Throughout the city, the forces of good and evil alike felt strange ripples in reality, warning that something was terribly wrong. While none of them knew exactly what it was, the unanimous consensus was that a very unnatural event had occurred. Something had happened which, if not addressed, could spell disaster for the very fabric of space and time. Yuri Mikagami had woken up early. "What am I going to do?" she asked herself, sitting in pajamas at her desk and staring out at the still-brightening sky. "What am I going to do?" she repeated, looking down at her books and blushing as she removed the counsellor's booklet to place it somewhere less obvious. "What am I going to do?" she asked again as three faces scrolled through her mind. "Amy, Balabalalde, Ki." Mr. Ikari's voice echoed in her head. "Each one loves you in their own way, however twisted it might be." She had to do something. She didn't have a clue what, but she knew she had to do something. "But Yuri..." She recalled Leilei's words the last time they'd parted. "It was your responsibility to tell him straight if you loved him or not." She hadn't known! She still didn't know! They'd been friends but... Why was it that Bala was allowed to just spring things on her like that but she was expected to make instant decisions? No, she realised, she hadn't been expected to make an instant decision. Her decision was expected to have been made long ago. But it hadn't been! It still wasn't! "He's in love with me," she heard herself whisper in the counsellor's office, when Mr. Ikari had finally made her realise why Ki had been acting so strangely. "Oh gods, he's _actually_ in love with me." At least Bala had said SOMETHING. Ki had never once told her anything, never once leapt to the overwhelming extremes that Bala frequented. He'd never really done anything... But all the signs had been there. Ikari nodded inside her head, posing one more question. "So this girl who's interested in you has no chance whatsoever?" "Romantically?" she had clarified, otherwise answering the question directly, when she could barely manage a full sentence about her feelings for the other two. "No." Amy had proved a great friend, and Yuri didn't want to lose her for good, but she knew she could never return the feelings her friend had for her. She had to set things straight with Amy. For good. She had to talk to all of them. She had to find out what they truly felt, straight from the horse's mouth, and then she had to start being honest herself. She had to start being honest with herself. "Yuri dear?" Her mother's cries interrupted her thoughts. "Are you up yet?" Glancing down at her clock, Yuri's eyes widened as she realised just how much time she'd spent lost in thought. "I'm going to be late!" Reality, you see, had a way of reasserting itself. **************************************** Dark Heart High Netherworld Educational Institution for The Universal Propagation of Evil Started by Mads This chapter by: Kurayami Diku Part Fifty-six: Discombobulation! **************************************** It had been a quiet day so far, Yuri thought as she walked down the corridor to her next class. Amy had vanished after homeroom, saying she needed to do something. Ki had been as elusive as ever and Bala had been away ever since the weekend. That meant so far, Yuri's intentions to sort out the tangled web that was her love life had come to nothing. The mess she was in hadn't been her fault, she still assured herself, but since those three had somehow dragged her in, she'd gotten further and further over her head. If she didn't establish some control soon, she knew she'd never be able to. "Ah Yuri! I've been looking for you." Stopping in the middle of the corridor, the girl in question turned to see a rapidly approaching Craig Maimsworth. He looked happy. He didn't look like he was about to try and kill her. Surely he wasn't in love with her too. What could he want? Then he stretched out a piece of paper, and she understood. "I'm having an I-finally-decapitated-my-brother party!" "..." Yuri responded intelligently, still mentally extracting the keyword, 'party', from what he'd just said. "It was going to be an I-finally-decapitated-my-brother-with-a-little-help-from- my-friends party, but Yasuko said if I dared call her my friend in public, she'd hold a party for my own decapitation within the week, and make it a live event." "Well, it's the thought that counts, I guess..." Yuri eventually found her voice, still unsure exactly how to react to recent events concerning the Maimsworths. "So how are you feeling about all this?" "Never better!" Craig boasted cheerfully. "Killing an older sibling gives you such a sense of accomplishment. Plus, to be able to host a party and KNOW he won't show up at the last minute to ruin it! I can't tell you how many years I've dreamed of that!" "..." Yuri replied again, deciding her simpler response had worked better. "You should have seen the look on his face! Remind me to show you when you come around; his head's in my trophy room. Well actually, it IS my trophy room at the moment; I'm still having the room done up since I've never really had cause for it before, but you've gotta start somewhere, right?" Yuri just nodded. "Oh, have you seen Ryuji? I've got something else I want to ask him." "No, sorry." "Oh well, let me know if you bump into him. Bye." Yuri watched as Craig ran off to invite some other hapless victim, err, friend. ******************** "So Miss Angeleye," Mr. Ikari asked as he heard the door, his eyes still buried in his paperwork, "what brings you here today?" This was turning out to be a busy week. "I think I have a multiple personality disorder," Amy answered nervously as she took a seat. "I think I have a multiple personality disorder," the other Amy answered nervously as she took a seat. "I see." Dark Heart's counsellor looked up at the identical girls sitting in his office. "I've heard a little about this. Most interesting..." "Look doc," Amy number one said. "I know she's just a figment of my imagination. Can't you just give me something to make her go away?" "Me?" Amy number two shrieked. "YOU'RE the one who's going to be sent away, you vile hellspawn!" Mr. Ikari quickly jotted something down in his notepad, taking note of which girl had just identified herself as good-aligned. "You think you've got a snowflake's chance in hell of harming me HERE?" The other Amy unleashed a roaring bitch laugh. "Be thankful you can even survive inside this school!" "When we get