Chapter 11: Quid Pro Quo

Infinite Stratos was pretty great. But if there was one distinct advantage that Exeter had over it, it was probably the fact that it was relatively unassuming and convenient. By this, Church meant that he could pretty much fly wherever he wanted to without too many people noticing. An I.S. was big and bulky, and almost impossible to hide visually. Meanwhile, Church had free reign to fly to the stadium after he had collected clothes from his room and made it to an open window within the Academy tower itself.

Frankly, he was a little worried that he was missing out on valuable exercise, but saving a few minutes was worth it: after all, he had less than an hour now to shower, return the dirty clothes to his room, and get back to the stadium so Rin could take him to her room for dinner. He wasn't a quick shower kind of guy, so it was important to maximize the time he had available.

Right now, he was walking across the stadium grounds to the area that Rin had indicated, having already deactivated Exeter since he didn't need it at this point. That said, his thoughts were primarily occupied with a conversation between him and Cerberus in the confines of his mind.

I probably should have asked for clarification on this before now, but what exactly is the process to getting the Akatsubaki's data? Are we going to have to physically touch it? Plug into a port or something? Will we even be able to accomplish what we want while it's in standby mode?

Cerberus wasted no time in explaining this crucial aspect of their mission. Frankly, it was somewhat surprised that Church had taken this long to even ask for these details.

The process of acquiring Akatsubaki's data is simple on the surface, but deceptively complex, unfortunately. We will need direct access to the machine: if you cannot place your hand on it, we will not be able to glean the data we need. Moreover, it is not as if Infinite Stratos units are unlocked doors we can simply walk through. There will be many security measures in place that will require time to crack, and even after that, it will take some time to download all of the information we need. Suffice to say, it will not be as simple as laying hands on the Akatsubaki for a split second.

As he walked through some hallways on the far side of the stadium, Church briefly acknowledged a sign that said 'showers' on it in both English and Japanese. He missed the other half of the text while formulating a response to Cerberus, following the directions the sign provided subconsciously.

So we're talking several minutes of uninterrupted contact with Akatsubaki. Shit, that's going to be difficult to manage...

Indeed, Operator. Strictly speaking, the most effective option would simply be to abduct Houki Shinonono and restrain her while we went about our business. Naturally, we'd have to ensure that she doesn't identify us in the process.

Needless to say, Church wasn't enthused with that option.

I feel that there are many reasons that won't work. First of all, if we release her after that, it'll be pretty obvious that we were just after Akatsubaki's data. Second, we would be the prime suspects considering that we just got here. And third, if we managed to do that, why not just steal Akatsubaki from her altogether? Then Umbra Stratum could do whatever they want with it.

Cerberus was silent for a moment as it contemplated all of that.

I cannot deny some of those points, Operator. However, I am curious as to what you believe would be a better plan.

I'd look for an excuse to be near her during a sparring session or training exercise. Maybe I could come up with some strategy that requires me to be in direct contact with her unit... don't know if I could manage that for long enough, though.

Church walked up to a door on the far end of the hall, which he assumed were the showers. If he'd been paying attention, he would have heard running water on the other side, but he was a bit preoccupied. It was easy to miss some outside sounds when someone was literally talking in your head.

Operator, it would be possible to acquire the Akatsubaki data in increments. It is merely that we would have to consistently infiltrate its security systems, and successfully cover our tracks each time. This is within my capabilities, but runs almost as great a risk as our other options. Also...

Acting while Cerberus spoke, Church opened the door before him and stepped into the room beyond, only noticing now that he was in the tiled room that it was kind of steamy and that water was running, and that obviously someone else was in here. Cerberus finished his sentence about the time that Church made all of these conclusions.

This is the student showers, not the faculty.

Even though he knew that he was probably about to be in a bad situation, Church failed to immediately extricate himself from it. It was kind of like a deer in headlights thing: he knew there was about to be trouble, but was too stunned by his sudden reality to act on that knowledge. The feeling intensified when he heard a familiar voice that belonged to a certain French girl.

"Oh, who's that? I didn't think anyone else was out here at this hour..."

Church inwardly cringed as he recalled that Rin had said Charlotte and Kanzashi working on something out here at the stadium, but more importantly, he got the feeling that Charlotte, who was probably in a less than modest state right now, was about to check on the identity of their visitor. Admittedly, some not altogether small part of Church wanted to see that. He was a red-blooded man after all, and Charlotte was a beautiful girl.

