[Frontline Group Beta]
[North Sector]
[Approximately 6.32 miles to Goal]
This is wrong, something is very wrong. This situation, this training exercise, everything.
A nagging tug pulled on S1 as he pondered. He continued to dole out orders from the top hatch of his tank. This mind calmed as the cannon thundered along with the heavy infantry’s heavy caliber guns. They sat firmly on the hull, firing into the distance.
It was getting cramped, both on the tank and with how close the enemy was getting, but thank god their earpieces reduced all the noise they were making. S1 swore he’d go deaf without it.
Right now though S1’s HUD was a higher issue than the prospect of hearing loss. It had become cluttered in so many moving screens, updating messages, and streams of data on enemy encounters and movements, that he thought he’d go mad if this got any more complicated. He needed to put everything together in a coherent manner and come up with a better plan.
At that moment, he was in the situation to do so. With the sudden addition of TACs and a large number of aerial groups joining the frontline, his rushed strategy of a blitzkrieg was bearing fruit. Halfway from the initial distance they had started, his frontline group, Group Beta, were well on their way to breaking through to the goal.
With the TACs arrival, the amount of munitions they were burning through was lessening. The burden of holding the front had eased, now, S1 and his tanks could focus on using their more coordinated long range options, which used much less of their ammo stock than in a frontal attack.
At the rate they were currently burning through ammo, he believed his tanks would have some spare by the time they reached their destination. Additionally, the use of small arms munitions was also decreasing amongst the infantry, but the pace at which the trainees were using their weapons was unsustainable to maintain the current number of intercepting actions.
Without them, the students and his ability to counter enemy movements would be hindered, a somewhat sizable concern to their future success.
Should I break through with the last of the tank ammo? Or should we advance slowly? But do we have the time?
They were on the clock. If they failed to reach Point Bravo, they would fail the main objective. For the trainees, it meant hard remedial training, and for the students of Andromeda, it meant a mark on their record. It’d make it harder for them to advance in their careers and they’d have to take this hellish class over again. S1 could sympathize, training was always difficult and he wondered if he’d ever get a break any time soon.
Suddenly it hit him.
Wait! Time! That’s it! How much time was left?
S1 didn't know. Combat always had its way with a person’s mind. What felt like an hour could actually have been more than a couple. It was amazing how adrenaline could make a person lose track of themselves.
While S1 was arguably supposed to be skilled enough to keep track of time under pressure, he was still a trainee of the CAU. A senior one at that, but a trainee nonetheless.
His eyes darted around, moving icons and streams of information away from the HUD only he could see. Pulling up the training exercises main log, S1 reviewed it.
It took a couple seconds but he found it, he found what was wrong. It was right there, right under his nose this whole time.
[Training Exercise Mission Objectives - Date: January 31st, 2050]
[Andromeda Academy - Training Mission Name - Up The Hill]
[Objective 1: Unknown]
[Objective 2: Unknown]
[Objective 3: Unknown]
[Objective 4: Survive]
[Time Remaining: Error ???? Error]
No time limit?! This caught S1 off guard. Minutes ago, this indicator was nearing crunch time. It was why everyone was fighting as if their lives depended on it. So why had it changed, why now? And for what purpose?
[Sir!] His communications officer’s voice crackled into clarity. [I’m seeing movement from the enemy. The right and left flank waves have begun to retreat. TAC group red has been able to complete the holding action. They’re requesting further orders.]
[That’s good to hear.] S1 said, snapping back to his usual militaristic bearing. [Tell them to hold position and have temporary battlegroups form around them. How about the center, how’s our little group 6 doing.]
S1 flicked the air with a finger, playing at the unseen interface of his HUD. His officer, while not able to see S1 from his seat inside the tank, heard the difference in his tone.
He was calm, not panicking like before. As if by telepathy, the communications officer knew S1 was up to something in that head of his, probably planning the next move. The officer knew what to do in this situation and that was to give his leader the most accurate readings and info he could get his hands on.
