Disclaimers : I don't own Sakura Taisen...
This is the second chapter...hope you'll like it...please R & r!
***
*1953*
"Are you sure?" asked Edelweiss doubtfully, as she dropped her tennis racquet to the ground and missed the ball.
"Game! I win!" shouted Suiren victoriusly.
"Oh, you...!!! I have told you that you can't use this wicked trick again!" shouted the half-angry Edelweiss. "I must have predicted this," she muttered hopelessly, " I have known Suiren since she was a newborn baby, and I've grown up together with her, but I have never thought that she will do this for the second time."
"Okay, Okay, Eddie, I'm sorry...but, believe me, that's really a truth...You can always trust me, right?"
"Are you sure that you're right?" asked Edelweiss. Her eyes, which were as green as her mother's, got narrow and narrower.
"I'm sure," said Suiren firmly. She walked out of the tennis court and put her racquet on the nearest bench to the court. "I heard Oniichan and Onechan talked seriously about that, just last night," she continued while weeping her sweatdrops.
"But...but...I have never thought that your brother is rather serious with me," answered the blushing Edelweiss. She took her racquet, walked out of the court, and put that heavy thing beside Suiren's light racquet.
Suiren stopped for a while. "I know that you can hardly believe this," she said, as she gave the towel to Edelweiss.
Edelweiss took the towel from Suiren's graceful hands, and began to weep the sweatdrops on her blushing face. "But...but...I thought that my date with Taro was just a little game for him," she whispered.
"Years haven't changed my brother," replied Suiren, as she looked deeply into Edelweiss' eyes. "He have never thought to play with a girl's heart ," she continued.
Edelweiss looked back at her best friend's brown eyes, then took a deep breath."Suiren...I must tell you that...when he was about to leave our hometown, fourteen years ago, he'd said to me that he'll be my man...but...I've never...never took it...seriously."
"Eddie, it's a lie that you'd never took it seriously," replied Suiren, as she put her right hand on Edelweiss' left arm. "I know that you're always waiting for his letters when we were still living in Sendai. And, when we're already moved to Tokyo, joined Hanagumi, you seemed to give a big attention to him. And, once, I saw you cry badly in that hospital's room, after our messed up battle which injured him badly."
"But, it's so normal that I cried," said the shy Edelweiss, "I made that injuries for my Taichou...what a bad teammate..."
"You're not just cry but you're also blamed yourself. You said that you're silly, that you're heartless, and that you're cruel," Suiren stopped for a while. "And," she continued, "I also know for sure that you had never have a boyfriend or even liked a boy before Taro asked you to go with him on a date, about one year ago."
Edelweiss blushed again and again. "Yes," she said softly,"eventually, I must let you know that I love your brother, Oogami Taro..."
***
*1928*
Words of mouth is more powerfull than any other medias in the world. In less than five minutes, everybody who were related closely with Yoneda, Sakura, and Oogami were assembled at the saloon. There were Maria, Kaede, Orihime, Reni, Iris, Kouran, Kanna, Sumire, and also Kayama.
"So...what's the main matter?"asked Sumire, still confusing and wondering what was happening.
"Maria will explain that," said Kaede, pointed at Maria.
"Then, tell us, Maria," urged Sumire curiously.
Maria took a deep breath. "Yoneda-shihainin called Sakura to his office," she said.
"And?" asked Sumire again.
"He said that Sakura's mother had done something for her, and she must go back to Sendai whether she likes or dislikes," continued Maria. She took another deep breath. "That sounds like her mother had found her match, and she'll soon be engaged and married to a man she haven't ever known. She really didn't want it, you know. She asked Yoneda-shihainin to help her, but Yoneda-shihainin seemed to refuse and said some bitter things to her."
"No missunderstanding this time, right?" reminded Sumire, as she remembered the time the San-nin Musume were missunderstood about Sakura's plan to go back to Sendai, and told all of them that Sakura was going to be married (~Gouka Kenran's fifth episode's scene~).
"Certainly no," said Maria clearly, as she glanced at Kaede and saw that Kaede was nodding.
"It means that this time, we must really rescue Sakura from an unhappy marriage," whispered Sumire.
"I haven't finished the story yet," Maria reminded. "Yoneda-shihainin also said that now is Taichou's turn."
"What turn?"
Maria shrugged. "Maybe to hear this news," she said softly.
***
Meanwhile, Oogami was standing inside Yoneda's office, exactly in front of Yoneda's desk.
"So," Yoneda said mysteriously, "actually, you're the only son of a rich family, and after your parents passed away, you decided to enter the Imperial Naval Academy, right?"
Oogami didn't answer at all. He looked at the letter on Yoneda's desk, as little remembrances took him back to his years with his parents.
"And, now, you've just passed your twenty-fifth birthday, and, according to your parents' letter, you now interhit all their wealth and properties," continued Yoneda.
Oogami kept silence, and he kept looking at the letter.
"Oh, and, shortly before the accident that took their lifes," Yoneda stopped for a while, " your parents had made an excellent match for you."
Oogami raised his head quickly and looked at Yoneda with a miserable glance. "It can't be," said him, as he grabbed the letter and started to read it.
"That's what your relative has written," Yoneda reminded him, "you can take a look at the letter."
Oogami read the letter quickly, then torn it into pieces and throw the pieces into the wastepaper basket. "They can't urge me," he said, almost with anger.
"They'll pick you up by January tenth," Yoneda continued, as he ignored what Oogami had done with the letter and what Oogami had just said. "This time, you can't refuse at all, " he added.
***
"Sakura...Sakura...it's Maria...would you please open the door?"
Sakura wipped her flowing tears with her sleeves. "Come in, Maria," said her, trying to hide the great sorrow in her heart.
