Happy 2022 everyone! Considering how the previous years have been, I really think this one is starting to get better. Or at least better than the last few. Anyway, let the story continue!
Ichika returned his Yukihira to his side taking one last look at the downed opponent before turning to the other one. This battle had been in Ichika and Charles's favor right from the get-go. With two personal IS units against two training units, the battle had seemed decided from the start. That didn't mean their opponents were going to go down without a fight.
Ichika backed out of the way from the line of fire with inches to spare. The girl who was firing bit her tongue as she tried to have those bullets make an impact on the Byakushiki. She was so focused on aiming and shooting that she hadn't noticed the grenade launched at her feet. The resulting explosion taught her to not stay too focused on one thing during combat.
Charles blew some smoke away from his grenade launcher, giving Ichika a thumbs up with the other hand.
Ichika returned the gesture before flying towards his opponent.
Bullets tore through the air as the girl regained her composure to send another round of bullets tearing through. Rather than fly straight to his opponent as he usually did, Ichika moved in a zigzag like pattern to keep one step ahead of the gun fire.
"Stop moving so much. You're making my aim look bad." The bullets continued to fly out, but they hit nothing except air.
As he got within range, Ichika's metallic sword shined into true blue color. The first swing sliced the air as the girl stepped back just in time to avoid it. The act however left her stammering to try to regain any balance. Ichika's second swing cut the girl's gun in two. The third swing struck her IS dead center and continued to pierce through. Piercing through the shield energy of the IS with Reiraku Byakuya to trigger her IS's absolute defense system. There was nothing she could do but watch as her shield energy decrease till it reached zero.
"The match is now concluded. The winners and advancing to tomorrows finals are the team of Ichika Orimura and Charles Dunois."
With the match over, both boys gathered in the center and waved for the crowd as thanks for their cheers and applause.
Ichika let loose a sigh of relief. He hadn't been too worried about his matches so far since none of his opponents had a personal IS unit, but at least he could put that worry where something could go wrong to rest.
"Is everything all right Ichika?" Charles asked.
"I was a bit worried I'd mess it all up by reducing my own shield energy with my one-off ability, but I'm feeling better now."
Charles smiled at him.
"You did well today Ichika. You've become less predictable in your attack patterns." Now that Ichika wasn't dashing straight into enemy fire, he'd been able to get a lot closer to his opponents than usual.
"Only thanks to the training you gave me about adjusting my flight pathing."
Once the smiles and cheers started to fade, they headed back to their hangars to vacate the area for the next match. The hallways were still pretty empty with most students either in the stands or in the locker room awaiting their match.
"Do you think making the top cut will be enough?" Ichika asked. "To satisfy your father I mean."
All Charles could do was shrug. "I can't say for certain. Whether or not he sees me as more valuable to keep in IS Academy instead of trying to get me expelled is up to him. But I do know he loves his company more than he hates me."
No child should've ever had to say a thing like that. Charles's gaze turned to the floor. This was a thing she knew by heart, but it didn't make admitting it any easier.
"Charles…"
"It's all right Ichika. I'm used to that."
He wished she didn't have to be.
"The better we do in the tournament, the more willing he'll be to keep me here if I can promote the Dunois's Raphael Revive IS units he'll be trying to sell."
"In that case, what if we made you the main focus during our battles? You focus on being the main attraction like dealing the finishing blows and I'll do my best to support you."
"We don't have to go that far. Unless something amazing or unusual happens, people will only care about who wins and who loses. Just winning will be enough."
Charles returned her eyes to facing forward. There wouldn't be any use in bringing up what she already knew. All they had to do was keep winning the battles ahead so she could remain in IS Academy. She swallowed her troubles and put on a smiling face.
"We've made it to tomorrows battles, so let's go meet with the others."
/-/
Jayden was on the edge of his seat as he and his friends (and Cecilia) watched block G's final match in the arena stands. Jayden and Houki, Ichika and Charles, and Cecilia and Rin had all managed to earn themselves a spot in tomorrows matches. With their battles for the day concluded, all there was to do was watch the matches and try to gather any intel on potential future opponents.
Even Vishnu who'd been discharged from the infirmary worked up the courage to join them, albeit sitting in a seat behind everyone. With the exception of her left arm still being in a cast, she was looking for a lot better. "Your battles we're more interesting." Vishnu commented on the current battle.
Rin leaned back into her seat. "It's a battle between standard units, so there's not much they can do besides shoot guns and swing swords." The pilots in the arena were doing just that. It was hard to look flashy and exciting when all you had to work with were basic weapons.
"Yeah, but it's mecha suits fighting. There's no way it can't be cool!" Jayden kept his eyes locked on the battle. No one made any comments to that. "Wait. Do you guys not find it amazing?"
Ichika rubbed the back of his head. "I mean… Seeing the Infinite Stratos in action is amazing at first but now it's… umm… err…."
"It's become mundane." Cecilia finished for him. It was like eating your favorite food more often than you should. The meal would be your favorite, but after eating it for so long you'd get to use to it. Mecha battles didn't seem to be exempt from this.
"But it's robots fight! It can never get old. Right guys?" Jayden looked to his friends for confirmation.
"Kinda." Most of the group said in unison.
Jayden blinked. Bah! What did they know? If growing older meant losing one's sense of wonder, than he was fine staying young forever.
"I don't think we mean to say the battles aren't interesting." Charles said. "Umm… We've just adopted some higher standards since we're used to specialized units and weapons."
Charles attempted at being the peacekeeper this time to make everyone happy. With this many people opinions were bound to clash and at some point, leading to a fight eventually.
While everyone was busy staring forward, one figure was able to sneak in behind the group. "Don't give those girls too much frack. They're all doing their best to show off with what they've got."
She spoke like she had confidence to spare. Everyone turned towards the white-haired newcomer.
"Yo." Rolan greeted.
Houki's eyes threatened to bulge out. "How the hell do you keep finding me!"
"What can I say? I have a sixth sense for finding what I'm interested in." She tapped her head that sense resided.
The swordswoman sunk as far as she could into her seat. "That's it. I'm getting a restraining order." The way Houki that sounded like it wasn't a joke. Didn't stop Rolan from laughing though.
This girl didn't seem to take no for an answer.
"Is she a friend of yours Houki?" Ichika asked.
For Houki, friend was a strong word. So was school mate. Even acquaintance. In fact, stalker was starting to look kind of weak.
Rolan eyed Ichika, taking in his features. She begun to smile, liking what she saw. Honestly, he didn't look too bad. "You must be the famed Ichika Orimura I've heard so much about. Allow me to introduce myself. My name is-"
"Rorentsuine Laurent di Fillney." Cecilia cut her off. "IS representative cadet of Holland and personal pilot of Aulandy Bloom."
