chapter 5
After a restless night, Takako finally forced herself out of bed at around nine o'clock. Everyone was out of the mansion either working or at school, with the exception of Kaoru, who was engrossed in making his latest tulip sculpture in honor of Himeno. (Would he ever learn?) Takako slowly got dressed in her uniform and drowsily meandered around the mansion doing her duties for the rest of the morning.
At around 12:30 Takako finally ate a little something, but she still wasn't very hungry. By one, she was changing into her street clothes and collecting her will to go through with more of Tsui's evil plan.
Takako walked to the same park she had gone to yesterday with who she thought was her old friend Taru. Sure enough, Tsui (who was disguised as Taru again) was sitting on a bench close to where he and Takako had gone into the trees.
"Why hello, Takako my dear, you're right on time," Tsui said smugly. Takako shifted uneasily and looked at the ground in silence. Tsui's playful expression changed to one of anger.
"You had better warm up to me, if my plan is supposed to work as it should," he said annoyed.
"What do you mean?" Takako said worried and confused.
"Remember, I said we were going to be having a date today. You need to act like it. You are going to give me a convincing kiss."
The word "kiss" stabbed Takako in her stomach.
"I would never kiss you!" Takako said disgusted.
"Oh… but you will… you will." Tsui said with a cocky voice and an evil smirk on his face.
Takako sighed. "I… I can't believe I have to do this," she said quietly, "but I must, for Sasame's sake."
"You know, if I killed Sasame, things would be so much easier for you, wouldn't it?" Tsui said mocking her, knowing she would rather suffer than have him kill Sasame.
"Shut up, Tsui. Just tell me what you want me to do," Takako said hardening.
"Well, I am setting up a trap for Sasame so that he will see the two of us kissing. I'll lead him over so that he can just about make out who is sitting on this bench, and when I say kiss me you need to give me your best kiss… a NICE, LONG, PASSIONATE kiss. Then we'll see how everything else plays out," Tsui said grinning wildly.
"Fine," Takako said coldly and calmly, though deep down everything inside her said 'I can't do this!'
- o - o - o -
At around two o'clock Sasame walked out of the radio station and started walking over towards the mansion to go visit Takako. After walking a few blocks a sudden strange, high-pitched sound hit Sasame's ears. Sasame winced as the sound seemed to drill into his head. He looked around and saw that no one else seemed to be affected by the noise. 'What is this sound? No one seems to be affected by it but me?' Sasame thought. A few moments later the noise stopped.
Sasame shook his head as if he had been imagining it and continued walking. After a minute the same high-pitched sound returned. 'That sound is back, and it seems to be getting louder. I should figure out where it's coming from, it could be something dangerous.'
Sasame continued to follow the sound, which got gradually louder and louder. It suddenly stopped when Sasame reached the far gate of the park, making him just far enough away from where Takako and Tsui were that he couldn't 100 identify who the two were.
"Oh good, he's here," Tsui said softly to Takako.
She turned and saw Sasame looking off in the distance, standing by the one gate of the park. "Get ready," Tsui said in a creepy voice.
Takako's heart began to beat wildly with a flurry of emotions: anger, anxiety, sadness…
Tsui, who had been creating the sound, quickly created another burst of the noise. Tsui watched as Sasame's head turned towards them. 'The sound was originating over here,' he thought.
"Kiss me," Tsui said solemnly as he roughly put his arms around Takako's neck and pulled her face towards his.
At the slight pull of Tsui's grip Takako moved her lips towards Tsui's and began to give Tsui a long kiss. In the corner of her eye, Takako could see Sasame watching them.
'Where did the sound go? Geez, look at those two going at it. Wait, the girl kind of looks a little like Takako.' Sasame started to casually walk toward Takako and Tsui when the sound returned again louder than ever, though this time its origin seeming to be blocks away. The sound caused Sasame to wince again and put one of his hands to his ear as he looked in the opposite direction of the two kissing. 'I've got to get this sound to stop!' Forgetting about what was going on in front of him, he turned and started walking briskly out of the park back towards the "origin" of the sound.
When Sasame was out of sight, Takako immediately broke off the kiss.
"Ugh! Disgusting!" Takako said out loud rising from the bench. Takako walked over to a nearby water fountain. Tsui laughed as she got some water in her mouth, swished it around, and spit it out on the ground.
"I feel sick," Takako said, "can I go home?"
"No, not until Sasame is back in Leafenia. Then I'll let you go. I don't want him to run into you, for now. Though how about I buy you a soda in the meantime," Tsui said while grinning.
Tsui grabbed Takako by the hand and started walking out of the park over to a snack stand. Takako trudged along silently.
Sasame walked to where he thought the sound was coming from. The sound stopped and he didn't detect anything out of the ordinary. Sasame sighed and rubbed his head. 'Maybe I'm a little under the weather today.' After hanging around the area for some time and not hearing the noise again, he decided he would forget about it and go to the mansion.
Sasame rung the doorbell of the Awayuki mansion and Mr. Tanaka answered the door.
"If you are looking for Takako or Miss Himeno they are not home yet."
"You know me too well, Mr. Tanaka," Sasame said smiling. "I was actually coming to see Takako this time, do you know where she may be?"
"I am sorry, I do not know," Mr. Tanaka replied.
"Thank you," Sasame said as he turned and headed toward the gate to Leafenia.
- o - o - o -
Sasame returned to Leafenia and decided to go for a walk.
'I wonder where Takako is. Why wasn't she home? Was that girl in the park Takako? It couldn't be? Could it? Would she do that to me? No… I'm not thinking clearly. That annoying noise was so distracting, I wasn't thinking straight. Heck, I'm still not thinking straight. I feel like my ears are still ringing from that noise. Maybe I just need to clear my head a little.'
Sasame found a nice quiet place and sat down on the ground leaning against a tree. Within minutes Sasame closed his eyes and fell asleep.
"Sasame," a cute cherubim like voice said gently.
Sasame drowsily opened his eyes and found Shin, Hajime, and Mannen standing in front of him.
"Sasame, Go said that we should go find you since dinner will be ready soon," Hajime said.
"Okay," Sasame said slowly rising and walking toward the Leafe knights' home as the three younger knights ran ahead of him.
"Come on slow poke!" Mannen called.
'I'm not sure how long I was napping, but I still feel tired. Maybe I should go to bed right after dinner. I can figure out what happened with Takako tomorrow,' Sasame thought as he walked along.
