“Did you hear-”

“How can this be happening?! I thought that GOA was so safe-”

“-and they just found her on the floor, completely out of it-”

“Do you know-”

“-when she wakes up, maybe she could say-”

“But honestly, it’s impossible, it really is-”

“-what happened?!”

This was the scene that met the eyes of the pilots and their repairers as they entered the cafeteria after their battle, much to their surprise. All around them, various personnel were whispering nervously to each other, as if speaking out loud would somehow cause something horrible to occur. It wasn’t complete pandemonium, but it was close; nothing seemed to be in order, from the discussion itself to the appearance of the speakers. Everyone looked hassled and worried, and it was obvious that something of great importance had just happened.

“What the fuck is going on here?” snapped Garu after the group of teenagers had recovered from the initial shock of seeing the cafeteria in this state.

The area fell mostly silent at Garu’s loud inquiry, and for a few moments there was a long, nervous pause. Apparently, something had happened that the staff of GIS wasn’t willing to divulge to the pilots, which in itself was strange, as the teens were usually given the same (or more) respect as the adults around the area. For some reason, though, there was an air of hesitation about telling the pilots and their repairers.

And this, safe to say, pissed Garu off.

“C’mon, tell us!” Garu snarled, his arms crossed in front of his chest in an intimidating gesture. Behind him, Ernest stepped forward (most likely to prevent any violence on the green-haired boy’s part), and Rio, Tune and Phil edged away nervously. Leena stood beside Garu, not moving but giving Garu an admonishing glare. Though Kazuhi moved behind him precariously, Yu didn’t move at all, nor did he seem to be the least bit worried about Garu’s temper.

“Garu, calm down,” Leena reproved instantly.

Ernest put a hand on Garu’s shoulder, though whether it was to comfort or restrain him was anyone’s guess. Softly, the blond-haired pilot murmured, “Yelling isn’t going to help in this case, Garu.”

“You will tell us what happened.”

Everyone turned and stared at Yu, who had apparently spoken to the nearest adult (who, coincidentally, was the head doctor in the infirmary.) The brown-haired boy was staring at her with a cold, unwavering glare as he spoke, and continued to do so after the tones had died out. His companions stared at him in bewilderment; usually, Yu wasn’t one to take charge of a situation.

The doctor Yu was glaring at coughed nervously, her gray-blue eyes darting to the side as she spoke, “Well, something has happened on GOA, but we’re not exactly sure-”

“Oh, please. Of course we are,” another person intervened, this time being one of the younger technicians. He pushed forward and gave the doctor an incredulous stare. “I don’t know what you know, Lita, but they have as much right to know as we do.”

Garu raised an appreciative eyebrow at the man who had stepped forward, and then caught Ernest’s eye. Reading his friend’s expression, Ernest stepped forward and smiled kindly at the technician.

“Could you tell us?” Ernest asked, his expression near serene as he regarded the man before him. “It wouldn’t do us any good not to tell us, especially now that we know something has happened.”

“Sure,” the brown-haired man stated, nodding at Ernest. “A repairer candidate was attacked and left comatose on GOA. No one knows what really happened, but she’s not doing well.”

After the man finished, scattered whispers began to pick up throughout the cafeteria. Garu frowned, confused, and replied, “So? I mean, it isn’t the first time something weird has happened at GOA. It was probably just another candidate or something.”

“No, it isn’t,” the man replied, “She wasn’t physically injured at all, except that her blood levels were extremely low. Actually, the only actual wound was on her neck; she had some insect bites, apparently. But that’s impossible. We don’t have insects of any kind up here. In any case, we’ve been ordered to stay connected to GOA until otherwise noted.”

The answer seemed to baffle most of the pilots and repairers, because they said nothing in response. Rio cast a side-long glance at Phil, who returned it with a shrug. Both of them knew that whatever had happened, it was strange and completely beyond them to try and figure out. So, verging on yawning, Rio turned to look at the rest of his fellow pilots -- and was met with a startling sight.

