[KnM][RGU][MH] Revolutions
Revolutions – Chapter 20 (Climax I - Regret)
A Kannazuki no Miko, Revolutionary Girl Utena and Mai Hime X-Over Fanfic
Mostly written April 14, 2014 – April 28, 2014, some cleanup in Sept 2014.
Approx Word Count: 11,400
*EARLIER IN THE SUMMER*
Chikane followed the man who had called himself her father down the long and narrow cave silently. She kept him several feet in front of him, so that she could escape, if she wanted to, though something told her she was probably past the point of return by now.
She wasn't sure how long they had walked in silence, until he stopped unexpectedly and then turned to look at her.
Chikane's eyes narrowed. "What is it?"
He simply smiled, and cocked his head onwards. "You'll probably want some privacy at this point," he mused. "I wouldn't want to interrupt this reunion that's been so long in the coming."
Staring at him, Chikane took a step back when he came towards her, but only realized that he was walking back the other way, his hands still in his pockets as he casually left. "Call when you're finished," he said, waving once, before disappearing into the darkness.
For a moment, Chikane was lost, unsure of whether to step forward or to turn back. But then, galvanizing herself, she stepped forward, and continued onwards.
The long and narrow cave ballooned into a massive cavern, lighted by a series of torches held against the walls. Her eyes widened as her gaze fell upon the gigantic, monstrous form lying in the middle of the cavern, all eight necks still bound tightly to the floor.
Though Chikane had never seen Orochi in this form before - in all her past lives, she had only ever faced him as a dark, endlessly swirling maw, or as eight separate human disciples and their mechanical golems, or as the combined form of his eight servants - as soon as she saw the giant, eight headed dragon, she knew it could only be him.
Orochi rumbled with what could only have been laughter. 'WELCOME, LUNAR MIKO. LONG HAVE I WAITED FOR YOU.'
Chikane started to shake. "What do you want from me, Orochi?" She demanded.
'ONLY WHAT YOU OWE ME,' the Demon of Despair mused.
"I owe you nothing." Chikane spat, and turned to go, to run, as fast as she could. She had made a grave mistake in coming here.
But as she turned to run, the world seemed to shift, and suddenly, she wasn't in the cave anymore.
Instead, she was inside the sitting room at Himemiya Manor, in Mahoroba, the mansion she had grown up in during her previous life. The piano was by the windows, just off to the side of the room, offset by four chairs around a coffee table. It was late evening, and the room was dark. Clouds were beginning to gather outside for rain.
Standing in the corner of the room, Chikane stared at her surroundings in absolute horror.
She knew exactly which night this was.
All the servants had been sent away, every single one. There was no one in the entire mansion except for one other - herself - and there she was, seated at the piano, wearing the red and white robes of the Solar Priestess. Himeko would be coming soon. She could hear the roar of Oogami Souma's motorcycle outside, as he dropped Himeko off at the front gates.
The Chikane wearing the Solar Priestess robes - her past self - started to play a cacophonous and dissonant song on the piano.
Chikane swallowed down the horror in the back of her throat.
'Not... not this. Anything but this.'
And then Chikane heard a mean laugh - her own laugh! - though harsher than she'd ever heard it.
Chikane whirled around to face the noise; this... this hadn't happened. Who was that?
Lightning flashed outside - an ill omen to come before the rain - and in that flash of light, Chikane could see that there weren't just two of her in the room, but another six doppelgangers of herself (eight in total, including herself) situated all over the room.
One of the doppelgangers was wearing the Mahoroba uniform, and was seated on the window sill; she was the one who had laughed. Beside her stood another copy, wearing the Lunar Priestess robes, looking solemn.
By the fireplace was a third one, also wearing the Lunar Priestess robes, as well as a foreboding Orochi-mask over her face. She was staring into the fireplace.
Still another was seated on one of the chairs by the coffee table, hunched over and holding herself. Her hair was matted and filthy, plastered against her face and hiding her eyes. She was wearing a soiled, once-white robe; an undergarment usually worn beneath kimono in the Edo period.
Leaning against this chair was another Chikane, wearing normal clothing - a collared shirt and long skirt - who was dispassionately studying her nails.
At the door, was the last copy - a version of herself wearing the bone white blazer of the Fuuka school uniform.
"W-what is this?" Chikane whispered, unable to stop herself from trembling.
"We're you, silly." Said the Mahoroba-Uniformed Chikane on the window sill.
"Chikane-chan, is that you?" Came Himeko's voice, and everyone turned to look at her when the tawny haired girl opened the doors to the room and stepped inside, a happy smile on her face.
The Chikane who was playing the piano – and evidently, the only Chikane that Himeko could see – stopped playing, and got up. Himeko's face grew confused when she could see what that Chikane was wearing. "Chikane-chan, why are you wearing those clothes? Were we supposed to practice today?"
Chikane's mouth went dry."Run!" She cried, "run, Himeko! GET OUT OF HERE!"
But neither the Chikane in the solar priestess robes, nor Himeko reacted to her at all.
The doppelganger in normal clothes looked over at Chikane and smirked. "Oh come on now, you know that's not what happens."
Chikane glared at her. "Stop it, Orochi," she snarled. "Stop it! Stop it or I'll-"
"You can't stop what already happened from happening," intoned the doppelganger in white.
"Himeko," said the Chikane wearing the Solar Priestess robes, as she walked slowly to the blonde girl in the room, her voice low and threatening. "Do you love me?"
"Stop it! STOP IT!" Chikane ran for that copy and tried to push her out of the way, but simply fell right through her, landing on the ground harshly in front of the doppelganger in the Fuuka uniform.
That doppelganger knelt down and looked at her curiously. "Strange, I thought you were supposed to be smart," she said. "Have you still not figured it out?"
Chikane got up and snarled at her. "What do you want? Why are you showing me this, Orochi?"
"I am showing you your true nature," said another doppelganger. The one wearing the Orochi-mask over her face had come over to her, and also knelt down beside her. "I am reminding you of what you really are."
Behind her, Himeko started to scream.
Chikane balled her hands into fists and grit her teeth. 'No...! No, please! No!'
She didn't have to turn around to know why Himeko was screaming.
"It was the only way," Chikane whispered, shaking. "I needed... I needed to convince you that I was one of yours. I needed you to take me as the eighth. To destroy you from within. I needed Himeko to hate me, so she could kill me, and by extension, you. Once and for all. And if I died, then the world could be... the world could be..."
There came the sound of a vicious slap, and Himeko grew very quiet.
"Oh, you didn't have to *convince* me of anything." Replied the doppelganger with the mask. She reached out, took Chikane's chin, and turned her attention back onto what was going on in the middle of the room. "You were always meant to be a neck of Orochi, to be an agent of despair. Do you know why?"
Chikane shut her eyes. She shut her eyes, but that didn't help. Though she couldn't see the act before her, she remembered it all too deeply in her heart.
For a while, there was no sound.
And then, a voice. Her own voice.
"Admit it."
Trembling, Chikane opened her eyes.
