Infinite Stratos: Volume 10, page 5
“.........” He hung in the air for a moment, and then, his eyes snapped open, shining with a golden light.
“What are you?!” No answer left Ichika’s mouth. No conscious thought. Only pure, automatic resistance.
Then, raggedly, his dented and gouged armor began to slough off. Ichika, no, Byakushiki was shedding its armor like a snake would shed its skin. And beneath was—
“Shirokishi?! Impossible! Your data was supposed to be completely—”
Before Madoka could even finish her sentence, Shirokishi sprang into action. A kick as fast, no, even faster than an Ignition Boost sent Madoka’s back slamming into the tree behind her.
“You’re—” A flash of light blinked by Madoka’s face, shortly followed by an energy explosion. “Did he lose control of his IS?! Or no, wait, is it echoes of Chifuyu—”
Madoka’s bewilderment was interrupted by Ichika, no, the IS Shirokishi continuing its attacks. On paper, the Kurokishi still should have had the advantage, but something deep, deep within Shirokishi was giving it power.
“Dammit! I won’t give up! Not ever!” Madoka wouldn’t back down. That was the destiny of those named Orimura. Their raison d’etre. And they’d let absolutely no one take it away from them. “Feel the might of Kurokishi!”
Once again, two forms clashed before the raging flames.
◇
“Oh where, oh where could you plebes be hiding?”
Bystanders scrambled for cover as a sudden IS battle broke out among the world-famous sightseeing spots of Kyoto’s old city. It just went to show how ineffective evacuation plans, public and private alike, could be.
“We’ve got you now, Daryl Casey! No, Rain Meusel!” Ling leapt out from between two buildings, her impact cannons already firing. But they still couldn’t pierce the Aegis.
“What kind of half-assed plan is that?!”
“Ugh! Cecilia, cover me!” As Rain went on the attack, Ling switched to the defensive.
Meanwhile, Cecilia’s bits aimed for the gaps opening in the Aegis.
“We can—”
“Not happening!” Forte’s wall of ice may not have been as strong as the Aegis barrier itself, but they were still quite the threat. Each time a beam pierced through one, it shattered into icicles which came flying back.
“Ling! Let’s fall back!”
“No! We can’t leave Houki behind!”
Houki still hadn’t recovered from the damage she’d taken, and they needed to protect her. That bond gave them strength—and also, now, a weakness.
“Let’s finish this!” An orb of flame swelled from Rain’s right hand. Just like in Squall’s fight with Tatenashi.
“Rain. Forte. Get over to the fight with Ichika. You’ve gotta see this,” Squall suddenly broadcast on an open channel.
Ling and the others heard it too.
“What did you do to Ichika?!”
“Excuuuuse me. I didn’t do anything at all. It’s all him.”
“What?!”
“Oh my, it’s getting pretty stormy over here. I’m going to have to hang up. Ta-ta!” Squall cut the connection.
“Hey, wait! ...Ugh, dammit!” Ling’s angry shouts fell upon deaf ears.
“So, what are you plebes gonna do?”
“We’re going, of course! You’d better not get in our way!”
“Wouldn’t dream of it. See you later, I guess.” Rain shot the ball of flame up like a firework, blinding the first years. When their vision returned, she and Forte were gone.
“What the hell was that?!” Houki had finally recovered, and caught up with Ling as she raged impotently.
“Houki, are you okay?”
“I’ll be fine. We need to catch up with Ichika.”
“Understood! Flank speed ahead!” Ling nodded, and the three sped off.
◇
Meanwhile, in battle with the Kurokishi—
Madoka’s Kurokishi had held the advantage at first, but unleashed from human restraint, the Shirokishi fought it blow for blow.
“Ahahahaha! This is just like fighting an AI! You’re nothing more than her ghost!”
The Kurokishi raised its buster sword Fenrir Blow to full power as it transformed into a sword-whip. At the same time, its lancer bits closed in, encircling Shirokishi.
“I’ll chop you to pieces!”
The energy blades of Fenrir Blow began to saw at Shirokishi’s armor. But just as even its emergency life support energy was about to run out, Shirokishi caught the blade in its hands.
