Chapter 1
THE FORGOTTEN ONES

Away from Windbloom, and away from the remaining inhabited portion of the planet, lay the vast Kainashi Desert -- of interest only to geographists, and only for the purpose of putting it onto the world map and saying, "Okay, it exists, now leave us alone." Conveniently, it also escaped the nuclear bombings that wiped out eighty percent of Earl's population in the recent years, simply because there was no population in the desert to speak of.

Unknown to most, however, it was not completely desolate. In the middle of this barren land, a circle of rocks and a perpetual fog hid a sizable portion of land from the eyes of travelers who might cross the desert (mostly as a way of self-assertion), as well as from aerial photography. Public opinions on what was going on "in the grey", as usual, varied widely, from "nothing but more wasteland" to "secret government facility dealing with aliens" — yet nobody really cared about this region enough to land there and explore it.

The truth was somewhere in the middle between the two extreme opinions. The Searrs Foundation, back when it existed, referred to this place as Alyssa's Retreat — named so since this whas where Alyssa Searrs spent her vacations after the Foundation discovered the portal between Earth and Earl, back in 2006.

It was a small, hidden green paradise, with lush forests, meadows and lakes, largely untouched by civilization -- except for the presence of a neat brick house at the edge of a forest and gazebos scattered throughout the land.

Saturday
November 5, 2332
2:00 PM

"Mikoto!"

The house's front door opened, and Miyu, the enduring robot aide of the Searrs family, walked down the steps and onto the grass.

Where did that disgrace to her species run again?

"Mikoto!" Miyu shouted again, raising the volume of her voice to levels that could likely result in ear damage for any human nearby — yet not visibly moving at all, apart from her lips. "Mikoto, come home!"

Useless.

Miyu walked to the dining table, standing right there in the open, sat down on one of the chairs, and put her arms onto the table.

Admittedly, attempting to recover her by force is equally useless.

She put one of her legs on another, assuming a more comfortable position on the chair, but almost immediately returned to the original pose of sitting straight.

This is irrational waste of energy. I do not need to imitate human behavior when there is nobody present.

She looked blankly into space for a while without moving, without even blinking. About an hour passed before a sound coming from the sky caught her attention — faint, but rapidly getting louder.

Miyu stood up. The source of the sound soon became clear: it was an Otome, in the all-too-well-known blue-and-white Robe, carrying a large metal box somewhat resembling a coffin by its proportions. The Otome flew towards the house and stepped onto the ground just in front of Miyu, put the container down, and then unsummoned her Robe.

N.S DISCONNECTED A.S
SKY SAPPHIRE DISENGAGED

Yes, it was Naomi Searrs — though not as we had seen her so far. She had become taller and more flat-chested, and her face was no longer as round, and more elongated and less overall perfect. Her hair was shorter yet more dishevelled, and her exposed skin — quite a lot, actually — showed visible scars, burns, and signs of tampering.

"Oh, hello, Miyu," she said. "I guess the girl isn't home?"

"No, Miss. I was just going to seek her in the wilderness when you appeared. How fared your mission in Artai?"

"I recovered only four GEMs out of those five," Naomi reported. "The Rising Sun Orpiment was likely taken, I clearly remember that it was in Niflheim at the time of the... accident. And if it was stolen..."

"...then the consequences can be disastrous," finished Miyu.

"Indeed. Artai doesn't tick me as the kind of country to use Otome wisely. Hopefully they don't have the nanomachines, and without the HQ teleporter, we can't— But enough of this. I brought something of interest to you, Miyu," Naomi pointed at the box, "care to look inside?"

"Certainly," said Miyu. She transformed her arm into a chainsaw and carefully sawed the cover off. Naomi kicked it away... and quickly stepped back. Inside was a badly-decayed skeleton, rather small, probably of a child of about ten years old. A purple round amulet on a chain was wrapped around its neck.

"Why am I not surprised?" Naomi asked sarcastically.

"Stay away from it, Miss," warned the android. "I shall retrieve it. I presume you are familiar with this device?"

"Why, all too well," said Naomi. "Believe me, the last thing I want is to be possessed by some Precursor with delusions of grandeur. What makes you think it won't harm you, though?"

"The Precursors based all their mind transfer technology on human physiology," explained Miyu. "Ever since they evolved to this state, they have always been using human hosts. Therefore, it is a reasonable conjecture that a chance of it successfully interfacing with an AI such as me is essentially zero. However—"

"However, please identify the bones first," Naomi interrupted, speaking from a distance as she dragged one of the chairs standing around closer to the improvised coffin. "Awakening monsters of the old can wait."

Miyu touched the skull lightly... and instantly jerked the arm back, looking at Naomi with a horrified expression on her face. This, in turn, concerned Naomi enough to miss the chair and sit down on the grass.

"Ow!" exclaimed Naomi. "So who is that?" she continued, standing up and rubbing dirt off her dress. "Someone you don't exactly remember fondly, I guess."

