[KnM][RGU][MH] Revolutions
Revolutions – Chapter 17 (Bonds Across Time)
A Kannazuki no Miko, Revolutionary Girl Utena and Mai Hime X-Over Fanfic
April 4, 2013 – September 30, 2014, MORE THAN A WHOLE YEAR GOOD GRIEF. (Massively re-written so many times I've lost count) -_-;;
Word Count: 13,700
More Author's notes follow at the end. Comments and Criticisms are greatly appreciated!
'What am I doing...?'
Utena exhaled slowly as she stared out of the train window she was resting her forehead against. Against the dark sky, she really couldn't see anything beyond her own reflection, though, given her mood, she wasn't sure if she would have seen anything anyway.
There were very few other people on the train with her, and the loneliness both inside and surrounding her was so thick it wrapped around and seep inside her, like a cold chill.
She thought back to the decision she had made earlier in the day, and wondered, again, whether it had been the right one.
Knocking quietly on her principal's door, Utena entered when she heard him bid her 'come in'.
Inside the office sat Fujisawa Masamichi, the head master at the girls' high school that Utena taught at. Fujisawa looked up, his perpetually squinty eyes making him look something like a fox.
"You wanted to see me?" Utena asked. She had always liked Fujisawa. He had been the one to finally hire her after she had graduated from community college. She had applied to so many schools, she had lost count, and they had all rejected her after learning of her personal circumstances; no school had deemed her an appropriate role model for their students giving birth at 15 years old, at least until Fujisawa had come along and decided that she was exactly what his high school needed, which averaged about a half-dozen new babies born to its students a year.
"Ah, Tenjou," he said, exhaling heavily before taking the cigarette from his lips and putting it out in the ashtray on his desk. "Come in."
Utena frowned. Fujisawa only stopped his chain smoking when he had something uncomfortable he needed to say. She had a pretty good idea what was on his mind as she slipped quietly, almost meekly, into the seat in front of him.
His kitsune-eyes crinkled uncomfortably at her uncharacteristically passive actions. Normally, his summoning her to his office would result in a much more boisterous exchange of words, and on a couple of occasions, fists. "So... you know what this is about?"
Utena nodded.
"How many times have you fainted in class this last month?"
"Yesterday makes three."
Fujisawa exhaled heavily again. "Which is really starting to freak out your students and colleagues since you've never so much as taken a single sick day before this in the eight years you've been at this school. Go see a doctor already, Tenjou. The pay sucks but you know we do have a decent medical plan."
Utena rubbed the back of her head sheepishly. It didn't surprise that her principal would think sheer stubbornness was the reason why she hadn't sought medical attention yet. "I don't think a doctor's gonna be able to help."
Fujisawa's frown deepened, and Utena could tell the man was worried when his eyes widened out of their normal squinty fox-like shape to the point where she could actually see them. "Sounds like you already know what's wrong then, Tenjou."
The pink haired teacher remained silent, not quite able to keep the eye contact. She stared at the clock hanging on one of the walls in the office and marveled, distractedly, at how late it had gotten.
The silence between them was long and looming.
Finally, Utena turned to look at Fujisawa and gave him a smile, a warm, if slightly sad smile. Reaching into her blazer pocket, she took out the resignation letter she had penned earlier in the afternoon and placed it quietly on his desk. "Thank you for everything, Fujisawa-sensei. You... you can't know how happy these eight years has been for me, how happy this school has made me. Thank you for giving me that chance. I'm sorry to have to disappoint you now."
The principal stared at the terrible letter on his desk and looked stricken. "Tenjou…" He said hoarsely. "I...! Please, what is it? What's going on? You can't just up and quit like this with no explanation!"
But Utena had already stood up, and bowed deeply to him. And with that, she left the room, careful not to look behind her, though he continued to shout for her to please stop and come back.
She went back to the empty teacher's office, thankful that her colleagues had all gone home already. She didn't think she could really say goodbye to them. She picked up the duffle bag she had packed the night before and stashed under her desk.
Leaving the school, she was careful to take the long away around to avoid the gymnasium. Some of the sport teams still had practice, and more so than her colleagues, she really, *really* didn't want to have to explain herself to her students. Hopefully, they'd understand one day. Hopefully.
She had delayed long enough.
She had to go bring her baby girl home now; she should never have let her daughter go back to Fuuka in the first place.
While Chikane had kept her promise and had contacted her every day, that contact had changed from decently detailed phone conversations to short text messages that couldn't quite convince Utena that her daughter really was fine, no matter what those scant characters said.
Since her first collapse in the classroom several weeks ago, Utena had found herself besieged by more and more episodes of vertigo where she'd seem to go zooming right out of her head, high up and up into the air, until the whole of the earth loomed before her.
And... the crying... the misery...
It was like she could feel every act of injustice being committed in the world, hear every cry for help. And as she stared at the earth, unsure of where to even start, her gaze would instinctively be drawn back to a certain part of world – a city on an island off the south eastern coast of Honshu, where, it seemed like very dark clouds were gathering, where reality itself seemed to be screaming as tiny rips and tears appeared within it: Fuuka.
She had collapsed three times while in school, but she had woken up screaming many more times from these episodes while alone at home.
She had tried to ignore it, tried to block it out. Whatever was going on, it couldn't concern her. She was Tenjou Utena, a 30 year old woman, a popular teacher at school, struggling to raise a family, like so many other men and woman. That was it. Her responsibility was to herself, her daughter and her students. No one else.
... but the screaming... the crying...the pain...
Utena made her way to the train station, standing in front of the terminal and looking up at the various blinky departure related electric signboards detailing which train destined for which city was departing from which platform, searching for the best route to Fuuka Island. As she spied the information she needed, she approached the ticketing booth, lined up behind a few other commuters.
As this happened, Utena thought she could hear the faint strains of an accordion playing, and heard a giddy, whispery voice say something she hadn't heard in a lifetime:
'Hey, did you hear? Did you hear?'
Eyes widening in surprise, Utena whirled her head towards the sound, and found herself staring back at the electric signboard. And as she stared at it, suddenly, the words all seemed to change and spin, until they formed the shape of an angular girl cartwheeling across the board, her hair in pigtails.
'Have you heard the news?'
A second electronic girl, with a bow in her hair, spun onto the sign that should have been showing the arrival time of the Kodama 702 from Shin-Osaka.
'Wahoooo! The Prince is finally ready to slay some dragons and rescue some damsels! Took you long enough, Prince! Geez!'
'Oooh! Oooh! Do you think she'll slay some dragons first or rescue some damsels first?'
'I dunno! If she wants to slay some dragons first, she'll probably want this train!'
'Hey, what the- aaah!' With a scream, the sequence of lights that made up the second electronic girl's shape suddenly spun into the words for 'Tohoku Line - HIKARI 507 - Platform 19', before spinning back into the shape of the electronic girl, who was now wobbling back and forth now, dizzy.
'Hahaha!' Laughed the first electronic girl uproariously.
'Oh very funny! But if she wants to rescue some damsels first, then she'll want this train instead!'
'No wait-aaah!' And suddenly, the first electronic girl burst apart to form the words for 'Tohoku Line - HIKARI 507 - Platform 19', again, for just a moment, before rearranging herself back into the form of the electronic girl.
The second girl laughed. 'Hah! Now how do you like a taste of our own medici-wooah!' Both the first and the second electronic girls had to jump up to avoid being crashed into by various lines of information about various trains - but all of them regarding the Tohoku Line.
Utena frowned. "That's the same train you're both telling me to take," she said impatiently. "And it doesn't go to Fuuka."
Looking away from the electrical signboard to the printed map of the various bullet trains stations on each train line, Utena's eyes widened as she went through the names of the stations on the Tohoku Line. Sendai, Morioka, Aomori... Ohtori City.
For a moment, Utena just stared at the kanji for the city she'd gone to middle school in, her mind blank. Slowly, she turned her gaze back onto the departure signboard, but the flashing information was now simply all about the various trains, with no animated girls wreaking havoc with the words.
"… why... do you want me... to go back *there*?" Utena asked quietly, under her breath.
No one answered her.
"Hello, miss? I can help you."
Blinking, Utena suddenly realized that she had made it to the front of the line, and that the ticketing agent was now calling out to her. She quickly stepped up to the booth, feeling disoriented and confused. "Oh, um. Sorry about that."
"That's alright. Where were you wanting to go, miss?"
