ACT 2 – IMPORTANCE OF THE FAMILY

"What if they aren't anymore the guys we once knew?" Rei stopped and lowered her head.

Minako stared at her, "What?"

Rei looked at the crowd moving along Tokyo's streets, wondering where the Shitennou were (where Jadeite was), in that moment, as the evening's darkness wrapped Tokyo; it was her thought since she left Mamoru's place, and it was her thought now, just her and Minako still walking to their homes (Usagi, Makoto and Ami already arrived to theirs).

Minako half-closed her eyes and had a sweet smile; she moved close Rei, "Rei-chan. Are you worried about meeting Jadeite?"

Rei stared fiercely into Minako's eyes, "Aren't you worried about Kunzite? The Shitennou were killed by Metalia two years ago, after being under Queen Beryl and Metalia's control for we don't know how much time, stolen to their normal lives." She had a brief shiver of rage, "They spent nearly two years as spirits, trapped into stones, just to help Mamoru with their advices," her rage melted into a sad smile, "and now we know they have been revived into the Cauldron; they are out there, living as normal guys, probably with no memories of their last years …" she paused and sighed, "… trying to fill their empty memories, I suppose. What if it has changed them definitively? What if they aren't anymore able to recover their memories and powers? What if …" She stopped and averted her eyes from Minako.

Minako crossed her arms behind her back and bent forward, her nose tickling Rei's cheek as she whispered into her friend's ear, "What if Jadeite won't recall you anymore? Will you be able to seduce him once more, as you did in your past life?" She had a step back and winked.

Rei blushed, "I am not planning to seduce him! And I didn't seduce him then, anyhow!"

Minako placed her right hand on her mouth and giggled, "I can say for sure I seduced Kunzite, instead, and I am going to seduce him once more, if necessary. I am the Goddess of Love, after all! He can't run away from me!"

Rei frowned and rested her left hand on her hip, her right hand firmly on her schoolbag, "Mina-chan!" She closed her eyes and tossed her hair behind in her refined way, "For what I remember, you fell for Kunzite quite soon after you first met him, so, we should say HE seduced you. Besides, I can seduce Jadeite when and how I want; men are stupid, it's easy to seduce them, and it isn't a secret I have a lot of admirers because of my beauty, though I am not the Goddess of Love. I can have all the men I want, but I don't want any of them."

Minako laughed, "Right! Right! I fell for Kunzite really quickly, even if, to be honest, Jupiter was the one who first fell for Nephrite (she has always been too romantic) then Mercury gave in Zoisite (for sure that guy had great resources to pierce Mercury's secretiveness). About you and Jadeite, this is a different story."

Rei bent her head toward her right shoulder and blinked, "What?"

Minako gave a twirl, the schoolbag in her hands tracing a perfect circle in the air, and moved away from Rei, "Don't you remember?"

Rei had a step to Minako, "What?"

Minako stopped and smiled, her eyes into Rei's ones, "You and Jadeite always acted as you were merely friends, never a romantic gesture; never a kiss, never a caress, never a hug. I knew you loved him 'cause … well …" she winked, "I knew. But I wonder why you were so discreet in public, too much discreet; I wonder if you ever kissed Jadeite."

Rei's cheeks turned red, "Yes. I kissed him. Just one kiss, but a kiss," more and more red.

Minako sighed, closed her eyes and lowered her head in disappointment, "Just one kiss, how depressing. I suppose it's 'cause of your vow of chastity to Serenity."

Rei glanced frantically at people around her, her cheeks in fire; she placed her hand on Minako's mouth and whispered, "Mina-chan! Stop this talk, please."

Minako had a small jump back and freed from Rei's hand. She burst out laughing and bent forward, her arms around her belly. After her hysterics, she turned serious and stared at Rei, a calm and mature smile on her face, "You know, Rei-chan, I think you have always been too scared about falling in love, then and now. You are afraid of the dark side of Love: possession, jealousy and dependency. This is why you tried to resist to your attraction to Jadeite, hiding behind that vow, and now you are wondering if Jadeite is the same or has changed; you're trying to resist falling in love again." Her smile changed into a resolute look, "I think the Shitennou will regain their memories and will have an important role in the future Crystal Tokyo (though we don't know it, yet, and we won't probably know it until the future will come), this is why King Endymion asked Mamoru to find them; I think they haven't changed; their feelings haven't changed … their feelings for Mamoru … and for us." She looked up at the Moon sparkling in the dark sky, "See, the day Metalia killed the Shitennou, after we managed to bring them back to their senses with our Planet Attack, for few seconds, just few seconds, I saw Kunzite as the man he used to be, the man I knew and loved. Just for few seconds, I looked into his eyes and he looked into mine: he loved me, as then. I know it." The moonlight reflected into her fleeting tears, "I want to find him, help him to regain his memories and look again into his eyes. When he'll find his memories, he'll love me again. He'll love me again 'cause I am Venus, and he'll learn to love me also 'cause I am Minako, the way Usagi and Mamoru has learnt to love each other not just 'cause their past as Serenety and Endymion. I want to know everything about the new life of Kunzite: about his family, his childhood, his job, what ice-cream's flavor he likes the most, what he likes to eat for breakfast… everything; and I'll show him everything about Minako."

