Cecilia Alcott

Cecilia Alcott (セシリア オルコット) is a 1st year student at the IS Academy in Class One and the IS Representative Candidate of England. She is the 2nd heroine to be introduced to the Infinite Stratos series.

Appearance
She takes the appearance of a teenage British girl who has, blue eyes, long blonde hair, she wears a blue headband, and her normal IS Academy uniform. For her IS Practice and battles, she wears the blue version of their training uniform. Her IS in the closed form takes the form of ear accessories.

Personality
She is depicted to be quite arrogant, due to the fact she is a representative of another country. Being the snob from a noble family, she seems to think her country is far superior to other countries, and because of that, Ichika, challenged her to a duel. But behind the confident exterior lies a disturbed soul. Due to her father being a very insignificant person who has no role inside or outside the family, she desires to marry someone who is strong. Furthermore, being the sole heir of the family fortune after her family died in a train accident, she was forced to protect it from those who wanted to steal it.

After fighting with Ichika, she starts showing an interest in him (being the only man who did not back down from her challenge) and affectionately calls him "Ichika-san", which confuses him and annoys Houki. She tries to find ways to be alone with him (often using the excuse that as a gentleman, Ichika must keep his promises or perform duties of the sort), only to be thwarted by either Houki or her classmates, who once told her comically that they would not let her get ahead in getting his attention. She apparently has certain delusions of being alone with Ichika, such as wearing "suggestive" underwear when being visited to Ichika's room during the seaside school event, and when she daydreams that they are doing "something" together.

She has also showed "yandere" tendicies with Lingyin as shown in episode 9 while they were stalking Ichika while he was out shopping with Charlotte and in episode 12 after the battle where she almost succeeded in shooting Ichika point blank in the head with one of her optical drones when he was about to kiss Houki. At the end of Volume 2 (equivalent to the end of episode 8), a difference was when Laura kissed Ichika, Cecilia attempted to snipe Ichika when he was trying to escape.

Relationships

 * Ichika Orimura - Her classmate. At first she thought of him as another worthless man, but after taking on her challenge and nearly defeating her, she started to see him as a man, as the story progresses she began to develop feelings for him.
 * Houki Shinonono - Ichika's 1st childhood and fellow classmate in Class One. They did not interact at first. But when Cecilia started having an interest in Ichika, Houki starts to get in her way, one-time calling her a wolf in sheep's clothing (referring to her sudden change in attitude towards Ichika), in which Cecilia replied it's better than wearing the clothing of a demon.
 * Lingyin Huang - The IS Representative Candidate of China and Class Representative of Class Two and Ichika's 2nd childhood friend. Cecilia does not like her always hanging around Ichika, and often uses the representative position as an excuse to refer her as "the enemy of Class Two". Although there are times they would work together, either to fight a common foe (either an enemy or love rival), or just to beat Ichika up (when he is showing attention to a particular girl).
 * Charlotte Dunois - The IS Representative Candidate of France and her fellow classmate. At first she was worried about Ichika being "close" to "Charles". When she found out her true gender, she started seeing her as a rival.
 * Laura Bodewig - They did not get along at first, as Laura insulted her country of having their ancient traditions as the only redeeming factor, and that she wanted to kill Ichika. Afterwards they got along, though at times they will compete over Ichika.
 * Shizune Takatsuki - Her close friend and classmate in Class One.
 * Chelsea Blackett - Her maid and childhood friend. They seem to be on good terms with each others.

Infinite Stratos & Abilities
Her knowledge of IS is suggested to be high, as she was able to score high on an aptitude test at a very young age, thus earning the government's attention and giving her a personal IS, Blue Tears.

As an A-Rank pilot, her skills are top-knotch, being able to handle opponents by overwhelming them and avoiding attacks that can knock others down, although her overconfidence can at times undermine her skills and can make her susceptible to certain attack styles that can be avoidable. Also due to the nature of her unit, she does not know much on group formations and strategies. Later in the light novel, she learned to bend her laser beams at certain angles to give her an edge.

History
Her mother was a prominent member of her family, being very active not only inside the house, but among society as well. Being quite an influential character even before the introduction of IS, she became even more active after the event. Despite of her strict teaching, Cecilia looked up to her greatly.

Cecilia's father, on the contrary, was an insignificant person and had virtually no active role both inside and outside the house. He had a spoiled upbringing, thus giving problems to the mother. As such, Cecilia grew up viewing her father as the exact opposite of the role model for a perfect man - a man she should marry (problematic since the introduction of the IS).

When they died in a train accident (something that confused her, as this was the first time they were together), she was thrown head-first into a squabble over her family's fortune, where there were many who wished to take it from her.

