**To be honest I didn't think this crossover would get more than 60 follows/favorites. Thank you all so much for the support!**
Chapter 8 another Transfer Student?
**\- IS Academy, Room 1025, Night –**
Ichika and his new male roommate, the French transfer student Charles sat at the desk in front of their beds enjoying their talk, company and a green tea that was steaming out of the cups. They had the chairs positioned sideways so they could face each other while they sat.
"Ha~h," Ichika exhaled with relaxation sitting with one band on the back of his chair. "Having guy time is important. It's the only time I can be myself."
Charles finished a sip of his warm tea and placed it down on the desk, "This tea is very different from black tea. It almost tastes strange. But it's good nonetheless." After Charles finished his comment Ichika picked up his cup of steaming tea and took a drink in a manner which seemed like he was drinking a can of fizzy drink. "I heard you always practice IS piloting after school. Is that true?"
Ichika removed the tea from his mouth, "Yeah, since I'm behind everyone else. Dart also trains after school in his personal IS, but he does his training with Cecilia in a different arena."
"I see. Can I join you, Ichika?" Charles asked happily, "I have a personal unit, so I think I can be of help to you."
"Yeah, please."
"Sure, count on me." Charles smiled as he nodded once enthusiastically.
**\- Class 1-1, Next Day –**
The next morning inside of Class 1-1, the female students had their mouths open a little from the sight they had before them. It was in the form of another transfer student, but female this time. The students couldn't believe they were getting transfers in a small amount of days. First it was Dart some time ago, then Charles yesterday and now this student from Germany.
This short student has long silver hair reaching her thighs and she looked like the kind of student not to pester with her scary, emotionless face and black eye patch covering her left eye. She had her eyes closed at the moment which made her more unapproachable.
Miss Yamada felt the same way as her students. She was also filled with shock introducing a new student, despite getting one just yesterday. "S-So, we have more happy news today. We have another transfer student joining us." A holographic board appeared on the black board introducing this girl as Laura Bodewig. "She's a transfer student from Germany, Laura Bodewig." The female students began to comment softly.
"What's going on?"
"Transfer students two days in a row?"
"Isn't it strange?"
"S-Settle down, everyone," Miss Yamada tried to get some order within the class. "The introduction isn't over yet."
Chifuyu who stood at the front right of the class with her arms folded, gazed to Laura unimpressed. "Introduce yourself, Laura."
Laura broke her silence and opened her dark red eye, momentarily staring to Chifuyu. "Yes, Instructor."
'Instructor?' Ichika thought to himself bewilderingly, 'So she's from the time Chifuyu was in Germany.'
Laura looked back to the class and stood at attention, tapping her heels together giving out a clue she's from military. "I'm Laura Bodewig."
A few seconds of silence passed.
"Is…that all?"
"That is all." She turned her gaze from the class to one student in particular – Ichika. Her hate was growing from staring at him. "You," she said loathingly keeping her stoic face. She walked off the step and approached Ichika's desk.
*Slap*
The class fell silent with one sudden action. Laura backhanded Ichika across his right cheek, leaving a red slap mark. The entire class was speechless witnessing assault. But one boy became enraged, provoking him to forcefully stand up from his seat and sent his chair back loudly. He remembered the first day he was trapped in this world, where that bitch bullied a male for no reason.
"Dart?" Cecilia softly asked with worry quickly looking up to her enraged friend.
"Calm down, Silver!" Chifuyu yelled ordering Dart to stand down.
"Are you seriously going to let this woman get away with an assault crime?!" Dart shot back fumingly. "She just hit someone for no reason and yet you're going to allow it?!"
"I said calm down! I'll deal with her later!" Chifuyu stood her ground against the enraged student. Dart groaned, bearing his white teeth and sat back down, but not without telling her he's still not happy about it by sitting down loudly.
"I will not approve of you. I will never recognize you as her younger sister," Laura spat with all her denial she had at Ichika, ignoring the drama caused by Dart.
