Disclaimer: I do not own Infinite Stratos (IS), the only thing I do own is/are the OC(s).

Some people asked me whether I was turning this into a yaoi with the OCxIchika...haha well you'll find out the answer in this chapter.

With that out of the way, please enjoy the story! ^.^

Chapter 1: Changes…

I groaned as I got up. My whole body feels as heavy as lead. "What happened? Where am I?" I said to myself while trying to remember what happened. That's right! I got impaled by a 5 foot steel pole to the chest! I looked around to see where I am. I was in a middle of a grassy plain but instead of green, it was colored red…blood red. It was the same for the forest and mountains that surrounded the grassy plain. And in the middle of the plain, there was a small lake that reflected the blood red color of the moon.

"I am soooo dead huh? But still…I wonder whether this is heaven or hell? ...Meh probably hell since I reaaally doubt that heaven looks like this." I said to myself while crossing my arms trying to look convincing.

"How about neither? *giggles*"

Out of nowhere a girl appeared. She was about my height, with long white hair that went past her waist, and was wearing a red colored one-piece dress. But the thing that caught my attention the most was her eyes, they were glowing red. With the exception of her hair and eye color, she pretty much looks like me. (Screw you author! Why the fuck did you made me look like a girl?!)

I'm really in hell aren't I? I mean…just look at it. Its red everywhere!

"*giggles* Don't worry. You're not dead yet…well at least for now you're not" the girl said while smirking at me.

"Okaaay…so I'm not dead…yet. So where the fuck am I? And more importantly…who are you?"

"Where we are? In here" the girl said pointing towards her head.

"…Fuck. We're in your head? I'm screwed!"

"Not my head but yours! Well to be precise we're inside your sub-consciousness. And geez! I can't believe that someone like you is actually me!" the girl said while pouting her face. She actually looked kindda cute.

"W-wait…what did you just said?! You're me? You gotta be fucking kidding me! I know I MAY look like a girl but there's no way in freaking hell that—." I got cut off before finishing my sentence.

"Well I would looove to explain this in finer details but you'll have to wake up first" the girl mocked me.

"Hey wait! I'm not fin—." Aaaand that's the second time I got cut off.

The scent of fresh morning air, flowers and miso soup entered my nose. Aaah…that miso soup smelled quite delicious. Wait…miso soup? I got up abruptly. My whole body ached like I did a 100 km marathon. Seriously, it hurts like hell. I looked around and instead of finding myself in a hospital room, I was in a Japanese-style tatami room instead.

The sliding door suddenly sprang open. A teenage girl around my age with long black hair and a green ribbon with black stripes tied around her hair as a ponytail and parted at her forehead, she had dark blue eyes. She's currently wearing a black and white hakama. Her face was glistened with sweat so I'm guessing she just came back from practice.

"Looks like you've woken up. Why don't you take a shower? The ofuro's ready and I left a change of clothes for you in the bathroom. Breakfast will be ready in 10 minutes" she said with a smile on her face.

"Ah okay thanks. By the way, who are you and where am I? How long was I unconscious? And how did I ended up here?" I bombarded her with a series of questions.

"Calm down. I'm Shinonono Houki, but you can call me Houki. You were unconscious for almost a week. You're in my family's house and as for how you ended up here…I guess it's better if u ask her" she said the last part with annoyed look on her face.

Shinonono…now where have I heard that name before?...

"Her?" I asked Houki with a confused look on my face.

"My older sister. Well anyway, you better clean up and come for breakfast" she said while quickly darting off. "Oh by the way, the bathroom is at the end of the hallway!" she added before the sound of her footsteps disappeared into the distance.

"While I guess I better get cleaned up and get something to eat. I'm damn hungry!" my stomach growled as I remembered the delicious smell of miso soup earlier.

"If I heard correctly she said that the bathroom's at the end of the hallway" I said to myself as I walked nonchalantly towards the bathroom.

Little that I know I was in for a HUGE surprise.

It happened while I was undressing before washing myself and entering the ofuro. In the mirror I could clearly see a figure of a girl with waist-long black hair and red eyes. Her height was around mine and she had an ample sized breast. On a closer look, she had a scar on her left breast.

"WAAA!" I screamed due to the shock and stumbled on my back. My voice could clearly be heard throughout the house.

I got back up and tried looking closer at the mirror. My eyes widen in disbelief at what I saw. The girly figure that I saw earlier…was actually…me?

Before I could recover from my shock, the bathroom door was slammed open.

"What happened?!" Houki shouted, showing concerns for me.

"Alright Mikoto…calm down, calm down. Take a deep breath. Try to assess the situation calmly. Try looking down 'there'" I said to myself. Mustering all the courage that I have left, I took a peek down 'there' trying to confirm 'that'. 'It'…was…gone…

"W-W-WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED TO MEEEEE?!" I shouted with tears running through my cheeks (along with a nosebleed). Now that one could probably be heard a few blocks away. "And why the hell did I realize this just now? Perhaps…I had too much too think on my mind…" I thought to myself.

Finishing my bath quite a hassle since I had a few nosebleeds now and then. After that, I changed into the clothes that were prepared for me, a sweatshirt and a pair of track pants with both being black colored. The feeling of my breasts rubbing against the sweatshirt was…well if I were to put it in one word, it would be 'uncomfortable'.

Houki, a childish-looking-person-with-bunny-ears, and I was sitting at dining table. An awkward air fills the atmosphere. Sure, I wanted to ask a lot of questions regarding what happened to me, but seeing the atmosphere…I guess it's better if I keep my mouth shut.

"Urm Houki-san, that person is?" I asked her.

"My nee-san (older sister), Shinonono Tabane. And also, you can just call me Houki. We're at the same age after all." she answered with an annoyed look on her face. Does she hate her sister or something? And that name…Shinonono…Tabane..