But at the same time, he didn't want it to go down quite like this. He hardly thought of himself as a gentleman, but he didn't want to catch a girl in the nude against her will like this. It just didn't feel right. That was why he managed to gain control of himself just quickly enough to turn his back on the general direction of the present girls, though he didn't manage to get a full announcement of his presence out before it was too late.

"H-hold on, Charlotte-!"

Unfortunately, the girl in question leaned back out of the shower cubicle she was occupying before Church could tell her not to. Church knew this because turning around had proven pointless: it turned out that there was a mirror on the wall next to the door, and Church was glancing into it before he could tell himself to close his eyes.

Charlotte, leaning back out of the shower, was curiously looking in his direction as she worked some shampoo into her blonde hair, which fell down to the middle of her back. Thankfully, most of her body was hidden behind the wall. However, by the merit of being able to see her back, Church was also able to see quite a lovely peach peeking out at him from beyond the confines of the shower. It was a nice middle ground between petite and curvaceous: a cute and spankable derriere.

That thought crossed Church's mind before he could contain it, but when he met Charlotte's violet gaze, it was replaced with embarrassment and guilt more than anything else. At about the time Charlotte yelped in embarrassment, Church closed his eyes off to the world so he could avoid making things any worse.

"S-sorry! I'm so sorry, I thought this was the faculty showers!"

While her voice was still a little shaky due to the surprise, Charlotte did seem to acknowledge his explanation as plausible. "Ah, i-is that so...?"

Naturally, Church's eyes were closed so he didn't see anything, but he did hear Kanzashi's voice pitching in, with a very indignant and embarrassed tone that no one could mistake. Church could imagine the 'hiding all your naughty bits' pose even though she was behind a wall.

"Y-y-y-you pervert! As if anyone would b-believe that! The faculty and student showers are clearly labeled! W-why would you even need faculty showers!?"

Trying to purge any unscrupulous thoughts from his mind since it was hard to communicate clearly with a girl that you were vividly imagining in the nude, Church tried to give a concise explanation.

"My accommodations don't have any showers available, a-and Chifuyu said I could use the faculty showers here at the stadium! I'm really sorry, I just wasn't paying attention!"

Church heard some sort of disgruntled grumbling from Kanzashi, but Charlotte appeared to be a little more forgiving. "I d-don't think Church is the type of person who would do this on purpose, Kanzashi... plus, it would have been very foolish to walk right in here if he had nefarious intentions, oui?"

Personally, Church thought this argument in his defense was pretty solid, but Kanzashi didn't seem to think so. "W-well maybe he's just an idiot!"

This girl really isn't earning any points with me, damn.

Still, Kanzashi might have had a point. Even though he had been distracted by a conversation with Cerberus, there had still been obvious signs with plain English on them telling him where to go, and he had gone the wrong way.

"Yeah, uh, m-maybe I am. I'm so sorry, I really didn't mean to violate your privacy like this."

Proving that she really was an angel, Charlotte said her next words. "It's alright Church, I forgive you. I think it's very clear that this was an accident."

Naturally, Kanzashi did not have the same degree of mercy and graciousness as her French shower buddy. "Well I don't! Why are you still here? G-get out already!"

Once again, Church figured that Kanzashi had a point, and that he probably should have made an exit much sooner than this. Although, wouldn't it have been worse if he had just bailed without any explanation at all?

Either way, he fumbled for the handle to the door since his eyes were closed, at least until Charlotte was kind enough to direct his hand towards its intended target. Once that had been accomplished, the young man swiftly made an exit, while offering one last genuine apology for the intrusion. Once he was outside, he transformed his ire into anger and directed it at Cerberus.

Cerberus, you fucking twat! Why'd you wait to tell me I was going into the wrong showers until after I was already in them?! You clearly noticed beforehand!

The resident AI did not seem troubled by the insults or the irritability.

We were in the middle of a far more important conversation regarding mission parameters. Why would I interrupt it for something as negligible as a social faux pas?

Church was certain that he was gritting his teeth.

Well, Cerberus, it gets harder to ingratiate myself with the locals if they become awkward and uncomfortable around me, did you think of that?! Charlotte was probably the second best way into Houki's social circle after Rin, so this is not good!

