~~~
Nava had her hands full with a different form of addiction. This one had nothing to do with drugs though. There was no rain tonight, but Mitsuko was on her doorstep again, begging with her eyes. It was unbecoming of a princess of the Sonkei clan, but Nava said nothing. She just stepped back and waved Mitsuko in.
‘I’m sorry,’ the student president said as soon as the door closed. ‘I just… I couldn’t…’
‘It’s not like I want rid of you, Suki,’ Nava said, ‘but you’re risking your reputation by–’
‘I don’t care about that!’
‘I’m aware. Would you stop undressing while I’m trying to have a serious talk with you?’
‘No.’
Nava suppressed a sigh. Maybe it would have been better to let it come out, but that was her nature. ‘If people find out you’re having sex with a clanless nobody–’
‘You’re not–’
‘A clanless nobody. Worse, that you can’t go a night without it, your reputation is going to be in the toilet.’
Mitsuko appeared to have developed a bad case of selective hearing. ‘I want you to move in with me.’
‘Could you repeat that? I think I misheard.’
‘I want you to move in with me. You can even have your own room. My place is big, a lot more roomy than this place.’ Pause for an intake of breath. ‘Please, Nava.’
Nava looked into Mitsuko’s eyes. It was a lot easier with her kneeling on the floor wearing only her leggings and heels. ‘No.’
‘W-what?’
‘No. Or at least, not now.’
‘I d-don’t understand.’ That was clear. Nava did not think she had ever seen Mitsuko so unsure of anything. She was, Nava thought, unsure of herself right now.
‘I won’t have you throw your future away on a fling.’ Nava held up a hand as Mitsuko opened her mouth. ‘Yes, you don’t think it’s a fling. I don’t know what this is. I’ve never been in a relationship with someone. I don’t know and can’t guess what might happen. I want you to wait. If we’re still together by the start of next year, we can share an apartment then.’
Mitsuko looked like she was going to pout. ‘I hate it when you’re being reasonable. A whole year… I suppose… I suppose that’s not too long to wait.’
‘And in the meantime, I’ll come to you. If you keep coming here at…’ Nava glanced at her wall screen, which was just displaying a clock now. ‘At quarter to midnight, someone other than Mel is going to notice.’
‘Melissa knows? I mean, not that I mind…’
‘She knows. The other reason we should use your place is that the walls here are thin and we keep Mel awake. Well, you keep her awake. You’re loud.’
Mitsuko went scarlet. ‘You didn’t really give me a first reason. Are you saying you can sneak into my block without being seen and I can’t get here without– Oh!’
‘You can’t turn invisible.’ Nava’s disembodied voice came out of the air in front of Mitsuko, but when Mitsuko reached for her, there was nothing to touch. ‘I can.’ Off to the left. ‘And I’m quiet with it.’ From the rear.
Mitsuko was about to turn when she felt hands grasp her breasts from behind. She looked down and there were clearly fingers pressing into her flesh, but there was nothing there to see. ‘It’s like I’m being molested by a ghost.’
‘Let’s hope Mel is sound asleep.’
‘W-why?’
‘Because I think the ghost is a total pervert.’
235/3/24.
Combat training did not happen in any shape or form for the support students until after the late spring holiday in May, but Nava had been issued with an outfit designed for it. Essentially, this consisted of a one-piece bodysuit in blue with some white-and-red detailing and boots with flat heels. It was made from a reactive material which hardened under impact. It actually worked best against sharp impacts over most of its surface and so was a little more useful against bullets and knives, but the elbows, knees, and spine were reinforced against blunt trauma since its primary purpose was to stop students getting hurt too badly in falls.
It was perfect for playing MagiTag in, so Nava had dragged hers out for a Saturday afternoon spent evaluating the MagiTag Club for real. She had provisionally joined during recruitment week, and then been too busy with Mitsuko to actually attend any of the meetings. She had been free of that obligation for a couple of weeks and had finally decided to get it over with.