All the doppelgangers had disappeared. There was only one other Chikane left in the room who could have said those words. That other Chikane slowly sat back from where she had forced herself onto Himeko (who now lay still, deathly still), and slowly turned around to look at Chikane, catching her eyes fully.
Chikane recoiled, stumbling backwards until she was stopped by the wall.
That Chikane got up. The front of the ceremonial uniform she was wearing was still torn open, exposing her chest, and the scratches from where Himeko had drawn blood trying to defend herself. The light from the moon through the open window flickered ominously in her empty eyes, even as she wiped blood-stained spittle away from the corner of her lips.
"On some level," That Chikane said, tonelessly, joylessly, though there was a small smile on her face that did not reach her eyes, "you wanted this, Himemiya Chikane, and it had nothing to do with wanting to make Kurusgawa Himeko hate you."
"Don't say it." Chikane whispered, horrified, trying to take another step back but unable to, revulsion and fear clear on her face.
"On some level," the smile on That Chikane in the Solar Priestess's uniform widened as she advanced another step.
"No..." Chikane whispered. She tried to grab onto something, anything, for support, for defense, and her grasp fell onto the hilt of a sword. She stared at the weapon that had appeared in her hand in confusion and incomprehension, even as her fingers tightened decisively around the handle.
"... you enjoyed this."
"AAAAH!" Screaming, Chikane stepped forward and swung wildly. Her strike was true, and she lopped the head of the Chikane wearing the Solar Priestess's robs clean off her shoulders, sending it tumbling to the ground.
For a moment, the headless body of her past-life self continued to stand there, unmoving, before inky green blood began to spray from its neck and it crumpled to the ground.
The doppelganger in the Mahoroba school uniform appeared on the window sill again, laughed, and clapped her hands in delight. "Oh, bravo." She said, clapping her hands together slowly a couple more times, even as she smiled nastily at Chikane whom was still staring in horror at the headless body she had made that way on the ground. Jumping down from the window, the doppelganger approached her. "But killing the messenger does not negate the message. Face it, Lunar Priestess, no, Himemiya Chikane...
"You are a monster."
"Shut UP!" Chikane cried, swinging her sword again, and striking this doppelganger in the chest, knocking her down to the ground and continuing to hack away at her until she was still on the ground.
The other five blue-black haired mirror images of herself suddenly reappeared and advanced on her. Screaming, Chikane went after each of them, cutting them down wildly, until none of them were standing anymore.
Only when she was the last one left on her feet did Chikane stop. She was covered in gore, and inky green blood ran freely down the blade of the sword she held in her hands. She gasped loudly, struggling for breath, tears streaming from her eyes. Her legs threatened to give out on her , but somehow, she remained standing.
That was when the room fuzzed and shifted and Chikane found herself no longer in the piano room of the mansion she'd grown up in during her previous life, but back in the monstrous cavern in which she had found Orochi, chained and bound to the ground. There was green blood everywhere; she was covered from head to toe in it. Seven of Orochi's eight heads had been severed, one of them having rolled to a stop, resting at her foot.
Chikane kicked it away, reviled.
There was only one head left attached to one gigantic neck, still chained. It was directly in front of her. One of the giant, yellow, malicious eyes on that head opened, and looked up at Chikane. Orochi's last head smiled cruelly, its mouth pulling back into a sneer.
A thunderous voice ripped through the cavern, echoing and bouncing back and forth and though there was only one throat left un-severed, the voice that came from it still sounded very much like eight voices at once.
'KILL ME, LUNAR MIKO! DESTROY ME! YOU CAN NEVER HOPE TO BE FREE FROM ME SO LONG AS I AM BUT BOUND AND NOT DESTROYED. END ME! END ME NOW!'
Chikane stared at that last, horrible head, goading her, laughing at her, that which had twisted every honest desire she ever had for Himeko into a shocking display of violation and defilement.
She trembled. With a cry of anguish, Chikane lifted the weapon up over her head, and with both hands, swung downwards.
She sliced cleanly through Orochi's last head, sending inky green blood spraying into the air, and sealing her own fate.
Chikane opened her eyes and looked up at the ceiling. It seemed unfamiliar to her for some reason – oh, wait, right. This wasn't her bed. This wasn't her room. This was Shizuru's room, though, she could not remember how she had gotten here.
Sitting up in bed, Chikane rubbed her eyes blurrily and dimly noted that while the covers had been pulled up to her chin for her, she was still wearing yesterday's clothing. She looked over to the other girl in the room. Shizuru was already up, and sitting at her desk, laptop open. She was already dressed in day clothes – a skirt and a sweater. Medical gauze was still wrapped around her thigh over the wound.
"Did I fall asleep?" Chikane asked softly, even as she swung her legs over the edge of the bed and stretched.
"If you did not, then the evidence would suggest that I must have drugged you." There was a coldness in Shizuru's voice that would have left lesser men trembling. She didn't look over at Chikane, instead, still typing away at her computer.
The tension in the room could almost be cut with a knife, as neither girls said anything.
Finally, Shizuru stopped typing, and turned to look at Chikane. "Would you like some tea?" Not really waiting for an answer, she reached for one of the cups beside her elbow, which she placed under the hot-water dispenser on her desk.
Chikane blinked at the other girl in the room, before getting up, and walking over to her. "Thank you." She said, before taking a sip. "Mmm. That's really nice."
"It should be." Shizuru replied, her voice still cool. "It's from home. My sister sent it to me."
"So you have a sister?"
"I have several. The youngest one sent the tea. You should meet her. You'd like her, I think. She's a good girl. A little clumsy." Shizuru paused. "On second thought, you stay the hell away from my family."
At this, Chikane couldn't help but let a thin, wry smile come to her face. "What are you doing there?" She finally asked.
"Classwork." Shizuru replied, going back to it. "Assuming that the world doesn't completely end in short order, I still fully intend on doing well and graduating at the top of my class. As would you, I should think."
"Forgive me, Shizuru-sempai," Chikane said wryly. "But there are other priorities on my mind right now beyond doing well in classes at a school I am soon to be expelled from." She paused. "What time is our meeting with the First District?"
The tawny-haired girl stopped typing. Then she started again. "Soon." She replied cryptically.
They were both silent after that, and Chikane could tell that the older girl was having very conflicted thoughts about what they were going to set out to accomplish. Still, she had agreed to it, which was saying something. Chikane sat down on the floor, with her knees up and her back leaning against Shizuru's shelves. She coddled the tea cup between her hands, wondering how long it would take for Shizuru to finally ask what was really on her mind - probably related to what had happened with Mikoto the night before.
The girls were silent for the next hour or so with the only sound being the occasional tapping of the computer keyboard.
Then, Shizuru said, quite casually, "did you know you talk in your sleep?"
Chikane frowned. This, she hadn't expected at all. "I beg your pardon?" Chikane said.
Shizuru closed her laptop, and finally turned to capture Chikane's yellow eyes quite fully with her own. "You talk in your sleep." She repeated. "I'm a little surprised that Natsuki didn't notice, but, I suppose, perhaps I should not be. She does tend to sleep like a rock."
