Infinite Stratos Plot Bunnies Collection

Chapter 22: IS x Gundam Build Divers/Gundam Build Divers Re:RISE

Upload date: 4/30/2021

AN: Back with another crossover related to a Gundam series. While GBD was decent, its sequel RE:RISE really surpassed it and even surprised me and many others, especially with episode 12 the last episode of the 1st season when the characters realize that everything taking place in the alleged virtual world Eldora was actually real. Unlike all previous Gundam Build series, people actually die in RE:RISE. It really went from mere long toy-selling commercial anime like most Gundam Build series to a serious legit mature Gundam series with serious character development and story plot that was sealed with episode 12 and I have loved it since. And when it brought back stuff and characters from the previous GBD, it was done so in a respectable way where you don't feel that either prior or sequel series was insulted, belittled, or wanked in some way or other. RE:RISE really raised the bar for a Gundam Build anime and I do hope that future Build anime are just as good or as better as RE:RISE. Like some IS crossovers, I do try to blend the stories together so that all the events that happened in both series occur in the same shared timeline.

Story Concept:

Ichika has always been a Gunpla Builder since he was a huge Gundam fan. Building kits became an escape outlet for him to cope with his own insecurities and self-blame for Chifuyu throwing the 2nd Mondo Grosso for his sake. His main focus on Gunpla and everything Gundam related only increased since when he was growing up as most people (except his childhood friends and the Gotanda siblings) were only interested in him because he was Chifuyu's little brother and some had tried befriending him only for the sake of getting close to Chifuyu. In addition to being a Gunpla Builder and making a huge profit on selling his Gunpla figures (due to his creative and extraordinary Gunpla Building skills and the sheer high quality of his figures), Ichika also got involved in Gunpla-related tournaments and events. When Gunpla Battle Nexus Online (GBN), a new VR network game that lets people enjoy a variety of missions, matches, and simulations using Gunpla in a virtual cyberspace dimension came online, Ichika only drew deeper into Gunpla. Under the alias, Narrator (obvious Unicorn Gundam reference), Ichika quickly became a household name among the Diver community and having finally been acknowledged by online people for who he was and not because of his connection to Chifuyu only deepened his attachment to Gunpla and GBN. It also creates a cognitive dissonance where Ichika sees his IRL social identity as "Ichika Orimura" as even less important (seeing it as something only society concerns itself about him as only being Chifuyu's brother and nothing else) while viewing his online self as his real true self. He loved being on GBN as he felt that he had greater control over his own life there than IRL. As opposed to the real world he felt that he had an actual chance that he could overcome any challenge or obstacle in GBN.

Prior to the starting events of IS, in late elementary school Ichika was a semi permanent member of Riku's Force "Build Divers" (the first Gundam Build Divers anime, not the one in sequel series Re:Rise) and would lend his help to Riku and his friends in their fight against Avalon and GBN Administration to rescue and save Sarah, an the first known EL-Diver born from the vast amount of data GBN. After the events of Gundam Build Divers and prior to the start of Re:Rise, Ichika would encounter a Sarah-look alike EL-Diver while looking over his variant of MSA-0011 S Gundam (aka Superior Gundam). Ichika would befriend this EL-Diver who would provide him valuable insight into the "feelings" of his Gunpla. This EL-Diver who would be Ichika's faithful friend and partner in GBN names herself Alice, the name based on the A.L.I.C.E. System (Advanced Logistic & In-consequence Cognizing Equipment) of the Superior Gundam. Alice is the 88th EL-Diver to be born as there had only been 87 known EL-Divers in existence. Unknown at the time, but Alice is actually an AI equivalent of reincarnation. Alice was born from the fragments of Eve, the very first El-Diver AI in GBN who sacrificed herself for Sarah in her brief main appearances in Re:Rise episode 19 and 20. This information would connect Ichika to both Build Divers series and Build Driver teams.

Getting to the IS side of things chronologically, Ichika was discovered to be the first male IS pilot. Unlike what most people would think, Ichika did not take this news and its development with excitement and happiness. Instead he felt reluctant and a bit frustrated as IRL society's attention is back on him and once more it involves the IS and his identity as Chifuyu's brother and not on him as his real person and self. Deep down he didn't want to go to ISA or want anything to do with IS and his feelings were validated when he was immediately transferred to IS when he originally planned to go to a high school of his choice closer to Gunpla Building related facilities and stores. Attending ISA and learning how to use an IS and getting involved in IS harem hijinks would eat a huge amount of his time he could be using to go onto GBN or building Gunpla. It also didn't help that as an IS pilot he was mediocre at best and he knew this fact internally even before he piloted the Byakushiki for the first time.

