Re-write of Chapter 2. Taking out the past versions of Ichika and Dan, possibly permanently, from the story as of now. Maybe later, but kid introductions have to come first.
Boring. It was incredibly boring.
This was the general feeling that surrounded the class as the lecture continued on.
Maya Yamada was trying (and failing) to teach the class along with Chifuyu Orimura. The one who was supposed to teach the class, Kinoshita-sensei, was out on maternal leave and the school couldn't find a replacement on time. As a result, the two of them had to take her place.
The current lesson they were supposed to teach was on Equalizer's, the modifications used for the Infinite Stratos. The process and description required to both understand and properly utilize the Equalizer's were a long and difficult one, requiring a steady and committed mind.
In short: It was extremely long and boring.
So much so that when rumors of uninvited guests, namely children, started to spread around the campus, they had taken to talking about that rather than listening to the long and boring lecture.
"C-Class, p-please pay attention." The green haired teacher said with obvious distress in her voice.
"Hey, do you think..."
"...I don't know, everyone's saying..."
The whispering around the room hadn't stopped even now and Maya was getting really worried at this point. What would Kinoshita-sensei say when she came back to find her class failing the exam's all because she couldn't teach properly? Oh, she could just imagine the disappointed look and sighs she was going to get. It always made her feel bad when that happened.
While Maya was distressing herself to the possible sighing she was going to get, Chifuyu was thinking to herself, 'I know class is boring but are rumors of two kids that entertaining?'
Neither Maya or Chifuyu believed the rumors of the two kids on campus; it was impossible for trained personnel to sneak in let alone a couple of kids. They should know, they saw what happened to two agents who tried to sneak in.
They never did get those stains out.
*FWEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP*
The loud sound of a whistle suddenly echoed around the room, startling everyone into silence. The class looked forward and met the sight of a very angry Chifuyu Orimura glaring at them.
"This is a classroom not a gossip column! Everyone keep quiet and listen!" She yelled out. The entire class was shocked into silence, nobody dared to utter a peep lest they make her angrier.
"Anyone who talks without being addressed first will have to run 50 laps in an IS without using the boosters, is that clear?" Nobody answered her.
"I said is that clear!" She said louder this time.
"Yes, Orimura-sensei!" The entire class answered. Nobody ever wanted to test if she actually followed through with her cruel punishments or not. Shinonono's and Alcott's treatment beforehand made it evident she didn't play favorites. She reminded everyone of a certain tyrant from Japanese history.
"A-Alright...time to continue the lesson I guess." Maya took a deep breath before continuing, "W-Well, Equalizers are additions to an IS normally used to improve battle synergy. Units are limited by the number of units they can take, from as much as 20 at once to as little as none at all."
"Equalizers are useful in the fact that they can turn the tide of a match." She turned to the screen behind which showed the image of a Rafael IS, "The Rafael, for example, is known as versatile unit due to its ability to quickly switch weapons mid-combat and give them to other units, too. Unfortunately, once the power has been lost it becomes useless till the next mat-"
"Excuse me, isn't that wrong? Someone interrupted.
All of the students looked at each other, fear etched on their faces. Did someone just interrupt the lesson without being called first? They looked at each other for a few more seconds before a cough interrupted them. They turned back to look at the source.
Sitting on the back row was a 10 year old girl, her silver hair tied into a ponytail that went all the way to her lower back, exposing her blood red eyes. The uniform she was wearing was different from everybody else's - black with a red trim and an armband for identification – and completing the odd mish mash was the eyepatch she had on her left eye socket.
She looked like something that came straight out of a kid's cartoon.
"W-What- Who are you and what are you doing here?" Maya asked her. She was trying to ignore the fact that a little girl claimed to know more about IS related subjects than her, a qualified teacher.
The girl just shrugged along with the rest of the class. No one wanted to test breaking the rule Chifuyu-sensei had set. For all they knew, this was some kind of test to see if they could follow instructions. They wouldn't put it past her.
