Disclaimer: I don't own Sailor Moon. Sailor Moon belongs to the
almighty Naoko Takeuchi.
Note : There's SWEARING! Bit depressing. Bit of development and
realizations that are required for our dearest Usagi to learn.
***
Rule #5 : Beware of enemies who are happy.
***
Rules of Conduct : Part V
By Mizu
email: tokiya_ensui@yahoo.com
***
A ring of keys were splayed not too far from my position, metal
glistening coldly back at me in the thin shaft of sunlight. You know,
it takes about 8.3 minutes for the light from the sun to reach the
earth. Elementary physics, my dear.
I wasn't in the joking mood anyway. It's just one more way to
hide from the sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach. Too bad the
stomach ache was being blotted out by the memory of a harsh reality
raining upon me like heavy hailstones.
Let's see...8.3 minutes ago, I was sprawled across the rich, green
bedspread, dampening my goose-down duvet with salty tears. I didn't
care that I suffered from a bout of insomnia last night, nor did I care
that I was mussing up my hair after painstakingly placing them in
intricate arrangements last night. I just...didn't want to think about
the real world. Perhaps I should take some time off work.
I wasn't much of an escapist a few years ago. I mean, having
reality thrust into your face was a daily occurrence for me. Having no
kin, nor memory, things had to be relearned, and re-taught quickly.
Unfortunately for me, quickly meant the hardest, most practical way
possible. For some, that method of learning is usually the best.
However, my life was no longer the fiction that resides in children's
minds. I learned everything, alone, with reality as the harshest, most
efficient teacher. I sacrificed my childhood to gain understanding.
Was the exchange worth it? I'm still not quite sure these days.
It seems that my teacher was teaching me one of those on-hands,
experience lessons last night. You know what they say, "Once a sensei,
always a sensei."
My stomach gave its scheduled six AM rumble. I blinked blearily
at the clock to confirm the time. It was, indeed, six AM. I should
have taken a shower by now. Coffee should have been brewing in its
maker. Toast should be popping up any minute. The television should
have been on, displaying the prospects for today's corporate futures.
But that was not the case. The room was engulfed in silence. No
sound, nor smell, wafted in and around the apartment. My routine had
been broken for the first time in many, many years.
Thin strips of yellow sunlight that escaped through the slits of
the Venetian blinds bathed me in coldness. No! The light of the day
was harsh! It showed too much to the human eye. It revealed the cruel
and unsympathetic reality all too clearly!
Where was the night to swallow up the ruthless light of day?
Where was the night to place my fears to rest and to claim me?
***
No. Humans tend to love, to nurture, to be loved and to be
nurtured. There is not such thing as loneliness. It just doesn't
occur, not unless there is some corner in your heart that has convinced
you that there is no love out there for yourself. Only then, when
you've given up all hope, are you lonely.
"Is that so? Did you love, and loved in return?"
-grimace- Perhaps. I really can't remember. Can you?
"I don't think so. It's been long. So very, very long."
Long indeed. Several years, in fact. I really wouldn't expect a
child to remember so much of their past.
"But I did. Really, I did. I remembered that other children are
harsh. I mean, what are children, but little adults? Adults are
corrupt. They are evil. Children are just the spawn of adults."
Is that what you've convinced yourself of now? Really. Times do
change, I suppose. Ah, it's been a while. I've lost track of time.
"Time? What is time to you? Where are you now?"
Where? Well, I'm here. You can't really explain where 'here' is.
"I miss you."
Oh, that's nice to hear. Does make a person's day, doesn't it?
Why, I'm where I've always been. I've been right by you every waking
and sleeping moment. It's up to you whether you should disregard me or
not. You're the one with the power of choice. I'm just here for your
convenience.
Oh, by the way, I miss you too.
***
I awoke with a flurry of bed sheets and comforters thrust into the
air.
Dreams. I hated dreams. Dreams were the passageway to a person's
subconscious mind. They were irrelevant, and impractical. Why did a
person have to dream, anyway? What was the blessed point of it but to
create exhausting sleep? I was already an insomniac. What else did
this world want from me?
