Disclaimer: I don't own Infinite Stratos or its characters. The only thing I do own in this piece of work thus far, is Shinsei Tenka and my OC .

Ichika Orimura the first and so far, only male IS user.

Ichika had pretty much lived a very normal life. Though there were several things that already does make him unique aside from being the first and only male IS user.

During his last year in middle school (which was a year after Rin left), he met a silver long-haired woman that seemed to radiate power during his trip back to his house. She wore a simple dress and always had what he assumed at that time, a katana strapped to her back.

The same woman seemed to watch over him every time he headed home, but once he reached a certain distance away, she disappears into the forest.

A few weeks after his first sighting of the woman, he was attacked by a bunch of delinquents that were apparently drunk. Just as he was about to be stabbed to death by one of the delinquents carrying a butterfly knife, the silver haired girl intervened and beat the delinquents with a mere bouken.

This was what motivated Ichika to approach the woman.

A few days later he approached the woman that had constantly watched over him. Once in front of her, he immediately fell to his knees and pleaded to be taught with her sword style.

"Please teach me how to fight!" Ichika said earnestly.

He wasn't quite sure what made him do it, but Ichika always felt that being protected by others was something he couldn't just keep getting himself into. His own sister had sacrificed her second victory in the tournament just to save him. It was all due to his helplessness. He had already learned kendo before, but the style that the woman used to help him surpassed all of his expectations on what the sword could do.

The woman was obviously flustered, to which Ichika merely thought of as embarrassment.

"Why do you want to learn from me?" She asked somewhat shyly.

Ichika remained in the same position and replied, "I want to have the ability to protect myself... I don't want to be the one always being saved and... I want to protect those important to me."

The woman was silent for a moment and Ichika hoped his answer was enough.

"Though not the best of answers," She paused making Ichika more nervous and somewhat afraid that he would be rejected, "But you would hopefully form a different answer under my tutelage."

"Then..!" Ichika trailed off as he looked hopefully at her.

The woman greeted him with a warm smile, "My name's Yuuki Amakusa.(1) From now on, meet me here two hours before school and right after school. In your free days, meet me here at 4AM."

Ichika remained unperturbed by the proposed training time and gratefully accepted it.

Yuuki Amakusa was about two years older than Ichika and was a master of the style that she used against the delinquents. She was unexpectedly young for someone to master such a style. Despite her graceful and royal aura, her training methods are definitely not.

The following weeks had Ichika worked through the bone with her inhumane training methods. Ranging from running around the town outskirt's at least three times every morning and increasing his reaction rate by having projectiles thrown at him while he was instructed to jump from tree to tree in the forest without getting hit, in the afternoon. He was already dead tired, and he hadn't even begun learning the style yet! The training however, dramatically increased his reaction rate, speed and stamina.

Despite the difficulty of the training, he never once complained (at least not outwardly). If this was what it took to get stronger to protect others or at the very least, himself, he would endure it.

Once Yuuki decided that it was time for him to learn the style, she gave him an ultimatum he must follow: never teach or tell anyone about the style and two that the style that she was going to pass down to him should never be used unless in a life or death situation.

The style in question was the Shinsei Tenka style.

The Shinsei Tenka style relies mainly in quick fatal executions, which made the style extremely difficult to control. The main reason that she told him not use the style unless in the said situations, is because even with the use of a bouken, the style itself could cripple opponents without the control of a master.

Aside from this, Shinsei Tenka is a constantly evolving style. New successors to the style would have to incorporate their own styles into Shinsei Tenka to further their advancement. In a way, there are many Shinsei Tenka variations, but only few have actually survived unto the present. Those that survived unto the present is either described to be the strongest version of the Shinsei Tenka or a static version of the first. (2)

From then on, the training he received got harder and harder which if he thought about it, would have been impossible at the day he began training. He would then spar with Yuuki at least one hour during the afternoon (to which he never won a single match). And to top it all off, he was keeping it all a secret from his sister (though he had a feeling that she already knew something regarding his situation).

