DISCLAIMER DISCLAIMER: You know... the real reason I decided to change the name of the high school that our HiME friends go to? Well, it's because I apparently have the maturity of a ten yearold and I can't type the word "Fuuka" or say it aloud without giggling inappropriately. It was too distracting, so I changed it to something less inadvertently (? or maybe it was on purpose? I dunno I don't really understand the mind of the Japanese anime writer.) amusing to English-speaking ears.
Thursday April 19, 2000
The next morning Natsuki woke before her alarm to bright sunlight streaming through the large window next to her bed and an unexpected soft warm weight draped across her side, slightly constricting her breathing in a not unpleasant way as she sprawled on her back. What the? She opened her eyes slowly to see Mai in bed with her. The orange haired girl was snuggled up against her left side, one arm thrown around Natsuki's stomach and using the Slayer's shoulder as a pillow. She smiled at the peaceful expression on her friend's face, thinking that the soft morning light playing over her skin made her look like an angel.
They both still had all of their clothes on; indeed they hadn't even kissed each other. But Natsuki could tell from the possessive feelings almost overwhelming her that a line had been crossed. No matter what her intentions from now on, she wasn't going to be able to look at Mai the same way again. She wondered if she should tell Mai how she was feeling, or if she should just let the other girl think that nothing had really changed between them, despite how heated things had gotten last night. She also wondered if she should be avoiding Tate today to prevent herself from accidentally punching a slightly handicapped person. She was brought out of her contemplation as Mai stirred from her sleep. With great effort, Natsuki willed herself not to react to the pleasant feeling of the other girl's curves sliding against her as Mai stretched.
"Good morning Natsuki." Mai greeted cheerfully around a yawn.
"Hey... You know you don't have to wake up yet, the alarm isn't supposed to go off for another half hour."
Mai propped herself up on her elbow, gazing down at Natsuki with still slightly sleepy looking blue eyes, "Eh, I think you woke me up with all of those way too deep thoughts you were thinking."
Natsuki raised an eyebrow, "Deep thoughts? Me? You must be mistaken. I'm just a Slayer. The thinking of deep thoughts is someone else's job." She grinned as she pulled Mai on top of her, laughing at the startled squeak that the other girl made, "I was just enjoying being snuggled is all. And I had another thirty minutes of it to look forward to but then some inconsiderate person decided to wake up early."
Mai frowned slightly as she saw a bit of sadness in Natsuki's green eyes that belied the grin on her face, "Things are different aren't they? Even though we didn't do anything?"
"I dunno," Natsuki was still smiling as she looked up at her friend despite her worry, "I feel good though. Like I could take out this demon summoner no problem, right now." She grinned, playfully shoving Mai down on the bed next to her, reaching over to turn the alarm off. "So yeah... I guess things are different. Are they different for you too?" She asked shyly.
Mai smirked slightly, "Well, I did wake up on top of you this morning. That was different."
Natsuki blushed hotly, nuzzling her face into Mai's neck feeling suddenly vulnerable about this whole situation. "I meant do you feel differently about me?"
"Gods Natsuki, you're such a girl!" Mai laughed, even as she held the Slayer close to her, feeling a bit amused at how much she wanted to protect this girl. Like I could do much to keep her safe. "Oh don't look sad Natsuki, I was just teasing..." Mai pleaded, trying to get the obviously faked pout off of Natsuki's lips. She blushed when Natsuki smiled at her, green eyes bright with amusement and was unable to keep her hand from reaching out to brush aside the lock of long dark hair that had fallen in front of one of them. "...yeah." She admitted, almost too softly for even Natsuki's hearing, "Things. ...They're different."
"Well I mean... those things I said last night... about you being just mine." Natsuki looked down to where her arm was draped across Mai's stomach, thinking how the thick black scars running across the skin made her seem dangerous to anyone with eyes, but here she was snuggled up in bed with some girl like a tame puppy or something. "I mean... if you really don't want. Me I mean. If it's a problem, I can figure something out if you needed some space or whatever... Because I'd understand if you didn't want to be with someone like me..."
"Natsuki." Mai interrupted, "Do you think maybe we could try and make it through these next couple weeks first before we make any drastic decisions?" She shrugged, "I don't really mind how things are now. We're going to be pretty busy with trying to get that ritual done too. I don't think we need to be worrying about long-term things when we barely know how the short-term is going to turn out yet."
Natsuki gazed into Mai's pale eyes, wondering at the hint of some emotion that she couldn't quite place in her friend's voice. She replied hesitantly, not quite certain she was saying the right thing, "...So you think we should just try and act normally around each other?"
"Sure," Mai smiled gently caressing Natsuki's cheek, "it's not like anyone else will know if we act normally. And you agree right? I mean that we can't afford to be worrying about things like this when we have a ritual to perform to track down a very dangerous person. So we act normally."
"Right. Normal. No one will suspect anything. We'll just get this important demon thing out of the way and then we'll worry about whatever is going on between us, if there's even any problem. Which I'm sure there isn't." Natsuki grinned, sharp white canines flashing in the morning light as she placed a playful kiss on Mai's hand.
