In a normal looking apartment building. There wasn't much unusual about it.

It wasn't expensive or in any way fancy or luxurious. It was, in fact, quite plain. There wasn't much to it.

On a side, there was an unfinished mahjong game.

And in the atmosphere, the grunts of a teenage girl could be heard.

It was Tiffany Chang.

Tiffany: 91... 92.... 93.....

Her speech was incredibly laboured, and her words were followed by a short grunt.

She was doing pushups, in a hand stand stance, with nothing more than a finger.

This was one of her harsher exercises.

Tiffany: 97... 98.... 99....

And was also her way of calming down and clearing her head.

Tiffany: 103.... 104.... 105.....

She would do this until eventually....

Tiffany: 119.... 120... 121....... (heavy grunt) 122.... 12.....

She promptly did a back flip to get herself back into her feet before softly massaging her finger.

Tiffany: (thinking: All ten. Done.)

This was a part of her routine whenever she needed to work out or just exercise exceptionally hard.

To her, and perhaps to most people, the silent pain of a workout quietened her own thoughts. She'd since learned of this and used this technique to calm herself whenever she was stressed.

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She sighed as she walked back to her unfinished mahjong game.

It was still bothering her. Or rather, several things were still bothering her.

She sat down and quietly packed up her game as she headed for a shower.

In her mind, three things were bothering her. Three things that wouldn't let go of her mind.

The first of these, in order of magnitude, was the car that almost hit Rose.

Who was it? Was it Wolfram? Or... was it someone else?

The second was the spider bots.

Who created them? Where did they come from? And given how dangerous they'd turned out to be, just what had she gotten her team into? Was she going to be able to stop them with the team?

She was done with her shower and, typical of her, had prepared a very bitter unsugared tea.

It was from Asia.

This tea also helped her relax.

The third problem, one that she could almost connect to the first two, was Max.

She sipped more tea as she continued to think about this.

Tiffany: (sighs) (thinking: Max...)

Just what was she to do about this situation?

She had always held herself to a higher standard in honour, following her master's own principles.

But in this case, even though she knew she had no good reason not to keep him in the team, she wanted him gone.

Or, rather, she wanted more time.

This much, she could easily accept of herself.

In truth, she had little to nothing against Max.

He was reckless and bull headed, but that did not make her dislike him.

She put the tea down and got to her cupboard and prepared to cook.

Bread, meat, eggs, and veggies, as per usual.

What was it about this situation that bothered her so much? Of this she wondered.

As an honourable warrior, she couldn't refuse him off of a petty reason such as feelings. That would go against her honour code.

She could also make an excuse, but someone as honest as her had long since learned that lying was not the way to go.

So, what was it?

It wasn't overload. After all, that was what had saved them, and, of course, Max had already proved his bravery in battle without it.

She didn't have much of a problem with him before, so what had happened?

It was simple, she thought, as she cut up the meat.

It was all happening too fast.

Max wanted to join the team in less than a day of knowing him. This intrusion, this oddity.... there was something wrong about it. That's what her heart said.

But even though her very soul could understand, she knew it was no excuse. Her feelings would need proof and a justification for his rejection. Otherwise, what kind of team leader would she be? What kind of person would she be?

She couldn't let herself get caught up in her own feelings, and so, she would simply have to endure.

To endure until she was free of these feelings. To endure until she'd found a justification.

Either which way, she had to endure.

And that, of course, also meant protecting Max.

She was glad about the probation. After all, it gave her more time to think without taking any unnecessary risks.