Finally I managed to write this to my satisfaction... Thanks for your comments everyone! I know chapter 11 was maybe less than I promised, even though you all seemed to really enjoy it, but I hope any deficiencies will be made up here.
This is actually kind of an early climax...
To warn you, this is quite long again, but I've broken it up in a few spots to help make it easier.
Feel free to take a break if you're getting tired of reading at one of those points lol. I just had to keep it all together, because it's all one story... Anyway, Merry Christmas and I hope you enjoy my little present to you!
Chapter 12 – Hearts of Fire, Hearts of Darkness“A witch!
That’s what I’ll call myself!” Ai Takahashi said as she looked into a mirror standing against the wall. It was an old and very elaborately carved mirror, with patterns up and down its sides and little faces of what looked like wild animals at the corners. “It’s just like Harry Potter!” she exclaimed, excitement bubbling inside her now. See? She was not such a different Ai Takahashi. She still had her inimitable cuteness!
She turned from the mirror and looked around the rest of the room that was designated as hers in the large structure that composed the private domain of Circle members. It was really a rather homey place… if you could call homey a place made mostly out of dark stone from an era before Japanese hardly even knew how to work it. It stood in sharp contrast to the mostly wooden buildings around her; especially the modern renovated ones that composed each House. It was the traditional home for the Circle, although Ai wondered if it wasn’t really more of a fortress. In which case, what was it supposed to offer protection from?
She’d come to this room for a little time to herself while she was able to enjoy it. She would have normally thought that on a weekend such as this she’d be studying somewhere, maybe with Risa. It’s funny how things don’t always turn out the way you think, isn’t it?
At the moment, she was still trying to reconcile herself to the new things it appeared she could do. If they were meant for some greater purpose, she was going to find it out for herself, despite whatever Maimi and Saki would advocate. Those two girls were young anyway; young and brash. She had to be careful not to just trust and go with whatever path they set themselves on.
In reality though, it seemed like only Maimi was the one advocating every route they’d take. Saki was a good restraint to her, but the Goto girl seemed to have little to say herself most of the time, except for a tidbit or two of knowledge when it was called for. Still, beginning with those little bits of knowledge, Ai felt she had reason to believe there was much more that lay beyond the girl’s small, quiet exterior, and really, she was more worried about her than about Maimi.
Her father had always told her,
“You can trust the talker because you never have to make judgments on what lies behind his words, because he’ll always tell it straight out, but never take your eyes off the modest, for he could be hiding a knife to your back without you ever knowing it.” Her father was a veteran of the self-defense force and a fan of war discourse, so she always took his words lightly. She hadn’t thought his sayings about strategy and how to decipher your enemies would ever apply to anything she’d come across.
Sighing at the thoughts of her two comrades in the Circle, she turned back to the mirror. “I’m a witch, and I just have to find out why,” she told herself. A good place to start would be with the mystery of others who seemed to be similar to her – who might be witches too. Frowning at herself, she straightened her hair a bit. It seemed there was nothing she could do about it since she had gotten it cut before returning for the school year.
While she was fussing over her hair, a tentative knock came at the door. “What is it?” she asked in a somewhat annoyed voice. This was supposed to be her alone time.
She heard the door open, but no other sound for the moment. The reflection the mirror gave her was of the wall next to the door, so she couldn’t see at first who came in, but in the next second a girl stepped into its view. “…Ai-chan?”
Ai stared, her hand falling from her hair. Then she turned around and stared again. “What are you doing here?” she asked, beginning to get quite anxious. So much for trying to be in control of a situation.
Risa looked taken aback at her brisk tone. “I…” she began. “I’ve been looking for you. I suppose I should have guessed you would be here. I didn’t think I could get in either, but I had to try and see you…” She took a step or two closer to Ai, who backed up against the mirror. “Yajima-san let me in,” she continued. “She had this strange smile and looked at me like she was amused by something. She’s a strange girl…”
Of course. Just like always, there the two of them went trying to interfere with her life again. When would those confounded girls learn to leave her alone?!
“I’m sorry, Nii-chan,” she said quickly. “I was just… surprised to see you here. I don’t think anyone but the three of us has come into this building since I moved here.” Despite her calmer tone, her back pressed hard against the mirror as if she wished it was a portal to some far-off land. Or any land really. Just as long as it wasn’t here, where she had to face the girl whose deep friendship with her she thought she’d ruined forever.
