Reaching for Eternity

Chapter 1: Ordinary School Life

The sun's rays fell over the Yoshino mansion. Servants hustled about inside, beginning their daily chores, readying things for their master's first day of high school. The light of the sun streamed into Yoshino's window, illuminating the figure huddling on the bed. She hadn't moved for over two hours, trying to process what she had seen that night. A knock on her door; a voice called out to her "Yoshino, are you up?" It was her mother, the head servant.

Yoshino was, of course, up. She had been up the entire night. A slight smell of burnt flesh lingered in her nose—that hadn't vanished with the girl's body, and neither had the memories. The half-ruined face, an arm that ended at the elbow, skin charred so black it was impossible to tell where it ended and burned clothing began. Sleep had not come for Yoshino. "I..." She hadn't realized how dry her throat was. "I'm up. Thank you." Throwing off her blankets, she crawled out of bed. Her silk nightgown clung to her skin as she made her way to the bathroom.

Dumping her clothes in the hamper, she looked at herself in the mirror. Grey-black hair framed her face, falling down nearly to her shoulders. Her bangs were starting to fall into her eyes; she should probably get those trimmed soon. Said eyes were red and puffy; it looked like she'd been crying, though she didn't think she had—maybe she should have. Turning on the shower, she stepped into the falling water. Turning her head upwards, she let the warm spray cascade over her face for a few minutes, as she wondered what to do about last night. She refused to believe she was delusional, not to mention that she had one smashed patio chair to demonstrate that something had occurred.

"Who would believe this story?" she muttered to herself as she started to wash. "Heh...Yuka would believe me, of course." She smiled at the thought. Yuka would never think she was crazy, though she wasn't sure if she should tell Yuka. The thought of keeping things from her girlfriend—after all they had gone through—wrenched at Yoshino. What good would it do to tell her though, when she herself knew nothing at all? "I guess I'll hold off for now; things will be busy enough with the first day of high school." Turning off the water, Yoshino stepped out and began to dry herself off, finally feeling almost human again.


Uchida Yuka waited. She was actually early, since the agreed upon meeting time still five minutes away, but she was too excited to wait. She'd dashed out the door as soon as she could even though she knew it wouldn't make this meeting happen any sooner. Part of her still couldn't believe that her parents had agreed to let her ride to school every morning with Yoshino. After all that had happened—especially after she had run off without permission to go on that trip with Yoshino—she had expected her parents to insist on taking her to school themselves each morning. Even raising this suggestion had felt risky, as if merely putting it forth as an option was as good as giving it away. Surprisingly, they had agreed, though not without some restrictions. Some of those restrictions she wasn't even sure of herself; she just knew that her parents had insisted on speaking with both Yoshino's head servant and chauffeur about the arrangement. Whatever. It meant she could be with her, and that was enough.

Her reverie killed enough time that she had barely even realized the black limo had arrived before the back door swung open. Inside was Yoshino in her brand new school uniform, the twin of the one Yuka herself wore. "Good morning Yuka!" Something about Yoshino's voice seemed slightly off, but Yuka brushed it away as nerves on both their parts.

"Morning" she replied as she entered the limo, closing the door behind her. Arisawa was long past opening and closing car doors for her, and it was faster this way regardless.

Yoshino made a show of looking Yuka up and down, her gaze stopping on her chest. "Looks good on you." She deadpanned.

"Uuuuuuuu! You dirty old man!" Yuka buckled herself in as Yoshino motioned Arisawa to head off. She had to admit though, the uniform did look good on her, and its cut certainly emphasized assets that Yuka had in abundance. It was somewhat less flattering on Yoshino, though she'd finally started to grow in a bit. She imagined Chiaki was going to have words to say about the uniforms, however.

The trip to the school wasn't long, though it was a bit out of the way compared to their elementary or middle schools. Chiaki and the others would be meeting up and taking the bus to get there each morning. Yuka and Yoshino passed the time with idle chatter and gossip, making sure to keep their hands to themselves. Arisawa would let some stuff slide, but they were both still on thin ice with their parents and didn't want trouble just yet.

