The story so far:

Prolog – Mayumi Osaka finds herself in a horrific situation while on a pleasure ride aboard a multimillionaire's yacht.

Chapter I, Subpar – Serena resolves to win the love of someone she admires by altering herself

Book I

- Disingenuous -

- II -

Calamity

Her feet ached. Whoever had designed this variant of Mary Sue shoes did not have walking in mind, of that much Serena was convinced. Her head hung low from exhaustion, but not once had she been tempted to board a bypassing bus. She had walked all the way home to mull over her options for winning over Motoki, strategizing her best course of action. If any of her teachers could see her now - planning, calculating, evaluating - they would likely bump up her grade on account of demonstrating skills she rarely ever showed during class. Despite the long walk in increasingly uncomfortable footwear, Serena felt much better than she had before.

It was not yet suppertime but she was starved from her journey. She was close enough now to smell the delicious aroma of her mom's cooking, amplifying her hunger. Good, maybe we'll eat earlier, Serena hoped as the engrossing aroma of tempura led her around the corner of the street, to the front gates of her new home.

Her father's sudden, increased income afforded them a comfort few citizens of Tokyo could boast. Over the white walls surrounding their property stood their detached, two-story house, crimson shingles that matched the colour of the setting sun on most nights. The house was adorned with numerous trees along the front, providing enough shade in their living room so as to never have to close their blinds. The young trees barely surpassed the height of the first floor, but potted plants took up their mantle on the Parisian balconies along the front and side of the house. (Serena's mom had been too eager to pass up the opportunity to tend to plants. It was as close as one could get to actually having a garden in Tokyo).

Closing the iron gate behind her, Serena's stomach rumbled with a sharp pang. The aroma of dinner was so engrossing; her mom's cooking as hard to outdo. The realization that losing weight to entice Motoki meant forgoing dinner left her at an impasse. Is this what models do? The very thought of passing up a delicious meal pained her as much as the twist in her stomach. I have to do this, she reminded herself, already feeling the seeds of temptation taking root.

It also dawned on Serena that her parents might inquire about the test she had been handed back. They had seen her studying for it, a rare sight to behold in the Tsukino household - her parents had even gone as far to take a few pictures as evidence - so they already knew about it, down to the date. Unable to deny its existence, she could only do the next best thing - destroy the evidence of her subpar performance. She had been so busy ensnaring Motoki in her mind's eye to have disposed of the test on her way home. It was not safe to bring it home, she knew, for her mom still occasionally rummaged through her school bag and drawers. It made her feel like a child and it irritated her to know her mother did as much. At least her phone and computer had passwords.

Serena set her black leather book bag on the ground and removed the graded test from her notebook, placing it on the ground next to her while she dug for her keys, a task that would have been infinitely easier were it not for a mess of crumpled and bent loose-leaf pages in the bag's interior. Before she could find her keys, however, the front door swung open, sweeping the test indoors and away from Serena's immediate reach.

"Oh, what's this?" inquired Serena's younger brother, Shingo, with mischievous delight as he picked up the test scarred with red ink. He was a scrawny boy of twelve but highly intelligent for his age. He often put that asset to use by blackmailing Serena, showing no qualms over using scrupulous means to gain the upper hand on his older sister. This test appeared to be fruit ripe for picking and his eyes widened with exuberance as he realized the treasure she had served him.

"Hey, give that back!" Serena snatched upward, hoping to pry away the test before he could read any more.

Shingo dodged his sister's outstretched arm with ease. "Yikes! 30%? That's way worse than your usual mediocrity! I see you were inspired to reach a new low!" he taunted.

"I wasn't even trying," Serena rose up with anger.

"Yeah, it shows," Shingo laughed hysterically. "Wait 'til mom and dad hear about this!"

"Don't you even dare, you little bastard!"

"Or what? You're gonna hit me? Better aim carefully - you only have a 30% chance of actually hitting me!"

Serena, infuriated with his ridiculing, coiled up and lunged forward with her knee aimed at his waist. This'll shut him up good!

Shingo thwarted his sister's attack by quickly slamming the door, its hard, wooden exterior making contact with his sister's knee. A sharp pain shot through her leg instantly and Serena rebounded, holding her throbbing knee with both hands. The fall to the unyielding floor added further pain and humiliation. Serena could hear her younger brother lock the door in the meantime for his own safety while he no doubt ran to his room to annoy her even further. He favoured strike-and-hide attacks, often robbing Serena the opportunity for immediate revenge. It made her hate him even more.

