Infinite Stratos, Volume 1, page 12
“Hey, don’t d—”
I didn’t have time to stop her. Houki had lost her cool, and swung her bamboo sword at the unarmed Rin.
Tching!
There was a loud noise.
“Rin, are you okay?” I blurted out.
“Of course I’m okay. I’m a National Cadet, remember?”
I thought the bamboo sword had hit her on the head, but she had partially brought out her IS, and blocked the attack with her right arm.
“......?!”
Houki was the most surprised of all of us. While bringing out an IS was common enough, to do it quickly relied heavily on the person piloting it. IS formation was limited by our human reflexes, after all... And Rin had shown hers to be incredible. Houki’s attack couldn’t have been blocked at the last second by a mere novice. This little display demonstrated that Rin was a very competent fighter.
“Don’t you think the one really in danger here is the person without an IS?”
“Uhh...”
Perhaps this exchange had been so much of a shock that Houki regained her composure, and she looked away uncomfortably.
“I don’t mind.”
Rin really didn’t care much about what Houki had done, and removed the parts of the IS she had brought out. The armor plate across her right arm glowed and disappeared.
“U-Um...”
It was awkward. Houki was embarrassed, and said nothing. Rin grinned at me, waiting for me to say something.
—Oh, right. She mentioned something about a promise.
“Our promise, Rin?”
“Y-Yeah. You remember... Right?”
She lowered her head and gazed at me from the corner of her eyes. She looked embarrassed... But maybe that was just my imagination playing tricks on me again.
“Um... That thing about... When your cooking gets better you’ll—”
“Y-Yeah! That!” Rin said, excitedly.
“—Treat me to sweet-and-sour pork...”
Yeah, she’d promised that in grade school. I was super proud of myself. My memory was simply amazing. My brain cells were outdoing themselves. Eternal praise to the neurons in my skull.
“What?”
“You promised you’d treat me to food once your cooking got better.”
—Food! Free food! What an amazing deal.
“Man, you gotta say my memory is incredible, ri—”
Wham!
“Huh...?”
I was slapped in the face. It was so sudden that I couldn’t really process it. I blinked. Houki’s eyes and mine met. She also looked surprised and confused.
“U-Uh...”
As I turned my head back, Rin edged into view again. She looked just about the worst I’d ever seen her.
“.........”
Her shoulders were trembling, and her glare was full of anger. And what’s more, there were tears in her eyes, and her lips were pressed together.
“U-Um... Rin...”
“You’re horrible! How can you not remember your promise to a girl?! You’re a disgrace to all men! I hope the dogs bite you to death!”
In one swift motion, she quickly picked up her bag from the floor, and ran out the open door.
Bam! The door was slammed shut behind her.
“Shit. I made her angry.”
It was clearly my fault... Probably. Maybe. It had really hurt my pride when she’d said I was a disgrace to all men. I couldn’t remember a promise so important that it would have justified such an insult.
—But... She was crying, so... Yeah.
“Ichika.”
“Y-Yeah, Houki?”
“I hope a horse kicks you to death.”
And now Houki was angry too, for whatever reason. My cheek was beginning to hurt. It was probably still going to be red the next day. If it was still visible, the other girls in the class were going to ask me endless questions. I was never going to get used to that. How do girls manage to jump around in conversation so much, anyway?
“Hah...”
I decided to just go to bed. It was only about nine, but still, staying awake would have done nothing beneficial. Even Houki was angry. I just had to go to sleep. Maybe a new day was going to fix everything. Probably not. Girls stay happy and angry three times as long as men, and that went doubly for all the girls around me.
The next morning, I found a letter in front of my door. The title said “Class League Match Schedule.” The first match was against Class B, Rin.
Chapter IV: Showdown! The Class League Match
It was May. Even a few weeks after the fact, Rin’s mood was still foul. Or rather, it had gotten worse by the day. She never came up to me again ever since she left my room in tears, and whenever we ran into each other in the hallway or the cafeteria, she ignored me. It was clear to me that she was angry. If the flak she was giving me had protected the battleship Yamato in World War II, maybe she wouldn’t have sunk. But maybe not.
“Ichika, the class league match is next week. The arena will be remodeled for it, so today is the last day we can practice.”
It was after school, and the sky had taken on an orange glow. We were at the third arena to practice. “We” being, as always, Houki, Cecilia, and I. The two girls had calmed down a lot over the course of the last few weeks, and it was astonishing that I rarely found myself under verbal siege or encircled by their glares. That said, I was still the focus of everyone’s attention, and the seats of the arena were basically filled. A bunch of second year girls who had tried to sell “reserved seats” had gotten punished by my sister Chifuyu the other day; the ringleader has been unable to leave her dorm room for three days. What had my sister done to her?
“Your IS piloting has gotten a lot better. Now is the time we should—”
“Well, he is keeping up with the training I am giving him. I would have been more surprised had he not learned all these things from me.”
“Hmph. As if teaching him mid-range combat tactics is of any use?! His IS has no ranged capability.”