Cerberus was quiet for a moment.

I did not consider that.

No shit.

Now flustered and seeing peaches in his mind's eye, Church stalked towards the faculty showers on the opposite end of this long hallway, certain that this awkward encounter was going to come back and bite him somehow in the near future.

---

Electing for a cold shower to clear his head of questionable thoughts involving a girl he was probably going to be seeing fairly regularly around here, Church ultimately didn't spend much time cleaning himself, since only psychopaths liked standing around in cold water. He was used to taking quick showers even if he didn't prefer them, since Umbra Stratum didn't like people standing around in their facilities and not doing anything.

By the time he was done, Charlotte and Kanzashi had thankfully already left the area, so he didn't have to cross awkward paths with them again so soon. Having taken a brief shower, he had enough time to return his dirty clothes to his room, a process that would have been a lot faster if said room had a window. Even so, he managed to make it back to the arena entrance where he was supposed to meet Rin with a little time to spare, though he was now wearing mere shorts and a form-fitting black T-shirt. He hadn't splurged on anything too fancy when procuring more clothes the other day.

Because he had spent much of the waiting period doing other things, Church didn't actually get to spend too much time just sitting around, as Rin showed up at the arena herself within five minutes of him taking up residence there. She too had changed clothes over the past hour, ironically in a similar manner to Church. She was without her uniform now, instead wearing a dark pink tank-top and black athletic shorts of her own. Naturally, she still had one arm in a cast.

Church was briefly surprised that she was willing to present such a casual appearance to a mere acquaintance like him, but then again, maybe Rin wasn't the type of girl to even care about things like that. It wasn't like she was dressed inappropriately, and there was nothing wrong with being comfortable. Besides, Church was dressed in a pretty similar fashion, so it wasn't like he could say anything about it.

Of course, maybe she would have put more thought into her dress if it was Ichika that she was meeting, but Church was not he. One way or another, Rin didn't seem to put any thought into it as she spoke to him once getting close enough.

"There you are. You're, uh..."

Rin fell silent for a moment as her eyes drifted away from his face, prompting Church to follow her gaze in confusion. Doing so revealed that she was caught off-guard by his arms, or more accurately, the muscle definition one could actually see since he wasn't wearing a jacket for once. Frankly, Church was surprised that she even considered it noteworthy, since from his perspective, it was nothing special: just the result of physical conditioning for the operation of a human exoskeleton. Exeter may have done most of the work, but that didn't mean there was no stress at all when using it. Besides, if there was ever a mechanical malfunction, he may have had to lift those robotic limbs with his own strength, so he couldn't afford to be out of shape.

Still, he supposed that did make him more built than the average guy. Not that he was giving action hero actors or bodybuilders a run for their money, but more built than most. And considering that Rin probably didn't see many guys around, all things considered, maybe it was understandable that she took notice.

A little bashful to be noticed in such a way, Church put on some false bravado to put the awkward pressure on Rin instead of himself. He was actually quite good at acting confident under pressure.

"Devilishly rugged and handsome? I think that's what you were going to say."

Caught in the act, Rin blushed slightly as she cleared her throat and averted her gaze. That said, she too was pretty good at deflecting embarrassment: she just happened to do it with sarcasm and mockery instead of illusory confidence.

"What I was going to say is that you're 'surprisingly passable.' You don't exactly give off this kind of energy, if you know what I mean."

Church frowned at this, not exactly sure what to make of it. "No, I don't really know what you mean. What 'energy' do I give off, exactly?"

Because Rin's method of pushing down embarrassment relied on putting the heat on someone else, she didn't say what she was really thinking: that Church struck her as a reliable, charismatic person that was fun to talk to. No need to stroke his ego that much.

"Eh, I don't want to say 'negligible', which is a little harsh... but you do strike me as 'just that guy.' You know, people occasionally remember you exist, but it's usually on accident. Otherwise you're kind of forgettable."

Admittedly, Church wasn't absolutely positive that Rin was joking, which bothered him more than he cared to admit. Surely he had more of a presence than that, right? Then again, she had to be kidding, because there was no way he could be a negligible existence around here when he was but one of two men on the whole campus.

Still, he felt the need to retaliate, mocking though it may be. "Well, if the guy who saved your life is so negligible, what does that say about you? You'd better hope that forgettable guy is around to save you next time you're in mortal danger."