Chikane's eyes narrowed. "And what, may I ask, did I say?"
Shizuru didn't answer Chikane right away. Instead, she reached her hand out to the girl sitting on the floor, and for a moment, Chikane looked at it dumbly, before she realized what the older girl was doing, and gave her the tea cup in her hands. Shizuru refilled the cup, and handed it back to Chikane. Only then, did she sit back in her chair, and cross her fingers together in her lap.
"Who is 'Himeko'? And what did you do that makes you beg for her forgiveness so? Is she another disciple? Another neck of Orochi that I don't know about?"
Chikane stared wordlessly up at Shizuru in bewilderment and then chuckled bitterly. "Heaven help us all if Himeko were a neck of Orochi. The world would not be worth saving at all at that point."
Though Chikane had tried to throw Shizuru off the trail by being far more flippant about it than she actually felt, Shizuru did not rise to the bait. Instead, her frown deepened. "Then who is she?" She repeated. "You can't be referring to Arisugawa-sensei's ex, can you? Kurusugawa Himeko?"
Chikane didn't answer Shizuru, but something on her features must have told the ruby eyed girl exactly what she wanted to know because those crimson depths suddenly widened, almost incredulously.
"... this... is a very small world." Shizuru said softly.
"It generally is."Chikane replied equally softly. "The same souls do tend to find each other again and again, across lifetimes, after all."
Shizuru raised an eyebrow as she looked at the blue-black haired girl. "... Chikane-san," she said hesitantly. "... how many lifetimes do you remember?"
"More than I care to." Chikane replied quite truthfully.
They were silent again after that, and Chikane knew that Shizuru was still waiting for her to answer her question. It was a question Chikane was still not quite sure if she was prepared to answer yet.
The silence in the room was fraught with tension as two strong wills tried to assert themselves against each other.
It was Shizuru who finally spoke first – giving a little to get some.
"Natsuki asked me," Shizuru said softly, "if I 'would do it again'. If somehow Kiyohime were to come back to me, if I would do everything I did during the Festival again." She bit her lip. "I hurt Natsuki very badly during the Festival, Chikane-san, by becoming something I was not. And now you are asking me to go see the First District again, so I would very much appreciate an answer to my question."
Chikane remained silent. She stared down at the tea she was nursing in her cup. It was starting to get a little cool.
Finally, Chikane took a very deep breath.
"If you had to make Natsuki-sempai hate you, hate everything about you, so much, that she could kill you and not be debilitated with guilt afterwards, what would you do?"
Shizuru's eyes widened.
"What is the worst atrocity that you could think to do to her?"
Horror crept into those crimson depths as Shizuru pursed her lips.
Chikane continued, her voice so soft it was barely audible, even to herself. "I have done that."
The silence in the room that followed after that was one of shock. Shizuru stared at Chikane for a very long time with an unreadable expression on her face, even after Chikane looked away from her, and turned her attention back onto the tea that was no longer a comfort in her hands.
Chikane hadn't expected the other girl to say anything to her. So she was quite surprised when Shizuru eventually did speak.
"Forgiveness, in my experience," Shizuru said slowly, carefully, "can only be given, not begged for." She swallowed. "And sometimes, it is given, even when you don't wish for it, because you think you have absolutely no right to it at all. In such times, I believe, it is a far graver sin to not accept that forgiveness, for you thus turn your own feelings of guilt from a need for atonement to something closer to self-pity, and you continue to cause pain to the one you have wronged in the first place by doing so."
Chikane slowly blinked as she considered this, and then turned to look over at Shizuru.
Crimson eyes held dull and gleaming yellow ones for a long time.
Finally, Chikane got up off the floor and dusted off her skirt. "We should go now." She said, her tone even. "It must be time by now." She walked towards the door.
Shizuru looked after Chikane, and then looked down at the photo she had on her desk – one of her and Natsuki. She touched Natsuki's face in the photo absently.
The remains of the First District were uninspiring. The formerly formidable organization had been reduced to barely anything. 300 years of working in the shadows, manipulating various levels of Japanese government and even influencing important world events had come crashing down due to the fury of one powerful Hime, and the organization would never recover.
And yet, despite this (or maybe because of it), they had still managed to accomplish an astonishing amount of work over the last several months - possibly because a lot of the 'fat' that had built up over 300 years had been so brutally culled, leaving the remaining members of the First District leaner, meaner, and much more efficient.
Sakomizu Kaiji was missing from the First District ranks; while he was the one whom had been contacted to get a hold of the First District, he no longer thought of himself as one of them. He had simply passed the message on. Two lines of men in the empty dining hall of the residence that was formerly Director Kazahana Mashiro's (now empty saved for caretakers who still cleaned the place, well, one caretaker – Groundskeeper Himeno). There were about 20 of them in total, and they had not been invited to sit down at the table – the chairs all having been removed, save for one, right in the middle of the long table.
Two women faced them; two girls, actually. The one seated with her elbows on the table and her fingers crossed in front of her face was Himemiya Chikane. On her left stood Fujino Shizuru. It was quite clearly obvious from the wary looks the remaining agents of the First District were shooting her which one of the two worried them more.
Fujino Shizuru's face was expressionless. She gazed at the men before her with no emotion on her face, just simple coolness.
"As you may be aware," Chikane said crisply. "I am the new host for the Obsidian Lord, and as such, you may think of me as the master of the remains of the First District. I have several tasks to be accomplished for what remains of the lot of you. Do you have any questions?"
The tall man in the middle of the first row of men stepped forward. "Kobayashi Mifune, Senior field agent. What are your commands, ma'am?"
"I wish to know the locations of Higurashi Akane, Munakata Shiho, and Ishigami Yukariko. If possible, I would also like to know the location of Alyssa Searrs and Miyu Greer, though I understand that this may be significantly more difficult. I do not wish to contact them, yet. I just want to know where they are."
"I'm afraid that is not possible, Ma'am."
Chikane frowned. "Why not?"
"Because we have already contacted Higurashi, Munakata and Ishigami. They are already in our possession."
Chikane raised an eyebrow. "And why have you done this?"
"We were given instruction by The End of the World, Ma'am. He was the one who advised us of your return. On his orders, we had begun tracking the whereabouts of Higurashi Akane, Munakata Shiho, and Ishigami Yukariko, as soon as they left Fuuka island. His instructions were that as soon as you attempted to contact us, we should bring them in right away." With that, Kobayashi snapped his fingers, and a door to the side of the room opened.
Out came two dozen more men in black suits, and between them were Akane, Shiho and Yukariko, all looking more terrified than ever before in their lives.
Neither Chikane nor Shizuru were quite able to hide their surprise at this sudden turn of events.
"Just how," Shizuru said very slowly, and very dangerously, as though she were just barely able to keep her rage in check, "were the sorry lot of you, able to bring three Hime in?"
For a while, no one answered.
Then Akane said, "Shizuru-san? Is that you? Please, can you tell us what's going on?" Within a moment, both Shiho and Yukariko had also joined in with their pleas for information.
Shizuru looked pained. "Higarashi-san..."