Nevertheless, I ended up sleeping, and dreaming throughout the
course of the day. I awoke at sunset, but did not move from my curled
position under the sheets. I could feel the sun dip slowly into the
horizon, the heat dissipating gradually. It was hot, far too hot during
the day. The night would spread its soothing cool air around the city.
The stars would allow pinpricks of illumination to alight a traveler's
way. The ghostly moon was at a quarter of the way to a full sphere.
I should have gone to work. Oh well. They'll understand. It's
not like the others could handle a day without me.
Without? Was a truly needed in this world?
"You are everything to me...everything," A faint memory echoed
softly in my head. Was I really?
All of a sudden, I could smell the salted-sea air, I could hear
the sound of waves chorusing and crashing coldly in the background.
No, I couldn't have—I was not everything to him. Chiba was lying.
Lying! The insane bastard!
I could almost feel his warm breath against the curve of my cheek
and his lips brushing against my ear with hushed whispers.
NO! Was I going mad? Why was I doting on past events? Why was I
remembering the lesson that reality presented on a cold platter for me?
A lesson is a lesson, I admitted bleakly to myself. I just hope
that I wasn't expected to study.
***
After five days of moping, I returned to work. Everything was
neat and in order, from head to toe. The customary greetings and smiles
to my receptionist might take a bit of time to redevelop. At any rate,
they seemed to place the façade that they it didn't ruin their day.
"Morning, Tsukino-san!" An elderly caretaker waved past, pushing
his mop across the marble floor. He gave me an energetic wave, as he
always did before.
"Morning," I mumbled from a cup of coffee and a newspaper opened
at the business section. I was looking through the closing prices for
yesterday. Ouch. I think I'm going to have to sell some of those
stocks that I've been holding on for the last month or so.
I walked into my office, happy to see that it was left exactly in
the way I had left it. When people start attempting to arrange my
things, they usually get lost. I'm better off cleaning my own offices.
I walked toward my desk with a purposeful air. The last five days
were a waste of time, I realized. I would fix that with extra hard work
in the next couple of months following.
I sighed happily, sinking into my chair. I leaned toward one
side, causing the apparatus to turn with well-oiled mechanisms. "It's
great to be back," I smiled, closing my eyes contentedly. Life was
starting to turn up.
"Finally back, are we?" A cold voice muttered. My eyes snapped
open. Swivelling violently toward the front of my desk, I saw an
unannounced visitor. It was Akari. I was going to have to speak to my
secretary about it if visitors keep popping into my office at will.
"Here I thought you were out celebrating with your *lover*," he
placed an extra sneer on the misinterpreted term, "with an unannounced
vacation." He began analyzing his fingernails, buffing them on his
jacket. "He didn't take more than a day off, though. Break up so
soon?"
I met his eyes squarely with blue fire. My instincts were in red
alert mode. "Good morning, Akari-san." He grimaced in reply, an ugly,
cold and calculated creasing of the facial features. He was up to
something. Only an idiot wouldn't notice something as obvious as that.
He also looked happy, or whatever would pass for happy on his face. A
rule taken from my book: beware of enemies who are happy.
"Same to you. Though, you might require a 'good morning' more
than I do." The light hit his hair in all its gelled, flammable glory.
If just a tiny spark fell into the stiff strands... Perhaps I should
have aimed for the crown jewels at the gala. There was something about
this man that gave me the feeling that he slithered through dark places
and swallowed mice, whole.
My voice was flat, monotone. "Why?" I didn't feel like beating
around the bush this morning. Had this happened a few weeks later, I
might have been delighted to. It really depends on my mood.
"Oh, I have a delivery for you," he said, attempting to look
innocent, yet conniving at the same time. Innocent, yet conniving, ha!
To me, he looked like the biggest oxymoron in a designer suit with half
a tub of hair gel piled on top of his head. Who knows? Perhaps others
might share my opinion.
I smiled sweetly, "...and what might that be, boss?" He frowned.
One point for me.
Digging into the interior pocket of his cream-coloured suit, he
pulled out a plain, white envelope. I wonder how he managed to hide
that in there...
He flung the envelope on my desk, watching me as it thud softly on
the wooden surface. What was that church lesson about accepting gifts
from the devil again?
