Putting on the pilot suit made him feel special. This had been what he had been working towards this whole time. It was skin tight and moved with his body smoothly. He was pleased with the suit that he was wearing. All of the members in Kazuki's squad were together and looking at each other. They all looked good. Eiji strut about and swaggered around the group. Jiro and Ryuga was hyping him up. Minato was giving them a disdainful look. Aito walked over to Kazuki and bowed to him. It startled the redhead quite a bit. "Thank you for helping me get this far, Kazuki-san! I could not have done this without you!" he said gratefully. It sounded like Aito was on the verge of tears. Kazuki was quick to make Aito stand straight. "Don't cry! Please, don't. I also benefitted from pairing up with you. You got here because you worked hard." Kazuki said in a panic. Aito swiped at his eyes to keep the tears from falling. Minato just rolled his eyes. "Don't disgrace yourself with tears. You are a Shine pilot now." he said. It was cold, but Kazuki had to agree here. They all had gotten this far. No tears allowed.
Everyone was looking at themselves and their friends. Because of the skin tight nature of the pilot suits, the boys could see the definition and thickness of the limbs. This is what boys did when judging status between them. It gave them something to compare too. Boys that were bigger and visually stronger were higher status than those that were smaller and weaker. Kazuki decided to go over to the area that Squad 1 was currently occupying. They were doing the same thing that Squad 3 was. Kazuki's dealings with them was very limited. He did not actually even know which one of them was Kiseki. When he got there, he was shocked to see what the mutations had done to the boy that was to be his partner. For starters, he had a tail now. It swished and swayed behind him as he talked to the other 2 members of his squad. His ears were pointed. It was like an elf from a fantasy game or anime had appeared. Kazuki forced a big smile on his face to greet his new partner. This would be the person that he would be tasked to synchronize with for the next 6 months. He could be nice to him.
Moving to them, he cleared his throat. They all stopped talking and looked at him. It did not give Kazuki a lot of confidence. Still, he had to say something. "I just wanted to say hello to Kageya. We're partners so we should get to know each other." Kazuki said calmly. Kageya just looked at him. "Looks like we're the trash that they want to forget." he said with a self deprecating smirk. Kageya understood the situation the same way that Kazuki did. The fact they were still there at all showed their personal resilience. Kazuki was not going to give up. No matter what happened. Isamu pat Kageya on the back. "Don't say that. I know you've got this. We've connected 7 times. I think having a tail is fucking cool!" he said to encourage him. Kageya did not seem to agree. "Then you should see about getting a long black tail then!" was Kageya's sharp response. Isamu winced. "Everyone knows you're really great at this. You dominated as a Bottom in the first stage. That was true. That was better than Kazuki's 6-4 record in the first stage. He quit while he was ahead. Kazuki wanted to be a Switch.
