Standard issue disclaimer: Sunrise created and owns Mai-Hime. I am not them. This is a parody, protected speech.
Disturbing Routines
Chapter Two: Mikoto
April, 2004
She awoke again. And again, there were people nearby, asking her uninteresting questions. She remembered another instance of this, but didn't dwell on the similarities. They weren't important. Few things were.
Briefly, she considered calling Miroku to her hand once more, and departing from this place. But it occurred to her that she still wasn't completely recovered from her earlier exertions. Since everyone present seemed the sort of person she could slay easily with a few moment's efforts, it was probably safe to rest here.
So she closed her eyes, and within a few moments she was asleep once more.
"Incredible," Mai said as she tasted the soup. "This is cafeteria food?"
"Eh, the actual cafeteria isn't nearly as impressive. That's why people in the know prefer to eat here," Chie explained, gesturing vaguely at the many students sitting around the parked streetcar marked Chao Bao Zi.
"And the person who runs this is actually a student?" Mai asked, looking towards the open window of the streetcar, where said student could be seen serving the lucky few to get seats right there. "That's incredible."
"And she's just about the nicest person you're ever going to meet, too," enthused Aoi, nodding vigorously.
"And the waiters are students, too? That's -"
"Incredible?" supplied Chie and Aoi, exchanging an amused glance.
"I was going to use another word," Mai said, with grave wounded dignity. "But that one will do, thank you. Are they hiring? Because I really need a job."
"I'm pretty sure that they are," Chie said, chuckling just a bit. "There's a fair amount of turnover at most of the workplaces, since most people who go to any of the schools at Mahora are only working to get that bit of extra money they need to buy whatever it is they want to buy."
Mai controlled the urge to flinch. She wasn't in that position at all, but she was also aware that was by her own choice. Her father gave both her and Takumi an allowance, but she refused to touch it. (As far as she knew, Takumi didn't either.) Sometimes she found herself wondering whether that was such a good idea, but there it was.
"Oneechan?" she heard Takumi's voice asking from behind her.
"Takumi!" she said, whirling to see him walking over to them in the company of another boy, rather bishonen with his long hair braided behind him, in a junior high uniform. "Is something the matter?" she demanded, almost rising from her seat.
"No," he said, subtly making calming gestures. "I just wanted to introduce you to my roommate. Akira-kun, this is my older sister."
The other boy nodded sharply. "Okuzaki Akira. Pleased to make your acquaintance," he said, just a bit brusquely.
"Ah. Yes. Well, then, thank you for looking after my little brother," Mai said, doing her level best to hide the aggravation that she still felt. It wasn't this person's fault, after all. "Oh, um, Takumi, these are my classmates -"
"Harada Chie," said the girl with thick glasses. "AKA Gossip queen!"
"Seriously?" Mai asked. "People actually call you that?"
"I'd love it if they did!"
"Senou Aoi," said Chie's constant companion. "No funny nickname, but please call me Aoi-chan!"
Mai, noting that Aoi seemed enthralled by Takumi's boyish good looks, turned to him and was just about to offer him a chair on the opposite side of the table from her. Before the words left her mouth, though, a chill ran down her spine as she saw something she didn't want to see.
The girl from the ferry, the one with the guns, was walking down the street, dressed in a school uniform with the jacket open, her long blue-black hair flowing in the breeze. She moved through the crowds like a shark swam through water, and with just as much warmth or emotion on her face.
"Who is that?" Mai asked quietly.
"Who's who?" Chie asked, turning to follow her gaze. "Oh. Kuga Natsuki-ojousama. She actually came to school today, I guess. She's sort of a local celebrity for how often she cuts classes without getting expelled. What's your interest in her?" Chie concluded, turning to look at the dotted outline which marked where Mai had been up until a few moments ago.
She stared at the empty space for a moment, before turning an inquisitive look in Takumi's direction. "Does she do that very often?"
"Not until recently," Takumi said with an embarrassed laugh, rubbing the back of his head.
"Very good technique," Akira observed. As all eyes turned on him, he coughed. "Or something like that. Excuse me."
"I'll come with," Takumi offered as the other boy started to walk away.
"Or you could -" Aoi started to suggest, but he was already gone by the time she did. "He will be mine," she said, a moment later, as she watched him go.
"Shota," Chie said.
"Loli."
"Since I was twelve and you were eleven when we started doing it, and I do think you've gotten less cute over the years, I'd say that's fair," Chie allowed.
She awoke again. This time there were no people nearby, which was different. And she was hungry, which was different and unpleasant.
She sat up in the bed, and considered again calling Miroku to her hand. But her constant companion would come to her at once if there was any danger. Though she found it difficult to imagine that any of the soft people here would be any real threat to her. In any event, it was time to depart, so she left through the window.
A few moments later, the curtains surrounding the bed where she'd been sleeping until lately were drawn back. "It seems you were right to be concerned, Tokiha-san," said Sagisawa Yohko, the head nurse.
"So now what?" Mai asked, looking nervous. The last time that girl and this Natsuki person had clashed, a ferry had ended up destroyed. She shuddered at what they might do here on the highly populated campus.
"Now I'm going to call campus security and tell them to be on the lookout for our young friend," Yohko declared. "You should probably get back to class, lunch hour is almost over."
"Right," Mai said hesitantly.
She honestly considered doing just that for a little while after she left the infirmary, but it quickly became obvious that she wouldn't be able to concentrate on her lessons if she did go back to class. With a groan of frustration, Mai headed down and out of the school building, hoping to find that strange little girl before her enemy did, for her sake as well as everyone else's.
She crawled through the environs in which she found herself, always remaining behind cover except when she was certain no one was looking. Fortunately, most of the people here were unobservant as well as clearly weak and thus uninteresting. She was conscious, however, of the fact that they had food and she didn't.
It seemed horribly unjust.
And there were so many of them too. Mikoto was strong, not stupid. Enough ants working together could bring down anyone, no matter how mighty. So it would not do for her to lash out and take what she needed. To do so would draw the ants to her, and she had things to do that she could not do if she were brought down. Hence her stealthy approach.
But the stealthy approach had its disadvantages. No matter how unobservant they might be, the weaklings were annoyingly unwilling to set down their food anywhere that she might be able to pick it up without leaving her concealment. So frustrating! The pangs of her hunger were becoming even more noisy, too.
