"..."
An open field with lush green grass...
"..."
A gentle breeze sweeping across the field, never once giving way to stillness...
"...uhh...UA?!..."
And a man who found himself in a deja vu state, as this was the exact same dream he had one month ago. The man was laying in the grass the same way. And he raised his body from the grass the same way. It was Ichika, come to receive not a vision, but a lesson.
"Nnnh...where am I?..." Ichika groaned, "...hey. What happened to the others?" He realized what happened moments ago and scanned the environment for an escape, but there was nothing but grass as far as the eye can see. The only thing that caught his eye was a hill with a giant blossoming Sakura tree, a well, and a maiden in short blue dress and hat safeguarding the hill. He wondered what significance that has until he heard something coming from that direction:
"...Ichika..."
A womanly voice beckoned him to the hill. He ran in that direction, ignoring the sudden wind blowing his hair in his eyes, until he was at the base of the hill. He saw a woman whose head was concealed by the shade of the tree and the veil of the hat. He trudged his way up the hill until he was panting for his breath right behind the woman, "Hah...hah...hhh...hoyoyohhhhh...what...do you want..."
"I want to know..." the woman responded.
"Guh...know... what..." Ichika sighed.
"Whether or not you're listening."
"Huh?..." Ichika doubted, "Listening to what? What are you talking about?"
"Can't you hear them?" The woman pointed to the horizon, "They're calling for you."
Ichika peered in that direction, but he couldn't hear or see anything besides the endless grass and the whispering wind, "Uh...what am I supposed to be listening for?"
The woman didn't tell him anything. She just looked away and bowed her head, "You really can't hear them?"
"Uh...no..." he winced, "Just the wind..."
The woman turned her eyes to Ichika and approached him, "You're not calm..."
"Huh?..."
"If you calm your mind, you can hear them..."
"Uhhhhh..." at first, Ichika was wearing an oblivious expression to signal that he was mentally lost by her words. But then, he got a good look at her face, "-WOAH!"
The woman's face resembled Lori's, 1-to-1 . "They need you, Ichika," she said, "now more than ever."
That was more than enough to pull him out of the dream world me into the school infirmary, "HOLY YEEZUS CREPS?!" Ichika found himself on the bed nearest to the window. He saw the dark clouds rolling over the sunset and wondered how he wound up in the needles of a nurse yet again, "Geez...what happened yesterday?..." The last thing he remembered was getting into a battle with someone from Phantom Task-
"Autumn..." he growled. He remembered her from the battle of the Great Lakes. He remembered her saying that name. The name of the organization responsible for kidnapping and torturing him, and for forcing his sister to withdraw from the Second Mondo Grosso. That filled him with pure anger. Something that urged him to take revenge. But then he saw Lincoln lying next to him and realized that revenge would end up hurting more people than necessary, "Take it easy, dude...take it easy...patience...it will come..."
Ichika pulled himself out of bed and into the infirmary lobby, where he was spotted by a nurse, "Mister Orimura? You haven't been cleared for checkout yet."
"Trust me, I'm fine," Ichika insisted, "I'm walking just fine, I can kick just fine, and I can scan my surroundings just fine."
"Well, if you say so," the nurse went to her computer and typed away, "It's just that you were electrocuted pretty badly."
"Yeah, I got that part," Ichika nodded, "but that was more than 12 hours ago. See? I'm doing just fiiIIIIiiIIIiiiIII-oof!" All of a sudden, his right hamstring twitched and made him fall. When he hit the ground, his left leg cramped, "Ah! Agh! AGH! AAAAAAGH, GOD! OW OW OW~~"
"See?! You're not fine!" The nurse picked him up and placed him back in the bed, "You're not yet at 100%. You need a full day in here before you're able to leave."
"I don't need to be at 100%," Ichika said, "I just need to see myEEEeeeee..." he felt his back tingle a bit too much.
"You can walk around the infirmary," the nurse reiterated, "but you cannot leave until tomorrow."
"What?!" Ichika yelped, "What about the others?!"
"They'll be fine," the nurse said, "They spent the last couple days working with Tatenashi for the school's safety."
"Well, I guess that's..." Ichika replayed the nurse's words, "... uh...last couple days?"
"Uh, yes..." the nurse responded, "We're currently in lockdown. In effect for a week."
Ichika held a blank expression for five seconds before throwing a "...the hell?..." at her face.
Just then, Lori entered the infirmary holding a tray of food in her hands.
"Lori?" Ichika wondered how she got permission to come to the infirmary, "Lori! Hey!"
"Oh...hello..." Lori said forlorn.
