Damnit, Natsuki thought hearing the loud otherworldly cry ring in her ears. It couldn't have come from any type of creature on Earth and it definitely wasn't human. The only other thing it could have been was… but it was impossible, there hadn't been any of them at Fuuka for over a year. If it was what she thought it was, then how could it have appeared? There wasn't a Princess Star in the sky, as far as she could see. Also why hadn't the chairman told them about there being another star? Could it be that even she doesn't know? No, that was impossible, as the former leader of First District she had to know everything about the Princess Star and the HiME carnival. Either way whatever it was, one thing was certain; it sounded angry, and it bothered her. If the orphans had begun to appear again for whatever reason, then dealing with them was going to be a much tougher than before.
"Orphan…" Nina shouted running around the pillar to face Nao, who didn't seem bothered at all.
"What are you looking at me for?" the cherry-head asked relaxed, "I have no interest in these kinds of things…"
"But…" Nina muttered looking up at the older girl. She knew it was just like the older girl to say such things but, still at a time like this it wasn't funny.
"What? Why should I waste my time? I have better things to d," Nao smirked placing her index finger on Nina's head. "Why don't you destroy it, little HiME?"
Nina growled in frustration, "Fine!" Pleading with Nao was pointless; she was going to have to do this on her own.
Arika and her two escorts walked down the concrete pathway that led to the Chairman's office. There was an uncomfortable silence between the two high school students. Both seemed to refuse to look at each other.
From where she stood Arika could see that both of them were blushing violently. Their relationship fascinated her. Either they had issues, or they were really shy around each other. She figured it was most likely the latter or a mixture of the two. Then again what did she know about love? She had never felt like those two probably felt about each other. She had never fallen in love with anyone, the only thing she knew about it was what her grandmother had told her.
"Uh, Tate…" Mai began to break the silence but was interrupted.
"Mr. Vice President!" a boy with short brown hair called running up to them from behind. His uniform was all white with a green band around his arm identifying him as a prefect. "Mr. Vice President we have a situation in the main building. Suzushiro is having a fit over the ribbons again," the boy continued.
"On the first day of school? That woman… why doesn't she just go off to college already?" Tate sighed, "Just get Yukino to deal with it…"
"That's the problem, she's nowhere to be found," the prefect explained, "And well… all of the prefects are too afraid of that woman to try anything themselves."
"Shit… fine I guess I'll have to deal with this," Tate sighed annoyed. Haruka Suzashiro was definitely going to be a problem this year. He had meant to speak to Natsuki about how they were going to deal with the woman. They couldn't do anything directly because she had donated so much to the school after she graduated. But there had to be a way. "Could you show her the rest of the way Mai?" Tate asked running behind the boy.
"Sure," Mai replied turning her head again.
The two girls watched as the boys ran back toward the school. Mai was a little disappointed to see Tate leave but she knew it was part of his job, so it didn't bother her too much. "Shall we?" she said turning to Arika. The moment she spoke those words she heard a loud crunching sound. It couldn't be… she thought as a large flock of black birds flew over the canopy of the trees in front of them.
"Arika stay here, it isn't safe!" Mai shouted running toward where the birds had come from.
What's going on? Arika thought watching the older girl leave her behind. And where were those birds coming from? She had never seen anything like it before. It was amazingly beautiful. She had to get a closer look even though Mai had told her to stay put. Something was going on at this school, she could tell from Aoi's tour. There were too many strange stories explaining restricted areas and buildings. Not to mention her mother went to this school. If she was going to find out about her mother, she had to know about the school as well.
Natsuki watched as Nina ran from where Nao stood into the bushes. She hadn't heard their conversation but, she had a feeling she knew the jist of it. Nina was definitely like her, she was a HiME. She had known about it for a while now from back when she first met the girl. The thing what puzzled her was why the girl wanted to keep it a secret. It was common knowledge that most of the girls at Fuuka wanted to be a HiME, there were way too many perks not to. Personally Natsuki didn't like the idea of being one herself. After all the shit she had to deal with, the perks seemed minuscule.
"Aren't you going to watch?" Nao asked walking over to where she stood. She had her usually bored expression on her face.
"How long did you known that I knew about her?" Natsuki asked impatiently. She wasn't in the mood to have to deal with the redhead. She had too much on her mind.
