Chapter 9: Tournament Travails

A few hours of unhelpful espionage later, Church found himself walking towards the infirmary. Having followed the advice of Cerberus, he had spent the time between then and now digging through any information that could be accessed from local points around the Academy. Unfortunately, nothing of import had been revealed from that avenue of investigation, not that Church or Cerberus were surprised. The idea of finding sensitive data on Akatsubaki in easily accessible networks had been a long shot at best, but the attempt had hardly hurt them in any way.

Besides, even if the likelihood of finding valuable information had been exceedingly low, the fact that they were doing something potentially conducive had appeased Cerberus, who likely would have berated Church for wasting time otherwise. When everything was said and done, Church was moderately more knowledgeable on a bunch of things that didn't matter at all, and he had only sacrificed a few hours of his life. Now, he was free to meet up with Rin at the infirmary, something he was happy about for a variety of reasons.

Naturally, the idea of spending a day with a cute girl he was kind of friendly with put a smile on his face, even if Rin had been very clear about the fact that it wasn't a date. On the other hand, he was actually pretty excited to watch a competition of this nature. Church had fought against simulations of Infinite Stratos units before, but they were just that: simulations. Holographic projections of how a computer assumed the machines and their pilots would act. It just wasn't the same as seeing the actual units in action.

He was interested in all of this for practical reasons, naturally: gathering data was his primary reason for being here, and firsthand recordings and analysis of the I.S. in combat certainly fell within that category. But he also liked the idea of giant aerial mechs duking it out from a purely superficial standpoint. Of course, there was some distant third consideration, that being the possibility that this data would come in handy if he had to really fight to the death with anyone here, but that was a hopefully irrelevant and farfetched possibility.

With most of the student body already at or heading to the arena for the tournament, Church was able to make his way through the halls mostly unmolested. He still got looks from some stragglers, but Tatenashi had apparently done a good job of putting the fear of God into the other students at some point: most of them looked worried about what would happen if they actually approached him or spoke to him.

Church wasn't necessarily happy to have that notion tied to his identity, but on the other hand, it would probably be for the best in the long run. He didn't have time to offer his attention and friendship to the no doubt very high number of girls here who would have wanted it. He needed to zero in on a small number of people, preferably ones who were close to Shinonono, for obvious reasons.

Which of course, led him to this moment, opening the door to the infirmary to see if Rin was ready to go. In hindsight, he probably should have knocked, but it wasn't like anything untoward was going on in the room.

Rin was sitting on the edge of her cot, with the nurse tightening the sling her broken arm was in. Presumably, they were at the end of a physical checkup on Rin's status. Frankly, Church wanted to comment about how surprised he was to actually find the nurse there for once, but decided against it for the sake of politeness. As Rin and the nurse glanced at the door to identify him, he chose to focus on the person he actually cared about.

"I'd say you look better, but really, you look pretty much the same that you did yesterday."

The brunette offered him a mildly irritable frown in response. "What, were you expecting a miracle overnight?"

"Considering how well off you are mere days after your horrific accident, it wouldn't be too farfetched for you to get a second or even third miracle, would it?"

"Hey, just because I lived doesn't mean I'm in an enviable position, you know?"

Ignoring their banter and focusing on her job, the nurse seemingly finished whatever assessment she was making and stepped away from Rin's arm. "You're good to go for now, Huang. Just don't let anyone jostle your arm out there and you should be fine."

Church chimed in, since the two of them were verbally sparring to some extent. "Don't worry, I'll shield her bad side with my life."

Rising from the cot, Rin stepped towards him, one free arm on her hip. "I don't have a bad side. Every angle is equally amazing. One side is just undergoing renovations, that's all. Now come on, we're going to miss the beginning of the first match if we don't move it."

His female companion gave the nurse a parting wave before ushering Church out of the room and taking the lead down the hall. Apparently she really was in a rush, though Church could understand why: as a pilot who was supposed to be participating in this competition, she was probably keen to learn how skilled all of her enemies were. Maybe that was why she grumbled along the way.

"Hard to really be excited when I just have to sit around and watch, honestly..."

With Rin moving at a mild jog, Church had no choice but to match her pace, not that it was a problem for him. "Look at it this way: you'll probably gain a lot of insight into everyone's strengths and weaknesses, since you'll have an outsider's point of view the whole time. It's easy to lose objective perspective when you're actually participating."

