DISCLAIMER: None of this is mine. Thanks as always for reading and commenting.
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"Everything is vague to a degree you do not realize till you have tried to make it precise."
St. Peter's High School; Wednesday April 25, 2000
Natsuki growled softly to herself, consciously putting her mechanical pencil down next to the homework she was attempting to complete so that she wouldn't accidentally destroy the thing in her frustration. For the life of her she didn't understand how she could be perfectly fluent in English but yet still find this apparently fairly basic grammar exercise about where commas go so confusing... to the point that merely thinking about it so much seemed to be reducing her comprehension of any language. She couldn't help being a bit annoyed with Midori for signing her up for third year English language class because of the extra work; even though it meant that if she could pass it just this once she wouldn't have to take the subject ever again. For a moment she wished that they could just read books in the class or something... and then she remembered how much she hated her Japanese Literature class. I guess an English literature class probably wouldn't involve reading Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter or American comics.
Still, even if she had been spending every afternoon so far this week desperately trying to catch up on her homework and reading in her classes, on the slaying front anyway things had been wonderfully quiet since Miyu had brought the unconscious Alyssa to Yohko's hospital very early Sunday morning. The past few days she had been waking up before the sun to go to the hospital and check on the girl as well as visiting her once in the evening. Natsuki had also been able to get the data that Miyu gave her to RedWiccan on Monday afternoon. The college girl had warned Natsuki it might take a while for her to get around to editing it even as she expressed a great deal of excitement at being able to look into such an advanced bit of coding. But although she was making progress finding a way to help the android, she hadn't heard anything from Miyu since that night at the hospital. She was absent from classes and a few visits to the church had turned up nothing. Natsuki hoped that she could find out what happened to Miyu before Alyssa woke up because she knew that if the girl were anything like herself, Alyssa would be devastated to learn that someone she loved might have been injured or worse protecting her.
The last few nights she hadn't even done patrol, since Midori told her on Sunday when they talked on the phone that Natsuki should be using this seeming lull to rest up a bit. Instead she was spending most of her time after she got back from checking up on Alyssa in the evenings getting to know Mai better. She couldn't believe the number of part-time jobs that Mai had already held at her age. Even before she was at the legal age to get paid, when she was much younger during the summers she had an unpaid job on weekends helping out in a snorkel rental place at the beach near her house so she could rent the equipment for free. Natsuki, who was a fan of most any adventurous activity, had brought up how she'd always wanted to learn scuba. When Mai had expressed a shared interested in the hobby, they had agreed to try and get their basic certification together during the summer holiday this year. Natsuki let out a contented sigh as she thought about the snuggling she was sure to get when Mai finally got home from work this afternoon. With renewed morale she picked up her mechanical pencil, determined not to have any homework remaining to interrupt her relaxation.
The Slayer was really enjoying having a bit of downtime in her life and she was pleasantly surprised to find that the more she learned about Mai, the more she realized just how much they had in common when originally she wouldn't have thought there would be much of anything. Even as she was becoming more and more enamoured with her witch, at odd times she would find herself wondering what Shizuru was up to, or thinking how she wished that Shizuru could be there to share an old inside joke that she knew only her oldest friend would really understand. But Natsuki had promised to honour Shizuru's request for space, so instead of crowding the older girl she was trying her best to simply wait patiently for their weekly date to spend time together.
Natsuki was particularly looking forward to seeing Shizuru again this Friday. This week they were going to a planetarium in the city that Shizuru's dad always used to take them to visit when they were younger. In fact Shizuru had even called her father to see if he could go too, but he was going to be out of town on business. She told him that it was fine and promised to bring him a silly piece of omiyage, but she had told Natsuki on Tuesday morning when they were finalizing their plans that she was a little disappointed because she missed spending time with her father. Natsuki had almost immediately told Midori when she got to class, and asked her to talk to Hirotaka about visiting Shizuru soon. As far as she knew nothing had come of that just yet, but she was confident that Midori would come through for her.
Despite the fact that both Shizuru and Natsuki had always enjoyed trips to the planetarium, each trip was almost always the same. But no matter how many times she heard them, Natsuki still enjoyed listening to Shizuru tell her a bit of mythology about some constellation or planet in the night sky. Natsuki herself could only seem to remember the scientific things, but her natural tendency to show off around Shizuru inevitably resulted in her blurting out any piece of random information floating around her head whenever the two of them were together in an even remotely sciencey setting. At the planetarium as one would expect it was always astronomy related. For example, isn't it interesting how Venus rotates backwards compared to the other planets? Or did you know that Jupiter has four moons that could be planets if they were orbiting the sun by themselves because one of them is bigger than Mercury? Oh and by the way, Jupiter is so big that if it was just a few or sixty times bigger it would be a type of star instead of a planet. Her favourite was how if you fell into a black hole the part of you closer to it would fall in faster such that you would turn all stringy like a noodle… Natsuki assumed that Shizuru knew all of this crap too since it was common knowledge, but she still appreciated that the older girl at least pretended to be interested when Natsuki offered them or other trivial knowledge as bits of conversation whenever they went to a science museum or watched the night sky together. Part of her suspected that on some level Shizuru didn't even care what Natsuki was talking about, that her friend just got some enjoyment out of seeing the normally tough and dangerous Slayer geek out.