Rei nodded, "You are right. That day, I too saw Jadeite as he used to be, just for few seconds, and I realized I still loved him, and he still loved me." She finally admitted her true feelings, just a whisper, "I am scared of falling in love again but I want to have him back to me; these contrasting feelings are confusing me."

Minako turned to Rei; she shrugged and had a bright smile, "We'll have them back to us. Don't worry. And we'll finally have an happy future, I feel it." Her eyes moved from Rei to the Game Center Crown and sparkled with excitement, "A new videogame! I MUST try it!" She grabbed Rei's arm and pulled her into the arcade.

Rei reluctantly followed Minako, "Mina-chan! We should go back home and study!"

The arcade's door swallowed them and Minako's voice, "Stop talking like Ami!"

"Your vow of chastity"

On his way home, Jun caught a fragment of talk; what kind of girl was talking about a vow of chastity? He stopped and stared carefully at the crowd around him.

Fragrance of sandalwood and incense. A voice – "We should go back home and study".

Something surfacing into his foggy memory.

A sudden and excruciating stab of pain in his left temple.

Jun glanced at the Game Center Crown and decided it wasn't a good evening for having his usual tea at the Fruits Parlor Crown above the arcade and for having a talk with Motoki Furuhata. He shook his head, slipped his hands in his sweater's pockets and walked away, "Damn headache and damn amnesia."

30 – 70 – 50 – 90, each grade circled with a red mark.

Kazuo stirred and moved his eyes from his students' homework to the newscast, catching some words of Mr. Hino, main member of the Democratic Liberal Party, about the importance of the family.

Family.

He glanced at the phone. He had called his little brother six months before, just to realize his brother hadn't even noticed his absence along the previous two years. Two years of absence and his younger brother hadn't even noticed it: when did their relationship start to deteriorate? Probably after their parents' death, their father when they were children, and their mother five years before.

What was his younger brother doing at their old home, in Hokkaido? For sure Sapporo was already covered with snow.

He stood up and walked to the window, staring at the night sky.

Two damn years of absence.

Satoru rolled the phone's cable around his forefinger, the receiver pressed on his ear as he talked to his mother.

He laughed.

He imagined his mother at the phone, thinking that Fukuoka wasn't so cold as Tokyo; he missed Fukuoka, especially during autumn.

He talked to his mother, then to his father; he would have loved to talk to his older brother too, but he couldn't (his beloved older brother had died many years before). He talked about University and about Tokyo. He talked about his life; he could talk to his parents about everything but just one taboo: his missing for two years, few after moving to Tokyo from Fukuoka. His parents had asked him about it many times along the last six months, but he had no answer, so they had stopped.

Strange things had happened in Tokyo along the past years: people with amnesia, missing people, people awakening in the middle of the streets with no idea of why they were there, strange stories about monsters, stories about magical warriors. Simply, Minami family had decided that Satoru somehow had been involved in the strange events of Tokyo. Stop. The most important thing, for Mr. and Mrs. Minami, was that they hadn't lost their second son, fortunately.

Satoru put the receiver down and switched the T.V. on, listening to Mr. Hino and Mr. Akanishi, main members of the Democratic Liberal Party.

Nobuo frowned.

His father's babbling about the importance of the family nauseated him.

If HIS family had been so important, his father wouldn't have cheated on his mother.

He thought of his mother. He grabbed the phone's receiver and dialed his mother's number in Okayama.

Sense of guilty overwhelmed him when he heard her voice. Sense of guilty for his two years of absence; it wasn't his fault but he couldn't help but feeling guilty for his failing in protecting her. Six months weren't enough to balance the two years of absence.

Nobuo repressed his sense of guilty (and his confusion about his missing, a mystery he wasn't able to solve, yet) and switched the T.V. off, focusing on his mother.

Jun plunged the chopsticks in the ramen.

He listened to the newscast and wondered what the heck those politics were talking about.

Family? He had no family, never had a family. He believed he could count just on himself; no trust in men, no trust in women (especially women; how trust women when the most important woman of your life, your mother, abandons you in front of an orphanage's door?).

He loved children; he loved teaching to young children, but he sincerely wasn't interested in having children. Having children meant having to do with women; not for him; he loved the children's universe, not the adults' one.

Rei switched the T.V. off and her father's face disappeared; she stormed outside the living room, "Hypocrite!"

I want to know everything about the new life of Kunzite: about his family, his childhood, his job, what ice-cream's flavor he likes the most, what he likes to eat for breakfast… everything.

Thinking of Minako's words, she slipped under the blankets and wondered if Jadeite had a better father than hers.