[b]Samurai Girl[/b]

Ai surfaced from a dream oddly full of melons and peaches, the shouted muffled voice reminding her of the many, many times one of the family's retainers or a relative had taken the time to wake her up before she slept in so long that the school day would more or less be over before she had the chance to arrive. Of course, those voices had only been muffled by paper rather than metal plating--but this gave Sumiko the advantage that tapping it was like ringing a bell, and there was no way to sleep through [i]that[/i].

Though the Benkei showed no outward response for a second, the entire back section slid back, containing both the seating and floor, and a ladder extended to the ground. With a grace totally at odds with her normal indolence, Ai descended, with the hilt of a sword--or, importantly, what [i]looked[/i] like a sheathed sword--clenched in her teeth. Once on the ground, a single button press caused the metal rungs to collapse back into the flooring, and the entire section slid back to its normal position. Perhaps not as fancy as the V4 cockpit, but Ai liked the V3 style, and this was a refined specimen with none of the normal clunkiness or screeching sounds.

"Sorry, Sumi-chan, forgot to set an alarm," the pilot lied, cheerfully ignoring all rules of politeness to address the teacher. It was rude... but she was so oddly adorable that it was rather hard to take her that seriously. Even if she was taller.