"H-hey, that was a one time thing, a freak accident! It's not like I fall out of windows on a regular basis!"

"For some reason, I'm not inclined to believe you."

Fuming, Rin crossed her arms. "What's that? Sounds like you don't want to eat a meal at my expense after all."

Since he was actually looking forward to that, Church forfeited immediately. "Whoa, no need to go that far. Excessive force, Rin, really."

With a shake of her head, the Chinese brunette did manage to put a slight smirk back on her face. "It's kind of sad that you'd give up that easily, y'know? Though my food is worth it, so I guess I can't blame you. Let's get going then, we're not getting any younger."

Beckoning for him to follow her, the two were soon heading for the dorms. Rin used this time to explain the game plan for getting into said dorms without causing a commotion.

"Alright, it's a little late, but not so late that we can expect no one to be around at all. That said, you can't just walk in the front door, especially not with me, 'cuz people will absolutely get the wrong idea. Thankfully, everyone has a room with windows, and you can fly around pretty quietly, as best as I can tell. So you're going to hang around behind the dorms, and I'll pop open the window to my room on the third floor so you can get in all sneaky like. Sound good?"

"Yeah, is all of that really necessary? Ichika has a room in the dorms, right? Is there some rule against me being in there to warrant all of this sneaking around?"

Rin apparently thought his question was stupid, since she gave him an annoyed look. "Of course it's necessary! If anyone sees me taking you into my room they're going to assume the worst!"

"Gee, thanks."

Perhaps realizing that her words sounded much worse than she intended, Rin rephrased the sentiment, with only a mild blush. "Look, I don't mean that it's some disgusting idea I can't even fathom or anything... but it would be a big problem for both of us. Do you really want half the school hounding you over a relationship that doesn't exist the whole time you're here? That just sounds like a big hassle to me."

Church had nothing to say to that, since he supposed that Rin may have had a point. He was already going to be the source of attention for a lot of girls, but it would be even worse if there was some unsubstantiated gossip going around about him being in a relationship with someone. Besides, he wasn't sure if that kind of thing would be frowned on by the people in charge of the Academy. He was here as a professional representative, after all.

All in all, he figured that he would just concede. "Alright, fair enough. Cloak and dagger it is."

With a satisfied nod, Rin said nothing else to that. The dorm wasn't all that far away anyway, so it was only a minute or two of silence before Church had to break off and head towards the back of the dorm building, at which point he manifested Exeter and headed for some bushes. For extra safe measure, he had Cerberus select a camouflage for the suit that would blend in with his surroundings.

While waiting in that situation, Church couldn't help but analyze his surroundings, namely the many windows at the back of the dorm building. He was surprised by how many of said windows were completely exposed: lots of girls didn't have their curtains drawn, or even had their windows completely open. He could see right into some rooms, which naturally included the sight of some girls in the comfort of their own space. There was nothing particularly scandalous to see at the moment, but the notion of infringing on anyone's privacy brought the recent incident with Charlotte and Kanzashi to mind.

I'm honestly amazed by this. No sense of fear or danger at all from so many of these students.

Cerberus had been a little quiet thus far since Church had been busy communicating with people, but it spoke up now, perhaps sensing that Church was actually looking to initiate a conversation.

It's not so strange, Operator. They live in a relatively restricted and secluded area where crime of any sort is not a major threat. Moreover, they didn't have to worry about men spying on them in their rooms until right now.

Hey, I'm not spying on anyone! I have to be able to see Rin when she's ready to let me in, it's not like I can look away from the building! I didn't force them to leave themselves exposed to the outside like this.

Cerberus didn't seem convinced.

If that helps you sleep at night, Operator...

Church said nothing to that, instead shaking his head. There wasn't much room to say anything else anyway, as he saw a window on the third floor being opened. Soon after, Rin just barely peeked out of it. It was pretty clear by the way she was looking around that she didn't actually know where Church was at the moment.

Seeing an opportunity, Church ignored the thrusters entirely and dashed out of the bushes towards the base of the dorms, relying solely on Exeter's impressive sprinting ability to cover the distance before anyone could see him, including Rin. Once he got to the foot of the wall, he simply leaped up towards Rin's window: there was no need for engines to cover that distance.

