The white door, decorated solely with a sticker that cried "MINAKO'S ROOM" in sloppily written kanji, opened slowly and silently. Artemis watched as Minako stepped out, her breath held in her chest. In slow-motion she stepped into the hallway, turned around, and softly closed the door without making a sound. She grinned at the cat and made a "V" signal with the fingers of her right hand. He returned her smile – although not her hand gesture, owing to his lack of hands – and the two descended the staircase.
The small yard at the back of the house was a little chilly, but it was the only place other than her bedroom that they could really talk in private. She didn't want to imagine what her parents would think if they knew the strange cat that had started living with them one day was capable of speech.
Artemis hopped up onto the stone wall that separated them from the quiet, deserted street. The sun had begun its daily descent and evening was in full swing. It had been several hours since the battle at the park. When they had arrived home afterwards, Shizuka had made a call to her concerned parents, in which she had apologised for her odd behaviour with legitimate guilt that made Artemis' heart do a somersault, and told them she'd be home tomorrow as she was staying over at a friends' house. The second she had placed the receiver down, Minako had gone into overdrive.
Shizuka, showered and dressed in Minako's clothing at her new friends' insistence, had been the first person to sit through an entire Aino Minako concert, something that her best friend Hikaru and even Artemis himself could not testify to.
At first, Shizuka appeared to be a little embarrassed as Minako paraded up and down her bedroom wearing every ridiculous "pop idol" accessory she could find. Oversized sunglasses, fake shoulder pads, lots of jewellery – most of it "borrowed" from the box under her mother's bed – feather boas, hats of all shapes and sizes, and more besides. As she charged through her carefully choreographed dance sequences – Artemis knew only too well how much time she spent rehearsing them in lieu of doing her homework – she warbled various karaoke classics into a plastic microphone.
It was a battery operated toy that had stopped working when Artemis had accidentally pushed it out of a window. Even without its terrible ear-destroying power, however, it was still a useful prop. The sticky tape wrapped around the bottom, holding it together after the unfortunate incident, did nothing to diminish the glamour.
With every song, however, Shizuka's unease lessened, until she was finally persuaded to join Minako "on-stage" (on the bed) as a "special guest" for the final number. Artemis, who had previously enjoyed the anonymity of "random bystander" status, was upgraded to audience member. To say he hadn't smiled all the way through the haphazard song would be a lie, though. The smile on Shizuka's face as she struggled to keep up with a veteran like Minako was a delight to witness.
Following the concert, they had eaten dinner. Minako's mother had widened her eyes with surprise upon meeting her daughter's new friend, noting the bruises on her face, but she had hidden it well and, noting Shizuka's obvious self-conscious discomfort, had made no mention of it. Hikaru being a regular guest at her table, she had no trouble supplying the meal itself, and was every bit the gracious host.
After dinner Minako had dragged her back upstairs, where they had watched an awful American horror movie called "Friday the 13th". The dubbing into Japanese had been awful, as was to be expected, although he couldn't imagine the original being a marked improvement. Unable to say or do anything due to their company, Artemis had shown his distaste by mewing loudly during the more unpleasant parts of the movie, of which there were many. However, after the third time a pillow hit him square in the face, he decided to keep his mouth shut.
After the credits rolled, around 90 minutes too late for Artemis' taste, Minako had cracked open the make-up box – again, "borrowed" from her mother's bedroom – and they had applied unhealthy amounts of garishly bright lipstick to their faces and painted their finger and toenails in every colour of the rainbow.
Finally, exhaustion had started to make itself apparent. Not on Minako's part – she always had energy to spare – but on Shizuka's. After the day she'd had, it was hardly a surprise. Minako had kindly offered her the bed to sleep in. Shizuka had put up as much of a resistance as she could, but nothing was going to change Minako's mind.
"She's asleep," Minako said, leaning on the wall beside the cat.
He nodded. "I can't blame her," he mused, his mind throwing up the unwelcome image of her screaming, bleeding face from only a few hours previous. He turned to look at Minako, and saw the same expression on her face. Her eyes wavered slightly.
"Mina," said Artemis in his most reassuring tone. "You did a good job today. I'm very proud of you."
Minako's mouth smiled, while her eyes went further in the opposite direction. A single teardrop wrestled free of her eyelid and splashed silently onto the brick, between her hands. She raised them to her face and rubbed them. When she removed them, the tears were flowing more freely.
