Omake: A Common Enemy Without A Common Cause

This is a "What-if" scenario, to suggest what would happen if the SUEs were forced to work together, an alternate continuity that begins at some point during Episode 16 (with Episode 8 going as it did in canon).


As the six SUEs sat at a table together in a nondescript conference room with a long rectangular table and a conference call phone and projector on the table, the atmosphere was tense. None of them knew why they had been called there, or why, as well as who the others were, apart from the names at their seats.

The Usurper's voice, coming from the phone on the table, broke the silence and drew the SUEs' attention.

"Greetings, everyone," the Usurper said. "I am the Usurper, and I have brought you here to discuss a proposition that should be beneficial to everyone here. A world lies before us, and with your SUE powers, you should be able to claim it easily. However, a group of eleven powerful Himes- teenage girls and young women with special powers- stand in your way, and they must be defeated, or otherwise stripped of their powers or willingness to fight before you can lay claim to the world. It's up to you to determine how you go about doing so. Do you have any questions?"

Shizune raised her hand, and the Usurper, sensing from afar noticed her doing so.

"Yes, Shizune?" the Usurper said.

"Does this mean we are allowed to do precisely anything once we succeed?" Shizune said.

"Yes, anything, provided the other SUEs are amenable to it," the Usurper said. "How you achieve that consensus is another matter, but you should be all on the same page, and all willing to support, or at least accept, that decision."

Unfortunately, Shizune's absolute and unshakable faith in her convictions did not leave any room for compromise, convincing others of her plans or accepting ideas with which she disagreed. Sharing this power or the possibility of someone else gaining control of it was something she could not accept under any circumstances.

"Does God call up a committee when He deems a soul worthy of Heaven or damned to Hell?" Shizune said. "Did He ask for people's opinions on His commandments and the laws of the Bible? No! He asks for our faith and obedience, and we will give it to Him!"

"Oh, shut the hell up, you preachy, sanctimonious, self-righteous bitch," Hitomi said. "I don't give a rat's ass if you choose to be the slave of some imaginary man in the sky, although I do find your doing so laughable, but you've got another thing coming if you think I'm going to do the same."

"You have one chance to repent before I send you to Hell myself!" Shizune snarled. "I am not a slave, but a dutiful servant of the Lord, who rewards His children by sparing them everyone else's fate!"

Meiko shuddered as she heard what Shizune was saying. She knew that people with Shizune's mindset often despised homosexuals, and that even if she and Bachiko had a chance of defeating her, many of the people she hoped to pair up did not. For all of their sakes, Shizune had to be eliminated, and this was a sentiment Bachiko shared.

"Honestly, Otonashi," Bachiko said, "people like you give real Christians a bad name. If you don't cool it and agree to at least tolerate those you disagree with, I'm afraid we won't be able to work with you."

"You are truly arrogant to think you can stand against me or tell me what the 'real' way to practice my religion is," Shizune said. "The Lord has endowed upon me powers that enable me to negate all of yours, and the strength to stand against an army, like Samson did against the Philistines!"

"And who said I'm on a team, either?" Hitomi said, turning to Bachiko. "I submit to no one, be they god, human or anything else, and I have nothing but contempt for people who put aside their ideals for the sake of others. Their lives are so boring, so dull and empty that I don't think they'll mind if I take them."

The other SUEs recoiled in horror. Before, they had considered Shizune the most dangerous and mentally unstable of them all. But now that Hitomi showed no qualms about murdering them, they realized she represented a threat to all their lives, as well as a repulsive and perverse mindset that none of them could accept.

"But what if you're fighting for something or someone you value more than your own life?" Toki said. "Hayate is someone I love dearly, and value more than my own life. If my death enables Hayate to live on, I'd gladly give my life, so you shouldn't think that I would not kill you if I thought it necessary."

"Weren't you listening?" Hitomi said. "The only one I care about is myself, and I'm not about to put aside my whims to help any of you fools. You're all like livestock, and as such, it's time to fulfill your purpose and be slaughtered...Axon!"

Hitomi looked dumbfounded as neither her Element nor her Child materialized, as the rest of the SUEs looked comparably surprised.

"Axon!" Hitomi shouted again, then turned to Shizune. "What the hell? Is this your doing?"

"It's a feature of the room you are in," the Usurper said. "While in it, all your powers are nullified, even Shizune's. And it seems that this is exactly the kind of situation for which this feature was intended."

