Standard issue disclaimer: Sunrise created and owns Mai-Hime. I am not them. This is a parody, protected speech.
Disturbing Routines
Chapter Twelve: Yohko
August, 2004
Mai managed to cover her mouth as she yawned while blearily while looking over the vast crowd of students gathered on the academy's plaza. Every school, from the kindergartens up to the university levels, was represented here today. She couldn't begin to guess how many people were standing here, waiting for whatever announcement or explanation the faculty was about to give. Of course, she also couldn't begin to guess what possible explanation they were going to be given, either. Frankly, she was having problems beginning to remain awake, and while chuckling a bit at that thought, she yawned again.
"Is Mai tired? We can go lay down for a while, somewhere," Mikoto said quickly as she stood by her side.
Giving her a bleary eyed look of mixed annoyance and affection, Mai considered telling her that it was her fault that she was this tired. Her sense of fair play stopped her, though. It wasn't completely Mikoto's fault. Even if they hadn't been up most of the night having 'glad to be alive' sex, she probably would have been just as tired as she was now, owing to the unfamiliar surroundings.
They'd been moved out of their dormitory and into another, older one for the duration of the repairs to their building. It was a much smaller room, with bunkbeds. Only one bunk had been used though. As soon as the door had closed behind the two of them, Mikoto had jumped on Mai, knocking her back on to the bottom bunk and making her drop the suitcases that contained those few of their possessions that she'd been able to gather before being forcefully evacuated.
Any thoughts on that subject, though, had gone out the window. Mai had been quite thoroughly distracted by the way that Mikoto kissed her passionately in between declarations of how scared she'd been about something happening to Mai - no word on whether she'd been worried for herself, but Mai honestly didn't expect to hear about that - while tugging Mai's vest and undershirt open and her bra and short skirt up. Her exposed breasts had given Mikoto more targets for her kiss blitzkrieg while her hand went down to pull the panties aside and begin fingering frantically.
At this point, though, Mai had at last been aroused enough to answer Mikoto's passion. Yes, for all the horror of the day, for the looming terror of what might still come, she was glad to be alive, and she'd grabbed the little hellion who made her feel so good and wrapped her up tightly so that they could roll over and she could take charge, pressing her lips to Mikoto's and fumbling between her legs.
As two fingers of her hand slid up into Mikoto, the other girl had lost all words save one. "Mai! Mai! Mai! Mai!"
"Mai?" Mikoto's present day self unwittingly repeated her past self, pulling Mai out of her reverie.
"I'm fine," she reassured her. "I really am. Anyway, shouldn't you be with your classmates instead of me?"
"I am with my classmates," Mikoto said blankly, pointing to Mai's other side.
"She is, you know," said Nao, smiling wryly as she stood there.
"Great," Mai sighed. "Shouldn't I be with my classmates -"
"You are, you know," Yukino said from just behind the three of them.
Mai craned her neck around to give the Stucon secretary a look of annoyance, but flinched away at the sight of her, with dark circles under her eyes. "Eesh, what happened? You look like I feel."
"Ah! You are tired!" Mikoto cried out. "Why do you lie to me, Mai?"
"I was up most of the night working with Haruka-chan," Yukino explained wearily. "I finally got her to take a break a little while ago, and she's sleeping in the office right now while I attend this, this ... whatever it is," she finished after a brief silent search for the words.
"So you don't know any more than the rest of us about this, huh?" Nao asked.
"No, no I don't." Irritation was obvious in her tone.
"What were you -" Mai started to ask, frowning.
"I can't discuss ongoing investigations," Yukino cut her off.
"Okay, Yukino-san?" Mai asked after a moment. "You do realize that you and Suzushiro aren't really cops, right? And that you don't -"
"It's starting," interrupted Nao, drawing all their attentions back to the stage that had been set up at the center of the plaza, where an old man - THE old man, the headmaster whom Mai had only met a few days before - was slowly making his way, assisted by a cane, towards a microphone. A few of the other senior teachers were standing at the back of the stage, behind him, while Mashiro was also there in her wheelchair with Fumi.
The headmaster stood for a few moments at the microphone. Mai guessed that he was surveying the crowd before he spoke. When he did, at last, his voice seemed hoarse even with the amplification. "The responsibility for yesterday's heinous events rests with me, and me alone. The academy's Board of Governors has graciously consented to accept my resignation as headmaster, and ..." Konoemon's voice trailed off. It was even weaker when it came back. "... and ... and ... I ..."
He seemed to fold in on himself as he collapsed to the floor of the stage.
"Good grief," said Nao. "Is he genuflecting to us?"
"No," Mai replied, horrified. "I don't think he is."
Even as she spoke, a pair of girls, one with a very broad forehead, were leaping up onto the stage and assisting the other teachers in carrying the headmaster off, while one of them, a tall blonde with glasses, came up to the microphone. "All classes are cancelled for the remainder of the day, please return to your rooms and do not leave them unless necessary or under a teacher's supervision." Then she too was off to help the others carry the headmaster's limp form away.
Mashiro and Fumi didn't move, and Mai had the distinct impression that the little girl was staring right at her.
"So there's no hope at all, then?" Nijuin asked heavily.
"I'm neither a neurologist nor a magical healer," Yohko answered as she stood in front of the quickly convened Emergency Council assembled in the Headmaster's office. Her eyes were fixed firmly on them, not on the stains that still hadn't been removed from the floor. "But from what I understand, the two best healers on this continent are both admitting that they're stymied by his condition, and I can definitely diagnose that he's completely non-responsive, bordering on catatonia. I would say that there's very little chance that he's going to recover any time soon."
"We need to choose a new headmaster," Touko said without preamble. "If we don't, the Senate is going to pick one for us, and considering some of the intelligence that our captives are providing -"
"Which has yet to be verified," interjected Shakti. "We don't know that the Senate as a whole was backing this. I think it's much more likely that it's a small cabal of -"
"That's not important," Touko interrupted. "If they can do that, they can manipulate the committee that will choose Konoemon-sensei's replacement. If we present them with a fait accompli -"
"We still might not be able to back it up," Gandolfini interjected. "I don't know. The records of how he became the headmaster, thirty-odd years ago, are incredibly spotty."
"There's probably only one person other than the headmaster who'd know the story," Seruhiko grumbled. "I wish Tak-"
Yohko blinked. That couldn't possibly have happened. She couldn't possibly have seen Touko leap across the room and punch Seruhiko into the wall, causing him to slide down again and then slowly rise up with a rather large bump on his head. Obviously, he'd always had the bump and she was just now noticing it. And Touko had simply moved across the room in a normal way without her noticing that either.
Sometimes she hated magic.
"We will not under any circumstances make wishes like that," Touko growled.
"Got it," Seruhiko muttered.
"If nothing else, we need to install an interim Headmaster," Nijuin said, affecting to have not noticed anything out of the ordinary either. "If we do that, we can at least maintain the pretense that the situation is under our control. I would nominate the member of the faculty with the most seniority."
"How humble," Shakti said, clearly amazed. "That's you, isn't it?"
He coughed. "Actually, no."
"Oh. Right, sorry, Nitta was hired a few months before you," the nun recollected, clearly embarassed.
"Perhaps I should clarify that I'm talking about the most senior member of the faculty who's aware of the secret."
"Wait, no, that is you."
"Actually, no," he repeated, complete with delicate cough. "The faculty member I'm talking about was hired the year before I was."
Silence fell. "Nijuin, please tell me you're not talking about -" Gandolfini started to say.
"He's family, Gandolfini-san," the rotund teacher said, just a bit sharply. "Whatever else he may be, he's my older brother, and I love and respect him."
Seruhiko found himself bewildered. "Who are we talking about? Wait, if he's your older brother, than why isn't he -"
"He didn't take to magic, unfortunately."
"You mean there really are squibs?" Yohko asked. As soon as the word left her mouth, she realized that it was a mistake, from the unamused glares that promptly came in her direction.
"Thank you, Sagisawa-sensei. Unless there's something more to report, we wouldn't want to keep you from your duties," Nijuin said, tone still a bit pointed.
Well, I probably couldn't have picked a better moment. "Actually, there is," she said, pulling the envelope out of her coat pocket. "I suppose that it could wait until the interim headmaster is installed, but - I'm resigning effective immediately."
"Oh," Nijuin said. "Well, your offer is understandable, but I don't think it's necessary, so -"
"It's not an offer to resign. I quit. I do not want to be the official physician of Mahora Academy anymore." She pushed the envelope into Nijuin's hands, trying to avoid looking at the stunned look on his face. "Please accept my resignation."
"You, what, no - Sagisawa, we still need you! There are -"
"At least consider remaining on until we can find a suitable replacement," Touko said, cutting Nijuin's mildly panicked plea off.
"All right," Yohko said after a moment. "But the process had better start soon, because I can't do this anymore. Good day." And with a short bow, she backed out of the room.
"Another such victory and we are undone," Gandolfini mused aloud as he watched her leave.
Another such victory and we are undone, silently mused Winston Murtaugh, Australian media baron and (as of a few hours ago) the head of the Searrs Foundation, following the ... extremely sudden fatal illness which had afflicted his predecessor.
It had been a victory, at least in terms of his personal ambitions. He hadn't expected to be where he was now without at least another decade of maneuvering and covert struggle. Getting there without any serious exertion on his part, aside from a certain amount of intimidation of the other members of the board, was not only a victory but a triumph.
The problem was that he'd also expected, in the wake of that decade of struggle, to be the master of a much more powerful and successful organization than this. There were markedly fewer people around the table than there'd been a few hours ago. Some had made excuses, like John Daggett, while others, more honest or cowardly, had just fled into the shadows. Another saying about rats fleeing a sinking ship came to mind, but he dismissed it.
Time to move forward. "Are we still having problems contacting our people in Japan?" he asked. Left unmentioned was the fact that his own private network there was also proving unresponsive.
"Unfortunately, yes. I can't understand it," admitted the director in charge of the Far East. "Our primary agent wasn't even in the Kanto region when all this happened, there's no way he could have been -"
"Then he's been suborned," Murtaugh interrupted. "That Kraut, Rosenkreuz, has been sniffing around our arses over there long enough, he's bound to have made a better offer to somebody at some point. Dammit." That last was said without any real heat. They'd have to settle accounts with Quincy Rosenkreuz at some point, but today was not the day. Nor was that day likely to come at any point in the immediate future. So there was no profit in getting angry about it.
"What about our contact with the Devilukes?" he asked. If that went bad, it really was over. They'd reverse engineered perhaps ten per cent or even less of what they'd purchased from the alien empire, and were in position to manufacture perhaps half of what they understood.
"I got off the line with her right before this happened," the director in charge of extraterrestrial liaison. "Very reassuring, said all the right things. I'm confident that they'll back us up. Unfortunately," he continued, anticipating Murtaugh's next question, "the same can't be said for our contacts with Megalo-Mesembria. I can't get a word from them."
"Not surprising. They're letting us drift in the wind." Now there was heat in his voice as he stabbed a call button on the table in front of it. "Dammit, get some coffee in here!"
The doors to the board room electronically unlocked, and a petite redhead in a skimpy dress pushed in a tray. Needless to say, she headed right for him. There was something naggingly familiar about her face, but he'd probably seen her doing this for one of these meetings before.
Soothed by the sight of his will achieving concrete results, Murtaugh rose up to deliver a speech that would reassure his direct followers that no matter how bad things might seem now, they were the Searrs Foundation. For thousands of years, they had directed the fate of the western world. (Okay, so the Foundation was actually only a bit more than two hundred and fifty years old. So what? It was the myth that was important. Plato had understood that.) They would adapt and overcome these challenges, and become stronger than ever before.
"Sugar or milk, sir?" asked the coffee girl.
Chain of thought somewhat disrupted, Murtaugh wanted to say that he took his without either, but the normal term reminded him of one of the rats who deserted the sinking ship. "One milk," he said instead.