"Artemis…" she sighed, her voice wavering sadly. "If you hadn't stopped me, I might have…"
Artemis walked forwards, until his face was only an inch from hers. She didn't meet his eye. "Mina," he said firmly. "Look at me."
She didn't.
"Look at me," he said again. Her tear-filled blue eyes slowly raised themselves to his level. "You did nothing wrong," he told her, without an ounce of doubt. "You saved my life today, and you saved hers too."
She broke eye contact again. Her chin sank to meet her chest and her shoulders began to shake. Artemis placed a paw on top of her hand and rubbed it softly. "You're a soldier now, Mina. You have to fight. It's not something that anybody wants to do, and there isn't a single day that I don't feel guilty for placing such a weight on your shoulders. There is enough sadness and pain in this world as it is. That's what we are fighting against. There's no reason to create more."
Minako let out a weak sob and wrapped her arms around him, clutching him to her chest. Artemis gently rubbed his nose against her wet cheek. "You have nothing to be guilty about," he said gently. "This afternoon that girl was ready to turn her back on life. Only a few hours later, she's joining the world famous idol, Aino Minako, on stage!"
Minako giggled through her tears. She looked down at his face.
"If you don't feel proud of yourself for anything else today," said Artemis as he gazed back at her, his usually intense blue eyes softened with compassion, "feel proud of yourself for the smile you put on her face."
Minako simultaneously burst into tears and laughter. She squeezed him harder, giggling and sniffling.
Gradually, her sniffles subsided and she fell silent. They were left swaying from side to side gently, as if carried by the soft breeze that had awoken with the evening. Her tears ceased. She placed him back on the wall in front of her and wiped her eyes with her sleeves.
"Sorry," she giggled, her voice still a little shaken. "That was silly of me."
Artemis shook his head. "Compassion is one of your greatest assets, Mina," he said, fixing her with a wink. She smiled, before turning around to look up at her bedroom window. Artemis followed her gaze. Minako let out a long sigh.
"I don't understand, Artemis…" she said, slowly. "Why would she want to hurt herself? Those scratches on her arms are terrible, and the bruises on her face… she looked worse than some of those people in the movie tonight."
Artemis shook his head. "I've been thinking about it all night. It seems to me that that shadow – Zetsubun – entered her body because she'd been weakened by some kind of tragedy. Did she say anything to you tonight?"
"No," said Minako, shaking her head slowly. "Nothing like that."
"I think I might know anyway," said Artemis. "She used to go to the park with her boyfriend all the time. She adored him. I haven't seen him since she's been acting this way, and she hasn't mentioned him or called him."
"You think they broke up, and she was so heartbroken that shadow possessed her?" asked Minako incredulously. It seemed a little far-fetched, like something out of her one of her manga.
"I know it sounds strange," replied Artemis, reading her mind, "but it's a very likely explanation. I think she gains power through the misery of her host. Like a psychological parasite."
"Oh, I remember that from school!" Minako interrupted.
Artemis nodded, hiding his surprise that she had retained anything from school aside from gossip. "It's likely that the shadow has been increasing her despair to unbearable levels. That's why she tried to hurt me, and why she hurt herself. To try and alleviate it. Today, when I stopped her from taking those pills, she must have felt utterly hopeless. It was then, at her most painful moment, that Zetsubun fully consumed her."
Minako nodded as she took it all in. "But", she said, raising her index finger. "is this thing gone for good? We saw it melt away, but perhaps it was just weakened and it's still inside her."
"That, I don't know," said Artemis sadly. "Whatever the case, you have to pay close attention to her from now on. Even if it is still inside her, then you can defeat it by being her friend. If misery and despair are what sustains it, then you need to make her feel happy, like you did tonight. It must have been weakened by the battle today. It won't be able to withstand another Aino Minako concert, that's for sure!"
Minako grinned. She rubbed his chin with her thumb.
"Come on," she said. "Let's get back inside. It's getting cold out here."
Sure enough, it was. Artemis hadn't noticed thus far, his fur coat making him a little less susceptible to the elements than a human, but the cool breeze was beginning to toughen as the sky grew darker. He hopped off the wall and followed Minako into the house.
The day after the battle at the park, Minako – after she had served out the remainder of her detention – had introduced Shizuka to the Crown Game Centre.
