Infinite chapter 2:

Tabane Teacher

The lady stomped out of the door angry, slamming it behind her. The class turned and muttered to each other until a tile fell from the ceiling and slammed on the floor. Up at the hole in the ceiling poked out two robotic bunny ears, and some purple hair. Next poked Tabane's face, looking at all of the students from upside down. "HIYA CLASS!" then she poked her head back in, and jumped out of the ceiling, landing on the podium, wearing her usual, Alice in wonderland-style dress and mechanical bunny ears. Then she flashed two peace signs, and showed an adorable yet hyper smile as she said, "Ok, now you guys can call me Mrs. Shinonono, Mrs. Tabane Shinonono, Tabane, Tabane the genius, Mrs. Tabane the genius, or Mrs. Tabane Shinonono the genius. Any one who calls me any of those with 'the genius' gets extra credit!".

Houki then stood up, her face red with anger and said, "TABANE! What the hell are you doing here!?"

Tabane looked over to see her baby sister standing up, near Ichika, "OH! Heyyyy Houki-Poki! Don't ya know? Big Sis' Tabane is gunna be your home room teacher!"

"What!?" Houki began, "How!? Why!?"

"well... Once I found my little Chi-chan was teaching at this school... There was no why anything was gonna keep me from coming back to my love!" Tabane said with her hands on her cheeks, as thoughts of Chifuyu Orimura filled her mind.

"Then why don't you go pester her!? Do you even know how to teach?" Houki said crossing her arms.

Ichika stood up and put his hand on Houki's shoulder, "Houki..." he began, "Tabane created the IS... We can probably learn more from her then any other teacher"

Tabane jumped off the podium and said, "Yeah Ichikun! See baby 'sis? He knows what he's talking about", then proceeded to hug Ichika, puting his face inbetween her boobs as she laughed like a maniac. Then she released him and said, "so I guess we have to start with introductions... Ugh... Boring... Let's just make this quick... Then we're going to the training room!"

The class confused began to ask questions like, "The training room on the first day?", or, "But we haven't even gotten the syllabus yet..."

Tabane just laughed, "well it's the only day I can think of where there will be NO time limit on us using the training arenas... So why not... QUICK PEOPLE! ITRODUCTIONS!" Tabane blazed down the list, barely giving people enough time to say there names before moving onto the next student, then halfway down the list she yelled, "enough of this! We're wasting precious time! You can all shake hands on the way to the training room! Let's go, let's go!" then waited at the door as each person left the room, smacking each of the, on the but as they left.

As they walked through the halls, Ichika walked over by Houki and said, "is it just me, or does your sister seam especially hyper today..."

"I can't even get out of her shadow when she's not here! How the hell am I supposed to do that now!?" Houki yelled angrily at Ichika, completely ignoring his statement.

"Houki, calm down" Ichika said trying to get her temper to settle.

"You're telling me to calm down? You should be on my side with this one! Don't you want to get out of the spotlight of Chifuyu? I mean, I'm not my sister, and you aren't yours!"

It took Ichika a moment to think about this... He did indeed want to be compared to himself and himself alone, but Chifuyu was always there, always overshadowing him. The same legendary IS pilot who never once lost, being the first ever male pilot, that was a lot to look up to. "Houki... We aren't our older siblings... That's the point. Nobody here is going to think less of you because your sister is teaching us, I know I'm going to look at you as the same Houki", Ichika said with a sincere smile on his face.

At that moment Houki didn't know how to react. She thought about his words... They were right. She was not her sister, wether that was good or bad, she had her own name to fulfill, and her own story to live. Then Houki pulled in Ichika for a hug, "Thank you..." was all she said, then she ran into the locker rooms to change, leaving Ichika and Cyrus to wait until the girls were finished.

Cyrus came up to Ichika and said, "hey... You and that Houki girl seem pretty friendly with eachother..."

"yeah... We're childhood friends, if you haven't heard" Ichika replied.

Cyrus chuckled, "Well I've heard now..."

"Hey Cyrus... I'm curious... How exactly are you able to pilot an IS, I mean... I can pilot one, but I have no idea why. Maybe... You can shed some light on the subject?" Ichika asked curiously.

Cyrus folded his arms, "I know just about as much as you do about piloting an IS... I don't know anything concrete, but I have theories. I think it might actually be the IS's choice... You know like a simplistic form of AI, and until recently they haven't really been interested in any male pilots. Or heck, maybe we were supposed to be girls"

Cyrus laughed, "I sure as hell hope it's the first one"

"Honestly... I owe all of this to Tabane... She made this possible for me" Cyrus said as he looked at his chest.

"what do you mean?" Ichika began, "I know she made your IS for you... But the story seems to be a mystery to everyone"

Cyrus's smile flattened out as he said, "it's a long story"

"i'd like to hear it..." Ichika said insistently.

"I'm sure you would" Cyrus said, putting his hands in his pockets and cracking out a fake smile.

"hmmm..." Ichika said. Just as the silence was about to become awkward, Ichika looked at the time and said, "hey, I think the girls are done changing now".

