AN: So, I'm alive. Sorry for the wait, real life circumstances favored and encourage focusing on another story since the last chapter. Speaking of that last chapter was the second chapter I ever posted and was somewhat of an experiment. For those of you who didn't like how close to the canon last chapter went, you'll be happy to know I tried avoid anything unoriginal as much as possible in this chapter.

Deep inside a concealed hanger hidden in the IS school, two individuals were watching as automated mechanical tools sprang to life and whirled around a full metal suit of armor. Within seconds, key components off the armor where lifted away, allowing a high school boy to step out. "So is that all you need from me today?" Ichika asked as he stretched his arms.

"That should be enough testing to make adequate calibrations," Felt replied. "We'll likely fine tune them at a later date."

"You going to bail, or will you finish telling us how your day at school went?" Neil asked "It's not every day someone is issued a personal IS, let alone someone who isn't official back by any government or organization."

"Yeah, I still can't believe they're providing me with a personal IS either,"Ichika groaned.

"You don't sound too happy about it," Neil noted. "Considering how there were only 476 IS cores made and distributed around the world, most would feel extremely lucky to get their own personal IS unit."

"I know that it's a privilege few get, Cecilia bragged about how having her own unit made her an 'elite among elites'. But still, it means I'm expected to use that IS unit for my match. I had hoped that I could convince my sister to let me use this power suit against Cecilia in a closed private arena, but there's little chance of that when everyone's looking forward to seeing me duke it out in my own personal IS." Ichika turned to face the power armor his dad had sent him. "I know that it only has the more basic IM tech in case anyone tried to steal or hack it, but I could probably put up a better fight in it. I know how to use it, where there's a good chance I'll still be trying to make sure I fly an IS straight by the time the match starts."

"Not to mention the surprise factor it would have," said a voice coming from a monitor displaying the face of Tony Stark. "Think you could tweak the left arm a bit Felt, the diagnostic seems a bit off there. Ichika's nervous tick sometimes gets picked up as an attempt to trigger hand gesture recognition."

"Sure thing," replied Felt as she worked on a computer she had plugged into the suit. "Can you send me some sample data for me to look at?"

Ichika rubbed the back of his head as his dad sent over the logs detailing how his habit of opening and closing his hand was often interpreted as an incorrect hand gesture to trigger an action. "Surprised you only mention tactical advantage. Wasn't it the perfect set up to gloat about the superiority of the Iron Man suit?"

"I can appreciate good scientific breakthroughs," his dad said without his eyes leaving the diagnostics he was looking at. "Besides comparing the two different power suits is somewhat like comparing attack helicopters and fighter jets."

That analogy made Ichika curious. "Care to elaborate for someone who doesn't know how to take a car apart and put it back together again?"

"It comes down to how IS cores and the miniature arc-reactors don't even fulfill the same purposes," supplied Felt who was also engrossed in her laptop and still keeping up with the conversation. "Both technologies serve as black-boxes as no one other than the original creators can make them."

"Unless they have access to some insider knowledge," Mr. Stark grunted as if recalling a bad memory. "Even then though, very few would be able to do so." Ichika felt like there was a story behind that, but put that line of thought to the back of his mind when Felt continued explaining.

"While both power suits are built around their respective black-boxes, said black-boxes fulfill different roles. To sum up a few chapters of your manual, the IS core is able to utilized quantum particles and cause quantum mechanics effects on a scale that practically makes it so that an IS suit operates utilizing different rules of physics. A good example of this is how an IS achieves flight by altering its own gravity and inertia rather than just generating thrust to overcome gravity."

"On the other hand, the miniature arc-reactors I created are portable power supplies with never before seen levels of energy output for their size." Mr. Stark cut in with a pride in his voice. "Power to weight ratio is a crucial factor in making any kind of exoskeletal armor a feasible system. The US army was able to make a functional mechanical exoskeleton all the way back in the 1960's, but nothing came of it because it was too heavy and slow to be viable. Despite how much time has passed since then it seems only me and Tabane have come up with elegant solutions to the problem."

"Elegant?" Ichika asked.

