Work Text:
On a certain spring day, two young girls were standing in front of a wooden door inside the main building of Yurigaoka Girls’ Academy. With brown hair and blue eyes of the very same hue, the duo looked nearly identical to one another. Perhaps they were sisters, or even twins.
One of the girls was taller by about a hand's breadth, and yet she was of average height at best for a girl who appeared to be on the cusp of entering her teens. She was dressed in a frilly white blouse and a tiered blue skirt; the last of the skirt's cascading waves reached just short of her knees. It was a look that wasn't out of place in the hallways of an elite Garden, but was not the uniform of that Garden and seemed unlikely to be that of any other school, either. The shorter girl's Yurigaoka school uniform, with its austere black and white colors and its many ribbons, was yet more elegant still.
“If you aren't going to knock, onee-chan, then I will,” said the taller girl.
“Hold on, Makoto!” said the shorter girl in a hushed voice, her eyes squeezed shut. “This is Legion Sanngriðr's meeting room. It's a gathering place for some of the strongest warriors, the strongest Lilies, that there are here at Yurigaoka. I-I-I can't just knock on their door as if I belong here!”
“You said that their leader agreed to let you interview her. You even set a day and time for it,” Makoto pointed out. “That means you do belong here.”
“I know, but even so…!” her sister whimpered. Her eyes still tightly shut, the girl lifted her hand and lightly touched her knuckles to the wood, producing only the softest of sounds. Unsurprisingly, there was no reaction from anyone inside.
Makoto sighed. Lifting her own hand, she made as if to give the door a very firm rap… but when her knuckles met the wood, the door swung wide open. Neither of them had noticed that it was slightly ajar. Neither of them had been expecting the sight that awaited them inside Legion Sanngriðr's meeting room.
There were four girls in there, all of them dressed in the Yurigaoka uniform–though as an elite legion, the members of Legion Sanngriðr had the privilege of modifying it to their individual tastes, and had taken full advantage of it. One girl, with her brown hair in a ponytail, wore a uniform that was red instead of black. She was sitting in the lap of an older girl whose long green hair was in a braid. And another girl, her hair long and black and her uniform overlaid by a flowing haori, was laying down with her head in the brunette’s lap.
The final member of Sanngriðr present was sitting on a chair nearby. She wore a headband, and her dark green hair fell past her waist, gathered only loosely behind her by a few red ribbons. The four Lilies all turned their attention to the new arrivals, blinking at them.
“Augh!” exclaimed the shorter of the sisters, her eyes widening in an instant. Her hands shot to her face, and moments later, blood leaked from between her fingers. Makoto dug in her purse briefly and offered her sister a pack of tissues, which she gratefully accepted.
“You must be Futagawa Fumi,” the brown-haired girl with the ponytail said.
“Y-Yesh, that's me!” said Fumi in a muffled voice through the wad of tissues she now had pressed to her nose and mouth. “I'm sorry, I get nosebleeds when I get too excited...!” She blinked as she realized something. “E-Er, how do you know who I am, Misaka-sama?” she asked. “We've only corresponded through letters. This is our first time actually meeting face to face…”
For starters, onee-chan, we're here at the exact time that you told Misaka you'd be interviewing her, thought Makoto to herself. She decided not to say the words out loud.
“Hibari-chan's told us a great deal about you,” said the girl who had Misaka in her lap, a serene smile upon her face. None of the trio seemed embarrassed that Fumi and Makoto had seen—and were still seeing—them sharing an affectionate moment.
“Hibari-sama has?!” exclaimed Fumi in shock. “U-Um, I mean, it's such a honor to meet you, Misaka-sama, Tokiwa-sama…!” She bowed stiffly, and stayed that way, her body forming a perfect ninety-degree angle.
“Who might this be?” asked the Lily in the chair, giving Makoto a curious look.
“I'm Futagawa Makoto. Fumi's little sister,” Makoto explained. “You can probably tell, but I'm a civilian. I just got permission to come with her today and see what Yurigaoka is like.” She placed a hand on Fumi's shoulder, firmly bending her back upright, then retrieved a cloth and a water bottle from her purse, using them to clean the remnants of the nosebleed off her sister's face. Her demeanor gave the impression that she was used to doing this.
The Lilies from Sanngriðr gave Makoto welcoming smiles, except for Misaka, who frowned as she spent a few moments in thought. “That’s weird,” Misaka said in a puzzled voice. “Hibari told us that you only had brothers, Fumi.”
