27/06/05 - And here we are, chapter 19 is ready for you, guys : )

freakyicefairy: Truth to be told, I haven't written chapter 20 yet, so this -could- be an incomplite story. However, I'll do my best to finish the fic, that's a promise ; )

Bruteaous: As I said, about the Samurai and cherry blossom thing, it wasn't an idea of mine. I have to thank Suiren for that (again, arigatou : D ) About the sequel, I haven't decided yet... but I can tell you that this story will end before episode 110.

shinn: I would be honoured to invite you to visit my country if the places you want to see are Florence, Venice, Rome... I'm Italian, not Japanese : D About the places I've mentioned, I knew about them just because I've searched on the web for the information I needed.

For those people who want to know how Nami figured out that Haruka is a girl: please, be patient and you'll know... maybe... ; b


Chapter 19: Searching for the Truth

All around them was silence... a heavy, expectant silence... one that made even the softest noise sound like an explosion.
They had to be cautious or their mission.. their very lives.. might be in danger...
The smaller figure moved behind her seated partner, lightly touching her shoulder: "He will be back in ten minutes."
The other person was staring at the monitor of a computer, her hands ready on the keyboard: "I know.. which one is the password?"
The standing figure handed her a slip of paper and the sitting girl rapidly typed something that appeared at once on the screen as a series of asterisks... she pressed enter and waited... an alert message popped up on the screen: 'Error'.
"Shimatta..." the figure at the keypad cursed.
"Try the other one." her partner whispered, pointing to the second word written on the piece of paper... again the sitting person tapped something in, pressed enter and waited... another message, but this time it was a welcome message: they were in.
The seated individual allowed herself a satisfied smile, causing her partner to do the same... but when the smaller figure glanced at her watch, she got serious again: "We only have 7 minutes left..."
The other person nodded gravely and put her hand on the mouse... the cursor on the screen moved over several icons... she double-clicked on one of them and a window popped up on the screen... there were all the files shared on the local intranet.
She quickly turned her attention to one of those files... it was named 'Mugen High'. Again she double-clicked on the icon and a long list appeared... it was an archive of all the students divided by class... there was all kinds of personal information even about the two of them... their previous schools, their interests and various activities... it wasn't that strange, was it?
"This is not what we're looking for, Haruka."
"I know..."
The girl with aqua-colored hair moved away from her partner and took hold of the the door knob to make sure that noone could interupt them - not when they were so close to a break through.
Her sitting friend closed the file and continued her search through various documents, then... "Michiru, look at this..."
The girl went back to her partner's side to watch the screen over her shoulder... it was a newspaper article. In the middle there was a photograph of a ruined building, the destruction appeared to have been caused by an explosion of some kind... but what caught her attention was the smaller picture of a man... she read the name written underneath in astonishment: "Professor Tomoe Souichi."
"Exactly. Our man." They both recognized the founder of their school.
Haruka rapidly scanned the article: "Terrifying explosion at the Ichigoya Laboratories. There are still no clues to the exact cause, but it was reportedly due to a failed experiment a team of scientists were working on. The only people to survive the tragedy were the lead researcher of the project, professor Tomoe Souichi and his six-year-old daughter, Hotaru."
"He has a daughter..?"
"That's what it says..."
"When did this happen?"
The taller girl looked for a date and found it: "Four years ago."
"So, now she should be..."
"10 years old."
"Still Haruka, this isn't going to help us..." a slight sound startled them both into silence.
"We'd better go." the blonde whispered after several tense heartbeats.
The young car racer closed the document and was on the point of shutting down the computer when she noticed something... an icon in the shape of a black star with an infinite symbol in it, the file name was 'Pure Hearts'.
Haruka knew it couldn't be just a coincidence, but when she tried to open the file, another alert message showed up. They needed a password.
Michiru observed what her friend was doing, keeping an eye on her watch: "Hurry! We don't have much time..."
The sitting girl used the password that let them log in, but it failed.
She tried the other few guesses they had found during months of research at Mugen High, but none of those worked.
"Haruka, there's no more time!"
"Shimatta.." she knew in her heart that this file was the important one, but they had to go now or the principal would find them here.
Quickly she shut down the computer and followed Michiru. There were only seconds left...

The young couple hurried out of the room and walked qickly down the corridor that lead to the outer office area... as they turned last corner that divided them from the completion of their 'spying mission', they ran right into the last person they wanted to meet.
"Tenoh-san, Kaioh-san... were you looking for me?" the principal asked, sounding surprised.
"No, sir." replied Michiru with an unbreakable calm: "We just wished to speak with Takashi-sensei about his lesson, but he isn't in his office." she explained glancing at the locked door next to principal's own office... where they had just come from... it was true that their strict teacher was never there at that hour which was, of course, why they had chosen that time to snoop around.
"Well, then..." the principal said cooly, "if you'll excuse me, I have a lot of work to do."
The young couple bowed at the same time as Haruka spoke: "Have a nice day, sir." then they calmly walked away, not knowing that the principal was still watching them with cold, blank eyes...

