"Kioshi! You shouldn't be here, it's your day off!"
Kioshi waved back at Rei's grandfather from behind the counter of the shrine's fortune and charms store. "I know. But you know me, I'm a workaholic."
"Stop pulling my leg, son," the old man laughed. "I know what you're here for. I think they're out in the back."
Nodding, Kioshi hurried behind one of the shrine houses trying to hide his reddening face from the girls who were looking at him from the store. He gave a quick nod as well to Yuichiro who was rearranging the lanterns atop one of the trees.
He started looking for Rei inside one of houses, calling out her name but there was no answer. Hmm, he thought, maybe she's out tending to the animals. Kioshi went out back. He found it fascinating that Rei takes so much to all kinds of animals although when it comes to her own species, she's more distant. He remembered the one time he saw Rei sing to the nesting birds in the forest and they all seemed to sing with her, chirping and flying nearer to her. Strangely, however, Rei seemed to be closer to two particular crows—Deimos and Phobos. Rei introduced them to him at the time when the crows squawked their alarm at Kioshi's coming there. But Rei merely clicked her tongue and the two crows settled without further disturbance, their eyes staring at Kioshi's. Chills ran up his spine then. It was the strangest thing he had ever seen.
"Rei!" Kioshi called out once he was within the forest grounds. From a distance he heard leaves rustling and twigs breaking. Moving toward the sound's direction, it seemed more like fighting. He began hearing grunts and controlled shouts, and something like someone falling on their butt. He rounded a tree and a few feet away from him was a clearing ending at a cliff. Where the trees ended, rounding the clearing in a half circle, fences surrounded and secured the edge of the cliff itself. Only one tree stood by the edge of the cliff.
He saw the girls then. They seemed to be practicing or training some martial arts moves. He saw Rei showing Usagi some high strung moves he had never seen before. He also saw the bottom of Usagi's gi all dirtied—Kioshi just smiled to himself. Several feet away from them, to his right, were Makoto and Minako practicing against each other, one dodging or parrying while the other strikes and then they'd switch roles. Under the solitary tree, Ami sat, apparently tinkering with an odd looking palm-sized gadget, beside her, several more gadgets were lying about, some looking like a brooch while others looked like enlarged pens.
Before he could take a good look at the gadgets, a cat mewed from one of the trees. The girls stopped suddenly and looked to his general direction. It was Rei who saw him first, surprise momentarily showing in her eyes. She walked to him immediately, blocking his view of the girls, but only after he saw Ami hurrying to hide the gadgets. It was Usagi, however, who got to Kioshi first, running, smiling, and panting at the same time.
"Kioshi!" she shouted. "Thank you so much for coming. Rei was being harsh on me again." Usagi then moved to hide behind his back and stuck her tongue out to Rei.
"Don't be stupid, Usagi." Rei chastised her friend. "It was your fault that you didn't keep you balance. At least all that fat on your butt is saving you a lot of bruises." Rei then looked at Kioshi and talked above Usagi's retorts, "what brings you here? Isn't it your day off?"
"Uhm," Kioshi hesitated, not really sure and totally forgetting what he'd say to excuse his coming to the shrine. "I just thought I can still help despite my day off…"
"Oh," Rei just replied, looking back at the three other girls behind her. They were already packing up their things. Makoto, however, was unpacking a picnic basket, Usagi—quick as a rabbit—was picking through the sandwiches and food. Rei turned back to Kioshi, "Well then, you could help us keep Usagi from eating all the food and starving the rest of us."
o – o – o – o – o – o – o – o – o
As the rest of the gang cleaned up the clutter and mess they, and mostly Usagi, made during the picnic, Kioshi politely took Rei's hand and pulled her aside. Surprised, Rei asked, "What's up?"
"Does your practice as the shrine's future priestess give you powers?"
"Why do you say that?" Rei's hear beat faster, does he know something?
"Well, I've been having this uhm," Kioshi hesitated, scratching his head. Rei did not want to preempt him so she just patiently waited for him to decide whether he will tell her. After several seconds he continued, "I've been having these strange dreams lately. Well, they're not exactly dreams because I wasn't sleeping. It happens mostly in the day and oftentimes I feel like I'm about to faint."
Rei sat silently, listening to the gang as they finish up cleaning, knowing that they were listening in on their conversation. She'll rely on Ami's deductions later. But now, her instincts will have to guide her. "By what you just said, it seems that you are having visions."
"Oh," Kioshi reacted. Rei looked at his expression, looking for clues whether he actually knows something about them. Or worse, whether he was remembering his old life again as Jadeite. "Then if I'm having visions, what does that mean?"
"I don't know," Rei answered truthfully and at the same time, wanted to know more. "Do you remember any of it?"
"I don't remembering everything," Kioshi said, his brows furrowing, trying to recall. "They are mostly blurred and they happen so fast that I don't even get to make sense of any of them."
"I see, then," Rei said. "I cannot do anything about your visions, if you want me to stop them. You may be prescient." She took Kioshi's hand. It was cold and shaking. Rei held it palms up and looked at the lines etched on it, reading his life. She knew that Kioshi knows what she was doing, but that does not mean that he know what she is reading.
He has two life lines, Rei thought as her index finger trace both life lines. And this first one is cut off suddenly, probably Jadeite's life. She traced the other one feeling Kioshi shiver, smiling to herself at the idea that this guy, whose life before had been as a cruel knight to an equally evil queen, can be ticklish. This other one is longer, Kioshi's. She continued to trace it to the end. Looking at it, there did not seem to be a problem but tracing it again, Rei felt something. She closed her eyes this time and traced the second life line again, slowly. There, she sighed, there is a fork in this part here, the other one abruptly ending. The problem is the path to this sudden cut is deeper than the fork with the longer one. Rei opened her eyes worried.
"What is it?" Kioshi asked, his eyes mirroring the worry in Rei's.
The raven haired girl summoned a smile, "It's nothing. I have never seen someone have two different life lines before."
"Really?" he reacted, surprised. He looked at the palm Rei was looking at, his eyes wide in amazement, as if he had never really looked at it before. He also took Rei's hand to compare.
As he did so, a sensation ran through Rei's spine, like electricity flowing over her body. For a brief moment, she thought she saw a vision of the same clearing where they currently sat and then there was a blinding flash and someone screaming. Rei immediately withdrew her hand, trembling.
Alarmed, Kioshi stammered his apologies. "Oh no, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to be rude. I—"
"It's okay," Rei assured him, recovering from the shock. "I'm alright. You just surprised me a bit."
Just then, a hand patted Kioshi's shoulder. "You're lucky," it was Usagi. "Usually, men who try to hold Rei's hands end up with their faces kissing the ground." She giggled and was pulled away by Minako.
"Don't listen to her," Rei said. "That girl is always exaggerating."
"Ha ha," Kioshi said it more that he laughed it. Oddly enough, I think this time Usagi's telling the truth.