"My point still stands, isn't what you said wrong?" She replied back. She ignored the stares the others were giving her. Proving herself right was more important.
"W-What do you mean?"
"Equalizers can be used in tandem between two units as long as they are charged, even if it has lost power one unit can still give up its shield energy to ensure its use." She said it as if it was the most common thing in the world.
Maya thought to herself for a moment, "Huh, I guess that does make se-W-Wait a minute! Who are you anyway!" She yelled out.
The girl stood up from her seat before doing a small bow, "Orimura Celeste, I was born of the union between Orimura Ichika and Laura Bodewig."
"..."
"..."
"""""""WHAT!"""""""
"Impossible! Orimura-kun didn't have sex yet, right!"
"The walls aren't soundproof, so we'd hear if he did it...right?...Right!"
"I could've sworn I bugged his room room to notify me if he did anything out of the ordinary..."
The entire class suddenly erupted into chaos until they remembered the punishment for speaking and quieted down again. Which was wise considering some of the things they were blurting out.
'O-Orimura-kun having s-s-s-s-sex! Nonononono, don' think of it, just don't!' Maya shook her head to try and ignore the image of Ichika...procreating and tried to focus on the task at hand. It wouldn't do for a teacher to think that way of her student.
"Um...where did you come from?" Maya asked unsurely to the young girl.
"When my father gave birth to me, I was born." She replied back in a strict tone. Maya sweatdropped. She really didn't mean it literally.
The entire class managed to stay quiet, but every word they heard brought more tears to their eyes. Oh, the struggles of Maiden's in Love (or at least they thought they were) shall never cease.
"Um...Isn't it the opposite?" Maya pointed out.
She shook her head, "No. My father is labeled as the wife and my Mother the opposite. All children know they came from the wife, not the husband. Is this not correct?"
"..."
"..."
"...Tabane!" A single voice broke through.
Chifuyu suddenly stormed out of the classroom in anger, leaving Maya to deal with the ten year old girl and a class full of distraught teenagers.
"...Kinishita-sensei, why today of all days?"
Houki Shinonono, Lingyin Huang, Cecilia Alcott, and Laura Bodewing. 4 girls privileged enough to own their own personal IS units. To call them best friends wouldn't exactly be correct, but to call them enemies would be even more wrong. They didn't hate each other, far from it really, they actually preferred to stay in each other's company when not with a certain boy.
The only thing they could be described as would be rivals. All of them had the same goal: A certain clueless male pilot, but that didn't stop them working together once in a while.
Normally they didn't all stay in a group together, a Maiden's privacy and all that, but today was an emergency. Laura had overheard her roommate Charlotte last night about some kind of plan she had to spend more time with Ichika with no chance of interruptions.
Laura may have been a military genius, but she was no expert on secret love plans, so she did the only thing she knew at that point. That is, she bluntly asked Charlotte what her plan was so she could interrupt it when it happens.
Needless to say the 'brilliant plan' didn't exactly work out as planned, so she did the next best thing her training called for: Calling on trusted allies.
Unfortunately, Clarissa was unavailable because she actually found a boyfriend and the other Shwarzer Hase were off duty at the moment, so she did the next best thing after that: Wander around aimlessly till she thought of something.
Thankfully, Rin noticed her vacant expression earlier that day and asked her what was wrong. After some explanation she gathered the other two and agreed to work together to find out what was going on. As they said, 'the rival of my rival is my friend'.
Currently the 4 of them were making their way to Laura and Charlotte's shard room. With luck, they could find evidence of her so called plan.
"Laura-san, what do you think she has planned?" Houki asked the silver haired soldier curiously. She had her doubts on this considering Charlotte was usually the most straightforward one in the group and rarely ever hid things.
"I don't know." She shook her head, dejected, "She is truly a worthy rival indeed for her to be able to hide it from me."
