Chapter 28 – Ascension
Lightning flashed almost constantly overhead as Airi looked desperately around for shelter from the deluge of the storm. However, it appeared they were in a large clearing, with squat buildings only distantly silhouetted against the horizon aside from ruins that looked like some kind of tower, though it was hard to see through the rain that seemed almost solid around them. She felt the hand tighten around her arm, and she glanced over to see Maimi clinging to her, trying to fight apparent disorientation from the trip.
“Wh-where are we?” her companion said, blinking through the rain. She looked up as if just realizing they were getting soaked, and frowned at the sky. Her senses seemed to be quickly returning to her. “There are times I like dancing in the rain, but…” And with that, Airi felt a warm prickly sensation from a force that seemed to be coming from Maimi, and the rain suddenly stopped.
Well, it stopped on the two of them at least. Before it came within a meter, the water was being vaporized by a shield of intense heat Maimi had projected over them. Airi gave her a look, and she grinned back mischievously. Airi leaned in halfway toward her before remembering how they got there, and she darted her eyes around once again. Now that they were clear from rain falling right on her face, she could make out Niigaki, who had fallen on her knees not far from them, and two other figures further away who also held onto each other.
Even as Airi regained her bearings, the rain lightened considerably and a strong wind came up. She smiled as she noticed the sky clear slightly toward the east as well. Hopefully the storm was lessening, though she still could barely see anything beyond an area about a hundred meters in any direction.
“I wonder…” Airi said, staring over at the tower. For some reason it looked familiar to her, but she couldn’t quite place it.
“Airi!” she heard a voice cry out, and she turned to where she could just make out Miyabi looking over at her and Maimi. The Skull released Takahashi, who still seemed to glow in the power Airi could tell she’d gathered, but the older girl seemed to be confused at the moment.
“Come on,” she said, and grabbing Maimi’s wrist, pulled her off toward the other two girls.
“Who is that?” Maimi asked as she stumbled along after her in their little pocket safe from the rain. Airi suddenly felt a chill as if it was getting colder, which was ridiculous. She wondered if Maimi could do something to make the both of them warm as well as dry.
Airi didn’t answer, but it didn’t take long for them to reach Miyabi, and upon recognizing her, Maimi withdrew her hand and crossed her arms.
Miyabi looked hard between the two of them. “You two have kissed,” she said, and Airi noticed Maimi blush despite the heavy irritation she also showed. Airi did her best not to do the same. “A lot,” she continued flatly, and now stared stonily at Airi.
Airi didn’t have the first clue how the girl could know that just by looking at them, but still she became quite flustered. “I… we… I mean…” She threw her hands out and gestured at the sky and toward the now-recovering Takahashi. “This isn’t the time! Do you know what’s going on here?” She kept looking nervously at Takahashi. She thought the girl should be losing the focus for her power after her apparent disorientation with the teleport, but she still seemed to glow as brightly as ever. She didn’t know why the other girls didn’t seem to notice anything out of the ordinary; the girl’s brightness was almost single-handedly pushing back the darkness of the storm around them!
Miyabi continued staring at her though, and Airi became very uncomfortable under the scrutiny that made her feel like the depths of her soul were being bared to the girl. Well, she’d let her have her body, why shouldn’t she take her soul as well? She looked sorrowfully at Maimi, but Miyabi’s next words took her breath away.
“Did you go straight to her after spending the night with me?” she asked emotionlessly. Airi gulped. Suddenly it was feeling very cold indeed. “Was I so disgusting you needed something better?” She looked back at Maimi, whose eyes were constantly widening. Miyabi’s lips twisted in a kind of disgust of their own. “But how could you possibly need this?”
“What did you say?” Maimi asked in a very tight voice. Airi glanced worriedly at her. It seemed her whole body was tensing for some kind of confrontation. This was quickly spinning out of her control. She seemed to have all this power, but what good would it be in a situation such as this?
“I said you’re a piece of trash that isn’t worth being stuck to the bottom of my shoe,” Miyabi growled at her, and Airi now noticed that the girl was not speaking without emotion, but with incredibly intense bottled feelings that appeared just about to burst.
“You will not talk to her that way!” came a voice from the side, and in a flash that nearly blinded Airi, a lightning bolt sliced sideways toward Miyabi. However, somehow Miyabi was quicker than it, and after turning, the bolt somehow reflected just before it hit her and rebounded at her attacker, blowing a sizable hole in the ground and knocking the other Circle member out of sight, as well as another figure that had been making its way slowly toward her.
Before Airi could make another move, she felt Maimi dive forward from beside her, and Miyabi, grinning victoriously at the hole in the ground, couldn’t react in time before the diving girl crashed into her, and the two rolled off a couple meters. Right after rolling away, Airi heard Miyabi scream piercingly, making her fall to her knees and clamp her hands over her ears. The cold was now becoming almost unbearable, though the rain had completely stopped, but she hardly noticed it in anxiety over what was taking place.
After a moment though, Maimi flew off to the side as if propelled by some sudden force. Miyabi was still screaming, but it did begin to fade slightly.