"Shingo, you asshole! Open the door!" she yelled, rattling the doorknob violently, trying hard to ignore the spreading numbness shooting up her body. "I'm gonna murder you if you even dare even mention that test to anyone!" She immediately heard the door unlock and was content that her threat had convinced her brother to concede, for once.

The door opened, but Serena's brother had departed. He was sitting on the stairs, eyes wide like the mischievous grin on his face as he looked on with pleasure. Their mother, Ikuko, stood at the doorway, between the two siblings. Now in her late thirties, Ikuko still maintained much of her beauty and youth, her long hair reaching down to the small of her back. The gentility and kindness of her features had disappeared altogether, however. They had been replaced by a dour expression instead, as she held the graded test in one hand, her metal cooking spatula in the other.

"What's all this commotion about?" Ikuko barked, the motherly white apron that hung over her brown dress doing nothing to mitigate the harshness of her voice. She hated loud noise and loathed being interrupted when cooking.

Serena was about to start her usual apology routine but her mother glanced at the test before she could distract her attention away from it. A wan smile of embarrassment spread across Serena's face, as though it could absolve her of her truancy and remove her from the situation. If she did not know her mother better, perhaps she would have feared being struck with the flat spatula, which would leave a nasty mark in addition to besmirching her with flakes of tempura batter to accompany the shame. Instead, however, Ikuko gave her daughter a speech about opportunities and hard work, but Serena tuned out most of it.

Before long, she found herself at the dinner table, uncomfortably seated across from both her parents and wishing she could strike out at her brother, who sat to her left. A good smack in the back of the head to drive that ugly face into those noodles... An unforgiving glare would have to suffice for now, though he seemed to not mind at all. That bugged her just as much as his slurping, which she was convinced was a ploy to irritate her further. Serena abstained from eating, though she was ready to declare defeat over her diet plans. Were it not that she was too upset and angry to even touch her dinner, she might have caved in.

At the very least, the meal had gone by quietly and Serena hoped it meant she would get away without punishment for her poor performance. However, as her mother began to clear the table for the main course, healthy ohitashi served alongside a beef stir fry accompanied by tempura yams, Serena found herself without any backup.

"But I don't want to go to juku!" she protested.

"Naru goes to juku," her father, Kenji, stated seriously. His hair, short and slicked-back, very down-to-business and to the point, reflecting his personality spot-on. He wore black-rimmed glasses and a brown cardigan over a periwinkle dress shirt, making him seem very teacherly and in control - not that he needed those two items to be authoritative. He was the head of the household, after all. Whatever he said was what was done. Nevertheless, Serena would not yield easily.

"So?" she shot back.

"What grade did she get on the test?"

Serena looked back down at her uneaten ramen. "95%," she replied begrudgingly, suddenly wondering why she had not lied instead.

"See? Going to juku does pay off," her mother chimed in from the kitchen.

"The problem is you hardly ever study. You spend way too much time playing video games. You're not 13 or 14 anymore, Serena. You've got responsibilities - such as getting into a good university. Not much time left before you have to start applying."

The poignant criticism warned Serena of the oncoming pressure. She could sense it. Her parents were a united front and she would find no support in her brother. She would have to think fast if she wanted to dodge this additional burden. 'So?' would not suffice. She needed heavier artillery. "Yeah, but... it's far. I'll have to take another bus." It was a weak counterpoint; she had reached for a mortar bomb but had instead drawn a minuscule bullet.

"Don't worry, dear. We'll up your allowance to make up for it."

Oh, more money for Motoki! was Serena's initial reaction, but it was not the answer she wanted to hear. I'd still have to go to juku then... "It'll cost a lot of money for the classes, though! And what if I need to buy new books and supplies?"

"Anything for my little girl," replied her dad with a smile.

Ikuko placed the food on the table. "Not to worry, sweetie. Your father's new salary affords us these privileges," she added. Indeed, her mom was right. Her dad's unexpected change in jobs - a rare occurrence amongst professionals in Japan - had led to their sudden rise in economic standing. He had gone from financial journalist to accountant for a firm he had been pursuing vehemently in his articles. They must have really liked his work enough to bring him onboard, Serena surmised. It was then that she realized she had been silent for too long - not that it mattered; she was entirely out of ammunition. Her moment of silence signaled her defeat to all others at the table. And so it was settled, much to Serena's chagrin, that she would attend juku three nights a week, with the condition that it would be reduced to twice a week if she improved her grades by term's end. At least they had granted her that concession.

