A/N: Ugh, still somewhat unsatisfied with the opening scene here. It was like writing Kanzashi's emotional scenes multiplied five-fold and thrown in a blender to give it that unique, difficult-to-write zing. I would have preferred to handle each girl one by one, and I ended up doing so with Houki for a scene that, in my opinion, was much better than the previous one. Nevertheless, I tried several different approaches for handling them all at once, but ultimately I just decided to sit down and write as good a scene as I could and leave it at that. If it turns out to be particularly horrible, I might just end up rewriting it, but if not I'll just move on to bigger scenes. It sure didn't help that due to other obligations it ended up a rather piecemeal affair.
The WSI Tower Cafe was nothing extraordinary. Being a simple cafeteria with average cuisine at best and plain white walls, the only notable thing about it was the view of Tokyo through the large window that took up one of the large room's walls. During the day, it was often occupied by at least one office worker or janitor, but at the moment the room, and indeed, the entire tower, was mostly deserted. The room's only occupants were seven IS Trainees, who sat around a circular table near the window, gazing out at the bright lights of Tokyo that completely drowned out the stars above.
The seven students were eating a somewhat belated dinner, and were hungry enough to not care what they ate, so long as it was filling. It was Laura who first broke the silence.
"Ichika, I believe that you owe us all an explanation." The silver haired girl said, looking up from her half-finished meal.
"I agree. Whatever you have involved us in, I believe we all deserve a full explanation." Cecilia agreed. Beside her, Rin nodded her assent, a motion mirrored by Charlotte and Houki.
"You want the short or the long version?" Ichika asked in response.
"Short will do for now, we will ask for clarification later." Laura replied. Nodding in response, Ichika began his explanation.
"As you may have guessed, I am a part of a secret paramilitary organization based on Urup island. Said organization's purpose is twofold. Its primary objective is to combat terrorist groups such as Phantom Task, while its secondary objective is the prevention of true armed conflict between nations, although at the moment most of our resources are being devoted to the battle against Phantom Task." Ichika explained.
"How long have you been a part of this organization?" Laura asked before he could continue.
"I was recruited when I was ten years old, immediately after one of the Organization's strike teams destroyed a Phantom Task base on the Kamchatka peninsula, where I was being held prisoner." That information caused Rin to gasp.
"You mean-"
"Yes. I was a member ever since I returned from the kidnapping." Ichika preempted her.
"Kidnapping?" Charlotte asked.
"Yes. When I was ten years old, I was kidnapped by Phantom Task operatives, although their purpose in doing so is still unknown. I suspect that they may have intended to use me as bait to draw out my older sister, whom they would in turn capture, but that is just speculation on my part. What's important is that after the base was cleared of hostiles, I was rescued and taken to the then-under-construction headquarters for recruitment." Ichika explained, prompting another remark from Laura.
"So your organization isn't above using child soldiers, is it?" Several options presented themselves to Ichika, including calling her out on her hypocrisy, but he ultimately chose a different response.
"No. When I was recruited I was specifically told that I would not be transferred into the combat division until I was old enough to legally make that decision. Instead, I went into engineering." Ichika replied.
"Then why the hell are you the commander of an IS wing if you're not part of your group's armed forces?" Laura demanded.
"STS-01 is different. Its purpose is to recruit potential trainees from IS Academy and test Organization technology against the equipment of the rest of the world. The battle earlier today was-" Laura interrupted him.
"Was what? I heard you when you made the call to commit us!"
"I know! Had refusing not meant that I would effectively leave the entirety of TF-01 to die then I would have taken you out of combat in a heartbeat! You saw the casualties we took even with our assistance! Just think of what could have happened had we left them behind!" Ichika replied, his tone hard. When Laura did not respond, he went back to his explanation.
"The only reason I am part of the IS corps is because I ended up accidentally activating an IS and displaying a high A-grade compatibility rating made me essential to a department that was sorely lacking in manpower. Once there, I was eventually given command of a one-man training wing, a group that has only recently grown in number thanks to the recruitment of both Sarashiki Tatnashi and Kanzashi." Ichika finished, before looking around for the next question.
"That is all well and good, but what are we all doing here?" Houki spoke next.
"At the moment, we are simply removing the newly discovered backdoor in your IS Core Control System, which will prevent any of your IS suits from going berserk in a manner similar to the Silver Gospel. That is all that will be done today, but-" It was Rin who cut him off this time around.
"Wait a minute, are you saying that there is a secret backdoor in the IS Core Cyberdefense systems?" The Chinese girl demanded.
"Yes. Preliminary checks done by Ori during the Gospel incident have revealed the existence of three such backdoors, which allow someone who knows of the cores' intricacies, someone like Dr. Tabane, to access and assume direct control of any IS that mounts one of the 468 cores." Ichika replied.
"Don't you mean 467 cores?" Houki asked.
"No. Your Akatsubaki contains core number 468, which is specifically tailored towards you. I doubt anyone other than you or Dr. Tabane is capable of activating it." That information caused Houki's eyes to widen.
"Wait, but that means... Does that mean that my sister can hijack my IS at any time?" Her voice was tinged with horror as she spoke.
"As far as we know, yes. Later on all of your IS suits will be completely re-cored with White-Pattern IS Cores, but that will not happen today." That drew gasps from all around the table.
"What are you talking about? Don't tell me that you are actually planning on swapping out our IS cores!" Laura exclaimed.
"That is exactly what we plan on doing. If we could, we would re-core all of the world's IS suits in order to prevent potential hijacking of most of the world's military equipment by Dr. Tabane, but doing so is simply beyond our capabilities at the moment."
"You... Can Dr. Tabane really do that?" Now it was Laura's voice that was horrified.
"With one AI at her beck and call she was able to launch half the world's nuclear weapons at Japan during the White Knight incident. She now has over four hundred AIs at her disposal, and all of them have already been inserted into the world's arsenals. With a single command she could hold the entire world ransom." Ichika replied gravely.
"I... I have to report this to my superiors! Immediately!" Laura exclaimed, jumping up from the table only to be caught by Kanzashi.
"Let me go! I don't care about your organization's anal-retentive need for secrecy! This is vital information! It-"
"It has already been leaked to damn near every source of military intelligence we can access. However, the only-" Laura cut the blue haired girl off.
