Kochikame: Tokyo Beat-Cops chapter 1: "The Young Officers of Downtown"

Chapter 1, the first chapter proper of the serialization. Once again, this was largely Hichikarah's work made in an attempt to give people a good scanlation over that awful original.

Some interesting things Hichikarah wanted me to note here is that here: Nakagawa isn't here, as he was implied to have been left to monitor the Koban on that small island. We're introduced to Terai, the officer Ryotsu in chapter 0 said was in the hospital. We also get introduced to Totsuka, a character who was not very popular with readers and did thusly did not last very long as Ryotsu's main partner. Akimoto also draws a lot of funny background characters that look very unnatural silently walking around in Tokyo, such as a super detailed US army man, or a guy with an open carry pistol on his pants while wearing a shirt that just says "gun" all over. So it's kind of interesting to see the manga in a sort of growing pains phase and its still very amusing.

And here's the Kochikame theme if you need something to get you in the mood to read it.

You can read this chapter online here!

You can download this chapter here!

Kochikame: Tokyo Beat Cops chapter 0: "Ryo-San of the Apology Report"

Upon her discovery that the scanlation that exists for Kochikame is awful, Hichikarah decided to do chapter 0 mostly by herself, now in full color. Not to say we weren't involved too, it still went through a round of rewrites and No More Cheese Dip giving it a swanky English cover and doing the beginning insert pages and table of contents. This was mostly worked on by her to kill time in between projects and took very little time away from existing projects. If you want more Kochikame let us know.

Kind of interesting to see this is before any of the identifiable iconography of this series was established such as Ryotsu's distinct unibrow, and the team at the koban is very small.


And here's the Kochikame theme if you need something to get you in the mood to read it.

For context, this was Osamu Akimoto's (the author) first major work. He had submitted this story for a contest held by Shueisha where the winner would get their oneshot published in Young Jump. The oneshot proved really popular, so after a couple months Shueisha ordered a full serialization in Weekly Shonen Jump where it continued until 2016. This story being a pilot chapter and not a part of the serialization has led to it being numbered as chapter 0. To celebrate the manga's triumphant ending, Shueisha in 2016 republished the story in full color in the 42nd issue of Weekly Shonen Jump in 2016. Hichi happened to have access to a digital version of that specific issue, so that is where the scans used here are sourced from. The name Kochikame is actually an abbreviation of the full name, which translated in English as "This Is the Police Box In Kamaeri Park In Front of Katushika Ward". The anime got officially localized recently as "Kochikame: Tokyo Beat Cops", so we have chosen to use the original name on the volume cover and the localized name here on our Blogspot as a best of both worlds situation.

You can read this chapter online here!

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Mobile Suit Gundam Ixtab: Goddess of Fallen Soldiers volume 2

Ixtab volume 2 is finally here. This has lots of bonus content including an interview with "08th MS Team" and "Cowboy Bebop" character designer Toshio Kawamoto, a double interview with Umanosuke Iida and the editor and chief of Gundam Ace where they discuss the creation of Ixtab and what led to the manga taking shape the way it did. There's also a forward, and a short little gag manga here that discusses what it's like depicting physics in the Universal Century in the manga, but No More Cheese Dip said he didn't want to edit it, so we cleaned it up and just left the 5 pages of it here raw untranslated. Even if you've already read the 4 chapters featured here, I'd highly recommend the bonus content if you like Gundam. 

Universal Century January 0079: The crew of the Musai-class ship Toutatis have successfully escaped into the Isle Iffish colony. There, with the help of ensign Shiro Amada and the surviving members of the Colony Corporation, they learn of Zeon's masterplan to end the One Year War in one fowl swoop and claim victory. Zeon Lt. Eliza Heaven in the midst of it all is forced to confront the harsh truth of the situation and face truths about herself she had been denying all her adult life. 


You can download this volume here!

You can find all of the Ixtab chapters available to read online by clicking here!




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Candy Box Creations: Mama Mia

The newest in Ohtagaki's anthology series of dark yet wholesome stories. This one actually drove everyone to tears as we worked on it, so that's how you know it's a certified winner. For anyone worried about not being familiar with the other stories in this series, don't worry, it's an anthology and none of the stories are connected. So you can read this by itself. I didn't expect much considering Ohtagaki made this during spare time he had in a "Gundam Thunderbolt" hiatus, but this one might be my favorite story so far in this anthology.

 
If you want to read this chapter online, click here!

If you want to download this chapter, click here!

Mobile Suit Gundam École du Ciel (novel) chapter 2

Chapter 2 of the novel is here, giving us some much needed character development to a character the manga hardly used and offering some interesting backstory for a character brought to life only in the novel. We hope you enjoy the next chapter of Elysia's side of the story of École du Ciel.

Side note, This takes place in between chapters 1 and 2 of the manga, so read this first before continuing the manga.

Current reading order for this series is

Special chapter

Manga chapter 1

Novel chapter 1

Novel chapter 2 (this one)

Manga chapter 2

Chapter 2

houghhhhhhhh hehhhhhhhhh, houghhhhhhhh hehhhhhhhhh, houghhhhhhhh hehhhhhhhhh...

Kelly Signet could hear the sounds of his own breathing echoing throughout his helmet, which was air tight, meaning there was no way any sound could possibly escape. The moist sounds of someone breathing heavily or the sound of dry lips, the swallowing of saliva, of chapped lips rubbing against each other, it all bounced back into his ears.

"Is this kind of pressure even possible"
He muttered in a voice that seemed to get stuck in his throat and stumble its way out of his mouth. When he looked up he saw a fake starry sky stretching all he way up, all the way down, all the way to the left and all the way to the left. Beyond what was obscured by his light wavy hair he could see the backs of hands, which were encased in the tight yet bag-like gloves of his space suit.

"What do you mean this is a normal suit? Moving with it is so hard that it's anything but normal."
He said, referring to the equipment by its technical name. He repeatedly squeezed and let go of the control grips, eliciting a wet squelching noise inside his suit every time his sweaty palms in the cloth bag-like material that made up the interior of his normal suit's gloves squeezed the grip. The speakers recreated even these most minor of sounds with great accuracy.

The sound picked up by the speakers and the monitor relaying small text and images were all important information that kept the pilot alive. Blocking this information would lead to certain death. Suddenly a warning sign appeared on one of the upper corners of his display, while a two-tone warning sound rang out and an announcement appeared on the screen to explain.

"Above!"
Kelly said as he pressed the function key on one of the grips and pulled it towards him, shifting his field of view ninety degrees. Each vernier could individually controlled and issued precise commands from the control console, but Kelly chose to use the keys on the hand grips instead, providing a mix of accuracy and speed. This was one such accumulation of the various tricks he learned during his time at the school.

"Where is it!?"
He instinctively leaned forward and his lower body raised out of the seat. There was no shadow of a mobile suit.

"Calm down, just calm down..."
Kelly whispered to himself.

houghhhhhhhh hehhhhhhhhh, houghhhhhhhh hehhhhhhhhh, houghhhhhhhh hehhhhhhhhh, houghhhhhhhh hehhhhhhhhh, houghhhhhhhh hehhhhhhhhh, houghhhhhhhh hehhhhhhhhh...

The sound of Kelly's own breathing rang in his ears.

FLASH! TURN! WARNING! BLIND-SPOT! WARNING!... The words all appeared on the display on a haphazard string of text as he stepped on the foot pedal and pushed the grips in both hands forward with all of his might. A pale pink light flashed by where Kelly previously stood, doing a roll from a single point on its chest. As he did, he caught a glimpse of the shadow of his target; a mobile suit, a GM in the landscape. The enemy machine was holding a beam rifle and made a sharp turn away from Kelly once it realized its attack had failed. By the time Kelly regained his balance, he realized the mobile suit had disappeared.

Kelly stopped moving and let his body move with the force of inertia. He turned his attention to the starry sky synthesized by computer graphics. It was just a repeating pattern without so much as a guidepost or landmark, but still, if he focused his eyes to the left and the right and kept the tops and bottoms in the corner of his vision; he'd get an unobstructed view of the sky. Kelly had a feeling that outer space was on his side.

"I can do it."
As Kelly said this an accident occurred from behind with a metallic thud, and waves of garbage began started to flow outwards, overtaking his mobile suit. He realized that he entered an area where the trash and debris accumulated, but among all the trash something sparkled.

"What is that?"
Kelly's thoughts raced as he tried making the difficult judgement. It couldn't have been the light of a vernier, since there was no sign of a mobile suit moving, but there was definitely something moving differently from the rest of the debris making the surrounding light appear irregular.

He flicked a switch on his monitor and a circular scope interface appeared on his monitor. The scope hovered across the screen searching for the enemy like a puppy separated from its owner. A soft tongue click echoed inside Kelly's helmet as he pressed down on the foot pedal. The scope automatically disappeared from the screen and in its place were numbers displaying three dimensional coordinates on the center of the spherical screen. 

The debris that the program was automatically trying to avoid was rapidly flowing backwards and the numbers rose at an incredible rate. Was all of this debris just the remains of a space colony? The heat diffusion was rendering half the sensors unusable, As Kelly clicked his tongue for the umpteenth time a spark erupted in the hand of his mobile suit. The electrically charged particles danced like pale pink sparks. The thermal sensors screamed as if in agony while they were being overran.

Kelly turned his machine 90 degrees, keeping the same heading and trying to determine the nature of the flash. Kelly determined the nature of the flash to be the result of a beam weapon the enemy fired hitting some nearby debris. Beam rifles launch charged destructive particles, controlled through the muzzle. While slower than a standard gun, they have much more destructive power. Not much can stand up to a laser, that debris stood no chance.

The stardust began to overtake Kelly's view and he flew behind it, while a pale pink flash followed him. It seems that the enemy hadn't lost site of his machine. He tapped the control console to prepare evasive maneuvers and switched the monitor to search mode. All the scope managed to track was scattered debris, with no sign of enemy aircraft picked up.

"Where!? Where is it!?"
Kelly's voice, bordering on a scream was interrupted by a high pitched warning sound. An arrow near the top of his display pointed in the direction diagonally behind his machine. Kelly was going to face his enemy head-on... or so he thought. What greeted him was a large piece of solid metal much bigger than any mobile suit approaching him rapidly. 

Kelly screamed and in an unconscious movement forced his mobile suit into a fetal position. The humanoid machine had its arms crossed in front of its chest and its neck hunched down. The cockpit became enveloped in darkness and Kelly prepared to die. He would never forget that moment or the strange phenomenon that occurred afterwards. When he slightly opened his eyes, which had been tightly shut in fear, he saw the metal that should of collided with mobile suit instead slipped by like nothing had happened.

"It slipped through..." Kelly said to himself in shock and disbelief. In a mere moment later his seat would violently shake as a huge impact was made with his machine. Kelly fastened his seatbelt as a message onscreen announced the impact and estimated the distance with the enemy mobile suit to be an estimated 2000 meters behind him and to his left.

Kelly's blank stare wandered through space while his chest was rising and falling, gasping for air. He hadn't even begun to comprehend what just happened in the last few seconds. The only thing that was certain was that he lost. The lights on all of his sky monitors started dimming one by one, and the reality of the situation was forced upon Kelly in this moment.



Taking a breath of fresh air, Elysia looked at all the trainees crowding around her. Standing with one foot on the edge of the simulator and one arm holding her helmet, she looked incredibly dashing. Her golden hair fluttered in the early morning breeze blowing down from the mountains, while her hair ornaments given to her by her brother glistened in the sunlight. If Elysia tried, she could hear the gasps and murmurs of the trainees around her.

"there's no point" Elysia thought to herself. she didn't want to seem arrogant, but she knew this is the natural reaction to her performance and results. She smiled and her lips parted slightly, showing a little bit of her teeth.

"Elysia! Elysia Nocton!"
An almost violent sounding voice came from the other simulator. Everyone, Elysia included, turned to the source of the voice.

"What was that!? Don't mess with me!"
Kelly Signit stood less than fifty meters from Elysia, looking like he was about to throw his helmet at her. His light wavy hair was stuck to his forehead from all the sweat, now looking like unsightly seaweed.

"What do you mean?" Elysia's voice was calm as she tilted her head, clearly provoking him without even trying. "If you're referring to obstacles, that's your own fault right?"

"What!?"

"You went into that area yourself. I don't remember luring you there."

Kelly was about to raise his helmet, his hands shaking violently. Everyone thought he was going to throw it at her, but he restrained himself, lowering his hands. He knew damaging the equipment would incur a demerit.

Kelly sat down and accessed a small monitor right next to the simulator. The 7 inch panel had a built in microphone and speaker.

"Instructor! Wasn't that a programming error? A giant lump of iron just passed right through my mobile suit!"
Kelly tried desperately to protest, but nothing appeared on the small screen. Though a voice did respond, echoing from between the two simulators.

