Finding A New Path
A Sailormoon Fanfiction
By Siobhan L.R. Ward
Disclaimer: Sailormoon and company are owned by Naoko Takaushi and Toei/Bandai. I neither
possess nor claim any rights toward the ownership of these characters.
Warning: Finding A New Path is a H/M match-up with a possible A/Ma match-up included. Thus,
it is yuri and if that bothers you or strikes you as someway unnatural or unethical or
some such nonsense, I suggest you take your high-minded self elsewhere. I will neither
claim nor accept any responsibility for any mental, emotional, or moral distress you may
inflict upon yourself if you suffer from homophobia and continue to read. Thank you for
your time.
The Extremely Brief Prologue
Misao Kagami was brought up to be a very proper young lady under the strict eyes of
her grandfather. Her parents were far more tolerant and visibly caring than the strict old
man who would accept no less than perfection, but they resided under the roof he placed
over their heads and subsided to the perfectionist about their daughter. Thus, when a rumor
that Misao was 'easy' was spread about her school and reached her grandfather's ears, to
say that he was less than pleased was by far an understatement. The fact that a malicious
girl that was jealous of Misao had started the rumor fell upon deaf ears, for once the old
man had taken it into his head to believe something, no one could prove him in error.
Thus, the old patriarch ordered Misao cast out from the Kagami family. Misao's
parents did not wish to see their daughter flung out into the cold with no assets, so they
worked as quickly as they could to provide their daughter with enough money to survive for
a while and sneak her out of the house before the Grandfather could come and cast her out
himself. With her, she took her precious violin, her art case, some few changes of clothes
in a battered suitcase, enough money to survive for two or three months on her own and a
new identity as Michiru Kaioh, and she slipped from the Kagami family into a dingy train
car headed into Tokyo.
@@@@@@@
Chapter One: An Oceanic Breeze
Michiru looked up with some apprehension at the dilapidated looking apartment
building that stood in front of her, before glancing back down at the oft folded newspaper
clutched in her hand. The building had certainly seen better days, and better upkeep as
well. Dirt encrusted the rough brick that made up the walls, loose papers and other trash
had blown up against the building, and lodged into the lees of the two doorways she could
see and a few of the lower window encasements were piles of leaves that had fallen the two
months previous. The door before her was covered in grime, with a shackled portcullis style
grate guarding the entrance as well.
She sighed heavily, fully aware of how far she had fallen by the whim of a foolish
child, but she knew that she had little choice of where to live if she wanted to survive in
the Juuban district. She could only hope now that person who lived in apartment 407
wouldn't be as horribly distasteful as the building itself and be willing to accept her as
the answer to the roommate request. So, with a shuddering breath of apprehension as she
tried to bolster her faltering courage, she reached up and carefully pressed the button,
which may once have actually been white, under the number 407. The buzzer sounded faintly
and in the ensuing silence, she watched with a stunned fascination as the brads holding up
the top of the seven in the 407 finally gave up the ghost and released it weight to swing
ponderously down over the button.
A slightly husky voice sounded from the rusty and holed grill above the sets of
buttons and numbers. "Yes?" It sounded slightly querulous, not unlike some one just awoken
despite the fairly late hour, and did little to raise Michiru's hopes.
However, she bravely depressed the cracked, pinkish speaker button and tried to
speak clearly over the crackling noise. "M-my name is Misa... I mean, Michiru. Michiru
Kaioh. I'm here about the advertisement you placed in the paper." Her finger dashed from
the broken surface of the button as if it burned.
"Advertisement?" She could almost picture the owner scratching his head with the
bemused sort of confusion that echoed in the voice. "Oh yeah. That ad. So, you're here to
be my roommate, huh? Just a moment, I'll be right down to let you in."
And silence grew again in the fertile soil of Michiru's troubled self. It's long
life was not to last though, for hardly a minute had past before the door's harsh croak and
the clattering scream of the portcullis broke into her reverie and caused her to spin
startledly to face the doorway. What she saw there didn't help bring voice to any thoughts
though, not that many were passing through that pretty little head of hers at the time.
For before her was not the rough-shod knave that she was more than half-expecting
to come clattering down the stairs she spotted behind him. This young Adonis was as far
from what she expected as the stars were from the sea. Tousled short-cropped golden hair
being casually raked with long, slender fingers. Pale, yet brilliantly bright, blue eyes,
nearly gray, gazed sleepily out from under a clear, unlined brow. A narrow, slightly
aquiline nose wrinkled slightly as the light and a bit of the smell from outside hit home.
Full pink lips, lightly tinged rouge on the side with the rough imprint that drifted down
from high cheekbones on the left side of the face, enhancing the image of having been
asleep. The chin was strong and the neck surprisingly slender, cascading down into broad
shoulders and an obvious runner's body, that was covered in a loose collared white shirt,
that looked suspiciously like silk, and a pair of fawn colored slacks.
