Shadows Over Fuuka
By DrummondType2
Chapter One: The Arrival
It was the spring of 1928, and my brother Takumi and I found ourselves on a steamer bound for the land of Fuuka. Our parents were deceased, and we had been living frugally on our inheritance, when a letter had come to us from the headmistress of the prestigious Fuuka Academy. She claimed that we were descendants of one of their most prestigious alums, and that given our hardships and our excellent academic records, we were being offered full scholarships to attend the academy. It was hardly an offer I could refuse. Takumi was always a sickly boy, and his medications cost a goodly amount of money. Having the costs of our higher educations covered for us afforded us an opportunity to rebuild our meager savings, and having a degree from Fuuka University would allow us to make our way in this world.
We were nearly at our destination, and Takumi and I were both on the upper deck, enjoying the fresh air.
"Are you feeling well, Takumi," I asked him.
Takumi smiled, shaking his head, "You always worry too much, Mai. I'm well. And look, we'll be at our destination by nightfall."
He nodded to the bridge we were about to pass under, which lead from the main island to the entryway to Fuuka. The port where we would disembark was only a short distance from that bridge.
I could see a faint hint of the moon in the blue sky above, it's cratered surface a ghostly image in the daytime sky. And there, next to the moon, I saw something I'd never seen before. There was a glimmer of crimson, flickering in the sky, small, but very much distinct. It was like a ruby chip suspended in the air. It's light was strange and unnatural, but at the same time, hauntingly beautiful.
I turned to point out this strange sight to Takumi, when I found myself instead side by side with a strange young man. He was an albino, as near as I could tell, with silver-white hair and piercing pink eyes. He was smiling, a gesture that made me uneasy somehow.
"He won't see it if you bring it to his attention…Mai-Hime," the young man said in a soft, oily tone, "On this ship, you and I are the only ones who can see it. Though that will change quite shortly, I think."
"What do you mean? Who are you, sir?" I asked.
He turned those pink eyes towards me, and my heart shivered in place. I knew, in that moment, that earning this young man's attentions was dangerous, even potentially deadly.
"My name is Nagi Homura, and we'll talk more later. For now, you will have to attend to the poor soul drifting on the tides. Tsk tsk, to see a Battle Princess floating on the sea like a drowned rat."
I followed his gaze to the sea, spotting a dark figure on the azure waves. Small, and bobbing helplessly, but definitely human.
"There's someone in the water!" I called in alarm, drawing the attention of other passengers and crew. But when I turned to question my strange albino companion, he was gone.
The ship's crew dispatched a longboat, and they retrieved a young girl. She was around Takumi's age, with black hair cut short on top, but tied into two long, thin braids at the back. She wasn't breathing, but she was still clearly alive. She clung tightly to a strange obsidian colored claymore, which the sailors who had rescued her fought to pry from her fingers. No sooner had they succeeded than I saw something unusual. To me it seemed as if a pair of crimson eyes opened along the blade of the sword, and the pulley holding up the longboat suddenly snapped. I did not fail to notice that it was not a splintering break, as one might see from worn and overused equipment. It was cut cleanly, as if by some invisible blade. The longboat fell into the drink, along with the sailors still in it. A fellow passanger, a young man with ginger hair, caught the girl from the arms of one of the sailors and hauled her aboard before she could be dumped back into the cold waters from which she'd been retrieved.
"Is there a doctor?" The young man called, "She's not breathing. A doctor!"
When no one stepped forward, I called, "My brother has a weak heart. I've been trained in emergency procedures*."
I immediately began the procedure I had been taught by the nurses at Takumi's last hospital, applying pressure to her chest steadily, and placing my lips over hers, expelling the air from my lungs into hers. It was not lost on me that I had never even allowed a young gentleman caller to touch his lips to mine at this stage in my life. I found myself wondering, strange to tell, if this lifesaving effort would be counted as giving away my first kiss.
There was a harsh sputtering, and the girl regurgitated the sea water she'd swallowed. It became apparent that she was breathing on her own, and the crew removed her to the infirmary.
"Mai, you're soaking wet," Takumi said, "Do you have any dry clothing in our quarters?"
"Only the uniform for the academy," I lamented, "Perhaps it would be best if I simply stayed above-deck and allowed myself to dry in the wind."
"Miss," the ginger-haired young man spoke, and I was aware of a girl with salmon colored hair in coiled braids clinging to him and glaring furiously at me, "I wouldn't advise that."
"And why is that, might I ask?"
"Because," he blushed and coughed in embarrassment, "I fear that your delicates are visible through the wet fabric."
I had forgotten about my undergarments. Brassieres were not wide-spread articles at the moment, but I found them indispensable, given that Mother Nature had seen fit to so generously endow me. In fact, I was quite grateful for it, at that moment, as I could at least rest easy that my chest was not completely exposed to the public.
"I am going to change, Takumi," I sighed.
As I changed, I tried to mull over the words of the strange albino who had spoken to me. How had he known about the girl in the water? Did he have something to do with her being there? If so, why would he have instructed me to take care of her? And why did he call her a Battle Princess? Did it have something to do with the sword she'd been carrying, which was now undoubtedly at the bottom of the sea.
