How the creature had known there was a dormant electrical generator buried deep within the endless labyrinth of corridors beneath an old, run down industrial building, no one could say for certain. What was certain was that it had specifically sought out the very central point of the lowest level of the building, and found precisely that for which it had apparently been searching. For an unintelligent monstrosity, such behaviour might have been alarming, had anyone really noticed. The darkness was absolute, but the creature had no use for light anyway. It saw in infrared and ultrasound, painting a perfect image of the ragged, unkempt surfaces framing the narrow corridor through which it moved, like some silent, malevolent shadow. Its many invisible pseudopodia felt their way along in front of it, just in case anything did manage to bypass its inscrutable vision. There, at last, was the softly glowing entity that had drawn it to this place, humming low and strong like a beacon for miles around. The creature reached out its limbs to touch the device and felt a tingle of force; a neat, uniform field like a thick globular shell that ran around the entire machine. For something so clearly unnatural, it was beautifully constructed. The outermost skin tore open like paper under the razor-sharp touch of each tendril, falling away like the skin from an onion until the thing itself was visible. The creature felt a strange satisfaction, finally faced with this most magnificent construction, and triumphantly manipulated its own shell to overlap into the machine. At once, rhythmic pulses of energy washed over its skin, mingling into its shell and filling it with a renewed sense of invigorating power. Its limbs extended with the feeling, growing longer and stronger, and ever keener. Its vision swelled out until it could "see" every inch of the building in which it stood. Soft things. Two of them. Moving, like living things. The creature felt anger and irritation warring within. It quelled both and instead secured itself to the energy-giving machine from which it fed, extending its unseen limbs out and folding them flat till they covered almost every last inch of the floor of the room. More crawled up along the ceiling, ends hanging down in waiting. It hummed through every one of them, and then even the tiniest speck of dust could no longer escape its perfect sight. Mikoto barrelled headlong down the corridor, light or no, and cleaved the thick metal door in two with one mighty slash. In retrospect, not the best move. One chunk of metal flew into the room and was immediately reduced to powder by forces unseen. Mai grabbed the youngster by her collar and yanked her back, and just in time. A rush of air swept past across the corridor and ploughed into the opposing wall, shattering the concrete surface and leaving an impressive dent behind. A second indentation quickly formed with another deafening crack, and then almost a dozen more in rapid succession. "Okay," uttered the redhead after a respectable pause, "I think it's over...whatever it was. Just don't do that again, alright?" She thumped one fist lightly down atop Mikoto's head, smiling reassuringly, or so she hoped. "You really should be a little more careful, Mikoto. You're always rushing into things." "I could say the same for you." Mai looked up with a grin at the source of the voice. "I was wondering when you'd get here. What, didn't think I could handle it myself?" Walking towards them down the corridor, silhouetted in the dim light leaking through narrow high-set windows, was a tall, dark and quite mysterious feminine figure, clad in the tightest clinging body-length suit of dark shades of leather. In the gloom, her hair was a pitch-black sheet, which swept down behind her in a thick, uneven mass, trailing off into a few jagged edges that brushed the base of her spine. She stepped into the narrow circle of light cast by Mai's personal phosphorescence, a soft ‘thunk' from the thick, padded grey boots of her suit on the hard concrete floor. The soft orange-yellow light cast a sharp reflection across that gloss surface, highlighting its wearer's figure. "I worry," replied Natsuki calmly, if just as tedious as ever, pointing to the redhead implicatively with one thick grey-padded finger. She brought that hand back to her face and tucked the long strip of hair hanging down against her left cheek back behind her ear. Mai noticed she'd been doing that lately... "I just need to be sure the job gets done properly, especially something as important as this." "Well unless you've got a better idea than running in and getting pureed, I don't think two heads would be much better than one." Mai blinked when something poked her chest with a disgruntled huff. She smiled down at the young girl and put a hand on Mikoto's head. "Sorry...two and a half heads." Natsuki gave a dismissive grunt and closed her eyes. Out stretched one hand, and in it appeared with a pop and a flash, that familiar cylindrical form. The handle fit her grip so neatly, as always. Mai flashed a feline grin. Natsuki pointedly ignored her, attention instead focused on the open doorway. "I'll see if I can distract it, then just...do whatever it is you two do." She levelled the gun at the empty room. The trigger squeezed tight with a soft hum and a sharp electric-blue glow gathered about the muzzle of the thing like dancing flame. "Close your eyes." ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Nina woke with a gasp. Her chest was heaving and her heart was pounding behind her ribs like an angry bull in a cage. Sitting up so suddenly drained the blood from her head and made her feel faint, but it passed, thankfully, without much trouble. It was hot, uncomfortably so. She was naked and soaking, and for a few seconds, she couldn't think why. She peeled off the sheet and half slid half fell out of bed, her head still buzzing from her sudden waking and her heart still hammering away. She paused and took a few deep, slow breaths to calm herself down, though it didn't seem to help much. Whatever that dream had been, it had certainly gotten to her in a bad way...if only she could remember it. There came a soft groaning noise from behind her, "Ni...Ni-na..." Nina turned to face the source and promptly wished she hadn't. Arika looked, for want of a better word, trashed; her hair was a mess, ruffled, tangled and matted with sweat, and her face showed some considerable sign of fatigue. At first glance, she looked like she hadn't slept much at all the previous night. From the way that her face was flushed and her skin was just as slick as was Nina's, anyone might think the redhead had just run a marathon. Her eyes were dark and narrowed as she looked up at her companion with a muffled grunt. "Uh...Nina?" Nina blinked. It was maddening, that strange feeling burning inside her. The way Arika's hair looked so tousled and rough, and the oddly contented expression on her tired face, the way the redhead narrowed those big blue eyes up at her without a word. Alluring might have been a good word for it, but there was some raw component to it that made her head spin, that made her whole body tingle. It was like...anticipation...Arika's naked, nubile young body sprawled out on the bed, barely half-covered by that thin sheet, her bare chest slowly rising and falling with her deep, husky breathing. Her skin glistened with the last sheen of whatever amount of moisture had gathered during the previous night's activities, drawing attention to every little detail, every contour of that taut young female body, until Nina had to avert her gaze. She felt an overwhelming urge to throw that sheet away and... Nina did a quick about-face, avoiding eye contact at all costs. She opened her mouth to say something, to make some kind of logical connection, some perfectly reasonable explanation to what was turning out to be a rather uncomfortable situation, but nothing came. Who was she kidding? They were alone, in a hotel room, both soaked and sticky with sweat from head to toe, naked, and completely exhausted. There was only one real answer. "I remember we went out again last night," Nina began, very hesitantly. She didn't dare turn around, partly to hide her own highly flustered state, but mostly because she had a creeping feeling that nothing good would come of it. "You insisted we go to that...arcade again. And then we spent hours there, losing most of the money we had left, and then you said we should go out for dinner." She paused, racking her brains for whatever came next. A hand on her shoulder jarred her from her thoughts. "Ni-na..." A wisp of hot breath against her left ear made her shiver. Fingers down her spine. Nina let out a low moan at the feather-light touch to her back. She moaned again, rather louder and more urgent, when she felt sharp teeth nipping into the lobe of her left ear. "A...Arika," stuttered the dark-haired girl, but reasoning seemed futile. She could already feel smooth, slick skin against her shoulder blades, almost scalding to the touch. Strong, slender arms entwined about her like a cat snatching a mouse. Arika smoothed her hands flat and ran her palms across the other girl's stomach in indiscernible patterns, her fingernails scraping lightly over the skin. Muscles tightened under her touch; Nina shivered. "Don't," insisted the redhead quietly as her roommate opened her mouth to speak. "Please...don't make me say it again. I already told you, it wasn't your fault." "But..." "I forgive you," interrupted Arika. "Now please, can you just let it go? Or do I have to persuade you..." Her tone wandered toward the husky side again as her hands moved swiftly upward. Nina couldn't stop a hiss when the redhead got finger and thumb about her left nipple and squeezed down gently. "Ni-na," purred the redheaded girl, nibbling at her partner's ear again. "I meant what I said...when I said that I love you..." "But I...Erstin..." Nina yelped as the squeeze became a pinch. "Erstin wanted us to be friends. I don't think that's enough any more..." "That's no excuse..." Nina gasped. "That's no excuse...for listening to...Nao-sama's advice..." Arika pulled back in surprise. "How...how did you know that?" "Who else would be encouraging such activities if not her?" Arika smirked devilishly. "You're not complaining, are you...Ni-na-chan?" Then she ran a fingertip down the ridge of Nina's spine once again. Nina moaned in reply. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- The sun was high in the sky above the city, beating down on all those below. Ragged patches of thick, white cloud drifted here and there, throwing shifting shadows over the buildings and people on the ground. A cool wind swept up from the ocean and across the whole city, churning into strange patterns between the buildings and rustling leaves on trees. The usual Tokyo city traffic was already thick in the city centre, huge crowds of people rushing in all directions. The Jogousaki apartment building looked just as drab and forlorn as it always did, even in the bright summer daylight. Most of the occupants therein had long since disappeared, to their various occupations, and the windows across the front face of the building were blinded out and dark. All except one, up on the third floor, that still hung open a fair way, through which were regularly seen a veritable menagerie of neighbourhood cats coming and going at all hours of the day. Luckily, the front wall was a sheer face, with nothing in the way of handholds except the extremely precarious drainage pipes that barely held more than the average feline's weight. "Mikoto-chan, what are you staring at?" Mikoto turned around, still pouting. "Keys," she mumbled, pointing one finger up at the open window. "Hm?" Mai blinked. "You don't mean..." She jammed her hands in her pockets. "Please tell me you have your key, right?" Mikoto sighed exasperatedly, and then dashed away. A brief attempt to stop her was met with complete ignorance, and the young girl was soon scaling her way up the side of the building by her bare hands and feet alone, using only the drainpipe and the concrete facing for grip. "You're hopeless. The both of