Fighting with others... I admit, it's a strange change of pace.
Shinkurou hovered before darting away from the trajectory path of a railgun. It was quickly followed by scarlet flame-clad impact bullets, courtesy to Meatbun. While they were damn fast, they had linear paths so it was easy to predict the next rounds by carefully observing the cannons. Still, these two are even more persistent than earlier.
"You still want to get back at me for leading you in, ladies?" Shinkurou decidedly did what he was best at. "I must say I'm flattered to be pursued by two beautiful flowers like you!"
While usually most women would get angry or scowl hatefully for the blatant sarcastic comments, the seemingly honest flattery struck the duo quite easily if their reddening faces were some other indications. Meatbun was quicker to response by shooting an impact bullet that grazed Shinkurou's shoulder pauldron.
"That almost hit my head. You serious about that one huh?" Shinkurou tilted his head before sliding to the left to avoid another impact bullet.
"Shut up! Go to hell, you bastard!" The girl sporting twintails shouted while taking off to pursue after him.
Abandoning long-range combat, she attacked with her Chinese scimitars in a flurry. But she didn't attack randomly. Shinkurou could notice the finesse of her every swing, the blades aimed only at the vital areas to give an illusion of fears against hits that may exceed the Shield's tolerance.
And to keep up that striking impression, she chose to swing her scimitars to the utmost of her strength, bestowing a remarkable impact whenever it struck. Like a ferocious Dragon, huh?
"How fitting, but you should pay attention to your language." Shinkurou remarked as he swung his katana to deflect the scimitars.
From the left to the right, a stab and a downward slash, circular slashes to chaining combos.
Considering the sizes of the scimitars, he didn't expect her to keep up with him while flying without clear directions. Shinkurou was not an expert in be it ranged or close-quarter combats as he was more like a midfielder but that didn't mean his skills were shabby.
He chose the most efficient path, picking the methods that would take less energy to swing the katana around and parried the attacks aimed to crush his Shield. Be that as it may, his Shield Points were slowly decreasing.
"Ha! Is that all you can do, you wuss!" Meatbun yelled only to receive a straight kick at the abdomen. "Gyah!"
"Language, please. You're already 16, girl." Shinkurou rolled his eyes as he checked on his radar with a glance.
Didn't expect her to continue attacking with her scimitars alone... I should've used a mixture of martial arts to end this earlier - oh?
He saw two red dots looming towards him, both giving out a small text box that told him 'WD' initials. Narrowing his eyes, Shinkurou lowered his katana and bent his knees, increasing his flying speed with a sudden boost. Blue jet flared behind him as he streaked across the sky horizontally before scaling upwards like a rocket.
It was then he saw two red flashes from the right and left edge of his peripheral sight.
"Wired Daggers huh? But the speed is just so-so." Shinkurou noted.
And when he glimpsed over the Bisque Doll, he noticed her smirking. Wha-
"Shinkurou!" A yell roared through the intercom but a blue light already basked his vision from the side.
*BOOM!* An energy beam struck the Uchigane. It was a direct hit from the side, provided by someone who was getting cornered in the other edge of the arena.
"Buah?" Rin blinked, unable to process the sudden silence and happening after she recovered from being spun around in the air.
Several seconds passed, then she noticed the source of the beam and found one British IS pilot smiling proudly in a stationary state, her remaining two gun bits floating in front of her.
"Ha! That's one down finally! Now you see the difference of our level, Rin!" Cecilia exclaimed while brushing her blonde hair and whipped it to the back.
"Y-you just stole my kill! Cecilia, you kleptomaniac!" Rin roared.
"What did you say?! And here I tried to be so kind in defeating your foe after you got your butt handed to you, ungrateful ingrate!"
As if a switch flipped, the situation devolved into constant bickering between two Representative Candidates...
"Cecilia, dodge!" Laura screamed.
What, the pilot of Blue Tears uttered but she was too late as a white bird flashed down like a lightning from above, slicing her last two optical drones in one clean strike. She couldn't even react properly as two energy arrows, red-colored, struck her from the back and destroyed her missile pods with unimaginable accuracy.
"This is over!" Byakushiki took a sharp U-turn from below and activated Ignition Boost.
His form clad in golden light, the white steel bird's Reiraku Byakuya became a bright blue line that seemed as if it cut the sky, the beating winds, and the stationary sniper.
"No, way-"
Cecilia's armor burst in halves, StarDust Shooter leaving her armored gauntlet's grasp, dropping down before she too followed like a swatted fly. Smokes trailed from her IS as she then embraced the earth like a small meteorite.
After the tremor that spread across the practice arena, piles of dirt, smokes and dust dissipated, leaving Blue Tears sparking blue branches of electricity with Cecilia's consciousness lost completely.
