So here's Chapter 1. If this looks familiar, well, I said before this is a re-launch. I did change a lot of things, but it probably won't make itself apparent until later in the story.
chum-sa: The prologue by itself is supposed to be somewhat confusing.
My-HiME belongs to Sunrise.
1/28/09
"Mikoto! For the last time, all of this is not for you!" Everyone else could only laugh as Mai and Takumi struggled to keep the two-legged trash disposal away from the venerable banquet Mai had insisted on preparing despite many protests by others who thought Mai had cooked plenty of times already.
"But, Mai! I won't ever get to enjoy your cooking again!"
"Oh, come on, Mikoto," Akira chimed in. "You know deep down this was going to happen."
"I know! That's why I want to enjoy as much as I can!"
"Hmmph," Yuichi said with a smile. "I see why you wanted to spend so much time teaching her how to cook."
"See? What'd I tell you?" Mai ruffled Yuichi's hair playfully. "And you thought I was cheating."
"Cheating?" Nao asked, amused. "I swore when I walked by here last week, you two were enjoying the cake frosting a little-"
"Ah-da-da-da-da-da!" Mai quickly rushed over and covered up Nao's mouth before anything dirty could reach any virgin ears, leaving Takumi and Akira to restrain their sempai-by-physical-age. Never mind that nothing steamy or otherwise sketchy had actually happened on the day in question nor that Yuichi had been there as well to witness it; Nao was liable to divulge naughty things around ears that ought not to hear such things and generally leave Mai as embarrassed as Natsuki would be if Shizuru was around. Speaking of whom…
"Apologies for our late arrival! We ran into traffic." The attention turned to the front door, where a group of people in various jackets walked in, escorted by Kazuya and Akane.
"Ah, Kaichou-san! Come on in!" Mai called.
"Mou, Mai-san, I'm flattered, but I'm not your kaichou any more," Shizuru replied.
"Force of habit," Mai dismissed with a smile.
"Aniue!" Mikoto's fixation on the food was shelved as she bounced over to Reito, who was behind Shizuru. (She literally bounced over to Reito: Aoi barely had time to look up from her cell phone to dodge her as she jumped from couch seat to couch seat.) "Oof," Reito said as he took on a much-grown 16-year-old Mikoto.
"You're not going to yell at her for jumping on the couch?" Natsuki asked from the kitchen.
"It's not going to do anything at this point," Mai replied. "It's like your mayonnaise thing," she added, looking at the opened jar of mayonnaise Natsuki was unabashedly scavenging from Mai's refrigerator.
"Hey! It's not a thing," she protested rather weakly as she plunked another spoonful onto a slice of bread.
"Besides, the couch is hers once I move out. If she wants it with broken springs and a hole in the seat, she can have it that way," she said, intentionally directing her voice towards the front.
"Ara, is Natsuki going to ruin her appetite because of her unhealthy habits?" Shizuru appeared rather suddenly in the kitchen before either one of them noticed. "It would be such a shame to waste Mai-san's cooking on something so pedestrian." Mai could only be amused as Natsuki began to protest Shizuru's usual advances. Just like old times, she thought. Like we haven't aged another day.
She returned her attention to the pies currently being baked in the oven, the final touch in her grand work. With so many of them graduating high school – herself, Yuichi, Akane, Kazuya, Chie, Aoi, Yukino, even Natsuki somehow – she wanted to celebrate it with one last dinner party. Mai still had some trouble grasping that it had been two years since the Carnival, two years since they beat each other senseless all because of some stupid destiny. Now, the former adversaries had largely grown closer together, able to put the past behind them and enjoy their present. Largely…
"Mai? I'm no expert chef, but are pies supposed to smoke like that?"
"What? Aiee!" Thanks to her boyfriend's rare moment of alertness, dessert was saved. After another round of hearty laughs, the thirteen people there in Mai's apartment settled down around whatever seats they could muster for the occasion.
"Mai-san, you have truly outdone yourself."
"Yeah, Mai, this chicken's delicious. There's just one thing that would make this better…"
"No mayonnaise, Natsuki."
"Aw, but Shizuru…"
"Where's Alyssa, onee-chan?"
"Still has the chicken pox, I'm afraid. Sister called this morning and told me they weren't going to come."
"So have you heard anything about Midori-chan?"
"That is unfortunate to hear. I hope she gets better soon."
