I don't think I left anything unsaid after my last post... Enjoy~
Chapter 26 – Through a Doorway, Truth and Skulls“Have you seen Miyakko?” Chisato asked. Risako shook her head.
“Kowa~i!” Asuna said cutely, and Chisato poked her in the ribs, earning an even cuter pout. She was having trouble lately beating her sister with regard to cuteness, a title she worked very hard to uphold.
“Well, if you’re not a
frightened little girl…” Chisato continued, teasing her. “I wouldn’t say she’s scary, but she’s definitely in a bad mood.”
“Is she?” Risako asked, as she polished the head of her flail. She wasn’t exactly sure why she was so obsessive over polishing it, when it was only likely to get stained again rather quickly with the life they seemed to lead now. Perhaps it was just because she liked things clean. They did of course have to be just so. “And by the way, if you start calling her
Miyakko now…”
“Hey, I’m a Skull!” the girl replied defensively, eyeing the short stubby spikes scattered around the steel head she was polishing. “I suppose I should start acting the part one of these days…”
Risako sighed and stood up, looking at the floor after turning halfway to the two sisters. “Do you have any idea what a Skull really is?” Risako asked quietly.
There was a moment’s pause, before Chisato gave a small “Yes”.
Risako looked up at her. Chisato was stroking her sister’s hair gently while the youngest girl rested her head on her shoulder. Despite her comforting actions though, her eyes held Risako’s piercingly. What she saw in that gaze gave her pause. She didn’t know how, but she knew the girl was right.
“I’m going to look for Miya,” she said quietly, and turned as if to leave.
“I think she and Osuzu broke up,” Chisato said in a tight voice.
Risako froze at the suggestion. “Why do you think that?” she asked in barely above a whisper, her own face drawing tighter. This couldn’t be happening…
“I saw her come from Osuzu’s room this morning,” Chisato responded. “She spent the night there.” Her voice had become soft. “Osuzu left just a bit before and went straight to the attic.”
Risako tried to swallow back the knot that was rapidly forming in her throat.
“Why are you telling me this…?” she managed to ask hoarsely.
“I know how you feel about Miyakko,” Chisato explained. “I don’t want you to go and do anything stupid.”
Risako spun toward her, holding the handle to the flail in front of her chest, her fingers clenched tightly around it. “And you think I’m
less likely to do something stupid
now?”
Asuna was now looking up into her sister’s face with curious eyes. Chisato still looked intensely at her. “I think it’s best if you know the truth,” she said evenly.
Turning away, Risako dragged her flail into the hall. Ever since they started fighting, she’d done her best to hide her emotion within her, emotion that took over all too easily before then. Whenever she saw the girl she had what she thought of now as a schoolgirl crush on, she’d run away, scared to talk to her. She had reason to run of course, since for all they knew then she was more than likely to be beaten up if she hung around. Still, she never tried. She thought of herself as pretty – many of her acquaintances even called her the prettiest in the school – but she just was too unsure of herself. That had changed. Unfortunately, other things had changed as well.
Eventually she saw the girl from her thoughts emerging into the hall from one of the toilets. She was hunched over as if brooding, and seemed to disregard her surroundings. With a heave at the handle, Risako lifted the flail head from where it drug behind her to arc up near the ceiling and fall hard to the ground, making a not insignificant hole in the floor. People she hung out with now looked more at the flail than at her it seemed, and she knew some were wondering how a girl like her could even use such a weapon. Well, appearances could be deceiving sometimes. She was stronger than she looked.
At the crash of the flail into the floor, Miyabi nearly jumped and turned around to stare at her. The girl brought her arms up to her chest to cross them. “What do you want,” she growled in a mean voice.
“I want to know what you did to Airin!” Risako demanded, fury welling up in her eyes as she stared at the Skull, the Skull she feared so much, as well as the one she felt so much for.
Miyabi stared back as if she were insane. “What
I did to her?” she asked incredulously. “What
I did to
her?!?”
“I heard you broke up,” Risako said through thin lips. “She’s my friend, and I won’t have you hurting her like that!”
Miyabi’s lips turned up in a vile-looking lopsided grin. “Oh, you won’t have me hurting her, will you?”
Suddenly she was standing right in front of Risako, her face glaring down so very close to her own. Risako gaped. How could the girl move so fast? She tried to lift her flail again, but a hand that seemed to have a steel grip grabbed her wrist, and the other wrenched the handle from her own tight hold as if it was no effort at all. She threw the weapon down the hall, the spiky ball arcing in the air again before crashing to make another sizable dent in the floor.
