General All-Purpose Crossover Fiction Thread

Mai hadn't been genuinely surprised when Satsuki-kancho had announced that they'd be having some extra staff for the festival, since it had been made clear that the festival was going to see a lot of business, even if it wasn't supposed to be as exciting as last year's festival. (She was actually getting a little sick of hearing all those comments about how things compared to last year's festival. Why couldn't anyone around here look forward instead of back?)

And she supposed that, given the way that they kept stumbling into each other, she shouldn't really be surprised that the extra staff included Yuuichi and Shiho. She suspected that Shiho was probably following the crowd and trying to earn extra money for a gift for "oniichan", and that Yuuichi was, ignorant of her plans, following her to make sure that she was okay. Typical romcom behavior. Fortunately, hijinx had not yet ensued.

Despite her needling, which was practically reflex, now, Mai was actually glad that Yuuichi and Shiho were there. With Akane held up by whatever was holding her up, it would have been just her, Kazuya, and Fei-sempai to handle the festival crowds. And while Fei-sempai appeared unacquainted with fatigue, both she and Kazuya were only mortals.

She took a breather once she delivered the orders to Satsuki-kancho, conscious of Midori's eyes on her but determined to ignore them. Kazuya was leaning back against the streetcar beside her. He was an okay guy, too. Akane was lucky. Mai found herself enjoying the silence.

Of course, that couldn't be permitted. "So, you heard about the traditonal confession?" Midori asked.

"No, but let me guess," Mai said. "If you confess to your crush on the last day of the festival, in front of the World Tree, you'll be together forever."

"Wow, you are a really good guesser!" Midori proclaimed. "Very close! There's actually debate about which of the days is best, but you got everything else right."

"Of course there is. It's nonsense, anyway."

"Oh! So cynical at such a young age." Midori shook her head in dismay.

"I'm not cynical, I've got a perfectly normal amount of romance in my soul, thank you very much," Mai objected. "But I think that if you like someone, really like someone, you should tell them, right away, rather than waiting for the perfect moment that might not come, or get screwed up, or not be anywhere nearly as perfect as you imagined it would be."

"Interesting thesis," Midori said, nodding. "What do you think, Kazuya-kun?"

He blew out a breath. "Ah, to go unnoticed," he murmured, before raising his voice. "Well, I think that it can be hard to do what Mai-san says, and that having a plan can make it easier. And picking a specific date and time to do something is a good step in a plan. But that's just my opinion."

"Hm," Midori hmmed, continuing to nod, playing the sage. "A well-thought out opinion. But tell me, is this how Akane-chan confessed to you?"

To Mai's amazement, Kazuya blushed and stammered. "What, what are you saying, Midori-sensei! We are, we are just good friends, having a good time!"

"Riiiight," Midori snickered. "And Yuiichi-kun is just Shiho-chan's older brother figure."

Mai chuckled a bit at Kazuya's obvious distress, but was pulled out of it by a moderately shrill voice demanding, "What do you mean by that?"

"Oh, hey, Shiho-chan," Midori said, ignoring the tone. "We were just talking about —"

"I heard what you were just talking about," Shiho snarled. "Oniichan is oniichan! That's it. That's all! I don't like it when people talk about me behind my back!"

"Calm down, Shiho-chan," Midori said, switching gears rapidly. "We weren't saying anything —"

"Bite me."

Before things could escalate any further, Satsuki arrived to hand an order to Shiho and send her off to deliver it. The red-haired middle schooler looked inclined to argue, but set her jaw and marched off with the food.

Once she was gone, Satsuki quietly reminded Midori that valued customers should know not to bother the staff.

"Sorry, sorry," Midori replied, looking genuinely contrite. "That could have gone better, I'll admit."

At that moment, Akane arrived on the run, looking just a bit panicked. "I'm sorry, my father, and then class, I'm sorry!" she babbled in the general direction of Satsuki-kachou.

And then something transpired that left Mai almost floored. "Don't spend so much time being sorry that you end up even sorrier," Satsuki said, and handed Akane a tray of food, pointing out where it was supposed to go.

"Right, yes, thank you," Akane agreed as she pulled off her overcoat, revealing that she was wearing her waitress uniform underneath it. Then she headed off with her tray.

That was the first time she'd ever heard her boss talk using actual words instead of — well, she wasn't really sure how Satsuki-kancho talked most of the time.

The fact that she couldn't tell was driven home a moment later when Satsuki turned her moderate glower on her and asked whether she was done with her breather. Mai had no idea how she knew what the boss was saying, but she understood both thought and tone.

