Mai Child

The serpent slithered its way towards Kaede eyeing her very carefully. It was a game of cat and mouse-It knew it was going to kill her. Kaede backed up, and the snake continued to slither forward until she was trapped against the ladder, bumping into it suddenly, causing her to turn around to see what she had hit. As she turned around, the serpent lunged forward, barely giving Kaede time to run to the side. The serpent's head slammed into the ladder, wrecking the bottom of it, and causing the yacht to shake violently before returning to its normal state. The sudden movement caused Kaede to lose her balance, unable to get back up, as the Orphan was recovering quickly, staring her down again, now mildly annoyed at her dodging. It made another strike, and all Kaede could do was compact herself and cover her head. By sheer luck, the serpent's head just missed hers, and she got off to a running start, almost stumbling again as another violent movement rocked the boat. She found herself close to the ladder again, and the snake hissed, ready for the killing strike. Kaede's breathing became ragged and frenzied.

As the serpent made its final assault, the world seemed to slow to a halt, and Kaede's birthmark began emitting a light violet energy, burning a small hole through her shirt. She turned to look at it, almost as if she was in slow-motion, as if she was the only one who could move... She seemed to know what she had to do, like a voice was telling her, guiding her along. She clutched her necklace , and a sudden light burst from it. Time returned to its normal flow and a large bow appeared in her hands. She made the motions one would make when firing an arrow, and the same violet energy formed an arrow appeared. She leaped to the side, and she fired off the energy shot at the snake, though not quickly enough. One of the fangs stabbed into her shoulder, and she lost control of the arm, arrows beginning to fly everywhere, one final arrow forming, firing straight up through the ladder chute. It wasn't noticeable to anyone until it tore through the serpent blocking the entrance, a truly massive arrow that continued into the sky, parting the clouds, finally disappearing from sight. The serpents disintegrated, and Kaede landed roughly on her side, blinking a few times as she felt a sharp pain run through her body, presumably from the fang, shutting her eyes quickly in pain. She took a few breaths and closed her eyes, losing consciousness, the bow disappearing from sight as quickly as it had appeared.
 
The bolt of energy fizzled the air around it, and for moments afterwards, all that could be heard was a loud ringing before the sound of the world was restored. Suzume looked in shock at the origin of the large arrow, a charred hole replacing where the ladder leading below deck had been. Any and all Orphans that had been in the way were no more, however Suzume knew that such a powerful attack was complete overkill for such Orphans and, as such, was most likely an accident. Suzume glanced over at Orchidia and decided that, for the moment, she could handle herself. The girl who fired the arrow could be in more danger and, besides, there were always the others to help her should she need it.

Suzume jumped into the now large gap in the ship, careful to avoid the still steaming metal that ringed the edge. It seemed that the other students had gone further into the interior of the ship where Orphans had not yet infiltrated, but on the floor laid a girl, a puddle of blood surrounding her still form. As Suzume ran forward, she noted with relief that Kaede was still breathing, but that action had to be taken quickly. The bite mark in her shoulder was the source of the blood, from some sort of stabbing attack. Ripping off a sleeve, Suzume did a hasty bandage on the wound, stopping most of the blood loss before sitting her up against the wall, making gravity help in reducing the blood flow to the wound. Suzume stayed there with Kaede, hoping that she would wake up soon, no other obvious injuries on her body.
 
Well, that was that. Now where had Kaede gotten off to?

A quick glance showed that she wasn't on the main deck anymore. Perhaps below?

A giant laser blasted up out of the bowels of the ship, so that seemed like a good place to check. If Kaede was there and needed help...

Sae jumped down the ladder chute as well, taking care to avoid the rapidly-cooling metal. She rushed over to Kaede, who was bleeding and slumped up against a wall. The blood was still coming out fairly quickly, too...she needed full medical attention, quickly.

Sae spoke, not even glancing at Suzume or the others as she did so.
"Where's the nearest hospital?"
Suzume was the only one not freaking out enough to respond. "Uh, there's one on the island..."
"Suzume, right..? Can you fly?"
"Not..really.."
"Very well then. Thank you for your help, but I will be leaving now. Do try to take care of everyone else on board the ship, vice-president."

