On a ferry sailing to Fūka-jima (local time: after lunch)…
"…the Oni spaceship is now pulling away from Tomobiki and heading into space, being monitored by Phoenix of the American superhero team known as the X-Men," the NHK radio announcer declared over the portable radio on the small nightstand beside the bunk bed in the lone cabin on one of the superstructure decks of the Fūka Dream, a private ferry that connected mainland Honshŭ with Fūka-jima, a tiny island located in the western stretches of the Inland Sea between the largest of the Home Islands and Kyūshū. As the naked and muscular teenage girl — she was a third-grade middle school student from the mountains of Okutama, the westernmost part of Metropolitan Tōkyō, close to the border with Saitama prefecture — finished lathering her taunt body down, the announcer continued, "And so ends the curious saga of Moroboshi Ataru and Redet Lum of Uru, something that both entertained and frightened many people over the last year, but now has faded into history. Given the curious questions raised early this morning when it was revealed that Moroboshi-san had been living on ANOTHER PLANET for nine years before his being asked to participate in the Tag Race against the Oni…"
"Feh!" the raven-haired tomboy with the smoking golden-brown eyes snorted in a voice that marked the curious level of emotional maturity she had gained thanks to the Gift she had received thanks to Moroboshi Ataru two years before. "Ataru-aniue was ASKED?! More like BRAINWASHED into doing it! Where the hell was Kazumi in all…?!"
Minagi Mikoto perked on hearing her cell phone chime the specific ringtone that indicated a text message had come in, and then she grumbled as she sprayed her body clear of suds before shutting off the shower. Getting out, she snared a towel to wipe herself down with as she walked into the main part of the cabin — it was a semi-private two-bed affair, though the native of Okutama was travelling alone — to pick up her device; she had a Samsung Rugby Smart with the Android 2.3 Gingerbread operating system on it. Gazing at the message there, she then grinned.
FROM: Windtalker
TO: Claymore
Hey, Mikoto-chan! Hoping to do the wild thing with Ataru-kun soon?
Mikoto laughed. Asakura Kazumi — the current incarnation of the Voice of the Show, Windtalker — was a third-year middle school student attending the girl's junior high division at the Mahora Academy in Saitama-ken under the tutelage of one of the most powerful child sorcerers alive today, Negi Springfield. While the soon-to-be junior high senior about to attend the Fūka Academy HAD been grossly tempted to get to Tōkyō and meet up with Ataru, she had obligations elsewhere. Besides, unlike people such as Jessica Wakefield, Tara Markova and Pansy Parkinson, the lone daughter of a minor ninjutsu family descent from the legendary Yamato Takeru himself was still trying to decide WHAT sort of relationship she would enjoy with Moroboshi Ataru. Was he a future life-mate and father for her children when the nesting instinct would take her and force her to seek such a mate? Or was he the unofficial big brother that had taken the place of her own missing blood-sibling when he found her two years ago standing over the dying body of her own grandfather, who had given up his life to fully awaken her fighting instincts and prepare her for the upcoming HiME Festival?
Calling up her response features, Mikoto sent a message back:
FROM: Claymore
TO: Windtalker
Give me a break, Kazumi! Ani-ue is Ani-ue! I just wish I didn't have to worry about other things now!
A pause, and then the metahuman reporter replied:
FROM: Windtalker
TO: Claymore
Met up with any other HiMEs just yet?
Mikoto sighed as she typed back:
FROM: Claymore
TO: Windtalker
Not yet, but soon. When I do, you're the first to know, Kazumi. Later!
She sent a winking emoticon out with that message, and then moved to dress…
On the weather deck aft, minutes later…
"Sugoi! I'm glad I came by boat today!"
"Takumi! Really! We're not here to sight-see, you know!"
Hearing the voices of two people about her age, Mikoto — who had dressed in her old middle school seifuku, the long carrying case bearing her personal claymore slung over one shoulder as many practicing kendō-ka would always carry their own weapons — looked over to see what were obviously a pair of siblings — an older sister and younger brother — seated on one of the benches spread out on the weather deck. Noting they were currently passing under the Kanmon Bridge as the Fūka Dream headed east from the Shimonoseki ferry terminal towards Fūka-jima — which was located not far off Shikoku's Sukumo Bay; given the location of the place off the smallest of the Home Islands, it made the swordswoman wonder why the hell did she have to take a ferry from SHIMONOSEKI of all places when Beppu on Kyūshū or Yawatahama on Shikoku were far closer — Mikoto sighed before she turned up to gaze on the barely visible Moon far overheard…
Her eyes focused on the small crimson star looming off it.