"Right, yes," she agreed, and headed out beside Kazuya.

Fortunately, there was only another hour or so remaining in her abbreviated shift today. Abbreviated, but drawing overtime pay, and making her work for every cent of it. The boss clearly knew what she was doing, bringing on extra help for this festival.

When it was finally over, Mai went to get a canned iced tea from a dispenser not far from the diner car. She let out a long sigh as she pressed it to her forehead before opening.

"So what's the rest of the day's agenda?" asked Midori, whom she hadn't realized was standing right behind her.

Controlling the urge to jump and scream, Mai slowly turned to look at her. "Well," she said, all sweetness and light. "First, I'm going to go check in on my little brother, who apparently isn't feeling all that well. Then, assuming he's malingering, we're going to take advantage of the fact that our dad has deigned to grace us with his presence and visit with him. I'm really looking forward to that," she said, with sarcasm that could compete in the Olympics.

"Not a big fan of the old man, eh?" Midori probed.

"No, I'm not. But, well, he is my dad." It didn't explain anything, but it was all that she had.

"I get it," Midori said. "Actually, I was the same way with my folks ... eh, but you don't want to hear about that."

"Nope," agreed Mai cheerfully.

Midori coughed. "Your honesty is such an admirable quality, Mai-chan. Anyway, I just wanted to let you know some stuff that came up in my convo with Natsuki-chan last night —"

"Waitwaitwaitwait," interrupted Mai. "You had a conversation with Natsuki last night? She hates you!"

"Oh, no," Midori said, shaking her head. "Natsuki-chan reserves her hatred for the amorphous 'they' who — well, that's her story to tell. She just completely distrusts and disdains me. But she still wanted to know what I know, and she knew some stuff that I didn't know but wanted to know, and so we worked out some arrangements. She's much easier to deal with than a corrupt border guard, believe me."

The out-thereness of that metaphor had Mai staring at her for a long moment. "Oooo-kay, she said at last. "What is it that you wanted me to know?" Please be something sane.

"Well, basically, we each had a list of people we suspect are fellow royalty, as it were, and we compared them. A few matches, and a lot of guesses that neither of us suspected." Midori fell silent, and when she spoke again, she sounded far more serious than she normally did. "Akane-chan's name was on her list."

Mai blinked. "What."

"Akane —"

"No, that wasn't, 'I didn't hear you,' that was, 'are you crazy?'" Mai interrupted. "Actually, that wasn't 'are you crazy,' because I know that you're crazy, that was more, 'do you think I'm crazy?' Because there's no way that Akane is some sort of magical warrior or whatever you think we are."

"Why not?" Midori asked, leaning back.

"Because, because I don't know why not, she just isn't. Leave her alone, dammit!"

"I'm trying to be helpful, you know —"

"Then help her by leaving her alone and not pulling her into all this crap!" Mai said. "That would be helpful!" And she stormed off, muttering.

Midori was honestly starting to get a little annoyed with herself. Yohko had always good-heartedly teased her about her tendencies to meddle and how they occasionally — okay, frequently — blew up in her face. But lately it seemed like all that she did went astray.

But why had Mai gotten so mad about the notion that Akane was also a Hi ME? She was fairly good at picking up on other people's infatuations, and she didn't think that Mai was crushing on Akane. Watching the slightly older girl — almost seventeen, much like Midori herself — she was fairly sure that she wasn't Mai's type. Not nearly boyish enough.

And then she had a spark of intuition. "Oh," she said, nodding as things fell into place.

Akane wasn't someone that Mai wanted; Mai wanted to be more like her. Hard-working, but sweet and even gentle, and clearly and openly in love with someone who clearly and openly loved her back. A softer version of Mai's own self.

If someone like that was a Hi ME, then Mai's whole perspective would have to shift.

Alas, understanding did not bring empathy to Midori. Since she wanted, arguably needed, Mai's perspective to shift, it'd be a good thing if Akane did turn out to be one of them. Now, how do I go about proving it?

Her train of thoughts on the subject, only some of which did not involve wacky hijinx, was interrupted when Yuuichi slumped down beside her and let out a huge sigh of exhaustion. "Manohmanohman. Tokiha does this every day? How the hell does she do it?"

"Most days aren't this busy," Midori supplied. "And her shift is normally in the late afternoon and evening, so that she can go home and sleep right after."

The boy grunted in acknowledgement.