Manipulating the short range scanner manually, data streamed into the communication’s officer’s earpiece and was further analyzed by the cybernetic implants in his eye. There were few gadgets he had installed when he signed up to be a communications officer.
With it, he could calculate and process data in parallel with his own thoughts. It was like having a second brain. The number of enemies, combat strength, and number of allies in the immediate scanned area were compiled and packaged into a data cell, all thanks to that little surgery he had.
[Group 6 seems to have moved to the rendezvous you set out sir. At the rate they're going, they’ll run out of steam and will need more interception actions to advance. Enemy forces are encircling them, but aerial groups are covering the flanks. A.. special officer is among them.]
[Hmmmmm..] S1 hummed in satisfaction. Chisuke was doing what he did best, which was getting rid of pests with that violent streak of his. A very nice focused use of his easily agitated personality.
Osamu was probably reeling him in, a thanks S1 would give over some drinks, though a name popped up that caught his attention, specifically the special officer’s.
So, we have the so-called strongest grunt on this battlefield. I can use him, but.. S1 reconsidered his plan ahead but cracked on nonetheless. He would be twisting the rules a bit going forward, he knew this was wrong, but right or wrong didn’t matter in a battlefield, real or not. The objective was to survive, so that’s what he’d do.
[Good.] S1 Said. [Now, what of the enemy's recent movements? I need an update on the distant waves.]
[On it sir. While the right and left flanks are holding, enemy encounter rate has decreased by 38%. It’s decreasing as we speak.]
[A retreat?]
[Seems so sir. The TACs have tipped the tide of the fight and the new aerial groups are adding to our push forward.]
[I see, then.] S1 smirked. [It’s time we regroup and rest.]
[Rest?.. Sir?] Befuddled, the communications officer hadn’t a clue of why they would stop now. They were rushing for a reason and the goal was dead ahead.
[Yes.] S1 said firmly. [We’re going to regroup and rest. I’m sending out the orders now, read it. You’ll understand my reasoning.]
[Y-Yes sir.]
Keeping true to his communication officer’s suspicions, S1 had drawn up another plan during their short exchange. It was truly extraordinary that he had the capacity for multitasking under fire, and while even talking to one of his men.
An envious skill that a number of S1’s peers found to be in high regards. With the new orders sent out, comms chatter increased at a pitch so high that it almost seemed like anarchy.
Orders were to gather at a new designated point to plan and strategize their next approach. Many were skeptical of S1’s sudden change in tactics. Time was ticking they thought, but that was until they realized that the time limit had been broken.
For all they knew, they had already surpassed the given time and were in a kind of overtime period. The Unknown objectives and Questioned Marked Time limit were concerning.
But these concerns didn’t drive the point home enough that they would follow the new orders. They explicitly only followed out of a belief that S1 was competent and that they had no other choice. Now? The circumstances are different.
The goal was a measly 6 miles away. Running that distance was simple and some tried while others went with their gut. That, or they held a more dutiful outlook in respecting the new temporary chain of command.
Students began disengaging from the front, and trainees ran interceptions to cover them as they moved to regroup. The first group to arrive was none other than Chisuke’s group 6, along with Aerial Group Beta and Gamma.
They were met with the sight of a semi-circle of tanks, all of them positioned in a wedge to create a safe haven behind their cannons. Heavy infantry with their armored suits lumbered around as they set up fortifications, walls and heavy weapon tripods.
image [https://i.postimg.cc/P5fns3Zb/1701895980018.jpg]
A standard kit of a heavy infantry usually came with collapsible walls that they could utilize to set up fortifications. S1 had ordered them to make camp and set up gunnery positions.
A trio of them were moving ahead of the formation. Clad in black and brown overalls, two of them held weapons that no normal man could carry. One was a long barreled single shot anti armor gun, while another was a more shorter, yet still cumbersome rapid fire suppression gun.
