Chapter 4
Jun couldn't say he didn't believe in coincidences. Zen probably knew the crazy equations or maybe even the accurate percentage for the possibility of coincidences to happen, but the strawberry blond was apparently still pissed off at Jun for not confiding in him. However, even without Zen's calculations, when the same thing happened twice, Jun believed that it would be naive to keep holding on to the belief that it was just a coincidence and not explore other options.
He wondered if the dreams he had regarding Sailor Mars was just a way for the gods or fate to tell him to stay away from Rei.
Jun wasn't a particularly superstitious person, but the two dreams and Rei's attitude towards him didn't help encourage him to visit Hikawa Shrine again. So, despite his promise to the old man, he didn't visit the temple for the next couple of days.
So it was with days of pent-up frustration that he found himself with as he stood inside the search department again.
If they still didn't give him any leads about Yua, he was very tempted to tear down the department, especially when most, if not all, of who he knew had already found their family members.
For once, he didn't bother to hide his feelings behind a friendly façade towards the receptionist, causing the latter to cower behind the desk under his icy stare.
"Yo-Yoshida-san … if y-you can come b-back in another t-two w-weeks—"
He clenched his fists and ground down hard on his teeth. Before he could speak, the lightbulb above the receptionist suddenly shattered, causing her to cry out in fear as she covered her head to block away the glass falling down on her. Jun narrowed his eyes and froze on the spot when he caught sight of what seemed to be traces of ice amongst the pieces of glass.
Images of Jadeite using ice during his fight with Sailor Mars flashed through his mind. He was so paralyzed by the emotions of fear and unease that it momentarily numbed his irritation towards the search department, and he hardly heard what the receptionist was saying.
He didn't know how long he stood there, but when he finally managed to drag himself out of the stupor, he found a woman with short blue hair and intelligent eyes looking at him. Both she and the receptionist were staring at him, so he could only assume that they'd said something and were now waiting for a reaction from him.
"I beg your pardon?"
The blue-haired woman gave him a patient smile before saying, "I am Mizuno Ami. Marui-san here just told me about your case. We're extremely sorry for the long wait, and we ask for your forgiveness. We have a couple of leads in regards to the whereabouts of your sister, but since we aren't certain yet, we do not wish to give anyone false hope before confirming that the leads are up-to-date and accurate."
Perhaps it was because he was still stunned by the frozen lightbulb pieces, or perhaps it was because of her demeanor and voice, but when Jun finally answered, it was with a much calmer attitude.
"I understand that the whole world is basically just waking up right now, and I get that there are plenty of people who are desperate to find their family members. But I've waited for months already. A week ago, everyone I know had already found their missing loved ones," he pointed out.
He had been hesitant about using harsh words towards anyone in the search department because he knew he had been part of the rebellion against the Queen and the King. He knew it was already generous of them to revive those who'd died in the Great Freeze, to give them a second chance, and to help them find their loved ones. Jun couldn't imagine someone who had a bigger heart than Neo-Queen Serenity and King Endymion, to forgive all those who had gone up in arms against their ascension to the throne. However, he couldn't help but feel as if there was something shady going on in the search department. It was absurd and could probably take a place in top ten conspiracies of the era, but he couldn't help but feel as if the people in the search department, or whoever they were reporting to, didn't want to return his sister back to him.
Ami paused for a moment, and now that Jun was in a much more normal state of mind, his mind immediately picked up the glint of uneasiness in her eyes.
Definitely something shady going on then.
"We understand your worry. We can assure you that all information that we've received about your sister has been positive ones," Ami finally said.
"Forgive me for double-checking, but does this mean that you know the whereabouts of my sister but cannot tell me yet?" Jun asked, a pleasant smile on his face.
Ami's mouth dropped open before she snapped it shut. She hunched forward, seemingly typing something into the computer, though Jun couldn't help but feel that she was stalling for time to think of an answer for him.
