Yuugasa Usagi – Chapter 3
Disclaimer: Story – own. Characters – don't own.
Now that that's settled, on to the story!
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"Duo!" Usagi called to the braided baka.
"What, Usagi-san?" The boy answered from right behind her, his indigo eyes confused.
"That hurt." She replied, her lips in a slight pout.
"Well, sorry, but you're hair is difficult. I won't pull on it again if you promise not to move." Duo replied as he continued to braid the long golden hair in two sections.
Usagi didn't say a word, she just sat there...like she had for the past three minutes. 'I should cut this hair off, but... I just cannot part with it...Heh, heh, heh, that was a crappy little joke.' Usagi thought with a little giggle. 'Maybe I'll drag Duo into town with me to get a bit of it cut.'
"Done!" Duo said triumphantly.
Usagi reached a hand back and felt the hair, two long pigtails of it were cascading down her back. She had asked for two so that she would feel like she had her odangos, but at the same time didn't have them. "Arigatoo, Duo!" She said turning and giving him a big hug. She had long since stopped using the old suffixes.
"No problem, Usagi-san." Duo replied, his cheeks turning a light pinkish color.
Usagi got up and walked towards the woods again. She had been going out to the woods everyday in the afternoon, and usually not returning until the sun was set or setting.
No one knew what she was doing out there, only that when she came back, she had a distant expression on her face. Finding her tree that she sat in all the time, Usagi jumped in a single bound up to the branch.
'Minna-chan...I miss you all...' she thought as she watched the clouds go by. 'Someday...just someday I will try to wish upon the Ginzuishou to bring you guys back.'
Duo watched the blonde girl disappear into the trees for the second week in a row. He, nor the others, knew where she went when she disappeared. But she always found her way back.
While sitting on the branch, a song popped into Usagi's head that she just started to sing. It was from one of her favorite animes when she was back in her time called Mamono Hunter Youko. "Kagaya ku
Hikari yo
Michibi ite
Watashi no
Ashita he
Tsuretette
Naze kashira tokidoki setsuna kute
Tachidomari hitori de kangaeru
Kono mamano watashi de ii no kana
Sou toi kaketano..."
She continued to sing the theme song, seemingly unaware of the fact that she could be heard by the teens back at camp.
Trowa, Duo, Wufei, and Quatre looked up when they heard the voice of Usagi. Hiiro, who was in his tent at his lap top, stopped his brigade of typing to listen.
"Is that Usagi-san?" Quatre asked the others.
"Sounds like her. What is she singing?" Duo replied.
"I don't know. It's Japanese though..." Wufei replied, making all the others look at him with a 'duh' look on their faces.
'I miss the girls. Arg! Shut up, Usagi! You have five guys around you everyday, all the time, and you are missing five girls that could possibly be brought back if you would just use the damn Ginzuishou!' Usagi yelled to herself.
"Koneko, what's on your mind?"
"Ruka-chan!" Usagi exclaimed.
"I know that look, Koneko, what's wrong?" The tall girl asked.
"Nothing really, demo, I miss the girls." Usagi replied.
"You saw them yesterday...didn't you?" Haruka asked.
"Hai. Demo, I still miss them." She replied putting on a pout-ish face.
'Ruka-chan...' Usagi thought.
"Usagi-san, what are you doing up there?" Duo's voice said in surprise. He was walking towards the pond that Trowa had told him about when he saw two long braided pigtails hanging from a tree branch.
"Duo?" Usagi asked after steadying herself on the branch again.
"Yeah." Was the reply from the ground.
"What are you doing out here?" She asked as she poked her head down from the leaves.
"Shouldn't I be askin' you that, Monkey Girl?" Duo said with an impish grin.
Usagi stuck her tongue out at him, "I come out here everyday for your information."
"So this is where you disappear to all the time..." Duo said with that sly grin of his that Usagi hated.
"Hai, I like to come out here and think." Usagi replied, jumping down from the branch and landing lightly on the ground.
"Oh, okay then!" He said in his cheerful tone.
"Why are you out here anyway?" Usagi asked as they walked to who knew where.
"Trowa told me about another pond or something. He said I needed to get this washed." Duo said with a stroke of his hair, "this stuff needs to be washed a lot."
"I know." Usagi replied, pointing to her longer locks of blonde. Duo nodded.
