Infinite Stratos, Volume 1, page 14
“Ichika.”
“Hm?”
“What should I do?”
‘I’ll do whatever you need. But if it fails, you’re treating me.’
She was very good at communicating that with her eyes. There’s a good phrase for this: tacit understanding.
“When I give the signal, I want you to shoot him with everything you’ve got.”
“Okay. But it’s not going to hit.”
“That’s fine.”
“All right, let’s—”
I repositioned to attack, but then a voice blared out over the arena’s speakers.
“ICHIKA!”
High audio feedback noise followed. Houki was yelling at me.
“Wh-What are you doing?!”
The referee and the commentator were lying next to her. Apparently she had stormed in and knocked them out. They weren’t going to wake up for a while; Oh, boy.
“You’re a man... How can a man not manage to win against this thing?!” yelled Houki.
Her voice generated a lot of audio feedback again. I could see her enlarged on my hypersensors. Houki was out of breath and panting. She looked angry, but also scared... It was strange to see.
“.........”
Shit. The enemy IS had become distracted by the arena-wide transmission. Its sensor lenses turned away from us and were now aimed at Houki.
“Houki, run!”
She wasn’t going to make it. I had to go in immediately. I changed my posture and accelerated. My eyes were leveled at the enemy IS, which was turning towards Houki.
“Rin, fire!”
“O-Okay!”
Rin lowered her arms to let her shoulder-mounted cannons fire forward. She was going to fire a full-power shot, so she had to expand her auxiliary-powered wings. I moved my unit straight into her line of fire.
“H-Hey, you idiot! What are you doing?! Move out of the way!”
“Just fire!”
“Damn it! Don’t blame me!”
When I felt the high-energy reaction at my back, I activated my Ignition Boost. The principle of instant acceleration was as such: I was going to expel energy from my rear thruster wings, absorb it with the main frame, and eject it with even more pressure. In turn, this would generate an explosive amount of inertia that I could use to accelerate. All in all, that meant I could use any energy coming in from behind, and the speed I got out of it was proportional to the amount of energy put in.
Bang! I felt a massive energy impact on my back.
The projectiles from the cannon had hit me. My body creaked, and I was thrown forward.
“WHOAAA!”
The light of Yukihira Nigata in my right hand burned even more brightly than before. The blade size around the fuller had grown by one.
I could use Reiraku Byakuya now; energy conversion rate was over 90%.
I knew it. I could feel it. It felt just like the first time I’d touched an IS. Everything was clear and lucid, like I understood all that was around me. My focus was ten times better than normal, if not more, and my mind so much faster. I could feel the power in my hands.
—Chifuyu... Houki... Rin... I will protect them... I will protect everyone!
I cut off the enemy’s right arm with my massive slice. In return, its left arm hit me dead on, and just at the point of impact, I sensed a heat signature. It was firing its beam weapon.
“ICHIKA!”
Houki and Rin were yelling.
—Hang on, it’s not over yet!
“Locked on?”
“Perfectly.”
I could hear her clearly. She could be annoying sometimes, but I was glad to hear her voice then. The four units of Blue Tears fired on the enemy IS from the stands. My attack had destroyed the isolation shield. My plan had been enacted.
Bam! The enemy IS was thrown to the ground by the laser hits.
Without the shield barrier, the enemy IS took all the shots without any time to react. Perhaps a human could have anticipated this attack, but not a machine. Improvisation was the greatest asset of human beings, after all. Human beings were crafty; they found ways to trick you. Machines couldn’t do the same.
“That was close.”
“I knew you could do it, Cecilia.”
I answered with full confidence. I’d fought her before, after all. I knew how good she was. Perhaps she didn’t expect this? She seemed flustered when she answered.
“I-I see...... Of course! After all, I am Cecilia Alcott. I am the British National Cadet!”
This was going on over our private channel. I didn’t know how to answer someone privately I hadn’t met before, but older contacts turned up in my log, and I could use that. I just had to picture them at the back of my mind, and imagine myself talking to them.
“Hmph. At least it’s over now.”
[WARNING: LOCK-ON DETECTED. ENEMY IS REACTIVATED.]
“Wha—”
It only had its left arm. The cannons on it had changed into high-output burst mode and were aimed straight at me. I could see the gathering light in its cannons. I dove straight towards the brightness without hesitation. Everything was bright. I couldn’t see anything, but I could feel my sword striking heavy armor.