Both fired a variety of bullets above a 50 caliber make.
It surprised Dahlia that they could even hold them, let alone fire those kinds of weapons that looked as though they should’ve been on vehicles, not people. What was more astounding was how the third wasn’t armed. Instead, he carried numerous heavy metal boxes and duffel containers, likely full of ammo.
The threatening weight and dangerous look of all that firepower made Dahlia worry that those three might turn their eyes on her.
They were.. Human of course.. And she had sorted history with him.
“S1! Hey! S1! You here!?” Arrogantly walking ahead, Chisuke’s voice drowned out Dahlia thoughts, though it was replaced by the crack of the tank's gun and sporadic gunfire flooding the air.
[Idiot! Just use the comms.] Osamu said in exasperation. [How dumb are you?]
[Tch! I know that.] Chisuke spat defiantly and Osamu could only sigh helplessly at how thick headed he could be.
[S1! S1! S1!! Pick up already! Hey! You there!]
[Yeah, I heard you the first time! What!]
[I should be asking you that! Why in the hell did you tell us to stop the attack? We were winning.]
[Ugh, can’t you use that head of yours for once. Hah, well, let’s lay it out. Come to the lead tank, we’ll talk there.]
[Oo–oo-oh~ This better be good.] Chisuke mused a mocking amount of sarcasm, but a nudge to his back made him jolt forward, breaking that insubordinate act of his. [Hey! Who did that!]
[Get moving.]
Itsuki’s black visor glared up at him, a plain look as he gazed up at Chisuke. A height of two heads separated them and while Itsuki should’ve been cowering at the vicious smirk Chisuke was shooting down at him, instead it was reversed. Chisuke heard his teeth gritting as he paled.
“Fine.” He muttered and stormed off as Itsuki followed him. Dahlia noticed that Itsuki was keeping a keen gaze on Chisuke, as if he were ready to reel in Chisuke’s out of order conduct at the drop of a hat.
“Uh?.. M-Mana?” Dahlia was about to ask her closest friend a question, but didn’t even need to finish since Mana already knew.
“Yeah, this is how it usually goes down with Itsuki and Chisuke. It’s like seeing a dog getting smacked in the head for bad behavior.”
“But why? Isn’t Chisuke supposed to be the senior here? He’s a 5th year and Itsuki is a 4th year.”
“He is, but Itsuki’s already an explorer, remember? He has the experience, and in the past years, he’s made a name for himself in beating down the upperclassmen, Chisuke included.”
“Is he.. He.. going to beat me up as well?”
“That depends.” Mana flashed a weary smile at Dahlia. “Do you want to be an explorer?”
“Why is that important? And how does that have any relevance to who he beats up?”
“Itsuki usually only beats on students who are serious about becoming full time explorers. I don’t exactly know why, but my theory is that he likes to test himself against others. Also, he won’t hurt you out of nowhere unless you break school rules or fight him in official spars and matches. So don’t worry, he won’t bully you.”
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“Spars? Matches?” Dahlia thought back and remembered. “Like the one he did before the school year? I heard he went crazy and blew himself up, somehow surviving all that.”
“Oh, so you heard about that, that one spar with that upbeat girl Amanda, right?”
“Y-yeah, don’t tell me he’s done that to everyone. That’s insane.”
A wry chuckle passed around the group and Dahlia couldn’t help to feel left out, yet she got an odd premonition that it was better that she did feel left out. Gen, Mana, Osamu, and the trainees from aerial group Beta and Gamma showed a hint of reminiscence.
“Don’t tell me.” Dahlia gasped. “You’ve all been beaten up by him? Even the trainees, the young ones like you guys, you kids? That’s just cruel.”
“Maybe.” Gen said. “But I find it lucky that I’ve met such a brutal person. I’ve grown much stronger during my years here.”
“No kidding.” Osamu added. He rubbed his side as if nursing a phantom bruise. “I can still feel my broken bones in my lung.”