“You’d better be careful, little girl,” Miyabi said, reason having apparently fled her. “That I don’t hurt you as well.”
Risako tried to swallow. From the girl’s grip on her hand, she knew what happened. Her old fear returned to her, and she began trying to struggle futilely at her hold. She wasn’t running anymore, but at long last she knew she was about to be beaten to a pulp.
The pride she’d obtained in the battle tried to fight back against her fear, and she felt herself raise her chin. “Go ahead,” she forced herself to say. “Then I can join my friend in her pain.”
Miyabi’s other hand came up, palm flat and tensed in front of her face as if she would swing it at any second. Risako flinched slightly, but succeeded in suppressing any further reaction.
“No…” Miyabi breathed, and her hand, which had now balled into a shaking fist, lowered slightly. She looked hard into Risako’s eyes. “You don’t understand pain.”
Risako looked back into that fierce gaze, and she finally saw the truth in those eyes. Chisato was right; such knowledge was important.
“I’m sorry…” she whispered, and Miyabi released her wrist to take a step toward the wall, laying a hand on it to support her up as she leaned against it, her eyes downcast.
Then, to Risako’s surprise, she heard quiet, raw laughter start to come from the girl. “I suppose that’s the way it’s turned out after all, isn’t it? I thought I was the immoral one, the one who’d punch anybody for a fight, the one who’d take who she wanted… but she surprised me yet again. She’s a truer Skull than I am.”
“That’s not true,” Risako said, reaching a hand tentatively up to rest on Miyabi’s shoulder. When the girl didn’t try to push her away, she squeezed lightly but firmly. “But… there’s a lot I still don’t know. Teach me what a Skull is?” she asked pleadingly, stepping closer to the older girl. “Help me understand your pain?”
Miyabi’s face turned slowly back toward Risako’s. She swallowed as she looked back into those eyes, eyes that now appeared completely different than just a minute ago. They were no longer intense; they were hollow.
“Maybe then you’ll be able to tell me ‘why’…” the Skull whispered in response, before letting Risako guide her away, her just-polished flail left behind buried halfway in the floor of the hallway.
…
“What are you talking about?” Maimi asked finally as they rode one of the women-only cars on the Sobu line into Tokyo from Airi’s home in Chiba.
After hearing Airi’s condition, Maimi had walked straight out of the attic. Airi was right behind, close enough at least to catch Kamei and Shige from trying to stop her, since they had been set to guard the room. To her credit, Maimi ignored them, and thankfully they didn’t come across any others on their way outside. Now, after Maimi had led them onto the train into the city, Airi could only wonder at where they were going. She quietly watched Maimi as the Circle member, and who knew what else by now, looked anxiously through the windows from time to time as if they would be late for something.
“What am I talking about?” Airi asked quietly, pleased that she might finally be able to explain more to the girl. To her surprise, Maimi’s eyes focused on her and she quickly grabbed her hand and held onto it tightly.
“Before we left that… that house,” Maimi said, her nose scrunching as if disgusted at the remembrance.
“That house…” Airi responded thinly. “Is
my house.”
Maimi’s face suddenly relaxed completely, and she looked to Airi apologetically. “I’m sorry. I mean… what are you talking about ‘going as Skulls’? Those girls who hate us? Whatever…” she said, shaking her head. “It’s still you and me and...”
“Maimi,” Airi said firmly, cupping both her hands around the one holding her own. The older girl was a bit antsy, but after Airi’s promise seemed to be, as Airi had hoped, at least willing to comply. “I need you to understand what the Skulls are.”
“What they are?” she responded blankly. “They’re bullies that torture defenseless children. What could they matter?”
“Maimi,” Airi repeated. “
I am a Skull.”
“Nonsense,” Maimi said, completely under her spell even though she was not within the thrall of any of Airi’s magic. “You’re too nice. You’re sweet.” She smiled over at her. “You’re wonderful.”
Airi’s heart gave a little leap at the flattery from the one she loved, but held her ground. “Oh really?” she chided. “Do you forget the things I’ve done to you already? I tried to rip your soul apart!”
Maimi fell back slightly, a haunted look flickering within her eyes as she winced at the memory. “But you said you were just trying to help me… even though I of course didn’t need it,” she followed up quickly.
