Infinite Stratos, Volume 1, page 9
“Cecilia, bring out your weapon.”
“Roger.”
She raised her hand to shoulder level and held it to the side. There was a burst of light, much faster than the swirl I had produced. And with that, she was holding her rifle in her hand: the Starlight Mk. III. I was nowhere near as fast as her. What’s more, there was already a magazine in the gun, which Cecilia could disengage the safety of just by glancing at it. It took her perhaps a second to bring out the gun and make it ready to fire.
“Good work, National Cadet, but stop using that pose; the gun is aimed sideways when you bring it out. You could hit someone. Learn to bring it out in front.”
“B-But for my image, I need—”
“Change it. Got it?”
“Yes...”
Cecilia looked like she wanted to talk back, but Chifuyu glared at her and the discussion was over. She would make a good soldier in the future.
“Cecilia, bring out your close-combat weapon.”
“Uh... Oh, r-roger!”
Cecilia had probably been grumbling in her mind, and it had startled her that the conversation had continued. Her weapon dissolved into light again, and instead, she brought out her close-combat weapon. Or rather, she was supposed to. The light swirled around a little, then stagnated in the air.
“Ngh...”
“How much longer?”
“S-Soon. Goodness gracious! ‘Interceptor!’” she yelled out the name in frustration.
Finally, the light took shape as a weapon. However, we were supposed to bring out our weapons without using this beginner method. Having failed at this was humiliating for Cecilia, the National Cadet.
“That took several seconds. Is your enemy in battle going to wait that long?”
“I-I wouldn’t let them get close in a real battle! It won’t be a problem!”
“Really? Even Orimura managed to get close to you, and he’s a total beginner.”
“Th-That’s because...”
Cecilia had nothing more to add. She was clearly flustered. I looked at all this without any ill will when suddenly she stared at me. Suddenly I heard her over an encrypted, private channel.
“This is your fault!”
—Why? What did I do?
“Y-You flew into my close-combat range!”
—Yeah, well, I have a close-combat IS.
“Y-You will have to take responsibility for this!”
—What kind of responsibility...?
I never actually responded. It was a purely one-way communication. I didn’t really understand how to produce the right mental image for the private channel, anyway. They’d told us to imagine talking with the back right-hand side of our brain, which made no sense to me.
“Time’s up. That’s the end of the lesson for today. Orimura, clean up the grounds.”
She probably wanted me to fill the hole. Where did they keep the dirt again?
I looked over at Houki. She looked away from me and pouted; she wasn’t going to help me. And Cecilia was... already gone.
—Fine. I didn’t want any help anyway.
Besides, this was the kind of stuff that men had to do. Making the girls do physical work would have been pretty disgraceful for me. Plus, the hole was my fault to begin with. Mastering the IS was clearly going to take a while longer.
◇
“Hmph. Looks like this is the place.”
It was night. A girl of slender frame was standing in front of the gate to the IS Academy, carrying an almost comically large travel bag. Her hair was tied into two ponytails, left and right, that fluttered in the mild April breeze. The ponytails were a brilliant black and tied with good-looking golden clasps, and fell around her shoulders.
“So where’s the reception again?”
She took a piece of paper from her pocket. The paper was completely crumpled; it perfectly encapsulated her seemingly haphazard, happy-go-lucky personality.
“School Building, First Floor, General Reception... So where the hell is it?”
The scrap of paper didn’t answer her complaints. The girl grimaced and buried the paper in her jacket again. It made an audible crunch as it was crumpled inside.
“Fine, I’ll look for it myself. Can’t rely on anyone, apparently!”
Grumbling, she walked away; it was better to act than to think. She was that kind of girl. A well-meaning observer would have called her practical. A derisive observer would have called her unthinking.
—Really? Not even a single person to say hello? I can’t believe they would just toss me out here with nothing else to go off of!
The girl looked somewhat Japanese, but on closer inspection, she clearly wasn’t. Her eyes were just as angled as theirs, but somehow looked more elegant and regal. The girl was obviously Chinese. Japan was like a second home to her. She had lived in the country for a long time, and had many friends there. As they say: History is about the people, not the places.
—There’s really nobody here, huh? No students, no teachers, or anyone to guide me around...
She wandered around the buildings, looking for any semblance of a person. It was a little past eight, and all the lecture and administration buildings were dark. All of the students were in their dorms.
—Oh my God, this pisses me off... Maybe I should fly up and around to take a look?
“On second thought... Maybe that’s not such a good idea... The last thing I need is a bunch of people in suits getting mad at me again. The people back home thought as much too, the pathetic fools.”
—Hmph. Well, I’m just too important, aren’t I? I’ve gotta be careful.
She liked it when people several times her age came to implore her to do something. She’d always hated old people who thought they deserved respect just because they were older. As far as she saw it, the world was in great shape.
“Male brawns are irrelevant! A girl’s IS is justice!”
She was feeling great. When she’d been a little girl, she’d hated boys who thought they had the right to decide just because they were boys. There was just one guy who’d been different; she remembered him pretty well. Her memories of that boy were the main reason she’d wanted to return to Japan.
