ACT IV – SCARLET SUPERGIANT

 

Part I: Reimei’s Private Investigation

 

Going back to the Sunbird girls’ dorm after the crazy dinner at the Summerbolts’, Reimei tried to make sense of everything that had happened there. For just one evening she had met the rest of Hikaru’s family, had successfully convinced him to recast the main roles in his play and had not only learned what the play was about in detail but had been chosen for one of the three lead roles.

‘World Pentamachy: The Epic of a Tragedy’ was based on the myth of a war including five species, one of which were the humans, which had supposedly engulfed all of Saiten and which some scholars considered to be the actual first world war. According to the myth, Saiten had not only been visited by, but had had numerous alien settlements created on it in ancient times, from the otherworldly species that had inhabited it three standing out – the elementals, the dragons and the titans.

Only the titans on the human world had been representatives of one of many nations – the metal ones – and had run away from their home planet of Titania long ago, in the beginning of Hikaru’s play all other titan nations coming to Saiten to capture the runaways. What the invaders hadn’t expected had been to discover a certain human settlement had ample amounts of a unique metal in their possession, the titan capture mission ending up becoming a war for control of not only this metal, but the whole planet as well.

And in this story Reimei had been given the role of the Water Titan King Uraiko – one of the three titans leading the metal titan runaways who had taken refuge on Saiten, the other two main roles being split between Exo (the Metal Titan Queen Erania) and Tokura (the Air Titan King Kerekai). Seiren, Vega and King had been assigned roles as well by Hikaru, who himself had taken on the role of the play’s main antagonist, Ayli still playing the same character as before while new characters had been chosen for Yuki and Feoria.

Thus, before going to her room in the dorms, Reimei had to make a stop at Feoria’s room to relay the important changes that had been made. But that was far from the main reason for the scarlet-haired beauty visiting her classmate in the evening.

Even after everything that had happened, Miss Scarlettail’s mind was still stuck on Kar Devibolt causing Feoria to use her deva on the Drama Club members earlier that day, thinking that was an important detail she needed to investigate further. Which was what her real intention was as she gulped and approached the door of the room she knew Feoria and Miluna were sharing in the dorm.

Reimei knocked a couple of times, trying to steel herself as much as possible and going over the excuse to convince Feoria to let her in, soon enough the door opening. Feoria came out behind it only halfway, wearing nothing but a short tank top on the upper half of her body, being covered in sweat and breathing heavily. Despite her state, she was still able to muster a smile when she saw the scarlet-haired beauty.

(Feoria) ‘Yo, Mei! What’s up?’

(Reimei) ‘Feoria, um … are you OK?’

(Feoria) ‘Oh, yeah! Just … just fine! I was working out, so that’s why I’m a mess!’

(Reimei) ‘After everything that happened today, you’re in the mood to work out?’

(Feoria) ‘Best way to take my mind of things, you know?’ – finally Reimei’s skin-heating classmate was able to slow her breathing down enough to have a normal conversation, becoming a bit more serious now – ‘You checking how I am after Neana’s treatment? No need, Mei. Our headmistress never fails to patch me up, so my wounds are pretty much healed. If I’m working out, that means nothing’s wrong, right?’

(Reimei) ‘That’s good to hear. Yuki and I agreed to check on you and Ayli just in case and there’s also something we wanted to tell you.’

(Feoria) ‘What about?’

(Reimei) ‘It’s about Hikaru’s play. I don’t know if you and Ayli went to check in with Segune-sensei and spar with him in the Adaptability Chamber, so …’

Feoria scratched her head with an awkward smile at the mention of the Adaptability Chamber, that alone helping Reimei guess what she was going to say next.

(Feoria) ‘I actually skipped that exercise. Needed a little break from the fighting. Don’t know about Ayli, but I’d guess she’s done the same thing. So you can go ahead and fill me in on the play stuff.’

The scarlet-haired beauty thought now was a good time to try and make her way inside the room to look for any possible clues, pausing before she said anything more to Feoria to prepare herself and using the most convincing tone she could when she continued.

(Reimei) ‘Could I, um … come in? There’s a lot and I mean a LOT of stuff to tell you about and some of that is only for members of our class to know, so … I don’t think we should talk in the hallway where a lot of other people can hear us.’

