Infinite Stratos, Volume 7, page 7
“All right! Let’s hurry up and get started in the hangars!”
“Er, um...”
“You’re gonna have an IS on, so you should just wear your IS suit full-time. I’ll go get changed too, let’s meet up there.”
“Um...”
He ran off so fast that her words couldn’t catch up with him, then stopped mid-stride, craning his head backward toward her and saying, “Oh, right! Which hangar was it?”
“The... Second arena...!”
“Got it. See you there!”
As Kanzashi watched him leave, she realized her right hand was still held out. Why...? As she thought to herself, she embarrassedly pulled it back to her waist.
She quietly thought over the past few minutes. How she couldn’t even finish her ‘wait’ at the door. But did she just not manage to say it? Or did she really not even want to say it? She shook her head from side to side. But she couldn’t answer that question with a ‘no.’
In the hallway, bathed in the soft orange sunlight, Kanzashi’s heart throbbed for the first time in her life.
◇
“All right! Why don’t you show me your IS to start?”
I was in the second hangar with Kanzashi. This was a tournament for students with their own IS, so the competition was gonna be pretty serious. Everyone else must have realized it too, as the hangars were packed with other students making their own tweaks.
“Hey, can you share those startup analytics from the other day?”
“You’re trying to trim gear weight, aren’t you. Sure you’ll get it done before the tournament?”
“Hey, wait! This hypersensor’s calibration is all wrong! Who was just messing with it?!”
The hangars were a happening place right now, and while most of the girls there were happily trucking along, there were a fair number who were at the end of their rope too. Both groups, though, were hard at work on their IS.
“Huh, this is the first time I’ve ever seen the upperclasswomens’ IS.”
“That’s... Forte Safire in second year... Her IS is the Gold Blood... Past her is Daryl Casey in third year and her Hellhound ver. 2.5...”
I was a bit surprised at how smoothly Kanzashi listed them. How unhesitant and precise she was suddenly being.
“And in the back... It’s...”
“Ugh... Cecilia...”
Cecilia, British National Cadet, pilot of the azure Blue Tears.
“Indeed. I’d like to increase my booster output to increase my turning performance.”
“Doesn’t sound like a bad idea... But won’t it make it harder to control? You’re losing stability there too.”
“I simply couldn’t care less. The upcoming matches are too important to worry about such trifling things.”
“You should take it out for a spin before you commit. Remember, you can always tone them back down if it gets too peaky.”
“I suppose.”
A group of older girls, probably from the ground crews, were advising Cecilia on her planned changes. When she noticed I was watching, she turned to look at me. With a “Hmph!” she spun back around.
After I turned her down as a teammate, she was apparently holding it against me. Look, I’m sorry, but... But she didn’t need to get that mad. And Rin kicked me every time we crossed paths. Laura was ignoring me. And Charl... Charl was being more stiff and formal than I’d ever seen her.
Really, they didn’t need to get that mad. It stung.
“...We should get started too...”
“Oh, yeah. You’re right. Let’s do our best.” As I nodded, Kanzashi hesitantly thrust out her right hand. Around her middle finger was a ring set with a crystal.
“Come... Uchigane Nishiki...” She was bathed in light as she floated into the air and armor wrapped around her.
“Wow.”
I’d heard it was an upgraded successor to the Uchigane, but it looked completely different. The skirt armor had been changed to split independent wings for increased mobility, making it more of an agile fighter than the tank that the Uchigane was.
Its arm armor had also been slimmed down for mobility in unarmed combat. The shoulder-mounted shield had been replaced with a wing thruster, and it now mounted small auxiliary jet boosters front and back. From a distance, it definitely looked more like the Byakushiki. All it visibly had in common with its predecessor was its hypersensor design.
“Wait, I thought it wasn’t completed yet?”
Kanzashi kneeled her IS, then dematerialized it, shaking her head and replied, “The weapons... Aren’t finished... Plus... Without metrics... It’ll be useless in a real fight...”