home," the good Amy replied, suddenly at a loss for words. "I'll... I'll... I'll get Mom to banish you!" "So, when did this start happening?" The counsellor's voice momentarily silenced the argument, as both girls returned their attention to him. Taking it in turns, they slowly went over the occasions during which they could recall splitting and merging, and answered the resulting questions on what else had been happening at the time. "I suspect this condition is due to your rather drawn-out alignment shock," the calm voice eventually explained, after they had finished recounting their recent duel. "Young psychics often find astral projection abilities manifesting themselves in strange ways, even if they never actually develop those powers later on." "So you're saying I'm merely projecting her subconsciously?" both Angeleyes asked at once. "Pretty much, only not the way you're probably thinking. I suspect you're both actually projecting each other." This brought a look of confusion to the girls' faces. "It's clear that neither of you is the dominant portion of the self, if there even is one in this case. No, I'd venture to guess you're a case of a clean split down the middle, that you're both just temporary incarnations of the major conflicting aspects of the greater whole. In this instance your desires for good and evil, about as diametrically opposed as they come." "Is this permanent?" the good Amy asked. "Should I be applying for a transfer?" "Darkness no," the counsellor chuckled as he stroked his moustache, "it should all clear up once your channels finally stabilise. As your 'big sister' has apparently told you, when that happens you could wind up as a magical girl, good or evil, as a psychic or just utterly powerless. What she did neglect to tell you however is that these possibilities aren't necessarily mutually exclusive." Both Amys silently comprehended this. "In the meanwhile, you're just going to be tossed about between those extremes, while your body tries to work out just how much power it can handle." "So there'll only be one of me then? When it's all over?" "Almost certainly, assuming it hasn't killed you by then, but you may keep the ability to project. You'll probably start to gain more control over it soon anyway, at least during periods of extreme emotion." "Rarely a shortage of those recently..." Good Amy recalled discovering she could turn into a magical girl again, a realisation she hadn't made until several hours after she'd actually done so. "If I'm evil incarnate," the evil Amy questioned, wondering why as an evil being she'd felt compelled to wait her turn, "why do I feel so weak and restrained most of the time?" "I never said you were evil incarnate," he corrected, "simply that you are Miss Angeleye's internal evil incarnate. Trust me, there is quite a difference. As she continues to grow accustomed to our school, however, I think you will find your powers growing and the discomfort you describe going away." His answer seemed more than satisfactory to the questioning girl, and rather worrying to the other one. "So if our 'bodies'," the good Amy cautiously pronounced the word, "are both just projections, then where's the real form?" "That's where it gets a little messy." Mr. Ikari grinned, in a way which left no doubt that his placement at Dark Heart was well deserved. "How much do you know about transdimensional manifestations of evolutionary psionics?" ******************** At lunchtime, Craig finally tracked down and approached Ryuji. Well, Craig actually located a pretty-looking girl he'd never seen before on school grounds, but he figured even if it didn't turn out to be Ryuji, it was a win-win situation. "Ryuji, right?" "Yeah," the girl responded, before looking to see who it was. "Oh, Craig." The young Maimsworth was far from the first person Ryuji wanted to see right now, but at least he knew Craig would only be there briefly. When Lily finally found him again, he wouldn't be nearly so lucky. "What brings you here?" And away from Yasuko, he mentally added. Craig proceeded to withdraw a piece of paper from his pocket and hand it to him. "I'm having an I-finally-decapitated-my-brother party, and I want you to come." Ryuji glanced at the invitation. Sure enough, the words 'I-finally-decapitated- my-brother party' adorned the top in large lettering. He was invited to a party? To say that was unusual would be like calling Yasuko a bit of a flirt. Well, to anyone but him, anyway. Merkla demons in general simply didn't get invited out much, and he'd already had his blue moon for the century in the form of Yuri's sleepover. "Thanks," he said cautiously, trying to conceal his mixed reaction of delight and suspicion. Why was Craig inviting him? Then he remembered what the party was for. The three of them had worked together to bring Mordred down, and now Craig was taking the credit because it had been his blade and his brother's throat. To the knight family, he realised, it would have been considered rude and uncultured to leave out somebody who'd actually been there. So he was being invited as a formality. That had to be it. His presence would simply be an acceptable sacrifice in the name of Craig's reputation. "Is that it?" Ryuji wondered why, if his guess was correct, the boy was still standing there smiling. Craig just ignored the question and sat down. "You know, I've been thinking..." "Well, that's unusual," Ryuji muttered under his breath, trying to work out what sort of bizarre scheme his rival may have somehow concocted. "Yeah," Craig continued, "I've been thinking. Now that my brother's dead, I'm heir to the Maimsworth estate." Oh, Ryuji thought to himself, so you're here to gloat about getting the riches as well as the fame? "There's just so many things I'd never considered before," Craig said, as much to himself as Ryuji. "Family politics, conventions, maintaining the grounds. Did you know we keep flesh-eating dogs in the gardens? I didn't." "Hmmm," said Ryuji with all the feigned interest he could muster. "Then there's the finances. I've never been good with numbers and Klein's got a minor weakness with them as well, along with so many other duties." The mention of finances caught Ryuji's attention just long enough for him to notice the spark appearing in Craig's eye. "So I was wondering, would you maybe..." "Are you asking what I think you're asking?" "Well, I'm certainly not asking you to marry me," Craig laughed, realising how awkward he was being. "Look, I figured since you were in the Future Accountants