IS Ch.2 – Less Canon, More Fiction

Author's Note:

Well, that was a fun experiment. It's really hard to turn an anime into a bunch of words. It felt like I was trying to write a book report on the movie of a book. Wait…IS started out as a series of light novels so…..dammit.

Ag, fail...I just realized that in this episode they pan over the entire class. I really don't want to rewrite the story for that small detail, so please just gloss over it, pretty please ^v^

Whatever, I said I was going to do this, so I shall. Doesn't hurt that IS is pretty good anyways; although I figure it isn't mainstream enough to attract a whole lot of attention. That's fine though, I only need the attention of one person. I'll continue to put my all into this, and hopefully finish before season two. Hope you enjoy reading this!

Chapter Start

After that declaration of war, Orimura-sensei took a bit of time to calm down the class. Still tired from the long night I spent yesterday taking care of my make-up work, I leaned forward onto my arms, trying my best to keep from sleeping in class again. When I heard what Orimura said next, for a second I thought I really was dreaming: "Orimura, regarding your IS. It will require time to make it operational. There are no unassigned units, so the school will order one exclusively for your use."

Excited whispers filled the room, ones that I didn't pay attention to in favor of using my AR system to look up Orimura's data.

_Orimura Ichika, 15 years old, Japan

_Personal IS: Requested by IS Academy

_Current equipment: Classified (Alaska Pact II,1)

_Psychological Profile: Classified (Alaska Pact II,1)

I dismissed the screen, as the database didn't have anymore information regarding him. Noticing the classified status, I made a mental note to ask Orimura-sensei if her brother was also assisting with IS Research. Then I used the AR system to make an actual note with reminder to ask Orimura-sensei about that. I realized this was going to take some time to get used to.

A sharp, haughty laugh penetrated my thoughts, drawing my attention from the AR display to the blonde English Representative Cecilia Alcott standing directly in front of Orimura..

"I'm glad to hear the news," she declared (translated by my faithful translator program). "This Class Representative Cup! Who will win is obvious, but it would be unfair for me to be in my personal unit and you in a training unit."

I looked past the blonde towards the teachers. Yamada-sensei was patiently waiting to restart the class. Orimura-sensei, after catching my eye, walked out of the classroom. I met Yamada's eyes in turn, and she used hers to motion towards the door. With everyone's attention on the two class representative candidates, I slipped out the back door, almost crashing into Orimura-sensei. She sidestepped me smoothly and continued walking to the vending machines at the end of the corridor. I followed her, crossing an item off my memo list.

"Sensei," I started, "why is Orimura's info classified?"

"Hmmm, that'll be a problem," Sensei acknowledged. "We'll declassify all student records on file to you."

"Thanks, but..." I began, but Sensei gave a green tea and started heading back to class.

Taking the hint, I followed Sensei back to class in step. I mirrored my previous movement, entering through the back door as quietly as possible. A few heads turned to regard me, but I shook my tea back as an excuse. Like a phantom, Sensei resumed her position back in class as if she never left at all, just as a girl was explaining to Orimura something about how IS cores were distributed. Without missing a beat, Orimura-sensei added onto the explanation, "Fundamentally speaking, personal IS are given only to those who work for nations or belong to companies. But given your unique status, a personal IS will be prepared in the interest of data collection. Do you understand your position?"

"Kind of..." came her brother's reply. Sensei's eyes hardened for the slimmest margin of a second, before a girl asked a certain question that bothered me ever since the IS history course yesterday.

"Ano, Sensei. Is Shinonono-san related to Dr. Shinonono?"

Even though she introduced herself to me as Houki, she also told me her full name, Shinonono Houki. Curious, I pulled up her info on my display.

_Shinonono Houki, 15 years old, Japan

_Personal IS: Uchigane Training IS 243 (shared)

_Current Equipment: Standard Training Katana

_Standard Training Rifle

_Psychological Profile: Not available.

At least it didn't say "classified" this time, but I wondered when Sensei would actually get around to lifting the info restriction on me. A quick check on Orimura told me my settings still haven't changed, so I dismissed the AR.

As for the question regarding the two Shinonono's relationship, Sensei confirmed, "Yes. Shinonono is her younger sister."

Once again, the room erupted in chaos. The girlish screams once again reverberated painfully in my head. I did my best to muffle the sound with my hands, but it was ineffective. Before too long thankfully, I was saved with Houki's declaration.

"I have nothing to do with that person!" She stated loudly. The chatter immediately stopped. She hesitated a bit before continuing, "I am not that person. There is nothing I can tell you."

