KILLPOINT

It was a game to him, an easy game to play. Killpoint 00.1 Startpoint


The prison was located far to the north, away from the general populous of the country it was situated within. This prison was used as a place to store only the most dire, the most heinous of criminals; no one ever came out alive.

And yet, inside the walls of the snow-capped fortress, it was very easy to get word out to the people outside the prison. The guards were not above persuasion, for they basked in the idea that no one had ever managed a successful escape from within the walls. It was a foolish hope to cling to, as walls like that were just waiting to be breached.

Nagi Dai Artai was a shrewd man. He was young, and was the first to admit the fact, and many people oftentimes would underestimate him because of this. He'd grown used to it, and had developed his own system of subtle control over his surroundings that required careful planning and manipulation. He had grown up accustomed to the fact that he was in control of everything he touched and an easy ten steps ahead of his political opponents.



Nagi Dai Artai had never thirsted for power the way that he thirsted for the control over the small country of Windbloom, many miles to the south of his own kingdom. It was not a logical move for him to want to control that country in the first place, as it had next to no resources and it's only claim to fame was that damnable school that produced Otome. Nagi hated the Otome, for they had always found a way to meddle with his plans in the most obnoxious of ways.

There was, however, something else about Windbloom that Nagi desperately needed to have. He had caught a glimpse of it quite by accident as a small child and had suddenly discovered that a newcomer to the Otome School, Gaulderobe, had the ability to turn it on.

In ancient history, the Harmonium had been part of what had helped Fumi Himeno to put a stop to the Twelve Kingdoms War and finally bring peace to Earl. Nagi had always been curious about that power, of what kind of person would be required to control it - and he had decided that he woudl find the damnable machine.

He'd found it, quite by mistake, some years later when it was all but out of his reach. Mashiro Blan de Windbloom would no sooner let the ruler of Altai into her private bathroom than let him near the Harmonium, as she was not a fool either.

And yet he had to have it. He had to know what the power was behind the Harmonium, the terrible device that reacted only to a virgin's most impure throughts. Nagi wanted to know how to control it, to use it to his own will.

That was when he discovered the secret of the Otome. While in a Master-Otome connection with Nina Wang, the one person who'd been able to turn on the Harmonium, Nagi had felt the power of the device, had felt it move through his body.

He'd been drunk on the power.

Now, after nearly a year of sitting around and waiting, Nagi was ready to make his move. He'd played the good prisoner for long enough and he still had enough loyality within his home country to stir up the ferver he knew he had to. The Harmonium had demonstrated what Nagi needed to do - to gather the souls, to start the battle anew.

He'd sensed a spike in the power, and the blue star next to the moon had burned red in his vision. He knew they'd come close.

But now, now the war needed to happen. The three hundred years had passed.

It was the jester's duty to start the battle anew.

-

Executive Office, Aries National Government Offices, AriesRepublic
December 15th, 21:49

The President of the Republic of Aries, Yukino Chrysant, was in a poor mood. The end of her first six-year term as president was drawing ever closer and unless she wanted to lose the position to someone new and fresh-faced, she would have to start campaigning soon. The problem was, however, that Yukino’s last election had happened on a whim. It was perhaps one of the greatest upsets in Aries history and everyone had to admit that they were pleased with the outcome. Even now, she knew that it would be a mistake to allow Haruka to do all the ads, but at the same time, Haruka's popularity was rival to her approval ratings, well in the seventies, among the people of her nation. Yukino would be a fool not to take advantage of it, even to some extent.

Her public approval rating, Yukino was forced to lament, had fallen in the past few weeks because of her decision to stand behind the SOLF Treaty. SOLF stood for Standard-Setting Otome Limitation Force Treaty, and it had been proposed by Gaulderobe to the world stage as a way of preventing another incident like what had happened in Windbloom almost a year ago. Otome should not be bound to masters for the express purpose of both parties gaining power. The Master-Otome bond was a strict one that was for protection only. Yukino understood that, and understood what could come of a functioning bond.

The people of Aries were not keen on the idea that many Otome would be forced into retirement after a set period of tenure to a master - or that there now had to be even more checks on the power of Otome than ever before. There had to be, after one misled Otome had very nearly destroyed all of Windbloom. They were just too powerful, too strong a concentrated force.

Yukino had to admit that her public approval had fallen because she had made the decision to back Gaulderobe's decision of limiting the Otome's terms of service. Many within her country saw the Otome as heroes and heroes only - there was very little knowledge of what being an Otome really entailed. Yukino would not wish Haruka's life on anyone.

Haruka never spoke of it, but Yukino knew the younger woman well enough to recognize the signs of the subtle stress and pressure that was placed upon her Otome. Haruka was a public figure, and a powerful ally to have; but Yukino saw what being that person did to her.