As best as Church could tell, Rin didn't seem particularly convinced. "If you say so."

With the power of elevators, it didn't take long for the duo to reach the ground floor, especially considering that they weren't that high up to begin with. Once they actually got out of the tower itself, Rin kicked her pace up to brisk jog that really prevented them from talking with ease. Church didn't really mind, since he figured there would be plenty of time for talking when they were at the stadium.

On the other hand, he actually found it a little odd, having to jog somewhere. By becoming the operator of the Exeter suit, he'd mostly been free to fly anywhere if a mildly long distance was in question. Felt kind of weird having to be so pedestrian as relying on jogging when in a hurry.

Expansive as the Academy's grounds were, Church and Rin made it to the stadium in just a few minutes. There were some other students milling into the large dome building, but it was obvious that most of the student body had already made it inside. Well, that would make getting in easier, though Church imagined finding a seat might be a different problem altogether.

The duo was forced to go stand in a brief line in order to go through a security check that amounted to little more than walking through some sort of scanner. Rin complained about how unnecessary it was, but Church frankly found it hard to believe that this was the extent of the security measures around here. It was true that the I.S. Academy had rarely been subjected to a catastrophic attack, but the Silver Gospel incident had been an extension of an attack on this place. One would think they would step up security at one of the most important institutions in the whole world after such a fiasco.

Granted, maybe the existence of several dozen pilots with ownership of the world's most powerful weapons was security enough in itself. Either way, the scanner Church had to go through didn't detect the chip that currently housed Cerberus and the digitized Exeter suit, or at least, they didn't address it if it was detected. Soon enough, Rin was leading him up into the stands, deflecting some curious questions and glances from her fellow students as she did so. Church heard someone ask about whether or not she was on a date, but he pretended not to. The venomous glare Rin offered that girl made it obvious that doing so was the right choice.

Surprisingly, there was plenty of space to choose from in the stadium, which Church hadn't been expecting. He knew it was a pretty large stadium, but he hadn't expected only about half of it to be needed for the whole student body, assuming that the whole student body was here. Maybe this was a case of building more than was needed just because you had the budget to do so. One way or another, Rin picked a somewhat secluded part of the stands that was higher up. The nearest fellow audience members were at least a dozen feet away, which Church felt the need to comment on.

"Is there something special about this spot or do you just not like any of your classmates?"

Rin gave him a look that expressed her lack of amusement with that line of questioning. Maybe he was teasing her a little too frequently, considering their very fresh relationship.

"I just don't want to be distracted. I'm here to watch the fights, after all."

"You don't want to be distracted, but you invited me to watch with you?"

This time, the girl have him a more quizzical look. "You're not going to spend the whole tournament blathering about things that aren't even related to it, right?"

"Well, no..."

"Good. I'm not saying I don't want any company, I just don't want to listen to some mindless rambling about shoes while the fighting is going on."

Church didn't know what to say to that, but ultimately, he didn't have to say anything, since a voice he recognized as Yamada's came out over various speakers at that moment.

"Good afternoon, everyone! Today's tournament is of the individual division variety, and will affect skill rankings for pilots with personal I.S.! For the first match, it's Charlotte Dunois, high B-Class Representative Candidate for France, versus Cecilia Alcott, A-Class Representative Candidate for the United Kingdom! Please give them your support!"

Church ignored the clapping and cheering from throughout the stadium to pose a question to Rin, since something said in that announcement surprised him. "Dunois is only a B-Class pilot? That doesn't sound right."

Before Rin even answered him, Cerberus accosted Church in his mind.

Operator, this was information clearly available in the dossiers you read before coming here. Have you forgotten this already?

There was a lot of information to take in about a lot of people, alright?

Naturally oblivious to this exchange, Rin answered the question Church had posed to him, though she kept her emerald gaze on the orange and blue I.S. units that had taken to the skies, separated from the audience by an energy shield.

"It's mostly 'cuz of her I.S., I think. It's a modded Gen Two platform, not a Gen Three like the rest of us or whatever the hell Houki has. Her modifications allow it to fight relatively evenly with us, but it's still just a modification of an older frame. It suffers from a lot of drawbacks that no amount of customization is going to make up for."

