Infinite Stratos - Volume 4, page 3
Wasn't it sung in the old times: We don't know what'll happen in summer so we can't be careless.
(For example, the returning road or something like that.)
............
"It was very fun today."
"Hm. Because I was with Rin."
"Yeah, yeah, you can finally appreciate my thoughts. Good, good."
"......Rin."
"Wha? What is it? Why are you suddenly holding my hand?"
"I, have finally understood, to be separated from Rin and to be reunited again, how much is that important."
"I-Ichika."
"Rin, I love you."
"Huh, ah—no, not here."
"Do you hate me?"
"I don't really hate you......"
"So, it's OK."
"Idiot, to be so much of a fool..."
--It was a joke, A JOKE!
"Haha, isn't that right, Tina?"
"Yes, yes, you're right."
Tina, who buried her head while eating ramen, casually agreed with her. When she's serious, it also means that she looks stupid. After Rin's scandal from yesterday, the reason behind it, which is the same for today's excitement, became clear...... the reason for this could only be....
"Then, I'm off."
"Be careful on the road."
"Maybe I'll be late tonight!"
"Hm, is that right?"
"Then goodbye."
"Goodbye."
After the door closed behind her with a *Dang*, Rin made her encouraging pose again with her fist closed, and strode out of there.
◆
"Hn?"
"Ara?"
In front of the Waterworld's gate, Rin stumbled upon a familiar face. Rin and Cecilia looked at each other, and in a strange atmosphere, the two of them greeted each other stiffly.
"It's really a coincidence to see you here, Rin-san."
"Hn, hn, hello, Cecilia."
Why is she here, is what both were thinking, while waiting for someone to arrive.
Both were astonished by the clothes the other had chosen to wear.
(Is Cecilia's friend coming too? Never mind, I'm only waiting for Ichika.)
Huhu...... Rin couldn't suppress her laugh, as she was waiting for Ichika's arrival with a dumb look on her face.
......
.........
............
(Aaah, he's late! What's he doing)
"What's going on?"
Cecilia mumbled as Rin was stomping with her feet. Her eyes were constantly checking the hour, making it seem as if the one she was waiting for was also late.
Rin still had Cecilia on her mind, but what concerned her the most was what Ichika was doing. It had already been more than 10 minutes since the appointed time, getting close to 20 minutes.
(That guy, since the time we met for the first time, has always been late when it matters the most)
Her phone then rang, and as she irritably took out her cellphone, she inmediately recognized the number highlighted on the screen. It was Ichika's.
"Hello? What the heck are you doing? Where are you now?"
"At school."
"Huh!?"
"Ah! Let me explain; Yesterday, I heard from Yamada-sensei that today the Institute's researchers would come to begin a research on Byakushiki. And now, they are saying that they couldn't get the data on the Second Shift, as it took place so suddenly last month. They want to take the data again."
"......What did you say?"
"Well, that...... sorry, apparently I won't be able to come today."
"WH-!?"
In a second, Rin, who had just gone past her limit, got so angry that her face went white, all while Ichika's voice continued to reach her ears.
"It's not so simple; in fact, yesterday I tried to contact you, but you wouldn't answer your phone. I even went to your room, but someone said you were already asleep. You were, right?"
"......"
As a matter of fact, in order to be ready for today's date, Rin had decided to go to sleep at 8:00 pm that night, and in order to avoid any potential bother, she specially turned off her cellphone. Finally, she instructed Tina to not wake her up unless it was a great emergency.
(Aaah, stuuupiiiid! Wouldn't that be considered a great emergency!?)
"And that's the situation."
"Right."
She couldn't help but to answer discouragingly.
"——"
"I gave the ticket to Cecilia, so you two should play to your hearts content."
----------Huh?
"Huh? Cecili...wha? Wait a moment, what do you mean with that?"
"Huh? Cecilia isn't there? I have already said to her that we should meet each other at the front door."
"------------"
Th-that, that, that..........
"Can I kill this guy?"[4A 7]
"Why are you saying something that dangerous. Rin, you're fine, aren't you?"
Because of the carefree attitude from Ichika, Rin's 'trembling status' finally became unbearable.
"It isn't something like 'fine', what you did to me, you."
"Wah, don't get angry all of sudden. ------Ah, yes. That, do I need to go right now?"
On the other end of the phone, seems there is someone talking with Ichika, and the conversation between Rin and him was temporally interrupted by it.
"Sorry Rin, I need leave for now, sorry for bothering you. Also, apologize to Cecilia in my stead."
*Kacha*
The phone was hung up emotionlessly, with only the beeping sound remaining.
"Gh, Gh, Gh--"
Rin tightly held her mobile phone, emitting a *kk* friction sound, and had Cecilia engaged the conversation a second later, the cell phone would have, without a doubt, fallen on the ground, immolated.
"Hey, Rin-san? What happened?"
"Heh, Cecilia......listen to me......Ichika won't come."
"......"
