“Come back here, Ichika!”
Houki races through the school hallways in hot pursuit of Ichika, with a bokken in hand. Ichika dare not turn to look for he knows the second he does so, he'll be rewarded with the painful side, that is any side, of the bamboo sword.
“Houki, stop! It was just a misunderstanding!”
“I'm not that dumb!”
Ichika knew he's marked for death when Houki saw him being glomped by Tatenashi, and no amount of reasoning is going to stop his frenzied childhood friend from laying down divine punishment upon him. His only chance is to keep running, and at this point, anywhere is fair game.
Since when was he an athlete...!? Ichika never ran this fast before! Houki herself begin to realize she's not catching up to him at all.
Until he ran into a wide hallway, a fatal mistake on his part.
“In that case... Akatsubaki!” And her IS instantly forms around her, now actually being able to catch up with Ichika.
She deployed her IS!?
He drop-rolls on instinct, narrowly avoiding a katana blade that she seems to have haphazardly switched to. Running the opposite way, he turns at a corner hoping to lose the now-crazed pursuer. Much to his dismay, she manages to locate him and resume her chase.
“Why do you have the sword out!? You're going to kill me with that!”
“Then stop right where you are!”
“Not until you put that away first!”
It was that moment where he realises he's been running into wide hallways. A turn into a narrow path is further ahead and he begins to sprint for it.
“I-chi-KA!” Houki shouts as she's about to catch up.
“Damn it...!” There's no chance for him to escape her wrath on foot. He brings up his gauntlet. “Come forth, Byaku-!”
Before he could finish reciting his IS' name, something crashes through the hallway's wall and knocks him ahead while cutting off Houki's path.
It was White Elf. He caught her hands and holds her in place.
“You're...!”
“White Elf!”
He pushes her away. “Sorry for the intrusion. But I can't stand seeing IS being used for violence. Much less against someone who's unarmed.”
“What? That's none of your business! My target is him!”
White Elf brings out the Stout Rifle. “You're using an armed machine against an unarmed target. Now put that away or I will attack.”
Ichika didn't know what to think. White Elf made his debut before him as an enemy but here he's apparently defending him from Houki. To her, on the other hand, White Elf has come off as an intruder in her personal pursuit of Ichika and she's not about to let him hold her off from her target.
“You alright?” Elf asks Ichika, whom is still confused at the situation.
“Y-Yeah... But this is-”
“Get out of my way!” Houki grows enraged and brings out a second katana.
Elf holds up his rifle as it generates a beam underneath, blocking against her attack.
“So that's how it's going to be.” He pushes her away again. She fires multiple red beams in a narrows spread but White Elf deploys a field with his left gauntlet, absorbing all her shots.
“Prepare yourself!” Houki charges towards him again.
“That's my line.” He channels the absorbed power into the Stout Rifle and points it at her. “Rifle, double fire mode.” and he squeezes both triggers. Almost instantaneously, a thick beam and a high-velocity bullet zips right into her chest.
Even with the IS' passive barrier protection, the double shot knocked her back hard, sending her tumbling back down the hallway.
“AAH!” She tumbles into a grinding halt, and her IS powers down.
“Houki...!”
“She'll be fine.” White Elf stores his rifle and turns to Ichika. “As long as she stops, that'll be the end of my business here.”
“But you see... It was just a minor misunderstanding. You didn't have to-”
“Hey, you!” Another voice calls out to White Elf. He turns back and sees Laura as she deploys the Schwarzer Regen.
“Another one?”
“Ichika, get away! He's mine!” She goes head-on with her arm beam sabers.
“Wait, STOP!” Ichika runs in between Laura and White Elf, stopping her from attacking. “As I said, this is all a misunderstanding! He was just-”
“What's got into you? That's an enemy you're defending!”
“Like I said-!”
“He's holding you hostage, isn't he? In that case, I will...!” She prepares to lunge the beam saber, much to Ichika's dismay that he kept getting cut off between his words.
“Listen to me-!”
White Elf pushes Ichika away from the oncoming saber and puts up the absorption barrier. The field holds the saber in place, rapidly shredding it into digital fragments and absorbs them. Laura pulls away and deploys the AIC field, which too gets absorbed by Elf's field.
“How's this!?” She brings down the Railgun and fires at White Elf, whose barrier absorbs the bullet the instant it exits the muzzle. Seeing her IS' power being drained due to his absorption barrier, she quickly pulls back.
“My turn.” A bright ember-glowing orb forms around White Elf's right arm and he sprints towards Laura, throwing his arm right into her.
“OOF-!”
The punch emits a bright flash and immense impact that it sends Laura flying back across the hallway as her IS dissipates into its Closed Form.
“I really hope that's it for today.” Says White Elf as he dusts off his hands against each other.
“Ah! The white thing!”
-ping-
A third yet familiar, high-pitched voice shouts at him. He slowly turns back, trying to suppress the anger from being addressed in such derogating manner, and sees Rin standing next to the two girls he just defeated.
Like Houki and Laura before her, Rin too charges towards him with her Shenlong deployed.
“Oh c'mon...” White Elf grows weary from the string of attacks. He channels power into his right leg. The leg and feet armor splits open, revealing transluscent ember-glowing structures within.
-BANG-
“Why did it come to this...” Ichika laments to himself, cupping his hand on his face.
Next to Houki and Laura, Rin lies flat on her face.
“Hopefully that's the last for today.” White Elf walks away. Just he reaches the hole he came in from, he finds Mikoto standing outside with her arms folded.
“...”
“Just so you know, we already have teachers in charge of punishing students who go out of line with their IS.”
“I know. Then again...” He looks back at the hallway. “At least this way, their actions would be written off as guarding the Academy against an external threat and they won't have to be punished. Am I wrong?”
Mikoto sighs at his reasoning and steps aside. “You really do remind me of someone.”
2014-04-05, 01:05
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