"Have we blown it?" Haruka spoke first in a whisper.
"I don't know..."
"Our plan was just perfect and then... shimatta!"
"Well, not so perfect if he caught us there. It's better to keep quiet for a while.. just to be sure they don't suspect anything..."
"I guess you're right..."
They fell silent as they walked towards the lift. The young car racer pushed a button and when the sliding doors finally opened, they stepped in.
"The accident involving the professor..."
As the taller girl heard her partner's soft voice, she looked up to listen.
"Could it be linked with the wrongness we've felt here?" Michiru had her hand thoughtfully on her chin.
"Maybe or maybe not... we aren't even sure what kind of experiments the professor was working on... hell, we also don't know if he's even continued his work. Ichigoya Labs were state of the art, we don't have anything like it here."
They had studied the map of the entire Mugen High skyscraper, floor after floor, but there was no sign of any kind of laboratory... it didn't seem as if such a thing could exist. However, it was Michiru who had noticed that a disproportionate number of daimons they defeated had morphed back into Mugen students. For months they had kept a low profile... well as low as the oh so handsome racer and beautiful violisit could keep. But outside of their battles nothing strange had happened to them at school. Realizing that their plan wasn't giving them the results they desired, they had become bolder.
"The only thing we can do right now is wait and keep on fighting the youma to find the Talismans."
Haruka didn't like the idea at all, but Michiru was right and she knew that. Another rash move like today and their cover could fall to pieces.
It was better to stay put and just try to control what was going on from the inside...

As the elevator came to a halt, opening its doors, they found themselves in front of a kneeling girl... she was younger than them, with black hair covering her face... and she was hardly breathing.
Haruka frowned at what she saw and automatically moved forward to gently touch the smaller girl's shoulder: "Is there something wrong?"
At the unexpected touch, the young girl jerked back from the racer and moved away, trying to get to her feet: "It's.. it's nothing... it will pass... it always does..."
The tall blonde looked at her partner and realized that Michiru was as worried as she... but before they could do anything, the black-haired girl pushed between them and disappeared into the lift...
"Who was that girl?" asked Michiru, her mind still focused on that slim body... those big, sad eyes... the deep contrast between her pale face and her dark hair...
"I have no idea..." Haruka replied in a low tone. She couldn't quite understand what, but she had felt something when she'd touched that girl... a sense of familiarity... some sort of nostalgic feelings. Also what concerned her the most was the surge she'd felt, it was the pulsing glow of some sleeping power. Looking into Michiru's deep blue eyes, she knew for sure that the young violinist felt the same apprehension...

Elsewhere in the building five figures in white coats were talking in the darkness of what looked like a locker-room.
"These humans are really useless."
"As if we didn't know..."
"However I still wonder how they have managed to get to our files..."
"What do you mean?" a shocked voice asked.
"They were on one of the computers linked to the local web." one of the other voices revealed snidely.
"What?"
"It's true..."
"Someone tried to open the Pure Hearts directory."
"We were lucky, with the right password, you could get into all of our files."
"N-nani? But that's crazy!"
"You said it."
"Who is that stupid incompetent who put them all there?"
"Actually... it was Professor Tomoe."
"..."

A loud sneeze interrupted the work of a tall man with white hair and big glasses, hiding his eyes. He had a strange, evil smile on his face...
There was a glass container full of water over a burner on the long table in front of him, along with many phials and other things he needed for his experiments.
Focusing again on what he was doing, the Professor slowly poured the embryo contained in the phial in his right hand in the glass container.
A reaction seemed to occur and the embryo started to grow until it broke the glass and floated in the air in the shape of an egg.
"Kaolinite..." he spoke with a deep voice.
"Hai, I'm here." a beautiful woman with cold eyes and hair as red as the narrow dress she was wearing under her white coat, appeared from nowhere right behind the mysterious man.
"At last I have completed the eggs of Daimon! They can detect those human beings with pure hearts and steal them!"
"Pure hearts?"
"That's right... the Sacred Cup, with which I can control the world as I wish, appears only when the three Talismans are brought together. The three Talismas are in the pure heart crystals of three special people."
"Then if we find those selected human beings and obtain the Talismans..."
"...we can get the Sacred Cup! And the world!" and with that last sentence, the man burst into hysterical laughter, while the egg just flew away and vanished from sight, soon followed by the red-haired woman...