This story no longer takes place after Zwei due to conflicting points. Mai Kisaki now stands alone from Zwei, and should be seen as an alternative sequel to the series. Introduction - - - January 3425 AD Three Years After the Events of Mai Otome Izumi was ducked behind a stairway within the frozen city, a robe materialized around her exhausted body. She had been running for hours, and flying for an hour more. Her body felt as if it was ready to give out then and there. The only thing keeping her moving was the basic instinct of self-preservation. One was never to remain stationary in a hostile territory, and she knew that at least three of them were tracking her. They were out there amongst the ruins, somewhere beyond her range of vision. Everything was the same dead silence that always held the remains of the ancient city captive. Even on a desperate mission to call in reinforcements, they would not leave the Otome alone. Her support, Naomi, was the only other Otome in the region that could operate the vehicle they had prepared in secret. The two were, essentially, the only hope their people had of reaching aid. In the distance, she heard rumbling. Things were heating up. Those fanatics were probably taking the offensive against the rest of the city's Guard. They had to hurry. Too many of their friends had died for as long as they could remember. This was their first and perhaps only chance to change that. Izumi moved out from her cover and ran forward, hopping over two dead bodies (one Otome, one civilian), and progressing towards the waiting aircraft. At the same time, Naomi began to sprint, taking a different path to the same location. Not five seconds after they began to bolt, three gunshots slammed into the walls behind them. They ducked low and continued on, not hindered in the least. "Emulator is fully charged. Activate Diadem devices in three, two, one..." They heard separate beeps behind them, and, knowing the worst was yet to come, the Otome girls ran as fast as their legs would carry them. No longer were they simply running to their destination, they were running from the enemy behind. The craft, engines already warmed up by the support team who had either evacuated from the hostile region or been exterminated, neared . They headed straight for the boarding ramp, but skidded to a halt when a forth enemy stood up from the top of the vehicle, activating her Diadem device. She glared down at them. Her muscles tightened. The birthmark on her arm began to glow brilliantly. A small saber materialized in her hands. Izumi and Naomi leapt out of the way as she dove down, blade extended and ready to strike. The enemy, covered in a dark coat, lunged forward and swiped at Izumi, who blocked her attack with her own staff. The enemy countered by grabbing hold of her arm in an iron grip, and Izumi yelped in disgust and horror. How dare they touch her? Vile, disgusting women. Naomi came to her aid by giving the enemy a swift knee to the gut, stunning her long enough for the two to board the ship. They slammed on the button to close the ramp repeatedly as the enemy recovered and her teammates closed in, one firing her weapons at them. All bullets missed, slamming into the metal of the aircraft. At last, as one of their hands threatened to grab hold of one of them, the ramp closed, sealing them off from their foe. Izumi ran up to the cockpit, and Naomi sat down with her. Together, pressing a variety of buttons and switches and pulling back on the controls, the vessel rose off the ground and took to the skies, leaving the fanatic enemy behind. Onward they went, up into the clouds. Bursts of fire leapt up from the ground, attempting to swat the vessel down. They twisted and rolled out of harm's way, breaking through the atmosphere and into the starry void beyond. Blue shifted to black. "We're away," Naomi said after switching on her GEM's communication function. "Activate it." Above them was nothing much stars and shattered metal fragments left behind from roughly five centuries ago. But, at the heart of all that space junk, something sprang to life as their allies on the ground flipped a key switch. A burst of blue light formed in the center of a spherical structure, the only one to truly remain intact after all that time. Its companion structures lay dead and gutted. Through that blinding blue light was their only hope. Their sisters, who had been taken away in order to protect the colonies, had not been heard from since their departure centuries ago. They knew, however, they just knew, that somewhere out there, their sisters were waiting for them and had simply lost contact after a landing gone wrong. It was something they had to put faith in. With the single gate recently rebuild, they would go to them. They would ask for aid against their mutual enemy. And then, they would be victorious. The ship passed