Gundam Build Duel - Dissonant Chord (Gunpla Builders NaNoWriMo story)

[ZeroXSEED]

What do you think about living plastic model?
Well, not like that.

We are made of plastic, mainly polystyrene, with a side dash of ABS to ensure soft movement. We are mass produced, molded into a runner to be cut off and assembled. We are molded in various color, sold and priced accordingly to the size and complexity of the final product.

Our very concept and design are taken from this military science fiction anime franchise called Mobile Suit Gundam, as well as numerous sequel and Alternate Universe Spinoff.
The most attention had always been given the humanoid vehicle called "Mobile Suit"

However, they're not the only one.

"WAKE UP, HASHMAL!"

Somewhere in the 21st​ century, a new breakthrough in technology gave us a new life, literally. PLA-NET coating system, this specific particle will form complicated circuits on the surface and inside of gunpla. Manipulated, PLA-NET coating will also move us, plastic models, as if we're actual machines.

And even fight each other.

From that point onward, a new trend born and grew phenomenally.

Gundam Plastic Model Battle –usually simplified to Gunpla Battle, everyone put their plastic model at stake, and control them passionately.

Through us, they cloash and connect with each other.

Millions of gunpla enthusiasts… each has their own story.

This is just one of such story.

GUNDAM BUILD DUEL - DISSONANT CHORD
LOVE AND PEACE, THROUGH WARFARE
Original Story by: @ZeroXSEED
Inspired by: Gundam Build Anime Series
Disclaimer: Gundam is property of Bandai/Sunrise
​

"The name is Shimizu Yuuya, my hobby is reading, gaming and Gunpla Battle, please take care of me!"

Perplexed silence wasn't quite Yuuya expected when he wrote his name in Kanji and alphabet and introduced himself in front of the new class, still, he ended it with a small polite bow.

"'Please take care of me' is a common expression in Japan when you moved to a new place, be it's a neighborhood, school or workplace. It signifies humility and absolute trust from someone who moved toward the people who already settled."

The teacher explained passionately, trying to help to explain Yuuya's method of introduction. "Japanese language and structure emphasized politeness, so please don't be weirded too much if Yuuya came out as too formal or reserved."

A resounding, yet somewhat quiet "Oooh." came from other students. And thus a lot of students break into amused laughter, some greet him friendlily. "Hi, Yuuya!"

Yuuya flinched. To be honest, he had always been considered polite for the standard of Sakura kids. Maybe in the eyes of the other kids here, he's simply living up to the stereotype?

Well, that makes things easier for him.

"Do you mind sitting in the front? There's one seat open beside Dave there."

Yuuya saw another boy sitting in the left rightmost of the seat arrangement, the opposite side of the door.

"It's fine, Teach. My eyesight isn't that great after all." Yuuya said politely, referring to the glasses he wore.

The boy who was supposed to be his deskmate stood up and welcomed him.

"David Laurier from Canada. You can call me Dave if you want. Nice to meet you, Shimizu." He kindly offered a handshake while introducing himself. "Would you mind me sitting on this side?"

The boy named Dave was tall from Yuuya's perspective, almost a full head taller when they both stand up, probably as tall as average Japanese adult males. At 162.5cm, Yuuya himself was perfectly average for 14 years old Japanese boy standard.

Dave's hair was mainly reddish-brown, he had somewhat more angular jaw than Yuuya does, but also relatively squinted eyes. Yuuya would not be surprised if Dave had mixed parentage.

However, Dave's accent was perfect. In contrast to Yuuya, Dave sounded like he was raised speaking English. So he's probably really born and raised in Canada.

Compared to Yuuya, who decide to wear an excessively prim Gakuran* to a French school of all things, Dave also looked very stylish. He looks like the type who will attract girls no matter where he goes.

"No, I don't mind." Yuuya nodded and put his bag down to the right of Dave's seat. Yuuya's side was closest to the wall and not all people like that. "By the way, Shimizu is my family name, I'm sorry I made a mistake in my introduction. I think Yuuya Shimizu would be the correct order here."

"Uh, yeah. Sorry about that."

Indeed. In East Asia, a family name took precedence over birthname. strong is the opposite of the America-European culture of putting family names behind.

Yuuya had learned not to judge people from their cover, but no humans are invulnerable to a good first impression. Lucky that he had a chill guy for a bench mate.

"Let's have lunch together." Dave shamelessly asked, "Do you prefer the cafeteria or outside?"

"I'd like to try cafeteria first," Yuuya said with some hesitation.

Off to a good start, Yuuya. He congratulated himself. As a matter of fact, in his mental world, he was jumping and screaming happily. But of course, he couldn't show that.

The lesson was done in English and French at the same time. In an international school like this, it makes sense to make all lessons bilingual, so that the Non-French speakers can still learn well, while at the same time making them more familiar with the native language.

The lesson was uneventful, which Yuuya appreciate. It seems that there's a lot of similarities between Japanese and French learning method, emphasizing academic and rote memorization rather than self-development and creativity.

He wondered if people from some other countries with different educational philosophies have difficulty adjusting to how rigid the system was.

Best first day at school ever, no one can ruin it! Yuya practically dancing inside as he put his textbook in his bag, preparing for lunch. Speaking of which...

"Reminds me of my grade school," Yuuya said as he received his serving plate. "Four-course meal huh, I'm a little nervous..."

"Hmm, it was like that in Japan?" Dave asked curiously.

"Not in Middle and High school no." Yuuya said, "In middle school and high school we either bring lunchbox or buy it from School Cafeteria. Of course, the Japanese's cafeteria food isn't usually this... complicated."

Yuuya began to sweat in terror looking at the massive serving plate he held, filled with several types of food. From appetizer to dessert, each in a well-balanced portion.

There's also the fact that there are two choices per course of a meal, but that just means there are only eight dishes to pick between with so many possible combinations...

In Japan, you just order what you want and stick with it, there are a lot more choices yet every single one was simpler in comparison. They're not necessarily nutritionally balanced, because, for Japanese people, lunches are supposed to be quick and filling.

In France, however, lunches are serious business. And for school lunches, it had to be healthy!

"Heh, in Canada there is no school kitchen, we're expected to pack our lunchbox from home too." Dave explained, "That said, around here you can still go home or to a restaurant for lunch if you want. Two hours of the lunch break is no joke."

Let it be said that the French took their food break seriously, with even clinics close down and inversely, restaurants only open during breakfast, lunch, and dinner periods.

"I see."

"...But man, dinner can't come early enough." Dave sobbed dramatically as he grasped his face.

Yuuya made a gagged expression, "I know right."

Both of them sighed, from outside view, it's like they just aged by a decade or two while making the most dramatic, angsty pose possible.

Dinner in France not usually come before seven in the evening. Generally, Dinner comes around eight which was why the lunch portion always been the fullest, enough energy to last half a day and more.

French kids normally taught to not snack between meals, at least not in measurably major portion. They may eat some treats between lunch and dinner but nothing more

For two growing, eternally craving teens from different cultures, it's torture!

"Dave." A young blond girl who had her hair tied to the side asked, "Can we join?"

The girl wore a simple yet elegant white shirt, with the collar unbuttoned. She wore a pleated short skirt, with a jacket tied around her waist.

She dressed quite maturely for her age. In Japan, she would be like a white Gal archetype.

Behind the girl was a shorter girl who was visibly East Asian descent in everything that matters, from her rounded cheek to her sharp eyes and her nose and lips. Her pink hair was braided in two parts and she wore thick rounded glasses that easily reflect lights and obscured her eyes at times.

She wore a light blue cheongsam with a separate black skirt with long slits on the sides, revealing that she was wearing spats. The contrast between her tomboyish clothes and her nerdy face was pretty daring.

"Colette." Dave hummed, "Sure, you're with Aili too?"

"Yes."

"Yuuya do you mind?" Dave asked him.

Yuuya shook his head, "No."

Dave and Colette tilted their heads in confusion and mild surprise.

It's only when the pink-haired girl named Aili opened her mouth that Yuuya realized his mistake. "Xiye, this is not Japan anymore, so they're confused with your answer."

It was subtle, but across the globe, there always been those kinds of differences in meaning to short answers and gestures. Saying a simple "No" could mean multiple things depends on how the receiver interprets it.

As such, most people here accept it as total rejection.

(Why did she call him Xiye anyway?)

"Ah." Yuuya gasped, "Sorry, I mean I don't mind. Anyway, there's also another person, would you mind her joining?"

"The more the merrier. Welcome to French lunchtime." Dave said without irony, lunch in France always been as much about food as it is about socializing. "Already have someone you know? A girlfriend, eh?"

"No." Yuya smiled, as he stood before the table waiting for someone, "My sister."

Joined them was a slender girl who was almost as tall as Yuuya. Her hair was silky black and the front bangs were long enough to cover most of her eyes, the hair on her back was even longer, all the way to her waist.

A large set of headphones sat around her neck. It was the highlight of her entire presence, Dave admitted.

"Gutten tag." She sent out an awkward, stiff smile. "I'm Adelle Stein, we're from the different class group."

Dave showed mild surprise, "So you two are siblings. I wouldn't have noticed."

This girl and Yuuya have no resemblance to each other at all.

"O-our parents remarried." She put her serving plate down and then sit, only then Yuuya decided to sit.

Dave cringed, did Yuuya and his sister treated this like high-class dinner? "Guys, you don't have to be so formal eh? We're having a friendly lunch right here."

Yuuya turned bright red in response and couldn't say anything, and the girl beside him looked about as embarrassed. Aili didn't say anything, while Colette muffled her laugh with her hand.

"Sorry." The stepsiblings lowered their heads.

"Eh? No worries, just do it the way you like." Dave waved his hands dismissively, "Speaking of which... let's introduce each other once again"

"I'm Colette Blanche. Born and raised here in Paris, but my parents recommended me to study in an International school just in case I seek higher education elsewhere." Colette friendly told about herself.

Obvious accent, she must be a real Parisian local. Yuuya thought. Colette seems to be one of these friendly and outgoing, confident girls. That's why Yuuya feels a little bit embarrassed.

He has never been the type who is good with extroverted girls.

"Hui Liu Aili, you can call me Aili." Aili introduced herself rather coldly, "From China."

Yuuya wondered if Aili is as cold as she appeared to be, but he was too cowardly to find out. He doesn't feel like he would want to get into her bad side at all.

"I'm Adelle Stein, I was born in Germany." The awkward stepsister rolled her eyes left and right, "My father and Yuuya's mother married each other recently, so Yuuya decided to move to France."

"It's not uncommon for someone to transfer in or out of international school, but is there a particular reason you transferred in the middle of April, Yuuya?" Dave asked enthusiastically.

"Ah, it's because of the Japanese school system," Yuuya answered.

"Japanese School system?" Colette murmured.

"Japanese School year ended in March and start in April. In Japan, September is the mark of the second half of the school year."

"While in most of Europe, the school year begins in September." Dave nodded in understanding, "So you wait for the end of the school year to transfer."

"That's the case, yeah. Besides I also spent a semester polishing the French, I mean my French."

While Yuuya was confident in his understanding and comprehension of French, he had a nasal accent that he acquired from his old habit, unable to pronounciate some letters, and he also had a limited vocabulary.

"Anyway, Yuuya." Colette suddenly asked, "You also do Gunpla Battle? What kind of Gunpla you use?"

"Hmm?"

Yuuya pulled the case that was strapped to his waist.

When Yuuya opened it, there was a strange robot laid inside. However, when the robot stood up and began to whine and hover in the air, it revealed it's true form: a birdlike machine.

"It's not human-like." Dave remarked in curiosity, "I thought Gunpla mostly human-shaped and 12 cm tall?"

The strange bird was a bit taller than that, but its width was the biggest physical attribute it had. Probably more than 30 cm wide, or a whole imperial foot.

No wonder Yuuya's gunpla case was so long.

"Yeah, it's Hashmal. It's not a Mobile Suit, but rather, a Mobile Armor." Aili told him, her eyes gleamed with barely hidden curiosity. "While not all of them does, most Mobile Armor prioritize either vastly increased speed or power, and sometimes both, compared to humanoid Mobile Suit's agility and flexibility."

Colette took out her plastic case and revealed a machine inside. Compared to Yuuya's own, it was visibly more humanoid. It's also much, much smaller.

In terms of height, it's probably around 10-11 cm, or four inches tall from head to toe.