"Y'know, if I didn't know better, I'd say you sounded almost admiring of Mai-chan, just now," she poked.

"Eh, well, I guess she's got her good points," he allowed. "Still a jerk."

"Hmm," Midori said. "So, what's the deal, here? Why'd you go get a part-time job, in addition to all the work you've been doing for the Student Council. Your teacher is curious."

"My teacher is nosy."

"Same diff. Spill, Yuuichi-kun."

He didn't look at her as he answered. "It's no big deal. Shiho wanted to make some more money for something, and I figured she should have someone to watch out for her while she was doing it. It's just a couple days, right? No big deal." The repetiton was faint.

"Nope, I guess it's not. It's funny, though, that she gave me the exact same explanation when I asked her, only with who's watching over who and who needs some money switched around," Midori said blandly.

Yuuichi collapsed to the ground in a heap, then got up again. "My teacher is incredibly nosy!" Now it was a complaint, not a correction.

"Hey, I was just catching up with a distant relative," she protested. "She volunteered the information."

"Distant —"

"My mom and her mom are cousins, and I've actually met her dad a few times," the teacher explained. "Nice guy. Really helpful with some of my research."

"Since when do seventeen year-olds do research that requires consulting with members of the clergy?" Tate snarked.

"Since they found out they're geniuses? And have I ever mentioned that you're good at dodging the issue?"

Yuuichi groaned as he rubbed both his cheeks. "Okay, fine. I'm the one who wanted to get the money. She thinks it's to pay for some kinda medicine for my arm, and I'd like it if it stayed that way. Since the present that I'm getting her for her birthday is supposed to be pretty good, and —"

"That's so sweet!" Midori interjected. "Fear not, citizen! I will take your secret to my grave!"

"Citizen?"

"It's really good that you're starting to take some initative in your relationship with the girl," she continued as though the interruption had never happened.

"Relat— No! Dammit, I'm just trying to be nice, not any of that stuff!"

"Oh, and right back we go to being slow," Midori said, shaking her head in despair that wasn't entirely mock. "Yuuichi-kun, I see your test scores before you do. So I know you're not stupid. So how come you haven't figured out that Shiho's crazy about you?"

"You're crazy," he said dismissively.

"Why are so many people — anyway, I don't have time for this," she said, changing directions in a hurry as she saw Akane and Kazuya, changed out of uniforms and into civvies, heading off in the direction of the festival. Their shift was clearly over, and she had to continue surveillance. But she really ought to leave him with some teacherly advice. "Man up, kid. She's a teenager, not a little girl." That was clever-sounding. It should work.

And then she was off on a dash.

"Takumi," Mai whispered, staring deep into her brother's eyes.

"Oneechan," he murmured back.

Slowly she brought her face to his ... and pressed her forehead to his. A moment later, she pulled back and nodded. "I'd say you're about normal temperature."

"Well, then, you should get going so that you can meet up with Dad, and maybe bring him back here," Takumi said to the girl who was seated on his bed in front of him. "I'm really sorry, but I'm still feeling too weak to go with you today."

Mai grunted. "Well, our appointment isn't for an hour or so —"

"Then you should go and have fun with Mikoto-san."

"— and I told Chie and Aoi to look after Mikoto —"

"You could go meet up with the three of them," he protested feebly.

"So right now," she said, smiling, coming very close to him, "right now, I'm all yours, my cute little brother." And now she really did press her lips to his, easily holding his mouth open and sliding her tongue in to rub against his own.

"Come on, Takumi," she said once she pulled back from the kiss. "It's been months since we were last together. I've missed it, haven't you? Let's have some fun, today."

"But, you're going to —"

"We have time," she interrupted his protest. She drew in a deep breath through her nose. "You're all sweaty and delicious right now, Takumi. Let's get you out of those pyjamas." She suited her actions to her words.

"Wait, no, I don't think this is such a —"

"Come on, sweety, you know that you want this as much as I do. Maybe more. Now let's —"

And then the door flew open, and Takumi's room-mate, Akira, darted in with a ruler in one hand and a brush in the other, holding them like weapons with which he was intimately familiar. "Who dares intrude upon these premises!" he cried out, eyes blazing.

"— get you changed," Mai said as she held the placket of Takumi's pyjama tops open.

As he often was, Takumi found himself utterly amazed at his older sister's sang froid. After all, he himself wanted to cry out in shock and surprise at Akira's surprising entry, and he was far too embarassed by the situation to even think of coming up with a reasonable explanation for what was going on. Yet there she was, calmly attempting to act like nothing strange had been going on, and that it was all just a big misunderstanding.

