On the Nagano Shin-kansen, approaching Takasaki (local time: 10:03 AM)…
"Mikoto-san?"
Minagi Mikoto blinked on hearing that accented voice, and then she looked over to see Anna Garten standing at the open doorway to the washroom. "What?"
The German psychokinetic — who was Mikoto's age, yet had seen more combat than the wandering HiME could have ever begun imagining ANYONE enduring — took a deep breath as she considered her question. Gazing at her, Mikoto was quick to sense a swell of uncertainty within the other girl's heart, though her obviously clear desire for one Kujū Mai was quite obvious to her. "You want to know if you'll be able to love your Mai as much as I love my Mai, right?" she asked as she dried her hands.
Anna nodded. "I really hope so," Mikoto then said as she beckoned the other woman to follow her to stand close to the nearby convenience stalls as she fished out some change to get her a can of Pocari Sweat. "I can tell you look at your Mai as the person that will keep you human and sane." A smile. "Just like I look at my Mai."
The German's eyes narrowed. Fortunately, there wasn't a large amount of people on this train as it was going AWAY from Tōkyō in the morning, so she could ask this without having some fool bystander overhearing them. "You've killed before, haven't you?"
"My grandfather."
Silence.
"Was…?!" Anna gasped in her native language, and then she caught herself before she stared in wide-eyed disbelief at her new friend. "Why?" she hissed.
"The HiME Festival runs every three centuries," Mikoto stated. "When my grandfather discovered my gift, he researched all he could on it and what it would mean to me. So…" She sipped her drink. "He trained me to be the perfect killer. To be the who'd win the Festival. Of course, the fool never understood anything about this 'obsidian lord' Mai discovered when she used Miroku to break the sealing sword's grip on Kagutsuchi." Another sip. "One night, about a couple months before I was to transfer to Fūka, he put me through my paces. No holds barred sort of thing. You went through that in your recon training, right?" Seeing Anna nod, Mikoto closed her eyes. "I lost it. Went into a sort of berserker mode and I killed him." A sniff. "And when he was bleeding out on the ground, Oyaji told me that he was really proud of me."
Anna shook her head. "Arschloch…!" she hissed out.
"Oh, yeah," the HiME said with a smile; her empathy had been quick to sense the meaning of Anna's word even if she didn't speak a word of German. "And the worst part of it was that I was so naïve and ignorant at the time, I didn't realise then that I had just MURDERED someone!" Another sip of her drink. "It was only when I became an Avalonian thanks to Mai and we bonded that all the blinds were ripped away from me." She paused as she recalled the hours of weeping and screaming she had endured when the full horror of what she had been transformed into hit her, and then she shuddered as she remembered Mai staying with her all the way, holding her, kissing her, telling her it would be alright and that her love for Mikoto would not change because of the blood on her hands. "So how's it with you?" she then asked as she gazed on Anna.
"About the same. Except for the bond-mating, of course," Anna stated. "When my adopted parents found me and helped me become one of their blood, I was starting to fall down a very ugly path." She gazed in amusement at Mikoto as she pulled out some change to get herself a can of Coca-Cola. "I learned about my powers very early in life. And since I was the only one of my kind that I knew of, I believe I had been touched by the old gods to become someone special. Above the rest of the cattle; that sort of thing." A shake of her head as she mentally opened the can before taking a sip. "And then my parents died and I was adopted. And got introduced to a whole new world." A smirk. "A whole new universe, I mean."
Mikoto chuckled. "Yeah, I can see that," she mused. "How many?"
"Two hundred-and-sixty-seven, including the three I choked to death on my last mission in Leipzig last night," Anna calmly replied. "The drill officers in the Bundeswehr — especially those who prepare people to serve as fernspähtruppen — are very good at helping motivate people in doing the right thing." She then smirked. "All enemies of either the Republic as a whole or parts of them. Skinheads and other neo-Nazis who'd want to restore some form of the Großdeutsches Reich, magical purists who can't stand the idea that the children of normal couples can be witches and wizards, terrorists of all stripes and types…especially the radical Islamists, especially…" A shake of her head. "People who just don't care about other people's lives and are willing to slaughter them like cattle just to prove their point."
"Like you're afraid you'll become, right?" Mikoto asked.
A nod. "Ja…"
Mikoto smiled as she reached over to squeeze her new friend's shoulder. As Anna blinked on feeling the sympathy and understanding flowing from the other woman, the HiME leaned over to kiss her cheek. "You need a Mai, too."
Anna's cheeks reddened as Mikoto headed back to where she was now relaxing with Mai and the others, and then she smiled before sipping her drink. As she turned to head back to join them, she then tensed slightly on sensing another sister approach from the direction of the last car. "Sergeant Garten?" a woman's voice called out.
Anna looked over to see a properly-uniformed conductor standing nearby. "Yes?"
The older woman walked over, glancing around automatically to ensure no one was looking their way before she gently grasped the German's hand with her own. Anna relaxed herself as the conductor's voice began to echo in her mind. «There's something you need to know, Anna-chan,» she stated. «You and your friends are being followed.»
Anna tensed…
On a Mitsubishi H-60 helicopter heading towards Nagano (local time: 10:15 AM)…
"Moroboshi."
Hearing his current travelling companion speak, Kaiete Senzō looked over to watch as the grandmaster of Saikō Jinseijutsu-ryū and personal assistant to the Emperor held a cell phone close to her ear. The helicopter, a Mitsubishi-built variant of the Sikorski S-70 fitted both for personal comfort and considerable defence against any conventional attack (as well as given some remarkable improvements that were not available anywhere on Earth save to those people who had connections with the Earth Defence Force), was Negako's personal aircraft, used by her in Japan when speed didn't demand use of materialisers — learning of that device had made the old Imperial army intelligence officer laugh; he had seen Star Trek, too — to and from Starbase Edo. Still, despite her current composure, Senzō could still detect a slight show of discomfort deep within the woman's dark brown eyes. She still clearly hated to fly, no doubt as much as she utterly detested being close to any large bodies of water.
