It had already been a week since Zephyr had shown up in class. Christina glanced at the empty seat the white haired boy would usually sit at. Ever since Nia Sterling had challenged him, no one had seen him. It was already a known fact that he didn't eat with the other students in the canteen, but no one knew where he was during the rest of the day.
'Why am I thinking about this so hard? We're only acquaintances…'
Although Christina didn't know much about him, she felt like the rumors around him were a bit overblown. She thought Zephyr was actually quite polite when they first spoke.
A message notification appeared on her comm, prompting her to check the sender.
'Oh, it's from Nia.'
[Would you like to eat with me again today?]
Christina grinned slightly before quickly typing a reply.
[I would love to.]
Recently, she had been talking to Nia quite often. Ever since they had traded contact information, the two had been eating lunch together every day.
It was during this time, she discovered that Nia was an incredibly straightforward person. She never holds back her thoughts of others, whether it was positive or negative. It was due to this very reason, she didn't hold back her insults when Zephyr had spoken to her for the first time.
After packing up her belongings, Christina made her way out of the classroom where Nia stood, back leaned against the wall scrolling down the class material on her comm.
Her black hair was let down today, reaching her waist as she carefully brushed back the few stray strands of hair behind her ear. The academy's uniform seemed especially elegant on her, as even Christina had to stop for a second to admire the young woman's beauty.
In fact, students from higher grades would sometimes stop by their class to catch a glance at the girl known as Nia Sterling.
When she noticed Christina standing outside the door, she offered a small smile before walking towards her.
"Where do you want to go today?"
"Let's go to the rooftop like usual." Christina suggested returning the smile.
It didn't take long to realize that Nia also disliked eating surrounded by a lot of people. Come to think of it, Christina never even saw her speak much to anyone else besides herself. In this aspect, she was quite similar to Zephyr.
The two girls made their way to the canteen to pick up the daily meal set before changing course to the lecture hall's rooftop.
Contrary to the normally empty scene that greeted them, today there were few groups of male students who decided to eat on the rooftop.
Christina glanced nervously towards Nia, who's expression appeared to remain unchanged much to her relief.
Most of the time the black-haired girl was expressionless, only showing off a small smile here and there.
After sitting down in an unoccupied corner, the two begin to chat about minor things, with Christina leading the conversation most of the time strangely enough because of her naturally shy nature.
'I never know what she's thinking…'
Every time she spoke about a subject, Nia would only nod or say a few words in response. Taking a deep breath Christina decided to bring up the duel.
"Um, about the duel with Zephyr…"
Nia stopped chewing.
"Would it be possible to drop the punishment? Zephyr isn't as bad of a person you think he is…probably."
A few seconds passed by as the black-haired girl didn't immediately respond.
Finally she said, "If he has the skill to beat me, naturally he deserves to stay in the academy. If you remember, he had boasted that he would best anyone in duels on the first day. I was curious about what kind of person he was so I've been observing him ever since he transferred. To think he is simply a slacker…"
After a pause she added, "I'm disappointed."
"You're the best pilot in our grade though! There's no way he would be able to beat you…"
"If he didn't say anything foolish, I was going to let him off, you know? I would've even let him go if he had apologized, I'm not that petty of a person. Someone of his caliber would end up leaving sooner or later either way."
Christina couldn't find anything to argue back. She hadn't known Zephyr for that long so although she wanted to refute Nia, it was difficult to do so.
"Besides," Nia took a sip through her straw, "That transfer student hasn't even come to class for the past week. Who knows, he might be simply fooling around since he only has a week left to attend this academy."
"He wouldn't do that…"
'Would he?'
Suddenly Christina wasn't so sure anymore.
"Hey did you hear that someone was using one of the academy's mechs recently?"
"Really? What kind of idiot is using those antiques?"
Christina turned towards a group of boys who she overheard.
"Wanna go check it out later?" One of them suggested.
"Who would want to go watch a last gen mech?"
"But I heard that the pilot struggles to even walk with it though."
"Now that sounds interesting haha!"
Turning back towards Nia, Christina asked, "Do you want to check out what they're talking about?"
"There's nothing fun about laughing at someone's efforts. I'll pass."
'She's so serious…'
***
A loud crash accompanied by a cloud of dust came from the academy's training grounds as Kenny whistled, impressed at Zephyr's persistence. It was rare to see someone so young possess so much discipline.
"You're at it again today huh? You already managed to walk with that thing!"
"I'm practicing running now."
After a pause, Zephyr quickly added:
"Soon, I'll add weapons as well so I can adjust to how their weight affects my balance."
During the entire week, Zephyr had not gone to class once, his only objective was to master how to use the Squire without the need of the in-built stabilizing program. In actuality, he hadn't even returned to his dorm a single time, opting to pitch a tent inside the academy's hangar instead.
Inside the cockpit, Zephyr took a sip of a banana flavored nutrient smoothie he had stolen from Kenny's stash.