This caused the class to quietly converse with each other in low murmurs. Having none of that nonsense, Sensei ordered Yamada in a stern voice, "Yamada-sensei, the class, please." I noticed that Sensei took a tone she never used before, and even called Yamada with a title, instead of the "kun" suffix she usually used. She probably had some business of her own regarding the two Shinonono, but that was none of my business. I dropped that thought like a hammer and spent more attention than necessary taking in Yamada's lecture. After this lecture, I thought that this was the first time I ever felt lucky to be in IS Academy.

According to Yamada, IS covered the pilots body with a force field known as Absolute Defense. Like its name infers, Absolute Defense protects the pilots against all manners of conventional and energy-based weaponry. However, with the advancements in IS technology, it was possibly to either bypass or outright overpower AD enough to cause pain and even damage to the pilots. Stressing that point, she also mentioned that IS had a "consciousness" of its own. The more time a pilot spends in an IS, the more the IS learns how that person thinks. In layman's terms, this was known as a sync rate. To assist us in getting used to this concept, Yamada advised us to think of an IS as a partner, rather than a tool. Right on cue, someone asked a question that turned an enlightening topic on IS to a distraction so lame that I walked out of the room:

"Question: When you say partner, do you mean like lovers?"

My last glimpse of the room before I left was a flustered Yamada, hugging herself with little to no doubt thinking back on her own experience with IS.

I gulped the green tea Sensei got for me in one shot. After that, I hurried as fast as I could to the kitchen and nipped a bit of cooking brandy. I definitely needed something with alcohol in it to take away the disturbing images in my head regarding a lover's relationship with an IS. Another first, this time my first time regretting going to a country that actively enforced the age limit for drinking.

After being reprimanded by the chef (and being forgiven by him when I promised to make him something with it later), I returned to class, passing by a smirking Orimura-sensei. I knew I was going to get hit with extra homework again.

I stopped by Nefer's class and asked her, "You know any good dishes that involve brandy?" Some of her classmates perked up at the idea, but I ignored them and waited for Nefer's answer.

"You can make a pretty good baste for poultry with it, but you don't use enough to get drunk. Why?"

I told her what happened in class, and she rested her hand on my head. Of course, to allow her to do so I had to kneel. "Jeez, Ate. I don't know why relationships get you like that. You definitely overreacted. I'm surprised no one noticed. Did you have a bad one before I came along?"

Letting her mess with my short hair, I defended myself with, "It's not that I had a bad relationship. It's just I'm really disappointed with the girls in my class. With he development of IS, women should be more independent and free. They should be practical and pragmatic and strong. But these girls are all romance and so...girly, you know?"

"That's even lamer than the reason you stormed out in the first place," Nefer admonished me. "Even as a strong, confident woman [I snickered at this, earning a smack on the head from Nefer], I would still want to fall in love and have a man to stay by my side at all times." She moved her hands to mine, and cradled them tenderly.

I smiled at her and said, "I'm sure you'll find some nice guy."

Nefer scowled at me. "Or woman?" I ventured.

Nefer scowled deeper and turned red. She shoved my hands back at me. I shrugged helplessly and started to leave. Nefer called to my back, "I'll write a recipe down, so you cook it for dinner. And it better be good!"

I answered back, "Sure." I added a thumbs up above my head and returned to class.

Class continued without incident, save for the extra work Sensei sent to me privately over campus e-mail. At lunch, I stayed a bit behind to organize the extra homework and copy down the notes I missed out on while I was drinking my imagination away. Orimura invited the class to go eat lunch with him and Houki, to which the most energetic trio of girls in the class responded quickly. Orimura remarked to Houki, "It's nice to get along as classmates, right? Don't you agree?"

I couldn't hear, but it seemed that Houki rejected his invitation. Orimura attempted to drag her out of her chair, but only succeeded in making Houki verbally reject him.

"Hey! I said I won't go!" Houki reiterated.

"What? You don't wanna walk? Do you need a piggyback ride?" Orimura teased.

Distraught by the implications, Houki panicked and shoulder charged Orimura to the ground with a loud "Let go!". I thought to myself, "how violent feisty".

It seemed like Orimura didn't mind, as he got up calmly and started bantering with Houki. The energy trio backed away from Orimura and Houki with an apologetic "On second thought, I think we'll pass."

Taking the opportunity, I asked the girls if they wanted to eat with me instead. They accepted, obviously regretting not eating with Orimura but not wanting to be rude and deny my request. I quickly finished organizing my notes and such, when a familiar but unexpected face found me near the exit.

"Hey Nefer, I see you've found my class."

