Chapter 6: Strike of the Golem
The women in the room stared in shock at the screen. An unknown IS that looked like it had come from another planet had broken through the arena energy barrier. Yamada, who was closest to the screen, had a look of terror mixed with worry. Houki and Cecilia who were right behind her wore looks of utter shock staring wide eyed at the screen. Chifuyu, who stood behind her at a more calm expression however, shock and terror could still be seen.
"What is that thing?" Houki exclaimed.
"S-some sort of I-IS," Yamada stuttered.
"What's it doing here?" Cecilia asked, still shocked. None of the women had an answer to her question.
"Whatever it's doing it's clearly up to no good," Chifuyu said, regaining her stoic look.
Suddenly, Houki's eyes light up.
"Ichika and Rin are there! We have to get them out!"
"I'm afraid we can't," Chifuyu said, causing Houki's eyes to widen.
"What do you mean we can't!" Houki yelled.
"That IS is a security threat. A level 4 lockdown has been put in place to contain it. This means that Orimura and Guan are locked in there and we are locked out," Chifuyu responded which only further enraged Houki.
"So they are locked in the battle arena with a dangerous IS? They could die!"
"I know!" Chifuyu said, her voice becoming louder. "The school security unit has been notified and will soon enter the arena to engage the IS. All Orimura and Guan have to do is stall until then,"
"But-"
"There's nothing we can do," Chifuyu interrupted Houki. "We are also locked out. We just have to have faith that Orimura and Guan can survive for long enough,"
Houki looked like she wanted to argue but thought against it.
"Orimura-sensei, what about the students in the stands?" asked Yamada-sensei.
"The steel shutters have been dropped. It should give the students some level of protection," Chifuyu replied.
"But what if the IS targets the students?" Cecilia asked.
"The shutters will provide protection but if that IS can break through the arena's energy barrier then it will likely be able to break through the shutters too. We just have to hope that it doesn't target the students,"
Me and Rin were petrified as we stared at the weird intruder as it flew further into the battle arena until it stopped. It then turned its attention towards the stands where metal shutters had dropped. It raised its arm, pointing it at the stands. In its giant hands a tube that looked to be a cannon started to glow purple. The purple light grew in intensity and formed a purple orb which grew bigger and bigger until blasted into an energy beam that traveled towards the stands in an instance. It went through the energy barrier and hit the metal shutters, creating a giant dent in it.
I was still petrified from shock and unable to move. The IS turned to its other side and raised its arm once again. At this Rin finally moved.
"Oh no you don't!" she yelled as she charged straight at it.
"Rin, wait!" I called after her but it was too late. She was already within reach of the IS.
She lifted up her scimitar and hit the IS in its hip. Her strike pushed the IS back who turned towards her. It raised its arm, a purple orb still growing in the canon. Before Rin could react the purple orb broke into an energy beam which hit Rin at point blank blasting her away.
"Rin I yelled!" as I watched her fall into the arena's energy barrier.
The intruder just turned its attention back towards the stands as it charged another energy blast. Seeing this my body allowed me to act as I charged at the IS. I reached it soon, striking it in the hip with Yukitara-2 which pushed it back.
The IS turned towards me, raising its arm but before the beam could hit me I swerved out of the way, narrowly dodging it. The beam dropped down towards the ground where it impacted with an explosion
"Ichika!" I heard Chifuyu-nee's voice coming from my IS.
"Hello Chifuyu-nee, it's nice to talking to you but I'm a little busy right now," I said.
"This IS is a serious threat! If its energy beams can break through the arena's energy barrier then it can break through your shield energy. Do not engage it!" I frowned at Chifuyu-nee's statement.
"I have to! The IS is targeting the stands," I yelled.
The IS now charged and threw a punch at me. I narrowly swerved out of its path and struck it with Yukitara-2 in the chest. This didn't stop the IS as it threw a left hook at me which connected pushing me back. It began charging up another energy blast but was interrupted by a scimitar striking it in the head and pushing it back.
"Rin!" I exclaimed as I looked at the familiar Shenlong. "Are you ok?"
"I'm fine," she replied with gritted teeth. "But that thing did a number on my shield energy. I don't think I can take another charged beam like that,"
We both stared at the IS which raised both arms. Purple light started to build in both its canons but instead of charging up, purple orbs released from them, coming right towards us. We both swerved out of the way, Rin flying above them while dropped below them.