Maria came in and saw Sakura sitting on her bed, pressing a photograph tightly on her chest. She had stopped crying, honestly, urged herself to stop crying, but, Maria knew for sure that Sakura'd just cry. She had been standing in front of Sakura's door, at least for five minutes, before she decided to knock the door and asking Sakura if she was allowed to come in.
"You look pretty sad, Sakura," said Maria softly.
Sakura looked at Maria with her brown eyes, which were looked very sad. Those lovely eyes met Maria's green eyes, which were, not as usual, full of doubt and symphaty. Then, without saying anything, Sakura stood up and embraced Maria tightly, as she started to shed more tears.
Maria rubbed Sakura's back gently. "Ssh...Sakura," whispered her, "tell me what'd happened."
Sakura sobbed loud and louder. "They're trying to kill me with sorrow...," she muttered betwen her sobs.
"Who're them?" asked Maria patiently.
"My family and Yoneda-shihainin...they're really trying to kill me by separating me from my only love..."
Maria took a deep breath and started to talk. "They said that you must marry a man you have never known, right?" asked her.
Sakura didn't answer. Her body shook harder and harder, as her sobs get worse.
Maria pulled Sakura closer to her. "You're not alone," she whispered, " you have us. You have your best friends. We'll help you, no matter what it will cost..."
***
"So, you've had a fiancee, right?"
"Seems to be like that, Kayama," answered Oogami hopelessly.
"Then, I guess, that means you must end your love with Sakura," said Kayama with a heavy voice.
"I only want Sakura, this is what I want to say. I don't want any other girl, no matter how pretty she is," replied Oogami as he filled his glass with more liquor and started drinking again.
"Don't drink that much, man...You can't think clearly when you're drunk," warned Kayama, as he took the half-emptied liquor bottle and put it away from Oogami.
"Let me drink tonight," said Oogami without put his glass back on the table, "I've got a trouble."
"You need something better than liquor to solve your problem," replied Kayama, " you need friends. And, you've got friends in us. We'll help you to manage this mess."
***
It was midnight, and all the winter stars were shining brightly.
A young couple, seemed hasn't yet married, were standing together, face to face, at a luxurious building's balcony.
Each of them shed their tears in silence, when the man carresed her beloved's black, not exactly black but rather deep purple, hair.
The woman held her beloved's waist tighter and tighter, bursting her face onto his shirt, and let him touch the big ribbon on her hair.
Then, after a long, long time, the man broke the silence between them. "Our love will never die," he said softly, so softly, so no one could hear his voice but his beloved.
"Then, take me away," replied the woman, almost as softly as her beloved.
"I'll take you away, but, not tonight," said the man as he kissed his beloved's hair.
"Then, when? We have only three days," muttered the woman as she raised her head and looked deeply at her beloved's eyes.
"Don't worry," the man said as soft as he did before, "I promise you, I'll take you away from this hell."
***
Early in the morning, the next day, a group of people, who had just named theirselves as Love Saviours, were assembling at a cafetaria near to the Great Imperial Theatre.
"Let's make sure that all eleven of us are here, not less and not more than eleven," said one of the two men of the group, as he counted all the group's members. "Miss Fujieda, Miss Kanzaki, Miss Tachibana, Miss Ri, Miss Kirishima, Miss Soletta, Miss Milchstraß, Miss Chateaubriand, Miss Shinguji, Mr. Oogami, and myself, Mr. Kayama. Completed."
"So, we'll start explaining the plan we've just made last night," said one of the group's woman with her deep accentish voice.
"We disscused that all the night," said another woman, "and, when it's over, I realized that it's too late to go back to Kawasaki. So, last night, I slept at Maria's room, while Maria moved to Kaede-san's."
"All of you, listen carefully, especially Iris, Sakura, Oogami, and Kayama, since all of them were not present at last night's emergency meeting," said another woman, who was wearing military uniform, distinctly.
Four of them, known as Iris, Sakura, Oogami, and Kayama, nodded, while the woman with military uniform turned to the woman with deep accentish voice. "Go on, Maria," she said.
Maria looked at them, one by one, carefully. "As you all know," she said, " the day after tomorrow will be Sumire's birthday." She stopped for a while. "And, that day, our big assignment will start," she continued.
"Since that is my birthday, it won't be strange if I invite all of you to go for a picnic," continued Sumire. "But, it will be strange if I don't invite Yoneda-shihainin too," she added.
"So," Kaede took over, "only Hanagumi members will go on the picnic, since I have set an important meeting for myself and Yoneda-shihainin."
"We'll start early in the morning, with a big minibus I borrow from Kanzaki Heavy Industry, and go to a mountain near Tokyo," said Sumire. "Chu'ui will be the driver," continued her, as she pointed Oogami.
"This is the most important part of first day's activities," continued Maria, "we will act as if we were attacked by a group of mad robbers during the journey, that they had took the minibus, and kidnapped some of us who were trying to defeat them. Kayama will take the role as the 'mad robbers'."
"Who will be 'some of us'?" asked Iris impatiently.
"Kanna, Reni, Maria, Sakura, and Oogami," answered Kaede.
"Oh, I remember, we need Kouran and one other Hanagumi member to stay," added Sumire, "we need two people to inform Tokyo's situation and to tell the 'bad news' to Yoneda-shihainin."
"Then, the other one will be me," said Orihime quickly, "I had been thinking about the reason for Kouran's stay all the night...and it would be much better if we say that Kouran is sick, and I'm the one who will take care of her."
"OK. So, the first day's plan is complete," said Kaede, seemed to be very pleased.
"Remember," reminded Sumire," January eighth, six o' clock in the morning. Don't be late."
To be continued...
Author's notes :
A rather long chapter...please read and send your reviews, and I promise I'll soon send the third chapter...Let's see how the velvet gets long and longer...