In response, she puffed up her cheeks and marched to the elevator. I shrugged and faced the trio to ask, "Shall we go?"

Off put by Nefer's actions, the girls apologized, citing that they already packed a lunch. I smiled understandingly, saying "It's ok. Maybe some other time. If you'll excuse me, I got some damage control to take care of."

I turned around and headed out the door, getting about a quarter of the way down the corridor when I heard footsteps behind me following my rhythm. I looked back and saw the short girl with long sleeves had followed me with a carefree smile.

I smiled a happier smile back at her and led her to the elevators, narrowly missing Nefer's solitary car as she stuck her tongue at me through the closing doors.

"So who was that?" the sleepy-looking girl inquired. "She seems to like you a lot."

I smiled at her and answered, "That's Nefer. She's my roommate."

"Ne-fe-ru," the girl sounded out. "Ne-fe-ru. Neferu." she smiled that sleepy smile at the sound of the odd sounding name.

"By the way, I'm Sever. It's nice to meet you." I bowed slightly as we waited for another car.

Again, she sounded out the odd sounding name: "Se-be-ru. Se-be-ru. Seberu." This one was a bit harder for her to pronounce due to there being no "V" sound in Japanese.

"I'm Nohotoke Honne. You can call me Honne-chan or Nohohon if you like." The girl introduced herself with a matching bow, just as the other elevator opened up. We pushed our way into the occupied elevator. An uncomfortable short time that extended into an eternity finally ended when the elevator stopped on the ground floor. I asked Nohotoke, "What shall we eat for lunch?"

As I asked this, I saw Nefer look in my direction, get up and walk in the opposite direction of the classrooms, instead heading for the dorms. I guessed she was still mad about the teasing in public, so I decided to prepare my heart for whatever prank she felt would make us even.

"Hmmm, is Neferu-san your girlfriend?" Honne asked.

I raised a skeptical eyebrow at her. "You do know I'm a girl?" I cautiously questioned back.

"Love takes all forms! And they're all beautiful!" the girl declared, her sleepy eyes fully opened and shining. "It can even overcome the boundaries of sex, age, and race!"

"That's probably true," I acquiesced. I figured it would be poor manners to disagree with her when she's so passionate about the subject. "Well, at the very least she's an important person to me."

The excited girl examined me carefully. Seemingly satisfied, she resumed her carefree persona, and chose the lunch set special with her ID. "Today, we got a fresh batch of fish," she informed me. She started to drool and wiped it off with her long sleeves.

"It's just fish and rice," I condescendingly read off the board. I still pushed the button for the sushi set, guessing what was going to happen next.

Her eyes once again opened up, the passion of love replaced with the ardor of pride. With a finger towards the chef in the back working diligently, she declared "Fish is a Japanese's lifeblood! I'll prove that to you!" She began dictating what sides to add to the set for both our meals. Without any room to get a word in, I pulled up Honne's info.

_Nohotoke Honne, 15 years old, Japan

_Personal IS: Uchigane Training IS 240 (shared)

_Current Equipment: Standard Training Katana

_Standard Training Rifle

_Psychological Profile: Energetic, Quick to Respond to Challenges

Well, duh, I thought to myself as Honne led me to her favorite table in the back.

I returned to class without checking on Nefer in the dorm. I was going to finish lunch early to see what was wrong with her, but I got so engrossed with talking about food with Honne that before I knew it, lunch break was over. Gulping the rest down, we rushed back to the elevators, barely making it in time to squeeze between an uncountable amount of girls. More uncomfortable moments passed until the elevator doors opened again at our floor. The entire mass of students purged out of the elevator as fast as possible, while Honne and I caught our breath off to the side. I grabbed my ID and got an orange soda, while Honne pulled out a thermos. We clinked beverages and took deep swigs. We continued into class, barely making it in before the bell rang. With a sharp glare, Orimura-sensei motioned us to our seats while Yamada started the next lecture.

Today, Yamada decided to continue the lecture on IS cores that Orimura and that one girl started earlier in the morning. In short, there are only 467 IS cores in the world, distributed by their creator Shinonono Tabane. Per the Alaska Pact, the exact distribution of cores was not made public, however it was fairly obvious that Japan held the majority of the cores for the purpose of training. These cores were in the mass-produced IS Uchigane, which students of the Academy shared between them. These cores were also special in that they were able to sync to multiple pilots at the expense of being relatively weak compared to Personal IS. As a side-note, Yamada mentioned that the Academy also had foreign units, such as the Raphael Revive from France. The foreign units were given to outstanding students, due to the fact they couldn't sync with as many multiple students like the Uchigane.