Thirty minutes later they were trekking across the lightly foggy campus, hoping to get to Midori before class started. Natsuki and Mai made sure to keep a normal 'we're just friends' distance between the two of them as they chatted about the quiz that they were supposed to be having in math before lunch today.
"Natsuki!"
The Slayer immediately turned, grinning at the sound of a voice that she would recognize anywhere, "Shizuru!" She exclaimed, wrapping her arms enthusiastically around the slightly taller girl when her best friend hugged her in greeting. "How are you this morning? Oh hey Haruka."
"Kuga-san." The large blonde girl greeted her with a curt nod. "Good morning." She added as an afterthought, causing Natsuki to raise an eyebrow at Haruka's uncharacteristic politeness.
Natsuki offered the blonde girl a smile, "It is a good morning it seems. What's with you two being so enthusiastic about seeing me this morning?"
"We made drama team." Haruka explained shortly.
Natsuki gave Shizuru a questioning look and the tawny haired girl hastened to explain, "Just Haruka-chan and I tried out, no one else from Student Council. I thought that it would be good for her to try out with me, since it would be a good way for her to work on giving speeches better." Shizuru pulled Natsuki aside a bit, speaking softly in her friend's ear, "I know you didn't want me to tell any of them but Natsuki, Haruka-chan is my friend too and I didn't want her to think I was avoiding her."
Natsuki smiled at finally hearing Shizuru refer to someone besides herself as being a friend. She glanced up to see Haruka glaring suspiciously and almost laughed at Haruka's slight blush when she offered the girl a blinding grin and a friendly wave instead of her usual return glare. "Did you two have that talk?" Natsuki asked quietly.
Shizuru nodded speaking shyly in Natsuki's ear, "I guess I just realized that I'd been really purposefully keeping a lot of people at a distance, not giving them a chance to get close to me. At least that's what Haruka-chan thought, she told me that all I had to do was ask and she'd be there for me."
"That's really great Shizuru. Well I mean you two being closer now, and that you made Drama Team. That part is great."
Shizuru grinned, for once not holding back how she felt within sight of someone other than Natsuki, "I am looking forward to it. We have our first real practice next week."
Mai stood next to Haruka as the two of them watched their friends talking with each other. After a moment she turned her eyes to watch the light morning breeze blowing through the new leaves on a large nearby oak tree, hoping that the peaceful sight would sooth the intense pangs of jealousy she felt watching Shizuru's easy interaction with Natsuki. She'd never really noticed before how often Shizuru touched the Slayer when they talked, and it really should have stood out for her since it's not like she'd ever seen Shizuru touch anyone else.
"I still don't know what Shizuru-chan sees in her." Haruka spoke finally, breaking the too intense silence.
"Who, Natsuki?" Mai asked, shifting her eyes to the loud blonde next to her.
"She's just such a freeloader; I don't understand why Shizuru-chan doesn't see that." The blonde spoke loudly, and strangely slowly Mai thought, as though she were carefully choosing each word before she spoke.
"Um, are we talking about the same Natsuki?"
Haruka finally managed to tear her eyes away from the two friends and glanced at Mai as though seeing her for the first time. "Who are you again?"
"Tokiha Mai. I'm Natsuki's roommate."
The blonde grunted in acknowledgement, "I see she's got you under her spell too. I don't know how she gets everyone to fall for her act."
"I don't think that Natsuki is really a good actor..."
"And that's why I don't understand! She's such a bad influence on Shizuru-chan. That girl was always skipping classes and getting into fights, even all the way back in elementary school. And I've seen her riding a motorbike when I know she's not old enough." The blonde girl let out a heavy sigh, "I can't imagine what she would be like to live with."
Mai smiled, finally understanding a bit where the older girl was coming from, "How well do you know Natsuki?"
Haruka shrugged indifferently, "I try to avoid her."
"Well I guess from that perspective you might get the wrong impression." She smiled as Haruka gave her a puzzled look.
"Hey Mai-chan!" She jumped, slightly startled to hear Tate's friendly voice calling her name.
"Tate-kun." She replied stiffly, feeling somewhat guilty seeing him looking at her like things were the same between them as they had been a few days ago. Even if they were hardly going steady, indeed they weren't even officially seeing each other romantically at all, Mai felt as though she was misleading him just by acting friendly now. "Good morning."
Tate didn't pick up on Mai's mood right away, "You look really great this morning." He grinned as he looked over the beautiful girl, "I'm not sure what's different either, I mean you're wearing the school uniform the same as always. You just look especially beautiful today." He congratulated himself when Mai was apparently speechless at his compliment, "So... did you maybe want to go see a movie with me in the city this weekend?"
Mai shifted from foot to foot nervously, wondering how she should respond to him. She gave a small sigh of relief when she remembered that she was probably supposed to be helping with the ritual this weekend. "I'm sorry Tate-kun, but I've got plans." She replied, though he didn't realize that she was apologizing for more than just not being able to go to the movies.