"I told you, do not engage!" Chifuyu-nee yelled.
"I'm sorry sis, but if we don't do something, the other students will be at risk," at this Chifuyu-nee went quiet.
"Fine. Get its attention while we evacuate the students. But be very careful," Chifuyu-nee spoke in a more calm voice.
"Don't worry, we will!" I said as I turned my attention back towards the IS.
"No, I will, you stay out of this!" Rin yelled, charging at the IS.
I ignored her demand as I charged towards the IS.
Me and Rin were both charging at the IS, lifting up our respective weapons. Upon reaching the IS, we both went to slash it but it just raised its arms and fired more purple energy orbs. Rin swerved back and was able to maneuver around all of them, but I wasn't so fortunate as one orb connected to my IS, cutting down on my shield energy and dazing me.
The IS pointed its arm towards me, charging up its energy blast but was interrupted by Rin who slashed at it. Rin sent a barrage of slashes towards it, cutting at the IS with both ends of the scimitar. The IS was stunned for a while as it took slash after slash which cut into the metal of the unit, but eventually, after one more slash, it caught Rin's scimitar in left hand. This held Rin in place, allowing it to hit her with a powerful right hook, sending her crashing into the energy barrier dazed.
I finally orientated myself after being hit. I looked towards the IS who was now in the process of charging its energy blast. Rin was still dazed from the crash and upon looking back at the IS, realized what was happening. She tried to move out of the way but it was too late. The purple energy beam launched from the IS, but before it could strike Rin, she was pushed out of the way by a speeding white IS. The beam missed both units, crashing into the energy barrier and shattering it.
Rin was shocked as she stared at me.
"How did you get here so fast?" she asked.
"I used my Ignition Boost," I replied. Rin was amazed for a second before her amazement turned into a frown.
"I told you to stay out of it!" she yelled.
"I can't just sit by while you take on that thing!" I retorted.
"I'm a National Representative Candidate! I can take it!"
"No you can't! If I hadn't used my ignition boost you wouldn't been blown apart,"
"Yeah and now you can't use it to take it down," she said in annoyance
"Well I can still use Reiraku Byakuya," I said.
"Yeah but without the Ignition Boost, how are you going to get close enough to hit it! I doubt the IS is going to just let you hit it with an attack that powerful," Rin exclaimed.
"I don't know about that," I replied.
"What do you mean?" Rin asked, confused.
"Look at it," I pointed towards the IS who was now charging an energy blast towards the stands.
"Right now, we were distracted, it would have been a perfect opportunity to attack us. But it didn't. It only seems to attack us when we are near it," I explained.
Rin thought about my statement.
"Yeah you're right, it is strange. Not to mention, it's not like any IS I've ever seen. I mean look at the damage my scimitars dealt," she pointed towards the IS as it shot and energy beam towards the stands. It was covered in deep cuts all over its body.
"I mean a regular IS shouldn't have taken this much damage. It's like it doesn't have any shield energy," Rin said. "Not to mention, whoever is piloting it is very reckless,"
"I don't think it has a pilot," I said, which surprised Rin.
"I mean look at its behavior. It's just attacking the shield barriers routinely. Like it was programmed to do that"
"But an IS can't function without a pilot," Rin exclaimed.
"I know," I said, staring at the IS. "But considering its strange behavior and design, that seems to be the most likely conclusion. Not to mention, the way its dead set on destroying the shutters looks almost robotic,"
Rin seemed to have been convinced by my statement.
"So then, what's the plan," she asked.
"Well if you can distract it and I get close, I could hit with Reiraku Byakuya,"
"Yeah but that's easier said than done," Rin said. "I don't have much shield energy left, my shock canons are broken and your IS will drop to a single one of those energy orbs. Not to mention, your Ignition Boost isn't available,"
"I know!" I replied in annoyance. "It's going to be difficult but it's the only shot we have. I don't know how long those shutters will hold or when the security unit is supposed to show up. That's why, the best course of action is for you to grab its attention and create an opening for me to strike it! Plus, since there is no pilot, I won't have to hold back with Reiraku Byakuya"
Rin thought for a moment. She then reached her free hand out. Two scimitars materialized and then joined together forming another double sided scimitar.