The Futagawa sisters whirled towards Misaka, matching looks of panic appearing on both of their faces. There was a loud clatter as the water bottle that Makoto had been holding in her hand fell to the ground, followed by the fluttering cloth that had been in her other hand. “D-D-Did she, really?” Fumi stammered, while Makoto smoothed her skirt with her hands in a nervous gesture, her cheeks growing slightly red.
“She mentioned a little brother, I think,” Misaka recalled. Silently, Tokiwa exchanged a glance with the Lily sitting in the chair.
“I, um,” Fumi said. “Used to have one, yes. Until recently.”
Misaka blinked a few times. “Did something happen to—” she began to ask in a worried voice, but got no further before Tokiwa clapped a hand over her mouth. “I’ll explain it to you later, Misaka,” said the older Lily. “If that would be all right with the two of you?” The Futagawa sisters nodded to her, with matching looks of gratitude on both of their faces.
“Let’s talk about something else,” suggested the Lily in the chair. “Are you hoping to become a Lily someday, Makoto-san?”
“I’d love that… but the grown-ups say that my magie capacity isn’t high enough to be one,” Makoto said sadly. “I like CHARMs a lot, though, so maybe I could become one of the people who make and fix them. An Arsenal, right? It would be really nice if I could become one here at Yurigaoka, and help my onee-chan and all of you fight.” The others nodded, giving the young girl encouraging smiles.
“You’ve still got a few years to go before your magie hits its peak,” pointed out the girl in the haori. “If you’re lucky, Makoto-chan, you could become both a Lily and an Arsenal at the same time! We know a bunch of people like that!”
“Before we get too deep into conversation, perhaps we should introduce ourselves properly,” proposed Tokiwa.
“Y-Yes, that sounds like a wonderful idea!” Fumi exclaimed. “I’m Futagawa Fumi, and I publish the Weekly Lily News! I’m here to interview Kondo Misaka-sama, the leader of Legion Sanngriðr!” She would have bowed again, had Makoto not put a hand firmly on her shoulder in anticipation of her doing that. Perhaps Makoto was ignorant in the ways of Yurigaoka etiquette, but it seemed to her that one bow was quite enough.
“I’m Hasebe Touka. A second-year Lily in Legion Sanngriðr, and Misaka’s roommate,” said the Lily in the chair. “It’s nice to meet you, Fumi-san, Makoto-san.”
“I am Murakami Tokiwa. A third-year Lily in Legion Sanngriðr, and my dear Misaka’s Schutzengel,” said Tokiwa. “It’s a true pleasure to meet the two of you.”
“ I’m Kurokawa Nady Hanna, Misaka-onee-sama’s Schild!” chirped the girl who had her head in Misaka’s lap. She wiggled her way to a more comfortable spot, and Misaka smiled down at her, gently stroking her head and hair. “And I’m Kondo Misaka, the one they call the Uncontrollable Lily,” she said, finishing the introductions. “So what questions have you got for me, Fumi?”
“Um, if I could ask some quick ones first,” Makoto said, with uncertainty in her voice. “What’s a Schutzengel? And a Schild?” She vaguely remembered seeing the words before in magazines about Lilies… but truthfully, she usually skipped past the articles about the Lilies themselves to get to the parts about their weapons. She knew that if there was anything she ever wanted to know about Lilies, a certain somebody would fill her in.
True to Makoto’s prediction, Fumi immediately launched into an enthusiastic explanation. “At Yurigaoka, there’s a tradition where an older Lily or Arsenal will swear an oath together with a younger one,” she said in a rapid-fire voice. “The older girl promises that she will guide the other and help her become a strong Lily, or Arsenal, and both of them vow to honor and cherish each other. In good times and in bad, in sickness and in health. It’s called the Schutzengel’s Oath! After they’ve taken it, the older girl’s called the Schutzengel, and the younger one’s called the Schild.”
“So it’s like that Oath of Minne thing you told me about when we visited St. Mercurius?” Makoto asked. “You called it a vow between lovers.”
Fumi blinked, then shot an embarrassed glance in Misaka, Tokiwa and Hanna's direction. She relaxed after seeing that none of them had so much as raised an eyebrow. “Um, yes, they’re pretty much the same thing,” she replied to Makoto. “Though there are platonic Schutzengels too.”
“That’s so sweet,” Makoto said with a smile, then gave her sister an inquisitive look. “Have you got a Schutzengel yet, onee-chan?” she asked.