Utena stared at the man at the ticketing station for so long, unable to answer his question, the man started to get uncomfortable. "Um, excuse me, miss?"
"We have now arrived at Ohtori City. We have now arrived at Ohtori City. If your destination is Akita, please depart here and transfer onto the Akita line. We have now arrived at Ohtori City. We have now arrived at Ohtori City-"
The voice of the conductor snapped Utena out of her reverie, and she sat upright. Looking around her, she noticed that all the other passengers had disembarked and she quickly grabbed her duffle-bag and left the train.
Standing on the train platform, Utena took a deep breath of the crisp, late-night air, and felt it swirl about inside her, chilling her further than the autumn cool should have.
There was an unkempt welcome sign, decorated with a rose-patterned theme. Instead of welcoming however, the damage and dirt it had sustained only made the city seem creepy and neglected.
'Welcome to Ohtori City. For the local train to City Centre, proceed to platform 1. For Ohtori Academy, proceed to platform 2.'
Utena frowned as she considered this.
Should I go directly to the school at this hour?
She still wasn't quite sure what had compelled her to take the opposite line away from Fuuka Island, and yet, here she was. There was only one place in this city that held any meaning for her, but it was late evening already, and it was unlikely Ohtori Academy would allow visitors this late in the day, alumni or otherwise: Platform 2 to Ohtori Academy would have to wait.
The thought of not having to go back to the school that had so completely and drastically changed her life filled Utena with both a sense of relief and dread – like extending the calm before a storm – and she wanted to rest. Leaving the train station, she was able to flag down a taxi quickly enough.
"Hey, where can I take you, kid?" Asked the cab driver.
"I'll need a hotel for the night. Can you recommend one to me?"
The cab driver gave her a weirded-out look. "Uh, aren't you a bit young to be getting a hotel room for yourself? Are you sure you don't want the school instead?"
"I'm 30 years old." Utena replied flatly.
The cab driver gapped in surprise. "Seriously? Wow lady, that's some good skin care regiment you've got going on."
"Please just get me to the hotel." Utena replied, unable to keep the tiredness from her voice.
"Uh, sorry. Sure. Most of the affordable places are filled up right now on account of tourists in town for the autumn festival. Is the Imperial alright?"
Utena winced. That one was a little out of her price range, but it wasn't like she was planning on staying for too long. "Yeah, that'll do."
So he dropped her off at one of the fanciest hotels in the city, and Utena tried not to cringe as she asked for a room for the night; 15 years of living on a shoe string budget made this a little difficult to do.
It took a little bit of time (and multiple pieces of identification), but she was able to check in and get her key card. She headed to the elevator which was just beginning to close.
"Wait for me please!" She called as she stuck her arm in through the crack to keep the doors open.
"Thanks." The doors re-opened obediently and Utena stepped inside to stand face to incredulous face with Arisugawa Juri, whose eyes went wide as saucers with disbelieving recognition as she stared at her.
"...!"
"...!?"
They continued to stare at each other, flabbergasted, neither one moving, until Juri blinked once, and then twice, and Utena could tell that the woman was on the verge of what looked like a freak out.
Smiling nervously, Utena took a step back, bumping into the closed elevator doors, and put her hands up in front of her to try to calm the other woman. "J-Juri-sempai..."
"You died." Juri blurted out dumbly, in a decidedly non-Juri-like manner. "You've been dead for 16 years."
Those words hit Utena with so much force she would have reeled had she not already been up against the elevator doors. They echoed endlessly in her head reverberating and growing louder and louder, until it was all she could hear.
YOU DIED. YOU DIED. YOU DIED. YOU DIED. YOU DIED.
SIXTEEN YEARS AGO.
Utena's brow crinkled. "N-no..." she insisted, feebly. "I didn't...!"
BUT YOU DID.
And then suddenly, that feeling of vertigo assaulted her again, and Utena felt like she was being pulled out of her head and scattered to the four winds, howling with humanity's pain and suffering, begging for help and release.
And through that howling, that blurring tornado of images, came the image of a cavern, one Utena had seen before.
Inside the cavern was one pillar, a deep foreboding black-purple in color that also seemed to be glowing dully. There was a rumbling in the cave as a second pillar started to rise up from the ground. When it reached the same height as the first pillar, it changed in color, from the greyish color of rock, to that same, glowing black-purple.
Then the image shifted, and Utena thought that the clouds gathering overtop of Fuuka Island had darkened, somehow, in color, and the multitude of tiny rips and tears in the fabric of reality all over the island suddenly intensified in size and number.
Utena could hear reality scream, as something else that should have been became perverted into something that was not.
The last thing Utena saw, was a single girl coming to the forefront of all the rest, an ageless girl, naked, lying in a fetal position inside of a coffin filled with roses. She opened her eyes, turned her head to look directly at Utena, as though she could see her, and the heartbreak in her emerald eyes was overwhelming. Her red lips parted, and though Utena couldn't hear the words she spoke, she could read it from the movement of her lips.
'Utena-sama.'
"Himemiya..." Utena whispered.
And then she blacked out.
"Where are you?" Kikukawa Yukino muttered under her breath even as she took off her glasses and pinched the bridge of her nose to try to soothe over the mother of all migraines.
It was quarter to midnight, and she had spent the last 16 hours staring at Diana's surveillance mirrors, which had been continuously transmitting video footage nonstop from where Diana's inspection spores had scattered all over campus. Yukino's brain was threatening to turn to mush on her, and she wasn't sure how much more she could take of this.
But she couldn't help herself.
Where are you.
An inconspicuous green tentacle suddenly rose out of the floor beside her, holding onto a bottle of aspirin. Diana quietly put the pain medication down on the desk beside Yukino, and the mousy haired Student Council President couldn't help but crack a small smile at her Child's thoughtfulness.
"Thank you, Diana," Yukino said, as she opened up the bottle and took two pills, chasing it down with a sip of water from a glass that her Child had also grabbed from somewhere. She petted the tentacle affectionately, before turning her attention back onto her mirrors. After a moment, Yukino felt one of Diana's tentacles poking her in the shoulder, and one of the mirrors stopped displaying the surveillance its corresponding spore was capturing, and instead, showed one of Diana's eyes, crinkled in concern.
Yukino gave Diana a smile meant to be reassuring. "It's okay, Diana. I'll be alright for a little bit more. I'll go get some rest in a few more minutes. There's just something I want to check up on. Something doesn't seem quite right and I don't think I'll be able to sleep very well without being able to put my finger on it a little better."
Diana's eye blinked in understanding, and then the image in the mirror showed surveillance again.
Yukino sighed as she continued her vigilance, scrolling through the screen and flipping back and forth between each of Diana's spore-eyes.
She could understand her Child's concern for her; it had been a long day that had started out ominously, when Yukino had seen Kiyohime summoned, however briefly, and then vanish, just as Natsuki, Nao and Sugiura-sensei were leaving campus.
For all she had been able to push down and ignore her anxiety and distrust of Shizuru over the last few months, being confronted with the six headed Child who had destroyed her own during the festival was an entirely different matter. Yukino had launched Diana's surveillance capabilities right away, paranoia and anxiety driving her to find Kiyohime and Shizuru and to keep them in her sight, but had been unable to locate them.
Instead (and it was arguable whether this was good fortune or ill) blanketing the campus with Diana's spores had led Yukino to discover, much to her horror, a venerable horde of orphans, some big, most small, already teeming all over campus, previously unnoticed as the vast majority of them had not been given reason to turn into their larger, more dangerous forms. This didn't mean that they couldn't suddenly and inexplicable decide to transform into their larger forms and become a danger to the population (and indeed several of them did do so when they were accidentally seen and approached), so this discovery had resulted in a very, very busy day for the remaining Hime at Fuuka.
With her attention kept busy by the orphans, it wasn't until nightfall that Yukino had thought of Shizuru again. That was when she had heard reports that Shizuru had been seen in Nurse Sagisawa Yoko's office, and Chikane had been seen with her.
Her earlier fears returning to her in full force, Yukino had summoned Diana once again, and started frantically looking for Shizuru everywhere.
'We're all on the same side,' Yukino tried telling herself. 'There isn't a festival we're trying to win. We're all on the same side…'
So then why hadn't the tawny haired older girl responded to any of their messages? Where was she?
'It's just like what happened last time,' Yukino thought darkly to herself. 'She just ups and disappears and doesn't tell anyone anything. Where are you, Fujino Shizuru? What are you doing?'
