A Knight Does Not Die with Empty Hands [F/SN / Infinite Stratos / ???]

[X] Try to get Tabane on the line, she's her sister; she has to know what's up

 

[X] Try to get Tabane on the line, she's her sister; she has to know what's up

 

[X] Try to talk to Houki; get straight to the bottom of what's causing this

Get the even crazier sister in on this... I don't think so.

 

[X] Go tell your parents that you're having nightmares and haven't slept for nine days, Houki. They'll probably let you sleep with them in their bed. They're your parents, protecting you is their job.

 

Right... that was an... odd breakdown. Anyone have any idea who that could have been from?

 

Those who don't follow the mirror thread over on SB might not know this, but it was figured out that Houki was Mishra and Tabane was Urza.
Even without knowing that, it should be clear that Houki has very negative past life experiences whenever she sleeps and Tabane was the only one who managed to somewhat help her with that.
Now Tabane is on the run and can't exactly do that right now, so Houki has stopped sleeping to escape the nightmares of her past life, which, somewhat ironically, leads to the more ... problematic parts of her past life surfacing as a side effect of Houki going crazy.

 

Aww hell. That's just plain mean.

 

I never said I was a nice guy... >

 

Shit son, those two? Ah well, nothing makes for interesting character development more thatn 1000s of years of mind-rape.

Suddenly that dream-sequence makes so much more sense.

 

[X] Try to get Tabane on the line, she's her sister; she has to know what's up

"Shhhh, Houki. Houki," your best friend is still breaking down, repeatedly saying 'nononono' over and over again, "It's going to be ok, Houki. I'm here; just talk to me and we can work things out."

She shakes her head, "No, no I can't. You can't help me; you'll just say it's just a nightmare like my parents do. How it's all in my head and can't hurt me," she cries and shakes her head harder, "But it's not; it hurts and I can feel it. No matter how hard I try to ignore it, I can't. He's watching me, waiting; I can see him in the shadows...."

Again you try to reassure Houki, trying to regain some stability here, "Houki, no matter what happens; I will always trust you and believe what you say. Trust me when I say that I wanna help you, and to do that, I need to know some things. Ok?" Houki takes a moment to look at you with tear-stained eyes, before finally nodding.

Now that you've got her support, you continue to try to figure out what's going on, "Alright Houki; how often are you getting these 'nightmares'? I know that you've had them before, but only every once and awhile, what hap-"

Houki cuts you off and tells you, "Every time I go to sleep; it's always been like that. The only times when people noticed were the times when nee-san didn't get to me in time. I tried to sleep without nee-san, but I couldn't; not without...without..." she shudders, "So after a week of trying, I stopped. They can't come to me if I don't sleep, right?"

Surprised by the fact that this has been happening far more often then you initially thought, you continue your questioning, "What about your parents? You couldn't possibly have kept this from them, why not go to them for help?"

Another shake of the head, "They don't understand, and after the second day in a row after nee-chan left; I made a sound dampener so they wouldn't hear."

You sigh at how Houki went about dealing with her parents about her problems. This probably could've been dealt with far earlier if Houki just went to her parents about this, but then again...if she's to be believed, what she actually goes through in her nightmares is worse than her parents have thought on the few times they have noticed them. Being brushed off about it being 'just a dream' probably wouldn't make Houki willing to go bother them about it.

Still, even knowing that much, you're still missing the most important fact of all, "Houki; I need you to tell me about your dreams. What happens in them? Who is 'he'?"

Houki goes even paler at the mention of 'him' and her dreams and immediately retreats back into herself, "Nononononononono; I can't. I can't say his name, because then he'll hear me. And he'll come...and-and he'll...he'll...no. No, please no. No don't...nononononononono...."

It was clear to you now that this wasn't something you could fix; not right now, and now with Houki as she currently was. Right now, there was only one person who would be able to calm her down, and help her with whatever she was going through right now, but that person wasn't here. That person was currently out somewhere in the world, on the run from all the world's powers for various reasons.

