Summary: Set three hundred years after Mai-HiME, this story follows archaeologist and explorer Natsuki as she follows a map that leads her into the heart of the Fuuka mountain range. Prot-Otome. Somewhat of an in-universe crossover… sort of.
Disclaimer: I could only hope to own Mai-HiME. If I did, I would never have let The Battle of Fuuka dwindle.
Chapter One
An unforgiving gust of wind carried a sharp cloud of ice into Natsuki's face, causing the young woman to release a hiss that was carried off into the growing darkness. She folded up the shovel after finishing the dugout just next to her lean-to and began to carefully stack wood from a fell tree she had cut. After a few moments, the small ration of tinder caught light and she soon had a crackling fire.
Unconcerned with the size of the flames, she carefully added a few more logs to guarantee being able to bathe this evening. Her sled was mostly cleared of the essentials, including the large basin that she began to fill with snow. Okay, admittedly it isn't a great idea to lug basins around but the mountains of Fuuka were a place of mystery. There was little way for her to guarantee finding a hot spring to wash herself in, so Nastuki resigned herself to instead rely on melting large amounts of snow so that she would be able to keep herself clean of the silt and sweat that often builds up.
Today was no different, she mused. She had been faced with the hard decision of climbing a cliff that stretched sheer for a half mile or taking days to hike around. Instead, Natsuki found herself lugging herself along with the hefty weight of her equipment up into the heart of the mountains, life hanging in the strength of her paracords. Needless to say, Natsuki was very much looking forward to soaking in a tub of warm water to ease her aching body.
While not ideal to venture into the mountains during the cold months, the map that recently came into her possession offered too much of an opportunity to risk waiting for the spring thaw. In a few weeks the weather would turn mild and she would be able to excavate the supposed ruins of the fabled lost Fuuka Gakuen. She shoveled more snow into the simmering basin, filling the tub near the brim.
Another powerful gale pierced through her layers, weaving between the threads of her clothing with a sort of ease that could be considered graceful. She licked her lips and winced at the stinging of her dry, cracked mouth. She dug through her satchel and grabbed a tube of chapstick, leaning closer the the fire to warm its waxy contents.
'What would I do without you, Mai?' she asked the void, rubbing the thawed balm over her lips. The redhead had warned her about the dangers of windburn, going so far as to make a special batch of balms just for this voyage. She'd given Natsuki a list of instructions to go with the various tubes explaining where to rub which wax on skin exposed to the wind. Natsuki found it tucked inside a duffel bag full of dehydrated soups and snacks, a welcome treat compared to the military rations she had loaded up on. She saved those meals for when they spoke, imagining dinner with her roommate again.
It had been weeks since she left Windbloom in search of the legendary resting place of the battle princesses. After the battle of Fuuka, a terrible solar storm had all but wiped out Earth's existing data. While they had mostly regained control of technology, history had fallen into disrepair and the only remains were textbooks from before the collapse.
She looked down at her left arm. The technology to become an Otome was still an experimental one. The only reason she had been allowed access to the program was her connection with Midori and Youko. They had been the ones to tentatively bring it up while dragging a reluctant Natsuki to karaoke after a few hours at the local bar one night when she was back in town from another voyage.
Hours after agreeing, she found herself in a warehouse that had been converted into an intense and even ostentatious obstacle course. Mai, Midori, and Nao stood to Natsuki's right and to her left she measured the unfamiliar faces. Immediately beside her stood a bespectacled woman with what seemed to be dark gray hair. Further down the line she found a brunette, a boisterous blonde, a girl with what seemed to be teal hair, and a handful of hopeful, forgettable faces. The first batch of Otomes geared up to begin training.
Over three months, the women spent most of their free time mastering the obstacle course and subsequently endured the torture of being weighted down more with every successful completion. By the end of the three months, Natsuki found herself somehow gliding across the equipment with ease despite a hundred and fifty pounds of dead weight attached haphazardly to her limbs. As she passed the finish line, she found herself smiling…
...up until being blind-sided with a needle to the neck. She awoke in the medical bay, arm sore and ear throbbing. The device had been uncomfortable at first, a metal bracer on her wrist that worked as an almost-sentient supercomputer and granted her access to the system. The band was fastened to her arm through a subdermal connection, effectively soldering it in place, fused into her skin via metal probes that circulated and recharged the nanomachines rushing through her veins.
The heat from the fire began to fog up her goggles and Natsuki removed them when wiping the lens had no effect. Green eyes blinked away the intense light of the flames. Her breath steamed out in gray puffs.
