Infinite Stratos: Uncle Sam

Chapter 4

Ichika wandered the halls of the forward base. His hands were stuffed in his pockets while his gaze stuck to the hard tiled floor.

It was a good thing. What they'd done was a great thing. He was doing his job by killing them and they were doing their job by dying. It was a good thing they were dead. It was a good thing he had killed them. At that very moment he was focused, ready, everything he was trained to be.

But man, why couldn't he just forget about it then? The blood, the screaming, the chaos. What if it was Monika? What if it was one of his friends?

No, no, he was putting faces on the faceless. They were nobodies who he had to kill. It was the right thing to kill them. He was happy he killed them. The instructor would be proud, Angela would be proud, Emily even told him herself that she was proud. What would his sister think?

He was disturbed from his thoughts however as the door to his right opened and York stepped into the hallway.

"Oh, hey Orimura. Good job out there by the way. Those guns we carried seriously sucked though, I thought my arms were going to fall off," York remarked, rotating her right arm with a grimace.

"Yeah, everyone did really good. Shame Summers got tagged by that shrapnel though," Ichika replied, pushing his negative thoughts to the back of his mind.

"Bastard, it was a lucky shot while Summers wasn't looking. At Least it wasn't too bad, with some stitches and time it'll heal just fine."

Ichika nodded. Summers was the best out of all of them when it came to first aid and medicine. It was a wicked twist of fate that she was the one who ended up getting injured. Thankfully, she was the only casualty of the operation."

"Hey, but are you ok Ichika?" York asked, noticing his slightly despondent gaze. Some of the others had been put into a weird funk after the operation. It wasn't hard to understand why, there was certainly a price to pay in their job. Orimura concerned her particularly however, she knew he didn't have a background that lent itself to their work. He was just a normal civilian not long ago while she had been sleeping with one eye open for years.

"I guess. Well, I dunno. I know what we did was good. But why do I still have this bad feeling?"

York pursed her lips. "If you really do feel genuinely bad... well I don't really know what to say. I guess you'll just have to get used to it. I do know one thing though, you're a strong guy Orimura and at our lowest moments, strong people will persevere and remain true to themselves. I'm confident you'll figure out what you need to figure out."

Ichika met York's gaze with a small and grateful smile. "That's pretty wise. I'll try to stay strong."

"It's nothing, the words aren't even mine. It was my dad who said that to me. Maybe I'll tell you about it someday. Either way, I'll see you around," York said, turning her back to him and walking down the hall.

Ichika watched his friend turn the corner before resuming his wandering through the halls. Doubt and anxiety still plagued his mind. Memories still weighed heavily on his mind. But he supposed he had to keep going despite that. His friends were, he would as well.

The boy decided that he needed to find something to do, something to keep him busy while time passed. All of his friends had managed to busy themselves with something or other. York was bustling around taking care of the logistics that went into post op. Finley and West could be heard playing ping pong in the armory. Summers was recovering in bed while Kane watched over her. Monika, in typical fashion, had claimed the base's only television to watch American football.

As for him, he ended up wandering into the kitchens where he saw Schaefer scouring the cabinets.

"What are you doing Schaefer, dinner isn't until a while you know," Ichika called out.