Chapter 7: Academy's Newest Attraction
A spent the 2 weeks after the class rep cup match in the hospital. Taking the laser from the intruding IS really did a number on my body. For the first few days, I could barely move due to the absurd pain I was feeling. Every time I moved it felt like my bones were being burned.
Eventually, I started being able to move regularly although walking was still a challenge due to my condition. Fortunately, Chifuyu-nee let me skip classes for this period which I was very grateful for. I couldn't imagine having to snail my way to class every morning. This period of time was very boring as I couldn't do much other than read. I was occasionally visited by Rin, Houki and even Cecilia but this time was limited due to them having classes.
Finally, after 2 very painful weeks, I was back in standard form and was able to reattend classes. Upon my return I found out that I had become quite a celebrity among the school, well I guess I was already popular due to being the only male but now, I was hearing my name constantly in conversation.
All anyone could talk about was the class rep cup match and how I had defeated the intruding IS. Everyone now seemed to think I was some sort of prodigy IS pilot who would overtake Chifuyu-nee. I once again felt the discomfort of high expectations that I felt upon my arrival at the academy. I mean I don't think what I did was that impressive, other pilots could have done what I did if they had Yukihara and they could have probably done it without being almost killed and hospitalized for 2 weeks, not to mention, I had the help of Rin who was a National Representative Candidate.
Speaking of her, she was growing quite frustrated at the student body who seemingly forgot her role in the incident.
"Seriously, they talk about you like you were some sort of superhero who took it down single-handedly without breaking a sweat!" Rin complained to me during lunch one time.
"They forget that if I hadn't been there to distract the Golem, you wouldn't have been able to hit it!"
Golem was the nickname the students gave to the rogue IS due to its strange mannerism, intimidating appearance and incredible power. Numerous rumors spread around it, discussing its strange appearance and lack of a pilot . They ranged from wild to absurd. Some speculated that it was an IS from another planet. Others thought it was being remotely controlled. Some even suggested that the pilot was a human who had been shrunk to microscopic levels. Whatever they thought, the explanation for the Golem was the only conversation topic that rivaled me in popularity.
Eventually, after a few weeks, the hype of the incident died down and people were discussing myself and the Golem less frequently which was relieving for me. It was a regular day, we were all in class waiting for homeroom when Yamada-sensei walked in.
"Good morning class! Today we have a new transfer student!"
Yamada-sensei's statement caused the students to murmur excitedly. Her statement also grabbed my attention. Another student who transferred this late into the academy? Especially after it was just attacked by the Golem, it was strange.
"All right, come in," Yamada-sensei said, turning towards the door.
Footsteps could be heard in the classroom as the student approached. As they came into view everyone including myself did a double take. The student had smooth skin, had medium length blonde hair that was tied into a ponytail and calm violet eyes which alongside their smile made them seem very friendly. But that wasn't what caught my attention.
The student was wearing the standard IS uniform with the standard white blazer however instead of a skirt they were wearing the same model of trousers as I was wearing.
"Hello everyone, my name is Charles Dunois, I am from France and I hope we can get along well" the student said in a French accent accompanied by a bow and a gleaming smile.
'Charles?' Isn't that a guy's name?
"Are you a guy?" a girl from behind me eagerly remarked.
"Yes, I recently discovered that I could pilot an IS and since the only other male pilot is enrolled here it was decided that I should also enroll here," Charles said, still smiling.
Everyone stared in shock for a bit while I, anticipating what would happen next, covered my ears. Sure enough, my intuition proved correct because all of a sudden,
"EEEEH!" The shrieking of teenage girls could be heard in the classroom even by me who despite covering my ears, was not spared. I turned towards Houki who was also covering her ears from the screams. Yamada-sensei was trying to calm the students but her words could not be heard over the shrieks. Charles looked confused and unsure what to do next.
"ANOTHER BOY!"
"AND HE IS IN OUR CLASS!"
"HE LOOKS JUST LIKE A PRINCE!"
"HE LOOKS SO PRECIOUS!"
Charles was starting to get really uncomfortable with all this attention and was looking really flustered.
"BE QUIET!" The unmistakable voice of Chifuyu-nee crashed through the room blowing away the shrieks of the girls. The room had suddenly turned very quiet as Chifuyu-nee walked into the class.