And then, just as she was starting to go a little crazy, she chanced to pass by a small group of the weaklings. On hearing a call from one of their number, one of them became distracted, leaving an unopened package unattended long enough for Mikoto to dash out, seize it, and return to cover in a few seconds. She heard a hue and a cry nearby, but surely she had time enough to open the package and take a bite out of AAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGHHHHHHHH! WHAT WAS SHE EATING?
Driven past madness by the searing pain in her mouth, she abandoned all cover. Distantly, she was aware of her hands and feet landing on something fleshy, but she could not spare a moment's thought to such trivia. She needed water! Water to put out the fire!
Where were the ants hiding the water?
Mai wasn't sure where to start looking for the girl, until she started hearing screams. With a sigh, she started running in that direction.
Yuuki Nao had been enjoying life, lately. Her - commercial endeavors, shall we say? - had been exceptionally profitable since she made her new best friend, and that had taken the edge off of a bit of the frustration she felt with life. A bit, not a lot; after all, she was still engaged in said commercial endeavors.
But she was feeling pretty good that afternoon, when she heard the sounds of someone running behind her. Naturally, she turned to see what was happening.
She turned just in time to see the girl in the long shirt and nothing else running on all fours, before said girl slammed into her and knocked her to the ground. Stunned, Nao stared up at the golden-eyed girl who was breathing heavily, with a bit of drool dripping from her mouth.
Oh no, thought Nao, almost paralyzed now. She'd done her level best to convince herself that that sempai had been kidding her, when she'd made those hints back in December. But there could be no mistaking this girl's obvious intent. It was possible! Some girls did do such things!
She's going to have sex with me! Nao shrieked inwardly, and braced herself for the indignity that was sure to follow, trying desperately to forget the sounds of those bastards having sex with her mother.
"Hey! Stop!" someone shouted.
The girl atop Nao looked up and to the side, and then scrambled off of her, leaving Nao behind as she dashed off. Moments later, there was another girl, taller and with orange hair, leaning over her with a concerned expression.
"Are you okay?" she asked.
Naturally, Nao punched her in the stomach. "What was thaaat!" she shouted as the girl stumbled back.
"Wow," Mai muttered, clenching her stomach. "That really does hurt. Maybe I should apolo-"
"What was thaaat!" the girl on the ground repeated as she started to sit up. "What, what -"
"I know, I know, I'm sorry," she said. She really did understand where the other was coming from, but there wasn't time to explain. "I, I've gotta go -" It wasn't easy to run with the bruise forming on her stomach, but she had to make sure this didn't happen to anyone else.
"H-hey," the girl said, frowning. "Don't I know you from somewhere?"
"Uh, maybe," Mai replied. It was entirely possible that this girl had been in the crowd around her when she'd woken up this morning, after all. She hadn't had time to notice any faces. "Sorry, can't talk!" And then she was off again.
Nao blinked. She was sure that she'd never seen that girl before, and yet there was something awfully familiar about her, somehow ...
"Why am I doing this?" Mai wondered aloud a few moments later, as she followed the path of the crazy girl through a bushy region. She had endured some mild embarrassment at the start of her passage through this area when she passed a pair of students engaged in al fresco sex. Not being a yaoi fan, she didn't pause to watch, but just kept right on going through the bush, feeling it brushing against her skin and clothes just a bit painfully.
The crazy girl, she thought as she made her way up a hill. Who's the crazy one, the crazy girl or me who follows her? This is stupid! I'm cutting class on my first day here! I'm going to get in so much trouble, it's not even funny! I could lose my scholarship, I'd have to abandon Takumi to this place, and all for the sake of some lunatic whose name I don't even know! And yet I keep on going and going and aaaggh!
The aaaggh was prompted by the fact that, blinded by a branch that came back into her face at at inopportune moment, Mai couldn't see that the incline she was ascending dropped off rather sharply. She tumbled down the much steeper side of the hill, holding up her hands to protect her head and face, before finally coming to a rest flat on her back, staring up at the sky.
"Why am I doing this?" she repeated, somewhat more faintly.
"That is a question that only you yourself can ever answer," a quiet, feminine voice replied. "Some hold that understanding one's own motivations, one's true will as it were, is the key to successfully achieving one's goals. Others believe that all such striving is meaningless. I suppose that if one finds meaning in the search, then it is there, and if not, then not. Are you all right?"
Having been trying for a few moments, Mai finally managed to lift her head enough to see who was talking to her. She blinked at the sight of her surroundings.
The hill she'd just fallen down formed the walls of a beautiful flower garden, complete with gazebo and a paved walkway. Just a little ways away from where Mai was currently lying, a petite girl with long violet hair, dressed in a very formal dress, was sitting in a wheelchair and regarding Mai with obvious interest. She looked much younger than Mai, and yet, there was something about her expression that suggested that she wasn't.
Mai quickly rolled up into a seated position. "Uh, yes, I'm fine, fine thank you. Um, good afternoon. This may sound like a crazy question, but did a little girl in a shirt just run through here?"
"Good afternoon. As it happens, yes. I gather that you're chasing after Mikoto?" the young lady answered.
"Which way did she -" Mai broke off, staring. "You know her? I mean, you know her name?"
"Yes, I do know her name, Tokiha Mai, just as I know yours. Please allow me to introduce myself, now. I presently have the honor of being Kazahana Mashiro." She nodded politely, as though offering a bow.
Mai nodded reflexively in response, but her mind was going a mile a minute. "Kazahana ... as in the Kazahana Scholarship?" she asked weakly.
Mashiro nodded. "I am the head of the family trust which bestows that scholarship, yes. Hence my knowledge of you and of Mikoto."
That last part didn't immediately register with Mai. "Oh. Um, well, I was planning on visiting you and thanking you eventually, so I suppose I should -"
"There's no need to thank me," Mashiro said, shaking her head. "Rather I should thank you and the other HiME for accepting it."
Dead silence.
"Excuse me?" Mai asked after a moment.
"HiME," repeated the girl in the wheelchair. "It's a multilinguistic pun, being an acronym derived from the English words 'High-energy Materializing Entity', which coincidentally sounds like -"
"I know what it sounds like," Mai snapped, realizing that she was being very rude, but thinking it was probably appropriate. "How do you know about that sort of thing?"
"It is my business to know such things," Mashiro 'answered'. Imagine air quotes around the answered part, and you'll have the right idea.
"Wait," Mai said, part of the conversation she'd just been having falling into place. "You said that girl, Mikoto, also got the same scholarship as I did."
