My-HiME Destiny ~The Dragon Miko~
By Ibuki Hideaki
Illustrated by Meguro Sankichi
Chapter 6: The Dragon Awakens
"Sorry I'm late!"
Tennouji Shion burst into the Student Council room, but she was already too late. The excitement was over.
On the floor lay Hinagiku Tomoe tied up with rope, and around the room stood the pale-faced student council members.
What had happened? Was the interrogation over? Had they found out who the Suzaku Association's leader was?
"Kuga-san?"
Like everyone else, Natsuki was standing with a shocked look on her face. Shion worriedly called out to her.
"What's wrong?"
"It looks like we were right about Hinagiku not being the head of the Suzaku association, but..."
"It's Akane. Higurashi Akane."
"Eh!?"
Previously, the second-year student Hinagiku Tomoe had attacked Shion in the dawn mist.
Could it really be that Akane, who looked so innocent that one would think butter would not melt in her mouth, was behind it all? It's true that Shion didn't know Akane very well, but even Natsuki who knew her better was totally shocked!
"Even with the Academy's restriction on telepathy in place, a person can't reasonably expect to keep their true colors hidden forever. Sooner or later, someone with Class-A abilities would see through them. Kikukawa-san, were you able to learn anything else?"
"Yes, about Higurashi-san's ability. It seems that it goes beyond simple telepathy. She's able to literally enter the deep psyche of her victims without them realizing it. From there, she can cause psychological trauma (torauma). It's an extremely destructive ability."
"Hm? A tiger(tora)-horse(uma)? What's so scary about an ability like that, Yukino?"
Yukino sighed.
"I'm saying she can enter your mind against your will without you even knowing about it, Haruka-chan."
Normally, Yukino would have corrected Haruka's error more directly, but today she was so depressed you could hear it in her voice.
Could Hinagiku Tomoe's mind have been under Akane's control when she did everything? Yukino wasn't able to find out - simply learning what she did tired her out to the point that she could no longer use her powers.
"From now on, none of us can afford to be weak. We'll have to watch all of our weak points and make sure we're with someone else at all times. The Suzaku Association...who could have guessed they'd have such a terrible power...more importantly, does anyone know where Higurashi-san is right now?"
"Beats me. I'd like to know too."
"I guess it isn't strange that she'd be able to slip away somewhere in all this confusion, but what are we going to do?"
"She's escaped, but if we go to the gymnasium two's equipment room, we should be able to capture another Suzaku Association member who might know something. Besides, we'll have to track them all down sooner or later."
The student council had set up a network of allied students at various places throughout the academy, connected to each other through telepathy. Shizuru-san sent out instructions.
"Harada-san, Sennou-san"
"Roger! We'll capture them right away."
Without even needing to hear Shizuru's words, Chie already knew what the orders would be. She headed towards the gymnasium.
The power of the Suzaku Association's member's abilities multiplies based on how many of them are together. Therefore, the student council had to capture them seperately and detain each member in a different part of the academy building upon capture. Of course, allowing them to escape was out of the question.
"Hah! Sending out your weak friends?"
Despite being tied up, Tomoe remained arrogant and fearless.
"Even if you turn the entire academy into a jail, you'll never be able to hold all of us!"
Ever since the incident on the terrace, Natsuki had been thinking. All across the academy's nondescript campus, students like Akane have been talking about a "revolution".
"What about Mayo, shouldn't she be here as well?"
"Eh? Knowing her, she probably managed to get lost on the way, but she'll probably show up soon."
Natsuki still hadn't spoken. Shion was beginning to think her bewildered look made her look a bit like a surprised fox.
"Putting aside Mayo for a moment, shouldn't we be worried about Kuga-san's lifelessness?"
"Sorry..."
Shion started to think. After the fight with Tomoe, the fog that was shrouding the academy had disappeared immediately...
Suddenly, Yukino let out a cry.
"Mayo-san!"
"What is it?"
"Just now, I was able to read from Tomoe-san's thoughts. Higurashi-san's target is Mayo. It's Kagura Mayo-san."
"Huh!?"
"It doesn't matter. You're too late. By now, Akane-sama has probably already dealt with handcuff-chan, and then our great plan to take over this academy will begin!"
"So that was their plan all along!?"
The entire room was staring at Tomoe with steely eyes, but it did nothing to wipe the confident look of the victorious from her face.
"She's in the backstage of the auditorium!"
"Suzushiro-san!"
"There's nothing you can do!"
Haruka ran for the auditorium at full speed.