The machine was visibly feminine, with a short torso and more pronounced hips than what typically seen on Mobile Suits. At least, Dave thinks so. There was a strange cone protruding from it's back, with several vents or slits carved on it.

What familiar appearance. Dave smiled bitterly.

"It's GN Archer." Yuuya's eyes visibly brightened, "It's back binder removed and replaced by mountings for a GN Drive right?"

"Yeah, not anything creative right?" Colette winced.

"Gunpla is freedom." Yuuya shook his head furiously, "It doesn't matter if you prefer with the original design, or prefer to let loose with your imagination. When it comes to Gunpla, the sky is the limit."

Yuuya opened his palm and his Hashmal landed on it, chirped as it did. "My Hasmal didn't have much modification in terms of equipment either."

Dave and Adelle were completely lost at what they're talking about. Nevertheless, it looks like Yuuya had a fun time and they're glad he's acclimatizing quickly.

There's no easier way to know someone than sharing the same hobby and interest.

"Sorry, Yuuya, wanna change seat? They probably want to look at it closer." Dave asked.

Aili does look like she strained herself trying to look closer. Just for a moment, Dave noticed that Yuuya's expression changed slightly, but he immediately returned to normal.

"Ah, that's fine," Yuuya said.

Hashmal flew from Yuuya's hand and landed in front of Aili and Colette. Indeed, it already looks large on its own, but with GN Archer nearby as a comparison, it looks gigantic. GN Archer's entire body was barely larger than one of Hashmals' leg.

Afterward, they stopped talking about Gunpla for the remainder of the lunch. They spent about an hour of lunch before leaving the cafeteria.

CHAPTER 1: RISE OF THE IMMORTAL BIRD

"We still have an hour before class, wanna do something?" Aili pulled out her gunpla case.

"Something like that is..." Yuuya began to rain sweat.

"Don't worry about it." Dave grabbed his shoulder, "Gunpla battle is popular everywhere. There's no shortage of friends to play with."

So they went to the indoor gym inside the school. It was wholly unremarkable and ordinary. The floor is polished wood of neutral color, and the low lighting made the gym a bit gloomy.

Though perhaps it was because this is break time? At least it was big enough to have spectator seats.

The school that Yuuya went to have no outdoor field and only had one indoor gym. Yuuya only had one Physical Education class per week as the consequences of sharing that gym with everyone.

Yuuya was never a sports person so it's not really a problem for him, though his mother was a bit concerned. Matter of fact, it was one of strong criticism pointed at this school.

Regardless, this is a good school and that's all that matters to the nerdy him.

"How was it like in Japan?" Colette asked.

"Schools in Japan generally have a big sports field so there's no issue." Yuuya smiled, "That said we have a very short lunch break so not much time to do that until after school."

"How long was that?"

"20, 30 minutes at most," Yuuya said, which made Colette squirm.

30 minutes aren't exceptionally short even for French standard, but still shorter than average recommended. However, 20 minutes would have been too little!

"I heard East Asians consider dinner as the most important meal." Dave laughed.

"No, that's just Chinese." Aili and Yuuya both said in concert to correct him.

Dave stopped laughing, "Wait really?"

"Ah, Adelle, while you're here might as well teach you these things," Yuuya said, then pulled something out of his bag. A VR headset.

"This is called ARM, Augmented Reality Matrix. This is the primary component used in gunpla battle, it's linked to gunpla's main sensor so you can see what a Gunpla see, and send out signals from controller to gunpla so you can control it."

Yuuya then pulled a small QWERTY keyboard, roughly the same size as a laptop's integrated keyboard, and a mouse to go with it.

"The second component you need is a control device. This can be any device that has Bluetooth connection or USB cable." Aili pulled out a Wee controller set, "Weemote is pretty popular because they're handy and available everywhere, but the options are limitless."

"The third component is..."

"Nanoshield massless window projector right?" Adelle cut Colette before she can finish, "We used them a lot everywhere."

"Correct," Colette said as she turned on a strange device on the floor of the gym, three more devices turned on they formed rippling pillars of faint light, with barriers erected between them. The barrier boxed in a section of the gym area.

"Though fairly harmless, gunpla weapon system can still cause eye injuries, so always be sure to use Nanoshield. Though any barrier will do, Nanoshield is the most convenient of all as it's transparent and lightweight."

"This nano shield seems weak." Dave knocked it and felt some resistance, but he easily broke through when he pushed his hand in.

"Low power Nanoshield device is relatively cheap and consumed very little power, that's good enough for gunpla battle, well, normally anyway." Yuuya's eyes gleamed for a moment, which made Dave a bit concerned.

What does he mean with normally-

"Well then, Xiye." Aili pulled out her gunpla.

It was completely purple. Because of that, Dave couldn't tell if there's anything specific, what with him being completely clueless about them.

However, he would be correct to say; "Not a Gundam."

"It's a Jesta. And that backpack..." Yuuya sharpened his eyes, "I see."

All Dave could tell that it was a mobile suit with segmented armor plates all over, and it has visor as opposed to Gundam-style twin eyes.

"Well then let's set the IFF," Collette said.

"IFF?" Adelle tilted her head.

"Identification of Friend and Foe." Dave said, "It's a military term for a system that makes you able to separate allies and enemies on a glance, even in bad visual. So you can avoid friendly fire and coordinate with each other better."

Yuuya turned his head so fast it was a surprise he didn't get whiplash, "Dave, do you do Gunpla battle too?!"

"Nah, I'm just into military stuff in general." Dave waved his hand nonchalantly. "Gunpla isn't my cup of tea."

"I see."

Yuuya looked a bit dejected.

"Yuuya, want to team up?" Collette approached him.

"It's fine, I'll fight solo." Yuuya smiled "I think that would be nice."

"Ah right since you're new you probably want to know everyone first." Colette nodded, "Then I'll just team up with Aili."

"Someone is cocky." Aili scoffed, "Don't cry to big sis if we got you beat up."

"Please take care of me." Yuuya winced, those two are the opposite of each other.

Both Dave and Adelle decided to retreat and sit on the edge of the gym. Though a lot of people watched, there was enough room.

Curiously, Yuuya was the only one who had to sit on a chair and need a table, instead of standing. Though it makes a bit of sense because he was using a keyboard and mouse to control his gunpla.

Dave bitterly commented, "Everyone so excited huh."

"Dave, do you not like Gunpla?" She asked.

"I hate them so much." Dave said with a bright smile, "Please don't tell Yuuya about it."

Dave hated it? Why?

"What about you, Adelle?"

"Umm, I don't know. I never paid attention to them before." Adelle shook her head, "I wonder if Yuuya can win."

"Yuuya probably will lose." Dave's face turned somewhat grim, "It's just rules of nature, and the game is rigged from the start. In gunpla battle, those who didn't use Mobile suit is gimping themselves."

"R-really?"

"Yeah." Dave closed his eyes, "No matter if it's Canada, France or Japan... I don't ever do it but that's indisputable fact."

The supremacy of a mobile suit... it's something that could not be argued about. And Dave despised that, and that's why... he hates Gunpla battle and he will never understand people who loved it.

But...

That doesn't mean Dave will hate people who passionately love Gunpla battle, like Yuuya. Besides, Yuuya's choice of machine was rather unique.

He wants to see it, even though he was doubtful Yuuya will win. How far he could push himself?

There's also the fact that Yuuya was fighting alone in this battle. He's the only person without teammates in the crowd, naturally, he would always be at a disadvantage.

"Start the countdown!"

"3!"

"2!"

"1!"

"GO!!"

Of all sudden, the entire Gym was filled by faint noises of gunfire and rocket engines set ablaze. With the scale of Gunpla being so tiny, it's a wonder they could still be audible, even with the Nanoshield held up.

It must be noisy inside the shielded area.

Physical education equipment like a vaulting horse and canyon blocks were used as obstacles and covers, this would give an impression of hilly terrain as opposed to open flat.

However, whereas the other gunpla ran around the terrain, Hashmal was the only one who immediately climbs the highest part of the arena, and stood on the top.

"Why did Yuuya go... oh."

Hashmal opened it's mouth and then it began to glow.

"LOOK UP!"

"EVERYONE, CAREFUL!"

Blinding green lights struck on the gym floor, a split-second after the warning. But it doesn't stop there, secondary blast effect from the impact resulted in dome-shaped explosions that engulfed several gunpla that caught off guard.

The gunpla that caught in the blast survived, but it's clear that they were taking damage from it.

Needless to say, everyone was caught by surprise, though they still managed to react. Sheer shock and terror drew in some of the students' faces.

"What's with that Hashmal?! Its particle cannon is too strong!"

"Take him out! Take him out!"

"Oui!"

A few more gunpla dashed upward in pursuit of Yuuya's Hashmal, however, instead of running, Hashmal jumped down, facing them full-frontal!

Dave almost popped his eyes out when he saw just how fast Yuuya's fingers moved, inputting commands through the keyboard in front of him. It seems that his right hand, which held a computer mouse, also moved fast enough to get blurry for a moment.

What the heck?!

Yuuya managed to dodge the initial strike by their glowing beam saber, somehow slipped between them despite Hashmal's size, and whacked down one with its blade tail!

However, it doesn't stop there, as Hashmal grasped the damaged gunpla with one of its claw, crushed it underfoot as they landed!

The machine creaked from all the accumulated damage, but it's definitely operational and still capable of fighting. However, the boy who controlled it show nothing but despair and helplessness as the full weight of the larger mobile armor pinned his gunpla underneath.

It dawned on the operator that he couldn't do anything, he's completely at Yuuya's mercy now.

"Do you want to give up?" Yuuya asked, his voice also could be heard faintly from Hashmal's speaker.

"Ah, crap, I give up!" The kid who controlled the captured gunpla said.

"Alright."

Hashmal let it go and the gunpla ran away to the edge of the arena, to be picked up by the owner.

"Yuuya asked him to give up." Adelle widened her eyes in surprise.

In just fifteen seconds, Yuuya already took an opponent down! And more than that, Yuuya forced him to give up!

Hashmal opened it's mouth and fired toward another high ground. It was a Mobile suit carrying a big rifle, trying to catch Yuuya off guard. The mobile suit managed to escape with one arm disabled and its rifle dropped to the ground.

When a mobile suit managed to land on Hashmal and about to stab it, it got stabbed by Hashmal's tail blade instead and then thrown away like a ragdoll.

Hashmal let out a deafening, electronic bird shriek.

Adelle closed her mouth with her hands from shock, while Dave's jaw was wide open and clenched his hand tight.

Is this the real power of a Mobile Armor?!

More and more students started to stop fighting each other and instead focus on taking down the rampaging mobile armor. However, each and every single one either crippled or outright disabled.

"My beam got dispersed!"

"Oh, are you kidding me?! He has nano-laminated armor too?!"

They tried long-range combat, however, Hashmal's mobility exceeds that of the typical Mobile suit, enough to dodge bullets, and only suffered scratch damages from energy weapons and smaller bullets. This also shows that Yuuya's Hashmal, in particular, has superior armor coating than others!

Those who were caught of the guard were blasted off with Hashmal's particle cannon.

It was a death sentence upon direct hit!

By the time Aili and Colette joined the commotion, about two-thirds of the students gave up or defeated.

"He's a monster!" They said, "That new student is a monster!"

Colette grimaced when she saw singed and crushed corpse of gunpla scattered on the floor, around Hashmal. The mobile armor's body was visibly battered, but there was no major damage.

In the sky, there was a green large mobile armor in the shape of a fat crab or a spider with stubby legs. In the middle of its front face was a gaping hole, glowing.

People who watched old Gundam OVA (Direct to Video) would thus recognize it as Apsalus II.

"Another mobile armor!" Adelle shouted.

Yuuya flinched and then backed away.

The enemy mobile armor's weapon was even more powerful than Hashmal's own, and Hashmal still got hit by the edge of the ensuing meter-wide dome of fire!

However, Hashmal only received minor damage from this.

"Someone! Pin him down!" One of the students shouted, "I'll take him down with Apsalus II!"

"Eh?!"

Yuuya began charging Hashmal's particle weapon in its mouth. However, the subsequent beating it received forced Yuuya to cancel and focus on the immediate threat!

It was Aili's own Jesta, with a pair of submachine guns in its hands. Behind it, Colette's own GN Archer carried what looks like a rapier with crystal green edges.

"Ah, crap."

Hashmal whipped its tail blade toward Aili's Jesta, but Aili dodged skilfully and rolled on the ground while firing back with her submachineguns.

Yuuya whipped the tail several times, but it missed half the time, and none of the connecting hits were major.

