Infinite stratos: Invisible chains

by Reece15

Charlotte details her experiences before coming to the academy and meeting Ichika. Re-uploaded because the first one came out blank for some reason.

Prolougue: research failure.

It was a late night in the Dunois Corporation meeting room, and all of the higher ups where gathered to discuss the company's research progress. Mr Dunois sat at the table and waited eagerly for his head Scientist to soon as he did, Mr Dunois promptly began to speak. "Good evening Harold, what's the situation with the new IS?" Harold made a couple of nervous grunts before he began speaking, "Well sir, um...the situation is...unchanged, we can't seem to modify our IS to the third generation model without at least one part not working due to incompatibility." Mr Dunois nodded In an aggravated fashion "Well maybe I'll just have to find another head scientist." Harold was even more nervous now. "But wait, sir, I had an idea." Dunois motioned toward him with his hand. "Go on." He nodded "The representative candidates at the academy in Japan next year are rumored to be receiving third gen IS units. If we can get somebody inside the academy, surely they can scan them and get us all the information we need to boost our research." Dunois nodded "Hmm, not bad, but who? None of us are compatible."

Harold shook his head "It doesn't have to be us, didn't we recently test your daughter for compatibility?" He looked shocked as if he had forgotten. "Yes we did, your right, her results were remarkable, but we haven't begun training her yet, what's your point?" "Well, what I'm saying is if we were to organize training for her in our facility, and if she shows as much aptitude as the tests suggest, we could have her considered to become the representative candidate for France." Dunois nodded "Good, IS training is very strenuous regularly, and it takes a lot more to become a representative candidate, are you sure she will follow through?." Harold shrugged "Who knows, but she is the only hope we have." Dunois nodded again, as if to agree. "But sir" a voice came from the other end of the table "What if she is found out, Surely she would serve time in jail, would you do that to your own family?" Dunois stood, angry at the statement he had made. "Yes sir, I would, because its what she does that will keep our family afloat!" The man didn't know, but the girl wasn't the daughter of him and his current wife, but was born of a mistress of his who died a while ago, resulting in her return to him. Harold broke the awkward silence. " Very good sir. I'll contact the training department. " Dunois thought for a second. "No, I have to consult my wife first" Dunois then disbanded the gathering, and picked up the phone and called home to which his wife answered almost immidiately.

"Hey, what's Charlotte doing?" "I sent her into her room, she kept getting in my way in the kitchen." "Alright good, well I just had a thought, that maybe its finally time we had her properly trained in her IS, what do you think?" She paused and acted as if she was thinking "Well I think it would be good for her, especially since it would mean her being away from home,we would finally be alone." Mr Dunois was especially fond of that idea, because the fact of the matter was neither him, or his wife cared for Charlotte in the slightest "Ok great, I'll have some men ready to take her to train tomorrow" and he hung up. He decided to not let his wife, or by extension Charlotte know his true intention, just in case Charlotte was resistant.

Chapter 1: Charlottes story

I was in a familiar situation, stuck in my room because of my "Mother's" mood swings. I had been preparing myself a meal and she entered the kitchen to do the same, then she began to claim I'm in her way. The only problem with that is our kitchen was huge, and I got the feeling she just didn't want me near her. But I had given up trying to be-freind her a long time ago, but I still cried every time this happened. The reason being that it always makes me think back to when I lived with my Maman. No matter how hard I tried, my mind would always wander back to a day when we had been together, and when I was happy, and how I lost her at such a young age, I feel the tears once again as I whispered to my self "Maman, I miss you." and I buried my head in my Mother then opened the door, not angry at all now and told me she had good news for me. I was trying to hide the fact that I had been crying, I didn't generally like to explain my feelings, especially to her, as she would likely insult my real mother, though it didn't matter, she didn't seem to care at all any way."Your Father has decided to put you in a training program for IS pilots!" And the tears immediately washed away. I had seen this coming ever since my father had his scientists test me for compatibility, I was told my results were exceptional, but nothing came of it for a while, not even my own IS, so it seemed the tests they did on me were all for nothing but I didn't care what took so long, I was too excited.

"Your kidding?! When?" I inched towards her "Tomorrow morning." she said with a smile and I felt like fainting "I had better leave so you can get packing." and then she lost me. "Packing? What do you mean? IS training isn't an over night program is it?" Mrs Dunois smile still remained on her face. "Your Father arranged for you to live within the training facility so nobody would have to worry about transporting you every day." I could tell by the way she said this she was expecting me to react negatively, but honestly I loved the idea, I get trained and I get away from her emotionally scarring mood swings. "Alright then! I'll get started with that right away!" I exclaimed as I slowly walked her towards the door and shut it behind her. Packing took the whole rest of the day, I made sure to pack all of my IS text books that I had collected myself, as well as plenty of clothes and bathroom supplies as well as the only picture I have left of me and my Maman. I even forgot to eat, My body was tired though so I really didn't feel like leaving my room, and I collapsed into my bed.

Chapter 2: setting out.

I woke up extremely early that morning, I guess I couldn't contain my excitement. I looked out of our front window to see that my escort had already arrived, and were no doubt waiting for me. My Mother called from the living room, and I rushed to see what she wanted. She stood with two of my Fathers employees. "These men will be taking you to the facility." I nodded and greeted the men, but they seemed pretty disinterested. I then turned to my Mother. "Can I get breakfast before I leave?" She laughed, I'm sure they will have food supplied for you as soon as you arrive dear, you can't leave these men waiting now." The only response I gave was the sound of my stomach grumbling.

"Goodbye Charlotte!" She yelled after me as the men ushered me toward their vehicle. The ride was a fairly long one, neither of the men said a word, to me or each other. I began to think about my training to keep myself occupied, I wondered if my piloting would be up to the trainers standards. I definitely had studied IS's enough, but I didn't know how much that would fair when it came to flight. The training facility was a few miles away from the main research and development facility of the Dunois corporation, it was used to determine students aptitude level and train them well enough to enter into an academy, it hadn't been used in a while though, I had heard it was something to do with all the funding going towards developing a third generation IS, but I didn't really know since my Mother didn't really talk to me about the company.

I never heard of it having rooms for students to sleep, though, they normally just had students get apartments nearby. When we arrived I was immediately greeted by the Instructors. "Bonjour Miss Dunois, je m'appelle Mari, but you can just call me instructor for now, and this is Lacey." said the first, who was quite a heavy set girl with short black hair that seemed to cover her face more than anything. the second instructor stepped forward from Mari's shadow, it was odd, but I hadn't noticed her before that, she was pretty much the exact opposite of the Mari. A petit young girl who couldn't be a day over 19, with long flowing brown hair that draped it self down her back, from the looks on their faces, I could tell who was the more experienced pilot."Bonjour, Madamoisselle, here you'll be needing this." She pulled out a strange necklace with a singular charm on it. A brass colored item that reminded me of a shield, but with wings. I knew what this was, it was my IS charm. I got excited by the sight of it, as this meant I had finally been given my own personal IS. I slipped the necklace into my pocket and looked back towards the instructors.

"There is a meal waiting in your room, Mari will take you there." The inside of the building was mostly just a big open empty hall, which was understandable, they probably did most of the training here. It was scary how deserted the place was though. I noticed that the floor was covered in burns and scratches from previous students. Mari led me through a small door in the back of the room. "This hall leads to the observation floor, we repurposed one of the rooms to accommodate you."I had heard that observational rooms here where generally small due to the fact that observers practiced private assessment, so no one else could influence their opinion of the students performance. It turned out the rumors were true, my room was tiny, not even half the size of my old one only a bed, dresser and tv/computer screen mounted into the wall. No complaints though, I would be here a lot less than in the house.

A small foam box lay on the bed. "Your meal is there, you are to be down in the training hall within the hour" I turned to face her "Yes instructor." She remained silent and walked away, I got the idea people here didn't expect me to amount to much, and maybe they were right, but I was determined to try to prove them wrong. I opened the box to find a few slices of bread along with some cheese, wasn't much, but it got rid of the hunger I was feeling, and as soon as I got done I put on the necklace and headed to training.

Chapter 3: Taking off

Upon entering the hall I saw Mari waiting for me. "So first things first, I know you have no experience in your IS, so I need to see if you know what you're doing" I felt the need to interrupt "So you want me to activate my IS?" She nodded, though it did take more time than I hopped it would I was still able to activate it fairly fast. I had read up on a few techniques on how to activate quickly so I made sure to keep those in mind. She smirked "I see that's not going to be a problem" and she got into hers too. "Lets see your piloting skills, hover there for me." at first I was nervous, and nearly couldn't control my flight, but I pulled myself together and steadily climbed into the air, while I was up my mind wandered back to the tests that had been done on me for this, how I spent hours upon hours lying down being scanned multiple times over, I almost couldn't believe that all of that, lead to this, it almost felt worth it.

I snapped out of my trance as I heard my engines powering down, and before I knew it I fell down into a heap with the weight of the IS stopping me from being able to get back up. Mari laughed "Well don't worry about that, people usually can't grasp hovering right away, so that's a good start, get to your feet and deactivate." she helped me upright, and soon found myself sprawled on the ground again though with out the intense weight this time, I had forgotten how high I was off of the ground within the IS.

"Ow." I heard Mari laughing from above me. "Well normally people do remember to land, but don't worry, you weren't being assessed today, that'll start next week, to determine your progression." She helped me up a second time "You can go back to your room now." I was confused "Already? I just got here." she laughed "You did, but it's your first day, there won't be any extensive training today, this session, as I said was to assess how well you know the procedures of your IS, the rest of the day is yours, but if you want to later, come find me or Lacey and you can train a little bit after dinner." I decided to take her up on that offer, but while I sat alone in my room I focused my mind on the future, to what I would do with my training.

