Standard Disclaimer Applies Here
Chapter Five: A Little Progress
Why can I never let you go, so strange extraordinary
Why can I never tell you so, I must be dumb
Why can I never let this go can't stop, this fun it must be done
-Mojofly
Misao shut her Bible and placed back on its place beside the pews, before she started to walk out of the church. Kamatari followed her, but always remained a few steps behind her. It was obvious to Misao that Kamatari was trying to avoid as much as contact with her, and the other girls in the school as much as possible.
She couldn't blame Kamatari for acting that way around them, especially around the other schoolgirls, because she was feeling the same way. She could feel the same whispers and glances directed at Kamatari too. She could hear the words "half-breed" and "uneducated foreigner" behind her.
Okina had warned her about this. She still remembered the night before she left, when he pulled her over to the corner of the Aoiya with a rare look of gravity on his wrinkled elderly face.
"Now, Misao-chan, you do realize that you would be working on a country full of foreigners, who are Caucasians." He spoke after a few moments of silence.
"Yes, I researched about the Great Britain soon after I received Saitou's letter." She had replied, before narrowing her eyes at her surrogate grandfather.
"What's wrong? You don't think I can do it, because I'm in a country full of foreigners? I was taught to speak English, Jiya!"
He shook his head. "It isn't that."
"Then what is it then?" she had asked impatiently.
He sighed. "Now Misao-chan, you do remember how you reacted when you saw a Dutch merchant at the quay, when you were nine?"
She rubbed her chin. "If I do remember right, I started crying, because I thought the man was a ghost." She blinked at Okina, and then narrowed her eyes again.
"Are you afraid that I might start crying once I arrived there, because I would think that I was surrounded by ghosts?" she had asked indignantly. "I'm not a child Jiya! I've been around Caucasians several times and I haven't cried or reacted violently!"
Okina had placed his head on his hands, and for a while it seemed like he was experiencing a painful migraine.
"I'm not saying that you're going to burst in tears, when you're there." He spoke after a few moments. "What I mean is that some of the young women in your school might have the same reaction to you as you had to the Dutch merchant."
"Bursting in to tears?"
"Not exactly crying, but they might not accept your Japanese heritage; they might think you are a filthy half-breed, because they think you are half British. I am worried that you might feel lonely."
So he was worried about that, Misao had thought.
She had smiled at her surrogate grandfather. "You don't have to worry about me, Jiya! I'll be fine! I don't need friends to fulfill my mission, and if I do feel lonely, I can always prove them wrong! It won't be hard!" she assured him.
Okina didn't look convinced, but his expression softened. He reached out to embrace his adopted granddaughter.
Misao was startled by this abrupt expression of affection, but she returned the embrace quickly.
"I will be alright, Jiya."
The sudden blowing of the cool wind jolted Misao from her trip to her memories. She rubbed her arms.
Now she wasn't exactly sure if what she told Jiya was true. Being a loner wasn't a very pleasant experience, even though she had only experienced it for half a day. Unfortunately, she doubted making friends by proving her worth with these cold schoolmates was going to be easy.
Before Misao had any other musings on this topic, a young brunette schoolgirl around her age bumped her, sending her out of her string of thoughts to fall backward against the arms of the girl walking behind her, and sending snickers out the mouths of the girls, who had witnessed the embarrassing incident.
"Shit!" Misao cursed silently, before looking up to find the girl to show her what she thought of her deed against her. Unfortunately, the young brunette had disappeared through the throngs of girls entering the school.
Misao grumbled and looked up, and almost groaned to find out that Kamatari was the girlwho caught her.
"Oh Mary! How clumsy of you to fall on your own feet!" Kamatari exclaimed with faked concern. Misao could have sworn to see the developing smirk on her supposedly partner's pretty face.
Fortunately for Misao, Kamatari did not push her to the ground or made anymore snide remarks. Instead, he helped her up and started to slap nonexistent dirt from Misao's gray Horace uniform coat.