Naturally, the sudden appearance of a motley green and brown Exeter in her face caused Rin some alarm, and she stumbled backwards. "Gah! What the hell, you asshole?!"

Chuckling to himself, Church couldn't help but tease a little. "Sorry, Rin, it's just that you looked a little scared of that window, so I wanted to get you back inside and away from it."

Scowling, Rin got back to her feet to express her malcontent with that joke. "Haha, very funny. You're really testing my good graces, you know?"

Church replied to that as he allowed Exeter to dissipate from his body. "Alright, alright, that's the last window joke at your expense, I promise."

Rin smoothed her shorts as she got back to her feet, her expression mildly less annoyed. "I didn't know your suit could change colors like that."

"You like it?"

"Just wondering why you settle on a plain silver-gray if you could be any color you want."

To that, Church shrugged. Maybe she had a point. "I guess it's about the difference between a distinctly military machine and a sporting one. Bold colors are better for the audience, but it's a bit too flashy for the military's taste. Although, I guess I could play around with it. You think your I.S. color scheme would look good on me?"

Rin scoffed. "Shen Long's color scheme would look good on anyone. Even Cecilia's Blue Tears could benefit from it."

Certain that Rin didn't hate blue and that she just had a petty rivalry with Cecilia over everything, Church glanced around the room he had entered. He'd never been in a girl's bedroom before: according to the media, this area was supposed to be hallowed ground or something. That said, Rin's bedroom was surprisingly normal.

She had no particularly interesting blankets or pillowcases, no fancy rugs or anything: the most that he could spot that would identify this place as Rin's room at all was a picture of her and two adults on the wall, which he assumed was her family, and a Chun-Li digital alarm clock. That one was actually kind of funny.

"Pretty spartan in here."

Rin merely shrugged. "I packed pretty light when I came here, that's all."

If that were true, Church wondered what Rin could have possibly needed to tidy up in here before he was allowed in. Maybe she was the type to leave underwear lying around or something. Instead of commenting anything like that, Church took note of the second bed in the room, as well as some items that didn't look like they would have belonged to Rin.

"So, where's your roommate?"

"Oh, Tina? She's gone for the night, hanging out with her friends on the floor beneath us. Seriously, you didn't think I would actually bring someone like you here if she was around, did you?"

Church folded his arms as he gave the girl a questioning look. "Someone like me? Care to elaborate?"

Rin shrugged with her one good arm as she headed out of the bedroom and into the kitchen. "Not really, no. I'd rather let you wonder."

Her male visitor shook his head as she left, Cerberus speaking up in his mind as Church made to follow his hostess.

Is this level of deprecating affection what one would call 'tsundere?'

Uh, not quite... I'm honestly surprised you know that word.

Cerberus almost sounded offended by that comment.

Operator, I'm a state of the art artificial intelligence unlike any the world has ever seen. I know every word.

Right... anyway, we can't label her a tsundere until she says something like 'it's not like I like you or anything, baka!' I think that's mandatory.

Is that how it works? Humans have such odd criteria for their labels.

Church decided to end the mental conversation there, mostly because he didn't exactly have anything to say that could refute Cerberus. Taking stock of the rest of Rin's dorm, he found that it wasn't actually extravagant as he would have imagined for a room at the I.S. Academy. Sure, it was obviously nice: everything was up to date and modern, from the paint to the lights to the appliances he could catch a peek at in the kitchen, but he'd half been expecting something akin to a rich person's suite. Maybe that was a little silly, since it would have been a significant and unnecessary expense considering how many students there were.

Church spotted a nice table he could take a seat at in the center of the common area, but took note of the increasingly noisy sounds coming from the kitchen before moving to do so.

"Rin? Do you need any help? Sounds more like construction than cooking in there..."

"Don't be ridiculous, having an amateur like you lend a hand would spoil the whole thing! Cooking of this level is an art form for experts only, y'know?"

While it was probably just a phantom feeling, Church felt like his eyebrow was twitching. "Well, I know now... fine then, how long is this gonna take, Picasso?"

Church tried to mentally picture Rin cooking with just one arm as she answered him. Honestly he couldn't see how she was doing it. "Hey, doing this with one hand isn't exactly easy. Just be patient, I promise it'll be worth it."