"I wouldn't call powering a suit with extremely radioactive nuclear material to be a worthwhile solution. Even if you did add proper radiation shielding it would likely add too much weight anyways." Tony clarified. "Back to how IS-cores are good solutions and mini arc-reactors are better solutions to the power problem. While the IS cores helps to store a great deal of energy like a battery, it doesn't come anywhere close to the total energy a miniature arc-reactor can generate. For the Mark I, II, and III the only technological breakthrough was the arc-reactor (AN: quoted from a deleted scene from Robert Downey Jr.'s audition for the role of Tony Stark). Everything else about those suits was already technologically feasible and could be recreated into shoddy knock-offs, but they'd be impractical without a mini arc-reactor because of energy requirements."

"Let me tell you about the EOS to give you an idea," inputted Neil. "The EOS is the 'Extended Operation Seeker' developed by the United Nations, and I helped test its practicality. The next gen Portable Plasma Battery on its back weighs 30 kilograms alone and it can only power the heavy thing for an operational cycle of 10 minutes. Meanwhile the mini-arc reactor powers Iron Man exoskeletons with far heavier and structurally sturdier power armor, makes it capable of flight, and its operation cycle is measured in hours or even days depending on level of activity."

"Bottom line miniature arc-reactors are a vastly superior power supply," Tony summed up. "Back to the original analogy though. Like a helicopter, the IS suits are capable of performing maneuvers that aren't physically impossible for the armor I designed because it can utilize different laws of physics. While the power armor systems I've designed basically have longer operation times and ranges due to having significant larger power reserves.

"Hmm." Ichika hummed as he looked up in thought. "Huh?" Only to snap out of it as he noticed a clock on the wall displaying the time. "I need to get going. If I'm late meeting up with Houki after I asked our meeting time moved to later she'll be really mad."

"Well you shouldn't keep a lady waiting, but still would she really be that upset?" Neil asked.

"Well it took a bit of effort to convince her to take the time to help tutor me about the IS outside of class to begin with."Ichika said as he gathered up his thing in his school bag. "Weirdly enough, she quickly agreed after an upperclassmen offered to spend her free time to privately tutor me." Ichika just shrugged them memory off, failing to notice the look Neil was giving him for how oblivious he was. He waved good bye and left the room.

"Should we tell him?" Neil asked out loud.

"About what?" Felt genuinely asked as she finally looked up from her Laptop. Neil sighed at his girlfriend's response.

"Feel free to tell him if you want," Tony voice once again came over the speaker. "Given my own dating history Chifuyu made me promise not to give him dating advice. Can't really fault her too much on her feeling that way. Her mother did play me for a sucker more than once after all."

'IS Academy's Kendo Club room really has a nice traditional feel to it.' Ichika noted as looked around while gasping for breath. After he had met up with Houki she had quickly dragged him here, change into the proper equipment, and had him spar in a match with her. A match where Houki proved she had earned her victory at that international kendo competition. Hence, why Ichika was sitting on the floor gasping for breath, and taking the time to take in the room before his next round with Houki. His eyes drifted over the traditional sliding wooden door where he noticed the three banners above it. From Left to right were "Rivalry", "Mighty Mind & Body", and "Unyieldingness" written in Kanji.

"Okay, what in the hell is going on here?" Houki's voice interrupted Ichika's wondering thoughts.

"I-I don't know what you mean." Ichika stated confused.

"How did you allow yourself to become so weak?" Houki asked irritably as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. "What clubs were you in in middle school?"

"The go-home club."Ichika responded sheepishly. "Three years of perfect attendance."

"Then you'll retrain. This problem comes before the IS. Effective immediately you will be in training with me for 3 hours every day after school."

"Hang on! I wanted you to teach me about the IS."

"And I said this problem comes before the IS!" Houki fired back

"Man, Orimura is kind of weak." Ichika overheard behind him. He notice a few girls off a little ways watching on. "Do you think he can really control an IS?

"Grr" Ichika growled out before standing back up and looking Houki straight in the eye. "I asked you to specifically teach me about the IS. If you're not willing to do that, then I'll just find someone else to do it."

"Huh?" Houki asked a little shocked and annoyed at Ichika response. She opened her mouth to let out an angry retort.

"Oh sweet, she's about to blow it." "Hey, this could be our chance." "I'm currently free to tutor you!"

