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The street was littered with a sea of pink and white petals, fallen from the branches of the nearly denuded Sakura trees that lined it. Birds chirped cheerful songs, perched on the branches alone or in pairs, filling the air with their joyous sounds. The early afternoon sun shone warmly, heating the bodies, minds and hearts of the passerby's walking in what had every sign of being a perfect spring day and a perfect start for Golden Week.
Sitting in the driver's seat of the patrol car currently stopped at a red light, Tanaka Yuuki could find little warmth in the sun's rays, or at least not enough to pull him out of his miserable mood. The cause of that mood was sitting on the passenger seat, her head barely reaching over the door window and her feet touching the car's ground only with the very end of her shoes.
He remembered how she had landed in this car, with him, like it was yesterday - an odd fact, considering they had met only a few hours ago.
If "met" was the right word; meetings didn't usually imply near-nudity and weapons being fired in his direction - or at least, not both at the same time.
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"WHAT!"
Yuuki had been mildly surprised to hear the brat's voice shout right alongside his. It seemed like she hadn't been told about their partnership beforehand, either. She had been looking pleadingly with betrayed green eyes at the Chief with her hands pushing on the desk and her feet on her tiptoes, having stood up from her seat in her surprise.
"B-But I'm partnered with Kuma-jiji," the brat had protested in a somewhat whiny voice. (1) The Chief had shaken her head.
"Not anymore," the busty greenhead had said in the cold, serious tone that Yuuki was rapidly beginning to understand she used for everything. "If you haven't noticed, Kumaji is being promoted. His new position will take him away from actual busts or deal less directly with criminals, and more with harder to solve crime scenes and organizing the work of investigating officers. And while you've shown to be brilliant at catching runaways and scaring crooks into surrendering, you're only moderately useful in any other situation, since you haven't had any formal training."
"I can learn!" The brat had said, but it was obvious that even she had been seeing the train rapidly heading her way.
"You'd need to know at least basic forensics or criminology, and I'm not teaching a girl who is barely in middle school to tell how and when a body died, or how a thief or a murderer tends to think," Kumaji had spoken for the first time. The betrayed eyes had shone once more at the older officer, even more brightly than before. For a moment, Yuuki had been afraid she'd have a crying fit.
"Plus, his new job is one of authority, which he can accomplish easier if he doesn't look like he's babysitting," the chief had continued.
"I'm not a baby." Kuga had muttered, and as if to counter-prove her point, she had thrown her slight weight back down on her seat, crossed her small arms under her nonexistent chest and proceeded to sulk like the child she was.
"Excuse me," Yuuki had finally cut in, seeing an opening from where he could get out of this... ridiculous situation. "Are you sure you want a twelve years old kid to follow me and try to catch criminals? Police work is dangerous." He had done his best to add emphasis on the important parts, to make them realize how stupid the idea was, but from the unconvinced looks in their eyes, it seemed his point hadn't registered.
"Thirteen." Yuuki had turned toward the little girl.
"Pardon?"
"I'm thirteen, not twelve," she had replied angrily, as if it was supposed to make a big difference to him. "And I'll have you know I've been helping for four years now, I know this stuff."
What, does she want to be my partner after all? He had thought, and the way the girl's eyes had widened in horror told Yuuki she hadn't thought about what her words sounded like. Quickly, Yuuki had decided to go at it another way.
"What I mean," he had quickly told to the Chief before she could speak, "is that I'm going to have to look tough too, or criminals just won't take me seriously. I mean... Kumaji... just look at him, he could get away with it," the brawny, old officer had let a straight-lined left-sided amused smile cross his lips at this, "but me... well..."
"If you're afraid you won't look intimidating enough, don't be," Kumaji had said, amusement obvious in his voice, "Princess, when she wants, can be downright terrifying."
"HER!" He had gasped in bewilderment, pointing at the little girl; he had felt fairly certain he would have been able to pick her up and throw her with one arm. Her? Scary? Yeah right! She looked as terrifying as Hello Kitty!
As if sensing his thoughts, she had growled darkly - managing to sound like a big purring cat - and flexed her hands--
There had been a high-pitched whine, a very familiar high pitched whine followed by twin flashes of light, and suddenly Yuuki had found himself staring down the HiME's two relatively small guns. He had raised an eyebrow at her.
