[KnM][RGU][MH] Revolutions
Revolutions – Chapter 9 (The New Orochi)
A Kannazuki no Miko, Revolutionary Girl Utena and Mai Hime X-Over Fanfic
February 3, 2013 – February 9, 2013
Word Count: 8,900
More Author's notes follow at the end. Comments and Criticisms are greatly appreciated!
It was a terrible thing to hope for, Utena knew, but still, she couldn't help but wish that the train coming to take her daughter away would derail, or something.
She was sitting on a bench at the train station with her daughter. In direct contrast to when they had done this at the start of Chikane's first semester in high school, five months ago, this time, the mother and daughter pair were silent, and the atmosphere about them was fraught with tension.
Looking out of the corner of her eye at her daughter, Utena could see that Chikane was sitting with her back straight, and her head held level. Her eyes were closed. Wearing a simple, white, one piece summer dress and a yellow headband in her hair, she actually looked a lot more reputable than her mother currently did, slouched down low on the bench in a track jacket with her hands in her pockets.
Utena bit her lip. She had to try one more time. "You really don't have to go back, baby girl," she said tersely. "I could enroll you in my school just like that. You wouldn't miss any time at all and-"
"Okaa-sama," her daughter interrupted her gently without turning her head to regard her, or even opening her eyes for that matter. "We've gone through this many times already. I want to go back to Fuuka."
"But I don't!" Utena all but spat, jumping to her feet in agitation and looking down at her daughter with a cross expression on her face. "Don't I have any say in this matter?"
Chikane finally opened her eyes, and slowly trained her now eerie, almost hetero-chromatic eyes on her mother. Seeing those mismatched yellow depths, one burning yellow, the other a dull gold with a distorted black crack through it, Utena had to bite back the instinctive bile rising in the back of her throat.
It was those eyes, of course, that had Utena so on edge, as they had for the last four and a half weeks now, after she had received the worst phone call of her life, and rushed to Fuuka General Hospital to find her daughter unconscious after a suspicious accident.
Those eyes weren't right. They weren't even human. For the life of her, Utena could not recall where she had seen those eyes before, but every time she looked at them, she had to fight down the urge to...
Utena looked away, suddenly feeling overwhelmed with guilt.
To destroy them. To rip them out of her daughter's skull.
God, what the hell's the matter with me?! Utena thought desperately to herself, clenching her fists and squeezing her eyes tightly shut. How can I even think about... about doing that to my own baby?!
She didn't want to remember the absolute, almost out-of-body shock she had felt when she had first seen those eyes. She had actually raised her hand, pointed her fingers at her daughter's face, and pulled her arm back to strike, until her daughter's voice had reached her ears hesitantly, and said, "... okaa-sama?"
It was only then that Utena had snapped out of it.
... maybe Chikane really is safer at Fuuka... away for me...
Utena felt her daughter place a cautious hand on her shoulder, and then felt those arms reach around to wrap her in a hug. Utena closed her eyes. At least, when she wasn't looking her daughter in the face, the girl still felt the same in her arms.
"I promise I'll call more often. Every day, Okaa-sama," Chikane said.
Utena snorted. "I've heard that line before."
And then she could hear the smile in her daughter's voice. "I promise this time."
And Utena could only sigh. "You'd better."
It was then that the train pulled into the station, and all the other passengers got on. Chikane gave her mother one last squeeze, and then headed onto the train. She didn't look back when the doors closed.
The train pulled out of the station. The disembarked passengers all hurried passed her, none of them paying her any mind or attention, until she was alone on the platform.
Utena clenched her fists again, the feeling of powerlessness and impotence crawling along her skin, seeping into her muscles, causing them to itch with fury. She punched a nearby pillar, bruising her knuckles, but not really feeling the impact.
"... I know you're there." She said softly under her breath. "I know you're up to something. If you hurt her, Akio, I swear to god, I will hunt you down, and I will end you."
There was no response to Utena's threat in the station.
But that did not necessarily mean that it was not heard.
Finding a seat on a secluded car of the train, Chikane kept her eyes closed as much as she could to avoid giving the other passengers an unnecessary scare.
Why do you still bother!? The taunting voice of the Obsidian Lord in the back of her mind demanded. Let them see who you are! Let them know fear! Let them run!
Chikane frowned. Shut up!
Weeks, she had had to put up with this second voice in the back of her mind now. Weeks.
He was driving her mad, almost as mad as he was, having been driven to insanity by the constant, excruciating pain from the damage he had sustained in his last battle against the Hime, evidence of his resounding defeat visible to all who beheld him in the form of a large crack through the gemstone that contained him, now embedded into Chikane's right eye.
The Obsidian Lord was but a shadow of his former self, maniacal, raving, and decidedly unhinged.
He made Orochi, the former representation of despair seem almost rational.
Some days, it was not so bad, and Chikane barely even knew the Obsidian Lord was there. But other days, he was so loud in her mind, she couldn't even make out his words; it was simply just noise and it assaulted all of her senses to the point where it was all she could do to keep screaming herself.
Chikane wondered how much longer her sanity would last against this bombardment, how much more of this she could take before she just succumbed to the ranting of the Obsidian Lord and 'destroyed the hime', whoever they were.
Chikane took a deep breath. At least, right now, he was mercifully silent, and remained that way for the rest of the train ride.
Hours passed.