Took this chance, Colette's GN Archer landed on the floor and then slid forward to deliver a focused strike, which was a hair away from direct impact when Hashmal stepped aside just in time.

It was a fencing lunge!

"I'm still not fast enough! Maximum output!" Colette shouted.

The vents on the cone of her GN Archer whistled and released green particles, in such density that they became almost opaque. Like wings made of crystal.

What it looked like... it looked like butterfly wings!

In this moment of distraction, GN Archer swung down its rapier and managed to clip a small part of Hashmal's outer armor coat.

"So... Pretty!" Adelle mumbled.

Dave looked at Yuuya who looked increasingly erratic, to the point that it was clear that Yuuya started running out of breath as he kept typing and moving around his mouse.

The two girls were all but obvious leagues over others, as just the two of them managed to keep Yuuya at bay. Both of them were ferocious but also precise. Colette can dodge the full brunt of tail blades while distracting Yuuya, whereas Airi simply kept shooting systematically to break Hashmal's armor coating apart.

This gave other students enough breathing room that they can now gang on Yuuya without Yuuya being able to counter their attacks whatsoever.

Yuuya was forced to dodge and block their attacks constantly.

"Yuuya!"

"Mother of God."

Dave was horrified that in spite of, or perhaps because of the fact that he was cornered, Yuuya's Hashmal became increasingly fiercer instead of holding back like before.

"Jesta!" Aili screamed when the tail blade smashed Jesta's right forearm and caused it to go flaccid, electricity crackling from where the blade landed. "Tch!"

Jesta's backpack unfolded into a pair of mechanical hydraulic arms that pulled another pair of submachine guns and sent a hail of bullets at Hashmal to make Yuuya back down.

"Aili!"

"Pay attention, Colette!"

Hashmal raised one of its feet, and Colette remembered something really important that she overlooked.

"Duck!"

Hashmal fired a solid spike from underneath its foot, the spike carried a massive amount of energy and momentum behind it. GN Archer ducked to dodge, but the timing was off and the spike smashed part of the shoulder armor, it sent the lightweight mobile suit into an uncontrollable spin.

The spike hit another mobile suit behind GN Archer and banged it's shield badly, caused it to slide back a little. "What the heck?! Is that thing a mini Dansleif or what?!"

"Two of us can barely hold him off! Keep attacking!" Aili told the other students.

...

In the end, Hashmal had both its leg damaged enough that it was practically limping. Furthermore, it's armor also chipped and cracked.

In fact, one of the shoulder pieces was damaged enough to lose an entire armor plate, exposing the machinery underneath. One direct strike from a powerful weapon will be enough at this point.

However, Colette was taken out and her GN Archer got beheaded, Aili's Jesta lost one arm and a leg, fell on the side, before getting crushed under Hashmal's stomp.

Two other students were also taken down by Hasmal's particle cannon. That was the cost of weakening Hashmal enough so it can be taken down.

This left roughly six students surviving, including the boy with Mobile Armor.

"His Nano-laminate armor is falling apart!" Colette shouted, "Take him out!"

"Get out of the way!"

All of the gunpla dashed away from Hashmal when the Mobile Armor Apsalus II loomed over with its cannon almost fully charged again.

Hashmal also managed to charge up its cannon just in time and fired.

Both particle beams hit each other, and briefly canceling each other, and sending stray blast all over the place. However, this only lasted for less than a second before Hashmal's beam sliced through Apsalus' beam and sent it tumbling when it hit.

With its last strength, Hashmal leaped and landed on Apsalus II. Sinking its claw alone was not enough, Hashmal fired up the spike device hidden within its legs.

The initial strike of Hashmal's particle beam destroyed a small patch of thick armor on Apsalus, allowed the spike to get through almost uncontested.

"W-w-w-w-w-a?!" The Apsalus II's owner was at a loss of words when Apsalus II slowly losing its lift and then crashed on the floor, smoking with Hashmal on top of it.

"Heh... et-to." Yuuya removed his ARM device, completely out of breath. "Huh. Looks like that's my loss."

Yuuya's face dropped on his keyboard.

As soon as he said that, Hashmal's mouth blew up. Everyone's sensor revealed that the last gambit Yuuya did overexert the damaged particle cannon and caused it to overheat and partially explode.

In the end, Hashmal reeled and then collapsed, just like its own operator.

However, everyone still shocked just how much destruction Hashmal inflicted before going down.

9 Gunpla destroyed, 12 crippled, and adding to that, it took down another Mobile Armor that's about similar size and way more power!

The survivors all stopped fighting and cheered. "WOAH THAT WAS AWESOME!"

"That guy is something else!"

"Who is he?"

"He's Yuuya, from Japan!"

One of the students checked the fat and rounded Mobile armor and gauged the damage. It seems that the crash caused more damage than the beam particle strike itself. "Ah man, this one is going to be a pain in the butt to fix."

"Sorry about that." Yuuya approached him and apologized.

Some of the students laughed when they saw keyboard marks on Yuuya's face, but didn't say anything.

"No hard feelings, amigo. How could you... my Apsalus II... lost in a contest of power though?" The boy was curious and still can't believe what happened.

"That's not true. Your Apsalus II had greater power output. It's just that my Hashmal's particle canon had greater power density and thus it could cut through." Yuuya told him.

In the end, it was all the matter of gunpla quality. By this point, no one would question Yuuya and Hashmal's absolute supremacy!

The boy smiled, "It's still my loss though, I'll get back on you sometime."

"Sure, let's fight again sometimes."

They exchanged handshakes to reconcile after the fierce, devastating match. A few of the students clapped and whistled to congratulate them, though some also bitter and salty about their defeat and swear revenge.

That was Yuuya's first day at Nicole Internationale Bilingue, leaving an impression that no one would forget.

...

* Gakuran is a militaristic Japanese schoolboys uniform, used to be near-universal in high school, and still common in junior high school today. Many schools phased them out in favor of more stylish and western Blazer instead.

 

[ZeroXSEED]

"Everyone, please lend your help!"

"Oui!"

After the conclusion of the fight, the players released what looks like smaller units that rarely looks humanoid. Some of them look like a ball, others look like a bunch of blocks, and some are a combination of them.

But they all shared the same feature: most of these units have two long, stick-like arms that they use to retrieve fallen Gunpla parts. They're also smaller than a mobile suit of 1/144 scale. Most probably fit in a human hand easily.

Furthermore, most of them don't look like they're armed heavily, some don't even have a visible weapon at all. So it was obvious that their main function is not for battle.

"Cute!" Adelle shrieked.

"What, you like them?" Yuuya asked, "they're usually called worker pods or mobile worker."

"Yuuya also have one?"

"The black one with a tail drill over there. It's called Pluma."

The one Yuuya use was a little bit intimidating than the rest, it was black all over and had two claws that it used to skate around the floor, with its balance hinges on its tail drill. Its single eye was tiny and well hidden, which made it rather uncanny.

"That one is scary." Adelle flinched.

"The backstory is even scarier." Yuuya ominously muttered.

It gathered parts that should belong to Hashmal and put them on a wheeled tray it drags around.

As for Aili, her worker pod looks like an eyeball with a big round window on the front, two sticklike manipulator arms, and one thicker crane arm on the top of its head. It's known as RB-79G Ball worker type.

Compared to them, however, Colette's parts retriever probably looked the strangest. It looked like a mobile suit that missed both legs. Its waist was just a conical stump, and it had elongated arms.

For those who know, this would've been known as GNZ-004 Gaga. Though it was technically a combat mobile suit, it was severely under-armed.

Near the end of lunch break, the students finished gathering their scattered gunpla parts as well as putting gym equipment back in the storage so that the next gym class can be held without issue.

And so everyone returned back to their class.

"Colette that was beautiful!" Adelle said in excitement, "The butterfly wings really are beautiful!"

"You think so?!" Colette was surprised, but delighted by Adelle's excitement. "It was the main reason why I replaced the wing binder with GN Drive actually."

Colette already finished reassembling her GN Archer, with visible scuffs but no broken parts on it.

Colette handed out her GN Archer to Adelle, it was full of scars and battle damages. The gunpla then reactivated its vents and formed butterfly wings again. "Waaah!"

"What is it, you're interested in gunpla battle now?" Aili said in teasing tone.

"Umm, no, it was kind of too violent for me." Adelle shook her head.

Truthfully, Adelle was a bit frightened with Yuuya at the moment. She always thought Yuuya was kindhearted and couldn't hurt a fly, but in gunpla battle, he was really brutal.

Still, she was sure that's just how people are in general because, for them, gunpla battle is nothing but a game.

But Adelle couldn't think the same way. Because gunpla, they really look beautiful, they must've been taken quite a bit of money and time to build, so looking at them getting damaged in battle was kind of painful.

Adelle asked, "Everyone loved their gunpla so much, so why are you fighting each other like this? Wouldn't the gunpla get hurt?"

Colette and Aili exchanged a glance with each other, somewhat weirded out by Adelle's unusual sentiment. Other kids who overheard practically laughed, though they didn't say anything.

Adelle looked visibly hurt by that treatment.

Aili sighed in disbelief, this girl really is too pure. "It's because we love gunpla that we fought each other."

"The better we build our gunpla, the stronger it would be." Colette pumped her fist, "In other words, the best gunpla is always the strongest. And we all want to prove that."

"That nerd probably isn't different." Aili eyes Yuuya curiously, "Right when the battle began, he aggressively attacks everyone to draw attention. His confidence of Hashmal's strength and his control skill was overbearing. Anyone else would have been frightened if everyone gang on them like that."

"Yuuya wanted to tell everyone that his Hashmal is the strongest and challenge everyone to prove it." Colette smiled oddly, almost as if she was charmed. "His control skill was amazing, I almost fall in love!"

"If you say that on his face he might just take that statement seriously you know?" Aili told her.

Colette blinked, "Wait really?"

Adelle felt like she got a glimpse of the side that her stepbrother never shows her before.

"I... I'm going back to my class then." Adelle said, somewhat sad.

"Wait, Adelle, can I have your number?" Colette stopped her.

"Su-sure?"

Adelle was hesitant, but in the end, she pulled out her cellphone and shared contact with Colette.

Aili looked at Adelle with disinterest, but looking at her scared but hopeful eyes, Aili can't help but yield and pulled out her cellphone too.

"Alright, you both have HiSnap, so we can have girls only chat room!" Colette happily said, "That would be wonderful!"

"Normie sure is terrifying sometimes." Aili sighed.

"Normie?" Adelle blinked.

"It's a derogatory term for people with functional social life," Aili told her.

Why is that derogatory?

After saying bye to Yuuya, Adelle disappeared and went back to her class with her own classmates.

Meanwhile on the boy side of the equation.

"That was amazing." Dave shouted as he smacked Yuuya's shoulder, "You literally obliterated more than half the players without using Mobile suit!"

"?" Yuuya blinked in confusion as to why Dave looked so happy, "I think I wouldn't be able to go that far with the Mobile suit though."

"Wait really?" Dave stopped, "I thought Mobile Suits are supposed to be the ultimate weapon or something..."

Yuuya blinked, then lightly laughed. "This isn't Gundam anime!"

Dave raised his eyebrows.

"Mobile suit is simply the easiest path as people instinctively know how to control human-like dolls with a motion-sensitive controller. But as you can tell, I'm using a keyboard and the rules no longer apply to me."

Indeed, typical gunpla battler prefers to use Weemote along with a Mobile suit. Because of this, the Mobile Suit itself can mimic the movement of the operator at 100% clarity.

In other words, Mobile Suits have a much gentler learning curve and higher skill ceiling compared to other forms of gunpla. Perhaps Dave finally understood why Mobile Suit remains supreme in gunpla battle, and yet Yuuya...

And so, that's how Yuuya's first day at French international school began.

Time passed like a blur before they knew it, it was already Thursday. Yuuya and Adelle were doing their homework together in the archive room, which was a godsend.

Because it was a very quiet room and it has all the physical and digital resources needed for them to study properly.

Both of them are very studious type so they don't get distracted easily. They actually finished ahead of time.

"I'm done!" Adelle said as she removed her headphones.

"I'm done as well." Yuuya stretched his arms out.

"I guess we're getting a lesson lat-eeeeeee!!!"

Adelle shrieked when her phone suddenly vibrating and did not stop even as she took it out of her pocket.

"...a phone call?"

"No, it's just Colette and Emily." Adelle tried to stop shaking and swiped the screen, "When they get started it just don't stop."

