The two boys ran into the cafeteria, quickly taking the set lunches that appealed most to them and finding a seat, bringing their trays with them- Sam with his "Sirloin steak set" and Ichika with his "Grilled fish set". Sitting down, Sam instantly clasped his hands in prayer, and Ichika couldn't help but think just how much he remembered the boy who sat before him. Unclasping his hands, he quickly took the knife and fork.
"Itadakimasu!"
"Itadakimasu!"
Both boys dug into their food, eating at their own paces.
Meanwhile, five girls sat at a table relatively far away, staring at the two boys. Two blondes, one silver haired, one brunette and one black haired girl- looking at them from a distance, they seemed an odd bunch.
"Guhh… Who is he and why is he acting all friendly with Ichika?" Rin asked, biting her chopsticks as she spoke.
"Hey… wait a moment… I know him…" she suddenly added, recognition filling her eyes.
"Ehh?" the other four voiced their surprise in unison, staring at Rin with inquisitive eyes.
"Eh- uhm… how to say… he was in the same middle school as me and Ichika…" Rin said, getting slightly scared at how the other girls were staring at her. "Eh… him and Ichika, both of them uhm… how to say… they protected me from several bullies… though it was originally Ichika, the other one just simply joined the fray without thinking… I don't remember his name though..."
"Ahh… so that's why…." Houki muttered.
"His name… I think it was Blackburn?" This time, it was Charlotte.
"It sounds American no matter how you look at it," Cecilia chipped in.
"Maybe it's because he's born to an American dad?" Laura.
"Well, at least we don't have to worry about another rival popping up…" And back to Rin.
"Let's just hope he's straight!" Cecilia suddenly said again, drawing strange looks from the other four.
As the four pondered on, Stella casually walked past them towards the table where Sam and Ichika was sitting.
"Onii-chan!"
"Oh… right, Stella," Sam stuttered a bit as he waved for her to sit beside him. "I told you to speak to me in class just now didn't I?"
Looking a bit sheepish, Sam scratched his head a bit.
"Ahh, it's okay onii-chan!" Stella said casually.
"Ahh, hey, Sam, I just remembered," this time, it was Ichika. "Seeing your performance just now, and the fact that you're here means that you must've accidentally activated an IS somewhere right?"
Ichika received no response from Sam, who suddenly appeared to be deep in thought.
"Sam?"
"Oh, yeah, hey, what's up?"
"You activated an IS too didn't you?"
"Huh? Oh, yeah I did," he let out a small, awkward laugh before adding, "accidentally, of course."
"So… how'd it happen?"
"Happen what?"
"Activating an IS."
"Oh… I'll tell you, but I'd much appreciate it if those girls there would stop staring at me like I'm some intruder," he said, pointing at the group of five girls who seemed to be staring at him with murderous intent. Or maybe they were glaring at Stella? Either way, he felt their gazes upon him and was slightly disturbed, although right after pointing at them, they all seemed to hurriedly shift their attention back to food.
"Huh? Them? Nah, they won't do that."
"You're still as much of a blockhead as last time," Sam continued, placing his face in his palm.
"...? Anyway.."
Without thinking, Ichika called the five of them over, and they all seemed shock for a moment before picking up their trays and joining the trio on the table. They sat down and stared intently at Sam, waiting for him to make a move.
"Ahh… I guess I haven't introduced myself yet. My name, as I've said before, is Samuel Blackburn. Nice to meet you."
Following him, the silver haired girl started.
"I'm Laura, Laura Bodewig. That is all."
"I'm Cecilia Alcott, the one and only, the England Representative Candidate."
He nodded an acknowledgement at both of them, repeating their names five times in his head and committing it to memory.
"Hehe… you know me right?" This was Rin, who grinned at him and did the v sign with her hand.
"Of course, how can I forget. Huang Lingyin, or Rin, for short," Sam replied, smiling at his childhood friend that had indirectly brought him and Ichika's group of friends together.
