EPISODE SIX: THE ONE I LOVE.

 

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Kurusugawa Himeko couldn’t sleep. It had been hours since she first laid her back upon the soft mattress. Yet, all she managed to do was toss and turn and watch the hands of the grandfather clock standing across her bed go round. She sighed. It was four in the morning already, and school was but a few hours away. Should this continue, there was no doubt she would be nodding off during classes. Worse, today she would be having World History and Classic Literature, the two subjects that had never failed to induce sleepiness despite her efforts to stay awake. Her heart throbbed. Despite the fact that those classes were mind-numbingly boring, she had never landed herself into trouble even once. Whenever Himeko dozed off on her desk, Mako-chan would wake her before the teacher found out. Whenever Himeko was called upon to read some paragraphs in the text, which she had no idea where, Mako-chan would whisper the page number and kept Himeko’s hide preserved.

Mako-chan, where are you? Himeko thought. She had asked Chikane-chan to take her to the hospital once so that she could try to mend her friendship with the track-and-field athlete. To her disappointment, the nurse at the reception desk, who glanced at her and the blue-haired princess in a very funny way, announced that the patient named Saotome Makoto didn’t want any visitors. There was nothing Himeko could do except leaving the hospital with a heart that was drowned in grief. She had cried her eyes out on Chikane-chan’s shoulder during the trip home.

Sighing again, Himeko rose from the bed and walked out of her room. In her pajama, she quietly treaded upon the spacious and empty hallways, climbed down the flight of marble stairs leading toward the deserted Main Hall, opened a glass door at a corner, and finally arrived at the back garden of the Himemiya Mansion. Shaped in one great square spanning half a square mile in area, the garden was a vast verdant field where flowers, arranged in an eye-pleasing way atop the lush lawn that shone with the color of emeralds under the sun light, thrived and spread their pleasant fragrance across the land. Even right now, in the darkness before dawn that was only diluted by the light of the lamp posts, the garden seemed just as beautiful. Actually, Himeko thought it was even more so with the nocturnal atmosphere it gave out, with the sense of serenity that permeated the air, and with Chikane-chan, Himeko’s sweetheart, who was sitting on a bench near a gushing fountain, beneath the light of a lamp post.

“Why are you not in bed, Himeko?” the blue-haired princess smiled tenderly at Himeko upon her approach. Chikane-chan was wearing her usual night gown under a long-sleeved coat that draped across her slender shoulders, appearing as beautiful and coolly elegant as ever.

“I can’t sleep,” Himeko admitted truthfully. “How about you, Chikane-chan? Why are you still awake?” She sat down next to her beloved on the bench, at which point she started to wonder how it would feel to link arms with the blue-haired princess and rest her head on the girl’s slender shoulder.

The other girl studied her with an expressionless face for a long moment before she spoke quietly, “I could not sleep either, so I came here to have some fresh air, hoping it would drive my restlessness away.” The princess’s beautiful sapphire eyes, once locked with Himeko’s amethyst, now looked away and focused on the sprays of water rising from the fountainhead, a French horn held by the stone statue of a little angel. Although Himeko wanted to ask what had caused Chikane-chan’s restlessness, she forbore. There was a note in the other girl’s voice that made it clear that even if Himeko had inquired, she would not have received a straightforward answer. She but wondered why.

“Did it help, then, Chikane-chan?” Himeko asked, deciding to leave the topic alone.

“A little bit,” the princess confided with a sweet smile. “I think that I will be able to sleep if I go back to bed now.” She glanced at the watch on her left wrist. “I do not think I will, though.”

“Why not?” Himeko asked.

“Because I would have to wake up half an hour later, Himeko,” Chikane-chan said in a depressed voice. “I have a studying session scheduled with the MBA people from five to seven, you see.” The princess winced slightly as if the thought of having to attend the session was a needle that just pricked her skin. She shivered, too.

Himeko gave a start. “They are going to tutor you this morning, too?”

“Not just this morning, every morning thereafter,” the princess corrected her with a rueful smile. “You know that I always wake up at five for archery practice, do you not?” Chikane-chan waited for a nod from Himeko before she continued, “My father decided that my hobby was not as important as studying business, so he allocated the time slot from five to seven for my tutoring session regardless of my wish.” She heaved a long sigh that spoke volumes of the desperation and frustration she had to be feeling inside. Himeko’s heart went out to her. Maybe this was why her beloved princess couldn’t sleep.

“You don’t even like the subject, Chikane-chan, I can tell,” she commented quietly, her hand on the princess’s shoulder. “Why do you have to work yourself so... murderously?”

“Because my Father failed to understand his daughter the way you understand me, my dearest friend.” The blue-haired girl let out a long sigh as she took Himeko’s hand into her own and squeezed it tenderly. “He simply assumed that since I was good at it, there was no reason I could not come to love it. Sometimes I wonder which one is closer to me, you, or my father.” Her expression, once sad, grew softer, and much more affectionate when her sapphire eyes settled upon Himeko’s face. Her heart skipped a beat. The princess looked so beautiful when she said that....

“Why don’t you tell him what you just told me?” Himeko said, trying to slow down her racing pulse.

“I did try, Himeko,” the Himemiya Ojou-sama answered wryly. “His Mightiness Himemiya Kyou simply refused to accept No for an answer, you see.” She gave her lips a thoughtful tap. “It was rather unusual, anyhow, for my parents had never forced me to do what I did not want to before.” She gave Himeko a soft smile. “I guess they are not letting me have my way any longer.”

“I’m sorry to hear that, Chikane-chan,” Himeko said to her secret crush.

“Do not be.” The blue-haired princess chuckled softly behind a raised hand. “I would say that it was the duty given to me the moment of my birth, Himeko. It was my fate to become the next successor to the throne of the empire my family had built and maintained. I cannot escape it.” Her voice suddenly turned sorrowful. “Just as I cannot escape the fact that I was born a girl, and thus would never be able to....” Her eyes were on Himeko once more the moment she blinked and closed her mouth with an audible click of her teeth, her beautiful face as blank as a sheet of paper. The princess appeared someone who just realized that she had said too much.... Himeko only wondered what the girl could have meant.

Chikane-chan cleared her throat. “Let us drop this depressing topic, Himeko. Why don’t I show you something fun?” she said in such a cheerful voice and with a bright expression on her face that she almost seemed a different person. The melancholy that had been ailing her since Himeko set foot on the garden might as well never have existed.

“What is it?” Himeko asked, feeling her mind reeling with questions that she did not dare ask.

“A little trick I just discovered that I could do, Himeko,” answered the Himemiya princess, her lips curving upward in a little mysterious smile as her hand rose over her head. Silver light, glaring and cool, erupted from the ground beneath the blue-haired girl’s feet and then gathered into a revolving Moon Crest that kept expanding within every passing second. In a few heartbeats, the glowing sign had enveloped the entire garden of the Himemiya. With the ground alight, the night seemed almost insignificant. Yet, as Himeko’s amethyst gaze rose to meet Chikane-chan’s sapphire, she realized that no light, no matter how brilliant, could ever outshine her princess.

A miracle happened.

Water from the pond and the fountainhead, along with the dew on the blades of grass and the leaves of the trees in the garden, rose upward in droplets that twinkled like real stars beneath the heavily clouded heavens. Himeko could only marvel in wonder as the rising rain all around her concentrated into a growing sphere stationed in the air, an inch above the blue-haired girl’s palm, which was facing skyward. When the sphere became large enough to easily swallow up a hundred people, the princess let her fingertips brush gently against its surface, her smile unwavering on her lips. After a flash of silver light, the sphere shot upward so quickly Himeko’s eyes could barely follow the thing’s trajectory path. Still, she was able to notice it when the water sphere stopped abruptly in midair, probably a few hundred feet above the ground. There, it exploded.

It was like watching firework, Himeko said to herself. Except that no firework could be as spectacular as what Chikane-chan had hurled into the sky, for in the exact instant following the explosion, a stunning vision rippled across the ocean of dark clouds that had swallowed the moon and stars. During that very instant, which seemed to last an eternity in her mind, Himeko caught a glimpse of something that could rarely be seen above the skyscrapers of Mahoroba, that which were exiled by the glaring city lights. It was the sight of the grand Milky Way, surrounded by a sparkling star ocean the beauty of which was seldom matched. Himeko’s breath caught. Having only seen this in TV, she had thought that unless she gathered enough money to travel to some vast empty land where the human population was scarce, she would never see it in real life. She had never imagined it could be so beautiful. Her eyes once again found her princess, who was studying her with a joyous expression on her face. Himeko had never imagined Chikane-chan could do something so wondrous.

“Where did you learn to do this?” Himeko breathed.

Not answering the question immediately, the blue-haired princess turned her gaze upward at the clouded skies, from where, as Himeko just noticed, countless droplets of sparkling water were thundering toward the ground. Fingertips alight, the hand of Himeko’s sweetheart elegantly drew a circle that blazed silver atop her magnificent head. The shining rain, each droplet of which was falling down in a straight line, suddenly changed direction and poured gently into the pond.

Afterwards, the princess gave Himeko an apologetic smile and said, “I do not have a clue, Himeko. Ever since I brought you home from the amusement park two days ago, strange knowledge has been coming into my head from only the Gods know where.” She looked at her fingertips, glowing brilliant silver under the light of the lamp posts. “I guess that means my powers are returning.” Her gaze became distant, her expression once again blank. At times like this, Himeko could never tell what the Priestess of the Moon was thinking... and it bothered her a lot.

Giving her head a firm shake to clear her thoughts, Himeko sighed. “At east yours are. Mine aren’t. I wish I could do something like that, too.” She had asked herself numerous times why she could not wield even the smallest bit of her powers, which Oogami-sensei claimed to be more than enough to overwhelm perhaps all living Orochi at once. It wasn’t that she doubted the High Priest... but it was very hard to imagine that she, a girl who could barely keep herself from getting hurt, could defeat one Follower, much less all eight.

“Do you think that these powers are truly desirable, Himeko?” the princess asked, her sapphire eyes on Himeko’s face, her voice strangely quiet.

“You don’t think so.” A shake of the other girl’s magnificent head confirmed Himeko’s observation. “Why?”

“Do you not think that our lives would be much better without our Priestess powers?” said the blue-haired princess. “We would be able to remain normal girls who were not burdened by the mission of saving the world. We would not have to lead a life where we spend every moment awake being afraid that the Orochi could come after us.” Chikane-chan’s glowing hand curled into a fist. “Besides, what use do I have of this? Why should I even want it when it cannot make my one and only wish come true?” Despair was all that flowed in the princess’s words. She made Himeko’s heart clench.

“What is it you wish for, Chikane-chan?” Himeko asked. What could have upset her sweetheart so?

The other girl didn’t answer. Instead, she eyed Himeko up and down as if for the first time she had noticed that Himeko was there. Then the Himemiya Ojou-sama sat a bit closer, took off her outer coat, and draped it across Himeko’s shoulders. “You did not dress warm enough for this kind of weather, Himeko. Do try to take care of yourself. I will not be around forever, you know,” she murmured softly as she helped Himeko button up the coat. Their bodies were so close together that Himeko could feel the warmth emanating from the princess’s skin and hear the girl’s heartbeat. When Himeko looked up and found the blue-haired girl’s stunning face, which was but two inches apart from her own, she realized she could feel the girl’s hot, fragrant breath caressing her cheeks. Her heart went wild.

“I can’t imagine what the servants in your house would say if they saw us like this, Chikane-chan,” Himeko mumbled, her face a roaring furnace. “There are enough rumors about us going around already.”

“What rumors?” the princess gave her a quizzical look.

“They made all sorts of speculations as to why you brought a stranger like me into your house, Chikane-chan,” Himeko said, her amethyst eyes locked with the princess’s sapphire. She simply couldn’t tear them away. “Some said I was your long-lost half-sister, born of your father and his secret mistress.” The corners of Chikane-chan’s lovely mouth quirked upward in amusement. “Some said I was some sort of witch who had confounded your mind.” The blue-haired girl’s smile faded, her visage hardened in anger. Himeko took a deep breath. “But the majority of them believed I was your secret lover.” The expression on the face of the Himemiya Ojou-sama turned unreadable. Right at this moment, she betrayed as much emotion as a rock.