At first I thought of perhaps going into the Military, in France or otherwise, but then I figured my path had already been chosen for me, so I stopped thinking of it. I lay in the bed staring toward the ceiling, remembering how things had been so different the day before. I thought to myself how it was too good to be true, me getting away from home with such ease, even being in my cramped room wasn't all too bad, and I spent most of that day in there, alone with my thoughts. Though I did try the tv/computer, but it was locked by a password, which seemed odd.

My food was delivered at around five, and I was determined to finish it as quick as possible so I could get back to training, but this was not like my lunch. Lacey was the one who delivered it to my room "Bonjour Madame, comment ca va, how are all this?" I had noticed she didn't speak English that much when I first met her. "Eh, pas mal. I'm still sort of uncertain about this." But no reply, it was probably better that people didn't know that I didn't trust my father. She was pushing a cart with a covered tray on top of it, and my mouth began to water as she slowly lifted the lid to reveal hot steaming cheese covered croissants.

"Ahh they look delicious!" She smiled "Merci Miss Dunois, I made them myself. I felt bad for the meal Mari forced me to rush to your room earlier, so I thought I'd make that up to you." I shook my head "You didn't have too, really, I was contempt with what I had earlier." I felt I would be more believable if I hadn't already burnt my tongue a little while taking a bite. She nodded and giggled "Well I wouldn't have you eat like that, you're Mr Dunois' daughter." She said that like I didn't already know. "Yes, but here I'm just a trainee, my blood shouldn't effect how I'm treated." She reeled back for a second and then bowed her head "Oui Madame." It was obvious to me I wouldn't get through to her. "Well since you're here, and you put so much work into this, would you like to share this with me?" She looked shocked.

"Sorry Madame, but I am very busy." And with that she was gone so I decided to eat my meal, which looked a little cooler now. After I finished I looked out of the large observation window that was the entire back wall of the room to see Mari still in the training hall with her IS and I made my way down to train with her. I stood and watched her fly around the room for a minute or two before she noticed me. "Bonjour, Miss Dunois, how's my flying?" I laughed a little "Sorry Instructor, but I'm not the right person to ask" she laughed along with me. "Right, well lets see what we can do to get you started." I activated my IS.

"I actually skipped a few functions earlier, I forgot to get you to walk, as well as deploy your weapons, but we will focus walking for now, okay?" I nodded. "Its a lot like regular walking yes?" She nodded "Yeah you could say so, its just balancing the weight people usually have trouble with." I was pretty sure I would do fine, it was just walking after all. "Ah, je comprends, the additional weight and all right?" She nodded "So its probably best you take it slow for now." I obeyed though I didn't feel I needed to. Starting with my left foot I began walking swiftly towards her, and I think my speed surprised her."Ok" she said as I reached where she was standing "I think you got it. Lets try a hover again, but focus this time okay?" I guess she realized my mind was wandering, but I listened, and I was able to remain airborne. Mari smiled "There you go, you got it. Now fly toward me slowly."

I wasn't nervous any more and I was able to reach her with ease. "Ok, now lets get higher." And she began to rise, and before I knew it I was following her, not very fast though, I felt like I shouldn't push myself so hard yet. Every time I would reach her she would pick another location, this went on for atleast two hours, and I was confident enough to increase my speed by the time she decided to land. "Ok, so I would say you're ready for your real training now, you've pretty much mastered following a target, way faster than the standard, you just need to learn how at full speed now, now go get some rest, you'll be needing it." I deactivated and returned to my room, but I couldn't sleep, my mind was too focused on the coming day and how I would be training. I began to wonder if the hall would be big enough for me to train at max speed, I had seen Mari-Anne doing it, but I wasn't so confident with my breaking skills yet. I pondered for a while, but then I figured that, after the performance I had today, I shouldn't worry about a thing.

I read about breaking in a few of the books I brought just in case and then I slept. I began training at max speed the next day, this time with Lacey. But before we started she called out to Mari "Open it!" And a large crashing sound seemed to shake the building. I looked up to see the sky, appearing where the roof had once been, and I became speechless, now I knew what the screen was for, it was for the observers to watch the skies. Lacey laughed "What? You thought you'd do all your training cramped up in here?"

I snapped out of my daze "Uh, n-no, I just thought I would stay in here for a little while longer." She paused and chuckled quietly. "You would have been, if Mari didn't determine that you were ready to go out, she reported to me how well you did yesterday, so we both decided to move you on." I didn't have any questions, the truth was that I was delighted to get to fly properly so soon. she told me to follow her as she flew high above the building, and told me to chase her much like I did with Mari yesterday. She started off slow, but gradually began to push her IS to go faster, so I did the same, and by the end of the day, I could fly mine confidently at its top speed. I didn't realize it at the time, but I had skipped all my meals, so we set down and I didn't train for the rest of the day. Most days were like this to the point were I decided to only eat once a day, which was not what the instructors wanted, but hunger hardly effected me any more. I would much rather be training.

After a while I was trained with my weapons. Mari had a short range IS equipped with multiple hand held weapons and a sub-machine gun to balance, while Lacey was long range with a sniper with a short sword and a few explosive weapons, which I learned about through a book as she never used them. My IS uses an array of different guns and the shield pierce move for close quarters. At first I wasn't really familiar with the weapons, or even how to equip them, but after a short explanation, I was ready. The training facility didn't have any kind of target practice fields or anything, so Mari told me we could only practice by real battles.

Mari and Lacey would alternate days, so I would know how to deal with all attack types, I found Lacey easier to fight because she would not usually get close, meaning I could use my guns to hit her as much as she did me. But I had trouble when I was moving or if she was, so she did end up winning all of our battles in the first week or so. Mari on the other hand would always get as close to me as she could as soon as the duel began, and I still hadn't quite figured out how to use the shield effectively, so I never lasted very long. I went back to my room covered in bruises, even on good days, but I didn't care, I was improving. People did begin coming in to assess my flying too, of course I never saw or heard about the results, I suppose that was a good thing, though Mari and Lacey never told me who they were affiliated with, no matter how much I asked, but they definitely knew something I didn't. The only reason I even knew they were there is that I always ran into them as they left, and my room always had some sort of item left in it. I was surprised that they hadn't stopped allowing observers in there, I think a few times they actually lay down in my bed.

Eventually, after a lot of training I improved my aiming, and as a result I was able to beat Lacey. It was an oddly short battle, I took out her wing with my rifle and hit her a second time when she fell. Of course she adapted to that strategy, but I was able to do the same, eventually evolving to using every weapon in one battle, including the shield, which even surprised me. I don't even remember how I got so close to her. She did hit me a few times with her sword, but my shield pushed her back enough for me to equip my SMG's and finish her, of course we still battled, and I still lost, but my victories got closer and closer together.

Mari was still a little tough, but it wasn't as bad now I knew how useful my shield was. When I finally did beat her, it proved itself invaluable a second time. As soon as the duel began and she started her usual mad dash towards me I held out my shield and rushed forward to meet her. She saw me coming and attempted to break and turn, but it was too late, the force of the shield and my speed combined caused her flight pattern to falter, so she fell back and started to pepper my IS with her SMG. And then she was in my territory, I pulled my rifle along with my shield which I used to keep the gunfire off of me, and I followed her with my scope. She tried to avoid my sight by moving around erratically, but she just couldn't. My first shot landed on her leg, which caused her to stumble, while she was, I landed the second in the body, and she was done.

Afterwards Lacey cooked her croissants again as a congratulatory meal, and she had improved, which I wouldn't have believed possible. The next day came as a surprise to me, because instead of just facing Lacey again, both of them where up in the sky, I stayed down on the ground for a while, uncertain of if what I was feeling was fear, shock, or just the pure excitement of the challenge ahead of me. As I activated I quickly rushed up to confront Lacey as I knew I could fight her with ease. But Mari got in my way and locked her sword with my shield leaving myself open to one of Lacey's special attacks, which made her shot much larger. needless to say attacks like that from point blank range really hurt, even from an early first generation standard issue model.

The shot hit my arm and completely depleted my shield causing me to fall out of the sky.I found my self lying in the training hall, staring at the one way mirrors that were the observation floor. I felt like trying to get up, but I couldn't so I deactivated. Both of them descended next to me and Mari noticed the burn mark on my arm. "Im so sorry!" Cried Lacey "Its quite alright" I smiled back at her "If I didn't expect a couple injuries every once in a while I wouldn't have come." They both deactivated and Mari grabbed my arm forcefully for a closer look. "Are you sure? It looks pretty serious." asked Mari "We can get you a doctor if you need one?" But I shook my head. "I'll be ok, really, burn ointment would be nice though." Lacey laughed and nodded "Oui Madame, I'll bring it with your food, now go and rest."

I did as she said, and I lay down thinking of ways to beat the both of them. I thought of letting Mari chase me while I slowly chipped away at Lacey from a distance, but I was sure there would be a way around that. I thought of just holding Mari in a lock with my shield and breaking her down with my SMG's, but it was no use, my mind wouldn't let it happen how I wanted it too, so I gave up and rolled over to sleep, completely forgetting the burn. I rolled back swiftly, holding the burn with my other hand.

Then Lacey came in. "See, I knew you were just playing tough." She smiled. "Here, this will stop the pain, but the mark will be there a few weeks." I nodded as if to thank her, not wanting to open my mouth out of fear of what noise I would make. I opened the bottle of ointment as fast as I could and pulled every drop out. When it made contact with the burn it was cool, relieving, and the pain stopped immediately. "And let's not forget your food, we didn't have so many ingredients left, but there was enough for me to make this nice stew for you, with some bread too."

