Hello everyone! Kotei no Yami here with the new chapter of Infinite Stratos: Zero! Fina-fucking-lly right!? Anyway, I just want to both, apologize to all the people who followed my story for making you wait so long, and thank you all for being so patient. School and homework have just been such a pain in the ass that once I'm done I just pass right out, giving little to no time work on my stories.
Aokage-nii (my co-author) has suggested that I start writing in 3rdperson from now-on. Please let me know what your thoughts on that topic are.
Okay! Heres what you've all been waiting for… INFINITE STRATOS ZERO CHAPTER 2!
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"I'M GETTING MY OWN IS!?" I exclaimed with stars in my eyes.
"That's right Orimura, due to certain issues you will be provided a personal unit by none other then Ichi Industries." Onee-sama elaborated, drawing collective, expected gasps from the whole class.
Let me explain. Ichi Industries is a relatively young company, only around for about 5 years or so. In that time, they became the number 1 distributor of IS's and IS parts in the world. All offers to associate with other companies have been declined. Climbing the ranks all on its own and taking the number 1 spot. All within 2 years.
"YYYYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" I yelled in joy… until the English girl appeared in front of me with that same arrogant smirk.
"I, Cecilia Alcott, am actually rather relieved to hear that. After all, in a class representative match between you and I, Cecilia Alcott, the outcome is already painfully obvious. But it just wouldn't be fair for you to use a training model while I, Cecilia Alcott, use my own personal unit." Why did this girl have to keep blabbering on about herself? I guarantee that 99.99999 percent of the school doesn't give a rat's ass.
"Oh, reeeeeaaally. Please tell me more." I said, sarcasm leaking from my voice. I guess she did not get the hint.
"Oh, But of course. I, Cecilia Alcott-" "We never did decide on a handicap, did we?"
It took her a moment to respond, as if she remembered "That's correct! I thought for sure you were going to back out, nice to see that there are men with a backbone! What did you have in mind?" That was close. I almost had to deal with another 4 hour long speech about how great England is. NOBODY CARES!
"How about no flying?" That seemed fairly fair. Ha! Get it!?
"Very well. I, Cecilia Alcott, will not fly for the duration of our match!"
"No, I meant I wouldn't fly." I said, hoping to clear up that misunderstanding, but everyone just laughed again. That is starting to get annoying.
"I'm serious!" I said getting peeved.
"You do know that handicaps are to make the game more even, not less so, right?" The blonde girl said slowly after she calmed down from laughing, as if explaining things to a child. This is getting annoying. Well, now I don't feel bad for not remembering her name.
"Yes. That's why I need a handicap. So it would be fairer to you!" ~Second verse, same as the first~ Payback. Is. A BITCH!
"What did you just say?" She asked quietly, her eyes narrowing.
"Yes. That's why I need a handicap. So it would be fairer to you!" I said in the exact same way I did before.
"Alright, alright. That's enough everyone. Let's get back to class." Onee-sama said diffusing the time bomb of rage that is… um… blonde British girl. Hey, I said I can't remember her name for the life of me.
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As soon as I saw him coming toward me, I bolted out of there as fast as I could. I just wanted to avoid another headache. Why does he have to be so stupid and at the same time so damn cute?
I went to the cafeteria, ordered the special, and sat at a table alone.
"Can I join you?" I heard a voice that made my stomach flip. I turned to meet the grinning face of Ichika. I turned away trying to look indifferent and try to keep down my blush. "D-Do whatever you want." Ichika was silent for a moment and then I heard the soft thud of him placing his plate on the table. I stared at my own plate for a moment, waiting for the awkward silence to end, but instead I felt someone's big, warm arms wrap around me from behind. I was in so much shock that I dropped my chopsticks, my mind grasping for a response to this strange situation.
"I-i-ichika!? W-what exactly are you d-doing?" I barely managed to stutter out, as his warm embrace was so tender that I found myself struggling to think straight. I regained a little bit of composure and turned to Ichika, my face more than a little red, and asked him again with some more force. "Ichika! What are you doing!?" He had a really goofy grin on his face that made me feel a little bad for yelling, and he didn't seem to hear me, since he just kept hugging me. He even began to hum a little bit.
I snapped out of my daze and realized that we were still in the middle of the cafeteria. No matter how nice it felt, If I let this go on, Ichika might think I'm indecent! I wiggled my way out of his grasp and then grabbed his arm, a strange curious look on his face. I pulled his arm forward and grabbed the front of his shirt, and then using all of my strength to hoist him over my shoulder, I threw him across the room.
