Hello everyone! I'm so sorry to not do comment responses this time, but it's way too late, and I shouldn't even be posting a chapter.
But I'd like you guys to be able to read it... A note and warning though: I believe this is the longest chapter I've ever written (nearly 10,000 words), so take it easy and don't do it all in one sitting if you start to have trouble with it.
It's one unified story that I don't feel right splitting up, but take the time you need to read it. Otherwise, I hope you enjoy.
I've been looking forward to this one for quite a while...
Chapter 9 - Love and WarAs Reina fussed with her hair in front of the impressive vanity she had obtained with the room – she couldn’t begrudge the amenities of her formerly hated Ivory Tower, that was for sure; the bath was to die for – her thoughts idly wandered to a few nights back, when she had carefully prepared her room, and herself, to continue her seduction of Seishin’s great new leader. There were two leaders of course, but to Reina only the one mattered. Only the one had the power she craved to tap into.
She smiled as she thought of the black nightie she had worn, as not even the blatant mention of using it with someone else as well seemed to phase her quarry in the slightest. Of course, that was a complete fabrication. She would never be so neglectful toward so precious a prize. She smiled further at the thought of how the girl had dealt with that certain almost negligible article of clothing.
Then she sighed, and tugged at a braid she’d been working on. Since that night, she hadn’t seen a hair of the woman, and it had gotten to the point where she almost stormed into their building to demand her. Such a thing was out of the question of course. It was an art she pursued in her seduction – bluntness would only disfigure a masterpiece, and the ripples such reckless action could cause would throw the whole canvas into chaos.
Still, she had to do something. Perhaps she’d become too attached to the woman. She learned the consequences of that with the Mano girl, how she left when she couldn’t keep up with Reina’s desires, and how afterward Reina didn’t want to see anyone. She had to be more careful here, because the trophy was all the more tempting. She almost shuddered. The things that woman’s powers combined with her own did to her…
While her mind lingered as it tended to do so often lately, she heard a knock on the door that brought her slowly out of her reverie. At the second, and seemingly more hesitant, rapping, she called out that she was coming and checked her hair once more before rising from the finely carved cherry chair and striding to the door. When she opened it, her heart almost stopped.
There she was.
Instead of resuming its natural rhythm, her heart next leapt into her throat in distress that she wasn’t prepared for the woman to be here at the moment. She darted glances around at the unmade bed, the half-opened curtains letting in the last rays of daylight, and the mess of her accessories on the vanity table. However, within that next heartbeat she schooled herself. She was Reina Tanaka, Master of the Skulls, not some average flighty teenaged girl.
The corners of her mouth quickly turned up into a simpering grin. “Ai-chan,” she said, smoothing her voice into sugary honey. “I’m surprised to see you here. Not that I’m complaining…” she quickly amended, as if that wasn’t her plan all along, “But it’s been so long…”
After speaking, she stared into chocolate eyes that gazed fiercely back at her above that tortured countenance she’d come to desire so intensely. Still, something was different about this time. This time there was an added attribute to the stormy silence that normally characterized her paramour. She couldn’t pinpoint it, but that was what still caught her breath and prevented her from saying more. She couldn’t have imagined the woman could be any more alluring, but as usual, she was yet again surprised.
Her smile widened as the woman’s arms rose to take her shoulders. “Do you want me?” she whispered harshly out of the blue.
If she had her wits about her, Reina would have noticed there was something wrong with how the woman asked her such a thing, but with her sights set on the target in front of her, she blissfully ignored such a trifling feeling. “Yes,” she replied in a breathy whisper of her own, her eyes never leaving the other’s. The short few days she’d been away from the woman’s attentions suddenly felt like torture. “I want you to take me like you have before. You know I’m helpless in your arms.”
The next thing Reina uttered was a thin cry as she was suddenly driven back by an indomitable force as if a sudden gale had just burst through her door. Within moments she found herself pinned to a pole at the foot of her bed, her cries stifled by a mouth pressed tightly against hers and a tongue ruthlessly invading her throat. She couldn’t help but utter a pleased moan at what was being done to her, and somehow realized that it wasn’t all her mind’s creation – it seemed there
was a current of air spiraling around them as they became locked together.
Without warning however, almost before she knew it the woman withdrew her mouth to a loud smack at the abruptness. Reina nearly cried out in protest before it moved to her neck, licking and biting seemingly without abandon. Reina felt her eyes nearly roll back into her head. In all their forays, the woman had never been this aggressive toward her; this
demanding. She didn’t know what the reason for it was, but she was not about to complain. As her eyes squeezed shut tight at the rapturous pain at her neck, she felt the wind seem to coil more tightly around her, rising up to her hair to damage beyond repair the braid she had worked so hard on.
Then, as abruptly as it began, the attack ended, only the throbbing of the marks left behind. Reina opened her eyes to see Ai pull away, though still with her hands white-knuckled gripping her shoulders. That same stormy expression was back again, and this time, even though the gale had ceased, Reina thought she saw the storm in those eyes… just as she thought she had that day so long ago…
“Is this what you want?” the tempestuous demon asked her, the words ringing within her head. “Do you want to be
taken? Do you want to be
assaulted?”
“Yes…” Reina replied desperately, wondering why the woman continued with this game when she could just be doing as she so eloquently described. “Violate me, Ai-chan!
That’s what I want!” Despite her wish, if the woman did not begin something again soon, she would be far from averse to taking matters into her own hands.