"Kelly Signit, after training is over please read chapter thirteen of the operations manual textbook again."

"Instructor!"

"Any unjustified protests against an instructor will be punished with twenty pushups."

Elysia could see it, even from where she was standing. Kelly Signit's face suddenly turned pale. He took off his helmet and and swung his arms back, tossing it to the side. The helmet made a silly popping sound as it bounced off the ground, then rolling among the trainees.

"Kelly Signit! That's twenty pushups! Start running!"
The voice from the speaker was as cold as ever. Elysia looked at Yahagi's stubborn expression on the large monitor, complimented by his goatee. She then began walking the gentle slope of the simulator, as if nothing had happened.





Even from behind it was clear that Yahagi was irritated. He stood in the center of the instructor's room, clutching the microphone and standing up from his chair. How could he get so worked up? From Forma's perspective Yahagi seemed like a very strange man. Of course both of them were soldiers, and Yahagi was clearly irritated by the student mentality most of the trainees had. He didn't understand the reasoning for it, but it's also the job of a good instructor to save face and maintain the school's image for the instructors. 

This occurred to Yahagi as he watched Chandel Tadārshi finetuning the simulator. You'd never guess it judging by his rough appearance and his long silver her flowing down his back, but he was on loan from Nocton Ceramics, one of the school's biggest investors. He was talking with instructor Lina Seo, who was also working on adjustments. Forma found his rather blunt way of speaking very engineer-like and appealing in that way.

"Did you get any good data?"
Forma asked, calling out to Chandel who was looking at simulator gauges.
"This will be the first year that we use the version of the Canard specifically designed for space. Let's hope this data from the trainees will be useful."

"Was that Kelly Signit? He's nice, definitely a great help."
The man from Nocton Ceramics gave a typically engineer-like answer.

The Nocton Ceramic Company was originally a manufacturer of exterior parts used in the creation of mobile suits and battleships but with the training models GM Canard and GM Cannes, they've tried to break into the industry as an independent mobile suit manufacturer. Forma was well aware of the situation, but it was precisely that awareness that made Chandel's words strike him as slightly unsettling.

"Kelly?" asked Forma "Not Elysia?"
With the question out, Chandel curled his lips into a wry smile. Forma tried smiling to in an attempt to hide his confusion.
"You've got to be kidding me! Your boss's daughter looked way better out there, didn't she?"

"Elysia's good, but she's too good. She can make the machine perform at a hundred percent, but not in a way the could disappoint expectations."

"Yes, and our test pilots will be able to handle that"

"Hmmmm... I suppose if that's how it is."

"Forma, he's got a point"
Said Yahagi, who had let go of the microphone and finished his speech to join the conversation.

"It's not just Kelly. All the trainees are desperate and it's because of that desperation that they're coming up with creative solutions. I hear that even Asuna Elmarit hasn't missed any of her training lately."
Yahagi's words were cold. With a frown and a sour expression on his face, he calmly evaluated the trainees.

"I don't think Elysia's trying hard enough. I think if she continues to sit on the sidelines, she's going to reach a dead end."

"It's okay, Elysia's not stupid. She'll understand eventually."
Said Chandel, who spoke in a light tone brushing off Yahagi's words. This light heartedness was surely a sign of the faith he had in Elysia. Forma was unaware of the connection between Elysia and Chandel, but he could surmise there was something, going off of how the maintenance staff talked about their attitudes. Meanwhile Yahagi's grim expression still remained.

"Someday... I guess..."

"Yeah"
Chandel nodded, satisfied with that, but Forma knew the real meaning behind Yahagi's expression. This would be troublesome if it were to continue... but for some reason Chandel's expression remained bright.

"We need a trigger of some kind. Elysia's not used to being in a large crowd..."

"You won't get a trigger."
Chandel said bluntly. Forma chuckled awkwardly, unable to accept Chandel's words.

"If you could trigger it, would you change the young lady?"

"She'll change. She's not the kind of girl to end up like that."
Chandel said firmly. It must be true, the look in his face sold what he said as so matter of fact. Forma whispered Chandel's words to himself... "You won't get a trigger." He was thinking something different from Chandel. The people who needed a chance were himself, Yahagi and the people above them who were running École. If they wanted to produce the results to satisfy them, they would need some kind of a trigger. Forma then smiled, with his brow lifting and furrowing slightly.

"Maybe I could provide the trigger for you."

"Eh?"

It was only natural that Chandel looked puzzled. Forma was smiling from the bottom of his heart, and there was no doubt that it was a nasty smile indeed.

"Don't worry. I was only kidding."
As Forma said this, he spread his arms wide towards Chandel. Yahagi's gaze was surely meant to criticize Forma, but he knew deep down that no matter what the administrative council wanted, there was no way of knowing what they would and would not be okay with.

Forma obviously didn't know everything, but he was positive that a day would come when those above him would need him, and they would have use of his schemes.

"That's right. Everything just needs a trigger."
Forma happily said the word "trigger" once more and then looked closely at his face. 

A few days later, a letter arrived addressed to Elysia, with a stamp showing the lunar city of Granada. It was a standard letter from the Japan post. Elysia received this letter in the dormitory lounge, where she was dressed in casual wear consisting of a white blouse and simple pants. Shin Barnack, the person who brought the letter from the staff counter, noticed the sender's name: Klaus Nocton, Elysia's father and the president of the Nocton Cermaic Company on the corner of the envelope.

Elysia feigned calmness and opened the envelope. There were many other trainees, but she managed to hide herself. It felt like it was wrong to be different. The nine o' clock news was playing on a TV in the corner of the room, with nobody watching or paying it any mind. It said that the recent anti Earth Federation demonstrations in a colony somewhere had become increasingly violent. There was no end to this kind of news.

"In this day and age can we really call ourselves a family if we live apart between the earth and the moon?" Elysia absent mindedly thought to herself as she opened the letter, which contained a paper that was neatly folded into 3 sections to fit inside the envelop.

The Principality of Zeon's war for spacenoid independence drove an irreparable wedge between the people who lived one earth and the people who lived in space. Even those who had previously fought and bled together against Zeon found themselves unable to erase the doubts lingering in their heart that only seemed to fester with each passing day. Mankind had finally done the impossible and found a way to live and make a sustainable habitat in a harsh environment previously thought unhospitable, so why should they live under the jurisdiction of people on earth who didn't know what their struggles were like? Elysia also understood the Federation's point of view. In one government and one community with there was no other community or government to go to war with, and they could avoid mankind's string of constant tragic conflict.

Elysia's father lived on the moon because it was easier for him to do business there. He lives on the moon, but manages to support the people of the earth and the way they think, which was good for business. This good business is precisely why Elysia grew up in luxury, leading her to wonder if money really was all that important. She didn't appreciate money, but instead things like good food and the privilege of going to school. Growing up during the war, Elysia had assumed that she knew all too well.

Elysia looked over the letter and then sealed it again. She examined the addressee listed on the envelope:

Elyisa Nocton: Montreal Campus, Third Term, Second Cadet Group.

It wasn't her father's handwriting, that much she could tell. She thought for a while before getting up and walking towards the exit, putting the letter in her back pocket. "There's no point in carrying something like this." she whispered to herself as she walked down the hallway without even looking back.

Kelly walked in after Elysia left. He just took a shower and was running his hand through his shampoo-scented hair. Naturally what trainees took baths and in what order and when was predetermined. They had to be punctual and show up on on time, or else they wouldn't even be allowed to so much as shower. Despite this, the shower room connected to the training room was always open. If you registered a training session and finished it, you were free to use it. So in a way the students could still bathe freely. 

Kelly had used the shower room, knowing how it worked. Anyone who had bathed at the school could immediately tell the difference when walking in. The shower room's towels were blue, while the ones in the communal bathroom where the scheduled baths and showers took place were yellow. Kelly at the moment had a blue towel around his neck.

"If you keep cheating Yahagi's going to scold you again."
Said a trainee playing cards in the corner wearing a red shirt featuring the logo of some rock band.

"Even without that Yahagi's already has it out for you."

"Shut up! Serious, why do I have to do 40 pushups?!"

"You lack absolute obedience to your superiors, right?"

"Unfortunately that's just part of me being a young person of today."
As Kelly spoke, he sat down in front of a computer in the lounge.

"Oh are you playing a game?"
The boy in the red shirt approached and peered with interest. His mind immediately went to games, probably because he wanted to win back his losses at cards through winning at computer games. One look at the stupid grins painted on faces of the other trainees at the table made it obvious that he lost big time.

"Idiot, it's homework."

"Homework?"

"Instructor Yahagi told me to read a chapter of the operations manual textbook again. But if you've got nothing to do, I'd like it if you brought me a drink."
The boy in the red shirt shrugged at what he said. Kelly didn't think the guy was a serious person. He didn't want to be seen similarly to this boy, but it was only natural that people would see him like that if he wasn't mature enough to just accept that he lost to Elysia.

"I think it was chapter thirteen"
Kelly said, fingers skillfully typing away at the keyboard. There was a slight time lag between his inputs and what the computer displayed on screen. He pulled up a copy of the operations manual, and his finger rapidly hit the down arrow key. Kelly's eyes were scanning the screen and examining the descriptions of the textbook until he found what he was supposed to see.

"Obstacles set as aesthetics?"

According to the textbook the obstacles in the simulator are meant to represent obstacles, and aren't actually obstacles. Obstacles were classified by mass and not size, so the visuals assigned to the graphics were displayed at random

"So, even something with the mass of a pebble could be displayed as a large iron plate on the screen?"
Kelly involuntarily scratched his head as he read this. The simulated battle that day was exactly like that...

"They say it's state of the art equipment, but it's actually cheap."

"What do you mean cheap?"
Kelly turned to his side upon hearing this, only to find that the boy from before had returned, now with a plastic bottle of apple cider.

"It's just an addendum to the textbook. I've never seen this page before."

"Neither have I."

Kelly leaned back in his chair with a loud creaking sound, accepting the apple cider.

"I wonder if Elysia really reads all of this"
Kelly whispered to himself, his lips pressed against the straw.

"What?"

"Elysia," said Kelly "She's always alone, so I don't know what she does, but she's really good at training..."

"Who cares?"
With a surprised expression on his face, the boy in the red shirt returned to his seat.

"It's none of your business..." Kelly said to himself. with these feelings lingering and not leaving.

"I don't want to lose... to her..."
With that, he turned off the computer and the screen faded to black. The only thing left on the screen was the reflection of Kelly's face on the monitor, biting his lip.




The scent of morning dew that soaked the undergrowth of the school smelt irresistibly nostalgic to Elysia Nocton. At the boarding school she attended you were required to wake up at six o'clock. morning exercises were optional, but it was mandatory that you be in class by the time school started. Of course Elysia woke up earlier than the other students and would never miss out on a chance to do cricket practice or self study in the library. It wasn't that Elysia was enthusiastic about club activities, but in this plebian society where something like martial arts were considered virtuous, those who put in the most effort will be respected. 

In comparison, despite being a military school, life at the Montreal campus was the epitome of laziness. They were free to wake up whenever they wanted. Sure, there was breakfast, but if you slept in or missed it your only penalty was missed meal. Chandel told her the reasons for the lax discipline at the Montreal campus, but it was still something she couldn't quite grasp. A good life promotes good growth. At least that was one of her personal beliefs.

This is why it surprised her to see Asuna Elmarit training on her own, and in the judo hall no less. Nobody would outside of standard practice times unless they were a fan of martial arts. It was just a coincidence that Elysia happened to be passing by. It'd be rude to say what she felt, but she didn't want to lie.

"You do your best too!"

Asuna looked up at the sound of Elysia's voice. She was wearing a judo uniform and underneath that she wore the school's custom gym clothes. The gym clothes clung to her body like a second skin, while the judo uniform was way too loose, creating a weird clash in styles that made her look rather unattractive. Asuna was laying face down, but looking up at Elysia, who was standing at the edge of the Tatami mat wearing a standard judo uniform.

"If I don't work hard, I'll fall behind everyone else."

Asuna's words came out choppy and strained because she was deeply stretching her legs. Her legs were splayed wide as she also reached out both arms in a deep stretch.

"In the end... it's going to come down... to physical strength... That's what... instructor Yahagi said..."

"That sounds like something he would say."
Elysia said in wonder as the image of Yahagi's broad profile and straight posture and back came to mind. That scar running down his back was extensive, which led to rumors that he had gotten it in the war. Elysia had also heard that Yahagai, like Asuna, was from the Principality of Zeon, known now as the Republic of Zeon.

"Is that kind of spiritualism within him just the nature of the people of Zeon?"
Elysia whispered.

Asuna stopped stretching rolled onto her back, looking up at Elysia. The sweat on Asuna's neck evaporated, turning into a soft steam. 