"I have a simple solution," Sekai said. "All of thee can surrender thy powers to me, and I shall use them to do the work of the entire group myself."

The SUEs shouted "NO!" in unison, and the discussion devolved into angry murmurs, with the occasional futile attempt by a SUE to summon her powers.

"That's enough!" the Usurper shouted, quieting the SUEs. "Infighting will get us nowhere, and the Himes will triumph if you kill each other. Take a ten minute break, and reconvene once you have cooled your heads."

The SUEs got up and walked off into the halls, going their separate ways.


"Excuse me… Asahina-san?" Meiko said, as she and Bachiko approached Toki after the meeting, in a hallway outside the meeting room.

"What is it?" Toki said, as Meiko looked around to ensure no one else was listening.

"I'd like to make a proposal, seeing as you're one of the more reasonable of us. We could cooperate, to achieve each other's goals; you can ensure that you can get together with Hayate, and we will change the relationships of the students, as we feel is necessary."

"How do I know that you're not going to change Hayate, or make either of us fall in love with someone else?" Toki said. "If you're willing to manipulate everyone else, you probably think someone else is better for me, don't you?"

While Meiko was taken aback at Toki's accusation, Bachiko sighed as if to say "I told you so." She had opposed the idea of bringing additional people in on their plan, reasoning that the two of them would work well enough.

"No, we don't know who Hayate is," Meiko said. "But we do believe that it would be easier to deal with the other SUEs who don't want to cooperate with anyone if we team up. Otonashi-san and Kirihara-san have already alienated themselves from the others, who will likely try to deal with them at the first opportunity. That leaves Sekai-san, who will be unable to stand against the three of us."

"And what then?" Toki said. "Your goal is different than mine, so I can't be certain you won't betray me before or after all our opponents have been defeated."

"That may be true, but..." Meiko began, before trailing off. Toki had no interest in hearing what she intended to say next, and shook her head.

"In any case, I don't need your help to achieve my goal," Toki said. "All I can offer to you is the suggestion that you stay out of my way, and you'll have one less person to deal with." Toki then turned around and walked off before Meiko could say anything more.

Meiko sighed, as she turned to Bachiko.

"It seems you were right about Asahina-san, Bachiko," she said. "None of the others want to cooperate with us. I should have realized this earlier- even if our plans don't conflict, what reason do they have to let us succeed?"

"Still, you have a point that we have the two of us, whereas everyone else is acting alone," Bachiko said. "As long as we stick together, we should come out on top."

"Perhaps we should wait out the others," Meiko said. "They seem disposed to take aggressive action, and it's possible that they'll eliminate those they see as a threat. Once they've all been disposed of, we'll move in and start playing matchmaker."


As the SUEs reconvened the meeting, they collectively grimaced at the prospect of being brought together with those they despised, for a process that they believed would be futile, as virtually none were willing to even consider collaborating.

"Why are we coming back together, anyway?' Hitomi said. "This is clearly a waste of time."

The door opened behind Hitomi, and Mariko walked into the room.

"I apologize for being late," Mariko said, before taking her seat. In truth, she was not late by any fault of her own, but by the Usurper having delayed her arrival to see her effect on the group.

"We were discussing our plan to either eliminate the Himes or force them to submit to our will, so that we can gain control of their world," the Usurper said. "Perhaps you have an idea for how to accomplish this?"

"I will do no such thing!" Mariko said indignantly. "By doing so, you violate their free will and steal what does not belong to you!"

"But haven't you considered whether these people need our guidance, Suou-san?" Meiko said. "They often make terrible decisions in life, especially in love, when they're ruled by their emotions."

"I can't contest that point, Moriya-san," Mariko said. "But what makes you think that you're much better than they are to make that decision? And if they make mistakes, shouldn't they at least be their mistakes, and shouldn't they earn the negative and positive consequences of their actions?"

"Have you ever considered, Mariko, how much you have earned yourself?" the Usurper said. "What if everything you ever had- your beauty, your grades, your maturity, your popularity and everything else- were given to you by someone else, for the sake of using you to enter another world and sway it to that person's will?"

"Th-that's impossible," Mariko said. "After Mother and Father died, life was often difficult, even with the wealth they left behind. I had to try hard to get by after that, and if I have many things, it's because I earned them!"