I eyed the package suspiciously. Well, it wasn't big enough to
stuff a mouse-trap in, or some other creepy crawly creature.
"Go ahead," he said in a sickening, nasty lilt to his voice, "Open
it." Then again, it was from a creepy crawly creature.
Gingerly, I picked up his "gift", silver letter opening in hand.
With practiced grace, I slit open the edge of the envelope, allowing the
contents to flutter quietly to my desk in a zig-zag motion.
I picked up the paper with my left hand, scanning through the
contents of the note. By the time I was half-way through the note, my
right hand was ready to crush the handle of the letter opener in two,
and stab Akari in the chest.
"You filthy, conniving, son of a bitch!" I roared. The
background noise from the outer ring of offices seemed to silence almost
immediately. "What the hell is the meaning of THIS?!" I crumpled the
envelope into a dense little ball of paper, and aimed it at him. It
bounced off an area that was about five centimetres from his leather-
clad feet and rolled off to the side.
He looked smug. "Why, if you can't read, my dear—"
"I'm NOT your dear!"
The air of arrogance was still present about him. "Very well,
Tsukino-san. I will say exactly what I said in the official notice," he
inched backwards toward the entrance to my office. Coward.
I wanted to hear it from him. Perhaps, then, that would ignite my
courage to pummel him into the marble floors like the puny little fossil
brain that he was.
"You're fired."
***
Oh well. Life goes by. Just because one Tsukino Usagi was
missing one little job didn't mean that her life was ruined. But, it
was such an important little job that summed up a large percentage of
her life. Missing my job was like missing some important aspect of
myself.
So, here I am, two days later, in a pair of old sweats and a tub
of triple chocolate fudge ice cream in my hand. Depressing, isn't it?
I never wear sweats, and I hate wasting away my figure with high-calorie
foods. Desperate times calls for desperate measures, I suppose.
Perhaps it was all for the best, I admitted to myself, while I
shipped off my office belongings in a small, cardboard box. Then, Akari
wouldn't allow me to take my favourite cactus home. He said that it was
bought with 'company funds' and thus, was not mine to take. At that
point, I had run out of colourful vocabulary. I figured that a rolling
of the eyes heavenward would suffice. All for the best? Did I say that
earlier? How stupid of me.
My fist hit my coffee table with an audible thump that echoed
throughout the lonely apartment.
Damn it!
I wanted my life back!
I wanted my job back!
I wanted my cactus back!
I was in the middle of muttering plots about corporate domination
and injustices when the ring of the telephone dragged me back into
reality. Sometimes, that thing is just as evil as the pager. Perhaps
they're conspiring with one another.
I picked up the receiver and brought it to my ear. "I'm sorry,
but Tsukino Usagi is currently turning into a vegetable in the corner of
a small, dark cave somewhere in the east-west galaxy. Please leave a
message, and she'll get back to you when she returns from the land of
chocolate-eating, pink bunnies. Beep."
"Usagi? Usagi?!" Minako's voice came through the receiver. She
sounded flustered. "Usagi! You won't believe what Mamoru did!"
Gossip. Yay. "Do I care, dearest cousin?"
"Stop it! This is important!" She was starting to sound irate.
I took the next step to make her angry. Why? I haven't the slightest
clue. Gossiping wasn't a favourite past-time of mine.
"Oh, something important has crossed your mind? What a surprise!"
I snickered.
Silence.
"That was mean," she sounded hurt. I suppose she deserved an
apology. It was my fault for bating her like that.
"I'm sorry," I apologized. Let it be known that apologizing isn't
one of my fortes. In this case, whatever evil name she decided to call
me was wholly deserved. "What's up with Chiba, again?"
"Lots!" She chirped, sounding her normal, perky self again. "You
see, when he found out that day that you were fired, he went after the
powers that be."
"And...?" Prompted I.
"Well, they said that it was out of their hands and didn't do
anything except point a finger at Akari-san."
I furrowed my eyebrows. "What does this have to do with me? What
Chiba does is none of my business."
