Disclaimer: I do not own Infinite Stratos. Nor do I own Armored Core. In fact I'm renting the space for this very disclaimer.
Chapter 3
My First Day of School
You've got to be kidding me. When I heard that the school was accepting AC pilots, Ravens I corrected myself, I had thought that maybe, just maybe, there would be more men here. No luck it appears. Besides me there are only 2 in here, that foreign looking guy that was blatantly trying not to fall asleep and some guy whom was ever so casually flirting with the blonde next to him. For some reason I get the feeling I should know them… Regardless, it was just us three and a roomful of at least 30 girls, most of which were happily chatting away at inane subjects. With a sigh I realize that I know no one here, bar Direwolf if he counted. That just makes it worse…
Perhaps I should be glad that at least the girls found the other two more impressive eye candy than me. Thank god. I can happily do without the creepy stalker stares those two are getting. All I could do was try and keep a low profile and wait for the teacher to-
Just when I was thinking of the teacher an older girl in the school uniform all but broke down the door and marched straight on in up to the teacher's podium. Naturally this got everyone's attention. With a sigh she sat a packet down on the podium and spoke with a cheerfully upbeat tone, "Right. Since your teacher is too busy to make it here and I may or may not have been threatened into this I guess I'll have to be the one getting homeroom started." She sighed again. It was clear her cheery tone was fake, "I'm Tatenashi Sarashiki, the student council president. Let's begin roll call. Amatsu-"
I couldn't help but notice out of the corner of my eye that the girl next to me had visibly stiffened when this Tatenashi girl, I could've sworn that that was a boy's name, came in the room. I also noticed that she didn't take her eyes off Tatenashi as said girl continued speaking, as if she were confused.
I was mildly surprised when Direwolf chirped in at the name 'Amaya Hikaru' simply saying that she was a class S Raven that should not be engaged. He repeated the same warning word for word for the guy after her, 'Shinji Hikaru.'
'Wait if their both class S Raven, what class am I?' I thought to Direwolf. Yeah, I have no idea how that works; it just does for some reason.
'Class E.' Direwolf deadpanned.
'Is that bad?'
'You're in third to last place.'
'Wait what? But we-'
"Orimura-kun." Suddenly I become aware of the fact that Tatenashi's face was barely an inch away from my own.
"W-what?"
She smiled widely, evidently finding pleasure in my reaction, "I'm taking attendance Orimura-kun. I started with A and now I'm at O. Would you like to introduce yourself to your classmates?" That grin on her face...
"Hm-... Well, I'm Orimura Ichika. I'll be in your care."
After I said that all was silent until one of the other ravens, I think it was that Amaya Hikaru girl, rather loudly jeered, "BORIN-" until her eyes widened. Wonder wh-
PANG!
That is the sound that made a million brain cells cry out in pain only to be forever silenced by- Wait… this way of hitting, with suitable force, perfect angle, suitable speed…
'Master,' Direwolf chimed in, 'I believe the words you are looking for are Fuck My Life…'
That awkward moment when you realize that your sister just walked into the room and whacked you upside the head…
"C-Chifuyu-nee-"
PANG!
"You will call me Orimura-sensei as long as you're at this school." She ordered.
"Yes Orimura-sensei!" I snap out almost instinctively.
Several girls started snickering at our little sibling interaction. Although one in particular was rather loud about it-
PANG!
A cry of pain was heard as who I could only assume was Amaya Hikaru got smacked by the attendance book of pain and misery… The snickers predictably stopped immediately for the most part, although the supposed student council president still had an amused grin upon her face.
Chifuyu-nee coughed as she took over Tatenashi's spot at the teacher's podium and said, "Everyone, my name is Orimura Chifuyu, and my duty is that for this one year, I'll be training you in the operations and controls of IS. Everything I teach, you have to remember, and understand. To those who can't understand, I'll teach them till they can. My job is to thoroughly train you during your first year, from the age of 15 to 16. You can dislike my attitude, but you still have to do what I say." She smacked her hand on the podium hard enough to cause several girls to jump at the sudden noise. With barely any more delay she barked out one word in a manner I could only imagine would make any drill instructor proud, "Understood?"
'Master, I recommend covering your ears.' Direwolf said in his usual mechanical deadpan,
'Huh? Why would I need to-'
Too late.
The shrieks began, loud enough to disorient one such as myself. Thankfully neither the girl that sat next to me or the girl that sat behind me were one of the… fangirls.
"KYAAA—! It's Chifuyu-sama, it's the real Chifuyu-sama herself!"
"I've always been your fan!"
"I came to this school from North Kyuushuu because I admired you, onee-sama!"
