Infinite Stratos is the property of Izuru Yumizuru. I own NOTHING!

A young woman, clad in red mechanical armor clashed with a white machine, her twin Katana collided with a pure white angel like machines fists.

"Ichika, now!" she shouted. At that moment a young man around the same age as the girl flew in-between the two, breaking up their clash. The young man, now known as Ichika, wore similar white and blue armor, his sword lashed out against the white machine. His blade, made purely of glowing blue energy grazed the machines chest. The machine countered by firing multiple energy blasts from its wings. The young man dodged the majority of the blasts, but a few managed to grace him.

"Do it Laura!" the young man called out, his eyes to the island below him. More specifically, the silver haired girl in black and red armor on the island. "Jawohl!" the girl responded, clearly of German descent. A huge RAIL CANNON perched on the girls right shoulder lowered and fired at the white machine.

The machine dodged and set its sights on the black-clad German. A mistake seeing that the young man was able to damage its left arm with his energy blade, rendering that limb useless. He couldn't help but smirk at the irony.

The machine's eye glowed blue as if angered and kicked Ichika away, and charged a laser barrage. Before it could fire, multiple beams of blue energy hit the machine right between its metal wings.

"I've got your back, Ichika-san!" A blonde haired young woman said with determination in her voice. She had armor that was similar to the rest of the group, but it was blue. She seemed to be manipulating four flying drones that fired at the white machine from multiple directions.

The machine was able to dodge all the beams now that it was paying attention. It turned around and conjured a hexagonal shield just in time to stop a thick blast from causing any damage.

"C'mon! Give it one more try!" A brown haired girl, in dark pink and black armor shouted to the rest of her team. Anything the group was going to do however, was stopped as the machine spun rapidly, firing laser after laser in all directions. Just as the brown haired girl was about to get hit by the lasers, an orange blur knocked her out of the way (sadly, this isn't Naruto T.T). "Hurry, Ichika! We can't hold on!" another blonde young girl yelled.

The angel-like machine just floated there, as if observing the destruction it had brought on. Its sensors picked up another target closing behind it; these humans were starting to become a nuisance.

"YOU WON'T GET AWAY THIS TIME!" Ichika roared, flying at full speed to the machine. A vacant sleeve fluttered behind his left shoulder as Ichika Orimura and the Silver Gospel collided…

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"Hello everyone, and congratulations on getting into this school. I am your sub-homeroom teacher, Maya Yamada." The green haired teacher said. I knew she was barely a day older than 20, though if you told anyone else she was a student they would probably believe it. She froze up, blushing from seeing the child-like curiosity in my reddish-brown eyes.

"S-starting today, you are all first-year students of the IS Academy. As I'm sure you all know, this is a boarding school. Students will be together during and after school hours, so I'm prayerful that we will all get along and help each other, making for an amazing 3 years! N-n-now let's start with introductions, shall we?" Maya-chan looked nervous. I wonder why?

Anyways, I leaned forward to get a better look across the classroom. Sure enough I met scowling dark blue eyes with an angry face to match. Top it all off with black hair tied in a ponytail with a green ribbon and you have my Osananajimi… Shinonono Houki!

I tried waving at her like the goofball I know I can be with a grin to match, but she just looked the other way... without even acknowledging me!? Is she angry? I do not think I did anything to make her mad… did I? You can never really tell with her.

"Orimura-Kun? Orimura-Kun? Orimura Ichika-Kun!" my head snapped around to meet bespectacled green eyes which I always found adorable. "I-I'm sorry for being so loud, b-but we started on the A's and now we're all the way down to the O's. S-s-so won't you tell the class a little bit about yourself?"