"Whelp, see you later, Usagi-san." Duo said as she walked back to her tree to think some more.
When she got back to her tree, she hopped right back up to her branch and closed her eyes. 'Someone? Anyone?' She thought, hoping that maybe...just maybe one of her friends would answer.
'V-babe to the rescue! What's up Usagi-chan?' Minako answered after five minutes.
Usagi smiled, she was getting better and better at contacting her friends who had passed on after her dream. 'V-babe! Oh, it's so nice to hear your voice!'
'Go spy on the cute kid with the blonde hair,' Minako answered with a girlish giggle. Usagi could just picture the hearts in her friends eyes.
'Minako-chan, he's taking a bath--oh! Minako-chan!' She scolded.
Minako let out another giggle, 'just kidding, Usa-chan. How are things there?'
'Dandy. Trowa and Quatre have both told me parts of their past. Hiiro won't talk to me much at all. Not a surprise though is it now?'
'Iie. He's a mystery that's for sure.'
'I just have a feeling that something happened in his past that he just wants to tell someone...but it's like he can't. You know?' Usagi replied.
'Hai, I do.' Minako replied, 'I wish I could see you, so much, Usagi-chan.'
'Me too, I miss all of you a lot. I was thinking of making a wish on the Ginzuishou to bring you guys back, but I don't know if it'll work.'
'I doubt it. Don't try though, we don't want you draining your energy for us.' Minako replied with a stern voice.
'Hai. I promise...' Usagi replied after a minute.
"Usagi-san?" Duo's voice ran out.
'I have to go, V-babe. Talk with you later!' Usagi said in a cheerful voice.
'Jaa!' Minako replied.
"Up here still, Duo-kun." Usagi replied to the boy.
"Hey." He said when he saw her. He watched as she flopped a leg over the branch and curled the other one up by her chest.
"Duo?" Usagi asked, watching him re-braid his long hair.
"Yeah?"
"Why is your hair so long?" Usagi asked innocently enough to make her seem like it was a question from a five-year-old.
"I guess...it's just a reminder of my past. But you don't want to listen to me, so lets talk about something you want to talk about." Duo replied.
"But I want to--itai!" She cried out as she doubled over in pain.
"What?" Duo asked, jumping up instantly from his seat on the ground.
Usagi just sat there with a pained expression on her face before she slumped out of the tree. "Itai..." she screamed again as she fell. Lucky for her though, Duo was there to catch her light body.
"Usagi-san? Usagi-san, what's wrong?" He asked repeatedly.
"It hurts, Duo..." she whispered before her body wrenched in pain again.
Duo, not knowing what to do, ran back to the camp...luckily he didn't trip or anything. When he got there, everyone was seemingly not around.
"Itai!" Usagi yelled again tears forming in the corners of her eyes. Her screams caused everyone, even Hiiro, to appear.
"What's wrong with her?" Hiiro asked in monotone, though his eyes held a hint of concern for the girl.
"I don't know, we were talking then she just screamed and fell from the tree she was sitting in!" Duo said.
This caused Quatre and Trowa to look at her in concern and Hiiro to get an odd look on his face.
"Itai..." Usagi whispered once more before her body went limp.
"Usagi-san!" Quatre screamed.
Hiiro walked over to the girl and lifted up her wrist, "she's alive...just... unconscious." With that, the boy walked back into his tent leaving the others to deal with her.
Meanwhile...
"Watch it, onna!" Wufei barked when a teenage girl bumped into him as he walked down the street of the town.
"G-Gomen, Wufei-san." She mumbled in reply.
Before Wufei could turn and ask her how she knew his name, she had disappeared into the crowd of people.
"Miss, are you okay?" A man asked a young girl when she had to stop and lean against the wall, gasping for breath.
"H-Hai." She said shakily.
Back to the others...
Duo laid the unconscious girl down in her tent and covered her.
"What exactly happened?" Trowa asked Duo when he emerged from the tent.
"Well, I walked up to where she was in the tree. She asked me why my hair was so long and I told her that it was just something from my past and that she wouldn't want to hear about it. Then I think she was about to say that she did, but she just screamed 'itai' and doubled over in pain. Then she fell from the tree and I caught her and brought her back her and you guys know the rest." Duo replied.
