Ch 62
V 1.0
A/N 1: You know the drill; open a new tab and go to youtube, search for 'Light of Aidan – Lament, cinematic/celtic version' and put it on hold. It will come up near the end of the chapter and can be heard at 0:35 to 1:28, only sung slower. And yes, this chapter is mostly about Sarah again.
Hallway outside Classroom 2-A
Kanazawa High School
Hinata City, Kanagawa Prefecture
Metro Tokyo, Japan
mid February, mid Tuesday morning
"You ready to do this, Sarah-kun?" Hikari Horaki and Sarah McDougal were standing outside their home room, waiting for the senior secretary to arrive from the administration office to introduce the new Class Rep to her homeroom.
"Sure. Once more into the breech and all that." Sarah was not looking forward to this; never mind the fact that she did not like being the center of attention in most cases, this was about to take place in front of the group of dip-shits and bitches that were called her classmates. On the other hand, it was going to be amusing to see the look on their faces when her new status was announced. In fact Sarah had already gotten a preview; Sensei Wada had been present in the vice principal's office when the girl and the official had their meeting and the look on her face upon hearing of the American girl's new status had been a combination of nausea and constipation.
"You can still back out of this, Sarah-kun." Hikari was looking slightly concerned. The melancholic look on the blonde's face was something that was totally alien to her, considering her usual expressions were mostly of boredom, anger and amusement.
"Too late now, Hikari-san. Wouldn't respect myself much if I did." Sarah took a deep breath and let it out while straightening her posture. Smoothing her gakuran tunic, the girl ran her hand across the standing collar to make sure it was buttoned. Her fingers traced across the pin on the left side of the collar; the gold pin was about the size of an American quarter, and was a miniature version of the Urashima crest of three gingko leaves. Keitaro had given it to her when she had mentioned that she needed to come up with a badge or insignia to signify her new Class Rep status instead of the red armband, and since the school insignia was a single gingko leaf, this was a fair compromise. The vice principal did not have a problem with it when she brought it up at her meeting with him this morning. In fact, Keitaro had given all of the Hinata girls a collar pin of the same design, which they wore on the left collar of their blouses, folded over the neckerchief worn knotted around their neck. Given that quite a few students wore unauthorized pins and badges on their tunics and blouses this was not unusual, but the girls had gotten quite a few odd looks as they walked into the school this morning, especially from the older students and the staff members who at the sight of the crest pins were suddenly giving the girls plenty of space in the hallways.
"Any idea on what you are going to say to the class?" At Sarah's incredulous look Hikari continued speaking. "It's tradition that a new Classroom Representive say a few words when they are appointed to their position."
"Um…'Waz up bitches and cocksleeves! I'm the new sheriff in town, you fuck with me or mine and you're gonna learn what my size eight combat boot tastes like when I shove it up your butt and out your mouth!'" Sarah had a twisted smile on her face while Hikari covered her face with one hand, only partially concealing the embarrassed blush that formed. "Oh I'm sorry, my size 25 combat boot, you guys use a different shoe size system."
"No, I don't think that would be an acceptable speech." Both girls spun around to see that Reiko Uehara was standing behind them, the senior secretary having walked up behind them silently while they were talking. The faintest trace of a smile was on her lips, but otherwise she had her normal expressionless look on her face. "I do hope you can come up with something better, McDougal-san. Are you ready?" Both girls nodded. "Let's be about this, then." The older woman opened the classroom door and walked in, the younger duo following behind her just as the school bell rang, signaling the start of the school day.
