Infinite Stratos: The White Unicorn of Hope

CHAPTER 5

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Now dressed in his IS Suit, Bakura stood next to Unicorn as Ms. Yamada quickly gave him the rundown. The suit was school-issued and was skin-tight, covering his body up to his neck, with only his head, hands, and feet left uncovered.

"Please remember. There are two conditions to winning the fight. First, you deplete Alcott's Absolute Defense shield integrity down to zero percent. Second, in the timeframe of 30 minutes, your IS has a higher shield count than hers. Third, Alcott is knocked unconscious. Fourth, her IS' total energy drops to critical levels."

He nodded in understanding. Of the four, the first and third seemed the most practical; he didn’t like the idea of dragging the battle out, especially against the kind of IS she had.

"The major problems that the IS had have been fixed, but some still exist. The details are not important in the fight this time, but mainly your IS can only use three expansion slots at the moment."

He winced at the news that Ms. Orimura, who stood beside Ms. Yamada, gave. Only three expansion slots meant that his options were limited in the fight. That wasn't much; he'd rather have more variables, but at least it was better than none.

"The fight's about to begin. Get into your IS and move out."

"G-Good luck, Uchiyama! Fi-Fight on!"

"Thank you, Ms. Yamada. Ms. Orimura."

Giving them a polite bow, he walked over to stand in front of Unicorn. As expected, she was still as beautiful as the day he last saw her. Getting into the Unicorn was simple enough, since the IS was smaller; he only had to step in without an elevated platform.

Turning to let his back face the soft material of the cockpit's padded surface, he looked at his teachers one last time before letting his body melt into Unicorn.

With a loud whirr, the cockpit hissed closed, sealing him in. Darkness took over for just a second before the world came back into view as the system's HUD booted on.

[PILOT REGISTERED: UCHIYAMA BAKURA]

[INITIALIZING SYNCHRONIZATION]

Information slowly flooded into his head, half expecting the flashback that would cause his brain to fry like last time. Instead, it came in waves, like a tide washing over his thoughts rather than crashing through them.

'... I feel it.'

The blooming sensation in his chest. He can feel it. The beating roar of Unicorn as it came online. It felt as though it had been made only for him, and him alone.

[SYNCHRONIZATION ACHIEVED]

[IS-0; MODEL NAME: UNICORN GUNDAM, ACTIVATE]

From the outside world's perspective, a sharp green light beamed from the visor's seams before the IS began to move.

Looking around, he seemed to now perceive the world around him more clearly, as if he had switched from an old phone with a bad camera to a modern one with a dedicated lens. All the sensors of the unit interfaced straight into my field of view, and he intuitively understood what they meant.

The information on the screen was too much, however, so with a single thought, the excess elements flickered and disappeared from the HUD, leaving the necessities.

[ENEMY IS UNIT DETECTED]

[PILOT: CECILIA ALCOTT]

[BT-1; MODEL NAME: BLUE TEARS]

[COMBAT SPECIALIZATION: MID-RANGE FIRE]

[SPECIAL EQUALIZER DETECTED: MK-III STARLIGHT (Medium-Ranged, Mid-Penetrating Beam Rifle)]

A holographic image of Cecilia's IS comes into view in the corner of his vision, while in the back of Bakura's mind, Unicorn was processing and relaying a vast amount of information regarding itself to him.

He looked through the Preset options that Unicron had available before mentally selecting two off the system database in 0.2 seconds. In a flash of light, a large, angular shield materialized on his left arm.

[LEFT ARM EXPANSION SLOT EQUIPPED: SVALINN]

Preparations are complete. Standing just before the opening into the arena, he took a deep breath.

"Uchiyama Bakura in Unicorn Gundam. Heading out!"

Crouching slightly, the thrusters on Unicorn's backpack shifted before roaring to life with a crisp fwoosh, propelling him forward like a bullet. Flying out of the pit, he soared through the limited space of the arena, the dome-shaped barrier looming above him as he landed with a loud thud onto the ground.

The ground beneath him cracked slightly from the force of impact as he landed just twenty meters shy in front of Cecilia, who was in her personal IS, her arms on her hips.

Gasps and murmurs rippled through the crowd, but it looks like Cecilia was not surprised at his IS' appearance.

"Oh, you haven’t tried to run away, I see. And it seems that our intelligence was true. A fully armored IS unit."

She said, with her usual arrogant tone, the words being transmitted through a public communication line, but Unicorn's gaze wasn't on her.

His eyes scanned the arena where their fight would be held.

The arena had a diameter of 200 meters, with a headspace of 400 meters. It's spacious enough to move in, on land and in the air. And judging by their current distance, Unicorn estimated that a shot from her MK-III Starlight would reach him 0.4 seconds after firing.

Then, his attention shifts. The four wings that hovered near Cecilia were optical drones that served as her thrusters and main weapons; the Equalizers were what gave Blue Tear its name, as they were shaped like a person's tears.

(DING!)