“Is that so?” was the only response Himeko got. The other girl’s voice was guarded and perfectly neutral. Himeko winced. If Chikane-chan kept being so cautious and tight-mouthed about this, how the heck could Himeko learn how much she was worth in her beloved’s heart?

“Speaking of which,” Himeko decided to try again, “What kind of person do you want for a lover, Chikane-chan? I really want to know.”

Silence hung between them like a thick wall for a few minutes before the other girl decided to speak, “Rather than worrying about my love life, should you not pay attention to yours, Himeko?” A smile curved the princess’s lips. “You have stayed in your room for a whole day yesterday. Should you not try to stay with your boyfriend all the time? He may try to cheat on you in your absence, you know. Boys cannot be trusted.”

“He’s not my boyfriend!” Himeko protested, her cheeks aflame. I don’t need a boyfriend. I only need you, Chikane-chan, she thought exasperatedly.

“Perhaps not yet.” The Himemiya Ojou-sama chuckled quietly. “When are you going to give your childhood friend his overdue answer? He just pleaded his undying love for you two days ago, you know.”

“I... I’m supposed to meet with him during lunch break in school, today,” Himeko muttered in a depressed tone while her heart sank into her stomach. This decision was what had kept her awake all night. She knew that it was only right for her to reject her childhood friend, as she only wished to be with her one and only princess, as she didn’t think she could be anyone else’s girlfriend, and as Chikane-chan was the only person that was in Himeko’s mind, dreaming or awake. Yet... Himeko couldn’t help but be saddened... for she knew she was going to hurt someone she cherished, someone who would fight his own blood brother for her sake. The guilt had been devouring Himeko inside out ever since she returned home less than twenty-four hours ago.

“He will be delighted, I am sure.” Chikane-chan gave Himeko another dazzling smile before she glanced at her wristwatch. “Almost five already, look how fast time flies,” she commented. “I had better take a bath and change into proper clothing for the study session. You should go back to your room and have some rest, Himeko.”

Sighing inwardly, Himeko nodded. “I will see you later then.”

A “See you,” was all the princess said before she turned and left.

Standing alone under the clouded heavens, swathed by the light of the lamp posts, Himeko could only groaned. It was then that she started to wish she could read minds. Maybe that was the only way by which she could find out whether Chikane-chan was in love with her or not.

 

***

 

As she treaded in deafening silence upon the hallway that led straight toward the bath chamber, Himemiya Chikane’s mind was being ravaged by powerful currents of thoughts, all of which concerned her housemate, schoolmate, and her comrade the Priestess of the Sun. Kurusugawa Himeko.

What kind of person I would want, Himeko? she thought bitterly. Someone who can talk to me and make me smile even when I am angry. Someone who knows me well enough to tell what I am thinking. Someone who would hold me gently and comfort me when I am depressed. Someone I am comfortable with, who can lift my spirit and fill my heart with joy just by being near me. Bitterness gave birth to grief and despair. You are the only one I ever love. Yet, no matter what I do, you can never be mine.

  Chikane’s hand rose to clutch at her chest. Her heart... it ached so terribly she only wanted to rip it out to lessen the pain. It was only then did Chikane realize that something very wrong was happening to her. Her back was feeling so hot it could have been on fire, her legs so weak she had to stop and put a hand against the wall to steady her body, and her powers were rising in her like the strongest tides, completely out of her control. Her throat ran dry, her blood grew cold, and her vision turned dark. Chikane wanted to scream for help, but a lump of something stuck in her throat had smothered any sound she could make.

“Ao-chan...” a soft and melodious voice, which Chikane knew all too well, sang in her head. “Come to me. Ao-chan....”

The darkness in front of her eyes gave way to a great flame of liquid golden light that burnt as brilliantly as the summer sun. In the heart of that very light stood a girl roughly of Chikane’s age, whose slender frame was clothed in the white chihaya and red hibakama of the Sun Priestess’s outfit, whose golden hair was tied into a long but tidy tail at the nape of her neck, whose beautiful face was lit up by her dazzling smile. The girl, whose appearance resembled that of her sweetheart Kurusugawa Himeko, was someone Chikane knew. Her name was.... Her name was....

Letting go of herself, Chikane felt her body plowing forward along with her outreached hand, into the heart of the light, toward the heart of her world. “Akaa-chan,” was the only word that she muttered before the darkness consumed her whole.

 

***

 

Standing in the spacious hallway of the Himemiya Mansion, Yue the Goddess of the Moon could only shed her tears in silence as she held the limp body of Himemiya Chikane in her arms. Had she not teleported herself inside as soon as she saw the girl lose her balance, Chikane could have broken her own neck. Yue pulled the Priestess of the Moon even closer and wept.

“My little daughter, you have suffered so,” Yue sobbed quietly as her hand combed through the princess’s stream of glossy hair. “You have been hurting so... yet... yet I can do nothing to ease your grief. I do not deserve to be your mother. I am so sorry, my child.” Tears rolled down her cheeks and flowed into her mouth. They tasted bitter, but nowhere as much as what Yue felt in her heart. However, stronger than anything, hotter than the surface of the sun, anger rose in her and threatened to burn her to dust.

Even in her current state, where her powers were weakened by a maelstrom of emotions, Yue could still feel the pulse of a vicious existence lurking in Chikane’s heart. It was the mechanism the Immortals of Heaven had implanted within the girl three thousand years ago, in the aftermath of the great battle between Ame no Murakumo and Yamata no Orochi. A wave of disgust seized Yue. Although that vicious thing had been suppressed and placed within a stasis field of powers the very moment Yue invoked her divine call to awaken the two Priestesses, it was now trying to come back to life. It was inevitable that it was going to break free from the chains Chikane had unconsciously created. It was but a matter of time until the cogs of Fate turned once more and crushed the children in its path.

Little Chikane had done almost an impossible job by resisting the mechanism for so long... yet it was a losing battle in the first place, for there was a limit to what the child could accomplish. True, Chikane’s potential, that of mankind’s strongest, was as vast as any ocean... but the struggle against oneself was ever easier said than done. Her powers, transcendental as they were, had but been dried up just from sealing the mechanism away. That was why at the time of awakening, she was powerless despite the fact that had she been able to unleash all she was capable of, all eight Orochi Followers would have perished under her hand.

A presence of power entered Yue’s mind and made her look up. The Priestess of the Sun, little Kurusugawa Himeko, was traveling in Yue’s direction. In but a few minutes, the child would arrive at this exact spot. Yue sighed. She could not afford to be found out. Once she had laid the blue-haired princess in her arms onto the carpeted floor, Yue backed up a few steps and wove a Dimensional Portal to take her out of this place. Before the silvery surface winked out of existence, she was allowed another quick glance at her the unconscious Priestess. Her eyes stung once more. She had been crying a great deal these days. She knew what would come to pass, she knew her beloved children were about to be devastated again yet.... What meaning was there in her being a Goddess when she could not even protect the feelings little Himeko and Chikane had for each other? What was the use of living an immortal life when she had to see the tragedy repeat over and over? Tears trickled down her face uncontrollably. Yue... Yue did not want to give up on the two of them the way she had surrendered her one true love.

 

***

 

“You should prepare to go to school, Himeko,” Himemiya Chikane told her sweetheart. “It is almost time already. You do not wish to be late for class, do you?” She glanced at the grandfather clock standing across from the bed, which read eight thirty in the morning. The first class at Ototachibana Academy started at nine, so unless the little angel hurried, she was going to be either locked out of the entrance or penalized academically when she got to the classroom late. Should worse come to worst, the golden-haired girl might just have to stand in the hallway until the teacher let her in. Chikane did not wish to see that.

“I’ll stay home with you, Chikane-chan,” said the owner of the prettiest pair of amethyst eyes in the world. That determined expression on her face, however, was very much at odds with her red and swollen eyes, her uneven and tearful voice, her sweaty and trembling hands around Chikane’s left. Still in her flimsy pajama and the coat Chikane had put on her earlier, the little angel appeared shaken to the core.

“No need. You have done enough already.” Chikane gave the golden-haired girl a grateful smile and an affectionate squeeze of her hand. The Priestess of the Sun actually had done more than enough. According to the servants, she was the one who had found Chikane lying unconscious in the hallway, who had brought Chikane back to this very room and called for help. When Chikane first regained consciousness, the first person she had seen was Himeko, sitting on a chair by the bed. The golden-haired girl’s cheeks were soaked with tears, her visage contorted by fear and agony, her hands wrapping very tightly around Chikane’s very own. Nothing in this whole wide world had ever moved Chikane as deeply as the little angel did. “I am truly thankful that you have stayed by my side ever since I woke, Himeko.”

Without the golden-haired girl, perhaps Chikane could never have remained so calm when she opened her eyes and realized that she could lift a finger. Her limbs were entirely without strength, her back burning hot while every other spot on her skin was as cold as ice, and her every single particle ringing out in the pain that was nettling her heart. Had the welling panic in her not been suppressed by the sight of a worried Himeko, Chikane could not imagine how she would have reacted.

“Don’t say that, Chikane-chan,” said Himeko. “You’ve been protecting me ever since we became friends. It’s only expected that I must take care of you when I’m needed.” The girl pressed the palm of Chikane’s hand against her tear-stained cheek. “Besides, how can I go to class and listen to the lectures when I’m so worried about you?” Chikane’s heart started to pound.

“Oogami-san is not going to be pleased,” she commented.

“What does this have anything to do with him?” Himeko gave her a startled look.

“Silly Himeko, clueless Himeko.” Chikane chuckled quietly. “Are you not aware that it cannot sit well with a boy to have his girlfriend worry so much about someone else? Boys get jealous fairly easily, do you not know?”

“Who cares whether he’s jealous or not?” the little angel declared, her cheeks coloring faintly. “I’m not his girlfriend.” She was going to say something else, too, and would have, had she not heard a soft knock on the door to Chikane’s room. The golden-haired girl, whose face was suddenly covered by an air of gloominess, immediately fell quiet.

“Ojou-sama, Katou-sensei has arrived,” the voice of the Head Maid Kisaragi Otoha announced.

“Please bring her here, Otoha-san,” Chikane-said. She did not think that the Himemiya family doctor could diagnose Chikane’s strange symptoms... but she could never be too careful now could she?

“As you wish, Ojou-sama.” Footsteps faded down the hallway.

“You should go back to your room and change into your uniform, Himeko.” Chikane smiled at the girl she loved. “I will ask my chauffer to take you to school.” A shadow of exasperation crossed the little angel’s lovely face.

“I said I’m going to stay home with you, Chikane-chan!” Himeko said stubbornly.

“To what end?” Chikane sighed. “That Katou-sensei, there is nothing she loved more than drugging me with tranquilizer even when I am certain none is needed. I suspect that she will do the same thing again today. So you see, Himeko, there is no point in you staying here for hours on end while watching me sleep. You will be bored out of your mind.”

Somehow, the moment Chikane saw the little angel opened her mouth, she already knew that “But you have done the same thing for me every time, didn’t you?” was what the girl was going to say. Chikane decided to forestall her sweetheart.

“Besides, do you not have to see Oogami-san today?” Chikane reminded Himeko, who went deathly still as soon as she heard the name of her prince on the white horse.

“Okay then,” the golden-haired girl spoke in the end with a very reluctant voice. “But I’m not going back to class after lunch break, Chikane-chan. I’m coming home to see you.” The angel’s pretty face firmed with determination, which told Chikane that nothing she said was going to make her sweetheart change her mind. She could only sigh inwardly at the girl’s stubbornness. Oh well, there was nothing else she could do.

“I will see you then, Himeko.” Chikane nodded.

“Have a nice rest, Chikane-chan,” the little angel said before she tucked Chikane’s hand under the blanket, rose from her chair, and walked toward the door, appearing almost dejected.

“I would have wished you good luck with your confession, Himeko,” Chikane laughed softly, “had I not known before hand that Oogami-san was head over heels in love with you.”

