A day passed, but he stood still in the hangar.
He didn't know why he was there. Idly standing as he gazed at the broken prototype, a unit that could never hope to accomplish it's successor could do. Yes, they shared the same fate. Yes, they knew that they had a fate that was set in stone.
An end. Death. Destruction.
Shinkurou knew that he could die early. If he picked a fight with the wrong guy, it wouldn't be a surprise to find him stuck in a concrete cube and drowned in Tokyo Bay. Just by careless mistake and he would have his heart torn or his head lopped off.
Heck, he heard there was a little girl that died struck by construction steel beams in the news this morning. Dreary it might looked like, the only difference between him and her was that his death remained in an unknown form.
And he projected the thought at the machine before him.
Growing rusty. Weathered by air and climate. Scrapped by the scientists. Dismantled for the pieces that could be salvaged. Or even destroyed completely.
"Regardless, that doesn't mean anything." He said to nobody in particular and shook off the uneasiness nestling within his mind.
As he turned around to walk off the Development Section, he was greeted by a familiar figure.
"Oh, Prof." Shinkurou muttered.
"Hm? Dear me, boy! You're here again?" The old man asked in-between of holding a stack of documents.
The boy nodded, which prompted the man to plant an empty palm at his face.
"Come, boy." The old man urged. "Shirokishi has been shipped to the mainland and there is almost nothing for you to be here."
Nothing...? For some reasons, Shinkurou was offended. There was a unit slumbering to it's designated death and he... just... denied it from existing?
"How can you treat her like that?!" Shinkurou lashed out, surprising the scientist.
"Her...?" He frowned, then looked over the boy's shoulder. More specifically, the glasses he had reflected the silhouette of something.
It was then did he notice, and he glanced at Shinkurou. After a short silence, the boy swore he saw a strange glint beyond the round glasses of the old man's. In fact...
It was that disgusting light he always saw in the eyes of the majority of people living inside this secluded research facility.
"...come here, boy." With a cold and firm voice unfamiliar to Shinkurou, the old man took his hand as he was dragged out of the lab. "Let us talk over a cup of tea."
The base had many places that seemed unnatural for a military base. There was a hidden balcony shrouded by trees and it served as relaxation spot with a cafe installed.
Obviously, until the Rabbit sent a complaint and twiddled with the entire place.
It soon became a transparent terrace where one could see how the environment changed with every passing season, surrounded with nothing but enhanced thick glass walls and some 'Energy Field' Tabane developed in her snack time for increased security. It seemed to be a new breakthrough to camouflage an entire base from various sensors yet still enabled people inside to be aware of external changes freely.
Really, she probably could make a flying fortress and guffaw like a certain boss of villain as she looked down on the earth below.
"...well then... Boy, you were... picked up in the slum, weren't you?" The professor asked as he mixed diet sugar into his tea.
Chamomile... huh? Tabane didn't like the taste very much.
"What of it?" Shinkurou asked as he picked up the teacup brimming with clear oak brown color liquid.
The scent of jasmine tickled his nose as he sipped the tea. Courtesy to his acquaintances, he picked a rather odd set of skills in handling himself, including table manner when attending a tea party with members of royalty.
"Mhm. From what you experienced... tell me, what is life to you?" Professor asked. Once he sipped his tea, he placed down the teacup and raised his hands to support his chin.
Shinkurou fixed his gaze to make sure he could 'enjoy' the tea. He didn't like to ruin the mood and he could do nothing but to respect an elder. Though if it were in the slum...
"Life is cheap." Shinkurou answered flatly.
It was probably scary to hear a five years old boy to say such thing but for him, his mind had matured faster than his peers and near-death experiences forced him to adapt. To be capable in tricking the rouges in want of easy ways out was not a choice, but mandatory. He could never take things for granted unless he was sure there was no trap to inconvenience him, and he must fight it out even if his nails were broken if he wanted something.
"With a drop of hat, a bullet can pierce through your head. With a sip of water and you'd have absorbed deadly poison. With a careless inhalation and you'd breathe in flammable chemicals that burned your internal organs." Shinkurou explained. "Other people's lives aren't as important as my own. That's the first rule to live in slums."
"And do you... not find it disturbing? To live like that?"
