Laura Bodewig

"Now, I have decided that I am going to make you my bride! That is final and I will not accept any objections from you!"

- Laura to Ichika. Raura Boudevihhi, better known by her alias Laura Bodewig is a major antagonist turned one of main protagonists in the light novel and anime series Infinite Stratos. She is a first year student at the IS academy and is the IS cadet representative from Germany. A genetically engineered super soldier, Laura is a member of the German military and holds the rank of second lieutenant. Laura was under Chifuyu Orimura's guidance when the latter was working with the German army's IS division and holds Chifuyu in high regard.

She is voiced by Marina Inoue in the Japanese version of the anime and Tiffany Grant in the English version.

Appearance
She has long silver hair, a red right eye, and a black eye patch over her yellow left eye. She was the result of a failed nanomachine experiment that was meant to help her become a better IS pilot.

Her IS Academy uniform is modified version of the standard uniform, with baggy pants and high boots; this is befitting of her former post as an army officer. For her IS Practice and battles, she wears a gray version of the training uniform. At night, she now wears black cat pajamas that Charlotte got her. Ichika has remarked that Laura has a doll-like cuteness around her and Ichika said that her eyes look like gemstones.

history
Laura possesses the darkest past of all 5 heroines, since she was a test-tube baby originally created to become a weapon. She was a part of Germany's super-soldier project, which aimed to create a perfect combatant. As such, she was educated with only what was needed to make her an excellent soldier; all the while being ignorant to things she would have learned as a normal child. She was educated with just enough social skills to be able to function as a soldier, which was clearly nowhere near enough to become a normal girl.

She excelled at all military training she received, and maintained the top rank until the introduction of IS. With IS thrown into the equation, the project faced a heavy obstacle, since their subject (mainly Laura) was tuned for conventional warfare and the factor of IS was never calculated. They decide to re-tune Laura by replacing her left eye with an artificial one, a miniature (and heavily down-graded in order to fit into human body) version of the Hyper-sensor package.

With it, she was supposed to have boost in her sensory system, even when not enhanced by the IS. Coupled with the IS, this was to function as an additional conduit to enhance her response is IS piloting, resulting in a huge efficiency boost in IS operation.

The experiment, however, ended in a partial failure as the new eye installed malfunctioned and couldn’t be turned off when needed and as a result, Laura's performance not only as a IS pilot but as a soldier began to deteriorate.

Being raised with the sole purpose of being an excellent soldier, she was devastated when she couldn't keep up with other IS pilots, who began to treat Laura as a defect and not as a comrade. This is when Laura first met Chifuyu, who agreed to become a temporary IS instructor in the German military in return for their help in finding the location of the kidnapped Ichika during the 2nd Mondo Grosso tournament. To Laura, Chifuyu appeared to be the ultimate goal that she should pursuit, and with Chifuyu's help, Laura was able to recover and retake the top rank in her unit.

From that point on, Laura developed a fanatical admiration toward Chifuyu, to the point of almost being worship. However, once when she asked her how to become strong, Chifuyu answered that she has a brotherand revealed a soft and tender expression. Laura who had been raised to believe in strength and toughness and that softness is for the weak could not condone Chifuyu showing such an expression towards anyone and resolved to defeat Ichika, whom she viewed as the reason for Chifuyu's "weakness".

Personality
She is initially seen as a tough person who absolutely despised Ichika for (indirectly) making his sister, Chifuyu Orimura, forfeit the match Laura believed Chifuyu should have rightfully won. She has a major superiority complex surrounding her identity as a super soldier, as she often remarks that surrounding people's abilities are second-rate. She insulted Cecilia Alcott and Lingyin Huang during their first fight, saying that she has a hard time believing people like them possess 3rd Generation IS's. She comments that they come from countries that boasts of numbers but no talent (Cecilia), or whose only redeeming quality is their ancient culture (Lingyin). Despite her arrogance, she can acknowledge when she's been beaten or outclassed, both shown after her first encounter with M where she admitted that she and Cecilia wouldn't be able to catch M or beat her if they could.

Having been trained by her, Laura idolizes Chifuyu to the point of worship. When she is first introduced she often seen trying to persuade Chifuyu to leave the IS Academy and return to Germany, as she believed her skills are being sullied by the students and staff who don't appreciate her and that she should be the only one who can train under her.

Having been raised in the army, she does not understand the workings of a normal life, seen as when she calls Ichika her "Wife", and when she comments that two hours of seiza is nothing compared to torture (Ichika wondered what counts as torture). Similar to Houki, Laura is rather shy when it comes to her looks despite her pride. While never having been interested in her looks or clothes before, she started thinking about them more in order to get Ichika's attention. When she does, she becomes very happy and unfocused on everything else except what Ichika has said to her. Strangely, she doesn't mind being naked in front of him.

Laura is quite honest and straightforward with her thoughts and intentions; she will usually come out and say what she is trying to do instead of hiding it. A good example would be when she kissed Ichika right in front of the entire Class One right after falling in love with him. This self-confidante is usually envied by the other girls, as they were too embarrassed to admit to their feelings or reason while she wasn't. Although, she still can be shy sometimes when trying something new like wearing a swimsuit or a dress.

Powers & Abilities
Having been designed and raised as a test-tube baby for the army, Laura possesses heightened reflexes and a great deal of military tactics to deal with more experienced soldiers that are older than her, even before her introduction and gaining an Schwarzer Regen. She very skilled in most unarmed and armed combat. Her specially is with combat knives and is good enough to fight equally against Houki's swordsmanship. Cecilia ranks Laura as the strongest of the main cast. She demonstrates this by easily defeating Cecilia and Lingyin, both being A-Rank representatives. She was also trained by Chifuyu Orimura, an accomplished pilot of her own right, which gives a testament of her skills.

Trivia

 * Laura is quite similar to Sousuke Sagara. Both were raised for combat and have participated in wars for practically their entire lives. As a result, both are completely clueless when it comes to social interactions, to the point that they often say ridiculous things with a completely straight face.