"Oh! Sure, sorry." I got up from my seat, and stood in front of the class, which would be very normal if it were not for the fact there was nothing but girls in front of me. "I'm Orimura Ichika. I'm 15 years old. I like my big sister and my friends and video games and animals and swimming AND I'M A SUPER HERO! I SHALL NOW AND FOREVER BE KNOWN AS…" I announced to the class while spinning fast enough that I turned into a blur. When I stopped I was wearing an outfit similar to Superman, but the fabric where the "S" should be was gone, revealing my bare chest. "ICHIKAMAN!" At my announcement, everyone either sweatdropped or got bloody noses for some reason.

"AH HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! AH HAHAHAHAHAHA!" I laughed triumphantly, until I felt a hand on the back of my head. Said hand then planted my head rather firmly onto my desk. "That is not appropriate school attire, Orimura." An angry, yet familiar voice scolded me harshly.

Wait a moment... Tough love with a heavy layer of scolding, mixed in with a touch of excruciating pain… this can only mean one thing! "Chifuyu-nee? Zat ar yoo doin her?'

Instead of answering me, she lifted my head up by my hair and slammed my face into the desk, yet again. "It's Orimura-Sensei. Now are you done, or is there anything else that you want to be stupid about?"

"Yes! You should know that the Mighty Ichikaman's mighty head is immune to head damage!"

"Is that so?" My sister/teacher/torturer questioned. She repeated the motion of slamming my head into the desk. "DID THIS FOOL NOT LEARN HER LESSON THAT THE MIGHTY ICHIKAMAN COULD NOT BE DAMAGED BY SUCH WEAK ATTACKS?" Well, that is what I was going to say at least, until she repeated the motion, again, and again, and again, and then yet again.

"Are you done?" She asked, finally letting go of my head.

"I see you through my skin now!" I said, feigning being delirious. "Your power could very well be on par with THE MIGHTY ICHIKAMAN!..." I slurred as I almost fell out of my seat.

"Do you want another helping of that punishment, Orimura?"

"NO MA'AM."

"Now, take off that ridiculous outfit and take your seat!"

"BUT I-" I stopped in mid-sentence after the look my surely demonic sister gave. It was one of my wiser decisions. "Yes Ma'am" I said dejectedly, and then spun around in the opposite direction of my earlier transformation. When I stopped, I was boring, regular Orimura Ichika(MAN!)

"Okay class. I am your homeroom teacher, Orimura Chifuyu. You will refer to me as Orimura-Sensei!" Onee-sama announced to the class. For some reason, everyone started cheering.

The girls then began to spout random fangirl nonsense. Things like "OH MY GOD ITS ORIMURA-SAMA!" "IF YOU WERE A MAN I WOULD WANT YOUR BABIES!" "I WANT HER BABIES RIGHT NOW!" "MAKE US YOUR BITCHES!" and generally stuff like that, though I am not sure what they were talking about. There are some weird people at this school.

Chifuyu shook her head. "Why do I always get the nutjobs?" Strange, I thought she liked nuts. "Anyways, listen up! Your syllabus for the next six months is memorizing all data related to the IS. When the six months ends, you'll begin practical training in which you will have two weeks to master the basic maneuvers. You got that? Even if you don't understand, say Yes Ma'am!"

"NO MA'AM!" I called out in defiance only to be met by the death glare of Orimura-Sensei/Chifuyu-Nee. I woke up several minutes later with a terrible headache. We then continued class as usual.

I felt somewhat relieved that I had nothing to worry about. I knew all about her work in Germany and just about everything she did there. But she never sent me so much as a letter. So it was just nice to see her with my own eyes. Besides, with her gone, it gave me all the time in the world to continue with my little "Project", which made my life a lot easier then trying to hide it from my sister 25/8.

"Yamada-Sensei, please begin." Onee-sama said, turning to….you guessed it, Maya-chan.

"I would begin explaining what the Infinite Stratos is and its functions…. but let's be honest here. If you didn't know what an IS is, you wouldn't be here" Yamada-Sensei said turning to you and then winking suggestively.

"Um, Sensei. I'm not sure you can break the fourth wall like that" I said, raising my left arm which was then put into a Judo-style armlock by Chifuyu "OWOWOWOWOWOWOW! You're gonna rip my arm off!"