“You think that’s bad?” Alpha 1 said and Bravo 1 couldn’t help to chime in.
“Yeah, you students have it easy. One time, a couple years back, Itsuki was offered to train with the CDU and CAU trainees. Apparently, he was a part of the CDU and CAU before. That’s another story in it of itself, but when he trained with us, he left us all in the dust and quite literally broke us down to our very smallest of parts.”
Alpha 1 and Bravo 1 shuddered in their boots.
“Uck! That guy doesn’t show any restraint at all.” Complained Alpha 1. “If he thinks it will help you become stronger, he’ll use any means to forge you into a better explorer since that’s what he was hired for, even if it means bending you past your breaking point. By the end of that event, the trainees, including me and Bravo 1, were hospitalized in medical tanks for tissue regeneration.”
“They made us drink some nasty stuff.” Bravo 1 explained, a grimace passing over her lips as she tried to not remember the taste of that sludge. “Supposedly, it accelerates healing and strengthens and reforms broken bones and torn muscle tissue. Except, it feels like a snake is getting pushed through all your organs. Definitely not a pleasant feeling I'd like to experience again.”
“Geh!” Gen’s, Osamu’s, and Mana’s faces twisted in horror. Dahlia on the other hand had a more responsive reaction.
“Huh?! Wha-What? The heck!” She yelped, so fearful that her ears flicked around and she thought her antlers would fall off from shock. Mana came to her side and steadied her with a hand.
“It’s alright, it's alright. We’re all still alive, so it’s not like he’ll kill you Dahlia. Only.. well.. He’ll beat you into shape. Okay wait.. That doesn’t make it sound any better.”
“I wanna go home.. This is just.. Just.. uck.” Left mumbling, Dahlia’s hands tightened around her staff’s handle for support. Using her curved headed cane to keep herself from falling from fright, she and the rest wandered over to where S1 was.
Itsuki and Chisuke were already conversing with S1. Hopping down from his tank, S1 flashed Itsuki a smile that wasn't returned since Itsuki still had his helmet on, and it didn’t look like he was going to take it off any time soon.
“Good to see your groups made it. And thanks for pulling my idiot Ace’s tail out of the fire.”
S1 looked at Chisuke and expected him to rage and complain, yet he didn’t and knew why. The slight quashed look of submission was hinted on Chisuke’s lips. It looked like a mix of annoyance, irritation, and fear, with a spot of quivering.
“Sir!” Itsuki saluted and Chisuke followed his lead, as if he was forced to. “Your orders?”
“Hmmm.. Thank you. At ease you two. For now, we’ll go over the situation. We’ve been tracking the enemy's movements after I sent out my recent orders to regroup. As soon as I did, and when the first groups disengaged, the distant waves ahead halted.”
“Halted sir?”
“Yes, it seems so.”
This development was unordinary. Itsuki knew that today’s training was to simulate a real fight for explorers. Forced to fight against an uncountable number of enemies was a common occurrence when facing stardepth creatures.
But a simulated retreat? That wasn’t in the natural behavioral patterns of drones and tactical class creatures. So, this retreat by the opposition meant they were fighting a competent opponent, likely moving in reaction to their own moves.
S1 could sense that Itsuki already knew the situation was strange, he did learn a few lessons from him and those were bloody ones at that.
“Itsuki, Chisuke. I’ve deduced that the conditions of today’s training exercise have been tampered with. I believe you already know this Itsuki. I’m guessing you should know all the conditions of the exercise today and was supposed to help foster growth amongst the young students and trainees, am I right?”
“Correct.” He wasn’t supposed to share this, but Itsuki, because of the new developments, knew something had gone wrong with today’s occurrences. He also knew the most probable source of the issue.
That damn slimy bastard. I’m going to wring his neck and milk him for all the compensation pay I can get. Ammo isn’t cheap, so he better be ready to pay up.