That didn't mean you couldn't reach her though, or at the very least try; "Houki, you clearly need help. I'm gonna try and use the wristband to get a hold of your sister and-"

"NOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!" Houki dives at you, forgetting that you're not actually there and ends up crashing on the floor. As she gets up from her failed attempt at stopping you, she sees that she's in a part of the room covered in shadows. Realizing she's in darkness; Houki screams her lungs out and desperately scurries back to the corner, where she frantically looks around like a cornered animal.

This only strengthened your resolve to get a hold of Tabane. The only problem...you had no idea how to actually work the stupid wristband other than pressing the buttons that let you talk to Houki or Hikari and hang up when you're done. Houki did explain how they worked, but it was buried under so much techno-babble that your brain simply tuned out until she dumbed down to saying, "Green button for Hikari, Blue for me, Red to hang up; got it?"

So you resorted to doing what every person did with technology they don't know how to handle: press random buttons until it works. It took awhile, and several wrong calls, but you finally get a hold of Tabane; at least you think you do. The wristband says it's Tabane, so it's worth a shot; right?

"Tabane, it's Ichika. I don't know if you're there listening; or if this is even the right number, but I have to try anyways. It's about Houki; she's not well Tabane, and she needs you. She's been having nightmares, and they're driving her insane. It's gotten to the point where she's stopped sleeping; she hasn't slept in nine days! She almost took a hacksaw to her arm! To replace it with a robot one! She's scared of her own shadow-of any shadow; thinking that something is out to get her."

"I tried to talk to her, but it not helping. Please Tabane, I need your he-" Before you can even finish you hear a loud crack, as if lightning just struck, and are immediately yanked by the arm. You notice that it's Tabane that's grabbing you, eyes focused on the wristband as her free arm meticulously tinkers with it for whatever reason. After only seconds of messing with it, she presses a button and you both vanish in a flash of light, only to reappear right next to Houki.

Tabane throws you aside like a wet towel and rushes over to her little sister, hugging her and comforting her with shooting sounds and words, "Shhhh....Nee-san's here, and she's not going to let anything bad happen to you. Ever. He's not going to get you, not while I'm here."

"But you can't always be here," As Houki says this, Tabane stops stroking her hair and freezes up, "You can't, because the government's still after you, and if they catch you you'll be gone forever."

"I...I...I'll-I'll just...I can...I'll make them leave me alone! I can hijack their missiles and...and..." Tabane doesn't seem to be able to answer, unable to have a solution that fixes things right away without causing the sort of mess that led to this in the first place.

As you get up, groaning from the less than pleasant landing, you come up with a solution, "Why not give Houki some sleep medication? Something so she can sleep without dreaming; they have that sorta stuff, right? Also therapy, get your parents to get a psychiatrist or someone; maybe they'll have a better idea what to do."

Tabane looks at you as if you've grown a second head, the simple possibility of actually consulting someone else never entering her mind. Houki...was asleep; nine days without sleep finally catching up to her. Tabane picks Houki up, carries her to her bed, and gently tucks her in. Then she walks over to you and hugs you, whispering, "Thank you."


After that, Tabane talked to her parents to put your suggestions to work. With some sleep medication, Houki can finally go to sleep without nightmares tearing away at her sanity. The therapy however, was much less useful. The first psychiatrist had an...accident, and the second was simply drawing a blank as to why this was happening to Houki. With nothing in her past or anything wrong with her brain chemistry to trigger these nightmares, the best they can do is help Houki deal with them. At least, that's what Houki tells you they say, but you can trust her, especially since there's no reason for her to lie about this.

Again, time passes; and it's:

[X] Time for a group get-together; Hikari has come up with something to cheer Houki up with everything that's been going on
[X] The first Mondo Grosso; with a grand revelation at the end that will forever change the world...
[X] The second Mondo Grosso; with something amiss, that begins the first step in reclaiming a legend...

 

[X] Time for a group get-together; Hikari has come up with something to cheer Houki up with everything that's been going on

 

[X] Time for a group get-together; Hikari has come up with something to cheer Houki up with everything that's been going on

Hikari's family is magic or something, right? Maybe she actually does have something to help Houki.