It was pot-au-feu, my Maman's favorite meal, I had helped her cook it a few times, she even let me try it afterwards to see how we did, and it was delicious, every time. I had made it a couple times in my new home on good days, but my Mother usually disapproved of me cooking, and it wasn't ever the same. I felt tears in my eyes "Um..it looks delicious Lacey, but can you go now?" I was trying to act normal, but I couldn't, she was definitely suspicious about the way I was acting. The tears did stay away until she was out, thank goodness.

I held both hands hard against the door as I locked it behind her, and then I collapsed to the ground. I pulled my bag out from under my bed, where I had put my picture of me and my Maman. I stared at that picture for a while, leaving my food to go cold. Up until that point I had forgotten all the times I had cooked with her, it had been so long, and now I missed her more than ever. I sat and cried, doing my best to keep the picture dry. The floor was cold and hard under me, but I still remained, holding on tightly to the only solid memory I had of my real Mother.

After a while I moved up to the bed to eat the stew. The fact that it tasted exactly the same as what Maman cooked only made me cry harder, so a lot of my tears ended up in it, but I still ate, because I didn't want to forget, not again. I looked out of the window after I had finished to see Mari and Lacey talking, they both looked concerned, so I figured they were talking about me. I left my room after I felt it wasn't so obvious I had been crying. I was greeted by Lacey. "Miss Dunois? Everything ok?" I nodded "Yes, I'm fine, I was just wondering, would it be ok with you if I helped you cook from now on?" She looked surprised "Why would you want to do that? I'm perfectly capable of cooking for the three of us alone" I hesitated. "Well, I just always used to cook for my mother" my voice broke slightly, but I pulled myself together "and I thought I could be of help to you." she sighed "Well alright, I guess there's no problem with that." See I had decided, a long time ago that in order to hold onto my Maman, I would cook, just like she did, but I would almost always get stopped at home, so now I had a real opportunity to, without even a chance of those interruptions. I shot a smile her way, but she didn't understand, and at the time I figured she likely never would, the existence of my real Mother is not something people in the company spread around, all for the reputation of my Father. "So, will you both be fighting me again tomorrow?" They both stared at other worryingly "Well, if you want too." Mari said quietly, while quickly glancing at my burn. "Great!" I yelled "and don't you guys think of going easy on me!" And I walked back to my room, with a smile this time.

The day after that, as promised both of the instructors where in the air, but not in the same positions, I could probably use that to my advantage. As soon as I activated I equipped my rifle and flew up as fast as I could, with my crosshairs stuck on Mari. I took a shot which landed in her chest forcing her to stumble slightly. After taking the shot I realized Lacey was coming up on my flank with her sword drawn, so I charged sideways with my shield and knocked her back a little. I took a few shots in the back from Mari who had fully recovered, but I boosted up higher flipped my IS upside down entirely (which I had never done before that point) and took aim at her with my rifle, hitting her head this time, effectively disabling her IS shields and causing her to fall.

Now it was time to deal with Lacey who had me locked with her rifle. I dodged as she used the same shot she took me down with yesterday, which was slightly unexpected, I thought she would feel too guilty to use it on me again. She continued to try to hit me with the same shot, but I was too fast, and she was becoming desperate. I began fooling her to thinking that I had intentions to attack, all while slowly closing in. Soon enough I heard her weapon click, her weapon power was exhausted, and now it was my turn.

I equipped my assault rifle and began closing in on her further, and when I was close enough I decided to finish her with the shield pierce. I rushed at her full speed with my shield set, And I waited for the crash. I could swear she was stuck to it for a few seconds. After her IS shut off I grabbed her and carried her down, to the reception of applause.

Mari and the observers stood in a large circle around where I would land. As I did Mari requested to talk to me in my room, to which I agreed and she lead me there. "You know, you fly that thing like its a generation three, we are all impressed with you growth." I thanked her "I am too, I never dreamed I could fly like I just did" she nodded and laughed "I'm sure you didn't, neither did any one at Dunois Corp, and that's why the observers have decided that you have sufficient skills to be considered to become France's representative candidate at the IS academy in Japan."

I was blown back a second "What? Me? Representing France?" Wow! but how soon will the decision be made?" She paused "I would say around two weeks, they will be calling us when they decide, but from what I have been told, you don't have that much competition. Its almost a sure thing. No need to stop training yet though right?" and she left. I was excited to go to school for this, but I knew I would miss it there. I tried to sleep that night, but I couldn't stop thinking about the academy and all the people I would meet, could it be that I would finally have a chance to live?

Chapter 4: changing plans.

The offices of Dunois Corporation where bustling with big news. The employees were so excited they nearly forgot about their jobs. Mr Dunois had called an emergency meeting which was due to start any minute now.

As he sat, he didn't bother to look around to see who was present and was not, he just began to talk. "Alright everybody, I'm sure you've heard the news, and I'm afraid its true, a Japanese male has somehow activated an IS." There was a quick gasp before Harold began taking also "His name is Ichika Orimura" he was interrupted by a slight murmuring "You probably recognize the name, he is the brother of Chifuyu Orimura, I'm sure I don't need to explain to you who that is, but more importantly, he has been accepted to the IS academy in Japan, and his IS has been rushed to development, and it will be almost an exact copy of his sister's."

More murmurs followed and Mr Dunois interrupted "We need Charlotte to befreind him, so we have decided to have her enter posing as a male." a loud gasp "But sir" said the same employee who disagreed before "They both have personal IS', I'm sure they will get to know other naturally." Dunois scoffed "But we don't know that! There's a lot of girls in that school, it could take atleast a year before Charlotte is even noticed by him! We need this! If she is a male, the school will undoubtedly have them in a room together, which will give her the perfect opportunity to get what we need, and I forgot to mention the possibility of us mass producing an IS that males are compatible with, that'll be a whole unexplored market we have all to ourselves, Japan has only decided to make the one by scanning the one he activated before, which is a mistake, a mistake we can fully exploit, but only if we get that data. We will be the top IS manufacturer soon, I know it, now sit down, and don't speak again." the employee quieted down. Harold then continued to speak. "We have already started with her conditioning program, it will be done within 3 weeks, I already contacted the French government, her candidacy is secured, but we will not be informing them of the plan." Mr Dunois nodded

"Good call, we wouldn't want interference now would we?" The employee then decided to speak up. "Monsters! All of you, Monsters! How could you allow this?! Nobody deserves to be used like this!" Dunois slammed his hands down on the table. "I guess I wasn't clear enough with you before Francois." He snapped his fingers as two security personnel who had been waiting in the hall entered the room and escorted the man out. " Fine fire me then! I know your secret, just you try and stop me from speaking out!" And the door closed. "Anybody else have a problem?" Dunois asked calmly. The room remained silent until he waved his hand dismissing everyone from the room, but remained on his own. His mind came to life with images of himself unveiling the male IS. He smiled to himself. "Not much longer now." As the sound of breaking glass leaked into his office.

Chapter 5: The Birdcage

The next few weeks me and the instructors followed the same routine, I would come out and try to disable them one after the other, but I still had room to improve, some times I would win, and times they would, but I continued to learn, because for every win I got, the harder they tried preventing me from doing so again, either by different positioning and attack strategies or using new weapon techniques I hadn't seen them use before, which was less effective, since I had already studied their IS' through a text book and the internet.

And I did also get to help Lacey with the food, I asked her to show me how she made her pot-au-feu, and she did, but of course I put my experience with my Maman to work. "Wow Miss Dunois, how did you learn how to do this?" I was hesitant at first, but told her "Its a little something my Maman taught me" and I didn't burst in to tears, which hadn't happened since I lost her. "Mrs Dunois cooks too? Well she sure did a good job teaching you." I didn't even care that I couldn't tell the truth, because my mother had taught me well, I imagined to myself that was who she was talking about.

I thanked her as I finished up the dish. "You can take your's to your room, I'll go take the rest to Mari." I stopped her as she walked out "Wait,Lacey, I was wondering if I could eat with you guys?" She didn't answer for a moment "I'm sorry Miss Dunois, but me and Mari have important stuff to talk about, another time?" I nodded as she walked away.

I was really curious to what they would talk about, but I assumed it wasn't for me to know, so I returned to my room ate and lay down to take a nap. But I was soon woken up by both instructors. "Miss Dunois, sit up, we need to talk." Said Mari in a slightly worrying tone. And then, I started to think I hadn't been chosen, but oh, it was way worse. "There has been a slight change of plan by the Dunois Corporation." said Mari, while Lacey just stood behind with tears in her eyes. "You won't be going to the academy just yet." I was shocked "What?! Why not?" Tears appeared in Mari's eyes now too.

"Well, a male has been found who can activate an IS, so they want you to pose as a male also, so you will be able to get close enough to him to steal his IS data, they uh..." She stopped "They only told us that you were to be moved from here, we don't know where too, or what will be done to you." At first the fact that a male had been able to activate one had been what surprised me, but then I realized what they had told me. "But, I can't do that, my training..." I said while trying to find an excuse not to go.

"You've been considered to become a representative candidate, according to them you don't need further training, I'm sorry, I wish we could do something we tried we really did, I'm..." I stopped her. "Well what could you do?! These are your bosses, and it seems all they want to do is use me! I don't want to leave! I was so ready for the academy..." I stopped to wipe tears from my eyes "So ready... Why are they doing this to me? I don't want to... I won't!" "Miss Dunois" Lacey began "No! Both of you could you!..." I decided to calm myself, I wasn't mad at them after all. "I want to be left alone." That was the first time I could remember that I hadn't cared if somebody saw me cry, apart from Maman of course.

I ended up regretting being so angry, especially since it was at the wrong people. I remained in my room, crying out loud and not caring who heard. I was in awe that my father would pull this on me. I couldn't lie to people like that, just to steal some guy's IS data, why me? Why couldn't he find some other girl's life to ruin? How would I be comfortable making friends if I wasn't even acting as myself? What would happen if I was discovered? Would I be disowned fully by my family and left on the streets to die? Would I be put in prison? Would I rather be in prison? I continued spiraling like this for hours as I held tightly to my picture, almost tearing It in my grip. Lacey returned after I had tired myself out a little.