"Are you feeling alright Mai?" Tate asked, concerned as he noticed Mai's continued uncharacteristic reluctance to talk to him. He put an arm around her shoulders to give her a hug, and was surprised when she stiffened uncomfortably at his touch. He blinked when he suddenly found himself standing several feet away from Mai. Natsuki was standing between them, wearing an expression that he'd never seen on her face before. Despite his posturing to Mai, he knew that Natsuki was a dangerous girl, and the way she was studying him as though he was a potential threat made him take an involuntary step back. Holding up his hands in front of himself defensively he looked past Natsuki and at Mai, who was now looking at the dark haired girl with a strangely amused expression. "Um... anyway Mai-chan, call me if your plans change? Or if you want to do something later?"
Tate felt relieved when Mai finally smiled at him like she usually did, "Sure Tate-kun. I'm sorry about this weekend. Maybe you should ask Shiho-chan if she wants to go to the movies with you instead? I know she'd be happy to hear from her 'big brother'."
Tate gave Mai a charming smile, "You're right, I should give Shiho-chan a call. I haven't had time to see her since classes started, and she has seemed a little down when I've talked to her on the phone lately." He glanced back at Natsuki who wasn't looking in his direction anymore, but was still in an aggressive stance in front of Mai. "Um... anyway I guess I should hurry up and get to class." He said even though hurrying there now would make him early.
Mai just nodded, "Me too, Natsuki and I needed to speak with our homeroom teacher before class. Have a good day Tate-kun." With that the orange haired girl gave him a little wave before taking Natsuki's hand in her own and dragging her off towards the building where the two of them had their general classes. Tate had science lab first, so he headed in the opposite direction, still wondering just what exactly he was missing about his interactions with his crush and his old friend this morning.
"What was that?" Mai raised her eyebrow questioningly at Natsuki, who seemed to be studiously avoiding looking at her, though she noticed that the Slayer was caressing the back of her hand with her thumb. She took her hand out of Natsuki's grasp, finally causing the other girl to look her way with a confused look on her face. "Natsuki, we agreed that we weren't going to act differently."
"Who was acting differently?" Natsuki asked, her face the picture of innocence.
Mai rolled her eyes, "You scared him. The only other time I've seen you look like that was when you were killing that bug."
"He was touching you." Natsuki grouched before adding defensively, "And you looked like you didn't want him to."
"I guess I just felt awkward around him today." Mai shrugged, "That was no reason to be rude to him though, he's not a bad man."
Natsuki used arriving at the door to the main academic building to look away from Mai without seeming too guilty, holding the door open for her friend, "I know. I don't even dislike him as a person, he's my friend." Natsuki sighed glancing back at Mai, her green eyes conveying a bit of apology, "I just saw him touching you and it made me kindof crazy."
"Uh huh. Well you didn't see me getting all jealous just because Shizuru-san was hanging all over you did you? Because I wasn't..."
"Shizuru always hugs me."
Mai rolled her eyes at the genuine puzzlement in Natsuki's voice, letting out a slight sigh at how clueless the Slayer could be, "Alright Natsuki, you like science right?" At the Slayer's confused nod Mai continued, "Okay then let's do a thought experiment. How would you feel if Shizuru-san was hugging me like she was hugging you this morning?"
Natsuki's eyes widened as she was assaulted by the mental image of Shizuru with her arms wrapped around Mai, both of them gazing at each other affectionately. "Jealous."
"Uh huh. ...Of who?" Mai asked curiously; slightly fearful of Natsuki's answer.
Natsuki blushed hotly and Mai almost couldn't hear her mumbled words, "...both of you." They barely had a moment for that thought to sink in when they had reached the door to their classroom. They were already too late to have any chance of speaking with Midori before the rest of the students arrived. Instead Natsuki simply informed Midori that they should have dinner together tonight; reminding her that Yohko should be there too if her work schedule permitted it. Midori agreed, saying that Yohko was going to be living at her place anyway until they could be sure that she would be safe. When she went to sit down at her desk in front of Mai as class started, she noted idly that Miyu was absent today. She hoped that Alyssa wasn't sick; Miyu had seemed so worried about her yesterday.
-MH-BtVS-MH-BtVS-MH-BtVS-MH-
Natsuki smiled as she and Mai finally opened the basement door with the giant tiger painted on it. She could feel some of the emotional stress of the day already slipping away at the sight of Midori's favourite animal, breathing in deeply at the feeling of peace that came over her just from being in her Watcher's home. Mai and Natsuki had ridden the Kawasaki to get to Midori's apartment. Natsuki had told Midori to just head straight home after school, since Mai had an interview for a part-time job at a nearby diner that Natsuki wanted to give her a ride to. Natsuki was so impressed that Mai was still looking for a job even with all of the craziness in their lives right now. Though she was worried about her friend's safety, since how was she supposed to be able to keep tabs on Mai while she was at work?
"Hey Midori!" She called as she removed her boots to put them on the rack next to the door. When she noticed how Mai was suddenly standing farther away from her than she had been on their way into the building, she smiled at Mai and grabbed her hand pulling her closer, "It'll be okay." Natsuki looked around the main room, surprised to not see Midori either in the kitchen on the computer or on the couch researching. Then she heard sounds coming from the training room, "I want to show you something." She said gesturing to Mai to be quiet.
