"He's a blowhard who's ego has been boosted by his victories, and his impressive gunpla. Take his words to heart only if you value them. Otherwise they're just wasted breath." grumbled Takahashi as he looked down as his statistical layout for Advent. A machine of versatility, and solid stats across the board. He made it so long ago that he wondered if it was still worthy of being called a monster. It was capable but not overpowering. That was the point behind it. He wasn't sure the Meijin quite understood Takahashi but maybe he should work on being less frosty. "What now?" questioned the gunpla expert as he looked down at the unaccepted friend request unsure if he should follow through.

Akira listened to what the Meijin had said and was taken aback. He was right, he froze in a crucial moment and it cost them the battle. He was a bit shaken but knew what he wanted to do.
"I think we could work well together as a force!" he blurted out. "I just mean that we all have a lot we can learn from each other take me for example according to the Meijin I need to focus more and I think working with you guys can help me do that." he added trying to make some sense of the emotions coursing through him. He was confused because he felt like they should all be together working as a team.

"Bah!" Takatora blurted out, almost sounding like bark or growl, "He makes a friend request and then acts like I don't even exist!" The Meijin addressed everyone to give what he thought were criticisms of their performance and chosen styles of play. He then proceeded to just ignore the hell out of Takatora without so much as a shred of acknowledgement. The racoon's hand balled into fist, trembling for a long moment before he suddenly slammed that fist into the wall, producing a loud and audible thud, "Well screw you too, Meijin!" he shouted, almost hoping the bastard was still in earshot to hear him, "You giant, colossal asshole! What kind of jerk does that?"

He started to quiet down. What was once anger was now just simmering down into quiet hatred. Hatred for what, Takatora didn't know. Sure, the Meijin was a giant bag of dicks but it wasn't like he actually saw Takatora battle in the first mission. He was only interested in the Event with King. King, an even bigger douche than the Meijin as far as Takatora cared. He didn't know what was worse, the fact that these jerks were all getting under his skin or the fact that he didn't have a valid retort for their disregard. Things were so much easier when one could focus all their anger and frustration onto a single target. But in this case there was no single target to really focus on.

"I'll show that bastard. The Meijin, King... I tear them both down from their high horses. Then we'll see who's high and mighty after that." then Takatora suddenly shouted again, "You hear me, Meijin? And you, King? Don't get too comfortable on your thrones, because when I get done I'll reign over both of you!" he punched the wall again, and only then did he finally respond to anything Akira said, "If you want to take that jerk's advice, then knock yourself out. As far as I'm concerned, he just became another target. I'm done here for today. I've got somewhere I need to be." and without any further warning he just vanished, his avatar dissolving into pixels as a sign that the player had logged out.

In the real world, Takatora yanked off his headset and threw it over onto his bed, "Bastard!" he hissed to himself, "Time to see a man about a Gunpla." he hurriedly packed up the Hayabusa and then bolted for the door. His destination? Sakuraba Plastic Models.

”Well looks like unpopular and he said I had emotional problems. Hey wait that bastard King is my prey!”

Miyuki shouted out to the edgy raccoon, though she didn’t add the fact that, she was going to have to find away to counter the SCP. Even if she didn’t detonate the bits, King probably had a way to do so anyway, except he decided to do it in the most dickish way possible. Though that brings up the question, why the highest level divers comes off as the most pretentious people possible? So she could at least understand why the raccoon and Taka swore bloody vengeance. Though when Akira brought up forces Miyuki responded with.

”Oh a force just like old times, except.”

Miyuki went back to her creepily good, could probably win an Oscar, Takashi impression.

”I don’t do forces!”

Miyuki sarcastically makes fun of Taka’s gloomy personality as she gives answer, no. Before going back to her normal body language.

”We should all at least wait until we get past first base and actually get to know each other. Though in that case, Izzy want me to train you?”

"Well I do say that." Takahashi admitted as he rubbed the back of his head and considered the options in front of them. "I'd expect that more people are going to show up just because of that match with a king. I don't think that will last long. Give a few days to go away." Takahashi said as he looked through his list of models he still needed to get built. Considering Exia Repair, and King Rex Barbatos were the next on his list he'd figure he should get moving as sooner, or later he'd need to figure things out. "And here I was thinking you were trying to get to second base with me Miyuki." Takahashi sarcastically commented as he yawned and looked at the remainder of the people here. "I'm going to log out soon do you all need something else from me? As for forces I already told you I'll run with you guys a bit more before I say yes or no." questioned the arrogant young Gunpla builder as he scratched his virtual nose.