The HiME Star.
The portal to another dimension.
The thing that had made Mikoto kill her very own grandfather…
"Are you seeing it again, Onē-chan?"
Mikoto's breath caught in her throat, and then she glanced at the siblings nearby. As the girl — an incredibly attractive and quite well-endowed woman about a year older than she, possessing strawberry blonde hair cut stylishly short and grey eyes on a very well-formed face — seemed to blink, the wandering swordswoman was then quick to realise where she had been looking before her brother had called out to her. "Yeah," she said. "Actually…today, it's red and pretty," she then confessed.
Mikoto blinked several times. She can see the HiME Star?!
"My eyes are supposed to be good," the brother then confessed as he rubbed his right eye as he looked up towards the Moon.
"It must be one of those things that only honest people can see," she then stated.
"My, my…!"
Mikoto paused as her mind — influenced by the past life experiences of the Wild Swordsman of the Polar Mountains; in this incarnation, she called herself Claymore in tribute to the general shape of her Element, which resembled an old Scottish broadsword as big as she — interpreted those words. She had been quick to sense a touch of strain in the older woman's voice on saying that. That meant just one thing.
You're hiding something, oh sister princess of mine…!
Between the Saganoseki Peninsula (Kyūshū) and the Sadamisaki Peninsula (Shikoku) (local time: after dusk)…
"Are you sure about this?"
"It's confirmed. Tokiha and Minagi are aboard."
Hearing that, the raven-haired woman with the green-grey eyes perked before she gazed back at the pilot of the small fishing boat she had hired to help her in her quest. "Excellent. Where's the ferry right now?" Kuga Natsuki then asked.
"Right over there," the older man — a former member of Division One who had become quite disenfranchised with the policy of the elders running the organisation — then said as he nodded off to the east. "Right on time."
"Good," the wild rider said as she moved to zip up her jumpsuit, masking the curious mark on the left side of her back above her hips. "Let's go!"
He nodded as he headed inside the pilothouse…
Aboard the Fūka Dream…
"Excuse me?"
Mikoto perked on hearing that voice, and then she turned to gaze up at the woman she had seen on the weather deck hours earlier. "Yes?" she asked.
"Sorry to bother you," the older woman apologised as she sat down beside the wandering swordswoman in the cafeteria. Mikoto had been enjoying a late night bowl of rāmen — to her, the Elixir of Life — when the other person had come to her. "I couldn't help but notice your seifuku. Are you transferring in to the Fūka Academy as well?"
"Yes, I am," Mikoto said as she breathed out. "I'll be in the Middle School Division. I'm a third-year." Her hand came out. "Minagi Mikoto, from Tōkyō."
"Tokiha Mai; I'm from Kitakyūshū. I'm a first-year in high school," the other woman said as they shook hands, and then she waved off to a nearby table. "My brother Takumi there will be your schoolmate; he'll be a first-year."
Mikoto perked, and then she looked over. Mai's brother was at another table chatting with a pretty girl with long, barrel-shaped ponytails sticking out from her head. She was accompanied by an older man who carried himself as a kendō-ka; given her experience and training, Mikoto could recognise the signs right away. "Travelling alone?"
A sigh. "Hai. You?"
A nod. "I've been alone since Ojii-san died two years ago," Mikoto confessed.
Mai perked. "Then how…?"
A smirk, which made the older woman blink in surprise at the level of sheer cockiness Mikoto was displaying. "I'm a country girl at heart, Mai-san. And I was trained since I was old enough to walk in the martial arts. Living off the land's easy for me."
A whistle. "Wow!" Mai then looked concerned. "Do you have any other family…?"
"I don't know," the other girl then answered with frank honesty. "Ojii-san never talked about my parents. I do have an older brother, but we were separated very young." A sigh. "I hope to find Ani-ue one day…but to be honest…"
"I'm sorry."
A smirk. "Don't worry, Mai-san. I'm…" Mikoto then sighed. "I'm sorry."
Mai blinked. "About what?"
The younger woman sighed. "You can see the HiME Star. The small red star that lurks close to the Moon, right?" As Mai's eyes went wide, the swordswoman breathed out. "It's alright. I won't brag about it to anyone; that's not proper."
