Brave Infinite Vesperia

Flight One

Prologue By Any Other Name

[Prologue]

You of common heritage, whose character define that which is bravery and noble of heart.

You of knightly spirit, whose shoulders bear the weight of justice.

You of sword mastery, whose blades are wielded in the defense of others.

You of wolfen winds, whose tales honors the brightest star.

You of Terca Lumireis, whose legends will be told for ages to come.

[You of the heroic soul shall be reborn in a world in need of your aid.]

[...]

First name, Ichika, family name, Orimura; Ichika Orimura, fifteen years old Japanese male, that is our protagonist.

He is an orphan, his birth-parents had abandoned him and his older sister, Chifuyu Orimura, nearly ten years ago, and since then the pair had lived relatively on their own.

However, even Chifuyu Orimura would soon take leave out of much of Ichika's growing life.

It was not even a year passed after their orphaning when the thing known as 'Infinite Stratos,' or 'IS' for short, had became known world-wide due to a spectacular event dubbed 'The White Night Incident' which astounded the whole world.

These machines were revolutionary technology. They were originally designed for space exploration, however The White Night Incident had proven them to be far more capable of destruction than anyone else had thought possible.

A single unit, 'White Knight,' had destroyed over 2000 missiles and an entire military army on its own.

This blatant display of firepower caused a shift in the power-balance of the world. Everybody clamored to get their hands on an Infinite Stratos of their own, yet at the same time the 'Alaska Treaty' was drafted up and agreed upon by the nations to stop the misuse of such potent power.

But there was an unexpected catch: these Infinite Stratos could only be piloted by the fairer sex, by women, and so not only did the power-balance change in the military but also changed politically and daily; females soon became the dominate gender within society.

It was in no time at all did Chifuyu Orimura become one of the most world-renowned pilots ever seen and is in fact often considered the best there is to date.

It was only but a single year, just after every nation around the world had barely scratched the surface of the black-box that were the IS Cores, when it was decided that a world-wide tournament would be a good idea to flaunt new discoveries and advancements in the realm of Infinite Stratos development.

Mondo Grosso; that was the name of the tournament that is now held once every three years and the victor would earn fame, glory, and money and be crowned 'Brynhildr.'

Chifuyu Orimura was the first Brynhildr nine years ago but she was only a finalist during the second tournament six years ago. It was by a series of unfortunate events beyond her control that stole the throne of victory from her. Certain detractors that did not wish for her to win and had kidnapped Ichika during that time to force her to forfeit.

Their plan only worked half-right, as the older sister had easily forfeited the tournament but angrily stormed the mysterious organization's base of operations and tore them to shreds.

That day since Chifuyu Orimura had retired from being an Infinite Stratos pilot and rarely came home. So the young Ichika has been living relatively on his own ever since, living an ordinary but peaceful life for some years now.

Yet a simple but small moment of chance will change his entire life.

[...]

The pans sizzle, the pots boil, the plates click and clank as they are place on the table. Ichika is cooking up a light breakfast to eat, as the young fifteen year old boy did not want to be late to his high school examination.

Due to a cheating case last year, the government had only divulged the locations for each school's entrance exam only two days before the actual examination took place.

'What a drag, isn't that a bit excessive?' was Ichika's thoughts on the matter.

Still, there wasn't anything he could do about it, being an average teenager, and so he simply went with the flow.

Aoetsu Private School, that was Ichika's first choice of academic learning. It was relatively average in standards and also close to his home, more importantly though, the fees for attending were exceptionally inexpensive and almost inconsequential as most of the graduates were hired by the school's sponsor corporation.

Such requirements were a 'must' for Ichika. He felt some guilt for 'forcing' his sister to forfeit Mondo Grosso six years ago to save him and continually felt like a burden since she was also stilling paying for his living expenses as well.

'It seems I bring trouble wherever I go,' he chuckles to himself with a tinge of self-deprecation, 'I'm cursed, aren't I?' he mulls over the thought as he takes a bite from his toasted bread.

[...]

Fifteen minutes later, Ichika Orimura finished his breakfast and is walking outside in the cold spring weather. With his scarf wrapped around his neck, the teenage boy would look like a pretty girl if seen from the distance.

He had long straight black hair and equally dark black eyes. The shape of his face was rather sharp and rounded and his body frame wasn't all that noticeably different from a girl's when clothed. From appearances alone, a person would be hard-pressed to guess whether Ichika Orimura was male or female.

Of course, barring the idea of stripping him bare naked to have a look at his lean body or checking out his manhood, there was one extremely easy way to tell that he was male.

And that was by hearing his voice.

A deep and rich voice, it was one that expressed his youth easily but also intoned his roguish demeanor.

It was always quite a bother to him when somebody tried flirting with him, yet it was always his pleasure to break their delusion the moment he spoke a word. In fact, it was almost routine for Ichika's middle-school classmates to play a joke on their guy friends by having them unknowingly hit on him, only to have them become flustered when he turned them down because he didn't swing that way.

