THE SCARLET DIARIES:
Extracts from a little book found in the Cat Kingdom

THE HAPPY SHOUT OF MY HEART

I found her today in the sea. Haru Yoshioka, in case you still don't know whom I'm referring to. She was swimming in the rough midday waters in a cove near the fortress, and she was all alone. Some folded-up towels lying on a boulder on the rocky shore and a little bag on them greeted my eyes as I strolled towards her.

It was the fourth day of our stay, and the first of King Lune's troops were just beginning to trickle in to the fortification, looking for all the world like they had rushed through a minefield before getting here. Their countenances were far more different than ours when we arrived, and I was thankful for Baron and Gabriel and the flying shortcut we took.

Fort Lorum, as I have discovered, is charmingly anachronistic and yet modern, like the rest of the Cat Kingdom. Thick old stone encompasses the sprawling fort proper, which straddles the coastline, while Tudor-like dwellings with white sidings and wooden beams dark with age form a peaceful contrast to the gray fortification. Here and there on the flowerbox-lined streets you sometimes encounter those mysterious flying eyes the Cats use for security purposes. They pay the golden orbs no mind, but I find them disconcerting. Yesterday I stuck my tongue out at one of them, and Baron commented that around a dozen cats must be laughing in the fort at what I did. I said I didn't care, and kept making faces at it until it sped off.

The Russian Blue Windamary took us to see one of the troopships moored at one of the piers near the fortress. She, too, was both old and modern at the same time. Matatabi was her name—why was I not surprised? She had a clipper-like hull, but also sported a worryingly modern pair of long-barreled cannon on her front and rear decks, along with various antennas strewn amidships. Instead of the vast panoply of rigging and canvas that sailing ships usually have, however, she had in their place two trim rotating sail arrays fore and aft, and in between a solitary rotor sail, a giant bobbin stood up on one end and stuck in the middle of the ship.

We—Haru, Baron, Moon, Seiji and I—stepped on board and did a quick look-see. Then we separated. Baron, accompanied by his large friend, went back to Gabriel, saying that they had a lot of things to prepare, while Haru, Seiji and I walked at our leisure around town. (These little cards Lune gave to us are proving very handy. I wonder why I haven't gone on a shopping spree yet.) Then we spent the evening at a pub in the fort named La Ballade de Piano en Pierre, and Seiji jammed with the cats there. They got along so well together that they arranged a little session for today, and so my dear left me alone to do what I wish. No flying or healing was his only warning to me.

I had asked around for Haru, been given directions as to where she was last seen, and found her in the sea, and I strolled up to where her things were and waited for her to come out of the water. I wondered what mizugi she was wearing, as I hadn't seen her buying anything yesterday, nor did she appear to have brought any along with her from our world.

Haru seemed ensconced in her private sanctuary, so I let her alone. I had waited about an hour before she emerged from the water. I saw that she was wearing what appeared to be an opaque, long-sleeved white t-shirt. She spotted me and modestly covered herself up.

"Ohayou," I greeted as she came towards me. "Enjoy your swim?"

She smiled as she reached the side of the boulder. "Yes. I thought I was all alone here." She levered herself up and sat on the rock beside me, on my left. She's a beautiful girl, Haru is. Much taller and prettier than I am. The only person I know who'd dispute that is Seiji, and is one of the reasons why I keep him around. Teehee.

"I wish I'd thought of taking a dip," I said. The waves boomed and hissed onto the shore. "Did you get that in town?" I pointed at the outlines visible through her wet shirt.

"Uh, no, sensei. Actually, I'm wearing a set of what Yuki had made for me. Some are suitable as swimwear anyway, and I didn't expect company, so I thought that wearing them and this shirt would suffice."

I tapped an index finger against my chin. "You know, that shirt looks awfully familiar."

Haru looked down at herself. "It does?"

It clicked into place. "I have it! That's Baron's, isn't it? It's his style—ruffled at the buttons, a rather conservative cut... only how'd you get into it?" I lifted an eyebrow.

"I, uh, well..." She blushed a deep red. Being fair-skinned is rotten if one wishes to hide one's feelings. The cats are lucky they have all that fur to hide their skin. Then again, it's a dead giveaway to when they're frightened or startled.