"Charlotte" I was slightly startled as this was the first time she had called me by my name. "I know your not feeling good about this, how about you come eat with me and Mari?" I nodded and let a few tears fall. Mari was waiting in the training hall, and from the look on her face, she had been crying too. It took a little while for her to turn. "Oh hello Miss Dunois" she sniffled "They will be here tomorrow, I'm sorry." I sat down next to her. "Don't be, you couldn't change this... Neither can I, my Father owns me, and I won't disrespect that." Which was honestly the exact opposite of what I was feeling, but I knew there really was nothing I could do.

Lacey sat down too "I just wish it were different, I can't bear the thought of what they will do to you." I sniffled a little "Yeah me either, but I have to, and then maybe" I paused to wipe my eyes "maybe I'll finally be free of my family." They were both shocked by this "But what about what you told me about your Maman?" Asked Lacey "You seem pretty close with her, why would you want to get away from them?"

I figured now a better time than any to tell the truth. They sat, amazed as I told them about my birth. At first, I felt they would not believe me, but after what had happened I guess they were ready to be more open. They both wrapped their arms around me, speechless as we cried together. I pulled myself together a second to speak. "Thank you, both of you, for showing me that I could be something, I'll miss you." Lacey replied almost angrily "Please, Charlotte! We have to be able to do something!" But I shook my head "It means allot that you think so, but my problems are not worth you losing your jobs." "Please! You can fight It, I know you can! You don't have to sacrifice your personality for their gain!" I wished she was right, but she wasn't, It just couldn't be helped.

"I want to believe that, I do, but deep down I know that if I try to escape they will hunt me down." "But what if they couldn't catch you? You'll have your IS won't you?" Asked Mari and I nodded "But would It be worth it to run the rest of my life? Atleast this way I'll end up in Japan in the end." They both remained silent as they held onto me for the rest of the night, we were still all crying over my tragic situation. But the time came when I needed to face the coming day. I swallowed my tears one last time.

"Goodbye you guys, and thanks again, for everything. I will never forget you." And I turned away quickly as the tears began to resurface. I packed all of my things before I slept in that bed, for the last time. The next morning I received a rude awakening from one of the men who had escorted me the first time.

"Miss Dunois! Let's get going!" I didn't reply, I just grabbed my bag and followed him out while wearing my pajamas with my face completely still, I had honestly drained myself of all emotion the previous night. I caught sight of Mari and Lacey in the training hall as I left, they were training together, and as I passed by they did something I hadn't expected. They stopped flying and began saluting me I nodded towards them as a final goodbye. And I thought I was done crying, but I was wrong, tears began streaming down my face as I walked towards the door, away from the only people I had been able to call my friends in a long time, but I did my best to remain quiet so my escorts would not know of my pain.

Before I entered the vehicle I looked to the sky above the building, imagining what I would have looked like up there. It made me feel powerful, seeing all of my skill play out from down here, but oh how small I felt now. The car ride was pretty much the same as last time, only this time I found myself not wanting to think forward, but It was inevitable. I began to wonder what what be done to me to make me seem male. The worst thought I had involved surgery to rid me of my feminine features, I tried to rid myself of the thought, but I couldn't, I wasn't sure how far the company would go to get what they wanted.

The ride was a lot shorter this time, though. The facility I was sent to was within the fences of the main Dunois Corp building, the research facility actually. My arrival was quite similar to what happened at the training facility. The people who would be training me all waited for me in a line outside the entrace to greet me and introduce themselves, but I didn't bother to remember their names, I just shook their hands and moved on.

My two escorts led me through the building, and immediately all I could hear was the clicking of keyboards, no talking at all. I followed the men through the maze of cubicles, passing by a couple of testing and IS construction rooms on the way, all of which were empty. They led me to a room with a small metal which was covered in rust, so already I was preparing for disappointment.

And the room was even worse, though it was slightly bigger than the last one, there were no windows, the walls were stone and muddy and the only furniture I had was a metal framed bed with a shoddy mattress and metal drawers.

"This is what prison must look like." I said to myself after the door closed. Atleast the training facility had actually tried to keep me comfortable. After sliding my luggage under the bed I took a look at the drawers, they had a small slip of paper taped to the top, which was my schedule:

7:00am breakfast

7:30am gender training

11:00am lunch

11:30pm vocal configuration

3:00pm self defense

6:30pm dinner.

Everything seemed like it would be pretty boring, but I tried to get excited about self defense, since it wasn't something I expected to see, and it would probably be the only class I would aloud to be active in.

It was near enough to eleven, so I sat and waited for the food to arrive, but of course it was late, which gave me even less time to eat.

It was delivered on a plastic tray by a scientist who didn't really say anything, he just walked in, put it down on the drawers and left. I stood up slowly from the bed hoping to be proven wrong about the quality it would be in, but sadly, I wasn't. I couldn't even tell what it was, but it wasn't like I had anything else, so I ate it while trying to remember Lacey's delicious food, but sadly imagination can only do so much.

I ended up leaving for my vocal configuration before I could finish. It wasn't really much though, a couple of demonstrations of the males are supposed to sound, I never really paid to much attention in the beginning, until they decided to have me demonstrate what I had learned, which I obviously couldn't do, so they continued to show me, and then I was sent away to a video room to watch training videos for speaking like a male. It was so easy to tell that they had been prepared in the last week, but I did decide to pay attention, because maybe if I did, I would get to leave for the academy earlier.

Afterwards was self defense, which I was sent to one of the un-used IS testing rooms, which had been repurposed. At first I learned basic blocks, jabs and kicks, which I honestly wasn't that great at to begin with, but it didn't take too long to grasp. By the end of the first day I was able to break the trainers defenses with the techniques I learned, which was the goal of every lesson. I did enjoy this class the most, because it made me feel strong, without my IS, which I hadn't felt before. I hadn't had the chance to.

Then I returned to my room to await my dinner, which was equally as disappointing. After I stopped eating my meal, I had a sudden realization that they had not taken my necklace from me, so I began to practice switching whenever I had nothing to do. I could have escaped, and I knew that, but I didn't plan too, because everything I had said to Mari and Lacey was the truth, if I did that, I would never be allowed to be free. I made sure to have my charm hidden atleast five minutes before any of my meals or escorts arrived, because I knew that they would take it, and I really didn't want that.

The next morning was my first gender training session. As soon as I entered the room, I was told to sit in the chair that was placed in the center of the room. I expected to be watching more videos, but then I felt something weird in my hair. A trainer was stood behind me with barbers scissors.

"What are you doing?!" I yelled causing him to reel back a little. "I was instructed to cut your hair, Miss Dunois." I calmed myself a little "Well, you should have said so before hand, what if I had moved while you were cutting? You could have cut me." He nodded as he stepped forward. "My mistake Miss." And he continued to cut. The truth was, I really didn't want my hair to be cut, it had taken so long to grow it, and I was worried I would end up near enough bald. It only took about five minutes for him to be done.

My head felt significantly lighter but it still covered my face, so I requested a mirror. It didn't look bad at all, though only a small amount of hair reached my neck in the back, the rest was at about the same level as my mouth. After that we moved to another room. Training wasn't that great though, just the trainers demonstrating and explaining how to act in certain situations, I could tell they hadn't spent as much time on this course as the vocal configuration though since I never really felt the need to change anything, I wasn't even properly encouraged to actually use what I learned.

As time passed, trainers became a lot harder on me, even began insulting and hurting me when I slipped up, in vocal configuration atleast. Though this did prove useful to my progress, as I was now able to put on a male voice with ease, and I was even told to try to do it outside of the class. I never did that though, I didn't feel I had a reason to.

Gender training on the other hand never became more effective, even after the trainers started to get into the more complex things, though I was able to convince the trainers that I had grasped what they were teaching, so I guess you could say I did learn what I was supposed to. I was still able to act as myself though, which, from what I heard from the trainers, was not good. Apparently I would end up discovered if I couldn't stay within my male persona 24/7, but I didn't really care, I wasn't about to give in to them and let them take away who I was.

Vocal configuration did change me considerably though, and I ended up having to force myself into my real voice, and I eventually just forgot what I had sounded like all together. From all the increased training I was forced to do, I ended up with a lot more stress, and I began losing control of myself during self defense.

By this time we had evolved to practicing different scenarios in which I would have to use my skills. One particular day my trainer took the role of a person holding me up with a gun and challenged me to escape using only my feet. So, with my hands raised, I spun my body while I raised my leg up to where he held his prop gun, knocked it to the ground and used my other leg to strike his chest as I finished the turn. I noticed he was breathing weirdly as he lay down, so I screamed for help, I thought that I had killed the guy.

Turns out I broke a few of his ribs. His story was all over the news, so for my training to be kept secret from the public he was instructed to say he had fallen down stairs at work, even to his family. The company would have to reimburse him either way, so the self defense class was replaced by a fitness class, which I was told I would be starting soon any way. Though this class did prove useful to me, I no longer had a way to relieve stress, so I began losing the little hope I had left. Even the time I spent in my room switching meant nothing now, since there was no more improvements left that I could make on my speed. So things began to get worse for me, I lost sleep every night and began to act more aggressively with trainers, which worked in my favor, because they feared me now that they knew what I could do.

So training did mellow out a bit, and the vocal coaches were more careful with the ways they treated me, for a short time atleast. I hated the fact that I had to exploit the poor trainers pain for this to happen, it wasn't who I was at all, but I needed some way for the trainers to give me a break. After a while I began questioning my motives, forgetting why I was there, and wondering if it really was worth it. The final straw was during a gender training session.