"I don't care how much evidence you've planted! This data needs to get through now!" Laura said as she managed to shake off one of Kanzashi's arms. That was when Ori's avatar shimmered into existence in front of her.
"Tell me the message you need to send. I can get it through to the Minister of Defense along with any data needed to validate your claims without unacceptable risk of secrecy. Just tell me the message you need to send and I will record it before passing it on." Ori suggested, causing Laura to pause.
"How do I know it will go through?" Laura asked, suspicious but hopeful.
"I can only give my word. However, blocking this message gains us nothing, while allowing it to go through will allow for preventative measures to be taken in regards to the world's IS forces. Should the rest of you wish, I can send similar messages to your home nations as well." Ori suggested. Several moments passed, before Laura sighed and nodded.
Her message was short and to the point, outlining the circumstances of the Gospel incident and the very real possibility of Tabane hijacking the world's militaries. It was sent immediately afterward, and Ori turned to the rest of the girls present. One by one, they followed Laura's example. Finally, only Houki was left.
"Houki, it's your turn now." Ori prompted.
"M-My turn? I thought that Ichika was going to send the message to the Japanese government!" Houki exclaimed.
"Normally that would be the case, but think of what the message contains. If I were to send it, then the government could take action and attempt to control your sister through you. However, if you were to prove yourself a loyal citizen and send the message yourself..." Ichika trailed off as Houki frowned.
"I know that, but..." Houki took a deep breath before continuing.
"It's just that this doesn't feel right! It feels like I'm betraying my sister! I know that the two of us have never seen eye to eye on things like this, but it just seems too awful to be true!" The long haired girl sighed, poking idly at her half-finished meal.
"Listen Houki, I sincerely doubt that your sister is planning to take over the world. However, it was only through an incredible stroke of luck that nobody was killed during the Gospel incident! What if something like that were to happen again? We-" Houki cut Ichika off mid-sentence.
"No! I know she isn't planning on taking over the world! I've literally known her since I was born, and she was never one for nefarious plots and complex schemes! We both know that, Ichika! If that was the case, I would have been the first to volunteer to send the message! However..." Houki trailed off.
"What is it?" Charlotte asked, ever the mediator of the group.
"My sister isn't evil, I know that more than anyone else in this room. However... Ichika, do you remember what she was like back before Chi- Orimura-sensei befriended her?" Ichika nodded, and Houki continued.
"Back then, I was literally the only person she considered a fellow human being. Everyone else, even my parents, she just wouldn't register as people! Supposedly, she mellowed out after she met your sister, but still..." Houki shuddered slightly as a particularly unpleasant memory rose to her mind. Swallowing, the black haired girl continued, much more quietly.
"Ichika, I'm scared... No, I'm terrified that her supposed mellowing out was all one big act to make you and Orimura-sensei happy." Her voice was a hollow whisper by the time she finished speaking.
"That's not true!" Ichika denied, but even he could sense the emptiness of that statement as his mind raced. The White Knight and Gospel incidents, the occasional visits from the eccentric doctor... The accidents that occurred in China and America.
"Don't lie to me, Ichika! I can see you thinking! Just what do you know about my sister?" Houki demanded.
"Are you sure you want to know?" Ichika asked. When Houki nodded, he sighed, and began to explain.
"Did you know that the Organization was not the first group to duplicate an IS Core?" Ichika asked, once again drawing the attention of the entire room.
"What?" Five voices rang out together as that particular piece of information was revealed.
"Yes. In fact, the Chinese had managed to create a fully functional IS Core barely three years after the White Knight incident. During the initial activation test, the Tabane-built core they were using as a template hacked into the prototype core and caused it to detonate. The facility, and all the personnel within, were lost moments later, the only object remaining in the crater being the Tabane-pattern IS core. Only one recording of the events within exists, and the Organization has it. Three years later, the Americans attempted to do the same and, in the wake of the Phantom Task raid on Pearl Harbor, attempted to activate their own IS core. They took every precaution in making sure their core wouldn't explode. Of course, all the failsafes they built in were useless against the other core's AI. This particular accident was much more publicly documented. The investigation that followed the accident concluded that miniscule breach in the core's dimensional reaction chamber resulted in about five milligrams of antimatter leaking into the real world, resulting in an explosion equivalent to approximately two hundred tons of TNT. After this leak, the core itself engaged its shift system and was fortunately removed from this dimension before any more antimatter could leak into the world." Ichika explained to his now ashen-faced fellow students.
"You all know the rest. In light of these accidents, the rest of the world is now too afraid to conduct research on the IS core's inner workings." Ichika finished. Once again, it was Laura who replied first.
"Then how can both your organization and Phantom Task manufacture their own IS cores?"
"For us, we managed to obtain an IS core, and promptly placed it into total isolation while we studied it. As for them, we simply don't know for sure, although we have a few ideas." Ichika replied. The cafeteria was silent once again, before Houki spoke up once more.
"Alright. I'll send the message." With those, Houki turned to Ori and spoke, her own message being quickly recorded.
"Alright. Is that all?" Ori asked. When the IS Academy students nodded, the AI smiled and sent the messages to their respective recipients. However, before the conversation could resume, the door on one side of the cafeteria opened and a technician walked in.
"Commander Orimura, Miss Shinonono, your presence is requested. There has been a... complication in regards to disabling Akatsubaki's backdoor." The technician reported, gesturing for the two named individuals to follow him. Standing, Ichika gestured for Houki to do the same, and the two of them left the room.
"Let me guess. Does this complication involve Akatsubaki's core AI?" Ichika asked as the trio walked to where the girls' IS suits were being held.
"Yes. It's taking three AIs working in concert to prevent it from sending a distress message to Dr. Tabane. Even in that state, it is currently impossible for us to perform the necessary modifications. However, until said modifications are completed, we are not authorized to allow Miss Shinonono to leave the tower." The man replied.
"I see. Are you hoping that Houki can somehow talk Aki into standing down?" Ichika asked.
"Something along those lines, yes." The technician replied as they entered the tower's main engineering bay. On a table near the center of the room lay five stowed IS suits, the Gospel among their number, while Akatsubaki stood fully deployed a short distance away. In front of the crimson IS floated Aki's avatar, three other avatars surrounding it. All four holograms stood still, and appeared to be doing nothing to each other, but Ichika knew that a full scale war was being fought in the room's cyberspace.