"Tell me, Mariko, can you recall a time when a person disliked or disagreed with you?" Mariko shook her head. "They agreed with you and loved you because your powers, unbeknownst to you or them, compelled them to do so. And now, you are in a room that negates your powers, and not one of the SUEs approves of your desire to relinquish our claim on the world. Although, I should note that none of the other SUEs can use their powers, either, and thus, your present survival is another consequence of the room's properties; what's good for the goose is good for the gander."

Mariko looked around at the other SUEs glaring at her, and hung her head in despair. She was clearly outnumbered on this matter, but more importantly, was the Usurper correct? Had her entire life truly been handed to her on a silver platter? And if this was true, who was she, and what was she meant to do? Her lack of parents made sense, since it possibly was meant to explain her lack of an origin, or simply in a ploy to inspire sympathy for her. Under that scenario, the people who sympathized with or admired her were being manipulated, just like she was. But how would people regard her, if given a chance to do so without being told what to think? Mariko found no answers, only more and more uncomfortable questions.

With Mariko having fallen silent, the Usurper resumed addressing the SUEs. He knew she was troublesome, but also that the Avatar wanted her to participate, and hoped that she had been adequately cowed into submission.

"This is my final decision," the Usurper said firmly. "All of you will cooperate against the Himes, and victory will be achieved when all of the Himes are dead, no longer in possession of their powers, or no longer willing to fight you. The SUE who contributes the most to the final victory will be granted sole control of the world, but only if all of the Himes are killed or neutralized. Any SUE who betrays or raises a hand against another will be considered a traitor, and killing traitors will be seen as a contribution to the effort against the Himes for purposes of crediting the most valuable SUE. Am I understood?"

The SUEs silently and reluctantly nodded. None of them relished having to cooperate or trusted most of the others, but each realized that open betrayal would result in the rest of the SUEs cooperating to kill her, or at least, competing for the opportunity to do so first.

"Then it's settled," The Usurper said. "Go forth to a safehouse I have in the world of the Himes. There, you will find what you will need to infiltrate Fuuka Academy. Your powers and your skills will ultimately be what you need to win. Good luck, and remember; cooperation and teamwork will be rewarded, while betrayal and selfishness will be punished."


The SUEs materialized the safehouse, hidden in downtown Fuuka. They were dressed in the uniforms worn by high school age girls at Fuuka Academy. A day had passed since the Searrs Foundation troops had been forced to withdraw from the Fuuka Academy campus, and Alyssa Searrs and Joseph Greer had died. It had also been a few weeks since Higurashi Akane had lost her Child, the boy she loved and her sanity in rapid succession.

The SUEs had been told that attempting to integrate themselves into the Fuuka Academy community, and in order to prepare for it, they perused their copy of the Fuuka Academy student handbook.

"I can change everyone's memories so that they assume that we've been here all along, but how are we going to fabricate concrete proof that we were there?" Meiko said.

"Leave that to me," Bachiko said. "I should be able to break into the system and alter the records to have us registered as students. The paper trail may be another issue, but if we have them convinced that it was lost, we should be able to pull it off well enough for no one to ask questions."

"Must we undertake such superfluous subterfuge?" Sekai said. "Our powers should be more than sufficient to vanquish our foes."

"It will leave us able to observe the Himes without being detected," Meiko said. "This is an important tactical advantage, and if we go for a subtler strategy, this will enable us to observe the Himes up close over time and choose the best moment to strike."

What Meiko left unsaid was the fact that this was mainly expedient for her and Bachiko's plans. But the other SUEs were cognizant of this, or at least the fact that their own plans did not require any such advantage.

Suddenly, an idea came to Mariko. The room was no longer inhibiting the other SUEs' powers, but now, the same applied to her.

"The question we should be asking ourselves, more than how we plan to go about doing this, is should we be trying this?"

"What do you mean, Suou-san?" Shizune asked with a tone that indicated polite curiosity rather than outrage or disbelief. Mariko took pleasure in hearing this; her powers were already taking hold.

"In order to win, we must potentially sacrifice 10 more innocent victims, while potentially giving up our own lives, as well as the lives of those we cherish the most. And for what? Do our goals mean so much to us that we'd risk everything and cause harm to others for them?"

"No," Toki said, enthralled by Mariko's power. "Hayate is important to me, but does that mean that our bond outweighs anyone else's lives? Perhaps someone harmed or killed by our plans is as precious to someone else as Hayate is to me."