The little angel, upon hearing the joke, stopped dead in her track at the door, her back facing toward the bed. “You dummy, Chikane-chan,” was the brief response she gave before her slender figure vanished behind the closed door. Chikane could only speculate as to why the little angel never turned around to face Chikane... and why the golden-haired girl sounded so quiet, so painful, and so depressed.

 

***

 

Saotome Makoto had rarely been impressed in her entire life, but right now, she could only marvel at the amazingly beautiful scenery her eyes were showing her. Under the light of the golden sun reigning amid a cloudless sky, the castles of Heaven, built in Feudal Japan’s fashion, loomed over her majestically while the tiles on their roofs, seemingly made out of colorful glass, gleamed like a collection of jewels. Even the regular houses in this place, despite being so much smaller in size, brimmed with an unmistakable artistic sense and elegance. Lines of trees, tall and old, ran along either side of any road, casting their cool shade upon a perfectly and evenly paved ground. In no where could Makoto detect the rowdiness and disorder usually associated with a city of this size. In no where could she found even the smallest scrap of garbage that normally littered the alleys and small streets in Mahoroba. This place, in other words, were unnaturally and eerily clean. Even the air she breathed in exhilarated her no end. The Immortals sure know how build and manage a city, she thought. She wondered if there was a city on Earth that remotely resembled this one. If there were, nothing could have delighted her more than spending the remaining of her days there with the one she loved.

Himeko. The name of Makoto’s former roommate floated across her mind. She wondered what the girl was doing right now.... In spite of herself, she gave a rueful chuckle. She came to Heaven to accomplish the mission that the Dark God had given her, so she really didn’t have time to moon over the one she loved. After she had given her head a firm shake to clear unwanted thoughts, Makoto fixed her gaze upon the sole building that stood upon this vast, empty square. The Memories Hall of Heaven, the place where the Gods and Goddesses archived and backed up the memory of every being in the Three Worlds, the only building that was protected by a myriad of magical Barriers.

Makoto let out a quiet, but contemptuous laughter. The Immortals had paid a great deal of efforts trying to conceal the traps they had woven around the Hall, but to Makoto, to whom the power of Tasogare the Twilight Blade was bestowed, what they did was useless. Her eyes, once as blind as those of a mortal, were now capable of visually detecting any Seal or Barrier regardless of how well they had been hidden beforehand. Not just that, she could even destroy them all should she choose to do so. After all, if she had succeeded in breaking through the Dimensional Boundary protecting Izumo itself, there was little else she could not do.

“Lord of the Shadows, come forth, Tasogare!” At her call, the Sealed Sword, the blade of which was as black as the night, leapt from her shadow and into her hand. It was time to do what she came here for.

Makoto walked straight toward the Memories Hall. The Barriers twisted and turned upon her entrance, retreating from her steps as if nobles making way for their queen. Soon enough, the power of the Twilight Blade encompassed them completely, bending them to her will so that no alarms would be sounded as long as Makoto wished. Smiling in sheer satisfaction, she turned into a shadow and slipped past the crack between the closed doors. Having made certain that there was no presence of power inside, Makoto knew for sure that nothing was going to stop her from getting what the Orochi Lord required.

Makoto blinked in shock.

From the outside, the Memories Hall looked just like any other building she had seen in Mahoroba, yet within its walls lay a vast ocean the water of which sparkled platinum under a cloudless, sunless, cerulean sky. Upon that shining and rippling surface floated an island, a large platform that was made entirely out of marble polished so well it shone like a gigantic mirror, on which Makoto stood. At the center of the island, next to Makoto, was a block of transparent crystal about four feet high, two feet wide, and two feet thick. This block, according to Yamata no Orochi, was called the One Terminal, the device through which all functions of the Hall of Memories could be accessed. It was exactly what Makoto needed.

She placed her palm atop the One Terminal and channeled her powers into the thing. Slowly, her hand sank into the crystal block. The device started to glow. Somewhere to Makoto’s right, a globe of the mysterious substance that made of the entire Sea of Memories rose into the air and floated toward her.

There you are, Makoto thought.

 

***

 

From the top of the building, Kagutsuchi the God of Fire chuckled while he watched the girl in the black cape exit the Memories Hall, completely unaware that she was being spied upon. Strong as she was for an Orochi Head, she lacked experience. Still, Kagutsuchi had to commend her on having succeeded in breaching the Dimensional Boundary separating Izumo and the Earth. It was, after all, a feat no mortal had ever managed without facing eventual and gruesome demise. Had Kagutsuchi not seen her by pure chance, he would never have known that such a cute and elegant girl had entered the Holy City. She was exactly the type he would go for. He sighed. Too bad the Goddesses in Izumo were too tamed for his taste. Otherwise, he would have a girlfriend, or even a wife, long since. But anyhow, the Orochi girl should be thankful that Kagutsuchi was interested in what her business was. Had it not been for that, he would have destroyed her.

The girl raised her hand, in which materialized a sword the blade of which so black it seemed to be sucking in Izumo’s sunlight. Then space itself rippled in front of her to form a dimensional cleft in the shape of an oversized window. As soon as she entered, the portal thinned into a black line and vanished. Extremely well-done, quick, and clean, Kagutsuchi thought. The girl was truly in control of her own powers, and the Twilight Blade obeyed her every whim. Kagutsuchi doubted that any other Orochi Head in her place could have done half as well. He wondered what her name was.

“Come inside the Hall, Kagutsuchi-san,” the voice of Susanou the God of Storms spoke suddenly inside Kagutsuchi’s head and made him jump. “We need to talk.” For the first time since he landed on top of the lone building standing dead center of the Ko no Hana Grand Square, he sensed the presence of his twin right beneath his feet. A chill ran down his spine.

“Since when did you get in your office, Susanou?” he demanded upon arriving at the marble platform that floated upon the peaceful surface of the Kiokkai. His brother, the handsome God of Storms was sitting on a high-backed chair in front of the One Terminal, both hands immersed within the shining crystal device.

“I was here half an hour ago,” answered Susanou with a calm voice, his eyes glued at the holographic screen hanging above the One Terminal.

“Then why the heck didn’t I sense your presence?” Kagutsuchi frowned.

“I was inside the Kannazuki Tower, deep beneath the surface of the Memories Sea, Kagutsuchi-san,” the other man said nonchalantly. “No one could have noticed me there.” Of course, the Tower of the Godless Month was protected by its engine, an immense power the existence of which was unknown to the majority of Izumo’s residents. That power, evil and malicious, must have cloaked Susanou’s presence from Kagutsuchi’s senses.

“If you were here in the first place, why didn’t you do anything to that intruder?” he demanded.

“Because I know exactly what she came here to take,” came the monotonous reply. “Coincidentally, it was a package that needed to be delivered. In fact, she had saved me the trouble of sending it out myself.”

“What’s that?” Kagutsuchi asked his brother curiously.

“This,” replied Susanou at the same time a second holographic screen appeared to the left of the first one. Kagutsuchi read it... and became dumbstruck. According to the onscreen text, which happened to be extracted from the activity log file of the archive, what the Orochi girl had taken from the Kiokkai was the memory belonging to Sei no Tsurugi no Rinne, the Seraphim Blade.

“What the hell?” he said in utmost incredulity. “That girl risked her life coming to Heaven just to steal something she cannot use? Didn’t she read the Kiokkai Rules before she tampered with the machine? And why Rin-chan’s memory, of all people?” Only after the questions had leapt from Kagutsuchi’s tongue did the explanations come to him like the breaking dawn. As a result, he fell silent afterwards, suddenly overwhelmed by a wave of relief that he hadn’t lifted a hand against the girl in the black cape. Had he done so, he would have committed a terrible crime against someone he once cherished with all his heart.

“Because Rinne-kun wants the thing, obviously,” answered the other man in his usual lecturing tone. Despite the fact that Kagutsuchi loved his brother, he had never been able to make himself come to terms with the man’s condescending attitude. “Yamata no Orochi must have ordered the Follower to come here and retrieve it. I doubt that the girl, or any other Head, knew their liege Lord was but a puppet in Rinne-kun’s hand.”

Kagutsuchi heaved a long sigh. Sei no Tsurugi no Rinne, the girl he used to address as Rin-chan in an intimate way, was once a straightforward and honest person. What she was now, instead, was a dangerous schemer and manipulator who moved the Dark God along with the Eight Followers in the shadow the way a skillful chess player would his pawns. Kagutsuchi shook his head in sheer exasperation. How did it all come to this?

“Oh well, what can I do?” He sighed one last time before he walked toward the Dimensional Portal that was the exit of the Memories Hall.

“Wait a minute, Kagutsuchi-san,” Susanou called. When Kagutsuchi turned to look at his twin brother, the man had risen from the chair and was now standing and looking at Kagutsuchi with an agonized expression on his face. Kagutsuchi could only wonder why. “I paid a visit to Yui-nee-san earlier today, in the Tower of the Sun in the Heavenly Palace,” the shorter man said.

“Did something happen to her?” he asked, feeling fear wrapping its claws around his heart. Susanou’s voice was tight, which suggested that what the God of Storms was about to announce wasn’t going to be pleasant.

“We were talking in her guest chamber when she suddenly had a seizure,” replied Kagutsuchi’s twin brother, his voice on the verge of being shattered to pieces. “There was nothing I could do to ease her suffering, and you were away from Heaven then, so I had no one to call for help. I was so afraid I was going to lose her the way she thrashed in pain so.” Susanou’s face, normally as cold and emotionless as a winter stone, was twisted by unspeakable grief and horror. The sight of the Goddess of the Sun being tortured physically and mentally must have completely unnerved him, Kagutsuchi knew. Had he been there himself, he would have reacted the same way. They both loved their gentle and cheerful onee-chan so....

Horrified, Kagutsuchi grabbed the other man’s shoulders and shook them almost violently. “Is Yui-nee okay? Is she?! Tell me, Susanou!”

“She should be fine now. The seizure stopped after a few minutes.” Susanou’s hand rose to clutch at his forehead. “I brought her to bed and stayed there with her until she fell asleep.”

“Why did you leave her side, Susanou?!” Kagutsuchi demanded in a strained but heated voice. “For Heaven’s sake, she might just suffer from another seizure without anyone nearby! How thoughtless can you be?!”

“I had to come here!” his brother protested. “Where else could I contact the Underworld without the risk of being discovered, Kagutsuchi-san? I had to let the Lady know!”

“Then why didn’t you return to the Tower of the Sun right after that?”

“How?” Susanou snapped angrily. “As soon as I was done sending a message to Reiha through the secure channel, the system warned me that the Orochi girl was breaking into the Memories Hall. I had to go into the Kannazuki Towers and waited there until she left. Had I not promised Rinne-kun seventeen years ago that I would give her what she wanted, I would have killed that kid the moment she entered and gone back to check up on Yui-nee-san.”

Silence.

“I... I... see. I’m sorry, Susanou,” Kagutsuchi murmured apologetically as he slowly removed his hands from his brother’s shoulders in the end. The God of Storms gave a dismissive wave of his hand, which could either mean the acceptance of Kagutsuchi’s apology or that there was nothing to forgive.

“Which person in the Underworld did you talk to, though?” he asked.

“Fortune favored me this time. I was able to speak to the Lady herself.”

“What did she say?” Kagutsuchi asked, hope welling in him.

“The Lady will meet with Yui-nee-san in Onogoro tomorrow,” Susanou replied with a small smile on his lips, tension draining from his handsome face. “She did not say it to me outright but I believe that she is going to take Yui-nee-san to Reiha for treatment whether she wants it to or not. The Lady is both worried and angry, you see, Kagutsuchi-san.”

Kagutsuchi returned his twin brother’s smile and said, “I guess Yui-nee isn’t going to be able to talk herself out of it this time.” His smile faltered, however, the moment he was reminded of how terrible the... disease that was plaguing his beloved onee-chan was. “Do you think the Lady can save Yui-nee, Susanou?” The face of the God of Storms grew mournful almost instantly.

“You know as well as I do that Yui-nee-san’s sickness is beyond anyone’s help save our Father’s,” Susanou said. “I only hope the Lady could find a way to lessen the pain Yui-nee-san has to suffer during the outbursts, Kagutsuchi-san.”

