Truth Be Told: New Dawn
A/N: Okay I know this is quite early for a sequel since TbT is just barely halfway towards its end but since I'm working on this with my collaborator B123, I better release a teaser chapter just to introduce its characters and the concept we though up.
Remember this is just a teaser chapter and not the real first chapter. This story is still being developed by me and B123 we need to refine it more of the concept and finalize the characters so that the first chapter can go without any hitch.
A short rundown, the setting of this takes place 300 years after the TbT story and this story features the descendants of Ichika and his harem.
The chapter will be done in the POV of the main character, Kenshi Kagurazaka or rather Kenshi Orimura.
Without further delay, here it is…
Disclaimer: I don't own Infinite Stratos (except my plot and OCs), it belongs to Izuru Yumizuru.
The Monologue of the boy who is in the middle of it
(RING) (RING) (RING)
Damn, it's this blaring sound again…
"What time is it? Really these alarm clocks are so loud!"
Well here am I… another day in my new life and my usual routine of blindly groping for my alarm clock that's just on the left of my bedside is still the very first thing I do every morning.
Where am I again anyway?
Ah yes, I'm in the East IS academy, always forget this detail every time I wake up. My mind goes back always to the past where I'm still in the O sanctuary's base. Guess I still can't accept that I'm thrown to this almost all female environment all because we piloted IS units, went to the Neo Tokyo city because we were being chased by a crazy woman with a mask and her pack of pilots, then started a vicious confrontation when me and my friends and then those chasing us clashed head on in the city.
Neo Tokyo was still not fully repaired from the damage it received from World War III 30 years ago and yet it again incurred years' worth of damage because powerful IS machines did their battle there.
While that is good reason to send us, me and my friends who were one of the instigators of the said conflict, to this academy which more like fits the image of a military or reformatory school for IS pilots. It doesn't make sense that we had to be treated like criminals, really!
It was obvious from the witnesses' statements and the footages taken by the satellites that those who were really causing much of the damage is that masked woman and her goons. But still, me and my friends were sentence to this place, to the East IS academy near the shores of the Neo Tokyo city.
Funny thing, there are four of these IS academies in the world. First this, the East IS academy which was built from the ruins of the original IS academy 300 years ago. The second one is the North IS Academy between Greenland and Iceland standing on a manmade island. The 3rd academy is the West IS Academy built near the Original Pearl Harbor in the Hawaiian Islands, Oahu. And lastly the 4th academy is the South IS Academy between Africa and South America on another manmade Island in the South Atlantic Ocean.
All these academies impose military-like education system that ranges from very strict to moderately strict. The East and West academy are probably the less strict ones while the North and South are notoriously known for their tyrannical rule.
Haaa…
It is pointless to gripe about this anyway…
Anyway, my name is Kenshi Kagurazaka or Kenshi Orimura if you use my real family name, 15 years old, a Japanese male that stands 174cm, light brown skin tone which almost toes the line of being white, and short black hair and oddly enough grayish pupils.
Odd isn't it. It is not very often that an Asian gets eyes like mine. Many in my younger days, specifically in middle school, these eyes of mine really gained some attention, sometimes good but mostly bad.
Short story about my childhood, I grew up from a humble home. My parents, just ordinary folk in the really advanced environment of the redeveloping Neo Tokyo, my dad runs a repair shop and my mom has a spot on the public market. Our house was located near the squatters' area or what most people call now as the "new-world slums".
Yeah a bit derogatory but I got used to it; nothing changes even if I complain about it.
During my childhood days, I was your average boy, just one of the people walking in the background of the scenery in school, someone who is mostly away from the spotlight. But when it came to my studies, I never once came close to a failing grade, I really did not become some honor student but I did maintain my name in the school's rankings. But having good grades all the time wasn't much of a good thing at that time if you're a minority, it gains attention from bullies who picked on you and then would force him to do their homework which is supposed their responsibility. Of course I did it for a couple of times but I started refusing a few times later on but when I did that, I was beaten up. Not just being beaten, also the bullies made up stories about me that kept other kids from getting close or even try to just talk to me.
Thus I never had a large group of friends except those that were bullied alongside me.
But it did not change on how I live, as much as I could; I never let it get to me and lived my life not affected by the cruelty of my school life.
Outside of my hellish of it though, I did some part time job to help with my family's finances, doing things like babysitting, deliveries and washing cars, specifically those new cars that use electricity now and not fuel, also some don't even use wheels now, some that are made by more advance companies hover from the ground and now uses the 'skyways' as people call it nowadays. Basically it's like a highway up in the air but no concrete road, the skyway is maintained by energy barriers. These skyways go all over the country, well at least for the Neo Tokyo city, Neo Kyoto, Neo Yokohama and Neo Osaka. These four cities are the only ones who managed to recover most from the damage that was done during the WWIII.
Anyway back to the topic…
Everything about my life is supposed to be normal; actually I got things planned out what I would do when I grow up. Get the civil service exam and apply somewhere and just maintain it, a good normal life for a normal person like me.
But that was denied from me and instead it thrust me into this really bizarre life that I have right now and all for this to be reality is me finding that old IS units my grandfather tucked away in some of his secret warehouse.
And this IS is just here on my left wrist, in the form of a thin bracelet.
Maybe this is enough slacking off for me, I better get ready. I can't afford to miss the morning ceremony, this academy is militarized so I can't afford to act apathetic or else I'll get punished.
