Chapter 28: HiME
Viola and Kruger were the first ones to arrive at the scene of the explosion. To their relief, as well as utter astonishment, they soon learned that the explosion wasn't caused by another Searrs attack like they had feared.
Standing in the centre of destruction was Kuga Natsuki, who alone was unscathed. An explosive force emanating from Natsuki's trembling form had blown all the others away. Kanzaki, Tate, and Mikoto hurriedly got up from the floor and threw themselves in front of the comatose Mai, shielding her from the supernatural hailstorm with their own bodies.
"Natsuki! Stop!" Shizuru shouted, but her weak voice was not enough to cut through the blizzard. Pulling herself up from the floor, Shizuru braved through the tempest of jagged ice shards with an arm over her face and latched onto Natsuki's waist with her other arm. "That's enough!"
Natsuki didn't hear her.
Gaping into nothingness with clouded green eyes as turbulent as the raging sea, Natsuki thought she was drowning again.
So cold…
Shizuru watched in horror as the agonizing sorrow in Natsuki's eyes slowly faded into a blank, dead stare. "Look at me!" she screamed and grabbed the girl's head with both hands, forcing her to look into her own panicking red eyes. "Listen to me. I want you to calm down," said Shizuru with the sternest voice she could muster. "Do this for me. Calm down. Please."
Natsuki blinked slowly. Shizuru's voice sounded like it was coming from some place far, far away.
"Relax. Close your eyes."
Natsuki obeyed. The moment she did, an overwhelming sense of exhaustion knocked her off her feet. She collapsed lifelessly in Shizuru's arms like a puppet with its strings cut. And with the cause fallen unconscious, the ice storm finally stopped.
Checking the girl's breathing and pulse, Shizuru let out a baited breath after making sure Natsuki was only passed out. "Don't scare me like that," Shizuru whispered into Natsuki's ear, tenderly stroking the girl's sickly pale face with a finger before picking her up as if she were as light as a feather. Carefully adjusting her arms to allow the side of Natsuki's head to rest comfortably against the nape of her neck, Shizuru walked toward the door only to be blocked off by Nao.
"You have a hell of explaining to do, Fujino," said the redhead with both her hands clenched into fists. She had rushed here as fast as her injured ankle could carry her, fully intending to fight another losing battle against Searrs' monsters. She knew she deserved an answer, and she wanted it now.
Shizuru tossed the redhead a careless glance before peering around and saw all eyes were on her, silently demanding an explanation. "Yuuki-san," Shizuru said with a serene smile, her voice was as melodic and cheerful as ever.
Nao unconsciously took a step back. She felt her skin crawling.
"Get out of my way."
Nao gulped and stumbled backward, almost bumping into Shiho as she backed off in pure terror.
"Ookini," Shizuru said, and she gracefully walked pass her with gentle eyes focusing solely on the most precious person in her arms, not sparing the redhead a second glance.
No one stopped them.
"Would somebody PLEASE explain to me what the hell is going on?!" Haruka yelled in absolute outrage. The wheelchair she was sitting on squeaked in protest as she flapped her arms around to stress her exasperation.
The former Executive Director and her loyal friend were on their way back to their room when they heard the explosion. Fearing there might be another Searrs' attack, they rushed there at break-neck speed only to find a trashed room looking like someone had set off twenty liquid nitrogen bombs earlier.
"We don't have time for this. Let's get Mai-san out first," Reito said with his teeth audibly clattering from the cold and proceeded to cart the whole bed out of the room. There was a thin sheet of ice crystals covering the former host of the Obsidian Lord's face as well as every visible surface inside the room. Tate and Mikoto wordlessly followed Kanzaki's order and helped push the bed out to the hallway.
Exchanging a worried look, Yukino gave her blond friend a firm nod and then quickly ran to Mikoto's side, stopping the petite girl from using her arms. "Mikoto-chan, you need to see a doctor too." She eyed the crimson patch of blood-soaked bandage on Mikoto's shoulder with obvious concern. The tender wound on the girl's shoulder had barely started to heal, and the earlier incident had caused more than a few torn stitches.
Kanzaki jerked his head up and stared at his little sister's injured shoulder. He looked like he wanted to kick himself.
"But Mai…" Mikoto whined.
"A little cold won't kill her," Nao snapped, her sudden outburst making the pink-haired girl standing beside her jump. "Just worry about yourself. That woman," her dark gaze fell on Mai's still form and the corner of her eyes twitched, "is as good as dead."
"Mai's not dead!" Mikoto screamed and punched the redhead square in the jaw. Yukino could hardly react fast enough to hold the feral girl back.