Miss Scarlettail’s classmate became very hesitant after hearing that, starting to look in different directions so as to avoid her gaze, confirming Reimei’s suspicion there was something in the room Feoria did not want her to see.

(Feoria) ‘I don’t know, Mei. My room is a mess to say the least. If you don’t want anyone else to hear what you’re gonna say, why don’t we go for a walk around the dorms? That should be safe enough.’ – without even waiting to receive confirmation from the scarlet-haired beauty, her skin-heating counterpart went back inside the room – ‘Let me just put something on and I’ll be right out!’

Feoria’s diversion had been very good except for one little detail that unfortunately for her Reimei noticed. As she turned her back to her, the transfer student saw a hand-shaped burn on her tank top that looked like something had eaten straight through the fabric. Like Miluna’s hand clad in her acid deva.

And to make Miss Scarlettail even more suspicious, another detail was revealed to her eyes before Feoria could shut the door all the way – Miluna herself was inside the room, wearing just as skimpy an outfit as her classmate, being just as sweaty and most importantly – having parts of her body covered in acid. Seeing that, the scarlet-haired beauty opened the door and went inside without asking for permission.

(Reimei) ‘Hey, are you sure you’re OK, Feoria? That burn on your back … did Miluna do that to you? Tell me …’

Having become so absorbed in the discoveries she had made, Reimei failed to realize how quickly Feoria had turned to her with a terrifying mad look in her eyes, grabbing her newest classmate by the scarlet hair and dragging her further in. Though distracted by the dull pain she felt from being thrown on the floor right after, Miss Scarlettail still registered two things.

First, she heard the sound of the door of the room closing, and second, when she opened her eyes again, she saw Miluna jumping above her with a look in her eyes just like Feoria’s, having formed a wave of organic acid around herself.

(Miluna) ‘You really are too observant, Mei, you know that?!’

In order to protect herself, Reimei instinctively created a massive wave of her water deva to block Miluna’s attack, more vapor being added to the one formed by the contact between the water and the acid, the source of that being Feoria. She had activated her skin-heating deva, as before this giving an orange glow to her skin, making her eyes shine in a brighter hue of yellow than usual and most importantly – making her body emit a lot of steam to limit the visibility in the room more and more.

(Feoria) ‘In fact you’re so smart, we can’t let you leave. But I want you to know it’s nothing personal. You just saw too much.’

Right after saying that, Feoria leapt through the steam, Reimei blocking her with a water wall that quickly started evaporating under the effects of the heat exuded by her classmate, Miluna attacking from the other side at the same time with multiple thick acid streams. As was quickly proven, using another water wall to stop those streams was not good enough, Miss Scarlettail being forced to resort to more offensive tactics to her great regret. She had come to Deckstoru to make new friends, after all, not keep on fighting against the people she lived with, as it had been back in Saraley.

The walls used to stop both the scarlet-haired beauty’s classmates were combined and transformed into a multidirectional barrage of condensed water bullets – bullets she knew could hurt them – Miluna managing to herself and Feoria from any damage, though. She spread out a lot of acid throughout the room to serve as a shield against all the bullets, neither of the two Earthlings seeming to have realized their newest classmate had only used that attack as a distraction.

While the duo had been dealing with the bullets, Reimei had gone ahead and pushed her deva output to its limit under the conditions within the Sunbird dorms, transforming her whole body into water and expanding its size, first using her gigantic hair turned to foamy tentacles to immobilize the acidic and skin-heating beauty. In order to escape, Feoria started emitting even more heat to the point where the clothes on her body were completely melted away, Miluna applying the same method as her scarlet-haired classmate to turn her whole body into her deva.

Miss Scarlettail already had a counter in place for that, using her water body’s massive fists to smack her opponents and then slam them hard in the floor, continuing to wrap her hair around them again when they started returning to a normal appearance. The battle would’ve come to an end then, but it turned out Miluna had used a distraction as well, upon the foamy tentacles grabbing hold of Feoria, her body turning into acid.

Reimei guessed the switch of the original with a clone had been made during the excessive steam emitting when the girls had attempted to escape the tentacles’ grip the first time, the acidic and skin-heating beauties having shown remarkably good teamwork and concern for the other. While being cornered by their opponent, Feoria had provided cover with her steam for Miluna to make clones and though she could’ve made copies of both of them with her acid, she had focused on saving her classmate over herself.