you." Natsuki set her helmet back down on the back of the bike and leaned against it with one elbow, dark hair shimmering a deep navy blue in the midday sun. "I don't know why I put all this effort into helping you out." "Because you're such a lovely person," replied the redhead, sticking her tongue out at her impudently. "Besides...you know you enjoy all this just as much as the rest of us." Natsuki snorted derisively. "Oh you say that now, but let's see what happens when I'm not here any more!" Mai turned on her with an offended expression, waving one finger like some angry old grandmother. "What if I suddenly have to go help Takumi and you two are stuck here without me for days? I bet between the two of you, you'd never survive." "Oh you do, do you?" Mai crossed her arms and nodded, sticking her nose out in mock arrogance. "For starters, who'd cook?" "Hey, look who's talking. It's not like I actually live with you or anything, remember?" "Oh yeah," Mai grinned, cat-like in all, and put her hands together aside her face. "I forgot. You have your girl-friend," she teased, drawing out the word. Natsuki rolled her eyes. "I thought you'd have grown out of that by now..." Mikoto came dashing back down the stairway with an excitable look on her face, grinning from ear to ear and dancing about on her toes. She stood right up to Mai like an expectant puppy. The redhead laughed again and gave her a pat on the head with one hand. "Okay okay, point taken. Let's get inside and get you fed, hey?" Mikoto nodded enthusiastically at the idea and turned about to go back upstairs. "Well then..." Natsuki zipped her suit back up to the collar, hiding the pale blue of her blouse again. "If there's nothing more you need, I'm leaving. Some of us have real jobs, after all." Mai paused, mid-step. The youngster clutching her sleeve let out a startled noise and turned back to loop up at her again, frustration showing, but Mikoto got only an eyeful of the back of the older woman's head as Mai turned slowly on the spot. "Actually," she began, and then hesitated again. Natsuki looked back at her with a puzzled frown. "Actually...there's this nice cheap little Italian restaurant I know of nearby, I was wondering..." Natsuki narrowed her eyes almost unnoticeably at her and frowned a little more. The redhead turned and gently urged Mikoto's hand off her cuff. "Mikoto-chan...why don't you go and wait inside, okay? I promise I won't be long. I just need to talk..." she trailed off. "I'll make you dinner when I get back, alright?" Mikoto pouted at her, loudly. "I'll make you teriyaki again, how about that?" With that, the youngster started nodding again, grinning hugely. "Mai, come back soon!" She tossed her arms around Mai's waist for a moment and then turned to scurry back up the stairs again and out of sight. "So-" Natsuki held up a silencing hand. "Just get on. You can explain when we get there." She paused. "And you can pay, too." Mai pouted almost as badly as her young charge but moments ago and reluctantly slid into place on the back of the bike seat. "Fine. I guess I deserve that." ---------------------------------------------------------------------- "I bet you're used to this kind of expensive stuff, eh?" Natsuki shook her head. "What?" She frowned at the giggle that got. "You seem a little spaced out lately, Kuga. Something on your mind?" Mai grinned suggestively as she stirred her coffee with one of those useless little plastic sticks. "Or maybe someone?" "What are we here for," sighed the dark-haired woman impatiently. Now it was Mai's turn to frown and lean her cheek against the heel of her palm, gazing across the table. "Still straight to business. You haven't changed there, at least." She looked down at what remained of her coffee, still stirring lethargically. What had started as a brief pause stretched out quite uncomfortably. "I wanted to talk to you," Mai ventured at last, "that's all. Just a few things I think we need to go over, especially since...well...everything we remember now." Natsuki failed to conceal a hint of discontent on her face. "I thought we'd discussed everything that needed discussing already? Isn't that what we've been doing the past month or so?" "Have you forgotten how close I am to you already, Kuga?" Mai smiled a little self-consciously. "I'm no stranger, y'know. I know you better than you seem to think. Have you forgotten how long I've known you?" "Knew," corrected Natsuki firmly, a bitter tint to her voice. "You knew me, once, and that's a long time ago." Mai frowned again, darkly. "You're not that old, Natsuki. And you haven't changed much since I left." Her hand edged out across the table. "Don't make me a stranger now, please, I don't want..." "You want it like it was, that's the problem." Natsuki turned her attention pointedly elsewhere. "You're afraid of things changing, well people do change Tokiha. Especially after five fucking years-" she stopped as her voice began to falter. "That's..." Mai hesitated. "That's part of what I wanted to talk about, actually." "I knew it!" Natsuki glared at her angrily. "I just knew all that crap about this "childhood friend" of yours was a lie. Bitch." Mai flinched. "Kuga..." An accusing finger cut her off. "Don't start. You lied, Mai; you lied right to my face and you expected me to believe it? You thought I couldn't tell? You just expected me to remember the parts that were convenient for you, selfish..." Natsuki bit back the sudden insults rising to her lips. She sat back into her seat again and took several slow breaths to calm herself. There was a considerably lengthy pause before Mai spoke up again. "I know I left in a hurry back then, I know it was a stupid thing to do... I know I don't really have any excuse for something like that, either." "You're an idiot, Tokiha, and you always will be. Do you have any idea how many people you had looking up to you? So many people had expectations for you, the principal said you were special, you'd be going somewhere. Represent the academy, do something good for the whole damn world." Natsuki refused to look her