Almost as soon as I reached the training room the trainer handed me this weird band looking thing and said "Put this on." while pointing to the bathroom door behind him. I listened to him still unsure of what the thing was. At first I thought it went on my leg but it was far to big, and I couldn't think of what that would be used for. So I held above my head and stretched, and it was incredibly tight, I couldn't even stretch It past my shoulders. "Oh" I said as I made that observation.

This thing was meant to hide my "features." I definitely didn't like that idea, but I put it on anyway. Needless to say, it was extremely uncomfortable. I caught sight of myself in the mirror as I left the stall I had changed in, and I looked exactly like a teenage boy. I wasn't sure if I should be amazed or scared, but what I did know was that I couldn't even recognize my reflection anymore.

As I left the bathroom, the trainer began to speak. "You're to be called Charles from now on, and are to address yourself that way, I expect you to convince new scientists or employees that see you that you are a male." I nodded without words and began walking back to my room. He called after me that we still had to train, but I didn't feel like listening. When I returned I locked the door, so people wouldn't interrupt me, because I was about ready to break down. I didn't even feel like I knew myself anymore, there was nothing left in me that I recognized. My voice, my hair, my usual calm and kind nature, that had all been taken by that stupid program. I was being treated like a prisoner for no reason! I even got the idea that the only reason I was tested for compatibility in the first place was just in case the company needed me, which would mean Mari and Lacey knew all along!

I began to cry for the first time since I had arrived. I was empty, I had sold out everything that I was, just for a chance to finally live. And what would be the point? people wouldn't know me, and would end up hating me one way or another after they found out I had lied to them. And for what? It wasn't like my family would love me after that. I contemplated never unlocking the door, maybe that way I could be free from being used like I was. To me at the time, there was no way out, and I was ready to let my self starve to death.

Of course in my fit of despair I hadn't realized that all they needed to get to me through the lock was their key. So I was soon confronted by my trainer along with the scientist who carried the key. Oddly enough I was not punished at all for leaving, unless a quick talking to and order to return counts. As a result of this, the scientists and trainers did feel I was having trouble adjusting to who I would become, so gender training did eventually change into more of an assessment type of thing, where I had to get used to people calling me Charles, and I had to demonstrate my ability to speak properly to people, and from then I knew it would be over soon. There really was nothing left for me to learn. And I was right.

Within a few days of this new training the instructors concluded that I had fully adapted my personality to their needs and I was told to begin packing everything of mine, as I would be going to Japan the next day. I wasn't sure if what I was feeling was excitement, or relief, I just knew I was happy to be away from there, I hadn't even thought of the academy in a long time.

That day I did have to go to my training sessions, but they were shorter, a sort of debrief so to speak. I was given a letter of acceptance to representative candidacy by my gender trainers, but that hadn't mattered to me ever since I had arrived there. Every trainer said things like "What an honor it has been working with you." and all that, but I didn't care to listen, especially when my vocal trainers were up.

Oh all the things I could have said. In my time there I think their words contributed the most to my breakdowns even after the self defense class incident, since they eventually decided that I wouldn't do anything to them, they continued as they had been before. Luckily by that time I had mastered most words and phrases, so their punishments were very rare, though they never used rewarding words either.

After that packing was easy, I hadn't really taken much out of my bag so it took around ten minutes to get everything in and sorted. I swore to myself that if I had to go through another training course, I would never forgive my father. But no, nothing happened and I was taken out to the nearest airport to get to Japan.

When I arrived I saw I would be riding on my fathers plane, and expected, or wanted to see him aboard, if he had been I would not have allowed him a second to think from there all the way to Japan. But of course I expected too much out of him, and I was alone on the plane. During my flight I thought back, everything I had been put through in the research facility flashed before my eyes. I felt a little tear fall from my eye as I thought to myself "The past is the past, and I beat the odds and I've finally made it."

I did eventually get to contact Mari and Lacey again to ask them if they had known, but they swore they didn't, apparently their only order was to determine my skills and train me, but I never did shake the feeling that I was being controlled from the start.

Chapter 6: moving on and out

"Wow, Charl." said ichika while he wiped his eyes with his sleeve. "I would never have guessed that you went through all that to get here, I'm sorry." I smiled at him "No, don't be, it was all worth It, but I would rather you didn't tell anybody about this, because I haven't told anyone before" he nodded "Well why did you tell me? You didn't have to." I shrugged "Its the third year, and I haven't had the chance to tell you before, I don't know, I guess I just trust you to know this about me." He nodded "I see." And he smiled.

This was the first time I had been alone with Ichika since the third school year ended, since we had all been packing, I decided I wanted to spend some time on the beach to see the sun set, but I had gotten carried away telling him my story, Ichika had even set up a fire-pit to keep us warm. "You know, you are one of the strongest people I have ever met Charl, I wouldn't have had the courage to do all that just to come here." He chuckled. "All I did was use a machine, and look at the trouble it caused you. I really wish I could have done something so you didn't have to go through all that. "

His smile had faded and his head lowered "Ichika, do you really think I blame you?" He didn't respond "Well I don't!" I leaned In closer over the to hold his shoulders. "You're the best friend I've ever had, and I wouldn't let the fact that you were able to activate an IS get in the way of that, the results of that came from my Father, not you!" And I sat back "I never even thought of blaming you, not during training, and not after I got here, why would I? Its not like you knew this would happen. Please don't blame yourself."

He looked back up "How is it possible that you had this terrible period in your life, but you still stay so positive?" And I paused "Well...The way I see it, if you can't learn to get over your past, you'll just hold onto it forever. I let it go the moment I entered the academy and became Charles full time, it was easy, and I have my father to thank for that, because I had been trained to forget Charlotte, and that is what I did, by the time you found me out, and I became me again I really didn't care about what happened, I had been wrong, you didn't hate me for what I did, I guess that was enough for me to get over the pain." He looked back at me "Well good, I'm glad I got to meet you Charl." I looked onto his still teary eyes and smiled "Thank you Ichika. And thanks for listening, I know it was a little long winded."

He shook his head "Oh not at all, I didn't even think about the time." He chuckled " Since we'll be out of here soon, I think its good we spent this time together, since I'm not going to be seeing you or the others for a while." I nodded "Well, Ichika... I actually decided that um... Well... I won't be returning to France." He looked shocked "What? Why not? Where will you go?" I could feel my face going red. "Well, because my family doesn't want me around, and I love how free I am here, so um...I figured I would stay here in Japan with you."

I stopped to look around for a while. "What are you looking for?" He asked after about thirty seconds, and I giggled. "Normally if I would say something like that all of the others would appear out of no where and crowd you or something." He laughed "Well, there is nobody else around here, I did try to find them earlier, but I couldn't, I figured all of them had gone out together, but they never told me anything , so that's why I came to you. I can't imagine how the others will act when they find out though."

I knew Laura was out, she didn't tell me where she was going though, it was probably better that I didn't know though. He was right to worry about them, their violent nature towards him scared me sometimes. "Well don't you worry about that, they'll probably be mad for like a day." I chuckled. "They wont hurt you, I'll make sure of that." He began looking down "But what about you?" I giggled quietly "Your not feeling guilty about inviting me out here are you?" He looked a little frightened. "No, I'm glad I did, I'm just worried that they will be mad at you because your the only one I invited here."

I was set aback a little when he said that "You didn't invite them? Not even yesterday?" I tried to hide the fact that I was blushing. "No, I hadn't even thought of coming yesterday, I only just thought of it when I found you actually. Besides, if I had told them yesterday, do you really think they would have gone out somewhere else?" I looked up into his eyes and smiled "Well, don't worry about them, they won't do anything to me, and thank you for asking me here, Ichika, I have been needing to talk to you for a while about my staying here."

He smiled as he looked back at me "So you're sure about this? You don't want to go back to your family again?" I laughed "I don't think I can go back there, after being here and happy for so long, I don't want to even think of going home, they haven't even contacted me since I got here. I would most likely have my necklace confiscated and be exactly where I was before, stuck in my room 24/7 with nothing to do but regret and read." He nodded " I understand, well I guess if that's what you want, I can't stop you, so why don't I help you find a place?"

I was sort of shocked by this, as it wasn't the kind of thing I expected him to say, I was thinking he would tell me I should go back. I replied quietly. "So you won't be inviting the others to live here too?" He continued to laugh "Why would I? They already have planned for their transport home, I wouldn't want to have them leave their homes behind, they don't need to."

Of course I didn't want them to find out, atleast before they leave, if they did they would all probably cancel their flights. Of course they would find out later and rush back here, but atleast then I would get to spend some time with him until then. "Well its starting to get late, let's go back?" I stood up and offered him my hand. As he stood up his stomach grumbled. "Wait, Ichika, did you eat before we came here?" He shook his head "I forgot to, I was busy looking around for everybody, what about you?" I laughed "Actually no, I didn't think we would be away so long, so I decided that I would make something afterwards."

He turned his head towards me as we walked "Well why don't you come back to my room? You could teach me how to make your pot-au-peu and I'll make us a bento!" I stopped to think for a second "Yeah, that sounds delicious!" We hurried back to the buildings, only stopping for a moment to admire the full moon that had just begun to rise. As soon as we entered his room we began to work on the stew. Luckily he did have all the ingredients we needed available, so I just asked him to begin cutting everything starting with the meat.

I began to add things to the pot periodically while I cooked the meat in a frying pan, which wasn't how you were supposed to do it, but that was how Maman would because she preferred her meat to be tougher, and it was quicker, it wasn't like Ichika would ever know the difference any way. Ichika worked at just the right speed that I needed him to. I had always found me and him worked really well together, even back in first year. After adding every ingredient including the meat I turned the burner off and decided to let it sit for a while.

