Chapter 5 baby!
There's nothing really happening in the IS academy side of things hopefully next chapter we can see the introduction of Charlotte and Laura into the story, but that's for another time which might explain why this chapter is a little shorter compared to the others.
As usual, I don't own anything.
-0-
"How did I find myself here?"
Ichika asked himself as he stood in front of the student council room, at least according to the letter given to him last night by his big sister the class representative meeting is held in this very room but when he took a peek there was no one inside.
He still remembers the whirlwind of events that ended with him stuck being the class representative from Cecilia suddenly resigning despite her winning, his inauguration party which ended with everyone photobombing the thing.
Suffice it to say the Japanese teen is tired.
Oh so very tired, not helped by the rumors circulating that the other class representative of his year is equally if not more eccentric than his classmates, can he survive until graduation without his hair suddenly turning white?
"Ichika?"
He heard someone calls at him, the voice sounded familiar, a voice he hadn't heard when he was at elementary school, could this voice belong to-
"Noa?" he asked expectedly.
The Japanese boy turned around to the source of the voice. He saw his childhood friend or at least one of his childhood friends a mixed-race teen between Japanese and European proven by his blue eyes and wavy black hair with blonds mixed into it wearing the standard IS uniform with no modification. Still, one thing that caught Ichika's eyes was the singular diamond-shaped earring.
An IS.
"One and only." Noa Nemain replied with a smug smile while putting both hands on his hips, his trademark pose so to say and a flock of ravens suddenly flew past the windows. "It's been a while, hasn't it?"
The two quickly hugged, one shared between close friends as they patted each other back wordlessly enjoying each other presence after many years of not seeing each other, for a moment they felt like children again, unaware of the complexities of the worlds basking in old childhood innocence that have long passed.
"It's been forever." Noa smiled, as they took a step back not wanting any weird rumors to rear their ugly heads, "how are you?"
"Well, it's a long story but before that…. you're an IS pilot?"
"I have time, and yes," Noa flashed his earring at Ichika. "What about you? I heard all sorts of things what you did in this semester alone."
Ichika only laughed weakly before sighing as he scratched the back of his head, it become pretty embarrassing when people asked about what happened, it have been a long month after all with many ups and downs.
"Well, it's a bit embarrassing but how did you become a class representative?" Now that was the million-dollar question for Ichika, how come Noa became the class representative for 1-2? Sure he is reliable with a strong sense of purpose at the same time he has a habit of spacing off and staring at random things when bored.
Honestly, how can you stare at birds flying past and find enjoyment in it? Mentally shrugging at it's not his place to judge what his childhood friend's hobby is but the question remains.
"Because I was the only sensible and sane person in my class." the mixed-race boy replied bluntly.
Ouch, that's quite brutal, isn't it? Now Ichika suddenly felt a sense of pity for his childhood friend's classmates or rather for Noa instead of needing to deal with his classmates, though he wondered if those two were also in the academy.
"Hey Noa, are those two-"
"If you ask about Evan and Zina…" there was a long pause before Noa simply nodded at Ichika instead of saying it, to which the pilot of Byakushiki also nodded knowing full-on well what the two names entail.
Evan Kirimoto and Zina Zinovie are other of his many childhood friends beside Rin and Dan, maybe except Zina because god knows how many times that Russian-Greece girl bullied him and Rin when they were kids.
"Good times wasn't it?"
Both of them cringed at the memories.
"So, who are the other class representatives?" Ichika quickly asked desperately to change the topic into something much more pressing than relieving terrible childhood memories.
"That would be Kanzashi Sarashiki and Shamir Ravi," Noa replied while crossing his arms, "though it's good to see the five of us somehow reunite in this place."
"Five?" Ichika has a suspicion about who is the fifth member of his childhood five-men band, especially during the days of elementary school. "Do you mean Rin? She is here in the academy?"
"Yeah, she didn't change from the last time we saw her."
Ah, knowing Rin's personality and habits she might as well try to challenge who the class representative is to try to take their position by asking 'nicely' Honestly it's a big mystery how she turned up that way despite her parentage.
'Mr. Huang's influence was pretty much non-existence in Rin after all.' Ichika thought as he remembered the old philosophy professor who run a restaurant with his wife, a place that Ichika always visit all those years ago because Chifuyu is always busy with work outside.
Honestly, it's hard not to see how both husband and wife often pack him free extra food despite him insisting they don't need to do that.
"Is she the new transfer student?" Ichika asked, wanting to confirm something.
