Disclaimer: please refer to the previous chapters.

May I present to you chapter four! Written in parallel with my thesis report, this was really my stress-release outlet. The first part will be presented from Iris' point of view, and the second one from a general point of view. There's a new girl in this chapter – you should be able to point out who it is quickly.

That's all my author ramblings for now. Thanks to Yumi Michiyo and James Birdsong for their reviews, and to all of you readers for reading this story. Hope you enjoy this chapter!

Dawn of Seasons

Chapter four: Reflection of the Broken Flowers

"... the Rose of Arabia revived Desire, and the brothers lived happily ever after from then on." [1]

No one was still listening when Iris finished her story. All her three nieces had fallen asleep, exhausted after the hard day. She didn't quite understand what was in Niisan's mind when he decided to bring the twelve and eight year olds to a crime scene. The girls had been clinging on Leni and her throughout the whole investigation, terrified. The charred remains of the small house spoke of death, and being granted with a strong spirit energy, Iris could sense the remains of the dark energies.

The house had been attacked by demons on early evening the previous day. The attackers shot dark energy beams through the house and later set it on fire. All of them escaped, presumably to Vladivostok, Russia – where they were thought to originate from. No one were to blame. There was no anti-demon troupe in Vladivostok. It was too far for Moscow Combat Revue too handle, and Teikoku Kagekidan had no authority to handle cases occurring outside of Japan. Above all, the damage was done, and all they could do was to deal with it. Right now, the whole Teikoku Kagekidan was at Hokkaido, doing investigations and damage control. As for the demons, Iris heard that the Moscow Revue Combat girls had been sent to Vladivostok to track them down. Hopefully they did not mess up too much this time.

She was glad that Aki, Natsue, and Chiharu weren't brought to the corpse-sighting. They should remember Dr Sara Asakawa as what she was when they last saw her. Iris was secretly relieved that she too didn't have to see the bodies. The only Teikoku Kagekidan personnels to go into the morgue were Niisan, Maria, and Kanna, and the looks on their faces when they went out said that they had just seen a gruesome sight. They even went into the elder-sibling mode and forbid Leni from entering, seemingly forgetting that the age gap between them had disappeared as they all got older.

Right now Niisan and Maria were still out there somewhere, leaving the rest of them in the villa. They were lucky that Orihime's husband, a Japanese nobleman, had bought this vacation house a few years earlier. The beauty and peace surrounding the European-styled building helped a lot in easing the suspense.

Though they weren't officially part of Teikoku Kagekidan anymore, Kanna, Kouran, Sumire, and Orihime were at Hokkaido as well. Iris wasn't sure whereabouts in this house they were now, probably sitting near the telephone with Sakura and Leni, or hanging around in the dining room. The only thing she was sure about was that they had not yet gone to bed. No one would be able to sleep before Niisan and Maria went back safely.

The door creaked open. Quickly turning around, Iris saw an exhausted and wary Leni. The German curtly gestured Iris out, stealing a quick glance at the sleeping girls. Exhaling, Iris stood up and crossed the wooden floor to meet her closest sister. Leni gently pulled her out and closed the door, looking into her eyes.

"Maria has just called. They're bringing Dr Asakawa's daughter here, the hospital is having problem taking her since she's essentially uninjured."

So this was what Niisan and Maria had been doing all the evening. They had gone to the hospital to take care of Mifuyuko Asakawa, the sole survivor of the house attack who was saved by her accidental use of spirit energy.

"Everyone else is preparing for her arrival now," Leni continued. "The child is apparently in a deep shock. She would be kept in one of the first floor rooms, and Sakura will watch her. You're to continue watching those three and inform them about this when they wake up.".

Iris quietly nodded. Being the little sister, she was used to taking her Niisan and elder sisters' orders without questioning too much.

"I'm coming back downstairs now," Leni said, pulling Iris into a hug and briefly kissing her forehead. "They'll be arriving soon, and the room is still in total chaos as for now. I need to help Kanna rearranging the furniture."

"Take care and do your best," Iris whispered, nestling herself in Leni's embrace. "I know you hate all these junior team plans as much as I do, but please support Niisan and our sisters. They have their reasons."

Leni threw a sad glance to the closed bedroom door, behind which their nieces were sleeping.

"I'm scared, Iris," the taller woman whispered. "Now that we've had a case of attack and murder by dark forces... We'll have another war soon. The girls will be thrust into the battlefield in the matter of months. I don't want them to die."

Iris held her sister tighter, letting Leni share more of her pain and worries. It was only in their private moments like this Leni could totally open up and let everything show. "You are not alone. I'm also scared, and I know that the others are scared too. They just keep it to themselves."

Leni rested her chin on the top of Iris' head. Though Iris could not see her favourite sister's face, she knew Leni well enough to tell that the German was smiling bitterly.

"I raised them, Iris. I held their hands as they learned to walk. I can't lose these girls. I can't."

A few drops of liquid fell on Iris' head. Leni was crying.

"I raised them with you and the others, remember?" the French asked, hot tears forming in her own eyes. "I want to see them grow up and find their happiness – everyone wants to, Leni. Trust Niisan. I'm sure he'll do everything he can to keep them safe."

Clicks of someone's heels echoed in the hallway. One of their sisters was climbing the stairs, seemingly Sumire, judging the step rhythm.

"You'd better go now, Leni," she whispered, giving her sister a quick peck on the cheek and disentangled herself from the embrace. "Tell everyone not to finish the Vodka – Niisan and Maria would need it."