As Chikane arrived in downtown Fuuka, she couldn't help but feel hope again in her heart. Stuck in virtual house arrest by her mother for almost all of summer vacation, if she hadn't gone crazy yet from the second voice in her head, she would have gone crazy from the boredom, though she could understand her mother's concern.
At least here, with school starting up again, she could try to put her life back together again.
She refused to believe it was all over.
It was not, after all.
What had happened that fateful night in July had... happened. There was no changing that.
But she was still here.
And Himeko was still here.
So things would work out. Somehow.
Hope dared to flutter in her heart, as Chikane stood at the busy intersection, waiting for the lights to turn green.
She'll be fine. They'll be fine. Chikane tried to reassure herself.
They'd made it through so much worse, after all.
And then Chikane saw Himeko, just like that, out of the blue, standing at the street corner opposite her in downtown Fuuka.
And Chikane's world came crashing down around her.
Natsuki looked at her watch irritably. "Dammit, she should be here by now," she frowned, tapping her pencil against her notebook, spread open on the coffee table.
It had never been her intention to leave her summer vacation homework until the end of the break. She had planned on being a better student, on doing better in school, on just enjoying a normal, relaxing life with Shizuru, and Mai, and all the rest.
That had been at the start of summer vacation, however.
Before Chikane had her accident.
Before the tranquility and happiness of a normal life was snatched from Natsuki once more.
"Maybe her train was a little late," Shizuru suggested, sitting on Natsuki's bed, flipping the pages of the magazine without being able to actually pay them any attention at all.
It was the end of August, and classes would resume in only a couple more short days. Neither girls had seen their friend for the last five weeks, and given the inauspicious circumstances from which they had parted at the beginning of summer, both were eager to make sure their friend was alright.
At least it wasn't like they hadn't had any communication with her at all, the last few weeks; Natsuki had received a couple of texts over summer from Chikane. 'Sorry to make you all worry. I'm fine now. I'll be back when the second semester begins. Is Chu Chu with Mikoto?'
When Chikane had left Suzushiro Haruka's villa, they hadn't been altogether worried, as the young student council president was a smart girl, and had a decent head on her shoulders. But by midnight, almost everyone who was still left at Haruka's party had borrowed a flash light to go looking for her.
In the end, it was Mikoto who found Chu Chu, wailing piteously on the side of a road, beside herself with fright. After a few minutes of calming the animal down, the girl had then managed to get the monkey to lead her down to the area where beach became rocky cliff side, and the ocean crashed directly onto craggy rocks. They found her, unconscious against the rocks, half submerged in water, various cuts and bruises decorating her skin from where she must have fallen down.
The ambulance had been called, and Chikane had been rushed to the hospital. Her mother was called first thing in the morning, and Tenjou Utena had then rushed over to Fuuka on the first available train.
Natsuki couldn't help but feel the guilt eat at her heart when she had finally met the woman her roommate spoke so fondly and often about. Tenjou Utena looked young – maybe even younger than Natsuki herself – but her eyes were so drained with dread that no one had any problem believing the woman was old enough to have a teenaged daughter.
"You must be Chikane's roommate, Natsuki-chan," Utena tried to give Natsuki a kind smile, and that expression had only dug the knife of guilt a little deeper into the biker's chest. "Thank you for looking after my daughter all this time..."
It was not the nicest thing Utena could have said, given the circumstances, and Natsuki felt like she'd been slapped, though the pink haired woman had not meant to nasty.
Shortly thereafter, Utena said she wanted her daughter returned home. Chikane, still not awake, though there did not seem to be anything wrong with her that the doctors could tell, had then been sent by ambulance back to Tokyo with her mother, where she'd stayed for the rest of summer vacation.
With everyone's attention on the search for the student council president that night, no one had noticed the tiny red light of the Hime Star reappearing in the sky, close to the moon.
It hadn't been until the following morning, after Chikane's departure, that Natuski had realized what else had changed.
"Natsuki, stop this," Shizuru pleaded softly, sitting beside the distraught younger girl on her bed. Natsuki was holding her head in her hands, guilt so heavy in her heart it wanted to fall out of her chest. "No one knows why Chikane-san went where she did."
"There's a reason why we all get roommates," Natsuki said bitterly. "So the older students can keep the younger ones out of trouble. What the hell was I thinking, letting her wander off like that?"
"You weren't the only one who did," Shizuru said quietly. "In fact, you wanted to go after her. It was I who held you back..." The guilt was obvious in the tawny haired girl's voice too.
"Shizuru..." Realizing that it wasn't just her feeling the stabs of remorse for actions not known better, Natsuki turned to look at her girlfriend. The misery was clear on the older girl, and only caused Natsuki's own heart to ache even more.
She wanted to do something for her.
She wanted to comfort her.
She wanted comfort herself.
One thing led to another and before Natsuki could piece together the actions that had led up to this point, she was breaking off a hungry kiss with Shizuru, and urgently pulling at the bottom of her girlfriend's shirt. The tawny haired girl was a little startled – neither of them had really been prepared for this – but her eyes were heavy with desire.
Ignoring the aching, pounding sensation of her heart in her chest, and the 'what-are-you-doing?!' sirens of alarm in the back of her mind, Natsuki pulled the shirt up and overtop of Shizuru's head.
Then she froze.
They'd not gone this far before.
Shizuru frowned. "Natsuki?" She asked, hesitantly.
But it was not Shizuru's body that had entranced Natsuki so.
