Disclaimers:
Gunslinger Girl is the property of Yu Aida.
Danica Vinci is based on an original character created by 'Persona With Many Aliases'.
The Gandors (Cameo) are from Baccano!, created by Ryohgo Narita
A Girl Named Harriet
By Sasahara17
Chapter 02: Friends and Family
"Here's your ice cream, Henrietta. Eat it before it melts."
"Thank you, Giuseppe!" The girl said happily as she accepted the double scoop cone from her beloved brother. Harriet, invisible and unable to interact with anything around her, watched as the pair enjoyed a cold dessert together. She would have thought the scene cute, if Henrietta had not slaughtered half a dozen men just a scant hour before, and the ice cream she was eating was supposed to be a reward.
"Giuseppe, I don't think I've had this flavour before. It's really good!" Henrietta remarked.
Jose smiled warmly and ruffled her hair. "It's white chocolate with macadamia flavour. I know you have a sweet tooth, so I figured the sweeter it is, the more you would like it."
"You know everything, don't you, Giuseppe?"
Lacking a physical body, Harriet could only figuratively roll her eyes at Henrietta's gushing over her beloved fratello.
Giuseppe, if that even was his real name, was something of an enigma to Harriet. Whereas Henrietta took the older man at his word and exalted his every action, Harriet actually found the man very disturbing. From her more objective viewpoint, Harriet had discovered that there were two sides to the same man.
Most of the time, Giuseppe appeared to be a pretty likable man. Unlike his brother, Jean, who merely thought of his cyborg as an expendable tool, Giuseppe often went out of his way to make Henrietta's short life as pleasant as he could. He devoted incredible amounts of time and money to his cyborg, so much so Harriet was dead certain it impacted on his social life. It mattered not whether it was because of some traumatic past, or even if it was a guilty conscience, Harriet found Giuseppe to be a loving, doting sibling…
…and then he'd order Henrietta to butcher obscene numbers of people with a cold ruthlessness she normally associated with his older brother. If anything, Giuseppe's general niceness made the instances of his cold fury even more frightening to Harriet.
The dichotomy was a conundrum Harriet had yet to solve. It was clear, at least to her, that somehow the Croce brothers had been scarred by the Five Republics in some way. They had chosen two different ways to cope, but who was right in their approach? Was Giuseppe right in treating Henrietta as a surrogate sister while also using her as a living weapon? Considering how large a part Giuseppe played in Henrietta's life, Harriet often found herself coming back to him whenever she thought of her dreams.
And above all, Harriet had one disturbing, yet nagging, question that ate away in her mind; what would she do if she ever had a sibling like Giuseppe?
While Harriet pondered this, Henrietta had quickly devoured her reward joyfully, as a twelve year old girl would, while Giuseppe watched his ward intently. "So are you excited about our upcoming holiday?"
Henrietta squealed. "Yes! It's been a while since Rico and I went to your villa. I can't wait-!"
"HARRIET, WAKE! UP! NOW!"
"HARRIET, WAKE! UP! NOW! It's five thirty in the morning!"
Harriet moaned as she cracked an eye open and saw her best friend standing over her bed in a blue and white soccer uniform. "Why must someone always wrest me from my beautiful sleep? Mimi, what are you doing here? The match isn't until tomorrow."
"Well, there's practice to be had." Mimi dumped Harriet's own uniform onto her bed. "Come on, get changed! That match won't win itself!"
Harriet decided that arguing with Mimi was an exercise in futility. Once Mimi had made her mind, there was little that could stop her friend. Pulling back the covers on her bed, the teenager gave a catlike stretch. "Mimi, you do realize that Danica is going to be so angry at you for waking me up before her. It's like a ritual for her, you know."
"Then she'll have to take that up with Rowena. The captain asked me to get you. She's seriously psyched about the game," Mimi chortled.
Rowena? Oh joy. "We'd best get to it then!" The only person more stubborn than Mimi, at least when it came to soccer, was their team captain and close friend, Rowena Auditore. Now, Harriet had definitely had to get a move on!
It was now nearing noon, and the exercise was well under way. The team had split in half to practice their offence and defence game by paying against each other, and at the moment it was clear that the offence had the edge.
"Harriet!"