How had she gotten this sneaky, anyway?

A moment later, Mai was seated on a chair beside the bed while Akira had taken up her former position on the bed, carefully arranging matters so that he was between her and Takumi. "Good grief," Akira said, shaking his head in dismay. "This is a men's dormitory. How on Earth did such as you even manage to enter unto these halls?"

Mai felt a bit annoyed by that 'such as you', but she tried to hide it. "I went up to the dorm manager and explained that I'm Takumi's sister and that he's sick, and since someone had already told him that, yes, their roomate was sick, he didn't see a problem."

"And he credited such a story?"

"I have a student ID," Mai bit out.

"In any event," Akira continued as if there'd been no interruption in his harangue. "This is most unusual behavior for siblings, you must agree."

"No," Mai said.

"What? Do you pretend then that it is normal for an older sister to denude her younger brother?"

"Under these circumstances, it's completely understandable. I have been caring for Takumi for years, now, and so helping him change his clothes is nothing all that out of the ordinary."

"Can you truly claim that such is nothing out of the ordinary?"

"Indeed, it is an hour since I did anything else," Mai answered, somewhat cheekily imitating Akira's slightly old-fashioned manner of speech. "Look, do you have a sister?" she added somehwhat more normally.

Akira blinked, coughed. "No. My family has no sisters. Only brothers."

She wondered momentarily why he seemed so shifty all of a sudden, but it wasn't important. "Well, then, how can you pretend to know what it's like to be part of a family like ours? How can you say what is normal?"

"I watch television."

Mai suppressed a scream. Well, there went her plans for a pleasant afternoon before she went out to see the old man. This little twerp was not going to leave her alone with Takumi long enough for even a quicky. It was so annoying! The universe kept throwing up obstacles for the two of them, and now there was this last one ...

And yet, she thought, there's a way to turn an obstacle into a pathway, isn't there? She considered Akira for a moment. He was much more bishonen than she liked, almost efeminate in some ways, and his attitude towards women in general was something of a turn-off, but ...

MAI'S IMAGINED AND DRAMATICALLY IRONIC PLAN FOR DEALING WITH AKIRA OMITTED

No, it was just a bad idea, and would have been even if Takumi hadn't picked up on what she was thinking from the look on her face, and was regarding her with a horrified look and waving his hands in the air in a universal gesture for 'stop'. He paused only when Akira took note of his actions and turned to look at him, whereon he started yawning broadly.

"Well, anyway, I suppose that I shouldn't contaminate your oasis of manly virtue any more than I have to," Mai said at last, standing up. "Takumi, I'll try to bring Dad around to see you, but you know how he is."

"Yes, oneechan," Takumi said. "Thank you."

And then she was gone.

Akira waited a moment, before turning his eyes on Takumi. "Okay. What was that, seriously?"

"I don't want to talk about it," Takumi replied, wearily, as he lay down and tried to pull up the covers. "I'm sick, and I'm tired, and I don't want to talk about how messed up my life is."

Akira, whose own life was somewhat messed up, showed rare sensitivity and did not press the issue.

Mahora's main chapel served many purposes. It was the secret headquarters of the Mahora Mage Order. It was a training hall for young mages which was almost (or so its graduates believed) as rigorous in its methods as that of the legendary Disciple of Darkness. It was the place where Sister Misato and her two daughters had their private celebrations of their unique family bond. But it was still a church, first and foremost, and at the moment, it was serving that purpose.

Standing outside the front door, like a trio of sentinels, were a pair of nuns — well, technically, a nun and an acolyte, but the distinction would be lost on most people — and another young woman in a school uniform. Their faces, from left to right, could be described as taciturn, miserable, and blissful. The acolyte was in the middle.

This blows, thought Kasuga Misora, the acolyte in question. This is worse than last year. At least last year was fun in retrospect; this isn't fun at all, and will never no matter what be fun looking back at it. Her gloomy mood wasn't helped by the fact that her partner and fiancee had been roped into assisting with the performance of the girl's choir, and so she was stuck here, with these two.

Sister Yukariko was all right, she supposed. A little naive and unworldly, but Misora suspected that might be just her own extreme worldliness talking. (She'd been to fricking Mars, after all.) Maybe a bit too sweet to be believable. And the fact that she was strictly a nun, rather than a dual classed nun-wizard or nun-fighter, didn't help matters. Prayer, her usual response to any situation, was nice, but not as likely to resolve things as direct action. (or avoidance, y'know, like Misora preferred, really.)

