First off sorry for the mess. As I've been meaning to fix it but it takes time to do tip, do my best to check my own grammar and spelling. Still I'm juggling half a dozen things and I have to prioritize which is never fun.
Anyway enough about my bitching and lets get to the reason as to why you're here.
All rights to their owners as I own nothing.
Location: IS academy dorms
[Time: 08:45] [date: Friday September 6 local date, 2553 UNCS stander year]
'Ugh...why? It's too damn early. Fuck, I can't relax enough to go back sleep even though I still feel tired. Ugh, why world?' They asked themselves as they finally opened their eyes.
Her name was Kanzashi Sarashik, she was a freshman at the IS academy. One of the most important schools in then world according to most people. She was 18, around five foot with ruby red eyes and with two triangle hair clips in her long baby blue hair that darkened at the tips.
As she woke up and looked around her dorm room she then let her thoughts drift toward her sister: Tatenashi Sarashik.
She was one of two siblings, but in her family she might've as well of been the bastard child considering her family values. She was a part of the Sarashik clan and they put higher emphasis on achievement then actual contributions to something.
So it quickly made her life a bitter and miserable one where sibling rivalry was concerned. As it was seen as the measuring stick to which both siblings were measured, and in simplest terms Kanzashi was even a blip on the radar. It had been that way from most of her life as at an early age her sister had quickly managed to make a name for herself in her family circle.
As she was working on achieving her dream, her sister was out and doing things that only strengthened her standing. By the age of seven she was already planning and and executing missions with her mother, who instead on training her. Still it really wasn't something she liked to talk about and had quickly found ways for her to cope with this kinda pressure her own family put her under.
Still they were exceptions to these rules, her father was among them so it was bearable for time. At least until he had disappeared while on a mission with a unnamed friend. It was from there that the true down spin had begun as the family had literally split into different groups and she unfortunately didn't really fit into any of them.
He had been the glue that held her family together for so long; through either personal alliances are strong arming others as well as his ability to talk sense into her mother. When he disappeared everything had quickly reverted to what it had been before he had married into the family.
Now more then ever she was become more and more isolated, it was only thank and part that she was her mothers daughter that he hadn't slipped through the cracks like some of her other family members had. But as she quickly learned it was a double-edged sword, as she fully expected her to quote unquote: shape up and match her sister.
A pretty tall order already considered that she was already starting at nothing and had just fallen into a bottomless pit. Thank and part to the fact that she had already unveiled her own personal one she had built in total secrecy. While she on the other hand had just begun to finalize her blueprints for an design that would fit her style of combat.
It was at that point that she dropped the subject as it was making her feel upset. She hated it always be compared! Her mother the soulless void too all but her sister. It seemed to define everything she knew about her, she was either feared, respond, or hated that's how it worked in this family, never showed weakness not even a little or it would be exploited.
It made absolutely no flipping sense to her. She took a breath and relaxed, she had nothing really to gain from being angry so she just lay in her bed and tried to relax.
But after laying there for a while Kanzashi reached over and grabbed her glasses off the nearby table next to her bed. It took her a couple of times as she was still unfamiliar with the rooms set up compared to her old one. She then cursed under her breath as she knocked her glasses onto the floor below.
"Damn. It can never be easy, can it?" Kanzashi asked herself as she was forced onto the floor on her hands and knees to search for them.
It wasn't exactly the was she wanted to start her day here considering the circumstances surrounding the reason why she had been enrolled in school. It had been expected of both siblings to follow this path even though it wasn't were her heart lay, still it mattered little to her mother who would've...she didn't want to think about it.
It was about then when she managed to grabbed them and put them on once a again revealing a clear world around her. After which she climbed back into her warm bed and reached out to get her tablet.
It took her a while to find it and turn it on without disturbing her roommate, some girl from the state she didn't really care. She quickly opened up an app and started watching one of her favorite anime she had gotten into. Still it couldn't really distract her from the other things on her mind.
Which was her unfinished IS which was had only only now arrived and was currently waiting for her to work on it. The only problem however was getting that time, as they weren't very lenient on what you can do with your time; it was either being class or get out.
Kanzashi side to herself unable to think of an idea as to how she could possibly making up an excuse so that she could possibly continue work on her IS. But nothing really sprang to mind, but that didn't detract from the episode she was watching.
"Still I would have I'm going to do here..." Kanzashi said to herself.
