As they walked through the corridor, that led from the medbay, Tsune was a ball of conflicting emotions.

On one hand, sheer excitement from attending the third year ceremony with the real, honest to God, mechs in all of their towering glory. On the other, her impatience to see the game's script and find out what he had planned.

And as an undercurrent, there was a stray thought that steadily grew within her.

"I really want to slap this guy."

Going through the main hall, that only started to fill with people, the girl made sure to stay at least a full arm distance away from Rod.

-

For some odd reason, that stray intention have already developed into an itch that nested in her hand. And even brought a friend along for the ride. That friend was called the knowledge that giving into the impulse and leaving an obvious red mark on his cheek was the only cure.

Strangest of all, the odd feeling did not share its origins with anger at the man who called himself Rhodes. But subtle and barely recognizable, it nevertheless managed to influence her perception of him.

'Here are the documents.'

After reaching into his bag for a thin closed folder, he offered it to the girl.

'I sorted them and made reference notes on most pages, so it should be easy to follow your part in the story campaign.'

Reaching to take it, her fingers touched his by accident. It was an insignificant sensation, one she didn't even register, much less cared about. But it was enough for the subtle thought to finally form itself into something she could put into words.

"Wait, wait."

She unclasped the folder and mechanically flipped through a couple of pages, when she finally caught the tail of that bothering thought.

"It was barely ten minutes since I decided to worry less about being a girl. Barely ten minutes!"

Everyone in the class was talking about her appearance, but he was the exception. He wasn't even looking at the beautiful girl with the novel appearance. Nothing to dislike there, but during their hour long talk she looked straight at him, he answered by meeting her eyes or watching the surroundings. And to her current surprise she was relatively sure he wouldn't steal a glance. Indignation was the new unwanted emotion.

"I relaxed way too much."

Switching hands, she wiped her fingers clean. The self imposed limits shouldn't be released all at the same time, should they.

'Tsune? Did you read the Third year ceremony event?'

His voice brought most of her attention back into the reality. He stoof in the door frame, ready to leave.

'Yeah-h, one second.'

"Early bio, parents, friends, academy events, that academy guard's profile?"

Tsune flipped through the folder, barely reading past the page titles until she found today.

"The protagonist chose a Majin type mech. Built up support affection for routes unlocked during the first year. Quickly became friends with..."

Tsune glanced at the boy, who still stood in the same place, and shut the folder.

"That's not happening. That's never happening for multiple reasons."

-

With the folder hidden in the bag with her assistant device, they both rushed out of the class. The boy ran forward, while Tsune walked with her hands crossed under her bust. Even with additional support, she acutely felt every step. However, that speed was a blessing in disguise as she finished sorting her thoughts.

At the entrance to the training grounds, she smiled to the guard that stopped her before. Foolhardy in the hindsight, but this day already revved her too far to care.

'Hello. Are you going to let me through this time? I still don't have a third year student pass.'

With a smug smile, she looked straight at him. The expression dimmed when she saw a row and a half of award planks on the left side of his black suit. Each a distinguished mission success: white for search and rescue and the few red, that broke the white lines into three uneven parts, for combat. The tail end, bearing the academy's brand, had the single yellow plank for social service. Exactly as his proflle said.

The guard ignored her waning smile and reached for the console. The path to the senior part of the academy has opened, long downward stairs with a corridor below.

'Hurry up, or the missed ceremony will haunt you with regret.'

-

At first, Tsune saw only the lines of students from all of the classes. But the real view opened when she walked out of the corridor.

Three machines, each as a different approach to mech warfare, stood about fifty meters away from the students.

On the left was an ancient, yet futuristic looking, greek warrior. Its proud twenty meter stature was challenged only by the spear in its right hand. The round ornate shield, strapped to its left forearm, covered the side of its body from the knees to its neck. There, the defense was succeeded by a helmet with a red plumage that partially hid the pilot capsule.

While the warrior's majestic appearance made the enourmous dome feel much smaller, the central group gave a more subtle impression as combiner animal-shapd mech barely reached five meters in height. But what it lacked in sheer authority, it made up with their predatory design.

Tsune barely spared a glance towards the remote controlled helicopter on the right as she joined her class line. Barely on time too, as the mic testing screech hit as soon as her low heels clicked for the final time. Four teachers entered the dome, three passed to their mechs, their practice coach stopped at the mic stand.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

'Today, as you know, is a very important day for all of us.'