As they approached the training room, they could see her Watcher through the open door practicing her dual wielding form with two battle axes. The main hand weapon was a simple single-headed axe with a haft just a bit shorter than a European longsword, but Natsuki recognized the smaller off-hand, a wickedly multi-bladed weapon, as an African throwing axe. The older redhead's black tank top and pants clung to her sweat soaked body as she continued to go through her forms, fighting an invisible opponent as though she hadn't seen the two teenagers come into the room. And she definitely hasn't. Natsuki smirked, taking in the white cloth blindfold covering Midori's eyes. But I bet she knows we're here.
Natsuki let go of Mai's hand, leaning close to speak softly in her ear, "Don't move. Trust me; you want to stay right where you are." She padded silently across the dark blue gymnastic mats until she reached the wall with the weapons, and carefully took a particularly thick-bladed sword from its hook, purposefully allowing the metal to make a slight scraping noise against the wooden rack. Immediately she heard the tell-tale whistle through the air behind her. She whipped around and just managed to bring her left hand up in time to catch the metal haft of the small axe before the wicked spike on its underside impaled her brain through her eye socket. She spared a grin at the look of shock on Mai's face before she charged her blindfolded Watcher, not having to pull her sword's blow as the redhead brought her weapon around in a defensive position in plenty of time to deflect it.
Mai stood watching the graceful and deadly dance between the two women with amazement. She knew that both of them were skilled, but actually seeing them go at each other with deadly bladed weapons like this was something else entirely. The two women were swinging their weapons at each other forcefully, completely unafraid of being hurt as they dodged and blocked the other's strikes. Mai suspected that the Slayer wasn't fighting at anything resembling her full speed, but as Midori was fighting blindfolded she was surprised that the older woman was able to block and avoid the powerful swings of the Slayer's sword at any speed.
The two fought for another half hour before Midori finally breathlessly called a halt to their training. Raising a shaky hand Midori removed the sweat-soaked blindfold, grinning as she finally saw Natsuki. "Whew, that was... an awesome workout. Thanks." She managed to get out around her ragged breaths.
Natsuki grinned back, "Thanks for almost splitting my head open with the hunga-munga. That was an awesome throw."
Midori smirked and replied finally able to spare oxygen for more words, "Yeah, I've been considering maybe teaching someone else to throw axes like that someday."
Natsuki giggled girlishly at her Watcher's silliness before replying, "Hey, why don't you go and get cleaned up. Me and Mai will make dinner." Midori smiled and thanked her for her thoughtfulness. Thirty minutes later the three women were sitting on the floor around Midori's newly assembled replacement coffee table eating ramen.
"No Yohko-sensei tonight?" Natsuki asked.
"Nope. She left for work a few hours before you two got here, and she has an eighteen hour shift so she'll be at the hospital all night." Midori replied, pouting slightly.
"Aaw, will my poor Watcher be okay here all alone?" Natsuki teased, laughing when Midori made a rude hand gesture in her direction.
"I can't imagine how tired she must get after such a long work shift." Mai said sympathetically, "That's pretty impressive how she can think on her feet for that long. I'd probably be falling asleep halfway through the night."
Midori grinned, "She's a pretty amazing woman. So Mai-san, why did you decide to visit my humble home for dinner tonight? Not that I mind at all. Actually with your cooking skills you can feel free to visit me every night if you want."
It was Natsuki who answered, placing the still brightly glowing reddish-orange spirit orb in the middle of the table in front of them. "Mai is our witch." She said shortly, though after seeing the spirit orb Midori really didn't require any explanation.
"Oh." Midori replied briefly, looking up from the practically burning magick trinket to study Mai carefully, "I'll admit I'm somewhat surprised that Natsuki is letting you help with this. In the past she hasn't allowed her friends anywhere near anything slaying related if it could be helped."
Mai smirked glancing at a lightly blushing Natsuki, "Well I'll admit it wasn't an easy sell. But I can be very persuasive when I need to be." She teased before continuing seriously, holding the older woman's gaze, "I needed to help Midori-san. I couldn't let Natsuki fight this alone."
Midori nodded, "Thank you Mai-san. We really need all the help we can get on this one." She looked back at her Slayer, a teasing grin on her face, "I can hardly believe you found someone so quickly Natsuki, you sure can work fast when you need to." She raised an eyebrow curiously when she noticed the light blush that appeared on both teenagers' faces at her apparently innocent comment. Well that certainly is interesting. I wonder what that's all about? She wondered before changing the topic. "Anyway Natsuki, Yohko and I were able to get those blood samples into her lab this morning to take a look at them."
Natsuki's eyes sparkled with curiosity at her Watcher's words, "Were you two able to find anything out about it?"
"Yes actually. Well, not me so much as her. I had to leave for school before she got much done. I'm hardly an expert on biology, so Yohko could explain this better... but she did let me keep her notes." Midori grinned as she grabbed a folder off of the sofa next to her, opening it next to her on the floor. "Anyway, the blood was pretty interesting. The red blood cells were completely human; they even tested as being AB+ blood type and for a demon that isn't a vampire, that's pretty unusual. Some of them do have red blood cells that look mammalian, but they wouldn't normally have the human antigens in their membranes."