**\- 1st Period, Arena 3 -**
After the tension caused in the homeroom class cooled down following Laura's unexplained strike upon Ichika, everyone from class 1-1 and 1-2 was in Arena 3 having an unsupervised IS practical lesson. Students who didn't own a personal IS stood in two lines facing each other. They were practicing sword strikes like the samurai used to do while taking one step back and forth. To synch their timing they shouted "one, two" over again.
While the non-personal students had the ideal training regimen, the ones who had a personal IS had it otherwise.
"You go slash, and then whack, smack from the side!" Houki made sound effects whilst she punched her arms through the air, giving Ichika who was in his personal IS some tips to fighting.
"Don't you get the gist of it? Feel it. Huh?! Why don't you, you moron?!" Ling wasn't the best IS teacher. Like Houki she was speaking nonsense.
"I'll be frank…" Ichika said softly ready to spill the truth. "I don't understand anything you two are saying!" He flailed his arms making his point. The advice they were giving him was totally incomprehensible. It was like little kids trying to explain rocket science to an adult.
"Why don't you?"
"Pay attention!"
Houki and Ling complained.
"Heh, I feel sorry for Ichika." Dart eavesdropped on their little boggle on advice.
He and Cecilia stood near the center, far away from Ichika and the rest as Dart was undergoing shooting training supervised by the sniper IS user, Cecilia. On the opposite side of the field where everyone was, was a shooting range. Spread apart on different levels of height was target markers with small hexagonal pieces. Spot on the middle was a blue hexagon worth 100 points, the six green hexagons around the center was worth 75 points, 12 yellow hexagons around them were worth 50 points and two red hexagons on both sides was 25 points.
Doing this target practice killed two birds with one stone. Dart could better his accuracy of his aim and vent out his anger on Laura by imagining he was shooting her IS.
Dart and Cecilia were both in their respective IS. The Build Banshee was armed with its beam magnum and the Blue Tears was left unarmed because it wasn't needed. Since the beam magnum would be held with one hand, Dart held it like so.
"I think you'll have better aim if you held your rifle with two hands instead of one," Cecilia recommended.
"I'd like to get used to firing a gun with one hand. After all I need to focus on the aim of my VN (Vibration Nails)." Dart replied back taking his aim at the target straight at the center of the targets and in front of him. His arm was wobbly. Maybe using two hands would be easier, but he needed one-handed aim practice. The beam magnum hummed up for a second, creating a ball of plasma by the barrel.
**Pew**
Dart shot a plasma bolt at the target. It hit one of the 50 points, shattering it like glass upon impact.
"Nice shot!' She complimented before asking something. "So um, would you like to tell me what happened this morning?" Cecilia asked with caution unaware if Dart was still upset about this morning when Laura slapped Ichika. If it was a problem then talking it out was the best way to cure it.
Dart lowered his beam magnum and looked at Cecilia on his right. "I'll tell you later on tonight when we're in our rooms."
"Look, look. Orimura and Dunois are going to have a match," a female classmate said behind Dart and Cecilia grabbing their attention.
The two other boys were staring off at each other like a standoff. Both were in their respective IS. Ichika in his Byakushiki and Charles in his custom third generation Raphael Revive. Charles's IS was similar to the design of the IS Maya Yamada used to wreck Cecilia and Ling, but his was orange and used a sniper rifle and dual submachine guns over a grenade launcher.
"Dunois's unit is a Raphael Revive, right?"
"France's second generation IS!"
"Are you ready, Ichika?" Dunois asked his sparring partner with a look on his face.
"I guess we can sit back and watch this spar," Dart spoke taking his attention away from the target practice and observed this fight closely in case he was going to enter a fight against Charles in the near future. He already knew Ichika's preferred fighting style so it was good to know Charles's one too.
"I guess…" Cecilia muttered in agreement.
Ichika got into a fighting stance, wielding his sword in front of him like a samurai. "Sure," he replied eager to rest out Charles's IS. He made the first move by charging towards the incoming IS. Charles blocked the sword strike with a shield. Still with his orange shield raised, he tried to lunge a drill-like weapon in his right hand which was known as a Shield Penetrator. Ichika blocked the strike and sliced forward, missing its target as Charles took to the skies.
He began to pursue.
