Chapter 4: The Unmentionable Horror
After my meeting with the Headmistress, Mashiro Kazahana, life was somewhat uneventful for a time. I found myself wondering if the nightmares I had endured in those early days were not simply a bad dream.
I found a job waitressing at a restaurant called Linden Baum. I was not alone. One of my classmates, a young man named Kazuya Kurauchi, also worked there, as was a young lady from the next class over, Mr. Kurauchi's sweetheart, Akane Higurashi. Indeed, Miss Higurashi was a classmate of the enigmatic and elusive Miss Kuga. She seemed to be on friendly terms with her.
"Once, about a year ago, I'd forgotten some notes in my classroom," Akane told me, "And there were reports of wild dogs or wolves roaming the campus at night. Natsuki was kind enough to retrieve my notes for me, though word was she was a bit scratched up after that, and she missed classes for a few days. I wondered if she'd been attacked by the dogs, but she said that wasn't the case. She claimed she'd just fallen into a rosebush in the dark. Miss Fujino thought she might have gotten the injuries from her motorcycle. I heard she threatened to strike her if she rode it again until Natuski convinced her that it wasn't from her motorcycle riding."
"Miss Fujino and Miss Kuga are close?" I asked. This struck me as unusual. Natsuki Kuga was a first year high school student, and a reputed delinquent, though I now suspected that the affairs of being a Hime had much to do with her frequent absences. Miss Fujino was from a prestigious family, and the Student Council President, as well as being a third year student. I couldn't imagine a more mismatched pair.
"Miss Fujino took a special interest in Natsuki a few years ago," Akane informed me, "Apparently, Natsuki's mother passed when she was a young girl, and her father was estranged from her, though he still pays for her upkeep. Miss Fujino felt that Natsuki's aloofness was due to being isolated, and had taken it upon herself to serve as her boon companion since. Natsuki has become more sociable since that time, if only slightly."
That made sense. Anyone would take pity on someone upon hearing that they'd lost their family. Certainly, I'd been subjected to the well-wishing and pity of those around me when they heard of my own mother's passing. I found myself feeling pangs of sympathy for Miss Kuga, upon hearing that. Something we had in common. And Miss Kazahana had said that Mikoto's family had passed, as well. Was that something the Hime all had in common? The loss of family at an early age? Were our families cursed by our own fates? Did the powers we possess doom them?
Working alongside Mr. Kurauchi, Miss Higurashi, and myself, there was a slightly older young woman named Midori Suguira, although Miss Suguira was something of a klutz when it came to handling trays of dishes.
In addition to work, I was getting to know my classmates. I had some very interesting people to associate with, to be certain. One of the young men in my class was the son of Takumi's doctor. There was a girl of improbably short stature named Yayoi. And then there was the quiet girl, Miyu Greer. She was the daughter of our own Father Joseph Greer, the pastor of the on-campus chapel. She had silvery hair and scarlet eyes, and spoke in uniquely precise language, whenever she spoke at all.
I'd also had chance to meet my brother's roommate, a young lad named Akira Okuzaki. Where my brother was cheerful and outgoing, Mr. Okuzaki was stern and cold. I'd heard that he'd lectured Takumi on being less than manly for his delight in cooking and domestic chores.
In addition, I'd learned the Aoi Sennoh was my next door neighbor in the dorms, and chanced to meet her roommate, a third-year middleschool girl named Nao Yuuki, who seemed a bit discourteous, in my estimation.
I had just about given in to the notion that my life was about to be more normal.
That was a mistake, and a grave one.
I have always felt that ominous events should be foreshadowed by rain and dark skies. I've always hated the rain, and so a rainy day would serve as fair warning that a storm was brewing in my life. But the events that would remind me of the dangers lurking in the background of the school were preceded by a bright and sunny day.
I was having lunch with Mikoto, Miss Harada, and Miss Sennoh, when Miss Harada, whom I'd come to discover was an inveterate gossip, told us that there was a rash of thefts this past day, beginning with the young ladies from the class next to ours. Apparently, their undergarments and unmentionables were stolen from their gym lockers while they were enjoying a swimming lesson. Mikoto seemed a bit confused about the whole thing, another sign of her naivety. Having been raised by a grandfather, she seemed to have absolutely no sense of feminine quality whatsoever.
We had finished lunch, and I was explaining to Mikoto that I had to work late at the restaurant that evening, asking her to mind the dorm room while I was absent. We entered the Crystal Dome, when I spotted Natsuki Kuga standing beside the railing, and across the way from her was a young man with a scar on his cheek. Natsuki looked uncharacteristically nervous, not aided by the fact that Mikoto had suddenly taken a combat stance. I'd hoped that any bad blood between them might have been settled when they'd brought Takumi and I to the infirmary the night that I first awakened to my powers, but it seemed that Mikoto would respond instinctively to anyone or anything she perceived as a threat with naked hostility. Natsuki took up a fighting stance herself, clearly on the verge of summoning her pistol Elements to protect herself from Mikoto's attack. There was a sudden gust of wind…
The skirts of our uniforms were slightly above the knee, but they were light, due to the hot summers. The wind had flipped Miss Kuga's skirt up well above her waist, revealing a good deal of bare flesh. She let out a piercing scream as she pushed her skirt down, but it was too late. She'd been exposed. The young man across the way fainted at the sight of bare female flesh.
With urgency, and a barely suppressed laugh, I escorted Miss Kuga to a restroom, then fetched a pair of short pants for her to wear under her skirts.
"Make sure you wash them before you give them back," I said through fits of laughter.
Miss Kuga was…less than amused, "I'll buy you a new pair. Now shut up!"
"You owe me for bailing you out of your predicament," I informed her.