She sighed, exasperated, as if I wasn't getting a very important
element to our short conversation. "So, the next day, Akari didn't come
into work. Apparently, someone said that they saw him with a black eye
and a bloody nose the day before."
I snickered. What a surprise. Full circle.
"According to the guard, the last two people in the building the
night before were Akari-san," she paused, as if unsure if she should
tell me the rest of the story, lest it be too painful for me to hear.
"Well, go on, already!"
She continued, "...and Mamoru."
"Chiba? You mean Chiba beat the pulp out of Akari?"
She nodded against the receiver, a scraping of an affirmative
response. "Yeah. But you haven't heard the worst yet."
Worst? This was pretty good news, thus far. Why did I have the
sinking feeling that she was going to dump a bucket of ice water on my
head? "Keep going, Minako."
She inhaled and exhaled slowly. "Last night, Mamoru was...hurt,
very badly."
"Hurt? Chiba? He's a big boy. He can take care of himself," I
answered my unasked question, denial evident in my voice. The sinking
feeling in my stomach increased tenfold. Was this assurance for his
welfare, or, I gulped, mine?
"No, Usagi. He was beaten, by a gang of men that have yet to be
caught. Everyone suspects Akari though. Since he fired you on
unjustified terms, Mamoru probably got angry with him and hit him a few
times. Akari probably hired a group of men to return the favour." There
was a break in the speech, a muffled sob. "Mamoru's in a coma now."
I was silent. The receiver lay limply in my right hand. Ice
cream was melting in my right. Slowly, the handset slid down the length
of my face to rest on my shoulder.
"Mamoru's at the hospital downtown. I thought you'd like to know.
Goodnight, Usagi." A digital beep indicated a closed telephone
connection.
Coma? Chiba's in a coma? All because of my situation, the idiot
included himself in my business. Just to top it off, he got hurt in the
process! What was he thinking? What a senseless, irresponsible,
reckless thing to do! Was he trying to act out the role of the hero?
...or just the role of a misguided, lovesick fool?
I couldn't keep the frail oath I had made just a week ago. For
the second time in my adult life, I cried.
***
Ho hum. It takes me months to get the next chapter out. Oops.
::runs away::
~Miz
almighty Naoko Takeuchi.
Note : There's SWEARING! Bit depressing. Bit of development and
realizations that are required for our dearest Usagi to learn.
***
Rule #5 : Beware of enemies who are happy.
***
Rules of Conduct : Part V
By Mizu
email: tokiya_ensui@yahoo.com
***
A ring of keys were splayed not too far from my position, metal
glistening coldly back at me in the thin shaft of sunlight. You know,
it takes about 8.3 minutes for the light from the sun to reach the
earth. Elementary physics, my dear.
I wasn't in the joking mood anyway. It's just one more way to
hide from the sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach. Too bad the
stomach ache was being blotted out by the memory of a harsh reality
raining upon me like heavy hailstones.
Let's see...8.3 minutes ago, I was sprawled across the rich, green
bedspread, dampening my goose-down duvet with salty tears. I didn't
care that I suffered from a bout of insomnia last night, nor did I care
that I was mussing up my hair after painstakingly placing them in
intricate arrangements last night. I just...didn't want to think about
the real world. Perhaps I should take some time off work.
I wasn't much of an escapist a few years ago. I mean, having
reality thrust into your face was a daily occurrence for me. Having no
kin, nor memory, things had to be relearned, and re-taught quickly.
Unfortunately for me, quickly meant the hardest, most practical way
possible. For some, that method of learning is usually the best.
However, my life was no longer the fiction that resides in children's
minds. I learned everything, alone, with reality as the harshest, most
efficient teacher. I sacrificed my childhood to gain understanding.
Was the exchange worth it? I'm still not quite sure these days.
It seems that my teacher was teaching me one of those on-hands,
experience lessons last night. You know what they say, "Once a sensei,
always a sensei."
My stomach gave its scheduled six AM rumble. I blinked blearily
at the clock to confirm the time. It was, indeed, six AM. I should
have taken a shower by now. Coffee should have been brewing in its
maker. Toast should be popping up any minute. The television should
have been on, displaying the prospects for today's corporate futures.