'Still not quite there yet…'
He took a whiff of the air, his nose contorting in disgust. Although the Squire did have a ventilation system, it wasn't that high on the list of priorities. Suddenly Zephyr wondered when the last time the filter was changed.
'Maybe I should take a shower. It's been a week since my last one.'
Although he could bear the smell, he couldn't imagine that Kenny would be too pleased about the stench of his sweat enveloping the machine he was responsible for.
"I'll stop a little earlier today. I'm going to head back to my dorm for a bit," Zephyr said over the comms channel.
"You really made yourself comfortable in the hangar," The mechanic's voice seemed sarcastic.
With such a tight time frame it wasn't like he had a choice. Every second mattered.
"Don't worry, I'll make sure to familiarize myself more in the coming week. I'm not that comfortable yet."
Zephyr swapped to a different communications channel before Kenny's complaints had a chance to pile up as he began to steadily walk back towards the academy's hangar.
When the Squire stood in place properly, the arresting gear began to wrap around the mech's joints preventing it from unwanted movement.
After confirming everything was in order, Zephyr powered down the mech's reactor and unlocked the hatch.
"Finally, some fresh air!"
Climbing down from the mech, Zephyr quickly grabbed the few belongings he had brought and began to make his way back to the dorm room.
***
"What's that smell?"
"I think it's coming from over there…"
"Isn't that the transfer student? Why does he smell like that?"
As Zephyr passed by, he could hear nearby students whispering to one another, pinching their noses and turning away.
Although he reeked of sweat and grease, weren't they overreacting a bit? They were actively keeping a distance of at least three meters in all directions!
He sighed silently, defeated. Maybe he was the strange one around here. His father's workshop often smelled of sweat and grease after all. Maybe his sense of smell towards bad odor has dulled a bit.
Things were going smoothly for now. Running should come much quicker now that he can walk with the Squire. Now he should be able to redirect some of the time used for practicing to familiarize himself with the Squire's potential weapons. As a modular mech, several sets of gear suitable for all types of situations were made for the mass-produced machine in an effort to reduce costs. Most current gen mechs were specialized variants that could only take on one or two roles.
The Squire on the other hand was a jack of all trades, master of none.
Opening the door to his dorm room, the first thing Zephyr did was hit the shower.
'Come to think of it, I haven't been doing much physical training since I've entered the academy.'
Although he doubted that a mere two weeks would make him any weaker, his time was divided entirely into studying and piloting the Squire. Zephyr didn't have enough time for anything else.
He stared at himself in the mirror, his bright blue eyes now sunken in slightly from the poor quality of sleep in the hangar. His white hair had specs of dirt sprinkled throughout it while his lips had begun to crack.
'Damn, I look terrible.'
Zephyr didn't look anything like a student from a prestigious academy right now. He shifted his gaze and stepped into the shower, letting the hot water wash away the grime and fatigue of the past week.
The feeling of cleanliness and the warmth of the shower invigorated him, reminding him of the comforts he had been neglecting. As the water streamed down, he closed his eyes, letting his thoughts wander.
Later today, Zephyr would probably finalize his loadout and begin modifying the mech with or without Kenny's assistance. He was still a mechanic after all.
After a thorough scrub, Zephyr stepped out of the shower, feeling somewhat reenergized. He dried off quickly and threw on a clean pair of casual wear then walked towards his personal desk pulling up a list of weapons the academy had in stock.
"Should I use a great sword? Maybe if I had the same amount of finesse as Dominic, it would be worth a shot." Sadly, his proficiency with the large weapon was only rudimentary.
"A battle axe… perhaps?" Zephyr shook his head shortly after contemplating its strengths and advantages. The memory of Nia Sterling's movements still hung fresh in his mind. A battle axe was much too slow; he instinctively knew it would never be able to land its mark.
Before he realized it, several hours had already passed from carefully comparing and assessing the options he had.
In the end, he settled for a simple longsword. It wasn't a flashy weapon by any means, but it had good range, a double-edged blade for more flexible use, and a sharp point for thrust attacks.
Still, Zephyr frowned slightly even after making his choice. He chose a two-handed weapon because a one-handed one was inadequate to deal enough damage. However, this choice meant that he had to abandon the thought of bringing a shield along with him.
He grimaced, uncomfortable at the thought of engaging a highly skilled opponent with no easy means of defense. Parrying was an option, but doing it reliably was a tall order. One decent blow from the Spectre would cripple the Squire.
Suddenly, his eyes landed on a peculiar piece of equipment.
A vambrace.
It was a forearm guard that served as additional armor. The Squire already had armor covering its entire body so to speak, however most of it was quite thin barring the area encasing the cockpit. During the last war the Squire had participated, most soldiers simply opted to carry more supplies rather than equipping more armor. An extra layer of metal wasn't going to protect them from modern armor piercing shells after all.
To Zephyr, it suited his current needs perfectly.