"Anyway, moving on, my name is Shinonono, Shinonono Houki. Nice to meet you."
He nodded yet again, and then, his eyes rested on the final girl.
"I'm Charlotte Dunois, nice to meet you," she smiled kindly at him as she said that.
And yet, his response was an awkward expression.
"So… you really are the daughter of the Dunois company CEO…" he murmured. Although he didn't want to be on bad terms with any of them, he couldn't help but feel shocked that the France representative candidate, who was an ace from the Dunois company, was here.
Noticing his reaction, Charlotte gave an inquisitive look, as if to say "what's wrong?", and Sam, who saw this, immediately just smiled and shook his head a bit.
"Anyway, so tell us, how'd it happen?" Ichika asked, still continuing his questioning.
"Ahh… I think… that can wait till later" Saying this, he quickly glanced at Charlotte, and a slightly nervous expression could be seen, despite his attempts to hide it.
Picking up on this, Ichika tried to reassure him.
"Hmm? Oh, Charlotte? No, she won't hurt you."
"You sure?"
"Yeap."
"Very sure?"
"I'm right here you know…Is it something… to do with the Dunois corporations?" a now restless Charlotte asked.
Without thinking, Sam nodded, confirming her suspicions, and before he knew it, every single girl, and Ichika, were intently staring at him, telling him to go on. All but Charlotte, of course, who looked somewhat scared.
"What's with the way you look, you guys…?"
"Tell us," Laura's voice was sharp and commanding.
"Fine fine…"
He cleared his throat and sorted out his memories before finally beginning.
"So, as you'd probably guessed, considering my unit is a Dunois-made one, that I was in France at the time, just about a month ago…"
"Huh… so it turns out he's gotta get a surgery huh?" Sam wondered aloud, stretching his arms out. He was currently walking around the city of Lyon, nearby the hospital that his uncle was admitted to. His uncle had just moved here and he'd only been packing up the last of his personal items back in Japan when he'd received the call that his uncle had indeed fallen sick. The doctors said something about an inflamed appendix, and although he could chance a guess about what that was, he didn't really care, because knowing his uncle, he'd probably just recover so quickly after the surgery it would probably shock the doctors.
"Huh… so what to do…" he wondered, walking around the city and looking at all the cafes that lined both sides of the streets, as well as the parks and gardens that were there.
And, with nothing else to do, he entered one of the gardens.
The view in France was way different from the view in Japan- despite all the technological advances in the world, there were still plenty of lush green-space filled with plants and trees, and it felt much more natural to him. For the next few hours, he wandered around the park, around all the crevices and nooks and crannies he could find, and was just about to head back when he heard a very small, very faint mechanical noise. Of course, him being quite adventurous, he decided to follow the noise to its source, weaving through the trees and into the dense undergrowth that marked the end of the park. The area was relatively forest-like, with many lush green trees standing high above the ground, and his leg was caught by undergrowth more than once, only his fast reaction and combat training saving him from the falling over his face. By the time he reached the other side though, regardless of how he managed to stop himself from falling, his black jacket and white shirt was muddied.
But what he saw was completely worth it.
The compound looked militarized, with lots of blocky buildings and wide, open spaces in the area. It was guarded by an electric fence on all sides, and he guessed that on the other side of the compound from where he was, there was a security gate. He could see inside several IS suits were being piloted by several females, all of them moving in perfect sync with each other, and he couldn't help but get closer to the fence to have a better look. It was then that he saw through the open hangar door, kneeling in the shadows, was a single unmanned unit, waiting for its pilot. For a while now, he'd always wanted to know how the interior of an IS felt, and he thought that right now, it was his chance to do so. He'd spied a gap in the electric fencing earlier on, probably made by some relatively large animal as it was enough for him to go through if he crawled carefully, and decided to risk it, carefully trekking to the position as he pulled up his hoodie and pulled the sleeves over his palms. He knew it was an extremely risky move, but he expected the circuit would've been broken if there was a hole that big and that his hood would be insulative enough to force the current to go around, but he did it anyway, carefully inching his way through the fence and taking care not to let it make actual contact with him. He felt several sudden stinging pain that lasted for a short while as he pulled his legs through though, so he supposed that the fence did make some contact with him, and after pulling himself through, he dashed towards the open suit, surveying the area at high speeds and making sure that there was no cameras facing him or any other personnel. Satisfied, he jumped in.