“Maimi!” Airi yelled, concerned for the girl’s sudden predicament of flying through the air, but quickly turned her eyes back on the other figure now struggling to stand as well. She didn’t want either of them to get hurt, but they seemed to be doing their best to hurt each other.
Her eyes flickered back to Maimi, but before the girl hit the ground, a somewhat blackened Takahashi seemed to come from nowhere and catch her, before gently letting her down beside her. The two looked on at Miyabi, who had now also attained her feet, but Takahashi spared a few glances for Airi as well. Airi didn’t know why they should be worried about her – what was she going to do?
“Stop it!” she yelled, feeling stupid. Takahashi started giving her a few more glances. “I don’t want you fighting! You both… please…”
“It’s not my fault she’s a slut,” Maimi spat, finally giving Airi a look that nearly broke her heart as well. She would of course have had to know eventually about her and Miyabi, but this was most definitely not the way she would have wished her to find out. “But when she fucks with those that are mine, I have to take issue with it.” Takahashi frowned over at her, as if unsure what she was talking about.
“Yours?” Miyabi asked, and broke out in a chuckle as she dusted herself off. “She was mine long before any…” she hesitated, “…anyone else came around. And it’s not like I forced her either. You think I could?”
“She was yours?” Maimi demanded right back.
Airi now felt herself shivering, and so she tried to seek the Sun, pulling some of its heat into her. The other girls didn’t even seem to notice. Was she getting sick? She glanced up. Thankfully it was getting quite clear now, so it was easy for her to draw on the Sun’s power. Too easy, really, as if the atmosphere itself was thinning above her. They still seemed walled in on every side by dark clouds though. Odd weather…
“I could tell you stories…” Maimi continued, grinning and shaking her head.
Miyabi stared at her furiously. “Why the hell am I having this discussion with you anyway? Both of you are insane murderers that want to take over the world. I should be glad to be rid of you!”
This time Takahashi had something to say. “We’re only claiming what is our right!” she stated in a strong voice. “Perhaps you could have joined us, but…” The corner of her lip twisted in revulsion. “But that’s obviously not going to happen.”
“Airi’s different,” Maimi said suddenly, and in a quite different voice, not taking her eyes off Miyabi.
Takahashi glanced over at the named girl again, who still knelt there with her knees apart helpless. “Perhaps. If she continues to be good. The least she could do is help, though.”
A laugh came from across from her. “She’s never going to help you!” Miyabi said, as if the idea was ridiculous. “Whatever the thing is that she’s got in her head about you, Yajima, she’d never turn against me. Right, Airin?” she asked the speechless youth.
“Now!” Maimi said suddenly, and Takahashi gave a leap toward Miyabi. Before Miyabi could react and retaliate, she fell to her knees screaming again as Maimi glared on, and Takahashi fell on her.
“No!!!” Airi cried as she saw Takahashi begin to beat the screaming girl like a punching bag.
“Will you make up your mind?!” Maimi yelled in her direction, but the waver in her concentration for just that moment allowed Miyabi to somehow throw Takahashi off her, and she quickly got up, itching as if her skin was burning. She turned her gaze to Maimi, but the taller girl dove off to the side just in time. Airi felt a compression as if the air had suddenly been driven out of the space Maimi had just occupied.
“Come back here!” Miyabi demanded. “You can’t run from me! I can see you wherever you are!” She began marching toward where Maimi had disappeared. Takahashi jumped out at her, but she turned as if she knew the attack was coming and dodged out of the way, throwing the girl down. However, once she did that, her feet were knocked out from under her as Maimi attacked as well, and she screamed again.
“Feeling a little hot, are we?” Maimi said as she tried to take a superior position. “Pity whatever mind powers you’re using there can’t defend against that.”
“You’d be surprised,” Miyabi retorted after stifling her scream. “In fact the warmth is quite nice. It’s getting a little chilly out here.”
As Miyabi recovered once again, Airi realized that despite the girl’s apparent superior power over each of the others individually, she was fighting the both of them only to a standstill. She didn’t know how long this could go on, and the girl’s last words worried her a little. Despite the defenses they apparently all had, it was now literally frigid out here.
She looked around. The clouds had receded even more, until she noticed they seemed to be nearly encircling them, if at quite a distance. She looked up. It was completely clear here in the center, all the way up to the Sun. Then it hit her.
They were indeed still in the storm; they were just in the center of it. They were in the eye. She hadn’t noticed before because that center covered an area much larger than she’d ever heard of the eye of a storm being. The rapidly dropping temperatures reminded her of what she’d seen in her studies and even in movies though. The studies were only theoretical and the movies were just movies, but if the reality was anything like what they described… They didn’t have the time to see who would eventually win this battle.
But… she thought as she looked on. How do I choose…? I feel like it’s right to support Miyabi, but I can’t help loving Maimi. Plus, don’t they have a point, if even a completely ridiculous one? We all have this power… Shouldn’t we be using it for something? Her resurgent memories of the past floated through her mind. After all, if what we’re all remembering is right, we’re the true heirs to the throne, aren’t we?