Church turned his attention to the fighting above as he took all that in. While he had plenty of information on the standard Rafael Revive II, there wasn't much on the one Charlotte operated, which wasn't much of a surprise since her model was personally modified. The fight had just started, but it was already going as one might expect: Cecilia was constantly reversing, trying to keep her enemy at range where they were least dangerous and she was most effective. Charlotte was trying to close the distance, but her I.S. lacked the raw speed advantage needed to do it, especially since she often had to move sideways to avoid her opponent's shots.

He had to wonder why Charlotte chose to fly a Gen Two I.S. when most of the world had moved on to Three. He knew the Rafael Revive was the flagship design of the Dunois company, but that didn't seem like a good enough reason. Was the Dunois company just not finished designing a Gen Three? If so, they were sure dragging their feet... but then again, maybe that had nothing to do with it at all. Maybe he'd ask Charlotte about it later, provided they were friendly enough to allow that. Not that he could envision her as anything other than friendly...

With both the laser rifle and the BITS of Blue Tears, it was obvious pretty quickly that Charlotte wasn't going to be able to get close to her opponent, which prompted the French blonde to manifest a sniper rifle of her own to trade long range shots with the enemy. This allowed an interesting comparison to be made for the audience: projectiles versus energy weapons.

Energy weapons had practically been nonexistent prior to Infinite Stratos, so many of the frames made use of them. In fact, it was a true rarity to see conventional projectile weapons like the ones Charlotte employed. There was a decent enough reason for that: projectiles didn't travel as fast as energy based weapons, and they weren't as accurate. They also required more hits to drain an I.S. shield. On the other hand, projectile weapons often had a much higher rate of fire. Sometimes, throwing more lead around was preferable to accurate, single shots.

Such was the dichotomy between the two combatants right now. Charlotte's sniper rifle had a higher rate of fire than Cecilia's, but Cecilia's had much better precision and accuracy. It also altered the firing patterns both of them used: Cecilia patiently waited for ideal moments to fire, knowing that her faster, more accurate shots would be difficult to evade in certain situations. Charlotte, on the other hand, would fire at Cecilia, but also use her superior rate of fire to shoot at the places she predicted Cecilia would dodge to.

Frankly, Church found the latter more impressive. But then again, Charlotte probably wouldn't have had to resort to tactics such as that if she had other options. Besides, while the blonde did manage to land a few shots like this, Cecilia was certainly hitting her a lot more. It was markedly more difficult to try and predict and lead a target as opposed to pulling the trigger at a time when the enemy couldn't dodge.

Rin watched the fight with one slender leg over the other, though she leaned towards Church so he could hear her even over the cacophony of the crowd and the gunfire.

"See, this is what I mean. Charlotte's I.S. is just lacking in many ways compared to Gen Three armaments. She doesn't have any sort of special ability other than having a lot of weapons, but none of them are particularly devastating or game changing. The rest of us all have some weapon that can dictate an entire fight, like Cecilia's rifle and her BITS... I guess it actually proves how good a pilot Charlotte is that she holds her own with a disadvantage like that."

Church was honestly a little surprised to see this analytical side of Rin, but maybe it should have been expected, since she was a pilot too. It made sense that this would be the thing she considered in such a light. Not that it was a bad thing. He kind of liked being able to talk shop with her.

"Maybe, but this could also just be a product of the forced scenario. Seems to me like her I.S. is designed to have an answer for everything, even if it's not the most effective answer one could have. More of a team-based design, than a duelist. Case in point, check that out."

Clearly aware that an extended shooting match against Cecilia of all people wasn't going to end in her favor, Charlotte had switched up her weaponry to an assault rifle in one hand and a shotgun in another. With these two weapons, she was actively pursuing Cecilia's BITS in an effort to destroy them. Without those, Cecilia's pressuring abilities would be drastically reduced, increasing Charlotte's odds of getting in close, where she had an advantage.

In a few moments, the blonde had run down and destroyed a BIT with a very tight blast from her shotgun. Now she was pursuing another, while deftly evading Cecilia's rifle shots as best she could. Church commented on the situation because he found it odd.

"It's so weird seeing a shotgun in air to air combat like this. Although, I can see why that's useful. Maybe she could upgrade to flak cannons or something, that would be pretty scary."

Rin nodded as she watched two missiles blast forward from Cecilia's I.S. "Yeah, that would probably help a lot in this kind of situation, wouldn't it? Then she wouldn't have to really fire all that accurately to do damage. I should recommend that next time we talk."

Church cocked an eyebrow at her. "Would you really help a potential opponent like that? She'd use them against you too, you know."