The rest of dinner time went by slowly. No talk of anyone's day or interesting stories to be shared. It was an unusually dull affair. Her father was already reimmersed in his newspaper. That seemed to be the only thing he ever did. Breakfast table. Dinner table. If she visited him at work, Serena was sure she would find him in the very same position at a lunch table.

Serena's food remained in her bowl. It would have been exactly as she had it given to her, save that she had toyed with her noodles to pass the time. Her appetite had altogether vanished with the dreaded thought of having to attend juku three days a week, as if regular school was not hard enough to stomach. Perhaps it was not all bad, though. If these feelings continued, then maybe it would not be so difficult to lose weight, Serena pondered. Despite the fleeting thought, her rage still burned, bubbling under the surface of her sullen exterior, and hot enough to reheat her noodles if got close enough to them. More than anything, however, she felt like strangling Shingo. A lot of trouble could have been avoided had she been proactive about it, she rued.

It was nighttime and Naru had joined the Tsukino family after dinner. Serena was glad her friend missed everything - the dejection at the arcade, the fight with Shingo, the talk about cram school. She would have been mortified if Naru had witnessed any of that, certain that Naru would have even sided with Serena's parents on the matter of juku.

Naru lay on her futon, having already showered and having gotten ready for bed by slipping into her loose fitting orange flannel pajama top with green bottoms. They were every bit as plain as she was. Her hair was damp and completely down, requiring her to gently brush it aside every so often as she finished up her assigned reading for tomorrow. Before she could turn in for the night, there were questions on her mind that needed asking and answering, but definitely not before she took care of her work.

As Naru busied herself with schoolwork, Serena readied herself for bed. She had walked into the room wearing a yellow towel on her head and a pink one wrapped around her torso, the top folded in on itself so she did not have to hold it up herself. Neither of them seemed to mind the mess in the room. Naru had done everything she could to minimize her footprint in the large room, but Serena's clothes and books were strewn everywhere, in no discernible organizational schema. Socks, dirty and clean, mingled next to one another. Bras, sandwiched between magazines and books. Shirts, in bundles here and there, lumped between all the other items.

"I hope your mom enjoys the last two days of her cruise," Serena said, noticing that her friend was closing up her book. She knew better than to interrupt. Naru took studying very seriously.

"Same here. Though, I've really enjoyed spending the last couple of days here," Naru reflected. "Don't hold me to this, but I think we'll be having many more nights like this one," she said softly, as though whispering a secret even though they were the only two people in the room.

"Oh?" Serena dried off her hair with the yellow towel.

"My mom's really taken with this new guy she's seeing. Truthfully, I've barely seen her lately! Why, as soon as she got back from her last date, she decided to leave the following day on this cruise. It was very unexpected, actually."

"I'll say! If I had been on a boat that had stalled in the middle of the ocean, last thing I'd want is to go back on another boat."

"She wasn't 'in the middle' of the ocean. Or is your geography as bad as your writing?" Naru joked. Serena let down her guard and the two girls enjoyed a laugh together. The two of them were close enough that Serena did not mind the joke at her expense. "Anyway, I'm glad your dad got this new job. I never thought we'd have sleepovers again after you moved."

"Yeah," Serena agreed, sloughing off her pink towel and hanging it to dry behind her door. For a moment, the two of them were eight years old again, telling stories and giggling about boys as they reminisced about times long gone. After the delightful detour, their conversation returned to the present. "If you ask me, your mom should totally take us on the cruise next time - with dates!" Serena declared enthusiastically. A romantic cruise getaway...

"You kidding?! I begged her this time!" Naru declared emphatically. "She said 'Not until school's over!'" The two girls laughed hysterically at Naru's spot-on impersonation of her mother, complete with an over-the-top Osakan accent. "Talking about dates..."

The intonation in Naru's voice finished her sentence with perfect clarity. Serena realized she had unintentionally pried open the topic which she had been avoiding since her friend had arrived from juku. She was going to ask about the letter.

Naru sat up, her face aglow and expectant, confirming Serena's suspicion. "Soooo?" she asked, elongating the word playfully.

"So what?" Serena feigned ignorance. It would not be the first time such an act helped her shirk off responsibility or an unwanted conversation. Too bad it had not worked on her parents, though.

"So are you gonna be making kissy-face with a certain someone at the arcade?"

Serena remained silent as she rummaged through her drawers in her underwear for a pair of clean pajamas.

"Okay, fine. Too much. I get it."

Naru knew her well. Annoyed with her lack of forthcoming, she would likely ask again, but more directly.

"Did you give him the letter?"

Predictable Naru.