"My, my, you are as clear as glass," Nao snickered, "I never said anything about that. I just wanted to have some fun."
Natsuki squeezed her fist in frustration. She couldn't believe she fell into the girl's trap. "What about you? You seem interested in that girl,"
"My interests are my own. Not yours…" the redhead replied walking past her.
Nao hadn't changed one bit but, Natsuki was more worried about Nina. This was more than likely the girl's first battle with an orphan and it might not go well. If something went wrong, she might get injured or worst…
Mashiro sighed as she rest her teacup down on the table next to an empty white plate. The morning had been a real rough one. Even without the incident with Nagi, she doubted that she would be in a better condition. The meetings so far were worst than she had expected. Most of them had gone longer than they were supposed to, and none had gone well at all. But that was going to be her fate for the time being and she just had to accept it. Her last one was by far the worst, which actually turned out to be a blessing in disguise. A meeting with the parents of an elementary school student had broken out into a loud verbal fight between the man and woman over the poor child's future at the school. Mashiro was way too tired at that point to make any sort of attempt to break it up, giving her time to think about what had happened earlier.
Nagi was definitely up to something. She could tell just because he had visited her. He hadn't said much other than his question, something that he didn't really need to ask; he should've known the answer. It was almost as if he wanted her to know something she didn't know about was going happen, which was weird. Nagi was… eccentric to put it nicely but, even for him these actions were strange. And what of the Obsidian Lord? He had clearly been defeated over a year ago and even if he was still alive, he shouldn't be able to act so soon. No matter how she looked at it, she just couldn't make sense of Nagi's words.
"Miss Mashiro, are you finished yet?" Fumi asked entering the office.
"Yes, has Shizuru arrived as yet?"
"No ma'am, she should be arriving shortly though," the maid replied picking up the empty dish from the table.
As the pink-haired woman left the room, Mashiro eyed her carefully. She still hadn't decided whether or not to fill her in about what happened. Fumi had been her faithful maid and she knew she could trust the woman but she also didn't want to burden her, the burden she had borne was already too great. The woman had treated her like a princess, even through the chaos of one year ago, something Mashiro was in great debt to her for. The last thing she wanted to do was make her worry; in a way this was her atonement for allowing the woman to take such care of her.
Whether or not she was going to mention the event to anyone else at the moment was another story. She also didn't want to trouble a particular group of girls either, especially after the trouble they had faced in the past. In a way it was partly her fault they had suffered such heartache. She had to think this through first. Too much was on the line to start off with the wrong moves but she didn't know what to do. Keeping it to herself could already be a wrong move. Also how long could she keep quiet before she had to tell everything? Probably not long.
This was proving to be too stressful for her today but she had to think it through now. Something told her that the next meeting might be connected to it. The situation the next student was in was not only suspicious but also quite a rare one. She had received a letter from an unknown person explaining the girl's situation along with enough money for the year's fees. It wasn't everyday for a child to be in a position to attend Fuuka under the financial care of someone they had never met. If she didn't know better she would've thought that Nagi was the person behind it, but the boy wouldn't be able to get that kind of money at the moment. So it had to be someone else, but who and are they in some way connected to whatever what was going on?
Even with these suspicions, she still had to meet with the girl. Being in the situation she was in, the girl probably didn't have any money. Sure her fees were paid but there was no way she would be able to survive without some money in her pocket for outside expenses like shopping, food etc. Mashiro had decided to offer the girl a small scholarship to help her out with these expenses. It wasn't going to be much, just enough so that the girl would be able to live comfortably while she attended Fuuka.
"Miss Mashiro the vice principle has arrived again," Fumi's voice came from the other room.
"Ok, send her in please."
Nina hopped over some fallen branches as she made her way through the wood. Her heart was racing with excitement and fear. This was going to be the first orphan she ever fought and she was going to have to do it alone. She was also worried that someone would see. If that happened, her secret might come out. Sure she had been training over the break, but she still wasn't sure she could beat it and if she took to long… No she couldn't think like that. I will beat it.
As she came upon a clearing she got her first sight of the large, black, insect-like creature. It was like nothing she had ever seen before. As tall as the trees surrounding the clearing, its body was segmented into three parts and was covered with thin hair stubbles. It had three sets of green dagger-like eyes in the center of its head surrounded by three pieces of protruding triangular flesh which all came together as a two pronged crown on top of its head. Sizzling green acid oozed from its segmented mouth onto its two sets of arms; two with long sharp blades at their tips and two with large pincer-like appendages.