"Sorry." The vision spoke, husky voice rumbling through Michiru's head like the
cresting of a storm-tossed wave. "I'm afraid you caught me napping." A smile crossed his
beautiful lips. "Terribly rude of me, I know. I'm Haruka, by the way. Haruka Tenoh. And
you must be Michiru." He reached for her extended hand and, instead of shaking it, leaned
down slightly to graze soft lips upon the back of her raised hand, those gorgeous blue eyes
of his never leaving hers as he did so. "Charmed, I'm sure."
Michiru was in shock. To find such a vision of beauty in such a decrepit place
would have shocked anyone. But one of such gentlemanly refinedness... such a thing was
positively awe inspiring.
"Well, since you've obviously come because of the ad, you probably want to take a
look around. Come on in." Haruka offered with a smile, stepping to the side to allow
Michiru entrance into the building.
Michiru stepped into the surprisingly clean foyer beyond Haruka with something of
trepidation colouring her steps. After all, she was placing herself and her safety into
the hands of a stranger. An unusually handsome, charming, and gentlemanly stranger, but a
stranger nonetheless. Yet, she had been the one to come to the building in response to the
advertisement, and she _did_ need a place to live, so she gathered her courage, and
entered.
"There some slippers over there that you can use." Haruka stated, gesturing towards
a set of cubby-holes to the side of the door as he leaned against the frame. "Just leave
your shoes down here. No one will bother them."
Michiru wasn't entirely certain how to react to the apparently random moves that
Haruka was making. However, Haruka's move to grasp a silver headed cane leaning against
the door frame, and the attractive individual's obvious dependency on its support as she
stepped towards the stairway, did strike Michiru as unusual. A slight, and entirely petty
she realized moments later, smile touched her lips as she watched Haruka's awkward ascent
up the oaken stairs. Adonis wasn't perfect after all. In its own way, that relieved her
immensely, and she felt a surge of shame burn through her cheeks as she acknowledged that
within herself. Thus, if her steps upon the beginning of the stairs faltered a bit, or
weren't quite as quick as Haruka's, it was understandable.
Yet, the teal-haired beauty was startled from her thoughts by a most unmanly squawk
coming from above, and her head snapped up from her musing reflection of the treads to see
the tip of Haruka's cane slip on the rounded edge of a step. Her fellow stair-climber
teetered a bit, torso torquing around twisting his body off kilter, arms waving as he
grasped vainly at the banister behind him, before loosing his feet's tenuous grasp on
the well-worn treads and slipping backwards through the air towards a shocked Michiru
on the first two steps, her foot hovering slightly above the third step, one hand lightly
laying upon the railing, lips slightly parted in a disbelieving 'o'.
A Sailormoon Fanfiction
By Siobhan L.R. Ward
Disclaimer: Sailormoon and company are owned by Naoko Takaushi and Toei/Bandai. I neither
possess nor claim any rights toward the ownership of these characters.
Warning: Finding A New Path is a H/M match-up with a possible A/Ma match-up included. Thus,
it is yuri and if that bothers you or strikes you as someway unnatural or unethical or
some such nonsense, I suggest you take your high-minded self elsewhere. I will neither
claim nor accept any responsibility for any mental, emotional, or moral distress you may
inflict upon yourself if you suffer from homophobia and continue to read. Thank you for
your time.
The Extremely Brief Prologue
Misao Kagami was brought up to be a very proper young lady under the strict eyes of
her grandfather. Her parents were far more tolerant and visibly caring than the strict old
man who would accept no less than perfection, but they resided under the roof he placed
over their heads and subsided to the perfectionist about their daughter. Thus, when a rumor
that Misao was 'easy' was spread about her school and reached her grandfather's ears, to
say that he was less than pleased was by far an understatement. The fact that a malicious
girl that was jealous of Misao had started the rumor fell upon deaf ears, for once the old
man had taken it into his head to believe something, no one could prove him in error.
Thus, the old patriarch ordered Misao cast out from the Kagami family. Misao's
parents did not wish to see their daughter flung out into the cold with no assets, so they
worked as quickly as they could to provide their daughter with enough money to survive for
a while and sneak her out of the house before the Grandfather could come and cast her out
himself. With her, she took her precious violin, her art case, some few changes of clothes
in a battered suitcase, enough money to survive for two or three months on her own and a
new identity as Michiru Kaioh, and she slipped from the Kagami family into a dingy train
car headed into Tokyo.
@@@@@@@
Chapter One: An Oceanic Breeze
Michiru looked up with some apprehension at the dilapidated looking apartment
building that stood in front of her, before glancing back down at the oft folded newspaper
clutched in her hand. The building had certainly seen better days, and better upkeep as
well. Dirt encrusted the rough brick that made up the walls, loose papers and other trash
had blown up against the building, and lodged into the lees of the two doorways she could
see and a few of the lower window encasements were piles of leaves that had fallen the two
months previous. The door before her was covered in grime, with a shackled portcullis style
grate guarding the entrance as well.
