"CERBERUS ANNIHILATED (his appetite)"
- Hades
"Let's all congratulate Helpless Lumberjack Guy With No Effective Attacks Who Dies In 15 Seconds for earning his certification and advancing his career to Helpless Oil Rig Worker Guy With No Effective Attacks Who Dies in 15 Seconds"
- A Reddit post about mini-bosses in Sonic 3 and Sonic Mania
"Wouldn't it be easier to train astronauts to be oil drillers, instead of training oil drillers to be astronauts?"
"Shut the fuck up, Ben."
- Armageddon DVD commentary track
Erstin Krau-xeku winced in pain as the naginata's chain segments closed together around her waist. It was a struggle just to stay on her feet. Shizuru could easily slice both arms off the young cadet and completely bisect her across the belly, if she just released the safety mechanism on her whip.
"Too much for you, dear? I've only started applying pressure." The older Otome asked from the other side of the throne room's carpet. The two opponents stood about ten paces from each other, but Shizuru's weapon kept them connected like long a jagged vine.
The aged lines on the corners of the headmistress's mouth curled into a wicked smirk as the naginata segments wrapped more firmly around the white and blue striped Meister Robe shielding Erstin's waist. At least her more regal version of the Robe offered more coverage compared to when her mother wore it.
"Are you kidding? Barely tickles!" Princess Erstin tried to joke while she was obviously suffering from intense strain. Her shoulders squirmed in their gold epaulettes as her arms remained helplessly pinned at her sides.
"My. Well, I better try harder to impress the royal lady." Old Shizuru's smirk twisted into a sneer as she pulled harder against her chain whip. Erstin's surprised yelp filled the entire towering chamber.
The princess had recently turned seventeen years old. Seventeen was the perfect age to wear a Meister Robe, and it was the perfect age for plenty of dead Otomes. Especially dead Cardair Otomes. If she were to die here, she still had a couple of younger sisters who could grow in her place. The emperor and empress were quite productive, both as political reformers and as parents.
Nevermind the fact this girl had a cross-lineage from Florince she needed to uphold, as well. She had more than enough to worry about as a Cardair Meister.
"Do you remember the mantra we taught your mother so she could fight off her fears?" Shizuru asked while holding a steady amount of pressure with her naginata chains. Her free hand casually brushed the narrow gray streak in her auburn hair.
"That stupid poem-thing Sister Mahya used to tease her with?" Erstin scoffed like she was hearing a bad joke. "That's not going to help me!"
Shizuru turned her wrist twenty degrees, applying the tiniest amount of extra pressure. The Robe polymers clinging to Erstin's elbows and waist were starting to look like wrinkled tissue paper.
"So you're going to forget all the hardships of the Sisters who came before you, just because you have a little tummy ache?"
"Of course not!" Erstin growled at the insult, fighting off her increasing urge to beg for mercy.
"Then recite it," Shizuru coldly ordered. "Show me how you retain knowledge when you're strained to your limit."
"Mngh... fine!" The princess twisted her voice into a nasally attempt to mimic the way Mahya talked. "'He's your Master because he'll give you good home. He's your Master because he'll inspire you to dance your best. He's your Master because he depends on you to keep him safe. And let's face it: If you didn't have him, you'd just be our stray kitten.'"
"Very good." Shizuru said rewardingly. And for her reward, she bent her elbow fifty degrees and applied substantially more pressure on her opponent. She was highly skilled in knowing just the right amount of strength she should use, and knowing each Meister Robe's breaking points.
"I'm responsible for your creation, you know." The headmistress's expression became more friendly, in a threatening sort of way. "You know what they say. I brought you into this world, and I can just as easily…"
Erstin's squirming increased as her face reddened with rage.
"I was born because mom and dad love each other with all their hearts! I'm not just one of your botany experiments!"
"Ah. Challenging your captor in the face of certain death. You've turned out much braver than she was." Shizuru's face became all the more affectionate, and all the more menacing. "But do you think love can create a safe future all by itself? Your mother never would have been able to legitimately marry your father if it weren't for the help of your Academy Aunts. You owe your whole existence and all of your spoiled birthrights to me."
A brief image of a lovely and nubile Akane lying in Emperor Kazuya's bed flashed in Shizuru's mind. The thought made her chuckle.
"I don't owe you anything!" Erstin hissed in return, trying desperately to wrench the chain restraints off her waist. "I owe it to Fumi! I owe it to the Otome system for keeping mom and dad together when no one in charge of Florince or Cardair would have let it happen! I want to give that back to all Otomes, so they can live freely too!"
Her striped tail stabilizers wrapped toward the front of her waist and joined the struggle as if they were a second pair of arms.
"Hmm. So you insist on remaining loyal to your family and your country, no matter what dangers you face?" Shizuru asked in a tone that was both curious and accusing.
"I'll never be loyal to a creep like you!" The princess blurted over her struggling.
"Heheh." Shizuru couldn't hold back her snickering. "So you vow to be a noble guardian who stands for her own values, and you refuse to serve as a mindless weapon for my coven?"
"Yes!" Erstin shouted defiantly through her wincing teeth.
