The American Transfer Student

by warriorseadra

Just something that was rolling in my head. It's out of sequence and parts won't make sense because of it, but I still wanted to write this one out and post it.

The American Transfer Student

"Hey, did you hear? There's a new transfer student in class 1-4?"
"Yeah, an American cadet this time."
"What kind of IS could she have?"
"Maybe it's the one from last su-."
"Shhhh, we can't talk about that remember."
'Oh, I wasn't there for that, but Ichika told me about it, the Silver Gospel incident. He was really happy that Houki got her IS. Ichika tell me a lot of stories, we are close friends and roommates. Being the only two guys in this entire school has its benefits. Not that anyone would be able to tell I'm a guy at the moment. I'm in female mode to hide my presence from the organization. After last week's fiasco, they probably know I'm alive or at the very least, that the IS academy has retrieved my Stratos. But, I need to get to class. If I'm late, Orimura sensei will have my head.'
I arrived to the locker room, got changed, and meet Ichika in the court yard. Laura, Houki, and Rin were talking to him.
'This is his second year with them and he still hasn't realized anything, dang. Then again, I've never been in that situation before either. I'm also a guy here, most of the time, but most girls seem more interested in Ichika. Of course, he is a kind, awesome, over all cool guy who naturally charms women while I give off this cold, uninterested look. Not to mention that I resemble a girl most of the time.'
"Split into four groups by name, everyone with a personal IS is a group leader. Select an Academy IS and survive against your leader for at least 2 minutes. We instructors will be observing your matches. Begin!"
'This will be fun. Looks like my opponent selected a melee IS, its main weapon is a sword. Very well then, I shall comply by using one of my swords.'
I draw my first sword and rush my opponent. Determined, she swings at me. I block and parry her with my upper right and cut her in the opening. A simple swing, not using any of my sword's energy, or inflicting real damage against my opponent.
'This is a training exercise. The purpose is to gain experience by sparring, destroying her would be counter-productive. Beside, I'm pretty sure I'm one of the stronger people in this academy. I don't mean to brag, but I'm certain I could beat the president too. It's just that if I beat her, then I would become student council president and I don't want that. Op, now she's charging me, I'll just disarm her and kick he to the side, there. I mean, I have been training one how to fight ever since the organization took me away. Unlike Laura who was trained for multiple types of combat and war, I was strictly taught IS related material. This includes martial arts: open handed, sword, and fan. As a girl, the fan would not look out of place on me should I ever need to defend myself outside of an IS fight. Still, this mock battle is child's play to me. Although, if the other personal users gang up on me, they might beat me then. I train with them and they have gotten a lot stronger since I first met them. Just like she intended…'
With that class continued until sensei dismissed us. As Ichika and I walked back to our room, we spoke causally. At least, we did until I saw her face. It was the new representative cadet from America.
"What's wrong? You look like you saw a ghost." Ichika asked.
"I'm sorry, I just spaced for a moment." I replied quickly getting a hold of myself.
As we continue walking I pull out my wallet and looked at the picture inside. No question about, this picture had the same face as the transfer student. My sister, Katrina.
'I know this picture is her's because I hacked her social network web page and copied her latest picture. I do this only to stay up to date about her and my family. Ever since I was kidnapped to become an IS user for the organization, I haven't seen my family since. Nor am I allowed to see them or communicate with them due to safety reason. But now she's here, why?'
"Seriously, your expression is really intense right now."
"How's that different from usual?"
"This time your eyes are narrowed."
"You really pay attention to slight details."
"You're much too kind."
"No really, you notice the smallest things about people. It's one of the reasons you're so likeable by everyone."
'You just don't realize how likeable.'
"So, care to tell me what's on your mind?"
"Later, remind me during the bath."
"That's right, we get to use the bath today."
"Ichika!" Ran's voice called out. "You haven't eaten yet, have you. Let's get some dinner...
'Here we go again...'

That night Ichika and I where soaking in the bath.
"You know, I don't really understand why you enjoy doing this so much. And quit staring at me, I am a guy you know!"
"S-sorry, anyway about earlier today."
"That..."
With a sigh I place my wallet into a water basin and float it down to Ichika. Ichika opens the wallet and pauses.
"You have a picture of her? How, isn't today the first time you've seen her?"
"Look at the one behind it."
Drying his hand, Ichika removes the first picture and examines the second one.
"A pair of children, one's a boy and the other's a girl. The girl resembles the one from earlier today although..."
Ichika trailed off unwanting to finishi the sentence.
"This female hologram of mine isn't based off of the imagination. When this form was created, it was based on the question of what I would look like if I actually were a girl. Al-bit, a tall girl."
Sensing I didn't want to continue, Ichika let the topic drop.