"Oh, here's another defeated mutt." Chifuyu commented, crossing the empty box next to Cecilia's name in the attendee list indifferently. "Dunois is already down too, so that makes five left for the count."
It was unknown why she left out the last segment of her sentence through the intercom. But Laura gasped in realization, turning for 180 degrees in place and launched her arm-mounted beam saber to block against a swung katana.
"Goddamn it, Chifuyu! You don't give out the dumb big clues out loud!" Shinkurou drawled, looking worse for the wear.
He survived direct hit from Cecilia!?
"Khg...! Yo-you persistent man...!" Laura growled as she tried to overpower her opponent with no avail.
Others might have not noticed but the fact that Shinkurou bore the sun above his head, his thruster flaring to the point of emitting orange lines of electricity as well as his gritted teeth simply displayed his efforts to use everything for his advantages. Although, this also meant he was already at his limits considering his broken skirt guards, missing shoulder guard and pauldron and cracked katana.
His IS condition alone already told everyone that both his PIC, also his Shield Points were already at the red. One push should be enough to defeat him...!
"Got you!" Laura exclaimed, activating the AIC projector.
Shinkurou grunted as his Uchigane froze like a statue. Unable to even move or blink his eyes, he was trapped in place as if a wall of wind was blocking his advance.
Laura refused to let this chance pass by.
"This time for sure...!" She yelled, bashing her opponent with both of her arm-mounted beam sabers.
The Uchigane was blasted away and when distances were made, Schwarzer Regen's twin .80 caliber railguns roared.
"Gaaaaaah!" Shinkurou howled as the first contact with the rail bullet consumed him in flowery explosions, which was then followed by several smaller scale explosions.
The IS plummeted like a damaged warplane, crashing down not unlike Cecilia's Blue Tears. With a crater and black smokes rising, the boy and his IS were obscured from even her enhanced vision. Even so, thermal signatures identified him as the personification of a healthy living being so...
"It's my victory, transfer student." Laura chuckled. "That wasn't bad at all-"
"Ignoring the remaining threats is quite unlike of you, Laura."
A katana rested next to her neck, the blade possessing the intent to hold her as hostage. Laura scoffed, but smirked nonetheless.
"Of course not, Houki," Laura paused, noting two red blade bits flying by in different directions which divided her attentions to three.
Houki was already prepared to deal with the AIC for having already deployed them. Laura was amazed how much the girl had improved after receiving her Personal IS. While her AIC projector could nullify both projectile and direct attack at her wills, she must put all of her focus in one direction to make sure the projector working optimally. The tactics Ichika and Charlotte came up with to counter it was to divide her attentions, thus rendering the AIC unstable and unusable.
This was done similarly by Houki through the usage of her blade bits, which specialized in aerial combat. By making them hovering in her blind spots, she would have no choice but to process the information Schwarzer Regen received and focused on one side, thus leaving her incapable of dealing with the rest. However, Laura was a soldier; a fellow warrior even if under different contexts.
What will she do if she simply cowered before a powerful opponent every time?
"It's two-on-two then!"
Six Wired Daggers were ejected from Laura's Schwarzer Regen and deflected the two blade bits. Before she could use AIC, Houki had already blasted away with fold-out armor activated on the fly. As expected of Tabane Shinonono's invention, that acceleration is truly a level above all 3rd-generation IS.
Confirming her current equipment was not enough to surpass her opponent, Laura reeled the daggers back in and raised her railguns. Ruby red eye took in the red camellia's figure, with a lock-on HUD displayed on her iris.
If close-combat cannot be done, then how about long-range?!
"Gah, that was hell." Shinkurou mumbled as the sky above was painted with rings of fire, energy beams, also orange sparks of clashing metals.
He sighed as his IS had become a lump of metal sticking him to the ground like a king sitting in a throne made from rubble. The Shield Points were at absolute zero, and his body was sore all over. Other than the damage reports, he realized he had overdone it by forcing the IS to move even though some attacks pierced through his Shielding.
"Still worth my time to get real data. Now I have more than half of them." Shinkurou mused with tilted head and closed eyes.
However, he heard approaching footsteps. Reopening his eyes, he found out a blonde girl with a training uniform checkered with orange edges leaning down into the crater he just created.
"Hey," Her purple-colored eyes blinked, "Are you alright? Do you need any help?"
Shinkurou loudly groaned, but he knew that he couldn't do anything in this state so he met her gaze, and simply nodded.
"The training units aren't designed to be removed with the pilot's hands. I'll ask for help if it can get me out of this damn crater."
The France's Representative Cadet giggled, her voice sounding like the sweet melody of an angel. Though unfazed, Shinkurou recognized that she had some features other women would be jealous of, with traits that would certainly make men to fall head-over-heels for.
Not that I give a care... Right now, I want to take a nap.
"Alright, I'll help! Hang on for a minute, okay?" Charlotte Dunois slid down to the bottom of the crater and began her work.