It was an arcade, filled with games of all shapes and sizes. Shizuka had walked by it a few times and peered through the sliding doors that served as an entrance curiously, but had never actually ventured inside. This was due to the advice of her mother, who insisted that such places were for unruly boys. Apparently, Minako's mother hadn't given her daughter such advice. Or, more likely, she had and Minako had chosen to ignore it. Given her wayward personality, the second option seemed the most likely.
At first, Shizuka had been a little uncomfortable among the shouting, cheering students that populated the arcade. Her face, although it had begun to heal, was still bruised and a little swollen. Minako assured her that nobody would stare at her, and sure enough, nobody seemed to pay the slightest bit of attention, being far too engrossed in the games themselves.
Minako had quickly introduced her to Furuhata Motoki, a boy who worked part-time in the arcade. He was a few years older than the two, and rather a handsome man, short blonde hair atop an attractive face and friendly smile. Shizuka had found herself blushing and looking away as he said smiled and said hello. Minako, on the other hand, had attached herself to his arm like a bear-trap until he prised her off, insisting he had work to do, and vanished into the crowd.
Minako had given her a quick tour of all the best games, spending a terrifying amount of her allowance in the process. A realistic racing car game was first, where the two raced against each other. To Shizuka's amusement – and embarrassment – Minako had thrown herself around as if she were actually inside a speeding car while playing it, until she lost control of the wheel and crashed into a wall.
The next game had been a shooting game, where you held a plastic gun and had to shoot lasers at targets on the screen, ranging in size and shape from little cute monsters to big ugly monsters. Again, Minako threw herself into the role, twirling the gun around until the thin cable connecting the gun to the game cabinet wrapped around her wrist and she was promptly devoured by a horde of slavering space beasts.
Unperturbed, they had moved on to the UFO catchers. The crane games were full of small plush toys from all kinds of anime and videogames. Minako's first attempt to catch anything resulted in failure. On her second time, she was delighted to pick up a plush of a purple cat, gleefully saying that she could introduce it to Artemis as a girlfriend. Unfortunately, the feline wrestled free of the crane arm and rejoined the rest of the soft toys before it was dropped into the chute. Her allotted allowance running low, she had decided against a third try.
Next, they had played a game that seemed of particular interest to both Minako and Shizuka. The game was called Sailor V, and it featured a girl with blonde hair, with a red ribbon atop her head and a red mask over her eyes, fighting various monsters. Shizuka guessed she'd seen the game somewhere before, because the main character seemed familiar to her, although she couldn't recall how or why exactly. She had noticed that Minako bore quite a resemblance to V-chan, with her blonde hair and red ribbon. She didn't say it out loud for fear of embarrassing her friend, but she wondered if her hairstyle was actually replicated from the game.
After Minako's turn, which lasted quite a while – Shizuka got the impression she had put in a lot of practice and even more of her allowance – Shizuka had a turn. She hadn't lasted long, having not played many games, but it had been a lot of fun and Minako had been on-hand to tell her all the tips and tricks.
After they had finished, Minako's friend Hikaru had arrived, fresh from cram school, and following the introductions the trio had ascended the stairs at the side of the building. Above the Crown Game Centre was the Crown Fruit Parlour, a diner that sold various refreshments. It was a charming place, with a quiet and relaxed atmosphere. Tables and booths were spaced out along it, separated by attractive green plants.
Minako, Shizuka and Hikaru took residence at a booth in the corner, and the three ordered a soda each.
As they slowly drained the cups with long, brightly coloured straws, they chatted about all manner of things. As usual, Minako led the conversation. Shizuka listened with a smile on her face, occasionally nodding or giving her opinion but otherwise letting Minako do what she did best.
Shizuka had always been a shy girl, and making friends had been difficult for her. She was an introvert, and rather sensitive. She always had been. As a child, she had remained in her room and studied while the other children had been playing outside. By the time she had reached junior high school, where the students had all fallen into their respective groups and established their place among their peers, she had still been alone. She had discovered the little garden at Shiba Park at that time, and it had become her private sanctuary. She wasn't disliked, by any means. She was just there in the background, not particularly noticeable.
That was why Yukio had been so wonderful. Taking the first step and initiating a friendship seemed like an incredible challenge to Shizuka. When she had noticed him staring at her during lessons, she had hidden herself behind a book, half-expecting a sneer or a whisper to follow. To her astonishment, he had introduced himself to her during the break for lunch, and proposed that they date.