"Yessir," she said, reached into the icebox containing the milk and produced a tiny pistol that she promptly leveled at his stomach. "By order of the Strategic Homeland Intervention, Espionage and Logistics Division, you're under arrest," she said in the same easy tone.
Murtaugh froze, physically. Mentally, he abruptly connected the nagging familiarity with a brief read of a dossier on one Natasha Romanova. It had included a photograph. A blurry one, but really, he felt very stupid for not recognizing her. He opened his mouth to say something.
"The lower levels of this building are already being taken over by our agents," the Black Widow said. "You're done."
All right. Bargaining time. "We can give you the Devilukes."
"No, you can't," she said easily. "Your contact has been lying to you. She doesn't work for the Devilukes, she's a renegade of the Rainyday Hegemony." There was no malice in her tone. There was nothing there. She didn't even seem all that interested in him. "At least, that's how she played it when we brought her in for questioning last night."
Okay. Up the game. Under no other circumstances would he have even considered this, but needs must when the devil drives. "We can give you Luthor."
Ah, now he had her attention. "And you'll want what?"
"Full immunity, identity change, the works."
"I'll check with my supervisor. Excuse me, sir?" she said, speaking into the air. Earbud. Very good earbud. Had to be. They didn't use magic, right?
"Uh huh," she said. "I see. Yes, Colonel." She nodded. Oh, she didn't look happy at all. Didn't want to make the deal, but she was being overruled. Murtaugh fought to stop the smile from breaking out.
"I have a message for you from Colonel Nicholas Fury of the Strategic Homeland Intervention, Espionage and Logistics Division, and from the World Security Council," she said. "Luthor says hi."
And then she shot him. As his consciousness faded, he could hear other shots fired, and screams, and the room seemed to be turning red ...
"It's done," his best agent reported, distantly. He didn't blame her. He hadn't wanted this either. As he stood in the darkness, looking at the four blank video screens, Fury vowed to see to it that the fourth was blank the next time something like this came up.
Another such motherfucking victory, and we are motherfucking undone.
She supposed that it was a bit ironic that, while she'd been distracted and weary this morning and Mikoto had been her usual energetic self, when they actually went back to their dorm room, her friend had been out like a light in seconds and Mai couldn't get to sleep at all. If so, it was the sort of irony that she didn't really appreciate.
And to make matters worse, it only took her a few minutes to feel pent up in the small, small room. So she went out, hoping that Mikoto wouldn't wake up and find herself alone. She didn't worry too much, for the girl generally slept like a rock. Anyway, she needed some fresh air.
At first, she tried to avoid the campus patrols she saw trying to enforce the ... curfew? She guessed it was a curfew, but she didn't think curfews were supposed to last for twenty-four hours. Regardless, since Mai was not exactly the mistress of stealth, she didn't escape their notice.
But the patrol she ran into, consisting of a pair of nuns - one tall and Japanese and the other petite and obviously foreign - just took a look at her and didn't say anything. The tall one gave her a smile and a mock salute, while her younger companion regarded her expressionlessly as they passed her. Mai wondered if one of them was the Sister Yukariko she'd heard about yesterday, but by the time she considered asking, they were well on their way and she'd have had to run to catch up with them. And she couldn't bring herself to do that.
It occurred to her that they'd basically just acknowledged her as a fellow protector of the campus. Mai wasn't sure how she felt about that. Then again, she wasn't sure how she felt about any number of things lately. Nao, Alyssa, Miyu, Mashiro ... Shiho. Her confused welter of thoughts finally settled on Shiho. She needed to talk to -
"'Ssup?" said an uncomfortable male voice from behind her.
Mai turned to regard Yuuichi. They stared at each other for a long silent moment, then asked, in the same instant, "Shouldn't you be in your room?"
More silence, then Mai volunteered, "Apparently, I've been deputized. You?"
"Official lackey for the student council, remember?"
"Ah. Trade you?"
"Aheh," he laughed. Then, "You look beat. Wanna sit down?" With a gesture towards one of the benches lining the pathway where they'd met each other.
She nodded, and sat down beside him. A long, uncomfortable period of saying absolutely nothing ensued.
"You were involved in all that, yesterday, weren't you?" he asked without looking at her.
"Yep," she said, not looking at him either. "I got drafted into an army and sent out to fight. How was your day?" Okay, so she'd sort of volunteered rather than being drafted. It was a petty detail.
"A twelve year old girl died in my arms," he told her flatly. "Trade you?"
Mai tried to imitate the 'aheh' noise he'd made earlier, but couldn't manage it with her throat as dry as it was. There was another period of silence.
"Shiho was in on it, too, wasn't she?" Yuuichi asked.
"Yes," Mai said, deciding not to elaborate as visions of Shiho laughing through the slaughter filled her mind. "I don't ... have you seen her since then?"
He shook his head. "Not since I got her back to her dorms day before yesterday. It's one of the ones that's still standing, the one with the big bathing area -"
"I know the one you're talking about, they've got me and Mikoto bunking there temporarily," she interjected. "You didn't talk, then?"
"I wanted to, but she basically promised that we'd talk tomorrow morning ... but then yesterday she wasn't there when I went to pick her up, and then all that happened." He finally looked directly at her, those deep brown eyes seeming utterly at a loss. "What was all that?"
Mai took a deep breath, and told him everything. Well, not everything, but practically everything that she'd learned about the hime and the Carnival and all of that. Aside from the stuff that was none of his business, like about her and Takumi and Mikoto and all that, she left out only two things.
One of them was the callousness with which Shiho had commented on the prospect of his death, though she didn't hide the fact that his life was in danger. She didn't want to add insult to injury. The other was something she wasn't sure if she ought to -
"I'm gonna die," Yuuichi said at last, sounding a bit dazed. "Huh. Well. That kinda sucks."
"No," Mai said. "No, too many people have died or gotten hurt already. I'm not gonna let that happen, not if I can stop it. I think we can maybe get them to take her flute away, again, and if that happens, she won't be able to call up her Child and you won't die unless something happens to her ... and you can protect her. You can take care of that part, right?"
He looked away. "Haven't always managed to do too well at that," he said, quietly. "A couple of years back, after my mom died - what?"
"Nothing. Go on."
"Well, I kinda got into some ... bad habits. And Shiho came to where I was doing these bad habits and tried to get me out of them, and ... some of the guys I was doing things with decided to have some fun with her." He looked down at his arm, rolled up his shirt sleeve to show her a rather large scar on his forearm. "I got this trying to stop them," he said. "Trying."
Mai was distracted from his words by a sudden impulse to reach out and gently caress the scar, but she snapped out of it before she could do more than lift a hand to do so. "Trying?" she repeated.
"Trying," he confirmed. "I don't ... all I really remember is waking up in the hospital with her crying beside my bed, crying about how I'd got hurt because of her. She said that they didn't really do anything to her, but ..." Yuuichi looked away. "I don't know if I believe her." His head snapped back to look at Mai. "Is that why she's like what you're saying she's like? Because I blew it that badly?"
"No," Mai said, trying to calm him with her voice. "No, that's not it, there's ... there's something else." Nao had told her, once things had settled down, about what she'd heard Shiho and Midori saying to each other. She hadn't wanted to pass it on, but ... no, he needed to know. "I think Shiho is the way that she is because she, she thinks that her mother was cheating on her father with a bunch of guys." Deep breath. "Including your father."
Yuuichi was silent, staring at her.
"Is that -" she started to ask.
"That," he replied, "is exactly the sort of asshole thing my asshole dad would do. My dad is an asshole, did I mention?"
"There's a lot of that going around," Mai said faintly. Out of nowhere, she found herself wondering about Mikoto's parents. She talked about her brother and her grandfather, but never her mother or father. Where had they been in all of that?
"So then - she actually is my sister?" he asked.
She nodded, opening her mouth to reassure him some more.
"That's the most disgusting thing I've ever heard of," Yuuichi groaned. "I mean, I was getting over the fact that I've looked at her like a little sister, but ... she actually is? But she wants to be my sister and she wants sex, too? I can't - I think I'm gonna be sick."
"It's not so bad," Mai said faintly.
"Not so - are you kidding? What if your little brother was into you like that? You'd be disgusted, right? Yeah, I can tell you would. It's sick and it's wrong, and it's sick and wrong for a reason. Shit," he finished, shuddering faintly.
"You can't pick your family," she added. She wasn't really sure what she was saying anymore.
Yuuichi sighed. "Guess not," he said as he stood up, to look down at her. "Okay. I'll ... handle this somehow. I'll try and find out where she's hiding, and then I'll call you so's you can figure out some way to get her separated from that flute thing of hers. Okay?"
"Yeah," Mai said. "You're an okay guy, Tate."
He let out what sounded like the ghost of a laugh. "Yeah. I'm a real prince." And with that, he slumped off, looking incredibly depressed.
She watched him walk away with a confused feeling in her gut. All this while, she'd told herself that all that she wanted was to be normal. And with just a few simple unwitting words, she'd just been shown that she'd never been normal, even before all this. She was watching normalacy slouching away from her, and taking something else incredibly precious with it ...
Mai shook her head. Stop dramatizing things, she told herself. Just stop.
By noon, Yohko had finished the letters of condolence she had to write, and probably could have taken a break. Instead, she decided to get proactive on the issue of her replacement, by contacting a number of the doctors she'd worked with in the past and inquiring whether they'd be interested in a position with the academy.
Of course, she knew perfectly well that most of them would be quite happy where they already were, and that the Academy couldn't offer them much in the way of an incentive. In the case of the two best in the field - well, the living legend still wasn't licensed to practise in Japan (or anywhere, as far as she knew) and was famous for working only on a case by case basis. And as for the other, Sorayama-sensei was so far out of their price range that it wasn't even funny.
She was running down the list in her little black book when the door to her office was flung open and Midori entered at a run with a rather frightening smile on her face. "Oi, Yohko!" she cried. "I just heard a really ridiculous rumor, so I came here to laugh about it with you!"
Yohko grunted and wished that she was eccentric enough to put a trapdoor in front of her desk. The people on the floor below probably wouldn't appreciate it, though. Ah well. Life was filled with ups and downs.
"Aren't you going to ask me about the ridiculous rumor which we're both going to find really funny?" Midori persisted maniacally as she bent across Yohko's desk.
"If it's the rumor that I gave my notice -" Yohko started to reply.
"That's it, that's it exactly! It's so ridiculous!"
"- and yet nonetheless true," she concluded.
Midori kept leaning forward across the desk, hands twitching a bit as they supported her weight. "Okay, joke's over. What the hell are you thinking?" she said.
"I'm thinking exactly what I told you not two freakin' days ago!" Yohko abruptly yelled. "I said all that, and then not only was there all that screwiness at the festival, but the academy was subjected to a military incursion! I can't do this job anymore! So I quit, I'm done, I'm out, finito, arivederci, sayonara, au revoir, bonsoir, how many ways can I say goodbye!"
Midori rocked back when Yohko raised her voice. She swallowed before she spoke again. "You can't do this to me," she said, and then flinched as she realized what she'd said.
Yohko felt herself flushing. "To - dammit, Midori, the world does not revolve around you! I'm sad to say that the prospect of being your booty call is not enough to convince me to stay on here anymore, if it ever was!"
"But it's your idea, every time that we -" Midori started to protest.
"Yeah, yeah, yeah, and you're in love with your bloody archaeology professor!" Yohko sneered. "Heaven knows you talk about how much you're in love with the guy, every chance that you get!"
"I am!"
Yohko bit back what she was going to say. "Fine, whatever. I'm happy for you both," she bit out sarcastically. "Meanwhile, I still quit."
"I can't let you do this!" Midori cried. "Friends do not let friends make awful career choices!" And with that not-terribly-original observation, she dashed out of the office again.
Yohko ground her teeth together until she remembered that was bad for the enamel. With a sigh of annoyance, she picked up the black book and picked out a name. "Couldn't hurt to ask," she mused aloud, and dialled the number on her cell phone.