A few days had passed since the Ichika and I had talked about the issue. During that time, I had discovered that Katrina spent her free time training. She always looked so desperate when she trained, as though afraid she wasn't strong enough.
Ichika and I arrived in the cafeteria first for lunch that day. Suddenly, a loud "Ichikaaaaaaaaaa" could be heard from the hall. In came running Celcia.
"Ichika, Ichika, be my partner for the IS tournament."
"No, I'm going to be Ichika's partner!"
"What you! Only I'm fit enough for such a position!"
"What kind of tournament is this?" I interjected
No one answered, by now everyone had arrived and they were all arguing with Ichika to be his partner. With a sigh, I finished eating and left the table to find our student council president. In the process, I came across an advertisement flierfor the competition.
'So, it's a three man team battle, this changes everything.'
With that, I continued to search for the president and found her by the window with her sister.
Tatenashi quickly notes my approach. "Is something the matter?"
Getting strait to the point, "I wish to join your team."
"Our team, wouldn't you much rather join with Ichika?" she hid her smile with her fan. Her fan said "Isn't Ichika your friend?"
Looking back at Ichika's table, "I like waking up in the morning."
"Touche, but on one condition."
"Which is?" I didn't like where this was going.
"Help Ichika solve his problem first."
I pause for a moment, approach a student and tell her, "Did you hear, tonight in arena 3 there's going to be a contest. The two finalist get to be Ichika's partners for the competition in two weeks."
Gasping in delight, the girl runs off to tell her friends. With the gossip abilities of these girls, everyone but Ichika will have know of this before long.
I return to where the Sarashiki sisters are and report, "Mission completed."
"Fufufu, that's a sneaky way of going about things."
"You disprove of my methods?"
"Not really, fufufu. Now as for our training..."

That night, I met with the two sisters in arena 2, arena 3 was currently occupied.
"Your abilities in IS combat aren't well known by anyone so let's have a match. Kanzashi, please monitor our battle in the control room."
We summoned our IS and took off. Tatenashi began by firing her Gatling gun. I summoned my right guard for protection and charged. With my left, I drew my first sword upside down. As I got closer, Tatenashi moved to the side and thrusted with her lance. Parrying with my guard, I slashed with my left. Tatenashi dodged back and I continued by aiming with my right and firing my canons. Tatenashi gracefully dodged by flipping back, getting bellow me, and slashing upward with her Rusty Nail. I blocked with my two lower wings, and dropped down to deliver a kick which she blocked with her forearm. We held the position for a moment before separating.
"You're not bad." She commented.
"Shall we continue?" I asked
"No, that was enough."
We landed and met with Kanzashi to discuss our strategy...

The next day at breakfast Rin and Charlotte approached Ichika with team registration forms.
"Ichika, it's been decided that we'll partners for the competition."
"Don't I get-"
"So hurry up and sign this already!"
I could feel the other girls glaring at the three of them. It's a shame though, Ichika would have been much better off if Houki was one of this partners as well. With her ability to generate energy, Ichika would be able to go full out on everyone.
"But Adrian, didn't you want to be partners? As guys we should be partners once in a while as well."
"Ichika, I'm flattered, truly I am. But I don't wish to make this more difficult for you by adding someone else to the mix."
'I'm already rooming with you, if I become your partner too, all the other girls would kill me. They seem to forget I'm a guy passing off as a girl. It must be because I'm prettier than they are.'
The rest of the day went by with class and after class training and continued until the day of the tournament.
I met with my team in the gathering place and we discussed how to handle out opponents. Our first match was against Ichika's team.
Jokingly, I asked, "Do you think the first round will actually conclude with a winner? Something ususally happens to cancel the matches half way though."
"No need to worry, I'm not the student council president for nothing."
Kanzashi only glared at me. I must have struck a bad memory.
With that we entered the stage and began the match by deploying our IS.
Rin and Charlotte began by opening fire on us causing us to scatter. Ichika then took off to attack us while we were distracted. All according to plan. When we discovered who would be facing us first, we had more or less predicted they would use this sort of plan. While two of us are being shot at, Ichika would most likely attack the unmarked target to capitalize on the confusion. That person should fly around staying out of Ichika's reach while shooting at the other two. Mean while, the two getting shot at would deal with their opponents and then go for Ichika together. Turns out Rin targeted me, Charlotte attacked Tatenashi, and Ichika attacked Kanzashi.
Even though Rin's impact cannon was invisible, her attack still followed a linear pattern. By staying out of the cannons line of sight, I quickly closed the gap. Resorting to her blades, she swung down to strike me. I blocked then with my middle wings, cut off her impact cannons with with my upper wings, and slashed at her with my first sword. Having disposed of her, I turned to Tatenashi to see she had finished with Charlotte as well. We then looked to Kanzashi to see that Ichika had yet to strike her.
'Her training seems to have paid off.'
After Tatenashi and I battled, she concluded that I was strong enough to not need any special training. Therefore, we both focused on improving Kanzashi's ability to dodge, evade, and fire back.
Tatenashi and I nodded at each other and then flanked Ichika from opposing sides. With the three of us attacking, Ichika quickly lost.