He silently thanked the gods for letting him meet Zen. How else would he have managed to hone his skills for sharp statements to corner people?
"If … you can give us a few more days, we will probably be able to confirm all the information on our hands," Ami finally said.
She kept her eyes firmly on the computer screen.
After a short pause, she finally looked at him again and said, "We're extremely sorry for the long wait."
Maintaining the smile on his face, he gave her a short nod before turning around to leave the building.
"Mizuno-san, should I call Hikawa Shri—" Jun heard the receptionist saying right before he opened the door.
He didn't pay attention to what Ami said in order to disrupt the receptionist, but he truly felt that he deserved an award for acting as if he hadn't heard that piece of information.
Jun let out a long sigh after he stepped outside. To be honest, though he'd caught on to the possibility that they were withholding information about Yua's whereabouts, he still didn't know why they were doing this. So he had been part of the rebellion, but tons of other people who had found their family members already had been as well, and some of them had higher ranks than him. He supposed if he had tried harder, he probably could've climbed the ranks, but for some reason, he had never felt inspired enough to do so.
Truth to be told, he couldn't even remember why he'd joined the rebellion. Perhaps it was because most people from his town had joined it, or maybe it was because his grandfather had always expressed distrust towards the Sailor Senshi, even before the Queen and King's ascension. After his grandfather passed away and months after joining the rebellion, he couldn't bring himself to be as passionate as the other rebels had been in regards to pulling the Queen and King down from the throne.
But he had no idea how any of that would make him particularly different from other rebels. Unless …
Unless the dreams are real.
That thought came unbidden to him, and despite the cool breeze that brushed against him, he felt cold sweat gathering on his forehead.
No, he was being ridiculous. The dreams couldn't be real. They just couldn't be. Sure, he'd heard of talks about people having powers to predict the future in their dreams, and there were even people who believed that dreams had meanings behind them. However, he'd never had divination powers before, and he didn't see any reasons for him to start having them now.
But then again, everything seemed to be connecting back to Hikawa Shrine. His inexplicable closeness to the old man, the possible whereabouts of his sister, Rei …
Also, Rei's connection to Old Oak Tree …
As that thought passed through his mind, he subconsciously looked towards the shop, only to catch a glimpse of a familiar strawberry blond entering Old Oak Tree.
~-0-~
A soft jingle accompanied Jun's motion of opening the door to Old Oak Tree. It had been a while since the last time he had been here, and a sense of coziness wrapped itself around him the moment he stepped through the doorway.
Had circumstances been different, he would've enjoyed visiting this place as often as he had before he'd seen that silver-eyed man enter the teashop.
"Jun-san! Long time no see!" Minako chirped from behind the counter.
"Hello, Minako-san," Jun greeted with a smile.
He looked around the café before looking at Minako again, only to find her head down as she wiped the counter with a towel. For a split second, the feeling that she was doing this to prevent him from seeing her expression bubbled in his mind before he pushed it into the far corners of his mind.
If the dreams were real, he would need to keep his calm around anyone who could be a Sailor Senshi.
"Have you seen Zen-chan?" Jun asked.
Minako turned around to hang up the towel as she asked, "Zen-san?"
When she turned around, she had a sunny smile on her face, but Jun couldn't help but feel that it was far too brilliant to be true.
"Can't say I have," she continued to say. "It's been a while since the last time I've seen him. Were the two of you planning to meet up here?"
"I'm afraid not," Jun replied. "I thought I saw him from across the street."
"That's strange," Minako said, a frown sliding into place on her face as she placed a hand under her chin as if in thought. "The only perso—oh! Maybe you've seen our chef and owner instead, Mako-chan. She just walked in a few minutes ago. She's just a tiny bit shorter than Zen and has auburn hair, but you know, trick of the shine and all."
It took a short moment for Jun to realize that Minako had meant "trick of the light". His mind then drifted over to the person Minako had mentioned before he recalled an image of the tall brunette who'd come out of the kitchen the day he'd seen the silver-haired stranger.
