Infinite Stratos, Volume 3, page 1
Chapter I: A Maiden’s Heart is a Rainmaker
“Sorry to bother you about it.”
“Oh, no problem.”
Ichika and Charlotte walked the halls of the school after class let out, bathed in the vermillion rays of the sunset. Each carried a bundle of printouts detailing their upcoming class trip, later that month, to the seashore campus.
“Are you sure you should, though? Weren’t you supposed to go into town with Cecilia today?”
“Nah, it’s fine. You gave me an excuse not to get dragged along.”
“Eh?”
“Well, y’know. Even if it’s running deliveries, I’d rather spend the time with you.” Ichika’s cheeks burned faintly as he spoke. Their red tinge was from more than just the setting sun.
“Ichika...”
“Charlotte...”
In the empty hallway, their eyes reflected only each other. They needed no words. Two shadows, enveloped in orange, moved closer, then overlapped...
“Wha—” She shook her head, trying to gather her senses.
The place: her own room in the first-year dorms at IS Academy. The time: half past six in the morning.
“.........” Charlotte sat for a moment in confusion, blinking once, then again, before grasping the situation. “It was a dream...”
She let loose a deep, deep sigh, from seemingly 20,000 leagues down in her soul. If I only could have had ten more seconds... She sorrowfully cast her mind to the lingering memories. Even as the details faded, she only wanted to cling harder to what remained. Like rewatching a favorite video, she replayed the scene in her head.
“.........” Her cheeks lit up red. As her consciousness returned, her dream seemed more and more embarrassing. In the hall? Seriously, me? Still, it was a dream in both senses of the word. She held a hand to her chest, feeling her heart pound.
What am I thinking... After last month’s tournament, Charles Dunois—now revealed as Charlotte Dunois—moved to a room separate from Ichika’s. Still, a couple times a week, she awoke from similar dreams, hoping to cast her gaze over and lock eyes with Ichika in the other bed.
“Huh?” The other bed was empty. Not just empty, but unused.
“Ah well.” What mattered to her more was what happened next in the dream. If she fell back right away, perhaps it would continue. Clutching onto that faint hope, Charlotte closed her eyes again. If it’s just a dream, I wouldn’t mind it being a bit dirtier—
“What am I thinking...” Charlotte buried her head under her blanket to hide her blush, and tried to stop her pulse racing.
◇
Chirp, chirp...
“Mm...”
The sun beat down from outside my window as if demanding to be let inside. Sparrows sang, encouraging me to wake up. Just a little bit longer... Nothing feels better than hitting ‘snooze.’ There was no way anyone on earth didn’t enjoy it. Well, maybe there could be.
As I moved my hand, I felt something soft. Huh...? I moved it again and was met with the same soft sensation. What is this feeling? I don’t remember having something smooth and soft like this in my bed. Whatever it was, my curiosity wasn’t enough to beat out my desire for a satisfying snooze. Ahh, this is great. I brushed by the soft object once more.
“Mm...”
Wait. That voice isn’t mine. And it doesn’t seem to be male—not that I want it to be. A thought raced through the back of my mind. The light bulb in my head turned on with an audible click. I tore the blankets off with a whoosh. And under them was...
“L-Laura?!” The German National Cadet, Laura Bodewig.
The day she’d arrived last month, she declared war. After that, a lot happened, and... things transpired even further from there. But, that wasn’t the problem right now. The problem right now was that she wasn’t wearing a single thing. She was completely naked. The only things on her body were the patch over her left eye, and her dormant IS—a black garter around her left thigh. Her long silver hair covered her hips.
“Mmm... What? Is it morning already?”
“Cover up, you idiot!”
“That’s a funny thing to say. Why should a married couple have anything to hide?”
“That may be true, but... Wait, that doesn’t even apply here! Put some clothes on!” Ignoring my confusion, Laura lazily rubbed her eye and stood up with her usual expression. Incredible... she turned down a snooze. She must be inhuman. This isn’t the kind of situation to be even thinking about that sort of thing, though. As I worked over the situation in my mind, Laura opened her mouth first.