"She is," Noa confirmed while looking behind him to see a pair of students walking toward them. "ah, there's the other class representatives."
Noa waved at them while Ichika turned around to see the pair.
He can't help but feel the representative meeting would be disastrous for everyone involved.
He hoped he was wrong.
-0-
Kanzashi Sarashiki wished she didn't get chosen as the class representative.
How in the world did a withdrawn and introverted Hikkomori like herself become the class representative if not for her family name? She tried to push the position to someone else but everyone in her class either ran away or refused.
'Why is everyone in my class so weird?' she thought as she looked at the IS in front of her, a half-dismantled Uchigane model IS, a highly-rated 2nd generation frame and one of Japan's homemade machines famed for its ease of use for beginner pilots.
Looking back at the IS she is building she cannot help but feel bitter regarding the whole situation, both her hands clenched into fists as she thought of the mail yesterday, the news on how her IS was sidelined in favor of Byakuhiki. If only that machine didn't exist-
"No, what in the world am I thinking?" the blue-haired girl shook her head while covering her face. What a shameful thought, what in the world would her two older siblings say…
A loud slap rang out in the small hangar. No, that was a terrible thing to think about.
She was not her sister, she couldn't just waltz into a room and take command of whatever conversation they had.
And her brother? The less she thought about what he would do the better for her psyche.
No, no. This was a problem she had to deal with herself, the only natural way she knew how. So turning back to the half-finished mess of an IS before her, she set back to work.
"Hey, Kanzashi! You there?"
The blue-haired girl squeaked in surprise as she heard someone calling her name in the hangar loudly because there is nobody but her, though that cheerful, lively, and energetic tone can only belong to one person and one person.
"Dan!"
She called his name at the same time he appeared, a blond-haired boy with blue eyes from her class wearing the same male IS uniform as every other boy with the addition of a blue and red striped jacket, naturally the IS closed form is worn around his neck, a star-shaped ornament with orange coloration.
"Yo, everyone was looking for you," Dan hopped to her glancing at the half-dismantled Uchigane frame and letting a whistle out. "So you finally started building it huh."
"Y-yeah." honestly it's hard for the youngest Sarashiki to even look at Dan's direction, mainly because his endless optimism is often not overwhelming for some introvert like her. "Wait, what are you doing here?"
"Oh yeah, one of the teachers was looking for you, something about the class representative meeting and all of that," Dan explained while stuffing his hands into his jacket and rummaging around for a few seconds before pulling a snack, it was a bar of chocolates and offered one to Kanzanshi. "You want some? My mom sent a box of them this morning."
"Sure…." She took the chocolate bar, a bit awkwardly so as not to touch his outstretched hand, which made it seem like she is pinching the edge of the snack wrapper instead of taking the whole thing. "Thanks…."
No matter how she looks at it her classmates are there to support her yet- No, the fact they are willing to stand by her side is enough but she feels like Dan is forgetting something important.
"Dan, when is the meeting taking place?"
"Ah."
Maybe she should take this slowly but it's a nice feeling to have friends to lean on.
-0-
"Hey Noa, how did she get into the school?" Ichika whispered to his childhood friend while glancing at the third person in the room.
"If Zina managed to get in then anyone can do it," he whispered back. "Except for the class representative part, that I don't know."
The class representative minus one Kanzashi Sarashiki have all gathered in the room but there is just one tiny problem, Shamir Ravi the class representative of 1-3 sitting across the table.
Shamir Ravi is more well-known as the Femme-Arachnid of class 1-3 is a dark-skinned girl with an equally dark red hair color styled in a dreadlock wearing the standard uniform except for the red undershirt, naturally, her Infinite Stratos: Red Rum closed form to take the shape of a spider hanging around her neck like a necklace which adds up to the arachnid motive alongside her personal IS resembles that of a spider, one of the few quad-legs IS unit in the world.
"so, are we going to start this meeting or not?" she asked while leaning in her chair and propping her shapely legs on the table.
'Her attitude is just…less said the better.' Ichika thought to himself as he pulled his sleeve just a little to reveal Byakushiki's closed form that showed him the time.
It's been five minutes and the only thing they have done is sit in silence instead whatever they are supposed to do….
Wait, what are they supposed to do in the class representative meeting again?
"Noa, what are we supposed to do again?" Ichika asked while slowly inching closer to his friend for safety's sake.
Monkey together strong they say.