Mashiro nodded.
"What about this, this Kuga person?" she asked, with a sinking feeling.
"Kuga Natsuki received one as well," Mashiro confirmed.
"I was given a scholarship," Mai said slowly, "because I'm one of these ... hime people."
Mashiro nodded again.
"The recruiter said that it was because of something my grandfather did," Mai continued, feeling a bit faint and wondering whether or not she might have hit her head after all.
"From a certain point of view, that was the truth," explained Mashiro. "He had offspring, resulting in your birth. And we believe that the heritage which resulted in your possession of this talent originates through your paternal ancestry, and so -"
"This isn't funny!" shouted Mai as she loomed over the girl in her wheelchair. "What the hell is going on here?"
"Please moderate your tone," Mashiro requested calmly.
"Or what?"
"Or my companion, who is now standing behind you, will moderate it for you."
Mai eased back, and slowly turned to look behind her. There was a person standing there, who might as well have materialized from thin air for all the noise that she'd made, but it wasn't some sort of frightening presence. The maid, or so Mai concluded from the frilly dress that the woman was wearing, was regarding her with a cold and unfriendly look, but she didn't have any sort of weapon handy. She looked harmless, really.
On the other hand, so had that Mikoto girl when she was pulled out of the river.
"Okay," Mai said, to both the maid and her mistress. "Okay. I'm calm. Everything's cool. But I want to know what the - what I've gotten myself into, here?"
"An admirable goal to pursue," said Mashiro, approvingly. "However, one should finish one thing before one starts on another. That's my opinion, at least."
"Huh?"
"Fumi," the girl continued, ignoring Mai's befuddlement. "I take it that you weren't able to catch her."
"Regretfully, mistress, Fumi was foiled in her pursuit of the cat which was actually a girl," the maid said. "She was too quick for Fumi."
How old are you? Mai thought, looking at the maid.
"Ah well, the trail is surely cold by now. It cannot be helped. I suppose that we must simply wait and hope that something will cause Mikoto to come running back this way," said Mashiro.
Mai coughed. "Um ... that doesn't sound too plausible, to me."
Mashiro smiled.
Ah, water! Blessed, quenching water! Mikoto drank until she thought that she might burst, more concerned with soothing the hot pain in her mouth. Part of her mused that if the weaklings ate such things as caused her this much pain, they might not be so weak after all. But it was a tiny voice in the tumult of her more immediate concerns.
Such as the return of her hunger. She looked around. There had been a few people sitting around this fountain when she'd arrived, but they'd all run off quickly. And they'd taken their food with them. And she was out of cover, exposed to the sight of anyone and everyone.
She mewed her annoyance.
Then she heard a footstep nearby. "Oy."
Mikoto turned sharply, regarding a boy slightly younger than she herself, dressed in a boys' school uniform with the jacket open to reveal a white shirt beneath, his hair messed up and -
The hair on the back of Mikoto's neck stood up straight.
- short, sharp dog ears on the top of his head.
"You're the girl who's been causing all the ruckus, today, right?" said Inugami Kotaro, for it was he. "I can respect that. Sometimes things need to be shaken up a little. But enough's enough, right? Let's you an' me go back to the nurse and she'll give you somethin' ta eat. Sounds good, hah?" And he bared his teeth.
Someone else might have taken that as a friendly grin. Mikoto was not someone else, by definition. She hissed fiercely, and ran off back in the direction that she'd come.
"Hey, wait a minute!" Kotaro shouted, and gave chase. A moment later, he realized that, just like the girl, he was moving on all fours, something he normally did only when in his alternate form.
What th'heck 'm I doing? he wondered. But the chase consumed his attention, and he let out his cry, "Wanwan!" as it did.
Mashiro smiled. (She does that a lot.)
A moment or so later, the small girl whom Mai now knew to be named Mikoto came racing on all fours up the pathway, slamming right into her and knocking her off her feet, again.
"Okay, not so unlikely," Mai muttered, feeling the girl's head bumping against the bottom of her bust.
"Nyaaan!" Mikoto shrieked.
"Wanwan!" shouted a boy who was apparently chasing her as he also ran up the path. When he realized that the chase had come to an abrupt end, he halted dead in his tracks, then rapidly pushing himself into an upright posture. He attempted to stand with an insouciant expression that would probably have come off better if he wasn't about eleven years old and hadn't been running around on all fours a few moments ago. "'Sup?" he said.
"Why, if it isn't Inugami-san," Mashiro said with a pitch-perfect tone of pleasant surprise. "What brings you out this way on this pleasant afternoon?"
"Uh," said Kotaro, examining the quartet of older women who were standing before him uneasily. Despite everything he'd been through in the last year or so, he was still occasionally a bit easily flustered by attractive women. The fact that one of them clearly knew of him, when didn't think he had never seen her before, didn't help matters.
Wait, had he really never seen her before? Wasn't she - "Oh. Nowwww I remember. You're that rich lady who bailed the school out after all that stuff happened. The one I'm not supposed to mess with if I can possibly help it."
"I suppose that's how someone might describe me. Kuznoha-san, perhaps," the girl in the wheelchair speculated.
Something about her put Kotaro's teeth on edge, and so he was even less inclined than he otherwise would be to talk trash about his somewhat volatile boss. "Yeah, well, anyway, I'm supposed to take that girl back to the infirmary, so -"
"I don't think that will be necessary," Mashiro said easily. "I will take responsibility. She's in good hands already."
"She is?" asked Mai. Bump went the girl's head again.
Kotaro considered the girl on the ground for a moment, then shrugged. "Well, all right," he said, wanting to get away from this confusing situation. There'd be other times to make it clear he was not someone who should be taken as lightly as these people seemed to do. "I'll leave it in your hands, then." He sauntered off, whistling.
"It's so cute the way that he makes it seem that he has a choice in the matter," Mashiro mused a moment later.
"Very cute indeed, mistress," Fumi agreed. "Mistress, Fumi believes that it is time for us to be going."
"So it is." Mashiro proceeded to settle back in her chair. "Mai-san, I leave taking care of Mikoto to you. If you have any questions you wish to ask of me, I am certainly at your disposal. Any of the student council or the executive can direct you to my residence, it's something of a local landmark."
"Uh, wait a minute," said Mai, starting to get to her feet and pulling Mikoto with her.
"Sorry, I have to go do my math homework like a good little kid," Mashiro told her as Fumi quickly wheeled her away.