"Yeah, scary. I can just tell, somehow. Terrifying."
ZAP-- one of the guns fired a blast of light--
COLD!
The beam had impacted his arm, and immediately he had felt like he had dumped his arm down a bucket of icy water for a few minutes; although there were no external marks, he hadn't been able to feel anything below the mid-arm, where it had been shot. Kumaji and Chief Akatori had both stood up at this, and he had been quite surprised when he saw that the Chief had actually raised her sidearm at the child's head.
"Last warning, Kuga. No Elements."
The girl had let out a defeated sigh and dispelled her guns for the second time that day. Both officers had slowly sat down, leaving Yuuki to wonder exactly why he had ever wanted to leave his small village in Wakayama; Tokyoite police officer were obviously nuts.
"Alright, I've heard enough," the chief had said and got up at that point. "Kuga, Tanaka, you two will be partners for the next two weeks. If you can't get along by then, we'll switch you to someone else."
The thirteen years old kid had let out a hiss that sounded suspiciously like "Yess!" Tanaka agreed with the feeling, but remained silent, not wanting to test his luck. Beside, he'd been busy trying to get feeling back into his arm – it was coming back, though, at the speed of blood flow, bringing sharp icy pains as it did.
"If you can, however, you two will be together for the next couple of years, until something happens to disturb your partnership in a permanent or semi-permanent fashion." The two newfound partners had shared a look at that point; after frowning thoughtfully, the little girl had immaturely pulled her tongue at him, thus steeling his resolve.
It was only two weeks, and he wouldn't have to spend time with that brat ever again. He could live with that... he hoped.
"Now, as for the final point I'd like to approach... Kumaji, the key, if you'd please."
"Ah? You're giving him that, too?" she had gasped, one of her hands going straight to the odd black plastic collar around her neck. The chief had glared at her, making her shrink back into her seat uncomfortably. Kumaji had, by then, extracted something from his pocket; it looked like... a small remote control?
The Chief had picked it from his hand, given it a cursory look over before nodding in satisfaction. She had then handed it to Yuuki; it had been a simple device, a sleek, lightweight black plastic thing about as long as his palm with a green and a red button, both covered by separate glass covers, like those missile-launching buttons in fighter airplanes. It hadn't seemed that impressive, but from the way the little girl had been looking at it nervously, it was obviously something important for her.
Chief Akitori's explanation had shown just how important it was.
"Tanaka, this is the controller for Natsuki's collar, also known as the control key," she had said very seriously; there was no doubt in Yuuki's mind that there wasn't a hint of a joke in her words this time. "It has an effective range of 500 meters. The green button makes it flood her system with enough sleeping drugs to knock her out for a few days. The red one... let's just say it would deal with her in a very permanent, non-explosive way. If it's somehow destroyed, it'll act the same way as if you'd have pressed the red button; it's built tough enough to resist a good fall, but don't mess around with it. I don't expect you to have to use it, since she's usually well-mannered---"
What the FUCK!
"W-Wait," he had interrupted, "you're telling me this kid's collar is some kind of leash! Isn't that illegal or something? Why would she need one!"
"Control," Kumaji had been the one to answer, which he had done very clinically. "Princess here has enough firepower to level the building if she really lets loose. This is a crude solution and no one really likes it, but in the minds of some, it's better than letting her walk around unchecked."
"They don't know me," the brat had muttered while glaring at the Chief and Kumaji. "Can't you just keep it, Chief? I bet he'll drop it somewhere and someone will pick it up, or he'll break it somehow, stick it under a train wheel or something... or maybe he'll put them in his pants and drop those somewhere again," she added with a scowl in his direction; he scowled back. "In fact, I bet everything I've got saved that he will before the two weeks are out – it's not like I'll need money if he does."
"I will not," Yuuki had replied angrily.
"Shut up, both of you." the chief's furious voice had not needed an 'or else' to be effective. "For today, you'll both be doing officer work. I don't want to hear any complaints from either of you. Have I made myself clear or do I need to knock some sense into your heads?"
Understandably, both newfound partners had found themselves nodding nervously before either had noticed.