A great deal more information later, Yamada finally stopped her lecture and ended class for the day. Since I didn't receive any orders to report to the R&D labs, I decided to check out the clubs the Academy offered. I stopped by to pick up Nefer, who seemed to be a great deal happier. She even skipped all the way to the elevator, dragging me all the way, and shoved to the front of the crowd waiting for the elevator. She stopped at the car, and gave an incredibly evil grin. The girls all backed away as Nefer forced me into the car. The girls gave me a pitying look as I waved back sadly through the closing door. As the elevator descended, my mood followed, while Nefer just kept grinning and grinning that evil grin of hers. She led me to our dorm, opening the door and inviting me in, saying, "You must be really tired. I know you stayed up last night doing homework. You should take a quick nap."

"Uh...no thanks Nefer," I replied, not able to look her in the eyes. "Um...I was thinking I was going to go...see...clubs...I guess."

"Oh no, no, no. You should take a nap, at least. The clubs will still be there when you wake up." With that, she moved as fast as lightning behind me to shut the door. She ushered me into bed, uniform and all, and shoved me face up onto my bed sheets.

Immediately, I felt a weird stickiness on my back, arms, and legs. I attempted to raise my body off the bed, but found I was glued almost entirely to my bed. Luckily, I didn't feel anything in my hair as it was tucked in my clothes. Nefer removed her blazer and straddled my captured body. Clad in her skirt and blouse, she grabbed my blazer collar and drew close to my face.

"Who was that girl who you went to lunch with?" She whispered huskily.

"A classmate." I kept my answers short and succinct. When Nefer got like this, the best strategy was to keep my answers short so I wouldn't babble and to be honest so I wouldn't get nervous. Any sign of weakness would be pounced upon by Nefer-mon Crazy Mode.

"And what did you do with that classmate?" her whispers drew ever slowly to my ear.

"We had lunch. She introduced me to something worthwhile to eat in the cafeteria." Telling her this much was against my strategy for dealing with Nefer when she's this way, but she accelerated her tactics compared to last time. I needed to enact Contingency Plan B.

"Oh. Then why didn't you finish quickly? I was waiting for you to come get me in the dorm before class." She opened her mouth, preparing to bite me with all her strength. I judged the distance, then started Contingency Plan B.

I lifted my head, the only part I could move, and latched onto Nefer's nose with my teeth through my lips. Then I twisted my head to the opposite side as fast as I could in that odd position. This hurt Nefer slightly, and she recoiled back into an upright position. I used the slack in my stuck blazer to wrench my arms out of the sleeves, then forced the buttons to pop off. With the blazer opened, I sat up quickly and embraced Nefer as hard as I could before she could react.

"I'm sorry I left you all alone, Nefer." I held her head to my shoulder with my tight hug. She responded by crying silently into my blouse. I let her cry until she fell asleep. Slipping off my trousers, I carried her to her own bed. I changed her clothes into comfortable pajamas and pulled her covers over her. Then, I sanitized her arm, found a vein and injected her with the anxiety medication her doctor prescribed her. Originally, it was to be taken orally, but she would find new ways of getting rid of the tablets. We consulted a specialist and he recommended an IV to be administered when she was asleep. Yesterday, I forgot to administer her medication, so I made a solemn vow to never forget again.

I used Nefer's cell to call housekeeping, and asked them to replace my mattress as well as to get me a new uniform with trousers instead of a skirt. Using Nefer's ID, I authorized the purchase of the new clothes and mattress. They told me they would replace them before dinner and that I should go do something fun while I wait. I asked them to go ahead anyways, but to just be quiet as I was to borrow my roommate's bed.

I left a note to Nefer letting her know exactly what I did and that I would grab her for dinner around 7 pm. I slipped off what was left of my uniform and put on a sports bra, tank-top, and track pants. After thinking it over, I also put on a pair of work fingerless gloves and well used jika-tabi. I headed out to the stadium, where the majority of the athletic clubs practiced. One of the first clubs I visited was the Kendo club. While there, I witnessed Orimura get knocked down repeatedly by Houki, all for the sake of learning to use IS apparently. While the first few times were funny, it quickly lost its humor as Houki demonstrated again and again her superiority over Orimura's lack of skill.

I stopped by the Soccer club, and was even allowed to sub in for the last period of the practice game. I slipped on a jersey, and was lucky enough to score a goal with heavy assistance from the senior members. Unfortunately, my team lost as I could not protect the ball at all. At the end of the game, they invited me into the club, but I told them I wanted to check out some of the others first. But, whenever I have time, I'd love to join them again.