◇
“Huh...?”
I felt pain in my body, and opened my eyes. I looked around, not knowing where I was. It seemed to be the infirmary. I was lying in bed, and the curtains were drawn around me. It made me feel confined, but also gave me a sense of peace. Quite the contradiction.
—So... What happened? My attack hit the enemy, but after that...
“You’re awake.”
The curtains were drawn aside. Action before thought. Yes, my sister Chifuyu had come.
“You’re not in danger anymore, but you are pretty bruised. It’s going to hurt like hell for a few days. Just accept it.”
“Right...”
I was still a little out of it. I could listen to Chifuyu, but it didn’t make much sense to me that my body was bruised. Outside the window, the sky was turning orange. It was after school, clearly.
“You took the impact cannon to the back at maximum capacity, and you cut off the Absolute Defense system, didn’t you? You’re lucky you didn’t die.”
I couldn’t remember.
—Hmm, I didn’t know the Absolute Defense system could even be cut off.
“Well, I’m happy you’re alive. I wouldn’t like seeing my little brother die.”
Chifuyu’s expression was much softer than it usually was; we were the only family the other had. She would never have let anybody else see such a soft side of her.
“Chifuyu...”
“Yeah?”
“I, uh... I’m sorry I worried you.”
“I wasn’t worried. You’re my brother. You wouldn’t die so easily.” Chifuyu smiled.
—That is an abnormal level of trust.
But I knew she probably wasn’t comfortable showing more affection than that, so I didn’t mind.
“Well, I need to deal with the aftermath, so I’ll be back at work. Get some rest, and then you can go back to your room.”
With that, Chifuyu marched out of the infirmary. She was always serious about her job, and was definitely the person I looked up to the most.
“Um... Ahem! Ahem!”
Someone came in, in Chifuyu’s stead. I recognized that fake coughing. It was Houki.
Ga-sha! The curtain was drawn apart again.
Chifuyu had only drawn it halfway, but Houki didn’t hold back, not like that was really necessary.
“Hey, Houki.”
“H-Hey.”
My ponytailed childhood friend crossed her arms. She didn’t look mad at me, but she didn’t look happy either.
“S-So, um... About the battle today...”
“Hm? Oh... Speaking of which, what happened to the league match? Did they annul it?”
“Oh, yeah. Of course. They had to after what happened.”
—That makes sense. I wonder when the rematch will be. At the very least, it hope it’s after I’m fit again.
“Wh-What were you thinking about?!”
“What?”
She was mad suddenly. I had no idea why she was indignant, or perhaps she was just acting like she was mad to hide something else.
“We won, so it turned out well, but... You should have just let the teachers deal with it! Your confidence is going to be the end of you one day!”
“Oh, so I won.”
“That hardly counted as winning!”
—So which is it?
Houki’s shoulders were heaving. She was pretty worked up. I couldn’t imagine what had her so befuddled.
—Ah, right.
“Were you worried about me?”
“N-No! Who’d worry about your safety?”
Guess not, then. I was hoping my childhood friend would do that, but no such luck.
“A-Anyway! You should understand how good it was that we trained now. We’ll keep going with that. All right?”
“Yeah, that’s fine.”
“Good. I’ll be back in our room.”
She wasn’t going to wait for me, huh... Some loving childhood friend she was.
“Ichika...”
“Yeah?”
“So... I was looking at you fighting, and you looked really c... c... c...”
—Crazy...?
“Coo— Forget it!”
I couldn’t quite catch that. If she wanted me to forget, then fine. That’s what I was going to do.
“L-Later!”
Houki stormed out of the infirmary. She could have at least closed the door and pull the curtains closed, or something.
“Hm... I’m getting sleepy...”
Perhaps I was still exhausted, but sleep dragged me into its embrace. I welcomed it. The bed was nice and comfortable.
“.........”
I could feel someone was near me; so close that our faces were almost touching. Who was it? How long had I slept?
“Ichika...”
“Rin?”
“......?!”
I recognized her voice and woke up. Rin’s nose was about three centimeters from mine.
“What are you doing?”
“Y-Y-You were awake?!”
“I woke up from your voice. So what’s going on? Why are you so flustered?”
“I-I’m not flustered! Don’t get the wrong idea, you idiot!”
