Infinite Stratos, Volume 5, page 1
Chapter I: Heart Painkiller
“Hyah!”
A clang resounded as Ichika and Ling’s blades clashed together. It was September 3rd. Classes A and B had joined up for the second semester’s first live-fire exercises.
“Ugh...”
“You’re not getting away, Ichika!”
They’d each taken up the banner of their class, and Ichika had come out the gate strong, but Ling had begun to claw her way back into the fight. The reason was clear and simple: Byakushiki in second shift was even more of a resource hog.
“You used your shield too much in the beginning!”
“This isn’t over yet!” Ichika swung his katana as he yelled, but the glow of Reiraku Byakuya had already faded from Yukihira Nigata, leaving it as nothing but a normal blade. Now that he was in second shift and had the Setsura weapons pack, he also had a particle cannon in his left hand, but that too was almost completely drained of energy.
“You’ve already lost! My Shenlong’s designed to be a steady, efficient, practical fighter...! Impact cannon!” As the roar of cannon fire echoed, Ling darted away. Seizing the opportunity, she followed up by throwing the linked Souten Gagetsu.
“Ugh!”
Ichika managed to parry, but the force of the impact tore his sight away from Ling. Only a moment later, his hypersensor picked her back up, but by then it was too late.
“Ungh!”
She had grabbed his ankles from below, and slung him toward the ground. The glare of the sun filled Ichika’s vision, only to be blocked out by a shadow.
“Got you!”
“......?!”
Still hovering upside down, Ling opened fire again with her impact cannon. A dozen or so shots slammed into him as the bell rang to end the match. Needless to say, Ichika had lost.
◇
“That’s two wins in a row for me. Looks like you owe me lunch!”
“Man...”
I’d lost both the first battle and the runback in training today. After cleaning up, we’d gone to the dining hall like usual. Rin’s smug gloating over her victories twisted the knife in me as I ate. Oh, and today’s menu was mackerel in a miso sauce. The tangy white miso was an excellent accent for the tender mackerel. Hm, yeah. The lunch ladies had done a great job, like usual.
“How’s yours, Laura? Good?”
“Yeah. I never expected I’d have a schnitzel this tasty anywhere outside of Germany.”
Charl and Laura were getting along well, as usual, and Laura sliced off a bite of her veal cutlet from a plate stacked high with German cuisine.
“Want to try it?”
“You sure?”
“Mm.”
“Thanks, then! You know, I’ve always wanted to try schnitzel.”
After taking it and lifting it to her mouth, Charl lit up with a smile.
“Mmm! This is delicious! The meats are so good in German cooking.”
“I guess. We’re good at potatoes, too.”
Laura, perhaps pleased at hearing her country praised, blushed slightly. Seeing that was enough of a cue for the other girls to all start talking about cooking as well.
“Doesn’t Germany have a lot of good desserts, too? Like baumkuchen and stuff. I’m a little bit jealous, China doesn’t have anything like that.”
“Oh? I’ll have to ask my squad to send some frankfurter kranz.”
Hmm, what was that? Oh, right. A butter cake topped with caramel-covered walnuts. It’s made in a ring shape, almost like a crown. Baumkuchen’s a ring shape too. I wonder why German chefs like having the hole in the middle so much?
“You know which German dessert I’m taken with? Berliner pfannkuchen.”
Charl was visibly surprised at Cecilia’s favorite.
“Eh? You mean the jam-filled donuts? That vanilla icing must be loaded with calories. I’m surprised they’re your thing.”
“I’m fine! I keep my calories counted! Yes, as I eat a berliner I accept that nothing else will pass my lips that day...”
All the resolution of a warrior preparing to fast. Why not just eat dessert if you want to? Yeah... If I asked them that they’d probably all be mad.
“Well, jam-filled donuts are tasty.”
Houki, as expected. I remember her always eating her donut at lunch in elementary school, even when the other girls skipped them. Yeah, if I mentioned that she’d definitely be mad.