Trowa looked thoughtful, then shook his head, "I just have no clue what could've happened."
"Me either. I guess we'll just have to ask her when she comes to." Quatre replied in a quite, concerned voice. 'Why couldn't I feel her pain with my empathy, shouldn't I have been able to?'
Trowa, Quatre, and Duo sat around talking...trying to figure out what had made her scream and put her in pain. They couldn't think of any logical solution.
"Maybe it was...ah, I don't know what it was!" Duo exclaimed.
Trowa and Quatre looked at the confused boy with equally lost looks.
"I just don't get why I didn't feel her pain like I usually do." Quatre said to the two.
"I don't get what could've been so bad that she would eventually pass out." Trowa replied.
"I don't get this whole deal. I mean, one minute she's talking just fine and then next, she's passed out. It just doesn't make any sense at all." Duo said, for once sounding like he knew what he might have been talking about.
"Why is every just sitting around doing nothing?" Wufei said as he walked into camp only to see Duo, Trowa, and Quatre sitting by the fire pit.
"We are trying to figure out what happened to Usagi-san." Duo replied.
"What happened to the onna?" Wufei asked, returning to her first 'name.' Duo then proceeded to tell the story all over again.
"And now we are still trying to figure out the cause." Duo finished.
"So she passed out? This day has been weird...first that onna bumps into me and knows my name then this onna passes out." Wufei muttered under his breath.
"Wait, someone knew your name?" Duo asked.
"Yeah. Did I not just say that?" Wufei grumbled in reply before walking to his training area.
"Itai...that pain...it was horrible." Usagi said to herself when she woke up later when the sun was starting to set. 'What happened? It was like something was trying to get out of my body. I think it succeeded.' She thought.
Usagi got up from her covers and opened the flap of her tent. "Wow, I was out a long time..." she whispered to herself. Half walking, half dragging her feet she went over to where the guys were sitting. "What happened?"
"Usagi-san!" Quatre and Duo cried out.
"Usa-chan, are you okay?" Trowa asked her quietly.
"Hai. Demo, what happened?" She asked.
"Well, you just kind of doubled over in pain when we were talking and when we got back here, you passed out." Duo replied.
"Oh, yeah. I can't explain it...it was as if someone was trying to escape from somewhere and I was the portal. I know it sounds crazy, but if you've lived my life, it's not all that weird." Usagi replied with a thoughtful look in her features.
"I still say, two weird onnas in one day is to much." Wufei muttered under his breath.
Usagi looked at him, "what do you mean?"
"He bumped into some chick who knew his name today." Duo replied for Wufei.
"Duo..." Usagi said in a warning tone.
"Sorry! Some girl!" Duo yelped.
"Better." Usagi said to the frightened boy. She hated it when someone said 'chick' it was just a derogatory term for girls. 'I wonder who the girl was...could it have been the thing that using me as a portal? Tomorrow I think I'll go into town with Duo when he goes.'
With that, everyone just down again and ate the small dinner that Quatre, at some point, had made.
The next morning, Usagi woke at her usual time. She was quickly getting dressed when she heard Duo saying he was going into town for some things that he needed.
"Duo, wait up!" She called out as she "walked" out of her tent.
"What's up, Usagi-san?" Duo asked as he turned around again.
"I'm coming with you. I need to get some...things." She replied.
Duo raised an eyebrow, but didn't question her. "Okay, let's get going then."
Usagi waved to Quatre and walked with Duo along the long path that she had taken to get here on her first day. 'I wonder if I'll be able to sense the person. I should be able to, that is if my skills haven't diminished.'
"Hey, Usagi-san, before you fell out of the tree...what were you going to say?" Duo asked after a while.
"I was going to say that I wanted to hear the tale of the braid you got yourself." She said as she tugged on it lightly.
"Oh," he replied. For a minute he thought about it, 'I don't see why I can't tell her. It's just my past...the one thing that I've never told anyone. But she's just not anyone. She is...she is someone that actually cares about hearing it.'
Usagi watched him have a debate in his head, she knew he wanted to tell her about his background, but it was easier said then done.
"Do you really want to know?" He asked.
"If you want to tell me, I'll listen." Usagi replied simply.
