Haru decided to go back and said that he would visit the restaurant again in the future.
Ran nodded happily and waved her hand excitedly, but at the same time, she had forgotten to ask him about his phone number so they could communicate with each other which made her depressed.
However, she suddenly realized something.
"N - No! My heart is for Ichika-san!" Ran felt conflicted so suddenly and thought that she was being fought over by two men. She didn't know about Ichika's feelings toward her, but Haru clearly showed an interest in her. Her cheek was very hot and placed both of her hands on her cheeks.
"Ugh... what should I do?"
---
Haru didn't know what Ran was thinking and went to the internet cafe to forge his identity then steal some money from a random bank account then he transferred it to the back account which he had just created on a local bank.
After he had done everything, he started his research about this world. Even though he had confidence in his hacking ability, he needed to be careful since this place was a high-tech world and it was possible for someone to own the same level of hacking ability as him.
The first thing he needed to do was to search for information about IS or Infinite Stratos since he was clueless about it.
Infinite Stratos abbreviated as IS, are powered exoskeletons, which were originally meant for outer space exploration. Designed by Tabane Shinonono, they possess technology and combat capabilities far more advanced than any other weapon system, thus threatening to destabilize the world.
Reading the description of IS, Haru frowned since he didn't think that IS would be powered exoskeletons since he thought that it would be a weapon or giant mecha, but he knew that he couldn't understimate it.
In the end, he decided to read the rest of the information since he needed more information about this weapon. He wanted to know how dangerous this weapon was and how it could threaten the world. Though, the more he read the more interesting it was....
---
When IS was first proposed it was scoffed at and few people paid any attention to it. A month later, a "mysterious" hacker hacked the military missile bases and ships all over the world launching 2341 ballistic and cruise missiles towards all major cities in Japan. The world's first and only IS sortied and neutralized 1221 of the missiles with a sword and shot down the rest with energy weapons - something no country in the world had the technology to produce.
This IS was later codenamed "Shirokishi". The faceless pilot claimed no allegiance to any worldly nation and was attacked by several major world powers seeking to capture or destroy it. The White Knight fended off its attackers, destroying 207 next-gen fighter aircraft in the process, as well as disabling 7 aircraft carriers and their naval escorts. It also destroyed 8 weaponized military spy satellites.
"Shirokishi" IS was never seen again after the incident and its pilot's identity remained a secret to the general public.
The IS showed that it was capable of generating a nigh-invulnerable shield barrier, 100% optical camouflage, hypersonic speeds, and capable of pulling off insane high G maneuvers while seemingly unaffected by gravity-induced blackout/red-outs and also space flight.
---
"Nigh-invulnerable shield barrier, 100% optical camouflage, hypersonic speeds, and capable of pulling off insane high G maneuvers while seemingly unaffected by gravity-induced blackout/red-outs and also space flight..."
Haru folded his arms and thought that IS was more powerful than he had thought. He felt that this weapon was more powerful than the Gundam which he owned, especially when it owned a nigh-invulnerable shield barrier.
His Gundam could have been destroyed by a thousand missiles, but a thousand of missiles were impossible to destroy an IS.
Haru searched for the photo of IS on the internet and saw "Uchigane" which was a highly-rated 2nd generation frame.
As a defensive model, it focuses on stability and is easy to use for beginners as a training model for the Students in the IS Academy. The design is basically meant to look like an armored samurai.
For other's IS, it was very hard for him to get it since it was secret information, but he could see various photos of IS from IS world tournament which was known as Mondo Grosso.
The Mondo Grosso is an Infinite Stratos International Tournament held every three years. Since the introduction of the IS, there have been 3 Mondo Grosso.
After IS appeared in this world, there were a lot of impacts that were caused by it on society.
Faced with such an overpowering weapon, the nations of the world enacted the "Alaska Treaty", which stated that the IS would never be used for military combat and that existing IS technology must be equally distributed to all nations, to prevent any nation from dominating the others. And they also give the IS to the other countries, but the US is the only country that didn't accept the IS, which is suspicious for most people. And this rumor was never confirmed.
The introduction of the IS does, however, have a major effect on society. As it can only be operated by women, the power balance between men and women is broken, with women coming to dominate society over men.
The reason why only females can activate the IS is that Tabane Shinonono built them that way, saying she created IS "to give girls wings."
Haru searched for the reason why "Ichika Orimura" was able to activate the IS, but no one knew about it yet since it had just happened today. He thought that it might be because Orimura was a harem protagonist since it how usually harem story would begin.
Though, at the same time, as a harem protagonist too, should he be able to activate an IS too?
Haru thought that IS was very interesting and saw the registration of the IS Academy would be over in a month.
It might be because of the "Orimura Incident" that made the government would also test male students whether they were able to activate an IS or not.
Haru knew that it was his chance to enter IS Academy.
IS Academy is the private boarding academy where students all over the globe enroll to learn how to pilot the Infinite Stratos. It stands as the primary background setting of the series.
Due to the worldwide fact that only the female can pilot the IS, the student body is comprised of girls, including the instructors and faculty due to their former status as pilots or test candidates.
Haru created a fake identity as fast as possible then also registered himself on the registration to IS Academy. He was sure that the majority of those guys wanted to live a harem life since all of their classmates would be female. He once again had to admit how lucky Orimura Ichika truly was since this guy was able to activate IS which made him able to enjoy school life with a lot of girls.
'If I can't activate IS then.....'
Haru took out a blue bracelet which was his prize from the previous quest. He didn't expect this bracelet would be useful in this situation, but if possible he really didn't want to enter IS Academy while using this bracelet since he would feel very complicated and it also had a lot of drawbacks since it could be only activated for 12 hours.
Once 12 hours were gone, he would return back which troubled him when he needed to live together with a lot of people at the IS Academy.
Haru shook his head and decided to think about a complicated matter later.
What was important was whether he could activate IS or not.
It was the problem right now and decided to end his research, went out of the internet cafe, and went to one of the most expensive hotels in the world to enjoy his stay.