"Hear me, Akane Soir, Otome of the Pure Heart Malachite. In my name, I hereby release your powers."
- Kazuya Krau-xeku invoking the ceremonial life-bond
"Achieve your mission with all your might. Despair not until your last breath. Make your death count."
- some anime thing with a Minami Kuribayashi theme song
"Great Scott!"
- Marty McFly
"I know. This is heavy."
- Dr. Emmett Brown
The Bewitching Smile Amethyst always felt a little uneasy about this plan, but the plan was a good one as long as it saved the lives of the two people currently most important to her. She finished off another mob of robotic Slaves invading the castle and swiftly retracted her chain naginata back into its handle. It looked like the mechanical onslaught that had lasted the better part of an hour was finally dwindling down.
Shizuru's scarlet eyes scanned the throne room with precautious attention to detail as her partner softly hovered to the ground beside her. She relied on the second Otome's amplified hearing to monitor the room for any unusual sounds. Both glanced to each other confidently when they were certain the area was clear.
"I think your switch really worked, Shizuru!" Akane sighed cheerfully as she caught her breath. "All those creeps focused on me instead of you!"
Shizuru grinned lightheartedly and shrugged.
"Hey. It's just a routine job for us Columns. We know all sorts of tricks when it comes to guarding high-priority targets." Her eyes shifted toward the 19-year-old emperor standing skittishly between them, huddled beside the throne. "Although we usually don't have to deal with targets this hot."
Her attention focused away from the cowardly lion and back toward his pet cat. History's most timid Mafdet playing bodyguard for her cuddly bookish Pharaoh. The boy was extremely fortunate he had a member of the Otome order who thought so highly of him.
"It wasn't just to lead these morons into their own trap." Shizuru smiled proudly. "I knew you'd perform better with more freedom in your contract. You've come a long way since the last time we fought together."
That was back when Akane was still a Trias Pearl several months from graduation, when all she was ordered to do was fly around a few blocks in Windbloom and rescue a certain group of individuals falling out of a crashing plane while her older superior handled all of the heavy combat. Back then she'd been a fledging just growing in her wings, with Mama Bird giving her advice to help her calm her nerves before her first real mission. Shizuru more than anyone else would be able to recognize how much Akane had improved as a Meister.
"Thank you for putting so much trust in me, Lady Shizuru," Akane said. "I'm not going to be afraid of fighting for Kazu anymore. I hope I can become as skilled as you some day."
Shizuru's smile curled into a more suggestive grin. Neither young woman noticed a shadow slowly looming over their heads in the palace ramparts.
"I'm not so sure you'll need to worry about that. After today's showing, I think you've already reached that level. I'm going to recommend that you should be allowed to retire on your own terms first thing when I return to the Academy."
Akane gasped with glee and started to turn toward the emperor.
"Did you hear that, Kazu? Now we'll be able to—"
Something enormous and eight-legged crashed onto the floor just behind Shizuru. A lone arachnid Slave raised its spinneret cannon and aimed the extending barrel toward the throne.
Everything happened faster than Kazuya's senses could perceive. The Slave's cannon recoiled backwards and launched a volley of stinger bolts toward him. Shizuru scrambled to unlatch her naginata as her Robe's flight rings illuminated. Akane was frantically screaming his name and running toward him. Her smaller weight thrust into his and they started falling together. The room flashed blinding white as the deafening sound of several high-velocity objects breaching a Materialisation field rang his eardrums. Akane's body spasmed against his and she cried out in pain. They landed on the floor together, with Kazuya on his back and Akane protectively sprawled on top of him. He blinked, gasped in shock, and tried to overcome his panicking dizziness.
Akane's bob cut limply brushed across his face, tickling his nose with the fading scent of Egyptian lotus. Her tail stabilizers were flopped over his legs like flimsy striped hip scarves. His arm had instinctively wrapped around her after they fell, and now he could feel something sharp behind her shoulders that shouldn't have been there. He raised his hand off of her back and looked at it. His palm was covered with blood.
"Akane? Are you okay?" It was the first thing he had the semblance to say.
His Otome never answered. She remained motionless on top of him. Then she started to glow green.
Akane's lifeless husk dissolved into sparkling emerald ashes in his arms, and then the ashes floated away. All that remained was the stunned emperor lying on the floor, staring up at the ceiling with bulging terrified eyes.
One of the Column beacons surrounding Fumi's cradle in Garderobe suddenly blinked off. A short ripple of digital blue lights passed down the circuits covering her containment chamber as the system verified the last information received. The Founder was crying.
Chains rattled in an enraged loop as the spider Slave was sliced to pieces four seconds too late to make a difference. Shizuru lowered her mechanical naginata to her side as she furiously shook her head. The black and purple fingers of her empty hand coiled into a fist and pounded one of the throne room's support pillars.
"Damn! How'd that thing make it past the perimeter check?!"
She slammed her fist a second time. Tears started to trickle from her eyes and mixed with the exhausted sweat on her cheeks.
"Damn it! Damn it, damn it, damn it! She was my best one!"
She shook her head again, this time to get a solid grip on her emotions. No matter how negative she felt, there was someone else in the room far worse off than her. Her attention silently shifted toward the throne, where the collapsed emperor looked like he was about to sob in despair, scream in hysteria, and mentally shut down all at once.
"But your life is still safe… Master."
The throne room's natural acoustics echoed Shizuru's last word.