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He sighed. Since they had set off on patrol, something he had been hoping he wouldn't have to do again after finally becoming a detective, the young girl hadn't stopped fidgeting with the plastic collar around her neck. It was about half an inch thick and loose enough to let her slide it up and down the length of her neck, but not above her chin. It didn't seem to have any feature other than a small silver hole in the back, mostly hidden by her hair; probably a keyhole of some kind, and most likely the only safe way to remove it from her.
He still felt like the thing was immoral, or an abuse of power, or an abuse of something at least. He highly doubted Kumaji's appreciation of her power; he knew HiMEs were strong, he had seen the only HiME of his village cut a huge rock in half with her axe-Element before, yet, the little guns the girl had didn't seem to be that powerful (he winced at a ghost pain in his now thawed, if cold, arm) or intimidating.
He felt queasy at the thought that he had, in his pocket, an object that could end that little girl's life with a push of a button.
--BREEEP!--
"Uh? Oh." The horn of a passing car made him realize that the red light had turned green a while ago, and that he'd been staring—
"Why the hell were you staring at me!"
"No reason," he replied quickly, stepping on the accelerator. He thought he saw the driver of the car behind give a sign of relief or of impatience through the mirror; it was obvious not just anyone was gutsy enough to honk at a police car.
"No reason my ass—Oh, I see… you really are a pervert after all!" The little brat had said, pointing at him accusingly. "Well I warn you now; you try something and collar or not, I'll shoot you! And you'd better not be thinking of using the green button and…er… never mind, I didn't say a thing--"
"What the hell are you talking about?" He spluttered, glaring at her as soon as he made sure there was nothing dangerous in front.
"Oh, just your… shall we say, special tastes."
"I do not have special tastes!"
"Yes you do! You were staring at me, thinking all kind of sick thoughts--"
"I wasn't!"
"Pervert! Pedophile! Child Molester!"
"Shut up!"
He had, in his pocket, a device that could end that little girl's life with the push of a button.
And it probably would take all of his self-control not to use it.
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My∞HiME
Book 1
Fresco
Disclaimer: My HiME the anime belongs to sunrise and to many other creative geniuses who decided to put thirteen teenage (or wannabe teenage) girls through hell and back. My HiME the manga ALSO belongs to sunrise, but to some guy who decided Tate absolutely needed a harem. My mime belongs to someone, I think, but he's just gesticulating annoyingly over there and won't answer me when I ask him who, so whoever owns him, I'm sorry for whatever I did. Please take him back. Thank you.
Special thanks to: Sebastian Palm for post-posting corrections and future pre-reading .
Chapter 1: White Wolf
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"Take a right here."
"Hmm."
"Right, I said!"
"That's right—"
"That's left! See? 15th street, we should be seeing the 14th, baka." (2)
"Hm… and here's the 14th, just like it says on the map, aho." (3)
"Wh—but---what? It doesn't show the fifteenth… and—ah! That was the fourteenth avenue! Not street! And that… was… not on the right side either… um…"
"So where are we?"
"I…uh… I'm looking, I'm looking…"
Yuuki rolled his eyes; the brat was a pretty bad guide. But then, once open, the map containing their patrol route was easily wide enough to force her small arms open as wide as they could go, so she had something of an excuse.
Tokyo, he had quickly found, was huge. No, that was an understatement; Minato-ku made up less than tenth of its total area, and had various smaller police stations that limited the Headquarters' patrol area even further, yet the patrol they had been assigned to was so long that it would probably take them all afternoon to drive through.
He had a suspicion that the Chief had done this on purpose, to force them to get to know each other and get them to cooperate. However, he had learned only one thing about her so far, and it was that Kuga Natsuki, thirteen years old HiME, was an annoying, impolite and insolent brat.
Who couldn't read maps.
And about that, he hadn't even asked her to read the thing; she had picked it up and started guiding him (or started trying to) soon after they had stopped arguing on whether or not he really was a pedophile. The second time.
Yes, she was insufferable. Unless she was doing it on purpose, which he was starting to think she was.
"Yashitobe street and Twelfth Avenue," he read out loud at the next corner. Almost immediately, he heard her search feverishly through the map, muttering curses and epithets that he was sure she had picked up from Kumaji – they sounded like something a gruff man like that would say.
The effect was somehow less impressive in her lilting thirteen years old voice.
"Oh, I see… um… we're off course," the brat concluded solemnly soon after. Yuuki rolled his eyes.
