STOP.
Before you read this, the epilogue to The Strange Affair of the Katsu Ruins, you should make a point of re-reading the story. I've done a rather extensive edit of the content and it is now completely finished and up to par with what I think a truly good story should be.
This is now the final copy of the story, so any and all mistakes are completely my own; but I must say that this has been a long time coming and I'm quite glad it's finished now.
Please note that I had no idea this would be so monstrous an undertaking. I just started pounding this out and now it's WAY over 5000 words. Sorry for the length, but this story's worth it.
So yeah. I realized that I left a lot more of this unexplained than I though I had. Therefore this is long. Very long. Sorry if you don't like it, this is the last chapter in the story, however. I think you can handle it.
Post-Mortem, The Strange Affair of the Katsu Ruins
Windbloom Public University, Wind City, Windbloom
As far as anyone could tell, nothing had really changed that much since the departure of Fujino Shizuru from their world. Juliet Nao Zhang went back to school with a heavy heart all the same. That girl had somehow managed to place Nao in a mental state that could only be described as chaotic. She felt as though she was driven by something other than her own ambition to never have to go back to Altai in her lifetime.
As one of the Five Columns of Gaulderobe, she was allowed, for a time at least, to pick where she chose as her residence. She'd decided to stay in Windbloom to keep an eye on Kruger after the fallout of Viola's return.
She couldn't' believe what she'd attempted to do, taking Kruger away from the woman she loved above all others in the world. Nao had tried to pull Kruger away from her grief.
She had thought, at the time, that it was a good idea to pull her headmistress away from the temptation of what was a bad situation to begin with. Having a woman who was supposedly in charge of the largest military-based force in all of Earl suddenly lose her head to grief and whatever else came with the sensation of lost love was simply not an option. Nao had acted as she was supposed to, with Sara and Maya absent from the situation.
She had not expected Kruger to pull rank on her the way she had. That didn't make sense to Nao, as the Kruger she knew would never risk angering one of her underlings with references to a home-kingdom that did not exist within the ranks of the Otome. There was no national identification until an Otome was aligned with a particular person of note – and then the Otome took the nationality of her Master, and never the other war around.
Still, Nao found the whole situation to be aggravating.
Kruger had started to fully isolate herself from her core staff since the end of the affair at the Katsu Ruins; retreating into her work and her relationship with Shizuru Viola as though they were the only things that mattered to her. Nao could not figure out why the Gakuenchou had changed in character, but she supposed that the idea of losing her lover again was simply too devastating to her for her to cope with anything else.
Nao felt the bile welling up in her throat at the idea of Natsuki, not Kruger in particular being happy. She spat bitterly onto the ground and ground the fluid into the dusty sidewalk.
Why did she suddenly hate that idea?
Nao could not understand what was wrong with her. She had never been a particularly spiteful person, especially not when it came to her superiors. She liked a good deal of leisure time and to be left to her own devices; both of which were things that working for Natsuki Kruger virtually guaranteed her.
That damn girl had changed her. Nao knew it to be true, for she'd seen it in the others that had interacted with her. It was only a matter of time before things went back to what Nao would have called normal, and she could not wish it to come sooner.
Was it too much to want a personality back that she'd never thought to miss?
Nao tried not to storm too angrily back towards Gaulderobe as her GEM began to pulse in her ear. There was only one reason that she would be called back to the school, and that was bad news. She wondered what could have happened now to cause a panic. She'd never been called through the Surrogate System before, and the pulse told her that she was bound to be in for something interesting.
She touched her ear and shouted, "Materialize!"
The robe fell into place around her in such a way that Nao knew that something was up. The Shinsou would not make her robe so clearly feel the power fluctuations of running the robe system for the entirety of the school unless something was wrong.
Nao pushed off the ground and speed in the direction of Gaulderobe, a multitude of thoughts running through her mind – none of them good. She wanted nothing more than to know that she was going to be safe throughout this entire conflict, and that her family was going to be safe. The danger in running Doctor Helene's new Surrogate System was that it put all those who used it at risk.
What could be wrong with the Shinsou's soul to cause Kruger to need to use the system to begin with? Nao did not want to think of the crisis that could have caused that, but with everything and everyone changing Nao was not willing to risk hedging her bets on anyone or thing. She just didn't see the value in taking the risk anymore.
And there was an echo of something else, deep in the back of Nao's psyche, echoing whenever it seemed as though she was finally starting to move past the sudden onset of these new mannerisms and personality traits that she could barely define, let alone explain. Something that told her to run before it got bad, to strike quickly and then retreat back into the shadows once more. She knew that she had to be ready for what was to come. She had to steel herself to the prospect that she was most likely not going to survive what was bound to happen to her.
She touched down in front of the administration building and did not de-materialize her robe as she marched through the hallways towards Kruger's office. The Corals that were cleaning the hallway dodged around her as she moved past them, and Nao relished whatever control she could have over them – they were unimportant, expendable; like grunts in a bigger war that could never be truly understood.
