Infinite Stratos, Volume 8, page 3
“Hmm. Mm?”
“.........”
Just as what was going on started to overwhelm me, the door behind me opened.
“Boss! What’re you doing?” It was a man that looked to be in his thirties, and when he saw me, he went, “Oh! Orimura, is that you? Orimura Ichika?”
“Yes.”
“Oh, I see! I’m so sorry about that. She’d told me she was going out to meet you, but, ah, as you can see, she’s a bit of a creep.” He was brutally honest. I’ll give him that.
“Shut your mouth before he smells the Fixodent, gramps,” she retorted as she flung her harpoon. Whoa! What kind of nutjob was I dealing with?! “Anyway, you little cutie. Why don’t you come to my room and we have some fun?”
“Uh... What kind of fun?”
Watching her boobs jiggle was captivating enough that I was having a hard time arguing.
“Well, we could play Old Maid.”
“Isn’t that kinda boring with just two people?”
“Yeah, I guess it would be. So why don’t we just fuck instead?”
“.........” The man and I had matching stares of disapproval.
“Tch. My shower’s the perfect size for two, so why does it have to be illegal?!” She pursed her lips as she crossed her arms behind her head.
I wasn’t quite sure what to say, but his whisper cut through my confusion, “I’m terribly sorry about all of this. Will you come inside? I’ll get you a drink.”
With another apology, he led me inside. The walls were painted a bright white. So was the ceiling. And the lights were, you guessed it, shining pale fluorescents. Are they that proud of making Byakushiki...? Nahhhhh.
Splish, splash, sploosh. The damp squishing sounds as she walked behind me made me feel kind of like I was in a horror movie.
“C’mon, boss! Dry off before you come in!”
“Mwahahaha, it’s no big deal.”
“I’m going to have to mop up!”
“I guess you are. Okay, I’ll stay out here until I’m dry.”
“That’s going to take forever!”
“Ahahaha.”
Dealing with her every day must be exhausting.
“Anyway, uh. See you later, I guess,” I muttered.
“Sure thing, sweetcakes. I’m looking forward to it.” As the ‘boss’ waved goodbye, I set off down the hallway.
◇
“Ufufu. He really is Orimura’s little brother, isn’t he.”
The woman smiled to herself after Ichika’s departure. Her fangy grin was enough to give anyone watching goosebumps.
“Boss! Hurry up and dry yourself off!”
“Sure, sure. Sorry.” She traded her harpoon and fish for a towel, and scrubbed her hair dry. “I can’t wait to see what kind of data I get out of you, Orimura Ichika.”
The boss’s subtle grin peeked out from under the towel as she dried herself off.
◇
Hmm... I’d spent around half an hour waiting in the room I was led to. I had just gotten sick of the wait and stood up to do some pushups when the woman from before walked into the room.
“Sorry about that! I didn’t keep you waiting too long, did I?”
“Ah, it wasn’t that bad.”
“.........”
“......?”
She puffed out her cheeks, as if irritated with my response, and said, “Boy, when a lady asks whether she’s kept you waiting, you tell her you didn’t even notice.”
“Ahh... Okay...”
“If you don’t have any grace, you’re never going to catch a girl.”
“I-I see...”
“But don’t worry. I’ll always be here for you.”
I, uh. I should probably just pretend she didn’t actually say that.
“Anyway, let’s get started!” She was wearing a lab coat over her IS suit. On her feet were fuzzy cat’s-paw slippers. And her goggles were pushed up, so I could finally see her eyes. “Let me introduce myself. I’m Kagaribi Hikaruno, chief engineer of the second Kuramochi Engineering Laboratory, and a classmate of your sister.”
A smile rose to her feline eyes. But the fangs protruding from her grin were definitely canines.
“My sister... You mean Chifuyu?”
“Yep.”
She snapped the elastic band of her goggles as she pushed them up to the top of her head, making them look almost like a hairband. Wait, I have better things to think about!
“By classmate, you mean in high school?”
“Yep.”
“So you’re a friend of Tabane’s too?”