"Math homework? Seriously?"
But the girl was probably out of earshot by that point. Probably. So all Mai did was shake her head, and look down at Mikoto, who was still clutching to her.
"Hey, are you all right?" she asked.
"I don't like that person," Mikoto bit out, her tone quiet but angry.
"That person? You mean that boy who was chasing you, Inukami or whatever his name was?"
Mikoto shook her head, hair still brushing up against Mai's breasts.
"Oh, you mean Mashiro-san? I don't think I like her very much either," admitted Mai. "But she's gone, now, so ... well, maybe you could stop clinging?"
Mikoto's eyes, until now firmly clamped shut, slid open as she realized where she was and what she was doing. She let go and stepped back, taking a good long look at Mai in the process. "You are that girl who helped," she said.
"Tokiha Mai," Mai said, introducing herself. "And you're, um, all that she said was Mikoto -"
"Minagi Mikoto," the girl said, gravely formal with a deep bow. "And now I must go." She turned to do just that.
The loudest stomach rumble Mai had ever heard split the air.
Mikoto stood stock still in mid turn.
"Are you perhaps hungry?" Mai asked, throttling the urge to giggle.
Mikoto nodded twice, not looking back.
"Okay, rather than going wherever you were planning on going, how would you like to have something to eat?"
Slowly she turned, tears streaming from her eyes. "Really?"
At first, Mai had only intended to take the other girl to the Chao Bao Zi, but a moment's thought (specifically on the fact that Mikoto was still just running around in a long shirt) convinced her that was a bad idea. So instead she led her to Mai's dorm room. It was the first time that she herself had spent any real time there; she'd only stopped in to get changed into a secondary uniform after her interrogation.
The suite's kitchen was fully furnished. That had actually been one of the selling points of this particular school, back when she'd thought that she would be living here with Takumi. Well, that hadn't worked out, so she might as well put her skills to good use.
"I'm actually pretty confident in my cooking skills," she told Mikoto over her shoulder as she worked in the kitchen. "I mean, obviously Takumi's not going to say anything bad about what I make for him, but other people have said I do fairly well. I don't think I'd be able to make it as a chef, or anything, but I did have a pretty good teacher when I was working at a restaraunt last year." She chuckled. "Actually, he taught me all sorts of - ahem, well, you probably don't want to hear about -" She looked over her shoulder.
Mikoto had collapsed, head slumped down on the table.
"Orrrr maybe you're not listening at all," Mai continued after a moment, shaking her head. She evaluated the soup, finishing it off by cracking an egg into it. "Well, hopefully this will wake you up."
She carried the bowl over to where Mikoto sat, and set it down beside her. Then, just to be careful, she backed up a fair distance.
It only took a moment or so for the scent to bring the girl around. She roused herself, staring down at the bowl in front of her. Then, slowly, without so much as an itte, much less the full invocation, she reached out to lift the bowl up to her mouth, and almost delicately sipped at the broth.
The bowl lowered, and Mai could see that Mikoto's face held an expression that, until that point, she had associated with a completely different sort of activity. "Good grief," Mai said. "Did you just have an orgasm?"
"It's so good," Mikoto proclaimed, having perhaps not heard the question. She took up her chopsticks and began eating quickly and noisily.
"Well, I'm glad that you like it," Mai said. She was. She was a little freaked out by how much the other girl liked it, but gladness was part of her feelings, too.
Just a few moments later, Mikoto had finished the soup, and sat there with a blissful expression on her face. "You are a very good person, Mai," she said.
"Well, thank you," Mai said, sliding a bit closer to her. "Now, Mikoto-chan, I hope you won't mind if I ask you a few questions. Umm ... what do you know about all of this hime business?"
Mikoto blinked. "Mai knows about HiME?"
"Yes, that girl you don't like, Mashiro, she told me about them. But until today, I had no idea that such things existed ... so anything you could tell me would be very helpful."
"I am a HiME," Mikoto said. "There are others."
"Yes, I know that part. Apparently, I'm one of the others, and -"
"Eh?" Mikoto interjected. "Mai is a HiME?" Before Mai could answer, Mikoto held up her palm and pounded her fist down on it. "Ah, that's right. That's how Mai was able to help last night."
"Yes, I guess so," Mai agreed. "So, what else is there?"
Mikoto stared at her in obvious confusion.
"I mean, okay, we're something called hime, and so we can, well, do things. Why is this happening?"
"Because it is supposed to," Mikoto answered. Everything happened because it was supposed to happen. Or because someone made it happen. That was obvious. Mai was very nice, but not very smart.
Mai held a hand over her face for a moment, then resumed questioning. "Okay, last night you were fighting that Natsuki person."
"Is that her name?"
"You didn't even know her name?" Mai asked, eyes wide. "Why were you fighting?"
"Because she told me not to come to Mahora, and said that she was going to stop me." Mikoto abruptly stiffened, and looked around somewhat wildly. "Is this Mahora?" Her voice was highly excited all of a sudden.
"Uh, yes. Yes, it is. Why was it so important that you come here? Is this part of being a hime, that you have to come here?"
Mikoto shook her head as she stood up. "No. I am here to find aniue." She pulled some sort of necklace out from under her shirt's neck, and looked down at its charm.
Mai blinked at the unfamiliar term. "Your older brother?" she asked after a moment.
Mikoto nodded. "Yes. And now I must go." Her eyes settled on the window, and she bounded over to its sill.
"No, wait, we're on the third floor!" Mai shrieked.
This apparently was not something that gave Mikoto a great deal of concern as she leaped out of sight. Mai got up and ran over to the window, sure that she was going to see the girl's crumpled body on the ground below. Instead, she saw that Mikoto appeared to have landed perfectly, and was now running off into the evening, eventually dropping into her all-fours stance.
For a moment, Mai considered just letting her go. Clearly, this girl could take care of herself. Clearly, it wasn't really Mai's problem what happened to her. Clearly ...
Clearly, she was going to go anyway. "Man, I hate being so damned responsible," Mai said as she pulled off her apron.
A few moments later, she was running after Mikoto. Is this what my life is going to be like from now on? she wondered. Constantly chasing after this crazy girl? This is not very princessy, if you ask me.