Airi felt the hand reflexively trying to pull away from her own, though she kept it held tightly between them. “You have no idea of the kinds of things I’m capable of…” she said, trying to wrap a commanding aura around her as she stared hard into Maimi’s eyes. Maimi began to look somewhat fearful again. “Then again, that’s part of what drew you to me, wasn’t it? You saw it before anyone else did…”
She let go with one of her hands and raised it to the older girl’s chin, lifting it slightly as she continued staring into her eyes. Maimi gazed back, transfixed, until she seemed to come back to herself and pulled away, blushing and looking around them self-consciously. It was toward the end of the morning rush hour, and the car was full of other women, but focused on their own lives, they didn’t pay two perhaps “overfriendly” schoolgirls any mind.
“Maybe,” Maimi said, looking down at their hands that were still held atop her knee. “I knew you were special.”
“I
am special,” Airi said. She waited until the girl looked back up to her. She wanted to make sure she had her full attention. “That’s what I’m trying to explain to you about the Skulls.”
“What does that have to do with the Skulls?” Maimi asked, a hint of disgust still in her voice at saying the name.
Airi sat back, pondering the words to explain what she wanted Maimi to know. “I don’t even fully understand it yet, but we have power that was given to us by our ancestors long ago…” She decided not to tell Maimi yet about Mari’s claim about herself being descended directly from Amaterasu, something that she’d come to believe recently, but still wasn’t sure whether she liked.
Maimi perked up. “So you’re like us, how we’re the heirs of the founders of Seishin, and their power.”
“Well…” Airi responded. She still wasn’t quite sure of that connection yet. “In a way.”
“But you’re not like them. They must get their power from evil people. You’re not evil…”
“Some of our ancestors were persecuted long ago by…” She paused. “…by those in power at the time. Ancient Japan, in the time of Himiko, was a place of mysticism and magic.” Her eyes adopted a faraway look. “There was chaos because nobody had enough power to bring it under central rule. The Emperor had no real authority, so those with the respected and feared mystical power fought for it. There were some that had more power than others… more perhaps Divine Right to the rule.
“Some worked in the open, but some preferred the shadows. There was no hope for them as they were, so they had to hope for the future. Unfortunately through that time, the ‘power from the shadows’ came to mean something different in the school that was somehow central to it all. As for now, I think that future has come…” She paused a moment again. “They’re my sisters…” she said, still staring off into nothing.
Silence dragged out for a minute, Airi thinking sadly on past events, and Maimi trying to make sense of what she was saying. “But you… you have different parents… don’t you?” she asked suspiciously. “I mean you… and Natsuyaki…” Her nose scrunched up again in distaste.
Airi snapped out of her pseudo-trance and turned to Maimi, stifling a giggle. “Yes, silly. We’re not literally sisters. But… I know…” She tried to choose her words carefully to avoid giving away too much. “That ancient power we have, the original people it came from were siblings. Nobody before us though has been a direct descendant of that power. It’s more like… a reincarnation. That’s why I feel the sisterly bond to them.”
“That’s still weird, Airi,” Maimi said, her eyebrows narrowing in a scolding look.
“It took me a while to figure out who I truly was…” Airi continued, staring deeply into Maimi’s eyes. “And what I want.”
Maimi swallowed, and beneath Airi’s spell, seemed to come to a realization that had escaped Airi. Her eyes widened slightly. “The red Sun…” she said, never breaking Airi’s gaze. “It doesn’t mean what they… what we… thought it did, does it?” Her eyes began to reflect an image of wonder and awe. “…Who are you?”
Airi smiled. Had she finally swayed the girl? Before she could respond though, a jolt deposited Airi into Maimi’s lap as the train skidded suddenly to a halt. Maimi fell against the window slightly as well, and they heard cries from other passengers at the unexpected motion. When they recovered, Airi’s head lay against Maimi’s leg, and she wrapped her arms around the girl’s waist, pleased at her warmth.
“What the…” Maimi said, craning her neck to look out the window. “We’re somewhere in Sumida…”
The doors to the train opened, and silhouettes rose up of a few stiff figures stepping in. Airi’s comfy smile faded, and she sat up, if with an arm still around Maimi’s waist. She could now see that uniformed policemen had entered the train, and her body tensed. She was ready for them, but she was still not looking forward to the confrontation. Did they actually stop a
train just to catch her?