“What?!” Madoka couldn’t hide her shock as Shirokishi began to speak.
[You have no right to such power.]
Shirokishi’s words pierced Madoka’s heart.
[You are a failure. Why? Because you were made too strong.]
Words someone had left behind in its memory.
“Shut up... Shut up, shut up! I’m... I’m an Orimura! The perfect Orimura Madoka!”
Madoka leapt for Shirokishi’s head, trying to twist it off. But Shirokishi—or Ichika, or both—caught her by her neck. Before she could even retaliate, it pressed her into the ground and slammed into her with a full-force Ignition Boost.
“Ugh!”
She coughed up blood as her back was ground into the earth. Still, the Shirokishi kept going.
[Those with no right to power need no power.]
The words came from Ichika’s mouth, but mechanically. Again, she felt them stab into her heart.
[Still a D aptitude. Chifuyu was an A at the same age.]
[Even the procedure to artificially raise your aptitude was a failure. And why?]
[It’s because you’re unloved. No one loves you. Not a single person. All you have is bottomless hatred. You have no future. No hope. Only despair. So...]
No, that was why!
“I am strong!”
Madoka slipped from Shirokishi’s grasp, and slammed her knees into the armor covering its torso, mindlessly kicking over and over like a child who knew no other way to fight back.
Whether Madoka’s half-prayer, half-curse had been heard, or whether it simply felt its armor beginning to give way, Shirokishi released her.
“Dieeeeeeeeeeee!”
Madoka switched her lancer bits into one-hand melee mode, and plunged them toward Shirokishi’s forehead. But her hope was in vain.
Shirokishi lopped off the tips of the bits, before plunging its blade down toward her.
“Ah...!”
As her breastplate was cleaved open, a locket fell out. Inside was a single picture of Orimura Chifuyu. My... My only connection! She couldn’t let it go. She couldn’t lose it. Without it, she was nothing. “......!” Somehow, she managed to snatch it out of the air. But at the same time, she left an opening for Shirokishi to attack again.
“It’s about time, M.”
Squall, in her IS Golden Dawn, plunged down from her vantage point in the heavens above. Shirokishi noticed her entrance almost immediately, but a wall of flames blocked it from closing in.
“Impressive. I think I’m becoming a fan of this package.” Her right arm was wrapped around her lover Autumn. It seems like she’d been able to get away from Allie. “Goodbye for now, Orimura Ichika. I can’t wait to see you again.”
“Let me go, Squall! I— I need to—”
“Children are far more pleasant when they do as they’re told. You don’t want to be punished, do you?” Latching an arm around Madoka, Squall was gone into the far-off skies with an Ignition Boost and her new package’s thrusters.
And all that remained was only Shirokishi in Ichika’s body.
[Here they come...] He, or it, spoke to anyone, or no one. And as if summoned by the words, Houki, Ling, and Cecilia appeared.
“What’s going on? What happened to Byakushiki? What happened to Ichika?!” Ling half-shouted and half-screamed.
[Those with a right to such power...] Shirokishi leveled its blade at Houki. [Battle me...]
A harrowing clash was about to unfold.
Chapter IV: Girls On High! Spread Your Wings
“Ms. Yamada! Wake up! Ms. Yamada!” Tatenashi had been caring for Ms. Yamada at the ryokan following her collapse.
“Ugh, where am I? I remember, Squall Meusel was there, and then...”
“You shouldn’t try fighting an IS on foot. You’re not Ms. Orimura.” Seeing the alarm on Maya’s face, Tatenashi tried to calm her.
“Anyway, I met with our contact, and took delivery.” Tatenashi passed a brooch to Maya. “Show me why they used to call you ‘Killing Shield.’”
“Ahahahah, can’t you just forget about that?” Maya adjusted her glasses, and then spoke with a serious face. “Anyway, let’s hurry.”
“To the battlefield?”
“Yes.”
Tatenashi nodded while wrapping an arm around Maya, and opened her IS Mysterious Lady.
“Let’s go!”
They flew to Shirokishi.
