A Reason to Live

The Argument

The class continued after that huge feud. It was near end of the class period. The instructors were just about to wrap up the current topic and move on to the next one, but Chifuyu walked up to Ichika,

"Orimura, regarding your IS. It will require time to make it operational."

Ichika didn't really seem to know what she was talking about,

"Heh?"

"There are no unassigned units, so the school will order a personal IS exclusively for your use."

There were murmurs of awe going around the class,

"Ehhh? A personal IS?"

"For a freshman?"

"In other words, the government is already pitching in?"

"Lucky! I want one too!"

Ichika wondered,

"Is having a personal IS that big of a deal?"

Then, his wonder was interrupted when Cecilia popped out in front of him suddenly,

"I'm glad to hear the news!"

She pointed towards Ichika,

"This class representative cup! Who will win is obvious, but it would be unfair for me to be in my personal unit and you're not."

"But what's so great about having one of them?"

Cecilia seemed to have expected, or anticipated the question. She smirked proudly,

"Were you not aware? Then allow me to educate you. There are only 467 IS units in the world, and only the elite of elites have personal IS units!"

Ichika slightly gaped,

"Only 467 units?"

Then, a random girl came up beside him and added,

"The core technology, key to IS units, has not been disclosed at all. Currently there are 467 IS units in the world. All the cores inside them were made by professor Shinonono Tabane."

Ichika turned towards his childhood friend in thought,

'That's Houki's older sister…'

The girl continued,

"The technology behind the core is a complete black box. Nobody besides Professor Shinonono can make them. But the professor refuses to make more than a set number of cores."

Kazuki noticed the uncomfortable look on Houki's face, but he only went back to day dreaming.

The other girls also added,

"Nations, companies, and organizations have cores allocated to them and are having to make do with what's provided for research and development."

Chifuyu then concluded,

"Fundamentally speaking, personal IS are given only to those who work for nations or belong to companies. But given your unique status, a personal IS will be prepared in the interest of data collection."