After another blink, Fumi’s cheeks flushed red. “Me? N-No!” she exclaimed. “I’d love to have one, but I’m really not much of a Lily, so nobody would want me to be their Schild!” She shook her head vigorously for a much longer time than was necessary, then swayed slightly on her feet, having made herself dizzy with the action.
The Lilies from Sanngriðr looked at each other. Hanna lifted her head up off Misaka’s lap and leaned upwards. “Should we tell her?” she whispered quietly to Tokiwa, who shook her head. “She’ll figure it out eventually. Or maybe Hibari-chan will finally work up the resolve to propose,” the older Lily whispered back with a calm smile.
Tokiwa turned her attention to the Futagawa sisters. “Why don’t you two come in and make yourselves comfortable?” she asked with a smile. “It would be rather awkward to conduct an interview when you’re standing outside the doorway.”
With a nod of agreement, Makoto stepped into the legion room. She looked back at Fumi, who had a panicked look on her face, and sighed. Makoto grabbed her sister’s hand and pulled her inside, the shorter girl exclaiming “Hawawa!” as she stumbled into the room, after which Makoto shut the door firmly behind them.
The two looked around for somewhere to sit. “Wow…” Fumi whispered quietly to Makoto, trying not to let the members of Sanngriðr overhear her. “I’d heard about it, but seeing Legion Sanngriðr’s meeting room is something else altogether…”
It was a chaotic mess; there simply wasn’t any way to put it. Right next to them, there was a small table with a bonsai tree sitting on it; on the opposite side of it were several pieces of exercise equipment. A few swords hung on the walls, and on the far side of the room was a suit of metal armor on a stand. Next to the armor was a porcelain tanuki of approximately the same size. Creepiest of all was what appeared to be a large face crudely carved into a circular piece of stone, its mouth gaping open—Makoto imagined that it was artwork of some sort, but it just looked hideous to her. High over the mess hung an ornate chandelier, positively normal compared to the rest.
There was a meeting table surrounded by chairs, but it was rather distant from the Lilies from Sanngriðr, with only a kotatsu and a mahjong table offering somewhere closer to sit. “You can sit there,” said Misaka, gesturing to the chairs around the mahjong table with an embarrassed look on her face. Unsure what else to do, Fumi and Makoto arranged two of the chairs to be facing the Lilies and took their seats.
“Do forgive our poor hospitality,” Tokiwa said. “I’ve been telling the other girls the we ought to get some proper furniture. Perhaps a few recliners. We’re overdue for some tidying up in here.”
“You really think we’ve got space for those?” Hanna asked skeptically, glancing around the crowded room, then looking up at Tokiwa with a wary look in her eyes. “I’m not letting you get rid of my tanuki,” she warned.
“A-Anyway!” Misaka interrupted in a worried voice, looking between her Schutzengel and Schild. “What questions have you got for me, Fumi?”
“You already asked her that,” pointed out Hanna.
Fumi opened her notebook and readied her pen. “First, Misaka-sama, I was hoping you could tell me about—“ she began, only to be interrupted by the sudden opening of the door. It was not a quiet door; some of the Yurigaoka school buildings, including this one, were over a hundred years old and made of solid wood throughout.
Makoto and the Lilies turned towards the sound. Fumi’s pen clattered to the ground as her hands shot to her face, her eyes growing wide. “A-Amatsu Marei-sama!” she exclaimed in a muffled voice. Makoto also recognized the new arrival; despite not being any older than the other Lilies in the room, Marei was a famous CHARM engineer who often appeared in the books and magazines that Makoto read. She realized a few moments later that Fumi’s nose was in danger of bleeding again, but fortunately, it had showed greater fortitude this time.
“Hey, Marei!” Misaka exclaimed, staying seated on Tokiwa’s lap. “I didn’t know you were visiting Yurigaoka. It’s good to see you again!” Makoto wondered if there was anyone in the world who would embarrass Misaka (or Tokiwa, or Hanna) were that person to see them cuddling. At this rate, it didn’t seem likely that there was.
“Hey there, Misaka, Touka,” Marei said. “I finished up a custom CHARM for another Yurigaoka girl and thought I’d pay a visit to you two after delivering it.” She looked around. “I’m not interrupting anything, am I?”
Misaka opened her mouth, but before she could say a word, Fumi spoke up. “Not at all, Marei-sama!” she declared emphatically. Misaka gave Fumi a puzzled look, then silently closed her mouth again. Fumi swiped her pen off the ground from where she’d dropped it and began scribbling in her notebook, her eyes shining with excitement.