The word “idiot” was part of the grammatical makeup of her sentences, apparently. I could do without that kind of pop culture character trait.
“Oh... I heard the battle was annulled.”
“Oh, yeah. I guess that happened...”
Rin sat down on a chair next to the bed. Perhaps she was going to peel me an apple? I couldn’t see any apples.
“Oh.”
“Y-Yeah?”
“What are we doing about the match now? Did they set a date yet?”
“Don’t worry about that.”
“What? Why?”
“J-Just don’t worry about it!”
I had no idea what was going on, but all right, I won’t worry any longer. Either way, a real man had to own up to his mistakes.
“Rin.”
“Yeah?”
“Um, I’m... I’m sorry. About a lot of things. I really am,” I nodded to her in apology.
Whatever the details, whatever the result, if you messed up, you had to apologize. That was my belief. This took Rin aback, but she quickly recovered her composure.
“W-Well... I guess I took it too seriously as well... It’s fine now.”
She forgave me, it seemed. Blessed be the common past of old friends. I didn’t want to ruin our friendship, either.
“Oh. I just remembered.”
The time I had made a promise with Rin came to mind again. It’d been during our last year of grade school. We were in a classroom, and the sun had been as red as it was now.
“What you asked me was whether I’d eat your sweet-and-sour pork every day once you got good at it, right? So? Did you?”
“I... Um...”
Rin looked left, then right, and eventually at the ground. She was very confused now. Her face had turned red.
“So, I was thinking. Maybe there was a different meaning to that. I always took it as me getting a bunch of food for free, but maybe what you meant was—”
“N-No! That’s right! Cooking gets better if you do it for others, right?! Yeah! That’s what it meant!”
She’d gotten up from her chair and looked down at me. It was positively imposing.
“I guess, yeah. Like, I thought it could have been like one of those veiled romantic things in movies where it’s a metaphor, but maybe not. I must have read too much into that.”
“.........”
“Rin?”
“Um... Y-Yeah! You read too much into that! Hahaha!”
Rin’s laughter sounded uncomfortable, like she was trying to hide something. Well, if she didn’t want to talk about it, I wasn’t going to force her. There was something else I wanted to ask her, anyway.
“If you’re back in Japan, does that mean your family has a restaurant again? Your dad made great food. I wanna eat it again.”
“Oh, no... We... don’t have a restaurant.”
“Why?”
“My parents got a divorce...”
That surprised me. They’d looked like a happy couple, by all accounts. But I thought she wouldn’t have lied about that. I looked at Rin. She looked depressed and unsure what to say to me.
“I had to go back to China because of that.”
“I see...”
Now that I thought about it, Rin hadn’t looked like herself back then. Like she was trying to hide something by being positive and bright.
“My mother has custody of me on paper. Women are in power now everywhere, so that makes sense, but...”
She was trying to sound upbeat again, but the tone of her voice was gloomy.
“I haven’t seen my father in a year. I think he’s doing well, though.”
I didn’t know what to say to her. I felt depressed as well, knowing that her parents had divorced. It had pulled her family apart. That was never good. There must have been something that forced this. I remembered her generous father, and also her hard-working mother.
—Why? Just... Why?
I couldn’t bring myself to ask Rin. She was probably suffering the most from this.
“Family is hard, isn’t it?”
I didn’t know my own parents. Chifuyu was my only family, so I couldn’t say I knew first-hand what she meant.
“Hey, Rin.”
“Yeah?”
“Let’s go have fun somewhere one of these days.”
“Uh... Is that a da—”
“We can call Gotanda, too. Get the old crew back together.”
“.........”
For a split second Rin had looked incredibly happy, but now she had wheeled straight back around to gloominess. I didn’t understand.
“No way.”
She was pouting now. I was trying to do this for her, though. Is that not what friends are for?
“I-I’d only go if it’s just you alo—”
Wham! The door to the infirmary was slammed open.
“Ichika! How are you feeling? I asked the nurses and... Oh.”
Cecilia strode into the room, but stopped talking. She had seen Rin by my bedside.
“Why are you here? Ichika is a member of Class A. There is no reason for a girl from Class B to visit him, I should think.”
“What are you talking about? I’m visiting him as his childhood friend. You’re just a random stranger!”
“I-I’m his classmate! And I’m also his exclusive combat tutor as well!”
The emphasis on “exclusive” was strange. Cecilia also added that she was a National Cadet for good measure, but that only served to dig her hole deeper.
