Howdy ho! I'm back again! I'm in a state of shock that my story still hasn't gone off the first page. That must mean that I'm dedicated! I've changed the genre, now. It is now "General". I'm not good at the suspense thing. Anyway, I've finally read volume eight, and I must say that I'm disappointed that my idea for this story was not original. Oh well, at least the storyline's completely different. Okay, sorry to bore you. Here's Chapter Five!
Chapter 5Hiroko kept pounding through the house, ignoring the idea that Suzumi might not even be in the house. She nearly knocked Aya over, but she didn't stop until she finally crashed into Yuhi in the entrance hall.
He was bowled over instantly. "Whoa, watch where you're going, will ya?" he said, annoyed. Hiroko jumped up, mumbled a quick apology, and started to inch away. "Hey, wait a second!" Yuhi called after her. She turned around and looked at him sheepishly.
He got up and finished brushing himself off, muttering something about "too much dust on this stinkin' floor", and then looked up. "Where are you going in such a hurry?" he asked.
"Well, umm… I, uhh… I was, er, looking for Suzumi to tell her something, uh, important, but, uh, I can't find her. Do you know where she is?" she replied. Her cheeks were turning steadily pinker as she said this. By the time she got to the last sentence and sped through it, her whole face was bright red.
Yuhi looked at her in the eye. "Okay: number one, don't stutter; number two, don't get so stressed, you're turning bright red; and number three, Suzumi's out so it'll have to wait 'till later," he said. Hiroko turned, if possible, even redder at this statement. "Uh, thanks," she said quietly. She turned and was about to walk away when the front door opened suddenly. In walked Suzumi, with a crowd of servants carrying shopping bags.
"Suzumi!" shouted Yuhi. "WHERE WERE YOU!"
"Shopping for you," she replied indifferently. "Go help the servants, it's your ingredients anyway." She paused thoughtfully. "You know what, you might as well go finish unpacking your items, it'd save them a job."
"Stop saying 'yours'!" said Yuhi angrily as he walked out of the room and into the kitchen. Hiroko then took her chance and turned to Suzumi.
"Suzumi!" she said. "My family… the Tokiris… they're joining up with the Mikages! Not Aya's grandpa's side… the corporation! They're going to track us down like dogs! What are we gonna do!"
Suzumi blinked, and then did a surprising thing. She laughed. Hiroko stared at her, dumbfounded, not knowing what to say.
Suzumi calmed down a bit and then said, "This is the best news we've had in a long time!" and started laughing again. Hiroko was completely flabbergasted. She thought she had been against the Mikages.
Finally, she stopped laughing and asked, "Where did you find this out?"
Hiroko, still surprised, said, "On the news."
This sent her into another fit of laughter, this time louder and longer than the other fits. Hiroko just about decided that she had gone off her rocker.
When she calmed down enough to speak again, she called in Mrs. Q. "Mrs. Q.," she said in a more businesslike tone. "I want you to get the servants onto the Tokiris, researching every website about them. I need you all to find out what they're up to with the Mikages. Hack if you need to."
Mrs. Q bowed and left, leaving Hiroko to ask, "What's going on?"
"Oh!" Suzumi said. "You didn't know, did you? If the Tokiris have joined with the Mikages, they've provided us with another information source about the Mikages, meaning they'll have Mikage information posted on their websites. And the best part about this is that the Tokiris have enough money to buy anything they wanted, but not enough brains to get a security system for their computers!" She laughed again, saying, "They were so stupid to broadcast this on television!"
"Oh," said Hiroko, relieved. She was pleasantly surprised that this was a good thing for finding out what the Mikage Corporation was up to, but she was also worried about something. She voiced her opinion to Suzumi.
"Won't they cause a lot of trouble now that they've merged, because of C-Project and all?" she asked.
Suzumi looked at her (she had finally calmed down completely). "Yes, I'm afraid so," she said. "But we're going to have to be vigilant if we're going to prevent them from causing more mischief. But at least we can find out what they're planning."
"I hope you're right," said Hiroko in response.
Later that day, Aya came out onto the front porch and sat down. She had just gone to visit her mother with Chidori. Suzumi had already told her about the Mikages and Tokiris merging, and she had exactly the same opinion as Hiroko. She was also worried about her mother, as she still hadn't woken up. Things were starting to get more difficult for her. She wished she could see Toya, or at least phone him…
The silence was disturbed when Hiroko came out onto the porch. "You doing okay?" she asked. Aya nodded. "It sure has been a stressful day, hasn't it?" Hiroko continued.
"Yeah, it has," Aya agreed.
Then, there was silence. After a while, Hiroko asked, "Don't you think it's kinda weird, with us looking so much alike?"
Aya nodded. "Yeah, it is weird. We could be twins!" she said.
Hiroko sat down beside her. "I wonder if we'd look alike if we both transformed," she mused.
Aya looked at her. "Yeah! Ceres does look kinda like your celestial form…"
"Ceres?"
"Oh. She's my celestial form. Suzumi didn't tell you her name?"
"No, she didn't."
They were quiet again. After a while, Aya glanced back at her and looked away. Then she did a double-take.
Hiroko's hair was rapidly darkening to a glossy black color. She had her face in her knees, as if thinking about something. Aya could only stare in amazement as her her hair stopped changing color.
"Um... Hiroko?" Aya asked tentatively.
She lifted her head up slowly and turned towards her. Aya gasped. Her eyes had turned from icy blue to deep, clear green. This was no longer the Hiroko that was sitting quietly beside Aya just a moment ago. This was the celestial maiden that possessed her, the young woman she had rescued that day on the gravel parking lot.
The maiden was silent for a moment as she examined Aya's face. Then she turned her head to the trees surrounding the entrance of the estate.
"I've found you," she said in a quiet, clear voice. Then she lowered her head back into her knees again and closed her eyes.The deep, raven-black color of her hair faded back into Hiroko's original mouse-brown color. Aya was perplexed. Didshe know me or something?she thought. Or maybe she knew Ceres!
Aya was still staring at Hirokoinbewilderment when she suddenly lifted up her face and looked around in surprise. "Oh! I must've drifted off just now!" she said.
Then she looked at Aya and after a moment. Finally, she asked, "What?"
To be continued! This was a long one, but I appreciate it if you "stayed tuned." Alright, this has been Chapter Five of Hiroko, thank you for reading this far? Signing off for now...