"Better take a bath… 6:57… I still have an hour before the opening ceremony."
After taking a short glance at the time, I got up and hurried to my bathroom.
Actually, contrary to my expectations to my room which would be a two-person room, I unexpectedly got a room all to myself, well that happened because I'm the only boy in this academy who can pilot an IS. They did not dare pair me with a girl because of certain issues and so I'm here, alone in my own room.
The room is quite normal though, not too big and not too small either, just right for me. Granted it has a bathroom too, I was afraid that there will be no bathroom here for me.
The bathroom even has a bathtub too; I really did not expect this because this academy has a strict militarized system of educating its students.
Could this be a privilege given to the only male IS pilots in here?
Maybe, but I'm most definitely sure that I am not the only male in the world who can use the IS. Our team leader, Isaac Lebeau can pilot IS too and he is a male and I was told that there are other male pilots all over the world who can pilot the IS as well as women can, though they are pretty much hiding themselves from the public.
Also before I forget this, all those men who can pilot the IS are all related to the same bloodline, same to me and my friends.
As we were told, we came from the bloodline of an ancient clan dating back 300 years, father by the very first man who was able to pilot the IS during that time and he did it too when he was still 15 years old.
His name is Ichika Orimura, our great, great, great grandfather.
All the males who could pilot an IS cannot be anyone's descendant but his, he was the one and only male who could pilot the IS, well at least until us, his descendants came along.
Still though the number of males that can pilot the IS is pretty rare these days. Because of the WWIII or rather known as the 'War of the IS', many male pilots died. I don't know the exact number of them but I'm sure many have died, all those history classes dedicated to the history of the IS made it pretty much a fact, which is pretty sad really.
Now I'm getting depressed over thinking this, I really hate pointless conflicts like that. I'm most certainly sure that the reason was not even that much as prominent as the war itself. All those lives wasted, those soldiers who charged to the conflict following the orders of their superiors, I'm pretty certain that those that managed to comeback can only be counted by hand.
Tch! People really need to learn the value of diplomacy over conflict.
"Oi… Kenshi, how long are you going to stare off into space like this… you wasted 15 minutes of your preparation time already."
"Huh!?"
What the!? Who fricking sneaked up on me!?
"Come on Kenshi, get up you have to prepare already."
Oh, it's just Tyra. She's one of my friends whom I have been talking about.
Her name is Tyra summers, 17 years old and an English born girl with Japanese blood in her. If I were to describe her, I would pick first the words, airhead, sweet, reliable and very gifted on the chest area.
She has this silky pink hair that she always ties into two ponytails with black and white ribbons. She has hazel eyes which I must say, looked very drowsy most of the time.
Tyra is known to be a bit of an airhead and can be clumsy at times, though that is what makes her very cute and endearing to me. But she can be kind, loyal and caring to those close to her, even would go as far as to put her life on the line just for the sake of those she loves.
But Tyra also has some odd quirks, she is also known as a heavy eater. She can eat large amounts of foods, I mean really large amounts of it, but shockingly she doesn't even gain a single extra pound for it, she remains slim. That's something I'm really amazed about her.
Tyra often enjoys reading fictional book stories of fantasy, love or adventure and sometimes in the middle of reading, she tends to daze off by looking at the sky as if she's trying to reach something there. In other words, her mind wanders and floats on the clouds just from thinking or imagining sometimes, she can last like this for minutes, an hour was her longest last time.
"Hmmm? Why aren't you still getting ready? Come on? Get up already."
"WAAAAH!"
Damn, she lifted me up. As if my weight was nothing to her; I might be as light as a feather seeing as how she managed to lift me up by the head with just one hand.
"Okay, okay, I'll go to the bathroom, so please let me go!"
"Okay, are you sure you don't want me helping you? I can was your back for you."
"No, that would take as longer than usual. I can do this by myself."
Here she goes again, uttering things that she is not even aware of. This is going to be a problem for her in the future when she goes to society. Though I'm highly doubtful on that Tyra would be allowed to live outside the sanctuary.
What I am thinking, I better take a bath now and go to the opening ceremony. I just wasted 30 minutes now.
And just a few minutes later, I was done bathing and I finished changing in just a few minutes, I quickly got out of my room where Tyra is patiently waiting, or rather dazing off on the window.
She's not narcoleptic right?
I better ask Misato-san later about Tyra.
Also Tyra seemed to be holding a multi-level bento that must be everyone's lunch. Guess she woke up early to make these.
Better wake her up before we run late, I'll just have to skip breakfast and go directly to the ceremony.
"Tyra… Tyra, wake up we need to go now."
"Huh? Ah, good morning Kenshi. Want some breakfast… or is this lunch?"
She raised the big multi-level bento that was supposed to be our lunch. Tyra makes lunches for us by the way, along with me. The two of us take turns to make lunch for the rest of the group since… well… it's just the two of us who knows how to cook.
Again, I really should talk to Tyra about her airheadedness…
Damn it! Don't start thinking of useless things now!
"Come on Tyra!"
I grabbed her right hand. As expected it was soft and warm to my hand, Tyra has really perfect skin… but why do I sound like a pervert all of a sudden?
"Kenshi slow down, the food from the bento I made for us will spill… Oh yeah, this bento is for our lunch, I almost ate this since I thought this was breakfast. Ehehehe!"
She's serious; I did not dare doubt her words regarding food, she really would've eaten the big multi-leveled bento by herself and the rest of us would be left with no lunch later.
