Chapter 4 – Moving in

"No, no and I mean NO!" Haruka seemed very annoyed. She was standing in the middle of Hikawa temple's yard with her chin pushed up and her navy blue eyes flashing darkly. Haruka and Michiru had currently been in a nearby mall when Rei called so they had come over in five minutes.

"Come on Haruka… you're rich, you could afford to keep them for a week or two," Minako said. "And you have a big house in a quiet neighborhood…"

"There's a retired yakuza godfather living across the street," Michiru remarked.

"But still quiet!" Minako claimed obstinately. "And they're very strong fighters; we just can't let them out on Tokyo… Give me one good reason why you couldn't do it?"

Haruka growled and turned her back to them. Michiru smiled slightly.

"She's in a bad mood today, she doesn't like men in general and she especially doesn't like men who have a chance to be strong enough to blow up her house. Or car. Or bike. And," she added with a grin, "she doesn't like to give reasons to what she does."

Haruka looked over her shoulder. "What she said… but you say that they're strong fighters, aye?" She turned around again and looked at the two brats and their fathers. "Who are you exactly?"

"We're, um, aliens," Trunks explained. "Strong scary aliens. Boo."

Vegeta growled. "Too much late-night TV, don't mind him… we're Saiyans, if you must know."

Haruka's eyebrows raised. "Saiyans? I thought you were destroyed long before I was born."

The Inner Scouts looked at her with surprise. "You know them?" Haruka ignored them. Vegeta smirked.

"Some of us survived."

"Two of us," Goku added.

Haruka seemed thoughtful. "Just out of curiosity, what happened to Freeza?" she suddenly asked. The Inner Scouts stared at her again. Vegeta grinned widely.

"Dead."

"I thought so," the girl nodded. "And you say that you have nowhere to go?"

"They say that," Vegeta corrected, gesturing to the Inner Scouts. "We could just go training to the mountains and stay there until we find a chance to get back home."

"When it's true what they say and they really are the Saiyans then they'll probably destroy most of the Himalayas before they find a chance to go home," Michiru remarked.

Haruka nodded slowly. "True." She looked at the Saiyans. "Are you guys bright enough to remember and obey one simple little rule?"

Vegeta, Trunks and Goten gave Goku a short look. "Let's say... yeah."

Haruka grinned. "The TV remote is my personal property. Touch it without permission and suffer the consequences."

Haruka's yellow convertible stopped in front of a timber detached house. The neighborhood really was quiet, only some birds were singing in the trees. Goten and Trunks climbed out of the car, complaining about the ride being too short.

"I just looove convertibles," Goten declared. "I'll buy myself one as soon as I'm old enough!" He had spent most of the ride sticking his head out from behind the windscreen and letting the wind blow right into his face. Michiru had remarked that the kid had looked like one of those dogs who always ride in a car with their head stuck out of the window.

"Maybe I should buy one as soon as we get home," Goku considered. He had been sitting on the other side of the backseat, doing exactly the same thing.

Vegeta and Trunks sighed.

Haruka tossed Michiru the keys. "There… I'll drive the car into the garage. Give them that big room to the west of the house. That would be the best one for them."

"I thought she didn't like us," Trunks said as they entered the house.

Michiru smiled and nodded. "That's her point. The rooms in the eastern wing always get the morning sun. When you sleep in the western wing, you won't have to wake up early because the sun won't shine right into your eyes. Therefore, you won't get into her sight that often."

"Is she always like that?" Vegeta asked. The girl nodded.

The prince of the Saiyans grinned. "I like her attitude."

Michiru showed the Saiyans the room, got them some mattresses and blankets and then looked at her watch. "I'd love to stay and chat but I need to go to work. Try not to bug Haruka too much, she may not be as strong as you guys but you don't want to meet her angry side, trust me."

"Are you two living here alone?" Goten asked Haruka who was flipping through some magazines in the living room.

The girl shook her head. "There's Hotaru, she actually lives with her father but she likes to spend most of her days here. She'll get here by the dark, I assume. Or later. And then there's Setsuna but she doesn't come here very often."

"Can we look around the house?" Trunks asked. "It's so big and interesting…"

Haruka seemed doubtful; then she nodded. "As long as you don't break anything…"

The two brats were gone this instance. They galloped into the hallway and looked around. Then they started to peek into the rooms.

Most of them were big, light and unused since the house was obviously too big for its inhabitants. They managed to find Michiru's room though which was really pretty, quiet and elegant, with easels standing by the walls and a violin case in the corner. The walls were covered with paintings. The soft scent of oil paint was in the air.

"She's a very talented artist," Trunks whispered.

"Maybe she's just bored and doesn't know what else to do with her time," Goten presumed. "Should we go in? I don't think she'd mind…"

"Maybe not, but I don't want to go inside. This room is so… out of this world." The kids quietly closed the door.

The next room was a complete opposite to Michiru's. It was quite a mess, with random clothes on the floor, several books and car magazines on the bed, the walls were covered with car and motorbike posters and there was a shelf on the other side of the room with quite a number of golden trophies on it.