Suddenly the Slayer's pleasant contemplation of her weekend plans was interrupted by the faint sensation of the grating pain caused by the ancient glow's magick, the key, and an overpowering fatigue. Her fist tightened reflexively, shattering the flimsy blue plastic of her pencil, small bits flying across the room. Aside from the magickal pain, it felt similar to the few times when Duran forced her into a dream state to relay some information to her, and she wondered if somehow the two supernatural beings were working together. Natsuki fought the fatigue, because she knew that if they were attempting to force her into some sort of vision, something might have happened with Alyssa. Using all of her remaining willpower, Natsuki reached out and grabbed her new cellphone from the bedside table. The weight of her own arm felt inordinately heavy even with her supernatural strength but she forced the muscles to keep moving, her fingers rapidly tapping away at the tiny plastic keys. Right as she was losing consciousness she hit the send button to relay a short text message to the first person on her contacts list: call yohko. ask about alyssa.
Her last thought as her eyes slammed shut was that she hoped Mai wouldn't worry about her when she got home from work. She had a suspicion that the sleep she was falling into was one that the witch would be unable to wake her from.
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The instant her eyes shut as she lost consciousness they immediately opened again. It felt for a moment more like she had just blinked, and now instead of being completely exhausted she was wide awake. Her awareness heightened at the distinct stomach in her throat sensation of falling. Even though she remembered vividly that she had just fallen asleep, Natsuki still frantically flailed around for something, anything to grab onto to stop her descent. A sudden near sunlight bright flash out of the corner of her vision was painful in the otherwise dim environment, and time seemed to dilate as she realized that she was falling out of the sky. There would be nothing to break her fall but the ground.
Despite her desperate situation, Natsuki couldn't help but be fascinated by the strange world she was plummeting towards at ever increasing speed. The whole of it, sky and ground alike was painted in varying shades of dark grey, such that the horizon separating ground from sky was only intermittently distinguishable as huge forks of lightning burned out of the thick clouds to briefly touch it. The constant rolling thunder from the storm made separating the sound of a particular bolt of lightning from the surrounding cacophony nearly impossible. Each fleeting view of the rapidly rotating horizon gave Natsuki the impression of incredibly steep and jagged mountain peaks, some of which seemed to contain impossible angles, and several as the light faded had the appearance of moving on their own. In one particularly blinding flashing of hard white electricity, Natsuki thought she saw the glinting of an unimaginably large maw of teeth opening and closing and the writhing of huge dark tentacles.
Pain. The most intense pain she had ever experienced exploded all over her body as she hit the ground, bouncing off of the hard rocky surface and rolling several meters, her body slamming into several small upraised ledges in the rock before coming to a halting stop on her back. She stared blankly up at the angrily flashing sky as clumps of thick black ash from the rainless storm began to settle on her unmoving body, her lungs that had somehow not been crushed on impact ached and burned with bruising from her fall and the hot bone dry air she was feeding them with each tortured and shallow breath. As her vision darkened she couldn't decide if she was losing consciousness, dying or waking up...
...She opened her eyes again. Natsuki blinked, reaching up to try and rub sandpaper like ash from eyes that felt uncomfortably dry. The worst of her pain was gone, but she noted with apprehension she hadn't awoken from her nightmare because she obviously wasn't in her dorm room. At least she wasn't outside under the painful scouring ash storm of an alien world, but in a small slate rock cave carved out of the mountain by ages of harsh winds thick with dust and ash. Despite the fact that the air seemed almost painfully dry to Natsuki, each breath grating on the raw tissue of her throat and lungs, the walls were covered in giant mushrooms many of which were splotched with faint red and purple darkly glowing patches of fluid. In the dim lighting Natsuki could just barely make out a hunched over small humanoid form, poking at the embers of a pile of feebly burning rock with the end of a huge charred and sharpened bone. Although the figure was hunched over, the Slayer didn't get the impression of frailty. Rather the almost unhealthily lean creature's muscles seemed coiled and tense, perfectly capable of unexpectedly springing into strong and quick movements, even if it only occasionally stood upright. The creature suddenly paused in its tending of the fire, and slowly turned to face Natsuki, as though it had sensed her stare.
Dark amber eyes shone, reflecting the faint light of the dying fire brightly like a cat's as they lazily appraised the Slayer. "So, Duran's Champion awakens." The figure spoke in a child's voice that was nonetheless authoritative and intimidating, even to a seasoned warrior like Natsuki. "I feared you would not wake in time for the fight."
"...Who are you?" Natsuki spoke painfully, her voice harsh and cracking as her scraped and torn vocal cords attempted to form the sound.
