In a desperate attempt to dodge Akane, Mai activated the flight drives on her wrists and captured ankles to their maximum capacity. Miraculously, it was enough force to finally rip out of Haruka's trap and launch Mai straight into the night sky. She looked down to see the forest clearing shrink under her feet and two of her attackers watching as she escaped their range. For Mikoto's sake, Mai had to escape from here and recollect herself. With some rest, she would be able to beat the three Meisters in an even fight.
As she stopped in the air and frantically scanned the ground and the tops of the trees to account for all three of her attackers, she noticed a shadow had appeared on the ground above her own. The same sensation of bad omen instantly overcame Mai as it had at the beginning of the battle. When she turned around, she saw Shiho hovering inches away from her as a raven-shaped silhouette against the moon, with her bladed baton poised to attack and her normally cheerful face contorted into an almost demonic grin. Suddenly overwhelmed with a level of satisfaction that made her feel as if she had been waiting for this moment for an eternity, Shiho attacked the stunned Mai with a single crescent slash that reduced the decorative scarf of her Robe to ribbons and cut a deep slit across her throat.
The lifeless form of Mai started falling back to the ground. Her nanomachines quickly entered their self-destruct mode the moment Shiho had blocked her retreat and struck her with the killing blow. This was to prevent her body from being looted for its Robe technology, and her remains had already started dissolving into green glowing particles before she roughly landed on the ground of the forest clearing. The Fire Stirring Ruby had been defeated.
Mikoto had been hiding safely just at the edge of the clearing tending her wounds as the battle raged. She stepped out of her cover, having no fear of the assassins attacking her now, and witnessed the final sparkling flecks of her fallen Otome fading into the whistling night air. Her eyes were flowing with tears as she softly spoke.
"Mai..."
She had to live on for Mai, Mikoto told herself. There was something she could try, but she was unsure what the results would be. After wiping away her tears, Mikoto struck the bottom of her ceremonial staff against the ground. A glowing white circle appeared on the ground around her feet, and this soon become a glittering pillar that surrounded her body. She closed her eyes in deep concentration as she also began glowing in a brilliant green, signifying the initial stage of the nanomachine-triggered decomposition process. The two sources of light that emitted from Mikoto were flickering against eachother, as if fighting for ownership of her very body. Unfortunately, Founder Fumi, the inventor of the entire Otome system, was quite thorough in ensuring the Meister life-sharing clause humbled all of its users, and Mikoto couldn't escape paying the price for her Otome's failure. The meditating monk's concentration finally ended and the white light disappeared when she suddenly screamed in pain and dropped her staff to clutch her chest. She quickly fell to the ground, and her body slowly disappeared in the same vibrant display as Mai. In actuality, Mikoto was an ancient Goddess who was responsible for maintaining the Black Valley's state of peace, and now she had lost her physical body.
Shiho landed and rejoined her group as the spectacle ended. Her expression had returned to its usual innocent playfulness, and there as a new comfort in her voice as she spoke.
"Ahh, I love when Meisters are defeated. That green stuff they turn into is so pretty."
Haruka was silently clenching her fists for not being the one to take credit for the mission's success, but withheld her thoughts so she wouldn't rob Shiho of her well-deserved happiness. Akane didn't take mind of the issue either way, as simply seeing the mission through for Lady Shizuru was what gave her the most joy. After some rest, the three girls began walking back through the woods so they could rendezvous with their transport ship in the morning.
Akane's Otome squad had proven themselves to be a great value to Garderobe and were celebrated upon their return. Over the next few days, the three girls shared their thoughts and joyfully joked about the events of the battle to a curious audience of Corals and Pearls. A great burden was lifted from the Columns, as they had gained a great advantage in the war while also discovering they could lower their number of active Meisters and depend on Akane's abilities to end their energy crisis. After this period had past, Akane and her two close comrades awaited their next mission.
Although their initial mission was a success, it soon became apparent Akane's force was coming apart at the seams. Following the assassination of Mai, an uncanny mean streak seemed to come over Shiho; one that interrupted the team's training missions and constantly brought the three girls to argue. She would go out of the way against both Akane and Haruka's advice to destroy the team's simulation targets in the cruelest ways possible, and it was slowly hurting the squad's morale. Furthermore, Garderobe was eventually able to alleviate its original energy crisis by constructing a second generator underneath the academy, allowing the Columns to restore their standard Meister-rank troops and all but nullifying the original purpose of Akane's team. With their presence becoming an increasing nuisance to the Columns' goals, the Meister "pet" team was deemed obsolete and sentenced for execution.
Akane was emotionally crippled upon receiving news of her impending death, and she struggled to understand why Shizuru made the decision after everything Akane had done to make her happy. Was it because of the pranks she had been pulling on the Corals? Was it because of the nap she took on the cafeteria table last week? Did she let Shiho strangle the training dummy for too long in their most recent exercise? She begged for forgiveness, but nothing changed Shizuru's mind.
On the eve of the three girls' execution, they were placed in the same cell to spend a final night together. The trio sat silently in their disarmed blue Meister uniforms, and Akane saw a chance to break the ice. She could either give up her life to make Shizuru happy, or she could violate every moral she had been taught for as long as she could remember and convince her comrades to break from their prison.
Escape: Go to Chapter 17
Don't escape: Go to Chapter 18