So, yeah, here's chapter 7. I'm hoping a little action will jump start things around here while I try to recover my 12 HiME files.

Reviews are most appreciated.

6/19/08


It was unusual for Nao to get up with the rising sun's orange rays spilling through the curtains, especially if it wasn't winter and the sun would rise no later than 6:30 in the morning. But then again, she had found herself in unusual circumstances. She sat up in the bed and stretched her arms out, knowing that she wasn't going to get more sleep. She let her arms flop down, her right arm landing on the linen bed sheet she was sitting on, her left colliding with something considerably more solid and making a dull "thunk". She turned to see what she had hit: the back of Natsuki, still asleep with her face buried into a pillow, her hair fanned over the back of her head like a broom, stirring a little from Nao's hit. For a moment, Nao was on the verge of freaking out as to why Natsuki was sleeping in the same bed as her and, from what she could see through the covers, evidently wearing nothing above the waist except for a bra. "Oh, yeah," Nao said to herself. "I remember now." Nao removed her hand from Natsuki's back, got off the bed, and went to her suitcase to fish for some clothes.

The two of them had left Fuuka yesterday morning just before dawn on Natsuki's bike in order to avoid detection by Searrs. The insufficient amount of sleep Nao got between Searrs's break-in of her dorm room and their departure combined with the amount of energy necessary to ride bitch seat on Natsuki's speeding and weaving Ducati from Fuuka all the way to Tokyo, plus the laundry list of tasks that had to be completed once they arrived meant Nao all but collapsed from exhaustion by yesterday afternoon. When Nao had awoken it was already sundown and Natsuki had brought back a simple dinner from a nearby convenience store for the two of them to eat, with the evening spent finishing up their settling in and watching poorly-made horror movies on the TV.

Having finished dressing, Nao walked over to the window and out into the city below. First District evidently had some nice connections to be able to secure a decent hotel room like that one at the edge of Shinjuku. Officially, their room was on the 6th floor of the building, but superstitions being what they were, they weren't really that high. (Nao had pointed out, in an effort to make small talk while they were bringing their stuff upstairs, that if one were to jump out the window, he would die sooner than what the floor number would suggest. Natsuki, being the killjoy that she was, disinterestedly proceeded to point out that a 15 meter drop isn't necessarily fatal.) The streets below had begun to stir, the thumb-sized cars and buses moving in their pre-set directions and carrying their loads to some office for a marathon of paper pushing and ass-kissing, followed by a night of acting stupid for the sake of appearing like a good office worker. The sun that greeted the worker ants of Japan took its sweet time crawling up from the horizon.

Nao heard Natsuki stir from the bed, and she turned around to see her crawling form slowly and deliberately rise from the bed sheets. "Sleep well?" she asked.

Natsuki let out a low groan, shaking off her drowsiness. "Um…yeah…just fine." She knelt upright on the bed, looking around to get her bearings. "What time is it?"

"Too early."

"A little more specific, please?" Nao tossed over her watch onto the bed for Natsuki to pick up. "God helps those who help themselves, is it?"

"I'm just being lazy."

"Says she who is up bright and early at 6:14 in the morning."

"No thanks to you."

"How is this my fault?" Natsuki asked defensively.

"Maybe you can operate for hours on end on a screwed up sleep schedule, but normal people don't. I slept so long yesterday afternoon, my sleep got thrown out of whack."

"That's your own damn fault, not mine."

"Pfft. Not when you're driving task after task up my ass."

"Whatever…" Natsuki conceded with a mumble. She got off the bed and wandered over to the bathroom, no longer half-asleep but evidently not aware that she had just revealed to Nao how low "modesty" was on her list of priorities. Natsuki was not a nudist, but judging from the fact that all she had slept in was her bra and panties, Nao guessed that Natsuki either still hadn't gotten used to her existence in whatever the hell this was, or that she didn't care. Maybe Fujino's orientation had rubbed off on her. "You want anything specific for breakfast?" Natsuki asked from behind the closed bathroom door.

"Long as I don't end up with diarrhea."

"Alright, there's a cheap restaurant nearby that I found out about yesterday. That cool?"

"Whatever."


Mai stood in front of the open door to Nao's room, still cordoned off with police tape, her arms folded and a worried look upon her face. Two days straight was too long for someone to not show up or contact someone or even for someone to not spot her wandering around campus, even for Nao. Natsuki, maybe, but not Nao.

"Oh, hi, Mai-san."

Mai turned around to see Yukino walking towards her. "Oh, hey, Yukino. What brings you here?"