Moving swiftly along a paved path that led into the forest, Mai turned a corner and skidded to a stop. Just a few feet away, the person whom she now knew to be named Kuga Natsuki was dressed in the exact same motorcycle leathers she'd been wearing last night, and standing over an actual motorcycle, examining its controls or something. Mai stood paralyzed, terrified of what the crazy girl might do.
Then Natsuki looked up. "Oh," she said. "It's you."
It was the tone that set Mai off. She didn't sound angry to see her again, or upset or even annoyed. It was as though Mai's presence here, indeed her continued health and well-being, was nothing more than phenomena that had nothing whatsoever to do with anything Natsuki had or hadn't done.
"Yeah!" Mai shouted. "It's me! Girl you shot at! I oughta call the cops on you!"
Natsuki stared at her, then mimed holding a phone to her ear. "Hello, police? I'd like to report an assault. Yes, this girl shot a bullet made of ice at me. Oh, don't worry, I'm not hurt. I blocked the ice bullet with my flaming force field, and - Hello? Hello?" She looked down at the fake phone, then looked back at Mai. "They hung up. I can't imagine why, can you?"
"Well, I suppose you think you're gonna get another shot at me, right?" Mai shouted, trying desperately to remember how she'd made the force field come out last time.
"Why would I do that?" Natsuki asked, sounding vaguely bewildered.
"Because you're a psycho!"
With the air of the seriously put-upon, Natsuki raised a hand to her eyes and shook her head. When she spoke, after lowering the hand, it was slowly and deliberately. "I shot at you to determine whether I was right about you having a force field. And the only reason I did that was to clarify whether you were a HiME or not, so that I could tell you to turn around and go back where you came from. You didn't do so. You came here instead. Attacking you now, when you are already where I didn't want you to go, would be pointless. A psycho would do pointless things like that - but I'm not a psycho."
Mai stared at the girl in motorcycle leathers. It was so tempting to believe her. It would solve almost all of the problems. She wouldn't have to worry about Mikoto so much, if this were on the level, and the quiet high school life she dreamed of would be one step closer. "So ... you're not going to try and hurt me. Or Mikoto."
"Is that her name?"
"Oh for -"
"Anyway," Natsuki interrupted Mai's invective. "I don't have any quarrel with either of you. Believe it or not, I was trying to help you both back there. You don't want to be involved with the lunacy that's going on here. So just stay out of my way, and we won't have any problems with each other."
That sounded good, but the implications ... "And what if we don't stay out of your way?" Mai asked, hesitantly. She wouldn't, but she couldn't speak for Mikoto, given the girl's quest.
Natsuki's green eyes, already as cold as the ice she fired from her guns, grew very hard. "Then we will have a problem. And you won't deserve any mercy. So you won't get it."
Dead silence fell once again.
It was broken by a voice from above them both. "Wow, kiddo, you've gotten really badass since back then. But is it really such a good idea to be fighing amongst yourselves right now? I mean, there'll be plenty of time for that sort of thing later, after all."
Mai and Natsuki both looked up. Seated casually on the upper branch of one of the trees, leaning back as though enjoying the spectacle they presented, was an extraordinarily handsome fellow. Mai clearly thought he was one of the sexiest men she'd ever seen; really, it was obvious on her face. Some might have taken that expression for bafflement, but it was definitely arousal. And Natsuki, well, Natsuki was a little different, but the anger she was fronting was clearly a cover for a reluctant attraction. (She has that sort of problem, you know.)
"Nagi!" Natsuki spat. Abruptly, her guns were in her hands.
"Who?" Mai asked.
"Oh, I'm just your friendly neighborhood -" Nagi started to explain.
"Pain in the ass," Natsuki growled. "He shows up sometimes. He knows things. And he was there when ... don't you recognize his voice, at least?"
Abruptly, Mai realized that she did. Understandably, after all, it was such a sexy, resonant voice. She'd heard it when she was wishing for the power, last night.
"You did this to me?" she asked quietly.
"Oh, major loss of cool points," Nagi said, shaking his head. "Didn't Mashiro-chan make it clear? Much like Lady Gaga said, you were born this way."
"Who the hell is Lady Gaga?" Natsuki asked, brow furrowed.
"... oh, sorry. I forgot you don't know about her yet. Not important. Really, sometimes I just say stuff. Anyway, back to business. You really shouldn't be fighting each other, not when there's an Orphan on the loose."
"Orphan!" Natsuki hissed.
"Wow, yet another introduction of terminology that nobody is bothering to explain," Mai said gloomily.
"Ooh, lemme! I love giving lectures!" Nagi said cutely, as he rolled out of the tree and dropped elegantly to the ground to stand before them, hands in his pants pockets. "You see, Mai-chan, as a HiME you are linked to a powerful entity comprised of the energy you command."
"I've been told that it's materialized photons, for what that's worth," Natsuki interjected.
"Ah, science," Nagi mused sagely. "Anyway, this entity is your Child. But periodically, other entities of this nature materialize who aren't linked to anyone. A Child with no parent ... thus, an Orphan!"
"So where is it, you damned nuisance?" demanded Natsuki, clearly doing her best to fight her deep desire for Nagi's hot bod.
"Why it's right behind you!" he said. As Natsuki whirled around to face in the opposite direction, Nagi continued. "Oops, having problems with time again. I mean that it's right behind you, now. Be seeing you!"
And then he leapt out of sight, as the Orphan crashed into view.
To Mai, it resembled nothing so much as a scorpion as envisioned by one of Toho's kaiju creators and painted blue, though it wasn't anywhere nearly as big. The Orphan wouldn't have towered over any office buildings; the trees surrounding it were taller. But as one of its clawed arms swept right through one of those trees, Mai found herself musing that size wasn't everything. Wow, I always have the strangest thoughts when I'm about to die. Actually, that's a strange thought itself!
Natsuki, smothering curses, whirled and began shooting at the Orphan. The charges glanced off its carapace. "Great, another heavy armored one," she muttered, then raised her voice to shout at Mai. "Hey, newbie! A little backup would be appreciated here!"
The yell snapped Mai out of her bemusement. "Me? I don't know what I'm doing!" she yelled back.
"Yeah, I -" The Orphan's big foreclaw swept down at where Natsuki was standing, and she tumbled out of its way a second before she would have been sliced open. "- gathered that!" she concluded as she directed a shot at the Orphan's underbelly. Still no effect. Joints next. "Just do what you did last night!"
"I don't know what I did last night!" Mai reiterated as she danced out of the way of the Orphan's tail, swinging around as its head followed Natsuki's movements.