I put on the blazer for the uniform, cut to fit a feminine frame. There was a crest on the left breast, with a motto in Latin.
"Et alienis aenibus mors moriatur"
I rejoined Takumi in the State Room, and found him in the company of the ginger-haired young man and his salmon-haired acquaintance, and was introduced to them as Yuuichi Tate and Shiho Munekata. There was an air of confusion about their relationship, as Shiho kept referring to Yuuichi Tate as her brother, despite having a different family name, and her interest in him seemed…other than familial. Mr. Tate then explained to me that he had known Miss Munekata from an early age, and that he considered her to be very much like a sister to him, though it was quickly apparent to me that Shiho did not share that sentiment, as she clearly was considering him a candidate for marriage.
Before our conversation could get much further, the steam boat lurched suddenly.
"I'm going to check on the girl in the infirmary," I said.
"I'll show you the way," Mr. Tate said.
We were walking through the corridors in a most uncomfortabe silence. There was a strange gloom in the air, and suddenly, without warning, a lithe form darted through an open portal and struck Mr. Tate with force. I caught a glance at his attacker, who, despite being clad in pants and a leather coat, was unmistakably female in form. She moved with lightning speed. Her face was concealed by goggles and a kerchief, and she wore a leather helmet over her head.
I turned to run, but my skirt hindered me, while her pants allowed her a much greater range of motion. She seized my arm, twisting it roughly around my back. She spoke to me in a muffled but husky voice.
"You picked up the girl from the water. Where is she?"
She handled me quite roughly as I escorted her to the ship's infirmary. Then she forced me to the ground as she kicked the door off of its hinges. Woman or not, she was undeniably strong.
There was a strange tinkling noise, and suddenly, a derringer manifested itself from thin air, into her hand. She moved into the infirmary room, wielding the weapon and its twin, only to find that the room was seemingly empty. Seemingly.
There was a feral roar, and the girl came down from the ceiling, wielding the same claymore that she had dropped into the sea only a short while ago. The other woman dodged the blow, but the force of the blade caused the floor to collapse beneath us.
The leather-clad woman was standing, her gun pointed at the feral young girl's head. Her helmet and goggles split, apparently the victim of the absurd sharpness of the claymore, revealing a beautiful face of milky skin, midnight blue hair, and piercing emerald eyes that reminded me of an ancient forest. Her features were strangely delicate, despite the severe expression on her face. The younger girl, her yellow eyes glaring, did not relent.
They exchanged words, but I was too busy dodging their strikes to pay attention to what was said between them. Strikes from the sword were severing the support beams of the deck above us.
And then something happened. The leather-clad woman was getting frustrated with the failure of her efforts. She began to spin her pistols in her hands, and then her body began to twirl gracefully. The air in the hold became unbearably cold, and then she called out a name.
"DURAN!"
There was an explosion of mist and ice, and then, standing at the young woman's side, issuing a bestial howl was a strange metallic creature. It was eerie and unsettling. It resembled a wolf, but was much larger than any wolf should have been. Hair like wire bristles stood on end. A deep growl issued from its throat. There were a pair of cannons mounted to its flanks.
Those cannons fired, and the upper deck collapsed.
I wandered about in a daze, unsure of where I was. I felt something stirring within me, hot and fiery, burning me deep inside.
"Tokiha!" a voice called me from above, and I looked to see Mr. Tate on what remained of the floor above.
He helped me to get to the next floor.
"The ship is on fire. The Captain has given the order to abandon ship. We have to get to the life rafts," he informed me.
I was about to agree with him, when I remembered, "Takumi's tonic! He needs it for his heart!"
I raced to our quarters, Mr. Tate hot on my heels.
"I found it," He said, as we searched through the room.
"That's it!" I cried. And then there was a blinding flash, and the ship was in two pieces, with Mr. Tate on one side, and I on the other.
"Get that to Takumi!" I called to him as the distance between us rapidly increased.
I made my way to the upper deck, only to find the feral girl and the leather-clad girl still fighting, the strange metal beast still aiding the latter.
The feral girl was knocked to the deck, landing in my lap.
There was a glint of silver, and I flinched as the other girl fired a shot. Then…I was still alive, and a trio of fiery orbs manifested between me and the leather-clad girl.
"So," she smiled without mirth, "That's what you are. I see. Hey, don't go to Fuuka. If you do, you'll die."
And with that, she nonchalantly flipped a lock of hair over her shoulder, and turned to walk away, the wolflike creature following her.
The ship, or rather, half-a-ship, began to list badly, dumping myself and the feral girl into the icy black depths of the night sea. I began to lose consciousness. The last thing I saw was a set of glowing red eyes in the darkness…
To Be Continued…
Author's note: CPR was not fully developed until the 1950s, but for the sake of the story, I feel it an acceptable anachronism. Also, while the modern bra was not widespread until after World War II, the precursor had been invented and was available to those who wanted them. I will try to keep anachronisms to a minimum.