Her train of thought was broken though as a small figure walked up through the lawn, which Airi now in her better view of the place realized with surprise was a garden on the grounds of the Imperial Palace. The ruins of the tower made sense now – it was part of the old Edo castle. Why, of all places, did Miyabi bring them here?
“It’s a little cold, isn’t it?” the figure said as she neared them, the three fighting girls breathing heavily with Maimi and Takahashi planning their next moves on either side of Miyabi. Despite her self-warming, Airi’s insides turned to ice when she recognized the voice.
“Saki-chan, what are you doing here?” Takahashi demanded, still in her breathless state. “You should be in surgery right now!” Surgery?
“Ah, that,” the small girl responded. “For all the risks involved, and the certain loss of an ability I’ve grown quite fond of, I thought I might give alternative medicine a try,” she said with a wry grin. “Besides, I’ve managed to heal myself enough that I don’t fall asleep all the time, and maybe I can just heal it up the rest of the way… oh, and the hospital is also becoming quite flooded.”
“But isn’t the tumor what’s causing…” Takahashi began.
Saki gave a playful smile and a shrug. “Maybe I’ll leave a little bit in there.”
“But are you sure…?” Takahashi pressed. Shimizu, however, had already focused her attention on Miyabi, completely ignoring Airi as if she weren’t even a factor in this encounter. For her part, for the first time Miyabi began to look somewhat unsure of herself, and glanced among the three Circle members who were now united against her.
“What have we here?” Shimizu asked quietly, studying Miyabi. “Someone’s awoken to her powers. It’s quite fascinating really. I’ve been thinking about the trigger. It must have something to do with a surge of emotion… Not all that unlike the three of us… ne?”
“The only surge you’ll be getting is up your ass!” Miyabi retorted crudely at her, and she chuckled.
“Oh really?” the smallest Circle member responded. “Ai-chan, Maimi, why don’t we finish this? I’d like to get in out of the cold. Nice storm you’ve brewed up by the way, Ai-chan. I think it’s covering all of Japan by now, and has even nearly reached Korea. They’ll be helpless to defend themselves recovering from the typhoon after we dispense with the rabble.”
“Stop talking down to me!” Miyabi demanded, and took a step forward.
“Oh, is the poor little girl feeling left out?” Shimizu taunted, still in her quiet sing-song voice. “Always second-class, aren’t we? First passed over for Head of your House, even though the one chosen was still the youngest in generations, then you couldn’t even lead your little Teenage Rebellion Team. Well, you won’t have to worry about any of that anymore.”
“I wouldn’t be so sure of that!” Miyabi nearly screamed. Airi didn’t think she’d ever seen the girl so animated. “You might be surprised when you try to put your fist where your mouth is!”
“Oh?” Shimizu asked quietly. “Let’s see.”
As if in direct response to Miyabi’s challenge, she extended her fist sharply into the air, and as if it was a million dollar blow it doubled Miyabi over and knocked her back a few paces. Miyabi’s eyes snapped up and she retaliated, knocking Saki back twice as far, but in her focus was unable to deflect the lightning bolt that came from Takahashi, which made another hole, spraying a fountain of dirt that Miyabi disappeared behind. Maimi ran into it after her, and Airi knew the screams would come next. She would probably be able to evade the attack, but the Skull could now have no chance of evading all three indefinitely.
Airi stood. She loved Maimi, but the way they want to rule just couldn’t be what was right, whatever they were meant for. Beyond that, if she didn’t act now Shimizu and the rest of her Circle of Three would follow through on her threat, and Miyabi would never leave this graveyard – Miyabi, someone she’d given everything to, and did love, and could never let come to harm if she could help it.
As she heard the screaming begin, she closed her eyes and allowed the harshness of the external word to dim to a buzz around her. She didn’t know how she did it, even though she’d done something similar once before, but it was like she could feel time itself flowing around her, and she began to walk through it.
She opened her eyes into slits, and saw through blurred vision the world begin to reverse. The scream faded back into the nothingness from whence it came, and the dirt fell slowly back toward the hole. Maimi walked backwards out through it, and when she was nearly back where she started, Airi let herself walk through time normally once again.
“I’m sorry…” she said quietly in a prayer, and then intoned in a loud voice, “Maimi!”
The girl stopped on her way to Miyabi, surprised, and looked back at her. A frown came to her face quickly as she realized the distraction and that Airi was not her favorite person right now, but Airi just raised her hand. A beam of the Sun’s power – the power that was within her, that was her – emanated from her hand as it had before even to kill, but this time she focused its power very carefully.
In the blink of an eye it hit Maimi in the chest, causing the girl to open her mouth in a wordless “Oh…” before falling back to the ground unconscious.
“I’m sorry, Maimi,” Airi said to herself again. “But I don’t want you to get hurt more in what’s to come…”
Her action now drew the attention of both remaining Circle members. “I see you’ve made your decision,” Takahashi said in a grim voice, then glanced over at Maimi’s still form. “And you call us killers?”