Serena hesitated, hoping Naru would have avoided this topic altogether. Of course, as this issue had been building up for several days now, even she knew it was foolish for her to expect Naru not to raise it, especially after today. Serena slid into her pink pajama bottoms covered with cute bunny faces. Clearly, they were designed for pre-teens, but Serena did not mind their childish appearance. They were comfortable and that settled the matter for her. "No," she eventually replied.

"I knew you'd chicken out again! I should've gone with you!" Naru bemoaned herself.

"No! I didn't 'chicken out again'!" Serena rebutted, tossing a pillow with playful anger at her friend's face. Years ago, that had been a challenge to a duel for a pillow fight, but they were older now and there were more pressing matters to discuss. Pillow fights had lost the battle over the years to talk of guys and crushes. "I was perfectly ready to give it to him."

"Then why didn't you? Was it because that hot friend of his was there and you were too embarrassed to do it in front of him?"

"Who? Mamoru? Eww! Gross!" Serena tossed another pillow at her friend, depleting her stock of projectiles. Mamoru Chiba was one of Motoki's friends who had graduated along with him two years ago. He was a lot like Motoki in appearance - handsome, tall, with jet-black hair and a slim but muscular build - and the two of them could pass as twins. But the similarities stopped there. Humility did not seem to be part of his character, or at least he did everything he could to bury it under repulsiveness. He also irritated Serena to the core with his arrogance. She had concluded as much on the first occasion they had met. Although Mamoru attended Keio University and apparently had brains, as far as Serena was concerned, his personality stunk vehemently.

"Oh, Mamoru," Naru sighed with ecstasy as she pressed the plush pillow up against her, pretending it was him in her arms.

"Oh, please! You're gonna make me throw up! That guy's such a jerk! He's always got something unpleasant to say to me. It's as if he specifically goes out of his way to find me and put me down," Serena stated, slipping on a white tank top, pulling down on the bottom as hard as possible to make sure it covered her stomach, having already been made to feel insecure about her figure earlier in the day. Her body image had never been a problem before, but now it was something that nagged her at every inopportune instance. Even bathing had been different tonight. Had her stomach always had a fold whenever she bent down to soap her legs? She was not certain, but surely she would have noticed if it had been there before.

"Sounds to me like you need to win Mamoru over."

"I don't want that jerk anywhere near me! I don't even know why Motoki is friends with him. They're nothing alike."

"Ok, so if Mamoru wasn't there, then why didn't you give him the letter?" Naru pursued her original line of questioning.

Serena observed herself on the oval, full-length mirror in the corner of the room, seeing how sucking in her stomach and standing up straight changed her profile. There it was again. That nag. "Do you think I'm attractive?"

Naru raised an eyebrow, unsure of where this conversation was suddenly headed. She was not interested in experimenting - certainly not with another girl, much less Serena. "Um, what?"

"Not like that!" Serena corrected herself, realizing the strangeness of her question. "Like, you know... if you were a guy. Would you think I'm attractive?" she clarified.

"Why?" Naru eyed her friend suspiciously. "What's this got to do with Motoki? Did he say something to you?"

Serena sighed. There was no point in lying to the one person she could actually confide in. It would be good to hear another person's opinion, she convinced herself. "He was with someone else. Someone prettier and way skinnier than me. They were really friendly with each other. There's no way he'd ever be with someone like me if he can be with someone like her."

"Bummer. I didn't know he was taken. What're you going to do?"

Serena paused for a moment, struggling to be completely forthcoming. "I'd love to win him over," she declared boldly, her face suddenly alit.

"Oh? And how do you plan to do that?" Naru was fuddled. She could smell yet another half-baked idea cooking in the oven.

Excitedly, Serena knelt next to her friend and explained her plan to lose weight by going on a diet and to become more attractive by wearing makeup, the latter a fresh addition to her concoction. "It came to me when I saw a poster," she explained, omitting the fact that Sailor V had been the inspiration. That would seem silly.

Before responding, Naru contemplated the plan with all the due consideration a best friend owed another best friend when they opened up and revealed themselves, exposing their vulnerability. "You're nuts."

"I really like him!" Serena threw herself backward onto her bed with melodramatic frustration. "I want this other girl to just die."

"Wow, that's mean!" Naru scolded her friend. "You're scary when you get competitive, you know that? Seriously, why not just settle with Mamoru?"

Serena scoured her immediate vicinity for another pillow, finally settling on a cushion to throw at her friend for that remark. She was about to rant anew about all the things he did which infuriated her, but there was an audible commotion making its way up the stairs, just down the hall from Serena's room.