"Sure you do!" Natsuki retorted as she kept right on dodging, until her evasive maneuvers led her to cross paths with the other girl. "You did this!" And she kicked Mai's feet out from under her and shoved her right at the Orphan's head.
Mai, stunned by the sudden betrayal, didn't realize that the Orphan's mandibles were coming towards her until they were almost on her. She shrieked and threw up her hands in front of her face.
The mandibles struck her force field and recoiled, with the Orphan shrieking in pain from the burn.
"See?" Natsuki said.
"You crazy bitch!" Mai shrieked, still holding her arms up. "What if that hadn't worked?"
Natsuki didn't bother to answer such an obvious question. Shots to the Orphan's joints weren't having any effect, so it was time to pull out the heavy artillery. "Duran!" she called, and with an arctic wind, her ever-loyal Child emerged from the shadows beside her. At a gesture, he charged at the Orphan, knocking it back as he smashed into its head, but not actually doing any damage.
That was as Natsuki had expected. This was a delaying tactic until she could get Mai into a better shape for -
That was when Mai slapped her. Natsuki blinked. She hadn't even realized that the other girl was moving. Well, at least there wasn't much force behind the slap. It stung, but it didn't really hurt.
"Okay," Natsuki said, trying very hard to keep a reign on her temper. "I probably deserve that."
"That's the fricking least of what you deserve!" Mai shouted.
"Look, I do not have time to coddle you, okay? We're in a fight for our lives, here! You can do more than you've been doing - you don't even have your weapon -"
"I don't want a weapon! I don't want anything to do with this!"
"Well you've got it whether you want it or not!" Natsuki roared.
And then, as they were somewhat distracted, Mikoto leapt out of the darkness, bearing her huge sword once more, and cleaved the Orphan in twain. Landing on the ground slightly before the two chunks of the Orphan did, she promptly pivoted and pointed her sword in Natsuki's direction. "You," she said, then paused, as though trying to remember something. Eventually, she gave up. "You," she repeated. "Step away from Mai."
Natsuki stared. After a moment, she found her voice again. "Me, step away from her? She's the one who -"
"Then die." Mikoto tensed, preparing to spin around and launch yet another attack on Natsuki.
"Okay!" Mai interjected, rapidly moving away from Natsuki, and also, purely coincidentally, moving a bit away from Mikoto as well. "This is pretty much the same as what you asked for, don't you think? Everything's cool, now, Mikoto, no need for anybody to die."
Mikoto didn't answer, glowering at Natsuki instead. Natsuki returned the hostile look with a cold, superior stare of her own.
And here I am caught in the middle of these two. Again! Mai decided to play peacemaker. "Now, Mikoto, I know you're probably really upset about Natsuki trying to stop you from coming here to look for your brother, but -"
"He's probably not even here," Natsuki snapped.
"But that's neither here nor there," she continued, raising her voice to drown Natsuki out. "Because her plan didn't work, and so you are here. Her plan didn't work, right, so only a crazy person would try to take revenge for a plan that didn't work when they have an important quest like you do. Right?"
Mikoto's eyes didn't shift in the slightest, but her posture did. Her swordpoint lowered slightly. "That's true," she said. "So. Just stay out of my way, and we won't have any problems with each other."
The irony of this situation may well kill me, thought Natsuki, but nonetheless opened her mouth to indicate agreement.
That was the moment that the severed pieces of the Orphan chose to reanimate themselves. They had shifted to look more serpent-like than scorpion-like, now, and charged heedlessly towards the three girls and Duran.
Mikoto quickly brought her sword up again and met that charge head-on, blocking one of the Orphans with her blade. But the powerful stroke that had cleft the creature in twain was countered, this time, by the Orphan's powerful arms. Now that it knew what to expect from her, she was less of a threat.
Tearing her eyes from Duran's response to the other Orphan's charge, which was proving no more effective than it had initially, Natsuki glared again at Mai. "So, about that not wanting a weapon business -"
Mai's feelings hadn't changed. This wasn't anything to do with her! She ought to be running away as fast as she possibly could. She had too many responsibilities to risk herself in fighting anyone. If she had to fight to protect Takumi, that would be different, but that wasn't the situation, now was it? Takumi was probably safe in his dorm room, separated from her, and, and, well, this wasn't her fight!
But then it wasn't Mikoto's, either.
And that thought struck her like a thunderbolt. Mikoto hadn't said anything about fighting Orphans. She just wanted to find her brother. So then why was she fighting so hard right now?
Because she's a battle-maniac, obviously, the more sensible part of Mai's head insisted, but the rest knew that wasn't just it. Mikoto had come in fighting ... because Mai was here. And Mai had helped her, and fed her. Just for that, the girl was ready to give it everything.
Ah hell. I really will be doing this forever, won't I?
"Okay, okay, okay!" Mai yelled. "What do I do, how do I get this weapon?"
"Just open your heart to what you already have in hand, and it'll come to you," Natsuki said quickly, then turned her attention back to the battle. "Duran, retreat! Duran, load chrome cartridge!"
Open my - what the hell is this shit? Mai closed her eyes and tried to feel the flames in her hands, hoping that would do it. And as she did so, images of the mechanical dragon she'd glimpsed last night flashed through her mind, and the flames seemed to grow hotter without becoming painful. Then there was a strange whirring sound.
Mai's eyes snapped open to behold a pair of gem-studded golden circles orbiting her wrists. She stared at them.
"What kind of weapon is this?" she finally shouted. Mikoto got a sword, Natsuki got guns, and she'd gotten bangles? Someone, somewhere, was clearly making fun of her. All the same, they did make her feel a little taller, somehow.
Then she looked down.
Ah. The reason she felt taller was the fact that she was floating several inches above the ground, perhaps due to the gem-studded golden circles that were also orbiting her ankles. Well. That was sort of cool.
Not paying her any mind, Natsuki had proceeded with the rest of her strategy. "Duran, fire!"
The robotic dog's shoulder mounted cannons proceeded to discharge at the smaller of the two fragmented parts of the Orphan, knocking it back quite a bit. The dust its backward passage kicked up, however, got in Mikoto's eyes, leaving her momentarily blinded and unable to stop the larger fragment from charging over her at Mai.
Mai reacted to this just as she had reacted to being thrown at the creature earlier. She jerked her hands up. There was a bit more consideration in the gesture this time, since she knew that this was how she called up the force field.