"What the heck is going on here?" Ichika asked, "This lockdown business, the rain, the...lack of noise-what is all this?"
"I'd rather not say..." Lori didn't bat an eye. She just turned into the makeshift bedroom and eased her way forward, "Hey, Leni. I got you some umami..."
Leni was lying in a bed, but she didn't come out of the blanket to greet Lori.
"Honestly, I didn't think that the fabled breakfast delicacy existed," Lori said while setting the tray on the bedside table, "Eat up. I'll be back to join you for a power nap." Lori walked away and left Leni in the darkened room.
Lori walked to the nurse, "I literally don't know how she got into that cowering cover. Do you know what happened to her?"
"Yeah...We did a physical the moment she was brought in..." the nurse muttered, muttered, "Whoever kidnapped her...did her."
"Did her?"
"You know..." The nurse looked down and got softer with each word, "...like when you see someone and think really dirty thoughts... the despicable kind..."
Lori deciphered those words and wore an expression of horror. Leni was violated. Her captor had taken her somewhere to be toyed with, until she was certain that Leni would be too shell shocked to say anything comprehensible.
Ichika couldn't understand a word they were saying, but he could tell from their facial expressions that something bad happened to both Leni and Lincoln, something worse than what he had to go through. When Lori walked by his bed, he spoke, "Lori."
"What is it?" Lori whimpered.
"I don't know what you're talking about. I don't wanna know.," Ichika said, "Whatever happened to her, you have to tell somebody. This can't go quietly at all."
"I did...they're gonna keep her here..." Lori muttered as she left the infirmary.
Ichika sighed. He couldn't stand being kept in the dark and being forced to ground himself while a crisis still rocked the Academy. But a sudden leg spasm forced him to reel back, "Ugh-AAAAAAGH!"
"Orimura!" The nurse ran to his side and massaged his leg, "Oh no, at this rate you might be out until the school reopens."
"Agh...yeah...sure..." Ichika gave up and went with the flow.
Elsewhere, the campus was nigh barren. Barely a soul wandered the hallways, and the open spaces were completely empty. Only a handful of students remained in the residence hall after the announcement was officially made:
To all students and staff of the IS Academy,
In light of the recent events, we will be closing the school for one week. All students and select staff are advised to leave campus until you receive a notification to return. However, students with personal IS units and staff with authorization to utilize the school IS units must remain on campus.
—ISA Admin
Translation: somebody done screwed up. And there was someone who had a good idea who.
("I think it sets up the bait quite nicely. It showed a vulnerability in IS Academy that Phantom Task would loved to exploit.")
Tatenashi. She set this whole scheme up, with reluctant permission from Chifuyu. She was the one who moved the school festival up a week to allow the public to enter its sacred ground, in hopes of exploiting a weakness in Phantom Task and squeezing the intel of whoever they could capture.
And she was in her dorm room, mulling over how her whole plan failed, "God damn it, that sneak..." Just then, there was a knock at her door, "Come in!"
Lori entered.
"Oh, Loud," Tatenashi brightened, "Thought you'd be snuggling back home."
"Yeah, well, with Leni paralyzed in fear, that's kind of impossible," Lori said.
"What did they say?"
Lori bowed her head, "...It was rape...Leni was raped..."
"Uh-" Tatenashi stuttered, "By who?! No man could've ever gotten through the back door!"
"It wasn't a man," Lori said, "There were traces of penetration, but no goo was found or detected..."
Tatenashi thought back to the day Leni barged into a second-year class's fashion boutique. She came out with someone. And she left with that same person, all the way to the Strike Force Cinderella show, where the two women disappeared behind a restricted area. And then, she thought of her own sister and what could have been. "Oh my..." she scratched her head with her fan "REGRET", "How did I not see that?..."
"See what?"
"Uh-you heard that?!" Tatenashi gasped.
"Hold up..." Lori pieced together those words with Leni's situation and came to a startling conclusion, "You mean we could've prevented all of this?!"
"Well, I mean..." Tatenashi couldn't find a good excuse, "...yes..."
Lori knew what she meant. Tatenashi could've intercepted Leni and isolated that woman, and Lori could've seen Leni walking with a stranger had she not kept her head buried in the moment. "Oh my god..." she knelt down, her sanity now being held by a single thread, "Not again...I did it again..."
"No, let's not go down that road just yet," Tatenashi grabbed Lori, "She's broken, which means she can be fixed. We can get her back."
"How?!" Lori shouted, "Repairing her just means that she'll be broken again!"
"Fixing requires reinforcement! She can do that!"