Yu, who was again standing towards the back of the group, had gone stark-white; he looked even paler than usual In fact, he looked like he had that morning when he fainted. Rio’s eyes widened, confused about Yu’s condition, and the sandy-haired boy was about to question it when Yu abruptly turned heel and walked out of the cafeteria. Kazuhi followed quickly behind, her expression more worried than upset. Both of them made barely any noise as they left; Rio knew that if he hadn’t been watching, he wouldn’t have noticed himself.

What the fuck is going on?, Rio thought, his ruby eyes narrowing. A part of his mind reprimanded him for his language, but Rio shoved it aside, instead focusing on what had just occurred. Rio paused for a second before turning and walking towards the door after the two siblings; out of the corner of his eye, Rio saw Phil give him a strange look, but she was busy speaking with Leena, so she didn’t question him.

Once he was outside, Rio suddenly realized that he had no idea where the two brown-haired teens had made off to. For all he knew, they could have gone to GOA, though Rio knew that explanation wasn’t plausible. But, since he had no idea where to go in the first place, Rio figured that he would just follow his instincts; the sandy-haired boy proceeded to walk down the hallway towards Yu’s dorm, his pace quickening as he went.

No one was around as Rio approached the door to Yu’s room; Rio felt his heart begin to sink -- it seemed that his gut instinct had been incorrect. His footsteps slowed down and Rio came to a stop just outside the door. He was just about to turn and leave when a trace of sound met his ears.

“...you did this. I know you did.”

Rio’s eyes widened; it was Yu. The voice was coming from inside Yu’s room, and Rio crept closer and leaned into the door to hear better.

“Like hell! I’ve been here all morning, moron!” a strange voice retorted, sounding annoyed.

“When did she get here, Oniisama?” a voice that was obviously Kazuhi’s interrupted, sounding a bit less soft-spoken and passive than it usually did -- in fact, if Rio didn’t know better, he would have sworn that she was getting upset. There was a pause before Yu answered them.

“This morning.” Another pause. “What do you mean, you didn’t do this? Don’t you eat anymore?” Rio’s eyes widened at the level of sarcasm in Yu’s voice; not that it was especially high, but the fact that Yu uttered the phrase was surprising.

The strange voice (which, Rio noted, definitely belonged to a woman) gave a short, high-pitched laugh. “Please. I’m not stupid, Yu dearest. I have my food with me. In vials. Duh. And besides, I don’t think you have a reason to be jumping all over me anyway.”

“You are the only one of... your kind up here.”

“So? I haven’t left this room all morning, trust me on this. I’ve been bored out of my fucking mind.” The woman sighed irritably, and continued, “Besides, I don’t like girls anyway. Not to mention that I really don’t think some little chick getting hurt has precedence over what I came here for.”

Rio heard Yu mutter something incomprehensible through the door, to which the woman replied, “Fuck you, asshole! I don’t fuckin’ care if you say you don’t have it, because I know you do. Silver gave it to you; I fuckin’ saw him give it to you. You have to fuckin’ give it to me!”

Shit, she swears more than Garu on a bad day, Rio thought, his eyes widening. There was a long pause before someone replied, and Rio was surprised to hear Kazuhi.

“Oniisama, is she talking about-”

“Kazuhi,” Yu interrupted, successfully cutting his younger sister off. A loud bang followed the intervention, which Rio took to be the sound of a fist hitting the wall.

The unknown woman made an exasperated gasp, snapping, “Damn it! Tell me where the fuck it is, Yu! Or I will get pissed! And I don’t fucking care about your fucking swords or anything, because you know as well as I do that I can kill you pretty damned easily if I want to. You have to sleep sometime.”

There was a bit of a pause before Yu calmly replied, “As do you.”

