Greetings, people! Here is the 3rd chapter, took a while to write it, but now it's here.
For those who wrote a review:
ZenithTempest: I'm writing my stories mostly when I'm on duty, and it's a bit hard to write without mistakes when your boss constantly hanging around, trust me. As for beta… Finding beta who'd read so big chapters isn't easy, especially when it's I.S. franchisee, not something super-popular.
DarkBladerZX, Guest x3, Imperial-samaB, Telron, DanteNaru, killjoytommy, luffyxnicorobin, Luo Hao, ArthurMacGuffin: Thanks for waiting people, here's the chapter.
Chapter III – Just the Beginning
…
May 21th, 10:21 AM
On the day of the 'tournament', the matches between first-grade students would be held at the 2nd arena. Matches' schedule has already been decided: first match would be none other than the match between Huang Lingyin (class 1-2) and Orimura Ichika (class 1-1). Second match will be between Sarashiki Kanzashi (class 1-4) and Romy Bentham (class 1-3), and final will be between the winners of those two matches, obviously.
Rumors about the upcoming battle between freshmen have been spreading like a wildfire, so there was not a single empty seat in the stands. The sidewalks also were completely filled with students, and there were even people who can't enter the place, so they were watching the match on the broadcast screens.
Apparently, there were even some second years who got the bright idea to sell "reserved seats" in the stands. Chifuyu put a stop to that a few days ago. According to rumors, the mastermind was confined to her dorm room for three days.
'Quite ironic, there are 2nd and 3rd year students also here, don't they have to watch their own classmates fighting on 3rd and 4th arenas?' Ichika thought, watching at the stands. Not that he was bothered by that situation, but his popularity haven't lessened even a bit.
Rin was hovering silently in front of Ichika, waiting for the match to begin. Her I.S. is called Shenlong. Like the Blue Tears, Shenlong possessed primary and secondary weapons. Two swords were primary weapons, and those cannons on both shoulders, which looked like they can attack on their own, were secondary weapons. Without deep analysis it was obvious that Rin's I.S. was an assault, power-type unit. [Shenlong is a chinse reading of its name's kanjis, if you read them on Japanese, it will by Kōryū, both words mean Armored Dragon].
"Contestants, please move to the designated positions," Ichika heard the announcement.
Now both I.S. units were hovering in mid-air, about 70 yards away from each other. Due to Ichika's closed helmet, it wasn't possible to see his face expression, as he silently was waiting for match to begin. Rin's 'helmet' looked more like a tiara, so her face was completely visible, and her face expression seemed quite confident. That competitive smirk was well known to Ichika, but she doesn't seem to hold any negative emotions. [Because, just like nowadays, in his past Ichika always was quite careful with words and especially with promises, so there were no ambiguous promises between the two].
"Ichika, if you ask me to be gentle now, I'll reduce the amount of pain you're about to experience!" Rin opened a communication channel to Ichika. Mocking the opponent before battle was one of Rin's bad habits, Ichika was well aware about that when the time when he was a football team's captain and Rin was in cheerleaders' team.
Ichika, however, was immune to taunts. "Watch carefully, Rin," He replied emotionlessly, "You're about to learn what is absolute defeat." This battle won't be the same as battle against Cecilia, because this time Ichika has no interest in anything, concerning Rin's I.S. unit. Shenlong was a 3rd generation unit, designed for melee and close-to-middle range battle, and virtually Ichika couldn't get anything really useful from its operating data. As such, he was intending to defeat Rin as quickly as possible and be done with it.
"A fair warning: the I.S. defense shield isn't perfect. It's possible for an attack to break through the defensive shield and damage the suit," Rin warned with malicious smile. That wasn't an idle threat, actually, it's a known fact. There's an attack, sometimes called the "final weapon", that can directly damage the I.S. pilot. Of course, it's against the rules, as it's dangerous. "It's possible to wreck the entire suit without killing the pilot," Rin couldn't settle down.
"How cute…" Ichika replied indifferently, "You're actually telling me about how the I.S. works…?" His words sounded as if he's quite bored.
The sound of the buzzer announced the beginning of the match, and Rin and Ichika charged at each other. Ichika already deployed Ragnarök, which quickly switched into Arbiter form – three-barreled shotgun. Ichika immediately pulled the trigger, but Rin seemingly was expecting that. She spent several days observing Ichika's training with Houki and Cecilia, and she was well aware of Ragnarök's shape-shift capability. She dived, avoiding plasma charge.
However, using his eyes, Ichika foresaw her evasive maneuver. He couldn't land a direct hit, but plasma charge exploded right above Rin's head. Girl's body was blown downward by shockwave, induced by plasma blast. She felt herself starting to black out, but her I.S. immediately forced her back to consciousness. "Defensive armor pierced. Damage: 37. Shield damage: 104. Shield Energy remaining: 596. Actual damage assessment: Low." Rin heard her I.S. report.
"That was what you'd call a jab," Ichika noted.
'What the hell happened just now?!' Rin was slightly shocked. 'Timing for my maneuver was perfect, how could he know that I was going to evade his attack that way?!'
"You're disappointing me, Rin," Ichika said.
"Don't get cocky!" She shouted in frustration. The ball-like things hovering at Rin's shoulders, which were looking like shoulder guards, split open, preparing to fire.
However, Ichika's shotgun quickly split in half, shape-shifting into dual plasma pistols, Ebony and Ivory. He quickly shot from both pistols, and two plasma blasts flashed in the middle between him and Rin.
"What was that...?" Houki asked as she was watching the live broadcast from the arena. For some reason, she and Cecilia were allowed to watch the match together with Maya and Chifuyu from the control room.
"Those are called 'Impact Cannons'. They compress air into the barrel, and the resulting shockwave fires out like a cannon…" Maya Yamada explained.
"Yes, like my Blue Tears, it's a 3rd generation machine," Cecilia noted.
"This is truly an advanced weapon," Maya continued. "Since that's compressed air, charges are invisible for human's eyes, and it seems there's no restrictions on the angle the bullet is fired…"
"But it seems like Ichika's seeing these bullets…" Houki said. "Look, he's shooting them down with his pistols!"
"It stands to reason," Chifuyu said. Everyone looked at her so she got to explain. "Air inside this arena isn't filtered, it's just a usual atmospheric air. Atmospheric air contains dust and water vapor, and when she compresses air, he sees the increase of dust and vapor concentration. In other words, for him those invisible bullets are visible. Besides, since she uses bullets made of compressed air, they have a mass, which means that those cannons aren't completely recoilless. Those small PIC [Passive Inertia Canceller] stabilizers on her shoulderpads needs to compensate that recoil; Orimura can easily foresee the approximate direction of incoming shot by observing those stabilizers…"
Maya, Houki and Cecilia again were looking at Chifuyu with their mouths opened, and not that they were astonished by Ichika's abilities, more likely by Chifuyu's abilities to analyze combat situation. Of course they're blood siblings, but still…
'What the hell is going on?!' Rin thought angrily. Actually, her fighting style was different from Cecilia's. In combat, she's usually calm and collected. But now she was frustrated as somehow, all her plans for this battle crumbled to pieces.
