"Buddy, you're in the wrong place at the wrong time."

- Willem Dafoe

"That would have been the Eddie Murphy version of To Live and Die in L.A."

- William Petersen

"I could kill you now, brother. But I want you to live so you can see our son be king."

- Helen Mirren

"Ooh. See what she's done to you?"

"Well, she never tied me to a chair."

"Her loss."

- Skyfall


Akane's efforts to stop the supreme Column commander from invading her emperor's homeland certainly could have gone better. She was pinned against the crumbling granite façade of a local market building. Her tonfa had dropped out of her hands and were nowhere to be seen. The heels of her Robe frantically squirmed three inches off the ground as all of her weight was held up by her neck.

Shizuru's right hand wrapped around her throat with an amount of pressure roughly equivalent to an iron vice grip. Basically a light squeeze by Otome standards, and just strong enough so Shizuru could scratch her under her chin. Shizuru's left hand held her double-sided mechanical naginata Element behind her back. Akane's long ribbon stabilizers were reaching out like a backup pair of arms and tightly wrapping around Shizuru's polearm to restrict her from moving it closer. Her own hands were ineffectively clawing at the wrist grasping her throat.

The neck hold kept Akane at her opponent's mercy. She'd helped evacuate the surrounding blocks before the fighting began, but being alone against the toughest veteran of the Five Columns wasn't doing any her favors now.

"It would be in your best interests to give yourself up, Malachite," Shizuru said with a playful and sinister chuckle. "You shoulda realized I'd call your every move. Only a fool picks a fight with one of her top combat instructors."

"You're going to have to try better than that, Amethyst!" Akane snapped back in ferocious defiance. "I'm not going to let anyone bully their way through my kingdom!"

"As you wish, Empress." Shizuru used the title mockingly. The Florince-born Otome had left her native country behind and now identified herself as a devout crusader for Cardair, but she hadn't quite gained that royal rank yet. "You're practically begging to be bitten by a snake."

The purple and black nano-laminate around Shizuru's nails stretched like reptile skin as she closed her fingers further together. Akane grunted in complaint and increased her wild thrashing, but she just couldn't come up with the strength to push her opponent away.

"There's nothing to be embarrassed about if you just surrender, darlin'. I seek no territorial gains. I'm not here to claim your Master's life. I only want you." Shizuru's voice was soft and collected. Her eyes were starting to look crazed.

The violet Otome suddenly flexed her tangled arm with ease, revealing she could have broken out of Akane's ribbons at any point and she was just toying with the girl. Her right palm remained on the white Otome's throat as her left palm steered the naginata horizontally. The twinkling golden tip lined up directly with Akane's heart. Akane's tail ribbons tried even harder to push Shizuru's elbow back, but her arm just wouldn't budge.

Shizuru curled her fist tighter around Akane's neck, applying just a teensy bit more pressure until she felt the top vertebrae start to delicately creak between her fingers. Another ounce of pressure, and they might start to crack.

Now she had Akane for certain. She could end the younger woman's life two different ways at any moment: She could snap Akane's neck by curling her thumb another centimeter, or she could stab Akane's heart with the southern end of her dividing naginata.

Akane clearly detected the same threat. Her squirming and fidgeting suddenly slowed. The ribbon-arms that had been fighting so valiantly to wrestle the pole out of Shizuru's grasp untangled completely and dropped submissively to her hips. Her actual hands hesitantly let go of Shizuru's wrist, signaling she was letting the stronger fighter take complete control of whatever happened next. The reaction could be read as a silent appeal for mercy, or a hopeless reservation to death.

Shizuru would be lying if she said she didn't enjoy seeing how Akane reacted in the face of certain impending death. The older Column Otome had expected her to break down in a mess of sobbing and begging. "You're going to kill me! Please don't kill me! I'm going to die! I'm going to die!" and the like. Instead, this Akane handled the realization of her own demise with relative grace. The constant political upheavals and threats of violence in her world must have hardened her up a bit.

And how easily Shizuru could do it. If she put the helpless girl's flame out right here, it wouldn't matter. Nothing would change. Another Cardair emperor would be gone after a three-year interim reign, and he didn't have powerful enough allies who would push for a war to avenge him. Especially not a war against the Columns.

History texts would make a special note about how he lived (briefly) through an era where the national triumvirate merged into a single leading monarchy, but he couldn't even be credited for that. He simply spent the six-month conflict cowering in his palace with his Otome while the two older, angrier, more power-driven houses rendered each other obsolete. Akane likely would have died then if her Master had any ambition to send her into the fighting.