We both went down a long flight of stairs, really, as advance the technology is today, one would expect that these very large dormitories would have elevators, but no, we are here, running like idiots down a long staircase.
This is one of the four very big dormitories in the East IS academy. This is the cadet dormitory or rather the dormitory of the fresh entries or more commonly known here as the Ranks 1 to 4. The dormitory has 5 floors and has more than 800 rooms, yeah. This academy is really loaded of students.
The traditional 1st year to 4th year system in this place has been outdated after the WWIII, while some institution still follow them, the East IS academy has a new way of classifying students.
It is not based in their year level but based on their training and skill.
This is new system is called, the Militarian Ranking system.
People who've just entered the Academy begin their year of training as cadets, after that they become normal IS soldiers with Ranks that can be increased to the next number rank depending on their skills, their IS, connections/associations, credentials, their win or lose ratio and participating in events or military affairs that help raise ranks.
The ranks are numbered, from 1 to 12. The ranks are grouped like this.
Ranks 1 to 4 where my friends and I are currently in, classed as those that have just come out of pre-training, though many that have no noticeable talents, expertise, no connections and those who did not earn enough credentials in the pre-training, tend to remain at these lower levels. These ranks are the largest because, as cruel to say this, many did not have that much talent or expertise, as such they are considered as the reserve for the military if some needed occasion arises. The egotistic students or those with very bad superiority complex refer to those inside the ranks of 1 to 4 as 'Nobodies', 'Slackers' and even sometimes, 'spareparts' or 'trash'.
Me and my friends, after our arrest were also placed in the pre-training which lasts for about six months, but we passed it quickly, in just a month and we were quickly added to the ranks 1 to 4. Right now we are in rank 4, just a few steps away from moving on to the next level because all of us have unique talents to show. If you have talent, you progress pretty quickly but it's cruel to those who don't.
Anyway the next rank is the Ranks 5 to 8: These classes are for those with great potential or those with outstanding skills, often those that having personal IS unit and sponsored by governments or corporations, those that have gain credentials through their own diligence with both physical and theory tests and have a few mentions and ties to the higher numbered students who are in the highest ranks, through recommendation. Students belonging in the ranks 5 to 8 are often given the monikers as the "Soldiers", "Warriors", "Knights" and "Defenders".
And lastly the ranks where all the gifted and the very skilled stand on, the ranks 9 to 12. This is the class where those with tremendous talents at piloting, very knowledgeable at IS engineering and theory, have personal IS units that are classified as extremely powerful, those with unique ability(s), persons exceedingly high win ratio amongst all the students, outstanding credentials from their pre-training and their earlier years in the academy and lastly with government or military connections. These persons are referred as "Elites", "King/Queens", "General's", "Captains", "Masters" "Angel/Devils" and "God/Goddess" by the rest of the student body.
But even among the ranks of 9 to 12, there are two women who stand at the top.
One is known as the 'Tyrant Queen' Geneva Hallmark and the other one is Evangeline Parker, otherwise the 'Galaxy Empress'. Both are considered as the uncontested strongest here in the East academy in terms of piloting and engineering. But I'm yet to see them because they are always away with their work in the military.
"You've been quiet for a while Kenshi, thinking of something important?"
"Ah no, just a little drowsy."
Sometimes, Tyra can be sharp but it is always in a time that is not opportune, like in my case for example. I did not realize I was dozing off for too long now…
"Oh, really then I guess I'll solve this drowsiness of yours."
A flying punch landed on the shoulders and it hurt like I was hit by a sledgehammer.
"Oh, Kenshi I'm sorry I put too much force on my punch, is there anything broken?"
"No, nothing really. I just hurt like hell that's all."
"Oh, okay I thought I killed you there. Ufufufufu!"
Tyra, this girl is extremely strong. I mean really strong.
Tyra is just as tall as I am and her body is slender. But in contrast to that body of hers, she is extremely powerful; she can lift heavy objects with ease, even defeat trained men who are three times her size. Last time she beat up a 7'5 soldier to the ground with just ten punches and she did not receive any hits at that time.
I guess this is what really made us special, I know for a fact that us having the blood of the Orimura Ichika has something to do with this.
So many things to think about…
"Ah, Kenshi… we're late to the opening ceremony now."
"What!?"
"It started just a minute ago."
Hearing that from Tyra I immediate went to the nearest window and look at the really tall image of the IS academy that was also the one used by the original IS academy.
The sign is now glowing, which means that the opening ceremony has started, which means me and Tyra are late.
"We're dead…"
I just hung my head hopelessly, but while I'm here griping about us being late, Tyra already tasted the food from one of the bentos.
"It's good…"
Honestly, she's really clueless.
A few minutes later…
Well having been late for the opening ceremony, me and Tyra went on ahead to our classroom which is quite a distance from our dorms. It would take quite a time to get there but since there are these horizontal escalators or moving sidewalk that looks like mini old amusement parks rides they call roller coaster minus the scary spins and turns. These things are raised 10 feet up in the air, using these getting to your destination here in the East IS academy would be less tiring.
These aerial escalators stretch all over the island; it is mainly used as the new means of transportation here since the academy is quite big. When you ride these don't stand but you take a seat in its two-seater pods since it moves quite fast but the speed is like riding really a fast bicycle.
Me and Tyra entered from a station which is near out dorm and took a seat inside one of the pods, actually there are a set of choices on the destination these pod can take you, shown in front of you by a holographic screen.