"Thank you, Kathryn." Misao hissed at her before she started to walk towards the school again, feeling quite grateful. She wasn't pleased with Kamatari's snide remarks, but at least he caught her and helped her up. Though in the past, she would rather fall into the mud, then be helped by the enemy.
But Kamatari wasn't the enemy now, right? He was just a disagreeable and unpleasant partner. So perhaps, it wasn't as bad as she thought it was.
As soon as she was inside the building, Misao hung her coat in the coat room, on the hook with her name labeled on top. After seeing her name, she thought the labeling of names above the hooks wasn't a very good idea. She had heard of hazing from one of the women she met aboard the ship on the way. Knowing about her unpopular reputation with these students, she doubted she would find her coat again in the morning.
She sighed, but decided to hang it. She could always sneak back tonight and snatch her coat for safekeeping. But if someone did steal it before she arrived, she could always have her revenge.
"That's right." She muttered as she walked out of the coatroom. "Makimachi Misao is not a girl to be trifled with. I've fought bandits and minions of crazy power hungry bosses who want to take over the country. I'm not going to let myself be trampled over by some snobbish and wealthy girls."
She followed them to the dining hall, which was enormous. According to Regina Shaw, who had escorted them to the chapel earlier, there were three long tables in the hall. The farther left and right tables were meant for the younger students; while the middle table was where the older students sat along with their teachers and the headmistress.
Misao walked towards the middle table, faced with the new dilemma of finding a seat. Luckily for Misao, this was only a problem for a few seconds. She soon saw Regina Shaw, who she had found out was the head of their year, waving at them. Regina had two empty seats beside her, one that was about to be occupied by Kamatari, who had walked ahead of her earlier.
Misao beamed. The empty one was for her. At least, there was one girl, friendly and open-minded enough to reserve seats for them, the supposedly two half-breeds.
"Mary! Please come and sit here!" she called out.
Misao expected to see surprised expressions among the faces of her schoolmates, but saw none. She inferred that it might because this was a school tradition for newcomers, foreigners or Regina Shaw was known to be very friendly.
The sound of a ringing bell was quickly heard soon after Misao reached her place. She quickly turned to the origin of the sound and saw Mrs. Spence standing at the head of the table.
"Quiet down girls. It is time for us ask the Lord to bless our meal." She turned to Regina. "Now, will the head please lead the prayers?"
Regina nodded and recited a prayer, and was later followed by the rest of the school. Misao tried to follow, despite being unfamiliar with Christian prayers.
"Bless us O Lord, and these your gifts, which we are about to receive from your bounty, through Christ our Lord. May the King of the everlasting glory lead us to the banquet of life eternal. Amen."
After the prayers, Mrs. Spence clapped eagerly and smiled at the whole room.
"Before we begin our meals, I have a very important announcement to make." She said then turned to Misao and Kamatari.
"As you have noticed, we have two new girls, the sisters Mary and Kathryn Doyle joining us. They have been raised in Japan…"
As the headmistress introduced them by talking about their childhood in Japan, Misao's eyes crept over the room to observe the schoolgirls around them. A pretty girl located three seats from the seat across from her, giggling among her friends. She turned to Misao then yawned and turned back to her friends. Misao felt her back stiffen and hands clench slowly into a fist as she recognized the girl.
There she was the brunette, who so rudely bumped her without so much of an apology! If she was planning to harass her here, there was no way she was going to take it silently.
"…and I hope you would all welcome them as pleasantly as they could. Now, let us begin our supper!"
Misao sat down without taking her eyes off the brunette. She absentmindedly started her dinner, and was oblivious to the fact that she had buttered her finger and was about to cut it off with a bread knife.
"Ouch!" she exclaimed a little loudly, catching the attention of a few girls. She flushed bright red and whispered a soft apology, before turning to Regina.
"Regina," she began. "I hope you don't mind me asking, but who is that brunette sitting over there?"