"Its really not that hard to make, sorry I took the easy job though, but I think you did good for your first time, now let's get to your bento!"He looked at me for a second "I think I'll be okay making it by myself Charl." I let out a sarcastic laugh "I don't think so, you helped me, so why shouldn't I help you, come on let's get ready!" He nodded "Okay but don't you want to eat ? you must be really hungry." Again I laughed "Well then aren't you? I can ignore it for a little longer, don't you even try to do this alone." He sighed "Well okay then." I worked on the cooking while he prepared the box.

At first I didn't look over at what he was doing, but after I finished the fish I decided to take a peek. I was surprised to see that he wasn't just making a regular bento, but using the ingredients to recreate the picture of me and my Maman. "Ichika.. that's beautiful" he turned to me. "I was going to surprise you with it." I felt sort of bad for ruining it. "How did you even remember what it looked like?" He laughed "I'm not really sure, I just started putting things together and hoping it came out right." I nodded "It looks perfect, though I think I'll have a hard time eating it." We both laughed "Well, maybe I should change the design around then." I turned quickly towards him "Don't you do it! I love it, Ichika, thank you." He began to go red. "Ha, no problem Charl."

By the time we were done my stew had cooled and it was time to eat. As we ate Ichika began to talk. "So what do you remember of your real mother?" I thought for a second. "Well I know she was good to me, and she was a very wise woman, though my father pretty much abandoned her before I was born, but she was strong enough to raise me alone for the longest time. My father didn't even know I existed until I showed up at his home." He looked down "So she never reached out to him after you were born?" I shook my head "She couldn't, she didn't want to ruin his relationship with his wife, or his image I guess, she didn't need him anyway, he was always to wrapped up in work." He nodded "Well I can see you inherited allot from her like that strength, or going out of your way to keep others out of trouble. I'm just sorry that you lost her."

Tears began to fill my eyes "Ichika, that means a lot that you would say that..." But I couldn't think of anything else to say and I looked down. "I'm glad you think so, but don't cry, you should be happy that you are able to have your mother live on in you." I looked up at him, trying to contain myself as best as I could. "But people don't even know who she is or that she ever existed. Her entire life got buried with her, and.." But before I could continue he was stood with his arms around me from my side.

"I know." And I heard him begin to cry too. "And you shouldn't let anything get in the way of remembering who she was! I don't want you to be this sad, I won't let you! your mother was a great person, and we both know it, and if we are the only people who know who she truly was, then so be it, right? " I whispered "Ichika...what's this all of a sudden?"

He remained stood "I don't want this for you, to be unable to trust your own family, I can't imagine how that must be, I really wish I could just un-do everything that has happened to you, you never deserved it." I nodded slightly "I do too sometimes, or atleast I did before, but I needed all that, without it I would never have piloted an IS, and I would never have met everybody." He sat again. "You're right, I can't imagine what school would have been like if you weren't here." I blushed a little "Oh stop, you would have had the others." He laughed "Well I guess your right, but honestly its to easy to get on their nerves, they're girls after all." He covered his mouth, realizing what he had just said. "No, you're right, allot of the training I had did teach me how to be calmer, and to control my hormones, I guess that's something I held onto, don't worry, I'm not offended."

He nodded to show he understood. "Well, sorry anyway. But I'm glad you did, its been hard not being able to talk to other guys here. I think you were the closest thing to that." I paused a little to smile "Well, I'm glad I could be that for you, just remember I am still a girl." We both laughed as the mood calmed down a little.

"You know, I sometimes do think of it though, what I would be doing now if none of this ever happened, I think back to who I was before, and wonder if I would still be the same way, if I would have went and gotten a job and bought my own place. And then I think about if my Maman was still alive. Sometimes we have our own restraunt, while others we just spend our days out in the town together looking for things to do and she gives me advice on how to deal with life's obstacles." He smiled again with tears still in his eyes "that's beautiful." I nodded silently. "Well she was definitely a great cook." He said as he took a bite of the stew. I hadn't realized but the food was already pretty much gone, I guess I had been eating allot more than I thought. "And a great parent." He added as I blushed "Definitely." I said as we smiled at other.

"Hey, I just remembered, I still have not heard your real voice!" I looked down nervously "D-do you want to? Because I could try." He thought for a short moment "If you think you can, then yes, I really do." I sighed "Ok, I will try hard, for you Ichika." And he smiled as I took a deep breath, a really long pause and closed my eyes to gather my focus. "Uh, Hello Ichika, my name is Charlotte, um..how are you today?" I had done it, I had remembered how I sounded, of course it was a little rocky.

I opened my eyes to see his eyes widened as he looked at me. "Uh, wow Charl, your voice is beautiful." I blushed "Thank you, so much Ichika, but don't expect that to happen often, just that sentence took all of my focus." He looked into my eyes. "Alright, well maybe that'll change in the time you live here, and you'll be able to speak that way all the time." I laughed "Well, maybe, but I doubt that, unless you have some sort of training program for it." I was laughing, but he seemed very serious. "Well, we could still try, how about this, once you start living here, you say one sentence to me everyday, and once you grasp that, we'll add one, how does that sound?" I really wasn't sure, but Ichika clearly wanted to help me regain my voice.

"That sounds great!" He put on a huge grin. "Great!" I bowed my head "Thank you for offering to help me with this Ichika, it means a lot." He went red a little "N-no problem Charl, I'll do anything to help you rediscover who you were." I thought it was sweet how he was willing to help me with this, and I knew he would stick with it too, even if I didn't make progress. Ichika never was one to give up.

I looked to the clock on Ichika's wall to find that it was already nearly 9:00pm and remembered how Laura would be home soon. "Thank you for the meal Ichika, I should be leaving now, the food was great! I'll see you tomorrow." I stood to get ready to leave "Yes it was. Thank you for showing me how to cook your stew and for coming over!" I turned to open the door but before I could leave he walked towards me and gave me a hug from behind, as he whispered In my ear "I'll see you tomorrow."

Chapter 7: The final days

Laura was already home and asleep by the time I got back, so I was sure to be quiet. I woke her as I sat on my bed though. "Charlotte, you're home late, I expected you to be here when I arrived, what have you been up to?" Though I just remained silent and blushed. "You were with Ichika weren't you?! What did you do with him?" I decided to only tell her about the sunset just in case she overreacted to everything else, luckily she was too tired to question why it took me two hours to get home from the beach. I had her promise to stay quiet.

And sure enough the truth did come out, the very next day, someone must have seen us. I found the others talking to Ichika, or yelling at him about a rumor they had heard about what happened at the beach. I noticed that they didn't really give him the chance to say anything as usual. Of course I wasn't very well received by them either, except Laura of course, she made sure to stay behind the others while they crowded me. But they didn't scare me, no matter how angry they looked.

I didn't know what it was they thought I did, but the truth had definitely been exaggerated somewhere, enough for Rin to challenge me to fight, which I declined of course. Though the others did try to coax me into it, because I guess they expected me to lose, I declined for the sake of her pride. In an attempt to end the commotion Ichika reminded them that he had gone to look for them, but he was silenced. "Listen, I don't know what you all heard, but I assure you it is not true, I swear." Cecilia spoke up "Oh, so you didn't go to Ichika's room last night after watching the sunset?" I stuttered "That's what I thought!" My ability to speak soon returned "Yes, I did, but it is not what you think, I swear!" Most of this time Houki was shooting disapproving stares toward Ichika.

"Ichika wanted to watch the sunset with me because he couldn't find any of you, it was my idea to go to his room after..." Cecilia interrupted "Aha! I knew it!" But I butted in to finish my sentence. "After Ichika told me he didn't eat, so I offered to cook for him." I think the last part is what struck them the most. Laura then decided to speak up. "We have plenty of ingredients in our room Charlotte, why didn't you go there?" Damnit, she got me. I was about to tell them the truth when Ichika chimed in. "Because I wanted to cook something too, we checked, but you didn't have the ingredients I needed." He hadn't realized that I had lied so they wouldn't be mad at him..."You cooked for eachother!?"

They all yelled at him simultaneously, walking back to where he stood. The rest was just unidentifiable screaming before they all decided to walk away, leaving Ichika very confused. "You know you didn't have to lie to them Charl." He said as he walked towards me. "I know, but I also know how much you hate them being mad at you." He looked down onto me, seeming to disapprove. "So you'd have them be mad at you instead? I think its noble of you and all, but I wouldn't forgive myself if they were mad at you when they leave just because you wanted to protect me, that's why I diverted their attention, Rin looked about ready to deploy on you."

I remained silent. "I know your skills are better than hers, but what if you didn't have time to block whatever attack she would use? You could have been hurt, badly." I moved my eyes to the ground. "Sorry Ichika." He laughed "Don't be, I'm just glad we both got out of that unscathed, how about we go find all the others and head into town?"

I nodded and we began walking in the direction the girls went. They had settled down together on a bench not too far away from where we were. We both got some pretty dirty looks as we approached them. "Hey you guys. I was thinking we could all go out to town together." Their expressions changed almost instantly. Houki spoke up. "That sounds fun. What is there to do?" Ichika paused "Actually I'm not sure, I just wanted to spend a day with you guys before we all leave." All of them nodded aside from Rin. "Well you could have found us early yesterday, we would have been able to move our schedules around." But it seemed all the others disagreed.

"So you're saying you don't want to go?" Joked Cecilia "What?! No that's not what I'm saying!" We all laughed as we began to walk. I decided not to get in anybody's way when we got there, so Ichika could spend as much time with the others as possible. There wasn't really much to do in town. The girls took turns dragging Ichika away to show him whatever seemed interesting to them. I ended up wandering on my own most of the time, up until a point when Ichika decided to find out if I was ok. "I'm fine! You go and have fun with the others, this is your last time seeing them for a while remember, make the most of it!" I told him with a smile. He listened, but he still tried to get me involved with the group by asking me to accompany him and Laura to a jewelry store, so I decided to go.