The small human, who Natsuki had the vague impression was female even though she showed no signs of womanly development, let out a disapproving grunt. "No time for questions now. Arm yourself Champion. Our enemy comes. Now we must fight. Questions later." She spoke shortly, the thick dreadlocked braids on either side of her head moving in time with the firm nod she gave to emphasise her point. She used her sharpened bone to gesture toward a place in the rocky cave wall with a large trough carved into it. "The sword is mine." She added shortly as Natsuki approached the makeshift weapons chest to take her pick. The Slayer could see why the strange creature had felt the need to point this out, as the dark black and red metal two-handed sword was indeed a beautiful weapon.
"It's a good sword." Natsuki complimented.
"Mhmm. It is my friend here." the being replied with a hint of wistfulness. Shaking her head she loped over to reverently pull the huge weapon, its massive blade longer than she was tall, from the rock. "Choose."
The Slayer inexplicably felt her eyes drawn to a wide crossbow that could have been crafted for a small giant. In an eerie coincidence, the weapon itself seemed to be a companion weapon to her giant stone battleaxe that was still at home in the training room. The heavy black weapon, lined with midnight blue runes, seemed to quietly call her name. The crossbow was hardly her best weapon, but she found herself suddenly curious what the drawstrength of such a weapon could be. She reached out and lifted it from the chest, her eyes widening when the weapon itself seemed to weigh almost nothing, even though from the warm smooth feeling of the stone she was almost certain it was made from the same material as her incredibly heavy battleaxe. The weapon was primitive in make; it didn't have any automatic drawing mechanism that she could see like most of the crossbows in her weapons collection, and she wondered how one could possibly reload the thing quickly in combat. Drawing back the string experimentally, she was already amazed at the sight of solid stone bending back without the string snapping outright, but her eyes widened further as the weapon answered the question of reloading for her when a wickedly barbed shining silver bolt appeared in the small indent in the tiller as soon as the string was fully cocked.
Suddenly almost unable to contain her excitement over a weapon that she had never truly fallen in love with like she had most melee weapons, the Slayer levelled the weapon at one of the numerous glowing mushrooms on the far wall. Using her left arm as extra support under the weapon she casually fingered the trigger, pulling out the give in the mechanism until she was left with just the small distance needed to fire the huge bolt. Grinning wickedly she pulled the trigger the rest of the way, delighted at the near effortlessness of the action, even though the weapon must have contained an unbelievable amount of pent up kinetic energy. Nearly instantaneously the huge mushroom exploded in a shower of glowing fluid and dry flesh and there was a loud thundering crack. Natsuki blinked when she saw that the metal bolt had imbedded itself in the stone cave wall, the square meter of stone around it now covered in a thick layer of what seemed to be water ice. "Holy shit!" She exclaimed involuntarily, raising her left hand to her throat at the sharp pain caused by her loud outburst.
The skinny female again grunted in approval at Natsuki's choice, the tight sinewy muscles in her arms and legs standing out as she gave an experimental swing of her sword, the worn greyish-brown leather of her simple knee-length tunic fluttering slightly. "That is a good weapon for Duran's Champion."
Natsuki simply nodded in agreement, her own throat much too sore to speak again. Glancing down she was somewhat surprised to see that she was still wearing her school uniform and barefoot, although the uniform was horribly filthy and torn in several places. Still with this being a dream she had half expected to find herself naked. Wistfully she thought about how much easier this fight would be if she was wearing her slaying outfit. Almost before the thought was fully formed, the weapon in her hand emitted a dark blue light and her skin briefly burned hot, tingling with magicks. When the glow faded her clothes had been transformed. Neck to toe she was now covered in thick heavy black leather; fingerless gloves, thick soled boots and an armour-plated bodysuit that was nearly skin-tight but still loose enough to allow for a full range of motion. A black cloth covered her nose and mouth, clearly intended to offer her already damaged airway some protection from the harsh climate outside. "...How?" She forced out.
"That one belongs to Duran's Champion. It knows what she needs." The feral girl explained absently, her shining amber eyes now fixed on the small mouth of the cave and the thick ash storm still raging outside. The girl suddenly ceased all movement, sniffing the air carefully. A low animalistic growl erupted from her throat, "They approach Champion. Come. They must not reach the key here." She ordered authoritatively, straightening to her full and altogether unimpressive height as she strode confidently from the meagre shelter, clearly expecting Natsuki to follow.
The Slayer cautiously but quickly followed behind, taking shallow breaths at first as she stepped back out into the ash storm until she noted approvingly that the new protection indeed made breathing here much less painful. As soon as she was completely outside of the cave mouth, rock from the mountain itself closed in around it, leaving only a very peculiar pattern on the rock to mark the location where it had been. The mark stood out a bright torrid red in the midst of the colourless landscape, and was inexplicably similar to the astrological symbol for the planet Mars.
