Mai HiME Reloaded

by PerditaX

Mai HiME the Fake Movie inspired fic... sort of. Slightly AUish. The Obsidian Lord was defeated and our HiMEs lived happily ever after. Wait... that wasn't the end...

3. Changes

First:
Thanks for the reviews:) And no worries, I'll finish what I started. It'll just take some time... lots of time... ages... yeah... things constantly get in the way.

Second:
The Silliness has infested large parts of this chapter. I don't know where it came from. Maybe outer space.

---

Chapter 3
Changes

She had the feeling everyone was staring at her. That wasn't true, of course, there were a few people who didn't. It was the first time Akira was wearing a girl's uniform (in public) and the unfamiliar clothes made her feel insecure and... vulnerable. Had the way from the dorm to the school building always been so long? Diving into the shrubbery alongside the way seemed very tempting, but unfortunately, the greenway didn't extend into the classroom, she wouldn't be able to hide forever.

The other new thing that upset her was her roomie. Now that she was officially a girl, she wasn't allowed to stay in the boys' dorm anymore. Shortly before she and Takumi had left for America, she had already moved into a free room in the girl's building. But back then the room had been hers alone and today a distant day in the future. Her roomie was really...

"Akira-kun! Hey, Akira-kun! Wait!"

It was the voice Akira would recognise out of a million. She turned around to see Takumi running towards her, waving and smiling.

He stopped in front of her, slightly out of breath, and his smile became even more radiant. "Good morning, Akira-kun," he said happily.

"Morning," she replied shortly. She wanted to walk on when she noticed that he, too, was staring at her. "Stop looking at me like that!"

His cheeks turned slightly pink. "But you look good," he muttered.

Akira went red and quickly turned around to stride off. She froze when Takumi was gripping her hand. "What are you doing? People will stare at us!"

"I don't care," he answered quietly, his fingers tightly closing around hers.

Akira looked at him uncertainly, but Takumi just went on, pulling her along and not letting go until they had reached the classroom.

÷÷÷÷÷

Shiho made sure that the coast was clear and dived into the shrubbery. Then she moved over to the other side that was adjoining to the main path and waited.

There he was, coming down the way, school bag casually hanging over his shoulder, a bored expression on his face.
And there she came, from the opposite direction.
The most beautiful smile spread across Yuuichi's face as he greeted Mai and embraced her.

It hurt to see them together.
It hurt to see them kiss.
It hurt to see the look in his eyes and the expression on his face when he was with Mai.
It hurt.

She knew she should let go but she couldn't. She couldn't fight the feeling that he was rightfully hers and that Mai had stolen him.

÷÷÷÷÷

Arika sprinted down the corridor, towards the entrance of the dorm. She was late for school. And that already on the third day. She had overslept and then her roomie had been blocking the bathroom. Her roomie was really weird... the first thing she had done after arriving yesterday was marking her territory with duck tape.

Arika left the building, jumped down the steps and was about to run down the path when she realised that she could save time by running across the greenway next to it. She slipped through a small opening in the hedge. Before her, others must have had the same idea because she found trails meandering through the bushes and trees. She quickly followed the trail that seemed to lead into the direction of the school.

When she had almost reached the opposite rim of the greenway, she caught sight of another person. A girl with a strange hairdo, dressed in a blue and white school uniform just like hers, was hiding behind a tree, back facing Arika. Intrigued, Arika sneaked closer. If she would have paid less attention to the girl and more to the ground, she had seen the big root sticking out. But she didn't and so she tripped over the root, letting out a surprised cry.

While falling, she saw the other girl spinning around as in slow motion, her four pink braids following the movement slightly delayed, strangely reminding Arika of a monkey drum.

Arika hit the ground with a thud.

"Ow..." She slowly sat up, dizzily rubbing her knee, and then examined the greenish brown smudges on her uniform. Great. Now she was not only late but also got her clothes dirty. She looked up to find the strange girl towering over her, an angry expression on her face.

"What are you doing here? Were you following me?" the girl barked at Arika.

"N-no," stammered Arika, surprised by the sudden aggressiveness. "I was just taking a short cut when I saw you-" She paused. "What exactly are you doing here?"

"Gathering mushrooms."

Arika looked at the girl, then to her bag still leaning against the tree and back to the girl. She was definitely lying: she didn't have a basket for the mushrooms. "You're lying," said Arika.

The girl rolled her eyes. "Of course I am. What are you - stupid?" She didn't wait for an answer and turned around.

Arika watched how she picked up her bag and disappeared onto the path. "Grandma said stupid is as stupid does," she muttered.

Then she jumped up and followed the girl, she had almost forgotten that she should be in class by now.

÷÷÷÷÷

John Smith hastily left the meeting room, heading towards his office, and answered the phone. "Yes."

"Ah, good that I catch you at this hour. Today's assembly was not over until an hour ago, so I couldn't get to your message earlier. Your assumption turned out to be true, there has indeed been a change of personnel. I just send you the details."

In the meantime, Smith had entered his office and was now taking a seat behind his desk while his dialog partner continued, "But that is not the reason for my call. Today's assembly was exceptionally long, but it was the last of its kind. The clans finally agreed upon a succession in leadership."

"And we thought another split was unavoidable."

"The sea's only calm on the surface, underneath, the water's still seething. But now that the question of leadership is settled, the internal problems are stepping into the background for the time being and they can fully concentrate on the upcoming task."

Smith sighed. "At least-" He was cut off by the sudden sound of the alarm sirens. Smith jumped out of his chair.

"I'll contact you again," he heard from the phone before his dialogue partner hung up.

Smith activated the small intercom device he wore around his wrist and opened a channel to security. "This is Smith. What happened?"

"We don't know yet. The alarm has been set off from Section B7. The Einherjer are on their way down."

Smith cursed inwardly. "Try to get a connection to Thomsen!" he shouted and ran out of his office.

In the corridor, he almost crashed with Mr Lacombe.

"What's going on?"

"I don't-" started Smith but was interrupted by a voice from his intercom.

"Thomsen here."

"What happened?"

"We don't know."

They still didn't know what had happened. What they knew was that someone, despite all security precautions, had entered the building, knocked out three people, stolen the cases and left without a trace. They didn't know how the intruder had gained access, doors and locks showed no signs of force whatsoever and, according to the logs, there had been no unusual access to the main doors. The records of the security cameras gave no further information on the events either. All cameras in Section B7 had failed, shortly before the raid must have taken place. Investigations showed that their CCD sensors had been destroyed, supposedly due to exposure to very bright light. The failure shouldn't have gone unnoticed, but it had.

Smith stared at the screen, rubbing his temples. He was writing a report on the incident. Or tried to.

SEARRS Special Report No. XY, on the events of 12th April: "We're clueless."

Smith laughed sarcastically and reached for the packet of cigarettes on his desk. Empty. He threw it across the room and congratulated himself for hitting the bin. Then he fished a new one out of his briefcase. His consumption had almost doubled in the last two days. He lighted a cigarette and inhaled.

It was ridiculous: the main intelligence department of SEARRS Japan was incapable of solving incidents that had happened within its own walls. It was alarming how easily security precautions had been bypassed. Another thing that troubled him was that the invaders must have had detailed information on the transport. That left the question why they didn't attack the car, which would have been a far easier target. The only explanation he could think of was that they wanted to display their power. But still... with that kind of power, an attack on the head quarters would have probably been possible and far more lucrative. Maybe this had just been a test run? But since then security precautions had been heightened, a second run might not be so easy.

But what was worst: they didn't know who was in possession of the cases now. First District, that was of course their first guess, but according to his contact, they had nothing to do with the recent incident. Though he didn't want to rule them out completely, the First District had many associates who acted upon their own will, there might still be a connection. And the more he thought about it, the more he was convinced that this had not been the doing of men but of... forces.

Smith put the cigarette stub into the ashtray and turned back to his screen.

÷÷÷÷÷

Takumi let his bag plump into the grass and sat down beside Akira. School was over and, how so many times before, they had not gone straight back to the dorms but into the large park of the academy. Akira pulled a block and some pencils out of her bag and started sketching. They had been sitting at the exact same spot before, last year, some time in autumn. Back then, the leaves of the trees they were sitting under had been dazzling in the most beautiful shades of red.

Takumi laid back, folding his arms under his head and closed his eyes. A few sun rays broke through the delicately green canopy of leaves above him, tickling his face, and a soft breeze came up, carrying the scent of the nearby flower beds, evoking memories of yesterday's evening.

