Infinite Stratos Plot Bunnies Collection

Chapter 12: Infinite Stratos x Halo Challenge 1

AN: I have been a fan of the Halo series for quite a long time - at least old school style Halo I grew up knowing and loved. I read many novels such as The Fall of Reach, The Flood, First Strike, Ghosts of Onyx, Contact Harvest, The Cole Protocol, and lastly Halo: Evolutions - Essential Tales of the Halo Universe Volumes 1 and 2. I played the hell out of the original Halo trilogy, Halo 3: ODST, Halo: Reach, Halo Wars, and recently Halo Wars 2. I have also played Halo 4 and Halo 5 Guardians and I own the Master Chief Collection. Halo 4 was okay, it was certainly the most emotional of all the games. I absolutely hate and despise Halo 5 and have refused to read some of the newer books as I didn't exactly like a lot of stuff 343 Industries did with the Halo story lore. In fact, I disliked and outright hated some of the stuff 343i did with the Halo story lore and franchise. I had been extremely worried for the future of Halo and weary of what 343i had in store given their lying, manipulative, deceptive bait-and-switch "Hunt the Truth" advertisement marketing campaign for the terrible Guardian storyline. I could go on forever but I will not. This is why I loved Halo Wars 2. The music, the tone, the characters, the original art designs. It felt like Halo again and it made me remember why I loved Halo and it has made me excited for Halo 6, knowing how Halo Wars 2 will surely be tied into Halo 6. I can honestly say that the one of the remote thing that 343i has positively done for Halo was financing Halo Legends which enriched and further added to the Halo story and lore of events that occurred during the Insurrection and Great War. If Halo 5 was the game that nearly killed the franchise, it was Halo Wars 2 that revived the franchise, breathe some nostalgic life to it, and gave us fans hope that the next game will be done right. I am also glad to hear recent gaming news that 343i has finally come to terms with admitting their mistakes they made in with Halo 5 and apologizing for their decision for not focusing on Chief and furthermore WILL NOT BE INTRODUCING ANY NEW CHARACTERS in the sixth game as they will be focusing more on the Chief's POV. About damn time they admitted their mistake and this is a a couple good steps in the right direction. I don't wanna play as Locke again, or even any of the Spartan-IV characters from Fireteam Osiris, or any newly created character at all designed just for Halo 6.

Scrolling through the Halo x Infinite Stratos crossover section, I have seen that it really is mostly OC-centric and placing Ichika in the sidelines or excluding him entirely like every other crossover sections with IS. It reminds me of some of the stuff 343i did that I did not like. For example, introducing us to Spartan-IV Fireteams Crimson and Majestic and developing their shared story in Spartan Ops only to later pretend those two teams don't even exist in Halo 5 so they can introduce some new S-IV characters for Locke's Fireteam Osiris that no one gives a shit about. Not only was 343i guilty of not using or treating with respect the classic old Halo characters such as the Arbiter and Buck (the only S-IV on Osiris that I actually pay attention to and care about since I liked Halo 3: ODST) as much as they should to their full potential in Halo 5, they don't even make use of their own existing newly developed current characters like they already have like Fireteams Crimson and Majestic, or even that bitch Sarah Palmer for that matter since she supposed to be the leader of the S-IV force on the UNSC Infinity. I still damn hate her for shooting Catherine Halsey and she has done nothing in Halo 5 to redeem herself in any way or form that changes my opinion of her; if she dies before or during Halo 6 then good riddance, nothing lost there.

Anyhow I am posting a collection of Halo x IS plot bunnies to propose to anyone who is interested in writing a Halo x IS crossover story that has Ichika and the Orimura family as main characters, like for example a Halo story told from the perspectives of the Orimura and their involvement with the overall Halo-verse. I doubt the following story ideas I have conceived here now will be the last Halo x IS plot bunnies I'll be pitching. It is expected that the stories I'm proposing is heavily leaning towards the Halo side from their interactions and perspectives of Ichika and perhaps other IS characters and their overall perspectives, actions, and impacts on the Halo story as opposed to Halo characters crossing over into IS-verse since there are already many crossover fanfics that do just that. As such, it is recommended that you guys and gals might need prominent knowledge of the Halo-verse if any of you wish to use my concept ideas to write some decently good quality Halo x IS crossover stories. Halo Wiki and Halopedia will be reliable sources of information for all things related to Halo.

