in the beginning.
Stirrings.
Contact: uranusu at gmail dot com.
Several days passed without much commotion, and with few visions in between. School went on as usual, except for the matter of high school entrance exams pending. As busy as they were, Michiru managed to paint a few seaside portraits and Haruka finished up two track meets in the course of those days. Then it occurred.
"Haruka, do you think we're ready?" While confident that the exams would be easy enough, Michiru still questioned her partner, coffee cup resting soundly between her hands.
Tilting her head and raising a brow, Haruka smirked before chuckling. "I think you're being a bit light on the topic, Michiru. If I were completely honest, I would guess that you're not worried at all, ne?" She took a sip of her coffee before glancing out the café window, letting the steaming liquid warm her inside.
"Hai," Michiru replied softly, her own gaze turning to the window before she sighed, "Maybe I am being a bit coy about this topic. Can you blame me, really? Arrogance would be so unsightly for either of us." At that she looked back at Haruka, a knowing smile crossing her lips as Haruka's eyes met hers, a twinkle in the teal depths. Before either could continue the conversation, the shouting from outside the café caught their attention, eyes trained on the swarm of people suddenly running in one general direction: away from them. Both sets of teal and blue eyes widened as Haruka cursed.
"Michiru, we need to move, now!" Michiru nodded in agreement, quickly standing and running for the door, pleated skirt ruffling as she made her way through the horde of people running out of the small establishment. Narrowing her eyes, Haruka followed Michiru's movement, not wanting to risk losing her just yet. The communicator on her wrist conveniently disguised as a watch started beeping in turn with Michiru's every move, tracking her partner in case they were separated. Finally secure in the fact that she wouldn't lose Michiru, Haruka trailed the crowd rushing for the streets, blocking out the panic-stricken voices for a few minutes longer.
Meanwhile, Michiru had reached a fairly deserted alleyway, the buildings to either side of her offering adequate protection from prying eyes. She uncovered her beeping communicator resting lightly against her wrist, watching the small map of the city as the flashing dot neared her. Looking up to see Haruka running toward her, she pulled herself farther into the alley, walking with her back to her approaching partner and shaking her head firmly.
"Michiru—"
"Haruka, I know what you're going to say. I saw it as well. The incredibly vile feeling I got from it washed the sea in darkness for a few seconds. I'm trying my best to fight off the nausea, and I gather that you aren't faring any better." Smiling bitterly, she turned to her partner, hands on her hips and head tilted cynically.
"You already know me too well for your own good, Michiru. Do you think that could be what we've been having visions of? They've been so sparse these past few days, so it's hard to tell. The wind was none the wiser compared to your sea. It just barely registered the creation of that…thing." Haruka's brows furrowed as she turned around to look at the large black mass. By the faceted surface, it appeared to be a crystal, a large, hideous black crystal pulsing with negative energy.
"The visions could be coinciding with the reports of mysterious bishoujo senshi doing random good deeds. What I don't understand is why we didn't sense it before. Do you think we should—"
"No. We're not getting involved." Haruka turned back to Michiru, eyebrows drawn and a dark air coming off of her. "That's not our mission, no matter what might be going on there. If it were, we'd know about it. I don't want to get involved any more than we have to."
Michiru nodded her agreement, although reluctantly. Her eyes met the ground, a subdued sigh smothered by her need to be strong and not to question the better judgment of her partner. She always felt too emotional as it was, fighting the youma and knowing that the next step might be the need to kill their victims. Before she could completely back down, she looked back at Haruka's sternly drawn face and uttered just above a whisper, "I'm heading back. I need to finish my paintings." Steeling herself and squaring her shoulders, she brushed past Haruka and walked confidently down the street, eerily silent and deserted due to the earlier panic.
— † —
The apartment was empty when she got there. Although she hadn't thoroughly searched it, she knew better than to assume that Michiru would come back as she said she would. While she was the more easily angered of the two, Michiru had turned out to be the one needing more space than Haruka, usually achieving that privacy by swimming or by closing herself off in her painting studio a ways down the road.
Her bedroom door creaked as it opened, her first impulse to head directly into the shower before any more warring feelings of anger and remorse plagued her. As she was half-way finished undressing, the nausea struck her again, her hand going immediately to the closest wall to support her weight as her eyes squeezed shut. The shooting pain, which accompanied the nausea, was enough to black out her vision, making her head swim and her senses practically jump inside out. Not knowing top from bottom or left from right, her hand skimmed along the wall as she made her way blindly to the hardwood floor, resting on her side while the nausea ran its course, the pain temporarily abating.
Gold suddenly engulfed her entire world as the memories forced their way to the surface, the evil forces nearby which triggered the defense of her mind completely shutting the present world out. As her eyes opened, the lavender fields of Saturn greeted her aching vision.
