"White Devil"
"Thanks for lending this unit, Ms. Maya." Amuro thanked the green haired buxom instructor as he began the finishing touches in the borrowed Uchigane Unit.
"It's no problem, Mr. Ray. I'm quite ashamed actually to just give you an Uchigane unit." Ms. Maya sighs.
In truth, she's rather disappointed of the Japanese government. Since the advent of IS to society, everything have changed. The world is a tense situation where every nation have the power of a nuclear missile condensed into every single IS pilot they had. The White Knight incident surely ensured that power, setting the bar high for anyone.
It's why the entire world is in a cold war and arms race into developing the strongest IS.
But that's not what Maya want.
One of the changes brought by IS is the societal hierarchy.
Women we're elevated due to their status as only the gender capable of piloting IS units. As such, men became subservient to downright submissive to the opposite gender. Today's female population doesn't shy about in displaying their dominance over their male counterparts.
The entire female student population is one such example. This girls are no ordinary students at all. These are elite girls, who are educated and prepared by the government themselves from various private all girls school in order to one day become IS pilots themselves.
Yet the sight of a boy would make them crazy.
Back in her teenage days, she wasn't so boy crazy like them or so forward. And no, this is not the reason why she is still single. It's just normal for a girl to wait for a man.
She hopes.
Back to the topic, the female students themselves are acting like boys. Bold, impulsive and too forward. Poor Ichika who has to take brunt of all their attention has to take it like a famous schoolgirl being clamored by her admirers.
If she was just born a girl like Senior Orimura, it would be okay. But Ichika's a man so he better shape up or get swallowed whole by the girls.
The only exception for the girl's attention was Amuro. For all the girl's boldness and their impulse, they can never shake or catch this one's attention. Unlike Ichika's overall kindness and people pleaser attitude, Amuro was more like her senior.
Distant and cold yet warm and dependable.
It's hard to imagine for her to think about the last part of that sentence until she found out about Kanzashi's partnership with Amuro.
Of course she has to know about this development, she's the one overseeing Kanzashi's IS development. So it's a surprise for her to find the two working together and it proved fruitful in observing them to get a read on Amuro's character.
For someone so unapproachable, he is such a worrywart.
Not to mention, Amuro's performance in IS piloting is absurd for someone with zero background in IS. Unlike Ichika's low performance, his still learning, Amuro was more like a longtime pilot with how he perfectly he can maneuver an IS with ease. She would suspect foulplay but nothing came up.
This is why she's disappointed with the Japanese government. They had two perfectly good male IS pilots. With them, they can research and study how these two exceptions managed to pilot IS like any other girls. Obviously, Ichika got the a far more better treatment. Being the younger sibling of the Brunhilde does that.
Meanwhile, Amuro got nothing but being strong armed into the academy without say and a personal IS.
Wasted opportunity.
"But Amuro-kun, are you sure the specs are all tuned? You just modified this unit yesterday and haven't gone through testing." Maya frowned.
The unit was only given to Amuro yesterday after Cecilia's abrupt request. Luckily for her, Amuro already had enough data and experience on how to modify the basic Uchigane into something he can pilot comfortably. Kanzashi even helped, what a nice girl.
"Of course, me and Sarashiki-san already tuned it. We used her IS's data into this so it would be similar performance minus the weapons." Amuro replied, placating the woman's fear.
"Hmmm, alright but if something happens to your unit, you will stop and listen to me." Maya huffed, crossing her arms and inadvertently pushing up her big...assets.
Amuro smiled, "Of course, sensei."
"...You just thought something rude aren't you."
"You can prove nothing, Sensei."
"Moou! Don't tease your Sensei!"
-----------------------
"I'm telling you, I can't beat Alcott easily. Just you all wait in the tournament."
"Don't be so cocky or you'll eat dirt later."
"What was that!?"
Ichika sighs as Houki and Rin once again started fighting, bickering and throwing insults at each other.
He was thankful that he got reunited with his childhood friends after so long but can't they just get along. It's been so long and all he wants is to be with them for a while. Unfortunately, it will be unlikely with how the two constantly butt heads like a pair of cat and dog. It's unavoidable, both of them have pretty headstrong personalities and a never back down attitudes.
And worse of all, he's caught in the middle.
They are currently in the empty arena for IS duels. Cecilia have made a reservations for her training in advance and have invited them to watch.
In truth, Cecilia invited them so that Ichika is unable to create trouble while she's preoccupied in training. Seriously, if she takes her eyes off him, it's either a senior or a fellow junior would try to poach him.
What is he? An endangered species?
Meanwhile, Rin tagged along to scout her future opponent.
Below their seats, Kanzashi Sarashiki worked on her laptop, monitoring and gathering data on the upcoming practice match. Listening to the trio, a vein popped on her forehead. They are seriously flirting in this place? How shameless!!!
