Author's note: This story, involving the worlds of Mai Otome and Starcraft 2 also takes a lot of inspiration from Devil May Cry, yet that world is not involved in this story.
Second note: As of July 2014, this story has undergone some revision. As such, there has been some adjustment to the content of each chapter. As for new readers, I hope you enjoy this story.
Disclaimer: The following is a non-profit fan-based piece of fiction. Mai HiME/Mai Otome was created by Sunrise and Starcraft by Blizzard Entertainment.
Chapter 1: Takumi's rise
The War of the Twelve Kingdoms, at least 300 years ago, devastated the world of Earl. Much of the planet was now a lifeless desert, while contact has been lost with one side of the planet entirely: That half of the world has become known as the Dead Zone, while the half of the planet that has been known to have sentient life was nearly completely destroyed.
The far-eastern nation of Zipang wasn't spared its wrath: nearly all of its ten provinces had suffered serious damage. The worst hit was the western area now known as Tsuchi no kuni, which was turned into a series of red badlands. The other provinces were lucky in that they only suffered a large amount of mass-destruction, and only an island east of the mainland, Mizu no kuni, escaped completely unscathed.
The shogun of Zipang, then Shogun Kaneshiro Hideki no Kami Kyuseishu, under the advice of the northern Hikari no Kuni, southern Yami no Kuni and southeastern Kaze no Kuni daimyo, cut all ties to the destroyed desert in order to rebuild properly. All trade to the Western nations stopped, and while they fought another pointless war and again tried to destroy each other, Zipang kept to itself and prospered for it.
That history, taught to all of Zipang's children, was what the older sister of Tokiha Takumi no Kasai would repeat whenever he asked why there was no trade with the outside nations. They were two siblings, born into the Kasai no Kuni province, with their father being Shogun Tokiha Hinamoto no Kami Tennohi. All people of Zipang had a strong naming tradition of family name, given name and birth province name, unless that person was the Shogun. In that case, they instead took on the name of the Imperial Capitol Province of Kami no kuni, and on crowning received a title that reflected their deeds up to that point. In Hinamoto's case, his title was 'Heaven's Flame'.
Takumi's father was situated in the Kami no Kuni province, leaving him and his sister to be raised in Kasai no Kuni by their mother. After his seventh birthday, his father had given to him as a present a bodyguard; Shadow Warrior Okuzaki Akira no Kaminari, and moved him into a room at the Imperial Palace in the Capitol. This was also around the time that his older sister Mai had left for the Western countries to become an Otome super-soldier. Initially, the relationship between Akira and Takumi was rough, as she wanted him to stay at his home so she could more easily keep an eye on him, due to the congenital stomach disease that had plagued him all of his life. Yet Takumi, knowing of his status as the son of the shogun and future heir to Zipang (as Hinamoto had personally named him his successor), traveled to several towns and villages of not only Kasai no Kuni, but the other provinces as well, wanting to get close to the people he would one day serve. These motivations led to him trying to help many of the communities that he found, and even the poorer areas and slums were graced by his presence. Because of his actions, he found himself repeatedly scolded by Akira for being too nice to people, a complaint shared by his sister in the past.
Those good days came to an end with the closing of that year, when strange, celestial beings landed on the fields of the northern Hikari no Kuni province. These beings came in large, golden, airborne warships, and almost immediately, a bloody war had started. The Steel Warriors, wielding long katana swords, rifles resembling the old Earth tanegashima model, and wearing ornate armor, were among the first to fight. Against this new foe, they found themselves hard-pressed to stand against these golden-armored beings who could not only create blades out of energy, but also fire blasts of energy and deflect their shots off of some invisible shielding.
Within days, Hikari no Kuni fell, and any who did not surrender to the invaders were annihilated. Those who surrendered had their livelihoods preserved, as these golden creatures were supposedly on a mission of vital importance. The fall of Hikari no Kuni put Kasai no Kuni to the south and the mostly desolate Kori no Kuni to the west, on the northwestern Zipang border, at risk, and with one of four major food producers (this one mainly of grain and other crops) lost, fears of the nation succumbing to starvation were born. The Steel Warriors had also lost one of their four dojos, with that one being one where they turned out unparalleled rifle users. The next week also saw the surrender of the few villages who lived in the region of the almost completely mountainous, frigid Kori no Kuni, which allowed for an invasion into Zipang's Western Border Province, Tsuchi no Kuni, the second of the major food producing provinces.