The student council room broke into an uproar. The fight with the Suzaku association that had seemed like it was over wasn't. In fact, everyone now knew that it was only beginning.
"You thought you'd won, but we can't be put into checkmate as easily as you thought!"
Tomoe's triumphant voice echoed throughout the student council room.
---
"The two people in the car, you killed them..."
"Wha...what!? I didn't do anything like that!"
In front of Akane, a nervous Mayo stood shaking her head. However, in front of them lay the burning wreckage of a car, the black smoke rising from it was making Mayo nauseous.
"Then what caused this car to explode? From what I heard, this event caused a big falling out among the Hoshinomiya administrators"
"The administrators of Hoshinomiya?"
"I don't know what it's called, but there's an organization that's in charge of Fuuka Academy. They send scouts out all across Japan to look for children with telekinetic abilities. Then when they find you, they kidnap you and take you here."
Akane's ability allowed her to read even those memories that Mayo couldn't recall. Before being taken by car to the Academy, she had been brought to Hokkaido by a chartered plane. Before that, she had been a student at a high school in Kanagawa Prefecture.
"I'd hate to think what would happen to you if they found out this was your fault..."
"It's not my fault! I'm not lying!"
Mayo had a vision of the day she arrived at the academy and was saved by Shizuru. An explosion. Like the sound of a car bursting into flames. The screams of the academy's students.
"Lately, it hasn't been unusual to have gangs drive up here and try to kidnap students."
It hadn't started to get dark yet, but school was just ending. Mayo was leaving with some girls from her class when a young man in a sportscar drove up and forced her to get in and take some kind of drug. Somewhere around a railway crossing, the car's alarm went off and everyone shopping on the crowded street ran wildly away.
Mayo was demonstrating her telekinetic abilities. She forced the car to head directly towards a mother pushing a stroller. Just before collision, the earth's gravity seemed to lose its effect on the sportscar, and it floated into the air. It continued to float up several metres, until it started to fall, landing in the sports ground of a public park and bursting into flames. Close to the burning car was a man and several of Mayo's classmates, who the car had missed by only a hair's bredth.
At first, Mayo wasn't sure what had happened. She felt like she had been in some kind of trance. As her senses returned, she saw a man and several of her classmates. A girl with twintails was coldly staring at Mayo, like the victim of a crime looking at the perpetrator. The eyes of the other girls were full of fear, as though they had just had an encounter with a monster. Their stares pierced Mayo's heart like spears.
However, they weren't the only ones watching her. Disguised as an ambulance, a car from Hoshinomiya took advantage of the situation to anaesthesize and kidnap Mayo. The last thing she remembered was having the handcuffs put on her before she blacked out.
"Being able to create such a disturbance...clearly your powers go well beyond simple spoon-bending. It's no surprise that you were marked by Hoshinomiya. I wonder how long they followed you..."
Akane, too, had seen all of the memories Mayo just recalled.
All throughout her elementary and junior high school years, Mayo had had to repeatedly change schools in S city because she kept unintentionally revealing her psychic powers.
Of course, at an early age Mayo learned that it was important to not stand out if she wanted her life to be normal. However, her quietness made her a target of bullying for the other children, and she would fight back by making them float in the air...
"Children can be so cruel... That reminds me, a year ago when you fought back after getting bullied for having an anime pencilcase, some guys tried to put you on a TV show, right?"
Just looking or speaking a little bit differently than others could make one a target for bullying, so it goes without saying that having psychic powers would make things even worse.
"Everyone else who has psychic abilities had to go through pretty much the same things. Eventually, we cross the line and end up creating some kind of public disturbance with our powers. In fact, that's how Hoshinomiya finds most of us. However, their purpose isn't just to teach people with psychic powers how to live normal lives in society. It's also to conduct research on us. In my opinion, there's nothing wrong with that, but it isn't the whole story. Now, Kagura-san, let me tell you the reason they've had their eye on you..."
---
The word "psychometry" means "to know what was there after it is gone."
Ever since she was young, Tennouji Shion has possessed the ability to see an object's past simply by touching it. However, it took time for her to be able to obtain a true understanding of what those pasts meant.
By the time she became a high school first year, she was able to see most things clearly. And then, a mysterious transfer student wearing handcuffs appeared. Shion had never quite been able to get a good read on her, but she could tell, without doubt, that she was trouble.
The first time she touched Kagura Mayo's handcuffs by accident, it was when they were going to their fight with Hinagiku Tomoe through the deep fog.
So that they wouldn't get seperated from one another in the fog, Mayo and Shion were holding hands. As they ran through the white mist, their warm bodies became wet from condensation.