Kruger's office door was ajar, and Nao could hear hushed voices inside. It was a school policy that closed doors meant privacy, and Kruger was trying to extend the invitation, Nao knew.
Stupid of her, really, Nao mused, pushing open the door and stepping into the room.
Kruger and Viola were standing off to one side as the cat-god that Nao and Kruger had met on their journey to the Black Valley paced the length of the room. Her staff was over one shoulder and Nao felt a sudden swell of friendliness that she had not felt in a long time. Suddenly, here was someone that she could both relate to and get along with.
She smiled.
"—there's no way that you can be right, Mikoto." That princess from Zipang, the one that Kruger had roomed with in school spoke far more loudly than she had to. There were now only five people in the room, shouting was really not necessary. "Even if you were right, how could it still be going on? She left."
The cat-god's eyes narrowed as she turned on her heel and began to march back towards the window.
Nao sighed quietly and let her robe fade back to her street clothes. She was still in her University dress, so she didn't have to worry about Kruger or Viola making comments on her 'extracurricular' activities.
"That doesn't mean anything Mai. As Natsuki pointed out, the Shinsou System has been being problematic ever since Kai—Fujino left. Her presence in this world has forced a series of events that were not due to start for a generation or two." The cat-god hung her head, turning once again to pace back towards Nao. "I don't know if we can stop it."
"How do you mean?" Kruger asked, looking generally concerned.
"The changes, in your personality, demeanor, everything about the way you do things should be obvious to you and everyone who knows you; Gakuenchou."
Nao frowned. Why did the cat-god always have to talk such sense? "If you're talking about Kruger's innate ability to be an ass, I have to say that I agree with you. It has gotten worse since that Fujino kid left."
Kruger shot Nao a very dirty look as she crossed her arms. "There is no way for us to know what's going on with our personalities; we're around each other far too much for us to notice it."
Nao didn't want to disagree with her, but the urge to insult; to hurt, and destroy Kruger was welling up inside her. She had to do it, and she didn't know why. She was terrified by the notion of insubordination to her direct superior, but she could not stop her mouth as the words spilled out of her mouth. "Perhapsyou do not notice it, Kruger, but it is very clear to me that you've withdrawn considerably since this whole mess began. I don't know what she did to you, but it couldn't have been good."
"Withdrawn from what?" Kruger demanded.
"From public life, Nao's right, Natsuki – you've been much more distant since this whole thing started." Nao supposed that Kruger's former roommate would know better than most how her former roommate's personality had changed, but it was the suddenly concerned look on the cat-god's face that caught Nao's attention. The black-haired girl-like-creature looked suddenly very concerned, her gaze intently flicking from Kruger to herself.
Nao squirmed under the scrutiny.
"We can't fight." Mikoto ground out eventually, her tone even, but Nao could tell that her teeth were clenched. "We can't fight again."
"Again?" The one silent person in the room finally spoke, her quietly accented voice cutting through the growing tension of the room and causing it to dissipate into nothingness. "What do you mean again?"
"Shizuru-" Kruger said quietly, turning to face her lover.
"I believe we have to know, Natsuki, we have to know everything." Nao knew that ever since Shizuru Viola had returned to Earl, she'd been far less of the blatant tease that she'd been before leaving. She had experienced something, Nao wasn't quite sure what, that had made her very much afraid of what might come to pass, should the world truly be changing the way that the cat-god was hinting that it might.
"What did Kuga tell you?" Nao not expected the cat-god to actually go through and have a conversation about what had happened in the world that Viola had found herself in. Nao had figured that it was simply supposed to be some big secret that she would never be let in on until it was written down for the official report – and even then, it would be skimpy on the details.
Who was Kuga? Nao had heard Fujino mention the name before, back when she'd first arrived, but it provided nothing concrete as to why Shizuru Viola would be of her acquaintance.
Viola looked slightly at a loss for words, but Mikoto smiled gently and moved to put a comforting hand on her arm. "You forget I was there, Viola-san. I do understand perhaps better than most what happened during that time."
"Well, Mikoto, she wasn't really much of a talker, it was really all actions and gestures. She tried to shoot me."
At the silence that followed her remark, Viola added, "Several times."
Nao cocked her head to one side, curiosity getting the better of her. She was pretty sure she knew, on some level, who this 'Kuga' was. She couldn't think of where she could have met this person, as Viola had met her in the 'other' world.
It was as though she just knew who this person was.
"That's true, but I find the idea that she wouldn't tell you, of all people, what was going on hard to believe." The cat-god looked hard at the people in the room and nao could see that she was contemplating something. "She always had a weak spot for you, even at that time."
Nao frowned, "What would that have to do with anything?"
"It has everything to do with it. Kuga-san would have most likely told Shizuru what was going on; the carnival and the death." The cat-god shook her head, "The chances that that could happen here escalated considerably when Kai-Fujino-san came here while that was going on."