Next on my tour was the Lacrosse club. Unfortunately, they were doing maintenance for their field and couldn't play, so they practice their scoops and throws. I watched for a bit and then continued to the Tennis club. Another game I wasn't to familiar with, I watched as the girls volleyed balls to each other. Another group was practicing serves, and they waved me over to try myself. All my shots ended up hitting everywhere except the rectangle they were supposed to. Frustrated, I curtly returned the racket to them and finally arrived at my main goal: the Cooking club. I would've have came here first, if the club didn't start until late. As expected, my friend the Chef was there and was the main advisor for the club. He greeted me with a hearty, "I was wondering when you'd get here!"

I smiled back and he and I spent the some time teaching the less experienced girls how to cook basic dishes like omelets. At about 6, I excused myself so that I could go complete my last objective. Unfortunately, I had to promise to come back at 7, so I sent Nefer an email to meet me at the cooking club around then.

I arrived at the stadium, breathless after sprinting all the way back. I regained my stamina by inhaling deeply with my diaphragm, just as I did escaping from the trampling crowd of girls when I first arrive at IS Academy. The stadium's arena was a large circle surrounded by bleachers for the students to watch IS battles. There were four runways placed in the four cardinal directions for the IS to launch from. At the top of the north runway, there was a tower from where the teachers and support staff can monitor the battle. Between the North and East runways, there was a box for VIPs to watch the battles. As the battles they were invited to typically were in the morning, they sat facing away from the sun, while an awning protected their heads from Japan's harsh sunlight. I stood below the north runway, gaging the height of the wall with my eyes. They looked to be about 10 feet off the ground, relatively difficult but possibly for me to climb. I started a stopwatch program with my AR and ran towards the wall. I jumped as high as I could, then kicked off the wall for some extra height. I extended my left hand towards the inside edge, barely catching it by my fingertips. I reeled myself in, grabbing the top of the wall with my other hand and hoisting myself onto the 8 inch wide wall. I ran along it, crouched to avoid hitting my head on the low ceiling and with careful footsteps practiced with years of experience. I reached the bleachers and started vaulting up the 5 rows while running forward. Reaching the last bleacher, I started vaulting down the bleachers, only to return when I reached the bottom again. After returning to the top bleacher, I kicked off the top wall and vaulted over the awning near the west runway. I ran across the following roof and jumped onto the runway itself 10 feet below me. I absorbed the shock by rolling forward and reached the end of the runway. Instead of stopping, I did a long jump. I easily cleared the 30 or so feet to the low wall afterwards, partly in thanks to the fact it was about 5 feet lower than the runway. I absorbed this fall by coiling my body and stabilizing myself with my gloved hands. I continued this pattern of running to the bleachers, vaulting my way up and down, vaulting onto the next runway and long jumping down to the next wall until I reached the North runway once again. I finally stopped, collapsing on the sun-warmed metal while I struggled to catch my breath again. I checked my time: 25 minutes flat.

My AR chirped me a message from Orimura-sensei: "That was an impressive run. The entire stadium staff stopped what they were doing to watch your performance. Unfortunately, we can't have you getting injured because of your thrill-seeking so your activity has been banned. Report to R&D 13 everyday at 5pm starting tomorrow. Dress comfortably." Included with the message was an attached video. I opened it and saw a recording of me racing around the stadium in alarmingly high resolution. If I squinted, I could even see my AR pendant, stubbornly staying in position despite my active movements. I turned towards the observation tower and bowed to them, imagining wild cheers and whistles coming form the staff. Leaving the stadium through the North runway's maintenance area, I returned to my dorm to find a new uniform folded on top of my new mattress. Nefer was nowhere to be seen, so I changed into my uniform and left to fulfill my obligations.

I returned to the Cooking club where the impromptu cooking class proudly displayed to me the fruits of their labor. Amongst the budding chefs, I found Nefer: her own dish golden yellow.

"Glad to see you're actually doing stuff, rather then just looking up recipes for me to try." I whispered to her.

"As the de facto president," the chef started, "I decided to wait for you to return so you could have first taste."

"Sorry," I apologized to the group for my lateness. "Orimura-sensei assigned me extra classes around this time due to my poor ability in studying," I lied through my teeth, remembering that anything regarding R&D was to be kept confidential from everyone. "But if I do well, I can probably get some days off to visit," I smiled.

Disappointed, the chef replied, "Well, it's better than nothing. At least these omelets came out real well! After teaching them to cook basic ones, I showed them how to put fillings in. Try them out, there are some interesting ones."