Story Concept #1 - The Hyper Lethal Vector Lone Wolf

The identity of Lieutenant Spartan-B312, the Lone Wolf, aka Noble Six, remains a mystery to this day and so is much of his early life and service record prior to being assigned to Noble Team at the beginning of Halo Reach. We know he is a Spartan-III candidate, thus he's one of those war orphans the Office of Naval Intelligence's Beta-5 Division recruited into the Spartan-III program whose main motivation is a chance at revenge against the Covenant. During training, B312 and a few other S-IIIs (designated "cat 2") outshone their teammates well enough that these select few were handpicked by Lieutenant Commander SPARTAN-051 Kurt Ambrose (the Spartan-II assigned to teach and train the S-III candidates) to be assigned to separate special force units outside the general population of Beta Company. Thus, he and these chosen "cat 2" S-IIIs did not participate in Operation: TORPEDO, a suicide mission that resulted in the deaths of almost all Spartan-III Beta Company. Because the concealed nature of his survival, his existence became classified and he was deployed as a black operator and assassin under ONI jurisdiction. Over the curse of his career, B312 gained a reputation as an efficient lone-wolf assassin, having single-handedly broken terrorist organizations and made entire rebel groups disappear. Prior to his transfer to Noble Team, B312's former superior allegedly used him as "his own private grim reaper". For those of us who played Halo Reach, we knew what his fate would be and how important his role as Noble Six and his ultimate sacrifice would be to the UNSC and to Humanity in the long run.

This concept has Ichika assuming the identity and role of the Spartan-B312. He would be sent to the Halo-verse via an explosion caused as the Silver Gospel's sudden suicidal attack on Ichika and Byakushiki at the end of their second battle. His supposed death is mourned in IS-verse, but for Ichika his new life in the Halo-verse is just beginning. Ichika would be lost for a while in a whole new universe and not even on planet Earth, but one of human colony worlds that would eventually be hit hard and glassed by the Covenant. Ichika struggles to live and survive on a strange distant colony world, eventually able to make a meager humble living of sorts. When the Covenant arrived and attacked the colony world, Ichika would originally run and hide like any other rational human being valuing self-preservation would do. Plus, he wants to survive long enough to return to his own world and his own universe to see his friends and family again. But after seeing so many people dying including those who he managed to befriend, Ichika reluctantly but firmly with courage and defiant will decided to fight the Covenant. He manifests Byakushiki and was able to drive the Covenant back on several occasions, saving lives of civilians and UNSC soldiers on the battlefield; his face concealed by the Byakushiki's own helmet mask. However, like always even when humanity did win most of the battles on the ground, it meant little as the Covenant would always glass the planet from orbit in the end. Ichika was able to escape on one of the last evacuation ships hours before the Covenant began to glass the planet. Once more, Ichika is without a home or place to go back to, and once more he was concerned about his uncertain future. But seeing as to how many people had died and many more were grateful and joyful to be alive to because they were saved by the mysterious "White Knight", Ichika resolves to fight the Covenant and make them pay for all the lives lost in the war because of them.