"Of course I'd help her improve her I.S. You never know when something crazy like the Gospel comes up again, and someone could die. We all need to be the best we can be for stuff like that. Besides, I could totally take her even if she had a weapon like that."

Church smiled at the vain smirk that crossed his companion's face, but it didn't distract him from the fight above. Charlotte blasted both the incoming missiles with her guns, but through the smoke, another laser from Cecilia lanced through the sky and hit her opponent's I.S. dead center. Apparently, this final shot was all that was needed to fully deplete Charlotte's shields, as made obvious by an airhorn and Yamada's voice over the speakers again.

"Match over! Cecilia Alcott wins!"

As the two airborne I.S. came down to the ground, Rin shook her head in dismay. "You know, I honestly feel kind of bad for Charlotte. Losing to Cecilia of all people is rough."

Based on the tone of her voice, Church could still that his companion was just mocking Cecilia for fun. Apparently the two of them did that to each other a lot.

"Well, in one on one fights like this, the match-up can make or break it. Without some sort of efficient counter to Cecilia's range advantage, you'd be hard-pressed to pull out a win in a one on one combat. You know, oddly enough, you would probably be the easiest fight for Charlotte..."

Rin was leveling a glare at him before he even finished saying that. "And just what the hell is that supposed to mean?"

"I mean, I don't know everyone's machines as well as any of you do, but your Shen Long is a medium to close range combat type, right? Compared to everyone else, that would be the most manageable for her. Alcott has a massive range advantage, Bodewig can tank any direct attack, which would make it almost impossible for Dunois to deal damage in a one on one fight, and Shinonono, well... I barely know anything about it, but even based on the vague reports from the Gospel incident, her I.S. seems overpowered for anyone. Oh, I guess she'd be pretty advantaged in a fight against Orimura though."

His Chinese companion didn't seem entirely pleased with his assessment, though she didn't actually disagree with it. "You are seriously underestimating Shen Long's Dragon Cannons. They shoot invisible concussion rounds, you know? Combine that with its melee abilities and I'm one of the best duelists of the bunch! Houki doesn't count, with her bullshit hacker I.S.!"

Church shook his head, wondering if he should tell Rin that Chifuyu had apparently considered her the best match for Houki in a one on one fight. Maybe it would be best to avoid stroking her ego right now. Speaking of which, he wondered how Chifuyu had ultimately decided on the match ups here. Had she decided to randomize it, in the end?

The next match up, Laura Bodewig versus Kanzashi Sarashiki, seemed to support that notion. Considering that it wasn't a government approved armament, there wasn't really that much detail on Kanzashi's Uchigane Nishiki, but the name was all the information one needed: it was a customized Uchigane, which was a Generation Two platform, and a pretty basic one at that. If the matches had actually been planned out instead of randomized, wouldn't it have made sense for the two Generation Two I.S. to fight each other?

A comment from Rin made it clear how she felt about the situation, even though it was curt. "Well, this probably isn't going to be good."

"For Bodewig or Sarashiki?"

The brunette simply cocked an eyebrow at him, clearly feeling that clarification wasn't needed. Frankly, Church agreed, even though he had asked in the first place. He had barely spoken to Kanzashi, but he felt kind of bad for expecting a curb stomp battle, and not in her favor. It was just that, to the best of his knowledge, Laura was an extremely formidable opponent: she was ranked in the high A-Class, and her Schwarzer Regen was a downright menace, possessing exceptionally high defensive power, one of the strongest ranged weapons available on an I.S., and versatile melee weapons, all in the hands of an expert.

Church didn't know how good Kanzashi was or what her Uchigane Nishiki could do, but if he was forced to bet anything of value on the outcome of this fight, he would have put it on Laura without a second thought. Schwarzer Regen's only real weaknesses were below average mobility and the directional nature of it's Active Inertial Canceller, but those disadvantages didn't mean much in a one on one fight. Laura was almost invincible in any direction of her choosing, so the only option for a combatant that had to fight her alone was to somehow attack from multiple directions at once. Most I.S. weren't equipped to do that. Cecilia and her BITS may have actually been the worst match up for Laura, but that wasn't the situation, now was it?

As soon as the match started, Kanzashi booked it in reverse while blasting energy beams from particle cannons on her Uchigane. Laura didn't move an inch, short of raising one arm to activate her AIC. The energy field that emanated from her gauntlet completely negated the incoming attacks.

