Kakei's eyes narrowed, and his jaw clenched at the sight before him. The brightness of the carpeted floor and the glare from the windows all seemed to disappear as he focused his entire consciousness on the enemy.

His hair was not in its usual gelled style, instead the shorter front layers hung straight down to his shoulders and the longer back layers were loose from the usual ponytail he kept them in. He wore a simple jacket, loose pants and sandals.

Suddenly, the tranquil moment was shattered with an energetic "Yaaa!", and he leapt in the air, pouncing on a shrouded figure with a superhuman agility.

The figure was too stunned to do anything, and Kakei proceeded to remove his sword from somewhere inside his jacket and perform an elaborate series of movements.

The figure got to its feet and removed its own sword. "Are you programmed to be so flashy?" a female voice asked teasingly.

Kakei's eyes narrowed, and the two of them engaged in equally flashy, if not functional combat.

"This was your choice of style, was it not? If you'd like to change the style, I'm adept in several hundred martial arts and traditional sparring techniques." Kakei said pleasantly.

The figure swung her sword, and Kakei cleanly blocked with his. The figure leapt backwards and pivoted on her heel. She jumped in the air, turning cartwheels with only the sword as a support surface.

Kakei also leapt into the air, seemingly using the sword as a propeller to keep him off the ground. Their swords met in midair, hers underneath her feet, his above his head. He cleanly landed on the ground, holding the sword with one hand and supporting his opponent with no difficulty.

"My, I must be heavy.." the female voice said, sliding off the side of Kakei's sword. She landed on the floor, kicking her sword into her hand.

The two of them met eyes, and the female removed her hood, bowing. "It was a pleasant match, Shinkannou-san."

Kakei bowed in return, replacing his sword. "The pleasure was mine, Commander Murasaki."

Setsuko Murasaki smiled, and pulled her hair loose from a ponytail. "I admire your coordination, it's got to be difficult to move with all that hair and loose clothing."

Kakei smiled back. "It must also be difficult to move with a black hood and cape on."

Setsuko threw her cape to the floor, and stretched. Underneath the cape she was wearing nothing but a black leotard.

Setsuko turned around, and a few feet behind her stood Mikono, wearing a pair of bike shorts and a pink tank top. She had a pair of wrist weights on and her hair was held back by a thick headband.

"Hayagane-san, it's nice to see you. How do you like our physical training facility?" Setsuko asked.

"It's.. nice. That was some cool battle." Mikono said, shifting her weight back and forth and trying to appear comfortable, despite the fact that she was unable to lift her arms.

"Oh, it wasn't a battle. Kakei-san was kind enough to oblige me and show me some of his martial arts expertise. I regret I'm not experienced enough to make it much of a challenge."

"Yeah... well.. heh... um.." she said, the mood getting a little tense before she suddenly heard a click behind her. She whirled around, only to run her torso into a camera lens. She looked down and saw Shinichi Toba, staring into the camera.

"Mikono-sama, could you back up a little bit? All I'm getting is a large black blur, and I would really like to get this shot."

Mikono gritted her teeth and raised her hand above Toba's head. "You hentai..."

Suddenly, Ai Sakamoto came running over. "Oh, good job, Mikono-sama! I told you you'd be able to lift your arms pretty soon! Those weights aren't too heavy, are they?"

Ai blinked and then looked down at Toba. She hissed and wrenched him backwards. "Knock it the hell off!" She screamed in his ear. Then, she snatched the camera out of his hands. "Mikono-sama, I'm afraid we're gonna have to redo all the shoots on the pummelhorse. My eyes are half-shut in one of them, and I really want my grandmother to be able to know it's me."

"Yeah, and there's one shot on the excercise bike that's a little blurry, and you know, I mean, I really want that 3 year subscription of Mad....." Toba said, pushing himself to his feet.

"They offered to show me around the gym, as long as they could get a few pictures of me to show their family..." She pointed to a bulging gym bag full of rolls of film.

"But, each roll only has 27 exposures! So when you think about it..." Ai began.

"It's really barely enough to send to our entire family, and all our friends, and all the people who made fun of us in high school, and that kid who stole my Kimba pencil board in 3rd grade..." Toba said.

"Maybe... maybe you two ought to.. knock it the hell off before I revoke your shore leave." Setsuko said, smiling sweetly.

"But Commander! How often does this happen?" Ai cried. "Mikono Hayagane, Commander! The biggest star in Japan!"

"And we're sitting in a base of operations with only half power, a gigantic gaping hole where one third of the building should be, and our senior officers taking pictures of a scantily-clad 18 year old girl inside of a gymnasium when they should be at their posts."

Ai and Toba looked at each other, and bowed in apology. "We're terribly sorry, Commander." Ai said. "It was his stupid idea, anyway."

Mikono closed her eyes. "You guys... um... thanks for showing me around. Let me know how the pictures turn out, okay?"

They smiled and took off, both of them laboring with the weight of the gym bag.