We waited in the waiting area for our next match to begin. Our opponents would be Katrina and two other first years. The three of them defeated Laura, Houki, and Cecilia.
"I want to fight Katrina."
"Is this a secret agenda there?" Tatenashi happily asked.
"No."
"Someone's lying." She say's as she begins to tickle me, "Come on, tell the truth."
"Ahahahahah, o-ok, hauhahaa, I'll talk, I'll talk!" I pant
"Let's hear it."
"It's that there something about her, something angry. I want to know what. Also, I her suit interests me."
"Well, that isn't a complete lie."
'She saw through me.'
"But we don't have time for that now. Let's go!" Tatenashi happily exclaimed leading the way.

We entered the field and took off. Katrina's IS was different from her previous match, the last one had blue armor plating with a giant sword as its main weapon, this one was more equipped for areal combat with red and black wings, a shield, and what appeared to be an energy rifle.
Not waiting, I quickly charged her and cut her gun with my first sword. Taking back, she flew back trying to create distance when her IS glowed and changed. Now her IS had green armor plating, a small gatling gun on her right shoulder next to a pair of missile pods, and giant blaster on her left. Not hesitating a moment, she opened fire on me. Not completely surprised for I was a bit familiar with her IS, I still needed a moment to dodge her barage. She then changed back to her blue model and swung at me with her giant sword. I parried the sword with my upper right wing and stretched out my arm. Surprised at my actions, she flinched and closed her eyes only to discover I was stroking her face with my palm only looking at her softly.
'She's really grown.'
"Why are you so enraged in blood lust?" I asked softly. "Has something happened to you that you feel the need to obliterate your enemies?"
Enraged, she screamed and swung at me with her sword. Noticing I was retreating, she switched back to her areal form and gave chase.
'I see now, her IS is a combination of the generations two and three. Like a generation three it has special weapons unique to it. However, like a generation two, it can switch between its special weapons as the situation warrants.'
"Mind your own business!" She screamed while shooting with a new rifle. I easily dodged her attacks and kept retreating.
"Stop running and fight, coward!"
'Coward, I just can't bring myself to attack you.'
She switched back to her green form and began firing her cannon at me. I just kept dodging until she had run out of energy and shut down.
"No, I need more power. I can't just end like this." I heard Katrina say under her breath thanks to my Stratos.
'I see, she regrets not having strength.

The sisters had already disposed of the other two and where only waiting for me to finish my fight. Although, a lot of people were booing me for waiting my enemy to run out of power instead of fighting her head on.
'Bah whatever, I didn't do this for them'
After landing, I left the arena with my team to rest before our next match.
Tatenashi punished me for my selfishness during that time by tickling me. What's worse is that I'm very ticklish so I was on the ground laughing very quickly. This continued until our next match. We continued an easily won the tournament without much effort. Our prize, nothing, just a congratulations.
'In retrospect, I may have been a bit too eager to face Katrina. I mean, I completely destroyed Rin in less than three seconds. Then when I fought Katrina, I didn't even fire a single attack on her. Afterwards I was so happy that I defeated my opponents without even thinking about my actions, swift and efficiently. So much for keeping a low profile. Opps.'