«««

Yuuichi had won the battle over the luggage and was carrying both the suitcases, though Akira had insisted on taking at least their backpacks. Takumi and Mai were walking ahead and Mai was talking about the things that had happened during the last months. Things he already knew from letters and things that were new.

She told him how the renovation of the school buildings had advanced and lessons had started again. How classes had been put together because of the student fluctuation and how Natsuki had come into her class. How Yuuichi had started kendo again and was now leading the team after Takeda had graduated. About the sports meeting, and how their class had won the relay race with Natsuki outrunning all the other contestants in the last leg. About the graduation ceremony of the third-years. About the hanami they had all celebrated together here on the school grounds afterwards, and the karaoke party in the evening. About the trip to the mountains with Yuuichi, Mikoto and Reito, and that they should do it again some time, together with Takumi and Akira.

Eventually, they had come to the small place in front of the girl's dorm and Yuuichi put the suitcases down, saying, "Luggage redistribution."

"You probably want to bring your stuff to your rooms and freshen up a bit first... Could you come over to my room afterwards, let's say in half an hour?" asked Mai.

Takumi smiled, it was pretty obvious what this was about. "Sure," he said and then turned to Akira. "I'll come and pick you up before we go to Mai?"

Akira nodded and handed him his backpack.

Yuuichi wanted to take Takumi's case again, but the latter waved off. "I can do the last part alone, thanks for carrying it all the way."

"Uh... not for that," answered Yuuichi, scratching his head.

Mai pulled Takumi's and Akira's keys she had kept during their absence out of her pocket and gave them back.

Takumi then picked up his suitcase, saying, "See you in half an hour," and marched off.

Coming to the boy's dorm, he opened the entrance door and climbed up the stairs, into the second floor. There he walked down the corridor, stopping in front of his room, his eyes running over the name plate.

Takeda Ryuichi
Tokiha Takumi

It would probably take some time to get used to seeing Ryu's name there. He had been sharing a room with his older brother, but since Masashi had graduated and moved out, he and Yuuichi had suggested that Takumi and Ryu could share a room from this term on.

Takumi opened the door and entered. It was a weird feeling to stand in his own room again after all this time. It looked quite different from when he had left. Several posters of bands Takumi didn't know were hanging above Ryu's bed, next to photos of the kendo team.

Takumi went over to his own bed and put suitcase and backpack down. He let himself fall onto the blanket. Ryu was apparently not here, but that wasn't really surprising, it was the usual training time. Takumi sighed. Mai had been talking all the way back home so that he had not found the opportunity to discuss things. Not that he actually wanted to, but he knew it would lead to discussions. Maybe later he would have the chance to bring it up.

He went to the window and opened it. Resting his crossed arms on the sill, he leaned out. The wind gently brushed his hair out of his face and he closed his eyes, breathing in the aromatic evening air. It smelled like spring.

He opened his eyes again and watched how the branches of the trees in front of the house were slightly swaying in the wind. When he had left, the trees had been bare, slumbering, waiting for spring's sun to kiss them awake again with its warm rays. Now they were proudly wearing their new, delicately green robes, rejoicing in the vernal season. They had awakened to new life, and so had he.

Takumi glanced at his watch: he still had plenty of time. He took a towel out of the wardrobe and went into the bathroom.

Freshly showered and dressed, he set off to pick up Akira, not forgetting to take the bag with the photos from the trip with him. He went over to the other building, and soon he was standing in front of her room and knocked at the door.

"Come in!" barked Akira from inside.

Takumi opened the door, entered and almost stumbled backwards out again.

PINK! Everything... PINK!

A pink rug on the floor, pink curtains in front of the windows, pink bedclothes on one of the beds, a pink tablecloth on the low table in front of its foot, and, in the kitchenette, pink dishtowels and oven gloves.

Akira was kneeling on the floor, back facing him. Beside her, a girl was standing, completely dressed in pink, too. Pink shirt and shorts, and on her feet, pink plush slippers. Twirling her long, auburn hair around her finger, she looked puzzled at him with bright, turquoise eyes.

Then a realising smile spread across her face. "Ah, you must be Takumi! Mikoto told me everything about you two!" she exclaimed, coming towards him.

About you two?

Akira turned around and looked into their direction and a blush shot up Takumi's cheeks.

"I'm Yumemiya Arika, nice to meet you," the girl in pink introduced herself.

"Tokiha Takumi. Nice to meet you, too."

Arika shortly looked back to Akira still crouching on the floor and then back to Takumi. "She didn't want to tell me what she's doing there," said Arika a bit helplessly.

Akira got up and now Takumi could clearly see a line of duck tape on the ground.

Akira pointed to the line and said to Arika, "This line divides the room into your side and my side. And there will be no pink on my side."

"But... but the windows are on your side," spluttered Arika, anxiously looking at the pink curtains.

"Exactly," said Akira, a triumphant grin on her lips.

"Why don't you like pink? It's such a nice colour. It's calming and relaxing and a catalyst for creativity. It's a combination of red and white and..."

Takumi could see that for Akira, pink was everything but calming and relaxing, for she was about to explode any second. He interrupted Arika's stream of words about the virtues of the colour pink by quickly saying, "Pink surely is a nice colour but other colours must have nice traits, too. Why don't you two continue this discussion tomorrow, we have to go now."

He grabbed Akira at the arm and pulled her out of the room.

Outside, Akira glowered at him and then tramped off.

Takumi hurried to catch up with her. "She seems to be quite nice," he remarked carefully.

Akira snorted and halted, looking at Takumi. "She's so... so... different!"

"It's not her fault." That we can't share a room anymore.

"I know," answered Akira meekly and sighed. Then she walked on and Takumi followed.

"Ready for the not so suprising surprise party?" he asked when they were standing in front of Mai's room.

Akira nodded and he knocked.

Mikoto opened the door and a collective "Welcome back!" sounded. Everyone was here: Mai, Mikoto, Yuuichi, Natsuki, Chie and Aoi, they were all sitting and standing around the table, beaming at him and Akira.

Aoi came towards him and hugged him. "Good to see you," she said, "and you, too," moving on to Akira.

Hugs from Chie and Mikoto followed, and a handshake from Natsuki.

Then they were all standing in awkward silence until Mai told them to sit down and they gathered around the table.

Mai cut into the cake and soon everyone had a piece on the plate in front of him. But for Takumi, this was not just a piece of cake, it was more, a piece of home. This cake always came along with memories, happy memories mostly, for this was the cake their mom had always baked on their birthdays, and he and Mai had carried on the tradition. He took a mouthful and when the familiar taste pervaded his mouth, he suddenly realised just how much he had missed his sister, his friends, this place - everything.

Chie gazed at him and smiled. Later he thought that maybe she had noticed his slight tinge of melancholy and thus started to talk.

"So...," said Chie, "did Mai fill you in on all the stuff that happened while you were away?"

"Pretty much."

"I bet she didn't tell you the story with the cow."

"With the cow? No," laughed Takumi.

"What cow?" asked Mikoto.

"It all happened during the class trip before the holidays...," started Chie.

"Class trip? How come I know nothing about this?" asked Yuuichi surprised.

"Because you were walking ahead with the other guys, talking about sports and stuff," replied Mai.

"Ah..."

"It began when we were on our way back to the bus," continued Chie. "When Mai, Natsuki, Aoi and I fell behind the group because someone had to go into the bushes."

"Funny, how suddenly everyone had to go," remarked Mai.

"When we got back onto the path, the others were out of sight. We then kept on following the path and after some time, we came to a pasture with cows on it."

"And Mai was permanently glancing at the cows," said Aoi. "And then she went close to the fence and asked, 'That cow looks as if it's sleeping, isn't it?', pointing to one cow that was standing at some distance from the rest of the herd. And we were like 'Huh? Why do you ask?'. And then she was like 'I heard you could easily tip a cow when it's sleeping.'"

"Where in the world did you get that crap from?" asked Yuuichi, turning his head to Mai.

"Hmm... I think I read it somewhere on the internet. Hey, it sounded like a fun idea!"

"Fun we had indeed," grinned Aoi.

And Chie went on, "So Mai was all like 'Let's try tipping that cow!' and we couldn't put her off. We eventually agreed that two people would go and try tipping the cow while the other two would stay on the path to keep cave. Natsuki wanted to join Mai-"

"What? I didn't! She decided that I had to join her!" exclaimed Natsuki, her fork so abruptly swinging into Mai's direction that the cake was slipping onto the table.

"You said you wanted to," argued Mai.

