DISCLAIMER: Mai Hime and the gang belong to someone else.
Author's Note; I forgot to emphasize that all my stories are OUT OF CHARACTER. I don't follow the rules okay? I like to experiment, to stretch the limits. I am rogue. I make my own rules. And no I don't hate Natsuki at all. I feel sorry for her and I would like to give her some dignity for once.
SUMMARY: Shizuru wants to start over from the begining.
The voice that greeted Shizuru as she entered the elevator and the doors closed behind her had startled her. It was a voice that brought back deadly memories to her of a time when she had been a volatile monster bent on destruction. The voice, and its owner had been a tormentor to her and her sister princesses of destruction that were ruled by the red star of the Obsidian Lord, Reito Kanzaki.
"Nagi?" Shizuru's voice shook only slightly as she fought for control of herself so as not to fall apart at what might be nothing more than an illusion. "What are you doing here? Or perhaps its just my imagination.
Nagi, prince of terror, messenger of the dark lord retired to the darkness of hell with Mashiro, queen of Hades. You cannot be here. I am just tired of all that has happened."
"Of course you are, Shizuru Fujino. You are tired after all," came the slightly feminine voice that still held a masculine firmness that indicated undoubtedly the gender of its holder. "You are sick and tired of a life that carries memories of the murders you committed for a love you no longer feel. You are tired of a life where you killed friends and enemies without mercy despite the fact that you do not have the heart of a monster. You are tired of remembering that you are a murderer and there is no way out. I know what you are feeling and have come to resolve all your problems."
Amid the seemingly understanding lecture, Shizuru turned to face the owner of the comforting words only to be met with the sight of a person she thought had gone to the very ends of hell.
"What do you want Nagi? Are you really here?"
The man, seemingly more like a very young boy of short stature, was dressed imaculately in white. He was visually beautiful with thick,
white hair, full lips, a paleness that spoke of physical fragility, and evil eyes that seemed to pierce the soul of the tired woman of the golden hair that stood in disbelief before him.
"I am not an illusion, Shizuru. I have come to help you. I have come to grant your wish."
Shizuru shook her head, "There is no such thing. Life is what it is. It cannot be controlled or foreseen. Fate comes as it does and no one can change it. What I have is all there is. I cannot erase my mistakes. I must accept the way things are."
"Are you saying that there is no such thing as a miracle, or that the idea that nothing is impossible really is a fallacy, Shizuru?"
Shizuru turned and leaned against the wall of the elevator. With a sigh she didn't give a verbal answer, but instead sighed tiredly and nodded.
"For shame, Shizuru Fujino," Nagi replied with a hint of teasing and more than enough sarcasm in his voice, "this from a woman who ruled with ease and crowned the head of a gigantic hydra with seven heads? Is that not fantastic enough and out of the ordinary to make you believe that NOTHING is really impossible, and that I can grant you your desperate wish?"
"You heard me? You read my heart and heard my words?"
"I heard you very loudly from where I stood in the very depths of hell.
And I came to help you, Shizuru. You must believe that I will."
"I barely know what I want anymore?" Shizuru exclaimed passionately. "I just know that I cannot feel anymore. My heart is empty. I only exist. I only go on and on without the will to fight anymore."
"I know what you want," Nagi replied consolingly.
"And what is that?"
"You want to start over again. You want a chance to live in a world where the himes, the hime star and Lord Obsidian never existed. You want a life where you never killed. You want a life where you are no more than a happy, ordinary, average girl in love with the person who now occupies your thoughts."
"You could give me all that?" Shizuru felt a strange hope invading her bosom, but mingled with a dose of harsh reality that all of this was still nothing more than a mere dream.
"I can and will right now," Nagi answered firmly.
"What are you, Nagi?"
"I am your...well you could say I'm sort of a cross between a guardian angel and a fairy godmother."
Nagi's words prompted Shizuru to laugh spontaneously. "But to hear this from such an evil little man such as yourself. What is the catch then? I must give you my soul?"
"Things don't work that way, Shizuru. I will grant your wish for a new life, in a new world with a whole new destiny. All you have to do is accept my gift. There will not be any price from you. Once you accept, I will have what I want."
"What do you really want, Nagi?"
"Just accept my gift to you, Shizuru. Don't ponder the details. You won't have to give your soul or blood or anything that pertains to you personally. You will have the opportunity to begin once again, and with the person you love."
"But Yuuki Nao is dead. The dead cannot return to life."
"Didn't you come back from the dead yourself, Shizuru?"
"Well, yes I did..."
"You think that Yuuki Nao is dead forever? Yes, in this reality she died a week ago in a tragic automobile accident. But in the world where I will send you, she is alive and well. She is waiting for you."
Shizuru couldn't help herself anymore. She who had been raised to be a careful, sensible woman; tactful with words and actions, cautious with decisions, was now on the verge of hurling herself head first into an unknown destiny, "she's there? Really?"
Nagi carefully approached Shizuru and spoke quietly, "she is waiting for you, Shizuru. Nao is waiting for you. Just say yes and it will all be yours. A new life, and a new love. You will live your life the way it was supposed to be lived."
"What must I do then?"
"Simply accept, Shizuru. Say yes and the deal will be sealed. That is all you have to do."
Shizuru Fujino did not hesitate to give her reply. "Yes. I accept. I want the gift you have for me, Nagi."
Nagi's smile seemed to transform his face until it even reached his eyes, and for a moment he didn't seem evil at all, but just a sincere friend. "Thank you, Shizuru. Your wish has come true!"
"What happens now?"
"Go back to your apartment this very moment!" Nagi exclaimed happily.
"But...Natsuki is there..."
"Go. Leave this elevator right now, Shizuru. Trust me. Go back to your apartment and start your life. All the things that you knew, the reality that you once lived is no more. Just go back to your apartment!"
"YES!" Shizuru said passionately, fervently and rather loudly as she quickly punched in the fifth floor button and stopped the elevator's descent to the lobby. "Yes please, God!" she said more to herself, a silent prayer to a Christian God she had never truly believed in, but now wanted desperately to ask aid from. "I will go back." Shizuru waited impatiently for the elevator to ascend once more to the indicated floor,
then its doors to finally open. "Yes! Yes! I believe" Shizuru said in a manner that was totally unlike her; an ebullient child that has discovered that new toys await her in a prescribed place. She ran from the elevator with all the vigor of her young body down the hall to the place she had tried desperately to escape from before.
Nagi's rapidly vanishing form and evil laughter were all that remained in the elevator. But Shizuru never noticed because she never looked back!