The weather was fine this Saturday afternoon, and the seniors who ran the club had decided to make this an outdoor meet. The school had a couple of woodland areas on the grounds, one of them maintained as a combat training area. When the weather was fine and everyone could be bothered to go the extra mile, the MagiTag Club would set up slightly more realistic game sessions in the woods. The artificial environments they usually used were more controlled but, as a result, they tended to be somewhat abstract, less real. Staging a mock battle in the woods made the gamers feel like they were really fighting in some sort of guerrilla war.
The extra effort needed came in the form of deploying an array of drones into the woods to monitor the combat. These essentially allowed those not currently in a game to watch those who were, but their technical purpose was to allow the judges for a match to look out for rule violations and call the result at the end.
Francis Goretti Orlando was one of the judges for the current match. He had made something of a point of getting Nava to stand beside him while he watched the array of monitors which had been put up outside the woods. Nava suspected that his motive was not simply to ensure that she stayed in his favoured club. Mitsuko would not be pleased to discover she had competition, but Mitsuko was not here and Nava did not really flirt. Frankly, she was too busy watching the screens.
The current game was a three-way battle based around point controls. Each of the three teams had four members and there were two areas in the forest designated as capture points which had to be taken and held. There were three teams because this kind of game could degenerate into a team claiming one point and sitting on it while a second team did the same at the other location. You ended up with a draw, but you did not lose either. A third team, ensured of losing if they did not claim a target, could be guaranteed to act aggressively under those circumstances. In this particular case, aggression was not the issue.
Nava recognised Siegmar Tate Orlando from Mitsuko’s class and he seemed like he was the same playing MagiTag as he was in the classroom: arrogant, aggressive, and irritating. By whatever means, he seemed to have made himself the leader of his team and he was pushing them hard to take out as many of their opponents as possible. It was, in fact, about the only strategy that worked if you wanted to win; eliminate the opposition and there was no one to try to take your captured points. Unfortunately, Siegmar’s leadership skills were lacking and his team was not really good enough to pull off what they were trying to do. They were all wiped out within five minutes and the game devolved into a hold-and-draw situation.
‘I suppose he has potential,’ Francis said as the teams walked back to the control point, ‘but he needs to get rid of that attitude.’
‘I don’t believe that,’ Nava replied.
‘Which part?’
‘He has little potential because he will never rid himself of his belief in his own abilities. Perhaps if he were to undergo military training… Here, I doubt he will ever realise he loses matches like this due to his own faults.’
‘You… may have a point.’ Francis sighed. ‘We’re looking for people to take part in this summer’s war games. There are a couple of hopefuls, but I’m not sure he’s among them. He’s not much of a team player.’
‘Neither am I.’
‘Well, that’s a damn shame. With your skills you’d be a shoo-in for the team.’
Francis said it at exactly the wrong time. Nava had heard Siegmar approaching – he was berating his teammates with a list of their deficiencies – and it so happened that he arrived just as
Francis gave his opinion of Nava’s skills. The only part of what happened next which surprised Nava was that the tall, blonde first year had noticed anyone but himself speaking.
‘You really think she would be a good choice for the school’s team, Francis?’ Siegmar said, sneering. He did give a pretty good sneer.
Francis turned to look at his clansman. The Orlando clan was one of the bigger ones. They were strong, powerful. They were on the Clan Council, unlike the Sonkeis, and had a loud voice there. However, the Goretti family were more highly ranked than the Tates, which made Francis Siegmar’s social superior. On top of that, Francis was Siegmar’s senior in school too. The quality sneer was not going down well.
‘You’ve never seen her in action, Siegmar,’ Francis replied. ‘She’s good.’
‘That so? Well, I’d certainly like to see her perform. How about we switch things up a little? A game of Fox and Hounds. She’s the fox.’
‘That wouldn’t be fair–’
‘That’s fine by me,’ Nava said. ‘That’s fifteen against one, right? I get two minutes before the others come after me.’