"No, no, no! I said I would never partake in such a foolish, childish and pointless undertaking," disagreed Natsuki while scraping the cake from the table. "That's exactly what I said," she affirmed and put the cake into her mouth.

"Maybe that's what your lips said, everything else said that you were secretly wishing I'd take you with me."

"I wasn't."

"She was." Chie took control over the conversation again. "So... since Natsuki wanted to join Mai-"

"Absolutely not true," muttered Natsuki.

"Aoi and I were the ones to stay on the path and look out for other hikers."

"We all went a bit further down the path to get more distance to the herd before Natsuki and Mai went through the fence. You should have seen them tiptoeing through the grass, grinning like idiots and constantly shoving each other with their elbows," laughed Aoi.

"Natsuki started it!"

"Just because Mai was giggling so loud that she would have wakened the cow!"

"How could I stay serious when you were kidding around the whole time!"

"I wasn't."

"You were making funny faces and weird gestures."

"I was communicating with hand signals," returned Natsuki. "I wasn't kidding around, she was. And at one point, we even had to stop because she was almost cracking up."

"You were so close to cracking up yourself!"

"When Mai - when we - had calmed down, we went on and eventually came close enough to the cow to see that it was really sleeping, and then-"

"And then Natsuki was making her hand signals again."

"To discuss our next moves."

"You pulled faces and stamped your foot in slow motion!"

"Because you were grinning again and I wanted you to stop!" defended Natsuki herself. "But all my efforts were in vain," she continued, "because Mai suddenly burst out laughing and the cow woke up."

"Ha," exclaimed Mai, "so it's all my fault again!"

"Of course," grinned Natsuki and Mai stuck her tongue out at her. Natsuki appeared entirely unperturbed and went on, "The cow then mooed and came towards us and we were backing away and-"

"It was so damn big and getting faster and then the other cows started mooing, too, and then a barking sounded from somewhere and Chie and Aoi were shouting something, and we totally panicked and just ran until we were safe back on the path."

"I didn't know Mai could run that fast," grinned Natsuki.

"Me neither," grinned Mai back.

"On the path, Chie and Aoi were shouting, 'Someone's coming,' and then we were all running until we couldn't anymore."

"But because of the long run we were able to catch up with the rest of the class shortly later."

"So you didn't find out if one can tip a cow when it's sleeping," said Mikoto a bit disappointed.

"No, we'll have to try again some other time," answered Mai.

"Will you take me along?"

"Sure."

"Promised?"

"Promised."

"Hm." Mikoto grinned happily and turned her attention back to the cake.

Then Takumi and Akira had to tell about their stay in America and Takumi took out the photos to hand them around. The first ones showed him, sometimes together with Akira, the ward, the hospital, also from the outside, then there were pictures of its nearer surroundings, especially of a small park in the neighbourhood in which Takumi and Akira had often taken a walk when Takumi had been allowed to go outside again.

When they were through, Chie stood up and got her bag, out of which she pulled several stacks of photos. "From the sports meeting, the graduation ceremony, the hanami and the karaoke party afterwards," she said while giving them around.

They all went through their stacks and passed them on when finished. Mai was sitting next to Takumi, sharing a stack with him and every now and then giving comments to the photos they were looking at. They had gone through a few stacks like that when the cycle got slowed down by Natsuki, who was rapt in looking at one picture.

"Natsuki?" asked Mai carefully after a while.

"Oh." Natsuki looked up, her face suddenly turning beetred. She quickly skimmed through the rest of the stack and passed it on to Mai. "I was finished anyway," she said and grabbed the next stack that was already lying on the table in front of her, concentratedly looking at the new photos.

Mai looked at Natsuki in bewilderment but then she shrugged and turned back to Takumi. After a few photos she laughed, exclaiming, "I can't believe you have pictures of that!"

"Hm?" Chie came to look at the photo. "Ah, that! Pure luck," she grinned.

Now the others gathered around Mai, too, to take a look at the photo in question. It had been taken during the graduation ceremony and showed the members of the student council and the executive board sitting in the front row and, by the looks of it, the former president was sleeping.

Mikoto leaned over Mai's shoulder, saying, "On the trip, Ani-ue told us that Kai- Shizuru-san fell asleep during the ceremony and Suzushiro had to wake her for her speech and was making a big fuss about it afterwards, saying that it was just another proof of Shizuru-san's inadequacy and incontinence."

Aoi laughed. "Really?"

Yuuichi chuckled. "She meant incompetence." He scratched his head. "But it is a bit weird to sleep during your own graduation ceremony, especially when you're supposed to make a speech."

"She was probably very tired. No one's perfect, right?" said Natsuki irascibly, a weird look on her face.

Mai darted an angry glance at Yuuichi and he looked contrite, mumbling, "I just... I didn't... I..."

Natsuki was staring at the table, her face slightly red again, mumbling a weak "It's ok" in return.

"So... how's Reito-san doing by the way?" Chie quickly moved on to another topic.

"He's fine," answered Mikoto. "Now that his arm's fully healed, he's always doing stuff around the house and garden when he has the time. We'll go shopping together on Saturday," she added, "to get things for my room."

"Oh, you're moving in with your brother?" asked Takumi.

"No." Mikoto shook her head and pressed closer to Mai, wrapping her arms around her neck. "But I'll go there for the weekends."

"Reito-san's attending Fuuka University, right?"

"Yup."

"Many of this year's graduates enrolled there," said Mai thoughtfully.

"Well, why not?" asked Chie. "It offers a wide variety of courses, has an excellent reputation and very good connections to the industry. And it is nearby."

"And the sports teams play in the upper league," added Yuuichi.

"That's what interests you most?" asked Mai.

"No, but it's definitely a plus."

"Sugiura-sensei's also from there, right?" asked Aoi.

"Yes."

"Then Sagisawa-sensei went there, too... I wonder who else of the school's staff is from there?"

"Well, I know who's not from there," started Natsuki.

"Ah, here we go again..." Mai rolled her eyes. "Ms Graceburt gave her extra homework because she was spacing out during her class, and now she's convinced that she's an evil witch and the devil incarnate."

"She is!" insisted Natsuki.

The others laughed and then they were talking about new and old teachers and the school year that was lying before them.

They talked and talked, but slowly the strains of the long journey took their toll and Takumi felt terribly tired. The others also started yawning one by one and they decided to call it a day. They all helped to tidy up and Yuuichi and Natsuki did the dishes.

When everyone said goodbye, Takumi quietly asked Mai if she could accompany him a bit and she nodded. Together with Chie, Aoi and Akira they went down the corridor and parted in the staircase. Outside the dorm, Takumi headed towards one of the benches along the path and sat down. Mai took a seat beside him and looked at him expectantly.

"I want to start with kendo," he began carefully.

It was just as he had predicted: Mai was looking at him with a mixture of surprise and concern.

"Kendo?" she asked.

"Kendo," he repeated.

"But-"

"But what?" flared Takumi up.

Mai shrugged helplessly. "Isn't that too-"

"Dangerous?" he exclaimed angrily.

"... too early," finished Mai quietly.

Takumi shook his head. "The doctors said I can slowly start doing sports."

"But why kendo?"

"Why not kendo?"

"I'm just wondering, because you never-" Mai fell silent.

"No, I never..." Takumi laughed sadly. "It would have been pointless, wouldn't it?"

How many times had he felt this pain in his chest, this longing ache, when watching his class mates capering around while he had been caged, not being able to be as free and jaunty as they were? How many times had he cursed this weak heart, this weak body of his?

He didn't know. Countless times.

Until he had shut it all away, had convinced himself that he didn't care anymore, had resigned himself to what he had thought was his fate. For way too long had he forgotten that he was the master of his own fate.

But he had been given a second chance, and this time, he was tightly, carefully, holding his fate in his hands. He wanted to never again give up so easily, he wanted to become stronger. For himself and for...

He was jerked out of his thoughts when Mai pulled him close. "You thought I wouldn't allow it," she whispered.

Takumi nodded.

Mai shook her head. "But I am worried."

"You don't have to worry about me anymore."

Mai laughed softly. "I don't think I can shake that off over night."

»»»

"Takumi... hey..." Akira nudged him and he slowly opened his eyes. "We have to have to go now, or we'll be late," she said.

Takumi sat up, yawning. "We?"

"I'm coming with you."

Takumi looked at the grass between his feet. "I... I don't want you to watch," he said quietly. "Maybe some time later... ok?" he asked, looking anxiously at her.

Akira wrinkled her brows but then slowly nodded. "Ok."