"They just don't wake up once they are in a fucking coma!" Nao screamed back with one hand covering her aching jaw. It was hard to tell whether the tears gathered in her eyes were from physical pain or emotional turmoil. She shoved past Kanzaki, who had situated himself between her and his sister to prevent another brawl fight, and roughly grabbed the front of Mikoto's hospital gown with her unbroken hand. "You wait, and wait, and fucking wait some more but it's all pointless. They never…" Her voice broke. The rest of the sentence died in her throat.
A gentle hand rested on Nao's shoulder; the firm weight of the touch almost made the tears in her eyes spill past her eyelids.
"But Kuga woke up, didn't she?" said Kruger with a deep and calming voice.
Nao visibly trembled and slackened her grip on Mikoto's cloth. "Kuga was only unconscious…"
Kruger shook her head. "Her condition was about as bad as Tokiha's."
Confusion welled up in Nao's mind, but then suddenly an idea struck her, and so did a blinding sense of hope she had not felt in so many years. "Her power… You did something, didn't you?! What did you do? Anything… Just help mama… Please…" Nao, for the third time in her live, openly pleaded in tears.
She had done so the first time to those filthy men, begging them to stop brutally assaulting, hurting her mama, but those bastards never stopped until her most precious person was broken beyond repair; she had done so the second time to bystanders, cops, doctors, everyone, begging them to help her mama. At the end, nobody could do anything no matter how much she pleaded, grovelled with her forehead hitting the ground. No one could help her. She alone suffered in eternal despair.
She could only count on herself.
More than a little taken aback by Nao's bizarre breakdown, a flicker of panic flashed over Kruger's nervous emerald eyes as she stared at the redhead who was now clinging to her like an upset child to her mother. "O… Oi!" Kruger awkwardly fought away Nao's clingy hands while shooting daggers with her eyes at Viola who was, instead of helping her out of this sticky situation, grinning at her with an eyebrow quirked in amusement.
"You made Natsuki wake up, right? You can make Mai wake up too, right? Right?" Mikoto followed Nao's example and clung on Kruger, pleading while gawking at the flustered Otome's face with teary golden eyes.
Kruger sighed.
"Now listen. All I did was giving Kuga some of the nanomachines inside me. They were only supposed to help her heal faster. I had no idea they could wake her up from her coma," Kruger glanced at the trashed room and continued, "or turn her into a human-fridge. Stop pestering me and go bother her, damn it."
"Nanomachines…" Yukino repeated thoughtfully. "So it's not her HiME power." Her brows kneaded together in puzzlement. "Viola-san, if I remember correctly, you told us a few days ago that nanomachines were practically useless without a GEM acting as a control panel. Then why was Natsuki-san able to unleash nanomachines' power without a GEM?"
"She didn't need a GEM," replied a weak voice.
Yukino whipped around to face the owner of the voice - it was none other than Erstin, the young girl who worked for Searrs. Sitting on a wheelchair pushed by Arika, the girl still looked entirely too pale to be leaving her bed. Yukino eyed the thick wad of bandage on Erstin's neck for a few moments but quickly tore her gaze away while mentally berating herself for the rude staring.
"A GEM is a poor imitation of a HiME mark; a Slave is an inferior substitute of an Orphan; an Otome is a cheap copy of a true HiME," Erstin explained.
Kruger scowled at the blonde's remark.
Erstin smiled sadly at Kruger's angry face. "I will tell you everything I know. Searrs…" A shadow stole across her gentle feature, the pain of seeing her beloved Nina lying unconscious on a hospital bed once again made her dizzy with raw, dark hatred. "Shall pay for what they did to us."
"I am disappointed in you," Smith said dully, his humourless blue eyes narrowed dangerously behind round glasses.
Sergay felt a chill crawl down his spine when he met the short man's eyes.
"Each and everyone… Not one of you is reliable." Smith idly drummed his fingers on the metal railing while gazing at the content of the huge glass tank in front of him. "Fake HiME, fake Child, fake Orphan, fake Element, fake HiME Star… They're all fakes, but they're all we have. What should we try out next? How about…" The man smiled, tapping the glass tank fondly with a knuckle.
Miyu stared back at the short man from inside her liquid-filled glass prison; her coral pink eyes unseeing.
"Fake Human." Smith pushed his glasses up thoughtfully as a grin broadened across his pale face. "Ahh… Maybe we should also see how powerful 'that Child' is. We do need a proper field test, yes."