With a sigh, Church decided to take the seat he had scoped out a moment ago, leaning back in the chair as he contemplated how to keep some sort of conversation going while he waited for dinner to be completed. As he imagined Rin's one-armed struggle a second time, he figured that he would question that.

"I know we talked about it briefly before, but it really is crazy that you're in good enough shape to even use your arm right now, considering how recent your accident was."

Still too busy in the kitchen to reveal herself, Rin continued to reply from out of sight. "Well, there are some nice perks to attending the most prestigious school in the world, aren't there? What gets me is the fact that Tabane Shinonono invented the medical substance that made it possible on accident. Like, what level of witchcraft are we getting into once you're accidentally revolutionizing medicine while intentionally revolutionizing warfare? I find it hard to believe that she's actually human."

Now that she mentioned it, Church figured that Rin had a good point. There was no question that Tabane was a genius, but you had to be on an entirely different level to make the kind of impact she had. What was such an intelligent person even like? The woman's personality wasn't exactly public knowledge.

Instead of dwelling on that, Church focused back on the conversation at hand. "Well as amazing as medical technology might be these days, you've still got one arm in a sling. Why is that?"

"Well the fractures my right arm suffered were really severe, so it's taking a bit more time to heal even with that super science medical stuff. The nurses did say it'd be finished healing in another week or so though..."

Church recalled the many band-aids and bandages that Rin still had plastered all over her face. "Alright, so big, serious injuries still take some time even with the pseudoscience fiction healing stuff we apparently have now. But what about all those cuts and scrapes? Those should have been healed extremely quickly, right?"

"What, you think it's easy or cheap to make this 'pseudoscience fiction healing stuff?' No one in their right mind would waste it on a bunch of harmless cuts."

"Rin, some of those cuts were pretty deep..."

Finally sticking her head out from behind the small wall that separated the kitchen from the rest of the common area, Rin smiled cheekily at her guest. "Aw, are you that worried? How sweet. Maybe I won't poison your food after all."

Church had been halfway through thinking that Rin had a wonderful smile before her words had cut him short.

I'm troubled by the fact that I can't identify that as a joke for certain.

Cerberus cut in at the mention of this.

Even if it is a joke, you know most jokes have an ounce of truth to them.

Shit, you're right. You don't really think she would do that, do you?

Who can tell, Operator? Who can tell?

Church tried to allay his irrational fears over the next several minutes, a process which wasn't helped at all by his AI, but thankfully Rin was apparently skilled enough to hold a conversation while cooking, so a simple distraction was available. A discussion regarding how she totally would have demolished the competition in the tournament today if only she had been allowed to participate helped take his mind off of his worries.

They had just finished discussing how Rin would have dealt with Laura's AIC when the diminutive chef finally stepped out of the kitchen. Apparently, she had finished crafting her master meal, and was now finally bringing Church their food. Rin had donned an apron in the kitchen at some point, which was oddly cute with the casual shirt and shorts. Something about casual attire looked really good on her. Kinda felt like the girlfriend who was always walking around your house in only one of your t-shirts.

Ignorant to Church's thoughts, Rin placed a steaming hot plate of meat and vegetables in brown broth in the middle of the table, smirking confidently. "I'm about to change your world forever; I hope you're ready for this."

Cerberus felt the need to comment on this. The AI was getting weirdly chatty these days, particularly about things Church thought would strike Cerberus as unimportant.

I do believe that could have been a sexual innuendo.

It took all of Church's concentration to ignore the thoughts Cerberus brought to his mind. The last thing he needed while eating dinner in a girl's room was sexual innuendo, especially after the thing that had happened in the showers earlier. It was a miracle he'd managed to keep that debacle out of his mind thus far.

So, is the personality archetype you settled on the 'annoying, quipping sidekick?'

The real question is, will you be able to do anything about it?

Refusing to give that comment a response, Church focused on the food in front of him. Even on a purely aesthetic level, it looked really good. "So, um… you first?"

After several moments of untying her apron with one arm, Rin tossed it over her chair and plopped down into it. Following that, she reached into one of the apron pockets to withdraw a pair of chopsticks for her guest.

"No, you first. I already know how awesome it is, you're the one that needs to taste it. Hurry up, I can't let your heretical beliefs tarnish the name of good Chinese food for another second!"