Suddenly, Diana seemed to go haywire, with several of her reporting mirrors seeming to flash alarming shades of color.
Yukino's eye boggled. "What? What's going on?!"
She stared at the mirrors, Shizuru temporarily forgotten, and boggled, slack jawed, in disbelief, as a very large tear appeared in the sky just above the forest behind the school. A giant, orange, crab-like orphan fell out from the sky, crashing down into the forest. It was so large, its top half was well above the tree line, easily visible to all who might have been looking at the forest.
There was no way the Hime would be able to get rid of that thing before anyone noticed.
"No no no no no no!" Fumbling for her phone, Yukino tried to call Mai or Mikoto, but even before she could finish dialing the number, out of the corner of her eye, a familiar purple hydra burst into existence, towering even higher than the crab-like orphan, and proceeded to rip it apart.
Within a few moments, the orphan imploded, destroyed, the only remaining evidence of its existence being the flattened trees where it had appeared. Barely a moment later, Kiyohime also disappeared.
Yukino stared at that screen for a long time. And then she took a deep breath, and started to feel a little better about Shizuru.
Shizuru decided that the look Sakomizu-sensei was giving her was decidedly incredulous, and she would not blame him one bit for it. If she were in his shoes, she was fairly certain she'd be looking at herself with a very similar expression.
The portly teacher opened and closed his mouth a few times before exhaling noisily through his nose, and she could tell that the teacher was going to do as she requested, though perhaps not before making things uncomfortable for her in retaliation. "And just what does Kuga think about all of this?" He finally asked.
Shizuru smiled thinly.
Sakomizu-sensei took a long, deep breath. Finally, he stood up to leave the room. "I hope your certainty in her forgiving nature is not misplaced."
"Thank you for your concern, Sensei." Shizuru replied politely. "I sincerely hope my certainty is not misplaced either."
"It's for all our sakes."
Left alone, Shizuru allowed herself the luxury of leaning back in her chair and closing her eyes.
Natsuki… Natsuki will understand. She hoped. Oh god, how she hoped.
Shizuru knew she was on a slippery slope, certainly one of the slipperier ones, if not the slipperiest.
Finding the letter Chikane had addressed to her this morning – the same morning that Natsuki was due to leave her side for Mahoroba Village – had filled Shizuru with a sense of dread. The timing could not have been a coincidence, and Shizuru was certain there was a reason why Chikane had approached her only after Natsuki had left. But the day had not gone at all how she had expected it to, and while she had started the day fully prepared to incapacitate Chikane so that she could not do any more harm, now she found herself helping her friend – her supposed enemy – and fulfilling requests of very dubious morality.
It was a very fine line to walk – just how much the means justified the ends – especially when the ends themselves were not altogether clear to her, and this was not a state that Shizuru was accustomed to, nor liked to be in. She found herself clinging to the one constant she always had:
Natsuki.
No matter what happened, she would not allow harm to befall Natsuki. That was where her line was.
Taking her cellphone out from her pocket, Shizuru could see that she'd missed a couple of messages from her girlfriend. The messages were old – from well earlier in the day. She hadn't been able to respond.
We made it to Mahoroba – are you okay? I thought I saw Kiyohime this morning.
The message brought a sad smile to Shizuru's lips. She couldn't believe how much things had changed in the scant few hours from last she'd seen Natsuki. There was so much to tell her, but now was not the time to go into the details. She sent her girlfriend a quick reply, and then got up to leave as well.
It did not altogether surprise Shizuru to find Groundskeeper Himeno in the wooded area that fell within former Director Kazahana's property line - part of the forest that surrounded the back half of Fuuka Academy; the woman's responsibilities did seem to include the upkeep and maintenance of the currently unused home and surrounding grounds. What Shizuru hadn't expected was to find Fumi in the stream that meandered through the forest, apparently washing down her monstrous Child - if Suishouhime could still be called that.
Suishouhime was in rough shape. The humanoid 'Child' resembled a monstrous ghoul, skeletal, her skin a dead grey brown, with empty sockets where eyes should have been. One of the horns that extended from the crown of her head was broken, and she was covered in gashes and burns. Thick, dark, burgundy oozed out from some of those wounds, staining the water in the stream a foreboding red. Suishouhime was roughly half the size of Kiyohime, which meant she was still several times larger than a human being. She was sitting in the stream, with her massive hands cupped in front of her, Fumi standing in her palm and holding what looked like a cloth to one of the gashes on Suishouhime's face, cleaning it.
Shizuru found the entire scene rather unsettling. It was wrong, on so many levels. For one thing, she didn't know that Childs could bleed. Certainly, Kiyohime never had, when she was damaged in battle, and she was always repaired by the time Shizuru would next have to call on her. None of the Childs Kiyohime had destroyed during the Festival had bled either and Shizuru was glad for that.
"If I asked you what could have happened to drive Suishouhime to such a state, would you tell me?" Shizuru asked quietly. "I didn't know that Childs bled like that."
"Does Suishouhime look like a Child to you?" Fumi asked dully, not turning to look at Shizuru.
"No, I suppose not. She is the First Neck of Orochi now, isn't she? Because you are?" Shizuru paused. "What were you before Chikane-san made a neck of you? She called you 'Director'."
Fumi didn't answer Shizuru's question. Instead, she simply turned to face the younger woman. "What do you want, Fujino-san?" Fumi finally asked, the wariness in her voice clearly evident.
Shizuru sighed, relieved on some level to be able to cut to the chase, and yet disappointed as well. "I would like to go to Chikane-san, to let her know that a meeting with the First District, as she requested, has been arranged. I am not quite sure how to go about accessing her. I thought perhaps you could bring me to her."
"Why do you want to go to her?" Fumi asked. "Why are you helping her?"
"I promised I would." Shizuru simply replied. And I don't break my promises to Natsuki.
Fumi considered this for a moment, and then, with no warning, the world suddenly shifted, and Shizuru found herself not by the stream in the forest behind Fuuka Academy, but standing on top of a familiar, ancient torii gate.
She was alone; Fumi had not chosen to join her.
On the platform of rock in the middle of the eight torii gates, Shizuru could see Chikane sitting in a seiza, with her eyes closed, and her brow knit in concentration. Shizuru frowned. That's not a good sign.
"Chikane-san?" Shizuru asked, as she leapt down to the other girl's level and approached her. She placed a hand on Chikane's shoulder to get her attention. The other girl didn't respond. She tried to shake her, but the other girl would not budge.
Belated, Shizuru realized that this was probably because Chikane was pre-occupied with fending off the Obsidian Lord inside her own head; Fumi had summoned Suishouhime to Earth, which meant there was no one else to keep the Obsidian Lord from wreaking havoc in Chikane's mind except for herself.
Shizuru frowned as she brought out her phone - there was no reception.
"Well, that's just not fair." Shizuru muttered to herself, remembering the time she had witnessed Chikane receive a call from her father while here. "Perhaps it's time to switch service providers." She muttered.
The knock on the door could only have come from Shimotsuke no Kugamiya no Natsuki.
Kugamiya no Chikane had been locked in the room for a long time, a victim of an incomprehensible madness that left her unfit for the company of a family as powerful and renown as their clan, and her younger sister was her only visitor anymore. Their parents no longer spoke of their eldest born child anymore; she was shunned. As far as they were concerned, Natsuki was their only child, a formerly good, obedient child, but one who was beginning to show a shade more rebellion in her adolescence than the clan leaders were entirely comfortable with. If Chikane had to guess, Natsuki was likely to be married off soon. That was probably why her sister had not been to visit in the last few days.
They had been close before the affliction had taken root in Chikane's mind. Their parents generally allowed their younger daughter to see her older sister when she asked to, if only to bathe her and improve the sanitary conditions of the cellar, so long as she didn't ask too often, or make too obvious a production of it.
Since she was the only one who regularly saw her sister anymore, Natsuki was also the only one who knew that Chikane was not nearly as mad as everyone took her to be – not by a long shot.
To Natsuki, it was a grave injustice that kept her sister imprisoned, but Natsuki could not right that wrong, despite her best efforts. The time she had tried had resulted in the summary execution of the small handful of pitiful servants whom had been assisting her, and a life-long limp for Natsuki herself.
After that, Chikane herself had sabotaged all of Natsuki's further attempts to free her, until the younger Kugamiya had finally given up. All she allowed her younger sister to do was to offer her comfort, and even then, Chikane would not always accept it.