It was the red mark of the Hime Star on Shizuru's flat abdomen that dropped Natsuki's heart out of her chest through her own stomach.
The weeks that followed had been frustrating, terrifying, and filled with… nothing. Nothing but terrible, terrible suspense for what had happened, and what was still to come.
Natsuki had freaked out, and she wasn't the only one. Between the twelve of them, they had almost torn Fumi to shreds, demanding to see Mashiro, and when the school Director had proved to be as completely in the dark as the rest of them, they had spent the rest of summer scouring the island, investigating and re-investigating anything and everything that could give them a clue as to what the hell was going on.
It had been an entirely unfruitful and frustrating summer.
Natsuki had already spent far too many previous summers doing very similar things, and the only reason why she'd even survived this one with her sanity and emotional stability largely intact was that at least this time, she hadn't had to suffer through it all alone.
With Shizuru at her side the entire time, the frustrations had been a little less infuriating, the toiling a little less hard. Natsuki didn't want to think about how badly she would have regressed if her girlfriend had not been there.
The First District was not involved, as far as they could tell. Neither was Searrs.
It took them a while, but eventually, they'd found a way to access the remains of the Obsidian Palace under the school, and had found nothing but destroyed junk.
There were no orphans.
There were no Childs.
There were no annoying albino boys to make light of their tragic destinies.
That didn't stop the more sensible of the Hime Mark bearers from leaving town.
Higurashi Akane fled almost immediately, with Kurauchi Kazuya. She let Mai know they were leaving the island, and then off they went. Natsuki couldn't blame the girl's haste at all; Akane had suffered so much during the last festival.
Sister Yukariko was already off the island, having retired to the country side with her husband in anticipation of the birth of their baby boy. Director Himeno Fumi had tried to get in touch with her, but to no avail.
No one knew the whereabouts of Miyu Greer or Alyssa Sears; they'd left Japan at the start of spring semester.
The conversation with Munkata Shiho had been awkward, to say the least. Since her mark was on the top of her head, the middle schooler still hadn't noticed it. She had been busy avoiding her former onii-san and his girlfriend and the rest of them like the plague for the last several months, after Tate had manned up and finally spelled out his choice to her. Mai had tried to approach her several times and had been unsuccessful. It was finally Natsuki who had been able to do so, and the middle school student had been stunned. Shiho then got her family to send her off to relatives on the far side of Japan.
That left the remaining nine Hime tense as piano wire, and Natsuki could still remember the apprehension from when they'd all gathered in Director Himeno Fumi's office to try to figure out what had happened.
"But I just don't get it!" Midori cried, pulling her hair in frustration. "This doesn't make any sense at all! Why is this all happening again? I thought we ended the cycle! Mai!" The teacher looked over at the redhead. Suddenly, everyone did. "Didn't you end this? I thought you wished for the end of the Obsidian Lord! I thought you wished to break the cycle!"
Mai was taken aback, completely surprised by what the teacher said to her. Swallowing, she looked at the other eight pairs of eyes trained on her. "Midori-chan, that's not what I wished for at all," she finally admitted softly.
Midori was aghast. They all were. "What? What did you wish for then?"
The winner of the last Hime Star Festival fell into silence once more. Finally, she turned her purple eyes onto the lone pair of guileless eyes in the room, amber eyes trained on her with only simple curiosity.
"I wished that Mikoto didn't have to die." Mai said softly.
The revelation was met with stunned silence.
And then, Nao asked, "... ever?"
No one was able to respond to her question for a while.
No one could look at Mikoto in the face either, and the young girl simply continued to blink in confusion, asking, "What? What's going on?"
Finally, Fumi sighed, and said, "for now, let us not attempt to find out."
Natsuki sighed and put her pencil down. She massaged her temples, her heavy thoughts giving her a dull head ache. "Let's hope it's just the train being late," she mumbled belatedly in response to Shizuru's suggestion.
Seeing her in such a foul mood, Shizuru got off the bed and came down to kneel behind Natsuki at the coffee table, gently pulling the younger girl's hands away from her forehead, and replacing them with her own fingers.
Shizuru was a lot better at massages than Natsuki was, and the darker haired girl sighed in relief as she could feel the tension in her head slowly bleed out mercifully under Shizuru's strong movements. Wrapped up in her girlfriend's carefully ministrations, Natsuki closed her eyes and didn't quite hear it when the front door clicked open quietly.
Then came that familiar husky voice, speaking in super dry tones, and relief flowed through Natsuki's veins as though it was blood.
"Oh my. Have you two turned this place into a love nest in my absence?"
Eyes snapping open, a megawatt smile on her face, Natsuki turned and cried out, hearing Shizuru say at the same time, "Chikan-!"
And then both girls cut off their happy explanation with a gasp as they stared up at their friend.
Instead of the expected blue-green, completely alien, malicious yellow eyes stared down at them, completely at odds with the fond smile on the familiar face. One yellow eye seemed to be glowing, the other one dead and lifeless, with what looked like a large black vein stretching across it.
That fond smile lost a little bit of its shine. "Chikan-ne." Said the girl standing at the door in somewhat perturbed tones. "Please don't forget the 'ne'. I live here too after all."
Natsuki blinked. Caught completely by surprise by the uncharacteristic (and horrible) pun, as well as the decidedly unnatural eyes, it took a while for Natsuki's brain to catch up to her silently gaping mouth.
Finally, Natsuki swallowed, and tried again. "C-Chikane?" She said, doubt clear in her voice. "Is that you?"