“Oh. Anyway, what’s it supposed to be equipped with?”
“High-performance guided missiles with a multi-lock-on system... The particle cannon isn’t complete yet, either...”
“A particle cannon?! You can use data from Byakushiki for that!”
The construction of the cannon was probably different, but at least the output management and control data should be useful. I pulled up Byakushiki’s console and began to scan through its data.
“Hmm... This part is for Yukihira Nigata...”
“.........”
“Oh, there it is.”
“......!”
As I looked up, I locked eyes with Kanzashi for a second before she turned away.
“C’mon, you can’t read over the data looking that way.” Taking her hand, I pulled her toward the projection screen. “So? Think that’ll help?”
“.........”
“Mm?”
“You’re... Close... Could you stand back a little?”
“Ah, sorry,” I said as I let go of her hand.
She silently rubbed it where we’d touched as she looked at the display again. As she stared intently, she ran a finger along the relevant lines.
“This... The output is too high... It burns a lot of energy...”
“Oh, is it? I kinda figured so, but...”
“You should adjust it... It’s wasting too much like this...”
“Sure. Anyway, I’m gonna take a look at Byakushiki. If you have any questions, just ask.”
“I think I’ll be fine, but...”
“Mm. Thanks again!”
Kanzashi had turned back to her own IS, and her usually-emotionless face showed intent fixation.
“Okay, then...”
“Orimu! Kans!”
I could hear the patter of feet running toward us... And it could only be one person calling us that.
“Honne...”
Miss Casual, Nohotoke Honne. The student council secretary. A classmate of mine, from a family who worked for the Sarashikis. She was usually recognizable by her sleepy expression and slow-as-molasses pace. Huh. Kanzashi must know her well.
“I came to help!” Her long sleeves swept around her arms as she waved. A cuff hit a second-year, who fixed her with a glare. But that was Miss Casual. That was just how she was.
“Kans! Let me help with setting up your IS!”
“Stop... Don’t mess with it... Ahh...”
It seemed like Kanzashi didn’t quite know how to deal with her childhood friend of the same age.
“Honne... My sister must have sent you...”
“Whaaat? No way. I’m your maid, so of course I want to help you out.”
“.........”
“Nohotoke Honne, here for you Monday through Thursday!” It sounded like the kind of catchphrase you’d hear in an old TV commercial.
“Wait, what about Friday and Saturday and Sunday?” I asked.
“C’mon. I need a weekend too.”
“Three days is a pretty long weekend.”
Apparently she was always like this. A maid should have a bit more of a work ethic, in my opinion.
“Anyway, what can I do to help? Some system optimization? Or maybe help with your fire control system?”
“I need to do the fire control system myself... Same for the stability control... You can...”
“Tweak the shield energy output, right? Got it.”
“Listen... Why don’t you check over the armor...”
“All right, got it!”
Defanged by Miss Casual, Kanzashi sighed and slumped her shoulders.
“What are you looking at...”
“Oh, uh, nothing.”
“I don’t like it when guys stare...”
“Oh, right. Sorry.”
We ended up getting so involved working on our IS that we lost track of time. I spent most of it just looking things up in the manual, but Kanzashi—with the occasional bit of advice—really made leaps and bounds, and ended up reducing her energy consumption by nearly 15% in that session alone. It was amazing.
“Man, this is hard work— Oof!”
General tweaks could be done from the console, but digging down to the bare metal literally needed to be done by opening up the armor and getting my hands dirty. Even taking advantage of robotic arms, it was still a lot of effort.
“Orimu, I know it’s something Tabane made, but you’re still leaning too much on that. IS need a loooot of fine-tuning.” Ugh. The day had finally come when Miss Casual cut to the point of things. “IS have an amazing capacity to evolve with the pilot... But you can’t just rely on that.”
“I know.”
“Anyway... Ah...” Kanzashi fidgeted. Was something wrong? “Er... Um...”