◇
“Wake up, Ichika!” Ling and the others were trying their hardest to get through to Ichika as they dodged Shirokishi’s attacks. But there were no signs of his awakening, only fiercer and fiercer attacks.
“What do we do? Our shield energy won’t hold out much longer!”
“I was rather hoping your Kenran Butou would help with that!”
“But...!” She’d never been able to use it for anyone but Ichika’s sake, and in this situation... Still, not wanting to admit that, she took point. “But! I won’t let you just grind us down! If you won’t wake up, we’ll beat some sense into you!”
Houki sprang to the attack, her Karaware clashing against Shirokishi’s Yukihira Nigata.
“Now I understand why Forte betrayed us!”
For the sake of the one she loved, she’d give up anything. Make any sacrifice. Even risk her life.
“I don’t care what it takes! I’ll save you, Ichika!” Shouting, she slapped Shirokishi’s blade away, but it raised its left arm and let loose a particle burst. The blast of energy scorched across Houki’s torso.
“Gah!” As Houki stumbled, it followed up its attack, only to be repelled by a precise shot from Blue Tears.
“If it’s for Ichika’s sake, I’m in too!”
“Same here. I won’t give up either!”
With Cecilia and Ling on the front lines too, the battle heated up. But the memories of a Brynhildr contained within Shirokishi were more than enough to handle a three-on-one fight.
“I will not lose! My feelings for Ichika mean more than that!” Cecilia thought back to the first time they’d met.
Maybe she’d fallen for him then? But there was no way she could have admitted it to herself that soon. It was only fighting alongside him, knowing each other’s weaknesses, that she first discovered love.
“You’re ten thousand years too soon to take Ichika away from me!” Cecilia yelled as her bits focused their fire. At the same time, Ling opened up with her impact cannon.
“Hey, quit trying to take Ichika for yourself!”
Ling’s feelings were just as strong. She remembered back to elementary school, when Japan was a strange and foreign place, and she had to act tough to hide her fear. Ichika was the only one who understood why she acted like she did. Whenever it was too much for her, whenever she felt alone, he was by her side. And somewhere, deep inside, Ichika was fighting alone against whatever had overcome him. She had to reach out to him. Just like he did for her. This time, it was Ling’s turn. The flames of her first love, still smoldering in her heart, demanded nothing less.
“I won’t let some half-forgotten memory of Chifuyu’s have my Ichika!” Ling slammed Souten Gagetsu together and flung it at Shirokishi, which wavered as it took the blow. As it did, a burst of shotgun fire followed up.
“Charlotte!”
Charlotte had recovered from her beating at Tabane’s hands, and she, Laura, and Kanzashi immediately joined the fight.
“Hey, I was listening in on the open channel, so I think I know what’s going on. We’re all here to tell Ichika how we really feel, right?”
“It’s my turn, then!”
“I won’t get left out this time!”
Their hearts beating wildly, the three joined the fight.
“Me first!” Charlotte flew out ahead of the group. “Wake up, Ichika!”
Purging her shield, she brought forth her Grey Scale Pile Bunker. The others almost shouted out ‘Wait, isn’t that going too far?’
“This’ll do it!”
From the moment they’d met, Ichika had set her free. He’d told her she always had a place alongside him. And that was the place in life she wanted. She knew what her heart longed for. And now, she wanted to say it. Wanted him to hear.
“Turn back into the Ichika I love!” Her pile bunker pierced the armor on his left arm. With the Setsura weapons pack knocked out of action, Laura followed up, stabbing with her plasma daggers.
“You promised me you’d protect me, Ichika!”
Her love for Ichika, growing from their star-crossed first encounter, was as strong as her pride. He’d promised to protect her. And now, she was going to protect him. She wanted to be at his side forever.
“Ichika, can you hear me?!”
“It’s ‘us,’ Laura!” A salvo from the Yama-arashi missile pods closed in on Shirokishi. Just as they were about to detonate, Charlotte, Laura, Houki and the others all opened fire. “Give me back my Ichika!”