 

I'm probably a terrible person for this, but seeing as her cannon-personality was IchikaIchikaIchikaIchikaIchikaSTUPIDITYIchika, I'm liking the Mishra-Houki a lot more.

[X] Time for a group get-together; Hikari has come up with something to cheer Houki up with everything that's been going on

 

Eh, to be fair things have deviated quite a bit; not to mention that going through the worst possible torture conceivable does wonders for character development.

In case it was missed; Houki feels everything that happens in the dreams. EVERYTHING...

Is it any wonder, then, why she decided that forgoing sleep was a good idea?

 

I sense terrible things when this comes through in the nightmares, because after this, Urza carried on.

Being left behind by sibling? Oh boy.

 

That could easily explain Urza-Tabane obsession with Mishra-Houki and why she is willing to do anything for her.

Edit: It is also further proof that Tabane is really incapable of thinking of the consequence of her action, even when they affect badly the one person she care about above all others. If she didn't pull the fireworks stunt she wouldn't have been forced to stay separated from Houki unable to help her sleep.

 

[X] The second Mondo Grosso; with something amiss, that begins the first step in reclaiming a legend...

 

[X] Time for a group get-together; Hikari has come up with something to cheer Houki up with everything that's been going on

 

Urza was always a 'big picture' kinda guy who's plans often got ruined by the minute details throwing a spanner in the works. It seemed fitting to transfer that flaw to Tabane; the whole nightmare thing being the detail that she missed in her plan. Well, that and Houki blowing up in her face about what she did.

Also, because it's not plot relevant to reveal this; the White Knight Incident was Plan B. You don't wanna know what Plan A was...

 

Plan A, Golgothian Sylex for the win, woooo!

Look Houki, nee-chan caused an ice age for you!

 

[X] Time for a group get-together; Hikari has come up with something to cheer Houki up with everything that's been going on

With Houki now stable, you realized that you've inadvertently kept Hikari out of the loop of things. Considering you still see her at school every day and still spend time with her there, it was rather rude to not tell her something was wrong. After getting chewed out by a rather angry Hikari for not telling her anything, you all settled into a routine of keeping with touch with each other after school so that something like this wouldn't happen again. Also, you learned that despite being rather meek and passive; Hikari can get angry when you push her buttons.

However, it seems that yet again something has come up; though fortunately not something horrible like the last few times. No, instead it seems that Houki's gotten caught up in a long term project of her, to the point where she hardly recognizes either of you are even there. Given that Houki wasn't exactly ecstatic about the whole 'therapy' thing, and that she'll often complain about how the medication she's on makes it feel like she never has enough sleep, it looks like this is her method of coping with it all.

Hikari, however, wasn't as understanding about it all, "Houki, for the last several weeks you have done nothing but work on...whatever it is you're working. You don't even look at us when we call! Have you even left your own room?!"

"...Un-uh, hacked school system, waste of time, need focus for project." Her eyes don't move from the wires and hard-drives she's working on, work uninterrupted by the conversation.

Hikari's eye begins to twitch, and she spits out, "And what about us?! Are Ichika and I a 'waste of time'?"

"...Company nice, give ambiance, better focus, rate of completion faster." Wow, Houki was really focused on...whatever she was working on.

Hikari's twitching and mood only worsened, "Well, I sure hope you're having fun with...whatever it is you're doing over being with us. You know, your friends."

"No time for fun, have deadline, need to complete by year's end. But, too many variables, too many unknowns, minimal foundation to go on. Already behind schedule." Okay, now it's getting a little creepy here...

Shocked by Houki's reply, Hikari responds, "So you're not even enjoying whatever it is your doing right now?"

Again, in clipped sentences, the resident genius responds, "Normally yes, but need to rush and complications make it otherwise. Would like to do something else, but can't. Need to make deadline." Then she puts on goggles and begins soldering several wires to different parts of her project.