“Nooo, no no no.” She turned aside. “A ‘friend’ is someone you can approach on an equal footing. And no one out there is quite on their level. What Orimura Chifuyu can be to Shinonono Tabane, and what Shinonono Tabane can be to Orimura Chifuyu, is something no one else can come close to.”
She waved her finger as she spoke and continued, “Someone like me can’t even come close. So I can’t say they’re my friends. Classmates, yes. But just classmates.”
Changing the topic, she opened up a projection display and brought forth an IS maintenance machine. Its six arms grasped at me.
“Open up Byakushiki for me. I’m going to get started on repair, optimization, and data collection.”
“Okay.”
I focused and called forth Byakushiki. My body shined before being enveloped in pure white armor.
“Sorry about this summer. It’s just... I had so much to take care of that I couldn’t make it to IS Academy. No sooner did I take care of one mess, another one popped up. I was in such a pickle.”
“......?”
“Man, it sucks getting old...”
I didn’t really understand what she meant, but I couldn’t argue. Hikaruno sighed and looked back at her display.
“Hmm, hmm. That’s some pretty serious damage. Why don’t you step out of Byakushiki and I’ll send it to the techs?”
“Uhh... How long is it going to take?”
“Hm? It should be ready by tomorrow. We’ll just have to pull an all-nighter, it’ll be easy.” That didn’t sound all that easy. “Anyway, let me introduce you to the staff of Kuramochi Engineering!”
A door slid open, and a line of men and women rushed in. They were of varying ages, but it seemed like they were all Japanese.
“Why don’t you go fishing or something to pass the time? They’re biting in the river nearby.” She handed me a bamboo rod. It had no lure attached, just a line dangling from the end. “You’ll have to find your own bait, though.”
“Ooookay. I’ll go do that, then.”
“Have fun!” Hikaruno saw me off with a wave as I left the lab.
◇
“Fishing, huh.”
I hadn’t done that in forever. It used to be a hobby of mine in elementary school, though. First with Chifuyu, then with Houki, then with Rin. But I got so busy in middle school that I didn’t have time.
I followed the path into the hills, and soon enough I could hear the river’s flow.
“Here we go.”
I found myself a place with a bunch of rocks overlooking a spot where the river, glistening in the sunlight, widened. Seems like the fishing’ll be good here. I decided to get started looking for bait and lifted up a rock on the shore looking for bugs. There was nothing wrong with worms, either, but I preferred bugs. Or more, I figured the fish did. Now that I think back on it, Rin hated having to do this.
“So, what are we using for bait?”
“Huh? Oh, these.”
“Eeek!”
“Jeez, quiet down.”
“But that’s a, a b-b-bug!”
“Yep.”
“I can’t believe you. You Japanese are so weird.”
“Huh? Don’t the Chinese eat fried centipedes?”
“Only people, like, out in the middle of nowhere! Who on earth would eat that if they didn’t have to?!”
“Oh really.”
“Yeah really!”
“But isn’t the saying that the Chinese will eat anything with legs except for a chair?”
“Why do you think that?!”
“Oh, sorry. I guess chairs too.”
“.........”
She punched me then. Not just a slap, a full-on punch. Chinese people are scary. But she still kept coming fishing with me. I miss those days. I kept up my hunt as I reflected, and soon enough, I had all the bait I’d need.
“All right, that should be enough.”
I perched atop the largest rock, and setting a bug on my hook, cast it into the water. All there was now was to wait for a bite.
This is so relaxing... Fishing is great. Out away from all the worries in the world, at a quiet place in the hills. Just a peaceful spot where the sounds of the wind and water gave you room to set your mind free. That’s what fishing meant to me. It’s nice to catch fish, I used to get really excited about the idea, but now it was more just a bonus. You know, I should let out everything I can’t say normally.
“Going to IS Academy is a real pain in the ass...”
It was okay. No one was around to hear me.
“What, don’t you like being around all those girls?”
My heart skipped a beat and I turned to look for the source of the voice.