What did that have to do with anything? Nao really wanted to know, but she didn't think she would get the answers that she wanted from the cat-god. There didn't seem to be much want of conversation on anyone's part, but the sentiment was the same. There was very little that could be done now. They had to wait and find out what would happen now.
Nao did not want to wait.
-
Fuuka Gakuen, Fuuka City, Japan
Natsuki did not know how to react, she'd had her heart ripped from her, and then given back to her in a gesture of kindness that she had come to not accept as coming easily in this world. They were at war with each other, but Natsuki knew that she would have to die in order for this conflict to end. Nao was dead, and Midori had agreed to sacrifice herself for a chance for Mai to get into the Obsidian Lord's underground complex. They were the only two left, the only two who needed to die. Sooner or later, someone would realize that killing Natsuki meant killing Shizuru, and vice versa.
Natsuki knew that she had to act quickly, before her chance to end everything on her own terms vanished before her eyes. She had Mai had realized that the game had been stacked from the beginning.
The Obsidian Lord had let it slip that it was always the Kagutsuchi users that gave him the most problems. Natsuki had determined that, given the body the entity chose for a host, he'd already picked who he wanted to have the last and final battle with.
Natsuki did not think that she or Shizuru could take out Mikoto. The middle-schooler was far too skilled at sword-craft for either of them at their prime to get past her.
They weren't at their prime. They were broken. Natsuki knew that when she'd lost Shizuru, it had been like the world had crumbled down around her. She'd become almost as mindless a killer as Shizuru had been that night.
The night that Natsuki refused to think of.
This carnival of souls was not something that could simply be moved from one mental state to another. Natsuki found herself changing without Shizuru, and then with Shizuru, but not with her. There was a subtle difference between the woman that had appeared in that old radio building and the Shizuru that Natsuki knew; and it scared her.
There was the person that Natsuki had known for years, but without the unhappiness of the carnival pressing down upon her. She was a proud, happy woman who'd wanted nothing more than the chance to finally go back to the world she loved so much.
They'd done that, and now Natsuki was stuck trying to pick up the pieces of her life before the actual conflict was over.
Perhaps she was moving too soon?
Natsuki knew that Shizuru would not carry on the carnival – she'd lost much of her will to fight. It was scary to watch those dead eyes come back to life with the honest and loving smile that Natsuki had desperately wanted to see for those long days when Shizuru had been missing.
The other Shizuru had not smiled the same way. Sure, the smile had been similar, but every time Natsuki found herself on the receiving end of the gesture, she'd felt her blood run cold. There was no way that she could have ever mistaken one for the other, and it was because of that honest assertion that Natsuki had finally done the one thing that she never thought she'd ever manage to do in her life.
She'd confessed her love, every uncertainty and hang-up to Shizuru; right there on the dirty floor of that horrible place. It was hours before she'd finished talking, and Natsuki had felt as raw as Shizuru had looked by the end of it all.
Natsuki had never been so open with someone in her life, but she felt as though she owed it to Shizuru to finally be honest with the both of them.
Duran had grown so big when she'd finally gotten the words out, filling the room and then some. Natsuki knew that depending on how you felt about that which was most precious to you in life, your child's size changed, but she'd never thought it could be so drastic.
Shizuru had given her a lazy smile at that point, "See, Natsuki? Even Duran thinks you should have admitted it sooner."
Natsuki smiled once again.
She stood outside of Shizuru's dorm room with her hand half-raised to knock. Her mind was racing, as she didn't really know what she was going to tell Shizuru.
She pushed the door open, forgoing the knock and stepped into the half-darkness of Shizuru's room.
It was almost cave-like in the room, and Natsuki guessed that Shizuru had fallen asleep with her humidifier on the night before, as the sensation of a misty summer morning seemed to cling to the room, even though it was cold and dry outside.
Natsuki slipped deeper into the silence of the room, allowing herself the indulgence of inhaling Shizuru's scent as she moved towards where the girl was most likely still sleeping.
She'd been doing that a lot recently, since her return. Natsuki was not sure if she should be concerned for the girl's wellbeing, considering how withdrawn she'd become since her disappearance. "Shizuru?" She called softly, peering through the gloom, looking for the girl.
The silence was almost deafening.
Shizuru wouldn't have gone out on her own, she couldn't have. Natsuki knew better than to have left her alone if that was going to be a problem.
Her bed was empty, and Natsuki felt her blood run cold.
Shizuru was gone.
She promised! Natsuki's mind protested, frantically reviewing their previous conversations, trying to figure out where the kaichou could have gotten to. She said she'd never leave again.
She was lying. The thought ripped through Natsuki's consciousness faster than a bullet, for the realization hurt her a great deal. It was only through Shizuru's constant companionship and love that Natsuki had been able to slowly integrate herself back into a steady stream of human interactions.
Was it all a lie? Natsuki did not think that Shizuru would ever lie to her; but the woman was nothing if not talented in the art of deception. Natsuki struggled to think of anything, a sign, a gesture, anything that would hint as to where Shizuru would have gone. She needed sleep, to recover. They both needed to regroup before they played out their next move.
