Disclaimer:
Let's just skip the giant disclaimer you can find in Chapter 1!
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FS
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x. ENCOUNTER in VENICE x.
(new version)
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He kills with total cruel efficiency
Leaves no traces
His evil past is still a mystery
So evasive
Behind his smiling face
There beats a heart of steel
As sharp as any blade
Don't let it touch you
("Moriarty", from Holmes Sweet Holmes, by John Debney (score) and Carol Mendelsohn (lyrics))
x.
Stage makeup…
(Saturday, November 3rd 20xx, from different points of view)
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Stage makeup, disgusting but indispensable, is Rei's least favourite part of a performance. It's incomprehensible to Rei how anyone can enjoy the thick layers of primers, foundations, blushes, and powders, which are now clogging her pores, and the smell of a dozen aromas mingled with sweat and tears, which are now assaulting her nostrils. It's hard to dwarf her passionate hatred of lipsticks—not the tinted lip balms and lip glosses she will enjoy on many occasions but the everlasting, as-dry-as-the-Sahara lipsticks which smell like linoleum. And yet there exists something which makes even permanent lipsticks seem perfectly pleasant and harmless by comparison—something which fills Rei with dread the moment she sits down at the vanity and unpacks her cosmetic bag: false eyelashes!
Or, in this case, "Okamachi Noriko's Wonder Lashes—three in one for the price of half the package—a fantastic deal!"
It comes with an ivory-black mascara and a special eyelash glue, which is supposed to work better than all the glues before it. Okamachi Noriko's Everlasting Super Glitter Glue claims to be indestructible ("your lashes will fall out before it deteriorates"), and it's said to glue anything within half a minute (Rei has heard some people use it for their art projects, for example for attaching cabochons to their silver frames). It's supposed to be easily removable with the Gentle Okamachi Noriko Milk (which has come with it, since no other eyelash remover will work)—and Rei sincerely prays to God, hoping that she won't end up ripping off half of her lashes like she did during the rehearsals, when she used a cheaper glue. (She has been trying to use an eyelash serum to regrow her lashes since then, but the serum hasn't only caused her to grow her lashes back—it has been surprisingly bad at doing this!—it has also given her hairs in random places: in the inner corner of her eyes, on her temples, even on her cheeks. She has to use a tweezer and pull each of the hairs out before bedtime lest she turns into a meaner version of Luna with a thin moustache, and yet she knows she can consider herself lucky, as in her case, the prostaglandin glaucoma drops in the serum haven't caused any iris darkening.)
Rei is already looking forward to the moment she can remove the false lashes and wash out her eyes—she can already feel the cool eyedrops burning in her eyes (and then, after making her cry a river of ivory-black tears) soothing her red, swollen eyes after hours of mistreatment and oxygen deprivation. She will put her feet up and enjoy half an hour of silence with a cold compress. It will be heaven!
It's a shame that you can't make do without false eyelashes onstage—Rei's natural lashes, dark and long, would be barely visible in the glaring light. Her eyes wouldn't even be visible to the audience in the back seats at all if she didn't wear mascara. Stage makeup is a different animal from normal makeup: If you look in natural light like you had just attended a masquerade and forgotten to remove your mask afterwards, you will have barely applied enough makeup to appear natural in the theatre.
After the triple-layered, extravagantly thick and long curly false lashes have been glued to her lids in small batches (which look better than if you used only one single long strip) and the glue has dried without glueing Rei's eyelids together, for which Rei is grateful, Rei combs and curls her lashes again, applies the mascara, and begins to do her hair with steam curlers. She tries to do it meditatively, knowing that every mistake will cost time to fix. She tells herself that she has no reason to complain—it's a great honour to be allowed to apply her own makeup, and the ballet dancers outside can only laugh about her "first-world problems" when they have to endure pointe shoes for a whole evening.