For her age, Rin was a relatively good I.S. pilot, and she was in quite a good sync with her unit. Her close-range weapon was a uniquely shaped, double-bladed sword, with looked like two scimitars, connected in the middle. Rin can twirl the thing so fast that it looked like a cheerleader's baton (she once was a cheerleader, after all). Rin could whip the thing around, attack from either side, vertically and diagonally, with the sword spinning like a saw blade.
She, however, wasn't planning to use it as her main weapon against Ichika as she knew that sword combat is his specialty. Against him, she was relying on Impact Cannons. Those cannons were able to attack from any angle, no matter how oblique. They could attack from above, below and even behind. When it comes to using them, Rin's abilities were on quite high level. Whether it's "unlimited movement" or "all-around axis reversals", she's already managed to master the basics. Her ability to mix and match these techniques was a sign of that she hasn't become a representative contender by chance.
However, all her skills were almost useless against Ichika. He was easily suppressing her impact cannons attacks with counter-shots from his plasma pistols, shooting at Rin herself at the same time. She tried a melee for a few times, but as expected, her attacks were easily parried.
Ichika was using defensive tactics. He never tried to make aggressive thrusts, instead he was waiting for flaws in Rin's maneuvers. Switching between his weapon's forms, he landed several successful attacks. After about five minutes of battle, Rin's shield was 301 out of 700 points, and her unit itself sustained medium damage. Ichika, on the other hand, suffered only few indirect hits, his shield was 542 out of 600 and his I.S. itself was just fine.
'It's not possible!' Rin mentally protested, 'If I lose like that…'
However, her thoughts were interrupted as she heard Ichika's voice over the comm channel. "Give up, Rin. It's over." That was all that he said. Seemingly, he finished with analysis of her combat style and was ready for decisive move.
"What?!" Rin shouted angrily, Ichika definitely hit the sore spot, Rin's competitive demeanor was her well known trait. "I'm not done yet!" At that moment she was quite close to Ichika, so she tried to attack him with her impact cannons from close range. However, Ichika was like waiting for that.
"My orders are absolute," Ichika said, "Stop struggling and bow your head…" With his plasma pistols he destroyed her shells, made of compressed air, right after they've been shot. After that, pistols immediately turned into sword, Redeemer, and Ichika attacked Rin in melee, forcing her to use her own melee weapon to parry his attack.
She was quite good with sword so she managed to repel his attack, but Ichika forced her to lift her weapon down, and that's was a mistake, as in less than a second Ichika's sword turned into shotgun, he dashed upward, and shot point blank from above. Rin tried to somehow deflect the attack with sword, but plasma blast was too powerful – Rin's I.S. was blown downwards and smashed to the ground as it lost more than 100 of shield points.
Though, that wasn't the end of it – she still could fight, as she still had 197 shield points. But, while she was still on the ground, shotgun switched into sniper rifle, Ambassador, and Ichika's I.S., Messiah, began to glow, activating One Off Ability – Paradise of Darkness. Sniper rifle's barrel began to shine brightly, 'draining' light from the surroundings. Ichika shot, as very bright charge of overheated plasma reached its target within 0.16 seconds, leaving Rin no chance to dodge. Ichika wasn't targeting Rin herself as he didn't want to fry her, he was aiming into the ground, slightly aside from her, but that was enough. Powerful overheated plasma charge hit the ground and destructive plasma blast burned through her shield, threatening to burn the pilot herself, thus leaving Rin's I.S. no choice but to activate Absolute Barrier, immediately reducing her shield to zero.
A buzzer sounded, signaling the end of the match. "Match concluded. Winner: Ichika Orimura. Match duration: 5:41." Since Ichika got scratched several times, and he used Barrier Void Attack once, his shield was at 491 out of 600. That was a clear, no, an overwhelming victory. Spectators were excited, they were waving to Ichika and cheering for him.
Rin was shocked. Since her shield was depleted and unit could no longer move, she undeployed it, and now she just stood on the scorched sand of arena's floor with blank eyes, as she couldn't comprehend what just happened. She came here to win, one of her goals was to show Ichika her superior piloting skills, so he'd choose her as a training partner instead of those two. But instead, she faced crashing defeat within less than six minutes.
Ichika approached her, he was intending to pick her up and carry away from the arena, but suddenly a loud BOOM reverberated throughout the entire facility. Since the match was already over, even Ichika had been taken by surprise. All he managed to notice is a bright energy beam that penetrated arena's shield from outside and then something passed through the new-made hole. Dense cloud of smoke was rising from the center of the arena, and it seemed like something was inside of it.
"Wh-What's going on...?!" Rin shouted. She didn't even used comm channel, just screamed. She still hasn't recovered from shock of her defeat and now something completely unplanned was happening.
All spectators couldn't understand what's going on, the stands were lit up by fire in the middle of the arena.
In control room, Cecilia and Houki also were completely confused.
"What? What happened?!" Blonde was perplexedly looking around.
"Ichika?!" Houki exclaimed worriedly.
"The system's been damaged!" Maya Yamada reported, "It appears that something has penetrated the arena's protective shield!"
"Orimura! Tournament is suspended! Take Huang and evacuate immediately!" Chifuyu ordered via comm channel.
"I'm on it!" Ichika replied as right now he had no reason to disobey teacher's order.
Suddenly… "Source of disturbance is an unknown I.S. Sealing the arena now." Robotic woman's voice announced. The arena and the barriers are made of the same material as an I.S. If something capable of penetrating the arena's shield gets in, it automatically seals all the sections. Because of that, all spectators were trapped inside the arena complex, and no one could get inside arena, either.
"Unknown I.S?" Now that actually picked up a bit of Ichika's interest. The problem was that right now Ichika was holding the completely defenseless Rin in his arms…
"What are you waiting for?! Let's get out of here!" Rin shouted, for some reason she was also flushing…
"Silence!" Ichika ordered as his I.S. reported about incoming energy charge. A laser crackled through the air where he just was. At the last second, Ichika dodged the attack. Due to dense smoke, his vision was obscured, so he barely avoided that laser beam. Ichika didn't stop as the haze from the first attack hasn't even cleared, and another shot was fired over.
Ichika dodged again and as he flew around it, he finally could take a look at the enemy. The grayish I.S. didn't look normal; its arms were abnormally long, almost dragging the ground like a gorilla, and there was no neck visible. Also, it has full-body armor. Normally, an I.S. will only deploy armor over a part of pilot's body. There's no need to have full armor because energy shields handle most of the defense. Of course, there are I.S. models developed for defense that are equipped with physical armor, but even those leave the pilot's joints exposed for free movement.
An I.S. without even one inch of skin showing was unheard of, well, with the exception of Ichica's Messiah, but his joints were covered with flexible carbon fiber-like material, not metallic armor.
Besides, size of that I.S. was another clue that it's not normal. This unit was huge. Including the arms, the frame of that thing was almost 7 feet long, and its body was covered with jet propulsion nozzles, probably all necessary to maintain its position. Its "head" had sensors, which were arranged in a bizarre pattern, and there are 4 ports on its forearms that allow it to fire those lasers.
"Orimura-san! Leave the arena! The teachers will use their I.S. to suppress it!" Yamada-sensei was calling for Ichika through the broadcast channel. Her voice sounded much more serious than usual.