"I'm so happy to be taught by Chifuyu-sama!"
"I'll gladly die for you, Chifuyu-sama!"
Chifuyu-nee's disheartened expression and subsequent facepalm upon realizing the exact proportion of the girls in her class that were evidently members of her fan club…
"It's always nice to see how many idiots can crawl out of the woodworks for the chance to learn under me…" she sighed, "Do these fools really only come here to attend my class or something?"
'Master please cover your ears!' I swear Direwolf just showed emotion for a second there… Regardless I follow his request now knowing better than to waste time questioning it.
…Only to find that to my horror merely covering my ears was not enough. Somehow they had managed to shriek even louder, so much so that merely my hands were not enough to keep the sound out!
"KYAAAHH! ONEE-SAMA! SCOLD US! SCOLD US MORE!"
As I waited until I could hear again I couldn't help but to reflect on the absurdity of my teacher being Chifuyu-nee… Wait didn't I joke about this possibly last month?
'You did master.'
I barely regained my sense of hearing to catch the trailing end of one of Chifuyu-nee's sentences that I just knew was intended for me, "…-led at even a simple greeting?"
Instinct told me to deny so I didn't. I think I'm starting to learn better…
"Yes Chifuyu-ne-" I barely catch the miniscule narrowing of her eyes and correct myself just in time to save myself from her wrath… I hope, "-Sensei."
"Eh?" the entire room seemed to have started whispering, "Do you think Orimura-kun is Chifuyu-sama's brother?"
I sigh and go back to ignoring it all as Chifuyu turns her attention to the student council president, I just realized I had already forgotten her name… and now that I think of it I don't think we finished roll call either.
'Tatenashi Sarashiki.'
'Thank you Direwolf.'
It really is quite nice having someone like Direwolf around to help. I can't help but to wonder if all the other ACs have an AI like this. Should ask one of the other later. As it turned out the rest of the day's classes went smoothly. Although that was mostly because Direwolf immediately defined anything I so much as thought I didn't know. Truly I'd be lost without him!
Although there was one problem...
You see, while the other two guys in class were apparently more attractive then me the fact that I'm Chifuyu-nee's brother more than equalized any differences this would've caused. Thus to my eternal displeasure I also ended up having a rather sizable fanclub. Even now they stood outside the classroom gossiping amongst themselves… I think it'd be better if one of them decided to just up and speak with me…
I was jerked from my thoughts as someone, someone male, stepped in front of my desk, real blatantly trying to grab my attention. I looked up at him, instantly recognizing him as Shinji Hikaru from the introductions. Realizing he had my attention he put on a friendly smile and pulled out a slip of paper, "Hey Orimura-sensei, wanted me to give you this."
Couldn't she have given it to me herself?
I take it uneasily and look at it, 'Room 1026?'
"1026? Damn, I have 1028." I look up at him, not quite comprehending why he had a problem with that. Evidently he realized this and explained, "Oh, do you perhaps not know? The dorm rooms are shared. Since this is, or rather was, an all girls school I was hoping I would be rooming with either you or that Canadian, but no such luck." He finished with a sigh.
Now that he mentions it that could be bad… What if I room with someone from my apparent fanclub… Or worse yet someone from HIS fanclub! I've heard rumors of how vicious fangirls can be!
'Calm down master, I can check who your roommate is if you wish.'
'Yes please!'
'Acknowledged.'
…Now that I think of it now would be a great time to ask Shinji-san about that, he would technically be my sempai right?
"Excuse me, Shinji-san, do all ACs have AIs on board? It wasn't mentioned in the Operations Manual."
Shinji briefly looked surprised. It took me a second to realize how abrupt that topic switch actually was, it's pretty hard to notice when I forget that only I can hear Direwolf. After a second though he just laughed, "Well yes, supposedly the IS have AIs contained within their cores as well. They're there to collect combat data and assist their Ravens in battlefield analyzation. It's rare but some cores deem it necessary to meddle in their Raven's personal affairs as well, tends to make the AC rather picky. I assume Direwolf is one of those?"
So all ACs have an AI but not all of them help their Ravens outside of combat? That makes sense I suppose, "Yeah, he just offered to find out who my roommate was and reminds me to do things I forgot about. He's a great help."
Shinji quirked an eyebrow for a second but went back to smiling not a second later. I probably wouldn't have even noticed had Direwolf not have constantly told me to notice the little things like that, "Glad to hear you two get along so well. Direwolf had almost been scrapped because it simply wouldn't accept a pilot."
I feel my eyes widen slightly, "Really?"