The girl standing at the door frowned, the expression only serving to make her eyes that much scarier, until she sighed, and closed them, even as she came fully into the room and shut the door behind her so that she could lean back against it. "Yes, it's me." She said, in the same soft, gentle tones that Natsuki remembered so well.
"What happened to your e-" Natsuki was cut off.
"Eyes?" Chikane finished flatly, opening the items in question to look at her friends as though she had answered this question dozens of times before (she had).
Natsuki could only nod, a little meekly, the tone in Chikane's voice somewhat harsh.
"I don't know." Chikane finally said. "When I woke up, they were like this."
The tone in her voice held a little bit of a dangerous edge to it, and Natsuki could tell that her roommate, so mature and evenly tempered as to be compared to angels by many of her peers, was highly irritated.
Natsuki wasn't sure what to say. There were a billion questions running through her mind. "... does it hurt?" She finally settled for.
It took the student council president a while to answer. Eventually, she confessed softly, "... it's not so bad right now."
The room fell into silence.
It wasn't until Shizuru got up from behind Natsuki, and stepped forward, did the awkward silence finally end. Natsuki wondered what was on her girlfriend's mind when Shizuru walked up to Chikane purposefully and then lifted her hands upwards to touch her face.
Chikane's eyes narrowed a fraction in suspicion, those almost glowing orbs swinging and focusing on Shizuru's fingers dangerously. It was such a chilling expression that ripples were sent down Natsuki's back, but Shizuru did not seem to be affected, though the older girl did slow the approach of her hands. She rested the tips of her fingers very carefully, and very gently, on Chikane's face, just around her eyes.
The youngest girl's eyebrows lifted, obviously in surprise.
Shizuru studied Chikane's face carefully, quietly, her own brow knitted with worry and concentration. Natsuki was about to ask her girlfriend what she was doing when Shizuru finally spoke.
"... why were you crying?" She asked, her Kyoto-ben soft but imploring.
Chikane's eyes widened further and she quickly turned her head to the side, out of Shizuru's soft grasp.
"..."
Natsuki frowned. Getting up, she went over to where Shizuru and Chikane were standing, and tried to see what Shizuru had seen.
True enough, Natsuki had been so distracted by the monstrous yellow gleam in the one iris, and the dead dullness in the other, she had barely noticed the tell tale red rimming around their edges, and the puffiness just under them.
Chikane didn't answer right away, but her arm began to tremble ever so slightly, and Natuski realized she had clenched her fists. Finally, tears welled up and spilled from the corner of her eyes, and Chikane rubbed lightly at them.
"... forgive me, Shizuru-sempai. Natsuki-sempai." She said, hoarsely. "I don't mean to make you worry. It's just... it's been a rough day."
Natsuki bit her lip, and looked over at Shizuru, who returned her worried look.
As one, they both stepped forward and pulled the girl into a comforting hug.
Chikane trembled for a long time.
It took a while, but finally, the student council president was able to regain her composure, and her friends released her.
"Thank you, Sempai." She said, the gratefulness clear in her voice. "I... needed that."
Natsuki gave her roommate a weak smile.
It was Shizuru again, who was helpful once more. "Chikane-san," she said softly. "You really... shouldn't go around looking like that." The oldest girl paused, and then continued in explanation. "How would you like to go see an optometrist? I know a good one in town who could probably fit you a pair of color contacts today if you'd like. That might… help." Shizuru didn't have to elaborate on how.
Chikane raised an eyebrow as she considered this, and then looked away, lost in thought, weighing the merits of the suggestion. She came to a decision quickly enough. "I would like that." She decided. "I would like that very much."
Shizuru smiled, and Natsuki felt a weight lift from her shoulders. "Shall we go then? I think they're still open right now."
So the three girls left Fuuka's dorms and took the bus back into town where traffic had ground to a halt due to an unexpected and inexplicable pile up on the streets at a busy intersection. It had happened hours ago, and blocks away, but traffic was still snarled. Getting off the bus to walk the rest of the way, the friends subconsciously fell silent as they let the sounds of the worried and excited people all around them occupy their attention.
Inexplicable damage? Accidents in the middle of the day no one could remember seeing the cause of?
Natsuki frowned to Shizuru as the gossip filtered through the air.
They were all too familiar with the potential causes of such destruction.
Chikane didn't say anything.
At the optometrist, after scaring the good doctor almost out of his wits, Chikane was fitted for a pair of deep, deep blue lenses with no prescription. It took her a few tries to pop the accessories in, but the smile that came onto her face told Natsuki her roommate thought it was worth it.
The student council president's eyes still didn't look quite right for her. The blue had combined with the yellow underneath to turn her irises into a dark, murky greenish color that hide the crack-like vein, but wasn't very close to Chikane's original blue-green, and her left pupil was still strangely elongated, but at least people wouldn't look on her with fear and revulsion from across the street.
Chikane thanked Shizuru with a heartfelt smile, and offered to buy dinner at a nearby cafe.
They talked through the simple meal, joking lightly (if a bit strained) as though they were three normal teenagers with not a care in the world, and for a couple of hours, Natsuki almost forgot about the Hime mark on her back and could believe that things were back to normal.
Chikane let them know now dreadfully dull her summer vacation was, and how overly protective her mother had become.
