"Prometheus stole fire from the gods and gave it to man. For this, he was chained to a rock and tortured for eternity."
- Oppenheimer
"I want to shine like the sun."
- An actual translated lyric in the Minami Kuribayashi song from the show where medieval magical girls are an allegory for government-regulated nuclear weapons
"Hey Payton! I think they're building a box for you!"
"I'll open it."
- Vippper
"Why can't I win?"
"Because you're not supposed to."
- Akane and Kazu-kun in "Hearts on Fire"
"How we feelin' today, Doc?"
"I'm dying. How are you?"
"Pretty much the same."
- Tombstone
"You didn't bring me along for my charming personality."
- Theo
"Kira only feed on shame"
- Some other guy's response to a thread I created on the Gundam subreddit called "Truly the Akane Soir of the GSF team"
Mahya and Akane were sitting beside each other in the green smoking ruins of Harmonium. While the veteran Column was enjoying her victory and exchanging snarky witticisms with the rest of her team, the freshly commissioned/anointed/re-captured fighter idling next to her was miserable.
Reality was catching up to Akane. Mahya saving her Meister contract and yanking her onto the field as last-minute support in the battle against Nagi had been a rush job, but it had bound her to a Master she would always be loyal to, and it was still a heroic adventure that reminded her why she dreamed of becoming a Meister Otome her whole life.
But now all the adventure was over, and her emotions were mellowing out. While everyone else was going to go home and celebrate with their families and countrymen, Akane was going home to a foreign country to be a slave. Not in the sense of a modern "Slave," either, like a giant mechanical insect that functioned as a partner weapon. She was a slave in the old sense of the word: A person forced into servitude against their will. Someone who was counted as an expensive decoration on the emperor's household, more than a human being.
Her superior leaned over with a big grin on her face. Mahya knew exactly what her new recruit was thinking. That sudden feeling she was in way over her head.
"Nagi's behind bars, this creepy old thing is toast, and Nina is back to normal… hopefully." The Column nodded in satisfaction. And then she sighed with grief. "But you know what else? Now that Cardair and Florince have no excuse to work together, they're going to be right back at each other's throats. Tensions between those two haven't been this high since the Dragon King War… partially thanks to your graduation stunt."
The dark blue stripes on Akane's Robed knees touched her chin as she stared at the debris under her feet with guilt. Mahya leaned closer.
"You really left us in a box here, Mittens. Mashiro's squeaky peace speeches are only going to get so far on their own. This is where your real fun starts."
Akane's face sank further against her knees until she was completely curled into a ball. She was shivering like she was about to cry.
Mahya shook her head with a sympathetic tsk, tsk.
"But great job on your first mission. You helped me bail out Nao's crew, then you just hung out in the background like a polite lady and let everyone else do the big action heroine stuff. I only want you on the attack when it really counts."
Akane raised her head out of her sorrow and started to turn toward her superior. Her voice was barely above a whimper.
"What's next? Are you going to send me to hunt down the rest of Nagi's creeps?"
Mahya chuckled. That would be too much too soon. She knew this poor kitten needed to start out with little nibbles first.
"Naw. We're keeping you far behind the frontlines as our Queen piece. Arika and Haruka can keep being the wrecking crew. What we need you to focus on is sticking very close to your Master and looking out for anyone who tries to cut his reign short. The last thing Cardair needs right now is a succession crisis."
Akane shivered at the thought of losing him personally more than any of the larger political ramifications his death could cause. Mahya patted her on her Robe's shoulder pauldron.
"Just keep your ears perked and your nose clear. I'm sure you'll do okay."
"You're being pretty generous to me, considering everything I did wrong…" Akane felt like she didn't deserve anyone's friendly compassion.
"Well, okay. If you want me to do this the old fashioned way…"
Mahya took a deep breath, then she tickled the top of Akane's head as she recited her 'incantation.'
"Oooooohh, Akane Soir. Traitor to Florince. Rebel to Lady's Natsuki's will. Shameful coward to your Sisterhood. Overemotional airhead. I curse you. I curse you to eternal servitude. I curse you to meekness and humility, to never hold the power to obliterate the kingdoms who rival you. I curse you to never have the anger or the strength to ever oppose another Otome on the battlefield. I curse you to use all of your skills as a student-leader so you can grow up to be a real leader. I curse you with the sacred duty to hold back the chaos you've unleashed. I curse you with the responsibility to protect the Otome order for everyone with less authority than you, to preach our values with unwavering loyalty, and propagate our Sisterhood with new little Otomes to ensure our survival. I curse you to a lifetime bound to your emperor as his gentle sweetheart… Just like you always wanted."