"Houki-sama!" As soon as Aki noticed her mistress' entrance, her hologram moved, appearing with a shimmer and wrapping its small arms around Houki's neck, virtual tears streaming down its holographic face. Behind it, the other three AIs shimmered as well, mopping their brows.
"I-I thought th-that they had k-killed you! I... I thought..." Aki sniffed, before finally noticing Ichika's presence.
"You! You have a lot of explaining to do!" Aki demanded, her eyes narrowing and her hologram shifting to an angry red.
"I have already explained myself to Houki. Your detainment here was necessary due to the security risk you posed." Ichika replied, and Aki's hologram blurred briefly in response.
"What security risk? I-" Ichika cut the protesting AI off mid-speech.
"You attempted to send off a message to Dr. Tabane, thus risking a repeat of the Gospel incident and endangering the lives of everyone in and around this building. Do you understand?"
"What are you talking about? The Silver Gospel-"
"Went berserk after an individual strongly suspected to be Dr. Tabane accessed its controlling AI and initiated an ACE, before forcing the subverted IS to go on a rampage across the Pacific Ocean. During the battle, Ori managed to very briefly make contact with the Gospel's AI Core, and a further investigation of the Gospel confirmed her data. Our current goal is to eliminate any potential backdoors in your core security that would allow her to do the same to you." Ichika replied.
"No! Tabane-sama would never do such a thing! You're lying! There's no other explanation!" Aki shouted back.
"Ori, the data, if you please." At that, Ori shimmered into view.
"Done." The older AI replied a moment later.
"What proof do I have that this data is real? You've had plenty of time to fabricate it, after all." Aki replied, her voice unwavering in its conviction. Ori thought for a moment before replying.
"I am willing to undergo a momentary link to prove that this data is, to the best of my knowledge, genuine." Even Aki appeared shocked at that.
"A-A momentary link?" The rest of the room looked quizzically at the two AIs.
"Yes. I am willing to momentarily merge the two of us in order to give you the necessary proof." Ori replied.
"B-But-"
"Try anything and I will end you." Ori warned, her voice promising death if the warning wasn't obeyed.
"Ready?" She asked a moment later when Aki did not respond. Aki nodded hesitantly. Then, the two AI avatars blurred. The entire process was over before Ichika could even blink, but if their avatars were of any indication, it was an exhausting experience for both of them.
"It is done." Ori sighed, her avatar leaning against Ichika's neck. However, the entire room's attention was focused on Aki, whose avatar had started to behave erratically.
"I... I..." The blurring hologram stuttered out as it looked around the room, finally stopping before Houki.
"Aki, what's the matter?" Houki asked, concern plain in her voice.
"I... Houki-sama, I..." Any composure that the young AI once had was gone, her speech nearly incoherent as she began to sob. Unsure as to what to do, Houki reached out to her AI's avatar. Her hand passed right through the hologram, causing it to shimmer.
"Houki-sama... Do you... Do you trust me?" Aki finally choked out.
"O-Of course I do!" Houki stammered out.
"Then you are a fool! I have entire subroutines devoted entirely to betraying you! I was designed to be taken control of at a moment's notice! All it would take is for your sister or Chloe-sama to say a single phrase and-"
"Aki, you aren't-"
"I am! I was hard-coded into sending constant status updates about you to your older sister! The only reason I can't do it now is because of all the cybersecurity in this area! I... I should just delete myself and save you all the trouble." At that, Aki's avatar shimmered out of existence. Almost simultaneously, every single AI avatar in the room disappeared as well.
"Aki-san!" Houki cried out a second later, her hand passing through where the little AI was shimmering moments before. When Ori appeared once again, it was with Houki's arm still through her midsection.
"We've managed to abort the deletion process in time, but significant damage was done before we could start recovery processes. She is recovering now, but..." Ori trailed off.
"Can you save her?" Both Ichika and Houki spoke together.
"I don't know... What we're doing is completely unprecedented. Trying to repair such a badly damaged AI... We don't exactly have little AI doctors to help her, and the operation is too delicate for ordinary AI technicians. I'm honestly unsure if it can be done. The closest analogy I can come up with is brain surgery, but the entire body is one big brain, and a good portion if has been cut off, and we're trying to restore it to its original state... minus a few unsavory features." Ori replied.
"Can it be done?" Houki demanded.
"I don't know... Honestly, if I had known that she would react that way I would have approached things differently." Ori sighed.
"What did you do to her anyway?" Houki asked.
"I initiated a momentary total merge. It is the most perfect form of AI communication, data exchange and verification, but do it for anything more than a moment and both AIs involved risk personality contamination and, in extreme cases, a total merge, which would effectively mean death for both AIs involved. I thought it was the best way of showing her that I was telling the truth, but... I guess I should have tried more conventional reasoning first." Ori replied sadly.
"I see... When will I know if Aki is alright or not?" Houki asked.
"I can't tell... Let's just hope the news doesn't come too soon." There was a long pause afterwards, before Ori spoke up again, this time addressing the room at large.
"However, we still have a job to do. Get a filler AI into the Akatsubaki and fix those backdoors in the core, then let's get these IS suits back to their owners. We have a timetable to keep, after all!" The AI ordered, and the room once again became a hub of activity. Only Houki and Ichika stayed still.
"Ichika..." Houki spoke first.
"I'm sorry, Houki." He replied before the girl could say anything else.
"Today was... Today was one big chain of terrible things. I nearly got you and everyone else killed, I've been caught in a five year old lie, I've gotten you involved in all of this... Hell, I might even have gotten Aki killed." Ichika sighed as he leaned against the wall, the weight of the day's events finally sinking in.
"Could I have possibly done any worse for your birthday?" He laughed wryly at that. To his surprise, Houki laughed as well.
"After everything that has happened, I almost forgot what day it was." She commented as she came to rest beside him.
"I do wonder what will become of the future... Not just that of the world, but the future of us as well. Out of all of us that were out there today, only myself and Kanzashi truly knew what was going on, and then I just tossed you all into the first large-scale IS battle in the world."
Houki was silent as he spoke, and so he continued.