“I wanted to talk about what happened in our room earlier today…” Risa said, apparently realizing Ai wasn’t going to budge, and walking over to sit cross-legged in a chair, seeming somewhat uncomfortable herself.
“Our room?” Ai repeated, feeling stupid at not being able to come up with something better to say.
Risa nodded slowly. “Yeah. When you… you know… kissed me…” She said the last two words much softer than the rest, and with a light blush, obviously uncomfortable with them still.
“Well Nii-chan,” Ai said, finally pulling away from the mirror and trying to don a winning smile. “I had just been through quite an ordeal, and I’m sure I wasn’t in my right mind and…” She stopped herself. What was she saying? She saw Risa’s brightness fade with her every word. Why did she have to dodge it? Couldn’t she just say what she really felt? At least then she would be honest with herself, and whatever happened would happen.
“I’m sorry,” she said, lowering her head and twiddling her thumbs. “I’m not good at trying to make up excuses.” She looked back up into Risa’s eyes. The girl’s even and trusting gaze in return pained her, because she didn’t know if she’d ever see it again, but she made herself continue.
“I’d just learned something that I couldn’t believe. I… You know me, I live in my own fantasy world half the time. Then it seemed like I really
was in some kind of fantasy world. I thought I must have been dreaming, so I decided I’d take advantage of it and do something I thought I’d never actually do.
“You remember when Maimi and Saki came into our room?” Risa nodded, watching her quietly. “Maimi said we should kiss… but that just made everything awkward… and for some reason that was fresh in my mind, so that’s what I decided to do to prove it was a dream.
“However… as you know… it wasn’t.” She looked earnestly into her friend’s eyes this time, trying her best to express to her the conviction she felt about what she was saying.
“The way you reacted… It terrified me. I’d never seen you look like that before. It was like you hardly knew me. I could accept that, because I was acting completely out of character—“
Thinking about Mikitty betrayed the lie in what she just said, but that was something obviously best not brought up in this circumstance. Why did she have to make such a mistake anyway? Despite the feelings she thought she had for the woman, now that many things were quickly becoming much more real in her world, she began to realize everyone was right. She
had just been another of the girl’s trophies. She could even imagine the girl keeping her panties or something as proof. The thought made her shudder, and it honed her anger again toward the girl and what she stood for.
“However,” she finally continued, in a somewhat choked voice at her most recent line of thought. Risa still watched her calmly, taking in every word she said. “It might have been out-of-character for me, but when it happened I realized that it was really what I wanted. My inhibitions were lowered, and I was just able to… well, to kiss you. To show you how I feel.”
“How do you feel?” Risa asked gently, standing up now and walking to close in front of her.
Ai kept her eyes on her friend’s. “That you’re the person who’s always been there for me, through everything that’s happened as long as I can remember. Anything I might have had before was really only an affair I couldn’t commit to. I just couldn’t realize what I truly wanted. What I truly wanted… was you.” She finished in a voice barely above a whisper.
“Ai-chan…” Risa said, lifting her hand to brush a strand of hair behind Ai’s ear. “You don’t know how long I’ve wanted to hear you say that. I wonder if it’s really true though…”
“It is,” Ai stated firmly, looking hard into Risa’s eyes.
Her friend nodded. “I can see you believe that. But I also see there’s something else going on in there.” She rested a finger on Ai’s forehead, and its touch seemed to cause warmth to spread outward from it and all the way down her body. “You’re bothered by something, and it’s not me. To really be what I want… I’d need you to let me in…”
Ai clenched her mouth tightly, trying to stop emotion from overwhelming her. “I will,” she responded resolutely. Then, before she let the girl slip away from her again, she leaned into her and wrapped her arms around her in a tight hug. “This time I’ll do it right.”
After a moment of just enjoying the other girl’s closeness Risa pulled back, and Ai did as well to look again into her face. It was smiling this time. “I’m happy to hear that,” Risa said softly. “But I think just a little bit of
wrongness will be okay.” Then, with a grin, she leaned forward and pressed her lips against Ai’s – just for a few seconds, and in a very innocent way in contrast to earlier in their room, but it still felt wonderful to her.
They broke apart at a cough from the doorway. “I hate to break up this apparent start of something
disgustingly beautiful,” Maimi said, and when Ai and Risa looked over at her they noticed her grin. “But our visitor is waking up. Since you’re the one who wanted to ‘talk’, I thought you might like to see her?”