Rio could feel the tension mounting from outside the door and he shifted nervously, concerned about the situation. Unfortunately, he misread his position and his knee accidentally banged against the wall. Eyes widening, Rio jumped back just in time to see the door slide open and Yu appear in its place, his face cold and expressionless.

“Rioroute,” Yu said as both a greeting and, apparently, a warning.

Rio stared back at Yu, taking a moment to regain his composure. Unconsciously raising himself up to his full height (he was a good head taller than Yu, at least), Rio mentally sighed, Just go for it. You have a right to know. It was hard to stay nonchalant in front of Yu’s penetrating glare, but Rio willed himself to do so -- he had to know the situation; he just had to.

“I want to know what’s going on,” stated Rio calmly, and even he was surprised at how commanding he sounded. “And I want to know now.”





The machine gave a soft “beep” sound every second or so, measuring off the heartbeats of the comatose young girl on the bed. Her face had gained back a bit of its color, though she was still unusually pale. Her hair was brushed away from her face, looking as limp and lifeless as she did. Every so often, her hand would twitch, but she hadn’t woken up yet; it was horribly worrisome, especially to the boy who was sitting by the foot of her bed.

“It’s all my fault,” sniffed Roose, his arms crossed and his expression upset. “I shouldn’t have just let her go away. I should have realized sooner that she was hurt. I shouldn’t have been so careless!”

A sigh came from beside him, and Yamagi responded (for the hundredth time, it seemed), “It isn’t your fault.”

“Yes, it is!”

Yamagi rolled his eyes, wondering again just why he had decided to come with Roose to visit Wrecka. It had seemed like a good idea at the time (wait, no, it hadn’t -- he’d been bored), but now that he had spent over ten minutes with the nearly hysterical boy, Yamagi found that his patience was wearing thin. Not only did Roose completely blame himself for what had happened (which was stupid, because it wasn’t like Roose had done anything), but the teal-haired boy just wouldn’t shut up about how Wrecka didn’t deserve this and how she looked so fragile just lying there and... blah. It was annoying just to think about, much less have to listen to. Of course, the fact that Yamagi didn’t like Wrecka in the first place wasn’t helping.

In any case, Yamagi was getting annoyed with the way Roose was acting and his head starting to hurt from having to listen to the teal-haired boy’s self-demeaning rants. Wearily, he stated, “You didn’t do anything. Something hurt her. You couldn’t do anything about it. Shut the fuck up, already.”

“But she didn’t deserve this!” Roose replied with wide-eyed conviction, his expression so pitiful that even Yamagi felt something akin to compassion for the thin boy. The feeling was short lived, though, as Yamagi realized that Roose wasn’t going to be quiet any time soon. Roose continued, “She probably didn’t even sense whoever it was coming. I should have gone with her, maybe I could have done something to help. Oh, Wrecka-chan, I didn’t mean it-”

“You have a smear of mascara on your cheek,” Yamagi sneered, deliberately interrupting Roose so that the teal-haired boy would stop. Yamagi had found out about the makeup thing quite quickly, as Roose had completely forgotten that he was wearing it once Wrecka was hurt. Once Yamagi made a comment about it, Roose had washed it off and pleaded with the spiky-haired boy not to tell anyone else. Yamagi had agreed, though he secretly wanted to mention it to Zero so they could both laugh about it. (Clay wouldn’t get it and Yamagi would be damned before telling Hiead anything. Not that Hiead would care anyway.)

Roose sniffed and wiped the smear from his cheekbone, but he didn’t seem to notice the derogatory note in Yamagi’s tone. Instead, the taller boy placed his hand on Wrecka’s and patted it a few times, softly saying, “I didn’t mean to let you get hurt, Wrecka-chan. I didn’t mean it, really. I really hope you get better soon.”

Yamagi sighed; in his mind, he formed a mental picture of him banging Roose’s head against the wall and yelling, “IT! ISN’T! YOUR! FAULT!” over and over again. Of course, he wouldn’t actually do something like that; not only was Roose too pathetic for Yamagi to actually want to hurt him, but banging someone’s head against a wall would be something that Hiead would do -- and Yamagi despised Hiead, so he wanted to stay away from doing anything like his silver-haired teammate would. Even though the “teammate” title was stretching it.

