Author's notes are at the end of the page, minna-san.
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the used
Chapter 2 – "suspicious"
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Makoto took a deep breath.
This shouldn't be that difficult. It shouldn't, it shouldn't, yet it was. The strangest thing? She had never had a problem doing this beforehand.
Come on.
She had invited a few other people to the girls' study sessions in the past.
Actually…only one. But that one person had a good time. Makoto coughed at the memory. * sees memory of a male friend drifting off to sleep as the girls chatter about…stuff. At the sentence, "You think Shiniji is cute, right Kenji?" you see the guy give a bewildered look, stand, and explain he is going to the bathroom. He is not seen for the rest of the day. * In all reality… maybe not.
This was different, simply because Hatoru was a girl. Hopefully she wouldn't mind the girls' off- topic chatter. Makoto smiled to herself, repeating a mantra in her mind: This is a good plan…this is a good idea.
"Hello Makoto," greeted a familiar voice.
The taller girl looked down and into the deep violet eyes of Tomoe Hatoru. "Oh, hello Hatoru."
Another deep breath. A good idea, a good idea…
You think she'd be asking her crush to prom. This wasn't that big of a deal.
"Uh, H- Hatoru?" began Mako, "do you want to come to a study session in the park today?"
She braced herself for rejection, but was surprised to hear a, "sure, why not?"
Sigh of relief.
"It's a 4:15 in the city park. Can you make it?"
"Yes," came the response. "4:15. I'll be there."
The tardy bell rang in the background. "Well, I'd better get going," said Hatoru quietly. "I don't want to be late again."
Makoto nodded. "Bye Hatoru. See you later!"
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The five girls sat under the late-afternoon shade of an apple blossom tree, awaiting the arrival of their guest.
"Wow, she's late," Minako commented while looking at her watch.
"Kami-sama have mercy," agreed Rei, "She's even later than Usagi usually is!"
Usagi shot Rei a dirty look. "Be patient. She'll be here."
"If only you knew how many times those same words have saved your butt!" retorted the priestess.
The blonde stood and started to brandish a fist. Rei also stood and muttered, "Odango, you have no chance."
"Rei, I'm going to ki –"
"Isn't that Hatoru over there?" Makoto interrupted. She really hadn't been paying attention to the usual bantering between Rei and Usagi. Instead, the senshi of Jupiter had been searching for her newfound friend.
"Hello!" Ami greeted the newest addition to their little group.
Rei and Usagi sat back down on the blanket, annoyed at one another and slightly embarrassed at the same time.
Hatoru approached the group with a slight smile. She said simply, "Hello everyone." The small girl's gaze fell upon Rei and Usagi. Both were silent. "You two are both really close, right?" When she received a strange look, Hatoru continued, "Well, since you both always seem to be arguing – almost like sisters would."
Everyone went quiet. Hatoru blushed. "I'm sorry, that was inappropriate."
"No, no," Minako said gently. "It was a fair assessment."
Usagi remained silent, but Rei suddenly spoke up. "What do you think of Tokyo so far?" She was attempting to lessen the strained atmosphere. "Makoto told me that you came from a city not even half the size of this one."
The dark haired girl smiled. "Yes, I came from Akita with my father." Usagi noticed the same emotions [as when she had been introduced to Umino] replaying in Hatoru's violet eyes as she mentioned her father. "Tokyo is a beautiful place, Rei. I've never seen anything like it."
"Anywhere in particular you like? It's a hard question, I know," Ami asked with her own gentle smile.
Hatoru looked down at her hands. "I don't quite know yet. This makes three weeks since I've been in the city. Everything's so different that it's hard to choose one place. What places do you all like?"
Usagi looked up and quietly replied, "the waterfront gardens. If you haven't been yet, I'll take you there sometime. They're beautiful all year round."
"The mall," came Minako's response. She blushed slightly at her own comment. "I know, it sounds conceited and shallow, but it's a great place to meet people."
"She means guys," crowded Makoto. The girls all laughed as Minako blushed a little darker. "As for me, I'd prefer a nice restaurant or even an ice-skating rink."
Ami looked at her friends and said, "I love the district library."
Everyone sweatdropped, except for Hatoru.
"Ami needs to get out more," explained Minako, glad to have the embarrassment shifted to Ami's shoulders.
The blue haired girl rolled her eyes. "I'm just trying to get the most out of things." She turned to Rei. "What's your favorite place in Tokyo, Rei?"
Rei smiled to herself. "It may sound cheesy, but the shrine where I live." A look of anger tinged Rei's eyes however as she remembered the intrusion upon her privacy this morning by a certain apprentice of her grandfather's.
"Rei?" Usagi asked, "Why is the vein popping out from your temple?"
Rei put the breaks on her temper and internally counted to ten. "I'm fine, I just remembered I had to do something when I get back home."
Usagi shrugged.