But that was not the case. The room was engulfed in silence. No
sound, nor smell, wafted in and around the apartment. My routine had
been broken for the first time in many, many years.
Thin strips of yellow sunlight that escaped through the slits of
the Venetian blinds bathed me in coldness. No! The light of the day
was harsh! It showed too much to the human eye. It revealed the cruel
and unsympathetic reality all too clearly!
Where was the night to swallow up the ruthless light of day?
Where was the night to place my fears to rest and to claim me?
***
No. Humans tend to love, to nurture, to be loved and to be
nurtured. There is not such thing as loneliness. It just doesn't
occur, not unless there is some corner in your heart that has convinced
you that there is no love out there for yourself. Only then, when
you've given up all hope, are you lonely.
"Is that so? Did you love, and loved in return?"
-grimace- Perhaps. I really can't remember. Can you?
"I don't think so. It's been long. So very, very long."
Long indeed. Several years, in fact. I really wouldn't expect a
child to remember so much of their past.
"But I did. Really, I did. I remembered that other children are
harsh. I mean, what are children, but little adults? Adults are
corrupt. They are evil. Children are just the spawn of adults."
Is that what you've convinced yourself of now? Really. Times do
change, I suppose. Ah, it's been a while. I've lost track of time.
"Time? What is time to you? Where are you now?"
Where? Well, I'm here. You can't really explain where 'here' is.
"I miss you."
Oh, that's nice to hear. Does make a person's day, doesn't it?
Why, I'm where I've always been. I've been right by you every waking
and sleeping moment. It's up to you whether you should disregard me or
not. You're the one with the power of choice. I'm just here for your
convenience.
Oh, by the way, I miss you too.
***
I awoke with a flurry of bed sheets and comforters thrust into the
air.
Dreams. I hated dreams. Dreams were the passageway to a person's
subconscious mind. They were irrelevant, and impractical. Why did a
person have to dream, anyway? What was the blessed point of it but to
create exhausting sleep? I was already an insomniac. What else did
this world want from me?
Nevertheless, I ended up sleeping, and dreaming throughout the
course of the day. I awoke at sunset, but did not move from my curled
position under the sheets. I could feel the sun dip slowly into the
horizon, the heat dissipating gradually. It was hot, far too hot during
the day. The night would spread its soothing cool air around the city.
The stars would allow pinpricks of illumination to alight a traveler's
way. The ghostly moon was at a quarter of the way to a full sphere.
I should have gone to work. Oh well. They'll understand. It's
not like the others could handle a day without me.
Without? Was a truly needed in this world?
"You are everything to me...everything," A faint memory echoed
softly in my head. Was I really?
All of a sudden, I could smell the salted-sea air, I could hear
the sound of waves chorusing and crashing coldly in the background.
No, I couldn't have—I was not everything to him. Chiba was lying.
Lying! The insane bastard!
I could almost feel his warm breath against the curve of my cheek
and his lips brushing against my ear with hushed whispers.
NO! Was I going mad? Why was I doting on past events? Why was I
remembering the lesson that reality presented on a cold platter for me?
A lesson is a lesson, I admitted bleakly to myself. I just hope
that I wasn't expected to study.
***
After five days of moping, I returned to work. Everything was
neat and in order, from head to toe. The customary greetings and smiles
to my receptionist might take a bit of time to redevelop. At any rate,
they seemed to place the façade that they it didn't ruin their day.
"Morning, Tsukino-san!" An elderly caretaker waved past, pushing
his mop across the marble floor. He gave me an energetic wave, as he
always did before.
"Morning," I mumbled from a cup of coffee and a newspaper opened
at the business section. I was looking through the closing prices for
yesterday. Ouch. I think I'm going to have to sell some of those
stocks that I've been holding on for the last month or so.
I walked into my office, happy to see that it was left exactly in
the way I had left it. When people start attempting to arrange my
things, they usually get lost. I'm better off cleaning my own offices.
I walked toward my desk with a purposeful air. The last five days
were a waste of time, I realized. I would fix that with extra hard work
in the next couple of months following.