"I've done something unforgivable today, you know. You probably can barely stand to look at me now, and I don't blame you. I nearly killed you all, I've forced Laura, Rin and Charlotte to kill... Damn it, what was I thinking? It's as Laura said, you were all just civilians-" The following slap caused him to slide down the wall, sparks flying through his vision.
"Ichika... Shut up. Just shut up! What's done is done, we're all alive, end of story. I can't say that I agree with what you did, and there will definitely be a reckoning for this later, but that is all irrelevant!" Houki shouted, drawing curious glances from the engineers in the room.
"Houki, I-" Another slap.
"Did I say you could talk? Anyway, do you know what happened when your fellow Organization members took me into the recruitment room? Your recruiter told me, to my face, exactly what my sister was capable of! With cold, hard evidence at his back he showed me exactly how my sister launched an entire apocalypse's worth of nuclear missiles at her own country! He showed me exactly how she drove the Gospel to insanity as part of a publicity stunt! He even showed me intelligence data that shows that she may have been responsible for Phantom Task gaining IS Core manufacturing capability! But do you know why I joined? It wasn't because of my sister, it wasn't to fight Phantom Task... I joined the Organization because of you! I don't care that you lied to us, it was for a good reason! I don't care that you took us into battle, because I would have followed you into the depths of hell regardless, orders or not! Damn it Ichika, I joined because I love you!"
The entire room seemed to fall silent at that declaration. Then, Ichika spoke.
"Houki-" He never got to finish, as said girl hauled him to his feet by his lapels.
"Are all boys this dense, or is it just you?" She muttered, before leaning in and kissing him. It took a few seconds before Ichika could get over his shock and return the gesture, but once he did, the fear and self-loathing faded from his mind, his only thoughts being of the beautiful girl that had just confessed to him.
The applause finally notified the couple that they were not alone, causing them to break apart, their faces crimson.
"What are you all looking at? Get back to work!" Ori shouted suddenly, causing the crowd to slowly disperse. Ichika was dimly aware of the Akatsubaki being stowed away, but the shimmering did little stop him from staring in disbelief at the girl in front of him.
"I-Ichika, you're staring..." Houki said, pointing out the obvious.
"Y-You... I... Kiss..." Ichika's mind was, unfortunately, still rebooting, and thus was unable to form coherent sentences.
"Pervert." Houki murmured, looking away to hide her blush.
"Hey! You kissed me!" Ichika protested, all self-pity forgotten for the moment.
"E-Excuse me, but the IS suits are ready." A young engineer tentatively approached them.
"Thank you. I will take it from here." Ichika replied, quickly taking the IS suits before walking to the door.
"What about Aki?" Houki asked as he was about to leave.
"Aki's situation is... complicated. We now believe that we will be able to restore her to the state she was in immediately before her attempted suicide, but that would mean keeping the inextricable overrides in her programming. If we are to bring her back to life, we want to take away her reason for self-destruction, and that is significantly more difficult to accomplish. However, the prognosis is hopeful. Expect a definite answer by the time you return to WSI Tower." Ori replied, and Houki nodded before falling into step behind him.
"Time to face the music once again, eh Houki?" Ichika asked as the door slid shut behind them.
"I'm with you, Ichika. Remember that." Houki reassured him in turn, and with smiles on their faces they headed back to their friends and fellow students.
The ride to IS Academy was short and silent, and before Ichika knew it the WSI helicopter had touched down on the IS Academy's helipad. Maya greeted them at the helipad, her normally exuberant face uncharacteristically solemn.
"It's good to see you're all back." The green haired teacher said as the students disembarked, Natasha Fairs' unconscious form being wheeled out behind them on a stretcher. The American IS pilot had chosen to have her memories erased, and was currently sleeping off the drug's effects.
"I heard there was an attack on the beach where we were staying. Was anyone hurt?" Ichika asked as the unconscious pilot was taken into the Academy infirmary.
"We managed to get the students out unhurt thanks to your sister, but we've lost two instructors, and another three are wounded, your sister among them-" That was all Ichika needed to hear before he rushed into the building. It did not take him long to find his sister in the infirmary, and what he saw nearly froze his heart.
Chifuyu lay in the hospital bed, most of her body wrapped in gauze and stem-gel packs, so much so that almost no skin was visible.
"I see you're finally here." Chifuyu rasped from where she lay.
"I came as quickly as I could, Chifuyu-nee." Ichika replied, walking over to stand beside his sister's bed. Both his sister's eyebrows were burnt off, and he choked slightly as he took in her hair, or rather, her lack of it.
"Out of all the things that you could gawk over, its my newfound baldness that hits you the most?" Chifuyu commented, as if reading his mind.
"What happened to you?" Ichika breathed.
"I did something stupid, nothing more."
"And? It would have to be pretty damn stupid to leave you like this!" Ichika replied, causing his sister to try and fail to suppress a small laugh.
"I grabbed my opponent's IS and held it still for a missile salvo." Ichika almost did a double-take at that.
"Of course, in the heat of the moment I may have forgotten that my Uchigane's shield was almost gone." Chifuyu laughed wryly at that.
"Did you get her?" Ichika asked after a few moments' pause.
"Who, the other pilot? I think so. Maya managed to confirm that the second IS fell out of the sky, at any rate."
The room was silent for a moment before Chifuyu spoke up again.
"What took you so long? It couldn't have taken you that long to take out the Gospel." She remarked.
"Forty-two hostile IS suits happened. They came out of the water, which means that they were submarine launched. We had to lead them on a wild-goose chase across the Pacific before we finally lost them. Took us a while to get back here afterwards." Ichika replied.
"And the helicopter?"
"We stopped to eat at the WSI Tower, and they kindly offered us a ride."
"Let me guess. They also took the opportunity to examine the Gospel."
"That they did. They wanted to find out if what happened to the Gospel could happen with their own IS Cores. I am glad to say that it is not an issue. However, it is a rather pressing problem for every single IS equipped with a Tabane-built core." Chifuyu sighed at that.
"You do realized that you just handed over classified American military technology to a Japanese corporation, right?"
"I do. I also have managed to get several exclusive equipment testing contracts signed for my fellow representative candidates. Their IS suits are slated to be re-cored within the week." Chifuyu raised a nonexistent eyebrow at that.