Houki's ire quickly turned to worry as she finally noticed the random spectators that would be eager to pounce at the chance to tutor him. She quickly coughed into her hand and tried to school her features in an effort to try and save face. "The best chance you'll have at winning your match witch Ms. Stuffy British Britches is to devote as much time as you can into practical training between now and then." Houki explained. "The training units aren't available to us first years right now and your IS isn't here yet. That means the best training you can get right now is combat practice. Given the background you have in Kendo, as well as the fact that Japanese IS machines tend to have some kind of sword as a melee weapon, this is the best combat training you can get right now."

"Really," Ichika said outload as he mulled over Houki's reasoning. "Ok then, but if that's the case I'll be fighting based on what rules I know about IS matches rather than restricting myself to the rules of kendo."

"Is that so," Houki replied as a prideful glint came into her eye. "You shouldn't underestimate kendo, don't cry to me if you get yourself hurt underestimating it."

Both Ichika and Houki got back into position, standing ready to start another round. "Begin" Houki cried out, both her and Ichika to surge forward. Her first strike clashed against Ichika's as she expected. As rusty as her childhood friend was, she wasn't expecting him to go down on the first blow. 'What is he doing?' Houki couldn't help but think when she saw Ichika take one hand off his wooden practice sword. Well it didn't matter to her. If Ichika didn't want to maintain a firm grip, she'd knocked his sword out of his hand and…

*Whirrr*

'What? Where'd he…?'

"MEN" Houki heard Ichika call out his strike from behind her as he tapped the side of her head with his his wooden sword.

"What the?" Houki cried out as she turned around. "What the heck was that!?"

"My attempt at using a 'Kusagari' technique." Ichika stated as he let his shinai drop to hang at his side. "It's a rather obscure style that originated from the Kusagari clan that was born when the swordsman of the east came together with the gun slingers of America's wild west. I found out about them thanks to my sisters international travles. They were masters of the blade, and the side arms they kept at their side. It was common for many of them were to be agile and mobile enough to slip past many of their opponents guard and strike them from the flank our rear." He raised his hand up to reveal the repulsar he had equipped after the round had started. "Though they probably never had a device to assist them get a boost in mobility."

"So you didn't give up the sword sword entirely." Houki state sounding happy which surprised Ichika. "The reason you went home every day was too practice a sword style that the kendo club at school would likely condemn. A whole new sword style that I haven't faced before!"

'She said that last part rather eagerly.' Ichika thought as a wave of unease swept over his body. "Well it's not like I practiced as regularly as I would have if I was at a kendo club." Ichika raised his sword up just in time to block an overhead strike from Houki. He felt a heavy pressure both on his arms from the strain of holding Houki's strike back, and from the aura that seemed to be leaking out of Houki.

"Don't worry, we have plenty of time to practice right now." Houki had somewhat of a scary smirk on her face, and a predator like glean in her eyes.

A shiver ran down Ichika's spine before he activated the repulsar to get behind her and strike again. "Blocked!?" Ichika cried out in surprise upon seeing that Houki had already raised her practice sword over her shoulder to guard from the attack. 'After only seeing the move once, you anticipated and successfully blocked it Houki?'

"I've already seen that trick, and I for one can't wait to see what other techniques you got up your sleeves." Houki confidently declared, worrying Ichika even further.

As Ichika began to franticly reengage Houki, neither of the two noticed or remembered the onlookers that were quietly leaving as quickly as they could. "To think Shinonono was such kendo battle nut." "At first I thought it was unfair that Orimura used that device on his hand. After seeing Shinonono like that I can't blame him." "I'm just glad we left before there was a chance we could somehow get swept up in the middle of all that."

"I get that the academy wants to look high end, but why make the locker rooms look this opulent?" Houki couldn't help but think out loud as she changed out of her kendo gear. She spotted three large potted plants just when she had entered the through the doors of locker room, and that was speaking nothing of the vivid golden paint on the walls, counters, and lockers.