Yamagi yawned, leaning against the wall as he watched Roose brush an invisible strand of Wrecka’s hair away. Suddenly desperate for some conversation of any kind, Yamagi asked the teal-haired boy, “How did you do in the battle simulations today?”

Roose looked up at Yamagi, his eyes wide; Yamagi rarely spoke to him of his own initiative (even now, Yamagi had only come with Roose because Roose had practically pleaded with him to), and Roose was surprised to see that Yamagi was doing so now. There was a moment’s pause before Roose answered, and when he did, he responded, “The second one was bad, but the first was okay. I held out a little longer than usual.”

“How long is that?”

Roose blushed slightly; the tips of his ears turned red as he replied, “About two minutes. But that’s better than the second time, because Zero took me out really quickly then. I was against Clay and his partner first.”

Yamagi cocked an eyebrow. “And you lost?” he asked incredulously, looking baffled by the mere idea of losing to Clay.

“His partner was good.” ratified Roose, who shrugged. “I tried to attack Clay, but I tripped, and by the time I got up, Clay was gone and I could see anyone. I wandered around for a few minutes before his partner found me.”

Yamagi smirked slightly and rolled his eyes. “So in other words, you stayed alive by default.”

“More or less, I suppose.” Roose murmured, looking back down at Wrecka’s still form. Without looking away, he continued, “I guess it doesn’t really matter that much to me. I mean, I know that you and Zero both want to be pilots badly, and you’re really good, too, but, well... I’m not an athlete, really. I’m not much of a fighter, either. I’m not sure why I’m here.”

Yamagi listened to Roose’s speech, agreeing with it but feeling a bit of pity for the boy nonetheless. Not that he cared about Roose’s battle skills too much, but it would be upsetting to be in a place where you knew you couldn’t excel. Yamagi knew that he wouldn’t like it, though for some reason, he had always thought it was different with Roose. He wasn’t sure why, exactly, but for some reason, he had never thought that Roose really worried about becoming a Pilot. It was a bit disheartening to think of it, in fact.

Yamagi didn’t say anything in reply for a moment, but then he shrugged, muttering, “I don’t know. I mean, it’s different for everyone, right? And at least you’re better than Clay.”

“Yeah,” Roose said, looking up at Yamagi and offering a smile. “At least I’m better than Clay.” he repeated, taking a deep breath and looking back down at Wrecka. After a moment’s pause, he mentioned, “I’m sorry that I got all depressing or whatever. I didn’t mean to, but with Wrecka-chan being hurt and all-”

“Shit, Roose!” Yamagi snapped, his eyes narrowing, “Will you shut up about Wrecka already?! I know she’s hurt, I can see her. Everything isn’t your fault, you know!”

Roose’s eyes grew wide and hurt, and he turned away from Yamagi so quickly that Yamagi was surprised the teal-haired boy didn’t move anything but his head. Briefly, a feeling of remorse flitted through Yamagi, but then the spiky-haired boy remembered how much whining Roose had been doing earlier and he simply frowned. Roose needed to learn how to deal with his friends getting hurt anyway; it wasn’t like they lived in a sheltered area or anything. In fact, Roose probably needed to hear that.

“Look, Roose,” Yamagi began roughly, trying not to snap at the obviously hurt boy. “You shouldn’t blame yourself for your friends getting injured. I mean, we’re training to be pilots. We’re going to get hurt. What if Wrecka did something like this every time you were hurt? Would you like that?”

Roose was silent for a moment before softly murmuring, “...No.”