Club, maybe you'd be interested in a job as financial advisor to the Maimsworth family." Ryuji didn't know what to say. Why should he want to help his greatest rival for Yasuko? "The pay would be good," Craig's proposal went on, "and you'd be surprised how many corpses we have to deal with in a week. Not many are quite as pretty as what you've got now, unfortunately, and some aren't in much of a state once the dogs are through with them, but you're welcome to any of them you want." Why should he want to help his enemy? Why balance an opponent's books, maintain his estate and hide his clandestine secrets? Clandestine secrets... Of course this had to be a trap. There had to be some elaborate, and quite likely inane, plan to lure him into who knew what or dump centuries of tax dodges on his shoulders. But wasn't he, by the simple act of attending class at Dark Heart, already walking into potential traps day after day? It wasn't like the mere mortal could actually do serious harm to him anyway. "I'll do it!" Ryuji exclaimed, realising this kind of inside information into the Maimsworths could prove invaluable. It'd give him extra ammunition against Craig, not that he'd use it unless he really had to, but also a legitimate excuse to keep a close eye on the relationship with Yasuko. A family of that size and prestige had to have countless skeletons in their closets, undoubtedly many in the literal sense. "Great!" Craig beamed, standing up. "We've got plenty of spare rooms, so I'll get Klein to set one aside for you. You can even live there full time, if you want." "Err." Ryuji was again shocked at the offer. NOBODY said things like that unless they were scheming something. "I'm not sure about that." "Well, it'd be nice to have someone to walk to school with," the young knight smiled as he turned to leave, "but it's up to you. In the meanwhile I've got more invitations to hand out. See you." "Bye," muttered a very confused Merkla demon. For somebody plotting against him, Craig had seemed too cheerful, even pleasant. Sure Amakusa seemed to have perfected the art of 'evil with a smile', but nobody would ever dare accuse him of being pleasant. Ryuji eventually decided just to go along with the offer, for the moment, and see what Craig had in store. Before that, however, he would have to have a very long chat with the Unbidden. ******************** "You know," a young girl's voice pierced the otherwise silent forest, "if you'd decided to do this a little sooner, it might have been a lot easier." Her companion huffed, and continued raking through the undergrowth with a frenzied devotion. He was moving quickly, but thoroughly enough that one might believe he was literally searching under every blade of grass. "They could be anywhere by now!" the girl whined. "Between the weather and the animals out here, who knows what could have happened? I'm sure you could just buy more. Wouldn't that do?" A grunt and a shake of the head signalled the negative, as the boy continued his search, moving ever further from the clearing they'd begun in. "How many miles are we going to keep looking? They couldn't have gone that far, could they?" This time the figure didn't even bother to respond; he just kept looking. ******************** "Let's see, we'll have one of those..." Amy Angeleye gestured at one of the large images that constituted the menu of one of the lesser-known ice cream parlors in town. "And one of those..." A craving for the foreign dessert was one of the aspects of being a magical girl she'd been unable to avoid, and even if she didn't go quite as gaga over a fudge sundae as some of her ex-classmates did, it was a great excuse to have Yuri all to herself for a little while. It wasn't really a date as such, but Yuri had said there was something they needed to talk about and it was time away from Ki and Bala. That would have to be good enough. Besides, recently Amy had begun to appreciate just being in one piece, in the literal sense. "Certainly!" the young attendant chirped far too merrily, bringing Amy's thoughts back to reality and reaching for Mistypuff. Instead she just paid the money and went back to sit next to Yuri. "So, what did you want to talk about?" "Well, err..." Yuri stammered, twirling her fingers about each other with the same nervous expression she'd worn most of the day. Eventually she cleared her throat and managed a soft reply. "You." "Me?" A glimmer of hope appeared in Amy's eyes. "Well, you and Ki and Bala I guess..." And died an instant later. "Oh," she sighed, leaning back as a waitress as perky as the serving girl brought their order. When the girl finally left, Amy hesitantly continued, "And?" "I'm just really confused at the moment," her friend admitted, trying to hide behind her ice cream and eating it ever so slowly. "All of a sudden, I seem to be stuck with a choice I'd never really considered until just recently. I thought you were all just really good friends, but then Bala's proposal, and the whole mess with Ki's heart, and..." "It's okay." Amy reached out and placed her hand over Yuri's, watching the momentary panic in the girl's face fade as her expression slowly calmed. All the while, trying to conceal the fact that her own heartbeat had just doubled. Picking her spoon up in her left hand, Amy continued to eat, never letting go. "I've been here this far," she said. "Regardless of what happens, I want to stay by your side." "Amy..." Yuri gazed at her, tears beginning to form. "I... You... I..." Amy closed her eyes in pure joy at the words she heard forming, her head subconsciously turning sideways and upwards as her heart tensed for the final missing word. THUMP! "I thump you too!" she cried, opening her eyes and lunging forward before realising that that had NOT been the word she'd been longing to hear. In fact it hadn't been a spoken word at all, rather the sound of Yuri's head collapsing onto the table, narrowly avoiding the remains of her ice cream. The Yuri Mikagami before her was very much unconscious. "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!" ******************** Ki raced towards the source of the scream, wondering what trouble Yuri and that Angeleye girl had gotten into this time. After the great tragedy associated with the return of his heart, and his consequent exile (which thankfully had been annulled, for the moment at least), The Plan lay shattered in a million pieces. That wouldn't stop him from trying to pick those pieces up, but it did mean that for the moment he had to settle for the