"Nothing since she sent that letter last Christmas that said she was mailing that thing she found to you."
"Please send my regards to Searrs-san."
"As well as mine."
"Hey, it's called a Mosin-Nagant rifle!"
"Whatever…"
"I will."
"So she's still in Cambodia?"
"So what are you two going for college?"
"Cambodia or Thailand, one of those two."
"Actually, we were able to make it in the same school!"
"Which means plenty of time for you two to cuddle, huh?"
"Y-Yeah, I guess so, right, Kazu-kun?"
"BUUUUUUUUUUURP."
"Nao! Christ, your breath reeks!"
"No worse than yours. Man, is that mayo or garlic?"
"No one insults my mayo and gets away with it!"
"Aaahh! My hair!"
"FOO-"
"Finish that phrase and you'll never have kids."
"…FOO-"
"With anyone."
"Oh…"
"Kuga, you-"
"Will you two stop it already?! You're not wasting my mashed potatoes!"
"Your mashed potatoes, Mai? I made these!"
"Ugh…"
It wasn't long before Nao was able to retreat to the bathroom to use the sink and wash out the food bits in her hair and Natsuki was being given a time-out, courtesy of Shizuru. As the other guests resumed their previous conversations, Mai collapsed into the empty seat on the couch after cleaning up the misses from the food skirmish. "Still the first one to jump in to fix a mess," Chie noted from Mai's left. "You haven't changed a bit."
Mai paused and thought about it. She chuckled. "Maybe you're right…Still nothing about Yukino?"
Chie shook her head. "None of my contacts has seen hide or hair of Kikukawa. It's like sometime between last night and this morning she disappeared off the face of the earth."
"What could be bothering her to make her leave so suddenly?"
"And not tell anyone?" Chie added.
"Could it be that Carnival again?" Aoi wondered.
"Dear God, I hope not," Mai said quickly. Even if it did end up bringing her many good friends, she wanted nothing to do with the impetus behind the beginnings of all those friendships. "The Carnival's dead and done," she said with finality, as much for herself as it was for Aoi.
Yes, Chie and Aoi were privy to the Carnival and all the ex-HiMEs' past powers. They had no choice in the matter: some element of Searrs that had survived the Carnival's carnage kidnapped them a mere couple of months after Shizuru and company graduated in an attempt to draw them out. It did, but boy, did they get what they wished for: Miyu and Alyssa offered their help (partly out of revenge) and the kidnappers were, in Natsuki's words, "wasted." The shock that Miyu was actually a robot and the truth behind all the strange events that took place at Fuuka Academy the previous year hit the pair hard, and for the sake of friendship they renounced their gossiping when it came to anything Carnival-related. Who would believe them, anyway? Fortunately, they haven't had to put it in practice: Searrs had not gone after anyone in the two years since. Natsuki and a couple others were skeptical that Searrs would have just upped and left to leave them happily ever after, but most of them seemed willing to not look a gift horse in the mouth. If there was a silver lining in this cloud, it was that that incident was what began the process of bringing the ex-HiME together, especially Alyssa and Miyu.
Alyssa had become quite the Academy's star after Shizuru graduated. Not only was she able to go full throttle on her academic abilities without the chains of Searrs and her original mission holding her back, but her young age and shy yet charismatic demeanor had made her the darling of the student body. Younger ones admired her for her mental abilities, older ones for her utter cuteness. She had slowly begun to come out of her shell, but she wasn't yet comfortable with taking on a prominent position like Student Council President, regardless of how much support she was getting from her former adversaries. Miyu, meanwhile, had dropped out of Fuuka so that she could focus on working to support both herself and Alyssa financially (the Sister could only provide so much beyond food and shelter, and she certainly didn't have a degree in computer science). It wasn't like Miyu was learning anything anyway.
As Mai settled into her own plate, her thoughts wandered to who wasn't there. Shiho was first, and to Mai the most depressing of the missing figures. It wasn't really surprising that Shiho drifted away from the rest of the HiME once Yuichi made his choice. She had been left alone at first to let her get over it, but the weeks turned into months, the months to years. Mai and a few others had made several attempts to reach out to her, but they were ignored. Takumi and Akira said that they had seen her occasionally when they were in class, but she never seemed approachable. Last New Year's, Natsuki and Shizuru went up to Fuuka Temple and saw her there, but beyond the cookie-cutter greetings and shallow exchange of pleasantries, Shiho acted as though she didn't know the two. Shizuru later told Mai that she still saw grief in her eyes. It was like she wanted to put the Carnival away into the past and leave it there, seeking to avoid any reminder of the pain she had. It pained Mai to see it come to this, and she was vexed as to how she could rebuild the bond that looked so promising in her first days at Fuuka. Regardless of how many times people told her that it was Shiho who had the problem, Mai still felt guilty for pursuing her own happiness by killing someone else's.