"I borrowed it from him," Haru admitted finally, and with the set look on her face of a person who has seen what rocks and shoals lie ahead of her ship and thought, in the best Farragut fashion, damn all the torpedoes, full steam ahead! "You know, Baron Humbert von Jikkingen." Her voice went down in volume a couple of notches. "He has the strangest things in that bag of his."

"Oh?" A challenge, if ever I heard one. "And how would you know?"

Haru looked sidelong at me. I don't know if she rolled her eyes beforehand. It sure looked like it. "I peeked."

"Really?" My turn. "You shouldn't go tampering with other people's things."

"I wasn't tampering. Merely borrowing. And he knows it."

I don't know if Haru has ever realized it, but I—a woman—could hear 'SEDUCTION' screaming off her voice as if it were being blasted through a megaphone straight into my ear. She knows how to turn it on, I'll give her that.

"And is Sir Cat happy with you borrowing his... stuff?"

She didn't answer. Instead she bunched her long pale legs up and hugged her knees.

"Shizuku-sensei, are you happy about me... borrowing what Baron owns?" A lovely game, this skirting around the real issue.

I thought the time was right to come clean. "Not really, Haru. I mean, are you two happy right now?"

"Yes, we are."

"And in the future?"

"In the future?" There was a little chuckle. "What future, sensei? You know this has no future as well as I do." A particularly strong roller reached the base of our boulder, hissing, trying to reach up with white fingers of foam and failing.

"Then why did you do it?"

"Do what?"

"Er... borrow him, whatever you want to call it, Haru." I shrugged a little. "I don't want to see either of you get hurt."

Haru looked out at the sea so long I thought she wasn't going to speak any more. "I want his love, sensei. Even for a little while only. Then Louise can have him back. But even that little while is better than spending the rest of my life wondering what it would feel like... to care for him. It's selfish, I know. Please don't lecture me on it."

"If I were my father, the first thing I'd say would be that you needed that lecture. But I'd rather not judge you, Haru. You alone walk the path you chose, like I did long ago."

"Though it would go through a valley of rusted nails and broken bottles, and I walk it barefoot," she intoned sadly, taking a towel from her things and putting it over her shoulders. "Sensei, I'm glad."

"About what?"

"That you didn't condemn me out of hand, like I thought you would."

"I'm not approving your relationship either, but I don't think you'd care one way or the other."

"Oh, that's just not true." Haru unfolded herself and stood up on the rock, and I found myself looking at a lithe expanse of water-beaded legs and thigh. "I do care about what you say about it. After all, Baron's sort of your creation too, isn't he?"

"Maybe. Now I'm confused about that too. Perhaps I was just deluding myself. Maybe we all are. In fact, right now we may be stuck in a fairy tale ourselves, and not know it at all."

"Oh, sensei. Still as fanciful as ever. You know," she said, suddenly looking down at me, the sun shining through her wet hair blinding me, "I thought you might be jealous of... Baron and I."

I had to laugh. "Really? Why should I be?"

"I'm not sure I know. You came before I did into his life, and yet... didn't you feel anything towards him?"

"No. At least, not anything close to what you're feeling for him." I recalled the brown-suited figurine standing on the Earth Shop table, and how he seemed to change expression when I addressed him. "He disturbed me. Besides, I was only fourteen and knew him only as a wonderful statuette and a figment of my imagination. Even if I had known he was real, he still had to compete against a mysterious boy whose snide comments about my interests infuriated me." I grinned. "Why, you want some competition for Baron's affections? I think I could give you a run for your money."

"What?" She looked so cute, like a Hello Kitty doll with a shocked expression on its face. She made little waving motions with her hands. "N-no, no, of course not! I'd rather not spend what little time I have dueling for him with you, of all people. And anyway, isn't Seiji-sensei going to get mad if you do that?"

"Yeah, of course he is. I was only joking. You can have Sir Cat all to yourself. Haru, I don't think I need to tell you this, but please... be prepared for when you have to give him up."

Her reply was a decidedly noncommittal shrug. "We'll see what happens."

I turned the topic away from her and Baron, and we talked about our interests and our school friends and the various places we had visited and seen. She was amiable enough to be a good talker, and I learned a few things about her then.

It was during this time that she pointed at the water and asked me if I wasn't going to take a dip myself. I told her I hadn't brought anything along, but she assured me that she had enough towels and knickknacks for us both. The sea looked turbulent, but the prospect of having a swim in the cold unknown of a faraway land was too inviting for me to resist.