Turning around and equipping a green submachine gun, Charles began to spray bullets downwards to Ichika who raised his left arm up and projected a shield. Ichika tried to close the gap; however Charles kept his distance and moved around in a circle.
It began to look like it was some sort of dance routine instead of a fight.
After spinning around in circles facing each other, Ichika charged forward and slashed down, but Charles was quick on the reaction and flew over Ichika to evade the strike. Now behind the sword wielder, he changed weapons to a sniper rifle and took aim while he was upside down. Ichika turned around and raised his shields again.
**Pew**
Charles shot once at Ichika, flipping the right side up and continuing the suppressing fire with shot after shot. Ichika charged forwards with his shield raised, being knocked back slightly for each shot. As he closed in on the gap, his energy shields were rapidly decreasing to zero.
"You lost simply because you don't understand characteristics of long-range weapons." Charles tutored while the two boys stood on the launch bay after the spar.
"I think I do, but…" Ichika folded his arms and looked down deep in thought.
"Your Byakushiki doesn't have an equalizer, right?" Charles asked
"No. Apparently the bus-slots are all taken." Ichika answered
"I'm guessing that's because they're allocating more power to your One-off ability." Charles concluded as 'he' looked back at the screen showing the Byakushiki's systems.
"One-off?" Ichika parroted
"It's a natural ability that manifests when the pilot and IS are in optical sync. Perhaps the Reiryaku Byakuya would be the Byakushiki's." Charles explained.
"I get it. You're explanation is much easier," Ichika complimented. Little did he know Houki and Ling crept up on the two boys getting along while they hid from sight on the launch bay.
"Humph, and you don't listen to my advice, eh?"
"I lectured you so clearly, too."
Houki and Ling further complained and blamed Ichika for not listening to their advice when clearly it wasn't advice.
"But Reiryaku Byakuya is an insane attack that even uses shield energy for offence," Ichika added bringing up an image on his IS HUD during the Class Representative match.
Charles brought his fist to his chin in thought, "The same ability your sister used, right?" He looked at Ichika dropping his thinking posture, "Just because you're siblings doesn't mean you can use the same attack effortlessly. What if you tried long-range weapons and save yourself the energy shield drain of Reiryaku Byakuya"
"I'll give it a try."
The two then made it back down to the arena floor to the middle of the arena where they stood to the right of Dart and Cecilia who went back to range practice.
A new shooting target appeared in front of Ichika and Charles. The French lad handed his sniper rifle over to Ichika so he could lend it.
"Let's practice a little."
"I thought I couldn't use other people's equipment."
"Usually. But when the owner disables the protection, every registered person can use it."
"Really?" Ichika accepted the borrowed sniper rifle and took a concentrated aim at the appeared target, having the blue hexagon square in his sights though the scope. With some help he had Charles behind him holding his arms to steady his aim. "Is this the right stance?"
"Let's see…" Charles moved Ichika's arms up a bit to get a better shot. "Tighten your arm. Move your left arm here. Understand?"
"Okay," Ichika closed his left eye and looked through the scope.
The way how the two boys looked close up like a pair of lovers, it started to bug the Hell out of Ling and Houki.
"Hey, aren't those two getting along too well?" Ling moaned with her fists on her waists. She was so uncomfortable at this sight she almost her had fists dig into her skin.
**Pew, Pew, Pew, Pew, Pew**
Ichika shot five targets getting two 75s and three 50s, getting a score of 300.
"Ooh," Ichika was amazed at himself and how the sniper rifle fired. He held the rifle upwards as Charles released his helping grip on his arms.
"How as it?"
"Well, how should I put it… it was fast, I guess."
Suddenly, an unwanted appearance showed itself. It was a black IS that stood on the launch bay closest to Ichika and Charles.
"Hey, look over there." One of the girls pointed out. Everyone turned their attention to what the girl was talking about. To the hatred of Dart, it was Laura's personal IS. The easy to spot feature of it was the massive black cannon stored on the right shoulder, like the Tallgeese series has.
"No way! It's Germany's third generation model."
"I heard it was still undergoing trials there."
"Laura Bodewig," Dart hissed with a frown.
"What? So that's her? Germany's national representative candidate who slapped Ichika?" Ling turned her uncomfortable feelings to hatred just like Dart.