"Crap, am I lost...?" the boy mutters to himself.

He had arrived at his destination but this public facility was all too unknown to him, so he wasn't exactly sure where in this building was his examination actually taking place; it didn't help that the building seemed to be very labyrinth-like in design and he couldn't make heads or tail about where the hallways were suppose to lead to. There also didn't seem to be any people around to help guide the students to the proper location either, or at least he didn't find any around.

'Man, maybe I should have took a tour of this place two days ago...'

It was a bit embarrassing to Ichika that this was happening. He hoped that nobody would ever learn of this.

'Do I have to check every room?'

At this point, he was more worried at being stuck lost for hours than actually missing out on his entrance exam.

Opening the first door in sight, Ichika was unpleasantly greeted by the disgruntle rambling of an older woman.

"Ah, you're an examinee? Hurry up and go over there to get changed then. We can only borrow it for until 4:00pm and we're not getting an extension," the woman had said before mumbling, "Jeez. What is the government even thinking, rushing us like this..."

The woman had taken only a quick glance at Ichika, and before giving him time to respond, she had swiftly pushed him into a curtained section of the room and then walked away.

"What... what was that all about?" the shocked boy grumbles to himself, he was getting the odd feeling that he wasn't suppose to be here, "Changing clothes? Why?" And the step-by-step instructions that he was left with weren't helping that suspicion.

He wanted to brush the curtain aside and claim that he was in the wrong place but curiosity got the better of him.

What kind of examination took place in a dark room with only one other person around?

And so he turns around and spots the oddity immediately.

In the middle of the closed off section was a machine. It looked like a suit of armor, only incomplete and much too large for any normal human to walk around in. It had protections for the legs, arms, and shoulders that all seemed to hover yet were deathly still, and offered no more armor for anything else. Its form almost seemed like it was kneeling, like a knight swearing loyalty.

Ichika's mouth was wide open.

"That's... an IS!"

He had never seen one so up-close before and excitement changed his expression into a happy grin. It was certainly said and proven that only females could ever pilot an Infinite Stratos, but such thing did not bother the boy him all too much; Ichika only wanted to touch the machine.

Growing up, he had seen many videos and heard many stories about them, but the ones that struck a chord with him the most were the battles that his older sister participated in in the first and second Mondo Grosso.

He was simply awestruck by the capabilities of these machines.

He had watched many recordings of Chifuyu gracefully and skillfully defeating her opponents with but a mere energy-blade. Such splendor caused his blood to excitingly boil; when he was given the opportunity to learn swordsmanship with a childhood friend he practically jumped at the chance with great enthusiasm.

Even though the kidnapping event six-years ago had blown away much of his fire, to this day Ichika Orimura still gets riled up by the thoughts and memories of seeing two fierce warriors battle each other in high-speed combat. His lively imagination constantly prods his dreams of piloting an Infinite Stratos one day, even if he had to most likely settle for being an old man to ever see it happen in his lifetime.

'It really must be nice...' Ichika thinks to himself as one of his hands reaches out to touch the metal frame of the silent machine, 'to be able to pilot one of these things...'

His fingers lightly brush against the cold metal and a jolt shocks his mind.

He hears the howl of a wolf and then new information suddenly intrudes upon his conscious mind; knowledge of movement, characteristics, equipments, energy, radar, and so forth.

Within an instant Ichika simply knew that he could pilot an Infinite Stratos and a feral smile tears into his face.

The armor of the Infinite Stratos floats up and envelops him in its protection. The boosters hovers the machine up against the wooden floor. A small combat knife appears in his left hand. And all of it just felt so right, so complete, so exhilarating.

There was no doubt in him anymore.

Ichika Orimura instinctively understood.

He could pilot an Infinite Stratos.

The teen suppresses the urge to loudly laugh as he feels an exhilarating euphoria course through his entire body.

'I feel like I can take on the whole world!' he muses as he experiences reality through the Infinite Stratos' senses.

It was an odd thing, seeing the world with his human senses but also through the data of numbers that the machine interpreted. If anybody asked him what it was like then he wouldn't be able to properly explain it. But if he had to give a word to describe it then he would choose 'Flying.'

Suddenly the curtain is pushed aside and the woman from before returns. Again, she only takes a quick glance at Ichika with a mostly irked face.

"Well, it looks like you can activate an IS," she was recording something down on her tablet computer, "Okay, since you've got some talent, that means you pass," she stops her tapping only for a moment, "Name?"

The girlish looking boy smiles, "Orimura Ichika," and spoke his name with his teasingly deep voice.

Author Notes

Can I even call this a Crossover...?

This is just another story idea I have and, again, it's just for testing the water. I still have other on-going fanfics, so I have no idea when I'll get the chance to properly update this or make it a full-fledged story...

[9/16/12] Chapter uploaded.

[9/18/12] Extended the ending just a little bit.

[9/21/12] More proof-reading, minor editing, minor additional lines.

[9/27/12] More proof-reading and editing.

[11/16/12] More proof-reading and editing.