Hikari takes a moment to think, then gets a devilish grin on her face, "Houki, if you don't stop doing whatever it is you're doing, I won't show you how magic works~."

That gets Houki attention, as the workaholic scientist drops the wires she was working on, then turns to Hikari. Taking a moment to remove the goggles from her eyes, she skeptically asks, "Magic? Really?"

"Really."

"You're serious about this? Like, with the fancy words and silly hand gestures and stuff?" Houki asks, somewhat skeptical about it all.

Hikari replies with a smug grin, "Yes, really. You saw me with a fireball last year, didn't you?"

Houki takes a moment to think about it, walks over to her closet, then comes back and says, "Ok, deal."

Then she vanishes. What. Followed by Hikari disconnecting and vanishing. What.

And then the both of them appear right in front of you. What.

Hikari, just as surprised as you, turns towards Houki and yells at her, "What was that?! How did we get here?!"

Houki smugly responds, "Teleporter; reversed-engineered from my sister's design. Now, make with the magic; chop-chop!"

Sighing, Hikari shurgs and gets into a stance; arms in front of chest, as if holding something that isn't there. Immediately, fire springs to life; the flames as large as her head, but contained within her hands. She then guides it through an elaborate dance, creating more flames as the dance reaches to a crescendo. The dance itself was beautiful; evoking a primal, yet divine feel to it. You couldn't help but watch in awe as Hikari danced with the flames as if they were alive, both partners in a passionate waltz. Not once did her control of the fires waver, not once did they burn her.

When the dance ends, you clapped in applause at the show you just witnessed; the pure emotion and mysticism you saw. Hikari blushing at your passionate clapping, unsure how to respond. Houki, however, simply yawned and appeared bored by it all. Hearing the yawn only served to snap Hikari's gaze at her, filled with nothing but a withering glare.

Despite that, Houki still says, "Yes, yes; it was very pretty. And also something I could've done if I had a day to make gloves that could do the exact same thing. C'mon, where's the real stuff? Show me the 'phenomenal cosmic power' at it's finest here! I wanna see magic!"

Hikari bitterly says, "Well excuse me for only just starting to learn from my clan; I'm only just an apprentice in terms of skill. Not to mention that the 'phenomenal cosmic power' needs certain rituals to be performed at specific locations, which-"

"Which we can get to with my teleporter. C'mon Hikari; let's see the big stuff here!"

Hesitantly, Hikari responds, "Well...I guess it couldn't hurt...but then again, I could get in trouble..."

Seeing her hesitate, Houki comes up with an idea, "Ichika, be the tiebreaker here; if you say we go, we go. If not, then we stay," she then turns to Hikari, "Does that sound good to you?"

Hikari nods, "Yes, that seems fair; so Ichika, what do you say?"

[X] Stay, there's no reason you need to go
[X] Go, you want to see more of what 'magic' can do

[X] Fuck it, GM's choice; skip to:
-- [X] End of first Mondo Grosso
-- [X] Second Mondo Grosso

 

[X] Go, you want to see more of what 'magic' can do

Wonder if we'll get a traumatic flashback of Merlin. I can just imagine him blanking out and then screaming, "NO! Not the underwear!" Or something like that.

 

[X] Go, you want to see more of what 'magic' can do

As I said before if we are going to do this might as well do it properly.

 

[X] Go, you want to see more of what 'magic' can do

Learning how to do magic is probably the first step towards learning how to use our Noble Phantasms again.

 

[X]Go. We are a kid, and going to a place with mystic connections could easily have a response to us too.

 

[X] Go, you want to see more of what 'magic' can do

 

[X] Go, you want to see more of what 'magic' can do

"Well, I don't see anything wrong with leaving; seeing more of Hikari's magic sounds fun, and it's not like it'll be a problem getting there or back anyway." You decide to side with Houki; you also want to see more of what Hikari's magic can do, and with your resident genius on hand you could be there and back before dinner time. So in all honesty, there's no real reason not to go.