She was talking about the fact that dispite only been here for short time that she had been singled out as the strange one of the bunch. As such they were those who teased bothered her, still she did her best to ignore them, but mostly avoided them thanks in part to that it had been something that happened at every school that she had ever been to since middle school.
But just as she started thinking about how she was going to deal with that along with being in classroom, the alarm-clock rang in her room as a signal for both her and her roommate to get up get breakfast and get ready for the school day ahead of them.
Location: IS academy classroom
[Time: 09:15] [date: Friday September 6 local date, 2553 UNCS stander year]
Kanzashi had just taken her set as class started for her. For some reason the teacher that she was originally assigned to had been put on leave for personal reasons.
Now she was currently in the class of the world famous Chifuyu Orimura the winner of the Mondo Grosso, the largest IS tournament in the world. She a tall woman with long black green hair, brown eye and was currently wearing her ever present business suit with its green tie, white under shirt and matching black skirt, stockings and shoes.
But now she was currently addressing the class informing everyone of the whole schedule for the day. Kanzashi listen to this intently as she knew that she had to plan her day around this.
Still it didn't take long and class quickly when into full swing, but unfortunately they were going over subjects that she had already learned about earlier as part of her IS build. So she scanned the room for anything of interest as she half mindedly made notes to at least looked like she was doing something.
She did see some of the more notable students she was with: Cecilia Alcott, Britain own Representative Contender. With her long blonde hair styled into half drills with blue head band. But that was all that she could see from her seat.
Her gazed drifted a little to the left and she saw, could it be? Yes it was, it was Houki Shinonono sister of the somewhat infamous inventor; one Tabana Shinonono. What she was doing her was anyone's guess. Still she was a striking woman pretty hard to believe that she was related to the invention with her long dark purplish brown hair tied up with black ribbon and that was all she could see. But all of them were wearing the white uniforms of the academy with some minor alterations to fit their style. But it was mostly the same as the many others in the room.
It was around now that Chifuyu said something bring Kanzashi attention back to the present. As she was asking the class about what they had just talked above and was asking for answers from the students.
Kanzashi just hoped that it wasn't her that wasn't going to be forced to answer any of them of course...
"Kanzashi!" Called out Chifuyu a little too stern for her liking.
"Yes?" She said in a calm controlled voice.
"It seems that you have free time. So would you mind explaining to the class how the IS works and the original plan for." Chifuyu said it in a way that was really going to wear on Kanzashi fast if she always spoke to her like that.
'Crap! I've should've been paying more attention, if mother knew about this.' Kanzashi didn't want to think about it as she then began to answer Chifuyu request.
"The IS was original conceived for the world space program. But as you all know since the White Knight incident that application has been put on hold in favor of tournaments among other activities." Kanzashi didn't elaborate on those other activities as not all of them were legal. "As such they're currently around 467 IS cores in the world, this is because..." Kanzashi was about to continue as she was then interrupted by one of her classmates.
"Really they're only that many?" Asked someone in the room much to Kanzashi irritation.
She hated being interrupted in the middle of something important. Still Chifuyu took charge of the situation as her stern voice rang out across the room.
"That's enough! Anyway thank you Ms. Sarashiki for explain the IS's original purpose. Now Orimura! Please read pages A-283 to B-312." She asked her brother as he then began to read.
"The Alaska Treaty was established in the year 20XX to help set guidelines, as to what an IS can be used for. It also banned it from any military usage. Also well to outline what activities an IS pilot are permitted to participate in along with how the IS cores were to distributed around the globe." Said the young man who could be not other then the bother to the champion herself: Ichika Orimura.
'So that's the man who stole my team from me.' Kanzashi thought darkly as Ickika continued reading from the textbook.
Her family using their influence and government favors and had managed to get her a team of experts to help her accelerate her IS build. But with the discovery of the first male IS user, she had been canned in favor of using those resources in building his own personal IS.
She wasn't one to really hold a grudge against anyone, but this was an exception to this rule. Months, months for her bagging and sucking up what ever pride she had let to have her mother help her had finally seemed to have paid off, till fate being the bitch it had been to her for all those years had fucked her over once again.
Still she let the feeling go as she didn't gaining anything from holding onto the emotion. So she let it go and focused on class despite the fact that she didn't have an interest in being retold everything she knew.
It was around lunchtime when Kanzashi found herself in the cafeteria, now freed from the confines of the classroom. She had just gotten her food and sat down to eat. For the most part her morning had been...stressful to put it simply.
