Okay chapter twelve, second part of the testing
Also I see I didn't do a good job of describing the nano sword, it's a katana with glowing blue geometric circuits all over it and has a black/obsidian colored blade. And small wisps of energy follow it when swung
Also I decide to put experimental combat armor in this one, I was going to do it last chapter but decided to go with something bring related, but changed my mind since I thought of some new gear. Which should come apparent in this chapter.
Kazuma POV
Boss walked in the door just as I was loading up two gerunds with under-slung grenade launchers one I didn't load up while the other I used duct tape mags and a red dot sign. I got a pretty good 'just in case' maneuver in mind which I thought of about five minutes ago… it's kind of related to the boom launcher.
"So what's your plan?" asked boss,
"What plan?" I asked
"you don't plan stuff do you"
"I usually make stuff up as I go" I replied "Do you?"
"Probably not as much as I should" he admitted "I just have a general idea and fill in the gaps as I go and I think my older sister would kill me of she found out"
"Why?"
"She taught…or at least tried to teach me that those who fail to plan, plan to fail" I snorted at that
"That sounds like one of those crappy ass propaganda, teachers hang up around my school" I commented and just then my combat intuition went off, which was weird because the only other one in here was Boss, and the scientist was gone somewhere…someone must really want to hurt me right now…why do I have an odd sense of pride? I'm such a bastard. ;p "well let me counter that with my own belief those who fail to have a plan, don't have a plan to fail!" boss just stared at me.
"That actually makes a frightening amount of sense" said boss "kind of feel bad, though Chifuyu-nee taught me that, I admire here a lot, and I want to be just like her. Strong and fearless." And now I'm looking at him with a WTF expression, what he wants to be like his sister, and me and my mentality takes that the wrong way!
"Several things wrong with that statement," combat intuition went off again, must really be pissing someone off "but one thing in particular…Real men don't follow the path someone else has laid out for them, they jump off that path and carve their way through the dense shit storm that is life! Copying someone strong can make you strong, but making your own path can make you stronger than them!" Funny speech right? This is what happens when you grow up and the only thing to read was laminated motivational and demotivaitonal posters. We had to burn paper to start fires, and that included books. But not the posters they were laminated and didn't burn well. So I grew up with those things, like a lot of other kids.
"So real men don't read manuals" said boss with joking smirk, I stared for awhile before I finally got it.
"Oh, OH…hahaha, that's a good one boss" I said laughing "nope, us real men, we don't read manuals" we both laughed at the joke. After a few minutes the scientist came back carrying a crate.
"Ah, Kazuma, good your still here" he said as he put down the crate "I have armor and gear that just finished development, and I need you guys to test it out" he opened the crate, and took out a gray jumpsuit and threw it to me "go put that on, I'll get the other pieces out and set up" I did as told and took off my fortress armor "hold on!" yelled the scientist "don't get dressed right here!"
"What why not, it's like wearing swimming trunks" I do not see the problem here "I don't get why people freak out about people in underwear, while they do practically the same thing at a beach"
"You know what, I do not care" said the scientist "Do what you want" and I proceeded to strip, and put on the jumpsuit "alright, so these are basically high tech boxing gloves" he handed me a pair of black fingerless gloves with some sort of square "it does the same thing as the nano sword by giving your blows the extra force" which means I can now take on an I.S. with my fist, he hands them to me and I put it on, after I did a blue light turned on kind of like the nano sword "It also can make a shield for a few seconds" next he handed me some shin guards "these do the same thing only for your legs" put those on and then a blue light went on these things two "and finally shoulder and chest armor, these don't really do anything special but other than the definition. It's made out of…well the U.N. just handed me a bunch of metals from wrecked tanks and jet planes used by the military, and I kind of just through that stuff together" we both stared at him, I'm wearing armor made out of random pieces of metal…just like my resistance days.. "Anyways I tested it and it can stand up to common I.S. weaponry such as beam rifles and standard high caliber firearms" Nice! It's pretty light too! It has several pieces of metal all placed to have maximum protection with maximum flexibility along two more pieces that covers my shoulders, I feel invincible "but don't go deliberately trying to get yourself shot". Dude buzz kill.