"But it's easy to understand, that's a good thing"

"huh?"
Elysia replied to Asuna with a blank expression and stared at the ceiling. Following Asuna's lead she started stretching. Then, sitting at the edge of the tatami mat she felt a discomfort in her buttocks. She found it puzzling at first, but she soon figured out what it was, which was probably proof she was worried about it more than she thought. It was the letter she put in the back pocket of uniform's pants the night before.

The letter from her father was asking for her thoughts on the mobile suits. The GM Canard and GM Cannes were the first mobile suits created independently by her father's company. She didn't know how, but it seems her father already knew she had piloted a Canard. She didn't want to judge him, but judging by the date he wrote this letter before she even began mobile suit training. The letter is all about what she thinks of the mobile suit and other related matters. There wasn't even one question of her health or thoughts.

Elysia should have expected this, even at her own brother's funeral he prioritized his work over his family. It was stupid to even expect any parental affection from him.

"Hey, Asuna? What was your father like?"
Elysia asked softly, prompting Asuna to sit up.

"What?"

"It's nothing, don't worry about it..."
Elysia instinctively looked away, but even she could tell her cheeks were red with embarrassment. As Elysia looked to the side she saw a young boy in front of her. He was walking towards her wearing a Judo uniform and with a Boston bag slung over his shoulder. Elysia wondered if she should leave, but then he stood at the entrance and bowed. At first she thought he was bowing to her, but then she remembered that there was an oriental style alter in the room and realized that must have been it.

"What are you looking at?!"
It wasn't until she heard the boy speak up rudely that she realized it was Kelly, who looked different than usual in his judo uniform. She didn't think he had any bad intentions, but the atmosphere in the room shifted when he entered and at the moment had a much more rough vibe, which was strange since Kelly wasn't exactly someone she'd consider strong.

"What? Are you two together?"
Kelly put his Boston bag in the wooden locker by the entrance and then looked at Elysia. His gaze then shifted to Asuna, with his gaze now mixed with disgust.

"Elysia and Useless doing Judo together."

"Hey! What do you mean 'useless'?"
In response to Elysia's question, Kelly let out a loud snort.

"That's Asuna's nickname: Zoen's Useless Girl. I don't know why you're hanging around her, but it makes you look bad to be hanging around people well below your own level."

"What do you mean!?"
Elysia shouted in a exasperation, looking not at Kelly, but Asuna. Asuna didn't say anything, but her attitude made Elysia angry.

"It's about you!"

Still Asuna said nothing. She continued to stretch her left leg and right leg, alternating between the two and bending her upper body as she did this.

"Hey!"

Kelly snorted as Asuna continued her stretching as if nothing was happening.

"That kind of practice won't help you, oh no! I'll help you practice!"

"Hey! What are you doing!"

"You stay quiet!"
Kelly yelled sharply as he glared at daggers at Elysia.

"Listen here! I'm going to be the winner next time. Now scurry along!"

Elysia glared at Kelly. She could not let this person win. It didn't seem strange to Elysia that these thoughts echoed in her mind. Asuna and Kelly... For better or worse this was the first time Elysia had been conscious of others since coming to Montreal.

Kelly said he would help Asuna train and he was unleashing a barrage of brutal techniques on Asuna, including the Osotogari until he got the Ippon. He lifted Asuna over his back with the Seoi throw. Then with his quick footwork he did the Tomeo Nage, where he threw Asuna backwards using the power of her own weight. His technique was nothing short of spectacular. 

Elysia couldn't hide her irritation. She was annoyed at Kelly, sure, but she felt an indescribable level of annoyance at seeing Asuna letting herself get thrown around like a ragdoll so easily. If you know you're going to be thrown, you shouldn't even bother trying to fight in the first place. If you know you're going to win, you shouldn't even waste your time fighting in the first place. What did either of them hope to gain by practicing like this? Elysia's conclusion: they shouldn't even bother fighting if there's nothing to gain, it's a pointless endeavor.

Was Kelly trying to show off his strength to Elysia by throwing Asuna? Everyone knows Kelly's easily intimidated by Yahagi, did he really think he needed to show his strength by picking on people significantly weaker than him?

Disgusting... that was the first word that came into Elysia's mind. There was no way she could ever lose to such an opponent. She glared intently at Kelly. Kelly glared back in-between moves. He licked the droplets of sweat that trickled down from his hair and onto his lips. His face was obviously one silently offering a challenge to Elysia.





The rematch came four days later. Kelly was sitting in the cockpit seat, adjusting his collar constantly, trying to find any possible way to ease the suffocating feeling his uniform was giving him. Last time he did this he was in a normal suit, so it felt different in a bad way to be wearing his school uniform.

Changing your clothes depending on the situation the training put you in was a deliberate move on the school's part. You never know what situation you're going to be in on the battlefield, and if you can't concentrate on the battle because of what you're wearing than there'd be no point in training. Flexibility and mental fortitude were just as important as skill, and you'd have to get used to things like this. Even keeping this in mind Kelly couldn't quell his anxiety. His palms were sweaty, so to wipe the sweat off he would wipe them on the hems of his uniform and pretend to be adjusting it. Of course, to do so required taking his palms off the grips, which was an instant deduction.

"Kelly Signit! This is the fifth time!"

Kelly clicked his tongue as Yahagi's voice cut through the crowd of trainees and went straight to him. He knew what he was doing but he couldn't help it. Many of the trainees developed claustrophobia as a result of all the time spent in the simulator and cockpits and others would fall ill. Nobody was truly as strong as they thought they were, their hearts especially. Everybody had that wall they needed to climb and overcome, and Kelly viewed Elysia as his wall. He was sure that if he beat her, he'd be able to move on to that next step in his personal growth. 

A movement in the stars crossed around Kelly's vision. It wasn't a shooting star but something moving with a will of its own. From where he was he could see it slightly deviating from a straight line, probably weaving through obstacles. A warning sound then echoed later. "Too late!" Kelly thought as he tapped the console to turn on the automatic evasive maneuvers. As he did the purple sparks crackled next to his mobile suit as a rock next to it was disintegrated in an instant. Everything was going smoothly.

Kelly regained his composure and set the vernier on his mobile suit's backpack to neutral, letting the machine idle. Moving by inertia, the automatic evasive maneuvers precise movements guide him. It was a very dangerous plan, but Kelly was confident. He opened a subwindow to check his surroundings and began making small controlled movements when he spotted the area he was looking for just outside of his field of vision.

"Don't notice me..."
Kelly whispered to himself as he involuntarily salivated. His eyes were desperately darting along the distance between him and Elysia. The fact that Elysia was constantly approaching and retreating was probably proof that she was weary of Kelly. He also made a conscious effort not to go directly to the debris field. If he didn't sneak his way in Elysia would surely have followed him.

"Come on... this way..."

Timing his movements like a patient fisherman waiting for the big catch, Kelly slowly approached his destination. Even through the monitor Kelly could see more and more debris from the remains of what once was a colony gathering around him. No... not debris, Kelly knew this debris was merely symbolic of obstacles. His eyes were constantly keeping track of the sensors and how many pieces of debris they detected.

Once he was sure Elysia had stepped into his territory he swiftly stomped his foot down on the pedal. Fire erupted from the verniers of his mobile suit's backpack with great force. His field of vision spun around and a volley of rifle fire erupted from his machine. The area around Kelly and Elysia lit up as sparks scattered like fireworks.

"It worked!"
Kelly screamed out without even thinking. Elysia's mobile suit was swaying back and forth in empty space. He checked the sensor readings and saw the obstacle, which looked like nothing more than a simple rock on screen, actually had the same mass as a mobile suit. In the previous battle Kelly had been fooled by the appearance of something similar and ended up being at the mercy of a small and insignificant obstacle. He applied what he learned there to trap Elysia and now had his rifle mercilessly aimed right at her.

The coordinates and sensor values changed every time Elysia's mobile suit collided with obstacles. Kelly's simulator showed the distance between his mobile suit and Elysia's and the optimal firing angle.

Three... Two... One...

"I got you!"
Kelly yelled out as he pulled the trigger. In the next moment his cockpit shook violently.




Violently shaking in her cockpit seat, Elysia quickly realized what happened to her. She didn't know what was the cause but she was being damaged by something invisible. moreover, the attack wasn't with a beam weapon or anything like that, but one with a physical impact.

The first thing Elysia wondered was if anyone other than herself could see the attack. If she was the only one who couldn't see it, than the enemy must have some how found a blind spot she wasn't aware of. If the attack was invisible to everyone, than it may have come from a phantom enemy that didn't even exist in the first place.

Mobile suits were weapons designed for the next generation of combat in space, one where visual combat was the only reliable way of fighting. The Minovsky Particles jammed all radio waves and radars on the battlefield. Naturally there were ways to gauge the enemy's position, albeit limited mechanically, leaving your eyes as the most reliable option... But what if your eyes were unreliable?

Giving it some thought, Elysia decided to stop doubting herself. Doubts and denials were best kept off the battlefield and handled later. Visual recognition was difficult, and mechanical recognition was unreliable, so what would be most reliable to her at the moment? Elysia tightened her grip on the controls and braced herself. The impact was so strong that she would have definitely been thrown out of her seat if she didn't prepare herself beforehand. She was convinced that physical impact was her most reliable way of telling what was happening around her in that moment.

Elysia slammed the console on her lap and calculated the damage it would do to her mobile suit, as well as the tentative collision data and reflection angles. She then positioned the manipulator with this calculated information in mind. Simply put, this was an attempt to discover what were the truly heavy obstacles. Elysia's focused on the pitch black in front of her.

With a violent shaking, a light appeared on her monitor, indicating some kind of abnormality in the shoulder joint. That's fine, this was just her first attempt at a correction. Her second attempt seemed to be a complete miss, the impact against her cockpit reminded her that she was still in danger. Her mobile suit's right arm was extended in front of the chest with a stiff posture, as if embracing a boulder. In contrast the left arm was crossed under the right arm as if it was gripping some invisible protrusion around the waist. It fixed itself in a position allowing the cockpit protection while the objects around her pushed her.

Elysia, who was currently sitting in the cockpit, got pulled forward and slammed into her seat. She let out a soft groan as she tried focusing her attention in front of her, fighting the slight dizziness in her. In front of her she saw the silhouette of a mobile suit she hadn't seen before: Kelly's Mobile suit; drifting in space and holding a gun after coming out from the debris it hid behind. 

Elysia immediately aimed her gun at Kelly's mobile suit. Firing while moving was difficult and required great skill, but the stable direction and movement made aiming a lot easier. If she pulled the trigger, the beam particles would immediately go through Kelly's mobile suit. She pulled the trigger and in that exact moment the obstacle next to him emitted a flash of light like a firework.

Elysia vision was dyed in white and she lost control. There was no up and there was no down... there was no left and there was no right... only white. The cockpit seat where she was sitting was now floating in space. After a moment her cockpit view returned to normal and Kelly, the obstacles and even the stars that peppered the space surrounding the battlefield disappeared. The number in the display's subwindow showing the time elapsed in battle began flashing. Elysia won, but she didn't feel like she did. All she felt sitting in the cramped cockpit of the simulator was a vague sense of fatigue.



"I can't believe it..."

Elysia was watching a replay of the battle on a large monitor by the simulators.

"I can't believe it..."
she whispered to herself unconsciously. On the monitor Elysia's mobile suit was being attacked and the enemy was invisible, just as she had thought. Instructor Yahagi said this was just an issue with the simulator's processor. After that he had scolded Kelly severely, asking him if he thought such a tactic would work in real combat. Despite this, Elysia couldn't bring herself to blame Kelly. Anything could happen on the battlefield and she felt that predicting unexpected things like this was part of that.

As Kelly got out of his simulator, he told her in a sarcastic tone of voice:
"I knew I had to do something like this to beat you. So, no matter what Yahagi says, I'm not going to apologize."

Elysia looked at the ground beside the school building, not even making eye contact with Kelly. Asuna was no where to be seen, but it was safe bet that was practicing somewhere.





In the cool crisp air of the underground hanger Chandel sat at a small computer console. Not a military model, but his own personal computer supplied by Nocton Ceramics. The dimly lit panel in the hanger resembled a small food tray like the ones in the dining hall. It displayed complex mathematical formulas and occasionally flashing the words "NOT FOUND" on the screen. Chandel without even thinking clicked his tongue every time those words appeared on screen. The sound of his tongue clicking echoed throughout the hanger.

The corridor for mobile suits was too wide for a standard vehicle, let alone a person. If you weren't careful, it could get so wide you couldn't see the end and it could get real confusing to navigate. In that space the occasional sound metal clanging could be heard as a result of the lukewarm breeze that came with the heating system blowing. Strangely, there was no stench at all, likely owed to the top of the line ventilation systems the heat and air conditionings used and above all else, the spaciousness of the area.