She didn't enjoy being lecture on things she already, knew and had to look interested while it was going on. It made her want to smash her head into the desk. Time! Precious time that she could been using, instead it was being wasted on being told things she already knew.
"What a waste." She said under her breath as she took a bite of the food not really tasting it as she mind was to preoccupied with other things.
What she meant was the fact that she could've been using that time to build her IS, code some computer programmers. Anything would've been more productive than sitting in that classroom, Kanzashi then calmed down it wasn't like she had much of a choice in the matter. Still it annoyed her greatly. Still the teaching assistant, Ms. Yamada seemed nice enough to off set Chifuyu's stern way of teaching a class.
She sided to herself; they were probably never going to get along. She didn't mean it in a bad way it was just the way Chifuyu taught her students and the way she reacted to that style of teaching didn't make for the best combination.
You didn't first off; you didn't need to yell at her to have her respond and answer question. Secondly Kanzashi was someone if you explain what you were teaching her to catch on very quickly and wouldn't need that much help.
She signed herself again knowing fully well that this was definitely going to be a problem for her.
Still it didn't bother her for long as something else came in and distracted her. She wasn't sure as to how they caught her eye, maybe it was the way the people in the room reacted, or...or...she couldn't find any reason to care how the younger Orimura and Shinonono had managed to get her attention.
She then when back to eating her food trying her best to ignore the two of them.
But Kanzashi found that she lost her appetite and stood up and walked over to the trashcan and dumped the remaining food into the garbage, as she then walked by the table that the two were at, as she then overheard something about someone get help from another.
Anyway she didn't care as she had more important things to do like taking a walk around to work off some stress, or the more likely that she was going to spend time working on her personal IS units development. She then left the cafeteria and when outside.
It was a rather nice day outside as she started walk aimless around the school grounds, as she used that time to think and relax before class started again. Walking slowly down one of the paths that lead around the school a bright flash of light caught her eye.
She then looked up to where she guessed it had come from and saw something sh almost didn't believe. They was a person, or something she believed was a person.
It was impossible to see what they were wearing but it obvious that whatever it was, was clad in black and gray armor.
'Am I seeing things?' Kanzashi asked her doubting for a moment her own eyes.
But before she could move closer a voice of a familiar teacher called out to her, forcing her to turn and look at who was calling out to her. While the strange person took this opportunity to move out of sight.
"Kanzashi! Kanzashi! Please wait!" Called out Ms. Yamada who was running toward Kanzashi much to her confusion.
Ms. Yamada was Ms. Chifuyu assistant, she had short light green hair that matched her eyes which had glass over them almost like her. She was as was around average height for someone her age and was also wearing a smartly yellow top dress with a pink under shirt.
And was currently yelling at Kanzashi to stop. So she stopped and turned to face her to see what was so important. Once she caught up to her, it took Ms. Yamada a couple of seconds to recover as she then said.
"I." She then gasp for air as she continued "I...have, something, important. For, you." She forced this last word out as she then handed her a USB drive.
Kanzashi was more confused then when this had started. But before she could ask Yamada then explained.
"It's appeared for class." Her breathing was now heavy as she said this next piece. "Which you have right now! Didn't you hear the bell going off?" Yamada asked her.
Kanzashi hadn't of course, she had been distracted by what had been on the rooftop earlier that she hadn't noticed that the bell had gone off.
"Anyway we should probably get back to class now." Ms. Yamada said now ushering the young woman into the school.
All the while Kanzashi was debating whether or not what she saw was real. But despite her doubts that she couldn't help but feel that there was something was definitely there.
Location: IS academy just outside of the main arena
[Time: 11:26] [date: Friday September 6 local date, 2553 UNCS stander year]
Kanzashi was currently walking toward the arena where the match was about to start, she had managed to escape for her class for a couple of minutes thanks to her oldest trick in her play book: The washroom.
Probably the oldest one of anyone who wanted to leave a uncomfortable situations. Boy did she need to get away from her unruly classmates and take a moment to refocus before she dived back in.
She barely noticed the trees as her thoughts turn to how she was going to deal with the stress that being in class was going to put on her.
Her doctors; the ones she trusted at any rate had said that her stress levels were so high that it was effecting her health. Still they weren't a 100% sure if that was the case but were sure that was a contributing fact. So they had given her different kinds of medications to deal with her high blood pressure and other medical conditions.