She sighed heavily, fully aware of how far she had fallen by the whim of a foolish
child, but she knew that she had little choice of where to live if she wanted to survive in
the Juuban district. She could only hope now that person who lived in apartment 407
wouldn't be as horribly distasteful as the building itself and be willing to accept her as
the answer to the roommate request. So, with a shuddering breath of apprehension as she
tried to bolster her faltering courage, she reached up and carefully pressed the button,
which may once have actually been white, under the number 407. The buzzer sounded faintly
and in the ensuing silence, she watched with a stunned fascination as the brads holding up
the top of the seven in the 407 finally gave up the ghost and released it weight to swing
ponderously down over the button.
A slightly husky voice sounded from the rusty and holed grill above the sets of
buttons and numbers. "Yes?" It sounded slightly querulous, not unlike some one just awoken
despite the fairly late hour, and did little to raise Michiru's hopes.
However, she bravely depressed the cracked, pinkish speaker button and tried to
speak clearly over the crackling noise. "M-my name is Misa... I mean, Michiru. Michiru
Kaioh. I'm here about the advertisement you placed in the paper." Her finger dashed from
the broken surface of the button as if it burned.
"Advertisement?" She could almost picture the owner scratching his head with the
bemused sort of confusion that echoed in the voice. "Oh yeah. That ad. So, you're here to
be my roommate, huh? Just a moment, I'll be right down to let you in."
And silence grew again in the fertile soil of Michiru's troubled self. It's long
life was not to last though, for hardly a minute had past before the door's harsh croak and
the clattering scream of the portcullis broke into her reverie and caused her to spin
startledly to face the doorway. What she saw there didn't help bring voice to any thoughts
though, not that many were passing through that pretty little head of hers at the time.
For before her was not the rough-shod knave that she was more than half-expecting
to come clattering down the stairs she spotted behind him. This young Adonis was as far
from what she expected as the stars were from the sea. Tousled short-cropped golden hair
being casually raked with long, slender fingers. Pale, yet brilliantly bright, blue eyes,
nearly gray, gazed sleepily out from under a clear, unlined brow. A narrow, slightly
aquiline nose wrinkled slightly as the light and a bit of the smell from outside hit home.
Full pink lips, lightly tinged rouge on the side with the rough imprint that drifted down
from high cheekbones on the left side of the face, enhancing the image of having been
asleep. The chin was strong and the neck surprisingly slender, cascading down into broad
shoulders and an obvious runner's body, that was covered in a loose collared white shirt,
that looked suspiciously like silk, and a pair of fawn colored slacks.
"Sorry." The vision spoke, husky voice rumbling through Michiru's head like the
cresting of a storm-tossed wave. "I'm afraid you caught me napping." A smile crossed his
beautiful lips. "Terribly rude of me, I know. I'm Haruka, by the way. Haruka Tenoh. And
you must be Michiru." He reached for her extended hand and, instead of shaking it, leaned
down slightly to graze soft lips upon the back of her raised hand, those gorgeous blue eyes
of his never leaving hers as he did so. "Charmed, I'm sure."
Michiru was in shock. To find such a vision of beauty in such a decrepit place
would have shocked anyone. But one of such gentlemanly refinedness... such a thing was
positively awe inspiring.
"Well, since you've obviously come because of the ad, you probably want to take a
look around. Come on in." Haruka offered with a smile, stepping to the side to allow
Michiru entrance into the building.
Michiru stepped into the surprisingly clean foyer beyond Haruka with something of
trepidation colouring her steps. After all, she was placing herself and her safety into
the hands of a stranger. An unusually handsome, charming, and gentlemanly stranger, but a
stranger nonetheless. Yet, she had been the one to come to the building in response to the
advertisement, and she _did_ need a place to live, so she gathered her courage, and
entered.
"There some slippers over there that you can use." Haruka stated, gesturing towards
a set of cubby-holes to the side of the door as he leaned against the frame. "Just leave
your shoes down here. No one will bother them."
Michiru wasn't entirely certain how to react to the apparently random moves that
Haruka was making. However, Haruka's move to grasp a silver headed cane leaning against
the door frame, and the attractive individual's obvious dependency on its support as she
stepped towards the stairway, did strike Michiru as unusual. A slight, and entirely petty
she realized moments later, smile touched her lips as she watched Haruka's awkward ascent
up the oaken stairs. Adonis wasn't perfect after all. In its own way, that relieved her
immensely, and she felt a surge of shame burn through her cheeks as she acknowledged that
within herself. Thus, if her steps upon the beginning of the stairs faltered a bit, or
weren't quite as quick as Haruka's, it was understandable.
Yet, the teal-haired beauty was startled from her thoughts by a most unmanly squawk
coming from above, and her head snapped up from her musing reflection of the treads to see
the tip of Haruka's cane slip on the rounded edge of a step. Her fellow stair-climber
teetered a bit, torso torquing around twisting his body off kilter, arms waving as he
grasped vainly at the banister behind him, before loosing his feet's tenuous grasp on
the well-worn treads and slipping backwards through the air towards a shocked Michiru
on the first two steps, her foot hovering slightly above the third step, one hand lightly
laying upon the railing, lips slightly parted in a disbelieving 'o'.