I went down the line, taking large bites out of everyones omelets, ranging from a twin-tailed girl's green onion omelette to Nefer's hotdog and marinara sauce concoction. That one actually turned out quite well to my disbelief. I ended up eating about a third of everyone's omelet, allowing the chef to take a bite as well and the girls themselves to finish it off for lunch. The chef brought out some other foods he prepared while teaching and we all had dinner together. Nefer sought out a seat near me and we all exchanged stories about cooking. I was glad that Nefer had started talking with other people and trying new things out. Even more so, this was her first time actually cooking and it came out real well. Normally, she just looked up stuff for me to cook and was really good at reciting recipes form memory. I rubbed her head affectionately and whispered, "Thanks" into her ear. She blushed cutely and started picking at her food.

After dinner, Nefer and I excused ourselves to do homework. Just like before, somehow Nefer was able to help and sometimes even teach me some of the concepts in the extra homework I just keep receiving. Thanks to her, I got to sleep at an appreciable hour.

The next day, I went to class bright and dandy, Nefer following behind me. She went to her own class after giving me a hug goodbye, and I slid into my seat at the back of the class. Yamada started a lecture on the IS AR. Smirking at Orimura-sensei, she gave me a matching smirk for an instant before adopting her normal stoic expression. Consequently, I tuned Yamada out and started working on the AR homework Orimura-sensei assigned me after the surgery. Being able to call it up at a moment's notice was a godsend, considering a majority of the work were practical exercises designed to get me used to all the different displays and functions the AR was capable of.

We eventually broke for lunch, and returned to the continuation of Yamada's lesson on AR. I returned to the continuation of my homework. The few things I couldn't practice were the enhanced senses that the IS AR gave the pilot. Through use of the IS sensors, the pilot's senses, touch, sight, sound, smell, and to a lesser extent taste, were all heightened. Sight was especially heightened, all the way to 360^2 degree vision. However, this data needs to be "translated" into something the human body was used to. The efficiency of this translation was directly related to the sync rate an IS had with a pilot. As I had no IS sensors, I had no way of trying this out for myself.

Class ended without me getting extra homework assigned as usual, so I killed time playing soccer while waiting for 5 to roll around. As always, Nefer came along, but was satisfied with watching from the sidelines. At 4:45 or so, I excused myself from the game and had Nefer return to the dorm.

"Please let me come with you," she begged. "I can help you study, like last night."

"Sorry, Nefer, but didn't you join the cooking club?" I rebutted. "I expect you to keep your responsibilities. Don't worry, I promise to eat whatever you make, even if it's horrible."

As expected, she walked off in a huff, slapping my shoulder expecting it to hurt. I set a reminder to administer her shot later tonight with my AR. I returned to the dorm and changed into clothes similar to what I wore during my performance at the stadium yesterday. I sprinted to R&D 13, barely making it as the clock hit 5. The door opened and I staggered into the dark room. A spotlight lit up a podium near me. With the new light source, I noticed a green button on it that seemed to scream "Push me!"

So I did.

All of the lights flared to life and I heard a low whirr rumbled through the floor. The sight before my rendered me breathless for quite a while. I didn't even realize I literally forgot to breath when Orimura-sensei slapped me on the back.

"What do you think?" she asked. "This facility is for you to work on your acrobatics. We've brought in a variety of gymnastics equipment for you to use and mounted them onto moveable platforms so that you can arrange them however you see fit. The floor is padded so you don't hurt yourself to badly, but we also have gravity manipulators installed that you can use. Everything is controlled by that console, although you should be able to connect to it through your AR. Everything running the Academy's OS and wireless connected to the Academy network can be hacked into and controlled by your specific AR system with relative ease. Theoretically, you should be able to hack other tech as well, but you'll have to figure out how to do that yourself. As for now, practice with this console and then you can play to your heart's content. Oh, also feel free to teach some of the other students to run. We'd like to have our students learn non-IS skills like yours. Call it a club if you like. I can serve as the advisor."

With that explanation, she left me alone with my new playground. I found balance beams of varying sizes and lengths, vaulting horses of various thicknesses and heights, parallel and unparallel bars, hanging rings, trapeze bars, and even springs. I rubbed my hands together in anticipation. I spent the entire two hours before dinner messing with the console, figuring out exactly how to operate it through AR, then coding specific patterns I wanted to run, followed by my magnum opus: a program that completely randomized the positions of the equipment, the level of the lights, and even the gravity manipulators (though I decided not to use this part of the program regularly). I ran the randomizer program, watching the equipment rotate and move to random positions like a drunken dance. The lights dimmed to a level where I could barely see the equipment. I planned a route in my head that would take me to every piece of equipment without touching the ground. Basically, this program was an epic version of "The Floor is Lava" game I used to play as a kid.