Ichika would be recruited by the Office of Naval Intelligence (the UNSC's premier military intelligence organization) along with other war orphans from glassed colonies who signed onto the Spartan-III program for a chance at getting revenge against the Covenant for killing their family and friends and destroying their homes and livelihoods. To avoid drawing any suspicions or attention to him, he kept the Byakushiki in closed form of a gauntlet well-hidden and secret from everyone else, making sure to keep it within his reach or on him always, the excuse he makes is that the gauntlet serves as memento and good luck charm. This is justified given the common paranoia and suspicions people have with ONI. To isolate himself from others and prevent anyone from learning that he had been the mysterious "White Knight" and the existence of IS, Ichika adopted a persona of the unsociable Lone Wolf. Ichika and some few others in Beta Company performed well beyond their peers that they were reassigned to separate special forces groups outside the general population of Beta Company, thus he and the few lucky chosen others had been spared of being sent off on the suicide mission that was OPERATION: TORPEDO. The many black ops missions he had been sent to have hardened his soul and at some point, he was had been certain that he lost the ability to use his IS, feeling repulsed and rejected by Byakushiki as on some missions he had killed or sacrificed a lot of lives including those innocent to ensure the success of his objectives and having not heard or sensed anything from Byakushiki for a very long time. Ichika would later be assigned to Noble Team and the events that occurred in Halo Reach would happen. However, after the UNSC Pillar of Autumn had left Reach, Ichika would survive and continue to fight the Covenant on Reach for as long as he could. For days Ichika stubbornly and defiantly fought on, salvaging whatever UNSC and Covenant weapons, armor pieces and equipment he could get his hands on to continue his guerilla warfare against the Covenant with help from Auntie Dot A.I. to guide him to the right places to obtain everything he needed, including safe places to sleep and rest for a while before he resumed killing. He had also been able to rally what few surviving Spartans and UNSC soldiers and Marines were left on Reach within his close proximity.

Ichika finally considered incorporating the Auntie Dot A.I. into the Byakushiki to hack its IS Core and forcefully activate Byakushiki, forcing the IS itself to make use of other weapons he had managed to get his hands on. The hacking seemingly proved successful, Byakushiki successfully merging with Ichika's MJOLNIR powered assault armor and able to incorporate other weapons (both Human and Covenant), MJOLNIR armor pieces and Spartan armor abilities, and equipment into the Byakushiki. Both Ichika and his newest senior commanding officer, the Spartan-III supersoldier Rosenda-A344 (aka Noble Seven), formed a desperately insane plan to board the CAS-class assault carrier in orbit that would soon commence a second glassing of Reach to finish off the UNSC's groundside resistance against the Covenant and hijack the ship. They had hoped that by successfully hijacking the ship, it would be their ticket to getting off Reach for them and their rallied forces. Ichika uses the Byakushiki for the first time in a long time and used it to help UNSC forces fight their way into the gravity well of the CAS-class assault carrier. Ichika used most of Byakushiki's power to bring the carrier's shield's down, allowing UNSC forces to board the ship via its gravity well soon after Byakushiki dematerialized. Heavy combat within the CAS-class assault carrier ship took place and although the UNSC boarders would win once Ichika and Rosenda led troops to take control of the bridge with the Auntie Dot A.I. seize control of the ship, the UNSC boarding forces had taken heavy casualties and other Covenant ships within vicinity took notice of their actions. Their mission having failed as the other Covenant ships responded by disabling the hijacked CAS-class assault carrier and sent boarding parties to retake the carrier. Ichika had the Auntie Dot A.I. take the ship into the center of the fleet in a slipspace jump ad to execute their plan B, a modified version OPERATION UPPERCUT using a HAVOK tactical nuclear weapon to take out the carrier and any Covenant ship within reach of a slipspace portal to eliminate as much of the Covenant fleet orbiting Reach as they could. Eventually Covenant troops forced their way into the bridge, killing the remaining UNSC troops and forcing Ichika and Rosenda to withdraw to the carrier's slipspace engine room. Rosenda would go down while Ichika retreated from the bridge to the carrier's slipspace engine room. In an incredible display of heroism, Ichika held off an entire army of Covenant single-handedly - including Hunters, Suicide Grunts, Jiralhanae Chieftains and Captains. But the Covenant were relentless, and Ichika was eventually injured by plasma fire. After triumphantly taking on multiple Ultra and Zealot-class Sangheili in hand-to-hand combat, Ichika was finally overwhelmed, disarmed and forced to the ground. Moments before a Sanghelli Zealot would proceed to stab Ichika with an Energy Dagger, Ichika activated the remote detonator for the HAVOK tactical nuclear weapon just as the CAS-class assault carrier was exiting slipspace in the middle of the Covenant fleet. It was that this time the Byakushiki's closed form gauntlet shone brightly moments before Ichika was stabbed by the Zealot.