"Then shut up! Anyways, Yamada-sensei, at least give them a basic explanation."

"Okay! Infinite Stratos, or IS for short, are mobile mech armors which can only be piloted by women, but not anymore! Ichika-kun can apparently pilot an IS for some reason."

"Yeah, that's me!" I exclaimed, putting my left arm up, only for it to be nearly torn off by Sensei-nee, yet again.

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After that, Maya-chan explained a bunch of very basic (for me) things about the IS while I played with my pencil until class ended. Later at lunch, I felt a hundred stares on my back. "Oh my God, it's Ichika Orimura! He's the only man who can pilot an IS!" "If he and I had babies, they would be really stupid!"

"Can we talk for a minute?" I turned and smiled brightly, genuinely happy at the sight of Houki. Maybe she was not mad at me after all. "Sure, lead the way!" I reply with palpable enthusiasm practically oozing from my voice. Houki had her usual scowl as she lead me to the roof, with me practically skipping behind her, joyous at the fact that she was not actually angry at me.

When we got to the roof, Houki walked over to the railing and just stood there, never meeting my eyes for some reason. "Oh yeah, so I heard you won the National Kendo Tournament last year! Way to go!" She turned around with an angrier than usual look in her eyes "Where the hell did you hear about that!?"

"Um, the newspaper? Why are you so angry?"

"Why were you reading that newspaper!?"

"Houki, I think that's a stupid question. What does that say about you?" I said in one of my rare serious moments, from most peoples perspectives. She turned red and looked away, muttering something called castration. I wonder what it means… I must remember to ask Pouf to tell me next time I call.

"You know, even though it's been ages, I recognized you right away! Same hairstyle!" I said pointing at her ponytail. She turned away with an odd look in her eyes.

"You don't forget anything, do you, Ichika…." She said, fiddling with her hair. Her cheeks were red too. I hope she is not getting sick!

"I could never forget you, Houki! You're like my bestest friend in the whole world!" I waved my arms for emphasis.

At that moment, the bell rung and the strange feeling that I was about to get smashed repeatedly into a desk welled up in my stomach. "Well, we better get back to class. LAST ONE THERE IS A BOOGERHEAD!" I ran off, leaving Houki with a vein popping out of her forehead and an angry look in her eyes.

In class, we talked about some more of the basic functions of an IS which I understood easily. Essentially, I knew the inner workings of an IS as well as Tabane-sama did. I had only used an IS twice in my life though. "Do you have any questions Orimura-kun? Are you getting everything? If you have any questions, I'd be glad to answer them!" Maya-chan smiled brightly at me. I raised an eyebrow at this, looking at her quizzically. She smiled turned shy. "Just making sure..."

"Oh! You're the best!" Her face lit up like a Christmas tree. I simply laughed at this, and ushered her away, as a good teacher should never show favoritism. She muttered something under her breath about wanting to give me private lessons but then quickly went back to her usual cheerful attitude. The rest of the class went smoothly and then the break began. I was doodling with my pencil as usual when a blond woman with a strange accent walked up to me.

"May I have a moment?" She asked.

I held up my pointer finger, not turning to her while I put the finishing touches on my drawing of me in an IS fighting an alien on Mars. She was very polite. She didn't say a word until I was done. Though, when I turned to her, holding up my drawing of me blasting a Martian with a MINIGUN, she looked angry for some reason.

"Are you trying to make a mockery out of me, the great Cecilia Alcott!? Representative contender for England!? You should be grateful I even took the time out of my schedule to come and talk to you! Don't you think you should act more appropriate towards someone of my status!? You are nothing mor-" I interrupted her while raising my hand. "Question!"

She smirked as if pleased. "Do go ahead; it is the responsibility of nobles to assist the peasants in this world. Ask and I shall answer." She said with her hand on her chest.