Kazuya looked down at his hands stained with red blood and green ashes. He started to bitterly weep. Part of him wanted to be dead right now, and he cursed the witch for convincing him to let her kiss the ring on his hand so his life would be temporarily released from Akane's. Part of him wanted to kill everyone responsible for Akane's death. But he mostly just wanted to weep, weep, and weep while his mind couldn't process the idea of existing in a world without her.
Shizuru stomped the floor with her purple heel to get his attention.
"Stop it! Do you think Akane would have wanted you to be a crybaby ruler in her wake?"
Kazuya looked away from his palms and looked up toward Shizuru.
"How can you just keep yelling out orders?!" The emperor's shrill voice cracked. "How can you brush it all aside just like that? She… she's dead!"
"And you'll be dead if you keep wasting time sulking like a child. That's exactly what Akane didn't want to happen. She gave her life so this kingdom could survive. She did it so you could survive!" Shizuru shouted in response.
Kazuya glanced at his palms again. He cleared his nose with the back of his hand as he swallowed the rest of his tears.
"I'm sorry, Your Majesty," Shizuru bowed her head, softening her voice to be more apologetic. "Garderobe will see to it that she's remembered with the highest honor for her devotion to you. There will be a proper time for all of us to grieve her, just not right now. Not when your enemies could still be lurking around us."
It took every muscle in her face to stand by what she said and not show any more of her tears in front of him.
"You'll have to find another Meister Otome because of me." The emperor's words sounded like a lost whimper. Shizuru could understand the regretful implications in his tone, and she respected it. As much as it hurt having Akane torn away from him in the most traumatizing way possible, he didn't want any more innocent girls getting killed for his sake.
Shizuru's analytical thoughts took over. She had to consider a desperate future she'd never seriously factored into her contingency plans.
The boy was right. The throne would be thrown into wild disarray if another graduate wasn't appointed posthaste to defend it. It would be nearly impossible to find someone of Akane's caliber on such short notice, unless…
As the Vice Headmistress of Garderobe Academy, Shizuru held certain emergency powers. One of those powers was to sanction new Meister contracts in the absence of regular ceremonial approval. And this was a case where it would be too dangerous to wait.
"No." Shizuru said defiantly to Kazuya. "Cardair has its Otome. I won't abandon the post my Younger Sister gave her life for. Fumi and Natsuki will just have to find a new Column III."
Shizuru approached the throne and gracefully descended to one knee while keeping her naginata poised at her side. She was kneeling in submission to her new permanent Master, this teenaged boy who could barely sit up. The emperor and the Otome had never even had a casual conversation before, but she was convinced this was the only feasible option.
"I'm sorry for your loss," Shizuru spoke softly with her head deeply bowed. "I'll never be able to love you the same way she did, but I vow to devote my life to yours. The same way she would have."
She raised her head slightly, showing him her determined narrowed eyes.
"Let me be the weapon that keeps you alive for her sake, Kazu."
She had to look strong. She was winging everything to keep this kid in one piece so he could grow up to be a decent ruler. She was doing her best to hide the absolute dread flooding her mind.
What do we do now? Marrying Lady Malachite to Emperor Krau-xeku was integral to keeping everything stable. No one was even supposed to know we switched contracts before the battle. We were going to switch back as soon as things cleared up.
At least Akane managed to keep half of the dream alive. An Otome sacrificing herself to ensure her Master's survival obviously wasn't something that was supposed to work. But in a split second decision, she'd made it work. She knew she had to keep him alive for the kingdom's interests, Garderobe's interests, and her own love for him.
"Will you go after Akane's killers for me? I don't care if it kills me if you fail." Kazuya asked. His voice was starting to sound less weepy and more indignant.
He's not shy about hopping on the revenge wagon, Shizuru observed in collected silence. She would have to be the level-headed one to make sure he remained placid. Everything would be lost if the Cardair throne was polluted by another tyrant like Argos XIV.
The boy must have been full of venom after what he went through, but Shizuru was an expert at administering venom in safe, effective doses.
"If that's what you command me to do, Master. But I highly advise acting with caution. I won't be able to turn their traps against them if you have me charge at them head on."
A wicked chuckle infected Kazuya's breath. Wicked enough to match Shizuru's Bewitching Smile.
"Then do things your way. Take all the time you need to wrap all your plans around those bastards. And then sink your fangs into them."
Author's notes:
Something something the laws of equivalent exchange.
I was debating if I should give Akane a "I'm happy I was able to protect my Kazu..." bittersweet mini-death speech right after she gets hit, but I'm glad I went with the more silent approach. It's colder and, dare I say, more "realistic."
This whole sequence is surreal if you consider it's basically Junko Iwao performing Ayako Kawasumi's role from Ayashi no Ceres, and Cagalli Yula Athha just comes along for the ride as the least weepy character in the cast.
I'm gonna go out on a limb and say all the fics I've been writing lately in this particular circle probably require you to read Orange Brunch to really "get" what Garderobe is up to.
The only scenario where Akane could jump straight on top of her guy and the Columns would totally approve it.
Gotta feel bad for Kazu-kun here. Slave-kun penetrated Akane before he could. He's going to be Dark Kazu-kun from now on. But Shizuru is going to help him channel it so he becomes Batman Dark or Darkman Dark, and not Sith Lord Dark.
Did you guys watch Red Letter Media's review for Picard episode 10 yet? That's some wykkyd shit.