Disclaimer: I do not own I.S. and no copyright infringement is intended.
"Speaking/Reading"
Ichika's Perspective
Where was I? The image in front of my face was not the same as the roof of my room. Instead of the usual roof, my eyes were greeted by bright lights. My eyes darted about to see if there was anything else that I could register, but anything that was beyond my initial vision was completely wrapped in darkness.
I tried to get up, but felt the cold sting of metal touching my skin. I was clearly restrained on whatever I was laying on, but I did not panic over whether or not I was kidnapped. Instead, my mind became wrapped up in thoughts of how to escape. The quick transition from surprise to calmness was slightly disturbing in that it only showed that I must have gone through some pretty drastic situations to not have been too phased from my position.
After resolving to just pull my hands through the cuffs, I heard the humming. It sounded as though the notes were going along with some fairy tale rhyme. Though such things were normally comforting, the sound disturbed me greatly. I didn't know why, but the very nature of the song sounded so sinister to me.
Not only was the sound frightening, my body started to spasm. It was as though my body was physically responding to the humming. The spasms were soon accompanied with a sharp piercing sting. It felt that with each note, a sharp piercing pain developed in sections of my body. The intensity of the pain grew more and more with each additional painful pierce.
I tried to scream at a certain point, but I realized that my voice wasn't coming out. My mouth was gagged, and when I realized it, I felt myself start suffocating. Whatever had been gagging me had only started becoming a problem for me. How had I not noticed that I had been gagged? It didn't matter since the suffocating seemed minor in comparison to having all my nerves fire off signals of pain to my brain.
As my panic grew worse and worse, my vision was soon changing shape and color. What was once just darkness and one bright light became a crimson color. The singular circular object that had been in my field of vision began to contort into another shape. One of the sides of the circle soon caved in creating a crescent shape that grew thinner and thinner. The lights within the circle remained, but took on more rectangular shapes that remained in the new shape. Before I knew it, my eyes were greeted with the image of a cruel smile in a field of red that wavered like a fluid.
"You might not remember me, but I'll always remember how you were such a good patient," the voice softly cooed in my ear.
"Ichika! What's wrong?" a very concerned voice asked from my side.
Looking around, I found myself in my room at the dorms. To my left, Houki was standing by the bed with a concerned look in her eyes. Why was she so worried? Her concern made me look down. My body was completely drenched in sweat, and instead of lying down, I was sitting up vertically. It seemed that I had shot up from the bed as I had escaped from the nightmare.
"I'm okay… Just a really bad dream…" I gasped as I felt my stomach curdle from the lingering fear I had experienced in my nightmare.
Though I had done my best to brush away the reaction as just a bad dream, Houki did not seem convinced. I didn't see how I would have been able to convince her since I myself wouldn't have just let such a thing slide if I saw my current condition in her eyes. I believed my own acting even less since I had had this dream for several years now. It had been the first time since entering the school, but it still was a reoccurring dream. The problem was that this time had been worse than usual.
"I'm really_" I wasn't able to finish as the unsettling feeling in my stomach became too much for my bowels to hold in. With the sudden rush, I quickly dashed to the sink out hurl out whatever was still sitting in my stomach. My throat was then enveloped with a burning sensation and the air in my lungs was quickly expelled with my stomach's contents.
What a way to start a morning.
"Are you okay!?" Houki asked while patting my back to help with the vomit's flow.
"I told you… Just a really bad dream… I'll be fine soon," I said with a really weak tone.
"Bad enough to make you scream in pain?"
"Yeah…"
I had been screaming in pain? This shit was getting a bit too out of hand. I knew that those nightmares were bad and that this one in particular was pretty bad, but I never knew that the pain in my dreams sprung out in the real world.
What exactly had I gone through to have such a terrifying dream? I knew when and where I could have gotten the nightmares, but I didn't know what was causing it. It had to have been a terrible experience to still influence me now. I had wanted to ask Chifuyu-nee about the details, but I knew that she wouldn't have told me if I asked. Too many things about the situation had been out of place, but I didn't question it because Chifuyu-nee didn't seem to want to talk about it.
Other Chifuyu-nee, there was only one other person I could ask, but she wasn't here yet. I wasn't even sure if I wanted to ask Charlotte since I knew what was happening to me. For all I knew, Charlotte could have been suffering worse side effects. Both said that I had saved her, which could have meant that what I was suffering could have been light in comparison to what she could have endured. I didn't know, but the idea of bringing up bad memories didn't seem like the right thing to do.
"Do you want to take the day off? I'm not sure if you can even compete in the condition you're in," my childhood friend stated with concern.