 Kagutsuchi’s hands clenched into fists. “Why did this have to happen to her?” he asked no one in particular, feeling hopelessness rippling along every fiber of his existence. “She doesn’t have long to live, and she may have to watch her dream coming with her to the grave, unfulfilled. Yet... yet why does she still have to suffer every single day? She has already been tormented enough already, for crying out loud!” The last sentence came out as a thunderous roar. Susanou only sighed and simply let Kagutsuchi vented his anger. They had been through this before... many times....

“Anyways, forget it. I’m going to the Tower of the Sun to see her,” Kagutsuchi said after a long sigh. “You going?”

“Yes.” His twin brother nodded. “Give me a few more minutes. I am almost done removing all the traces that the Orochi girl left in the system.” The man clicked his teeth in irritation. “I must not let anyone know that she was here.”

“Hurry up, then. I’ll wait for you outside.”

As soon as Kagutsuchi found himself at the entrance to the Memories Hall, his head instinctively turned toward the Heavenly Palace, the immense structure standing at the heart of Izumo. He started to grit his teeth in anger. The Lord Izanagi, his Father, seemed to have a strange and inexplicable fondness for bullying his children. He imprisoned Akira for the last three thousand year, he chained the Goddess of the Moon in perpetual sorrow, and he watched in glee while Yui-nee’s life became worse than death. What kind of grudge do you bear against my siblings, Father? What crimes have they committed? Why must you hate them so?

 

***

 

“You may leave, Otoha-san,” Himemiya Chikane said, back leaning against the headboard of her bed, hands folded on her lap, her eyes gazing at the distance beyond her open window. “I shall call when I need assistance.” She doubted that she ever would. Unlike earlier this morning, Chikane now had regained enough strength to move around and did virtually anything she wished. She suspected that her speedy recovery had more to do with her Priestess powers rather than with the medicine Katou-sensei had prescribed, however.

“Yes, Ojou-sama,” replied Otoha with a bow. Her attention being elsewhere, Chikane only noticed that the young woman had already departed when she heard the door opened and then closed quietly on the other side of the room. Her sapphire eyes fell upon the tray of food that Otoha had left behind, atop the table by Chikane’s bed. Hunger was clawing at her stomach, since she had not eaten anything ever since last night, but the last thing she wanted to do right now was to touch the food. For some reason, she was certain that the moment her lips closed around the smallest bit would also be the moment she spat it out.

Silently, she returned her attention once more to the scenery outside of the window. It was indeed a beautiful day. The sun was shining amidst the deep azure heavens, the air cool, and the birds inhabiting the Himemiya Garden singing together in a melody that could have moved anybody else’s heart. Anyone else. For Chikane, the scenery only drowned her deeper into the sea of hopelessness and despair. After all, all it managed to do was reminding her of the day Chikane first met her one and only love, Kurusugawa Himeko. Yes, it was a day just as beautiful as today....

 

...

 

Back leaning against the strong plank of an ancient oak tree, sapphire eyes closed, Himemiya Chikane found herself relaxing in the peaceful serenity that enveloped her whole. This Garden of the Roses, fenced and carefully concealed, was a place the existence of which was known to none except her and her Father. It was her modest kingdom. It was her safe haven, where she was guarded against the rest of world. It was the little corner her father the Ototachibana Academy headmaster had built for her, at her request. He had laughed when Chikane told him she wanted a place where she would not be disturbed, but he granted her wish all the same.

Chikane settled down upon the smooth, grassy ground, quietly indulging herself in the cool shade that the ancient tree cast, silently taking in the faint fragrance of the roses on the fences. The Garden of the Roses was easily her favorite spot in the vast Ototachibana Academy, for only here could she find peace of mind. Out there, wherever she went, students stared at her in what seemed to be a blend of awe and desire. They knew she was the only daughter of the master of this school, the future heiress to Himemiya Empire, so they flocked to her like birds of prey, hoping to share the glory she possessed. She was disgusted by the fact that she had to face such people, sickened by the fact that she had to smile in front of them even when distaste soured her stomach.

Chikane sighed. She but wondered if there was one person in this large school who would love her for who she truly was, someone whose eyes were not clouded by the wealth her family possessed. If such a person existed, Chikane would be more than willing to abandon everything she ever owned should that be the price she had to pay.

“Wait, I say! Wait!” someone yelled in the distance. Heavy footsteps drew nearer and nearer.

The bush of leaves covering the entrance to the Garden of the Roses rustled violently before something warm and fuzzy emerged and leapt into Chikane’s arms. It was a cute puppy of the Shiba Inu breed, which began to slaver on her cheeks as soon as she brought him closer to her face. It tickled so much that Chikane laughed out loud.

“What are you doing here, little one?” Chikane smiled at the dog.

The bush rustled again.

Curious, Chikane stood up and moved nearer to see. Then out of the bush came someone, who tripped on the ground and crashed into her. As a result, both of them lost balance and fell onto the ground. Stars erupted in her vision the moment her back slammed upon the ground. Once Chikane had recovered from the pain, she lifted her head, meaning to have a sharp word with whoever it was that dared trespassed into her sanctuary. Words died in her throat, however, when she looked at the person whose body was lying atop her own, the one who was staring unblinkingly at her face.

 It was a girl of Chikane’s age, whose golden hair was tied into two long braids that hang on her slender shoulders. The color of her eyes was that of amethyst, which Chikane had not seen on anyone else during her entire life. These rare crystals were so bright, clear, and at the same time so deep Chikane could drown herself in them forever. Having a complexion that was snow-white, a little nose that looked just right, smooth cheeks that seemed to invite kisses, lips that were small and delicate as a cherry blossoms petal, and a body that was tender, fragile, and light, the golden-haired person who had just intruded into Chikane’s hiding place had to be the most beautiful being in the world.

The silence stretched while Chikane began to grow more and more conscious of the other girls firm chest that was pressed against hers, of the heart that pounded as loudly as any drum, and of the soft fragrance that was slowly permeating the air Chikane breathed. Before she knew what she was doing, her left arm had already fastened around the girls slim waist, her right rising just so she could place a hand upon the left cheek of the stunning beauty. What Chikane did was a far cry from appropriate, that she knew better than anyone, but for some reason... letting go of the golden-haired girl was the last thing she ever wanted. Her hand, originally on the intruders soft cheek, then moved to the back of her head. Chikane’s breath caught the moment she realized that she was trying to shrink the distance between their faces, their lips. Horrified, she took her hand away... at the exact same moment the other girls lovely mouth issued a disappointed sigh.

“You... are...” was what Chikane muttered before she fell silent at the other girls reddening cheeks. Coherent thoughts took flight. In Heavens name... the girl was even more adorable than ever when she blushed.

Another few minutes passed before Chikane decided to deal with the situation. Gently pushing away the soft and faintly fragrant body lying atop hers, Chikane helped the beautiful intruder stand up. For one split second there, she fell under the impression that the girl still wanted to hold onto Chikane the way she reluctantly untied her arms around Chikane’s back. That did not help, really, because it only urged Chikane to hug her again.

“I... apologize for the... inconveniences, umm...” the golden-hared girl trailed off, face as red as it could ever be.

“My name is Himemiya Chikane,” Chikane answered, feeling her mind being unraveled by the cutest voice she had ever heard. “Yours is...?”

“I’m Himeko, Kurusugawa Himeko,” she said. “Um, did I hurt you somewhere?”

Chikane shook her head. Even if she was hurt, she was surely not going to say that to the golden-haired beauty that had just stumbled herself into her sanctuary.

“I am very sorry for bumping into you, Chikane-chan,” the other girl murmured in her sweet, adorable voice, her cheeks aglow, her eyes downcast.

“Chikane... chan?” Chikane’s eyes widened.

“I’m sorry, am I being too friendly?” The other girl gave a start, a shadow of uneasiness stealing across her face.

“No, it is fine,” Chikane said, feeling her cheeks warming up rapidly at Himeko’s brightening expression. No one aside from her parents had ever addressed her plainly by her first name. No one in this whole wide world had ever attached a childish ‘-chan’ after her name and turned it into the cutest sound the way the shorter girl did.

“Ah....” She cleared her throat and peeled her eyes away from the golden-haired girls pretty face. “What are you doing here, Kurusugawa-san?”

“I was looking for... him. Oh I’m so sorry,” Himeko exclaimed as she hurried toward the little puppy, who seemed to be enjoying the boxed lunch Chikane had brought to the Garden of the Roses. Amusement seized her.

“It is alright.” Chikane chuckled softly.

“No, it’s not alright!” the girl protested. “It’s my fault that you lost your lunch. Let me make up for it, please?”

“Eh... that....”

“My cooking abilities aren’t much to speak of but if you don’t mind, Chikane-chan, Ill make lunch for you tomorrow. How about it?”

“I said you do not have to....” Chikane swallowed the rest of the sentence. Himeko had such a pleading look on her face that it made it all but impossible for Chikane to utter that one simple word. “Then I accept your generosity, Kurusugawa-san. I will be looking forward to it.”

“Thank you, Chikane-chan.” The most divine smile Chikane had ever seen bloomed on Himeko’s lips.

It was only then did Chikane realize what was different about the other girl, what made her stand out from the rest of humanity. It was her aura. When Himeko smiled, the air around her shimmered with warmth and golden shines, ever caressing Chikane, embracing her, comforting her with their gentle touches. At long last, she had found what she wished for most. Since birth, her life had been nothing but abundant, where every of her desires were made reality. Yet, deep down, she knew something was eluding her, something she needed to be complete. And this fateful encounter had brought it to her, Chikane’s sun, her one guiding light. Kurusugawa Himeko. Incomprehensible as it might seem, Chikane had fallen helplessly in love, she realized, with the little angel who had descended into her arms.

“So, Chikane-chan, it’s a promise, ne? Let’s meet here tomorrow.” Himeko put up her little finger, smiling.

“It is a promise, Kurusugawa-san.” When Chikane’s little finger connected with that of the golden-haired angel, a strange sensation overwhelmed her. Somewhere in the back of her head, a distant memory tugged at her, trying to remind her of something long forgotten. And unless she was seeing things, a thin ribbon was glowing around their fingers, pulsing bright red. It disappeared the instant their hands parted, though. She wondered what it was....

“You were saying, Kurusugawa-san, that you were looking for this puppy?” Chikane asked.

“Yup.” Himeko beamed at her, her hand stroking the little puppy’s head. “This ones owner is an elderly lady that runs a convenience store nearby. He’s always by her side whenever I visit so I recognized him right away when I saw him wandering around earlier. He must have gone off on a little adventure, I guess.”

“You are going to take him home, are you not?”

“Right. And I’ve got to be quick about it. Lunch break is going to be over soon, you see.” When the little angel looked up, her eyes were tinged by disappointment, and her voice, regret. “I guess Ill see you tomorrow then.”

As soon as Himeko turned around, Chikane’s heart throbbed in panic. She did not want to see Himeko leave. She wished to talk to the girl more, and to hear her talk in return. She did not want their meeting to end so soon. Hurriedly, she walked after the little angel and put a hand on the girls shoulder just before she was about to leave the Garden of the Roses through the hidden exit. Hope all but shone in Himeko’s amethyst eyes when she turned around and locked them with Chikane’s sapphire.

“Would you like me to come with you, Kurusugawa-san?” Chikane offered, knowing full well what kind of answer she was going to get. “It is not safe for a girl to wander the streets alone these days.”

The divine smile once again curved Himeko’s delicate lips. Somehow, Chikane was under the impression that had she offered the little angel all the gold in the world instead, the girl still would not have appeared so overjoyed.

 

...

 

That had been how Chikane got to know her first love, how their friendship began and blossomed into what was now a relationship strong enough to bind Chikane to Himeko for all eternity. Meeting with Himeko was an important turn of her life. Had it not been for it, she would have gone on living in boredom until death came to take her away. Had it not been for it, Chikane would never have known the meaning of life and love. Himeko was, after all, the one who raised the curtains of her soul and melted away the ice wall between her and the world.