After her offer, she turned and headed back out the door and down the hall. The two girls could hear her continue though as she went. “What the point of
talking is though, I couldn’t
begin to imagine…” If she said anything more, she was too far away for them to hear.
Ai and Risa looked back at each other, and they both blushed, falling into soft laughter, but still holding each other close. Then Risa adopted a more serious face. “What’s she talking about, Ai-chan?” she asked. “You have another visitor? I thought you said I was the only other person you’d ever seen come in here.”
“You
are the only person I’ve ever seen come in here,” Ai said, as she took Risa’s hand and guided her across the room and out the door as well. “…willingly.”
…
After a long quiet trip that followed Ai’s solemn explanation, the two girls walked into a dusty old room in the basement that looked as if it had once been used for storage. Maimi and Saki were already there, and they looked over at the other two girls’ entrance from their quiet vigil of someone who was seated in a weathered old wooden chair, sturdy rope tied around her midsection, and her hands tied around her back as well. She was free to speak, but her eyes opened and closed slowly as if she was still waking up from a long sleep. Her lip was no longer bleeding, but was still swollen. Ai wondered again where Saki had gotten the herb for the tea they’d made her drink when they first brought her here.
“Ai-chan…” Risa said, looking around at the unusual situation, and narrowing her eyes slightly at the girl in the chair. “What’s going on?”
“What is she doing here?” Saki asked, looking at Risa plainly as if she thought the girl was someplace she did not belong.
“She’s my guest—” Ai began, but Maimi broke in.
“I thought it would be fun to have a little more company! We get so little you know, and having one guest here just made me ache for more!” She cocked her head a little now as she studied Risa. “I’m surprised to see them both here like this though. I take it you two must have sorted things out between yourselves? I know kissing usually works wonders for that sort of thing…” She grinned as she finished.
Saki adopted a slightly disgusted look that she now gave to Maimi. Ai wondered if the Goto girl knew some specific examples of Maimi’s involvement in “that sort of thing”, but Maimi just shrugged and smiled innocently.
“Fine,” Saki said in seeming acceptance. “Makes no difference to me. I still don’t think it’s a good idea though.”
“My dear Saki-chan…” Maimi said, raising a hand to pat her friend on the shoulder. “You have to learn to trust a little. Not everyone is a monster.” Saki responded with silence and a very level look.
“…Where am I?” came a voice from the center of the room, and the attention of all four girls turned to its source.
“So, our less willing guest finally awakens!” Maimi said, striding over to the chair and the girl seated in it.
Natsuyaki looked up at her groggily. “Yajima-san?” As if at a sudden realization, she jerked back slightly in the chair, but her bounds held her fast.
Maimi laid her finger underneath the Skull’s chin and lifted her up to face her. “Yes, you’re remembering right,” she said softly. “That I struck you is probably the
last thing you remember, no?”
Natsuyaki nodded, blinking quickly in a seeming effort to make herself alert as quickly as possible. “No point trying to clear your head…” Saki said, coming up on the side of the chair. “The tea I gave you will make you feel sleepy for quite a while yet, so there’s no point trying to use your magic.”
Ai felt Risa’s eyes on her, and she turned to her friend, who searched her face. “What are they talking about, Ai-chan? Magic?”
After the questions, Ai stepped toward the chair herself. “What they’re talking about, Nii-chan…” she said, and she also felt the eyes of the other girls in the room when she spoke. “Is that this is a very dangerous girl.” She looked down hard into Natsuyaki’s eyes, which still looked back at her challengingly.
“Not only that,” Maimi interjected, “But she has also been very naughty. Did you know that before we caught her she was slamming your dear Ai-chan’s pretty little head into the floor? I don’t dare to think of what would have happened to her if we hadn’t arrived in time.”
“Ai-chan…” Risa said, coming up to her side and looking into her face again. “Is that true? Was she hurting you?” Ai nodded slowly, still not taking her eyes from Natsuyaki’s.
“I only fought back,” the bound girl growled up at them. “I fought back when it looked like
she was trying to
kill me.”
“Shut up, you sick pervert,” Risa said sharply, causing all the other girls to look at her in surprise. “Ai-chan would never do anything of the sort, but beating up defenseless girls is what you’re known for, isn’t it?”
“She’s hardly defenseless!” Natsuyaki retorted, shaken by Risa’s harshness yet apparently quite accustomed to people accusing her of such things.
Well, Ai thought grimly.
That’s because they’re true.