"No shit—er… I mean--"
"I've heard worse," she replied with a dismissive wave of her hand. "Take a left now, and don't stop until… um… Tengawa or Amakawa, there's no Furigana here…" (4)
"Ooh, you still need Furigana?" he teased. "For a word as simple as Tengawa?"
"S-Shut up!" He heard the angry blush on her face. "I bet it's Amakawa."
It turned out to be Tengawa, as he had thought (something he couldn't help but rub her nose in – it was good to finally get a shot at her, no matter how insignificant). It was a commercial boulevard, with small shops lining both sides of the two-lane-plus-parking street and a raised garden of dead, yet-to-be-replanted flowers and a row of somewhat sickly looking Ginko trees in the middle – this place probably stank of them in autumn.
There was a panel hanging above the streetlight at the corner, indicating the highway was to the right. Deciding to take the slow road just in case he messed up – turning around on the highway was much more troublesome than in a Boulevard, after all – he twisted the wheel and sent the car in a left turn—
"Right! Argh! You're going the wrong way again!" the brat immediately stepped in.
"You didn't tell me which way to go!" He snapped back.
"What, I need to tell you everything now!"
"You're the one holding the map, brat!"
"I thought it was obvious! Look ahead, you can see the headquarters' antenna!"
He did; the antenna in question, however, remained so well hidden behind a wall of white-concrete buildings, utility poles, low-hanging electric cables and other metropolitan features that the village-dweller wasn't used to ignoring, that the so-called obvious remained a mystery.
"Oh, and I'm supposed to see it!"
"It's obvious!" she repeated, pointing at something (obviously forgetting that his point of view wasn't hers) and rolling her eyes. "And you call yourself a detective. How did you get promoted out of cadet, anyway? You slept with the boss?"
"The boss was a bald fifty years old man with a beer gut," he replied flatly.
She made an impressed whistle. "Women, illegally young girls, and now ugly old men. You sure get around, I'm almost insulted—"
"Oh shut up," he grumbled. The end of his patience with her was just about reached.
She rolled her eyes as if he was the one being immature, folded up the map, put it back on the dashboard and resumed to staring moodily out the window. He did the same, while trying to find a place where he could do a U-turn.
Window-mounted advertisement panels assaulted him from beyond the Ginkos, brightly proclaiming the greatness of the wares inside the shop ("Supigumono: softest pillows and mattresses available here for the lowest price!", "Megame optometrists: See the world anew; prescription glasses for 20,000¥!", "FiRE armory: Fully legal Photon disruption rifles, discount at 90 000¥; permit renewal for 10,000¥!"). The people on the street were, if not more interesting, at least not as offensive—for the most part. That fat, snout-nosed woman with girly pigtails wearing neon-green and fushia-pink was almost as flashy and tasteless as the swimsuit ad poster glued to the window she was walking in front of.
Most of the others were much more normal, like the nondescript young man wearing a leather jacket, black pants and a cap, or the pretty woman carrying a handbag, clad in a knee-length tight skirt that was obviously either on her way to or on the way back from an important rendezvous—
And who suddenly found herself nearly knocked aside as the aforementioned man burst into a run and shoved her aside, both of his hands closing around the aforementioned handbag—
Hey, hey, wait a minute!
Yuuki stomped his foot on the brakes ("The hell?" went the brat; she would probably have rammed her head against the dashboard had she been just a few inches taller), opened his door and was out and running over the dead flowers before the woman had stopped screaming.
"What the—oh, I see." He barely heard his "partner's" reaction as he jumped over the inch-tall row of stones that framed the garden, intent on intercepting the thief before he—
--SKREE!--
"What the fuck?"
The sound of breaking tires and the shout from the suddenly stopped car's driver attracted the thief's attention. Seeing a police officer heading barreling straight for him through the street while ignoring the traffic, he sped up and at the first alley, he quickly ran in, pushing a businessman out of his path and into a mother and her child as he did.
Yuuki cursed and quickly followed. Somewhere behind him, he heard a high-pitched shout and something of a commotion, but paid it no heed in his focus.
Maybe it was just a thief, but how many officers could say they caught a criminal red-handed on their first patrol after a transfer? Besides, if he showed his worth right away, they might decide he was good enough to be pulled out of this farce and away from his bad joke of a partner.