The Zipang Imperial Army found itself hard-pressed to hold onto the two provinces under siege. Although it had access to large walking tanks dubbed 'Sasori' (or Scorpion) due to the main gun mount on the rear of the chassis with two machine guns on the front (in a manner similar to claws), and heavy armor in general, as well as Armored Personnel Carrier Walkers with four sidearm slots that could either be fitted with anti-infantry, anti-tank or light artillery weapons, dubbed Tayona Ken (diverse sword) walkers, the resources of the invaders appeared limitless. They could field golden, four-legged giants that shot orange lasers at anything in front of them, four-legged walkers with shields even more powerful than ordinary shields judging by how artillery shells couldn't outright destroy them, and then the aircraft came into the picture: there were golden fliers that could abduct anything with some sort of light, giant golden battleships that summoned smaller fliers from within to shoot at targets, and golden ships which fired blue beams of light that slowly disintegrated their targets.
The next year had come, and although the Zipang Imperial Army fought magnificently, with the Shadow Warriors playing an increasingly important role in infiltration and sabotage, the enemy had captured Tsuchi no Kuni, further tightening the noose around the nation's neck. With that capture, vast resource nodes and another Steel Warrior dojo were lost, and with the latter, access to the physically strongest of the Steel Warriors. A second food supplier, this one of cattle farms that provided the country with meat, was also lost with the province. This enemy was also nearing victory in Kasai no Kuni, which if captured, stripped Zipang of one of its main military provinces, as well as the combat-oriented Steel Warrior dojo, and put the Capitol in Kami no Kuni province, to the south, in danger. Hinamoto was also losing support, as it became public knowledge that he was repeatedly approached by the commander of the invaders asking for a peaceful resolution. His insistence on continued warfare to 'maintain independence' didn't sit well with most of the people, many of whom just wanted the bloodshed to end. Since by then the invaders controlled half of Zipang's food production, people also wanted an end to the impending starvation.
Takumi and Akira, who were talking to people on the southern border of Kasai no Kuni, learned that there was a likely revolt brewing among all ten provinces of Zipang, and Hinamoto would have to abdicate and hand over the crown to his son to prevent another war. That day, the invaders surrounded him and brought him to their leader, one Executor Urun. That was when they first learned of the identity of their captors as the Protoss, and why they were on the planet in the first place: there was another race of aliens brewing in the area known as the Dead Zone, the half of the planet which had lost all contact and considered unmapped, on which the nation of Zipang bordered.
These other aliens, the Zerg, had seized that half of the planet and were advancing on the remaining half of Earl, so the Protoss fleet landed to deal with them. They found a problem in that Hinamoto wasn't willing to allow them the space they needed to construct a defense against this overwhelming foe, ordering strikes against him such that he was forced to retaliate.
However, with Takumi's help, when he was made Shogun in the next few days, the war could be over and the two forces could focus on the Zerg together and save what remained of Earl from becoming infested. Urun also noted that, while Zipang's weapons were quite ingenious, they alone wouldn't be enough to stem the Zerg tide; but to supplement those forces, the Protoss had extensive files of Terran technology that the humans could resurrect.
Takumi, knowing the discontent of the people at this war, agreed to this pact. During this time, he met one retainer of Hinamoto who was now pledging himself to Takumi due to his dissatisfaction with his father's policies, introducing himself as Adachi Iori no Hikari. The next few days came, and with that, Takumi's coronation. Inside the palace, he waited, as a holy priest approached him with the crown held between his two palms.
"Kneel, Tokiha Takumi no Kasai," he stated. Takumi knelt at the throne and closed his eyes, while the holy priest lowered the nation's crown onto his head. "Rise, Tokiha Takumi no Kami Tadayori, new Shogun of the Zipang Empire!"
The young Emperor rose, and stepped out onto a palace balcony overlooking a crowd of mixed Steel Warriors, Shadow Warriors, Zipang citizens from rich and poor, Imperial forces and Protoss ships.