One of the men, the one most decorated in fact, caught her eye, and he gestured for the two who flanked him to lead him over to the two girls. Each of the men except for the one Airi thought must be the Captain felt the cold steel at their belts nervously, though she didn’t detect fear in their eyes as much as… awe, for some reason.
Maimi straightened as if to address them, but the Captain’s eyes met Airi’s. “I take it you are… Suzuki-san?” he asked, in a carefully controlled voice of his own, and the three men bowed their greetings to her.
Airi stared back at him, feeling Maimi give a look of puzzlement beside her. “Yes…” she said, trying to sound confident even though she was about to be arrested. At least, she tagged that as their intent, even though the bowing seemed rather out-of-place.
“Would you come with us please? We have someone who wants to see you,” the Captain continued.
“You are
not going to arrest her,” Maimi stated in a surprisingly authoritative tone. “I am Maimi Yajima, a Supreme Director at Central, and—”
“Please,” the Captain interrupted, to Maimi’s chagrin. Airi could feel that temper of hers give a flare at the rudeness. He still didn’t even look at her though as he gazed fixedly at Airi. “She is not under arrest. There is just someone who… greatly wishes to see you.”
Airi’s eyes became unfocused momentarily as she noticed another presence standing back toward the doorway, a man not in a uniform but in what looked like a very expensive suit. He was watching them along with the rest of the quietly chattering passengers of the train. His scrutiny betrayed iron-hard attention though.
She felt that Maimi was about to burst out in anger, but instead, Airi gave her a squeeze around the waist that made her hesitate, and Airi spoke up, “I can’t imagine why someone would want to see me,” she said meekly. “But,” she continued, raising her eyebrows as she indicated the stopped train they were in, “It sounds like an offer I can’t refuse.”
The Captain seemed to sigh with relief, as his men did as well, though they were carefully studying the ground as if afraid to meet the girls’ eyes. Airi stood, pulling a worried Maimi up behind her, and she noticed the men’s gaze rise to their legs. “This way, then,” he said, and they walked toward the man in the suit. Airi was glad to have the eyes on their legs gone; some people were just positively
indecent!
She turned to Maimi and shrugged, giving a
“What can you do?” smile. Maimi’s stern, heated gaze in return excited her, but she just pulled her on after the Captain, her curiosity about the man in the suit perhaps overriding her rational sense. After all, even if this was a trap, what did she have to worry about?
…
Risako stared at Miyabi wide-eyed as they shared a drink over Airi’s dining table. “She did
what?” Her composure was once again shaken, and she felt as if she was reverting back to her old, scared self again. She could even barely hold a grip on her flail. Her timid-ness hadn’t changed, but what she cared about did. At least that was what she thought…
Miyabi stared back at her levelly, raising the glass of some kind of orange punch back to her lips for a long swig. “Yeah,” she said afterward. “Natsuyaki Miyabi, beaten at her own game. If Reina were to hear about this…” She lowered her chin nearly to the table, a scowl twisting the corner of her mouth. “
That’s what a Skull is, little girl.”
“She did
what?” Risako asked, her mind striving its best still to wrap around the concept. She hadn’t believed it before, even after she knew by Miyabi’s actions it was true, but it took her actually saying it to get through. How could Airi do this to her? Her best friend! Of course they
were dating… and it’s not like she ever
told Airi what she felt… She flushed. Miyabi was right; she was acting like a little girl.
Miyabi eyed her over her glass. “Why do I feel like you’re taking this harder than I am? Oh that’s right, you had a crush on me, didn’t you.” She looked back to her class, for the first time appearing a bit uncomfortable.
For her part, Risako flushed. “I…” she began, but was distracted by the crack of what sounded like a gunshot from toward the front of the house.
She exchanged a wide-eyed glance with Miyabi, and they ran out into the hall, another shot blasting as they did. Miyabi wrapped an arm protectively around Risako’s shoulders – an action that made Risako quite self-conscious – and the two slowly made their way toward a doorway through which the sounds of shouting seemed to be coming.
“Where is she?!” came a high-pitched yell from a voice Risako didn’t recognize.
“We told you, she’s not here!” came a voice she did recognize in response, although it sounded very desperate.