"Oh, speaking of Okaa-sama," Chikane quickly took out her phone and gave her friends a smile. "Would you mind taking a picture with me so I can send it back to her?" Natsuki and Shizuru complied, and came to stand behind her. Chikane smiled, while Natsuki gave her bunny ears. At the last second, Shizuru pretended to plant a kiss on her cheek, causing Chikane to look surprised while Natsuki ended up giving both of them a somewhat bewildered look.
Chikane laughed, looking at the picture fondly. "Thank you." She said, smiling at her friends, and obviously meaning it. She sent the picture off to her waiting mother, along with a message that she had arrived in Fuuka without incident.
"You're really good to your mother," Natsuki said softly, feeling an ache in her heart as she thought of her own. Shizuru slipped her hand into Natsuki's own, and the biker realized that thoughts of her mother didn't hurt as much as they once did.
"Not really. It's my own fault, for worrying her so," Chikane admitted softly as she sat back in her chair. "So I can sort of understand. But it was... inconvenient, having to ask permission to leave the apartment every time, even if it was just to go to the library to use the computer." Chikane sighed. "I didn't realize how much I'd come to rely on the laptop I left here."
"So then what did you do all summer?" Natsuki asked curiously.
"... a lot of brooding, I'm afraid." Chikane admitted weakly. It was pretty obvious she didn't feel the smile on her face. "But enough about me, how has everyone else been?"
Natsuki traded a pointed look with Shizuru that did not go unnoticed by their friend, though she was too polite to call them out on it.
"It's been a strange summer for us as well," Shizuru finally settled for saying with a sigh. "Some unsettled business from the prior year kept many of us busy. Just thinking about it makes my head hurt, so let us not talk about that." And like that, the oldest girl was able to dismiss the topic masterfully. "I am glad you are back, Chikane-san," Shizuru continued with a teasing smile. She gave Natsuki a wink out of the corner of her eye. "Though I must admit I will lament not being able to sleep over so freely with Natsuki anymore..."
Natsuki colored while Chikane simply smiled knowingly, though there was quite a bit of sadness in that smile.
Dinner ended and the friends decided to walk back to campus. It was a long walk, over an hour, but the weather was still warm and the journey was uneventful. Upon returning to campus, Shizuru parted ways to head over to the university's dormitories, giving Natsuki a light peck on the cheek and teasing, "don't get too carried away tonight."
Natsuki sighed. Right. There was still a ridiculous amount of homework waiting for her.
Begrudgingly, she went back to the books while Chikane was reunited with her long missed laptop and they spent the rest of the evening quietly.
Natsuki had become accustomed to living alone again over summer vacation, so she had completely forgotten about Chikane's return. When she disrobed and then went into the bathroom for her evening shower, she gave a loud "gah!" in surprise upon seeing Chikane already naked in the bathroom.
In her confusion, Natsuki dropped her own towel, and pedaled backwards into the already closed door, slamming into it with a 'bam!' Turning bright red, she hastily bent down and picked up her dropped towel, holding it to her chest. She stared at Chikane with wide eyes.
In direct contrast to Natsuki's inelegant comedy routine, Chikane's reaction was small to non-existent. She simply looked at her roommate through the mirror, not moving from her position of being slightly bent over the sink. Her long, still wet, hair had been pulled over one shoulder, leaving her back bare.
In the middle of her back, between her shoulder blades, was what looked like a darkened brand, too intricate to be a scar. The mark was made up of an upward turned crescent moon on the bottom that seemed to cradle a pointed circular mass of intricately interlocking lines.
"I'm sorry," Natsuki finally mumbled, blushing bright red. "I totally forgot you came back!"
"That's alright," Chikane replied, straightening up and turning to face her roommate. Natsuki couldn't help but color, though her younger roommate did not appear to have any conniptions about nudity. "I'm almost done. I can dry my hair outside." Unplugging the hair dryer and grabbing a towel, Chikane went to move passed Natsuki.
Natsuki's dread-tinged curiosity got the better of her. "Um, Chikane," she said hesitantly before the other girl left the bathroom. "What's that?" She motioned towards the mark on the younger girl's back.
Chikane's face was an expressionless mask. "Just a birth mark." She said.
Natsuki frowned. "I haven't seen it before."
"Then I suppose my bare skin just doesn't capture your attention. I wonder if I should be insulted." Chikane smiled dryly and left the bathroom, leaving Natsuki to her thoughts.
Natsuki took her time, brooding a little as she washed and soaked.
She was faaaairly certain that she would have been Chikane's back before, at some point, hadn't she? She wasn't sure.
Still, Chikane didn't seem worried at all about it, so, should she be?
... and... at least it's not the Hime mark…
By the time Natsuki was finished in the bathroom, Chikane had already crept into bed and fallen asleep. Silently, Natsuki crawled into her own bed.
This time, Natsuki knew she was dreaming right away. She was standing on the beach in the moonlight, wearing her biking leathers – what she had worn when they'd all gone out that night to look for their missing friend.
Looking around, she realized with a start that Chikane was standing beside her, wearing her blue and white bikini with the collared shirt over top. She was facing the other direction, away from the beach. Natsuki frowned and turned around. In front of her was the dark mouth of a foreboding cave.
"... Chikane?" Natsuki asked softly.
The girl didn't answer her.
She reached out to try to touch her roommate's shoulder. It didn't really surprise her when her fingers went right through the girl.
Natsuki looked down at her hand. Am I a ghost now too? Looking around at her surroundings, Natsuki kept an eye out for the familiar purple haired woman she'd seen before in these situations, but the woman did not manifest.