“All right. Then I’m going to be his exclusive combat tutor as well, starting tomorrow. After all, I’m also a National Cadet.”
“Y-You can’t!” Cecilia exclaimed.
“Why not? Ichika, you are fine with that, right?”
“Y-You’re not, right? Ichika?!”
Why were they asking me? I really didn’t care either way. I just wanted to be taught how to use an IS. Maybe Rin was a better fit? She had close-combat abilities, too. It was more of a multipurpose unit, but still.
“I think Rin is more compatible.”
“Wh...”
“Hehe... Yes, yes. There you have it.”
“Since she also has close-combat weapons.”
“.........”
“.........”
Both of them were dumbfounded. That had seemed like a perfectly decent reason to me.
“I suppose you’re right. Yes, she does have close-combat weapons, if nothing else. But I, Cecilia Alcott, will have to continue to teach him mid-range combat as his exclusive tutor.”
This time she stressed the “if nothing else.” Now it was Rin’s turn to look unhappy and glum. She was staring at me. Glaring, even.
—What did I do wrong now?!
“Well, then. Let us analyze today’s combat performance. Alone.”
“What are you talking about? Ichika and I were the ones fighting out there, so we should go over our performance together! Are you stupid?”
“Stu... Hmph. This is why I hate uncouth plebeians.”
“Better than being stuck up like you!”
“Excuse me?!”
“What?!”
Those two were really not getting along. Cecilia wasn’t really getting along with either Houki or Rin. I wished she’d try. She probably wasn’t going to, though.
—Man... I want to go back to my room and sleep... I want to take a bath...
My gloomy mood was being ignored. Instead, the other two kept fighting.
—Sigh...
◇
Fifty meters underground, below the academy. Only those with level four clearance were allowed into these facilities. It was a secret base. The disabled IS unit had been brought here, without delay, to be analyzed. Chifuyu, in the meantime, had been watching the arena’s combat footage for two hours straight.
“.........”
The room was dark, lit only by the illumination of the monitors. They made her face look cold and austere.
“Ms. Orimura?”
A window opened on her screen. It was an image from a surveillance camera outside the door. Ms. Yamada was standing there, book in hand.
“Hm?”
“What should I do?”
‘I’ll do whatever you need. But if it fails, you’re treating me.’
She was very good at communicating that with her eyes. There’s a good phrase for this: tacit understanding.
“When I give the signal, I want you to shoot him with everything you’ve got.”
“Okay. But it’s not going to hit.”
“That’s fine.”
“All right, let’s—”
I repositioned to attack, but then a voice blared out over the arena’s speakers.
“ICHIKA!”
High audio feedback noise followed. Houki was yelling at me.
“Wh-What are you doing?!”
The referee and the commentator were lying next to her. Apparently she had stormed in and knocked them out. They weren’t going to wake up for a while; Oh, boy.
“You’re a man... How can a man not manage to win against this thing?!” yelled Houki.
Her voice generated a lot of audio feedback again. I could see her enlarged on my hypersensors. Houki was out of breath and panting. She looked angry, but also scared... It was strange to see.
“.........”
Shit. The enemy IS had become distracted by the arena-wide transmission. Its sensor lenses turned away from us and were now aimed at Houki.
“Houki, run!”
She wasn’t going to make it. I had to go in immediately. I changed my posture and accelerated. My eyes were leveled at the enemy IS, which was turning towards Houki.
“Rin, fire!”
“O-Okay!”
Rin lowered her arms to let her shoulder-mounted cannons fire forward. She was going to fire a full-power shot, so she had to expand her auxiliary-powered wings. I moved my unit straight into her line of fire.
“H-Hey, you idiot! What are you doing?! Move out of the way!”
“Just fire!”
“Damn it! Don’t blame me!”
When I felt the high-energy reaction at my back, I activated my Ignition Boost. The principle of instant acceleration was as such: I was going to expel energy from my rear thruster wings, absorb it with the main frame, and eject it with even more pressure. In turn, this would generate an explosive amount of inertia that I could use to accelerate. All in all, that meant I could use any energy coming in from behind, and the speed I got out of it was proportional to the amount of energy put in.
Bang! I felt a massive energy impact on my back.
The projectiles from the cannon had hit me. My body creaked, and I was thrown forward.
“WHOAAA!”