"But I'm guessing the lymph cells are where things got more unusual?" Natsuki asked, while Mai simply turned her attention back to her food, the topic a bit too involved to hold her interest.
Midori nodded, "Yep. Even under a normal light microscope she could see that the cells had some unique structures in them that Yohko hadn't seen anywhere else before. She did some tests and found that the majority of the amino acids in their proteins were right-handed instead of left-handed like is more common among normal Earth life. Also its genetic material, while seeming similar to DNA, was completely unresponsive to the PCR technique. The enzymes just wouldn't react with it. Unfortunately red blood cells don't even have DNA, since they lose their nuclei and mitochondria to carry more oxygen, so she couldn't test those."
Natsuki's eyes widened, "So it's like a true hybrid of something from this dimension and something that isn't." Her voice betrayed her enthusiasm at such an intriguing discovery.
Midori nodded, but her expression was grim as she replied, "Yes, but unfortunately that does indicate that someone is using some of the more dangerous dark magicks to bring these demons into our reality from their own. They are probably using blood magick, or God forbid, maybe even magick that requires the caster to sacrifice a bit of their own soul essence."
"I don't know anything about magick at all and that sounds like bad news to me." Mai commented having finished the last of her ramen.
"Midori, could it even be safe to infuse Mai with that kind of magick? If they're getting their power for it using methods like that..." Natsuki's dark brows furrowed together with worry as she considered risks involved with this ritual that she hadn't even thought of before.
The Watcher nodded, "It could be very dangerous. Usually being exposed to magicks from a dark source just once wouldn't be enough to cause permanent damage, but sometimes it is." Midori looked at Mai, her expression uncharacteristically stern, "And that is why before we do the ritual this weekend, I need to teach Mai-san how to meditate properly. Being able to draw from a safe magick source is essential, especially for someone with the amount of innate power that you have Mai-san. Otherwise after we do this ritual you could prove to be just as dangerous to everyone as whatever is already after us."
"But I don't know the first thing about magick. I didn't even know I had any until last night. I wouldn't know how to go about doing any of this stuff." Mai said, her pale eyes widening in panic.
"Hey, it's alright." Midori smiled reassuringly, "That's why I said I'm going to teach you. All Watchers receive training in the basic techniques of magick, even if not all of us have enough power to make much use of it." She turned to her Slayer, "Natsuki, get the dishes washed so that Mai-san and I can get started with the basics. When you're done though don't go in the training room, come back here. We'll need you for the second part." Natsuki's green eyes betrayed her confusion at her Watcher's orders, but she simply followed them for now rather than ask any questions. She trusted Midori to know how to make this as safe as possible for her friend.
"Mai-san, come sit on the floor on this side of the table where I am so that we can get started with this." Midori suppressed a laugh when Mai sat down stiffly in the formal way facing her. "You don't have to sit in seiza unless it's comfortable for you. The most important thing for now is for you to be as comfortable as possible." Midori said soothingly, waiting for Mai to resituate herself.
"Now I want you to simply be aware how your body feels at rest like this. Keep your breathing slow and deep. Don't try to count each breath, just concentrate on the feeling of the air as it flows into and out of your lungs and the feeling of the air in the room on your skin. Magick is like air, it surrounds all of us constantly. It is as much a part of our world as air, but it isn't drawn in just through your lungs. Normally magick simply flows through us without our knowledge, inside the empty space in the matter that makes up our physical selves. For someone like you, magick is drawn to you, but until you have had a bit drawn out you wouldn't recognize the feeling of it. The spirit orb when it reacted to your presence would have drawn some of your magick to itself. Try to recall how it felt. Different people feel it differently, for some it is a sensation of a change in temperature, for others a change in the colour of the light in a room..."
"My skin. It was like it was slowly heating up from the inside, it was tingling, almost burning." Mai blushed, "I didn't realize that the feeling was my magick."
Midori nodded as she realized what Mai was referring to, replying in a reassuring, professional tone, "Your magick also responds to how you are already feeling. Emotions can intensify the response of your magick, and your magick can intensify your emotions. That can be a dangerous feedback loop in itself. When we perform the ritual you'll need to concentrate on staying calm, focusing on keeping your breathing slow and even helps with that."
Mai closed her eyes as she thought back to how she felt last night, blushing as she recalled the other burning sensations she'd felt from the Slayer touching her skin. There had been a different fire, one that was always burning low inside, though Natsuki's touch had certainly made it burn hotter. It had been like more than just her body, but some essence inside her that she hadn't been aware of had been brought to the surface at the Slayer's touch. Midori said it was the action of the spirit orb drawing a small amount of magick from her, but Mai wasn't sure. It felt like something more than that.