"Negative," Ichika replied. "We've got to buy people time to evacuate until the teachers arrive." The I.S. was powerful enough to break through the arena's barrier. If nobody's going to keep it busy, it could have broken through the stadium's barrier and attacked the audience. Besides, Ichika was quite interested in taking a closer look at that mysterious unit.
"Orimura-san?" Yamada-sensei was calling again. "You just can't do that! If something happens to a student..."
"Calm down, Yamada-sensei," Ichika replied. "I have a plan. This one is definitely interested in me, so I'll just give it what it wants. I'm taking this thing out of here. Order to close the airspace west from the academy, over the gulf. I'll take this I.S. there and deal with it."
"Ichika-san!? What are you saying?!" Cecilia couldn't believe her ears.
"Ichika are you nuts?!" Houki shouted angrily.
"Stop screaming and take care of Rin," Ichika said. "I guess it's time for all of you to see the full power of Messiah, the 4th generation I.S. unit."
""What?!"" Several voices asked at once.
Enemy I.S. shot at Ichika one more time, but this time, since he could see the enemy clearly, he easily avoided that attack, dashing towards the ground. And now was the chance. Ichika placed Rin on the ground as all six wings of his unit opened, extending glowing Fold Out armor and activating plasma thrusters. After that, with immense acceleration, Ichika charged at enemy I.S. and literally grabbed it with a right lariat. Enemy's attempt to break free or shoot were blocked by Ichika's sword. Despite the very heavy load, Ichika's unit continued to accelerate, and within few moments enemy I.S. was literally thrown out of the arena, right through the hole in arena barrier it made with its first attack. When they were out of the arena, Ichika quickly released the enemy unit and made a distance between it and himself. Enemy immediately began to shoot at him, as Ichika engaged evasive maneuvers, luring the enemy away from the academy, towards the sea.
"HELLO? HELLO? ORIMURA-SAN, CAN YOU HEAR ME?!" Yamada-sensei must've been especially anxious. She forgot that there's no need to shout into the I.S. comm. The people around her must've been thinking that she's just weird.
"He said that he can handle it, didn't he?" Chifuyu said with relaxed voice. "I say we let him go for it."
"W-WHAT? ORIMURA-SENSEI, HOW CAN YOU SAY SUCH A THING!?" Maya's eyes became as big as saucers.
Cecilia and Houki were silent, watching the outside cameras' images.
"Calm down and have some coffee, Yamada-sensei. You're only stressing out because your blood sugar's getting low," Chifuyu said casually as she opened the container with white powder and put a spoon into it.
"...erm, Sensei? That's the salt..." Maya noted.
Chifuyu's spoon froze in mid-air; a cascade of white powder still falling into her cup. "What's salt doing on a coffee tray?" She wondered.
"Who knows? But it is clearly labeled. I can even read it from here," Maya noted. "Ah, so you're worried about your brother? I can understand why you'd make a mistake like that," She finally understood. An irritating silence fell. The silence pressed in ominously on Maya Yamada, so she tried to start a conversation, "Oh, you know..."
Of course Chifuyu was worried. No matter how talented Ichika was, and how powerful was his I.S., he's her brother, only family in this world. And least of all she liked people speculating about her feelings, especially when she's worried. "Yamada-sensei, please have some coffee," Chifuyu suggested her a cup.
"Huh? I-Is-isn't that the one you poured salt in..." Maya stuttered a little.
"Here!" Chifuyu insisted.
Maya was quite sure that she is being offered the salty coffee, but she felt that defying Chifuyu at that moment could be even worse. She sniffled sadly as she accepted, "I-I'll take it then..."
"The coffee is hot so just gulp it down in swallow…" Chifuyu warned… is she really a devil?
"Sensei, please permit me to use my I.S.! I can deploy it right away!" Cecilia cried.
"I wish I could, but..." Chifuyu tapped on one of the displays and intel filled the screen: data on the 2nd arena.
"The barriers are set at level 4... and the doors are all locked? Did the unknown I.S. do that?" Blonde wondered.
"It sure looks that way. Since we're in complete lockdown, we can neither evacuate nor send support," Though Chifuyu's voice was calm, her hands were trembling as she tapped at the screen.
"In that the case, declare a state of emergency and ask for government support!" Cecilia exclaimed.
"We've done that already. Right now, senior elites are busy trying to crack the system. Once we get the shields down, we have squads on standby ready to attack," Chifuyu's eyebrows began to twitch. Cecilia had never seen Chifuyu so tense, and, fearing that any further protest could trigger an explosion, she restrained herself and sat down. Instead, she asked about another thing that was bothering her.
"Sensei, is that true that Ichika's I.S. is 4th generation unit?" Blonde wondered. She remembered how Ichika simply grabbed a huge enemy I.S. and forcibly dragged it away, with such acceleration… "Various countries have finally begun to release 3rd generation prototypes, yet he's talking about 4th generation…"
"I don't know," Chifuyu simply replied. She was aware of that Tabane rebuilt this unit, and after that Ichika also had it further upgraded, but actually Chifuyu didn't know its exact specs. "But you saw it with your own eyes, haven't you?"
To that moment, Ichika managed to lure an enemy I.S. quite far from the academy, and now they were fighting above the gulf, west from the facility, at the safe distance from both the academy and nearby city.
"Orimura, report!" Ichika heard his sister's voice over comm. channel.
"I'm almost done with the enemy's analysis," Ichika reported. "With 95% probability I can say that this unit is an unmanned I.S. Repeat, this unit is an unmanned I.S., it has no human pilot."
""What?!"" Ichika heard several voices asking that.
"Orimura-san," He heard Maya's voice, "What are you talking about? An I.S. can't move without a pilot."
"I guess it's no longer an axiom," Ichika replied, dodging another beam attack.
"No way, there has to be somebody inside. An I.S. can't move without anyone in it. That's just how it is!" Ichika heard Cecilia's voice
"Cecilia, I'm well aware of that all the textbooks say the same thing: 'An I.S. definitely can't move without a pilot.' But according to that I'm seeing right now, that is no longer a truth. This thing's movements are too mechanical, and here are more evidences of that."
"Understood," Chifuyu's voice replied, seemingly, she believed in her brother's analysis.
"Oh, and one more interesting fact, Orimura-sensei," Ichika addressed personally to his sister. "This I.S. has four energy beam weapons. Two high-powered heavy laser cannons and two light rapid fire pulse cannons, but all of them uses energy beams with frequency modulation of 445 terahertz… I think this is quite interesting…"
In control room, Maya, Cecilia and Houki all looked at Chifuyu. She didn't say anything but clenched her fists and frowned. That choice of frequency was actually strange because it was a low frequency (red) spectrum, which has relatively low photon energy. Usually, military-class lasers use much higher frequencies, for example Cecilia's Blue Tears and Starlight Mark III rifle uses energy beams with frequency modulation of 650 terahertz (that's why they're blue). However, according to Chifuyu's reaction, that wasn't the main reason why Ichika found enemy's lasers interesting. No one dared to ask her right now, but seemingly there was some sort of secret, known to siblings.
Right now, Ichika and enemy's I.S. were fighting too far away from the academy, so using outer surveillance cameras, people in control room could only see flashes from their shots.
"Darn… how long would it take to crack that system?..." Cecilia asked in frustration.
"There's no reason for you to worry. You couldn't help anyway," Chifuyu said calmly.
