Chapter 7: What's Past is Prologue
Mai found herself in the past, near the shore of a river. She wished she could have had a wig, sunglasses or some hair dye, realizing that she did not remember seeing herself, and knowing that her parents and brother would likely be able to recognize an older version of their daughter or sister. Talking to anyone would put her at risk of blowing her cover, and so the best course of action would be to wait, to observe, and to see that everything went as she remembered.
She glanced over and saw her younger self running over to her friend. A momentary feeling of relief settled over her; all was as it should be over there. But then she began to feel shame as she was reminded of what she had once done; her younger self was cheerfully embarking on a path that would result in the loss of her mother's life and the worsening of Takumi's health
She then turned over and saw her occupied parents, with Takumi heading toward the water, keeping a keen eye out for anyone who would alert them. It then occurred to her that while it did not diminish her responsibility, Takumi's condition was the result of not one but several things going wrong. Not only had she diverted her attention, but so had her parents, and her brother had made the choice of entering the water. None of them knew just what would come from their actions, but all of them played a role in the resolution.
"It's almost as if it was meant to be," Mai thought sadly, but then a realization came to her. "But is Midori-chan really right about this?" Mai wondered. She had a chance to undo her mistake, improve her brother's quality of life, and possibly even save her mother.
But then it occurred to her how much the incident would have affected her. In order to make up for a moment of weakness that had consequences that played out over years, she had resolved to become more responsible. Without her parents around, she had to provide for herself without them to do things for her or goad her into doing things on her own, but she also had to be there for Takumi when they could not.
Fuuka Academy, while not an educational institution on her family's radar of possible choices, had become much more attractive once she heard that she had a scholarship and a need to find the best choice for her money now that all available funds were going to fund Takumi's health care.
And there were the factors that she could not have foreseen back then even if she had all the responsibility she possessed as a 15-year-old caretaker of her sickly younger brother. She met many people and participated in the battles of the Himes, protecting her brother and the many non-combatants. How many would have died had she not fought? How many would have lived? How many people's lives had she impacted, by fighting or just being there? She had befriended Mikoto, helped Natsuki continue to open up to others, and formed a growing bond between her and Yuuichi, and as such, wondered where they would be if she had not come to the school.
As the crucial decision approached, she understood what she was allowing to happen. Several lives would be changed that day, and hardship would follow for her and those closest to her. But choosing to change the past would be a refusal to accept her mistakes, and risking many to help the few.
Mai noticed a man running over to where her younger self was playing with her friend. She didn't remember him being there, but this was the first time she had the perspective of an outsider, instead of playing the part of a tragic heroine.
"Pardon me, young lady," he said, unaware of her identity. "Is that boy over there in trouble?" He pointed toward Takumi, who had already entered the water.
"I'll go get his parents. Stay right there!" Mai said, and darted off. Suddenly, the man leaped after her.
"They're in the other direction," he said. "Don't you want to save your little brother before you make a big mistake?"
Mai should have been recognizable to her parents and Takumi, but she wondered; how did this man know her connection to Takumi? Several possibilities flashed through her head, and the most disturbing one was at the forefront.
"Who… or what- are you?" Mai said. The boy's form warped and twisted into a black winged, serpent-like dragon and he charged Mai, only to smash against her shield. She then obliterated the creature with a burst of flame.
She looked back and Takumi was struggling to stay afloat. He was unlikely to notice her from his vantage point, and as his memory of the events was fuzzy, he would not likely remember her even if he had. Mai had succeeded, but it brought her little satisfaction.
"I've made my decision… the only one that I could," Mai thought. "Mom… Dad… Takumi… please forgive me. I was selfish and irresponsible back then, and changing the past does not erase that mistake, only its consequences. If I tried to do that, I would only run from my mistake and threaten the stability of time itself. But because of that, now I can make sacrifices to protect others. I can't bring you back, Mom and Dad, but I can look after Takumi in your place. Rest well."
Natsuki immediately recognized her surroundings; the winding cliff roads near Fuuka Academy. Unfortunately, while she knew where she had ended up, she did not know when. There were no newspapers, televisions, computers or anything else with the date,and her only time source was a watch that was most likely off the time.
"This is the time my mother died," Natsuki thought. She immediately understood the implications of this; she would have to ensure that her mother died in order to make the present come to pass. Her blood froze as she realized the reason why; Natsuki's quest for vengeance had led her to Fuuka academy, awakened her as a Hime, and made her a target of Toki, who sought to change the past in order to eliminate her.