There was nothing, no sign that she'd been lying to Natsuki, no sign that she'd been planning on leaving. Yet again, there never was anything when it came to Shizuru. She had Natsuki wrapped around her little finger, exactly where she wanted Natsuki – exactly where Natsuki wanted to be.
Still, to give no sign at all as to what she was going to vanish without a trace once more terrified Natsuki.
She would not lose her again.
She closed her eyes and concentrated; her guns materialized as she yanked up the shade and pulled open the window. It felt good to have them back again, considering how long she'd gone without them. She'd been using regular pistols to defend herself for the past three weeks, since this whole business had really begun to heat up.
People like Nao and the entirety of the Searrs organization had a bad habit of getting under her skin in a way that made her judgment hard to predict; even for Natsuki herself. There was no telling how she would react to what had happened that rainy night, and with Nao, and then Yukino falling to Shizuru as though it had been nothing to defeat them.
She doesn't know that Mikoto killed Nao.
Natsuki gripped her guns tighter and pushed her body out of the window as she did so.
The sensation of falling was neither unique nor new to her, but the rush she felt as she dropped was a sensation that she could never replace. "Duran!" She shouted, while mentally praying that Shizuru would not go after Nao's ghost; for Natsuki never wanted to think about the redhead again.
-
Executive Offices, The Hexagon, Aries Republic
President Yukino Chrysant leaned back in her chair and contemplated the mirror lying on the desk before her. She was uncomfortable having it out in the open, for she thought that it would be better to keep the evidence of her strange new ability as hidden as possible. She remembered things now, things that terrified her. The HiME were reawakening and she knew it. She was one of them.
Yukino had never really put much stock behind the legends of the Twelve Kingdoms War, but more and more events were beginning to filter into her memory. Times, places, and events that she had never been to, and yet she knew them. She remembered faces of her peers, yet they were different.
They were younger, perhaps. Yukino could not be sure.
The mirror's surface was cool to her touch, and she could not fathom how she was supposed to use it as a weapon as the legends and the paintings in the Katsu Ruins seemed to indicate. It didn't make sense for her to be given a weapon and then for it to be completely useless in combat.
She had bitter memories of its uselessness. She remembered glimpses, flashes of her own desperate attempts to keep someone close to her alive.
Haruka.
The spirit of the mistress of Diana smiled; I guess some things really do transcend the ages. It was nice to know that one thing was still the same in this twisted backward Earth.
The phone on her desk rang and she reached over the mirror lying on her desk to answer it. "President Chrysant." Yukino said in a business-like tone. Her voice felt hoarse, even though she'd used it just moments ago. She turned the mouthpiece of the phone away from her mouth and coughed, trying to rid herself of the sensation that there was a mass build-up of bile and phlegm in the back of her throat.
"Yukino? It's Kruger." The voice on the other end was sickeningly familiar. The spirit felt itself pushed down as the full force of Yukino Chrysant's personality came back to the front of the war for dominance inside of her head.
"What is it, Gakuenchou?" Yukino honestly thought that it would be at least a week or two before she heard from the head of Gaulderobe again. With the absolute chaos of the past few months, Yukino had guessed that Kruger would take advantage of one of the other Columns and take a well-earned vacation.
"We need you, and General Armitage to get to Wind as quickly as possible." Kruger sounded harassed and stressed, the spirit recognized the voice at that point.
Natsuki?
"Why?" Yukino had always done her best to remain as neutral as possible in potential international conflicts; the recent fiasco in Windbloom was the one exception in her memory where she'd actually defied her own personal rule and intervened in another country's affairs. "What's going on?"
"Mikoto's finally figured out what exactly it was that Fujino managed to change when she came here."
Yukino had not thought that the girl had changed much at all, but she was plagued by the sudden presence of that mirror, and the sensation that not all was right in the world. She knew that she had to fight for something, for someone, but she did not know who.
"What does this have to do with Aries?" Yukino mused out loud, completely forgetting that she was still connected to the Head of Gaulderobe over a secure line.
"It doesn't have anything to do with your nation; just you, Yukino." Kruger seemed to hesitate, before she added, "You're an old soul."
"A what?" Yukino could not keep the disbelief out of her voice as she said it. She'd always thought Natsuki Kruger to be a sensible person; not one to talk nonsense to anyone – certainly not to a head of a friendly state.
This was how alliances were lost.
"An old soul, look, Mikoto can explain it better, but basically there was this contest around the time of the Twelve Kingdoms War – eleven people died in that conflict, Mikoto was the only survivor." Kruger paused, as if listening to something on her end of the line, "Look, Fujino came from a time like that, and her presence in this world has started that conflict again. It's not supposed to be happening, and Mikoto thinks that she's found a way to stop the events before we all end up trying to kill each other."
So it's started already, huh? The spirit was intrigued, but it knew better than to voice its opinion. If the conflict were to not actually have started yet, then it should not even be here.
So why am I?