By the time Takatora had made it to the store, it was close to its closing time. He'd spent so long logged into GBN that he wasn't going to have enough time to really do much today. He didn't let that stop him, though. He could at least ask Sento to teach him starting tomorrow if necessary. Thankfully the door wasn't locked yet and so Takatora entered the shop. No customers were around, probably because it was only minutes before closing time and the sign had even already been flipped over from "Open" to "Closed", meaning that Sento was wasn't expecting any more customers. Takatora looked around and his gaze became focused on the central display case, causing his eyes to widen. There must have been dozens of Gunpla on display in that case. From varying series, movies, and other official sources. And true to Sento's reputation, they were all beautifully constructed, each one almost perfectly emulating the model's look and feel. Some had battle damage added for artistic effect. Some even had sprinkles of dirt on them to simulate how heavily utilized they were in the lore of the series they came from.

"Ah, I'm sorry to say that I've closed for the day-" called a voice from the back room. The door to that room opened, and a young man emerged into the main room of the store. His expression shifted slightly when he realized who it was that entered. Not one of negativity, in fact if anything he became rather intrigued, "I was wondering when I'd see you..." said Sento, scratching his head briefly as he stepped closer to Takatora. Sento looked to be be in his early twenties, like someone of college age. Or perhaps a year or so older, with him it was difficult to tell, "He came to me too, after all. It's only natural that you would eventually follow his footsteps."

"Sento..." replied Takatora, brief hesitation in his voice before he seemed to regain his determination, "...I need you to tell me the secrets of the Hayabusa." he said simply, even holding up the Gunpla case for Sento to see.

"I'm not sure what I could tell you," Sento admitted, "you know that I am not the Hayabusa's builder."

"But you taught him what he knew!" exclaimed Takatora, raising his voice slightly but then continuing in a more apologetic tone, "You more than anyone can help me understand it. Don't you always claim that you appraise a Gunpla with a single glance?"

Sento allowed himself a prideful smile, "Well... that is true." he replied, seemingly forgetting to show humility of any kind, "Are you saying you want me to appraise it? You do realize that usually requires me to take it apart...?"

Takatora hesitated again. The idea of someone dismantling the Hayabusa was frightening to him. But there was no other choice, Kiyotaka was no longer around to tell anyone the secrets of his Gunpla. After a hard swallow Takatora nodded, "You'll be able to reassemble it, right? So... do it." and then he noticed Sento snatching the case without any further hesitation or confirmation.

"Ah, what a nostalgic build. Brings me back. The black paint job, the incredible fusion of two body frames..."

"Two body frames?!" asked Takatora, genuinely surprised by this, "You mean it's a hybrid build?"

"Of course," Sento said, raising an eyebrow, "surely you could tell that much on your own by looking? The Hayabusa is a combination of two different base models..." he paused, eyes scanning the shelves before he snatched a pair of boxes and showed them to Takatora, "...these two, to be precise." the boxes were for the MBF-P02 Gundam Astray Red Frame and the MBF-P03 Gundam Astray Blue Frame, "I'll appraise the build for you, but I'll need to keep the Hayabusa for tonight. It'll take me a couple of hours to get a more thorough look at it, and it's already closing time. Don't worry, you'll have it back first thing tomorrow exactly as it was when you brought it in, you have my word."

"Are you sure?" but before any further conversation could be made, Takatora was practically shoved out the door and it was locked behind him, "I guess that's it then..." and he started for home.

Brother... please forgive me.



In the middle of the night, a certain video went live. It was viewed, and shared, and then re-uploaded. By morning, virtually every inbox in GBN was buzzing with messages about the video, links included. Discussions began to murmur, and then after a while some of them turned into heated debates. Anyone who clicked the link, no matter where it circulated from, was treated to the following:

The next day...

There are so many questions in this world...did the chicken come before the egg? Did the Americans actually land on the moon? Did that asshole from the ramen shop really decide it was ok to take extra noodles when he was on a diet? And out of all of those...mine is completely different...why am I here right now?"