“Whoa?! What are you doing here, Hikaruno?”
“I don’t have anything else to do. My specialty is IS software.” Hikaruno hopped up on top of the rock and sat down next to me. Her breasts bounced up and down as she did, and I turned so as not to stare. “Gimme some bait?”
“Here you go. I’m using bugs, though.”
“That’s fine, I like those better anyway. But it’s good to have dough balls or berries around for if you run into any girls.”
She snapped up a bug, and set it on her own hook. Yeah, if I did that, Rin wouldn’t have hit me. That makes sense, though. Hikaruno’s pole, like mine, was bamboo. It was about the same length, and our lines drooped into the water side-by-side.
“Anyway, Orimura Ichika. How much do you know about IS software?”
“Me? Um... It’s set up on the core, and uses the ‘unlimited circuit’ to self-evolve. It has its own tendencies and preferences.”
“Yeah. That’s a good answer. But, you know, there’s one other feature of the unlimited circuit. It operates at hypervisor level on the core network. So when it gets out onto standard networks, it’s extremely good for hacking.”
“I see.”
“Question, then. What’s the core network?”
“Um... A virtual world protocol designed to connect IS during their intended use of space exploration?”
“Pretty much. I see you’ve done your homework. That’s too bad, I like bad boys.”
“...Why?”
“Anyway, did you know that it also has a data backup capability over the core network?”
“Huh?”
“Looks like you didn’t. Like, for example. Your own Byakushiki inherited the one-off ability of Orimura Chifuyu’s Kurezakura, as well as some of the capabilities of the first Infinite Stratos, Shirokishi.”
“Right...”
I glanced over at Hikaruno, and saw her grinning again. This time was different than before, though. It was like a predator’s, about to strike.
“Looks like you’ve got a bite, Ichika.”
“Ah!” My grip tensed around my rod. A fat fish flopped out of the water at the end of my line.
“That’s a big one.”
“Thanks.”
It had been a long time, but the feeling of a good catch was still exhilarating. I put it into my basket, and set another bug on my hook, then cast again.
“Anyway, really. The most fun I have at work is convincing an IS to do something it doesn’t want to.”
“Convincing?”
“Yeah. Like, training an IS that hates ranged weapons how to shoot. It’s almost like convincing them. Like breaking a horse in,” Hikaruno said as she hauled in her line. “Aww, it got away.”
“Was it a big one?”
“Nah, it felt pretty small.”
Sighing, she reset her bait and cast again. Never mind the size of the fish, the size of her boobs was at least comparable to Ms. Yamada’s. I nervously swallowed. Ugh, no, I can’t— I swiftly looked away.
“Ahahahaha.” I could hear Hikaruno’s laugh from beside me.
◇
“Phew. I don’t feel like doing anything today.”
Ling walked through the halls with her arms crossed behind her head, a juice box dangling from her mouth by its straw.
“Hahaha. Is it because Ichika isn’t here?”
Prodding her from the side was Charlotte. Ling almost dropped her juice as she sputtered out a response.
“What?! No way! Hmph! Who cares if he’s hanging around, anyway!”
“Yeah, yeah.”
They didn’t spend very much time together, but today, there was a joint lecture and they’d been assigned to put away the materials. Stopping along the way to buy a juice was definitely Ling’s idea.
“I feel almost naked without having my IS. It’s in personal lock mode, so it can’t be stolen and couldn’t be used if it was, but still.”
Ling looked at Shenlong, in standby on her arm. Normally, it took the form of a ring bracelet, but in personal lock it was a thin band, like a temporary tattoo at first glance.
“The problem is how long it would take to get ready in an emergency.”
“I know, but we’re stuck with it. It’s like disassembling a gun for storage.”
“Mmm. I guess our training will be enough to keep ourselves safe while it lasts. It’s not like we can’t use them anyway, it’ll just take a little bit longer.”
“Yeah. And that’s why they have us on the buddy system, too.”
“The only one left on her own here is Tatenashi, right?”