"alright, you can go on ahead..." Cyrus began, "I prefer to change alone"

"oh come on... We're both guys... You act like you've never changed in a locker room before" Ichika said.

"I... Sorry, nothing personal. I'm just not comfortable with it" Cyrus responded.

"don't tell me you're a girl..." Ichika said, banging his head on the door, "this is just another Charlotte incident".

"Trust me, I'm a guy ok?"

"well then what's wrong with changing with me?"

Cyrus took a deep inhale, then he lifted up shirt, revealing a shiny metallic chest, wires were weaving in and out of the ribs, and as he exhaled, the metal seamed to contract. "please... Just no more questions", Cyrus said as he looked away, unable to make eye contact, or look at his mechanical chest.

"I... I'm sorry Cyrus" Ichika said, not sure what else he could say.

"yeah" Cyrus said, "me too"

With that Cyrus pushed past Ichika into the locker room, and changed into his training suit quickly. His suit was slightly longer to make sure it covered up all of the shiny cybernetics. It was another thing that Tabane must have created for him, and it matched his necklace, and IS... Mostly black with dark green trimmings.

After everyone was all don't and changed, they met in arena #1 as Tabane instructed. "OK EVERYONE!" Tabane announced as her face began being shown on the giant jumbo TV screen looming over the arena, "here are the matches!" then her picture went away, as a large screen displaying all the students who were to battle eachother, "we only have limited time... So try not to get in each others way! And I'll be watching the whole thing... So everyone give it all you got! If you don't, I'll know"

On the screen above it showed the matches... But the only one people were really paying any attention two was the one that said, "Ichika Orimura vs. Cyrus Black".

Cyrus's blue eyes looked over at Ichika. There eyes met, and without any words at all, the two activated there IS's

"Activate! Byakushki!" Ichika exclaimed as he took his normal stance, holding his wrist high above his head as his mighty IS, the Byakushki deployed.

Cyrus put his hand on his necklace. He whispered to himself, "may my feet be quick, my moves be silent, and my breathing fade away... I shall disappear into the smoke. Smoug... Grant me your power". Then Smoug was deployed. As the light cleared, Smoug was only able to be seen for moments before the smoke began to spew. The gauntlets were very large and the fingers exceptionally long. The wings were almost skeletal, like a dragons wings but without the skin and scales. The rest of the legs, torso, and forearms were covered in thorn-like spires, at the base of each spire was where the smoke leaked out. The head of the mech was shaped like the skull of a dragon, the jaw and teeth right below Cyrus's head, and the rest of the skull on top.

The familiar Byakushki floated there like a majestic angel... An agent of something greater. He reached out, and the Yukihira materialized into his hand. "Smoke? Is that your only weapon?" he said as he let himself be engulfed by the blackish-grey cloud.

"you wish..." Cyrus said, and as if a drop of water into an ocean... Disappeared into the smoke.

Suddenly even the light got lost in the smoke, the only shimmer from the yukihira. "I don't get it... Nobody could see in this fog..." Ichika muttered to himself.

"I dot need to see..." Cyrus said, from behind Ichika.

As soon as Ichika turned around, swinging his sword, Cyrus was already behind him again. He grabbed onto Ichika with his giant gauntlets, the wings of his IS then latching on as well. Then the thorns all across Smoug lengthened. They Started to curl around the Byakushki's torso and limbs, rendering it immobile.

"what are you playing at?" Ichika asked angrily as he dropped the yukihira into the grey.

"you'll see..." Cyrus began, "Drain lightening..." Then a blackish lightening shot out of the thorns. Ichika's shields began to steadily decline, 400... 380... 360... 320... And just as steadily, Cyrus's shields began to increase, 400... 420... 440... 460...

Ichika let out a scream as he felt the electricity surge through his IS. Ichika began thrashing and swerving, trying to do anything to shake Cyrus off his back. Before he knew it, his shields were down to 200, and Cyrus's were all the way up to 600.

Eventually Ichika did a dive, right strait down into the arena floor. Cyrus just opened his wings back up, the prongs catching themselves in the ground like fishhooks. Ichika was now down to less than 100 for his shields.

Ichika struggled and struggled, but it was no use. His shields hit zero, just as Cyrus's hit 800... Never before had there been a more perfect match on paper, never before had there been a match where one IS was able to double its shields before victory.

Moments after his victory the thorns retracted back into Smoug, dropping the Byakushki to the ground. The Byakushki dematerialized, and Ichika fell to his knees. "my god... What kind of attack was that?" Ichika asked as he tried to catch his breath.

Smoug dematerialized and Cyrus fell to his feet as he said, "That was Drain lightening... The spires on Smoug release a sort of kinetic wave, when this wave hits an opponents shields, it bounces the kinetic wave back at its emitter, taking a a chunk of shield energy back with it, thus draining your shields, and boosting mine."

"More from Tabane the Genius?" Ichika asked.

"yeah... Tabane the genius", Cyrus repeated.