"Twenty-eight years, let's see what kind of world I woke up to now." - Ichika

When Ichika finally woke up and came to, he was on an island where he once fought the Silver Gospel. His mind gaining full consciousness, he looks around and sees that he is still clad in Mark V MJOLNIR armor and the Byakushiki's gauntlet closed form on his arm. He takes off his helmet to look back at his own reflection off the golden visor of his Spartan helmet. In many ways Ichika looked the same look as when he fought the Silver Gospel, but in many ways Ichika had the look of a person who has fought so many battles, bore so many burdens and losses, worn down with the passage of time despite his youth. Ichika had won, he was sure he blew up the Covenant ship with the nuke taking out the assault carrier and the surrounding ships. After so many long years he was finally back in his own world. But in a way, he had also lost too, lost more than he had won. He had lost time with his family and friends of his original world and universe. He had lost his precious Spartan comrades and family. The Humanity of the other world, the other universe he fought for so long has lost the last Noble Spartan and countless other heroes who fought and died on Reach, his innocence sacrificed for the greater good and to buy that Humanity precious time to live and fight another day in hopes of eventually winning the war against the alien genocidal war machine. His version of Humanity…has no need of people like him. No need of Spartans. No need of Champions, Saviors, Heroes, and Legends who would fight to protect and defend Humanity at and make great sacrifice no matter what the cost or burden, not when they can look up to IS pilots to do just that. His existence and its meaning is once more called into question, a crisis of self-meaningful existentialism bubbling up once more. In this world, he had been gone a mere twenty-eight weeks, whereas in that other world he had fought a war that lasted close to three decades long.

For some time Ichika would Lone Wolf around as a shadow mercenary under the alias if his UNSC callsign Noble Six while figuring out what to do. As much as he would like to see Chifuyu, Houki, and the others again, he couldn't do it. He couldn't put them through that kind of emotion pain and heartache after 28 weeks (7 months) have passed in his world since his supposed death. He didn't know what his return would do to them, as there really was no way he felt he could convey to them what had happened and what he had experienced during his departure from them. He was surprised that the Auntie Dot A.I. had survived and is now merged into a Triumvirate of AIs that reside in Byakushiki with Setsuna and the Shirokishi (White Knight) AI. Setsuna and Shirokishi would handle matters related to Byakushiki and IS related aspects while Auntie Dot dealt with matters related to his MJOLNIR armor and helping to organize his mercenary assignments. Like his old UNSC assigned missions, Ichika chose to take on mercenary assignments that involved breaking terrorist organizations and making entire criminal groups disappear. What is salvaged from the people he defeated and eliminated, he kept for himself as his prize to continue funding his own operations and online anonymous networks of informants for the kind of information he couldn't easily get online even from sites like subreddits forums, WikiLeaks, Anonymous, and 4chan. It was inevitable that he would encounter and wage a shadow war against Phantom Task, assassinating their agents and even going after some of their Board of Directors. Any IS Core he managed to seize, he kept for himself for further research. The Lone Wolf mercenary only became publicly known when some of the stolen IS Cores Ichika took back were sent to ISA. Really it was a honeypot to get Phantom Task out of hiding so he could attack them. Phantom Task members Autumn and Madoka would try to retrieve the IS Cores by infiltrating ISA (chronologically IS season 2 episodes 3 & 4 and LN Volume 5).