"You can see it?!" Mai gasped, and then her eyes teared. "Oh, thank the gods…!"
"Eh?!"
"There are times I felt I was going crazy!" Mai said as Mikoto handed her a napkin so she could wipe her eyes. "I began seeing it after my mother died…"
"I've seen it for years," the swordswoman confessed. "My grandfather knew the story behind it. It's call the 'HiME Star;' it's actually a portal to a pocket dimension that connects the real universe to a place where very powerful creatures exist."
Silence.
"The Wizard was right…"
Mikoto perked. "What wizard?"
Mai blinked, and then she breathed out. "Excuse me, please…!"
And with that, she got up and nearly ran out of the room. "Mai!" Mikoto called out as she got up and ran after her, not noticing Tokiha Takumi watching them…
Approaching the Fūka Dream from port aft…
"We're getting close…but they'll spot us!"
"I know! I can take it from here!" Natsuki stated. "Take care of yourself!"
A laugh. "You, too, Natsuki-chan! Gambatte!"
With that, the wild rider raced out of the pilotage for the aft deck.
"DURAN!"
A terrible wolf-like howl then echoed over the Inner Sea…
The weather deck…
Mikoto stopped on hearing the cry of a wolf echo over the waters surrounding the ferry, that making her tense as she looked around for its source. "We're too far from shore! No wolf lives this close to the water! What the hell…?!"
Mistress! Danger!
The swordswoman tensed as she felt very alien — yet quite FAMILIAR! — nexus of ki zoom right at her. "SHIT!" she cried out as she dodged…just as a canine-like form the size of a small car landed on the deck, it being rode by a woman in a black jumpsuit with a motorcyclist's helmet masking her head. As Mikoto quickly regained her footing on the upper weather deck, the newcomer got off her mount and materialised two derringer-like weapons with globe-shaped magazines on them over the trigger. Before she could aim her weapons at the young traveller from Tōkyō, a voice cried out from aft, "HEY! What are you doing to Mikoto?!"
Mikoto gasped. "Mai…!"
Instantly, the newcomer spun around and lunged, dispersing her weapons as she grabbed Mai by one arm and moved to trap her in a choke-hold. Before the traveller from Kyūshū could react, the newcomer allowed one of her strange handguns to reappear so that she could aim it at her target. "Don't move!" she snarled. "I'll shoot if I have to."
"So you're a HiME, too."
That made the wild rider jolt before she turned…
…and then gasp on seeing Mikoto standing nearby, a black stylised claymore now burning with ki energy in one hand. Her seifuku was gone now, replaced by a one-piece jumpsuit coloured dark blue, with the red-blue-and-gold Royal Stewart tartan pattern on her sleeve cuffs, ankle cuffs, her belt and in a "Y" shape pattern around the opening on her neck. Over her left breast were crossed white claymores. "That's good," the transformed Claymore then said as she relaxed herself. "I don't have to find you now. So why don't you take off the helmet, oh sister princess? I'd like to see your face."
The newcomer blinked, and then she relaxed, letting Mai go. As the transfer student from Kyūshū moved to get a safe distance away from the wild rider, the newcomer seemed to blink before reaching up to slip off her helmet, revealing a beautiful face framed with long, straight black hair. "'Sister princess?'" she then demanded in a voice that was a mixture of Tōhoku and Tōkyō. "What are you talking about?"
"We're HiMEs," the Wild Swordswoman of the Mountains stated as she lowered her weapon to place the tip on the deck. "You've already mastered your Elements and you have your Child with you now." She nodded to the mechanical wolf-like being nearby, which made Mai look over before she gasped on seeing Duran. "But that's not enough."
"What do you mean?!" Natsuki snarled. "Why are you calling me 'princess?!' And I'm NOT your sister! What the hell are you talking about, Minagi?!"
A smirk. "See that star overhead? The one by the Moon?"
"Yes. What about it?"
"It's a gateway to another dimension. It's the home dimension of your Child…and mine as well. Mai's as well…once she gets the chance to bond with one."
Mai blinked. "Mikoto, what are you talking about?!"
The transformed Mikoto sighed. "It's a war, Mai. A war where twelve maidens are drawn to Fūka to duel with each other, both with powers AND with special friends that come from a dimension bordering ours. And from that ALSO comes a being who wants to mate with the winner of such a contest." A wink. "Think Battle Royale, in other words."