The silence did little to assure either party of what was going to happen.
-
East Woods, Fuuka Gakuen, Fuuka City, Japan
Duran moved quickly through the woods, Natsuki on his back – they had to hurry, for already Natsuki could feel the burn of the HiME mark on her back. They were getting close; and the feeling of dread was growing in the pit of Natsuki's stomach.
There was the burn-out ruin of the church where the Sister had committed suicide, rather than keeping the burden on her sin. They were all sinners, and Natsuki found herself wishing that her way out of this insanity was as easy as the Nun's. She had her faith, where Natsuki only had one person.
Who was conveniently not there right now.
Duran let out a low whine and Natsuki turned her attention back to him, she could tell that he, like her; was completely unused to his new size. It was strange to realize that this was all because of her, everything was because of her.
Shizuru.
Natsuki could see the smoke rising from a distant battle. She'd told Mai to wait until she was positive that they would not stand in her way before confronting the Obsidian Lord, and she intended to give Mai her way into that battle.
Mai was the only one of them that had a chance at winning. Even Shizuru, if given the opportunity to face the dark entity, would not be able to stand up to him.
Mai had already lost everyone that was important to her; yet she still fought on. Natsuki admired her dedication, even if it was a bit self-serving.
"Where is she?" Natsuki demanded, her teeth clenched. She was alone in this part of the woods, and vulnerable to attack by the rogue agent of the Obsidian Lord or an Orphan. She didn't think that she was in the mental position to fight off either threat.
All Natsuki wanted to do was see her, to make sure that she was okay. She was thankful to not have to worry about Nao wandering in on them, simply by the virtue of the series of events that had lead to the death of the girl.
Shizuru had thrown her off a cliff, but that had just been the beginning. Natsuki had brushed over the details for Shizuru Viola, but the fact remained that it was all that Natsuki had been able to do to keep the two of them alive with Nao and the rogue Mikoto running wild through Fuuka Gakuen's grounds. That had been the most stressful week of her life; trying to protect the two of them and form a plan of action with Mai.
There was too much going on, and then Mikoto had killed Nao and come running to Mai, who couldn't really turn her out.
It was then that Natsuki had felt the burn on her HiME mark; the signal that finally life was going to start making sense again. She'd left before she did anything stupid to Mikoto for outright committing murder and had pulled herself together for the possibility that she would have to see Shizuru once more.
They'd never had a chance to really talk after what had happened between them. Yukino and the Executive Director had caught Shizuru doing something, Natsuki wasn't really even sure what, to her – and they had both paid dearly for it. Haruka with her life.
How could Shizuru have murdered so emotionlessly? She'd asked Shizuru Viola in a rare moment of truth if she thought that people could change for the better.
Natsuki was still fairly doubtful that they would, but Viola had seemed very certain that change often happens later in life. Wisdom, she said, came with age. You had to be old enough to truly understand your actions to be responsible for them.
Are any of us really old enough to understand what we're doing, Viola? Natsuki thought bitterly, squinting through the growing dusk for any sign of her quarry.
A hulking purple mass could be seen against the horizon and Natsuki urged Duran to run even faster. If Kiyohime was out…
At the edge of the clearing, Natsuki realized that there was no battle going on. The gloom of twilight did little to illuminate the shadows, but it looked as though Shizuru was standing in the middle of the clearing, once again clad in that awful purple coat she'd returned in.
"Shizuru!" Natsuki called, jumping off Duran's back and heading into the clearing. The hulking mass of Kiyohime hissed lowly as she pushed forward, but she ignored the creature. He would not harm her, if he was anything like Duran – he understood better than she did who was important to her, and did everything in his power to protect them. "Shizuru!"
Shizuru turned, raising a hand in greeting, "Ah, Natsuki, I didn't think that you'd be so quick to find me." She looked a little sheepish, but not taken aback that Natsuki would simply ignore her rather blatant want to be alone.
Natsuki was used to wanting to be alone, and for the first time in her life, she wanted to actually be with someone, rather than alone with her thoughts. It didn't make any sense that that one person would then decide that they didn't want to see her any more. Natsuki refused to let her already full mind work around that thought, instead choosing to spit out the words that she'd been dreading all day, "I need to talk to you."
"You're here, aren't you?" Shizuru's tone was slightly flippant, but she moved across the clearing towards Natsuki, her pace slow. It was strange to see her in that coat, all purple and gold and regal. Natsuki though she looked like a western lord of old; not a properly-raised Japanese girl.
"I guess I am." Truth be told, Natsuki would rather have been anywhere but there.
"Then talk, Natsuki," Shizuru coaxed. "I've done so much talking in the past few days that a break from it would be nice."
Natsuki wanted to ask her what it was like in the other world, in Shizuru Viola's world, but she had not yet found the words or the time to do it. Theirs was a very emotional relationship, and it depended on the normalness of their interactions to convey the deep emotional bond between the two of them.
For one to be without the other was devastating.
"The director of the school, you know, that kid…" Natsuki began.
