As usual, I disavow any rights to the characters from Pretty Guardian SailorMoon. They all belong to Takeuchi Naoko and Bandai.
Greetings to Taeniaea and aserene. (smile) I know it wasn't fast enough, but it is long enough (I hope). Please enjoy, minna!
- Raya
Lonely Harp
Frustration
Makoto sighed softly as she turned over in her sleep. In her dreams, she walked across a wide clearing covered with wildflowers. Her knee-length white dress caught on the long grasses as she went, and her right hand gently batted at seed pods.
The wind began to blow strongly, rusting the tall trees that surrounded the clearing. Looking up, she saw the sky begin to cloud over. Rather than being disappointed, she began to feel more excited. Eagerly, she picked up her pace. She laughed as she dashed into the cover of the trees as the first few raindrops hit the ground.
As she entered the trees and thunder began to rumble, she transformed into Sailor Jupiter. With a delighted smile, she began to dance to the sound of rustling trees, rolling thunder, and falling rain.
A few minutes later, she paused as she heard another sound. Very faintly, it crept its way through the forest, blending in with the sound of the rain drops. Cocking her head curiously, she began to make her way quietly towards its source.
'Stop,' a voice commanded gently inside her head. Surprised, Sailor Jupiter looked around. When she didn't see anything, she continued forward again. Curiously, she noted that a fog was beginning to rise.
'Stop,' the voice said again as she reached the edge of a wall of fog.
Once again, she looked around. This time, her eyes narrowed a little angrily. "Who's there?" she called. No-one answered her.
A few moments later, she moved to step forward into the mist, and the voice came again. 'Stop.'
"No," she replied. "I don't listen to cowards, and I want to see who's playing the harp."
Suddenly, she was covered with a bright, warm green light. As her eyes widened, the light pulled itself off of her, shrank into a six inch ball, and flew a short distance away into the mist in front of her. There, it expanded up and became Sailor Jupiter. Makoto stared at her in disbelief.
"You must stop," Sailor Jupiter said sternly.
"You…" Makoto sighed in disbelief. Abruptly, she shook herself. "Why? Why can't we go forward?"
Super Sailor Jupiter just shook her head without taking her green eyes off of Makoto's brown ones. "She does not wish to be disturbed."
"Who?" Makoto asked a little belligerently. "Why?" As Sailor Jupiter just watched her quietly, her frustration level increased. "Answer me…"
"All you need to know is that you cannot go forward. Go back to your dream," Sailor Jupiter commanded gently. She held back a smile as Makoto shook her head stubbornly and took another step into the mist. "Stop," she said again.
Makoto turned resolutely away from her and began to walk into the mist again. Suddenly, she felt herself caught and held. With wide eyes, she realized that the trees had reached out and caught her. The more she struggled, the tighter they held her.
"You must stop," Sailor Jupiter said again as she appeared in front of Makoto.
"Why are you doing this?" the girl cried out in frustration. "You are me! You should be helping me, not stopping me!"
Sailor Jupiter abruptly turned away and faced deeper into the mist. "We are no longer one," she said tonelessly. "And I have my orders."
"What orders? What do you mean?" Suddenly, Makoto remembered something important. "And why can't I remember you outside of my dreams?"
"We are no longer one," Sailor Jupiter said again as she began to fade into the mist.
As the dream began to fade, Makoto clung stubbornly to the knowledge that she had once been Sailor Jupiter, a guardian of a great princess, and that she had fought against the Dark Kingdom to protect that princess and this world. She squeezed her eyes shut and held on to it, cradling it to her chest as her physical body curled into a fetal position on her bed.
Suddenly, she woke up. As her eyes stared blankly into the early morning light, her face began to crease with uncertainty and displeasure. "What…" 'What was that dream? There was something important,' she thought to herself as she slowly uncurled and sat up. 'Something I was determined to remember…'
When she realized that it had slipped away from her, she frowned grumpily. An irritable, angry, frustrated feeling came and cast a pall over her day. As her alarm began to beep, she glared at it. Finally, she sighed, slapped it quiet, threw off her covers and began to get ready for her new part-time job.
With a fiercely determined look, Rei carried a small bowl into the main temple. She glared at the sacred flame for a moment, and then settled herself in front of it. As she closed her eyes, she took a deep, cleansing breath and let it flow out slowly. She centered herself, and opened her eyes a few moments later.
Slowly, ceremoniously, she raised her hand, scooped some of the incense out of the bowl, and tossed it in an arc gently into the flames. She continued to breathe deeply and rhythmically as the scent of cinnamon and star anise began to fill the room. After a few minutes, she repeated the gesture, and then again after a few more minutes.
After the third toss, she set the bowl on the ground beside her. She closed her eyes once more, and focused all of her attention to what she desired to accomplish. In front of her, the flames crackled and danced. Just under the soft roar of the flame, she heard some of the local birds begin to chirp their greeting to the rising sun. Gently, she pushed that sound out of her mind and concentrated on the sound of the flames.
Eventually, she opened her eyes. As she expected, the woman was once again in the flames studying her with a neutral expression and expressionless violet eyes. The woman's dark hair and skirt moved with the flames, but otherwise she stood perfectly still.
"Who are you?" Rei asked softly. "Why do I feel as if I know you?"
"I am Mars," the woman replied. Silently, she refused to say more.
"Why do I know you? Why are you haunting me?" Rei asked. Sailor Mars did not answer. Brown eyes locked with violet ones as Rei tried to make the woman respond by sheer willpower.
Finally, Sailor Mars' expression thawed and she smiled slightly. "You are stubborn."
"You will answer my questions," Rei responded in a determined voice. She frowned as Sailor Mars' smile grew wider.