Silence.
More silence.
Still more silence.
And then…
"How do you know all this?" Natsuki — who had become quite pale on realising that this girl knew things that she really shouldn't given this being her first time coming to Fūka-jima — then hissed. "Did your relatives work for Division One like my mother?! Did they work for the monsters that KILLED my mother?!"
Mai's breath caught in her throat as she stared in disbelief at Natsuki. "No," Claymore then answered. "My grandfather knew of the prior HiME Festivals — that's the name for the gathering of people like us every three centuries to battle with our Childs to become the Obsidian Lord's mate — and trained me to prepare me to fight and win when I was called to Fūka." Claymore then closed her eyes as tears appeared in them. "And thanks to what that little red star represents to all of us…I was MADE to kill my own grandfather." As Mai and Natsuki both gasped in shock, Mikoto added. "Trust me on this one, sister; I KNOW what being called to Fūka means."
"Then turn back! Both of you!" Natsuki then snapped. "You don't understand! Division One is going to use you! Just like they used Okā-san! If you don't turn away…!"
A smirk. "If a bunch of stupid norms want to control my life, they'll find me very hard to manipulate, sister." Claymore then swung her weapon up to let it rest on her shoulder. "There're very few people alive on Earth who can resist getting their hearts carved in half by my blade. I doubt any normal person can fight me at all."
"The Wizard was right…oh, gods! The Wizard was right…!"
Natsuki looked over. "Tokiha…"
Mai was now shuddering as tears flowed down her cheeks. "Why…why couldn't he explain what was going on…I don't want Takumi hurt…why…?"
Hearing the name of this woman's younger brother — whom she knew was ALSO being transferred to Fûka under a special scholarship — Natsuki dispersed her pistol before she moved to kneel beside her. "Tokiha! Tokiha! What's wrong…?!"
"No…must say his name!" Mai moaned as she gripped her hair. "Must protect Takumi…I promised Okā-san…I must say his name…the Wizard's name…"
«Mikoto!»
Natsuki and Claymore both gasped on hearing that shouted voice. "Chie-aneue!" the latter gasped on hearing the familiar voice of the Wandering Bard of the Countryside, the Rhapsode. "What's going on?! What's wrong with Mai?!"
«Get away from her, Mikoto!» the woman born Harada Chie barked back. «You, too, Kuga! If Mai says the magic word, you'll be electrocuted if you touch her! MOVE, GIRL!»
Natsuki instantly jumped back as Mai looked to the heavens.
"SHAZAM!"
And lightning came down…
Inside the lounge, Takumi gasped as a thunderous boom! echoed through the ship. "What was that?!" he demanded as he got up and looked around.
"Lightning?" Tate Yūichi asked as he and Munakata Shiho also glanced about.
"There was no forecast for a storm, Onii-chan," Shiho mused.
Takumi hummed…
The weather deck…
"Wow…!"
"Oh, gods…!"
"Damn! We got us a Marvel for a schoolmate?! That's incredible!"
Natsuki gasped. "Harada?!" she demanded as she looked over…
…and then blinked on seeing the raven-haired gossip queen of Fūka sitting on the safety rail nearby, an amused look on her face. Looking down, Natsuki was shocked to see that the woman born Harada Chie was wearing a jumpsuit similar to that of the younger HiME she targeted this evening, though the older woman's uniform was a wild-mix of primary colours with flowing shapes forming tidal waves and other psychedelic forms all over. She had her handy cell phone — a Motorola Atrix 4G — in hand as she took a picture of the transformed Tokiha Mai. "Wow! This is something! Pity I can't gossip about this!" the Rhapsode stated before she slipped her phone into her belt, and then she grinned at Natsuki. "Then again, the juicy stuff should always stay private."
"What the HELL…?!" Natsuki gasped.
"Chie-san."
The Rhapsode perked. "Mai-chan…?"
The woman in the red form-fitting jumpsuit with golden bands wrapped around her lower arms, a white gold-lined demi-cape slung around her neck and the gold buccaneer boots then stood, turning to gaze at the metahuman wandering poet, revealing a golden lightning bolt insignia on her chest. "What is going on here?" the World's Mightiest Princess, the Lady Marvel, then demanded in a cold voice.
The others blinked as…
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(Posted Thu, 12 Apr 2012 15:40)
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