Somewhat to her surprise, the force field surged out from her hands like a gout of fire, slamming into the charging Orphan. It made a strange noise, clearly some sort of gasp of pain, as it stumbled back from the jet of flame coming from Mai's direction.
It stumbled right back onto the point of Mikoto's sword, and the noise became even louder.
Mai wasn't sure exactly what gave her the notion, but she followed through on it all the same. She pushed even more of the fire in her hands out at the impaled Orphan, and nearly engulfed it. Its bulk protected Mikoto from the flames, but if this didn't work fairly quickly, then she'd be -
And then the Orphan's noise stopped, and it dissolved into nothingness.
Mai promptly pulled her hands apart, and the fire also disappeared. "Mikoto?" she called out. "Are you all right?"
Mikoto had been staring at where the Orphan had been just a moment ago with a somewhat bemused expression. Now she looked at Mai, and blinked. And then a huge grin was on her face. "Mai is powerful!" she shouted.
"Uh, yeah," Mai said, a bit disturbed at her enthusiasm.
"Hate to interrupt your mutual admiration society, but there's still another half to deal with!" Natsuki shouted. "Duran, load silver cartridge! Fire!" It wasn't good for him to be shooting repeatedly like this, but she didn't have a choice in the matter.
This time, though, as the shell exploded into ice, the other part of the Orphan convulsed and started making the same sounds as its counterpart had right before it disintegrated. Was it the weaker half, perhaps? Driven by that thought, Natsuki brought up her pistols and took a shot with both of them at once, putting an ice bullet of her own right into its belly.
It came apart in the exact same way as the other one had.
Mai watched all this a bit dazedly, having settled down to the ground. Mikoto didn't even bother to do that. "Mai is powerful!" she repeated as she ran over to gaze somewhat hungrily at the rings around Mai's hands. "Those are magatama! Mai is very powerful!"
Mai finally took a moment to look at the jewels on the rings. Sure enough, they did have a slight curve on one side. "I guess I am kind of a princess after all, then," she said, laughing a bit. It was all too absurd not to laugh.
"Do your rings have a name?" Mikoto asked, holding up her sword so that Mai could see its crosspiece. "His name is Miroku. Miroku, this is Mai. Please get along with her. She is very powerful." She said that last as though confiding a secret.
"Now, Mikoto, there are more important things than being powerful," Mai cautioned her.
Mikoto blinked. Wow, Mai said some nonsensical things sometimes.
"Okay," Natsuki barked out again. "Job's done, so we're back where we started. Like I said - first - just stay out of my way."
"Same to you," Mikoto snarled, good mood vanishing in the instant.
"Uh, can I just get one question answered before we all go back to being sworn enemies or whatever?" Mai asked hesitantly "How do I turn this off?" She looked helplessly at the circles hovering around her hands. She'd managed to get enough control over the ones around her feet to at least allow her to settle to the ground, but making them vanish was proving beyond her.
"Why would you want to do that?" Mikoto asked, blinking.
"I'm in trouble with the school discipline board already, Mikoto, I don't want to get yelled at for wearing unapproved accessories to class," Mai told her gently.
"Ah," Mikoto said, nodding, as she saw the wisdom of this. Avoiding the attention of one's enemies was a notion she could get behind.
"Just, I don't know, think of a switch and turn it off or something," Natsuki answered, looking around somewhat irritably. "Where the heck did my bike go?" she muttered.
Mai, who had seen where her bike went, decided to say nothing until she'd tested the suggestion she'd just been given. She cleared her mind, envisioned a light switch, and then envisioned a hand reaching out to turn the light switch from its 'on' position to its 'off' position. She opened her eyes to find that the circlets had vanished completely.
"It worked," she said, then lifted her voice. "Uh, I think the bike may have been knocked over that way," Mai explained with a vague gesture in the appropriate direction. "Welp, I guess we'll be going then. Come along, Mikoto." She began steering Mikoto quickly away from the clearing.
"Why are we running away?" Mikoto asked, perplexed.
"AAAAAAAGHHHH! MY BIKE!"
"No reason in particular," Mai lied.
"So, what are you going to do now?" Mai asked her companion when they got back to the dormitory.
"I'm going to find aniue," Mikoto said. Had Mai forgotten what she'd told her about her goals already?
"Yes, I get that, but you're not going out to search anymore tonight, are you?"
"Probably could," Mikoto said speculatively. "I slept most of the day."
"Yes, but ... Mikoto, you're a student here, right?"
Mikoto nodded. "I became a student here to find aniue."
Something about that puzzled Mai as she walked up the stairs. "So ... what makes you think that he's here?"
"He said he was," Mikoto explained.
Mai paused in mid-step. "Wait, he told you?"
"No, not me. Ojiisan. He told ojiisan that he wanted to go to a good school, right before he ran away from home. And this is the best school in Japan."
A horrible suspicion settled on Mai. "Mikoto," she asked carefully. "By any chance did someone tell you that, the part about this being the best school in Japan, right before you agreed to come here as a student?"
Mikoto nodded again, puzzled by the way Mai was acting.
"Unbelievable," Mai muttered, tapping her head gently. She wondered how she was supposed to explain to Mikoto that she'd been suckered, just like Mai herself had been. The recruiter had probably told them both whatever they'd wanted to hear, all the while working to get them to come here.
Natsuki's attempts to get them to turn around and go back were starting to seem much more like the help that she'd said they were.
This could wait, though. "Anyway, if you're a student here, you have to go to class. Unless, you know, something happens," she said, suddenly conscious of her failings in this area. "So, you probably shouldn't go running around any more tonight."
Mikoto looked a little rebellious, but all that she said was, "So where do I go, now?"
"Well, you can stay with me tonight, and tomorrow we'll visit the dorm manager and find out where you're supposed to be -" She broke off as they reached the landing adjacent to her room's door, and she saw that there was a note taped to her door. Fearing the worst, she ran over and pulled it off.
Then stared.
"What is it?" Mikoto asked.
"Uh ... apparently you've been assigned to be my roommate," Mai said.
Mikoto's face lit up. "You mean ... Mai and I are living together? Mai will be cooking for me all the time?"
"Uh, well, I guess that's -"
"Huzzah!" Mikoto cheered, and hugged Mai soundly.
She really needs a bath, Mai thought.