"My my. Looks like my reputation got ahead of me once again." Running down the group, her and Jayden's eyes met again. Her mind flashed back to when Houki had chosen him over her bringing back a slight wince of pain.
Cecilia, Rin, Charles, Vishnu, and the newcomer Rolan.
Ichika felt like he was surrounded by celebrities. That was five representative cadets he was now in the presence of. These were all regular girls and yet all together they had enough might to probably rival the military of a small country.
Was it a good idea to give this much power to those barley in adolescence?
Rorentsuine helped herself to a seat in the back right next to the Thailand cadet representative. Shockingly however, Vishnu didn't move away from the girl. When it came to strangers Vishnu always kept her distance until she'd felt comfortable enough. And here she was holding her ground.
"You know her to Vishnu?" Rin wanted an answer to what was going on.
"We're classmates."
"That's right." Rolan confirmed, wrapping her arm around Vishnu's shoulder. "With our best archer injured and the twins out sick, its up to me to bring home the gold for class 1-2. But you're looking a lot better Vishnu. And I don't mean the arm." She stared Vishnu dead in the eyes making her just a bit uncomfortable. "Your lovely eyes are looking a little less lonely."
Vishnu made a noise that sounded somewhat like a confirmation. Rolan cracked a smile, pulling her a little closer. There was no saying no to someone like Rolan who tended to do what she wanted no matter how much you denied her.
Opinions on this white-haired girl seemed to vary somewhat between everyone, though one thing that could be agreed on was to exercise caution with this one. Something Jayden knew well and even Ichika was able to pick up on this.
Rolan gave a shameless smirk. "What's with those looks? We can be friends can't we?
Replies seemed to vary with results ranging from "Sure." To "I guess so." And even "With effort." Except for Houki who flat out refused.
Mixed answers was something you grew used to when you acted the way she did. She watched the on-going battle with the others, though once their attention was focused on the battle it was time to put her secondary goal into action.
Currently Rolan was still in the middle of making Houki Shinonono her 100th girlfriend, but that didn't mean she couldn't prepare to figure out who to go for next to add onto the triple digits. There was just one problem. She couldn't make up her mind.
There were just too many good choices to go for.
Her eyes moved to the golden curled locks of Cecilia Alcott. There was an aura of pride and a noble heart with that girl that reminded her of a princess. A prince and princess hand in hand. It felt so fitting.
Next was Lingyin, the cutie with a temper and a fiery spirit that couldn't be dampened. It would be nice to have a girlfriend with some energy, not to mention that feistiness would be so much fun to tease.
And then there was Vishnu. That girl's tanned skin looked so exotic that it just captured her attention and wouldn't let go. Her classmate had been making amazing progress on interacting with others. This flower was in the process of full bloom, and she didn't wanna miss it.
It was like the popular game with those pocket monsters, three amazing choices that she couldn't choose between. Just for a moment her eyesight happened to slip onto the French cadet representative.
The way he smiled made Rolan feel warm and fuzzy inside. She could see why girls had given him the title of Prince riding Revive or The Golden Angel from France. That golden aura was even starting to envelop her…
Rolan shook herself out of the trance.
She wasn't sure why she just took notice of Charles Dunois like that. The only time she got that way was around a beautiful….
Oh?
Oh,
Oh….!
Before any questions could be manifested, the sirens blared out, signaling the battle now had a winning team.
The crowd roared with applause, some louder than others. Rolan was shouting out her class rep's name as Jayden was clapping his hands together over his head. That excitement could be pretty contagious as it managed to trap Rin in its overly-loud cheering grasp.
Once the combatants cleared out of the arena, the last set of combatants made their way into the arena. On the left side were two students none of them seemed to recognize. Though on the right was one face all of them knew too well.
"Bodewig…" Cecilia's voice dripped with venom.
No one was surprised Bodewig had made it this far. What was surprising to Jayden however was the girl next her.
"Is that… Daryl?" He rubbed his eyes and checked again. That was defiantly Daryl standing at Laura's side. After that rather… suggestive meeting they had in the infirmary that girl had managed get herself engraved in his memory. Jayden had to shake those naughty thoughts out of his head. Come to think of it. Would having Laura as a teammate be a blessing or a curse?
Daryl stood in her training unit behind her partner as she waited for the starting countdown to hit zero. Both of her opponents seemed like they wanted to do nothing more than be anywhere where Laura wasn't.
Daryl's head turned to her partner. "So do you wanna try any strategy or-"
"Just stay out of my way."
Daryl picked up on the warning the first time. The German cadet representative didn't see her as an ally, just a potential target to hit if she ended up in her line of fire.
To say Laura was a good partner would be an exaggeration at best and an outright lie at worst. Don't get her wrong, it was almost unreal how skilled this first year was. She could've probably… no. She definitely could've taken down both opponents in this and the pervious matches all on her own. If you wanted to win, there was no better partner than Laura. But if you wanted a partner, she was the worst teammate to have. She refused to coordinate and any attempt to strategize would be met with total apathy.
The alarms buzzed as the countdown reached zero.
The match begun and everyone was on the move. Laura and Daryl advanced while their enemies retreated. With the speed of Schwartz Regen Laura quickly cornered one of her opponents.
With her purple saber deployed, Laura struck first swing her saber to meet her opponent's sword. Laura swung again and again, each swing making closer progress to that shield energy.
Her opponent continued to block each strike until Laura slowed down. There was a clear pattern where after so many strikes Laura would slow down enough to leave an opening. When that opportunity presented itself, the girl extended her blade to attack.
"Idiot"
Laura's free arm grabbed her enemy's wrist, stopping the blade from reaching her. Her purple saber stabbed upwards, digging into the arm of the IS locked in place. Despite her struggled the girl couldn't free her arm and the so-called counterattack of pounding her free hand into the Schwartz Regen didn't do enough to be considered worth it.
Fighting so many students in standard units, Laura noticed a pattern among them. She'd picked up on how they always jumped at the chance to attack when they believed she made herself vulnerable. It was common sense after all and she couldn't fault that. What she could fault was them not realizing an experienced pilot wouldn't make those openings so obvious.
Just another fact to add to list of her disappoint of this place.
The girl was struggling desperately, trying anything to counter. Her legs harmlessly kicked against the Schwarzer Regen. Laura continued pressing her saber into the shield energy, never giving the initiative.
After stabbing into a decent chunk of shield energy, Laura kicked her into the arena wall. Wasting no time to give her opponent a chance to recuperate she summoned her wire daggers. Six black wires with bladed tips dug into the standard Uchigane. Four wrapped themselves around each limb as the remaining two tore into the upper body of the IS.
The girl yelled and struggled yelling to be freed while her shield energy continued to dwindle.
Laura sneered.