Cornered by a defender, named Pauline, Mimi kicked the ball across the width of the field to where Harriet was waiting. Mere moments after receiving it, Harriet dribbled the ball around the defenders like a seasoned pro before she kicked the ball straight into the goal past the goalie's desperate attempt to block the near perfect shot.
"Nice shot, Harriet! Great play as always," Rowena whooped before rounding on the defending players. "And you girls. You girls, had better buck up! That's three times the offense has scored against you."
"Give us a break captain!" Pauline whined. "They have you, Harriet and Mimi. I don't think our opponent is going to be that good."
Rowena stamped a foot down in fury "And if they are, we'll be the laughing stock! No whinging! Anyway, enough of this farce. I'll let everyone take a short break. You have five minutes!"
The whole team seemed to exhale as the formation on the field disintegrated. Some sauntered off to the benches to rest, while others broke out the water bottles. Not really feeling tired or thirsty, Harriet proceeded to have a light jog around the edge of the field for the five minutes. Lunch was in another forty five minutes, and she actually planned on leaving after that to take Danica shopping, so it wouldn't do to take a break now.
Two minutes into her jog, Harriet felt a hand come down on her shoulder. Turning around she found it was Rowena, who was jogging beside her. "Are you really sure that you want to be in midfield? You'll be brilliant as a striker."
"Pretty sure. I like to have a bit more flexibility in my role." Harriet affirmed as she gave an apologetic glance at their new goalkeeper, who was lying spread eagled at the goal posts. Having only joined the team after just transferring in from Venice five weeks ago, it seemed that Miriam was still feeling overwhelmed by her new role. Not that Harriet would take it easy on her, of course.
Harriet had a real competitive streak. It gave her a sense of satisfaction of having done something worthwhile. It doubled as a form of self improvement, allowing Harriet to constantly challenge herself to go to new heights. Having tried a wide variety of sports, Harriet eventually settled on soccer as her favourite because of its emphasis on team play, which allowed her to share the experience with friends.
Danica, of course, tried to 'convert' her sister into playing computer games, but apparently 'self improvement via level up' didn't give Harriet any kind of satisfaction at all. Likewise, Harriet had her suspicions that Danica could probably perform at sports if she really wanted to, but simply didn't have the same buzz she did.
They mostly were defined in their roles as 'the sporty twin' and 'the geeky twin'.
"If you say so," Rowena shrugged, before peeling off to go get a drink herself.
Harriet saw Mimi sitting cross legged on the edge of the field ahead of her. Harriet gave her friend a high five as she jogged past. "Nice shot Harriet! Makes me wonder why they even keep me around, if they have you."
"You run faster than anyone in our school. That's why the track and field team are always giving us the evil eye for stealing you!"Harriet called back.
"Ah. There is that. Count your lucky stars that I fell in love with FIFA instead of the Olympic Games!"
The remainder of training turned out to be simple ball passing. Team members paired off and did small parallel runs across the field, passing the ball between them as they ran. As always, Harriet and Mimi had chosen to take things a step further and were practically sprinting up and down the field playing what only could be described as 'dodge ball soccer'.
Of course, after the other players complained, the two settled down into a more leisurely pace, which unfortunately gave Mimi the opportunity to talk about a certain someone in the spectator stands.
"Harriet, check it out. It's Julius." Mimi pointed at the glasses wearing boy, wearing clothing a few sizes to big with an over-sized book bag slung over his shoulder. Julius was sitting in the stands, quietly trying to watch Harriet practice, discreetly.
He was failing horribly. Harriet didn't turn to look, already having known the boy was there. Instead she glared at her friend, who now wore a cheeky smirk on her face.
"Aren't you going to wave at your adoring fan?"
Harriet looked Mimi dead in the eye. "No."
Despite herself, Mimi couldn't help but wince. "Cold, Harriet. Cold."
It was no secret that Julius de Marco had a crush on Harriet after they had worked on a History project together. Julius was a shy boy who loved reading, and was often found in the local library. He also happened to be a member of Danica's anime club, and it was she who introduced the two of them.
It was really beyond Harriet how he'd developed a crush on her and not her identical twin sister, whom he'd known for much longer.
It wasn't that Harriet didn't like Julius. In fact, in the times she'd talked to him, Harriet had actually found the bookworm to be a very nice guy and generally enjoyed his company. He was one of the more sensible and studious boys in her class. Honestly, Harriet thought it was cute when he stammered in front of her. Unfortunately, she had no idea on how to deal with the boy's crush on her, and Mimi, who ribbed them constantly over it, certainly did not help matters.
