76: Fear

*Knock Knock*

The sound of someone knocking on the door echoed in Ichika's room, who was lying on his bed, thinking about what had happened after the fight.

"Seriously, you should understand that I don't want to talk to anyone..." - Ichika muttered with a frown, only to start getting annoyed when he heard how the person outside the door kept knocking repeatedly - "I'm coming!"

Ichika quickly opened the door, only to see two familiar people - "What are you guys doing here?"

"I told you I was in emo mode" - Houki snorted as she folded her arms.

"What do you want..." - Ichika muttered with a frown.

"I was just coming to see your shitty expression" - replied Ichika with honesty and a huge smile - "And I have to admit that it's worse than I thought..."

"If you just came to annoy me, you'd better leave" - snorted Ichika while his eyebrow slightly trembled - "Seriously, I'm not in the mood for jokes, not when..."

"I guess I was right" - said Cloud as he folded his arms - "The truth hurts you."

"What a Truth? That I almost became an assassin?!" - Ichika exclaimed angrily as he saw his hands shaking - "I.... Ugh..."

"Ok, enough, it's time to train" - said Cloud as he shook his head - "Your tantrum has gone on too long..."

"What do you know!" - Ichika exclaimed as he grabbed his head - "Oh, I see, you've already killed someone, that's why you don't understand how I feel! Well, I'm not like you, I'm a normal person, I'm not a monster!"

Cloud was silent as his eyebrow twitched slightly.

"Ichika..." - Houki growled angrily.

"Did I say something wrong?" - Ichika asked with a frown - "He's killed hundreds of people, it's obvious."

"You're right, I've killed dozens of people" - said Cloud as he grabbed the boy by the neck and lifted him up to bring him up to his eye level - "My hands are stained with blood..."

Ichika trembled slightly as he felt his breathing stop.

"Cloud..." - Houki muttered regretfully.

"Do you think that was what I wished for? Do you really think I wanted to kill all those people?" - Cloud asked as he threw the black-haired boy against the wall, causing him to let out a groan of pain - "You know what, I've had enough, I just came to check on you, but seeing what a son of a bitch you are I'm not going to worry about you anymore, you can sink in your misery all you want, Ichika Orimura, but don't come asking me for help..."

With that said, Cloud turned around and walked towards the training room to release some steam.

Houki let out a sigh before shooting an annoyed glare at his childhood friend - "You did it, Ichika..."

"Don't continue" - Ichika growled as he shot her an annoyed glare - "Go after him and don't bother me..."

Houki fell silent before walking off behind Cloud, leaving the black-haired young man alone.

"Did I say something I shouldn't have?" - Ichika asked as he let out a long sigh.

"Of course you did, Ichika" - said Chifuyu as she appeared in his room - "Seriously, it wasn't your best idea to take it out on your friends, just because you don't know what to do."

Ichika was silent as he felt how he was about to explode, however, he calmed down quickly because he knew he couldn't do anything against his older sister, more so when it was obvious that she was right.

"I... I'm an idiot..." - Ichika muttered regretfully.

"And a high level one at that, though I already knew that" - Chifuyu replied as she looked at her younger brother - "Now what you have to ask yourself, is what you'll do from now on."

"What is it that I can do?" - Ichika repeated, confused with his situation - "Train so that I won't have to go through this again..."

"But in the future you will have to kill, you're a pilot and that's something you all will do at least once in your lives" - said Chifuyu while shaking her head.

"Then I will be ready when that time comes, but for now, I don't want to do it..." - Ichika muttered as he lowered his head.

Chifuyu smiled slightly when she heard this, though her expression changed when she felt her cell phone start ringing, and honestly, every time this happened, it was bad news - "Go apologize to your friends, maybe you can get things back to normal."

"Ok" - Ichika murmured before nodding - "I'm going right away."

"I hope this isn't something coming to bite me in the ass, because I'm not in the mood for jokes" - muttered Chifuyu as she frowned and answered the call she was receiving, only to narrow her eyes when she heard the message that they had detected a German submarine entering Japanese territory - "God, give me patience because I feel like I'm about to get a huge headache..."

* * * * *

"Where am I?" - Cecilia murmured as she slowly opened her eyes.

"Thank god you woke up soon, Alcott-san" - Maya said as she let out a sigh of relief - "Do you feel any discomfort?"

"Yamada sensei?" - Cecilia said as she slowly remembered what had happened, only to let out a small cry of terror.

"Calm down, everything is fine" - Maya said as she walked to the girl and stroked her hair - "The battle is over."

"Where am I?" - Cecilia asked again as she looked around - "In the infirmary?"

"Yes, don't you remember Cloud came to drop you off?" - Maya asked as she raised an eyebrow.

"Huh?" - Cecilia let out a small groan of surprise as she tried to remember, only to see the memories of the words Cloud had said to her before he left come back to replay in her head - "Right, Cloud-san came to comfort me after the battle."

"It's good to hear that your cognitive abilities are in perfect condition" - smiled Maya as she started to run a few more tests on her to make sure there was nothing wrong with the psyche of the girl from England - "Back to your question, yes, you're in the infirmary, your body is in perfect condition, and you don't seem to be suffering a panic attack, although we don't know what kind of reaction you'll have after seeing Orimura-kun..."

Cecilia was silent before letting out a long sigh, after all, she was nervous after hearing the name of the boy who almost killed her if he hadn't been stopped thanks to Cloud's intervention.

"Relax, I promise I'll try to help you as much as I can" - Maya said with a small smile as she tried to cheer up the girl from England.

* * * * *

"This is interesting... I didn't think we would find the test subject so soon" - said a feminine and seductive voice while letting out a small laugh - "Don't you think so too, my little darling?"

"You're right, although it's a bit worrisome that he's at the [IS] academy" - growled a second female voice, only much more irascible than the first - "Though at the same time this is good, our spies will inform us about [Subject R]'s every move."

"And what about the information about the biometal?" - asked a third voice, only this one was much quieter - "That project was important for us because with it, we could improve our [IS]..."

"Lost" - answered the second woman with irritation - "There is no result after investigating the old facilities where the test subject had been locked up, it is possible that a hacker managed to get this [cursed treasure]..."

"Does this change our plans at all?" - asked a youthful voice with a cold tone.

"Not in the least, it just means that we now have two targets instead of one" - replied the first woman, who seemed to be the leader of this group - "I want you to start the preparations..."

"Are we going to move so soon?" - asked the third woman with slight surprise.

"Yes, we need to retrieve the [Subject R]." - Replied the first woman firmly.

"Is he that important to our group, leader?" - asked the fourth girl, the one who was the youngest in the group - "I thought our main target was Ichika and Chifuyu Orimura?"

"Well, that boy is important to me" - replied the leader of the group, only to earn the silence of her companions, and the jealousy of another - "Oh, don't get me wrong, I've known that young man for a long time before I created this small and select group..."

"You know him?" - repeated the third woman with a tone full of intrigue - "How?"

"This project was created by my father, and I was there when they got this young man's [approval] to join the project" - replied the leader of the group with a tone full of hate and nostalgia - "Oh, poor young man who had the bad luck to fall into the hands of the government..."

"Wait, that doesn't make sense" - said the fourth girl with a frown - "You're not from Japan."

"And who said that only Japan was involved in this project?" - asked the leader with a huge smile - "There are other nations that were interested in joining the project to bring the genders back into balance..."

The fourth girl simply kept silent because honestly she wasn't sure if this was true or not, after all, she hadn't been part of the [Raiden project].