"You are my density."

- George McFly

"I'm not a virgin."

"*stomps away in anguish*"

- Aron Headbutt's edit of Heaven's Feel

"You think I'm going to stop loving you over something like this?"

- Kazuya Kurauchi

"Howcha momma."

- Guillermo Del Toro

Kazu was a squid. Well, his physiology was more like a genetic pastiche of a mollusk, a crocodile, and a Venus flytrap all wrapped together in a two-ton, nine-foot-high amoebic membrane, but it was probably easier to just say he was a squid. This is what Duke Nagi's hateful Slave Ray had done to the boy-king: Turning him into an unrecognizable monstrosity that made bubbling and slurping sounds as his only form communication.

Nagi stood beside the empty throne grinning madly at his masterwork. The emperor's instant and abhorrent transformation had scared away all of the servants from his castle. All except one.

Akane looked up at the proof she had failed horrifically to protect her Master and only felt disgust toward herself. What she felt for this unworldly organism, this lump of oozing vacuoles, this thing, was the same thing she always felt toward her precious emperor.

"I'm sorry, Kazu. I won't leave you like this."

She did the unthinkable: Walking toward him with a nervous but graceful stride, rather than turning the other way screaming in terror. Her glossy Robe-covered arms awkwardly wrapped around the moist greenish-gray mass that could be called his belly. She couldn't bring herself to flee from him despite his revolting transformation. She refused to hate him.

The creature's bubbling softened.

"I know you're in there somewhere. You must be so afraid. Maybe you're even in pain," Akane whispered in a tearful voice, trying to sound as comforting as she could manage. "But I still want to be with you."

"Uhhh…" the silver-haired Archduke watched the bittersweet reunion with a confused scowl. He expected Akane to be panicking at her wit's end, throwing herself down to his feet, begging him, pleading with him to bring her dear beloved Kazu-kun back at any cost (a miracle Nagi couldn't pull off even if he wanted to). He didn't know how to react to this new development.

Akane turned her head and let the emperor's slime tickle her cheek. She sank a little closer into his mass and closed her eyes. Her nostrils curled at his fishy saline scent. The shapeless flesh rippled around her with every move she made.

"Heheh. You're shivering, Kazu. I am too. It's just like the first time I confessed to you."

Her fingers hesitantly closed around the end of one of his vine-tentacles as if it were a malformed hand reaching out for help. She wondered if he could still rule the kingdom like this. It worked pretty well for that Leto guy for a while.

Akane battled Slaves while wearing a bright white Robe that gave her a beast-like appearance. Now her Master was a beast that was vaguely human-like. Her eyes opened and stared vacantly at the suction cups lining the undersides of his countless limbs, wondering what her next form would be like. Did he still even produce anything that would be harmful to her nanomachines?

Kazuya's powerful Slave instincts drove his muscles to react as they sensed the Otome enemy moving closer in his proximity. Several of his appendages slithered behind Akane's tail stabilizers and slowly rose above her short cape. His external glands contained all the needles and spigots needed to completely take over a mate's fertility functions, going as far as rendering any unlucky lady into a teeming fruit bowl who only thought of providing him more offspring. If it was necessary.

This was the way of the squid-Slaves. Springing out his natural defense mechanisms to disable a predator who would try to kill him, and then utilizing that same predator as a reproductive conduit to drastically improve his genome's long-term survival.

Akane gave one passing glance to the end of a gleaming syringe dripping with retroviral hormones. She blushed softly.

"It's okay, Kazu. You don't have to use all of that for me." The cat-eared Meister looked up as the shapeless and eyeless bulk forming the monster's head. The dimples creased on her cheeks as she forced her frightened sorrowful face into a shy smile. A reasonable sympathetic response would have been "I'm not going to hurt you," but Akane said something even more consoling.

"I'll have your lizards."

"Eugh…" Duke Nagi uncomfortably pulled at his ruffled collar. He originally planned for this moment to be a rousing victory scene: All the struggling, all the screaming, all the terror of a primordial hunter with a small helpless caracal entangled in its snare. The hideous downfall and the utter moral ruination of two of his most bothersome political obstacles.

Now he was thinking it might be better if he just looked away.

The emperor murmured a low gargling sound as his ancillary limbs uncoiled back to the floor. Akane felt her weight slowly begin to fall forward as he altered his chemical composition to become less solid. As she gradually sank into a cluster of organs somewhere between his thirty spleens and his dozen hearts, she realized this wasn't the future she wanted, but it was a future she could accept with a peaceful, almost happy conscience. She was finally going to become one with him… permanently.