"Ok then, I'll distract it. Makes you sure you land your hit," she said.
"I will," and with that we both rushed towards it.
"Ichika," Chifuyu-nee's voice spoke in my IS. "What's your planning is incredibly reckless and dangerous and-,"
"Sorry sis," I interrupted as I disabled the communication link.
Rin charged towards the IS as it was charging another energy blast. She struck the IS with both scimitars at the same time causing the charged energy beam to hit the floor creating an explosion on impact.
Rin continued her assault on the IS, cutting it up with all sides of the scimitars in what would be best described as a savage dance. Despite the cuts the IS fought back, blocking the strikes with its fists as well as firing its energy blasts which Rin blocked using the thicker parts of her scimitars.
I watched from the side as they traded blow after blow waiting for my opening. I felt uneasy as I tried to decide when to strike. The IS seemed to be distracted but with how rapidly it was fighting I wasn't convinced that it wouldn't be able to react to and stop my charge. I couldn't waste my remaining shield energy. So I waited, waited for an opportunity I wasn't sure I'd even get.
The fight between the IS and Rin continued as Rin slashed at it while the IS returned punches and energy blasts. Eventually, after one strike from Rin's right scimitar, the IS caught it in its right hand. Rin looked in shock as the IS held her scimitar firmly. She tried striking it with the other scimitar but the IS caught that one too this time by her hand, preventing her from letting go of it. Rin let go of the scimitar in her right hand and desperately tried to break free from its grip but it was too strong and soon the right hand of the IS started to glow purple.
I saw the scene unfold and knew this was my only chance. It was now or never. I rushed towards the two IS as fast as my unit allowed me and activated Reiraku Byakuya. Blue energy formed around the blade, thickening further and further until it suddenly flared into a thick buzzing purple energy.
I was soon within a few dozen meters of the IS. My heart was pounding my chest like a punching bag. The IS seemed to have noticed my presence as it turned to face me. I kept my charge, closing the gap to just a dozen meters. It turned its arm towards me, pointing the purple blast right at me. I was now just a few meters away from it, I stared at the purple light better bigger and bigger and then,
Slash
Yukitara-2 pierced through the IS, slicing through it like a butter stick, cutting it in half from its waist to its shoulder. Scraps of metal from the IS scattered into the air and the three red glowing dots on its forehead began to fade but...
BOOM
The built up energy from its hand released into a powerful beam which struck me at point blank.
"ICHIKA!" Rin yelled but I couldn't hear it in my state.
The beam pushed me down towards the ground at a faster speed than I had ever gone. I reached the ground with a loud crash that felt like I had been hit by a rocket. The momentum of the beam had not run out yet as it continued to push me through the ground, my IS scrapping against the ground of the arena. Through all this I felt a strange numbness, like my soul had left my body and was spectating. I eventually reached the metal shutters that covered the stands and stopped with a giant crash.
I layed there for a bit, still feeling numb until all the pain suddenly rushed onto me. It was the worst pain I had ever felt. I felt my consciousness fade, surrendering to the blinding pain and then it all went dark.
Consciousness flushed over me as I opened my eyes. I was greeted by a white ceiling and pain in my whole body that stung me when I tried to move. With some effort, I was able to lift my upper torso up which felt like I had done 1 million sit ups. I could now see that I was in a hospital room.
"You're awake!" a familiar voice exclaimed.
I turned to my right and was greeted by the face of my childhood friend Rin Guan.
"Wha-,what happened?" I asked, still dazed.
"We were fighting that weird black IS thing, remember," Rin said.
This caused a horde of memories to flood my mind. From the moment the IS invaded the arena to the moment I defeated it.
"What happened after..."
"After the IS hit you with that giant laser?" Rin finished my sentence. I nodded at this.
"Well the security unit finally arrived but by then, you had already destroyed that IS. You were right, there was no pilot in that IS! The security unit were as shocked as we were," Rin recalled with amazement and confusion.
"What happened to me?" I asked, causing Rin's expression to tense up.
"Well, you were in a really bad shape. You were rushed to the hospital all bloodied up and you've been here for almost 2 days," Rin explained. "I'm surprised you woke up so soon,"
"I see,"
For a minute we both sat in silence, not knowing how to continue the conversation. Finally Rin broke the silence.