All of these, and more were running through Takahashi's mind as he walked down to the stage of the Minor League Gunpla Team Exhibition Center. He was flanked on two sides by two rather pretty girls...one with bright pink hair, and a bubbly attitude, and the other a more composed figure with long purple hair. The pink haired girl was Katsumi Inouye, and the other girl was named Shoko Kita. It would seem that people were intent on using him as their 'hype man' to boost the crowd's passion even more than usual. And the annoying part was that he didn't care to be here despite Katsumi's rather curvaceous features, and ample...assets she was as big an air head as a blimp. And Shoko despite looking nice herself was as easy to talk to as a board. She had very few interests they shared, and she had a one track mind. And as for the man leading them down the hallway it was Hisao Miyajima with his large jacket flowing behind him, and he was wearing sunglasses over his eyes in doors. Hisao...you flaming freaking idiot you know how much of a tool you look like?

Katsumi was wearing a fan servicey pink casual clothes. Apparently she liked to make the boys happy so she took requests for stuff like this on occasion but she didn't let it go to far...or so Hisao said. To make it worse she was in the avatar form of a Neko. It took some willpower not to ogle her himself but with Shoko flanking him he didn't feel like getting kicked in his virtual balls just yet. Shoko on the other hand was wearing a standard business suit, and had a beret covering the top of her head. Hisao stopped and started to bounce up, and down. "Hey you guys ready to get it on! I can't wait! I know we're going to win this!" Hisao said as he smiled Katsumi giggled, and nodded. "Let's put on a show everyone will enjoy!" commented Katsumi as Shoko nodded. "Statistically speaking we have a 5 to 1 odds in our favor of victory. The others will be unable to handle our superior tactics. Rashomon God doesn't have the skill level to handle our team work." Shoko stated bluntly as Hisao looked at her and told her not to be so tough on them they probably will be hard to beat. Takahashi simply didn't give a flying fuck.

Hisao had wrangled up Taka after forcing him into a chat room through excessive begging, and had somehow shang hai'd Takahashi into being a guest 'manager' for his force. This force was a group of vastly different people with a mysterious teacher whom had showed up on the circuit a few months ago with some variety of success but they had lit up the indies in the teen-young adult categories. Hisao was a freaking moron but he had a knack for drawing people to him through his sincerity, and his kindness. He was also a strong gunpla pilot unlike Takahashi. The force's name was Perfect Area which was a big bunch of nonsense what kind of name was that? Regardless they seemed to win over crowds with a hint of fan service, and energy. They were fun for the crowds, and that's all that the promoters cared for.

"And introducing first! From Japan! Perfect! Area! Completion!" the announcer called out as Takahashi prepared to walk out with them. This would be a three on three with Takahashi having no actual roll in this other than to be brought out with them since he had recently fought the king he had gotten obnoxious messages from some force. How annoying...almost like this force's theme.



As the music came out Hisao came out with his hands up high waving to the crowd in the arena, and the girls followed. Katsumi winked, and waved to the crowd cheerfully as Shoko kept her quiet deposition. The crowd exploded in applause as they bounced around, and made a spectacle out of it.

"And their guest! Hailing from the former Force Supreme Gainer! Gunpla Builder Expert! Takahashi Kotomine!" Takahshi sighed and raised his hand in the air as he walked down the aisle he couldn't tell what was happening when they mentioned his name over the cheers but he was certain that him being there peeved a few fanboys, and got some of the competitive players talking...as much as he wished they didn't. He didn't have a problem with the spotlight but...did it have to be so loud, and poppy? Takahashi waited as the crew did their signature poses before going to sit down in the corner in a chair allotted to him by the promoter. As he sat down he pulled out his messages, and looked through them seeing a notification that some guy called Roman had sent some sort of message to the king. Wasn't that the name of some big shot pilot or something? The name seeed familiar...but the more he considered watching it the worse the conclusion seemed to be. He promptly closed it and yawned not wanting to get dragged into drama he'd much rather deal with the cheerful moe garbage in front of him.

Miyuki and Isamu spent their time doing the basics of Gunpla battles, namely to differentiate between reality and fiction. It was quite the nostalgia trip for her as she trained Isamu, as she trained him, how her old forcemate trained her. By punting them off a cliff and having them climb back up, before doing it again and again until they got it. Though she spent most of that time trying to figure a counter for the SCP as she watched the kid basically get Spartaed over and over.