"Kenshi it's delicious, want a taste?"
Tyra is still eating; she's totally unaware that we might get punished for being unable to attend the opening ceremony. The attendance of every student on the opening ceremony every morning is checked and this is my 3rd late already, 1st for Tyra. Guess she became late because she came to wake me up.
Our attendance in these ceremonies affects our credentials and apparently missing five is going to have deduction.
This academy is really strict, take back what I said earlier about this place not being strict.
"Oh look, its Ariel, I guess she woke up late too."
Tyra pointed outside, I peeked there and I saw a girl running down to pathwalk with speed that would put even the fastest runners to shame.
That girl can run so fast I almost can't follow her.
"She stopped, hi good morning Ariel-chan!" Tyra waved at Ariel and the latter also waved back. She is a hyper as ever; just her waving alone is already exaggerated, she literally jumping around.
I know that girl; she is one of my comrades that were also put in here. Her name is Ariel Thorndyke.
She's an 18 year old Canadian girl, her looks can be described as nothing but sporty, her long brown hair that is done in a long pony tail really tells of how hyperactive she is, although it speaks only slightly of her true nature if you ask me.
She's slightly taller than am I maybe because of her Canadian descent.
Ariel is known for being quite a free-spirited and adventurous type of girl, and sometimes also a joker always making jokes, teasing and making playful banter to those close to her. She is very hard to tie down, as in figuratively and literally, she moves around a lot, I dare say even in her sleep.
While her being this hyper is good, it sometimes become a downside to her, mainly what I am mean is that is she most of the time an impatient girl, which leads to her to have a very short fuse. Because of being impulsive, Ariel is prone to making mistakes in which, we her friends, bail her out every time; she always throws herself into trouble without a second thought, regardless of our warnings.
This proves that her impulsive nature is not just on her actions but to her personality as well.
Regardless of those flaws, she has her own good sides too, her frankness and honesty is one of her traits that I really admire and especially her drive to always fulfill the promises she made.
She's like a caring yet less mature older sister.
And another odd thing about her, she likes to race which I'm guessing she'll do any minute now.
"Hey Kenshi, I think Ariel wants to have a race with us to the class building. Again? That means we'll lose, just say yes so that she'll stop nagging us."
"Okay~!"
Tyra struck out her thumb and gave Ariel who is below us a thumbs up.
Well I plan to just give up since Ariel would be winning, but she'll nag me again if I do so at least I'll give her a challenge.
This pod that me and Tyra are riding can have its speed increased to that of a car, I shifted to that speed and then suddenly the pod picked its pace and began to leave Ariel behind.
Tyra and me both waved her goodbye and she waved back, not even worried that she'll fall behind.
Well I know who will win in the end anyway so, I'm not anymore caring of the result.
Minutes later Tyra and I arrived in the class building, we got off on the main entrance and saw someone whom we should've left behind back in the way to here.
It was none other than Ariel, standing in front of the booth were me and Tyra get off, she was waiting there with a victorious grin on her face and a peace sign.
I knew she would win; she is incredibly as a fast runner. I've seen her outrun many fast things before just by running, doubting that now would be outright stupid.
"I win!"
She leaped up on me and hugged me from behind.
"I knew you would!"
She really happy for winning the race, well that would be normal because winning in a contest of speed is a big deal for her.
"For winning I want Kenshi's hotdog for lunch!"
"HUH!?"
She just said something weird! I mean really weird!
"Me too I want Kenshi's hotdog for lunch too!"
Wait Tyra not you too!
This time not on context anymore! This is totally indecent!
"Oh? I think he's thinking of something vulgar! I want the hotdog that Tyra made for you… what were you expecting?"
I knew it, I should have expected this. She was just messing with me; well Tyra was just cluelessly chiming in and probably doesn't even get the true gist.
"Oh that. Well you can have it."
I was helplessly blushing because of that innuendo she threw earlier.
"Oi, you three dunces. What are you doing here and why haven't you attended the opening ceremony, Misato is not pleased at all she saw you three not present."
The three of us turned around and saw a girl with shoulder-length blond hair. She stands a bit shorter than Tyra and Ariel and is quite a bit dwarfed on the proportions too. I hope she did not notice that I said this.
She is wearing a scowl on her face as she called out to the three of us in an extremely annoyed manner.
She's one of my comrades here; her name is Gwen Elizabeth Everling Klein, a 14 year old girl of German origin. She's the youngest of us but acts probably one of the most mature and the most arrogant sometimes.
"Well, are you three going to say something or your just going to stare at me like a couple of lazy sloths."
She gave us the evil eye when me, Tyra and Ariel just stare at her with blank expressions.
"Hey, me and Ariel are going to eat Kenshi's hotdog!"
"Eh? You're still going on with that."
Ariel pinched Tyra's cheek.
Gwen however sighed, as if she was looking at some grade school kids quarreling.
You're the younger one here Gwen.
"Hey, Geek! I have this great idea for a rocket-powered car that I want to drive on the New Tokyo's unfinished highway."
"Let go of me you speed demon!"
Then suddenly Ariel released me from her hug and this time clung at Gwen or rather Geek as she called her earlier, nagging for some of her brilliant (?) ideas for reaching neck-break speeds. Wholly ignoring the latter's protests.
Oh right, we don't call Gwen by her name, rather we preferred to call her by her nickname 'Geek'.
Gwen or Geek has a very realistic view of life. As what I have been told, it was due to her father's untimely death.