"But how do you think we can learn to live in this world without our powers, Suou-san?" Sekai said.

"You will learn a way," Mariko said. "I believe that if we work hard at it, we can succeed. It's the difficult path, but the right one, and ultimately the most rewarding one"

As the other SUEs capitulated to Mariko's will, she felt a twinge of guilt in her mind. While she had been unwittingly using her powers in the past, she had now knowingly and intentionally used hers this time to violate the free will of her fellow SUEs while hypocritically suggesting that they try to lead normal lives. But another part of her objected to this notion; by acting now, she had potentially saved many lives, including those of the SUEs themselves. So long as she resolved to, from this moment forward, adhere to the same restriction as the SUEs, they would all be able to live normal lives.

Or at least until the temptation overcame her again, the part of her conscience that objected to the plan responded.


"Interesting…" the Avatar said to the Usurper. "Mariko has indeed chosen to not to try to control the world, and used her powers to convince the others to do the same." He also pondered the ramifications of using her powers in order to sway the rest of the SUEs to forego using theirs, as well as whether it was hypocritical or a necessary evil.

"And yet this contest has ground to a halt," the Usurper said. "None of the SUEs will make a move against the Himes, nor do the Himes know of their existence. Does this mean our defeat?"

"It doesn't have to," the Avatar said. "The SUEs are no longer fighting against the Himes, but largely because one of their number has chosen to act counter to their plans, rather than because the Himes were able to thwart their plans. But such an outcome still does not necessarily mean the superiority of the SUEs over the Himes, and if your SUEs cannot prove their superiority, they will not win; it is up to you to prove that the SUEs can overcome this obstacle, and that one renegade SUE cannot derail the efforts of the remaining six."

The Usurper pondered the situation for the moment. It seemed impossible to sway the SUEs to oppose someone with almost limitless influence over them. But then he realized that there was one SUE who had an attachment comparable to her bond with Mariko, as well as an ability that would render Mariko's ability useless.


Shizune sat in quiet contemplation. Mariko had not taken the opportunity to convince her to abandon or moderate her religious beliefs, so she grappled with the contradictions her beliefs posed. She loved Mariko more than anyone else, so why should she have to kill her because her God told her to do so? And what could she say to convince Mariko to accept her God without threatening their friendship?

"Shizune, it is I, your God," the Usurper's voice said inside her mind. Shizune had heard the Usurper before, but did not recognize it once it was inside her mind, rather than through a speaker. "Listen carefully- you are under a Satanic spell cast by the Antichrist herself."

"Suou-san?" Hitomi said. "But she's my best friend."

She intends to tempt you to abandon your crusade," the Usurper said, "and once she succeeds, you and all the other God-fearing Christians will be dragged down to Hell. But you alone have the power to stop her. Summon forth your Element, and you will have the strength to resist her demonic powers."

Shizune hesitated for a moment, unwilling to believe the Usurper's claims that she had been manipulated, even if she believed that God was telling them to her. But she then reasoned that her friendship with Mariko was deep enough that it would not be affected by her activating her powers. And in her mind, Mariko would not wish for her to be forced to choose between their friendship and her faith.

Shizune called forth her Element, and the sword and shield appeared in her hand. The Silencing Aura extended, and encompassed a large enough radius that Mariko's powers were reduced to the point at which they barely affected Shizune. Brief impulses to hesitate flashed through Shizune's mind, but they were quickly drowned out by a fierce hatred for her for manipulating her, and a deep, murderous zeal.

"Please forgive Your servant for doubting You, Lord," Shizune responded to the Usurper. "What is Your command?"

"Find and dispose of the heretic, Suou Mariko," the Usurper said.

Shizune walked into the room nearby, where Mariko was sitting on a couch. Terrified at the sight of Shizune's Element and the bloodthirsty glare on her face, Mariko rose to her feet in an attempt to escape.

"Argus!" she yelled, and her Child sprung forth. The Child put its Silencing Sigil onto Mariko, removing the last vestiges of her control over Shizune and the other SUEs. Mariko collapsed to her knees, in horror, as she realized her plight. Her plan to dissuade Shizune by manipulating her had failed, and now, without her powers, there was nothing to save her from Shizune's wrath.

"Your powers are perverse, and you seek to bend the entire world to your will," Shizune said. "Your very existence is an abomination against God- you cannot be allowed to live."