"As you've heard, this is Charles Dunois. He is from France and will be in class 1-A from now on. Ichika!" She turned towards me.
"You're in charge of helping Dunois settle in and since you two are the only boys you will be roommates. Understood?"
"Yes Orimura-sensei," I replied as I looked at Charles who was smiling back at me. At least he seemed nice.
"Ok then," Chifuyu-nee turned towards the class. "Today we will be doing a practical lesson. I expect you all to be ready and down at the battle arena in 10 minutes. Anyone late will be doing 10 laps around the field!"
At Chifuyu-nee's words, the whole class rushed to pack and get ready for the practical lesson. This fortunately removed the attention from me and Charles which I was grateful for.
"Cmon Charles, we have to hurry!" I said grabbing Charles's hand while rushing out the door.
"Wa-wait!" Charles stuttered. His face was turning red as I dragged him through the corridors and had a flustered expression.
"Why are we going so fast?" he squeaked.
"Because we have to get there before the other girls. Trust me, if you want privacy while you dress," I replied, having learned this fact through experience.
We eventually reached the dressing rooms, out of breath, before any of the other girls. Good thing I took the time to learn the layout of the academy.
"Ok it's time to get dressed," I said, removing my blazer. "Chifuyu-nee will kill us if we're late," I was removing my shirt when I heard Charles squeak once again. I turned back and saw him look very flustered.
"Are you ok Dunois-san?" I asked.
"Ye-yeah," he stuttered. "it's just, in France guys usually don't undress in front of each other,"
"Oh, ok, my bad. I'll just undress over there," I said moving behind a row of lockers. I didn't know much about French culture but I didn't want to make the only guy here feel uncomfortable around me.
Soon enough, I was dressed in my battle uniform. I returned to the entrance and saw that Charles was already waiting.
"Ok Dunois-san, let's go now," I said.
"Yeah, and please, just call me Charles. In France we just call each other by our first name," Charles said.
"Ok Charles, you can just call me Ichika then," I replied.
"Ok Ichika," he said as we walked together to the battle arena. So far, it seemed that we were getting along well.
Soon enough we were all at the battle arena, dressed in our IS battle uniform with Chifuyu-nee dressed in her white tracksuit. We were joined by class 1-B
"Listen up everyone!" Chifuyu-nee yelled, grabbing the students attention.
"Today we will be going over battle tactics and teamwork. First, we will get a demonstration. Guan, Alcott!" Cecilia and Rin jumped at the mention of their name.
"Yes!" they replied in unison.
"Care to give us a demonstration?"
"Of course,"
"Yes ma'am,"
Both of them walked towards the center of the field.
"Ok everyone, come back to the stands to observe the battle," Chifuyu-nee commanded. The class followed her instructions and soon enough everyone but Rin and Cecilia were in the stands.
"Alcott, Guan! Activate your units!" Chifuyu-nee commanded using the arena's speakers. Rin and Cecilia both complied and within a second their bodies were engulfed in a body of light which turned into their respective IS units.
"So is she my opponent?" Rin asked through her IS communication system.
"Actually, you two will be working together," Chifuyu-nee said, surprising the two pilots.
"Then who will we battle?" asked Cecilia. Suddenly, from the ends of the arena, two IS units flew out.
They were both coloured in white and shades of green, one was equipped with a sniper rifle while the other had two long blades. The pilot with the blades had long blonde hair with blue eyes and a stern expression while the other looked familiar.
"Is that Yamada-sensei?" Honne asked.
"Yes," Chifuyu-nee replied and then turned her attention to her microphone,
"Your opponents will be Ms Yamada of class 1-A and Ms Hamilton of class 1-B," Chifuyu-nee relayed over the speaker.
"Our opponents are our teachers?" Rin said in surprise.
"Don't underestimate them, they were both National Representative Candidates of their respective countries," Chifuyu-nee's statement caused the students to whisper excitedly.
"Oh please, that was a long time ago," Hamilton-sensei remarked.
"Yeah, I didn't even get past being a candidate student," said Yamada-sensei.
Rin and Cecilia seemed to have also been intrigued by Chifuyu-nee's information and now seemed more cautious.