Still… Risa was about to bite back at the girl again, but Ai forestalled her. “I have to give her that,” she admitted, and Risa turned to face her. She was amazed at the anger she saw in her friend’s face. “That’s one thing you need to know, Nii-chan. The main reason she got the best of me was just because I’m not used to a fight.”
Then she grabbed Risa’s arm and pulled her back away from Natsuyaki. Maimi and Saki seemed to get the hint and backed quickly away from her as well. Natsuyaki just glared at her in hatred.
Ai closed her eyes and felt for the air around her. She felt her arms rise slightly as if pushed up by the air beneath them, and she focused it toward the girl who sat not far in front of her. She felt something swirl inside her head, and projected it to her target. Opening her eyes, she looked at the glaring Natsuyaki through a current of air circulating around her that picked up much of the dust from the floor.
The cyclone intensified, until the girl inside was almost completely distorted from view, and the chair rose up in the air and began spinning also as it was played with by the wind like it was nothing more than a toy. She didn’t hear anything from inside if the girl was screaming or crying, but out of the corner of her eye she caught Maimi staring at the whirlwind in grim satisfaction, visibly pleased at what her apparent enemy was going through. As if to accentuate the turmoil within, thunder cracked outside, and through a window near the ceiling the sky appeared to darken.
Ai wondered again what had happened to cause Maimi to hate the girl so. Being a Skull was almost validation in itself, but Ai could tell whatever was between those two girls ran much deeper. She needed to understand more of what was going on around her. She thought back to when Maimi and Saki had come on the two of them in that basement corridor. What was it the girl had said as she advanced on Natsuyaki?
She was unable to come up with the answer, as her memory of that time was still very dim, and coming back to the present, she drew some of the power out of the cyclone in front of her. It faded until they could see the chair and girl within, still spinning fast, and she carefully let it die down to where it set the chair back down nearly where it had begun, although the girl in it was slumped, extreme nausea and dizziness obviously affecting her. She even fell forward and vomited on the ground just in front of the chair, narrowly missing her own clothes.
Maimi advanced on her, still smiling, and looked down at the mess. “Well well, I don’t know if I could have done anything better than that myself. You know there will be more, but we’d also like to ask you some questions. If you answer them well, maybe I’ll keep Saki-chan away from you at least.”
Miyabi blinked and raised her head, though it was still wobbling on her neck in her motion sickness. She tried to look up at the girl above her, but seemed to have a difficult time focusing. Ai blinked too. She realized someone was holding her hand. She turned to face Risa.
“Ai-chan…” she asked very quietly. “Did you do that?” Ai nodded, and Risa swallowed and looked back at Natsuyaki. “I won’t deny she might have deserved
something, but don’t you think you went a little overboard?”
“Nii-chan,” Ai said, taking Risa’s shoulders and turning the girl to face her. She saw her friend looking into her face with a new emotion – one of tightly restrained fear. “You have no idea what this girl has done. What they all are doing. Something is happening to this school, but it’s bigger than the school. I need to know that you’re going to be with me whatever happens. Won’t you?” As if to accentuate her question, a louder peal of thunder cracked outside again. The lightning must be close. Ai gave it no thought though.
Risa looked hard into her eyes, but after a moment she nodded. “Of course I’ll be with you Ai-chan. I know where you stand.” She looked over at Natsuyaki, who seemed to finally be losing her sickness, though Maimi’s grin widened along with her recovery. Apparently she was looking forward to the girl being fully back to herself again so she could “appreciate” what Maimi would do to her. “I know where
they stand,” Risa finished in a low and even voice. Then, Ai hugged her tightly amid the strengthening sounds of thunder outside. At least she would have one loyal and trusted friend through it all.
“Ai-chan,” Maimi said, throwing her voice in her direction even though she kept her eyes on the captive girl before her. “I know you have reason to be angry with her too, but can you cut out a bit of that thunder? It’s getting distracting.”
Ai brought her mind back to the room and pulled away from Risa, who smiled reassuringly back at her. Then she fully noticed what was going on around her.
“Maimi…” she said slowly after a slight hesitation. “I’m not angry. Far from it. What’s happening outside isn’t because of me.”
Maimi sighed heavily. “Don’t tell me it’s an
actual storm…” she said in frustration.
“No…” came a strong and surprisingly amused voice from in front of her. Natsuyaki slowly raised her head to Maimi’s face. Despite it all, the girl was grinning, and there was a very dangerous gleam in her eye that almost made even Ai’s breath catch. “They’re coming for me.”