As Church watched the silver haired girl react so calmly and unflinchingly, he tacked on another descriptor to her identity. She had mad boss bitch vibes, that one. He'd been kind of scared of her before, but he had to admit, the nonchalant badassery was kind of hot.

With no reason to dawdle around, the German launched her I.S. forward while keeping her AIC up, keeping her safe from all the particle beams coming her way. To the best of Church's knowledge, the AIC required significant focus to use, but he supposed it didn't take much focus to move forward. Of course, she had to drop the shield to manifest the energy blades on the Schwarzer Regen's arms when she got close, but she only had to eat one particle shot with how much distance was left, and that was a small sacrifice for her I.S.

Kanzashi was quick to summon a melee weapon of her own, what appeared to be a naginata with an energy blade, but it became apparent quite quickly that it wasn't going to help her much. There were a number of things not in her favor here. For one, Laura was already very close, and a naginata was a polearm, meaning it was hard to get the dangerous stabby part to hit someone that was right up in your face. Second, Laura had two blades, and Kanzashi only had one. And finally, there was a very obvious difference in skill as far as close quarters combat was concerned. No surprise there: Laura had been trained as an elite commando prior to even becoming an I.S. pilot. Kanzashi, on the other hand, was clearly not the type of person that had been practicing martial arts all her life.

The end result was Laura effortlessly landing several hits with her energy blades, costing Kanzashi a fair deal of her shield energy. Quickly realizing that she was going to lose in an extended conflict of this nature, Kanzashi rocketed into the air to try and escape when an opening presented itself. However, she didn't make it very far before Laura had caught her Uchigane Nishiki around the leg with several energy whips from her arms. With its legs dug into the ground and thrusters moving in reverse, Schwarzer Regen was powerful enough to hold its opponent in place. With Kanzashi immobilized, Laura aimed her powerful railgun in the girl's direction.

Foreseeing an immediate loss if she was hit by such a dangerous weapon, Kanzashi did the only thing she could think of, that being the release of several missiles from her machine, which arced towards Laura on the ground below. Clearly, she was expecting Laura to release her so she could dodge the missiles.

Frankly, that's what Church expected the German pilot to do as well. Considering the small size of Exeter and its inherently low armor value, Church was hardwired to avoid damage whenever possible. However, Laura didn't seem to feel the same way about defense. In fact, she didn't make any move to avoid the missiles at all. Instead, she maintained her position and fired her railgun directly into Kanzashi's I.S., as she had originally intended.

The massive shot smashed Kanzashi's I.S., forcing it to crash to the ground even as Schwarzer Regen was consumed by a dozen explosions, leaving the fate of the combatants unclear due to dust and debris. But it didn't take long for that to clear, and the end result was pretty obvious: Laura was still standing, and Kanzashi's Uchigane Nishiki was inoperable on the ground. Yamada's voice over the intercom confirmed it.

"Winner, German Representative Candidate Laura Bodewig!"

Rin leaned over to Church as the two combatants deactivated their I.S. so they could shake hands. "Told ya."

While Church had also been betting on Laura's victory, he hadn't quite expected it to come around so quickly. The skirmish had hardly lasted a minute, and in the end, Laura had not taken a single hit that hadn't been of her own choosing. She'd only taken damage when she deemed it an acceptable trade, being in complete control of the combat the entire time. The look of defeat on Kanzashi's face, even at this distance, spoke volumes about her humiliation.

He could understand why such a total defeat would be demoralizing for any pilot, but Church hoped the girl would take all the factors into consideration before putting herself down. A fight against one of the school's best pilots, and one of the world's most advanced I.S., wasn't exactly a fair representation of her abilities. Besides, Church didn't really believe that one on one duels like this were fair to the pilots and what they could do. Real combat situations added much more flexibility. Cramming two pilots in a relatively small fighting area and telling them to duke it out would almost always put one of them at a big disadvantage.

Either way, Church made a mental note of how dangerous an opponent Laura was. Hopefully any sort of real confrontation would never come to pass, but if it did, it would pay to be wary.

Following the scuffle between Laura and Kanzashi, there were a few matches between people Church didn't recognize, so he didn't pay much attention to them. Rin clearly didn't care much for them either, since she directed more of her attention to her conversation with Church. Most of that conversation ended up being about what she would have done in any of the fights they had seen so far. Church supposed that made sense, since Rin was using all of this as a learning experience of some sort.