Shinkurou sighed, "At least you didn't say it will take a second. Manual ejection is just way too complex to execute in that time frame."
"Right, right, here you go!"
When he left the crater along with the French girl - Dunois, was it - he gazed up momentarily.
Streaks of white and red, black and brown-red. Each flying to outdo another while using their own weaponry. Two swords-wielding fighters, one all-rounder, and one optimized close-range combatant. equipped with ranged support weaponry.
Despite the differences of skills and specs, they flew as if there was a rhythm guiding their movements. As if the quarter was dancing on a vast blue stage.
"...Infinite Stratos, huh?" Shinkurou mused quietly, recalling why would the IS be used as a form of sports and global tournaments rather than tools for modern warfare.
Admittedly, the latter promised much, much more credibility since IS held enormous destructive capabilities. One was already more than enough to deal with hundreds of nuclear missiles, several aegis battleships, a dozen of frigates and a squadron of fastest raptors so if they were used in battlefields...
Huh. Maybe the world's end was far closer than he had once thought.
"Oy, Shinonono." A voice called out.
Shinkurou was about to ignore it but knowing who was yelling out his name, he turned and faced the Instructor...
"That was more underwhelming than I thought. What the hell did you do for the past ten years?" She asked, almost straight to the point of calling him 'You suck'.
Shinkurou grunted, "I got thrown here after getting my entire body in surgery for medical purposes. Please confirm that to my physician if you have any complaint, Instructor."
"Your physician is not a legal one, neither is Tabane," Chifuyu chided, "If you're unwell, then say that before you entered my class."
Ow, that was quite logical and sensible of you Chifuyu. Had the woman not been scowling like the angry Ni'O statue, of course but Shinkurou could only give a deadpan stare.
"You do know that I can't just fake my credibility as 'the Second Male IS Pilot', right...?"
To be frank, he was quite certain the board directors of the Academy would want to know whether or not he was qualified to pilot an IS, even if he was an adopted member of the Shinonono. Considering the current laws of the world, the social hierarchy and the common sense held by young women who knew nothing of the world before the invention of IS, Shinkurou noticed there was a hidden value in his position as a male capable of riding the most powerful warmachine in the world.
Politically, he was the leverage men had against women who reigned at the top. He was the sole hope for a chance of gender equality in a global society where women are valued higher than men. In the military's eyes, he was a great combat asset that if a way was found, other males could pilot IS just like most women could. And in the social medias as well as economy wheel, he was obviously an eyecandy or a worldwide celebrity.
"Are you listening or not!?"
*SMACK!* One clipping board struck down his head, jerking his thoughts back to reality.
"Next time you spaced out, you're going to use powered armor to marathon around the school grounds." Chifuyu warned.
Shinkurou scowled, "I didn't know you're into sweaty, muddy men in mech suit, Instructor."
"Enough complaining. Now get going. There are still some classes left for you lots." Chifuyu snorted.
"So you don't deny nor acknowledge it..."
This was perhaps Shinkurou's newest discovery after being introduced to the older Orimura sibling in that rainy night.
On a side note, the powered armor was basically that. An exoskeleton frame meant for construction works. It weighed like boulders if worn without activating the electrical reactor and it had muscle-assist system where it allowed greater strength to be used without burdening the body very much.
Some said the tight-fitting design was meant to further synchronize with the wearer's body but Shinkurou could only see it as a bondage uniform for questionable purposes.
"Alright. You're going to run around the academy in powered armor then. Five laps without a break."
Maybe not. She's just been waiting for the bait to be bitten. Damn you, you sadistic woman!
Late in the evening, after classes were done and his punishment cleared, one sweats-drenched Shinkurou entered his room. It was surprisingly empty, devoid of any presence at all.
Considering time was about to strike 9 o'clock, he summed it up as the his roommate attending dinner or something else. Maybe dealing with his Harem.
"I really can't understand how many want a Harem with the others unsatisfied for having one." Shinkurou shrugged, taking a set of change of clothes along with the utensils for bathing. "Welp, time to strike the bathhouse."
He traversed through the more-than-empty, less-than-crowded hallway. He did pass by several female students of his year but he caught them blank-faced after he was seen.
...well, maybe it's just a coincidence. Or maybe just like Chifuyu, there are women who like men who worked out until they got all muddy in their efforts.
"Tch, damn hormone-induced reactions. Teenagers are such a pain to deal with..." Just as Shinkurou snarled and descended down the stairs, he was met with Ichika and his friends.
"Whoa?! Shinkurou, you look like you just got caught up under the rain!" His roommate pointed out.
Of course, those irresponsible words triggered various reactions but his childhood friend - no, not Meatbun - glared at him reproachfully. Strangely enough, Dunois and Alcott were beet red in the faces, Meatbun looked as if she was reminded of something before but couldn't remember the details, while Bisque Doll nodded in acknowledgement.