Instinctively, Jun knew Minako was lying, but he decided against confronting her about it; after all, he didn't have any proof that she wasn't telling the truth. It wasn't like he could search Old Oak Tree.
"Maybe you're right," Jun said, tilting his head in an affirmative. "I guess I'll get going now."
"Sure you don't want to stay for a coffee?" Minako asked with a wink.
Jun shook his head. "Thanks, but I still have some errands to run."
"Such a shame then," Minako replied with a sigh before she smiled at him again. "Do visit again soon though! And bring Zen along with you. I haven't seen him in ages."
"Will do," Jun replied before giving her a wave.
He was just preparing to pull the door open when it got opened from the outside. The door slammed right into him, nearly knocking the wind out of him and breaking his nose. Thankfully, his reflexes were fast enough for him to move slightly to the side and backwards, so that the door crashed against his shoulder instead and a good part of the momentum had been stopped by the door stop. Nonetheless, he could feel a throbbing pain developing in the place where he'd gotten hurt.
"Oh my god, Jun-san, are you okay?" Minako asked, her eyes wide as she came out from behind the counter with genuine worry in her eyes.
Jun's "I'm fine" was thoroughly covered by another loud voice.
"Where is that woman!?"
A big bear of a man had appeared in the doorway. Jun wasn't a short man, but this man wasn't just taller than Jun; he was also much buffier. The blue-eyed, brown-haired man seemed to be built of nothing but muscle, and Jun reckoned the stranger could easily pick both Zen and him up at the same time and throw them across the room.
"Are you seriously going to ignore the fact that you've hurt someone? A customer, might I add?" Minako snapped at the man.
"Shut up and tell Kino to come out and face me like a man!" the man shouted before he looked at Jun. "I'm sorry for hurting you. If you can wait, I'll take you to the hospital after I deal with that stupid woman."
Minako snorted. "Sorry, can't do. And Makoto has no desires to become a man."
The stranger opened his mouth and snapped it back shut before snarling at Minako. The blonde, on the other hand, acted as if there wasn't a man growling at her like a bear and placed her attention back on Jun.
"Are you okay? Do you need to sit down for a while? I can get you an ice pack," Minako offered.
"I'm fine," Jun repeated with a smile.
He might get a nasty bruise on his shoulder, but it really wasn't that serious of an injury.
"I want to see Kino Makoto!" the stranger demanded, slamming his fist down on a table near the door holding brochures and making its legs creak.
Judging from how hard the door had slammed into Jun, it seemed like the man had held back on his strength so as to not break the table on the spot.
Minako raised her eyebrows as she allowed her eyes to trail over the table before she gazed at him again.
"If you break that, you better pay for it," she said.
"Well, I didn't break it, so tell her to come out," the man said, a stubborn expression on his face.
"No," Minako replied firmly.
For anyone else, the scene should've been shocking, since Minako could almost be considered tiny, standing next to the man, yet she showed no signs of being afraid.
But she wasn't even afraid of the silver-eyed man, so why should she be afraid of this man?
It was strange, the way Jun's mind categorized the silver-eyed man at a higher tier than the brown-haired man, since at first glance, most people would label the latter as much more dangerous. For some unknown reason, Jun didn't even doubt or question that conclusion for a single second: The silver-eyed man was much more lethal and stronger than the brown-haired man.
"If you don't tell her to come out—if you don't tell her to come out, I'll tear down her teashop!" the man threatened.
Jun raised an eyebrow at the stranger's declaration as amusement brought a smile to his lips—somehow, he believed that if the man had wanted to tear down the teashop, he would've done so by now.
The door to the kitchen slammed open, and the tall brunette Jun had seen the other day appeared, her hair flying in the air as if charged by electricity.
"Get out of here, Watanabe! You're not welcome," the brunette seethed.