Ah, the legendary Normie chat, not that Yuuya ever experience such thing, but probably not that different than game chat spam. Just the topic is way more diverse.

"Apparently they're seeing a shooting for a Film and hunting for signatures from the... supporting actors?"

Because her hair always covers most of her eyes, sometimes it's hard to tell, but Yuuya at least could tell that Adele scrunched up her eyebrows from confusion.

"Well if you think about it the main actor and actress would be swamped by fans and reporters." Yuuya quipped.

"Ah!"

"Is there any actor you like, Adelle?"

"Roman Henderson!" Adelle said aloud, "Reynard De Capri too!"

That's not what Yuuya meant, but well, Adelle probably isn't quite in touch with current pop culture, or handsome actor and such. Not that Yuuya had the right to say, like, 100% of his favorite celebrities are anime and game Voice actors and actresses, or theme singer...

Adelle probably used to be content just watching old and classic films. Though to be fair, Reynard De Capri was really handsome in his youth.

"Recently I start to like a pop song, a bit dated, but it was really good!"

"What, really? I'd like to hear it."

"Let's go upstairs!"

Ms. Shimizu had always been difficult to express her feelings, but she always tried her best, for herself and her family. She was a widow. Her first husband left her and Yuuya when he was ten years old.

After that, life gets very difficult and this culminated with her transfer to an office overseas. Yuuya refused to leave Japan and they got separated.

Ms. Shimizu was at her limit, that was when she met her, Adelle. The young girl was sickly, her state of health was bad enough that she can't afford to go to school.

But Ms. Shimizu noticed that for all her suffering, Adelle never once gave up.

"I want to go to school, with everyone."

Adelle inspired Ms. Shimizu to stay strong. And she grew to love the delicate young girl like her own daughter.

Through Adelle, Ms. Shimizu gets to know Mr. Stein. The man was even worse at expressing himself than Ms. Shimizu does, and he too was a widower. Mr. Stein was stiff and always too formal even to his own daughter, but he's polite and attentive.

Ms. Shimizu probably can't call it blooming romance, but she certainly felt a sense of connection with him, and as such, she decided to ask Yuuya.

"Do you mind if your mother got married again?"

Yuuya and Adelle met last semester during the Summer vacation. Ms. Shimizu was somewhat disheartened because she was unable to parse whether Yuuya likes that decision or not.

"Of course not." Yuuya smiled.

Was that a lie?

Even now, Ms. Shimizu was not sure. She doesn't know if Yuuya gets along well with Mr. Stein, her second and current husband. But scenes like this made Ms. Shimizu glad and told her that it was the best she could do at that time.

"[Hey, I just met you and this is crazy
But here's my number, so call me, maybe?
It's hard to look right at you, baby
But here's my number, so call me, maybe?]"

Yuuya and Adelle were dancing around and singing what apparently eight years old song from a famous pop star in the shared recreation room.

"M-mother?!"

"Uh..."

Yuuya and Adelle froze on their spot, even so far as keeping their pose from awkwardness, their face as red as a tomato.

"Why stopping? The song still going!" She smiled.

However, Yuuya was quick on his take and quickly grab the remote and shut the TV off.

"That's fine, it's almost dinner and I still haven't taken a bath." Yuuya picked a magazine to fan himself as he was sweating badly from all these singing and dancing, and he's also super embarrassed by his mother.

"Sadly your father can't join for dinner, but I'm here!" Ms. Shimizu cheerfully greeted them.

Before she knew it, almost one week had passed. Yuuya began to acclimate with the new people and new environment pretty quickly, much to his mother's relief.

The fact that he also got along very well with his stepsister is a plus. Yuuya and Adelle are very awkward socially, but that was a vast improvement from their twelve years old self.

Both Yuuya and Adelle used to be isolated from their peers. perhaps, just like her and her husband, they found common grounds in their circumstances and united by sharing the same pain of abandonment and isolation.

Ms. Shimizu doesn't know where their relationship will head, whether as real brother and sister, or something else. But she can't be too concerned with an unknown future, what important to her was the present.

Because she never saw Yuuya so happy in a long time.

After dinner, they decided to go back to the recreation room and watch TV.

"[News from Beijing is coming, Meng Yi Ran managed to win the title of U18 National Gunpla Championship. What a beautiful girl with beautiful gunpla in her hands!]"

"Woah, she's a beauty!" Adelle said in admiration, "But I don't know gunpla championship is divided by age group."

"The three groups comprise of U15, U18, and adult division," Yuuya said nonchalantly as he took a sip of milk, "Adult division gets really weird and I don't pay much attention to them."

"They have team members, support staff, training facilities, budget, and sponsors. In other words, a Pro gunpla battle team." Ms. Shimizu said, "Real deal, a lot of money and time is invested there."

"Something amazing like that... exist?"

"Of course. Gunpla battle is a recognized sport, so of course, there's something like that." Ms. Shimizu smiled.

Yuuya just gagged in response though he didn't say anything, "Adelle, you're interested in gunpla right?"

"Umm, well, it's like... they're kind of weird. Some of them look so scary, yet some of them look cute."

"Adelle prefer the cute type right?" Ms. Shimizu picked a box that she put here somewhere, "What about those?"

Adelle's quiet screaming was kind of cute too!

"Wha, what are those?"

"Those are old model SD Gundam. Super Deformed." Yuuya picked one of them, "You can basically think of them as a cartoony caricature of real gunpla, that's why they look cute."

"I see!"

Adelle wasn't a stranger to super-deformed style, as some of her favorite cartoons also have a super-deformed spinoff. An indescribable feeling of joy filled Adelle's heart when she picked one and inspected it up close.

With their big heads and stubby legs and arms, they would surely wiggle around just to move.

That would be amazing!

"You can have them if you want." Yuuya said, "To be honest I feel kind of bad neglecting them like this, but these old SD model was too powerless to fight in normal gunpla battle."

"Really? Thank you very much!"

"You can also try moving them if you want." Yuuya lends her the ARM device, "You could even use a joystick."

"Ah I see, doesn't Adelle like to play games?" Ms. Shimizu clapped her hands in realization.

"Wa-but first-person fighting is kind of..."

Adelle's favorite game would be Super Stomp Sisters, which was a mega-crossover fighting game by a famous company in Japan. It features cartoony characters and a relatively mild amount of violence, enough that it could be considered the must-have item for family and friends of all ages.

Adelle dislikes the more gritty and realistic games, and first-person shooter probably the worst. From what she learned, Gunpla Battle is basically first-person fighting and shooting without blood.

"You don't have to use ARM visual display, just wear it with you and connect the controller via Bluetooth." Yuuya pointed, "As long as you adjust the control, then you're basically done."

And so Adelle decided to give a try. She wore the ARM over her eyes first to ensure the configuration was up to spec, and then adjust the control input to rely on the joystick controller that she regularly used.

Looking at Yuuya and her stepmother through the eyes of two inches tall robot was a kind of weird experience.

She removed the ARM and let it hung on her neck.

The gunpla she controls began to waddle forward, walking slowly at first, but began to accelerate and jump around, following Adelle's command.

Several times she actually tripped or slipped and fell, and she couldn't help but cry in anguish. "Ahhh, so hard!"

"Remember, the physics involved is very realistic, even with the gravity dampening effect." Yuuya said, "SD models have wide feet which makes them stable when on the ground, but their big head gave them an odd center of gravity."

"I think I got the hang of this."

The gunpla that Adelle control began to jump left and right, climbing the bookshelf and jump between objects like a subwoofer and the TV set.

Clearly, her experience of playing SSS paid off well.

"Yuuya wasn't that good when he started." The mother teased, much to Yuuya's anguish.

But he couldn't agree more. Adelle's motor skill clearly is top-notch, probably from all the hours and hours of gaming she did when she was still homeschooled.

It was a thought-provoking find for him.

GUNDAM BUILD DUEL - DISSONANT CHORD
LOVE AND PEACE, THROUGH WARFARE
Original Story by: @ZeroXSEED
Inspired by: Gundam Build Anime Series
Disclaimer: Gundam is property of Bandai/Sunrise​

CHAPTER 2: FALLEN ANGEL'S FEATHER

At last, Friday has come to an end, it was at sunset and everyone celebrated the end of the school week. Some of them want to hang out immediately, others discuss their plans for tomorrow and Sunday.

"Let's go to Parc Monceau."

When Colette grabbed his wrist, Yuuya began steaming from embarrassment. Back in Japan, girls don't just grab boys like that unless they're close friends.

Yuuya had always been very comfortable around Adelle... but they're NOT being touchy-feely with each other! And they're supposed to be siblings!

Yuuya panicked at looked at Aili, silently pleading for help.

Aili just gleefully smirked back in response. "Good catch," she said and left.

Yuuya really wanted to cry.

Parc Monceau was a public park located somewhere in the 8th arrondissement of Paris. It was considered unusual and exotic because it's overall architecture mimics that of old English architecture than French park.

To many people, it could be considered the most beautiful park in Paris due to the sheer size and variety of landscape it possesses.

The entrance was marked with a large rotunda building that also serves as a public toilet and guard station.

"WOAH!" Yuuya could not hold back his excitement when he saw one of the fields was filled to the brim by tons of kids.

"Oh Mama, that's a lot of kids over there." Dave whistled.

"That's way more than usual." Aili remarked, "Regardless of that, there are a lot of schools here and not enough free space, so this is basically gunpla battle central. "

"I can imagine why."

Colette looked a bit stiff when she noticed a group of people amongst the crowd. Unlike the rest of the kids, these people all wearing light gray uniforms to them.

"T-They're from Saint Marian Middle?" Adelle shrieked when she realized who they are.

"Saint Marian Middle?" Yuuya raised his eyebrow.

"I-it was one of the elite private schools around here." Adelle said, "I... believe it's the only school in the region to have a uniform as well."

"I see."

In France, School uniform is considered superfluous and had been the case for decades. So if one school implemented a school uniform policy, it would be seen as rather unusual.

As for Saint Marian Middle, they don't have bilingual teaching or French acclimatization program with them. That was the reason why Yuuya passed it over as a school of choice.

It was a school for fully assimilated or born French citizens only, in essence.

"Colette! Is that you?!" One of them called.

The boy who called her name immediately rushed to approach her, and without hesitation, reached to hug her. Colette herself seemed to appreciate the gesture and received him without shame.

French kids sure are carefree. Yuuya remarked inwardly.

Aili teased him"What, you're jealous? Colette probably will hug you too if you ask."

"Please don't joke about that, I'll die of a heart attack." Yuuya cried.

"Good afternoon, Victor. It's been a while since you came here, what gives?" Colette asked happily.

The boy let her go and smiled.

"A lot of things happened at school, I wasn't being clear enough in my message, sorry."

The boy who hugged Colette wasn't as tall as Dave, but somewhere between him and Yuuya. His hair was pale blond, almost silvery, and his eyes were violet. His skin was also very fair, almost angelic even. However, that doesn't diminish his sharp, masculine feature.

"What's this, the N.I.B. crowd is bigger than usual?"

Another boy approached them with a smug expression.

"Oh here comes the douchebag," Aili remarked with low tone.

"I didn't know you two still an item." The boy remarked carelessly.

The boy was tall but look somewhat different in build than Dave or Victor. His neck seemingly longer than others and he had very firm, but slender back. He had spiky black hair which was bleached on the tip with dark red color.

"We're just childhood friends now, nothing more than that." The pale blond boy refuted, "Liam."

"Well then Colette, mind introducing me to this cute sweetheart here?" The boy approached Yuuya and bowed gracefully, "The name is Liam Laurent."

Yuuya twitched, did this guy just...

"Hello, Liam, the name is Yuuya," Yuuya said as he offered a handshake.

"Ah, a bit shy type huh. Typical for Asian girls." Liam remarked as he reached for Yuuya's hand.

And kissed it.

"I can't bear to see this." Dave squeaked, while Aili burst into maniacal laughter.

To be honest, not like Dave can blame Liam on this. Yuuya was exceptionally pretty for a boy. Even for Japanese standards, he's on the short side. And finally, Yuuya's voice hasn't matured, which can sound girly if you don't pay attention.

At first glance, it's not hard to mistake him as a girl. The reason why no one did that mistake was that Yuuya was introduced explicitly as a boy in the class.

Liam doesn't have that privilege, from an entirely different school and all.

"...Sorry, I might look like this but I like girls." Yuuya looked like he's about to cry when he pulled his hand away and rubbed it on his clothes.