However, the chase quickly turned sour; the alley he was running in turned out to be one of those older, tightly packed residential areas, where buildings had been built too close to one another for a real street to be built. Not only that, but it also seemed like this was one of those areas that had fallen to poverty, despite (or perhaps because of) its proximity to a heavily commercial street. It was, therefore, a maze of dark, dingy alleys, filled with litter and junk, with the occasional trash can that the thief wasted no time to upturn in his wake in hopes to trip Yuuki.
The thief didn't just pick paths at random; he ignored some, took others, visibly had cues and seemed to have at least some idea of where they were (Yuuki had lost himself after the third turn) and thus, it was easy to tell he knew the area. He was also faster, since the cop was weighed down by his equipment, and he only had the stolen handbag in his hands. Yuuki was slower, less prepared, didn't know the area and, above all, without real backup; it was becoming painfully obvious that even if he was able to catch up to him, he would have to fight him to have a chance at cuffing him. And tired as he felt already, he was fairly sure the thief had a good fighting chance.
His legs burning as he pushed himself over the seventh upturned can – thankfully this one had been empty – Yuuki felt the urge to give up become increasingly strong. At the next corner, the thief ducked right and Yuuki knew this would be it; he couldn't run anymore. With a disgusted sigh, he slowed down—
--"ARGHHHH!"--
The fuck!
Pushing himself with the last of his energy, he quickly turned the next corner and stumbled on a most strange scene. The thief was there, sitting on the pavement, his hat having fallen off his head and laying upside-down between his trembling legs, his wide black eyes staring straight ahead at—
-gulp-
--at what appeared to be some kind of robotic wolf standing at waist level on its four metal clawed legs. Perhaps its most intimidating feature, beyond the full row of menacing serrated metal teeth in its mouth, was the pair of huge revolver-like cannons on its back; just one of them was wide and long enough to comfortably stick a whole arm inside. Yuuki noted idly that it was blocking the only way out of the place, except the path behind him; the other side of the alley was blocked by a chain-link fence topped by barbed wires.
"I suggest you surrender," the brat's matter-of-fact voice came from above- the little bluette had somehow perched herself sitting on the railing of a fire escape on the third and top floor of the closest apartment building, short skinny legs dangling in mid-air. "Durhan here hates what I hate, and thieves like you score among the lowest scum of the earth, in my opinion."
The wolf, Durhan, took a threatening step forward and growled menacingly; it sounded like a powerful engine rumbling in a voice changer. Yuuki noted the tip of its tail reflected the sun's light like a blade; he decided he didn't feel curious enough to check if it was one, but it wouldn't have surprised him.
What was that thing, and where had the brat found it!
"Princess, when she wants, can be downright terrifying," Kumaji had said. If that wolf came in the same package as her, he was suddenly starting to believe it.
"And what he doesn't like, well… there usually isn't enough left to be incriminating," the brat continued cheerfully; Yuuki wasn't entirely sure she was joking. The thief wasn't either, it seemed, for he quickly picked himself up and, with a panicked sound, ran for the only exit—
Yuuki had barely enough wits left to catch him as he tried to run by. The thief winced audibly as his arm was painfully twisted in a solid armlock that sent him to his knees.
"I suggest you give up quietly. I just met her, so I can't assure if you she's kidding or not," Yuuki said semi-calmly.
"A-Alrigh', I'll—I'll—jus'-…keep that thing away from me!"
"Aww, you'll hurt his feelings!" the brat said with a grin in her voice as she pushed herself off the railing--
The third floor railing---!
--and landed seemingly effortlessly from a six meter fall on the metal wolf's back; it bent its legs sharply at exactly the right moment and absorbed her impact, showing no sign of surprise or strain.
"Oh well," she continued with apparent disappointment, "looks like Durhan won't get to blow anyone to dust today." She grinned cheerfully and gave the wolf's metal head a pat as the thief whimpered, "Pity you surrendered."
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"Oh, thank you so much! You have no idea—I'd have been in so much trouble if… did he—no, it looks like everything's there… oh, I can't thank you enough…"
"Oh, it was no problem, really," he replied.
Normally, Yuuki would have replied those words, or something along the lines of this, adding about doing his duty and whatnot, loudly, heroically and with a winning smile addressed to the lady in question. However, this time, they were said in a dark mutter, with a scowl and a dark glare at the thankful lady and the little girl in the squad car's side mirror.