"Kazehana-san, right?"
"Yes. She's far more involved with this than we think – and she let it slip to Mai that the person who defeats the Obsidian Lord and ends the carnival gets one wish." Natsuki sighed, this was going to be hard to say. "Shizuru, Mai is the one who's supposed to win this thing. All the others are dead and neither of us is up to the fighting any more. We can't battle – not like this."
"What are you suggesting?" Shizuru asked, her tone cold. Natsuki knew that tone; it was the voice that Shizuru had adopted when speaking to Suzushiro. The tone of a better speaking to an obvious lesser-power. Natsuki hated it. "Tokiha would be a problem, but not a major one. I would do anything to protect you."
"I can't have you fight." Natsuki protested, "Not for me, not for you, not for anyone. We're not built for this shit."
"Are you saying that you don't think it's my place, Natsuki?" Shizuru gave a strange sort of half-laugh. It was a hiccupping sound that made the hair on the back of Natsuki's neck stand on end. She knew that Shizuru was baiting her to respond in a way that she would later regret.
She knew her well enough to avoid it, but the want to respond was very high.
"No, I'm not. I'm saying that none of us have any business fighting against this evil that we can't even hurt. The evil is within our own hearts and unless we want to kill every one of the other HiME, there's no way to get rid of it." Natsuki looked away from Shizuru, for the next words were painful to her, "Even in the end, the finally battle would come down to you and me, and I couldn't bear to lose you."
"Natsuki-"
"No, let me finish. We saw the future, you met me and I met you – we know that this works out in the end; we get another chance at life – at love." Natsuki closed her eyes, "I would rather live in Shizuru Viola's world than this one right now."
"So would I, Natsuki, so would I."
"Forgive me," Natsuki said, leaning forward and kissing Shizuru on the lips, "Forgive me for what I'm about to ask."
Shizuru's voice was breathless, "Anything."
"I told Mai that I'd take you down, no matter what the cost, because I realized that I would go as well. That's all I want right now anyway, is to die and finally be happy – with you." Natsuki tried to screw her face up into something that looked both like a grin and reassuring; but at best it could only be called a grimace. This hurt her so much, to admit that she would rather die than have to face the end of this carnival. They'd both seen the future, they knew that they were given a chance at happiness that very few souls could be afforded.
Shizuru pulled Natsuki into a fiercely tight hug, "Would it hurt you if I said I'd like the same thing, Natsuki?"
Natsuki shook her head, she understood that they were of like mind, and that eased the troubled feeling in her heart somewhat – knowing that she had the ability to shape her own destiny – and that Shizuru was willing to go along with her scheme.
She loved the girl so much, all the signs pointed to it, and Natsuki was glad that'd finally managed to move past the initial awkwardness that had plagued their early interactions. Natsuki allowed herself to be washed over by the feeling of love and contentment, all the while pleading with herself not to call out to Duran and end this whole charade.
She smiled sadly at Shizuru and turned away from her; she could not face her when she did this. The clearing was still and silent as the two looming forms of Kiyohime and Duran prowled around the outskirts; protecting their masters and each other from harm. "Duran!" The wolf's head turned its attention back to Natsuki and she swallowed hard.
This was going to hurt, a lot.
"Load silver cartridge!"
What happened next was anyone's guess, as the world slowly faded into nothingness in the aftershocks of Duran's gunfire. Shizuru snuggled in closer to Natsuki and muttered, "I'm happy."
"I'm glad." Natsuki replied with a sad smile. "I love you.
"And I you, Natsuki."
-
Gaulderobe, Wind City, Windbloom
The quiet of Gaulderobe's halls was hauntingly familiar to Nina Wang. She was used to the orderly school environment that allowed for growth and development of the young girls who would someday become the world's protectors. But this silence was different, it echoed in such a way that even the most confident person was terrified of what might happen to them, should they linger too long within these halls.
Nina was not sure why the silence had changed, but the fact that it had shook her to her core – she had to know why. There should not be any tension in the relationship between Gaulderobe and its students, and yet there was.
Nina remembered the chill she had felt when she'd seen that girl, the girl who'd also carried the power of the harmonium within her. The ability to kill, to murder senselessly, out of rage was not something that a person just acme about, but as Nina struggled to forget what had happened to her, she realized that she would never forget as long as that damned device existed in the bowels of Queen Mashiro's castle.
It had to be destroyed, that was why Nao had dragged her back here in the first place. Nao wanted that machine gone, she'd said as much in their conversations of the subject earlier that year, before this craziness had really gotten started.
Nina allowed her head to rest against the cool wood of the headmistress' office door before she worked up the courage to knock. Natsuki Kruger was a formidable Otome and not someone that she would want to offend on any level for fear of ruining her chances to someday finish her studies. She never wanted to be an Otome, for the Harmonium had killed that wish in her, but working as an Otome-trained bodyguard was one of the most lucrative fields available to young women in Altai at the moment. She knew better than to pass up a perfectly good opportunity.