"Can I have your attention please?" Uehara's request was almost unnecessary; as soon as the grey haired, black-clad woman had stepped in the room, the sound level dropped like someone turning a stereo volume from 8 to 0 in about two seconds. "I have an announcement to make." Everyone's gaze was now firmly fixed on her, even Sensei Ito. "Due to current circumstances, the school disciplinary office has appointed another student to aid the Classroom Representative assigned to this class. This person will have the title of Substitute Classroom Representative and will have full authority consistent with the regular position, especially with disciplinary enforcement throughout the school campus." Dread was starting to appear on the faces of many of the students in the classroom. "Therefore starting today Sarah McDougal-san is appointed to the position of Substitute Classroom Representative for classroom 2-A." The facial expressions had now changed to that of dismay, horror, and despair. "McDougal-san, you have something you want to say?"
Sarah slowly stepped forward to face the class, the feeling of everyone's eyes on her causing her skin to crawl. Mentally taking a deep breath, the blonde smiled slightly and spoke. "Hello everyone, I'm pretty sure everyone knows me by now, but I'm Sarah McDougal. I took this job because I wanted to help out my friend Hikari Horaki and to also help people here at the school that need it." Her blue eyes swept the audience as she paused for a moment. "I didn't take this job to get people in trouble, I'd rather do my own thing with my friends."
Her eyes flicked toward the three other Hinata girls for a moment before continuing. "I don't care about people not wearing their uniforms correctly or screwing around with their friends, that's your own deal. But I can tell you one thing, if I see people messing with or pushing around people who can't defend themselves…" Those blue eyes suddenly got much colder as they swept the room again, matching the drop in temperature in the room that caused everyone to shiver. "You and I are going to have a serious disagreement." Sarah paused again before smiling slightly, the cold expression on her face fading away. "So I look forward to working with you all. Thank you." The blonde gave a slight bow then stepped back.
"And with those encouraging words my work here is done." Uehara's lips twitched in a manner that could generously be called a smile but in reality was anything but. She turned to the two girls beside her and raised a grey eyebrow. "You may go ahead and greet the sensei."
Sarah glanced over at Hikari and saw her nod toward her. Taking that as a go-ahead to do the dog and pony show, the blonde turned toward the rest of the class. Deciding to change things up a little, Sarah stood at attention and called out, "Class-room! Attention on Deck!" The students all sat up straight facing the front of the classroom. "Stand!" Everyone came to their feet. "Bow to sensei!" Everyone bowed and straightened, including Sarah and Hikari. "Turn toward our visitor!" This was done abet with confusion on most faces. "Bow to our visitor!" Everyone bowed, and a slightly larger smile formed on Uehara's face. Once everyone straightened Sarah gave the final commands. "Face front! Sit!"
Turning toward the administrator Sarah asked, "Is there anything else, Uehara-san?"
"One thing. Why the 'Attention on Deck' command?" The smile was still on the older woman's face, which was starting to freak everyone out.
"I figure that since we're all wearing sailor suits," Sarah plucked at the hem of her gakuran tunic, "I might as well use naval commands."
"Very well. Carry on, McDougal-san." Uehara then gave a slight head bow, which almost caused a panic among the students; surely the Shinigami being the first to bow toward a student was a sign of the Apocalypse. Sarah returned the gesture with a deeper bow from the waist, and the woman then left the classroom.
Sarah turned back toward Hikari to see that she was staring at her with wide eyes; looking past her the blonde could see that everyone else was doing the same, even Sensei Ito. "What? It never hurts to be polite." The American girl then picked up her school bag from where she had dropped it on the floor upon entering the classroom and walked to her desk, the twin-tailed brunette following thereafter.
School Hallway
Kanazawa High School
Hinata City, Kanagawa Prefecture
Metro Tokyo, Japan
late February, mid-day Thursday
(one week later)
It turned out that her joking remark the other day had been closer to the mark than she had thought. There really was a new sheriff in town… or at least most of the other students acted that way.
Sarah was walking down the busy hallway at a slow pace with her hands clasped together at chest level with her thumbs hooked to her bag's shoulder strap and Nyamo a step behind her and to the side, most of the other students swirling around them like water around a boulder in a stream. Part of this was because they were in a bigger hurry than she was, but mostly it was because people were giving her a wider berth than before.