Natsuki ceased her contemplations of the magickal nature of her mysterious ally's home as her attention was seized by a discomforting throbbing of sound so low pitched and loud that she could feel it bombarding her body like rough waves at the beach. She scanned the ground down the steep mountain, straining her eyes to try and pick out movement through the thick ash during intermittent flashes of lightning. Then her senses narrowed in on the direction of the sound and sensation, a loud and steady beat through the air, a rhythmic increase of air pressure on the exposed skin around her eyes. Gazing up hesitantly she blanched at the sight that greeted her. Hovering in the sky above them was a pale silver, nearly white monstrosity, whose true size was impossible to judge at this distance but it seemed easily larger than the whales Natsuki had once seen breaching far out beyond the breakers at the beach. The demon most closely resembled a giant manta ray. Wide fleshy fin-like wings that spanned the entire length of its body fanned lazily at the hot air, nearly effortlessly keeping the massive creature aloft. However instead of small black eyes, over top of its mouth flaps were slightly protruding large front facing golden irises, which narrowed intelligently as they took in the two warriors standing on the side of the flat mountain ledge. Nor was its wide maw toothlessly gaped open in hopes of scooping up microscopic creatures, but instead it was lined as far back as she could see with slowly undulating tubes, each with several vertical rows of bioluminescent green point lights. Even as she wondered what the tubes did, they began to glow whiter and brighter before lobbing a series of projectiles at the two warriors. Natsuki's eyes widened and she threw herself to the ground, rolling out of their path as quickly as possible, ignoring the throbbing pain in her heavily bruised body. She glanced back at her ally who was still staring down their enemy, brandishing her sword threateningly and completely without fear as the orbs hurdled towards her. The small girl then seemed to vanish, reappearing a few feet away just as the glowing orbs impacted the smooth slate of the mountain, their strong acid burning into the stone, hissing sharply and raising up small clouds of steam.
It was easily the most fearsome demon that Natsuki had ever laid eyes on, but still she smirked at the sight of it. After all, in her hands she held what must surely be the most powerful crossbow ever crafted. A few strategically placed bolts in that wide soft underbelly and the great white sky whale would be plummeting to its death on the jagged rocky cliffs below them. In rapid succession she fired a rally of wicked metallic bolts at the creature, she aimed carefully worried that the strong winds could blow her bolts off course, but thanks to the creature's large size all of her shots easily hit their marks. Wide dark rifts were opened in the demon's wings on either side of its body, spilling out great splashing torrents of the burning acid down the mountain, hissing clouds of superheated water vapour and hydrogen gas rising from the large puddles. Natsuki grinned as the beast let out an angered subsonic roar and began rapidly losing altitude. But then just as it was about to impact on the wide lip of the ledge around the cave, the demon's body began to morph and split, and within seconds it was two twenty foot tall demons nearly as wide as they were tall. The forms of the twin flesh demons was vaguely humanoid; massive flesh golems, their faces covered with the undulating acid tubes and each with a single large golden eye, thick legs bending slightly to absorb the great shock of their impact with the stone, the surface of which cracked under them.
Natsuki felt her heart beating faster, wondering again why she had chosen a crossbow for her weapon. After all, it wasn't a weapon that was particularly good in a melee fight, and she couldn't see any reason for the two demons to just stay where they were and allow her to shoot them from a distance. Nevertheless she reloaded, levelling her weapon's aim at the great amber eye of one of the demons she pulled the trigger, willing her bolt to fly faster.
The strange girl warrior needed no moment to think over their changed situation, without hesitation she charged fearlessly towards the demons, moving so quickly that she reached them at the same time as Natsuki's bolt. She delivered a powerful uppercut to one demon's belly at the same time as Natsuki's bolt pierced deeply into its eye. Its belly and skull both spilled their burning acid contents onto the ground, the girl's bare arms unaffected as they were splashed with the substance even as the rocks sizzled around her. The blade of the great red and black sword hissed and burned red hot, but the girl did not for a moment loosen her grip on the hilt as she brought it up to block the downward strike of the second demon's impossibly large fists, whirling around just in time as the bulky demon attempted to flank her. Natsuki watched in awe of the tiny warrior's strength as her strong block was enough to send the massive demon stumbling back a few steps toward the steep face of the mountain behind them. Glancing up the mountain where the two fighters were approaching, Natsuki grinned wickedly as she noticed an enormous overhanging bolder that seemed only held up by a few smaller rocks wedged precariously under it.
"Hey! Move!" She yelled, her throat tearing painfully and her voice coming out sounding much to quiet for her ally to possibly hear over the sound of the storm and the fight. But then the girl turned to face Natsuki for a moment even as she continued fighting, as though the enormous demon wasn't an opponent that required all of her concentration. The girl nodded firmly, her amber eyes shining of and on in the flashing lightning and steam from the burning rocks rising around her and the demon.