The reins of power always passed horizontally in this tumultuous kingdom. When one emperor died, the royal signet passed to a brother, a nephew, or a random distant cousin. Every emperor for the last five decades had died either old and childless, or as a child themselves. And Akane's life was linked to the current 19-year-old monarch.

Everything that boy gained had been tossed on him solely by coincidence, including his Otome. And speaking from a legal standpoint, it was still completely within Shizuru's rights to carry out Akane's punishment for her earlier offenses against GEM conventions. If Shizuru separated Akane's fragile neck or sliced through the aortic walls of her loving little heart in the next second, it would just be the ending most people in Cardair were sadly expecting with the country's track record.

Shizuru loosened her grip around Akane's throat just enough to give her breathing room. The sharpened head of her naginata remained steadily lined up with her chest.

"I'll ask you again, Soir. Will you submit to my command?"

"Please don't…" Akane whispered with teary eyes. Her voice was frail and scared.

"Please don't what?" Shizuru smirked with growing satisfaction. "Please don't put an end to your measly life?"

"Please don't turn me against Kazu." Akane shivered in terror.

It took Shizuru a second to remember who Akane was even referring to. She was probably the only person in the country close enough to the emperor to be allowed to address him with such a diminutive name and not get a mouthful from the court ministers. Everyone else—even Column dignitaries—were used to calling him "Your Reverence," or "Lord Kazuya," or "My dear Emperor."

"Hmph." Shizuru couldn't help but chuckle through her curled lip once she understood what Akane was implying. She thought: Dragged to Death's door along with her Master and still values his wellbeing above anything that might happen to her. Mahya definitely picked a good one.

"I wouldn't dream of it," the violet-Robed Otome said calmly. She started to move her blade away from its nervously beating target.

"Here's how we'll do things. You allow me to make certain alterations to your nanomachines, and I'll promise to spare your life and your Master's life for as long you remain in my service. From this point forward, you'll do anything I say."

"I accept." Akane weakly choked. She didn't hesitate for a second with her response once she knew Kazu would be safe.

Shizuru's naginata Element safely flashed out of existence. She moved her hand away from Akane's neck, allowing the shorter noblewoman's feet to slide back down to the ground.

Both of Shizuru's arms reached forward so she could hold Akane by the shoulders, gently supporting her against the wall rather than keeping her forcefully pinned in place. Akane easily could have slipped through Shizuru's grip if she tried, but she'd already been caught once and she was smart enough not to press her luck.

"Very well. Now pucker up, tigress. And be sure not to give me any fangs," Shizuru instructed firmly.

Akane blinked. She looked lost.

Shizuru sighed impatiently. "You do know how the contract between an Otome and her Master requires mutual physical contact, yes? Typically a kiss on the ear? Or do you forget simple things when you're under stress?"

Akane slowly nodded to show she understood what Shizuru was saying, but wasn't sure where this was going.

"Good." Shizuru became slightly less authoritative with her delivery. "My sub-contract with you will require a different type of physical contact so I can make sure certain directives are encoded into your nanostream. A three-second kiss on the lips will suffice. Unless you'd prefer I use a more consummate entry point."

Akane quickly shook her head. She preferred whatever less invasive action Shizuru was suggesting.

"Now get ready to become my Familiar, silly girl." Shizuru's voice grew colder again. Akane conceded and prepared herself for the kiss. With her lips raised and her half-confused eyes open wide, the feline-themed Otome looked more like a blowfish than any sort of cat.

Shizuru rolled her eyes. She was almost going to say "I hope that's not the face you give him," but she had more important things to worry about.

The violet-Robed Otome softly inhaled and leaned forward. Their lips touched, and a process quickly began that kept their mouths magnetically sealed together. Shizuru closed her eyes out of instinct so she could concentrate. Akane closed her eyes under the effects of mild sedation. Shizuru had complained about being bitten by Akane's fangs, but she was the one who turned out to be slightly poisonous.

Akane's legs shivered like they were starting to lose their balance. Her right arm impulsively reached out into the empty air as if she were sinking and desperately reaching up for help. Shizuru carefully moved one hand away from Akane's shoulder and hooked her around the wrist to gently guide her arm back down. There was no need to panic. Nothing would save her from this fate now.

It was over in a few seconds. Shizuru pulled her head away from Akane's and sighed contently. Under her breath, she murmured "Just like vanilla. But it's the sweetest vanilla I've ever had."

Akane quietly straightened against the wall as her dizziness faded and her balance returned. Her eyelids opened again, revealing her normally brown eyes now gleamed with the color of raspberry sherbet. She twitched her nose ticklishly. The scared and confused expression on her face changed to an expression of… admiration.