"I don't think you know what that means for our family!"
"I'm trying to prevent unnecessary deaths here!"
"AND I'M TRYING TO GET MY SIBLINGS BACK!"
Tatenashi clammed up. Hearing that line gave her goosebumps about her own sister, with whom she shared an uneasy relationship...in which they have not had a word of conversation ever since Tatenashi was declared the head of the Sarashiki family.
"I don't know what to do, man!" Lori sobbed, "Here I am trying to fix my family, and lo and behold! Some dumb bitch ruins everything with a flick of her finger! The hell am I supposed to do about that?!"
Tatenashi legitimately didn't know what to say. She just stood there and let Lori collapse to her knees in tears. The only thing she could do was keep her in her arms until the crying stopped.
Laura and Rin overheard that brief exchange from the hallway. They looked at each other confused, wondering if they really did jump the gun with Lori. They went to the cafeteria and ate under the patio.
"Perhaps Charlotte was correct," Laura muttered, "Maybe it wasn't the right time to bring Lori back."
"I guess, but think about this," Rin countered, "If you were able to find the Loud house all the way in the sticks, imagine how easy it'll be for them to find them."
"I suppose..." Laura murmured. She then noticed what Rin was eating, "Pocky again?"
"Yeah?" Rin shot a side glare, "What's wrong with that?"
"You saved it from the festival?"
"The hell did you get that idea?!" Rin blinked.
"You still reserved the glass Ichika gave you."
"Whaaaat?!" Rin thought she hid that glass very well, so she tried to play it off, "Pfft, you wouldn't have known!"
"The scent permeated ever so stronger the longer it was kept in the drawer."
Rin choked on her pocky, "BGAK-ggk-"
"Uh..." Laura cringed, "What are you on about?"
"HHHH-HHHH-HHHHAGH!" Rin blasted herself with the Ryuhou to dislodge the piece, "Ugh...hhh...your powers or perception are frightening..." she said as she downed an entire bottle of water.
"What say we visit the infirmary?" Laura asked.
"Wha-uh..." Rin jolted, "Why do you suggest that?..."
"Orimura should have woken up by now," Laura threw her tray in the trash bin, "He can give us some answers as to who he encountered in the locker room."
"Uh, sure," Rin sheepishly agreed, unable to get over her pocky prod or her Strike Force Cinderella shenanigans, but managing to sway away that suspicion with her question, "How much you wanna bet it's that same Phantom Task lady you saw in America?"
"Same IS too," Laura nodded, "though since it self-destructed, we must prepare for a surprise from her."
Meanwhile, Chifuyu had returned to her home to recover from the brutal verbal lashing she had delivered to the rest of her staff.
("Why have these whackos been able to invade the school?!")
("We don't know! Our systems have been working up until the festival!")
("So, you expect me to believe that they had someone from the inside pose as one of us?!")
("Look for yourself.")
"MOTHER OF ALL FUCKERS!" Chifuyu rammed her fist against her bedroom door, somehow shredding it to pieces. The figures she saw on the surveillance footage provided showed two IS Academy students attempting to kill Lincoln, Lori, Leni, and Laura. One of them was disguised as Akina. The other was a banished student. And they both got close enough to do major damage to Lincoln's psyche.
"How did I not see that coming?..." she hissed while going through the kitchen for any damage to her house.
Chifuyu was surprised when she found no scratches whatsoever. She then went to the bedrooms and found no signs of tampering or dilapidation. Though she did find her dictionary open to the P section, "What in the-AAA!" She kicked the book into the trash can. She worried about the sisters finding out her dirty little secret, but she quickly brushed it aside.
Once she finished showering, she spent some time in the living room, going over everything she knew and felt. With the assault on the Academy, the world officials were going to brutally question her, and no doubt that they'll target Tatenashi as the prime enabler. She already had a good response to those notions. But the one thing she didn't have the answer to was Ichika. He was going to fight with all his might to keep the school open and establish a student-led response team. He was going to fight even harder to get to the front lines, seeing as how he recognized his captors. But could she allow herself to let him? He was almost killed, and he wanted payback. Could she stand to let harm come to him for a chance to get him revenge? He has been progressing in his training, but against the recent rate of attacks on the pilots, it wasn't fast enough.
Meanwhile, Ichika was doing body weight squats when he heard the makeshift door open slightly. He saw Leni creep her eyes out and wondered if she had a nightmare. "Hello," he said.
"Lori?..." Leni whimpered.
"Uh...no?..."
Leni ducked back inside.
"Uh...ok..." Ichika sighed.
Just then, Laura and Rin entered the infirmary.