"Well time to go kick some ass, I began reaching for some weapons"
"Well, Kazuma I'm afraid you can only use the weapons I gave you" Goddammit
"What ah man I had this thing wanted to do with grenade launchers" I said disappointed "ah well"
"Well I recommend you read this manual on the gear I made" I got a crazy smirk
"Real men don't read manuals!" I shouted and jumped out the door leaving a confused scientist and boss who was laughing his ass off. As I ran off, I could hear part of a conversation.
"Is he always like this?" asked the scientist
"You get use to it…" replied boss, I'm not that bad, am I? Well anyways I found the girl waiting with her I.S. deployed
"Hello kazu-kun, I've been waiting" that was a slightly scary greeting and wait…Kazu-what? "you were taking too long so I decided to come out before you" this girl is crazy! She seems a friendly enough but if I let my guard down I have a feeling that I'll get my ass handed to me!
"You may start when ready" and the girl wasted little time in attacking having drawn out a sword of some sort…looks like whip…a sword whip maybe? Anyways she charged, I barely had time to draw out the nano-sword and block. We traded slashed and parried each others, then I ducked just in time to avoid getting decapitated by the damn thing!
Are blades met and turned into a shoving match, time to test out the gloves. I clench my left hand into a fist and blue wisps of energy began emanating form it then I punch forward to her stomach this made the entire I.S. fly across the aisle and slam into some crates on the other side. "Well this thing packs a punch" no pun intended…seriously! Oh her face turned serious I think I made her angry, she charged again this time switching to a glowing lance…thing. She swung the thing before I could react and it hit me in the gut she swung it like a bat so it got thrown through a few crates before stopping after three rows "okay…I'm hurt now…" I grunted getting up, I feel like I was next to a HE charge when it went off seriously I know what that feels like, I'm part engineer and I tried to disarm a HE charge..let's just say if I got there sooner I could have saved myself a whole lot of pain, if it wasn't for the armor this would probably hurt a lot more. And while I was trying to get steady, my combat intuition went off the girl rushed up at me and jabbed the lance forward but I dodged this time, and was able to rematerialize the nano sword and get a direct hit on the torso and she slid back a good distance. "…but I ain't dead yet" rule of ARK combat if you aren't dead you can fight…I learned this when…you know it'll come up later…probably…ARK lessons are hard and unforgiving but they help you survive, if you survive them…
I leapt out of the container and we charged at each other.
Chifuyu POV
That boy is incredible, Tatenashi is the strongest student at the academy and that boy is holding his own against her or at the very least is managing to take the blows he's given. If Ichika has these kind of people with him I feel better about his safety. Even if lacks respect, Laura went livid when he started talking about me and my teachings, I feel like I should do something but it's probably better for them to fight it out
"Hmm Kazuma's fighting ability seems rather restricted" commented the scientist, apparently talking to Ichika in their waiting room.
"that's probably because you took his guns away." Said Ichika "you pretty much cut his combat effectiveness in half, same would happen to me if I couldn't use guns." I guess he really does live in a totally different world than me and Madoka, I'm totally against using firearms, they are messy loud and lack finesse, and any idiot who can shoot straight can use it "also he's not as much a sword user than a knife user, most of the time in combat both security and resistance members often used a handgun with an offhand knife, sometimes they would even have bayonet's but he took it a little farther and actually ended up using two combat knives by the end of the war…with a katana/long sword like weapon well our combat style isn't suited to that more a strike fast and punch really, really hard also run more than you shoot" I really lost my brother to the side of guns.
"wouldn't running while gunning make your weapon really inaccurate"
"we managed" was Ichika's simple reply "anyways this works great with an I.S. with it being such a big target and us not wanting to get hit by an I.S., I mean seriously there weapons were designed to take down other I.S. if a human gets hit by that we'd get splattered all over the wall" that's a disturbing thought even more so he speaks about it so casually
"sounds like you have a personal experience" said the scientist
"I don't want to talk about it…" that's cause for concern "oh crap Kazuma's pinned down!"
Kazuma POV
Well this sucks…this sucks a whole freaking lot. Yeah apparently her lance had an internal Gatling gun and now I'm pinned down behind rapidly deteriorating cover, I feel like I'm on the ARK again! I'm so screwed not to mention she got a few more hits on me and I'm a little bruised. But then something happened my nano sword and marking turned red and I felt like…
Adrenaline boost applied, you're invincible!