Sae bent down, picking up her sister and walking to a wall of the ship. Her cane floated on behind her, carried by her shadow.
"...Where are you going?"

Sae glanced back over at Suzume for a second.
"Out."

The shadows wavered and shifted, drawing her sword and cutting open a hole in the hull. The moon glittered on the night ocean outside, and Sae stepped outside and planted her feet firmly on a black platform in the air.

From there, she started running. The shadows formed a smooth ground for her to run, and eventually skate on, and it was dark enough outside for most of the students fleeing in lifeboats to be unable to recognize her.

This made it look like a ghost had just grabbed a girl and was flying at full speed towards the school.

The path of shadows vanished with Sae's passing, as she didn't really need to spend the energy on maintaining it. The seawater that started sloshing on her platform as it sloped towards the school made it more slick, and easier to skate on, but didn't help her much with her main problem:

Kaede was freaking heavy.

Now she wasn't particularly fat or anything, or even pudgy, but even just a 100 pound weight is hard to carry properly for an extended period of time when you're not particularly strong. At least the snake made up for it.
 
Nanoka was busy fighting off the serpents who had been straggling behind; in between attacks she led a few of the stray students to safety. One attack from below sent the girl flying back, momentarily covered in orphan slime. Things seemed to calm down now and she quickly dismissed her weapons. Looking around, she searched for her bag, but it was nowhere to be found.

It wasn't like her laptop or media player couldn't be replaced; the girl had a strangely large amount of money at her disposal.

Shrugging, she looked over the edge of the rail at the academy. It wouldn't be a far swim and if she wanted to go for the Fuka Swim Team, she might as well get some practice in! She looked around for the student council president and made her way over.

"Well, after that- I just want to get off this ship and onto some dry land." Nano grumbled, picking a chunk of goo and slimy flesh from her glasses. "I do hope I was some sort of a help to you. Are you alright?"

Back at the academy, Ren stood with his arms crossed, atop the administrator's building. A sly smile came to his lips as Kaede's arrow pierced the sky. It was impressive, most of the girls could already use their elements. He wanted them all to be fully awakened; then the show would really begin.

"Almost there, girls...but tomorrow is another day."
 
Suzume watched as Sae took Kaede and left in a hurry in a self-made hole in the side of the ship. She studied Sae as she soon skated on a near invisible platform of what seemed to consist of nothing more than shadows as she took off in the direction of the island. Suzume could have stopped her, but Sae seemed to not be in a mood to argue and Suzume knew that she would make sure Kaede was properly attended too. Besides, if Kaede died, it would be all on Sae and not on Suzume herself.

Jumping out of the now cooled hole, she looked out at the rest of the Hime's, finding that they seemed to have taken care of all of the Orphans on this part of the ship. Suzume relaxed slightly, thinking that maybe this would be the end of them. But a sudden chill overcame her, and she got the feeling that this was merely the beginning. Shaking off the feeling, she walked over to Nanoka and Hotaru, asking, "Is everyone alright?"
 
Remi was lost in a dream when all hell broke loose on the ship. Long before they had set sail he had taken far more anit-nusaia pills then he should have. He got motion sickness so bad, all from any sort of motion at all. He was a horrible passenger no matter the means. He always got sick. Being onboard a ship was no different. Even with all the money his family had paid for him to go to this new school his parents were angry when he requested to get a small room in the lowest levels of the ship. Here it had been said was where he would feel the least amount of moment but with a sudden thrashing of the ship and a ton of noise he woke up with a massive headache.

His body was tossed back and forth along with a few things that he had unpacked. 'What the...' He was alone but it sounded like more students were closer then before. Last thing he had seen were two crew members having a smoke. He was damn near at the bottom of the ship. Scrambling to his feet he wobbled and grabbbed the door handle. He got the door open and heard some girls talking. Why where they down here? His stomach rejected his movement and instantly he felt like he was going to be sick, but another strange rocking of the ship forced him back into his room where he hit the wall and then his bunk. This was a crappy start to his school year.