They effectives could be called questionable at best, as she didn't feel that they were doing much to manage her problem. Still she drop the subject just as she then stepped into the arena building, as worrying about her now heath didn't gain her anything as she had a fight to watch.
'If what I've heard is right. It's that boy and Brit fighting against one another.' She thought.
Kanzasi wasn't one for gossip but she wasn't one to turn down useful information. Especially when it came to who was fighting in the arenas for training. She found it somewhat barbaric in a way that this was the only way that seemed to settle disputes over whose strongest. Especially now with the shift in power with woman now welding the biggest gun in the world.
But it wouldn't last, she knew that but the world acted like it wasn't.
'Probably do and part to those who don't want to lose the power they gained.' Kanzashi though think about this who had the most to gain thanks to the IS.
It made her sick, she wasn't one of those who really used that power unnecessarily, but other would definitely have no problem with using only if to move something forward. She wouldn't have abused it, as it wasn't necessary to always override the system when it was inconvenient for you.
She then sighed to herself, the world was too fucking complicated; and that's on a good day. Now, ugh where should she start? But Kanzashi wisely decided not to go down that rabbit hole as it was just going to give her a headache and probably make her feel like crap. And at this point in time it wasn't worth it.
Still as she was walking down the hallway the lights unexpectedly flicked, she payed no mind to this till they abruptly when out. For a moment that felt like a lifetime she was in the cold black abyss of darkness. But before she could panic the emergency lights came on bathing the hallway in a red hazy light. Kanzashi was understandably confused and worried by what had just happened.
"What's going on?" She asked herself just as an alarm then when off which only adding to her panic that was now rising in her.
Then just as suddenly as the alarms had came on, they were suddenly replaced by the sound of Ms. Yamada' voice for the PA system.
[Sorry, but we're currently expecting technical difficulties. As such all matches are suspended till further notice and all students are to follow the instructions of your supervisors.] Came Ms. Yamada's voice over the stadium intercom.
This puzzled Kanzashi how knew that they were many protocols in place to prevent such a thing like this from happening. He thoughts immediately went back to what she seen during lunch.
'No it wasn't an illusion. They was definitely someone there.' Kanzashi thought, knowing it was the only logical explanation for what had happened.
But the question now become: Why?
A little earlier in the main control room both Ms. Yamada and Chifuyu were trying desperately to understand what had just happened.
"Any luck with the computers?" Inquired Chifuyu who was carefully controlling her voice as to not sound demanding or irritated for that matter.
"Nothing." Yamada said as she smacking the computer in frustration.
But surprisingly the good old brute force appeared worked the the screen lit up. Both women were taken aback by this sudden development but it didn't stop Yamada as she wasn't sure how long this was going to last.
"Alright I'm in. Now let's us see...there got it." Yamada said to herself as Chifuyu just stood back and watched.
There was no point in distracting Ms. Yamada while she was working, as they weren't sure how long this window of opportunity was going to last.
"I've figured out what happened." Yamada announce as Chifuyu asked the obvious question.
"So what brought down the system?" She inquired to which Yamada responded.
"It seems that somebody's removed some of the safety guards and the whole system over heated. But you can't do that unless..." Yamada trailed off not wanting to say it.
Chifuyu silently cursed. They was only one possibly and she didn't like it.
[You were right. It was sabotaged.] Came one of the technicians from the speaker in the control room.
Chifuyu hated it when she was right but didn't say a word as the technicians continue.
[Unfortunately it will take a while to repair.]
"How long?" She asked.
[About a week at the earliest to fix this. Depends on where or not we pull double shifts and work through the night.] He informed her.
Currently he was the only nonessential personnel allowed to be outside of the school that was currently on lockdown. All the students where currently confined to their dorm rooms with a teacher and security team patrolling the Academy grounds making sure that their uninvited guest wasn't still on sight or that he left any gifts behind.
If anyone had to leave their rooms they had an armed escort to ensure their safety. Still that was the last thing on Chifuyu mind as she wanted to know who had done this.
"Has the investigation turned up anything?" Chifuyu inquired as a new voice answer.
[No, unfortunately who or what for that matter didn't leave any anything that we could use to ID let alone track them.] Repiled the security specialist.
Chifuyu could feel a migraine coming on over the events that had transpired only hours ago. Not only had someone breached the perimeter and security teams, not only that but they had actually manage to inflict some damage to the Academy as a whole.