Chikane could hear the jangling of keys, followed by Natsuki calling out, "Aneue? Aneue, are you there?"
She could not help but give an amused answer. "Where else would I be?"
The door opened, and her younger sister came into the room, her arms full with a familiar present – Chikane's once prized possession – her koto. Behind Natsuki came two trusted servants carrying the wash basin.
Sneaking a look around to make sure she was not being watched, Natsuki urged the servants to hurry up.
It was dark in the cellar, and it took a little while for her younger sister by two years's eyes to adjust to the dim light. Chikane could see her sister inspect the hay and dry grasses that made up the floor before her eyes found her at the far end of the room, leaning against the dirty, not-quite-but-almost-rotting planks and bedding that once might have been a proper bed. Chikane was filthy as only an ignored prisoner could be, wearing only the once-white robe-like nagajuban undergarment, her long hair matted and unbound, bangs plastered against her face.
Natsuki's brow crinkled in that way that told Chikane she hated seeing her older sister this way.
Once upon a time, when all was right in the world, when everything was as it should be, Kugamiya no Chikane was one of the most beautiful, intelligent and highly sought after girls in all of Edo. Their parents had been very proud and very keen to place their eldest child into a strategic marriage that would help cement their clan's prominence in the city, and the family's prominence within the clan itself, second only to the clan leaders.
That had all come undone on the morning of Chikane's 16th birthday.
If one listened to the clan's doctors and apothecaries, then one would be led to believe that malicious demons had visited her that night and taken her mind, leaving her without reason or logic. She had screamed that morning, unbalanced and violent, mad and incomprehensible.
The world was wrong, Chikane had insisted. The world was not as it should be. Time had gone backwards. Several pages had been torn clear out of the bindings of the book that was her life, she had cried, and poorly rebound.
"This is not right!" She had shrieked, so perturbed and violent that she had lashed out at a servant and almost killed the woman, prompting many of the family's samurai retainers to rush in to restrain her. "This is not justice! How could you all forget her so quickly?! She defeated Yamata no Orochi! She DIED for your happiness, for your fortunes! She gave up EVERYTHING so that you could all live! And you tell me that you've not heard of the Solar Priestess?! Of Tokiha no Himeko?! That her name is not sung in songs, and uttered in prayers? Let me GO! All of you! I belong at her side! She needs me! Himeko needs me!" She had screamed, again and again. "Himeko! HIMEKO!"
What else could they have proclaimed her but mad?
What else could her parents have done, but complied, when the clan leaders had commanded them to lock their eldest born in a quiet room at the far end of the Kugamiya compound, away from prying eyes, and gossiping lips, until she calmed?
But how could Chikane ever calm again? When Himeko was no longer here. When no one even remembered her existence?
Natsuki had tried to rescue her. Had tried and failed and maimed herself in the process. After that attempt, her sister had begged, and pleaded with the older girl to just put that ridiculousness aside.
"Please!" Natsuki had said. "Forget about this... this Tokiha no Himeko! Even if she had existed, she is no longer here now. Even if the world was as you said it should be, it is no longer. Make peace with the world as it is now. Otherwise, they will keep you locked in here until you die."
Chikane had looked at Natsuki, and said, with such emptiness in her eyes that the younger sister had actually known fear, "let them."
Only then had Natsuki finally come to realize that her sister's heart had already moved beyond the world. She was simply waiting for her body to follow suit, refusing food and drink.
She would have made it too, had Natsuki not begged her back to life.
On death's doorstep, Natsuki had held her hand and cried, "please, Aneue! Eat something! Didn't your beloved bid you, 'live happily and fully, for both of us'? How can you still think to end your life by your own hand? Because that is what you're doing! How can you face Himeko-sama again if you took her final wishes and threw them back in her face?"
And Chikane's eyes, dead to the world for so long, had crinkled with agony as peace was denied her.
She had been furious with Natsuki – absolutely furious. She had screamed and shouted and might have even tried to strangle Natsuki in her grief, causing the servants to scream and the retainers to come rushing in.
In the end, Natsuki's gamble had worked, and Chikane, with reluctance, had been snatched back from death's door step. She still hadn't quite forgiven her sister for it.
"Put the wash basin down and leave us," Natsuki ordered the servants. "I will call when you may return."
One of the servants looked at Natsuki reluctantly, and twisted one of the blonde drill-like curls that her hair had been twisted into nervously. "Ojou-sama, please, let me-"
Natsuki's glare silenced the woman. "Do not question your betters, Otoha-san. I said leave us, and you will do as you are told."
The blonde servant shut her mouth, heartbreak in her eyes. She bit her lip, gave Chikane one last look, before quietly leaving with the other servant.
There was silence in the room, before Chikane thought it appropriate to speak. Her voice was soft. "You should be kinder to Otoha-san. She is a good woman."
Left alone with her sister, the severe authority left Natsuki's face and she grew melancholy. "I know," she said softly. "But... it has been an eventful several days..."
And Chikane realized that her younger sister sought her council in private. "Oh?"
The expression on Natsuki's face was one of grief. But rather than speaking right away, she simply walked over to her older sister, her limp less detectable now than it once had been, and quietly put the koto down by her.
"Shall we begin with your hair?" Natsuki asked softly. "Or do you want a bath first?"
Studying Natsuki carefully from behind her matted bangs, Chikane realized the news must be grave indeed if her younger sibling needed the comfort of routine first to lend her the strength to share it.
"The bath, please."
Unfortunately, the wash basin was just a little too far away – the manacle around Chikane's ankle kept her from moving any further than an eight foot radius around the bed, so Natsuki had to shove the heavy container forward a few more feet (not so easily done with her own injury), before she helped her sister to undress and began to scrub at the dirt. Chikane was mostly skin and bone.
It took a while, since her last bath was quite some time ago, but eventually, Chikane was clean, hair and all, though she was still a far cry from the proper young woman she once was.
Natsuki brought out a comb to pick at the tangles in a lock of Chikane's poorly tended hair, even as Chikane herself ran her gaunt hands down the strings of the koto lovingly, plucking a hesitant few notes out.
"I am to wed into the Taira clan of Wakasa," Natsuki said softly, as she picked at the knots. "The agreement was brokered yesterday."
"I see." This was not surprising to Chikane, so she said nothing more. She focused her attention on the koto in front of her, even as her excess mental capacity processed her younger sister's news. Now that she had had a chance to be cleansed, her fingers no longer soiled the precious instrument, and she ran a few scales down the strings. The joints in her hands didn't work quite as well as they once did, so the scales sounded poor, but after a few more tries, some semblance of her once mastery of the instrument appeared to return to her.
Natsuki listened to her sister play for a few minutes, the melancholy on her face betraying her obvious nostalgia for happier days.
"I'm not going to do it." Natsuki said, her voice soft but determined.
"I see." Chikane answered once more. Again, she could tell that this was not the big news that Natsuki meant to share with her. She didn't look up at her younger sister. Ending the song, she stroked the strings wistfully, silently, waiting for Natsuki to continue.
Her younger sister clenched her fists. "My heart... my body... they already belong to someone else."
Ah. There it was.
"Body?" There was a faint hint of a smile in Chikane's tone. Slowly, she turned around and fixed her gaze on her younger sister's face, though she knew it was hard for Natsuki to tell if she was looking at her, or just in her general direction, as her face was still mostly obscured by her hair. "I see."
Natsuki blushed.
Finally unable to help her curiosity, Chikane asked, "his name?"
Natsuki was silent for a long time. And then she looked down, and away from her sister. "Her name," she said softly, "is Fujino."
O-ho! Now Chikane couldn't help but chuckle. Now this was rich. "O-ho. The Daimyo family from the west? They have one daughter amongst the seven sons, do they not?" She clucked her tongue against the top of her mouth. "Kyoto no Fujiwara no Shizuru Hime… isn't it?"
Natsuki didn't have to confirm or deny it.
Chikane stroked the strings of her koto idly. They were silent for a while, before Chikane spoke again. "Ah, our poor parents. That both their daughters would suffer from the same particular inclination." She chuckled, hollowly, bitterly, shaking her head in disbelief. "I wonder what ill deed committed in their past life brings this karma to bear against them now."
Natsuki's eyebrow furrowed. "Don't speak that way, Aneue," she begged. "I… I don't know what to do. The thought of another's hands upon me besides hers… I can't stand it. Just the thought of it makes me... I'd sooner die than suffer that."
