notes: this is something a little different for me, but I've always wanted to try my hand at a ghost story and who else but Minako would be the most intrepid ghost hunter out there? This is sort of inspired by the theme of the sen/shi minibang (seashore) but it's not part of the bang, just something that came into my head! Please let me know what you think, and stick around because the story is finished and will be updated weekly until the thrilling (lol) conclusion.
Thanks to my beta, and my fandom friends!
In her mind, Minako was walking, nay, floating along the beach, her long blonde hair trailing behind her in the wind, her athletic, youthful body swathed in a skimpy string bikini making heads turn. Palm trees swayed above her and if she listened just hard enough, she could hear strains of Hawaiian hula music and smell coconut. The perfect tropical vacation to celebrate graduating high school last month.
Then she stumbled a bit over the towel that was unraveling quickly in her arm and it all went to hell. She wasn't in Hawaii, she was in Japan, at a beach town not nearly far enough away from her Tokyo home. It wasn't coconut she was smelling, but fish and salt, and the hula music was a staticky radio from someone's nearby beach blanket.
Although she was in a skimpy bikini, she was making heads turn more by attempting to lug a blanket, beach umbrella, chair, and a large colorful bag full of suntan lotion, water bottles, romance novels, and other beach necessities, all by herself along the beach. The big floppy straw hat which had looked so summery and beachy chic in the boutique in Harajuku was now held in her teeth, as the wind kept blowing it right off her head. She kept stumbling and dropping things and sand was everywhere and…
Oh.
If her mouth wasn't currently busy keeping her hat from being lost to the ocean, her jaw would've dropped. Because the man currently climbing the lifeguard tower wasn't just a snack, he was an entire three-course meal, plus dessert.
Tanned skin, lifeguard whistle bouncing off perfect pecs, toned legs emerging from those red swim trunks, a rippling six pack and … Minako let her eyes travel up to the most striking ice-blue eyes she'd ever seen.
Looking right back at her.
Well, shit. Minako dropped her blanket and towel.
"Looks like you could use some help with that," he said, smooth bass sending chills into her stomach. Some strands of blond hair were escaping from the beach-safe low bun he'd tied it back into, breathtaking against the dark tan of his skin.
Taking the hat out of her mouth, Minako sputtered, "Well, are you gonna help?"
He scoffed down at her. "I'm on duty." He settled himself in the chair and Minako made a face at him when he couldn't see.
Maybe the most gorgeous man she'd ever seen, but kind of a dick. Well, at least it was eye candy.
Setting up her beach umbrella took some doing, and when she was done Minako decided to go take a dip in the water before coming back to sunbathe. She took the path in front of the lifeguard station, just in case, but didn't dare look back to see if her ass was distracting Hot Lifeguard from possible drowning victims.
Swimming alone in the ocean wasn't that fun, Minako reflected, missing her former classmates to splash and shriek with… the ones who had gone to Hawaii on the trip she couldn't afford. Shaking that depressing thought from her head, Minako floated onto her back in the calmer waters past the waves, looking at the rocks and jetties that jutted out past the public beach.
A strange, western-style mansion caught her eye, looming up from the shoreline about a mile down the beach. It was clearly private, surrounded by grasses and bramble that signaled the end of the maintained area much earlier along the beach. Flipping around, Minako swam toward shore, shaking off a sudden chill.
She had sunbathed for a while and finished a few chapters of Quenching The Firefighter's Flame when "Look out!" rang across the beach. Minako turned to see a white blur sailing at her head and deftly caught the volleyball, raising her brow at the group of five guys set up around the net on nearby packed sand.
"Little help?" one of them asked, gesturing for her to throw it back. Well, they were pretty cute.
Minako smirked. "Your teams are uneven, need a sixth?" She sauntered her back over to the side of the net where her two new teammates shared a condescending eye-roll. "My serve!"
The competition was mediocre at best, and she easily spiked the ball down onto the sand multiple times, and saved her side from losing with a jump or perfectly timed dive. After the game, she went to high-five her teammates and they grouchily shook their heads and left, taking their ball with them. "Lost to a girl…" one of the tall ones was muttering and Minako seethed a bit.
Had she thought they were cute? Skinny little creeps, that's what they were. She huffed back to her blanket, not even noticing the Hot Lifeguard giving her the smallest, impressed smile as she stomped past the lifeguard stand.