Instead, Ai’s hands left her shoulders, and she stepped back, the corners of her mouth turning up in revulsion. “You’re pathetic,” she said, in a voice with the fury suddenly drained out of it. Reina noticed the eyes had returned to their calm, brunneous hue as well. “Is sex all that matters to you?”
Reina wanted very much to inform her that sex was definitely the only thing that mattered to her at that moment, but budding realization of the situation began to temper her emotions. “Is there something wrong with that?” she asked. “You haven’t complained about it so far, despite coming to me nearly every night. Are you having doubts about using me in such a way? If so, rest assured I have no complaint.”
Ai looked at her a long moment before saying quietly again, in what now was a pained voice, “I’m sorry for using you, Reina.”
Reina almost laughed. “Does it look like I care? Have I ever asked for anything else from you? You think too much about my feelings, Mistress Takahashi.”
“Do you
have any feelings?” Ai responded quickly.
Reina, momentarily stunned, eventually furrowed her eyebrows. “You’ve seen my feelings,” she told the woman. “In our time together, you’ve perhaps seen them all.”
“Have I?” the woman responded, almost as if to herself. Then her eyes refocused on Reina’s. “Don’t you ever wish there was something
more?”
Reina’s frown deepened. What was the woman going on about? Something more? There was her daily life, and every boring thing it currently entailed except possibly for those few interesting meeting times. Then there was her night life. The headmistress knew that just as well. She had her own days when she led her normal business-like life, her life she spent with the woman she’d taken as her partner. There were also her nights, which of late had been Reina’s.
“What are you talking about?” Reina asked, and she stepped toward the other. “Just kiss me, and we’ll have the night, and then we’ll each go back to our daily lives.”
“No,” came the quick response, and a raised hand stopped Reina’s advance.
“Then what are you doing here?” Reina asked in annoyance, realizing she was not going to be satisfied in this way tonight.
“I came to tell you it’s over,” Ai responded firmly. “And to help you.”
Reina’s mood was rapidly deteriorating. “Help me? I don’t need any help.” She turned and tossed herself onto her bed, her face toward the pillow away from the woman, and she pulled up a manga she had stuffed beneath it.
“Whether I like it nor not,” Ai responded, “I’ve allowed myself to become close to you these last weeks. With what we’ve shared… I’ve developed an empathy with you as well. I know you’re lonely.”
Reina snorted a laugh. “Hardly,” she retorted. “If I am at all, it’s because you’re not on this bed with me right now.”
“Don’t you want to love? Or be loved?”
At that, Reina turned her head back toward the woman, a wry grin on her face. “Aww Ai-chan, are you trying to tell me you’re not in love with me? I would have thought you’d have to be in order to do the kinds of things you’ve done to me.
You’re the one with the high and mighty morals, after all.”
“I love Risa,” Ai replied quietly, simply.
Reina continued to stare into the cloudy face. “Oh?” she asked, quietly herself. “Do you? Then why have you been letting
me have my way with you? I thought we’d been through this already. How big of a deal
is love really?”
The clouds across Ai’s face seemed to become fitful, threatening to burst but somehow staying intact. “I think I thought I deserved it,” she responded finally, almost as if to herself. “For all the evil… for the horrible things I’ve done, I thought I didn’t deserve to be happy, to be in such a beautiful relationship with such a beautiful person. I thought I was no better than…”
“Than who, Ai-chan?” Reina pressed, annoyance returning to her voice. “Than me?”
Ai looked up at her, seemingly startled at seeing she was still there. “No,” she responded firmly. “You had always been on the right side, had always done the things that were virtuous. I must have thought you had it all figured out. Who was I, someone so despicable, so unworthy, to question the ways of someone like you? How could it be wrong to do the things you do?”
Reina flashed a smug smile. “Now you’re beginning to talk sense.”
“But I was wrong.”
The woman’s voice came as a gust of wind slamming shut a door. It left no room for argument, and made Reina’s smile immediately vanish. The storm was returning slowly into the other’s eyes.
Ai stepped closer to the bed, laying a hand one of its poles and looking up at its finely carved canopy. “I’ve learned the truth now. It’s come clear after my time with you, after what’s been going on in our discussions with the government, with the rest of the world… even from when we were the bitterest enemies.”
“Oh?” Reina said, feeling a feral instinct rising within her, and likely reflected in her own eyes. She barely tried to keep the bitterness out of her quickly rising voice. “And what might that truth be?”
Ai fixed her gaze on Reina again. “The world is not black and white. Within all good, there is evil, and within all evil there is at least a glimmer of good. I may have evil within me, but that doesn’t mean I’m not capable of good, that I don’t deserve good.”
She walked slowly from the post along the bedside, closing in on Reina, who stopped trying to follow her with her eyes and returned to her manga, though not absorbing any of the words or pictures on the page.
“You know the last time I was here?” Ai asked. That brought a weak grin to Reina’s face again. As if she could forget… “Afterwards, when I returned to my rooms, Nii-chan presented me with perhaps the most satisfying and delicious dinner I’d ever had, even though she had to warm it up after spending all evening creating it, because I was so late getting in. Afterward we talked as she gave me a massage, thinking I’d need it after working so long…” Pain flashed through the cloud of her face, and those stormy eyes began to moisten, but she went on, “She went out of her way to do what else she could to try and show me her love, and all this without even a thought of sex at the time.” Then her now-blurred eyes refocused on Reina. “But later, when it felt like nothing more than the most natural thing we could have done, we
did make love.”
