Disclaimer: This writer does not own Sailor Moon or any of Naoko Takeuchi's works.
Minako walked about in her royal orange kimono laced with cream white. It was decorated with hearts in dark blue. Her long blond hair was picked up neatly; she had put on two heart clips in them that she had purchased at the salon booth. They seemed to have called out to her when she got closer with Makoto to see what was all the fuss about. She looked like a radiant idol as she carried a decorated paper umbrella that matched her lovely kimono. Makoto had gone to one of the food vendors to get a candied apple, so Minako stood by the fountain waiting for Makoto to rejoin her.
She looked at her watch, "They are late go figure, Usagi is never on time." She stated to herself in a low grumble. Ami was helping Rei bring more charms from the shrine because Rei's grandfather told her he was running out and he needed to have all these lovely girls around him. Minako giggled, Rei's rant lasted an hour, stating the old man was a pervert instead of seek spiritual enlightenment he wanted fan service.
Poor Ami-chan got stuck helping Rei because she felt bad for her, besides Ami was good at defusing Rei when she got into one of her righteous moods. Had it been Usagi instead of Ami, Rei would reach atomic levels. She looked up briefly as she thought she heard her name called out. There were a lot of people about but her deep blue orbs locked on coned strawberry blond odangos. Chibiusa? She shook her head it couldn't be. She moved past the fountain but no one with that hair style was around. It surly must have been a figment of her imagination. Besides Chibiusa was still a kid, these coned odangos were attached to a much taller female.
Minako turned around and bumped into a cute guy. "Oh… I am so sorry I didn't see you there…" she stated as she blushed. Wow wow and double wow way hot Minako thought as she gave him her doe eyes and puckered her lips a little. She was going to give him her killer moves, if everything played out she would have a hot date tonight.
Makoto had gotten two candied apples, one was for her and the other was for Usagi. She knew how much Usagi loved sweets, and this would keep her away from Mako's apple. She was in a forest green kimono with pink sakura petals worked into the fabric, her hair was in its traditional pony tail she always wore with two rose hair clips from the salon booth she picked up earlier. Makoto returned to where she left Minako, as she sighed, great guy hunting without me… Makoto decided to give her some time to work the love goddess charm on him. Minako would never forgive her if she just showed up. Besides the guy seemed to want to leave but Minako wasn't giving up so easily.
"Apple it's just you and me for now." She stated to the apple as she walked over to the benches and sat down bitting into it. She began to chew loudly enjoying it as the candy coating began to rub onto her lips as she enjoyed it. At mid bite she looked up to see a teenager pass by with an open fan concealing her face, but that hair style was extremely unique. She nearly dropped her candied apple as she stood up. No way… chibiusa? She thought as she began to walk in the same direction of those coned odangos. Within second she lost site of the coned odangos in a sea of people. She stood there fazed, as a young man cleared his throat.
"Makoto-chan, are you okay?" He stated as he offered her a napkin. Makoto blinked and jumped. "Oh… Motoki, yes I am fine, sorry I thought I saw someone." She said as she shook off the dejavu feeling. She accepted the napkin and cleaned her mouth from the syrup of the candied apple.
Motoki smiled, he loved seeing Makoto's cheeks blush it complimented her lovely face. If it wasn't that he was in a relationship with Reika, he would so have pursued Makoto. " Reika is back in Africa so I came here with Unazuki, she wanted me to accompany her to the festival." He quickly supplied without being asked.
Makoto nodded, "I see, well it's nice to have you here; I need to find my friends now, thank you for the napkin." She said politely and quickly turned away and went in search for Minako. He reminds me of my old boyfriend. I wish he was my boyfriend. Makoto quickly made her way back to the fountain to find an upset Minako with a guy.
"What your magic didn't work?" Makoto teased an upset Minako.
Minako folded her arms and frowned. "No… his girlfriend ruined it she just had to show up and take him away."
Makoto sighed, "I know that feeling." She sympathized as she took her friends arm and led her towards Rei's shrine booth. "Come on Mina, Rei and Ami should be here by now let's go find them."
Minako shook her sorrows away and looked up into the night sky. "No worries Mako-chan, the night is young we still have time to hunt down a pair of guys for us, let's go!" She stated now all energetic and happy. Makoto had to smile, Minako could not stay upset for too long it was not in her nature.
Ami had carried the last box of charms over to the booth where Rei now stood with her grandfather she was yelling at him calling him a unrepentantly lecherous man who will hit on anyone . Yuichiro stood to the side as his gaze fell on Ami. He shrugged shaking his head. Ami and anyone else but Rei could see that Yuichiro only stayed around for Rei. He was head over heels hopelessly in love with her, and she could be so dense sometimes not to realize it. Ami offered him a soft smile understanding that he and she both did not want to be on the receiving end of Rei's wrath.
Ami wore her mother's antique kimono; according to her mother every mizuno female for at least 4 generations wore this kimono with pride to the Cherry Blossom Festival. When Ami looked at the kimono she saw that the design had bubble like patterns, it was light blue with silver. Ami had her bangs pulled back thanks to a cute snow flake clips she had picked up over by the salon booth.