Like life, a performance demands sacrifice, motivation, and love; and Rei knows she won't last long unless she has a surplus of at least one of the three. Luckily, motivation (the most important) is what Rei has never lacked. She has gone to La Fenice early so that she gets enough time to prepare herself for the opening night—almost as early as Seiya-kun, who needs much more time for the disfigurement of the Phantom. Arriving early means having more time to calm down and focus; and Rei, whose nerves have been in tatters for various reasons, wishes she could use fire to meditate as she always did at Hikawa Shrine.
Why is she so paranoid today? She has been under the impression that she has been followed—it started last night when Seiya-kun and Shiho-san brought her home and continued this morning when Mina-chan and she left for Mako-chan's tiramisu. There was a group of urban sketchers arriving just when they left, and it was then that Rei sensed a pair of eyes on her again although there was no one who stood out in the crowd when she alerted Mina-chan and they both scanned their surroundings.
"It's natural to be anxious before the opening night! Fake it lest you make it, and break a neck, as they say!"
Rei didn't have the nerves to fix Mina-chan's memory at that moment—dwelling on Mina-chan's quirks would have only worsened Rei's anxiety, as she would remember that Mina-chan has never been able to remember a libretto perfectly. When Mina-chan was Belle, "I want much more than this provincial life" turned into "I want adventure in this provincial wide", followed by a notorious "I want more than a night somewhere"… Mina-chan has never managed to get even one performance right; and the only reason why Mina-chan has always been cast again is her inexplicable allure. It's not even her looks (although her sunflower hair and cornflower eyes have often been talked of)—it's a gift, a boon of Venus for which many more talented, beautiful, and hard-working actresses would sacrifice their pet kittens, as a critic once said. (Rei isn't sure about the kittens, knowing cat owners, but she suspects that many women would gladly sacrifice a boyfriend or two.)
"I wish I were as attractive as her," Rei once said—without envy or spite, or any other negative feeling against her charming friend, whom she loved dearly. "It would make things so much easier—people are more intimidated by my looks than drawn to me."
"What nonsense—you're the most beautiful girl in the universe to me!" said Yuuichirou, who was sweeping the stairs, and Rei only rolled her eyes and sighed. His opinion was worthless to her.
Yuuichirou was so infuriatingly clumsy, so awkward and forward, so obviously head-over-heels in love with her that it frustrated her. Why couldn't he have his ridiculous mop of dirty-brownish hair cut? He could look pretty handsome if only he had made an effort for her. Could his love for her be true if he didn't even know how to make himself presentable for her eyes? The idiot was a millionaire's son and didn't even know how to drive a car or a bike!
She was fond of him, undeniably. It was hard not to adore someone who was as good-humoured and loyal as a well-trained dog. Yet, his love overwhelmed her and scared her—what could he see in her except an unquenchable flame in a beautiful shell, eternally smouldering with resentment at the whole male population in general and her own politician father in particular?
Said politician father—speak of the devil!—has just sent her a message. "Good luck with your opening night!"—as though one would say "good luck" at the theatre! It surprises Rei that he somehow got the date right. His new secretary must be better than the last: that time, he wished Rei "Happy Birthday" a month too early.
For a moment, Rei considers giving in and sending her ever-absent father an honest, plain-spoken "Get lost!", but her good manners and the buried gentle side her friends have brought out after a decade of chipping at her rough edges win, and she decides that she can just ignore him.
"Done with your hair already, huh? What are you going to do now? Meditating?"
Mina-chan's voice is much lower and huskier than usual—her cold isn't cured yet but has become manageable, and she is just making it work for her now (Mina-chan always manages to turn a weakness into an advantage). A ballet dancer from the corps de ballet is standing next to her—Mina-chan has been enjoying her time with the cast and is making new friends, already transitioning into her role as Meg Giri.
"Not yet, you can come in if you want," Rei says, hoping that the ballet dancer, whom she is ignoring, will get the hint and stay out. (The dancer doesn't.)
x.