sort of plan that didn't consider itself a proper noun. Convincing himself he was doing this from force of habit, that the girl could still be useful to him, he was running to save the day again. He swore to himself it wasn't his heart doing this, that he wasn't just some foolish little boy in love, but he didn't entirely believe himself. Hurling those thoughts aside, Ki picked up the pace even further. This wasn't the time to be arguing about his motivations; the girl could be in danger. As he ran a single thought dominated Ki's mind, muscling out any idea which tried to detract his attention from the task at hand. He had to be there, the reinstated scion of the Steel Thorn Clan told himself as he ran. Yuri might need him. ******************** "The sleeping potion worked. Now you're all alone!" the two waitresses, now transformed into magical girls, cried. Barely holding back a snarl, Amy glared at them. "I am Creamy Princess Strawberry Surprise!" "And I am Sweet Fairy Fudge Sundae!" "We'll make you pay for what you did to our sister!" The two again displayed the innate ability of magical girls to talk perfectly in sync. "In the name of truth, honour and ice cream we shall, err, make you really, really upset!" Amy regarded the almost criminally stupid-looking teenagers in front of her. The two girls were kitted out in derivations of the standard skimpy uniforms, complete with all the ribbons and lace. Behind them stood two kamen, one with an inverted cone on his head, the other with a hat that appeared to be made of soft-serve ice cream. "You just ruined the most important moment of my life!" she yelled at them. "If anybody's going to be dishing out punishment, IT'LL BE ME!" Both kamen simultaneously sweatdropped. Apparently they were the smart ones. "Excuse me," one of the girls piped up, "could we possibly go outside before we fight? If this store gets damaged, we'll have to pay for it..." "My pleasure," Amy snarled, cracking her knuckles and already reaching for the door. When they were outside, she took another look at her attackers. "All four of you at once?" One of the kamen laughed, or at least started to until he felt the full force of Amy's gaze, then awkwardly pretended to clear his throat. "Heavens no. This may be a blood feud," his friend answered, "but that still doesn't justify mahou shoujo and kamen actually fighting at the same time. The girls can take you on first, then we'll pick up the pieces." "There'll be a LOT of pieces." Amy grinned, knowing she was losing control and might regret this later, but not really caring. "In the meanwhile, let's even the odds a bit." Suddenly one Amy became two. "Forces of light! I beseech thee! Grant me the power of love! I am Liberated Lady Warrior Angeleye!" And one of them was now a magical girl. "Forces of darkness! I beseech thee! Grant me the power of major ass-kicking! I am Feminist Bitch-Queen Angeleye!" Make that both of them. Where one relatively ordinary Amy had stood, there were now two very extraordinary figures. Liberated Lady Warrior stared at her partner, as if to ask 'you can transform too?', but refrained from saying anything. Finally the two young attackers mustered the intelligence to sweatdrop. Feminist Bitch-Queen Angeleye grinned at the nervous pair of magical girls, deciding she'd built enough dramatic suspense for one day. "DARK SOUL DECIMATION ATTACK!" "Eeep!" Creamy Princess Strawberry Surprise screamed, before splattering all over the pavement. "Now, what to do wi..." The evil magical girl stopped as she noticed her other half was also grinning. "PURE SOUL DECIMATION ATTACK!" "Eeep!" Sweet Fairy Fudge Sundae screamed, before splattering all over the pavement, nearby buildings and an express flight to Chicago. "I thought you were supposed to be GOOD?" the self-proclaimed Bitch-Queen taunted the girl beside her. "I STILL *HATE* MAGICAL GIRLS!!!" By now the two kamen looked VERY worried... ******************** Rounding a corner, Ki saw Amy, both of her, transformed and glaring at the two kamen standing warily before her. It wasn't until a moment later that he realised he'd had no idea she could transform into a magical girl again, let alone two of them. "Do we HAVE to fight her?" the kamen with a large cone on his head asked the other. "Can't we just say she got away?" "You're not getting away from me that easily," Ki cried, a little too boldly. Hopefully his performance would at least reach Yuri, one way or another. "I'm your opponent now." "Who are you?" both kamen asked at once. "What the hell are you doing, Ki?" both Amys asked at once. "That doesn't matter," the scion of the Steel Thorn Clan declared, interjecting himself between the two parties. "The girls are under my protection." Before the kamen could react, Ki was charging at them, sword drawn. "They don't need any protecting!" one of them cried, ducking the blade already being lunged at his head. "We were just leaving. Honest!" "You're here to PROTECT somebody?" the other one stammered, recognising his attacker's blade and technique. "A STEEL THORN is here to PROTECT somebody?!? I thought you guys were meant to be pure evil!" "Good and evil are irrelevant here," Ki replied, trying to restrain his fury. Before the return of his heart, such an insult would have meant nothing to him, merely shortened the lifespan of any who uttered it. Now he could feel the blood pounding through his veins, and the kamen's words only succeeded in making him mad. "She is of value to me," he eventually admitted, after struggling to find the right combination of words. After all this time, it would be careless to let one utterance in the heat of battle ruin his reputation, or give away that the girl was only a pawn in his plans. "I'M valuable?" Amy's voice asked from behind him. "To YOU?" "Hell no," he responded, with what could almost be called a chuckle, as he nearly decapitated his opponent. "My prize is Yuri." "Then why are you doing this?" the soft-serve kamen asked, parrying another undoubtedly lethal blow and stumbling as he finally wrenched his foot free. "She's perfectly safe; we were just here to deal with the traitor. If you're really just here to protect someone, then can't we call a truce?" "Yeah," his companion added, ducking a swing himself. "Why don't we all just go home and pretend this whole thing never happened?" "Okay," Ki said, stopping his blade less than an inch from the throat of one of the two. "Really?" they both cried in joy. No, he prepared to say, lining up his blade to disembowel the pair