There was something about Smith's tone that made Sergay shiver in fright. He could almost taste the menace in the man's voice. Smith was beyond angry. That much he was sure of
It had not been an easy task bringing back the android. Although they had anticipated the Yggdrasil Unit's involvement in advance since its attempt to hack into Searrs' mainframe had tipped them off, it had cost them three Slaves to deliver the viral program into the android's system.
Other than the successful retrieval of the Yggdrasil Unit, the rest of the mission had been a horrible mess. They not only failed to capture the two Z-types, they also lost five precious Cursed Obsidian GEMs in the process. However, the most humiliating of all was the circumstances where those C-types were "found" after the battle. Fearing Smith's wrath, Sergay almost wanted to falsify the report if not for his unsurpassed loyalty to the man.
Whoever did that to the C-types clearly had a very sick sense of humour. No wonder Smith tore up the photos that came with the report in a fit of blind fury. What kind of sadists would purposely change their captives into baby costumes and adult diapers, super-glue their thumbs in their mouths, write 'SEARRS SUCK!' on their foreheads, and then release them in downtown Fuuka?
Chie and Viola sneezed at the same time.
"You are not sick, are you?" Kruger took off the thin blue coat she was wearing and draped it over Viola's shoulder. Anyone else but the older Otome would have thought the deep frown between Kruger's eyebrows was from displeasure, not genuine concern.
Viola beamed at her partner, obviously pleased by the simple gesture. "I don't get sick this easily."
"Aha! Someone must be talking about us behind our backs." Chie flashed her worried girlfriend a toothy grin. "I wonder what they're gossiping about."
"Something good, I hope." Aoi pouted. "You should wear more clothes, Chie-chan. It's crazy cold in here. They say the Summer Flu is the most annoying of all sicknesses. You don't want to get sick now."
"Of course it's crazy cold in here. We're in the freaking morgue. Why are we in the morgue again?" Nao was in an epic foul mood. If one had to use only one word to describe her current mental state, it would be "fragile". The constant nervous tick near her right temple would be a clear indication of her unstable psyche.
First, she fought a biomechanical monster with a broken vase as a weapon, and then she had a near death experience falling off a two-story building. After that, she was stuck in a hateful hospital with her comatose mama, her critically injured frien… acquaintances, and an obnoxiously nosy – not to mention sickeningly pink - stalker. As if those weren't enough to drive her insane, God, if there was one, had decided to humour her further by showing her an illusive glimpse of hope at such perfect timing.
Nao swore to all that was holy that she would become a nun and serve the Christian Lord if no one would ever make fun of her about her breakdown. How embarrassing that was; the mighty Yuuki Nao was begging for someone's mercy! Not to say that "someone" had the same aggravating Kuga face…
"We're in the morgue because the hospital needs its lab back. This is the only place they could spare us at the moment," Youko explained.
The hospital morgue was quite roomy, but it was never designed to hold so many breathing, living people in the first place. Other than Shizuru, Natsuki, Mai, Nina, and Arika, all the girls were called into this place for an important meeting. Haruka had dubbed it the "HiME Ranger Power Info Session" (HRPIS for short, but no one else would call it that since it sounded too obscene when they tried to pronounce it).
"Yeah, yeah." Nao crossed her arms impatiently. "I don't care what you want from me, just remember what you promised earlier: I do whatever you want me to do, you give my mama the nano-thingy that woke Kuga from her coma."
Kruger was not happy about the arrangement at all. "I told you already I have no idea how the nanomachines work. That stuff is nasty, I tell ya. What is it with you people? That Kuga person got lucky. That's all. Next time the nanomachines might kill somebody. Is that what you want?"
Nao snapped back at the raven-haired Otome. "I don't happen to have a lot of options, do I?"
"Hey! Stop fighting, you two!" Haruka intervened. Keeping order was like second nature to her.
"You're not the boss around here, so shove it," the redhead barked. "Unless you have something constructive to say for once, otherwise just shut your big, fat mouth and go play the Executive Director somewhere else."
"Well, I do have something constrictive to say…"
"It's constructive…" Yukino added with a worried frown, but her voice was too small to be heard.
Haruka pointed at herself with a thumb and stated loudly. "Put them nano-things in me. I'm no HiME, but I'm not sickly either. If the nano-whatnots don't kill me, then we'll all agree it's safe enough to use them on Tokiha and Yuuki's mom. Is this idea constrictive enough for you?"
TBC
Author's Notes:
1. Mai Otome Drama CDs contain some very interesting information. Otome!Chie is made of pure awesomeness.
2. (Bows deeply) Sorry about the long wait, I'll try to update faster… Please read and review :D
3. My deepest thanks to the amazing Dr. Leebot! He's one hell of a beta!
4. I've added a poll in my profile. Please participate in the poll if you're interested.