To avoid ceding her family fortune, she studied everything that could help her protect it. When she scored the highest in the IS aptitude test, the government for the sale of national preservation, presented her with an offer: they will help to protect her family's fortune, in exchange of becoming the IS Representative Candidate of England. As such, in order to master operation data and battle experience in order to handle Blue Tears, she transferred to the IS Academy.

Episode 1: "My Classmates are All Girls"
Cecilia is introduced to the series as a British girl with long blonde hair and a classmate of Ichika Orimura.

At the recess while Ichika's daydreaming, Cecilia Alcott comes to talk to him. Much to her surprise and irritation, Ichika doesn't know anything about her. Cecilia then starts explaining about an IS Representative Candidate and boasting about how elite she is. Upon hearing that Ichika has also defeated an instructor at the entrance exam, Cecilia starts to get wild but the bell rang announcing the end of the recess.

The next morning the classroom, Chifuyu tells everybody to vote for a Class Representative for the Interclass Tournament in two weeks. Two girls nominate Ichika, much to his surprise. Suddenly, Cecilia protests and says it's humiliating to have a man as a Class Rep. She then challenges Ichika to a duel. When he asks about how much of a handicap he should give her, the whole class laughs and says that men were only stronger than women before the IS and that if men fought against women, the war wouldn't even last 3 days. Chifuyu finally approves the duel and books it for next Monday in Arena 3.

Episode 2: "Class Representative Runoff!"
Ichika is told by Chifuyu that he will be provided with his own personal IS for his match against Cecilia, a rarity since there are only 467 IS Cores that were created by Tabane Shinonono before she disappeared. Relieved, Cecilia says it wouldn't be fair if she fought with her personal unit and that Ichika were stuck with a training one. A classmate then asks Chifuyu if Dr. Shinonono is related to Houki, which the teacher answers they are sisters. As the whole class is shocked and starts bombing Houki with questions, the latter snapped back by saying that Tabane has nothing to with her and that she has nothing to tell the class about her sister.

One week later, in the battle arena's waiting room, while Ichika and Houki were arguing about the past week's Kendo training, Maya announced to them that Ichika's IS has arrived, the Byakushiki. She then explains the IS's Absolute Barrier system which puts the IS pilot's safety at first priority. Upon touching the Byakushiki, Ichika gets the same feeling of "understanding the machine without studying it" as back in the time at the IS entrance exam. He then flies out to the arena.

Cecilia is waiting for him in the air with her Blue Tears, saying that if he apologizes now, she might consider forgiving him, but he refuses. As Ichika's shield is being destroyed by Cecilia's sniper, he takes off a blade and makes his way towards his opponent all while dodging her snipers. While they're fighting, Maya commented on how amazing Ichika can operate an IS even if it's his first time. Upon Chifuyu's saying about Ichika's habit to clench his left hand meaning he'll make simple mistakes, Maya comments on Chifuyu's observation as an older sister.

When Cecilia tricks Ichika that she has more than 4 weapon and fires 2 bombs, he couldn't dodge and got hit. Everyone gets worried but Chifuyu says that he got saved by his unit. Everyone gets shocked to see Ichika's IS in another form, the 1st Shift. While Cecilia is surprised that he's been fighting with the default settings the whole time, Ichika discovers his weapon, the Yukihira Type 2, the same sword his sister Chifuyu used. Praising his sister, Ichika decides that it's time to stop being the one who gets protected and that from now one, he'll be the one protecting his family. As he easily dodge and cuts down Cecilia's bombs and was on the verge to strikes her, the match announcer declared Cecilia winner, much to everybody's surprise.

After the match, while Cecilia's taking a shower in her dorm, she feels weird even if she won the battle. She starts blushing as she thinks of Ichika.

Episode 8: "Find Out My Mind"
Cecilia and Lingyin are in the crowd to watch the long awaited battle.

The fight has started and Ichika immediately went on to strike first at Laura, but is stopped by her AIC. As Laura prepared to shoot Ichika while he's paralyzed, Charles appeared behind Ichika counter-attacked Laura with her Rapid Switch but Houki interfers stating that she won't have them forget about her. Laura felt that Houki was in her way so she used her tentacles to remove her out of her business against the boys. While Ichika and Laura fought, Charles defeated Houki first and resumed his battle against Laura.