At that time, Shion's hand came into contact with the handcuffs, and Mayo's "unconscious past" began to flow into Shion.
It took time for Shion to understand the past that she saw, and even when she understood it, she didn't want to believe it. The strain of trying to deny it was so great that Shion lost consciousness.
Even now, a week later, she still had nightmares about it and didn't want to accept it. Suddenly, the "lifeless" Kuga Natsuki spoke.
"Oi!"
It seemed Natsuki's senses had returned.
The number of people in the student council room had decreased substantially. The Suzaku Association member they had tried to capture had escaped and gone to get reinforcements. Even President Fujino had left.
Nobody knew all the details, but there had been a call from the student council's Director-General Kanzaki Reito.
With the room almost empty, Shion noticed that there were two staff members she didn't know the name of standing in the room.
"Hey, Shion..."
"Kuga-san? What is it?"
"Bring that to me quickly."
Natsuki seemed to be pointing to the chair Hinagiku Tomoe was tied to.
"What?"
"Even though we put a sleeping pill in her drink, with so few people here and so much confusion, you would think Hinagiku's companions would try to come and rescue her."
Shion thought about it. If Hinagiku Tomoe could create illusions, then she could make it seem like she drank the sleeping pill without actually having done so. In fact, maybe it could even explain why the fog disappeared so quickly...
"Eh!? Then we..."
Shion had now become the one who was speechless. Everything had been an illusion created by Hinagiku Tomoe!
"Really, you're so easy to trick. Thanks for your help."
Tomoe, who had managed to wriggle her way out of the rope without anyone being able to see it, laughed scornfully at Shion.
Not only that, but she had more illusions up her sleeve. By taking advantage of her ability to hide what is there as well as show what is not there, she had an "invisible whip" that she used as a weapon. However, rather than fight, the Suzaku Association "leader" simply disappeared, leaving the student council room feeling duped and deceived.
"I guess we lost, wouldn't you say, Kuga-san?"
When engaging in self-criticism, Shion's voice was surprisingly depressing.
Shion took off her glasses and looked up at the ceiling. Tears began to run down her face. She started to think about what she missed during the time she was asleep.
She took a deep breath and put her glasses back on (she looked better while wearing them).
Her voice became stronger.
"It's not over yet, but we have to get the fog that's been in our hearts for the past week out!"
Shion had a plan. She knew that they were trying to awaken the "Dragon Priestess".
"Yes!"
Her MiKO power told her that the one they needed to find was close by.
"Well, let's go."
Shion had never been both this frightened and this excited at the same time. The student council room was almost silent with anticipation.
She didn't look at the others in the room who were shaking or too afraid to move. The relentless flow of time had now led to the opening of the door of their fates!
"...I'm not shaking or too afraid to move..."
---
Kawada's escape from the pool's changing room had been a success.
He went past the large boulder near the bicycle rack. The student council had put out a request for reinforcements.
Under the direction of Higurashi Akane, the Suzaku Association's members had escaped the grasp of the student council and were gathering together. The more of them that were gathered together, the stronger their telepathy became, so it was no surprise that they would want to all gather in one place together.
"It looks like there's going to be a war, but a war and a revolution aren't too different from each other."
In any case, Akane cared little about the word used to describe it. What she did care about was having to make a pushy subordinate the Suzako Association's "fake leader", but since she wanted out of this jail of an Academy, she didn't have a choice.
"According to the head office, Hinagiku Tomoe-sama's escape was a success."
"No surprise there. Tomoe-san is still the same show-off she's always been."
"So you would have chosen not to escape?"
"If it were me, I wouldn't have let them know I'd escaped so that I'd be able to move about secretly."
Keeping their plans a secret from Hoshinomiya and the Academy Chief Kanzaki Rei was something the Suzaku Association took seriously, but it appeared it was too late for that now.
And then there was Kagura Mayo.
Akane had manipulated Mayo into sleepwalking. She had her go up a staircase, and then followed her with some other members.
Even though all the students of Fuuka Academy had psychic powers, Hoshinomiya had secretly especially singled out Mayo. She was part of a special group of MiKOs, amounting to around ten percent of the student population, that the academy went out of their way to keep extensive secret files on.
How were they secret? The government mandated that the Fuuka Academy staff keep basic files on all the MiKO, but the government didn't know about the special secret files. They were for Hoshinomiya's use only.
If this fact were to be revealed to the government, the academy's administration would get into huge trouble. They might even lose their jobs. With this in mind, Higurashi Akane had been working behind the scenes, using the fight with the student council as a diversion to hide her true goal.