“Yeah. And Ichika. I think we’ll be fine, though.”
“...I still wish he’d hurry up and get back.” Ling covered her mouth as she realized she’d said that out loud. But Charlotte just smiled, pretending she hadn’t heard it. “I-I didn’t mean it that way! Just, he hasn’t had military training or anything, so...”
“Yeah. You’re worried about him, aren’t you?”
“Wait, no, that’s not—”
Ling was halfway through a panicked response when the lights went out. Not just in the hallway. The classrooms and signage were dark too. Only the midday sun shining through the windows pierced the darkness. Just as they realized what was happening—
“Wait, why are the defensive shutters closing?!”
Armor plate slid shut diagonally over the windows, and as they sealed shut, the inside of the school descended into a haze of darkness and panicked exclamations.
“One, two... Charlotte.”
“Yeah. I know. We haven’t switched over to generators, and the emergency lights haven’t come on. Something’s wrong.”
They each started up their IS in low-power mode, and opened a status window, simultaneously switching into night-vision mode driven by sonar, thermal sensors, gravitational sensors, and radar.
“Hey, it’s Laura. Charlotte, are you okay?”
“Where are you, Ling?”
Laura and Cecilia’s voices came over private channels. As Ling and Cecilia replied, another voice broke in, “All cadets, report to the basement operations room. I’m marking it on your maps. If any shutters block your path, you’re authorized to destroy them.”
It was Chifuyu’s voice, quiet but forceful. They could tell that another battle was about to unfold at IS Academy.
Chapter II: Brynhildr
“Let me explain the situation.”
The scene was the operations room in the hidden complex below IS Academy. Originally, it was meant to be kept a secret from the students, with no exceptions made—but now, every student with their own IS was there. Houki, Cecilia, Ling, Charlotte, Laura, Kanzashi, and Tatenashi stood in a line. Before them were Chifuyu and Maya. The operations room must have had its own independent power supply, as its displays were still lit up. But rather than modern holo-projection displays, they were older screens.
“You know, I’m surprised there’s this kind of thing down here.”
“Yes. It’s truly a shock.”
Ling and Cecilia whispered to each other as they looked around the room, but they weren’t able to avoid Chifuyu’s notice for even a moment.
“Huang! Alcott! Quiet down, we’re trying to brief you!”
“Yes, Ma’am!”
“My apologies!”
Chifuyu’s shout cut off their whispered conversation, and Maya zoomed in on a portion of the display to begin her briefing, “All IS Academy systems are currently down. We’re under some kind of electronic attack... That is, we’ve determined that it’s a hacking attempt.”
Maya’s voice had a rare hardness. Whatever was going on must have been serious, or students would never have been allowed down here.
“So far, there’s been no harm to students. The armored shutters have been closed as a precaution, but as of now they’ve been unnecessary. Of course, not all of them—some have been left open. So at least people can go pee if they have to.” The joke fell flat. “Any questions about the situation?”
“Yes.” Laura raised her hand. The active-duty pilot was, as usual, the first to take action. “I’d heard IS Academy’s systems were all developed from the ground up.”
“Well...” Maya started as she looked around the room nervously.
Noticing this, Chifuyu answered instead, “That’s not the problem right now. The problem is that it’s happening.”
“What are they after?”
“If we knew, this would be a lot easier.”
That was the end of Laura’s questions. No one else raised their hand, and Maya moved on to explaining their mission, “Shinonono, Alcott, Huang, Dunois, Bodewig. You’re to enter the access room and execute a cyber-dive into the IS core network. Sarashiki Kanzashi, you’re to back them up.”
Maya’s instructions were clear and direct, but were met with only silence from her students.
“Hmm? What’s wrong?” Maya was nonplussed by the shocked reaction of everyone but Tatenashi.
“Cyber-dive?!”
“Yes. You remember how, in class, we covered how it was theoretically possible for an IS pilot to virtually enter cyberspace by means of their neural bypass? That wasn’t just a theory. Doing so is banned under the terms of the Alaska Treaty, but the current situation falls under the exceptions laid out in Article 4.”
