Chapter 8.

"Heh, that's so like you," Natsuki remarked from her spot on the sofa where she was watching the television.

Shizuru looked up, "Ara, what's just like me? I was wrapped up in these news reports."

Natsuki smirked, and hit the rewind button on the blu-ray player, backing up the scene in question. It was an anime, Shizuru noted, and she'd recalled that Natsuki had recently purchased a new title, Yagate, Kimi ni Naru, and had been watching it.

The scene in question had a girl with pink hair working the counter at a book store. She was describing the types of books that the other members of the cast would select their books. Then they got to a scene where a tall, dark haired girl was making her purchases, and the girl at the counter reacting, noting that the book her classmate was purchasing was a lesbian romance with graphic sex scenes, and concluding that her classmate was trying to get a reaction out of her. Cut to the next scene, the tall girl was now apologizing, holding up the book, saying she had no idea what it was and had no ulterior motives, while her pink-haired friend just smirked and noted her friend's obliviousness.

"Like I said, so you," Natsuki grinned.

Shizuru chuckled, "Mou, Ikezu, Natsuki. I can't believe that after being married all these years, you would be so stunningly wrong."

Natsuki blinked, "Wrong?"

"For one thing," Shizuru leaned up against her, breathing into her ear, "If I had purchased such a book, you may rest assured, I would have known precisely what it was. And I would most definitely have wanted to see my Natsuki's adorable blushing face."

And Natsuki did blush, as Shizuru rose again, "Besides, I'm afraid you're wrong on another count."

"I am?"

"As I said, I would have known what that book was. I was very careful, in my younger days, to make sure that no one knew what I really was. I would not have picked up such a book at all, for fear that anyone who happened upon me would know exactly what it was that I was doing."

"Excuse me, but after we started living together, did you not have an entire shelf of yuri-themed manga. Or a good many novels like Carmilla, The Well of Loneliness, The Price of Salt, and a few others?"

"Ara, but those were only on display because Natsuki knew who I was. Prior to that, they were concealed cleverly in my closet…and no, the irony of that is not lost on me. And I most certainly didn't walk into a bookstore to purchase them. I had to special order them from Amazon Japan, and ensure that they arrived in boxes or bubble mailers. My trips to the bookstore would often see me purchasing books on poetry, or study guides. Occasionally I'd get a romance novel. I still held out hopes in those days that I could feign being straight.

"Besides, what sort of books did my dear Natsuki read in those days?"

"I was more into video games than books," Natsuki admitted, "And I justified it as being the whole hand-eye coordination thing. Biohazard, for example. I tried Silent Hill, but that was too creepy for me."

Shizuru chuckled, "How is it that Natsuki can face down Orphans with gaping maws filled with row after row of razor sharp teeth, and she still finds horror movies and video games to be too scary?"

"I couldn't realistically ask Duran to shoot out the t.v. screen," Natsuki pointed out, a bit sheepishly, "Besides, some of the things in those games were way scarier than Orphans. Like the hospital scene in the first game, where the elevator takes you up to the fourth floor, and then you find out there isn't a fourth floor when you come down the stairs. That's freaky on a whole other level than Orphans, because Orphans you could shoot, or slice and dice. But what do you do with a building that changes the rules of reality on you when your back is turned?"

Shizuru frowned, "That would be more eerie and troubling, I grant you. And thankfully, something we've never experienced firsthand. Though, Yukino has told me that I was far scarier than any horror movie she's seen."

Natsuki sighed, sensing the oncoming maudlin depression that was coming on, "I wish you wouldn't dwell on the Festival, Shizuru. It's like I said before, we literally died that time. As such, anything that came before doesn't count. We were brought back. These are brand new lives. Well, nearly a decade into them, now, but still, let the past be in the past."

Shizuru sighed and smiled, "I just wish I could have left the memories of my pre-Festival life in that past. But they come, unbidden, to my mind, Natsuki. Do you not ever have such memories? Or nightmares?"

Natsuki shook her head, "I spent too much time dwelling prior to dying. I gave it up when I came back. What did it ever get me? I chased after the people who I blamed for Mom's 'death' for ten years, and in the end, I was no closer to getting revenge on them than I was when I started out.

"But now, I've got nearly ten years under my belt of being married to you, being a mom, which, by the way, suits me way more than I would have imagined before it happened, and I've got my Mom back.

"You've got me at your side, our daughters, who adore you by the way. And didn't I tell you that they'd start to acquire your tastes, if you gave them time?" Natsuki gave Shizuru a knowing smile.

"That you did. And Saiyuri certainly has taken a liking to green tea. Unfortunately, she also seems to have developed a strange affinity for mayonnaise, but we won't discuss the unfortunate origins of that for the time being…"

"That is one subject where we are going to have to agree to disagree," Natsuki smiled, "Even if you're totally wrong about how awesome it is."

"As you say," Shizuru smiled serenely, "Agreeing to disagree suits us on that topic.