As her grin widened, so did Maimi’s eyes, and just as it looked like Maimi was going to deck her with a blow that might even have knocked her and her chair over, she suddenly vanished, the ropes that had bound her falling loose on the chair and on the floor.
“No!” Maimi cried, though this time it wasn’t punctuated by a dull clap of thunder. This time they heard a sound like an explosion that shook the dust from the rafters of the ceiling. Ai hugged Risa tightly back against her again. The explosion could only mean one thing: the building itself was under attack.
As Maimi and Saki began running for the stairs, she jolted after them as well, dragging Risa with her. Not now! Not while Risa was in here! Her anger became fueled until it was white-hot again. If anything happened to her…
…
“I
still don’t know why you’re bringing me along…” Risako whined in an insistent yet nearly terrified voice as she stared at the building that loomed closer and closer before them. “I don’t even know what
you’re doing!”
“Me neither,” Airi told her as she marched along clutching her friend’s hand tightly so she wouldn’t escape. Chisato walked at her other side, giving the two of them skeptical looks. “But we have to do something to help Miyabi.”
“All right,” Reina said, and the small company drew up while they were still a short ways back from a large wooden door set into a very large building of stone that was bleached almost white. The Ivory Tower didn’t get its name from nothing. Reina stared at the door as if the look itself would cause it to open.
“Maybe we should just knock?” Koharu offered earnestly.
“Yeah that’d work really well,” Reina replied “
’We’re sorry, but we think you’ve kidnapped one of our friends. Could you please return her to us?’ I’m sure that’d fly real well, and they’d open the doors right away to welcome us in for chai and cookies. Besides,” she continued, still staring at the door. “I’ve tried it before from time to time. It’s always locked tight.”
“You have?” Koharu gasped, obviously quite impressed.
Reina finally turned her glance toward her younger companion. “You can pick up your jaw from the ground now,” she said bitterly, and turned back again to the door. “Some Skull you are…”
“She has a point…” Chisato began timidly. “How are we going to get in?”
“Well,” Reina replied, and she stretched her arms in front of her, rolling up her sleeves and cracking her knuckles. “I thought I might try to do something about that.”
Then she became very quiet, and the other girls looked at each other, although none spoke as if afraid they would corrupt something miraculous that was about to happen. Airi waited and watched Reina. What did the girl think she could do?
As the seconds rolled by, Airi felt the Sun above them become masked by clouds that rolled in quickly. She felt like something was missing with the Sun’s disappearance, though looking up, she could still pinpoint exactly where it was in the sky.
Was Risako right? Did she really look into the Sun so often without even realizing it, and without experiencing any adverse effects? She of course knew enough to know that looking straight into it was bad for you, that it could even blind you, so the thought scared her a little. She waved her hand in front of her eyes. She didn’t think she was blind…
The clouds darkened quickly, and thunder began to roll too. They even began to feel light waves of rain falling down onto them. As she continued to look, lightning flashed up in the clouds. Some appeared to streak to the earth, but nowhere near them.
She felt Risako press up tightly against her side.
“Aiiiriiin…” she whined. “What’s going on?”
Airi looked back down to Reina, who was still staring at the door, although with an intense look of concentration, and even… anger?
“It’s no use,” the Captain of the Skulls said in a low voice between gritted teeth. “I can’t control it well enough. It’s just reacting to my emotions, and I can’t focus it anywhere.” Airi felt Risako press even tighter against her, and now noticed Chisato subtly scooting her way too.
“Maybe Miyabi isn’t there?” Airi asked, trying to be helpful. “It might make the most sense, but we didn’t know they actually did it…”
Airi?She blinked as she felt a voice reverberate within her mind, as if it was trying to reach her through a current of energy. “What?” she asked dumbly, and she felt the girls next to her look at her. She also felt very self-conscious after apparently answering a question from no one. However, the voice came to her again, and now she thought she recognized it.
I’m trying to get out, but they’re making me sick… they’re horrible…! In case I don’t… Please help me…Airi felt her eyes look below the door to the ground just in front of it, and suddenly she knew without a doubt that Miyabi was in there.
“She’s there,” she stated, and the other girls looked at her curiously at her quick change of mind.
Ignoring them, she walked forward toward the door even while getting quite wet in the strengthening downpour. “Someone stop that rain…” she said with a voice that sounded distant even to herself, and she waved her arm vaguely out to her side. All of the falling rain completely vaporized, and none more came although the thunder still continued louder than ever, but she hardly even noticed. She was feeling something very warm rising within her, beating as if along with her heart. Hearing the plaintive voice of the girl she’d just kissed had triggered it as if flipping a switch inside of her.