She immediately went into her room once she got back home. The room was a mess to say the least with Gunpla boxes and tools scatted around the place, though the odd part was that the Gunpla around were support units and the others were broken down into parts. This was because Miyuki didn’t use any other Gunpla, but the Gemini. It was her only suit and her first Gunpla. It was just something about the Unicorn, something gave it a connection to the masked Gunpla that she kept it all this time. Hisao would constantly say it was fate, but Miyuki wasn’t that much of a romantic. Miyuki sat down on her table and pulled out the Gemini and looked over it’s legs, before pulling out a small bag of customized pieces. Taking out her tools she looked through her drawer for the final pieces, which was the special butterfly knife rifle thing that she got from a promotion way back when. She looked through the drawer when she accidentally tipped a small box, similar to the one she keeps the Gemini in over and spilled the contents on the floor.

Miyuki jumped as she looked over what was dropped and as she looked over what she dropped. It was a pair of curved swords, but from one look at it... one could see it was far better built than the Noir itself. Miyuki froze a moment before looking over to the corner of room were a bow layed leaning against the wall. Miyuki had her eyes to it for several moments, with memories flowing through her mind and her eyes watered up a bit as a sharp pain formed in her chest. Though she snapped herself out of it and shoved the swords and the box back into her drawer and shelved the old memories into the back of her mind.

The Gemini’s knees would spike out a bit with it’s new weapons, which were knee blades. In that fight the beam tonfas were too slow to deploy. If they were in the ready position a second sooner she actually could have stabbed the Meteor. With these blades she could get ready and impale the opponent in an instant. Well in theory anyway. Miyuki put away the Gemini before pulling out her homework, she had quite a bit of work to do.

The Next Day, Kokusai Academy.

Miyuki impatiently tapped on her notebook though this was actually her personal notebook rather than her class notes with sketches of her Gunpla, but this time it was empty. She looked over ideas, but all she could think of she quietly realized that it wouldn’t work.

“Asakura!”

Miyuki’s head shot up for her sketches, as she was called on.

”Ah, Y-es?”

Miyuki called out in a mousy fashion. Some students would snicker at her stuttering. This was why she hated school, she had no idea who it was that was laughing at her. Thanks to the uniforms everyone was wearing, it was like trying to figure out different blades for grass. Besides she hated the dark dreary colors.

“Pay attention, you’re not here to waste your time staring into space!”

Miyuki bowed nervously. Something completely unlike her gaming persona.

”Sorry teacher!”

Miyuki closed down her sketchbook as she sat up from her desk and looked forward. She listened over to her topic which was science and her current teacher was Mr. Tokugawa, a young black haired science teacher that taught science at her school. Despite his young age, he was actually quite a strict teacher and quite intimidating for Miyuki so she payed attention to the topic at hand. The teacher went on a bit about the topic, but he always liked to add interesting pieces of trivia about the Subject and one piece of information lit up a light bulb in the diver’s head.

”That’s it!”

Miyuki shot up before realizing her outburst.

”Ah, sorry...”

Miyuki slowly sat down pretending nothing happened as she tried to bury her redding face into her hands trying to ignore the stares that her classmates were giving her. Though that wasn’t quite enough for Mr. Tokugawa, who simply stated two words every student dreaded hearing.

“Asakura. After class.”

After Class

Tokugawa gave Miyuki a scolding of a lifetime, which was the usual, this place is your future try your best here. Though he actually made it seem terrifying, which made Miyuki shiver as she put away the extra assignment she was given. Though due to her shaking hands she managed to drop her sketch book and was left wide open for the world to see.

“You dropped something.”

Which Mr. Tokugawa being the only one there, picked it up. ’Ah, I’m gonna die.’ though as he picked it up he told Miyuki in a gentler tone.

“Asakura, If you’re going to be working on Gunpla, do it after school, not during class.”

She was handed back her sketchbook with a minor warning, as she was lead out the door by the teacher and they went their separate ways, Tokugawa heading to the teacher’s lounge and Miyuki... She took a trip to the Library.

”M...M...M... There it is.”

Miyuki squares down as she pulled out two very worn textbooks. Mr. Tokugawa had suggested these if they wanted to know more to the class, which he always did, but most students didn’t and before today she didn’t either. She checked both of them out saying politely and as little as she needed before heading out the door. This brought new ideas at in her head, though she still had to get materials though she could probably get it from her dad’s workplace.

”Miyuki Chan!”

Miyuki was stepping out into the hallway when her name was called by a female voice, though she didn’t need to turn to know who it was. The girl was Hana Yamato and before she could continue, Miyuki ran from her, not wanting to face her.