Upon hearing that surname, Jun looked at the stranger with renewed interest. So this was the famous man who'd threatened to build a bridge to Crystal Tokyo with the bodies of ambassadors. Jun didn't know why Naoto was here, but he was pretty certain he hadn't heard any news about bridges made of corpses being completed.
Naoto clenched and released his jaw as if he were contemplating on the right words to say before he settled on, "You and me. Need to talk. Meet me in the nearby park after closing hours."
The brunette—Makoto—let out an incredulous snort before she eyed Naoto with derision. "You. Get out of my shop. Meeting in the park? Request denied."
"Woman!" Naoto shouted.
"Idiot!" Makoto shouted back and gave him a rude gesture before disappearing through the kitchen door once more.
Naoto's mouth dropped open, but instead of shouting again, he glared at Minako. After a few minutes, he said, "A cup of coffee and three slices of apple pie."
The change was so sudden that Jun blinked in confusion.
"There's no apple pie today," Minako replied in a bored tone of voice, as if she were accustomed to the strange turn of events that was happening in front of her.
"Three slices of chocolate cake then," Naoto said.
Instead of waiting for Minako to bring his order over to him, Naoto waited at the counter for Minako to hand the cake and coffee over to him before he stalked over to the eating area, apparently forgetting that he'd offered to take Jun to the hospital. Somehow, Jun didn't find this all that surprising.
Jun watched as the man took a seat facing towards the front of the store before inhaling the cake. Naoto was on his second slice before Jun found his voice again.
"I guess … I'll get going then," Jun said to Minako.
The blonde turned around to look at him, her eyes lingering on his shoulder for a second before saying, "You sure you don't want an ice pack for that?"
Jun shook his head. "Don't worry. I'm fine."
Minako shrugged. "Alright then." Picking up a brown bag, she held it out towards him. "Here's a slice of apple pie on the house."
"I heard that!" Naoto shouted.
"It's your fault Jun-san got hurt anyway!" Minako replied.
"I'm fine. I mean, if Watanabe-san wants the apple pie …"
"He's here almost everyday. He won't miss it," Minako said, waving her free hand at Jun. "It's just a small gift as an apology for that uncivilized brute hitting you on the shoulder."
It would've seemed ungracious for him to continue declining the offer, so he took the brown bag with a "thank you", though it left Jun wondering even more about the whole relationship between Naoto and Makoto.
It was rude to pry, so Jun didn't ask.
"Come back again soon!" Minako said, waving at him as he left the teashop.
As he walked down the street filled with maple trees again, he decided on his next destination for the day. After all, the search department did provide him with a clue, hadn't they? If he waited for too long, who knew if they might change his sister's whereabouts yet again.
Perhaps he might even solve the mystery of his nightmares if he visited Hikawa Shrine again.
~-0-~
Jun sighed as he stared at the archway leading to the temple. He was more than halfway up the stairs, but he knew better than to mull over his thoughts at the top of the stairs. If anything, the old man would probably be on him the moment he stepped on the last step of the staircase.
For a moment, he wondered if he was making the right decision.
Was he acting on impulse? To some extent. While the receptionist at the search department had mentioned Hikawa Shrine, he had no evidence that she was even talking about Yua's case. She could've been asking about another missing person's case.
But it didn't hurt to try, did it?
And so, Jun walked up the rest of the stairs. As he had expected, the old man immediately spotted him when he stood under the archway.
"Jun-chan!" the old man exclaimed, grabbing him and burying his face into Jun's arm. "Where have you gone? I'd thought you abandoned me."
"..."
"At first, I was certain you would be back again! But I kept waiting and waiting … and you never came back!" the old man bemoaned.
For a short moment, Jun felt guilt uncurl in the pit of his stomach.
Wait. Why am I feeling guilty?
Jun couldn't bring himself to alert the old man of the fact that he hadn't exactly promised when he would be coming to Hikawa Shrine again, and so he decided to remain silent as the old man continued rambling.