Groaning he got to his feet, grabbed his coat and wobbled once more towards his door. It was swinging back and forth and it almost kissed him as he looked out. His hair was a mess, his shirt wrinked as well as his pants. He was use to uniforms and normally would have looked well dressed and put together but now, well he looked like he has slept in his clothes. He had and every bit of him looked like he was about to be sick. His complexion was pale, already but he had lost all color.

Staggering towards the girls he felt stupid and sick. A horrible way to try and impress and cluster of girls but he had no choice. "Hey.. hey... umm whats going on?" He looked at them with watery eyes and tried to smile. He knew he must look like crap and if they blew him off he wouldnt be all that surprised.
 
Hotaru sighed as the creatures seemed to be defeated and squirmed away. Nanoka was a HiME too it appeared and that was a relief to Hotaru, it meant that she wouldn't have to worry as much about late night Orphan hunting.

"You did wonderfully Miss Nanoka. It appears that you are of plenty of use to me! Speaking of useless girls, why hello Miss Suzume, it looks like everything here is better. I swear though, if one of those things put even a scratch in my car they're going to be hunted down and exterminated one by one!" Hotaru growled, raising her gun and resting it on her shoulder, it was suprisingly lighter then it looked, but it still was too slow for Hotaru's tastes. Why couldn't my child have given me like...chakrams or something cooler? But I won't complain.

"Something tells me the worst is yet to come though, so I'd like it if neither of you let your guard down." She looked up, noticing the red glint in the sky. "And does anyone know if Miss Sae is mentally stable? She seemed to go a bit off the deep end with that Orphan...May I ask you two something that can only stay between the three of us? It is a grave and serious matter which I come to you with this." Hotaru nodded, glancing between Nanoka and Suzume.
 
Ren’s steely eyes glared at the ship on the water. His normally cocky grin had been replaced with a look of disappointment. The girls had managed to save most of the students from harm; very few had been hurt or killed. He wanted to see them actually work together as a team, however that would take time.

Friendship, bonds...All of that good stuff. It would take a while for them to do so, but that was why they had been chosen to attend that school.

Crossing his arms, Ren mused to himself. "I expected the fun to last a little while longer...The Master would be upset if I didn’t give them a big enough challenge." Once again, he grinned. "Well, let’s just see how serious these girls get when I bring out the big guns. If they want to play, we shall..."

As he began to chant, purple mist emanated from his body. The ground started to shake and by the time he was finished with his spell, a massive sea snake slithered before his eyes. It let out a earth-shaking screech just as Ren held up a finger to speak. "I want you to destroy that ship. Now, go!"

Nanoka smiled at Hotaru and Suzume, still trying to rid herself of the serpent goo. Things seemed to have calmed down for the time being and she tried to collect herself. It was a relief that she wasn’t useless like Hotaru said about the other girl and she could feel her cheeks grow a bit warm.

She might make friends this year, after all!

"Question...?" Hotaru gave her a look like she meant business, and before she could say anything else, one of the students wandered over to them. She couldn’t really see through her goopy glasses and quickly began to try and find something dry to clean them off with.
Unfortunatley, dry wasn’t really part of her status at the moment.

"Does anyone have a handkerchief or anything? I can’t really see--" Ren’s next summoned orphan’s cry interrupted her and she could feel her bracelets begin to grow warm again. Something was coming and it was much bigger than last time. The water around them began to churn and the creature’s cry made a couple of students head below deck.

"Something tells me this isn’t going to be good, guys..." Nano stood her ground and tried her hardest to see what they were about to go up against.
 
"I'm sorry...I can't go on.."

Sae stopped and fell to her knees on her little platform of shadow, gasping for breath. She hadn't expected it to be this difficult to carry someone for a distance, much less a small person like Kaede.

"..Nocturne."

The shadow platform tripled in size, growing even as Sae tried to catch her breath. Shadows coalesced at the edge, first forming a hand...

..then an arm...

..Then an entire person, as Nocturne pulled herself up out of the platform. She crawled around on all fours, going up to Kaede and starting to sniff her hair.

