Chapter 2
Opening: King's Pawn

The hall was filled with the soft and constant sound of many computers and the sporadic beeping and humming of other machines. The only living being was the man sitting in front of one the few work stations, impatiently drumming his fingers on the desk. Kenji Ichikawa didn't have much time and it seemed to him as if it took ages for the data to transfer from his USB stick to the server. The computers here weren't connected to the intranet for security reasons, the sneakernet was the only way to transport the files. That they were encrypted and had now to be decrypted slowed everything down. He glanced at his watch. 30 minutes left...

The copying process had finally finished. He brushed a strand of his black hair out of his face and started typing. He imported the new values into the database and initiated the process that would update the blueprints for the genes they used to produce their Valkyries. Then he unmounted his USB stick and attached it to his key chain. After logging out, he quickly moved towards the big door of the machine hall.

He pressed the back of his right hand against the scanner in the wall next to the door. A short feeling of warmth when the infrared sensor of the scanner ran over his hand to extract the vascular pattern. A beep and the door opened. He stepped through, turned right and walked down the empty corridor. He passed another door, greeted a guard on his patrol, and shortly after, he had reached the door leading out of the security wing. The office wing behind was deserted, it was way past the usual working hours.

After a journey that had led him through more deserted corridors and hallways, he arrived at his office. He sat down in front of his computer and unlocked the session. He stared at the results of the last spectral analysis again, but soon his mind drifted off. It was that time of year...

He opened the picture. It was the only one he had kept. Summer, the beach, the old clique from college, no indication that they were close. He remembered that day as if it had only been yesterday. The two of them walking along the water line. The wind playing with her long brown hair. The shining in her eyes when she looked at him. The thin film of sand on her skin. Her soft lips on his own...

It knocked at the door.

He twitched and quickly closed the picture. "Come in!"

The door opened and Olivier Lacombe's head popped in. "Departure in ten minutes." The redheaded Frenchman stepped slightly ducked into the office and straightened up to his proud height of 1.97 m. "Lilah's already fetching the samples." He pushed his glasses up and came closer to look at Kenji's screen. "Still at it?"

"Hm." Kenji waved his hand towards the screen. "It differs again from the last one. There seems to be a resemblance between yesterday's and one from 120 years ago but that might be a coincidence, the old data is annoyingly vague. Not that the recent is that much better."

"We will soon have better data to work with again, I got a new report today, Eclipse 2 is almost completed. But now it's about time to go."

"Alright, I'm getting my stuff... one minute... ok?"

He waited until Olivier had left. Then he set the access time of the picture back to its old date and removed the command from the history.

÷÷÷÷÷

John Smith watched the black BMW sedan drive through the gateway and into the courtyard of the large office complex. It halted in one of the parking lots opposite to the gate. The passenger door opened and a young, sporty looking man with middle length black hair got out. He briefly nodded into Smith's direction and then went to the the tall, slender woman with shoulder length brown hair who had come out of the left rear door and was now opening the trunk. She pulled out a titan case and stepped aside. The dark haired man took out a second case and closed the trunk. In the meantime, the driver of the BMW, a huge man with short red hair and glasses, had gotten out and walked around the car to his companions. Together they headed towards the entrance.

"Good evening," Smith greeted the arrivals. "I'm John Smith, Head of the Fourth Publicity Sector here. And this is our chief technology officer, Kurt Thomsen." He pointed to the tall blonde man next to him.

"Nice to meet you, I'm Olivier Lacombe, Representative Head of the Second GEP Research Department, and these are my colleagues Lilah Morgendorffer and Kenji Ichikawa."

They shook hands and then went inside the building.

"I suggest Mr Lacombe and I betake ourselves to the meeting room while Ms Morgendorffer and Mr Ichikawa accompany Mr Thomsen to the laboratory," said Smith, whereupon the group dispersed.

Olivier walked with Smith across the entrance hall while Lilah and Kenji followed Thomsen to the elevator. They stepped inside and the latter pressed the button for the second basement, where the lab was.

It wasn't the first time Lilah visited this building. The Fourth Publicity Sector had often been assigned with field tests in the past. Back then someone else had been in charge. At SEARRS, you could get promoted fast, but you could get axed off even faster.