“You like donuts, Cecilia? I should make you some sesame jian dui.”
“What are those?”
“A Chinese dessert. You wrap red bean paste in rice dough and then coat it with sesame seeds. Then you fry it.”
“That sounds delicious! But the calories...”
“Well, if you ever want to try it, just ask.”
“You’re a kinder person than I thought, Ling.”
“‘Than you thought’? What do you mean, ‘than you thought’!?”
Rin and Cecilia were just as dynamic a duo as ever.
“I like Japanese desserts, personally. They’re just so elegant.”
Laura seemed to love the jellies at the green tea café we’d all visited together over summer break, and she’d been back there over and over. When she told her friends back home about it, they were only able to stifle their jealousy when they realized it was getting in the way of asking her to send back raw yatsuhashi. For soldiers, they certainly are very, ah, informal sometimes.
“If spring is for sugar candies and summer is for jellies, fall is for manju.”
“Oh? And then what in winter?”
“Senbei.”
Houki truly understood the Japanese mindset. All the talk about dessert was making me hungry. I shouldn’t have been sitting around just chatting like that. I needed to think about IS. Especially about my IS, Byakushiki.
“Blah... I just got a power-up, so how’d I lose?”
“I told you, you burn too much power. It was bad enough when you had one weapon which burned shield energy, but now you’ve got two.”
“Hmm...”
Even beyond, the enlargement of the wing thrusters had increased their energy consumption. My time in Ignition Boost was down to two-thirds, and being half again as fast was scant comfortable. Not that that ate my shield energy, but it did draw from the same pool as my particle cannon, so I needed to get better at rationing its use.
I need to learn how to move smoothly between melee and ranged combat. I need to rethink my tactics. Then I need to get more practice shooting, get more experience with my new equipment, and... Gah! There was a mountain of things to focus on! But top priority, unchanged from First Shift, had to be getting a handle on energy usage. Energy... Hmm, energy. Where can I shave a little bit off? Sigh...
“Well, you know! Team up with me and that problem’s solved!” Houki suddenly interjected with crossed arms.
Her IS, Akatsubaki, has the one-off ability Kenran Butou which was essentially the opposite of Byakushiki’s Reiraku Byakuya—it amplifies any energy, no matter how little. It was also capable of transferring energy to other IS just by contact, when most IS couldn’t transfer it at all.
Didn’t Chifuyu say something about that? Like, Byakushiki and Akatsubaki are a matched pair designed to be operated in concert. Which would also make them each other’s natural counter. Byakushuki destroying energy, Akatsubaki amplifying it. Each was the key to the other’s defeat...
“Why do you look so conflicted? You’re my bride. You should team up with me.”
Laura prodded at my right cheek. Lately she’s lightened up a lot, and jokes around like this, but she still does it with a deadpan sullen look.
“Not happening. I’m teaming up with Ichika. We’re childhood friends, and Shenlong is good at short and medium range so it’s a good match for Byakushiki.”
“Why, the nerve! If anything, then, my Blue Tears is ideal as long-ranged support. After all, isn’t that Byakushiki’s greatest weakness?”
“I was his childhood friend before you were! And plus, Byakushiki and Akatsubaki just... They just look perfect together...”
I couldn’t quite make out the last bit of what she said, but it was obvious that Houki and the rest all wanted to team up with me. But why, though?
“Hmm. You know, we haven’t even been doing team tournaments lately.”
“You never know when they might announce one.”
“Well, if it happens... I’ll team up with Charl.”
“Huh? Me?!” Charl paused with her carbonara halfway to her mouth as she suddenly became the center of attention. Putting down her fork and spoon, she fidgeted her fingers together as she looked at me querulously.
“B-But why?”
“We did before, right?”
“Oh, right...” The shine faded from her eyes as she looked dejectedly back at her plate. What was up with that?
“Sigh... I knew it’d be something like that...”