What was amusing about this was that the blonde had not done anything to really warrant this reaction, at least in her opinion. It's was not like she was throwing gropers and delinquents face-first into the various walls and lockers like she did when she had first arrived at the school… less than two months ago. Sarah shook her head at the thought; it felt like much more time had passed since then.
Mostly Sarah was walking around keeping a closer eye on what was going on around her than she had before. The fact that she was now wearing the gakuran uniform instead of the fuku made her more noticeable, especially with her height and natural blonde hair. Students were still acting like jerks and jackasses, but mostly amongst their own little cliques. There had been only one instance where it looked like some assholes were pushing around some younger students, but all it had taken for it to stop was Sarah stepping close to them with a friendly smile on her face and her head tilted slightly. The bullies had taken one look at her and her frowning partner behind her before they suddenly remembered they had to be elsewhere and took off at nearly a run.
"Hey Nyamo, you don't have to do this you know." Sarah looked over her shoulder at her friend. "This isn't your gig."
"You shouldn't do this alone, you need someone to watch your back, no other Class Reps or staff nearby." Nyamo glanced at her friend for a moment. "Besides less chance something happen if you have someone with you."
"Well, at least we won't be marked as tardy." Sarah replied. She had been surprised to find out that Hikari had been right about the perks to being a Class Rep. First and foremost was that the reps had access to the faculty offices and break room, including the washrooms. She had been thrilled to hear that part; the student washrooms smelled like leaking plumbing half the time or looked like someone had thrown a M80 firecracker in the trash cans. Reps were also allowed to store their schoolbags and shoes in the faculty coatroom if they wanted to, as this was a necessity when vengefully students would vandalize Class Reps' belongings. Class Reps were also allowed to occasionally be tardy in arriving to class if they were performing school duties and it did not affect their lessons. Sarah made it a point to patrol the halls when she was coming back from lunch since her class after that was a study period, so being a few moments late to class was not a problem. This applied to Nyamo as well, since she was assisting Sarah in her duties. Su would stick close to Shinobu, almost literally becoming the blunette's shadow after Junko Himura has escaped from custody, and they were already back in their classroom.
"Hey there Sarah-chan, how ya doing?" The blonde had a bare moment to brace herself before a taller black haired girl slammed into her from the side; not hard enough to knock her over, but enough to stagger an unprepared person, so she barely rocked from the impact as the girl hung on her shoulder. "Have I told you how hot you look in your new uniform?"
"Yes you have, Aki-san. Repeatedly." Aki Wakirihara made it no secret that she found Sarah's new uniform very attractive on her, and had not so jokingly mentioned that even though the gakuran looked on her good on her it would look even better if she helped her take it off. However the one time the black haired girl tried to grope her butt through her trousers the blonde had slapped her on the hand; not hard enough to actually harm her, but the stinging pop had certainly discouraged her from trying again. Sarah had to wonder about her friend's repeated flirting with her. She was starting to think her off-hand remark the other day may be correct; Aki just got off on being a flirt. "Aren't you supposed to be on your way to class by now?" The second year student was on a different floor in another wing of the school.
"Nope, our sensei for next period called out sick so we were assigned to self-study in the library. As long as I sign the attendance sheet in the next few minutes I'll be fine. This way I can see you kick some ass and take names." The taller girl grinned down at her friend.
"Then you ain't going to see much. Most people know better than to mess with me." Sarah said before wincing and closing her eyes. "And I just taunted Murphy, didn't I?"
"Murphy? Who's that?" Aki had a puzzled look on her face.
"Murphy is one of the names for Fate, Luck, what have you," Sarah replied seriously. "Saying stuff like 'It's not going to happen,' or 'It's too quiet,' or worse yet something like 'It can't happen to me!' only draws his attention to you, and more times than not he will fuck with you for it."
"Seriously? You can't believe something dumb like that." Aki was surprised to see Sarah flinch and make the Christian sign of the cross before putting her hands together in prayer.