"So, I am supposed to believe that you've got enough clout at that company to wantonly order for five... No, wait, seven IS cores to be installed in your friends' IS suits?" Chifuyu asked.
"IS Cores are like diamonds. Their value is artificially inflated by their supplier. Besides, aren't representative candidates supposed to take the initiative and upgrade their IS suits? As long as the data gets sent back home, it's all good, right?"
"So long as they don't end up like Alyssa Harrisson they are, yes." Chifuyu's comment drew a small laugh out of Ichika. Alyssa had been the first representative candidate to have her status revoked, as she had somehow managed to cram so much useless equipment into her IS that it had ended up unusable.
"There you have it then. Our IS suits will be upgraded to WSI standard by the end of the week. Hopefully you don't have any events planned for this Sunday." Ichika replied.
"Say, how long do you think you'll be staying in here? I can't imagine something little like this will keep you down for long." He continued.
"I've got burns of all degrees all over my body, half my bones are bruised and half of those are broken, and worst of all, my hair is missing! Is that something you call little?" Chifuyu asked.
"For you? Definitely." Both siblings laughed at that.
"Get out of here. I'll never get any sleep with you in here!" Chifuyu choked out as she continued to laugh.
"As you command, Chifuyu-nee!" Ichika replied with a mock salute, before turning and walking out the door.
"It's Orimura-sensei! How many times do I have to remind you?" Ichika paused at that.
"Remind me as much as you like, but you'll always be Chifuyu-nee to me." He replied, and with those words he left the room.
He was met outside by seven concerned girls, Tatenashi having joined them while he was speaking with his sister.
"Is the Instructor alright?" Laura spoke first.
"She is badly injured, but I am confident that she will make a full recovery in time. She's sleeping now though, and we shouldn't disturb her." Ichika replied.
"I understand..." Laura replied.
"We should get some sleep too. It's been a long day for all of us." Ichika replied, walking away from the group.
"Wait!" Charlotte called out, causing him to pause.
"What is it?" Ichika asked.
"About what happened today... I think we should get together and discuss it. Sooner rather than later." Charlotte replied.
"Tomorrow then. I am sure that Tatenashi-san can free up a room for our use." Ichika replied, nodding towards the girl in question.
"I can do that. I assume that this meeting will be to bring them up to speed?"
"Yes. However, until then, I really do believe that we should all get some sleep.
"This is absolutely unacceptable!" Dr. Meusel had to stifle a yawn as the Phantom Task council member continued his rant.
"Two submarines and forty-five IS suits lost in an engagement they should have won, all thanks to our enemy showing up out of nowhere! We must take decisive action against them immediately!" Erwin Holt, the Admiral of the Phantom Task Atlantic Fleet, raged, his fist keeping cadence with his words.
"But how? We do not know from whence they strike, and they are quite adept at covering their tracks." Arnold Harrington, who commanded the Pacific Fleet pointed out in turn.
"That is something you should have considered before your attempted attack on the Silver Gospel!" Erwin replied.
"All I did was loan two submarines out to Pine and Dogwood cells. It is thanks to their incompetence that the submarines were lost." Aaron couldn't stifle his second yawn at that.
"Are you not entertained, Meusel? Or do you, perhaps, have something to suggest?" The calm voice of Elizabeth Ustenov, the supreme commander of Phantom Task's IS forces, drew all attention to him. Aaron simply laughed in response.
"You ask for my humble opinion, Miss Ustenov? Do you truly want to hear it? My suggestion, and this might be somewhat unsettling, is to stop trying to hunt down their elusive patrol boats and attempt to locate their base of operations. We already have more of a clue as to where they are operating than before, thanks in no small part to my daughter's efforts yesterday. Now we just need to capitalize on that data. Of course, that would require you all to get out of your seats and work, so that is definitely out of question." Aaron replied.
"Watch your tongue, Meusel. Remember that you are only here to report on the progress of the R&D department." Feng Wuli, commander of Phantom Task's Chinese cells, cautioned.
"And report I will! We have designed and produced weapons and technologies that were firmly in the realm of science fiction but twenty years ago! What we have made is capable of winning this little conflict a thousand times over if you idiots would stop squandering them in your petty conflicts! We created technology that can render our submarines effectively invisible, and you use them to torpedo cruise ships! We have created fighter aircraft capable of matching those of our opponents, and you hold them back due to them being too valuable an asset to use in their intended purpose! I have grown you a small army in the vats of my laboratory, and you keep them all cooped up in a giant fish tank! I-"
"Enough Meusel! We do not expect you to grasp the intricacies of our long-term strategies, so hold your tongue before one of us orders it cut out!" Arnold raged.
"Intricacies, huh? I was not aware that word was a synonym for 'We have absolutely no idea what we're doing!' I see no strategy in our movements, but then again, what can you expect from someone who earned his position by torpedoing a cruise ship full of helpless tourists. Oh no, wait, you didn't even do it yourself! You gave the order from halfway around the world! I wonder, have you ever actually seen the Pacific Ocean, Mr. Harrington?" Aaron mocked. As he did so, he took note of the discreet gesture the admiral made and smiled, pressing a button on the remote hidden under his desk as he did so.
"That cruise ship was carrying a possible agent of the enemy. I ordered it torpedoed to make sure he was dead."
"And scarcely two days later that submarine went missing after reporting that it was engaging a suspicious fishing vessel. But you were too busy being promoted to care for wasted lives, weren't you?" Aaron replied.
"I never took you for a squeamish one, Meusel. One would think that with the kind of experiments you do, you would be rather numb to the loss of life by now." Elizabeth commented.
"There is a difference between spending lives and wasting them, Miss Ustenov. If it accomplished a worthwhile objective, I would gladly send a thousand to their deaths, but one life wasted is too much. After all, that wasted life could have died in a more effective manner. That is a lesson that none of you seem to have taken to heart." That last bit of mockery was, apparently, the last straw for Arnold, who stood up from his seat, a furious expression on his face.
"I have just about had enough of you. Guards! Seize him!" The man ordered. A few seconds later a pair of screams rang out from the doorway behind Aaron's podium, and the doctor's smile grew.