And felt a rush of data entering his brain.
It was an odd feeling, it was his first time feeling it, yet, he understood everything, and he knew that it meant one thing.
The IS had activated.
He felt as the IS began to form the holder around his torso, linking his body with the machine, and soon enough, he had control of it, moving the suit around the hangar, dashing left, then right. And he even flew, but what surprised him was just how easy it is for him to do all those things- it's as if the suit was a part of him.
But it wasn't long until the alarm was raised and he found himself held at gunpoint by the security guards- not that he actually saw them, the sensors told him about it. He also knew that several scientists had entered the hangar and that several other [Revives] was also holding him at gunpoint, but he didn't care. With a huge grin on his face, he turned around and raised his hands, showing that he meant no harm.
But the reaction from everyone present surprised him the most.
It was four days after he had activated the IS by accident, and he was now being held in a containment room within the Dunois research center. Upon surrendering, he'd been told that the scientists wanted to study him- something that he couldn't help but accept on the condition that no news is spread to anyone.
This secret remains here.
Of course, it would prove to be impossible. He knew that. Sooner or later, some word was going to get out.
"Hey, isn't today the day that that old man is supposed to have his surgery?" he wondered out loud, thinking back to his uncle. He hasn't visited ever since the incident- he couldn't visit him even if he wanted to.
He was trapped here in all sense of the word, all because he didn't want any word of his existence to leak out.
For the past few days, they've done several tests on him- namely IS compatibility tests as well as several DNA map retrievals for study- but he hadn't been allowed to do anything much at all.
And oddly enough, he'd been deemed as having an IS compatibility level of A.
Of course, other than the tests, he'd been given his own customized IS piloting suit and assigned a unit to practice in, and what had surprised the veteran pilots was his level of skill. He'd easily dispatched the targets with ease, which several of the veterans had deemed a fluke and demanded a match with him- all of which he easily won due to his already abnormally high reaction speed which, when coupled with the hyper-sensors, gave him an edge over most pilots. This drove several of the pilots to have a rivalry with him, and that had also started his friendship with the others as well. Although he was glad for that, he still did not find living in the center to be something of a comfort.
But after nearly a month, he was finally released.
It was roughly two weeks since he'd been held in custody- his uncle had been discharged from the hospital following a successful operation and an abnormally fast recovery- and he'd been given his own personal IS, which was given to him as a sign of appreciation from the staff and a testament to his skill, though admittedly, it had been the other pilots who'd thought that he deserved his own unit, petitioning that he be allowed to keep the assigned unit for himself and customize it. Alexandria Ross, an Infinite Stratos engineer and researcher who happened to be the big boss of the lab had personally helped him with the customizations, helping him "code" the equipment into the CORE, creating a heavily customized, high mobility suit that was suited for his style of combat. She'd personally developed a special system for him too, which not only increased his suit's overall mobility, but also granted him improved his overall performance- the [Shadow's Veil] propulsion system. It was a system created after learning Sam's habit of dodging at the very last moment, and was dubbed a third generation mobility equipment. The system was essentially an extremely powerful thruster that could be activated in bursts, allowing the pilot to make unpredictable evasive maneuvers, or used as a regular thruster, which would increase the overall mobility of the unit. But it's special feature lay in its "Shadow" system- something of an optical camouflage system that turned the unit into, optically, a floating shadow that moved at a rapid pace. This was what allowed him to use the [Shadow Vector], and after running several tests in base, the system proved superior to several high mobility third generation models.
And with that in mind, Alexandria secretly signed a transfer for Sam- a transfer to the IS Academy- in order to do further research for the system.