While Madoka was more than a match against the five IS Representative Candidates and their personal IS with the Silent Zephyr, dealing with Ichika in his Lone Wolf persona and a Byakushiki – revamped in appearance with HAYABUSA variant MJOLNIR-like aesthetics with some resemblance to the Mark I Prototype Armor Defense System (aka the HRUNTING/YGGDRASIL suit from Halo Legends episode Prototype) – was an entirely different matter. Ichika attacked the Silent Zephyr without warning and proceeded to try to kill Madoka as quickly as he could. With UNSC and Covenant-derived weapons, Ichika was able to maintain the upper hand and advantage against the Silent Zephyr. His only screw up was when Ichika broke the face mask of the Silent Zephyr and upon seeing Madoka's face, instead of moving in to kill her with Yukihira Type 2 energy katana like he should, Ichika froze up in shock and uttered Chifuyu's name. This delay give Madoka a change to strike back and the two assassins were in a stalemate. Eventually Phantom Task retreated, but Ichika had a tough time trying to get away as the personal users had new orders to capture him. Ichika was able to evade capture through though Spartan abilities such as Evade, Hologram, and Active Camo integrated into his MJOLNIR-like Infinite Stratos. Ichika cursed his hesitance to kill the person who resembled Chifuyu and having meet his old IS friends again. Chifuyu would figure out the mysterious mercenary known as the Lone Wolf using the IS to attack Silent Zephyrs bore some resemblance to Byakushiki and has Tabane investigate the matter.

Tabane tracked Ichika to his secret lair, but his helmet still on along with the voice scrambler prevented Tabane from seeing recognizing who he was. He warns her in a cold grave voice to leave which she doesn't and the two engaged in hand-to-hand combat although Ichika made liberal use of UNSC firearms to try to suppress and immobilize Tabane by wounding her. Tabane got so good knighting strikes in, but Ichika's S-III augmentations allowed him to endure the hits and keep on fighting. He had been shocked that Tabane was able to keep up with him, assuming that she too must have been augmented human in some way or form to be able to land some powerful hits on him despite him wearing Mark V MJOLNIR armor. Tabane was impressed with the mystery Lone Wolf that she offered to make a deal with him that were beneficial to him. Ichika stopped fight to consider her offer, originally wishing to decline her offer but he had decided to make the best of the situation and negotiated hard to ensure he got what he wanted while retaining his secrets. Ichika traded back the Cores he recovered from Phantom Task to Tabane in exchange for more information on Phantom Task from Tabane such as their current operational plans, force deployment, names and locations of members, and overall assets for example. Tabane offers her own counter-deal where she would give him what he wanted in exchange for taking on some assignments from her. With Tabane offering logistics support in his campaign against Phantom Task, Ichika accepted her offer believing that he got one of his objectives accomplished while giving Tabane nothing in return that could really compromise him. When Tabane left, Ichika prepares to destroy his secret lair as it had been compromised and move to another hidden secure location. Unknowingly Tabane had hacked his secret base's computer systems and obtain some sensitive information. Tabane would eventually break the ONI grade encryptions on the stolen information and data and discovered the shocking identity of Noble Six the Lone Wolf mercenary.

Ichika would be hired twice by Tabane on two separate assignments. One was to aid the personal users and ISA staff when Phantom Task attacked them on their leisurely trip (IS season 2 episode 12). This time Ichika would fight Madoka who was using Kuroshiki (Black Knight) IS unit, instructing them to go help Tatenashi's own fight against Squall as his battle with the unknown Silent Zephyr pilot was personal. Dialogue was exchanged between the two unknowing Orimura twins as they fought each other, Ichika using this chance to try to figure out who this person resembling Chifuyu was. Having learned of Madoka's identity, Ichika harden himself to kill her. The fight proved tough even for him, so much so that he had considered driving her away from the city to some isolated place a good distance away so he could use a HAVOK nuke he had in his IS to kill her. However, with the personal users' help, Ichika had been able to defeat Madoka although the damage he sustained briefly damaged his voice scrambler and Madoka had a good guess who the Lone Wolf was now from hearing his voice. The voice scrambler was immediately fixed but it was too late. As Madoka and Squall left, Madoka said out of loud that she couldn't wait to meet him again next time alone together, calling him "Ichika her little lone wolf brother". Such words in turn shocked the personal users; now that they think about it the mysterious Lone Wolf mercenary's IS unit really bears some resemblance to Byakushiki if only the slightest little bit. Noble Six would deny any of their questions asking him if he truly was Ichika or knew him, stating that he got his IS through the black market and made modifications of his own, never knowing it had once belonged to Ichika the world's first male IS pilot. Furthermore Noble Six stated that he doesn't know what happened to Ichika, but that he was certain that Ichika is dead like the rest of the world believes him to be. He refused to answer any more of their questions and instead disappeared with Active Cameo, leaving them with even more questions than answers.

