Disclaimer: I own none of the characters from Read or Die and ROD the TV, I'm just borrowing 'em for a bit. Also, this story has spoilers for the end of ROD the TV and the Read or Dream manga.
Read Or Dream: Truth and fantasy.
Part One
Maggie Mui smiled shyly as her two sisters returned to the houseboat on the river. They had inherited it from their former employer Mr. Lee, and the waves gently rocked the heavily book laden craft in a comforting way. "Welcome home," the tall black haired woman said from where she was sitting in the living room, her red eyes gently welcoming.
"Hi Maggie," Michelle Cheung rushed right over to hug her impulsively as the busty blonde said, "Junior says hi, by the way." Michelle was technically the oldest of the trio and was their narmal leader, though Anita would probably debate that. She was cheerful, good natured and kind, though her absent mindedness could get her into trouble. Michelle looked Maggie up and down before asking, "Have you been getting taller?"
"Six feet is tall enough," Maggie said with some dignity, her pants and plain t-shirt a bit wrinkled from sitting there on the floor to read. The truth was she was very tall, and it was something she occassionally felt self conscious about. Still, she was what she was and Maggie had become content with that. Mostly, anyway.
"Why can't I ever grow?" Anita King complained cheerfully, the younger pink haired girl drinking straight from a bottle of milk. Anita was growing into a model tomboy, though to be honest she already had most of those qualities. Since they had settled down in Tokyo Anita was on the recruitment list of every school sports team and club, but she frustrated them all by stubbornly preferring to hang out in the library with Hisami.
"Give it time," Michelle chuckled as she went back for the bags of books they had bought. As she carried them over to a nearly full bookshelf her eyes brightened a bit as she remembered something. Michelle looked at Maggie, "Oh, did Sensei call you yet?"
"Sumiregawa-sensei?" Maggie asked, mildly surprised. When Michelle nodded her confirmation she continued "No, why?"
"She said that she received a message for you," Michelle said excitedly. She pouted a bit as she added, "She wouldn't tell me what it was, too."
"Really?" Maggie blinked, her mind racing as she wondered what the message might be. She walked over to the door, slipping her shoes on as she looked at her sisters and asked, "Would you mind if I go over there...?"
"Eh, go on," Anita waved it off casually as she said, "I'll make dinner this time."Anita added with a grin, "You'll owe me one, tho."
"Yay, curry!" Michelle smiled. Maggie bit back a chuckle, knowing that Anita's cooking skills were still pretty much limited to curry and hamburger.
"Thank you," Maggie told them both as she gave a little bow and left.
The walk over to Nenene Sumiregawa's nearby apartment was a quiet one, the afternoon sun shining down on her pleasantly as Maggie considered her current life. She, her two sisters Michelle and Anita and their friend Yomiko Readman were running the new Paper Sisters Detective Agency, recovering books and lost pets as needed. Michelle and Nancy were working together to watch over Junior, Anita and her classmate Hisami were as close as ever, Nenene and Yomiko had moved in together and Maggie... well, Maggie regularly found herself reading in a little storage room put aside for her on the house boat.
Maggie sighed to herself softly as she walked through the park by the apartment building. It wasn't that she resented the deep friendships that her big and little sisters had found, it was just that she wished she could also find something like that for herself. Yes, Nenene was her friend too, but Yomiko would always be first in her eyes...
"It's about time you got here," Nenene said with an affectionate sort of grumpiness as Maggie arrived, her square glasses sliding down her nose. The brown haired woman was at least a foot shorter than Maggie but somehow she always intimidated her. Maggie guessed it was her intelligence plus her dynamo like energy....
"I'm sorry," Maggie said sheepishly, wondering if Nenene had plans that her being late had disrupted. Her thoughts began to race as she thought of all the things that might go wrong, then she noticed Nenene's wry smile.
"I was kidding," Nenene laughed as she led her inside, the apartment looking much neater than when she and her sisters had crashed there. The layout was still the same, with the big TV, couches and center table, the only difference was the piles of books sitting around.
Maggie smiled a bit, knowing that it annoyed Nenene a bit as she repeated a bit teasingly, "Sorry."
Nenene snorted softly as they carefully went through the piles of books between them and the stairway. "So, back when you told me about your problems finding work in Hong Kong I got to thinking," she said as they reached the stairs.
"Yes?" Maggie dodged a pile of books on the landing. 'Yomiko is reading about as much as usual,' she thought as they went up stairs to the second floor. Nenene's workroom was up there as were the bedrooms that her sisters had shared.
"Well, after some consideration I thought I should bring you all into the twenty first century," Nenene explained as she opened up her office door upstairs, "and made the Paper Sisters Detective Agency a web page."
"Like on the internet," Maggie said tentatively, almost making it a question.
It wasn't that Maggie knew nothing about computers or the internet, but she couldn't really claim to have any expertese in it, either. For a bibliophile like herself, reading words on a screen somehow lacked... something. Holding a book in her hands, smelling the paper, ink and occassionally dust was heaven to someone like her.
"Yeah," Nenene lead the way into her office.
Unlike the little piles of books that now were scattered through the house this office was messy in it's own unique way, the workroom of a focused and intense individual. Reference books sat on the desk, piled up awkwardly, while papers covered with hand written notes covered many of the available surfaces. The couch no longer had a blanket and pillow on it, instead covered with more references and occassionally odd items like a sailor style school uniform.
"What's the sailor fuku for?" Maggie just had to ask.
Surprisingly, Nenene blushed slightly as she coughed in surprise. "Uhm," she cleared her throat, "I needed to check a reference, and Yomiko modeled it for me."
Maggie decided she didn't need to know any more as she replied faintly, "Right."
"Anyway," Nenene changed the subject as she sat down at the computer, pausing to shift books over so that Maggie could see better, "I had a friend set up a 'Paper Sisters Detective Agency' page with your photos and a summary of the kinds of jobs you do."
"So what happened?" Maggie asked, sensing that somehow something had happened, though she wasn't sure exactly what.
"A few days after it went up I got this message," and Nenene clicked on her browser.
First Nenene's home page came up on the screen, then she went via a link to a simple but attractively designed site with the Paper Sister's photos on it and a banner above reading 'Paper Sisters Detective Agency.' Clicking a link on the page she accessed a mail program, typing in a name and password to unlock it.
"Hey, that's my name there," Maggie blinked as she saw her name attached to one of several images of file folders, all lined up in a row.
"It's a email for you," Nenene clicked on one, causing it to open to reveal a message.
Oddly right on the top of the message it said who it was from, and Maggie's eyes widened as sherecognized the name. Leaning forward she murmured, "Fay?"
"So you do know this girl?" Nenene repeated, looking up at Maggie in surprise. Her lips quirked in surprise, "Oooh, hiding a girlfriend somewhere?"
"It's not like that," Maggie stumbled, blushing, furiously under the other woman's amused gaze.
Nenene just grinned back at her, clearly enjoying seeing Maggie be so flustered.
To be continued....
Note: Yes, this has been posted before. Just expanding and rewriting a bit.