"You're a representative contender right? I get that but why do I care?" I asked honestly. Although, when I finished, half the class must have tripped on something, because they all fell down for no obvious reason.

"ARE YOU KIDDING ME? WHAT SANE JAPANESE MALE YOUR AGE WOULDN'T WANT A BEAUTIFULL FOREIGN YOUNG LADY LIKE I, CECILIA ALCOTT, WHO IS KIND ENOUGH TO TAKE THE TIME OUT OF HER SCHEDULE TO TALK TO A QUARTER-WITT LIKE YOU!" Huh. Quarter-witt. That was new one. She continued to yell angrily on like that for another 5 minutes until she finally seemed to tire herself out.

"Need something to drink?" I asked looking at her panting form. "That… would be… lovely… thank you" She huffed and puffed. After giving her my water bottle of apple juice, she seemed to calm down. "So are you gonna tell me what you wanted to talk to me about in the first place?" I asked resting my head on my hands. I was most likely going to be here for a while.

"I am one of the elites of the elites, chosen by Great Britain to represent them as an IS pilots. Surely someone of your intelligence must be able to understand that. I am one of those elites! You should praise your good fortune to be in the same room with me! Hahahahaha!" She laughed maniacally and put her hand in front of her mouth, yet she was not trying to stop herself from laughing. She was a strange person.

"Oh!" I exclaimed, pumping my right fist into my left palm. "That makes sense! That explains why your head is so far up your ass! You're just a regular British chick!" Payback. Is. A BITCH!

"Excuse me!?"

"Well, you did kind of call me a 'Japanese Man' like three times, so it's only fair."

"I heard you were the only male in the world who could control an IS. I didn't expect you to be this much of a disappointment!"

"Yeah, I get that a lot." At this, everybody in the room fell over rather comically.

"Well, no matter! It is my duty to assist you with whatever you need if you come begging with tears in your eyes." She said puffing out her chest proudly.

To this, I cracked up. "What's so funny!?" She was angry again.

"YOU SAID DUTY! HAHAHAHAHA" The next couple of minutes were a little fuzzy. I think she hit me a couple of dozen times. After I came to, she was still going on and on about something.

"I defeated an examiner! I am the elite of the elite! You should show me the respect I deserve!"

"I beat an examiner too!" I said cheerily.

She had a shocked look on her face. "WHAT!? HOW!? IMPOSSIBLE! I THOUGHT I WAS THE ONLY ONE!"

"Well they may have meant you were the only girl who beat one?" I tried to reassure her.

"HOW DID THIS HAPPEN?"

"Do you really want to know?" I said, my eyes becoming sharper as I leaned in closer.

"YES!" She exclaimed. She was probably getting angrier.

"Come here." I said to her, motioning her to lean in close. I then whispered into her ear… "I have super powers…"

"Huh?" Before she was angry, but now it looked like she was about to froth at the mouth.

"It's true! When we fought, a laser burned off my shirt. When she saw me, she got a bloody nose and passed out. I must be able to create shock-waves with my bare chest!" Her face became blank, and it seemed like she wanted to say something but she was interrupted by the bell ringing. Whatever she was going to say would have to be saved for some other time.

"I… we will c-continue this conversation later…" She stumbled off, massaging her temples. Many people seem to get headaches after they talk to me. Well, time to get some lunch! I have not eaten all day. You cannot be me on an empty stomach!

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"Hmmm… where is it… where is it…. Here it is!" I stood in front of a door that had the number... 13 nailed to the top... I looked at the piece of paper in my hand and compared it to the number. "Well! I'm fucked!" I said cheerfully taking a step forward and opened the door to reveal a room that looked like it was something from a five-star hotel. Fancy! "I CALL THE BED BY THE WINDOW!" I yelled to no one in particular and started jumping on the bed. From the bathroom came a soft, familiar voice. A girl in nothing but a towel walked out of the bathroom, drying her hair with another towel.