“If you say so,” Marei said, also giving Fumi a puzzled look before turning her head back to Misaka. “Mind if I ask you something, Misaka?”
“Only if you tell us who the lucky girl is that got herself a CHARM built by the Amatsu Marei,” Misaka retorted with a grin. “A question for a question’s a fair trade, isn’t it?”
“You’re as nosy as ever,” Marei said with a sigh. “My latest CHARM’s for Hitotsuyanagi Riri, from, uh… Legion Ráðgríðr. You know her? She hasn’t made much of a name for herself yet, though I expect she will soon.”
Misaka nodded. “Yuyu’s Schild? Not real well, but I know her name, at least,” she said, then jutted a finger at Fumi. “That gal over there is in her legion, if I’m not mistaken.” Fumi looked up from her notebook for just long enough to nod a few times in assent, then resumed her furious scribbling.
As she looked at Marei, Misaka grinned even wider. “You really know how to pick ‘em, Marei, those girls you build CHARMs for,” she said. “I remember how you built one for me back when I was still a total nobody. It sure came in handy during the Odaiba Counteroffensive. And it’s still my favorite, especially with the upgrades you’ve made to it.”
“Yeah, about that,” Marei said in an uneasy voice. “Earlier, I was chatting with some of the other Arsenals here, and they told me something that’s been bothering me.”
“What’s the matter, Marei-san?” Tokiwa asked in a gentle voice.
Marei closed her eyes, frowning. “I’ll just come straight out with it,” she declared. “They told me that at Yurigaoka, when you build a CHARM for someone—or even promise them that you’re gonna do it—it’s like taking the Schutzengel’s Oath with them. Or asking to be their roommate. A damn pledge of love.” She paused and wrapped her arms around herself, her body language making it clear how uncomfortable she was. “Excuse my language. Anyway… is that really true?”
Throughout this, Makoto had been listening quietly, her eyes lingering on the Lilies from Sanngriðr; it had seemed even more awkward to keep staring at Marei. She was surprised to see Touka’s eyes suddenly snap over to the CHARM engineer. It looked to her like the green-haired girl was glaring at Marei with open hostility, though Marei didn’t seem to notice.
Hanna suddenly burst into a fit of giggles, rolling around as much as she could without allowing her head to leave Misaka’s lap. With an awkward smile, Misaka looked down and patted her Schild on the head, unwilling or unable to give Marei an immediate answer.
“You said two very important words there, Marei-san,” Tokiwa began in a calm voice. “At Yurigaoka. One cannot take a Schutzengel or Schild from outside Yurigaoka. Nor, needless to say, can one be roommates with them. And so it follows that building a CHARM for someone when you’re not a Yurigaoka Arsenal yourself has no special meaning... though, as this is strictly a unofficial belief that people hold, I can’t say for certain that everyone would agree with me on that.” An expression of amusement rose to the older Lily’s face. “However, if a pledge of that sort could be made with Lilies from other Gardens, I do believe that it would mean Mashima Moyu-san has declared her love to the entire student body of Ludvico Private Girls' Academy.”
“That’s a real good point, Tokiwa-sama,” Marei said in a relieved tone, the tension visibly departing her body. “I mean, you’ve been good friends to me, Misaka, Touka. But I don’t like you in that way. And Riri? To be honest, I barely know the girl.” Hanna started giggling again, and Misaka placed a hand over her Schild’s mouth, looking embarrassed—likely for more than one reason.
“I’m glad that I could put you at ease, Marei-san,” Tokiwa said. “Don’t worry. Misaka-chan has all the love that she needs.” As Makoto watched, Touka nodded in agreement with the older Lily’s words, smiling as pleasantly as she had been before Marei’s arrival. The younger of the Futagawa sisters found it hard to trust her short-term memory, but if looks could kill, she was pretty sure she would have witnessed Touka committing a murder earlier.
“It sure looks that way,” Marei agreed, grinning. “Well then, I should get going. I’ll probably be back at Yurigaoka soon to check how Riri’s new CHARM is holding up, so I’ll talk to you girls more then, m’kay?” She waved goodbye to the Lilies, and Misaka and Hanna returned the wave, while Tokiwa and Touka gave her a more refined nod.
Marei stepped out of the room. When the door had closed behind her, Tokiwa looked down at the girl sitting in her lap. “Is something wrong, Misaka-chan?” she asked.
