Chapter 109 - Meeting the Strike Maidens (1/2)

While Gray was a little upset that Caleb lost all of the data in exchange for Celes, he really couldn't be mad at him as he might've made the same choice. Still, trying to explain it to Yurika was another story.

"Ok Gray, I'm trying REALLY hard to understand this... Caleb lost the data to save one of his AI, which he could probably just recreate in a few years?"

"Well, when you put it that way it sounds a lot worse than it is, just remember that Celes is almost as important to him as you are to me!"

Yurika said flatly, "Right... so only remove his manhood since he won't need that with an AI anyways..."

Gray tried to calm her down still, he learned that when she was truly angry when she wasn't yelling. "Listen, we still have the copies, and since Caleb hasn't been tracked down here, we can assume the military isn't helping Alterra Corporation cover this up. Let's see what happens Sunday when we meet your parents. A lot can happen in 3 weeks!"

"Fine... I guess you're right... I know I don't see AI as people the way he does, but that may only be because I've never had one until Alterra gave me one."

"Oh, what did you name yours?"

"...tle Gr..." Yurika whispered.

"What?"

"...ttle Gra..." Yurika whispered slightly louder.

"Little Gray?"

Yurika blushed and nodded.

Gray burst out laughing. "Why on earth would you name it that?!?"

"Because it used to give crap advice, I yelled at it a lot, called it every swear word I could think of and even some I just made up, and then it started to like me and became much better at helping me after it watched me for awhile."

"I feel like I should take offense to that, but I'm going to choose not to..."

"Screw off! You know I hate it when people or things tell me what they think I should do!"

"Ha, I get it I get it... Still, let's get to sleep early tonight, got training with Kelly's team tomorrow at noon."

Yurika nodded then kicked Gray out of her room and said "I still hate you."

Gray smiled and said "I hate you too."

__________

The next morning, Gray and the rest of the Steel Wolves met out by the simulators a little before noon.

Gray did his best to try and give a morning speech, "Good morning guys, so, I'm not really sure what to say here but we're going to be working with an old classmate's team from the military for the 16 versus 16 part of the tournament."

"..." Silence.

After 10 seconds of awkward silence, "That's all you got?" Geoff asked Gray.

Gray shrugged and said, "Sorry, I'm very laid back as a leader."

Xyra raised her hand suddenly, "Gray, if you want to be a leader, you will need to take it more seriously once we create a mercenary force. Casual is fine for the 8 man team, but if you let it continue your men won't respect you and that in turn will cause them to not follow orders through to the end."

"..." Silence again.

Xyra fidgeted slightly, blushed, and didn't say another word as she looked down at the ground.

"What... where did that come from Xyra?" Gray finally managed to get out.

"Major Valen said to tell you this when I got my prize for the Battle Royale."

"Wow... and you agreed?"

Xyra nodded.

"Anything else to say?"

Xyra shook her head.

"Don't want to speak for the rest of the day?"