Reina stared back into those eyes, those eyes that had drawn her in with their stormy violence, and she saw integrity in them that she to that point perhaps couldn’t have imagined existed. That vision caused her vocal chords to freeze, and so she was helpless to listen to whatever the woman had to say next, and secretly, pined for what it would be.
“Reina,” she said, and the named girl hung onto her words. “All these nights you’ve had…” She swallowed, her eyes moistening again as her face tightened. “All these people you’ve been with… In all that time, have you ever even once actually made love?”
Up until that point, Reina hadn’t even thought of the concept. Sure she’d heard it of course. She knew people supposedly fell in love. She didn’t know why that had anything to do with her, though. She expressed herself through her emotions and actions on those nights the girl mentioned, those nights that they’d recently spent together.
But now, after listening to the girl’s words, she saw something different in them. The nights they’ve had were some of the greatest of Reina’s life, and she knew they were just as incredible for the other woman. She had thought that if
that wasn’t love, if
that wasn’t this ideal that was supposedly such a great thing, than what was it? However, upon hearing the woman talking about the other that
she loved, for perhaps the first time in her life she wondered. If what she and Ai had been doing together lately wasn’t the best there could be, as it apparently wasn’t for Ai, then what was there?
Apparently taking Reina’s ponderous silence as a negative response, Ai reached down to lay the backs of her fingers lightly to Reina’s cheek, which burst with sensation from the touch as if the effect was as vivid as a bolt of lightning.
“I’m sorry,” the woman whispered, seeming truly sincere. “I hope you’re able to someday allow yourself to experience that.”
Seemingly of their own accord, Reina’s hands reached up to grasp at the wrist near her face, and she looked up, now through blurry eyes of her own. “Show me, Ai-chan,” she said, her voice almost hoarse. “If you know what this is like, help me understand. Help me to be able to love.”
To Reina’s deep disappointment though, the girl withdrew her hand from her grip, looking at her sadly. “I can’t,” she said, her head shaking slowly. “You know I can’t. And besides, it’s something you need to discover on your own for it to be true. Even if I was able, I couldn’t just try and make love to you, and make you suddenly understand.”
At the rejection, Reina drew back within herself again, and her aura darkened. “Fine,” she said. “I knew it couldn’t be real. What I do… what I know;
that is real.”
Ai continued looking down at her, even though Reina was no longer drawn toward the woman herself. However, she still knew there was sadness in those brown eyes. “I’m sorry then, Reina, but I have to leave. There's a long talk I need to have...” Reina watched her legs as she walked toward the door, but stopped at it.
“Genki de ne…” she said softly, finally, before leaving the room and closing the door behind her.
A moment passed, and then the manga Reina had been reading violently flew across the room and crashed into the door, falling neglected to the floor. As Reina’s arm sank back down to the bed, she set her jaw tightly. She didn’t need the woman anyway. She was Reina Tanaka, Master of the Skulls and reluctant god-leader of Japan. She could have whatever and whoever she wanted.
However, right now, what she needed was satisfaction. The blasted woman had teased her, made her desperately wanting more, and then by her words made her want even more, but left without actually doing a single thing for her. She got up from the bed and walked back to her vanity, straightening her hair and wiping her eyes. They didn’t look too bad – whatever the demon had done to her, she’d apparently not let it affect her all that much.
She realized she was still in her sweats and a t-shirt, but decided that she wouldn’t need any more. After all, if things went the way she expected, she wouldn’t be wearing whatever she had on much longer anyway. Snatching something small up from the vanity table, she flipped the lights off and left the room to enter the hall, beginning her journey to her quarry. Normally she would want to have more fun and try to conquer a difficult situation, but not this night. Tonight she just craved the satisfaction, and wanted it in the easiest way possible. To that end, she had an idea of the best place to go.
After descending the spiral staircase, when she entered the next hall she noticed another girl walking down it from the opposite direction as if coming in for the night. Upon seeing that the other was actually slightly shorter than her, she knew who it must be.
When they came close to passing, Chisato looked up, and stopped short in apparent surprise at seeing Reina out and about, something which had been rather rare lately. “Tanaka-san…” she said, and she quickly tried to adopt a weak smile. “Good evening.”
“Hello,” Reina said, studying the girl’s face, but mostly just wanting to get by her so she could be on her way to her satisfaction.
Chisato’s features suddenly turned to concern after having apparently seen something in Reina’s own face. That caused Reina to try to smooth it out to fix whatever the problem was. She couldn’t have that happen where she was going.
“Is everything all right?” the young girl asked. “I heard about what Miyabi said the other day, and it’s driven Osuzu and Rii-chan into quite a fret. If…” She hesitated, seeming insecure in how to continue. “If you ever want to talk or anything, I… Well, I know you’ve been keeping to yourself a lot lately…” After finishing, she looked up into Reina’s face as if to judge her reaction.
“I assure you, I’m quite fine,” Reina said, almost feeling like smirking. “Whatever Miya has been raving about lately has nothing whatsoever to do with me.” She tried to ignore the memory of her inexplicable feeling of fright when the girl had started said “raving”. “And I also assure you, I’ve been far from alone lately.” Let the girl take that as she would.
“Oh…” Chisato responded, her eyes lowering, but then looked up and smiled. Somehow it caught Reina off-guard with how genuine it seemed. “Well I’m glad you’re all right. While not quite in as bad a shape as Osuzu or Rii-chan, I’ve still been worried…” She blinked, having apparently almost zoned out while she was speaking, and blushed. “I’m sorry. I mean, I’m just glad you’re all right.” The girl then began fidgeting slightly, leaning her weight from foot to foot.