His existence still remained unknown to the world, and unknown to the CEO of the Dunois company, and for that, he was thankful, but leaving the staff of the research lab, all of which he'd grown rather fond of and all of whom had grown fond of him, was somewhat painful to him and he was barely able to hold the tears back on the day he left for the academy. He knew that information about the [Shadow's Veil] technology had been reported to the higher ups of the Dunois company, and he knew that the day he was to leave for the academy was the day that the scientists higher up the ladder were supposed to see the system in action, and of course, he also knew that he would have to perform in front of the other scientists before departing for the Academy.
But he didn't plan on staying around for long.
As was scheduled, he remained on duty and showed off the true potential of the [Shadow's Veil], amazing the scientists as well as the other pilots, and for that 'performance', he had to pretend that he was a girl, meaning that he embarrassingly had to wear paddings on his chest and the female piloting suit as well as make up on his face, which somehow made him look like an actual girl.
But right after the performance, things began to go horribly wrong.
First, he was almost caught changing into his casual clothes, of which he'd been gifted several by his fellow pilots and even researchers.
Next, as he was leaving the changing room, several scientists had been passing by the doorway and he'd had to duck back into the room to avoid detection.
And then, just as he thought he was safe, one of the veteran pilots who'd trained in another area- probably the main HQ- had challenged him to a duel, identifying him only by his hair and not noticing that he was indeed a male.
Of course, he had chosen to ignore her and quickly walked away, but the girl would not be so easily fazed. She came straight at him and grabbed his shoulder, turning him around and getting a good look of his face before he instinctively placed her in a lock, releasing her after he'd put on enough pain and instantly escaping.
And it wasn't long before every single visitor was looking for him.
News of a 'second male pilot' had quickly spread amongst the visitors after the female pilot had recovered and retreated, and he was essentially a most wanted inside the compound at that moment.
It was only thanks to the timely intervention of Alexandria, who said that there was one more piece of technology that she would like to introduce- the [SMART Camo], an optical camouflage system- and his fellow pilots that he managed to escape and take the bus to the airport safely, leaving no traces of him ever existing in that compound.
"So… well yeah, that's the story of how I got here in the first place," Sam said, finishing his summary of how he managed to take activate an IS and receive his personal unit. Of course, despite saying all that, he was still wary of the blond girl who sat across him.
"Ahh… so that's why…" Rin softly muttered, a look of understanding gracing her child-like face.
And every person on the table, Charlotte included, had the same look on their faces.
"Anyway, that's all I've got…" Sam said. "What I really wanna know right now is who exactly are you?"
He glanced at Stella who was busy eating her lamb chop.
"Hmm? Me? I'm your sister!" her reply was cheerful and filled with innocence, but it wasn't something that Sam wanted to hear.
"No joking around. I never had a twin sister, or else we'd have been raised together by Uncle David."
Sam noted that at this, Stella's face turned dark as if she was remembering something she didn't want to, but even then, she still told the truth.
"I never really wanted to admit this," she started, a note of sadness clearly audible in her voice. "But I'm not really human."
The looks of surprise coming from everyone was enough to spur her on for an explanation.
"I'm a genetically engineered combat unit, meaning that I was born to be an ultimate warrior," Stella continued.
"So… something like me, then?" Laura asked, her head tilted slightly to the side.
Stella nodded, then shook her head.
"Something like you, but not exactly," she denied, an awkward smile on her face.
"But that still doesn't explain why I'm your big brother."
"Ahh, as for that… I was just getting there," Stella explained, continuing on what she had been saying. "I'm a genetically engineered combat unit that was grown from your DNA Map, onii-chan."
A look of surprise and horror spread across Sam's face as he recalled his trip to the US with his uncle and how he'd donated his DNA map to the scientists after a certain accident.
He never expected that he'd meet a genderbent clone of himself.
"Onii-chan, I know what you're thinking," Stella suddenly broke in, a cheeky smile on her face. "You're thinking that you never expected to see yourself genderbent right in front of your eyes now, aren't you?"