Shizuka had to fight to stop herself from fainting, and had asked him with a trembling voice if he was serious. He had replied that he was, and explained that he had watching her for a while and thought she was cute. Quiet and dignified, unlike the other girls.
Unlike Mina-chan, she thought wistfully, as she watched the blonde suck down the remainder of her soda with a loud, satisfied slurping sound and continue to sing the praises of Motoki-san, the arcade guy. Just like him, Minako had been the one to initiate their relationship, offering her kindness and sympathy when it seemed that nobody cared. Just like that, they had become friends. Somebody like Minako made it seem so easy. She smiled, a little ashamed that she was actually envious of her new friend.
She and Yukio had begun to date, and it had been wonderful. With him, she felt she could be herself. She had told him everything about herself. Her thoughts, her feelings, her dreams. She had even shown him her special little place at the park, and from that point on it had become their special little place, a place where the outside world ceased to exist and it was just the two of them.
Her parents, particularly her father, had not approved, claiming he was a bad influence. Shizuka had not agreed with them. Yukio had been kind and warm. Seeing her shyness, he had never attempted to kiss her. He had waited some time before he even put his arm around her. Shizuka appreciated this. She'd been sure that someday, she would share her first kiss with him, and they would get married and live happily ever after. It would be just like a fairytale. Her prince, rescuing her from isolation and taking her away on the back of his magnificent white stallion.
But of course, that hadn't happened. He had left her for reasons that she still didn't understand. The thought stung, but it didn't make her want to cry like it had before. A small glimmer of hope had begun to shine where before there had been only darkness. Words ran through her head, words unfamiliar to her, and yet words she was sure she had heard.
"There is always the chance for love to begin again. With each broken heart, a girl becomes stronger, and understands herself a little more, so that the next love will be even more wonderful."
As much as she struggled to remember, she couldn't place the origin of the words, or picture the person that had spoken them, but nonetheless they loosened the vice around her heart. She trusted the words. On those nights following their break-up, she had been sure that she would never be able to live again. It seemed too much to hope that even a smile would one day cross her lips. But she was smiling right now, as she half-listened to Minako complain about the amount of homework she had waiting for her at home.
Her train of thought led her to the cold, needle-like voice that had haunted her. She wondered if it had ever existed at all. It seemed so unreal now, thinking back. It had seemed real at the time, but the logical part of her mind told her that it must have her own mind, speaking out of despair.
The memory of the bottle full of pills from the medicine cabinet flashed through her mind, but she forced it away. Sitting in this booth, on a bright afternoon, drinking a soda with her new friends, those horrible thoughts seemed like a nightmare that had finally begun to fade in the warming light of the morning sun.
She didn't need to think about those terrible things anymore. The voice, if it had ever been there at all, was gone. Her face would heal. The scars on her arms would remain, but she didn't mind that. They would serve as a reminder of a terrible time, a foolish period in her life, a time she wished never to return to. But while the scars on her body would remain, she knew that the pain in her heart would heal. It would take time, but eventually she would be stronger than she had been before.
"Shizuka-chan?" came Minako's voice, startling her free of her thoughts. She blushed and bowed her head slightly. "Sorry, I was just thinking about something," she said apologetically.
Minako smiled and waved a hand in dismissal. "I was just asking if you wanted another soda."
"Oh, well, I would," replied Shizuka, realising that she had emptied the one before her. She hastily added "if you don't mind, of course."
Minako shook her head and grinned. "Of course not! After all, Hikaru-chan is paying? Ne, Hikaru-chan?"
Hikaru smiled and nodded. "If I know you, Mina, you'll be down to your last 10 yen after spending an hour in the Game Centre."
Minako giggled and fiddled with the bow atop her head. "Something like that."
Hikaru stood up. "Same again?" she asked, nodding her head towards the empty cup that Shizuka still clutched between her hands. Shizuka nodded.
"Thank-you, Hikaru-chan," she said politely. Hikaru grinned. "Don't worry about it," she replied. She turned and headed over to the counter on the other side of the room.
Minako smiled. "Everything okay?" she asked, kindly but not with concern. "You seem to have something on your mind."
"With each broken heart, a girl becomes stronger," thought Shizuka, "and understands herself a little more, so that the next love will be even more wonderful."
She wished she could remember where she had heard the words, or who had spoken them, so that she could thank them.
"It's nothing," said Shizuka, returning her smile. "But thank-you, Mina-chan."