Houki responded with a bit of barb in her voice because she’d been interrupted. And she was right, anyway. My IS, Byakushiki, didn’t have a single ranged weapon. I had only Yukihira Nigata, and nothing else. It’s normal that all IS units had their own sets of equipment. Typically the default equipment wasn’t enough, so they also carried auxiliary gear. In Cecilia’s case, the default was Blue Tears, and the auxiliary gear was her rifle and and a close-combat knife. IS units carried expansion slots to allow auxiliary equipment to be added. How much equipment could be added depended on the individual unit, but generally at least two more pieces of equipment were possible. Generally... My IS unit was different. It had no expansion slots, and the default equipment couldn’t be changed, so I was stuck with my single close-combat blade.
“How is that different from the sword practice he does with you, Shinonono? Practicing without the IS is just a waste of time.”
“Wh-What? Don’t you know that kendo can be adapted to anything you need? It provides a foundation for all endeavors you could—”
“Ichika, let’s start by practicing the zero-recoil turn today.”
“You little— Listen to me, Ichika!”
“I’m listening!”
Why was she upset at me now? I felt this was really unfair as I reached for the door sensor to arena three, pit A. It checked my fingerprint and vein pattern, and the door cranked open. The air rushed out from the pressure. I always thought that sounded really cool.
“I’ve been waiting for you, Ichika!”
Rin was standing inside the pit. She had her arms crossed, and smiled confidently. The last time I’d seen her previously, she was still angry with me, so this turn of events was surprising. Houki and Cecilia were frowning behind me. I hoped everything would work out.
“You! How did you get in he—”
“This place is off limits to unauthorized personnel.”
Cecilia interrupted Houki. I gave up. The day was going to end with blood.
“I’m authorized because of Ichika. This is fine, isn’t it?” Rin smiled, triumphantly.
—That’s... not really how the rules worked, but okay.
“Uh-huh... I’d love to hear what about you and him authorizes you to do anything.”
“You impudent little girl!”
Cecilia was beginning to lose it, too. I looked at Houki. The corners of her mouth were twitching, and it scared me. When her rage was quietly boiling like that, it put me on edge, even if it wasn’t my fault. It wasn’t for the faint of heart! There were deadly weapons nearby.
“You’re thinking about something weird, Ichika.”
“Nah, nothing. Just a warning going off inside my head that the slasher is in town.”
“Y-You goddamn—”
Houki came forward to grab me, but Rin jumped between us.
“This is my turn to shine! I’m the main character! You’re all extras!”
“E-Extras?!”
“Look, I’m not getting anything done. See ya. So, Ichika. Did you realize your mistake?”
“Hm? What do you mean?”
“Like... I... said! You’re probably thinking it was pretty awful how you made me angry, and how you wanted to make up, right?”
“Well, you know... You were avoiding me.”
“What...? Like, would you leave a girl alone just because she says she wants to be left alone?”
“Yeah.”
Sure I would. If she wants to be left alone, that’s what you do, right?
“Did I say something weird?”
“Weird? Argh!”
Rin was holding a hand to her head. She was visibly angry, and a little frustrated. I just hoped she wasn’t going to blame me if that ruffled her hair.
“Apologize to me!”
That was so straightforward I didn’t know what to say. It’s not like I was unable to bow and say sorry, but I wasn’t going to do it for no reason.
“Why, though?! I remembered our promise!”
“Are you still going on about that? This is so stupid. You don’t understand the meaning!”
—Meaning? Like how to take a mean? Excuse me, I passed math class.
“You’re thinking about a dumb pun, aren’t you?”
Damn it. Only my two childhood friends knew me that well. I had to be more careful.
“This is insane. You’re saying you’re not going to apologize?!”
“I will if you explain what’s going on.”
“I-I’m doing this because I don’t want to explain it!”
Yeah, that made no sense to me. How could I solve a problem when I didn’t even know what was wrong? But now that she’d shown herself to be so angry with me, I couldn’t just leave it. A man had to live up to his word. If we don’t do what we say, then people won’t trust what we say. Sincerity comes from utmost consistency in our actions. As a real man, I had to prove mine.
“All right, let’s do it like this. Next week’s the class league match. Whoever wins can make the other say exactly one thing, okay?”
“Right. I’ll have you explain this to me,” I replied.
You get what you ask for. That was the very basis of our economy. And if I’d brought this on somehow, I had to make it right.
“E-Explain... Um...”
Rin was frozen, still pointing her finger at me dramatically. She was turning red. I didn’t understand. Was it really so humiliating to be asked to explain why she was angry?
“Well, if you don’t want to do this, we don’t have to.”
I said that out of the goodness of my heart, but it had the opposite effect.
“Like hell we’re dropping this! You better rehearse your big apology to me!”
“Why would I, dummy?”
“You’re the dummy! Blockhead! Moron! Idiot!”
—Wow...
“Shut up, flat chest!”
Oh. That was probably a bad one.
Fshoom!
There was a loud, explosion-like noise, and the entire room shook a little. I looked at Rin, and her body was surrounded by IS armor, from her right index finger up to her shoulder. It had felt as though she had punched the wall as hard as she could, but her hand was nowhere near it.
“Now you’ve done it... You’ve said the one thing you shouldn’t have!”