with a single swing. The forces of good were always so gullible. "Why?" a voice he could never forget asked from inside his head. "You saved me," Tomoyo stated, repeating her question. "Why?" Since that day, the question had echoed endlessly in his mind, yet still he could offer it no answer. "The girls are under my protection," he heard his own voice from mere seconds ago. But he hadn't been trying to protect Tomoyo! She hadn't been any use to him! Quite the opposite. Yet he had saved her... On more than one occasion she could have died if not for his protection, yet instead she'd died on his very blade... "Why?" Tomoyo asked one final time. "RUN!" Ki commanded the two. "Run while you can, and don't come back, unless you're looking for an early death." "Ahem." After the two had fled, the single Amy, long since returned to normal, attracted his attention. As he turned to face her, he finally noticed the puddles on the pavement. "There weren't only these two, were there?" "My, you're perceptive today," she muttered. "Mind telling me what you think you're doing, acting all chivalrous all of a sudden?" "Maybe later," he responded gruffly, scanning the surroundings. "Where's Yuri?" "She's in there," Amy informed him without thinking. "So, why'd you let them go? I still had some steam to work off." Ki didn't reply; instead he just raced off towards Yuri. "Don't tell me that you, of all people, have developed a conscience!" Amy laughed, before noticing Ki had gotten a little too close to Yuri. "What are you doing?" "Checking she's alive," said Ki, who hadn't been around when the former waitress claimed it had only been a sleeping potion. "Well, check her wrist instead!" Amy roared at the man who'd just supposedly saved her life. "You can't touch my Yuri like that!" Unfortunately for Amy, Ki had long since stopped listening and put his hand to Yuri's throat to check for signs of life. Unfortunately for Yuri, this woke her up, and as she picked her head up off the table she managed to plant her cheek firmly into Ki's retreating hand. Unfortunately for Ki, this surprise caused him to freeze up, and he found himself gazing in confusion into the eyes of the girl who'd been leading him towards an emotional breakdown since before he'd technically had emotions. For the first time in his life, from head to toe, the scion of the Steel Thorn Clan turned a bright shade of red. Then he hastily retracted his hand, and bolted out the door. "What just happened?" Yuri eventually asked, in her mind just having somehow gone from talking with Amy to being caressed by Ki. "I'll try to explain later," Amy sighed, giving her friend a hand up from the table. As they moved towards the doorway, she remembered something. "Why don't we use the rear exit?" ******************** "You haven't eaten or slept in days! You're missing school! If you're going to keep searching, can't you at least have some rest first?" The figure shook his head insistently. "Why is stubbornness the one thing you have to rival your brute strength?" No reply. "Well, at least nobody could ever accuse you of doing things by halves..." ******************** "I... You... I..." Yuri stammered once more as Amy craned inwards, the tension in her face unmistakable. Ever since they'd gotten back to her place, Yuri had spent nearly an hour trying to ask Amy what had happened in every conceivable way, but she had insisted that it was not for her to say. Amy was afraid to tell her what she had done, and didn't understand herself how she'd managed to split and transform without even thinking about it. It had just felt natural at the time. On top of that, she didn't really know where to begin to describe Ki's odd behavior. Add that she expected Ki's next words to her to be a threat on her life if she ever revealed what had occurred, and Amy felt quite content leaving the entire mess in his obviously incapable hands. So instead, Amy had spent the last hour trying to get Yuri back to what she'd been about to say when she passed out, and while it had proved quite a task, her inhuman endurance for all things Yuri-related had finally succeeded. "Yes?" "I owe you an apology," Yuri finally blurted out. "An... apology?" Amy realised her fantasies had just slipped through her fingers again. Everything had seemed so perfect... "An apology." She nodded. "When Bala proposed I just didn't know what to do. I couldn't face him just then, it was too big a decision. Even if I was scared, I shouldn't have dragged you into it like that." "I seem to recall dragging myself into it," Amy corrected her. "I'm sorry if I pushed a little too far, but this isn't your fault. You've done nothing wrong." "But I have!" she insisted. "I've only been hurting you by pretending, and putting you in danger by giving Bala a reason to be mad at you. The truth is I just don't think of you that way. I CAN'T think of you that way." Yuri watched carefully as the expressions cascaded across Amy's face. With each change a hesitant reply seemed to begin to form, then wash away to nothingness as her emotions slowly moved on. "Ever since you came to Dark Heart, you've been one of my best friends," Yuri assured her, after several minutes had gone by without another word, "but I really don't think we could ever be more than that." "You're... You're sure?" Staring into those eyes, the guilt Yuri had felt piling up for days seemed to start jumping up and down on her shoulders, gaining weight with every bounce. "Yes," she softly whispered, nodding sadly. "Then I'm proud of you." "You what?" Shock brought Yuri's voice back in an instant. The puppy dog eyes she'd been staring into a moment ago were replaced with a form of happiness. Distant, and far from the childish delight she'd so often expressed before, but happiness all the same. "I'm proud of you," Amy replied slowly, wrapping her arms around Yuri. "I think I've known for a while; I just wouldn't let myself believe it." Yuri didn't know what to say. "A part of me just wanted to remember when I was young," Amy continued, "when I could play dress-up and be anyone or anything I wanted and just KNOW that one day it could all be real. If I wanted it badly enough there was nothing I couldn't achieve. It's always a hard lesson to learn there are some things you just can't ever have, no matter how hard you try." "Amy, I..." "I'm just proud you managed to decide," the other girl stopped her, "and gave me a straight answer." "I'm sorry..." "Don't be," she whispered. "Right now I think there's two boys out there who'd give