"Wow!" The kids were really impressed. "That must be Haruka's room… it looks like she loves cars and motorbikes!" Trunks admired.

Goten sneaked into the room. "Check out the trophies…" He examined one trophy. "First place in motocross somewhere in… can't read it out… but she has achieved many first places! Is that cool or what?"

Trunks had discovered another door in the other side of the room. He pushed the door open. "Not only that… come check this out."

The other room was smaller and it didn't have any furniture at all, except for a huge piano in the middle of the room. Goten tiptoed closer and pushed one of the piano keys. It gave a clear and loud note which echoed in the empty room. "Let's get out of here!" Trunks hissed and the kids hurried out.

A few doors later they opened a small door almost in the end of the hallway. They peeked in and gasped loudly.

The room was dim, the windows were covered with thick curtains and the furniture was hard to see. Dark shadows were crawling on the walls and when the two boys were really silent, they could hear quiet whispering from the corners of the room. Or at least they thought that they were hearing the whispering.

"Hotaru's room." Haruka's voice suddenly said behind them. "Enter at your own risk. Michiru and I prefer to stay away. That room isn't exactly dangerous… it can just drive you insane when you're here for too long."

"Who is this Hotaru?" Trunks asked, turning around.

"She's the Sailor Soldier of death, and emptiness, and fate, everything like that. Well, mainly death. Everything that has got to do with things human mind isn't able to deal with. She's not evil, if you're afraid of that," Haruka added. "She has a very good heart. Death isn't evil. It just is. Life is easier once you've realized that."

The girl looked at the room. "I don't like this room when Hotaru isn't in the house. When the mistress of those shadows isn't here, they go lurking on their own. That's why I keep this room closed." She shut the door. "Are you two hungry?"

Five minutes later all four Saiyans were in the kitchen, watching Haruka who was sitting on the cupboard and making pancakes.

"I don't like cooking," she remarked, tossing the half-baked pancake into the air, "but Michiru spends most of the day at work or at some art exhibition, so for me it's usually either pancakes or Tamasaki's Pizza Delivery." She shrugged. "And since I don't get along with the pizza delivery guy very well thanks to a last week's incident, then…"

"Where does Michiru work?" Goku asked with big interest. "She seems very young, isn't she supposed to go to school?"

Haruka shrugged again. "She's 18 and she works as a teacher in an art school if you must know." She tossed the pancake on the plate and took a small jar from the cupboard. "Why should she go to school when she can go to work instead?" Haruka opened he jar and poured some white powder on the pancake.

"And you?" Vegeta asked. "You don't seem much older."

Haruka grinned at him. "I'm a month older than her and damn rich, thanks to my motocross career. Here's the first pancake, divide it or play rock-paper-scissors for it if you want." She threw the plate on the table. The Saiyans looked at it suspiciously.

"What's that white powder you poured on it?" Trunks asked.

"Potassium cyanide… what do you think? It's pulverized Senzu beans. I keep a jar in the cupboard, just in case. It would take a ton of regular pancakes to feed you Saiyans. I'm not interested in sitting by the stove for three days or so."

Goku instantly grabbed the pancake and swallowed it. "Yum, that hit the spot… where do you get those Senzu beans?"

"I have my connections," Haruka replied laconically.

Karin-sama was watching the whole scene from one of his magical water pots. "Well, they all seem alive and healthy."

"Good for them." Sailor Pluto was standing in the middle of the room. She had work to do, a lot of work… keeping an eye on the whole Space and Time isn't exactly easy. But sometimes it was nice to visit old friends. Karin-sama was one of Pluto's oldest friends, about as old as the planet itself.

"I think someone should go and tell their family and friends that they're all right so that they wouldn't worry too much," Karin-sama said.

"Don't look at me. I'm busy enough," Pluto frowned. "Besides, you had this guy living here, what was his name, Yajirobe…?"

"He went shopping," Karin-sama replied. "I have nobody else to send. And that Space and Time won't collapse when you're not looking at it for an hour. I'll give you the guide and transport. What do you say?"

Pluto sighed. "But only this time."

A little later a small yellow cloud was flying very rapidly over the fields and rivers. Sailor Pluto sat on the cloud with a very annoyed look on her face.

"Guide and transport…you wouldn't even know where your front side is if you wouldn't have a tail, eh?" she asked the cloud. "I hope it won't take too long…"

Gohan was sitting on the Capsule Corporation building's balcony. He had gone there as soon as he heard about his little brother and Trunks. Together with Bulma they had managed to calm Chichi down and give her a lot of sleeping pills.

Bulma entered the balcony. "How's mom?" the boy asked her.

"Still asleep," the woman replied. "But in case those four intergalactic tourists won't get back soon… god knows what she might do."

"Bulma and Gohan, I presume." The small yellow cloud stopped right behind the ledge of the balcony. Sailor Pluto leaped off it and looked at the two. "I have a message to deliver."