I sighed happily, sinking into my chair. I leaned toward one
side, causing the apparatus to turn with well-oiled mechanisms. "It's
great to be back," I smiled, closing my eyes contentedly. Life was
starting to turn up.
"Finally back, are we?" A cold voice muttered. My eyes snapped
open. Swivelling violently toward the front of my desk, I saw an
unannounced visitor. It was Akari. I was going to have to speak to my
secretary about it if visitors keep popping into my office at will.
"Here I thought you were out celebrating with your *lover*," he
placed an extra sneer on the misinterpreted term, "with an unannounced
vacation." He began analyzing his fingernails, buffing them on his
jacket. "He didn't take more than a day off, though. Break up so
soon?"
I met his eyes squarely with blue fire. My instincts were in red
alert mode. "Good morning, Akari-san." He grimaced in reply, an ugly,
cold and calculated creasing of the facial features. He was up to
something. Only an idiot wouldn't notice something as obvious as that.
He also looked happy, or whatever would pass for happy on his face. A
rule taken from my book: beware of enemies who are happy.
"Same to you. Though, you might require a 'good morning' more
than I do." The light hit his hair in all its gelled, flammable glory.
If just a tiny spark fell into the stiff strands... Perhaps I should
have aimed for the crown jewels at the gala. There was something about
this man that gave me the feeling that he slithered through dark places
and swallowed mice, whole.
My voice was flat, monotone. "Why?" I didn't feel like beating
around the bush this morning. Had this happened a few weeks later, I
might have been delighted to. It really depends on my mood.
"Oh, I have a delivery for you," he said, attempting to look
innocent, yet conniving at the same time. Innocent, yet conniving, ha!
To me, he looked like the biggest oxymoron in a designer suit with half
a tub of hair gel piled on top of his head. Who knows? Perhaps others
might share my opinion.
I smiled sweetly, "...and what might that be, boss?" He frowned.
One point for me.
Digging into the interior pocket of his cream-coloured suit, he
pulled out a plain, white envelope. I wonder how he managed to hide
that in there...
He flung the envelope on my desk, watching me as it thud softly on
the wooden surface. What was that church lesson about accepting gifts
from the devil again?
I eyed the package suspiciously. Well, it wasn't big enough to
stuff a mouse-trap in, or some other creepy crawly creature.
"Go ahead," he said in a sickening, nasty lilt to his voice, "Open
it." Then again, it was from a creepy crawly creature.
Gingerly, I picked up his "gift", silver letter opening in hand.
With practiced grace, I slit open the edge of the envelope, allowing the
contents to flutter quietly to my desk in a zig-zag motion.
I picked up the paper with my left hand, scanning through the
contents of the note. By the time I was half-way through the note, my
right hand was ready to crush the handle of the letter opener in two,
and stab Akari in the chest.
"You filthy, conniving, son of a bitch!" I roared. The
background noise from the outer ring of offices seemed to silence almost
immediately. "What the hell is the meaning of THIS?!" I crumpled the
envelope into a dense little ball of paper, and aimed it at him. It
bounced off an area that was about five centimetres from his leather-
clad feet and rolled off to the side.
He looked smug. "Why, if you can't read, my dear—"
"I'm NOT your dear!"
The air of arrogance was still present about him. "Very well,
Tsukino-san. I will say exactly what I said in the official notice," he
inched backwards toward the entrance to my office. Coward.
I wanted to hear it from him. Perhaps, then, that would ignite my
courage to pummel him into the marble floors like the puny little fossil
brain that he was.
"You're fired."
***
Oh well. Life goes by. Just because one Tsukino Usagi was
missing one little job didn't mean that her life was ruined. But, it
was such an important little job that summed up a large percentage of
her life. Missing my job was like missing some important aspect of
myself.
So, here I am, two days later, in a pair of old sweats and a tub
of triple chocolate fudge ice cream in my hand. Depressing, isn't it?
I never wear sweats, and I hate wasting away my figure with high-calorie
foods. Desperate times calls for desperate measures, I suppose.
Perhaps it was all for the best, I admitted to myself, while I
shipped off my office belongings in a small, cardboard box. Then, Akari
wouldn't allow me to take my favourite cactus home. He said that it was
bought with 'company funds' and thus, was not mine to take. At that
point, I had run out of colourful vocabulary. I figured that a rolling
of the eyes heavenward would suffice. All for the best? Did I say that
earlier? How stupid of me.