Sae, exhausted, took a moment to look over where they were. The school was still a fair bit away, but Nocturne could do the carrying. As for the ship, they were far enough away now that nobody should really be able to make her out.

They where still close enough, however, for Sae to notice the wake of something huge as it slipped by under the water towards the ship. Similarly, one or two of the smaller serpents had avoided the other girls, and were now heading away from the boat towards the smaller life rafts.

Sae looked back at where Kaede was starting to go into shock and where Nocturne was smelling the girl's chest. If she didn't get to the hospital quick then she'd probably die.

If she didn't go save the kids in the liferafts, though, they'd be killed before the other people with superpowers realized that the serpents had changed targets.

There wasn't anybody there to watch her. As far as they knew, she had already left. It would be tragic, sure, but nobody could blame her for not stopping those serpents. After all, she was too busy getting Kaede to the hospital to notice, much less turn around and kill them.

Thoughts of the deaths of those children ran through her head, torn limb from limb before they even knew it, blood mixing in with the ocean water and panicked flailing into a red frothy mix of pain and death.

Well, they were just strangers. Kaede was her sister, and she needed help right away. This was why Sae had the shadows on the wavetops solidify and start thrashing around wildly. Intrigued by potential food, the remaining few serpents left the liferafts alone to go examine the potential feast over by Sae.

Having distracted the serpents, she turned back to find Nocturne lifting up Kaede's skirt and getting ready to sniff her more thoroughly.

"Stop that. Pick her up, we need to get going."
Nocturne glanced back at her master, then did as she was told. With her handling the shadow road for them and carrying Kaede, Sae was free to distract the serpents, and it wasn't long until shore was just in sight.
 
As Hotaru opened her mouth to tell them what she wanted to say, and to greet the newcomer she felt the violent shaking of the boat, nearly toppling her over. Hotaru mirrored Nanoka's sentiments exactly. She quickly dug out a rag from her purse and handed it to Nanoka, after all what use would she be if she couldn't see to fight.

Another moment passed and the rainbow light swirled around her hands again as her rifle appeared once again, ready to fight off whatever monstrosity could be coming. She had a bad feeling that this ship was going to be severely damaged and if her car was destroyed in the process she wouldn't be happy in the least. Steeling her nerves she took two large steps to the middle of the ship as it rocked she stood firm. She was prepared to fight and if Aurora needed to make an appearance then so be it.

"Useless-San, Nanoka-San, other girl, either prepare to fight or get to the lifeboats something tells me this won't be pretty." Hotaru barked orders at the three others.
 
Ren watched in satisfaction as the creature neared the ship, his arms crossed against his chest. Something made him feel like this time with the HiME, things would be more fun. The last time he had permission to mingle with humans wasn’t exciting at all.

"Good. You smash that ship up nice and proper and maybe we’ll get to see some fireworks!" He grinned and clapped his hands; for once, acting like the kid he appeared to be. Looking out to the water, he mused to himself and tried to enjoy his accomplishment. That was, until he could smell the faint stench of someone nearby.

"So, you’re the one who keeps ruining my nights with Orphan attacks..."

She was unseen, but Ren only smiled and pointed at the huge creature on the water. "I get that a lot...However, you really have NO idea what it is, that I am trying to do." Another screech from the creature echoed out to the island and Ren turned in her direction, very pleased with himself.

"Instead of coming after little old me, you should be out there helping your friends..." Ren mused, as the creature across the water began smashing the ship. Cries from across the way echoed in his ears and when the girl attacked, he was gone.

However, his voice still remained.

"You know...A lot of people have made the mistake of coming after me, when just like you- I am a pawn in this little game." With that, the voice and his presence was gone. For the time being.
 
"Tch. He got away." Shiki whispered, releasing the 'handle bar' on her sword, her stealth disipating. Resting the sword against her shoulder, Shiki thought to herself, "The people on the boat will be fine without me. After all, my Hotaru's on that boat, and if I know her, and I do, those Orphans are in for a beating of a life time." And with that, Shiki headed back to her room to wait for Hotaru's arrival.
 
