Lingyin Huang

Lingyin Huang (凰 鈴音, Fan Rinin) or Ling (鈴, Rin, pet name) is one of the protagonists of the Infinite Stratos, a 1st year student of the IS Academy in Class Two and the 2nd childhood friend of Ichika. She is a transfer student, the IS Representative Candidate of China and Class Representative of Class Two. Lingyin is the 3rd heroine to be introduced to the Infinite Stratos series.

Appearance
Lingyin's appearance is a young teenage girl with light brown hair tied in twintails with a yellow ribbon at both sides. She is quite petite when compared to the rest of the IS heroines.

She has green eyes, and usually wears her IS Academy uniform, which seems to be specifically altered for her, as her sleeves are detached from the uniform.

In all of her appearances, she often appears smiling with an exposed fang, which is why many fans misspell her name as "Fang Lingyin".

For her IS Practice and battles, she wears a pink version of their training uniform.

Personality
Lingyin is depicted as a very energetic girl who has a slight competitive streak in her, as when Houki and Cecilia were arguing with her about her relationship with Ichika, she effectively answers them while hinting that she has an advantage over them (like when Houki said that she has eaten and slept with Ichika when they were kids, she said that he has been coming over to her place to do the same when they were in grade school).

She has been in love with Ichika since he protected her against four school bullies, due to her nationality that turns her into a target for pranks.

Thus she becomes disappointed and extremely hostile to Ichika when they met at the IS Academy, because he has forgotten the details of a promise proposed by her (which was if she became an excellent cook, he would be her boyfriend).

She can become extremely jealous when there are other girls around Ichika who are trying to get his attention to the point of showing the stereotypical lifeless eyes of a "yandere" girlfriend, and this trait is shared with Cecilia in episode 9 and at the end of episode 12. This also showed at the end of episode 8 where when Charlotte revealed that she was a girl. Lingyin crashed into the class room and was about to shoot Ichika with her Shenlong's Ryuhow while Ichika didn't even had time to deploy his own IS.

To a certain extent, Lingyin has also become close friends (but still heated rivals) with Cecilia, compared to the other girls, in a similar fashion to Charlotte and Laura's close relationship in the light novels. This is proven in the anime when Lingyin (in a jealous state) offers to place sun tan oil in Cecilia's body instead of Ichika, and when the two work together to spy on Ichika and Charlotte's "date", with Laura later tagging along with them.

Relationships

 * Ichika Orimura - Her childhood friend, Ichika often went over to the restaurant her family owns for food. He also protected her from some bullies, causing her to fall in love with him. Lingyin is flattered that Ichika considers her as a precious childhood friend, but she seems a little annoyed at the fact that she is the proclaimed "2nd childhood friend" after Houki.
 * Houki Shinonono - The 1st childhood friend of Ichika. In Lingyin's initial appearance, Houki becomes jealous at the fact that Ichika claims that Lingyin is also his childhood friend. Lingyin is flattered that Ichika considers her as a precious childhood friend, but she seems a little annoyed at the fact that she is the proclaimed as the "2nd childhood friend", much to Houki's extreme relief and satisfaction.
 * Cecilia Alcott - The IS Representative Candidate of England. Lingyin annoys her with her relationship with Ichika. To a certain extent, Lingyin has also become close friends (but still heated rivals) with Cecilia, compared to the other girls. This is proven in the anime as they are often seen working together in an effort to make Ichika notice them.
 * Charlotte Dunois - The IS Representative Candidate of France. At first, she thought that "Charles" and Ichika were getting a little too close for comfort. When she found out about Charlotte's true gender and (the fact that Ichika was with her in the Boys' Bath), she barged in Ichika's classroom and would have killed Ichika with her Impact Cannons if Laura wasn't there to shield him.
 * Laura Bodewig - At first she hated her for trying to hurt Ichika and insulting her country. Later they start to get along, though they compete for Ichika's attention, just like the other girls. Laura joins Lingyin in one of her attempts to spy on Ichika in episode 9 of the anime.
 * Chifuyu Orimura - Ichika's older sister. Lingyin seems to be intimidated by her, though she dismisses this as "not being able to get along with her" when asked by Ichika.
 * Dan Gotanda - Supposedly a former classmate in middle school.
 * Ran Gotanda - Dan's younger sister. She and Lingyin competed in getting Ichika's attention through cooking (Japanese vs Chinese; furthermore they both are from families who own restaurants where Ichika often goes to eat).
 * Lei Lei Yang - Lingyin's supervisor. She appears in Volume 6.

Infinite Stratos & Abilities
Lingyin is supposedly skilled in her piloting of her Personal IS, as she has the same rank as Cecilia. She has good combat senses when it comes to 1-1 combat, but tends to under-perform at times when she loses her temper.

Lingyin is also able to quickly perform a partial deployment (summoning a part of the IS), first seen when Houki tried to hit her with a wooden kendo sword.

History
She moved into Ichika's neighborhood soon after Houki's family moved out. (Houki moved out at the end of 4th grade, and Lingyin moved in at the beginning of 5th grade). Her family used to run a Chinese restaurant, which Ichika visited frequently. During this time, Chifuyu spent most of time outside working due to her prominence as an IS pilot, and Ichika decided to go out to eat rather than cook for himself.

Due to her nationality, Lingyin frequently became a target for prank. She seems to have developed a crush on Ichika when he helped her by fighting against four kids bullying her in school.

She moved back to China during early 3rd grade of junior high, due to her parent's marital issue (they are now divorced), but transferred to IS Academy as a representative candidate for China.



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!"
Lingyin and Cecilia 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
- Lingyin to Ichika during elementary school (Episode 4) Ichika: "Ling...Are you Ling?!" Lingyin: "Indeed! I'm the Chinese Representative Cadet, Huang Lingyin. I'm here to declare war!"'' - Lingyin introducing herself (Episode 3) - Lingyin requesting Houki to exchange room with her so she can be roommate with Ichika (Manga Chapter 5)
 * "If I get better at cooking, would you eat my sour pork every day?"
 * ''Lingyin: "That info's old. Class Two's Rep also got her own IS. You can't win that easily."
 * "So, since that's the case, switch room with me!"

Trivia

 * Lingyin's name in kanji means "sound of the bell". Bell (Ling, 鈴) and Sound (yin, 音). Her name matches her loud voice.
 * Lingyin's Main Theme consist of the erhu, a bowed instrument from China.
 * Her IS's design seems to be a reference to the XXXG-01S Shenlong Gundam, XXXG-01S2 Altron Gundam, OZ-13MS Gundam Epyon from Gundam Wing and ZGMF-X09A Justice Gundam from Gundam SEED.
 * Lingyin's voice actress, Asami Shimoda, also provided the voice for Kagamine Rin (and Kagamine Len) for Crypton's VOCALOID2 software. Interestingly, Lingyin is usually addressed as "Rin" in the anime.