I couldn't blame her. Not only did I have a screaming fit, I had vomited the first thing in the morning. Just looking at my image in the mirror, my face looked pale and my eyes looked fairly weak.
"I'll be fine. I can't just exactly back down from this tournament. Besides, it's just an I.S. fight not one of our sparring matches. How bad can it be?" I said with a weak smile.
"If you say so…"
"I'm really okay. I just need to get something to eat before the fight," I said while straightening myself up.
With that the discussion was over, but in the silence I could hear a lot of shuffling from outside the door. This was really bad if the people outside our door were who I thought they were. I guess it was just going to be another one of those days.
"Can you stay in the bathroom for a couple of minutes? I think I'm going to have to deal with some of the annoyances right outside of our door," I said with a still somewhat tired expression.
Houki just nodded and remained in the bathroom as I dressed and went to confront my second worst nightmare.
"I really hate reporters," I said as I saw how many of them were impatiently waiting in the stadium's seats.
"What's there to be so shy about? It's not any better than the hundreds of fan girls you amassed in the school," Cecilia said jokingly.
"I may do some pretty flashy stunts, but I just don't like the attention…" I grumbled.
It was annoyance that I had to deal with the school's news club, but now I had to deal with the paparazzi that would spread news throughout the globe like a wildfire. Normally I would have been joking around with some banter, but the dream from this morning had taken away most of my humor for the day. I tried, but it was honestly a bother at times. It was necessary though since I needed to settle down the butterflies in my stomach.
"You don't seem to be as chipper as usual. Bad experiences with the paparazzi?" Cecilia asked humorously.
"Is there ever a good one?" I responded in an attempt to get my spirits up, but to no avail.
"So are you ready for the match?"
"Don't have much of a choice but to be at this point. Anyways, why are you in the hangar? Isn't the view better from the seats?" I asked to sate my curiosity and to just change the pace of the conversation.
"It's more comfortable to be in here than next to all of those greedy politicians," she said with an annoyed humph sound.
"Oh right… You're part of the Alcott family."
"You've heard of my family?"
"No I haven't. But if anyone has to say your last name followed by the word family, then it must be important or wealthy," I said with a laugh, which received a light jab at my side.
"And here I was starting to think of you as a gentleman, but you're just a tease," she said with a laugh.
"Yes yes milady. Is there anyone in the stands that I should look out for?"
"Just try not to piss the Candidate Representative's officials. If you beat their pilots too badly, you might cause a stir," she said with a sly smile.
"Figures… Well then, I'll be off. Enjoy the show," I said enthusiastically before dashing out in an Uchigane through the opened gates.
As I passed through the gates, my entire screen became flooded with the image of several colors from the bustling stadium. While the lower stadium areas were mainly comprised of the colors red and white from all of the students' uniforms, the higher areas and boxed seats were filled with a multitude of colors from the varying suits that the officials in them wore.
There were also several flashes of lights as the news reporters that had managed to integrate themselves in the crowd were taking whatever pictures they could use on the front page. The only thing that crossed my mind when I saw those flashes was what they would put on their front pages. Were they going to come up with some insane theory that I would decide to be a Candidate Representative for Japan since I was using the Uchigane, or would they be more reasonable and just report the results of the match? It didn't really matter, but it was interesting trying to guess what they could possibly write since most of their material was going to be speculation anyways.
What really mattered though was the opponent hovering before me. In front of me floated an intimidating black and purple frame with several claw like spikes hooking from the feet and shoulders. There were also two bulbs with large spikes protruding from it, and each bulb had a large indentation. In this machine was my childhood friend Rin.
"Coming at me with the Uchigane? You wouldn't perhaps be looking down on me now would you?" Rin asked with a serious glare on her face.
It seemed that Rin's flip had been switched. She never was the type to play nice when things got serious, but I guess I could say the same for myself. We were both competitive in nature, and neither of us were the type to back down until the match was over.
"Sorry, but I'm planning on winning this tournament. You're just going to be the stepping stone I have to use," I responded with the same tone.
Even though I was openly challenging her, I had to use the Uchigane to win. Due to the Shenlong's close quarters fighting style, the Japanese training model was the only real viable option to fight off the frame should Rin have gotten too close. I was honestly questioning if I could win since I had never seen Rin pilot before.
"SO YOU SAY, BUT DON'T FORGET WHAT WILL HAPPEN WHEN YOU LOSE!"