"Ok." Takumi smiled with relief and got up, brushing his trousers. He took his bag. "See you later."

He made a few steps, then turned around to wave to Akira before he finally set off to the gym.

÷÷÷÷÷

"Mai, it's not like I'm leaving the country. I'm not even leaving the city. We'll see each other everyday at school and stuff." Natsuki was struggling in Mai's tight embrace.

"I know," said Mai, not loosening her grip on Natsuki one tiny bit. "But I also know that I'll miss having you as a roomie."

With the painting and the laying of the new carpet, the renovation of Natsuki's apartment had finally been completed. During the week, she had bought new furniture and slowly started packing her things, so that she could move back in. It was surprising how much stuff had accumulated in her apartment over the last few years (and not been destroyed by Nao), she had even stored some of it in the dorm's cellar, because she had not known where else to put it when she had cleared the apartment for the renovation. Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning had been spent with getting her things from Mai's to her own place. Midori had recently bought a used Toyota Hi-Lux and agreed to act as truckage company - though in return she wanted Natsuki to help her with some research. She didn't say what kind of research, but it couldn't be that much work, could it?

"It was fun, wasn't it?" asked Mai.

"Yes." Natsuki smiled. "Yes, it was," she affirmed, returning the hug.

Living together with Mai and Mikoto had not always been easy. It had taken some time until they all had adjusted to the new living situation. But for Natsuki, the adjustment had been especially difficult. She had been living alone for so long that she was not used to the constant presence of other people around her. And it was crowded. The apartment was designed for two people and it had often become too apparent that three was just one too many. Sometimes it had all become too much and she had had to get out, taking long runs or trips with her motorbike to be alone for some time.

Natsuki's former daily routine had differed very much from the one of Mai and Mikoto. Maybe because she had not had something like a daily routine. Getting up early and going to school had been hard, but Mai had implacably made sure that Natsuki kept the resolutions she had made at the end of the festival and had dragged her into her own routine. And her circle of friends.

She recalled the many evenings Chie and Aoi had dropped by, and later also Yuuichi. They had played cards and other games, talked about this and that and all kinds of things or studied for the exams when the end of the school year had been just around the corner.

When she looked at the apartment today, it didn't seem to be that small anymore, and it was nice to have a place she could return to, knowing there would be someone around.

Mai's apartment had become a haven for her and the others, a place where they found a piece of the safety and normality they needed so bitterly after the madness of the past months.

Yes, the time here with Mai and Mikoto had been fun and she would forever treasure those weeks, but now that it was over, there was also a part of her that was looking forward to her own apartment.

÷÷÷÷÷

By the way they paused and then conspicuously inconspicuously started talking about some movie, Shizuru could tell they had been talking about her. She pretended not to notice and went to the counter of the dorm kitchen. She filled water into the kettle and switched it on. She rinsed her thermos flask in the sink and took tea and filter out of the cupboard. She took a spoon out of the drawer and filled some tea into the filter. The whole time she could feel Haruka's and Yukino's eyes in her back.

The water had boiled and the constrained conversation had stopped. An uneasy silence filled the kitchen. Shizuru took the flask, hung the filter in and added the water. Nothing more to do. The tea would have to brew for four minutes. It would have been weird if she had kept just standing there, so she walked over to the window and looked outside. There was nothing interesting out there, just the street below, cars passing by, a few pedestrians walking the pavement. But it was a way to avoid eye contact with the two girls sitting at the kitchen table.

An unequal pair caught her attention. A little girl with a huge mongrel dog came walking down the street. It was not clear who was leading whom: one moment, the little girl dragged the dog along, the next, she was dragged by the dog. Now the dog had taken the lead and almost pulled the girl into the hedge surrounding the neighbouring property. But the girl managed to get the dog away from the hedge and soon they disappeared around the corner.

Shizuru glanced at her watch: one minute left. She looked at the cloudy, steel-grey sky. It would propably start to rain soon.

Down below, the little girl and her dog came back into sight, now in company of a man. The girl was holding his hand, excitedly jumping up and down beside him and the dog was walking at heel, wiggling its tail like mad.

Shizuru reluctantly tore herself away from the view when the four minutes were over and went back to the counter. Out of the corner of her eye she could see that Haruka and Yukino were now communicating by gestures and meaningful looks. She took the filter out and put it into the waste bin, closed the flask and was about to leave the kitchen when Yukino got up.

"Erm, Shizuru-san?" she asked nervously.

Shizuru turned towards her.

"Would you like to sit down and have a piece of cake with us?" Yukino was pointing to the Sacher cake on the table.

Since the disaster of last year's baking contest, mastering the fine art of baking Sacher cake could be added to the long list of things Haruka was obsessed with. Shizuru had learnt in passing that Haruka and Yukino had often met on weekends to improve their baking skills. Now, after almost one year of practice... it still didn't look good.

Shizuru was pondering if she should accept the invitation or not. To be honest: she didn't want to. And it seemed as if Haruka didn't want her to either. She had folded her arms and was blankly staring ahead with a grumpy expression. Yukino almost anxiously looked at Shizuru, her fingers fidgeting with the too long arms of her sweatshirt. This was clearly her idea, making the first step in an attempt to sort things out between them. But if Yukino made a step towards her, dragging Haruka along, she could as well try and make a step towards them. She was tired of the endless quarrels with Haruka; this was like a peace-offering and she might not get a second one if she rejected this. And she wouldn't die from eating their cake - hopefully.

"Sure." Shizuru got herself plate and fork, pulled a chair from the table and sat down.

÷÷÷÷÷

Natsuki woke up in twilight and dizzily looked around. It took her a while to realise that she was in her own apartment, lying on her new couch. She had been doing homework and fallen asleep. She sat up and looked over the back of the couch, out of the window. Rain was heavily pouring down. A short while ago, the sun had been shining brightly, and now she felt as if she had awakened in a foreign world, dark and unpleasant. She stretched and reached for the floor lamp, blinking when its light spread across the room, chasing away the shadows.

Her stomach was rumbling and she glanced at the clock: it was around the time Mai usually made dinner. The little apartment would be filled with the smell of food cooking. Mikoto would be taking a bath now. Shortly before dinner would be ready, Mai would tell Mikoto to get out of the bathroom and Natsuki would put the bowls and chop sticks on the table. Then they would eat together and afterwards, Natsuki would help Mai washing up.

Natsuki pushed the feelings of melancholy that were threatening to overwhelm her away. No singing the blues now. She jumped off the couch and went into the small kitchen of her one room apartment.

One of the first things she had bought ahead was a month supply of her favourite instant ramen. It had been weeks since she had eaten one of those. Natsuki put on some water and while it was boiling, she took a bowl out of the cupboard. She opened a pack of ramen and put noodles and seasoning into the bowl. After pouring the boiling water over the noodles shortly later, she covered the bowl with a plate and carried it carefully to the small kitchen table. When she took the bottle of mayo out of the fridge, she couldn't help but grin. Mai thought nothing of Natsuki's habit of enhancing her food with the white sauce and had imposed a mayo embargo to which Natsuki had eventually succumbed after two futile attempts of smuggling a bottle into the apartment. Both times the bottle had gone straight into the custody of Aoi, which wouldn't have been that bad if her roomie's name hadn't been Nao...

«««

It was near the end of the last school year and lunch time. Natsuki, Mai, Aoi and Chie were sitting at one of the tables at the side of the school cafeteria's patio. The patio was almost empty because the weather was quite fresh and most people were eating inside. Natsuki was only half listening to her friends' conversation about some new karaoke bar, she had other things on her mind.

The conversation had paused.

"Say, Mai...," started Natsuki.

"Yes?"

"There's this large communal cellar in the dorm, right?"

"Yes, what about it?"

"Do you think I could put some of my stuff there? I've some things I just can't get stored anymore and I thought I could probably put them into the cellar for some time."

"I suppose so. We can go to the caretaker later and ask him."

"Thanks, that would be nice."

"No problem."

Natsuki had spent the last afternoons with clearing her apartment so that it could be renovated. It was a hell of a work. And all because of Nao.

Speak of the devil. The root of all evil was walking to the neighbouring table. Nao put her bowl of ramen onto the table and took a seat facing Natsuki. She noticed Natsuki's glare and waved friendly back. Then she rummaged in her bag and took out a plastic bottle which she put on display in front of the bowl while leaning the bag against the chair. Nao smiled at Natsuki, took the bottle again, opened it and poured the mayo over the ramen.

