another day

"Good morning, class!"

The entire class stood at attention as the teacher walked into the room, carrying her books. With a smile, she placed her pile onto the desk and put away her pencils.

"Good morning, Saima-san!"

"We have a surprise for everyone." The teacher bowed as the students all sat. "We have two new students who transferred all the way from the city of Otaru up in Hokkaido. Meet Kioku Soshiko and Kioku Suruko."

The two girls came in, slowly but surely, and the class studied them carefully. One of them looked somewhat sullen, quiet, glancing suspiciously of who was sitting in front of her; the other smiled as the class looked at her, and even waved to a few of them.

What really interested the class, however, was that the new students were twins. It wasn't often that twins walked the halls of Juuban High School, especially twins with pink tinted hair.

"I want you all to make them feel welcome here. This includes you, Hoshi Aiko-san." At this, the teacher glared at one student in the back who was about to roll her eyes; under the master's gaze, however, she stopped midway and looked down to her desk. "Are we clear on that?"

"Yes, Saima-san!"

---------------

"I hear Kioku-san is a good volleyball player!"

Aino Minako was stuffing rice into her mouth as she spoke these words. As a result of talking while eating, her friends were getting rice all over themselves, and had erected shields of silk in order to fend off the attack.

"Which one?" Kino Makoto counted with some annoyance how much rice had piled up onto her lap as she posed the question. "There's two of them."

"The older one."

"And which one is that!"

"Um..." Minako paused. "I think it's Kioku Soshiko-san."

"I thought Suruko-san was the volleyball player and Soshiko-san liked swimming?"

"...You dare challenge my authority on the matter!"

"N-no!" Tsukino Usagi ducked as she felt Minako's stare on her. "I'm j-just saying...they are identical twins, and it's very easy to get them confused."

"...Right." Minako turned away. "Well, one of them is joining the volleyball club is all I'm saying. Soo, Ami-chan, how is your paper going?"

"It's going fine." Mizuno Ami was writing down equations on her napkins. "I've already simplified Fermat's Last Theorem by three pages. I just need a few more examples so I can do the rest of the formula."

"Sounds hard."

"It isn't so hard."

"Hmmmm..." Usagi looked into her lunch box and squeaked. "Ooooh! A cookie! My lucky day!"

The group laughed at this, then proceeded onto other matters – the new twin trying out for drama club, a meeting at Hikawa to discuss current events, and Osaka Naru's upcoming birthday. Unknown to them, however, they were not the only ones to have an opinion.

"Osaka-san is very nice."

"She is."

"Would you like my rice?" Suruko gently pushed her rice away. "I...I don't really like it."

"...Sure."

Suruko and Soshiko were sitting two trees away from Usagi and her friends, watching quietly as they chattered endlessly about everything. It was still hard for them to absorb it all – boys, clothing and weekly allowances were things that they had never discussed with their subjects before. But the idea that they had subjects before seemed distant, almost alien to the twins.

"Do you think they'll let us join them?" Suruko looked at the group worriedly. "I mean...well, we are...you know."

"They'll let us eventually. Give it time." Soshiko took a scoop of rice. "They don't even know who we are."

"What is that girl doing...?"

"Spitting rice out of her mouth."

".Ew."

"Get used to it," Soshiko finished the rest of the rice. "If you're friends with her..."

The two became silent at this. Meanwhile, Usagi was eating her cookie, while Ami was yelling at Minako for talking and eating once more.

"Let...Soshiko...do you regret it?"

"Hm?"

"Do you regret this?" Seruko looked at her sister worriedly. "Our journey. Pluto. You know...everything."

"I wish I could say I remembered everything of our journey." Soshiko closed her eyes. "Same as you do, I guess. Our memories got replaced with this language we have to speak because we can't remember our mother tongue. Remember that?"

"I suppose..." The worry on Soshiko's face increased. "But...do you really regret...the door?"

Soshiko's eyes opened again, and her head turned to look at her sister. Above them, a wind rustled through the trees, shaking leaves from the branches. In front of them, the school clock chimed the time.

"...No." For the first time in a while, Suruko saw her sister smile. "I don't. It's a surprise, but I really don't."

"Really?"

"Really." Soshiko took her sister's hand. "Even if our planets are gone. It's because I have you, Mnemosyne. I have you, and you have me."

"That's right..." Suruko smiled as well. "Together forever."

The clock chimed again, and the students began to file into the building once more. It would go on like it always did after lunch – math, then science, then cleaning. Then it would be time to go home, have dinner and sleep, to wake up and repeat the day over.

But for one moment, there was no one in the world but Sailor Lethe and Sailor Mnemosyne, soldiers of memory and oblivion. They were to be human for the rest of their time, true, but it did not change the one fact that had kept them alive, that had kept them going strong for countless years and through countless moments of strife. The two hugged, a laugh of happiness on Suruko's lips as they prepared to go back inside..

"Sisters forever."

FIN