Airi kept her mouth pursed tightly shut, and tried to divide her attention between the two. “Go easy on her, Ai-chan,” Saki said lightly, observing Airi shrewdly. “She and this one are… too close,” she said, jerking her head slightly in the direction of where Miyabi fell, the implication of her knowledge of Airi and Miyabi’s relationship also obvious in her voice. “I don’t think there was another result possible.”
“Just one of the many things you don’t understand, Saki-chan,” Airi said evenly, trying to keep from becoming too emotional, though dispensing with propriety.
“Oh?” the girl responded, tightness coming to her voice at the unexpected slight. “Take care of her, Ai-chan,” she said casually, and turned back to Miyabi.
Airi’s eyes flickered toward the other girl just in time to see Takahashi’s hands raised in front of her and the flash of light as a bolt of lightning was about to connect itself with Airi’s body. To Airi though, immersed as she was within the Sun’s radiance, she saw the bolt brighten along a very distinct and pre-defined trail. She squeezed her eyes shut, feeling the surge of energy within her as it struck and melding it with that of the Sun already broiling inside of her. Perhaps her body also needed it to cope with the frigid air around her, but at the moment she was far beyond such concerns.
When she opened her eyes, Takahashi was staring at her as if at a loss. Having seen her most powerful attack become nothing more than absorbed into Airi, Airi wondered if the girl had any idea what to do next. Saki was walking toward Miyabi, but she knew her sister could take care of herself for the moment.
She began walking slowly toward Takahashi. “Ai-chan,” she said, “Of all of you, and despite what I feel for Maimi, I always thought you were the one most likely to listen to reason. Look at what you’re doing. Does it make sense? Does it resound at all with the melodies of things that are good? People have died in our battles – young girls, innocent girls – is it all worth it, taking what power you don’t have by force like this?” She stood just a few steps away from the girl, who was still staring at her. “Do you realize now that there is always going to be a power you can never obtain?”
She was unsure of her words, though they seemed gifted to her by voices from the past, but Takahashi made no further move against her. After a moment, she turned to see Saki and Miyabi face to face in a battle of wills. The dirt from the ground around them seemed to rise into the air in response to the phantom energy emanating from the two.
For the first time, Airi thought she saw Saki look slightly worried. She obviously had not expected Miyabi to be her match. Honestly, knowing what she did about the three of them, Airi wondered how Miyabi wasn’t more than her match at this point. The former head of House Goto obviously had access to something beyond the others. She wondered, given their mindsets otherwise, why they didn’t envy her.
As Airi walked up to them, Miyabi flicked her eyes in her direction and gave her a smile that reflected the love they felt between each other. She had been right; Airi couldn’t betray her. However, the girl’s gratitude at this unfortunate moment did.
The slight loss in concentration at the sight of Airi allowed Saki to find the opportunity she needed, and Miyabi’s body became still, over-tensed, the air seeming to compress around her. Airi realized she didn’t have access to any air, and she collapsed, gasping for nothing. Saki towered despite her small stature in triumph, and her victory was almost complete…
“Saki-chan!” Airi called over to her.
Without making the same mistake of broken concentration Miyabi had, the girl turned toward Airi and frowned. With a flick of her wrist, a still breathless Miyabi was jolted back several meters and lay still. “I see you’re going to make this difficult,” she said quietly, turning her full attention on Airi now. Her eyes flickered past her. “What have you done to Ai-chan? She’s still breathing, but it looks like she might have turned to stone. Ai-chan!” she called. “Help me finish her and these Skulls once and for all!”
However, no action came from behind Airi. Saki frowned again before looking back to her. “Interesting indeed,” she said simply, and then began to walk toward her again. However, this time as she walked her body began to convulse. Her skin bulged grossly in spots, and then all over as clothes ripped, and in barely no time a wolf much larger than the original girl was bounding toward Airi.
Airi stood her ground, separating her feet for balance in preparation. The wolf was upon her almost before she knew it, but before it reached her, she managed to grab its forearms just above its paws, holding the viciously snapping maw steadily away from her face. The animal was extremely powerful, but Airi found she could at least hold it at bay.
As the teeth made a swipe toward her face, she twisted and threw the beast to the side, where it landed easily in the grass on four feet and spun to resume its attack.
With the wolf’s attack and what else she’d seen, Airi realized a prolonged battle with this girl would be difficult, as the beast was strong, and there was no telling what she was capable of with her mind powers. Also, as with Miyabi, she knew her power must take a different path than her own, and she might not be able to counter every attack. This had to end now.
She threw up her hand as the wolf hunched back to leap toward her once again, and it froze, letting loose a shrieking howl that pierced the frigid air around them.
“I’m sorry,” Airi said to the writhing creature before her. “There’s something inside you that doesn’t belong, and although it’s nearly part of you now, I have to try to get rid of it.” She squeezed her fist tightly.