She passed Reina, who looked at her with intense curiosity, and spared a glance back to see the other girls watching her fearfully. They’d seen what happened with the rain, even if Airi didn’t register it herself. Risako and Chisato were even hugging each other.
When she had crossed about halfway to the building, she fell to her knees, the sensation inside of her threatening to overwhelm her. “Need to get in…” she said, looking at the ground.
Please help me…The voice hadn’t returned, but she still heard it repeating inside of her head. “Need to get in!” she shouted, and she raised her head sharply to the door. At the same moment a blinding flash came from it along with the excruciating sound of an explosion. Even though it was so bright and sudden that some of the other girls screamed and turned away, Airi stared directly into it. It was her light. No… She
was the light.
The flash faded as abruptly as it began, and all that was left was an open doorway. The door itself was nowhere to be seen, but it looked like neither the rest of the building nor the frame had even been scorched.
“Special indeed…” Airi heard Reina say from behind her as the feeling within her quickly subsided and she came back to reality.
She gaped at the door and then stood up, turning to look behind her. Reina was gazing at her intently, but the other girls, with the exception of Koharu who was just very shaky and blinking as if having a hard time seeing, had fallen to the ground. Risako almost seemed to be weeping. Airi ran quickly over to her, followed by Reina.
“…Knew there was something about you,” she heard Risako whimper with a sniff as she came up, and she knelt down to lay a hand on the girl’s shoulder. Risako looked up, and with a completely different expression yelled at her, “You could have at least told us you were going to do that, you know!”
“I would have appreciated that too…” Koharu said, blinking. “I can hardly even see now…”
Without thinking, Airi stood up and walked over to the Nakazawa fourth-year. She laid a hand on her arm, and a second later Koharu blinked again and looked at Airi. “Well that’s much better.” Then she cringed upon seeing Airi so close. “T-thank you…” Airi was again very conscious of Reina’s eyes on her back.
“You!” came a furious shout from the direction of the building. They all turned to see Maimi stepping into the doorway, Shimizu just behind and what looked like two other girls in the shadows further back. Maimi had eyes for no one but Airi though. “How dare you come to this place after rubbing it in my face when I invited you here!
“And you!” she said, shifting her focus to Reina and gesturing at the missing door. “Your tuition just went up! This door was expensive! I’m sure your daddy will like that!”
Reina just smiled at her in that relaxed and amused way of hers. “That wasn’t my doing…” she chimed, and looked over at Airi, drawing Maimi’s eyes back to her.
“What are you talking about!” the Head of Matsuura demanded, but despite her feigned ignorance Airi noticed her hand go to her well re-bandaged arm.
“What have you done with Miyabi?” Airi asked, and despite her better judgment she advanced on the Circle members slowly. They took defensive postures warily, and coming closer, Airi thought she noticed one of the girls in the shadows pulling the other behind her as if in a protective way.
“That slut?” Maimi asked, and she even laughed in a very off-kilter way. “Many things… but not a fraction of what I
wanted to. Tell me, are you responsible for
that too?” She smirked as she taunted Airi, showing obvious disdain for any of her supposed abilities. Her hand never strayed from her injured arm though.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Airi said, her brow furrowing.
Maimi laughed again, and from behind her Airi heard Reina call her name warningly, but she didn’t heed it. Suddenly, Maimi turned and snapped to the girl next to her. “Saki! Teach the little whelp a lesson!”
Then Airi felt her eyes drawn to Shimizu’s, who looked back at her intently. She heard another, more desperate, warning come from Reina, but already she felt her mind buzz as it was being tampered with.
“No!” she yelled, and raised an arm instinctively toward her mental assailant. Shimizu's eyes widened and she fell to the floor.
“Ahhhh!" she wailed, and held her head as if it was on fire. Then Airi realized that was exactly what was happening, and dropped her arm again to her side. Shimizu still fell completely to the floor though, panting heavily and obviously more than disoriented.
Maimi looked to her companion with wide eyes, and then back to Airi. “What did you do to her!” she demanded, and Airi felt the air around her begin to get very cold very quickly.
“You should know very well what I did to her, Demon,” Airi said in a low voice, now completely engaged toward the girl she stared at, words coming to her seemingly from nowhere. “It is your mark, isn’t it? You’ve defiled the natural order, just for your power. To what end though?”