Shinji nodded, "Yeah. Would've been a shame, I spent so much time fine tuning his OS. He's the last of Arisawa Heavy Industry's prototype models you know."
I blink, hard. He worked on Direwolf's OS? Evidently he realized what I had been thinking and continued, "Oh right, I doubt anyone has told you yet. I'm the project lead for Project AC so if you have any questions Direwolf can't answer be sure to ask me."
"I'll… keep that in mind." So basically he's like Tabane but less eccentric… I hope.
Suddenly he snaps his fingers, "Oh right, one last thing, we've set up a workshop for you in Hanger 2, look for your name."
"Workshop?"
"Switching out equipment on an AC tends to be rather space consuming, at least compared to IS and their 'equalizers.'" Shinji pulled out a small map of the school from his blazer and opened it on my desk, the location of the workshops were clearly circled although… I had no idea how to actually get to the location marked as I didn't have a solid grasp on the campus yet. He left the map and moved to walk away, talking as he went, "If you have any problem finding it just find some girl named Kanzashi, I think she's the girl that sits next to you in class."
I moved to thank him but Direwolf interrupted me, 'Master, I have found that your roommate will be another Raven.'
So there's a chance my roommate will be a guy?
'I however couldn't find any information on what organization she belongs to or what AC she pilots, however I could find that she is a class D raven and relatively new at that.'
I sigh for visibly no reason. Man it could get awkward if I start arguing with Direwolf, I would just suddenly look angry and no one would know why… My roommate is a girl. That just sucks. At least she's not likely to be one of my fangirls, they mostly flocked to me solely because of my relation to Chifuyu-nee. At least I hope they did anyway…Then again it could still be one of Shinji or Orleans's fangirls, then I'd have to deal with a fangirl for one of my 'rivals' and that could only end badly.
'Master, Shinji-sama gave my core authorization to use quite a few early first generation parts belonging to Arisawa Heavy Industries and Rayleonard Corporation. I believe you should thank him for this later on. May I request that we go to a workshop soon? I would like to install some of these.'
'Sure thing Direwolf. Although...' I could actually hear my stomach audibly growl, I haven't had dinner yet, 'It could wait until tomorrow right?'
'Affirmative.'
"Room 1026…"
It had been surprisingly easy to find my room despite what that large number seemed to imply. As I confirmed the room number I twisted to knob to see if it was locked. It wasn't. Does that mean my roommate is already here? The door swings open with a 'Kacha' sound and I enter slowly. Immediately I could think of nothing more than how fancy it was. 2 large beds, arranged side my side with only a small divider separating them, looked amazingly fluffy and welcoming. I only needed to take a single feel to realize that at least the quilt appeared to deserve a large price tag.
"Who's there?"
A voice rung out from a door that I had not noticed, a bathroom I could reasonably assume. It sounded vaguely familiar, but not something I could put a name to.
"Oh right. I'm supposed to be getting a roommate. Darn, I would've preferred to have a room alone."
You and me both. Wait, why did I suddenly have a bad feeling about this?
"Sorry about this, I was taking a shower and… My name's-"
"Chi-Chifuyu-nee!"
And suddenly I was on my back.
Seriously I couldn't even see what happened. One second I saw what appeared to be my sister step out of the bathroom and next thing I know I was laid out two feet away from where I had stood. Oh and my roommate was growling fairly loudly. And on top of me. I didn't dare check if she were naked.
"Don't you dare call me by that name!" the girl whom was quite obviously not my sister snarled. I could feel her hands on my upper arms as she held me down. She was shaking intensely presumably from sheer rage. She hated my sister that much…? What reason could she have for that?
"Ah!"
She was off me after barely 30 awkward seconds. It was only after there was a shuffling sound that I dared open my eyes. She truly did look like Chifuyu-nee, that much was obvious despite the fact that she was now behind the divider. I really don't want to notice that that divider is the only thing hiding her body from me… There were some differences between she and Chifuyu-nee, as was obvious the moment started holding me down, however that face… If Chifuyu-nee were younger they'd be almost identical…
"Stop staring Pervert."
I look away immediately, going as far as turning completely around. Nothing was said for a full minute. It was so awkward… almost unbearably so… Even Direwolf didn't say a single thing… Eventually I heard her sigh heavily and say, "I'm dressed, you can look now." And so I did. She'd managed to get a large purple bathrobe on but still hid behind the Divider. Her face was still flushed, whether from embarrassment or anger I couldn't tell.
It was probably anger actually.
"So who the hell are you anyway?"
Oh that Chifuyu-like glare… Instinctively I snapped out my name, "Orimura Ichika!"
She looked at me surprised.
And stared.
And just kept staring.
