Hear its silent plea..."
"M'lady, please!"
Minako glanced back once, and, seeing the maid closing the distance between
them, raised her skirts and finally broke into a run.
The maid, catching a look at the exposed calves of her lady, gave a small gasp
of surprise, and soon she too, followed suit and ran after the blonde whirlwind.
Minako soon turned at the curve past the kitchens and shouted to the maid, "I
do not wish to see him, Cora. Tell him that I am not here! Tell him I have gone
hunting, or--or something of the sort. No, tell him I have gone with my father
and will not return 'til a fortnight!"
"But m'lady...!"
Cora's protest died on her lips as she soon lost sight of her mistress. The
only visible trace was the havoc the young baroness left
behind in the kitchens.
She sighed. The sight of the tumbled mess, the clattered silver and the spilt
wine was very familiar. She bent down to help clean up one broken plate and
shook her head resignedly. At the sound of someone chuckling beside her, she
glanced sideways only to see John, the head cook, grinning amusedly.
"Our young lady is one spirited vixen, isn't she?" he said, his grin
growing wider.
"Do not start with me now, Old John," Cora retorted, dusting her skirts
as she stood up with one hand on her hip. "She is always like
this whenever Sir Richard or Sir Ryuzo comes calling. When will she stop running
away? When she is too old to be nothing but an old maid, with nary an heir?"
It was John's turn to sigh and shake his head. "Lady Minako has always
been a free spirit. You can never chain stern stuff of that kind. Until it is
her wish to wed, there is nothing we can do." He turned silent for a moment,
his eyes turning fondly toward the direction where the young lady took off in
such a hurry. "I am uncertain whether or not to pity her. She is happy
and content the way she is here." Then he added, his paternal affections
surfacing, "But I do hope she will find wherever it is her heart lies.
And I pray to the heavens...may it be the best path for her."
Cora turned away, and scoffed, "John, you sentimental old fool." And,
before he had a chance to say anything, she turned her heels and walked away,
hiding the moisture forming at the corners of her eyes.
Minako watched as the ripples grew larger and larger, each new ring disturbing
the calm stillness of the lake. She threw another stone, and then another, and
watched them in the same quiet manner with her knees folded up in front of her.
"If you keep doing that, the water may just rise to eat you up for a change
of diet," a soft, elderly voice spoke behind her.
Minako whirled around suddenly, finding an old woman standing calmly behind
her. Her eyes widened in surprise as she exclaimed,
"Annie?! I did not know you were familiar with this place! What are you
doing here?"
Anne, the old woman, approached her slowly in cautious steps. "To find
you, of course," she replied with a slight smile.
"I am not going back until Sir Richard leaves," Minako answered huffily,
her back turning rigid.
But Anne said nothing. She simply walked towards the girl until she was standing
right beside her. "You will spoil your gown if you sit on the ground like
that," she finally said in the same soft voice.
Minako sighed, but refused to look at the elder. "Did Cora send you here?"
she asked, ignoring the earlier statement.
"No, my dear child," Anne replied, shaking her head. "I have
simply come for a talk."
"If this is about Sir Richard, Annie, then I wouldst we talk some other
day. I would just like to be alone for now. I do not wish to see
him."
Anne smiled again, if patiently. She looked down at her young ward, and said,
"Sir Richard left but a few moments ago. I understand
Cora gave him one of your alibis."
Minako blushed scarlet at the reminder, but continued to remain silent for a
few more minutes.
The old woman sighed now, easing herself carefully beside the younger female
on the soft, mildewed earth. "Minako..."
"I hate it, Annie," Minako replied in a hoarse whisper, unwanted tears
forming in the clear, blue eyes as she turned her face towards the elder. "And
I hate him. Why does Father insist so much that I marry? I am barely aged a
score. I do not like being coerced into a situation I am like to suffer from!"
Anne was silent. She reached out with a comforting arm, but Minako shied away
slightly, ashamed that her eyes were brimming with
tears. "I hate it," she whispered. "But you know I tried, did
you not? By God, you know I tried. But I cannot be expected to surrender myself
to a life I know I do not want. I cannot readily offer myself to be a sacrifice..."