The howling increased as she attempted to tear the girl’s and the wolf’s souls apart, a feat made easier in this form where it would have been perhaps impossible otherwise or with one like Maimi who did not transform into the avatar of her power. What began as a crazed howl soon became nearly unearthly in its nature, to the point Airi could barely stand to hear it, but she couldn’t afford to cover her ears… if that would have helped anyway. Mixed in with the howling, a young girl’s piercing scream also first the first time became audible.
Soon the fur began to fall off and the form to shrink back to that of the girl. Airi could feel a powerful force ascend from her and disappear into nothingness, and she lowered her arm. A small, naked, heavily breathing girl now barely supported herself on all fours where the wolf had been.
Airi relaxed, thinking it was over, but then the girl’s head snapped up to her, eyes flashing in a rage bored into her. Unprepared, she felt the air compress around her body and began having difficulty breathing. She called her power back quickly, feeling tired and throbbing with its extended use, and broke the girl’s attack, the backlash of which somehow knocked her back as well.
The two stared at each other across the small patch of grass, Airi in disbelief that the girl had any power left, and the other in careful study of her opponent. Then, Saki’s eyes widened, as Airi felt the very skin on her body heat with the power contained within her.
“You’re…” Saki said, catching a breath. Despite whatever strength she still had, she now sounded like no more than the small girl she was. “You’re the ones, aren’t you?” she asked, now in some disbelief herself.
Airi furrowed her eyebrows and frowned. “What are you talking about?” she asked, still wary and very mindful of the overused power that felt as if it was trying to explode from within her.
“It was never about us, was it?” Saki stated as a fact. “You’re the True Blood. We got what was… left over…”
The girl’s voice seemed to be becoming weaker all the time, and her breathing slower, but Airi wanted to hear what she had to say. “Left over?” she asked, taking a step toward the now pitiful-looking girl. “What are you talking about?”
“I’m sorry…” Saki said, even weaker now. She swayed as if she would fall over at any time. Airi now started walking more confidently toward her. “I’m glad we could at least teach you what you needed to know… Sister…” With that, she collapsed just before Airi could reach her. When she did, she lifted the girl’s head from the ground, but there was no life in her body any longer. She was gone.
“No…” Airi said, barely thinking to wonder at the strangeness of her adventure that even now she was crying over the body of her worst enemy. “Tell me who you are! I want to know! Why did you call me ‘sister’?!”
“She’s dead…” came a solemn voice from behind her. Airi turned as she laid the head gently back down to see Takahashi walking up to her, framed in the roiling storm behind her. The girl held her arms tightly around her as if she was freezing, and she looked slightly blue, but it didn’t seem to bother her at all. Her eyes were fixed upon Saki.
As she stepped up to Airi, she turned to her and said slowly once more, “She’s dead, Airi…”
“But why?” Airi asked, tears of frustration freezing beneath her eyes. “What I did shouldn’t have killed her. It was to save her…”
The other girl turned back to the body. “She had a…” she began, still in that slow voice, but seemed to change her mind about what to say. “She was sick… and overconfident… Why, Saki-chan?” she asked the still girl, her eyes wide in horror at something only she could see. “Why did you have to be so stupid?”
Airi still didn’t understand, but didn’t feel like questioning the girl further either. “If only I knew why she said what she did…”
Takahashi turned back to her, and a bit of the stark preoccupation seemed to melt from her eyes. “She called you ‘sister’,” she said. “We were supposedly descendants of great gods of the past, but after what just happened I’m not sure it’s quite what we thought. It might still be true – after all we were able to obtain these powers somehow – but they aren’t what we are.” Her face adopted a haunted expression as she gazed at the fallen girl. Airi would have given much to know what was in her thoughts at that moment.
“It took the addition of something far unlike us to make us that way… where you…” She looked to Airi again. “You are who you are.” Her eyes were fixed on Airi’s, as if what she saw there gave her some great revelation.
“What are you talking about?” Airi asked.
A ghost of a smile played at Takahashi’s lips until her eyes suddenly widened. “Oh my god…” she gasped. “Nii-chan!” Then she turned and looked frantically around her, running off in a direction opposite Airi.
Airi stared after until she heard someone else walk slowly up to her through the hard frozen grass. “It doesn’t look good,” Miyabi said, and Airi turned to her. The girl’s eyes seemed to flicker from Saki, to where Takahashi ran off to, to the still-roiling storm around them.
“What?” Airi asked, her mind completely lost.
“Well not that I guess,” the girl responded, jerking her head toward Saki. “I wish I could say I was sorry to see her go. Takahashi’s friend though…” She trailed off uncomfortably before raising her eyes back to the storm. “And this storm’s not far from covering this half of the continent.”
The storm.
The storm!
“Oh no…!” Airi gasped, and rose to look around them. Takahashi was kneeling off in the distance, but obviously not controlling anything anymore. Yet, the storm raged on. It must have become too large and powerful for her to do anything about it, even if she wanted to, and it was obviously not the girl’s primary concern at the moment.
“What do you think we should do?” Miyabi asked uncertainly. “Call Reina? This is her department, but… well…” She looked from the storm to Airi’s eyes, but couldn’t apparently look into them long for some reason.