"How ironic; in my quest to do justice to my mother's killers, I have no choice but to ensure that she dies," Natsuki thought. "And in order to bring down the First District, I had to enter into their game."
Natsuki realized that there was more at stake here than her own personal revenge. She had often entered into battle after coming to Fuuka Academy, but realized how few of those times related to her mission. She had destroyed Orphans that had threatened the students, and fought alongside Mai, Mikoto and the others. If her mother's death had hardened her and made her bitter, perhaps fighting alongside others and sharing their company enabled her to open up again.
But her quest for revenge had driven all of those actions. And if not for it, where would she be? As Natsuki realized this, she became aware that Toki must have also been aware of this, hence her attempt to change history and remove Natsuki from Fuuka Academy.
"So the fate of my mother is part of someone else's plan no matter what I do?" Natsuki thought."But with the timeline at stake, there's only one thing I can do, even if I don't want to do it."
A black serpent dragon much like the one that had attacked Mai landed, and attempted to pose as a road worker, with an orange vest. Natsuki, having noticed the dragon before his transformation, approached him.
"Excuse me, miss, this road is off-limits," the worker said.
"Who sent you? Was it a certain Asahina Toki?" The man's eyes widened in surprise.
"How did you know?" he said, assuming his true form. Natsuki finished the black dragon off with a few shots to the face, seeing him dissolve to black blood. Natsuki checked around the bend, seeing an oncoming car full of black-suited men with sunglasses. She ducked into the a nook in the diffside, making herself invisible to the car. She then saw her mother's car plunge over the edge of the cliff, along with her mother, her past self and her beloved pet Duran.
Natsuki had made her decision, yet she felt it was not the one she wanted, but the only one she was allowed to choose.
"I'm sorry, Mother." Natsuki thought. "Even with these powers there are still some things I can't do."
Natsuki always knew vengeance was only the next best thing to having her mother back. But only in this moment did she realize just how poor a substitute it was, as well as how fully her quest for revenge had taken control of her life. And she was left with many questions about her own purpose.
Would revenge bring her the peace that she sought? And how would she face life without her mother or her goal of of seeking revenge on the enemies who had caused her death?
Nao found herself in the city, near the apartments where she had once lived. A newspaper, still wrapped in the plastic delivery bag, confirmed Nao's suspicions about the date- the day her father was killed and her mother was left in a coma.
Nao retreated some distance, and noticed several suspicious men slipping into the darkened apartment. She made note of their appearances; perhaps someday, if they were once again let onto the street, she would have some way of tracking them down.
Suddenly a young woman came up from behind
"Excuse me, miss, do you know where I can find a phone? There seems to be a break-in in progress."
Nao looked at her cell phone and couldn't help but be amused at how fitting everything seemed. Her cell phone, the means by which she did what she could to exact revenge against people like the ones who had killed her father and stolen her mother from hers, was now her chance to change things forever.
But then Nao's paranoia crept to the forefront of her mind. She realized that people's motives and actions were entirely separate. Would this SUE help her out of the goodness of her heart? Would anyone? The adults who had cared for her had treated her essentially like a product on an assembly line; it was their job to do their part and make sure that she was handed off to the next person in good condition, but nothing more than that. At best, she was being used to further some unknown agenda. At worst, someone wanted her out of the picture, possibly even to cause a time paradox like the one described.
Considering the latter possibility, the worst possible outcome, caused Nao to realize that not only were any promised gains false, but she could potentially lose everything she had. Her mother lay in a coma, and while she was all but dead, there was a chance for her to come back. Nao herself was able to get an education, even if she often skipped class.
And Nao realized there was no going back for her to the time when she completely trusted others and assumed that the world was by nature a good place. The incident had left its mark on her, and as such, could not simply be undone, lest she become a completely different person, with a different worldview, who likely attended a different school.
"Miss?" the woman said.
The decision came in a moment, "I'm going to regret this…" Nao thought. "But even so, I don't really have any other choice."
"Not a chance in hell, Asahina!" Nao said, and the woman transformed into her true form as a black dragon. Nao immediately looped her energy threads around the woman, slicing her into six pieces.
Nao heard the sounds of a struggle, and watched as the robbers made their escape. Despair crept into Nao's heart, and she glared in quiet defiance of what she could not change.
"You may have been lucky today and will be again in court," Nao thought. "But you bastards had better pray that I never see you again."
Back in the present, all the Himes sat nervously, waiting for news about their companions. They had no idea when or whether the three sent through the portal would return, and how they would know whether they succeeded or failed.
Yukino occupied herself with scanning the area around the force field.