Her sigh was the signal for the other girls to turn on me.
“You’re terrible.”
“You just don’t understand women at all, do you.”
“Sometimes you’re just too much of a blockhead.”
“It’s okay, Charlotte. Let me get you a café au lait to cheer you up.”
“Thanks, Laura. Everyone.” Charl’s eyes lit back up as she smiled at them in gratitude. She avoided eye contact with me, though.
“I wasn’t just saying it for your sake.” Rin blushed a little as she folded her arms, as if it embarrassed her to say it out loud.
C
“Hmph!”
Charl’s so good at handling girls and guys. It must be great to have that kind of charisma.
“...Why are you looking at me?”
“You must be imagining things, Houki.”
“...Why are you looking at me now?”
“You must be imagining things, Laura.”
My excuse wasn’t enough to spare me from simultaneous karate chops from both of them.
“I don’t know what you’re thinking, but it has to be something rude.”
O-Of course not!
Another pair of chops.
“Ugh...”
“Hmph.”
Things kept on like that until the end of lunch, and we returned to the arena to get ready for afternoon exercises.
◇
“This place is just too big.”
The empty silence of the locker room which was all my own unnerved me. I tried to put it out of my head as I sat in my IS suit, going through Byakushiki’s console. Hmm... Setsura chews through way too much energy. I wonder if I can tone it back a bit. As I thought that, the world went black around me. No... It literally did.
“......?!”
“Guess who!”
Eh?
Eh?
Ehh?
Who was it?
The voice from behind me was a woman, one who sounded too old to be a classmate. But the cheeky grin I could imagine from her voice was that of a kid playing a prank. The fingers covering my eyes were smooth, and a bit cold. They felt wonderful, so wonderful I couldn’t respond for a few seconds.
“Time’s up!” I turned around to see whose hands they were. “Who... are you?”
It was a girl I didn’t recognize. Uh... How could I have guessed, then?
“Fufufu...”
The girl in front of me—by the color of her ribbon, she had to be a second-year—smiled at my confusion before raising a fan she’d pulled from somewhere over her face. She was definitely a strange one. Her attitude was relaxed. In a good way, a calming way. But the saucy grin on her face wiped that away.
It made me nervous, wondering what she had planned for me. She was mysterious. Almost alluring—maybe that was too positive of a way to think of it.
“And you are...? Ah—”
She was looking past me. I turned to see what she was focused on, and—
“Tricked you!” She poked my cheek with her fan.
“.........”
“Anyway. If you don’t hurry up, Ms. Orimura will be mad.”
“Eh?”
My heart sinking, I looked at the clock on the wall. I was already three minutes late.
“Whaa? Oh crap! I’m in trouble!”
I turned back to look at the person who’d made me late, but she was already gone.
◇
“Any further explanation for your tardiness?”
Hell’s Teacher, Orimura Chifuyu, had not a shred of mercy in her heart.
“C-C’mon! I told you! A girl I didn’t recognize was—”
“Okay, so what was her name?”
“I just told you! I’d never even met her before!”
“Oh? So you’re late because you’d rather chat up new girls than make it to class?”
“Wait, no, that’s not—”
She had no interest in any further excuses.
“Dunois, show the class your Rapid Switch. If you need a target, I don’t mind if you use this idiot.”
I mind, though!
“.........”
Praying for a reprieve, I smiled wanly at Charl. She smiled back, like a ray of hope from the heavens. I knew you were on my side, Charl! I knew you wouldn’t do anything like that!
“Understood, Ms. Orimura.”
“Go ahead.”
Bwah! That may have been the smile of an angel, but it was definitely an Old Testament angel. She soared into the air. In her hand, a cluster of light formed into a gun.
“Uh... Charl... Charlotte?”
“What is it, Orimura?”
Ahhh! I could practically see her veins bulging in anger. Why? Why are you angry with me, Charl?!
“Here goes. Revive!”