"I see, that's a pity." Liam sighed.

"No, Liam you misunderstood." Colette whispered, "Yuuya is a boy."

"WHAT?!"

"Oh don't worry, that happens often in Japan too." Yuuya waved his hand. Truthfully he was annoyed, but he doesn't want to make a bad impression.

But being kissed on the hand by another guy was a novel experience, Yuuya admitted.

"You should have rejected." Liam, on the other hand, was offended. "Why don't you wear a skirt while you're at it? If you want to be deceitful might as well go all the way."

Now that's just rude. It's not like Yuuya was asking for it.

"Liam, apologize." Victor frowned, clearly disapproving of his friend's action.

Said friend, however, was incredibly stubborn. "No way."

"Sure, I'll wear a skirt if you want." Yuuya grinned, "If you beat me in gunpla battle."

"Ehhh?" Liam raised one eyebrow cockily, "Are you sure? I'm pretty strong."

"In exchange, if you lose, you'll wear a skirt all day, tomorrow." Yuuya nodded, "Is that fine?"

"Bring it on!" Liam pulled out his gunpla.

For those familiar with Gundam shows, they will recognize the unit as Gundam AGE-1 Razor.

All AGE type Gundam had something unique and easy to identify, that being a hollow hexagonal shape on their chest. This hexagonal piece can either be black with a green glow or blank white.

As for AGE-1 Razor, it's arms and legs were equipped with heavy cutting blades, thus the name.

"Nah." Yuuya pulled out his Pluma instead, "I hope you have a pod with you."

"Mobile Worker? Booriiiing." Liam whistled, mobile pod combat is incredibly tedious and boring simply by how small their scopes are. The few that large enough to contend with Mobile suits battle is more interesting, but still, a Pluma?

A single Pluma is no match for even the weakest of Mobile suits!

"What's that? It sounds like someone can't do anything without mobile suits." Aili provoked.

"I... I just forgot to bring my worker!" Liam said angrily.

"Then go and borrow something, you coward." The bespectacled Chinese girl poked his chest.

Clearly uncomfortable with the close proximity, Liam backed down and then asked her. "Give me yours then!"

Aili handed him out her worker Ball along with two sets of spare weapons to customize it. The Worker Ball had absolutely no weapons installed on it after all.

One of the weapons looked like a simple large cannon with a box magazine behind it. The other one looks more complicated, with two smaller cannons mounted to the sides of a turret assembly.

"180mm Low Recoil cannon or Twin Assault Cannon. Hmmm." Liam mumbled, he inspected everything and decided. "I'll take twin cannon with it."

Liam replaced the crane arm on the top of Ball's head with the twin cannon assembly.

"Wait, Liam, want to use my Gaga instead?" Colette offered, "I even have GN cannon sets to go with it."

Liam chortled incredulously, "Please, Ball might be not as good as Mobile suits, but it's still better than Pluma. Me using Gaga would be cheating!"

How arrogant!

"Up to you then." Colette gave up, "Good choice on the cannon option though."

"Why is that?" Dave asked.

"Pluma is lightly armed, but it's still a powerful worker type unit, it's extremely fierce up close and very fast. A small group of them will tear through a Mobile suit unless the suit is optimized for close combat." Aili said, "180mm cannon is exceptionally powerful, but it's slow firing. Compared to that the twin assault cannons fire faster, even if individual shells are weaker. And you have two of them instead of one."

"In other words, it doesn't matter if it's powerful. If you can't hit the target, then it's useless." Dave nodded sagely.

Adelle puffed her cheek in annoyance, it seems that even Dave seems to catch up quickly with everything. Though Dave was supposed to be a general military geek, and gunpla have a strong militaristic feel most of the time.

"Please give some room ladies and gentlemen." Victor announced, "We'll have a duel between Yuuya Shimizu from N.I.B and Liam Laurent from St. Marian."

"WHOA! DUEL!"

"Liam is really strong around here so I'm super excited!"

"GO! GO!"

As the Nanoshield erected, the battle began right away!

The Ball quickly accelerated, steadily hovering just above ground while dashing through the grassland which, at least from its own point of view, was several meters tall, obscuring vision.

Liam sharpened his eyes, knowing Pluma's best attribute, it was likely that Yuuya set up an ambush. Though Ball was overall more powerful than Pluma, it was weaker in close combat.

Forced into that situation, Liam only had his skill to rely on.

And he was right!

Liam nudged the control a bit and the Ball changed it's direction ever so slightly that it came off like a blur, and a shadowy figure narrowly passed to its side.

It was none other than Yuuya's Pluma unit.

Its claw grazed the sides of the Ball, but it was so superficial that it barely scratched the paint coating at all!

"So fast!" Liam knew Pluma is faster than a Ball, but he didn't expect the difference could be this staggering! Still, Ball has greater maneuverability, which he could use to its maximum effect!

Liam swung the ball quickly and bear its cannons on target, began firing toward Pluma's direction. None of the shot hit, but the Pluma was visibly rattled from the explosion around it!

Pluma drifted and then something clacked open underneath its head, a small gun extend out and began firing. Its power was no less than the Ball's assault cannon and caused similar-sized dust explosions.

"That's..." Dave was speechless, "Railgun?"

"Pluma is armed with a single ranged weapon, that's the hidden railgun. It's not really that powerful in comparison to mobile suit weapons, but the compact size is what makes it so easy to wield." Yuuya smirked, "And hard to disable."

One of Pluma's rounds managed to hit one of the Ball's cannons, caused it to jam, though it wasn't damaged badly.

"Tch, disable left side gun and start unjamming protocol, quick!" Liam ordered.

"Disarming opponent is one of the fundamental tactics in gunpla battle. Handheld weapons and gunpla hands are one of the most fragile parts in the entire machine, and that's why they're so easy to damage compared to other gunpla parts." Colette explained, "But the problem is that the more powerful a weapon, the bigger explosion it causes. If it's located outside the gunpla, the damage will be minimized, but when it happens inside gunpla..."

Dave was reminded by how Hashmal collapsed, it happened after the particle cannon in its mouth blew up, despite a relatively intact body.

"Hmm, so it's like the difference between turreted and turretless tanks," Dave said to no one.

Turretless tanks have their guns often built into the hull itself, making the entire tank relatively smaller and compact, but reduce flexibility as the entire tank need to move to aim the gun. It's also all or nothing gamble that if the gun explodes, chances that the rest of the tank will be written off.

Turreted tanks often have an obvious tall profile, but the turret is flexible and most of the time, a safety mechanism was made so that even if the turret exploded, some of the crew will survive and the tank could still operate to a degree.

Indeed, even as Pluma outmatched it in raw speed, the Ball seems to be able to react correctly and fire where it needed, and the Pluma wasn't able to close the distance at all.

The spectators erupted, they never thought that battle between worker units could be so intense!

It was like the Ball was dancing, twirling and spinning as it dodged Pluma's long and close-range attacks, sometimes even going so far as to fire upside down. While the Pluma zig-zagged like relentless predators chasing its prey, practically untouchable as it zipped around the grassland.

"Liam is an aspiring dancer. That's why his sense of 3D movement was greater than most people." Colette widely smiled, "Aili, you gave him that Ball on purpose don't you?"

"Hell no, I don't even know that sissy knows how to dance." Aili shrugged, "That said he probably performs way better had he use your Gaga instead."

"That's true." Colette nodded.

It's not like Colette didn't try, it was just Liam's ego getting into his head.

More and more people began to stop whatever they're doing and watched the fight instead.

"You're a good, one, huh!" Liam smirked cockily, "But you're not Victor!"

"Hmm." Yuuya nodded, "I see, is Victor really good?"

"More than you can imagine! FIRE!"

"It's a stalemate!" Victor looked excited, "It's impossible to know who will win!"

Victor certainly enjoys the sight of the passionate battle, as well as the audience. This, this is exactly what gunpla battle should be!

"Not necessarily." Aili cryptically sighed, "It ends here."

Pluma drifted again to dodge and then disappear within taller grass.

"Huh?"

Liam did not see what happened later, literally.

Pluma jumped from the back and then spun itself, to strike on Ball's backpack fuel tank with its tail drill. Though the drill failed to pierce through, it causes a sizable dent that allowed Pluma to blow it up with its railgun.

Losing one tank caused quite an imbalance in the Ball's movement, which made Liam furious!

"Gaaah! Readjust gyroscopic stabilization! Increase thrust and use the retro motor and arms to compensate!" Liam shouted angrily.

However, Pluma did not stop here, as it kept moving and zigzagging where the main window didn't see, and repeatedly struck the Ball with its claws.

The fourth time it happens, the Ball lost one of its arms.

"Not the right arm!"

Because Yuuya blew up the right fuel tank, the Ball become unbalanced, and now it loses the right arm too!

As of now, the Ball spun uncontrollably. Every time Liam tried to adjust, Yuuya came and struck from his blind spot. "Where is he?!"

"Now this is straight-up bullying." Dave shook his head in exasperation. Yuuya must've been really mad at Liam for his treatment.

But to be honest, Dave doesn't think he can be any more patient and restrained if he was in Yuuya's position. Dave cannot blame Yuuya at all.

Dave sits a bit closer which made Adelle's heart jump and her mouth wide open. "Aie!"

Dave looked extremely confused by that response.

"So sorry, I'm not good with boys so..."

"Oh, my apologies."

"No... I mean..." Adelle took a deep breath, then sit closer to him so he could see the tablet. "I used to be sickly so I was homeschooled. My body gets better, so I just started going to school last semester..."

Ah, she's being shy.

"Just tell me if you feel uncomfortable, Eh?" Dave smiled in understanding, which made Adelle blush.

Dave really isn't just handsome, he's also really nice!

"Xiye, don't be too rough with my precious ball, okay?" Aili shouted, "If it breaks I'm going to have you fix it yourself."

"Sorry, that Ball is too well built."

Pluma slammed down on the Ball, forced it to crash to the ground. The Ball was shut down, while Pluma jumped down in triumph.

"The winner is Yuuya Shimizu!"

"WOAAAAAAAHHHH!!"

Adelle quickly wore her headphone to block the noise. The gym was bad enough, but more people watched this duel in a public Park. Consequently, the hysteria after the battle was much more deafening.

Pluma returned to Yuuya's hand while Aili gathered the parts of her Ball. Liam was too shocked and practically fainted where he stood, his ARM covered his eyes.

"Well, that settles it." Yuuya laughed and left satisfied.

Yuuya's words brought Liam back to reality and he removed his arm. "Wha-whatever, I'll be here tomorrow, be sure to come back!"

"Sorry, I have French and Piano lessons tomorrow." Yuuya rejected politely, though he was only making excuses since he'll be free in the afternoon. "To be honest, you shouldn't take that bet too seriously."

"What does that even mean?!" Liam scrunched his eyebrows, confused.

"Xiye only told you to wear a skirt all day, he didn't say you should wear it in public. Tomorrow is the weekend and nothing stopping you from wearing a skirt at home." Aili spat, "Idiot."

"Actually Saint Marian has Saturday classes." Victor corrected, "It was only half a day though."

As expected of elite school! They even have classes on Saturday! Compared to that, N.I.B doesn't, though it offer supplementary French lesson, it was not at all mandatory.

Which means Liam would have to go to school in a Skirt...

"Ahhh whatever." Liam was too frustrated to care anymore, he was more concerned with the fact that it was a curb stomp. So he offered his hand to Aili instead, "Gimme."

"What?"

"Gimme that Ball, I'll fix it up in no time, I'll give it to you back tomorrow."

"Thanks but no need." Aili refused.

"I insist."

"Liam is super stubborn, Aili. And don't worry, he's every bit as skilled as a builder as we are." Colette hugged her, "Just let him do it and it will be fine."

Aili knew very well that, from a glance of his AGE-1 Razor alone but still...

"That's right, you can leave it to me," Liam said confidently, "I can rebuild it better than you expect."

"Big words coming from a loser who thinks the world revolves around you, someone who can't even be bothered to apologize and blame others for his mistake." Aili rolled her eyes and said coldly, "Say it next time you're winning, maybe I can take that offer seriously, you wimp."

Needless to say, quite a few people were shocked by that response.

Still, it wasn't entirely unwarranted, even if Aili was the one who lent out her Ball in the first place. Liam was incredibly arrogant and entitled about it from start to finish.

"Pathetic." Aili quietly said as she turned back and leave with a hateful look on her face.

