling for time, the blonde narrowed her eyes. She had to get him serious first.

'Come on, sir knightly team manager, I'm serious. People both suspect and depend on me. Not that I expect you to be familiar with latter.'

'Listen. I have no idea how to do something like that. If I was caught using cheats online, it would've hit my reputation. And there was no point, absolutely no point, in risking that just to ask you to clarify that, that, conspiracy that started in the team back then.'

Rod stumbled as he probably tried to use an expletive whose meaning had no counterpart in their current language.

But seeing him that worked up was a cherry on top of his logical reasons. She was once again left with no leads.

-

Time moved on and the seasons were about to change. And with the first days of spring, the team's training was about to step up from the pilots being observers during the combination.

Now the movement priority was in their hands, with the goal of collapsing the four automated phases into a single smoothly coördinated human led motion. But so far only the first phase was polished enough to be done without error.

For other phases, if a pilot saw that something was about to go wrong all they needed to do is to let go of controls. And Tsune did exactly that when she got momentarily lost in order and timing of commands.

As soon as her hands left the wolf's status screen, the cranes seamlessly took over and docked the transformed wolf to the torso. And after Eider's finale, the completed robot started to descend to the ground.

"Why is it harder here? I can do it with eyes closed at home."

Somewhat disappointed that the anxiety got to her again, the blonde looked out to the training field without a smile.

Truth to be told, it was mostly because of the thoughts about today's meeting with her favorite pilot. She still had nothing to show even after using the victim group as proxies to visit as many hangars as they could. And that meant that whoever the culprit was, he still kept the stolen parts in the digital inventory.

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-

The pilot cabin slightly shook as the twenty meter tall mech reached the ground to proudly stand on its own. The initial impact overloaded the shock absorbers, that kept her cabin stable, but they adjusted by the time the mech made its first step of the day.

'Team! First we'll have a combat test. Then an obstacle course to practice mobility.'

Den overlayed the team screen with his plan, showing that the today's combat was only basic melee. Which meant that most of the training's benefit went to Den, who was in charge of the general movements, while others were there to make them precise.

'So, no weapons today?'

The team leader answered Eider's question in an uncharacteristically unsure voice.

'I believe in everyone's ability, but we cannot afford a mistake with them.'

And hearing about not being able to afford, the blonde couldn't help but look up. There, through a holographic obvservation screen, she saw the source of his lack of confidence.

It was the newly bought weapon with two attack modes. It looked like a two handed sword handle, but for now it was split into two and hidden in cylinder sheaths behind the robot's arms.

"Well, can't blame him. Wouldn't want another wall crater."

Returning her attention to the main screen, she was just in time. With a quick movement of the control stick, she guided the kick done with her leg. And it hit the dummy exactly into the target designated by Den.

-

After the training, Tsune got out of the cockpit with some reluctance. She had doubts about showing up with no results, but she wasn't about to miss a chance to meet her favorite pilot.

'Well, I'm off.'

She waved to others and, under the excuse of the promise she gave her father, walked to the tunnel.

At first she thought that Den would ask for details, but he continued to accept it. She saw Aery's smile at him as she took his hand and thought that perhaps the brunette was the reason.

On the other hand, Eider never missed a chance to pressure Hem into revealing his secret project to her.

'Hey, stop tinkering with your present already. If you don't give it to her soon, it'll turn into your past.'

The puns were only the most recent addition to his verbal arsenal. Honestly, she admired the other boy's ability to ignore all of that.

-

Waiting at her usual spot, near the window that overlooked the training fields, the blonde observed the mech practice. Although today was different, as the juniors weren't as busy within their cabins.

'Hey, aren't you a senior?'

When a young voice asked her a question, Tsune turned around to see a male junior. He stood a respectable distance away. 

'Yes.'

Encouraged by the answer, the boy quickly glanced back at the cabins and continued with another question.

'Can you give me advice? Our class was told to make custom controls earlier than others but I don't know what to make.'

'What kind of a mech you have?'

'It looks like an archer. I wanted to use Magic type controls to control the arrow in a cool way, but I didn't get those parts. And I'm afraid that if I use what I have, I'll learn bad skills for a Magic user.'

'I don't think there are bad skills to have. I spent all the VR training in a Majin before transferring to a wolf.'

'Are you any good with it?'

'Well. If you look out of the window, the crater in the far wall was the result of my combination attack.'

'Oh! Its yours?!'

The boy went to the window to look in the right direction, while carefully keeping his distance. And whether it was to avoid breathing in her perfume, or being overwhelmingly respectful, he even held his breath.

Soon, he turned back to her, with awe obvious in his expression. After offering quick thanks, he walked away, trying to restore his breathing as stealthily as possible.

Tsune watched him reach one of the VR cabins and open the door just enough to show another boy inside. The pair talked with emotions so high from both sides that sometimes they began to point in her direction. And that alone showed her that she had a lot more rumors surrounding her than just a piloting error and Mapo's rarity.

"Where did it all go so wrong."

Watching them distracted her from her worries. But the underlying discontent kept her thoughts in a subdued mood even when they turned inwards.

The first memory on her path of reminiscence was how a single piloting error, even as flashy as it was, could derail her life as a regular student. She would want to place all the blame on that alone but as much as she didn't want to admit it, her academy life was changed far earlier.

Was it since the speech after the first VR combat exam? Or was it when her classmates distanced themselves by calling her *Boring*. Or...

'Ah, here you are.'

The melancholic streak was interrupted by the familiar baritone.

The girl turned around, brushing off the invisible dirt off her uniform, and took out the list that still had only a couple of names. She was ready to receive the complimentary encouragement and start a new week with hopefully better results.

'Good day. I didn't find him this week too.'

'I'm sorry to hear that. But I have an idea.'

To her surprise, the man didn't reach out for the paper, or paid any attention to it. Instead he waved for her to follow him.

They went to the entrance to the training field, with the guard letting them both through the door without as much as a nod.

Once in the corridor and far away from anyone ears, the older pilot paused to talk.

'I plan to organize a tourney with starting the live mission year with me as the mentor as the first place reward.'

"Mentor? Ah, I forgot completely about that!"

A shock went through the girl's mind when she recalled the very first mission in the game. Where the man before her took his protegé, the player, to the first live mission in their career. The tutorial mission that was supposed to end with the death of the revered pilot and kickstart the events of the game.

Misunderstanding her expression, the man patted her shoulder.

'You'll do fine, I believe in you and your team. I'll be announcing this to everyone soon.'