"Fine," She acquiesced.
"Then I want information," I said, now serious.
We sat on the quad together, Mikoto laying on my lap, Miss Kuga staring out into space.
"What exactly are Hime?"
"What did Kazahana tell you?"
I told her what Mashiro Kazahana had told me.
"There's more," Miss Kuga said, "There's an organization that's gathering Hime here, and I don't think it's merely to fight the orphaned shoggoth. But I haven't been able to figure out what their objective is. That's why I was trying to prevent other Hime from congregating here."
"Will you continue to go after us?" I asked.
She looked uncertain for a moment, then a look of conviction came over her, "Too late to do anything about it. Just promise to stay out of the way."
"Done," I said ardently, "That means you, as well, Mikoto. No picking fights. Or else I'll stop cooking for you."
That had the desired effect, and Mikoto swore on the spot not to fight with Miss Kuga any further.
We hadn't gone much further in our conversation when Mikoto revealed that she'd seen an Orphan with unmentionables in its possession. This bit of information infuriated Miss Kuga, and she excused herself. She would later tell me that she had gone to the school's library.
"On the floor is a strange device that looks like a clock. You'll often find Nagi hanging around there."
She told me that he'd made a wisecrack about her situation, for which she'd blasted him with her pistols, which she informed me fired a projectile of solid ice, and had an unlimited magazine, so long as she was in air with sufficient moisture. She'd forced him, dangling from the second floor railing, to tell her how to draw out the Orphan.
It wasn't only Miss Kuga who was upset with the Orphans, though. Word of the theft of undergarments had spurred on the Disciplinary Committee, who were scouring the campus looking for the culprit, though they had no inkling of the supernatural elements involved in this fiasco.
They ended up finding a young man, apparently the same one who had fainted at the sight of an exposed Miss Kuga, with a pair of undergarments, though it would seem from his account, that it was deposited on his person by a strange creature, almost certainly an Orphan. And as luck would have it, the undergarments, expensive imported ones from France, were the very articles which had been stolen from Miss Kuga. Almost certainly Nagi's handiwork, then. Indeed, Miss Kuga had shared her suspicion that Nagi had some affinity with the Orphans, and could control them, at least to some degree.
"I doubt he sends them all our way," she'd said, "But the really annoying ones are definitely his handiwork."
I learned all of this shortly after returning to the dorms to find them with a display of countless frilly undergarments and unmentionables. Nagi had shared with Kuga that Orphans, like the Child each of us controlled, were drawn to Hime. The items being used as bait were Miss Kuga's own collection.
I wondered again what sort of dangers were facing us. That these creatures would steal items that we had worn in such intimate fashion was suggestive of something prurient, and primal, about these things that were stalking us.
That belief would be reinforced that very night.
I had apparently drifted off to sleep while doing my bit to help watch for the Orphan. I woke to a loud scream of frustrated rage, undoubtedly Miss Kuga. Sometime earlier she had apparently draped my blazer over me while I slept, and I wondered, not for the first time, if she was truly as cold and unsocial as she sometimes seemed. She was staring out of the window, and all of the undergarments had been stolen. She called for Duran, and I learned that he had another ability I'd not seen before, being able to fly, as Natsuki rode him into the night in pursuit of the Orphan.
When Mikoto and I caught up, at the tennis courts, the Orphan had revealed itself to be a massive beast, reptilian or possibly toadlike. It was pinning Duran under one foot, and it's claws had become long, muscular tendrils that encircled and ensnared Miss Kuga, squeezing her tightly, and she was straining against its grasp with little effect.
Using the ability to fly granted me by my Elements, I slammed into the beast from behind, knocking it off balance. This allowed the wolfish Duran to free himself. Then Mikoto cleaved the things claws from its body, causing Miss Kuga to fall. She was caught in midair by Duran, who delivered her safely to the ground.
"Thank you," Miss Kuga exhaled, smiling at us.
"You're on your own from here," I told her. She grinned.
"Duran, load silver cartridge," she commanded, "Fire!"
The artillery cannons on the wolf-like being recoiled, and large slabs of ice penetrated the flesh of the creature. It swelled outward, and then exploded. The tennis courts were covered in a mass of ichor, entrails, and flesh that was charred and frozen at the same time.
I did not envy the Disciplinary Committee when they found that rancid, fetid mass the next morning. And indeed, Miss Kuga was further frustrated by the loss of her collection.
We sought to alleviate her gloom by visiting a local shop which specialized in such things. We were surprised, however, to find Miss Fujino working there.
She offered to help me with a fitting, which I reluctantly agreed to. For some reason, Miss Kuga declined, denying suddenly that she was there to purchase anything. She told Miss Fujino that she'd merely brought me to the shop because I'd been inquiring about where I might find quality goods for myself.
Miss Fujino's crimson eyes made me uneasy, as did her placid smile. Her hands wandered here and there, as she complimented my skin and my endowment. This behavior struck me as a tad strange, given that I'd been told she was in a relationship with Vice President Kanzaki. And yet, I couldn't deny the strange allure of her manipulations and she worked a measuring tape around my bosom, and then helped adjust a new brassier onto my person.
"No need to be so shy," She lectured me, "We're all girls here, after all. Natsuki is so timid about such things, too. Ah, well. It can't be helped, I suppose."
Then she said something to me, in a hushed tone of voice, "'I love to dream, but I never try to dream and think at the same time.'"
"I'm sorry."
"Nothing of any great importance, Miss Tokiha," she smiled serenely, her gaze turning to Miss Kuga. I sighed. It must be nice to have a close friend. I myself would have settled at that moment for simple amnesia of the events of the previous month.
But as it would happen, the world had not yet finished crumbling from under us.