Speed boost applied, go use it!
Double Health buff applied, don't waste it!
Metabolism boost on the way!
Your weapons been upgraded, not quite sure how I felt that last one.
Basically a I felt a whole lot better Then I shot out of cover at crazy speed that even surprised myself, but no time to think about that, there's a hot girl piloting a mechanized fan service robot suit and is shooting at me got to focus. The bullets were easy to dodge, I was always pretty good at dodging bullets both figuratively and literally, but this was different it was like I could see where the bullets were going to hit, like my combat intuition went into overload and I could see it with my eyes. I moved my way directly through the hail of bullets dodging all of them and eventually got close enough to strike, I must have been moving faster than I thought because the look on her face was priceless.
I swung my sword which now had red wisps of energy coming out of it and apparently it really did gain a damage boost because even when she blocked her shields flared and she was shot back into a few containers kicking up a bunch of dust, but I wasn't done I charged in but before I could strike her lance came down but then I did something that surprised even myself in a split second I deconstructed my sword caught the damn thing! One handed to, man I thought I was surprised when I blocked the first I.S.'s sword with my machete! She looked just as surprised as I was. So just going with it I used my other fist to hit her in the gut sending her flying back even more before running up and doing a roundhouse (roadhouse ;p) sending her flying back farther. Holy crap I have her on the ropes, when the hell did this happen? First she had me pinned down and now thirty seconds later I'm kicking ass, not that I'm not happy that this is happening, but still really weird.
I drew out my sword and charged again and struck before she was able to block and her I.S. deactivated I guess I won. I deconstructed my sword.
"Wow that was impressive" said the girl …Tatenashi I think, and know I realize I fought an opponent without knowing her name…oh well no room for politeness on the battlefield. "not many people are able to beat me in a duel before"
"What can I say" I said with a cocky smirk "I'm just a totally awesome bastard"
"You are an interesting one" she said "Well, I'll keep my eye on you Kazu-kun" seriously where the hell did she pull that from.
We went back to our respective staging zones also my markings turned back to a light blue and…holy crap I hurt like hell. I'm tired, and hurt all over but I made it to the staging area and walked in "I feel like shit" I said bluntly.
"You look like it too" said boss
"oh you're freaking hilarious you know that"
"Anyways why did you glow red all of a sudden"
"I can answer that" said the scientist "you activated a stage I call overdrive basically all your sense reflexes and stamina along with your nano based weaponry get a major boost for a limited amount of time, but as you can see when it goes away the crash is rather unpleasant, it's recommended for last resort usage"
"That's one way of putting it" I said grimacing "why the hell did it activate then, anyways?"
"It can only be activated if the body is under a great deal of mental and physical stress" said the scientist "put into laymans terms it means you have feel like you're totally screwed"
"Makes sense" I commented before groaning "still feel like shit though"
"Hmm maybe we should take a break for lunch, I want the next match to be a two on two, but you probably need time to rest" my stomach growled…loudly "and eat apparently, plus I need some time prepare new weapons for you guys" the guy looked at me then "Kazuma, Ichika tells me you have a specialized pair of knives, could you sketch a picture?" I did so and we left to go to Chang's stand also Katze was apparently waiting outside for me and promptly jumped on my shoulders. Which hurt due to be really sore.
Madoka POV
Me Houki and Rin were watching my brother and his friend walk to where ever they were going, Rin seemed to be trying to stare a hole into the back of my brothers head
My Brothers friend really makes me angry, he mocked the teachings of my big sister and corrupted my brother, why else would guns be his favorite weapon? Also there's a cat sitting on his shoulder…ugh…nothing about him makes sense! He's so disrespectful and off-putting, why does my brother even hang out with him? Plus all those things they said when they were in their staging room, it's like my brothers a totally different person now!
Wait is that Charlotte? Why is she walking up to them?
Ichika POV
My combat intuition went off...yep…Madoka, Houki, and Rin , are following us oh wait there's a fourth one hm… this one has some bad intent with it… I'll figure it out later. Me and Kazuma are walking to Chang's stand, but along the way we heard a familiar voice "Umm…hello guys…" we turned to find Charl standing behind us
"Hey Charl." We greeted casually
"I was wondering if I could join you for lunch"
"Sure!" said Kazuma
"You don't even need ask" I replied with a smile
"Really" she said obviously happy "it's not weird or anything"
"You're a good friend of ours" I explained "it'd be weird if you didn't" and all three of us took off walking, Katze didn't count because he was more riding on Kazuma then actually walking after about fifteen minutes of walking we found Changs stand "Hey Chang!" I greeted
"Hey Ichika" he greeted casually then saw Charl "So…when did you get a girlfriend" this again!? Charl blushed, and Kazuma was laughing his ass off.