Reina frowned at the girl’s odd behavior. She wondered if being stuck in this tower with Reina and the rest of the Skulls was affecting her sanity somewhat. She wouldn’t be surprised if it did – after all, she and Risako were alone among figurative giants, not to mention in a place revered by anyone else who set foot on this campus.
Reina lifted a hand and rapped smartly on the girl’s rounded head. “Maybe you should worry more about yourself than someone like me,” she advised. “Or have you forgotten I can take care of myself?”
The girl raised her head at that, smiling once again and even letting out a soft giggle. “You’re right,” she said. “I’m silly to be so concerned.” Apparently feeling her spirits lightened, she looked back down the corridor she’d just arrived through and yawned, stretching. “Where are you off to, anyway? It’s getting to be a bit late... not that I’m saying you need to be careful being out so late,” she hastily corrected herself.
Reina smiled indulgently. “I’m off to see if I can catch myself a little bite.”
At first Chisato stared puzzled at Reina’s blooming grin, but then comprehension seemed to dawn on her, and her eyes widened. “Oh…” she said, softly at first.
“Ohh…” However, she certainly didn’t share Reina’s jubilant outlook.
“Come on!” Reina said. “Chin up! You are a Skull, after all!”
The young girl’s eyebrows furrowed again. “I am? I didn’t know the Skulls were still around.”
Reina’s mouth fell open in mock appallment. “The Skulls will always exist!” she proclaimed grandly, then prodded the girl in the chest. “Even if the organization collapses – which it hasn’t, I must inform you! – they will always exist in the hearts of those who follow their ideals.”
“Their ideals?” Chisato asked, not in curiosity as much as somewhat reluctant confirmation.
Reina leaned forward to whisper into her ear.
“Fish on a hook…” she said, and pulled back grinning.
Chisato’s face dulled, and she nodded her understanding. “Thank you, Tanaka-san,” she said, but there was something in her eyes that made Reina’s grin falter slightly. “I’ll remember that.” Then with a nod and apology, she brushed past Reina’s shoulder on her continued way into the building. After just a couple steps, she turned back once again. “Even though I’m sure it’s pointless,” she said evenly. “I’m still glad you’re all right.” Reina nodded, still with some uncertainty, and the girl disappeared down the corridor.
“Strange girl…” she mumbled to herself as she continued on her own way, remembering her own intent, especially after her words to the girl she’d just met made her even more antsy.
As she stepped out into the night, she breathed in the air and tried not to look at the building rising up in front of her before turning to the left to take the southern path, beside which just a little ways down was a place she knew well but hadn’t been to since they’d returned to the new Seishin.
At first she didn’t come across anyone else, until her path from the tower merged onto one of the main paths coming from the campus center, after which she came across a few students making their way back to their houses after a late class or dinner. A few didn’t really notice her in the dark, but another few that did glanced at her with wide eyes as she passed. In turn, she gave them each a smirk that made them look to teach other in bewilderment. The girls who dwelt in the tower didn’t come to this part of campus often at all, and so she had a feeling that these students would be talking about their run-in with her as a matter of gossip for days to come.
Soon she came to the end of this southern path, and took the eastern fork, to the left of which she could see the large building of House Nakazawa already looming out of the trees before her. To the right she could also see the entrance to House Matsuura behind a thin line of trees, and far ahead and to the right across another path glimmers of House Goto. She wasn’t sure why, but for some reason she thought what she could pick out of it from here looked more austere than it used to, as if it knew of the fate of its last leader.
However, shrugging in disinterest, she quickly arrived at the entrance to House Nakazawa, and pausing a moment to take in the ancient paneled door of what used to be her residence as well as the not-so-secret lair of the Skulls, she pushed it open and entered the large front lounge.
At this time of night there were of course many students milling around the lounge, studying or playing, whichever suited them most, and so yet another girl entering the building wasn’t really a matter of much interest. However, the few who did look her direction took a double-take when they realized the new arrival was not wearing seifuku, an unusual state for any student except almost exclusively for when they were in the privacy of their own rooms. As Reina strode through the lounge, whispers broke out as the observant students got a better look at her and were actually able to recognize her. For the first time since her “election”, the currently recognized Head of House Nakazawa had made an appearance in her dominion.
Despite her appellation, at the moment Reina didn’t have an interest in talking with the girls she led, though she did grin inwardly in response to the bits of talk she heard, which included awestruck comments concerning her in general, as well as how she walked through here as if she knew she owned the place, and in nothing but sweats!
After hearing more specific comments like,
“I heard she nearly killed Mistress Takahashi after maiming her bodyguard!” and,
“You know whenever it rains here, she’s crying, right?” she stopped, not far from the door to all the rooms, and turned back to the throng of students who suddenly fell silent at seeing her attention turn to them.
“Even though I’ve never been here, I take it you all know me…” she said in a soft voice befitting more her petite form than the presence that at the moment was the attention of the whole room. A few of the students nodded slowly, but most just continued staring as if still in amazement at seeing her among them. “But I want you to know that I don’t cry.”
The girl who had stated the claim to her friends moments before fell into a scandalized blush, but a few others let out giggles at the obvious absurdity that Reina was apparently correcting. However, Reina just fixed her eyes hard on each of the students as she looked among them one-by-one. She was having fun with this.
“When it rains,” she began to explain, “Those are the times you don’t want to be around me.”
She grinned in satisfaction at the mass of thunderstruck faces after that, and turned back toward the door to the rooms, only to see another smallish, if older-looking, girl come through it while peering down at some documents in her hands, at first not aware of what she had walked into.