The door of the elevator glided open again and revealed a broad corridor illuminated by a row of neon lights on each side, where the metallic grey fire protection panels on the walls met the plain stone ceiling. They went along the corridor, towards the fork at which they would have to turn left to get to the door leading to the lab. Apart from a soft electronic humming the clicking of her heels on the cobbled floor and the more quiet footsteps of the two men were the only sounds to be heard.

When Lilah turned around the corner, she was suddenly blinded by a glaring light.

--

The thick, slate coloured carpet in the corridor absorbed the sound of their steps as Olivier followed Smith to the meeting room. The bright interior of the upper floors was of an unostentatious elegance, conveying the impression of a successful, reputable company. What SEARRS was, to those who did not know.

The meeting room was dominated by a large mahogany table. "Please sit down," said Smith, pointing to the leather chairs. He then took a seat at the head of the table and Olivier sat down to his right.

"We plan to run the tests the day after tomorrow, you should have the results by the end of the week then. As agreed, the first one will be in the Land of Fuuka, and if that goes well, we will gradually increase the distance to the star's centre of power," said Smith.

Olivier nodded. "Three runs, each with an increase of the radius by 100km, will be sufficient for starters."

"How's the progress on the new Yggdrasil Unit?"

"Slow. We're still trying to restore the data from old backups. Joseph Greer did a good job," said Olivier sarcastically. "But if the anti-materialiser meets our expectations, we'll be a good deal further."

"That is good to hear. We-" His cell phone rang. Smith looked with wrinkled brows at the caller id and then stood up. "Please excuse me for a minute," he said and left the room.

--

Lilah slowly regained consciousness and sat up. Her eyes darted around, searching. The cases were gone. From the corner of her eye she saw Kenji starting to move as she jumped up. She ran towards the door of the lab, snatched the emergency hammer off the wall, smashed the glass pane covering the little cavity next to it and slammed the panic button behind.

÷÷÷÷÷

Nao was walking along the path to the church. It was early in the morning, there were still dew drops on the grass at the wayside and the air smelled fresh and unconsumed. Yet Nao had to yawn. She was used to getting up so early but it had gotten late yesterday. After they had painted the walls of Natsuki's apartment, they had torn out the carpet and laid a new one, the old one had been draggled beyond help, courtesy of Julia.

A figure came walking towards her. When she came nearer, Nao recognised Ms Graceburt, the new English teacher. She briefly nodded when she walked past her and let her thoughts wander again.

All in all, yesterday had not been as bad as she had expected. They didn't bicker as much as usual, maybe the monotonous, calmative work of painting had caused the almost peaceful atmosphere. They had barely talked the whole time, a fact Nao was glad about. She still felt a bit uneasy around the dark-haired girl, after all she had done to her. She had never thanked her, but that Natsuki had stood up for her had impressed her more than she would ever admit. Natsuki had said they were the same but Nao knew this wasn't true. Natsuki was hard on the outside and soft inside. Nao was hard on the outside and numb inside. While Natsuki was walking in the light, she herself was walking in the dark. She had done things the other girl would never be capable of. Did being loved really make such a difference? Nao wasn't sure, she couldn't remember how it was to be loved.

She had reached the church and entered the vestry.

"Good morning, Alyssa."

"Good morning, Nao." Alyssa smiled.

"Where's Miyu?" Nao questioningly looked around.

"Outside, picking new flowers for the altar."

"Negative," said Miyu as she walked in, holding a bunch of flowers in her hand.

The morning prayer would soon start. They didn't have a new pastor yet but that didn't really matter, Joseph Greer had not been a pastor either and Miyu had always generated the liturgy. A lot of people were even saying that the services held by Miyu were better. Nao couldn't tell, she had never attended one of Greer's services. She didn't believe in God. There was no such thing as a god who cared for people, not with all this shit going on in this world. If there was someone who cared about them, her Mom wouldn't be comatose and the rest of her family would still be alive. She often asked herself why she accepted Sister Yukariko's suggestion of helping out at all and why she was still doing it. Maybe she did it because it gave her the illusion of belonging somewhere, of being part of something, even if it was only for a few minutes per day.

÷÷÷÷÷

"Dear passengers, the express train from Tokyo, scheduled arrival time 16:50, is 15 minutes behind schedule." squawked it out of the speakers.