Lost in all the noise people were running here and there making for life rafts as some sort of war broke out. The screaming and flashing lights from magical swards filled the hallways. Holding onto the railing he made for the upper desks and was nearly knocked over my other freaked out students and crew memebers. Trying to hold onto the railing and the life raft he twice almost fell into the water. He could swim but in the dark water he didnt think that he would survive. Something was in there, something dark and something whatever it was almost killed them all.

The boat was shaking and moaning, it must be going down. A girl pushed him aside and tried to get into the boat but her friends pulled her out and they got into anther and were heading down. Shaking off his random thoughts of his bags and books. He grabbed the rail and climbed into the life raft. His foot hit the switch and he was dropped straight down into the black waters with a huge splash. Instantly he was knocked backwards and hit his head on the seat inside. "Ouchhh...mmmmhmm" groaning he held his head and just watched as the boat sank. All his stuff was gone.. that sucked.. it could all be replaced and would be there over night but still. Soggy and tired he didnt even try to to row, the boat seemed to know which way to shore and he just laid back and looked up at the night sky. So many stars.. it was beautiful.. 'I wonder if anyone else can see this..' he thought.
 
Just as clueless and frightened as frightened as everyone else Osamu nonetheless kept his head as he ran along the deck, it was only when the ship jerked as something struck it. There was a loud metal bang As his head struck the side of the superstructure and he bounced off hitting the guard rain and slumped down an angry red lung forming on his head though at least his butt had landed on something relatively soft. He looked down to see a discarded bag, one he recognized immediately but with no time for investigation though so he just grabbed it and pulled himself to his feet as the lump started leaking a little bit of blood from a minor cut. The flow of people was crushing but somehow though all the screaming an running confusion he reached the lifeboat beck and was lifted into one by on of the brave faced crew. The boat was lowered and everyone had the same question.

"What is going on?"

----------------------------------------

The boar reached the shore and beached. By that time Osamu's entire head ached and may people either lined the shores or were heading inland fast. Someone threw him and the bag he was holding over their shoulder and Osamu recognized the back of the crewmans' uniforms as he was placed on a makeshift bed, a kind eyed woman pulling his eyes open and shone a torch into each of them. The bag being filled away for him. "You're going to be alright, just a mild concussion, a couple of days rest and you'll be in class." with that the woman was gone to her next patient that was brought in and someone followed up with painkillers and a glass of water. And still where was no answer to the question.
 
The yacht suffered an onslaught of violent rams from an underwater adversary, A minute or so passed, and the boat slowly regained its balance. As if to break this peace, the gargantuan serpent, whipped up from the sea, towering over the yacht, the girls, even the more manageable versions of it. It opened its mouth to screech, showering the girls with water and a less desirable type of liquid. It revealed countless rows of razor-sharp teeth, and it began to stare its prey down, moving its neck side-to-side.

Kaede's blood was beginning to seep through the makeshift bandages, dripping into the ocean, which drew the attention of the already annoyed followers that Sae had managed to draw away from the students. They began to cruise the water at high speeds, intent on getting a meal today. One of the closeset serpents suddenly launched itself into the air, making an attempt to snatch away one of the girls, if not both.
 
The sudden noise of something awful made Remi sit up and look around. The water was restless and it was so hard to see if anything might be in it. The strange sound coming from the boat made him sure it might sink at any moment swallowed up but the snagging waves clawing at every near by vessel. Were they under attack? And from what? Everything felt evil and scary. Why? He scanned the water closest to him and could only see the ripples from his life raft splashing along its sides. Something didnt feel right. Nothing felt right. Maybe he should have taken a year off, that did they call it. A gap year. Yeah, an early gap year. He could have gone to Brazil or Scottland or anywhere but here.

As his mind drifted from one thought to another his boat ran aground and launched him forward yet again. This time out of the boat and into the sand head first. His landing was less then graceful and left him with his butt in the air and a nose full of sand. Coughing and spitting he rolled over and sighed. What a night. Not only was he tired and still a bit seasick. He could now add, dirty, cold, wet, ichy and now lost. He could hear the school kids near by shouting and running around trying to get help or something from whatever it was that was going on but he just laid there for a while. His heard hurt so why get up just yet. He didnt want to deal with the crying girls just yet. Funny, he thought he was going to escape girl drama, boy was he wrong.
 