"Orimura Ichika," Laura said without emotion staring down at him from above.
"What?" The called boy asked returning the sniper to Charles, keeping his eyes on the German girl.
"I heard you possessed a personal unit, as well. I will get to my point. Fight against me," she declared stoically.
"No, I don't have a reason to." He replied.
"You may not, but I do."
"It doesn't have to be this moment, does it? The Class League Match's coming up soon. Can't we wait until then?"
"Then," she brought up her right shoulder cannon, extending the barrel and aimed at Ichika. It heated up and shot a shell. Dart was about to move to defense, however Charles was closer to Ichika and armed his shield moving in front of Ichika. The shell rebounded from the shield and into the sky like a flare.
The steel shell dropped from the launch bay and to the ground, bouncing twice before rolling briefly.
"Charles!" Ichika said gratefully.
"Throwing a gauntlet like that… Looks like Germans have short tempers." Charles was prepared to throw down equipping a sniper in one hand and a submachine gun in the other.
"A second generation model made in France dares to stand before me?" Laura mocked.
"Yeah, since it's more likely to work than a German third generation model who knows when will be fit for mass production."
Laura did not like that smart comment at all, frowning even more.
[You guys! What are you doing?!] A female over the voice comms interfered with the intense moment.
Obeying the warning, Laura stood down. "I shall stand down today." She deactivated her IS and landed on the ground from the height. And then she took a walk away, leaving everyone wondering what beef she has with Ichika.
**\- After School -**
Ichika walked alone back to his dorm with the sun setting over the sea behind him after Charles went back ahead of him. He carried his bag over his right shoulder as he recalled what occurred this morning.
He was backhanded by Laura and she said something that got him wondering what on earth she meant. "I will not approve you. I will never recognize you as her younger brother."
He placed his left hand over his right check where the slap hit. What did he do to her in the past to make her this hostile to him? They never met before so the answer to this mystery doesn't make sense.
He walked further until he heard said girl talking by the pond, "Answer me, Instructor! What are you doing in a place like this?!" Ichika dropped his hand and turned to the direction Laura was talking in. But he heard another voice.
It was his older sister.
"Don't make me repeat myself."
When Ichika spotted Chifuyu was talking with Laura, he was taking a risk in eavesdropping on them and hiding behind the tree in the shade. Chifuyu would probably kill him for being nosey, but if this conversation led to why Laura hates him so then it'll be worth it.
"I have duties to fulfill. That is all."
"What duty do you have on this Far East Island? Please, Instructor. Please instruct us in Germany again! Not even half of your potential is put to good use here!"
"Oh?"
"Besides, students at this school are not worthy of your instruction! They have no sense of danger and think of IS as fashion statements or something. As for you to devote your time to people like that…"
"Leave it at that, little runt…" No matter how begging Laura was for Chifuyu to go back to Germany, she wouldn't listen to her cries. Laura was taken aback being called a runt. "You've become an important person in the short time I haven't seen you, eh? Do you think you're some sort of "chosen one" as the age o fifteen?"
"I-I'm…" Laura retorted placing her hand heavily on her chest.
"Go back to the dorm. I'm busy."
"Tsk," Laura looked distraught like her heart had been broken. Without a word she ran off, upset and shedding no tears. She was gone and out of sight. But Chifuyu wasn't done yet.
"Boy!" She yelled talking about the shocked Ichika. "Eavesdropping, are you? I don't appreciate strange fetishes like that." Welp, Ichika was in deep shit now.
"WH-What are you thinking, Chifuyu?!" Ichika came out of hiding behind the tree and walked into the open.
"Call me Miss Orimura at school you twit." She said as she bonked him on the head with her note board.
"S-Sorry," he surrendered in response.
She glared at her younger brother, sternly "If you have some time to waste, then get some practice in. At this rate, you'll end lose your first match in the tournament at the end of the month."
"I know."
"Okay then," Chifuyu began to walk away but was stopped three steps after by her brother who asked her to wait. He wanted to get some answers about this morning and what she meant by disapproving being her brother.
