Notes: Episode 126, "A New Life! Time for Separation of the Destined Stars". Or, "The one that wraps up most of the S storylines."
Episode 126
"Any luck?"
"None," Haruka muttered as she threw herself into the booth across from Michiru.
Michiru had foolishly allowed herself to hope and swallowed back her disappointment.
They were ready to leave Tokyo. Michiru had had enough of this place, and when she had suggested that they go somewhere else, anywhere else, Haruka had readily agreed. They had been given a second chance, and they were both eager to take it. Movers had been paid to pack and ship their belongings. The baby had been reunited with her father. Goodbyes – however odd and unexpected – had been exchanged with Usagi and the other Senshi. They could go at any time. Nothing else tied them here.
Nothing but this.
"How can there not be anything?" Haruka's voice was strained and thick. "It's as if she never existed."
"She existed," Michiru said, sharper than intended.
"Yeah," Haruka agreed, "she did."
It had been haunting Michiru, nibbling away at the corners of her mind. Their affairs were in order. But what about Setsuna?
Once she'd had the thought, Michiru found she couldn't make it leave her. Did Setsuna have family waiting for her? Did she have debts and obligations? Did she have a plant?
Michiru could not seem to dispel the image of a plant, wilting and shriveling. "She might have had a plant," was how Michiru had started all this with Haruka, and then spent several minutes explaining in excruciating detail how this plant needed them.
Haruka rode through this with attentive confusion, and Michiru loved her just a little bit for that. When finally she understood, and confessed to wondering about it herself, Michiru loved her even more.
It was painfully clear that they knew nothing. Not where Setsuna lived, not where she worked (if she worked) or went to school (if she went to school). They didn't know where she was born, or if she had a sister.
They had only the name she had given them, which turned up nothing. And, now, the realization that they had perhaps not been very good friends, and that it was too late to do better.
When Haruka and Michiru drove away, they left little of themselves behind. Most was carried in the heart of a young girl, painfully idealistic, but worthy all the same.
The rest was with a small marker on a quiet plot in a shady patch of well-kept land where flowers would never be allowed to wilt. The plaque, beautifully crafted despite the urgent and well-compensated rush, read simply:
Setsuna Meioh
There was not enough time.
Haruka and Michiru gave their thanks, and seized their second chance.