Following Mayo up the stairs, they eventually reached the academy building's rooftop. A week earlier, she had been there with Shion. It was so dark that the clock tower could not be read, appearing only as a black silhouette. In the distance, a "gorogoro" sound could be heard.
"Thunder? I wonder if the weather will be okay for the cultural festival tomorrow."
Akane realized the irony of what she had said and let out a cynical laugh.
"Nonetheless, why is it that she came here?"
"Maybe she's going to commit suicide by jumping to her death."
Akane's subordinates started giggling, trying to muffle themselves causing them to make sounds like gulps and snorts. The thought of being punished by their leader's power scared them so much they started to shake.
"But it will be bad if Kagura-san jumps before we get to talk to her."
Akane ran up to Mayo but decided not to do anything.
Still, she knew that people with psychic powers often had tragic pasts, and that the academy's administration had been extra-secretive about Mayo...
"Hey, let us see it. What's her MiKO power? Call out what Kanzaki calls 'The Dragon Priestess'."
"The Dragon...Priestess?"
"Yeah, the Dragon Priestess."
"The...Dragon..."
"Huh? What are you saying it again for?"
At that moment, Akane entered Mayo's mind. She went deep into the darkness of Mayo's sealed subconscious. With a thunderous roar, images flowed into her mind. Mud. A ringing in her ears. Dizziness. Her arms and legs became heavy. A flowing stream. Some pebbles. Countless screams. Deep black clouds. Walking up and down a shoreline. Water flowing into her shoes. A pot. A dishpan. A broken plastic umbrella. A nameplate and fresh chicken. A car. Another thunderous roar. She couldn't tell what was what anymore.
The thunderous rumbling in her ear began to overwhelm her. Her breathing became heavier and heavier, but finally Akane was able to regain control of the thoughts flowing into her mind. She heard people's names being called out. Arms flailing frantically as they sank into a muddy pond. Her body became unable to move as it bobbed above and below the water. The current caused something to hit the back of her shoulder. Cold water flowed into her nose and throat as she tried to let out a scream. She became unable to raise her head above the water anymore.
Akane calmed down. She remembered that this was nothing more than the past of Kagura Mayo. She struggled and escaped from the water. At last she was able to see what was going on in Mayo's mind.
There was a flood. A river had flooded. No, not a river. Just a stream that had swollen due to a rainstorm. Miniature cars and houses were swept away while people and animals were tossed about helplessly.
"Uwaaaaaaaaahh!!"
She heard a child's cry. It was close by. Where? A startled Akane started looking around. Wearing a one-piece dress covered in mud, a gloomy-looking five or six year old girl was floating in the air and crying.
"This girl, she has psychic powers? Kagura-san? No way..."
Akane shook her head. Was this flood from Kagura Mayo's childhood? Is it what caused her to have such great power?
Akane couldn't believe her eyes. Suddenly, something long and narrow began appearing and disappearing in the dark clouds.
A tornado...no, it was something alive. A serpent? No, it was too big and serpents don't fly in the air.
"That's..."
Akane didn't want to believe it. She thought it was just a nickname, but Hoshinomiya wasn't joking. She really IS "The Dragon Priestess".
However, this isn't reality, it's just Kagura Mayo's memories.
"Am I really supposed to believe this happened? I'm not stupid."
Regardless of how much Akane denied its existence, it was still before her. A body several metres long and covered in scales, with glowing eyes and sharp teeth. No different than what appeared in ancient Chinese and Japanese legends.
It not only flew through the air the ridiculous way you'd expect a dragon to fly, but it was multicolored too. The scales were different colors. Some were dark red, others blue, and others black. Three different colors.
The red, blue and black tricolored dragon, and everything else around the young, crying, Mayo began spinning around and around. The spinning became more and more violent. Akane could no longer tell the sky from the ground. She opened her mouth and water flowed in.
---
Pale blue lightning shot from the clouds. Thunder roared and large raindrops began striking the windowpane. Inside the chairwoman's office, a person was pacing back and forth.
"How about using the shoeboxes by the main entrance instead of going in and out this way all the time?"
"There's more bicycle racks over here! I'm extremely short of hands right now, so I came to see if you could lend me some people."
The academy's multiple telephones had all been ringing off the hook. The academy's premises had become a battleground for the students. The psychic-power-battles were getting to be much larger than they had been in the past.
The administration attempted to find out about the battles before they take put the security staff on alert, but it was a tough job.