I would be buying gifts for everyone in my time here, so I figured that would be a good place to start. Of course all of the others did end up tagging along, which made it a lot harder to buy in secret. I found the perfect thing though. It was a set of rings that all matched the colors of our IS', except for Ichika's. I quietly took them to the checkout while the others tried on different jewelry and had Ichika comment on them.

I hid the rings as I told Ichika that I would go to look somewhere else. "Well should I come with you?" But the others objected. "But Ichika! I still need to show you this necklace I found!" Yelled Houki. "That's quite alright Ichika, you've got your hands pretty full here, I won't be gone long, I promise." He nodded with a slightly worried look on his face. "Ok, bye Charl..."

I moved on to a souvenir shop to look for something, but all they had was cheap trinkets, I wanted something special for Ichika. Soon I came across a clothing store and found a jacket with the IS academy logo embroidered on the back. It was perfect, though it would be hard to hide. When I left the store I found the others almost immediately. Apparently they had been kicked out of the jewelery store because they were being disruptive. "I don't know what their problem was" began Rin "Its not like we were talking that loud." Ichika chuckled "If you could call that talking. I'm pretty sure Charl could have heard you from here." Rin looked down "Well if Laura had just let me have that bracelet." Laura looked angry "Well maybe if you had seen it first, but you didn't, so it was rightfully mine." But Ichika interrupted before Rin could speak again. "Alright you two, don't start again, you'll get us kicked out of the town next."

They stopped talking, with embarrassed looks on their faces. Ichika soon noticed the bag I was carrying. "What have you been buying Charl?" I decided to save the surprise for later, so I had figure out something else to tell him. "Oh, just some new clothes for myself when I get back home." Definitely wasn't the best thing I could have said, but he believed it, but he was also giving me a funny look. We returned to the station to go home after that. While sitting on the train, Cecilia seemed to have a realization as she jumped up in her seat. "Oh! We completely forgot to get food!" Ichika nodded "Oh, you're right." But he said nothing else. Cecilia looked frustrated, I knew what she was doing. "Why don't we all go to your room to cook Ichika?" He paused for thought for a second. "Actually me and Charl used most of what I had last night, how about we go to one of your guy's rooms?" Lingyin immidiately spoke up. "I have enough for us in my room!" Only to be interrupted by Cecilia. "I think since this was my idea, we should go to my room!" They continued to argue with other, but Ichika stopped paying attention after a while.

"Do you think they will allow me to cook too Ichika?" I whispered to him. He looked shocked "Sure, why wouldn't they?" I shrugged "I don't know, they were kinda mad when they learned we cooked for eachother, I think they are only doing this so they can get the chance to do the same." He thought for a second "Yeah you're probably right, Cecilia isn't very good at being subtle. Well then you can help another bento if they don't let you." I smiled as I blushed. "Thank you Ichika." He turned back towards the others. "Have you guys decided whose room we'll go to?" But they didn't reply, they were still arguing.

"Houki!" He yelled as he turned to the seat behind me and him. "Are we able to go to your room?" Rin and Cecilia suddenly stopped arguing and turned. "Her room?!" They asked simultaneously. "Yes, you two can't decide between you, so why not just make it easy?" Laura then spoke up "Well what about my room? How could you forget me?" He reeled back slightly "Uh... I didn't..its just your room didn't have enough ingredients last night remember?" I was surprised at him for using the same lie a second time, Laura then revealed she had been carrying a couple of plastic bags. "I remembered you had said that before, so while you were away with one of the others I stopped at a grocery shop, so now we have everything we will need." I was surprised, I don't think I noticed she was carrying anything before.

"Well ok, is that ok Houki?" She nodded looking slightly aggravated. "Yeah, Its not like I have enough food anyway." I turned to Ichika "I think you should have given her a chance to talk before you decided that." He put his hand to his forehead "You're right" and he turned again "Sorry Houki!" But she just gave him an angry look, I got the feeling that she did have what we needed. It didn't take long for us to get to mine and Laura's room when we arrived, and then she showed us the contents of the bag.

"Laura...this is only what you and Ichika need." Noticed Houki angrily. "Oh! You actually thought I had bought for you, well that was your mistake, I guess it'll just be me and Ichika." I laughed timidly. "You didn't even buy what I need, Laura." she looked down to act like she felt bad. "Whoops, I guess I forgot." But then Houki spoke again. "I have enough at my room!" She sounded excited. "Yeah, sorry Laura, but it wouldn't be fair on the others if it were just me and you." Said Ichika.

I remembered to keep my bag with me as we left, I decided to give the gifts out while we ate. Laura gave Houki a very mean look on the way. I felt betrayed by her though, I almost couldn't believe she would put Ichika over me, but I would get over it, she was still angry about yesterday after all. When we got to Houki's she immediately began searching her cabinets and pulling out the ingredients after a very short time she turned back. "Charlotte, it doesn't look like I have what you need, I'm sorry, but you can still stay and eat if you want." I wasn't really sure if she was doing it on purpose, but I didn't care, I felt hurt.

"That's okay, I'm actually not hungry anymore, I'll see you guys later." I said while faking a smile and turning my back. "Wait Charl!" Ichika called after me. "Don't you want to help me with my bento?" This was followed by a loud gasp. "I can help you Ichika!" Yelled Rin. "No thanks, you'll be too busy with your pork." I had completely forgotten about Ichika's promise up until then, I wondered if he thought they were doing this on purpose. "Thank you Ichika." I said timidly as I turned back around and put my bag down. He nodded at me as I approached the counter.

"Are you feeling okay today Charl? You've been acting kind of weird today." I shook my head "I feel like the others hate me for what I did yesterday." He jumped a little "Really? Why would you think that?" I looked down "I don't know, it just feels like they don't want me around, haven't you noticed?" He nodded slightly "Kind of, but why do you care? They do this kind of thing to each other all the time, I thought that was what you guys did?"

He was right, honestly. "Yes, but its different this time." He looked confused "Don't worry, if they say or do anything else I'll cover you ok, I don't want you feeling this way." I smiled again "Thanks Ichika." We continued to prepare the food a while before he talked again. "So, about earlier, and the clothes for home, I take it your not planning on telling the others about your staying here?" I stopped for a second "I guess I'll have to, you think they will understand?" He nodded "But what will it matter if they do or not? They won't stop you, I won't let them." I looked him in the eyes "And neither will I." And we both smiled from then until we finished preparing the bento.

"It looks so tasty!" I heard Houki say from behind "Good job you two!" She had also made one alone, but with meat instead of fish. Laura, Cecilia, and Rin were still cooking. Of course all Cecilia was making was a few sandwiches, I didn't care to know what was inside, but I was sure nobody would touch them, except Ichika if she asked him to.

When they finally did get done we all crowded the table to begin eating. In the middle of everything, I requested everyone's attention as I stood up and walked toward my bag and brought it to the table. "Earlier, in town I bought all of you something." First I grabbed the rings. Everyone seemed to like them, except for Cecilia, she had a sort of shocked look on her face as she pulled out a familiar long blue box, the same one the rings were in.

"Well I guess we could all have two?" I laughed. "But Charlotte, why would you do this?." Said Houki with a guilty look on her face. "Well, you guys are my friends, I won't be seeing you guys for a while, so I figured I would get you guys these to remind you of all the times we had here." Cecilia spoke up too "I only got them because I thought they looked trendy." And she looked down, embarrassed.

Everyone burst out laughing, except for Rin, who was examining the two boxes. "But where's Ichika's?" I laughed "Well that's why I left the store so fast." And I pulled out the jacket. "Wow Charl! That's awesome! That's what you bought from that clothing store isn't it?" I nodded with a smile. "Yes it is, sorry I lied about it, I really wanted it to be a surprise." He laughed "That's alright, I did think it was kinda weird that you didn't leave that bag in your room earlier. I really like it, thanks!" Cecilia had an embarrassed look on her face again.

"Don't tell me you got him that too?" I asked trying not to laugh "No, I got him the matching underwear though." Ichika jolted back in his chair. "You bought me underwear?!" Everyone laughed again as she pulled them out. They were tiny briefs with the logo on the back. "I didn't even know they made those." Ichika said quietly. "Just promise me you'll wear them once!" She yelled, looking away from him timidly. "I couldn't find anything else." By this time her face was nearly blood red. "Alright Cecilia, I'll wear them whenever I wear Charl's jacket." She looked relieved, though still a little red.

I handed out the rings to their respective owners after the meal was over. Then it was time to come clean. "Ok, so before we all leave, Charlotte has something important to tell you guys." Announced Ichika, as they all leaned in suspiciously. "Well, alright, as you all may or may not know, my relationship with my family is not that great, and the time I've spent here away from them has been the best time I have ever had In my life, so great in fact, that I don't want to leave."

I stopped and waited for a reaction. "What do you mean?" Asked Rin. I was about to answer, but Ichika stopped me. "What she means is, she will not be going home to France, she will be staying in Japan." It took a while for that to sink in, but once it did, It wasn't pretty. "What?! And you'd allow that? No! That's not right I...!" Screamed Rin, but I stood, angrily interrupting her speech. "Guys! Hear me out! I can't go home, I just can't, to think about how life was back then compared to now, I can't let myself back into that" I felt tears coming. "This isn't about Ichika! This is about me being allowed to live and be happy! Please, understand, I need to stay here." The room fell silent as I sat. "Where will you be staying?" Houki asked sternly.

She obviously thought Ichika had allowed me to live with him. "Alone, in an apartment." I spoke with tears still in my eyes. this seemed to calm them a little. "Well, everybody" said Laura "I think there isn't much we can do about this." Houki nodded. "Yeah, who are we to tell Charlotte how to live? Its obvious that she's already had enough people to do that." Rin grunted "Easy for you to say, you live in Japan too, you can visit him anytime! I don't agree." Ichika looked angry. "Don't be selfish, Rin! This isn't something you can change!" She remained silent "Its not like just because she is here, that I won't find time for all of you, I hope you all understand."