The bell rang, signaling the start of the fight. However, she didn't move nor fire her weapon. Instead, she gave her usual cocky smirk as she flipped one of her drill-curled locks.

"I will give you one last chance."

A vein visibly twitched on Bakura's temple.

"You... You shouldn't underestimate me."

"This battle has a foregone conclusion, especially with your unsightly IS. Truly, it looks so basic that even mass-produced models would have better tack. Well, if you don’t want to be crawling in the dirt by the end, I will let you off easy if you apologize."

She said with the widest smile across her face as a warning blared.

[WARNING: ENEMY WEAPON-SAFETY DISENGAGED]

[LOCK-ON READING DETECTED]

He instantly moved to the side.

(Reeshiiing!)

A split second later, a blue beam tore through the space where he had just stood, barely missing him. From Cecilia's side, one of the four optical drones was pointing towards him with a wisp of smoke coming out from it.

"Now dance! Dance to the waltz of me, Cecilia Alcott, and Blue Tears!”"

Without giving him a breath, all four drones on her back rotated smoothly, locking onto him as they started glowing a hue of blue. His shield rose instantly as four laser beams shot towards him.

He gritted his teeth; the power behind the beams was heavy! But Unicorn was stronger than that; it took the laser beams without moving a single inch.

The thrusters on his back flared back to life as Unicorn started to float from the ground, and without a single second wasted, he flew into the sky.

"Trying to run away? As if I'd let you!"

The four wings separated from their master as they started chasing him down, firing beam after beam at his IS.

Most of them missed due to his fast reaction time that allowed him to dodge and weave through them in the air, but some hit the mark—if not for the Svalinn on his left hand.

'Bringing this was a good choice.'

The shield’s anti-beam coating shimmered faintly with every hit, dispersing the energy and minimizing damage. Scorch marks and dents began to accumulate across its surface. Without it, he’d already be dropping from the sky in pieces. But this can't go on forever; his shield could only take so much before it breaks.

He needed to get more data.

[HEAD EXPANSION SLOT EQUIPPED: VULCAN CANNONS]

With a single thought, the panels at each side of his helmet slid open, unveiling Vulcan Cannon machine guns that started firing light-penetration rounds towards the in-place Cecilia.

(Ratatatatatatata!)

Clicking her tongue, she moved out of the way as the bullets zipped across the battlefield, missing her. Raising her Starlight rifle and taking aim, she returned fire with her own barrage of beam attacks into the skies.

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In the observation deck of pit 3, Ms. Yamada was monitoring the shield level of both IS while Ms. Orimura, Ichika, and Shinonono watched the fight through a large display.

"Bakura's IS, it looks way different from Cecilia's IS."

He then noticed Shinonono, who had a frown on her face.

"What's up?"

"That IS..."

She swore that she had seen it before, but she couldn't remember when she did. All she remembered was seeing the silhouette of a large horn-like object on the IS when she was younger.

"Unicorn Gundam, model number: IS-0. The full armor that you see is Shinonono Tabane's first-ever concept when she was drafting the idea of an IS."

All eyes in the observation deck went to Ms. Orimura, who explained with crossed arms, her eyes still locked on the display.

"If Alcott's IS is a third-generation model, then Uchiyama's Unicorn would likely be designated as a zero-generation model IS."

Ichika's eyes widened. Shinonono stiffened at the name. Ms. Yamada gasped from her seat.

"But after she created the energy shield system, Absolute Defense, metal-based IS frames proved to be inferior to an energy barrier that allowed more mobility and flexibility. Therefore, she scrapped the full-armored look and went with the IS design known today."

"Heh? So that's why pilots in IS units looked so vulnerable. So it's not just some kind of weird design, right, Chifu—?"

(WHAM!)

"I told you, it's Ms. Orimura when on school grounds."

Ichika kneeled as he clutched the bruise on his head caused by Ms. Orimura's book. Shinonono, however, pointed out something as the battle went on.

"Uchiyama isn't hitting his shots."

Looking at the gauge at the bottom of the screen, the counter that represented an IS' shield energy under the name Unicorn was slowly whittling down by the second, dropping to 71%.

Meanwhile, Cecilia's Blue Tears energy count was still at a high 88 percent. At the pace that they were dropping, Unicorn's energy shield numbers would reach zero before Blue Tears.

"Ah, isn't this bad? Doesn't he have anything else other than the guns on his head?"

The only male in the vicinity muttered, but Ms. Yamada, however, pushed her glasses up as she gave an approving nod.

"Actually, Uchiyama is doing it on purpose."

The two students gave her a strange look, which made her panic slightly.

"I-I mean, he's only using his Vulcan Cannons as a distraction! Uchiyama is baiting Alcott into going all out with her full capabilities so that he can measure her skill and weaponry. With this strategy, he can understand and plan while simultaneously keeping what he and his IS can do a mystery, which will force Alcott to panic... At least, th-that's what I think!"

"...Whoa. You're informative, aren't you, teacher?"

(WHAM!)

"Respect your teachers; there's a reason why she's one in the first place..."