"Her?" Regina said. "Why, that's Beatrice Murray! She's in our level."
"Beatrice Murray!" Misao repeated. "You mean Edward Murray's daughter? Isn't her father the school's owner?"
Apparently, Kamatari had overheard that part of their conversation, because his face was turned in surprise towards Misao, as Regina was about to answer her question.
"Yes, that's right." She answered. "Her father owns this school."
"Oh," Misao replied, and then turned her attention towards her food.
"More of a reason to dislike her." She murmured to herself.
Whether she and Kamatari got along tomorrow or not, which was more likely, they had to start investigating the school tomorrow.
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A soft singing voice woke Misao up the next day. She turned herself on the bed to face the window, where she saw Kamatari, already dressed in the gray school uniform, standing beside it, looking at the view thoughtfully.
"I could never think how it would be if you're gone from my life." He sang softly to the tune he was humming yesterday.
He placed his hands on the windowpane and sighed softly. "Yet you are gone. You are gone from my life." He said, before turning around to face Misao's bed.
"Good morning." Misao spoke before yawning and pulling herself up. "What were you doing over there?"
Kamatari looked furious as he pointed his shaking finger at Misao. "You! You bitch, how long have you been awake?"
Misao glared at him. "Who are you calling bitch, transvestite? I just woke up. Besides, you haven't answered my question."
Kamatari scoffed. "That's none of your business." He replied coldly, before flipping his hair. "You better get dressed. We have breakfast in half an hour."
"I would, if you would only give me privacy to dress." Misao retorted as she proceeded to retrieve her uniform from the closet.
He snorted. "As if there's anything to see." he sneered, before dodging the kunai that came shooting towards his direction. He laughed as he saw the throwing knife wedged against the wall.
"Such unladylike behavior, oh dear, how are we going to explain that to Mrs. Spence?" he muttered before turning to Misao.
Misao sniffed. "Shut up. I have seen what you can shown, and I have to say that you're more male than I think you are." She replied stiffly before shuddering at the memory of glimpsing Kamatari's appendage, when they battled over a year ago.
Kamatari flipped his hair again. "Alright, I'll leave you, even though I still believe my body has more to show than yours." He spoke, before beginning to leave.
"Wait!" Misao called as he was about to turn the doorknob. "I think we should start investigating the grounds this afternoon. What do you think about it?"
Kamatari shrugged. "I'm fine with it. But I think making friends with Murray's daughter would also be helpful. Why don't you do that while I do some research."
Kamatari received a violent fit of coughing as her reply.
"Look," Misao began after recovering. "I don't know if you're dense or something, but surely you must have seen how well Miss Beatrice Murray liked me last night. Why don't you make friends with her while I do the research." She hissed.
Kamatari giggled before sneering at her again. "You're so silly Mary! You do know the reason why she was cold to you is because she's a little snob who's prejudiced against half-breeds, like me. So what difference would it make, if I were to do it?"
Well, the transvestite did have a point, Misao thought, but she wasn't about to let herself bullied by him!
"Alright, I'll do it, but you have to make friends with her too, and I also get to do some research."
Kamatari raised an eyebrow; it took Misao awhile before she got her answer.
"Fair share of work?" he asked.
"Yes."
He nodded. "Agreed. We'll try to get close to Murray today. If we're lucky, we might meet her father."
Misao nodded, and proceeded to dress after Kamatari had left the room. It was strange, and she still couldn't believe that she had established a peaceful and mutual agreement with her supposedly disagreeable partner.
"Perhaps, my stay here would be more bearable than what I had thought." She mused.
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Both Misao and Kamatari arrived at the dining hall early, and had immediately caught sight of Beatrice Murray sitting without the company of the friends she was with yesterday. Kamatari and Misao looked at each other before proceeding.
"Should we give it a try?" Misao asked.
Kamatari nodded. "Her friends aren't her yet; this would be the perfect time to approach her."
"Alright," Misao agreed, and hesitatingly took Kamatari's arm and linked it around hers.