"I knew it!" said Mai, clenching her fists and stamping her foot. "Of course it has to be late when I'm waiting!"

She and Yuuichi were standing on the platform of the station near the school grounds.

Yuuichi smiled at Mai's outburst. He stepped behind her and gently embraced her. Then he leaned forward and gave her a peck on the cheek. "I'm sure you can wait another 15 minutes."

"But it's been so long... And now that he's coming back I just realise how much I missed him..." Mai leaned back. She turned her head and looked at the clock attached to of one of the columns supporting the roofing. She stared at its hands as if it could make them move faster. But they didn't do her the favour, in the contrary, they got even slower. Eventually she gave up and looked ahead. The warm rays of the afternoon sun caressed her skin. The air she breathed carried the faint scent of Yuuichi's aftershave. Maybe it wasn't so bad that the train was late. Mai closed her eyes and embraced the moment.

÷÷÷÷÷

"FUJINO!"

Shizuru closed her eyes, listening to the nearing footsteps outside. She felt like getting a headache. The last week had been hell. Why did Suzushiro Haruka, daughter of a building tycoon, have to move into a dorm? And WHY - of all people - did she have to be her roomie? Wasn't it already bad enough that she was attending the same university?

The door to their room opened with a swoosh and a raving Haruka stood in the frame. "Fujino!" she exclaimed, her index finger accusingly pointing towards Shizuru. "Fujino! I just opened the cupboard in the kitchen and got buried by an avalanche of TEA!" Haruka almost spat at the word 'tea'. "You can't cram the whole cupboard with your tea collection!"

"Haruka-san, I asked the others and they said it's ok."

"Well, you didn't ask me!"

"It was before you moved in."

"According to article two, paragraph five of the dorm constitution, all decisions regarding public goods in this dorm have to be made by a quorate assembly of all inhabitants. Has that been the case?"

Huh? "No, but-"

"Then, by virtue of my position as dorm rep, I say we will have an assembly to discuss this matter and until then you get the tea out of the kitchen!"

Something in Shizuru's mind snapped. "FINE! FINE! I'll put it back here this evening! Satisfied?" she shouted.

"Here...? In our room...?" Haruka's left brow twitched.

"Where else!"

Haruka stood there, contemplating. "Maybe... maybe I can overlook this outrageous infringement. This time!" She turned on her heels and rushed out of the room, slamming the door behind her.

Shizuru suppressed the urge to shout after her that slamming the doors was prohibited according to article four, paragraph seven. She let herself fall back onto her bed and stared at the ceiling. What was that all about?

She sighed. Dealing with Haruka had been so much easier when it had only been for a relatively short, limited time per day. And Reito as demilitarised zone had just been priceless. He had always handled Haruka with an ease. But he was Prince Charming and Haruka didn't hold any grudges against him after all. She turned her head to the left and looked at her books. She wouldn't get anything done here. Shizuru decided go to the library to find some peace from her roomie. She packed books and pad into her bag. Then she picked up her almost empty thermos flask, she would need to go the kitchen and make new tea. It would be better to check if her tea was unharmed anyway.

÷÷÷÷÷

Natsuki bit her lower lip in concentration. She carefully placed whirl next to whirl, in nested circles from the center to the rim. She accomplished the task with only minor accidents in which a bit of cream dropped on the counter and once on the floor, after she had refilled the pastry bag. Then she took the bowl with the strawberries and put one on each of the whirls of cream.

Done. Natsuki stepped back and proudly looked at her work. Mai herself couldn't... well, actually, Mai could have done it better, but Mai had been running out of time and had entrusted her with the honourable task of decorating the cake for Takumi's welcome back party.

Mikoto got up from the table where she was doing her homework and moved towards the counter. "Mmmm... looks good...," she said, staring longingly at the cake.

"Hands off... you can have this." Natsuki gave her the bowl with the rest of the whipped cream.

Mikoto happily licked the bowl while Natsuki opened two cans of cocktail fruits and poured the contents into a pot. When she wanted to open a bottle of lemonade, it knocked at the door. She glanced at the clock. Too early...

÷÷÷÷÷

Akane was walking along the corridor, deep in thoughts. Should she talk with her about it or not? If not Mai, who else? Mai was virtually the only HiME she knew. And Midori. But Midori... no. She sighed. Eventually she had come to the door of Mai's room but not to a decision. She stood a while there, pondering, and then took a deep breath and knocked.