"This is why I said before this all started that we should have increased our monitoring capacity..."
Holding the telephone in one hand and eating sushi with the other, Sakomizu Kaiji glanced at the principal.
As usual, Kanazaki Rei was expressionless. This was a major crisis, but he was just tapping his fingers on his desk. The clever principal kept what was going on in his mind completely hidden. With all the uproar, tomorrow's cultural festival was in danger.
However, Kanzaki could guess that with the way things were, Sakomizu probably wasn't even thinking about the cultural festival.
"Don't tell the students about this. It would only serve to make the confusion worse. Instead, ask them to report the whereabouts of Kagura Mayo and Tennouji Shion to the security room if they see them."
"Okay, but..."
"Sakomizu-sensei, the students all have special powers. This will require expert help."
"Yes..."
"Geeze..." Sakomizu thought as he arranged things with the staff in the security room. The principal whispered something in someone's ear. Probably some kind of order.
"The academy's security is full of holes. Even before this, those Yakuza were able to get in, so obviously evading security is a simple task."
"Really, that is true...eh?"
Sakomizu pushed his glasses up. Somehow, it seemed a female student had gotten in and was standing next to him. She had an odd hairstyle, with her green hair being longer on her right-hand side. She looked familiar. Sakomizu was sure she was one of the students on the list of those to be watched closely.
"You...you're Hinagiku Tomoe!"
"Sakomizu-sensei, I see you're still eating octopus."
"Octopus!?"
The food Sakomizu was eating had a shiny, smooth texture. As he held the telephone receiver in his other hand, he realized that it had transformed into an octopus leg! The shock almost made him jump out of his seat. He looked at the sushi he was eating and saw that it had been replaced with a live octopus waving around its suction-cup laden tentacles. Looking around, the entire room was full of dark red octopuses!
"Eh!?"
Sakomizu looked around. The principal didn't even seem to notice. The voices of the other staff sounded strange, but other than that they were fine. Sakomizu rolled along the floor and escaped outside.
"Wha!? There are still more octopuses!"
The bald-headed Kanzaki saw Tomoe's sneering face.
"Using your illusions as always? The other teachers told me your fearless attitude had gotten you caught and detained by the student council, Tomoe-chan."
Homura Nagi had come one step ahead of Tomoe. Sakomizu had always paid close attention to that fox-like boy.
"Your information is old, Nagi, I'm free now. Have you decided you're going to side with the academy?"
"I told you before, I'm on the side of whoever wins. Buth then, has the winning side not already been decided? Shion is the only one searching for Mayo, but a clumsy glasses-girl like her won't be able to find the dragon, who is the only important unknown factor."
"Tell me more."
At this point, Kanazaki Rei began paying attention to the conversation.
"In short, Higurashi Akane is going to force Mayo to fully release her power. If that happens, everything will be over."
"And I'm missing it!?"
Tomoe's face turned red with anger.
"Hey, I hope you aren't thinking of doing something crazy. Your face is looking weird and making a "pika pika" sound. I guess it happens to everyone once in a while, but try to calm down..."
"I know. Want to know a secret about Hoshinomiya? Originally, they started out with benevolent aims, but unfortunately..."
"Shut up!"
An LCD monitor sitting on a desk made a cracking sound and began oozing liquid. Then it flew into the wall.
"I don't need to listen to your nonsense!"
"Hey hey, Tomoe-chan, don't forget there are people here."
"Nagi! You've been spying this whole time!"
Tomoe's voice roared through the air. She revealed her whip and began attacking Nagi, who ducked just in time. A fire appeared to block any escape route for Nagi. Admiring Tomoe, he jumped into the air and teleported.
"You're working with Shion, aren't you!?"
"Geeze, I had to be rescued...eh? Shion?"
Nagi gulped in astonishment, and even Kanazaki Rei was surprised. In front of them was Tennouji Shion. Earlier, a group of Suzaku Association members had attacked Kagura Mayo, but Kuga Natsuki's small group should have caught up with them by now. How well would they do?
As for Hinagiku Tomoe, she looked at Shion with wide eyes and a sneer on her face.
"My my, I guess someone isn't as clumsy as I thought. Are you really here to save him?"
"Hinagiku-san, I'll leave it up to you. Please take care of things here."
"...What?"
"Otherwise, your ability will..."
"You're not making any sense!"
Tomoe let out a high-pitched shriek and whipped Shion in the face, snapping her glasses in two.
"There's no way I'll let you escape...or is that not your plan?"
Tomoe noticed a glitter in Shion's eyes. Tears began to role down her face.