"People of Zipang." Takumi began. "I come to you in the hopes that I can serve my country, that I can serve you. However, in order to progress into the future, we must first forsake all desire for conflict with those who would share our lives with us. To that end, I hereby declare that the war with the Protoss…"
Executor Urun was watching carefully
"…is over! We, however, face a new enemy that seeks to destroy all that we hold dear, to consume our nation. Now we must shake hands with our comrades and prepare ourselves for the nightmarish tsunami that threatens to engulf us. Yet rest assured, my people, I will lead us into battle against the darkness, and we will come out shining brighter than ever!"
Cheering erupted from crowds everywhere, and Takumi withdrew back inside the palace. There was work to be done: he had to think. Already the Protoss had provided Zipang with schematics for bunkers with automated automatic weapons named "Shrike turrets", Missile turrets that were modified with "hellstorm batteries" that launched smaller mini-missiles, and "Perdition turrets" which were apparently large flamethrowers on a chassis that could retract underground. Many of these new technologies were being housed in the province east of the Capitol and marking the east coast of Zipang: Tetsu no Kuni, which held the final Steel Warrior dojo where the best craftsmen among them were trained.
While considering this, Takumi had a brainstorm: A long wall of turrets made up of: 1 row of Perdition flamethrowers at the front, 1 row of bunkers with the turrets directly behind that, and behind them would be missile turrets along with Protoss photon cannons. Takumi consulted Executor Urun on this idea, and he said it was definitely plausible, though costly. The Protoss would build the foundation of the wall, and then the turrets would be built, with the structure occupying all of the Zipang East Coast and extending to wall off the Dead Zone to other points of invasion.
However, this project would take up quite some time, as although Urun could use Probes to materialize the Wall structure in a week (and get it to cover the whole Dead Zone border), the construction of the turrets throughout the Wall would take some more time. Of this time, they only had two months until the main Zerg force crashed onto Zipang. The secondary problem was that the one province split off from the mainland, Mizu no Kuni to the east of Tetsu no Kuni, was ahead of the Wall Structure location. It couldn't be built further into the Dead Zone, as the terrain was mostly ocean and wouldn't support the structure, making it inevitable that Zipang would also lose its third major food producer and be left with only Kaze no Kuni, the last major food hub which focused on fruit farming, under human control.
Takumi also started thinking about something else; if that Wall wasn't ready in time, they needed some way of holding back the Zerg. The Zipang Imperial Army, according to Executor Urun, wasn't sufficiently equipped or trained to fight them toe to toe despite aid from his forces and the new upgrades, so another plan had to be conceived. There wasn't any possibility of other nations helping, because Zipang had a history of self-isolation since the era of Shogun Kaneshiro that cut them off from the rest of the world, so who would believe a story about some savage alien race attacking Earl? Otome, the local supersoldiers trained at Garderobe Academy, were also out of the question for this reason, and Takumi was left without any idea to bolster his ranks for the fight against the Zerg…
Then it hit him. What if there was still some potential in humans that was yet undiscovered. First he ran the idea by Akira, she admitted that she, too, felt that there was something more inside her, something greater. Takumi's new retainer, Iori, felt likewise. It was as if there was something greater, some higher purpose, hidden inside their very core.
When Takumi consulted Executor Urun about this, he agreed, and he also agreed that the Protoss could possibly unlock it with their psionic technology, though the young Emperor requested that this remain a secret for the time being. The following day, Protoss High Templar took five volunteers to the hidden human city of Scion, found deep underneath one of Zipang's mountains in the Kori no Kuni province. These five volunteers were Takumi, his bodyguard Akira, his assistant Iori and two other people, one nobleman with several black dreadlocks named Hikaru, and one man in rags with shaggy black hair named Katsurou. In the meanwhile, everyone settled on Mizu no Kuni was ordered to evacuate to the mainland.
After two weeks of trying to unlock their "true self" with help from the High Templar, and also training, they were ready. The people who lived in Scion were the first to see the new supersoldiers, and at first, they thought they were seeing was strange.
After being prompted to test his newfound power, Takumi gritted his teeth, and gripped his hands into fists. He started hissing in pain, through his clenched teeth, as his skin and hair quickly drained all of its color, and then he let out a scream as blue flames engulfed his body. After the next second, the flames disappeared, leaving him clad in blue pulpit robes instead of the garb of the Shogun. His skin and hair was now a pale white, with his eyes having turned from a light blue to a deep red color.