"Ichika?!" Rin saw him half naked, "What are you doing up Ike that?"
"Getting some training in," he answered, "What brings you here?"
"We need to know more about your battle with the captors," Laura said, "Do you remember anything from that battle?"
"Yeah," Ichika nodded, "There was a woman with a spider-like IS. She said that they were Phantom Task."
"Spider..." Laura muttered.
"Anything else?" Rin asked.
"Yeah, she has this weird contraption thing that electrocuted me," Ichika said, "Said she was going to take my IS..." and then he realized that this was very similar to the scenario Lincoln endured on Christmas Eve, "Oh no..."
"Phantom Task is making its move early," Laura said.
"We need all hands on deck," Rin said, "Where's the little gray groveler now?"
Ichika pointed to the bed next to him. Laura walked over and placed her hand on his heart. She felt his heartbeat and lungs and felt some weird sensation creep up through her arm, and withdrew from his presence.
"He's still breathing," Ichika said, "but he hasn't woken up since the battle." And that look, that serene face Lincoln wore as if he has made peace with his death, was all Ichika needed to reignite his determination. He stomped out of the infirmary, alarming the nurse.
"Mister Orimura!" She shouted, "You haven't been cleared yet!"
"I don't need permission to prepare for danger," Ichika protested, "I'm leaving, whether you like it or not!" He shoved the door open, almost ramming into Lori, deployed his IS, and flew out.
Lori just stood there, blinking here eyes, "Literally wuh?..."
"Why that little...come back!" The nurse shouted in vain.
"What happened?" Lori asked.
"He got too antsy about the incident and flew off!" The nurse griped, "He's going to rush his recovery if he keeps this up!"
"Oh..." Lori muttered, then turned to see Laura and Rin, "Hey, guys..."
"We are just as shocked as you are," Rin said.
"How's everyone here?" Lori asked.
"The usual," Rin pointed to Leni slowly creeping her way out of the room.
"You should probably set up camp here for a while," Laura suggested, "Lincoln's going to need mental recovery when he wakes up."
"No kidding..." Lori walked in and knelt beside Leni, "How are you holding up?"
Leni sat on a stool and nodded worryingly.
"Good," Lori held out a tray, "I got you some dinner." She placed it on Leni's lap and backed away.
Leni ate piece by piece, not looking up or making any reaction to her.
"So, looks like I'm gonna bunk with you for a bit," Lori said, "until you can get back on your own feet."
Leni didn't make any reaction. She just kept eating.
"Glad to see you're doing well," Lori nodded and turned, "Well, I'll go buy some things from the sto-"
Leni suddenly grabbed Lori's hand.
"Len?" Lori gasped, "What's wrong?"
Leni kept her head down and whispered, "Don't go..."
Lori sighed. She looked at Leni, whose hair was a mess, and Lincoln, whose hands were twitching. She realized what she would have to do in order to get her younger siblings back to full health. She sat down and hugged Leni, "Ok, I'll stay. I'm staying with you."
Leni buried her face in Lori's bosom, staying silent for the entire night.
Toward the midnight hour, the remaining pilots assembled in 1025 to discuss their next move.
"Ok, I know that this isn't the most optimal setting," Ichika said, "but there isn't any other place we can meet in our current situation."
"Got that right," Tina nodded, "How do you manage to stockpile a month's worth of laundry in a week?"
"...ignoring that..." Ichika shrugged it off, "Some of you may know why I called this meeting. Tatenashi definitely knows."
Tatenashi grinned, "You wanna create the Infinite Stratos League. Very admirable," she started to pace around, "And reckless. Are you forgetting that this doesn't excuse you from all the class work that you have to do?"
"Isn't all that schoolwork part of the training?" Ichika had the gall to ask.
Half of the girls bowed their heads in disapproval; the other half showed signs of interest.
"It doesn't matter whether or not we can do our homework if we can't keep an eye on the incidents that could attack our school, or anywhere else for that matter," Ichika made his argument, "and we most certainly can't pull random students from the crowd to go do hero things. We need a dedicated response team."
"I'm not so sure about that," Charlotte said, "The incidents aren't frequent enough to warrant a response team."
"But think about it," Rin said, "We didn't see this one coming, and we had to scramble to find the hooligans."
Tatenashi clenched her jaw.
"Just because we had one attack doesn't mean we need to scour the entire country for more," Houki said, "We honestly can't stop a war before it starts."
"The hell did you get that from?!" Rin flinched.
"Uh...well..."