She tossed the girl across the arena, making her bounce twice across the floor before coming to a complete stop. She still had some shield energy on her, but Laura wasn't concerned about her anymore. Her eye focused over to where the other enemy was.
Daryl's attack went high.
The other girl's sword swung low.
Each blade sliced into the others shield energy till both girls recalled their blades and struck once more, this time with their swords clashing. From there they proceeded into a fury of blows and blocks with metal scraping against metal.
Daryl was holding her own pretty well and was gaining the upper hand in this battle. She raised her sword, ready for another strike.
The next thing she knew, wires wrapped around and tossed her aside as it's owned charged ahead.
"What the hell!" Daryl cried.
Laura ignored the outburst and ducked under a clumsy attack and slammed her IS's fist into the enemy to send her staggering back. It was a light punch, but it was followed up another lighter punch and then a nasty kick on the second girl. She staggered back until landing on her butt. Laura looked towards the girl once more, practically paralyzing her in fear.
"This is a waste of time. Surrender and get this over with."
Every instinct in the girl's body was screaming to take that advice, and yet she did the opposite standing up to fight once more. She was too close to the top cut to just give up, as really good as that sounded.
"So be it." Laura motioned for her to come.
As the girl flew with sword in hand ready to strike, Laura held out her palm. The AIC came to life stopping the speeding IS with almost no effort. She watched the girl try to fruitlessly escape. Her wire daggers wrapped around all four limbs, leaving her stuck in place even without the AIC. She hoisted the girl up like a puppet with its strings loose.
Blow after blow was struck against the makeshift punching bag that couldn't even fight bat.
The remaining two girls stuck their blades as Daryl parried a cut.
"Stupid Bodewig." Daryl muttered. Getting angry wasn't going to solve her problem, so instead she took it out on the opponent in front of her. Every cut and slash Daryl landed was struck to end this match ASAP. So focused on the enemy ahead of heard that she hadn't realized the one tossed her way from behind. The IS knocked into her and she was knocked into the other one creating a pile of IS units with the poor third-year forming the meat of an IS sandwich.
Daryl tapped her fingers on the ground. Yet another match where she'd been forced to the whim of whatever the German cyclops wanted. Oh yeah. She was officially done with today. And by the looks of things so were the other girls as they just laid on top of her. Even with some shield energy remaining, their motivation had left the arena after Laura's beating.
There above them all with the setting sun at her back, Bodewig was taking aim as her rail gun charged up.
"Wait! I'm here to!" Daryl yelled. In panic she quickly tried to get away but unfortunately her attempt was thwarted by the two IS's on top of her keeping her stuck in place.
A large flash emerged from Laura.
"Oh Fu-"
The shot hit its mark with a devastating BOOM. Ensuing smoke covered the area, but the buzzers of the arena had signaled that blast was a match-ending one.
The match was officially over.
No applause or yells echoed it way through the arena after witnessing the case of intentional friendly fire. Only silence enveloped the arena
Eventually Jayden found his voice to break the silence. "D-Did she just shoot down her own partner!"
Houki still couldn't find her words, so she settled on nodding.
Back on the field, Daryl climbed out of her IS, marching over to her partner. "What the hell was that for!?"
"I told you not to get in my way." It was the fastest way to end the battle and Laura seied the opportunity to finish it in one clean shot. Laura took her leave, ignoring the rest of her partner's outbursts. Not once did she look back towards the crowd.
"Err… and with that, the final team moving onto tomorrows has been decided. Here are your eight teams that will be competing in tomorrows' matches." A list of names of the winners from each block appeared on the screen.
Jayden Sylvan & Houki Shinonono
Honne Nohotoke & Yuzu Tanimoto
Ichika Orimura & Charles Dunois
Cecilia Alcott & Lingyin Huang
Ava Torres & Forte Sapphire
Rorentsuine Fillney & Yua Tani
Velvet Hell & Frieda Kuldell
Daryl Casey & Laura Bodewig
"Let's give a big round of applause to our eight teams moving on to tomorrow, as well as every student who competed today. Thank you all for coming, and we hope to see you again tomorrow to find out who our champions will be!"
/-/
"So… on a scale of one to ten, how much of a chance do you think we have tomorrow?" Jayden fiddled with his dumplings. Sitting across from him from Houki who was picking apart her dinner bit by bit. She didn't give him an answer. "That bad huh?"
"I don't mean to say it's impossible. Just very low odds."
Houki knew it would be an uphill battle tomorrow. When she faced Cecilia in the class rep tourney, the battle was nothing but a one-sided affair not in her favor. And while her IS piloting skills had improved, she wasn't sure whether it'd do much good against a personal pilot. That's what she had him for.
They'd gotten dinner together in the cafeteria to discuss strategy for whichever team they had to fight tomorrow. Each plan they came up with boiled down to pretty much 'Do our best' and 'Use Jayden's shield'. Given the simple natures of their IS units, it was the best they could do with what they had, but at least it was better than having no plan.
All around the cafeteria, girls were chatting about today's battles or other things going on in their lives. There were carefree attitudes all around him that he wished he could've had once again right now. Actually… why not now?
"So… Seen anything good on TV lately?"
Houki gave him a look she normally reserved for when Ichika did something stupid.
"What? I'm just trying to make conservation. You act like talking is a bad thing."
Houki would've denied it normally, but this time was an exception. Here she was eating dinner with a boy in the plain sight of so many others. This was how rumors got started. The only thing keeping her from leaving was the obligation as teammates to stick together. She glanced across the room at two girls who were staring at them and pulled away their gazes when they realized they'd been caught.
Houki apologized to her reputation.
"Is that a no on the television?"
Click
Behind Jayden, Houki could see a girl with a newspaper club hat holding a camera. Not even Houki's glare was enough to chase her off till she had enough photos to fill a newspaper cover to cover.
The damage was already done so may as well just go with it. "I don't watch much TV or any other kinds of media. If I have free time, it's usually spent training to better myself. And after today, it's clear I still have a long way to go."
"You mean kendo training? But you're practically already a master of kendo."
Houki would disagree. Her evidence? The first match they had today. Just falling for the simple dirt-in-the-eye trick almost costed them their entire tournament run. If not for her partner literally tossing her a backup weapon, the battle would've been their loss. She tightened her grip on her utensils. A careless mistake like that couldn't happen again.
"Today showed me that I still have a long way to go before I can even think about calling myself a master."
"You really are dedicated to the sport."
Houki gave a nod. And just like that, the two went back to eating in silence.
She wasn't one for conservation. Unless the topic was about kendo or schoolwork, she tended to let the other person lead the conservation. After fiddling with her food, she tried taking the lead this time. "You're from America, right? So… what do you think of Japan?"
The subject change was a little sudden but not unappreciated.
"Japan? Well… I'd say it's a pretty neat place. There's a lot of beautiful scenery, especially around the academy."
