A/N: It's been a while since I gave some love to this fiction, so I thought I'd do a short update…

Chapter 4

"You're going to do what now?" Reito spluttered as he heard the news, unable to contain his water at the sound of Mai's plan. It sounded like a horrible idea, but even more than that, he feared for what he thought to be the truth of the matter. "I hope that was a joke and little more."

"It wasn't." Mai shook her head. "But you can believe that if it helps to ease you."

"We have a future to build Mai, what you're talking about is…" He paused, took a breath, and wondered if it was truly possible, but refused to think it to be true. "Well, quite frankly, your plan impedes our progress. It so thoroughly disregards it, I worry for the impending future."

"It might not work." Mai agreed. "But you're sick Reito." She told him, seeing that he was thinning out by the day, she knew that she didn't really have any other option. "I think…I if we don't at least try…" Mai swallowed hard. She knew the smell of infection, the hints of sickly green and muted paleness that accompanied death. "Look, you aren't getting any better…and I'm…" She put her hand around her belly, she refused to tell him if she could avoid it. "We have to do something, and this is the best idea I've got."

"You're what, Mai?" Reito asked, a touch of concern in his voice.

"There's no healthy food, our water is contaminated, and even the sun looks demonic." She grit her teeth with a sigh. "At first I thought it was just nerves, stress…worries in general, but, something's really wrong with me." She could feel it. The dull constant ache that persisted no matter what she tried to do. "This isn't the future you think we're supposed to have. I don't think we could have that future at all anymore, so…we have to find a new future."

"You're going to give up?" He scowled, feeling angry, struggling to understand why he felt that way. "This future, this entire world is ours, Mai, ours!" It wanted it…he craved that pure raw power. It was an addiction that dripped into his being in a way he could not describe, but knew he was beginning to lack that which he desired. "If you throw that away, you'll have nothing…Mikoto wouldn't want that…"

"No, she wouldn't." Mai said softly. "She would want me to be happy…she would want to be by everyone's side." Just the thought made Mai miss the girl all the more. "Mikoto's simple like that, a little food, some friends…she would be happy with all of that, and you, by her side. It would be her dream come true." Mai had to be honest. "That's the kind of future I really want. One where there's some closure to all of this."

"We have our places." Reito told her. "You reject yours, and you don't seem to understand that."

"I understand mine." Mai told him, a slow annoyance bubbling to the surface. "It's really quite easy. I either wait here to die with nothing, or I fight for everything." The truth was, she was terrified…but she was even more afraid of dying alone in this world that wasn't even her own. "This isn't earth, this is just the star's magic."

"Magic we can utilize." He shot back. "Power we can make useful to our advantage."

"Don't kid yourself, that's a total lie, Reito." Mai said as she released a puff of air through her nose in frustration. "It can't happen that way, and you know it." Desperately her mind dragged her through the motions of reason, but her heart wanted nothing more than to turn her back and run. Instead, she fidgeted. "We've got to figure out how to get out of here."

"If that's the way you feel, then go." He knew couldn't stop her, his body was just too weak. He could hardly get around on his own anymore, and bedridden, he'd be little more than added weight. "Just don't blame me when you find out that there is absolutely nothing you could do."

"Yeah well, I'd rather find out it was all useless, rather than give up before trying." She turned her back to him, gripping the door handle. She paused, looked to him, and closed her eyes. "I know it really doesn't mean much, but those old days were some of the best that I ever had. I'm sure that everyone else feels the same way."

Reito took the honesty for what it was, a gentle admission that spoke of every happy moment, every trial, and complete failure. He nodded, accepting what he knew was a hesitant apology that Mai simply couldn't say. "You won't be able to get those days back." He told her.

"No." Mai agreed. She knew that. "So, if that's the case, we'll just have to make new ones."

…

Gut feelings were hard to gauge. She was never a person to run blindly on instinct alone, since she always tried to find more to bank her guesses on. Flying through the air at top speed was also something she tried never to do unless she had no other choice, but, reason gave way to her hopes and dreams, and beseechingly, she urged Kagutsuchi forward.

If there was one thing she knew, it was that she could feel a distinct edge when she finally came upon the resting place of one of the orphans. She licked her lips with hesitancy with every passing second, because even if Kagutsuchi was indeed battle ready, she doubted asking him to overpower any orphan would be a good idea, and, that was the ultimate crux of the issue.

It was true that Akane was merely a coworker, and closely acquainted one at that, but, she wasn't part of the makeshift family that Mai had centered upon herself back in the old days. Even so, this was as good a place to start as any. Mai hadn't actually seen the catlike beast that belonged to the fallen HiME, but she knew that just like with all of the orphans who looked for, and eventually attached to HiME, there was an unquestionable bond.

Hari's resting place was in a strange little forested area, not too far away from the school. In fact, it was probably his nearness to a common dating spot that so drew him to Akane. Mai thought long and hard about what might capture his attention, but fell short when she realized that Akane's work uniform had seen better days. The room had been picked clean too, probably back when she had been taken in by one of the organizations.

There was a locket that rested under the pillow. It wasn't exactly hiding, but, the chain was too thin to see without actually peering at the general area. It was with that trinket in hand, that she'd returned to that spot, gazing at the mound of dirt and rock that was veiled only slightly by bush of poison ivy. It came as no surprise when a yowl came from the rock, predatory in nature.