“Please, you have to listen to us!”The two girls finally reached the doorway and peered around it, to see a rather small girl with a mole in the center of her throat holding a pistol in front of her aimed at a cowering Erina, who was crouched over a heavily breathing Konatsu she was supporting up from the floor. Konatsu had blood soaking through her shirt at her shoulder. Maasa lay apparently unconscious in a chair across the room, Anri kneeling with her hand pressed to a spot just above the right side of her waist.
The gunner looked torn between fury and horror at what she was doing, but she held her weapon steady. A slightly taller girl stood behind her with a sword raised in her hands as if to give close-range support. Erina was the one who spoke, and she gave a hard, brave stare at the two threatening girls.
“Why should I believe you?” the girl with the gun asked, her voice seeming tight. “You’re with
them. Why shouldn’t I just shoot the other two of you and take a look for myself?”
Risako looked up to Miyabi, whose brows were knit in intense concentration. “I can’t get into her head,” Miyabi whispered soft as a feather to her. “The emotion within her is so intense, it’s overwhelming anything I try to do. I could try the one behind her, but I have a better idea.” She turned to look at Risako. “Stay here.” Then she turned back, her arm pulling away from Risako’s waist.
Before she could perform whatever action it was she intended though, the front door burst open and another girl ran in. Risako gasped. This girl she also recognized, but was one she never would have expected to see here.
“Stop it, Yuukarin!” Aika yelled as she skidded to a stop at the edge of the rug near the door. “You’re—”
She cut off though as another gunshot rang loud in the air. At the sudden noise, the anxious attacker had spun toward the door and fired without even registering who had arrived.
Aika stumbled back, holding a hand to her chest and looking disbelievingly down at it before sliding down the doorframe hard to the floor, quickly losing consciousness.
“Stay back!” the girl with the sword yelled, keeping her composure, warning Erina who had half-risen as if to take her opportunity on the shooter.
For her part, the shooter – Yuuka did Aika say she was? – stared at the girl at the door as she slumped forward. Risako was staring in a very similar manner, and she felt Miyabi tense beside her, still unmoving apparently at the shock.
“Why were you here…?” Yuuka asked in a terrified voice, before turning back to the others in the room, pointing the gun back at Erina. “See what you made me do? So tell me where she is!
Now!”
“Shoot her leg,” the other girl murmured to her. “She’s not gonna say anything otherwise.”
Before anyone made another move though, there was a flash from across the room as two girls jumped from the doorway opposite where Risako and Miyabi hid. The attackers couldn’t turn quickly enough before Junjun and Linlin had knocked them down to the floor. The gun flew from Yuuka’s hand and slid to land not far from where Miyabi stood. The other girl kept her grip on the sword, but couldn’t swing it in time, so Junjun ended up fighting with her for it. Linlin looked like she wanted to help, but she had her hands full with trying to keep the frantically struggling Yuuka pinned down.
“Stay here,” Miyabi said suddenly, and she stepped into the room to pick up the gun, which Erina had first jumped to head toward. When she saw Miyabi with it though, she went deferentially back to her charge. Miyabi tried to aim the gun at the invaders, but couldn’t get a clear shot as the two Chinese girls continued fighting with them.
“That’s enough!” came another voice from the opposite door, and Reina strolled commandingly into the room. She threw up her hands, apparently causing vines to burst up through the floor and wrap tightly around Yuuka and her partner. Junjun and Linlin jumped back from the girls they fought with, as they were quickly rendered incapacitated by the sudden growth of vegetation. Risako gave a fleeting thought to Airi’s floor, which now would have sizable holes right inside the front entrance, as well as smaller ones back in the hallway.
Reina took at look over at Maasa and Konatsu as she stalked into the room, before turning a fiery gaze onto the two now helpless and terrified girls. Thunder crashed outside the house quite loudly, but it didn’t take the volume for Risako to know the lightning was likely quite close indeed.
“What is the meaning of this?!” Reina demanded of the two, even though they couldn’t possibly respond now that the vines had completely encircled their bodies and were now snaking around their mouths. Miyabi started walking toward her, and Reina must have caught sight of her, as well as the fallen girl at the door, because she quickly left the trapped two and knelt down to Aika.
Please let her be in time… Risako prayed as she saw the remarkable Skull lay her hands on her friend. Even though Aika had betrayed them by siding with the Circle, she was still her close friend, as well as Airi’s and Chisato’s. Whenever one of the three wasn’t with another, she was usually hanging out with Aika. Plus, Risako didn’t know what had caused the girl to fly in after her supposed allies.