Airi silently agreed. She didn’t know if even Reina could have an effect at this point. Despite everything, she still felt her skin hot and hard as if after a heavy Sunburn, but she was still as pale as ever. Feeling almost as if it was time to give up, she collapsed to her knees and looked up directly into the Sun, hoping it could somehow give her the guidance she needed. Instead of blinding her as she gazed on, it felt like a warm complement and extension of herself. Her hands came together as if in silent prayer as she stared on.
Please… she begged within her being. Help us…
…
Miyabi tried to force herself to look again as Airi just stared into the sun for what became long minutes. She wondered if she should try poking her or something, but decided that was a bad idea at this time. It wasn’t even that though. It was her eyes…
Finally she couldn’t stand it any longer and turned away, walking toward where the other girl who was still active had gone. “She’s… gone…” Takahashi said as Miyabi arrived and looked blankly at the girl’s prone friend, emptiness in her voice unlike anything she had ever heard.
“I’m sorry,” she said at a loss, silently mourning for the girl who as far as she knew was innocent in all this. “I’m sure there was nothing you could do…”
“No, that’s the thing…” Takahashi responded as she came to her feet slowly, still with moist eyes glued on her friend. “If it wasn’t for this storm… the storm I created and cursed the world with… we could. She’s still alive, but barely. Especially in this cold, she’s not even going to last an hour. There’s no way we’ll be able to get to any kind of hospital…” She hesitated a moment and then continued more avidly, “It was all my fault! I can tell! She was hit by lightning too! That’s what knocked her way over here! And now the cold…” As if to accentuate her point, she shivered and hugged herself tighter, kneeling back down as if to share some of her own warmth.
Miyabi looked with pity upon the girl that was her sworn enemy and now just looked completely forlorn and lost. “I’m s—” she began again, but cut off as alarms went off in her head. “Wait, she’s still alive?” The other nodded numbly.
Then there was still a chance. If the girl was alive, there was a way, and it was up to her.
“Stay here,” Miyabi told the girl who still hadn’t looked up at her, and she concentrated through the rush of thoughts of people mostly frantic at the deluge to find one specific girl. She wasn’t fully sure why she was doing it. Takahashi up until now was her enemy that had killed her friends. Maybe it was because her friend really was innocent. There was still a chance…
The world shifted.
She found herself on the first floor of Airi’s house, but it looked much different from the last time she was there. The last time… She shook the thought from her head. She had more pressing worries now. Such as the half meter of water she was suddenly wading through.
It flowed in from outside as the rain continued to pour relentlessly. Shit… she thought. If it was like this in the rest of the city… in the rest of Japan… She tried not to think about it.
Looking around, she didn’t see anyone at first, and there was no light but the dim glow from the overcast sky outside. Of course any sort of electric power would have been knocked out by the storm. She waded the short distance through the hall toward the stairs, and gratefully pulled her feet out of the water to step up into dryness.
The water was no less jarring though than the temperature. She’d almost forgotten she still held a shield up keeping her warm, but it was nearly stifling with humidity here. She wondered how conditions could be so different in only another part of the city.
Trudging quickly up the stairs, she found a few girls huddled in the hall at the top. They were dry, but still a ragtag bunch. They were watching the stairs nervously and forlornly as if the water could come up at any time. Upon Miyabi’s entrance they looked up at her, but most just stared in disbelief. Chisato was there with her sister and Hagiwara. Maasa was there with an apparently well-healed Konatsu and Tokunaga. Even the girl who’d come in shooting them all was there, along with the Circle follower that was her victim, and…
“Miya!” Risako shouted, and ran up to her.
Miyabi stared at the girl who was blocking her way in stupefied confusion before feeling the need to continue on with her task. “Escuse me…” she said, in what she tried to make a sweet voice but probably ended up being somewhat bitchy as usual, and she moved as if to pass the girl. However, the girl didn’t move, and she stopped abruptly having almost run into her.
Seeing Risako blink up at her with her long lashes, she cleared her throat. “Um…”
She couldn’t say more though before the other closed the short distance between them and their lips touched. She felt slightly fumbling arms encircle her waist, and despite the urgency of her mission, her instinct as a Skull took over and the kiss quickly deepened, her hands even finding their way down the other’s backside, though she didn’t seem to mind.
Before too long though, she came back to herself and pulled away with a soft smack as their lips separated. They stared at each other a moment before Risako suddenly blushed, lowered her head and stepped back.
“I’m sorry…” she said softly, visibly ashamed. Miyabi could tell the eyes of the other younger girls in the room had grown as wide as saucers.
“Um…” Miyabi said again. “Don’t…” She couldn’t think rationally about much at the moment, so she tried to focus on the task at hand. “I need to find Reina,” she said. The girl stepped out of the way, head still lowered, and Miyabi stepped slowly past, giving her a look as she went.
Now why did the girl go and do a thing like that? Whatever, it wasn’t something she needed to worry about right now.
She eventually found a room where some of the older girls sat, including Reina and the other Nakazawa girls. JunJun and LinLin rose when she came in, but sat back down quickly after recognizing her.