Geek has extreme intelligence at her age; I think she has a natural affinity to it because she can answer most questions thrown at her, especially if it is about the IS. But Geek rarely interacts with other people, well except for us though.
She prefers at times not to go out and meet other people because she prefers the company of her computers and many of the machines she made. She believes that seeing/meeting new faces is wholly irrelevant for her, knowing that most of them would just be a bother to her hobbies.
She kind of a NEET or Hikikomori but not to an extreme level since she still goes out and doesn't shut herself in her lab for the rest of the day. Also she tends to favor machine more than humans, I don't know probably because she is just like that, it would be stupid to question that.
Anyway but while Geek can be cynical and harsh, she has her own kind streak too and best part about her is her sincerity and elusive kindness.
"Oi, Kenshi what the hell are you staring at?"
Oh crap, she noticed me looking at her for too long.
"N-Nothing… ahahahahaha!"
I tried laughing it off but it doesn't seem to work, she probably knew what I was thinking already.
"Oh? But what was it about my breasts again?"
"Geeeh!"
Unfortunately for me she read my mind.
"Don't give me that look; your eyes were flashing from the chest of Tyra and Ariel then to mine. So you're comparing now huh? Guess I picked up something new to tag you now."
Geek is extremely sharp at picking up people's thoughts, not like she can really read minds but she can deduce whatever you're thinking just from your actions alone.
Also that makes it worse on me because I have been told of this several times by my friends; I am as open as a book with my feelings. That makes me twice as vulnerable to Geek's scary ability.
"Hoh? Still thinking of weird thoughts about me huh?"
Damn it, my face was probably twisted badly while I was thinking. I really need to have this openness of mine removed, for my own well-being.
"Oh wait I was only–"
(SLAP!)
A few minutes later…
Well now we are in our classroom in the 3rd floor of the class building.
When we arrived the classroom was empty but shortly after our classmates came in and the room got pretty noisy.
I'm sitting in a classroom full of girls chatting about each other happily. Also I have a very red slap mark on my face, Geek gave me this for thinking about something impolite.
I sneak a look at Geek who is sitting on back of the class. She was doing something with her desk terminal, she's probably researching again.
But she looks at me and sees me looking at her; she glares at me and then goes back to looking at her holographic screen. I really made her mad didn't I? I should make a note now that thinking about breasts while in front of Geek is a big no-no.
Several of my classmates approached me and asked me about some things. Mostly about why I had a slap mark on my face so early in the morning, gossips are going to spawn from this soon.
I already have several of those gossips about me spreading in this academy, most of them are a bit damaging to my moral image.
I sneaked a look at other end of the room and saw Ariel looking at me with a look that was clearly laughing at me. Sheesh, sometimes none of my friends care for me, well Tyra cares for me but most of the time…
"…."
Yeah, she dazed off again. Tyra who is just a seat away from my left was looking at the roof with a drowsy expression.
Haaa…
I could not help but sigh.
While I don't think that being surrounded by girls is bad but, I feel suffocated here. I'm like a minority in this classroom, whatever the girls wants I always have to go along because I'm outnumbered here, like 1 to 30 ratio.
While there are males in this academy now, they are on a separate classroom and course; they are on engineering which is located on the other side of academy, in the engineering course building. I'm here in the class building meant for IS pilots, more so I'm a rank four now like everyone else in this classroom. Means all of us can go up to the rank 5 if you do well on the next exams and evaluation.
There is a stunning lack of male pilots in this academy.
While it is possible for males to pilot an IS now, there was a very little amount of them. Like I said before they either went to hiding or don't publicly announce their ability to do so, the reasons were obvious after all.
Like I said before All those male that can pilot an IS, are all related to me and my friends.
Yeah, I know I said this before but all males that can pilot the IS all came from the bloodline of Ichika Orimura. Even 300 hundred years have passed; his bloodline is still very much alive. Also, it cannot be replicated artificial or even integrate it into another person.
Our superior from the sanctuary told us that there were attempts at this in the past years, even during the WWIII. Apparently ambitious scientists tried to harness and culture the blood of an Orimura and inject to men who can't pilot an IS. The results of those experiments were all failures; the Orimura gene killed them instantly.
I have read documents of it while we were still in the O-sanctuary. The Orimura gene kills the tissues, freezes the blood and destroyed the vital organs of the test subject that received them all in a short amount of time, which is at the best, minutes. No one survived those tests and no success was made and that ushered the stop to the experiments on trying to manipulate the Orimura gene to allow other males to pilot the IS.
Our gene is deadlier than venom or poison… I'm quite scared about our heritage every time I remember that.
I guess this is one of the reasons why the O-sanctuary or rather the Orimura sanctuary was established.
The O-sanctuary is a secret government agency that doesn't exist to those unauthorized to know about it. It searches and takes in Orimura descendants and takes care of them, educating them about their heritage
The O-sanctuary is the reason why I'm still alive today. After discovered my IS, dangerous elements started tracking me for it and sadly they even killed my foster parents just to get to me. The sanctuary came in and saved in. They then admitted me as one of its members; there I learned a lot about our heritage.
Also I get to meet some of my distant relatives, Tyra, Geek, Ariel, Alexis and Isaac. Yeah the friends I have been mentioning earlier are Orimura descendants too.
Tyra, Geek and Ariel have a Japanese parent who has the Orimura bloodline in them.