He flew a lot farther than I expected, almost the full length of the cafeteria. Suddenly, he preformed a back flip in midair, and then landed on his feet, stopping just a couple inches from a table. When the hell did he learn how to do that!? He always had a habit of doing seemingly impossible things. I felt my blood boiling as I looked at his goofy, grinning face. "You idiot! Why the hell did you do that!?"
He looked puzzled for a moment and then went right back to that stupid grin of his. "You said I could do whatever I want, so I did!" he said as if it was common knowledge. He walked back to the table we were sitting at and pulled out a giant tub of ice cream out of seemingly nowhere. He always did have a black hole for a stomach…. In a very cartoony fashion, he stuck the entire tub into his mouth and when he pulled it out, the tub was spotless. I gaped at him for a moment and then just went back to eating my food. It was easier if I didn't think about it too hard.
"Excuse me." The cheerful voice of a girl said. A tall girl wearing the necktie of a third-year walked in front of us. "Orimura-kun, I heard you were going to fight Alcott-san." Then she added with just a hint of shyness "If you'd like, I could give you some tips on how to pilot an IS so you'll be ready for your fight…" I'm still trying to figure out why I did what I did next. This girl just made me angry.
"Thanks, but he'll be training with me from now on." I said without even realizing it. The senior girl looked shocked for a moment and then a pompous smirk came across her face. "I'm sorry? Aren't you a freshman too? I'm a senior, so I could teach him the ropes much better than you can." She really pissed me off now.
"Yes, but I am Tabane Shinonono's younger sister. But thanks for the offer." I said sarcastically. The girl looked flustered and stared for a moment before turning around and walking away without a word. VICTORY!
Opening one eye, I shouldn't have been surprised when he was looking at me with stars in his eyes. "HOUKI! YOU'RE GONNA TEACH ME IS STUFF!?" He yelled happily. I looked away trying to save my dignity. "S-Sure. Whatever. Only because I don't have anything else to do." I then found myself pinned on the floor with Ichika's arms around me again.
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After Ichika glomped me in the middle of the cafeteria (I still couldn't stop blushing at the memory. That hot idiot) we made our way to the school Kendo dojo. I was itching to see if he was as good as he was in elementary school. I came out of the changing room to find Ichika still in his uniform juggling 3 Shinai.
"Dammit Ichika! Why aren't you dressed?" I said pissed off.
"I don't have a kendo suit thingy" he responded. Oh, that's actually a pretty good reason.
"Well go find one!"
"I kinda doubt they have any for guys"
"Fine, let's just start."
"Yay!"
"What the hell are you doing?" I asked looking at him as if he had just turned out to an alien from another dimension. He was holding all 3 Shinai, One in his right hand, one in his left and one in his teeth. He had produced an all black bandana, tied so it covered everything from the forehead up. He also appeared to have dyed his hair green and had drawn a horizontal line over his closed left eye in black marker.
"Getting ready!" He said clearly. How, I have no idea.
"What the hell is that? Some sort of cosplay?"
"What it is Houki…" he paused, probably for dramatic affect "is awesome!" He finished, honestly, a little awesomely.
(WARNING! I know next to nothing of how Kendo is executed!)
"I… you know what, I don't care anymore." I took my stance on one side of the dojo with Ichika in the other. I was determined not to lose to him. See, back when Ichika and I were kids, we studied at the same Kendo dojo. Since he joined, he had lost exactly 2 matches, both of which to teachers, in the first month. After that, whether it was a teacher or another student, every spar he was in, he won without breaking a sweat. I was his most frequent opponent.
I charged at him, doing a 2-handed over-head bash, but he just blocked it with his left sword. I was prepared for a hit from his right but he surprised me with a thrust from his mouth-sword, hitting me clean in the forehead. If it had been a real sword I would be sporting a hole in my head.
I leaped back to put some distance between us, but he was on me in a second, showering me in bashes. I could barely block any.
I made a thrust aiming for his stomach but he caught it by putting the 2 swords in his hands in an X with the "blade" of my shinai between where the hand-guards ended and the "blades" began. With a flick of both wrists he sent me stumbling backward, but in the time it took me to recover, he had made another instantaneous transformation.
He had grown 2 more arms on both sides and 2 more heads growing out of the base of his neck, one facing the right and the other facing the left, all of which had their eyes trained on me. "Now, my Osananajimi, know the true face… OF BADASS!" In a split second he was behind me, the Shinai in his, now 6 hands, all pointing outward. "Kyutoryu Asura: Blunt Ichibugin!"