Kanzashi had always lived in Tatenashi’s shadow. It was only Ichika who brought her out into the light. Yes, to her, he was light. Sometimes dazzling, sometimes warming, always direct. And she wanted to be bathed in that light. Never to lose it again. So that she could be herself.
“Sorry to keep you waiting!” The group was shocked by Ms. Yamada’s sudden arrival in Tatenashi’s arms.
“What are you doing here, Ms. Yamada?!”
“Stand up! Hurry! It’s showtime!” Her body was enveloped by the glow of an opening IS—one none of them had ever seen.
“Is this your IS, Ms. Yamada?”
“It sure is. I call it the Rafale Revive Special, ‘The Show Must Go On!’”
Gasps arose.
“Now show them what you could do as a cadet!”
“I’d really rather that this never came up again, but...” Reticence or no, four gigantic shield wings swept back from Ms. Yamada. “Here goes! Shattered Sky!”
Like a hawk spreading its wings, the bottom faces of the shields swiveled forward, then shot out from her IS under wired control.
“I don’t want to hurt any of my students, but—”
To get Ichika back, she’d have to take up arms against Shirokishi. That much was clear. Maya’s shots tore at Shirokishi with unrivaled precision. And the moment it slowed, her four shields pinned it down. “This’ll do it!”
While her shields held Shirokishi in place, Maya leveled a submachine gun in each hand, and squeezed the triggers.
Rat-a-tat-a-tat! The roar of her guns echoed across the battlefield. Bullets ricocheting inside its shields, Shirokishi’s armor was torn to shreds by the hail of fire.
“Whoa!”
“Ms. Yamada, that’s overkill...”
With its shields spent and its armor torn away from the inside, the Shirokishi fell to earth.
“Ah—!”
No, not the Shirokishi anymore. Its armor, its form, were back to that of Byakushiki.
“ICHIKA!” the girls shouted out as he was plucked from the air just before crashing down.
“Phew...” No one was quite sure who gasped in relief. Ichika’s loss of control, and the girls’ confessions, were over.
◇
“Where am I?”
When I opened my eyes, I was under a blanket in a Japanese-style room. I couldn’t remember what happened. I didn’t know why I was there.
“......!” As I tried to get up, my body ached. Looking down at myself, I saw that I was wrapped in bandages. “Oww... What’s going on?”
“You’re finally awake.”
“Huh?”
Allie was sitting on a sofa nearby.
“Um...”
“I guess this is goodbye.”
“Huh?”
She set down her cat Shiny and stood up, then began speaking, “I, Alicia Giosestaf, resign my Italian commission to join Phantom Task.”
It was so shocking a statement that I didn’t understand what was going on. As I was about to ask why, Shiny walked up to me and licked my face.
“Owww, that hurts! I’m cut there! C’mon, stop— Owwwww!”
“Take good care of Shiny, Ichika.”
“Wait, but why?!”
‘Why?’ That was all I could wonder. I didn’t understand what was happening or why it was happening. All I could do was accept it.
“The reason’s simple. I want my match with Orimura Chifuyu. And if joining Phantom Task is what it takes... So be it.” Having said her piece, Allie leapt from the window. “I hope you get stronger before we meet again!”
She’d entered my life like a storm, and left it like one too. All I could do was stroke Shiny and wonder.
◇
“I’m really sorry!”
Ichika was bowing on the floor of a meeting room at the ryokan, begging for forgiveness. Before him, the girls stood, their arms crossed.
“Even back to normal, you don’t remember?”
“Yes, ma’am...”
“All that, and you don’t remember anything?”
“Yes, ma’am...”
“Ichika, are you an idiot?!”
“Yes, ma’am...”
“Do you really think this is something you can just paper over with an apology?”
“Yes, ma’am...”
“Are you even listening to us?!”
“Yes, ma’am...”
“Ichika, are you feeling okay?”
“Yes, ma’am...”
“Ichika, can you say anything other than ‘yes, ma’am’?”
“Yes, ma’am...”
Angry glares all around.
“Calm down, everyone. It’s over and Ichika’s okay, so we should be smiling, right?”
“You’re too easy on him, Ms. Yamada!”
“Indeed!”
“He needs to be punished!”