"Minazuki-sensei? It's Sagisawa. Doing well, I hope? Ah, glad to hear it. Well, time is precious, so I'll just come out and ask. How would you like to take over my job at Mahora and -"
Yohko quickly moved the phone's headset away from her ear to avoid damage to her hearing. Once the laughter stopped, and the click informed her that the call had been terminated, she set it down again. "You didn't have to laugh that loudly," she muttered as she read down the list.
Before she could pick another number, though, the phone rang. She answered it. "Sagisawa," she reported. "Oh! Oh, it's good to hear from you again. Yes, I've been meaning to call you and thank you for that consult, a few weeks ago. You were a great help. What can I -"
Yohko paused.
"How did you hear that rumor?" she asked. "Uh-huh. Well, all right. Certainly, I'll arrange the meeting. Your CV is certainly broad enough to do the job. I imagine that it'll be a drop down from - oh, I'm sorry to hear that. Well, I look forward to seeing you tomorrow, Mikado-sensei."
Well, that was convenient. A bit ... too convenient, honestly, but she wasn't going to let it worry her. As she looked out the window and saw Midori in cheerleader get up doing some sort of routine just outside the building, and promptly closed the blinds, she knew that she had enough to worry about already.
"So what's going to happen to him?" Nodoka asked quietly as she stood watch over the headmaster's bedroom from the ledge outside it.
Yue, standing with her in her robes and wizards hat, was silent for a long moment before answering. "Well, it's not safe for him to retire to anywhere here on Earth. Too many old enemies, everywhere. The same goes for most of Mundus Magica. But ... I got in touch with Headmaster Seras, and she agreed to give him a visiting professor post at Ariadne. He'll have excellent security, there, and treatment, and he can live out the rest of his days in as much peace as anyone can hope for."
"'The best that you can hope for is to die in your sleep,'" Nodoka murmured.
"Eh?" Yue asked.
"Something Paru said to me once. She supposedly picked it up from a friend of her brother's who kidnapped her when she was six or so."
"It's a song lyric from about twenty-five years ago," said a voice from above the two of them. "If the friend of Saotome's brother is the one that I'm thinking of, it's not surpring that he'd think highly of it." Mana leaned down from her position on the roof to look at the two of them, particularly Nodoka. "He didn't get the best, incidentally."
"I just love that we're all so blase about kidnapping," Yue muttered.
"I doubt any of us are going to be so lucky as that," Nodoka said, meeting Mana's gaze evenly.
Mana stared at her, then shook her head. "You're as hard a case as Kaede said you were," she said, sounding irritated. "Lighten up a little, will you?"
Yue nearly choked as the supreme irony of that statement, while Nodoka just sneered and looked away. Before she could say anything, though, Konoka hobbled out on to the balcony, walking only with the assistance of a cane.
"Still no change?" Yue asked, somewhat rhetorically, since she could tell what the answer would be from the look on Konoka's face.
"There is one thing we haven't tried, but Setsuna and Mother won't let me risk it in my condition. So it looks like he's never going to get any better. Magic, as someone was prone to saying, can't do miracles," Konoka mused. "I'm sorry, Yue."
"Why are you apologizing to me?" Yue flustered. Okay, he was technically her grandfather, too, but they'd never been all that close, certainly not as close as ... but that led to disturbing and embarassing places, and only flustered her worse. Most of what went on in Konoka's life flustered her, really, like her easy acceptance of her new stepmother as mother when she'd been angry about the situation only a few months before.
"You know why," Konoka said, smiling like the Konoka of old.
Yue flushed and looked away.
In the distance, they heard a door open, and the shing of a sword being drawn from its sheath. "Who art thou and what about!" Setsuna's voice roared from within the room.
"Gosh, you're cute!" said an unfamiliar voice in the same direction.
"Oh, hell," Konoka cursed and hobbled back into the room, with Yue and Nodoka both close behind.
They found Setsuna holding a man at bay with her sword. He was just a bit taller than her, but much wider, with pointy hair just above either ear and bald scalp in betweeen, wearing a pair of sunglasses despite being indoors. He seemed oddly unfazed by the fact that he was being menaced by a girl with a sword.
"Nijuuin-sensei?" Konoka gasped.
Eh? thought Yue. This wasn't ... oh. She abruptly recognized him from the family photo she'd seen while tutoring the daughter of the Nijuuin-sensei she'd come to know and respect. This was his older brother, the one who couldn't use magic.
"Hey, there, Konoka-chan!" he said. "I came to pay my respects to my predecessor. I hope that's all right."
"That's fine, down blade, Setsu-" Konoka started to say, somewhat reflexively, then paused. "Predecessor?" she repeated as a question.
"Mm-hm. The Emergency Council has appointed me as Headmaster Pro Tem," he explained cheerfully. "Don't worry, I fully intend to keep things running just as Konoemon-sensei did. Except maybe employing more cute girls." He blinked, then leered. "Oh, hey, Nodokaaaaa-chaaaan!"
"Oh, boy," Nodoka muttered. "Hello, Hentaro," she said.
Wait, thought Yue and Konoka. Why is she on - oh no.
"I suppose you're wondering why I called you all here," Midori proclaimed as she stood before them arms akimbo, her long red cape flowing slightly in the early evening wind.
"Actually, I'm wondering if Superman-sama knows you have his cape," Mai said.
"I'm wondering why it's not really a surprise that she's into that sort of thing," Nao said as she looked wonderingly at Natsuki.
"I'm wondering when someone's going to UNTIE ME ALREADY!" Natsuki yelled as she struggled against the ropes which bound her.
"I'm wondering, well, um, I just don't think we've met before?" Yukino said to the rather lost-looking nun who was standing on the plaza with the rest of them.
"I'm, I'm Sister Yukariko," the embarassed looking nun explained.
"I'm wondering why Midori called us all here!" Mikoto said.
"Thank you, Mikoto-chan!" said Midori, just a tad bit irately. "She gets it, why can't the rest of you get it, I'd like to know!" She took a moment, and then resumed the stentorian delivery she'd started out with. "Yesterday was a day unlike any other, when all of the HiME -"
"Oh!" Mai interrupted. "You're the one that - hi, I'm Tokiha Mai," she introduced herself. "
"A day unlike any other, when all -"
"Hey, where's the screwy octopus head?" asked Nao.
Midori kept from screaming with a bit of difficulty. "I haven't been able to find her. But yesterday was -"
"Lucky her! Mai, stop making nice with the cowardly nun and untie me already!"
"Hey, Natsuki, that's not nice! She probably has vows against violence - that's not cowardice, that's conviction!"
"Not really," Yukariko said quietly. No one really paid her any attention, which was what she really wanted.
"Fine. I apologize. NOW UNTIE ME!"
"Okay, long story short," Midori bit out. "Yesterday we did a lot of good and I think we could keep on doing all kinds of good if we kept on working together like that! So lets's do that! Let's keep the HiME Army together on a permanent basis! We will be invincible!"
After a moment, Yukariko edged close to Yukino and quietly asked, "Does Midori-san have some sort of psychological problems?"
"Well," Yukino said, since she honestly wasn't sure how to go about answering that question.
"For this crap I got tied up and dragged here like some sort of damsel in distress?" Natsuki growled as Mai undid her bonds. Without a word of thanks, she started to storm away. "Include me out!"
"First District," Midori said.
Natsuki paused in mid-storm, whirling to glare at Midori. "What do you know about them?"
"Other than they exist, and you're kinda peeved at 'em? Nothing. Yet. But if a certain someone were to formalize her relationship with the HiME Army, then that certain someone's enemies would be the enemies of her sisters-in-arms as well." She paused to let that sink in, then continued. "You're about out of leads, so why not let us help you find some more? Same goes for those of us searching for missing brothers, or whatever it is that we're searching for.
"And furthermore, while Searrs is beaten, and won't be back if they're smart, they're evil and thus by definition not all that smart! So they might very well try again, and it'd be good to have a little back up if that happened, yeah? Not to mention the Orphans, and the possibility of an alien invasion, and all kinds of crazy stuff that might happen if we're lucky. Or unlucky, I guess."
It was honestly a little dizzying to watch the way that Midori could bounce from silly to serious without any pause in between, Mai decided. For her part, Natsuki didn't look completely convinced, but she wasn't going anywhere.
"I like this plan," Nao announced, smiling and nodding. "This plan rocks. I'm happy to be a part of it." The truth was that she was starting to get a little bored with the helping people thing, but it was still entertaining for now. And if that ended, it still might be good to have some patsies around to shift the blame for what she got up to onto someone else.
"See? Even Nao-chan has come around!" Midori pointed out to Natsuki.
"Oh, fine," Natsuki growled. "But if I don't see some results real soon -!"
"You will, you will!"
"Are we joining this thing, Mai?" Mikoto asked.
"I guess we ought to," Mai said wearily. "All the arguments make too much sense, and there's some things I want to know that we might find out easier this way."
"That's what I think, too," Yukino said softly. These people could be great resources for Haruka-san, she thought. I'd have to keep them from her, but that's not any different from having other sorts of confidential informants, isn't it?
"I suppose that this is a good idea," Sister Yukariko said hesitantly. "I'm not sure what help I'd be, since all this is very new to me, and I'd have to clear anything with Sister Shakti -"
"Relax, last thing I want is to get her mad at me," Midori assured her very quickly. "All right, then! Our next task is to celebrate yesterday's awesome victory!"
"Celebrate?" said Mai. "Hang on, I don't think that celebrating is right. I mean, lots of people suffered and -"
"With some karaoke!"
"Let's go!" Mai enthused, punching the air. She was finally going to get to go to a karaoke parlor! There was a God after all!
The trees in the park near the plaza shifted slightly, as though disturbed by the wind. Or by someone present, listening in.
"We're here!" Mai cried out as they arrived in the booth, tears of happiness dripping from her eyes. "We're actually here! I can't believe it's happening to me! Some people wait a lifetime for a moment like this!" she sang.
"... Mai, it's a rundown karaoke parlor on the seedy side of Mahora," said Natsuki. "Please dial it down a notch, you are seriously starting to worry me."
She ignored her. How could she, how could any of them understand what this meant to her? Always, always, she'd been the one who had to offer apologies to her friends when they went out to have fun at places like this. And watch them as they sauntered off together while she went to work. This place was the embodiment, the symbol, of everything she'd ever denied herself. How could Natsuki possibly get it, when she'd probably spent all kinds of fun times with her friends and -
Okay, even in Mai's somewhat excited state, she retained the presence of mind to realize that was ridiculous. Natsuki didn't have any friends (except Shizuru, whom she would of course insist was just useful) and didn't go in for things like that. Actually, probably none of them, except for Midori herself did. So she supposed that none of them would be as excited as she was.
"Ooh! Snacks!" Mikoto cried when they got into the booth.
Well, it was nice to be wrong sometimes, Mai thought as Mikoto descended on the snacks set on the table and began consuming them. She focused her own attention on the equipment. "Okay, this is your basic Sony manufactured karaoke player, nothing too fancy, but ideal for these situations," she announced immediately. "Assuming the manager hasn't fiddled around with the selection, I can pretty much tell you right now which songs are in the playlist. Let me know what you want to sing and I'll program your song choices in between mine."
"You've got the playlist memorized?" Nao asked. "Why -"
"I've been waiting for this day for ten thousand years," Mai bit out.
"... if I'm nuts, it's because of something I got from your side of the family," Nao declared, retreating a bit.
"That's nice," Mai said, not really listening. "Okay, just one liittle request, could we please avoid 'Eternal Flower'? I just think it's massively overdone. Likewise 'Cruel Angel's Thesis'. Ooh, the songbook includes 'Roses Fall in Beauty'! It's an oldie but a goodie!"
"Oh, Mai, Mai, Mai," Midori said, shaking her head. "Your enthusiasm is admirable, but sadly misplaced. There's an order to these things that must be obeyed!"
"There is?" Mai asked.
"There is?" repeated Mikoto, between crunching on nachos.
