AN:
"Mariya"= male cross-dressing as his sister. Mariya = female born Mariya, when actually dressed as herself.
"Shizu"= female cross-dressing as her brother. Shizu = male born Shizu, when actually dressed as himself.
Based off the manga versions of Maria Holic and Mai-HiME.
Dear mother in heaven, I've been invited to Fuka Academy. They want to talk to me about my rosary I got as a child and about you.
Just as Kanako got to the gates of the academy a giant monstrous creature crashed through it, followed by a part-mecha dragon-like creature breathing fire, destroying the first creature.
"Good job, Kagutsuchi," a girl with short orange hair and large breasts (Kanako would have had a nose bleed had she not been so terrified of her situation).
"Well, that was over fast," a boy with spiky light brown hair.
"Thank you for ending that safely, Tokiha-san, Tate-kun," said a young girl in a wheelchair, with what seemed to be a maid pushing it.
"Welcome to Fuka Academy, Miyamae Kanako," she said turning to me, "I am the board chairman, Kazahana Mashiro."
After a good 15 minutes of craziness, Kanako finally settled into a room with the four others, for a much needed explanation.
"Sorry for scaring you, but that "orphan" needed to be dealt with," Mashiro-sama said, "We'll start at simple information, okay?"
Kanako could merely nod.
"Tokiha-san here is what we call a "HiME", which stands for Highly-advanced Materialising Equipment. She like many others in this school has the ability to materialise a meta-substance called an "element". Tokiha-san, if you don't mind, can you show her?"
"Sure. My element is these four rings that go around my wrists and ankles that allow me to use fire-based attacks and the power of flight," Tokiha-san said showing Kanako one of her rings.
"Great. A HiME will have a HiME mark somewhere on them, usually on the place governed by their zodiac sign," Mashiro-sama continued.
"Now, Tate-kun here is what we call a "key" they amplify the power of a HiME, when they have touched a HiME's element. When amplifying a HiME's power they summon what we call a "child". This child is a part-spiritual, part-mecha creature, such as Tokiha-san's child Kagutsuchi, which was the dragon-like creature you saw. We won't show you that now as we don't want to destroy this room. A key must be within a certain distance to be effective that is the territory. HiME's use their powers to protect the unwitting populace from what we call "Orphans", monstrous creatures with abilities similar to the HiME's Children, which is the creature you saw these two fighting," Mashiro-sama said pointing to Tokiha-san and Tate-kun.
"Do you think you kind of get it?" Mashiro-sama asked apologetically.
"Yeah, but what does this all have to do with me, my mother and my rosary?" Kanako asked, confused.
"I was just about to get to that," Mashiro-sama said pleasantly, "Tokiha-san, Tate-kun; you may leave to go to class now." Tate-kun and Tokiha-san left.
"Before your mother went to Ame no Kisaki, she came here."
"What, really. Why?" Kanako asked surprised
"Your mother was a HiME, but she never like the fighting. Some HiME's are like this, but orphans will still target them. Usually their key will help them be strong enough to beat the orphans. Your mother however, didn't find her key here, so she left. She found her key at Ame no Kisaki, it was your father," Mashiro-sama stated carefully.
"Why did they never tell me?"
"They didn't want to burden you when you didn't have to be," Mashiro-sama said gently.
"You see your parents tried to see if you or either of your sisters were HiMEs but couldn't find a HiME mark on any of you. Just to be sure, your mother tested your older sister. It didn't work, your sister isn't a HiME. Then your mother got sick and you know the rest."
"So, why tell me now?"
"Your father was cleaning out and found some papers detailing some instructions left by your mother, for you and your younger sister. She said that she had always had a feeling, if any of her daughters were HiMEs it would be you. So, she disguised her element as a necklace similar to a rosary cross."
"You mean this one?" Kanako said pulling out her rosary or her mother's disguised element.
"Yes. So your father gave us the instructions to work with. We are to test you, then we will test your little sister."
"What if it's neither of us? Or what if it's me? What then?"
"If it is neither of you, we will leave it as that. If it is you, we still will test your sister. You can have two HiMEs in a family," Mashiro-sama said.
"Shall we start?"
Kanako nodded.
"Okay, put the necklace on the table. Now, all I can tell you is that your mother was very familiar with the weapon her element was, even before she got her element. She instructed us, that all you have to do is state what weapon it is and put it in a ruff diagram, so that it looks similar to the type of weapon it is. Then its disguise will fall away and once again it will be an element, to materialised and dematerialised at the will of the HiME in control of it."
Kanako stood there in thought, her mind racing.
A weapon she was used even before she got her element. What did mother enjoy that had a weapon involved.
She pondered that a while longer, before.
"Archery! My mother loved archery. Was her element a bow and arrows?"
"Try it out, put it in the position you think it should go in."
Kanako moved the necklace around until the cross was in the middle of a straight line and the back of the necklace was curved like a bow. Suddenly it transformed into a bow with two cross symbols one on the string and one on the wooden part, where an arrow would go.
"I'm a HiME," Kanako whispered.
"Yes, you are," Mashiro-sama said gently.
"But where are the arrows?"
"It doesn't need arrows, it's an air-based element," Mashiro stated. "You see those two cross symbols? They make the air around drawn to them so you can materialise arrows out of the air. It means you never will run out of arrows."
Dear Mother in heaven, I'm a HiME just like you were.