"Oh hi, you must be my new roommate. Sorry to meet you like this, I just got out of the shower. My name is Shinonono Houki." Just as she finished her sentence, she stopped drying her hair. When she put the towel down, she revealed a very familiar face. HOUKI!

When she saw me, she froze up and her face got red for some reason. "I-i-ichika?" She said with a trembling voice

"H-h-houki" I copied her with a cheerful smile.

"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING IN MY ROOM!?" She shouted seemingly at random.

"THIS IS MY ROOM TOO! WHY ARE WE YELLING!?" I answered. This is starting to become rather fun! "HEY! THAT MEANS WERE ROOMIES! YAAAAAAAAY!" Thank goodness. I thought I was going to get a roommate I did not know. Although, I do not think Houki felt the same… considering she attacked me with a Bokken.

She leaped toward me with the Bokken leading (a Bokken is sturdy wood in the shape of a sword if you did not already know). I do not understand why she is so mad. It is just as much my room as it is hers. And I am not the one in nothing but a towel, she is! But anyway if I do not do something, Houki is likely to hurt herself. Side-stepping her thrust, I followed up by grabbing her wrist and sticking my leg out so she lost balance. I reached down with my other hand and grabbed the back of her knee. Using her own momentum against her, I threw her onto her bed. While she was still dazed, I jumped so I was sitting on her stomach. I grabbed the Bokken out of her hand and pinned her hands above her head.

"It's not nice to attack people with wooden swords! Now I'm gonna wait outside, while you get dressed." I said sternly, getting up to walk out the door. "Oh, and here's your towel. It fell off when I threw you." I said throwing the cloth to Houki, who seemed to have steam coming of her entire body. It did not seem she heard me, she had not moved since I landed on her.

After I closed the door, I heard Houki scream. (sigh) Girls can be so weird. After a bit more waiting the door finally opened with Houki wearing a Kimono.

I stepped inside closing the door behind me. "What are you up to?" I heard Houki ask angrily. Her back was to me, so I could not see her expression. "Hmm?" I questioned tilting my head to the side. "I SAID, WHAT ARE YOU UP TO!? YOU ASKED TO BE IN THE SAME ROOM AS ME DIDN'T YOU?! I KNEW YOU WERE AN IDIOT ICHIKA, BUT I DIDN'T THINK YOU HAD BECOME SUCH A PERVERT! DON'T YOU KNOW THAT MIXING GENDERS PAST AGE 7 IS JUST WRONG!?!"

"The only reason me and Chifuyu-nee stopped bathing together is because she moved to Germany. What's a pervert? And no. I didn't ask to be in the same room as you." I said/asked while smiling.

"GGGGGGGGGRRRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!" Yep. Houki's mad again.

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"Class, in one months time we will be asked to choose our class representative. They will not only participate in the upcoming class tournament, but also attend student council meetings and committee meetings. Basically your class leader. You can nominate yourself or someone else." Onee-sama announced to the class. It was the next day after the incident with Houki and I. She got mad, attacked me with a Shinai (where she got all these weapons not even I knew), I came out without a scratch, she was exhausted, we set up some ground rules, I got the bed I wanted, and she got to use the showers first. A good night over-all.

"I nominate Orimura-kun!"

"I second that!"

"Me too!"

"Me three!"

Oh, are you kidding me!? Not only will it take time that I could put to good use, but there are plenty of suitable people besides me! That blonde girl from yesterday. What was her name? Hmmm. It was some kind of flower...

"WHAT!? UNACCEPTABLE! I, Cecilia Alcott, will not stand for this! I, Cecilia Alcott, will not accept a boy as our class representative! You can't expect me, Cecilia Alcott, to have to deal with such a humiliation for an entire year! Just living in a country with such an underdeveloped culture is unbearably painful for someone like me, Cecilia Alcott. I AM CECILIA ALCOTT!

Ah! I remember! "I nominate Aurea illrot!" I said, making everyone give me a weird look. "The English girl." I clarified.