"Hari, are you in there?" She asked, but received no reply. The seal rippled with raw energy, answer enough. She doubted she could yank him out of swirling vortex of golden light. Instead, it seemed to pull in wind from around the portal. Even so, she found the power strangely cool to the touch. The soft swirling tornado pulled in the locket, and when it did, the raw energy spit out one very confused and disturbed young man.

"Ugh…" He groaned as the golden light from around him dissipated entirely.

"Kazuya…" Mai said, surprised to see the boy in a very rumpled and windblown school uniform. "Oh my god, are you okay?"

"Mai…? He looked around, this place seemed only vaguely familiar to him. He blinked a few times and then bit his lip. "Where's Akane?" He asked, bolting upright as fear tore through him. "She's okay, isn't she?"

Mai looked away a bit guiltily. "I don't know." She said quietly. "But, I do know that if she isn't right now, she will be, eventually."

"She was right here." Kazuya protested, his eyes etching the very worry that hung over him. "In fact…" His eyes darted to the trees, but he could find nothing. "Miyu was here too, at one point. That's got to be it." His fists clenched at his sides in worry. "What happened here Mai?"

"I wish I could tell you, I woke up one day, and everything was this way." She told him quietly. "It's just…" She hesitated, swallowing hard. "This isn't the academy you used to know. Everything's changed."

He could tell with the way the blood red sun toyed with the world around it, casting its ugly light on anything within its path. "Yeah, I guess so." He forced himself to say, bewildered. He tried to search for an answer, his mind woefully blank. "All I remember was this green light." He said looking down at his hands. "I was in pain at first, but only for a second…then I lost my hearing, and then my sight. Then the world went black." He licked his lips uncertainly as he gazed around the trees.

"Do you remember what you and Akane were doing here at the time?" Mai asked him, but, the boy seemed clueless.

"I don't know…" He murmured, his mind like a slow crawl. "We were on a date, maybe?" Somehow, it didn't feel right to him. "That's the only time we ever come this far into the woods." Still, he was deeper than normal, and their usual bench was no place to be found. "Maybe we went for a walk, or something." He shook his head and grit his teeth. "I've got to find her."

"Wait." Mai grabbed his wrist and shook her head. "You won't find her out there." Mai said sadly. "Nothing's left."

"Nothing…" He voiced almost not believing it. "I don't get it. She was just here."

"She's been gone awhile." Mai explained with a soft sigh tinged with sadness and regret. "I think, I might know how to get her out, but, you need to trust me." Her eyes turned to her dragon. "Kagutsuchi, transform." The beast screeched loudly and did as he was told, as he lowered himself from the treetops. In all of his splendor, hot steam shot from his nose as he made a few soft clicking sounds, earning a grin from Mai and a much sought after pat on the snout. "This is called a child, and we HiME used them to fight…do you remember seeing something like this?"

Kazuya squinted, but nothing like this beast rang true in his mind. "No, never." He murmured, but that didn't feel right either. "It's strange, I feel like I know him, but, I've never seen anything like this before." He went to put his hand out, jerking backwards moments later when blurry memories tore through him. "I don't understand!" He shouted, gripping his head as tears poured from his eyes, though he didn't feel sadness directly. "Why does this feel so wrong?" He begged to know, crumpling to the ground out of fatigue.

"Kazuya…I need you to remember." Mai begged, kneeling down with him. "It might not have been a dragon like him." Mai sighed inwardly, she could tell the young man was lost and clearly confused. "Any creature at all? One that didn't look normal?"

"Not normal…" He looked around again. "No…not like that."

"Do you recall anything?" Mai tried again. "A power from Akane, or some type of weapon?"

Rubbing his eyes, he tried to pinpoint the rather obscure feeling, but to no avail. "No." He reported hesitantly, trying to fight away the tears that continued to drip like a river down his cheeks. "But, I'm not afraid or sad…and that's strange." He turned away, looking around again, feeling as though something should be there, but, simply went unseen. "People should be afraid of dragons, they don't exist." He said, looking at the seemingly mythical beast again. "There's one here though…so, what does that mean for a guy like me?"

Mai sighed. "It's probably a bad case of amnesia." She didn't want to take a guess at all of the problems that might bring. "Alright then, come on. We're going back to the school." Mai used Kagutsuchi's long wing to get up to his back, and then extended her arm to Kazuya so that he could do the same. "I'll explain a few things on the way that might help."

And so, they took off into the sky, where Mai felt safest. She told him what a HiME was in the easiest terms, and, told him that Akane also had some sort of beast. She went on to say what the loss of the battle, and of a most important person implied. Then she told him of the unquestionable fact that he had come out of the portal that belonged to the combat child, Hari.

That's when they arrived at the school.

Mai was unsure of what the boy might think after seeing his dorm room, not to mention Akane's, but she knew she couldn't put it off. The dorms weren't what they used to be, and she was forced to give him a tour of his new surroundings. Of course, his eyes were the gentle sort, so being easy to read came naturally to him. The school however, brought out a much darker, worried side of himself.

"I just don't get it…" He said, looking at the locket he held in his palms. "Why would I come out of that thing?"

"I don't know." Mai told him, putting some canned soup in front of him, and sitting down at his side. "All I know for sure is that Akane is dead, without really being dead." She ripped a chunk of bread in half, giving the boy in front of her one of the chunks. "I thought that if I brought Hari to her resting place, I might be able to awaken her…kind of like a test."

"You can't prove that by me." Kazuya murmured.

"Oh, but I can." Mai told him. "I just don't think you'll like what you'll have to see in order to believe it."