A/N: What is this? I wrote a chapter with an actual plot to it not just emotional rants? Who know I had it in me? ;)

In destiny's hand

A KnM fic

chapter 4

Amazingly, for the first time that Himeko could remember, she was early to class. She always wondered if it would be any different than the normal bustling as the students rushed for their desks and then the attentive silence as they waited for their teacher. There wasn't much difference though. Her classmates just stood around in their social groups and chatted the morning away until surely the first bell would signal the beginning of their day. It was a bit disappointing. Not that Himeko was expecting anything magical, she just expected...a little bit more. Since Makoto was out of commission and she blow off Chikane this morning she really had no one to talk to.

Rethinking her last statement she couldn't believe that was the case. Normally she would spend as much of her morning as possible with the blue eyed beauty. They even went as far as telling the heiress's driver to go as slow as legally possible and sometimes to take a few detours so they would make it to school "just in the nick of time."

Seeing as this morning went differently, she really had nothing to do. Himeko found herself scanning over the room as if something entertaining would just pop right out at her. It was rather unlikely but it was better than nothing. Out of the corner of her eye she saw one of her classmate catch a spit ball right between the eyes. She frowned as a few on-looker laughed at the unsuspecting victim, who surprisingly took it very well. He merely laughed and flicked it off his face before telling them to go screw themselves, playfully of course, as he pushed his headset on and turned up the volume to where even Himeko could hear it. She felt sorry for the boy's poor ears.

His actions did give her an idea though. Almost ironically, she happened to find Makoto's Mp3 when she stopped by their rather damaged dorms. Lucky for her their dorm mother took the liberty to pick through the wreckage for anything she could salvage for her girls. Not surprisingly, their computer was destroyed down to its very last chip, to the point that Himeko would doubt that even the priestess' powers could bring it back. Thankfully not all the things around it share the same fate.

True, the Mp3 had seen better days. Its screen was creaked and Himeko had to replace one of the batteries but it still worked. She had been curious as to what was on it as well, so she imagined that curiosity had got the better of her. Digging through her bag, she pulled out the sorely abused device and switched it on. After shuffling around for a few minutes, the blonde paused at a song she didn't quite understand. The words sounded slow and slurred, their T's were sharp and they rolled R's. It was almost like they were speaking though their noses and yet they managed to sing at a delightfully low octave. She couldn't understand a word of it but regardless it sounded pretty good to her. The impulsive beat made you want to bob your head and perhaps wiggle a little hip, then the interestingly placed classical instruments would chime in. A couple of violin strings here, some piano keys there gave it a good civilized feeling to it,... she guessed. She was sure that wasn't the right way to describe it but she didn't know of any other way to put it. Chikane might know though.

Now it didn't take a genius to figure out this had to be one of those foreign bands Makoto was talking about, even Himeko came to that conclusion. Flipping the device over, she attempted to read the title on the display screen. Almost as expected, she couldn't. It looked like curvy gibberish to her. The title must have been in the same language the song was in. The blonde begin to ponder slightly on how Makoto could possible tell which song was which if she didn't know the title or even the words to it.

Her pondering slowed as a pressure began to form in the back of her head. Not exactly painful but not very comfortable either.

It was small at first, easily ignored but quicker than expected, it began to grow.

Not only in intensity but in size too.

As it spread across the back of her head, stopping just behind the ears, Himiko's thought process stopped. The music she was listening to had began to sputter and haze over with static, almost like its batteries were close to dying but the full charge bar on the MP3 said otherwise. Perhaps it was broken?

It was a reason for concern until Himeko was unable to hear it altogether. In fact, she was unable to hear anything. Her classmates around her fell silent, though she could see their mouths still moving; no words came out.

The pressure moved to the front of her face, her sinuses began to pound, her tongue heavy. It felt like she was underwater, like she had swum too far down into the deep end.

Blurring, everything was blurring. First it was the things that moved, then everything else.

Shapes lost form.

Colors mingled into the other then canceled each other out.

Oh gods. What was going on?

Himeko tried to blink it away but when she opened her eyes again, she saw nothing.

Great heavens above! Had she gone blind!?

She tried to say something, maybe call for help but nothing came out. Her throat tingled.

WHAT WAS GOING ON?

Himeko started to panic! What should she do? Should she stand up? Hopefully grab someone's attention?

But how would she tell them what's wrong? What if Chikane saw her like this? Oh great heavens, how would she see Chikane? What if she never saw Chikane again? Never heard her voice? Never able to enjoy her presence?

It was just too much for Himeko to imagine, much less deal with. She just wanted it to stop!

And then oddly enough...it did.

Just like that the world came back to her. Her sight, her voice, her hearing, all there.

Himeko blink a couple of times then looked around. Everyone was as they were before. Talking to each other, playing around, enjoying their morning. No one seemed to notice that anything had happened. Anything at all.

In fact, Himeko herself began to wonder if anything had really happened. Was it a day dream? A figment of her imagination? A sudden spark of insanity?

Whatever it was, she didn't know. All she knew was that she prayed it would never happen again.

Waiting a moment or two, she settled back into her seat, cautiously blinking a few more time (just in case), and began to listen to her music again. Hoping it would calm her worn nerves.

Himeko switched back to start the song over, bopping her head a little to the familiar beat she heard just seconds ago before her...episode?

She refused to think any longer on it. Far too much had happened in such a short amount of time. It left her absolutely exhausted.

Diving head first into the music, submersing herself completely, wishing nothing more than to just get carried away. To not think or worry, or consider herself with what her future might hold... or how ever long it would even lasts before...

She sighed, shaking her head free of the thought. This was going to be a long day.

"Just listen to the music" She told herself.

Zoning out, she let the song take her. Telling her stories of pain, stories of triumph. Stories of love. The words soothed her, spoke to her soul. Had her problems put on hold, just for a moment. And that moment she enjoyed thoroughly.

At least until it hit her.

It spoke to her...

The words...

She... could understand it?

The song made perfect sense to her. Every verse, every word, she knew them. The translation was perfect, though she knew they weren't in her language.

She flipped the device over quickly. Maybe she switched it to a different song and didn't notice? A different song...with the exact same...beat. Yeah, could totally be it.

The title was still in curvy letters but...they were no longer gibberish. She... knew what they meant, could read it, identify each character and... just knew.

Wait, what? That wasn't possible? How could that be? Maybe she was over thinking this? Maybe Makoto had the same song on here twice? Maybe one was in their language? That could be it...right?

"MS. KURUSGAWA!"

Himeko all but jumped out of her skin. Jumping up straight as a pin, she stood at her desk and voiced an apology without even knowing what she did wrong.

Sometime while she was pondering herself in circles, the bell rang without her even realizing it.

Her teacher, who happened into the room shortly after the bell, greeted her students as they stood at attention, all except one anyway.

"How nice of you to join us, Ms. Kurusgawa. Since you didn't respond to the first two times I called you I thought you had already checked out for lunch before class even began."

Himeko gulped down a knot forming in the back of her throat. Today was indeed going to be a very long day. It had just began and she had already used up all of her strikes.

a/N: Himeko is going through a lot of changes that I imagine would come with having multiple lives. Especially when you start remembering them. Also Spoiler alert: Who's ready for some Himeko/Chikane action? I know I am. Got some coming up for ya...More or less.