A sharp stinging reverberated through me as I flew through in the opposite direction; my skull became quite well acquainted with the wall, and then all I could see was black.
But I would have rather let Ichika keep wailing on me if I knew what I was about to see…
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My drowsy azure orbs opened to see land that reached as far as my eyes would let me see.
It was early evening; the sun only just began to rest upon the horizon, painting the sky a simply stunning cross between orange, magenta, red and subtle dark blue. The various insects played their million year old melody as they began to arise from their slumbers. The fields of grass stretched on as far as the eye could see, resembling more of an emerald ocean as it swayed gently in the wind. A lone tree stuck out in the middle of it all, which I was currently resting under.
And yet it all paled in comparison to what I was using as my pillow.
I was resting on his right shoulder, positioned so I couldn't see anything except his right side. He was staring at the horizon, not noticing I woke up. I had fallen asleep with our hands intertwined; if you looked closer you could see a matching pair of golden bands on each of our ring fingers. I smiled as I rubbed my swollen belly.
"Finally awake I see. And here I thought I was gonna have to carry you." A smooth voice rang in my ears making my smile widen.
"Is that some sort of fat joke?"
"It wasn't meant to be. But a little extra weight isn't always a bad thing" he said, putting his right hand over mine on my belly. I felt butterflies in my chest, and snuggled deeper into his shoulder.
"We should probably get home. It's getting late." I frowned a little at that, I was enjoying this. I know we should get home, I just didn't wantto.
"Come on, up" he said, getting behind me and practically dragging me to my feet as I just pouted.
I smiled at him as he put his right arm around me, resting his hand on my belly. I buried my face into his neck, but when I looked at his face he was frowning. His hair was covering his eyes. I saw a lone tear drip down his cheek.
"Ichika?" I asked concerned about the father of my unborn child.
"Houki… can I ask you something?"
"Of course. What's wrong?"
"Why didn't you help me?"
"W-what?" I said starting to back away
"Why didn't you help me?" he said finally turning to face me… I screamed at what I saw.
The entire left side of his body was nothing but wet, bloody bones. The only sign that he had ever been alive was the eyeball hanging out of its socket by the optic nerve, giving whoever looked at it a perfect view into the inside of his skull.
"Why didn't you help me... Houki...?"
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Houki woke up with a start, bashing her forehead against mine. Naturally, I did not feel a thing, but I'm known for having a thick skull, so I was concerned Houki might have been hurt.
She was holding her head, with her teeth clenched and eyes shut tight. "Are you okay?"
She opened her eyes and flinched when she saw me. "Um… y-yeah. I'm fine. Where are we?" She asked, shaken up from something.
"We're in the nurse's office. After you took a direct hit from the power of my Badassity, you were sent flying into a wall and passed out, so I took you here. You've been out for about an hour." She seemed really surprised for a minute, before looking back down and mumbling a "Sorry I caused you trouble" under her breath.
"Bad dream?" I said smiling sympathetically, after a minute.
"You could tell?"
"You kept thrashing, mumbling my name. Chifuyu-nee said you were either having a nightmare or a wet dream, whatever that means."
Houki must not have been feeling well, cause her face turned bright red.
"Houki? Are you okay?" I asked, concerned. I put the back of my hand on her forehead to check for a fever. She wasn't warm enoug- Oh! She just tried- key word-Tried-to knee me in the chin! Houki's doing juuust fiine.
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I was waiting for him in the stadium with Blue Tears fully deployed with Starlight MK-III in hand. I was determined to show that barbarian the greatness of Britain, as well as prove to him that, I, Cecilia Alcott, am worthy of the title of representative candidate of Great Britain.
How dare he show such attitude to me, Cecilia Alcott? The nerve of that JapaneseBoy! I, Cecilia Alcott, will show him his place; right beneath my heel.
He finally came out of the hanger door that was opposite to mine. He had on a male version of the IS Academy training suit that consisted of a tiny, tight fitting shirt that exposed his midriff and similar pants. I wasn't even aware they had a male version.
"Orimura, I am giving you one last chance to save your dignity and withdraw. I suggest that you take it before you suffer any further embarrassment."
"I'm not quitting! This is going to be way too much fun. Besides," he said flexing his right arm and then placing his left hand over his bicep. "today, I'm going to knock you up!" My jaw dropped in sheer outrage. This seemed to happen a lot whenever this boy opened his mouth.
After a moment, Orimura-sensei (who was, I must say, nothing like her younger brother) came out of a door next to the hanger and whacked him over the head with a very heavy looking book. He barely reacted, but turned with a smile to look at his sister.