Oh how she wanted nothing more than for Ichika to drop dead.
Sadly, wishes doesn't come true in real life unless you make it happen and Kanzashi isn't ready to be a murderer.
Yet.
Instead, she opted to ignore the trio and focused on Amuro's borrowed IS unit. The Uchigane that he is using is loaned by School, it wouldn't be his personal IS but a research IS meant to gather data and test various modifications. It's a deal he made with Ms. Orimura and Ms. Maya in order to acquire a unit for personal use. After his graduation, the Uchigane unit would be surrendered and used by the academy for further research and development.
Honestly, Amuro could be a businessman himself at this point.
"Oh, it's starting." Kanzashi perked up as Cecilia Alcott flew out of the hangar with her personal IS, Blue Tears.
-----------------------
"Hmm, I hope this will be worth it." Cecilia huffed.
The practice match was her idea but now, she's having second thoughts. It's because Amuro is gonna fight her with a basic Uchigane unit, a units that is far below of her own Blue Tears in terms of performance ad armaments.
No matter how you look at it, this would be bullying.
She's not a bully. She's a dignified lady and IS pilot.
Unfortunately, there's no one in the class that can match her. Shinonono probably can with her background but she would rather not open that can of worms herself. The girl would probably straight bear her up to show off to her darling Ichika instead of training.
That left Amuro who is for some unknown reason is a natural in IS piloting.
Cecilia had seen the prodigies and talented people before. She can differentiate between talent and hardwork.
Amuro's piloting performance was neither.
She doesn't know why but Amuro inside an IS just doesn't feel right.
"Alcott, prepare yourself. Amuro is moving out." Suddenly, her comms came alive as Ms. Orimura's voice cut her thoughts.
"Ooh, yes. Thanks for proctoring this training match for me, Orimura-sensei." She replied through her comms.
"No need to be thankful, it's my job to take care of you brats for the next four years. This is just one of my jobs." Chifuyu grunted before smirking, "Although, I should be the one to thank you for watching over my problematic brother. He's not giving you too much trouble is he?"
If Chifuyu had the cameras open, she would surely laugh at the haunted look plastered on Cecilia's face.
"Just kidding." Her instructor chuckled at her silence.
Then suddenly, her tone changed.
"A word of warning, do NOT underestimate Amuro's Uchigane unit."
"What? Why? It's just an Uchigane?"
"Not anymore. Just this morning, the School have reviewed and concluded that whatever changes Amuro did to the Uchigane has turned it into an unknown and untested unit."
"What?"
"It's now an experimental unit that the school is now investing in. Whatever it would become, it will be an entirely new beasts. I have seen it's design and specs."
"Your in for a ride."
What?
Suddenly, Ms. Maya's voice cut through the arena.
"Amuro is ready to launch, Gundam Uchigane is launching!"
From the hangar, Cecilia watched as a grey unit flew out.
It was small. Smaller than the smallest IS unit. More importantly, it's much more humanoid than any IS unit to date. It flew towards her position and stop at her, facing her.
It was not an IS at all.
It's more like... A suit.
A suit of Armor.
Amuro's entire frame was covered in sleek grey armor, leaving nothing exposed. Various armor platings covered each joint and important areas, fatal areas to be exact. It now lacked the Uchigane's legs, replaced by much smoother and lighter leg armor. On it's shoulder where there should be the Uchigane's shoulder armors gone, simply replaced by compact armor.
But what's more noticable is the backpack and chest piece.
The backpack is more like a jetpack, probably the unit's main thrusters with the lack of leg thrusters. The chest piece is the most worrying, it's the IS core.
The IS core is the most important piece of any IS unit, shaped like a gem and placed in the most protective parts of the IS.
And this unit is blatantly displaying it's core, jutting out of its chest.
"Are you insane!?" Cecilia can't help but exclaim.
"You have the same reaction as them, Alcott-san." Amuro smirked, Cecilia didn't like that smirk. She wants to punch him right now so bad.
"But I assure you, this is my best design as of yet."
"Yeah, if your planning to get killed!" Cecilia yelled. Seriously, is he suicidal? This unit is a death machine. Why did the school approve or thought about investing to this death trap.
Amuro chuckled, causing Cecilia's temper to rise even more.
"I'm happy to see that you care for my safety but I'm fine. Trust me."
Oh that smile. That's just cheating.
"Now, let's begin this practice shall we?" Amuro continued, reaching at his backpack which has two protruding pieces. With a flourish, he pulled out two Uchigane standard blades.
Yet they aren't ordinary blades.
They are both hot red.
"Are you ready?"
Cecilia doesn't know why but she suddenly got glimpse of something standing behind Amuro.
A ghost of something huge and terrifying.
A White Devil.