To Itsuki, this was like any other job he was employed to do as an explorer. Expenses, profit, and his role in his works were important facts he had to consider heavily about.
Those aside though, he was still wondering why he had to participate in these classes. He had long since passed the practical training class, but was now attending as a contracted explorer, all because of one slimy guy who thought it was interesting if he participated.
Continuing, Itsuki explained what he knew.
“We’re likely facing a new condition added to the exercise to foster critical thinking. Other explorers who have been hired for today’s event are likely realizing we’re now part of the intended affected recipients of the curriculum now.”
“Does it really go that far?” S1 asked. “Why cater to teaching already competent explorers? Sounds redundant.”
“Not if it's interesting.” Muttered Itsuki.
“Interesting? What is that supposed to mean?”
“No, it's nothing. Just a..” Itsuki's shoulders heaved and came down slowly as his helmet’s vents hissed hot air, he was sighing with a heavy heart. “Just a thought I had.”
“Well.. moving on.” S1 began to elaborate. “In light of this development, I plan to gather our forces to concentrate on an attack to break through to point bravo. It won’t be a fast blitzkrieg, this will be more well thought out. 6 miles is our current distance, and while it's a short crossing, it's filled with constructs.”
“Will we be attacking soon?” Osamu asked, joining the conversation. “By my guess on the numbers I’m reading with my long range scanner, we don’t stand a chance.”
“Which is why I want to consolidate and replan our attack.” S1 replied and pulled up a holo map on his HUD to then share it with everyone. Dotted ahead on the map was a mass of red icons. They held positions across the remaining 6 miles of distance and were holding position, though that could change at any moment.
“While we have the time, I plan to whittle the enemy down from this position.” S1 explained. “We’re low on tank ammo, so a prolonged artillery barrage is out of the question, we’ll need the tanks to break through when the time is right. We’ll use something else in the initial attack to break the front.”
“Jeeps?” Mana guessed and S1 nodded.
“Correct, glad to see our resident eyes in the sky hasn’t been blind all this time.”
“Well, I get the job done.” Mana puffed her chest out in pride, making Dahlia giggled.
“That’s good to hear.” S1 said, but his tone turned serious. “We’ll need it for what I have planned.”
Expanding the map, a scattering of green icons showed their current position. With two fingers, S1 flicked over to show the rear guard.
“Oh boy.” Gen exhaled. He felt an anxious itch in his eyes and he had to scratch it.
“Currently, our forces come out to maybe 7,000 by the time we regroup. We took losses in my earlier strategy, plenty of tanks and a lot of students were eliminated.. not a good situation if you ask me.”
Pulling up a TAC’s schematic, S1 showed the current models from Group Red. Their angular frames and weapon mounts showed off an impressive amount of ordinance. So much so that you’d expect them to take on whole armies.
It pays to invest in good hardware, especially of the multipurpose types. Itsuki thought as S1 tapped the picture of the TAC, going over his plan for what role they would play.
“The TACs and additional aerial groups were a help, but they won’t turn the battle around with what’s in store next. I’ll need them to work fast in the next few minutes and to get back here as soon as possible.”
“Why?” Osamu asked. “I thought there's no time limit left, so what’s the rush?”
“The rush is to make sure we don’t get pancaked, here, take a look at this and compare it to where we are.”
Pulling up another map, S1 showed both the rear guard and frontline situations at the same time. The persistent direness of the situation was clear to everyone.
“We’re surrounded.” The maps showed a high density of red that Osamu wasn’t comfortable with seeing. “So behind us, smaller enemies are taking out our rear flank and those constructs can hit us from behind when they're done mopping up our allies back there. How did they even get behind us in the first place? They should’ve been mopped up or detected by our own scans.”
“Ambushes.” Itsuki said curtly. “Some constructs were hidden and were supposed to trigger when the students came within range. Looks like they’ve been activated without their proximity triggers activating. According to your data S1, the past recorded long range scans show them popping up when no one was nearby. They were triggered remotely.”