Finally the car came to a halt; they were actually still a few blocks from the school but as before Yoshino insisted on walking the last bit herself. Even though her status was far more widely known now, she seemed to consider it a matter of principle. Besides, Yoshino thought, there are far more effective, and less public, ways of flaunting wealth. Yoshino opened the door herself and stepped out, turning and offering Yuka a hand. She was willing to restrain herself a bit, but she was going to touch her girlfriend occasionally. Yuka blushed a bit and took the proffered hand, stepping out of the car and onto the sidewalk.

Yuka's long hair, with its distinctive red tint, fluttered in the breeze as she emerged from the limo. Two small pigtails hung down on either side—she'd wanted to take them down, but Yoshino had insisted that she looked better this way. They weren't far enough from the school for there to be no students around and Yuka's appearance definitely made heads turn. Yoshino grimaced a bit when she saw a pair of boys trying, and failing, to avoid staring at Yuka, but, on the other hand, her ploy had definitely made it look like it was Yuka who was the owner of the limousine, not Yoshino. What, if anything, this would achieve she wasn't sure, but if nothing else it could make for some very amusing rumors. With a slight gesture, Yoshino indicated for Arisawa to take his leave, then took Yuka's hand and joined the stream of students walking to school.

Just a few minutes later they were at the gate, where student council members and teachers were checking the uniforms of the new students to make sure everything was in order. It was that sort of school, after all. There seemed to be some sort of hang-up, however. An argument was in process—with several people moving their arms wildly—pointing at various bits of each other's uniforms. They had moved off to the side, but the natural human instinct to rubberneck was causing a traffic jam, as a number of students wearing disciplinary committee armbands frantically tried to move them along.

"I wonder what's going on over there?" Yuka was, of course, one of the rubberneckers. Yoshino on the other hand, already had a pretty good idea. This was only confirmed when a new voice joined the argument, a loud, pushy voice.

"You baka-yarou! What difference does it make if she's wearing pants?!" Yoshino rolled her eyes slightly, and Yuka made a silent "oh" with her mouth as she also figured out what was going on. They glanced at each other and began to work around the crowd, which was finally on the move again. The argument finally came into view and it was exactly what they expected.

A clipboard wielding upperclassman—her hair in a long braid and wire rimmed glasses falling slightly down her nose—was facing off against a somewhat unlikely trio. In the front was a short, somewhat underdeveloped looking girl with long brown hair, most notable for an odd tuft atop her head. She was currently explaining, at length, why it was none of the school's damn business what someone else wore.

Off to one side was a relatively short boy, his sandy hair somewhat longer than would generally be considered acceptable. He was looking back and forth between the two girls, as if trying to decide how to stop the confrontation. Neither seemed at all aware he was even present.

Finally there was the actual subject of the argument, though like the boy, her presence seemed to have been forgotten. Fairly tall as girls went, she had dark hair about the same length as the boy, and just as with Yuka, the cut of the female uniform jacket emphasized her chest quite nicely. However unlike Yuka, Yoshino or the other girls, she wasn't wearing the short skirt and thigh-high stockings that made up the rest of the girl's uniform. Instead she wore a pair of pants. Yoshino wasn't surprised, though she wished Touma had worn the skirt on at least the first day. Touma met Yoshino's eyes, and seemed about to call out to them, when a male voice interjected.

"Yoshino-san! Help!" Makoto, of course. He rushed over to her, wringing his hands. "You see, she stopped us when she saw Touma's pants, and then they started arguing, and then Chiaki..." he trailed off as Yuka started to giggle and Yoshino sighed. "This is serious, guys! I don't want them in trouble the first day!" Yoshino sighed again, but he was right. Leaving Yuka with Makoto, she walked over to where Chiaki was still haranguing the pour disciplinary committee representative.

"Chiaki!" She called out to get the short girl's attention. Chiaki stopped mid-invective and turned towards Yoshino.

"Do you have any idea what this baka-yarou said to Touma? She told her to go home and put on a proper uniform! Have you ever heard such..." she cut off as Touma interjected.