Eventually though, the final match rolled around, and it was one that greatly interested both of them. Houki Shinonono versus Ichika Orimura. Needless to say, Church was obligated to pay very close attention to this fight, for Akatsubaki if nothing else. The only real information any outside country had on the thing was what had been seen during the Silver Gospel incident, and there was no way to tell how much of its capabilities had actually been made known at that time. A full schematic readout would be best, but even mere observation was worth the effort.

Rin also seemed particularly focused on the battle, though Church could only guess why. Was she rooting for her crush to win, or was she also observing Akatsubaki, looking for some type of weakness? Maybe it was both.

As for Church, he was initially struck with how different Akatsubaki really was from other I.S. Sure, he'd seen the battle recording from the Silver Gospel, but that had mostly consisted of high-speed action shots that weren't always clear. Now that Akatsubaki was just hovering in the air, preparing to fight, he could get a much better look at it.

It had two pairs of winglike extensions on its back, as opposed to the shoulder pauldrons of most I.S. Unlike nearly every other model out there, it had slim feet, because it lacked the large stabilizers of all its contemporaries. Church assumed the lack of these things meant Akatsubaki simply didn't need them. He couldn't help but wonder just how advanced it was compared to Generation Three I.S., which were already considered cutting edge by the world's standards. He supposed Byakushiki was also of interest, considering its advanced nature, but now that Akatsubaki had blown its specs out of the water, no one really cared about it.

Worry not, Operator. Keep your eyes on the battle and I will be more than capable of analyzing both combatants. I can only see what you see from in here, after all.

Considering how quiet it had been, Church had honestly forgotten about Cerberus for a minute. Frankly, he didn't like the knowledge that the AI literally saw the world through his eyes. Kinda made him a little paranoid about something as simple as looking around. Because a simple acknowledgment wasn't really needed, Church said nothing in response to his partner as the match above them began.

Seeing as how both Akatsubaki and Byakushiki had swords as primary weapons, it came as no surprise when the two machines rushed forward and clashed in midair, with said swords grating against one another. The next few seconds were full of aspects of swordsmanship Church only knew a little bit about: parries, deflections, feints, and all sorts of other things that a layman could identify as impressive, but not really understand the technicalities of. Eventually the two pilots began maneuvering around one another to try and land hits on their opponent, which added an extra level of complexity to the duel that one could never see in traditional swordsmanship.

In fact, as the two machines raced back and forth and spun around each other to strike at perceived weaknesses, it became clear that Houki was personally invested in making this a sword fight. Based on the Silver Gospel footage, Church knew that Akatsubaki had other weapons, including some ranged options, but she didn't seem particularly interested in using them.

The real question was why. Maybe Houki was uncomfortable with ranged weapons: to the best of public knowledge, she was a skilled swordswoman, but had little experience with guns. But then again, maybe she was just more interested in a contest of swordsmanship with Ichika in particular. Maybe she was just trying to prove some sort of point.

If that was the case, then the Japanese girl was certainly succeeding. As the fight wore on, there was no question that Houki was the objectively superior swordsman. She constantly had Ichika on the defensive, and her opponent, though clearly skilled himself, had few opportunities to actually push any sort of advantage. Of course, Houki also had two swords compared to Ichika's one, and Church doubted that was some small disadvantage.

Besides, anytime Houki wanted to move away, she could easily escape any danger. Byakushiki, being a dedicated melee unit, was undeniably fast. But Akatsubaki was faster, in both top speed and acceleration. Houki could disengage at any time she wished, which meant that this whole duel was a formality at best: if she wanted to, Houki could have easily ran circles around Ichika, shooting him from a distance while he was completely helpless. He only had his sword, and he couldn't catch her if she willed it.

So clearly, Houki was trying to test their sword skills or something. Unfortunately, this didn't help Church or his mission very much. With Houki focusing so much on her swords, he wasn't actually gaining any valuable data on what else it could do. Right now, all he was confirming was that Akatsubaki had two swords and was fast. Of particular note was a worrisome little thing the Silver Gospel had recorded during its rampage: what appeared to be Akatsubaki providing energy to another I.S.

It wasn't that normal I.S. couldn't donate some of their power supply to other units, but Akatsubaki had seemingly powered Byakushiki up beyond even its normal parameters, and then had continued to operate at peak efficiency itself. The implications were worrisome: did Akatsubaki really have that much energy? Or was the reality something even worse than that?