During the fight, they discover the AIC's weakness: Laura can only focus on stopping one enemy per time. They then use different "sacrifice-and-attack" combos to slowly defeat her. Ichika got his energy shield exhausted and Laura took advantage to pin him down to the ground but Charles keep protecting him with her Ignition Boost, stating that it's the first time he's using it. Charles then used her Shield Pierce weapon to brutally punch Laura's shield multiple time and exhausting her armor. Laura, fainting, is suddenly consumed by her IS and transforms into a large dark mech that matches Chifuyu's fighting style. Angry about this, Ichika decides to fight against it but Houki holds him back telling him that he doesn't have to do anything and the matter will be resolved by the instructors troop. Ichika still refuses and Charles offers him enough energy to manifest his sword, making him promise that if he loses, he'll have to wear a female uniform to school starting the next day, embarrassing Ichika and Houki. After Ichika got enough energy, he went to cut through the mech and save Laura.

The next day, Charles introduced herself to the class under the name of "Charlotte" Dunois, shocking the whole class. As everyone knew Ichika and Charlotte used the Boys' Bath the night before, Lingyin charged into the class with her IS to jealously attack Ichika, probably jealous that he bathed with another girl than her, but is stopped by Laura's AIC. Ichika thanks her but is suddenly pulled over by Laura as she French kissed him in front of the whole class, shocking Cecilia, Lingyin, Houki and all the girls. Laura states that Ichika will be her "Wife", it is final and that she won't hear any objections. Ichika and the girls are once again shocked.

Episode 9: "Ocean's Eleven!"
Cecilia and Lingyin along with Laura stalks Ichika and Charlotte through the shopping mall to learn about their relationship. While looking for Charlotte and Ichika disappears into a swimsuits boutique, they spot Chifuyu and Maya give them a moral lesson in the middle of the boutique about drawing a line even as classmates.

At the beach, Maya tells everybody to enjoy themselves and to return to the inn in time for dinner. When Honne asked Ichika to play volleyball with her, Lingyin jumps on Ichika's neck to play walking watchtower, which Ichika hates. Cecilia arrives and asked Ichika if he had forget about the promise he made to her in the bus, which is to rub sun oil on her back; he agreed desperately. Hands full of lotion, he touched Cecilia's naked back (without her bikini top attached) and she screamed, saying that he must warm up his hands before he rubs. Ichika then warms up his hands and rub her back while Cecilia enjoys the sensual massage. When Ichika's done, she asks Ichika to rub everything where her hands don't reach, including legs and ass. Ichika freaks out and Lingyin takes the oil and replaces Ichika. She rubs it in a tickling manner that makes Cecilia giggles the whole time. When Lingyin rubbed her ass, Cecilia gets up to scold Lingyin but her top took off as she didn't attach them, exposing her breasts. Ichika freaks out as he gets punched in the face by Cecilia's partial deployment IS.

Later in the water, Lingyin challenges Ichika to a swimming race to the buoy and that if he loses, he'll have to treat her to shaved ice. As she swims underwater, she fakes her drowning, forcing Ichika to save her and pull her to the shore. Cecilia then proposes to walk her to the inn as she got "hurt". With the help of Shizune Takatsuki, they drag Lingyin by force towards the inn as she resists.

While everyone's playing volleyball, Cecilia is seen chasing Lingyin, probably discovering that she faked her drowning just to get closer to Ichika. Lingyin ran into Chifuyu's breasts and both of them get scolded. They then have fun on the beach for rest of the day, Cecilia sun tanning and Lingyin playing in the water.

Quotes
- Cecilia to Ichika upon their first encounter (Manga Chapter 1)
 * "I challenge you to a duel!"

Trivia

 * Her IS, Blue Tears, is a very possible throwback to ZGMF-X20A Strike Freedom Gundam from Gundam SEED Destiny due to a similiar colour scheme and its weapons. The "Bits" are similiar to Strike Freedom's DRAGOON System, the rocket launchers at the waist imitate Strike Freedom's waist railguns, and its long sniper rifle may be a homage to Strike Freedom's combined Beam Rifle.
 * Note that Blue Tears may also be a homage to GN-002 Gundam Dynames from Mobile Suit Gundam 00 due to the sniper rifle and the green jewel present on Cecilia's hairband might be homage to Dynames' Sniper Mode camera.
 * It's also possible that Blue Tears pays homage to Kira Yamato's Gundams in general, as it is stated the Blue Tears can be equipped with packs just as the Strike Gundam could. One of the packs available for Blue Tears is also called Strike Gunner, which resembles the Gunbarrel Striker pack that can be mounted on either the Strike Gundam or the mass-produced 105 Dagger
 * Her cooking is very bad despite its good looks. This is not just a cliché of the British cooking skills, but also a characteristic of Himeji Mizuki from Baka to Test to Shokanjuu.
 * Her character reminds of Ayaka Yukihiro from Mahou Sensei Negima.