Three people are a crowd in a dressing room of this size—Rei begins to comprehend why Haruka-san never let anyone enter her dressing room. The dancer—Elisa Dorothea Something—is trying to make small talk about the production, adding some spicy gossip about Mr Gray and an inappropriate joke about how his name sounds like the name of a hero of raunchy romance novels or movies; and Rei, who can't stand either gossip, or raunchy romance novels/movies, or small talk, begins to tap her fingers on the vanity table.
The dancer has got the hint at last, but she doesn't know how to make a quick exit without aggravating Rei even more: "I'll have to get back to work on my face now." She indicates Rei's eyelash glue as a matter of course, as if it belonged to herself. "I've forgotten my lash glue at home, can I borrow yours?"
To an outsider, borrowing eyelash glue isn't a great deal. It's more hygienic and less dangerous than sharing makeup or lipsticks (both of which Rei has already witnessed). To someone who knows ballet girls, however, it's one of the odd grievances, one of the countless ugly things about human nature one will always be reminded of before a performance.
"No, sorry!" Rei turns away to get into her sitting meditation pose. "Please leave me alone! I'll be busy from now on."
"It's just glue," Mina-chan says, gazing in disbelief after the dancer, who has scrammed as fast as she could on her dainty pointe-shoe-covered feet. "Why didn't you give it to her? If she had waited, I'd have given her mine."
"It's not 'just glue'," Rei snaps. "It's this type of girl that will always forget her eyelash glue night after night so that she doesn't need to buy it at all!" Glue is not expensive, and it is more convenient to share since one tube is enough for two or three people, but Rei despises these "business talents" that keep minimizing their spending and optimizing their life in a covert way at the expense of everyone else. People like this girl are the same that will cheerily destroy you for their own benefit—Rei tells Mina-chan—just for a bottle of glue or less, if they're allowed to do it.
"Wow, you're really tense today," Mina-chan only sighs, and walks up to Rei's chair to massage Rei's shoulders. "I hope the meditation will help."
"You're helping," Rei admits, pacified by Mina-chan's warm, breathy voice and her soft hands working firmly on Rei's shoulders. "Don't stop! I still have time… you can tell me something funny if you like."
"I wish!" Mina-chan sighs again, this time longer than the last. "It's so lonely and dreary in Mina-land—no man I've gone out with was better than a frog or an ogre. They're all frogres!"
She contradicts herself by telling Rei a series of funny anecdotes about these "frogres", as she calls them—or maybe these sad episodes are only amusing to an outsider, who isn't interested in dating. Three men have tried to catfish her, Mina-chan claims. One has used the photo of a high school teacher (she has found it online on the school's website), another used the photo of a well-known coach (Elza Gray's very attractive and very butch! coach, do you remember?). The third has even sent her Yaten's photo, which Mina-chan would have thought to be an allusion to her failed pursuit of Yaten and thus a joke in poor taste if she hadn't been sure that she had hidden her true identity well…
The rest, the "honest" ones, aren't much better. They're often immersed in a very solitary, very extravagant, or/and very weird hobby—Mina-chan likes men who have their own life and their own little pastimes, but collecting empty beer bottles or perfume flask lids (it would make more sense if it were perfume flasks and beer bottle lids, wouldn't it?), or cat toys and mummified mice aren't Mina-chan's idea of "fun". Even for a short fling, their inability to focus is unbelievable—they're all more interested in their smartphones or cameras than in their immediate surroundings (her!). If they aren't alcoholics, they're workaholics, creeps, or gaming addicts (most of them are all of these things). Where have all the cultivated, pleasant non-creeps gone? The gentlemen that will open doors for you, wine you and dine you, listen to music with you, talk about Byron or the Pre-Raphaelites or modern cinema before driving you home and asking you for a second date at your door without trying to swallow your tongue? Mina-chan has begun to believe there is a grain of truth in the myth that they're all either asexual, gay, or married at this age. She shall go for the younger men instead—she declares—the ones who have just left school.