"A deal… When you can properly light a candle, you will have your answers," the guardian said. Slowly, she faded back into the flames.
"A candle? What's so hard about lighting a candle?" Rei asked taken aback. She suddenly realized that the woman was almost gone. "Wait!"
"You must light it properly…" she heard Sailor Mars say faintly as she disappeared.
Rei studied the flames for a few more moments, and then sighed in defeat. Sailor Mars was no longer in the flames. Moving with a little more speed, she picked up the bowl, stood up, and left the temple with a bow. 'There's more than one way to light a candle?' she thought to herself as she walked along.
Makoto struggled to keep her expression polite and helpful as the young man she was assisting dithered back and forth between selecting a small bouquet of tulips and an arrangement with a single sunflower. He had been trying to make up his mind for almost five minutes, and she was becoming quite impatient.
"Look, your fiancé likes sunflowers, right?" she asked, trying to prompt him along.
"Oh yes," he replied as he turned from the tulips back to the sunflower. "She really likes them, but… I don't know if she loves them… And she really does love the color red," he said as he turned back to the tulips.
"You should get her the sunflower," she said decisively as she lifted the arrangement up, and moved to carry it to the counter for wrapping.
"Are you sure?" he asked a little anxiously as he followed her, turning to look over his shoulder at the tulip bouquet.
"You can trust Mako-chan'," another male voice said enthusiastically. Makoto blinked in surprise as she turned around and saw Motoki holding a cardboard box and beaming at her customer.
"Really?" the man asked as he looked at Motoki a little suspiciously.
"Oh, yes," he replied, nodding his head decisively. "She has a lot of experience with plants, and she is a woman after all. She would know what another woman would like. Right, Kamekichi-kun?" He grinned down at his pet turtle which blinked up at him from within his cardboard carrier.
The customer's face lit up, and he quickly nodded in agreement. "Of course! Why didn't I think of that?" he exclaimed as he turned back to Makoto. "I'll take the sunflower," he said as he reached into his pocket for his wallet.
"Certainly, sir," she replied, somehow keeping the relief out of her voice. Deftly, she wrapped the flowers in two sheets of paper. The inner one was red, while the outer one was white with the store's name printed on it. Around the package, she tied a red ribbon and attached a big red bow. With a delighted smile, the man paid for the flowers and left the store.
Makoto watched him go with relief, and then turned to begin straightening up the display. Her mood spoiled again, however, when she saw the store manager give her a significant glare. There was no doubt she was a little upset that Makoto had not pushed for the more expensive arrangement. With a grimace and a sigh, she turned to look at Motoki. "And what can I do for you?" she asked a little roughly.
Motoki studied her face, and his smiled dimmed a little. "Um… Actually, I was hoping you could help me," he replied a little bashfully. "You see… Kamekichi-kun has a date, and I was hoping you could help him select some flowers to take with him."
Makoto's hand paused as she inclined her head towards Motoki in surprise. "Kamekichi-kun…"
"Yes," he said as his smiled brightened again. "With a registered lady, so it should be something special. I was thinking maybe roses…"
"Roses?" Makoto asked in surprise. She rolled her eyes and shook her head. With a reluctant smile, she turned and pulled out a few daisies and put them together with a few branches of fern. "Don't you think that roses are a bit much for a first date?"
As she turned back to the counter, the handles of the shears in her apron pocket caught the bucket of daisies and tipped it over. Makoto stared blankly as water and flowers spilled down her pants and onto the floor. Reflexively, she caught the small black bucket before it fell. "Great," she sighed. She put the bouquet she had been making onto the counter, and then bent down to start cleaning up the mess.
Motoki put Kamekichi's box down on the counter next to the flowers, and quickly came around it to help her. "You think so?" he asked as he gently picked up several daisies.
"Eh?" she asked confused.
"You think roses are too much for a first date?" he asked again, trying to distract her. As she picked up the last of the flowers, he snatched up a towel and began to mop up the water. Belatedly, she tried to stop him.
"Motoki," she hissed as she shot a concerned glance towards her manager who was watching her silently. "I'll get it, sir. Please don't concern yourself," she said more loudly as she tried to take the towel away from him.
"Oh, I do this all of the time," he said with a smile. "Besides, I'm almost done. So what would you suggest instead of roses?"
Makoto finally sat back with a sigh, and then rose to put the daisies back in the bucket. "Well, I was going to suggest those daisies with the ferns," she said softly as she lifted the bucket out of the rack. Motoki followed her to the sink and wrung out the towel as she refilled the bucket with water.
"Hmmm… You know, I think turtles like ferns," he said thoughtfully. He nodded decisively and smiled. "Yes, I'll do that." He laid the towel over the edge of the sink and then walked back to the displays and picked up the red tulips. With a smile at her manager, he turned and carried them to the counter. "I'll take these, too."
"Eh?" she asked in surprise as she wrapped up the daisy bouquet. "The tulips?"
"Mm," he replied. "They'll look great beside Kamekichi-kun's home, don't you think?"
"Y-yeah," she said uncertainly. Within a few minutes he had paid for his flowers, put them in the box with Kamekichi-kun (wrapped in plastic, of course), and left with a smile and a wish for her to have a good day.
Several hours later, she made her way tiredly back to her apartment. It had been a horrible day, and she was quite glad it was over. As she reached into her purse to pull out her keys, a flash of red caught her eye. She stared wide eyed at the tulip bouquet that waited patiently on her doorstep for her return home. As she stooped down to pick them up, she saw a small white card.
"I hope these cheer you up. Thank you for the advice. From Motoki." Slowly, a smile appeared on her face. She tucked the card back into the flowers, and then lifted them to her face for a deep breath.