"Forgive her Murphy, for she knows not what she says," the blonde intoned. Seeing the incredulous look on Aki's face, Sarah shrugged. "Don't say I didn't warn you."
"Murphy is a Christian god?" asked Aki in disbelief.
"Murphy transcends all religions." Sarah said in a serious tone of voice. "It would require the intervention of God Himself to stop him, and He's usually too busy doing other things. So. Don't. Taunt. Murphy!" The blonde reached up and flicked Aki on the forehead, causing her to flinch back.
"OK, OK, no taunting Murphy. Geez." Aki was now rubbing her forehead. "I guess you really are into this luck stuff." Looking down at her friend she asked, "So how do you avoid bad luck then? You buy a charm at a temple or something?"
Sarah blinked at her for a moment. "Oh yeah, you guys do that. That's one way, I suppose. The other ways are to double and triple plan everything, and you *don't* go out of your way to draw attention to yourself."
"Well then I guess I'm screwed, because that always happens to me," Aki replied. "I haven't been able to keep people's eyes off me since my boobs starting growing when I was twelve. Going from flat to a D cup in six months wasn't fun, and shooting up twenty-five centimeters at the same time didn't help."
"No shit? You hit 180 centimeters at age twelve?" Sarah looked impressed in spite of herself.
"I hit 160 centimeters at age twelve, my growth slowed down some after than but I kept going. I didn't hit 180 and an E cup until I was fifteen." Rolling her eyes Aki kept talking. "And if my boobs didn't call enough attention to me at that age, my height sure did. I had to get special permission to wear the high school uniform in middle school because if wore the regular one I totally looked like some hentai gravure pin-up!"
"Um… Aki-san, you are a gravure pin-up." Sarah said slowly.
"Yes, but having sleazy modeling agents hitting on you at age thirteen is too much." Aki gave a not-so-fake shudder. "I didn't start modeling until I was fifteen, once I got more comfortable in my own skin. The good news was I was able to use those gravure shots to convince Shinji-chan to start dating me."
"Huh?" Sarah looked confused and even Nyamo, who was still standing nearby silently, looked puzzled.
"Shin-chan and I grew up together next door to each other for almost all our lives, so I guess he always looked at me like a friend," Aki explained. "Once I started growing I guess he figured he didn't have a chance with me, so he didn't even try. So he was the only boy around my age that didn't act like a hormonal jerk, and after a while I decided that I wanted to be with someone who didn't have their eyes glued to my tits. But you wouldn't believe how hard it was to get Shin-chan to look at me like that, he was the direct opposite of other boys, he's too honorable for his own good. So I had to take drastic measures."
"Uh huh." Sarah had a feeling where this was going; in fact it could explain a thing or two about Aki.
"Yeah, first I started showing him modeling test shots and asking him what he thought about various poses and swimsuits. The dofus was finally starting to see me as a woman but he still wouldn't make a move on me." Aki shook her head in dismay. "Finally one summer night I crawled into his bedroom through the window and while he was busy stuttering, I pulled my shorts and t-shirt off to show him my new string bikini and pulled him into my boobs, then I kissed him. He finally got the hint then."
"And then you did what…?" Sarah asked slowly.
"And then we dated for three months before we finally had sex." Aki huffed at the look on the blonde's face. "Seriously Sarah-chan, I'm shameless and a flirt, not a slut. But in the end it worked out, especially after I trained him properly." Aki saw another look on Sarah's face. "And he was my first, thank you very much."
"I'm happy to hear that." This was starting to get into TMI territory, but it looked like Aki was winding up her story.
"That being said, I'm still curious about some things." Aki leered at her.
Aaaand there we go with the flirting again. "Remember what I said about starting something you're not willing to finish, Aki-chan?" Sarah asked, stressing the honorific, bringing the taller girl to a halt, but only for a moment.
