ACT 3 – SUNDAY

"We should start from people missing in Tokyo nearly three years ago, before the Shitennou appeared as Generals of the Dark Kingdom looking for the Silver Crystal."

Mamoru nodded at Ami's clever statement, "Good. It could be a good point to start from."

Minako stirred and yawned.

And Rei reproached her, "Mina-chan!" Usagi too yawned and Rei snorted, "Usagi-chan!"

Makoto smiled, "You aren't used to wake up early in the morning on Sunday, are you? Usagi-chan? Mina-chan?"

Glad for Makoto's help, Usagi and Minako nodded and grinned.

Rei sighed and shook her head, "Early? It's 9 o'clock! Just Usagi and Minako can think it's early."

Artemis walked closer Ami, "Have you already checked about missing people in Tokyo at that time?"

Ami nodded and quickly moved her fingers on her computer's keyboard; tons of small pictures reflected on her thin glasses.

Luna opened her eyes wide in surprise, "So many people?"

Ami smiled sweetly, "Tokyo is a big city. And a lot of things have happened here along the last three years. I am not surprised there are so many missing people, for several reasons."

Usagi approached her head to Ami's one and glanced at the computer's screen, "WOW! How many pictures!"

Ami sighed and lowered her head, "Tons of pictures. But I am going to check every picture and every case reported."

Makoto folded her arms around her waist and closed her eyes in a thoughtful way, "We can find something. Yes. Unless the Shitennou didn't live in Tokyo when they disappeared. They could be everywhere around Japan." She finally opened her eyes and looked up at the ceiling, "Or somewhere around the World."

Minako frowned and ruffled her blonde hair in frustration, "Mako-chan! Don't complicate things."

Ami smiled at Minako, "After checking for missing people in Tokyo, I can check for missing people in Japan. I need some time to do it, but I'll try." Her faithful smile melted into a confused and sad look, "But it will be impossible to check for ALL the missing people around the whole World."

Mamoru stood up and walked to the large window of his living room, "I don't think we'll have to check for missing people around the World. Even if I can't sense the Shitennou's presence, I am pretty sure they are in Tokyo."

Jun's hair took a shade of white blond in the sunlight, deep contrast with the black guitar case shuddering on his shoulders as he ran.

He reached the small building and opened the door. He entered the room and bowed, "I am late, sorry!"

A girl with long curly raven hair and deep green eyes giggled and walked to him, "Jun-chan! Finally!"

Jun sighed, "Sorry, Madoka."

"Always late! JUN!" A muscular arm folded around Jun's neck and pulled him against the wide chest of a tall guy, his long straight raven hair tied in a high ponytail. The tall guy scratched Jun's hair with his knuckles and grinned, "Jun! Every time you are late we fear you are going to disappear again for years."

A third guy, his short light green hair shaped as a hedgehog, approached the tall guy and freed Jun, "Hey, don't kill him, Yasu. He is really precious."

Behind the drums, the fourth guy of the room grinned, "Sosuke is right. Jun is really precious. I don't know where the heck you were along the last two years, Jun, and why you left the town, but your compositions are now more intense."

Madoka caressed the drummer's short curly red hair and nodded, "Well said, Daisuke." She turned to Jun and smiled, "I love your music, Jun, though it's really sad, sometimes. I am going to find the best lyrics for it."

Yasu walked to his guitar and grabbed it, "Come on, let's start from that new harmonic progression! I love it! Whatever you did during your lonely period, Jun, DAMN, it has worked!"

Jun nodded and opened his guitar case. Whatever he did along his last years … Has his music changed? Why? How? He felt like a sort of deeper connection with his soul.

Different shades of blue. Different amount of water: drops, sees, waves. Different states of water: vapor, mist, fog. Into the fog, in the distance, a castle.

Satoru gently caressed the canvas with the brush and stared at the painting, different shades of blue whereas the park around him was a mix of autumn colors except blue.

Why did he start to paint water in its many forms along the last six months? Was it related to his two years of absence? Two years of nothing? How was water connected with those years?

And what about the castles that seemed coming out from a fantasy book, a book telling of wars, Princesses and Knights?

Satoru rested the brush in the box and closed it.