For the moment Natsuki set aside her wonder at how acute the apparently human creature's hearing must be as she positioned her shot. Green eyes narrowed as she focused in on her target, aiming a little high to allow for the loss of vertical acceleration the bolt would experience attempting to reach such a great height. The bolt hit, so high up the mountain that the sound of the small breaking rocks was nearly consumed by the roar of the wind, the enormous bolder jolting forward before losing all contact with the mountain and plummeting at a freefall toward the fighters below. The Slayer's heart was in her throat when for endless moments it seemed like the girl wasn't going to move out of the way in time, but then at the last instant she threw herself into a reckless combat roll just as the chunk of mountain came crashing down to crush the demon, the force of its impact flattening the demon and splitting the rock itself in two.
The Slayer grinned as she witnessed their vanquished enemy and started to run over to congratulate the girl who had fought with such amazing strength and skill. But when she took her first step she stumbled, falling to her knees as she was suddenly overcome by an inexplicable weakness. The girl was instantly at her side, an arm around Natsuki's dark leather covered middle, helping her to her feet as she supported the bulk of the Slayer's weight. "What's wrong with me?" She asked as the skinny girl led her back to her cave, the mountain face reopening the entrance for its guardian without any interaction on the girl's part that Natsuki could see.
"Your injuries from earlier are beginning to effect you even here." The girl explained cryptically, pulling up a low rock next to the still faintly glowing fire pit and helping the weakened Slayer to sit down on it. "Stay." She commanded firmly, even though Natsuki actually felt that she was too weak to attempt to stand. The Slayer's stomach roiled in fear, she had never felt this weak before, not since before the First District anyway. And now she was alone in this strange world with no way to contact any of the people she cared about. Granted her ally seemed kind enough, but the girl child certainly didn't look like she was a doctor with the skill to help heal the Slayer if she was truly sick.
"Who are you?" She repeated her question from earlier.
"I am the latest protector of this realm between realities." The girl spoke her voice serious and full of pride. "I fight off creatures that attack the stability of this realm, either directly or by lending my strength to the various Champions in the realms of mortals." She grinned girlishly at Natsuki. She then turned abruptly and loped over to the cave wall, leaning her sword against it before drawing a long knife from a sheath strapped to a thin thigh. She raised a strong dirty hand to rub her chin thoughtfully for a moment as she made her decision nodding firmly to herself, apparently pleased with the reasoning that she did not share with Natsuki. "Mmhmm, that one will work. It will restore enough of Duran's Champion's strength so that she make the journey home."
"I don't understand." Natsuki admitted. "...Do you have a name?" She asked hesitantly; not quite certain of the girl's true nature and as such had no way to know if her request was offensive. After all, the girl was certainly not what she appeared to be. Young girls, even Slayers, were not found guarding their own shadowy mountain on an alien world like this. A guardian of a realm like this she could easily be older than all of human civilization, and such beings generally did not like to share their names with mortals.
The girl studied Natsuki carefully, her amber eyes shining as she carried the fleshy mushroom that she had cut from its stalk over to the fire, slicing it into chunks with her knife and placing it atop a thin slab of slate before pushing both over the heat. The girl nodded to herself once more, again grinning girlishly as she replied "The Champion may call me Mikoto."
"Then call me Natsuki?" The Slayer asked, a bit uncomfortable being addressed as an emissary of Duran's.
"Mhmm. Natsuki will eat that when it is done. She will feel better." The girl said shortly, and Natsuki wondered at how the girl seemed to oscillate back and forth between two very different ways of speaking.
"Why am I here? And where is this exactly?" Natsuki asked in a voice that was barely louder than a raspy whisper, even though she had her suspicions.
"Hmm... there is no here. Here changes. This is the land between lands, it moves with the boundaries of the others." She reached out and picked up the sharpened bone from the ground, heating it on the rocks before using it to flip the slices of mushroom. "Natsuki is here because she needed to see. The beings that were attacking her world are now attacking this realm directly. I can fight them, but they come more and more often lately and in greater numbers. I cannot normally communicate with the Champions directly, but the Powers That Be permitted me to bring the Champion causing the disruption in the balance to my realm for a short time."
"...you're allowed to lend us your strength but not communicate directly?" Natsuki questioned, though admittedly she'd never understood the rules laid out by the Powers That Be when Duran explained them either.
Mikoto shrugged, "Not for everything. Only if there are creatures crossing between realms. The hybrid demons of your reality are not something I am permitted to help with." Her amber eyes shone brighter and the dying fire flared stronger as she added, "Only to watch." The words were heavy with the weary grief of long existence that was always present in Duran's tone when he talked about things from his time before Natsuki.
"Have you been here long?" Natsuki asked now certain that Mikoto was more than she appeared.
Mikoto did not answer at first, poking the roasting mushrooms with her crude utensil. Apparently satisfied with the results she reached out to grab the rock from the fire with her bare hands, despite the fact that it must have been very hot. Resting the rock on the floor of the cave so it could cool she answered, "I have been here for as long as I can remember existing. I don't know if I existed before. But time... it passes differently here. Sometimes it passes much faster than in your reality and sometimes much slower. I know I have aided many Champions in many realities."