"Pilots! Get into position," Chifuyu-nee demanded, causing each pilot to launch into the air.
"Begin!" Chifuyu-nee yelled, causing the pilots to break out into battle.
"Observe the battle," Chifuyu-nee instructed us.
Cecilia distanced herself from the other pilots and activated her 4 drones while Rin summoned two scimitars and rushed towards her two opponents.
"I'll take Guan, you cover me," Hamilton-sensei told Yamada-sensei as she charged towards Rin while Yamada-sensei pulled back and fired shots towards Rin.
Rin swerved around and dodged Yamada-sensei's shots but left herself open to a strike from Hamilton-sensei who struck her with both blades one after another pushing her back.
Cecilia shot at Hamilton-sensei with her drones but the teacher effortlessly swerved and dodged the lasers. Cecilia's focus on Hamilton-sensei caused her to forget about Yamada-sensei who fired a shot that hit one of the drones causing it to blow up into tiny scraps.
Cecilia turned her attention towards Yamada-sensei as she maneuvered her drones to dodge the teacher's bullets and returned fire.
Hamilton-sensei took this opportunity to charge towards Cecilia. However, suddenly served and dodged an incoming yellow energy blast from underneath her. That wasn't the end of it as Rin fired a barrage of yellow blasts from her shockwave canons towards her teacher. In response, Hamilton-sensei continuously swerved in all directions to dodge them while making her way towards Rin.
Noticing what was happening, Yamada-sensei suddenly disengaged from her fire-off with Cecilia and shot towards Rin with her sniper rifle. The bullet struck her in her hip, stunning her for a moment allowing Hamilton-sensei to close the gap between them and to strike her once again with both swords.
Cecilia, seeing her ally in trouble, pointed her remaining three drones towards Hamilton-sensei.
"Incomming directly from 8 o'clock," Yamada-sensei relayed to Hamilton-sensei.
The teacher suddenly swerved down, dodging three lasers that were sent her way which instead hit Rin's IS, shaking her unit as they impacted.
"Hey! Watch where you shoot your lasers!" Rin yelled.
"You should be more attentive to the environment around you!" Cecilia retorted.
Yamada-sensei took advantage of their bickering and fired a shot at one of Cecilia's drones, blowing it up into scrap. By the time Cecilia realized what had happened Yamada-sensei had already shot another bullet which broke another one of Cecilia's drones.
Cecilia turned her attention towards Yamada-sensei who was reloading. She fired at her with her rifle and remaining drone while Yamada-sensei swerved around, buying her time to reload. Meanwhile, Hamilton-sensei turned her attention towards Cecilia and started charging towards her which Rin noticed.
"Cecilia, incomming!" Rin alerted, causing Cecilia to notice Hamilton-sensei who was getting closer to her. She tried putting distance between them and firing at her with her rifle and drone while Rin chased after her. However, Hamilton-sensei still continued her charge while dodging all of Cecilia's lasers.
Getting tired from the current situation, Cecilia pulled back. The slider on her hips extended and her familiar guided missiles launched soaring towards Hamilton-sensei. The teacher immediately turned back around and flew as fast as she could away from the missiles but was met by Rin a few dozen meters away from her who was charging up her shockwave canons.
Cecilia and Rin both smirked at the teacher's difficult situation, but before Rin could fire the cannons, a bullet suddenly appeared striking the cannon which, alongside the built up energy of the cannon, caused it to explode knocking Rin back and stunning her. Cecilia turned in shock towards Yamada-sensei whose rifle was pointed at Rin.
"Hope you didn't forget about me," the teacher exclaimed.
Hamilton-sensei took advantage of Rin's trouble as she charged towards her. Once she was just a few meters away from her she dematerialised her two blades and grabbed Rin's unit with both hands by her shoulders.
By then, the missiles were a few seconds from hitting Hamilton-sensei but just before they hit her, the teacher yanked Rin's unit and slammed it into the missiles, using it as a shield.
The missiles exploded as they impacted Rin's unit engulfing the two pilots in smoke. Once it cleared, Hamilton-sensei who was unharmed was still holding onto Rin's unit which had taken a significant amount of damage from the missiles causing Cecilia to stare in horror.