Shinkurou shrugged. "I live because of my efforts. I do not regret killing my way out and eating filth so as to accomplish my goal."
"Then what is your goal?" Professor asked as he shifted his hand to overlap each other in a different order.
"To survive." Shinkurou answered curtly, no hesitation whatsoever in his word.
It was pure fact. A statement that seemed to say he'd do anything, even burning down a country and slaughtering innocents if he could live for another day.
With a sigh, professor shook his head. "You are young. So incredibly young, wiser than your age, more capable than us prodigies, and yet... you are coldhearted."
"Me...? Coldhearted...?" Shinkurou scoffed. "Well, isn't that a grand compliment then? Without a heart-"
"You wouldn't have survived."
...there was silence. Then... Shinkurou's eyes started to be dyed with red.
"Are you saying I am at wrong, old bat?" Shinkurou asked with venom dripping in his voice.
He knew the implication. He was no idiot. How could he not miss the blade hidden inside those words? And the old man before him spouted such line when what was needed to take him to the graveyard was a cup of tea and a silver spoon.
If he posed a threat, then Shinkurou would eliminate him like he did to the bandits trying to steal his food. And if he had an ace under the sleeve...
I'll just dig out everything until he has no further use.
"Do tell me. Do you have any dream, boy? Do you have any aspiration? A life you expected it to be. A life you want to live in. A world only for you to hold."
"I do NOT need dreams. It does not fill my appetite and I cannot expect it to save me from my enemy."
If so, professor paused. With a hand gesture, the two then gazed at the outside world beyond the thick glass.
"What are those animals to you?" Professor pointed out.
Outside the camouflaged terrace, at the forest floor was a group of small animals. One was a fox, an adult one with glistening orange brown fire and black paws as if it was wearing stocking. Surrounding it were smaller version of the fox. Children, it could be said.
Staring at them frolicking around, Shinkurou answered. "Animals. But nothing more than preys for me."
"Even the children?" Professor asked.
"Even the children." Shinkurou replied.
If so, professor repeated. The boy was getting irritated by his questions. What was the point anyway?
"If so..." Professor repeated for the third time. "...what is the 0.5th-Generation Infinite Stratos to you?"
That...
Was something Shinkurou did not expect. No, it was something he regarded as a possibility but when the question was thrown...
He realized - he had no answer to that.
"Is it not a hunk of machine? Is it not a tool for bloodshed, as you called it before? Is it not a mindless object that is used to flaunt one's ego?" Professor barraged questions after questions. "To you, it's nothing but an oversized device costing terrible sum of money. Yes, the budget has been dried off for it. Yes, we had to work through sleepless nights for it's completion. And yes, no one but women are able to use it."
In fact...
"That is no shorter than the truth. And you... know it, do you not?" He inquired further, putting pressure at the last part of his sentence.
Gnashing his teeth, Shinkurou wondered how could this shitty old man bested him in terms of argument. His silver tongue was coherent, orderly, systematical and yet... and yet, striking chords upon him. Him, who knew that one wrong word could have spelt him detestable suffering or death.
He already had the premonition. No matter how sophisticated technology was, there existed an obvious weakness. A terrible disadvantage that made it unappealing for some people.
And for the IS - it was because it could be used only by women.
IS possessed a Core that synchronized with a chosen pilot, and depending on the synchronicity rate, their capabilities in piloting it changed drastically. What's more, if the synchronicity was high enough to a certain threshold, the possibility of IS optimizing (evolving) into a greater height became much larger than regular expectations. If the technology was mass-produced, clearly, countries would find the strongest candidate with the biggest potential so as to conquer diplomatic fields.
However - IS reacted highly only when they contacted selected women.
They were like unicorns that allowed only the fair and pure maidens to touch their magical horns. Male was rejected by it while female was granted at least the chance of fifty-fifty to pilot it. In a world filled by seven billions of humans, divided into hundreds of countries that had their own agendas as well as selfish egos... A one-sided gender supremacy over military strength would cause collapse of global order. One misstep and World War III might happen.
"...but the world doesn't concern me. So what if it burns down and becoming ash? Regardless of who blocking my path to survive, I will destroy them!" Shinkurou stated.