A moment later the door opened and Natsuki stood in the frame. She was wearing a yellow apron with huge pink spots. Mikoto was standing behind her, face covered by a blue plastic bowl.

"Hi."

"Hi... is Mai not here?"

"No, she and Yuuichi went to the station to pick up Takumi and Akira." Natsuki's eyes moved to the notepad which Akane nervously turned in her hands.

Akane noticed Natsuki's glance. "Oh... this is Mai's... she left it at work yesterday. I wanted to give it to her this morning but I forgot." She gave the notepad to Natsuki.

"Thanks, I'll tell her when she comes back."

Akane hesitated. Should she tell Natsuki? She wasn't even sure if she should tell anyone. The silhouette on the roof yesterday - that had probably just been her imagination. Nagi and Mashiro had returned to... to whereever they had come from. And the... thing... below the moon... she couldn't see it by day... and it was blue-ish... and kinda small. It was so not like the HiME Star. The others would probably laugh at her and say she was nuts. And they would be right.

Natsuki watched her expectantly.

No, she couldn't. Akane stammered a goodbye and walked away quickly. She sighed inwardly. She would watch the stars again this night.

÷÷÷÷÷

"Onee-chan! Onee-chan!" Takumi jumped out of the train and ran towards her.

"Takumi!" Mai started to run, too.

Takumi threw himself into her arms and Mai hugged him close.

"Takumi," she whispered.

"Onee-chan," he said, tears running down his cheeks. "I'm back."

"Welcome back," sobbed Mai.

Meanwhile, Yuuichi had gone to the train to help Akira with the luggage. Now they were slightly embarrassed standing with the suitcases next to the crying and hugging siblings.

"Ahem." Yuuichi eventually cleared his throat. "I hate to interrupt your cosy togetherness but shouldn't we be going?"

Mai and Takumi separated and goofily grinned at each other.

"Yes, yes," said Mai, turning around. "Let's go!"

÷÷÷÷÷

Her socks were red. They had been white when she had put them on.
There were stains on her yukata. Not only stains, the whole hem was saturated, almost up to the hollows of the knee.
She was standing in a puddle of blood.

The body of a woman was lying in front of her.
She didn't wear shoes.
The soles of her tights were worn through.
Her black skirt was torn at the side.
She was wearing a grey blouse. She had been wearing a grey blouse. Most of it was red now.
A necklace was lying on the ground. Not far from where her head would have been.
Where her head would have been if it wasn't lying half a meter away.
Cut off strands of black hair, sticky with blood, on the ground next to it.
Strands of black hair framing a face frozen in shock and horror.
And eyes, wide open, showing too much white around an iris of green.
The neck... it was a clean cut.
When she used the blade of her bardiche, it was always a clean cut. The whip caused messier, frayed out wounds.

Distant screams rang in her ears. Kiyohime had found another nest.

She looked up. The sun had risen long ago but it was still dark. Black clouds of smoke rose from the ruins and intercepted most of the little amount of sunlight that had found its way through the thick, grey cloud cover.

She turned around. Dead bodies everywhere. Some of them were beheaded, others were torn in half, horizontally, vertically, diagonally, depending from which angle the whip had come.

She started to walk back, into the direction of the screams, trying not to step into something or to slip. The blood on the ground was mixed with the contents of lacerated organs.

The wind turned and filled her nose and mouth with the heavy stench of fresh blood, entrails and excrements. Sour fluid shot into her mouth. She bent, bardiche slipping out of her hand, and somehow managed not to vomit on her own feet. Little white dots appeared before her eyes as she eventually straightened up again. The jagged walls around her started to spin and her legs sagged.

it's cold...
strange taste...
hard... wet ground...
I'm soaked...
rain...

She slowly opened her eyes and instantly jumped up when she realised in what she was lying. She fought the dizziness from the sudden movement and then spat, trying to get rid of the revolting taste in her mouth. She unconsciously wiped her face to stare in disgust at the reddish brown dirt on her left hand a second later. When she wiped the hand on her Yukata, she noticed that her hair was also drenched with the hideous liquid from the ground. The rain washed it down, leaving itchy trails on her skin. With a reasonably clean part of her Yukata's right arm she wiped her face. After materialising her bardiche again, she walked on, breathing smoothly to avoid another wave of nausea. Her soaked clothes were unpleasantly clinging to her skin and the cold wind and rain made her shiver. She wondered how long she had been passed out. The sky was still dark and clouded, the sun invisible.