"Now. That certainly wasn't the worst thing I could have done to you, yes?" Shizuru spoke kindly as she took a step back and let the girl stand for herself.

Akane calmly nodded as her heartrate finally slowed.

"Who is the first person you pledge all of your loyalty to, pet?" Shizuru asked in an inquisitive tone.

"Kazu." Akane answered quaintly, rubbing the glove prints on her neck as she winced.

"Who is the other first person you pledge all of your loyalty to?" the Bewitching Smile Amethyst asked again, growing slightly impatient.

"You, Mistress Shizuru." The Pure Heart Malachite respectfully tipped her head so the enamel ears on her hairband pointed toward the superior Otome. They could hear an incoming attack or an assassin's underhanded whispers from anywhere in a 20 mile radius, but they were devoting all of their abilities to Shizuru right now.

Shizuru's menace quickly faded.

"I would have preferred those answers in a different order, but I appreciate the honesty."

"Where is your ring, Mistress? Or will we use your GEM? How do you want me to form the contract with you?" Akane asked meekly.

"There will be no official contract between us." Shizuru sternly answered.

"You're not going to bind me to you?" Akane almost sounded disappointed.

"And put my life on the line every time I send you to do some of my dirty work?" Shizuru scoffed like the idea repulsed her. "Of course not. That's why I'm perfectly happy with letting you keep your own Master."

"But what if Kazu is ever in danger?" Akane's disappointment quickly changed into concern.

"I modified your nanomachines so in that specific situation, your original contract takes priority," Shizuru said. "You'll be free to act completely on your own to ensure your Master's safety. And if I'm able, I'll even work to protect both of you. You're no help to me if you and your Master disappear."

Akane's eyes widened with pleasant surprise. One of the most fearsome Otomes in the world would be her guardian?

"So I have to obey whatever you want when you call on me, but you'll just let me do my own thing the rest of the time… ?"

"In a lot of ways, you're not much different from a house cat." Shizuru found the comparison humorous.

"What if the Columns ever go to war against Cardair?" Akane hesitantly asked.

"We'll simply take your precious Master hostage to ensure there are no conflicts of interest in your directives. You'll remain firmly on our side whether the two of you like it or not."

"I could bring him to Windbloom for you if you were serious about it." Akane's eyes shifted away to hide her mixed feelings. Why did she say that? Where did that thought even come from?

"Ah. I see my loyalty signal is already having an effect on you. You wouldn't have dared to say such a treasonous thing a couple minutes ago." Shizuru smirked.

"I wasn't forced to face my own death until a couple minutes ago." Akane whispered with lingering anxiety. She rubbed her neck again.

"In either case, you learned a valuable lesson, as any good apprentice should. Let me take care of you and you'll probably live as long as old Maria," Shizuru said.

Whether it was due to her own hopes, or due to the strange new nano-impulses directing her thoughts, Akane pictured a future decades from now where she and Kazuya were aged gray-haired rulers living a happy life together just like when they had first met as teenagers. She nodded in agreement.

"Thank you for granting me life, Mistress Shizuru," Akane said with another submissive bow. Again, weird choice of words she never would have thought of on her own.

"And thank you for making mine a little easier, Lady Akane." Shizuru smiled.

"Why did you pick me for this?" Akane asked. It was a question formed by her own natural confusion.

"Plenty of reasons," Shizuru shrugged casually. "I helped train you. I know your service history personally. You've made quite a reputation for yourself climbing the ranks to become your kingdom's highest Otome since we sent you off with your diploma and pardoned your previous infractions. I've been looking for a support unit so Natsuki isn't so worried all the time. You already have your own GEM and your own contract, so we don't have to do anything extra to recruit you. You're a very reliable Otome when you're given the right kind of coercion. Your emperor provides us plenty of easy bait to keep you in line."

"So you just see me and Kazu as pawns," Akane said in a timid voice. Her natural instincts made her feel ashamed. Her augmented instincts told her she should feel happy someone as amazing as Shizuru noticed her at all.

"I see you as unique and highly valuable strategic assets. And potential close friends. Would you prefer if I saw you dead?" Shizuru stoically held out her left arm and her naginata Element reappeared in an instant. The segmented metal in its hilt gently unlatched.

"Mistress Shizuru, I'll cherish any life where you allow me to stay with my Master," Akane quickly rattled off her response as if she were reciting a script. The "happy" part of her thought process won out.