"Ah. You're rebellious like her, too. But certainly not timid like she was. How far are you willing to rebel against your kingdom's cursed history?" The headmistress cruelly leered as she pulled the string of segmented blades even tighter. "Do you promise to fight for the protection of all of your Holy Sisters, both past and present?"
"YES!" Princess Erstin Julen Krau-xeku screeched louder than ever. The sound was almost shrill enough to shatter the cathedral windows shading the throne room.
"Then… there's hope for you yet, little runt." Shizuru's sneer turned into a smile; the genuine smile of an aging godmother. She flicked her chain rod in the opposite direction, instantly opening all of its locking segments and providing Erstin's arms some much needed relief. The segments shrank away from the princess and neatly retracted into Shizuru's handheld staff.
"Thank you for the wonderful performance, dear."
The headmistress bowed respectfully toward her student. Erstin frantically stretched her waist as her lungs uncompressed and her circulation returned.
She was never in real danger today. This was all just an initiation. A simulation of her pain thresholds and her devotion. She completely volunteered to endure the headmistress's test.
Shizuru shifted her attention toward Cardair's two thrones. The emperor was sitting at the head of palace with his hands crossed in nervous suspense. The empress was covering the side of her face and noticeably blushing. Erstin's younger brothers and sisters had gathered to quietly cheer her on. All of their butlers and maids (the non-Materialising kind) were anxiously waiting to hear the headmistress's opinion.
"H-… how did she do?" Empress Akane asked hesitantly from her seat. Her dark red blush matched the rubies on her crown.
"I can tell you've raised her well, Your Highness. I don't think she'll have any problems being commissioned to Meister." Shizuru answered confidently. "And such a nice girl like her shouldn't have to worry about being alone. I think it's the right time to lift Cardair's Otome Limitation sanctions."
The empire had been defended solely by Akane during her Meister tenure, as a restriction imposed after the war with Nagi and Argos XIV. The sanctions made Akane's contract all the more stressful, but it provided time for the kingdom to heal, so it could be rebuilt as a more peaceful ally toward its neighbors. Under Erstin's leadership, the country would finally be allowed to have its own Meister Otome team again.
Everyone in the room was elated by the good news. The empress's blush faded into a cheerful and hopeful grin. The emperor looked like it was the first time he'd taken a breath in two decades.
"Can Roxy be in my squad?" Erstin was still on the opposite side of the throne room. She awkwardly tilted her neck as all the returning sensation tingled up her spine and went to her head.
"Your Trias partner?" Shizuru nodded while she thought of that beautiful, dutiful Pearl from House Monique. "Of course. I'm sure she'll be delighted to know she's going to be serving in her home kingdom once she graduates. She's just what you need for your first advisor. The two of you go together like crumpets and tea. She reminds me so much of myself back when I was your age."
The skirt ribbons on Shizuru's purple Robe moved like a swarm dangerous and elegant cobras as she approached her favorite protégé from the current Pearl class.
Erstin was still scratching a small divot on her hip where the naginata's chain links had been rubbing her. But the blades never cut through the white nano-polymer covering her skin, and she didn't mind a little physical endurance training. Shizuru was her second best role model next to her own mother.
"You should join us for lunch, Lady Shizuru." The princess happily addressed her combat instructor. "I'll ask the chefs to make your favorite! It's not every day we get a Headmistress from Garderobe as a visitor!"
Shizuru playfully chuckled as she shook her head. Her age was hovering around 50, but the time she spent training Akane's daughter—the daughter of her previous ace graduate from so many classes ago—always seemed to bring back some of her own youth.
"I figured this was going to be a time to celebrate, so I already requested them to make your favorite. Salmon steaks."
Erstin's microphone ears perked upward with joy.
Author's notes:
My thought process going into this was "What if Shizuru was a Dune Reverend Mother?"
The Mahya Mantra was an idea I had recently for another Akane story, but I couldn't come up with any details beyond "Akane is in a troubling situation where Kazu-kun's life and/or the future of Cardair is looking grim and she starts reciting the Mahya Mantra in her head to make herself keep going despite all her self-doubt issues." So I ended up slipping it into this story with her daughter, since I'm probably never going to use it in an Akane story.
"Erstin's gay little friend" Roxy was an idea I had for a background character in "Flying Battery Zone Act 2" (the fanfic I wrote with that title, not the Sonic level). Then she showed up as a main character in "Roppongi Shinjuu" (the fanfic I wrote with that title, not the 1980s Ann Lewis J-Rock song that formed the basis for the Thunder Force IV ending theme). I always like to imply Erstin Krau-xeku could be the Yamashiro of this universe, and she's a child born with an *ambiguous fate*. I made it really, really obvious in her character design sheet I drew in MS Paint a couple years ago, if you've ever seen that. But in actuality, Erstin Krau-xeku is more like the Yui of this scenario, and Roxy is her Yamashiro. (Did you ever watch Mai Otome? They're basically all gay little friends for each other, with Akane being an extreme outlier.)
You know that one sidequest in Stellar Blade where the only thing that happens is some dystopian cyborg dude ambushes Eve with a sneak attack in an alley, and then you just watch a sequence of traumatizing cutscenes from Eve's POV? That's really the perfect metaphor for what it's like when you're an Akane character in a Mai HiME/Otome storyline.