As a token of gratitude for that kindness, Feoria had come at Reimei from behind, emitting as much heat and steam as possible, her eyes having become only orbs of yellow light now as she roared with all her fury.

(Feoria) ‘BLOCK THIS, YOU FUCKING BITCH!!!’

The skin-heating beauty suddenly started spinning, cladding herself in all the steam to transform into a drill shining in bright orange with yellow flashes here and there, Miss Scarlettail’s uniform, skin and hair turned to water starting to burn up even before the drill actually made contact with her. Due to being too close, Reimei couldn’t turn her giant water body in a massive bullet all the way to clash with the drill, but even if she had, the amount of heat exuded by Feoria’s attack would’ve still eaten through any counter she could think of.

One positive of the situation was that when the scarlet-haired beauty was hit, she was in giant water body form, which mitigated the damage, even if just a little bit. It was impossible to maintain such a form while suffering from the searing pain the spreading of the steam caused, though, soon enough Reimei being forced to return to her normal appearance.

Her eyes were closed for the whole duration of this as she felt her body hitting the floor and the burns of Feoria’s attack finally coming into full effect. How Miss Scarlettail was able to stop herself from screaming in that moment, she did not know. Perhaps it was because the steam had burned through her nerves so fast, they had already become numb again.

To make up for not making a sound, Reimei kept wriggling on the floor, streams of tears coming from her eyes, her teeth biting through her lip many times. Then all of a sudden the pain disappeared, the scarlet-haired beauty finally taking the risk of opening her eyes. By the time she had done that, an all too similar feeling had come over her – the same one she had felt during her battle with Zoran in the Adaptability Chamber’s desert room. It was as if she had become merely an observer of the events that took place, something else controlling her body to wreak havoc against Feoria and Miluna.

Simply seeing the terrified looks on both their faces as they started crawling backwards toward the door made Reimei wonder what kind of appearance she had taken exactly, before she could think on that further, the thing she had become jumping forward. From both its sides were manifested multiple tails made of the same water mixing a pale pink and dark orange color the scarlet-haired beauty had used against Zoran, neither the acid projectiles fired by Miluna, nor the steam blasts released by Feoria deterring the water.

It moved forward relentlessly, whipping both girls multiple times and covering the walls with streaks of their blood until finally the tails wrapped tightly around them, some kind of energy of a purplish color being channeled from Reimei’s body through them and into Feoria and Miluna. They went into shock and froze with goggled eyes when that happened, the fact neither one was even screaming terrifying Miss Scarlettail more than everything she had seen so far. If nothing was done, the thing she had become would kill both her classmates.

And there was no one else around the girls could count on but Reimei herself, from that point on the Saraley girl deciding to stop being a simple observer and put an end to the torture. However she could.

The last time she had lost control, Zoran had been able to use his overwhelming power to knock her out, but this time around there wasn’t such a force to rely on. It all depended on how strong her willpower was.

In order to strengthen it, Reimei thought about Hikaru. About Yuki. About Seiren and everyone else from the class. About Zoran, Obur and the other Sunbird teachers. About the Summerbolts. She thought about the strength all of them possessed, praying that a small fragment of that strength could be passed on to her in the present by visualizing them, so that she could tame the monster.

When ready, she screamed with the full force of her subconscious at the creature using her body, using a more commanding tone than she ever had before.

(Reimei) ‘STOP RIGHT NOW!!! LEAVE THEM ALONE AND GIVE ME BACK MY BODY!!! I COMMAND YOU!!!!’

Absolutely nothing happened, the energy transfer from the monster and into the girls continuing, Reimei ending up shouting the same thing over and over again, feeling she was growing more desperate and her voice – weaker with each next shout.

The vision of the eyes the scarlet-haired beauty’s soul was seeing through suddenly became blurry then, moments later the thing she had become falling flat on the floor. From there Miss Scarlettail could see the water tails around Feoria and Miluna dissipating, soon enough both of them having been released, but remaining as paralyzed as before.

Reimei tried making the body she could tell she was gaining more and more control of again to get up and go help her classmates somehow, but that didn’t yield any result. The more the body became hers, the heavier it felt, even moving her finger a little bit feeling like an impossibly strenuous task.