"Yes, there is!" Midori proclaimed. "Both song and singer shall be randomly selected, the former using the player's roulette function, the latter using a special roulette I've obtained for just that purpose!" She pointed dramatically at what looked like a dartboard, attached to the wall. Looking closely, one could see that someone (Midori, most likely) had scribbled the characters for their names onto the seven large wedges at the center of the board. Well, their names and the English word "Sister" represented in katakana, the latter under something that had been scribbled out.
"... that is the most ridiculous thing I've ever seen, and I watched Suzushiro Haruka's presidential campaign," Natsuki opined after a moment of silent consideration.
Yukino had started nodding, stopped, and was now glaring at Natsuki who seemed oblivious.
"Um, Midori, couldn't we just write down our names in and cycle through it, and have someone who really, really wanted to sing at the start of the list?" Mai asked hopefully. "I think that would be every bit as fair as -"
"Nope, has to be a random selection. Because of the outfits, you see," Midori explained.
Except that explanations generally aren't supposed to confuse those who've received them even more than they already were. "Outfits?" everyone (except Mikoto, who was eating) chorused.
"Outfits," Midori repeated cheerfully, as though the word was enough to clarify everything. "So away we go!" She pushed a button on the bottom of the roulette, and a little light went on on the outer edge, seeming to circle it by lighting up and going out as the light beside it turned on. After several apparent rotations, it stayed lit up beside Natsuki's name.
"And a winner is Natsuki!" Midori proclaimed, pulling the girl, who was still in her motorcycle leathers, up from the couch where she was sitting with Mai and Mikoto and dragging her over to a curtained off area.
"I knew this was a bad idea!" Natsuki proclaimed as she vanished from sight.
"Mai, don't be sad!" Mikoto said after a moment of observing the shouts and unseen struggles going on behind the curtain. "You'll get a chance to do this thing whatever it is."
"I hope you're right," Mai said uneasily, as she endured the usual sinking sensation of a foretelling, where she saw the roulette somehow managing to never once land on her name despite several spins. It was an awful vision, the worse for being much pettier than her usual visions of disaster.
Mikoto clearly picked up on Mai's discomfort. With one more look at the snacks, of which there still remained quite a few that she hadn't tried, Mikoto turned to look full on at her roommate. "Mai," she said, trying to sound serious without really succeeding. "If Mai isn't having fun, we can leave."
Mai blinked. "But, what about -" She gestured towards the snacks.
Mikoto nodded, then drew in a deep breath. "It's just food. It's not even Mai's food. And Mai ... Mai is more important than food." Brief pause. "Unless it's Mai's food. That's different."
Mai's gloom evaporated and she reached out to give Mikoto a big hug and kiss her forehead. "That's the sweetest thing you've ever said to me, Mikoto, you little flirt,"she said.
"Ah?"
It abruptly occurred to Mai that she had just kissed Mikoto in front of witnesses, one of whom was a member of the Catholic clergy, one of whom was a member of the school's disciplinary committee, and one of whom was Nao. In the first moment of terrified realization, Mai found herself terribly uncertain which of these conditions was worse.
"Ah, it must be wonderful to have close female friends," Yukariko sighed dreamily.
Yukino, who was blushing slightly, favored the sister with a disbelieving look, but the one she then sent Mai and Mikoto's way was more faintly envious than censorous.
Nao was just staring with her jaw hanging low.
I can't believe I wondered which was worse.
Before anyone could say anything more, Natsuki was dragged out from behind the curtain that she'd just been dragged behind, now wearing a pretty miniskirted dress and a pair of glasses, with her hair done up in twin tails.
"Isn't she cute!" Midori enthused as she sat down and grabbed her pitcher of beer. "Your song's up, Natsuki!"
"For what I am about to endure," Natsuki proclaimed, "I will one day take vengeance on God himself." And then she started singing.
The interval between the end of Natsuki's performance - fairly good, if marred by the ferocious scowl that never left her face - and the start of Yukino's turn at the mike - during which she was likewise dragged behind the curtain by Midori - offered Nao and Mai the chance to step out into the hallway and discuss the situation like the reasonable people they weren't.
"What the hell, Mai?" Nao demanded.
With effort, Mai kept herself from saying 'what the hell right back at you' like she'd said to Midori a few weeks ago. "Nao, calm down."
"Calm down? Calm - okay. Okay. I'm calm. See how calm I am? I'm calm. Now. What the hell, Mai? Are you two -" Nao hesitated, lifted up her hands, pausing in the act of shaping one of them into an "O" shape. "No, wait, that doesn't make sense," she muttered.
Completely deadpan, Mai held up both her hands with the first two fingers of each of them up and spread in a V, then proceeded to wedge the two of them together and wiggle slightly.
Nao stared. "How does that even -" She shook her head. "You do that with -"
"Yes," Mai admitted.
Nao was left speechless. "And she likes it?" she asked at last.
"Yes," Mai understated.
"You didn't, didn't force her or -"
"Nao, you do know Mikoto, right?" Mai interrupted. "She's a lot stronger than I am. A lot stronger. I couldn't force her to do anything."
"She's kinda easily tricked," Nao observed hesitantly. "So you could maybe trick her into -"
"Y'know what, if you're smart, you're not gonna remind me of how the two of you met," Mai growled. "No, I didn't trick her." She was uncomfortably aware that there'd been a certain amount of manipulation involved, but that wasn't really any of Nao's business. Actually, none of this was Nao's business, but she'd come to far to back out with that now.
But all Nao did was just stare at her with a completely baffled expression on her face, which made Mai feel like even more of a heel than usual. "What?" she finally asked.
"So ... girls like that?" Nao asked.
"Some girls do," Mai answered. "I thought you knew about Aoi and Chie."
"Well, yes, but I figured they were just sickos," Nao explained. "And you're a goody-goody, so you wouldn't ... but ..."
A horrific thought suddenly occurred to Mai. "Nao," she asked. "Why did you think I was forcing her?"
"Because that's what it is, right?" Nao said, looking way younger than she actually was. "Someone makes someone else do something, and that someone hates it, and she screams -" Now she blinked, and realized what she was saying, how it sounded, and stepped back, putting on the cynical mask again. "It's not what you're thinking though. It wasn't me. It was my mom. I was hiding, and listening, and -"
"No," Mai said. "No, that's not the point. Nao, what they did to your mom was rape, not sex."
"What's the difference?" Nao asked, bewildered. "Is it because you're both girls?"
"Give me strength," Mai wimpered, hand over her eyes. "There's a big difference, but that's not it. Sex, sex is great, Nao. It's great when it's women and women, it's great when it's men and women, I guess that it's great when it's men and men, not that I know or - anyways. But it has to be great for -" However many people are involved, she almost said, but backed away from the advanced class topics in the nick of time. "- both people involved, or it's not great at all."
Deep breath. "When you want to have sex with someone, when you want to become one with them, you'll understand."
Nao was staring dubiously at her, but there was something mixed in with the doubt and confusion, something Mai didn't quite recognize. "I don't think I could ever want to be one with a guy," she said, hesitantly.
"Then don't," Mai said, just a bit out of patience. Then she had another forerunning, and started to say, "But -"
"Could I kiss you?" Nao asked, blushing a bit.
Mai took a step back. "No!" she said. "I mean, it's not that you're ugly or anything, and - it wouldn't be right to Mikoto! And we're sisters, right?" Oh, I am such a hypocrite, she thought disgustedly.
"I don't really think of you as a sister," the girl with the bright red hair complained.
"Well, I do, so - no kissing me without consent, okay?" she demanded.
"Fiiiine," Nao sighed, looking put out.
The door to the booth opened, and Midori poked her head out, looking irate. "Hey, you two. Yukino-chan's too nice to say anything, but I'm not. You missed her whole set! And it came up for you to go next, Mai, but I'm cancelling your slot as a penalty! Instead, you're up, Nao-chan!" Midori grabbed the smaller girl and pulled her in.
"WHAT?" Mai shrieked a moment later.
A little while later, having just reviewed inputs, Midori was washing her hands in the washroom sink while chuckling a bit over Mai's increasing aggravation. All this was definitely a welcome distraction from what she'd spent the afternoon doing - slandering her best friend to every hospital in Japan so that she'd never get a job anywhere else and have to stay here at Mahora in order to work. Abruptly, though, the horrifying possibility that Yohko might get a job overseas intruded, ruining her appreciation of her own cleverness.
"Crap," she muttered as she lifted her head to look in the mirror.
Then blinked.
"Wow!" she announced. "So that's what that's like. I always wondered what it would be like to do that thing, you know, where there's a person in the bathroom and they look away from a mirror and, when they look back towards it, there's someone standing there looking at them. Thanks!" she added, a bit belatedly.
"I have no idea what you're talking about," said Shizuru, dressed casually as she stood patiently behind her. "But you are nonetheless quite welcome."
Midori turned to look at her directly with a broad smile on her face. "I was wondering if you were going to show up," she said. "Good work with the giant during the invasion."
"I don't know what you're talking about, now, either," Shizuru said after a moment. "But -"
"Please," Midori said, holding up a hand. "I only act like an idiot, some of the time, please don't insult me by thinking that I am one. You're life's an open book, President Fujino. Or should I say President Higurashi?" Her tone got a bit more serious. "Did you have anything to do with the way Akane-chan disappeared?"
Shizuru's easy gaze grew a bit more glare-like. "No, I did not. And any connection I had with the Higurashi family ended with my mother's death, so it is Fujino. Thank you."
"Okay, then," Midori said with a shrug. "But don't ask me to pretend that you're not a HiME. We both know that you are."
"What a ridiculous term that is," Shizuru sighed. "Very well. I won't ask that. I have other requests to make instead, in any event. Let me get right to the point. I will have you stop your attempts to influence and manipulate my Natsuki. In fact, it would better if you ceased any and all contact with her."
"Wow," Midori said, stunned. "I'd heard the rumors, but you really do act as though she's your pet, huh? "Mah Natsuki'," she repeated. "Wow."
"I am simply looking out for a good friend's best interests, when she does not seem to be able to do so," Shizuru said calmly. As calmly as someone can when their fists have suddenly clenched.
Maybe it was the booze she'd been drinking all night, even though she had a very high tolerance, and even though she wasn't normally an angry drunk, but something about this girl and her attitude and what she was saying really pissed Midori off. "A good friend, huh?" Midori sneered. "She doesn't even know you're a HiME, you know."
"Thank you for not telling her," Shizuru sneered. "Though I'm sure it's owing to negilgence, rather than benevolence, on your part."
"Yeah, but that's the least of it, isn't it? She doesn't even know that you want to fuck her so badly that -"
Shizuru slapped her. "You disgusting disgrace to your profession," she hissed. "For your information, that is not any part of my feelings for her. My feelings for her are pure."
Now Midori laughed despite the pain on her cheek. "Oh," she said between chuckles. "Oh, so you're one of those kind of dykes, huh? That really pisses me off. And another thing -"
With that, she slammed a short jab up into Shizuru's stomach, stunning her and knocking her back before closing the distance to put her in a forward necklock. "You hit like a girl," she hissed, then slammed her lips to Shizuru's even as she swept her feet out from under her, taking them both to the floor.
The president seemed stunned; clearly her HiME condition didn't include much in the way of augmented stamina. Typical hothouse flower, Midori thought contemptuously as she slid down, planting one elbow on the other girl's stomach just below her breasts to keep her pinned down when she recovered. Her other hand flipped up the short skirt that she was still wearing, exposing the panties beneath. "Ohhoho!" she chuckled. "Not very pure when it comes to your underwear. You and Natsuki-chan got that in common at least."
"No," Shizuru muttered, starting to come around. Then much louder, "No! Get off of me!"
"Not happening," Midori sang cheerfully as she tugged the lacy underthings aside and bent down to start licking and sucking and biting at Shizuru's womanhood. Shizuru reached down to try and push her away, but all that she could accomplish was to tangle her hands in Midori's hair and try to tug on it. It wasn't pleasant for Midori, but she could ignore it for now. The annoyance made her lick her thumb and shove it firmly up the girl's rear in hopes of quieting her that way.