“.........”
Just as what was going on started to overwhelm me, the door behind me opened.
“Boss! What’re you doing?” It was a man that looked to be in his thirties, and when he saw me, he went, “Oh! Orimura, is that you? Orimura Ichika?”
“Yes.”
“Oh, I see! I’m so sorry about that. She’d told me she was going out to meet you, but, ah, as you can see, she’s a bit of a creep.” He was brutally honest. I’ll give him that.
“Shut your mouth before he smells the Fixodent, gramps,” she retorted as she flung her harpoon. Whoa! What kind of nutjob was I dealing with?! “Anyway, you little cutie. Why don’t you come to my room and we have some fun?”
“Uh... What kind of fun?”
Watching her boobs jiggle was captivating enough that I was having a hard time arguing.
“Well, we could play Old Maid.”
“Isn’t that kinda boring with just two people?”
“Yeah, I guess it would be. So why don’t we just fuck instead?”
“.........” The man and I had matching stares of disapproval.
“Tch. My shower’s the perfect size for two, so why does it have to be illegal?!” She pursed her lips as she crossed her arms behind her head.
I wasn’t quite sure what to say, but his whisper cut through my confusion, “I’m terribly sorry about all of this. Will you come inside? I’ll get you a drink.”
With another apology, he led me inside. The walls were painted a bright white. So was the ceiling. And the lights were, you guessed it, shining pale fluorescents. Are they that proud of making Byakushiki...? Nahhhhh.
Splish, splash, sploosh. The damp squishing sounds as she walked behind me made me feel kind of like I was in a horror movie.
“C’mon, boss! Dry off before you come in!”
“Mwahahaha, it’s no big deal.”
“I’m going to have to mop up!”
“I guess you are. Okay, I’ll stay out here until I’m dry.”
“That’s going to take forever!”
“Ahahaha.”
Dealing with her every day must be exhausting.
“Anyway, uh. See you later, I guess,” I muttered.
“Sure thing, sweetcakes. I’m looking forward to it.” As the ‘boss’ waved goodbye, I set off down the hallway.
◇
“Ufufu. He really is Orimura’s little brother, isn’t he.”
The woman smiled to herself after Ichika’s departure. Her fangy grin was enough to give anyone watching goosebumps.
“Boss! Hurry up and dry yourself off!”
“Sure, sure. Sorry.” She traded her harpoon and fish for a towel, and scrubbed her hair dry. “I can’t wait to see what kind of data I get out of you, Orimura Ichika.”
The boss’s subtle grin peeked out from under the towel as she dried herself off.
◇
Hmm... I’d spent around half an hour waiting in the room I was led to. I had just gotten sick of the wait and stood up to do some pushups when the woman from before walked into the room.
“Sorry about that! I didn’t keep you waiting too long, did I?”
“Ah, it wasn’t that bad.”
“.........”
“......?”
She puffed out her cheeks, as if irritated with my response, and said, “Boy, when a lady asks whether she’s kept you waiting, you tell her you didn’t even notice.”
“Ahh... Okay...”
“If you don’t have any grace, you’re never going to catch a girl.”
“I-I see...”
“But don’t worry. I’ll always be here for you.”
I, uh. I should probably just pretend she didn’t actually say that.
“Anyway, let’s get started!” She was wearing a lab coat over her IS suit. On her feet were fuzzy cat’s-paw slippers. And her goggles were pushed up, so I could finally see her eyes. “Let me introduce myself. I’m Kagaribi Hikaruno, chief engineer of the second Kuramochi Engineering Laboratory, and a classmate of your sister.”
A smile rose to her feline eyes. But the fangs protruding from her grin were definitely canines.
“My sister... You mean Chifuyu?”
“Yep.”
She snapped the elastic band of her goggles as she pushed them up to the top of her head, making them look almost like a hairband. Wait, I have better things to think about!
“By classmate, you mean in high school?”
“Yep.”
“So you’re a friend of Tabane’s too?”