"Oh no…" she said, breaking the silence. "There's a fourth time portal!"
"What!?" Midori said. "Whose is it?"
"It has Mai-chan's name on it," Yukino said. "But it's' surrounded by a force field and there's still the one inside the larger force field with the other two!"
Midori then realized that Mai was completely on her own, with no one to notice her in danger, much less come to her aid. This was perfect for anyone with a vendetta against her but disastrous for those trying to avert a temporal paradox.
"Stay safe, Mai-chan!" Midori thought.
Mai stood face to face with the young girl in a white kimono and hood. She stood silently, giving no indication of her identity or motivations. Mai recognized this girl from before, but wondered if she was the SUE behind the time portals.
"Asahina-san? Is that you?" Mai asked.
The girl gave no response.
"I don't know if you're really Asahina-san, what you're trying to do here, or why you attacked me earlier," Mai said with more urgency, "but if the past is changed here, it could result in a paradox that unwinds reality itself! What could possibly be worth risking that?"
"Dealing with you," she said. Mai could not recognize the deep, almost monotonous voice, and was uncertain whether the speaker was female or even human.
"If you hate me, please don't involve the others who are here- they have nothing to do with it!" Mai said, at first plaintively, then firmly, recognizing that whatever might have happened between her and this girl, no one else deserved to be dragged into their conflict.
Mai listened in the background as the ambulance came and loaded Takumi and her mother onto it. The girl realized this as well, and concluded that if she was to act, she would have to do it soon.
"Die!" the girl yelled.
The girl drew a flute from her kimono and began to play, summoning a large crow with one leg. It fired a laser at Mai, the first of which she was able to dodge by flying a few feet above the ground with her Element. Quickly checking, she saw that the ambulance was pulling away, unable to notice the ongoing battle, as she shielded herself from a hail of bladed feathers.
"That's enough!" the Advisor's voice came out of nowhere, drawing Mai's attention along with that of the girl. "All three of you succeeded in preventing your pasts from being changed! Return to the present with these portals!" Mai quickly dismissed Kagutsuchi and flew into her own portal, which closed behind her as a laser exploded just past where the portal had been. The girl slinked into her own portal after dismissing her Child, and the portal closed behind her.
As Mai, Natsuki and Nao emerged from their portals, which closed behind them, they soon found themselves face to face with a girl who had short silver hair and was wearing a futuristic-looking one-piece outfit. Mai immediately noticed that Toki was significantly taller than the girl who had attacked her inside the portal, and seemed to be approximately her age, in contrast to her younger assailant.
"All three of them… failed?" Toki said.
"Looks that way," Natsuki said. "Mai, Nao, I suppose each of you took care of the shape sshifting black dragon things on your end."
"Yes," the two said together.
"Do you realize what you've done?" Toki said incredulously. "I was going to make the three of you happy, by undoing the events that scarred you and deprived you of your loved ones!"
"But if you'd done that, we would likely never have been here," Natsuki said. "And if we were never here, would you have come up with the idea to go back in time? Could you have enacted the plan if a ripple effect had substantially altered the present or caused a time paradox?"
"So you're going to oppose me no matter what?" Toki said. "Well, if you're so intent on defying me, I have no choice but to kill you all myself!"
Toki then took out her Element, a pouch full of grenades, and tossed one at the Himes. The grenade had an aura that could be any color of the rainbow, starting at violet and progressing toward red, at which point it detonated in an explosion that resembled a sphere of light. Mai activated her shield, blocking the explosion, as the three shielded their eyes.
All three Himes and the SUE called out to their Childs.
"Kagutsuchi!" Mai shouted
"Duran!" Natsuki shouted.
"Julia!" Nao shouted.
"Cronos!" Toki shouted.
As the large flaming dragon, gray robotic wolf and green spider arose, they came face to face with their enemy, a large tan-skinned man with a scythe in his hands and a large ring floating around his waist. Before Mai could even see it, the giant had punched Kagutsuchi away, and kicked Duran and Julia, despite neither being particularly close to each other. Soon, a grenade perilously close to detonation came down, and Mai barely blocked it with her shield, getting thrown backward in the process.
Meanwhile, Nao and Natsuki futilely tried to shoot Toki and Cronos as they sped around. Their attention was diverted when Chronos squeezed the blade of his scythe with his hand and unleashed several black dragons, which Natsuki shot out of the air with her Element. Despite Nao and Natsuki's antipathy toward one another, desperation had forced them to work alongside each other for the sake of their own survival. And yet somehow, they found the arrangement far less unpleasant than they had first thought, and their teamwork was better than most would think possible for them.