Isaac, is our former team leader and a male pilot like me, he too is an Orimura. But right now, he is missing. During our battle against the masked woman in New Tokyo, he was taken captive but when the battle was about to become our win he managed to break free and joined the fight but he was lost at the very end of the fight. Currently we don't know his fate.
Investigations to find him are still going but no progress so far… I hope he's safe.
Also there's Alexis who is also here with us in the East Academy. She is the 2nd in command of our group next to Isaac, well now she's the acting leader because our leader was gone.
"Oi, why are you dazing around for!"
"Bfffh!"
I was hit on the head by an iron-like fist, hey speak of the devil.
It's Alexis Gray, a 17 year old American girl. She is one of my friends and our bossy leader onee-san.
She stands slightly taller than I am, probably even taller than Ariel. She really tomboyish which may have been brought by her power and skill as an overall fighter. If I were to class her from the rest of my friends, I'd say she's the strongest.
Aside from being powerful she also very pretty and buxom, her scarlet hair flows beautifully like a velvet curtain, she also has a very fair skin tone like pure white marble.
Just from looking at her chest, Alexis is not just proficient with enhancing her skills a fighter but she unknowingly enhances her own charms as a woman.
She may have one of the biggest breasts I have–! Wait a minute what I am saying!
(SMACK)
"Stop thinking about none sense."
This is just like with Geek earlier, women know what I'm thinking about.
"Alexis, it's you. Why are you late?"
(SMACK)
I got hit again, what did I say wrong this time.
"Why weren't you in the ceremony earlier?"
"Because I was–"
(SMACK)
Again, another hit on the head.
"That's not an excuse. You could've caught on even if you were late. That would only gain you a late mark which is better than an absent mark. What would you do if your credentials aren't enough to pass to rank 5?"
She's really pissed at me. Well she is the acting leader for us and of course she would be this worried about each of us.
"I'm sorry."
I could only bow my head to her and apologize, but again she hits me on the head.
"If you have time to say sorry, then just do your best to wake up early next time… (Sigh)… you're still very much a puppy to me…"
She's really strict and again she called me by that nickname again. I swear that nickname that Alexis calls me serves to mortify me every time I hear it. It basically makes me look like a helpless puppy, which sadly I am.
I'm the newbie in the squad and I have a lot to learn to become reliable to anyone on my team. Every one of them are really competent and talented, sometimes I'm a little insecure. I wonder if I'm just a burden to them.
(SMACK)
"Really… well anyway. About what Misato-san told us, you don't have to worry about it because I'll get to that myself."
"But Misato-san specifica–"
"No questions. I said I'll do it and that's that."
Urk! She's really going to get angry at me if I push it. Better relent for now.
While I did say the Alexis is our acting leader, she prefers to do things on her own rather than rally the entire team and lead us. This sometimes gets her into an argument with Geek and Ariel and with Isaac when he was still with us.
Regardless though, she possesses an incredibly strong will, she rarely wavers and would not doubt pursue a goal she has set herself. This makes her cool, a perfect image of a reliable onee-san. Although Alexis has an extremely small amount of fuse for her temper and once that fuse runs out and she snaps, she is very hard to talk to.
But while it is disadvantageous for her in her social life, her temper plays a big role when she fights. She can channel it to supplement her combat prowess, essentially making her an extremely powerful fighter.
"Ow!"
Again I got hit on the head, this time it was from Geek who suddenly came over and gave me a smack on the head with her notebook.
"This idiot here did not seem to have enough sleep. This is maybe why he acts like a dunce all the time."
Harsh words from left and right, what can I say… I guess this is my life.
"(Sigh)… anyway Alexis… about what Misato said…"
"Don't worry I'll have it done by myself."
Alexis cuts off Geek with a prompt answer, same one she gave to me.
A sour look masks Geek's face.
"Don't question me, I have already decided."
Alexis dismissively said and walked towards her seat which is in the front of the class. Leaving me and Geek staring at her back with various expressions.
"Guess she's a little edgy today. Alex-chan must be worried about this new assignment that's why she wanted to do it herself." Tyra who just snapped out of her daze spoke to me and Geek. She was obviously trying to lighten the mood of Geek, mainly. Geek had a really displeased face.
"Hmph!"
Geek turned away with a snort and returned to her seat.
Not again… but I guess I should not worry too much. This happens to Alexis and Geek all the time; they are not really made at each other anyway.
"Everyone's a bit on edge today right Kenshi?"
Tyra smiled at me from her seat, I could do nothing but smile back at her.
Oh yeah speaking of everyone, I wonder how C.L.E.O is doing right now.
C.L.E.O is not really a person, she our team's mascot, specifically she's an AI.
Not much is known about our C.L.E.O's history though clues from the investigations of the O-sanctuary revealed the C.L.E.O is a part of the "Little Lights" project. That project was designed to be exactly what C.L.E.O is doing for the gang now currently, being a support/partner AI for our IS machines, for all of us precisely, plus she's an AI that builds up its own individuality by learn things around it.
C.L.E.O is the first and last of her kind, scientist abandoned the 'Little Lights' project in favor of creating new IS weapons for the WWIII. So for thirty years C.L.E.O was left in storage till the O-Sanctury head Misato had found her in storage and accidentally reactivated her, first not knowing what to do with the little AI Misato decided to keep it or her, this made C.L.E.O attached to Misato ever since she woke up. Eventually when the team built up to what is currently, C.L.E.O has proving herself to be a valued and important member.
At first I thought that C.L.E.O was like just any other machine but it surprised me when I met her for the first time.