Nao, it seemed had rubbed off on her.
Nina raised her hand and knocked sharply on the Headmistress' door. It was rare for it to not be at least cracked open – as the air did not circulate to this part of the administrative building that well.
"Enter." Called a voice from inside. It wasn't Kruger or Viola, but someone different.
Someone that Nina knew perhaps too well.
She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Yes, she could face the creature that had taught Arika how to really master the Blue Sky Sapphire. She could do this.
"Please excuse my intrusion," She said quietly, stepping into the room and closing the door behind her. She bowed, as was custom and respectful, and then glanced around the room. Kruger was sitting behind her desk, a stack of data print-outs on her desk and a very harassed look on her face. Viola stood behind her.
The orange-haired Otome that had accompanied Kruger's resistance force into Wind City stood in the corner of the room, her cat-god master and companion leaning against the wall next to her; munching happily on a roll of one sort or another.
Nao sat on the couch, across from one of the few people Nina had not expected to see while visiting Windbloom.
Yukino Chrysant and her Otome were both looking at her with a look of expectation that Nina had come to dread.
"Ah, Miss Wang." Kruger said, setting her papers down and looking at Nina with slightly cold green eyes. She folded her hands over her papers and did her best to look as severe as Miss Maria (without much success, but it was close enough for her to feel slightly intimidated). "We are in need of your assistance."
"Natsuki - " Nina glanced in the direction of the orange-haired woman in the corner. Why was she talking to the headmistress as though she had some sort of control over her? Nina was quite certain that no one had any control over the headmistress – not even her nearly-constant companion; Shizuru Viola had any ability to sway Kruger's opinion. "I think that you should be honest with her."
"I was getting to it." Kruger ground out.
Nina suddenly felt very out of place, caught in the middle of an argument that she was not a part of.
"Sure you were." Nao's voice picked up in the argument, and Nina felt like screaming. She hated it when people were fighting around her – it made her feel out of control and almost manic in her desperate attempts to right the argument around her.
"Look, Miss Wang," Kruger said. Nina wanted to scream for her to call her by her proper name. She did not want to be connected in any way to Sergey; she didn't think that she could handle dealing with the fact that he had been her father for much of her life. It just didn't equate in her brain. "Something has happened, since the woman that you met last week returned to where she came from. We need you to play a song on the Harmonium to stop-"
"No." Nina shut her eyes and shook her head. She would not do it again; she could not do it. That machine had stolen so much from her that she could believe that the woman who had rescued her from all that would ever dare to ask for something like that from her. "I won't it."
"What did I tell you, Ku-Kruger?" Nina turned to stare at Nao, as did most of the room.
Nina guessed that she was missing something.
"What did you say, Nao?" Kruger demanded.
"I just said that she wasn't going to go along with your grand plan to make this better. You can't make this better." Nao looked helpless.
The orange-haired girl stepped forward, "She did say it, didn't she, Mikoto?"
"Kruger is Kuga, in one sense or another." The girl leaning against the wall muttered, before stepping forward.
She was very young looking, yet Nina could see something in her eyes that was ancient, older than the earth itself. The girl walked closer to Nina and sniffed her experimentally, "I'm very sorry that you got mixed up in the Harmonium, but in truth, I'm quite intrigued at the fact that you managed to get it up and running, despite all the safeguards I put on it."
Nina blinked, and the orange-haired girl shook her head, "Mikoto is over three hundred years old, Nina."
"What does this have to do with anything!?" A very loud and suddenly aggressive voice sounded from Nao's general direction. It seemed that General Armitage had finally lost her cool and was objecting to the fact that she had not been a part of the conversation up until to now, "She's just a little girl – she doesn't have the arbitrary-"
"Ability, Haruka," The president corrected, her voice sounding tired.
"Yes, that, she doesn't have the ability to handle anything like what you're talking about."
"Well, Haruka onee-sama, what do you propose we do?" The orange-haired girl shot back.
"I don't know, maybe if we ignore it, it will go away." General Armitage shrugged in an exaggerated motion.
Nina shook her head. She really had no idea what was going on anymore. Perhaps it was better that way.
-
Six hours later.
Catacombs, Windbloom Castle, Wind City, Windbloom
They all went down together. The cat-god had had the idea of using the Harmonium to play a song of destruction. She'd managed to do it once before, long ago – but she no longer was a tangiable enough being on this particular level of existence to play the song herself.
Besides, it still affected her, whether she wanted it to or not.
The Harmonium was the one device that the entity, formerly known as Minagi Mikoto could think of to stop the process of the almost-viral progression of the carnival in its tracks. It had been created in an attempt to stop the glorified slaughter during the Twelve Kingdoms War, but it had never been used for anything but destruction. All that Mikoto wanted was a chance to live in this world, with the friends of her past, without the burden of potentially having to kill each other.
It wasn't a lot to ask, but somehow, Mikoto felt as though the fact that this many of the HiME's souls had been reborn into this particular period of time meant something. Mikoto hated to think what it could mean.