That... THAT... "THAT'S MINE!" Natsuki jumped up, sending her chair flying backwards and clattering onto the ground. She furiously rushed to the other table. "Give that to me, that's mine!"

"Oh really? I found it in my fridge."

"You know damn well that it belongs to me, you were there when Mai put it in! Now give it back!"

"No," said Nao, pouring more mayo into her bowl.

"You... you..." It took all of Natsuki's will power not to beat her up right on the spot. That and Mai and Chie restraining her arms.

They had hurried to the neighbouring table when Natsuki had started yelling and clenching her fists. Now they were grabbing her arms and trying to pull her away from Nao's table.

"Natsuki... just ignore her," said Mai.

But Natsuki wasn't listening, she was staring at Nao like a bull at the red cloth, completely ignoring her surroundings.

Meanwhile, Nao had started eating and was now noisily slurping the noodles. "Mmm.. delicious! I should use mayo more often. You surely don't mind if I take yours, right? Mommy has forbidden you to eat it anyway."

"That does it! You! Me! After school! Behind the gym!"

"Oh, a date?"

"Yes! Don't forget to bring flowers! For your grave!"

"Let's see..." Nao opened her cell phone. "Ah, today is rather inconvenient, how about next week?"

Natsuki had managed to free her right arm. "You want me to break your face right here in front of all people?" she growled, making a sweeping gesture over the almost empty patio. The few people there were gathering their belongings and hurrying inside the cafeteria.

"Ok ok... who could reject such a lovely invitation?" Nao typed onto her phone. "Date... Natsuki... after school... behind gym... flowers..." She looked up. "What flowers do you like?"

"AAAAAAAH!" Natsuki had freed herself and went for Nao.

Nao let her cell phone glide into her pocket while sideways getting off the chair, then grabbed the chair at the back and hurled it towards Natsuki before running off. Natsuki dodged the chair in the last second and then followed Nao, who had fled to the edge of the patio and was now leaping over the rail. Natsuki shortly stopped at the balustrade, she didn't like to blindly jump over or off things, you never knew what was waiting on the other side. Below on the path, Nao scrambled to her feet and glanced up to her, already dashing off when Natsuki swung herself over the rail.

She had caught up with Nao in no time and was now right behind her. But when she wanted to grab her, Nao darted to the side and disappeared into the greenway.

Natsuki followed Nao zigzagging around the bushes, breaking through narrow gaps between them, ducking under the trees' branches and jumping over lose branches and roots on the ground, always on her heels but not catching her, hunting her instead, wearing her down, waiting for the right moment to strike.

That moment came when they had reached the end of the greenway and Nao had to get back into the open, leaving the little safety the thicket provided her behind.

In a glimpse, Natsuki was at her level and grabbed her at the shoulder, trying to bring her to a halt. She sharply breathed out when Nao punched backwards, hitting her in the stomach. Anger flared up inside her and she violently shoved Nao in return.

Nao tripped and fell on her side, rolled over and was then lying on her back. She quickly drew up her legs in defence, turning to Natsuki. But Natsuki made no attempt to attack her, she just stood at a safe distance, watching her. Nao jumped up, keeping an eye on Natsuki, and then she was standing again, slightly trembling and trying to catch her breath.

Natsuki came closer. "Apologise and I'll let you go."

Nao gave out a laugh. She stepped forward and jabbed at Natsuki with her right fist. But too slow. Natsuki saw it coming and stepped back, swiftly redirecting Nao's fist past the right side of her face with her outstretched left hand which was directly followed by the back of her right hand against Nao's arm. In one fluid motion she turned her right hand and when its fingers closed around Nao's wrist, her left hand was already behind her elbow, pushing against it while sideways stepping forward, forcing Nao to her knees, and further, until she was lying face-planted on the ground. In a blink of an instant Natsuki had twisted her right arm on her back, and kneeled beside her, keeping her under control.

It was only then when Nao reacted and tried to free herself, buckling, but immediately stopped when Natsuki in response pushed her arm further upwards, increasing the tension in her shoulder.

"FUCK! IT HURTS!" Panic was too evident in Nao's voice.

"Good," said Natsuki but loosened her grip. "Say that you're sorry. And that you'll never touch my stuff again."

"I... I FUCKING WON'T!"

"I can wait. I'm not the one lying on the ground."

"Ah, here you are," a voice sounded.

Startled, Natsuki turned her head towards the direction of the voice. "Midori..."

Neither of them had noticed the arrival of Midori who was now standing at a one meter distance to them and didn't seem to be too fond of what she was seeing. Natsuki quickly let go of Nao and got out of her reach, still watching her carefully. Nao got up from the ground, trying to brush the dirt and dust off her uniform, glaring at Natsuki.

"I heard you two volunteered as excavation helpers," continued Midori.

Natsuki and Nao looked puzzled.

"Huh? What?" asked Nao.

"You two will come to an excavation with me and help out. Though we could all go to the student council instead, if that's what you prefer. You know the rules about fighting on the school grounds. Your choice."

Student council - Natsuki cringed at the thought. Fighting on the school grounds wasn't tolerated, of course, and a reprimand was like the last thing her file needed. Going to the student council would also mean that Shizuru got to know about this. She would probably find out anyway, she somehow always found out such stuff, but if this got into her file it would be far worse. Her attendance rate was way too low and something like this would just top it off. She was angry with herself, she shouldn't have let herself get provoked by Nao, shouldn't have started this fight, should have known better, should have known that it would only cause her problems and solve nothing.

"Blackmail!" uttered Nao angrily.

"Blackmail is such a nasty word," replied Midori, "I'd call it a chance."

Natsuki and Nao eventually agreed to the excavation work, what else could they do anyway?

Midori told them to change into more practical clothes that could get dirty and to meet her at her car in half an hour, she'd arrange things in the meantime and would excuse them from their afternoon classes.

--

When Natsuki arrived at the academy's car park, Midori was already waiting at her car, but Nao was nowhere to be seen. Her expression darkened. She better show up.

Midori just smiled and said, "She still has a few minutes," as if she knew exactly what Natsuki was thinking.

Nao timely arrived five minutes after the half hour had elapsed. Just as Natsuki, she had changed into some old jeans and t-shirt.

"About time," growled Natsuki.

Midori didn't say a word about Nao's tardiness, just "Let's go, the door's unlocked." She opened the driver's door and climbed into the car.

Natsuki got in on the passenger's side and crawled onto the small seating bench next to the driver's seat, Nao followed.

Midori waited until they had strapped themselves in and then pulled out of the parking lot.

"What kind of excavation is this?" asked Natsuki when Midori drove onto the highway.

"Remains of a temple complex. The area was about to be developed last year, but then they found some stone fundaments and the work has been put on hold. Our university here was then entrusted with the supervision of the archaeological excavation. In the course of the excavation, we found a layer of ashes from which we can conclude that the temple complex was destroyed by fire in the late Heian Period. But we assume that the complex or at least some of the buildings are much older."

After half an hour, they left the highway again and shortly after, the road had led them to a small village. From there, they followed a dusty cast track through the fields and meadows. After a short time, the path was slightly ascending and the sparsely growing trees on the wayside became more and more numerous and eventually turned into a small forest. At the rim of the forest, the path met with a flattened and slightly gritted place. Many cars were standing on the makeshift car park and in the outmost corner were three latrines. All the shadowy places were already taken, so Midori had to park in the sun.

"So... here we are," announced Midori and unstrapped.

They got all out of the car and Midori instructed Natsuki and Nao to get the tools from the bed. The girls went to the rear end of the car and took the spades and pick-axes without much enthusiasm.

Natsuki wanted to ask if they should take the water bottles lying in the bed, too, but Midori's attention was drawn towards the young woman who came walking onto the place. She was dressed in trekking clothes and had short, brown hair. She came towards them, waving and smiling.

"Hey, Midori! Nice to see you."

"Kim! Good to see you, too. How's it going?"

"Fine, thanks. Oh, I read your thesis last week. 'Shinto Cults throughout Time and Their Influence on Contemporary Japanese History and Economics on the Example of the Local Cults of the Fuuka District'..." Kim slightly shook her head. "Who would have thought that something like this Ikusahime Festival existed, always here under our very eyes, yet unnoticed... And I heard you're going to be a teacher for another year?"

"Yeah, that's right... I'll be working on my diss though."

"More on religious cults?"

Midori nodded.

"Cool. Hm... I'd like to chat some more but I really gotta go now," said Kim after a glance at her watch. "I guess I'll see you around?"

"Yeah, I'll be coming more often the next days."