“Nooo, no no no.” She turned aside. “A ‘friend’ is someone you can approach on an equal footing. And no one out there is quite on their level. What Orimura Chifuyu can be to Shinonono Tabane, and what Shinonono Tabane can be to Orimura Chifuyu, is something no one else can come close to.”
She waved her finger as she spoke and continued, “Someone like me can’t even come close. So I can’t say they’re my friends. Classmates, yes. But just classmates.”
Changing the topic, she opened up a projection display and brought forth an IS maintenance machine. Its six arms grasped at me.
“Open up Byakushiki for me. I’m going to get started on repair, optimization, and data collection.”
“Okay.”
I focused and called forth Byakushiki. My body shined before being enveloped in pure white armor.
“Sorry about this summer. It’s just... I had so much to take care of that I couldn’t make it to IS Academy. No sooner did I take care of one mess, another one popped up. I was in such a pickle.”
“......?”
“Man, it sucks getting old...”
I didn’t really understand what she meant, but I couldn’t argue. Hikaruno sighed and looked back at her display.
“Hmm, hmm. That’s some pretty serious damage. Why don’t you step out of Byakushiki and I’ll send it to the techs?”
“Uhh... How long is it going to take?”
“Hm? It should be ready by tomorrow. We’ll just have to pull an all-nighter, it’ll be easy.” That didn’t sound all that easy. “Anyway, let me introduce you to the staff of Kuramochi Engineering!”
A door slid open, and a line of men and women rushed in. They were of varying ages, but it seemed like they were all Japanese.
“Why don’t you go fishing or something to pass the time? They’re biting in the river nearby.” She handed me a bamboo rod. It had no lure attached, just a line dangling from the end. “You’ll have to find your own bait, though.”
“Ooookay. I’ll go do that, then.”
“Have fun!” Hikaruno saw me off with a wave as I left the lab.
◇
“Fishing, huh.”
I hadn’t done that in forever. It used to be a hobby of mine in elementary school, though. First with Chifuyu, then with Houki, then with Rin. But I got so busy in middle school that I didn’t have time.
I followed the path into the hills, and soon enough I could hear the river’s flow.
“Here we go.”
I found myself a place with a bunch of rocks overlooking a spot where the river, glistening in the sunlight, widened. Seems like the fishing’ll be good here. I decided to get started looking for bait and lifted up a rock on the shore looking for bugs. There was nothing wrong with worms, either, but I preferred bugs. Or more, I figured the fish did. Now that I think back on it, Rin hated having to do this.
“So, what are we using for bait?”
“Huh? Oh, these.”
“Eeek!”
“Jeez, quiet down.”
“But that’s a, a b-b-bug!”
“Yep.”
“I can’t believe you. You Japanese are so weird.”
“Huh? Don’t the Chinese eat fried centipedes?”
“Only people, like, out in the middle of nowhere! Who on earth would eat that if they didn’t have to?!”
“Oh really.”
“Yeah really!”
“But isn’t the saying that the Chinese will eat anything with legs except for a chair?”
“Why do you think that?!”
“Oh, sorry. I guess chairs too.”
“.........”
She punched me then. Not just a slap, a full-on punch. Chinese people are scary. But she still kept coming fishing with me. I miss those days. I kept up my hunt as I reflected, and soon enough, I had all the bait I’d need.
“All right, that should be enough.”
I perched atop the largest rock, and setting a bug on my hook, cast it into the water. All there was now was to wait for a bite.
This is so relaxing... Fishing is great. Out away from all the worries in the world, at a quiet place in the hills. Just a peaceful spot where the sounds of the wind and water gave you room to set your mind free. That’s what fishing meant to me. It’s nice to catch fish, I used to get really excited about the idea, but now it was more just a bonus. You know, I should let out everything I can’t say normally.
“Going to IS Academy is a real pain in the ass...”
It was okay. No one was around to hear me.
“What, don’t you like being around all those girls?”
My heart skipped a beat and I turned to look for the source of the voice.
“Whoa?! What are you doing here, Hikaruno?”
