Chapter 9: Of Hair and GEM


Kruger was in her foulest mood... ever. Apparently rearranging those perverts' faces with her fists wasn't nearly enough to quench her raging blood thirst.

She really had some lousy luck. First she kissed an impostor, then she got her ass kicked by a fembot, and just to top things off, she let three strangers saw her singing and dancing in nude!

Stealth! Stealth! I'm sneaking AWAY from my enemy. Now is not a good time to wallow in self-pity and bull through the forest like an elephant with a rat up its trunk.

The Otome took in a deep breath and tried to control her temper. If I do what Viola taught me, then I should be fine. Breathe in, breathe out. Think happy thoughts... Puppy, mayonnaise, bike, gun. There, all better.

With some degree of self-control back, the raven-haired girl continued her journey down the mountain. It didn't take long before she detected movements from Searrs's troops.

Those boy scouts got here faster than I thought... This is weird. They are not searching the mountain.

Kruger spied on the soldiers from her hiding place, which was atop a tree with thick canopies. She was sure that her signal should've led Searrs army all the way into the heart of the mountain. The dozen or so soldiers were setting up various equipment on the ground. What are they doing? Kruger felt uneasy. Have they found me? No, impossible.

A man in black uniform, who looked like the leader of the squad, picked up a transmitter and reported. "Squad Seventeen, ready to move out."

"Hold position. Commence Operation C-type Beta." A surprisingly young female voice came through the transmitter and ordered. "Be careful with the instruments."

"Yes, Doctor." Answered the soldier.

What operation? What's Searrs trying to do this time? The raven-haired Otome watched the soldiers while straining her brain to figure out the evil organization's plot. Damn it, thinking is not my strong point. If only Viola were here...

"Subject located! Aerial Type 4 is engaging. All status green. C-type is active, repeat, C-type is active."

"Lieutenant, did you set up the equipment like I instructed? The feed is not clear. Re-confirm Subject signal." The Doctor ordered.

"Yes, Doctor. Subject V confirmed."

"Subject V? It should be Subject K..."

What the hell... Kruger's green eyes widened in alarm. Don't tell me... VIOLA!

"Materialize!" The raven-haired Otome screamed and transformed into her robe. At this point, she couldn't care less about revealing her position at all. The soldiers nearby saw her and started shooting.

"OUT OF MY WAY!" Kruger roared and expanded her force field violently. Bullets, soldiers, equipment, trees, even parts of earth, everything within the force field's range were mercilessly crushed by this explosive pressure.

Wait for me, Viola. Kruger flew up high in the air and searched for her partner with frantic eyes. Let me make it there in time.


Viola narrowed her fiery glare and swung down her dual-blade naginata, blocking another attack from the Slave. Its scythe-like claws scraped against her Element's metallic edge and made an extremely unpleasant noise.

I don't get this. The Otome thought while fighting the urge to cover her ears with her hands. Searrs must really want us back. I didn't think they would go as far as dispatching an aerial type Slave to fight us. They shouldn't have let this monster out of the lab... No, they shouldn't have created it in the first place.

The Otome twisted her body and dodged the Slave's tackle with ease. She turned and swung her Element again, attacking the Slave from its back. The robotic monster blocked her naginata with its claws and rammed forward. Viola's brute strength was nowhere near the Slave's, so she used her weapon as a leverage and flipped out of the way.

I can't fight an aerial type in close range. Viola considered her options as she maneuvered around the Slave's multiple strikes with fluid movements. I can dodge forever, but I can't win if I don't land any attack.

Not far from the battle, Tomoe Marguerite watched in awe as Viola danced through the Slave's assaults with unparalleled grace. Viola Searrs... She is like a goddess. The C-type Otome unlocked her visor and revealed her face, craving to observe every detail of the Kyoto beauty's movements with unobstructed vision.

Viola sneaked past the Slave's tackle, zoomed behind it again and whipped her weapon at the monster from a good distance away. The blades of her Element extended into jagged chains and chewed through the Slave's body, ripping it in halves. The Slave shrieked and fell to the ground.

"Beautiful..." Tomoe whispered. She had never seen anything as beautiful as the chestnut-haired maiden. I want her. The teal-haired Otome gripped tightly on the shaft of her halberd as she charged forward. I'll make her mine.


"Fumi-sama, the Searrs Golden Fleet are here at the bay." Said a girl in red and white maid uniform, whose dark blue hair was tied into two spiky pony tails.

Himeno Fumi looked out the windows from her office, she could see Searrs's war ships from here, as well as the battle between the flying monster and a mysterious girl. As the former maid of the Crystal Princess, she was entrusted with the responsibility of looking after all the HiMEs after Mashiro entered the Gate of Valhalla.

She didn't think Searrs would target the HiMEs again, but they did. Kuga Natsuki's disappearance was most likely Searrs fault. And now, they even dared to send in their lab-grown monster and their war ships into Fuuka's territory.

"Searrs have no idea who they are messing with." The pink-haired director commented with a stern voice. "Nina, bring Arika here. We have work to do."

The blue-haired girl bowed. "As you wish."


Viola caught the dark figure in the periphery of her vision and put up her guard to block off the attack. Her own naginata collided with the other girl's halberd, making a dull thud as the two weapons locked together. "You are..." The chestnut-haired Otome scanned the girl in black armor. "An Otome?"

Tomoe blushed a little at Viola's probing gaze. She lowered her weapon and bowed at the older girl. "Nice to meet you. My name is Tomoe Marguerite, a C-type Otome from Searrs's Project Schwarz."