Church accepted the timeless utensils from Rin and proceeded to take hold of the most appealing piece of pork he could spot. He was painfully aware of the intensity that Rin was watching him with. He had always heard that cooks were ultra serious when it came to having their food tasted for the first time, but Church had never witnessed it firsthand. It was kind of weird to see such a serious side to this rather carefree girl so suddenly.

Should I scan for poison, Operator?

Forgetting about Rin's poison comment until just then, Church almost said yes. In the end though, he decided against it.

I think I'll at least trust her to this extent...

If you say so, Operator. Do not blame me for whatever happens.

Church tuned out whatever else Cerberus had to say. Instead, he tried his best to look natural as he consumed his first bite of gourmet Chinese food. It was extremely difficult to do, as he felt like squirming under the intensity of Rin's emerald gaze. Still, he managed to bite into the pork without accidentally missing his mouth or anything, and his senses were soon engulfed by an incredible blend of savory and sweet, so Church was briefly distracted from his nervousness.

W-wow... I was kinda worried that Rin's lauded cooking skills were from her own perspective, but this is incredible! It's such an amazingly bold taste, yet really gentle too... I haven't eaten anything this great in... well, a long time.

Cerberus had no emotion in his response, which came in an actual-factual manner.

That is an excellent observation, Operator. However, as a machine with no taste buds of my own, I cannot verify your statement.

Not sure what he could have possibly said to a statement like that, Church simply decided to leave it alone, instead choosing to focus on Rin, who was clearly waiting for some sort of feedback. Under normal circumstances, Church wasn't a particularly gushy type of person, but he was willing to make an exception in this case.

"Rin, this is really amazing! I can't believe you made something this good so quickly. Guess you really are an experienced chef, huh?"

The girl across from him offered a wide, cheerful smile in response to Church's compliments: admittedly, compliments on her food were the one thing she could get from anyone, even Ichika, fairly easily. That said, she certainly had no qualms about hearing it from someone new. She never got tired of hearing it at all really.

"Well yeah, but it was also my dad's favorite dish, so he made sure that I knew how to make it perfectly every time. A lot of my spare time with him in our restaurant was spent learning that recipe, so I'm glad you like it. I told you that my genuine Chinese food was infinitely better than your American fast food garbage, didn't I?"

Church nodded as he grabbed another piece of the delicious cuisine with his chopsticks. "Yeah, I can't believe I even doubted you at all. I didn't know your family had a restaurant though. I'm sure you had a hand in it, but did you really have a lot of time to help out between school and all that?"

While he had expected this to be an easy follow-up topic for conversation, Church was only met with confusion as Rin fell silent, a certain look of uncomfortable anger dominating her usually adorable features.

Instantly aware that he had made some sort of mistake, Church could only wonder what nerve he had struck. For once, Cerberus offered advice that was actually helpful, even if was also kind of obvious.

We can logically assume that the most sensitive part of what was said is the cause of this problem. It must have been your comment about the family. Be very careful how you proceed from here.

Am I getting relationship advice from a soulless machine?

Cerberus replied dejectedly., though there was a certain insincerity to it.

That hurts, Operator. This is my existence you are talking about.

Mentally sighing, Church focused on his human companion instead of his 'soulless machine' one. "Rin, I can tell that I've upset you. Whatever I said, I'm sorry. I should have been more careful."

Surprisingly, Rin smiled sadly at him even as she shook her head forlornly. "It's… not your fault. You couldn't have known that it was a sensitive subject, and I kind of brought it up in the first place. But still, I'd… prefer if we talked about something else."

"Of course. Or I can, you know... leave, if you'd prefer?"

Rin seemed to seriously contemplate this idea for a brief moment, but she quickly refuted it in favor of a somewhat insincere cheerfulness. "You don't have to do that. It was just an accident and it's not like you're psychic. Now hurry up and keep eating! The food's gonna get cold and I didn't work so hard on it so it could go to waste!"

Church knew that his hostess was merely forcing herself into a more cheerful mood, but he was glad that she was not angry with him for accidentally grazing a sensitive topic. Even better, he was glad she was reasonable enough to not take any frustration out on him for something outside of his control. Firecracker though she was, Rin obviously had a rational side to her.

For now, he was content to enjoy her company as it was, even if it meant avoiding any meaningful personal topics. Maybe it was something she would share with him down the line, provided their relationship actually grew from this point forward.