"Nyamo-chan is free to join us anytime, Sarah-chan." Aki smiled again, only this time it wasn't so brazenly sexual. The blonde's eyes flicked over to the side in time to see the blush on the islander girl's face, but she did not seem to be opposed to it. Looking forward down the school hallway Sarah saw someone she had been looking for and her train of thought suddenly switched tracks.
"Hey guys, wait here for a moment, I need to talk to someone." Aki and Nyamo stayed in place, although with questioning faces, while Sarah walked toward the student coming toward them.
Sarah came to a halt in the middle of the hallway, watching the other student walking toward her, preoccupied by looking for something in her book bag. The other girl looked up with barely enough time to stop before running into her, even as the blonde spoke to get her attention.
"Hey there Aoi-san. Long time no see." Sarah watched as Aoi Fujita blushed as she looked into her dark brown eyes. The long black haired bespectacled girl was maybe half a head shorter than the American girl with a slighter figure except for one noticeable difference; the girl has one of the biggest set of boobs in the school, surpassed only by Aki and at least a couple sizes larger than Sarah.
"Hello McDougal-san, it is good to see you again." It was apparent Aoi meant her words, as her face was getting a darker red as she spoke.
"You can call me Sarah-kun, I don't mind." The blonde knew she pushed the envelope sometimes by calling people by their given name without previous permission, but it was one of her Western tendencies she did not fight hard to correct. However she did limited it to the few young people she more or less liked; adults and most other young people were called by their family names with very few exceptions.
"Sarah-kun," Aoi said the name slowly, almost as though she was tasting it. "I wanted to thank you for what you did the other day for me. Most of the others here at school would not have done anything about." It took Sarah a few moments to realize what she was talking about; Aoi had been one of the girl who had pictures taken of her by Kensuke Aida to sell to their classmates. Luckily in her case it had only been pictures of her in her underwear while in the middle of changing for gym class, as other girls had been the subject of upskirt and nude photos.
"It's not a problem. I caught that dipshit Aida trying to take pictures of me, and your stuff came out when I looked into it. I figured you would want to know." Sarah could see the embarrassed flush on her face was starting to be replaced by an angry one and was reminded of Aki has previously said about the girl having a temper. Deciding to change the subject Sarah continued speaking. "Enough about him though. The reason I'm talking to you is because I wanted to thank you for the Valentine's Day teddy bear and candy you gave me. So thanks Aoi-chan. You don't mind if I call you that, right?" The blonde gave a full-power grin and she was surprised the other girl did not faint from all the blood rushing to her face.
"No, not at all, Sarah-kun." The dark haired girl managed not to stutter her reply.
"One of the other things I wanted to talk to you was that I didn't want to wait until White Day next month to give you honmei choco," Sarah used the term for the higher quality chocolate that was given to someone that they cared for and not out of obligation. "So I was wondering if you were interested in going out for coffee this weekend, and maybe a movie? We can talk and get to know each other better."
Aoi froze for a long moment, long enough for Sarah to think that she was going to refuse. But instead a smile formed on her face, one that got so big it looked it would hurt. "I would like that very much, Sarah-kun."
"Good!" Sarah smiled again, and it looked as though it was all Aoi could do to keep her knees from trembling. "Lend me your phone for a moment." The dark haired girl looked puzzled for a moment as she handed over her mobile phone. Pulling up the text messaging app, Sarah typed in her own mobile number and fired off a text, causing her own phone to chime as the message was received before she handed the other phone back. "That's my number I sent a text to, I'll call after school and then we can set up the details. OK Aoi-chan?" Sarah was starting to feel a little concerned; while Aoi was still smiling and nodding she was starting to sway on her feet.
"It's almost time for lunch to end, so I'll talk to you later." Sarah gave a slight smile, trying not to overwhelm the other girl and it seemed to work, as she seemed to steady herself.