While Mina-chan is chattering away happily about a millionaire who had the gall to offer her high sums for "acts of bestiality on film and maybe live" with her "adorable white tomcat" (Artemis), and how Mina-chan "accidentally broke his nose" afterwards when he claimed her love for her cat couldn't be platonic (Rei already knows this story), Rei's mind winds back to the courteous and kind millionaire who showered her with attention and love. It wasn't a lack of chemistry (as she wanted to make Yuuichirou believe), or the fear of being called a gold-digger (as he thought when he started dressing like a hobo), or even the feeling that he was too firmly established as her good friend for her to see more in him (as her friends were convinced of)…
"Our problem is knowing too many good men!" Mina-chan complains. "After seeing how Mamoru-san treats Usagi, or Seiya-kun Shiho-san, or Alan his Catherine, I can never make do with the lukewarm interest from the guys I've been seeing!" And while Mina-chan (who must be complaining about lukewarm interest because she gets too much of it—men are drawn to her like bugs to a yellow flower and tire of her just as fast) reminisces about how she might not be able to settle with anyone less than Yaten and how she still can't get over the fact that Alan (Alan Baudin, a French-English detective who was Mina-chan's mentor for two years when Mina-chan lived with her mother in England) could fall in love with Mina-chan's superior Catherine, who moved back to Paris with Alan afterwards, instead of Mina-chan (Mina-chan still talks about her first infatuation as though it hadn't been succeeded by a series of longer and more significant loves), Rei thinks that she, too, can't ever content herself with what she gets from the average man after knowing Yuuichirou…
Rei can still remember the shock, the disbelief, the selfish thought that, now that Yuuichirou was dead, she would never be loved like this again. The police had been useless—back then Rei was sure they must have been controlled or bribed, but now she wonders whether they were just indifferent. They didn't care—like most people don't care about their day job, their girlfriends or boyfriends, their husbands and wives… anything that can be taken for granted because it's all too easily available.
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They must have found…
(Saturday, November 3rd 20xx, from different points of view)
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They must have found us out by accident—said Mina-chan, who had stayed behind with Rei at Yuuichirou's grave after everyone else had left. At least we know there can't be a traitor among us. We're like sisters—more than sisters! We'd all give the hairs off our backs for each other!
The shirt off our backs, Rei mentally corrected her out of habit, but didn't say anything since her voice didn't work, and wondered whether it was any consolation at all. Mina-chan was sure that no one could be a traitor—the Organization must have targeted Hikawa Shrine by accident, or it was their group's own fault and they had been careless. Rei and her friends were so young back then—they thought their youth would protect them from suspicion and retaliation; they might have believed they were immune to death.
Sometimes, Rei pondered the possibility of a traitor in the group—just hypothetically. Usagi was dating Mamoru-san, but Mamoru-san belonged to them. Rei thought she knew him: he was easily distracted by his studies and hobbies and could have made mistakes, but he would never have sold them out. Alan, Minako-chan's former mentor, with whom Mina-chan had stayed in contact because she was nursing an undying crush, looked suspicious due to his agent motard past (some of the French agents motards had joined the Organization as mediators, said Haruka-san). But Mina-chan didn't tell him much and Alan didn't know about their group's operations at all—he couldn't have spilled anything about something he knew nothing of. As Rei was sweeping the dead autumn leaves off the staircase which remained after Hikawa Shrine was gone, her eyes fell on the giant ginkgo tree, under which Ami-chan often wrote poems she shared with her best online friend. Ami-chan swore that she had never mentioned their operations to him—they had only been talking about poetry and chess, and Rei believed her.
