Episode One

Charm

"I'll take one. No, actually, I take three." The young giddy school girl stood with her equally giddy friends. They each held onto the small wooden charm with inscriptions in Japanese kanji and marveled.

"Do these really work?" One of the girls looked up at the Miko who sold the charms to them. "Will it really make Genji fall in love with me?"

The Miko shrugged her shoulders. "You'll just have to see." She looked over the group of junior high girls giggling in front of her charm shop. It felt like so long ago that she was one of those junior high girls, but now she would be starting college tomorrow morning.

"I'll take another one!" The first girl spoke up.

The Miko put her index finger up and shook her head. "Four is an unlucky number. I wouldn't do that."

The girl pondered for a moment. "You're right! I'll take two more!" All the girls giggled simultaneously. The girl dug more Yen from her change purse and paid for the charms. Now there were five love charms dangling on her wrist.

"Gee, Megumi, save some of the love charms for someone else!"

The girl blushed. "I think five should do it."

Googling over their charms, the girls backed away from the charm shop and started to walk away. The young Miko watched the girls and smirked. She wondered if she was that silly when she was in junior high. Shaking her head, she stepped away from the counter and dug in the boxes in the back. She needed to restock the charms after the girls came through and emptied her inventory. The Miko brought out a new box and set in on the counter. She started to fill the display trays with the new charms. The box was full of blue love charms, but for some reason, there was one pink one. The Miko picked it up and studied it. It was a very pretty charm with cherry blossom pink and red stitching. She pondered for a moment. She had sold these things for years as part of her job, but she never actually used one of them before. She flipped the simple wooden charm and looked at the back. The material over the wood had the kanji for love stitched in red on the back.

The Miko looked up from the charm towards the grounds of the shrine. Love was something that always seemed to escape her. Her thoughts went to many places—old boyfriends, rejections, failures, and the ease that everyone else seemed to have except her. Her mind went to her friends. She was to appear as a bridesmaid in Serena's wedding next month. The story of Darien and Serena seemed to be such a fairytale compared to the life she led. She sighed for a moment. She truly was happy for them—even though she did see him first. She faintly smirked and shook her head. That was so long ago. It didn't matter anymore—after all that time, she had given up on love.

Looking back to the charm, the Miko stared hard at the beautiful stitching. She was about to put the charm in the display tray with the other blue charms, but she couldn't. It would look horribly unbalanced with the blue. She held the charm tightly and shook her hand. She had sold them for years but never actually used one. She shrugged her shoulders. Why not? It wouldn't help her anyway.

She gripped the charm tightly and closed her eyes. She prayed silently within the depth of her innermost being. "O great Kami, if you can hear me, please grant me one request. I am hopeless. Bring me true love."

The bell of the haiden hall rang. Her eyes fluttered open. Her head jerked to the left to look towards the haiden hall. Standing before the bell to call upon the gods was a man praying with his hands pressed together. Completely captivated, she stared at him.

He was a neatly dressed man with a button down shirt, and a tie around his neck. He wore khaki pants and brown dress shoes. By his feet was a black briefcase. He was physical fit and thin, but had some muscle. His hair was short, neatly trimmed, and black. He wore glasses that were square, silver framed, and had small lenses. His eyes were deep brown.

Soon, he was done praying. He bent over and picked up his briefcase. Mesmerized, the Miko followed the stranger with her eyes as he left the shrine grounds. She contemplated leaving the charm shop and greeting him, but she stopped herself. It didn't matter. He was probably married with children or had some gorgeous girlfriend, or more likely he was a complete jerk. She sighed as he started down the long stairway leaving the Hikawa Shrine. She could never have him—she could never have anyone, and it wasn't like he would have wanted her anyway.


"That's wonderful, Serena," Raye said, only half-listening to the conversation. Raye held the telephone to her ear while trying to fix her hair that morning and listen to Serena ramble on and on about the wedding details.

"I can't believe I managed to save 15," Serena commented excited. Ever since Darien proposed last Christmas, Serena had been riding on cloud nine. Raye wondered if Serena had any idea how annoying it was to have someone call at seven in the morning to talk about purchases on sale, but she just listen to her friend anyway. Raye put down her hairbrush, completely satisfied with her hair then gave her full attention to the phone conversation.

"I guess everything is set then," Raye said.

"Well, actually, now that you mention it, this would be a good time to bring something up I've been meaning to talk about with you."

Raye didn't like that tone. "What?" She cringed.

"Are you bringing a date to the wedding?"

"No, why?" Raye asked, slightly defensive.

"Well, how long has it been since you've been on a date?" Serena pondered for a moment. "A year now?"

"Eleven months!" Raye hissed.

"Close enough. For crying out long, Raye, Ami's even more proactive than you about her love life."

"Ami isn't seeing anyone either!"

Serena giggled. "Well, Juuban Hospital has been a little like ER or Grey's Anatomy lately."

Raye rolled her eyes. "Serena, stop being ridiculous and tell me what's really going on, you meatball brain!"

"Well," Serena's voice smiled through the phone. "Our Ami has been getting quite friendly with another intern."

"What do you mean friendly?" Raye asked suspiciously.

"Okay, okay, he picked up her folders when she dropped them, but it sounds like they're off to a good start," Serena came clean.

Raye rolled her eyes. "Any more stupidity you need to share before I go to school?"

"No, that's it!" Serena said. "Have a good day at college! I wish I were going with you."

"No you don't."

"You're right, I don't! So long! Bye!" Serena started to hang up.

"Bye!" Raye shook her head and hung up the phone.