"I didn't think Charlotte-san was capable of hiding something so well that even Laura-san wouldn't know." Cecilia commented off-handedly.
"Yeah, well, she did drag Ichika to the changing room that one time." Rin reminded them.
The rest of the walk was quiet after that until they reached the room.
As they were about to enter the room, the sound of voices reached Laura's ears, "Wait!" Laura held her hand up before crouching down and placing her head against the doorway.
"What's wrong, Laura?" Rin asked.
"There are voices, two females, based on the voices they're most likely between around... 12 years old? No, that can't be right" She continued to listen in, "It sounds like one of the is panicking and the other is trying to calm her down." She relayed.
"...Should we go in?" Cecilia asked.
Laura listened in for a few more seconds before nodding her head. Standing, she kicked the door in as fast as she could before rushing into the room, the others behind her.
"...Ah, we've been found."
"Took you long enough, I was wondering how long we'd have to stay here before someone came."
Two figures stood in the room. Or rather, one was sitting and the other was standing. The one who was sitting on the bed wore a gray tracksuit and had somewhat long black hair tied in a ponytail. The other one was a girl with silver hair tied in three distinct knots and wore a plain white dress.
"W-Wha...?" Laura was at a loss for words. She certainly didn't know how to deal with kids.
The black haired one shook placed her palm against her face and sighed, "I'm guessing this is another one of Aunt Tabane's experiments?" She looked back at them, "So, what is it this time? Alternate dimension? Body switch? I'm really hoping it isn't body switch."
"T-Tabane-sama wouldn't do such a foolish thing!" The silver haired girl standing next to the bed argued.
"Oh really? You didn't see what she tried to do when she finished watching that 'Back to the Future' marathon. The skid marks still haven't been removed."
By now all of them were in the room and were just as confused as Laura was. Were they seeing things? Did stress finally break their minds?
"T-That doesn't matter right now." The three-tailed girl started, "I need to find Tabane-sama, she may be in danger. The time machine was unstable and may have placed her in danger."
"Oh, so it is a time machine." The black haired girl did a long drawn out sigh, "Time travel experiments never work. We told her that after she tried making that copy of the Delorean. I should've known she'd never follow it."
"I must have been transported elsewhere when the machine overloaded. I hope Tabane –sama is not hurt..."
The two of them kept mumbling to each other, ignoring the other 4 girls in the room.
"...Uh, who are you two?" Rin finally found the nerve to interrupt.
The two of them seemed to remember that they weren't the only two in the room anymore and looked back at them. A look of surprise crossed the black haired girls face for a second before she bowed in apology.
"Ah, sorry, kinda forgot about you for a minute the- Wait, Aunt Rin, is that you?" She smiled at her.
"Aunt Rin? What are you talking about" This was officially the weirdest day of her life.
"Yeah, I recognize the others too." She pointed at each of them in order, "Aunt Laura, Aunt Cecilia, and Aunt Houki. At least the people who found us are familiar." She sighed in relief.
"W-Wait, could you please explain what you're talking about?" Cecilia asked.
The black haired girl looked confused at her statement, "Huh? What are-" She suddenly gasped, "Oh, right, time machine. You probably don't know who I am yet, right?" She took their silence as confirmation.
"Alright, introductions then." She pointed to the girl beside her, "The three tailed girl over there's Kuu. Usually she'd be at least 12 years older than me, but not right now." She pointed at herself next, "Name's Asuka Orimura. 12 years old, but you probably already know that."
"O-Orimura?" Houki wasn't mistaken, she heard her right, "How are you related to Ichika and Chifuyu-san?"
Asuka rubbed the back of her head slowly. She always hated it when people asked that. It was always awkward
"...Right, this might come as a bit of a shock, but I'm...their kid."
"Th-Their child! But...that's impossible! Ichika-san and Chifuyu-san are siblings!" Cecilia protested. The others were too frozen in shock to respond.
"...Love transcends all?"
Hope this one's better. Please read, review, and comment.
