Waking up after dying is weird, maybe it has something to do with the fact that you don't expect to wake up after dying, or maybe it has to do with the fact that I have fangs and a craving for blood; that or the fact that Yuuki Nao is sleeping next to me, maybe not sleeping maybe she is dead. That actually would be an improvement.
Sister Yukariko is in front of the bed where we laid, a crucifix in her hands, for some reason I don't thinks it's going to do anything. Close to her are the Principal and her maid, from the look on their faces they don't seem as scared as the nun.
"So, who fucked up?" I ask while finally standing, I always thought that becoming a vampire, that's what I assume because of the fangs and the stuff, meant losing one's soul… I don't feel any different; I feel the same as yesterday, apart from for the blood craving it feels as if I spent days without eating.
Kazahana makes a face, probably at my choice of words, but I don't feel the need to apologize or clean my vocabulary, I want only an explanation; luckily she starts talking. "It seems that the rumor of the vampire in Fuuka was right."
I think that from the look on her face she understood my 'no shit?' expression without me uttering those specific words.
"Do you remember anything?" This time the voice belongs to Himeno, I hadn't noticed before but they sound very alike. Still I couldn't ponder that for long as when I tried to remember what happened to me I notice that something is wrong.
"Not really, only flashes, I think I saw Greer… then there are only flashes of something I can't really…" I'm getting a headache, it's becoming harder and harder to think, I can remember everything until the point that I was in the basement of the church, and after that every memory is like smoke, when you want to touch it it disappears. "I don't remember seeing Nao though."
"Miyu Greer and Alyssa Searrs, as you may imagine, were working for the Searrs Foundation." That part I knew, I went to the basement looking for them after all. "Whoever did this to you and Nao defeated them and brought them to me, they also gave me information that helped to stop Searrs from taking control of the school. They were planning a takeover, probably to get more HiME under they control."
"Aren't you miss exposition right now?" That voice belonged to Nao, even if before I could barely stand the girl now a part of me knew she had been awake since Kazahana had started talking, I feel as if I am synchronized to her. "So what happened to us? … To me?" She suddenly grabbed her head; apparently she also is feeling the headache.
"You were both embraced by the same vampire, so to all intent and reason you are sisters, closer even as you can feel shadows of what the other is feeling." Kazahana's words are making me mad by the second, Yuuki Nao and I sisters is more like the outline for a bad story. "Actually there's something more important…"
"Sisters?" Nao's question is filled with the same emotion I'm feeling right now, a mix of disgust and dread. However there's something else I need to know.
"How do you know so much?" She has been explaining everything in such a matter of fact tone, as the knowledge that something out of books exist is not news to her. I really needed to know, she seems different as every other eleven year old girl, and it isn't just because she's the chairwoman of the school.
"That's not important!" The urgent tone in her voice is more similar to an adult than to a child, I'm starting to think, to feel, as if there's more to Kazahana Mashiro than meets the eyes. Nao and I become quiet; something tells us we need to hear what she wants to say. "You need to know this, you died but you're alive, that never happened to a HiME before." We want to ask what that has to do with anything, but before we can she continues. "The rules of the Carnival have changed."
"Carnival?" As if to prove how in sync Nao and I are we ask that at the same time.
"Yes, there's much I need to tell to the three of you, starting with what exactly is the point of a HiME."
A/N: I think that everyone is smart enough to figure out that the prologue was in Shizuru's point of view and happens after this chapter (and some of the ones that follow), don't worry I promise it will make sense (I hope). The thing about Fumi and Mashiro having similar voices is because they are actually voiced by the same seiyū.
Disclaimer: Mai HiME belongs to Sunrise; I'm only having fun with the characters that they created.