The carnival was going to start again.
But not in this generation. It was too early.
Picking her way through the rubble behind General Armitage's brisk pace, Mikoto realized that she wasn't sure if she was fighting against the tide of emotions that came connected to the carnival, or if she genuinely wanted to help her new-found friends outside of the Black Valley.
She was torn between the two emotions, because she knew that both of them completely legitimate in her frame of mind.
She just couldn't bear the thought of losing everyone again.
"What do you propose to do?" Mai asked out of the corner of her mouth. She'd fallen back from walking with Kruger when the headmistress had gotten snappy with her. Mikoto found it amusing that Mai was completely unused to a snappy and bossy Natsuki – even with the change of location and upbringing for both of them. She couldn't really say anything to Mai, for as much as she loved the woman, Mikoto did not want to lose her over some petty insult.
"I don't know. Nina knows the song, she's played it once before. I just know how to channel it to where it needs to be." Mikoto explained, not meeting Mai's inquisitive gaze. She turned her attention once more to the ground ahead of her, for she did not want to face Mai with the potentially traitorous thoughts that were racing through her brain.
If this didn't work, then the spirits would simply assign a name and face to the missing souls of the contest and it would start anew.
It can't happen.
The Harmonium was still working order, although it was damaged in the occupation of Windbloom by Nagi dai Altai the previous year. The large cavernous room that housed the instrument was now riddled with the marks of many battles, and rubble covered much of the available floor space.
Many slaves had been killed during that battle, but nothing remained of the mass slaughter of Otome, their support personnel and their enemies. Such was the nature of warfare against an entity that could only be thought of, never actually touched.
"What now?" General Armitage's tone was curt, but Mikoto could detect a hint of something else under the brisk attitude. A touch of worry, perhaps, or concern for all the parties involved in this potentially risky mission.
Mikoto walked over to where Nina Wang stood, and asked, "Are you ready?"
Nina shook her head, but Mikoto could tell that she was just resisting because of the fear of what she might do, if given the chance on the Harmonium.
"You have nothing to be afraid of." Mikoto said, taking the girl's hand and squeezing it reassuringly, "I'm here, and it's been my job for centuries to guard the device. I'm sure that I can stop you, or it, before anything bad happens."
Nina swallowed, "Are you sure?"
Mikoto nodded, "Yup."
They stepped past Kruger, who was still scowling from something that Nao had said to her, and onto the steps of the Harmonium.
It lit up, a low tolling note filling the room as Mikoto moved towards the keys and took stock of what effects were pulled. They'd designed the Harmonium to act like a regular pipe-organ, and in doing so, they'd managed to channel its effects into several different tones. Mikoto pushed in several of the stops and pulled a few out, "The reason that the Harmonium had such a destructive impact the last time you used it was because no one bothered to make sure that it wouldn't be playing a song of death." She explained to Nina. "I've fixed it so that you should be able to play, and then direct the song where you want it to go."
Nina nodded; her face pale.
"Don't be afraid." Mikoto added.
Nina didn't say anything, and simply placed her fingers upon the keys. The song was slow and mournful. Mikoto remembered it well, for it was one that she had helped to write, all those years ago.
Slowly, the tension seemed to leave the room and the sense of panic and chaos left the room.
Mikoto sighed, Not this time, you bastard.
The Obsidian Lord would not win this time. These people could shape their own destiny.
-
Elsewhere
"These things always work out, don't they?" The jester set his teacup down on its saucer and fixed the Queen of Hell with an icy stare.
"This time, yes, they did." She sipped her tea quietly, resigned to the fate that awaited both of their souls, now that the carnival had been won by another. "But it's a rare occurrence. We shouldn't take it for granted; I doubt it will happen again."
The jester laughed, "That's where you're wrong, my dear. The souls are always the same, and the outcome is always the same." He moved his arm in a wide sweeping arch over his head, "Even Kaichou-san managed to find her happy ending. I was a little scared there, for a minute, that she would be doomed to forever linger in a place between sanity and madness."
The Queen sighed, "We cannot predict the outcome of this game, I had no idea they would kill themselves to avoid the fight they were facing."
"They did it anyway."
"Perhaps that is what makes them strong."
The two stood at a crossroads between this world and the spirit world where the children of the carnival live. They were not of this world, for their souls were eternal. They could never die, like the HiME who fought the battle with the Orphans, and then each other; their souls were immortal.
"This is a horrid cycle of death and rebirth." The Queen of Hell remarked, crossing her arms and settling more comfortably into her wheelchair. Her legs were not working, still; she would have thought the rebirth would have been enough to mend them, but again she was painfully mistaken.
"Someone should try and end it."
"Who?"
"Perhaps the next time, someone will find the strength to let the dead stay dead and simply wish to end the carnival."
"I doubt it."
REALLY FIN (I SWEARS)
You all did want to know what had happened, so I wrote you a lot more of this story then I'd intended. Thank you for your continued encouragement and support throughout this year and a half of writing.