My fist hit my coffee table with an audible thump that echoed
throughout the lonely apartment.
Damn it!
I wanted my life back!
I wanted my job back!
I wanted my cactus back!
I was in the middle of muttering plots about corporate domination
and injustices when the ring of the telephone dragged me back into
reality. Sometimes, that thing is just as evil as the pager. Perhaps
they're conspiring with one another.
I picked up the receiver and brought it to my ear. "I'm sorry,
but Tsukino Usagi is currently turning into a vegetable in the corner of
a small, dark cave somewhere in the east-west galaxy. Please leave a
message, and she'll get back to you when she returns from the land of
chocolate-eating, pink bunnies. Beep."
"Usagi? Usagi?!" Minako's voice came through the receiver. She
sounded flustered. "Usagi! You won't believe what Mamoru did!"
Gossip. Yay. "Do I care, dearest cousin?"
"Stop it! This is important!" She was starting to sound irate.
I took the next step to make her angry. Why? I haven't the slightest
clue. Gossiping wasn't a favourite past-time of mine.
"Oh, something important has crossed your mind? What a surprise!"
I snickered.
Silence.
"That was mean," she sounded hurt. I suppose she deserved an
apology. It was my fault for bating her like that.
"I'm sorry," I apologized. Let it be known that apologizing isn't
one of my fortes. In this case, whatever evil name she decided to call
me was wholly deserved. "What's up with Chiba, again?"
"Lots!" She chirped, sounding her normal, perky self again. "You
see, when he found out that day that you were fired, he went after the
powers that be."
"And...?" Prompted I.
"Well, they said that it was out of their hands and didn't do
anything except point a finger at Akari-san."
I furrowed my eyebrows. "What does this have to do with me? What
Chiba does is none of my business."
She sighed, exasperated, as if I wasn't getting a very important
element to our short conversation. "So, the next day, Akari didn't come
into work. Apparently, someone said that they saw him with a black eye
and a bloody nose the day before."
I snickered. What a surprise. Full circle.
"According to the guard, the last two people in the building the
night before were Akari-san," she paused, as if unsure if she should
tell me the rest of the story, lest it be too painful for me to hear.
"Well, go on, already!"
She continued, "...and Mamoru."
"Chiba? You mean Chiba beat the pulp out of Akari?"
She nodded against the receiver, a scraping of an affirmative
response. "Yeah. But you haven't heard the worst yet."
Worst? This was pretty good news, thus far. Why did I have the
sinking feeling that she was going to dump a bucket of ice water on my
head? "Keep going, Minako."
She inhaled and exhaled slowly. "Last night, Mamoru was...hurt,
very badly."
"Hurt? Chiba? He's a big boy. He can take care of himself," I
answered my unasked question, denial evident in my voice. The sinking
feeling in my stomach increased tenfold. Was this assurance for his
welfare, or, I gulped, mine?
"No, Usagi. He was beaten, by a gang of men that have yet to be
caught. Everyone suspects Akari though. Since he fired you on
unjustified terms, Mamoru probably got angry with him and hit him a few
times. Akari probably hired a group of men to return the favour." There
was a break in the speech, a muffled sob. "Mamoru's in a coma now."
I was silent. The receiver lay limply in my right hand. Ice
cream was melting in my right. Slowly, the handset slid down the length
of my face to rest on my shoulder.
"Mamoru's at the hospital downtown. I thought you'd like to know.
Goodnight, Usagi." A digital beep indicated a closed telephone
connection.
Coma? Chiba's in a coma? All because of my situation, the idiot
included himself in my business. Just to top it off, he got hurt in the
process! What was he thinking? What a senseless, irresponsible,
reckless thing to do! Was he trying to act out the role of the hero?
...or just the role of a misguided, lovesick fool?
I couldn't keep the frail oath I had made just a week ago. For
the second time in my adult life, I cried.
***
Ho hum. It takes me months to get the next chapter out. Oops.
::runs away::
~Miz