While he originally hoped he would become an ace IS pilot and become closer to something like a real-life Gundam protagonist, he would eventually become disappointed over time as his IS was very limited and he felt that he never really won battles on his own with his own skills, talent, and abilities; it was always either someone else helping him or a sudden deus ex machina. Further cementing his clouded sentiments was the fact that the Byakushiki had originally been designed to be piloted by Chifuyu, meaning that the Byakushiki was never truly his own IS. He felt he was only merely a spar pilot in place of Chifuyu who was meant to be the Byakushiki's pilot and perhaps the only reason Byakushiki reacted to him in the first place was because he was Chifuyu's brother and nothing more. He was secretly concerned that Byakushiki wasn't truly loyal to him and that over time the Byakushiki would reject him when it realises that he is nowhere on par with Chifuyu and he would no longer be able to pilot the IS. These persistent doubts and insecure feelings will degrade his IS compatibility rating over time which would worsen his relationship with his IS.

The few reasons he managed to hold himself together and not completely fall apart was because Alice was always there in GBN waiting for him - ready to comfort him and soothe his heart, to embrace him in a warm hug while he cried his tears and feelings out to her, all while she encouraged him on. Also in concurrence with IS timeline, Ichika would end up joining the new Build Divers team from Re:Rise and participate in their adventures in what was supposed to be an experimental event story mission "Eldora" which turned out to be anything but an original simulated story mission. He would fight alongside the Build Divers in the new world of Eldora and help them anyway he can when he couldn't be there with them because of IRL events in IS that took up his precious GBN and Gunpla time. While the IS side of things made him depressed and stifled, the GBD side of things kept him happy, free, but more importantly gave him the character development he needed. While Ichika had piloted numerous Gunpla before, for the Eldora "story missions" he piloted a custom Gunpla figure Gundam Byaku Shiki which his latent wishes, hopes, and dreams for his IS given form; though "Gundam Byaku Shiki" was not the only Gunpla he would pilot for his missions on Eldora. He had hoped things would improve with Byakushiki and that he could deepen his relationship with his own IS. However such hopes and aspirations would be dashed as while in Eldora, Alus (primary antagonist of Re:Rise) made a copied version of Byakushiki, the Alus Byakushiki. It was no ordinary replica as the Alus Byakushiki looked exactly as what the Byakushiki would have truly looked like if it was piloted by Chifuyu, its restrictions and limiters removed.

What shocked Ichika more that the Alus Byakushiki also able to replicate Chifuyu's fighting style and tactics to such a degree of perfection that Ichika felting that he was actually fighting Chifuyu herself, not unlike with Laura with her Odin's Eye activated at all whose copying of Chifuyu was sloppy. Being psychologically rattled, he was unable to pinpoint any weaknesses of the Alus Byakushiki nor come up with an immediate strategy like he normally would. The first battle with the Alus Byakushiki left his Gundam Byaku Shiki completely thrashed, forcing the Build Fighters to withdraw from a tough battle against Alus and his Eldora Army forces. The second encounter actually resulted in a victory which was quickly spoiled by a more tragic twist. With the help of his teammates, Ichika was able to defeat Alus Byakushiki but that was when Alus activated a trap. Ichika had built his Gundam Byaku Shiki based on actual data from the Byakushiki IS, something which Alus took advantage of by hacking into Gundam Byaku Shiki by replicating a signature presence of Chifuyu. The Gundam Byaku Shiki followed Alus's commands, believing them to be from Chifuyu Orimura herself, and went rogue attacking Ichika's Diver comrades and killing innocent people of Eldora to Ichika's complete shock. Ichika pleaded with his Gunpla to listen to him, but the Gunpla ignored his cries as since it was based on data from the Byakushiki IS - which was originally designed for Chifuyu only and Alus was somehow able to replicate Chifuyu's signature wave pattern - it followed Alus's commands as if they were from Chifuyu herself. The Build Divers were forced to destroy Gundam Byaku Shiki to prevent more deaths.