Oh, also, there was that Little Blue Bird, but she was spacing out just like those girls in the hallway did. The saving grace would be how the damned shark was not around to reveal her illustrative folded paper fan.
"Nah, not like that," Shinkurou waved a hand after deciding he was wasting his time by observing people's reactions, "Instructor just handed me the mandate to run around the academy in powered armor. Five goddamned laps."
Most of the Representative Candidates paled at his deflection. Even Ichika winced as he looked apologetic for a moment.
"Seriously...? How are you still walking around as if it's nothing? If it were me, my legs would have been jelly after the third laps." The pilot of Byakushiki commented.
Shinkurou did not neglect that honesty. The boy was quite fit enough to do as he said, but he would no longer be able to move after reaching the third laps. As far as he knew, that counted for the barest minimum requirement to join the infantry forces.
"You'll get used to it quickly if you just regulate your breathing and maintain your posture." Shinkurou muttered. "Speaking of which, which one won the Battle Royale?"
For some reasons, his older step-sister brightened to the point of puffing her well-endowed chest forward. Ichika quickly averted his eyes, two with lesser specs scowling visibly at the display, one heaving a troubled a smile and another fumed. The underclassman was obviously clueless. She's not even in the same year.
"Well, after the tall hurdles, I attained victory at last." Houki announced. "It is a great feeling to know my training have all been paid in full today."
So it was her victory. Shinkurou didn't expect her much since he thought the one with fairest chance to grasp victory was Bisque Doll with her professional analytical mind and experiences. However, he did pestered her by luring her into a trap, confronting her that she was forced to use close combat arms and AIC, then made her waste some precious railgun bullets.
The semifinal stage which turned into a tag-team match obviously went in favors for Houki and Ichika, considering the two were very much in tune with each other unlike the other duo. Houki too had the one-off ability to replenish her energy so after Bisque Doll and Meatbun were eliminated, Ichika would have less than minimum Shield Points to expend for.
"Uh-huh, I see. Good for you, sis. Well, I've got homework to do and I haven't eaten dinner. See you guys later." Shinkurou went past the group and headed towards the bathhouse.
Silence ensued. Quietness endured. After more than halfway, the ashen-haired boy's feet halted.
"Wait, did I just say 'see you guys later'?" Shinkurou wondered aloud.
How come? He usually reserved informality and some signs of trust only after he got his fair shares in dealing with an accompaniment. Hell, even if they did survive several missions together, he wouldn't care deeply since there could be a mission where he had to kill someone he knew... Which he received fairly often.
In some ways, it was also because he piloted an IS prototype that he was hunted down by those he once cooperated with. All because they were the closest people who knew his abilities, skills, and limitations from up close. All because some assholes had the gall to believe he would have some form of emotional attachments that gave a shred of hope to the contracted mercenaries and/or assassins.
Still, he had casually told that sentence so offhandedly...
"Ah... Motherfucking asshole," Shinkurou cursed, "My brain's getting poisoned by the atmosphere. Goddamn freaking hormones-induced puberty period!"
-Author's Nonsense-
"Apology for the wait. I've been la*cough*busy*cough*."
The real reason would be how I couldn't motivate myself to write the chapter. Haven't got the drive and I was thinking in what way I should end the battle. It turned like this. Dunno why though.
So, we can see our MC got his ass handed to him. Of course he will, considering he used a freaking prototype IS (0.5 Generation) and piloted an Uchigane. While the unit is versatile and balanced, the Equalizer is fixed so it can't hold any weapon other than a katana. We're also after World Purge so all Personal Is (minus Mysterious Lady and Uchigane Nishhiki) have been upgraded. Anyone thinking 'who the hell brings a sword to a gunfight'?
But the rules are rules so you've got this result coming from the start. Your options are fairly limited if you have an equivalent of wooden sword, and the Crow doesn't have anything like Barrier Void ability *looks at Byakushiki*. My assumption of why close combat equipment is still used is because ranged equipment have larger energy consumption, and CQC deals more damages (blunt traumas can still be passed through the Shield).
The training practice for students in canon is also very funny. You don't swing sword over and over as training if you're using hi-tech flying machine, unless you want to grasp the correct balance and footing but IS is technically oriented for aerial combats if not space exploration. Also, why the heck are the students using Uchigane when Revive is another alternative that can use wider range of arsenals? It's already mentioned Revive is an available training unit series...
Must be Japanese logic. Most definitely. Btw, Houki didn't outright do a sneak attack since she has strictly taught herself to not be a cowardly self. That's just how kendo philosophy will mold you (I'm a proper practitioner so this isn't BS).
Anyway, the opening battle's over. Let's see what will await the Crow now that he realized something inside him began to stir (no, not that kind of stir).