Minako decided she had enough of the beach for that day, and started packing up her station. The lifeguard, she noticed, was switching shifts and hopped off the last rung of the ladder. He watched her struggle with her umbrella and bag and towel while he leaned against the station.
"You could help," Minako snapped at him. "Rather than just stare."
"I'm on my break."
She glared and took a moment to catch her breath, eyes scanning the horizon to avoid staring at Hot Lifeguard's abs. "So, what's the deal with that weird manson? Someone famous live here or something?"
Hot Lifeguard followed her gaze. "It's been empty as far as I can remember. Some rich European businessman built it back in Meiji, but it's been empty since his daughter threw herself into the ocean over a jilted love affair."
Minako didn't think her eyes could get larger as she looked at him to gauge if he was messing with her or not. "Seriously?"
He shrugged. "Kids dare each other to go there in high school because it's supposedly haunted."
"With the jilted love affair European daughter?!" This was better than her romance novels.
"Don't go up there," his voice was warning and she turned and gave him a very-innocent 'who me?' face. "It's dangerous, overgrown and falling apart. The last thing we need is a tourist getting hurt so early in season."
"Thanks for your concern, I'm touched," Minako put a sarcastic hand to her heart, and was pleased to see the smallest of smiles tug at his lips. "I'm Aino Minako by the way."
"Rou Kunzite," he said, but he still made no move to help her with her belongings as she huffed and puffed back up the beach… refusing to turn around and see if he was watching her.
The next day, Minako threw on shorts and sneakers instead of her bikini, determined to check out the awesome old mansion and gather a few stories for future galas once she was famous.
She'd slept in, so the sun was already high in the sky and scorchingly hot when she started hiking up the road where the house squatted over the Japanese beach town like an out-of-place amusement park ride. The road leading up to the ridge was closed, with a sign saying to please keep out, which Minako duly noted before climbing over it.
In the past, there would have been a lovely walkway up to the house and possibly a manicured lawn and English-style garden, but all that was left now was bramble and overgrown ivy and weeds. Surrounded by vegetation, the sounds of the beach seemed to fade away to the buzz of the cicadas and the distant cawing of some crows. Minako snapped some photos with her phone, for posterity. She also noticed she had zero bars of service up here.
The house was mostly Western in style, with a Japanese roof and entrance, it looked like from outside. Minako knelt down and rubbed the moss off the stone nameplate. It was in kana, strange for an official address but she remembered Hot Lifegu- erm, Kunzite saying they were European. 'Conway', she read out loud, and a cold wind seemed to blow by at that very moment. She realized the cicadas had gone silent.
Suddenly feeling like she was being watched, Minako stood and turned around quickly, eyes glancing around the unfamiliar property. She heard a creak from behind the closed entrance of the house, and a few chilling thumps like the sound of someone slowly, heavily, moving down stairs.
"Hello?" she called out, hoping it was a local kid pulling a prank. She was still standing on the front step when the front door slowly creaked open, and the worst wet, rotten smell hit Minako like a brick. She cried out, taking a few quick steps backward and walking hard into a wrought iron fence.
"Oh gosh! Are you okay?!" Someone was coming around from the side garden, and Minako turned and looked over in surprise. The girl appeared to be no older than Minako herself, dressed a sundress and holding a bucket full of gardening supplies.
"I'm fine," Minako straightened up, looked at the house again - surprised to see the door now closed. "I just… thought I saw something."
The girl giggled a little. "This house can be so spooky." She held out her hand, dimpling a pretty smile at Minako. "My name is Usagi."
"Minako," she answered, reaching out and shaking Usagi's hand.
"Sorry my hands are dirty, I was trying to figure out how to get the flowers to bloom, but I don't really have a green thumb," Usagi said, brushing blonde bangs from her sweaty head. "I'm actually kind of disaster with everything I'm trying to do here!"
"What… are you trying to do?" Minako asked, brows knitting. Kunzite had said the property was abandoned. "You… you don't live here, do you?" She thought of the smell from the doorway, the whispers she swore she heard from the darkness of the hallway, the unsettling feeling that had seeped into her bones the moment she set foot on the property.
Usagi laughed when she saw Minako's face. "I know, it's not exactly the Imperial Palace, but it's not bad." She bounced up the steps to the front door, dropping her bucket on the porch area and opening the door. This time, it opened out into a decently lit hallway and it smelled only slightly musty. "Want to come in?"