On a lighter note, Midori had developed two jobs into her career: her usual one as a teacher at Fuuka (her classes always proved popular with the student body due to her boisterous personality and mental age), and as an assistant to her professor where they would go off on expeditions to study archeological sites. Whenever the latter wasn't happening, the former would take her back to Fuuka and let her reconnect with the "Sentai". Being on good terms with Fumi helped to cover her erratic availability. Youko's office became a frequent drop-by place for several ex-HiME since Midori would usually webcam from wherever she her adventures took her once or twice a week, but she had not done so on her current trip to Cambodia. The letter Mai got last Christmas said that her cam had been damaged after an argument with one of the customs officials at the airport in Phnom Penh, but she still wondered how it could take her so long to get a new one.
And then there was Yukino. She had apparently left campus early that morning without telling anyone. The only thing she had left was a note taped to her room door that apologized for her not being able to come to Mai's party. The normally reliable Chie and Aoi weren't able to find anything that would explain why she left so suddenly, and Mai knew that the University of Tokyo didn't start classes for several weeks. The only possible indication that something was up with Yukino was her energy in finishing the last of the Student Council business before she ended her term as President at the end of the school year, and even that was circumstantial evidence at best: Mai, among others, attributed her rush to her not wishing to repeat the near-disaster that occurred the previous year. Mai could only speculate that maybe Haruka had something to do with it. Reito and Shizuru effectively reported that she was missing in action and the gossip queens' rumor coverage area didn't reach out all the way to Tokyo.
Mai toyed with the spaghetti alfredo on her plate with a fork. She knew that it would have been a small miracle if everyone had been able to reunite for this party before the majority of them left Fuuka for other pastures, yet she couldn't help but think about it. Here they were, on the verge of graduating and leaving Fuuka, Orphans, and Childs as memories of the past. Memories they won't soon forget, to be sure, but they would continue on with their lives, hopefully more normally. For Mai, it was the silver lining in the cloud of the Carnival, being able to meet so many different people and forge friendships with them. It saddened Mai a bit that not everyone could be there. It also, deep down, scared her a little. Would this drifting away trend continue? Would she end up forgetting the friends she had made, like the friends she made in years past and hadn't reconnected with? Would they forget her? Would she have to relive those…memories…one day?
Mai shook herself out of her self-induced catatonia. That's why she devoted so much into keeping in contact with the ex-HiME. It was a second chance for her, and she wasn't going to pass it up. There wasn't much point in worrying about who wasn't there at that moment. With an exhale of determination she placed her half-eaten dinner on a table, finished off her cup of soda, and stood up. Noticing that several people were finished, she called out, "OK, who's ready for some singing?!" The response was, as expected, a mixture of cheers and groans. With Akira and Takumi distracting Mikoto so that she wouldn't mess with the system again, Mai and Yuichi began setting up the karaoke machine. "Who's first?" she called as she opened the box.
"She is!" Takumi called out.
"What?! No way!" Akira shot back.
"Why don't you try?" Aoi asked Chie.
"Not unless you go."
"Do you want to try a duet, Aka-chan?" Kazuya asked.
"Well…" Akane stuttered. "OK, but which song should we pick? That last one wasn't a very good one…"
"Yeah, I suppose Getting' Jiggy With It wasn't a good selection…"
Mai straightened up and looked at the two wet blankets at opposite corners of the room. "Oh, I know who goes first…"
Upon noticing whom she was referring to, Natsuki and Nao looked at Mai, then each other. Both of them pointed to themselves, then to the other. "Surely you mean her, Mai," Natsuki said.
"Nu-uh, Kuga, she clearly meant you."
"She was looking at you!"
"No, you!"
"You!"
"You!"
Natsuki attempted to deflect the volley to a third party. "Maybe she meant you, Shizuru."
"Ara, I believe she was looking at you, Natsuki."
"Told ya."
"Or possibly you, Yuuki-san." Shizuru put her finger to her mouth and made an exaggerated thinking gesture. "I am not quite sure."