"I know I shouldn't have done it yet, I don't want Chiaki in trouble for this, I'll just..."

"You idiot!" Chiaki, again. "I'm not going to let you sacrifice your principles just because the small-minded baka-yarous" she gestured at the upperclassman; Chiaki held no respect for senpai, it appeared, "are uncomfortable with a girl wearing pants!" She crossed her arms with a harumph, directing a challenging look at the clipboard wielding girl.

The girl consulted her clipboard, "Minami-san," a slight look of confusion came over her face as she realized Touma and Chiaki were both 'Minami-san', "the uniform code is quite specific as to both the allowed uniform and the consequences of violating it." She ostentatiously pushed her glasses back up her nose, as Chiaki's face turned bright red in anger.

"Excuse me," Yoshino interjected, "may I have a moment of your time?" The girl looked at her in confusion, clearly wondering why yet another person was butting into what should have been a clear cut situation. "If you would, could you please contact the Student Council President? Tell him Yoshino wishes to speak with him." The girl looked highly unconvinced, but pulled out her cell phone and hit the shortcut for the President. A few brief words later and she handed the phone to Yoshino. "Yes, that's the situation. ...I understand, but if you would? ...thank you, I owe you one."

She handed the phone back to the girl, who held it back up to her own ear. "I...see. Thank you, President." The girl gave the phone an odd look when she finished, as if unsure she'd actually heard what she thought she heard. "It seems the Student Council President will be making an exception in your case, Minami-san." The girl seemed intent on ignoring both Yoshino and Chiaki. "However, you should refrain from any more disruptive activities of this nature going forward." She made a show of marking something on her clipboard, then spun and walked back towards the throng of students.

As the girl walked away, Yoshino shook her head slightly. She hadn't wanted to so explicitly throw her influence around, but thankfully the current Student Council President was one of her senpai from Middle School. He knew how to be discrete. She turned and headed over to where the other four had gathered, Touma and Makoto were still trying to calm Chiaki down while Yuka attempted to hold back gales of laughter. Before she took more than a couple of steps she stopped and turned, looking at the tall tree under which the confrontation had taken place. Seeing nothing, she shook her head again; the events of last night and now this were making her jumpy. She continued over to where her friends waited, and began to lecture Yuka on proper decorum.

High up in the tree, hidden in the shadows cast by the leaves, a small white animal with glowing red eyes watched.


Half an hour later, the fivesome sat in their new classroom, Class 1-3, to be specific. Yoshino was surprised they all ended up together, though she didn't know if the others believed her protestations that she hadn't pulled any strings. "I'm telling you, I didn't manipulate the class assignments; why would I lie about this?" Chiaki gave her a flat look, but Yoshino knew she was just being difficult to give them something to do. And to distract herself from what was going on one desk over.

Touma's confrontation with the Disciplinary Committee had not gone unnoticed (though thankfully Yoshino's own contribution to the event had apparently passed under the radar), mostly thanks to a certain soccer player who went by the name "Misawa". Touma's partner on the soccer field, self-declared winggirl and number 1 fan had followed her idol to their new school. Like Touma, she'd gotten a soccer scholarship and the school had made their acquisition of two of the city's brightest rising soccer stars into a bit of a recruitment tool. They were clearly hoping to see Touma and Misawa do for them what they'd done for their Middle School team. Misawa clearly saw an opportunity to burnish Touma's reputation, and was currently managing the crowd of first year girls who were trying to meet the athlete.

Yoshino was half paying attention, letting the sights and sounds flow through her. Yuka was busy gossiping with some of their classmates, mostly ones who didn't have much interest in tomboy soccer players. Chiaki, clearly noticing that Yoshino no longer wanted to discuss class assignments, had begun to stare daggers at Misawa's back. Misawa, for her part, appeared oblivious to Chiaki, though the girl was thoroughly aware of the status of Touma and Chiaki's relationship. Speaking of which, the third member of that strange trio was chatting with some of the other boys in the class, but kept glancing over to where Touma and Chiaki were, clearly wanting to do something, but unable to reveal that he was more-or-less dating both of them. Once more Yoshino was acutely aware of how strange her friends were, though she was hardly one to talk. Lowering her head onto her crossed arms, she closed her eyes, the missing sleep from the night before catching up with her at last.