Colette just sighed and shook her head, "Sorry about that Liam, Aili can be a little... difficult sometimes, but she meant well."

Liam bit his lips in frustration. "I should have used your Gaga, then maybe I can win this."

"Yeah," Colette said though she was half-lying, "Meet you later, Victor. See you later, Adelle, Yuuya, Dave."

Colette hurriedly ran and catch Aili before she could lose sight of her friend.

Colette was doubtful that Liam can win even with Gaga in his hands. Yuuya's supreme control skill was simply that far ahead of everyone. Still, it would be less of a curb stomp and humiliating defeat.

The fact that Pluma was barely scratched and dented in the fight was a testament to that.

Victor patted Liam to cheer him up, "Let's get some coffee. My treat."

"Thank you, Victor."

In the end, it was just Dave, Yuuya and Adelle left. And boy, it was awkwardly silent with just three of them around.

So they decided to go home instead.

Meanwhile, Colette and Aili bough themselves Ice cream to cool themselves down after being exposed to the sunset of Paris.

"You think I'm being too harsh?" Aili asked neutrally. There was not a sign of guilt in her expression and tone, so Aili was confident that she did the right thing.

Still, Liam was Colette's friend, so she shouldn't have been that hostile. Not openly at least.

"I don't think so, Liam was over the line himself." Colette shook her head, "He's... not really a bad person, but sometimes no one ever calls him out and tell him to hit the brake."

"You know him really well don't you?"

"We're from the same elementary school." Colette told her, "I think it was partly Victor and my fault that Liam turned like this."

Colette realized that she and Victor had been enablers for Liam's bad habits and temperament.

Aili didn't say anything back, so Colette decided to switch the topic of conversation. "Aili, do you think you can win against Yuuya's Pluma, one on one?"

"Unless I use my Jesta, probably not," Aili remarked in annoyance, remembering her past humiliating defeat, "Definitely not in a Ball."

"I see." Colette nodded in agreement, if Aili was skeptical, then Colette probably isn't that different. "By the way, I got the autograph of Sarah Birmingham yesterday."

Aili coughed, then shouted. "Seriously?!"

 

[ZeroXSEED]

Adelle Stein was enjoying her day off alone, or at least, principally alone. She had her butler/bodyguard following her from behind just in case.

Truthfully, she would like to go with some of her friends. But she doesn't have a lot of them in the first place, and she doesn't want to intrude them on their day off.

Just being healthy enough to go out at the weekends was a godsend to her.

"Foster, I hope you don't mind us just walking around aimlessly around the town." She told him.

"Of course not milady." The butler politely nodded.

To be honest, he couldn't possibly be happier than serving Adelle. Adelle was kind of innocent, naive even, which can be worrisome from a parent's point of view. What if someone unscrupulous took advantage of her?

But she was always a good kid, she always been obedient and isn't needy. In that aspect, at least from a pragmatic point of view as an employee, it's way easier to serve and protect her than the more... rebellious and free-thinking kind of children.

If nothing else, the least he could do to repay his master's kindness was to protect her from any harm.

Adelle perked up when she saw a familiar person nearby.

Adelle always knew that Dave was popular. Indeed, when Adelle saw him at the moment, he was surrounded by a few boys and girls. He looked a bit overwhelmed.

Their eyes meet and what Adelle saw was Dave's expression of relief. Dave hurriedly split from them and approached her.

"Sorry Adelle, I need your help!" Dave said. "Can you pretend us having a date?"

So Dave was trying to find excuses to leave them? Well, Adelle honestly doesn't mind.

"D-date?

Adelle looked she was aghast, but then suddenly said, "Ah, of-of course!"

Foster raised one eyebrow in suspicion when this shameless boy suddenly approached Adelle and asked for such an outrageous request. Yet, Adelle would immediately agree with it?

"Eh. Sorry, my date did come after all." Dave apologized to his group.

They show a various range of responses, but Adelle noticed that the girls seem to be disappointed for the most part. Furthermore, these girls looked at Adelle with absolute contempt.

But in the end, they left on their own.

"And now I feel so awful." Dave sighed and looked at his phone before smiled at Adelle. "Sorry about that too, Adelle."

"D-don't worry, I should've apologized instead." Adelle said, "I mean... you're pretending to have a date with an ugly duckling like me. People might laugh at you later."

Dave almost dropped his phone while Foster coughed blood, well, figuratively.

"Eh? Anyone calling you ugly must be really blind." Dave winced, seriously apologetic.

Adelle herself was hardly unattractive, her skin looks smooth and her face was pretty.

That said, this is a weekend and Adelle didn't bother to dress herself either way. Her baggy pants and shirt too big made her look like a slob; because her fashion completely lacked coordination.

She also wore running shoes.

And that giant headphone still stuck out like a sore thumb.

And her hair was so long, that even though it was silky smooth, it covered half her face.

"These girls probably judge you because of your clothing."

"Really?"

"Yeah, I suggest wearing fitted pants and a sandal with that shirt." Dave pointed.

"Ahem!" Foster coughed a bit to catch their attention. "Young Miss, is this your friend?"

"Ahh, yes." Adelle grimaced, "Foster, this is David Laurier, He's Yuuya's classmate and a friend."

"Bonjour." Dave nodded innocently.

"This is Foster, he's my caretaker and bodyguard."

"It's an honor to meet Young Master's friend," Foster said, but his voice wasn't respectful at all. He was clearly looked at Dave with suspicion.

Dave didn't know that Yuuya came from a big household, that level of protectiveness isn't normal at all. Come to think of it, didn't Yuuya said he had a Piano lesson today?

"Well then, I'll pay you back sometime!" Dave said. "If anyone asks you please tell them you rejected me... or something, eh."

"I'll just tell them it didn't work out." Adelle waved her hand happily.

Ahhh, Foster really wanted to cry. It seems that while Adelle was pure as a white pearl, she was not at all ignorant about boy-girl matter. At least, Foster was thankful for that. Less chance of Young Miss being swindled by some handsome playboy such as this one!

Foster was sure that it was the influence of her kind stepmother, bless her guidance.

So he messaged his true Master, Mr. Stein.

F: "Young Miss had truly grown up."
S: "What's that supposed to mean?!"

Figures he would be worried sick. Mr. Stein had always been the most expressive on text messages! So Foster simply typed as quickly as he could. He explained in detail what just transpired.

S: "So it was like that. I felt a bit let down, to be honest."
F: "Master, my apologies, but you're not making any sense."
S: "But since he's Yuuya's friend, I want to test a few things."

Is this guy for real? Foster thought.

"David, young man." Foster raised his voice, "It's not kosher just to dump responsibility like that, why don't you take her to a real date?"

"What are you saying, Foster!" Adelle got flustered and flailed.

"What did you say? Didn't you go alone because you can bring to invite your friends?" Foster teased.

"Awawawawawa!"

"Even saying that; you can't have a date with three people." Dave said and winked, "But if it's just hanging out, that's fine."

"Is... is that fine?"

Adelle thought Dave was simply want to go out alone. That's why he rejected their offer and used Adelle as an excuse, right?

"A sister of my friend is a friend too." Dave confidently smiled, "That said I'm not sure where to go, so you decide."

"Ah sure, let me buy some clothes first, then we can go to a movie."

Foster widened his eyes in surprise.

It seems that Adelle seems to be a natural charmer herself. This might be super dangerous!

Indeed, when they went to a clothing store, Adelle bought skinny pants and a walking sandal to replace her getup. Unlike her baggy pants and sneaker, this style really complements the rest of her clothes.

Foster took a picture of her and sent it to Mr. Stein's number post haste. And Mr. Stein spammed thumbs up in response.

"Is this really okay?" Adelle asked while making an awkward attempt at showing off. The way she stretched the bottom of her shirt to the side was really dorky!

Dave really, really want to tell her to get rid of that headphone but he didn't have the heart to tell her. "Perfect."

"You said we're watching a movie, so where are we going?"

Max Linder Panorama was an extremely old cinema, built in the very first decade of the 20th century, and almost went into bankruptcy in the 1980s before bought by a bunch of cinephiles who attempted to preserve and restore the old-style movie theater.

It's still operating today and considered one of the historical entertainment establishments. It's considered one of the most beautiful cinemas in Paris, with one of the largest panoramic curved screens in the city.

"Whoa, very classic."

Or rather, old school. He was sure that other kids rarely go here because of different atmospheres.

"Sorry, you probably don't like it..."

"Young miss actually likes old and classics. That said, it seems that we're getting the premiere of a new movie this week." Foster commented.

To be honest, Dave was hesitant. Yet at the same time, he's morbidly curious. He might just try it this once.

"Excuse me. Can we have three tickets with adjacent seats?" Dave asked the receptionist.

"Which level do you want, Mister? We still have quite a bit left."

There are three levels of seats in Max Linder, with a grand total of 600 seats.

"My eyes are sensitive, can I have a separate seat in the upper level? First row on the third level please." Foster requested, "These two may choose whichever seat they want."

"Ehhh?!" Adelle looked in worry, "What about it Dave?"

"Why ask me? You choose." Dave shrugged.

"A-alright then, the first row of the second level please?" Adelle decided, it should not be too close or too far, and it would be easier to sit down and leave.

The receptionist shows them the seats which haven't been preordered or occupied. Adelle decided to pick the centermost available seats for the best experience.

When Dave was about to pull his wallet, Adelle stopped him and pay for the ticket. "My treat."

"Not good," Dave said, but Adelle insisted. "Alright then, but I pay for lunch."

Dave marveled at the size of the screen. Even though they were on the second floor, Dave could still see it clearly. It was a different experience than other more modern theaters with segmented room and multiple screenings.

The atmosphere, the lighting, the sounds... it was all different. It was new.

And boy it was a wild ride.

Since at the moment, they were watching an action movie, the audiences were understandably excited, and when almost 600 people put in the same room...

It was a blast.

"I would not come here too often," Dave remarked in astonishment, as he stylishly combed his hair. "But I will come again, for sure."

It was an absolutely breathtaking experience, he admitted. Too intense for weekly movies, but probably he could come once a month, maybe twice depending on what's screened.

"It's amazing isn't it?" Adelle was really, really excited.

Foster, on the other hand, had mixed.

It seems that while these two are on good terms, there was not a shred of chemistry or tension between them. Still, Dave was actually quite mature for his age. He already did various countless action that made him a certified gentleman.

Unlike many other boys of their age, he treated Adelle with respect, despite Adelle having no sense of fashion and having different tastes than typical teenage girls.

He was being earnest, but not overly blunt. He always on guard, even so far as putting himself on the closer side to the main road. He let Adelle go first in every door and now he's treating her in lunch as payback for the movie ticket.

Dave also kept some distance with her, avoided direct and physical contact whenever possible without stopping paying attention at her... Dave clearly knew her discomfort with boys due to her spending much of her childhood outside school.

He made Adelle felt safe, and Dave pulled it all with flawless confidence.

Adelle, as it turns out, wasn't really as naive as Mr. Stein and Foster fear. But who says that she's immune? This boy might just be the real deal, perfect ace that every girl wanted, no wonder he's so popular!

For someone as inexperienced and sheltered as Adelle, that kind of seasoned hunter is the most dangerous!

"...Mr. Foster?"

"Ah, yes?"

"You've been quiet for a while, do you want to go somewhere?" Dave asked.

Ah, so Dave actually still pay attention to HIM. The type that won't ignore the third wheel huh? Or maybe he was just pretending to be nice...

But looking at that boy, there was no sign of malice or deception at all.

"No, I've enjoyed this as much as you do." Foster smiled, it was a half-hearted, but not complete lie either. "Don't you think Young Miss had a unique preference?"

Dave was quiet for a moment, then nodded, "It was a refreshing experience. We went to places I don't usually go."

Even now they spent their lunchtime in a Lamian store, as the name implies it was a Chinese noodle store owned and operated by Chinese ex-pats.

"Don't you know? This restaurant is owned by Aili's family."

Dave almost choked on his drink but managed to calm down.

Foster raised his eyebrow, "Who is that?"

"Aili is another friend, and Yuuya's classmate." Adelle said, "Though I wonder, are you two close, Dave? You two often hang around Colette."

"Well, not very close. She's very cold to boys in general so that's understandable." Dave shuddered, "I guess I can call her a friend of a friend."

Adelle did remember how merciless Aili was with Liam in the Parc Monceau. Perhaps Aili wasn't really especially bitter about her broken gunpla. She's just like that in general.

"Adelle? Dave?"