Author's notes:

This was inspired by a scene from Mai Otome Zwei episode 4. That scene had me thinking "Hey, Akane kinda looks like she's about to become the main heroine of the next Exs-Tia game." And in this story, she does.

What if Del Toro remade The Shape of Water and replaced the fish man with the dude from the ending to The Mutations (1974)?

Years and years ago, back when I wrote "Terrible Things Happen to Mai" (not to be confused with "Terrible Things Happen to Akane" and "Terrible Things Happen to Haruka") I tried to do a clever thing where I took That Scene from the first HiME show and flipped it around so Kazu-kun is the one cursed with some diabolical pagan secret and Akane has to decide if she's still going to accept him. This fanfic is sorta kinda the ultimate realization of that idea.

The line "It worked pretty well for that Leto guy for a while" was originally written as "It worked pretty well for Jabba the Hutt for a while," but then I remembered in "Twin Turbo" I established Akane knows what Dune is.

One possible interpretation of this story is "Uhhhh, isn't Akane acting a bit broken here?" And I would say: "Yeah, that's kinda her whole character."

Another interpretation could be "Ummm, this is giving me some really distorted Beauty and the Beast vibes." And to that I say: "Yeah that's probably intentional too."

What if Ayashi no Ceres, but the hagoromo robe created Toya as an actual sea blob made of various marine organisms? (Have fun, Aya / Ceres.)

Did u know Aya Mikage has the same Japanese VA as Charlotte Aulin from Castlevania?

This does not destroy the Pure Heart Malachite GEM. This turns it into the Eternal Heart Malachite. 300 years from now (a familiar time interval in HiME / Otome lore), Emperor Kazu-kun will be known as the Eternal Emperor ruling Cardair with a fair and slimy fist. It will be a peaceful time where Nagi is long dead after whatever dastardly plan he tried to accomplish in this story fails. The general public perception around Emperor Slug-kun will be "Dude's weird, but he can't help it, and he still watches out us despite no longer being part of our species. We respect that." (basically "Still not as bad as Argos and Fiar.") Akane will be transformed into an Akane-shaped organ mass that functions as the emperor's face, voice, and (when it's the appropriate time) reproductive system (Blob Kazu-kun, for all intents and purposes, is an asexually reproducing sponge critter with Akane helping him out. All the necessary "gear" is neatly packed into one body). The Emperor is always awake and always alert of his surroundings, but Akane takes naps from time to time (which is pretty easy to do when she's permanently sunken into a giant waterbed). When someone has a question for Blob Kazu-kun, Empress Akane answers for him with her typical Akane voice and personality. She translates what he "tells" her via tickling small tentacles inside her ears. She (very very voluntarily) interprets the vibrations on her eardrums and vocalizes it into a form other humans can understand. She will have a perpetually youthful 20-ish-year-old appearance once she becomes One With The Squid-kun. She loses the use of her arms (they're completely merged into Emperor Blob), but the top half of her body still mostly the same and decorated with extra little "Queen Squid" accessories. Likewise, her legs are permanently absorbed. Her lower half will be draped with exotic ruffled formations that cover up "the special place where Kazu-kun and I are always connected." This makes everyone else wonder "Uhhhhh, is she supposed to be cosplaying Aerith's mermaid dress, or has she turned into half of an actual fish?" Her belly will still be left exposed from the waist up (it changes sizes to indicate what season she's in). And she may or may not have a womb tattoo. Kazu-blob's Slave summoning contract becomes bound to Akane's life, so as long as no one tries to kill Kazu's vital Akane organs, and nobody tries to kill Akane's vital Kazu organs, they get to live together forever. Their offspring start out not looking very human at all, but they gradually grow up to become Teenage Mutant Ninja Plesiosaurs. Within a few decades, the entire Cardair Imperial Guard will be replaced by a completely new cross-species that combines the best traits of an aquatic Slave and an active Otome so the older human guards can retire and live peaceful lives. No, Akane is not going to completely lose her mind and conquer the entire planet in endless squiddy chaos. Yes, she nurses her live young after they emerge from under her fin ruffles, since no wet nurse in the world would be able to produce milk with the same nutrient properties as hers. There. Did I gross you out yet?

This probably counts as a Muv-Luv "I'll still love you despite all your traumatizing body horror" kind of thing.