Then she raised an arm slowly toward Maimi, who stared at it as if at a viper. Then she screamed. She screamed as if her very soul was being torn from her. It wasn’t her soul though, Airi realized. There was something else… But there was also a connection. A strange union… And then, she felt a different bond… this time toward herself.
“Stop it!” yelled someone from behind Maimi, and she saw Takahashi come into view to try and hold the girl up. “What are you doing to her?!” She glared at Airi, and Airi’s world shattered in deafening sound and almost unbearable pain.
…
The next thing Airi knew she was lying on the ground, but it was far away from where she had just been. She tried to rise, but felt the remnants of a sharp pain in her side.
“Itai…” she said, wincing. Still, she managed to sit up through the ache and look around her. She felt her side as she noticed that she was in a forest somewhere. Birds were even twittering around her. It appeared to just be a bad bruise.
“…Airi?” she heard someone say from beside her, and she turned to the voice.
Almost unable to believe her eyes, she stared at Miyabi, who was kneeling on the ground too, seemingly just in the middle of brushing herself off. “Miya…?” she asked.
“In the flesh,” Miyabi responded, a grin blooming on her face.
“Oh Miya!!!” Airi wailed, and amid the pain she lunged over and hugged the girl’s waist tightly. She felt Miyabi awkwardly patting her head, but there was no way she was going to let her go. “I thought they’d done something to you!”
“Well they very nearly did,” she responded, and Airi loosened just enough to look into her face. She still wasn’t going to let her go again though. “What I didn’t expect though was to see you flying right next to me from out of nowhere.” She broke into a toothy grin again. “Just couldn’t stay away from me, could ya?”
“No,” Airi said earnestly, and Miyabi blinked at her seriousness.
“Now that I have you in this position though,” Miyabi said thoughtfully after orienting herself again, “There’s something that I need to do…” Airi felt the girl’s hand below her chin, and it tilted Airi’s face up to her own before she leaned in and kissed her hard.
Much harder than when Airi had done the same to her. After a moment of it, Airi even felt herself blushing.
“Am I dreaming?” Miyabi asked her as they parted, looking carefully into her face.
“I don’t think so…” Airi replied faintly, still struck by the kiss. “Unless I’m dreaming too…” She paused and thought a moment. “Which may be very possible. I
did seem to black out, after all…”
Miyabi smiled. “If it
is a dream, I’m not sure that I want to wake up. It started out pretty poorly, but it’s suddenly become much more pleasant…”
“Miya…” Airi asked, raising her own hand to the girl’s chin. Miyabi seemed a little surprised at the affectionate gesture, but didn’t back away. What had they done to her? Whatever it was, she seemed quite well enough now. And in that case, especially since they’d just kissed
again…
“I need to ask you something…” Airi said tentatively.
“Shoot,” the girl responded.
Airi looked up into her face. “Are you my girlfriend now?”
Miyabi blinked, but before she could answer a rustling came from the side and four girls burst into the small clearing they occupied. They both clutched each other tightly at the surprise and for mutual protection, but relaxed when they saw who it was.
“Oh my god!” Reina cried, eyes agog at them. “You two are going at it
again!”
Airi felt herself blush, but kept her arms purposefully around Miyabi. They were
not... going at it! She was just asking a question… a very important question. She looked back into Miyabi’s face, but the other girl’s attention was fully on the new arrivals.
“I guess you’re both all right after all…” Chisato said, staring at them. Risako looked scandalized.
“How can you do this after what just happened!” Koharu shouted, showing a strange amount of aggressiveness for her usually playful and sarcastic attitude. She looked around at her companions. “Speaking of… what the hell
did just happen!” Even though she looked at them all, it was primarily to Reina and Airi she spoke.
Reina gave a sigh of exasperation. “Why does everyone always look at me like
I have all the answers! I don’t know any more than you do!”
“Right…” Chisato said, causing her Captain to sigh again.
“Are you guys okay?” Airi asked, suddenly remembering the situation. She loosened her grip slightly on Miyabi, but surprisingly the girl pulled her back. Apparently she wasn’t the only one that didn’t want to let go.
“Yeah,” Reina said, studying a now chastened-looking Chisato carefully. “After that lightning blast tossed you off this way, Takahashi and the other girl pulled the two you’d gotten to inside. Of course we came to find you, and I expected I’d need to show you once and for all the healing I can do, but from what I can tell you look just fine and dandy. I could have really used the validation too after being stupid enough to lose control of things to that girl…” She grumbled that last as if chastising herself.