The second assignment given to him by Tabane was during the World Purge-hen arc. Tabane deployed Noble Six as extra security for ISA for the duration of the crisis related to World Purge. Ichika got to work quickly neutralizing the active-camouflaged American spec-ops soldiers. At first he aimed to wound and capture them, but when Tatenashi was wounded by their gunshot Ichika proceeded to prove why he earned the covenanted UNSC designation as "Hyper Lethal Vector", killing every single last one of them. Ichika then moved to kill the American black op IS pilot who had been fighting Chifuyu, an overcharged shot from his Plasma Pistol followed by an Energy Sword to her back when she was engaging Chifuyu in a sword fight. The personal users have not been freed from the World Purge program, still stuck inside their own personal virtual reality dream worlds. Seizing this moment to sever ties with them and "prove" to them that he wasn't Ichika, Ichika/Noble Six connected the Byakushiki's gauntlet to ISA's computer terminals and had Auntie Dot A.I. download a special program into ISA's IS Core Network running the World Purge program to wake them up, that program that would turn their deepest desiring fantasies…into nightmares as the program was strongly modeled after some of the more traumatic and horrific scenes of the infamous Human-Covenant War. The girls would all see witness their own personal hell - the Covenant burning their precious dream world to ash, seeing people dying horrific deaths as their idolized dream versions of Ichika struggled to protect them as they were being hunted relentlessly by the Covenant. Their monitored heart rates and brain waves becoming even more erratic and unstable on the monitors, their bodies in the real world twisting and turning as Noble Six notes that his program was a success and that the nightmare program he added into ISA's IS Core Network would soon wake them up. However, the programing had been stalled, the virtual dream versions of Ichika were able to fight off the nightmare of the Covenant because of the girl's deep desire to be protected and saved by the boy whom they loved and one the world believed dead. Out of reluctance and to put an end to their dreams once and for all, Noble Six entered the World Purge himself and one by one killed all the dream Ichikas in the most murderously brutal and efficient manner as possible, not even giving any of the "Ichikas" a chance to fight back. The personal users could only look in horror watching the boy they loved die gruesome deaths at the hands of that Lone Wolf assassin. When Noble Six woke up still cladded in his MJOLNIR armor, he was greeted with the scene of angry personal users condemning his horrific actions against their mind to put them through such hell and for "killing Ichika". To hammer in the final nail in the coffin that was Ichika's former connections and ties to them, Ichika as Noble Six merely replied that he had orders from Tabane to protect ISA and free them at whatever the cost. His actions no matter how monstrous was justified. The last straw for the personal users came when Noble Six stated that Orimura Ichika himself was an overrated and overhyped as an IS pilot and that the real reason he died fighting the Silver Gospel was because he was truly weak and unwilling to do whatever it took to win, no matter the cost or sacrifice. Rin leapt up to try to kick Noble Six, but he swerved to the side and instead Rin's kick hit an impervious and unimpressed Chifuyu, which landed Rin and the personal users in trouble while Ichika quietly left ISA.