"I agree that we need to be on standby in case something is about to happen," Cecilia said, "but we need to take into account the logistics of the operation. How much manpower would be required to even maintain surveillance?"
"Do we really need this discussion?" Tatenashi asked, "Is it really worth it to waste so much energy on what's essentially a watchdog group?"
"Well, we have to do something," Ichika demanded, "We can't wait around for the next incident to just happen."
All of a sudden, Laura stepped in, "And we can't wait for them to kill other people either." She stepped to the center of the room and displayed a map, "As of now, we've had a massive increase of incidents worldwide. All of them have to do with the IS in some capacity. All of them are discreet."
"How were you able to find all this?" Rin exclaimed.
"She is an army brat..." Tatenashi sighed with her fan on her forehead "NO GOD!"
"To say the very least, my network spreads far and wide," Laura said, "We can detect potential threats, but we can't quite assess them." She turned to Ichika, "It's just as you say. We need a response team."
"But how are we gonna maintain it?" Rin asked, "And with what resources? Don't we have other staff for this?"
"They're too busy fooling around with paperwork and other students to waste time on us," Ichika said, "We can't wait for them."
"Ok, let's all take a step back and think about this!" Tatenashi stepped in, "Do we really need one right now? When we're all still trying to recover from the recent attack?"
They all thought about it, and they were about to side with her on the grounds that they needed to make some time for the rest of the school. But then, Houki thought about what she experienced during the festival. She saw the cafe, the attractions, and the play...all seemingly organized by Tatenashi, who disappeared during most of the festival. The only time she was truly present was during the Strike Force Cinderella debriefing, which led her to believe that she was elsewhere tending to the students' needs.
"Wait..." Houki turned to Tatenashi, "Where were you when this was all happening?"
"Oh, that's preposterous!" Tatenashi giggled, "I was assisting Ichika with his battle."
"And before then?"
"Are you questioning your Student Council President?!" Tatenashi gasped, "The absolute gall to doubt your own commanding officer?!" She feigned distress and put her fan to her forehead "WE NEED IT", "Madam Shininono, you have cut me to the quick."
That told Houki everything she needed to know, "So, you didn't know that Leni got raped?"
And once again, Tatenashi was struck by words, and stuck for words. She didn't know what to say to her, and the case she could make for herself would only push toward the need for a response team. So, she changed her mind...slightly, "Well, if you're all so gung ho about it, we can put this to a vote."
"Madam President?" Cecilia caught that shift in tone, "Is something the matter?"
"Oh, no," Tatenashi lied (fairly darn well), "Just that with all the attention we're giving to the team, we don't to cause a panic for anyone else, do we?"
"Even though we just did with the festival battle?" Ichika blinked.
"You're in no position to talk, mister Crown bearer," Tatenashi growled.
"The hell did that come from-eep?!" Ichika was interrupted by her fan "WE REALLY NEED IT".
"I will give you a chance to make your case to the students next week," Tatenashi spoke her terms, "If you can convince me, in front of them, to give your little pee wee cheer squad a chance, then we will have our little ISL. If not, you will have to do me a little favor." -WINK-
"GULP..." Ichika nodded, "Understood, ma'am..."
"Good," Tatenashi turned to the others, "Same condition to all of you. Those who want to convince me, must convince me, or owe me."
The girls went "Yes, ma'am..."
Tatenashi walked out of 1025. The group waited for a good minute before sighing in exasperation.
"I fear the retribution from the Woman in the High Castle..." Charlotte muttered.
"This is some Avenger crap going on right now..." Ichika smacked his forehead.
"Great," Cecilia moaned, "How on earth are we going to sway arguably the strongest pilot in the school?"
Houki threw up her arms in anger, "God, what a c-"
"Don't."
While the other girls were trying to collect themselves, Tatenashi was having a hard time maintaining herself. She had a moment where she flashed back to ten years ago, where Kanzashi was the one in danger, and Tatenashi came in to save her, and this was in the back alley of Moscow. She remembered clearly the words of the kidnappers...
("Finally. Your whiny sister was bothering us so much that we were close to shutting her up. Not that she would fetch that high of a price.")
Not even her kidnappers valued her sister. What was it about her that caused a reaction like that?
She was about to get...an answer...as Kanzashi had mustered up the courage to venture out of her sanctuary and visit the infirmary to see Lincoln. Something about him connected with her and compelled her to leave her room. She was staring at him in peaceful slumber while thinking about how he would react to such a brazen assault. She was about to rub his forehead when his eyes suddenly slammed open, "AH!" Her hand was swatted away and her face was covere by the blanket.
