Part 1
"TOUMAAAAAA!!!"
The door to Room 307 in the boys' dorm exploded with such a violent crash that three birds on the building's roof literally took flight.
It exploded. At six in the morning.
"WHAT THE HELL!?" shouted Jake Maverick, bolting upright from the top bunk, a Space Rockerz T-shirt half-hanging off his shoulder.
"Gooood morning~!" came a sing-song voice.
Akari—a tiny figure dressed in a full-body pink bear pajama, complete with a hood with ears, plush paw-feet, and a zipper that screamed toddler-sized—stood in the doorway like a storm in pastel.
Touma, buried somewhere in his blanket with only half-open eyes, muttered:
"No… please…" and retreated deeper into the sheets.
Jake, his Japanese still sketchy and his brain only 40% online, threw a slipper at him.
"Kisaragi, stop pretending to sleep. Akari's looking for you."
Touma flopped to the floor, still wrapped in his blanket like a cocoon, and began inching toward the edge of the bed like a very reluctant caterpillar.
That's when he hit something—or rather, someone.
He peeked out of the cloth-wrapped shell and saw her.
Akari, in her ridiculous bear pajama, as adorable as a greeting card… and as dangerous as a natural disaster.
"It's combat training day! Don't forget you promised," she beamed, lifting him with one hand like he weighed nothing.
"At least let me change first!" Touma yelled, squirming like a trapped bug.
"No time to waste! You'll put on your exo on the way!"
"At least give me my glasses! I can't see without them!"
She grabbed his glasses off the desk, blew him a kiss, and zipped out of the boys' dorm, carrying him like a living sack of rice.
Jake sighed, flopping back onto his pillow.
"Good luck, soldier… We'll remember you as a hero," he muttered with mock solemnity,
pulling the blanket over his head.
"Dammit… right when I was dreaming about the treasurer…" he grumbled, trying to mentally re-enter his fantasy of dueling Misaki Toudou in a mecha tournament…
At the Seisen Academy training arena, two figures were already present that early morning.
One was the Mexican war veteran Rodrigo Valverde—muscular, commanding, with a military cap he didn't take off even to sleep.
Beside him stood his ever-silent shadow, Zhao Wei, the Chinese pilot whose calm demeanor suggested he could disassemble a mecha with a screwdriver… and then serve you tea right after.
They always trained together. They were practically inseparable.
"Aloha, sensei~!" Akari chirped, her cuteness so potent it could melt hangar steel.
Rodrigo looked up from his tactical board and smiled.
"Ho, Akari! Looks like you're dragging Kisaragi in for another session."
Behind her, Touma was still wrapped in his sheets, more dragged than walking.
His eyes pleaded for help like a puppy abandoned in a rainstorm.
Rodrigo glanced at him with a mix of sympathy and amusement.
"Tech Division boy. Didn't know you folks were up this early."
"Me neither…" Touma murmured, still half-asleep.
Akari raised her hand like a student in class.
"Sensei, can I borrow a training exo for Touma?"
"Of course," Rodrigo replied, then turned to his partner.
"Zhao, would you be so kind as to take the young man to the locker room and assign him a training exo?"
Zhao Wei—as always—said nothing. He just nodded solemnly, turned around, and with the same quiet efficiency he used in the cockpit, began dragging the "caterpillar" Kisaragi toward the locker room like it was standard operating procedure.
Touma cast one last pleading look at Akari before disappearing through the doorway.
She responded with a sweet smile and waved at him like she was sending him off to summer camp.
Once inside the locker room, Instructor Zhao dropped Touma onto one of the benches—the kind every new recruit dreaded—and walked over to a metal locker without saying a word.
From it, he retrieved a clean training uniform, the type worn by Combat Division students, and laid it neatly next to the half-wrapped Touma.
"I'll leave you to change in peace. When you're ready, call me on the intercom. You'll be using a prototype exo designed by Professor Duval specifically for training with Akari."
His tone was completely neutral, and without another word, he exited the locker room.
Silence settled for a moment. Touma stared at the uniform, still processing what he'd just heard.
"Prototype…?" he murmured, slipping on his Astra Lens.
"Ellie? You there?"
"Of course, Touma-sama. I'm always here. Even when you dream about Shizuki at night~" replied his personal AI, in a soft, teasing tone.
"That was one time! And it wasn't like that! Quit messing with me!" he shot back, ears burning.
"If you say so… I believe you. After all, I'm just your humble assistant. Tehe~."
Touma sighed and started changing into the combat uniform.
"Do you know anything about this prototype?"
"Normally, Professor Eleonor Duval keeps her creations off the NovaTech central system.
I imagine this one was designed to optimize resilience against… let's say, 'Tsubasa Akari's close-contact style'."
"Great… Just assist me like usual, Ellie. I'd rather not end up as human jelly."
"Don't worry, Touma-sama. I won't let the gummy bear sweetheart grind you into pulp."
"You're not exactly reassuring, you know that?"
Once dressed, Touma exited the locker room and called for Instructor Zhao to receive the infamous exo.
But it wasn't Zhao who appeared.
"Eleonor-sensei?" he asked, surprised to see his personal research professor, the ever-charismatic Greek scientist—walk in with a coffee cup in one hand and a yawn on her lips.
"Good morning, Kisaragi," she said softly, still half-asleep. "Ugh, what a pain getting up so early on a Saturday… but hey, knowledge never sleeps, right?"
She stretched like a cat and handed him a small device.
Normally, training exos came in triangular shapes.
This one was a black square with polished edges and a small blue seal that read "ED1."
"This is prototype ED1… or EDIE, if you prefer something cuter," she said in that smooth voice of hers that made even a scientific formula sound seductive.
"Remember the German model used by Evangeline Strassburg?"
Touma remembered instantly. The student council president's duel with Shizuki was the stuff of legend.
"Yeah… she looked like a Nordic Valkyrie."
"Well, this is something similar—but more defensive. You'll see."
She gave him a gentle push toward the exit.
"Good luck, kiddo," she added with a mischievous smile before disappearing the way she came.
Touma stood there, holding EDIE in one hand, without breakfast, without a manual, and with zero clue what he was about to face.
"It's not even seven a.m.… and I'm already a lab rat being sent after a bear-girl in pajamas."
He sighed and activated the exo.
"What could possibly go wrong?"
"Spoiler: everything," said Ellie from his lens.