"Because you're protecting the Key?" Natsuki asked, confused.
Mikoto shook her head firmly, "The Powers That Be must oversee the balance of countless realities. I guard this realm that acts as a buffer between the more complete universes coming in contact with each other. Though since the Key is one of the ways to collapse several realities together, that means I can help in situations involving its safety."
Natsuki raised her hand to rub the space between her eyes as Mikoto's explanation succeeded only in giving her the beginnings of a headache and making her even more confused than she had been already. "But you're not ever allowed to interact with the more complete universes directly? Isn't that horribly lonely?" Even though Mikoto clearly wasn't human, she looked human, so Natsuki couldn't imagine how she could survive unknown ages of what seemed like complete isolation.
Mikoto just shrugged, "Sometimes. But... my realm does not exist in the same sense that yours does. I don't exist all of the time. Most of the time I'm someone else, occasionally more than one person at once. ...Sometimes I am you."
"...I thought Duran gave me my strength?" Natsuki asked despite herself, even though she knew that whatever answer could be given probably wouldn't explain anything to her.
"...Duran supplies you the magick so that you can access strength from the realms between universes. And you are not always me, I just sometimes am you. But I am not just you, I help all Champions of the Powers That Be when I am allowed, or when my realm is not existing separately I simply exist with one or several of you, even when I am not permitted to help."
"But I'm here because you needed to tell me that there are creatures attacking this realm? And what? Causing you to be in separate existence more often or what?" Natsuki asked, uncertain.
Mikoto nodded, "That is the reason for the storm. Something is widening the rift between some of the mortal realities, allowing creatures from hell dimensions to attempt to use my realm as passage into the realities closest to theirs."
"...and this is because of the key?"
"No. Because the balance is off. And because of the key. The one you call 'Alyssa' was intended by the Powers That Be to try and counterbalance the introduction of a second line of Slayers. Right now though, in the state she is in, she is drawing on her power constantly and creating this instability."
"So what do I need to do to fix it?"
"...I don't know. I only brought you here to inform you of the problem. Maybe if you got her to wake up?" Mikoto suggested, experimentally reaching out to touch the cooking rock. "It is cool enough now for you to touch Natsuki. You should eat; the food will give you enough strength to return home."
"Enough strength to return?" Natsuki asked, obediently taking the improvised food tray as Mikoto offered it to her. "I thought I was dreaming. How can eating food here affect me?"
Mikoto shook her head, "You are not dreaming."
Natsuki paused with a piece of mushroom almost to her mouth, "But I remember falling asleep. What else would this be? How would I know?"
"You'll know when you wake up." Mikoto replied, a playful grin on her face. "Eat. You have been here longer than you think, you need to hurry."
"I'm glad I got to meet you Mikoto." Natsuki said quietly as she took a tentative bite of the strange food, pleasantly surprised when it didn't taste like dust or slime or something. "How will I know if you're with me at a certain time?"
Mikoto shrugged, "I don't think you could know. I don't even know, because when I am you I am not myself." Just as Natsuki started to feel even weaker, falling forward onto the rock floor, the world around her rapidly disintegrating, Mikoto added, "Oh. Tell Mai hello for me."
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who am I, to need you when I'm down?
Everything hurt. That was the first thing that she became aware of as she clawed her way through the thick darkness around her, toward a white light and a low comforting murmur of voices that she recognized from somewhere. It was a dull pain, the pain of injuries already healing, but the pain was all over. She couldn't even locate a part of her body that didn't hurt for comparison. Who am I? She thought, confused for long moments until her brain seemed to finally kick in, flooding her foggy consciousness with memories of her life until now. But something vitally important was missing. Something had just happened... some reason for the pain. Some bit of information that she needed to tell Midori.
She eased open eyes that were painfully dry, blinking slightly as they adjusted to light and the disorientation of not seeing what she expected to when she opened them. Taking in the decoration of the room, this was obviously the hospital. Though given the amount of pain she was in that part of her situation wasn't too surprising. The surprising thing was what made her immediately shut her eyes nearly as soon as she opened them, hoping that the two girls keeping vigil at her bedside hadn't noticed her awakening. Shizuru and Mai are both here. What am I supposed to do? Natsuki panicked as she tried to keep her breathing slow and even.Suddenly trying to figure out exactly what all the pain was from was a much lesser concern when compared to, how does one deal with being around both of the girls she was kindof in love with at the same time?