“Then why are you doing it with her?” Yamagi continued, exasperated. It was hard to try and reason with Roose, for the sole reason that the teal-haired boy was so compassionate about the things he felt. Not to mention that Roose didn’t seem to have a selfish bone in his body, which Yamagi thought was weird; a lot people he had known before coming to GOA were greedy and only looked out for themselves.

“Because...” Roose began, and then faltered, not seeming to be able to explain why he was so worried. Then suddenly, a new vigor seemed to rise in him, and he exclaimed, “Because she’s my partner. Because I care about her! And because she’s my... my friend!”

Roose’s eyes were wide with emotion as he said this, and Yamagi got the impression that the thin boy was about to burst into tears. Yamagi was taken aback by the sudden display from Roose, surprised by the strength that Roose felt. The lavender-haired boy said nothing, something that seemed to will Roose to go on, which he did.

“She’s my partner, Yamagi, and my friend as well,” explained Roose softly as he looked Yamagi straight in the eye. “Like you are my friend, and like Zero and Clay are my friends. If you were hurt, I would worry about you, too, Yamagi.”

Yamagi stood silent; outwardly, he was stone-cold, but inside, he was still reeling from the shock of Roose’s sentiment. I’m his... friend? Yamagi thought, an air of disbelief in his thoughts. Then again, of course he was Roose’s friend; everyone was Roose’s friend, even if the said person didn’t wish to be, like Hiead. But Yamagi had tried to deter Roose’s attempts to befriend him, for no other reason than the fact that the teal-haired boy was much to clingy for Yamagi’s taste. It was surprising that even after Yamagi had more or less shunned him, Roose still considered Yamagi to be his friend. Weird.

“Yamagi?” asked Roose, breaking Yamagi from his thoughts. “Are you listening?”

“Yeah,” muttered Yamagi, partially frowning. He didn’t want Roose to know that he was thinking about what was said; he wasn’t supposed to be thoughtful about silly, sentimental things like that. Yamagi stood up straighter, pushing off of the wall, and stated, “I’m hungry, and it’s time for lunch.”

“I’m going to stay here,” Roose said, even though he wasn’t asked. Yamagi raised an eyebrow as Roose continued, “I think Wrecka-chan will wake up soon.”

“Okay. Whatever,” Yamagi replied, shrugging. He turned and left the room, calling out a flippant, “Seeya,” as he went. Once outside the medical room, Yamagi paused for a moment. A part of him was worried that if Roose didn’t eat, it would be detrimental to the thin boy, but Yamagi hurriedly pushed the nagging thought aside. If Roose wanted to eat, he would. Besides, it wasn’t Yamagi’s fault that Roose was being stubborn and foolish.

Yamagi then proceeded to walk down to the cafeteria, banishing all memory of his conversation with Roose from his mind.





“I’m so bored!” grumbled Zero as he laid down on the artificial grass of the Relaxation Room. He was frowning, but he wasn’t upset in the least -- actually, the brown-haired boy seemed to be rather pleased, if not a bit restless. It was obvious that Zero wanted to be accomplishing something other than relaxing, despite having come into the aforementioned room. Zero yawned and muttered, “I wanna do something.”

“Practice is in a half an hour,” murmured his blonde friend, who calmly sat down beside Zero. “Maybe you should just go to sleep.”

“Sleep?!” Zero exclaimed, looking up at the blonde with a baffled expression on his face. “I can’t sleep! I want to fight! Besides, I couldn’t sleep in the middle of the day even if I wanted to. Once I wake up, I have to do something!”

“That’s not surprising,” was Erts’ response as he looked down at Zero. His expression was thoughtful as he changed the subject, saying, “You haven’t eaten anything.” It was more of a statement than a question, but Zero didn’t seem to mind.

“I wasn’t hungry.”

Erts raised an eyebrow. “You weren’t?”

“Not really,” Zero answered, rolling over to lay on his stomach and face Erts, rather than speak to his friend without seeing him. “I went down to the cafeteria and everything, but once I got there, I didn’t want to stay. The food looked worse than usual. Way worse. And that’s saying something.” At this, Zero stuck out his tongue and scowled, to emphasize how horrible the food looked.