in the eye, but she did throw a malicious glare her way. "It's the duty of an Otome...you just threw it all away and you never even said anything. Why?" Mai bit her bottom lip. "I...didn't want it," she said, almost a whisper. "What?" "I didn't want it! I didn't want all that shit, I just...all I wanted..." She sighed and hung her head. "No...of course, it's more complicated than that. Would it be too much to ask that we just leave it there for now? I promise, I'll explain it all some day." Natsuki shook her head. "I may hate you sometimes, Tokiha, but you should know by now that I at least trust you to keep your word. Whenever you feel like sharing..." Mai nodded back at her. Then a sudden smile broke out across her face. "Enough of me...I wanted to talk about you, actually. I'm a little bit...well...concerned." "There's nothing to be concerned about really," came the abrupt reply. "And that's exactly what bothers me, see? You're being too confrontational." Mai took another sip of her coffee, peering over the rim at her counterpart. "It's not like you, not like you at all." "That's just the way I am. You wouldn't know." "Please...Natsuki...don't push so hard," implored the redhead. "It's not good for you to be like this. I thought you'd be more open with yourself by now, but you're going further and further back to your old self." "And what's wrong with my old self," Natsuki interrupted, turning an angry glare on her companion. "What's wrong with acting the way I feel? I shouldn't have to explain myself to you, of all people. Why are you trying to make me act like someone else?" Mai waved both hands in a frantic gesture of apology. "I'm not! Really, Kuga, I was just trying to say that you should-" "-Stop trying to control me!" She was yelling, and that was a bad sign. "What's wrong with the way I am?" She frowned hard when all she got back was a silent, indignant expression. Eventually the dark-haired woman settled back into her seat and turned her gaze away, a little awkward with all the strange eyes on her after her outburst. "Is that it," questioned Mai after a lengthy pause. "Is that what's wrong? Is she doing this to you?" "I don't see how that's any of your business," replied Natsuki, feigning disinterest. "Of course it's my business, I care about you! I'm worried when you're acting like this. If there's a problem..." Mai shook her head again. "I'm sorry. You're right; it's none of my business. I should just let you handle your personal affairs on your own." She went back to sipping her coffee in silence, and watching the patterns in the bubbles. The tension that had slowly built faded, little by little, away into the background. The sounds of people talking about the restaurant and the outside noises muffled through the windows took up the gap where their conversation had been. The sun drifted across the sky a little more; the minutes ticked away. Eventually, the coffee turned cold. "Hey..." Mai looked up with a questioning "hm?" "I..." Their eyes avoided one another yet again; Natsuki's found their way down to the table. "I'm sorry I yelled at you, okay?" "I deserve it. I shouldn't have been so pushy anyway," reasoned the redhead, smiling quite jovially even after everything that had happened. "I know you're not one to be so forthcoming about...stuff like that." Natsuki sighed, or it might have been more a groan, and leaned her forehead into the heel of her palm. "You're right," she relented. "You were right anyway. It... it's not really Shizuru's fault. She's just got me in a bad mood lately and I don't know why; I mean it's not like she's done anything in particular..." She paused, and looked up. Mai was watching rather intently, and listening just as well by the look of it. "She's just...acting a little strange lately," the dark-haired woman continued. "I guess so am I, to be honest. She doesn't remember...anything...about the Carnival or Garderobe... I tried explaining and it really doesn't seem to be working at all. It doesn't help that my memories aren't exactly in perfect working order." "I think out of all of us, Mikoto's the only one who knows everything." Mai flashed a self-depreciating grin. "Lot of good that does us." Natsuki gave no response. The silence was uncomfortable, again. Mai finished off the last of her coffee and argued with a waitress over their bill for a few minutes. "I love her," said Natsuki all of a sudden, throwing the redhead off completely. "Eh?" "I..." She looked down at the table again, clearly uncomfortable. "I love her, honestly. It's not as if I don't care any more. She's just being awkward...it's just not right being round her lately." Natsuki shook her head with a regretful sigh. "Maybe it's my fault. Maybe I did something..." Mai almost startled her with a hand on her arm, leaning across the table. "If she's got a problem with you, then she's the one with the problem. There's not a thing wrong with you. That you can just come out and admit how you feel about her says at least that you're confident about your own feelings." Natsuki almost glared back at her, but softened. "I'm sure there's a thing or two in me that you don't quite agree with." "I wouldn't change a thing," insisted the redhead, firmly enough that it made Natsuki a little uncomfortable. The dark-haired woman blushed, and Mai eventually sat back down with a self-conscious grin, rubbing the back of her head. "Eh...sorry. I shouldn't say stuff like that; I know you're not-" "-No," interrupted Natsuki somewhat hesitantly. "No, it...it's alright. Just... Look, just forget it." Mai nodded, and ventured a slow smile. "Well how about you take me back and we'll get dinner started, hm? And while I'm busy cooking, you can go find your girlfriend and make it all up to her again, right?" She cocked her head to one side. "Deal?" "Fine," replied Natsuki with a rueful grin. "And then?" "And then you can come over for dinner and tell me all about it!" Mai beamed at her. "I wanna know how it goes!" "I might. Perhaps, if you cook something worth eating." The redhead crossed her arms with a disgruntled expression. "I'll