In the final scene of World Purge-hen arc just as Chifuyu wrapped up her own integration of Chloe Chronicle at an outdoor restaurant, Ichika/Noble Six then makes a surprise appearance to confront Chloe Chronicle and demanded to know what Tabane was up to as he had his suspicions that perhaps Tabane caused the World Purge crisis from the beginning. Chloe Chronicle replied that it wasn't all her master's (Tabane's) doing, but that they simply seized upon an opportunity of their own. He asks Chloe what Tabane was after, but Chloe then shifts the focus on him by claim that she knew who he was hinting that she knew his true name. While Tabane figured it out through hacking his encrypted data, Chloe was able to figure out who he truly was in the dream world during the World Purge event. Ichika got nervous but through his Lone Wolf persona and his stoic professional voice called Chloe's bluff. Chloe merely responded by saying that despite his namesake persona of a Lone Wolf, Noble Six was really a kind-hearted person. One who would all he could to save others, and one who would sacrifice his own happiness and humanity for the sake of others. When he killed all those dream Ichikas it was not out of malice, hate, or jealousy, but out of kindness. To help those move on with their lives after the supposed death of their beloved Ichika, as well as shake off any suspicions that he might possibly be Ichika. Chloe then notes that on that day when Ichika allegedly died, the person who would become the Lone Wolf, would become Noble Six, would be conceived and take his place. After all, why else would the Byakushiki then seemingly accepted Noble Six as her newest pilot? Was it because she never left Ichika's side to begin with? Chifuyu's eyes widen at such revelations, her mind starting to click things together as Ichika/Noble Six struggled to regain control of the situation. Noble Six insisted that the person known as Ichika died that day, that people need to get over it as that was the reality. Chloe amusingly noted that it was funny that Noble Six would say that when "Orimura Ichika stands right before us". In a last ditch moment of deflection, Noble Six then made the outrageous claim that he killed Ichika and claimed Byakushiki as his prize, leaving Chifuyu is disbelief. Chloe seizes upon his desperation further by elaborating that if his claim were true that he did killed Ichika, then Core 001 and its two AIs Setsura and Shirokishi would never accepted him as Byakushiki's pilot in the first place, given that the Shirokishi AI was modeled after Chifuyu herself and Byakushiki was an IS solely meant to be piloted by Orimura Ichika alone and wouldn't accept anyone else as its pilot. Chloe's last words in the verbal exchange was saying that "Ichika would never die. After all, 'Spartans never die, they are just simply missing in action', right?"

Those words strike a nerve with Ichika, memories of many Spartans falling in battle dead or dying including Noble Team flashing in his mind. Ichika/Noble Six suddenly lunges at Chloe to seize her in fit of anger, seeing as she had gone too far this time digging at a wound that never fully healed. However, he was intercepted by Chifuyu who asks this Noble Six person if he truly was Ichika. At his continued denials, Chifuyu then insists that he removes his helmet and let her see his face for herself. Ichika who is in struggling internally with the mixing of conflicted feelings tries to talk to Chifuyu to stand down and be rational, to not believe Chloe's words and that what she is saying is deception, deflection, misdirection, and utter falsehoods. But Chifuyu refuses to budge and loudly insists on letting her see his face for herself, materializing the original Yukihira sword pointed at him. Chifuyu stated that she wasn't going to let him slip away, that he would have to fight her if he wanted to escape. Ichika looks at where Chloe once stood only to see her gone as his focus had been on Chifuyu now confronting him. Ichika tries to sneak away via Active Cameo but Chifuyu had a powerful six sense and strike forth where Ichika was headed. Ichika was forced to block Chifuyu's Yukihira sword with the Hayabusa katana that came with his Hayabusa-like Mark V MJOLNIR armor set, which dispersed his Active Cameo just as his katana broke under the weight of the IS grade sword. Ichika then pulls out an M45 Tactical Shotgun to fire off some warning shots and gain himself some distance. Ichika was only able to get a fourth shotgun blast fired off before Chifuyu sliced the shotgun with her sword, forcing him to switch to MA37 Assault Rifle and M6G Magnum and firing to force her back. Ichika tried to slip away again with Active Cameo but with Chifuyu charging at him again, he quickly switched armor abilities to Evade to dodge the attack. Ichika tried using Jet Pack in a last ditch effort to get away but Chfiyu quickly jumped on top of him at a shocking quick speed even for his enhanced senses, disabling the Jet Pack and sending him crashing into the tables of the restaurant. Chifuyu would slap away the M6G Magnum in his hand while he was down before pointing the sword at his head. Knowing that he wasn't going to leave without a fight, Ichika reluctant materializes his Yukihira Type 2 energy katana slap Chifuyu's sword out of his face and reposition himself, this time steeling himself for a fight even though he would rather not fight her. Chifuyu and Noble Six then paced themselves, sizing each other up in anticipation of their opponent's next move. Chifuyu then noticed something, Noble Six's unconscious clenching and unclenching of his left hand above a handle of sort, presumably a secret weapon and trump card of sort, a trait belonging only to her brother and only done so when he is about to make simple mistakes; unknown to Chifuyu, that handle Ichika keeps his left hand over around is the handle for the infamous Energy Sword used by Sanghelli aliens, him waiting at just the right moment to ignite the Energy Sword.