"I see. Was it hard adjusting to here?"
"Pretty tough at first, the hardest part was definitely the new times zone. By the time my plane got it I felt like I traveled back in time to when I first boarded. And then getting to sleep was a pain. I was awake when I would've been asleep and vice-versa. And then there are the customs here. I tried tipping a waiter after eating at a restaurant and the guy looked at me like I was insulting him. How was I supposed to know you don't do that in Japan?"
He kept going on until he realized Houki's eyesight was now no longer on him. "Was it too boring? I didn't mean to on that long." And just like that it was back to quiet. In fact, the whole room was quiet when it had been noisy not too long ago.
Houki pointed over to what had captured everybody's attention.
Laura Bodewig was in the cafeteria. She stood there with a take-out box at the exit. And she probably would've left if not for the one person standing in her way.
Daryl was standing right in the exit, blocking the way out with one leg extended.
"Get out of my way." Laura ordered.
"Not until you apologize."
"For?"
"For not grabbing me a to-go box WHAT DO YOU THINK I MEAN?"
By now everyone in the cafeteria was staring at those girls. Just as Daryl had hoped while Laura still didn't seem the least bit interested. The two were sharing glares with neither side backing down.
"For all the times you attacked me in our battles. I swear you shot half of those blasts at me on purpose." Daryl accused.
It wasn't just their last battle today. Too many times to count Daryl found herself on the receiving end of Laura's attacks if she just so happened to be too close to where Laura was aiming.
"Blame yourself for not being able to evade."
"We're on the same side. I shouldn't have to dodge you!"
"That's your own fault."
Daryl stared with a twitching eye, questioning why she had to be the one stuck with this battle crazed lunatic or what she'd done to deserve this.
"You know what? Forget it. There's no convincing an idiot like you.
Daryl stepped to the side opening a pathway in the exit. Just as Laura was walking past, Daryl stealthy moved her foot in the way just in time to knock Laura off balance. Unable to regain her footing, the German cadet representative face planted onto the floor and spilling the contents of her dinner box all over the floor.
"You!"
"Oops. I'm so sorry." Daryl walked past her. She apologized with sarcasm so thick you'd need the Heimlich maneuver. "You were in my way."
In an instant Laura lunged at Daryl, sending them both onto the floor. Phones were taken out to record the event while tables were flipped over to form makeshift barricade should an IS unit be brought out.
"S-Someone needs to stop them." Jayden said.
"Are you volunteering?" Houki asked him.
Jayden watched as those two tried to kill each other. He decided this was better left to a professional.
Laura's hands we're keeping Daryl's wrists locked down as her legs did the same to her lower half. It was a military hold to keep someone stuck in place when you got the drop on them from behind.
"You did that on purpose!" Laura accused.
"You mean like what you've been doing all day?"
"I instructed you to stay out of my way. Don't blame me for inability to follow directions."
Did this girl think she was her leader? Daryl had enough of this floor play. She flicker her head back, striking Laura's chin. The shock was just enough to loosen her grip and shake her off. Now it was Daryl's turn to hold down her partner.
"News flash cyclops. This isn't a one girl show. You're the one who see's everyone as nothing or an obstacle."
Laura didn't disagree with that. It was an insult to IS pilots to see the students here as pilots. While her opponent had a size advantage being a third-year student, she didn't seem to grasp two things. The first was knowing where to hold down someone to keep them in place. The second was Laura.
Her arm managed to slip out of form the hold and jam itself into Daryl's stomach. She finished the attack off with her legs to kick Daryl off her. Both girls wasted no time getting back on their feet and looking ready to go another round.
"Whatever you two are doing, stop it right now!" An adult voice spoke out.
Both Daryl and Laura ceased any motion of a fight.
A teacher burst into the cafeteria. Maya Yamada gently excused and pushed her way past the crowd to get to the front. Just looked over at the knocked over food, students with phone cameras, and scuff marks on the girls. A sour look formed on the normally happy face of Maya.
"Care to explain what is going on here?"
"We're just having a disagreement." Daryl said.
"A disagreement? This looked like a fight."
"A disagreement with action." Laura chipped in.
"You should both know fighting outside of IS battles is prohibited here at IS Academy. You both are partners for the tournament, aren't you? Teammates shouldn't be doing this."
That resonated with Daryl. All day she'd been putting up with Laura. And for what? There was no pot of gold at the end of this rainbow. One more look at the German cadet convinced her all of this was so not worth it.
"You know what Ms. Yamada? You're absolutely right."
Ms. Yamada sighed in relief. Now they were understanding-
"I quit."
"Eh?"
Laura didn't react whatsoever.
"Don't act like you didn't hear me. You've got one eye, not one ear." Daryl said angrily. "You want me out of you way so badly? Well fine! Wish granted. You can fight all you want alone tomorrow you German psycho."
"That's the smartest thing you've done all day."
For the first time, Daryl agreed with Laura.
With that they each went their separate ways, ignoring Ms. Yamada's words who'd been all but forgotten at this point. Excited talks sprung up around the cafeteria as Daryl walked along paying no mind to what others were saying. The plan had gone somewhat astray, it was unfortunate she didn't get to kick her ass in a fight like she planned, but this was a good result to.
When her eyes came across a certain boy, she changed direction as her lips moved into a wide smile.
"Didn't think I'd run into you here tonight, Jayden. I take it you saw all of that?"
"I did… but are you all right? That looked like a pretty nasty fight." Jayden asked as she pulled up a seat.
She simply shrugged it off. That sucker gut punch was nasty, but she'd been through worse. The only regret was not getting to hit that bitch enough to feel satisfied. Maybe she'd get another chance someday. Fights were uncommon at IS Academy. Actually, let me rephrase that. Fights without an IS were not just uncommon but a diamond mine of an event that was just ripe for rumors. By the end of the hour, stories of Daryl and Laura's battle would be spread out all across the island completely over exaggerated and embellished into whatever sounded the coolest and juiciest.
"My battle isn't important. But yours on the other hand have got my interest. You and Houki fought better than I thought you would. Got a secret to how you managed to make it this far?"
"Well we-"
"Jayden." Houki interrupted. "Don't discuss our tactics with the enemy."
"Former enemy." Daryl corrected. "I'm not in the tournament anymore, so I've got no reason to lie to you."
"You're quitting."
"Yup."
"Seriously? Why?"
"Laura."
That… actually didn't surprise either of them.
"But what about the prize?"
Prize? Oh yeah. Daryl had completely forgotten about that thing. While she did somewhat want it, she wasn't going to go back to working with her just for a free fancy dinner. She simply shrugged it off.
Houki turned to her partner. "Do you trust her Jayden?"
The boy simply shrugged. He didn't have a reason to not trust her. Still, it was good enough for Houki.