But something did not seem right at all. She had never really interacted with Higarashi Akane before. Why would the girl address her so familiarly...?
And then, as she looked over at Ishigami Yukariko, deep into the former nun's eyes, and saw them flinch, Shizuru realized what was going on.
While there was no way the remains of the First District could have brought in three Hime (even if they weren't exactly the most powerful ones out of the lot), it wouldn't surprise Shizuru at all that they would do their damndest to try. They might have succeeded with the first Hime (Higurashi? Or Munakata? Probably Munakata). They may have even gotten lucky with the second one. But when they went for Yukariko...
For a moment, Shizuru wondered why Yukariko would possibly have brought Akane and Shiho with her here, knowing the danger - since she clearly came of her own free will. Unless...
But even as Shizuru figured all of this out, she realized that Chikane had been watching her reaction, and her reaction (or lack thereof), had clued the other girl in that not all was as it seemed.
Chikane turned her attention back to the three Hime in front of her, and frowned, peering at them intensely from behind her crossed fingers. And then, after a moment, she smiled. "Ah, I see. Clever."
Shizuru was careful not to frown, but she couldn't help but feel a grave worry inside that the girl seated beside her had also figured it out.
"Forgive my poor memory, Shizuru-sempai, but, which one of the Hime had power over optical illusions?"
Shizuru bit her lip, and looked over at Yukariko.
Suddenly, Akane and Shiho fell silent - lifeless even - as Yukariko swallowed nervously.
The illusion lasted for all of ten seconds longer, but once she realized she had been caught, Yukariko hung her head, balling her hands up into fists in frustration.
There was a shimmering in the room, and suddenly, the twin rows of men in black all disappeared, along with Akane and Shiho beside Yukariko. In their places, stood a very angry Tokiha Mai and a very distraught Kikukawa Yukino.
"Shizuru-san," Yukino said, very quietly, almost dangerously. "What is the meaning of this?"
Shizuru couldn't quite keep her eyes from widening.
Damn. Of all the people in the world it could have been, why did it have to be her.
Shizuru opened her mouth, but before she could say anything, Chikane had begun to clap, drawing everyone's attention to her unexpected noise.
"I'm impressed." Chikane said, though the smile on her face was cruel. "Was this your plan, Yukino-sempai? To call in the reserves? How did you convince Ishigami Yukariko to come back when she had so wisely left the island?"
Yukino shook with barely repressed... fury? Shizuru had to admit she'd never seen the mousey girl so angry before. The backbone suited her well.
But it was Mai who spoke, the absolute disgust clear in her voice. "You sent men after Sister and her baby," Mai snarled. "Like she'd just stay home and wait for the next men in black to come after that!"
'Actually, it's not 'sent' but 'was going to send'', Shizuru thought. An important distinction, but one, she was pretty sure, lost on the livid women in front of her.
"Ah. The best defense really is a good offense, I suppose." Chikane said, even as she got up out of her chair. "None the less, I want to thank you. You've made things much more convenient for me."
Chikane's back began to glow and the handle of a sword appeared from her spine, between her shoulder blades, angled upwards. She reached behind her head and pulled the sword out over top, pointing it towards the Hime in front of her.
Mai stepped in front of Yukino and Yukariko and called her elements - fiery golden rings around her wrists and ankles.
Chikane dashed forward, and sent a powerful slash upwards, connecting with Mai's fire barrier with enough force to send the girl flying into the two women behind her and sending all three of them flying through the window they had been standing in front of. Eyes narrowed, Chikane didn't wait and dashed through the destroyed window after her prey.
Mind whirling, Shizuru jumped out of the window after everyone else and found Chikane's attention mostly occupied with the redhead, as Mai sent several long whips made of fire at Chikane, who managed to dodge one, and slash away the other two.
Shizuru frowned, wondering where the illusion users were - the two girls seemed to have disappeared entirely, until Shizuru spied a flash of motion out of the corner of her eyes. Jerking her head back, Shizuru was only able to narrowly avoid two arrows that seemed to be shot from nowhere. For a brief moment, Shizuru had wondered if the arrow had been one of Chikane's, but then she realized they were not. Embedded in a nearby tree, she could recognize the projectiles as being Yukariko's, and judging from where the arrows had ended up, that meant they must have shot from...
zing!
Shizuru had to turn swiftly again to avoid another set of arrows, but the sudden spin sent flares of pain up her leg from where she had received a wound from another arrow just yesterday. That pain brought with it a swift anger, and before she could really stop herself, Shizuru had summoned her naginata and had managed to deflect another arrow.
"Kikukawa-san! Sister! Stop this at once," Shizuru commanded. "I am not your enemy!"
She got no response.
A bit further away, there was a loud boom, and out of the peripheral of her vision, Shizuru realized grimly that Chikane had started summoning her servant - Take no Yamikazuchi - or at least, she had summoned his fists. Mai was having a hard time dodging around while a giant disembodied mechanical arm would shimmer into reality with no warning and try to crush her.
zing!
Another arrow passed by Shizuru's ear, and she realized she had to pay attention to Yukino and Yukariko first.
If Sister is shooting, then she's probably not casting illusions, which means the disappearing act is probably Diana's...
"Why, Kikukawa-san," Shizuru asked curtly of the thin air, feeling quite dangerously irritated, "are you always so willing to believe the worst in me? I cannot help it if I happen to occupy a significant amount of Suzushiro-san's attention. Do not attempt again to take your frustrations about that out on me."
The goad did the trick, and Shizuru could catch a strange glimmer in the air. Narrowing her eyes, Shizuru broke her naginata into its snake like form, and whipped it forward. She was rewarded with a cry of disbelief and both Yukino and Yukariko shimmered back into view, standing close to each other just a little ways away from her. Shizuru's naginata had wrapped around Yukino's mid-section, pinning her arms to her sides, and preventing her from working Diana's mirrors into an illusion.
"Yukino-san!" Yukariko cried in panic, as Shizuru gave her naginata a tug and pulled Yukino directly towards her.
Yukino visibly flinched as Shizuru grabbed her, but that flinch turned into a look of surprise when Shizuru released her hold on the mousey haired student council president.
"I am not your enemy. We need to help Mai-san now," Shizuru ordered. "Heaven help us if Chikane-san turns Fumi-san, Mikoto and Mai-san into her disciples. Her necks. You need to cast your illusion onto Mai-san now, Kikukawa-san. She cannot call Kagutsuchi. If she does, then that will give Chikane-san the opportunity she is looking for."
The mousey haired student president boggled. "H-How do you know all this?"
Shizuru smiled warily. "Just what do you think I've been up to the last day and a half besides ignoring your messages? Know thine enemies, Kikukawa-san, better than thine allies. Let's go!"
And then Shizuru bolted after where Mai and Chikane had run, slower than normal, so that Yukino could follow, and also for the sake of her own leg.
Mai and Chikane had moved away quickly - luckily, further away from the school than closer. Soon enough, Shizuru and Yukino managed to catch up to the combatants.
Good. She hasn't called Kagutsuchi yet!
