this story deserved some sort of coda. my apologies for leaving you all hanging like that for so long.

For a time, she had floated in the abyss, beyond the blue and under the blue-hot canopy of stars, watching the planet below her tilt, and then she lifted her gaze towards the darkness in between the stars, her mind already made.

She asked the god upon which she rode for his thoughts on the matter —she asked quietly, and respectfully.

The god answered with a rumbling assent, and Mai's heart felt less heavy.

She needed this. She needed the silence of the stars, craved their indifference.

Kagutsuchi's wings began to burn brightly, everything paused momentarily—and then they were gone, save for a large boiling arc of flame and light blazing high in the empyrean above the blue skies—an unspoken farewell to those she had abandoned.

She meant to return, of course—what she didn't know at the time was that it would be two years before she stepped foot on Earth's soil once again.

Two years.

Time meant very little beyond Earth, but on that eternally spinning planet, time marched by with slow, inexorable stubbornness.

Of course, Mai's biological clock kept its time as well, and by the time she saw the skies of Earth again, her hair was far longer, her stature more adult, her eyes far older. A person can change an enormous deal in just two years, but most of Mai's transformation was beneath the surface.

Most of her time was spent in other lands, ancient lands from whence the Childs and the Orphans had come from. She visited each House of the Children, including Kiyohime, and from each of them she gained something more, something to fill the dark emptiness within her, something to ease the unwanted burden of the Queen of Hell's mantle.

She gained their advice, their understanding, their forgiveness, their wisdom.

And then she revoked the compact between herself and Kagutsuchi, severing their bonds as comrades born on the battlefield, breaking her inheritance as the Crystal Hime.

Kagutsuchi—he who had killed his own mother when he emerged from the womb—Kagutsuchi understood, and the last thing he said to Mai was:

"We will see each other again, one day. One day, when you have exhausted your lifespan, and venture beyond the gates of dawn—we will meet, and greet each other as old friends, and you will know eternal serenity. This is the reward granted to all the HiMe. But you—you were my favorite, and I was proud to serve you."

That was the day Mai came to Earth again—older, stronger, able to shoulder old guilt, and able to face herself in the mirror again. Able to rise beyond her own invisible suffering.

The first place she visited was the hospital in America. She walked into the hospital, and all eyes fell upon her—how could they not? Such was her presence, such was the elegance with which she carried herself, like a queen.

She identified herself, made her inquiries politely, and to her surprise, was told that Takumi was no longer a patient.

Her heart sank, "Is he –?"

"No, no, Miss Tokiha. Takumi woke from his coma a year and a half ago. He's made a full recovery, and the first thing he did was to ask after you. He was heartbroken when nobody knew where you had gone. He returned to Japan, but of course we still have his contact info here—Miss Tokiha? Miss Tokiha?"

But Mai was already out of the door, flagging down a cab for the nearest local airport.

Fuuka—exactly the same as it was when she had left, except that its scars had healed over, faces were older, old classmates were preparing to graduate and go out into the world.

She'd knocked on the dormitory door, with bated breath, waiting. Her heart leapt into her throat when she heard Takumi's voice. The door opened, and Takumi stood there, staring dumbly at her. He was taller, much taller, and had far more color in his cheeks than Mai remembered.

The two siblings stood frozen for a moment, gawking at each other, and then the wind was knocked out of Mai as Takumi encircled her in a bear hug, assaulting her with queries, admonishments, and demands.

But all Mai could do was smile, and close her eyes as she returned the hug.

"I'm home," she murmured.

A few days later, Mai went to the beach beyond the cliffs. She had no reason to, other than the simple desire to roam the landscape, as though looking for something. She found the very thing she had not realized she'd been searching for all this time as she crested the hill of a sand dune.

Mai's face split into a broad grin as she walked towards Mikoto's distant figure lying in the sand. Beyond them, beyond the horizon, the skies were beginning to darken into deep blue. The stars were beginning to appear, eternally burning in the ancient abyss beyond the blue.

FIN