The girls continued along this way for quite some time, trying to associate with their newest friend. Usagi however, could not shrug off the feeling of familiarity and deja vu that settled upon the group. Something about Hatoru's presence worried her…
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Usagi sighed as she opened the door to her next class. However, she felt relieved immediately upon spotting an empty desk next to Hatoru. Usagi glanced at the clock and slid into her seat as the two-minute warning bell rang. Hatoru however, was distracted and hardly noticed her newfound friend.
Hatoru's short black hair made an effective vale to mask her expression. She was bent haphazardly over a thin drawing pad; concentration taking priority over comfort. The small girl's thin hands clutched a pencil so tightly that her fingertips and knuckles were tinted with white.
After a few moments, Hatoru noticed Usagi's presence. "Hello, Hatoru," the blonde greeted her friend. "What are you sketching today?" Usagi gestured to the other students surrounding them, all engaged in talking and laughing. "Our classmates, maybe?"
Hatoru's face darkened. She fought with herself to suppress the annoyance she felt; which left the girl with a thin façade of a smile on her face. "Hello Usagi," Hatoru responded, "And no…it's nothing. This is only a doodle."
The dark haired girl reached into her school briefcase to try and deposit the drawing pad…without letting Usagi see what the paper contained. As if an act of Kami himself, as Hatoru was placing it into her bag, the pad dropped from her hand. Drawings scattered everywhere between the two desks.
Hatoru was on her knees and retrieving drawings as quickly as possible. Usagi, who was trying to help, also got on her knees to help gather the papers. "I'll help you clean up," she said softly. If the dark haired girl had wished Usagi to see none of her drawings, it was far too late.
Usagi gasped at the detail of the drawing in her hand. A beautiful woman was depicted upon the page, her long dark hair and gown flowing in an unseen wind. In one hand she held a dead lily of the valley, the petals drifting in the wind behind her. The strangest feature of this sketch was the strange symbol in the center of the woman's forehead, only penciled in. Usagi squinted to see what it was, at first appearing to be nothing more than a smudge. In actuality, the symbol was similar to that of a lower-case h.
What is that?! Usagi thought in shock, unbelieving. What does this symbol mean?
As Usagi struggled to choke down her surprise, Hatoru came and joined her friend under the desk. "It's beautiful," muttered the blonde, unable to vocalize much more.
Hatoru flushed. "Thank you."
"W-Who is that?" managed Usagi.
The dark haired girl supressed a measure of emotions. Usagi, although surprised, managed to decipher a few that showed in Hatoru's violet eyes. Hatred, love, pain, sorrow…
"My mother," came the quiet response, "before she was killed."
"Was killed?" echoed Usagi in surprise. "What happened?"
"A man came looking for her, when my father and I were out shopping. He killed her out of spite, and took something precious to her," Hatoru responded silently. "Something very important to her."
"I'm so sorry…" was Usagi's sympathetic response. "I'm sorry, Hatoru."
Hatoru smiled at her friend, despite the grief etched into her drawn features. "It was a long time ago," she said, looking at her hands. "It was horrible, yes. But m –"
The bell rang for class to begin, interrupting Hatoru's sad tale. Usagi gave her friend a sad but encouraging smile, and handed Hatoru back the drawing. Both girls settled back into their desks, and Hatoru quickly stuffed the drawing pad into her briefcase.
So this is her sorrow…thought Usagi as she listened to her English professor drawl on and on. Her mother, murdered when she was a child? For something, but what would be so important to arouse the urge to kill for it?
She snapped from her musings and pretended to look interested in the foreign words in the book. The teacher noticed that Usagi wasn't paying attention and forced her to read in front of the class.
Usagi stared at her feet, reciting the words that were supposed to be memorized from a (second, and equally boring) English poet's novel.
"Cruel with guilt, and daring
with despair,
The midnight murderer bursts the faithless bar;
Invades the sacred hour of silent rest
And leaves, unseen, a dagger in your breast." (**)
As she was sitting down, a piece of white paper caught her eye. What was that? Usagi looked up at her teacher to make sure he had gone back to teaching before she quickly reached over and snatched up the piece of paper.
It was another one of Hatoru's drawings. One mysterious, but not unlike the rest…
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heh heh…*dodges rotten cat food* sorry for that cliffhanger…
Allo again everyone.
I have a few more notes to add this time around, but please read them - it might answer a few questions you might have.
Study session in the park's importance:
Stupid scene, yes. But, it did have a point. First, the senshi are trying to pry information from Hatoru without being too obtrusive. Oh, and Makoto's question about Tokyo is an attempt to see if Hatoru will allow anything to slip out. [Since Mako believes she's playing dumb, and hasn't scratched out the possibility that their new friend could be one of the Enemy.]
It's not only Mako, Rei's prying for information too, only in her own way. She'll continue throughout the entire story in this manner – even after Hatoru's secrets are revealed.
(**) = Poem by Samuel Johnson, courtesy of Encarta Encyclopedia
- until next time, *luv*,
cloudiko