And Chikane could read the thoughts running through her sister's mind clear on her face. Oh, the irony. That you, dear Natsuki-chan, who has done everything possible to prevent me from doing so, should come to understand why I would want to die in this cellar.
"Utter not such oaths, little sister," Chikane advised softly, a hint of stern steel in her words. "For you tempt the heavens to hold you accountable to your words." And then her words softened, when Natsuki looked sufficiently chastised.
When next Chikane spoke again, her words were soft and pensive, with hints of sadness and reluctance. "You cannot marry into the Taira with your body no longer your own. Many other clans may tolerate such an indiscretion, but not the Taira. They will kill you for the insult. And when they find out why you cannot marry, our own clan leaders would likely order your execution." She paused. "This is quite a conundrum you face. I hope she was worth it?"
Natsuki clenched her fists, resolute. "I daresay that Shizuru is worth as much to me as… as Himeko-sama, whose phantom memory chains you to this prison, is worth to you."
Chikane didn't answer her younger sister verbally. Instead, she slowly ran her hand through her wet bangs, smoothing then back and way from her face, and she stared Natsuki straight in the eyes with razor sharp appraisal.
Natsuki flinched a little, but she held Chikane's own blue-green gaze, trembling a little bit like a mouse under the gaze of an eagle. And in being able to hold that gaze, Chikane could tell her younger sister was not exaggerating her claim of affection.
Which meant there was only one way forward.
"I suppose there is no other way," Chikane said softly, finally breaking the eye contact to look down at her instrument. She gave the strings of the koto one last loving stroke, before putting the cover back on the instrument, closing it up. "You will elope with the princess from Kyoto. Here is what we shall do."
Natsuki listened to her sister's plan, stunned, in disbelief, with her eyes impossibly wide. "Aneue, I cannot do this! I cannot resign you to death for the sake of my own fortunes!"
"At this point, little sister," Chikane replied as tactfully as she was capable, "it would be an honor for me that my death may bring something better than just an end to my suffering." She looked down at her covered koto, and put a hand on top of the lid. "I never did thank you for maintaining my koto all this time, did I?"
"Aneue," Natsuki tried to argue, clearly distraught. "No, please, say no more of this. I will not abide this! I will NOT!"
"Natsuki." Chikane boomed, such authority in her tones that the younger sibling could do naught but close her mouth. Her eyes, dead for so long, were ablaze. They pierced into Natsuki's own with a force that left her stunned.
They stared at each other, a contest of wills, and Chikane could feel herself winning – Natsuki had never been able to win a fight against her older sister without fighting dirty, and Chikane knew she had won when tears came to the corners of Natsuki's eyes and she was forced to look away first, her teeth grit together, clearly distraught.
"No." Natsuki said one more time, stubbornly, though they both knew by this point that it was going to happen.
Chikane reached out and drew Natsuki into an embrace, wrapping her thin arms around her sister's shoulders. She hadn't held her like that since they were children. "I miss her so much." Chikane whispered softly. "Please, Natsuki. I want to see her again."
"No!" Natsuki squeezed her eyes shut and stubbornly shook her head. "No! No! NO!"
Chikane only simply continued to hold Natsuki.
Finally, an eternity later, Natsuki said, very softly, "at the very least," her voice was hoarse, "I want you to meet Shizuru, once. At the very least."
"I would like that very much," Chikane replied, smiling a small smile as she lifted a bony hand to cradle her sister's cheek. "It would be an honor to meet the woman who would give you your happiness, and me mine."
So they set their plan into motion.
On the morning of the wedding, the sisters enacted their plan. They cut Natsuki's hair short, and tied what remained of it into a topknot, stealing a set of a male cousin's clothes to pass herself off as a boy. They cleaned Chikane up as best they could to take Natsuki's place at the wedding altar, the sisters similar enough in appearance and build that the thick layer of white makeup, and the multiple layers of kimono a bride was expected to wear on her wedding day, could fool all but those who knew her best (with a bit of luck) – and her groom, from the Taira clan of Wakasa, barely knew her at all.
Chikane sent Natsuki away from her chambers, in case someone should recognize her, and told her where to wait. They sent Otoha away – paying her handsomely in silver and gold, more or less forcing it into her shaking hands, despite her tear soaked refusals – and then Chikane was alone in Natsuki's chambers, waiting to be taken to the wedding ceremony.
She heard the sliding door of the chamber open, and felt, more than saw, a magnificent presence enter the room. Chikane could tell, before even turning to see her, that Kyoto no Fujiwara no Shizuru Hime, was an incredible specimen of humanity indeed.
"Pardon my intrusion," came a voice, accented by the dialect of one who had spent her formative years raised in the west. "I only wanted to give the bride my congratulations, in advance before the ceremony, to avoid having to fight with the many others for the right to do so afterwards."
It was plainly clear from the tone in that voice, however, that the speaker was feeling far from congratulatory.
Chikane turned to look at her visitor, and smiled when ruby red eyes she hadn't expected to be quite so captivating, opened wide upon meeting her own blue-green irises. "Thank you, Fujiwara no Shizuru-hime," she said softly. "It is a pleasure to meet you."
Shizuru was dressed finely – very finely, as a proper young woman from one of the most powerful families in all of Yamato only could be. But it was clear to Chikane's eyes, that this young woman was not as proper as she lead on to be. There was an obvious rebellion in her striking, ruby-red eyes. There was a very keen, sharp mind lurking underneath that beautiful face.
Maybe even keen, and sharp enough, Chikane mused, to be able to keep her sister alive through the end of the day, for though Chikane had promised to give her younger sister a chance at happiness, it was simply that – a chance. And a poor one at that.
Shizuru's eyes widened. She eyed the room for any foreign ears and made sure she could not find any, before uttering, "you are not my Natsuki."
"No, I am not," Chikane replied evenly. "I am Wakasa no Taira no Mitsukuni's Natsuki, of course." And then her voice dropped to the barest of whispers. "My sister will be found due east, in the furthest corner of our family compound. There is a servant's gate there. You have one chance. If you care anything for her, you will drop everything, and go now, and never come back. There are two horses beyond the gate. Natsuki has enough silver on her to last two mouths for several months if you are wise and not prone to hunger. After that, you will be on your own."
The tawny haired girl considered her words for a moment, and it was clear to Chikane that Shizuru was weighing her words with a fine, cunning mind indeed. After a moment, Shizuru smiled, and shook out her head, laughing a little hollowly. "If that is the case," she said simply, "then I will meet Natsuki at the eastern gate, and we will have to find some way to cut back across to the south side. I have my own men and horses waiting for us there. I'm ready to spend a lifetime with Natsuki, so, I think, my plans go a little further out than yours."
Chikane raised an eyebrow at this declaration as she studied the red eyed woman.
Perhaps her sister might make it after all.
"Then go, Shizuru-hime of the Fujiwara clan. And promise me you will keep Natsuki happy." She paused. Her voice became quiet but quite authoritative. "Do not allow her to convince you to come back for me, no matter what she says. Natsuki is a good girl, with a strong sense of justice that can only one day kill her. You will have to look out for her so that she does not lose that sense of justice, nor allow it to lose her, her neck."
And Chikane could believe that Shizuru would be able to accomplish this. Though she had just met the woman, she could tell that she was formidable, and not prone to half measures. This was, after all, a woman who knew the importance of a nobleman's daughter's virginity, and taken it anyway, and then made plans to abscond with said nobleman's daughter on the day of her wedding.
The two women in the room were silent for a moment. There wasn't much time left.
"Thank you, Chikane-san," Shizuru said softly. Of course, she would have figured out who Chikane was (it warmed her heart a little to know that her sister had spoken of her, and obviously fondly, to her lover). "I hope we have a chance to meet again."
"I hope so too, Shizuru-san," Chikane replied, equally softly. "Though I doubt it will be in this lifetime. Take care of my sister for me."
"With my life." Shizuru swore, turning to go.
"With all your lives," Chikane countered, feeling slightly amused.
And Shizuru chuckled wryly, nodding her head, and giving Chikane one last look, before turning to leave.
Left alone with her thoughts, Chikane took a deep breathe, and closed her eyes.
"Was that all you wanted to see?" She called, distain-edged amusement clear in her voice. "My Lord?"
For a moment, nothing in the room reacted to her words, until suddenly, a giant glowing red eye opened, flickering slightly as it floated in the middle of the room, a little ways away from where Chikane sat.