He had been so busy putting the very, very cooperative thief in his squad car that he hadn't noticed when the little brat had picked up the stolen handbag and gave it back to whom it rightfully belonged. Of course, this meant she was on the receiving end of the woman's thanks and smiles, while he couldn't go up there without looking like an idiot with skewed priorities leaving a criminal alone in the car to get his thanks.
…which would have been what he would have done, actually.
"It was no problem, really," she replied with a grin, "just helping Oji—Oniisan out. He really needs help, see." (5)
Oh, thanks. Damn brat.
"Ara… well… are you… I mean… I know you HiMEs are tough, but… "
She gave the worried woman a small, wistful smile; he felt her aura of adorability increase exponentially (although, in his mind, an infinity of times 0 still wasn't much).
"It's dangerous and scary, but it's better than staying home…" she said sadly, in a tone that hinted to all kinds of horrors. Yuuki blinked. What was that?
"Oh, you poor thing!" And she tightly hugged the little brat in a motherly fashion. He raised a puzzled eyebrow, wondering what exactly was happening to the evil brat he'd been around all day long...
…then saw the brat's face through the mirror; she was grinning his way, and it wasn't a nice grin. It was the grin of someone saying "See what you're missing?" in their most condescending voice. He seethed.
"Oi, Kuga!" He called through the open window, ignoring the glares this brought him from the spectators of the so-called touching scene.
"Ah… Hai, Oniisan," she said dejectedly in a high-pitched voice that left no ambiguity as to her young age, as she was released from the woman's arms. With a final sad smile at the woman and the crowd, she went back toward the patrol car, opened the passenger door and snuck in seemingly reluctantly on her seat, as if she was only doing this to calm the anger of her 'oniisan'. As soon as her face was out of sight, though, that grin reappeared.
"I hate you," he told her flatly as he started the engine.
"My poor world is ending," she deadpanned. With a soft rumble, the patrol car set forward, to the relief of the few drivers who had been stuck behind it; it and a parked van had been blocking the way. He gave a nod at the woman (who glared hatefully back at him; he winced), then—
"This is Princess to station," the little girl had picked up the radio emitter and was talking into it, "ten…um… ten-twen…um, we caught a thief."
"Station to Princess, ten-four," replied a highly tonal female voice. "We'll get a cell ready. By the way, you were thinking of ten-twenty-six, you should practice more. Nice work as always."
"Ten-four, thank you." And she put it back down. At his querying raised eyebrow, she shrugged. "I did say I've been doing this for a while. Kumaji let me do it whenever it was nothing really important, but I never did to memorize all the codes. Oh, that reminds me, why did you wait so long?"
"Wait?"
"Back then, in the alley, I mean... Kumaji would have come up to that asshole ("Hey!" protested the thief from the back seat, and was ignored) and cuffed him before he even could move, but you waited until he jumped at you-"
"I was kinda just as surprised as he was?" Yuuki grumbled. "Where did you get the wolf, anyway?"
("Hey, wait, y' mean that part 'bout just meetin' her was real!" the thief asked. He was ignored once more)
When he didn't receive an answer at the next stop sign, he risked a look at her. She was staring blankly at him, a look in her eyes being comparable to the one found in a computer technician being told someone wanted to try and run Half-life 2 on a Pentium 1. "You... how much do you know about HiMEs?" she asked hesitatingly.
"Nothing much," Yuuki replied distractedly, taking the car on a right turn that sent them on a main street. "I know you can create stuff out of nothing, that those weapons are pretty much the only things that work against Orphans, and you can see a weird star near the moon that not even high-tech equipment can spot, and that you're all women ("or little brats," he added mentally), but nothing else, I think."
("Oh god, I've been caught by the village idiot." Fortunately, he was ignored once more (though Yuuki could have sworn the brat's mouth curved upward in an almost-grin for a fraction of second).)
"Ok then, here's a crash course about HiMEs," she took a deep breath, then started. "HiMEs started to be born all around the world about fifty-five years ago, and the very first real HiME was crowned about ten years later, around the same time Orphans started to pop-up. The--"
"Crowned?" Yuuki interrupted. She rolled her eyes, as if wondering just how little he actually knew.