Before I knew it, Rin had closed in the distance between us and had drawn one of her scimitars. The large blade, despite the obvious weight it had, was swung at a speed that forced me to use the Ignition Boost to escape from. I didn't completely escape the attack though as my barrier was activated when the blade came close to nicking my vital regions. Despite my surprise from the sudden attack, I materialized two grenades into the indented areas of her bulbs, which I had assumed to be the barrel of the pressure cannons.
As I made a vertical dash upwards to the ceiling to keep her cannons facing up and to keep the grenades sitting tight in the barrel, my sensors rang as they detected the cannon's activation. I forced the Uchigane to come to a complete halt, and used any remaining momentum I had to reorient the machine to face my opponent. I also materialized a sniper during the turn in order to fire distraction shots so that Rin wouldn't notice the grenades that I had planted.
Unfortunately for me, the scimitars of the Shenlong came flying at me with the two hilts connected. The attack missed me, but sliced the barrel of my sniper, leaving the gun completely useless. It was fortunate in that I escaped the attack, but I still needed her to fire the cannons. The problem was that I had lost the weapon that I had prepared in order to distract Rin from my plan. In order to get her to attack, I feigned being in a weak state and left several opening for her to take advantage of.
"I have you now!" Rin screamed before being engulfed in two devastating explosions that sent shrapnel flying in all directions.
With the duo of the explosions, I followed up by diving straight into the fumes with a shield pierce in one hand and a katana in the other. Several of the shrapnel bits that were flying out also damaged my shields as they collided with my barrier at high speeds. It would have been in my best interest in swerving around to reduce the damage and to get to Rin's blindside, but I didn't even bother trying to come from the sides since I knew Rin would have been able to recover from such a tactic very quickly. She probably even had a feeling that I would have attacked from the side since it was likely that she would have at least seen my match with Tatenashi.
As my sword made contact with an object, sparks flew out as metal clashed with metal. I hadn't activated her Absolute Barrier, which left me in a dangerous situation what with the Shenlong specializing in close range combat. I wasn't able to readjust my angle though since my momentum had carried me to a point in which I was positioned under Rin with only a few inches of air underneath our legs, and holding up the weight of her blade instead of forcing her to carry mine. The blade and the force the Shenlong was exerting was pushing my frame to extremes as some warning screens popped to indicate an excess in the load.
"Did you really think that would work on me?!" Rin yelled as the smoke cleared to reveal her second scimitar descend upon me.
"No, but that wasn't my main goal to begin with!"
In response to the impending attack, I raised my Gray Scale to take the brunt of the attack. While I was defending myself, I released the front part that was hiding the weapon. Inside the shield, a devastating weapon gleamed.
"Say goodbye to one of your Souten Gagetsu!"
With my yell, several things occurred consecutively. My weapon fired its spike and shattered the blade that was pinning me down, but the sudden loss of her weapon didn't stop Rin's attack. The second scimitar that she wielded quickly embedded itself into my shield and cause sparks to shoot off in all directions as the weapon dug deeper and deeper. The attack soon caused my shield points to drop, but I didn't leave it at that.
Before my shield points dropped below three hundred, I ejected the weapon and planted a grenade inside the gauntlet that had held it to my arm. I quickly performed a turn and the sudden lack of resistance had caused her scimitar to smash into the ground. This sudden shift in positions had left her exposed, and I took the opportunity to slash her blindsides. My blades were met with colorful polygons that prevented my attacks from harming Rin.
After slashing at her a few times, I used the Ignition Boost to escape the incoming explosion. Rin had also dislodged her only remaining weapon from the ground when I had just started dashing away, but failed to observe the grenade in the Gray Scale that had remained at the base of her feet. She didn't bother moving since she had assumed that I was fleeing from her backswing when she had managed to regain use of her weapon. This proved to be quite unfortunate for her as the bomb detonated with more shrapnel attacking her shields from below.
"How are you doing?" I called out with a small pant over how quickly the battle was escalating.
"How do you think!" a shout echoed from the smoke, which was quickly blown away with a swing from her scimitar.
The fight was insane in comparison to the fight with Tatenashi. Even if Rin was nowhere near the same level as Tatenashi, she was no pushover. The simple difference in the fighting experience really proved that Tatenashi had been holding back quite a bit and that there really was a massive gap in specs between generations. If it wasn't for the fact that I wasn't allowed to utilize the machine's maximum possible capabilities, the fight would have been a lot easier.
Looking at my shield points, I realized that I was down to half of my remaining shield points. I had lost quite a bit in the span of a minute or two. It wasn't even funny how much I had lost. What made it worse was that I had lost two of my three weapons and used up all of the grenades that I had brought for this match. The only consolation I had was that I had definitely done a significant amount of damage to Rin's unit and had removed all but one of her weapons.