"Thank you Sarah-kun. I'll be waiting for your call." Aoi smiled herself and walked past the blonde down the hallway. Turning to look at her, Sarah noticed that there was a bit more sway to her gait than she had earlier, only to see that all the students in the hallway had stopped and been looking at her and Aoi, most of them with looks of curiosity and surprise on their faces.
"What you looking at!? Get to class!" Sarah's words were not quite a shout, but everyone started walking again. Turning around, she walked back to Aki and Nyamo, who were both wide-eyed. "Time to get to class, see you later Aki-san. Let's go Nyamo." Sarah started walking toward her classroom and Nyamo followed behind, with Aki moving off toward her own destination.
Hinata-sou Dormatory
Hinata City, Kanagawa Prefecture
Metro Tokyo, Japan
late February, mid Saturday morning
"Good morning everyone." Sarah greeted the people sitting in the kitchen as she walked in. Most of the residents of the Hinata-sou sitting at the table eating breakfast looked up at her and paused in what they were doing, which in Kitsune's case was stopping in mid-chew. After a moment the fox-eyed girl finished chewing and spoke.
"Going with the Catholic school girl look today, Sarah-kun?" Kitsune was referring to the outfit that the blonde was wearing today; a red plaid tartan skirt reaching to her knees, a modest white blouse open at the collar, and a light blue tartan beret looking cap with a black pom-pom on the top and a silver badge over her left eye. White calf length stockings, black Mary Jane shoes, and a small black leather purse slung diagonally across her torso completed the outfit. "Joining the femme side of the Force?" the slacker girl asked with a grin.
Sarah looked at Kitsune for a long moment, enough to start to make the older girl uncomfortable before she replied. "I'm going to a church today, this kind of outfit seemed appropriate. You know how Japanese have traditional clothes? These are the clan tartans for my family."
"You are descended from clans, Sarah-kun?" Naru was the one to ask the next question, as Kitsune had been taken aback from the younger girl's look at her. "I didn't think that Americans had such things."
"Not really. Usually it's because of where an American emigrated from." Sarah replied. "Both sides of my family on my maternal side are Scottish and these are their tartans." The blonde plucked at her skirt. "This is the clan pattern for Clan MacDougal, my grandfather's family, and the pattern on my hat and the badge is from Clan MacDowell, my grandmother's family."
"Your family were Highlanders, Sarah-chan?" Su-chan was the one to ask the next question, interest bright on her face.
"The MacDougals were Highlanders, the MacDowells were an allied clan that were from the Lowlands of Scotland," Sarah answered as she picked up a plate and held it out for Shinobu to fill. Nodding her thanks the blonde moved over to an empty space at the table and sat down. "I just know the basics from my grandfather. More times than not he talked about my grandmother." The girl scooped up some eggs with her fork and started chewing.
"Your grandmother?" Naru followed up with another question. "Didn't you know her yourself?"
"No. She passed away when my mom was five years old." Seeing the older brown haired girl flinch slightly, Sarah shook her head and say before taking a bite of toast, "Don't worry about it."
"What did your grandpa talk about?" Kitsune asked.
"Mostly about growing up in Scotland, and when he immigrated to America after the war." Sarah replied. "It was ironic, he didn't meet my grandma until he was in his mid-forties, when he went back to Scotland to visit. He met my grandma at a family gathering, they were distantly related, something like second cousins twice removed. They kept writing each other after he went back to the U.S. and he returned a couple years later. He stayed for three months and by the time he came back they were married. They had three kids, my mom was the youngest, then she passed away." The blonde took a drink from the mug of coffee Shinobu had passed her before sitting down herself to eat.
"I'm sorry for asking, Sarah-kun." Kitsune looked saddened for once.
"Don't be." Sarah dug out her mobile phone and after keying it on, went to the gallery section and brought up a photo before flipping her phone around to show the other girls. On the screen was a color portrait of a man who appeared to be in his late forties with sandy blond hair and green eyes with his arm around a woman who looked to be in her early thirties with long blonde hair, blue eyes and facial features that looked very familiar. The man was wearing a knit dark woolen sweater and slacks and the woman was wearing a closely fitting white blouse and black mid-thigh length mini-skirt. "My grandfather Alistair McDougal and my grandmother Evangeline Anastasia McDougal, formerly MacDowell."