The light of Yukihira Nigata in my right hand burned even more brightly than before. The blade size around the fuller had grown by one.
I could use Reiraku Byakuya now; energy conversion rate was over 90%.
I knew it. I could feel it. It felt just like the first time I’d touched an IS. Everything was clear and lucid, like I understood all that was around me. My focus was ten times better than normal, if not more, and my mind so much faster. I could feel the power in my hands.
—Chifuyu... Houki... Rin... I will protect them... I will protect everyone!
I cut off the enemy’s right arm with my massive slice. In return, its left arm hit me dead on, and just at the point of impact, I sensed a heat signature. It was firing its beam weapon.
“ICHIKA!”
Houki and Rin were yelling.
—Hang on, it’s not over yet!
“Locked on?”
“Perfectly.”
I could hear her clearly. She could be annoying sometimes, but I was glad to hear her voice then. The four units of Blue Tears fired on the enemy IS from the stands. My attack had destroyed the isolation shield. My plan had been enacted.
Bam! The enemy IS was thrown to the ground by the laser hits.
Without the shield barrier, the enemy IS took all the shots without any time to react. Perhaps a human could have anticipated this attack, but not a machine. Improvisation was the greatest asset of human beings, after all. Human beings were crafty; they found ways to trick you. Machines couldn’t do the same.
“That was close.”
“I knew you could do it, Cecilia.”
I answered with full confidence. I’d fought her before, after all. I knew how good she was. Perhaps she didn’t expect this? She seemed flustered when she answered.
“I-I see...... Of course! After all, I am Cecilia Alcott. I am the British National Cadet!”
This was going on over our private channel. I didn’t know how to answer someone privately I hadn’t met before, but older contacts turned up in my log, and I could use that. I just had to picture them at the back of my mind, and imagine myself talking to them.
“Hmph. At least it’s over now.”
[WARNING: LOCK-ON DETECTED. ENEMY IS REACTIVATED.]
“Wha—”
It only had its left arm. The cannons on it had changed into high-output burst mode and were aimed straight at me. I could see the gathering light in its cannons. I dove straight towards the brightness without hesitation. Everything was bright. I couldn’t see anything, but I could feel my sword striking heavy armor.
◇
“Huh...?”
I felt pain in my body, and opened my eyes. I looked around, not knowing where I was. It seemed to be the infirmary. I was lying in bed, and the curtains were drawn around me. It made me feel confined, but also gave me a sense of peace. Quite the contradiction.
—So... What happened? My attack hit the enemy, but after that...
“You’re awake.”
The curtains were drawn aside. Action before thought. Yes, my sister Chifuyu had come.
“You’re not in danger anymore, but you are pretty bruised. It’s going to hurt like hell for a few days. Just accept it.”
“Right...”
I was still a little out of it. I could listen to Chifuyu, but it didn’t make much sense to me that my body was bruised. Outside the window, the sky was turning orange. It was after school, clearly.
“You took the impact cannon to the back at maximum capacity, and you cut off the Absolute Defense system, didn’t you? You’re lucky you didn’t die.”
I couldn’t remember.
—Hmm, I didn’t know the Absolute Defense system could even be cut off.
“Well, I’m happy you’re alive. I wouldn’t like seeing my little brother die.”
Chifuyu’s expression was much softer than it usually was; we were the only family the other had. She would never have let anybody else see such a soft side of her.
“Chifuyu...”
“Yeah?”
“I, uh... I’m sorry I worried you.”
“I wasn’t worried. You’re my brother. You wouldn’t die so easily.” Chifuyu smiled.
—That is an abnormal level of trust.
But I knew she probably wasn’t comfortable showing more affection than that, so I didn’t mind.
“Well, I need to deal with the aftermath, so I’ll be back at work. Get some rest, and then you can go back to your room.”
With that, Chifuyu marched out of the infirmary. She was always serious about her job, and was definitely the person I looked up to the most.
“Um... Ahem! Ahem!”
Someone came in, in Chifuyu’s stead. I recognized that fake coughing. It was Houki.
Ga-sha! The curtain was drawn apart again.
Chifuyu had only drawn it halfway, but Houki didn’t hold back, not like that was really necessary.
“Hey, Houki.”
“H-Hey.”
My ponytailed childhood friend crossed her arms. She didn’t look mad at me, but she didn’t look happy either.
“S-So, um... About the battle today...”