"I wonder if I got too over eager and was a bit too rough on him." Houki said softly as she pulled a strap of her clothing over her shoulder. She then scoffed. "No way! He had it coming. I might not have heard of the style he was using, but his grip didn't seem firm enough, unsure. Like him and his body were second guessing if he was doing it properly. It was obvious he hadn't practiced enough with that sword style for at least the past year. Otherwise, he wouldn't have ever lost to me so easily. At least he was proficient enough to capitalize on the surprise factor and win that one round." She was kind of upset that Ichika hadn't revealed any noteworthy techniques after that. If Ichika had any more little tricks up his sleeve, he had decided to save them for later after seeing they would only work on her once. "While it wasn't flashy, he did have the good sense to at least work on reinforcing the basics of his style."

She gained a forlorn look on his face. "He's changed. In the past 6 years when I didn't see him, Ichika's really changed so much." Houki said as she closed her eyes. Vivid imagery came to mind. Like watching an old nostalgic home video, she could vividly remember her and Ichika practicing side by side in the kendo dojo her family ran.

Houki open her eyes, revealing a determined stare. "So this means his intensive training will begin tomorrow. That means I'll get to be alone with Ichika after school..." She paused as light rosy pink colored her cheeks. "No! I'm not thinking about things like that at all!" Houki adamantly denied to herself as she furiously shook her head back and forth. "It's just that I'm genuinely concerned about helping my childhood friend's combat skills. Right, that's why it's okay." She declared as she rose her right hand up into the air then made a fist in determination.

[Two weeks later in the IS Arena hanger]

"Ah, Houki."

"What now?"

"Well," Ichika began, "the thing is, you promised me that you were going to teach me about the IS." He was somewhat shocked when Houki had the audacity to turn and stare at the wall away. "Hey!" Ichika called out while putting his hands on hips. "Don't turn away from me. Thanks to you, the only thing I've done this week is practice my Kusagari fighting style. Look me in the eyes and answer me!"

"Well, it's not like there was much else we could do. Your IS still hasn't been delivered yet." Houki said while continuing to look away for whatever reason. Ichika hoped it was guilt.

"Even without one, you could still at least teach me stuff about the basics." Houki respond by shifting to look so far away she had practically turned around. "And I said don't turn away from me!"

Suddenly a live feed came up on the wall Houki was looking at to avoid Ichika's gaze. It showed that Cecilia had already taken the field in a blue IS. "Whoa." Ichika said as he forgot his frustration. "So that's her personal IS." The blue color scheme alone set it apart from the mass production models he had seen. He had heard a few rumors that Cecilia's personal IS was one of the new third generation IS. Given the high tech look it had Ichika was willing to believe those rumors were true.

"Orimura! Orimura! Orimura!" Ms. Yamada's voice came over the intercom. "It's here. Your personal IS has just arrived."

"Orimura, you need to get ready at once." Ichika heard his older sister say with her usual no nonsense professional teaching voice. "The amount of time we can use the arena is limited. You'll have to learn how to make this IS yours during the match itself."

Ichika and Houki's attention was drawn to a heavy mechanical doors as it slowly opened to reveal a gray IS unit with blue accents.

"This is Orimura's personal IS, The Byakushiki!"" Ms. Yamada announced.

"Hurry up and get suited." Chifuyu ordered. "Unfortunately for you time is limited. You'll have to do the formatting and fitting while the match is in progress."

"Understood" Ichika replied. He placed his hand on the IS, as he did he recalled when he first laid his hand on an IS and it activated. "It feels different, and yet there's something familiar about it. I think I can understand it. What it is, and its purpose."

"Show you entrust your life to it. Let it take control." Chifuyu explained as Ichika got into the machine. "The system will optimize the rest." The various parts of the endoskeleton attaching themselves onto his Ichika's body.

"Access. System start." A robotic voice sounded out. A series of holographic displays came up in front of Ichika's eyes showing him various stats.

"Byakushiki... This is Byakushiki." Ichika said outload as he tried to familiarize himself with the machine. 'Can't help but feel a bit exposed without a helmet.'

"Cecilia Alcott's machine is called "Blue Tears." Ms Yamada explained as image of IS in question came up along with a list of stats. "It's a long-range model IS."

"Blue Tears, got it."