"Well, you two are going first, that's for sure," Mai ruled.
"Why?!"
"Because you two made a mess in my room and a mockery of my work! Now jan-ken-pon to see who goes first."
"Fine…" they both muttered. Meeting in the middle, the two shot for the right to delay humiliation for about four minutes.
"Yes," Natsuki went as her rock smashed Nao's scissors.
"OK, Nao, you lost. You're up first."
"Ugh…" Nao sat down in an empty seat next to her one-time roommate Aoi.
"So what song are you going to do?" Chie asked from beyond Aoi.
"The hell if I know."
"Hmm…"
"Oh, I know the perfect song for you!" Yuichi took the controller and flipped through the song list. An almost sickeningly perky tune then blared through the speakers.
"WHAT? NO!" Nao protested, standing up in a hurry. "No. Way. In. Hell." Each word was highlighted by Nao's arm sweeping across her body.
"Ah, come on," Kazuya replied with a stupid grin on his face. "It'd be hilarious!"
"I am NOT singing Barbie Girl!"
"Pervert," Akane muttered.
"But-"
"I don't care, I'm not doing that song!"
Finally Mai came to Nao's defense: "Be nice, guys. Let's pick a different one." She took the controller from Yuichi's hands and flipped through the song list again. "How about this one?"
Nao sighed and shifted her weight. "Better than Barbie Girl," she concluded, taking the microphone.
After Mai selected the song, her head turned to see Natsuki trying to sneak away without alerting anyone. She gave the controller to her brother and followed after her.
Just as Natsuki reached the door, she heard someone's voice: "Natsuki?" She turned around to see Mai. "What's wrong? You haven't looked too good for a while now."
"I don't feel that well."
"She keeps a Moet et Chandon
In a pretty cabinet
'Let them eat cake' she says
Just like Marie Antoinette
A built-in remedy
For Khrushchev and Kennedy
At anytime an invitation
You can't decline…"
Mai stuck her arm out and leaned against the door, preventing it from being opened. "You're lying, Natsuki. You're not sick. C'mon, you haven't been around the past few months, and it's probably the last time we'll all be together like this for a long time. Even Nao's getting into it. Do you really hate karaoke that much?"
Natsuki looked away. "It's not that, Mai. It's just…I can't ignore this."
"Caviar and cigarettes
Well-versed in etiquette
Extraordinarily nice- NOT"
"Let her go, Mai-san." She turned around to see Shizuru in the hallway behind her. "I think it is a very important matter for her."
"Well…if you say it is."
"She's a killer queen
Gunpowder, Gelatine
Dynamite with a laser beam
Guaranteed to blow your mind
Anytime…"
"I'm sorry, Mai." Natsuki put her jacket on.
"Just be careful, Natsuki. Whatever it is."
"Recommended at the price
Insatiable an appetite
Wanna try?"
Natsuki didn't say a word, only nodding before she slipped out the door. For a moment Mai and Shizuru stood there, just staring at the door. "What's going on with Natsuki, Kaichou-san?"
"I don't know, Mai-san."
"To avoid complication
She never kept the same dress
In conversation
She spoke just like a baroness"
"Then how are you sure it was important?"
"If Natsuki is hiding something, it is important."
Mai turned to Shizuru. "Hiding?"
Shizuru nodded. "I can see it in her eyes. She is concealing something from the rest of us."
"Met a man from China
Went down to Geisha Minah
Then again incidentally
If you're that way inclined…"
She glanced at the guests in the other room before turning to Mai. "Mai-san? May I ask a favor?"
"Yes, kaichou-san?"
"I have begun to worry about Natsuki. She is more weary than she should be for someone who is about to graduate."
"Hmm. I was going to say that it could be worry about college, but then I remembered…"
"Perhaps we should find out what Natsuki is hiding and why?"
"You know how Natsuki is, Kaichou. If she's keeping this from you, why in the world would she tell me?"
"Perhaps…it has something to do with me." A flash of fear raced through Shizuru's eyes.
"Perfume came naturally from Paris
for cars she couldn't care less
Fastidious and precise"
"I'm sure that's not it," Mai said quickly. "Anyway…do you want me to help you find out what's bothering Natsuki?"
"If it is not too much trouble, Mai-san. I don't want to impose another burden on you, especially now that you are moving to Tokyo soon."