A minute had probably passed and she had barely moved a few centimeters closer to the duo, walking being out of the question in her present state, so she kept on crawling. Before she reached them, Feoria convulsed a few times, her eyes starting to move again and her voice returning as she turned over to Miluna and started shaking her while shouting.

(Feoria) ‘Milu! Milu, you awake? Come on, wake up already!! Get up!! Give me something! Don’t make me burn you up to bring you back, cuz you know I’ll do it!!!’ – from angry she became desperate, her voice breaking now while she heated the girl she held – ‘Please! Please come back! Open your eyes! Please, Milu!!!’

Reimei had managed to get even closer to her classmates by the time Miluna also opened her eyes and looked with shock at Feoria who started crying now, shaking her a few more times as an insurance. Both girls ignored the scarlet-haired beauty completely, going from surprised to confused and finally happy, in order to reaffirm that feeling pressing their bodies tightly against each other and kissing.

At that point Miss Scarlettail heard her own voice again, shouting at the couple.

(Reimei) ‘What the hell?!?!!’

 

 

*

 

 

Once Feoria and Miluna calmed down and Reimei’s body started functioning normally again, the first thing they did was to apologize to each other for what they had done. Then came the patching-up of the couple’s wounds with whatever supplies they had available and checking to see if anyone had heard what had happened inside the room and had grown suspicious. Thankfully, none of the girls who had heard the fighting, screaming and shouting had found it strange, because according to all of them that was the acoustic environment in the dorm everyday anyway.

Finally, the damage caused to Feoria and Miluna’s room had to be fixed as much as possible, during that cleaning/patching-up session coming the time for confessions from all three young women. Due to how reluctant Reimei was to share and the fact her classmates had attacked her first, the two of them decided to take the lead with the sharing of secrets.

(Reimei) ‘So you two are … are like a couple? I thought one was under the effects of mind control and had tried to attack the other.’

(Feoria) ‘No, no, Mei. It’s nothing like that.’

(Miluna) ‘Please, Mei, just … no one else knows about us, so don’t go telling even people from the class after we tell you, OK? Can you promise me that?’

Hearing that made Miss Scarlettail’s heart flutter. Only three days after enrolling at Sunbird classmates were going to give her a secret to keep that no one else knew – not even all the other people who had been with them for years. And considering Reimei had gone through a life-or-death battle with Feoria and Miluna before the time for confessing had come, one could definitely say she had now become friends with them.

The scarlet-haired beauty’s beaming with happiness as a response to Miluna’s request confused and then scared both her and Feoria, the two looking at each other as they waited to hear some sort of verbal answer from their newest classmate. Eventually their staring helped Reimei come back to her senses, only mustering a nod at first.

(Reimei) ‘I promise. I won’t tell anyone. Ever.

I can understand why you don’t want people to know about it, even deviants. Our kind is considered weird enough already and for two girls to be doing … the stuff you’re doing ... it could get crazy. But still, I’m surprised you haven’t even told the other people from the class yet.’

(Feoria) ‘They’ve probably got some suspicions, but no one’s come out to ask either of us directly, so we’ll just keep quiet about it for now.’

(Miluna) ‘My acid deva … I’ve always had trouble controlling it, even when restrained with a chip. You probably don’t know this yet, Mei, but I was born in Peene – the same country Vivaya-sensei’s from. My family had to come to Barilia when my powers manifested because of all the damage I caused back home. I thought I should always hide what I’m really capable of while in Deckstoru, but then …’ – her sad gaze was lifted from the floor all three girls had now sat on with their legs crossed to look at Feoria, taking her hand as both of them smiled gently at the other – ‘… then I met Feo.’

(Feoria) ‘I had moved to Deckstoru because of trouble at home, too. My village is in Barilia, though, so I didn’t have to come as far as Milu.

With my skin-heating deva developing a bit earlier than normal, I kept burning up all my clothes and even the deviants thought I was some kind of exhibitionist freak. So my family had to move and like Milu, I had to learn to control myself and never fully let go of my deva.’ – her eyes met Miluna’s again, pulling her close so she could lean her head on her shoulder with a sigh, both girls looking more at peace than Reimei ever imagined was possible for anyone – ‘When we met each other, we finally found someone we could let go with.’