Cecilia jumped to her feet, "What are you saying?!"
"I'm saying that 'Blue Tears' was specially designed to handle multiple attackers alone. If you'd tried to function in a squad, you'd just be getting in everyone's way," Chifuyu replied.
"I would never! How could you say that?!" Blonde protested.
"Have you had squad-based training before? What was that mission? How did you assess the enemy? What was the duration of the mission? What position did you assume on the squad and what was your role...?" Chifuyu simply overwhelmed Cecilia with questions.
"All right, that's enough! I get it already!" Cecilia raised her hands in surrender to prevent Chifuyu from rattling on with what was becoming a very long lecture.
"Good. You need to understand why things are the way they are," Chifuyu said indulgently.
"Sigh... I hate feeling myself that powerless," Cecilia sighed a long sigh of worry and exhaustion.
"Hmm?" Chifuyu suddenly frowned, seems someone contacted her via private channel, "Really?" She turned to Cecilia and looked at her with evaluating sight. "Very well, but are you taking responsibility?" She asked. Seemingly, she got an affirmative reply as she again looked at Cecilia. "Alcott, head to the bay three, get ready to engage immediately after we remove the lockdown."
"Yes ma'am!" Cecilia reported as she quickly perked up, and ran out of control room.
"Orimura-sensei, what's going on?!" Houki asked as both she and Maya Yamada were looking at her in surprise.
"I'm not sure," Chifuyu replied, but her face seemed rather intrigued.
About eight minutes have passed since the moment Ichika dragged the enemy I.S. from the arena and began one-on-one battle. Drone appeared to be much more tough opponent than Rin or Cecilia, as its reaction was much faster, and drone's energy beams were capable of counter-shooting Ichika's plasma charges. Battling this drone, Ichika really regretted that his Ragnarök doesn't have a rapid-fire weapon form. However, that wasn't the reason why this battle was taking so long. Ichika wanted something from that drone – simply destroying it or disabling the enemy wasn't an option this time. And Ichika got quite a daring plan, he was just waiting for something to execute that plan, and finally…
Ichika's weapon switched into sword form, and he charged at enemy with full speed. Drone engaged evasive maneuvers. But it wasn't fast enough to escape from 4th generation unit. Ichika evaded all enemy's energy beam attacks and tried to plunge his sword right into enemy's body. Using his massive arms, drone grabbed sword's blade, blocking Ichika's attack, at the same time powering up its lasers for counter attack. But that was exactly what Ichika was waiting for.
"Are you ready?" Ichika asked via comm. channel.
"Of course," Cecilia replied confidently.
Ichika dashed backward, and at that moment, all four Blue Tears opened fire, spearing through the enemy I.S. from multiple directions. BAM! The full-powered attack from Cecilia's Starlight Mark III broke through its shields and caused a small explosion, due to direct hit the enemy I.S. lost its 'head'.
"Drone or human, anyone who acts against me is never forgiven," Ichika said, reconfiguring the Fold Out armor on his I.S. wings, disengaging plasma thrusters and instead forcing additional plasma into Redeemer's plasma ejector, at the same time activating One Off ability, Paradise of Darkness, preparing for really devastating blow. "Because I'm victorious over all, I'm always the just," Ichika swung his sword, literally slicing the drone I.S. in half.
"ICHIKA!" Houki shouted as bright explosion lit up the horizon. Her eyes stuck to computer's screen, but few moments later she heard Ichika's voice.
"Orimura reporting: enemy I.S. destroyed. I repeat: enemy I.S. destroyed. Its remains did fall into the gulf, sending coordinates for the recovering crew now. Me and Ms. Alcott are fine, we're returning to base."
Maya Yamada breathed out a sigh of relief. Chifuyu didn't show any emotion, yet slight smile of pride beamed on her face for a moment.
Only Houki seemed unhappy. She stood with her fist clenched, angry at both Ichika and Cecilia. 'Why the hell he asked her for assistance?!' But actually, she was also angry at herself, that she couldn't participate in battle, 'If only I had a personal I.S…'
Right after Ichika and Cecilia finished their report to Chifuyu, they both were sent to their rooms for rest. Tournament was canceled, so naturally the rest of today became the day off. Ichika just finished dressing in his uniform as suddenly someone literally barged into his room. He didn't even look at the visitor as he already knew who it was, only Houki would be so brazen. And right now, for some reason, she seemed like a charging bull.
"What were you just thinking!?" She shouted. She seemed angry but that anger was a bit strange, as if she was trying to hide some other emotion behind that anger. "I'm glad that you've won, but you could have left that rogue I.S. to the teachers! Haven't you heard the phrase 'pride goes before a fall'?!" Houki's shoulders were actually trembling, and she was kind of panting. What could have possibly made her so wound up?
Ichika slowly turned his head towards Houki, and his much-colder-than-ice gaze cooled her down almost immediately. "Houki, we already had this talk recently, didn't we?" He asked coldly. "Only one woman in this world is allowed to scold me, and that is not you…" Houki seemed discouraged and awkward silence filled the room. For a moment Ichika thought that there's no need to be too harsh with her. "Why are you so tousled? Don't tell me…" Ichika closed one eye "…you were worried about me?"
Her face quickly reddened and she looked away, "Of… of course not! Why would I be worried about you?!"
"I don't know," Ichika decided to tease her a bit more, "I'm the owner of the most advanced I.S. unit in the world, you're well aware of my piloting skills… and yet you're here, with intention to scold me… I couldn't see many reasons for that…" Even her ears were a bit red now.
"An-anyway, your training paid off, didn't it?" She tried to change subject.
"Indeed," Ichika nodded. "We will continue training just like we have been, okay?"
"Well, um, good, then. I'm… uh… I'm heading back to my room now," She said.
"Alright, see you," Ichika nodded.
"...Ichika," She called for him when she already was on the doorstep.
"Yes?" He asked.
"During the battle... you were... well, you were..." She was stuttering, "…Amazing…" She said it so quietly that Ichika couldn't hear it, but since his eyes were capable of lip-reading, he understood.
"Thanks, Houki," He replied, forcing her to quickly close his room's door as Houki's face was beet-red now.
Rin was in infirmary, sitting on the bed, watching the setting sun. She wasn't hurt, she was delivered here just in case, and actually she was already free to go, but she didn't want to return to her room, not yet. She was thinking…
All her planes turned to dust within several minutes. She wanted to defeat Ichika today, proving that she's a great I.S. pilot. After that she wanted to become his personal trainer, and then she definitely would've been able to seduce him somehow… simple.
But instead, she faced crashing defeat on arena. After that, when that unknown unit attacked, Ichika was forced to protect her, while she was a hindrance for him. And while he was fighting against the enemy I.S., she was forced to stick at the wrecked arena, even unable to watch what was going on.
'How such a thing could happen?' Rin thought, watching the setting sun. 'Since when he became that powerful? How much he usually was holding back, training with those two girls?' Rin saw their training for several times, and, according to what she saw, she had a fair chance against Ichika. But skills that he's showed during the official match were on completely different level…
Besides, that damn renegade I.S., which attacked right after their match. When Ichika charged at it head on and literally threw it out from arena… her heart almost stopped. What was he thinking?! It was so reckless, but it also looked so cool and brave… And Rin already knew that Ichika defeated that thing… with some help from another girl…
If only Rin could be that girl… If she wasn't defeated so quickly, their match definitely would've been canceled and she could assist Ichika in battle against enemy I.S. But…
In other words, Rin's thoughts were quite depressive. "How're you feeling?" Quiet voice asked from behind.