Operator, perhaps it would be best to simply ask? You have a companion present who has seen the machine in action and been friends with its owner since it made its debut. Perhaps she knows something?

Church glanced over at Rin, who was still focusing intently on the fight above her. Cerberus had a point: maybe Houki's friends knew a thing or two about Akatsubaki. It was just a matter of wording the question so it didn't seem suspicious.

"Is this really a fair fight? Seems like Orimura has no chance from down here."

Thankfully, Rin wasn't the type who couldn't hear people around her when she was focusing on something else. She managed to answer him even though she didn't take her eyes off the fight.

"Well, he's got a knack for that. Ichika is really good at getting his ass kicked for an entire fight, only to pull a win out of thin air at the last second. I guess he kind of has to operate that way, what with a sword that uses most of his energy for a one-hit kill, but... I don't think that's going to work this time."

Not sure if this line of conversation would go where he wanted it, Church figured he had no choice but to entertain it anyway. Besides, maybe he would learn something useful regardless.

"And why's that?"

"For one, Houki has seen him do it plenty of times, so she should be expecting it. Two, Ichika usually uses his speed to catch people off-guard with it, but Akatsubaki is clearly faster than him. And three... well, even if he did hit Houki, who knows if it would even work."

Seems this could be a beneficial line of questioning after all, Operator.

We'll see in about two seconds.

"Why not? Orimura's ultimate attack takes down I.S. shields, right? And when a shield goes down, the match ends. That should work on Akatsubaki too."

This time, Rin actually turned her attention back to her conversational partner. Maybe she had gleaned all she could from the fight above her at the moment. After all, it was just a sword duel that Houki was dominating, and a few air maneuvers.

"First of all, Ichika's Reiraku whatever the hell he calls it doesn't one-shot shields. It does a whole lot of damage to them. It just turns out that the damage is usually higher than the max shield strength of an I.S., so it tends to be a one-shot. All well and good most of the time, assuming he hits his target. But according to Houki, Akatsubaki can regenerate shield energy."

Church catalogued the knowledge he had learned thus far before continuing the conversation. "Can't we all, though? It's perfectly feasible to divert power from any other system to strengthen the shields."

"No, not like that. Houki said that it's like, literally regeneration out of nowhere. She doesn't have to draw from any other system. Which sounds like bullshit, 'cuz power has to come from somewhere, right? But we've literally seen her do it a couple of times. She's either given power to others at no expense to herself or completely regenerated her own shields in a matter of seconds. It's ridiculous!"

Church frowned as he inwardly agreed with Rin's assessment. This was definitely the worst reality that could have existed. If Akatsubaki just had very high shield strength, that was one thing. That just meant you had to hit it a lot, but when it was down it was down. But if the shield could be regenerated time and time again, it became a matter of attrition. How many times did you have to take it down? Could you even do damage fast enough to take it down, if the shields were regenerating so quickly?

It also meant Houki had an even bigger advantage over everyone else than Church had originally thought. Being faster than everyone was one thing, but this business with her shield was another entirely. Even a far superior pilot would be hard-pressed to win, simply because they would have to do so much work to do so, while Houki had ample chances to secure a victory.

It was a noob with 10,000 health points versus a veteran with 100. The veteran may have been better, but they had to deal a hundred times more damage to win, whereas the amateur only had to hit you a few times, and even an amateur could manage that against someone with skill. This whole situation with Akatsubaki was shaping up to be even worse than he had thought. Short of some sort of EMP weapon that could completely disable an I.S. in one stroke, Church had no idea how one could conventionally defeat it.

But it wasn't his job to come up with countermeasures. He just had to gather the data. Besides, he still had a conversation to carry on with Rin. "You think her Akatsubaki could regenerate its shields faster that Orimura could take them down, even with his special attack?"

Rin shrugged as she returned her gaze to the sky, where steel was still clashing. "I guess. Hard to tell, since he's never tried it. But by the looks of things, Ichika doesn't think it will work himself. Normally he'd have tried it by now. Though I guess he probably has little shield energy left at this point anyway."

As if heralded by Rin's words, a horn blared after Houki landed her next strike, signaling the end of the match. Apparently, Ichika hadn't been a match after all, though it didn't really seem like a fair comparison. Kind of like Laura and Kanzashi all over again.