I asked Haru if she had any problems with me disrobing in front of her. She shook her head, so I took off my white dress and, giggling like a little girl, ran clad only in my undies into the sea. The water was bracing and invigorating, and I would've swum until I tired myself out thoroughly, but Haru called me and made me come out long before it came to that. I guess Seiji's told her a thing or two about my tendency to overexert myself, or she's figured it out on her own.

As I got back out she tossed a towel to me. I wrapped it around myself and hopped onto the rock. We sat there like two fishermen's wives or old-time American Indian squaws huddled in front of a campfire.

"That was fun," I remarked. "Never thought I'd get to swim in the sea of another world."

"Yeah. Shizuku-sensei, are you cold?"

"No. Why do you ask?"

"You're trembling."

"Ah, that's nothing. It'll pass, don't worry." Sometimes my body reacts that way to frigid water, but it's never anything serious.

Probably she didn't believe me, so Haru said, "We'd better change back into our clothes."

"Oh, not yet, I don't feel like it."

"Seiji-sensei will never forgive me if you catch a cold."

I shook my head. "Nope. See, the tremors are going. Let's just sit here a while, okay?"

She gave in, but remained pressed against my side, as if trying to let the warmth of her body bleed into mine. I remember thinking at the time, how sweet and thoughtful of her to worry about me, someone who had been until recently an utter stranger.

I remembered a question I'd been wanting to ask her since yesterday. "Haru, can I ask you something?"

"Yeah."

"What's it like, kissing Baron?"

Her face glowed like a stoplight again. "Honestly, sensei, you do say the most embarrassing things at times."

"So Seiji's told me. Well?"

"I... I wouldn't know. I haven't."

"You haven't?"

"I'm, well, waiting for him to do so."

"But I saw you sleeping together–"

"That's all we've done, and only on that occasion. Baron's too much of a gentleman to do more. In fact, he wouldn't even enter my room last night. According to him it was already much too unseemly, the way he was knocking on my door that late. I think he was afraid people might talk. He just called to see if I was okay, then upped and left."

"So you feel deprived?"

"Just a little." Haru smiled impishly. "I'd be lying if I said I didn't want at least a kiss from him. But my heart is full, sensei. The companionship suits me just fine. I couldn't really ask for more, and I don't want to."

I was silent for a while. My mind was churning. Just what did Haru want out of their relationship? I know of no mutual attraction that can withstand the twin lures of lust and sentimentality, that doesn't sooner or later turn physical. I guess she's far sturdier than I imagined. Or perhaps she just wants the love and none of the complications physicality would bring. Yes, Baron would be ideal for something like that. Human enough to feel and act like she does, yet probably different enough that the physical details of such a relationship would indeed require some doing.

I can't believe how cold-blooded I am sometimes. Baron's not a lab animal, not a sideshow freak in some circus. He's a living, breathing being who happens to be a little different from the rest of us, that's all. And yet I can find myself thinking of him that way... what separates me from someone like the Doctor, who probably thinks of people in that manner too? I fear to delve too deep into the subject. Maybe it's because I'm afraid I might discover that only circumstance makes me different, and that in some other time, some other place, there might have been Shizuku Tsukishima the tyrant, who led millions to their deaths, for some asinine ideal.

------oOo------

We stayed for maybe half an hour, then ran back into the water for one last splash before racing back out and stripping our wet underwear off. I could manage with my towel still wrapped around me; Haru, after a thorough look-around, had to go au naturel because she found out too late that Yuki's custom-made underclothes were not colorfast, and had stained Baron's shirt. She removed all of them, then put on her old garments, the blouse she had worn when she had first arrived in the Cat Kingdom, and her drab leggings and black boots.

I put my own dress on and fastened its belt around my waist. Haru gathered her things up and we headed back to the fortress. We both combed our hair with our fingers as we walked, because we forgot to bring brushes.

As we made our way to La Ballade for lunch, I asked her where she got the golden medallion hanging around her neck. She told me she had made it herself, as a way of remembering Baron and the Cat Business Office after her first adventure with them. It was another demonstration to me of how strong her feelings towards the cats—and one Cat in particular—were. In turn, she asked me if I knew why Seiji and I didn't turn into felines when we first arrived in the Cat Kingdom, like she did. I answered that I didn't know.