While leaning against the gingko tree—one of the few which could be saved before it burned down completely—Rei's mind wandered to Haruka-san's group. Could a traitor be lurking there? But who could it be? Rei admired them like all Rei's friends loved and admired them... she was dazzled by their confidence, their elegance, their urbane air—all the things Yuuichirou had lacked. Never would Rei have expected Haruka-san, the most authentic, the most admirable, the most approachable out of the three, to play games! Only years later, when Rei talked to Elza Gray and discovered what S.B. meant, she began to piece the story together.
Just behold this painting, can you see it? Look at how they're bending in the summer breeze.
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Mina-chan, upon noticing…
(Saturday, November 3rd 20xx, from different points of view)
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Mina-chan, upon noticing that Rei is no longer paying attention to her, leaves Rei for the ballet girls, claiming that Rei needs a meditation while she needs to visit the bathrooms before they're all overrun. Rei, left alone in her dressing room, feels guilty and abandoned. Mina-chan has stuck to their agreement of avoiding Haruka-san's name at La Fenice—all Mina-chan wanted was attention and emotional connection from Rei—the things Mina-chan missed in the interactions with the men she had tried to date. And though they were alone in a room together and had time for idle chatter for once, Rei couldn't give these simple things to her.
Rei should do something against this nerve-wrecking anxiety, maybe sports since she felt much better when she still danced. Michiru-san's school would welcome her, but Rei can't stand ballet girls—they remind her of her days at the private all-girls school…
Since she doesn't have any fire here, Rei has been imagining the fire—not the crackling fire she woke up to after Yuuichirou's frantic calls but the bonfire in front of Hikawa Shrine during festivals or the flickering flames in her grandfather's fireplace: The flames, at times orange and red, at times blue and yellow, shoot into the air, licking at the paper talismans she will throw into them; and her breathing deepens with each of her talismans: One… two… three…
The meditation is helping!—Rei's posture is better now, her breathing slow and even. She always regains her full focus with this. And this is why Rei could murder the hapless person who has dared to call her at this very moment! Why did humankind have to accelerate its demise by inventing the mobile phone?
"Rei… I know I shouldn't disturb you since you must be preparing for the opening night—"
"Of course you're always welcome to do it, idiot!" Usagi is the exception among all exceptions, and Rei knows it must be urgent since Usagi has already wished Rei and Mina-chan to "break a leg!" before Rei and Mina-chan left for La Fenice.
"You know I'm flying to Venice—Taiki-san and Yaten-san and Igarashi-san are going to take me with them…" Usagi, who is at Igarashi-san's place now, where her and Igarashi-san's luggage will be fetched in advance by Yaten-san and Taiki-san, is unleashing a torrent about how she has refused but then given in to Three Lights' offer of flying with them in their private jet, which is more comfortable for her but worse for the environment. It was hard to counter Taiki-san's argument that, since both the jet and Usagi's original flight would take off with or without her, anyway, she might as well accompany them. It will be easier to take Luna with them as well, and she would be fine with this if it weren't for this blasted letter—she should have thought about this before cancelling her flight…
"Letter?" Rei echoes, flabbergasted. Who on earth would send a letter now that the whole world has switched to using instant messengers?
The letter, as it turns out, is a pocket notebook (or maybe it's a pocket-sized portfolio, Usagi doesn't know). Someone left it to Usagi's care in a wrapped package when they visited Usagi a few weeks ago, and Usagi is now to deliver this package, originally wrapped!, to the Venetian receiver.
"Haruka-san left you a parcel addressed to Seiya-kun?" Rei asks, taking a wild guess. It wouldn't surprise Rei if Haruka-san had been playing games again.
Usagi's tortured silence weighs more than a confirmation. This secrecy is silly!—so what's the matter, Rei asks her. Aren't you sure if you should give him the parcel or not?
She is sure, but she is afraid of the customs officers, Usagi says. What if she has to tell them what the contents of the package are? Can they demand that she open it? It looks like she was smuggling drugs! She can't possibly say that she doesn't know what the damn package contains, can she?