Much later, after the bath - which had basically consisted of Mikoto, whose cat-like qualities included an aversion to bathing, being scrubbed down by Mai, whose mother-like qualities included an insistence on it, followed by a long leisurely soak in the tub - came the question of the sleeping arrangements.
"Well, first of all, I can lend you a pair of my spare pyjamas, but they're probably going to be a little big on you. We're going to have to get you some casual clothes sometime soon," Mai mused as she leaned back on the bed that she'd picked out, still in her bathrobe. "I think we're both going to have to get part-time jobs, actually."
"Question," said Mikoto, sitting seiza perfectly on the other bed with a towel still wrapped around her.
"Go ahead."
"What are pyjamas?"
Mai blinked, trying to determine whether Mikoto might be making some sort of strange joke. Apparently not, judging by the serious expression on her face. "Um, well, they're clothes that you wear while you're sleeping."
"Clothes you wear while you're sleeping," Mikoto repeated slowly, as though chewing on the words. "Clothes while sleeping. Huh."
"Okay, you've clearly never worn pyjamas. Do you normally sleep in your underwear like -" - some sort of guy, Mai almost said, but held it back. She'd gotten familiar enough with Mikoto during the bath to know that she was definitely a girl.
Mikoto didn't follow up on the dangling modifier, but rather shook her head. And then stood up on the bed and let the towel drop. "I sleep like this," she said.
Mai stared, once again confirming that Mikoto was definitely a girl. "Oooookay," she said. "Well, I've slept like that, too. So if you'd rather not borrow pyjamas, then, that's all right." She looked at the bags filled with clothes that she still had to unpack and put away, and the spirit of laziness seized her. "Actually, since I'm not even sure where my pyjamas are, I think I'll be doing the same thing, for tonight, at least. And ... yeah, I'm beat, so unless there's something else, I think I might as well turn in right now."
"Question."
"Go ahead," Mai said wearily.
"I am so glad I met Mai," Mikoto said, smiling brightly.
Mai blushed. "That's not a question, that's a, a ... thank you, Mikoto, I'm glad to know you, too," she finally said. "Okay, I'm gonna get the lights. Sleep tight."
"Mm-hm."
An hour or so later, Mai was pulled out of sleep by someone tugging at the blanket she'd pulled up to her neck.
"Mai?" Mikoto's voice asked out of the darkness. "Can I sleep in your bed? Mine is too big."
Only vaguely awake, Mai didn't have the capacity to puzzle over the idea of a single being 'too big'. Her decision was also strongly influenced by the fact that something like this scenario had played out in her mind frequently over the months since she'd started having sex with Takumi. Only ever in her mind, though, never in reality, which made it all the more appealing to her. "Okay," she said, and lifted up the blanket and topsheet.
Mikoto quickly slid in beside her, their naked bodies necessarily pressed up against each other. After a few moments to get used to the warm pressure in places that hadn't been experiencing such things before, Mai quickly settled down to sleep again.
Her companion did not.
Mikoto had not been completely honest with Mai. She could probably have slept just fine in her own bed, even if it was much larger than the cupboard where she'd generally rested her head before coming here. But she had wanted very much to be with Mai.
Mai was kind. Mai was powerful. Mai was not all that smart, but that was forgivable. Mai thought some very strange things, but most people thought much stranger things. Mai had helped her when no one else would have tried. But all of that was not nearly as important as one thing more.
Mai was beautiful.
She didn't really remember her mother very well. Most of the memories before the day when ojiisan called aniue and herself to him and told them that their parents were not going to be seeing them anymore were a bit confused. But in those memories, she was fairly sure that her mother had been very motherly. She had always let Mikoto rest her head on her chest.
Mai was almost nothing like the mother she remembered, but she had a chest big enough that someone who wanted to rest her head could easily do so.
So Mikoto did so, nuzzling up to Mai, and, almost inevitably, her mouth found the nipple and closed around it. It had been so long, Mikoto almost cried. But tears were something for the weak; her path did not permit them. It did not permit many things. But one thing it did permit was satisfaction.
She decided to give herself some, reached down with the hand that wasn't holding the breast firm against her mouth and face and began to touch herself. Not deeply, for she remembered that she was promised to another and would not give him damaged goods. But she had long since found the little nub that made her feel like lightning bolts were dancing down her spine, and she rubbed it, now. So good. It felt so good.
She realized that she was grinding her pelvis against Mai's hip, and decided that she didn't care. This felt good, too.
And then the shattering occurred. That was how she thought of it, as the shattering. It was always almost too much, so much so that she sometimes tried to slow it down, but right now, when she needed to get it done before Mai should chance to awaken, she didn't even try.
Mikoto let go of the nipple, looked up at Mai's sleeping face.
"I love Mai," she said, then closed her eyes and soon was asleep.
At least, Mai hoped that she was asleep when she let her own eyes open.
That had been a little disturbing. Mai had had a lot of sex in the past year, but this was the first time she'd been used for someone else's onanism while she was still present. She'd woken up as soon as she'd felt the suckling on her teat, but she'd kept her eyes closed, listening to the sounds that Mikoto was making without reacting to them. If Mikoto had made any move towards touching her, beyond what she had already done ...
... Mai wasn't sure what she would have done.
She didn't get to sleep for a while after she opened her eyes again, lying there contemplating exactly how her life had become far more complicated than she'd ever expected.
She decided that she was definitely wearing pyjamas after this.
The next day, Mikoto got dressed in her new school uniform for the first time. "Very cute," Mai assured her, and felt a bit guilty at the obvious pleasure that Mikoto took in the compliment. (The fact that she felt guilty when she was the one getting molested while sleeping bothered her a little.)
As it happened, Mikoto had been assigned to a class in the school's Girl's Junior High division, rather than the Coed division to which Mai was assigned. So they ended up splitting up pretty quickly after the morning train took them from their dormitory to the school's plaza.
Mikoto considered ditching, since she couldn't see any way that this was going to help her find aniue, but decided that she should at least make an effort, since Mai had been so stressed about it. So she went to the teacher's lounge, and met her new homeroom teacher.
Homeroom started with her introduction. "Okay," said Nitta-sensei, going over the class register. "Can I have a volunteer to look after Minagi-san until she gets settled in?"
He was somewhat started when one of his more troubled students volunteered to do so. She actually should have been in year 3, but had been held back due to truancy. Still, if she was showing school spirit now, perhaps Yuuki was on the mend.
"Call me Nao," she said to Mikoto, and smiled without any real warmth.
NEXT: Midori.