Francis turned around such that he was facing Nava and Siegmar could not see his smirk. ‘That’s correct.’
‘How long to assemble your team, Siegmar Tate?’ Nava asked.
Siegmar’s sneer turned into a mocking grin. ‘Won’t take long. You go ahead and get started. We wouldn’t begrudge you the extra couple of minutes.’
‘That’s very sporting of you.’ Nava stepped over to a table where an array of MagiTag weapons were laid out and selected a pistol. She slotted a magazine into it and picked up two spares, attaching them to a strap on her left thigh.
‘You’ll need more ammo than that,’ Siegmar said.
‘There are only fifteen of you,’ Nava replied. ‘I can miss three times.’ Turning, she headed toward the trees at a steady walk, taking her time.
‘You’d better get that team together, Siegmar,’ Francis said. ‘If you give her too long to prepare, who knows what she’ll have waiting for you in there.’
‘She’s only a support student. Clanless. She’s had no combat training. They don’t even start until after late spring break! She’s no threat.’
Francis nodded slowly. ‘Keep telling yourself that.’
~~~
Fox and Hounds had a time limit: thirty minutes, usually. It was always played where there was a lot of cover available. Those who really specialised in playing the fox tended to fall into two categories: guerrillas and ghosts. One of the most successful strategies was to find the best possible place to hide and simply wait out the timer. That was the ghost strategy. Guerrillas were ghosts with an attitude; they used the cover a great deal, but attacked whenever they got the chance, thus thinning the numbers of those searching for them. Foxes who tried purely offensive strategies tended to lose. Quickly.
Nava did not wish to waste thirty minutes of her Saturday but going up against a fifteen-man search team by running around and shooting people was just going to give Siegmar what he wanted. It would also give Nava the exact opposite of what she wanted: she was here to work out whether it was worth turning up for any other meets. If she did not try her best against these people, she would not be able to fairly judge her skill against theirs. Plus, there was no way she was allowing Siegmar to win.
So, Nava camouflaged herself in some bushes around two-thirds of the way back through the little forest. They had given her far more than one hundred and twenty seconds to prepare, so she had a good idea of where to go once her cover position was blown. Siegmar was overconfident. He was too ready to make assumptions based on his opinion of how the world should work. Support students did not have the training to defeat combat students. End of story. That neglected two realities: that a student might have had training prior to coming to school, and that none of the first years had had very much training in either stream.
He had also never been taught effective methods of searching for someone. Or maybe he had only found four people willing to do what he said. Nava spotted his group of five walking through the trees and guessed that the hounds had split into three groups. In the woods here, that meant that no two groups could see each other. Nava was now faced with five opponents instead of fifteen, and if she dropped them all, it was unlikely that the remaining ten would even realise it.
She waited. She gave them every chance. Nava had never had an actual lesson in camouflage techniques, but she did have a certain innate talent for sneakiness and enough basic knowledge to make it work. Siegmar’s team walked right past her and continued on toward the back of the wood. Nava waited for them to hit the fifteen-metre mark, then she raised her pistol, took aim, and fired.
Headshot. Her target’s harness lights turned red instantly and she shifted her aim to a second target before the hit had even been registered. She was going for snapshots targeting centre of mass now but she racked up two more red lights as Siegmar’s hounds frantically searched for their attacker.
‘There!’ Siegmar and another of his men yelled, pointing toward the bushes where Nava was hiding.
Nava tagged Siegmar’s last companion before he could get a shot off and Siegmar returned fire, lifting his weapon to use the sights, but not really taking the time to aim. Trying to hit a prone target through cover, he was doomed to failure, though he did get close. Nava was almost impressed. That did not stop her returning fire.
‘Bitch!’ Siegmar yelled as his harness told him he had been killed. Then he did what Nava had been hoping he would do. Lifting his head, he raised his voice. ‘She’s over here!’ It was a violation of the rules since he was out of the game. Nava did not mind, however. In fact, she wanted the others to converge on her current location.
