2: Kiyohime Reborn

Saeko swabbed Shizuru's arm, "Now, the techs will be monitoring your vital signs from the control booth."

"Ara, will you not be?" Shizuru raised an eyebrow.

"Consider this a sign of good faith. I will be here, in here, alongside you, sharing the risk."

Shizuru's eyebrows raised, then she nodded, "Very well."

"Well, you're familiar with the routine. You're going to feel a slight prick. This isn't a series of nanomachines, by the way. This is material recovered from the HiME-Star after its destruction. It's a very minute dose, but we're hoping that it will be sufficient to allow you to summon your Child."

The injection went smoothly.

"Nagi told me once that the power to Materialize was a key to interdimensional travel," Shizuru said, "And that each of us is like a pushpin existing in multiple worlds at once."

"Interesting," Saeko mused, "Not an exact description, but we had found evidence that most people exist in a strange quantum state between universes."

"So, you just want me to try to call my Child, then?"

Saeko frowned, "Do you feel any difference?"

"I feel warm. But I don't sense Kiyohime."

"I was concerned about that. I believe it may require a catalyst to reawaken your power. A rough analogy would be like jumpstarting a car. Unfortunately, I'm not sure how to go about it safely."

"May I sit?" Shizuru asked, "I feel a little strange."

Saeko tapped a button on her headset, "Serizawa, what is the readout on vitals? Still nominal? I see. Alright.

"They say your vitals are still stable. But if you feel ill, then you should sit down."

Shizuru sat quietly on the floor, taking the seiza position. She closed her eyes for a moment to clear the dizziness in her head. She opened them again, and was staring into cruel crimson eyes.

"I see that you've finally come to me," Shizuru heard her own voice, but it was not her speaking.

"And which me are you?" Shizuru asked calmly.

"Think of me as a culmination of the best of you. Of your strength. Of the reason you were able to fight at all. I am everything you've denied and forgotten about yourself."

"You are nothing I want or need," Shizuru said sourly, "I know what you are. You're the darkest part of my heart. You were the voice of madness spurring me on."

"And you are the very embodiment of weakness. You couldn't even protect yourself when those men came for you. You had to rely on Natsuki's strength again to save you."

Shizuru smiled, "I can rely on Natsuki, because I have her love. What do you have? I have a wife who loves me. I have three wonderful daughters. I have made friends with those who were my enemies, and have a new extended family. What do you have?"

"The one thing you don't. The power to protect them."

"You're the one who fouled my relationship with Natsuki. You're the thing I was dreaming about. Hurting her, and delighting in it. You're everything that was ever wrong with me. You're not capable of protecting Natsuki. You only hurt her."

"SHE HURT US!" the crimson eyes glared at her, "All that time, all we wanted was for her to notice us, and she ignored us! She USED us! We did so many things for that girl! And she couldn't even be there for us! We deserve her love! She belongs to us! All she had to do was acknowledge us, but she never did. So we had to make her ours by force!"

Shizuru felt ill, recognizing the very thoughts that had gone through her head, "NO! Natsuki was never yours. She was her own. She asked for help, because she needed help. She didn't want us involved in her troubles. If you're my power, then I will not be a party to your strength!"

"Shizuru!" Another voice called.

Shizuru turned to see yet another version of her. This one was clad in white, her own crimson eyes soft and pleading, "Please, I beg you to finally hear me!"

"I do hear you," Shizuru whispered, seeing a golden aura swirling around this other form, "And you are?"

"I am the culmination in the best of you. I am the calm young woman sipping tea in the Student Council Room. I am the mirthful laughter when Natsuki blushes at our jibes. I am the soft gasps of elation when she kisses us in the night. I am the one who glows when she's happy. I am your true strength. For every one like her," she nodded at the creature with fans, and a red and black glow around her, "there are a dozen of us. We are the ones who helped Natsuki out of the goodness of our hearts. The ones who knew that so long as she was safe we could be happy, the ones who begged for her forgiveness after all we had done, and the ones who graciously received her forgiveness and her love, which are the same thing. Let us show you your true power. Let us show you the true form that Kiyohime was always meant to possess."

Shizuru reached out and took the hand of her other self.

"Dr. Kuga, we have high level materialization signatures in the room. Something is definitely happening!"

Shizuru rose to her feet, her lips in a serene smile, parting as she spoke in a calm, collected tone of voice, "Kiyohime."

There was a flash of golden light, and a thunderclap. There was Kiyohime, the six-headed hydra. But something was happening. One by one, heads began to withdraw into the body, until it expanded and burst open.

Now, there was only one head, cobralike, with over a dozen eyes lining its head. It had a wide, scaled body, and two enourmous, majestic wings of purple and gold feathers arched out. It rose into the air with a swift thrust of its wings, and golden light seemed to emanate from its amaranthine scales. No longer a hydra, Kiyohime had transformed herself into a creature like a Quetzalcoatl or the legendary Kukulkan.

"I am of one mind," Shizuru said calmly, "I will protect my friends and family. I am reborn, Kiyohime."

The serpentine Child bowed its head, and then, at Shizuru's behest, it returned to the place within her heart.

"Amazing," Dr. Kuga nodded, "I've never heard of a Child transforming like that. And there's no doubt about your love of my daughter, given the sheer size of that thing."

Shizuru fell to her knees, "I'm glad, Doct…"she shook her head, smiling "Kuga-okasan. But I think I'm going to have to go home and make a very large meal of all of Natsuki's favorites."

"Oh?" Saeko raised an eyebrow.

"Yes. I just realized how exhausting dealing with me can be," Shizuru smiled at her mother in law.