Yuuki Amakusa, though strict with her training regiment, was a nice person to be around with. She genuinely cared for Ichika's well being, which made Ichika question as to what was the reason she had watched over him in the first place.

It was about the time of his graduation from Middle School that he had learned most of the Shinsei Tenka style. It was also that time when Yuuki left his town.

To Ichika however, it felt like a disappearance.

The sudden disappearance of Yuuki struck him odd and had him worried. Yuuki had began to act rather oddly in the days that led up to her disappearance. He thought nothing of it, until a whole week of not encountering her. When he tried to go to the usual spots, he found no one there. When he went to the clearing in the forest that they usually trained, all he found was a katana addressed to him. The disappearance basically made his thoughts go all over the place.

When Ichika went to the Community Center to take his entrance exam for the high school he planned to go to, his unfocused state coupled with his unfamiliarity of the Community Center got him lost and had him accidentally take an IS entrance exam.

Which brings us to the present...

After being berated by his older sister regarding his class conduct, he had unwittingly labeled himself as the class idiot.

He knew he should have read that thick book on IS before he got to school... Somehow, the thought of going into a school intended only for females had him freeze up and think mainly about how he was going to survive in the school. Which of course didn't help with his current situation.

It was only the first day and he had practically attracted the attention of the whole school. It didn't help that he lacked knowledge regarding IS in general. He was male for crying out loud! He never once thought that he would be in a class learning about IS, let alone piloting one.

Also, due to his so called male pride, he had accepted a challenge from a girl named Cecilia, the candidate representative of Europe. Which meant (as he has recently learned) that she has a private IS.

It was lunch time and in five days, the battle that would decide who would be the class representative is going to take place.

According to his sister, his very own personal IS will be arriving at the day of the battle. Which meant, he can't get any experience for now, so the only way of improving his chance on winning the battle, was to stuff his head about technical knowledge on IS.

"Houki, can you teach me about IS?" Was the first few words that Ichika blurted out once Houki and Ichika sat down to eat for lunch.

Houki apparently needed a moment to think about it. They were childhood friends right? Why can't she help him now at his time of need?

An upperclassman, hearing of Ichika's ask for help approached there table and volunteered to tutor him about IS.

Ichika was about to agree, mainly due to the fact that Ichika had a feeling that Houki was going to reject tutoring him. He was pleasantly surprised however when Houki said, "I will be the one tutoring him."

The upperclassman argued, "I'm a senor so wouldn't it make more sense that I should be the one tutoring him?"

Houki replied in the same calm tone as before, "I'm the younger sister of Shinono Tabane." This apparently shocked the upperclassman. "So there's no need."

The upperclassman wanted to argue, but it seemed that she had no choice on the matter and left.

It was later that day when he found out that Houki first wanted to check how his skills in Kendo had held out in the years that they hadn't met.

Ichika was at first confident he would win, that was until he remembered that Yuuki made him promise he would keep Shinsei Tenka a secret unless he's in a dire situation.

So Ichika had to use what little he could remember from his time at the kendo club and what his sister had taught him.

Due to the fact that he hadn't practiced kendo for several years (and the fact that he was holding himself back from reacting using Shinsei Tenka – something that was apparently beaten into him by Yuuki), he lost albeit convincingly well.

"You've gotten weaker Ichika!" Houki berated. "What have you been doing all these years?"

Ichika acted as if he was exhausted, if he wasn't the least bit exhausted, that would have drawn a bit of suspicion. "I've been part of the go home club for 5 years consecutively." Not exactly a lie, learning Shinsei Tenka wasn't really a club.

Houki had a pensive expression.

"I thought we're suppose to be learning about IS not kendo?" Ichika asked as he stood up.

"I – It can't be helped!" Houki stammered, a complete contrast to her normal stern and serious voice that he had grown accustomed to. "Fighting in an IS is similar to fighting in real life. So until then, I'll be training you in kendo!"