"Hah! Are you really that scared?"
"If these tears were my own, they would run out fast enough. But these aren't my tears. They are her tears...her sorrow."
"You haven't said a single thing that makes sense since showing up."
Shion bent her knee and lunged at Tomoe. Tomoe's field of vision suddenly became blurry, terrorizing her. She too started to cry. She tried to wipe the tears away with her hands, but they wouldn't stop flowing out.
"Wh...what kind of ability is this?"
"This isn't an illusion. These tears...these tears are the truth! Although I guess you wouldn't be able to understand that..."
"Tch!"
Tomoe swung her whip, but Shion dodged it. The attack instead hit a painting that was hanging on the wall, knocking it to the ground and causing the glass to loudly break and cover the floor. The tears continued to flow, making it difficult for her to see.
The sweat on Tomoe's back was starting to make her cold. As demonstrated during the fight in the morning fog, this first year could easily create illusions to trap others. Even Kagura Mayo, with all her power, was susceptable to them.
Was Shion afraid? No! That would be stupid!
The battle went on, with only a paper-thin difference separating the two. Suddenly, a glimmer appeared in Shion's right hand, as she revealed a knife! Tomoe threw up a shield created of pure psychokinetic energy, but Shion's knife cut through it easily.
"You're..."
Tomoe's entire body pulsed with fear.
---
"I'll show you the strength of Suzushiro!"
A bunch of bicycles had been piled into a bicycle mountain. Natsuki was shouting insults at the Suzaku Association members.
The bicycle rack near the auditorium was the site of a great battle. A group of Suzaku Association members had successfully gathered together, boosting the power of their psychokinesis. Suzushiro Haruka fought back by tossing whatever she could get her hands on at them. Since they were at a bicycle rack, this tended to be bicycles. Whether she liked it or not, Kuga Natsuki had been forced to come to Haruka's aid.
"Damn! At this rate we're going to lose! Hey, Give me your motorcycle suit!"
The hem of Natsuki's skirt had several oil and blood stains on it, which she kept hidden during uniform checks.
"Because of me...everyone...it's all my fault."
"Huh?"
They heard the voice of someone sobbing and looked in its direction. Behind the mountain of bicycles, a female student was curled up and crying. Natsuki looked over at Secretary General Suzushiro Haruka and was shocked!
The hot-blooded, proud and reckless pursuer of justice Suzushiro had started to cry! It was almost impossible to believe it, but she was crying in public!
"Hey, there's nothing to cry about!"
Suddenly, a wave of sadness overcame Natsuki.
All around them, the cries of the Suzaku Association members who had been pinned under bicycles could be heard, even though they didn't seem to have any painful injuries.
"This doesn't make any sense!"
Suddenly, there was a loud noise behind them. Bicycles began flying away from the bicycle rack and landing on top of the roof, where the figures of some people could be seen. Natsuki and Haruka raised their guard.
"Are they your friends?"
"Are you joking? Whoever they are, they're just causing trouble."
Natsuki pointed her gun at a pouting Yuuki Nao. Usually, she'd yell three or four insults, but this time all she did was cry.
"Huh? What are you sad about?"
"I'm not crying! It's just that it's raining! You're the one who's crying!"
"Sh...shut up! It's the rain! The rain!"
They continued to insist to each other that what was falling down their cheeks were raindrops, even though both of them realized that wasn't true.
"Geez! It's been raining so much lately! I hate the rain!"
Natsuki looked up at the rooftop and saw that people had been gathering there. A flash of lightning illuminated the area and she saw that a girl with twintail hair was floating in the air above them. It didn't look like a safe place to be.
"Mayo!?"
The goal of the Suzaku Association that Hinagiku was talking about...how did it involve Kagura Mayo? What did Higurashi do to her? Natsuki had to go and find out.
"Are you going to come too?"
How much time had passed since the flood? As the twin rotors came into view it became clear that the helicopter didn't belong to the police or the media. There was no writing on it to suggest who it belonged to. Perhaps it belonged to the military.
The helicopter flew over to a cliff and saw Mayo was lying on top. It landed at the nearest flat area and people began to get out. Akane recognized some of their faces. One was bald and was, without doubt, Kanazaki Rei, and wearing a Fuuka Academy uniform was a ten-years-younger Chairwoman Fumi Himeno!
Next to Fumi was an elementary-school student with long hair. Who was she? From her body language, it looked like she was ordering around the others.
Under her direction, they loaded Mayo onto a stretcher and inserted an intravenous drip to her arm. She shut her eyes tight and let out a tormented groan.