She has the mentality of a 16 year old girl, she acts and talks like a typical teenage girl, meaning she switches back-and-forth between being mature and childish depending on the situation. Having been awakened by the O-Sanctuary and taken in by the sanctuary, C.L.E.O considers them to be her family and is the most important thing to her pretty much like a normal person, especially Geek whom I said earlier seem to love machines more than humans.
It really surprised me… even machines today can act like humans now.
Anyway I guess C.L.E.O is back at the sanctuary, watching TV. We don't have a mission today so she's probably back at the main system of the base tapping on the television, watching her favorite soaps.
Later, finally the class started when our adviser or rather our commanding officer, Misato Katsuragi.
Forgot to tell you that Misato-san here is the head of the O-sanctuary after her father, she is our boss that I talked about earlier.
Dressed a black military uniform, Misato-san enters the room with impeccable graciousness. She like a military official which in reality she is, she's the head of the O-sanctuary after all.
Her dark blue hair sways as she walks by, she's like a model, whether it is her face or her body. Must be because of her American descent, her father, the former head of the O-sanctuary is American.
I was told by Tyra last time about Misato-san's past, she was a military official before assuming leadership of the O-sanctuary.
Having been trained as a soldier for the Japanese government, Misato Katsuragi, even though has very little compatibility with the IS, she has gained fame from being a commander who can lead an army through hell and then make it back. She's decorated military tactician with a stellar record, one of those records are her command over the crackdown against resistance in the Jukyu southern island, formerly known as Okinawa islands. She lead a strike force of twelve soldiers against 1000 or more rebels and captured their leaders and blew most of their based right after. Misato and those soldiers she brought with her incurred not scratch whatsoever.
And that was only one of her riveting tales during her military days.
But as good as she is in her job; her personal life is not as good as her military career. When not on duty she acts like a… well… a slob. Her home is messy, she doesn't know how to cook and therefore lives off instant foods and her clothes are thrown everywhere after she uses them. She also messes up some stuff, wears skimpy clothing sometimes it's just underwear and is quite an alcoholic.
How do I know this? Well I once took care of her when she came home drunk.
While she can hold her drink, she sometimes can go overboard getting so drunk that she would say or do things that she later regrets or get embarrassed about when someone mentions it.
Again I know because I have experienced this side of her.
But it's hard to see her that way when she is working; she seems like a perfect woman.
Anyway her being a teacher here is just cover up. She took that job her so that she can keep a close eye on us and bail us out of trouble if necessary, we are after the first Orimuras found by the sanctuary.
"Attention!"
As Misato-san said all of us stood up and saluted to her, this is after all a militarized academy.
"At ease!"
As Misato-san dropped the salute, we all did the same and sat back down.
"Now pull out your assignments and pass them."
Well this is the reason why I was late this morning; I was up all-night researching about our assignment. It's about the WWIII, how the 3rd world war that involved mainly the IS started.
The short version of it, 2 years before the World War III, its start is the collapse of the Alaska Treaty when some nations started using the IS mainly for military. Mainly the nations, China, Russia, India and Iran integrated the IS into their military force, intentionally showing off to other nations. The action definitely roused the displeasure of the UN which led to several sanctions being imposed, but that situation did not change those nations who started showing off did not stop their actions.
But that alone would not have cause the war, it only meant to heighten the tension between the nations who are against the integration of the IS into military.
Next, what happened is China and Unified Korean having a disagreement when Chinese forces attempted to enter from the north of Korea bringing their IS units. Korean forces rose and met the Chinese forces on the border also with their IS units.
It quickly started into a war when both Korean and Chinese forces exchanged fire. It was domino effect from there on.
China with its allies, Russia, Iran, India declared war against Korea. While America, Australia and Japan who are against the nations who were violated the Alaska treaty allied with Korea rose to the occasion and took Korea's side.
There the war escalated and both sides formed alliances, China, Russia, Iran and India formed the Eurasian Union while Korea, American, Australia and Japan formed the Atlantic-Pacific forces.
Soon the lines were drawn and the other nations began to take sides. Bringing out their IS machines into the fray.
Behind the scenes, scientist of the two sides began developing new and powerful IS to use in the war effort. As more get developed the more the war got worse.
The war lasted for about 10 years and the destruction was wide and severe. In Asia, Korea, Japan, China and India were crippled in the fight, but the nations around them received even more damage that nations collapsed and new nations formed. Iran and its allies in the Middle East ceased all actions for war when the oil fields was set ablaze by a secret attack from Australian IS units, leading to a very huge fire spreading throughout many nations in the Mid East.
The Philippines lost its Mindanao islands entirely, Taiwan was vaporized after an Ion Blast from an IS from Japan, Malaysia and Indonesia collapsed because most of its territory have been run over by Chinese invaders and was subsequently destroyed when Australian forces defeated them.
American and Russia had both sent forces on each other. Both have established foothold inside each other's territories which later led to a battle of attrition in the closing stages of the war.
Europe was also leveled down mostly when Germany, France and Great Britain in-leagued with America met against, Hungary, Ukraine, Pakistan and Russia armies that were attempting to run over Europe.
Africa did not take side in the war but they were not saved from the destruction it weaved. 48 of its countries were taken over by Indian forces and were later attacked by invading Brazilian Forces that are in-leagued with America. The aftermath was Africa 80% destroyed because of incessant bombings from Brazilian IS artillery and later by invading German IS forces.