"In every IS unit, there's a feature referred to as "absolute defense." Ms. Yamada reminded her student. "Its main function is to always protect the pilot's life during any attack. However, that deployment would cause your shield energy to be badly depleted. Loose too much and you'll lose the match, understand?"

The various parts of the endoskeleton finished attaching themselves onto Ichika's body.

"So Orimura, are you feeling up to this?" Chifuyu asked her brother while remaining professional.

"Yeah, piece of cake." Ichika respond confidently

Chifuyu smiled at her younger brother's enthusiasm. "We'll see."

"Hey, Houki." Ichika called out to his childhood friend.

"Huh?"

"Here we go."

"Oh, okay. Win this."

Ichika gave a small nod. He then took a step and leaned forward. "I'm off!" He said before flying out of the hangar.

'Okay let's get this over with.' Ichika thought to himself

'I can't believe this isn't over yet' Ichika thought to himself.

"Remind me again how we got here again." Neil drawled as he and Felt where doing one last check to see that Ichika and his IM suit were all set. They were standing in the same area were Ichika got into his personal IS earlier today.

"I had an IS match with Cecilia over who would be the class rep, but my IS finally arrived right before the match started." Ichika let out a tired sigh. "So I fought most of my match trying to dodge gunfire and attack drones while my IS was in its default state. Cecilia was rather surprised to see when it finally went through its first shift. But not as surprised as everyone was when I went to use Byakushiki weapon, Yukihira, and it drained enough of my own shield energy for the match to automatically be called, declaring Cecilia the winner."

"And would that normally lead to such a quick rematch?" Neil asked somewhat sarcastically.

"No, that's because Cecilia demand this rematch. Apparently she thinks it was unfair I wasn't able to fight with the Byakushiki at full strength for the most of the fight. It seems fighting against an opponent that she sees as handicapped goes against her pride. Truth be told I'm still surprised sis actually arranged this."

"No one is expecting another match so soon, you were fortunate enough there was another time slot later in the day for Ms. Orimura to secure." Felt explained as she finished her inspection. "The arena is on lockdown, and the only people here who didn't know about the IS before are Ms. Alcott and Ms. Shinonono. As Britain's representative candidate, Ms. Alcott already has a security clearance in a nation that contributes to SHIELDS international efforts, so we can trust her to keep things confidential. Your childhood friend was designated a person of interest six years ago after her older sister created the first IS, and is familiar with keeping quiet about clandestine information. From there your sister was able to use her authority, power and contacts both in this school and with SHIELD to permit them learning about IM units as well as to swear them to secrecy about what they'll see here after the match is over.

"In other words I already have everything covered Orimura." Chifuyu's voice sounded out over the intercom. "Now go out there and demonstrate what you can do with power armor that you've actually been trained to use."

"Yes mam." Ichika responded before he once again flew out into the stadium. This time his flying was a lot more controlled. He also took it slower than when he flew out with his IS earlier. 'With any luck she'll underestimate this suits speed.'

"You ready for our little rematch." Ichika called out as he took to hovering midair in the same position across from Cecilia as he did for their previous match.

"What are you piloting?" Cecilia asked in surprise.

"This is powered exoskeleton, specifically modelled after the Iron Man mark II model.

"You'd also do well not to underestimate him in that thing." Chifuyu's voice called out through both Ichika's and Cecilia's secure coms. "For the most part this match will have the same rulers as before. The only difference is that Ichika will lose when his unit takes either significant enough structural damage, or his unit's power runs low enough it reaches the same percentage the we call a match for IS shield energy. Now begin the match!"

"Honestly," Cecillia huffed as she crossed arms, far too relaxed about the situation. "First a model that was still in the default setting, now this inferior, low tech, alternative piece of hardware." She took her eyes of Ichika to stare at the location of the monitor room, where Ms. Yamada and Chifuyu were likely overseeing the match. "How do you expect for us to have a fair fight, let alone for him to have a chance of winning if you keep giving him suits that don't stand a chance of ACK!" she was cut off as Ichika slammed into her, accelerating far faster that what she though his suit would be capable of.

"You shouldn't take your eyes off your opponent." Ichika said before their flight end with Ichika slamming Cecilia's machine several feet off the ground into the top section of a wall that separated the battlefield from the surrounding audience seats.