She turned her attention back to the cave that had enraptured Chikane so, and faintly, but growing ever louder, Natsuki thought she could hear the sound of footsteps. It didn't make much sense to Natsuki for shoes to make that loud, 'thocking' sound against watery sand, but that didn't stop the noise from echoing.
Then a tall, dark skinned man in a militaristic white suit walked out from the cave.
He was beautiful.
No other words could be used to describe his tall, lean statue, his broad chest, his fine features. He had tucked his hands into his pockets casually. His pale lavender hair was long and unbound, falling to his shoulders, and his green eyes seemed to glow with power.
He smiled, a perfect, white smile.
Chikane stared at him, suspicion clear on her features. Chu Chu was hissing and spitting at the man from Chikane's ankles, and after a few moments, the monkey ran off.
The man spoke before Chikane could. "... Hello, Anthy. Or do you prefer, Chikane?"
Chikane frowned, and Natsuki could sense that her roommate's mind was going at a thousand miles a second. "If you know my name already," Chikane finally replied, somewhat tersely, "then you should know what I prefer to be called."
The man did not appear offended by her curt words. He only continued to smile. "Then how about, 'Daughter'?
Natsuki boggled.
Chikane's eyes narrowed.
No one said anything for what felt like forever.
Hesitantly, the biker studied the hard look on her roommate's face, to try to see what the other girl was making of this, but beyond the narrowed eyes, Chikane's face did not betray a hint at all of what she was thinking.
They look nothing alike! Natsuki thought to herself, looking back and forth between the ageless man and her roommate.
And yet, despite this, somehow, she got the distinct impression that he was not lying...
The man didn't say anything else. He simply smirked, turned on his heels, and walked back into the cave, his footsteps echoing loudly.
Natsuki bit her lip. She looked over at Chikane again.
Her roommate was clenching her fists. After a moment, Chikane followed the man into the darkness.
Cursing, Natsuki followed her roommate.
Natsuki realized very quickly that there was something very, very wrong with the cave. The ground was no longer gravel, sand and water, but had somehow become hard rock. Candles she swore she should have been able to see from the outside, but hadn't, were placed in regular intervals in carved alcoves embedded in the wall. Chikane was directly in front of her, purposefully walking onwards, and after a few minutes of this, Natsuki realized that rather than a cave, this had to be a tunnel.
A very, very long tunnel.
Suddenly, the sound of whispery giggles reached Natsuki's ears.
Did you hear? Did you hear?
"Who's there?!" Natsuki demanded, whirling around. But she could not see anything – only moving shadows, caused by the flickering of the candles.
Ahead of her, Chikane pressed on. The girl did not seem to be hearing what Natsuki was hearing.
A princess! A princess! A summer ice princess!
Natsuki stopped dead in her tracks, the dread in her stomach now fully blossomed into out and out fear. There was no mistaking who the shadowy voices were speaking about. "Who's there?" She said again, swallowing.
She shouldn't be here! She'll ruin it all!
Oh, relax, B-ko! Here is not there; here is simply a dream! She wasn't there, at all, remember?
Wasn't she? Wasn't she? Oh, silly me, you are right! Ahahaha! Then does this mean, we have an audience?
And suddenly, many voices seemed to chatter excitedly in the darkness, and Natsuki could have sworn that the shadows themselves were starting to look more and more like a gaggle of very long limbed, angular girls.
An audience! An audience! Let's have a performance! Dim the lights and cue the actors! Let's put on a show!
Oh, it's been so long since we've put on a show!
Which show should we do? Which show should we do?
The story of the prince?
Ugh, lame! We do that one all the time! Let's tell something new! And something old too!
I know! I know! How about, the story of the sun? And the story of the moon?
Fantastic! I love it! Let's do it! Let's do it!
Dazed and mesmerized, Natsuki watched with widened eyes as the shadows began to dance on the wall, seeming to run about, this way and that. The dim lights from the candles suddenly flared, alighting one of the walls, and even as Natsuki watched, two spherical images appeared, made by nothing she could see.
Once upon a time, the sun and the moon lived in the sky! They loved each other very, very much, but were destined to be apart, for one held dominion over the day, while the other reigned only at night. Still, there was harmony, as they both sat in the sky, and shone their light down on the earth.
Then, one day, a black hole appeared in the solar system, the gravity of its despair so great, it threatened to swallow the sun.
I'll protect you, cried the moon, for she was used to the darkness already, and thought that this was nothing she could not handle.
As Natsuki watched, a black shadow appeared on the scene, and floated over top of the moon. After a while, the shadow left the scene, and the moon was now no longer a perfect circle; a sliver was missing from it.
Again and again, the black hole appeared, threatening the sun, and again and again, the moon leapt to the sun's rescue.
The black shadow appeared on the scene again and again, floating over top of the moon. Every time it left, another piece of the moon was gone, until it was thinned to the barest of crescents, a former fraction of itself. The thin crescent slice, all that remained of the moon, pointed upwards.
Oh no! Cried the moon. Look at me! I am but a shadow of my former self. I cannot even light up the night sky for the earth anymore! How could the sun possibly love me anymore? I am darkness myself! I am no longer worthy of the sun!
Bitterly, the moon ran away, out of the earth's sky, but by that time, she was so darkened, she could not be seen anymore anyway. Neither the earth nor the sun even realized that the moon was gone. The sun continued to shine, happy and secure in her false knowledge that the moon still hung in the sky, looking out for them still, even though she could not be seen.