—I wonder how he’s doing now... Probably well enough, aha.
“That’s wh... said...” came a mysterious voice.
She looked around. The voice seemed to be coming from an IS training building. IS-related buildings in all countries look similar, so she recognized it immediately.
—Perfect, I can ask them where the heck I’m supposed to go!
She ran towards the arena entrance.
“Like I said, I don’t know how to picture that,” said a male voice.
The male voice took her by surprise and she stopped in her tracks, startled.
—Is that who I— No, it can’t be. Is it really him? What’s he doing here?!
The girl’s eyes widened with curiosity and anticipation.
—What if he doesn’t recognize me?! N-No, wait. I’m sure he will. He has to! I-If he doesn’t, it’s only because I’ve grown so beautiful!
After a brief pause the girl continued to walk towards the building.
“Ichi—” she whispered.
—Oh, no! What’s up with my voice? Come on, just say it normally!
“Ichika, when are you going to get a handle on your mental image? We’ve been stuck on the same problem for a week,” said the female voice.
“Look, your explanations are just really confusing. What the hell is ‘djoom?’”
“It’s... Djoom.”
“I don’t even know what that means! Wait, where are you going, Houki?!”
The man ran after the unknown girl, who then quickened her step.
—Who the hell is that? And why do they seem so buddy-buddy?!
Her excitement had disappeared, blown away by the wind. She felt a stinging anger blowing over her soul like a snowstorm.
Soon after, she found the general reception. The school building was just behind the arena. Some of the lights were still on, as well.
“I think that should be all of the paperwork. Welcome to the IS Academy, Huang Lingyin.”
The clerk was friendly, but her words hardly reached the girl. The girl— Lingyin, that is— was in a visibly bad mood when she talked.
“In which class is Orimura Ichika?”
“Oh, the boy they’re all talking about? Class A. You’re in Class B, Huang, but your rooms are right next to each other. Hey, I heard they even made him the class representative. I suppose he takes after his sister.”
All women loved gossip. Lingyin coldly regarded the clerk, who was living proof of said gossip, and continued.
“Does Class B have a rep yet?”
“Yes, they do.”
“What’s her name?”
“Uh... Um... Why do you need that?”
Perhaps the clerk had felt that something with Lingyin’s behavior was off, and she hesitated to answer.
“I wanted to ask them nicely to give it to me.”
Lingyin smiled in the most threatening way possible.
◇
“So! Congratulations to Orimura for becoming the class representative!”
“Congratulations!”
Clap, clap, clap.
Someone had fired off hand-held fireworks, and the bright paper threads fell on my head. Their weight was light on my head, but heavy on my soul. By the way, it was after school. We had the time off. Everyone in Class A was gathered in the dorm cafeteria. All of us were drinking something. It was quite a spectacle.
“.........”
—Man, screw this. Why are we even having a party?
I looked over at the wall. There was a gigantic wall scroll inscribed with “Orimura Ichika Class Rep Inauguration Party.”
—An inauguration party? Really?
“This will make the class league battles really awesome,” said one of the attendees.
“Totally.”
“We’re so lucky that we ended up in the same class as him!”
“Yeah, same.”
I could have sworn that the girl giving noncommittal answers was from Class B. Besides, there were clearly more than 30 girls around. It was a class meeting, and yet there were more girls than our class even had.
“You’re popular, Ichika,” Houki snorted.
“You really think so?”
“Hmph.”
Houki went back to consuming her tea. Why was she in such a bad mood?
“Hello, hello! We’re from the newspaper club! We’ve come to get a special interview with the new student everyone is talking about, Orimura Ichika!”
There were impressed murmurs. The girls acted like impressionable chickens.
—Chicks. Teehee.
“Oh, hello, my name is Mayuzumi Kaoruko, second year. I’m the vice president of the newspaper club. Here’s my business card.”
I took the card and looked at the name; the characters used to write her name were freakishly complex. I couldn’t imagine she liked writing it out by hand.
“Well then, well then, Orimura! How does it feel to be class representative?”
She stuck a microphone under my nose to record my answer and looked at me with puppy eyes.
“Um...”
I was really, really not feeling like I wanted to answer that, but I also didn’t want to let them down. That’s what you get for being Japanese, I guess.
“Well, you know, I’m gonna do my best.”
“Aw... Do you have anything more to add to that? Like, ‘touch me and you’ll get burned,’ or something?”
—What the heck does that mean? Do people even say that sort of thing anymore?
“The team deserves all the credit.”
“Whoa, that’s so old-fashioned!”
Was she trying to insult Japan’s famous athletes who talked like that?
“Okay, it’s fine. I’ll just edit the audio to something better.”
That really wasn’t fine. This was how the modern mass media forced their biased views on us. Truly horrible.
“Oh, Cecilia. Please offer a comment as well.”
“Ordinarily I dislike giving comments to the press, but all right,” responded Cecilia.