Blue lightning raced over her IS armor. Yeah, now she was really angry. This was bad.
“H-Hey, I’m sorry! That was my bad. Forgive me.”
“Of course it was ‘your bad!’ It’s always your fault!”
That was kind of silly, but it wasn’t the time for more arguments.
“I was going to give you a chance, but it looks like you really want to die. Fine, then. I’ll grant you your wish. I’ll beat you to a pulp!”
She glared at me one last time and disappeared. I heard a door slam shut somewhere; even the door sounded afraid. Rin was totally serious now. I looked at the wall and saw a crater about 30 centimeters in diameter. Being able to dent a wall made of special alloy metal was pretty scary.
“She’s a Power type. And also a close-combat model, just like yours.”
Cecilia was studying the damage to the wall. Meanwhile, I engaged in the most profound regret in years.
—Me and my big mouth... I just had to mention her chest. Come on now, Ichika.
That was the thing that she worried about the most, and which also got her the most upset. That had been absolutely, unequivocally, my fault.
—Damn it...
Whether or not I won, I’d have to apologize to Rin regardless.
◇
The day of the match came, and we were at the second arena. It was the first battle. Between Rin and I, that is. News had spread that the two new students were squaring off, so the arena was filled to the brim. I could even see people standing in the aisles between the seats. All the students who weren’t able to get in were apparently watching a live broadcast outside.
—I don’t really have time to worry about all these people...
I looked across the arena and saw Rin and her IS, Shenlong. She was quietly waiting for the match to begin. Just as with Blue Tears, I could see she had unattached units. They were floating above her shoulder in the form of spiked balls. Some kind of attack equipment? They didn’t look like something you wanted to get hit by.
The reading of her IS’s name reminded me of that Chinese dragon. It wasn’t written the same way, but still. Whatever, if you read the characters the Japanese way, you could just call it Kouryuu... It was a legit reading.
“Okay, both of you go to your starting positions.”
Rin and I flew up into the sky. We were about five meters apart, and Rin and I were talking on an open channel.
“Ichika, if you apologize now, I’ll let you off easy.”
“If that’s all you’ve got to say, then I don’t need it. Come at me with everything you’ve got.”
I didn’t say that to sound tough. It was the same it’d been with Cecilia. I just hated not taking these sorts of things seriously. Battles were serious business; there was only a point to them if you thought as much.
“Just to let you know, the Absolute Defense system isn’t perfect. You can hurt the pilot if the power of the attack pierces the total shield energy.”
That wasn’t a threat, it was the truth. It was only a rumor, but supposedly there were even weapons designed specifically to hurt the pilot. Those were obviously against the competition rules, and they were very dangerous. Still... The point being, that it was possible to directly torment the pilot, and for a National Cadet, being able to do that was definitely feasible. The fact that my battle with Cecilia had been so close was nothing short of a miracle. Miracles don’t occur twice.
“Both of you, please start the match.”
A buzzer sound rang out and as soon as it stopped, Rin leapt forward.
Bam!
I brought the Yukihira Nigata out and just barely managed to block her attack. Then I used the Cross Grid Turn that Cecilia had taught me to swing the IS around and face Rin again.
“Hmm. Not bad, blocking my first attack. But...”
Rin was holding two oddly-shaped halberd-like weapons which she swung around like a baton. The blade on them was so large it looked more like a blade with a small arm attached, and Rin swung them around like they weighed nothing. What’s more, her attacks were so fast it took all I had just to parry her.
—This is bad. At this range, it’s going to drag out forever. I need to create some distance.
“Gotcha now!”
The armor above Rin’s shoulder slid open. Inside were glowing balls, and I was slammed away by a powerful force. For a moment my mind went dark as I almost lost consciousness. Rin didn’t stop attacking, of course.
“That was just a jab,” she smiled at me, confidently.
After a jab, the boxer goes in for the knockout punch.
Wham!
“Ngh!”
An invisible fist slammed into me, and I hit the ground. I could feel pain because some of the impact had penetrated the shield barrier. It had done 76 damage, all in one blow. Things were going really, really badly.
◇
“What is that?” I asked, as I looked at a live feed down into the pit.
“An impact cannon. It uses air pressure to make a gun barrel of sorts, and fires a concentrated ball of pressure forward,” Cecilia answered, as she was staring at the same monitor.
Cecilia continued on and on about third-generation units like Shenlong and Blue Tears, but I wasn’t listening. I couldn’t stand watching him fight so desperately. It hurt my soul hurt every time he took a hit.
—Ichika...
This was way more brutal and merciless than when he’d fought against Cecilia. I just hoped he’d come back safely, above all else.
◇
“You can dodge pretty well. I’m amazed, because the nice thing about my weapon, Ryuuhou, here, is that you can’t see the barrel or the bullets.”
Yes, that was true. Not only were the bullets invisible, but so was the barrel. It was really hard to keep track of, and it seemed like her cannon could more or less fire in any direction around her without restrictions. I could try above or below her, but it even fired on me when I was behind her. It went straight for me every single time. Granted, Rin was also a very good shot. She was really skilled at basic movements and maneuvers. Everything she did was fast and effortless. To simply call her “good” was an understatement.