Akira stood forward next, also hissing in pain as purple lightning shot through her body. She felt her skin on her arms become scaly, and she also felt her back become jagged. It seemed like a second spine had appeared on her front, and from each segment, long blade-like spikes extended at 45 degrees to each of her sides, branching upwards. One such set of spikes was colored dark purple, and in some cases may have been confused for a top had it extended past the shoulders, such that 'shoulder blade' received new meaning. The rest of her skin blackened and gained a slight green tint, her head turned into more of a triangular shape, with two horns sprouting from the ends. Her eyes were now bright scarlet, and her teeth had transformed into deadly-looking canines as if she could bite effortlessly through flesh. Her dark green hair now lay hanging, unrestricted by a band she normally would have used, and every pointed part of her body sparked purple electricity
Iori followed Akira, and clenched his own fists. His skin, and entire outfit, had turned into a translucent material, after which a white mist burst out from his body. It wasn't clear where exactly he was, only indicated by where the mist was. That mist moved forward, levitating into the air, and formed into various shapes such as a sword, bow, spear and Shadow Warrior shuriken.
Hikaru stepped forward, and his entire body burst into blue flames. Those flames expanded into the shape of a sphere, at the center of which was a black skeletal figure. The sphere of blue flames hovered forward, and a bolt of blue lightning shot from the skeletal figure within towards a target dummy on site.
Katsurou's body also burst into flames that wrapped around his body to form a sphere, but they were a deep ruby-red color. Within the flames, the black figure looked instead like a suit of armor, with hands disconnected from the main body. Hovering forward, it raised one of its disembodied hands, and a second red fire sprouted from the hand's wrist, forming into a blade.
The fires then disappeared from Hikaru and Katsurou's bodies, revealing them in what they were originally dressed as and letting them fall to the ground. The mist around Iori vanished, and he had returned to having normal skin and clothes. Akira's new form lit up with purple electricity, but when it disappeared, her skin had returned to its normal, smooth feel, her torso exoskeleton vanished and her facial features also normalized. Takumi's body burst into blue flames, but when they vanished a second later, his clothes had returned to what he was wearing before his transformation, the color had returned to his skin and hair, and his eyes had reverted to their normal color.
"We have succeeded," Hikaru spoke, in a reverent tone.
"This, however, would not have been possible were it not for the deposits of the Amber in this place," Katsurou, also in a reverent tone, highlighted. "That crystal, born of an organic being, opened us up to our hidden aspects."
"And as of this moment, each of us is bound to our comrades, who also know of the awakening of the genes locked deep inside. Our Brotherhood will need proper title, however.
"Takumi no Kami-sama, considering our new bonds to each other and the role played by this biological amber crystal, I propose the name of the Brotherhood of the Amber-Inlaid Path.
After a nod from Akira and Iori, Takumi agreed to this christening. The inhabitants of Scion had, during the newly-christened Brotherhood's time there, found a way to 'farm' amber by using the wood resin from the trees and rapidly fossilizing it to create the amber. Some of this newly-formed amber was incorporated into a Protoss Pylon as the core crystal, with shockingly impressive results: there was either a tripled power output, or the pylons provided an extremely strong shielding to whatever they were powering. Scion had since begun manufacturing large quantities of amber to power such Amber Pylons so as to provide two rows of them for the as of yet incomplete Wall of Zipang to provide that strong shielding.
In addition, the time spent by Takumi and his company to unlock their inner selves was also spent by Zipang resurrecting the technology according to the blueprints provided by the Protoss. Almost all of the new manufacturing was taking place inside Tetsu no Kuni, and they were reaching many breakthroughs. Eventually, there were four days left until the Zerg force crashed onto Zipang, and the evacuations were almost complete. The Wall still needed more time to finish, and there was no guarantee that it would be complete before the Zerg arrived, so Takumi began deploying forces to the western coast of the now desolate Mizu no Kuni, forming a defensive position at that point, largely consisting of seven Sasori walker tanks and twenty five Tayona Ken walkers of diverse configurations, several manned Bunkers, a large number of new Missile Turrets, several new Siege Tanks, as well as some of the Protoss forces.
They were just able to complete the beachhead on the predicted day of the invasion, and by then, the various flying beasts that made up the Zerg Swarm were spotted on the horizon from Mizu no Kuni's east coast.
End note: Executor Urun is not connected to Admiral Urun of Starcraft 2's mission "In Utter Darkness". I just needed a Protoss name.