He glared at her. "What are you doing?" he hissed as he tried to pull his arm away, but Misao held it tightly.
"We're supposed to be close sisters. This is part of the act." She hissed back, before she started walking towards Beatrice.
Beatrice did not seem to notice that they were approaching and fiddled with the strand of her hair that had been tucked behind her ear. She remained oblivious to their presence even when they were already standing in front of her.
"Good morning Miss!" they spoke cheerfully and loudly. This got their target's attention.
"Good morning to you too." She greeted and turned away again.
Misao narrowed her eyes. This girl was even ruder than she was! She didn't think she can hold any of this longer, that spoiled girl needed someone to scold her!
"Why you spoiled…"
"We've noticed you're in the same level as us and found out your name was Beatrice Murray." Kamatari spoke amiably, after pinching and interrupting Misao. "So we want to introduce ourselves and make friends."
"That's right," Misao spoke, deciding to cool her temper down and play along. "I'm Mary, and this is my older sister…"
"I know who you are." Beatrice replied. "Mrs. Spence introduced you to us last night."
"Oh yes. How silly of us to forget!" Kamatari said, before Misao could make a remark about the rudeness of interrupting. "So, anyway, we're wondering if we could be your friends. Can we? Mary and I would really appreciate having friends in Horace."
"I already have enough friends." Beatrice replied, before turning her white nose up. "I believe I don't need any more of them."
Misao felt her fists clench. What that brat needed was a good beating, and she would gladly give her one now. However, every time she tried that, Kamatari stopped her by pinching and interrupting her.
"Enough friends?" Kamatari repeated with a look of shock across his face. "I don't think anyone can ever have enough friends. My sister, who by the way is my best friend, and I used to believe that until we started meeting other people. Now, we believe that friends are treasures! The more, the merrier!" he said, before he started giggling, and pinched Misao as a signal to giggle along. Misao followed his lead.
Sounds of the meal bell's ringing and Mrs. Spence's voice calling out to the students to move faster interrupted Kamatari and Misao's giggling.
"Oh, can we sit beside you Beatrice?" Kamatari asked sweetly.
She shook her head. "I'm sorry." She answered nastily, before turning her nose up again. "They are reserved for my friends. In fact, I see them coming already. Why don't you sit with Regina? The new girls always sit with the head of their level."
"Alright then, but we hope to see you in class later Beatrice. We really want to be close friends!" Kamatari said, and then quickly dragged Misao to their old seats, before she could make a comment or attack at Beatrice.
"What a snob." Misao muttered.
Beatrice was right. Regina had reserved seats for them. After the blessing of meals, she told them about seeing their exchange with Regina.
"How was she? I do hope you're making friends with everyone in our level." She told them.
"She's very nice." Kamatari answered. "Don't you think so Mary?"
"Yes, very nice." Misao replied through her gritted teeth.
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"It's not the storage shed either, so where could the passage to the opium factory be?" Misao moaned aloud, slumping against the wooden walls of the school shed during their afternoon break.
Kamatari both hushed and glared at her.
"Don't you talk about the opium factory too loudly." He whispered. "Who knows, Murray's worker might be moving around here."
Misao smacked her lips and silently cursed at herself.
"Sorry." She whispered back. "But, we checked everywhere in the grounds. The chapel, this storage shed and even more. Where haven't we checked yet?"
"The woods." Kamatari replied.
"Yes, perhaps it could be there." Misao said, and then turned towards the direction of the woods. She almost fell back at what she saw.
There, amongst the trees was the mysterious cloaked man that she saw last night!
"Kama- I mean Kathryn, can you see him?"
"See who?"
"The man standing behind the trees over there." Misao pointed out, after turning to Kamatari. "Look! Do you see him?"
Kamatari blinked and frowned at her. "Are you trying to play a trick at me? I don't see anyone."
"Eh?" Misao turned back to the forest, and saw that the mysterious man was gone again.