But the professor scoffed. "And what if the one standing before you is 'that child'? Can you still destroy it?".
The boy glared furiously at him. Why do you have to mention it? What do you want? Do you have a death wish...?!
"Alive... your sister thinks they are alive, boy. But then why do we ignore the prototype? Why would we regard it as nothing when it is clearly there like a weeping child in her dark room?" The scientist exhaled. "We had... hopes in her. Expectations that shouldn't have been given to her."
The man sipped his tea. In between the interval, his gaze wavered, the light in his eyes dimmed.
"We wanted her to be the best. The first and the successful, a child that is born blessed by the world. So we created her with zeal we thought we never had after years of dull researches, nurturing her system and even creating an AI that is as advanced as her core." He exhaled. "All efforts were poured... and gone because she couldn't take the burden anymore."
He placed the empty teacup down. With hands clasped together, and with those resolved eyes... the Professor uttered.
"And now, to us... she has no hope to survive. Thus we decided to scrap her once the 1st-Generation IS is publicized."
The boy... upon hearing this statement, widened his eyes. Something trembled inside him, like a glass shuddering before breaking apart. His blood suddenly boiled, his heart felt like it was about to explode.
Then everything became a blur of red.
"Argh...!"
Before he knew it, he was on the ground. The color red fading from his vision, he looked up... and found men in green uniforms. Familiar faces that seemed rigid like a steel, holding guns pointed at him while one old man was being supported with an arm to stand up. Stain of clear reddish turquoise tainted his white coat, and the old man wheezed as he readjusted his glasses.
"Boy..." He called out. "What you feel for her... is the same like what we feel. You saw her incomplete form. Her closed off possibility. Her pleas that she could do no less than her successor."
We... considered that girl as our child, the man said, his eyes were melancholic as he straightened his posture... and began to walk away.
"Life is unfair. But more importantly... there is someone else's life... which is no different than yours. And no less precious than yours." He explained. "And to Tabane Shinonono... Seeing the first child she designed unable to soar in the blue sky is..."
The word... was never registered in Shinkurou's hazy mind. He fell to slumber... and he heard nothing else.
What... did she feel...?
He woke up back in his room. It was dark but the emergency lights were always on in case darkness shrouded it for security measures.
Slowly getting up, Shinkurou groaned, left knee raised and he placed his left arm over it. His memories were in a blur for some times and when his calm mind replayed everything he experienced...
"...I... feel... what...?" He asked himself, looking at the palms of his hands. "Do I... feel attached? To a machine that is not even alive...?"
He gritted his molar as he slammed a fist onto the wall next to his bed.
"...like hell... Like hell I will feel something."
He didn't need it. He didn't want it. As if he required to use his heart. He'd lie if given the opportunity, prove himself with honed intellect and strength...
But he'd never be attached to others.
Bonds would break. Even the best of a comrade could turn their blade at your back if the circumstance saw it fit. And even families could be at each other's throat. He'd never fall for the same mistake. It costed him his previous life. His everything was robbed in the blink of an eye, and was returned with a sly smile that looked down on his shattered innocence. On the confused him who understood nothing regarding the world and his own position.
"...as if... as if I feel the same like you lots...!" Shinkurou roared, then furiously stomped his way into the shower room.
After a change of clothes and some exercises to vent out his stress, he felt his stomach rumbling. Frowning, the boy briskly left his room, walking through the empty hallway towards the mess hall.
In the way, he passed the silent soldier barracks, he passed by several rooms that had red lights of 'locked' on, and when he was about to arrive at his destination...
*BOOM!*
The heaven fell upon him.
-Author's Rambling-
Hello again. To any that thinks the story seemed slow, it's because I don't want to rush it. Last time I threw off my limiter, the work I produced became too messy that I feel bad for the world I created. I don't want to repeat the same mistake but I'm also eager to make the cool part and show it off to everyone. As expected, writing also have withdrawal syndrome. I hope it's only my imagination but I shouldn't be careless.
Thus, it is one step at a time. It will be. It's going to be. Forever it will be.
Anyway, a conflict has begun. A certain character of Season 2 will also appear although judging from canon timeline, I do believe there is a leeway for the power balance since this is around 10 years ago before the series starts. Let's hope nothing goes wrong in the next chapter...