Infinite Stratos, Volume 1, page 5
Every single girl raised her hand.
“Teach, does that mean it’s like a boyfriend for us?”
“U-Um... Yes, I suppose so... I’ve never had one, so I don’t know...”
I suspect that she referred to the “not having a boyfriend” bit. Ms. Yamada was looking away, red-faced. The girls in the class cast her a scornful glance and began to talk about men.
—Truly, this is the essence of an all girls school.
Air-sugar content: 10%. It wasn’t just my class, the whole school felt saccharine. No, it didn’t just feel like it, there was a sweet air. The entire school carried the sweet fragrance particular to girls. The day before had already been enough for me, and the second was beginning to make me sick.
“Mmm...”
“Wh-What is it, Ms. Yamada?”
“O-Oh... N-Nothing. Don’t mind me.”
Ms. Yamada gestured and tried to dodge the question. I could have sworn that she’d been staring at me, but then again, everyone was almost always staring at me.
Ding-dong.
“Ah, yes. In the next period we will cover the basics of aerial movement in an IS.”
At the IS Academy, the homeroom teacher taught all classes except for physical education and special subjects. It made me appreciate the hard work of my old teachers more, who had to go back and forth between classes in the breaks.
“Hey, hey, Orimura!”
“Over here! I’ve got a question!”
“Got time over lunch? Time after school? Time tonight?”
The times of observing me from a distance were, apparently, over. As soon as Ms. Yamada and Chifuyu had left the classroom, about half the girls ran over to me. I could have sworn I heard some exclaim that “a British lady would not be the last one.”
“Don’t ask me all at once...”
I wasn’t sure what to do. I was going to continue, but then I saw the girl holding a numbered ticket, and it had cost her money too. I was being raffled away or something.
“.........”
Houki, my childhood friend, was standing to the side and watching the spectacle. She looked angry, as always, but I decided that didn’t mean much. Life is a learning experience.
—All right, what now?
I was going to ask Houki to teach me something about the IS, but at this rate I’d have to ask her tonight. I barely had time to think that much before the looks of the girls around me began to sting; they wanted answers.
“How is Chifuyu at home?!”
“Um... The place is a big mess because of h—”
Bam!
“Break’s over. Back to your seats.”
When had she come up behind me, and what was with that timing? Was she trying to keep me from leaking personal info? Anyway, I wanted to warn my sister Chifuyu that if she kept hitting me she’d be pigeonholed as the comically violent side character— couldn’t imagine anybody’d want that.
“By the way, Orimura, it will take some time until your IS unit is ready.”
“Huh?”
“We have no spare units, so you’ll have to wait a little. The academy will provide one exclusively to you.”
“......?!”
I was left speechless as the classroom erupted into talking.
“A-An exclusive unit?! To a first-year? So soon already?!”
“That’s only possible with government support...”
“Oh, wow... I’m so jealous... I want my own unit too...”
I didn’t understand. Why were they so jealous? I gave my sister Chifuyu a blank look. She sighed and whispered something to me.
“Textbook, page six. Read that.”
“U-Um... ‘At present, IS technology is being shared with a diverse range of countries and companies, but the manufacturing technique of its core has not been disclosed. There are 467 IS units in the world. All their cores were created by Dr. Shinonono, and their function is a complete mystery— only the doctor is able to manufacture them. However, the doctor refuses to make more than a certain number of cores. These are then distributed to countries, corporations, and organizations to be used in research, development, and training. Transferring cores to others is in violation of article seven of the Alaska Pact and forbidden under all circumstances,’” I recited.
“There you have it; normally, you need to be affiliated with a country’s government or a corporation to have your own IS unit. You’re a special case, so you’ll get your own unit for data collection. Got it?”
“S-Sorta...”
Let’s go over that again:
1.) There were only 467 IS units in the world.
2.) Only Dr. Shinonono can make them, but she’s not making them anymore.
3.) I’m getting special treatment. As a test case, though.
Something like that. It made perfect sense to me. Speaking of IS, Dr. Shinonono was...
“Um, Teach. Is Shinonono Houki related to Dr. Shinonono?” asked one of the girls to Chifuyu.
Well, Shinonono was a rare name; it wasn’t going to be a secret forever.
Shinonono Tabane: a prodigy of the modern age, and sole developer of the IS. She’d been in the same class as Chifuyu, and was also Houki’s sister. I’d met her a number of times before, myself— she was a genius through and through.
“Yes. Shinonono is her sister.”
—Hey, Teach... Maybe keep personal info to yourself!
Besides, Tabane was wanted based on supranational law. She hadn’t committed a crime exactly, but nations and organizations were uneasy that the sole person who understood the complete IS system had vanished. I doubt she cared about that, though. I still remembered how she looked like she was about to “eat” someone; truly, a wolf in sheep’s clothing. Meanwhile, my sister Chifuyu was just a straight up wolf. Wow, I was impressed with myself. What a perfect metaphor.
“Whoa! Th-That’s amazing! Two people in our class have famous relatives!”