When Natsuki returned from the kitchen, Midori gestured silently for her to sit down next to them. Natsuki sat quietly, careful not to disturb Mai, even as her eyes were drawn to the flushed but peaceful look on her friend's face. "Can you feel the magicks now?" Midori asked softly, her voice still low and soothing. At Mai's nod she continued, "Now this next thing we are going to do is technically a spell, but all it does is allow for a slow outward flow of magick. As long as you are able to keep your thoughts and emotions calm, our physical surroundings will be unaffected." For now Midori didn't detail the specific consequences of Mai not remaining calm, though she would after they completed their exercises for tonight. Mentioning them now would only make it more difficult for Mai to maintain her equilibrium. Generally though, if someone did this exercise with too many stray thoughts or extreme emotions, their magick would manifest itself in ways that were similar to the spellcaster's talents. More often this type of involuntary magick wouldn't happen because someone was doing this exercise, but just because they accidentally replicated the effects of it by suddenly releasing a large amount of their magick.
Natsuki listened to Midori describe the method of bringing magick to the surface and slowly letting go, realizing how it was similar in some ways to how it felt for her when she was around Duran. A tugging inside that allowed something that normally was inside her to manifest itself more solidly, though Duran was only ever inside of her dreams, and never hers to control no matter her thoughts or emotions. As she watched a dull orange fire-like glow began to slowly emanate from around Mai's body and the temperature in the room itself seemed to slowly rise. Natsuki almost gasped aloud as she felt the familiar touch of magick inside her, and glanced at Midori to see if she was affected too, but the Watcher's face remained impassive as she continued to instruct Mai, urging calm and quiet thoughts. She wondered if Midori really wasn't feeling the touch of magick or if she was just better at hiding it.
As the temperature in the room started to become uncomfortable, all of them sweating slightly, Midori finally called a stop to the exercise, saying that Mai had probably lowered her reserves enough to move on to the next one. "Are you feeling tired?" Midori asked softly.
Mai shook her head as she slowly opened her eyes, "Not at all. Actually I feel really rested right now, like I just woke up from a nap or something."
Midori smiled, "Glad to hear it. Both of these exercises can be very good relaxation techniques, sometimes I use them after I've been researching for a long time so that I can keep going when I don't have time to sleep." Midori almost laughed at Natsuki's sharp glare at her, though the Slayer didn't speak; not wanting to interrupt an important lesson to scold her Watcher's sleeping habits. "Now, the first exercise does have some practical uses, but I'm not going to go into them before the ritual since it's not essential that you know them yet, so quite frankly we don't have time. For now the only purpose of the first exercise is to have you release enough of your magick so that you can more easily perform this second one, which as you may have guessed, is recharging your magick."
"As I said earlier, magick is everywhere. So the most common way to recharge your magick is to simply wait. This can take a long time, days or even weeks depending on how low your magick reserves have gotten. If you've been infused with a large amount of dark magick though, this method is going to be too slow for you. The problem with magick is that it's like air in your lungs, even if you breathe all the way out and hold it, there's air still trapped inside. Your magick is the same way, even if you kept doing the first exercise for hours you would still have magick inside you, so the best way to deal with getting rid of the dark magick would be to recharge with a more 'clean' source to dilute it."
"The most common way to go about actively replenishing one's magick is to recharge using the flow of magick through the Earth itself. It's a good method in that it's always available to you, but in this area it is an advanced technique. Natsuki may or may not have told you, but Tokyo is located over something known as a Hellmouth, or an area where the walls separating our dimension from other far more dangerous ones are weak. Many of these other dimensions are dominated by demons more powerful than any we see in ours. The Tokyo Hellmouth is mostly dormant right now, but even still dark magickal energy seeps out of it, making locating the more pure magickal energy from the Earth itself more difficult here than it would be if you were performing the same technique in say Okinawa."
"And I take it we won't have time to teach me how before the ritual?" Mai asked, finally speaking.
Midori nodded but added, "We don't, but if you want to learn it after, I would be happy to help you with it. It is a good technique for any spellcaster wanting to train their magick to know." The Watcher smirked slightly, "For now though, we are fortunate to have access to a much more easy to use source of magickal energy so that you can practice this recharge technique." Both Mai and Natsuki's eyes widened when Midori placed a hand on Natsuki's shoulder, "And this right here is the source that we will be using for now."
"M-me?" Natsuki asked, nervously glancing at her Watcher.
Midori smiled as she calmly reassured the girls, "It's not something that is going to hurt Natsuki in any way, nor will it affect her Slayer powers, so you don't have to worry about that. While most humans with the ability to hold lots of magickal energy get it from their surroundings, a Slayer actually creates her own constantly. Becoming a Slayer ties her to a mystical source slightly outside our dimension, and the constant infusion of magick in a certain way is why Slayers are so strong. Obviously this is a simplified explanation, but the short of it is that with just one person bleeding some magick off of her, Natsuki won't be affected."
"Now... creatures like vampires and demons, and humans like Slayers and spellcasters generally have a higher concentration of magick than their surroundings. Because of this they are constantly radiating some of their magick. Some creatures can naturally use this to track other beings of great power, and there are many spells that allow someone to track these signatures as well. Even from where you're sitting you would be able to absorb some magickal energy from her." Midori continued her explanation in soothing tones, aware that this next part might be awkward for all of them if her assumptions were correct, but they just didn't have time to worry about anyone being a little bit embarrassed or uncomfortable right now.