But Mai was breathing deeply as she struggled to dodge the massive mechanical fists. It would only be a matter of time before Chikane got her chance.
Shizuru realized what she had to do. Looking at Yukino grimly, she said, "Kikukawa-san, be a dear and begin the evacuation of the school. I do believe that the situation has deteriorated into a code red."
Yukino's eyes went wide. "But-"
"Kiyohime!"
With a deafening screech (or rather, 6 deafening screeches), Kiyohime erupted from the ground just underneath Mai and Chikane, forcing both of the combatants to scramble back.
Chikane's eyes narrowed as she glared up at the ginormous child. One of Kiyohime's many heads darted forward, jaws snapping, but Take no Yamikazuchi's red fist materialized just in front of the blue-black haired girl and grabbed onto that neck, wrenching it away from his master. A moment later, and the entirety of Chikane's servant materialized fully onto this plane of existence, both he and Kiyohime towering above the tree line for all the world (or more importantly, all of Fuuka's students looking in their direction) to see.
Mai shot Shizuru a confused look, before she shouted, "Kagutsu-!"
"No!" Shizuru ordered. "You must not summon your Child, Mai-san. That's what she wants!"
Chikane shot Shizuru a cold glare that could have frozen one of Mai's fire whips.
"Is that what you think, Shizuru-sempai?" Chikane smiled thinly. "Then I'm afraid you're wrong." Dropping out of her battle stance, Chikane allowed her sword to dematerialize, and she released her summon on Take no Yamikazuchi too.
Chikane herself only stayed for a couple moments after, only long enough to say, "I've already gotten what I wanted," before she too, disappeared.
Shizuru frowned.
And that was when she realized that Yukariko had not followed them.
At the Ends of the World, Mikoto sat cross legged, with her back ramrod straight, on top of one of the eight stone torii gates. She didn't move or react when Fumi materialized onto her own gate with the business end of her scythe against the throat of her guest. Yukariko was shaking with terror. "Please! Let me go! Let me go, or I'll-!"
"Please, call him." Chikane said, appearing just in front of Yukariko. In one hand, she held a bow, and in her other, an arrow, a purple-black arrow. "Call your Child. Yours is St. Vlas, is it not?"
Yukariko swallowed. "W-who are you? Why are you doing this?"
Chikane's lips set in determination. "Call your Child, Ishigami Yukariko. And you will understand."
Within the hour, demonstrating an astonishing amount of control and leadership, Yukino had contacted all students, staff and authorities and Fuuka Academy was evacuated in an absolute model of order and diligence. Shizuru felt a dull sort of satisfaction that the emergency response plan her student council had implemented as one of its last actions at the end of the last school year had been as successful as it was. Of course, some could argue that after the sheer scale of disaster that was the Hime Festival, anything less would have been grossly negligent, but really, no one had expected that a code red would happen again so quickly.
The best part about the code red (short for code red-star), was that certain individuals found themselves exempt from the evacuation order: Shizuru, Mai, Yukino and Akira were seated in the Student Council's room, with Shiho and Akane. Tate and Takumi would have also been allowed to stay, but Mai had managed to convince her boyfriend and her brother that they would better serve everyone's interest by making sure the evacuation was conducted appropriately, and that the students were alright.
After the adrenaline of the afternoon had worn off, Shizuru found herself the object of all the rest of her fellow Hime's attention, who were just one raised voice away from exploding into a frenzy of shouting (it was probably for the best that Haruka wasn't there, else the conversation would really have degenerated into fisticuffs.)
In response, Shizuru calmly took a sip of tea, and her voice cut through the noise easily, silencing everyone else's questions. "When did you come back, Higarashi-san? Munakata-san?"
Akane and Shiho looked over at Yukino uncomfortably who gave Shizuru as hard a look as she could from behind her glasses. "I really think you should be the one answering our questions, Shizuru-san."
Shizuru looked pointedly at Yukino, and crimson eyes locked against hazel ones.
Yukino was only able to hold Shizuru's gaze for a few moments, before she looked away. "I contacted them - all three of them - yesterday." Yukino admitted quietly. "There were too many orphans. We needed help. I... I begged for help. It... it's my fault that Sister Yukariko is..." She trailed off.
"Please, Shizuru-san." Mai interrupted. "Where have you been, and what is going on?"
Seeing the distress on her fellow Hime's faces, Shizuru sighed and put down her tea cup.
"Chikane-san is the new host to the Obsidian Lord, and has been, since the beginning of the summer." She advised calmly, but quietly. "Unlike Reito-kun, however, she has managed to have some measure of success in fending him off, though she is not altogether successful in this regard either."
*Yesterday*
They were still seated, back to back, still exhausted from their battle. Chikane had just gotten a phone call (though how that was possible in their current environs, Shizuru wasn't sure).
"Who was that?" Shizuru frowned, as Chikane slid the phone back into her pocket.
"... my father." Chikane replied darkly. "He wanted to say hello."
Shizuru frowned. "I don't think I've ever heard you speak about him before."
"There's a reason I don't. I'd never met him until the beginning of this summer. That night."
There was no mistaking which night the blue-black haired girl was speaking about.
Shizuru could feel Chikane's back moving against her, and she imagined that the younger girl was now looking up at the sky, prompting Shizuru to do the same, at the swirling dark maw up above them.
It was an eerie sight for Shizuru, its silent foreboding reminded her strongly of the last days of the Hime Festival, when the red star had loomed ominously and gigantic in the sky.
"Shizuru-sempai, you must listen very carefully, for what I am about to tell you is of utmost importance."
Shizuru lifted her eyebrow in surprise.
This... she had not expected. She decided it was probably best to not let the other girl know about that, and responded with forced breeziness, "ara, Chikane-san, since when have you known me to listen in any other way besides carefully?"
Chikane chuckle dryly.
Shizuru couldn't help but smile herself. "When it's important, I mean."
"And this *is* important, Sempai, so do please pay attention. I am the Lunar Priestess, one of two Priestesses charged with summoning Ame no Murakumo, the God of Swordsman, he who fights eternally against Orochi, the Demon of Despair. Once upon a time, I made a deal with the devil, and now I am paying the price, by becoming that very devil - Orochi. I am... resisting, as best I can, but I do not know how long I will last. Every day, I can feel his influence within me getting stronger, and he is not the only one in my head. There is another. My father put him there as a chaperone, perhaps. To ensure that I assume my mantle. I am not entirely sure. I believe you know him - he is the Obsidian Lord."
Shizuru stiffened, her body language telling Chikane that indeed, she did know of him.
"He has been screaming in my head for a long time, but I've found a way to block him out. Similar to his bond with Kanzaki Reito, the Obsidian Lord now has access to myself. It is all I can do to keep him from taking over my body, and I am fearful that I will soon fail...
"But as the Obsidian Lord has been accessing my thoughts... so too have I been accessing his. This is the primary reason why I have tolerated his presence in my mind for as long as I have. At this point, I believe I have learned all it is I need to know. Now I want him gone. So I have... I have done a terrible injustice to Himeno Fumi-san. She shares in my power, and she is keeping the Obsidian Lord preoccupied right now. But she will not be enough. I will need more assistance in order to fully eject the Obsidian Lord from my mind. I will need to recruit more Hime..."