The Obsidian Lord's voice boomed clearly all around. HOW LONG HAVE YOU KNOWN OF MY PRESENCE?
"Long enough." Chikane turned and gazed at the Obsidian Lord, wariness clear in her voice. "These are not memories I would think to revisit. Why have you compelled me to?"
I'LL KNOW IT WHEN I SEE IT. There was a cruel smirk in Obsidian's voice. LET'S CONTINUE, LUNAR PRIESTESS. WHAT HAPPENED NEXT? WERE YOU ABLE TO HOODWINK YOUR GROOM?
Chikane's brow furrowed. Declining to answer the Obsidan Lord, instead, she willed the room all around her to disappear, leaving the unpleasant memory that was soon to come.
The room flickered ominously as Chikane exercised her will, and then disappeared, replaced by the vast expanse of her mindscape, devoid of everything except for Chikane's mental image of herself – a human girl, naked and floating in inky blackness, facing a giant glowing red eye that represented the parasite that had first invaded her mind months ago. That eye didn't have lips to smirk with, but that didn't stop Chikane from being able to feel the nasty smile being directed at her.
This... was not good.
While she had been focusing her energies towards keeping the Obsidian Lord from wrestling control of her body, she hadn't noticed his change in tactics towards entering her *memories*, and somehow, this tactic worried her even more.
What was he doing in them, and how many of them had he accessed?
The only reason why Chikane had realized he was in her memories at all was because those memories were from multiple lifetimes ago, and she didn't have any reason at all to remember that particular memory - couldn't have, really, since she hadn't even realized she had had them! The fact that she had started remembering that particular situation from that particular lifetime was because something external had caused her to, and that something was *him*, rooting through her mind.
But what about recent memories - from this lifetime (or even the last one)? Those memories were much nearer and dearer to Chikane's thoughts, and she thought about them all the time - she thought about *Himeko* all the time. Had he been silently observing those ones as well?
Chikane couldn't tell. People accessed their memories without conscious effort all the time and automatically. Even if someone were to actively remember (or forget) something, they couldn't really stop random memories from resurfacing due to simple external catalysts, like remembering a delicious meal from yesterday while walking past a cafeteria.
And if the Obsidian Lord had been accessing her memories, what was stopping - or had stopped! - him from *changing* the way she remembered them?
Chikane's eyes widened as a very sudden and real fear came over her:
'What if *everything* is actually different from the way I remember it?'
The Obsidian Lord laughed cruelly.
HAHAHAHAHA! YOU ARE WISE TO BE FRIGHTENED, LUNAR PRIESTESS! AFTER ALL, WHO IS HIMEMIYA CHIKANE BUT A RECOLLECTION OF ALL HER EXPERIENCES AND MEMORIES? IF YOU CANNOT TRUST YOURSELF, WHO CAN YOU?
Chikane clenched her teeth.
'Fumi-san,' she thought, 'please, I need you.'
It took a moment, but suddenly, Chikane's mental image of herself was no longer that of a human girl, but instead, that of an eight headed beast, with seven necks still bound but one neck live and free and absolutely *livid*.
Leaving her own mental landscape, Chikane gave a gasp as her eyes snapped open. For a moment, her vision swam and she had no idea where she was until she could hear a voice calling her name, clearly concerned.
"Chikane-san! Chikane-san!"
It took a while, but when Chikane finally came to her senses, she could see that she was at Orochi's gathering place, clutching onto Shizuru in front of her.
For a moment, a brief moment, Chikane could have sworn that the Shizuru in front of her had her hair cut in the style common to the noble women of the Edo period, and was wearing a heavily ornate kimono, but as she stared at the tawny haired girl, that clothing melted away and instead became the regular white button up shirt and pleated skirt combination of the current day.
The tawny haired girl had a concerned expression on her face and was gripping her forearms back tightly.
"Are you alright?" Shizuru asked. "What happened?"
Chikane was still breathing deeply, trying to recover. "He's... he's gotten a step ahead." She said cryptically. "He's... he's more cunning than I anticipated." She bit her lip. "Were you successful in contacting the First District?"
At this question, Shizuru's expression suddenly shifted from concerned, to serious. "I was," she finally said. "They will be able to meet us first thing in the morning."
Chikane nodded. "Good. Now, Shizuru-sempai, I need you to..." and then she trailed off, as she felt something very powerful and fundamental shift in the world.
Shizuru frowned. "You need me to...?"
"Did you feel that?" Chikane asked.
"Feel what?"
Chikane paused.
Something... something monumental had just happened.
"We need to go." Chikane said, urgently.
Quickly shifting herself and Shizuru away from Orochi's meeting place at the ends of the world, the two girls re-appeared into the real world in the forests of Fuuka. Without a further word, Chikane started bounding through the forest, forcing Shizuru to following her quickly or be lost.
Mikoto did not understand the simple pleasures of cleansing and ablution. She was, after all, the girl who once had to be forcibly disrobed, dunked into the tub and scrubbed raw by Mai – and that had only been a little more than a year ago. She had been about to raise a fuss today, as she normally did when it came to bath-time, but Mai had seemed so down by the end of it, that when the redhead had asked her to 'pleeease just take a bath. Pleeeease', Mikoto had simply slunk off into the bath with Chu-Chu without complaint.
After scrubbing, she had reluctantly submerged herself into the tub, and had sat there for the last ten minutes, looking at her fingertips. As soon as they started to prune, she'd know she could get out. As Mikoto watched her hands like a hawk, Chu Chu did a lazy backstroke through the waters beside her.
Doth not the waters feel positively divine against thine skin, Miss Mikoto?
Mikoto shook her head. "I don't like bathes, Chu-suke." She grumped, the irritation she felt in her heart showing up clearly in her words.
Alas, why ever not, Miss Mikoto? After a day as hectic as this current one was, does not the warmth of the water sooth thine aching body so?
"I'm fine." Mikoto insisted, though she felt far from it, really. She just couldn't understand why she was feeling so... so annoyed.
Truly? Magnificent! Thine battles today were so numerous and intense, I'd thought the wariness would hath settled on your bones as well, as it has upon Miss Mai's.
Mikoto frowned. Chu Chu was right - they had fought against a lot of orphans today – she'd lost count of how many exactly – so her body should be feeling tired – and it was – but the water wasn't really helping her feel better at all. Somehow, the 'tiredness' didn't seem to be coming from her body, but rather, from her head – or maybe her heart – argh! She wasn't sure were! She just knew that water wasn't making it better!
Luckily her fingers started to prune then, so she leapt out of the waters, shook herself dry, and pulled some underwear and her night shirt on. She was about to leave the bathroom when her ears perked up and she heard conversation on the other side of the door. She recognized Mai's and Tate's voices instantly.
"Hey, how are you holding up?" Tate was asking Mai quietly.
"It's been a long day," Mai answered, and Mikoto could hear the wariness in Mai's voice. That tone in Mai's voice made the wild child's heart hurt and she wanted to just go to Mai and give her a tight hug, but, Tate was probably already there doing exactly that. That realization only added to Mikoto's irritation.
Mai continued on. "We put down four orphans between Mikoto and I, and I think Akira managed to take out another. Yukino said there was supposed to be a sixth one somewhere by the university buildings, but by the time I got there, it was already dead. I think Shizuru-san probably took that one out, but Yukino doesn't seem to think so. I gotta admit, even though it's only been this morning, I really don't like that we haven't heard from her since Natsuki left."
"Have you had a chance to talk to Natsuki about it?" Tate asked.
"No, not yet. I was going to call her after this. I figured if Shizuru-san wasn't checking in with us, then at least she'd check in with Natsuki, and if she hadn't done even THAT, then Natsuki would be ringing my phone off the hook asking about her."
"So I guess no news is good news?"
"Hopefully." Mai sighed. "It would just be better all around if we could get a hold of her directly though. After what happened last year, you'd figure we'd all understand the importance of open communication and trusting each other, but... I guess that's easier said than done. Yukino's isn't saying anything, but we can all tell she's pretty upset. Even Mikoto..."
Mikoto's ears pricked up when she heard her own name.
"How's Mikoto doing?" Tate asked.
Mai sighed again - an even bigger sigh from before. "Confused. Frustrated. She told me she likes fighting the orphans, because she knows the orphans are 'bad' and 'bad' things should be destroyed. What she's having problems with is whether Chikane-san is also 'bad' or not."