I took a runner's starting position and started the AR stopwatch. I sprinted and launched myself up using the first floor spring. I landed softly on the low balance beam and sprinted across it, vaulting over the first horse, landing on a piece of plastic I conveniently left near it and slid under the next horse. Disregarding the impossibility of repeating that stunt over real lava, I coiled on top of the plastic, jumping off to bounce of another spring and grab the hanging rings, almost missing them due to the forward momentum I originally had. Using the rings to bleed off that momentum, I lightly dropped onto the balance beam shaped like a right angle. I followed it to the parallel bars, which I grind-ed across with my jika-tabi. I jumped at the end to hit the trapeze, another tool to bleed off my momentum. I dropped lightly again onto a vaulting horse to turn 90 degrees toward the unparallel bars. I gaged the jump and grabbed the low one, swinging around to land cat-like on top of it, holding desperately to not tilt over and hang upside-down. In this position, I noticed that I basically ruined my jika-tabi with the grinding stunt and resolved to find a better shoe to use for that. I decided to have a bit of fun and swung down from my perch. I swung back and forth to obtain momentum and after a good amount of swings was finally able to swing over the bar. I lowered the gravity and launched myself high into the air. I had enough momentum to kick off the ceiling like a ninja and land easily on the soft mat 20 feet below me.

I decided to go back to the dorm to recover from my adrenaline rush. Nefer arrived around dinner time and had me try her new creation, an omelet with rice and bacon. She said it was so I could have a full meal, all in one piece. It was a valiant effort, but it was so packed full of filler that it came apart in my hand.

"It's a good idea, but if you want to do this, you'll have to use less of the fillings, and also make much smaller servings. The egg can only support so much weight, you know."

"Makes sense," she admitted. "But will it taste good?"

"Let's find out," I replied, grabbing a spoon from a drawer and scooping out a healthy amount of egg, rice, and bacon. "Tastes like an All-American Breakfast. Good job!" With that comment, I devoured the experiment, then patted my stomach.

"With this kind of practice, you'd be a good wife," I noted.

Nefer blushed hard. She dove into bed without removing her uniform and covered her head with her sheets. I chuckled and dove into tonight's assigned homework, the AR stuff saved for a later date. After I finished, I injected Nefer with her medication after she fell asleep, changed into my own PJ's, and had the best sleep I've had in ages.

The days passed similarly to that day. I studied in class, ate lunch with Nefer or Honne (whom Nefer seemed to avoid whenever possible), killed time with the Soccer or Tennis club (after I gave them a second chance and learned to like it), then spent time until dinner messing with my playground, creating setups of different skill levels, waiting for the time I could formally introduce the Acrobatics Club to the Academy. Sunday came around and I spent that day visiting relatives on my Mother's side who lived in Japan. Nefer had her own relatives to visit and so we spent an uneventful but meaningful day reconnecting with family. And then Monday finally arrived in full battle regalia.

Immediately in the morning, Orimura-sensei had us all go down to the arena. Cecilia went with one of her friends to the south runway while Orimura, Houki, Orimura-sensei, and Yamada headed North. After a few minutes of preparation, Cecilia launched into the air in her personal IS Blue Tears. I reconfirmed her data in my AR display.

_Cecilia Alcott, 15 years old, IS Representative Cadet of England

_Personal IS: Blue Tears

_Current equipment: Starlight Mark III Laser Rifle

_Blue Tears UAV Package

_Psychological Profile: Not available

Blue Tears was obviously a long-range attack type with that long rifle she carried. I didn't see any trace of a melee weapon, but I figured that the Blue Tears UAV would somehow counter anyone lucky enough to bypass that rifle. The IS itself was very blue, and looked like armor and wings to the blonde angel inside. I would probably call her an angel to her face if it wasn't for her annoying, haughty voice. The only part that wasn't armored was her torso and head, both protected by the IS Absolute Defense. As we learned in Yamada's lecture, AD is the main armor of an IS, thus the lack of a need for full coverage. The armor on her extremities and her wings were actually fragile in practice. They would probably break under their own weight if it weren't for the reinforcing steel inside them and the AD. The AD capacity was represented by units of shield energy. The more shield energy, the more AD you have, and the more attacks you could endure. Unfortunately, my AR couldn't give me these stats. Suddenly, I realized that the teachers were most likely observing and recording this fight like they did with my run, and were probably able to view the IS stats as well. I backed away from the class, activating my AR system. I hacked into the control system and streamed the feed from the arena camera to one of my available screens. I eventually found a stats screen for Blue Tears, but it only showed me visual gauges for ammo on shield energy, as well as the fact it was in standby mode.