"They're all gone...Everybody is gone..."
Mayo was moved into the helicopter. She held out her small mud-covered hand. In it was some sort of accessory made out of nuts. No one took it.
---
"I've won!"
Akane had left the past of Mayo's subconscious and returned to the present.
Ten years ago, a flood wiped out Kagura Mayo's village. Without doubt, the event was covered up by Hoshinomiya. If this fact were to become public, they'd be finished.
"Everyone...they're all gone...why...why am I like this?"
Mayo kept saying the same thing over and over. She got up and sluggishly started walking. She walked over to the wire fence surrounding the edge of the rooftop. The clock tower hands shifted lower. She turned towards it.
Who would have expected she would have had such a past. The trauma she suffered was far greater than that of the others. It was probably for her own well-being that she sealed it out of her conscious memory.
Everyone on the rooftop was crying. Every member of the Suzaku Association except for one was there.
Mayo released a deep cry of despair through telepathy that resonated among all the students. It was a demonstration of how great Kagura Mayo's power was. But that was all it was.
"Mayo-chan!"
"Kagura-san!"
She heard the voices and saw the faces of her friends.
Sugiura Midori was standing dumbfounded. She had been amused by the one-sided battle, but she didn't anticipate this outcome at all.
The beautiful Student Council President Fujino Shizuru was looking into her face for the first time.
"Mayo!"
"What are you doing, you transfer student!"
Kuga Natsuki was there. Mayo was surprised to see the first year Yuuki Nao who was always skipping classes there too.
Her long hair blowing in the wind, Natsuki ran towards Mayo with an eager look on her face. However, a sudden bolt of lightning interrupted their reunion. There was the roar of thunder as the lightning struck the roof's metal fence, and Mayo's figure disappeared.
---
She had been too late. Natsuki could do nothing but cry out and fall to her knees.
"Natsuki..."
"Please...get up..."
As Shizuru approached, Natsuki got up but did not look at her. What had happened to Mayo? She had to find some way to find out.
It was over. Not just for the student council, but for all of Fuuka Academy. The cage they had been confined in would be thrown open. All their plans were ruined.
"Higurashi, you..."
When the angry Natsuki turned around, she saw a situation she could only describe as bizarre. The triumphant Akane was staring upwards with her mouth agape in shock. Shizuru, Nao, Midori, and everyone else were also all looking towards the sky. What were they looking at?
Natsuki looked at all of them again, then she looked up to see what they were looking at. What she saw sent shivers through her body.
A bright red glow, as though a volcano was erupting and spraying lava in the distance. However, this glow took on a cylindrical shape and was flying through the air in a wriggling pattern. As it flew closer, it became clear that it had a scale-covered body and two beards attached to its face. It wasn't a glowing light, but a huge beast!
"A...a dragon!? Do you think I'm stupid!?"
Suddenly, the band of light vanished. As she thought, it had just been a hallucination. She looked over to the roof's fence and saw a girl standing there.
"...Mayo?"
Natsuki called out to her, but Mayo didn't move.
"Well, this is unusual..." Nao murmured from within the crowd.
They started to move towards her.
Her hair that was normally tied in twintails was instead untied and came down to her waist. Not only that, but there was an uncomfortable feeling in the air...
"Ah!" Natsuki suddenly blurted out.
There was something on the back of Mayo's neck. It looked like something crawling from her neck up to her face. It consisted of three lines. One line was red, and when it reached the top of Mayo's head it vanished. It was reminiscient of the time Shion thought she saw the design on Mayo move while she was changing clothes.
"The seal...it's been broken..."
Higurashi Akane was shivering in fear. The sound of her teeth chattering could be clearly heard. Mayo had destroyed her feeling of certain victory.
It was impossible for anyone else to tell, but Akane, who had been inside Mayo's mind, realized that what they were seeing was the release of Mayo's true self.
"What are you doing!? Let's get her!"
The terror felt by Akane was felt by her followers as well. Even under normal circumstances, it would take the psychokinesis of 10 people to put up a fight, but now they had no chance.
The roof of the academy began shaking. The bricks and mortar holding it up were shifting. The concrete began to crack. Gears and shafts were slipping out of place. The building kept shaking until finally the clock tower Mayo was standing under started to collapse.
"The clock tower!"
"Mayo, run away!"
However, Mayo simply continued standing where she was, as the dust of the collapsing tower rose. Natsuki and the others could only stare in disbelief as the tragedy unfolded and Mayo was crushed.