"You know, you seemed pretty eager to take that thing down,"
"What do you mean?" I asked. "It was an intruding IS, of course I wanted to,"
"Well yeah but you didn't have to take it down, you could have stalled for the security unit to arrive, but instead, you made a whole plan to take it down that was very risky, especially for you,"
I didn't respond to Rin's comment as I was deep in thought.
"Is there a deeper reason to why you wanted to defeat it?" I thought for a bit.
"I think I wanted to prove myself," I finally said, surprising Rin a bit.
"Prove yourself?"
"Yeah. Since I came to the academy it felt like everyone was expecting so much from me. Not only the first male pilot but also the brother of the Brunhilde," I said. As I explained Rin was listening very attentively.
"But you became class rep, didn't you?" asked Rin. At this I frowned.
"Yeah," I replied with a frown,
"but that wasn't by pure skill. I got nominated due to being the only male pilot. I had to fight Cecilia since she was the other nominee and I lost," I looked down while explaining.
"I got the position because she turned it down. I don't know why but that left me as the class rep, but I don't feel like I earned it,"
By now, Rin's face looked very gloomy and looked at me with pity.
"I never knew you felt this way," she said.
"I try not to but..."
"You can't help it?" she said finishing my statement. I nodded in agreement.
"I, also felt similar," she said, grabbing my attention.
"I remember when we met again last week you asked me why I was trying to "act all cool?"
"Yeah," I replied, "before you moved, you weren't so confident and outspoking. You were always quiet during class and shy around other people,"
"Well," Rin started fidgeting with her hair as she thought about what she wanted to say.
"I never wanted to be so shy and quiet. Back then, I wasn't very confident. Most people saw this small, petite girl and assumed that I was just that," Rin started to tighten her hand into a fist.
"I hated that label. I wanted to prove to people that I was more than that," her voice grew louder. "That I could be confident, strong, and passionate!" she relaxed after saying her last statement.
"Looking back, that's probably why I took such an interest in the IS, and why I wanted to be the Chinese National Representative Candidate," I listened attentively as Rin spoke. It was my turn to feel sorry.
Another awkward silence began as we both stood there staring down, taking in what the other had said.
"Well, even back then you could be passionate," I said, breaking the silence and causing Rin to look up.
"And stubborn," I added, causing Rin to frown.
"Hey, what's that supposed to mean!" she exclaimed.
"Well, when you felt strongly about something, it was nearly impossible to convince you otherwise"
"I wasn't being stubborn, I was just very adamant about my beliefs," Rin said, causing me to chuckle.
"Oh yeah, what about the fact that whenever we went out you and Ran would always argue over where to go or what to do. It was almost like you two were competing against each other while me and Dan just watched,"
"Because all she wanted to do was go to cafes and restaurants, if it weren't for me, our hangouts wouldn't have been half as fun," Rin exclaimed with a pout. I just laughed at Rin's response causing her to smile too.
Eventually, our moment was interrupted by two people storming into the room.
"Ichika, you're awake!" Houki was the first to speak as looked at me in relief and joy. She was joined by Cecilia who also looked relieved.
"Yeah, but, I've seen better days," I said, clutching my chest.
"I must say, your performance against the intruder was quite fine," Cecilia said.
"The way you planned against that IS with Guan and took it down together, was commendable. You may soon find yourself in the same league as myself," pride oozed out of that last statement causing everyone in the room to chuckle.
"It was commendable but reckless," a voice from outside the room said. Everyone turned to look at Chifuyu-nee who was now standing at the doorway of the hospital room. She was staring daggers at me.
"That plan of yours was very dangerous and could have gotten the both of you killed," Chifuyu said in a harsh tone. Her words made me feel as if my soul was being squeezed out of my body.
"Think about that next time," her gaze hadn't left me and I could feel it piercing through my body. Or maybe that was just the pain I was feeling from my condition, it was hard to tell.
There was a brief pause after that last statement where everyone waited in anticipation for what she was going to say.
"Still," she relaxed her gaze and lightened her voice. "It was pretty impressive," everyone in the room breathed a sigh of relief.
"But don't do that again," she said, tightening her gaze again, causing me to eagerly nod.
