Lingyin Huang

Lingyin Huang (凰 鈴音) or Ling (鈴, Rin, pet name) is one of the protagonists in the Infinite Stratos series. She is a 1st year transfer student student in Class Two at IS Academy, the 2nd childhood friend of Ichika Orimura, IS Representative Candidate of China, and Class Representative of Class Two. Lingyin is the 3rd heroine introduced to the Infinite Stratos series. She and the girls are still trying to gain Ichika's love.

Appearance
Lingyin's appearance is a young teenage girl with light brown hair tied in twintails with a yellow ribbon at both sides. Compared to the other IS heroines, she is quite petite.

She has green eyes and usually wears her IS Academy uniform Her uniform seems 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 practices and battles, she wears a pink version of the training uniform.

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

In her middle school year, she was usually the target for pranks due to her nationality. However, Ichika helped protect her from these situations (e.g. when he protected her from four school bullies). Because of this, she developed romantic interests for him and made him promise that if she became an excellent cook, he would become her boyfriend. When she meets Ichika again at IS Academy she becomes disappointed and extremely hostile to him because he had forgotten the details of the promise.

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 (this trait is shared with Cecilia in episode 9 and at the end of episode 12). This trait is also showed at the end of episode 8, when Charlotte revealed that she was a girl. Lingyin crashed into the classroom and was immediately about to shoot Ichika with her Shenlong's Ryuhow without giving him time to deploy his own IS.

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

Lingyin is very sensitive when it comes her bust size. She can become easily enraged when her size is mocked or pointed out by others. Her friends are aware of this and don't talk about it (in the LN, Houki made it a point not to ever complain about her large breasts in front of her). Strangely, she usually brings up this topic when she starts thinking about it or notice other girls' breasts. In Season 2 Episode 5, she became enraged and jealous when she saw Ichika look at Charlotte's breasts, believing he was only focused on them (Charlotte's breasts).

Relationships

 * Ichika Orimura - Her childhood friend. Ichika often went over to her family's restaurant her 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 when Ichika claims that Lingyin is also his childhood friend. Much to Houki's extreme relief and satisfaction and Lingying's annoyance, Ichika proclaims that Lingying is his "2nd childhood friend". Nevertheless, Lingyin does see Houki as a friend and strong companion, as Lingyin was the one who helped snap Houki out her depression after Ichika was critically injury upon protecting her.
 * 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. Another sign of this can be seen by how Lingyin hasn't told Ceclila that her cooking is terrible, despite the fact that she has told Ickiha to tell her.
 * 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 that Ichika was with her in the Boys' Bath, she barged in Ichika's classroom and would have killed him 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 for insulting her country. Later they start to get along, although they both compete for Ichika's attention, just like the other girls. Laura joins Lingyin in one of Lingyin and Cecilia's 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. Like the other girls, Lingyin see her as a possible rival and questions if they (Ichika and Chifuyu) really view each other as just siblings.
 * 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. Lingyin seems to fear her.

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 also known as a Shinai (竹刀).

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 became a frequent target for pranks. She seems to have developed a crush on Ichika when he helped her by fighting against four kids bullying her at 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 interferes 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 keeps 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 of the other 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 butt. 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 race to the buoy and that if he loses, he'll have to treat her to shaved ice. As she swims underwater, she starts to drown. In the anime, she has a leg cramp; while in the light novel she does by accidentally gulping water instead air while getting distracted by her thoughts. This forces 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. 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 rooms 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. In Chinese, her name literally means "Phoenix Ringtone".
 * Among the 5 girls in Ichika's harem, Lingyin has the lowest rate of public appearances.
 * Lingyin's Main Theme consist of an 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 the 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.
 * Even though her voice actress did Kagamine Rin's voice, Lingyin more closely resembles Hatsune Miku in design.
 * Lingyin has many similarities with Houki:
 * Both are childhood friends of Ichika
 * Both had bad starts with Ichika until he stood up for them against bullies.
 * Both are stubborn, prideful, and good cooks.
 * They both kept their hair styles the same because Ichika said it suits them (which allowed him to recognize them when he first saw them again).
 * Both are rather boyish and, as a result, both like it when Ichika looks at them as girls.
 * As seen in volume 8, Linygin's ideal world is back when she was in middle school, but in a relationship Ichika. This could be the reason why she usually tries to bring up her past history with Ichika.
 * She has a similar appearance to Ryutaros.