As the blade swung toward her neck, Mariko pondered her fate. Everything had been given to her as a result of her powers, so that she could fulfill a role intended for her by her creator. The only way to resist was by using the same powers to subvert the Usurper's plan. And now that it had failed, she was left powerless and at Shizune's mercy, faring as much of a chance against her as an ordinary unarmed, untrained and powerless human being.

"Perhaps I could never hope to live as an ordinary human being," Mariko thought. "But at the very least, I can die as one."

Shizune's Element then cut across Mariko's neck, severing her head.


Downstairs in the safehouse, Bachiko and Meiko, stood in front of Sekai, preparing to head out into the city to shop for supplies. At that moment, Shizune placed the Silencing Sigil on Mariko, nullifying her powers and restoring them to their prior personalities.

Sekai, forgetting the girl whose powers had forced them to unite around her and forsake their mission, cursed herself for wasting so much valuable time. Who knew how close the other SUEs were to eliminating the Himes and securing the Usurper's favor? Throwing all caution to the wind and disregarding the Usurper's warning against infighting, Sekai quickly summoned her Element and thrust it into Meiko's back. Meiko's memory-erasing powers were potentially problematic, and a pre-emptive strike would be necessary to save her trouble later on.

"Ba…ch-chi…k-ko…" Meiko stammered, blood pouring from her mouth and the wound in her chest, before she expired.

"Why you-" Bachiko said. She realized that her power of summoning hornets was not very useful in a fight against Sekai, especially now that Sekai was now in possession of Meiko's powers. But she temporarily forgot this fact, blinded by grief, rage and a desire to avenge Meiko.

Another fact she forgot for a moment was who Meiko had valued most, and the price Meiko had to pay for her defeat. Before she or Sekai could launch an attack on the other, Bachiko doubled over, and collapsed onto her hands and her knees, as pain flowed through her body.

"Meiko… I'm sorry…" she said, as she looked up at Sekai, her and Meiko's killer, despairingly. "I couldn't even… avenge you…" There were many things she wanted- Sekai back, her powers, or even a few more seconds' opportunity to claim vengeance on Sekai. But in the end, Bachiko could have none of those things, and spent the few seconds before she disappeared in silent despair, along with Meiko's corpse.


As blood poured from Mariko's headless neck, Shizune swiped the blood off her blade, and dropped to her knees in prayer, only assuming that she had killed an enemy of the Christian faith; all her memories of Mariko after her death.

"Lord, Your servant awaits Your command," Shizune said to the Usurper.

The Usurper, having witnessed Bachiko and Meiko's deaths, realized that fighting had started to break out between the SUEs. He concluded that Sekai had become a liability, since while it was possible that she could absorb the other SUEs' powers, it was more likely that her recklessness and impatience would lead her into a confrontation with the Himes that she could not hope to win, or would cause her to squander a potential opportunity for victory by failing to do what was necessary.

"The one known as Sekai is seeking to harvest others' powers for her own ends. Kill her before she becomes unstoppable," the Usurper said to Shizune.

"As You command, Lord," Shizune responded.

Suddenly, Shizune found herself under the control of another, while fading in and out of consciousness. She noticed that someone was trying to pull the blade of her sword closer to her throat, and in her conscious moments, resisted the command as much as she was able.

Hitomi stepped out into the room to investigate the interference, realizing that Shizune's Silencing Aura was enabling her to occasionally break free of her control. It was bad enough that Shizune had killed the other person in the room before she could, but she could not comprehend why Shizune was resisting the command to commit suicide with her own sword.

"Just die already, dammit!" Hitomi thought. "You keep talking about Heaven and how good it is- why don't I send you to it?"

This moment of carelessness sealed Hitomi's fate. Shizune's Child, still present, fired a Silencing Sigil at her, and it transferred from Mariko's headless corpse to Hitomi's body.

"What?!" Hitomi began as Shizune darted forward, "No, that's not poss-"

She was cut off by Shizune thrusting her sword into her chest. Paralyzed by her pain and the shock of her powers, which she had relied so heavily on, failing her at a crucial moment, Hitomi could do nothing but stare at Shizune.

"Your powers were meant to fail you the moment they went against God's power," Shizune said. "Go join your master in Hell and see how Satan always betrays his slaves."

As Shizune withdrew her sword, Hitomi crumpled to the floor, blood pouring from the wound in her chest.