"That's the word for when a HiME's powers first awakens; a pun on the whole 'HiME/Princess' bit, though crowned HiMEs aren't called Queens," she explained with a hint of impatience. "Now, like you said, we can create our weapons, or Elements, from light around us - don't ask me how, I don't know. That's actually where the HiME name comes from, it's an Anagram of... um... a bunch of English words I can't remember right now."
"Highly-advanced Materializin' Element," the thief supplied. He received a pair of glares for his efforts, and quickly shirked back, as if wishing he could vanish inside the seat. "Sorry, shuttin' up."
The brat turned back toward the cop. "Right, that. I don't know who thought about that wordplay, but I'm hoping he got shot and left in a ditch somewhere and was awarded a Darwin for his efforts. Or at least whoever shot him did. As for our other power, it's even stronger than our Elements: by using the feelings we have for our keys, we can summon--"
"W-wait, key?"
The brat shot him a dark glare - had it been attached to a more fearsome face, perhaps it would have impressed him, or at least perhaps it wouldn't have made her look like a pouting child. He shrugged.
"Ok, staying quiet, despite any other questions I might have. I bow to your superior teaching techniques."
"As you should," she said haughtily - her lilting voice ruined the effect. "And to answer your question, a HiME's Key is the single most important person for her. Usually, the key is the HiME herself; no matter what, the cold hard truth is that while good friends would put their lives on the line for each other, the instinctive response is to get yourself out of danger first."
"But you said usually," he noted. She nodded.
"If a HiME cares about someone to the point that she simply couldn't live without that person - if she really falls in love - then that person becomes the key. Oh, and family ties don't seem to count, unless they're… uh… ins… inces…truous. Satisfied?"
"That's Incestuous, and yeah," he replied affirmatively, ignoring her dark glare at being corrected. "So what does the key do, and where does the wolf come into it?"
"The key unlocks the true power of a HiME, the ability to summon a powerful creature devoted completely to protecting the HiME and doing her bidding: the Child. You've met mine, Durhan, already," she replied with a grin; it was obvious to him that she liked her Child.
"And it's because of... um... your Child, that the Chief decided to stick that collar around your neck?" He risked himself; the question did burn at his curiosity.
Her grin froze. One of her hands gave a small tug to the aforementioned collar and her entire body language spoke of unease. He had obviously stumbled on a sensitive subject.
"...Among other things," she replied evasively. Yuuki felt that pushing further would get him to meet Durhan again at very close quarters, so he didn't ask.
The rest of the trip was very silent indeed.
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Akuma-sama's notes:
I use a mix between the Manga and the Anime, as well as a bit of interpretation from both sources and a little creativity on my own, for the HiMEs' powers. Hey, it's an alternate universe fanfic, so I can do pretty much what I want.
Rough ending that I'm not satisfied with, but adding a scene after would be awkward and counterproductive.
I would like to express my undying hatred for ongoing war against symbols. I want my Asterisks, damnit! And while they're at it, bring back Colors, Links and text sizes while they're at it, I'm tired of seeing the Mai InfinitiME title in a wimpy 10-size font…
I apologize for the number of OCs; there will be more HiME characters shortly, but this book unfortunately doesn't involve many of them. And no, I could not use HiME characters for the OC's parts; I'll be using them later.
Translations:
(1) Kuma-jiji means, roughly, "old bear" or "Grampa bear".
(2) Baka, for the few who don't know I'm sure, means "idiot".
(3) Aho ALSO means idiot, but it's in Kansai-ben. Baka, in Kansai-ben, is very mean, and more along the lines of "complete and total moron".
(4) Both Tengawa and Amakawa can be written with the same Kanji ((Heaven/mystic), (River)), and Furigana is the pronunciation of a Kanji word written in one of the phonetic writings, usually used by Children, or to force it to be read a certain way, or even to write a foreign word while using Kanji (Like, writing "Akuma" in Kanji, with the Furigana "De-Bi-Ru" for Devil; it would mean "devil" to a Japanese, but would be read in English. Or, the other way around, it can be used to write English words in Japanese (by direct Katakana reading, or by Kanji/Hiiragana alliteration)). Just wrote a small article, yay.
(5) Oniisan is "big brother", respectfully. Ojisan, which she'd been about to slip, means "uncle".