"I am an orphan, so I was raised by a man who took in children like myself. When a bad virus was spreading threw the town, he caught it. I told him that I would go to find the antidote, but the people wouldn't give it to me because I was just a kid. When I got back the man, Solo, was dying. I vowed that I would get revenge. That's where I get my name, Duo.
"From there, I went from place to place, finally being taken in by Father Maxwell and a Nun who worked at his church. The wars were pretty bad by then, and one day when I was out, the church was set on fire and Father Maxwell and Sister died. That's where I get my last name from. It's a horrible childhood, but look at me now. I just as happy-go-lucky as I should be."
"So all-in-all, it was a good and bad thing that all this happened to you." Usagi replied.
"Yeah, I guess it was." Duo said as they walked down the sidewalk of the city they had entered not to long ago.
"Oh, be right back, Duo. I'm going to look at that display over there." Usagi said when she spotted a window display that just 'called' to her.
"Okay," he replied as he watched the blonde walk across the street to the display.
"Hey," a females voice said from behind Duo as she tugged lightly on his braid.
"Itai! What did you do that for?!" Duo asked as he turned around to face the girl.
She looked at him, "I'm sorry to do that, but you didn't hear me the first time I called you. What I wanted to ask you was if you know someone by the name of Tsukino Usagi?"
Usagi looked over when she heard Duo yelp, but didn't get a good look at who he was talking to, she could only see the top of the girls head. 'She seems familiar...' Usagi thought.
"Why?" Duo asked, never answering the girls' question.
"I am a friend of hers...and I've been looking for her since, well, yesterday." She replied.
'Now I know she defiantly looks familiar.' Usagi thought as she walked up behind the girl.
"Okay, well, if you want to find her turn around." Duo said pointing to Usagi.
Usagi's smile widened as her friend turn around, "V-babe!" She screamed.
"Usagi-chan!" Minako screamed. They launched themselves into the others arms and hugged like there was no tomorrow.
"Wait, what are you doing here, Minako-chan?" Usagi asked once they stopped hugging.
"I don't know! One minute I was with the others, the next I was bumping into Wufei. He is as grouchy as you said he was." Minako said with a giggle.
"Wait, you're the chic--I mean--girl that bumped into him yesterday?" Duo asked.
Minako turned and nodded, "hai, he was very rude about it to. 'Onna,' how rude can he get, Usagi-chan?"
"Well, for a while he was calling me 'Usagi-san' but then he just stopped. Hey! Maybe you coming here was the reason I was in so much pain yesterday." Usagi said.
"Yeah, maybe, I'm sorry if I was the cause of the pain. I didn't mean it." Minako replied.
"I know, but hey, this is nothing compared to what happened with Beryl."
"Um, are you two just going to stand there all day? We do have to get back you know." Duo finally said after he had gone to get the things he needed.
Usagi and Minako looked at each other, then back to Duo. "Hai," they said together.
All three of the walked back now, Minako filling Usagi in on the going ons of everyone's life after they died, and Usagi filling Minako in about the guys.
"That's Trowa Barton, he was really quite until I got to him." Usagi said with a laugh when they got the hill that overlooked camp. "Over there training is Chang Wufei. Quatre Raberber Winner, is the one over there playing the violin. And, for once, Hiiro Yui is out of his tent and... err...walking towards you and I." Usagi said.
Duo had already walked down to the camp, but Usagi and Minako had stayed at the hill so the other blonde could get a view of the site.
Hiiro walked up to them with that same stoic face that he always wore upon his features.
"Hey Hiiro-san. V-babe, meet Hiiro Yui. Hiiro-san, this is my friend Aino Minako." Usagi said.
Hiiro stopped in his tracks, "I thought you said that she was dead."
'What a monotone voice, Usagi-chan!' Minako said to her friend.
"I know," Usagi replied with a double meaning, "she was...but apparently the pain that I had yesterday somehow threw her out of the world she was in and into this one...or something like that."
Hiiro raised one of his eyebrows and gave them each a look that said yeah-like-I-really-believe-that-crap.
"Whelp, c'mon, Minako-chan! You've got people to meet and things to do!" With that, Usagi grabbed her friends' wrist and ran down the hill with her, both of them laughing.
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Whoo, this is a good place to stop. *laugh* I know it's not a cliffie, but you know, sometimes you just can't end on one. See you later!