"Your hallucinations must be a sign of your exhaustion." Kamatari remarked. "I suggest that we put this on hold until tomorrow, and return to the school to have our afternoon tea at the great hall. This would help you rest, and perhaps clear the suspicions of the young girls playing outside about our activities."
"Alright," Misao agreed half-heartedly, even though she really knew she was tired. This was already her third hallucination, could it be stress? Perhaps the afternoon tea and snacks would help her relax.
Still, she thought as they walked towards the great hall, she could have sworn she knew the man. He seemed oddly familiar to her.
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Misao was beginning to feel less suspicious towards Regina Shaw's friendliness towards them. She had thought Regina's hospitality was only a part of her duties, but dropped that the thought after finding out that she had been born and raised in India until she was nine.
"So you really were born in India?" Misao asked her after sipping her tea.
"Yes, until my father was transferred here when I was nine. So I felt the same way you did, British but foreign."
"Oh, I see." Kamatari remarked after chewing one of the biscuits, before smiling once again.
"Why it's Beatrice!" she exclaimed as she saw Beatrice, accompanied by two of her friends, approach their table. "Please come and sit with us!"
Misao watched Beatrice wrinkle her nose at Kamatari's invitation, but chose to ignore it. She knew Kamatari saw it too, but it didn't seem like she cared.
"I have to decline your offer, Miss Kathryn. I already have a place to sit with my friends." She replied. "In fact, I am here to talk to Regina, about the party, my father is holding in the honor of my mother's birthday this Saturday in London." She turned to Regina.
"I trust you are going there Regina. Mrs. Spence has already given permission to the daughters, whose families have been invited to leave this weekend."
"I'm going. My family was pleased to receive the invitation. Thank you." Regina said.
"You are welcome Regina." Beatrice told her, before snatching a look at Misao and Kamatari. "The invitation says you can bring two of your own guests. Be sure to bring proper and respected guests."
After saying this, she turned and walked away, followed by her two companions.
"I'm quite excited for the party, even though I don't want to leave my duties here." Regina had spoken. "Father has told me that I can bring two of my schoolmates to the party as guests. Would you two like to come? I can secure you permission from Mrs. Spence tonight."
Misao and Kamatari caught each other's eyes. This was a perfect opportunity to meet Mr. Murray and perhaps look around his house! They would be insane to turn this down.
"We'll accept it!" They answered eagerly.
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The days flew by, and before Misao knew it, she was sitting inside Regina Shaw's carriage, in another ride in London. She was again staring at awe, at the same sights that had greeted her, when she first arrived in this country.
The party was going to be held during that night, and Kamatari had already contacted Mr. Hiro so they could have proper dresses sent for them for the party. Misao actually felt more excited at the thrill of being back at London to attend a party then investigating for her mission.
"We'll be stopping by the confectioner's shop first, before we reach home." Regina told them before their carriage halted. "I have a craving for some pastries right now. If you want, you can also check the bookshop next door."
They stepped down the carriage later and entered the store. Misao only wished she had a lot of money with her when she was inside. She was surrounded by sumptuous and delicious smelling pastries and cakes. She felt her stomach growl as she looked at them.
So far, a small cake in the corner was the only thing she could afford as of the moment. She reached for it, and then looked up, seeing a café outside.
She almost dropped the item when she recognized the man sitting at one of the café's outdoor tables. It was then when she realized that all three of her hallucinations were not hallucinations at all.
Shinomori Aoshi was here in England, and she was not letting him disappear again.
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A/N: Whew! Chapter Five wore me out! It's the longest chapter so far for this series and the last part is a bit rushed, because I was really tired. I am really sorry for the late update, because I've been really busy, but your reviews encouraged me, so thank you and review again! I've also uploaded the songs used for this story with links at my profile for download. Please do download them! They're really good. Till the next chapter everyone!
P.S. Oh yeah, Misao's codename is now Mary Doyle, sorry for the mistake!