Erts closed his eyes, amused at the look on Zero’s face, and then opened them as he said, “I ate in the cafeteria before I met up with you. It wasn’t that bad.”

“You’ve been here longer. You’ve built up a tolerance.” Zero muttered, laying his head on his crossed arms, so that he was speaking towards the ground. Erts leaned forward slightly, so that he could hear the other boy, but Zero continued to speak coherently as he continued, “But it doesn’t matter, anyway! I hate the stuff they serve.”

“I suppose,” Erts replied calmly, pulling his knees up and wrapping his arms around them. He paused before he continued, because he wasn’t sure how to ask his next question. It wasn’t germane to anything they had previously said, but Erts was curious how Zero felt about what he was going to ask. Slowly, he began, “What did you think about that Megumi girl this morning?”

Zero raised his head so that his dark eyes peered up at Erts from behind his arms, and the brown-haired boy shrugged as well as he could from his position on the ground. Zero replied, “She was weird, I guess. Kind of funny looking; her clothes, I mean. She was pretty but she seemed... weird.”

“What do you mean?” questioned Erts, intrigued.

Zero shrugged again. “I dunno. Weird. Like, how she acted differently around Azuma and then around us. I guess I really didn’t notice then, but she wasn’t acting so hyper around us.”

“You’re right, she wasn’t.” Erts supported, nodding. He was slightly surprised at how perceptive Zero had been, but once he thought about it, Erts realized that he had no reason to be; Zero wasn’t stupid, nor unobservant. His personality made him seem less clever that he really was sometimes, though Erts knew better than to judge by outward appearance alone. Especially with Zero.

“And I could tell that you didn’t like her,” Zero continued, slightly bewildering Erts with his comment. Erts raised his eyebrows; he didn’t know that Zero had suspected his discomfort. Zero, seeing Erts’ expression, merely grinned cheekily and said, “I knew you didn’t. You were all cold around her. Well, not cold, really. But you spoke to her, which probably meant that you either really liked her or really didn’t, and I don’t think you liked her.”

“I didn’t,” Erts admitted, interested with Zero’s insight. It wasn’t often that Zero showed his deeper side, though it was becoming more apparent to Erts that Zero noticed more things than he let on. Not that Erts was upset about this; it was quite the opposite, in fact. Erts was pleased that Zero had noticed the change in his behavior. Usually, people didn’t pay enough attention to notice. Realizing this, Erts nearly smiled; obviously, Zero cared enough about him to realize when he was upset, even though Erts didn’t often show his emotions.

“Yeah, I knew you didn’t,” Zero continued. He had rested his head on his arms again, so he didn’t noticed Erts’ inquisitive expression fade slowly into a pensive one. Zero muttered, “But if we didn’t help her we wouldn’t have been able to go to GIS, and I wanted to.”

“We didn’t really get to go to GIS, you know -- you weren’t authorized. We were only able to see her to the entrance. Besides, you didn’t know that she was looking for a Pilot when you started talking to her.” Erts reminded him, raising an eyebrow at his brown-haired friend, though he knew Zero couldn’t see his slightly reproving expression.

“She started talking to me, not the other way around,” corrected Zero, who lifted his head and rest his chin on his forearms. “Besides, I wanted to know why she was here. New people don’t show up often.”

“Unless you count the new candidates.”

“New OLDER people,” Zero amended, “and furthermore, we never really see the new kids until they show up at practice anyway. It doesn’t count.”

“True,” Erts responded quietly, taking in Zero’s assessment.

Zero sat up, casually stretching his arms out over his head. After he did so, he looked at Erts and asked, “What do you think happened to Wrecka, anyway?”

Erts paused for a moment before answering. Taking a breath, Erts responded, “I’m not sure, exactly. I’ve heard that she was bitten by something, though, so maybe she was poisoned.”