“Hm?”
Her fingers knotted together, and she wavered while her gaze wandered.
“Do you need to use the bathroom?”
“......!” Kanzashi turned bright red as she looked up at me. Clang!
“Oww!”
“Mistress, I’ve punished the rude man.”
C’mon, Miss Casual! That was a wrench! That hurts!
“Orimu, you don’t have a shred of delicacy, do you?”
“Ugh...”
“Even if she does have to go, it’s proper manners not to mention it.” I really, really didn’t want to hear about manners from her of all people. “I’d heard that boys with older sisters don’t really know how to act around other women, but you take it way too far. Weirdo.”
“T-That’s not true!” At least, I thought it wasn’t.
“That’s enough, Honne...”
“Yes, mistress.”
“Stop calling me ‘mistress’...”
“Okay, Kans!”
“I don’t really like that one either...”
“Really?”
Now a bit calmer, Kanzashi looked at me again and asked, “Could... Could you help me with my flight test?”
“Wait, it was just that? Sure.”
“Th... Thanks...” She made a prim, polite bow. I was taken a bit aback, since I didn’t even expect it to be something she thought she’d have to ask for.
“So, uh. Which arena did you want to use?”
“For my flight test... The sixth arena.”
The sixth arena. The place where we’d done the high-speed training for Cannonball Fast. What made it different from the other arenas was its completely open roof, with basically a direct course to Central Tower.
“All right, let’s go for it!”
“Yes...”
“See you! I’ll be running the data scanner in the control room.” Miss Casual waved, her drooping sleeves flapping around her arms. They struck another girl, earning her, again, a glare.
◇
“Thruster output... Check...”
In the pits of the sixth arena, Kanzashi opened up the console of her Uchigane Nishiki and ran over the meters. With Honne’s help today, she’d made a lot of progress. And Honne, just like her sister Utsuho, would likely join the ground crews next year. She had plenty of talent.
And... The data from Ichika’s Byakushiki had also been a great help. Since it was from the same development team as her Uchigane Nishiki, it had ended up being even more useful than she expected.
And maybe, just maybe, Ichika himself had been the most helpful of all. What... What am I even thinking... She rubbed her cheeks to hide the blush that was developing. At the same time, she opened a private channel with Ichika.
“So? Feeling up to it?”
“Y-Yeah...”
“All right, I’ll head up first. Meet me at the top of the tower.”
“Okay...”
Kanzashi sat down in the anti-gravity catapult, locking her feet into the footrests. Projected in front of her was the word ‘Ready.’ The instant it changed to ‘Go,’ she accelerated to her limits, rocketing into the skies above the sixth arena.
Avionics... Green... Hypersensor link... Activate... With a staccato series of beeps, the hypersensor locked on to Byakushiki. Zooming in, she could see Ichika’s face, and her heart skipped a beat.
Calm down... Focus... Focus... While keeping the output of the thruster on her back, she accelerated further. Attitude control thrusters... All green... Deploying shield barrier under acceleration... Kanzashi opened the Uchigane Nishiki’s console while proceeding on her test run. She didn’t expect deploying the shield to cause any problems, but as it formed around her, her IS thudded to a halt.
Confused, she opened up an array of displays and scanned over her status readouts.
Mutual interference during deployment... PIC reaction... It seemed like there was a problem in her arm-mounted shield generators, so Kanzashi stopped the deployment for a moment, and tapped away on a pair of projection keyboards while continuing to ascend.
Adjusting deployment point... Moving away from overlap with PIC... Adjusting gravity head six centimeters forward... Also adjusting leg thruster balance... Reignition at negative four...
She wound her way up the twists and turns of IS Academy’s Central Tower with short bursts from her thrusters. At the same time, she continued working a keyboard with each hand, and managed to fully activate her flight system by the time she made her way to Ichika.
“Yo.” Ichika raised a hand. Unsure whether this was a good or bad reaction, Kanzashi gulped while nodding. “How’s your IS holding up?”