"Ok then, everyone, leave Orimura-san alone, he needs rest after that hit," she said walking out, prompting everyone else to follow her and leaving alone to rest. God knows I needed it.
Deep below the IS academy, in the darkness of the engineer room, Maya and Chifuyu stared at data they were reading from a screen. In front of them lay the remains of the black IS unit which had many wires connected to it. The room was dark save for a dim green light that lit the room just enough to allow it to be visible.
Chifuyu was frowning at the screen while Maya looked shocked.
"This is impossible!" exclaimed Maya, shocked.
"The core of this IS doesn't have a number of it," at this Chifuyu also showed surprise.
"What do you mean it doesn't!" Chifuyu exclaimed.
Despite not being an expert on the intricate details of the IS, even she knew that the core of each IS had a number embedded on it to identify which core it was. The fact that it didn't was cause for alarm.
"The data for identifying the unit is missing. Either it was removed or this is a new IS core," Maya turned towards Chifuyu. "You think it's related to why it's an unnamed unit?"
"I doubt it's a coincidence," Chifuyu said, looking closer at the screen. "Not to mention, the data on this core is very different to the data that I've seen from other cores. Nothing about this IS is normal. The design. The weapon. The missing number on the core. The fact it's unmanned. It's behavior. Whoever designed it had sinister intentions,"
Maya looked at Chifuyu with worry in her eyes.
"What should we do?"
Chifuyu thought for a moment.
"How much data can you get from the code?"
"Not a lot right now," Maya said, looking at the screen. "A lot of it is encrypted, way more thoroughly than other cores. Whoever made this unit clearly didn't want people reading it,"
"Can you decrypt it?" asked Chifuyu.
"I can but it will take a while," Maya replied.
"Well work on that," Chifuyu said as she walked away towards the exit of the room.
"Where are you going?" Maya asked.
"I'll report our findings to the headmistress, she can decide the best course of action,"
Maya focused on the screen in front of her while Chifuyu left the room. They were both determined to get to the bottom of this mystery.
Author Note: Hello readers, I hope you enjoyed this chapter. For those who were following the story, sorry for the long wait. I was caught up with a lot of other work and I kind of underestimated how much writing it would take the release the batch of chapters I had planned. But anyways, the chapter is here now and I hope you enjoyed it. I still mainly followed the main canon for this fight with some changes to fit the narrative that I want for this story. I wanted this fight to have more of a sense of danger to it, to be a big moment for Ichika and his character as well as continuing with his need to prove himself. I also wanted to expand on Rin's character as like I said before she was pretty forgettable in the original series. Now to address the reviews:
TyrantBlaze1997: First off, thank you for regularly reading and leaving reviews.
For your first point, yeah, like I said, I wanted her to have something that separated her from the rest of the harem so I thought making her more of a friend for Ichika than love interest would work. May decide to make her a love interest also but I haven't made my mind on it.
As for Cecilia, I do want to expand on her character arc she had in the original. The original series have the habit of introducing characters, giving them small arcs, then forgetting about them. In this fanfic, I hope to be able to expand on the characters and have them go through more or longer arcs. About her training Ichika, not sure, it will depend on which routes I decide to take this fic in the future. I have a sort of destination in mind but don't have all of the intricate details planned so there is still a lot of room to add stuff.
As for Reiraku Byakuya, the way it works in this fic is that the longer it is activated, the more it drains Ichika of his shield energy. It's an overtime drain in power. In his fight against Cecilia, he used it carelessly and that's why he drained so fast. I think it's strong limiter on a very broken weapon that's not too restricting. It also depends on how much energy he puts in the blade. So to improve, Ichika will have to learn to manage his usage of Reiraku Byakuya.
Thank you for the feedback on the training sections. I think the main issue is that I don't want to dwell too much on them since to most they aren't as exciting as the main battles but I do think it would help to make them a bit longer and more detailed as well as just focus more on what Ichika is actually learning as well as the character interactions as you said.
MrSoandSo: I assume you are referring to the intruding IS. From what I read on the wiki, they were indeed Tabane's invention but I decided to change them here for a few reasons. Mainly because I think it fits the narrative I'm going for more and it being Tabane's creation raises many questions which I don't think ever really get answered. Like why would she send them to attack the academy anyways?
Anyways thank you all for reading and leaving your reviews and hope you continue to enjoy the series.