Nanoka had been rushing kids into lifeboats, just as Hotaru had asked. While she was doing that, she couldn't help but feel a bit...strange. Not only had she lost her backpack, there was a different nagging feeling in the back of her mind. The large creature neared the ship and with a single blow, devistated it. She stared at it and tried to regain her composure; assisting one mre student onto a lifeboat before heading to the railing herself.

Well, if I am going to try for the swim team, I might as well practice now... She mused, eyeballing the quickly-nearing water. Most of the students and staff had managed to get off the ship safely, aside from a few minor injuries. The shore was close enough for her to swim, so with a wave at Hotaru, she gracefully dove off the ship. Emmersed in water, the girl felt quite safe and quickly surfaced for air, before swimming alongside the lifeboats.

The first day of school, she had hoped, wouldn't be as strangely-terrible as today had been. It would be nice if she got a decent roomate at the dorms, was somewhat good during Swim Team tryouts... All of those thoughts went through her mind as she swam. At least when she did get dry and warm, she would be exausted enough to sleep.
 
Sae merely smiled as one of the serpents went flying up in the air towards her.

"...no."

She stepped to the side, raising her sword up as the shadow floor where she had been standing dissipated into nothingness. The blade cut a long slash along the monster's side, inflicting mortal damage and spraying Sae with gallons of it's blood.

Oh well.

She and Nocturne hurried to the shore. It was dark out, and Sae was paying more attention to the snakes then much else, so she didn't notice that she just happened to land in the precise position required to replace Remi's view of the night sky with one of her underwear.

It was a good thing she didn't notice, too, as her attention was then taken up by the final few serpents rising up to lash out at her. She dropped her sword, raising her hands above her head in a gesture that probably meant nothing to the monsters. Still, she couldn't help but think that some of them smiled.

They didn't notice that she dropped it in her shadow.

It twisted and flashed out, the sword being held by an arm of solid shadow as it cut through the various snakes. With the monsters slain, Sae left at a run, leaving Remi with only a glimpse of her back to go by (aside from the scent of monster blood and a pantyshot, of course).

Sae had Nocturne hand Kaede off to her and disappear before entering the hospital. It was bad enough that she was covered in blood and carrying a wounded girl inside, she didn't need bondage-lady drawing any more attention.

"Hello. My name is Sae Matsumaya, and my sister is dying in my arms."

Come to think of it, this was her first meeting with any of the school administration...hopefully they wouldn't take it too badly.
 
Hotaru sighed, she just couldn't get a break tonight! The gun reformed in her hands and took aim at the giant serpent. She fired a few times, the serpent recoiling and lashing out at her, making deep cracks in the deck.

"Crap...this won't end well." Hotaru frowned and fired a couple of more shots. She couldn't even tell if there were others about. The tail of the serpent whipped around and smashed into the hull of the ship, nearly splitting it apart. A low growl escaped her lips as two wings made of rainbow light spread out behind her, glowing with a soft light, she quickly took to the sky, leaping up off the boat as it split in half and began to sink.

"MY CAR! NOW IT'S SUNK! YOU WILL PAY!" She cried out, hovering above where the deck was moments before. She fired another shot and narrowly dodged another whip from the serpent's tail. She was sure that this creature was going to pay, and now that her car was under water she was more furious then she had ever been before.
 
Nearing 2:00 AM- Fuka Academy- Hospital~

It had been over an hour and a half since Kaede had been treated, and she was now laying in a hopsital bed. The wounds weren't too serious, save for the enormous puncture wounds on her shoulder, something her sister had managed to explain away. The wound was now wrapped carefully with bandages, and Kaede had been asleep since the incident on the yacht. Her sister Sae dutifully stood guard over her body as she slept, fighting off sleep. The small birthmark on the side of Kaede's stomach burned red around it, and the girl began to move around in her bed, finally curling up into the fetal position before continuing her sleep.