"We're you able to pick up any weakness Bodewig has that we can use?" Houki asked.
"Weakness?"
"Like a flaw in her IS's design? Or something's she's not good at? Even any information about her IS unit."
"If not those how about an Injury? Trauma? Embarrassing childhood memory? Allergy?"
Houki gave Jayden a look.
"What? We need any advantage we get or were sunk."
Daryl simply smiled at his naivety. The boy was kinda fun to be around, like he had some kind of aura which made everyone easier to get along with. Not to mention the giggles from his choice of words
"I didn't pick up on anything like that in battle today." She'd been too busy focusing on not being a victim of friendly fire to put much focus elsewhere. "Although… I did notice one thing. But it isn't much."
That got their attention.
"Whenever Laura used either her Active Inertia Canceler or rail gun, she would never move from where she was until she finished using them."
It was something she picked up because it was the few times, she didn't have to worry about Bodewig committing friendly fire. Bodewig was always on the move in battle, making her harder to hit and giving momentum to work with. So the fact she never moved when using what she considered her greatest weapons was off.
"That doesn't help a lot." Houki noted.
"I said it wasn't much."
"We'll keep it in mind if we fight Laura tomorrow. Thanks Daryl." Jayden said.
"For your sakes you better hope you don't. If you get paired against her, just surrender. Save yourselves the trouble."
"Hey. I know we're not the best, but we got a chance."
Saying they we're not the best was being very generous considering what they were going up against tomorrow. Daryl didn't seem too hopeful for them.
"No offense…"
And here comes the offense.
"You both only made it to the finals because Jayden had a personal unit and none of his opponents did. Heck you we're going to fight the president of our school but rumor has it she had to leave just as your match began for personal business. You guys did win, but there was a lot of luck involved." She could see those two begin to doubt themselves with each fact she brought up. "Then again… if you can keep making miracles happen like that, you just be fine."
Just make a miracle happen. Oh yeah… they were doomed.
"I think we're done here." Houki had enough drama for one day. "Let's go Jayden."
"Huh? Where."
"It's time for bed."
"Now? But it's only 8:00pm."
"Oh my." Daryl smiled. "Going to bed together? I didn't think you two were more than teammates."
Houki had that angry look on her face. It was a really good thing she didn't have her wooden sword on hand or things may have gone swingy. "Don't make things confusing. I need this idiot well rested and at 100% if I'm fighting with him tomorrow."
"Sure sure. Whatever you say. Good luck tomorrow, I'll root for ya."
Houki grabbed Jayden by the ear and dragged him away despite the boys' protests.
"Hmhmhm." Daryl chuckled. A sour mood had turned sweet just by sitting a while with that boy. She'd missed a good opportunity to team up with Jayden... some miracles like that would've been so handy to have. The kid had some pretty strong spirit. Now if only he could be strong in skill and body too.
/-/
The teacher's longue was one of the few places any of the teaching staff could go to get a little guaranteed peace and quiet from the chaos of this island. Equipped with luxuries such as a large couch, a radio, and a surprisingly well-made coffee machine. It wasn't much but when you lived at IS Academy, any place that you could get some R&R at was heaven.
Gelimer piped down a cup of hot joe, sinking back into the couch. The fine leather and hot caffeine worked together to melt away his stress. As an IS researcher Gelimer was used to nail-biting worries such as deadlines or trying to solve rocket science level calculations. Since coming here watching his student pilot battle was a new kind of worry, he thought he was growing use to. But today was different. It was like Jayden was playing a game to see how many times he could give Gelimer a heart attack in one day. And today the boy had gotten a new high score.
"Dang it Jayden. Teaming up with Shinonono. Using my gift as some sort of blunt object. Fighting the student president. I swear you're gonna make my hair go grey." Though some color on top of his head sounded good actually.
"May you keep the noise to a minimum Mr. Brighton? I'm in the middle of working."
His eyes shifted to the other person in the room. Even before he'd gotten here Ms. Orimura had been at that desk typing away on her laptop non-stop.
"Whatcha working on?" Gelimer asked.
Chifuyu kept her eyes glued to the screen as she typed. "I have to submit a list of the students we believe performed best among those who were knocked out of the tournament today."
For the officials who weren't able to attend the matches in person, summaries of the students' performances had to be written up for other students to be promoted. As with most of the important work at this academy, the task was given to Chifuyu.
Say what you want about Ms. Orimura, but she was dedicated to her job.
"Does it always take this long?"
"Normally no. But given how many students entered this time, I had many more candidates to go over."
"That sounds rough. I didn't think I'd get this many students to enter. Sorry about that."
"Mh-hm." Ms. Orimura blinked. "Wait… pardon?"
Gelimer's hand clasped over his mouth too late. Even with his head tilted down he could feel the burning sensation of Chifuyu's glare on him.
Another point had been added to the give-Gelimer-a-heart-attack-today scoreboard.
"Can I interest you in a cup of coffee? It tastes even better after a long day of hard work." The change of topic failed to work its magic. Her glare demanded an answer.
"The truth Mr. Brighton." Chifuyu demanded. "What you just said. Did you tamper with today's matches in any way?"
"Umm… technically yes! And no…"
Yes and no? Chifuyu's expression cracked for a moment but returned to stoic.
"Explain."
"Remember that prize we offered to the winners of the tournament? To take someone to the most expensive restaurant in town?"
Chifuyu remembered. "Why did you offer that prize in the first place?"
A bead of sweat begun to run down his face. "I-I was feeling generous and wanted to get more students involved.
Bull and shit. "The real t ruth Mr. Brighton. Now."
For a moment, Gelimer thought she'd actually kill him if he lied again. "Okay okay! I wanted to have Jayden fight regular students in a tournament setting so he'd look good. That's the truth. I swear!"
Her brown eyes stared at his face looking for another sign of a lie to call him out on, only this time she couldn't detect any deceit.
Her mind had to perform a soft reboot to comprehend what she'd been told. Once her mind finishing warming up, she moved her fingers to massage her temple. "You're serious?" She had to sit down to comprehend this whole plot. "Let me see if I've got this straight Mr. Brighton. You encouraged the students at this school to compete in the school wide tournament that's typically only entered by personal IS users to flood the tournaments with entries. Which made us have to rewrite the entire tournament structure to accommodate all the entries. And all of this was done to give the student piloting your IS unit easier matches, so he'd look better by comparison in the top cut!?"
"Well, it sounds dumb when you put it like that."
It sounded dumb because it was!
It was so many things.
Stupid.
Ridiculous.
Unnecessary.
Over the top.
All that and more.
But not illegal.
The prize had been approved by the school beforehand and while the students were encouraged to participate, no one was forced to. There was nothing to punish this man for.
"You really will do anything to achieve your goals will you Mr. Brighton?"