“Miya!” Reina cried, and stood to greet her. “Where did you…?” she began, before rethinking her question. “Do you have any idea what’s going on? We haven’t been able to hear anything since…”
“Is everyone all right in here?” Miyabi asked, ignoring her Captain’s questions for the moment.
“Yeah,” Reina said. “The Circle girl healed well enough, but she’s going to have a good scar. The other two were fine, and even our little troublemaker seems to not be so insane anymore. She still seems very concerned about Maimi though.” She peered carefully into Miyabi’s eyes. “It’s a concern we all share about…”
“There’s no time,” Miyabi said, and stepped forward to grab Reina’s arm. “If everyone here is okay, I need you somewhere else.” Reina, even though unused to being ordered around like this, caught Miyabi’s sincerity and cooperated, stepping up to her.
“You guys can take care of the others while I’m gone, right?” The Chinese girls nodded firmly, and Kamei and Michishige surprisingly did as well, apparently taking some pride in the responsibility they were being given. “The storm will be over soon,” Reina assured them. She looked up at Miyabi. “…Right?”
Miyabi didn’t say a word, but looked out the window just before imagining two places as one, a technique she’d become quite comfortable with after today’s events. She couldn’t tell for sure through the rain-streaked glass, but it appeared the rain might be letting up a little. She closed her eyes, and again traveled without moving.
She was assaulted by the frigid air of their new surroundings, and felt Reina sag slightly as well, the extremeness of the cold taking effect on her immediately. She quickly threw up her shield again around the both of them, and pulled the girl to her.
“I’m sorry,” she said as they embraced tightly, feeding off each other’s warmth. “I was feeling so anxious I didn’t think.”
“I-i-it’s… ok-k-kay,” Reina replied, teeth chattering. Underneath her shield and within the embrace though, they warmed quickly. “So…” Reina said, pulling away and trying to compose herself, looking suspiciously at Miyabi. “What’s the rush about?”
Miyabi cast her glance around until she saw Takahashi kneeling a short distance away in the grass over her prone friend. “Over there,” she said.
The two girls made their way quickly there, and Takahashi looked up at them in loss and confusion. “W-what’s going on?” she asked. She was looking very blue as well, the weather apparently taking quite a toll on her. For all of her friend, she herself might not even last another hour in this.
Without a word Reina knelt down to the lying girl and felt at her wrist. “Yeah, she’s still alive,” she said. Takahashi looked like she wanted to stop her at first, but soon sagged, unable to even spare the effort.
“I w-wanted to be with her at th-the last…” she managed between slightly chattering teeth.
“It’s okay,” Miyabi said as Reina took Niigaki’s arm tightly in her hand. “Reina will take care of her.”
“S-she’ll…?” Takahashi asked, not seeming to comprehend.
“She’ll be okay,” Miyabi assured her, expanding her shield to encompass the two others as well. In their condition though, they weren’t likely to even realize they were becoming warmer.
After observing Reina seriously at her task for a few minutes, Miyabi stood up and looked around. It actually did look like the clouds surrounding them menacingly were thinning, and not near as high as before. She lessened her shield slightly around just herself. The temperature even seemed to be rising quite quickly, though at the moment it was still very cold.
Spotting a still form low on the ground across the lawn, she watched a moment before walking slowly toward her. Eventually she reached Airi, though the girl seemed exactly as she’d left her, on her knees with her hands clasped in front of her, and still staring directly into the sun, which was now slightly lower than before. That was some change at least – her eyes were definitely following it in its slow progress across the heavens.
Hoping silently the girl wouldn’t be blind after this, she walked to her other side and steeled herself before looking into those eyes again.
When she caught them, this time she couldn’t look away. The eyes she’d gotten so used to lately and even come to love were gone, replaced only by brilliant orbs that themselves seemed to shine as brightly as the sun they gazed at. When Miyabi was finally able to tear her own eyes away, she looked at the rest of her former girlfriend. Her body seemed to glow in the early afternoon light, pulsing gently, and her hair seemed to subtly burn with a tinge of a reddish hue.
She knew the girl was immersed within her power, and was worried about how long she was keeping it up at this level. She didn’t know if they had any limits, but they were still human after all… right?
Deciding she’d give her whatever support she might need though, she knelt next to her, laying her hands in her lap and closing her eyes. She wondered where they’d go from here. It seemed the Circle was defeated, but most of Japan was surely in ruins from the storm, especially if what she saw at Airi’s house was any indication.
Also, what lay in store for her? She recognized now why Airi couldn’t love her. When her True power awakened within her, memories began to slowly appear in her mind as well. She still was in love with the girl beside her – she didn’t think that would ever fade no matter what – but at least now she understood. Her mind flitted to the girl who’d kissed her back at the house, the girl she thought was the prettiest in the school and before Airi was her primary target for sweet somethings. What would the future hold indeed?