The hour was growing late and Yukino's appearance was becoming more and more disheveled as the evening drew on. She was used to the late hours, working long into the night only to rise for a nine o'clock community breakfast in the morning. It was the one aspect of the Aries national government that Yukino could say she truly adored, those early morning breakfasts. Everyone, from the president to the lowliest intern in the press office would gather together and eat a light meal before starting on a day that would most likely not end until twelve or more hours later.

Yukino wearily signed another document, not really bothering to look at what it was that she was signing, and decided that enough was enough. The pile would not get any smaller overnight, but it was better for the people of Aries when their President really did know what it was that she was signing. Yukino pulled off her glasses and rested her head in her hands, groaning slightly. She did not want to discuss campaign strategies with Haruka for the next hour or so before they both retired.

She just wanted sleep.

"Yukino?" Haruka called from outside the door. She'd been a meeting with the joint heads of the Aries Army, Navy and Air Force, Yukino recalled; and was most likely in a rather subdued mood because of it. That would be nice; maybe Yukino could wheedle out of interaction and go straight on to the better parts of their evening all together.

Even if Haruka Armitage was the figure head of the Aries military, she was by no means the head and it was meetings like that that Yukino used, sometimes, to remind Haruka of just that fact. Haruka was so gung-ho about jumping into situations before she had a full grasp on the situation that sometimes, and it had caused quite a bit of trouble in the past. Yukino, however, was willing to look beyond that, where the joint chiefs of staff of the military were not.

It was humanizing, and something everyone needed.

"Yes?" Yukino called, not lifting her head from her hands. She was exhausted, having had several long conference calls and a great deal of problems with a bridge that was being constructed in the Borderlands.

"I'm going to run a bath, give me five minutes, alright?" Yukino loved her, really she did, but it was the brisk attitude and the no-questions-asked that sometimes made Yukino want to scream. Haruka was far more likely, at times, to simply ignore Yukino and follow the orders of her body that Yukino herself was not aware of.

Like drawing a bath. Yukino was quite sure that she had not been thinking of anything of the sort, but she had to admit that the idea sounded quite inviting - now that Haruka mentioned it. This had been another reason for Gaulderobe to want to limit the duration of an Otome-Master bond. If a pair were bonded for too long, there was a reported almost psychic connection that appeared between the Master and the Otome.

The rain rattled against the windows outside, for it rarely snowed in the capital city – and Yukino looked out the window once again, thinking, perhaps desperately, to when she could safely say that she was on vacation and did not have to deal with all the problems of Aries.

Yukino sighed and reached out to put her glasses back on. She was tired, almost ridiculously so. Blinking to adjust her vision after having the constant pressure of her fingers on her eyes, she rose and straightened the already neat piles of paper on her desk. Haruka was right, as usual, as always.

She slipped out the back door to the office and down the private wing to her residence. It was warmer here; the winter's chill did not cut through these walls as easily as it did the outer areas of the Executive Wing of the capital building. She followed the sound of running water and soon stepped into the bathroom just off her own bedroom.

"Haruka?" She called into the steam. She bent down and began to pull off her shoes. It was odd that Haruka would not play the role of ‘proper’ Otome in a situation like this, but Yukino was grateful for it. If she had one more person fussing over her today, she was quite sure she’d do something she’d later come to regret.

"Mmm?" Came Haruka's response. Yukino was shedding her clothes rather quickly, wanting to be free of the damp chill that permeated the rest of the capital building. She really should mention the cold to someone, for she was sure she was not the only one who spent all day wishing it were reasonable to wear pants to work.

"How did you know I wanted a bath?" She was trying to be coy - but she'd always lacked the real tact to pull it off. She stepped into the steam to join Haruka in the bath. They sat facing each other, Yukino's glasses fogging up and Haruka looking pensive.

"I don't know." Haruka settled on at last, and Yukino smiled. "I just sort of did, though."

Yukino said nothing for a long moment, lost in thought. She wanted to tell Haruka all her fears, to confess that she knew her re-election was assured - but that she wasn't sure she wanted it. If Yukino were to step down, she'd lose Haruka, to have the Otome bonded to her successor. Yukino did not think that Haruka would go quietly, and the subsequent screaming matches would the rather epic.

Yukino did not think that she could take that. "How did the meeting go?" She asked at length, straying away from heavy topics that were far more likely to hurt than heal.

Haruka shrugged, "It was really too cold in that damn room for me to contemplate -"

"Concentrate, Haruka." Yukino said automatically.

"-yes yes, on what they were saying. Otome uniforms are warm, yes, but not when it's this cold out." Haruka folded her arms across her chest and huffed. "They did mention something about a prison break-out up in Artai, however."

Yukino's interest perked, "Really?" She could think of several people locked away in prison in Artai that she would not want to see released any time in the near future. She hoped - prayed really, that the people who had escaped were in no way connected with Nagi Dai Altai.