After only a few moments, Shizuru's efforts ceased abruptly as her head rolled back and she let out a sharp cry, followed soon after by gasps for breath.
"See, that was fun, wasn't it?" Midori asked, pressing a quick kiss to the girl's denuded abdomen. "Your turn now, o-"
"Get off of me!" Shizuru hissed, pushing her back.
"Wha-"
"My turn?" the brown-haired girl snapped, pulling herself together with difficulty and pushing away from Midori. "Oh, I'm sorry, is this the part of your narrative where I realize that, yes, I really did want what you were doing to me? That I want it too? No. Never!"
"You got off," Midori said, defensively. "Don't act like you were some blushing virgin -"
"I was," Shizuru bit out as she stood up. "Leave me alone, leave Natsuki alone, or I swear to, to whoever gave us these powers, I will END you!"
She backed out of the washroom, never taking her angry red eyes off of Midori until the door closed in front of her.
Midori sat for a moment.
"That could have gone better," she said at last.
Yukariko's turn, singing 'Blue Water' (rather well) while in a miniskirted version of her habit (which she made work) came to an end while Midori was still out, so (over Mai's mild objections) they activated the roulette and watched it come up on Mikoto's name. Then, as Mai explained to the little barbarian how this was all supposed to work - acting very like a stage mom, in Yukino's quietly voiced opinion - Nao subtly asked Natsuki to step outside.
Natsuki frowned, but went along with it, mostly to find out what Nao was up to this time. Despite the fact that she seemed to be getting along better with Mai, Natsuki didn't trust the younger girl a bit. (Of course, she didn't trust anyone, but she distrusted Mai a little less than ... um, actually, practically anyone other than Shizuru.)
"What do you want to say to me?" Natsuki asked, once they were in the hall.
"Well, it's not really that I want to talk to you, but you're the only one I can do this with, since Mai won't let me, and Mikoto's probably the same way, and the nun's a nun, and the wannabe cop is a wannabe cop, and I don't really want to wait for the crazy teacher," Nao explained.
Except that explanations aren't supposed to leave someone even more confused than they were before the explanation, as has perhaps already been observed. "What the flaming moonbeams are you babbling about?" Natsuki asked with a frown.
"Well, you see, I - well - uh - ah, hell with it," said Nao, giving up on explanation and resorting, as she really preferred, to action. And so walking right up to Natsuki, going up on tiptoe and slamming their lips together.
Natsuki's eyes were wide. Nao's were closed. Neither of them was in any position to see Shizuru stumble out of the hallway leading to the nearby bathroom, right behind Natsuki, and turn to see the two of them standing there kissing each other. Neither of them saw her already angry face become positively incandescent with fury. Neither of them saw her fists clench to the point where her well-manicured nails were practially drawing blood from her palms. Neither of them saw her take a step, a single step, towards them, then pause, abruptly make an about-face, and walk briskly away.
Nor did Shizuru see (or hear) what happened a moment later, when Natsuki pulled back and gasped, "What the fuck are you doing?!"
Not really paying any attention to her, Nao pursed her lips. "Not ... bad," she mused aloud. "But not really anything out of the ordinary, either. Crap, don't tell me I'm gonna have to suck face with Aoi and her stupid girlfriend, too?"
"What, what did you just do?" Natsuki repeated, grabbing one of Nao's shoulders.
"Hey, hands off!" Nao said, backing up. "Like I said before, process of elimination meant that you were the only one I could do anything with, so naturally, I -"
"Naturally, you stole my first kiss!" Natsuki yelped. "By process of elimination, you stole my first kiss!"
"Seriously?" Nao asked, blinking. "That was your first kiss? What the hell's wrong with you? I hate men, and I've gotten further than that!"
"Shut up! Just, just shut up!" Natsuki barked, blushing brightly, as she stomped back into the booth.
Nao was shaking her head in bewilderment. It wasn't that big of a deal, surely. So it was then that Midori found her when she also stumbled out of the hallway leading to the bathroom.
"Oi, Nao," Midori said, frowning. "Why're you out in the hall? Again?"
"Oh, just some stuff," she said, staring at Midori speculatively.
"Like what?"
Nao kept staring in silence, before shaking her head. "Nah, I'm not that desperate," she said, then headed back into the booth.
"... did I just get put down?" Midori asked no one in particular.
As all this was happening, Shiho was hiding in a cave in the forest outside of Mahora, shivering and thinking how much the world sucked. The shivering, at least, was a novel experience for her. She very much wished that she was back in her room, back in her bed, back with her big brother ... but on the other hand, she was aware that her immediate enemies would be expecting her to go there. And for once, she wasn't seeking out a confrontation with them.
It was strange how it had all turned out. Yesterday should have been the greatest day of her life. She'd been able to exult in her power, showing them all just what she could do. And then in an instant it had all turned to ash, when he'd shown up.
The boy teacher, Negi. The bitch Mai had taunted her about him, but she'd dismissed her claims as exaggerations and outright lies. Even when she'd seen that, yes, he was some sort of wizard, able to fly on his own power, she hadn't been impressed. Nothing he could do was as fearsome as what she and Yata-Garasu could accomplish, surely.
And then, with a single word, he'd defeated the leaders of the invasion. Easily. No, effortlessly. At once, her heart, which had never known doubt before, knew it then. What would someone who could do something like that do to someone like Shiho, who'd given him cause - not that he needed any - to hate her?
She'd run. She'd run, and hid, and spent a miserable night here in this cave.
Shiho wasn't stupid. She'd expected that at some point she might have to hide from her enemies, and had made preparations against that possibility, cacheing food and a change of clothing here. She was, however, not quite so experienced in such matters as she thought she was - the food that she'd stashed in the cave had either gone bad or been found and stolen by cute woodland animals that she vowed to kill painfully, later.
She still had her new clothes, though, including a sweatshirt with a hood that she could use to disguise herself. So she'd managed to head into town and buy some food this morning at a convenience store.
Inconveniently, though, she'd used her ATM card to do so. Had Ala Alba's cyber-goddess not been a bit distracted by other events, Chisame would probably have tracked her down and told Negi where to find her. As it happened, though, someone else found those traces, and erased them so that no one else could use them.
Shiho's head snapped up when she heard a footstep outside of her cave, and she quickly brought the flute up to her lips.
"Hallo, the cave?" came an unfamiliar man's voice. "I am unarmed and alone. I only want to talk. I'm coming in now."
Her immediate instinct was to call up Yata-Garasu and let whoever this might be have it right in the chest, but she was tired and not as fast on the draw as she might like. He came into view. Middle-aged, bespectacled, sharp nosed and Western, in a coat that she envied.
"Munakata Shiho-san, I presume?" he asked.
"Who wants to know?" she snarled.
"Please allow me to intoduce myself. John Smith," he introduced himself. "In the wake of recent unfortunate events, I have the honor of being the primary representative of the interests of the Searrs Foundation in this region."
"Searrs?" Shiho said, frown deepening. "What are you still doing here?"
"Mostly, I'm trying to make the best of a bad situation, salvaging what I can from yesterday's rout," he explained patiently. "And I was hoping to persuade you to help me do that."
The absurdity of that statement nearly boggled her mind, which wasn't, despite everything, all that easy to do. "Why, what, why would I ever help you?"
The man who'd called himself John Smith smiled inwardly. This had been a dangerous gamble, but from the fact that she was asking that question, it seemed likely to pay off. "I wouldn't be expecting you to do it for nothing, of course. But it seems fairly likely that you have more immediate enemies, who are also ... mutual enemies . It only makes sense to aid you against them, by making sure that they can't find you, for example."
It abruptly occurred to Shiho that if this person could find her -
"They can't," he said, reading her face. "I made sure of it. And I'd be more than happy to give you intell-" He paused, as though evaluating another form of intelligence, then continued. "I'd be more than happy to give you information about them. Useful stuff, about the other HiME."
Shiho drew back. "I can't fight the other HiME," she sneered. "They'll take away -"
"I am reliably informed that such prohibitions may soon become moot," he told her.
"Huh?"
"I am told that you might be able to do so very shortly," he clarified. "And it is very much in the interests of the Searrs Foundation to be allied with a HiME who can win this series of battles. Our attempt to make one has clearly failed, so we must then ally with one of the extant ones. And you seem to be the best option," he lied.
"... what do you want me to do?" she asked suspiciously.
He knew then that he had her.
"Wasn't that fun?" Midori enthused, a little while later, as she was carried back to campus between Mai and Natsuki. "That was so much fun, wasn't it?"
"More fun than some people should be allowed to have," Mai snarked. Her vision of the roulette somehow never managing to land on her name - except for that one time when she hadn't been there - had of course come true, and she was not best pleased right now.
"After God, I'm coming after you, too," Natsuki growled at Midori.
"I'm sorry, Yukino-chan," Sister Yukariko apologized as she was helped along by the smaller girl. She hadn't drunk nearly as much as Midori, but it had been much more than she was used to
"You're not that heavy, Sister," Yukino reassured her. The lie didn't come easily to her lips, but it did come.
"This has been a very strange evening," said Mikoto as she trailed along behind the others with Nao. "Fun, yes, tasty, oh yes, but very strange, too."
Nao grunted in response. Privately, she was wondering whether or not Mikoto might be simple enough that she wouldn't understand why it was "wrong" for her to kiss someone other than Mai. Since Nao wasn't really all that clear on why it was "wrong", it seemed pretty likely. (The irony of that didn't occur to her, of course.)
"Ah, that was fun," Midori repeated, tears trickling down her cheeks. "Who knows when we're gonna have this kinda fun again?"
"Oh, god, she's getting maudlin, now," Natsuki groaned.
"It's actually a really good question," said Nagi wittily as he cheerfully and cutely watched over them from his perch atop one of the streetlamps.
"Nagi!" Mai and Natsuki gasped as they quickly assumed defensive postures.
This left them with no hands free to hold Midori up, of course. "Ow," she said from the ground.
"Oh, crap, not you again," Nao groaned, managing to hide her deep-seated attraction to the clever white-haired youth behind a carefully nurtured air of disdain. "What do you want this time?"
"Now is that any way to talk to an old friend?" he asked somewhat reproachfully.
"We're don't remember making friends with you," chorused all the girls - with the exception for Yukariko, who had sobered up quickly and was staring at him in shock.
"Well, fine," the momentarily grumpy youth said. "Be that as it may, I come among you with news of great joy. Wonderful news, in fact. You don't have to worry about fighting the Orphans, anymore! That's great, isn't it?"
"Why not?" Mai asked suspiciously.
"I'm so glad that you asked," he said, then somehow swung around the top of the lamppost so that he was standing on top of it. "Because the early nights of this Carnival are at an end, and now commences the final nights!" he declared. "Henceforth, you shall have finer foes for your battles! Royal foes, in fact!" he added, snickering at his cleverness at the end there.
"You can't mean -" Mai gasped, realizing what he was saying.
"Yes!" he crowed. "Yes, I can mean! Your final foes of this Carnival are ... each other."
Silence fell like a blanket of snow on all of them.
"Are you nuts?" Nao said. "Why the hell would we fight each other? A while ago, maybe, but now?"
"Ah, dear sweet malevolent Nao-hime!" Nagi said with a grin. "Has it not occurred to you that all the HiME aren't here? There are many whose intentions and goals you do not know, and with whom you have not formed the close and intimate bonds of friendship you have formed with these girls before you. One in particular comes to mind, readily, doesn't she?"
"Shiho," Mai breathed.
"... oh, shit," Midori groaned as another name abruptly occurred to her.
"And even if that weren't enough," Nagi continued, "can you reeeeaaalllly trust each other so completely, with what is on the line? With the chance for power undreamt of available to you? The sort of power that would allow you heal those you love?" Mai and Nao both jolted at that. "Or take revenge on your enemies?" It was Natsuki's turn to grow pale. "Or strengthen your friends?" Yukino's legs trembled, almost collapsing beneath her. "Or even to simply take the power for yourself and become the great hero you have always dreamed of being?"
Midori found it difficult to speak, and not just because of her intoxicated state. "We, we st- we wo-"
"We will not do what you want!"