Harriet gave a resigned sigh when she recognized what she was doing; Harriet was taking out her frustrations on a genuinely nice guy, whose only sin was to have a crush on her. That was rather cruel of her. "I hate so you, Mimi," Harriet whispered as she turned to the stands and gave Julio a small wave.
Much to her delight, Julius gave a small wave back.
Then, much to Harriet's dismay, Mimi opened her big mouth.
"Hey, Julius! Come on down here! Harriet wants to talk to her number one fan!" The poor boy actually jumped in his seat and then got up and hurried off. Even from down in the field, Harriet could see his face had turned red as a tomato. "Ha-Ha! There he goes!" Mimi chortled.
"Mimi, I can't believe you sometimes." Harriet frowned disapprovingly. "That was cruel and very-" Harriet trailed off.
Not too far from where Julius was sitting was this young girl, probably no older than twelve or thirteen. Dressed in a teal sundress under a large orange jacket and holding a very large black viola case in her lap, Harriet had just realized that this stranger was staring right at her. In fact, their eyes actually locked for a good moment before the girl turned her head away.
"Mimi, was that girl just staring at us just now?"
"Who? Which girl?"
"That one. The one with the viola case."
"The kid? Nope. Not that I can tell."
"Funny. I'm pretty sure she was..." Then something more stunning happened.
A taller, boyish looking girl with short blond hair wearing a tan jacket and blue jeans, probably about the same age as the first, walked up to the stranger and began a conversation. The first girl seemed to nod her head. Then she got up from her seat, and the two began to gradually make their way down the stands, probably leaving the stadium.
Harriet couldn't help but stare at the taller girl, recognition eating away at the corner of her mind. Just as the two were about to leave, Harriet managed to catch a glimpse of the taller girl's clear blue eyes.
Short blonde hair, blue eyes, tan jacket and blue jeans...
Short blonde hair, blue eyes, tan jacket and blue jeans...
"Wait, Rico?"
"Harriet, watch out!" Mimi suddenly bellowed.
"Wha-Crap!" Narrowly ducking a mis-aimed pass that would have slammed right into her head, Harriet soon found herself on the grass, mind still dazed.
"Whoa, close one. You almost waltzed right into it." Rowena whistled as she helped Harriet back to her feet. The whole team gathered around their midfielder with concern before the young brunette waved them off reassuringly.
"It's okay, I'm fine. You can get back to what you were doing."
This seemed to satisfy most of the girls, including Mimi. Harriet had worse scrapes before, and a near miss was quite mild as things went by. The crowd dispersed, leaving only Rowena standing there with folded arms. "What happened there Harriet? You zoned out completely for a second. It's not like you"
"I… really don't know." Harriet answered honestly as she scanned her surroundings for the girl. She had vanished like she wasn't even there. Had Harriet just imagined it?
"Hm? Perhaps I really shouldn't have gotten Mimi to wake you up prematurely. A good night's rest is important."
"No, it's alright. It won't happen again. It was just a lapse."
"If you say so. Tell you what. You were planning on leaving soon right? Call it a day and get some rest. That close call probably shook you up a bit." Rowena winked. "Can't have my dear Harriet all shaken up tomorrow can we?"
"Okay." Harriet replied. Rowena gave her friend a clap on the shoulder before returning to her troops, leaving a slightly disturbed Harriet alone with her thoughts. Taking one more look around, Harriet confirmed her phantom had indeed disappeared. "Must be my imagination." Harriet shook her head. What was she doing? Ever since that Giovanni incident last week...
Slapping her face as if to wake herself up, Harriet jogged back to her friends to wish them goodbye. However, try as she might, Harriet could not shake the sight of Rico Croce and her strange friend from her mind.
Harriet showered and changed quickly, then met her sister for lunch at a favourite bistro of their's. While Harriet had spent the morning at training, Danica had instead been hunting around town for a new game she really wanted to play, only to discover that none of the local stores had it yet.
"I am so bummed right now." Danica sighed longingly, as she stirred her chicken soup despondently. "I really, really, wanted to play Bioshock 2."