GBN

Miyuki jumped back into GBN. It was her former force mate’s entry into the Minor League and she wouldn’t miss it for the world. She transported into the event, as her former force did their signature poses, which got a giggle and a grin from her as she walked down the aisle and sat down next to Taka, which probably gave most of her former force mates a pleasant surprise. While Miyuki was an avid player of GBN. There was actually a long hiatus that she took for personal reasons. Most of them probably thought that she quit until she and Hisao met up a few weeks back. Though to be honest Miyuki herself thought she probably wouldn’t have gone back to GBN or even went outside during that period... Miyuki leaned over Taka’s shoulder.

”So, what are you watching?”

Miyuki asked Taka about the challenge from Roman.

Almost shocked to see Miyuki there Takahashi almost fell over on his chair as he stared over at her. "You know its polite to tell someone you're here before you lean on them." Takahashi grumbled as he recomposed himself as the next team came up Rashomon God was renown for their excellent power oriented gunpla but they lacked range. Hisao piloted machines that excelled at it, and from what he could tell the other two girls excelled at close, and mid range combat as well. It would seem that Perfect Area held the advantage like Shoko said. Their music was a lot more electric guitar heavy than the pop filled music of Hisao's team. He considered his thoughts for a second before looking over his shoulder at Miyuki.

"Well if you want to know I'm watching a moron fight together with a jail bait tease, and a yandere against a bunch of hard metal junkies. Jokes aside Hisao kind of tricked me into coming along. By tricking I mean he acted really pathetic until I felt bad for him. But you know how he is he's a nice guy so he gets a pass from time to time. Surprised to see you here I thought you'd be training after what happened the other day." Takahashi stated as he looked at the match enter the start up phase as the combatants got ready. "I wonder how Hisao got so good. He use to be awful with gunpla when he was on the force. I mean he wasn't an complete loser but he had no coordination. Suddenly he forms up this team called Perfect Area and he is the co-boss of the team. He told me he got a really strong teacher. Who's got the patience for someone like him?" Takahashi said as he stretched himself out. "Oh and in case you didn't hear some guy called out the king. I didn't bother to watch it but I figured you'd like to know since you seem to dislike the guy." Takahashi said as he turned his focus to the match at hand it would seem both teams would be fighting on a volcano island, and the volcanoe had erupted. He saw Rashumon's Bolt Gundam start off by charging directly where Hisao's team had started flanked by his teammates.

”Dislike is a weak word.”

Miyuki corrected though it would appear that many people wanted his head just as much as she did. Though that meant that she just had to get it before anyone else did. Miyuki grinned as she saved a screen shot of Taka’s face as she surprised him. Another memory to add to the file of embarrassing Taka moments.

”Well I’m going to be doing some training, It’s just that like a good friend I should at least show up to cheer him on. Though, he does seem to have moved up in the world. I mean if I remember correctly I beat him, 37 times?”

Hisao and Miyuki were pretty friendly with each other, though Hisao always had a bit of a rivalry with Miyuki. It was probably because despite being in GBN longer than Miyuki, she actually surpassed him fairly quickly, which caused him to challenge her constantly.

”Well should we at least investigate who the teacher is? I do actually want to go a few rounds against whoever this guy is. Even if they couldn’t hammer out the pathetic side of Hisao.

Though what Miyuki left unsaid was that she actually admired his persistence. Once he got his sight on something he wouldn’t give it up. Though that brought a funny picture into Miyuki’s mind.

”You think he was taken in by this teacher, due to the fact that he spent his time begging until the teach couldn’t stand it anymore?”

"Does completely loathe sound like a better wording choice? I mean he was a bit of an ass but I just found him annoying. He beat Advent." grumbled Takahashi as he remembered those dumb funnels, and particles that had ruined any chance of Takahashi any chance of winning. Stupid metal tubes of death...Takahashi wondered if the king would show up somewhere eventually? Probably life was like a bad anime. And like all bad anime obsessive egotistical jerkwads tended to latch onto things they found curious.