They could hear Serena's younger brother crying out. Behind him, Serena's mother was vocally adamant about something. Evidently, she was not pleased with him, but he was too many steps ahead and she could not apprehend him. Loud steps echoed down the hallway, approaching the two girls. Shingo burst into the room practically out of breath.

"What are you doing in here?" Serena sneered, covering her front with her blanket as though she were naked. She was very stringent about her privacy and it was situations like these that reminded her about putting a lock on her door. Rather, getting her dad to put one in for her.

"It's urgent!" Shingo rebutted.

"Not interested," his big sister dismissed him without caring for what he had to say. Her response was tinged with the bitterness of the day's earlier conflict, yet still very representative of their relationship, which was mostly in name only nowadays; she had no interest in keeping company with a nerdy brother who spent his Friday nights summoning creatures and casting spells while playing tabletop card games along with other, equally dorky friends. It was counterproductive to her aspiration of becoming someone important in her school and having a cool boyfriend like Motoki.

"It's about –"

"SHINGO!" Serena's mom stormed into the room, cooking spatula still in hand, the delicious aromas of the lunches cooking for tomorrow wafting into the room from behind them.

Shingo realized this was his only chance before his mother dragged him out or his sister tossed them both out. "Naru's mom is in trouble!" he announced declaratively.

They all stood still for a moment as the words sank in and the two girls processed the news.

"What do you mean?" Naru was visibly concerned and wanting for further clarification. "What happened?"

"It's on the news right now! Come!" He rushed out of the room and hastily led the way to the TV in their modestly decorated living room. The late night news was on and the flurry of scrolling banners overlaying the brunette anchor made it immediately clear that they were reporting on a breaking story. Serena's father had put down his newspaper, alerting her that this truly must be something serious. The girls stood right in front of the TV to listen while Serena's mother remained pressed up against the doorway, biting her lower lip and worried over how the girls, sensitive Naru in particular, would handle the news.

"... the cruise ship, which carried over five hundred vacationers on a five-day excursion to Vietnam and Thailand, was recovered today after a communications blackout. Officials had lost contact with the ship two days ago, fearing that their communications devices, along with other vital systems, were damaged by sudden, violent weather.

Unfortunately, rescue crews encountered a much grimmer situation when they boarded the vessel. Many of the ship's passengers were found entirely emaciated, similar to states of extreme malnutrition in poverty-stricken countries. Our sources indicate that the death toll is fairly low at the moment, however, there is still no official number of casualties yet. Both numbers are likely to increase as we get more detailed reports. Although no cause has been attributed to this mysterious outbreak, some pundits have already been quick to point the finger."

The TV cut to an angry gentleman that Serena did not recognize. He wore a business suit and was on TV, so he must have been important, she gathered. "It's those damned Koreans! They've been conducting military exercises on our waters. They're the ones to blame for this."

"Don't you think that's extreme? There's no evidence to support those claims at this moment," chimed in the on-site reporter from amidst a sea of microphones and flashes.

"You want to wait for 'evidence'? Sure, let's sit idly by while they refine their ruthless technology. As we quarrel amongst ourselves, we provide them an even easier target."

The news cut back to the female anchor. "Government officials have yet to offer their remarks. We anticipate that their responses to this tragedy will be made public shortly. In the meantime, rescue workers will continue to look for survivors amidst the afflicted. Port authorities have stated that everyone on the ship will be mandatorily quarantined and a series of decontamination procedures will be established before survivors are permitted to have physical contact with the rest of the general population for fear that their condition is transmittable. This preventative measure is to stymie any possible epidem-"

Suddenly, the words and the news anchor disappeared into blackness. They all turned to see Ikuko, remote in hand, who had shut off the TV. "I think that's enough for now," she said, rushing to hug Naru, who was motionless and did not reciprocate the gesture. Serena was not sure which member of the Osaka family she was more concerned about, but it was palpable that this news troubled her mother deeply. "I'm sure your mother is alright," Ikuko reassured Naru, her hand gently cupping the back of her best friend's daughter's head.

Even in Ikuko's warm embrace, the on-screen tickers would not disappear from Naru's mind, however. The words 'Cruise recovered. High casualties expected after possible virus outbreak' were seared into her conscience. They would haunt her sleep tonight and perhaps forever after. She needed answers. What had become of her mother? Was she safe or had she succumbed to this epidemic?

Serena joined her mom and also held her best friend while the males watched, unsure of what they should do. "Things'll be okay, Naru," she consoled her friend. "Things'll be okay. You'll see."

AN - Loved it? Hated it? Doesn't matter! Leave me a comment! :)

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