She stopped. Inmidst the narrow passage through the crumbled walls in front of her, she could see a body lying. It was the only passage within the range of vision. She could either take this one or she would have to go back and search for another way. Eventually, she tightened the grip around her bardiche and went towards the passageway.

Her steps slowed down when she came closer to the body. Was that man really dead? His posture looked a bit weird but he seemed to be uninjured ...except for the head. The side of his skull was caved in and... she averted her eyes and quickly moved past the body. He must have fallen to death when Kiyohime had crushed the building. She had seen other bodies like that, though they had all been partly buried under the debris.

She was a few steps away when a sudden pressure on her left shoulder made her spin around. A cry escaped her throat. The deformed, bloody face of that man was staring at her. She wanted to swing the bardiche in his direction but found her right hand to be empty. She felt herself grabbed by the shoulders. Panicking, she punched with full force at the face.

"OW!" Haruka rubbed her jaw. "I think you've dislocated it!" She wanted to go on but the rest of her scolding got stuck in her throat at the sight of Shizuru's unseeing eyes that went right through her. The girl's face was ashen and sweaty strands of hair were clinging to it. Her nightshirt was also soaked with sweat.

"You started tossing around in your bed, talking and screaming...," Haruka tried to explain but wasn't sure if her words reached Shizuru's ears. "You're soaked," she remarked helplessly. "It would be better if you took a shower and changed your clothes."

Shizuru nodded subtly and got up. Haruka watched her moving through the room as if in a trance, taking a shirt and underwear out of the wardrobe and disappearing into the bathroom. This was now the fourth time in not much more than a week that she had been woken up by the other girl's uneasy sleep, though it had never been as bad as this time. Haruka didn't know how to deal with it.

--

Shizuru leaned against the wall and let the hot water soak her. It wasn't rare that she had nightmares about the events of the carnival, but she had not been aware that she was talking in her sleep. It would be a problem if she woke Haruka by that more often. She reached out for the shower gel. It was almost empty - again. She used a lot of it lately but it never seemed to be enough to wash the blood off her skin. Her eyes wandered to the bottle of shampoo. She hesitated but eventually picked it up and poured the shampoo into her palm. She closed her eyes and inhaled the sweet scent of apples. It was the shampoo Natsuki always used. It was totally stupid to buy it, it wasn't the right one for her hair. Well, that wasn't the only reason why it was stupid. But it smelled so nice...

"So, this is your room..." Natsuki dropped her backpack and looked around. "It's a bit smaller than the ones at Fuuka."

"It's ok. The kitchen's on the corridor, so there's more space in here."

"Who's your roomie?" Natsuki pointed to the vacant bed beside Shizuru's.

"I don't know yet. It seems the girl who was supposed to share the room with me cancelled the contract last minute. But I guess someone will move in soon, the semester starts in a week after all." Shizuru noticed that Natsuki was yawning for the third time since she had arrived. "Tired?"

"Hm, it got a bit late yesterday. After you had left, I went through the stuff again. And I couldn't really sleep late this morning, Mai and Mikoto made such a noise. They went on a family trip."

"Family trip?"

"Yeah. Reito wanted to spend some quality time with his little sister. But Mikoto insisted that Mai had to come, too. And when Yuuichi heard of that, he declared that he'd also come along." Natsuki grinned. Then she sat down and emptied her backpack over the small table. She opened the math book and yawned again.

"I'll make some tea with Guarana, that will help," said Shizuru.

"Hm, ok."

Shizuru took her thermos flask and went off to the kitchen. The dorm had five floors, on each floor were 20 rooms and each 10 rooms shared one kitchen and one communal room. She opened the cupboard in which she had put her tea and rummaged for the one with added Guarana. She decided to make some sandwiches while the tea was brewing. She didn't have lunch and was slowly getting hungry. She wasn't sure about what to put on them, Natsuki would eat anything with mayo on it but unfortunately - luckily - she didn't have any. The tofu spread she had made yesterday would most likely not meet Natsuki's approval, red bean paste would have to do.