Shizuru was silent as she processed this information. "Is that why you sought me out?"
Chikane was also silent, and in that silence, filled with regret and shame, Shizuru could tell that the other girl really had planned to take her free will from her.
So why hadn't she?
"Why the Hime?" Shizuru pressed. "Why not anyone else?"
Chikane didn't answer. Instead, she said, "... I do not want to turn you, Shizuru-sempai, if I don't have to. For you, I beg a different task."
"I do not know how many disciples I will need to eject the Obsidian Lord from my mind, but the more necks - the more disciples - I have, the more powerful I will become, and yet, the more powerful I become, the closer I will get to fully assuming the mantle of Orochi. Past some point, I may cease to be Himemiya Chikane entirely, and will only be Orochi. I... I don't want that, Sempai. I don't want that at all. Please. If you see me edging over the point of no return... I need you to pull me back."
Shizuru was silent. She closed her eyes. "... you say you have been accessing the Obsidian Lord's mind? So you know what happened last year?"
"Yes."
"Then I do not need to remind you that, of all the Hime, I am probably the one that fell the furthest over the... the moral horizon."
"Yes."
"Then why me?"
Chikane smiled softly. "Having passed it yourself, I believe that you will be most able to recognize it when I approach that horizon."
"I am not so sure that your confidence is not misplaced."
Chikane's voice grew softer. "I believe in Natsuki-sempai's trust in you."
Shizuru was silent.
So Chikane continued to speak. "In the Obsidian Palace under this school, twelve pillars represent the progress made during the Red Star Festival, by the twelve Hime. With every Child sacrificed, a pillar rises. But during the last festival, something strange happened that had never happened before: the pillars were destroyed, negating the defeat of the Childs, and the sacrifice of the Hime's most important person. Since it is Hime whom I am recruiting to be my necks, I believe the mechanics of Orochi have now become tied to the mechanics of the Festival.
"Once my need for disciples is done, I believe the best chance to return them to Hime, is to destroy those pillars. The rising of those pillars represent the corruption of the Hime's love for their most important people. Destroying that corruption should, in theory, restore the love, and time will be as it should have been. That will likely be the key to freedom for Director Himeno, and for any other Hime whom I have turned into my necks, or so I dearly believe. That is why I am hunting for necks among the Hime ranks - with anyone else, and there isn't even a chance of turning back."
The Hime were silent after Shizuru had finished her explanation. They eyed each other like they didn't quite know what to make of what Shizuru had just said, or if they should even believe her.
It was Yukino who spoke first. "Why didn't you say anything sooner?!" She demanded. "Had you told us, perhaps we could have-"
"I only learned all of this yesterday," Shizuru replied, liking the accusatory tone in Yukino's voice less and less, "how much sooner could I have advised you? And what would you have done? Volunteered to become a neck for Chikane-san, a disciple of despair? Twist time, so that Suzushiro-san was never important to you? Ara, I wonder how you'd have turned out without that particular influence."
Yukino looked wounded for a moment, and averted her eyes from Shizuru's blazing own.
The silence in the room stretched on for a long time, before Mai spoke, the strange quiet sort of dawning realization in her voice calming everyone else down. "If history, if time changes, when a Hime is turned into a neck, so that they never met their most important person," Mai said, "... then what's changed? Fumi-san, that cat girl Mikoto, and Sister Yukariko; what's changed? What was supposed to have happened?"
'Ah, so you realize the significance of the inconsistency too, Mai-san...'
"At the end of the festival, Mai-san," Shizuru urged gently. "What do you remember happening?"
Mai looked pained. "I... I was alone. Everyone else had died, except for me, and Mikoto. I was fighting them alone. Reito-san, I mean, the Obsidian Lord, told me that he wanted me to win the festival, not Mikoto. If I would listen to him, and followed his advice, then my wish for how the world could be re-created could include everyone that I still loved in it. If not, then he would ensure the world that Mikoto wished for would have no one I cared about in it. I... I refused him. I fought her. And, I was going to lose."
Everyone else was silent, as they listened to Mai recount the tale.
The lights in the room flickered ominously then.
'Curious,' Shizuru thought. 'Mai should have re-told this story a thousand times to us by now. I should be able to recite her words. And yet, I don't know what she's going to say. Like I'm not sure how it actually happened myself...'
"Then... then Tate came back. And I was so happy! We fought together. We fought Mikoto and Reito-san together... and then... and then I defeated Mikoto... I... I killed Mikoto, and... and the Obsidian Lord revealed his true form. He said that so long as the Hime Star existed, then so would he... that I could never hope to defeat him..." Mai trailed off, a stunned look on her face.
A rumble went through the building, strong enough to be felt, but not strong enough to be commented on.
Shizuru frowned. "I believe at this time, Mashiro-san was able to guide the rest of us to you, Mai-san. We could see the Hime Star. We destroyed it... or so we thought. I guess we didn't do a very thorough job, as it seems to have returned. I believe we must have only destroyed the Obsidian Lord's connection to it..."
"... and that was what allowed Mai-san to defeat the Obsidian Lord." Yukino finished. "And without the Obsidian Lord, Mai-san, as the winner of the Festival, could wish for the world to be re-made, however she wanted to..."
"... but all I wanted," Mai said softly. "Was for Mikoto... was for Mikoto to come back..."
The room was silent as the girls inside this pondered, and in the end, it was Akane who looked at Mai, confusedly, and ask, "why would you wish for that, Mai-chan? Wasn't she your enemy? On the side of the Obsidian Lord?"
And that was the hammer that hit the nail directly over the head, as Mai looked at Akane in anquish, unable to answer her. "What? No! Mikoto was... Mikoto was..." and as Mai thought about this, a very faraway look came into her eyes, as though she was chasing the faint whisperings of a dream...
'Or memories of a time that never was.' Shizuru thought.
Suddenly, the rumblings that had been happening for the last few minutes intensified tenfold. The chairs and desks in the room rattled.
Akane gasped, standing up. "What's going on? Is it an earthquake?"
"Not an earthquake," Shizuru surmised, looking outside the window and feeling dread come over her as what looked like a crack appeared, floating in the air just outside the window, beyond which was empty blackness. "Chikane-san explained this to me as a paradox. Mai-san! Quickly! What are the ingredients required for a cake? Tell me now!"
"Huh, wha?" The completely random question totally distracted the redhead from her thoughts, and she snapped out of it, blinking confusedly and staring at Shizuru. "Cake?"
As this happened, the rumbling faded, and the crack outside shrunk and grew smaller.
The Hime were stunned.
"Those rips and tears, the ones the orphans are coming out of," Akira whispered in complete disbelief. "Those are... paradoxes? When someone realizes that things aren't the way that they are supposed to be?"
Shizuru nodded grimly. "It appears the universe doesn't quite seem to like how Chikane-san is re-writing it."
The room was silent as the enormity of what Shizuru had said sunk into the Hime.