Everyone aside from Rin, who was stuck with an embarrassed angry look on her face, nodded. After that we all prepared to say goodbye. There was a lot of tears, even from Laura, which came as a surprise. Ichika opened the door and stood by it. "Thanks for coming guys, I hope to see you all before you go tomorrow."

He hugged everyone as they passed by him, but before I left, Houki asked me and Ichika to stay. "Charlotte, I'm so sorry for how I acted with you today, I hope I didn't hurt your feelings." I shook my head. "Don't worry about it you had a good reason to be mad." She nodded with a sad look on her face. "But that's the thing, I didn't, we were all jealous of the time you spent with Ichika last night, while only listening to rumors about what you guys did, and were all sorry. We shouldn't have acted that way, especially on our last day together." I smiled as I placed my hand on her shoulder. "I forgive you, don't worry, I wouldn't leave with a grudge against any of you guys." She smiled back, with a hint of tears in her eyes. "Alright then, thank you, I'll be sure to visit you both from time to time."

She then called Ichika forward "I'm going to miss you both immensely." A single tear fell as she laughed. "You'd better take good care of her here Ichika." He laughed "Sure thing Houki, you don't have anything to worry about." She then turned to me and whispered "Seriously, if he does screw up, call me, I'll be sure to come and straighten him out." Ichika jolted back a little. "W-what do you mean by that?!" She chuckled. "I think it would be in your best interest to never find out." She stared daggers at him jokingly. "Thank you Houki, I'll definitely do that." Ichika then turned to me. "You wouldn't do that to me would you Charl?!" We all laughed "Well it is late you guys, hopefully I'll see you both before I leave." We both stepped forward to hug her, and then we left.

Me and Ichika didn't walk together for long, but I could see how tired he was. "Everything okay Ichika?" He shook his head, as if he was getting himself out of a trance. "Yeah, I'm fine, I've just been wondering about the future a lot. How different is my life going to be, I hadn't thought about it up until yesterday, at the beach, when you made me realize things might actually change ." I stopped walking and turned to him. "You really think me being there will change things that much?" I looked down, and he grabbed my arms. "Of course I do, in the best way possible! And on top of that there's all the opportunities we will have as certified IS pilots, we could be partners too!" I laughed " you're right that would be great! I can't wait! But for now let's head to bed okay? We've had a long day, and tomorrow will be the same, Goodnight Ichika!"

He nodded, hugged me, and walked away. When I returned to my room, Laura sat on the foot of her bed wearing her pajamas, which surprised me, as she would usually go straight to sleep. "Are you ok Laura?" She looked up at me, red-faced. "When did you decide to stay?" I sat down next to her. "I had been wanting to ask him since the last week of school, I hope you aren't mad." She shook her head "Not at all, I'm happy for you, Really, but, I just, I'm going to miss you both, so much, and I was hoping to be able to see atleast one of you again."

I was confused "What? You'll be able to see us both here." She shook her head, getting tears onto her pajamas. "The German military has prohibited my return to Japan for training there, so I was hoping to atleast get a chance to see you in France." I looked down "I wish I had known, Laura, I'm sor.." She held her hand to my mouth. "Don't even bother pitying me!" I remained quiet as tears streamed silently down her face. "Well then we will visit you! I promise, I'm not losing you!" She looked to me "That's sweet Charlotte, but I'll be in training..." "I don't care! We will find a way!" She nodded. "I hope so." And she lay down with her legs still over the bed. "Goodnight."

Chapter 8: settling down

The next day I woke to find Laura was already gone, I guess she felt the need to let me sleep in. After getting all my bags together I said goodbye to the room and left. I found Ichika at the monorail station surrounded by a group of girls who were undoubtedly crying about how much they would miss him.

There was no sign of all of the other girls though. Ichika spotted me and came running, seemingly taking no notice of the girls around him. "Hey Charl! How did you sleep?" He asked as soon as he reached me. "I slept great! Where are the others?" He was still trying to catch his breath. "They all took the same train earlier." I figured that they might have. "How long ago?" He looked down to his watch. "Their train left at around 7:15, They nearly missed it too, none of them wanted to say goodbye." He chuckled "You have been here this whole time? That's nearly three hours ago..." I began to blush "You could have taken that train."

He shook his head "Well that wouldn't be right would it? I wouldn't want you to have to take the train on your own." "I would be fine, you really didn't have to wait so long for me." He laughed "What? Of course I was going to wait for you, I still need to show you around town." The train arrived "Its not like I was bored here anyways." When we found our seats, he started to ask me questions. "So, have you looked into any apartments yet?" I looked down. "Sadly, no, I will have to start once we arrive." He paused "Well, I have quite a few spare rooms if you want one...uh...until you find an apartment that is." I tried to hide the happiness that I was feeling.

"Um, are you sure? I don't want to be getting in the way of your privacy." He waved his hand "No, not at all, the house is pretty big after all, and it would be nice to have somebody else there for a while." I had completely forgotten how much time his sister spent at the academy. "Alright then, I'll start looking as soon as we get to your house though." He nodded slowly "Good, its really no rush though." The ride wasn't very long after that.

When we got off, we immediately found a taxi to get to Ichika's home. When we arrived Ichika lead me to my room. This was probably the biggest room I had ever gotten to stay in aside from the one at the academy. "Do you need help unpacking?" He asked while I was still admiring the room. "Uh, no thanks Ichika! I won't need to have a lot of things out." He looked at me. "are you sure? you might be looking for a while." But I shook my head. "I'll be fine, don't worry." He looked down. "Well alright then."

He began to walk away, but I stopped him "Ichika, is everything ok?" He turned back and nodded "Sure everything is fine." Needless to say, I didn't believe him. "But you know I am perfectly okay with you staying here, why are you trying to find somewhere so suddenly?" I think I understood what was wrong. "Ichika, do you want me to stay here?" He looked uncertain "Uh, maybe, just for a short time..." I looked at him as if I knew he was hiding something. "Okay...Yes, I want you to stay here, I don't want to be here alone anymore, waking up to such a large house, but having no one to share it with, it doesn't feel right." I nodded "I understand, but I already told the others where I would be living, they won't trust me if I do."

He looked back up. "Well we can find a way around that right? Talk to them or something, please Charl?" I really didn't have a choice, this would make him so happy, I could see it in his eyes. "Okay then, Ichika, I'll move in here." He seemed excited "Great, so let's unpack?" I nodded. While we unpacked my stuff, I told him about Laura's situation. "So what do we do about it?" He asked, sounding concerned. "I'm not sure, I told her we would visit her, but I'm not sure her trainers will allow it, and she is too honor-bound to try and escape." He paused to think "Well there has to be some way, maybe if we join the German military?" He said jokingly. "Maybe, but I don't want to do that, do you? she told me she might be able to see me in France, maybe Japan is the only place she can't return too?" He nodded. "We will have to find out, maybe if we go to England to visit Cecilia she can be there too."

I liked that idea, but I couldn't shake the feeling that there might be no way to see her again. The next few months were very eventful, as both me and Ichika were both invited to join a new city police force that uses IS'. Though it did take a while for me to to join. My father had heard about this and didn't approve of me using my machine to serve another country, so it got taken from me as well as my representative candidacy.

Not long following Ichika talked to his sister who convinced the Japanese government to supply me with another one, a generation 3 this time. They made it to be exactly like my old one, even the charm was the same, though it was silver instead of bronze to match the IS. After I got that Me and Ichika would be called to return to the academy every so often to demonstrate to some of the newer students, as a favor to Miss Orimura, which in the end was pretty fun.

I was glad that I stayed here, though I did receive multiple letters from my False-Mother asking me to come back and work for France, I never listened though, eventually I just stopped reading her letters all together. As for working with the police force, We would be called into action whenever we were needed nearby, with things like armed robberies and other more damaging crimes. Yes it was dangerous, and I did get injured more than once, but I didn't care, me and Ichika made a great team and we became role models within the community. But most importantly of all, I was finally, truly happy.

THE END

AUTHORS NOTES

I hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I loved writing. Seriously. I loved this show and Charlotte was by far my favorite character, and I haven't heard of any fan fiction detailing her time before the academy. I tried to keep this as realistic to the story and lore of the series as I could, to the point were I had to go back and change entire parts where I had my information wrong, but it was worth it, and I'm really proud of what I've done here. But please let me know if something I've written doesn't match up. Also I tried my hardest with the grammar and punctuation, so if I made some mistakes that put you off, please forgive me. Depending on how well received this is, I may do a sequel. Possibly a cross over between this and madoka magica, or maybe just a continuation. I'm not sure. I understand how setting the story in this time frame was risky, since most of the events have probably already been established by the light novels or manga, (such as the end of year three) but I really felt the need to write my own version. I have only seen the anime, so again if my facts are wrong and don't correlate with the light novels, please forgive it. Any fans of tatanashi, kanzashi, or tabane, or all of the others who didn't appear, I apologize, I couldn't think of how to use them in this. Also please note that all of this was written using only a smart phone. I spent many days researching this and changing it as I went, this took every once of my being to perfect, in my own eyes, so I really hope you enjoy it!

Why this?: I am very passionate about my writing (though this is the first thing I have gotten online) and I recently started getting into animes. I only got into infinite stratos because of pictures of both Charles and Charlotte I had seen online, I knew they were the same person, so at first I thought it may have just been a thing fans came up with, but then I found out she disguised herself, and I was interested to find out why that was, and I was pleasantly surprised to not only find an interesting back story, but and extremely lovable character.

Thank you everybody for reading!