Still Chifuyu knew that something like this was expected. Still she had expected something like this, not this soon. As things around the world were becoming more unpredictable thanks and part to the rise of the IS. She silently cursed herself for being such a tool in Tabana's scheme in getting the IS notoriety.
She could understand her, but as of late she had become more erratic and has become harder to understand her reasoning. Chifuyu wasn't sure as to what had caused it, whither it was from...hell she knew.
Still it didn't matter the fact was someone had done this. It was then when she was brought back to reality when her colleague asked her question.
"Do you think it's one of those groups that we've heard about?" Yamada inquired.
Chifuyu knew what Yamada was asking. It was whither or not she thought that the reports of pro-male groups were capable of doing such a thing? Probably not, still the possibility was there even if it were unlikely as they were still in their infancy and very unorganized.
She then dismissed the idea, more then likely it was a disgruntled former Black ops soldier with a grudge against the IS, and their pilots in particular.
'It's the only explanation for what's happen.' Chifuyu thought to herself.
As it was the one that made the most sense, any other theory just did cut it.
"Not likely, still it's in the cards." Chifuyu said keeping the possibility opened.
"Anyway I'm assuming that you've already came up with a coverup?" She then inquired, to which Yamada nodded.
"I'm also assuming that it will be good enough for the students. But the board and the principle are going to need more." Chifuyu said feeling another migraine coming on, this one stronger than the last.
As they weren't going to be happy, and would look for an scapegoat for what had happened. Still it wasn't likely that anybody was gonna lose their jobs, what it probably meant was that some poor bastard was gonna be sent all their paperwork and made to do it.
Chifuyu shuddered at the thought of being forced to do all that work. She knew the amount of paperwork that could past on that desk in a given month let alone a single day.
But that was besides the point, as what mattered now was the present and boy was that fucked up. Because as far as she could tell all the bloody arenas hadn't been spared.
The cause of which could be easily traced: The IS.
It was the IS that had made most armies in the world to be disbanded and stripped down to bare essentials. Leaving many without work and forcing them to sell their skill in order to get by.
And the worst part of this was, that she had been expecting it. For years the governments were shacking their responsibility as they were still trying to deal with the new reality. As this was going on woman were running wild with their now found power, most of which were okay. Only using it for intimidation to get what they wanted. But unfortunately there are those who when far beyond this it was easy to call them radicals except for the fact that it was becoming more common now.
That were the true problem lay in the sudden and violent shift in equality, all the progress made before had been thrown into hell by the introduction of the IS. Now as the dust was settling and the it was becoming painful clear the world they were living in now, people of all walks of life were being effected.
As such as Yamada had eluded to before, groups were now popping up with pro-male sentiment wishing to return the world to what it had been like before the IS was unleashed upon an unexpecting world. She could somewhat get behind that but the methods most of this organization were willing to use made them almost as bad as those they fought against.
Chifuyu then dropped the subject as she had nothing else to gain by continuing to dwell on that subject. She then turned to Ms. Yamada who looked a bit considered above something. But she didn't bother asking about it, as she then gave the order to close down the arena systems as she prepared herself for what was to come next.
End of chapter
IS academy: The IS academy was established after the dramatic unveiling of the IS as it came into the public eye. As a way to both train future pilots and to help off set some of the tension from the earlier White Knight incident.
It's one of the most advanced schools in the world thanks it international funding and out of necessity due to the dangers equipment that is kept on the premises. As such all staff are training to deal with any situation that might arise while dealing with this equipment.
The school while new has quickly gained a reputation as one of the must go to school for both IS training, studies along with elite replication in most of its courses, drawing its talent across the globe. As such students from across the globe come for the chance to learn about the IS either as a pilot or the minority who become the technicians and engineers that enabled the pilots to do their jobs and their machines running.
While the age limit was original lower then it is now an earlier incident, ending with the death of a contractor lead to a lawsuit that saw the age limit increase. As such the new legal age was raised to eighteen plus as to deal with any legal issues that may arise from any of those under who were under age.
Another in the books hopefully you enjoyed this redone chapter.
I'll probably redo the next chapter as well but at the moment it's not really a priority as I still have to get my other chapters out and they've been suffering as most of my efforts have been in this rewrites. I still tried my best to keep the original idea but give it a fresh spin.
Also I hope you enjoyed some of the added information.
Anyway that's enough talking for now and I'll see you next time.