She wiped her eyes hastily. "Why does he do this to me?"
"My dear," Anne whispered in the same low voice, "Your father
loves you. You know that."
"Yea, I know he does," she whispered back. "But I do not understand
why he insists on this matter so much when it can be settled
whenever the right time comes. I am only nineteen, for God's sake! I do not
want to force myself on any situation. I want to have love," she admitted,
with a hollow laugh. "I am foolish, I know. But I want to have love the
way he had before Mother died."
"But we cannot all be that fortunate, my child," Anne said sadly.
"And we women almost never get the best of chances in this world."
"Why is he so eager to have me married, anyway? 'Tis unreasonable, this
farce he persists in believing." She turned to Anne with pleading eyes
and lowered her voice not higher than a whisper, "What about you, Annie?
Do you know anything about it?"
The woman's brown eyes flickered for a moment, but she turned away before Minako
could say anything. "Why do you not trust your
father? You know he only wants the best for you. He just wants to see you settled
down on your own before time passes him by. He would never intentionally hurt
you."
"Well, he is hurting me now," Minako muttered furiously as she stood
up. "You are right about one thing, Annie. Women never get the best chances
in this world." She looked at her elder, whose eyes only bore sadness,
before she turned and walked away. A cold breeze came by as she said her parting
words, "I only wish that someday, things would be different..."
11 OCTOBER 2000
This one is about Minako and Kunzite.
The idea suddenly hit me during my 3-day retreat. I liked it immediately and
decided to write it out as soon
as I got home.
It's mainly set in the modern time, but there's a mixture of medieval. It involves
two different worlds. I
guess I was inspired by all the time and dimension travel stories I've read
and watched. So I guess the setting and
"props" as I call it are all kind of weird.
First of all, I didn't use the old Japanese era. I thought about it, but didn't
go on with that plan because
it didn't seem appropriate. Don't get me wrong, I'm totally in love with stories
from the Meiji and Tokugawa eras, but I
thought that this piece would relate more with a scene of knights and nobilities
instead of samurais and shoguns.
Yes, yes, I know that both main characters are Japanese, but let's overlook
the basic Japanese facts for a while, okay?
After all, there are a lot of animes and mangas with the same setting, but they
still speak Japanese, right? And yes, I'm
retaining the name Minako and Kunzite. That's the other weird thing I mentioned
before (can you imagine a name like
"Kunzite" in modern times? @_@ And "Minako" in what seems
like a European setting?). I am also using "Minamoto" as
Kunzite's last name, since I can't think of anything else to use.
Ugh, I hate the culture clash, but let's just get on with it and hope it turns
out alright. I'm usually a stickler for details (you will notice that if you've
read LOS, my first fanfic ^^;) but this is one exception. I almost didn't write
this because of the many irrational
stuff here. But what the heck, I liked the idea so much!
be pretty much for general viewing (I will be indicating the rating for each
chapter on top of the page, like I always do).
But for the sake of underage readers and some archive policies, I am going to
keep two different versions of parts where there is mature content. One would
be passably wholesome, where every lemon scene is carefully omitted, and the
other would be the complete, unedited version. Just to inform you, the latter
version would certainly fall under the archives of
A Sailor Moon Romance and FanFiction.Net,
because there, fanfics with such content are tolerated.
Thanks to all the people who has been supportive; to my friends--Nic, Eden,
Dani and Fran--for spellchecking!
^_- Thank you also to the wonderful webmistresses that have been kind enough
to post this in their archives of
fanfics. My eternal gratitude.
FOR THE STANDARD DISCLAIMER:
"Angel of Chronos" is a fanfic written by me, Spatula Gurl.All storylines
and concepts are made by me, but Bishoujo
Senshi Sailormoon and its characters are solely Naoko Takeuchi's. I am not making
any profit from this fanfic. All comments and
suggestions should be sent to ucchan@gurlmail.com.