“W-Wait—”
My words were drowned out in a rat-a-tat-tat of gunfire. GAHH!
◇
“So please! Supply me with a non-energy weapon!”
“Request denied, Cecilia Alcott. Your Blue Tears will continue to gather metrics on BT weaponry. Data on kinetic weaponry is not needed at this time.”
“I know that! I know, just... Ugh, why won’t you listen?”
The sixth period exercise was over, and two classes of girls were packed into a locker room buzzing with conversation. A few paces away from the crowd, Cecilia had her cell phone in one hand, on an international call to her IS maintenance crew lead in England.
“Why are you so insistent on kinetic weapons, anyway?”
“Ugh...”
The reason was clear, simple... And something she absolutely didn’t want to say. An IS with only BT weapons could never beat Ichika’s Byakushiki. Without a way to pierce through his energy-nullifying shield, I’ll never win.
During the afternoon exercise which combined aerial maneuvers with combat, Cecilia was the only one who’d lost to Ichika. Her pride was nearly shattered by her struggles against even the energy-hungry Second Shift Byakushiki. Why only me? A sigh came over the line as she scowled bitterly.
“Alcott. Your mission is to gather combat data on BT weaponry. Understood? Don’t you comprehend the situation we’re in after you lost your new equipment two months ago?”
“That was just—”
“I don’t need to hear any more explanations. Now, if you’ll excuse me.”
Click. The dial tone hung in the air, almost sorrowfully.
“The nerve!”
Cecilia’s arm whipped around as if to sling her phone at the wall.
“Cecilia? What’s wrong?”
“It’s... nothing.”
Charlotte was the one to show concern. She’d already changed from her IS suit back into her uniform, and was drying her hair. Charlotte’s the one who has the least problem with the Byakushiki’s Second Shift... That was because almost all of her weapons used traditional ammunition, but even beyond that, she was a difficult foe.
In terms of performance, it’s Laura, then Charlotte, then Ling, then Houki, Ichika, and me... Cecilia let out a sigh. Habitually pulling up her IS data, her heart sank at the line which read ‘BT weaponry operational efficiency: 37%.’ They say at 100% I’ll be able to control them like extensions of my own body, but... She couldn’t help but not believe it. No one’s ever been able to achieve that. It’s all theoretical. And Cecilia herself was the only national cadet with an A-class compatibility with BT weapons. That was why she was sent to IS Academy. That was why she had her own IS. But if she couldn’t supply the data they wanted, who knew how long that would last?
“Sigh...”
“C’mon, Cecilia. Let’s go get a coffee or something. You can’t stay down in the dumps like this.”
“I know, just...”
Worried that even that wouldn’t cheer Cecilia up, Charlotte continued, “Hey, I have an idea. I’ll invite Ichika and the others too. It’s more fun together, right?”
“If Ichika will be there, I’ll pass...”
Charlotte regretted not realizing that Cecilia’s pride would never let her see her crush after losing to him, but it was too late to take it back. A few seconds later, she tried again, “Just us girls, then. C’mon, Cecilia.”
“Hmm... Well, I certainly appreciate your concern. Thank you.”
Cecilia walked toward her locker, her mood noticeably brightened. Her stride was as proud, as very her, as ever.
◇
The next day, homeroom and part of first period were replaced with an assembly. It was, of course, about the school festival that month. But with so many girls here... It was noisy. Any louder, and it would be distracting.
“And now, the student council president will explain the details.”
The girl who introduced her must have been one of the council members, as the buzz of conversation faded away like the tide rolling out.
“Hey, guys! What’s up?”
“......?!”
I recognized the girl on stage. She was the one in the second-year ribbon who’d appeared in front of me in the locker room the day before. I managed to hold back a shout of recognition as I saw her again.
“Fufufu.”
Our eyes met for a moment, and a grin sprang to her lips. Oh no. I didn’t have a good feeling about this. My heart was pounding. I tried my best not to show my panic as we listened to her speak.