"Hey Chifuyu-nee! What's up?" He said, quickly getting another whack in the head.
"Its Orimura-sensei. Now, Orimura. Why did you make that particular choice of words?" She asked with a rage vein quite visible, even from all the way over here, and her right eye twitching.
"Well, at first, I was going to say 'knock her out' but my friend Dan, you remember him right? He said that I should say 'knock her up'. I'm not sure what the difference is, but Dan knows a lot of funny stuff so I listen to him in that regard." He finished with that same face splitting grin. Orimura-sensei stared at him with her mouth hanging open, much like mine. This boy seemed to have that effect on people.
After a moment of composing herself, Orimura-sensei finally shook her head. "Orimura, jus- Just fight." She mumbled something to herself about needing a drink and then walked back into the door she came from.
"Okay, bye! Now, where were we? Oh, right." He said, starting to spin. A cyclone formed around him and a cloud of dust was kicked up. When he stopped, he was wearing that same stupid costume that he wore on the first day of school.
"ICHIKAMAN HAS ARRIVED!" He stood with his hands on his hips, with an even bigger grin than usual.
I gaped for a minute, just watching him keep that same pose. Finally, I felt the blood surging and my face growing hot. "ARE YOU HONESTLY GOING TO FIGHT ME IN THAT RIDICULOUS OUTFIT?" I shouted at him, regrettably lacking the refinement I normally carried myself with.
"OF COURSE! I AM THE MIGHTY ICHIKAMAN! I ASK YOU, DOES SUPERMAN FIGHT LEX LUTHOR IN HIS SUIT AND TIE?! NO! HE DOES NOT! I AM A HERO, WHICH MEANS I MUST WEAR PROPER HERO ATTIRE AT ALL TIMES WHEN I PERFORM MY SUPERHERO DUTIES!" He said, pausing for a moment with a serious look starting to form on his face. This lasted only seconds as a gigantic grin split his face. "Oh my gosh, I just said duties! Ahahahahahahaha!" At that point, my trigger finger was really starting to twitch. Calm down Cecilia, soon. So very soon. I'm going to wipe that stupid, uncultured, arrogant grin off that ridiculously cute face! Wait, what? Bad girl. I have to focus, I must not think about those things.
After regaining control of myself, I put on the most dignified face I could muster at that point, though I could still feel my right eyebrow twitching. "Can you please just deploy your IS now, I would like to get this fight started."
"Huh? Oh, sure! Oh wait, I mean VERY WELL THEN! LET US BEGIN! ICHIIIIKAAAAMAAAAN TRANSFORMATION!" A white glow enveloped him, revealing a grayish white and blue IS. "AS PROMISED, THE MIGHTY ICHIKAMAN WILL NOT USE HIS MIGHTY IS TO TAKE ONE MIGHTY FOOT OFF OF THIS BATTLEFIELD FOR THE DURATION OF THIS DUEL! PREPARE YOURSELF, BLONDE BRITISH GIRL WHOSE NAME PRESENTLY ESCAPES ME!"
I just floated there a moment, before finally a borderline sadistic grin appeared on my face. "I am going to shoot you repeatedly now. I am going to enjoy it much more than I should." I then unleashed a hail of blasts from my Starlight MKIII which should have been very satisfying... if he didn't dodge every shot I fired. He moved as if he didn't even have an IS on. He performed back flips, front flips, jumps, acrobatic techniques that he should not have been able to do. I found myself flabbergasted. How was he able to jump 6 feet off of the ground while wearing two ton machine armor on!? I fired volley after volley of blue energy blasts at him, yet he didn't even break a sweat as he weaved and ducked his way out of every single shot.
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Five minutes later, I regained my senses. I was covered in sweat and I was panting softly as the rage finally subsided. I had blacked out several minutes earlier and began a frenzy of shots that had long since kicked up a large cloud of dust which engulfed the battlefield. I stopped firing and waited for the dust to clear. After a moment, the cloud finally dispersed, allowing me to get a good look at him.
He didn't have a single scratch on him.
He was just standing there, with his hands behind his head and that same face-splitting smile. "You know you can't win, right?"
"W-what?" What in the world was this lunatic going on about now!?