The moon wandered the galaxy, alone, drifting amongst the planets, until she came across a red star.
Natsuki felt a chill go down her back as a tiny red light, the same tiny red light she could see constantly up in the sky these days, appeared on the wall of the tunnel, just beside the crescent moon.
Oh, moon, do not be sad, said the red star. Come, I know a way to make things right. Here is what you must do. You must wrap your despair around yourself, and become as dense as the black hole you fought, until you are so grand and so dense, and your gravity so powerful, that not even light can escape from you. That way, the sun will come to you!
But I don't want to do that, replied the moon. How will that make me any different from the black hole that I saved the sun from? And yet, even though the moon said this, she could not refute the seductive logic of the red star...
As Natsuki watched, something seemed to flicker in the empty space just above the crescent moon. Natsuki's eyes widened as she stared at the flickering symbol, which steadily and steadily became more and more clear. And then, the epiphany hit Natsuki like a ton of bricks as she realized where she'd seen that symbol before:
On Chikane's back.
And as Natsuki had this realization, suddenly, the lights went out and all was dark.
"What's happening?!" Natsuki cried. "What's going on?"
Suddenly, she heard the sound of snapping fingers, and the candles in the walls came on again, though they flickered like normal candles now, and the shadows were no longer of the play of the sun and the moon and the star. They simply danced with the flickering of the candle light.
But the giggles in the air told Natsuki that her story tellers were still around.
So! Did you hear? Did you hear? Do you know what the moon chose to do?
"What?" Natsuki cried, suddenly feeling as though she must know the answer. As though everything depended on that answer. "What did the moon choose to do?"
Well, you're not going to find out just standing there! Hurry, she's been at the end of this tunnel for a while now! If you don't go now, you'll miss the climax completely!
Natsuki blinked. Slowly, she turned her head and stared down the tunnel where Chikane had disappeared.
Hurry!
And Natsuki found herself running. "Chikane!" She cried, her voice not echoing in the tunnel, though it should have. "Chikane!"
Her friend was long gone.
Cursing, Natsuki ran down the tunnel. She ran and she ran and she ran, but she could not tell how much time had passed. It could have been minutes, it could have been hours, it could have been days.
"Okay, if this is a dream, I'd really like to wake up now!" Natsuki cried to no one in particular.
Oh, trust us! You wouldn't! You're just getting to the good part and you've got great seats! But oh! Watch out for the splatter zone, okay? That stuff won't come out even with dry cleaning! And let's not even talk about what happens if it gets on your soul! Yikes!
"Shut up!" Natsuki cried, wanting very much to do exactly the opposite of what the shadows were urging her to do, and yet finding herself compelled to just keep running.
She didn't know what she was running for. She didn't know what she was expecting to find.
Until she found it.
Without warning, the tunnel suddenly ballooned into a massive, maaaassive cavern, and in the middle of it, Natsuki saw the gigantic, dead, bleeding body of Kiyohime, bound to the floor with a series of huge chains cutting into the flesh of each of her necks, as well as her body. Each link in the chain was thicker than her thigh and longer than her arm. Numerous wards with arcane symbols written on them were also wrapped around the beast.
Most of the hydra's heads had been lopped off. There was sticky inky green blood everywhere.
Standing in front of the beast, covered in gore and holding a katana sword dripping with blood, was Chikane. She was breathing heavily, as though she'd just finished a great exertion.
Beside her stood the man in white, his hand still in his pockets, a dispassionate look on his face.
Natsuki froze, her eyes wide with horror. Instinctively, Shizuru's image came to her mind, her girlfriend's sadly smiling face as she held her, disappearing, disintegrating into tiny green lights. She dropped to her knees. She stared at the sight of the carnage, unable to comprehend what she was seeing...
... and then, she realized, that the massive dead creature in front of her was not Kiyohime.
Kiyohime had six heads, each with a frill that resembled a cobra's, all attached to one larger head that made up the main mass of the Child.
This beast had eight heads, seven of them severed, and none sporting the cobra's frill. The massive necks made up the majority of its mass, whereas Kiyohime's body made up most of its. The necks were covered in purple scales with a line of fearsome, long, sharp spikes protruding down each, and then attached directly to a serpentine tail.
One of the giant, yellow, malicious eyes on its last attached head was looking up at Chikane, glazed and bleeding. Its last mouth was pulled back into a malicious sneer.
A thunderous voice ripped through the cavern, echoing and bouncing back and forth. It was loud, and sounded very much like eight voices at once.
KILL ME, LUNAR MIKO! DESTROY ME! YOU CAN NEVER HOPE TO BE FREE FROM ME SO LONG AS I AM BUT BOUND AND NOT DESTROYED. END ME! END ME NOW!
Chikane didn't move, but Natsuki could see the arm holding onto the sword was trembling.
And then, with a cry of anguish, Chikane lifted the weapon up over her head, and with both hands, swung downwards. The swing was true and sliced clean through the creature's neck, sending inky green blood spraying into the air. The last head, now severed, rolled away from its neck, its mouth still stretched into a twisted grin.
There was silence in the cavern. All-encompassing silence.
And then, Natsuki heard laughter.
Horrible, triumphant, megalomaniacal laughter.
The entire cavern rumbled ominously, moaning and shaking and shuddering, sending loose rock and rubble falling.