Everyone turned with a start to see that Sister Yukariko had recovered completely, and taken several steps away from the rest of them. She had produced a golden crucifix and was holding it out towards Nagi with a firm hand that only trembled a little bit.
"Thou minion of Satan!" she proclaimed. "Get thee hence from this place, in God's holy name!"
Nagi actually looked non-plussed for a moment. Then he hopped down from his pose on the lamp and sauntered right up to where the sister was standing. After another silent moment of contemplation, he reached out with a finger to tap the crucifix.
"Doesn't seem to be working," he said at length. "That suggests a couple of possibilities. The one I kind of like is that what you're doing depends more on your faith than on the symbol, and we both know that your faith is pretty much just a hollow excuse for a fear of the world beyond your cloister's walls, right, Yukariko-hime?"
The sister had gone very pale when he started speaking, and it wasn't easy for her to respond. But she finally did. "Be that as it may, it was a good way to bait you into someone else's line of fire, no?"
"Huh?" said Nagi cleverly.
Seconds later a huge black sword shot out of the air to take him through the chest, stapling him to the ground.
Nagi stared somewhat blearily down at the hilt of the sword sticking out of his stomach. "Wow," he muttered. "That really hurt." Then, as one does, he dazedly lifted his hands from where they were hanging at his sides to grab the hilt and pull slightly, pushing with his legs as he did so. The point of the sword came out of the ground, but the experience clearly wasn't pleasant. "Oh, that hurt even worse," Nagi groaned as he somehow managed to retain his footing, and even look about.
"Oh, and just to add insult to injury!" he cried faintly as he looked up at the person who had thrown the sword. She was perched on the top of a lamp post just a few posts away from the one where he'd been standing. "Stealing someone's schtick is not very cool, you know."
Her blue-black hair was just a shade darker than the icy eyes that were regarding him. "I want you to imagine a planet, the size of Jupiter, but as solid as the Earth," she said. "A world of wonders, with rivers made of fire, waterfalls made of rainbows, creatures evolved to subsist on metal. A world where gold was as common and as cheap as iron is here. That ... is how big of a crap I don't give about whether or not you think I'm cool."
"Fangirl," Nagi sneered the instant before she bounded up from the lightpost to come down at him in a flying drop kick.
The woman known only as Ciel - were she to be addressed by the name Elesia Clobette, she would probably blink in mild confusion for a moment - was not in a good mood. She did not like this place, nor the people (and things) who dwelled here. Nonetheless, she'd made an agreement with Caren Ortensia, when she persuaded the younger girl to resume her work as an exorcist, to assist in the defense of this place when those duties called Caren away, as they had.
She hadn't arrived in time to assist during the previous day's invasion, which annoyed her, both because it made her feel like she wasn't living up to the agreement and because it sounded like it had been a worthy fight. (The latter was just a bit admixed with the knowledge that it would have been a deadly fight; she still, on some level, yearned for the sweet release of death denied her for so long.) So when Sister Shakti came to her with this plan, she'd readily agreed.
Still, she didn't want to be here, and was a bit distracted by thoughts of what might be going on with her young man and a certain annoying vampire, her young man's quote-unquote sister and/or his twin maids. (Not to mention the alchemist, the other annoying vampire, the frickin' cat ...) Which distraction perhaps explained why she'd gone for the visually dramatic attack rather than the more effective one of pinning the white-haired boy's shadow with a Black Key -
Hm, she thought as he managed to sidestep out of the way of her kick despite having a sword sticking through him. Perhaps that wouldn't have been so effective after all, she decided as she landed gracefully just behind him and swirled her other foot up to try and take him like that. This time her combat boot found purchase between his shoulders, pushing him off balance so that she was able to dive at him with the start of a barrage of punches.
At this point, Mai was finally able to blink, as the surreality of the scene before her - watching a blue-haired girl in a long black dress assaulting Nagi - became familiar enough to let her think a bit clearly. "Shouldn't we maybe do something?" she asked.
"Don't have any popcorn handy," Midori said, having picked hersself up in the interim.
"That's not what I mean," Mai said weakly. "Shouldn't we, maybe, help?"
"I don't think whoever that is needs or wants our help, Mai," Natsuki said without taking her eyes off the fight.
"She's scary," said Mikoto, nodding.
"You need more words," Natsuki grumbled.
"Eh?"
"Um, actually, I meant, um ..." Mai trailed off as everyone turned to look at her incredulously.
"You want to help Nagi?" Nao asked.
Mai struggled for a few seconds, before she finally just held up her hands in supplication. "Well, this doesn't seem like a fair fight to me!" she cried. "Don't you feel a little bit sorry for him?"
"No," said Natsuki.
"No," said Midori.
"No," said Mikoto.
"No," said Nao.
"No," said Yukariko.
"Well ... no, not really," Yukino said hesitantly.
"Just a lit-" Mai started to say, holding up her hands with finger and thumb a minute distance apart.
"Sugiura, keep your people under control," said a masked nun who'd abruptly appeared beside Midori. Her mask left her eyes visible, and she was glaring rather fiercely in Mai's general direction.
"Oh, crap," Midori groaned, then made an effort to seem coherent. "It's okay, Mai wasn't going to do anything, were you, Mai-chaaan?"
"Actually -"
Alas, whatever Mai was actually going to do was lost forever as she was once more cut off. "Shakti, I'm going to need it after all," called out Ciel as she squared off with Nagi. The boy looked bruised, but she wasn't exactly in the freshest of conditions either.
"As expected," the mysterious nun muttered, then held up a cell phone. "Bring it," she said sharply.
Moments later, another mysterious nun ran into sight at a remarkable speed, carrying - in both hands, with arms dragging to an extent that was almost painful to watch - what looked like a semi-portable artillery piece. "Owowowowowow," she reported as she ran right up to Ciel.
"Oh, quit whining," Ciel said disgustedly as she picked it up out of her hands - with ease - and turned to point it at Nagi, who was breathing heavily. "Abhorrent thing," she declaimed. "In a moment you will stand before God. If you have any last words, say them now!"
"Okay, you've got bad breath," Nagi said. "And curry sucks, you know."
There was a horrible moment of silence.
Then Ciel roared as she slammed the Seventh Holy Scripture's bayonet attachment right into Nagi's gut. With a thunderous roar - in which could be faintly heard high pitched voices speaking a language no one there could understand - his body was thrown backwards through the air to land limply an extended distance away. Breathing heavily, Ciel watched it for a full minute before she allowed her stance to ease a bit.
"Left a body," she mused aloud, clearly intending for the meditations of her spirit to be heard by everyone nearby, particularly the HiME. Perhaps particularly Mai, who was watching all this with a horrified look on what could be seen of her face as she held her hands over her mouth. "They don't always. That's interesting. We may be able to learn some useful stuff from the dissect-"
It was at that point in her monologue that a groaning noise could be heard from the supposed corpse. Ciel's jaw dropped, and her stance tensed up again. But the only motion that Nagi made was to unsteadily hold up a single hand which inexplicably contained a tiny white flag.
"Oookay," Nagi's voice said, sounding very weary. "I surrender. You win, I lose, happy happy joy joy. No more of this, please?"
"Um, I think maybe he's still alive," said Misora (for she was, of course, the mysterious nun who'd run up carrying the rather heavy metal artifact which had just been used) who was standing nearby with her hands over her ears.
Ciel was turning the rather frightening glare she'd been directing towards Nagi's supine flag-waving form on Misora, and was about to speak, perhaps to congratulate the younger girl on achieving a new level of stating the obvious.
"Really, I surrender ... is someone going to accept my surrender sometime soon?"
Her head whipped back around to glare at him. "What the hell are you?" she snapped.
"I'm charming and witty," Nagi said charming and wittily as he managed to lift his head enough to meet Ciel's gaze ... for a moment, before he slumped back down again with a sigh.
"This is one of the most powerful weapons in the Church's arsenal, sufficient to reduce vampires to dust in seconds if properly used," Ciel said tensely. "I know that it works, because I have used it to reduce vampires to dust in seconds. But you lived. What are you?"
"I could repeat the charming and witty comment, or offer a different one. Which would you prefer?"
Ciel let out a short growl of irritation. "You are possibly as annoying as a certain annoying vampire!"
"But cuter!"
"No, you are not as cute as she is!"
There was a short lull in the conversation as everyone concerned took that statement in.
"So ... you find her cute then?" Nagi asked.
"That is not what I - ohhh! I hate this country and its obsession with cute!" With a snarl, Ciel hefted Seven for another go.
That was the last straw, as far as Mai was concerned. Without a word, she dashed past Midori and the first mysterious, both of whom yelled at her to stop and both of whom she ignored. She interposed herself between Nagi and the crazy blue-haired woman with the cannon.
"Get out of my way," Ciel said flatly.
"No," Mai replied firmly.
"Little girl, get out of my way, or I will have to kill you," Ciel elaborated.
"No," Mai repeated. "It's over. You won. He gave up. That's enough. I'm not going to just stand by and watch as you murder him or anyone else! So back away!"
Ciel's eyes narrowed. Mai quickly became uncomfortably aware that she had just attracted the attention of someone to whom the act of dealing out death was as familiar as cooking was to Mai. Standing between such a person and their prey was not really the sort of place she really wanted to be. Yet here she was, all alone.
And then she wasn't. She supposed that she wasn't surprised that Mikoto was beside her, with Miroku out and ready, matching Ciel's glare with a pretty intimidating one of her own. Having Natsuki on her other side, guns out and poised to fire, was considerably more startling.
"You so owe me," Natsuki snarled sideways.
And Nao and Midori were just in back of them, claws and poleaxe in evidence. (The latter somewhat terrified Mai, given how drunk Midori was, but now wasn't the time to worry about that.) Yukino was standing a little bit away, looking really uncomfortable, but her displays were floating around her nonetheless.
Only Sister Yukariko didn't have her weapon visible, but even she was hesitantly saying, "Um, perhaps this has gone just a bit too far ..."
Ciel kept glaring at them for a long while, but she finally sighed. "Fine," she said at length. "I'm supposed to be keeping a low profile, anyway. I hope you're really happy when the viper that you're cradling to your breasts bites you and claims that it was just obeying its nature." With one more glare, this one directed at Shakti, she turned and tromped away, carrying Seven as she did.
"This is not over," Shakti snapped at Midori, before following after Ciel.
"Wow, shit really flows downhill," the second mysterious nun observed.
"Misora!"
"Coming!" With a short bow, the nun dashed off.
"That was ... very noble, Mai-hime," Nagi said as he attempted to push himself upright, without any particular immediate success. "I didn't realize that you cared."
"I didn't do it for you!" Mai snapped as she looked back at him, irritatedly. "I just, I, it's been a pretty good night and I didn't want it to end with someone dying, that's all!"
"Ah, and you have to ruin it by being all tsundere, too," he sighed, shaking his head. Then he met her eyes directly, and spoke with rare sincerity. "Thank you, Tokiha Mai."
"You're welcome," Mai said, somewhat reluctantly. "Are you, are you gonna be okay?"
"Oh, eventually," he said as he tried to stand up once again, this time succeeding, though he looked very unsteady on his feet. "I just need a good night's sleep. You should probably all get one, too. The Carnival is waiting, after all."
"Still going on about that?" Natsuki snapped.
"It's not my idea, Natsuki-hime," Nagi said with a shrug that sent a wave of pain across his face. "It's just the way things are. Good night, gentles all." And with a short bow of his own, he stumbled off into the night.
"That was really, really stupid, Mai," Midori said, sounding much more sober. "What if she hadn't backed down?"
Mai swallowed. "Well. It's a good thing that we're an army, then, isn't it?"
Midori stared at her, then lifted her head to stare at the evening sky. "Why me?" she asked.
"Um, Sister," Misora whispered to Shakti as the pair of them trailed along behind Ciel as she stomped her way back to the cathedral. "Are all members of the Burial Agency as, well, nuts as her?"