No sooner had she closed her eyes than she found herself confronted with the image she'd spent all morning trying to escape. A girl's face, half destroyed by fire, her remaining eye wide with pain and terror. Yoshino. Yoshino. A voice she didn't recognize intruded into her head. It sounded like…a child? She couldn't tell if the voice were that of a boy or a girl. Yoshino. Just her name, repeated over and over…

"Yoshino. Yoshino!" Suddenly the voice was accompanied by shaking…and she recognized the voice. Opening her eyes, she found her face just inches from a pair of deep brown eyes, framed by red-brown hair. The cute mouth in front her moved again, words just above a whisper. "Hey, are you ok? You've been weird all day. I didn't want to say anything in front of the others, but it's not like you to sleep at a time like this." Yoshino wanted to do nothing more right that moment than to grab Yuka and kiss her. But she couldn't. She didn't know when she'd be able to. She could feel her eyes getting a bit wet.

Sitting up, she rubbed her eyes, both to wake herself up and to hide the incipient tears. "I'm ok. I just…didn't sleep too well last night. I was a bit nervous about today." She laughed lightly, something she was good at faking. Yuka looked unconvinced, but the teacher finally entering the classroom ended the conversation.

By the time homeroom had finished, Yoshino was elected Class Representative, to the surprise of no one who knew her. She'd hoped to avoid it, but was suggested by Makoto for some reason. It wasn't a big deal, since she was used to doing it by now and no one else wanted the position. Their teacher was fairly laid back; she let them choose their own seats, most of the students having already staked out their positions before she'd even arrived. Yoshino and her friends were clustered in the back. Yoshino herself was second from the back, next to the windows, with Yuka sitting right behind her. I guess that makes me the main character… the idle thought made her crack a slight smile. To Yoshino's right was Chiaki, with Makoto behind her. In front of Chiaki sat Touma. Misawa had clearly figured out what was up, and had taken the seat in front of Yoshino.

Yoshino. Your help is needed. You are the only one who can save the city. The voice again, this time while she was wide awake! It was nearing the end of the day, their English teacher going over the plans for the course. She covertly started to look around the room, searching for the source of the voice. Finally she glanced out the window to her left, and her jaw dropped in shock. Sitting on the branch of the tree right outside her window was a small white animal. At first glance she thought it was a cat, until she noticed that coming out of its triangular cat-like ears were another set of long floppy ears, ending in golden rings not to the creature at all. Its two red eyes were perfect circles, and its mouth seemed formed into a permanent smile. I will come to you tonight. Be ready, Yoshino. The voice clearly came from the creature, but its mouth didn't move at all. With a cock of its head, the creature dashed into the shadows near the trunk of the tree, vanishing without a trace. It took conscious effort on Yoshino's part to not leap to her feet in surprise. Instead she kept herself firmly planted in her chair, turning her attention back to the class, hoping her face didn't betray the utter shock it by all rights should. It seemed, however, that she was the only one to notice the creature.

Assuming, of course, she wasn't losing her mind.


School ended a few hours later. Yoshino didn't really remember any of it. She had decided that she was not going mad, which of course could just be another sign that she was, in fact, going mad. Now she was sitting in the café she and her friends favoured, idly stirring a cup of coffee. Yuka and Makoto were busy planning out a shopping trip for the weekend, while Touma and Chiaki appeared to be in a competition to see who could devour the most cake. "Excuse me." Yoshino broke her silence and stood up, "I'm going to the restroom."

Dark eyes met in the mirror, grey-black bangs falling down over them. I should get Nakanawa to trim them a bit. She brushed the distracting thought aside. She looked fine. Her eyes were maybe a bit red, but that was nothing unusual.

"Hey, are you ok?" Yuka. Of course Yuka would follow her.