"Augh" Cecilia shouted out. "How were you fast enough to, OOMPH" She cried out as Ichika need her in the stomach, pushing her IS far enough into the wall for is to be noticeably stuck when she tried to move it to get back up.

"Sorry about this," Ichika said with some trepidation, before he started raining down his armored fist, blow upon blow, on Cecilia's IS unit. Ichika aimed for the more armored areas where he hoped it would hurt Cecilia less and deplete more of here shield energy.

Unfortunately for Cecilia, most armor plating on IS units were designed to disperse under significant impact as a means to reduce the toll on an IS units shield energy. It was a design feature that was key to helping pilots win IS matches where the loser was whoever ran out of shield energy first. It was also one of the primary reasons IS pilots could still experience pain in their matches despite the so called "Absolute-defense system."

Cecilia gritted her teeth, "Grr, I'm not just going to lie here and take this you brute."

"Incoming" the suit's Ai EDI warned, red dot's appeared on Ichika's heads up display, letting him know that Cecilia's flying remote optical drone units were lining up to attack him from behind. He grabbed Cecilia by the shoulders. "Where do you think your touching!?" Cecilia shouted out indignantly, blushing while she sent the command to her drones to launch the missiles they had tucked away for an ace in the whole. Her embarrassment turn to shock as Ichika ripped her out of the wall and through her at the incoming attack behind him.

"GAH" Cecilia shouted and closed her eyes as she was hit full force by her own missiles. She heard Ichika be declared the winner as her IS used up its shield energy. She felt herself falling only to come to a gentle stop as she felt someone pick her up midflight.

"Gotch ya." Cecilia opened her eyes as her IS unit transformed into standby mode, only to become embarrassed when she realized her opponent was now carrying her bridal style. "You Okay?"

"I'm fine," Cecilia said, while being genuinely surprised by Ichika's concern. "My IS unit would have manage to hold together until after I hit the ground you know."

"Yeah well," The IM suit's helmet lifted up to reveal Ichika giving a kind warm smile the Cecilia found rather charming. "With how little I know about the IS, I didn't want to take a chance with your safety milady." Ichika added on the last part as a joke at how Cecilia tended to carry herself like a prideful noble. Rather than eliciting a laugh, a blush came over Cecilia's face. "Hmm? Now that I take a closer look at you your face is all red, you sure you're OK?"

"Like I said earlier, I'm fine." Cecilia crossed her arms arrogantly. "Hmph, I'll have you know that even if I lost, it takes far more than that to truly harm the great Cecilia Alcott!"

"Glad to hear it." Ichika's smile was now easy going with a hint of mirth. "Never the less, sorry if I ended up being a little too rough. I felt that it would have hurt your pride even more if I held back on you."

Cecilia gave Ichika a warm smile. "Well aren't you a considerate gentleman when you want to be?"

"Just how long are you two going to waste time floating there like that!?" Cecilia and Ichika turned their heads to see a very annoyed Houki and her mad face in the stands. "If you're worried about her, quit stalling and set her down already so she can leave to go to the infirmary to get checked out!"

Cecilia frowned, "I suppose she's right." Cecilia then adopted a sly grin. "So could you continue to be a gentleman and kindly escort me?" She asked as she put her arms around his neck.

"Um, what are you doing?" Ichika asked slightly confused.

'It's only fitting that a lady of my status acts the part when she finds herself in a princess carry.' Cecilia thought to herself. "Just taking a precaution to make sure I don't fall. You wouldn't want me to take the chance of getting hurt would you?" Cecilia asked coyly with her face very close to Ichika's.

"Ah, no, of course not." Responded a flustered Ichika. He was so flustered he didn't notice the triumphant smirk Cecilia shot at a seething Houki as they flew down.

AN: So first chapter was completely original content, second followed close to the script, and now this one follows canon story outline while trying to avoid as much unoriginal content as possible. In case it wasn't obvious by now, I'm actively trying to experiment and see what's the best way for me to write a story.

If you have an opinion on these three different chapter, feel free to let me know what you though I did good, and what sucked. Because until people let me know what they thought, all I know is how much I like these chapter. I will say I enjoyed the way I wrote the first, and third chapters better than the second.