"…WHAT?! You mean she's THE Shinonono Tabane?! The one who created the IS?!" Aaand out of nowhere she drew a shinai and tried to hit me with it. Yeah I used the word 'tried' since out of reflex or something my body moved out of the trajectory of her shinai. She was surprised at my sudden movement. Heck, even I myself was surprised…that is until the next thing happened.

A girl appeared out of thin air and was literally floating in mid-air.

"*yawn* What's with all the noise this early in the morning?" said the floating girl who looks like someone who just got up while rubbing her eyes.

Immediately my face went pale. "G-g-ghost!" Houki and I screamed in perfect unison while Tabane was still drinking her tea calmly.

"Good morning sleepyhead" Tabane said with a smiling face.

"Tabane-san/Nee-san! You know that ghost?!" Houki and I asked at the same time.

"Good morning Tabane. And how rude of you two calling me a ghost, I have a name you know!" she made an angry face while puffing her cheeks which was seriously cute.

"Ah! You're the girl that was inside my dream earlier!" I said as I recalled bits and pieces of memory about the dream.

"Oh! Looks like you two have already met each other so I guess a proper introduction is needed!" Tabane butted her way into our conversation.

"Well I suppose you're right. I'm Tsukiyo, the personality of the IS core that was implanted into your heart" she said the last part like it was an everyday occurrence.

"IS core…planted into my heart?..." my mind went blank upon hearing those words.

"Well…I guess I better give you a full explanation" Tabane sighed as she said this before she began explaining. "On that day, I was hacking through the network when a distress signal came up. At that time, the only thing that was known was that the cruise ship was under attack by an unidentified enemy. After that we lost any form of contact with the ship. Curiosity got the better of me and I asked the military for help. Since I was not sure whether I could arrive there on time or not, I sent a certain 'someone' ahead to scout, assess the situation and save the passengers if needed."

"A certain 'someone'…you mean the white IS?" I asked her.

For a second, her face looked surprised before changing back to her usual face. "Yes that's right. However, what I didn't expected was that the 'unidentified enemy' was actually an IS. And what's more, this one had an unregistered core."

"But still…what does that all have to with what happened to me?" I asked her again, a tear rolled down my cheek without me realizing it.

"…When we arrived, all of the other passengers and crew members of the ship was dead…with an exception of one person, you Mikoto-chan. However, you were critically injured. The only means of saving you we had at that time was to fuse your heart with an IS core that I happened to carry with me and let the nanobots repair your body. It was only a theory, but miraculously they fused together with no signs of rejection. Though, you turning into a girl was something totally out of my equations."

"…So…it really wasn't just a nightmare. Mom…dad…everybody really did die huh?" I can no longer hold it in as my tears flowed like fountains. "Uwaaaah~! Mom…dad…uuuuu~."

"There, there…" Tabane said while she hugs me and gently caresses my head. "Do you have any other family member?" I just shook my head at the question. Tabane remained silent for a while as if she was thinking about something before continuing. "Then would you like to be a part of our family?" she looked at Houki when she asked this question. Houki just silently nodded.

"You mean…?" I asked her while trying my best to stop my tears.

"Well…you have nowhere else to go right? Then why not join our family? You'll have to call me 'nee-san' though…and if you want…you can change your family name to Shinonono. I'll give you some time to think about it."

"It's okay. Your offer…I'll kindly accept them" I said with a genuine smile on my face which made Tabane—no…nee-san blushed. "Nee-san, are you alright?"

"…Kya! You looked sooo cute Mikoto-chan. You should smile more like that. Well I suppose I better take care of all the formal stuff. Tsukiyo, I'll leave her to you."

"Un, got it. Leave her to me!" she held her head high while hitting her chest. Why do I have a bad feeling about this?

I walked out into the garden as instructed by Tsukiyo.

"Well, what do I do now?" I asked her.

"Before we begin, I'll need to synchronize the IS core with your brain. It will hurt quite a lot but doing it allows information to be processed faster and allow you to control your IS better. You'll also be able to access any network and information when needed. Not to mention that it will also increase your reaction speed, so you'll be able to dodge something like the blow earlier without any assistance from your IS."

I felt a sudden jolt of electricity followed by an excruciatingly painful headache.

"Urgh! It…hurts!" I clutched my head, trying my best to withstand the pain. After a 10 seconds or so, the pain began subside.

"Looks like the synchronization was a success. Now why don't we try deploying your IS?"

A bright light engulfed me. When the light faded, I was hovering a few inches above ground. My whole body was covered in red armor. On my head I was wearing something that looked like cat ears, the shoulder parts had 2 optical drones on each side. The body and joints have less armor allowing for quick and agile movements. A pair of beam sabers are also attached to the lower part of the legs.

"Akaitsuki (赤い月, lit. Red Moon), so that's the name of my IS" I said to myself.

After that I deployed my main weapon, a 65 inches long ōdachi (bigger/longer katana) called the Ryūketsu no tsuki (流血の月, lit. Bloody Moon). But instead of an edged blade, it had a laser blade. With the help of the IS, I have no trouble swinging the ōdachi at all.

"Hooh, so that's your IS huh?" Houki said in an impressed manner.

"Haha yeah. But I don't know how to use this sword at all. So I was wondering if you could me kendo, Houki".

"I'll be glad to teach you". A smile was clearly shown on her face.

And that's it for chapter 2~

I hoped that some of your questions were answered in this chapter~!

Mikoto: You...actually made me into a girl huh?..

Well why not? I mean you already looked like a girl right? No harm done ~_~

Mikoto: *sigh* I'm not gonna even get mad at you since you're just going to shrug it off with your carefree attitude.

Anyway, please write a review if you have any ideas/suggestions to improve my writing.