Ami turned around for a moment just to escape the crowd as her eyes scanned the group she saw a pair of pink coned odangos sticking out from the group. Could it be? Is she back? Ami moved around the booth as she dared to enter that wild crowd. She soon regretted it as she felt the group begin to shift her around. Within that wild group no pink coned odangos could be seen. She surely was seeing things as she tried to make her way out of the mob. She soon heard Rei's grandfather yell out that he had more charms for all the lovely ladies. Ami was pushed in deeper into the crowd.
Yuichiro was able to get Rei away from her grandfather offering her one of his goofy smiles and jokes. "Hey Rei, chill out and enjoy the festival, don't let him ruin your night you know how he is and I will keep an eye on him promise." He told her as he watched her facial features relax some. "Anyways I got these for you, they reminded me of you." He stated nervously as he held out a small white box for Rei to take.
Rei blinked in surprise, Yuichiro went out of his way to make her feel better about her grandfather's perverted old ways, and offered a gift? "Yuichiro, you shouldn't have." She said as she gently lifted the box from his hand, for a brief moment her fingers brushed his hand and she could have sworn his face turned a brighter shade of red. Why is he trembling? It's not like I yell at people, well not all the time.
Yuichiro watched Rei intently; at least she did not yell at him or rebuff his gift. He knew she was aware of him, that she took her time reassured him that at least for the time being she was not going to yell at him. Rei held a strong demeanor but Yuichiro knew that deep down inside she was a gentle and caring soul. He fell in love with her from the moment he first saw her sweeping the steps of the Hikawa shrine. Rei had been hurt when she was young and shied away from people, it was her defense mechanism.
Yuichiro learned of this through Rei's grandfather who loved her dearly. He had told her that one day soon he would depart this world and that his poor Rei would be left alone with no one to love her. That's when the old man clapped his hands and told Yuichiro that he was brought to the shrine for a reason, to become Rei's pillar and support. With time she would accept him, warm up to him and perhaps let him into her heart. There were days Yuichiro held hope and others where he felt it was never going to happen.
Rei finished opening the box and simply stared at its content. "They are lovely Yuichiro, I don't know what to say."
Yuichiro took a breath, he realized until now he was holding his breath. "Accept them and wear them, they were meant to be worn by you." He said all corny like.
Rei did the unexpected, she took out the two red stars that were hair clips, and they matched her earrings. "Can you help me put them on?" She asked softly almost shy.
Yuichiro nearly had a nose bleed. Did he hear right? She raised an eyebrow at him as he quickly snapped into motion taking one of the clips into his clumsy hands. He was so nervous now so close to her he could smell her heavenly cherry blossom and incense scent. Fastening the first clip onto a smooth strand of her raven black hair he went ahead and fastened the second one. Looking down at her, she was simply beautiful.
Rei offered Yuichiro a smile, as she leaned in since he was so close and softly placed a kiss on his cheek. She whispered " Thank you for your kind gift Yuichiro" She said as she pulled back, now smirking at him her bossy tone returning; "Now get back to work no more goofing around!"
After Yuichiro recovered from her thank you kiss, he began to laugh, that was Rei for you. "Yes Mam!" he stated all happy and full of energy. Neither Yuichiro nor Rei noticed that grandpa was watching them both with a big snug smile on his face; he returned his attention to his crowd of eye candy as Yuichiro returned to help him.
Rei walked behind the booth with the intention to say to her grandfather to behave when she saw in the crowd a girl that reminded her of Usagi, but she had strawberry blond hair in coned odangos. But this girl was a teenager, it could not be chibiusa. Then a chill went down her spine, a long ago memory came to her. An image within her mind formed, it was a chibiusa as a teenager and a little Usagi when the dead moon circus swapped their ages. But the one that sent pure shivers was the one that now took over her mind's eye, Black Lady. Narrowing her eyes she quickly produced several ofuda scrolls as she jumped over the table and starting running in the direction she saw the coned odangos.
Usa gasped when she saw the reaction of Rei, she turned around and quickly ran in her wooden shoes which was painful, these shoes were not meant to be ran on. EEK If I don't hurry she's going to pounce on me and smack me with her ofuda scrolls and those hurt she thought as she saw Hotaru head towards Rei. Usa went deeper into the crowd lowering her head some so that her odangos would not stand out. She was not very tall, though the shoes didn't help; she was pretty much Usagi's height.
Hotaru accidently stumbled into Rei's path nearly tripping. Rei had to steady herself as she looked up to see who had gotten in her way to yell at them. "Hotaru?" She said as caught her breath for a moment.
Hotaru dusted her kimono and looked over to the priestess. "Rei are you okay? I am sorry you were moving so fast I didn't have time to react or move out of your way." She said as she offered a weak smile.
"Hotaru did you by chance see a girl in the crowd with coned odangos?" She asked as she began to scan the area with her eyes.
Hotaru shook her head, "No I would have reacted to such a hair style had I seen it." She said hoping the senshi of mars did not pick up on it.
Rei took a deep breath and returned her ofuda scrolls back into her kimono's pocket. "Never mind must have been my eyes." She said as she offered the outer senshi a smile. "Usagi should be here by now, we should start heading over to the biggest tree by the center of the park that's our rendezvous point. Oh… I forgot about Ami I better go back and get her, go ahead we will meet up there." She said as she turned around waving at Hotaru and went back to get her friend.
Hotaru relaxed, that was way to close. She pulled out her cell phone and texted Usa that the coast was clear, to meet her over by the fortune tellers tent. She put away her cell phone and started heading towards the tent.