Some of Iris' blonde locks got trapped in her lips as she spoke. Leni smiled, pulling them away with her little finger.

"Don't eat your hair."

They both chuckled, wiping the tears from their faces.

"I'll see you in breakfast tomorrow."

With those last few words, Leni turned around and walked away. Iris stood still there, watching, until her sister's slim figure disappeared behind the turn. A tiny smile formed on her lips as she slipped back into the children's room. Life might be sad, and fate might be cruel. But, no matter what, she knew that she would always have Leni.

Dr. Asakawa and her sister-in-law were cremated as soon as the autopsy finished. It was the best they could do – the level of dark energy residue in those bodies were so high.

Mifuyuko was given five short minutes to say her goodbyes. All the Hanagumi members watched in solemn silence as the young teen – clothed in a new black dress Sumire had picked from a local store – stood between the two closed caskets, one hand on each. There was no words and no tears, only intense sadness and confusion. The copper-haired fourteen year old stepped back and walked away after just three minutes, refusing to look at the caskets from then on. She didn't wail, just wept quietly on her chair as fire engulfed her mother and aunt's bodies, erasing the physical trace of the last ones of her family.

The Hanagumi stayed there at Hokkaido for one more week. There were lots of paperworks to be done, most of them being Mifuyuko's adoption papers. The nine Hanagumi members have vowed to take care of the girl and treat her like one of their own, as a form of gratitude to the late Dr. Asakawa who had been a great help for them. Actually, it was more than just gratitude. Mifuyuko would have had to go to an orphanage if no one was willing to take her. The eight Hanagumi sisters all had been unhappy in their childhoods, in one way or another. They were determined to give Mifuyuko her normal teenagehood back.

Mifuyuko Asakawa was officially the daughter of Ichirou Oogami, Sakura Shinguji, Maria Tachibana, Leni Milchstrasse, Iris Chateaubriand, Sumire Kanzaki, Kanna Kirishima, Orihime Soletta, and Kouran Li in the morning of January 27, 1948. She was fourteen years, one month, and twelve days old at the time of her adoption. She would continue using her birth name to honour her birth parents and birth family.

The Hanagumi, together with their four girls – Mifuyuko, Chiharu, Natsue, and Aki – flew back to Tokyo right after they signed the adoption papers. They released a press statement about their absence from Tokyo and the adoption that evening, and the news was in the papers the very next morning. For about one and a half months, fans and gossip reporters constantly monitored the theatre building, hoping to get a glimpse of the newest Hanagumi daughter. Their attempts were fruitless, though. This new girl was never out. Eventually those people gave up, and everything resumed like usual. The theatre was only crowded when they had a show, and the press stayed away from the private lives of the actresses, who were getting older and less scandalous than they were in their youths.

Mifuyuko's adoptive grandfather, Ichimoto Yoneda, visited his newest granddaughter as soon as the press attention died down. He smiled mysteriously upon seeing the teenager, who cowered under his gaze. He let her go after two minutes of awkward conversation, and she quickly slipped away, seemingly grateful that she didn't have to talk anymore.

"She reminds me a lot of how you were," the grandfather then told four of Mifuyuko's adoptive mothers, who have been sitting together with them during the short meeting. "Cold. Indifferent. Scared of people. Scared of herself."

The four women – Iris, Leni, Sakura, and Maria - glanced at each other awkwardly, not knowing what to say.

"Have you got her energy tested?" the old man asked, ignoring the awkwardness.

"There were some tests they conducted as part of the investigation of the Asakawa case," Maria answered for her sisters. "She is indeed a perfect candidate for our new team. Right now we are waiting for the right time to start her training – she's in a really bad shape, emotionally and mentally."

"Bad shape, eh?" the ex-manager asked them, lifting an eyebrow.

"She spends most of her days in her room," Leni answered, looking down at the carpet. "She'll do everything we ask her to do, but rarely acts on her own will. Her interactions with Natsue and Aki have been really poor, they gave up on her after a few failed attempts on conversations. Chiharu is the only person she talks to – that is, when she's in the mood for talking."

"The poor girl is always haunted," Sakura muttered, shaking her head sadly. "She believes that she's cursed, I think."

"She's holding a lot of things back," Maria added. "She's so determined not to let her emotions show. They're slowly eating her up from inside."

"All of us in Hanagumi have had our tries of getting her to open up," Iris continued. "But she's scared of everyone. Serious approach failed, funny approach also didn't work."

Yoneda again smiled the mysterious smile. "You want a solution?" he asked them.

The four nodded.

"Put her on the stage. Once she nailed it, the combat part would be easy."

He paused and looked up nostalgically at the old picture on the wall.

"There is this big thing going on underneath that confused exterior of hers, my girls. All she needs now is guidance. Don't you ever give up on her. She's everything you were, and someday she will be everything you are now."

To be continued...

Notes:

[1] The story Iris was telling the girls is 'Arabia no Bara' (The Rose of Arabia), the play Hanagumi performed in The fourth Kayou show. Leni, Maria, and Orihime were the main stars – Maria as Prince Tattan, the somewhat ruthless ruler of the country; Leni as Prince Desire, Tattan's younger brother who went against his brother's regime; and Orihime as The Rose of Arabia, a mythical creature. In the story (SPOILER ALERT), Desire sacrificed himself so that his brother could understand love and be a better ruler, and the Rose of Arabia later revived the younger prince upon his elder brother's sorrowful pleas.

See you next week!