"Good," beamed Kim. "See you then."

Midori smiled. "Yeah, see you."

Kim got into a small, battered car and drove off, waving one last time to Midori.

Midori waved back and then took the water bottles from the bed of her car. "Ok, let's go." Midori walked into the direction Kim had come from and and Nao and Natsuki shouldered their tools and followed her down the path.

Soon, the forest to their left cleared and eventually revealed the view on the excavation site. Natsuki was staggered facing an area the size of a small shopping mall, littered with mostly squared trenches. And everywhere people could be seen working, digging the ground with spades and pick-axes.

A short way ahead to their right was another place on which several construction trailers were standing in the shadows of the surrounding trees. In front of the foremost trailer were two men reading a map the older one of them was holding. He was dressed in trekking clothes like most of the people here Natsuki had seen so far. The younger one was wearing draggled jeans and a t-shirt though. He looked up as he noticed their arrival, then smiled and said, "They're here," to the other one. Upon this, the latter looked into their direction, too, and folded up the map.

"Sugiura-kun!" he exclaimed, coming towards them, followed by the other man.

"Sasaki-sensei," returned Midori and slightly bowed.

The professor also bowed and then looked at Natsuki and Nao. "And you two must be the students Sugiura-kun told me about," he continued.

"Kuga Natsuki and Yuuki Nao," explained Midori, whereupon the girls said, "Nice to meet you," and bowed, too.

"Nice to meet you, my name is Sasaki," introduced the professor himself, bowing again. He pointed to the young man, who was standing beside him. "And this is-"

"Just call me Rei," interjected that one, grinning and casually waving.

"He will be working together with you," explained the professor and continued, "It's always a pleasure to meet young people who show such a keen interest in the history of their country. When Sugiura-kun called and said she'd bring two of her students with her I first thought you'd want a tour around the site, but I was told that you expressed the wish to actively participate in the excavation work. And of course we gladly respond to that wish, for there is probably no more exciting and rewarding task at an excavation than the digging itself - to uncover what has been buried by time, to retrieve what has sunk into oblivion, to see to what has been lying hidden in the dark, to touch what no one has touched for centuries! We recently started a new project, perfect for a first encounter with the wonders of archaeology, and I hope you will enjoy working on it."

The professor beamed at them as if he had just brought them the joyous message of them having won the lottery jackpot. Natsuki's eyes wandered from the professor to that Rei guy standing smirking next to him. Following Rei's gaze, she found the cause of his grin: Nao beside her made a face as if she had just gotten run over by a donkey cart.

Natsuki prayed that she had her facial features better under control, Midori obviously didn't tell the professor the real reason for their visit here. "Thank you for having us here, we really appreciate it and are grateful for this opportunity to learn more about your work here." She looked at the professor, unsure if her answer was satisfying or not. For a moment she thought that the corners of his mouth were slightly twitching but then it was gone. She must have been mistaken.

The professor nodded slightly and responded, "Then I will say goodbye now and entrust you into Sakamoto-kun's care."

"Could you carry these for the girls, please?" asked Midori, holding the water bottles towards Rei.

"Sure." Rei took the bottles and Midori turned to Nao and Natsuki. "I'll be working some way down there," she said, pointing over her back, "just in case something comes up. We'll see us in a few hours then."

Upon that, Midori and the professor, who had been waiting for her, were walking away, past the trailers, further down the path.

"Alright, ladies!" Just-call-me-Rei grinned enthusiastically. "Let's get into the adventures of digging. I see you brought your own tools. Good... you'll need them. Follow me!" Rei marched off and pointed with one of the water bottles to a path running along the side of the excavation area. "This way."

The path was slightly elevated, offering a better view on the area. From above, one could now see that inside most of the trenches, terrace-like structures had evolved due to the digging. Natsuki was walking behind Rei and Nao, every now and then throwing curious glances at the buzz of activities at the site. There were the many workers in the trenches who had instantly caught her eye when she had looked at the site earlier. But now she also noticed other groups of people. People with barrows were moving on some of the paths between the trenches, and here and there, she spotted people working with theodilites.

They came past a pit right below the path in which two men were working. They were cowering close to the ground, kneeling on small mats and scraping the soil with trowels. When they noticed the group on the path, they shortly looked up and waved.

Rei waved back and explained to Natsuki and Nao, "We found some pieces of a stone statue there, and now they're scraping some more shards out of the ground. We hope we'll find enough to reconstruct the statue."

In the meantime, they had almost come to the other end of the excavation area where the forest started again. "Now, we're almost there," said Rei and pointed ahead, "it's over there."

And really, shortly after, another trench was lying before them.

"Ours," exclaimed Rei and waved with one of the water bottles into the direction of the pit. Then he walked over to the trees and put the bottles down, in the shadows.

Meanwhile, Natsuki examined the pit. It was irregular shaped, but the width was probably four metres on average and it was about five times that long. The depth varied, too, at some places it seemed as if it was only a few palms deep, but many parts were much deeper. Through the length of the trench ran a broad band of cut stones slightly sticking out of the soil - some kind of wall.

Rei came back. "This is a part of the wall that once enclosed the complex. Or part of its remains, more precisely. As you can see, we did have some difficulties in uncovering this section... We're planning to excavate the whole wall one day to determine the exact course, but for now, we're concentrating on just this small part to gather information about the structure, used materials and such. And our task is to continue the digging here... Follow me."

The longitudinal trench walls were slanted here and there, like ramps, and they all walked down, to the excavated stonework. On the ground next to the wall a spade and a pick-axe were lying.

Rei picked up the pick-axe. "The soil here is very hard and we wouldn't get far with just spades... but that's what the pick-axes are for: to break and loosen the soil so that we can work with the spades. Like this..." He quickly drove the pick-axe several times into the ground, shattering the surface into chunks. He then exchanged the pick-axe with the spade and dug out the loosened soil and shoveled it into a big, black plastic bucket. "The soil goes into those buckets which you can empty in that barrow there. When the barrow's full, we bring the soil to the pile over there." He pointed to a pile of soil at the skirts of the wood. "But don't get too close to the wall so that you don't damage it, keep a few centimetres distance. We'll do the last bit later, with trowels and such. So... let's start then. You," he pointed to Nao, "will continue here, and you," looking to Natsuki and then going a few steps further along the wall while speaking, "will dig here. I'll be working on the other side of the wall." Rei then walked out of the pit and around to get back in from the other side.

Natsuki went to the spot Rei had told her to start at. She leaned the spade against the trench wall and then testingly drove the pick-axe in the ground next to the stones: the soil was as hard as a rock. With every strike, she felt a little of the impact in her arms and shoulders. Dust dispersed and settled everywhere: her clothes, her skin, her hair. The work was quite exertive and soon she was sweating. But she was glad to wear long trousers, because where the sweat mixed with the dirt, her skin started to itch slightly.

She didn't know how long she was digging now, it seemed like an eternity but was probably not even one hour. Sweat was running into her eye and she quickly wiped it on her shoulder. Looking over to Nao, green eyes glared at her out of a smudged face. Natsuki grinned and turned back to work, musing that her own face was probably just as dirty as Nao's.

Suddenly, the nasty sound of metal scraping on stone was heard and Natsuki and Rei almost simultaneously turned their heads, looking into Nao's direction.

"Hey, keep the wall intact!" shouted Rei half jokingly, half worriedly.

"That can't have been the wall," answered Nao, "I kept enough distance."

"Wait... I'll take a look at it."

Rei came over to their side of the wall and let Nao show him the spot where she had lastly dug. He kneeled down, gripping the pick-axe closely behind the head and carefully picked in the soil, using the pick-axe and his hand to remove the chunks. Eventually he got up again, a splintered part of a stone holding in his hand. "It seems as if this is just a quarried out and already broken stone from the wall," he said and put the stone piece onto the wall ledge. "Try to excavate it as well as possible, ok? You can put the parts on the wall here, I'll collect them later."

Nao nodded and they all got back to work.

But not long, and a man's voice was shouting, "Hey, Sakamoto! Could you come over here for a second?"

Natsuki looked up, into the direction of the call, and saw a man approaching them. She recognised in him one of the workers from the pit they had passed on their way here.

Rei put his spade down. "That won't take long, I think. You can do without me for a while, right?" he asked the girls.

Nao nodded. "Sure."

Rei climbed out of the pit and jogged over to the other man who was talking to him while they were leaving.

When they were out of sight, Nao put her pick-axe down and got out of the trench, too.

"Hey! Where do you think you're going?" shouted Natsuki.