"Magick though, is a bit like heat. It can travel through air, but directly touching the source is much more efficient. Even for someone with training, trying to recharge their magick from even this fairly small distance might actually cost more than it absorbs. So to make this work you two need to get closer."
Mai blushed slightly at the suggestion, but Natsuki smiled reassuringly at her. "You don't have to be nervous, we'll be alright." Natsuki spoke quietly. She hardly needed any encouragement to be closer to Mai for whatever reason, all day she had been feeling an almost overwhelming need to touch the other girl. The Slayer didn't wait for Mai to be the one to act, standing from her spot she walked the few feet to her friend, sitting down cross-legged facing the orange haired girl with her arms resting casually on her legs, her hands towards Mai, palms facing up. She gave Mai a warm smile as the other girl hesitantly placed soft hands in hers.
"Now repeat the first part of the last exercise. You want to slowly let your perceptions of your physical self fade out of your awareness so that you can concentrate more fully on the feeling of your magick and where it is coming in contact with Natsuki's." Midori instructed calmly, studiously ignoring Mai's shy and blushing interactions with her Slayer. I'll take the time to tease them about it later. After we've all performed this ritual and located our Big Bad without dying.
Mai nodded subtly, closing her eyes to try and rid herself of the distracting sight of Natsuki's gentle smile that brought out slight dimples, the adorable little upturned nose and those warm green eyes gazing affectionately at her through long dark lashes. Though even with her eyes closed, the image of her beautiful friend was clear in her mind.
Even as she was able to slowly raise her awareness of the light burn of her own magick inside her, her senses still refused to allow the feeling of the physical presence of the Slayer to fade. The sensation of warm rough hands lightly gripping her own suddenly became something more, as even though they were only barely touching they also seemed to be overlapping on a more basic level, somehow fused together. She attempted to concentrate on her own breathing, but instead she became more aware of the Slayer's slow quiet breaths. It seemed as though she could hear both of their heartbeats thundering in her ears instead of just her own. She subtly trailed her fingertips over Natsuki's hands and wrapped them loosely around her wrists, feeling the strong steady rhythm of her pulse throbbing in time with the thunder in her mind.
Even though Natsuki's strong physical presence was keeping Mai anchored, as she concentrated on bringing her magick to the surface she felt her perception starting to shift. Gradually sight seemed to return to her, the thin skin of her eyelids no longer enough to keep her world dark. Instead she could see Natsuki in front of her, the Slayer's body surrounded by a dark blue light. Though the blue might have seemed like cold ice to most, to Mai it seemed hot; like the dark blue of a cloudless desert sky. As a part of her leaned into the light, everything shifted again.
The Slayer was a blindingly bright blue star, burning through fuel as though the universe might end tomorrow. She was a comet, hurdling closer and closer at time-bending speeds, her own body and essence coming to light and catching fire as she absorbed the massive amounts of energy radiating from the dangerously pulsating orb of plasma. Suddenly she felt her entire existence consumed with raw sensation that was too intense to distinguish as either pleasure or pain, if she had control over her body she would have cried out. For what felt like an eternity she was forced to simply endure, wondering at once if she was dying while at the same time never wanting it to end.
As quickly as it started it stopped, Mai found herself suddenly drawn back into herself, her body feeling strange and heavy, as though she were a stranger in it. She could feel her breath burning in her throat, fast and ragged and felt how her clothes were sticking uncomfortably to her skin that was drenched with sweat. She slowly opened her eyes, blinking them as even the dim lamplight of the room seemed painfully bright. As they adjusted, she could see Natsuki sitting across from her looking similarly exhausted, though perhaps not sweating quite as much nor breathing quite as hard. Her green eyes were glowing lightly as she gazed at Mai, a look of concern on her face. "Are you okay?" She asked softly.
Mai nodded shakily, "I think so..."
"That was intense." Natsuki agreed.
"Well I'm glad you two are okay." Midori quipped from where she was emerging from behind the kitchen counter. Both girls blinked to see her so far away from them, even if both of them had until just now forgotten that the older woman was in the room at all.
"What are you doing way over there?" Natsuki questioned her Watcher, studying a rapidly forming bruise on the redhead's cheek and a lightly bleeding cut on her forehead. "Are you okay? What happened?"
Midori just smirked and then laughed slightly, despite the pain in her face and side as she gestured to her once again nearly destroyed living room. All of the furniture seemed to have been blown back against the walls with some force, and all of the decorations that had once been hanging on them had fallen on the floor. "I'm just glad I got the basement place instead of one with windows." Midori quipped, "Otherwise I might be on my way to the hospital right now from you two throwing me clean out of one."
"Oh my God Midori-san, I'm so sorry!" Mai apologized profusely, trying unsuccessfully to stand on legs that seemed to be made of gelatin.
Midori waved off her apology, smiling good-naturedly, "It's fine; serves me right for trying to train such a powerful witch in my living room. And without protective gear on too." She limped slowly to her refrigerator to pull the ice tray out of the freezer, intending to make an ice pack for the lump already forming on her forehead. "Anyway," She continued as she grabbed a freezer bag and a washcloth, "the results might have been a bit more dramatic than I thought they were going to be, but it still worked. You were definitely able to successfully recharge your magick. I think the effects were just... amplified by mutual strong emotions." Midori smirked as both teenagers blushed, "It's fine; we'll just have to do your recharge after the ritual somewhere um... less destructible than my living room."