"In a sense, Miss, this is me," said Miyu in a slightly troubled tone. "The original Miyu, biological daughter of Joseph Greer, whose identity I assumed."

"Yes, I remember, you told me about that... accident," recalled Naomi sadly. "How he made you as a replacement."

"Indeed. However, I never expected her remains to be preserved here, on Earl. And furthermore, I cannot think of any reason why they would be brought here in the first place, and who would possibly attempt to preserve them for three centuries."

"Well, we did preserve the Administar for about as long," smiled Naomi. "Not to mention Mik— Speak of the devil!" she pointed at Miyu's left. Miyu turned her head and saw Mikoto springing out of the forest behind her.

With a loud cry of "Naomi!!", Mikoto raced past Miyu and gave the former leader of Searrs a hug. "Hey, it stinks..." she then declared, turning to the coffin; and her eyes fell on the amulet.

"Ani-ue..."

"Don't. Touch it. Mikoto," commanded Naomi. Miyu, with a single decisive motion, grabbed the amulet and pulled it, breaking the skeleton's fragile neck in the process.

"But... that's Ani-ue's trinket!" protested Mikoto. "It's... the only thing that I..."

"Listen, Mikoto," said Miyu strictly. "When your Ani-ue had such a device, the entity inside it possessed him and made you subservient to it — nearly made you kill your best friend. If you touch it, something bad may happen to you, and to all of us — do you want to lose your will, to strike Naomi when you are not yourself, as you almost did with Mai?"

"Mai..." Mikoto lowered her arms.

"Wow, touching," whispered Naomi.

"She will come back, as will Ani-ue, I promise you that," assured Miyu. "In addition, I must mention that this particular amulet is not the one that belonged to your brother, but another, identical one."

"Why do you think so?" asked Naomi.

"Mikoto, would you be kind to go into the house, please?" requested Miyu. "Dinner awaits you th—" she didn't even manage to finish the sentence before the girl ran away as swiftly as she appeared.

"Let's take a walk to the terminal," suggested Naomi. "Anywhere, just away from her."

"So, a Precursor from before they declared Earl off limits?" said Naomi, walking down a narrow path to the lake behind Miyu. "Now that just bugs me."

"Why, Miss?"

"Why, you say? An advanced race that had enslaved Earth for thousands of years flees this planet, and I say 'flees' because they wouldn't leave that one behind if they left it at their own discretion. And if there is something here that even the Precursors feared, it's definitely bad news for us puny Earthlings."

Naomi paused for a few seconds.

"Although it's not what troubles me most. We thought we cut Greer's renegades off from Earl. Not the case, it seems. And if any part of Searrs was to survive my big screwup, that would be them. I believe I don't have to explain what that can entail?"

"So far," said Miyu, "I have not encountered any evidence of surviving Searrs personnel, with the exception of Sylvia Permando — who has not taken any of our technology with her."

"Well, her... although, taken or not, she knows where to look for it. And the Aswad, they've probably found a truckload of it back in Black Valley. Hopefully no nanomachines at least, itwould be the worst news of all. Worse than the loss of the Foundation itself, even."

"In that case," replied Miyu, "I would propose allying with Himeno, as the lesser of the evils. With our support, the scattered technology can be reassembled in Windbloom, which—"

"—will then be immediately invaded again by one of its neighbors," finished Naomi. "A really wise plan to ensure world domination for someone we don't want. For now, send the contract rules to Windbloom as we agreed, and that'll be it, until we can be sure that the political climate there is stable enough. Just do it covertly."

"I thought you wanted to appear to Himeno in person?" asked Miyu.

"Change of plans. I have a Precursor to interrogate. Give me the amulet and join me in the lab when you're done — if I don't find an artificial host for it, I'm going to let it take me."

"You were against it," reminded Miyu.

"Well, what choice do I have?" asked Naomi. "It's me or Mikoto, and you don't want to mess with a type zero HiME, especially one controlled by a Precursor."

"Understood, Miss," said Miyu, handing the amulet to Naomi. "My detour will not take long."

As the android stepped into the water, preparing to swim to the Fuka Academy replica at the other end of the lake, Naomi started walking away from the shore. However, after a few steps, she turned back. "And while we're at it, Miyu," she added, "sink the terminal."

"Now," she said quietly, going back to the house, "if only Ryoko doesn't do the stupidest thing that can be done in this situation, everything will hopefully turn out fine..."

"So, how is she, Doctor Meebey?" inquired Ryoko, turning away from the unconscious Haru lying in a hospital bed, and to a bald, bearded, aging man in a white coat.

"Her life signs are stable," said Meebey. "Luckily, the blood sample you provided was AB, and I could separate the plasma with nanomachines to make it possible to make a universal—"

"For crying out loud, Doctor, just give me a short version and I'll write it in my report. How long will it take?"

"I expect the nanomachines to fully replicate in her body in about three days," said the man. "Presumably, she will remain in this state until then."

"Three days..." whispered Ryoko. "Just like that time..."

To be continued...