"But..I…he..we're not…" stuttered out Charl, you'd think she be use to this by know wouldn't you, I am.
"She's not my girlfriend" I said in annoyed tone, even though these guys are not brothers by blood, they seem to give me a hard enough time.
"Haha, I know Kazuma told me about it when he ate here by himself once" replied Chang, I turn to Kazuma
"You are such a bastard"
"I know" he replied with a smirk
"So why does the bastard over here look like shit?" said Chang, I don't know if you noticed but resistance members are not known for politeness.
"Doing some I.S. testing" I replied
"I thought only girls could fly those things?"
"That's true" I answered "we just get some specialized gear and see if we survive or not, and we're still alive so far"
"Huh" said Chang "there's a title for people you get in as much trouble as you two its Zǐdàn yòu'ěr" he just called us 'bullet bait' in Chinese, both me and Kazuma understood that.
"Oh yeah well you're a Gǒu shǐ tóu" and Kazuma just called him a shit head, the next few minutes were full of these two swearing at each other in other languages they were finishing up the Russian swear vocabulary before I stopped them.
"well that was a fun conversation" said Chang
"Yep" agreed Kazuma
"All you guys did was swear at each other in five different languages" I pointed out.
"Still one of the better recent conversations I had" said Chang as he handed out our food "Well here's something for Kazuma's injuries" then without warning he whipped a syringe and injected Kazuma with the contents who reflexively pulled back almost knocking over his food.
"Dude what the hell?" he protested
"it's metabolism boost." said Chang "Me and some of our other brothers managed smuggle ARK gear and are storing it with me,
"What kind of gear?" I asked curious
"Just some random things, weapons, attachments, some kevlar vests, ammo some of the gear that comes with the class kits" said Chang off-handily who then paused and looked at Charl "She's not going to tell anyone, right?" Charl got nervous and shook her head furiously "alright good because I'm pretty sure most of this is contraband"
"It is" I answered "how to hell did you get this past U.N. security?"
"We smuggled this crap around the ARK all the time and that place the supposedly has the best security system money could buy" boasted Chang "given that some of it was probably broken down, but still."
"Are you sure this is a metabolism boost" asked Kazuma "I don't feel any- whoa wait there we go, yeah that's a metabolism boost alright, also boss I smuggled a Gerund into my apartment"
"Did everyone in the resistance smuggle a weapon out?" I asked
"Probably" said Chang "so how long are we going to pretend that we're not being stared at by the four girls behind those corners?"
"I know" said Kazuma "I haven't been stared at this intensely since I had to deal with a security sniper on the ARK"
"the 'boom launcher' one?" asked Chang
"You know about that?"
"Everyone heard about the crazy bastard who launched himself into the air on a container door using satchel charges" Replied Chang "anyways it's rude to stare you should come out…and maybe buy something" great advertising Chang…this is sarcasm. Instead of coming out they backed away a little but the fourth one came out it was that silver/gray haired girl and she had a hostile look on her face.
"Ichika Orimura!" she said "I will not accept that you are her sister, someone like you can't possibly be someone important to her" the hell is this about?
"Who the hell are you?" I asked
"I am Laura Bodewig" she said "Cadet representative from Germany" I thought the accent was familiar. Anyways what is with her? Oh wait now I remember, Chifuyu told me that she went Germany to train some I.S. military unit, she must have made an impression on this girl. She's probably pissed because Chifuyu had regret over what happened to me and she made a face that-
*slap*
And she slaps me alright time to get down to business "I guess break time is over" I said "lets get back to the fight"
And premature end, I know I'm sorry this took so long I've been working on other crap went to work on a farm to earn money then there's school.
I wanted this to go longer but I kept getting stuck also by computer has been having a failure to go to standby mode lately and I have to restart and lose all my unsaved work. There is a part in this chapter that was rewritten five times!