"I'm not sure what just happened." Natsuki said, blushing profusely. Getting to her feet and feeling only slightly shaky she started to try and put the living room back in order.
"You really don't know what happened Natsuki? Do you need me to give you 'the talk' again?" Midori asked, quite unable to stop herself from teasing with such an easy target.
"Gah, Midori shut up!" Natsuki whined, only causing her Watcher to laugh louder, wincing at the pain that caused in her bruised ribs.
Mai buried her painfully blushing face in her hands, "Oh gods I can't believe..." She looked up at Midori pleadingly, "Can we just pretend this didn't happen?"
Midori smirked, "Or if you want you can remember it happened and just forget I was here. I did the whole duck and cover thing behind the counter once I noticed stuff was starting to fly anyway." She thought for a moment and then nodded to herself, "Actually you should definitely remember the whole thing. It's a great example of how emotions and magick can get into a feedback loop and cause unintended side effects. We'll let this little bit of embarrassment serve a purpose. There are certainly far worse ways to learn that lesson. Though from what I hear it's one that needs to be continually relearned."
"Worse ways?" Mai asked, dubious.
Midori nodded, all signs of mirth gone, "I won't lie to you. Magick is more dangerous than any vampire or demon on this Earth. That said, I don't want you to let your fear of the potential bad side of magick to stop you from learning, with your power... not training it could be just as dangerous." Midori paused, her hazel eyes serious as they held Mai's, before glancing to Natsuki who was still busy putting the video collection back on the shelves, not really paying attention to their conversation as she struggled to banish her embarrassment. When she turned back to the orange haired girl her eyes were glinting dangerously and the normally kind teacher's voice had a hint of steel in it, "The same with your emotions, you are going to have to be very careful to avoid letting them get out of control. Do you understand?"
Mai felt her heart chill at the implied threat in the older woman's voice. "I understand." She spoke softly.
Midori stalked closer, her voice quieter as she continued, though Mai had no trouble hearing every word. "I'm not sure that you understand. I'm not saying that I have a problem with you and my Natsuki caring about each other. You might be expecting me to give you the 'you two are way too young' speech, and while a large part of me would agree with that, I find myself hesitant to deny Natsuki anything just because she's too young." Midori sighed, glancing at her still preoccupied Slayer with sad eyes, "Her life is too dangerous for me to tell her that she has to put off anything that might make her happy until later. I could never live with myself if..." She shook her head, shifting hazel eyes back to now sad blue, "I just want you to understand that you can't have unrealistic expectations. Expect her to make mistakes, don't expect that she has any real notions right now about what she wants long-term." Midori sighed, "In fact, just expect right now that you'll inevitably get hurt and make plans so that you won't overreact."
"I know." Mai said so softly Midori almost couldn't hear her. "I think she loves someone else anyway." There was an acceptance of fate in her softly spoken words that made Midori wonder if maybe she hadn't underestimated this girl. "But even though I know that..." She trailed off, gazing over at Natsuki who had finished putting away movies and moved on to rehanging pictures that had fallen from the walls. "It doesn't seem to change how I feel about her."
Midori nodded sympathetically, "Just try to be careful."
Mai looked back at Midori her voice rough and cracking slightly when she replied, "I'm afraid it's way too late for that. I promise though, the last thing I'd want to do is hurt her."
The two women who both cared about the Slayer in their own way gazed at each other for a moment, contemplating the inevitably difficult future ahead for all of them until Natsuki interrupted their worry about more abstract concerns with her own more immediate ones. "Yo, are either of you going to help me with this so that me and Mai can get at least some sleep before class tomorrow?" Natsuki asked, apparently finally having recovered from her embarrassment enough to acknowledge the other people in the room again.
"Yeah, sorry Natsuki. Midori-san just wanted to make sure I understood what I'm getting into." At Natsuki's look of disbelief Mai hastened to explain, obfuscating their actual topic of discussion to prevent Natsuki feeling uncomfortable, "With learning the magicks I mean. Apparently it can be really dangerous."
Natsuki smiled affectionately at Mai as she walked over to help move the now slightly scratched up new coffee table back to its place in the middle of the room, even though the Slayer probably didn't need her help. "It's alright Mai. I just wanted to get this done so we can hurry up and get back to the dorm." When her Watcher made an amused noise Natsuki turned to glare at her, "So we can sleep."
Midori smirked but replied innocently, "What, I didn't say anything. Anyway you're right... I promised Yohko that I would get some sleep instead of staying up all night researching again. She's already going to have questions about my new bruises." She looked around at the mostly reorganized living room, "Actually, you know what? You two go on back to the school. This is fine for now." The two teenagers thanked her, Mai apologizing again for destroying her living room in the first place, before quickly getting their things and heading out the door. Midori smiled as she watched them go, hoping that the two of them would be able to remain friends despite the difficulties she could see standing in their way.