"How are you doing on shield points?" I asked hesitantly to gauge what I had to do in order to win.
"About three hundred of the eight hundred I had to start with. You?" Rin said as she readied herself.
"About the same amount, but out of six hundred."
I dematerialized my blade, which confused Rin.
"What are you doing? Giving up?" she taunted cautiously.
"Not quite, but you can if you want. I know that you won't exactly get too much further in the competition with the damage the Shenlong has taken," I goaded with a cocky expression.
I needed to get a counterattack off of her. While three hundred points was still quite a bit to whittle down to zero, it was still possible to do so in one stream of consecutive attacks. But the same could be said about my situation in that if Rin smashed me once or twice with the Souten Gagetsu it would have been over. If I blindly charged in, I would have just been putting myself at risk.
"Not a chance! I'm going to get you to do whatever I want!" Rin said as she made a straightforward dash.
It was very familiar in that it was the exact same thing she had done in the beginning of the match. The only difference was that I was ready for her. Even if she had the better machine, I had the plan. I had the advantage since I knew what Rin and I were going to do while Rin still had to react to my attacks. I used the Ignition Boost to close the distance between us at speeds that only left enough reaction time for only the most trained and myself to utilize.
Within the span of time Rin when was left open, I redeployed my katana and made a quick slash. Before I was able to slash her for a second time though, her scimitar quickly came down upon me. But I didn't let it connect to my suit at all, and I blocked it with my katana. I also made sure to angle the blade so that it wouldn't have shattered upon impact and redirected the scimitar in a completely different direction.
Rin was left open once more, and I utilized her vulnerable state to attack from her back and whittle down her shields even further. My ears were soon greeted with the sounds of alarms blaring as the I.S. indicated that Rin's shields were getting close to zero. While many would have taken the sound as the time to celebrate, I activated my thrusters to shoot me up. This turned out to be the right decision as Rin had performed a quick spin that swept her massive blade around. If I had been on the ground still, it would have been unlikely for my shields to have survived the attack. I even had doubts that I would have gotten out completely unscathed from the attack.
"This is the end!" I cried before plunging my blade straight down through numerous multicolored polygons, which only stopped centimeters from the tip of Rin's nose.
"Match Over. The Winner is Ichika Orimura!" a voice announced over the intercom.
At first I was just hovering with the blade as I took in what had just happened. It took a few moments before I was able to calm my blood down enough to put away my blade and lower myself back onto the ground. Rin was just stunned as her suit gave out, which forced her to land on her feet.
The entire stadium had been silent ever since the match ended. Why wouldn't they? Other than my classmates from my homeroom, no one else had ever witnessed me fighting Tatenashi before. There were a couple videos floating about, but there was nothing like seeing a match firsthand. The silence could also have been attributed to the fact that I had won a serious match instead of being humored in my match with the student council president. It could have also been attributed to the fact that the one male pilot just defeated a Candidate Representative.
"It was a good match!" I said with after deactivating my suit to offer a handshake to Rin.
"And I thought I had you at the beginning," Rin lamented while shaking my hand.
That was the moment when I heard several cheers erupted from the stadium. Looking around, I saw my specific class area had started throwing confetti over the fact that their chances to get the free desert tickets had risen greatly with Rin's defeat. There were some artificial cries of love from the rest of the student crowds, and I swore that I saw some of the men in the boxed areas were giving standing ovations over my success. Several flashes went off in the distance as the paparazzi and students tried to immortalize the moment with pictures.
"Need me to carry you to the hangar?" I asked Rin who was unable to activate her I.S. due to all the damage it had sustained throughout the fight.
"Won't that be a problem for your fan girls," she said jokingly with a red blush spread across her face.
"Just think of it as my command for you," I said with a light smile.
"You… Fine," she mumbled with an even deeper shade of red on her face.
"Hold on ti_"
I wasn't able to finish what I was saying. What was a joyous and exhilarating event quickly turned into one that could only be described as hell. The loud applause had been replaced with the sound of crackling fire, and the grounds that had been dusty from the fight grew a burning crater expelling smoke from the epicenter.
"Are you okay?!" I desperately asked the girl that I had swooped up into my arms just prior to the attack.
"What… What just happened?" Rin coughed out as she tried to recover from the shock.
I didn't have to respond though. The intercom did all the work for me.
"I.S. Academy is under attack! Everyone please calmly evac_"
Author's Notes
#1: For the most part these notes will just be here to clarify some things that may not have been so obvious while reading. Please favorite and follow if you liked this story. Also send reviews of things you liked or disliked so that I can try to improve the work. Send questions and I will probably respond to some of them in the next chapter.