“All she had was two little bite things, though,” Zero debated, frowning. Then, his expression growing pensive, Zero asked, “Do you think it could have been a dart or something? I mean, Roose didn’t see anything, but he probably didn’t think to look, either, what with his dear Wrecka-chan lying there and all...”

“The bathrooms at GOA are small, though. He probably would have seen someone if they were there.”

“Yeah, but what else could it have been?” asked Zero, crossing his legs and casting a thoughtful gaze at the ground. Absently, he pulled a few strands of artificial grass from the floor. “I mean, what kind of person would BITE someone and make ‘em faint? Well, I could see Hiead doing the whole ‘vicious biting’ thing, but still. And it had to have been a person, ‘cause we don’t have any animals on GOA. Again, minus Hiead.”

Erts, used to Zero ragging on Hiead and not exactly upset about him doing so, didn’t acknowledge Zero’s comments about the white-haired menace. Instead, he took a moment to collect his thoughts before venturing, “Actually, I once heard about an ancient legend that almost seems to fit this scenario...”

“Oh?” Zero asked, forgetting about the grass and looking up at Erts, intrigued. “What is it?”

“Well, I’m not sure how much truth is behind it. From what I could tell, it was considered a legend for a long time, even back in the ancient days.” Erts began, a bit startled by the scrutiny of Zero’s gaze. “One of my uncles told me about it, and he was kind of... odd, I suppose you could say. He was fascinated by the ancient world, but I always received the impression that he was elaborating.”

Zero shrugged. “So? You’re uncle was weird.”

“Well, no, not really,” Erts replied, though Zero did seem to have a point. “But anyway, he told be about these creatures that could only move during the nighttime. They drank blood to survive, and they had fangs which they’d use to suck it out of unsuspecting humans. Apparently, they’re immortal, but something holy could kill them for good, I think. I don’t remember what they were called, though.”

“Something holy?” Zero repeated, a bewildered expression on his face. “What does that mean, anyway?”

“I’m not sure,” admitted Erts. “I always thought that it was just a made-up story. I think my uncle said a crucifix, but those were just objects in an Old World religion, I believe. In any case, I doubt the legend was true.”

Zero’s eyes brightened, responding, “Yeah, maybe whoever attacked Wrecka knew the same story that you did, and they thought it would be cool to attack like that. You know, like they were borrowing the battle plan or whatever.”

“Maybe...” Erts trailed off, noting the sense in Zero’s idea. It seemed like a logical explanation to the oddity of the aforementioned attack, though it didn’t explain why the person struck in the first place. Perhaps it was just a deranged candidate, which -- shown by the fact that Hiead was enlisted -- wasn’t too unlikely.

“Anyway,” Zero muttered, standing up. “I’m getting hungry now -- goin’ to go see if I can still get lunch, despite its’ utter grossness. Do you want to come?”

Erts abruptly snapped out of his musing and stood up as well, though he replied, “No, I need to speak with Rome about the last battle simulation. We have joint practices today, right?”

“Yep,” Zero confirmed, smiling and pumping his fist. “And I get to go up against Yamagi this time, which will be interesting.”

“All right,” Erts smiled, knowing that Zero was happier because Yamagi would prove to be a better opponent than Roose had been earlier.

The two candidates made their way out of the Relaxation room and started down the hall. They separated at the corner, because Erts needed to get a few things from his room before seeing Rome.

Grinning, Zero said, “Seeya’ in about ten minutes, Erts!”

“All right,” Erts replied with a half-smile. Zero turned and made his way down the hall, nodding a greeting to another candidate that he apparently knew. Erts watched him for a moment before heading toward his room, intent on retrieving what he needed so that he would have enough time to discuss the battle statistics with Rome before the simulation began.

Unbeknownst to Erts, something was watching him as he reached his room and entered it. The creature watched, its eyes narrowed, as it licked its lips hungrily. It had been awhile since it had eaten last...