Mikoto blinked. Oh. Was that what was wrong with her? Somehow, that didn't really seem right either...
Tate laughed weakly. "Isn't that the hundred million yen question?"
Mai returned her boyfriend's laugh with her own, equally wane one. "Yeah. It's hard enough for the rest of us, but Mikoto... she attacked Mikoto directly, and Mikoto just can't forget that. I don't really understand what really happened there myself either..."
Mikoto frowned as she considered this. Was that why she was so irritated? She wasn't sure but... it seemed to make sense.
As the wild child continued to consider this, outside, Mai and Tate's conversation continued on. "How are you and Takumi holding up?"
"Don't worry about us. We're keeping things calm on the 'normal' side of things. I don't think the student body quite knows what's going on yet, but some people are starting to feel it - there's something in the air that feels a lot like last year..."
Mai must have given Tate a hurt look or something, because Tate hurried continued on to say, "aaah, sorry, that came out wrong! I mean, Mai, don't... don't feel bad. You and Mikoto, all of you are doing the best you can already, so please don't feel like you have to do more, okay?"
At that point, Mai made an odd sound that might have been a stifled sob, and Mikoto's heart squeezed unbearably.
"I hate this." Mai finally said, after a long moment of silence. "I hate that every time we go out there, every time I call Kagutsuchi, you could wind up dead. I don't understand why this is happening again. Sometimes, I wish I had just followed Akane-chan's lead and left Fuuka altogether."
"But if you did, you wouldn't be the girl I fell in love with." Tate said softly.
Mikoto's heart squeezed again. It hurt so much, she grit her teeth.
There was another long silence.
After that, Tate continued on.
"Mai, I can't even begin to tell you how... how proud I am of you. You... you're incredible. You're like... like a super hero. Like Wonder Woman. Sometimes, I still wonder why wonder woman would go out with a useless guy like me..."
"Tate..."
"... but only sometimes." Tate added, laughing awkwardly. "Because most of the time, I realize that useless as I am, if I just sit around and mope about being useless, then I'll really be useless. So instead, Mai, please let me do everything I can to help you, okay? I want... I want you to be able to rely on me. It's not much, but I'll always be here for you, okay? Always."
They were silent once more, but Mikoto could hear the rustling of clothing, and that squeezing sensation in her heart got a even tighter - so tight, she thought she was going to die from it! Gritting her teeth, Mikoto grabbed at her chest.
Walking away from the bathroom door, she turned around and saw that Chu Chu had gotten out of the tub, and had shaken the loose water out of her fur, causing it to puff out like she was some sort of purple dandelion.
Miss Mikoto?
With a heavy heart, Mikoto picked up Chu Chu and put her on top of her head. "Come on, Chu-suke," she said quietly, suddenly feeling very, very tired. "I... I don't want to be here right now." She went to the window in the bathroom, opened it, and jumped outside, Chu Chu holding on for dear life.
Mikoto landed outside silently and then started running on all fours. She didn't know where she was going, and she didn't particularly care.
She ended up heading straight into the forest, only the stars and moon over head lighting her path - not that Mikoto would have needed those ancient points of light in the sky to help her. She'd always been more comfortable outdoors than in, and even barefoot, her feet ever stumbled.
In the end, it wasn't the tiredness in her body so much as the weariness in her heart that caused her to slow and finally stop to sit on a giant tree stump that was all that remained of a tree that must have been hundreds of years old in the middle of the clearing. Sitting down, Mikoto pulled her legs up to hug her knees to her eyes.
Chu Chu leapt off her head to sit on the tree stump beside her, looking up with what might have been concern on her face.
Miss Mikoto?
"What's happening to me, Chu-suke?" Mikoto asked in a small voice, still resting her eyes on her knees. "Why do I feel like this? I hate it! I hate it! Why won't this feeling go away?"
When the monkey mouse didn't answer her right away, Mikoto looked over and her eyes widened in surprise when she saw that a woman was sitting silently beside her, softly petting Chu Chu, who seemed to have suddenly dropped into a deep sleep in her lap.
Mikoto's mouth dropped open as the woman turned to look at her, and she suddenly found herself mesmerized under that ancient, emerald gaze, framed with long cascading waves of purple hair.
"Who are you?" Mikoto asked, awe clear in her voice.
"My name is Anthy," replied the ageless woman. She smiled kindly at Mikoto. "Chu Chu wasn't sure how to answer your question, so she asked me if I could." Her gaze dropped down to the sleeping monkey mouse in her lap, whom she continued to pet fondly. "Thank you for looking after my friend. Chu Chu is a good girl. I am glad she has found you."
The black haired child couldn't help but feel suddenly pleased to be complimented by the beautiful, if sad woman beside her. "Chu-suke is my friend too," she said. "I feel happy with her. It's not confusing when I'm with her."
"That is the power of one who doesn't comprehend time," Anthy nodded. "And she is able to help those who do comprehend it forget about it, at least, for a little while."
"... time..." Mikoto said slowly. "Are you like me, Anthy? Can you not die too?"
For a moment, Anthy was silent, as though not quite sure how best to answer the black haired girl's question. "I am not exactly like you, Mikoto, but close enough. You were born human, while I was not."
Missing the implications lurking in the first part of that sentence, Mikoto blinked at the second part. "Not human? What are you? Are you a Child? An Orphan?"
Anthy shook her head, laughing sadly. "Look more closely at me, Mikoto. Deeper. What do you see?"
Mikoto frowned. She wasn't quite sure what the woman was getting at, but she turned and stared at her anyway and tried to concentrate.
Then, a curious thing happened as Mikoto continued to look at her.
The longer she looked at Anthy, the weaker that feeling of spellbound awe became, replaced instead, by a very powerful feeling of loneliness and longing until those were the only things that Mikoto could sense from her. Mikoto's brow crinkled in distress and she reared back, falling off the tree stump. She got up to her feet, and balled her fists. "Stop that!" She insisted. "I... I don't like that!"
That feeling of sadness from Anthy seemed only to intensify. "Stop what?"
Mikoto waved her arms in front of the woman. "That! I don't like it. You... you smell like lonely the way Hime smells like... like angry!"
But Anthy shook her head. "If I could stop, I would. Just like how Himemiya Chikane would stop too, if she could."
"Why not?" Mikoto demanded. "Why can't you stop? Why can't either of you stop?"
Anthy was silent for a little while. Finally, she said, very softly, "we can't do it ourselves. We need someone else to take it from us. To cut us free."
"Then why don't you?" Mikoto demanded.
"Not everyone can do it. There is a very steep price to pay, and not very many people can pay it." Anthy's voice got even quieter. "I am Loneliness, Mikoto. I am Longing. To cut me from that which embodies me is to assume the mantle of the Witch. To be the new Witch is to never truly be with the one you love."
Mikoto stared at the dark woman, and suddenly, somewhere deep in her soul, she understood what the woman was getting at. You were born human, while I was not.
The black haired girl looked down at her feet, the slow dawning feeling of epiphany heavy in her heart as she realized that Anthy had not appeared before her, just to answer her questions. "... do you need someone to cut you away from your loneliness?"
And as Mikoto said this, Anthy suddenly seemed to get even more sad. "I do." She said softly. "I cannot be the Witch anymore. Utena-sama... she will need me for what is to come. And you..."
And Mikoto was able to understand what was being asked of her. Reaching outwards, she summoned her element – Miroku – her claymore, and the giant sword obediently came to her grip.
"... I can't die." Mikoto finished. "Even though everyone else will."
So. This was why her heart had been so complicated recently...
Anthy nodded. "You have already paid the price."
Mikoto was silent for a long while as she contemplated this, still looking down at her feet, her heart feeling strangely... at peace. That squeezing feeling from before wasn't there anymore.
Slowly, Mikoto brought Miroku into a two handed grip, even as she looked up from her feet.
Golden eyes met emerald green ones.
And then Mikoto smiled, sadly. "Can I keep Chu-suke?" She asked softly.
Following Chikane as best she could, Shizuru was only a few steps behind when they burst into the small clearing in the woods where Chikane slowed to a stop.
"What is it? What- Mikoto!" Shizuru's eyes widened in surprise as they fell upon the black haired wild child who was standing in the middle of the clearing, looking up at the sky, holding the claymore element in one hand. Her leg hurt painfully from where she had forced herself into a run; she was still injured from her battle with Chikane earlier in the day (which had felt, somehow, almost like a year ago).