After that day, they only got along better. Attracted toward each other like magnets of different poles, it would take a great deal of effort just to take them apart. Chikane was not quite sure about the other girl but the more Chikane came to know her, the more deeply Chikane fell in love. The golden-haired angel was unlike anyone Chikane ever met. She was kind, honest, and she truly cared about her friends. Best of all, she never got worked up about social standings. Even when she learned who Chikane was, Himeko still treated her with the same way she did before. The golden-haired girl was only concerned whether Chikane wanted her for a friend, not her wealth, or her status, she had confessed. Chikane never doubted for once second that it was the truth.

Filled with gratitude and affections for her new friend, Chikane started to do everything she could to be with her. She never minded staying in school after class to spend some time alone with the little angel, to take her somewhere she liked or to play the piano for her. She never minded waking up at two or three in the morning, either, to learn to make a lunchbox so that she could share with her new found love at break time. How she had shocked the Head Maid Kisaragi Otoha then, when the young woman went into the kitchen and saw that everything was a mess. She was by no means skilled at cooking, still, so the food she prepared ended up either burned or badly flavored. Yet, Himeko ate every bit. The content and happy expression on the girl’s face had had Chikane glow in joy for the rest of the day.

Back then, Chikane thought those wonderful days would never end. She had believed that a future where only mortality would be their enemy was but secured and promised. In her wildest dream, she would never imagine that one day, she had to hand Himeko over to someone else like this. Suddenly, Chikane noticed that her cheeks were soaked with tears. She was crying. She should not be. Did she not decide that she had to give up on Himeko already?

Chikane used her sleeve to clean her face. Her efforts were in vain. No matter how hard she tried to stop the tears, they kept trickling out of her eyes and rolling down her cheeks. Chikane gave up. She leaned back against her pillows, letting the tears freely flow while biting her underlip hard to make sure no sound would come. She had forgotten that that blood tasted this bitter.

 

***

 

Lounging on the chair in front of his desk in the Temple of the Dragons, Girochi Tokiya gazed at the mirror of water he had wrought with Suikyou’s power, one that delved into the consciousness and memory of the girl it showed. The Priestess of the Moon was agonizing, a fact an Orochi like himself should be gloating over. Yet, his heart felt as heavy as a good chunk of rocks. Was he... sympathizing toward her? Tokiya shook his head as hard as he could. That was pure idiocy. Himemiya Chikane was their archenemy, who had to be killed to ensure the safety of the Followers as a whole. He could not afford feeling sorry for her now could he?

“Having fun watching the Priestess, Tokiya?” the deep, sultry voice of his Aneki Miyako said from behind his back. Upon turning his head to look, Tokiya saw that the darkly tanned young woman was standing by the open door to his room, a little knowing smile adorning her lips. Behind her rectangular spectacles, her eyes were gleaming with speculations. His sister was scheming something, he knew it.

“Since when did you arrive, Aneki?” Tokiya undid the vision spell with a snap of his fingers.

“Since the Priestess began to reminisce her happy days, I think.” Miyako gave her lips a thoughtful tap. “By the way, Tokiya, do remember to close the door to your room, would you? I have a feeling that when you’re not holding a sword, you’re even more defenseless than a child,” teased the Second Head of the Orochi.

“You saw it all?” he asked quietly. He knew his sister loved him... but sometimes he did wish she would find it in herself to respect his privacy.

“Pretty much, yes.” The Vice-Commander of the Dark God’s Followers laughed quietly. “Who could have thought that Himemiya Chikane was so interesting?”

“You are planning something,” Tokiya observed.

“What?” Miyako gave him a throaty, evil laughter. “Do you think seriously I would let such a good opportunity pass by without taking advantage of it?”

“You do not need me to remind you that the Lord forbids all harmful measures toward the Priestesses, do you?” His tone made certain that whatever his sole living family member was scheming in her head, he was going to neither approve of nor want to take part in it. He was an obedient servant of the Lord, and as such, he surely would not do anything that risked the displeasure of the God he worshipped. Besides, he did not wish to harm the Priestess of the Moon....

“Don’t talk like I’m going to kill them, Tokiya, because I’m not.” Miyako smiled coolly but decidedly menacingly. His beloved sister the Second Head might be, Tokiya could not deny the fact that she was an utterly dangerous woman. She was one person in this whole wide world aside from the Dark God that Tokiya would never want to cross.

“Then what is it you intend to do?” he asked in a suspicious tone while slowly rising from his seat.

“Driving a wedge between the Priestesses,” announced Girochi Miyako, her voice brimming with excitement and glee. “I’m surprised at how much the Lord babied them while he should be commanding us to destroy them. I don’t care if the Lord thinks he’s strong enough to defeat Ame no Murakumo this time, what he’s doing is way too dangerous.” The displeased look on her face mirrored the emotion in her words. “I’m not going to sit in one place and watch the threat grow, Tokiya.” His elder sister glanced at him, her face softening. “I will do anything to ensure the safety of both of us, little brother, you must understand that.”

“I do, Aneki,” Tokiya murmured, knowing full well that there was one more person that his elder sister had elected to not mention. Tokiya all but wondered if the young woman was aware of how he felt toward Tsubasa-sama, the Commander of the Orochi Heads.

“If you do, lend me your help, Tokiya. Suikyou will be especially handy in this case.”

He studied his elder sister for another while, pondering the idea in his head, before he opened his mouth and asked quietly, “Can you promise me that you will do nothing that would go against the order of the Lord, Aneki?” His request was met with a slightly irritated look.

“Didn’t I say that all I wanted to do was drive a wedge between them?” When the Second Head realize that the firm expression on Tokiya’s face meant that he was not going to participate in her plan unless she promised, she sighed and said, “Fine, fine, you have my word.”

Being siblings who had shared ups and downs all their lives, he understood his elder sister more than anyone else in the world. The tanned woman might have schemed to sow the seeds of discord in the Priestesses’ relationship originally, but Tokiya knew that she would kill Himemiya Chikane or Kurusugawa Himeko, or both, if she believed that she could get away unscathed. Tokiya was definitely not going to let her succumb to idiocy and consequently receive severe punishment from the Dark God.

“Then you will have all the help I can offer, Aneki,” Tokiya said.

“Very well.” His sister laughed again, this time sounding exceptionally pleased. “Come to my room later when you’re ready. You’re going to show me everything the Priestess of the Moon has been feeling in her heart for the last month or so.” When she turned to leave, though, Tokiya put a hand on her shoulder and halted her.

“You do love Tsubasa-sama a lot, do you not, Aneki?” he asked.

“If you don’t know the answer to that, you’re more of a moron than I thought,” she said simply. Well, her feelings for the First Head were well-known, of course.

“Then what would you do if Tsubasa-sama fell in love with someone else?”

“I would burn that someone to a crisp, my little brother.” A cruel smile curved her lips. “No one will have Tsubasa-sama but me.”

“What if Tsubasa loved her too much to live without her? What if killing her meant killing the man himself? Is there any chance that you would give him up for his own sake, Aneki?”

Silence followed his question and stretched until the smile on Miyako’s lips curdled and died.

“You sure know how to pose difficult questions, Tokiya,” the darkly tanned woman muttered irritably.

“Can you be like the Priestess?” he continued. “Would you... help set the two of them up on a date, for instant, while you cry alone at home in despair?”

“Now you’re spouting nonsense.” The Vice-Commander of the Orochi frowned at him. “Stop thinking about that and start preparing, will you?” With that, she left, footsteps heavy, face troubled, and eyes hot enough to do a burning log proud.

That’s a No, right? Tokiya thought. There is no way in Hell you would do that, Aneki. His mood grew sour. I know, because I would not, either. True, he was similar to the Priestess in the way they both had surrendered their one true love because they knew they could never win... yet if someone asked him the same question he had asked his elder sister, he was surely going to laugh at that someone’s face. It was hurtful enough trying to forget the woman he had come to love. Helping her become happy with her lover was simply beyond his capabilities.

Yet... it was not beyond Himemiya Chikane’s. That was what had been puzzling him for a while now. Tokiya was a player who would toy with a girl and left her to the mercy of the Gods once he devastated her life. He flitted from one girl to another, hardly spending any time considering whether what he did was right. His victims should be piling higher than Mount Fuji, and he would only chuckle in pride whenever he remembered them. Why should he bother himself over a bunch of girls who merely fell for his looks, who were merely masses of lust and dark desires anyway? That was what he had always thought. However, this one girl, the Moon Priestess, made him question his belief. For the first time in his life, Tokiya saw someone who sacrificed her feelings for her beloved’s sake. She was unimaginably foolish. She was undoubtedly insane. Yet at the same time she was so disgustingly noble he began to have some respect for someone he should not.

 

***

 

“Here you go, Chikane-chan,” Kurusugawa Himeko murmured as she laid the food tray she had been carrying upon the table by her beloved princess’s bedside. On the wooden receptacle sat a large bowl of thick porridge the content of which smelled so good it could make any person’s mouth water whether that same person’s stomach was full or not. Or so she would believe before she glanced at the girl she loved.... Chikane-chan obviously thought otherwise. As soon as the Himemiya Ojou-sama’s sapphire gaze fell upon the food tray, her expression grew sour and her mouth twisted in distaste. She shivered, too.

“Why did you of all people bring that here, Himeko?” inquired the princess, who was leaning her back against the headboard. The blue-haired girl, in a nightgown different from the one in which she had collapsed in the morning, looked infinitely better than before. A healthy color had returned to her cheeks, the beautiful gleam to her sapphire eyes, and strength to her slender body. Come tomorrow and no one could have guessed that Chikane-chan had been struck down by a strange sickness earlier today.

“Because Otoha-san was desperate, Chikane-chan,” Himeko answered with a smile that was part firm and part rueful as she settled herself down on the bed, next to the light of her world. “She said that you had been refusing to eat no matter what she brought in. Is that right?”

“Please, Kurusugawa-sama,” Kisaragi Otoha-san had called Himeko’s name in a surprisingly beseeching voice. The young woman with the curly hair had cornered Himeko as soon as she stepped past the entrance to the Mansion of the Himemiya. In the waning light of the setting sun, the Head Maid’s face was pale, her lips bloodless, and her hands never stopped fidgeting with the front of her Himemiya livery outfit. “Help me persuade Ojou-sama to eat something, I beg of you. She has not touched her food since the morning!” Despair all but filled her words.

Saying that the young woman was desperate was an understatement, actually. Himeko didn’t have to pay much attention to her to realize that Otoha-san was at her wit’s end. The fact that she was asking Himeko, whom she without a doubt disliked with a passion, for help was the proof that the Head Maid was on the verge of panic. Himeko could sympathize with her. For someone whose entire life had been diligently devoted to serving the blue-haired princess, there could be nothing more frightening that seeing Chikane-chan disregard her own health and refuse to listen to other’s counsel.

“I wondered what had given Otoha-san the notion that you could persuade me.” The princess gave her a cool look that was more playful than serious.

“Maybe the fact that you aren’t going to refuse me anything I want?” Himeko professed honestly.

Chikane-chan didn’t say anything in response to that. The princess merely studied Himeko with a strange expression on her lovely face until Himeko’s own began to flush under the full attention of the one she loved. “Must you press me so, Himeko?” the blue-haired girl decided to speak up in the end. “Everything tastes like dust in my mouth. Why bother making me eat when I do not want to?” Her voice was serious, her face blank, and her eyes, blue fire under the bed lamps on either side of her bed, were as distant as the stars on high.

“It’s for your own good, Chikane-chan,” Himeko insisted, exasperation taut in her voice. “Without something in your stomach, how will you last the night?”

The Himemiya Ojou-sama heaved a long, defeated sigh. “Fine, fine,” she muttered in resignation. “I will do as you wish.” While Himeko smiled at her, the other girl shifted her body on the bed and reached for the bowl of porridge near the bed lamp. As soon as her delicate hands touched the thing, they recoiled as though gnawed by some wild animal. “Oww,” she muttered with a rueful smile.