Hamilton-sensei then threw the stunned pilot into the air and in a flash of light rematerialised her two blades. She then charged with both her blades pulled back at Rin who was falling mid air and once she reached her, she attacked her with a violent barrage of slashes.
Cecilia tried to fire at Hamilton-sensei but was distracted by a bullet from Yamada-sensei that hit her unit. This forced her to focus on dodging the teacher's fire allowing Rin's unit to be shredded by Hamilton-sensei.
Once Hamilton-sensei and Rin were close to the ground, Hamilton-sensei released Rin from her barrage of slashes with one final axe kick which set Rin plummeting down towards the ground at a high velocity where she crashed into a giant cloud of dust.
Once the dust settled, Rin's unit laid in a giant crater, defeated. This was then confirmed by Chifuyu-nee yelling "Rin Guan, defeated!"
Cecilia tried to hold onto the fight but by now her last drone had already been destroyed and she was being bombarded by bullets from Yamada-sensei while Hamilton-sensei was charging towards her, blades in hand.
Despite Cecilia's best efforts to put distance between them, Hamilton-sensei was soon within a few dozen meters from her and in a desperate attempt, Cecilia turned her attention towards her and fired her rifle at her.
The teacher swerved out of the way, easily dodging the laser and continuing her charge and having diverted her attention from Yamada-sensei, Cecilia left herself open to a bullet from her homeroom teacher which struck her unit and stunned her for a few seconds.
That was all the time Hamilton-sensei needed as by the time Cecilia reorientated herself, the teacher was already in front of her and began brutally cutting away at her unit.
Hamilton-sensei bombarded Cecilia with quick and hard cuts leaving her no room or time to react.
"Maya, let's finish this," Hamilton-sensei said.
"Understood," Yamada-sensei replied.
Hamilton-sensei then stopped her slashing of Cecilia and once again dematerialised her blades. She then grabbed Cecilia's unit similar to how she grabbed Rin. Before Cecilia could react, the teacher spun her around towards Yamada-sensei's line of fire then kicked her towards the teacher who fired away at her student.
Three large bullets struck Cecilia one after another, her unit feeling the impact of each one. After the third bullet, Yamada-sensei seized her fire as Cecilia's unit plummeted towards the ground striking it with a loud crash.
"Cecilia Alcott, defeated!" Chifuyu-nee yelled through the speaker. "Winners, Yamada-sensei and Hamilton-sensei!"
The other students cheered at the conclusion of the battle. We were then led to the battle arena by Chifuyu-nee where Yamada-sensei and Hamilton-sensei were waiting looking cheerful. Meanwhile, the two National Representative Candidates were sorrowfully slugging their way towards us. They both held looks of annoyance, especially Cecilia who was gritting her teeth.
Chifuyu-nee then turned towards the students
"As you can see, Yamada-sensei and Hamilton-sensei were able to defeat Guan and Alcott despite using standard Raphael Revives against personal IS Units, can anyone explain why?"
Immediately, Charles raised his hand.
"Dunois!"
"While Yamada-sensei and Hamilton-sensei had inferior units, they had better teamwork," Charles explained.
"They communicated more, worked together more and covered each other's weaknesses. Meanwhile, Guan and Alcott's teamwork wasn't as good as they didn't communicate or work together as well and even argued,"
'Wow' I thought.
I was surprised at how much Charles knew about IS battle theory considering he had been discovered as a male pilot even after me.
"That is correct," Chifuyu-nee replied.
"Yamada-sensei and Hamilton-sensei were able to coordinate their attacks and movements without even needing to speak. This allowed them to get the edge over Alcott and Guan who demonstrated poor teamwork,"
Rin and Cecilia sulked at Chifuyu-nee's last words.
"Teamwork is essential for any pilot, even those looking to do solo battling," Chifuyu-nee's statement caused many of the students to whisper among them.
"No matter how good you think you are you will always be better when fighting with another pilot,"
She then turned towards Rin and Cecilia.
"As punishment you will have to do five laps around the field tied up together. Maybe then you will learn how to work better as a team,"
Cecilia and Rin's faces dropped upon hearing their punishment. That's my sister for you.