However, after taking only a few steps she stopped and raised her eyes, looking around the deafeningly silent room before settling them on the one unique-looking person in it. Upon recognition, her eyes widened as well, but Reina thought it wasn’t, as with the other students, due to just Reina herself – as a new assistant to the headmasters and a valuable help in the war she of course knew the new school leaders quite well – but more in surprise that Reina was in this place at this moment.
“Tanaka-san!” LinLin said, still with the surprise in her voice. Her hands dropped to her waist as whatever she held in them was apparently completely forgotten. Reina wondered idly if it was related to the new work she was doing for Ai and Risa, and then quickly stopped herself from continuing along that line of thought. “What – what are you doing here?”
Reina’s smirk grew. “Well I thought of just stopping by to introduce myself to everyone, but I see there’s obviously no need for that.” As LinLin just continued to stare at her, her smirk wilted a bit. “So…” she continued more seriously, “I thought I’d go up and see if I could find a new young girl to corrupt instead.”
The Chinese girl didn’t seem to have heard a thing she said though, and suddenly just broke into a smile before nodding her head briskly. “That’s nice. It sounds like a good plan, Tanaka-san!” Then at least part of what Reina said finally seemed to sink into her. “Oh… go up?!” she asked, as if it was the most unthinkable thing in the world.
“Yes…” Reina said, now wondering if yet another girl was losing her sanity. Perhaps she
should start keeping a closer eye on what was going on around here. Before she could say anything further though, the wide-eyed girl suddenly spun and ran back through the door she just came through, and a moment later Reina could hear heavy footfalls as she apparently quickly ascended some stairs.
Reina turned back to the crowd behind her, which still hung on her every movement yet now seemed a little confused as to what just happened, as well as impressed that the Chinese girl had even managed to talk to her. Somehow, she was no longer as sure in her purpose of coming here. Dealing with the Emperor’s goons was one thing, but she realized how long a time it had been since she’d even gone out among the normal population.
“Is there anyone in here who doesn’t think of me as some untouchable goddess?” she asked the room, but after realizing what she just said, she actually came to somewhat like the idea. Turning around again before anyone could respond, if even anyone had dared to, with a renewed spring in her step she passed through the door in the back of the lounge.
Not thinking too long on what she left behind her, she smiled as she scanned down each hallway and the doors that lined it. She could hear music and chatter coming from behind a few, and memories welled up in her of when she’d passed this way previously. Her eyes lingered down one hall which led to the back of the house and to the lounge the Skulls had claimed their own. She wondered how it was used now; if current students treated it just like the front one, or if stories passed down still afforded it a modicum of respect and fear for how it was previously. She felt a tinge of desire to go see, but decided against it. She wasn’t in the mood to run into any more awestruck students, and she had a very specific objective here after all, one that continued to gnaw at her despite the slight oddity back in the lounge.
Finding the familiar flight of stairs, she scaled it slowly until she attained the third floor. Heading down the hallway, her ears stayed attentive to what lay behind each door until she came across one about halfway to her goal that caused her to slow to a stop.
She stared at the numbers “313” a moment, a strange sensation seeping into her that she couldn’t identify. She couldn’t hear anything from behind the door, but the sensation still tugged at something inside of her, in a way as if drawing her to the room, but at the same time setting off alarm bells in her head to stay far away from it. It was unlike anything she’d ever felt before, but deciding it must have just been created by her imagination as a by-product to the frustration she was currently feeling, she made her feet start up again and walked the rest of the way to the door she was looking for.
She lifted her hand as if to knock, but stopped before doing so. That was not how she wanted to begin this encounter. Instead, her fingers fell to the doorknob, which she turned slowly and gently trying to not make a sound. Unsurprisingly, she found it was locked. Smiling devilishly, she reached into her pocket for the key she had picked up from the table in her room in the tower, and inserted it into the lock. Turning it, it clicked, and she pushed the door open.
When the room came into view, she saw two beds, one with well-made pink sheets and the other with just the futon covers, looking like it had not been used for ages. Well, Reina supposed it hadn’t. It had been a long time since she actually slept in her assigned dorm room after all.
After taking in the beds, her eyes drifted to the girl who was seated at the desk near the pink-covered bed. She was just now turning to see what the sound was from the door, and for a moment squinted in the dim light of the room outside the pool of her desk lamp as if unable to identify who stood in the doorway. Smiling, this time in anticipation of finally sating her desire, Reina stepped into the room and swung the door shut behind her, her eyes resting on the slim, longhaired girl at the desk, who finally recognized the intruder.
Eyelids shot up, and the girl nearly jumped out of her chair, banging her knee on the desk though appearing not to notice the pain it must have caused. “What are
you doing here?!” the girl cried, partly in anger but mostly in what sounded like dread terror.
“Why, I thought I’d drop by my old room,” Reina replied, swaying over to her bed and pushing down on it as if to test its softness. “See if I left anything, you know.”
“Oh…” the girl said, no less fright in her voice. Reina knew her old roommate and classmate had reason to be concerned about her sudden appearance, but the fright the girl displayed did surprise her a bit. “Well, if you would, please look quickly and leave. You shouldn’t be here.”
“Why not?” Reina asked uncaringly, sitting down on the bed as if continuing to test it. “This is my room, after all. If I wanted to, I could spend the night here.”
The girl across the room wrung her hands in front of her as if just the thought was nearly too much for her to handle, and her eyes strayed over to the door as if thinking of trying to make an escape. “Your room is in the Tower now, Reina,” she said nervously, as if the thought of that place brought up even more unpleasantness. “This is my place.