"Holy hell, you look just like your grandma, Sarah-kun!" Kitsune exclaimed as she leaned forward to get a closer look the picture along with the rest of the girls. "Your grandma was pretty hot and she looks to be a lot younger than your grandpa!"
"Thanks, I guess?" Sarah was looking slightly amused. "And from what I've been told my grandmother Eva might very well have been older than my grandfather."
"No way!" Kitsune and the other girls looked shocked. "How old was she?"
"I don't know. Grandpa Alistair would just say that Grandma Eva was older than she looked, than it was rude to ask a lady her age." Sarah explained with a slightly twisted smile. "He did say that she lost everyone she loved during the war and that she was working as a teacher at some exclusive private school when they met."
"Wait, your grandmother had three kids in her forties at least?!" It was now Naru's turn to look stunned. "How?!"
"Magic." Sarah chuckled at the look on their faces. "Really, I don't know." Turning the phone back around the blonde flipped through the pictures until she found the next one she wanted. "This is her after she had all three kids."
The picture on the phone showed the same lady as before, only she still had a figure that most women would kill for and she was wearing a white blouse and kilt with the same tartan pattern as the one on Sarah's hat. What was disconcerting was her expression; even though she looked slightly older there was an amused slightly mocking smile on her face.
Flipping through the photos again Sarah showed one more photo. "And this is her right after she had my mom." This photo was starkly different; she was sitting in an upholstered armchair and looking down at an blanket wrapped infant in her arms, and the soft smile on her face was totally at odds with the previous picture they had seen.
"That's so cute…!" While the girls where cooing over the picture, Sarah continued eating, quickly finishing the food on her plate. Standing up to refill her coffee mug from the pot behind her, the blonde sat down with some more buttered toast and waited for all the girls to finish looking at the picture before taking her phone back and tucking it away.
"Sarah-chan, you said that your cap badge is part of your grandmother's clan? Does it have words on it?" Su was squinting at the hat on her head.
"Yep. It has the clan motto on it, ironically it's the same motto as my grandfather's clan, only his family's is in Gaelic, buaidh no bàs, and her family's is in Latin, vincere vel mori." Seeing the incomprehension on their face, Sarah smiled thinly again. "It means 'Victory or Death', or 'Conquer or Die'."
"Gaelic? That's the Scottish language, isn't it?" Naru asked, valiantly ignoring along with the other girls the implications of the family mottos. "Do you speak it?"
"No, not really." Sarah replied. "I know some Gaelic and Welsh songs that I learned from my grandfather but that's about it. You pretty much have to grow up in Scotland to learn how to speak it properly."
"You know family songs? Can you sing one?" Su was almost bouncing in her seat when Sarah turned and stared at her. The blonde islander girl's smile slowly slid off her face until the other blonde replied.
"Yeah, I guess I can." Sarah drained her coffee while the other girls straightened up and focused on her; except for that one day in school the younger girls had not heard their friend sing again, and the older girls had not heard her at all. Closing her eyes Sarah paused for a long moment before singing in a soft voice that they still heard clearly.
Dweud a ddoi di eto n'ol
Cariad bach er cilio'n ffo
Nid yw'r haf I mi
Ddim ond hirlwm
Er pan gollais ti
As the low voice faded everyone was stock still; Naru and Kitsune were wide eyed, which looked especially odd on the normally fox-eyed girl, Shinobu was near tears, and Su was looking solemn for once before she spoke. "What that song mean, Sarah-chan?"
The blonde girl opening her eyes before speaking. "It's about a lost love. The lyrics translate to 'Say you will not return, Sweetheart since you flew away I have no summer; Only the worst of winter since I lost you'." Sarah explained. "That was one of the songs my grandma Eva would sing that my grandfather taught me, that was Welsh though, not Gaelic."