Lincoln looked like he woke up from a nightmare world. He rammed his body against the opposite wall, cracking the window. Then, he seemed to settle down in a rapid pant. Kanzashi blinked her eyes and tried to make sense of his reaction.
"Um..." she said, "What exactly-"
"NOT ANOTHER WORD!" Lincoln snapped.
Kanzashi kept quiet.
"Are you a faker, too?!" Lincoln shouted, "Are you one of those liars, too?!"
Kanzashi looked visibly disturbed, "Wha...what are you-"
"DON'T LIE TO ME!" Lincoln threw a pillow at her, "YOU'VE GOT A FALE PAST JUST LIKE EVERYONE ELSE! YOU-YOU'RE THAT GOOD AT BEING A WORTHLESS PIECE OF-"
The nurse busted in and tried to cuddle Lincoln, "Hey! Hey! You're fine! The threats are gone! You can-"
"NO! GET AWAY!" Lincoln flailed, "GET YOUR HANDS AWAY FROM ME! NO! AAAAA~~~"
Kanzashi closed her eyes until his rambling stopped. When she reopened them, he was back on the bed, solemnly contemplating the mysterious patterns upon the ceiling. She tried to step close to him, but his voice stopped her in her tracks,
"Why am I even here right now?..."
"What do you mean?..." Kanzashi asked nervously.
"Exactly what I mean..." Lincoln went on a mellow rant, "No matter what I do, no matter what I change, I can't get away from it. Like, the past is the past, right? It should be just the past, but it's not. "The past does not equal the future." Yeah, bullshit. It does. It keeps flying in your face until you decide to learn from it, except I've learned everything there is to learn about my past. So, what the hell gives? Why can't I get away from it?"
Kanzashi couldn't say anything to counter that. She had that exact same feeling, as if trying to find an answer that didn't exist to a question that never had any significance.
"And why should I? I had it coming," Lincoln kept ranting, "In my blind rush to escape and-or leave my past, I latched onto people I barely knew. On day one. Since then, I've been way to complacent about who to include in my circle of trust. Didn't question anything, didn't say anything, nothing. So, what should I have done, Huh?" Then, he turned to Kanzashi, "You're good at lying to other people, aren't you? Surely, you can give me a few pointers."
Kanzashi was unsettled at Lincoln's drastic shift of perspective. To think that he didn't know who to trust was reasonable. But to think that she would lie to him about her backstory was crossing a line. She took grave offense, but hid her emotions until-
She couldn't take it anymore and left the infirmary. She memorized the exact layout of the school to the sensory degree, so she didn't need to look up. Which wasn't a good thing because she walked past Tatenashi, who diverted her gaze away from her until they passed each other.
Tatenashi knew where she came from and stormed the infirmary.
"Excuse me!" Tatenashi said to the nurse, "Have you seen Lincoln? Is he still here?"
"No," the nurse grunted while cleaning the bedsheets.
"Uh...well, where'd he go?"
"Someplace I never bothered to watch for," the nurse answered, "Last I checked, he was going outside."
Tatenashi turned her head to the bedroom, where Lori was tending to Leni. Something about that scene gripped her heart, so much so that she was repelled from the infirmary altogether. She managed to hold onto her composure as she went outside looking for any sign of Lincoln to try and convince him to hold off on the ISL. She found him by himself in the dojo and slowly walked toward him.
But he sensed her presence, "Don't even."
"Well, I never!" Tatenashi played with the play, "And here I thought I would be the second biggest thought on campus."
Lincoln glared at her.
"Hey, don't blame me," Tatenashi shrugged, "You were in the pood."
Lincoln stared off into the rainy sky, "What do you want?"
Tatenashi attempted to make her sales pitch, "I'll be frank. We're in a tough spot-"
"Pass," Lincoln promptly shut her down and left.
"Uh, excuse me?!" Tatenashi was sarcastically revolted, "Do you realize who you just mouthed off to?!"
Lincoln stopped and shot his index finger at her, "I just mouthed off the person who couldn't protect my sisters!"
"God, man!" Tatenashi was about to feign distress, but then she caught his very last word, "...sisters?..."
"I know what I said to them, and I don't plan on taking any of it back," Lincoln said, "But when I couldn't prevent my own kin from being getting her private house flooded FROM BOTH DOORS, that's a full stop to whatever plans I had!"
"Uh..." Tatenashi muttered, "I don't like where you're going with thi-"
-SLAP!-
Tatenashi was interrupted by two cards, which she dodged, a card bomb, which exploded inches from her face, and a slap from Lincoln...which hit her square in the jaw. In retaliation, she took him to the ground and pinned him by the neck.