"Actually 41 if you count the times where he got a teammate handicap, and still got shot down. I mean it was his fault challenging you all those times. But he's got a passionate streak...and in a way I think he did it because he probably felt like it was making you two closer. He is still, and always will be, a sentimental mess." Takahashi said with a chuckle. He remembered how Hisao use to keep their spirits up he would go around trying to make sure everyone was having fun. He'd say dumb things, put on dumb videos, and somehow act as dense as a brick whenever a girl hit on him. He didn't miss the old force but that was for his own reasons. For every Hisao there was...a Rantaro. Rantaro whom had pushed everyone as hard as possible to get a victory no matter how dirty the tactic was...that greasy Shani looking fucking prick...

"He told me that he couldn't say who it was. If I had to guess it was someone really good. Probably former pro. Or at least near there. He's got excellent ranged tactics, and he can actually zone people now. He went from berserker suicidal close range to long range sniper. Who knew he had it in him?" Takahashi stated further as he considered the chance to find out who exactly Hisao was with. "I honestly can't say why they took him in. But then again I always thought of him as a loser so what do I know? I'm not in a minor league tier team anymore." commented Takahashi as he chuckled for once.

”Yep... That sounds about right.”

It was alway like it with the two and the fact that he was a pretentious prick just made it worse. Miyuki brought up a written copy of whatever that guy said to King and it does bring up a good point. How did King make that system anyway? Perhaps he did have admin assistance...

”Yeah he is... A mess”

She’d remember when she left GBN for her hiatus, back then they all thought it was a permanent retirement. Hisao was probably the most broken up about it and was only a little bit less of a mess than herself. He tried his best to keep them together, though she left anyway. Though now that she thought about it his instance might have been the one that brought her back.

”Well whoever it was they trained him well.

They didn’t know who it was, but a pro with a long ranged fighting style... that only took out about a third of the pros around. Though if someone could go all Kenichi on Hisao’s ass and make him threating they must have done a hell of a job. Though that brought up a bad memory, one spoiled by the thoughts of Rantaro. Miyuki was deep down partially grateful, due to the fact he was the one who taught her so much, but when she saw him before her hiatus, she saw his true colors... she shook her head.

”About that... What do you think about the Isamu’s force offer?”

Miyuki was actually thinking about it and she did like Isamu. He was kinda like a little brother, but it was more than that. If she wanted another go at King she needed a way to get to the top quickly and the way to do that is to join a force.

Takatora stared at his phone in disbelief, "Adam... what are you thinking?" thinking back, the last time he saw Adam was the previous day, he migrated to the Japanese server to observe a battle involving King. Was this the reason? Takatora remembered a specific part of Adam's private message. I'd seen all I need to see. He wasn't planning this from the beginning... was he? There was no time to think about it. Takatora pocketed his phone and grabbed his book bag. Today was still a school day, and so he would have to wait until the afternoon to get the Hayabusa back from Sento. In a way he was almost nervous about what Sento would say about it. What if it wasn't as strong as it seemed? Or worse, what if it was too much to him to actually handle?

He could barely pay attention throughout the day, instead having to resort to remaining on auto-pilot for most of it. Between thinking about his inevitable trip to Sento's later and overhearing a number of conversations concerning Adam's video, it was difficult not to have those thoughts racing through his head. Eventually, the school day came to its end and Takatora practically made a b-line to Sakuraba Plastic Models. He was anxious to get the Hayabusa back, but even more so about hearing the result of Sento's appraisal.

---

It was almost midnight. He couldn't afford to remain up all night, but at the same time he couldn't afford to go to bed yet until he reaped the results of his work. At last, something appeared in his inbox. A video, and the young man watched it intently. So that was what King looked like? Interesting, it was almost strange knowing that he was likely one of the first people to ever get this good of a look at King's person. When the video finished, the man reached for a nearby bottle of water and drank from it, actually downing what was left inside. Then he stood up, the video paused on King's grimace, and picked up a nearby mobile phone. He awoke it from its idle mode and then looked for a specific contact before pushing the call button.

"It's me." Adam said, when he heard the recipient of the call answer. He wasn't speaking in his native Romanian, in fact he wasn't even speaking in English either. He was, in fact, speaking Japanese of all things, "I take it you saw the video?" a pause, "That's true, everyone in the GBN community has seen it by now. I'm letting you be the first to know... my challenge was accepted." another pause, "Actually, no. I have another reason for calling you. I'm going to email you the full specs of the Blood Baron, it's been too long since it's last appraisal." another pause, "Yes, I'm well aware there are shops here in my country, but you're the only person in the world I would ever want to entrust my Gunpla's secrets to." one final pause, "Right, I'll send it in the next hour or so, so keep an eye on your inbox. Thank you, Sento. Goodbye." and then he hung up. The next 20 or so minutes was spent putting together a list of his Gunpla's specs that he then put into an email that he sent to an old friend. When that was done, he could finally lay down in bed and get some much needed sleep.