"Just making a pause." Nao went to the rim of the forest and took one of the water bottles. Then she sat down leaning against a tree, opened the bottle and started drinking.

Natsuki suddenly noticed how thirsty she was herself and followed Nao's example. She sat down in the grass below the trees and wiped her hands on her jeans before taking her bottle and opening it. The water was cool and sparkled in her mouth, and she enjoyed the refreshing feeling as it ran down her dried out throat. The place beneath the trees was shadowy and a nice change to the trench, because even though the weather was rather chilly, directly in the sun, it was quite warm, especially when working. After quenching the first thirst, Natsuki relaxed, glad to be able to sit and do nothing. In the grass at her feet, a bug was crawling, and she watched how it made its way through the blades of grass until she lost sight of it again.

After a while, Natsuki put the bottle back and got up again. She stretched, made a few steps into the direction of the pit and then stopped, looking expectantly at Nao.

"What?" asked Nao.

"Let's get back to work."

Nao snorted. "You can work all you want, I'm staying right here."

Natsuki glared at her, not knowing how to respond. Eventually, she shrugged, "Do as you wish...," and turned around to leave.

"Stupid dog..."

"Pardon?" Natsuki turned back to Nao.

"You know...," uttered Nao, "you're always pretending to be so free and independent, acting so rebellious and badass and all, doing your lone wolf thing..." Nao snorted again. "You're no wolf, you're a dog - a tame dog on a leash, wagging its tail and trying to please its master."

Natsuki stood baffled for a moment. Then she regained her speech and shot back. "And you? What about you? You think you're any different? If you give a shit about nothing, why are you here then, huh? And... and even if I was a dog, that would still be better than a spider that's trapped in its own web of viciousness!" With that, Natsuki left Nao behind and went back to the trench.

Shortly after, Nao brought herself to come back to work, too. Natsuki watched amused how she picked up her tool with a death defying expression and grumpily started hacking.

Nao noticed and lifted her head to look daggers at Natsuki. "What are you gawking at?"

Natsuki grinned. "Your friendly face."

"Mind your own shit!"

Natsuki grinned even more but got back to her own work.

They had been quietly working along for some time, when suddenly a shovel load of soil chunks painfully crackled against Natsuki's back.

She spinned around. "NAO!"

Nao looked at her innocently. "Something wrong?"

"Stop it!"

Natsuki turned back again, tightly gripping her pick-axe as she tried to control her rage.

A second salvo landed painfully stinging in her neck and the back of her head. Natsuki closed her eyes and inhaled deeply.

"It's no fun if you don't play along, really...," complained Nao.

Natsuki let go of the pick-axe and turned around. "Sto-"

At that very moment, Nao shoveled the third load into her direction.

Natsuki tried to turn away and raised her arms for protection, but too late, she couldn't prevent the soil chunks from hitting the left side of her face with full force. Her face felt as if it had been pierced with countless needles. Out of the diffuse pain, one single, burning pain originating from her left cheek bone emerged.

Nao was standing motionless, the spade limply in her hand. Her face looked pale, and she was staring at Natsuki with wide opened eyes.

Natsuki's hand slowly moved to her cheek bone, her fingertips feeling a longish cut running an inch beneath her eye, moist and stinging under the touch. It was as if her brain was paralysed, having trouble to understand what just had happened. Her eyes wandered to the many stone splinters Nao had excavated and put onto the wall, while her fingers were still feeling the bleeding wound, ignoring the pain. The thought that she would have to clean it surfaced.

Nao jumped out of her way as Natsuki approached and then walked past her, out of the trench and to the trees. There, Natsuki fished a tissue out of her pocket and moistened it with water from the bottle. She carefully swabbed the wound, and the tissue quickly turned light red and brown.

Nao had followed and watched her from a short distance. Now she came closer.

Natsuki backed off. "Stay away from me!"

Nao froze. She then pulled a tissue out of her pocket and held it to Natsuki. "Here."

Natsuki looked at her suspiciously.

"Just take it. It's clean."

Natsuki hesitated but eventually took the tissue.

Nao looked as if we wanted to say more, but then she turned around and went back to the trench.

Natsuki pressed the tissue against the bleeding wound and sat down in the grass, undetermined what to do.

Not long, and she saw Rei coming back to the trench. He shortly talked to Nao and then came towards her. "You're injured?" he shouted half way. "What happened?" he asked when he stood in front of her.

"Accident," answered Natsuki evasively.

"Accident...," repeated Rei sceptical. He crouched next to her. "Let me see." Natsuki lowered the tissue and Rei closely looked at her face. Then he got up again with a sigh. "Midori mentioned there might be some trouble, but something like this..." He pulled a mobile out of his pocket and dialled.

"It's Rei. ... You could call it that. ... Some kind of accident. ... Nothing too serious, I think, something like a cut, some scratches. ... No, just Natsuki. ... I don't know. ... Tanaka needed my help. ... That would be better. ... Hm. ... Ok. ... Bye."

Rei hung up and put his mobile away. "I want you to go back to the trailers, we have some dressing material there. Midori will come there, too."

Natsuki nodded and marched off.

Midori was already waiting in front of the construction trailers, her arms folded. Natsuki's steps slowed down the nearer she came. She somehow felt bad even though she was innocent. She expected questions or some kind of lecture, but Midori just silently looked at her. Then she said, "Come," and they went inside one of the trailers. In its interior was a small kitchenette at the side wall and a table at one end.

"You can wash your face there," said Midori, pointing to the sink.

Natsuki opened the tap and held her face under the stream of water, one hand holding back her hair. She carefully wiped her face with the other hand and gritted her teeth when the water made contact with her wounds.

When she had finished, Midori gave her a paper towel for drying and then told her to sit down on one of the chairs at the table.

Natsuki sat down and watched how Midori put on medical gloves she had taken out of a box standing on the table. Midori carefully took Natsuki's face with both hands and tilted it a bit towards her to examine it. Natsuki inhaled sharply when her fingers came near the cut and the skin there got slightly pulled apart.

"Luckily, it seems as if the cut's not so deep," said Midori eventually and let go of her. "I'll put some iodine for disinfection on it." She rummaged in the box, bringing out a small plastic bottle, gauze pads and Q-tips. With one of the pads she shortly swabbed the wound and then said, "Close your eyes," while dipping a Q-tip into the bottle.

Natsuki did so and felt how Midori lightly gripped her chin and, shortly after, the burning in the wound when she applied the iodine. Some of the tincture ran down her cheek and Midori wiped it off. Natsuki wanted to open her eyes again, but Midori said, "Not yet," and repeated the procedure.

"Done." Midori pressed a gauze pad onto the wound, saying, "Hold that." She then got tape out of the box and fixed the pad with it. "That should do."

She put everything back into the box and threw the used Q-tips and pads into the wastebin under the sink, followed by the gloves. After washing her hands, she seated herself opposite Natsuki.

"What happened?"

"I don't really know. She... she shovelled soil chunks into my direction, and then I got them into my face, and then I had a cut on my cheek. It was an accident... somehow. She had hit a stone while digging, and there were splinters... one of them must have been among or sticking in one of the soil chunks. That's the only explanation I have. I don't think she did it on purpose. Hitting me with the chunks, that, of course, but I don't think she wanted something like this to happen."

Midori sighed. "Why can't you two just get along?" she asked sadly.

"I don't know. She's so... so..."

"You were both HiME.

"That doesn't mean we're automatically best friends. Rather the contrary, don't you think?"

A shadow flitted across Midori's face.

"Sorry," mumbled Natsuki and stared at her hands.

Midori had always tried to bring them all together, to turn them into a team, even after the Carnival had been over. The HiME Rangers - Natsuki couldn't help but smile whenever she thought of that name.

In Midori's world, everyone was good, except for the ones that were evil. And those had the word 'villain' imprinted on their foreheads, for convenience.

But maybe this world would be a far more unhomely place if it wasn't for people like Midori, who were always trying to see and bring out the good in others.

"I don't really want you to continue digging with that wound." Midori sighed again and glanced at her watch. "It's probably best to go home. Or do you want a tour around the site?"

Natsuki shook her head.

"I guess the same goes for Nao... I shortly have to check with some people and say goodbye. Wait here, ok?"

Midori stood up and went to the door.

"Midori?"

"Hm?"

"You told Rei why we're here?"

"Yes."

"The professor, too?"

"Yes." A little smile appeared on Midori's face.

Natsuki leaned back in the chair, folding her arms. "And all that wonders of archaeology talk was just show?"