“Be careful, Chikane-chan,” Himeko said worriedly as she took the princess’s hands into hers to examine. She heaved a sigh of relief when she saw that although her sweetheart’s fingers were a little reddened from the heat, there was no sign that they would require treatment. Leave them alone and they would recover in no time, she believed. “You should have taken the tray instead, you know,” she added.

Chikane-chan said nothing and merely watched Himeko with a face she couldn’t read.

“Let me help you.” Himeko picked up the tray and laid it on her lap, took a spoonful of porridge out of it, gently breathed on the content to take off some of the heat, and then put the spoon in front of her beloved’s lovely mouth. “Say ah, Chikane-chan.”

The princess’s blank expression never changed a hair even when she gracefully tucked the hair on the sides of her face behind her ears, even when she opened her mouth wide enough just for Himeko, and even when every spoon fed to the girl she loved made Himeko’s heart beat a little bit faster, her cheeks turn warmer, and her own lips become dryer. What would she not give for a kiss? What would she not pay for an embrace? What would she not kill to receive the princess’s love?

Nothing.

“Do you want seconds, Chikane-chan?” Himeko asked hopefully once the bowl of porridge had been emptied. Her bubble burst instantly, of course, when the princess simply gave a slight shake of her head, her face betraying so little emotion she could have made a rock look cheerful.

“You have a little bit of porridge on your face, Chikane-chan,” Himeko pointed out at the same time she picked up the napkin and reached for the spot just below the princess’s underlip. She froze dead in her track, however, the moment the blue-haired girl’s hand, utterly gentle but quick as lightning, caught her by the wrist.

“I... can do it myself. Thank you, Himeko,” the other girl murmured in a deathly quiet voice, her sapphire eyes locked with Himeko’s amethyst in an intense gaze that seared deep into her soul. Still in shock, she watched as the Himemiya Ojou-sama’s vacant hand removed the napkin and used it to clean up the leftover porridge. Then she let go of Himeko’s hand.

After that, the two of them looked at each other until the silence made Himeko so uncomfortable she blurted out the first thing that popped up in her mind, “Do you want me to call Oogami-sensei, Chikane-chan? I’m sure he’ll understand it and postpone the Unseal Ritual scheduled for tomorrow if I tell him that you are not feeling well.”

“Will you stop fussing over me, Himeko?” For the first time since Himeko stepped inside the room, the princess laughed softly. “I am not so weak I need to stay home another day just because of a little sickness.” Her laughter held no mirth, her eyes remained chilling, and her face could have been carved from eternal ice. She made Himeko want to run her hands up and down her arms to warm herself up. Why was Himeko’s sweetheart acting so strangely tonight?

“Speaking of the Oogami, though,” Chikane-chan gave her lips a tap, “How did your confession go?”

“That’s not a confession,” Himeko mumbled. “And I didn’t have the chance to talk to Sou-chan today anyway. His tennis club advisor dragged him away as soon as I saw him during lunch break. He said something about the upcoming match between Ototachibana and another high school, I don’t know.”

“What a pity,” the blue-haired princess commented casually.

“Well, before Sou-chan was dragged away, I asked him out the day after tomorrow, seeing how it was a holiday that the school observed,” Himeko said, slightly irritated. She had planned to stay home with the one she loved on that day... but it couldn’t be helped now could it. She had to conclude the whole affair with her childhood friend as soon as possible. The longer she let it continue, the more the boy would be hurt in the end. She surely didn’t want that.

“Why the day after next? Tomorrow cannot work for you?”

“Sou-chan’s match is tomorrow, Chikane-chan.” Himeko gave the girl she loved a smile.

“I see,” Chikane-chan said simply, not returning the smile as Himeko thought she would. Her stomach lurched a little. There was indeed something very wrong with the Himemiya Ojou-sama today. But what?

“I would have come back home right away,” Himeko sighed and continued, her head buzzing with doubts, “but unfortunately, my World History teacher caught me leaving and took me back to the classroom with him. That’s why I couldn’t get out until school ended. I’m sorry, Chikane-chan,” she said apologetically.

“What are you apologizing for?” the princess raised her hand and gently combed her fingers through Himeko’s golden tresses. “I have wanted you to stay in school in the first place.”

Himeko was about to say something when the blue-haired girl cut her short, “I am sorry, Himeko, but I would like to sleep a little bit. Can we continue the conversation tomorrow?”

“Sure, Chikane-chan,” Himeko answered, voice uneasy. Did the other girl ever dismiss her like this before? “Sleep well, ne?”

“Thank you,” was the only thing the blue-haired princess said to Himeko before she closed the door and found herself standing in a daze in the hallway of the Himemiya Mansion. For some reason, though, she had a feeling that Chikane-chan’s eyes were still on her back. A terrible word popped in her head and made chills ran all the way through her body. Lifeless was what would best describe the Himemiya Ojou-sama’s current state. A sickness couldn’t make somebody look that way, could it?

 

***

 

Oogami Kazuki had been through countless battles, most of them life-threatening, but never before had he feel so insecure, so unsettled, and so afraid. He had come here, the Enshrinement Chamber of Shingetsu, where the Eyes of Heaven were kept safe, countless times during the last twenty years but this was the first time he had to consume every ounce of his strength in order to not quake in his boots. A dozen feet away from him, at the center of the Chamber, on either side of the column of eternal ice that encased the pair of weapons known as the True Keys of Awakening, stood the Priestesses of the Sun and Moon, who were reciting the incantations while being absolutely unaware of the menacing aura radiating from the five remaining Shinken Swords.

Kazuki couldn’t help but tremble in fear. The Shinken were guardians of Ame no Hitomi, the Eyes of Heaven. Despite the fact that they were incapable of speech, they were still sentient beings charged with the duty of removing all those who were foolish enough to think that they could claim the Keys... or those who wished the Keys gone from the bottom of their hearts. As soon as either of the two kinds came inside the Shinken’s sphere of influence, the Swords would unleash their sacred lightning and annihilated the ones whom they deemed dangerous. However, before the Shinken struck, they would first give a warning by ringing out in a malicious melody and radiating a hateful aura that was unmistakable to a Shingetsu High Priest. And the Shinken Seals were doing exactly that now.

“Kurusugawa-san, Himemiya-san, get away, now!” Kazuki cried.

The two girls immediately stopped chanting and looked at Kazuki, confusion evident on their pretty faces. Yet, he was too late in warning the Priestesses, as the Shinken Seals had already entered their offensive phase. Ribbons of lightning, so white they made falling snow look dark and so hot they made the sun seem cool, sprang forth from the five columns of light in which the Shinken resided and rushed straight toward... Himemiya Chikane, the Priestess of the Moon.

“Chikane-chan!” Kurusugawa Himeko screamed.

In spite of being caught off guard by the Shinken’s assaults, the daughter of the Himemiya was no simple mortal. In less than a second, she had succeeded in drawing enough energy from the Moon Crest on her back, which glowed brighter than noonday, to construct a barrier of silver light around her slender frame. The ribbons of white lightning that were the embodiment of the Shinken Seals, as a result, could only ricochet off the smooth surface of the barrier and wrought havoc upon the rocky walls, ceiling, and floor of the great Chamber. One of the lightning bolts, however, would have sheared an arm off Kurusugawa Himeko’s body had the girl not reacted quickly enough and thrown herself out of the way.

Frightened by that she saw, possibly horrified at what her barrier could have done to the girl she loved, Himemiya Chikane immediately dispelled her only means of defense. As soon as the silver light wreathing around her melted like mist in the morning sun, a second wave of sacred lightning came forward from the Shinken Swords and struck the daughter of the Himemiya dead on. The girl screamed out in utmost agony before she fell on her stomach upon the Chamber floor, her body engulfed in fuming smoke.

In but a few strides, Kazuki arrived at the side of the fallen Priestess at the same time Kurusugawa Himeko did.

“Himemiya-san!” he called urgently as he took the seventeen years old girl into his arms. Her eyes were closed, her skin hot even beneath the fabric of her Priestess outfit. Eventually, the smoke faded away. “Himemiya-san!” Pressing his fingers against the underside of her wrist, Kazuki heaved a sigh of relief the moment he realized that her heart was still beating. He guessed that perhaps her inner powers had protected her against the sacred lightning of the Shinken. Else, the girl would have been rendered to dust.

“Chikane-chan!” called Kurusugawa Himeko, her face soaked with tears, her voice tattered, both of her hands squeezing around her housemate’s left. “Answer me, Chikane-chan! Please!”

Kazuki could have assured the golden-haired girl that Chikane was alright... had his head not been filled with questions the answers to which he couldn’t believe. He merely sat there like with one knee on the floor like a lamp post, his eyes glued at the pretty face of the child lying unconscious in his arms. Goosebumps rose all over his skin, daggers of ice staking his heart. It just... couldn’t be! he thought in horror.

“I’m sorry, Chikane-chan...” a grief-stricken Kurusugawa Himeko sobbed as she received her comrade from Kazuki and held the girl as tightly as she could. “It was because I screwed up the ritual that the Shinken attacked you.... It was because you wanted to protect me that you were hurt.... I’m sorry, Chikane-chan....” Tears flowed down her face in streams and dripped onto the other girl’s cheeks. “I’m sorry....”

As if the tears of the Sun Priestess were the strongest healing spell, Himemiya Chikane opened her eyes. Weakly, slowly, but steadily, the hand of the blue-haired girl rose upward and placed itself upon the other girl’s wet cheek. “Do not cry, Himeko,” she murmured in a tired voice, “I am okay.”

“Chikane-chan...” was all Kurusugawa Himeko could say before she wept harder than ever on her friend’s shoulder. Himemiya Kyou and Kimika’s daughter, cuddled snugly in the arms of the one she loved, gradually let go of her fleeting consciousness and sank back into the land of the dark.

Oogami Kazuki peered at Himemiya Chikane, his hands clenched into fist. Himeko was mistaken when she said she had screwed up the ritual. As far as Kazuki could tell, there was absolutely nothing wrong with the way the Priestess of the Sun recited the ancients words that were supposed to disarm the Shinken Swords. No there wasn’t. The Seals must have viewed the Priestess of the Moon as dangerous. That should be the sole reason why they assaulted her instead of the other two people inside this chamber. Chills slithered down his spine. Himemiya Chikane had to be harboring some sort of dark thoughts toward the objects the Seals were safeguarding... the Eyes of Heaven themselves!

She couldn’t have regained her memory, could she?

 

***

 

Standing by the open window of her room, arms folded beneath her chest, eyes gazing into the darkness of night, Himemiya Chikane was deeply disturbed. Despite being struck by the sacred lightning of the Shinken less than twelve hours ago, there was not even a burnt mark on her body. Sadly enough, the Shinken had done something much worse than that. Instead of hurting her physically, they tormented her mind. Whenever she went down to that wretched Enshrinement Chamber, a lava-hot and tornado-strong emotion she could only name hatred would rise in her soul and overwhelmed her completely. Whenever she looked at the throbbing golden sphere trapped in the middle of that eternal ice pillar, her eyes burned with madness, her heart convulsed in disgust, and her blood went boiling with murderous intent. She but wondered why she despised the Shinken, the Eyes of Heaven, and Ame no Murakumo so much.

Sighing, she opened the French window and stepped out to the balcony, where she found her blue, flowing tresses caressed by the night winds, where she heard a voice drifting out from the open window of the room next door, which happened to belong to Kurusugawa Himeko, the girl Chikane so dearly loved.

“Hi, Sou-chan, how’re you?” the voice of the little angel said. Chikane could not have overheard this under normal conditions, of course, but in her current state, where the Priestess power raced in her every vein and gifted her with inhumanly acute senses, she could have been standing next to the golden-haired girl, listening to her talking on the phone with Oogami Souma.

Not wanting to do something as low as eavesdropping on other people, least of all the light of her heart, Chikane turned and walked back into her room. She froze, however, upon hearing the little angel’s next words. “I’m fine, thanks,” said the golden-haired girl in an apologetic voice. “Um, Sou-chan, I call to apologize. You see, I can’t make it tomorrow.”

Chikane blinked. Himeko was canceling out on Oogami Souma, the boy she apparently had fallen head over heels for? Why?