“I’d heard this was how one normally woke people up in Japan. Especially one’s betrothed.”
“Who gave you that crazy idea?”
“It worked, didn’t it?”
“Huh?”
“You woke up.”
“Well, of course I did...” The only people alive that wouldn’t wake were the dead, or the brain dead. Meaning, no one, since neither of those were alive.
No answer. Seems to be a corpse.
Really, if you were talking to a corpse, there was something wrong with you to begin with. The corpse needed a grave, and you needed medical help.
“It’s still a while before we can get breakfast, though.” As she wrapped herself in a sheet, her hair fell from its knot. Struck by the rays of the sun, it glimmered like silver. I had to admit it was beautiful.
Still, I’m getting tired of this. She’s been pulling this kind of thing since the tournament last month... At this point, it was unusual when she didn’t sit down next to me in the cafeteria, and she’d walked in on me in the bath—while I was changing into my IS suit one time, too. Yeah... if I didn’t deal with this now it would just keep escalating.
“.........” Ugh, was there some kind of way to make her back off a bit?
“What? Don’t stare at me like that. It’s embarrassing.” A liar stood before me. Yet the way her cheeks flushed and her gaze wavered when she lied was a little... no, a lot cute. Dammit! Dammit, dammit, dammit— Wait, I have an idea!
“Laura.”
“What?”
“I prefer modest women.”
“Oh, really?” Her eye widened, as if slightly shocked. Then she nodded twice, as if digesting what I’d said.
Oh, it worked! Good job, me. “Here’s your reward.” Why, thank you! I am my noble master.
“That’s just your taste, though?”
“Eh?”
“I’m myself.” An eye steeled with determination drilled into me. The hand held over her chest as if pointing where her heart was served only to reinforce it.
“.........” Wow. How incredibly self-confident... If I were a girl, I’d have fallen for her right there. Just kidding.
“Didn’t you say—” Eh? What did I say? Dammit, I’d already forgotten. “You told me I could do whatever I wanted. No fair changing your mind.”
Well, now that I thought of it, I probably did say that, but c’mon. I wasn’t really prepared for it to go this far. Besides, all the confidence she’d had fell away, and her almost pleading look up at me was a bit too appealing. This was that gap moe thing, wasn’t it? Not that I really knew much about that. It made even the hand pointing at her chest seem more like an effort to cover up.
“You seem quite excited about this, for someone who was telling me to cover up.”
“Wha— No, wait, no, it’s not like that!”
“Then, would you like to see? You’re certainly a morning would, not a wouldn’t.”
“Argh! Just hold on a minute!” As Laura began to part the sheets, I panicked. I tried to pull them back over her but she flipped me over onto the bed with a loud thunk. The time was shortly after six in the morning. I’m sorry, neighbors to the side, above, and below.
“Damn you!”
Somehow I’d managed to get the upper hand for a second against Laura as she struggled to keep a hold of the sheets. At least I’d thought so, but somehow being on top just made it easier for her to sweep my legs out from under me. Ugh, she was using her military training. There was no way I could deal with that. Flipped over, I slid down on to the floor headfirst. My neck bent at a 90-degree angle. Ouch.
“You need more practice with your technique.” Man, she sounded exactly like Chifuyu. Seems like she’d learned well—she even had the cold gaze down pat. “But, um... If you want more practice with your technique, if you know what I mean, I can’t say I’d be opposed to helping out.”
Huh? Why were her cheeks so red? What was ‘technique’ even supposed to—oh.
“You idiot! Women aren’t supposed to say things like that!”
“Oh? Did you want to say it yourself? Go right ahead.”
“That’s not what my problem is! Don’t you have any contrition about what you did to me last month?!”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, um... W-When... When you kissed me...” Ugh. Just saying it made the memories come flooding back, and not just my face but my whole body heated up. I couldn’t bear to remember the hell which unfolded afterward. To sum it up very briefly: last month, Laura had stolen a kiss from me. Not just a kiss, but... “That was my first...”