“Hey, what’s Dr. Shinonono like? She’s a genius, right?”
“Are you a genius too, Shinonono? Teach me about the IS!”
Class had already begun, but girls were beginning to gather around Houki. It was looking pretty amusing. Obviously, nobody was going to help her.
—Hmm, speaking of which, has Houki ever used an IS?
I’d never seen her pilot one, and it wasn’t like Houki and Tabane got al—
“She’s got nothing to do with me!” Houki yelled.
I blinked, my reverie aborted. I glanced at Houki; the girls around her were just as shocked and confused.
“I’m sorry about that... But I’m not her. I can’t teach you anything.”
Houki turned her head back to the window and looked outside. The girls looked a little shell-shocked and returned to their seats. Has Houki always hated Tabane? I couldn’t recall a time I had ever seen them together, and I was pretty sure the conversation had always ended abruptly when we’d talked about her.
“All right. Time for your lesson. Ms. Yamada, you’re up.”
“O-Okay!”
Ms. Yamada seemed concerned with Houki as well, but she was a professional, and class was starting.
—Guess I’ll ask Houki later...
I opened my textbook.
“I’m relieved. I hoped you would not try to fight me in a training unit.”
—Fascinating, Cecilia.
During the break she had come over to talk to me, hands on her hips. She really liked that pose, not that I cared.
“Well, this has made it a little better, but it still isn’t fair.”
“Why?”
“Oh, you ignorant sheep. All right, I shall teach the rabble: I, Cecilia Alcott, am Britain’s National Cadet. I have, at present already, my own unit!”
“Uh-huh.”
“Are you making fun of me?!”
“Nah, I know it’s amazing. I just have no sense of scale for how amazing it actually is.”
“That’s exactly what making fun of me is!”
Slam! She banged her hands on my table, causing my notes to slide off.
“Ahem— To reiterate our lesson just now: There are 467 IS units in the world. The few people who have their own units are the elite of the elite among the six billion humans alive.”
“R-Really...”
“Yes.”
“We have six billion people in the world?”
“That isn’t the important part!”
Bam! This stupid girl slammed again, causing my textbook to fall off now.
“Enough! Stop making fun of me!”
“But I’m not.”
“Then why is your voice so unimpressed?”
—Goodness. Why, indeed?
“What do you think, Houki?”
She gave me a sharp look. It took her 0.8 seconds to communicate to me that she wanted nothing to do with it.
“Speaking of which, you are Dr. Shinonono’s sister, right?”
Houki stared at Cecilia, who had switched the brunt of her attack to her.
“What if I am?”
—Don’t be too hostile, Houki.
Her stare was so menacing that Cecilia couldn’t help but flinch back. Houki would make for a great gangster, honestly.
“U-Um... I want you to remember that it is I, Cecilia Alcott, who is the most capable of being the class representative!”
She threw her hair over her shoulder, turned around gracefully, and left. Her gestures always seemed very impressive. Maybe she had modeled for a while?
“Houki.”
“.........”
“Shinonono, let’s go eat lunch.”
It was important to cheer up your friends. Houki was looking kind of weird since what had happened earlier, and I couldn’t overlook that.
“Anybody else want to come with us?”
I cast my bait out into the sea.
“Me, me, me!”
“I’ll come! Hold on!”
“I made a lunch box, but I’ll come, too!”
Plenty of fish bit. I wanted us to get along in the class. Houki probably felt the same way.
“I’m fine,” said Houki, offhandedly.
“Come on, don’t be like that. Let’s go have some lunch, shall we?”
“H-Hey. I said I’m not going... Don’t link arms with me!”
Hahaha. She was as predictable as always. Houki was the type of person you had to force into doing something they’d already wanted to do.
“What, you don’t want to walk? Want me to carry you?”
“Wh...!”
Houki turned red. Excellent! Now she was going to come with us whether she wanted to or not.
“L-Let go!”
“Once we’re at the cafeteria, I will.”
“L-Let go now! Nnah!”
Houki squirmed, and suddenly my arm was turned at the elbow. There was a sharp pain, and the next moment I was lying sprawled out on the floor.
“.........”
Ouch! There was a concentrated pain in my back, and the girls around us were staring in shock.
“You’ve gotten a lot better.”
“Hmph. I’d say you’ve gotten weaker— I only learned this on the side.”
She was probably the only girl in all of Japan who learned advanced martial arts “on the side.”
“U-Um...”
“We should...”
“I-I think I’ll stay here and eat...”
The girls I had gathered around us were dispersing like spider babies.
—Stay here, morons. I brought you along for Houki’s sake in the first place.
“.........”
I said goodbye to the floor and patted the dust off my clothes. Houki was turned the other way, as if to tell me that it wasn’t her fault.
“Houki.”
“D-Don’t use my first name. I told you this b—”
“Let’s go eat lunch.”
I took her by the hand and dragged her to the cafeteria.
“H-Hey! Stop this!”
“Just shut up and come with me.”
“Ngh...”