Rei has never flown in a private jet, but from what she knows, the customs officer will enter the jet quickly and only be concerned with getting the tax declaration done. No customs officer is interested in provoking people who fly in private jets. Nobody is going to search Usagi, and even if Usagi gets frisked and her luggage checked more thoroughly than usual by an obsessive-compulsive nerd, a package of writing paper or a notebook is nothing conspicuous.
"Just throw it into a pile of reading materials between your clothes. You can even take it out of the package and put it into your handbag if you don't want to draw suspicion to yourself," Rei suggests. "Just tell them it's your private diary!"
Usagi knows the recipient of the package trusts her and won't think she has tried to snoop, but she would still feel terribly bad about unwrapping it… Shizuka-san has told Usagi she can keep the package for Usagi (and Usagi can seal it) if Usagi doesn't feel comfortable holding onto it—Usagi will only draw attention to herself with her squirming while Shizuka-san will have forgotten about its existence the moment she boards the flight. This makes sense—hence Usagi is now calling Rei to get a second opinion on the matter.
"Let's talk openly about this: if you think Seiya-kun should receive what Haruka-san sent, you should protect it from other people—especially from his agent! It's okay to open it if you don't read it—Seiya-kun trusts you so much that he won't ever doubt you. But if you believe this is just another game of hers and nothing good can come out of this, just get rid of it and pretend you've lost it—it's not fair of her to drag you into this, anyway!"
What can the parcel contain, Rei wonders. Secret information on the FBI or MI6, a plan, photos, an epic farewell message, a poisoned letter, a will? Why did Haruka-san address it to Seiya-kun out of all people? Rei must have underestimated Haruka-san's trust in him. But why didn't Haruka-san give it to him while they were both in Venice? Why did it have to be Usagi when Haruka-san couldn't do it herself? Did Haruka-san worry about smuggling it through customs as well when she was in Japan? But how should Usagi manage what she couldn't achieve?
Shiho-san's image flickers before Rei's eyes, and intuitively, without knowing why, she tells Usagi not to show Seiya-kun the letter before giving it to her. "I don't know what it contains, but I suspect it must be something Shiho-san isn't allowed to see. Haruka-san wanted Seiya-kun to read it in your presence, not in Shiho-san's, and Haruka-san didn't want to deal with the aftermath after he has read the message. I'd expect him to be extremely angry. I think Haruka-san expected Shiho-san to leave him alone with you when you visit them since you're his friend only."
"I can't give it to you! She said it's only meant for his eyes! I've already told him about it. He told me not to show it to anyone!"
Well, then it can't be helped, Rei thinks. She has tried to help Shiho-san and Seiya-kun but this is not her battle to die in. "Maybe you can just lose it," she suggests. "I'm sure I wouldn't let Haruka-san use me to drive a wedge between Shiho-san and Seiya-kun. Who knows what lies that letter contains… We can all remember what Haruka-san did for that scandal, for the best of reasons!"
Usagi falls silent and Rei feels horrible for having brought in the big guns. How cruel of her to mention the scandal so casually just to make a point! But before Rei can tell Usagi she is sorry, she hears the sound of a door and muffled chatter on the other side of the line, and Usagi ends the call with a rapid, "Thanks for your help, and break a leg tonight! I'll be talking to Taiki-san now since he has just come for the luggage."
"Don't tell Taiki-san about it!" Rei cries, but Usagi has already ended the call. Afterwards, when Rei is alone again in the silence, listening to her own heartbeat, Rei tells herself to calm down like zen monks will tell themselves to let go when faced with a situation they have no control over. Usagi, ever-naive, ever-trusting, has no chance at all against Taiki-san if he gets wind of the package; but Usagi can keep a secret and is surprisingly stubborn when she believes in something. All Rei can do now is to focus on the musical and hope for the best. Maybe Rei is just paranoid today? Maybe Rei's overactive mind is exaggerating everything and the letter is completely harmless, containing only Haruka-san's private confessions.
x.