Rin sighed as the match ended, not making it any clearer what she hoped the outcome would be. Was she upset that Ichika had lost or that she hadn't gleaned anything useful about fighting Akatsubaki? Church didn't get the chance to question her on it, since Yamada's voice was announcing the end of the tournament over the intercom, prompting curiosity on that front instead.

"Oh? There's a few other pilots with personal I.S., right? What about the older Sarashiki?"

"That harlot? Hell if I know. Who cares?"

Church was a little surprised by the vehemence, mostly because he had no context at all. Tatenashi struck him as the flirty type, but he had no idea what had happened to earn her the title of harlot in Rin's eyes. Had the student council president somehow wronged her in the past?

He figured it would be better not to ask. If the knowledge became important at some point, he was sure Rin would tell him. Instead, he focused on the fact that most of the audience was making their exit from the stadium.

"So, now what? Should we leave?"

Rin cocked an eyebrow at him. "What do you mean 'we?' I only invited you to watch the matches, remember?"

The nonchalant way she said that kind of stung, Church had to admit. Maybe he just hadn't expected a cold shoulder at this point. However, Rin cracked a smirk at him rather quickly.

"Man, the look on your face: I'm just joking. But I don't really have anything planned after this. I was just gonna wait till everyone leaves so I can talk to Ichika and the others."

Feeling a bit of relief at Rin's reveal of a joke, Church decided he'd stick it out with her a little longer. This may have been a good chance to further ingratiate himself with the group he was trying to infiltrate, after all.

"Well, it's not like I have anything to really do. Will you mind if I stay?"

"I guess I can tolerate it. I do feel kind of bad for putting that kicked puppy expression on your face just now."

"You've got a funny way of saying 'I like your company.' That's going to get in the way of your romantic life, you know."

His brunette companion shot him a displeased glare at that, though the following thoughtful look on her face made it seem as though she immediately considered what Church had just said. That kept her quiet for a while, though they did have to start up a conversation again regardless, since it would take several minutes for people to clear out of the stands and it would have been awkward to sit there in silence for that long. Oddly enough, the conversation turned to food again, though it was Church who started it this time. He was really just trying to make conversation.

"I wonder what they're going to have for dinner tonight?"

Maybe the topic of food was enough to get Rin's attention, since she answered. "They usually have a bunch of options from different regions of the world each night. You know, something for everyone and all that. Actually, I think they're having Sichuan pork tonight..."

"Oh, that sounds good."

Rin scoffed at this, folding her one good arm over the one in the sling. "Meh, mine's better."

"I think I'd have to taste yours to confirm that. Can't just take you at your word, you know?"

The brunette next to him responded with a knowing look. "Think you're clever, do you? Almost seems desperate, at this point."

"Come on, I've only asked twice. That's hardly desperate!"

"Well, who asks a girl to cook for them within three days of meeting her anyway? Isn't that kind of weird?"

Frankly, Church didn't really have a response to that, because she may have had a point. That was kind of quick, all things considered. Still, he couldn't fold on his own stance that easily.

"Well, to be fair, I wouldn't ask anyone who wasn't a skilled cook. And hey, you speak so highly of your cooking every time it comes up, so it's only reasonable that I'd be excited to try it, right?"

Rin's expression was one of consternation as she took his words into consideration. Maybe she felt that he had a point of sorts. She did brag about her cooking a lot, so it would be kind of weird to never be willing to prove it. Not that Church was asking for proof so much as he was a favor, but still. She figured she would take the idea into consideration, even if she wasn't going to give a straight answer right now.

"If you keep being fun to talk to, I'll think about it. Right now though, I think the stands have cleared enough that we can head down. Though we might have to wait since everyone might be showering after the matches... ah well, we should still wait a little closer to the ground level. Come on."

Watching as his brunette companion rose from her seat to walk away from him, Church took a moment to appraise her back instead of immediately following her. Rin certainly had an acerbic way of showing it, but Church was pretty sure he was growing on her. Naturally, that was good for his mission. But honestly, his real joy from that acknowledgment came from its own merits.

It'd been a long time since he'd really had anyone his own age he could call his friend.

Operator, please refrain from frivolous thoughts. Besides, your new 'friend' is going to grow confused if you continue to sit here.

Though annoyed by the uninvited voice of his AI companion, Church nevertheless did as Cerberus suggested, and rose to follow Rin down to the ground level. He hated when the machine had a point.