After hearing this sentence, Cecilia froze. Rin repeated it to Cecilia who didn't understand what the other person had just said.
"Ichika won't come."
"Huh? That......why? By the way, why is Rin-san......"
"Today you will date me."
"Wha......WHAAAT? I have been invited here by Ichika..."
"Didn't I just say it? That ticket was prepared by me! Do you understand?"
*Pata!* *Pata!* After blinking two times, Cecilia finally, slowly said--------
"......Rin-san."
"What."
"Let's first enter and drink something. I don't understand the situation, and also-"
With blue veins on the surface of her face, Cecilia was slightly smiling.
"-and also please explain entirely what happened."
In front of the Waterworld's door, there was a naturally formed Shura's land encircling the two of them, disturbed by something else than the hot weather.
◆
"You're saying that Ichika-san wanted someone to replace him, so he said words like 'Don't you want to try to go there'?"
"Right."
"Ha......I had a feeling that something wasn't right. From the beginning I thought that there was something weird."
"Liar. That outfit, didn't you prepare it wholeheartedly?"
"Wh-?! It's, this......is only an etiquette, yes, only an etiquette."
"Ah, I know, I know."
While making deaf ears to Cecilia's words, Rin let fly a paperplane she made with a napkin. And being so soft, it didn't fly much before it fell to the ground.
Right, just like the Rin right now.
"Hu......"
"Ha......"
In Waterworld's coffee shop, the heavy sighs from the two of them resounded at the same time.
"Then."
"Then what?"
"Should we go home?"
"You're right. I'm not in the mood for swimming now."
As the two of them decided to get up, the broadcast resounded inside.
"Ehem, next is today's main event! The steeplechase[4A 8] pair race begins at one o'clock in the evening, and every participant is requested to go to the square at noon~"
The two of them, who didn't have any interest to begin with, rose their ears to the contents in the back.
"The winning prize is a two tickets pack, for a six-days trip with all-expenses paid."
(That's it!)
(It's that.)
The Okinawa trip as prize. If what happened today was used as a reason, Ichika would be unable to refuse, and so, it's decided......
"Cecilia."
"Rin-san."
""WE OUGHT TO WIN THIS!""
The two of them hit each other's wrist, and just like that, the strongest pair in history was born.
◆
"OK! The first Waterworld pair steeplechase in water starts now!!"
As the host onee-san announced with a loud voice,she performed a flying leap. Like that, she was wearing a boldly opened bikini with her vivid, voluminous chest. She may have done this to get the interest and attention from the audience right from the beginning. The public (mostly males) started cheering and clapping their hands, screaming 'Waaaahhhh'.
Also, because all the participants were female, the audience was in high spirits
A few troublemaking men trying to sneak into the event were told expressionlessly by the reception staff to 'Try to understand', and they couldn't help but to retreat.
Though it's a women-oriented society, this is different. As expected, the competitions on water are still non-female. The jury here is made by the owner of the facility, and the Koichiro Island's sponsor, though it's more for his personal interest.
"Everyone in the audience, please kindly applaud our contestants!"
In a storm-like applause sound, the participants waved towards the audience in their sight of view.
At that moment, there was a completely indifferent team. --------Rin and Cecilia. These two were both stretching their bodies, warming up for this contest.
"He, shu! By the way, Cecilia, your swimsuit is different than the one from before."
"Huh, ah. How can I put it, yes, it's because of emotional matters."
"Liar. After all, you were thinking of showing this new swimsuit to Ichika, didn't you! Aaah, that is why you bought something with that flowery pattern."
"No-noisy. Rin-san you too, how come your body is even more slender than when we were at the sea-side school."
"It was because of that! It's because I wanted to have a vigorous life that I worked extremely hard."
"I know, I know. It's really difficult to obtain it for Rin-san who is interested in night life."
Even though the two of them were comrades, they were using weird ways to encourage each other. Like that, the two of them were still seriously doing their warm-up, since they knew very well the stake of this competition.
"The prize is six days travel to the southern paradise of -----------Okinawa. Do your best, everyone."
Right, this time the prize is the target. The two of them were having their own delusions, and couldn't help but laugh stupidly.
Suddenly their eyes met.
"Ehe."
"Aha!"
(I must find a way to take it out from Cecilia.)
(I would trade anything to Rin-san for it.)
Under their smiling mask, they were glaring at each other, preparing a plan and finishing their warm-up.
"So I'll repeat the rules! Everyone, please look at this huge 50m x 50m pool. The first team arriving at the middle and capturing the flag is the winner! Also, as you see, the path is a circle taking the form of the central island. The obstacles set in the path basically all need two people to get beyond them. It needs the two people cooperating together, it is a test for friendship between two people from the same gender."
While Rin and Cecilia were listening to the announcer's explanation, they look down again to the path below. The central island was floating in the air, which makes it troublesome. ......No, it's only because of the rope pulling it that it was floating, but that isn't the issue here.