Orimura suddenly launched from the North runway, coming to a clumsy stop about 20 feet away from Cecilia. Looking at the system, I realized that there was a camera watching Cecilia and one watching Orimura, as well as the primary feed that showed both. Using my last two screens, I streamed them all and relocated the windows into positions were I could keep track of all three simultaneously. My stats screen suddenly compacted, removing half of Blue Tears' stats screen and replacing it with Orimura's. According to the screen, it was called "Byakushi" but unfortunately I couldn't pull up a more detailed description as all my screens were being used. Byakushi was a dirty white, as if it was left in the closet for a long amount of time. If Blue Tears was a winged angel, then Byakushi was a winged machine. Except for his torso and headgear, Orimura's IS reminded me of the Gundam anime from long ago. They bantered for a bit, before an alert on the stats screen told me Blue Tears shifted to Shooting Mode.

Cecilia immediately shouldered her gun and fired down the barrel. Orimura blocked the shot, the energy sending him tumbling through the sky. He narrowly recovered from the spin, almost crashing onto the ground. He took off once more to the sky, narrowly evading sniper fire , reducing direct shots to glancing blows. The lasers were either absorbed by the shield the arena put up to protect the audience or detonated on contact with the ground.

Orimura pulled out a sword from xtradimensional space, another of the benefits of IS. He used it to actively block Cecilia's sniper fire that he couldn't evade, saving his AD from decreasing further. Suddenly, Cecilia launched her UAVs. The four autonomous options used a barrage of laser fire and high speed maneuvering to weave Orimura into a position that Cecilia took advantage of. She recalled the UAVs and shot her laser cannon at full charge. Amazingly, Orimura blocked it with the sword, then descended to ground level. Keeping the ground to his back in case of another UAV wave, he was able to close the distance between his speedy Byakushi and Cecilia's stationary Blue Tears. He launched himself directly upward from the ground at top speed. Cecilia reflexively backed away and launched her UAVs again. This time, Orimura was able to evade the option attacks, even destroying one as he flew past it. I noticed a gauge on Blue Tears' black out. Orimura seemed to be getting the upper hand, destroying UAVs left and right, even attempting a slice at Cecilia herself. After destroying the fourth, he charged at Cecilia. However Cecilia was ready, using the last two to launch powerful missiles at him. Heavy ordinance was much more destructive than lasers due to the fact they had mass. Shots from those would decrease his AD by quite a bit, and according to his gauges he had less than half left. He aborted the charged and took evasive measures, however the missiles proved just as agile as Orimura, following him like bloodhounds. After a last ditch loop, the missiles found their target and detonated with giant plumes of smoke.

I checked the stat screen to see how much energy Orimura had left. An alert screen told me that he had achieved "1st shift". Without windows to open, I was left in the dark wondering exactly what that was. I stared at the Orimura stream, just as the smoke started to dissipate. Flying proudly was a brilliant white Byakushi. It seemed that somehow achieving 1st shift detonated the missiles prematurely, sending shrapnel towards Orimura rather than the full force of the explosion. This was reflected by a loss in his AD gauge substantially less than a direct explosion.

The sword in his hand suddenly bisected. The blade folded to become a cross guard for a glowing energy blade almost as long as Byakushi was tall. Cecilia launched a barrage of missiles from her remaining Blue Tears, only to have them cut down by Byakushi's enhanced speed and energy sword. Orimura charged a final time, Cecilia to startled to evade when all of a sudden his energy blade went out, right in front of Cecilia's head. Confused, I looked to his stats and noticed his AD was completely exhausted.

"End of match," a loudspeaker announced. "Winner: Cecilia Alcott."

IS matches ended when an IS's AD reached 0. At this point, the AD fails completely and the Academy deems it too dangerous to continue. However, the question on everyone's mind was "why did Orimura run out of AD?" Even without the aid of the cameras, everyone could see that Cecilia's attack detonated way too far away to do any damage to Byakushi. Luckily, with the fight over, I could do a little more research. I manually searched for Orimura's bio.

_Orimura Ichika, 15 years old, Japan

_Personal IS: Byakushi

_Current equipment: Yukihira 2 (Classified, Alaska Pact II,1)

_Psychological Profile: Not available. (Classified, Alaska Pact II,1)

A bit more research revealed Byakushi's ability: to use AD to fuel a special attack that bypassed AD. Well, that explains that, I thought to myself before basking in the rays of the afternoon sun.