When Shizuru entered her room again, Natsuki had fallen asleep, upper part of her body half lying on the table, head resting on her crossed arms. Shizuru moved quietly to the table, put the thermos flask she had shortly clamped under her arm to open and close the door on the floor and the plate with the sandwiches on the table. Then she sat down next to Natsuki and watched her. She looked so especially adorable when she was sleeping. Maybe because her face was relaxed and totally freed from the frown that managed to creep onto her beautiful face way to often. Shizuru's hand slowly reached out and glided gently over Natsuki's forehead and through her hair. Natsuki's hair felt so soft between her fingers, almost like silk. She could smell the faint scent of apple shampoo that encompassed it.

Shizuru frowned and dropped the strand. What if Natsuki woke up? How would she possibly explain why she was holding a strand of her hair in her hand?
"Natsuki... hey... wake up..." she said softly, gently nudging Natsuki's shoulder.

Natsuki slowly opened her eyes and then abruptly straightened. Slightly panicking, her eyes darted to Shizuru, the open book on the table in front of her and back to Shizuru. "How long did I sleep?"

Shizuru smiled. "Only a few minutes... here, have some tea." She poured tea into a cup and placed it in front of Natsuki.

Natsuki tore her hair in desperation. "I don't know, I'm looking at the page with all those equations and all those Greek symbols and my mind just shuts down..."

"Hey, you still alive? I would like to sleep and it's kinda hard with the water running..."

Shizuru put the shampoo aside. "Sorry, I'm done in a minute," she shouted. She quickly finished showering and then took her time with drying, she wasn't so eager to get back to bed.

"No more math today...," said Natsuki and stretched.

It was already dark outside, they had been solving problems the whole afternoon and evening. Natsuki collected her stuff from the table and packed it into her backpack.

"But I think I understand that curve sketching thing now."

Shizuru nodded. "You'll be fine. The problems in Sakomizu's tests usually aren't more difficult than the ones he gives as homework." She got up and followed Natsuki to the door.

Natsuki had already her hand on the doorhandle and was going to say goodbye when Shizuru blurted out, "You can stay if you want." She pointed to the second bed. "It's not like she would show up today... I have a spare blanket and..." Her voice trailed off. She mentally kicked herself. Natsuki was avoiding her eyes, nervously kneading the grip of her backpack. "Sorry," she whispered. "Then... I'll come over tomorrow? Usual time?" she asked, trying to sound cheerful again. She failed.

"No..." Natsuki looked at her and slowly shook her head. "No... I'll stay."

When Shizuru came out of the bathroom, Haruka seemed to have fallen asleep again. She moved as quietly as she could towards her bed. She slid under the blanket and stared into the dark, afraid to close her eyes.

"Shizuru?" came Natsuki's soft voice from her left.

"Hm?"

"You can't sleep either?"

"No."

"Must be all that Guarana tea we drank..."

"Maybe..."

Natsuki shifted in her bed. "Do you mind if I turn on the light? If I can't sleep I may as well look into the math book again."

"No, I don't mind."

Shizuru heard Natsuki shift again and the soft click of the light switch. The light penetrated her closed eye lids. Natsuki's bare feet were almost inaudibly moving over the floor, away into the direction of the table and back again. The bed creaked slightly when Natsuki climbed into it. She opened the book with a sigh.

Shizuru rolled onto her left side and rested her head on her hand. "You say if I shall explain something again, ok?"

"Um, thanks." A sheepish smile spread across Natsuki's face as she looked at her. "But to be honest, I'm partly reading it because I hope I'll fall asleep."

"Oh." Shizuru leaned back. She watched Natsuki for a while and then closed her eyes again.

--

A dull sound jerked Shizuru out of her doze. She looked over to the other bed and a smile flickered across her face. Natsuki was sleeping, arm dangling out of the bed, the math book lying on the floor. Shizuru quietly got out of her bed. She picked up the book, smoothed the kinks out and brought it to the table. Then she went back and switched off the light.

"Sleep well," she whispered.

AN:
GEP Golden Era Project (What, that's lame? ... Yeah... it is.)

And you may have noticed... I'm slow... I write with speed of snail. No, slower even. Sorry.