It sounds lame, I know, but it’s true. That sudden encounter was my first kiss. It was so shocking that I don’t even remember what it tasted like. All right, who in back said “probably like lemons?”
“Really.”
“‘Really?’” That blunt reply just pissed me off again, but she continued to speak as I tried to lash
“It was my first kiss, too. Um... I’m a little bit glad.”
Her cheeks flushed red as she spoke, and despite myself, I was at a loss for words. Think about it, self. Right in front of you is a cute (very cute, if we’re just talking looks) girl, blushing. Were you going to argue with her? There was no real man on earth that would do that. Probably.
“.........”
“.........”
Um... What was with this silence? Our shared awkwardness was just driving us to think more about each other. Time to change the subject.
“Wha—” As I started to rise, Laura pressed me back down. Her reaction was smooth and swift, and left me wondering where her slender arms got so much strength.
“Ugh, I just don’t know what to do about you. I want to know! Why are you so good at stirring up women’s passions?!”
W-What was she talking about? For me, this was a race against time. Laura, her face reddened by the rays of the rising sun, was already pushing me down toward the bed.
◆
Behind the dorm, there was an empty space often used for impromptu get-togethers. There, every day, Houki practiced with live steel.
“Phew...” Her morning practice swings completed, she pulled a towel from her bag to dry her sweat. It glimmered, reflecting the morning sun, like a dusting of jewels. Her healthy skin was enveloped by a white gi and indigo hakama. She even wore tabi and sandals on her feet.
To be quite serious for a moment, footwork was absolutely vital to fencing. The combination of tabi and sandals made it well-suited for toe tip stomps, braces, and tensings so that you could consider it ‘designed for combat.’ As a sport, kendo may be conducted barefoot for no obstruction at all, but this was surely the closest footwear to it. However, with everything going on, she’d barely ever made it to kendo club. Still, though, she made sure to keep practicing and not lose her edge.
It’s already July... Lately, the morning sun had burned down fiercely. It felt as if a haze of heat filled the air. Exercising felt good, but being covered in sweat didn’t. I should take a shower. Her roommate was probably still sound asleep, dreaming. Even though it was a longer walk, Houki set out for the clubroom showers, not wanting to wake her up. July. It’s July. Ichika had better not have forgotten. Early summer held a special meaning for Houki.
“You’re up early again today. Good morning.”
“Good morning.” The teacher in charge of the clubrooms usually opened them early for morning practice.
Ms. Sakakibara, turning 29 this year, was prim and polite, and certainly wasn’t a bad-looking individual. Yet, she had no luck with men. She kept falling for guys who even other guys say they “couldn’t really get along with.” A few times a year she could be spotted barcrawling after getting dumped. This was the last year of her 20s, though. Lately, her parents had been trying to set her up with men from out in the country, but no matter how many first dates she went on, her reaction was always the same.
“Well, he’s nice. But he’s not really my type.” Yeah, that was it. She didn’t want a safe, quiet life. That’s why she was attracted to strange men. She, herself, had begun to realize that she needed passion in her life. She didn’t want to marry someone just to be done with it. That was Sakakibara Natsuki in a nutshell.
“I’m taking a shower.”
“No rush. Remember to make sure you turn the water off when you’re done.”
“Okay.” Ms. Sakakibara grinned at Houki’s energetic response. She was beautiful. But, as mentioned...
Hmm. Houki entered the locker room attached to the showers. As usual, there was no one there but herself. A given, with how early it was. Even the morning practice rush wouldn’t start for another thirty minutes. The truth of the matter was, Houki deliberately made sure to avoid that rush. The reason was...
