Work Text:
KURO TENSHI
By EVA_beatrice
© August 2026.
“...I’m impressed that you have defeated your grandfather…this is as it should be—you must show no loyalty to anyone other than your brother…the Obsidian Prince…you have grown into a fine girl.”
Her tiny hands gripping tightly to the long, crimson handle of their family’s signature claymore, Mikoto tried to lessen the frown on her face as her beloved grandparent whispered out his final orders and praised her as dearly as he’d guided her since she could remember.
“Now you have become a full-fledged HiME.”
In the months following his departure from Earth, she had registered that as love, the greatest way she was able to prove her worth as the latest Minagi who battled with the relic in their possession for centuries and as the grandchild he taught every method to locate, eliminate, and protect. As long as she sliced and penetrated through anything in her and her loved ones’ ways, no matter how heavy Miroku was—she wouldn’t dare complain about the privilege to wield what was gifted from the Obsidian Lord himself—she would protect those dear to her, the best way she could:
Her devotion.
Now, she doesn’t think she gets love at all, especially since the last person she’s come to love has only thrown long lectures and furious faces each time Mikoto has used either her blade or element to protect the upperclassman she’s come to see as an older sister, as if Mikoto wasn’t acting in the instant the ginger took to hesitate to draw out her Child to be on the offensive or her rings to be on the defensive.
“You don’t know how tough it is to look after someone you love and getting hurt, you don’t have a clue!” Mai had shouted at her that night on the shore, nothing but disappointment instead of showing a smile of relief at being protected from the creeping roots of Diana as Yukino hid behind a boulder to make the creature drown Mai in the deep ocean.
Mai’s refusal to answer Mikoto’s question on whether she saw the middle-schooler as a nuisance to be around made the younger girl pour out tears far thicker and a cry far louder than what she had burst out the day of her grandfather’s funeral. Mikoto can still remember how lonely she felt as rain poured down and waves clashed with her similarly blue uniform skirt, and Mai just looked elsewhere, not even looking back at Mikoto as she ran back to the school grounds and sobbed into the distance.
When Mai did finally passionately look into the eyes of Mikoto later that evening, it was with a focused glare she never thought sweet Mai who always thought of putting others before herself would give, her teeth clenched and mouth furrowing as she responded to Akira being defeated.
“You killed him! You killed…Takumi…Kagutsuchi!”
Infuriated enough to unleash the Child she most of the time kept hidden, she pointed and swayed her hands towards Mikoto not to pat her head or fix her clothes but to direct the dragon under her command to finish one task no matter how much Mikoto dodged and defended herself—
Attack Mikoto.
Mikoto’s memory is a bit blurry of their fight, her head so heavy and voices going in and out of her ear so plentiful and loud a few days back she had to rely on information defeated and still in the circus HiMES observed and gathered for the main piece, but she will never be able to forget the ire that weaved into every tint of periwinkle in Mai’s orbs, or the unfamiliar scowl above blood that trailed from teeth puncturing skin on the high-schooler, aimed at Mikoto even as Mai leaned bruised, on the ground encircled by flames of her own doing.
“Love…” Mikoto whispers to herself, her grip on Miroku tightening as memories of the recent battle clashed against something in her brain to then repeat the following:
Protect herself. Protect Reito. Protect Mai.
If she can protect herself by protecting Reito and Mai, she protects most of all the Obsidian Lord; but each time she protects the Obsidian Lord and Reito through her decision to keep on protecting Mai, Mai hates her more and more.
Now, enough to participate in the HiME Carnival properly as the holder of the strongest Child.
Perhaps, then Mikoto should no longer question what the voices now tell her—
Defeat Mai. Protect Reito. Defend the Obsidian Lord. Defeat Mai. Protect Reito. Defend the Obsidian Lord.
If Mai is unable to see that Miroku slices through enemies to protect her, even if it means her brother and crush disappearing (How was Mikoto supposed to know Akira was that fond of Takumi?), then that means the biggest enemy Mikoto has to face to defend Mai is Mai herself—her attacking Mikoto for destroying Gennai even proves it.
By taking Mai out of the game, Reito can be protected more easily as Mikoto deals with the remaining HiMES without the restraint in the form of Mai’s multiple loves and heavy chastising, and the Obsidian Lord and the rights the game itself upholds in his honor and name are defended too. Mai won’t have red eyes and deep grimaces anymore.
Yes, why didn’t Mikoto think of this sooner? Mai’s wish for Mikoto to not draw Miroku in a competition built around girls using everything at their disposal to protect their love is silly, anyway.
Yukino, Akira, Nao, Shiho…just how soon would they have been able to claim they took down the beast Kagutsuchi if Mikoto was passive like Mai too? If Mikoto fumbled with her claymore like Mai struggles with her tenrin not due to physical strength but emotional vulnerability?
Mai should just take a seat, heartbroken but safe while Mikoto gets rid of everyone in her way.
“My enemies are those who attack me…Mai attacked me…Mai is my enemy…” Mikoto thinks out loud, her golden eyes staring far into the distance at the semi-burned trees that were the background of Mai’s meltdown the other day, orbs widening as she spots the white skin of Kagutsuchi slightly making itself known high above the grass also scorched due to its HiME’s commands, “by defeating Mai…I protect Mai and Reito…and defend the Obsidian Lord…”
Beneath her sailor top and turtleneck, her pendant glows in the darkness without her having a single clue, not that Mikoto has ever noticed any changes in the necklace when it’s brightened freely as her outfit gets in disarray during combat or she’s changing into nightwear to go to bed.
Defeat Mai. Protect Reito. Defeat Mai. Protect Reito.
Defend the Obsidian Lord.
Those who attack you are your enemies.
“Mai…Brother…”
(Defend the Obsidian Lord.)
Crouching down and sniffing around to make sure no HiME or Child is lurking—scrunching a little at the ashy residue still in the air—Mikoto begins leaping high overhead from grass and then hill and then tree, ready to dance with the blessed strikes of Miroku to defend all loved ones and most of all her Lord, shards of obsidian as murky as the shadows overtaking her face coalescing and uprooting in her departure.
[FIN.]
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