---

When he made it to Sento's store, Takatora entered the door without any pause or hesitation. He was getting even antsier about the appraisal. But once he was he inside, he heard Sento's voice coming from the back end of the store. It sounded like he was on the phone. As Takatora approached the counter, he could hear a little of what Sento was saying.

"You do know there are shops in your country, don't you?" there was a pause, "Well, now you're just trying to flatter me. Oh fine, I'll appraise it for you. An hour or so? Alright, I'll be waiting for it. Goodbye." and then there was a click. After that, Sento emerged and spotted Takatora, "There you are, right on time. That's good." he went behind the counter and reached under it. When he stood back up again he presented the all-too-familiar case for the Hayabusa, "Just like it was when you brought it to me, just as promised."

Takatora practically snatched the case from him and quickly opened it to check on the Hayabusa. True to his word, it looked absolutely no different than when Takatora brought it in. The fact that Sento could so perfectly recreate the build after dismantling it was a testament to the sheer level of his building skill, "So...? What can you tell me?" Takatora asked after an awkward long pause.

"For starters," said Sento, hanging a small poster board on the wall behind him before beginning to write notes on it, "he was a lot more prepared than I used to give him credit for. Not only does it have the Scale System for underwater mobility, but he also equipped it with Trans-Phase Armor to be used in a pinch. Turns out the black paint job isn't just for looks, that particular paint has a peculiar oil mixed into it that somehow renders the Gunpla nearly invisible to enemy scanners and radar. So much like how the Deathscythe and Deathscythe Hell could be used for stealth operations, so too can the Hayabusa, but he took it further than that. The legs have a clay-like substance reinforcing them. This provides a dampener of sorts of that allows the Gunpla to step silently despite it's scale size. Not completely silently, but enough to make a difference."

"Scale System and Trans-Phase Armor? I... didn't even know about that." Takatora admitted, suddenly feeling a little foolish for having piloted a Gunpla he apparently knew very little about.

"A standard vulcan, nothing particularly unique, just an emergency back up weapon. The twin beam sabers are an interesting choice, near weightlessness of a beam saber allows them to be swung faster than a solid. That combined with their beam energy blades make them ideal for high speed strikes capable of burning through physical defenses. Of course there's also the Dragon Buster, it's weight allowing for powerful swings that deal devastating damage, it's ideal for larger and more heavily armored opponents such as Mobile Armors. But the real trump card, the real masterpiece to this build..." paused before gesturing toward the katana, "...is that sword there, the Dragon Sword."

"It's just a Katana, though..." responded Takatora, to which Sento practically slammed his hand on the counter.

"It most certainly is not 'just a Katana'!" exclaimed, before clearing his throat, "While it may look like the same Gerbera Straight used by the Astray Red Frame base model, this sword has been modified. Now it holds a powerful secret. With each swing, each strike against opponents, the blade can collect and store particle and kinetic energy bit by bit. Over time, it builds up, and then it can be released for a single, extremely powerful strike, far more deadly than anything than even the Dragon Buster is capable of. From what I gather, you can actually see the signs of the energy the blade stores whenever it pulses with electrical sparks. Evidently those aren't just cosmetic, but instead act as a visual cue for keeping track of how much energy is stored in the blade."

Takatora blinked in disbelief. Could that really be true? He had to admit, he had noticed the Dragon Sword occasionally sparking with electrical energy but... he always just assumed that was a design choice for dramatic effect. He never would have guessed there was an actual functional purpose to it, "I... honestly had no idea. Is it really that powerful?"

"I thought you might ask," Sento said, "so I dug this up." he pulled up a video clip on his phone for Takatora to watch. It was battle footage of the Hayabusa, but was recorded a long time ago, meaning that Kiyotaka was the one piloting it. He was in battle against a Psycho Gundam capable of firing a large beam shot from its chest. The specific moment of the clip showed the Hayabusa's sword almost constantly producing sparks up and down the length of the blade. The Hayabusa boosted forward, making for a direct frontal attack against the Psycho Gundam which fired it's chest beam. But the Hayabusa didn't dodge, instead the blade gleamed as the black gunpla sliced into the beam, releasing the stored energy and producing a golden-like aura that burst from the blade and seemed to extend it's length and greatly increase its power. After that, the beam from the chest laser actually split into two, indicating it was being cut in half by the Dragon Sword as it continued boosting forward. After a moment, the Hayabusa blew past the Psycho Gundam and sheathed the sword in time for the big Mobile Armor to split it into two halves before exploding.