Adelle raised her head and found Yuuya walking with Aili together, and Yuuya looked very uncomfortable.

"Yuuya!" Adelle widened her eyes, "You've done with the Piano lesson?"

"Well yeah. Didn't know you two are here though."

"But I know." Aili shows up the HiSnap message that Adelle sent, it has a picture of noodle dishes. "Preying on a seemingly easy target, eh, Dave?"

"You know what, that's kind of rude to Adelle don't you think?" Dave frowned.

"I didn't mean you're an easy target, Adelle. Sorry." Aili responded, but only said that to Adelle herself and not to Dave, much to his ire.

Yuuya was more surprised by the fact that Aili CAN apologize!

"Y-you misunderstand, we're just meet each other normally. Coincidence! Coincidence!"

Everyone who noticed realized just how bad Adelle is at lying. Before Aili said something, Dave cut off and declared. "Yeah, you know what? Might as well hang out together, are you guys free too?"

"Well except this guy everyone is free." Aili pointed at Yuuya.

"Why him?" Adelle muttered, then she realized. "Oh."

Right. Aili said if Yuuya broke the Ball too hard, she'll have him repair it. So Aili probably blackmailed Yuuya to bring him here.

"Right, there's a Ball to repair, eh?" Dave said drily in realization.

Foster graciously gave his space so the four of them can share the same table instead and enjoy their lunch undisturbed by a meddling adult.

"Before you ask anything we meet each other in the Piano school." Aili smirked smugly, "Since he said he's free after the lunch, might as well ask him to come."

"I see. The Piano school you two went is pretty famous after all."

Though it was a group lesson, the piano school they went to was indeed famous, with many of the teachers being seasoned experts or famous upstarts.

"Going on-site for group lessons is cheaper than home tuition." Aili said, "Not like I'm going to be Pro Pianist or anything."

Yuuya can't agree more. Side note, he really, really like the chicken and egg Lamian.

"Reminds me of lunch in Japan school," Yuuya said as he hesitantly drinks the soup, quietly.

In Japan, slurping and gulping noodle soup loudly, like ramen or soba soup, is something that's encouraged, purely because it's considered appreciative of the taste.

But Yuuya learned it's different, slurping noodles loudly was considered Japanese only quirk due to certain intricacy of soba (buckwheat) noodle cooked in steamed bamboo or something along that line.

Aili nodded in approval. In fact, that might be the first time Yuuya saw her smile, genuinely, not in dark amusement or snide.

That was surprisingly cute.

Aili drank the soup of her noodle until it's empty, and she did it pretty much soundlessly, thanks to natural noise in the restaurant.

So it seems that she smiled at him because Yuuya ate it the correct way as in China. Always empty the bowl, but never make any noise doing it.

They finished eating in less than ten minutes.

"You two really in a hurry huh? Is the Piano lesson that tiring?" Dave actually felt odd looking at them eating so quickly.

"You try to enjoy soggy noodles and say it again." Aili popped veins and pointed with her chopsticks, which was a very, very rude gesture in Japan. Yuuya was not sure about Chinese, however.

Either way, Aili definitely disliked Dave. Weird, considering they're both Colette's friends.

Adelle and Dave both ordered fried noodles, so they don't really have issues with that. Still, cold fried noodles can be greasy and unappetizing depends on how it's ingredients. Thankfully Aili's parents took French lunch break into accounts.

Neither Adelle nor Dave seems to understand that, noodle shops are places where you spent the least amount of time possible.

Of course, this being a simple noodle lunch, they spent less than twenty minutes to eat their noodles themselves.

But when they're about to pay, the pink-haired woman -who happened to be the store owner and staff- said, "Don't worry, it's on the house this time!"

An Asian man with tiny rounded glasses said, "Aiya. Xiao Ai rarely brings friends home, please enjoy your stay, ah!"

"Xiao Ai?"

"It means little Ai..." Yuuya said.

"Oooooh!" Dave and Adelle nodded furiously.

"Young Miss, Young Master, I'll return to the Mansion. Please call me when you're done." Foster paid for his share and politely excused himself, "Remember your curfew."

"Thank you, Foster." Adelle nodded.

Because Adelle was with Yuuya, Foster and by extension, Mr. Stein himself doesn't need to be too worried, so Foster doesn't really need to escort her anymore.

"Let's go upstairs." Aili said, "My room is a bit cramped so I hope you don't mind."

Just being invited to her home was already enough surprise so of course, they don't mind.

Aili's room was full of racks. It was filled with a library of books, physical game copies, and of course, gunpla collection. There were also at least three tables in there. One for studying, one for PC and one for what looks like gunpla works.

Yuuya recognized all the tools and also the lump of parts that constitutes the Ball that he broke.

The room itself wasn't that small for a french bedroom, it's just that the content was overwhelming and there was not much room left to sits on the floor.

"You want me to restore it back to standard condition right?" Yuuya cracked his fingers, "Leave it to me."

Aili turned on the electrical compressor pump and then turned it off when it's filled to a certain pressure.

Yuuya picked up several bottles and also the cylindrical store for brushes of varying sizes. Then he began to pick and clean the Gunpla parts one by one using a micro tweezer, and he cleaned them all by using a dry brush and compressed air blower.

Dave was legit astonished by the precise preparation Yuuya done. He always thought that gunpla quality and simplicity was made in such a way that assembling and repairing them were rather simple.

Of course, Dave was extremely unfamiliar with their engineering.

"This probably will take quite a bit of time, so feel free to ignore me." Yuuya smiled.

"I'm shocked, I thought Gunpla was supposed to be easy?" Dave said.

"To a degree, that's true. Gunpla is much simpler to assemble than other model kits. The modern kits never need any glue, for example. The problem is that newer kits have extremely complicated engineering, which makes them very powerful, but also a pain in the butt to fix." Aili shrugged, "Also smaller parts are easily damaged. And you can tell how thin Ball's arms are."

"I see."

"The more complicated gunpla construction is, the better they performed. Their agility and power output would be increased tremendously, but they're more susceptible to physical breakage." Yuuya said, "Even using materials that are not plastic can affect how gunpla works. Normally, a gunpla is made of three types of plastics: Hard polystyrene for armor and primary body, softer ABS for frames, and super soft Polyethylene for joints and connectors. Changing these materials will seriously change your gunpla."

"Xiye, did you bring your Pluma? Can I see it up close?"

"Sure?"

Yuuya gave out his Pluma so everyone can see it up close, it's metallic gleam is sinister as always.

"Just like I expect." Aili clicked her tongue, "This is not acrylic! And this layering of coats just absurd!"

Yuuya looked away in fear for his life.

"Wait, not Acrylic? So lacquer? I'm sure that's not enamel." Dave blurted out.

"You know the stuff?" Aili actually felt odd hearing that.

"I paint a lot of military models, though not gunpla. Acrylic is the most common and easy to use, but there's also enamel and lacquer to consider." Dave said, "As for lacquer, it's very strong, it also looks beautiful, but they're toxic and difficult to use."

"That... sounds awful."

Aili squeezed her eyes, "Lacquer bonds with plastic, so you can never remove it completely without compromising with the plastic. And they're quick to dry, which means you have very little time to fix your mistake."

Yuuya began to rain sweat.

"I don't think it's really that hard." Yuuya said evasively, "Using lacquer is less about skill and more about preparation and planning. You just need to prepare good ventilation and respirator and plan your color scheme rather than improvising on the fly."

"Even saying that you spent like four or five days just for painting, that's just an unreasonable amount of time investment." Aili pointed, "Rather than respraying every 20 minutes, you wait 24 hours so each layer coat can cure properly. That's why the coat blended neatly on the model despite the massive thickness."

"That's just mean 15 minutes a day for five days, not much time in the grand scheme of things." Yuuya defied, "As a matter of fact, that's probably less time spent than what you spent on that Jesta."

Aili wanted to argue but she can't.

She seriously cannot understand Yuuya's mindset.

"I'm confused, why Aili so upset?" Adelle felt like Aili was really stressed out, even if her thick glasses obscured it.

"Most modelers prefer to get things done in the fewest amount of steps. That said, we don't really mind spending long hours at a time because it's fun."

"Yuuya is the opposite, in that he spent multiple days or even weeks to finish his gunpla, and each day he only spent very little time with his gunpla." Dave tried to explain at best as he can, "Is that right?"

"Right, the truth is, I wasn't originally into gunpla anyway." Yuuya said, "I've always been mostly a gamer, not a modeler."

"Ah, that's true." Adelle finally understood, "Yuuya doesn't really have big gunpla collection at all."

Aili felt like she had a fuse that blew up in her head and dropped herself on her bed. She covered her face with her hands. "I can't believe it, I was beaten by that guy? Colette will be laughing hysterical if she knew!"

Ah, so she's still salty about her defeat. Yuuya decided to ignore her and focus on the Ball repair.

"Speaking of Colette, where is she?" Adelle asked, "I'd have thought she'll show up at any moment."

"This is weekend, what do you think Normies would do?" Aili quipped.

"Oh!" Adelle finally realized, Colette had a lot of friends, so she's probably occupied also.

"Nah, Colette went into fencing Class twice a week." Dave dismissively waved his hand with an annoyed expression. "Besides, your definition of normie is arbitrary!"

"Shut up, dollar store playboy."

"Excuse me, I resent that remark!"

Yuuya looked at them with an almost murderous expression, "Would you please be quiet for a moment? Someone is working here."

Dave became pale a bit while Aili just gawked soundlessly, so even Yuuya can make that kind of expression huh.

GUNDAM BUILD DUEL - DISSONANT CHORD
LOVE AND PEACE, THROUGH WARFARE
Original Story by: @ZeroXSEED
Inspired by: Gundam Build Anime Series
Disclaimer: Gundam is property of Bandai/Sunrise​

CHAPTER 3: ASSEMBLY OF WARRIORS

When the Ball was finished, it was put in a clear case so it wouldn't be dirtied as the paint start to dry.

"How does it look?"

"It's fine, I guess."

Aili didn't think he was anymore skilled than she was. It's just that Yuuya had different methodologies and philosophies of gunpla building.

The strength of Hashmal was not a testament of skill, but dedication and patience, adding more and more incremental touch every day, cumulated in a Mobile armor strong enough to fight against dozens of ordinary gunpla at once.

Evidently, Yuuya can still do the same quick acrylic, putty and cement patch job like everyone else. He was done in just over 15 minutes. Her Ball looks as good as it was like before.

"I guess I'm officially forgiven then." Yuuya sighed, he was afraid it's not up to her standard but looks like he was wrong.

He was never confident in his building skills, unlike his control skill.

Adelle, however, seemingly absorbed when she saw the lower racks of Aili's gunpla collection. Dave approached and loomed over her to look.

"Are these Mobile Armors?" Dave asked.

It was immediately noticeable since most of them aren't humanoid. Furthermore, some of them downright animalistic or demonic.

"They're so small!"

"That's because of the difference in scale." Aili said, "You can touch if you want."

Adelle picked one which was about the size of her fist. It was dark red, has one eye with a big slit, and two claws mounted on telescoping arms.

"That's a Grabro, it's an aquatic mobile armor," Aili told her.

"So cute!" Adelle shouted as she lifted it.

"I see, what scale it was?" Dave asked.

"HG Mechanics 1/550." Aili looked rather amused by Adelle and her weird preference, "Most gunpla produced and used in gunpla battle are made in 1/144 scale, but sometimes they get so big it's impractical to keep that scale. 1/550 scale was made so that people can collect Mobile armor with smaller size and cheaper price. These 1/550 HGM mobile armors generally cost 8-12 euros."

Yuuya actually imagined what if Hashmal was made in 1/550 scale, it would be very tiny since it was already on the smaller size for Mobile Armor.

Dave picked another Mobile Armor which he recognized as Apsalus II, it wasn't quite as wide or long as Grabro, but overall fatter and rounder. "I remember this one showing up at school, that thing was massive."

"Mobile Armor can get really scary." Yuuya remembered with a pale face, "I think the biggest and heaviest 1/144 scale Mobile Armor produced so far is Neo Zeong?"

"Well, the weight of the entire box is around 9.75 kg." Aili chuckled, "Even if I have 400 Euros to pay it with shipping from Japan, my room literally has no enough space."

Just imagining them made Dave's stomach churned. 9.75 kg? That's almost the same boxed weight as the 1/32 Scale B-24 Liberator from HobbyBoss. And the cost? 400 Euros with Shipping from Japan? No way. Dave didn't want to think anyone would be stupid enough to bring that into gunpla battle.