Twisting, Nava rolled out of her cover position, regained her feet, and dashed into the trees behind her. When she was more or less shielded from Siegmar’s view, she jumped, caught a low branch, and swung herself upward. Trained soldiers would not ignore the third dimension when operating in this kind of environment. She had a strong feeling that the people Siegmar had recruited for his fox hunt were not that well trained…
~~~
‘She cheated,’ Siegmar said flatly, one index finger aimed squarely at Nava’s face. She stared back at him, her expression as flat as ever.
‘In what way?’ Francis asked.
‘She… She must have cheated. She–’
‘Did nothing we saw which could be called cheating. You on the other hand did cheat. We were watching, you know. We all saw and heard you call out her location to the other teams after you were hit.’
‘We don’t need cheats in this club,’ another of the judges said. Nava had not been introduced to the man, but he looked like someone with authority. Tall, very straight, saturnine good looks. Dark hair fell around a pale sort of face which appeared to have been carved rather than grown. Dark eyes observed Siegmar coolly. Siegmar shrank a little under his gaze.
‘Don’t reprimand him too heavily,’ Nava said. ‘I’d have had much greater difficulty eliminating the others if he hadn’t drawn them in like that.’
‘Wha–’ Siegmar began and cut off as the dark gaze hardened further.
‘One of our principal objectives at this time of year,’ the dark-haired man said, ‘is evaluating students for the summer war games. We can’t expose the school to the scandal of any of our players cheating in any of the games. That goes double for those who lose because they cheated.’ Turning, the man looked down at Nava. ‘I am Naomi Himura Sonkei, captain of the MagiTag Club. You are Nava Ward, is that correct?’
Nava gave a nod. ‘It is. I’ve met one of your family before, Hyrum Himura.’
‘Uncle Hyrum mentioned you. I hope that we’ll be seeing more of you here, Nava Ward.’
‘I’m afraid that I won’t be making a regular showing. My objective in coming here was to keep my practical skills current. I’m afraid that I won’t be challenged sufficiently to make that happen.’
S
he was sort of expecting Naomi to be insulted by that, but he shrugged. ‘We lost a lot of good people due to graduation and the new intake is not up to speed yet. May I ask you to return after the late spring break? I think we may have beaten some of them into shape by then.’
Nava executed a bow from the hips. The Himura family was among the stronger ones in the Sonkei clan, maybe even second to the Trentons. While the Trentons had adopted some traditions from their originally Japanese clan, the Himuras had retained many more and a good bow always went down well with them. Or so Mitsuko had said. When Nava looked up again, Naomi’s expression was somewhere between surprised and impressed. ‘I’ll be sure to check in with you again then,’ she said.
‘I look forward to it.’
~~~
‘Siegmar was fuming, of course,’ Nava said. She was sitting with Mitsuko, Melissa, and Rochester in the refectory they used at weekends. It was a little closer to Mitsuko’s block, a little nicer, and it tended not to have many of the wealthier students in it.
‘He’s such a child,’ Mitsuko said. ‘I’m sorry you had to put up with his games.’
‘There’s nothing for you to apologise for. He’s not even one of your clansmen.’
‘He is a classmate.’
‘It’s still not your fault.’
‘Do you think he might do anything to get back at you?’ Melissa asked.
‘Men like him don’t take defeat well,’ Rochester added.
‘Not sure,’ Nava admitted. She looked at Mitsuko. ‘Is he that stupid?’
‘My opinion may be jaundiced thanks to sharing a classroom with him. I’ll ask around. But watch your back while I do.’
‘I can do that.’
‘Flying tomorrow,’ Melissa said brightly, probably to shift the subject to something less gloomy.
‘Yes, flying tomorrow. I’m looking forward to it.’
‘You’re not a prodigy at flying too, are you?’ Rochester asked.
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