Mine! You hear?”
Reina frowned. “You’re acting awfully strange,” she said, and stood up again. “What’s the matter?” She suddenly began smoothing her voice into honey. “I thought you liked having me around… having me near…
having me…” She paused a moment. “…
Erina.”
The girl now looked at her, and her anxiousness drained away as if just Reina’s words were enough to force submission. “No…” the girl said, and began to shake her head. “No... I’ve gone through too much. This can’t be happening again.”
“What can’t be happening again?” Reina asked, slowly making her way toward the girl. She was a bit disappointed at her seeming frailty, but it definitely didn’t affect her beauty, which Reina decided would be more than enough for her tonight. “You know you want me. You always have.”
“No…” the girl kept repeating, desperate eyes fixed hard on Reina as she closed in on her prey.
Suddenly Reina was upon her, and she snaked her arms around the slim waist. Erina seemed as if she was about to cry, but that didn’t distract Reina. She knew that once she started, the girl’s tune would quickly change. She leaned her head in, focused on quivering lips, feeling a surge within her at her soon-to-be fulfilled passion, but just before lips touched she felt a hand on her stomach, and suddenly she was pushed back.
Regaining her balance, Reina looked into the face in front of her, but it was different now. Now the fear was nearly gone, and in its place long-suffering anger.
“No,” Erina repeated, but this time in a much firmer voice. “This is not your room any longer. It is mine, and you are not welcome. Do you have any idea what you did to me?” Reina was silent as she watched the girl’s expressive face, and she continued, “When I left your room that night I was distraught… I cried until early the next morning when I fell asleep… Before too long my teachers noticed what a wreck I was and sent me to the school counselor.” Reina swallowed, and the girl nodded briskly.
“That’s right. I went into counseling! I was in such distress… I never told your name to the counselor, as if she would have done anything because of who you are anyway, but eventually it seemed to do some good – she’s such a wonderful person – and my life went back to normal. For days now I’ve been able to focus on my studies, and my teachers have praised me on my grades returning to where they were, especially when so many of us are struggling.
“But now… You just come in here like… like… you just own the place! And I’m your property!”
Reina cleared her throat. This was not happening… “I only—” she began, but was quickly cut off.
“No!” Erina demanded. “I don’t want to hear it!” She pointed at the door. “Get out of here! I don’t want to ever see you here again.” When Reina didn’t move, the fear returned to the girl’s eyes and her voice softened many times over in realization that no matter how much she wished it, if Reina didn’t want to leave there was absolutely nothing she could do to stop it. That was a fact she knew all too well. “Please…” she implored, “Leave me be?”
Reina only stared. Was this truly what she was like? Was
she the true uncaring devil that drove everyone she came into contact with to such a state? Ai had handled it calmly perhaps, but then again the woman was also her match. A normal girl like her former roommate stood no chance. Instead of the exhilaration that had been teasing at her stomach ever since Ai first entered her door earlier, she now felt a heavy weight settle into it. She did not desire the girl before her any longer. She didn’t desire anything.
Without saying a word, she almost stumbled dazedly away from the girl’s desk and toward the door. When she reached it, she looked back once to see her still with wide eyes as if in disbelief that Reina actually listened to her, and made her fumbling way into the hallway.
She almost didn’t remember making the trip back to the tower, though somewhere along the way she’d at least regained a normal pace. Instead of going back through the crowded front lounge, she’d gone to the back exit through the Skulls’ old lounge – apparently stories from previous students had a good enough effect, because it was empty and appeared no different from the last time she was there – and walked through the woods to the tower to avoid running into any stray students out late at night.
Her mood had changed from the stunned feeling after her encounter with the Nakazawa girl into a dull depression that she wondered if might keep her shut up in her room for a long time once again. However, she wasn’t back yet.
Entering the tower, she walked through the first floor hall and found the spiral stairs. Upon mounting the first step, she heard soft noises coming from the floor above, but seemingly within the stairwell. She couldn’t identify them at first, but when she was about halfway up recognition flared within her mind. Despite everything she almost smiled at the thought of what she might be about to uncover.
Taking the rest of the stairs as quietly and stealthily as possible, she attained the second floor to see two small forms standing off in a shadowed corner of the stairwell. They were pressed tightly together, which combined with the soft whimpers and breaths of exertion gave a clear picture to Reina of what they were doing. At first thought, she wasn’t sure who they were, because they seemed too small to be anyone she expected to be here, but as she stepped closer the realization hit her, and she froze. Amid all the thoughts running through her mind at that moment, she didn’t know whether to be proud of the girl for working so fast, or jealous of all things.
After another moment of watching, the act becoming more and more unbearable as it went on, she cleared her throat, and the forms sprang apart. At least, one sprang away. The other remained rather relaxed, but still turned her attention briskly toward Reina.
“Well I must say,” Reina said through a lopsided grin, the best she could manage under the circumstances, “As always, you definitely are doing the Skulls proud.”
“Tanaka-san,” Chisato said in a somewhat hoarse, breathless voice. She glanced at her mortified companion quickly before turning back to Reina. “I… I’m surprised to see you back here so soon.”
Reina’s eyes narrowed with little amusement. “Yes,” she agreed. “I’m quite surprised at that too. Unfortunately, that’s the way things are.” She turned her gaze on the other girl, who even though she looked like she wanted nothing more than to escape right that moment, knew that she couldn’t since Reina had the two of them quite effectively cornered. Chisato’s hands also still held her waist. “And who do we have here? Who’s caught the eye of one of our bravest generals?”
