Chapter 1: Unforeseen Visitor
15 years earlier...
Ichika was excited to finish his first year at the IS academy. He had an amazing summer break, spending a lot of time with his friends. He gazed nostalgically at the tall spiraling tower as he walked toward the academy entrance, remembering some of the events from before the break. Such as the rogue IS that broke into his class match with Rin, or the Silvario Gospel incident that almost cost him his life. But he also remembered a lot of the good times he had, such as the beach trip or how he made so many new friends. He was a little surprised that he had managed to make so many friends considering every single one of his classmates was a girl. But whatever the reason he was happy he was going to see them all again, however he had a small feeling in his stomach that this year was far from over...
As he approached the academy entrance he heard a loud explosion from above. He turned around and looked up, gasping as he saw what appeared to be a black and silver IS shoot out of some weird portal and rocket off towards the city. He thought he heard cackling, but he wasn't sure. He looked around to see if anyone else had saw, but nobody was around. He decided to ask his friends about it later. He turned around and entered the academy, only to see an entire group of girls waiting for his arrival. "There he is!" "It's Ichika Orimura!" "Somebody grab him!" Ichika quickly realized his situation and sprinted back outside. He continued running when somebody from behind a bush quickly grabbed him and dragged him out of sight. The large group of girls chasing Ichika kept on running and rounded a corner. "How's it going Ichika? Long time no see eh?" Charlotte said enthusiastically. "Oh! Hey Charl!" Ichika said, keeping his voice low in case the group of girls came back. "Say, you didn't happen to see a weird IS flying over to the city just a while ago, did you?" Ichika asked hoping he wasn't the only one who saw that strange event. "Now that you mention it, I did see something resembling an IS flying around a while ago, but I thought it was just somebody doing some training..." Charlotte said. "It didn't look like a model I have ever seen, but in any case I'm sure we'll find out more eventually." Ichika replied. "Come on; let's go head to homeroom before my sister gets angry."
Both Ichika and Charlotte then headed off to class. They met up with the rest of the gang and everybody got caught up with what happened over the break. He asked them if they had seen what he and Charlotte had seen and they all agreed to have seen something similar to what Ichika described, a black and silver IS appearing out of a weird dark portal and flying off towards the main city. Ichika was going to ask Mrs. Yamada about it, but Chifuyu, or rather Mrs. Orimura as she painfully reminded him, came in and started teaching.
The lunch bell soon rang and they all decided to go eat lunch on the roof as they usually did. About halfway through their lunch Ichika heard a loud rumble that sounded like thunder. He looked up and was surprised to see a clear blue sky. Then something caught his eye and it was the same dark portal that he had seen before, only this time instead of a silver and black IS shooting out, he saw a dark crimson and yellow IS come rocketing out. However the IS didn't fly off towards the city, rather it swerved and came plummeting in Ichika's direction! Ichika by this point in his life knew how to handle things that were flying at him, "Everybody get out of the way!" Ichika quickly barked. The IS came zooming in and smashed into roof only to bounce once then skidded to a screeching stop right where Ichika and his friends were just sitting. As the dust settled, Ichika and his friends walked up to the damaged IS not quite sure what...or who they were going to find. They approached further and got a closer look only to see, to everyone's great surprise, that the unconscious IS pilot...was a boy.
Later that day...
"He still hasn't woken up yet..." Houki said somberly. Everyone else nodded. The air was very tense in the medical section of the IS academy. The rumours of the mysterious IS that had crashed into the roof and its even more mysterious male IS pilot had spread like wildfire across the campus. However to those who were allowed to even see the unconscious pilot, that being Mrs. Orimura, Mrs. Yamada, Ichika and his friends all had something else on their minds. Why did the mysterious pilot look so much like Ichika?