Chandel wiped the sweat off of his forehead with a towel stained with dried oil, leaving black lines on the top of his chiseled face, but he didn't seem to mind at all. Staring intently at the screen, Chandel didn't care if he had minor traces of dirt on his face, it was a trivial matter.

"This is troubling..."
Chandel said softly, but these words soon echoed off the hanger walls, but soon becoming incomprehensible.

"This guy's a problem..."
Chandel spoke again. He looked away from the computer for a bit and up at the ceiling. Then he began laughing to himself for a moment because he couldn't believe he was struggling with a computer of all things again. 

Chandel graduated from the University of Engineering in Dhaka after getting in based on a letter of recommendation from Elysia's brother, majoring in material engineering. Nocton played a vital role in the production of heat resistant materials, especially for spacecraft, where researchers of this kind of thing were highly valued. His decision to major in material engineering may have been because of his gratitude to Nocton.

When Chandel met Leonid Nocton, Elysia's older brother, his main job was as a petty thief robbing and extorting people around town. He never knew what his father even looked like and all he had of his mother were vague memories of the time they spent together. By the time he was even old enough to understand how things in the world worked, he had fallen into a job as the errand boy for an infamous fraud group in Dhaka. Fortunately, or unfortunately, Chandel was incompetent in this field of work. They gave him a low position as to keep him from burdening them, but for some strange reason he hit it off with Leonid, who was a target of this group.

Chandel had the strength to rival anyone in the group, and the intelligence to rival the leader, and this drew attention to him. Leonid told him he's not stupid, just bad at articulating what he's thinking. Chandel doubted it, but Leonid told him if he really didn't believe it he should at least try studying to be sure. Chandel thought he was joking, but he found the public school textbook that Leonid gave him to be fascinating. What was most surprising to Chandel was that by the time he finished the book he had a thirst for more knowledge.

The two's friendship continued from that point on until... no, Chandel believed it continued to this very day. He believed that even though Loenid is gone, his role as his friend still matters as long as Elysia is alive. That's why, when Leonid's father Klaus offered him a chance to be the company's emissary at École, he accepted without hesitation.

Of the types of work that Chandel did, there was maintenance on the GM Canard and GM Cannes, where the knowhow of other companies like Anahiem was fed back into the company and used as the basis for their maintenance. For the Nocton Cermaic Company, who's mobile suit development division was still in its infancy, Chandel's work was of the upmost importance.

Despite being a training school, dealing with military grade equipment was not easy. Not only was physical disassembly difficult, but access to the system and OS was heavily restricted. Any attempt at forcing access was met with a "NOT FOUND" message. For Chandel, who wasn't even a computer engineer to begin with, it was a task too difficult. Standing before the stripped down machine, which could be described as a mass of black boxes in terms of both hardware and software, Chandel let out a deep sigh. Not a sound Chandel Tadārshi would dare let out around anyone.

Mobile Suit Gundam École du Ciel (manga) chapter 2: Asuna Elmarit

The second chapter of École du Ciel is here. This second chapter is mostly slow going setup for future stuff in the manga, but it's all interesting stuff, also a reference to a key moment in Zeta era Gundam lore.

Reading order for this series so far is

Special chapter

Manga chapter 1

Novel chapter 1

Novel chapter 2

Manga chapter 2 (this one)

You can read this chapter here!

You can download this chapter here!


If you have any questions or want frequent updates feel free to join our Discord.

Moonlight Mile Complete Edition volume 1

We're finally publishing volume 1 of Moonlight Mile here. What took so long? Simple... we used 15+ year old tankoban scans that were of clearly subpar quality, when the ebook version labeled on Bookwalker as "Complete Edition" is not only higher quality but includes parts of pages and drawings that were cut off in the tankoban version. We've also fixed most of the issues with it that we previously had given it was our first translation, we didn't have a dedicated person to do any of this visual editing stuff, making it rough. I'm quite proud with the semi professional quality that went into this, and hope you all enjoy it. We've also added things to it not featured in the Complete Edition, making this sort a sort of "Completer Edition". This took No More Cheese Dip 2 months, but it's done. Volume 2 will happen after the next chapter of Ecole du Ciel and Candy Box Creations.

For those who don't know what this is, this is the series that gave Yasuo Ohtagaki his credibility as a hard sci-fi mangaka, which later allowed him to make "Mobile Suit Gundam Thunderbolt", "Get Truth! Fang of the Sun Dougram", "Diana and Artemis", and "Make My Day". The series is a sci-fi epic that centers around a realistic portrayal of mankind resuming space travel and colonizing the moon.

Still not convinced? Listen to the Moonlight Mile theme and let it hype you up.

Japanese construction worker Gorou Saruwatari and his best friend: American Air Force pilot Jack F. Woodbridge have set their sights on climbing the tallest mountains on earth. On their final climb; Mount Everest, the two friends almost die on their journey to the top, only to be greeted by a sea of stars when they get there. The two then agree that the only point to reach greater than Everest is space, setting the two down a life changing journey as they setout on their new dream of reaching peaks greater than man has ever reached before.

Download volume 1 on CBZ format here.


You can read all of Moonlight Mile online here.


If you have any questions or want frequent updates feel free to join our Discord.

Mobile Suit Gundam École du Ciel (manga) Special Prequel Chapter: Asuna Goes to École

This time we present you a prequel story. This is a bonus chapter included in volume 2, mostly just showing us Asuna's first day at the school. Originally we were going to publish this chapter first, but Hichikarah insisted on chapter 1 of the manga and novel first. So we figured it'd be best to do what Gquuuuuux did and give you the prequel lead in after getting you used to the status quo. This one took us a while because No More Cheese Dip had family visiting from out of town, and this chapter required immense redraws from him.

I wasn't fond of the picture where the chapter name appeared, because it wouldn't make for a good thumbnail on an embed. So the image here is an alternate cover Mikimoto painted for a limited edition reprint of volume 1 featuring an exclusive École du Ciel CD Rom.

Reading order for this series is currently

Special Chapter (this one)

Manga chapter 1

You can read this chapter here!

You can download this chapter here!


If you have any questions or want frequent updates feel free to join our Discord.

Moon Moon's Most Wanted 2024: Manga we don't have raws for, but would like to have for future projects

People have asked on two occasions, how can they support us? We don't accept money donations because it is wrong for us to profit from material we don't even own. However we do accept manga raw donations. So, I present a list of manga that we would like to do eventually, but we can't do because we don't have the raws for a few reasons.


For some (non Gundam) manga we have

Diana and Artemis
This is a spin-off of Moonlight Mile, set late in the manga. It's not really important, it's just a fun story set in that universe that Ohtagaki did once he got the rights to Moonlight Mile. A full color ebook release happened on digital storefronts, and a black and white tankoban volume version came out in two volumes once it was complete... then in early 2024, it was pulled from digital fronts, and the volume has been out of print for quite some time. So... Moonlight Mile can never truly be complete until we do this one after we catch up to the MLM manga. However, this one being completely lost has made it an impossibility for us. The only way would be if someone found the colored version somewhere.

Get Truth! Fang of the Sun Dougram
A 40th anniversary celebration for legendary real robot series "Fang of the Sun Dougram", in the form of this manga. Written and illustrated by Moonlight Mile creator Yasuo Ohtagaki, and supervised and edited by Dougram cocreator Ryosuke Takahashi. Hichikarah had volume 1 on ebook already, but we don't own volumes 2 and 3.

Combat Mecha Xabungle: Another Gale
A Xabungle sequel! Hichikarah happened to have volumes 1-3 on ebook format already, but we don't have volumes 4-6. 

Armored Trooper VOTOMs: Crimson Eyes
Back when they were making new VOTOMs material in 2008-2012, they made this little spin-off as a tie-in, published in Shonen Champion Red. It's been out of print for over a decade and doesn't seem like it will ever be reprinted. So this factor and no ebook version have forced us to accept we're probably never going to do it.

Ippei
Yasuo Ohtagaki's first huge Manga series. He got the rights to it back in 2019 and did an ebook release for it. I managed to get volumes 1-9 for dirt cheep a sale, so we might as well do it later down the line. If anyone wants to give us raws for volumes 10-18, that would be swell, but this manga is low on our priority list.

Mazinsaga
This is one we really want to do. It's Mazinger Z, retold in the style of Devil-Man. Initially cancelled, but Go Nagai brought it back in 1999 because he loved the idea so much, before finally putting it on a long hiatus. We got a reprint recently after it had been out of print for 2 decades, but the ebook version is not on every retailer for some reason, I could only find it on EbookJapan. Still, it'd be cool to do it one day.


For some Gundam manga


Mobile Suit Gundam ZZ: Mirage of Zeon
We would like to do this cool ZZ side story, but it's been out of print for a long time, and unlike Ixtab the long out of print Gundam manga we are doing, we don't have someone to kindly scan it for us and supply us with the raws for this. So, with no ebook version, we cannot do it.

MS Boys: Our War For Zeon Independence
Yet again, another out of print manga that we can't do because no ebook version unless Hichikarah was to de-spine her copy and pay a small fortune to get it scanned. Shame too because some of the action sequences here are actually great.

Zeon Military Prep School
They got a famous and notable shoujo mangaka to make a Gundam manga. The result? Something that's been out of print for ages. Shame too, because this is one of the last projects the mangaka did before she quit doing serious works to focus on yaoi manga.

Candy Box Creations: An Autograph Session

Chapter 3 of Ohtagaki's anthology series of random yet wholesome stories he comes up with. The art isn't amazing or anything, this is a side project for him after all, but it's quite fun seeing some of these expressions and otherworldly creatures. The story itself is very cute too, with a wholesome story with a dark undercurrent added to parts of it. I liked it a lot.

You can read this new chapter by clicking here

You can download this new chapter by clicking here


If you have any questions or want frequent updates feel free to join our Discord.

Mobile Suit Gundam École du Ciel (novel) chapter 1

Yes, we're actually doing this. We're more than just manga here at Moon Moon. You've had the manga for years in the form of Tokyopop's terrible translation. While we are doing that, we're doing the novel too. We're going to publish novel chapters concurrently with where they are set during the manga.

In contrast to the manga, the novelization follows Elysia Nocton and her side of the story. The novel is completely different, and works more as a companion piece to read alongside the manga, as opposed to an alternative option. Most scenes in the novel are set around what we see in the manga, with only some overlap. There's even entire characters and backstory here not featured in the manga. We hope you enjoy a really obscure piece of Gundam media most of the western fandom didn't even know existed, finally translated. I would also like to clarify that we did keep a lot of quirks of the author's writing intact, even though it makes the book a little more confusing to read.

Also, thank No More Cheese Deep for the excellent work making English versions of the cover and dramatis personae spread.

Reading order so far is

Special chapter

Manga chapter 1

Novel chapter 1 (this one)

Novel Chapter 2

Chapter 1

Every detail of the sky was reproduced mechanically, with swaths of blue in every corner of her vision. To an untrained eye, it would appear like a wall of blue construction paper. It was flat, and with no visible shading. Was it possible for a scene like this to exist in reality? One where the sky and the zenith of the visible horizon appeared to be one in the same, with the same shades of colors in their pallets?  This peculiar distortion of the world and the things in it were unique to inorganic things such as this. The sky was perfectly mechanical and flat, not even betraying a single hint of life in its appearance.

With such a beautiful view in front of her, Elysia Nocton kept hooking the collar of her uniform with her fingers. It wasn't hot, on the contrary the temperature on Elysia's skin was as comfortable as rays of sunshine pouring down from the sky on a warm spring day. The internal temperature of the cockpit, which was designed for use in space, was regulated to 22 degrees Celsius. It was designed ergonomically to prevent the pilot from feeling any unnecessary discomfort. Things such as temperature, humidity and lighting were all designed to be as universally comfortable as possible. Despite this, it failed to ease that cramped feeling some people had in their hearts. The vast sky and the untamed desert that lie before Elysia were all artificial. That's why her palms and neck were dripping with sweat. Her throat stung painfully, urging her to let out a silent scream for air.

Elysia was inside a sphere with a diameter of just over 2 meters. The inner wall of the sphere was filled with monitor screens on which the artificial sky was displayed. It was like a one-man planetarium, except the display showed no romantic starry sky or breath taking sunset over a beach. The scene being displayed was actually rather grim, with plumes of black smoke trailing in the battlefield above Lake Huron, as forces prepared to land and begin a raid on the Toronto supply base.

Elyisia looked down below her feet in time with the voice on the speaker. If you looked closely at the desert below, you could see that it followed a distinct pattern. The western and eastern ends of the desert were both the same, right down to the perfect arrangements of bushes on both sides. It was quite obvious. Beyond the hills was a lake, from which Elysia saw a Swan flying away from and to a forest. The target supply base was in that very same forest. She tapped at the console above her knees to confirm, and an array of different maps appeared one after the other. As she followed these maps, her eyes trained to one window in particular that was completely unrelated. It showed a white dome that resembled an upside down salad bowl and a girl that appeared to be the same age as Elysia wearing what looked like an Earth Federation military uniform.

