The Hayabusa was once again in a battle against the Shin Musha Hyaku Shiki. The field was different, this time a vast desert canyon painted by a seemingly eternal setting sun. But the outcome remained the same. Calling it a "battle" was probably being generous. The gold Gunpla was just beating down the black one pretty much at will, with the latter practically putting up no fight whatsoever. The howling laughter of Masato could be heard echoing over the clash of metals and plastic. Finally, the Shin Musha Hyaku Shiki seemed to have had enough. It gripped its sword, letting the energy built up explode forth into a pitch black aura from the blade.

"I told you already..." Masato's blood-chilling voice spoke as the golden gunpla picked the other up.

"It's wasted on you!" it hurled the Hayabusa much like in the mission previously. Then it charged forth with full thrusters. In less than a second the aura-coated sword cleaved right through the Hayabusa as if it were nothing.

Takatora found himself on the ground. He was no longer in the field. He was indoors, and on the floor before was the broken remains of the Hayabusa. Then he realized it. The battle wasn't in GBN, but in DP Duel. The Hayabusa was broken [i]for real[/i] and completely beyond Takatora's ability to repair it, "Nonononono NO!" he repeated, almost sobbing as he desperately tried to piece together the wrecked Gunpla. He was interrupted when somebody's boot violently kicked him away from the broken pile. He looked up through tearful eyes to see the form of Masato glaring down at him.

"It should have just burned with the builder!" he grunted, a wicked grin forming on his face as he began stomping the pieces of the Hayabusa, shattering them even further.

Takatora awoke in his bed with a jolt. He was sweating, and tears were streaming down his cheeks uncontrollably. He his fearful gaze locked into the Hayabusa standing on his desk nearby. It was in tact, the only battle damage were the scars left behind from Kiyotaka's previous battles, as it should be. Takatora shivered, and then wiped the tears from his eyes and face.

[hr]
Takatora didn't have any classes that day. So he had the whole day to figure out what his next plan would be. He didn't want to log back into GBN, not when there was a chance he would get mobbed by players curious about his relationship to Adam. Or worse, what if he ran into [i]him[/i]? Just the thought of facing Masato again so soon left him terrified. Instead he grabbed the gunpla and was now about to walk into Sento's store.

"Welcome!" Sento said, his back currently turned away from the door, "I was wondering when you'd be back, Taka." he still hadn't turned around yet.

"How did you...?"

"I know about what happened yesterday, with Masato. So I had a feeling you'd come back to me."

Takatora swallowed hard, "I need you to train me. Teach me whatever you can about building. I never finished learning from Kiyotaka, so..."

"So you want to be able to fix the Hayabusa should anything happen to it." Sento finished Takatora's sentence, and then offered a small smile, "That won't be a problem. But I'm a little busy at the moment, could we start in a few hours? If you'd like to wait, I have a few GBN terminals in the back. You can use one to log in to pass the time if you want." he pointed to a back room door that Takatora then entered through.

Sure enough, there were some GBN terminals. They weren't exactly like the home versions. These were full on chairs equipped with a VR setup and a built in Gunpla scanner. Takatora climbed into one and fired it up but hesitated a moment, "No, stop being so afraid. I can't let him scare me away from GBN forever..." he told himself before actually logging in.

Once in the lobby, Takatora was quick to get moving. Whatever it took to minimize the chance of other players getting a good look at him. It didn't work for long, "Hey, you're that guy who's friends with Adam Roman!" someone loudly proclaimed, getting the attention of a few others. Just as he feared, Takatora found himself being bombarded with question after question. How did he know Adam? Did he know about the challenge beforehand? Did he know how Adam planned to beat King? It wasn't long before Takatora was overrun.

"Just... just shut up and leave me alone!" he shouted, practically screaming. That caused an awkward silence, but it also gave him a slim chance to escape, and so he ran away as fast as his online legs would take him. Without realizing it he found himself near the reception, having stopped and was now just looking down at the floor. He still hadn't realized that he was standing right front of Isamu and the Meijin.