Nina swallowed hard as the creature turned its head to face her. She lost even more confidence in herself but she had to at least try to fight it. If she didn't, Nao wouldn't let her hear the end of it. She had to…
Before she could finish her thought the orphan took a large leap into the air aimed at her. She had barely jumped out of the way before it landed. The force from its six razor sharp legs slamming into the ground was enough to knock her off her balance sending her rolling across the grass. Before she could get completely to her feet one of the orphan's pincers shot toward her. This time she managed to flip backward before it hit her.
"Bastard!" she muttered placing her arms in front of her, ready to fight. A pale green gust began to twirl underneath each of her palms forming two black sai-like elements. It's now or never! she thought as one of the orphan's blade arms came directly toward her. She ducked slightly, just enough to avoid it and swung her left sai violently severing the creatures arm. Nina followed it up by jumping over the creature's desperate attack and slicing into one of its shoulders, nearly removing it. Hah this is too easy!
Natsuki watched from the bushes as the orphan let off a loud streak of pain. The girl was doing surprisingly well for her first time but, she seemed to be getting overconfident in her abilities. Sure she was clearly winning, but if she didn't finish it off soon it could cost her, her life.
"Natsuki…?" a familiar female voice came from behind her.
"Mai, what are you doing here?" Natsuki asked turning to face the orange-head.
"I heard a loud cry come from around here. That girl is a HiME, right?" Mai said looking past her at Nina who busy blocking a sudden barrage of violent swings from the orphan.
"Yes," Natsuki answered turning back around.
"Well… aren't you going to help her?" Mai asked annoyed staring down the brunette.
"No…" her voice was cold and direct, "You shouldn't either. It would crush that girl to find out that we know about her secret. I'll only interfere if it's absolutely necessary."
"Natsuki…" Mai muttered, her eyes locked on the back of her friends head. Obviously she saw something in that girl; something she wanted to nurture, even though she probably wouldn't admit it.
Nina grunted as the orphan continued its fury. It had suddenly gotten a lot more aggressive after almost losing a second arm, which had already healed. Its desperation was becoming more and more difficult for her to handle. If she didn't do something soon, she definitely was going to lose more than the fight.
Pant, pant Arika raced through the trees in front of her until she came upon the large clearing. She couldn't believe what she was seeing. It looked as if a girl around her age was fighting with some sort of creature, but that couldn't be. Monsters weren't real; at least that's what she had been told all of her life.
"Natsuki…" Mai stuttered as Nina was knocked to the ground by one of the creature's blows.
Slowly the girl tried to get back to her feet. Not yet… Natsuki thought. She knew the girl was hurt badly, but to interfere now would be the same as doing it at the beginning, maybe even worst. It was eating away at her; she wanted to help but not at the expense of the girl's pride.
Nina struggled to get to one knee. She had taken a real beating. If only I had a… she began to think as the orphans shadow completely shaded her body from the sun. It was going to finish her now and there wasn't anything she could do about it. As the creature's remaining three arms all came down toward her, she closed her eyes and accepted her fate.
The force of the orphan's attack violently disturbed the earth creating a large cloud of dust. Nina could feel dust particles bombarding against her cheeks. Her body was in motion. She could feel an unknown person's warm touch against her shoulder and chest; someone had saved her.
Arika slid under the creature's body holding the fallen girl's body in her arms. She didn't know why she had done what she did; her body just reacted. Her vision was clouded by the surrounding dust, but at least they had avoided the attack.
Mai and Natsuki watched as the two girls slid out of the cloud of dust coming to a stop just behind the orphan.
"What's she doing here?" Mai gasped looking at the girl she had left behind.
"Do you know her?" Natsuki asked turning around. Her face was full of relieve.
"That doesn't matter right now, we have to go!" Mai's voice was full of concern. She had to do something.
"R…" Natsuki began to speak turning back around. They were going to be able to make it. The orphan had already recovered and was in the middle of launching another attack.
Arika face lit with fear as the creature's arm came toward her. She couldn't move, she was too scared to. She let off a loud scream that echoed throughout the forest.
"Arika!" Mai cried as the creature's attack flew toward the girls. What happened next was beyond belief.