There were lots of children in the video, all of them appeared to be about 16 or 17 years old. They all looked similar in build. They were wearing what looked like Federation military uniforms, but not quite, they were different. The Earth Federation military uniforms were usually grey, but these uniforms were a light green color. The white upturned salad bowl was actually a control device directly connected to the database stored underground. The artificial sky surrounding Elysia and the desert too were just data stored in this database. The detailed data is reconstructed according to a program and displayed as a realistic image on the monitors. Elysia stared at the monitor window showing the outside of the simulator. But even that seemed like an illusion created by a computer.

"Elysia Nocton! There are too many information windows!"
This sharp reprimand from the speaker snapped Elysia back to reality. It was the voice of her instructor, Yahagi Franziback, who was known to be strict when it came to these kinds of things.

"You can't just look at that many things during a military operation!"

"Are you watching?" Elysia asked in surprise, with just a hint of a smile on her face.

"I'm not the one watching, they are."

Elysia chuckled and switched the display, this time showing her own reflection mirrored. She was wearing the same light green uniform as all the boys and girls outside. She had a healthy tanned complexion and silky blonde hair, adorned with feather ornaments given to her as a gift by her brother on her tenth birthday. This was complimented by lustrous lips and eyes giving a cool gaze. Her eye brows were arched sharply with thin lines creasing her forehead expressing her determination.

"Come on Elysia, do something, but don't embarrass yourself in front of everyone."
She spoke words of admonishment to herself in response to the praise, and then returned her dignified gaze to what was in front of her.

"What!?"
Adjusting the camera's viewpoint, Elysia leaned forward and followed the shadow. The desert spread out at her feet closer than it was before. What she saw next, was a thick cloud of dust spreading out like a circle from where the shadow landed. Then it rotated and rose up to the height of Elysia. There was a distinct rustling sound accompanying this, most likely sand falling and hitting something.

Is this an enemy attack!? She reflexively looked up to the sky, but there was nothing there. Then she looked back down to the ground in front of her. The dust was still was rising and visibility was quite poor.

"Did it... fall?"
Elysia muttered softly. That's right, there must be another pilot besides her.
"Did it fall too quickly?"
Elysia muttered to herself once more. In just one swift motion form Elysia's hands the image was already pulled up on her monitor. Ten seconds, eleven seconds, twelve seconds... In just a few taps of her fingers on the control panel, the video was rewound.

The shadow passed across the screen, and looking closely it appeared to be a pale white armor with a parachute. It had a blue visor over the yes, and the strings of the parachute held by iron clad fingers. For that matter not only the surface, but everything corresponding to muscle tissue were made of a special alloy. It was a weapon in the shape of a human, a weapon called "mobile suit", with a total height of nearly 20 meters. These humanoid weapons were versatile and capable of using a wide variety of fire arms and melee weapons. This versatility made them an overwhelming force, and a staple of modern warfare in an era where radars were useless. This was proven in the dreadful war that ended 5 years ago.

In the year 0079, in the era known as the Universal Century, there was a great war. Mankind had moved a large portion of its population to space in response to explosive growth in the population. Those who had been living in space for more than half a century started the first space war against those who were still attached to the earth. It was the bloodiest conflict in human history, with half of mankind's total population lost in the fires of war and cast into the endless darkness of space. 

In preparation for the next disaster, the Earth Federation was forced to expand its facilities. Securing human resources was an obvious issue, as was the expansion of their weapons, especially mobile suits. In response to this, training centers for mobile suit pilots were created in various locations. It was one of these schools, the Montreal campus, where Elysia was based. At this school in Quebec Canada Elysia was one of the candidates for the next generation of Federation ace pilots.

Any student could become a candidate too, including this one in the mobile suit that fell in front of Elysia. Elysia pulled up the data on the other pilot without delay. The data of an innocent looking young girl was superimposed on the screen. Her eyes appeared to almost be smiling. Her lips were thin. She had beautiful brown hair that curled out towards the ends, and when combined with her Asian features made her appear much younger than she actually was.

"Asuna Elmarit?"
Elysia read the name displayed on the monitor in a monotone voice. "Seven battles in the simulator... lost!?"
A loud warning sound drowned out Elysia's voice as the dust cleared and a rumble could be felt in her seat. Asuna's mobile suit was only 800 meters away. The search program, processing in parallel with the balancer enlarged the image enlarged the image of Asuna's mobile suit. Elysia was speechless at the sight; a mobile suit crawling on the ground and tied up in parachute wires. She had never seen quite a horrid sight before.

"I'm sick of you... you washout!"
Elysia said, stepping on the pedal at her foot. There was no need for her to hurry, she could just use her the sword shaped beam weapon mounted on her mobile suit's back to take out all her troublesome targets. She slowly approached Asuna's mobile suit, caught in the wires of the back pack and there was no sign of a possible counterattack. In the blink of an eye, right as she was about to pierce the belly of Asuna's mobile suit, she smelt a burning scent. It was just an illusion though, temporarily throwing her off with the accuracy of the illusion provided by the simulation.





The early summer winds blew down from the mountain and tousled her golden hair. Her hair was tied into tails on both sides of her head, with both swinging in the breeze. The small feathers, dyed a light green were a memento from her brother Moegi. They blended in to the rest of her hair almost as if they were a part of Elysia Nocton's body.

"It's only June, but the wind... it's already so cold."
Elysia whispered softly as she ran a hand through her loose hair. As she looked down she saw a shadow imitating her movements exactly. Her body was in shape from horseback riding and cricket. From her loose waist to a firm chest, her slightly muscular frame was not particularly tall, but she walked with excellent posture and a straight back, giving the illusion of additional slenderness. She already looked a lot like a grown woman, despite only turning 16 last month.

"Oh that reminds me, here's a birthday present!"
The man just remembered something. A tall man was standing in front of Elysia, more precisely they were the only two people there. They stood at the entrance of a loading path that led to the underground hanger behind the Montreal academy's building, which was barren at that moment. Some people refer to the Montreal campus as the "owl campus", because the pure white building from above resembled the face of an owl. The curved shape resembled a seagull spreading its wings, and the dome shaped simulators placed upright were held inside these wings, and resembled eyes. In this analogy the underground loading entrance is like where the wrinkles of the eyebrows are.

The man remained silent as he stood in the darkness of the underground. He wore a mechanic's overalls, but his well groomed silver hair that reached down to his back made it clear he had the makings of a soldier. Elysia wondered what somebody who saw him for the first would time think. Maybe they'd think he was some kind of local thug, or an old fashioned kind of rock and roll guy. He had a curved yet deeply rough edged face. His arms were very muscular with prominent and unmissable biceps, and a tattoo of a heart of steel could be seen on one of them. Elysia stared back at the man.

"Chandel, why don't you dress a little nicer?"

"That's none of your business."
Chandel reached into his breast pocket and pulled out a ballpoint pen with a white clip. The thin pen resting in his large gnarled hand seemed rather weak and flimsy to Elysia when compared to the hand holding it. It looked like Chandel was holding a like he was holding a toy. He curled his thick lips and hurled the thin ballpoint pen at her.

"What is this?" Elysia asked

"You wanted a present, right?"
Elysia listened to his words, and then pressed the end of the ballpoint pen. The tip came out with a strange clicking sound, revealing it to be an ordinary ballpoint pen.

"It's not a normally supplied item."

It had been two years since the Earth Federation military opened the mobile suit pilot training academy in the forests of Montreal Quebec. It was the newest of all the pilot schools the Federation opened after the war, and for that reason alone all of the equipment was new and state of the art. Not only the simulators used by Elysia and her class, but everything from the big screen in the auditorium to the air conditioning were the latest and greatest models. Of course not everything was so new. The underground hanger was remodeled from a frontline base used in the war, and the adjacent spaceport and training ground were once occupied by the Principality of Zeon during the war, and are still used in much the same way.

The Principality of Zeon was the nation that the Federation fought against in the war that ended 5 years ago. Of the countless manmade islands floating in space called "Space Colonies", the Principality was located in side 3, the cluster of colonies located furthest from the Earth and by extension the furthest from the Earth Federation government. They advocated for the autonomy and independence of the space immigrants and challenged the Earth Federation to a war, but in the end it was nothing more than the the runaway rulings of their leaders' power going unchecked.

The Principality of Zeon even attacked the space colonies housing the very immigrants they claimed to be fighting for, just because they chose to side with the Federation. Many of their plans were so cruel that they'd make you cover your eyes in horror, such as spreading nerve gas into the enclosed area inside a space colony, and using a space colony as a makeshift bomb. Who on earth would ever support such an obvious dictatorship? At least that's what Elysia thought.

"Hey!"
Chandel called out to Elysia.
"What were you thinking about?"
he asked without so much as a smile, his eyes still fixated on the darkness below.

"None of your business."
Elysia said in a sulky voice.
"Unless you want to guess what I'm thinking?"

Chandel just continued staring into the darkness indifferent and unfazed. It was unnerving. What did he see? When she looked in the direction of Chandel's gaze, he continued. 

"Whenever you think about someone you hate, you have a habit of crossing your arms, and then your face sags into an expressionless stare. It's a bad and obvious habit. You should stop doing it before you make yourself into an eyesore"

Elysia was taken aback by Chandel's words. She lowered her arms, which were folded at her chest without her even realizing it. They had been friends for a long time, so it made sense for him to see through her. Normally it'd be fun that he figured something like that out, but she just glared maliciously at Chandel. 

"Even if we're Childhood friends, don't talk like you know me!"

"I'm your childhood friend?"

Chandel snorted and then followed it up with a laugh.

"Don't get the wrong idea, you're just my friend's sister. Of course I was friends with him for a long time, so I know almost everything about you. If you want, I could even tell you the words from a love letter I got when he confessed his love to me."

Elysia's face turned bright red at Chandel's mocking words. Was it out of embarrassment or anger? It didn't matter, Elysia didn't care which.

"You're the worst." she sulked.

"I'm just trying to warn you, quit coming around here during your all of your lunch breaks. Go play with your friends..... Look!"

Chandel's head tilted and pointed to a corner of the school building. The area on the first floor of the south building of the campus, which formed a gentle arc was lined with stores like the school shop and the snack corner. At one of these stores was a short girl with brown hair that curled outwards.

"Asuna Elmarit..."
Elysia muttered softly to herself. She remembered seeing the picture displayed in this sub-window of the simulator's monitor.

"That's your friend right?"

"Friend?" Elysia echoed Chandel's words. Even the word friend seemed so far removed from her. "I don't want to make friends. I heard the pilots of this school were extremely talented, but from what I've seen there isn't even a trace of tension here!"

"It can't be helped, it's not just here, but all of of the mobile suit pilot training schools are like this."
Upon hearing Chandel's words, Elysia turned her gaze form Asuna back to him. She knew there were other mobile suit pilot training schools, but she was surprised to hear Chandel talk about all of them like that. His eyes remained unmoving, though trained on Asuna. Then, he spoke, as if he was talking to Asuna, who was directly in his line of sight.

"This academy isn't exactly a military school. Did you know more than half of the operating costs are taken care of by private investors? I'm sure it has something to do with the military's financial situation, but I think this is for the best when mobile suit development is dependent on private investments. The military obviously wants to maintain their image. For starters, it would be bad if the military didn't follow that outdated child protection charter."

"Child protection charter?"
Before Chandel could say another word, Elysia interrupted him. Child protection charter. That was reassuring to hear. Chandel turned his gaze from Asuna back to Elysia, with his calm gaze sizing her up as if she was nothing more than a small child.

"The child protection charter was designed to protect the human rights of people under the age of 18, prohibiting corporal punishment, certain parts of military education, etc. Of course none of it actually makes a difference since nobody will find out."

"That can't be! They can't cover up this place's existence!"

"From the beginning this whole place has been full of contradictions. The Federation military academy is for people over the age of 18, but they've gotten desperate since most of their soldiers died in the war."

"That's garbage!"
Elysia spat out. Her venomous words were directed at all the adults in power who cared only for the appearance of the old status quo.
"My father's the same way... it's terrible." she said with her molars clenched. She watched Asuna's back from afar. She walked down a row of stores in what looked like a shopping center. She looked rather small to Elysia.






The stores were full of things like T-Shirts, swimsuits, soft drink vending machines with a variety of drinks of vibrant colors and even an ice cream stand. To Asuna, all of these things were new and rare. Sure things like this existed in the Principality of Zeon, where she grew up, but they were rare and she had to go the nicer central districts of the colony. Space colonies were large, with ten million people living in just one cylindrical structures six kilometers in diameter and thirty kilometers in length. Each colony had its own administrative, residential and industrial areas.