The world's population of 9 billion was reduced to 5 billion.
That was really a tragic point in history.
After the war stopped due to most nations too crippled to continue the fight, a new treaty was formed, the Treaty of Pacific, signed in Hawaii.
One of the prominent things in that treaty is the banning of all use of IS, although that only lasted for 30 years before it was amended for the IS to be brought out again.
Guess this is just a cycle then…
I got tired thinking about; I pulled out my assignment which is in my USB key. Assignment are not anymore written in paper, rather they are done in information terminal and then saved in USB keys of its students which they will insert on their terminal desk in their classroom to be sent to the teacher's database.
Saves the trouble for writing, but I have an attachment for using paper and pencil, I don't know but I just grew on me.
Anyway I inserted it in my desk terminal and sent it to Misato-san.
After passing the assignment, Misato-san quickly went with a new lesson. We finished discussing yesterday about the WWIII, today she is going to talk about a new topic and frankly, I'm quite interested about this one since this is related not just to me but to my friends as well.
"Okay with everyone's assignment passed. Let's discuss about our new lesson. Its history, about one of the greatest persons who wield the IS, Ichika Orimura."
Misato-san waved her hand in their air, then a holographic picture appeared behind her. She stepped aside to show it to the students, it was none other than, Ichika Orimura although the picture showed that he's no older than 15 or 16 years old.
Not just me but Tyra, Alexis, Ariel and Geek raised their eyes with interest. Misato-san brought out an unexpected card here.
My classmates started showing interest too; of course it would be normal. He is after all considered to be one of the most powerful pilots and the first male pilot in history.
Even 300 years from now, his fame never wavered.
"Now first let me ask some question regarding him, who can tell me what his unit is, everyone should know about this already."
Everyone swung their hands up. They are really interested or rather my classmates are interested in a different aspect of the first male IS pilot.
"Kagurazaka? Perhaps you know."
"Ah…"
I stood up and answered, of course I know.
"[Byakushiki] or to be precise [Byakushiki Setsura]."
Everyone looked at me and smiled. Was that really that big of a deal that I know everyone knows this already. Heck even young children know.
"Good then. Next question."
I sat down as Misato brought out another question.
"Can anyone tell me what's the main [One-off Ability] of his IS."
Ariel raised her hand faster than the rest.
"[Reiraku Byakuya]!"
"Correct, Thorndyke. Can anyone explain what's the effect of that [One-off Ability]."
Geek raised her hand when everyone did not raise theirs; this question was quite elusive for everyone.
"It destroys energy, first it started off as energy negation but later it truly became energy destruction ability. While destroying is impossible even with the technology today, it was achieved in that time by him by evolving with his IS. Better yet, he can manipulate it into an area-of-effect capable of destroying energy within a large radius. That technology is considered as I-tech."
Wow, Geek really knows. She researched about this.
"What's an I-tech?"
My classmates started murmuring; they don't know what Geek just, of course me, Alexis, Ariel and Tyra included.
"For those who don't know, I-tech is short for Impossible technology. All I-tech cannot be replicated for the original."
Everyone started murmuring.
Then more question started popping up right after but I feel like all of them are straying too far from the topic of interest.
"Katsuragi-sensei, do you know who Ichika Orimura ended up with?"
And there the trick question was brought out of the bag. Everyone was very interested in knowing who married Ichika Orimura.
While maybe the reason why they are interested is because of girly things but different from them… I'm more interested about it because of more serious reasons.
I can say the same for my friends; I don't need to look at them to know how absorbed they are about this.
"It must be Houki Shinonono, they are childhood friends!"
"No Charlotte Dunois!"
"Definitely Natasha Fairs!"
"Chifuyu Orimura! Her big sister is the only thing that can top the power of Ichika Orimura!"
Then more names popped up after those four, apparently this is the part of Ichika Orimura my classmates know so well.
"Unfortunately for your girls, there is no trustworthy information regarding this. Since Ichika Orimura at some time over his 4th year in the IS academy or after that disappeared along with some of his friends." Misato tried to calm the class down but it did not work because everyone was still adamant at their preferred pair for the first male IS pilots.
While everyone was busy squabbling about who ended up with Ichika Orimura. I was thinking of a different thing, but very much related to this.
I don't think he just married one woman.
By overhearing some of the conversations from the scientists in the sanctuary and of course by our own research led by Geek, we found out that in each descendants has the gene of Ichika Orimura which have been identified already and another gene. While it's like the gene of the mother and father in the child but we have identified 11 different genes that are paired with Ichika Orimura's gene and I'm quite positive that there are more to be discovered.
There is only one explanation for this, though this is not yet proven with conclusive evidence. I'm certain that Ichika Orimura married many women.
And if this is true… whom did I descend from? Who did my friends descend from?
Better yet… what kind of power does our have ancestor has… I know for a fact that we are not normal. My friends and even me… we aren't normal. We possess abilities that aren't found in humans…
I have heard before from Misato-san, that during the WWIII, a different war was being waged behind its curtains.
It was the hunt for those the descended from the Orimura. Those that instigated the hunt were afraid of us… why? Were our ancestors evil?
That hunt was not a success though since Misato-san said back then that there are many out there that needs to be found…
I pressed my terminal and viewed the image of the first male IS pilot, our ancestor.
Something about him screams power… even with his gentle face… he is definitely a man who wields power I can't even begin to describe.
I looked out the window and looked at the azure sky…
"Guess I'll look for the answers myself…"