Miyabi, an even sterner and more tightly furious face on her than Reina – Risako in her empathy for the girl thinking that might partly have to do with the others beating her to the capture, as well as the attack on their comrades – walked up to Yuuka and poked the barrel of the gun to the side of her forehead. The vines had finally stopped growing just below their noses, giving the two barely enough space to breath. With the gun pressed to her, Risako could see Yuuka’s chest heave as well as hear a loud muffled cry as if she was truly scared to death. Despite what she’d just done, Risako suddenly began to feel a bit sorry for the girl.
“You’d better talk,” Miyabi growled as Reina concentrated on Aika. “If you don’t, I’m going to pull this trigger.” She cocked the gun as she held it there, and the girl’s cries increased as she tried unsuccessfully to talk through her muzzle. The other captive was shooting Miyabi a glare of the rawest hate. “No?” Miyabi asked. “Okay then…”
She’s going to do it… Risako thought in shock.
She’s actually going to do it! “No!” she shouted, running into the room.
Miyabi’s eyes darted to her, and Risako could feel some of the hate and anger within them as well. “No?” she asked, then looked around the room. “Have you seen what she’s done in here?” She gestured toward the girl Reina was tending to. “She even shot her own friend. She’s only going to get what she deserves.” Risako didn’t detect any remorse in Miyabi’s voice – she had reached a breaking point, and she didn’t think anyone could stop what she was going to do next.
“Please…” Risako whined.
“Don’t…”Miyabi’s gaze didn’t waver though, and she turned back to her helpless victim, whose attempts at speech behind the vine’s grip now turned only to screams.
…
“You really don’t have to come, Nii-chan,” Ai said as they closed back in on the place they’d left in such an explosive way earlier in the day. “It could be dangerous.” In order to distract herself from the surgery Saki was currently having, she decided to try to go find Maimi. However, she wanted to stay true to the promise she’d made to Yuuka, and she would also be grateful for any support she could find that wasn’t a girl she loved and wanted protected at all costs. She glanced to the side at the determined Niigaki walking beside her. Since the last she knew of their other guards was that they were at Central, she thought it would be a good place to start. Plus, if nothing else, she had to make sure they were all okay.
“I go wherever you go,” Risa said in response to the concern she’d uttered at least five times along the way. She gave Ai a sidelong glance. “
Especially to a place that might be dangerous.”
Ai smiled, though with caution. It touched her greatly that the girl felt as she did, but it also made protecting her very difficult sometimes.
After another few blocks, the building that housed Central appeared around a corner. Construction crews had already begun repairing the damage to the front, and the masses of people who seemed to always crowd the downtown street passed by with nary a glance as if there was again nothing out of the ordinary.
As they approached the structure, Ai raised her arm in front of Risa to gesture her back slightly behind her, a direction her girlfriend gave no complaint to. It didn’t look like anyone was waiting outside the building, but with Central the people you needed to pay the most attention to were usually the ones that managed to attract the least.
However, they walked unmolested up to the hole, and the construction staff even just gave them cursory glances as they continued their work. Ai found this odd, but didn’t complain, and instead started up the stairs with caution.
When they reached the landing, they looked around, but nothing seemed to be out of the ordinary. She headed toward the administrative offices, and with a deep breath, and a gesture for Risa to stay well behind her, marched in, trying to wrap as much authority around her as she could.
Officers worked busily at their desks as always, but when the receptionist looked up at her, it wasn’t with the disinterested expression of one who didn’t want to meddle with matters of their top directors. Two officers, armed with rifles, stepped up from behind her before halting in front of the desk, staring at Ai warningly.
“Ai-chan…” Risa said, creeping up to her as door guards began coming in from the sides too.
Ai looked down so she could catch a glance at the girl behind her. “Stay back,” she said, but Risa kept her slow advance forward.
I’m sorry, Nii-chan… she thought to herself, and a gust of wind suddenly whipped up behind her, knocking the girl back out the door as it slammed shut behind. Some of the officers’ weapons jerked up in response to her action, but when they saw it wasn’t intended for them, they held their fire.
Well, Ai thought,
So much for the easy way. She’d hoped it wouldn’t have had to come to this, and she wasn’t even sure if she was up to the challenge. Suzuki might be able to stop bullets as they hurtled toward her, at least as far as she’d heard, but she didn’t know if her own powers were quite that reliable. The perception of her chances became especially dour as more and more officers came toward her with weapons drawn, as well as some differently-dressed people in suits. They still carried guns though, and somehow Ai got the impression they were even more dangerous than the officers.