(Miluna) ‘With her skin heated, Feo can handle my acid no matter what and the same goes for me and her heat if I coat myself in some acid. So ever since enrolling at Sunbird together we sparred, had contests and did all kinds of things with our devas together.’ – as she looked upon Feoria now, Miluna chuckled with a devilish smile, her girlfriend answering with the same – ‘Along the way, we fell in love and decided to see how that would go as well. Considering how compatible our devas were, we made quite a great couple in bed, too, so here we are, three years later and still living the dream.’

(Reimei) ‘And have you like … got rid of someone who learned of your secret?’

Reimei changing the topic of conversation to a much darker one pulled Feoria and Miluna away from their dream-like state, the two separating from each other to sit up and look and their newest classmate again with serious faces.

(Feoria) ‘There haven’t been a whole lot of smart people around us to figure out what we’re doing, so no.

But we promised each other long ago to never let anyone on this world separate us. Ever. We promised that no matter what we had to do, we would stay together.’ – now the skin-heating beauty’s expression became a rather guilty one – ‘So that’s why I lost my shit when you figured out what was happening in my room. I’m really sorry, Mei.’

This time it was Reimei’s turn to scratch her head with an awkward smile to hide her guilt as best as possible while training to maintain eye contact with the couple as much as her shyness would allow her.

(Reimei) ‘As much as you two surprised me, I think what I did was a lot more shocking, so let’s call it even.’

(Miluna) ‘Yeah, what was that anyway? You’ve got PMS or something like that?’

Miss Scarlettail had kept reaching new heights of shock during her evening experience with Feoria and Miluna, but at that point she definitely reached the highest peak of astonishment. And right after, Reimei felt more ashamed than she ever wanted to be – to an extent where she felt her skin was hot enough to turn as scarlet as her hair.

(Reimei) ‘Wh-what?! I … no! This has got nothing to do with that!! Why would you even … it’s not … it’s not even my time of … not right now …’

Feoria had to go over and pat Reimei on the back while massaging her shoulder a few times to help her relax and prevent a case of hyperventilation, Miluna chuckling a little bit in response to that to further confuse and shame her scarlet-haired classmate.

(Reimei) ‘Is this somehow funny? Because for me it definitely …’

(Feoria) ‘It’s OK, Mei. Don’t mind Milu. It’s just that she meant something else when she asked you about PMS. I guess no one bothered to explain something like that to you in Saraley, but you’ve got us to count on here, so it’s fine.’

(Reimei) ‘Well … what does your PMS stand for exactly?’

(Miluna) ‘Possessive Morph Syndrome. Segune-sensei has it, so that’s why he doesn’t even partially enter his monster form almost ever. Morph deviants suffering from this syndrome can’t control themselves when fully transformed, almost as if their normal and morphed self are two different personalities.’

(Reimei) ‘So you’re saying I … I transformed? What did I turn into?’

(Feoria) ‘I wouldn’t say you transformed all the way, but there was definitely a partial transformation. You got a tail, your nails and teeth got long and sharp, your body kind of changed shape and your eyes …’ – before Reimei could stop her, Feoria reached and brushed aside the part of her fringe the scarlet-haired beauty was using to cover her azure eye with a serpentine pupil – ‘… yeah, I thought so. Both your eyes looked like this. Your right eye … does it always look like that?’

Pulling away from her classmate’s reach to cover her eye again, Reimei only answered with a nod without looking at neither her, nor Miluna.

(Miluna) ‘I’ve never heard of anyone having such a PMS that a part of their body remains transformed all the time, but it’s possible. I just guessed that’s what you have because of how wild you got and how you even used a different type of water deva than usual. That thing … is that what you turned into when you were sparring with Lawell-sensei earlier?’

(Reimei) ‘I guess so, yeah. I have no idea what this is, though. It’s never happened to me before I came here.’

(Feoria) ‘Or maybe you just don’t remember. When you were living in Saraley … did you ever have any blackouts?’

That question burned through Reimei’s very soul in a more painful and shocking manner that Zoran’s phoenix flames or Feoria’s steam ever could, Miss Scarlettail even starting to shake for a moment before finding the strength to answer.

(Reimei) ‘W-why would you ask that?’

(Feoria) ‘That’s one of the symptoms of PMS. When a young deviant is just discovering what their deva is, it may take them over when their life is in danger and while they’re being controlled by their morph, they have no memory of anything they’ve done. So if you’ve had things like that happen to you, it’s even more likely that what you have is PMS.’