Sam couldn't help but feel embarrassed that he'd been read so easily and his face quickly turned red, which broke the tense atmosphere that had settled on the table, making each of them laugh. The laughter died down and was followed by several seconds of silence, with each one of the girls staring at Sam, waiting for his decision on the matter. He racked his brain, looking through his memories as to when he might have given anyone his DNA map.
He found it.
"Ahh, anyway," Sam said in a nonchalant tone after a bit of thinking. "It feels better now that I've got that cleared up. I'll treat you as my little sister from now on then, that sound good?"
He smiled as Stella nodded cheerfully, having been accepted by her "onii-chan" in front of everyone.
"Uhm… Blackburn-kun?" Charlotte's voice brought his attention to her. "I have to ask you something… after all that you told us, are you a part of the Dunois company then?"
Her voice was clearly tinged with worry, which in turn, worried him. But he decided to tell her the truth anyway.
"Yes… at least I should be, even if unofficially."
He noticed that her face was suddenly slightly fearful, though she quickly recovered and hid it before anyone else could notice.
"Ahh, Sam… come with me for a second."
It was Ichika.
He was already standing up, and walking away, and of course, Sam couldn't just leave him alone like that. He quickly stood up and ran after the other boy.
"What is it?"
"It's about Charlotte."
Sam nodded, willing for Ichika to go on.
"Thing is, she was sent here under the guise of a boy in order to collect data from me, but she doesn't want to do it and I… I promised her that I'd protect her if the Dunois company ever tried to do anything to her, especially after her disguise has been compromised."
Sam nodded again, showing his understanding.
"So essentially, she's in the same position as me."
"Yeah… wait- huh?"
Ichika could see clearly that Sam was deep in thought- one hand crossed over his chest, the other lightly touching his chin and his eyes angled down towards the floor- and knew that it was probably impossible to talk to him right now.
But when he was done, Sam quickly walked back to the table and tapped Charlotte's shoulder, gesturing for her to follow him and brought her back to where Ichika was standing, still dumbfounded.
"Listen, Dunois-san," he said. "You don't have to worry about the Dunois company doing anything to you."
Charlotte looked up upon hearing that, and Sam continued.
"Because, like Ikku, I promise that I'll protect you."
Hearing a boy blatantly say that without feeling any sort of embarrassment, Charlotte couldn't help but blush slightly, and she figured that that had been what the two boys were talking about earlier on.
"W-why is that…?" she asked in a soft voice.
"Well, that's because we're both in the same position aren't we?"
After hearing Sam say that, both Ichika and Charlotte looked at him, surprise evident on their faces.
"Listen, I'm wanted by the Dunois company for being an unknown 'intruder' and for being the second male pilot, and you… you're wanted, for a lack of better word, for 'treason', no? Well at least if they find out that your cover's blown."
Charlotte nodded, understanding where he was going with this.
"And despite the severity between our reasons, I'd still think it's best if the 'intruder' protects the 'traitor', if you get what I mean," Sam grinned at her.
"B-but… what if you get caught? I don't want to trouble you like that, especially if you're confirmed to be wanted by the company who you're saying you'd protect me from."
Sam sighed.
"Dunois-san, I dunno if Ikku had said this to you before, but you really need to learn to rely on others a bit more," he grinned. "And plus, do you really think that they'd be able to catch me easily?"
Charlotte glanced at Ichika who was suddenly grinning at her.
"This guy's not all talk- he's literally got skills when it comes to fighting and hiding."
At that, Charlotte nodded and smiled at him before saying "So now, I've got the only two male IS pilots in the world protecting me huh?"
Both Ichika and Sam couldn't help but feel a bit flustered at the way she said it and their faces turned slightly red, but even then, Charlotte simply smiled at them.
"Thank you," she said before turning and pulling both of them back to the table.
"Oh and one more thing, just call me Sam."
"Then call me Charlotte from now on."