Her mind working at blazing speeds, Shizuru anticipated what Chikane was most likely to do, and quickly summoned her naginata. She whirled it just in time, her weapon being right where it had to be when the ominiously glowing purple-black bow materialized into Chikane's hand, so that part of her polearm was between the bow and the string, allowing Shizuru to fling the weapon away from Chikane's hands so that she could not shoot Mikoto in the back.
Chikane shot Shizuru a disapproving frown, before Mikoto turned around. She summoned a second bow, but Shizuru was quickly to bat that one away from her hands as well.
No. Shizuru thought to herself as she stared, eyes blazing with command at Chikane so that the other girl knew exactly where she stood on this position. Not Mikoto.
The black haired wild child had played such an integral part in the festival this past year, Shizuru was not sure - and not willing to find out - how differently the world would be had Mai not been Mikoto's most important person...
The blue-black haired girl's eyes narrowed, as though she seemed to say, 'and just who do you think you are to command *me*?"
But before Shizuru could reply back, she was interrupted by Mikoto herself.
"Ne, Hime," Mikoto said, sounding more tired and not-Mikoto-like than Shizuru could ever recall the wild child sounding. She was clutching at her chest with her other hand, as though her heart were hurting her. "Is it true? Can you... can you make it so that I never met Mai?"
Shizuru's eyes widened. Before she could say anything however, Chikane had already called another bow into her hands, and had cocked an arrow at Mikoto.
"Yes." Chikane said simply.
"Mikoto, wait," Shizuru warned. "You don't know what you're asking-"
But Mikoto wasn't listening to Shizuru anymore. "Okay. Please make it so that I never met Mai. It... it hurts too much." And as she said this, the ground all around them rumbled, as Miroku's giant thorny spherical form burst out from the earth by her side.
"Stop, Mikoto!" Shizuru pleaded, astounded that Mikoto would ever say such a thing. "Why would you want to-!"
But the arrow was loosed.
And suddenly, too many things happened all at once for Shizuru to be able to keep track of.
For a brief, intense moment, Shizuru felt disoriented and dizzy, as though her head had been put through a blender on puree. For a moment, she couldn't remember where she was, or what she was doing there until a loud screech in the air caught her attention, and Shizuru looked up to see a giant, orange, crab-like orphan had appeared before her.
Just on the other side of one of the giant orphan's many legs, Shizuru could see Mikoto standing where she had been, her eyes blank and her jaw slack. Without another word, Mikoto's body shifted and then, disappeared, leaving only a swirling purple maw in her wake, which quickly dissipated.
As this happened, at Shizuru's side, Chikane grunted, and fell to one knee, breathing deeply, before collapsing entirely onto the ground.
"Chikane-san!" Crouching down, Shizuru only managed to put a hand on the blue-black haired girl's shoulder, before the giant orphan in front of her gave a bellow of rage, demanding Shizuru's attention.
Shizuru glared at the monster, feeling a lot more irritation than fear. "Lessor beings should know when it is not their place to speak." She said coldly, even as she summoned Kiyohime.
The Obsidian Lord seethed as he locked wills with the First Neck of Orochi.
He hated her. Oh, how he hated her!
How many festivals had he triumphed! How many turns of the star had he been able to guide humanity, like a loving father, using the power of the last standing Hime to influence world events? His power, his legacy! All of it had crumbled down like so much dust, because of Kazahana Mashiro! Because of Suishouhime! He hated her! He would destroy her!
Glaring at the lone freed serpentine neck, Obsidian tried to unleash a rain of destruction down on her, but found himself locked in a stalemate, as he couldn't concentrate his attack without lowering his defenses and allowing Suishouhime the chance to counter.
And then, things got worse as he heard a loud creak, a groan, and a crack.
The chains holding down a second monstrous neck of Orochi had snapped, and this second neck slowly rose up, to gaze at him appraisingly.
Obsidian cursed as he recognized his former servant, the Child he had conditioned and bound to his control for the last several festivals.
Miroku did not seem pleased with him.
AUTHOR'S NOTES:
*cries!* You guys, I am so, so sorry! I'm sure a lot of you have written off this story as incomplete as I haven't updated in more than a year, but, it is definitely my intention to finish this story (or die trying).
The first episode of Mai Hime aired Sept 30, 2004, and KnM began a couple days after that on Oct 2, 2004. As sort of my 'happy anniversary' to these stories which have brought me so much joy (and anguish) over the last decade, I've released the next three chapters of Revolutions all at once. KnM ended on Dec 18, 2004, and it is my hope to finish this fic by the 10 year anniversary of that date too. There's really only a handful of chapters left anyway, and they're between 25-85% written already so my chances of reaching this goal aren't horrible!
I have lost track of the number of times I've re-written this chapter (and the next two) over the last year and a half, and a lot of it was because of a plot inconsistency that I just couldn't get over and kept beating my head against forever. At the end of the day, I'm still not happy with it, but I've come to the rationalization that it's better to just let the mistakes go, and beg for forgiveness than to drop the project entirely. So to that end, please accept my humble apologies, and I hope this offering does right by you.
To those of you who have given me such encouragement over the last year – thank you so much! Zen - I'm really sorry to keep you waiting! Please know that your comments and analysis humble me, and I count myself lucky to be in the same fandom as you.
Also: supreme liberties were taken with the rendering of powerful Japanese clan names. Supreme. I did a little bit of research, and then turned my findings onto their ears. God, I hope none of that translates to 'toilet paper roll girl' or some such. -_-;; "Shimotsuke no Kugamiya no Natsuki" was meant to be Natsuki of the clan Kugamiya of the area Shimotsuke (assuming your clan was so powerful, it spread out over multiple areas).
Cheers,
jen-chan
jen-chan-shaw. livejournal. com
OMAKE I: Run Joke Run. See Joke Run.
[A Non-descript woman is sitting at a computer typing wildly away when OTOHA suddenly smashes in the wall wielding her trusted BATTLE MOP.]
AUTHOR: [Sweatdrops. Looks at the wall.] Aw, man, I *just* got that repaired after Juri, Chikane & the Cows' bed came flying through it! Contractors are not cheap in this city!
OTOHA: [Enraged] How dare you?!
AUTHOR: Huh?
OTOHA: Chapter flipping 17! 17! How can someone as important to Ojou-sama's life as myself not show up until Chapter 17, and ONLY GET 1 MEASILY LINE OUT OF IT?! [spins her BATTLE MOP impressively] Engarde!
AUTHOR: [Hooded eyes]... shouldn't you be happy to have any lines at all in this fic? Especially ones that aren't 'Mooou'?
[Cut to a scene where NANAMOO and HARUKOW are sitting at a bar with twin streams of tears warbling down their faces as they drown their sorrows in some milk and wheat grass.]
NANAMOO / HARUKOW: Moooou.
OTOHA: ... ... ... [Meekly puts her mop away.] Okay, I'll behave.
OMAKE II: Totally Can't Trust These Mai-Hime Style Previews
[NATSUKI's voice can be heard doing the voice over for a series of fast paced clips edited together very confusingly and with deliberate misrepresentation so brazen the producers should be ashamed of themselves.]
NATSUKI: Next time, on Revolutions, a Kannazuki no Miko, Revolutionary Girl Utena and Mai Hime X-over, it's back to our neck of the woods!
NAO: [Rolling eyes] Uh-huh. Sure.
NATSUKI: [Raises eyebrow] Hey, what's your problem? Don't you want screen time?
NAO: I'll believe I'm getting f*ckin' screen time when I see actually see my f*ckin' name appear in the fic in place other than these goddamn omake. The LAST preview said I was supposed to feature prominently in the next chapter, which was supposed to be called 'The Hotspring Episode'.
[All of a sudden, the temperature in this fic drops below zero and a non-descript woman can be seen squatting in the corner of the rom away from NATSUKI and NAO with thick lines of gloom hanging over her head.]
NATSUKI: Aaah, damn it! [Slaps a hand over NAO's mouth] Don't let the author hear you! She's already really sensitive about that filler chapter not working out! Do you want to wait another year for the next chapter!?
NAO: Mgrhm... [Grumbles unintelligibly into NATSUKI's hand]
NATSUKI: Anyway, stay tuned for the next chapter of Revolutions, Chapter 18 – Deeper. Which, with luck, has already been uploaded and is already available for your reading pleasure.