Gelimer only shrugged. He'd only done what he did to make sure Jayden would have the best chance of a strong showing. It's not that he didn't believe in him. He did…. Sort of. But a little insurance never hurt. No harm was done in the end, so it all worked out.
This confirmed that this man would do whatever he felt was necessary to further whatever his goals were. Ms. Orimura figured he'd be something like this when she saw how far he'd gone when the unmanned IS attacked the academy. Only now did she realize that will-do-anything attitude could help or hurt depending on what this guy decided to do. Hopefully with enough luck it would remain nothing more than minor hinderances.
Chifuyu clutched her head. All the work and this stupidity was teaming up to give her a major headache. She gathered her things and stopped just before the door.
"Good night Mr. Brighton."
"You to Ms. Orimura."
Once she was gone Gelimer leaned back into the couch, it was peaceful once-
RING RING RING
His iPhone hummed to life with a text message.
Meet me in person tonight. We have to discuss our plan for tomorrow.
The text had come from Ms. Sedgewick.
Plan? Gelimer texted back.
Tomorrow, we enter the basement.
/-/
The knife flew up.
The knife flew down.
The knife flew up.
The knife flew down.
Laura caught the knife and stabbed it into her bedside table. She laid in bed, clad in nothing but her panties. After today, all she wanted was to be alone with her thoughts. Having a single room would give her just that.
IS Academy was said by many to be the greatest place in the world for one to learn how to pilot the Infinite Stratos. Laura herself had heard of the academy's praise from her fellow soldiers and with her instructor teaching there, she'd believed it to be true. A place worthy enough for the instructor to teach had to have been the best in the world. She came to the Academy to see it for herself in addition to her mission.
After a few weeks of attending the academy in person, she'd come to her own conclusions.
The only positives she could list for this place were the advanced technology and scenery of the island which looked nice enough to put on the back of a postcard. More importantly, she was able to reunite with her instructor and study under her once more. It felt nostalgic for Laura; learning knowledge once more from the Brunhilde herself.
Anything beyond that, however was just a bad joke with an even worse punchline.
The teachers looked and acted too unprofessional whether it being too egotistical or not properly dressing to cover their undergarments. The lessons were so basic that everything that was taught in the classroom, Laura already knew. And the students didn't seem too dedicated or focused on improving themselves, preferring to do pointless activities or gossip rather than train with the IS. Her battles against those in standard units today we're way too easy.
Laura dug her nails into her bed sheets. The IS was the world's most powerful weapon, and the students here treated it like a fashion trend. And speaking of students, she couldn't forget the cadet representatives. They were the best students their respective countries had to offer and wielded the latest IS units their countries produced. While here, Laura wanted to see how well her skills and Schwarzer Regen stacked up against the best the school could offer. Laura had been expecting a challenge. What she got barely counted as a warmup. Heck she'd taken down three cadet representatives at once and would've been another plus the other two males if the instructor hadn't interfered. Her squad back home gave tougher battles.
Between IS Academy and the German Military there was a clear gap in everything.
Which begged the question, why was her instructor wasting time at a place like this? Laura could only think of one answer.
"Ichika Orimura."
He was related to Chifuyu Orimura by blood, although he had none of her strength, intelligence, or talent. Laura grinded her teeth just picturing that boy in her head. Most likely the instructor felt obligated to take care of him as family.
While she didn't have all the details, Laura had a pretty good hunch that it was him who was responsible for her instructor being a runner up when she should've been a two-time world champion.
Chifuyu Orimura was her entire reason for living. Her strength. Her drive. It was all for her. To be like her. Nay. To become her. And this one boy took the instructor away from her. As her brother, she must've felt obligated to care of him. And that obligation was what cost Chifuyu the glory and honor she so rightfully deserved. It was that weakness that made Chifuyu Orimura leave Germany. Laura clenched her fist. If she had to break that weakness with her own hands then so be it.
"Ichika Orimura. I will eliminate you. No matter what means I have to use."
/-/
Day two of the ISA School wide tournament had started almost identical to yesterday. The only difference being that stadium had gone from mostly filled to practically crammed with people. Those who had competed and lost now sat in the stands with the rest of the audience to witness IS battles between the best of the best.
Everyone who had won their division yesterday had been gathered up in a locker room. Each team was together waiting patiently for the pairings to be posted. The only exception being Laura Bodewig who stood where she had yesterday, all alone.
"…"
Jayden seemed like the pressure was going to chew him up and spit him out. Beside him Houki was still keeping her emotions in check with that stoic face.
"It'll be fine Jayden." She spoke. "Just three more victories and we'll be the champions."
It sounded so simple when she said it like that.
That was the case yesterday when they fought regular students in regular IS units but now most of their competitors had at least one personal unit. Jayden eyes darted across each pilot with a personal IS unit. He was supposed to be on the same level as these people. Now his body was feeling ill with a case of imposter syndrome.
DING-DONG
The screens in the locker room flickered to life with the pairings of the top eight teams.
Please give us an easy opponent. Please give us an easy opponent. Jayden pleaded to any god that could've been listening.
29 eyes roamed the screen.
Jayden Sylvan & Houki Shinonono vs Cecilia Alcott & Lingyin Huang
Rorentsuine Fillney & Yua Tani vs Velvet Hell & Frieda Kordell
Ichika Orimura & Charles Dunois vs Ava Torres & Forte Sapphire
Honne Nohotoke & Yuzu Arail vs Daryl Casey & Laura Bodewig
The gods had looked at Jayden's request and tossed it in the waste bin.
He rubbed his eyes, trying to convince himself he misread the board. No good. It still read they would be facing Cecilia and Lingyin. Two experienced pilots each with their own personal IS units. "We're screwed Houki. We've gotta fight Cecilia and Rin…"
Houki kept the stoic expression on her face. "Yes Jayden. I'm aware of that."
The duo sent a look to their opponents who were already giving them a look back. Rin had a shit-eating grin on her face as she waved.
"What are we gonna do Houki?
"We fight. And win."
That was less of a plan and more of a declaration.
Three more wins. That was all he needed to get his chance to speak with the creator of the IS. Now that goal was looking much further away than it had a few minutes ago. He was starting to look uncomfortable and that position where he was crossing his legs didn't help.
"Get ahold of yourself Jayden. Just because we've lost to them before doesn't mean we'll lose now."
"…"
"Seriously Jayden? Pull yourself together."
"That's not it… I need to use the bathroom now."
Houki resisted the urge to slap her palm into her face. "Make it quick. We're the first match of the day again." Jayden took off running for the nearest restroom in the main building.
After he finished his business, Jayden had only made it a few steps out the bathroom before his legs stopped working. Part of him didn't even want to go back to that locker room. Cecilia and Lingyin had taken over all his thoughts. Any plan, trick, or tactic he came up with in his head fell apart against the two cadet representatives he'd have to fight.