"YAAA!" Rin jumped and almost fell on the floor, but thanks to his foreseeing eyes Ichika managed to catch her and put back on bed. "Ichika?!" She cried as her face reddened (to prevent her from falling he caught her with both hands and held her like a bride for a moment), "Don't sneak up on me like that!"
"Sneak up?" Ichika asked with irony, "I've entered pretty normally," He said as he sat on Rin's bed, near her.
"Wh… wha… wait! You can't sit here!" Girl cried as she crawled away from Ichika and huddled up in a corner of her bed.
"Rin, what are you doing?" Ichika asked, though he perfectly knew what she was doing. He knew that she had feelings for him since 5th grade of junior school (i.e. almost since their first meeting), which were gradually growing stronger. And, according to her face's redness and frequented breathing he could say that those feelings only grew stronger during that year they were separated.
"Ah… I'm… well…" Of course she couldn't properly justify her actions.
For a moment Ichika wanted to sit closer, but then he thought that teasing her right after her defeat wouldn't be too wise. Instead he decided to stick with social talking. "That reminds me…" He said, looking into the window, "About evenings like this, in the middle school, when you were treating me with free sweet and sour pork after football matches…"
"Ah… yes… I remember it as well…" Seemingly Rin also remembered, and for some reason that brought nostalgic but sad smile on her face.
"Honestly, I'd love to have your father's food again," Ichika noted.
"Oh, well... my dad doesn't do that anymore," Rin replied with deep sigh.
"Really? Why not?" Ichika wondered.
"Thing is, my parents got a divorce..." Ichika could easily read the pain on Rin's face, "…that's why I returned to China."
"Ah, I understand, sorry for asking," Ichika quickly apologized. Honestly, other families' problems were the last things he was interested in. Though, when she mentioned it, Ichika remembered that Rin was very emotional just before she moved back to China. Back then, she acted cheery, but Ichika's eyes weren't the things you can trick easily.
"It's been a year since I last saw Dad. I guess he's still okay," Rin said sadly, "Basically, my mom got custody of me. Since women are so dominant in today's society... you know."
"Yes, yes… though…" Ichika smiled as his eyes suddenly flashed with fiery light, and slight shiver ran along Rin's spine from that smile… as if there was something about all that…
Rin was still sitting in bed's corner, but during the talk she relaxed her legs, and her miniature bare feet were now in Ichika's reach. "Yah!" Girl yelped as Ichika flicked her right toe. Her face reddened again as Ichika stood up from bed.
"Okay, I need to see Chifuyu onee-san," He said.
"Ichika…" Rin called for him quietly as he was already near the door. "Are you regretting about today's tournament cancelation?" She was sure that he'll be the winner. "I've heard that they've decided to forfeit it instead of rescheduling it."
"Not at all," Ichika replied. "I'm much more interested in the next month's all-school tournament, though it is much more important for second and third year students…" He waved to Rin, "Anyway, get better." He left the infirmary and closed the door.
And when Ichika left, Rin suddenly realized something. 'As he is now, I guess winning against Ichika is impossible,' Girl thought. 'He's just amazing, but… I still can prove that I'm the best sparring partner for him… I just need to defeat all the other girls…' With that positive thought, Rin smiled to herself.
Fifty meters below the academy's grounds was a secret place that only people with level 4 access could enter.
The remains of the I.S. that Ichika destroyed were picked up from gulf's bottom and transported here. Over the past two hours, Chifuyu had been painstakingly reviewing all available videos of that battle. The room was dark, Chifuyu's face, lit only by the console screens, wore a cold expression.
"Orimura-sensei?" Maya Yamada's image popped up on a screen. She was reviewing data on a tablet computer.
"You may enter," Chifuyu said.
Maya strode in with an unusual sense of purpose, "I've completed the analysis of the rogue I.S. parts," She reported.
"And?" Chifuyu asked.
"Well, sadly, we only managed to pick up 'limbs' of the rogue I.S., entire 'body' part of the frame was completely destroyed, thus, only a few memory banks remained," Maya informed. "Seemingly, Orimura-san's last attack was especially powerful…"
"No doubts…" Chifuyu said darkly.
"I'm not taking any chances," Quiet voice noted from behind, "That thing had to be obliterated once and for all."
"Ah?!" Maya almost jumped from unexpectedness, she didn't think that here could be someone else, "Orimura-san?! You're here?!"
"Don't be so surprised," Ichika noted indifferently, "Aside from that I was the one who fought with that thing, I'm also a military representative here. Our Navy is quite interested to know what exactly fell into our waters…"
"Ah… yes… well…" Maya mumbled, she still couldn't get used to fact that Ichika's also a military officer.
"So? What have you found?" Chifuyu asked again.
"Ah, yes…" Maya coughed, "According to that I've managed to analyze, it really turned out to be an unmanned drone."
"That we're already know," Ichika noted casually. "By the way," He noted, "Ms. Alcott was informed that this information is strictly classified."
All over the world, countries and organizations are continiously experimenting to push the I.S. technology forward. Remote control and autonomous movement were two popular technologies for research, and one of those was almost certainly used to control the rogue I.S. Just how far the world had progressed with that technology was something members of the I.S. Academy were ordered to keep quiet.
"We are not sure about how the rogue I.S. was controlled," Maya said humbly.
"...and the core?" Chifuyu asked.
"Seemingly it was completely destroyed," Yamada-sensei replied, "Along with the rest of the 'body' part of rogue I.S., no trace of it been found. However, according to memory banks, which we were able to restore, the rogue I.S. core…"
"…was unregistered?" Ichika finished Maya's phrase with ironic face expression.
"How…?" Surprised Maya wanted to ask Ichika how did he know, but Chifuyu didn't let her.
"So, not registered?" Orimura-sensei asked, then muttered, "As I expected."
"What's this about? Do you know something?" Maya was moving her sight from one Orimura to another.
"No, nothing. Not yet," Chifuyu looked back at the console screens with steel in her gaze – a look more appropriate for a warrior than a teacher – a look that left no doubt she was once a legendary pilot who stood above all others.
"Just my intuition," Ichika replied indifferently, as his heterochromic eyes were glowing in this dark room.
Maya got a strong feeling that siblings actually know something they aren't willing to share with others yet… "Anyway, I'm returning to laboratory, maybe I'll be able to learn something else," As she said that, Yamada-sensei left the room.
"Unregistered core, high-power red lasers… a lot of coincidences…" Ichika noted as Maya left. Chifuyu didn't reply.
"Orimura, why you asked for Cecilia's help?" Chifuyu wondered. Since she didn't use Ichika's first name, that was an official question.
"I've trained with her for about a month, you know I'm prefer to use people, whose capabilities are well known to me," He replied. "Besides, Blue Tears, has good firepower… Of course, if I had a choice, I'd prefer to call for Kurazakura and its pilot, but…"
"Don't start it again," Kurazakura's pilot, aka Chifuyu Orimura, looked at her brother with stern glare…
"As you wish…" Ichika's eyes slightly flashed in darkness.