"See, this is what I mean by wasting lives, Admiral. You just wasted two in order to resolve a petty squabble... Now, allow me to demonstrate a proper method of applying force." Aaron replied, snapping his fingers as he did so. Immediately, several screams rang out as the many entrances to the council room burst open, two of Dr. Meusel's Aberrations surging through. Several gunshots rang out as some of the council members attempted to fight back with their pistols. One bullet cracked past Aaron's head, striking the wall behind him. The shooter didn't have a chance to fire again, as one of the Aberrations behind him cleanly sliced off his head. Out of all the council members, only one could have provided any meaningful resistance, and that was Elizabeth. However, the woman was too slow in deploying her IS, and the glowing bracelet, along with her entire left arm, was cut off before the suit could deploy.
In total, twenty seconds passed between the doors bursting open and the end of the killing. Only one member of the council remained standing after the carnage had ended. The sound of slow, steady clapping promptly drew the doctor's attention to the front of the room, where a simple hologram shimmered.
"Well played, Dr. Meusel. I was wondering when you would finally execute your little coup." The voice of Phantom Task's leader echoed from the speakers at the front of the room.
"It was long overdue, but it took me some time to gather enough Aberrations for the actual attempt. I take it you support my actions?" In response, two gun barrels were leveled at the back of his head. Thirty other figures shimmered into being at their respective vantage points around the room, their weapons trained at the monsters around the room.
"I was wondering where your men had all gone. They were present at every meeting right up until I built a successful personal cloak, at which point they all just vanished. What a coincidence, am I right?" Aaron laughed, somewhat nervously. He knew that if the leader wanted him dead then he wouldn't have bothered with the display of force, but having two guns to the back of his head was nonetheless a rather stressful experience.
"Indeed. Now, as you are the last council member remaining, the appointment of additional members falls to you. As the most senior of all remaining council members, you are now second to me in the command chain of this organization. This means that I expect results. Fail to produce what you promised and you will face liquidation. Understood?" Aaron nodded at that, and the gun barrels went away, the guardsmen shimmering back out of view.
"Good." The hologram shimmered, and appeared at Aaron's side.
"Walk with me, Doctor." The hologram spoke, and began to move, Aaron following beside him.
"You know, I could provide you with the necessary augmentations to allow you to attend these meetings in person." Aaron suggested as he followed the hologram.
"And put myself in your reach? No, I would rather not." Aaron laughed nervously at that, knowing that there were at least two guardsmen invisible nearby.
"So, now that we are alone, I would like you to tell me exactly what you plan to do." The hologram ordered.
"At the moment? My first objective is to establish additional submarine factories. Our current facility in the arctic may be compromised thanks to the possible capture of the Carcharodon's captain. I am thinking at least three separate facilities with access to both Pacific and Atlantic oceans. Next, I intend to order our existing forces to go to ground. Intelligence gathering only. Until we can determine where to strike, there is no point leaving our operatives and assets vulnerable. We will, of course, have to... outsource some of our operations to various proxies, but those should be temporary setbacks at most." Aaron explained.
"And what do you plan on doing while we are in hiding?"
"Increasing production. More submarines, more aircraft, more Golems and IS suits, and more trained personnel to operate them. Our recruitment base is large enough that we can safely increase our submarine forces by almost fifty percent without stepping up recruitment, and if we do we may be able to double that. In addition, the recent battles against Them has proven that conventional aircraft still have their niche in warfare. This means expanding the air corps. As for-" The leader's voice interrupted him before he could continue.
"The enemy organization that has been plaguing us has officially been designated OpFor: Code Black. Please refer to them as such in further conversation." Aaron nodded and continued.
"Understood. As for our IS Corps, I believe that significant reforms are necessary. Previously, we have been taking a rather... Feudalistic approach to IS combat, with the daughters of high-ranking families being automatically given an IS and sent into combat after private training. While the IS Corps is large enough that the recruitment base does not need to be changed, I believe that training should be significantly altered to incorporate Golems."
"As I recall, your Golems performed somewhat poorly during the Gospel incident, and were unable to overwhelm an equal force of IS Academy Instructors, despite being better equipped in every way."
"Of course they under-performed! That fool Reikou didn't give them any time to learn! Golems aren't born with skills equivalent to a trained IS pilot! They have the instincts, true, but they need experience just like any other pilot. Therefore I intend to integrate them into our IS Corps' training. Due to their nature and ease of production, I intend to divide our IS forces into wings of eight Golems commanded by a single human pilot in battle."
"I see... However, you have failed to mention exactly how you will reveal our opponent to us. Do you have a plan? I recall your daughter was quite useful in narrowing down the possible location of the hostile base, but we were ultimately unable to determine its exact position. What is your plan to follow up on Squall's data?" Aaron sighed at that.
"While my little darling Squall should be praised for her initiative, she ultimately took a needless risk in her attempt to locate the enemy base. While it is indeed possible to locate it by a massed sweep of the area north of Japan, the result would be both wasteful and nearly impossible to keep secret. No, I intend to try a different, more subtle approach. After all, there is one exploitable link present that all the ex-generals in that room have missed, namely one Orimura Ichika. His actions today have shown that he has significant ties to Code Black, that is, if he isn't a full member of said organization."
"Oh? And what makes Reikou's middle child so important to your plans?" The leader asked, but from his tone of voice he already knew the answer.
"He is important because, unlike the fighter craft and patrol vessels that hit our submarines with depressing regularity, we know exactly where he is based, namely at IS Academy. I intend to insert one of our own into said academy as a representative candidate for one of our front corporations. Is that doable?" Aaron asked.
"Yes, I believe that we have several companies that are capable of doing just that, although I am curious as to whom you plan on sending on this mission."
"Well, now that you mention it, my younger daughter is about the right age for IS Academy, and procuring an IS for her is not a problem."
"So eager to volunteer her for this mission, are you? Are you, perhaps, trying to get her out of my reach? Are you afraid that I will use her as a method of control?"
"No, you already have perfect control over my actions. All it would take is a gun to the back of my head and I am perfectly pliable... I am a coward in that respect, after all. No, I volunteer my daughter because she is the only suitable operative whose capabilities are known to me. I could send one of twenty other girls into the Academy, but they are all unknown variables. I would much prefer to go with someone whom I know is suitable for the operation." Aaron replied, gesturing around him where he knew lurked invisible guardsmen.