"...Wow." was Takatora's only response.

"Of course, your mileage may vary." warned Sento, "After all, what you just saw was Kiyotaka at his best. The actual power and effectiveness of the sword likely boils down to the skill level of the pilot. I doubt you'll be cutting down Psycho Gundams anytime soon. It's also very possible that what you witnessed was Kiyotaka's special technique awarded to him upon reaching Rank C. If that were the case, then you may not be able to use that attack at all. Even when you reach Rank C, the attack you are awarded with is one completely unique to you, which would mean this particular attack may simply be impossible for you to even use, much less master."

"But what choice do I have? I don't have any Gunpla of my own, so I'm just going to have to master the Hayabusa. Even if I can't be as strong as him, I can still use what you told me to be even better. So... thanks." he took the Hayabusa and hurriedly left the store. He was now more eager than ever to log back into GBN. If for no other reason than to try out the other systems and functions of the Hayabusa.

"I really hope..." Sento said with a sigh after Takatora left, "...you show more ambition than that. You'll never grow if you just stay like this forever."

@Shiyonichi As the fight heated up Takahashi put more focus on Hisao's team they were expertly forcing the enemy to fight out in the open however RG was using bolt gundam's heavy weapons to force the into the sky as their Akatsuki gundam defended it. Despite this all the group coutinued to put press with all sorts of beam fire onto the heavy units made, and piloted by RG. "If you want my honest opinion, its a childish joke. But maybe it has potential. If I commit to it I'm not fully committing until they can show themselves off as good pilots. I'm not officially going to join it but I'll help if you do. I'd like you to keep in mind they're randoms. We could just as easily run into a group of people way more talented than the others. Isamu is a nice enough guy though." Taka stated as suddenly a large smash was seen on screen Bolt Gundam had used its super mode to cause a massive earthquake to appear forcing Shoko in her gundam Arios to pull out in jet mode. However at the same time Hisao put out a perfectly timed shot blowing the suit's head off as Katsumi's follow up shot its legs off effectively neutralizing their captain. "DAMN that was brutal." Takahashi said genuinely impressed by that last move that took some good luck to pull off but also skill.

Miyuki raised her eyebrow at Takashi’s harsh and pragmatic statement before answering back to him.

”See, now that’s why you don’t have more friends. You know Taka instead of being such a grumpy bear, you should at least cheer up and take a gamble!”

Miyuki teased Takashi, with a suggestion that sounded a bit similar to the Mejin. Though she wasn’t much to talk about in any of the two topics she brought up. Since she didn’t have much friends out of GBN and her last gamble failed quite spectacularly. Miyuki turned over to the fight that was going on, though her current gamble might end up quite different...

”Well, looks like little Hisao got this in the bag.”

Of course anyone could have told him that, it didn’t take amazing observational skills to figure that one out. She’d give it about two minutes until the rest where dealt with. Though she though she seen that move somewhere. She couldn’t put a finger on it, but Hisao’s moves reminded her of someone. Miyuki tapped her forehead to try and remember.

"I don't like gambling its a bad habit. You have to sometimes but I don't bet on fights I can't win without a solid plan." commented Takahashi as he pointed at the screen as the enemy gundam Age Spallow had closed the distance and crushed Hisao's gun forcing him to pull out a pistol, and back pedal he watched as it took that Shoko girl coming in and ramming the Age to get the thing off of him. "Like that for example. They took the loss of Bolt Gundam as a sure sign for victory, and they lost focus for that moment. Age could've neg'd Hisao for the simple reason that he got cocky. I'd rather not put my whole bag of chips in a bag I don't know the contents of." Takhashi said as he rolled his hands up and stretched. "It takes concentration, and strength to actually get out a solid win." Takahashi commented as he looked over to Miyuki with a sarcastic grin. "Alright fine if you want me to gamble why don't I take you out on a date? I'm sure that can only end well." Takahashi said clearly joking in tone as he leaned back into his chair.