The Column playfully grinned when she was finished.
"There. Now are you happy with your eternal torment?"
"Um… about that 'propagating the Sisterhood' stuff?" Akane nervously blinked.
"Yesssss?" Mahya was coyly shifting her eyebrows.
"I guess you're still not going to let me and Kazu… do it… for a while." Akane's nervous expression changed to a blush.
"Not for a few more years. Part of your punishment is to make a name for yourself as an Otome before you're allowed to retire. It's going to help you in the long run, Future Empress Akane."
The younger girl hid her face behind her knees again. She wanted to finally feel relieved. She wanted to join all of her subordinates, co-graduates, and superiors having a victory party just behind her, but she had so many things still bearing on her mind. Cardair's recovery, Florince's prosperity… and Kazu's life were all at stake in the arms race she had helped accelerate.
Mahya nodded secretly in observation. The girl was off to a good start as a responsible leader.
"Something else troubling you, Meister Soir?"
"I'm just scared." This time, Akane's voice was an actual whimper.
She felt Mahya's arm playfully stretch behind her shoulders as the Column giggled close to her ear. Mahya almost never wavered from her jovial personality and her teasing gestures, but there was something just slightly fretful about the way she giggled this time.
"You're not the only one, darlin'. I'm one of the Columns, but even I'm bound to Fumi's rules. So I have to watch all my Little Sisters get dragged into the war their Masters order them to fight, if it ever breaks out. And if it gets bad enough, I could even get dragged into it too. That's why we need a softie like you chained to one of those 'Trouble Kingdoms' for the long haul. Arika solved the Windbloom Conflict for us, but you need to keep guarding hope for us so nothing worse happens. Your job is to make sure this bonanza back here…" Mahya pointed behind her shoulder to the crowd of laughing and rejoicing Otomes from every kingdom in the world. "…never ends."
Now Akane was the one slowly nodding. She wasn't being punished. She was being entrusted.
"That's a lot for one girl to sort out." The Pure Heart Malachite murmured toward the rubble at her feet.
"That's why we need to rely on a geek like you, and not some showboaty musclehead." The Swirling Dance Fluorite stuck out her tongue. "Don't tell Natsuki I said this, but I think Cardair was always a way better fit for your skillset. You'll teach them how to be humble."
The Harmonium debris was swept away as Mahya stretched out her legs and yawned. She gradually stood up while pretending like she was an old lady like a hunched back, tugging lightly on Akane's shoulder so she was encouraged to join the victory celebration.
"C'mon, Mittens. Let's start rebuilding."
Author's note: The moral of this story is: "It's good to be a loser because it feels more important when you get to be the winner."
Author's note 2: This is taking place in the official TV timeline right after the final battle. I don't want to include this story in the Akane Fanfic Timeline outlined on my FFnet profile, because that would ruin my gimmick where most Akane storylines end in chapter 8. And I really like that gimmick. (This fanfic is like 72% just rewriting dialogue from other Akane fanfics a slightly different way anyway.)
Author's note 3: Puts on Zeta Hummingbird plane legs and blows up an Obsidian Lord eyeball with a Muv-Luv bunker buster rail gun in a solitary orbital camera shot with no music playing in the background as a final act of "I take back all the pain I've created" self-redemption to save all the magical girls from the threat of HiME World War III. Then immediately retires and has a bunch of sex with the guy from Yebisu Celebrities. Some Yuki Kajiura music probably starts playing.
Author's note 4: I'm trying to imagine the same metaphor I was making in Note 3 as a Perfect Blue scene, but it's not really working.
Author's note 5: The antithesis to this fanfic is "After War Gundam X" (the Mai HiME fanfic I wrote in 2022, not the 1996 TV show called "After War Gundam X")
Author's note 6: I never noticed this until I saw someone make the comparison about a year ago, but Monica and Sylvie totally look like gender-swapped versions of Yzak and Dearka. Weird. (I'm still always going to refer to Monica as "Yamashiro dyed her hair silver" though.)