"Earlier, what Laura was saying... She said she wouldn't approve of me being your brother. Is it because of how you missed becoming champion for a second time because of me?"
"It's in the past. You don't have to dwell on it. See you," Chifuyu bid goodbye walking away from an idle Ichika and towards the dorm area.
Years ago during the second Mondo Grosso, the IS World Championship, Ichika was kidnapped by strange people for no reason. He was tied up in an unknown location until Chifuyu came to rescue him, at the cost of forfeiting the finals and missed becoming a consecutive champion in two Mondo Grosso's in a row. As repayment for the German military's help in tipping of his location, she had to become an instructor to the German Army IS Force for a little over a year.
Ichika was burdened heavily by this event. If he weren't so weak back then, Chifuyu could have been a two-time champion and it was his fault.
**\- Room 1025 –**
"I'm back," Ichika entered through the door to his room as he heard the shower running. So that meant Charles was back. Ichika walked over to the desk and placed his bag on it and then walked backwards to the foot of his bed. He sat down on his bed and sighed, letting his body relax placing his hands on the bed sheet.
"Oh yeah," Ichika just remembered something. He walked over to the cupboard with towels inside of it. He reached for a pink shampoo bottle with a pump lid. He then knocked twice on the door loudly to make sure Charles heard it and entered through. "Charles, the body soap's out right. Here's a place-"
The water stopped and the glass sliding door opened to reveal a speechless sight. Charles was in his…actually her birthday suit. Her breasts and private area was in full view. Charles instantly noticed her current wear and turned to her side instantly with a short jump ad squeal, covering her breasts and privates and her cheeks with an embarrassed blush.
Like a zombie he slowly placed the bottle of shampoo on the bathroom bench. "Here's the shampoo," he said traumatized.
"Yeah…thanks…"
Ichika turned around and automatically walked out of the bathroom, closing the door behind him. He was so speechless and frozen that he couldn't move his eyes or head at all, just walk automatically.
"Charles…is…a girl…"
**\- Cafeteria -**
Dart and Cecilia sat alone in one of the corner stalls of the cafeteria enjoying their dinner. They were digging into Western food, a butter chicken tikka masala for Dart and bangers and mash (mash potatoes and sausage) for Cecilia.
Cecilia swallowed a cut up piece of sausage and ceased eating temporarily. Since they were in private, or with fewer people around she could get the answer to why Dart was so enraged this morning.
"Excuse me, Dart. Are you okay to talk about this morning?"
Dart chewed the spoonful of rice and butter curry he had in his mouth while he stared at Cecilia with his eyes. He swallowed his food and placed his spoon on his plate, giving Cecilia his full attention.
"I am. It's no secret about this world's society that females dominate over men with an iron fist." He began with a serious tone. "Females harass men and everyone bats an eye, ignoring that the equality scale has been thrown out of the window. I just snapped when that bitch slapped an innocent man for no reason and wasn't punished on the spot. You see…before I came to the IS Academy I was wondering in the streets of this city when I saw a woman harassing an innocent man because she claimed he got in her way. I was pissed off because the male bystanders didn't help and the most of the females just smirked, like they enjoyed the sight. When she walked off I caught up to her and stood up to her. That's when she used her IS to beat me up for standing up to her, I activated my IS and she fled."
"Dart…" She became concerned hearing all that. "Were you hurt badly by that witch?!" She was now feeling defensive with her look of disapprovement. If she saw this woman who hurt Dart she would likely tear her apart.
"Only suffered a broken nose and a few bruises on my stomach. They're both healed though." He went back to eating his butter chicken peacefully.
"She better stay out of our way on our date this weekend, or else she'll feel the wrath of Cecilia Alcott for hurting my darling!" She said to herself filled with the promise of vengeance.
"Let it go, Cecilia," Dart continued to chew his food with his eyes closed. "What's done is done and she's not a problem anymore. It's Laura. She has the guts to transfer into our class and think she can pick a fight with Ichika, someone she just met. I'll have to pay her back for Ichika if I fight against her in the upcoming tournament."