"Rei-chan told me you're not going to come back, and I told her that you will come back! I told her that you made a promise to me, and I know you will keep your promise this time. But she told me that you're only going to stay here for a while. Jun-chan, are you really going to leave after a while? You're not going to stay in Crystal Tokyo?" the old man asked, staring at him with hopeful eyes.
"Yes" was such an easy word, yet once again, Jun couldn't say that to the old man. It was as if he could never find it within him to deny the old man, however ridiculous some of his requests might be.
It wasn't like the old man reminded him of his grandfather. Not to say that Jun hadn't been close to his grandfather; on the contrary, he'd always been close to his grandparents. But his grandfather looked nothing like the old man, and their personalities could be considered polar opposites. Yet Jun felt an inexplicable closeness to the old man.
"... I'll be staying for a while," Jun finally said.
"That means you're still going to leave one day," the old man said, almost a bit too dramatically. "And then you're going to leave me all alone. Then it's probably best if you don't come at all anymore. What use is your accompaniment going to be if you're going to abandon me one day? What am I going to do with all the happy memories that you would give me after you leave? Think about you and cry about it every day? No, no, no … you are much too cruel. Much, much too cruel to this old man—"
Jun stared at him, at a loss in regards to how to make him feel better. He didn't want to lie to the old man, promising to stay but leaving right after he found his sister. But as it was, it seemed like the old man wouldn't stop fussing unless he promised to stay in Crystal Tokyo. The thought of staying so near to the Sailor Senshi made Jun's skin crawl, not to mention the fact that if they were hiding his sister's whereabouts, they were obviously suspicious about him for some unknown reason.
"—First my wife left me, all alone with my sorrows and my young daughter. I'd thought that my daughter would've at least stayed with me a little longer, but no! She got married to the good-for-nothing and hardly ever came back. And then she left me Rei-chan, but Rei-chan is always so busy even before the Great Freeze, as if this temple is her hotel room. And now Jun-chan wants to leave me as well—"
"I'll stay," Jun finally relented.
To be honest, the promise surprised him as well, as if the words had slipped out his mouth without his permission.
The old man stopped in his monologue as he looked upwards towards Jun. "You will?"
Jun only hesitated for a split second before nodding his head with a noise of affirmation.
The old man cheered. "I knew Jun-chan would never abandon me! Do you want to move here and live in the temple? I still have extra spaces available. You can even choose your own room if you want."
"I'm living with a roommate," Jun replied apologetically.
"The more the merrier! Tell him to move in as well!" the old man offered, leaving Jun a bit dumbfounded. The old man proceeded to pull Jun into the temple while continuing to say, "And think about it! You'll be saving on those extra costs—"
"You can't possibly tell us to live here for free," Jun protested.
"Why not? As long as you help out in the temple, why can't you live here for free?" the old man asked. He then hugged Jun's arm. "And you'll be keeping a lonely old man company. That's more than enough of a payment."
The old man then took Jun on a tour around the shrine, showing him the two rooms where he and Zen could be staying in.
"Zen and I can share a room," Jun said weakly, not even sure why he was really considering accepting the old man's offer of living in the temple.
"Hm … if you want!" the old man said. "But if you two want some privacy, like when you bring girls back home—" The old man wiggled his eyebrows at Jun.
Is that even allowed in a temple!?
As if the old man knew what Jun was thinking, he tutted, "I meant if you wanted some privacy to speak sweet nothings with her, what were you thinking about?"
Despite Jun's quickly muttered "Nothing", a light blush colored his cheeks.
"It's not like there's not enough room, so you and your little friend can decide on whether you want to live in separate rooms or the same one."
It was later on, when he finally reached his apartment that he remembered that he'd forgotten to ask about Yua. He mentally berated himself for forgetting something this important, though to be fair, it was rather difficult for someone to think when the old man kept rattling on about something, and the old man had shooed him out of the shrine afterwards, telling him to pack his things up and move into the temple as soon as he could. As he waited for Zen to come home, he remembered another problem about living in the temple.
Rei was so going to burn him in his sleep.