Hikari frowns, but finally relents, "Alright; I guess you're both right, we'll go." Then she turns to Houki and asks, "So, I guess we're using that teleporter thing of yours?"

Houki actually take the teleporter; a belt with several buttons on the buckle, and hands it to Hikari, "Actually, you're going to be taking us there; the belt requires a clear mental vision of where you're going. Since you're the only one who knows where that is, you get the belt. Imagine where we're heading clearly then press the blue button."

Hikari tentatively takes the belt and puts it on, and all three of you hold hands. She then presses the blue button and you all disappear in a flash, only to reappear at a temple built in a forest, near what looks like Mt.Fuji. The whole place gives off a peaceful and serene vibe, along with a subtle tone of something mystical; though that might by your own suspicions given what Hikari told you about what this place was meant for.

"It feels so...calm. Like nothing outside of here matters, just the serenity of this place..." Houki says aloud what you were thinking, with the same amount of wonder that you had.

Hikari orients herself and begins to explain, "This is where my ancestors first learned how to harness the power of the gods; being descended from Amaterasu herself, that lineage allows us to call upon a portion of her power. It was here where she showed my forefathers how to tap into that power, and how to further use the essence of the land to enhance it further..."

She then kneels and begins to draw something on the ground, and continues her explanation, "However, as time passes, our connection to our divine ancestor grows weaker as our blood is diluted by generation after generation. I'm a rare exception, a throwback to the power of ages past; but even I can't match the capabilities of our eldest forefathers. And since the gods are not here and are beyond our reach, we cannot ask them for help."

Houki cuts in with a question, "Why not use the land then? They taught you how to tap into that, just start using that to make up for your declining bloodline. It doesn't seem like there's no reason not to..."

Hikari shakes her head, "The gods forbid it, saying that to solely to tap into the land's essence is wrong; punishable by divine retribution and judgement. It is meant only as a supplement to our own innate power, and only with the proper ritual of requisition; of asking the land if it may grace us with what power it can spare."

Adding on the last touches to the sigil she's drawn; Hikari rests her hands on the center of it, and the whole thing begins to glow with a red light. As does Hikari. She stands and begins a dance similar to the last one she did; only this time, the flames are larger and more passionate. They take the form of wolves and move as if they are alive, dancing to the unheard beat that fuels this ceremony. This dance is simply more powerful and potent than the last, evoking far stronger awe than the last one.

Both and Houki are watching, completely enraptured by it all; eyes glassy at the magic at work. Finally, when it ends; both you and Houki clap and applaud Hikari for her performance. Houki then says, "Wow; now that, that was cool. I take back everything I said earlier; sorry."

"Apology accepted, but only because you've been so absorbed in whatever you've been working on that I wouldn't be surprised if you didn't know what day it is," Hikari says, getting in one last jab at Houki for being rude.

Affronted, Houki replies, "Of course I know what day it is! It's...um, Tuesday, right?"

You sigh and cradle you head in your palm, "No Houki, that was five days ago; today's Sunday."

Embarrassed, Houki rubs her neck, "Eheheh...oops," then she turns to Hikari and asks, "So, the whole land-connection thingy; how does it work? Can anyone do it or do they need the whole 'descended from gods' thing too?"

Hikari takes a moment to think, and then answers, "I don't think so; there are records of allies of my clan being included in rituals despite not having any magical lineage, solely because they needed more people to channel energy for the land. As for how it works; just draw the appropriate ritual circle and focus on connecting with the land. What's most important is the three kanji in the center: 'prayer', 'beseech', and pledge. Without those, the whole ritual is meaningless."

Houki then walks to where Hikari drew the ritual circle, and began to draw her own. You walk up to see her make it, only to note that instead of the three kanji Hikari told her to write, she instead wrote; 'dominate', 'conquer', and 'pillage'.

"Um...Houki? That's not-" But before you can finish telling Houki she was doing it wrong, she slapped her hand on the finished sigil...

And the ground erupted in a mix of red and green energy, nearly flooding the whole forest with it all. The power was flowing around Houki as if she was ripped right out of Dragonball or some other shonen series, as she bewilderingly said, "Woah; I feel funny..."