"There aren't a lot of details yet, we'll know more in the morning." Haruka explained, "It'll come in with the morning press bulletin, most like."

"Mmmm," They were an odd pair, Yukino was the first to admit that, but their personalities complimented each other so nicely that it was nigh impossible to tell where one began and the other ended.

-

Lecture Hall D, Crynis Building Windbloom Public University, Windbloom
December 16th, 10:37

Juliet Nao Zhang was trying to be inconspicuous, and failing rather miserably. Again she cursed Kruger, Viola, and all the other people who'd been present in the room when Kruger had handed down her decision that Nao was to attend public university until such a time that the new SOLF Treaty was fully activated. The damned document put a limit on what age an Otome had to be to be bonded to a Master, or, in the case of Nao, bonded to the school.

She had to be twenty to take the post and she was still only eighteen.

Ever since its inception, Gaulderobe had had a fund dedicated to furthering the education of the Otome who chose to remain behind in its service. Nao was not the first to be receiving more schooling on top of the first-rate education that Gaulderobe had already provided her. It was strange, however, to act like a civilian when Nao had been raised to be a soldier.

Kruger had informed Nao that it was an option presented to all of the Columns of Gaulderobe when they were first chosen; and many of them took advantage of the time to see the world or to further themselves through schooling. Viola had two degrees that she’d gotten in the time while waiting for Kruger to finish up her schooling and then receive the training needed to become the head of the school.

Nao had chosen to stay in Windbloom, as Kruger was bound to need her sooner or later for one mission or another - and had been enrolled, free of charge, to the university that Windbloom prided itself in. It was amazing to see the power of the Gakuenchou of Gaulderobe in action. The position was like being the head of a country, and a powerful one at that. There was a reason, Nao assumed, that a complete idiot like Kruger had been chosen for the job.

Absolute power corrupts absolutely.

She liked it there, but it was so jarring to be among these students who knew nothing of the real world. They still talked about the invasion of Windbloom as though it had been the next Twelve Kingdoms War. In a sense, it rather was, but the awe that they used when speaking about the conflict sickened Nao. It was as if they did not fully understand the fantastic loss of life that that conflict had caused.

Nor, did Nao think, they ever would.

She was sitting in the back of her Modern Statistics class, waiting for the professor to arrive. Nao had chosen to follow her love of numbers in school because she knew that once she retired or accidentally lost her ability to be an Otome, she would need a career that she could do until she died.

Numbers, it seemed, would be just the thing.

She tiredly watched as a number of the more rowdy boys filed into the seats in front of her and checked once again to make sure that the GEM in her ear was covered by a lock of hair. The last thing Nao needed right now was for anyone to discover that she was an Otome.

She resented the way that her history classes talked about the Otome, like they were not people, but rather tools to be used to an end. They had no idea what it was like living with the prospect of fighting a battle that could very easily kill both you and your master; if you took even so much as the wrong step. She'd brought this up in class, but the Professors were as oblivious as the students when it came to what an Otome really was.

She’d received a stern talking to after that, telling her that it was not her place to assume such things about the ‘national heroes.’ Nao had resisted asking her professor where he’d been during the Battle for Windbloom. She’d been on the front line, but she was willing to bet that he’d been one of the first out of the city when Nagi had opened the borders briefly to let in supplies and refugees out.

Nao leaned back in her chair, tipping it up against the wall as she remembered the day that Kruger had finally given her Meister GEM. They'd been about to die, heading into a rash attempt at feeing a country from the hands of a maniacal little boy.

Kruger knew what too long in Artai could do to a person, and Nao was glad that she'd gotten out when she had.

"Oi, Zhang!" One of the boys sitting below her called, "Did you see the news? Nagi Dai Altai escaped from prison!"

Nao felt her blood run cold as she tipped her chair forward and asked in the most bored sounding voice she could, "Oh, and what makes you so sure it was him?"

No doubt Nagi had made a public address to the Artai government by now, reinstating his control over them. Nao frowned. She hated politics.

The boys chattered some more, before one of them said, "He's starting to stir up anti-Gaulderobe sentiment. Apparently there have been some riots already in the cities there.

No one in Artai had Otome any more, not since Gaulderobe and the League of Nations had cut them off from that resource. The option was still open to anyone not directly related to Nagi Dai Altai, but so far no one had taken Gaulderobe up on the offer.

"Let them riot." Nao said, wondering how long it would be until she would have to go on active assignment.

"You're weird, Zhang. Gaulderobe won't just stand by as you do - they'll fight back."

Yes, they'd fight back, when Kruger and the rest of the Columns managed to put together a contingency plan and generally make sure that no one would die.

"I'm sure that the Gakuenchou and the rest of the Otome are more than equipped to take on such a threat." Nao said smoothly. And to tell the truth, she hoped they were.