“So either the higher ups behind all this did it on purpose, or we missed them on our initial scans.” S1’s lips curled in a dubious manner. “The first seems more likely, but it doesn’t change the plan. Right now, we gather our forces before the enemy in the rear can pincer us.”
“Hmmmmmm..” Noticing Chisuke’s low grumble, S1 shot him a look. Chizuke had been too calm during this exchange.
“You’re oddly quiet, do you have anything to add?”
“N-No, I’m just not all for this planning talk, just point me in the direction you need me and I’ll be happy to kill whatever’s over there.”
“Well~ Aren’t you amicable, but I won’t have you doing that. You! “Mr. Idiot”, need to get treated and recover your stamina and core energy.”
S1 pointed out the drips of blood and dried stains of dirt marring Chisuke’s clothes and face. His manifested armor was a simple laxed attire of a sleeveless black shirt and long pants. Since both were made of cloth and while weaved out of existence from pure energy, he still looked as if he had tumbled in the dirt all day.
“Go get cleaned up. Group 6 will be on standby for now.”
“What? Are we really going to just sit around!? We can just charge and win at this point!” Chisuke didn’t like it. He wanted to fight, not sit and wait when the goal and enemy were right there.
If not for how he knew his limits, he would’ve charged ahead alone, the consequences be damned for all he cared as long as he won.
“That’s an order Chisuke, I’m not asking you. So go.” S1 shooed Chisuke off as if he were a bad dog. “Now get, or do you want me to sick the demon on you.”
He pointed a thumb to the side at Itsuki, who tilted his helmeted head. He seemed confused but no one could tell with that expressionless helmet he had covering his entire face.
“Is that what they're calling me now in the CAU?” Itsuki asked.
“Yup, it’s better than last year when they called you a ball buster. Now that was funny.” S1 couldn’t help to laugh. Itsuki shrugged, finding the name more troublesome.
“That name almost makes no sense. It was more like a joke, the only reason they called me that was because the spectators heard something crack when I went for the groin with that one guy. I only broke the guy’s pelvis and he asked for it, not like he won’t be able to have kids.”
“I’m sure he did~. By the way, wanna know what the students have been calling you nowadays?”
“What? Can’t be as bad as demon.”
“It’s actually flattering, though mocking if you ask me. They call you the strongest grunt, whoda guess.”
“Huh, so that’s coming back around. Probably a decade now since they called me that.”
S1’s and Itsuki’s back and forth was like they were bantering about the weather, except the topic was so horrific that Chisuke and his group backed off. This was unknown territory for them and the subject matter was getting too much for their weaker willed members to handle.
“D-demon? B-ball.. C-crusher?.. I.. Uh? Ummm.. Ahh..”
Her mouth agape as if it were trying to catch a fly, Dahlia’s pale visage had to be hauled away by Mana.
“Come on, let’s get you calmed down. Hey! Gen, Osamu, pull the other two, their heads might be in shock as well.”
“You got it.” Gen hoisted one of Dahlia’s teammates up and over his shoulder. Osamu did the same, but couldn’t help mutter a comment under his breath.
“This is like deja vu. It’s funny from this side, no wonder those upperclassmen laughed when this happened to us.”
A few minutes later, after Itsuki finished talking with S1, as Group Gamma and Beta were reorganizing their munitions, Itsuki joined them. A buzzing in his ear caught his attention as he walked over, but he didn’t let anyone notice anything was up with him.
[Number 02 and 03, reporting. West and East sections situations have changed.] The voice was electronically scrambled, hidden for the sake of secrecy. Following the operation protocol, Itsuki switched his own voice synthesizer on and continued listening.
[Operation Hidden Assassin has dropped in effectiveness. Unable to dispose of the expected number of targets due to saturation of high intensity firefights.]