“I don’t have anything else to do. My specialty is IS software.” Hikaruno hopped up on top of the rock and sat down next to me. Her breasts bounced up and down as she did, and I turned so as not to stare. “Gimme some bait?”
“Here you go. I’m using bugs, though.”
“That’s fine, I like those better anyway. But it’s good to have dough balls or berries around for if you run into any girls.”
She snapped up a bug, and set it on her own hook. Yeah, if I did that, Rin wouldn’t have hit me. That makes sense, though. Hikaruno’s pole, like mine, was bamboo. It was about the same length, and our lines drooped into the water side-by-side.
“Anyway, Orimura Ichika. How much do you know about IS software?”
“Me? Um... It’s set up on the core, and uses the ‘unlimited circuit’ to self-evolve. It has its own tendencies and preferences.”
“Yeah. That’s a good answer. But, you know, there’s one other feature of the unlimited circuit. It operates at hypervisor level on the core network. So when it gets out onto standard networks, it’s extremely good for hacking.”
“I see.”
“Question, then. What’s the core network?”
“Um... A virtual world protocol designed to connect IS during their intended use of space exploration?”
“Pretty much. I see you’ve done your homework. That’s too bad, I like bad boys.”
“...Why?”
“Anyway, did you know that it also has a data backup capability over the core network?”
“Huh?”
“Looks like you didn’t. Like, for example. Your own Byakushiki inherited the one-off ability of Orimura Chifuyu’s Kurezakura, as well as some of the capabilities of the first Infinite Stratos, Shirokishi.”
“Right...”
I glanced over at Hikaruno, and saw her grinning again. This time was different than before, though. It was like a predator’s, about to strike.
“Looks like you’ve got a bite, Ichika.”
“Ah!” My grip tensed around my rod. A fat fish flopped out of the water at the end of my line.
“That’s a big one.”
“Thanks.”
It had been a long time, but the feeling of a good catch was still exhilarating. I put it into my basket, and set another bug on my hook, then cast again.
“Anyway, really. The most fun I have at work is convincing an IS to do something it doesn’t want to.”
“Convincing?”
“Yeah. Like, training an IS that hates ranged weapons how to shoot. It’s almost like convincing them. Like breaking a horse in,” Hikaruno said as she hauled in her line. “Aww, it got away.”
“Was it a big one?”
“Nah, it felt pretty small.”
Sighing, she reset her bait and cast again. Never mind the size of the fish, the size of her boobs was at least comparable to Ms. Yamada’s. I nervously swallowed. Ugh, no, I can’t— I swiftly looked away.
“Ahahahaha.” I could hear Hikaruno’s laugh from beside me.
◇
“Phew. I don’t feel like doing anything today.”
Ling walked through the halls with her arms crossed behind her head, a juice box dangling from her mouth by its straw.
“Hahaha. Is it because Ichika isn’t here?”
Prodding her from the side was Charlotte. Ling almost dropped her juice as she sputtered out a response.
“What?! No way! Hmph! Who cares if he’s hanging around, anyway!”
“Yeah, yeah.”
They didn’t spend very much time together, but today, there was a joint lecture and they’d been assigned to put away the materials. Stopping along the way to buy a juice was definitely Ling’s idea.
“I feel almost naked without having my IS. It’s in personal lock mode, so it can’t be stolen and couldn’t be used if it was, but still.”
Ling looked at Shenlong, in standby on her arm. Normally, it took the form of a ring bracelet, but in personal lock it was a thin band, like a temporary tattoo at first glance.
“The problem is how long it would take to get ready in an emergency.”
“I know, but we’re stuck with it. It’s like disassembling a gun for storage.”
“Mmm. I guess our training will be enough to keep ourselves safe while it lasts. It’s not like we can’t use them anyway, it’ll just take a little bit longer.”
“Yeah. And that’s why they have us on the buddy system, too.”
“The only one left on her own here is Tatenashi, right?”
“Yeah. And Ichika. I think we’ll be fine, though.”