"... Nice to meet you too." Viola lowered her Element and politely bowed back. "Well then, Tomoe, would you mind telling me what's going on here?"

The girl in black armor smiled shyly at the other Otome and answered. "Searrs ordered me to bring you back, by any means necessary."

"I see." Viola stared into the girl's grey eyes. "What if I refuse?"

"You... refuse?" Tomoe looked hurt. "Why? Searrs have been good to you, to us. They took care of us and gave us power. Look at this." The girl pulled up her shoulder length teal blue hair and revealed the black crystal hanging on her left earlobe. "I am the same as you. We belong together."

O...k. This girl is creeping me out.

"First of all, Searrs may have been good to you, but I couldn't disagree more. Secondly, you are not the same as me. And last but not least..." Viola readied her weapon and resumed a fighting stance. "I belong to someone else, and it's certainly not you."

Tomoe didn't take rejection well.

"So cruel... Why are you so cruel to me?" The teal-haired girl accused and swung down her halberd in rage. "I'll take you home, and you'll understand. You are MINE."

Crazy bitch. Viola parried the other girl's repeated strikes with her naginata. The force of the attacks were making her hands go numb. She is faster than a Slave. Viola thought, dodged away from another strike and countered with a heavy kick in the girl's stomach. But not as durable.

The teal-haired Otome bent over and coughed, her grip on her weapon had slackened. She took a second to recover and then lashed out at Viola with a storm of attacks, trying to overwhelm the older girl with raw power.

Her patterns of attacks are too simple. Viola feinted an attack with her naginata, Tomoe raised her halberd in anticipation, but the older Otome extended the blades into chains and struck from a different angle. Tomoe was sent pummelling to the ground.

"It's over." Viola brandished her weapon at the girl, the tip of the blade pointed threateningly at her throat. Tomoe lay flat at her back and glared at the naginata in front of her.

"It's not over. I'll definitely bring you back. You can't run from me forever."

"I beg to differ." Viola replied with an apathetic smile.

Tomoe's face contorted into a lopsided grin and hissed. "Slave!"

The Kyoto girl's ruby eyes widened as she turned to face the direction of the attack. Correction, attacks. She was surrounded.


She had never seen anything quite as ugly as these, what should she call... lumps. They were like giant, rotten moths each with one wing torn off. They couldn't fly, they couldn't walk, so they were kind of crawling around on the ground, trying to get some places.

Kruger was disgusted when she saw those lumps, but she was absolutely infuriated when she saw those filthy lumps opened their mouths and tried to attack Viola from behind with their sticky tongues.

"Load Silver Cartridge!"

She shouted out her commands and a massive cannon materialized in her hands. The edges of her robe extended and planted themselves into the ground, bracing her for the recoil of the shot.

"Fire!"


Viola thought she had killed the Slave by hacking it in halves, but she was wrong. Each half of the Slave grew back a bit and resulted in two deformed monsters. She barely had time to put up a force field before a bright blue beam of energy blasted both the monsters into smithereens.

Tomoe was planning to attack Viola with the Slave's help, but she did not anticipate Kruger's appearance. The raven-haired girl came out of nowhere and took out her trump card in one shot.

"Kannin na." Viola tripped her with her snake like Element and struck down with the blade on the other end. Tomoe thought she would die for sure as the gleaming blade came at her neck, but she was wrong again. Viola was aiming at her GEM. The dark crystal shattered, her Element and her black armor gone with it.

"Viola!" Kruger flew into the chestnut-haired girl's arms and buried her face in the older girl's bosom. "I've missed you so much."

"My dear girl... I missed you too." Viola sighed and relaxed against the slightly trembling body in her arms. "You lost weight." She observed, bringing her hand up to caress the shorter girl's cheek.

"Viola..." The raven-haired girl raised her head from her partner's chest and and pulled her down into a kiss. Like an addict finally found her fix, Kruger's kiss was filled with unspoken need and urgency.

Viola's knees bucked as the shorter girl swallowed her moans. She must have really missed me. The Kyoto girl thought happily.

"Hehehehe...Hahahahaha..."

The psychotic laughter made them break their kiss and turned to stare at the defeated Otome. The left side of her teal blue tresses were cut when Viola destroyed her GEM, leaving her with a jagged haircut.

"What'cha laughing at?" Kruger's cheeks flushed a little. She had completely forgotten about this girl's presence before she kissed her partner.

Tomoe's thin lips twisted into a smile. "So SHE is the one you were talking about. Hehehehe... It doesn't matter. We are all gonna die anyway. Hahahaha..." She curled up into a fetal position and suckled on her thumb, her stormy grey eyes darted around unfocused.

Viola and Kruger exchanged a weird look. The girl is psycho. They both thought.

Tomoe may have been psychotic, but she was not stupid. She knew how Searrs would react the moment her GEM was destroyed. Searrs liked to bury their failures. She could have warned those two, but she decided not to. It's too lonely to die alone. She thought, and waited.

She was squealing in delight when she saw the missiles came raining down from the sky.

Viola was glad that she was taller than her partner. There were a lot of advantages of being tall, for example, she loved to have her girl sit on her lap when they made out, but that was beside the point. The other advantage of being the taller one was that it made protecting her girl a much easier job.

It took less than a second for her to lock the raven-haired girl within her arms and erect the most powerful force field she could muster before the missiles hit.

TBC


Author's Notes: Please read and review. Gah I LOVE review, please review, don't make me beg... Wait, I'm begging already...