[I hear you 03.] Itsuki said. [North sector has also been compromised as well, any intel on south sector? Or internal changes?]
[Number 04 has had the same findings in the south sector. 05 has reported from the internal side that key assets have been moved.]
[What kind of assets?]
[Explorer assets, we might have a new situation on our hands.]
[I see.] Itsuki let out a low breath in his helmet. He was still, making sure no one had noticed anything from him. He hid his conversation and reactions behind that mask of his, veiling himself further with that steeley and prickly atmosphere he gave off.
Taking a seat at one of the parked jeeps in a makeshift lot, he eyed the first years from inside his helmet. He focused on Dahlia. She was sitting down and healing the wounded.
[Number 02, report findings on beast human behavior.] Itsuki asked. [Any incidents or conflicts?]
[Yes, a number of cases. About a 90% increase from last year. The number of beast humans have increased and the number of targets to eliminate has increased as well. Coincidence?]
[Likely, mark all involved parties as possible targets of elimination, show no mercy.]
[Understood sir. Looks like our time is up. Going radio silent. Reporting back in 10 minute per failsafe protocol, confirmation please?]
[Confirmed, fail safe protocol in effect, Keep contact short and brief, and move to redouble the effort in Operation Hidden Assassin.]
Clicking his comms off, Itsuki got to his feet. It was a short rest, but it was enough. He turned away from the first years and took in the sights of the rolling plains, the noise of distant battles drew his attention.
“If the gloves are coming off, and if they’re testing explorers like me, then that means I can go all out.”
Itsuki had been holding back on how much of his personal ammunition he was using. Since this wasn’t part of the deal he had with Professor Cyno or Headmaster Joel, then he’d get his due recompensation.
“I’ll need to bring out the big guns. This should be fun.” He muttered, but hoped he didn’t have to show his hand too early.
***
Dahlia heaved a breath and she noticed Itsuki was staring at her, though she didn’t know if that was true with that helmet of his own. The visor was opaque, colored in a pitch black that she couldn’t see past. He looked as if he were trying to blend in with the dark shadows casted by the jeeps.
“M-mana?” Calling out to her friend, Dahlia didn’t break eye contact. She still didn’t know what or who Itsuki was looking at, but her senses as a beast human were telling her otherwise. She was frazzled, and her hairs tingled with a soft itch.
“Yeah Dahlia, what’s up?” Mana asked and noticed the conundrum. “Oh, don’t mind him. If you think he’s looking in your direction, he’s probably sizing you up. It’s his job as supervisor of the dormitory to get to know the students.”
Mana shrugged as if this was a common occurrence. “He does this alot, just standing around, looking at stuff.”
“I.. I see. But I sense something is off with him.”
“Like what? He’s still the same abrasive guy I know.”
“Yeah.” Dahlia began to speak softly, as if hoping Itsuki didn’t hear. “But he’s not the same, something’s changed. It’s like I’m staring at a copy.”
“A copy?” Mana said loudly, much to Dahlia’s flustered annoyance.
“No wait, I didn’t.. Ugh. never mind.” She stormed off to tend to the other wounded. Mana cracked a smile as she netted her hands behind her head as she followed Dahlia.
This was like the time in their homeland, Mana always knew how to get a rise out of Dahlia, who was usually an introvert nowadays, unlike her more boisterous attitude in the past.
It was good to see Dahlia be more active and while still somewhat apprehensive with how she handled and healed humans, Mana could see the effort her friend was putting in to overcome her past, or to at least live with it.
From the corner of her eyes, Mana swore she saw Itsuki nod his head at her.
What a weirdo. She thought and then there he went, flying off into the sky with Group Gamma. Mana reached a hand up to the still early morning sun. It was hot and she sweltered in discomfort.
“I can’t believe it’s still morning.” She sighed and stretched her arms up as if she were a cat on two legs. “Mmmmmmh. I better pass this class soon, or else I’ll have another year of this hell all over again.”