"This car is a part of me as much as it's a part of you."
- Joseph Payne Astor
"I love this saw. This saw's part of me, and I'm gonna make it part of YOU!"
- Buzzsaw
"It was never just about the suit!"
- Michael 'Psycho' Sykes on the concept of finding a small-scale story about one's own humanity within a big dumb epic AAA shooting action game
"You've had a good run. Thank you."
- Mai Nakahara's Muv-Luv character talking to her big yellow wrecked thing
It was the ending to the last HiME Carnival in history. Kagutsuchi destroyed the Obsidian Lord, Yuuichi defeated Reito, and Mai saved Mikoto. Alyssa and Miyu worked together to restore the powers of the defeated HiMEs just long enough so they could destroy the HiME Star, so Obsidian Lord could never return and make innocent women suffer through his depraved ritual again.
In a few short minutes, all the Childs and Orphans would vanish from the Earth forever. Obsidian Lord couldn't survive without the energy constantly dispersed from the HiME Star. But in the ultimate compromise, Childs couldn't survive without it, either.
Akane stood in the clearing of the bamboo shrine with her arms sunken limply at her sides and her eyes staring vacantly at the grass. Harimau sat in front of her on his giant armored haunches. His tail never waved. His ears never twitched. He just sat there bowing his muzzle in a final display of loyalty to his princess.
His curled paws were already half-invisible as waves of gold sparkles crept up his body. The effect was gradually erasing him from existence.
This was the last time Akane would ever see him.
"I guess I'm supposed to say goodbye to you." The Wind HiME bitterly exhaled. "Or maybe it should just be 'bye? Because, come on… What 'good' did we ever do?"
She glanced toward another arbitrary patch of grass to hide her regret. Her jaw clenched to hold back a wave of tears.
"All the other girls can talk about the fun adventures they had with their Childs, before the Carnival started. But not you and me." She paused to shake her head. "We hardly got a chance to do anything together. We just trained with Nagi's Orphans for a couple weeks, and then Miyu…"
She broke into shivers before she could finish what she was trying to say. Her head hung in disappointment as she sighed.
"We're just a couple of losers." She giggled nervously under her breath. "Twelve witches spinning around in a circle with their familiars for a crazy death ritual, and one of them doesn't even get to make it to the opening dance."
Hari didn't flinch to anything his summoner said. He still sat up defiantly, like a majestic statue guarding a holy ground. Even when the lower half of his body was almost completely dissolved.
"Why would anyone miss some monster… when all they bring is pain…"
Akane abruptly collapsed to her knees and threw her arms around the metal rivets of her sacred beast. All of her cries, all of her despair, all of her screams came flooding out again.
"It's my fault Hari! You were the strong one! I was always too scared! If I had no choice but to be born as a HiME, you're the only partner I'd ever want!"
Hari moved slightly, only to tilt his head so his muzzle could support Akane's cheek. Her tears splashed on to the few panels of armor he had left, and she squeezed her eyes shut so they wouldn't flow faster.
"I'm sorry, Hari! It's my fault I wasn't careful around Miyu…"
Her arms were wrapped around vibrant yellow and orange metal one instant. They were holding nothing but empty air the next. All that was left was Hari's head, neck, and one of his back quills. He was on the brink of vanishing completely into the ether as his HiME sobbed in forgiveness.
"I never would have become strong enough to tell Kazu the truth if it wasn't for you! You're what brought us together!"
A soft rumbling purr escaped Hari's ventilation systems, just as the rest of his throat melted away and he disappeared completely. His golden sparks floated upward and vanished at the top of the bamboo trees.
Akane was still squeezing her tear-filled eyes shut. She couldn't feel the Child's presence anymore. A gentle breeze passed through the forest shrine, and she started feeling cold.
A pair of arms much bigger than her own slowly closed around her. The side of her head nestled against something taller and broader than her, and she could feel a heartbeat. It was Hari's heartbeat.
She started feeling warm again. It was Hari's warmth.
Akane slowly opened her eyes. Kazuya was kneeling in the grass with his arms wrapped around her.
"I'm still here, Akane," he whispered to reassure her.
The former HiME swallowed back the rest of her tears. Her head slumped in remorse as she stared at the ground.
"He's gone. I just kept scolding him, and now he's gone. I wanted to thank him, but I took too long to get the words out. Now he'll never hear me."
Kazu slowly shook his head.
"He heard you. Maybe this is his way of thanking you back. He left you alone so now you never have to worry about losing me."
"I hope so," Akane said with a weak attempt at an optimistic voice. "He deserves to know he did a lot more than just cause misery for people, after what he went through…"
"I know, Akane. I went through it," Kazu replied. He shuddered as a few imaginary strands of Miyu's mechanical blue hair whisked through his mind. The horrifying curse that had taken his life was only a fraction of the months of trauma Akane endured afterwards. But those memories were long gone, and not worth holding onto.
Akane regained her posture as she sat up on her knees. Kazu tenderly held her shoulders as he remained crouched in front of her. They were both overwhelmed by a strange combination of freedom and anxiety.
"I guess this is our first 'real' moment together. As girlfriend and boyfriend, instead of HiME and… Weird Sacrifice Guy," Kazu sighed.
"Where do we start?" Akane's soft brown eyes gazed longingly into his.
Kazu thought for a second, and jokingly smiled.
"Think you can reach up and scratch this itch behind my ears?"
Author's note: I was watching the Witch from Mercury ending, and I started thinking "Hey, isn't this sorta the Mai HiME anime ending?" (I mean the part where all the Gundams melt and symbolically release Suletta and her friends from the Curse of Gundam.) That started giving me ideas for this fanfic.
Author's note 2: I guess this makes Hari the Calibarn of his mech lineup. Which is actually a pretty interesting analogy, because when the Calibarn showed up a couple weeks ago, I was already thinking "All-white 'discarded' prototype unit recovered at the last second and deployed into the final battle with little to no prior announcement? Doesn't this kinda feel like they're doing the thing with the Malachite GEM again?"
Author's note 3: I like making references to Mai HiME EXA whenever possible, but the "one of them doesn't even get to make it to the opening dance" line in this story completely rules out any possibility this is taking place in the EXA universe. EXA Akane (that poor panicky thing who never wanted to harm anyone and was just trying to keep her Kazu-kun alive) was dancing the s*** out of Mai and Mikoto up until Kagutsuchi showed up.
Author's note 4: Hope you like my fairy tale motifs. There's a lot of them in here. I got reeeally close to just straight up saying the Disney line "Who could ever learn to love a Beast?"