Then Akira suddenly stood up, slamming her hands onto her desk. "We should go destroy those pillars! Now! Then things will revert back to the way they were supposed to be, right?!"
At this suggestion, Shizuru had to shake her head, though she could appreciate the ninja girl's sentiments. "We do not know if the Obsidian Lord has been banished from Chikane-san's mind yet. If we destroy the pillars too quickly, then she will lose the opportunity to be rid of him. She would be forced to re-hunt us..."
Yukino rubbed her forehead. "I wish you'd learned of this even a day earlier, Shizuru-san." She said tiredly. "Then we wouldn't have had to send Nao-chan, Natsuki-chan and Midori-chan away, and they could be here to help."
"No, that was the correct decision," Shizuru disagreed again. "Destroying the pillars may free the Hime from being Chikane-san's necks, but this may not necessarily save Chikane from her destiny as Orochi." This was a riddle that Shizuru had pondered about at length for the last day, and a conclusion she had deducted based on the blue-black haired girl's actions, and specific lack of mention.
"Something else, or someone else, is needed to save Chikane-san from that fate."
Mai frowned. "Who?"
"One Kurusugawa Himeko. Or so Natsuki believes." Shizuru suddenly stood up and walked towards the door, "come, friends. Until Natsuki can return with the one who may be able to save us, we have a very time honored task to perform."
Akira cocked her head. "And what's that?"
"Stall."
"Unfortunately, I think we might need to re-prioritize," came Yukino's weary voice.
Shizuru stopped, as well as the rest of the Hime, and turned to look at where the current Student Council President was staring, which was out the window on the opposite side of the room.
While the one large crack that had appeared in the air on the one side of the building had shrunken and disappeared without any Orphans falling out through it, on the other side of the building a plethora of monsters big and small were falling from several rips in the fabric of reality.
In the middle of Himemiya Chikane's mindscape, the Obsidian Lord stared at his enemy in disbelief as the remaining chains and wards over the remaining six monstrous necks of Orochi creaked and groaned ominously, and then, finally, snapped.
'NO! NOOO!' He raged, even as all eight of Orochi's necks were now freed, and were all gazing at him hungrily. 'THIS CANNOT BE! HOW DARE YOU! I AM THE OBSIDIAN LORD! I have ruled humanity since antiquity! Who do you think you are to defy me?!'
This was too much! This couldn't be happening! How could he be defeated, AGAIN, at the hands of children and women?! Him! The Obsidian Lord!
The madness in his heart, amplified by the searing pain he continued to feel from the injury - that crack through the middle of his body, wrought on him during the climatic battle of the last Hime Star Festival - destroyed any semblance of sanity he may have had left, and with it, any sort of chance at victory.
'DAMN YOU! DAMN YOU, OROCHI! DAMN YOU, END OF THE WORLD! YOU TRICKED ME! YOU TRICKED ME! AAAAH! '
With a loud battle cry, he unleashed all his power at once, sending wave after wave of energy out towards his enemy in successive blasts, screaming in fury the entire time, much louder than even the grunts of pain the necks of his enemy gave as his blasts hit them dead on, causing great clouds of damage to obscure his sensation of them.
Then, rising quickly out of that destructive plume, two necks shot out and snapped at him, one shooting a hail of arrows from its mouth, even as the second one opened its jaws wide and sank its teeth into him.
The Obsidian Lord gave a shrill bellow of pain as part of him was shattered and crushed under the jaws of the attacking neck, but he fired his energy at that snapping face to keep it at bay, only to be bombarded by bolts of lightning from another direction.
Outnumbered eight to one, they all attacked at once, showering him in a hail of pain and punishment.
As he writhed in agony and defeat, still being bombarded from every single direction, explosions of pain and blood all over, a single image appeared before him.
It was Himemiya Chikane, the new Orochi, great and terrible, her eyes glowing a menacing yellow as she glared at him.
'GOOD BYE, MY LORD OBSIDIAN,' she intoned, her voice booming and resonating all over, and seeming to be made of eight voices at once. 'YOU ARE NO LONGER WELCOME HERE.'
'DAMN YOU! YOU CANNOT DEFEAT ME! I AM ETERNAL! I AM THE OBSIDIAN LORD! I CANNOT BE DEFEATED BY THE LIKES OF YOU! WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE?!'
The new Orochi simply raised her arm up in the air, even as her back glowed, and a sword appeared out of it. She grasped the sword in a two handed grip, even as the blade began to glow an unearthly dark purple-black. 'I AM OROCHI, THE DEMON OF DESPAIR. WHAT ARE YOU, OBSIDIAN, LORD OF GREED AND AMBITION, TO ME? BEFORE DESPAIR, EVEN GREED SHALL FALL.'
And with that, she slashed her blade upwards, the energy from it blasting forth and striking the Obsidian Lord in the middle of his body, rendering in it, a second large diagonal crack.
'NO! NOOOOO!' Screamed the Obsidian Lord, as his form, in this plane of existence, shattered into a million little pieces, signalling his forced ejection from the mind of Himemiya Chikane.
In the place that was neither here nor there, dotted with eight torii gates, Himemiya Chikane sat in a seiza with her head bowed and her eyes closed. Collapsed around her in various positions, were her necks - Himeno Fumi, Minagi Mikoto and Ishigami Yukariko.
As the battle inside her mind drew to a close, Chikane gave a sharp gasp and threw her head back, her eyes snapping wide open. Her left eye was a bright golden yellow with a reptilian-like elongated pupil, while her right eye was a dull, life-less yellow with a giant black crack through it.
Small sparks of energy were shooting out of her right eye with rapidly increasing intensity and gathering into a small crystal the size of a marble just in front of her face. The marble - the Obsidian Lord - now suffered two cracks through it, and several noticeable chips. As the energy shot out of her eye, it seemed to take the dull lifelessness out of it, along with the large crack, until it was gone, leaving it the same as the left - menacing, golden to the point of glowing, and reptilian-like.
Despite the meniscal, powerless form he was stuck in, still the Obsidian Lord managed to project his voice outwards loudly, echoing back from the gates.
'YOU HAVE NOT HEARD THE LAST OF ME! I WILL HAVE MY REVENGE! I WILL!'
And with that, he shot out and up into the sky, disappearing into a blink.
Chikane continued to stare up into the sky, and could scarcely believe it.
'It's... it's silent.' She marvelled. 'He's not screaming in my head anymore...'
But that feeling of relief did not last for every long, as her necks all stirred, and started to awaken.
"That was a nice touch, Ishigami-san," Chikane praised. "Creating the illusion that all my necks had been freed, when really, there were only us four." She hadn't thought that the illusion would have worked on that particular plane of existence - her mindscape - but then, she supposed, where could illusions only really exist except for within one's mind?
"Do you have what you want from me now?" Yukariko pleaded, the desperation clear in her voice. "Please! Please! Just... just give me back my son! My... my baby boy!" Her face crumpled. "Please...!"
Chikane looked at the woman, and could feel pity and guilt in her heart, though curiously (or maybe not so curiously) not very much - not nearly as much as she should have, and certainly once would have. Instead, her voice turned cold. "You will get your desire soon enough." She simply said, turning, and walking away from her necks.