have you know that my cooking is better than anything you've ever tasted! Mikoto seems to like it well enough, and you certainly never complained whenever I made you lunch back when we were Corals." Natsuki shot her a derogatory grin that was almost but not quite a sneer. "That's because I knew your little "fan club" would probably kill me for it." "Fan club...what fan club? Now you're just making stuff up!" Thusly, the conversation quickly returned to what could loosely be deemed normal. An hour or so later, Mai was still sitting right there in the restaurant as she had been, alone, gazing down into the bottom of an empty cup with a blank expression. Her lunch-mate had long since left and the bill still sat on the table in its neat little saucer, waiting for her. Her fingers worked over and against each other slowly, crossing over and over in abstract patterns as she sat, deep in thought. "I wouldn't change a thing." She sighed. "Stupid," she muttered under her breath. "That's not what she needs to hear right now." She shook her head, closing her eyes again for a moment. "Not now..." She didn't notice the shadow suddenly falling across her from behind, so wrapped up in her own mind was she, still running back over and over the recent happenings again and again. "Stupid...you can't just say things like that any more, Tokiha. You're not a little girl any more." "Oh, I think you're just as youthful as ever, personally." Before she could react, there were hands over her face, covering her eyes. "Guess who," said a very familiar voice. "Wh...what the..." Mai searched desperately for something coherent to say. "Midori!" "Bingo!" Mai brushed the hands off her face and stood up quickly, the chair squeaking as it rubbed against the floor. She turned and...sure enough, there she was. "Midori," Mai repeated, incredulously. She looked just as vibrant as she always had, dressed quite casually in a pair of loose, dark trousers and a bright crimson sweater that, despite its best efforts, couldn't hide her chest. The overload of red was almost painful on the eyes at first, but Midori pulled it off just as well as ever. Mai blinked, and a look of confusion overcame her. "That's...you must be over thirty by now, but you look exactly like I remember. But that was...almost ten years ago..." Midori stabbed a thumb to her chest with a displeased expression. "I'm seventeen, damn it!" "But-" "Seventeen," insisted Midori, enunciating loudly. Mai laughed at her and sat back down. "Okay, okay, fine...but what in the world are you doing here all of a sudden?" She looked across the table when the other woman took a seat opposite her. "Weren't you working for the academy when I left?" Midori leaned back into her seat, crossing her legs with a grin. "Well, like you said," she began, waving one hand, "ten years is a long time. I've been places. Got bored with teaching, thought I'd go and hop around the country for a little while." "I never would have thought you'd be a hitch-hiker, Midori." The orange-haired woman shook her head. "Doesn't suit you, does it?" "You gave me the idea, miss "I've had more jobs than you've had boyfriends." Crazy girl." There was a highly conspicuous pause, where usually Mai would make some sort of defensive comment or, more likely, poke back at the elder woman herself. Instead, there was silence. Midori skewed an eyebrow and looked pointedly at the orange-haired girl sitting across from her with a curious expression. "Mai?" Mai was wringing her hands under the table and hiding it quite well, but she couldn't conceal that nasty habit she had of biting the edge of her bottom lip in her mild anxiety. "I...sorry...I just, I was thinking about..." she stuttered out a little too quickly. "Oh, now I know for sure that there's something bothering you." Midori leaned forward over the table with a mischievous smirk. "What's wrong, hm? Boy troubles? I though I'd gotten you over that years ago..." "It...that's not quite it," retorted Mai, blushing almost unnoticeably. She stared down at the table for a few moments, putting her hands flat on the table in front of her. "...all I wanted..." "I think," she began carefully. "I think...I may have almost said something that perhaps...I really shouldn't have almost said." Then the redhead shook her head, smiling self-consciously. "I think I said quite a few things I shouldn't have, to be honest. I'm afraid she might start asking...uncomfortable questions about it later." "She?" Midori cocked her head at the younger woman. Mai tried to hide the sudden flush in her cheeks with a pout and a disgruntled look, arms across her chest. "It...it's not like that! You know I don't..." Midori set her a cool, hard stare. "Oh, I think it very much is, else you wouldn't react like that, would you? Besides, don't give me that "I don't swing that way" crap. I seem to remember a rather interesting "intensive study session" we had that one time..." "Could we please not talk about that," interrupted Mai, by now blushing rather profusely and squirming uneasily in her seat. "You know how...uncomfortable it makes me." "I've told you once," Midori argued with a dismissive wave, "I've told you a thousand times. A little experimentation is healthy for a growing girl." Mai frowned at her. "Jeez, Midori, you're still as much of a pervert as I remember!" Midori just laughed. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Outside was the heat of summer, but inside was cold, almost uncomfortably so. The heavy draped curtains drawn across a wide bay window, sealing out the sunlight with their own inky blackness. They rose all the way to the ceiling, hanging from a thick semi-circular wooden rail that ran all the way across above the huge panel windows that overlooked an otherwise picturesque view of the estate. The walls were a dull sort of grey colour that did little to dispel the darkness of the room, and the ceiling high above was an equally dull shade of off-white. The floor was mostly a dark, polished wood, with a thick, square red carpet covering a large square in the centre of the room, creating a stylish bordered look. In the middle of the room itself stood a low wooden table, a couch and a small footrest, and two matching armchairs all in the same polished wood and crimson leather. Only a small table lamp illuminated the room, throwing just enough of a soft orange glow over the table and its surroundings for, say, reading a book, or simply relaxing peacefully. Both of which Shizuru was renowned for, privately of course. It was her room; the mistress of the house was often found lounging on her favourite couch with any one of a number of books from her own personal library, or perhaps, on a nice day, relaxing and drinking tea beside the window, admiring the view. It usually depended on her mood, and that was subject to change at any moment, as her closest and most trusted knew so well. To a stranger, a first impression may have been of an older, reclusive woman, who would prefer to dwell in her own solitude. It came as a surprise for few to find out they were not so far from the truth. "I've suggested time and again that she should have a fireplace put in here, but she said she'd never use it anyway." Natsuki looked swiftly up towards the open door at the sound of a familiar voice, her suit creaking irritatingly against the leather couch on which she was more perched than sat. Her impatience gave way to a comfortably expressionless face as a short, unimpressive young girl in a maid outfit came into view. "Good afternoon, Lae-" "-Please, Miss Kuga," interrupted the maid with an apologetic gesture as she stepped into the room with a click from her heels on the wooden floor. "I know what you're going to say and you needn't worry. I've always made time for whatever business you may have, for the Mistress' sake if nothing else." She motioned toward the table, upon which stood a silver tray laden with pot and saucer. "I see you've already reacquainted yourself with our hospitality." Natsuki gently laid the cup in her hand back down in its proper place, now empty. "Sakura was such a good hostess, and so insistent, I simply couldn't refuse the offer. The one with the pink ribbon...that is Sakura, isn't it?" "You've a most impressive memory, Miss Kuga." The maid chuckled lightly to herself before taking the tray from its resting place on the table. In the dim light, it was obvious that she was not of Japanese descent, judging solely by her face. She was short for her age, coming up just a touch below her mistress' shoulder, as Natsuki has seen them side by side once before, but she was also quite stocky for such a young girl. Her relatively diminutive figure and her usual posture belied an avid amateur boxer, hidden beneath an almost demeaning maid's uniform. Most striking, however, were her unusually dark, crimson eyes. "I'm sure you already know why I'm visiting..." "I'm afraid that you'll be sorely disappointed in that case." The maid turned and carried the tray briskly to the door, where another girl seemed to have simply appeared out of nowhere, ready to take the object from her. When she turned back to face her guest, she swung the heavy wooden door shut again behind herself with a deep, resounding thump. "I'm sorry to inform you that my mistress is currently deeply involved in very important work. It doesn't appear that she'll be available in person for quite some time." "That's not a problem," dismissed Natsuki with a wave of one hand, holding her impassive expression. "What I actually came here for is to let her know that my...personal investigations," she continued carefully, "have yielded some interesting information. I thought she might like to examine some of it herself." She reached into the mock-up of a jacket attached to her suit and slid a small white envelope from the inside pocket, placing it flat on the table. The maid eyed the package hesitantly at first. "Well I'll make sure to let her know you were here looking for her," she said after a moment's pause, turning a cheerful smile to the Japanese woman. "And I'll also be sure to pass on this...information...to her in person. Is there anything else you'd like me to tell her? She appears to be rather concerned about you as of late." "I'm not in a very good mood with Shizuru at the moment," explained Natsuki, rising to her feet. She said no more. The maid smirked as she turned to watch her guest walking towards the door. "I will personally see to it that she is made fully aware of your displeasure, Miss Kuga." Then she muttered something under her breath in German with a slightly worrying chuckle as Natsuki closed the door again behind her. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Not ten seconds later, the phone rang. Or bleeped, rather. Shizuru groaned. Then she hoped no one had heard. Well, besides her secretary, who always seemed to be standing outside her office door at just the wrong... "Ma'am..." ...moment. Shizuru let out a long sigh as she reached out and snatched up the mobile that still sat chirping on her desk. "Not now, Motoko," she called through the locked door. "I'm very busy right now." "But it's-" "-It doesn't matter," snapped the older woman. "Make an excuse." She turned her attention back to the laptop computer sitting on her desk, and the contents of the document-holder that had been sprawled haphazardly about it. She brought the phone, still blaring away for her attention, up to her head and thumbed a button. "Hello?" "Mistress," said a voice that Shizuru recognized immediately. "I'm sorry to bother you at work, but Miss Kuga came to see you..." "Laeventine, please," replied Shizuru over her, "I've told you not to call..." She blinked. "Natsuki came to the house? That doesn't seem like her at all. She almost never visits me at home, or at least, certainly not without warning." She caught herself starting to gnaw at her bottom lip, a habit she thought she had long since abolished, and stopped. She listened intently while her hands busied themselves sifting through the papers on her desk for a certain set of forms and a pen. "What did she say?" "Not much I'm afraid, Mistress. She did leave you something, however; she said it was important and that you'd probably want to see it as soon as possible." Shizuru was about to answer when the door to her office flew open, and in dashed a rather flustered-looking (or as flustered as she ever got) secretary. "Fujino-san," insisted the blonde woman in a surprisingly urgent tone of voice. "Ma'am, please, it's urgent. There's a matter that requires your immediate attention." Shizuru folded her computer shut with a click and swept most of the papers on her desk over to one side in a loose pile, rising quickly from her seat. She gestured toward the door and Motoko preceded her out. "I'm afraid I'll have to call you back. Please take care of Natsuki-chan's...package." With that, she snapped her phone shut and slid it back into her pocket. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Mai leaned against the half-open door of her apartment, head hung, her eyes on her shoes. She let out a deep breath and lurched forward as the door swung shut behind her. "Stupid Midori," she grumbled under her breath. "Mai," called out a familiar voice. "Mai, you're back!" Obviously, she hadn't quite been quiet enough. Mai turned to make sure the door was properly closed and was startled by a sudden weight on her back, skinny arms clinging tight round her middle. The redhead let out a surprised yelp. "Mikoto-chan..." Mai giggled, trying to turn around to face the young girl. "You know, you can let go now. I'm not going to run off or anything." Mikoto beamed up at her. "Mai food!" Mai laughed and patted a hand affectionately on the youngster's head. "Okay then, dinner sounds good right about now. How about you pick today, hm?" Mikoto looked puzzled. "Eh? What's wrong?" Mikoto looked down at nothing in particular and started squinting. Then she started humming and shaking her head slowly from side to side, muttering to herself under her breath. "What is it, Mikoto?" The young girl looked up with a start. There was that enrapt look of adoration in her eyes again, just like always, that made Mai feel oddly secure. Her expression changed to delight and she opened her mouth to reply... ...there was a long pause... "Anything Mai cooks is good!" Mai chuckled, and shook her head. "Silly thing." Certainly, everything was going back to the way it had been, although a few things were quite profoundly different now than she remembered them. She put her arms back around the young girl before her and ran a hand through Mikoto's thick dark hair. "It feels a lot better to be back now and to have all my memories back...even if a lot of them don't make much sense..." A frown crossed her lips. Mikoto blinked at her, puzzled expression quickly returning. "Mai?" Mai shook her head. "Never mind that, Mikoto-chan. Come on and let's get started." She moved to pull away from the embrace, and found herself trapped. "Mai..." whined the young girl, staring up at her with such a concerned look on her face and squeezing tighter around the older woman's waist. Mai blinked back at her. "W...what is it?" "You're not feeling good," replied Mikoto plainly, her expression darkening slightly as she leaned up towards the redhead's face. Mai flushed. It wasn't as if Mikoto wasn't a terribly clingy young girl, and didn't tend to be awfully affectionate with her unofficial guardian whenever the opportunity presented itself, often at rather inappropriate times. Nor was it that Mai didn't sometimes enjoy having such honest affection poured on her, with no real love life to speak of and nothing in the way of family, discounting her long-absent younger brother. It was just that the two circumstances really shouldn't have gotten mixed up like that, or so Mai thought at least. Not that she was doing much thinking at all right at that moment. Somehow, the sight of those big, wide golden-yellow eyes staring up at her with a deep-felt fondness was almost mesmerizing. How little Mikoto had grown, she suddenly noticed, as where before the dark-haired young girl had been face-on to Mai's stomach area, now her eyes were level with the redhead's rather prodigious bust, and she was only getting taller every day. She had shaken off the last little bit of that childish appearance from their earlier years, though her aura was still so immature at times. Mikoto had grown into a rather tall, skinny young teenager, and she was still growing, where to only time could say. Besides her newfound physical maturity, there was a strange light behind that naïve young gaze that made Mai feel a little uncomfortable at times, a look that she really felt she should recognise. "Mai..." Mai took a deep breath. Surely, something would happen now, some sort of comical coincidence to shatter the mood, just as it always had done to her in the past. Surely, Mikoto would come to her senses at the last moment... ...or not. And then she was too busy being kissed to worry about anything else. Mikoto certainly kissed like a girl, a very young, very inexperienced girl. It was barely a touching of lips. A puff of warm breath wafted over the redhead woman's face. And then Mikoto was staring up at her again with that same look of complete and total adoration, and a hint of a hopeful expression in the corner of her eye. "A..." Mai bit off her words. She could certainly rule it out as Mikoto being overly affectionate again, as she so often was, but there had most definitely been something there, something so distinctly...intimate that Mai simply couldn't get her mind off it. "W...why," she asked the young girl, trying not to sound too discouraging lest Mikoto get the wrong idea. Mikoto pouted at her, rather uncharacteristically, that troubling glint in her eye yet. "Mai shouldn't feel so lonely." Mai shook her head and smiled ruefully down at the youngster. "I'm not lonely, Mikoto-chan. I just..." She sighed and leaned back against the door a little. "Midori says I'm being all closed-off and all lately and I guess she's right. I've just been feeling a little overwhelmed what with all these memories I never knew I had... I suppose I just need to relax a little, get used to how my life is now." Mikoto grunted affirmative in reply, her face now thoroughly buried into Mai's cleavage. Mai chuckled at her and patted a hand atop the young girl's head. "It's hard to do with nobody around, you know. I used to be good at being an independent woman, but now I feel like I've just stepped back about five years. It's like being a lost college student again." "Mai's never alone," replied Mikoto insistently as she looked up at the redhead, her usual childishly affectionate expression back at last. "You'll always have me, Mai." Mai blinked. Then she leaned down to her young companion and planted a firm kiss on Mikoto's left cheek. "Thank you." ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Shizuru hissed a curse under her breath as she walked briskly back towards her office. Of course, she showed no outward irritation, as always, but inside she was fairly seething. "I'm sure it was just an accident, after all. He was new to the job." She waved a dismissive hand and put on her most convincing disaffected smile. "I'll just halve his pay for the month; that should remind him to be more careful with hazardous chemicals in future." Motoko suppressed a mild grin. "Yes, ma'am," she replied in her natural monotone. "I'll see to it right away." As they rounded the corner, a strange smell seemed to waft along the corridor toward them, from the direction of the office. The closer they came to the door, the stronger the smell seemed to get. It was definitely coming from inside the office. Shizuru stopped at the door and sniffed, and looked at the shorter woman beside her with a puzzled expression. "There haven't been any cleaning staff through here while we were gone, have there?" Motoko took a deep breath and furrowed her brows. "That's not bleach," she stated in an unnerving tone of voice. "That smells like..." She trailed off, staring at the door. It was only then that Shizuru noticed the door had been left ajar, which she certainly would never do. She pushed the door wide...and gasped. It looked like a pack of wild dogs had demolished the whole room. Everything was in pieces, most of them rather small, making a terrible mess of broken glass and wood splinters all over the floor. There were plenty of large cracks in the walls, too, as if someone had taken a huge pickaxe and gone completely mad. The only thing relatively intact was the door to Shizuru's private office, though there was still a large hole straight through the wood around where the handle had been. The brunette didn't need to check to know that her room had suffered likewise, perhaps even more so. Something moved at the edge of her vision. Something bright. Shizuru turned on her heel. A flash of pink disappeared round a corner trailing the edge of a thick grey coat behind. "Damn it," she hissed to herself as she took off after the unknown figure. Motoko yelled after her, but she wasn't listening. She dashed off down the corridor after that pink flash. "Come back here," she yelled after the figure, but it didn't work; the figure slid round another corner, back still toward her, and when Shizuru got to where she had last seen it, whoever it was...was gone. She resisted the urge to growl, or stomp her foot, or any one of a number of other, equally pointless things. "Ma'am," gasped Motoko as she appeared from seemingly nowhere round the corner, breathing heavily but none the worse for wear. "What...what was that?" Shizuru didn't answer, and instead fished her mobile from the pocket inside her jacket. At least she'd taken that with her when she'd left the office, thank Kami. Her thumb mashed the buttons with an almost frightening speed. "They got your computer, ma'am. And they emptied your desk..." Shizuru lifted the phone to her ear, seemingly oblivious, but the way her lips curled downward told the blonde woman that her superior was definitely listening and, worse yet, highly agitated by the whole event. "Natsuki?" Seeing the older woman's face light up like that, however she tried to conceal it, it was clear that a weight had been lifted. She immediately seemed more relaxed, more like her usual self. "I'm afraid not," she continued into the phone, and Motoko could easily sense the subtle intimation that she best make herself scarce. She started slowly edging away from the conversation, checking over the PDA in her breast pocket while her superior busied herself with personal matters. "No, it's nothing to worry about, really. Just a little problem at work." Shizuru started nibbling on her bottom lip, then stopped again immediately. "I'll have to ask you to do something for me, if you're not busy at the moment. Someone just left the hospital and..." There was a pause for a moment, and Shizuru nodded very slowly to herself several times. She was tensing up again, ever so gradually, most likely just worrying herself a touch too much as usual. "Yes, Laeventine said you left something for me. I'll see to it as soon as I get home." Motoko turned, and started back towards her office, now destroyed. For a brief second, the thought crossed her head that perhaps it was for the best. She never had liked that stupid fern anyway. "Natsuki?" Motoko stopped. She waited... "Natsuki? Natsuki?" She turned. Shizuru was looking worse than she had before the call, and was gripping the phone so tight her knuckles turned white. Motoko felt that horrible sinking feeling she usually got on a Thursday morning, just before all the ER patients started arriving from wherever it was people in Tokyo went out on a Wednesday night, and swallowed hard. She swept back down the corridor to the brunette woman's side and looked up at her. Shizuru didn't seem to notice. For a few very long, nerve-wracking moments, she simply stood there like that, frozen. At last, she turned, thrust the firmly device into her assistant's hand, and then she did something that Fujino Shizuru almost never did. She ran. Motoko knew what she would hear, but for some reason, she still couldn't stop herself holding the phone up to her own ear. The line was dead.
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