~-0-~
Thankfully, Zen had gotten over his annoyance about Jun not confiding in him, though Jun wouldn't be surprised if the strawberry blond was simply biding his time before launching some form of strange revenge on him.
Zen had no problem moving into Hikawa Shrine; Jun supposed he shouldn't feel so surprised about that. Despite Zen's flamboyant ways, he wasn't fussy when it came to where he lived. As long as he was certain he looked good and was smarter than everyone else in the room, he didn't really care.
The move to Hikawa Shrine didn't take too long either, as both of them didn't bring too many things with them to Crystal Tokyo in the first place. Jun had been concerned about Zen's "evil mastermind computer lab", but Zen reassured him that he would just move the equipment during his free time.
Zen had insisted on two different rooms, and Jun would've felt extremely embarrassed on his behalf if the old man hadn't taken an immediate liking towards the strawberry blond. The old man had left Jun to unpack his belongings before whisking Zen off.
Jun sat on the floor, staring at his unopened bags, wondering what had taken over him. He didn't usually take favors from people—it was too hard and complicated to calculate how much one owed the person who had granted the favor. But here he was, sitting in Hikawa Shrine in his new room. He didn't even want to imagine the look on Rei's face when she realized they were now housemates.
He hoped she didn't think he was stalking her.
He wondered if he could tell the old man that they were sorry for the trouble, but they really shouldn't live in the shrine, but that might cause the old man to start bawling again. Jun really didn't think he could endure another one of those, both psychologically and emotionally.
He supposed Zen and he could live here until Rei decided to throw them out.
After unpacking his stuff, he went out to familiarize himself with the place. He'd noticed that there was another room to his left, though he wasn't sure to whom it belonged. He found it strange that Zen's room wasn't positioned next to his and was, instead, four doors down to the right side of his room.
He closed his eyes and allowed the peacefulness of the temple to settle on him, feeling the burden on his shoulders lighten slightly as he relaxed. Perhaps he really should take a leaf out of Zen's book and stop worrying so much.
Opening his eyes again, he walked towards Zen's room to see how the strawberry blond was doing. A soft chuckle left his lips when he saw the old man helping Zen set up the room and put away his stuff.
"Lazy bum," he muttered when he walked past Zen to help the old man.
"Not everyday I get taken care of," Zen shot back. "And Jii-san likes me."
"Of course I like you!" the old man said as he folded Zen's clothes one by one before putting them into the drawers. "I wished my daughter would've given me more grandchildren, but alas …"
"And I wished my grandfather was as wonderful as you are, too," Zen replied.
If Jun didn't hear the sincerity behind Zen's words, he would've liked to kick him.
"You're just going to spoil him, Jii-san, and he's already a spoiled brat," Jun said as he opened another one of Zen's bags.
"You're just jealous that Jii-san likes me more than he likes you," Zen said, sticking his tongue out at Jun.
Jun rolled his eyes while the old man laughed.
"I like both of you," the old man replied. He peered at Jun. "Are you finished with your room?"
Jun kept his eyes firmly on the bag in front of him. "Yeah."
Whacking him on the shoulder with an now-empty duffel bag, the old man said, "Liar!"
Zen sniffed. "See? Liars don't deserve Jii-san's love."
"I've unpacked my stuff," Jun protested.
"And stuffed them into the drawers without folding them?" the old man pushed on.
"..."
"You know him too well, Jii-san," Zen said.
"Oh, be quiet, you," Jun said, throwing a boxer at him.
"Hey! Stop throwing my clothes around!" Zen protested.
Their banter was cut short when the door suddenly slid open. Both Zen and Jii-san both fell silent and straightened their postures when they saw who it was. Though Jun had his back to the door, he didn't need anyone to tell him who was standing at the doorway.
Rei was home.
~-0-~
A/N: Huge thanks to my beta, Nerys! Many thanks to those of you who've read, faved, and added to alerts! Huge thanks to Valkyrie Celes for reviewing!