**\- Room 1025 -**
"…"
"…"
Ichika and Charles kept silent from the awkwardness filling the room. Ichika sat at the foot of his bed again with Charles who was out of the shower and now dressed in a jogging suit on her bed, drying her wet hair with a towel. Neither one felt comfortable at the moment to speak to each other.
A minute of silence continued until Ichika was the first one to speak.
"So…do you want to tell me why you dressed up as a guy?"
"Yeah," Charles replied softly feeling some uncomfortable emotions. "You see….it was the Dunois Company President's idea… That man gave me the order directly."
"Order?" Ichika looked to his left, "He's your father, isn't he? Then why-"
"Ichika…I'm…a bastard child." She informed sadly. Ichika widened his eyes paying more attention to her. "Two years ago, my mother passed away, and it was the first time I heard of my father. When I was tested, I had a very high aptitude for piloting an IS. So I became the informant test pilot for Dunois Company. Come to think of it, I've only met my father twice… The first when they called me from my home…it's a bitter memory. I was confronted by his wife. And called the "daughter" of a "thieving bitch…" It hurt pretty bad…" She tried to giggle if off but it was easy to tell she was hurt on the inside like a heart-breaking memory. "Although my mother told me well about such events I was still at a loss at the time. Sometime later…the Dunois Company went through a management crisis."
"Eh?" Ichika stood up and walked around to the left side of his bed so he faced Charles straight on. "But isn't Dunois like, number 3 when it comes to mass-produced IS?"
"Not really. After all, the Revive is still a second-generation unit. And IS development costs a lot of money… In our case, the revival cost us almost of our government's funding." Charles also moved from the foot of her bed to the right side and faced Ichika, hanging her towel around her neck once her hair was dry. "Currently, the European Union is executing a unified strategic defense plan. They're currently in the middle of selecting the next main force for this "Ignition plan". Hard-liners who want third-gen units to be the main force want France to be removed from the plan altogether. In other words, France either had to come out with a third-gen unit immediately or quit altogether. So the Dunois Company set out to develop a third-gen unit. But since we were the last ones to enter the second-gen market, we lacked data and time."
"All this info is hard to take in, but…what's all this got to do with you dressing as a male?" Ichika wondered placing his finger on his chin.
"It's simple. It was all a ruse. As a male student it would be easier to approach Orimura Ichika and much easier to sample data from him…was the plan."
Ichika widened his eyes, "That's…!"
"Yes. I was instructed to steal data from your Byakushiki…by that man, my father."
So the reason why she came here was now in full light. Charles was ordered to come to the academy and attempt to steal Ichika's IS data so France could begin to develop third-gen units.
"Ah, well, that's my story…" she finished with some relief and she looked somewhat happy to get it off her chest. "I'm sorry for tricking you and Dart all this time. Talking to you has cheered me up a bit. The company will go bankrupt no doubt, and I will probably be deported back to France. Ah, well."
"Are you alright with it?" Ichika inquired seriously giving her a stern look. "Are you really okay with that?"
Charles sighed and pointed her head down to the floor closing her eyes. Since her jig is up, no matter what happens now she won't care about. "I…don't really care. I didn't choose this and I don't care. So whatever."
"Don't you give me that "whatever" crap to me and this bastard calls himself your "father"!" Ichika stood up with exclamation. Charles looked up with alert staring into his eyes. "Even if it's true that he's the reason you're here, it doesn't mean he can do just whatever he wants with you like a damn pawn! Everyone should live the life they want to and no one, not even your parents has any right to deny you that!"
"Ichika…why are you…?" She felt comforted and heartfelt. Ichika's probably the only person in the world except her mother who genuinely cares about her.
"Chifuyu and I were disowned by our parents. My older sister is my only family now. That's why if my father came to me with the same kind of command, I would never be able to forgive him."
"…Yeah, that's right. You're right, Ichika. But…I'm really…"
"Article of 21 of the academy's charter states that each and every student must belong to no state entity as long as they're enrolled here. If the student does not agree to it, then no external intervention shall be permitted. You'll have three years to find a solution to your problems. In other words, it's fine if you stay here for now. Charles, I'm here for you."
Charles found an incoming blush on her speechless face, "Ichika…" She smiled gleefully and felt much safer and cared for. "Thank you."