Chisato blushed at the compliment, but that was nothing to the other girl. However, at Chisato’s urging, the other grudgingly stepped with her out into the light. Reina’s eyes widened at identifying Chisato’s choice. “Well,” she stated shortly. “I see Tokunaga’s efforts at repairing Circle-Skull relations must be proceeding quite well.”
Kanon blushed, but at the same time tried to glare back at Reina defiantly. Reina always thought of the girl as one of the most outspoken of the young students who had followed the Circle. Chisato had made a good choice. Still, for some reason, that thought didn’t cheer her any.
“The only reason we still
have any problems is because of those like you making fun of our efforts!” the other Matsuura second-year scolded. “As far as I’m concerned, we are all friends now.” She turned back to Chisato, and Reina noticed a light flush grace her cheeks. “And some of us are perhaps even a bit more…” Chisato smiled, and pulled her closer again.
Starting to feel uncomfortable, Reina cleared her throat. “Yeah, well I wish more of your little friends felt the same way,” she said in a disinterested-sounding voice, and looked around as if to see if anyone else was near. However, they were quite alone in the stairwell. “Well, I’m headed back to my room,” she said dismissively, and headed toward the stairs up to the next floor. After glancing back briefly, she added, “Um… carry on…”
However, before she made it to the second step Chisato pulled away from the girl she was with and took a few steps toward Reina. “Reina,” she said again to catch her attention. Reina’s foot stopped on the step. “You really are back here early…” she said hesitantly. “Is everything all right?”
Reina smiled softly, hiding her face in the shadows. “You really are too concerned about others sometimes,” she said gently. “You have a very cute girl in your arms now. You should go to her. Don’t worry about someone usel…” She paused a moment. “…about someone like me.” Troubled by the near slip of her tongue, she started back up the stairs, determined to make herself alone again as quickly as possible.
“But Reina…” Chisato continued. However, Reina was already up the stairs and in the corridor toward her room.
A few minutes later, she lay on her back with limbs splayed out in the big beautiful four-poster bed that used to be Ai’s, was hers, then was both Ai’s and hers before becoming apparently only hers again. She was beginning to wonder if it would only ever be hers anymore.
Somehow she’d not understood what the woman had been trying to tell her until she saw what had become of Erina, of the girl that used to be one of her most trusted friends before becoming quite a capable lover. Before Reina had, she now realized, cast her off as almost nothing more than a sack of garbage. She’d done this with many girls and women before, not having a care in the world for what they might have gone through after, not really figuring they’d go through anything. However, the two examples shown to her tonight shattered such a view of the world.
Could the woman that was as much her counterpart as anyone had been, through both nature and desire, be right? Could there really be something more that she wasn’t seeing? That in all her experiences of being with people whom even she realized were exceptional, she had not once ever made love? Could there really be a meaning to such a concept?
Staring at the canopy of her bed, she thought back, trying to remember the face of each one she’d ever taken. To her shock and newfound horror, she realized there were many she couldn’t. People treated her as a goddess, as a leader not just of a school but of a country, but how could she be qualified to lead in such a way, when she left such a trail of destruction behind her with every one that she’d dared let get close to her?
One of the faces she was thinking of rose more prominently in her thoughts, and the phantom Miyabi inside her head spoke to her with a serious voice.
“There will come a time when we three must go away… Our enemy is close to making its move…” That was the phrase that had been bothering her for the past few days, from the night when Ai had come to her to those when she patiently awaited her return. Realizing she was in no condition to lead in whatever might be coming, she found herself remembering those words again. She wished the enemy would go ahead and make its move now, to spare her any more of this anguish.
A knock sounded at her door, though she didn’t take her eyes from the canopy. At the second sound of its rapping, she opened her mouth to say, “Come in,” in a loud enough, if flat, voice. As she heard the door open, she still didn’t look down from the canopy, not really caring who had come to visit her and even just wondering why whoever it was couldn’t just leave her alone.
“Um…” came a small voice, and Reina felt a tiny stirring within her.
Tearing her eyes away from the blank canvas, she rolled her head to the side to see the small girl walking slowly toward her. She’d apparently changed from her seifuku before coming – she was now dressed in sweats similar to Reina – showing that she must have not continued what she was doing as Reina advised her to. Still, for some reason that thought lightened her mood slightly.
“I hope I didn’t ruin your evening too,” Reina said, her voice sullen in her sadness.
Chisato frowned. “What are you talking about?” she asked. The girl was taking in the scene before her, Reina’s even voice combined with her position on the bed as if laying herself vulnerable to anything more the world wanted to throw at her. “I just thought I’d come by before a bit of studying and bed.”
Reina smiled in a way that didn’t reach her eyes, and she rolled her head back. “Is there something you need?” she asked.
“Well…” Chisato said, seeming to be nervous to continue. “Actually, I wondered if there might be anything you need.” Reina imagined the girl taking in her present condition again, and with a cough of laughter sat up.
Looking toward her once more, she said, “You know, you may be the only person that would be truly concerned enough to actually come here and risk talking to me like that.”
“Risk what?” Chisato asked, seeming honestly confused.
Reina smiled at the girl’s remaining innocence, despite the fact that she thought she must have stolen it away from her. “Nothing,” she replied dismissively. Then her mouth turned down in a frown of her own. “But I am a bit disappointed that you didn’t stay with your girl. It’s not good to be neglectful.”