Toki slipped out of the safehouse, and into an abandoned parking garage. She considered herself fortunate; she had not stood out among the other SUEs, and she had not presented herself as an obstacle to anyone else's plans. She considered all the infighting and killing between the SUEs pointless- what was the importance of the present if she planned to change the past?

She heard footsteps behind her, and slowly turned around to look at the noise. She did not initially suspect that the interloper posed any threat to her plan, but realized that any witnesses could be potentially troublesome, especially if they were being controlled by Hitomi.

Toki then saw that her attacker, whom she recognized as Sekai, was closer to her than she would like. Only her slowing down time was enough to avoid a fatal sword thrust, as she ducked under the blow. As Sekai slowly retracted the blade, Toki dropped a grenade at Sekai's feet, and then leaped away, in the direction from which Sekai had approached. A large explosion came near Sekai's feet, but as the smoke cleared, Toki saw a barrier of light- Meiko's shield ability- and behind it, Sekai herself.

"Surrender thy powers," Sekai said. "Thy strength is insufficient to achieve thy goal, yet it will augment my own efforts."

Toki glowered in rage at Sekai. She had been prepared to pay any price to make her dreams come true. If no one's life besides hers and Hayate's mattered, why should she surrender to Sekai?

Toki activated her power to slow time again, and readied another grenade as Sekai charged forward. But something was off; Sekai was charging forward too quickly, at the pace of a brisk walk rather than being stuck running in place. Toki froze in horror as Sekai strode forward, out of the blast radius, and attempted to ready another grenade.

Just as Toki succeeded in arming the grenade, Sekai's Element thrust into her chest, and it slipped out of her hand. With the grenade moments from exploding, Sekai used her newly acquired time manipulation powers to hop to the side and raise a deflector shield around herself.

Toki, bleeding to death and standing above a grenade about to detonate, realized at that moment that because of the nature of her powers, her life was not the only thing she would lose.

"Hayate… I'm sorry… in trying to allow us to be together, I got both of us killed…" were Toki's last thoughts.

Toki's final grenade detonated, incinerating her body.


As Sekai stood, looking at the spot where Toki had once stood, she realized that something had seemed wrong about the final moments of their duel. Toki's reaction had been slow that time; before, she had a vastly greater amount of time to make her moves, enabling her to dodge Sekai's attacks, counterattack and escape to safety before Sekai could press the attack. This time, it was clear that Toki had less time, but it was as if Toki was just as surprised at being suddenly slowed.

She suddenly found her answer as a Silencing Sigil hit her in the chest.

"Otonashi Shizune!" Sekai snarled.

Shizune walked forward, giving an indifferent glimpse to the charred hole around Toki's remains. The Usurper had instructed her to kill Sekai, the rogue SUE, and had forbidden her from killing Toki, but had not ordered Shizune to save her. Shizune was glad that Toki was dead, as she was willing to disrupt time itself for the sake of someone Shizune would most likely have found unworthy of living in what she saw as a promised utopia.

Sekai fell back and tried to crawl away, the shock of losing her powers having taken away her footing. Having defined herself by the many abilities she had acquired, extraordinary alone and almost unstoppable together, she was now failing to perform the most basic type of ambulation.

And so, as Shizune raised her sword, Sekai stopped trying to resist, and merely closed her eyes as the blade descended to her neck.

"So this is what it feels like to be powerless,"Sekai thought.

The Usurper assessed the situation and despaired. His favored pawn had triumphed, but at the cost of all the other SUEs, and most likely, the Avatar's favor. Only an overwhelming victory against the Himes would be enough to prove the SUEs' superiority, as their disastrous failure at cooperating with each other would mean that they could only succeed on their own..

Shizune started to walk away, but soon encountered two police officers, having been drawn there by the explosions. Seeing Shizune with a blood-stained weapon and a decapitated corpse nearby, they immediately understood what had transpired.

"Freeze, police!" two police officers said, while pointing their pistols at Shizune.

Shizune quickly charged the two police officers, swinging her sword, and cutting them down. As they fell, she noticed something. One of the officers had shot her in the chest during the confrontation.

Shizune tried to walk away, but felt her strength draining, and, falling to her side, collapsed between two parked cars.

"Lord, I gladly give my life for You," Shizune thought. "But I never imagined… that my single life… would only make this much difference…"

Shizune quickly slipped into unconsciousness. Within minutes, she was found and taken to the local hospital.

She was pronounced dead on arrival.