IT IS DONE. I AM NO MORE. THE AGE OF OROCHI, THE EIGHT HEADED DEMON OF DESPAIR, IS FINALLY ENDED...
... SO STARTS THE AGE OF THE NEW INCARNATION OF DESPAIR.
The sword Chikane held in her hand clattered to the ground as the girl suddenly gave a blood curling scream and grabbed her head. Stumbling backwards, she would have fallen down, but the man in white caught her even as she thrashed and screamed.
Still holding her with one arm, he reached into his breast pocket, and brought out a perfectly round but cracked amethyst gemstone.
As Natsuki watched in horror, the man took one of Chikane's hands and wrenched it away from her face.
Then, he pushed the gemstone into the girl's right eye.
And Chikane continued to scream, doubly loud.
"AAAH!" Natsuki cried, bolting upright. "AAH! AAAH!" Scrambling and flailing her arms, her heart racing at a thousand beats per second, Natsuki fell out of bed and smacked her head on the ground.
She didn't even feel it. Scuttling to her feet, she whipped her eyes over to stare at Chikane, who had also bolted up in bed, yellow eyes wide with fear and surprise.
Natsuki stared at Chikane's eyes, and the realization hit her like a bolt of lightning.
Chikane's left eye, the brightly glowing yellow one, was exactly the same as the one she had seen on the monster in her dream. Natsuki's own eyes widened in recognition, and even as this happened, the subsequent narrowing of Chikane's eyes told her that her roommate knew she knew.
They stared at each other.
And then, seemingly faster than the naked eye, Chikane pulled one hand back, even as she moved the other one forward. There was a bright blue flash of energy, and a brightly glowing blue-green bow and arrow appeared in her hands, arrow pulled back and ready to be loosed directly in between Natsuki's eyebrows.
At the same time, Natsuki whipped both her arms forward, her hands making instinctive grabbing motions in the air. Her trusty elements, twin derringer pistols with spherical cylinder cases, appeared at her calling, materializing into her ready grasp, fingers on triggers, pointed at Chikane's face.
Both roommates stared at each other, eyes wide with fear and surprise, hearts pounding deafening in their ears, breaths held and suffocating.
Natsuki had no idea how long they stayed like that, the tension so acute a stiff breeze would have set them off.
It was Chikane who spoke first. Her voice was quiet, and terse. She did not drop her attack stance.
"Natsuki-sempai," Chikane said, in low, dangerous tones. "Is there something you want to tell me?"
AUTHOR'S NOTES:
Chi-ka-ne = 'The melody of a thousand songs'
Chi-kan = Pervert
Chi-ca-ne-ry (in English) = Deception by artful subterfuge
Many thanks to everyone for their words of encouragement! ^_^ Work is... ugh, but I'm surviving! (And I just really wanted to get this out so I would stop fiddling with it and concentrate...)
Hmm... a question to those kind souls who leave reviews without an ff account (Hi Jet! Thank you for reading! ^_^) ... how should I be responding to your questions? Do you actually have an account so I can PM? Is it bad form to use the review function to answer questions...?
Anyhoo, the next chapter should be out in a couple of weeks!
Cheers,
jen-chan
jen-chan-shaw. livejournal. com
OMAKE I: STORY TIME!
[NATSUKI is in the tunnel, sitting in a lazy-boy recliner and munching on pop-corn.]
NATSUKI: Hey, are we gonna get this show started or what?
[The images of A-KO and B-KO, the SHADOWGIRLS from Utena pop up on the wall and bow profusely]
A-KO: Sorry about the delay! We're just having a little problem with one of the actresses! She's being a little bit of a diva! Thank you for your patience!
B-KO: [Whispers off stage] Psst! C-KO! What is the hold up?
C-KO: It's D-KO! She refuses to come on stage because we had a blue M&M in the candy bowl! You know how she feels about blue M&Ms!
B-KO: Oh, good grief, we'll have to call in the understudy! Nanami, you're up!
NANAMI: Yes! I have a role in this fic! So who am I playing? The moon? Oh, I was born to play such a dramatic, romantic role!
B-KO: What? We're not doing that story anymore! We're doing the story about the baby cow being sold to the market for slaughter!
NANAMI: ... [Cries tears of frustrations as she turns into NANAMOO with a *poof!*]
OMAKE II: I Think These Mai-Hime Style Preview of Next Episodes Are Here to Stay
[NATSUKI can be heard doing the voice over for a series of fast paced clips edited together very confusingly and with deliberate misrepresentation so brazen the producers should be ashamed of themselves.]
NATSUKI: [Reading from a script] Next time, on Revolutions, a Kannazuki no Miko, Revolutionary Girl Utena and Mai Hime X-over, Shizuru and I do it. [Boggles] Wait, what?!
SHIZURU: Woohoo! [Starts doing a triumphant jig in the background]
NATSUKI: [Is very confused] Did I miss a memo or something? Isn't there like, a bow and arrow pointed at my face right now? Or is this one of those false advertising things?
SHIZURU: [Stops dancing] What? IT BETTER NOT BE!
NATSUKI: [Starts flipping through the script]... hmm... well, assuming there aren't any massive re-rights between now and then, I don't think it's false advertising, but, as a disclaimer, the author says that the rating of this fic still remains 'T', so, read into that what you will...
SHIZURU: Oh. Nuts. [Is disappointed].
NATSUKI: Please stay tuned for the next chapter of Revolutions, Chapter 10 – 'Life Goes On'