But the other one? The other one creeped Misora right the hell out.

Miyu Greer, the adopted daughter of Father Joseph (who was inside preaching) was perfectly pleasant, perfectly calm, and perfectly polite. She was perfect, in other words. And Misora, who was quite reconciled to the notion that she was not now and never would be perfect, found that more than just a bit disturbing.

She'd actually met someone who reminded her quite a bit of Miyu. But once one actually got to know Chachamaru, one couldn't help but realize that for all her mechanical perfection and flawless grace, there was a lot of warmth and — for lack of a better term — humanity beneath the surface.

Miyu didn't have that. And it was strange that a real girl should compare so unfavorably to a gynoid.

And that creeped Misora right the hell out, as might already have been mentioned.

"Miyu-san," Yukariko abruptly said. "We're always very grateful for the help you give us, but since we are having a festival, you should go explore it."

"How about me?" Misora asked hopefully.

"Don't be ridiculous, Misora-chan," Yukariko replied without taking her eyes off Miyu. "You need not wait for permission, Miyu-san, I will tell Father Joseph where you went."

Misora spent a moment imitating Yukariko's manner of speech behind her back while Miyu replied, "Yes ma'am."

"Well, then. Permit me to offer my humble assistance," said a smooth masculine voice from off to the side. Misora and Yukariko both turned in time to see the bespectacled man walking up with his hands in his pants pockets.

"Ishigami-sensei," said Yukariko, sounding a bit surprised.

It took Misora a bit to recognize him. There'd been so many new teachers brought in over the last year! So many of the old ones had quit or, ahem, been asked to leave. But then she knew this one; he was the one who had finally been brought on as an art instructor to replace Takahata-sensei.

Since Misora had really respected (okay, feared but in a nice way) Takahata-sensei, that fact didn't endear this guy to her. He continued to lower his opinion by delivering the unbelievable line, "Isn't it a lovely day? And yet its loveliness cannot compare to your own."

"Goodness," said Yukariko, obviously flustered.

Oh, God, she's falling for it, Misora thought, fighting the urge to start gagging.

"Have you given any thought to the matter we discussed earlier?" Ishigami asked, pressing much too close to the older sister.

"No, no, I still d-don't think it would, it would be appropriate for me to pose for a painting, no matter how innocent, and, and —"

"Well, perhaps, when these young ladies depart, we can discuss the matter further," Ishigami-sensei said airily. "I'm sure that we can come to an agreement."

"Um, well," Yukariko replied.

"Good day," said Miyu, and promptly left without another word or glance in their direction.

It occured to Misora that she could probably go too. And there was a lot of stuff going on at this year's festival that she wanted to see. The martial arts exhibitions wouldn't be as cool as last years' had been, but there were rides and games and all sorts of things out of the ordinary. And she could meet up with Cocone, and sneak off together to do all sorts of things together.

"Well, I think I actually want to stay," Misora said, a little bit louder than was strictly necessary. "This years' festival doesn't really sound all that appealing. So I'm sticking around here. That's what I want to do. Yup," she concluded. I am such a freaking moron.

Ishigami-sensei looked a little disconcerted. "Ah. Well. In that case, I suppose that we'll have to talk another time. Good day, sister."

Do I not merit a goodbye, creep, Misora thought. Ah what the heck. She stuck out her tongue at his retreating back.

"You shouldn't be so rude, Misora-chan," Yukariko chided absently.

"And you shouldn't put up with crap like that!" Misora chided right back. "If he's making you uncomfortable, you don't have to endure it."

"It's not, not uncomfortable, it's just ... I don't know how to make it clear to him that I'm not interested in that sort of thing," she concluded at last.

"It'd probably help if you actually weren't," Misora muttered.

"What was that?" the older woman said sharply.

"Nothing," Misora said. Damn, that particular bit is really getting old. I need new material.

She approached her master, and spoke quietly. "I have located one of the targets. She is isolated from the others, and will be easily dispatched. Shall I proceed?"

"Yes," said the tiny blonde. "I don't need to know the details. Help me with this thing, will you? It's surprisingly complicated."

"Yes, Master." She moved to help the little girl with her black gown.

A tiny blonde master and her slightly mechanical servant. Nothing novel about that in Mahora, though it had been a while ... and this was a new and different pairing of master and servant.

And the master was nowhere nearly as kind and gentle as the one whose role she had replaced. Neither was her servant.