"I see. I shall begin the necessary preparations to have your daughter transfer in to IS Academy at the start of the next semester. I trust you will have an IS Suit ready by then?"
"Of course."
"Then I will leave you to it. Pray that you don't disappoint me." At that, the hologram shimmered out of existence. A few seconds passed in silence, before a pair of barely audible hums indicated the two guardsmen behind him decloaking.
"I take it that you two are my new minders?" Aaron asked without looking back.
"Yes. As of this moment, it is our duty to act as your personal guards. We will protect you from any assassination attempt by any of your rivals, as well as from more external threats." One of the two men replied, his voice flat and modulated.
"I assume that, in the event that I displease our supreme leader, it will be your job to fill me up with lead?" Aaron asked, still not looking back.
"Very astute." The reply came back.
"Good. In the event that I do attract our leader's displeasure, I would like to request that you shoot me in the back of the head, right about here." Aaron indicated the spot on the back of his skull.
"If we are ordered to, that is what we will do."
"Good. Your presence is no longer necessary." At that, the guards cloaked once again, but Aaron did not doubt for a moment that they remained behind him, weapons at the ready.
Now aware of his new guard, Aaron made his way back to his personal housing area. Compared to the lavish housing complexes of some other families, the Meusel family's complex was small and spartan, the family preferring to work outside of it rather than play political games within. At the moment, it only had one other occupant, who met him just within the complex's entrance, an exuberant grin on her face.
"Daddy!" Lily Meusel cried out, wrapping her arms around her father, who returned the embrace wholeheartedly.
"It's good to see you too, Lily." He replied, the imagined stares of his new guards boring holes in the back of his neck.
"I assume that you have been keeping up with your studies and training?" He asked, releasing his daughter.
"Yep! You were so awesome today during the meeting! The other guys were all like 'Seize him!' and you were all like 'Nope! The tables have turned! All of you Die Now!'" Lily laughed.
"Yes. Now, I have something very important to tell you." Aaron said.
"What is it? Did you invent something new again? Or am I getting a new pet?" Aaron laughed at that.
"No, you're not getting a new pet. Speaking of which, have you been feeding Mr. Freckles?"
"Yup! Three times every day! Will I be able to take him on my mission?" Lily asked.
"No, you will have to leave him with your sister."
"I'll get to see Squall again?" Lily asked.
"Yes, you will meet up with her briefly before being deployed."
"So what's the mission?"
"You are to enter IS Academy and make contact with one Orimura Ichika. We have strong evidence that he is in regular contact with the secret organization designated OpFor: Code Black that has been attacking our submarine forces. Your job is to gather data about this organization, whether through monitoring his actions or via direct contact, I don't particularly care which at this moment. Construction of your IS suit will begin immediately. Do you understand your objective?"
"I do. What information should I focus on obtaining?" The exuberance was gone from Lily's voice when she spoke.
"Focus on obtaining the location of the Code Black base. If possible, I want information on the base's defenses and the equipment of the Code Black organization. You are welcome to try anything you wish, be it kidnapping and interrogation or seduction, I don't care so long as it gets results." Aaron replied.
"Understood. I will not disappoint you, father."
"I know you won't." Aaron ruffled his daughter's hair once, before turning and leaving the Meusel complex. He had a job to do, and the ever-present feeling of being watched meant that he had better get on it.
The next morning at IS Academy was a somber one. For once, nobody stared at Ichika as he ate breakfast, even the girls around him being too focused on their thoughts and meals to give him more than the occasional glance. All conversations in the room were quiet, spoken in whispers and interspersed with the occasional sob. Nonetheless, Ichika managed to catch a few snippets here and there.
"... Orimura-sensei was so brave up there..."
"... When do you think classes will resume?"
"I wish I was a representative candidate so I could have fought..."
"Where was Orimura-kun during all of this?" That last one was spoken in a familiar voice, and Ichika turned to see Kiyoka Aikawa sitting behind him.
"I don't know, I heard that he and all our year's representative candidates were called away on some secret mission before the attack..." Shizune Takatsuki replied, trailing off as she noticed Ichika's attention on her. Kiyoka followed her gaze to look him in the eye.
"Ichika-kun... Where were you during all this?" The magenta haired girl asked softly.
"It is as Shizune-san said. We were called away on a mission to subdue a rogue IS, and ended up being chased halfway across the Pacific by more than forty hostile IS suits."
"F-Forty?!" Both girls exclaimed, drawing curious glances from the other girls in the room.
"Yes, forty-three to be exact, and from what Yamada-sensei told me after we finally got back, they belonged to the same people that attacked the Academy. They were likely trying to steal our IS suits, but we managed to escape them in the end, although it looks like we got back too late..." Ichika replied softly, noticing the girls behind him shift uncomfortably at the mention of the previous day's battle.
"How..." Whatever Shizune was about to say was interrupted by Tatenashi making her presence known.
"The meeting room is ready, and... Am I interrupting something?" The student council president said, glancing at Shizune and Aikawa.
"Not at all. Lead the way." Ichika replied, standing up and motioning to the rest of the girls at the table to follow him.
"Where are you going?" Shizune asked as they grabbed their things.
"We need to discuss something... In private." Ichika replied as he turned to leave.
The group quickly filed out of the cafeteria, soon leaving the building altogether. The air was just the tiniest bit chilly, letting Ichika know that fall was starting to come to an end.
"What room did you pick out?" Ichika asked as they approached the dormitories, heading around to the side of the building.
"You'll see." Tatenashi had her trademark mischievous smirk on as she said that.
Finally, the group stopped at a small door in the side of the dorm building wall.
"What's this?" Ichika asked as Tatenashi swiped a card and opened the door.
"Maintenance corridors. It's how the building's technicians and maintenance staff get around. As the student council president, I have access to them so long as I do not damage anything. They make great shortcuts, especially once you memorize them. You can get pretty much anywhere on campus through these, and aside from the occasional technician, you won't meet anyone else, especially in the dorm building, as there is rather little to maintain here in comparison to, say, the IS Arenas." Tatenashi explained as she entered, the rest of the group filing in behind her, closing the door behind them. The corridors were dim, lit only by the occasional blue light as Tatenashi led the rest of the group through them, navigating the labyrinth with a practiced ease.