Yoshino turned and met Yuka's eyes. She could read the worry on her lover's face. "No, I'm not fine. I…" she paused. "…something happened last night, I can't tell you about it, not yet. Maybe tomorrow. It may end up being nothing in the end."

"Is…is it about us?" Yuka's voice caught slightly. Before she even realized she'd done so, Yoshino gathered Yuka in an embrace.

"No, it's not about us. We'll be together, no matter what. I promise. This is something else; just trust me, ok?" Yoshino pulled back a bit, so their eyes could meet. Yuka nodded in response. Yoshino felt Yuka's hands grip the back of her blazer, the long haired girl closing her eyes. Yoshino took the invitation, their lips meeting softly. A few moments later they separated.

"I wish we could do this openly." Yuka's voice was more resigned than sad. "I hate that we have to hide our love."

"I know, but barring a miracle, we'll have to keep it a secret for a while longer at least." Yoshino paused, as if noticing something. "Come on, this is technically public. Let's go back." Almost immediately afterwards the door opened, a girl wearing a different school's uniform entering the restroom. She didn't pay them any mind. Yoshino took Yuka by the hand and led her back to the table. Chiaki looked up from the sundae that had somehow appeared before her.

"What took you so long?"


That evening, Yoshino arrived home. Her chief servant greeted her at the door. "How was school?"

"It was fine. I ended up in the same class as everyone else, but that's about all worth mentioning." She felt that bringing up Touma's issues would be counterproductive. "First days don't really accomplish much, after all."

The two walked into the house proper. "You should know that your mother," Yoshino visibly bristled at the mention of that woman, but her chief servant continued "has settled into the mountain estate. The staff there report she is doing well." Translation, Yoshino thought. They know that they answer to her, not to the woman who happens to have my family name. "Also," her voice took on a questioning tone, "you wouldn't know what smashed up that chair on your balcony, would you?"

This was it. This was confirmation that she was not losing her mind. If something had smashed up her deck furniture, it meant she had seen something the night before. "No, I don't. What happened?"

"One of the chairs is smashed into pieces, but there is nothing on the balcony that could have caused it. You didn't hear anything last night, did you? Nakanawa found it like that when she straightened your room after you left for school." Her chief servant's voice lacked any of the telltale probing tones, meaning she was genuinely curious.

"No, nothing unusual happened last night." More blatant lies. "Did you check the security cameras?"

"Of course, but nothing unusual appeared on them, and we don't have any pointed directly at second floor entrances either." Obviously. Yoshino wasn't sure why she was lying like this. Something told her to keep it secret, for now at least. "We will of course be increasing security because of this." It made sense, though Yoshino hoped the increased security wouldn't be too intrusive.

"How unusual, quite the mystery we have going on." Yoshino wanted to move away from this subject. "So, have the lawyers reported any new developments?" One of the advantages of being unreasonably wealthy was the ability to hire lawyers; right now she had half a dozen of them searching through inheritance law for a way out of the marriage stipulation. She knew it was only a matter of time until something popped loose.

"Nothing as of yet." Her chief servant might still have been less than thrilled about Yoshino's lifestyle choices, but she fully agreed with her charge on the idiocy behind the marriage requirement. "They did report some promising leads they plan to follow up, but nothing firm." The two had stopped before the main stairs during most of the conversation. Yoshino began to head up towards her room. "Dinner is in an hour."


Later that night, Yoshino stepped out of her attached bathroom, toweling her hair dry. The white creature had yet to appear, but she was sure it would. Tossing the towel into the hamper, she pulled out a set of pajamas and slipped them on.

Greetings. The same childlike voice from before, coming from everywhere and nowhere, as if it were entering her brain directly, instead of through her ears. Spinning around, she saw the creature sitting nonchalantly on one of the bedposts, its strange round red eyes meeting her own. My name is Kyuubey. I am an Incubator. Yoshino's brain searched for a proper response, but failed. The creature continued; its telepathy obvious now that she could see it was not moving its mouth at all. I have come with a proposal for you to consider. Would you like to make a contract and become a Magical Girl?


A/N: Thanks to voynix for proofing the chapter!