“Hm? Oh... Speaking of which, what happened to the league match? Did they annul it?”
“Oh, yeah. Of course. They had to after what happened.”
—That makes sense. I wonder when the rematch will be. At the very least, it hope it’s after I’m fit again.
“Wh-What were you thinking about?!”
“What?”
She was mad suddenly. I had no idea why she was indignant, or perhaps she was just acting like she was mad to hide something else.
“We won, so it turned out well, but... You should have just let the teachers deal with it! Your confidence is going to be the end of you one day!”
“Oh, so I won.”
“That hardly counted as winning!”
—So which is it?
Houki’s shoulders were heaving. She was pretty worked up. I couldn’t imagine what had her so befuddled.
—Ah, right.
“Were you worried about me?”
“N-No! Who’d worry about your safety?”
Guess not, then. I was hoping my childhood friend would do that, but no such luck.
“A-Anyway! You should understand how good it was that we trained now. We’ll keep going with that. All right?”
“Yeah, that’s fine.”
“Good. I’ll be back in our room.”
She wasn’t going to wait for me, huh... Some loving childhood friend she was.
“Ichika...”
“Yeah?”
“So... I was looking at you fighting, and you looked really c... c... c...”
—Crazy...?
“Coo— Forget it!”
I couldn’t quite catch that. If she wanted me to forget, then fine. That’s what I was going to do.
“L-Later!”
Houki stormed out of the infirmary. She could have at least closed the door and pull the curtains closed, or something.
“Hm... I’m getting sleepy...”
Perhaps I was still exhausted, but sleep dragged me into its embrace. I welcomed it. The bed was nice and comfortable.
“.........”
I could feel someone was near me; so close that our faces were almost touching. Who was it? How long had I slept?
“Ichika...”
“Rin?”
“......?!”
I recognized her voice and woke up. Rin’s nose was about three centimeters from mine.
“What are you doing?”
“Y-Y-You were awake?!”
“I woke up from your voice. So what’s going on? Why are you so flustered?”
“I-I’m not flustered! Don’t get the wrong idea, you idiot!”
The word “idiot” was part of the grammatical makeup of her sentences, apparently. I could do without that kind of pop culture character trait.
“Oh... I heard the battle was annulled.”
“Oh, yeah. I guess that happened...”
Rin sat down on a chair next to the bed. Perhaps she was going to peel me an apple? I couldn’t see any apples.
“Oh.”
“Y-Yeah?”
“What are we doing about the match now? Did they set a date yet?”
“Don’t worry about that.”
“What? Why?”
“J-Just don’t worry about it!”
I had no idea what was going on, but all right, I won’t worry any longer. Either way, a real man had to own up to his mistakes.
“Rin.”
“Yeah?”
“Um, I’m... I’m sorry. About a lot of things. I really am,” I nodded to her in apology.
Whatever the details, whatever the result, if you messed up, you had to apologize. That was my belief. This took Rin aback, but she quickly recovered her composure.
“W-Well... I guess I took it too seriously as well... It’s fine now.”
She forgave me, it seemed. Blessed be the common past of old friends. I didn’t want to ruin our friendship, either.
“Oh. I just remembered.”
The time I had made a promise with Rin came to mind again. It’d been during our last year of grade school. We were in a classroom, and the sun had been as red as it was now.
“What you asked me was whether I’d eat your sweet-and-sour pork every day once you got good at it, right? So? Did you?”
“I... Um...”
Rin looked left, then right, and eventually at the ground. She was very confused now. Her face had turned red.
“So, I was thinking. Maybe there was a different meaning to that. I always took it as me getting a bunch of food for free, but maybe what you meant was—”
“N-No! That’s right! Cooking gets better if you do it for others, right?! Yeah! That’s what it meant!”
She’d gotten up from her chair and looked down at me. It was positively imposing.
“I guess, yeah. Like, I thought it could have been like one of those veiled romantic things in movies where it’s a metaphor, but maybe not. I must have read too much into that.”
“.........”
“Rin?”
“Um... Y-Yeah! You read too much into that! Hahaha!”
Rin’s laughter sounded uncomfortable, like she was trying to hide something. Well, if she didn’t want to talk about it, I wasn’t going to force her. There was something else I wanted to ask her, anyway.
“If you’re back in Japan, does that mean your family has a restaurant again? Your dad made great food. I wanna eat it again.”