"She's a killer queen
Gunpowder, Gelatine
Dynamite with a laser beam
Guaranteed to blow your mind
Anytime…"
"No, no, it's all right," Mai replied. "Natsuki's my friend, too. If something's bothering her, I want to help as well. What do you want me to do?"
Shizuru thought for a moment. "Could you ask Senoh-san and Harada-san to help you find out what is bothering Natsuki? I hear their skills are suited for this type of task."
"Yeah, I can hire them to help."
Shizuru blinked. "'Hire'?"
"My food is very useful as currency," Mai said with a smirk.
Shizuru chuckled. "I do not doubt that."
Mai thought for a moment. "I suppose by your asking about Chie and Aoi that you don't want Natsuki to know what we're doing?"
Shizuru nodded. "I fear that if she finds out what we are up to, she will hide even more."
"Thoroughly and discreetly. Got it."
Meanwhile, the others were all pushing Nao on as she continued through the song. "Drop of a hat she's as willing as / Playful as a pussy cat / Then momentarily out of action / Temporarily out of gas…" Mai and Shizuru returned just in time for Mai to witness Nao quite possibly enjoying herself on stage while Kazuya and Yuichi strummed air guitars.
"To absolutely drive you wild, wild
She's out to get you
"She's a killer queen
Gunpowder, Gelatine
Dynamite with a laser beam
Guaranteed to blow your mind
Anytime
Recommended at the price
Insatiable an appetite
Wanna try?
You wanna try…"
"Oh ho ho," Mai went suddenly. Nao whipped her head around to see her not two feet from her face. "All this time you pouted and moaned about my trips to the karaoke bar, and inside you actually enjoyed it, huh?" she teased.
"I, well, it's just…one of the better songs," Nao defended.
"It's OK, we won't tell anyone," Mai continued. "Wouldn't want to tarnish your reputation, after all." Her smile said otherwise. Nao grew wide-eyed while the others had themselves another round of laughter. "All right, who's next?"
"He was," Aoi said, pointing to Takumi.
"You were?" Akira asked.
"Yeah, you didn't see me get in line?" With that, he got up and went over to the microphone.
"OK, Takumi. Which song are you going to pick?"
"Already picked it, onee-chan." On cue, a quiet acoustic guitar began playing. Mai and Akira looked at Takumi and he went, "Yea-hea-hah…" He then looked straight into Akira's eyes. Mai squealed with glee and Akira's face drained of color when the two of them realized which song he had picked.
"You are…my fire…" An orchestra of "oh!" from the rest of the crowd went up when they caught on, leaving Akira's only option to be burying her face into a sofa cushion to hide her embarrassment.
"The one…desire…" Mai took the opportunity to walk into the kitchen and pour herself a glass of water.
"Believe…when I say…I want it that way." She looked back into the living room and the developing musical torture of Akira. A small part of her felt guilty for having this much fun when her friend was evidently under so much worry. Especially Natsuki. For so much of her life, she never really had the chance to live like a normal girl.
"But we…are two worlds apart…can't reach to your heart…" Oh, sure, she has her personal enjoyments: her lingerie, her Ducati, her mayonnaise. But it wasn't until after the Carnival that Natsuki had that chance to enjoy the more fun things in life. It had always been either revenge or unheralded world-saving for her, and for Natsuki it had been mostly the former.
"When you say…that I want it that way." She placed her glass in the sink and looked out the window, just in time to see a person on a motorcycle speed away down the road. "Natsuki…" She wasn't actually sure it was Natsuki, but who else would be riding a motorcycle around campus?
"Tell me why-"
"Ain't nothing but a heartache…" The sudden appearance of three additional male voices caught Mai's attention. She turned around to see Akane in the kitchen doorway.
"Tell me why-"
"Ain't nothing but a mistake…" Akane was waving Mai over. "Come on, Mai. You have to see this!" Behind her, the other guys present at the party had taken up position behind Takumi.
"Tell me why-"
"I never want to hear you say…" After a moment of thought, Mai walked away from the window. She would worry about tomorrow tomorrow. Tonight she would enjoy herself. She rejoined the increasingly-fangirling audience as a rev of a motorcycle echoed through the night outside.
"I want it that way…"
I appreciate reviews. This is going to be a long endeavour; I want to make sure I do this right.
"Killer Queen" is by Queen. "I Want It That Way" is by the Backstreet Boys.