The commercial district by the port was always busy. During the military regime it was always bustling, but to Asuna, who was in her early teens, it was by no means something familiar to her. Asuna always considered other places close, like the university, where her parents worked in the research lab, or the public school she attended and the small crepe shop next to it. Asuna would always get her favorite, a crepe made with vanilla ice cream.

When she first enrolled, everything was a new experience for her. She never imagined that there would be anything like this in a military school when she decided to enroll. Asuna was told that the Montreal Campus was a military school. Her homeroom teacher, a woman who always wore jeans, had told her so, as did the fat principal who only showed up at the opening ceremony. Asuna had wanted to go to art school, but she was enrolled in the Montreal academy, which was nothing short of a tragedy for the people of a defeated nation. Asuna was given no choice in the matter. She had to enroll here and separate from her mother, or she and her mother would have become homeless.

"You don't really think you could wear that!"
Asuna jumped at the sudden voice behind her and turned around. It was her friend Emiru. Asuna sighed in relief as she saw the round face of her friend Emiru Voigtlander, her best friend at the school, but Emiru ignored her and pointed at her chest.

"It'd never work, you have really small breasts!"
Emiru said in an exaggerated feminine annotation and a distinctive somewhat doll-like manner. She wore thin framed glasses, with her hair styled in what could be described as an extended bob cut framing her face. The freckles on her face stood out against her pale skin and when combined with her lips made for a face with many charming features. Asuna pouted at her.

"Shut up! I'm already feeling down, you don't have to make things worse."

"I don't know how I could make things worse for you when you have breasts like that."

"It's not about breasts!"
Asuna snorted and left the shop. As she walked away her face was stained with a look showing a heavy sulk.

Emiru, who was just a little shorter than Asuna, walked behind her.
"Well with eight matches and eight losses, I suppose there's no use getting depressed."

"And on top of that, my next vacation got cancelled too"
Asuna sighed. She put her hands behind her head and glanced at Emiru. Emiru glanced back, looking at her through the clear lenses of her glasses.

"Vacation? I don't remember you having a boyfriend, why would you need a vacation?"

"No, Emiru, I don't have one."

"That's fine, you have me Asuna!"
Emiru gestured by clasping her fingers together and holding them against her right cheek in an exaggerated fashion. She tilted her head into her fingers and twisted her hips as if to use this gesture to say she's sorry, but Asuna didn't have the time or patience to deal with such a joke.

"What's the matter? You're so glum I can't even seem to cheer you up."

"I'm going to draw a picture"
Asuna spoke quietly, looking up at the sky without slowing the pace of her walk.
"It's going to be a picture of a bird. It's beautiful, like something out of a fairytale. I never knew anything like this before, because we didn't have anything like it in the colonies."

"Scenery like this?" Emiru asked

"There's mountains, the sky, forest and lakes, and the scenery stretches on forever. The mornings are especially nice. The humidity soaks into the plants and it chills you to your very bones, and then the morning sun rises and it warms everything up! Montreal is so beautiful. When I first landed here, I thought I was so lucky to be in a place like this."

Emiru watched Asuna as she stopped in her tracks and spoke, hanging on every word. Her eyes showed her surprise as she listened to what Asuna said.

"What happened?" Asked Asuna

"I was a bit surprised to hear you say something like that."

"Is that so?"

"Yeah" Emiru nodded and started walking again, this time with Asuna following behind her.

"But I don't have much time to draw. Even in the simulator, I lost because all I could think about was the composition of a picture."

"You did?!..."
Emiru exclaimed, sounding genuinely shocked.
"Well never-mind that, I'll buy you some ice cream to cheer you up."
She would say as she turned around and took Asuna's hand. The warmth of her palm felt could almost be seen in exaggerated terms as a sign of friendship. This alone was furthest from anything Asuna knew during her life in the colony.





You could see everything from the instructor's room. If war advanced civilization and technology, then the Montreal academy, which had only been open for two years, was the culmination of the technology cultivated during the One Year War. But it made one wonder what purpose was there to all the technology arranged in such an archaic fashion?

The instructor's room on the third floor of the building was where the most advanced of the school's technology was managed. It could be considered the brain of the school. The room was a large circular room of about 40 meters wide with technology like military base contained on large on fan-shaped desks. Of course the students were forbidden to touch any of the equipment here, only the twelve instructors, all of which were ranked lieutenant Colonel.

During their lunch break, the two instructors were looking at the monitor in the room. The monitor displayed two mobile suits, one of which was on the ground with its back turned to the other, which was standing next to it. Next to it was the data of the two trainees: Elysia Nocton and Asuna Elmarit.

"How Embarrassing."
Muttered one of the men looking at the monitor, who's hand was occupied stroking his goatee. He appeared to be in his mid 30s, with his body clad in a pristine new instructor uniform. The rough and gnarled fingers and his thickly calloused hands extending from the cuffs of his sleeves clearly showed that he was a soldier.

"It's far too dangerous for us to let her keep training like this, don't you agree?"
Yahagi Franziback, the instructor with the goatee on his chin, said to Forma Gardner, the instructor sitting next him.

"Asuna Elmarit huh?..." Forma asked, leaning back in his chair as far as it would allow.
If Yahagi was a self-proclaimed soldier through and through, Forma was a used car sales-man. With the way he could sell anything, even the twisted facsimile of  a smile on his face as genuine and natural.
"It's not really that dangerous, right? They'll get used to it."

"I'm not talking about skills! I'm talking about the kind character that lets a person laugh off such a miserable defeat! Mobile suits aren't toys!"

"I know what you're saying" Forma said whilst scratching his head.
"How about this girl here?"
As Forma spoke he pointed his pen at another mobile suit, which had stopped mid-movement in the paused video, now resembling a marionette held in place.

"Elysia Nocton... oh, that's quite the achievement"
Forma said holding a physical card in his hand as opposed to checking on the monitor. The card contained Elysia's battle records, statistics such as accuracy, her habits and even her past schooling and job history.

"She's good, but she does have a habit of grandstanding though."
Yahagi tapped the control panel and a picture of Elysia displayed on the 30 inch monitor. Her eyes on the flat screen monitor reflected back at him, and made it appear as though she was looking down on the two instructors.

"Daughter of the president of Nocton Ceramics? She's a proper lady, what kind of person is she to come to our school?"

"Who cares?"
shrugged Forma in response to Yahagi's harsh and dismissive attitude.
"I don't think it's that bad, just imagine what would happen if she was chosen as a candidate"
The smug look on Forma's face was sickening. The wrinkles on Yahagi's brows were a clear sign of his disgust.

"I don't know what the brass thinks they want, but if it's simply about who is the best pilot, there's a good chance Elysia will be chosen."
Yahagi was an honest man, and he spoke his honest opinion. Elysia Nocton had good instincts, that was something Yahagi, a survivor of the war as a mobile suit pilot, could feel going off of his own instincts and experience.

Such an accurate judgement of Elysia's reflexes and skills proves she was undoubtedly special, though even the people in the school's administration didn't know if she possessed the qualifications to be a candidate. The demands were just too vague. Trainees with good instincts that would also would report to orders that would never be given in the normal military.

"Things are naturally going to get complicated when private citizens get involved in a running a mobile suit training school." Yahagai spat out those words with a disdain, but Forma just laughed.

"Well that can't be helped. There's still a lot of cleaning up to do in the aftermath of the war, and the federation army is slowly descending into poverty. Nocton Ceramics provided us with tons of mobile suits, so if the daughter of their president became a candidate, who knows what kind of interference would come into play."

"I'll leave that kind of thing to the higher-ups. The people who call this place 'École' are probably better at political maneuvering than I am."
Once Yahagi finished talking, he turned his attention back to the main monitor where the picture of Elysia was displayed. It was as if she was smiling with just her eyes.

"École huh? What a joke..."
His final words muttered reached no-ones ears and they quietly sank into the depths of his heart.





Elysia Nocton looked up at the evergreens of Montreal. The gentle breeze dance across the bench on the sunshine, and that sunshine was filtered through the green leaves on the trees, drawing intricate patterns on the ground. The only thing that was missing to complete this perfect scene was the sweet scent of scones. Elyisia bathed her whole body in the sunlight, enjoying the tranquility of a moment as she recalled her old boarding school.

The bench she saw two girls attending the same school: Asuna Elmarit and Emiru Voightlander. They were a lot more lively than her old classmates, but Elysia didn't hold that against them. Though, in truth, Elysia didn't have any interest in Asuna or Emiru.

"Didn't Asuna have special mobile suit training before?"

"I thought people who were born in the colonies were naturally better mobile suit pilots, but I guess that doesn't apply to you."

Emiru pursed her lips in response to Elysia's words.

"Piloting mobile suits is a little different between Zeon and the Federation. I know Asuna can get the hang of it if she tries, we'll just have to wait and see"
Emiru said, beaming with pride and puffing her chest out like she was Auna's guardian.

"Zeon? I see, so Asuna, you are from Zeon."
Elysia muttered to herself in confirmation. It was well known in the Montreal campus that Asuna was from Zeon, the instigator in the war. When she was enrolled a week after the others, it caused quite a stir. It was no surprise really, everyone civilian and military alike lost something in that war with Zeon. 

"I'm not part of Zeon anymore!"
Asuna said firmly. There was no sadness in her eyes as she rejected her homeland, but rather some kind of determined light, like hatred or some similar emotion. Ahh, now it made sense. This girl had been through a lot, Elysia could feel it, however both those feelings and friendship were completely different things. Elyisia was not sitting on the same bench as Asuna for a reason like friendship, but rather she was only here by chance due to the somewhat forceful guidance of Chandel Tadashi. Asuna and Emiru seemed to sense this from her.

Asuna respectfully used honorific-language when talking to Elysia, which made their conversations somewhat awkward. The tense atmosphere was then broken up by sudden rumble. A shadow fell on the bench where they were sitting. 

"That's..." Emiru, who raised her voice in response, fixed her gaze on a far off spot above Elysia's head. "There's no head..."
Elysia turned her head in response to Emiru's words, and what stood before them was a humanoid weapon, a mobile suit. Asuna had a puzzled expression on her face, probably because as Emiru pointed out, the mobile suit had no head.

"That's a TGM-79C, it's a mobile suit used for practical training in a real vehicle. If the head is just going to get broken by a student during training, why have it in the first place? It's just for decoration, all you really need from it is the camera anyways."
Elysia said as she touched her hair. Saying it loud it didn't sound right to call it a real vehicle, even though it was a mobile suit. She probably called it that because it was a training vehicle maintained by the same staff as the rest of the vehicles such as tanks. Elysia couldn't help but get the impression that mechanics sensibilities were very outdated. Thinking about that she suddenly remembered Chandel.

"Yeah... this is what Chandel was waiting for."

"Did you say something?" Emiru asked in response to Elysia's muttering.

"No, it was nothing."

"You're knowledgeable on mobile suits"

"Well, Yeah..." Elysia replied in vague terms, crossing her arms over her chest and brushing them up against her hair.
"That mobile suit is made by my father's company."
As Elysia said that, all hint of emotion left her face as her calm gaze focused squarely on the mobile suit.
"My father's company makes exterior parts used in mobile suit and space ship production. While they aren't his specialty, his company spearheaded the development and creation of that headless model, GM Canard, as well as the two seater unit GM Cannes."

"Oh, so that maintenance officer must have been someone from your father's company"
Emiru spoke in such a bright and cheerful voice as if she understood. Elysia immediately turned around to face her.

"That person? You mean Chandel?"

"I heard a while ago from my instructor, that someone from the manufacturer was coming. If that's him, then I'd like to have a chance to ask him about the mobile suit's structure."

"You better not do that!"
Elysia uncrossed her arms and gave a wry smile.
"Because that man is rude, blunt and nosey. You'd only be wasting your time."
With Elysia's left hand on her hip and her right arm outstretched, Asuna and Emiru watched her with wide eyes.

"Wha-What's wrong?"

"Nothing... We just didn't know you could make a face like that."

"Eh?!"
Elysia exclaimed as her cheeks turned to a bright red. She wasn't used to getting this kind of attention from people.

"It's surprising... but I'm jealous."

Elysia looked a little angry as she approached Asuna, wondering if Asuna really just said that.

"Jealous!? What could you be jealous of?"

"Because... you two seem to get along so well."

Asuna's expression was gentle, and it was obvious that she was thinking about someone. However Elysia's own feelings were complicated, and as if by instinct she touched her hands to the feather ornaments in her hair.

"There's nothing special between me and Chandel, we've just known each-other for a long time."

"But..." Asuna was continuing to press her, but then Elysia smiled spoke.

"If you two really want to know about the structure of the school's mobile suits, you can just ask me. I already asked Chandel all about it."