"I said you can't win. Throughout this, you've fired exactly 236 shots. Even 3rd generation IS's take anywhere from 1 to 3 points of shield energy to fire an energy blast. You obviously don't take 3 points, or this would already be over. In addition, for every minute that your IS is deployed, it takes up 1 point of shield energy. This match has lasted for 5 minutes, totaling 5 points. Which in short means you only have between 364 points, minus the extra 5 points for a total of 359, or 128 points minus the extra 5, for a total of 123. I haven"t taken a single hit. The only points I lost were the 5 from having my IS out. Which means I still have 595 points. You can stop firing and try to outlast me, but it's just plain not possible for you to win like that. Or you can keep firing like you've been doing, but just look where that got you." He said pointing at the stadium ground, full of craters.
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You could hear a pin drop from the other side of the arena. That was how shocked silent every living soul in the stadium was on that day. Even the greatest minds on the planet couldn't have expected for this day to come. The day hell has frozen over; the day heaven fell from the sky. Everyone had their jaws to the floor, their breath stationary in their lungs, their brains on standstill at what they had just witnessed.
Orimura Ichika. The man who still doesn't even know where babies come.
Had just said something intelligent.
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My astonishment quickly turned to fury. How dare this- this... POMPOUS BASTARD TRY TO INSULT ME! NO! Wait! I must calm down. Breath slowly. Iiiiiiiin. And ouuuuuuuuuuuut. Okay I think I'm alright. Now excuse me while I blow this prick off the face of the planet.
Separating my rocket launchers from my skirt, I put them together, end-to-end to form the 8-foot long Starlight Bazooka, and fired a 4-foot rocket straight at him.
His grin just widened. (how that was even possible, I do not know)
He made no attempt to dodge, instead he just extended his right hand. "I told you. You can't beat me because this IS..." he said as a white light enveloped him cloaking his form in a blinding flash as the missile dived into it nose-first.
When it was all over, he was just standing there... with the missile currently trapped in his outstretched hand, not moving an inch. The IS he was using had gotten brighter coloring, with the thrusters floating above his shoulders looking more like mechanical wings then anything else and the whole thing in general had slimmed down to look more like armor. "is finally mine!" he exclaimed, repositioning the missile so it was aimed at me. I thought he was going to let it fly back at me... but that's not what happened.
Jumping a short way up, he landed on the missile! Using it like a hover-board, he came quite literally rocketing towards me. I was too shocked to do anything but watch. "Let's go, Byakushiki!"
"Remember Blondie, this is gonna hurt you, more then it's gonna hurt me." He yelled as I finally snapped out of my daze. Materializing my Starlight MKIII I tried shooting him down, but he was maneuvering around too much for me to get a good shot.
"The expression goes; this is going to hurt me, more-" I stopped mid sentence as he jumped off the missile, appearing directly in front of me and... what the hell?!
He had produced a Straw-Hat with a red ribbon out of nowhere and somehow he had drawn a parallel line under his left eye in black marker, as well as formed a roughly X shaped scar on his chest.
"I know how it goes, that's just not how it's going to go! Now then," he said, throwing his fists behind him, and his arms... stretched?!
"Gomu Gomu no..." No! No! No! No! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO!
"Mecha Gattling!" he finally cried, whipping his arms forward and raining punch, after punch, after punch, after punch, after punch, after punch, after punch after punch- you get the idea.
He only stopped after my shield energy finally ran out, signaled by the burst of steam coming out of my thrusters. By this point, he had long since embedded me in the wall as his arms stretched to reach me. Somehow he had remained In mid-air without using his IS.
"Okay! Fights over!" he said finally falling to the ground de-materializing his IS and started to jog in my direction. "You did a really good job out there!" I barely registered what he said as black started to edge around my vision. I faintly heard the crowd scream as Blue Tears de-materialized from exhausting its shield energy.
I could feel myself falling. I saw the ground coming up fast and closed my eyes waiting for the end. Instead of a hard splat, I felt gentle arms pluck me out of the air. Making a graceful landing, the arms set me down delicately on the ground.
My eyes opened slowly to see a warm smile and gentle amber eyes, topped off with black hair with a navy hue.
"That was a lot of fun. Thanks Cecilia, sleep well." He said softly, in perfect English.
Huh, that was the first time… he said… my name…
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FINISHED! I'm glad I finally got that done! Again, thank you to everyone who fallowed my story and apologies for making you all wait so long.
I would also like to make one thing clear to all my readers, the genre will notbe changing. The reason for that is the final arc I have planned for this story.
I would also like to thank Aokage, for all his help. He was a hugehelp, and half the reason I made this story to begin with.
If any of you feel there are any flaws in my writing or with the chapter in general, please let me know and I'll do my best to attend to them.
Like always, please review and flames are welcomed!