“Why?” the little angel echoed the question in Chikane’s head. “Ah, you see, I don’t want to leave Chikane-chan alone at home tomorrow.” Chikane’s heart started to pound. “She looks fine, I know, but I don’t think she’s feeling well after all that happened over your house earlier. I... I... only want to take care of her. It was my fault she was hurt.” The girl’s voice trembled. “During all the time we were together, she always cared for me, protected me, and did her best to make me happy. But... but... all I ever gave her in return was trouble. I can’t keep doing that, Sou-chan. I owe her everything I have, including my own life. I’m sorry I have to break the promise but....”

Silence.

“What storm warning?” the angel continued after a while. “On TV? I’m sorry I haven’t been watching....” Another pause came. “You mean there’s going to be a storm tomorrow? You mean you were about to call me when the phone rang? I see, so we can’t go tomorrow anyway.... Thanks for letting me know, Sou-chan... and I’m sorry.”

Chikane walked inside and closed her window. On her bed she sat for a while, trains of thoughts crisscrossing her head, until she stood up once more and took out her mobile phone. She dialed a number then, and spoke with a firm voice when the call was picked up by some person in the Shingetsu Grand Shrine, “Good evening, my name is Himemiya Chikane. May I speak to Oogami Souma-san, please?”

The nicer you are to me, the more it will hurt me in the end, Himeko, Chikane thought in bitterness. If I am going to lose you, I better get used to it now or... I will kill myself the moment you take wings and fly to a sky I cannot reach.

 

***

 

Standing by the window in her pajama, Himeko watched the heavy raindrops descend from a sky that was entirely shrouded with the darkest clouds she ever saw in her entire life. On the TV last night, the weather forecasters went as far as issuing an emergency flood warning to the Mahoroba citizens who lived by the coast. The experts predicted that they might even experience high waves coming from the sea, which would certainly wreak terrible havoc along the coastline and terribly affect Mahoroba City itself. It was indeed a good thing that Himemiya International had taken up the responsibility of giving shelter to the Orochi victims who had their homes ruined in the Followers’ first raid. Those poor people would have frozen to death in this kind of weather, Himeko was sure.

A knock on her door interrupted her train of thought.

“May I come in, Himeko?” the blue-haired princess’s gentle voice called.

“Please do, Chikane-chan.”

“What are you doing standing there?” the Himemiya princess said once she had stepped inside and closed the door behind her. “Oogami-san is going to pick you up anytime soon.”

“He’s not. I told him I want to stay home today,” Himeko explained to the taller girl, who had already begun to browse through Himeko’s wardrobe. After the Himemiya Ojou-sama had given her that outrageously priced one piece dress for free, she had also gifted Himeko with a ton of others on the following day. Now she had every kind of clothes a girl could ever need in her whole life... and maybe even the next one, also

“I know.” Chikane-chan smiled ruefully. “Forgive me, but I overheard you yesterday on the phone.”

“Oh did you...?” A very uneasy feeling crept into Himeko’s heart.

“I called Oogami-san shortly afterwards and informed him that you would go out with him as planned.” Himeko’s stomach sank, an invisible claw clenching her throat. Her beloved princess was fully aware of the reason why she wanted to postpone the appointment with her childhood friend, and she still wanted Himeko to go in spite of that?

While she was still shocked by the unexpected turn of event, Chikane-chan had some of her maids come in and help Himeko change. Everything happened so fast that when Himeko could snap out of her daze, she was fully and properly dressed with one of her luxurious and flashy garments. Although she was on the verge of panic, she waited patiently for the servants to withdraw from the room before she spoke to the taller girl in an anxious voice, “But I can’t go out in this weather, can I?”

“What weather?” the other girl asked calmly while walking toward the French window, which she opened wide afterwards. A strong, freezing gust of wind brought a heavy load of rain into the room, slowly staining the princess’s white coat and her long sweeping skirt.

“What are you doing, Chikane-chan?” Himeko asked, dimly aware of what was going to happen in this very room.

“This.” The princess gave another dazzling smile that did nothing to lighten Himeko’s mood.

She fell silent the moment a silver disc of light in the shape of the Moon Crest emerged beneath the other girl’s feet. All at once, the sounds of the rain plummeting upon the roof of the Himemiya Mansion, the winds howling across the earth, and the lightning tearing the night apart died down as though someone had found the Mute button of the world and pushed it. Her clothes stirring slightly although there wasn’t a gentlest breeze, Himeko’s one and only love raised her right hand and brought it down from left to right in a fast, decisive stroke. High in the heavens shrouded by darkness, the clouds parted in a clean cut as though slashed by a knife. Every additional stroke of Chikane’s hand continued to sever the cloud-ridden sky until all the paths she had cleared formed a gigantic pentacle inscribed within a circle. Then the symbol set itself ablaze in a blinding flash silver light and a deafening roar.

When the light faded away, neither a tiniest bit of cloud nor a drop of water remained in Himeko’s field of view. The sun was there once more amid the cerulean sky, washing its golden shines upon the verdant field that was the Himemiya’s endless garden. The storm might have never existed.

Another time, Himeko would have been amazed at the miracle Chikane-chan just performed. Another time, she would have opened her eyes wide in wonder and unleashed her onslaught of questions upon the one she loved. However, with the departure of this one storm, another raged on in her soul, a blizzard that would freeze hell over. Himeko gathered her arms around her body, trying to keep herself still. Moisture started to grow in her eyes.

“See, Himeko, it is alright now,” Chikane-chan smiled tenderly at her.

“You wish to see me go no matter what, Chikane-chan?” Himeko heard her voice breaking like stepped-on glass. She made no effort to hide it. She didn’t have the strength to, anyhow. “What have I done to make you dislike me so?” Tears leaked from the corners of her eyes and rolled down her cheeks.

“What are you saying?” said the blue-haired princess, appearing terribly confused. “How can I dislike you? I... I....” She stopped abruptly.

“I said I wanted to stay home with you,” Himeko buried her face in her hands and sobbed. “I said I wanted to take care of you. I only wanted to make you happy. Why won’t you let me? Why do you keep pushing me away?”

The sadness, the pain, and the disappointment that had been pending up inside her heart now broke free from the restraints with which she had imprisoned them and swallowed her whole. She had wished that Chikane-chan would somehow come to see her as more than a friend. She had hoped that a day would come where her blue-haired princess would take her hand and tell her that she loved her. She was now no longer sure she should persevere and wait until her dream was made reality. And it wasn’t going to be, seeing how Chikane-chan had been trying her hardest to bring Himeko and her childhood friend together, how the princess never showed the slightest hint of jealousy, and how the blue-haired girl refused to let Himeko learn what lay in her heart.

“I know I’m useless. I know I can’t do anything right. I know I brought you more trouble with every blunder I made, but... but...” Himeko continued in her tearful, trembling voice, “I just don’t want you to hate me, Chikane-chan.”

One second, she was standing by herself near the bed, her body shaking the way a thin tree would against a strong gust of wind. On the next, she found herself in the gentle embrace of the one she dearly loved. Chikane-chan’s arms were around Himeko’s shoulders, the former’s hand combing through her golden tresses. Still overwhelmed by grief, Himeko pounded her tiny hand upon the princess’s own shoulder and wept harder than ever. The Himemiya Ojou-sama let her do as she wished. The blue-haired girl merely held Himeko close and brushed her hair in silence.

“Why do you say such things, Himeko?” the princess murmured after a while. “Hate you? How am I supposed to do that? You are closer than any sister my parents could have given. You are more precious to me than any other person in this world. If only... if only I could show you how much I like you. Have you any idea why I brought you here, why I tried so hard to free the Eyes of Heaven with you?”

“Because... you want to save the people?” Himeko mumbled, her mind going numb. In the princess’s arms, the storm of emotions in Himeko finally abated. With the blue-haired girl’s arms wrapped around her so gently, with her body heat invading every fiber of Himeko’s existence, she thought she was going to melt. Her heart, aching in pain just a few moments ago, now pounded madly when she began to hear what the other girl had just told her. Closer than any sister. More precious than any person in this world, those words rang in her mind in a heart-warming melody. Did Chikane-chan just say what Himeko thought she said?

“That is not true.” The Himemiya Ojou-sama shook her head, her cheek brushing against that of Himeko. “Whatever happens to them is none of my concern. The one whom I care for, whom I want to protect, whose smile I wish to behold, is you, Himeko.” She placed a hand upon Himeko’s cheek and caressed it almost lovingly.

“Me?” Himeko murmured as she looked up at the beautiful face of the one she loved, feeling blood suffuse her own and warm it up rapidly.

“Who else?” Chikane-chan gave her a little melancholic smile. “You are the person I would gladly trade my life for, have I not told you so already? Had it been possible, I would have hogged you all to myself. Had it been okay, I would have never let you out of my sight for one split second. Can you imagine how much it hurt me to see that with the arrival of Oogami Souma, I am no longer your number one? Do you know how much it pained me to realize that you were drifting further and further away from me while I could do nothing to stop it?” The princess sighed. “Still, it is a fact I have to accept. It is inevitable. You do not belong to me. I have no right to become the obstacle standing in your way to happiness. So I let go of you. I do not hate you, Himeko. I just wish you to spend more time by the side of the one you love. Seeing you happy is all I ever want, you must know that.”

Tears broke out from Himeko’s eyes once more.

“I am sorry, Himeko. Did I say something bad?” Chikane-chan said as she hastily pulled a handkerchief out of her pocket and used it to dab at Himeko’s face.

“No, it’s not your fault, Chikane-chan,” Himeko managed between the sobs that the princess had successfully renewed for her. “I’m just... I’m just glad I got the answer I’ve been looking for. I’m sorry I misunderstood you, Chikane-chan.” She fastened her arms around the other girl’s soft, fragrant body and wept openly into her full bosom.

“Then cry no more,” murmured the blue-haired princess as she dried the last tear off Himeko’s face. “Oogami-san will think terrible of me if he sees you in such condition.”

It finally made sense to her. Himeko was right when she started suspecting that Chikane-chan was in love with her all along. The reason why the princess never showed her a sign of jealousy, why she never made any attempt to confess, and why she appeared to be shunning Himeko were because she thought Himeko was in love with her childhood friend. The blue-haired girl did her best to bring Himeko and Sou-chan together not because she wanted to, but because she wished for Himeko’s happiness. Himeko’s sweetheart had been suppressing her emotion all along for her sake. She noticed that Chikane-chan never said that she loved her right out... but it couldn’t be more obvious now could it?

I love you, Chikane-chan, Himeko thought as she put her arms around the princess’s neck, rose on her toes, and attempted to claim the lips of the blue-haired girl. She froze dead, however, the moment someone knocked on the door to her room.

“Kurusugawa-sama,” the voice of Kisaragi Otoha the Head Maid called, “Oogami-sama has arrived. He is waiting for you at the entrance.”

At first, Himeko thought that she was going to let her childhood friend wait down there and proceed to confess her love to the blue-haired princess. A second later, she decided that it would be a bad idea to do so. It would take quite a bit of time to explain to Chikane-chan that all there was nothing romantic going on between her and the boy Oogami Souma, that she was the only one Himeko ever loved. And once she had revealed her feelings to the Himemiya Ojou-sama, there was no guarantee that she could break away and still go with Sou-chan afterwards. Besides, it would be best to clear the misunderstanding between her and the boy first. Now that Himeko had learned how the princess felt toward her, time to spend by each other’s side was the one thing they did not lack.

“Make me one promise, Chikane-chan,” she pleaded. “Be here when I return, please. It won’t take very long. Once I’ve settled everything, I’ll come back to you for sure. There’s so much I have to tell you, Chikane-chan.”

“I promise,” said the blue-haired princess with a smile. “Now go. Do not make Oogami-san wait.”

“Have a good day, Chikane-chan.” Himeko placed a soft kiss on her sweetheart’s cheek before she let go of her and hurried out of her room. Chikane-chan would keep the promise. The princess would wait for Himeko. The girl she loved would listen to her confession then. If the Gods were willing, they might share their first kiss tonight. If all went well, Chikane-chan might become much more than Himeko’s best friend before the dawn of a new day, the dawn of their new world.