---

Wow, these kids were boring, Midori thought as she continued to follow Akane and Kazuya. When she'd been their age — which, of course, she still was, she reminded herself — she'd have been looking for a quiet, private place to be alone with whoever she was seeing at that time. But these two? They went to all sorts of cute places, but always in public, never sneaking off for some private alone time.

It was almost sickeningly wholesome.

No, no, Midori reminded herself. All true warriors strive for such peace! I should be cheering them on from the sides, not hoping that there's a sinister undercurrent beneath their happiness. What is wrong with me?

Ah, well, can't be helped.

One thing did make it a bit easier to justify continuing her, well, let's be honest and call it 'stalking' of the two of them. She wasn't the only one doing so. She'd noticed the other one following them, just a bit less surreptiously than she was, but didn't think she'd been noticed.

Why was Miyu Greer following those two?

She didn't know much about the girl. Adopted daughter of the new priest at the church, kept quiet in class, got good grades, yadda yadda yadda, not terribly interesting. And yet she was now applying that quiet intelligence to the task of following a pair of older students.

Midori knew why she was following Akane and Kazuya. Why was Miyu doing it?

Could the girl be a HiME as well? It didn't seem likely. She believed that the girl was Chinese. Midori's research strongly suggested that the genes involved in the mutation (if that's what it was) were more or less restricted to Japanese people, hence its recurrence in their folklore. On the other hand, as a historian, she was well aware that, to put it delicately, it was not impossible for those genes to have been spread to Chinese people.

Neither she nor Natsuki had a complete list of the HiME who were supposed to be present on campus. Between them, they'd come up with eight names, including their own — and Midori had held back two other names on her suspected list. Doubtless Natsuki had done the same, though there was no way of telling how much the girl was holding back.

Considering one of the names that Midori suspected —

Ack, almost lost them, she realized, abandoning that line of thought for the moment, trying to keep her focus on following the two of them, and Miyu as well. That had always been Noriyasu-sensei's biggest complaint about her work, the way she could get so easily distracted by a shiny new theory or — hey, was that Mai, over there?

---

Since her plans for afternoon delight were ruined, Mai might as well head over to where she was supposed to meet her father earlier than their appointment and wait for him to show up. Maybe he'd think she was eager to meet him and feel guilty. That would be nice.

She ordered a coffee from Searrbucks, wincing at the price, and sat down at one of the open tables. Just how well this place was doing could be seen by the fact that, during the height of the festival, they had tables that weren't occupied. And their coffee still sucked, but she needed a pick-me-up, and there were no machines anywhere in sight.

Nice to be able to sit down and rest, though.

"Get lost!"

Her eyes flashed open as an unpleasantly familiar voice cut through the sound of the crowd. Nao? Great. Just what she didn't need. She looked around until she picked the henna worshipper out of the crowd, which had cleared around her as she stood arguing with —

— with —

— with —

"I told you, I didn't want to see you!" Nao was shouting. "So if we run into each other, you should just pretend you didn't see me, got it!"

"But that man, he was —" said the older man she was hectoring.

"It's none of your business, you shitty father!" Nao roared. "You picked now to start caring about what I — oh, great, you too?"

Mai blinked. When, when had she gotten up and come over to them, how had she moved without —

"What do you want?" Nao sneered at her. "I got enough on my plate without —"

"Mai," the older man gasped.

"Why?" asked Mai quietly, in the politest way she could manage. "Why is that girl calling you a shitty father ... father?"

"I think we lost her," Kazuya said as he glanced over his shoulder.

Akane let out a sigh of relief. "Are you sure? Maybe she's just hiding."

"Pretty sure," he replied. "I don't see her doing the hiding behind a telephone post bit that she tried the last couple of times I spotted her, so it really does seem like she's been left behind."

"What was she thinking, following us like that?"

"Well, knowing Midori-chan, she was probably just trying to make sure nothing bad happened on our, um, well, our stroll together," he said, realizing at the last moment that using the word 'date' might be going a little too far. Or would it have been going just far enough? Agggggh! Now I'm standing here engaged in contemplation instead of action and she's going to think I'm all talk! But if I do anything, she might get mad at whatever it is that I do! Agggggh!

"That does sound like the sort of thing Midori-chan would do." Akane said, being completely oblivious to Kazuya's inner turmoil. "Either that, or she's just being nosy." And she laughed a bit at the notion.

Kazuya, nobody's fool, joined in on the laughter, and was savvy enough to stop when she did, too.