“Don’t worry. Misaka-chan has all the love that she needs,” said Tokiwa.
Upon hearing those words, a strange feeling of unease entered Misaka.
She was sitting in her dear Schutzengel’s lap. Her adorable Schild, Hanna, was in her own lap. And her beloved roommate was at her side. Misaka knew that not many people in this cruel world could say that they had three lovers; lovers who could defend themselves from the attacking Huge, who Misaka could trust not to leave her.
And yet… were they all really that she needed?
She remembered those words from so many years ago. The words that she’d said together with Homare, and Totori, and Chihiro.
“We four do hereby swear an oath, that we shall bring together a legion.”
“Though we were born on different days, we swear to aid one another, and fight at each other's sides until our last breath.”
“We seek not to be born on the same day, in the same month and in the same year.”
“We merely hope to die on the same day, in the same month and in the same year!”
She remembered Chihiro smiling at her, with those beautiful eyes of hers. One of them gold, the other red. Though many of the other elementary-school Lilies claimed that Chihiro looked scary, to Misaka, her smile had always seemed kinder and more gentle than anyone else’s.
“I thought all I wanted was to help you with your dream, Misaka,” Chihiro had said to her once.
“But now, I think I've found one more dream.”
“It's with you, Misaka.”
She remembered the look of fierce determination on Chihiro’s face on that day they’d all come under attack by countless Huge, and Chihiro had run away from their group to lure some of the enemy elsewhere. She remembered the sight of Chihiro’s CHARM, lying on the ground, stained with red blood. They had never found her body. But even so, a gravestone with her name upon it stood in Yurigaoka’s cemetery. Misaka had stood in front of it so many times, unable to read Chihiro’s name through her tears.
Though it had felt at times like the entire world had been working against her, Misaka had brought together Legion Sanngriðr. She’d fulfilled their oath from long ago, with Homare and Totori standing right next to her. She had found so many other people who loved and supported her, and she loved them too, with all her heart.
But nothing would ever replace Chihiro. Nothing would ever be the same as that quiet, gentle, unconditional love that Chihiro had shown her.
She wanted it back.
She wanted Chihiro here with her. Together with Homare and Totori. Together with Tokiwa, Hanna and Touka. They were all part of Sanngriðr, none of them any lesser than the others. None of them any less beloved than the others.
Misaka couldn’t tell if the pain in her heart at that moment was regret that she couldn’t be satisfied with all that she had, or if it was simply the pain of Chihiro’s absence.
“Is something wrong, Misaka-chan?” Tokiwa asked, jolting Misaka out of her reverie.
Misaka blinked a few times, then shook her head. “No, nothing,” she replied. “I was just thinking about the past. Sorry to worry you, Toki-nee.”
“Maybe you should be thinking about how to answer Fumi-san’s questions instead,” Touka suggested. They looked over at the brown-haired girl, who was still scribbling in her notebook. She had to have filled several pages of it, and showed no signs of stopping or slowing down.
Makoto put her hand on Fumi’s shoulder, gently shaking her. “Hawawa?!” Fumi exclaimed as her pen jerked away from the page, seeming as if she’d been jolted out of a reverie of her own.
“You had questions for Misaka-sama, didn’t you, onee-chan?” Makoto said.
“Well, actually, I think I’ve got enough for an article already! I’m going to title it ‘Amatsu Marei’s Misunderstanding Causes Chaos in Sanngriðr’s Meeting Room!’” Fumi exclaimed with a wide grin of excitement.
Makoto sighed. “You shouldn’t say that with Sanngriðr listening, onee-chan,” she advised, glancing over at Touka to check that Fumi wasn’t now the target of her deadly glare. To Makoto’s relief, while Touka did not exactly look happy, she didn’t look like she wanted to kill Fumi either. “Does that mean the interview’s not happening, then?”
“Oh, no! I can run that in a separate issue! If… if you’d still be willing to answer a few questions for me, of course, Misaka-sama!” Fumi squeaked. Confronted with the prospect of having to speak directly to Misaka after her faux pas, she suddenly looked nervous.
The bickering between the two sisters had only reminded Misaka more of the past. Of the way that she’d constantly butted heads with Totori and Homare, while Chihiro had quietly watched the three of them, smiling. But Misaka had spent enough time lost in her memories for one day.
She smiled at Fumi, trying to channel those memories into her own expression. To soothe Fumi’s spirit, just as Chihiro had always soothed hers.
“I’d love to, Fumi,” Misaka said.
~Fin~