------oOo------

Lunch was long over, and, having passed by our rooms to appropriate some missing articles of clothing, we parked ourselves on top of one of Fort Lorum's large round turrets, that sat hard by the water. It was spacious enough for Haru to practice there, and that afternoon she was doing exactly that, running through forms that reminded me a lot of wushu with weapons. She looked like she was dueling with the wind off the sea, fluid and graceful as it itself. I stood off to one side with a pair of garrison cats, interested onlookers, all of us.

"She has nice form," I heard one mutter, his tail twitching. His fellow nodded. "Mum, are ye goin' into battle with the King himself, then?"

I shook my head. "She is. But I'm staying on the ship, where it's nice and safe." It's another peculiarity of this world that I've noticed, that I can understand everyone else, even if we're all talking in different languages. I wish that when we return home the ability would stay with me. Then at least I'd know what Seiji was joking about with those girls from the academy in Cremona...

The cat who had addressed me, a male of a dirty whitish-brown color with black mackerel stripes, wearing Lune's troops' red cavalry uniform with gold trim, laughed loudly. "I'd like to do that, myself. But we aren't here to play games, begging your pardon, Lady Shizuku."

Lady Shizuku. That's something I never expected to hear myself called. I'm sort of growing fond of the term. Maybe when we go back home I'll start calling Seiji 'Sir Seiji' in private. Not in public. That'll surely swell his head up.

Haru finished up her form. She landed with her knees bent, facing one direction, then raised her left boot behind her right calf, sole up. She arced her sword through the air above her head and bapped its point against the boot. Then she straightened out and did a whirling sort of motion with her arms and weapon extended. She followed it up by jump-kicking into the air, then landing, and stabbing out with her sword. Then she planted her poniard point down on the ground, edge away from her, and genuflected behind it. Her hair, in disarray, covered her face but not her mouth, which I could see was open. She was breathing hard, and when she looked up again she saw me watching her and smiled. She stood up and wiped her brow with the back of her hand.

"How was I?" she asked, her cheeks sparkling with dew in the afternoon sunlight as she approached me, sheathing her sword.

"Whatever you call it," I said, "it looked pretty." A beautiful way to send someone to the grave, I thought. "Will you practice with Baron and Gabriel again?"

"Maybe. Not just now. He said they were going to be occupied the whole day today. I'm going back to my room to shower. I don't look indecent, do I?"

"No. I'll go back with you," I said. "I've been having trouble keeping this skirt down in this wind. I don't want to imitate Marilyn Monroe just now. I'm not sure the cats would appreciate it."

Haru chuckled, and her soft-edged voice was a pleasure to hear. "Feeling drafty, eh, sensei? Come on, you've got nice legs. They remind me of a young boy's. Why don't you show them off?" So saying, she flicked my skirt up with the point of her scabbard. I shrieked and slapped it back down.

"Haru! The nerve-!"

She grinned and ran down the stairs, and I chased after her. I could hear the cats laughing in their peculiar mewing fashion as we left. When I caught her down in the main hall we just stood there holding on to one another for support, laughing like a pair of loons. Ladies-in-waiting, soldiers, officers, and other gentlefolk stared at us, but we were giddy and happy and didn't care.

We went back to our rooms. Seiji was in ours, and asked if I wanted to listen that night to him and the musicians in La Ballade. I readily agreed. And because I was happy that afternoon, and partly because I was feeling sorry for him being unable to fulfill his fantasy of making love on the wing, I cast my reservations to the cool wind coming in from the open windows and gave myself up to him in the bright yellow sunlight. When had we finished, we sat in the middle of the bed, entwined around each other, I in his lap, tired and happy. He had ended up totally naked, while I was still in my dress—not our usual state of affairs.

"Shicchan!" he panted, squeezing my thigh. "Now how am I supposed to find the strength to play with the band tonight?"

"I don't know," I giggled. I wiped the sweat off his face and chest with his shirt. "That's not my problem! In fact, I think I'd like another..." You can probably guess what happened next.

------oOo------

Speaking of Baron and Gabriel, I found out why they and some of the Stormy Cats disappeared the very night we arrived at New Lorum. Without resting they actually made their way to the Lonely Isles and scouted the pirates' hideout! Amazing!