Houki didn’t talk back again, and followed me instead. I wish she’d done that from the beginning. Good grief.
We arrived in the cafeteria. It was super congested, but we managed to find a place where we could eat.
“Houki, you’ll eat anything, right? It doesn’t matter what’s on the table?”
“D-Don’t talk about me like a dog or a cat. I like some things more.”
“Hmm, I bought us two of today’s special from the ticket machine. That’s okay, right? Look, it’s grilled salmon.”
“Are you listening to me?!”
“Nope. Do you know how hard I worked to make that possible earlier? And you ruined it all. What if you can’t make friends now? Don’t you want friends in high school?”
“I-I’m fine... I didn’t ask you to do that!”
“I’m not saying you did—”
“Ah, excuse me. I’ll have two daily specials, please,” I told the lunch lady. “And I just turn these in here, right?”
I awkwardly handed the plastic chips in at the counter with my free hand, as my other was preoccupied with holding Houki down to keep her from running away. Her evasion stat was at least as high as a Cactuar’s.
“Listen, usually I wouldn’t do this even if someone asked me to. I’m doing this because of you, Houki.”
“What do you mean...”
“That’s obvious, right? Your family took care of us and we went to school together. We were friends. Let me do this for you.”
“.........”
Houki frowned and looked at the ceiling. She’d become a bit rebellious after moving with her family. Actually, she’d always been like that; Houki kind of drifted away from others when you didn’t pull her along.
“U-Um... Thank y—”
“Here ya go! Two daily specials,” proclaimed the lunch lady.
“Thanks. Whoa, this looks really good!” I replied.
“It’s not just good, it’s great!” roared the lunch lady, a smile across her face.
“Houki, do you see an empty table?”
“.........”
“Houki?”
I looked at her since she didn’t answer. She looked even angrier than usual.
“Over there.”
She shrugged off my hand, took her meal, and walked away. Why was she so angry again? I followed Houki and we sat down at a table.
“By the way...”
“Yes?”
Houki was eating her soup as she answered. I was attending to my salmon.
“Can you teach me something about the IS? I’m afraid I might lose next week at this rate.”
“It’s your own fault for agreeing to that ridiculous challenge, you idiot.”
—I guess that was true, but come on...
“Please, I’m begging you,” I implored, making a prayer gesture with chopsticks still in hand.
A man couldn’t back down from what he said he’d do. And if he said he was going to win, then win he would.
“.........”
Silence. She was ignoring me, and eating spinach cooked in soy sauce. How fearsome!
“Hey, Houki, I—”
“Hey, are you the one they’re all talking about?” asked a girl from nearby.
I looked at her. Based on the color of her ribbon, she looked to be about two grades higher: first year was blue, second yellow, third red. Her hair was kind of curly and easy to remember. She looked very likable, a bit like a squirrel. The contrast with my reticent childhood friend was startling, and I wasn’t too happy about that. I figured that two years didn’t just make you look more mature.
—See, Houki? That’s the kind of sociability you need.
“Yeah, probably.”
With effortless, natural movements she came and sat down next to me, and continued the conversation.
“Are you really going to battle a National Cadet?”
“Something like that.”
Man, rumors sure spread fast. If there were two things girls loved, it was gossip and bargain sales.
“You’re still new to all of this, right? How much seat time do you even have in an IS?”
“Uhh... Probably about twenty minutes.”
“That’s nowhere near enough. Seat time is really important, you know? And your opponent is a National Cadet? She probably has three hundred hours or more in one.”
I had no idea what kind of piloting time was good or bad, so that meant nothing to me. Either way, it was clear that I was going to lose to Cecilia if I didn’t do something.
“Say, want me to teach you about the IS? Hmm?”
She was edging ever closer to me, yet I still didn’t know her name. Wow. What a nice person. Definitely a lot better than a certain childhood friend of mine. Or, as the saying goes: When one door is shut, you enter through the window.
“Sure, I’ll gl—”
I wanted to say that I would gladly accept, but I was interrupted.
“We’re fine. I will teach him.”
Houki was still eating, but apparently talking again. And, apparently, she was going to teach me about the IS now.
“Aren’t you a first year, too? I would say I’m more experienced than you.”
“My sister is Shinonono Tabane,” said Houki, reluctantly.
She was determined to teach me, it seemed.
“Shinonono... What?!”
The other girl was completely dumbfounded. Well, the sister of the woman who invented the IS was sitting in front of her. Couldn’t blame her.
“As you can see, we will be fine.”
“I-I see... That’s too bad...”
Nothing less of a world-class genius’s... sister. Most people backed down at the mere mention of her name. The very nice older girl left, somewhat disappointed. Her gesture was very much appreciated, though.
“What?”
“Uh... Are you really going to teach me?”
“That’s what I said.”
Things would have gone more smoothly if she’d said that right off the bat. Either way, I had someone who was going to teach me how to pilot an IS. All that’s left to do is get to it.
“Today, after school.”
“Eh?”
“Come to the kendo hall. I’ll check whether your skills have dulled.”