Midori grinned. "Mostly," she answered and then left the trailer.

She came back after about a quarter-hour and they both went to the trench to pick up Nao and the tools.

The drive home passed silently and in a depressed mood. Back on the academy's parking site, they all got out of the car and went down the main path until they parted and said goodbye. Midori followed the way to the main building where her office was, and Natsuki and Nao took the path leading to the dorms.

They went inside the dorm and upstairs. Reaching Natsuki's floor, she headed towards the glass door behind which her corridor was.

"Hey..."

Natsuki stopped and turned back to Nao.

"I... I'm sorry. For that... and for taking your mayo." Nao looked at her nervously, waiting for an answer.

Natsuki knew she meant it, she'd never bother to apologise if she didn't truly mean it. She smiled slightly. "It's alright."

Nao relaxed and a faint smile played around her lips, too. "Ok... bye."

"Bye." Natsuki watched how Nao turned around and hurried up the stairs.

»»»

But that was the past. Now - NOW... Natsuki was grinning like a maniac as she poured some mayo into the bowl. She lifted the bowl to her mouth and carefully took a sip.

She wrinkled her brows and put the bowl down; in her memory it had tasted better. They hadn't changed the recipe, had they? She stirred the noodles around with her chop sticks. Maybe not enough mayo? That was it: because of the forced abstinence, she had lost her feeling for mayo. She added more mayo, stirred and tasted again. Still not good. Maybe a little more. Or a little more than a little.

Too much. Natsuki grimaced in disgust and put the chop sticks aside.

÷÷÷÷÷

People in bathrobes.
People in white coats and scrubs.
Broad, white corridors illuminated by the cold, sterile light that could even make the healthy sick when being exposed to it for too long.
And over all hung the smell of death. Or maybe it was just the disinfectant.

Hospitals. How she hated them.

Nao ringed at the door to the coma unit and soon a nurse came.

She opened the door, smiling at Nao, saying, "Hello Nao-chan, how are you?" while stepping aside to let her in.

Nao entered the unit, inwardly flinching at the 'chan'. "Fine, thanks," she said automatically, trying to smile.

Heading towards the cloakroom to drop off her wet rain coat, the nurse accompanied her, engaging her in the usual small talk. After a few minutes talking about this week's unsettled weather, the nurse took her leave and Nao was finally allowed to go to her mother's room.

Then she was standing in the door frame, watching her mother's small looking figure lying in the bed. Her mother was a mere two metres away, yet out of reach.

The head of her bed was surrounded by the machines that were holding her body in this world. The ventilator that was breathing for her, the pump that was feeding her and the monitors reassuring everyone that a part of her was still here.

In the beginning, the sight of her mother being hooked up to all those machines had freaked her out like hell, but over time, it had become some weird kind of normality.

Nao finally entered the room and went around the bed, carefully observing her mom, searching. But her haggard face was motionless as always. A mask. Her body ever still, only her chest was rising and falling with the rhythm of the ventilator. "I'm back," whispered Nao and ran her hand through the thin hair. Soon it would be time for a haircut again.

Nao pulled the only chair to the bed, sat down and took her mother's bony hand in her own. Cold. Her mother's hand was always so cold.

÷÷÷÷÷

Natsuki picked up her cell phone from the table, leaned back in her couch, dialled and waited.

Shizuru answered after the second ring. "Natsuki? Hi."

"Hi."

"Finished moving?"

"Yep! All my stuff's here and I even unpacked most of the boxes."

"Let me guess... with unpacked you mean you scattered their contents all over the room?"

Natsuki looked guiltily at the mess around her. Shizuru just knew her too well. "Erm, listen, I'm calling because I want to invite you to my, um, moving back into my own apartment party on Saturday."

A moment of silence and then... Shizuru was softly laughing.

"What's so funny?"

"Nothing."

"Can't I be giving a party once in a while?" grumbled Natsuki. Then, in a normal tone again, "Will you come?"

"Of course. What time?"

"It starts at seven, but..." Natsuki hesitated a moment. "Would it... could you... could you come earlier and help me with stuff?"

"Ok... so when?"

"Around four?"

"Hm."

"Ok."

"Shall I bring something?"

"Hmm... yourself?"

"I think I can do that."

Silence.

"How are things with Haruka?" asked Natsuki.

When Natsuki had called Shizuru a few days ago, she had sounded somewhat worn out, so Natsuki had asked if uni was stressing her, which she had affirmed. But soon Natsuki had been to find out the real cause of Shizuru's distress. When she had asked about her roomie, Natsuki had learned that it had somehow turned out to be Haruka. Not a Haruka, but the Haruka, Ex-President of the Executive Council of Fuuka Academy, who had declared Shizuru her number one rival. And to Natsuki's question why Shizuru didn't tell her, she had just answered that she didn't want to bother her and that it wasn't that much of a deal. But Natsuki knew too well it was. Haruka had tried to make Shizuru's life difficult from the very start and since that fateful night Natsuki wished so badly to forget things had only gotten worse. Of course, after the Festival, they had all apologised to each other and said they wouldn't hold any grudges, but some things just can't be forgiven and forgotten so easily. Natsuki knew that very well, too.

"Don't know... better... perhaps...," answered Shizuru.

"Is she there?"

"Hm."

"Ok... you can tell me on Saturday. Or maybe I call you before that? Or you call me?"

"Hm, I'll call you."

"Fine."

Silence.

"Then... until then?" asked Shizuru.

"Hm, till then. Bye."

"Bye."

Natsuki kept listening to the receiver, somehow she was hesitant to hang up. Shizuru had not hung up either. "You're still there," said Natsuki.

"And so are you," answered Shizuru slightly amused.

"Yeah, but now I'm hanging up."

"Bye."

"Bye."

"Natsuki?"

"Hm?"

"I think it's a nice idea to give a party."

"Hm."

"I'll call you tomorrow, ok?"

"Ok. Till then."

"Till then."

÷÷÷÷÷

Mikoto was listening into the darkness. Did Mai sleep already? She wanted nothing more than to crawl into Mai's bed and snuggle up to her. But with Natsuki gone there was no reason to sleep together in one bed anymore.

Her heart ached when she thought back to this afternoon when Mai had put clean linen on, saying cheerfully that each had her own bed again. Her own bed was empty and cold.

Mai's breathing had now been smooth and steady for a while. Mikoto got quietly out of her bed and sneaked over to Mai's. She shortly paused and listened once again to Mai's breathing before she lifted the bed cover a bit and crawled under it.

"Mikoto?" Mai turned around to her.

Mikoto froze.

"I can't sleep," she whispered after a while.

Mai didn't answer, but after a few seconds that seemed like an eternity to Mikoto, she put her arms around her, pulling her closer and Mikoto followed, shifting until she had found her usual sleeping position. She closed her eyes and let out a content sigh when she rested her head on Mai's chest.

Everything was alright. As long as Mai was hers during the nights, everything was alright.

Listening to Mai's steady breathing and heart beat, Mikoto slowly drifted away.

÷÷÷÷÷

"What do you want?" Mashiro glared at the grey-blue-haired boy who had suddenly appeared in her home.

Her 'home' - one of the many chambers in the vast vaults far below the academy. Along one of its walls, wooden shelves filled with books and scrolls were standing, and in its centre there was a wooden table with six chairs. It even had a large bench at the back which she used as bed when she needed some rest. She did not really need to sleep to regenerate her powers but it was one of the things she had relished in her human days and thus continued to practise. Just as she didn't need light to see but often lighted the candles in the five armed candle holder standing on the table because their light created a more homelike atmosphere in the cold stone chamber.

Nagi came towards the chair she was sitting in. "Ah, how rude, Mashiro-chan. Aren't we friends? Can't I just drop by and say hello?" he asked, pouting. Then, shrugging, "But I guess you're too busy to talk with me..." The flickering light of the candles was dancing across Nagi's face, intensifying the demonic character of his grin as he watched her expectantly.

One should think 300 years would be enough time to know someone. Mashiro was absolutely not sure if she knew Nagi but she thought that she knew at least how to deal with him. Two could play this game.

"Why would I be busy?" she asked, attentively watching him.

"You don't know? Well, then I won't tell you, you'll find out soon enough..." Nagi turned around theatrically and walked towards the door of the chamber.

Mashiro would prefer him to leave but he might know something that could be useful to her. She flinched. Somehow it was always her to give in. "We don't have much time this time, do we?"

Nagi stopped and turned around. "No", he said, shaking his head thoughtfully and coming back.