She had worked hard throughout high school, and she finally did it. She was accepted to the University of Tokyo. When she received her acceptance letter, her grandfather even celebrated and took her out for dinner. Of course, it wasn't good enough for her Father, but she knew nothing would ever be. Her chosen major was going to be Japanese history with a minor in Japanese language. By that time, she knew that it was her duty to someday take over as High Priestess of Hikawa Shrine. She wanted to be well versed in Japanese history and religion to perform her duties properly. The minor in Japanese language was just for her taste and interest—she loved to read literature and writes songs, stories, and poems.

The campus was large and vast spanning over many blocks. There were thousands of young people all over the campus scurrying from building to building. She pulled a piece of paper from her pocket, unfolded it, and looked at it. "Okay, I have Ancient Japanese History with Professor Sato first." She looked around for the building that she needed but she didn't see it. She walked around for a few minutes, but still didn't see the building. She stopped a passing student for a moment and asked her where the building was. The girl was cold, but she gave Raye the information she needed. Finally, Raye reached the Law and Letters building where most of her history and language classes were going to be.

Looking at her schedule, she realized that her class was on the third floor. She headed to the stairs, rejecting the crowded elevator, and headed upstairs. She reached the third floor and started down the hallway. "319. 319," Raye muttered to herself. She would look in on each hallway as she walked by. The students appeared alert and attentive to their Sensei as she glanced into each classroom. . She glanced to the left. "305." She glanced to the right. "306." She continued the pattern down the hallway. "311. 312." She was getting closer. As she reached classroom 317, she glanced in through the window and gasped.

There he was! It was the praying man she saw at the Shrine yesterday. He stood in front of the classroom pointing at the projector. He was talking and leading the class. Raye stood back from the window trying to see into the classroom without being seen. She stood silent trying to her what he was saying. He was going over the rules of Japanese grammar. Embarrassed, Raye stood, feeling a blush come to her face. She felt absolutely stupid. She was standing outside of a classroom spying on a college professor. He was probably way too old for her. She peered into the room again. His arm waved all over the projection screen. He didn't look old at all, but he had a sophistication and style that did make him seem a lot older that she was. She stood for a moment, listening to the sound of his firm, bold, but warm voice. His voice was almost soothing. He was an excellent orator—prefect pronunciation, stunning vocabulary, friendly tone, and he had an excellent voice.

She shook out of her daze. It didn't matter. He was a college professor, and she was barely an adult. She continued to walk down the hall towards classroom 319.


She had spent most of the day in class and most of the afternoon exploring the campus. She figured she would probably end up joining the archery club on campus and perhaps the literature club—she would have to check that out another day. Tired, she plopped down into a bus seat with her backpack. The bus was unusually empty for a bus in Tokyo. There were a few tired students, a professor of biology, and one old woman. The bus pulled away from the stop and drove around to other stops around the campus. They picked up a few more passengers. Raye didn't pay much attention until one of them caught her eye.

It was him again. The man got onto the bus and greeted the bus driver with a smile. His white smile was completely stunning. He then turned his attention to professor.

"How are you Tajima-sempai?" The man slightly bowed his head before sitting down with his briefcase.

The old professor nodded back. "Ready for the day to be over, Kawamori-kun."

Raye leaned forward in her seat.

"I understand perfectly," Kawamori-san said. He had excellent posture. He did not slouch like the other professor. He started to dig through his briefcase. He pulled out a manila folder with papers in it. He took a pen out and started to examine the papers.

"You have papers to grade already?" Professor Tajima looked over.

"Just some paperwork Kobayashi-san asked me to finish up from summer session," Kawamori-san said.

The bus fell silent. Raye leaned back in her seat. She tried to keep her attention towards the passing city streets, but her eyes kept glancing forwards towards the man. She shook her head and tried to ignore him, but she couldn't. There was something about him—she wanted to look at him, listen to his voice, feel his touch. She immediately stopped her thought processes. He was a complete stranger to her, but she was captivated by him. She pulled a magazine from her bag and held it up. She glanced over the top of the magazine as if she was reading, but she continued to stare at the stranger. It was inappropriate—he was a college professor, but she couldn't seem to help herself.

Kawamori-san glanced up for a moment, looking over the bus. His eyes went in the direction of the young girl reading a magazine. Suddenly, the magazine went up blocking her face entirely. He stared for a moment at the cover of the JJ magazine, a popular female magazine in Japan. He shook his head and smirked then returned to his paperwork.

The magazine slowly went down a few inches and the top of the young woman's forehead emerged. Her amethyst eyes peered out and looked over the college professor again. As he worked, he reached up and pushed his square glasses up his nose. Raye never really liked glasses, but they made him absolutely handsome. She shook her head. She knew she couldn't think thoughts like that, but it was true. She racked her eyes over him. He was handsome—very handsome. She shook her head again, put down the magazine, and forced herself to look out the window.

One by one the people of the bus got off. Raye knew Hikawa Shrine would probably be the last stop. She expected that any stop would be the young professor's stop, but each stop came and went. Finally, everyone was gone from the bus except her and the professor. Before the bus came to Hikawa Shrine, it stopped at a new apartment complex near the Shrine. This was the professor's stop. He packed up his paperwork, grabbed his briefcase, and stood up from his seat. He walked down the aisle and bid the driver goodnight. As he stepped on the first step to leave, he looked back up towards the bus. He looked at her. He faintly smiled and nodded. She caught his eyes, faintly smiled back, and nodded. He got off the bus.

As the bus pulled away, Raye looked across the aisle to the other windows. She watched the professor walk towards the apartment complex. "Kawamori-san." She uttered to herself. She sat back in her seat. Why was she being this stupid, she wondered to herself.