AN: This is as far as my muse is able to carry this story concept idea of Ichika as Spartan-B312 aka Noble Six aka the Lone Wolf. A few important points I would like to make.

Spartan-B312's Mark V MJOLNIR armor is customizable, allowing the player to take many liberties with Noble Six's appearance having limitless armor combinations. Furthermore, Spartan-B312 was never shown on Halo Reach's game cover or promotional art for Noble Team as this was done to avoid portraying Noble Six as outside the player's control, preventing them from building a definitive mental image for the character. For anyone adopting this story concept idea of Ichika being Spartan-B312 (aka Noble Six, aka the Lone Wolf), you are free to customize his Mark V MJOLNIR armor set in any form or combination you want as Spartan-B312 was meant to be customizable in the game. Though if you're trying to aim for the most permanent and seemingly canon image of Spartan-B312, you could use the default game appearance which is the default MJOLNIR Mark V armor with the Mark V[B] helmet and gray coloration. There is also a conceptual art image of Spartan-B312 with his armor consisting of the Mark V[B]Helmet w/ UA Attachment, Commando Left Shoulder, FJ/PARA Right Shoulder, Tactical/LRP Chest Piece, UA/Buckler Wrist Armor, FJ/PARA Knee Guards, Default or Gold Visor, and Silver as Primary color and Steel as Secondary color. If you're curious and want to know, my favorite Halo Reach armor permutations are CQC, Air Assault, ODST, and Recon.

You don't have to restrict him to just one set of MJOLNIR armor. Given how in this AU story after the Pillar of Autumn left Reach and how Ichika as Noble Six remain behind to fight the Covenant a brief while before he would end up back in IS-verse, he would have to scavenge new MJOLNIR armor parts to replace the ones damaged from constant heavy fighting with the Covenant. Ichika's MJOLNIR armor can automatically replace damaged parts since it had been merged with the Byakushiki and incorporated newer weapons, abilities, and equipment shortly before Ichika would end up back in IS-verse. This means the appearance of Ichika's MJOLNIR armor never remains the same and you can switch things up if you wish for variety if sticking to just one armor image gets boring and you want some change in its form and appearance. Or you can just keep the same armor appearance for the entire story of you want. Your choice.

As always feel free to adopt this story idea and make it your own. Feel free to change anything to fit how you would imagine or envision the story concept of Ichika being Spartan-B312 would look like. If I had any request to make to anyone wanting to adopt this story concept idea, this plot bunny, is that at the very least Ichika be an equal protagonist if he's sharing the spotlight with another major prominent character such as the Master Chief or the Rookie for example. That is the barest minimum for such a request for adopting this story. Please don't pull a similar move like what 343i did with Halo 5, rendering Ichika as a minor character in his own story while the majority of the focus is someone else who may not even be related to the story at all, like Locke for example. For the most part, nobody likes Locke and I have such similar sentiments regarding OCs being the main focus characters or being the "switch" to the jerkish bait-&-switch method of presenting a "false" protagonist that people like to lure people into the story and then switching out with the "real" protagonist who is unknown, obscure, and perhaps even hated and one whom people aren't invested in. It's how I felt with Muv-Luv anime in the first three episodes, the main character presented in the first episode is bait that is switched with a character I really did not like and the same with Halo 5 where we all thought Chief and Locke would have equal time when 12 of the 15 missions were focused on Locke. If Ichika isn't going to be the protagonist in your adoption of this story concept of Ichika as being Spartan-B312 and your story is mostly OCs, then you really need to ask yourself this serious question - Why bother doing this story concept at all in the first place if you're gonna make Ichika a minor character in his own story or make the story an OC wankfest? What's your point?