"I just felt like coming by to your room now that we seniors have no more work to do." Yukino looked over at the taped-up doorway. "Nao-san still hasn't come back yet?"

"Afraid not. Fumi said that she has not from her either."

"This is weird," Yukino said. "What could she be doing?"

"I don't know, Yukino."

"Do you think that-" Yukino started to stay, but then stopped herself.

Mai turned around. "Think what?"

Yukino was hesitant to finish the sentence. "That maybe…Nao-san got herself in too deep?" The look of fear that Yukino had desperately hoped wouldn't show up in Mai's eyes did. "I'm sorry, Mai, I didn't mean to worry you like that."

"It's OK, Yukino. You have a good point." Mai exhaled sharply. "Maybe I should go down to the police station and see if they've seen Nao. But I still have so much to pack before Wednesday…" Mai glanced over at the piles of empty moving boxes in her own room. Some of them were Mikoto's, but most were hers, and the whole ordeal with Nao had already eaten up a lot of her designated packing time.

"I can do it," Yukino spoke up finally.

"You can?" Mai asked. "Don't you have to leave the dorms too?"

"I packed most of my things away already."

Mai raised an eyebrow. "That was fast."

"I tend to travel light, I guess," Yukino replied, scratching her head. "Plus, my room is going to be occupied by a new transfer soon, so I really didn't have time to loiter."

"I appreciate this so much, Yukino."

"It's not a problem, Mai-san. I'll call you when I find out something."


"Right this way, miss." The attendant led the elegant young lady down the hall to a large archive of various documents, filed away properly but dusty from years of non-use. "Please let one of us know if you need assistance."

"Thank you," Shizuru replied. The attendant left, leaving her to pore through the records for some answers. Just not the records that the attendant had assumed: once the attendant had left, she walked to a far corner of the room, where a computer terminal sat. Her true objective. Thirty-plus-year-old construction records would be of little use for her as Natsuki had not even reached legal drinking age, but perhaps their list of owners might.

"Login…S-N-2-6-8-3-3…password…" Shizuru pulled out a small plastic item that she just happened to come across on the way while being led by the attendant earlier and read the digits that were displayed. "3-4-tw-…agh, it changed, delete, delete…0-4-1-1-1-1…" She hit "enter", and the information was accepted. "Good…" Once the main screen came up, Shizuru put away the keycode and pulled out other items. Now armed with a notepad, several pens, and a list of aliases she knew Natsuki had used, Shizuru set off on the long task of finding each of her hideouts. She only hoped that her typing skills were up to the challenge.


"Mai, I'm hungry!"

"Mikoto…"

"Oh, right…I'm home, Mai!"

"Very g-"

"I'm hungry!"

Mai sighed in exasperation. Sometimes she wondered whether Mikoto did that on purpose. She supposed embedding good manners could only go so far. "I should have figured as much," she said with a defeated smile. "Dinner'll be ready soon." Mai was about to return her attention to the stove when her cell phone rang. She picked up an earpiece from the table, a birthday present from the others so that she could cook and use the phone simultaneously, and swiftly connected it to the phone. "Hello?"

"Hi, Mai-san, it's Yukino."

"Hey, Yukino, what's up?"

"The police don't have any record of a missing person matching Nao's description."

Mai sighed. "I see."

"Do you think it would be a good idea to file a missing persons report?"

"I guess, it couldn't hurt to try. But wait, isn't there a 72-hour wait limit or something before one can file a report?"

"That's an urban legend, Mai-san. The sooner the police can start investigating, the better. Plus, I think the fact that Nao's room was burglarized would only help our case."

"All right then, if it's not too much trouble."

"Oh, don't worry about it."

"All right. I'll talk to you later, then."

"Bye, Mai-san." Mai hung up the phone and returned her focus to the stove. "Sorry, Nao," she said quietly. "I know you don't like authority figures, but we're all too worried about you."

"Is something wrong, Mai?" Mikoto asked.

"Oh, uh, nothing, Mikoto. So how did your exam go?"

"I think I did OK. The shape part was hard, though."

"You mean geometry?"

"Oh, yeah, is that what it's called?"

"Yeah. Don't worry about it too much. I had problems with that too when I took the math test."

"Really?"

"Well, my strength is in cooking, and that's not really conducive to…"


In some ways, Nao thought, this wasn't as different as before. The sun was gone, the lights were on, and the city was stirring awake for the night. Though, this being Tokyo, the nightlife was going to be considerably more pronounced than in Fuuka.

"Hey, there, pretty thing. Enjoying the evening?"