This is… beyond awkward. It truly, undeniably is.
"I… see…" was apparently all she could say before she fell back onto the bed and out of my sight. I didn't dare try and reacquire sight on her; she had already manhandled me once tonight…
"Orimura… Ichika…" she repeated slowly as if trying to comprehend merely my name. Slowly she sat back up, palming her face as if she had a splitting headache. I could see the barest hint of a smile upon her face.
"…" I said nothing. What was there to say? Here's this girl, my roommate, who looks like my sister, quite clearly hates my sister, and seems to be struggling to comprehend my name. Are we perhaps cousins or something? Is she a distant cousin that disappeared with mother and father way back then? I don't even have her name yet… Perhaps I should ask… I barely realized that as I though this I began to do just that,
"Ano…" she removed her hand and looked at me clearly, "I didn't catch your name…" How generic.
Her eyes widen, although I can't fathom why, "I'm sorry, my name is Madoka," She paused for a second, quite clearly considering whether or not she should actually tell me her last name. Not that it mattered, I'm quite sure we're related at this point, "…Madoka Orimura."
"…" This is awkward. I knew we were related even before she said that but for her to actually confirm it… Of course the fact that I was having trouble keeping my gaze from her cleavage only made it more awkward for me. I hope she doesn't notice that…
"So…" she says slowly, unsurely, "you're a raven too?"
"Yeah…" I confirmed equally unsure. Madoka… that name sounds… familiar but for the life of me I cannot remember where I last heard it. I remember her name, but I do not remember who she is. That's… annoying to say the least.
"I see…" she murmured, "Did you know our mother runs one of the AC producers?"
I could feel my eyes widen, "What?"
For the first time since I walked into the room Direwolf chose to say something, 'Master, she's trying to change the subject.'
I thought about that for a second but found that I was honestly glad that she did so. That was getting far too awkward.
Madoka sighed deeply before continuing, "Yeah… The Ruined Country Weaving Corporation. They've been trying to create functioning Autonomous ACs since the autonomous IS incident…"
"Oh?" that would make sense, after all the ACs already have AIs embedded within their OS, "How has that been going for them?"
"Fine actually, several prototypes have already been built." She seemed to be having an easier time speaking compared to before. I guess we had both been feeling awkward then… I suppose that's good to know.
Hold on did she say 'our' mother? She's my sister too? But considering we're apparently in the same year wouldn't that mean that we're the same age? Then that would mean that she would have to be my… twin sister?
"…Say, Nii-san, you haven't been sponsored yet have you?" I'd been so caught up in my thoughts that I could only catch the end of what she had been saying.
"Uh…" I didn't know if I actually was or not, I didn't even know what she meant by-
'You are not sponsored Master.' Direwolf interjected, 'You may wish to get a feel for all the companies before you consider accepting a sponsorship.'
"No, I am not sponsored yet." Direwolf, what would I do without you?
"I thought as much." Madoka nods. A small blue holographic screen and keyboard appears before her. As she begins typing she calmly says, "Be sure to consider RCW Corporation in that case. Our parts can be a bit… gimmicky but I think you'll like them."
'Master, my core has been given authorization be use a few first generation parts manufactured by the Ruined Country Weaving Corporatio-' Direwolf abruptly pauses, 'Master, these parts are… unregistered. Several are experimental and in the testing phase and 1 in particular is intentionally unregistered for reasons relating to it's energy requirement... However… they're all extremely high quality parts. The Kojihira energy blade in particular stands out.'
'Is that a good thing or a bad thing?'
'Master, be careful with what you mount, almost all of them will change the way I can operate and thus the necessary combat style required to pilot me.'
"Onii-san" I blink as she speaks with such a quiet, almost tender, voice, "Even if you do not remember me… It's nice to finally get to see you again."
A/N: Yikes... That was a longer chapter than I actually intended to write... And such a sudden ending at that...
About the class change: Honestly I thought about it and a fight between Ichika and Cecilia would be hilariously curbstompish, as in 2 or 3 paragraph long fight curbstomp. After all it would be an airborne sniper versus a melee specialist who can't actually fly. That's the main reason why I switched Ichika to class 1-4. What am I doing to replace that fight? Oh just wait and see, wait and see.
Cecilia probably will be involved in Ichika's harem but not as soon as she was in canon. I'm debating whether or not to actually involve Madoka in Ichika's harem or not but I do know that I will be including one other character whom was not actually in his harem in canon, although she is a named character that appears semi-frequently.
Please critique me on my writing style, I really am not used to writing first person. Although I do admit that I find it much funner to write like this...
R&R and have a very nice day.