(Hm~~It seems that it's impossible to swim through. Is there a shortcut------)
(It seems that it's impossible to take the shortest path. So it means that you must do it over again if you fall into the water.)
So it was like this, it's really well made. The two of them understood the situation in front of their eyes. However, they thought of the same.
((Of course the majority of the participants are relatively normal people------))
The two of them are both personal IS users, and representative candidates of their respective countries, and their strength is equal to that of an army from the old days, and added that, is the accumulated training they've had so that they could skillfully operate an IS. If they participated in a simple competition of pure fighting ability, even normal men could hardly win against them. Even if they were against military units, they would certainly be evenly matched. And the so-called IS are the same, their pilots naturally have some great talent.
"Then next! The competition finally starts! Everybody ready, set------"
Bang! The gun signal clearly resounds, and the 24 contestants, for a total of 12 pairs of 'fairies', wearing swimsuits, charged at the same time.
"Cecilia!"
"I know!"
Right after the start of the competition, the two of them dodged the kicks from the pair besides them and took the lead for landing on the island. In this competition, every interference is OK. However, to the representative cadets who have received a formal military training, it's no use.
"Let's go."
"Oooh!!"
They swiftly dodged a pair of participants' attacks, and at the same time the opponent's foot was in the air and then fell in the water. Thus the participants were completely separated into two categories; the conservative category 'charge forwards' and the radical 'hurt the others first' category.
However, there was a problem this time.
No matter what, this young pair were acting very active right from the beginning, and took all the public's attention. And because of this, Rin and Cecilia had become everyone's target.
"Aaaahh, it's really troublesome."
"It's blocking me!"
Though the pairs charging at them were constantly 'falling' into water, they were endlessly charging back. It looked like the radical and the conservative ones came to an understanding, so even though the attacked ones can be resurrected right away, they'll obstruct them with all their strength.
"Wuu...If this continues, we'll be taken down."
Rin, who became anxious of the first pair which already reached the second highest island, winked towards Cecilia.
"Though it's a bit early, we should use our secret weapon."
"Ha......, what happens won't be my fault."
"This is for victory!"
"Right, if it's for victory..."
After the two of them finished talking through private channels, Rin and Cecilia faced the enemy again.
""WOOOOAAAAAHHHH""
Changing the back of their hands to fiercely protect themselves from the other pair's elbow, the two of them ignored them. After they sighed, Cecilia and Rin flashed towards them with a movement that could cut the wind.
*Blam!* The obstructing group fell in the water each after another, though they were already used to it.
"No matter how many times, we'll come back again."
The two participants emerged from the water, though the thing that should be on their body is gone.
"Huhu, you cannot abandon your swimsuit and live on......"
"As Mary Theresa said, if you wanna fight naked, then bring it on."
""Aaaaaaahhhh""
Rin and Cecilia, who had quickly snatched the swimsuit upper part, looked briefly at the obstructing group, and threw the piece of cloth in their hands to the opposite side, right into the audience's hands.
As expected-----no, exceeding the expected result, in face of such a turn of events, the male audience members began a ruckus.
"It's good, now the hindrances are gone."
"Let's quickly catch up."
On the highest island, there should be someone who pulls the rope, while the other one should pass through to the other side with the rope supporting her.
"Well, we must make up for the wasted time together."
"Hn, we can't fall behind any further."
Rin flew swiftly to the unstable little island swinging left and right, followed by Cecilia who looked through its timing. Just before, the public was storming and boiling because of the swimsuits, but now, it's because of these two's dynamism that the crowd is bursting with cheers.
"That's, that's impressive for two high schoolers, did they receive some kind of training?"
After that, for the second island, the two of them broke away from the obstacles and charged towards it. This time it was one who stoped the water flow while the other one used this opportunity to get through the obstacle, though both of them charged together.
"Haha! It's so relaxing!"
"Compared to a minefield, it's way too easy."
And just like this, they continued through the third and the fourth island, and when they finally arrived at the fifth---an issue emerged.
"Let's end this here."
Maybe because they thought that if they continue on running seriously, they'll lose, the leading team turned towards Rin and Cecilia.
"Ahaha. How can normal people beat us, the representative cadets."
"Wait, in front of us is the Kazaki-Kishimoto team! They seem to want to bring the contest in their fighting expert field."
"Huh? Expert......what?"
"From what I know, these two are Wrestling and Judo gold-medalists at the Olympics. Though I heard that their relationship is very good, it means that they aren't in the same discipline but they are in good terms with each other."
"Huh...? What? Gold medalist? Does that mean that their body constitution is above average?"
The muscled girls pair who greatly match each other let out a roar and charged towards Rin's and Cecilia's side.
(This isn't good! We already used all our strength to run, so we're exhausted now, and if we fight these muscled girls---)
(It would be too much no matter what.)
Since they were so exhausted that they couldn't sense that the situation was getting tougher, they couldn't let themselves stop running. It's going to be bad.