anything to be in my shoes, and I'm the one being rejected for darkness' sake!" This at least got a giggle, bringing a slight smile to Yuri's face. "That's more like it." Amy smiled, wiping a tear from Yuri's cheek. "I meant everything I said earlier today; no matter what you decide I'll be here." The faintest hint of worry returned to Yuri's eyes. "As a friend," she added, to Yuri's relief. "I don't care if Amakusa himself stands in my way and you wind up marrying Aug-sensei! I'll get through. I'll even find a way to keep myself awake!" Now Yuri was giggling freely, even if the tears hadn't quite dried up. "Now you're just being silly!" "What?" Amy taunted. "You don't think he's kinda cute for a brain in a jar?" After a moment's thought, Yuri responded by poking her tongue out. "Okay, so then you're one down now," Amy said, far more seriously, "two if you want to split straws. That still leaves you two to go, and I imagine the choice is far from easy." "Is that really what this looks like to other people?" she asked. "Some sort of contest, or exam? That I just have to make one tiny decision and everybody's lives will just fall into place around that?" "Pretty much." Amy nodded, deciding it was better not to mention the common knowledge that Liza's standing bets on this decision had long overtaken the school's annual budget. "Pretty much." ******************** "This is getting ridiculous!" Ignoring her, the male figure continued to scour through the grass. "You must have searched over a hundred square miles by now! They can't have gone this far." Still no response. "Why did you have to be so troll-headed? If you hadn't waited so long to change your mind, then maybe..." Leilei stopped in an instant, as her companion erupted from the undergrowth. He was wearing the sort of expression she'd only ever glimpsed in a mirror, after consuming LARGE quantities of sugar. Balabalalde held his trophy above his head, pride and delight shining through the face which had previously redefined the word 'expressionless'. Cupped within his scratched and muddy hands was a dirty, worn-out pair of cat earrings. ******************** "Amy?" Craig asked in surprise, hiding the bag he held behind his shield. There were certain tasks expected of a dark knight, as well as some which could ruin their reputation for life. Returning from the shops with a loaf of bread and a carton of milk definitely fell towards the latter category. "Craig?" The girl turned from her seat on the sidewalk, her face making it clear she'd been crying. "What're you doing here?" "I'm just on my way home from," he paused for a moment, "slaying something. What happened to you?" "Nothing," she murmured, "it's better this way..." "Ah," Craig said with an uncharacteristic air of understanding. "It sucks being the fake partner, doesn't it?" She didn't reply. "Do you think she ever cared for me?" he asked, after several silent minutes had passed by. "Even a little bit?" "Yuri cares for everybody," Amy moped in response. "That's how these problems all started." "No, not Yuri. Yasuko." "Yasuko? Are you kid..." Craig's expression assured Amy he was not kidding. "Oh. Maybe just a little bit, I guess?" "I don't," he admitted. "I think she was just running from Ryuji. Actually I KNOW she was just running from Ryuji, and I think I was just the poor sucker she found easiest to rope into her plan." Amy had felt certain from square one that their relationship had been a sham, but until now she'd been uncertain of the reasons. Now that he spelled it out, it seemed so obvious. "I don't know that I'd call it much of a plan," she muttered, "but yes, I think you were selected more for what you didn't have than what you did." "But why?" Craig asked. "I was on top of the world right then. I'd avenged my family, slain my tormenter and actually passed an exam! Then she went and treated me, both of us actually, like we were just minions." Amy realised she'd never really seen Craig happy. She'd seen him content, she'd seen him madly wrapped up in the sort of glee doomed to shatter seconds later as some crucial component of the latest mad scheme fell apart before his eyes, but she'd never really known him to be happy. "We'd done all those things, all three of us, together. As allies. As a team. As..." "Friends?" she suggested. Craig hesitantly nodded. "Then it all fell apart. Since that video tape, she's hated me like it was all my fault. I think she's even gotten Ryuji mad at me; he's just not the sort of person to let it show. I don't want him to be mad at me, but when I can't even talk to him about it..." "Welcome to Dark Heart High," Amy eventually responded. "We're all evil, remember. Friendship doesn't work out the way you'd expect." "You're about the last person I expected to hear that coming from." He laughed, remembering how innocent and out of her league the former magical girl had appeared when she first came to Dark Heart. "Well, sometimes you just have to face the facts," she admitted, remembering the two girls she'd dealt with mere hours ago. The events were already beginning to blur in her mind, leaving only a haze of anger, power and blood. "Even if they're not what you wanted to hear." After that they just sat in silence for a while, watching the world go by. "I hear you've been trying out a blade lately," Craig said, changing the topic suddenly. "Ever thought of joining the fencing team?" "Not really," she admitted. "A scimitar isn't really fencing material, and I'm not very good with it yet. I guess I could, though; it'd be one way to learn." "We're always after a new equipment manager..." "I'm not that stupid, Craig." "Aw, dragonturds." ******************** Ki Tamaida lay awake on his bed, glancing out at the night sky and struggling in futility to work out just what had happened earlier that day. In actuality, he knew exactly what had happened; he had been there, doing what had felt natural, the entire time. Only in reflection did he realise his actions had been about as far from natural, for a Steel Thorn, as they came. Now what he longed to know was the how and the why. He'd gone there for Yuri, to save her if she needed his help, yet instead he'd saved Amy. Amy wasn't of any use to him! She hadn't even really needed his help! For a moment, Ki wondered which of those facts angered him more. Yuri had never even been in danger. She was never really in any danger. Ki's mind drifted back to the first time he had saved Yuri, just after Craig's bungled kidnap-and-sacrifice attempt. He had saved her