"No, actually, she's one of the nicer and saner ones," Shakti answered just as quietly.
"Also, she can hear you quite clearly," Ciel said without looking back.
Shakti watched Misora swallow in obvious panic, but forebore from comment, despite feeling a vague sense of satisfaction that the idiot hadn't started running immediately. Not that she'd ever have admitted it aloud. Not while Misora was still alive, at least.
Instead, she simply coughed and said, "It's not like that matters to you, after all, since you don't have any intention of remaining with the Church after you graduate."
"Right," Misora said.
Shakti decided that she had to be imagining the slight hesitation in Misora's voice just then.
Midori still hadn't gotten a good answer to her question by the time that she made her way back to her room, got yelled at by the dorm mother for breaking curfew, and performed her evening ablutions. For some reason, she found it difficult to look at her reflection in the mirror while she was brushing her teeth. She dismissed it as simply not wanting to be reminded of how worn out and drunk she looked, and kept her eyes closed the whole while.
Then she got undressed and flopped into bed, hoping for a dreamless sleep and very glad that she wasn't going to have to go into work tomorrow.
Subjective seconds later, the ringing awoke her, and she let out a shriek of frustration. Why, why, why had she set her alarm to go off on a day when she didn't have to - wait, that wasn't her alarm. It was the phone.
Cracking her eyes open, she glanced at the clock and confirmed that it was nearly ten AM. Too late to be refusing phone calls, she decided, and reluctantly reached out for the phone. "Sugiura," she croaked, then coughed to clear her throat. "What's shaking?" she added.
Silence greeted her.
"Hello?"
Still more silence.
"Okay, if you're going to start breathing heavily, you should know that that sort of thing doesn't frighten me, and it doesn't turn me on, either," she said, then added, in a fit of honesty, "Much. So unless you have some ominous warning to give, I'm just gonna hang -"
"Midori-san?" A tiny, obviously very frightened voice finally spoke up.
Midori froze momentarily as she recognized the voice. "Shiho-chan?" she asked at last. "Where are you?"
"I ... I can't, I won't tell you that," the little girl said. "But, but I was, last night, I was watching you and the others and Nagi-san, and I heard what he said about how we're supposed to fight each other, and ..." She trailed off for a while, and when she came back, it was with a wail. "I'm scared, Midori-san!"
"It's all rght!" Midori promptly reassured her. "It's okay to be scared but you don't have to worry, Shiho-chan, because nobody wants to hurt you, and -"
"But they do. I thought, before, I thought it was just a game, but now I know ... and there are so many of you, and so many other scary people, I can't -"
"Sh, sh, it's okay, don't panic. Where are you? I'm going to come there, and we'll work this out - you'll have to take responsibility for what you did, but that's gonna be okay, people will understand, and then you can join the HiME Army again and you won't be alone in all of this! Won't that be better, Shiho-chan?"
Another long silence, then Shiho finally responded. "I won't tell you where I am." Before Midori could say anything in response, she continued. "But I'll meet you, somewhere. At the Chao Bao Zi, maybe?"
Inwardly, Midori exulted. That was even better. "Okay, fine, we'll do it that way," she said, trying not to let any of that show in her voice. "You're making the right decision, Shiho-chan."
"Uh-huh. Uh ... Midori-san ... do you know where that Miyu robot person is?"
Midori blinked. "Uh, well ... why do you want to know?"
"Um. Well, you see, one of the Searrs people found me, and he said he could help me if I found that out. And when I asked him why he wanted to know, he told me that she has some sort of bomb inside of her and they can set it off by remote control if they're close enough. I said I didn't now if I could, and he said that he'd just have to find out some other way, then, and he'd find something else for me to do. But I don't really trust him to help me, you see, and that's why I'm calling you. Hello? Midori-san?"
"Shiho-chan, I'm gonna see you at the Chao Bao Zi at noon, okay? But I gotta go now," Midori finally managed to say. "Bye!" Without waiting for the answering bye, she hung up and began flipping frantically through the student directory.
"Robotics lab," she muttered frantically. "Robotics lab ... why the hell does the robotics lab need an unlisted number?! CRAP?!" She got dressed in a hurry and ran out of her room without bothering to lock the door behind her.
She was surprised when she got down the steps into her building's foyer to find Yohko there waiting for her. "Okay," the other woman said without preamble. "We've both said some things that we regret, and I don't want to go away without making an attempt to clear the air."
"Then don't go," Midori said briskly. "See how easy that is?"
"That's not -"
"Yohko, I'm sorry, but I don't have time for this right now! " she said, and dashed out of the building.
"What? Where are you going?" Yohko cried as she followed her out.
"I'm going to save the world!" Midori yelled back as she ran down the forested path.
Yohko came to a stop and watched her friend run for a moment, then finally yelled, "Good luck with that!"
"Thanks!" came the answering cry.
"That was - nnnnrgggh!" Yohko growled as she realized that Midori was probably out of earshot. Once again, she wondered why she'd ever let herself care so much for someone so selfish and -
Her musings were disturbed when a rather large crow in the trees abruptly took wing with a very loud cry. It was probably just her bad mood that made the cry sound even more like "Aho!" than usual.
Probably.
When Midori burst into the main robotics lab a few moments later, she was relieved to see that there weren't a lot of people present. Then she saw who one of them was and she became a lot less unrelieved. The scientists who were clustered around Miyu's naked body, with several of its access ports open to reveal the machinery beneath her skin, were largely unknown to her, with one exception, who was presently regarding her with a confused expression from behind his glasses.
Katsuhito Stengovitch, the robotics club's second brightest star - actually, with Hakase Satomi's departure, probably the brightest, now - was fortunately known to her. They weren't close, certainly not intimate, but they'd taken a few classes together over the last few years, most notably the philosophy course the now-defrocked Father Gendou had gotten on the syllabus last year. (He'd taken a lot more away from it than she had.) He was probably not going to be a problem.
"Midori-san?" he was saying as her eyes moved off of him to the person who was going to be a problem. "I'm going to have to ask you to leave, this is a delicate procedure and you're bringing static electricity in with you that can really mess it up."
Despite that, the problem was going to come from the other person in the room that she recognized. Dressed in a long blue-black dress that contrasted sharply with her bubblegum pink hair, she was sitting on a chair in the lab's corner, giving her a full view of the room from all possible angles of attack, and humming a tune which she claimed represented a driving guitar beat inspired by the English words "Mad, Bad and Dangerous to Know." She viewed it as her theme tune.
That, right there, summed up everything most people needed to know about Kageyama Yamiko, aka "the Professor", of Ala Iridia.
As it happened, Midori knew more than that. During the Alladia incident, last year, before she'd awakened to her powers, she'd been part of a small crowd of university students and teachers who'd ended up witnessing Yamiko's axe duel with one of the more ferocious demons involved. It had been impressive, but not terribly so to Midori, who'd seen much more capable fighters over the years.
But then she'd heard that professor from the university's business school - Okajima-sensei, she thought - muttering about how the way that Yamiko moved reminded him of someone he'd known a decade or so ago. And then she'd found out that Yamiko was doing all those leaps and bounds and rolls without reinforcing magic from her Magister (who was out of town) or herself. And that Yamiko somehow supported a Ministra of her own despite never having been known to cast a single spell. Or use any ki or chi or whatever.
That was the person who'd just stopped humming rather abruptly when Katsuhito said what he'd just said, and who was regarding Midori with appraising interest, and oh so slowly coming to her feet, tossing a familiar looking card in one hand.
"There's a bomb in the robot!" Midori shouted, to buy herself some time. Of course, they wouldn't believe her, but -
"Yes, I know," Katsuhito said, sounding a little bewildered. "What about it?"
"You know?" Midori gaped.
"Of course," he said, still puzzled. "It was the first thing I looked for when I opened her up for the first time. I disconnected the firing mechanism, of course, so there shouldn't be a problem."
"First thing you -"
"I'm from Latveria," he said, as though this explained everything.
"You didn't remove the explosive?" asked one of his colleagues, sounding a little spooked.
His mouth twitched. "There's a lot of it, in various places. The breasts use it for filler, for example. Well-insulated, of course. But anyway, we can't get it all out without a full dissection, and as we just discussed, I'm not certain of our ability to put her back together again once we've done that. So -"
"Oh," said Midori, horribly embarassed. "Well. Um ... I guess the situation is well in hand, then. I'll be on way." She started to turn to go.
"Er, before you do that, could I ask how you happen to know about the bomb?" Katsuhito asked with just a bit of an edge in his tone
No, no, no, she shrieked inwardly. You're not the one who's supposed to give me trouble! "Well, it's sort of a funny story that would be much better received over drinks later, don't you -"
And then the whole building shook.
After it had settled down a bit, silence fell, broken when Yamiko was finally moved to say something. "Okay, I-I-I'll bite. What the hell was that?" It was strange how her odd stammer didn't make her seem any less threatening.
Midori had gone very pale as she realized, indeed, what the hell was that. "I don't believe it," she said faintly. "I led her right here."
"Led, led who?" Yamiko said, slowly turning her gaze on Midori again.
"Another HiME, I, it's not important, listen, you've got to get these people out of here."
Yamiko nodded. "Or, ororor, I could fight you both," she pronounced. "Which sounds like fun. Ad-"
"Wait!" Midori shrieked. "That's not your job, is it? You're supposed to protect these people, right? Shouldn't you do that?"
"I don't like being told how to do my job, you know," the pink-haired psychopath said easily.
"Yamiko-san," interjected Katsuhito, with an annoyed look in Midori's direction. "I think she's right."
"Is this a democracy?" Yamiko asked curiously.
"No, it's a dictatorship where you're not in charge, and I am," he said.
"Pf," she said. "Less fun. Allllll riiiight. Adeat." And then the card became a large axe that she held easily in one hand. Raising her voice, "Okay, evacuate the l-l-lab, in an orderrrly manner."
"Thank you for the 'warning', Midori-san," said Katsuhito as he headed out with the rest of the scientists. She could have done without the sarcasm, but life was like that.
Yamiko paused before she went after them, to give Midori one last look. "You will regret this," she prophecied.
"I already do -" Midori started to say.
"More." And then she was gone.
There were more explosions, becoming louder as they came closer, though fortunately not in the direction of their evacuation route. Midori was uncomfortably aware that it was just her and her Child against Shiho and hers, which seemed like a fair fight.
Fair fights were for suckers. But she saw only one potential ally in easy reach.
"If it were up to me, I'd let you go on sleeping forever," she said, and got to work.
Yohko's bad mood had not measurably improved by the time she got back to her office, but she forced herself to hide it beneath a facade of professional calm and composure. With just a smidgen of 'whatever, like I give a fuck' attitude imitated from Arai-sensei. Sometimes she wished that she could be more like Chie and actually not give a fuck, but that was probably not in the cards.
As it happened, though, her attitude wasn't really needed, since there was a pleasant surprise waiting for her in the office waiting room. "Oh!" she said. "You're early."
"I had another appointment cancel on me, so I thought I'd pass the bump in my schedule on to you," Mikado Ryouko explained as she came to her feet and bowed politely. "I hope that's not too much of an inconvenience."
"No, no, not at all. Come in, have a seat while I pull out the CV you sent over the other day. Yep, still amazing," she confirmed as she looked at the resume while sitting down at her desk. "Can I ask a personal question? What was it like being deputy head of Superman Medicine at Metropolis General Hospital?"
"Months of boredom punctuated by a few episodes of utter panic," Ryouko answered smoothly. "All of which latter comes under doctor-patient privelige, I'm afraid."
"Eh, figures. Honestly, I'm a little stunned that you're taking an interest in this position. With this resume, you could probably get a job anywhere in the world."
"Not necessarily. I wouldn't care to work in the UK for various personal reasons, and this really seems to be a good fit."
"Why?" Yohko was finally moved to ask. "What about Mahora is so interesting to you?"
"Well, it'd be a good chance for me to be able to go home once in a while."
Now she blinked. "I didn't know you were originally from the area."
Ryouko moved her long hair back a bit to expose the pointed tip of her ear. "I'm not."