She heard pounding on the door behind her of Risa likely trying to get in, but a current of wind she’d set against the door held it firmly closed.
“I love you, Nii-chan…” she whispered to herself. She thought briefly of the poor girls they’d left behind, hoping their fate was better than hers looked to be.
She focused inward with intense concentration against the dull noise of the construction outside in an attempt to collect more power than she ever had before. If this was going to result in the end of her life, she would at least take as many of these traitors with her as possible.
…
Airi and Maimi walked hand-in-hand down the street in downtown Tokyo, still being led by the Captain and his two escorts. The main in the suit walked with the two of them on the other side of Airi.
They’d found out, unsurprisingly as far as Airi was concerned, that the man was apparently not the one who wanted to meet them. Who he was though was still quite a surprise. He introduced himself simply as Ken, and that he was a member of the Imperial Household Agency.
Airi had never met someone from the Agency before, but as with all Japanese, she of course knew of them. They were the caretakers of the royal family. What interest they would have in Airi troubled her greatly, and made her wonder at some of the memories she’d begun to acquire lately, as well as the things Mari had said.
Maimi stared fixedly ahead of them. Her attitude had completely changed when she learned their guide was from the Agency, and she had gone along with them willingly. Now, she walked as easily as the others, almost as if she knew the way.
Maimi must have caught her looking over at her, because she spoke up softly, “Yes, I know where we’re going. They’re taking us to the same place I was taking you – to meet Ai-chan and Saki.” She cast a glance across Airi to Ken. “I don’t know why they would be giving us the escort though…”
As they continued walking, Airi caught the odd sight of a building whose front door seemed instead to be a gaping hole. Surprisingly, their escort led them straight there, and they paused for a moment at the bottom of a set of stairs between some workers who were making quite a racket in apparent attempts at restoring the front doorway. Peering up at the blackened edges of the hole, but noticing that inside there was hardly a mark, Airi began to become suspicious about the cause of the rupture.
Maimi was peering around as well, but in surprise as well as, as always, thinly veiled anger. “What happened here?!” she snapped. “I thought this location was supposed to be secret?”
Ken turned to them and bowed an apology. “I apologize for the state of the entrance,” he said in his smooth, almost silky voice. “There was an… incident this morning. But I assure you, no expense is being spared in repairing the building as soon as possible.”
“I think it’s time you tell us why you’re here,
Ken-san,” Maimi said, a hint of disrespect in her voice at their limited knowledge of who he was. She tilted her head toward the Captain and his officers. “I can understand them, but what is a member of the Imperial Household Agency doing here, now? I’m surprised you even know about this place.” She finished with a skeptical raised eyebrow at him.
Ken’s eyes flashed to Airi before returning to Maimi. Airi decided for the moment to let them have their discussion. He adopted a charming smile. “Of course we would know about such as this,” he said, and Airi noticed a bit of the imperial inflection in his voice. “Suzuki-san is a… very anticipated visitor to the premises.”
Maimi’s face adopted a dark expression. “Things must have changed then, because last I knew… last I
directed… her or her friends would have been shot on sight if they came near.”
The man’s smile never faltered. “We did not expect you to be accompanying her, Yajima-san,” he said with a slight bow, as if that explained anything. Then he gestured to include them both. “Please, come with me into the building. I assure that your questions will be answered soon.”
“They’d better be…” Maimi grumbled, but Airi reached up to take hold of her arm before they went forward again.
“Maimi…” Airi said, peering into her face. “Where are we?” Despite the query, she had quite a firm idea of what the place must be.
“Don’t worry,” Maimi responded distractedly as she stared up the stairs, and patted Airi’s hand. “They won’t shoot you as long as I’m here.”
That’s not what I’m worried about… Airi thought. Something tugged at her inside, telling her that what was about to happen was vital to her destiny, but from the setting, she wasn’t sure she liked it one bit. Still, without further word, the two girls followed their formidable escort slowly up the stairs.
As they made their way indoors, they didn’t notice that outside clouds were rapidly forming above them, thunder beginning to roll gently from within. Those observant of the weather in the area recognized the pattern that soon began to swirl, even though they were amazed that it was occurring right above the city. It appeared to them as if a typhoon was forming in their midst.