The whole ordeal left Ichika in emotional disarray. He has Alice digitally hack his IS gauntlet to find out if there was a back-door program into the Byakushiki which to his dread Alice does confirm the presence of a back-door program that would allow someone else to seize control of his IS, just like what happened to his Gunpla Gundam Byaku Shiki since the gunpla was made using data from the Byakushiki IS itself. The discovery seemed to have confirmed his worst fears about the Byakushiki all along, which: A) left him depressed that he never could have been able to pilot an IS in the first place; and B) feeling betrayed as it seems to indicate that the Byakushiki would follow anyone who manages to replicate Chifuyu's signature pattern over him, her blood-related younger brother. That proved to be the last straw as soon after he wasn't able to activate nor pilot the Byakushiki again, nor could he pilot any other IS unit as he had developed a psychological barrier that prevented him from using an IS due to these revelations. While Ichika was originally saddened by such development, he soon cheered up by Alice as now that meant he no longer needed to attend ISA anymore and he could resume his old lifestyle where he could dedicate much of his time to Gunpla building and GBN. He originally wanted to destroy his Gundam Byaku Shiki gunpla, but instead opted to sell it online instead. A symbolic burying of his past connection to the IS and moving on with his life from the IS once and for all. Saying goodbye to his harem in ISA, Ichika left to resume his normal lifestyle he had before he became an IS pilot. Ichika dedicated himself to the Build Divers and started using a Unicorn-based Gundams, helping his friends in Endora and to atone for the tragedy that happened when his Gundam Byaku Shiki turned on everyone. Ichika opened up fully to his Build Diver comrades about his prior situation involving the IS and his time at ISA, which deepened his bond with them as they accepted him for who he was, not who his older sibling is. Though he didn't know it at the time, but he had unwittingly gave himself away as his Kazami Torimachi (pilot of customized gunplas of ZGMF-X19AK Gundam Justice Knight and the GAT-X303K Gundam Aegis Knight) had been streaming the Build Divers time in Endora and Ichika sharing his story of being a former IS pilot and ISA student left a lot of clues as to his true identity and the IS piloted. It wouldn't be long before some people actually started to form connections between Ichika and his Build Diver identity Narrator despite the appearance of his in-game androgynous-looking avatar. This is more so when an IS character had purchased the Gundam Byaku Shiki gunpla online. At some point Ichika would be outed in some way and he would be forced to face his IS past. His feelings would become even more conflicted once the IS cast finds out why he could no longer pilot the IS from seeing how his Byakushiki-inspired gunpla went rouge and killed people in Endora. While the IS cast would want to help him, the self-tormenting internal question Ichika would have to confront is whether he would want to pilot the IS again and risk hurting himself, his Build Diver friends, and the inhabitants of Eldora.

Order of Ichika/Narrator's main gunpla throughout the story by turning points in story:

Prior to start of IS story - MSA-0011 S Gundam and variants; other gunpla

During IS story - Gundam Byaku Shiki (custom gunpla derived from Hyakushiki and Gundam Unicorn) which is basically a CQC variant of the Unicorn Gundam; custom Unicorn Gundam named "Trifecta" (based on the three colors of Unicorn Gundams in UC - white, black, gold)

Post-IS (i.e. Ichika unable to use the IS anymore and leaves ISA) - upgraded Unicorn Gundam variant "Gundam Bicorn"; his main final gunpla unit "Gundam Tricorn"

AN: That concludes the story concept scenario. Whether Ichika can ever reconcile with his Byakushiki IS would be up to you potential authors to decide. As to who purchased the Gundam Byaku Shiki gunpla, it would likely be either Kanzashi who is an otaku or Tabane who showed interest in the gunpla because of how much it resembled the Byakushiki IS. They would then likely be the first to find out about Ichika's gunpla hobby soon after. Given the setup of the story concept, it would stand that if the IS cast wants to get through to Ichika stonewalling them, they would have to challenge him on his terms, through a gunpla battle since they cannot settle it through an IS battle since Ichika can no longer pilot an IS due to past trauma. It would be no easy task as Ichika as his "Narrator" persona is a veteran gunpla builder and fighter and his latest Unicon-based Gundam model is one of the most versatile and powerful ones he has ever made to date. How a gunpla battle between Ichika and IS cast would be up to the discretion of any author who wants to adapt this story idea; whether it be one-on-one, Ichika vs the IS cast, or even a team battle between Ichika and Build Divers vs the IS team. The gunpla battle would have Ichika inevitably face his old Gunpla model Gundam Byaku Shiki. While its up to any potential author to pilot the Gundam Byaku Shiki, the most likely person of the harem to pilot it that makes sense would be Kanzashi because of her otaku tendencies. Though it would be a shocking twist if Chifuyu does use Gundam Byaku Shiki in a gunpla battle which would ratchet the tension for everyone especially Ichika. However, it would not be easy for Chifuyu as this would be her first time fighting a gunpla battle whereas Ichika is truly one of the best Gunpla Builder and Fighter known, sort of like a flip when comparing both Orimura siblings' time with the IS.

Since the story concept is open-ended, like always feel free to adapt this story and make it your own adding in your touches to it. And as a reminder, no protagonist author Self-Insert Mary Sue/Gary Stu OCs please.