When Ichika returned to his room, it was already past 10 PM. He came to window and looked into it. Outside was already dark, but many artificial lights weren't allowing Academy to sank into darkness. He stepped away from the window and approached to his table, raising his right, artificial palm, as if holding something. Within a moment, light particles began to shine in the room, and second later Ichika was holding a glowing sphere in his hand.
That was the rogue I.S. core, which Ichika managed to transfer into his quantum space right before the enemy I.S. exploded. It was a quite difficult and risky task to slice the enemy unit in half, without damaging the core, but no one should underestimate Ichika's eyes and his ability to analyze I.S. units. Even with unmanned drone, Ichika's guess about core's location was correct.
"I'm sorry that I had to deceive you, my dear sister…" He said, looking at glowing sphere. He was really sorry about that, deceiving Chifuyu was quite unpleasant thing to do for Ichika. "But I had no choice… Your code of honor won't allow you to do what has to be done. I'll deal with that myself…"
Ichika knew the risks. He told everyone that rogue I.S. exploded, and its core most likely turned to dust together with it. Stealing and hiding unregistered I.S. core definitely was a very wrong thing to do. But for now, it will be a secret… and when time will come, it will be a matter no longer.
Glowing core disappeared back to quantum space. Ichika stretched his limbs, "Okay, I think I'll go to sleep earlier today," He decided.
*Knock* *Knock* Ichika already put off his coat as someone knocked to the door of his room.
"Yes?" He asked, opening the door. Houki was standing in front of him, wearing her characteristic scowl. However, her face was red and she was breathing heavily, as if she's ran some distance.
"Well? Would you come in?" Ichika asked. No sense to keep her at the doorstep.
"No, I'll just stay here," She replied, as she just continued to scowl at the ground.
"Really?" He asked with unmasked sarcasm.
"Yeah," She mumbled.
Ichika sighed, "Houki, you do realize that I'm tired? If you don't have anything to say, I'm going to shower."
"Of course I do have something to say!" She suddenly shouted, as if she was accused in some mortal crime and now was offered to justify herself. Honestly, shouting that loud in the corridor wasn't a good idea, since today Chifuyu was staying in the academy for the night. Besides, with that shout she deserved a very cold glare from Ichika.
"Ne-Next month, in the individual tournament..." She finally started to talk, stuttering.
Next month's tournament will be different from the class representative tournament. ALL STUDENTS in the academy will participate, and there aren't many special conditions other than separating the students by year. The fact that a personal I.S. gives a contestant an overwhelming advantage won't change, though.
"If, if I win..." Houki was blushing furiously and stuttering. For some reason, she was keeping glancing nervously at Ichika. "If I win..." Houki's hand shot out and pointed at Ichika's face, "You have to go out with me!" Her last phrase sounded like a declaration of war.
Ichika, however, just smiled as his eyes flashed, and that smile cooled down Houki warrior's spirit in an instant. "Houki, you do understand that phrase 'If I win the tournament' means 'If I win against Orimura Ichika'?" He asked. "As such, you made an unreachable condition, because only I can defeat myself."
Houki made a step back, and looked at Ichika with a strange emotion, which Ichika could describe as 'hatred'. She seemed greatly discouraged. But that was not what Ichika wanted. He looked at her with evaluating sight.
"Okay, let's put it another way, shall we?" Ichika said, making a step towards Houki. "No need to win the tournament, just be my opponent in final match," He said. "If you'll manage to become my opponent in finale, I will be at your disposal for the entire weekend," Ichika suggested.
"Who… whole… weekend…" Houki stuttered, stepping backward, until she found herself pressed to the corridor's wall. She seemed shocked.
"Yes, consider it the two days-, or even two nights-long date," Ichika's eyes were still glowing with that fiery light, "Whole weekend, only you and me…" He could swear he never saw Houki so much scared, excited and embarrassed at the same time.
June 3rd, 1:19 PM
First Sunday of the month. As usual on weekend, Ichika was in city, however, right now he was in Gotanda residence. Gotanda Dan was Ichika's classmate from middle school. Not that they were friends as Dan was pretty common guy from almost every aspect, but he was a good midfielder (football player), as such, he was a member of Ichika's football team.
Today they've met in city by chance, and little by little, it ended up with Ichika being invited for a launch. That was another reason why Ichika knew Dan better than other teammates – just like Rin's family, Gotanda family owned a restaurant, and of course genius-captain of football team could usually get a free meal here. Not that Ichika was fond of freebee, but back than he had no own source of money income, so free dinners weren't superfluous.
Anyway, free lunch was just a reason to lure Ichika into Dan's house, as he was very interested in a certain topic. Right now they were in Dan's room, waiting for a lunch to be prepared. Ichika stood, leaning on a wall near the door as Dan was sitting on his bed. "C'mon, of course I'm talking about the all-girls school. There should be many good things over there, right?" Dan asked.
"It depends," Ichika replied indifferently. "It is true that I'm surrounded with more than 350 girls, 15-18 years old, but if you're imagining some endless underground strip club with illegal age teenage girls, you're gravely mistaken."
"Only you can imagine something like that…" Dan mumbled, seriously, he never could understand how genius' mind works. "I mean, c'mon, in the middle school, any girl would squeal in excitement if you just smile to her!"
"So?" Ichika replied quite coldly, "I came to that academy with certain goals to achieve, and 350 squealing girls have nothing to do with that."
'And here we go again, just like in the middle school…' Dan thought as he sighed powerlessly. Seriously, he never could understand his former team captain's way of thinking. 'How he can think about some "goals" with so many girls around…'
As Dan wanted to ask something else about all-girl school, someone interrupted the conversation. "Onii, hurry up and come eat already. Lunch is ready!"
Kicking the door down and walking in was Dan's younger sister, Gotanda Ran. She's a year younger than him, and is now in her senior year of middle school. According to Ichika's information, she was an honor student in a prestigious private girls' school, and a student council president, no less. Considering that, she's really different from her older brother. As she barged into the room, looking at her elder brother, she didn't immediately notice Ichika.
"Long time no see, Ran. How are you doing?" Ichika asked from aside with quiet voice.
For a second, Ran froze like paralyzed. Then she slowly turned to Ichika, and her face expression was like she was expecting to see an alien. "Ichika-sama?!" Her eyes were saucers-wide.
Actually, Ran was quite a nice girl, with cute face and long, blood-colored hair. And of course she knew Ichika, not only because he was visiting her family's restaurant. Since her brother was in football team, she saw several matches… and of course she was fascinated with brilliant team's captain and his devilish charm…
She looked at herself, seemingly examining her outfit. Her waist-length hair was tied back with only a hair clip holding it from behind, and she was wearing shorts (with half-zipped fly and unbuttoned button, so her pink panties could be seen), and a sleeveless vest (with no bra, and it is worth to mention that her chest was almost as flat as Rin's). Nothing special for a girl to dress up like that when she's at home, with only her family around. Ichika got used to it, starting with his elder sister and ending with entire I.S. Academy, where almost every girl was dressed up so skimpily after classes.
As Ran finished examining herself, her face became a bit blue. It was an interesting scene, as, looking into Ichika's eyes, Ran seemed like a rabbit entranced by a cobra. "I-It's not that… well, you are here...? I heard that you went to a boarding school..." Ran was babbling incoherently.