"What if we publish an announcement on the newspaper?" Usagi clapped her hands in excitement, "We can ask people to contact us if they or their relatives had strange experiences in the past years, like missing, loss of memory, and so on."

Rei shook her head and folded her arms, "Bad idea! A lot of people would contact us. What should we say to them - Oh, sorry guys, we weren't looking for you but thanks for answering our announcement?"

Usagi whined in disappointment, "I thought it was a good idea."

Mamoru gently rested his hand on Usagi's head, "It isn't a bad idea, Usa. Not publishing an announcement on the newspaper, but asking people we know about strange experiences of their friends or families." He stared at Rei, "Ask your grandfather if he remembers about someone looking for their missing sons before the Shitennou appeared as the Dark Kingdom's servants. Maybe someone asked for help to your grandfather, or to you too. Try to remember."

Rei nodded.

Mamoru moved his attention to Ami, "Ask your mother if she knows about guys with loss of memory. I too could ask in the Hospital, in the Psychiatric Department, for example."

Minako averted her eyes from the group and focused on the terse sky outside the window, "I want to find them, but I hope they haven't had the need of the Psychiatric Department or any Psychologist. I don't like to think of them suffering. I prefer to find them …" she smiled sadly "… by case, instead of going deep into their pain, or into their families' pain."

The room filled with deep silence.

The room was filled with deep silence.

Kazuo slowly browsed the big book in his hands.

Sunday was his favorite day of the week; he usually woke up early in the morning, he cleaned up (he was obsessed with tidying up), he cooked and, finally, he relaxed on the couch, a book in his hands.

He loved it, but along the last six months it didn't relax him as before; a strange sense of anxiety overwhelmed him from time to time, pushing him away from the couch in a nervous wandering inside his apartment. And outside, looking for someone … for something.

Being a High School teacher wasn't enough. He longed for someone else to guide beside his students. Someone else to protect, guide and scold.

He rested the book on the living room's table, grabbed his jacket and left his apartment.

"Bravo!" The middle-aged man approached Nobuo, "Great back-kick! Try again!" He folded his arms and stared at Nobuo turning his body round through 180° while his left leg moved in a straight line. He finally smiled and nodded, "Perfect. Your taekwondo back-kick is perfect."

Nobuo grabbed the hand towel from his bag and wiped his sweat away, "Thanks Miyazawa-san."

Miyazawa nodded, "Your technique is really improved. And it's surprising since you took a pause from taekwondo for two years." He had a soft smile, "Unless, along those years, you were training in another gym, with another master. It would disappoint me, 'cause, whoever is that master, is for sure better than me."

Nobuo rested his hands on his hips and smirked, "No other master but you, Miyazawa-san. You are right, I took a pause from taekwondo, but it seems it worked."

He turned round and put the hand towel back in his bag.

I took a pause from taekwondo … And from life – he thought.

Whatever happened along those two years, his strength had improved. He felt taller (though he wasn't taller, obviously), quicker, stronger. Sort of powerful warrior.

"OK. We are going to start from missing people in Tokyo. And from people with strange cases of amnesia." Makoto stood up and stirred, "What about some tea and chocolate cake, now?"

Usagi's eyes sparkled, "Chocolate cake!" She shouted with joy, stood up and wrapped her arms around Makoto's neck, "You are great, Mako-chan!"

When she knelt down again, Usagi's face was lightened with a sweet smile, her eyes closed as her mind traveled to a magic place, "I dream of the Shitennou here, some day, drinking tea with us and eating your chocolate cake, Mako-chan." She opened her eyes and had a bright and moving smile, "I feel it is going to happen. Very soon."

Mamoru rested his hand on her head and gently moved her to him, "I love you, Usako."

Minako, Makoto, Rei and Ami watched Mamoru and Usagi with emotion for her sweetness and with trepidation for the promise in her words.

Thanks to everybody is reading, reviewing, favoriting, following this story. Hope you're liking it and hope for reading your opinions.

This is my way to image the Shitennou, but there's so few about them in canon (and nothing about them as normal guys before they were used by Beryl) that everything you write can be taken as good or totally wrong (ideas of the Shitennou's personality widely vary among fans).

Check also my page on tumblr (i1976blunotte. tumblr. com - delete the spaces) for my fan art: there is also a drawing of Jadeite as musician plus kindergarten teacher, and drawings of all the four couples.