She didn’t look at all like she disliked it. In fact, she’d been hanging around near me and the newspaper girls for a while. I could swear that her hair looked even more elaborate than usual. Maybe she was expecting her picture to be taken?
“Ahem. Well then, let me begin by elaborating on my withdrawal from running for class representative and—”
“Oh, that sounds way too long. We’ll just take your picture,” Mayuzumi interjected.
“L-Listen to all of it!”
“Don’t worry, I’ll just make up something cool. Okay, let’s write that you fell in love with Orimura.”
“Wh-Wh-Wha—”
Cecilia turned very red. She must have been very angry. I decided to provide fire support from the trenches.
“Don’t be ridiculous!” I said.
“Really? Are you sure?”
“E-Exactly! Are you trying to make fun of me?!”
—What? Why is Cecilia angry at me now? I just want this to be over.
“B-Besides, you—”
“Okay, okay. Stand side by side now. I’ll take a picture,” said Mayuzumi, cutting Cecilia off again.
“Wh...”
Cecilia sounded surprised. However, when I listened carefully, she also sounded a little happy and excited.
“You two have those famous personal units. I need a photo of you two together. Oh! You should shake hands, I think.”
“R-Really...? Okay...”
Cecilia became fidgety and glanced over at me. She looked like someone who thought their big chance had come, but who didn’t want to look easy.
“Um, we may have copies of the photos you take, right?” asked Cecilia.
“Well, of course.”
“Then I would like to change into—”
“No way. That takes too long. Stand side by side now.”
Mayuzumi took my hand and Cecilia’s and made us shake hands. She was a pretty pushy girl.
“.........”
“Something wrong?”
“N-No. Nothing is wrong.”
Cecilia had been staring at me very intently. I wasn’t sure whether or not she wanted to talk to me about something? Apparently not. It was so hard to understand her signals.
“.........”
“What is it, Houki?”
“Nothing.”
She too had been staring at me very intently. It was hard to understand her signs— You know how it goes.
“Taking the picture now! What’s 35 times 51, divided by 24?”
“Uh... Um... two?”
“Nope, it’s 74.375!”
—What the hell?
I heard the snapping sound of a digital camera’s shutter. And... Wait.
“Why are you all in the photo?”
With frightful alacrity, the entirety of Class A had managed to squeeze into the picture around me and Cecilia. Even Houki was there. What the hell were they trying to do?
“Y-You girls!” Cecilia cried.
“Come on.”
“We can’t let you steal a march on us, Cecilia!”
“This is going to be a nice memento.”
“Right?”
All of them were trying to placate Cecilia. I didn’t understand.
“Ugh...”
Cecilia was looking around bitterly, while her classmates beamed back. I couldn’t understand: what was going on?
Anyway, the entire “Orimura Ichika Class Rep Inauguration Party” went well past 10PM. I’d honestly underestimated the girls’ energy. By the time I realized how late it was, night had come, and I went to my room feeling very exhausted. I promptly collapsed on my bed.
“It must have been fun for you today. How nice.”
—What’s with that sarcastic tone, Houki? Are you trying to pick a fight or something?
“Wha... I’m just super tired. How is that fun? Would you like this if you were me?”
“Hm... I guess... Yeah, maybe.”
She and I both knew that wasn’t true, but Houki would rather detonate a rhetorical suicide vest than admit that she was even slightly wrong. I figured it was best to just end the discussion there. Debating it would just make it worse.
“M’kay. I’m gonna sleep.”
“Wh-What? It’s only half past ten.”
“I’m tired. When you’re tired, you sleep.”
I was worming my way into the sheets when a pillow hit me.
“Ngh... What the hell are you doing?!”
“Th-That’s my line! I’m going to change into my nightwear now, so face the other way!”
We’d been living together for a week and she always changed into her nightwear when I was around. She could just do it when I was brushing my teeth, but no. That’s what I did myself, though.
“Hey, Houki. I asked you before, but why don’t you change when I’m not—”
Blam!
“Fine. I’ll face the other way.”
Girls were just a mystery. Anyway, I rolled over and faced the other way.
“.........”
“.........”
I hated this sort of awkward silence. Time seemed to stretch forever, and even the tiniest noises were weirdly prominent. I was a healthy 15-year-old boy. It made me restless. I heard her take off her shirt. I was suddenly reminded of how she’d looked when she’d come out of the shower. It made me even more restless. After a while of clothes rustling suggestively, I was wide awake and no longer felt like sleeping.
“Y-You can turn.”
I rolled back over. I didn’t really have to turn back around, but when I’d brought that up before it had made Houki angry.
“Oh... Do you have a new sash?”
Houki wore a yukata at night: so Japanese. I liked that. Anyway, the sash she was wearing was different. I pointed this out to her.
“Y-You noticed...”
Uh-huh... Her thorny attitude had completely disappeared. In fact, she looked kind of happy? It was so weird.
“Well, it’s got a different color and a different pattern, so of course I’d notice. I look at you every day, Houki.”
“R-Right... You look at me every day... Right...”