"Are you sure?"

"Of course! We're friends right?"
And with those words she left Asuna and Emiru. A shadow fell over her face as she turned her back to the sunlight and the headless GM Canard's unshakable form towered over her in the sky. Two days later, Asuna Elmarit would be banned from using the simulator.





Looking down from the podium that was about a meter high, you could easily see the faces of all 30 trainees. You could say they were all pretty young. All of them with only a few exceptions were around 16 years old. To Yahagi, who was in his mid 30s, it was only natural all of them would seem like children to him. This was on his mind as he looked at the large arch shaped entrance to the school building. The weather was nice, and there was no wind, but he still wasn't used to leading people. Yahagi, who was originally from the military's R&D department, had a pretty weak sense of hierarchy compared to most soldiers.

"Techniques aren't taught. They're stolen."
When Yahagi was a new recruit, a veteran solider lectured him about what it means to be a veteran soldier, despite the two rank difference between them. He had no intention of saying anything like that to the trainees, as he believed it was up to them to shape who they were and what kind of soldier they'd be. 

Yahagi shot glances to the left and right, where two towers rose in the place where the white dome shaped simulators normally were. There were two mobile suits housed inside each towers, with one on each side. The simulator used by the trainees was placed on top of a special elevator that carried the mobile suits out from the underground hanger. Even deeper underground, below the hanger, was where the the database for the simulator was kept.

"From this day forward, you will begin with practical training."
Yahagi's words, even without a microphone or loud speaker to amplify it, echoed through the walls of the school building. Asuna Elmarit was notably missing among the group of trainees listening to his speech. According to Yahagi those who don't improve themselves shouldn't move forward, and Asuna had yet to improve.

"It should go without saying that practical training is very different from the simulation training you've had up to this point. There's always a undercurrent of danger when you're piloting a mobile suit and all it takes is just one moment of carelessness to get yourself killed. You're not soldiers yet, just trainees, and if you go to the battlefield in this state, you'll be treated as such. But!..."

Yahagi took a step forward with his right foot, the toe of his shoe hanging off the edge of the platform.
"I have no doubt that you all will make for excellent soldiers. You've used the simulator 3 times as much as the average soldier who enlisted during the One Year War. You have much to be proud of, but don't let yourself get conceited!"

Yahagai shouted that last part at the top of his lungs. There was nothing more terrifying then self-conceit, especially in young people like them with an elitist mentality. Their over confidence was probably going to make most of them accident prone.

"Everyone..."
Yahagi suddenly stopped and the sound of silence permeated for the next several seconds. Then the murmurs of the students began to take its place. One person could clearly be heard saying "Yahagi's talking about nonsense", but who was it?

"Who was just talking?"
Yahagi said in a low tone that echoed throughout the room with a ripple like effect.

"I heard what you were whispering amongst yourselves!"
With Yahagi's yell the room fell silent, as if somebody dropped a tombstone. It was so quiet you could even hear the breathing of each individual student. Of course the person who insulted Yahagi didn't reveal themselves, but they were probably regretting what they said.

"Will the student who was was talking... please step forward."
Yahagi jumped off the podium and onto the ground below. If no-one came forward. he thought it necessary to punish everyone. This was not a game, especially with the training the students were going to be doing. If you got even a little careless while piloting a mobile suit, the results could be fatal.

"Someone step forward!"

"Yes sir!"
came a voice from the left in a very clear tone. There was no doubt the voice, which sounded dignified yet beautiful, belonged to a boy. That voice's owner, a handsome boy stepped forward to face Yahagi, making a sound almost like kicking sand as he walked. The boy's thin eye brows and smooth facial features reminded Yahagi of an oriental buddha statue. Yahagi faced the boy with a harsh glare.

"Shin Barnack. Was it you?"
Yahagi's voice displayed a calm and collected tone, but Yahagi seriously doubted Shin was the student who said that. Shin transferred from the naval academy, and was one of the only students in the school to actually have an existing military record and background. Would someone who actually knows military etiquette really say something like that about his instructor? He was probably protecting someone, if Shin felt the need to risk himself for a fellow trainee, than that would be an admirable mentality and Yahagi felt he could excuse this. Shin confronted Yahagi head on without even saying a word. He took a deep breath through his nose and then spoke.

"Stand with your feet shoulder width apart! Arms behind your back! Grit your teeth!"

There was the dull sound of bone hitting bone as Yahagi disciplined Shin. His upper body swung like a pendulum for a moment as he was struck hard, but his feet were planted firmly in place at the length Yahagi requested.

"Thank you very much sir..."

"Your voice is weak!"

"Thank you very much sir!"

Yahagi watched with satisfaction as Shin yelled back. If punishing all the students for the actions of one would create tension among the trainees, then he thought reminding them of military discipline by punishing Shin would be a good alternative. However the cold gaze shot his way as he left seemed to stick in his mind. Elysia Nocton, the girl's eyes saw right through his actions, and she watched Shin's actions with a cold glare. Yahagi remembered that Forma had referred to her as a "young lady", and he could see why.

A giant walked right in front of Elysia and the others, making the ground tremble beneath them. It was a mobile suit for training purposes: TGM-79C, also known as the GM Canard. It was a plain machine, designed to teach trainees the basics of movement on board a real mobile suit, but the headless form, the thick torso and shoulders made it seem rather intimidating. The cockpit in the torso is of course the latest model, equipped with a panoramic monitor.

"Once you get in, it controls like the simulator right?"
It was Shin who quietly whispered that. Without even thinking about it, he was standing next to Elysia. Normally discipline was strict during training, but unless ordered otherwise, trainees usually waited wherever they wanted.

"Even in a real mobile suit, the view from the cockpit is just a screen, showing you mechanical composition reconstructing what's actually outside. The shaking might be more violent though. You said your name was Shin. Why did you ask me that?"
Elysia asked coldly. There was no doubt that two were classmates, but they weren't close enough to talk to each other in a familiar manner.

"Why? Your dad made it, right? Asuna said so."
Hearing Shin's words Elysia understood. If they were her friends, than this familiarity would make sense. Even the air around him was somewhat similar.

"So? Why are you asking!?"
Shin looked at Elysia with a puzzled expression as she repeated herself in a rougher tone of voice.

"Does that mean you don't know much about it yourself?"

"...That's not it."
Elysia said as she turned to Shin, as if she was fed up with him already. Shin was holding a wet towel to his left cheek, and smiling in a way Elysia found difficult to understand, the reason for the swelling.

"Your cheek."

"Hm? Oh, it's just swollen. It hurts a little." 
Shin said this teasingly, but with a small hint of embarrassment. As he spoke, the smile never seemed to leave his eyes.

"Why did you protect him?"
As Elysia said this, her gaze shifted to the boy right in front of her. She knew Shin wasn't the one who insulted Yahagi, it was the boy with the short curly hair standing right in front of her: Kelly Signit.

"Did you think it was cool? He brought what he was going to get upon himself!"

"Well, I wouldn't say it was cool. I actually think it was pretty uncool."

"Sticking your neck out like that... I don't like it..."

"...Thanks for the input."

With Shin's face painted with a stern look, he turned his gaze to Kelly. At Kelly's feet, Forma Gardner was shouting instructions into a handheld microphone. Forma was the assistant instructor in Elysia's group. At the Montreal school, with 30 students in total and 5 classes. The classes were never called classes, but rather groups. Elysia and her classmates were in the second group. Group wasn't even the correct name, but an abbreviation of official nomenclature, which was the "Montreal Campus Third Term Second Cadet Group".

Yahagi Franizback was the head instructor of group 2. He also had assistance from group 1 instructor Lina Sao and Group 4 head instructor Forma Gardner. While they were here, groups 1 and 4 were receiving academic lectures from active military personnel.





"Five laps left!"
Forma screamed. As if in response, the Canard's foot made the ground rumble and a thick cloud of dust rose up. The trainees instinctively covered their faces.

"Kelly! You idiot!"

"If you do that again, I'll tell everyone your secret!"

There was a chorus of yelling and laughter. It seemed Kelly was piloting the Canard, but the sand was doing a good job of masking who was saying what. Elysia looked at the back of the Canard with a displeased expression. Shin was sitting there smiling, his cheek swollen from disciplining earlier.

"I like this kind of thing too."
He whispered to himself as he faced forward.
"The tension from earlier wasn't bad, but I like getting the chance to laugh with my friends. I don't have to try and look cool or do anything like that. Who knows, in the future it might be me who needs a comrade to protect me." 

"Solidarity?"
Elysia asked, doing her best to not let the sand get in her mouth.

"It's okay, I transferred to here from the naval academy, I got used to getting beaten up while I was there. If they even notice your uniform isn't perfect, like if your hat is bent, that's a kick in the stomach."

"Is that normal?"

"Yeah, we're going to become soldiers after all."
Shin fell quiet after that. Kelly's GM Canard sank into the training grounds. The wind from the training grounds brushed against Elysia's cheek as she stared at the back of the Canard. The wind from the reactor exhaust was still warm.






From the view inside the cockpit, the campus didn't look like a school, it appeared more like a company research lab. This may have been because the building was all white, or because of the unorthodox design, which made an extensive use of curves which did not give off the use the rigidity that many would associate with the term "school".

Elysia remembered that the research center her father opened up in New Dehli had a similar atmosphere. It was probably around the time that she was accepted into that British prep school located in Dahka, when her older brother picked her up and took her to visit the research center.  The fact that were so many British prep schools in Dahka, the city where she grew up, was probably owed to the fact that Bangladesh was a British colony in ancient times and the two continued to maintain a close relationship. She remembered her mother saying that her family had British ancestors back in the day.

It was during the first space war, known now as the One Year War, where Elysia's father made his fortune. He became involved in the war when he used his skills and knowledge to contribute to the making and design of the materials used in the creation of the Federation's mobile suits. In other words, Elysia and her family were upstarts. Because of this, she didn't have any good memories from her time in prep school or public school. For example, horseback riding was a compulsory subject to the upperclassmen in her prep school. Only half the students in her class could even ride a horse with any level of proficiency, but it was expected of higher class families to have their own horse.

Elysia didn't have one, so for her younger self, having to get used to a horse was a huge handicap, and she endured the humiliation that came with learning. It took a month before she could finally calm down the frightened horse enough for it to listen to her. The others in her class laughed at her struggles behind her back, and Elysia could never forgive them.

She was an unnatural talent by the time she graduated from prep school. She was the best horseback rider there, infamous for being able to ride the most untamable horse at the school, a fiery red horse with a wild temperament matching its color. The most important thing she learned at prep school was to have a clearly defined and distant goal, and an image for how you wish to achieve that goal. That last part was important, because if you couldn't visualize your goal and how to achieve it, visualizing your goal would become the goal itself.

Elysia doubted Shin's words and thought there was something off about them. She could never imagine a situation where she would need someone to protect her. The "comrades" that Shin spoke of and the "friends" that Chandel spoke of, seemed like the furthest thing from Elysia's mind.

Elysia realized that when Chandel called her a "friend" that he was referring to her brother, who died in the war. Chandel used to be a thug in the town, and the only person he had any emotional connection to was her brother. She always hung around her brother, and knew he always cherished Chandel, and never treated him with pity or sympathy. Elysia's brother liked to use the term "justice". He always told Elysia that there are right and wrong in this world, and the biggest difference between the two was that doing right usually came with hardship. He sensed something right in Chandel and told Elysia that it wasn't a law or teaching, but that he had a righteous and healthy spirit.


Elysia sat in the cockpit of her mobile suit. When she pressed down on the pedal, a slow vibration moved to the seat of her cockpit and the Canard took a big step forward. Shin had said "we're going to become soldiers". She didn't choose this path to avenge her brother, but to prove her brother's righteousness. It would be horrible if her brother was crushed by his own beliefs and lost. She wanted to prove to herself that he only died because he chose to stick to what he believed in until the very end. To protect her brother's honor, she was going to succeed using her brother's methods.

With a sense of determination her hands squeezed the grips of the Canard. The silhouette of the school could be seen on the omnidirectional monitor, and beyond that laid the forests comprising another large portion of the training grounds. Suddenly the school grounds in the shadow of the main building came into view, she saw lone figure running. Typically only one group at a time took part in practical training. This was due to a number of factors, but the main ones being space restrictions and the number of instructors required to assist. The other groups were probably taking courses on campus or classes on tactical theory, so it was strange to see anybody outside Elysia's group on the ground right now at all.

Elysia wondered what as going on, and tapped her fingers on the console. The sub-window of the spherical monitor showed a close up, which showed a close up of a sweaty, short girl with hair curled at the bottom. Elysia felt like she'd seen this girl before. 

"Asuna..."
Elysia called Asuna's name out loud. Then, she turned away and moved forward, she didn't look back at Asuna. She continued moving forward, ahead was a special light only she could see, promising her a new landscape lying before her.