"That's the other thing I like about you," Shizuru smiled peacefully as her weapon locked back together and faded from existence. "You can make something positive out of any situation."

Shizuru's right hand slowly caressed Akane's bob cut. Her gloved fingertips stopped on Akane's ear stud and gave it a quick recharge. She didn't want a weakened Familiar who wasn't able to fend for herself.

"Now run back to your little Master until I need you. And vow to never oppose the Columns again."

"Yes, Mistress." Akane bowed her head courteously again.

The Pure Heart Malachite moved away from the wall as the flight rings on her Robe started to illuminate. She sprang up into the sky at Mach 0.5 and shrank into a tiny white dot high above Shizuru's head, flying off in the direction of Cardair's castle.

Shizuru mused quietly to herself when Akane was too far away to hear.

"Such a nice girl. I hope you'll find a way to enjoy this as much as I am."


"And what's with the eyes, Akane?"

Emperor Kazuya Krau-xeku and his Otome were standing beside each other on the marble balcony at the onset of dusk. Their royal uniform attires matched the long white and gold banners hanging down the railings in a cloth waterfall, making Kazuya, Akane, and the palace appear as a single consistent entity when they were together. The honorable and chaste young king with his chivalrous maiden.

"It's because I'm bound to Shizuru now. Do they frighten you?" Akane asked shyly. She started to turn away.

"No. I was just thinking they look pretty that way." Kazuya shook his head with a loving smile, never thinking less of her. He held his right palm against his Otome's cheek to show her there was nothing to be afraid of. "They remind me of your Nightvision Mode when you're patrolling for me. I think this purple works better for you than the gold, though. It's more… mature?"

Kazuya was different from other rulers ensconcing themselves in formality after formality, and demanding the upmost severity in all things military and clerical. His style of reign was more laid back. His cabinet consisted of his childhood hunting friends rather than the usual repertoire of stony-faced elites who insisted on enforcing matters of the kingdom with ironclad authority. Akane supported his casual approach, just as long as he never went hunting for tigers.

He handled every problem more as an observant researcher than a commanding head of state, and the idea of hiding anything from his populace never even entered his mind. His mild and plain temperament was a likely side effect of being a young scholar who only became emperor by coincidence and hated settling any conflicts with force. But, just as Shizuru had discovered with Akane's "vanilla" flavor, he was very good at being mild and plain. He and his Otome were the highest quality examples of it.

If a violent shift in the country's power hadn't forced Kazuya to become emperor, he and Akane would probably be living as farmers in the middle of nowhere. And they'd be just as happy together.

The previous Cardair emperor had been killed with his Otome in a dispute over stolen war technology. It happened at the same time Akane and Kazu were trying to flee their noble responsibilities. Kazu was practically kidnapped by Cardair's royal committee and hastily installed as the new regime in its three-party triumvirate. The Columns had decided the new emperor should have his own Otome to give his burgeoning throne a little bit of clout, and there was Akane with a Masterless GEM in her ear and her life dangling on a hook of legal uncertainty. The opportunity for a new contract was obvious.

They were both a political experiment. Neither of them would hold any real power to start out, obviously. He: A third-tier emperor with two much more established emperors outranking him. She: An attaché Otome with a strict disciplinary Column constantly breathing down her neck. They were the perfect match for each other, in terms of being a couple of dovish faces in pretty regalia with their lives hanging in uncertain limbo, but maybe they would complement each other and rise to accomplish something great that would shape the course of history for the better. Some day. So far they'd just done a pretty good job gaining public traction (everyone loved a cute couple with soft-spoken personalities) and managed to survive together.

The two older Cardair emperors sealed their own demise by conspiring with Kazuya's immediate predecessor, Emperor Argos XIV. Argos had ruthlessly spearheaded the campaign to steal a Founder Candidate—the entombed body of a person—and defile her into a twisted relic for powering artificial Valkyries, but the other two emperors had offered him their greedy support every step of the way. Their actions violated Nanodiffusion laws, violated arms treaties, and desecrated the sanctity of a widely respected Otome's death and eternal grace. When Argos was slain, it was only a couple months before the evidence trail started leading back to the other two emperors. The public turned on them in disgust, and they feebly turned on each other when they realized there was nowhere else to transfer the blame.

Kazuya had nothing to do with any of the corruption. He was busy studying at Windbloom Academy during most of the time the three crowns were diving into technological depravity, and then he was eloping with Akane for the rest of it. He was a young and innocent face who gave the kingdom an opportunity to wash its hands and start over fresh. And because of his (in)famous history with Akane, everyone knew he was the exact opposite of his precursors. While the old triumvirate saw Otomes as vain tools that could be exploited for political gain, Kazuya held nothing but admiration for the Otome system, and he deeply loved the Meister who'd been appointed to guard him. He was going to marry her and make her into the kingdom's matriarch one day.