"...I'm bored, let's go to gunpla battle." Aili suddenly said in a tired voice.

"I didn't bring my Hashmal." Yuuya shrugged, "Or my ARM and controllers for that matter."

"Why did you have Pluma with you then?"

"It was in my pocket all the time and I forgot?"

Aili can't believe what she just heard, so she picked the keyboard and mouse of her PC, along with their Bluetooth port input and shoved them to Yuuya. "At least tell me you have one Euro with you."

"Uh yeah."

To be honest, the keyboard was too large for Yuuya's taste. But Yuuya was missing the backbone he needed to complain about it, he also doesn't want to come as ungrateful.

"Can I borrow some, uh, parts?"

"Feel free to take any."

Yuuya didn't even hesitate to bring out nail engraver and hand drill to install as much extra weapons on Pluma as possible. Adelle winced when Yuuya simply without hesitating drill a couple of holes and removed some parts from Pluma to make room for weapons. Pluma now carried a pair of tank cannons on it's back and tiny machineguns on each sides.

The weapons were adapted from DC-50 Loto, an Universal Century small mobile suit that could transform between tank and human form.

"You two might as well pick something too, just pick any one of the gunpla here."

"Ah, I'm fine with Grabro." Adelle raised the dark red Mobile Armor.

Dave meanwhile looked a bit confused, "Do you have a jet fighter somewhere here?"

"You came to the wrong neighborhood." Aili snidely remarked as she picked several of her gunpla and spread them on the table for Dave to pick.

Dave squeezed his eyes in annoyance when he saw them.

"The first one is G-fighter, it was a Gundam support unit that can dock and recombine as needed to suit the situation. It can fight in the air, on the ground, and in space!" Yuuya explained.

Dave picked the first one and inspect it. It looked more like lego blocks with wings than an actual fighter. Two big cannons awkwardly sitting on the top of it. When he checked underneath, there was a pair of doors.

"Internal weapon bay?" He wondered, but when he opens it, a pair of tank tracks sprung out. "No, just no. What kind of idiot would put caterpillars on a jet fighter?"

"This is why I hate military maniac." Aili jibed, "To be fair, Gundam creators think it was stupid too, and replaced it with the second one in the compilation movie. The core booster."

The second one looked much more streamlined. Rather, the front of the aircraft stuck out too much due to its blocky shape and blue and red color. The rest of the body was rounded and fairly aerodynamic, and Dave noticed the cannons were built within the body rather than outside.

"This looks serviceable."

"It's armed with two beam cannons and four Vulcan guns."

"What, not even missiles?" Dave gagged.

"The third one should have it." Aili flicked the blocky pods on the third aircraft. It was the largest of the three, though not as blocky as the first, it was not as sleek as the second. "G-Defenser is armed with two small lasers, four Vulcans, two missile pods and obviously the long beam rifle."

Dave inspected the G-Defenser and decided to pick it and removed the long rifle.

"Off-center weapons trigger me something fierce, and it looks really unwieldy. " Dave smiled, oddly confident, "This one would do."

"Don't cry to big sis if you need more firepower later." Aili was really pissed. Anyone who knows even a bit about Gundam would realize that the long beam rifle is the most powerful weapon in G-defenser arsenal with a glance. This is common sense!

And Dave dared to remove it in the name of symmetry?

"Does the missile pods run out of ammo or something?"

"No, they'll just periodically reload, the ARM will show you when they're ready." Yuuya said, "Pretty much all gunpla ranged weapons have ammo count, reloading time, or both."

"I see. Aili, sorry if I'm asking way too much, but do you have a HOTAS?"

"I only have the cheap stuff, is Boostmaster G-flight fine?" Aili threw a dusty box to Dave carelessly, "Tried using it to control Mobile suit, it was painful. It doesn't even have a darn Bluetooth connector."

"Anything is better than nothing, sorry and thank you!"

"W-where are we going?" Adelle asked. Gunpla battle takes a lot of space, indeed.

"JouerClub Village Paris."

JouerClub Village was one of the largest toy stores in the entire city. It was basically an entire mall complex reserved for toys from all over the world. Everywhere, in every single corner, toys can be found easily.

It makes sense that children who love Gunpla would gather here.

"There's G-base here, we can rent ARM for 1 Euro for 15 minutes, up to 4 Euro for 1 hour." Aili said, "As you know, ARM unit is singlehandedly the most expensive item needed for Gunpla Battle, and not all children can afford it. G-Base rental allows these kids to play with their gunpla just fine."

The price of an Augmented Reality Matrix unit was about the same as game consoles. So Dave was not surprised at all. For younger children and those from less than prosperous families, Gunpla battle would have been an expensive hobby.

The G-Base doubles as gunpla store and ARM rental area, it even has multiple battlefields with varying difficulty and levels.

"This one is beginner area." Yuuya noticed and approached one of the first battle areas there. It was relatively colorful, and far and away from the gritty atmosphere of war and suffering. "The diorama here is made of soft foam. So if your gunpla crash, it won't be damaged."

Adelle saw a couple of SD Gundam bouncing around as they fight, controlled by two seemingly inexperienced kids. Because SD gunpla's short stature, the way they punch and kick each other was basically flailing around.

"How cute!" She declared, "I want to play with them!"

"I'm calling military police." Aili pulled her phone out.

"EHHHH?" Adelle shrieked, "WHY?"

Aili sighed, "That was a joke, girlie."

Yuuya and Dave rolled their eyes aside, can you say it's a joke when you looked so serious about it?

"The second area here is the intermediate area." Yuuya said, "While not as colorful, it's still made of foam for the most part."

There are two intermediate battle areas in this G-Base.

"The fourth area here looks very realistic." Dave noticed how the buildings, roads, and the ground were very lifelike. In fact, it was almost like a miniature of the real place or something.

"I believe the props used here are built in the same quality as Tokusatsu movies, you know, Japanese giant monster movies?" Yuuya asked.

"I've seen one." Dave nodded approvingly, "I guess they would have to use harder foam and wooden floor here, right?"

"They even have real sand and water!" Adelle remarked, "That's amazing!"

"That's correct."

The lights turned red, signified the end of the battle period. Dozens and dozens of mobile worker units hurriedly began to gather scattered gunpla parts.

A Ball-like unit even popped out from the water, carried what looks like a mobile suit arm.

"These are actually automated. They gather every single fallen part so the owner can pick it up in the designated area." Aili pointed at the places where missing parts can be found, "No need to use our own worker pods."

"Before we start, your Gunplas aren't coated yet, so we need to do it there."

On one side of the wall, there were a series of transparent cylinders, that people put their gunpla into. It seems that the chamber was sprayed with something.

"What is that?" Adelle asked.

"PLA-NET coating." Yuuya explained, "It's basically a cloud of nanomachines that react with Gunpla plastic and power it up like a real machine. To put it short, PLA-NET coating breathe life to your gunpla!"

Dave and Adelle put their borrowed Gunpla in the same cylinder and have it coated.

The eye of Grabro began to roll left and right as it glows, while the G-Defenser whined like a jet engine.

Adelle's jaw practically dropped at the sight, "WHOA!"

"Oh, Mama!" Dave exclaimed.

"Excuse me, are you done?"

"Ah, sorry!" They both picked their gunpla and stepped aside.

Another boy stepped in and put his gunpla inside. It was somewhat odd, it was neither a Mobile Armor nor completely humanoid. It looked like a silver-plated gorilla with a dragon head, golden claws for hands, and crystal crest on its chest.

"What the heck is that?" Aili said aloud.

"ovw-dc Wrozzo." Yuuya said, "From Gundam AGE. It's an amphibious Mobile suit roughly analogous to Hygogg from UC."

"Figures, I didn't watch it because it's crap from what I heard." Airi snorted.

"I didn't either, but the games were nice." Yuuya laughed, "Gundam AGE - Cosmic Drive and Universe Accel introduced me to Gundam as a whole."

"Huh, I gotta play it sometimes later..." Airi hummed, rather thoughtful.

However, Adelle was more preoccupied with the owner. "Gael? Is that Gael Beaumont?"

"Who?"

The owner of the Wrozzo was not as tall as Dave, but his short-sleeved shirt shown how muscular he was in comparison. It made him looked older than he was. He had black buzzcut for hair, and a small scar down his left jaw.

"I'm your classmate."

"Adelle... Adelle Stein? The one who always sits in the back?" The boy finally realized who it was. Adelle never stood out in the class, so he didn't pay attention to her. But he couldn't mistake that hair and that giant headphone for someone else's.

Aili cringed when she heard that, while Adelle herself looked embarrassed. Nevertheless, Adelle nodded. "Yes."

"I see, never thought you're the type who's into gunpla battle." He said as he picked up his Wrozzo.

"Let's just say it was peer pressure that did it." Aili snarked.

Gael was quiet for a moment, then said. "Oh, alright then, want to team up?"

"Su-sure?"

"She's a total newb, so teach her how to use her ARM and adjust the control first," Aili asked.

Adelle learned to use ARM before, but Yuuya decided to stay quiet and let Adelle have some refreshments.

"Sure, let me."

While Yuuya went to teach Dave, Gael teach Adelle how to use it. Dave managed to launch successfully on the first try, but Adelle was stuck and slide on the floor painfully.

"Grabro doesn't have vertical takeoff, so you need to use your arm to move around."

Adelle used the arm and pushed up to lift the entire body, then began walking effortlessly.

Aili looked at that scene with complete incredulity, "I... don't even."

She never saw ANYONE use Grabro like that.

"That's certainly one way to use Grabro on land." Yuuya twitched, it was really odd, "It looks like a big zam now."

"Are you sure she's a newbie?" Gael shows what essentially a dull surprise.

"Wait I'm not supposed to do that?" Adelle asked, "I just remember Yuuya and Hashmal, I mean, Hashmal's legs are actually arms to right?"

Hashmal's legs were similar anatomy to a chicken and birds of prey, so functionally it does works as arms. Adelle reversed that logic and used Grabro's powerful telescoping arms as legs instead.

Gael actually took that explanation with utter seriousness. "That makes sense."

"No, it's not!" Aili screamed in frustration.

This isn't going anywhere, Yuuya decided and took it to his own hands to guide Adelle. "Anyway, adjust the control surfaces so it would generate lifting forces, next turn on the rocket boosters."

Adelle did as Yuuya instructed, and there was a visible rocket plume behind Grabro.

"Now jump and fold the arms behind Grabro while you push the booster to maximum power."

Finally, Grabro can fly in the air, or rather it just flies a couple millimeters above the ground.

"Grabro doesn't really this capability in the anime, however, we can still use ground effect to make sure it stays afloat in the air," Yuuya explained.

"It says here: caution, reactor overheating!" Adelle panicked.

Gael shook Adelle's shoulder to get her attention and stopped her panic attack, but he was unaware of her shyness and it made her flustered.

"Wha?"

"Calm down. Grabro isn't an amphibious unit, it's reliant on water to cool it down. If you fight on the ground too long it will overheat and explode. So, find a body of water as soon as possible and avoid using boosters and mega particle cannon on the ground."

"Go-got it!"

"Good, now land and shut down all the activities until the temperature returns back to normal." Gael said encouragingly, "You can do it!"

Adelle pitched up Grabro's body and deployed the arm to land hard on the floor. And it's reactor temperature slowly lowered until it's yellow and then green again.

It was quite a bit of time wasted, Adelle thought. She might get attacked in real battle waiting for the reactor to cool down.

"It's fine now." Adelle sighed in relief. It would be damning if she exploded before the battle began!

"Final caution, Grabro's torpedoes are useless on land, so keep that in mind. Additionally, since your Grabro is only 1/550, it's actually weaker than most Mobile Suit. Don't expect a display of dominance like Hashmal did." Aili added, "Use Grabro's speed and ranged weapons to its limit. Fight like you're in a Ball."

Adelle nodded. Though to be honest she still felt hesitant, but she was curious not to outright refuse. At the very least, she promised herself that she will keep Aili's Grabro safe.

"Alright then, set IFF to the group, then we can go." Yuuya pulled out his Pluma while registering everyone's gunpla in his rental ARM complement. "Next battle will begin soon, let's go!"

They put their gunpla inside the battlefield before the nano shield raised, then took a distance away as they put their ARM device on. Yuuya, Adelle and Dave prefer to sit while Aili and Gael prefer to stand.

"GUNPLA BATTLE, START!"