"You'll get it eventually," Harriet consoled her sister. "Just buy it online or something."
"Well I could, but the moment I connect to the internet, the lure of World of Warcraft will be too much for me to do anything else. Say, did you do something to Julius today? I saw him running out of the soccer field red as a tomato about fifteen minutes before you came out. Is it because he can't attend the match tomorrow? That math competition is almost as important..."
Harriet gave a long suffering sigh. "It's not the math competition. Mimi happened."
"Ah." Danica exclaimed, understanding the situation immediately. "You know, you should really go talk to him straight up about this. The more you two dance around each other, the longer you two will look stupid."
"Danica."
"I'm serious, Harriet. Everybody knows you two like each other."
"EH?"
Danica looked at Harriet's stupefied expression with an appraising eye and fought to keep the smirk off her features. "Oh well, my mistake," Danica conceded trying to keep a straight face. "In any case, you really should do something about Julius."
Harriet recomposed herself and seemed to deflate. "I don't know, Danica."
Danica shook her head at her sister's indecisiveness and had to literally will herself not to grin. Normally the older twin would easily take control of the situation, but for Harriet to be so conflicted over this really did prove that she was indeed a young maiden at heart. "Tell you what. You can think about it after tomorrow's game, and whatever your decision, I'll help you out. Deal?"
"Deal. Thanks, Dani."
"What are sisters for?"
Danica and Harriet spent the rest of the day having a leisurely walk around town, where they purchased several new articles of clothing. Having hit adolescence, the twins found that they were experiencing growth spurts. While still quite short in comparison to their friends, Danica and Harriet were quickly growing, forcing them to buy clothing to accommodate their taller statures.
Sicily was very pleasant this time of the year. Thanks to its gorgeous coastal views, smaller population in comparison to mainland Italy, and more agreeable climate, the island enjoyed a peace that was not shared by the rest of the nation. It was times like this that the Vinci twins appreciated just how fortunate they both were.
While the possible glimpse of what could have been Rico Croce lingered in the back of her mind, Harriet soon found herself thinking of other things more relevant to her day to day life as she walked with Danica. With more prominent issues like the upcoming match the following day, to what they planned to gave for dinner that night, eventually 'Rico' had been all but forgotten.
Returning to their coastal home overlooking the Mediterranean sea, Harriet completed yet another carefree day, safe in the knowledge that her small piece of heaven was secure.
For the present, at least.
That night, just after their meal, Harriet and Danica received surprise visitors to their small abode. Harriet had been in the process of washing the dishes when the doorbell rang. Knowing Danica was probably stuck in her room in front of her computer, Harriet ended up having to answer the door.
"Surprise!"
Harriet, hand still on the door handle, could not believe who was standing in her doorway. Her face broke out into a joyous smile. "Harrick? Olivia?"
"Hey baby sister. Look at you! You've grown so tall!" The young man gave Harriet a warm hug. "Sorry about not showing up earlier, we just got in."
"We thought you were getting lonely here in Sicily, so we decided to turn up to see you." Olivia bent to kiss her sister's cheek.
Harrick was a well built, tall man, almost six feet two in height. Having been discharged from the military, he was forced to hobble around on a crutch, much like a favourite role model of his whose name Harriet could never remember. He wore a respectable, albeit cheap suit. Harrick nevertheless was an imposing man despite the handicap.
On the other hand, Olivia seemed much more homely. Her diminutive stature of five feet four, modest clothing, and her round spectacles gave the impression of a mousey bookworm. However this 'façade' belied a fierce and courageous woman with a strong moral code who also happened to lead a crack police unit.
"What are you two doing here? I thought you had work?"
Olivia gave a fake pout and placed her hands on her hips. "It could be that my subordinates thought I was about to burn out and bullied me into seeing my little sisters, or it could be that I just missed you two and decided to take a break after tying up a big case. Take a guess."
"My direct superior decided to take a holiday to his villa and offered to turn it into a group trip." Harrick shrugged. "It's a pity our parents are busy, though. When he found out we were coming down here, they almost jumped at the chance."
Harriet could not help but giggle excitedly like a toddler at the surprise appearance of her siblings. "Danica! Danica stop playing World of Warship-whatever and get out here! You're not going to believe who's at the door!" Harriet shouted merrily down towards her twin's room.