“.........” As Houki let her gi slide off, her breasts swayed, barely held in by her bra. Her breasts, far fuller than those of most girls her age, attracted almost as much attention from other girls as from boys. When she’d changed with other students doing morning practice before, the entire locker room stared directly at them. A line of girls had trailed her from the locker room to the shower, as if she were the Pied Piper of Hamelin. Even with individual shower stalls, she couldn’t relax feeling their eyes on her. And then, it got even worse. One girl whispered “watermelons,” and as if they were hypnotized, the entire rest of the room started listing round fruits. Burning bright red from embarrassment and anger, Houki had fled the showers.
Ugh, they’ve gotten even bigger... Big breasts weren’t all they were cracked up to be, at least not for Houki. They made her back hurt. They kept getting in the way. It was hard to find bras that fit, and then it was hard to find blouses that fit. They ended up inescapably drawing everyone’s attention.
I wish I could do something about them... Houki let out a sigh. Yet if she complained about it to Ling, she’d be chased to the ends of the earth. It was terrifying. Feminine pride was higher than Everest and deeper than the Mariana Trench, yet somehow more delicate than the traditional novelties of Ohgiya in Kyoto. It was also a hazardous material—one of the most hazardous. “Warning - Highly Explosive.” The strictest handling was necessary.
On the other hand. If Ichika likes them big, I guess it’s okay... She thought back to last month, when she had taken Ichika’s arm to compete with Cecilia. It was far bolder than anything she’d normally do, but the expression on Ichika’s face as he noticed her as a woman had overjoyed her. Competing with Cecilia or not, the realization that her breasts were pressing into Ichika’s arm had been intensely embarrassing. But... If it made him notice me... That was enough to make it all worth it. No matter how well-trained she was with a blade, she was still a blossoming teenage girl. She couldn’t help but be hung up on her crush. And then there was this month’s seashore trip, the timing was perfect.
The educational point of the trip was to let students use IS over a wide-ranging area, but this was IS Academy, and 99% of those students were girls. So of course they’d take that into consideration. The first day was entirely unstructured—meaning, she’d be able to swim and play as much as she liked. There weren’t even any inconvenient restrictions, like having to wear school swimsuits! It would be absolute freedom. It’s the best chance I’ll ever have! As the only boy there, Ichika would be the center of an intense battle, but Houki had a trick up her sleeve.
“I’ve got it! First step, have him go shopping with me this weekend!” Houki didn’t even notice her own fists clenching as her voice echoed through the empty showers.
◆
All right. She’d showered off the sweat, she’d dried her wet hair, she’d put on the freshly-cleaned summer uniform she had laid out, she’d triple-checked her hair, and she’d cleared her throat five times, just to be sure. Only after that did Houki knock on Ichika’s door. Knock, knock.
“A-Are you there, Ichika? I thought it’d be nice to get breakfast together, we haven’t in a while.” No answer. “Ichika? Are you still asleep? If you don’t get up, you’ll miss breakfast.”
Still no answer. Houki, a little bit frustrated, grabbed the doorknob. Click. Huh? He didn’t have it locked? That boy is just too trusting.
“Ichika, I’m coming in. Are you up and dres— Guh.”
“Huh?”
Snap. Houki’s expression, her movement, her entire body froze. As she opened the door and stepped into the room, she discovered a naked Laura, lying on top of Ichika and moving in for a kiss. And for some reason, he wasn’t showing any signs of resistance. That was all Houki needed to explode in rage.
“Ichika! Wh-What are you doing, you—” Houki’s blade rang as it leapt from its sheath in a breath; this was the result of her daily training. But for Ichika, on the receiving end, it was terrifying.
“W-Wait! Houki! This isn’t what it looks like!”
“Then what is it?! Ugh, stand still and let me cut you!”
“Agh! Knock it off, you moron!”
“Who are you calling a moron, you idiot?!” Houki, clearly disinclined to listen, raised her katana over her head, preparing to cut through both mount and rider. Its dull gleam was unmistakably that of live steel, and if it found its mark there would be nothing the doctors could do. “This is your punishment!”
The blade whistled through the air, and Ichika sweated like a condemned man. Yet, it stopped a split-second before making contact. That is, it was stopped.