"we're supposed to be discussing the plan for the year but it seems the first meeting is for introduction," Noa explained to Ichika. "we're still waiting for"
The class door suddenly slides open as an exhausted Kanzashi fumbled in her hands on her knees as she tried to catch her breath.
"I-I'm sorry I'm late, my name is Kanzanshi Sarashiki the representative of class 1-4…." She looked at the occupants of the rooms, and at that moment a split-second decision was made she chose to sit down beside Ichika.
Much to the chagrin of the boy as the girl scoots just a little closer for safety's sake away from Shamir who looked amused more than anything else.
"My, so the rumor is true huh boy," she puts her legs down in favor of leaning forward trying to get a good look at Ichika. "You are your charming harem-building aura."
Noa and Kanzanshi's heads snapped in Ichika's direction. After hearing those words.
It was a shocking revelation for everyone in the room even Ichika's eyes widening in shock of hearing that, now where on earth did that kind of rumors come into existence?
"N-now wait for a second that can't be right?" he could feel the judgemental stares of the blue-haired girl directed at him, and why on earth Noa of all people looked even more tired to the point he could just willingly space out and not listen to any of this and why on earth does his gut feeling from before returned at full force.
Ah, it really did become a disaster as the quartet of class representatives did nothing for the next thirty or so minutes, proven by the fact Noa have spaced out long ago starting at some birds that landed on the window.
'Big sis is going to kill me.' Ichika thought as he accepted this new kind of hell on earth.
[center]-0-[/center]
Far away from the academy, away from the commotions of students and teachers deep within an undisclosed military base two female IS pilot guards a massive transport truck as it's being loaded, usually one would not bat an eye at such cargo, thinking of it as spaceship parts or something similar.
It's standard that some countries would keep their research a secret, especially after the revision of the Alaska Treaty and its inclusion of the zero-tolerance polity.
The Phantasma incident was a political nightmare to navigate for everyone as the nations started blazing each other for the creation of the monstrosity even after its rampage was stopped the allure of power provided by the Phantasma was too much to the point some nations secretly tried to obtain any straps of research or data.
"I hoped we won't need to deal with Phantom Task…." one of the soldiers commented as she gripped her rifle tightly. She heard horror stories of the military bases that were attacked by Phantom Task, especially their 'Reaper Squads' and she doesn't want to experience it.
"Not to be an alarmist but I think we are expecting some form of Phantom Tack interference later on the road, why do you think they hired him?" the soldier pointed at someone or rather something in the distance.
A middle-weight Infinite Stratos kneeling and surrounded by spotlights with a red and black color scheme and its emblem boldly displayed on its shoulder solid black circle with a golden-amber 9 armed with a laser blade on its left arm, a pulse rifle held on the right, with a small missile launcher and a grenade launcher on it's back.
It looks more like it's built for war instead the combat sports, even IS units used by the soldiers are not that heavily armed.
"Quite the grim-looking machine isn't it?" she asked her friends.
"Yeah, no kidding it kinda fits the pilot tho." the other soldier replied as she pointed to the pilot a man in his twenties pale blond hair with pink eyes sitting on a crate drinking a canned coffee and glaring at the machine. "Whose his name again?"
"Leos Klein, beyond that we don't have any info besides the fact he underwent human+."
"For real? Isn't Human+ expensive and dangerous?"
Human+ the ever-controversial topic within the IS community originally intended for medical uses such as helping heal paralyzed individuals or other extreme injuries but once it was discovered that Human+ can enhance the performance of an IS unit its reputation as a medical procedure was thrown out of the window. Not to mention the countless side effects that might appear.
Not to mention the scandal of the second Mondo Grosso tournament where some of the participants used Human+ in the tournament to gain any form of advantage over their opponents.
Before the pair of soldiers can continue talking, the sirens suddenly blare.
"An attack?!"
"Already? This is far too early!"
As every personnel within the military base begin to scramble Leos looked at the night sky, he could see the lights produced by the enemy boosters rapidly approaching the base throwing the canned coffee to the side he silently climbs into the IS.
"Hustler, wake up," he ordered the machine at the same time it begin to link with his mind, it was a disgusting sensation as his mind adjusted to the hyper sensor booting up as he slowly stood up from his kneeling position.
"Target verified. Commencing hostilities."
-0-
yes, no.9 is here. You'll be seeing this pair more as the story progressed. This chapter is named after the music used in the "no future for merc" trailer of VD, one of my personal favorites from FreQuency.
Till next time I suppose.