A straight up brawl was going to end in their loss. That was fact. Heck! It was practically math that even Jayden could understand.
Jayden Lingyin
Houki Cecilia
Jayden + Houki Lingyin + Cecilia
Before any more problematic equations could be calculated, a pair of hands covered Jayden's eyes. "Guess who…?"
"What the? Who's there?"
"Aww… Did you forget about me already?" A familiar voice sounded disappointed.
"N-Natasha!"
"Ah! You do remember." She took her hands off his face, smiling down at him.
"What are you doing here Natasha? Aren't you part of the security team?"
"I'm on my break. I wanted to wish you good luck in your battles today.
"Oh…" The fact Natasha had come all the way to cheer him on made Jayden worry. Now there was another person he was going to disappoint. He put on his brave face to at least keep an illusion of hope. "Thanks. Uh… I'll be sure to give it my all."
Natasha glanced at his legs. "What's the matter?"
"Huh?"
"You're acting like something's wrong. What is it?"
"Wh-what makes you say that? Everything's fine!" He laughed in a totally-not-fine way.
"Your knees are wiggling." Natasha pointed out. Jayden's legs ceased all movement once he realized what his legs were doing. "Whenever you're worried you unconsciously shake your knees."
"How do you-"
"It's a habit of yours I picked up on while training you back in America. It told me if you we're uncomfortable or nervous about what we were doing that day."
That answered how Natasha was always so good at finding out his feeling during his so-called training he had. Though most of that was due to being anxious around a beautiful older woman than going over IS stuff. Jayden was starting to consider if Natasha knew more about him than he did himself.
"I'll ask again. What's wrong?" Natasha repeated.
No use hiding it at this point. So Jayden told her everything about his upcoming match and what exactly he and Houki we're up against. The only thing he did leave out with his and Houki's secret deal they made but besides that he came clean on it all.
"I see. You're worried that you're fighting a losing battle." Natasha summarized. "Regardless of the match's outcome you still made it to the top cut. Its an impressive feat regardless. Especially due to your unique circumstances. It's okay to lose at this point."
"I know but… This is a battle I can't lose."
He didn't feel good about keeping his motives hidden.
A battle he couldn't lose? Natasha was puzzled before it dawned on her. The thing Jayden was talking about. His pride. Aww… Her little pilot was becoming a man. And he didn't want to lose to showcase how far he'd come. "I understand Jayden." There was a sense of pride seeing the boy she trained wanting to go all the way.
"You do?" Did she know about the deal? Oh man, Natasha really did know everything about him,
Natasha closed her eyes, appearing to be in deep thought.
"But… If your opponents are cadet representatives then there's no way to win."
That was it then. If even Natasha thought it was hopeless, then it probably.
"That's what your thinking aren't you?"
Jayden turned his gaze up at Natasha. "What?"
"You're not wrong about those two being on a whole another level compared to you Jayden. So if you can't win by your usual methods, then try it another way."
Was that even possible?
"But this is an IS battle. You only win when your opponent's shield energy reaches zero."
"Under normal circumstances that's true Jayden. But you're forgetting there's one crucial difference that makes this unique. Can you tell me what that is?"
This would've been a good time for a question mark to appear over his head. "Umm… Because this is a tournament?"
"You got it."
Jayden blinked. "I did?"
Natasha nodded. "This is a tournament battle. Which means there are more rules in play than usual."
"So, it's more organized than usual. How is that any different?"
Natasha just giggled. It was kinda adorable watching him be clueless, but she needed him to figure this out and not have him feel like she did all the work. His pride was at stake! Times like these called for a little push. She pulled out a piece of paper from her pants pocket.
"Hey! Less laughter and more sympathy… what's this?"
"It's one of the tournament flyers, it has all the rules for matches on the back. The ones that you should be familiar with."
"And this helps me not get my butt kicked how?"
"Give it a read."
Jayden did as such. His eyes skimmed over every sentence. Whatever Natasha was putting down, he wasn't picking up.
"Read it over slowly." She advised.
He slowed down his reading as went over line after line. Progressing on as usual until he came across a certain sentence under one of the numbered rules. His eyes darted over it again and again while his jaw practically became unhinged.
It was definitely a rule but if someone were to abuse it, it could also be an alternate win condition.
"Do you think this will work? I mean… this looks pretty hard to pull off. Especially against two people."
"Normally yes but given the strengths of your IS units shield and defenses, I think you'd be the only one who can pull this off."
Jayden looked up at his IS coach. His heart was feeling so much lighter now his hopeless situation didn't look so hopeless anymore.
"Thank you so much Natasha!"
"What are you talking about? You're the one who figured it out for yourself. I just pointed you in the right direction. But you should probably let your partner know about your plan if you're gonna go through with it."
It was now official. Everyone should have a Natasha Fairs in their life. It was great! It was amazing! It was… almost time for his match to start!
"Good luck Jayden. I'll be rooting for you."
Jayden gave his last good-bye as he sped off back to the waiting room. Normally a plan like this would never work in a regular IS battle. But with everything going on then maybe… just maybe… Houki and him could actually win this impossible battle.
If the IS battles seem kind of one sided so far, that's because they are. The only battle we see in the series that has a personal unit against a standard one was Ichika and Charles vs Houki and Laura. A battle which Houki was taken out pretty quickly while contributing little to nothing. There's a staggering difference between a standard unit and the personal units our main cast has,
Next chapter the battles resume with Jayden and Houki leading us off once more. Think you can figure out Jayden's plan to fight against Rin and Cecilia? If you need a hint, check back on the tournament rules in chapters 17 and 19.
Lastly If you're a big fan of the IS fandom, you may recognize a few of those names in the top eight. Not all of them are one-off characters. Can't think of a better way to lead into 2022 with enough IS battles to satisfy anyone's battle itch. Especially when the personal units get to face off.
Make sure to Follow, Favorite, and Review if you like this story and want to see more.
Keep your sense of wonder and I'll see you next time!
Reviewing Reviewers
B123 – Another good round of insights and comments you've made. I can answer a few of those. For Jayden's weapon, there's more than meets the eye. Gelimer can never make anything too simple. It isn't his style. As for Tatenashi I needed a way to write her out otherwise she'd win the whole tournament hands down. The underwear ad is a funny idea, and it's close to a certain ad I have in mind that I've considered the finale of the IS principal's ad session. Your reviews for each chapter put a smile on my face, thanks for doing this.
Bob of the A – Thank you for reading the story all the way through so far. Looking back, I've realized I made Jayden looking way too meek and weak to be an effective protagonist. I wanted to play him as the underdog but no one will root for a dog that's too broken. The word of confidence really helps and there will be more of this tale coming.