Asuna Elmarit already knew that the mobile suit on the other side of the school was a training mobile suit called a GM Canard. It was equipped with anti-tipping mechanisms and a full compliment of sensors to measure the pilots athletic abilities. This mobile suit was primarily used for early-stage training, such as learning the basics of walking. If things had gone well, Asuna would have been piloting a Canard by now. But things turned out differently, and now she was running alone on the school grounds.

The Canard shook the ground with its every step and the wind blew. The aluminum weather vein, rusted from exposure, spun around with a clatter while a military flag from the same tall pole swayed gently. The design depicted on the flag was a ship's anchor with a star in front of it, which was the emblem of the Earth Federation military. Asuna's home country fought the army that bore that very flag, and lost. Asuna, alone, looked up to the flag.

"Why am in a place like this?"

She murmured as she stopped in front of the pole. When she touched the pole, a cool and crisp sensation radiated through her palm. Asuna looked at her reflection, with the weather vein acting like a mirror reflecting the image of her in the wetsuit-like athletic gear back at her. Embroidered on the small of her chest was the school emblem, a design depicting a sword and some birds. Asuna gently touched the emblem embroidered onto her clothes.

Her time in the colonies wasn't fun at all. In fact, it seemed like she had more painful memories than happy ones. It wasn't because they were at war, but because Asuna's father had high expectations of her and her talent. Her mother respected her father as an academic, so much so that it got to the point where she grew insensitive to her own daughter's feelings. Between the two of them, their daily life was far from the image of a happy and warm family.

If there was no joy or comfort at home, how was Asuna going to find these things at school? You could say it was the times that helped her avoid getting bullied. Wartime was a different story, as bullying was very present there, but the targets of it were different than those who were bullied during peace time. A very notable example of this was one girl in Asuna's class, who's father was a member of the anti-war movement and as a result she was subjected to insidious bullying by her classmates. Asuna never took part in bullying her, but she never made any effort to defend her either. She knew doing either would have drawn attention to her, when her goal was to be as inconspicuous as possible.

All she wanted was to be happy and comfortable with where she was in school. Asuna's behavior meant she was never the subject of any bullying herself, but it also meant she never had any friends to keep her company during break time or after school with anything more than trivial conversations. Asuna built a wall around herself, in return the people around Asuna built walls around her. 

Though thinking about this, Asuna knew she had changed since she came to Montreal. She had made a friend in Emiru and was able to set small attainable goals for herself in her every day life. Rather than let her poor grades hold everyone back, she wanted to learn logistical skills, so that way she could still be use of to everyone by providing support from the rear. Asuna herself thought that this was a strong sign of her own personal growth.

Yahagi Franziback had banned Asuna from participating in training. His words echoed in Asuna's mind "Someone who can't even grasp the basics of mobile suit combat has no need for further training!" Sure, Asuna could see what he meant and even agreed with it, she didn't know why it was just her. So she started her own training, and thought this was the best way forward, but first she had to catch up with everyone. Asuna was able to forgive her uselessness when she got here, but now she didn't want to be the same useless person she was before. 

Asuna had trained herself with a strong determination, and now here she was looking up at a GM Canard. In a way, she had to climb up to that level, that height. She couldn't just look at everyone from below, she had to spend time with them looking from the same perspective. Or so she thought.

Suddenly her eyes seemed to meet the Canard's. She had a vague recollection of where the main camera was and grew a vague suspicion that she was being watched. "Who was on board?" Asuna asked herself in her mind. Of course there was no answer, and she continued to star up at the Canard in silence. The Canard turned its back to Asuna and disappeared into the training grounds in the forest. It must have taken less than fifteen seconds, but still, Asuna felt a strange sense of satisfaction. The Canard was definitely waiting for her, or her at least that's how it felt to Asuna as she stood there on the school grounds.





When the training was done, the GM Canard was placed in front of the school to dissipate heat after its extensive operating time. The sun was setting and a blanket of stars twinkling from the east began taking its place in the sky. Chandel, who was making fine adjustments to the omni-directional monitor of the mobile suit, stopped what he was doing and switched it to live feed mode. The image, which had not been composited with computer graphics, was currently misaligned and distorted in places. Despite this, Chandel saw the beauty that could only be achieved through live action.

The maintenance crew scurried along busily like ants at the Canard's feet. There was a mountain of maintenance work to be done in the storage, and the space was too cramped for them to do it there.

"Chandel, is there any change to the hydraulic pressure gauge for the cylinder in the right arm?"
Detailed instructions one after the other echoed form the speaker and throughout the cockpit. He responded to the requests by tapping the sole of the Canard. When he looked up he saw the white walls of the Montreal campus dyed in the burning crimson glow of the sunset contrasting the purple sky. There was a certain divine mysticism to it that reminded him of the beauty of all the mosques in his home town of Dhaka.

"This is the true face of École..."

"École?"

Chandel heard what he said echoed back to him, and he directed his gaze down to the foot of the mobile suit. He didn't need to enlarge the image to tell who it was that had taken the work crew's intercom, the voice alone was enough to tell him who was looking up at the cockpit.

"Elysia, you should stop this."

"It's fine, you were just admiring the view, right?"

"You're getting in the way of the other crew members."

"Then put me up there with you."

When Chandel heard Elysia's selfish words he held his head in hands. He knew she wasn't saying this because she was childish and spoiled, she wasn't the kind of girl who enjoyed making adults feel uncomfortable. If he had to guess, she might be making herself appear intentionally vulnerable in front of someone she had known since childhood. No, that couldn't be it... Even if she was cunning and calculated, she still felt embarrassment like anyone else. Chandel operated the console and lowered the wires.

"Check in with instructor Yahagi, if he says it's okay, then you can come up"
Chandel spoke bluntly into the microphone. Boarding advanced equipment like a mobile suit without permission was grounds for severe punishment. Furthermore, he thought there was no way that a girl like Elysia with a spotless record would do something problematic like boarding a GM Canard while it was under maintenance. Chandel could imagine the frustrated look on her face and the sigh she'd light out, which gave him a half-hearted smirk. 

Unfortunately, Chandel's bliss was only fleeting. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see the wires sliding up. It wasn't difficult to imagine what kind of weight was at the end of those taut wires. Oh dear... Chandel stepped out of the cockpit and leaned over to look at the end of the wire.

"Are you kidding me?"

He muttered in disgust when he saw Elysia at the end of the wire. She was trying desperately to get the wire out of his reach as she clenched her lips. She tried to stay calm as she looked at Chandel, her cheeks twitching slightly.

"I only came because I was told to."
As Elysia spoke she removed her left foot from the wire foothold and opened the cockpit hatch. She tried to step forward, but as she did, her center of gravity shifted and she started spinning around.

"Huh?"

"Idiot! Use your hands first! Grab the hook on the ceiling!"

"I know that!"

He clung to the wire and Elysia extended her right hand, desperately trying to grab the hook in front of her.

"Okay, just pull your leg out of the foothold and... that's it."

Elysia's body suddenly tumbled into the cockpit, but Chandel caught her.

"Are you stupid!? That was so reckless!"

"I could come in, there's nothing wrong with that."
Elysia stated casually.
"Besides, I can't imagine you'd tell the instructor Chandel, that'd be the worst thing you possibly could do to me."

"You idiot! I have a duty to report these things."

"But in your mind that's also a case of telling tales isn't it?"
Elysia said and then turned her back on him. Whatever he or the crew would say, she'd say something different. Maybe it was because growing up she was always around adults rather than kids her age, but she has been really good with words ever since she was a child. Thinking this with a bitter expression on his face, Chandel looked past Elysia to the same direction she was, and saw that the sun had now disappeared behind the forest.

"It's too bad I missed the sunset, but the breeze feels nice."

Elysia let her long hair flutter in the wind. Against the sky, which had changed to a deeper color than it was before, Elysia's hair showed a subtle gradation. Her pale neck and rounded earlobes were clearly visible, and it was an Elysia different than the one Chandel had known.

"You said "École" earlier, is that the name of this school building?"
Elysia asked, with her back turned to Chandel and her eyes fixed on the pure white walls of the Montreal campus.
"I know it's French, but why is that building called "École"?"

The question brought Chandel back to reality and he let out a deep sigh to release the venom building up inside him. Upon hearing the sigh, Elysia turned around to look at him, assuming he was making fun of her again or belittling her. Chandel didn't even try to clear up the misunderstanding, and instead fixed his gaze past Elysia into the forests of Quebec. He then began to quietly speak.

"It's not the name of the building, it's a secret slang term for the school used by some in the military."

"Like a hidden language?"
Elysia repeated her question, but Chandel continued without paying any attention, shutting the microphone off in that moment.

"Did you know? Back in the old calendar era, Quebec used to be a French colony. Long before we took to space, and the greater powers running the world cared for nothing but expanding their territories. People call this place "École" because of that history. Not in a good way of course."

"The greater powers running the world are still trying to expand their territory... Seems like nothing's changed since then."
Elysia muttered softly. Chandel had similar thoughts himself.

The reasons for starting a war haven't really changed much over the years. The reasons vary from national pride, to economic development, to military matters, but in the end conflicts most often arise from people pursuing their own interests. These people in question are usually cunning and have already calculated the gains and losses before beginning another one.

"Is Nocton Ceramics part of the army?"
Elysia asked with a straight face. What a sharp girl, Chandel thought. Elysia's family owned Nocton ceramics and made a fortune during the last war. Elysia's father worked hard to expand their business even further during the war, even dipping his hands into the production of mobile suits and creating the one he and Elysia were in right now. He truly was the kind of a man who profited from war. So Chandel gave her question a simple answer.

"Yeah... I guess."
He didn't think anything more was necessary. The answer lied in the GM Canard itself that the two were inside.
"It's none of your concern anyways."

His hand tapped the console while the bundle of cables was still connected.

"Look Elysia"
Chandel said, nudging her and pointing to something. The image on the zoomed in subwindow showed a video of a clumsy girl running and doing her daily routine alone, wearing the school's athletic equipment and sports boots. Her brown hair that curled outwards in the bottom and could be seen swaying and bouncing with each step.

"That's it!"

"That's the video you were watching right? All the data's still here."
Elysia's voice had a slight hint of anger as she stared at the image in the sub window. Chandel knew the name of the girl in the video was Asuna Elmarit, it was Elysia he heard call her that.

"No matter what outsiders may think, the only thing that matters here is how hard you work. I think she understands that better than anyone."
Chandel then paused and remained silent, not bothering to enlarge the image. Elysia was also silently watching the video of Asuna, until she suddenly stopped and looked up, as if she knew Elysia and the others were watching. Elysia and Chandel looked back at Asuna's gaze intently.

"The same thing happened to me too back then... around the same time"
Elysia said quietly.
"Back when we were completely absorbed in chasing my brother. I never thought of it as anything that required effort. if you have a clear goal, you'll never feel any pain or exhaustion. Asuna is... different."

"That's right" Chandel said "It's just as Elysia says."

Elysia repeated the words and stopped the video of Asuna. Chandel seemed to be trembling violently, this was probably due to the vibrations of the linear seat. Elysia was a strong girl, Chandel knew that better than anyone, but he had determined that if Elysia ever became discouraged, he would be there to support her. He would do this in place of his dearest friend, who was no longer with them. 




On the way back to the dormitory, Elysia saw a strange sight. A boy with curly hair was confronting Shin in the almost empty washroom in the back of the school building. The sun had set, it was the time for the students to be back at their dorms and Elysia was no exception. Although there would be no penalty, she wouldn't be able to bathe before curfew. She wondered what they were doing at this time.

The reason why Elysia was interested in the goings on of other people was because she recognized the boy confronting Shin, it was a boy with light wavy and curly hair named Kelly Signit. He was the reason Shin got beaten by Yahagi. Elysia eavesdropped quietly from behind the corner of the hallway. She could hear Kelly's voice.

"I don't want to owe you anything."

"Who cares if you owe me anything?"

"That's not good for me!"

Kelly's words were tinged with irritation, as it appeared he didn't want to be protected by Shin. If that was the case why didn't he come forward then and there when Yahagi asked? It could be dismissed as timidity, but to Elysia it was the very definition of cowardice. She had begun to lose interest in the conversation. Then she heard the sounds of fists against flesh, with the violent sounds of blows being exchanged echoing mercilessly as Elysia turned her back to leave. It made her feel uncomfortable.

"I'm sure Shin hit him, or that he made Shin hit him."

It was a mentality that Elysia couldn't understand, it made her feel uncomfortable.

"You get me hit, I get you hit... That's all you need to satisfy yourself. You're not instructor Yahagi after all..."
Elysia whispered to herself softly. She walked back to her room and wiped away the sweat from her training with a damp towel.


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