Maybe pronounced wasn't the right term. Perhaps "unique" might be a better fit.

Nao turned her attention away from the transvestite that was doing a piss-poor job of disguising his masculinity and the probably-traumatized man that was trying to get away with all due haste and back to Natsuki. "You know, you're likely to attract attention acting all secretive like this," she noted to the young woman peering around the corner.

"All right. You remember the plan?"

"Yeah." Not like Nao couldn't, with Natsuki having spent all the hours between breakfast and dinner forming and grinding it into her brain. "We get in, hang around a bit, find a Searrs guy, get him alone, then beat the crap out of him for what he's worth."

"Right. Don't start until I get prepared."

"Trust me, I'm not exactly chomping at the bit to reprise my role as the naughty underage skank. Just remember our deal."

"Yes, yes, you can have the guy's wallet." It was a small price to pay for not having to sacrifice her dignity.

"You got some mayonnaise over here," Nao said, pointing to a corner of her mouth.

Natsuki licked it up with her tongue. "Oh, thanks."

"Told ya you put too much in it."

The two of them walked around the corner and down the side alley towards the bar. Sticking to the plan, Natsuki went in first and found a seat at the far end of the bar. She sat down and began her usual routine: start by looking down at the countertop, with occasional glances at the other customers inside the establishment to pick out potential threats.

The bartender moved over to her. "What'll you have?"

"Just a beer will be fine, thanks." The bartender left Natsuki to her supposed sorrows condemned to be drowned in alcohol, admittedly not as difficult for someone with her life experiences to pull off the façade as it might have been. A few quiet minutes passed, Natsuki spending them establishing a rhythm of looking at the wooden countertop and glancing at the other customers in the place. It was a rather unassuming place, one that you'd never expect to be a favored watering hole of your enemies, but then again that was standard modus operandi for Searrs. The HiME had learned that first-hand with their attack on the academy nearly three years prior, and her on and off dealings with them since then have only reinforced that. She spotted a man seated at the bar itself, going through his wallet's contents and inadvertently flashing a business card. Natsuki saw the logo of a Searrs front company, and picked the prey.

Nao walked in about a minute or two afterwards, with the confidence that Natsuki had expected of her and quietly praying that someone would bite. The plan was designed to take advantage of their strengths and marginalize the weaknesses of their situation, namely that they were going in with only half a day's scouting and that they had no other leads, meaning it was a case of nailing it now or waiting and hiding for possibly weeks before another opening can show itself. In essence, they were going to recreate the beginning of the barroom brawl in Fuuka scene in Shinjuku, except with purpose and deliberation.

Nao discreetly looked over at Natsuki, who shifted her eyes towards a well-dressed young man that Natuski had identified as the target. With a subtle nod, Nao sat down next to him in the middle of the bar, about five or six seats away from Natsuki, just as the bartender came back with a mug of beer and set it down in front of her. Natsuki nodded at the woman absent-mindedly, focused on Nao and her prey. "All right, Nao," Natsuki thought. "Let's see what you can do."

"Hey, there." The sweet, sweet words that the spider crafted were certainly a sight to behold.

"Hey."

"You're looking kinda down. Rough day at work?" Natsuki was surprised Nao could even fake the sympathetic look.

"Yeah…" The man took a sip of his beer. "You could say that. Too many things to get done."

"And not enough time to get them done, huh?" The man nodded. Nao made her move: "That's a lot of stress for a man, even for one like you. Maybe you should do something to…relieve it."

The man looked at Nao, her attire subtly conveying the other half of the message. "If you don't mind and have some time…"

"I got some free time, with spring vacation and all. I figured I might as well do a little…service for the community."

The man turned back to his beer in contemplation. Nao took the opportunity to glance over at Natsuki, showing her a raised eyebrow. Apparently, this was easy money, even by Nao's standards. Almost too easy.

Nao turned back to see the man reach into his pocket and pull out a pair of handcuffs. "It's a little early for the kinky stuff, isn't it?"

"Perhaps," the man replied, toying with the handcuffs in his hands. "I was just preparing."

"A man of decision," Nao said in half-fake admiration. "I like that."

"You might love this, then," the man said.

"Wait, what?" Natsuki thought. It was the last thought she had before she saw the man swiftly handcuff Nao's left wrist to the handrail attached to the bar, and the last thought before she felt two strong arms pull her wrists behind her back and a third slam her head onto the counter. Natsuki struggled under the hand's power to see Nao hopelessly surrounded by at least four men, about to be tied up. "Fuck."

"We've been expecting you, Ms. Kuga, Ms. Yuuki."