It was definitely an old place, unlived in for a long time. There were water stains on the walls and peeling wallpaper and the light fixtures looked like gas lamps. But all the windows were open and Usagi had a radio playing in the airy room that Minako guessed might be off what was the kitchen. She'd stripped most of the wallpaper and opened the windows to face the ocean. It was almost cheerful in this corner of the house.
Soon they were settled across each other on a wooden table, empty tea cups in front of them, (Usagi fumbled with the hot plate she was boiling water on, until Minako - fearing injury from boiling water - told Usagi not to worry about tea. It was such a hot day, anyway.)
"So did you buy this place?"
"No, no," Usagi said, shaking her head so her blonde pigtails swished to either side of her. "I'm not the owner."
"Caretaker? You seem so young!"
"It's just 'til the owners get here. I don't mind. I'm not exactly um, fantastic at all my endeavors?" She shrugged, sheepishly. "But stay in a house? That's a job I can do."
"It doesn't scare you?" she found herself blurting out and Usagi tilted her head to the side, knitting her brows.
"Scare me? Why?"
"I mean, they say it's haunted…" Of course 'they' was just one guy, a Hot Lifeguard whom Minako made a mental note to pump Usagi for information on later - if she was a townie and he was, maybe they knew either other!
"Haunted?" Usagi asked, leaning forward a bit. She went a bit pale and glanced around like the place might be bugged. "That might actually explain some things…" She twisted a strand of hair around her finger. "Like, noises I can't explain and doors and windows opening and closing."
"You don't sleep here at night, do you?"
"Yeah…"
"Usagi! It must be terrifying!"
"I guess…" Usagi still looked slightly perplexed, as if she was considering that now she ought to be more frightened than she had been. "Why do they say it's haunted?"
"The previous owner had a daughter, who threw herself into the sea for her unrequited love," Minako said dramatically. That may not, actually, be the story, she hadn't bothered to confirm it, but it sounded good.
Usagi let out a breath, shivering a little. She looked around her like she was seeing the place with new eyes. "That's… awful."
Minako kicked herself, reminding herself that not everyone adored a good haunted house story, and she'd probably just traumatized the poor girl who had to live here for the summer!
She grabbed Usagi's arm and squeezed in a friendly gesture. "I have an idea! Let's go into town! You can show me all the cool places to shop."
Usagi blinked at her, like she was still wrapped up in the history of the house Minako had told her. Then she shook her head, as if to clear it, and a beatific smile broke across her face. "I have a better idea. C'mon!"
Usagi led Minako down a small path she'd clearly made for herself since moving in, along a steep hill and jumping the last few feet down some rocks, but the mansion had a private strip of beach all to itself. Or, if not private, at least hidden away.
"Usagi, this is amazing!" Minako said as the cool ocean air swept away all her sweat and any uncomfortable feelings the house had left on her.
"Isn't it?" she answered, stretching her arms out to the water and running in a few feet until the hem of her dress soaked through with salt water. "I love coming here!"
"Girl, same, if I had to live in a creepy haunted house, I'd always be at their private beach!"
Usagi giggled, splashing Minako, who laughed and jumped in as well, wading up until the bottoms of her jean shorts got wet. They splashed and played and kicked up streams of water in the surf, and Minako felt like she may have really made a friend.
"So, we definitely have to solve this ghost problem," Minako said later as they sat on the beach. "I'm thinking that I'm gonna try to get Kunzite involved. Do you know him? He's a lifeguard, and like, really hot?"
Usagi thought for a moment, listing her head to the side and tapping her lips with her finger. "I don't think so… but maybe I'm just not remembering the name."
"Anyway," Minako drew her knees up to her chest, "you can call some of your friends, too...do you have a phone?" She took out hers. "I don't have any service, still." She waved it around to see if she could grab a bar or two of service.
Usagi nodded, "Landline. It's spotty, but I'll give you the number."
"I'll be in touch!"
Minako left the mansion with a bounce in her step. Some haunted house high schoolers dared each other to go to! She'd just spent a very nice afternoon there and met a new friend. Her stomach rumbled, reminding her to grab dinner before heading back to her hotel. Maybe a place by the beach, where she could walk by the lifeguard stand and see if a certain someone was on duty…
Who needs Hawaii, after all? She had a mission! Mission Rescue Usagi From The Ghosts or At Least One Ghost That Definitely Haunts The Hell Out of Conway Mansion is a go!