(Miluna) ‘You should probably ask Segune-sensei about it. He knows more about that syndrome than anyone else.’

(Reimei) ‘I’ll do that first chance I get. Thanks, girls.’ – feeling like an opportune moment had risen to finally get answers to the questions troubling her mind the most, Reimei switched the topic of discussion completely in an instant – ‘There’s a bit more I wanted to ask about you two, though, if that’s OK.’

(Feoria) ‘Sure. What is it?’

(Reimei) ‘Miluna, we already know you got infected with mind control particles by Rafael Lahala during the plein-air session at Sunbird Fortress.’ – Miss Scarlettail’s eyes moved from the acidic beauty to her skin-heating girlfriend then – ‘How did you infect Feoria, though? If you two are spending so much time together, I’d guess you’re the one you infected her. And I doubt you would do that on purpose, so do you remember how it happened?’

Feoria and Miluna blushed almost simultaneously when Reimei asked that question, the girlfriends looking at each other, but neither one answering until around a minute had passed.

(Miluna) ‘You, um … you haven’t figured that out yet, Mei?’

(Reimei) ‘No. And I think that’s somehow key to learning more about the whole mind control plot and ways to stop it.’

(Feoria) ‘Well, we, um … we … like I said, we go all out with each other whenever we are alone and that includes the times when we … well, you know … sometimes, we lose control a bit too much and … I guess … one of those times since Milu got infected … she released too much of her acid on me … so …’

The scarlet-haired beauty sat completely motionless as she listened to Feoria’s nervous explanation, all the while feeling she was blushing to a scarlet skin color once again, but this time reaching an even deeper shade of red. Of all the possible ways for a person to get infected with mind control particles, this was definitely the one Reimei never would’ve thought of.

(Reimei) ‘S-so … when … when you do … that type of stuff … you release your devas, too? Is that … what you were doing when I knocked on the door?’

Having become embarrassed and guilty once again, Feoria and Miluna looked at each before turning their attention to Reimei again to answer.

(Miluna) ‘I know what you’re gonna say, Mei. That this isn’t the right time for that stuff. And it’s because we were doing stuff like that in the first place that I infected Feoria and she did the same with the Drama Club.’ – all of a sudden the acidic beauty clenched her fists with a newfound resolve, looking at her girlfriend and then at Reimei once again – ‘We’re in more danger now than ever, though, and no one knows what’s going to happen tomorrow, so both of us needed this. You probably think I’m disgusting and selfish for saying that, but that’s just who I am. All I can do is say I’m sorry and try to fix this mess we’ve made. And hope that will be enough.’

Hearing her classmate say that sparked an idea in Miss Scarlettail’s mind. Because although she hadn’t read about powerful deva releases during intercourse between deviants, knowing Miluna and Feoria had a bond like that could prove useful in other ways.

(Reimei) ‘Now that you mention it, I’ve read that deviants who love each other … their devas can mix together and make their bond even stronger … allowing even the transfer of sensations, memories and so on.’ – she came in closer to them to drop the biggest bomb of a question since the start of their crazy conversation – ‘When the particles were transferred from Miluna to you, Feoria, they must have been carrying specific genetic data with them. And in that moment the two of you must have bonded more than ever. Did you see or feel anything specific? Something different than usual? A strange memory, maybe? Anything not about you two in particular?’

Feoria had a thoughtful expression for a while after Reimei’s inquiry, who along with Miluna looked at her with much anticipation until her expression showed an idea had come to mind, finally the skin-heating beauty sharing what she remembered.

(Feoria) ‘I think … I think I told you, Milu … right after we were done. I told you it kind of ruined the mood, didn’t I? Because there was something else except the two of us on your mind then.’

(Miluna) ‘You mentioned hearing a voice, I think? And it wasn’t mine?’

(Reimei) ‘Could it be Jill Lahala’s voice? Or maybe Mara Kilzarad? Or one of their allies?’

(Feoria) ‘I can tell you it was a woman, that’s for damn sure. It was almost like a whisper, but a very creepy one. That’s why I said it ruined the mood.’

(Reimei) ‘Do you remember what that voice said?’

(Feoria) ‘Well, it’s just … it was the same word over and over again … hate.’