"So, where to now?" he asked after a moment spent smiling like an idiot as he went over the festival schedule that he'd carefully memorized. "The 'Arrivederci Dekopin Rocket' concert is starting in just a few minutes."

"Oh, geez, I dunno," Akane said, face twisting in indecision. "I sort of want to see it, because I love their music, but on the other hand, it's so sad that they're breaking up like this. So I don't want to see it, because it's going to be so hard to watch."

"Well, then, how about the concert that the girls' choir is going to be having? There's supposedly this one transfer student who's really —"

"Actually," Akane interrupted. "Actually, there's a place I kind of want you to see."

Kazuya blinked. She wanted to relieve him of the burden of making decisions about where they were going to go and what they were going to do? Wow, what a great girlfriend! Friend, rather, friend, they were just friends! Ahem, serious face, serious face. "Well, all right."

---

"Amazing," he said a few moments later. "I had no idea that there was a bamboo grove hidden away in these foothills. It's so tranquil."

"Yes," Akane agreed. "I used to come here a lot, when I needed to think or be alone." Her voice went quiet and distant as she remembered time spent curled up in a ball, wondering why she'd ever been born.

But she'd finally gotten an answer to that question, hadn't she? She was born to love this boy.

She drew in a deep breath. "Kazu-kun," she said. "You remember how we promised that we'd never keep secrets from each other?"

He turned to look at her. "Yes," he answered, apprehension back in spades. "Why?"

"There are, there are some things that I haven't been telling you." So many things, really. But let's start with something ... relatively easy. "You remember, back in Feburary, when we had that silly fight, and I ran off?"

"Uh, yes," he lied. It must have been a really silly fight, because he didn't remember anything about this. But something told him that this admission would not go over all that well.

"Well, I came here, to think, like I used to, and that's when I saw it," she continued, closing her eyes and remembering the weird furry insect-thing looming in front of her, and the strange pale boy asking her —

"Wait — you saw one of the monsters that people have been talking about?" Kazuya asked abruptly, with a sudden flash of inspiration. "That's — what happened? Who saved you?"

"No one saved me," Akane said sharply. "No one has ever saved me, except you. But that day ..."

It had terrified her, but then, after listening to the strange boy's words, she'd realized that it wasn't really interested in her. It was looking beyond her. She wondered why. And then she heard Kazu-kun calling for her, looking for her, and she knew what this thing was going to do.

"... that day, I saved you," she concluded.

"Huh?"

"If it's for you, I can do anything, Kazu-kun. I love you. And I would do anything for you," she told him, looking squarely into his eyes as she made this pledge.

"I, I'd do anything for you, too," he said, feeling a bit faint.

Will you help me murder my father, then? She was opening her mouth to ask just that question when they were interrupted by a girlish scream from nearby.

"Monster!" shrieked the pale girl as she came running up the path, who looked a little younger than the two of them.

Akane whirled, and then nearly froze. It was back. That same Orphan from all those months ago. How, how could it be back, she'd — no. It didn't matter. "All right, then," she said softly, and held her hands open at her sides.. There was a sudden swirl of wind, and within those hands appeared a pair of golden clubs. It also snapped the tie that held back her hair.

"For Kazu-kun, I can do anything," she repeated, and then roared as she charged the Orphan. Just like before, it couldn't be hurt by these blows, but it could be driven back, and she pushed it before her to buy herself some fighting space so that she could call upon her Child.

"Hari!" she cried at last, falling back, and the wind swirled once more. Her golden lion appeared at her side, then charged at the Orphan just as she had done moments earlier. Unlike her, though, his roar actually accomplished something, as the burst of sound slammed into the Orphan like the shot of a cannon.

In just a few seconds, it was all over, and she whirled to look back at Kazuya, who'd been watching all this in mute shock. "Please don't hate me," she said.

"... are you nuts?" he said at last, finally starting to grin. "That, that was unbelievably badass! Oh, wow, you are so cool, Akane-chan!"

Fighting to control the urge to squee, Akane turned to look at the underclassman. "Um, listen, it's important that you not tell anyone about —"

"No one will know," the girl said calmly. Then she shaped her arm into a sword, crossed the distance between herself and Hari in under a second, and brought it down towards Akane's Child.

Of course Akane wasn't about to let that happen, so she moved just as fast and parried the sword thrust with her tonfa before Hari could even be scratched. "What in the world do you think you're doing!" she cried. "I just saved your life!"