“I
am bruised a bit…” Airi complained, noticing the pain in her side again.
Reina turned to her with a hard frown. “Deal with it,” she told her. Then her expression softened. “Unless you can tell me what
else happened out there. What did you do to Yajima and Shimizu?”
Airi stared off into the trees, trying to remember back to those moments. “I’m not sure…” she said. “It felt like my instinct just took over. Shimizu tried to do something to me, and I just wanted to stop her, and then… I felt something inside Maimi…”
Miyabi coughed. “Since thinking about anything inside Yajima paints a horrible picture for me, can we just give it a rest for now? She’s obviously been through a lot. We’ve
both been through a lot. I think…” She grinned at Airi, causing her to blush again. “I
think we could use some time to ourselves now…”
“Oh come on…” Reina said. “You two sure pick the weirdest times…” Chisato and Risako even turned away in embarrassment, though Airi noticed Risako clench her fists very tightly to her sides as well.
“To begin with…” Miyabi said, pulling Airi’s face back around to look into hers. “I think you asked me a question, didn’t you? Maybe this will be answer enough…” Then Airi felt the girl’s arms wrap very tightly around her as she kissed her once again, this time ignoring everyone else around. Airi was very self-conscious about the display they were putting on at first, but eventually she got lost in the feeling and just enjoyed the girl’s intimacy with her.
However, it was once again interrupted by people walking into the clearing. This time though, they all gazed at the new arrivals in complete surprise.
“Well…” a deep and mature, yet very feminine, voice said. Airi recognized it at once. It recalled a time to her that she felt she wouldn’t forget. “I’m glad to see the Skulls name carried on in such an
exciting way.”
Miki Fujimoto smiled at Airi and Miyabi when she talked, and so her meaning was obvious, though the smile faded quickly. “We hoped to get here in time,” she continued. “Although from what we’ve just seen out there, I’m afraid we might have been just a tad too late…”
She looked behind her at a silhouetted form that was much shorter than her. “You’re lucky girls,” Fujimoto continued. “I didn’t realize what I’d missed in my time here. There’s someone who wants to talk to you.” Then, the shadowy form walked slowly up to them.
…
“Maimi,” Ai said, wiping a damp cloth along her forehead. “Are you all right?”
“How
dare you kiss her… erm… urg…” Maimi mumbled, and then she opened her eyes. “Where am I?” she asked weakly.
“We’re still at home,” Ai told her. “You’ve been passed out for a while now. We weren’t sure you’d be all right.” She looked up nervously to Risa, who smiled reassuringly back.
“What happened?” Maimi asked, trying to get up from the futon she lay on. The two Nakazawa girls pushed her back down though.
“I don’t know,” Ai said. “But at least I was able to stop her from making it worse. The way you screamed… it was horrible. That’s the second time now. I think you should stay away from her.”
Maimi stared up at the ceiling as if considering Ai’s words. Ai didn’t believe for a second that she’d listen to her, but she had to try. Remembering the girl’s scream still made her shudder.
While she was thinking, Saki wandered in, still seeming a bit shaken herself. She’d recovered rather quickly from the young girl’s attack, but it was plainly still affecting her. Ai thought she had a fever by how red her face was. She also noticed the girl kept herself tightly under control. She wondered what the reason for that was. Saki always seemed to stay cool as much as possible, but as much effort as she was putting into it now made it so much more obvious she was keeping a tight rein on something. Ai wondered what would happen if she lost control. She glanced back worriedly at Risa again.
“Good, you’re awake,” Saki stated, and came up to Maimi. “Can you move?”
“Yes, I think so,” Maimi said quietly, much in contrast to her usual personality, and tried sitting up again. This time Ai and Risa let her, but still watched her carefully. She seemed fine though.
“Good,” Saki said again. “I’m sorry to push you, but he’s best not kept waiting.”
“Who?” Ai asked, and Saki turned to her.
“Aside from Niigaki and those girls with the Skulls, apparently some other students witnessed what just went on. With us out of commission here, that means it’ll be all over the school by nightfall,” she said, evading the question at first. She gave Ai a very even look as she went on, and Ai swallowed at her seriousness, which seemed a bit more intense than usual. “The Headmaster has summoned us.”
Topic: The Circle of Three [CONCLUSION: 28: Ascension] (Read 83844 times)