"It was so sad, Sarah-chan!" Shinobu burst into tears, and Su pulled her into a hug to console her.
Sarah did her best to not roll her eyes. "And people wonder why I don't sing so much," she muttered to herself.
"What can be said, it's a gift gaki." Everyone at the table turned to see Keitaro and Nyamo standing behind her, her guardian holding a mug of coffee. The pair was dressed to go out and must have come in while she was singing. "Ready to go, Sarah-kun?"
"Yeah, let me get my coat. Aren't you going to eat?" Sarah stood from the table.
"We ate earlier, you must have just missed us." Keitaro finished his mug of coffee and placed it in the sink. "We'll meet you at the front door." The blonde nodded and as she stood and picked up her plate and utensils to place them in the sink as well the pair turned and left with her following after giving a quick goodbye to the other residents.
A/N 2: This is a shorter chapter than I was planning, as I wanted to add the church visit to it, but then I decided that since it was over 5k words and it had been over a month since my last update this would be sufficient. I'm figuring that you would rather get 5-6k updates every month or so than a 10k chapter that takes much longer.
That being said, I am going to change my MO and instead of taking a week or two off from writing like I usually do after updating I am going to keep writing this week. Hopefully that means I will have a 3-4k word chapter to post involving Sarah's visit to church plus some non-canon omakes by this time next week.
Props (and internet brownies) go to Hallwings and Hektols for figuring out that the three objects in the Urashima shrine room represent the Imperial Regalia of Japan; the Yata mirror, the Yasakani jewel (not a turtle as with the Urashima) and the Kusanagi sword (gee that sounds familiar, in a couple different ways). In fact, I was going to have Motoko Aoyama use Kusanagi as her new name after she got temporarily banished from her family, but someone somewhere pointed out that in Japan that name is so well known that it would be the equivalent of a British girl calling herself Jane Excalibur (eyes go to Motoko Kusanagi from Ghost in the Shell). Partial credit goes to Centaurious, and special credit goes to ignoto82 for both figuring out the Regalia and what the bag of ash and dirt was (note; it was not the remains from a ceremony, it was what was left after the raid from a direct hit by an incendiary).
My next question to you all is what Sarah should wear on her outing with Aoi? As aggressive as she is she is not butch, but not too femme either. So far she's only been dressed in short and t-shirts and the school uniforms. Just because she wears the gakuran uniform does not mean she is a confirmed cross-dresser, she just finds it more comfortable. I could always have her dress up in jeans and a blouse with a jacket over it, but if someone comes up with a good idea send me a PM and I might use it (and give them credit for it). If not the jeans route, I could have her dress up like I did her grandmother Eva in the picture with her grandfather Alistair.
Speaking of which I'm sure that most fans of Negima and UQ Holder recognize who Eva MacDowell is; it's always been bandied about that Ken Akamatsu, the creator of Love Hina, Magical Teacher Negima and UQ Holder, did link Sarah McDougal and Eva MacDowell as relatives, even if not a direct descendant link. Eva from Negima became a high daywalker vampire hundreds of years ago and Sarah may be related to her through her other family. I deliberately left Grandma Eva's status up in the air as it might help explain Sarah's singing abilities. If you want to see what Eva looked like in her portrait with her husband do a search for 'Evangeline - Yukihime - UQ Holder' in your favorite search engine; you'll see her in her teacher outfit. Thoughts about Eva and Aoi and Aki's backstory are always welcome.
Thanks again to my beta readersAZ MII and PCH and to my FFN beta WalkerOfDarkness for all their help.
As of 0100PST 10Apr2017 this story has 380K Words, 831K Views, 978 Reviews (getting close to 1K!), 1424 Story Favorites and 1297 Story Alerts. Thanks again to everyone for reading my story. *thumbs up*