"You have officially crossed the line," Tatenashi said, "You had better explained yourself, vagrant."
"That's my line..." Lincoln breathed.
"What was that? Getting all choked up by your own regret?"
"I am..." Lincoln suddenly pinched his nails deep into her thigh, "...I regret listening to you..." his nails went so deep as to cause blood to seep out. Tatenashi swatted him away and brushed herself off. While he lay on the ground ranting, "I was right there... I saw Leni and that woman go in the hallway... I could've saved her...and what did I hear over the communication channel?!..."
Tatenashi was instantly thrust back into that pivotal moment.
("Leni went inside with that Makagami woman. I'm going in.")
("No, let me handle her.")
("Ok...how soon can you get down here?")
("Are they exhibiting suspicious behavior?")
("Uh... no...")
("I'll be over soon. Laura needs you to track two more intruders on the east wing.")
That was the final straw for her. She was the one who warded Lincoln away from that area. She was also the one who chose not to be over soon because of the play. She didn't know that that was what that woman was up to. Neither of them could have predicted that the woman was that vicious.
"I was right there... I was right there!..." Lincoln mumbled, "...If I hadn't listened to you, then..."
"...you'd be dead."
Lincoln sat up.
Tatenashi was right there, with her serious face, "I get that you wanted to save her, but think about how dangerous that woman is. Say Leni escapes, but you stay behind. What would that woman do to you?"
"Just enough for her to not notice High Card!" Lincoln protested, "You honestly thought I'd go in there with a cactus up my ass?!"
Tatenashi seriously doubted that he would have any energy to summon High Card. She also saw that whatever she had planned was immediately shot, as he had attained singular focus on this incident.
It was happening again. The real reason she became "estranged" from her sister. Tatenashi has always been the expert at making good first impressions while enacting several secret plans behind everyone's back. So much so that she would remain singularly focused on her task, attempting to achieve completion by any means necessary...even if it means expending the people near her. It happened to Kanzashi.
Before Tatenashi was declared the head of the prestigious Sarashiki family, she and Kanzashi already had a strained relation ship due to being fraternal twins, with Tatenashi gaining the better genes and Kanzashi getting the regular genes. Tatenashi was naturally gifted in everything she did, and taht garnered her all the attention. Kanzashi developed a slight inferiority complex, but it was always kept in check because of a weekly sisterly hangout where the two didn't talk about their worries and just spent quality time together. Until Tatenashi was officially declared the head of the family, which meant that she had to divert even more time away from Kanzashi, all to preserve the current status. One time, she was tasked with retrieving a vital weapons cache in Perm Krai, so she brought on Kanzashi, who initially objected to the trip but eventually agreed after learning (being deceived into thinking) that she would take part in a tour of the IS research facility there. They went into the facility together, but then they separated before the tour commenced. Tatenashi was within striking range of the cache, but she received a hostage call, and the hostage was her own sister. She took the cache and met the intruders with the intent to bargain. She did the only thing that could steer the intruders' intent to mister away from Kanzashi...
...and it turned lukewarm.
("Finally. Your whiny sister was bothering us so much that we were close to shutting her up. Not that she would fetch that high of a price.")
("If she's that cheap, why keep her?")
("What?")
("The real deal's right here. Why don't you put that girl aside and have fun with a real woman?")
("Ouch. I guess we don't need her then. We'll toss her for you.")
That really hurt her. It was the only way to take the focus off Kanzashi, but it shattered their relationship to pieces. Tatenashi had proven her worth as the next IS Representative of Russia. Kanzashi, however, got sidelined; the only reason she was able to come to the Academy was by virtue of her sister.
It was the similar situation with Lincoln, Lori, and Leni. It was the virtue of the brother's attendance that spurned Lori and Leni to come here, and they had similar attraction from the outside latching onto them. And it was the sibling that was in danger. And when that sibling was rescued, the damage was done. And it was Tatenashi at the center of it all.
"I get it, ok?" Tatenashi attempted to steer him back to the original conversation, "I get that you-"
"No. No, no! Keep your nitpicking to yourself!" Lincoln bolted out, "Stay away from me!"
"The hell?!" Tatenashi chased after him, "You come back here right now-OOF!" She slammed into a plasma barrier erected by High Card.
"I wouldn't," High Card shook her head.
Tatenashi was about to deploy her lance, but she was stopped. By the scornful sight of Kanzashi peeked from behind the barrier. The two sisters left the dojo in silence.