Chisato waved her hand in a dismissal of her own. “Oh it’s nothing like that,” she said. “Actually it was odd. We’d become friends lately, along with the others of her group and Risako, and we’d made plans for her to come over tonight since it apparently can get pretty loud around her dorm and a tough place to study. Somehow, especially after what you’d said earlier… Well, it just happened, and we found that corner. I don’t really know what to think of it really. After you came she said she really had to do some studying now, and decided to go back to her room anyway since she had a feeling staying here any longer would be even more distracting…”
The girl was babbling. Somehow though, Reina didn’t mind, and just smiled as she watched her go on. “I’m sorry,” she said when the girl finally began to trail off. “I didn’t mean to sound reprimanding.”
“Oh it’s okay,” Chisato said, peering into Reina’s face as if still unsure what she’d find in there. “I just wanted you to understand.”
“Thanks,” Reina said, and realized she really meant it.
“Well…” Chisato said, seeming to become uncomfortable again, “I’m sorry for bothering you. I’ll just head back to do my homework…”
When she turned to head back to the door, Reina quickly jumped up from the bed and walked toward her, touching her arm lightly. However, as if feeling even that touch was not appropriate at the moment, she drew back quickly.
Chisato turned back to her, seeming surprised at her movement. “What’s the matter?” she asked, concern seeping into her tone once again.
Reina smiled. “You’re right, I wasn’t all right before.” Chisato raised a worried hand, but Reina brushed it away easily with a shake of her head. “I’ve realized a lot of things about people today… about myself… a lot of which I wasn’t happy to learn. I wasn’t sure if I could deal with it…”
“Oh…” Chisato said, seeming unsure what else to say, but her concerned eyes still searching Reina’s.
“But I think I’ve just realized something else,” Reina continued. Chisato’s eyebrows rose curiously. “I realized I’m going to be all right.”
“That’s… good to hear, I suppose?” Chisato said, though still sounding a bit confused.
“Anyway,” Reina said, “I’ve kept you long enough. You should get back to your homework.”
“Yeah…” Chisato replied. As she turned to leave though, she cast one glance back Reina’s way, as if finding it hard to believe what she was seeing. Reina smiled back, but that only seemed to confuse her more.
A few minutes after the girl left her room, Reina still stood in the middle of the floor looking at the door. She didn’t dare to hope, as she knew she didn’t deserve anything at the time, but after seeing the younger girl just now she recognized what the feeling in her stomach had been. Could this be something like what Ai had tried to tell her about? Whether that was true or not, somehow she did know the truth of what she’d told Chisato – she would be all right.
Suddenly she spun, leaning back to the bedside table to pick up the small key again. She would continue doing her best to right the wrongs she’d caused in the past. She didn’t know if the girl would listen to her, but… she had to try…
This time she didn’t run into anyone in the hallways of the tower, though her eyes lingered an extra moment as she passed Airi’s and Chisato’s room, and she walked through the trees with an extra bounce to her step, as if what she felt inside her was enough to fight back the oppressive darkness threatening to press in from all around.
It was now too late for almost all students to be out, but she still went through the back lounge of House Nakazawa since there were still likely to be no few studying with their friends elsewhere. She smiled as she passed through the Skulls’ lounge, wondering if she’d realized at last what was said to make her and Miyabi so different, and also realizing that it definitely made neither of them less of a Skull. However, she also wondered if she was worthy of it. As part of an answer to that, Ai’s words came back to her and her smile returned.
She scaled the stairs, and when she arrived at the second floor she could almost feel the excitement and anxiety about what she was about to do, just hoping that she could at least have her say. However, she slowed again upon passing room 313, noticing once again the force seeming to tug at her from within.
Her first thought was how strange it was that she should feel something like this just by walking through a hallway, but then she realized that since she was in a completely different frame of mind than she was before, it most definitely was not related to any of her own internal struggles. She also noticed something else different this time. While before there had been something setting off alarms inside her head telling her to stay away from the place, now there was only the seductive feeling, as if something was trying to tell her to come inside.
Despite any new emotional revelations, Reina was still a very physical person. Even though she had been able to suppress her desires for the night, even amazingly when Chisato had come into her room in a situation that otherwise she would have had no qualms about taking advantage of, she still felt unsatisfied. This force that was calling out to her from within the room she passed offered to give her what she needed, if only she would let it. Deciding a bit of a distraction from her mission would not be too amiss, Reina reached for the doorknob.
Surprisingly, it was unlocked, and turned easily. When she pushed the door open she noticed the room within was dark, but she felt the strange sensation even more strongly now that it was no longer blocking her way. Squinting around in an attempt to see, and wondering why the light from the hall wasn’t helping, she pushed the door shut behind her and took another couple steps in.
As she neared what must be the center of the room, she heard the whispers of soft chants that seemed to come from all around her. “Hello?” she asked, looking around as if willing herself to see what was there.
The chants increased in volume slowly, but they were in a language Reina didn’t know. The feeling that something was terribly wrong finally began to override the sensation telling her this was where she ought to be, and she turned in the direction she hoped was back toward the door. However, at that moment light also began to slowly grow around her. As she adjusted, she saw that two hooded figures surrounded her, and it was from them that the chanting came.
Abruptly it stopped, and she heard one of them say, in a low voice she thought she recognized, “So you’re early… but that’s nothing we can’t deal with.”
“Sleep well,” the other said, and before Reina’s mind could leap to recognition, her head blazed in excruciating pain. The last thing she felt apart from the pain was the roughly carpeted floor as it rushed up to meet her.
Topic: The Sword and the Dove [12: Voyage] (Update 12/30) (Read 40894 times)