If not for Garderobe upgrading their central core, Natsuki would have been able to easily overcome the treacherous mountain terrain. As for the moment, she had to make due with her physical strength. Irina was still trying to perfect balancing the external network and power supplication and the core had gone offline a month ago while the headquarters relocated into a new building, including a state-of-the-art laboratory overhaul. The queen had it planned before the researchers had even thought to ask, funneling what seemed to be limitless resources into the program. Natsuki wasn't sure what the budget actually is and didn't care enough to ask. She was in it for the long haul now.
… Plus, if Natsuki were being honest with herself, she worried about the visibility that the snow-laden clouds yielded. The last thing she needed was to flatten herself against the rock face of a mountain.
It had been a few days since she contacted Windbloom and weighed her decision mildly before scoffing and stripping. A low moan escaped her lips as she stepped into the hot water, feeling the caress of warmth as her limbs thawed. Steam rose in long, billowing clouds through the pine tree peaks and mixing with the snow. Her hand idly played with her beacon for a few moments before her earring flared to life.
"Heyyyyy Natsuuuukiiiiii-chan," came a voice too slow to be sober.
"Midori-san," Natsuki drawled with a voice gravelly from dry air and disuse. "Isn't it a little early to be belligerently drunk?"
"It's past noon," the older woman's petulant pout was audible in Natsuki's ear. "Why don't you want me to have any fun? Don't you love me?"
"I love you about as much as I love the ice that so kindly keeps me company out here."
"Oooooooooohhhhhhh Natsukiiiii-chan! Did you find a nice ice woman to keep you occupied?"
"I haven't seen a soul since I crossed the border, Midori-san. It's a wasteland out here. A few deer tracks every couple days is all I've noticed, and the wolves at night..." Natsuki paused, puzzling over the words. It was true, she hadn't even seen any birds or rabbits. The place seemed to be suspended in a time of loneliness. The only solace she had was the dream she never remembered. A flash of scarlet and sand appeared behind her eyelids before fizzling out.
"Is that so surprising? Most people believe the legends, that the place is haunted by the spirits of old," Midori suddenly became serious, all traces of alcohol dissipating from her words. "I wish you would have waited a few more weeks so I could have joined you. The system should be up soon and you'll be able to materialize. I want to know everything about the ruins when you find them, any sort of technology you find, art, the smell…"
Natsuki heard the voice trail off and knew the redhead was drooling at the thought of a new discovery. Amused, she conceded, "I'll be sure to collect mossy rocks so you can taste the mildew."
Midori let out a laugh, "That's my Kuga-kun," Natsuki sneered, "want me to see if anyone else is around?"
The explorer ran her hand through her hair as she considered making this a long call. She sighed, worrying her lower lip between sharp, white teeth. "No," she finally ventured. "I've gotta get cleaned up and then figure out where I am. Can you check my location and cross reference it with the topography of the map?"
She heard a soft hum and then the clicking of keys. "It looks like you're not too far now. Only a few hundred meters northwest of you there should be a tunnel. I can't tell if it goes beneath the ocean or a mountain, but after a few miles you should be in the heart of Fuuka."
Natsuki clicked her tongue, "That doesn't sound as bad as I expected. The weather is foul and only getting worse. I can barely see a thing, day or night. I'll keep you all appraised."
"Thanks for calling, Nat-chan," Midori teased her, "Stay safe."
"You too," she whispered, disconnecting the call. After a few moments, she huffed and submerged herself under the cooling water. As she emerged, she gasped at the frosty air and leaned over to snag a hot rock from the fire with her tongs. Dropping the stone into her basin with a sizzle, Natsuki was relieved to find that it worked. A few more stones and her hot bath was revitalized. Green eyes gazed pensively into the darkness, weighted by the task ahead of her. Grumbling to herself, she finished washing before reluctantly stepping out of the water's warm embrace and into the unforgiving brutality of the winter storm. Her hair froze almost instantly, and she wasted no time in drying her skin before stepping into the winter furs she had hung up near the flames. The warm pelts comforted her as she crawled into the crude shelter. A wolf howled mournfully as she closed her eyes to the familiarity of scarlet and sand.
A/N: Got back into Mai-HiME and Mai-Otome recently and had this stuck in my head. Might be a two-fer, possibly a whole story arc. I've got some ideas about the Prot-Otome and how Garderobe became the academy it is in Z-HiME. Drop me a line, let me know what you think. Next chapter shouldn't be too far away.