"It's World of Warcraft! I know you don't approve Harriet but at least get the name- Olivia? Harrick! Oh wow!" Danica zipped out of the room like a speeding bullet and tackled Olivia and Harrick. "Oh wow, I can't believe you guys are here! This is the greatest- Hold on, hold on, was doing a raid. Need to sign off. Before I die or something. BRB!" And just as fast as she'd come out of her room, Danica quickly turned on her heel and bolted back to where her computer waited.
"Only my sister," Harriet sighed, only to elicit laughs from her two older siblings.
Harriet and Danica welcomed their visitors into the humble apartment, where they settled into the living room to catch up. Danica was distracted for a moment when she received her long awaited present from Harrick, but was soon yapping away happily.
"And Harriet scored this awesome goal with that insane bicycle kick. Everybody went dead quiet when she did that!" Danica recounted dramatically. "And that was two months ago! Imagine what she'll do tomorrow!"
Harriet playfully slapped her sister on the back of the head. "She's exaggerating, don't listen to her," Which was partly true as Harriet only scored that goal by sheer dumb luck because she slipped in the mud. While many found it awesome that a misstep could score a winning goal, Harriet didn't share the sentiment, since didn't feel like she worked for it.
"Oh, I don't know. You and Mimi are going to own the match tomorrow." Danica laughed before her eyes widened at what she said. Olivia was giving her younger sister the evil eye. "Oh, whoops."
Olivia didn't approve of Harriet's friend Mimi for some reason. When the oldest Vinci sibling had learned of Maria Miciavelli's friendship with Harriet sixteen months ago, she'd actually charged down to Sicily and attempted to bar the two from actually meeting. Harriet remembered that Olivia was like a lunatic back then, a strange mix between furious anger and pure unadulterated fear driving the woman.
Eventually, Leonard Vinci himself came down to Sicily to calm his daughter down, and it still took him two full hours of sweet talking to do it. 'Sins of the father are not his children' or something. Aside from Olivia, none of Harriet's family had any problem with Mimi, and Harriet never found out why, but since then, even the slightest mention of Mimi around Olivia could possibly set the woman off.
"I can't believe it's so peaceful here," Harrick quickly tried to change the subject. "I mean, Sicily is supposed to be Camorra Country, and yet there's almost no violence. I thought this place was supposed to be a war-zone, four years back."
Olivia, being the only police officer present, sighed and answered Harrick's question. "It was. The Camorra underwent a pretty bloody coup. The American chapter of the Camorra, the Gandors, I believe, invaded because some idiot tried to put a friend of theirs in a snuff film. You can pretty much guess who won. Considering that they've only just gotten control of the island, the terrorism problem to the north has gotten them worried. That's why they're trying to make sure their little island is 'stable'."
"I see. It's ironic that the Camorra, of all people, are enforcing the peace and driving the crime rate down on their own." Harriet wondered.
"They just don't want to take any chance of the chaos in Rome to spreading to their island so soon after their conquest. Don't get me wrong, I still don't like them, but these new guys are a hell of a lot better than those bastards that kept gunning down good people in broad daylight." Olivia shrugged. "The Gandors are still dirty bastards in my opinion. They've even gone as far as to cooperate with us to protect a key crown witness to make sure that their rivals are behind bars for life. So much for the 'family honour'."
"Yeah, I heard about that." Harrick noted. "Mario Bossi was it?"
"One and the same," Olivia muttered distastefully. "Urgh, let's talk about something else. Everything to do with the 'new' Camorra leaves a bad taste in my mouth."
Deciding it was her cue, Harriet took her chance. "You two are staying for the whole weekend, right? I really hope you two could watch my game tomorrow."
"We were planning to do that anyway," Olivia said. "Besides, I can't wait to watch Harriet's super-awesome-game-winning-kick." Olivia had a few moments of blissful ignorance when the sudden realization of what she'd just said registered in her brain.
Harrick shuffled back from his older sister with surprise. "That... sounded like something that would come out of Danica's mouth." Soccer was Italy's national sport, but Olivia had always seemed indifferent to it. Guess she was a fan too, if a more eccentric one.
What followed was Olivia palming her face while the other three Vinci siblings laughed at their sister's expense. With family like this, Harriet really did feel fortunate.
Oh, she couldn't wait for tomorrow!
To be continued