At least listening to their conversation Natsuki got the impression that the two young women were getting along with each other. Mai sounded perhaps a little bit off centre as she spoke, but that could as easily be because Shizuru always made people nervous when she first met them, not necessarily because of anything to do with Natsuki. She was actually rather impressed as she listened to Mai asking Shizuru about drama team in her disarmingly caring way and Shizuru responding openly and enthusiastically about how much she had enjoyed the first club meeting. Natsuki wondered how much of that was Shizuru's new effort to make more friends and how much was Mai's inherent caring nature making Shizuru just feel more comfortable around her. Hearing no hint of conflict between the two girls she cared for, Natsuki allowed herself to simply drift on the edge of consciousness. She was still so weary and the low soothing sounds of their voices was wonderfully comforting and relaxing.
She didn't really know why it was that these two females seemed to be able to effect her so strongly. Shizuru and Mai were so very different from each other and yet Natsuki found herself drawn irresistibly to both of them. Part of it, she suspected, was that no matter how different from each other they were in most ways, both Mai and Shizuru had a tendency to be very physically and emotionally affectionate with her. Both were constantly hugging her and affirming how very special Natsuki's presence in their lives was, treating Natsuki like an irreplaceable and important person to them. And the Slayer found that she craved such attention in a desperate way, though she was often embarrassed to admit it aloud. She suspected that at least part of the intensity of her craving for affection came from the years during her childhood when she had lived in nearly complete isolation from anything resembling love, but even awareness of a probable cause had no effect on her feelings. She still wasn't sure exactly what to name her intense feelings for both friends other than love. The emotions she felt around each were subtly different from each other, but so vastly different than how she felt about anyone else that Natsuki figured they must at least be incredibly similar.
The subtle difference in the feelings she felt for each of them was due to the nature of Natsuki herself. Natsuki often times felt as though she were two different people trapped in the same body. There was the part of her that she associated with being a Slayer. It was primal and instinctive, urging her to control her surroundings and protect what was hers, giving her the courage and cunning to fight her enemies in the seemingly endless struggle for survival that was her life. It was this side of her in particular that seemed the most drawn to Mai, something about the orange haired witch strongly triggered her need to possess and protect. When she touched Mai she felt powerful, unbeatable. But then there was her other side, the part of her that was 'just a normal girl'. The part of her that loved science and pretty flowers, the part of her that felt vulnerable when she thought about the future but still had hopes of living in it. Shizuru seemed to effortlessly bring out the giggling and shy girl who blushed at the slightest compliment, and a small touch from Shizuru could leave Natsuki trembling, feeling more human than she ever felt around anyone. A touch from either of them reminded her in a visceral way that she was alive, and in different ways they urged her to keep fighting, to never give up or accept defeat even in the face of impossible odds.
Natsuki had spent hours turning over in her mind which side was her 'true self', what part of her nature she should listen to more. Eventually though she had come to the inescapable conclusion that they were both the 'real Natsuki'. If somehow she were to be split into what seemed at first to be two separate people, left as only the warrior or only the smarter than average girl, she would have lost something essential that made her the person she was. And even if one part was more drawn to a certain person, they were so intertwined that the Slayer part of her certainly felt protective and possessive of Shizuru as well, and the normal girl enjoyed Mai's caring and curiosity. It was an impossible quandary and one that Mai had seemed quite insistent would necessarily need to be decided one way or the other. The orange haired girl had been certain that Shizuru would never agree to a situation where Natsuki simply refused to commit and she had barely spoken Shizuru. But Natsuki who had known Shizuru nearly her entire life, found that she really didn't know what Shizuru's take on such a situation would be. And indeed Natsuki wasn't entirely certain that she could even ask Shizuru about something like that without violating her promise to give Shizuru some space...
As her own thoughts became more uncomfortable to her than the prospect of facing the girls themselves, Natsuki again opened her eyes. This time the light was less uncomfortable to her, and she stretched out her arms slightly, the feeling of movement after a long time sleeping feeling pleasant even though she was still feeling horribly pained all over. "Hey." She spoke roughly, her throat somewhat sore, though strangely not as sore as she thought it should have been.
"Natsuki, you're awake!" Mai exclaimed, seeming to just barely restrain herself from leaping out of her uncomfortable hospital chair to hug her friend.
"My Natsuki has caused both of us an inordinate amount of worry these past few days." Shizuru added in a lightly scolding and calm voice, but Natsuki could tell from the way her warm rusty eyes were studying her that Shizuru was just as pleased to see Natsuki awake as Mai.
"Worried?" Natsuki questioned, hardly recognizing her own voice, "What happened exactly?" She asked, still vaguely aware that there was something important that she was missing here.
Mai nodded replying in a shaky voice, "When I got home from work... I found you lying unconscious on your bed. You were covered with blood and barely breathing." Mai's hands trembled as she spoke and Natsuki was surprised when Shizuru reached out and placed a comforting hand on the girl's shoulder. Mai took a deep breath, "I'd never seen anything so frightening in my entire life. There wasn't any sign of a fight... but you were bleeding all over and horribly bruised, I almost wouldn't have recognized you... I immediately called the emergency number and made sure that you were taken to Yohko's hospital. Then I called Midori and Shizuru." She added, pausing and glancing nervously at the older girl sitting next to her who reached out hesitantly to take Natsuki's hand, "...That was four days ago Natsuki. And even with you being unconscious for so long I can hardly believe how quickly you healed, though Yohko assured me that you would. ...when I first saw you I didn't know how you were going to be able to get better."