through the swirling blue mass that was the Lalande Gate. The universe went white and silent. Then, ten seconds later, they were back in the depths of space. Below them was the dark side of a blue world, lights on the surface guiding them in, and offering proof of civilization. They were still there. Surely, their sisters were still protecting that world. The two Otome smiled, so very glad that their mission was not going to be in vain. Then, alarms sounded. The enemy, in a last ditch effort to exterminate them before completing the reunion. - - - Juliet Nao Zhang was on a routine (read: boring as all hell) scouting mission with Sara Gallagher and Maya Blythe, two of her teammates from the Five Columns unit. They had been out scouting the desert regions for perhaps four hours. At least it was not under the blazing sun. The desert at night was a much more tolerable place. Never the less, all that effort for a supposed report about minor hostile activity shouldn't have warranted the Columns being sent out, in her honest opinion. Surely there was some other lackey who could have been doing it. The three were in formation flight, going slow over the terrain, scanning the ground for any signs of movement. Nothing but desert serpents and rodents. Oh, how threatening those sand rats were. She sighed for the umpteenth time that night. Whoever had issued the order for their deployment was going to pay somehow. It was probably Kruger. A fitting assumption, as she was the Column who gave the most orders but did the least to help. Nao clicked her tongue in irritation. "Bank ten degrees to port on my mark," Sara declared, flying at the front of their wedge formation, ever the leader. She began a countdown so that the other two could turn along with her. But, when she had gotten to the number four, she suddenly stopped. Nao looked up from the ground, which somehow seemed more luminous all of a sudden, to direct her gaze at Sara, who was staring up at the sky. Furrowing her brows in confusion, Nao followed her stare up to the stars, where the source of the new light displayed itself. Two large meteors (or something) streaking through the sky, one just overhead. The three came to an immediate halt, and the one that had passed above them slammed into the ground a few miles back. Not fast enough to warrant a crater or explosion. That was odd. The other one disappeared off to the east, closer to the mountains. Sara paused for several moments, shocked and locked in mental debate over what to do. "This is Column Number One," she reported into her GEM. "A meteor just impacted the ground a few miles south of our position. Permission to investigate?" No sense in letting the incident two years ago replicate itself if she could help it. The reply from Irina, the new dispatcher, was hasty. She obviously thought the same thing. "Go ahead and remember to keep in contact. Get back to me as soon as you can." "Understood." Sara switched off the line and looked to the other two. She waved them forward. "Well, let's go. Spread out, just in case its something hostile." Maya took off after her, and Nao followed suit. Well, it was better than flying circles over the sand, at least. When they did arrive, however, they were in for the surprise of a lifetime. - - - Izumi gently opened her eyes, and saw the floor of the cockpit. Her head was on fire with pain from the impact. A throbbing, crashing pulse invaded her mind. She gently put a hand to her forehead and groaned, hearing Naomi stir next to her. Then, she slowly began to realize that the crashing pulse was someone slamming on the side of the ship. She rolled over, too groggy and disoriented to stand up. Was it the enemy? They had made it to the colony, hadn't they? The slamming on the side of the ship resulted in one of the bolted doors being peeled back by a woman with inhuman strength supplied by a brilliant robe not too different from their own. So that was a Z-Type, was it? Izumi merely stared in awe as three women peered into the vessel to check for survivors. "My god." One said in shock. "Hey, are you okay?" A second inquired. "Zhang, get Yoko on the line. We might need a medical evac for this." "You're shitting me if you think they're from Earth. I don't care what the markings outside said," the redhead grumbled as she turned and walked away, activating her own GEM. Izumi held up her hand towards one of them. They were indeed Otome. They had found their much needed ally after lifetimes of searching for what had happened to those who had left them behind in the aftermath of the uprising on Earth. The tide of their long and bitter war could finally turn around. They were, Izumi thought, saved. - - - AN: Yes, this is a sequel to both the Kyoto Hunt and Mai Otome. Refer to my HiME-related fics for more background information.
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