from the upperclassmen, a threat even Craig had survived. Maybe that hadn't been saving her life as such, but it had still prevented her from suffering great discomfort. No, he told himself. He hadn't meant to prevent harm to her. He had been gaining her trust, her confidence, lulling her into a false sense of security... Yet, over the many times he'd saved her, it seemed he'd been the one lulled into false beliefs. Each new time he'd thought she needed him, yet all the while Bala had been there to protect her when she needed him. Finally, he began to truly see why Midori had been so disappointed in him. As a literally-heartless expert assassin he had spent almost all his time at Dark Heart engaging in rescue attempts, some of which hadn't even worked. Then his heart had been returned, and since then nothing seemed to have worked. He had saved Yuri time and time again. He had saved Amy several times as a side effect to this. He had probably similarly saved Leilei. While he couldn't directly recall an occasion, he began to suspect he may well have saved even Yasuko once or twice. Then he had saved Tomoyo. Then he had killed Tomoyo. It had been in self defense, he lied to himself. She had attacked, and while she may have been weak, if she'd gotten lucky against him... If she'd gotten lucky, she'd have spared his life. He didn't know why he was so certain, but he was. The real threat had been Midori. To defend the name of the clan, she would have killed Tomoyo, in an instant, then probably have attacked him too. In her eyes he would have been too weak to leave alive, a white stain on the family name. But Midori was gone now. She wouldn't have flinched at the thought of killing her own cousin, yet Tomoyo had been brought to tears just from raising the subject of Yuri... The subject of killing Yuri... That couldn't be the real reason, could it? Even as he swore to himself it couldn't, Ki remembered his doubts, his sense of uncertainty. He'd been unable to do it, unable to kill her like an evil little boy should, until she'd mentioned Yuri. It had been his attachment to her that had leant him the strength. In horror, he realised that he, a member of the Steel Thorn Clan, had just tried to justify murder. To excuse it in terms of saving others! It should have been the other way around! Steel Thorns didn't go around saving people! Kamen did. Kamen like those he'd met earlier that day. "What has happened to me?" Ki cried out into the night, unable to further deny that Yuri Mikagami was the source of everything. He was meant to be a vicious killer! He'd slaughtered hundreds, maybe even thousands, in cold blood. The warriors of good lay decimated in his wake! Then today, he'd let two of them go. Why had he let them go? He should have killed them like... like... Ki suddenly realised he couldn't recall killing anyone good since Tomoyo. Sure, he had killed to take over Evil Tech, it was the only way one could, but his methods had been more subtle than bloody. Since being relieved of his position and re-enrolled at Dark Heart, those memories had already seemed to fade, as if the blood was washing itself from his hands. His victims at that school had been evil. The Doombringers his clan fought were evil. Bala, the rival for Yuri's affections he hated so much, was evil. He was fighting evil. But he was still evil, right? Surely a few petty things like killing other evildoers, having a heart and letting a pair of kamen get away didn't make him good all of a sudden! "Good and evil are irrelevant here," he'd said to them. "She is of value to me." The very notion of a human being valuable to him was preposterous! No individual could be of any real significance, they were all just pawns. She was just another piece for him to use, just one of countless elements in his cold, calculated plans. Yet she had been warm... In the darkness Ki blushed as the memories refused to be silenced. His heart refused to be silenced. To touch her like that, to gaze into those eyes... The rhythmic pounding assaulted his ears, every beat rattling his rib cage. With each passing second, Ki longed for the peace of old, and wondered how he'd taken so long to notice its absence. "Yuri is my prize," he'd said without thinking, the meaning still echoing about his head. "Yuri is valuable to me." "NO!" he cried, slamming his fist into the wall hard enough to hear his bones crack. They would heal. "No," he stated again, falling to the bed. "It wasn't meant to be this way..." ******************** Author's notes: Wai! My first impro chapter is complete! It's been a very educational experience, and while it was a lot more work than I first envisaged, it's been well worth every minute of it IMHO. Originally my two main thoughts were to have Evil Amy transform and to do something a little more extreme with Ki. Then as I was writing, Amy's transformations wound up falling into the background, becoming more of an aside than a focus, and my idea with Ki suffered a similar fate, before I finally accepted it was best to just remove it completely. On top of this, I'd been interested in the potential Yuri/Amy relationship, which the last chapter essentially declared an impossible dream. So, to say my actual submission came out a little different then I'd first intended would be quite an understatement, but I have to admit I'm rather pleased with how things came out in the end. For the record, my chapter name, 'discombobulation', was defined in the first online dictionary I could find as "A stunned or bewildered condition". I'd come across the word before and decided it fit what I was doing to Ki, Yuri, Amy and Craig to varying extents, as well as keeping up the naming tradition. I'm hoping my portrayal of these characters is considered within acceptable limits, given the circumstances they're all under, but I realise in many cases it's a fair deviation from the norm. So by all means, please let me know what you think. I can't think of any particular external sources, since mostly I tried to build off the great foundation previous authors had created. My internal sources were mostly parts 54 and 55, given the number of significant events in those chapters regarding Yuri's relationships, but I'll list a few other key influences and occurances anyway. Mr. Ikari, the school counsellor, was first mentioned (by name at least) in part 36. His first actual appearance, however, wasn't until part 55, when Yuri spent the entire chapter in his office talking and having flashbacks. Craig's previous party (the "We-Handed-Melvin-His-Butt-on-a-Silver-Platter party") was mentioned in part 36, then 'ruined' by his brother Mordred in part 41. Mordred was then killed, by Craig (but with the assistance of Yasuko and Ryuji), in part 54. Amy's splitting began some time ago as an unnoticed continuity hole, then slowly developed into a 'skill', but she has never been able to control it. Amy had been unable to transform since she first transferred to Dark Heart, her alignment shock was first mentioned in part 36, her unstable power channels were explained in part 37, and her good half was seen transformed in 55 (although no transformation sequence, or mention of how long she'd been able to transform for, was given). The Future Accountants Club was mentioned at the end of part 7, but not introduced until part 22, when Ryuji and the Unbidden reclaimed the club room and discovered their only other member was Yuri, who had never turned up. Ryuji was invited to Yuri's sleepover in part 25, and attended it in 26. Aside from that and his 'date' with Yasuko, I don't believe he's ever been invited to anything. Tomoyo first appeared in part 45 as an extra, was saved by Ki in part 46, was saved by him again (thanks to the Hammer of Justice) in part 47, was killed by him in part 50, and has been on his mind ever since. Midori had been on his case about her since she first found out, was there when he killed her, and then was killed herself at the end of part 54. Bala's proposal also occured at the end of part 54. When Yuri turned him down, he threw away the cat earrings she'd given him (which he and Leilei had bought for her) in part 5. He'd been wearing them up until that point. Other than that I'd just like to thank the people who made this possible. I promise, if there's a next time, I'll try and make this section a lot shorter, but for now I think I've got a lot to be thankful for. A huge round of thanks to The Apprentice, DrKultra, Jexer, Segev Stormlord, Sharyna Tran and Smlee, whose feedback has helped refine this chapter far more than I ever expected. Thanks to Mads, for starting a great series, and to all the other authors who've helped keep it that way as it grew. And, of course, thanks to Lawrence Chu, for being a great admin (and granting me the extension I kept assuring myself I wouldn't need ^_^). Thanks to Mingdi, for easing my introduction to impro, as well as providing many interesting ideas and opinions before I'd even signed up. The scene between Craig and Ryuji, including the job offer, came directly from his ideas and suggestions, while many of his early comments strongly influenced parts of Ki's scenes. Special thanks to Nicolas Juzda, who taught me several grammatical rules, helped me correct well over a hundred punctuational mistakes related to them, found many other mistakes which had slipped through and still managed to offer great advice for continuity and characterisation. All in one week. Puts most of my old English teachers to shame. ^_^ Lastly, thanks to Darkfire, a good friend of mine with a knack for finding great things to read. Were it not for his several megabyte quote file (and The Eternal Lost Lurker's laughing scene) I may never have discovered DHH in the first place. I hope you all enjoyed reading my part, I know I enjoyed writing it. I look forward to seeing what comes next. Kurayami Diku ******************** "Welcome students," Amakusa's voice boomed, "to the final." The principal's tone left no doubt in anybody's mind just what was meant by final. "You have survived your years here so far," Amakusa continued, "and some of you may think that makes you truly evil, worthy graduates of Dark Heart High." Yuri looked around at the faces of her few surviving classmates. After the first year, the casualties had really started to rack up, but somehow she and her friends had made it through. "Perhaps that is the case," Amakusa bellowed as he retreated through the door, "but now you must prove it." The door shook as it was barred from the outside. Yuri looked around the room. There was nothing in there, no tables or chairs, no supplies for trap making or doomsday devices, nothing but the students. She didn't understand. "Your time," The voice came to them, one last time, over the loudspeaker, "starts NOW!" The other students did understand. She watched as Ryuji charged at Craig, attacking furiously as his limbs were severed one by one, leaping onto him before erupting in a storm of hellfire which consumed them both. She watched as Yasuko and Amy flew together in frenzy, frantically slashing and darting about until Amy embedded her scimitar into Yasuko's chest, and the succubus snapped the former magical girl's neck like a twig. She watched as Ki drew his sword, and assumed a fighting stance against the completely unbound Dark God Balabalalde. Now she understood the final test. Only one student was ever meant to make it out alive, and yet not one of her classmates had attacked her. Not one. "No," she cried weakly, her voice going unheard. "Don't!" She watched one final time as the two lunged, striking at each other until they came to rest on opposite sides of the room. On the floor before her feet, two trophies came to rest, flung by the combatants. Looking down, she saw Ki's still-beating heart, and Bala's head. In the dim light she could just make out the familiar pair of cat earrings. The two figures collapsed. "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!" Yuri awoke, screaming. It had all been a dream. Just a dream. It wasn't real. It hadn't really happened. It wouldn't really happen. "Are you okay, honey?" a cloud of incomprehensible evil asked from the doorway. "Were you having a good dream?" "I'm okay, dad," the young Mikagami answered softly, causing the two pricks of light to turn away. "Wait," she called him back, a sudden thought bursting through her mind. "What was your final exam at Dark Heart? The FINAL one?" Troi Hellstorm Mikagami glanced at the expression in his daughter's eyes and comprehended. "It's started already?" he seemed to ask himself before answering. "I'm not allowed to tell you that, Yuri, and you're still years away from it anyway." "Oh..." "But I can tell you this," his voice softened, "the final exam is not related to anything you'll have done before. It's different every year, always designed, enforced and graded solely by one individual, who single-handedly decides whether or not you have graduated." "And that person is?" Yuri asked, already knowing the answer. "The principal of Dark Heart High."