For several moments, Yohko simply stared in silence, as thought doubting what her eyes were telling her. Finally, she opened her mouth to say, "You're an -"
"Please," Ryouko said, holding up her hand. "Don't use the word 'elf'. My people hate that word. It's a bit like calling one of you a 'Jap'. Old wounds are implied."
"So you're from the magical world," Yohko said, nodding in understanding.
"Mm-hm. I actually helped to develop the artificial bodies most of us had to use to come over here before the Princess and her friends did whatever it was that they did. Understandably, that's not on the CV."
"Whole lot of things don't seem to be on the CV," Yohko said, just a bit dryly. "You're not a legal immigrant, are you?"
"I have papers that say that I am," Ryouko replied cheerfully. "Really good ones. They cost a lot, and - are you okay?"
Yohko kept rubbing her head. "Fine, fine. It's just that you really reminded me of someone I know just now. Anyway." She shook herself a bit. "Aren't you taking an awful risk telling me all this? I could turn you in, you know."
"I'm hoping that you'll see why you shouldn't do that, and why it's really important that I get this job," Ryouko said, her tone going very serious. "Things are happening."
"Aren't they always? What sort of things, specifically?"
"As I said, the Princess did something to make it so that anyone from what you call the Magic World can come here a lot more easily than they have in the past. By the simple laws of human behavior, that means that they're going to be coming - all kinds of people from that world, with medical needs that your staff, as good as they are, aren't prepared to handle. But I am."
That matched up with some of the things she'd overheard recently. "Looks like I picked a good time to resign after all," Yohko mused wearily.
"I hope that I can convince you to stay on to bring me up to speed on the more mundane aspects of the job," Ryouko interjected.
"Eh, I was planning on doing that anyway. But once I'm gone, I'm officially and permanently gone. Without a trace."
"Fair enough."
"Let me see if I understand this situation," Miyu said as she laid on table, staring calmly at Midori.
"Are you kidding?" Midori gaped, as the explosions came closer and closer. "You're a robot -"
"I prefer the term gynoid."
"- so you think faster than I blink! There's no way that you don't understand the situation."
"Very well, I will dispense with summary. Why should I help you to fight against someone who is coming to return me to my employers?"
"Because she's coming to return you to your employers!"
Now Miyu blinked. "Rationalization by tautology. Fascinating."
"You, as in, just you! Not you and Alyssa! You surrendered to our side on the condition that she'd get help, right? We kept up our end!"
"Where is she?" Miyu's voice was very cold.
"I don't know, and that's the truth. I do know that she's alive. Help me with this, and I'll try to find out where they're keeping her. Promise." Midori held up her hand (the one that wasn't holding her poleaxe) in the Boy Scout pledge.
"Please stop engaging in absurdity," Miyu said. "Very well, I will assist you. Please finish disconnecting the cables."
"Right." She quickly bent to that, pulling the plugs that both tied her down and connected her to the diagnostic equipment. It was easy enough, though she hesitated before she pulled the last one, which went right into the back of Miyu's neck, and was connected to a screen which displayed her operating system.
There'd been a moment while Midori was bringing her online where she'd had the opportunity to replace the robot's core directives with ones that would suit the present situation - i.e. trust and obey cute Midori-chan. She'd passed it up, both because she thought it was a despicable act and because she wasn't sure how to phase the new directives in a way that wouldn't contradict themselves. She hoped that wasn't going to be a mistake, as she pulled the last plug.
"Thank you," said Miyu as she sat up and began closing her access ports.
"Okay, I'm not sure where your costume is -" Midori started to say as she stepped back.
"It is of no moment," the naked gynoid said as she stood up. "Unless the sight of nude synthetic flesh disturbs you -"
"Kinda does," Midori muttered.
"- but in any event, we have other concerns at the moment," she continued, pointing at the doorway.
Standing there was a small robed, cowled figure in white, holding a flute. It actually took Midori a moment to recognize the flute as the one that Shiho had been carrying around all day yesterday.
"Hello, Miyu," Shiho's voice said, sounding subtly different from its normal tone. "I've come to take you back where you belong."
"I perceive this to be a lie," said Miyu. "Where I belong is at Alyssa's side, and I do not think you are likely to take me there. So I am not going anywhere with you."
The cowled figure shrugged. "As expected. You'll just have to come a little worse than you are, then." She began to raise the flute to her dimly seen mouth.
"Shiho-chan!" Midori shouted, finally finding her voice. "It doesn't have to go down like this!"
The figure paused. "I think that you'll find that it -"
That moment of hesitation was all that Midori had been hoping to gain, though, and she promptly seized it, dashing across the floor to swing her axe down towards the flute.
It went through it like a hot knife through butter - or rather a knife of any temperature through a cloud, which was what the image of the cowled figure might as well have been. This close, Midori could even see that it didn't have any eyes. Just a distraction.
"Wow, you're dumb," it said. And then the wall on Midori's left side distintegrated in flames, as Yata-Garasu burst through it, with the real Shiho perched on the huge crow's back. Dimly, through the flames, Midori could see the light of day. She broke through all those walls, she thought. It's a wonder the building isn't about to collapse.
"Sugiura Midori ... please be advised that I am perfectly capable of lying in the service of my directives," said Miyu.
"Huh?"
Before either she or Shiho could do anything in reaction, the naked gynoid was bounding out of the room through the hole Shiho had just carved, and then out through the other holes and all the way out of the building.
"Unbelievable," Midori gasped. "Awake five minutes and she's already double-crossing people."
"Yeah, funny," Shiho said, then turned her attention back to Midori. "Now, where were we?"
"Shouldn't you try and go after -" Midori said, trying to buy another distraction and just a little more time.
"Eh, screw 'em." Shiho said, smiling broadly. "You're my opponent, now, Midori-chan."
Okay, then. "GAKUTENOU!" she cried, and the first battle between HiME began in earnest.
In the end, it came down to one thing, as it often does. Shiho had a greater range and more raw power, while Midori had more experience and speed on her side. But in the end, none of that mattered. The deciding factor was very simple. Deep down, Midori didn't want to hurt Shiho ... and deep down, Shiho ached to hurt Midori.
And so, after the last wing buffet from Yata-Garasu knocked her off of Gakutenou and sent her flying into one of the walls that they hadn't smashed yet, Midori lifted her head to watch as the one-legged crow smashed her trusted companion with its beak. It took only a few blows to make the chariot disintegrate into greenish sparks; Midori felt, rather than saw, her axe go the same way.
"I'm sorry, sensei," she whispered. "But you -" She couldn't get the words out. Something told her that no, he would not understand or approve of how this had happened.
"And now for you," Shiho said from where she was still perched on her Child's back, and Midori tried to take what pride she could in the fact that she could see that she'd made the little girl work for her victory. Breathing heavily, sweating, the works. It wasn't much, but it was going to have to be enough.
"If you're going to kill me, go ahead. I won't beg for mercy," Midori said as she forced herself to stand up again from where she'd slid down to the floor.
"Tempting," said Shiho as she directed the bird to come closer.
But by now they could both hear the sounds of reinforcements drawing nigh, and so Shiho shook her head at last. "But I think I'll just let you drown in the ocean of blood that I mean to shed before this is all over." And without a further word, her Child turned and began to flap its wings, throwing up dust that stung Midori's eyes before it flew out of the building, just before a group of mages led by Touko-sensei burst through the door.
"You're fired," Touko said a few moments later, when they were all out of the building.
"Isn't that more of a headmaster type decision than -" Midori started to ask as she let the medic bandage the cut on her side.
"The new headmaster has not be formally installed, so it's an Emergency Council decision, and they'll back me. You have not made yourself popular, Sugiura. Even without this latest calamity, last night was the last straw."
"So it goes," Midori muttered.
Touko simply stared at her, almost as though she was expecting to get some sort of argument out of Midori, then shook her head and walked away.
Midori was more concerned, at the moment, with the two phone calls that she was going to have to make. The first, which she could put off, was to Mai, giving her the news that she was now in charge of the HiME army. The waitress had already demonstrated that she could get people to follow her - now she was going to have to do it.
The other one couldn't be put off much longer. As soon as the medic released her, she got up and walked off a short distance from the ambulance to make it.
The phone rang a few times before it picked up. "Noriyasu residence," a familiar woman's voice answered.
"Hello, Haruka-san," Midori said to the wife of the man she loved. "It's Midori. I hope you're well?"
"Ah, right, Seta's new part-timer. I'm good, thanks for asking. How are you?"
"Can't complain," said Midori, who could. "Do you happen to know where sensei is at the moment?" Was, rather.
"He's right here, actually. She wants to talk to you. Yeah, I can't understand why she'd want that either. Here he is."
"What," said Midori.
"Midori-kun!" his cheerful voice said into her ear.
"What," said Midori.
"Is something the matter?"
"What," said Midori.
His tone got serious. "Midori-kun, are you in trouble right now? Say something other than what if you're not in danger -"
"No," Midori managed to blurt out. "No, no, I'm just, I was expecting y-you to be out on a dig or something, not, not that I'd get to talk to you."
"Oh," he said, sounding non-plussed. "Well, I'm not. So, what did you want to talk about?"
How sorry I am that I killed you. "Just, you know, stuff. I, uh. I'll get back to you, okay? Later." And she hung up the phone and turned it off so that she could stare at it in blank confusion for a moment, without the risk of someone interrupting it by calling her back.
Abruptly, she looked up, whispered a name, and started to run.
"Yohko!" Midori cried out as she burst into the office for a second time in as many days.
This time, though, her friend was not in evidence. Another woman, with curly black hair and a mildly bewildered expression, was seated at Yohko's desk, leaning back in the chair until Midori threw open the door and came in. She abruptly straightened.
"Hello," she said.
"Who the hell are you?" Midori asked politely.
"Mikado Ryouko," she said, offering a polite nod. "Are you acquainted with Sagisawa-sensei?"
"You could say that," Midori explained. "Where is she?"
"I am as in the dark about that as you are. I'd just finished an interview with her, and made arrangements for one with the school's new headmaster. I headed out of her office to leave her to her work, but as I was stepping out into the hallway, I heard her let out a cry of pain, and then a thudding noise. But when I came back, she was gone. Vanished, completely. She'd made a joke about leaving without a trace, earlier, but - are you all right?" Ryouko abruptly asked.
"No," Midori said, trembling. "No, I'm not."
"... please, wait here, I'll get some assistance," Ryouko said, getting up. "Please, whatever you do, don't disappear."
Midori silently watched her go as she shook all over.
"Thought you were pretty smart, didn't you?" said a familiar voice from the windowsill.
With glacial slowness, Midori turned to look in that direction, and was not, with whatever fragments of her psyche remained functional, all that surprised to see Nagi sitting there, looking as though nothing at all had happened to him the previous night. Handsome as ever, too.
"You fooled me, you really did," Nagi admitted with appropriate humility. "You fooled her, too, though I think she was starting to guess the truth towards the end, there. And I think you may even have fooled yourself. But no matter how much your mind might have wanted to believe that this professor of yours - the one you have a silly, thoroughly unrequited crush on and have talked to maybe once or twice in the last few months - was the person you valued most in the world, your heart knew better."
"Nnnnn," Midori said, shaking her head. Most of her was shaking, actually, but there seemed some voluntary movement there.
"Yyyyy," Nagi replied in kind. "And now it's coming to you, isn't it? All those times you denied how you felt about her. All those times you insisted there was someone more important. All those times you cut her as surely as if you used a knife. All pointless. I think that is one of the most pathetic things I've ever heard."
Midori opened her mouth, but all that came out was a sobbing noise.
"Come on," said Nagi, smiling cheerfully. "Say it, Midori-hime! Say your catch phrase! Hm? Can't do it? Okay, I'll do it for you, aren't I just the greatest guy ever? 'That could have gone better'." He nodded. "It really could. Bye now."
He flipped backwards off the windowsill and out of sight.
Midori started to scream. And did not stop for quite some time.
NEXT: Takumi.