"It would seem the Himes are not necessarily the SUEs' worst enemies," the Avatar said. "Their type is accustomed to working alone, so they have little concept of how to cooperate- even Meiko did not truly understand how to compromise with Toki for the sake of forming an alliance, or how to coordinate their efforts. But most of them had radically different agendas, seeking to force their own agendas on the world while refusing to accept anyone else's or compromise. Indeed, why would they have to do any of those things if they got their way all the time?"

The Avatar's words barely registered to the Usurper, as he seethed in anger over the SUEs' dying so senselessly and without making any progress toward their goal. In his rage, he blamed everyone involved but himself.

"Those fools…" the Usurper muttered. "All seven of them died without the Himes even having to raise a finger!"

"The SUEs, by definition, are typically meant to do alone what entire groups could not accomplish together," the Avatar said. "In that sense, Sekai was not wrong in thinking that she could potentially do such a thing; she was only mistaken in thinking herself strong enough to do so at the moment. The Himes have the potential to turn on each other when influenced by desperation, paranoia or the manipulation of others, but when the enemy is visible and too strong for them to face alone, they can stand against it together, realizing that their differences are not what matters at the moment."

"This hardly proves anything," the Usurper said. "Do we even have any proof that the Himes can work together in a crisis? If not, we can hardly consider them superior to the SUEs"

"The Himes have been tested by the Orphans and the Searrs Foundation and will be tested again in the near future," the Advisor said. He showed a vision of the Obsidian Lord, emboldened by the number of pillars rising, accelerating his plan and attempting to dispose of the Himes he did not need, only to be defeated by the combined efforts of the Himes. "But perhaps we should try again, with different parameters, to see the answer to our question. If cooperation is a pointless and counterproductive exercise for the SUEs, perhaps they should be given the opportunity to fight alone, to see whether they are able to stand against an entire world and bend it to their will."

And so, the Avatar rewound time, hoping to set up a new confrontation between the Himes and the SUEs. The Usurper's memories of what had transpired were removed, but in his place, the Avatar left the lesson that he had learned- that the SUEs, who sought to have their own way across the entire world, could not make the necessary sacrifices and compromises to cooperate with others.


Mai sat at a table in Fuuka Academy at lunch time, talking with Aoi and Chie. Their current subject of conversation was a certain highly popular student who happened to be in Mai's class.

"You know, I think I heard Akane-chan mention her before," Mai said. "But for some reason, I'm having a hard time putting my finger on just why she is so popular."

Chie chuckled, amused and slightly surprised at Mai's unfamiliarity with the student everyone else knew so well and loved so dearly.

"You're still new around here, Mai," Chie said. "It's natural that it's a bit hard for you to wrap your head around everything that there is to like about her, but it's probably something you should experience for yourself."

"Excuse me, Tokiha Mai-san?" someone behind Mai said.

Mai turned around, and found an exceptionally beautiful and graceful blue-haired individual. She looked slightly like Natsuki, but had a charming and graceful air that Natsuki lacked.

"Yes, that's my name," Mai said, enchanted. "Just wondering, how do you know me?"

"Higurashi-san has told me much about you, and how she considers you a good person and a good friend," she said. "But I am forgetting my manners, Tokiha-san. My name is Suou Mariko, and it's a pleasure to meet you."


Author's Note: This was an idea that I had while working on this fic; what would happen if the SUEs were forced to work together? The short answer is that because of their personalities being better suited to acting unilaterally, and their sometimes mutually exclusive desires (which typically involve enforcing their own will on the world), they are unable to do so. Furthermore, as some of the Mary Sues I've seen solve their problems with violence, they will likely end up killing each other. This omake is essentially the long answer, albeit one possible outcome.

I hope Mariko's personality doesn't come off as too surprising; while many Mary Sues have rather questionable moral priorities (Bachiko, Meiko, Toki, Makoto, Suzuka), if they are not utterly psychotic and twisted (Sekai, Shizune and especially Hitomi), others are paragons of virtue and are intended to be completely pure and flawless, without having to struggle with their flaws. Mariko, in this case, hears some uncomfortable truths about things she had accepted unquestioningly, and is faced with a more complex moral quandary than she is accustomed to.

I set up a poll in my profile, asking which SUE the readers like most. As much as the SUEs are meant to represent shallow and unbelievable characters, I'm curious to see which ones you think played that role the best.