“Fine...”
“Oh? That’s good, at least.”
His smile was so bright that she tried to find somewhere else to look.
“A-Anyway... Let’s go back...”
Not knowing what she’d do if she spent much more time up here alone with him, Kanzashi started her dive back to earth before waiting for a response.
“Wow, you’re fast. I don’t even think Cecilia’s Blue Tears can beat that.”
“I... I guess... It matches the data I have on her...” Kanzashi answered, her pulse rising.
She sped up, almost running away from Ichika. Huh? Ichika, following, noticed something was wrong. Her Uchigane Nishiki’s boosters coughed, letting out jets of flame. That’s not right. At the moment he reopened the voice channel to ask what was wrong, the Uchigane Nishiki’s left leg booster exploded.
“......?!” With a sudden jolt and one booster gone, Kanzashi swung directly for the tower wall.
“Kanzashi!”
The anti-gravity isn’t working?! Why?! Her displays read only one word, over and over: [ERROR]. With all avionics down, the Uchigane Nishiki swooped toward the wall.
“......!!”
Reflexively, she closed her eyes. As she did, the sound of a shout pierced through her, “KANZASHI!”
Firing Ignition Boost, Ichika wedged himself between her and the wall. Ah... Cradling Kanzashi in his arms, Ichika made impact.
“Ugh...!”
His IS’ life support systems were active, and the collision wasn’t fatal, but still, Ichika’s face twisted in pain.
“O-Orimura...”
“Eheheheh... Are you okay? That really hurt...” As he spoke, he managed a weak grin—to Kanzashi, the grin of a wounded hero. Ichika was only trying to lighten the mood, but she was starstruck.
“I— Ah— You...”
“Are you okay, Kanzashi?”
“Eh? Ah, yeah...”
“Good. That’s good.” Ichika, still cringing in pain, peeled away from the wall with his eyes closed. The crater that their impact had left told the whole story.
Still cradled by Ichika, Kanzashi realized that her heart was pounding so hard it ached. This was the first time she’d been so close to a boy. And she didn’t even mind it. It was only then that she wondered whether it was because it was Ichika.
“Y-You there! What just happened?! There’s a hole in the tower!” popped in someone via the voice channel.
“Er... Yes. It was, uhh, an IS training accident. I’m Orimura Ichika, Class 1-A.”
“Sarashiki Kanzashi... Class 1-D...”
“What?! Are you okay?! You’re not hurt, are you?!”
The excited speaker was Etoise Franci, a math teacher. Canadian, by the way, and age 25. Single and looking. Her hobby is growing bonsai.
“Seems like we’re okay. We’re headed back to the pits, we’ll report in again when we make it.”
“O-Okay. Be careful out there.”
Closing off the connection, Ichika slowly descended, Kanzashi still in his arms.
“Don’t want you to run into another system error. I’ll carry you down.”
“O-Okay...” With a nervous swallow and a small nod, Kanzashi fell silent. The vivid red light of the setting sun concealed the color of her cheeks.
◇
“Ahh... Do I really have to write this one up? I mean, of course I do, but...” Back in the pits, after explaining to the teacher what had happened and getting a quick checkup, I was handed ten or so blank pages to fill out a report. “Whew. I’m not even good at this...”
Kanzashi quietly looked on like she had something to say about that.
“What’s up?”
“I... I, um, I’m sorry...”
“C’mon, don’t worry about it. A breakdown isn’t your fault.”
“Mm...” Kanzashi wrung her hands as I spoke.
Well. That must have been a big shock for her, having the IS she tweaked herself break down like that. I was just really glad neither of us got seriously hurt. And learning her limits would really help Kanzashi’s development in the future.
“Hey.”
“W-What?”
“I’m not going to lie. You really should ask the ground crews for help.”
“.........”
“We’ve only got a week left. I know where you’re coming from, but more than anything, I want you to stay safe.”