"ARE YOU KIDDING ME!?" She roared in fury. I have a real talent at making girls mad. "This calls for a duel!"

"OOH YAY! Sounds like fun! I never liked debating anyway!"

"Should you ever lose to me on purpose, I will make you my servant! No! My slave!

"How much handicap should there be?" I said with an excited smirk.

At this she seemed surprised, and then smirked as if pleased. "Oh? Asking for a handicap already?

"No. I was asking how much of a handicap I should give you" At this, everyone burst into laughter. Did I say something funny?

"Orimura-kun is ridiculous!"

"Come on, is he serious?"

"Orimura-kun, that old stereotype of guys being stronger than girls is sooooo 2015."

"I should be the one wondering about giving you a handicap. Japanese boys are so unintelligent?" There she goes again. Going on and on about how great her country is. I will show her her place by the end of this!

"You know, if you ask really nicely a real lady might still give you that handicap." I heard someone whisper to me.

"AND A REAL MAN NEVER GOES BACK ON HIS WORD! BELIEVE IT! Where'd that come from?" I asked myself, bewildered.

"You're underestimating her..." I heard the same girl say.

"OR MAYBE I'M JUST OVERESTIMATING ME! DID YOU EVER THINK OF THAT!? HHHHHUUUUUUUUHHHHH!?" I countered getting right in her face.

"Well its settled then." Onee-sama said hitting the back of my head. Ah... I missed her beatings... "The competition will be held in Arena 3, on Monday. I expect both parties to come fully prepared."

It was a cool Friday night, as Ichika made his way to his friends Dan's house, as they did every weekend. Chifuyu had initially protested, questioning his safety, but after a bit of convincing, she had caved and allowed him to go, making him promise to notify her the second he made it to Dan's house or if he ran into any trouble.

"Excuse me, Ichika Orimura?" Ichika did not bother turning around, already knowing it was that American organization that had been following him since his ability to pilot the IS was made public. CAI or something along those lines. He never did not care enough to remember the name.

"How can I help you? And for future reference, in Japan, names are said last name, then first name." The teenager replied, almost conversationally. He turned around to see a blonde man with sunglasses and a black suit and an earpiece. Why he chose to wear sunglasses at night, even Ichika did not know.

"Oh. Is that so? Thank you for informing me. Now..." He trailed off, pulling a revolver out of his coat. "You'll have to come with us." As he cocked his revolver, 9 other men came out and surrounded Ichika and pulled out identical weapons. Ichika looked around, appraising the James Bond rip-offs.

Even as he had 10 guns aimed at various vital areas, Ichika's happy smile never so much as twitched.

"So will you come quietly, or do I have to shoot you? We have permission to use lethal force if necessary." The man, who Ichika deduced was the leader since he was the first to make verbal contact, asked in an effort to be intimidating. Ichika just looked down and massaged the bridge of his nose, his hair shadowing his eyes as he sighed. The leader raised an eyebrow at this. He expected fear, pleading.. but the student, looked more.. disappointed?

This train of thought was demolished as the leader heard the most terrifying sound that had ever reached his ears. Laughter. Ichika was laughing. Gone was the innocent, oblivious demeanor of a childish boy, and in its place was a frighteningly composed young man with a disturbingly mature aura. As he righted his posture, the warm reddish-brown orbs were replaced with duel oceans of blood, drawn into twin black holes. His smirk sent chills down even Satan's spine.

"It is so like you wannabe Men in Black to think you have total control as soon as you pull out a gun. Boring, generic, unoriginal and zero creativity. Sickening." Every man there froze and their grip on their weapons became unsteady as they gazed at evil, given human form.

"Well, I Might As Well Give You Fun Deaths."

Finished! Once again, thank you Aokage for all the help. I couldn,t have done this without you!

I redid this chapter because it didn't get a point about Ichika's character that I wanted to get through, and to make it clear that ISZ IS NOT DEAD!

Please review and flames are welcomed!