"I suppose my inability to let the Festival go is the fact that the world seems bound and determined to remind us, what with the pursuit of Materialization as a weapon. And then one of the HiME went out and wrote a series about the whole thing…"

"And anonymously, the little tramp," Natsuki didn't know which HiME was the tramp, but the recent anime that had aired about their exploits had irritated her to no end, "When I find out who it was…"

"They certainly portrayed me at my worst," Shizuru said, "I've received numerous bits of hate mail and death threats at the Fujino Group's headquarters. But who among us knew so much and yet so little?"

"I know it isn't you or me," Natsuki said, "It wasn't Mai. I doubt Mikoto could write that well. Nao doesn't come off looking too good in it, so I don't think it was her. And if it was Reito, Nao would skin him alive. Shiho would have made herself the heroine. Yukino might have wanted to get her frustration with you out of her system, but she was grateful for the role you played in helping her end up with Haruka, though she's one of the few people who might have known as much about what was going on. Midori is our resident historian and troublemaker, but if she'd written it, the whole thing would have been a Sentai show. Yukariko just wants to put it all behind her. Fumi doesn't need the headaches that this series brought to Fuuka Academy. Akane was out of the game way earlier, and if she did write it, she'd had to have interviewed us to get as much information as was there. Akira is a ninja. She lives for stealth, not for public scrutiny. Alyssa? But that doesn't sound like her. And Miyu wouldn't have done it without her permission. Who am I missing?"

"Of the HiME? No one. Of our associates...There's Ishigami, Sakomizu, any number of the Searrs Foundation, Takumi, Yuuichi, any of the myriad students who went to school with us…Oh."

"What?" Natsuki lifted an eyebrow.

"Why that…that salacious little tart!" Shizuru screeched, something Natsuki had never seen her do before, which made her exceptionally worried.

"Shizuru, who?"

"Fuuka Academy's own self-professed rumor monger!" Shizuru flashed, "Also, the one person who would have put together ALL of the information AND isn't living in the security of this compound for us to monitor."

"Chie Harada," they said in unison.

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"I wrote the story down years ago!" Chie said under protest, "I submitted it for publication. It was passed over! I mean, I lived through all of that, and I thought it would make a pretty cool story. So sue me!"

"She has an army of lawyers at her disposal," Natsuki pointed out, nodding at her wife, "You may not want to tempt her."

"Look, I wrote about my friends being heroines. I changed names and such to protect you all, and presented it as a work of fiction. But, like I said, the publisher turned it down back then. And I learned new stuff about the whole thing later, like the fact that Shizuru didn't actually assault Natsuki in her sleep."

Shizuru's eyes flashed, "Do you know the trouble you've caused me!?"

"I got a phone call a little while ago. They said that they'd accept my novel, but that they wanted to make a show out of it. I didn't read the contract very well. I needed the money, and I didn't realize that I'd forked over all creative control until it was too late. They went in, used your real names, edited out the changes I'd made to portray things as they really went down. So, instead of Shizuru Fujino, the high-school girl who gave in to a moment of temptation and kissed her sleeping friend unawares, they wrote Shizuru Fujino, the psycho-lesbian who raped her friend. I should have told you it was coming, but, well…you all have some seriously scary weapons at your disposal."

"Who made the offer?" Shizuru asked, the crimson in her eyes looking particularly bloody at that moment.

"He was an American. Blonde hair. Big nose. Said he was part of the Schwarz group. Gave his name as John Smith. I thought he was just being funny, because Haruhi Suzumiya had just come out at the time…"

"Of course," Natsuki sighed, "He's using the proceeds from telling our life story to fund his revenge against us by developing materialization weaponry first."

"That's who Tomoe was working for. She went to America after we ran her out of Japan," Shizuru sighed, "I didn't think he was still a player after Alyssa left him to be arrested by those military personnel."

"Let that be a lesson to us," Natsuki said, "to never leave our work unfinished. As for you, Harada…"

"I can only apologize so many times," Chie pleaded, "It wasn't what I had intended to happen. If it's any consolation, the series still paints your relationship in a positive light post-Festival…"

"Consider yourself fortunate that I'm not the unbalanced monster I was portrayed as in that little work of fiction," Shizuru turned cold eyes on her, then turned on her heel, walking away.

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"So, how do we counter this?" Mai asked, after hearing the news.

"One way I can think of," Midori grinned, "Steal Smith's thunder."

Natsuki raised an eyebrow, "What?"

"Cop to being the characters in the show. But then offer to conduct interviews, where we show them our real selves, not the characterizations that were put up on people's t.v. screens. With everyone giving a huge portion of their interviews to portraying Shizuru as a woman wronged by the media. Talk up the loving and doting relationship you two have. If all of us do it…"

"It could work," Nao said, "I have some experience leading people on. Let me draft the talking points. And if anyone goes off-script…" She produced her Element, "We'll chat later."