 

***

 

Sitting upon a branch of one of the oak trees near little Chikane’s window, her body shielded from the naked eyes, Yui the Goddess of the Sun silently watched as the blue-haired girl’s slender frame disintegrated into a million sparks of silver stars and fused into the light of the morning. Yui but wondered where the girl went.

“Did you see what she did with the storm, Yue?” Yui asked the silver-haired girl sitting one branch below hers. The Goddess of the Moon, in her heavenly robe the color of which was as white as driven snow, appeared someone who had just been saved from drowning in the sea. Her face, normally cold as ice and hard as iron, now was but aglow with excitement, joy, and relief. She had never seemed more beautiful in the last three thousand years Yui had spent by her side.

“Yes,” answered the Goddess of the Moon with a cool voice and a face that made her voice seem warm and affable. Happy enough to be jumping up and down inside or not, she was surely not going to show Yui an ounce of friendliness. “Since her collapse yesterday, she had regained at least half of her powers. Now she is the equal to any Orochi Follower, including the kid with Hokuto the Star Blade.”

“You don’t think that it’s a good thing,” Yui observed.

“How is it a good thing?” Yue very nearly snapped. “Her powers are the chains that keep it locked inside Chikane’s heart. The fact that they are coming back to her only means that the binding is being weakened.”

Pretending to be unaware of the heat in the other girl’s voice, Yue replied nonchalantly, “So what? It isn’t as if all of the chains have been broken. Give the child some credit, will you? Chikane’s willpower is strong, that you know better than anyone does. Else, she couldn’t have held back the mechanism until this point.”

“Strong? The child is dying inside! Do you not see how tormented she was?”

“I’m not blind,” Yui reminded the silver-haired Goddess, who sniffed derisively. Yui elected not to hear that, either. “True, she has suffered much,’ she continued as though uninterrupted, “but her suffering will end tonight, when little Himeko comes back and delivers her out of the hell in which she has confined her heart. There will no longer be any problem then, is there?” The face of the Goddess of the Moon softened, her lips curving upward in a gentle smile. Her foul mood might never have existed. Yui sighed. Only the Priestesses could have done something as miraculous as turning their foster mother from a woman carved from ice into one made of flesh and blood. Yui wished she could do that sometimes.

“Perhaps you are right,” murmured the silver-haired girl in a soft voice that was almost impossible to be heard. Well, it was somewhat of an improvement, in any case. The Goddess of the Moon could have fired off some scathing comment at Yui instead of saying something that sounded almost demure and sweet. Yui but wondered if there was any other woman in all of the Three Worlds who was as hard to please as the girl that was sitting so close to her.

It was odd, in any event. Normally one would expect one person to at least vaguely take after her parents. Yue... never did. Her mother, the Supreme Ruler of the Underworld, Izanami-sama, was heavens and earth different from the Goddess of the Moon the way the former was vibrant, kind to almost everybody she met, and had a warm personality. Sometimes Yui could not believe how it was that a daughter could be so different from one another.... She froze at the end of the thought and started to chuckle quietly to herself. She was in no position to say that, actually, the way she and her father, Izanagi-sama, was one another’s opposite. In any case, it would have made a lot more sense had Yue been the daughter of the male Maker of the World and Yui, the female one.

“By the way, Yue,” Yui called softly. “Have you been keeping contact with Izanami-sama?”

Apparently, it was the wrong question to ask, for the face of the Goddess of the Moon darkened almost immediately. “Not since three thousand years ago,” came the heated answer. Strangely, though, the silver-haired girl voice was tinted with sadness.

“Do you hate your mother, Yue?” Yui asked curiously.

Grief replaced Yue’s angry expression. “How can I hate her?” she muttered. “She gave birth to me. She granted me enough power to be able to live on without being looked down by others. Yet... yet betrayal was all I repaid her with. I am much worse than a mortal... or even an animal.” Her voice cracked. The girl seemed on the verge of tears.

Yui knew what her fellow Goddess meant when she uttered the word “betrayal”. Three millennia back in the shadow of the past, a terrible event named the Great Conflict by the historians broke out between the Ruler of Heaven and the Ruler of the Underworld, both happened to be residing in the Heavenly Palace of Izumo then. No one was ever aware of the cause except Izanami-sama and Izanagi-sama. All that the people of the Holy City knew was that the two Makers got into some huge argument, which ended up infuriated Izanami-sama so terribly she decided to sever all diplomatic ties with Izumo and take her daughter, Tsukiyomi the Goddess of the Moon, back to her birthplace, Reiha of the Underworld.

Around that time, Yui was spending every of her days in the safe haven that is her room in the Tower of the Sun, where she cried herself to sleep. In such a pathetic state, she lost the power to govern the Sun, which went horribly wrong as a result. The golden star went cold, thus depriving the citizens of the Three Worlds of the light and the warmth without which they could not survive. Worse, as soon as Yue left Heaven, the moon stopped shining, for the Sealing Field encompassing Reiha disrupted the connection between the silver star and its governess, the Goddess of the Moon. Without both the sun and moon, no light came to the Human World. Monsters and demons were born from the depth of night with a terrifying rare, free to roam the earth, free to devour its innocent dwellers.

The Ruler of Izumo had tried to rouse Yui then, hoping she would regain enough power to return the light of the sun to the world. He failed. Regardless of the methods he employed in his attempt to bring Yui back to duty, eternal snow storms covered the surface of the then ice-cold sun. The end of the human world was but imminent. Frustrated, the man decided to deal with the situation the rough way. Thinking that being the most powerful entity in the Three Worlds would let him do whatever he wanted, Izanagi-sama ventured into the Underworld all by himself, his true purpose unknown. He made a severe miscalculation, in any case. Completely unaware of the existence of the Sealing Field, created from a special breed of flowers called the Crystal Roses that bloomed everywhere in the Underworld, the moment he arrived at Reiha was also the moment his powers were all taken away. As a result, he was imprisoned in the World of Souls... and would have stayed there for at least a few years without the Goddess of the Moon’s intervention.

The girl, who appeared at the entrance to Izanagi-sama’s prison cell a few days after he was captured, freed him and helped him get back to the World of the Gods. Her heroic deeds did not go unnoticed. The Ruler of Izumo, overwhelmed by his gratitude to the eighteen-year-old Goddess, adopted her into his family and granted her the status of a High Immortal, a being who was protected by the law. Yue had been staying in Heaven ever since she was elevated to the highest echelon of the Gods.

“Betrayal is too strong a word,” Yui told the Goddess of the Moon. “I’m quite sure your mother won’t blame you for what you did out of compassion and mercy, Yue.”

“Compassion? Mercy?” the silver-haired girl scoffed. “Do you really think that I saved that man because I pitied him? Please, he was, and still is, one of the people I hate and despise the most.”

“What?” Yui gaped at her fellow Goddess.

“I will let you into my little secret, Yui,” said Yue, her silver eyes aglow, beautiful face contorted in grief. “I betrayed my mother, who is my flesh and blood, because of my own selfish wish. Do you see how twisted I am?”

Yui was about to inquire further into the matter and try to find out the truth when she was suddenly struck by a wave of dizziness. Fire coursed in her veins, thunder roared in her head, and a storm of needles raged upon every inch of her skin. Not now! she thought pleadingly. No!

 

***

 

Akira’s tears rolled off his face and fell onto the floor. Each time a drop touched the thick tatami layer, the whole room trembled as though the surface of a pond disturbed by a rock. It was the same with the fake view of the white lily fields out there, beyond the open shoji doors of his dimensional prison. It, too, shook under his powers. Lately, there had been times when Akira regained his consciousness and had an idea of what was happening around him. In those short moments, he was hurt even more, for he was but aware that he had been separated from the one he loved.

Rinne, where are you? Akira cried in silence as white lightning jagged across the room. If only they could free him and let him see her one more time. If only....

 

***

 

“What is wrong with you?” Yue the Goddess of the Moon frowned at the golden-haired woman sitting one branch above, who looked pale as a sheet of paper, whose hands were trembling at her sides.

“Nothing,” replied the Goddess of the Sun with a voice that contradicted her answer. “I... will see you around... Yue.” With a flicker of her hand, golden light poured out of Yui’s body. Before they could envelop her and transport her away, however, they snuffed out like a candle in the wind. Then the woman’s eyes drew shut. The Goddess of the Sun lost her balance and fell off the oak tree.

“Yui!” Yue screamed at the same time she unleashed her powers. A wave of silver light emerged from her hand formed a large cloth around the golden-haired woman’s body and caught her in its midst. When it was done lowering her gently onto the ground, it disappeared.

Kneeling by the side of the Goddess of the Sun, who was sweating within an inch of her life, whose skin was hot as the surface of any oven, Yue let her right hand hover just an inch above the woman’s forehead and gently eased her powers inside in an attempt of learning just exactly what was wrong. Her eyebrows tried to shot off Yue’s scalp, however, when she realized that Yui’s own powers were in great turmoil, and that they were causing huge damage to the golden-haired woman’s internal organs. Yue stared at her in utmost incredulity. So far, in the history of Heaven, there was not even one Immortal who had fallen sick. What could be going on here?

Trying to calm herself down, Yue placed the palm of her hand upon Yui’s forehead and unleashed her healing power. Golden light blazed fiercely as an invisible but incredible force hurled Yue’s hand away. Yue was shocked. They were the Goddesses of the Sun and Moon, the manipulator of the light of Heaven, known to possess an equal amount of strength. Yet, according to what Yue sensed during the instant her powers collided with those of the Goddess of the Sun, the latter’s strength far outstripped her. Worse, the energy in the golden-haired Immortal’s was growing in such an alarming rate that unless something was done, Yui was going to be burned to death.

Hurriedly, Yue tried to force her healing power inside the Goddess of the Sun over and over again. Every single time, Yue’s hand would be flung away by the invisible force. Every single time, Yue would apply a little more strength and try to keep her hand still on the other woman’s forehead. Silver light clashed with golden every second, Yue’s powers against Yui’s in a fierce battle that she was not sure she could win. Except that she had to win, no matter what the price she had to pay afterwards. Hang in there, Yui, she thought pleadingly. I am not going to let you die on me. You are not allowed to. You... you are the only one I....

Out of thin air emerged two girls, looking as similar to each other as two drops of water, who grabbed Yue’s arms and pulled her away from Yui’s body. Quicker than lightning, they took her to the sky, where Yue suffered her second shock when she tried to break free from their grasp. Although the girls were weaker than she was individually, their powers combined were more than enough to render Yue useless.

“What are you doing? Let go!” Yue shouted. “Yui is... Yui is....” Down upon the ground, the clothes of the Goddess of the Sun began to catch fire. Bit by bit, they fell apart, revealing the woman’s blackened skin. “No!” Yue screamed in utmost horror and pain.

“Yui-sama will be alright, Tsukiyomi-sama,” the girl on the left assured her.

“Calm down, Tsukiyomi-sama, the Lady is here,” the one on the right said in a voice that was equally soft and sympathetic.

“I do not know who your Lady is, and I do not care,” Yue cried at the top of her lungs, tears streaming down her cheeks. “Please let me go, I have to save Yui. Please!”

Out of the blue, the scenery around them changed. The green garden of the Himemiya Mansion The scenery around them changed. The luxuriant back garden of the Himemiya Mansion vanished and was immediately replaced by an endless field where roses seemingly made out of crystal covered the earth. On that same field, a woman in a white robe with long and wide sleeves and a hood that cloaked her face was walking toward the Goddess of the Sun. With every step she took, the roses in front of her parted to form a clear pathway and came back to where they were after she had passed. Once she had gotten near enough to Yui, the woman extended her right hand. Into her wide sleeve the burning flames retreated, leaving an unconscious and badly burnt Yui alone.

Then the woman pulled her hood backward as she looked up and smiled at Yue, her long raven hair falling all the way to her waist. “How have you been, Tsukiyomi?” she said.

“M... Mother!” Yue said, her eyes going wide in incredulity. What was the Supreme Ruler of Reiha doing in Onogoro?