"Oh, that's right. But I had some busyness on naval base, besides, I wanted to check up on my house, so I went out and met Dan by chance, and he invited me for a lunch," Ichika explained.
"I, I see..." Ran mumbled. It seemed like her most cherished wish right now was to just disappear.
"Ran, you could at least knock, right? You'll be considered a shameless woman…" Dan tried to said but Ran instantly turned to him and he immediately shut his mouth. It's rather interesting to see how quickly girl can turn from a scared rabbit into a raging lioness. However, Ichika was still here so she couldn't start to sort things out with her brother right now.
At that moment, Ichika decided to have mercy on a poor girl. He turned to window and made several steps toward it. Using that moment, Ran flew out of the room like a bullet. "Ichika-sama, please come down in five minutes, I'll serve a lunch for you," Her voice sounded from the corridor.
"You haven't told her that you invited me here, aren't you?" Ichika asked, turning to Dan, though answer was obvious. "You're dead meat, you know that?"
"I guess so…" Dan mumbled as a few drops of sweat appeared on his forehead.
As it's been said, five minutes later Dan and Ichika went downstairs. "Wha…?!" Dan exclaimed as he and Ichika entered the restaurant (it was on first floor of Gotanda residence). Their lunch was already prepared and laid out on the table, and someone was already sitting there.
"Ichika-sama, is that alright if we all have lunch together? If you want to, nii can go eat alone outside." Sitting over there was Ran, and fact that she even removed 'o' before 'nii', referring to her elder brother, meant that she's really displeased.
"Did you hear that, Ichika? Those super gentle words made me wanna cry!" Dan pretended that he's wiping tears.
"Man, I really think that you'd better be silent for a while…" Ichika commented silently, before turning to Ran, "It should be alright for us to have lunch together. Besides, there are other customers around, let's hurry up and sit."
"That's right, stupid brother, hurry up and sit down," Ran urged Dan.
Ran's home get-up disappeared, and she let her hair down, giving off an impressive shine. Now she was wearing a white sleeveless dress and black stockings. She changed her clothes for Ichika. That was so cute… but also quite predictable. Right now, Dan was speculating about Ichika's life among many girls, Ran was arguing with him… but Ichika wasn't listening at all. For some reason, he was remembering purple-haired, brilliant-minded oddball, the only woman in the world he couldn't read like an open book. 'Interesting… what's she plotting…'
*SMACK* Ran smashed her palms on table, returning Ichika from world of his thoughts. "...we'll talk about that later..." She hissed at her brother.
"Well, I, I have to do something later…" Dan stuttered.
"Then, tonight," Seemingly, she was really tired from Dan's foolish babbling. "And now, I've decided."
"Yes, what did you decide on?" Ichika wondered, Ran seemingly didn't notice sarcasm in his words.
"I'm taking the I.S. Academy entrance exam next year," She declared.
"What, what are you saying…" Dan tried to say.
"Shut up!" Ran growled.
"Why do you want to go there? If I remember correctly, your school is a direct path to very prestigious university," Ichika noted.
"No problem. I can get in with just my grades," Ran replied humbly.
'Grades aren't the point here…' Ichika mentally facepalmed as Ran showed her I.S. suitability test – A rank.
"So, so Ichika-san, please guide me through as my sempai..." Girl smiled humbly.
Ichika smiled and his eyes flashed with that infernal light, 'There are ten months ahead, Ran. With things going as they are now, I can't guarantee the Academy's existence to that time…'
About 7 PM. Ichika's room. Outside of it, a girl with lively twin ponytails was standing, staring at room's door. From aside it looked like she wanted to knock to the door, but couldn't dare. Rin made a deep breath, seemingly, she decided.
"Rin, what are you doing?" Quiet voice asked from behind.
"Yaaah!" Rin yelped as she jumped from unexpectedness. "Stop doing that!" She demanded, as her heart was pounding in her chest.
"Still, what are you doing here?" Ichika ignored her complaint.
"I… well… I just wanted to go to cafeteria with you…" She said, seemingly she just wanted to spend some time with Ichika.
"Ah, sorry, but I already had a dinner," Ichika replied. "I'm just from canteen, and I only came to take some stuff from my room, I'm going to engineering department right now."
"Oh… wait, what? Engineering? Now?" Rin seemed disappointed, but topic about engineering caught her attention.
"Yes," Ichika replied as he opened his rooms' door, quickly entered, grabbed some box that looked like a plastic suitcase, came out, and closed the door. He continued to speak while doing all that, "I finally got data I needed from our I.S. R&D department," He said. "Despite these researches were conducted to improve I.S. hypersensors, I found much more interesting way to use them. I will use them to improve my weapon as now I can finally finish constructing molecular oscillator and upgrade electro-magnetic accelerator and plasma ejectors with it."
"Molecular… what?" Rin asked, scratching back of her head.
"Molecular oscillator," Ichika said again. "I'm going to upgrade my weapon with ability to force synchronous oscillation for particles in plasma charges. Frequency modulated plasma bursts have higher energy and they are more stable, thus they can exist longer, their piercing and destructive capabilities are increased."
Rin was looking at Ichika with dull sight, because she didn't understand anything from what she just heard, and maybe that's why Ichika decided to tell her about his new upgrades. "There are still more ways to improve plasma weapons," Ichika added, heading towards exit from dormitory, "As soon as I get more data…"
Ichika left, and Rin was walking towards cafeteria alone. Despite she didn't understand Ichika's explanations (she even didn't memorize any detail), she actually got one thing – his powerful weapon, Ragnarök, will be even more powerful at the time of tournament.
The individual division tournament… As its name indicates, it's an individual tournament, and it will be held the entire week. As for the reason why, it's because everyone's required to take part.
Each grade has about 120 students. As there are so many people taking part in it, the scale of this tournament's pretty big. The school will use this chance to assess the talent level of the first years, the growth and learning abilities of the second years, and the in-depth combat abilities of the third years.
The third-year students tournament is all the more important; forget about the scouts from the I.S. related enterprises, even the high-ranked officials of all the countries seem like they will be here. That's really important event, end everyone was preparing for it.
Rin was taking a sober view of things – she won't be able to defeat Ichika. Yes, she was training almost every day since her defeat, but considering difference in their levels, the outcome will be the same. Besides, Ichika also was training… Right now, Rin could only pray in hope that Ichika won't be her first opponent.
June 4th, 8:18 AM
"As expected, Hazuki Company's still the best."
"Eh? Really? But doesn't Hazuki only focus on design?"
"That's why it's good."
"In terms of functions, I find Myurei's to be really good, especially the smooth and slick style."
"Ah, that, it's good, but expensive."
On Monday morning, all the girls in the class are chatting away happily. Everyone's holding onto a catalog and comparing the products on them. Girls were choosing I.S. outfits.
"Speaking of which, Orimura-sama, where's your I.S. outfit been produced? I've never seen that model before," One of girls asked.
"It's custom-made," Ichika replied indifferently, "After all, that is the world first I.S. outfit made for a man."
"Choosing a proper I.S. outfit is very important," Yamada-sensei said as she entered the classroom and saw about what everyone was talking about. "The I.S. suit will detect the weak electricity on the skin and pass the signals of the user's movements to all the parts of the body before the I.S. can take action…"
'That's not the only way…' Ichika thought as he heard Maya's words.