'For you, its the day you will graduate from the virtual simulation training and become young pilots. The next study year will be your first real experience piloting a mech. You will get the chance to know if the control schemes you've created can work in reality as well as expected.'

'For us teachers, its the day of seeing the results of our hard work. We are proud of you. We see that your future can hold at least as many bright days as challenges to overcome and better yourself.'

'Now I ask you to make the first most important choice of your life in the academy. Behind me are three paths, neither superior to others, but each with distinct strengths for your unique way and weaknesses you will learn to compensate with teamwork.'

'Now, we will start. I ask for each class line to send a single student at a time. That student must choose the path, greet your new teacher, stand nearby. For combiner mechs, form groups of three, or more.'

Tsune glanced to the side and met Rod's eyes that watched her every move. His classmate slapped his back and cheered him on.

"Well, no reason to waste time."

As soon as the previous student stopped at their chosen mech, she took a step out. As she walked forward, she heard morning whispers about her restart in other classes. Which was probably why she stumbled from her phone's notification sound.

'I, the teacher of trainees, transfer the student's hand into yours, teacher of seniors. May she grow into a fine defender.'

The coach swiped on his tablet screen and the man in the shadow of the wolf mech gave her a nod.

'I, teacher of seniors, accept the responsibility and duty. The wisdom and strength of the previous generations will belong to her as well.'

With her face free of emotion and her stride steady she walked to the combiner mech.

"Are you worried, *Mr. Rhodes*? Are you angry that I'm not a pawn? That I didn't choose the Majin type as written and you won't get my *route's* flag? I bet you are both."

She looked only forward, in case he broke his character and started waving. She ignored the vibrating phone as she approached the student groups that stood below the animal mechs.

'Welcome aboard, Tsune Red.'

The senior teacher accepted her hand and carefully turned their vertical handshake horizontal. Now her hand was hidden below his. Breaking away, he motioned her to the student groups on his right.

-

After several minutes, she stopped in the open. Some groups waved her away, other were full, or didn't even hear her as they chatted each other's ear off. A new approach was in question; the preset teams were the quickest to choose, therefore the pool for freeform groups would reveal itself soon enough.

But every passing minute of seeing only tight knit group fractured that theory more and more. Could he have manipulated everyone; of course not, right? That would be reaching too far.

Finally, the nervousness broke through the proverbial dam and she took out her, now silent, phone.

"I'll see what he wanted. He'd probably gloat if he managed to pull something like this."

Multiple calls, voice messages and texts, all sent in the span of a minute, waited for her. If nothing else, he still had his tenacity and multitasking.

-Follow the script-

-Go to majin robots!-

-Turn left-

-I thought you understood your duty-

-Don't threaten the world on a whim-

-This is a mistake, don't do it-

But that brought her nothing but mild satisfaction. Maybe if she wedged herself into one of the discussions and just stuck with them until a group formed around them? But the only thing she ever talked about were Majins, only them.

Tsune rubbed her eyes. She could just wait for the last incomplete team then,

Half an hour later, the ceremony was almost over, And she found three boys and a black hairedgirl who stood on the outer rim of the gathering. All of them, except for the tall boy with hazel hair, looked like they just waited for the event to end.

'Hey, do you have a place for me?'

'Well...'

The boy started to answer, but brunette leaned closer to him before she cut in.

'We are full.'

'Come on, Aery, don't interrupt me, you'll make the team look bad.'

'But we all agreed that we don't need other pilots. We pilot the torso together, the other two get the limbs.'

'That was only if we couldn't find more people. Come on, its not like it's set in stone.'

The girl turned away, her hands folded in front of her modest chest.

'Fine, if you want to. At least I'll have somebody to talk to.'

With a sigh of relief, the boy turned to Tsune and extended his hand.

'I'm Den, the leader of this group so far. The girl is Aery. The guys are Eider and Hem.'

The rest of the ceremony quickly passed by and finally the last student chose his side. The trainee teacher switched the volume of his microphone up and delivered the closing words.

'Remember this day well. Today you have made the first step towards the brighter future for all of us.'

'You can leave home now if you wish, but we at the academy will be ready and waiting for your return.'