"What more do you want?" Fumi demanded, even as Mikoto's brow crinkled as she gazed at Yukariko piteously. "We have helped you to defeat the Obsidian Lord. What more do you want?"
"There is one more." Chikane simply said. And he would not be as easily dealt with as the Obsidian Lord.
'Two down... one to go. Then... then I can rest.'
The time was approaching. She needed to prepare herself.
As she walked away, the clothing Chikane was wearing seemed to fizzle off of her body, leaving her bare for a moment, before a more appropriate set of clothes materialized.
First, a dark grey nagajuban wrapped around her body, a robe-like undergarment, and over top of that appeared a pitch black wide-sleeved gi around her shoulders, and an equally black hakama around her hips. The jewels that decorated her sleeves were a deep purple-black. By the time Chikane had reached the ceremonial platform in the middle of the eight stone torii gates, she was dressed as the Lunar Priestess may once have, had her uniform been black and gray rather than white and purple.
She looked up at the swirling black maw in the sky.
'Come on. It's time.'
The swirling maw loomed closer and closer, growing bigger and bigger, and as it did so, tendrils of a wispy, smoke-like substance extended out from its centre. Most of the tendrils wrapped themselves, almost seductively around Chikane, sliding down her body, and seeping inside her clothing in a caress that was almost too gentle to be violating.
She knew what those powers were looking for, and she closed her eyes as those tendrils found the corrupted mark of the Lunar Priestess on her back, the gateway into her soul. They played, writhing almost coyly about her, before slowly pushing into her, gently at first, and then with more and more urgency and excitement.
'Yeees! Yeeees!' She could hear something inside her cackle with unhinged anticipation. 'It's time! It's tiiiiime!'
The swirling maw spiraled faster and faster, seeping into her soul until its great bulk grew smaller and smaller, until it had all been consumed within her.
Chikane opened her eyes, and they glowed with power. As she turned around to regard her necks, she could see Fumi, Mikoto and Yukariko all stare at her in horror and disbelief.
With a slight narrowing of her eyes, she sent some of her power down through the link she shared with her necks, and each of the three former Hime gave a cry of pain, grabbing at where their Hime marks were.
On each of their bodies, where once had been a small red circular mark - on Yukariko's neck, and Mikoto's upper arm - that mark was twisted and perverted into a tangled mess of angry interlocking lines cradled by a crescent moon.
Somewhere, a clock struck midnight.
Kannazuki, the godless month, had finally arrived.
Somewhere in the back of the mind of the girl who once called herself Himemiya Chikane, was a coffin. Inside the coffin, a naked girl shivered, and tried to hug herself tighter, blocking out the terrifying sounds of unhinged laughter that was echoing all around her outside.
AUTHOR'S NOTES:
*sheepishly rubbing back of head*
So... there you have it. Exposition, yay! I apologize that the explanations weren't done more elegantly and was really just Shizuru dumping a lot of information out for the readers, but, I kinda figured that at this stage in the game, it was really time to start explaining what was going on. That and I always had a thing for monologue-ing villains.
From the get go, it had always been my intention that Shizuru and Chikane be working together. I really, really like these two characters, and as epic as it would have been for the two of them to duke it out against each other, in my mind, I had always known that I'd preferred them to work with each other rather than against each other (that and I don't think I could choose who would win in a confrontation between those two).
Astute readers will notice that chapter didn't take very long to write - really only two weeks. It really was the monsters that were chapters 17 and 19 that held everything up, and once those were out of the way, the rest flowed way more freely, and I only had to make minor tweaks to this one. Two of the scenes in this chapter were written in an initial form a long, long, loooong long time ago, and I am very glad to finally get them out of the way.
Cheers,
jen-chan
jen-chan-shaw. livejournal. com
OMAKE I: Even You?!
NAO: [Stares at YUKARIKO incredulously and does a slow clap.]
YUKARIKO: What? Why are you doing that?
NAO: I can't believe you actually got to show up in this fic, Sister. And that you had a bigger part than even Suzushirou! After all, the author hates you, and adores Haruka.
[CAMERA pans over to HARUKOW and NANAMOOO chewing on grass nonchalantly.]
HARUKOW: Mooou.
NATSUKI: [Claps her hand on NAO's shoulder] Uh, I don't know if you've noticed, but when it comes to this author, it is better to not be liked. She has a tendency to put her favorite characters through hell.
[NAO and NATSUKI look over at CHIKANE who is sitting in the corner with her knees pulled up to her eyes, and an absolutely TRAUMATIZED expression on her face, as she slowly rocks herself back and forth while HIMEKO is trying to make her feel better.]
HIMEKO: [Exasperated] Honestly, Chikane-chan, it doesn't feel right that I'm the one who has to comfort you over that.
CHIKANE: [Muttering under her breathe] 10 years! 10 years and a plethora of fanfic later, and she still can't move onto another theme!
OMAKE II: Stock Dialogue
[Cue the scene where OBSIDIAN LORD is being ejected from CHIKANE's mindscape. ]
OBSIDIAN LORD: This cannot be! How dare you!
CHIKANE: It's over, my Lord.
OBSIDIAN LORD: Who do you think you are to defy me?!
CHIKANE: Good bye, Obsidian.
OBSIDIAN LORD: You haven't heard the last of me!
CHIKANE: I'm sure I have.
OBSIDIAN LORD: I will have my revenge!
CHIKANE: Yes, yes, get on with it.
OBSIDIAN LORD: Blaaargh!
CHIKANE: ... [Not impressed anymore]
OBSIDIAN LORD: Next time, Gadget!
CHIKANE: ... [Presses a big shiny red button and a chair appears under the OBSIDIAN LORD only to spring him out of the scene with an audible 'BOING!']
OMAKE III: Continuing With the Mai-Hime Style Preview
[CHU CHU's voice can be heard doing the voice over for a series of fast paced clips edited together very confusingly and with deliberate misrepresentation so brazen the producers should be ashamed of themselves.]
CHU CHU: Chu chu! Chu chu chu chu, chu chuuuuu, ch-ch-chuuuuuu.
[The CAMERA zooms out and we see HARUKA standing beside CHU CHU.]
HARUKA: [Stares at the monkey-mouse incredulously. Then turns to stare at the CAMERA.] ... ... ..
CHU CHU: [Wildly miming out fantastic action sequences and gut-wrenching dramatic sequences and side-splitting comedy sequences.] Chu chu chu! Chu CHU! Chu chu chu CHUUUU!
HARUKA: [Throws her hands up in the air and storms off the stage] Even the mouse gets to voice a preview before I get to! What the hell!
CHU CHU: [Sweatdrops. Checks to make sure she is the only one left on the stage.] Well I never! Despair did I, that Lady Haruka would ever depart! And now, gentle readers, pray, turn thine attentions thusly towards the next installment of Revolutions, a Kannazuki no Miko, Revolutionary Girl Utena and Mai Hime X-over, Chapter 21 - Climax II - Kannazuki.