At Mai's words bits and pieces of memory began to return to Natsuki, fragments of a dream that was more than a dream. An urgent message that she needed to tell someone. "Midori." Natsuki blurted out without explanation, at the girls' confused looks she added, "...I mean, I need to tell her something. When I was out, I had a vision. Alyssa's magick is still active somehow, she needs to figure out a way for us to deal with that." Even as she spoke, Shizuru reached out and grabbed a notebook and pen that had been resting on the table beside Natsuki's hospital bed, opening to the inside cover and writing Natsuki's message for Midori on it in her neat and elegant handwriting.
"I was helping Mai study for her chemistry quiz on Monday earlier." Shizuru explained when Natsuki looked confused at her having a notebook here.
"Though if you hadn't woken up before then I wasn't going to go." Mai added defiantly.
"...Four days. I can hardly believe I was out that long. I don't think I've ever been hurt that badly before." Natsuki mused, able to contemplate the content of what Mai had told her now that she knew Midori would get her message.
"It was awful Natsuki, I was so scared." Mai repeated, still trembling slightly at the memory.
Shizuru turned sympathetic rusty eyes to Mai for a moment, "I'll admit I don't like to think about finding Natsuki so injured either." She dropped her eyes to study her hand holding Natsuki's gently tracing over the still darkly bruised skin on the back of her wrist with her thumb. "I'm not sure how I would have reacted."
Mai shook her head, studying Natsuki's bruises with sad blue eyes, "Honestly I'm not sure how my brain managed to think clearly enough to get me to call the right people, inside I was completely falling apart."
"But you still thought to call me." Shizuru pointed out, her rusty eyes looking at Mai curiously with a combination of gratitude and wonder. "I don't know if I would have thought to call Mai-san in such a situation, certainly not right away."
Mai blushed slightly though she also looked uncomfortable with Shizuru's scrutiny, "If you two wanted some alone time I could leave for a while. I just didn't want to leave until I knew that you were going to be okay Natsuki." She rambled awkwardly, shifting her eyes back and forth between the two old friends, her gaze either consciously or not lingering on their linked hands.
Natsuki felt a surge of panic at the sight of Mai starting to leave, and before she could censor herself around Shizuru she blurted out exactly what she was thinking, "Mai, please don't go." She pleaded, reaching out with her other hand and wincing when doing so pulled uncomfortably at the plastic IV-tube slowly dripping happy drugs into the vein.
Mai still hesitated, looking to Shizuru instead of Natsuki, as if asking the older girl's permission to stay. Shizuru however was smiling indulgently at Natsuki, a knowing look in her rusty eyes. After a moment she shifted her gaze to Mai, a mischievous quirk to her lips as she studied her Natsuki's roommate. "I do not mind Mai-san's presence. Indeed, at the moment she is a better conversationalist than my Natsuki who I can tell just by looking is going to fall asleep again soon." Shizuru smiled wider as Natsuki let out an indignant huff at that suggestion, "So unless you truly need to be elsewhere you should stay, for my sake if not for Natsuki's." Despite Shizuru's teasing, Natsuki couldn't help smiling contentedly when Mai quietly thanked Shizuru and sat back down in her chair next to the older girl.
"Thanks... I guess I just missed both of you since I haven't seen either of you in days." Natsuki justified her actions, even though she strongly suspected she wasn't fooling either of them. "Wait... four days? What day is it today?"
"Sunday." Shizuru replied, pouting slightly.
"I'm sorry Shizuru, I didn't mean to miss our trip." Natsuki apologized sincerely, as though there might have been something she could have done to recover from such severe injuries faster when she wasn't even conscious.
Shizuru shrugged, "It's fine Natsuki. Actually the timing might work out better this way, because my father called me this morning. Isn't that surprising Natsuki?" Her rusty eyes were teasingly wide with confusion, as though she didn't know exactly who was responsible for her father's call. "We decided it would be nice to reschedule for next weekend since he was able to cancel the meeting he was supposed to be attending in Osaka. If Natsuki is feeling better by then I know we would both love for you to join us."
"I wouldn't miss it." Natsuki replied, yawning widely, her eyes feeling heavier. "Damn it." She complained, stubbornly trying to fight off sleep, after all she had apparently been sleeping for days. The warm touch of Shizuru's hand gently caressing her cheek though was all it took for her eyes to start sliding shut. "Not... fair."
The last thing she heard as she fell into a pleasant sleep was Shizuru's light giggle and teasing reply, "And when has Natsuki ever known me to play fair? Rest. I promise you won't be alone when you wake up." So she slept, dreaming of fighting strange monsters with a huge sword certain she would never lose a fight, and the kind words and touches of the two she cared for as her reward.