“...I still wish he’d hurry up and get back.” Ling covered her mouth as she realized she’d said that out loud. But Charlotte just smiled, pretending she hadn’t heard it. “I-I didn’t mean it that way! Just, he hasn’t had military training or anything, so...”
“Yeah. You’re worried about him, aren’t you?”
“Wait, no, that’s not—”
Ling was halfway through a panicked response when the lights went out. Not just in the hallway. The classrooms and signage were dark too. Only the midday sun shining through the windows pierced the darkness. Just as they realized what was happening—
“Wait, why are the defensive shutters closing?!”
Armor plate slid shut diagonally over the windows, and as they sealed shut, the inside of the school descended into a haze of darkness and panicked exclamations.
“One, two... Charlotte.”
“Yeah. I know. We haven’t switched over to generators, and the emergency lights haven’t come on. Something’s wrong.”
They each started up their IS in low-power mode, and opened a status window, simultaneously switching into night-vision mode driven by sonar, thermal sensors, gravitational sensors, and radar.
“Hey, it’s Laura. Charlotte, are you okay?”
“Where are you, Ling?”
Laura and Cecilia’s voices came over private channels. As Ling and Cecilia replied, another voice broke in, “All cadets, report to the basement operations room. I’m marking it on your maps. If any shutters block your path, you’re authorized to destroy them.”
It was Chifuyu’s voice, quiet but forceful. They could tell that another battle was about to unfold at IS Academy.
Chapter II: Brynhildr
“Let me explain the situation.”
The scene was the operations room in the hidden complex below IS Academy. Originally, it was meant to be kept a secret from the students, with no exceptions made—but now, every student with their own IS was there. Houki, Cecilia, Ling, Charlotte, Laura, Kanzashi, and Tatenashi stood in a line. Before them were Chifuyu and Maya. The operations room must have had its own independent power supply, as its displays were still lit up. But rather than modern holo-projection displays, they were older screens.
“You know, I’m surprised there’s this kind of thing down here.”
“Yes. It’s truly a shock.”
Ling and Cecilia whispered to each other as they looked around the room, but they weren’t able to avoid Chifuyu’s notice for even a moment.
“Huang! Alcott! Quiet down, we’re trying to brief you!”
“Yes, Ma’am!”
“My apologies!”
Chifuyu’s shout cut off their whispered conversation, and Maya zoomed in on a portion of the display to begin her briefing, “All IS Academy systems are currently down. We’re under some kind of electronic attack... That is, we’ve determined that it’s a hacking attempt.”
Maya’s voice had a rare hardness. Whatever was going on must have been serious, or students would never have been allowed down here.
“So far, there’s been no harm to students. The armored shutters have been closed as a precaution, but as of now they’ve been unnecessary. Of course, not all of them—some have been left open. So at least people can go pee if they have to.” The joke fell flat. “Any questions about the situation?”
“Yes.” Laura raised her hand. The active-duty pilot was, as usual, the first to take action. “I’d heard IS Academy’s systems were all developed from the ground up.”
“Well...” Maya started as she looked around the room nervously.
Noticing this, Chifuyu answered instead, “That’s not the problem right now. The problem is that it’s happening.”
“What are they after?”
“If we knew, this would be a lot easier.”
That was the end of Laura’s questions. No one else raised their hand, and Maya moved on to explaining their mission, “Shinonono, Alcott, Huang, Dunois, Bodewig. You’re to enter the access room and execute a cyber-dive into the IS core network. Sarashiki Kanzashi, you’re to back them up.”
Maya’s instructions were clear and direct, but were met with only silence from her students.
“Hmm? What’s wrong?” Maya was nonplussed by the shocked reaction of everyone but Tatenashi.
“Cyber-dive?!”
“Yes. You remember how, in class, we covered how it was theoretically possible for an IS pilot to virtually enter cyberspace by means of their neural bypass? That wasn’t just a theory. Doing so is banned under the terms of the Alaska Treaty, but the current situation falls under the exceptions laid out in Article 4.”