Surely, the overwhelming mass of the clock tower would have crushed Mayo to death instantly, unless she somehow had a way to avoid the collapse.
And avoid it she did! Somehow, with her almost god-like level of power, she did what no other person with telekinesis would even think of attempting!
"The handcuffs!"
"When did they..."
Shizuru and Natsuki both spoke at exactly the same time. The handcuffs that had limited Mayo's freedom to move ever since she had arrived at the academy, the handcuffs that nobody had been able to cut, were gone.
But that wasn't all. The dragon bracelets remained, and were glowing bright red, as though they were brimming with energy waiting to be released.
"Let's go!"
There were screams as Mayo effortlessly tossed the clock tower, causing a small earthquake. The students shrieked as dust enveloped the rooftop, turning it into a hell of agonizing cries.
"What a nice sound. I'm finally back in control of this body. As expected, it works as well as always. My name is Fuhao."
Mayo looked at the palms of both her hands and started laughing.
"Now, what should I do first..."
Mayo casually picked up a large piece of concrete and turned towards the group of students.
"I guess I should do some tidying up."
Her playful tone was completely out of sync with the environment. It was the kind of sarcastic tone a girl might take on while bullying someone.
Mayo let the concrete chunk fall to the ground. Instead, she brought the palm of her hand to her mouth and blew a puff of air. It was only a tiny puff, but it had more force than an explosion. It caused a bright red tornado to sweep over the rooftop.
Not caring about what others would think of them, the Suzaku Association members started screaming even louder. Their difference in power was clear. Not long ago, they thought they were the strongest, but now they just felt like losers. Everybody ran frantically to avoid the tornado of fire. One person's uniform caught on fire, but they teleported into a water fountain just in time. Suddenly a telekinetic force flung them into an Ezo spruce tree, where they were left dangling on a branch.
As if her feet were frozen solid, Higurashi Akane didn't move. No one came to her aid or tried to rescue her. The supposed strongest group in the academy, the Suzaku Association, were nowhere to be seen.
As the tornado of fire drew closer, everyone was running frantically. Suddenly, someone tripped on a piece of concrete.
However, the tornado stopped in front of Akane. Within the whirlwind, a flash of hair could be seen. Mayo became visible. The heat of the tornado on Akane's face was strong enough to be painful.
"Hah! You're just a mere human."
"Ahhh...aaahhhh..."
"I see...you wanted to start a revolution so you'd be able to get out of this academy and see...Kazu-kun, is it?"
"Eh?"
"Your old boyfriend, huh..."
"Stop! Don't read it!"
"Hm? What a convenient thing to say when you've been rummaging through other people's minds and stiring up trouble. Let's see...Kazu-kun...looks like he's just an ordinary human. You hid your power from him while you were together, but eventually he found out...no, that's not it...your youthful love allowed you to see into the depths of his heart unobstructed.
"Hey!"
Without thinking, Natsuki cut into their conversation.
It was indeed without thinking, because she normally would have rather let the crying Akane get what she deserved.
Previously, Natsuki had had been patient with the transformed Mayo, because in the past she had always changed back after a while. This time, however, it was clear that something was different.
"Kagura Mayo...no. Fake Mayo...who are you?"
---
Hinagiku Tomoe was being carried out on a stretcher.
The defeated Tomoe had seen the entire spectacle on the rooftop through a computer monitor. The destruction of the clocktower. The tornado of fire. The students running away, and a faint light that was surely Kagura Mayo with her handcuffs released.
"Finally...Finally the seal is released."
Kanzaki Rei's voice was hushed but excited.
"She...Fuhao...The Dragon Priestess...can you hear her voice, Shion? Do you understand the significance of this? Fuhao, of the ancient Chinese..."
"Shang Dynasty, a prosperous kingdom based around the Yellow River. Fuhao was a first-rate female general whose intelligence and courage led her and the forces she commanded to victory over several foreign enemies."
"That's what people say, but she was also a woman who loved dragons more than anything else. In fact, she was obsessed with them. She was also a priestess."
"But I thought she died 3000 years ago?"
"So it is said. But Shion, you saw all of it. The breaking of the seal. The release of the dragon. The figure of a dragon that everyone saw."
"...Mayo..."
"You still want to call her that?"
Shion opened the file. Fire reflected off the lenses of the back-up glasses she was wearing, causing them to glow bright red.
"It says her name is Fuhao."
"But that doesn't mean anything to me. She's my childhood friend. A friend from my village. My only family...no matter what, that's who she is!"
To be continued...
*Note: Fuhao was a real person, who you can read about (as usual) Wikipedia