Ms. Orimura sighed at her brother's attitude when Shinonono alerted everyone.

"He's making his move!"

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'So that's how it works...!'

He confirmed his suspicion, which was formed after countless hours of rewatching Blue Tears' combat logs. To get those, he had to ask permission from Ms. Yamada, who gave him the student's maximum-level clearance code to delve deeper into the school records.

(Ratatatata—click! Click!)

And just in time, his Vulcan Cannons went silent, having run out of ammunition. And Svalinn looked seconds away from shattering to pieces due to accumulating too much damage.

Another pair of beams struck it squarely from Cecilia's Starlight Rifle, forcing him back midair. She soon realized that the gunfire from Unicorn had stopped, coming to a single conclusion.

"So, you've run out of bullets?! Perfect, let the curtain rise on the finale!"

The British National Cadet jeered, thrusting out her right arm as her Blue Tear Equalizers, he'll call them to Funnels, immediately spread out, moving around him to surround him.

As the Funnels started glowing their signature hue of blue, Unicorn's sensors warned that she had her rifle aimed right at him, intending to deplete his remaining shield energy with this attack.

Inside his IS, Bakura's eyes sharpened at the sight.

This is the chance!

Responding to his thoughts, Unicorn responded. The thrusters of Unicorn roared loudly as blue rays flared from them. And in the blink of an eye, he vanished just as the Funnels fired their beams.

"Urgh!"

The G-Force from transitioning from stationary to full speed was intense, but he managed to dodge the beams at the last second! The surprised look on Cecilia as Unicorn raced towards her IS was all he needed as he held on.

The edge of Svalinn sliced into the ground, barely missing her Blue Tears as she backpedaled away with her rifle aimed at him. Fast recovery, but the sudden action must have made her lose her concentration!

These weapons of hers don't move unless she issues orders every single time. And while she's giving orders, it requires all of her focus to control them!

The sensors of Unicorn relayed that his hypothesis, after deducing their weakness while noticing the flaw during his time with the old combat logs, was true, as the Funnels stood in place, no new movement registered while their master scrambled to gain distance between them.

Landing on the ground, he pushed forward with his legs as he leaped towards her with his right arm raised. A flash of light flickered as a long, slender object formed midair.

Grabbing the object out of the air with a clean motion, a quick message was relayed from Unicorn as power surged from Unicorn's total power, channeling the energy into the object.

[RIGHT ARM EXPANSION SLOT EQUIPPED: BEAM SABER]

With a high-pitched vrmmmmm, a razor-sharp beam of energy ignited from the hilt.

In 0.8 seconds, he entered melee range. Just a meter of space separated them.

Her surprised look shifted into a smile as she quickly exclaimed.

"Got you."

With a smooth whirr, the battle skirt armor plates retracted from Cecilia's waist, and two objects moved from within the armor.

"I’m sorry, but there are six Blue Tears bits!"

Gathering energy, the Funnels lit up when his distorted voice, the first word of dialogue that came out after the battle started, echoed from the Unicorn's helmet.

"I know."

The combat logs showed six Blue Tears Funnels!

With a quick motion, Svalinn moved between Blue Tears and the Unicorn. Just before the Funnels fired, a segment of the shield slid open, revealing the hidden core of the Svalinn.

The laser beams were fired from point-blank range, but instead of leaving scorch marks or shattering the shield, they slammed into an energy barrier that flared into existence just an instant before impact.

"What? Absolute Defense?!"

Bakura grinned from the shock that Cecilia showed.

That's right. Hidden within the Svalinn was a miniature Absolute Defense generator! It expends a lot of energy from Unicorn itself, but the shock left a large opening for him to exploit.

He had her now!

Gripping the Beam Saber, he swung the concentrated beam of energy downwards.

(SLASH!)

She raised her Starlight rifle in an attempt to block the Beam Saber, but the energy blade simply cleaved through it like butter as it came into contact with her Absolute Defense shield.

The clash of energies caused a loud chirk to echo, protecting the pilot from any harm. However, her energy shield drastically depleted, sending her shield levels down from 89% to 0% in just a second.

A buzzer rang out as soon as her shield levels emptied out.

["Battle over. Winner: Uchiyama Bakura."]

The audience in the third arena burst into applause as he let the beam energy from his Beam Saber fizzle out.

"Hah. I won."

He didn't expect this result, but he's glad his plan worked.

He mentally withdrew Svalinn and the Beam Saber back into Unicorn's storage system as he looked over at Cecilia's humiliated expression.

Not wanting to be a spoiled sport, he mentally willed for Unicorn's helmet plate to slide up with a whirr, revealing his face as he reached out to her.

"Good fight."

Cecilia stared at him blankly for a second, then, without a word, took his hand. He pulled her gently back to her feet.

The battle was over.... And he was now the vice-representative of his class.

... Huh. He didn't really think this through.

Shit.

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A/N:

I'd like to think that I cooked with this. Hope you guys enjoyed this like I have, this was a blast to write.