"…Also, this suit is really durable, it can completely withstand a mini-caliber gunshot. Ah, but the impact won't vanish. Please remember it," Sensei gave a clear explanation.
"Yama-chan's really so knowledgeable!" A girl exclaimed with smile.
"I'm a teacher after all... hold it, Ya-Yama-chan?" Maya seemed a bit shocked as she was called like that.
"I really have to look at Yamapi differently!" Another girl smiled.
"Today's the day when everyone has to request for their attire, so I came earlier… no wait, Ya… Yamapi?" Maya now looked offended.
It's been only 2 months, and Yamada-sensei already got eight strange nicknames.
"Maa-yan's really a serious person!"
"We all like Mayamaya!"
"Mayamaya? Don't you think that Yamaya sounds better?"
"Yamaya?! Pl-please don't call me that!" Yamada-sensei protested with emphasis… maybe she has some bad memories about the that nickname.
"Orimura-sama, which nickname fits Maya-chan better?" One of girls asked for Ichika's opinion. That was the nail in the coffin as Maya seemed like she's about to cry. Ichika, her pupil, was addressed with his last name and with '-sama' honorific, whilst the teacher got a ton of strange nicknames.
'That's what you got for treating them as equals, my dear Maya,' Ichika looked at poor sensei without mercy in his eyes, that was her own fault.
"Al… alright, everyone must call me 'sensei', got it? Got it?" Yamada-sensei commanded, though it sounded more like a plea.
Though everyone replied with a 'yes', that was just a random perfunctory. She's definitely going to get more nicknames in the future.
"Good morning, everyone," Calm woman's voice said.
"Good morning sensei!" Everyone replied as one. The classroom that was noisy just now immediately became quiet as all the girls immediately took their seats. The homeroom teacher of class one, Orimura Chifuyu-sensei has arrived.
'And that's the difference…' Ichika again looked at Maya. Chifuyu was radiating self-confidence (but not arrogance) and self-respect. By the way, she now was wearing summer clothes that Ichika prepared for her yesterday. It was strange, but with all her majesty, Chifuyu still was relying on her brother in such things…
"From today onwards, we'll be having practical training," Chifuyu announced. "As there are training suits, we'll be using I.S., so everyone must pay attention! Don't forget to put on the school regulated attire before you get your own I.S. suits. Anyone who forgets will have to wear the school swimsuit!"
Until now, those without personal I.S. units were learning basic moves and maneuvers only theoretically, for that purpose Chifuyu was making personal I.S. units' owners (aka Cecilia and Ichika) to demonstrate those moves and maneuvers. However, starting today, all student going to use training I.S. suits for practice.
"If that's clear, then, Yamada-sensei, please begin the homeroom," After the briefing, Chifuyu handed it over to Yamada-sensei.
"O-okay…" Maya stuttered. Yamada-sensei seemed to be rubbing her eyes as she frantically put her glasses back, looking like a panicking puppy. Was she actually crying because of those nicknames? That won't give her an extra portion of respect for sure…
"Well, today, I'll be introducing some transfer students, and there are two of them."
"""WHAAAAAT...!?"""
On hearing the introduction of transfer students, all girls in the class exploded. Can't be helped, to the class that feeds on gossip even during their meals, it's to be expected that they would be shocked now that a transfer student slipped past their information network, and there are two of them. Ichika, on the other hand, was interested very little… And while all the girls were still in shock, the door opened.
"Excuse me," One of newcomers said as two new students entered the class. And once they did, the buzzing quietened down. That's to be expected. That's because one of them… was a boy.
"I'm Charles Dunois from France. I'm not too familiar with this country, so please take care of me," One of the transfer students, Charles, smiled and bowed to everyone after saying that.
Excluding Ichika (and his sister) everyone in the class were stunned.
"A, a guy...?" Someone muttered.
"Yes. I heard that there's someone in the same situation as me here. So I transferred here from my country," Boy smiled.
'No Adam's apple, slightly bent forearms, these neat small palms with index fingers of the same length as ring fingers,' These were facts, gathered by emperor's eyes within those thirteen seconds while this "boy" has been introducing himself. Also, Ichika noticed that "boy's" breathing was somehow obstructed. Considering previously noticed facts, probably that was due to some tourniquet-like thing to hide breasts. 'If you're a boy than I'm Kurumi Tokisaki,' Ichika smiled as his eyes flashed with fiery light, 'But nice try, girl…'
He looked around. Everyone else in class seemed fooled, as girls began to squeal:
"A male student! A second male student at that!"
"And he's in our class!"
"And he's handsome! The type that you want to protect!"
"I'm so grateful to be able to live in this world!"
As expected, Chifuyu didn't like that, "That's enough! Settle down and shut up!" Ichika looked at his elder sister but as she noticed his gaze she deliberately turned away. Did Chifuyu realize that this one is a girl, or not, that was hard to say, but Ichika was sure that she did.
Actually, no one did forget about the other transfer student, or rather, it's quite difficult to forget about her. That's because she looked like a unique radical.
She had shiny silver hair that's almost white, and the hair's almost reaching her waist. It's pretty, but she didn't tidy it, so it just seems like it's naturally long. Also, she has an eyepatch on her left eye; the other opened eye was red, and it looked somehow similar to Ichika's eyes – the temperature deep inside it was lower than zero. And her stance was quite interesting as well – she stood like a well-trained soldier, and right now she was openly staring at Chifuyu.
"...Hurry up and greet them, Laura," Orimura-sensei urged her.
"Yes, instructor," Girl replied.
Chifuyu, who got a greeting by a foreigner, revealed a somehow troubled look, "Don't call me that here, I'm no longer an instructor. And you're an ordinary student here, so you must call me Orimura-sensei."
"Roger that," Girl nodded.
'Ah, so that's who it is,' Ichika thought.
Being thankful to German military, as they provided her with information about Ichika's whereabouts when he was kidnapped, Chifuyu worked as an Army instructor in Germany for one year, and after that she became an I.S. Academy instructor. Seemingly, this girl was one of her trainees.
"I'm Laura Bodewig," Girl introduced herself.
The students remain silent, waiting for her to continue, but after she said her name, she hasn't said a word.
"Is, is that... all?" Unable to stand this atmosphere, Yamada-sensei tried to force a smile as she asked Laura.
"That's all," Laura gave an unrelenting answer.
'Maya, seriously…' Ichika sighed.
At that moment, Laura and Ichika exchanged looks. "So, it's you…" She spoke out.
Everything happed within a second. Laura raised her arm and tried to slap Ichika's face. If she'd hit, that would be a vicious slap, but Ichika foresaw it. He leaned back, avoiding her hand, after which he grabbed her shoulder and pushed her forward, using inertia of Laura's own body, thus forcing her to turn around. At the same time, he made a reverse low sweep with right leg, hitting Laura's legs. In the next moment, Laura was lying face down, kissing the floor.
"That's the way to get acquainted, I give you that. I guess I also shall introduce myself then?" Ichika asked. He was standing above her, with emotionless expression on his face and his right foot standing on Laura's head, "I am Orimura Ichika. Pleased to meet you…"
And that's it for Chapter III, see you soon people, don't forget about review.
