Battle Teacher

"Certainly a lot has happened all of a sudden, hasn't it?" Regina said, sitting on a bench near the high school close to the university. With the laptop on her lap she was grading the tests her students had made earlier this day. Her flip phone-looking PET was hooked onto the laptop with a cord and Veda was working on the laptop's screen to assist Regina in grading the tests. "First that strange man... And then Satou," she continued, "I still don't know what to do about it..."

"Another good day, Veda," Regina said as she left the classroom after her final class and headed over to her desk at the teachers' office, "But there was this student who didn't have his work done... Satou, I think." Once she sat down to manage her work, she suddenly heard some noise from the window.

"I believe you have something I need," a voice said when a hand appearing from the window, followed by a tanned man in a black trenchcoat climbing through it, "A boy I'd like to meet."

Regina just stared at it happen. She was the only left in the office, so it was up to her to deal with this man. "We... We have a door..." she said and pointed at the door, "And this is the second floor..."

"Ah, you rhyme too! But we've got a lot to do!" the man said and walked over to her like it was the most natural thing to climb through a building's window and start discussing business. "So it's best if we get started with this. I am Na'im bin Asad and you would be, miss?"

"R-Regina Rosenberg?" she replied with confusion in her voice. She then shook her head to clear her mind from this situation and grabbed her PET, "I'm sorry but unless you state your reasoning, I'm going to have to call the police."

"Ah, but I am with the police. So please be at peace. Satou is the name of the boy I seek. All I'd like with him is to speak," the man named Na'im said.

"He was definitely strange!" Veda exclaimed, "You should've just called the police. I already had the number in my hands!" The Navi was still handling the files of the students' tests, swinging them around the screen with her floating hands. "But then that boy appeared, didn't he?"

Regina nodded while she was going over a few tests, also noting down names of students who'd need extra help. "Satou with his story about his Navi," she said.

"Miss Rose?" sounded a voice near the door to the office. Satou's face popped out from around the corner after he opened the door to check if the teacher was around. And while he found what he was searching for, he also noticed the mysterious man. "Is this a bad time?" he asked.

"Not at all!" Na'im answered for Regina, "Let's not stall! We have plenty to talk about! There is no need for doubt!"

Satou looked at Regina with a worried look on his face, but she just nodded at him which prompted him to enter the room. "I'd like to talk about my Navi..." he started as he walked to his teacher.

Regina grabbed her PET and flipped through her contacts to look at the phone number and mail adresses of Na'im and Satou. "What did he say again...?"

"Corrupted Navi Investigation and Prevention unit of the Whazzapian Special Police," Veda replied, her arms crossed, "Or CNIP. So the Navi called VenusMan became corrupted by a virus he was fused with. And their unit found out about the disappearance." She retrieved a picture of Na'im and Satou, one more distraught than the other. "It's still hard to believe he is actually a secret agent, but it seems legit."

"But what a poor boy," Regina commented, "These days Navis grow up with their owners as their best friends... Losing him must've been a real blow to him."

"It also made him lose his homework!" Veda commented with a scowl on her face, "He should've had a backup!"

Regina reached for the battlechips she had received from Satou and looked at them. And on the screen of her PET were genuine statistics about Veda's battle strength, partially a gift from the man called Na'im. "And we were asked to help in the search for this VenusMan..."

"A purpose! A goal!" Veda exclaimed, "We're done with the tests now! We could do our duty now!" The final test to grade vanished from the screen, leaving just Veda and some shortcuts on the screen. She snapped her fingers and the command to send the Navi to the internet appeared. "And it's not like we've got anything else to do," the Navi continued while shrugging.

"I guess we can..." Regina said, her cursor hovering over the command. She had the chips to fight and a request to search for a missing Navi. Veda nodded after Regina clicked the button and transmitted herself to the internet.

"I never knew my hands could vanish like that," Veda told Regina sitting in the corner of Regina's laptop's screen. She had taken one of her remaining hands to examine it. "Although I guess it was an explosion they vanished in!" she said loudly with a hint of excitement in her voice, "Fighting was a lot of fun, Reggy! I believe that's where my purpose is!"

Regina just silently nodded to Veda while she continued working on the add-on to restore Veda's hands. While it was easy to add a feature allowing Veda to restore her own hands and she already had the model of the hands, it was a completely different matter deciding on the method of restoring them. "Hey Veda, how would you like to reform your hands?" she asked while glancing at her Navi messing with her own hands.

Veda just looked around, investigating and pondering the options. "Does it really matter?" she asked before looking upwards, "Most of my data comes from my core. So let's go for that!"

A few clicks later Regina chose a place of origin for the hands. "I never really assumed we'd be fighting..." Regina said as she continued to type and generated the installation package, "So it didn't seem like a problem your core and emblem are at your topknot. But it still doesn't look like it'll be a problem."

"But it has me as protection!" Veda said as she stood back up, putting the Matrika hand she had taken back under her sash, "I won't let a soul get near it! So what is the plan now?"

"First I install this in you," Regina said as she sent the add-on over to Veda. But there was something sitting not right with Regina. This was only the first battle and while Veda was going to get a feature to restore her hands, she did lose 4 of them this time. "So do you think you'll keep using your hands for combat?" Regina asked.

"I just went with my instinct!" Veda replied loudly. A moment later she sensed the add-on had been installed and, like before, just went with her instinct. She held her hands together and lightly touched her fingers together while closing her eyes and lowering her head. A faint light came from her top knot before 5 fingers appeared sticking out of her emblem. A few seconds later one hand popped out of her emblem, followed by 3 more which quickly took their positions on her body. Veda opened her eyes again and nodded. "Working as expected, Regina," Veda told her Operator, relaxing her hands again.

"But I think you need someone to keep an eye on you," Regina said, "I'm just your Operator. Maybe we can get you some company, so you've got someone to fight along side with. Students also get put in team assignments if they're having trouble."

"I wasn't having trouble!" Veda exclaimed before simmering down, "But that would be helpful. I've only got 10 hands after all. And I'm still new to fighting, so maybe I can learn some fighting techniques."

"Let's see where to place a message..." Regina said and nodded.