Raising her arm, she points to the distance and slashes it downward. In response, a massive lightning bolt erupts from the skies and strikes at where she was looking at. Then, looking at her arm in awe, she focuses and tries again, only to make a giant pillar of fire and lava erupt from the earth, before it ascends to the skies and explodes into a blazing salvo akin to fireworks and dissipate into the sky.

Hikari merely gapes at what just happened, as Houki absently says, "I think I fixed your magic..." Hikari only responds by her eyes rolling into her sockets and fainting.


When Hikari finally come to; the first things she does is grab Houki by the neck and begin shaking her back and forth and yelling, "WHAT DID YOU DO?!?!?"

"I only fiddled around with the kanji-" Hearing that, Hikari rushes over to where Houki was standing and looked at her ritual circle. When she sees the changes, she pales and looks back at Houki with a stricken look.

"Do you have any idea what you- After I explicitly said- I warned you about- And you...you...gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhh!!!"

Houki's only response is a meek, "But it worked, didn't it?"

"THE GODS WILL SMITE YOU FOR YOUR FOOLISHNESS!!!!" Hikari is definitely not taking this well...

"...I'll tell them I'm sorry when they get here?" Houki only has a sheepish grin when she says this, shrugging and wincing at what's currently going on.

Hikari only give her a dirty look, and says, "The last time a member of the clan suggested doing what you did; Amaterasu herself came and burned him with the fires of the sun within the hour. That was during World War II, and the whole thing was caught on video. We have pictures to remind us about what happens when we even consider doing this exact kind of thing; from the blunder of the latest moron dating all the way back to Yayoi period, which is the earliest recorded era we have of some idiot doing this exact same thing."

"...oops?" You only sigh and hang you head; waiting for the apparently inevitable divine retribution of Amaterasu-ōmikami...

...
...
...

...Two hours pass, and nothing happens; Houki is no longer skittish about what she's done, while Hikari is simply gaping at the fact that nothing's happened. Houki actually jolts, as if someone surprised her, and says, "Magic essence or whatever you wanna call it is back."

Hikari simply looks and her and with a deadpan expression says, "What."

"I can feel the magic-whatsits that fueled the whole lightning and fire show I did hours ago recharge so I can-"

Hikari cuts her off, "No I heard that; what I mean is that should be impossible: you'd have to do the ritual again to reconnect with the essence of the land."

Houki shurgs, "Maybe because I used different kanji it made it a permanent connection? I dunno, I'm a scientist not a magician..."

Hikari only gives Houki a dirty look and says, "You've defied the most sacred tenant of my clan's teachings, the gods haven't come to smite you for doing so, and it turns out that your sacrilegious methods are actually better than our own."

She takes a deep breath, "Ok, one last thing, before we head back." She then grabs you and Houki and teleports all three of you to another temple, this time near Lake Ashi.

She points to Houki and says, "Do it again."

Gulping, Houki complies and does her bastardized ritual; and again the results are the same. Only instead of red and green light it's red and blue. Hikari simply glares at her and points at the lake. Getting the hint, Houki tries to use magic and again ends up freezing the lake, thawing it, and creating a huge wave from it.

Seeing these results, Hikari teleports all three of you again, this time to Aokigahara. She looks at Houki and says, "Again."

Houki obeys, and the results are the same; only this time the colors are black and green and the magic causes the plant life to rot and regrow back. Hikari's eyes begin to twitch, as she grabs you both and forces all three of you back to your home. She unclips the belt and hands to Houki and says, "Please take me home now; I need some time to accept that everything I know is wrong and then repeatedly bash my head against the wall to hammer it all in."

Worried Houki says, "Hikari, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have-"

Hikari cuts her off, "No, it's not your fault; not really. I should've kept a better eye on what you were doing and made it perfectly clear that messing with the circle is bad. You're you; expecting you to not tinker with something like this was rather stupid, you do it all the time with your machines. And it's not like you don't already do the impossible already," Hikari gestures to the belt, "I was mostly worried above all else; I didn't want you to get hurt because of something you did by accident."