Toki then tossed out many grenades at once, rolling at the feet of the Himes. Mai gasped in horror; she had noticed that the grenades that took longer to go off had larger explosions, and while the countdown was relatively slow, she realized that it might not be possible for her to escape or shield herself and the others from the blasts. Nao realized that they had to go on the offensive if they hoped to survive.
"Julia!" she yelled, and the spider sprayed webs around the arena. They missed Toki, but wrapped around Cronos. While he appeared to be moving far more quickly than any of his foes, it was only because time had shifted for him, allowing him several seconds for each one that passed for his opponent instead of increasing his speed several fold. While wrapped in the web, he was as stuck as any other, and while the window was narrower than most, it was long enough for Natsuki to act.
"Duran! Load Chrome Cartridge! Fire!"
The cartridges rushed forward and encased Cronos' legs in a prison of ice crystals. The grenades nearby were almost ready to detonate, so Mai prepared to finish the battle.
"Kagutsuchi!" she yelled.
A ball of fire burst from Mai's Child's mouth, and tore through Chronos before exploding against the force field, raining flames on the grass. The Child's body was consumed by the flames and the resulting explosion just as the grenades prepared to flash. But instead of explosions, Mai, Natsuki and Nao were surrounded by green flames, as the grenades harmlessly disintegrated.
"Hayate…" Toki whispered as she sank to her knees in despair. She could not comprehend how she, having failed to make her alternate future into a reality, still existed in this one, but suspected her time would soon come to an end one way or another.
"You have failed, Toki" the voice inside her head said. "I will leave you to your fate."
The force field vanished, and Midori and the rest of the Himes ran over, forming a circle around the defeated Toki.
"MAI!" Mikoto shouted, flinging herself into Mai's arms.
"I'm all right, Mikoto, it's over." Mai said, half-forcing a smile. She was glad to have defeated the SUE and survived. However, the trip into her past had forced her to rethink much of her life, much like Natsuki and Nao, and her encounter with the mysterious girl left her with unanswered questions.
"We've got some questions for you, Asahina," Natsuki said. "First, who sent you here?"
"I…I don't know." Toki said. "I've never met him in person, but I was told that if I defeated you all or changed the past, I'd be allowed to do whatever I wanted with this world, including making sure… I get together with Hayate, the one I love."
"Who's the girl with the crow and the flute?" Mai said. "I mistook her for you at first. Is she your accomplice?"
"No… I don't know her at all. Is she one of the others?"
"Another SUE?" Nao asked.
"Yes, that's what we're called, but I don't know about her," Toki said. "I was told if I didn't win, someone else would come by to dispose of m-Aaah!" Toki swiveled around from where she had been sitting and facing her former opponents. The Himes scattered as they noticed a blonde-haired girl running toward them with a long sword and a kite shield.
The new arrival, in mid-stride, drew her right arm backward and thrust the tip of the sword into Toki's face.
Author's Note:
Thank you, as always, for your feedback.
To Mr. 42: Your review touched on an interesting point in exploring the SUEs' impact on the story. Originally, the story was only going to be the prologue chapter, exploring the concept of how a Mary Sue being loved by everyone in canon can backfire. (In a similar sense, Takumi and Yuuichi have the misfortune of having very close ties to two Himes each, which leads to their deaths). Then, I realized, what might happen as the result of an additional Hime entering the Carnival, including the raising of an additional pillar (the final fight between Mai and Mikoto comes to pass because Alyssa the artificial Hime caused an extra pillar to rise), and decided to explore additional Mary Sue concepts. With this, I decided to give a SUE time travel(an ability a few Mary Sues possess) both to symbolize the disregard some have for the experience that shapes characters before and during the story, and give the three Himes most influenced by past events a chance to look at themselves and see how their experiences shaped them.
As for my updates; my typical plan is to write up a first draft of the story before even posting the first chapter, then fine tune each chapter, clarifying certain things, partly based on feedback and partly based on the editing process (while in college, I was told that if I waited a while after writing a first draft of a paper, it could "marinate" and I could make better revisions later) but not changing the overall course of the story.
I suspect many of you already know the true identity of who the girl who attacked Mai. However, because the characters don't know this at this point, I have decided to conceal it for the moment.
"Duran" is the name of Natsuki's dog from the side story "Natsuki's Prelude," who died at the same time as her mother. Oddly enough, none of the other Himes have their Childs names correspond to their personal lives, although they're often symbolic of certain things about their characters.