A nod. "Thank you for informing me of that, Yukino. Send this information directly to my secretary at the Palace. Text Mai back and tell her and her friends to proceed with Anna directly to Togakushi-jinja. I will join them there." With that, she closed the connection before staring at Senzō. "A group of three HiMEs from Fūka, now accompanied by Anna Garten, are being followed by two agents of the Wisdom Alliance on the Asama 511 train currently heading to Nagano." She then gazed at the woman in the crash seat, who had a laptop in hand. "When does that train reach Nagano, Aya?"
Tōgetsu Aya tapped controls on her machine, and then she smiled. "It arrives at Nagano Station at 11:05 AM, Negako-onēsama," the green-haired, blue-eyed woman in the casual clothes then stated. "I've already contacted a sister at JR East to have the tickets for Tokiha Mai and her companions extended so they can travel with Anna to Nagano. A car has been arranged to pick them up and privately transport them to Togakushi."
A nod. Seeing this, Senzō found himself exchanging an amused look with his own senior assistant, who had come on the flight along with four others, all former Ground Self-Defence Force soldiers, all trained in martial arts and all prepared to assist Negako in the defence of Kujū Mai and her friends from the Wisdom Alliance. Senzō then tensed as Negako's eyes fixed on him. "You run a most proficient organisation, Negako-sama."
"It is not as 'official' or 'commercial' as your own, Senzō," Negako stated. "I explained to you what powers Avalonians as a whole possess. And while we are not as large in numbers as we are elsewhere on the planet, we do stay closely in touch."
He nodded. "And I admire that. Who is this Yukino person you just spoke to?"
"Kikukawa Yukino, one of the HiMEs of Fūka," Negako replied. "First-year high school student. Currently very close to and desires to become bond-mates with Suzushiro Haruka; you are aware of her family, are you not?" At his nod, she added, "She controls a Child she calls 'Diana,' a living plant-like creature that releases spores that have the combined capabilities of sending Yukino images of what she desires to see even from many metres away, as well as create illusions and cloaking fields."
A nod. "A most handy person to have around."
"In previous HiME Festivals, those who lost their Childs never recovered their abilities and normally died within a year of the Festival's conclusion," she added. "It was my creator's desire after the end of the last Festival that the next time such happened, all those who are forced to participate in it will survive with their powers intact. That has been partially helped by ensuring all the HiMEs have become Avalonians; the last of them to 'cross over,' Minagi Mikoto, came over several weeks after she began attending Fūka." She then smirked. "Of course, there are those people who wish to guide the Festival to better suit their own purposes. The Searrs Foundation being the primary one, of course. They will be stopped."
Senzō scowled. "A private company with its own private fleet and airmobile brigade group. Including a surplus aircraft carrier they obtained before it could be scrapped in Taiwan, if I recall correctly. They are as powerful as the Alliance itself."
"But with more selfish goals in mind," Negako stated. "Kurumi?!"
The pilot, Matsūra Kurumi, tensed. "We can be in Nagano in 22 minutes, Ane-chama."
"Go!"
"Hai!"
Kurumi brought the nose down as she brought the helicopter's speed up to its maximum 140 knots. As the machine raced off to the northwest, Negako's cell phone then rang. "Moroboshi," she called into it, and then she blinked as the other end spoke to her, telling her what she had to report. Negako then blinked. "Are you certain, Nana?" After a minute, she then nodded. "Understood. We will be prepared. Relay this information to Higurashi Akane and Kikukawa Yukino at Fūka. Miyu Greer is currently in Britain trying to forge contacts between the Foundation and the Death Eaters. We may require Alyssa Searrs' assistance in this matter. Also warn them of Miyu's so-called 'father;' he is NOT to learn anything of what will no doubt occur at Togakushi." After hearing the answer, she closed off the link, and then stared at Senzō.
"Have you ever heard of a genetically-enhanced human named Tsukiro?"
Senzô's eyes went wide…
The Tōkyō waterfront…
"Nana, calm yourself…"
"Would YOU be fuckin' calm to know THAT sort of thing is heading right now to where Onē-chan is, Sayuri?!" Ogiwara Nana snarled as she, Hyūga Sayuri and Shindō Yukira all walked towards their waiting car, close to where the cargo ship that had delivered something for a known front company of the Wisdom Alliance had been docked. It hadn't been hard for the three Terran-form Avalonians — all who had experience in the Niphentaxian Navy as special intelligence operatives, as did Aya, Kurumi and the sixth of their group, Sakurai Yukie — to get what they wanted from the crew and the small team of Alliance agents aboard that ship; a little T-and-A added to some telepathic prompting went a VERY long away, especially with sailors who had been living in mortal fear of a creature that would kill anyone at the drop of a hat for over two weeks since their vessel had departed from the south coast of France. "Even if she can do all that good stuff, she also wants to obey the Emperor's command concerning this Kujū girl. And with three HiMEs entering the mix?! That's going to get the Foundation sniffing around even if Kikukawa can keep a lid on it back at Fūka! We need something else!"
"But who?" Yukira asked as they got into the car; Sayuri was driving.
Nana then smirked as she gazed at her friend. "What do you think?"
The others stared at her, and then Sayuri gaped. "But Nana…!"
"Why not?" Nana asked as she pulled out her cell phone. "He's gotta learn what just happened to Tariko, too! And if he comes, she comes!"
The others in the car considered that, and then they nodded as we…
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(Posted Sat, 22 Jan 2011 19:22)
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