“Oh, no... We... don’t have a restaurant.”
“Why?”
“My parents got a divorce...”
That surprised me. They’d looked like a happy couple, by all accounts. But I thought she wouldn’t have lied about that. I looked at Rin. She looked depressed and unsure what to say to me.
“I had to go back to China because of that.”
“I see...”
Now that I thought about it, Rin hadn’t looked like herself back then. Like she was trying to hide something by being positive and bright.
“My mother has custody of me on paper. Women are in power now everywhere, so that makes sense, but...”
She was trying to sound upbeat again, but the tone of her voice was gloomy.
“I haven’t seen my father in a year. I think he’s doing well, though.”
I didn’t know what to say to her. I felt depressed as well, knowing that her parents had divorced. It had pulled her family apart. That was never good. There must have been something that forced this. I remembered her generous father, and also her hard-working mother.
—Why? Just... Why?
I couldn’t bring myself to ask Rin. She was probably suffering the most from this.
“Family is hard, isn’t it?”
I didn’t know my own parents. Chifuyu was my only family, so I couldn’t say I knew first-hand what she meant.
“Hey, Rin.”
“Yeah?”
“Let’s go have fun somewhere one of these days.”
“Uh... Is that a da—”
“We can call Gotanda, too. Get the old crew back together.”
“.........”
For a split second Rin had looked incredibly happy, but now she had wheeled straight back around to gloominess. I didn’t understand.
“No way.”
She was pouting now. I was trying to do this for her, though. Is that not what friends are for?
“I-I’d only go if it’s just you alo—”
Wham! The door to the infirmary was slammed open.
“Ichika! How are you feeling? I asked the nurses and... Oh.”
Cecilia strode into the room, but stopped talking. She had seen Rin by my bedside.
“Why are you here? Ichika is a member of Class A. There is no reason for a girl from Class B to visit him, I should think.”
“What are you talking about? I’m visiting him as his childhood friend. You’re just a random stranger!”
“I-I’m his classmate! And I’m also his exclusive combat tutor as well!”
The emphasis on “exclusive” was strange. Cecilia also added that she was a National Cadet for good measure, but that only served to dig her hole deeper.
“All right. Then I’m going to be his exclusive combat tutor as well, starting tomorrow. After all, I’m also a National Cadet.”
“Y-You can’t!” Cecilia exclaimed.
“Why not? Ichika, you are fine with that, right?”
“Y-You’re not, right? Ichika?!”
Why were they asking me? I really didn’t care either way. I just wanted to be taught how to use an IS. Maybe Rin was a better fit? She had close-combat abilities, too. It was more of a multipurpose unit, but still.
“I think Rin is more compatible.”
“Wh...”
“Hehe... Yes, yes. There you have it.”
“Since she also has close-combat weapons.”
“.........”
“.........”
Both of them were dumbfounded. That had seemed like a perfectly decent reason to me.
“I suppose you’re right. Yes, she does have close-combat weapons, if nothing else. But I, Cecilia Alcott, will have to continue to teach him mid-range combat as his exclusive tutor.”
This time she stressed the “if nothing else.” Now it was Rin’s turn to look unhappy and glum. She was staring at me. Glaring, even.
—What did I do wrong now?!
“Well, then. Let us analyze today’s combat performance. Alone.”
“What are you talking about? Ichika and I were the ones fighting out there, so we should go over our performance together! Are you stupid?”
“Stu... Hmph. This is why I hate uncouth plebeians.”
“Better than being stuck up like you!”
“Excuse me?!”
“What?!”
Those two were really not getting along. Cecilia wasn’t really getting along with either Houki or Rin. I wished she’d try. She probably wasn’t going to, though.
—Man... I want to go back to my room and sleep... I want to take a bath...
My gloomy mood was being ignored. Instead, the other two kept fighting.
—Sigh...
◇
Fifty meters underground, below the academy. Only those with level four clearance were allowed into these facilities. It was a secret base. The disabled IS unit had been brought here, without delay, to be analyzed. Chifuyu, in the meantime, had been watching the arena’s combat footage for two hours straight.
“.........”
The room was dark, lit only by the illumination of the monitors. They made her face look cold and austere.
“Ms. Orimura?”
A window opened on her screen. It was an image from a surveillance camera outside the door. Ms. Yamada was standing there, book in hand.