Appah – Yeah, I started Genshin Impact not too long ago and two of my first pulls at the start were Noelle and Keqing, so I decided to give their names a mini-cameo. I never expected Gelimer to be this popular among the CMM fans. Maybe someday I'll dedicate a full chapter, but I'll definitely keep this in mind.
Omake
Principal Nadeshiko peered down from the vent into the Arena's control room. It was all quiet below and it looked completely empty. Perfect. After a few tries she managed to break open the vent shaft and dropped below with a perfect landing. And by perfect landing she meant falling face first onto the floor. Thankfully her head was too thick to suffer any permanent harm.
"Oww… gonna feel that in the morning." She rolled onto her side, waiting for the pain to subside.
"Principal Kutsuwagi, are you okay? That looked like it hurt"
"A little bruised but I'm-" Nadeshiko gulped.
There in the corner of the room where she had a blind spot from above, Gelimer Brighton leaned against the wall.
"Mind telling me what you we're doing up there." He offered the principal a hand to get up, which she accepted.
"Oh! I'm just… you know. Er… Exercising!"
"In the vents?"
"Yes!" Nadeshiko answered without remorse. "Great exercise! Perfect for your upper arm muscles and calves. Give it a try sometime!"
Gelimer chose to ignore that. "You're here to broadcast another advertisement that you made to the school and audience, aren't you?"
"No! Maybe?... Yes…"
"Thought so. Thanks to your previous ad, we've been swarmed with calls about people wanting to buy insane amounts of Impact Cannon."
"People are still buying it!?" Nadeshiko's eyes beamed.
"Unfortunately." All those phone calls for ridiculous amounts of cleaning product had given the staff major headaches. Never again would Gelimer look down on anyone working in retail. "Look. I'm under orders from Ms. Orimura to not let you so much as touch those controls. So, if you could just leave and never return here, that'd be swell."
"I'm afraid I can't do that Mr. Brighton. I've got a mission to help these students."
"By showing them in stupid commercials."
"Hey they're not stupid! We put a lot of hard work into these masterpieces."
Masterpieces? As in plural? The color drained from Gelimer's face. No way could he let this trainwreck keep rolling along. The man cracked his knuckles, trying to look as intimidating as a man in a lab coat could be. He wouldn't actually hit her but if threats of violence worked for Chifuyu Orimura, then maybe he too could tap into that power.
"You won't get past me. Just forget you ever made those ads and leave."
One thing he hadn't realized was that to be threatening you had to be… threatening. The way Ms. Kutsuwagi clutched her stomach and laughed uncontrollably proved he had a ways to go to reach the demon instructor's level. Once the laughter died down, she wiped a tear from her eye.
"I can't get past you Mr. Brighton. But I think my friends can make you see things my way."
"Your friends?" Gelimer looked around the room, eyes wide. But found no one other than him and her.
Nadeshiko reached into her pocket, pulling out a stack of money. It was a fraction of the money she'd been bribed er…. Rewarded with for her previous job. "Their names are George, Abraham, Andrew, and Benjamin." She fanned herself with all the bills before pulling out another stack. "And wouldn't you know? They all brought their twin brothers!"
She placed the stack in Gelimer's hands. Even though it was paper, the morality of whether to accept this well-deserved money weighed down on his palm.
"If you think I'm going to just look the other way for a surprising amount of cash than you are-"
Nadeshiko tripled the amount.
"Absolutely right!"
Gelimer grinned like an idiot stepping aside to count his totally deserved fortune. What was he supposed to be doing again? Bah! It didn't matter. There was money to count.
Nadeshiko patted herself on the back for a successful negotiation as she placed the hard drive yet again into the main terminal. All screens on the Academy's monitors cut to black before showing what looked to be a family sitting at an empty kitchen table. Both parents seemed hungry while the children looked downright miserable.
"The Infinite Stratos." An announcer voice spoke. "The machine to give unrivaled might and unmatched mobility." There was an explosion as an IS broke through the wall of her home. Rolan and her IS Aulandy Bloom became visible as the smoke and debris cleared. Despite the property damage her million dollar smile never wavered. "And now these destructive machines of flight are coming…" She deployed her rapier and extended it towards the dinner table with some kind of bag sliding down.
The camera panned in on the object as it hit the table, revealing it to be a paper bag full of greasy fast food.
"To deliver your meals!"
The scene than cut away to scenes of students in IS units receiving and flying away with deliveries. Each girl was giving a not-so-subtle smile for the camera as they showed off the logos of each restaurant dead center before flying off.
"Introducing Infinite Stratos Sonic delivery! Joining the market in food delivery, we strive to show the Infinite Stratos in a new light by aiding people in their darkest hour and combat the threat of hunger."
Rows of cars were shown stuck on a grid lock as the drivers were going nowhere fast. The camera than moved up to the sky as IS units flew unimpeded past the busy roads and to the front doors of happy and soon to be full families.
"With the speed and mobility of the Infinite Stratos, waiting times will be a thing of the past. Your food can arrive just as hot as it left the kitchen. And that's a promise we'll make to you."
It wasn't just girls in standard training units, even the cadet representatives seemed to have become proud employees of this delivery service. "And with the special skills of special IS units, food can be brought to your doors at record pace. Don't believe us? Take a look at some of our best pilots!"
Principal Nadeshiko smiled. This was her favorite part.
One Vishnu Isa Galaxy took center focus on the screen with her signature bow deployed. Attached to each of her arrow was a bag of most likely food. The camera zoomed in on the logo of each bag before Vishnu drew back her bow fired off arrow after arrow at every doorstep in the neighborhood. Volleys of arrows hit every door, some even piercing through it entirely. Thankfully none of the meals were harmed. She seemed quite proud of herself until she remembered there was a camera filming. Her body froze up like she turned from a person into a statue.
Not to be out done, Jayden Sylvan was on the scene carrying what would be considered a cartoonish amount of food and drinks on his shield. Thanks to its energy effect to carry burgers and fries on literal hard surface energy, he was able to fly without dropping a single fry. Once he landed, the male pilot gave the camera a thumbs up as kids swarmed and cheered for the arrival of their meals.
The screen faded to black, but not before the announcer spoke once more.
"Infinite Stratos Sonic Delivery! Coming Soon!"
"I'm pretty proud of how this one turned out. What do you think Mr. Brighton?" Nadeshiko asked.
Gelimer made some noises which sounded like agreements as he counted his money for the third time.
Forget signing documents or attending meetings, Nadeshiko felt like she was really making a difference in these kids' lives starting now. If this business deal went through, students could graduate from one of the worlds most advanced high schools into a career delivering meals using the worlds most advanced technology.
Nadeshiko wiped a tear away from her eye.
Where would this academy be without her?
Download the Infinite Stratos Sonic Delivery App! Coming soon in 20XX!