"Plus, knowing that one of my clan's most important rules is completely wrong is...jarring. A lot of their strictness is because of magic and trying to do everything to maintain what degrading power we have. If they're wrong about this, what else are they wrong about?"

Houki is silent, before asking, "...So, you're not angry at me? And we're still friends."

Hikari smiles and says, "Yeah, we're still friends. C'mon; you still have to take me back home."

And so the day ended with tired smiles, and things returned to some semblance of normalcy; Houki wasn't so absorbed in her work, Hikari got over her incomprehension about her clan's rules being broken, and you simply enjoyed hanging out with your friends. You even made a new friend when the new school year started; Lingyin Huang, or Rin as you called her. When you couldn't spend time with Hikari or Houki after school, you hung out with her at her family's restaurant. It was nice making a new friend; Rin was far more easygoing and energetic then Houki or Hikari, so it was an interesting change.


At year's end was the first public event involving the IS; the Mondo Grosso. A tournament involving all the representative pilots of all countries fighting for the title of Brunhild; the title of the best pilot of IS. Your sister was actually the representative of Japan, which was why she wasn't at home nearly as often as she used to be. As for the tournament, Chifuyu won easily, blitzing through the competition and winning the title of champion and Brunhild for herself.

But during the award ceremony, the stadium tv screen cut out; and was immediately replaced with a worldwide broadcast that was hacking into transmissions worldwide.

On that broadcast was your best friend, Houki Shinonono; standing next to several ornate crates on an elaborate stage. She loudly proclaimed, "People of the world! I, Houki Shinonono, interrupt this moment to bring you a world-changing announcement!"

"One year ago my sister created Infinite Stratos, forever changing the world by creating a weapon so powerful it rendered conventional warfare obsolete and brought peace to the world through it's superior firepower and forcing a balance of power to ensure that such weaponry is never abused to bring the world to ruin. It is a creation that can be compared to the atom bomb, or the dream Nobel had when he created dynamite."

"However, just as the IS can be a weapon of war, so too can it be a tool for peace and prosperity; and I shall prove it! Behold!" She kick down a crate, for it to pop open and reveal...

IS cores. The key component in order to create more functional IS's; only 467 were created by the founder of IS: Tabane Shinonono. They were so complex and valuable that no one had been able to reverse engineer them; until now.

"As of now I have distributed 100 cores to each individual nation, along with five IS frame designs. Of these cores only five percent of them will be capable of combat, and none of the frame designs are capable of combat; they are meant solely for the use of non-combat purposes such as search and rescue missions, disaster relief, and other civil services needed for society to function. It is my goal that IS will be known as the tool that ascended mankind beyond the heavens, both as a weapon of war, and a tool of peace."

"I will also be providing my services to any country willing to ask for my assistance; though my services won't be cheap," Houki gives a smug grin, "This will also, of course, include the creation of further cores, designs, and innovations for IS. As I have shown, my brilliance matches that of my older sister; the creator and innovator of IS."

"Oh, and I also intend to fix the flaw in my sister's design; allowing both genders to operate an IS." Then, the transmission cuts off, and after a moment of silence to take it all in, the award ceremony continues as planned.

So this was it; the project Houki was working on this entire time: making the IS something besides a weapon. Taking what you told her after the White Knight Incident, she has made it her goal to guide the world into a new enlightenment, using the IS as the tool to forge that path. By working with countries she'll be able to guide and focus the development of IS to her goals, especially since her sister has dropped off the planet. Not to mention Tabane has terrible social skills and doesn't actually care about anyone besider her sister, you, and nee-san.

One thing is for sure; Houki was right about her revelation changing the world...

[X] A shocking response that nobody saw coming
[X] Time for the second Mondo Grosso

 

[X] A shocking response that nobody saw coming

Oh nice Houki, certainly glad I voted for this since seeing this in parts only or in a flashback wouldn't have as much effect.