"She can see through my eyes whenever she wants to. But she'll only spy on us if she thinks we're planning something against her. At least, that's what she told me," Akane said regarding Shizuru.

"Do you believe her?" asked Kazuya.

"I think she wants me to be happy as long as I'm helping her." Akane replied. She wasn't sure if she was saying that on her own intuition, or if something was driving her to think that way. Her gut instinct told her Shizuru would always treat her with dignity as long as she got what she wanted.

"And there's nothing you can do to escape her control?" Kazuya reached through the starched collar of his dress shirt to brush his neck. A couple fresh bruises had appeared on his throat earlier that day, shaped mysteriously like a woman's fingers. There was one particular instance that day he rather wished to forget: Sitting on the throne with both of his hands drawn to his clavicle in agony, while all his subjects panicked around him unable to do anything to stop his phantom asthma attack. Barely being able to gasp Akane's name when she was the only thing he could think of in his terror.

If anyone questioned Shizuru about these events, she simply would have said "Akane saved his life today." And it was the truth: Akane had made a selfless compromise to keep him alive. Malachite was a naturally soft stone that could easily flake when rubbed the wrong way, but there were always ways to reinforce her.

"Not without putting you at stake," Akane said with clear apprehension. "And if I try to fight whatever she did inside my head, I'll probably end up losing my mind."

"Then I guess what they say is true. Some of you really are witches." The holy emperor's hand curled into a fist on the marble banister.

Akane lowered her head in regret. It was a natural reaction completely unrelated to Shizuru's influence.

"Not you, Akane." Kazuya softened his voice, seeing his words had hurt her. "I know you only use your powers out of kindness. I probably would have been smothered in my sleep years ago and never would have become Cardair's unified emperor without you."

Given the young monarch's delicate position in the world, he was incredibly grateful he wound up with an Otome who wore a Robe specialized for anti-assassination tactics. She could hear danger coming from miles away. She could see in the dark just as easily as broad daylight. She could shred through any conventional weapon in the world with ease. And, while direct combat against other Otomes was where she started to struggle, she could transport her Master out of a scary situation very, very quickly.

Akane's regretful frown turned into a soft blush. If she'd been Materialised in her Robe right now, her tail stabilizers would have curled up and crossed in a small heart shape behind her head.

"It's just part of my job, Kazu. That's what I've been trained to do. Protect the Master while the Master protects the country."

Kazuya smirked in reaction to her sacred axiom.

"I don't think anyone's training made you think that way. Not in my case. Nobody taught you to fall in love with me."

His scarlet cape swept around Akane's shoulders as he hugged her by the waist. Their imperial iconography blended even more closely together as his white and gold Byzantine stole interwove with the angelic wing insignias on her apron.

The emperor didn't care about any of the events of the previous day. His country and his Otome were safe. Those were what mattered. And if the Columns were going to think of him as window dressing, at least he was high-end window dressing. Passionately sewn and strongly tied window dressing that would still be hanging around—scarred but intact—if a massive storm ever came around and blew out all the windows. It was how he and Akane had survived the civil wars that claimed the other two emperors of the former Cardair triumvirate.

Akane's heart anxiously fluttered as she rested her palms against Kazuya's vest. She'd been held in this spot plenty of times before and longed for what would come next. She raised her chin the same time the emperor lowered his head. They closed their eyes together as their lips sealed into a tender kiss. A real kiss.


Author's note: Aww Shizuru is a spaceship in a 90s arcade shooter game and she picked up a little side weapon power-up for herself.

Author's note 2: If you think I invented Kazu-kun's Holy Roman Empire motif for this fanfic, go check out his episode 26 design again. Dude's totally rocking a Papal stole with his cape combo. It 100% plays into him being the Master of Mint Adenade in a Sexy White Ranger costume. My headcanon is validated.

Author's note 3: When I initially wrote this chapter, I didn't really have a motive pinned down for Shizuru's hijinks beyond "Well that's just Shizuru and she's wackee." When I started thinking about it deeper and started setting things up for chapter 2, my concept of her character in this chapter became "Ohh. She Kobayashi Maru'd Akane, and then put Lelouch's Live Geass on her. That makes a lot of sense." Then I thought about it even DEEPer, and I realized "Wait a minute. Shizuru Gom Jabbar'd Akane, and then used the Voice on her." Damn.