High Card sighed, "Man, what is it gonna take to go back to happy hours again?..." Just then, her cellphone lit up a notification:
"FRIEND REQUEST FROM: unknown"
"Figures," High Card groaned, "Yep, they've exploited us, alright," and dashed off towards the residence hall.
Later that night, Ichika was wandering around the park. He scratched his head trying to figure out a solution to protect everyone, but he couldn't come up with anything remotely close to the Infinite Stratos League. He kept thinking when he rounded the fountain and found Lincoln lying on a park bench.
"Rough day?" Ichika asked.
Lincoln dropped the isolation act and breathed, "You have no idea.." He scoot over and allowed Ichika to sit with him.
They spent the next fifteen seconds in silence before Ichika broke the ice... "So, I was wondering...What's your take on the class festival?" ...with a bulldozer.
Lincoln tensed up, "Whaddaya mean?"
"I mean, what do you think about everything that happened?"
"Don't start me with that..." Lincoln rubbed his forehead, "I wish to God that I didn't listen to her..."
"To who?" Ichika said. After hearing everything that Lincoln went through, Ichika said, "That's who..."
"Yeah!" Lincoln exclaimed, "I know she's the superior fighter! I know she's the Student Council President and all, but...screw it! So what?! I should've done my own thing and saved them!"
"Geez..." Ichika shook his head.
"I know!" Lincoln thought Ichika was agreeing with him, but it was the opposite.
"No, I mean you versus that woman whoever she was. Are you nuts?"
"Huh?" Lincoln stared blankly.
"How do I explain this?..." Ichika scratched his cheek, "I read up on that lady that attacked me...turns out it's the same person that attacked Great Lakes City."
"That's even more reason to go after them!" Lincoln shouted.
"And she damn near succeed in taking away my IS," Ichika stunted Lincoln.
"...Huh?!"
"After which she would have killed me."
"..."
"It almost happened to me. I think if you jumped in there, even with High Card and Strong Suit...it would've happened to you."
Lincoln sat in contemplation.
"Sadly..." Ichika continued, "...that won't stop them from coming after your sisters after they kill you. And it'll leave a big gaping hole in everyone's hearts if that happened."
"Oh..." Lincoln didn't know what to say about that.
"I get that you want to save them at all cost," Ichika said, "but think about what you'd be doing to everyone else. Do you think they want your dead body on their conscience?"
Lincoln thought long and hard. While it was true that he blamed his sisters for his past, it was also true that he didn't want to cut them away from his life. As much as he felt the urge to, it didn't feel right to him. That feeling was amplified by the recent actions at the festival. It seemed as though his sisters were the only two relics from his past that were genuine, despite their lie about his lightning rod abilities.
"Dammit," Lincoln rubbed his head in frustration, "What am I supposed to feel? About all this? About you, about...about Hana?"
"Just take it as a passing by," Ichika answered, "Miss Not-Akina and Sayuka ain't your family, so they're just people on our watchlist. It's Lori and Leni you need to concern yourself with."
"God, I knew you were gonna say that..." Lincoln groaned.
"It's the only way you're gonna find some closure with all that internal bleeding going on in yourself right now."
"Too bad that didn't kill me," Lincoln said. And that erupted a slight chuckle from the both of them. They would have stayed there the whole night, were it not for some uncharacteristic rustling of the nearby bushes. The boys tensed up and took their battle stances.
"Who's there?" Ichika declared.
A mysterious figure emerged from the shadows and bore herself under the light post.
Ichika was in shock. He saw a woman with his exact height and eyes, yet her hair and face were the same as Chifuyu's. "Chi...Chifuyu?!" He muttered unconsciously.
"No, Ichika Orimura," the woman said, "I am you."
"You're what?" Ichika gasped. He knew exactly what this meant, "So, it's true..."
"Yeah," Lincoln whispered, "She's your twin sister. Goes by M."
Ichika swallowed a heavy pill. Not so much as a shocking reveal of a long lost family member, but the fact that Lincoln knew before he did.
"You cost me dearly last time," M shot a death glare at them, "You and Lincoln."
Lincoln blinked.
Ichika was able to process that thought. That meant that she was also one of the pilots that attacked the Academy, "Wait, are you... the pilot? Silent Zephyrs, right?"
"That's right," M gave an eerie smile, "And my name is...Madoka Orimura."
Ichika and Lincoln were trying to decide between fleeing the scene and calming Madoka down. Unfortunately, she made the decision for for them.
"And for my self preservation..." Madoka took out a concealed gun, "...I must take your life."
Lincoln deployed his wing units, and Ichika deployed his arm cannon. Neither of them were fast enough to prevent Madoka from firing.