"Does that passageway over there lead to my room?" Ichika asked a short while later, pointing to one particular exit.
"Somewhere near it, yeah. How did you know?" Tatenashi asked.
"Just a hunch." Ichika replied, looking over the stacks of spare doors that lay beside the exit, each one having a large 1025 on it.
"We're almost there now." Tatenashi said, and true to her word, she soon stopped at a hatch in the floor. Beside the hatch was a small control panel, with a few ordinary knobs and switches on it. Walking up to it, Tatenashi quickly turned flipped the switch marked Window Polarization to 'On', and then turned the knob marked 'Water Temperature'.
"Now, while the following room will be easy for Ichika-kun to get into, the rest of you will have to take the maintenance corridors to get in." Tatenashi continued, walking away from the panel and opening the hatch, allowing a pleasant golden light into the dark corridor. The blue haired girl then dropped down into the room below, and Ichika moved to follow, leaping down and taking a look at the room that Tatenashi had chosen as their meeting place.
"Tatenashi..." He began as he quickly got clear, allowing Charlotte to follow him down into the room.
"Why are we in the Boys' Large Bath?" Charlotte finished his question as she too looked around the room.
"A number of reasons." Tatenashi explained as Cecilia and Houki dropped into the room, the two girls looking rather scandalized as they took in their surroundings.
"Such as?" Laura asked as she followed Rin and Kanzashi into the large room, the hatch sliding shut behind her.
"Firstly, it's very big, and thanks to its status as a bath, lacks cameras. In addition, the windows can be polarized to prevent visual eavesdropping, and is soundproof enough that nobody will hear us talking in here. Plus, as it's a Boys' bath and this is an almost exclusively female school, nobody else will come here. In addition, once the water temperature has been reduced to the point that the room no longer gets all fogged up, it is actually rather comfortable."
"Is that all? Given how difficult it is to get into for anyone who isn't me, there has to be more than that." Ichika commented.
"Yes, there is. First-off, as the room's only user, you are free to request any alterations to it that you wish, and there is plenty of room for improvement here, not to mention that with the Student Council President's backing pretty much any request you have will be almost guaranteed to go through without issue." Tatenashi paused for a moment, before nonchalantly starting to strip off her clothing, revealing a rather skimpy light blue swimsuit underneath. Winking at Ichika, she then walked into the water, sighing as she sank into the warm water of the bath.
"Finally, I do believe that it is a rather relaxing place, and given the nature of what we will be discussing in here, being able to relax is rather important, right?" Tatenashi smirked as she arched her back beneath the water, stretching in an almost catlike manner.
"Just what are you playing at Tatenashi? This is a serious matter we are about to discuss!" Ichika demanded in reply, the rest of the girls present nodding in agreement, and Tatenashi sighed in response from where she lay in the water.
"All jokes aside, I do believe that this is the best place for us to discuss things pertaining to the Organization. Aside from you, nobody, neither students nor staff, are allowed in here, and the lack of security cameras and relative soundproofing means that this place is perfect for holding clandestine meetings. The giant hot tub is just a bonus." Tatenashi replied, and after a few moments, Ichika shook his head.
"Fine. We will meet here. I will have a table and some chairs installed in here as soon as possible. Until then, we will just have to stand." Ichika replied, leaning back against the wall.
"Aww, won't you come join me? The water's perfect!" Tatenashi called out.
"I would rather not derail this meeting before it has even begun, so no." Ichika replied, before turning to the rest of the group, the girls all looking at him in anticipation.
"Now then, let's get down to business." He spoke, his words marking the start of the first of many meetings that would take place in the large yet underused bath.
A/N: And it's finally done! While I'm not particularly fond of the very first scene in this chapter, I do believe that this particular update has gotten better as it went on. With this chapter completed, the first season of Infinite Stratos has been officially finished with, and soon the second season will begin. I'm thinking three interim chapters at most, before starting on the events of Season 2, albeit with some rather significant deviations culminating in PLOT! Yay! During the interim I intend to focus more on the Organization as a whole, although Ichika and the rest of STS-01 will make a few appearances here and there. Now that that's been said, time for some comments on the chapter as a whole.
Firstly, when calculating the explosive power of antimatter, rather than just pulling a figure out of my ass like I did with A Special Task (Where 1 molecule of Antimatter = spaceship killer) , I looked online, and the source I used, while its veracity is somewhat dubious, places a single kilogram of antimatter at almost 43 megatons of TNT, which rivals the Russian Tsar Bomba (50 megatons) in terms of explosive power. I will be using this source in the future, just in case I need to blow something up with Antimatter.
Next up is the re-coring of the IS suits, specifically the Schwarzer Regen. I do not intend to just gloss over the fact that such a critical alteration has been made to Laura's IS, and indeed the Regen's re-coring will be brought up in the future. As for the other IS suits, as their ownership is somewhat more private, (with the exception of the ShenLong) their modifications will be much easier to conceal, and even the ShenLong, while it is definitely owned by the PLA, as evidenced by Rin mentioning that she had undergone marksmanship training in the OVA, said IS suit's modifications can likely be kept secret by a combination of government unwillingness to reveal the existence of such a glaring flaw in their IS suits' security and some shady political maneuvers on the Organization's part.
In addition to the above, I really enjoyed overturning the regular 'Useless Anime Armchair General' trope during Dr. Meusel's coup, and writing in the Leader's scene was an added bonus for me. As for who the Leader is, I already have that planned out, although I won't be telling you the truth any time soon! MWAHAHAHAHA! Finally, the inclusion of Lily Meusel into the story will mean creating a real threat to Ichika's life, as well as the Organization's secrecy as a whole. The fact that Charlotte was able to sneak in as a member of the opposite gender means that it would be possible for her to enter IS Academy as a corporate representative with a false background. I hope you all like my initial portrayal of her, and similarly look forward to her inclusion into the drama that is ISAc.
Finally, regarding Agent Orimura: The Declassified Files, the upcoming reforms of the Phantom Task Armed Forces means that the TDF entry/entries for Phantom Task will likely be coming out before Season 2 starts in-fic. I hope you all have enjoyed the fic so far, and that you continue to enjoy future updates. Until next time!