After a while, as she was lost in her own thoughts as well as floating through those of the billions of other people in the world, she noticed a few of them walk up to her. She smiled softly. Of course Reina had worked her magic. She opened her eyes, which she hadn’t even realized she’d closed.
Reina was looking carefully at Airi, but Takahashi and Niigaki looked nigh inseparable, Takahashi fussing incessantly over the other girl’s hair and with a smile that didn’t seem to want to leave her face.
“I take it everything is all right?” Miyabi asked no one in particular.
“Mm…” Reina responded noncommittally, returning to her bored-seeming character, one which Miyabi knew anyone else took lightly to their own peril. “Even Yajima will be fine, but I decided to let her sleep for a while longer. And her head will pound for a good while after waking as well. Of course that had nothing to do with what was originally wrong with her, but…” Her voice faded to a grumble. “I felt it was the least she deserved. As for the other…” She trailed off. No further explanation was necessary.
Miyabi took the extra news with a tight face, but did her best to brush it off. “So… things seem to be looking better, ne?”
Miyabi looked up at her confused for a moment, but then looked around them. The clouds on the horizons had almost completely thinned, and upon testing her shield again she found that the temperature had risen to a quite comfortable level.
“Um…” she said uncertainly, glancing over at Airi, who still hadn’t seemed to move.
However, from the corner of her eye she caught several figures striding quickly across the grass toward them. The girls fell silent as they one by one began to notice them, and they watched their approach quietly. Eventually Miyabi noticed that the one who seemed to be in the lead was a very distinguished looking older man in a very fine suit. When she could make out his face, her eyes widened and she almost gasped.
Of course. They were in the Imperial Palace Grounds. She hadn’t thought about it before, but when she teleported them all out of that building, she had cast around quickly for what was just the nearest place with a lot of space, since she had a feeling the battles to come would be quite destructive… which they were, if the holes and scorch marks all over the area were any indication. They were in a place that a time like this would be forbidden, so now that the storm was fading, someone was surely to notice…
The retinue slowed as they neared the girls, and the man and his company, mostly other men also dressed in fine suits but also wearing wires for communication, glanced around at the small assembly of schoolgirls.
“What is the meaning of this?” one of the men with a headset asked, but the older one lifted an arm regally, forestalling him. Miyabi couldn’t help but stare at the leader, His Imperial Highness, By the Grace of the Gods, Emperor of Japan.
The Emperor had glanced at the other girls, but his eyes were focused on Airi. He stepped slowly around to face her directly, and his shadow fell over Airi’s face. “She with eyes as twofold Suns, face as their complement, and locks displaying its fiery brilliance…” he intoned, a passage even Miyabi recognized as pertaining to the sun goddess of whom he and all the emperors before him were descended.
She stared at him. These memories… his words… these events… This couldn’t be true, could it?
“The sky will run red as if stained by the gods,” he continued. “Three will mark them, and Three will rise. The Tempest will unite the Night and Day, and thus will Her line be restored.”
After he finished, his glance took in all three, and he fell to his knees, causing Miyabi to nearly hiss in rare girlish instinct. Those pants would be ruined by the marsh-like mud beneath them! The others around him wasted no time in bowing as well. The girls stared on blankly, unsure if they were supposed to do something as well.
Then Miyabi felt a stir from beside her. She looked over to see Airi blinking slowly, her eyes no longer shining but her body still glowing slightly. The Emperor’s shadow no longer fell over her, but the fact that it had now clicked in Miyabi’s mind.
The youngest girl looked around at everyone gathered before turning to Miyabi and asking innocently, “What’s going on?”
…
JunJun came back into the room the four eldest girls currently shared, contented that the mood in the hall had brightened considerably since the rain stopped.
“Is everyone all right?” Kamei asked in a concerned voice.
“Yes,” JunJun replied. “Although Sugaya-san is still quite insistent about wading through the streets to look for the others. Silly little girl. There’s no telling where they could be.” After she spoke, she shared a glance with her Chinese comrade.
Kamei laid her head back on Michishige’s shoulder, who gratefully accepted the closeness. “That’s good then…” she said tiredly, and yawned widely.
JunJun sat by Qian Lin, the girl they named LinLin in this country that was still foreign to them. “The sun is very bright,” she said simply. The other girl nodded slowly.
For what seemed the tenth time in the last hour, she took out and flipped open her cell phone, preparing to flip it just as quickly back closed again before she realized service had apparently been restored. She exchanged a glance with Lin, who nodded again.
Dialing a number she’d been forced to learn but never expected to use, she lifted the phone to her ear. Michishige glanced over at her, but she thought nothing of it as the other end picked up and she began to speak Chinese into the receiver.
“Please let me speak to the Magister,” she said. “This is Chun Li, Japan agent seventy-five.” She hesitated. She wasn’t sure if her training had quite prepared her for this. After being connected through several people, she finally reached the person she sought. She prepared for giving the anxiously long-awaited news that she hoped never to hear in her lifetime, much less be the one to report. “The Ancient Blood has returned.”
~fin~
Topic: The Circle of Three [CONCLUSION: 28: Ascension] (Read 83670 times)