The younger girl regarded her across their crossed weapons for a moment, then stepped back. Akane blinked as she realized that her eyes must have deceived her, since the girl — Miyu, she suddenly remembered — was actually holding a sword in her hand rather than having somehow transformed her arm into a sword. But where had it come from? Some hidden sheath?

Her speculations were interrupted when Miyu finally spoke. "My apologies, Akane-hime. I was ordered to test your abilities if I had the opportunity, and that seemed the ideal way to do so. Rest assured that I bear you no malice, but it may come to pass that, when next we meet, we shall be enemies once again. Until then, farewell."

And then she leaped away in a series of ninja-like bounds.

"What, what just happened?" Akane asked.

"She probably works for one of the other factions," Kazuya explained.

"Huh? Kazu-kun, what are you —"

"Well, you see, Akane-hime — you're not the only one who's been keeping secrets." He reached up to his shoulder, and, with a sudden gesture, pulled his uniform's blazer away to reveal a dark, short-sleeved uniform. Kazuya promptly raised his wristwatch to his mouth and spoke into it. "Two to beam up."

"Eh?"

The world dissolved in a blur of multicolored light. When it reformed, they were standing in the middle of somewhere that looked like the bridge of the starship Enterprise, complete with a huge monitor, displaying the Earth from orbit, in front of two occupied crew stations. Further back, there were a pair of unoccupied chairs.

All around the bridge, if that's what it was, men and women dressed in the same uniform as Kazuya (though it wasn't nearly as good-looking on them as it was on him) stood up from what they were doing and snapped a sharp salute in the direction of the two new arrivals. "Welcome back, Captain," one of the oldest people present said.

"Thank you," said Kazuya, then returned his attention to Akane. "Welcome aboard the Space-Time Defense Agency's heavy cruiser Deeva, Akane-hime."

"Ehhhh?"

"We've been monitoring the situation on your world for quite some time now, and believe that you are the best candidate to prevent that situation, the Orphans and the Hi ME, from becoming a danger not only to your world but to countless others. Only you have the right qualities to do so."

"What, what qualities?" Akane gasped.

"Your purity of heart," he said, without a hint of a smile. "A purity undamaged by any of the horrible things that have happened to you. Such purity is rarer than diamonds. Only you, out of all the Hi ME, possess it. Will you not join your strength to our much lesser strength, and so become even stronger?"

She blinked. "But, but I'm not — I've —"

"Akane," he said, dropping the honorifics as he spoke softly, just loud enough for the two of them to hear. "We've been monitoring the situation for some time. And we saw what your father was going to do to you. It was not something we could permit, so we deceived him. And you, too, unfortunately. Whenever he's tried, we used our technology to put him in a virtual reality that made him think that he was violating you, and fed that delusion into your senses as well. But he has never touched you, not really."

"... you did that for me?" she asked, just as quiet, on the verge of tears.

"If it's for you, I can do anything," he said.

Akane drew in a deep breath, and tightened her grip on her clubs. "Then, then me too. For you, Kazu-kun, I can do anything too. So yes, yes I will —"

"Oookay, hold the phone."

Akane blinked, and turned rapidly. There he was, the strange young boy who called himself Nagi, who'd told her about her power, and there he was, standing there with a bag of popcorn in his hand, looking at her with an amused expression. "How, how did you get here!" she asked.

"That's a good question. Here's a better one — if her dad hasn't been schtupping her, then what exactly are these horrible things that have been happening to her that prove she has such incomparably pure pureness? This story really doesn't make any sense. I mean, if they could do all that, why not just pull the girl out of the bad situation, rather than tricking her dad that way? It's needlessly baroque, don't you think? I mean, yeah, if she needed to be there for some reason, like to learn something, that would make sense, but she's just been going through misery for no good reason."

"No," she said. "No, no, stop —"

"Eh, I'm actually kinda-sorta sorry, Akane-chan, but this little fantasy that you've descended into just doesn't work for me. So I think you're going to have to face what happened —"

"Nooooooooo!"

— the blade came down, and she couldn't run that fast, and so Hari disintegrated into bright green light. And then, crumbling over in agony, so did Kazuya. And so did her clubs. And so did every single dream and hope that she'd ever allowed herself to nurse.

Miyu didn't leap away. She didn't even bother to run. She just turned and walked away from the ruins of Akane's life, without sparing her a backwards glance.

Eventually, Akane started screaming. She kept right on screaming when they found her, and it wasn't until they shot her full of sedatives in the ambulance that she finally stopped.

And even then, she couldn't recapture the beautiful dream she'd been having.

Ain't I a stinker?