Ichika inwardly facepalmed. It was times like this he wished Yuuki didn't ask him to keep Shinsei Tenka a secret.

Sighing to himself, he accepted the training. If anything, the kendo practice would hopefully give him a much needed secondary style to fall back to when Shinsei Tenka couldn't be used.

Day of the Duel...

The duel was to take place after class. So naturally, the day proceeded normally. Of course the normality of it all despite the match that was coming at the end of the day, unnerved Ichika mainly because all he had been doing the last few days were kendo training. None of which were anywhere related to the piloting of an IS.

It was about the end of classes when Yamada-sensei came and alerted him about the arrival of his personal IS.

So Houki and Ichika raced towards Arena 3's pit to see the IS.

"Ichika," Houki said as she ran along with Ichika towards Arena 3, "Are you really ready for this?"

"To be honest, I don't really know." Ichika replied sheepishly, "I mean, all we did was practice kendo."

"Well, it's because your forms has gotten worse, although your reflex and speed is actually pretty good."

Once they reached the pit, they came face to face with a white looking IS.

"This is your personal IS, Ichika." The voice of Chifuyu rang over from the PA system.

Ichika slowly walked over it and touched the IS with his right hand.

Upon contact, a sudden jolt coursed through his body – like a pulse of a human being.

"This feeling...!" Ichika muttered. For some reason he could feel an uncanny familiarity towards the IS. Whatever it was, he couldn't quite remember it.

"Is there anything wrong Orimura-kun?" Yamada sensei asked over the loud speaker.

"No, everything's alright." Ichika said firmly as he began to put on the IS.

Once done, Ichika checked the settings, Yamada-sensei's voice rang out from the loud speaker once again, "The IS your in right now is called the Byaku Shiki, it only has one usable weapons as of now mainly since it only has one slot."

Ichika checked the weapons, "Yukihiro Nigata... it's Chifuyu-nee's weapon..."

"Cecilia's IS is Blue Tears. It's a sniper type." Yamada-sensei said.

"Blue Tears..." Ichika had a gut feeling this won't be easy. If his only weapon was Yukihiro Nigata – a close range weapon – then how would he fare against a long range one? Yuuki had already beaten into him that range gives a huge advantage over one no matter the skill level, and he was a beginner at this!

"Prepare to launch Ichika." Chifuyu's voice said over the loud speaker, bringing him out of his reverie.

"Ok..." Ichika took a calming deep breath. There's nothing he could do about it, he would have to play it cool if he aimed to win, "Byaku Shiki launching!"

Author's Notes:

(1) Yuuki Amakusa is the OC that I have created in this fan fiction (though this could be debated otherwise – not saying much for now). She will be referred to every now and then, but her actual physical appearance during the time line or her next major role won't come out until much later.

(2) To those who hadn't realized the reference, this is similar to the evolution of the Shigure Soen Ryu style of Katekyo Hitman Reborn. Despite the similarity with how the style grows, it's a style that I've created – thus has essentially very different techniques. Shinsei Tenka however, will not play an integral role on the plot for the time being. By what I mean by static version of the first is that the style hadn't changed at all since it was first taught (like scrolls describing how the style was originally).

This fan fiction is mainly a rewriting of the IS anime. I haven't quite read the IS light novel (since it isn't fully translated) and I find the art style of the manga horrible. So most of the scenes will be based on the anime. I'll also be exploring different viewpoints (but mainly Ichika's) to provide a wider perspective of the characters.

No defined pairing in this fan fiction. I'll basically leave it like how the anime has gone by having the girls (plus an OC or two) showing attraction to him with Ichika acting none the wiser (he's oblivious).

NOTE: This is a side fiction that I've written and had been staying within my hard drive for a long while now. In other words, this won't be regularly updated or might not even be completed. So expect 3-5 months (or even yearly) gaps from each update. I've just decided to post this for the heck of it.