Later, once the day was almost over me and Charles were both in our room getting ready for bed. I walked out of the bathroom having just brushed my teeth. Charles was sitting on his bed which seemed to have been added to accommodate him, reading a book, having changed into his pajamas.
"Phew, that was quite a rough day," I exclaimed, recalling all the tough exercises we had to do for the practical lesson.
"oui," replied Charles. "I had heard rumors about Orimura-sensei that I thought were absurd but know I'm starting to believe them,"
"Yeah" I said laughing at his comment. "But the way you answered her question with such a detailed explanation was cool. It was like you were an expert,"
Charles slightly blushed at my statement.
"How do you know so much about the IS? Weren't you recently discovered as a male pilot?" I asked. Charles thought for a moment before answering.
"Oui I was discovered recently but I work for Dunois Corporations," Charles explained.
"They are a company that produce the Raphael Revive units,"
Those mass produced units?" I asked.
"Oui," replied Charles. "So I learned quite a bit about the IS from there" he said and for a split second what almost looked to be sadness flashed on his face but then he regained his usual expression.
"It was also discovered that I was very compatible with an IS. I was even made National Representative Candidate of France,"
I was surprised by his last statement.
"Wait, you're the National Representative Candidate of France!" I exclaimed. "Why didn't you mention this sooner?"
"I kinda forgot," answered Charles laughing.
"And imagine what the girls would have done had they heard about this," he added.
"Good point," I replied. "They would have gone crazy!" We both laughed at that thought.
Not long after that, we both went to bed, exhausted from the day and drifting into sleep.
The next morning we were once again waiting for homeroom to start. Most people, including myself, were quiet due to the previous day's training. I was sitting at my desk with my head down, on the verge of falling asleep.
My attention was grabbed by Yamada-sensei who walked into the room.
"Good morning class," she said, being met by a few grunts from the students who were too tired to properly respond.
"Well," Yamada-sensei said, a little deterred by the students' mood. "Today we have another new transfer student!"
This seemed to capture the interest of the students as they quickly went from being on the verge of sleep to gossiping among themselves. Afterall, another transfer student the day after the other was uncommon, not to mention, the previous transfer student was the second male pilot.
Yamada-sensei seemed to be pleased with the new wave of interest from the students.
"All right, come on in," she called towards the classroom door.
The door opened and in walked an odd looking girl in the academy uniform.
She had a short figure yet walked menacingly slow and radiated an air of seriousness. She had long silver hair that flew down to below her shoulders that looked messy and like it hadn't been given much care.
Perhaps the strangest part was her face. She had a black eye patch over her left eye strapped to her face which itself held a cold frown.
The student walked towards the middle of the class before stopping. She then stood in silence, staring coldly at the class.
"Uhm, could you introduce youself?" a confused Yamada-sensei asked.
"My name is Laura Bodewig," the girl said bluntly in a German accent.
The class waited for any additional information but Laura showed no interest in saying anything else.
She then suddenly turned towards me, locking eyes with me. She began walking in my direction, getting closer with each step.
I was still feeling drowsy and wasn't sure what to make of the situation. Was she interested in me or something?
She stopped once she was right in front of my desk.
Then, it all seemed to happen in slow motion. She extended her right arm out and brought it closer to me. Before I could react her palm came crashing into my face with a loud smack and knocked me off my chair.
"I don't approve of you being her brother!"
Author Note: Hello and thank yall for reading this chapter. In this chapter we see the introduction to 'Charles' as well as the introduction of Laura at the end. I know the cast is starting to get big but I don't want to diverge too much from the canon so I decided to keep them in this fic. Plus, I like both of the characters and I think they have a lot of potential.
In this chapter we also get the fight of Rin and Cecilia against Yamada and Hamilton-sensei, a new character I have created although not fully original cause there is already a character with this surname Hamilton. I created her cause I wanted to expand the cast of teachers and thought that it would be better if she had a connection to an existing character. Plus, I wanted to make the battle more about teamwork especially since it will be important in the inter class tournament.
I hope you also enjoyed the battle. I'm quite proud of how it turned out and I tried to make it more detailed and immersive.
Anyways, thanks again for reading and I hope you enjoyed this chapter