Unazuki's big brother has quite a crush on Reika. Nishimura. Now if only he had an excuse to spend some time with her... Manga Canon. Written for Reika's 30th Anniversary, but in celebration of Motoki and Unazuki as well.
'What's in a name?'
Contrary to what Mister Shakespeare thought, rather a lot in Motoki's opinion. At least…if that name happened to be 'Reika Nishimura'.
He still remembered how dazzling she'd looked the first time he saw her outside the K.O. university literature department. And how deflated he'd felt to learn she was a science student, with the geology department specifically on the whole other side of campus.
He ran a hand through his blonde hair, trying to shake the memory and refocus upon the text book in front of him, but it was no good. Guilt panged in his chest as he remembered studying was the only reason he couldn't pull a shift at the arcade today. He really wasn't in the mood to serve milkshakes or attend to game cabinets, but if he couldn't concentrate then he might as well make himself useful. It was when he was halfway down stairs that the phone rang.
"Hello, Furuhata residence," said his mother. "Unazuki!" his mother irritably called out a few seconds later, "It's some boy asking if you would like to ice skating with him!"
"Tell him no!" called out a disembodied voice.
"She's not interested, goodbye."
A ginger girl pushed past Motoki on her own way down the stairs.
"Mama! You didn't have to say it like that! I was hoping Yūma might ask me to go to the movies instead!"
"I am not your personal dating secretary, young lady!" their mother shot back. "I have much more important things to do. As do you, I believe."
Unazuki baulked at their mother's words. Motoki could already see the train wreck that was about to happen.
"Tell me, how is your geology homework coming along?" asked their mother.
"Um…"
"Alright, how about your literature grades, any improvement there?"
"Er…"
Their mother shot Unazuki a veritable death glare. "Your brother is a respectable university student!" As Unazuki winced, their mother pointed an accusatory finger in Motoki's direction. "You wouldn't catch him slacking on his studies because of his love life!"
Repressing a nervous laugh, Motoki tried to give his sister a conciliatory look but, as their mother departed, Unazuki gave him an icy glare of her own..
"I should've known I'd be compared to the 'Crown Prince'," she mumbled.
Now Motoki winced. "C'mon, you know the businesses will belong to both of us someday. And maybe this Yūma fella too?" He chanced a wink.
For a moment his sister maintained her cold expression, but then she snorted, the pair chuckling together quietly so their mother wouldn't hear.
"Who is Yūma anyway? And how did he ever convince you to go ice skating of all things?"
"Weeeell, he's been in my class for most of the year, but I didn't really start noticing him until he joined the cookery club. And then after a while I guess I started noticing how cute he was too." Motoki felt mild disgust as his sister blushed. "Anyway, he was helping me with my smoothie one day and asked me out."
"Unazuki!" their mother called out from the kitchen, "I don't hear studying going on!"
Unazuki rolled her eyes before beginning her climb back up stairs.
"Hey! Don't suppose you could help me with my literature homework?" his sister asked.
"Young lady, you'll never learn if your brother helps you!"
Unazuki let out a groan and disappeared up the stairs.
Motoki for his part left the house altogether. However, rather than the arcade, he was instead heading back to campus.
Reika brushed a strand of red hair out of her eyes as she read down the article.
"Wow, Motoki, you're a really good writer."
"Thanks Reika," he replied with a laugh that Reika couldn't help but notice was slightly nervous.
"You know, I had my doubts about joining the science journalism club, but two sessions in and it's seriously made all the difference. Thanks again for letting me know about it!"
"Oh, no problem!" Motoki's nervous laugh had yet to vanish completely. "We literature kids get to practise our craft and you science students…um…"
"Get to have our stuff actually be readable?" suggested Reika, chuckling herself.
"Well," Motoki blushed, "I wasn't going to say it like that."
"It's true though," sighed Reika, "most scientific journals are pretty dry at best. A whole other language at worst."
"Tell you the truth, it's still another language to me," admitted Motoki, "Although I've begun to pick up some of your mineralogy lingo."
"Oh yeah? Soon we'll be comparing our favourite types of minerals," joked Reika.
"I guess I like jadeite the most," replied Motoki.
"How come?" Reika asked, her mouth twitching into a small smile.
Motoki shrugged. "I suppose I…like the colour."
"Oh, really? Me too."
For just a moment, two pairs of green eyes locked with one another.
"I better get going, I have an assignment to finish up," Reika said, carefully watching Motoki's reaction. Was that a flash of disappointment she detected?
"No problem," Motoki said, more cheerily than she perhaps would have liked, "Same time next week?"
"Sure," she replied, turning away to depart. "If I can make it," she said over her shoulder, as casually as she could muster.
To her mild annoyance, she spotted a tiny wry smile upon the face of Motoki's bespectacled friend, Endô. To her greater annoyance Reika realised she had completely forgotten her text book.
About facing, she returned to the classroom and was relieved to find no one else there. She did however discover hers wasn't the only forgotten textbook. Beneath 'An Introduction to Gems and Crystals' was a less than pristine (and thoroughly annotated) copy of 'Romeo and Juliet'. She didn't need to check for a name. The handwriting by now was more than familiar enough to her.
"You really can't come out tonight?" asked Yūma with crushing disappointment.
"Sorry," apologised Unazuki, "I gotta clean this place up and then finish up that homework," she gestured around the parlour.
"It's not right. A cute lady like yourself all alone here. Maybe I should-"
"It's fine," reassured Unazuki, "My brother said he and his friends would be having drinks not too far from here. He's going to take me home later."
With that, Yūma at last relented and bid Unazuki goodbye, leaving her to begin sweeping the parlour up. Half an hour later, she took a seat in one of the window booths and at last cracked open her respective literature and geology text books, trying to decide which poison to pick.
"Hey, sis."
Unazuki half jumped. Clutching her chest, her gaze fell upon a tall blond man standing in the parlour entranceway.
"Motoki! What're you doing here so early, I thought you and Endô were going out for drinks?"
"Plans change," he said simply, "Need some help?"
Unazuki raised her eyebrow. "Doesn't Mama always say that if you help me I'll never learn?"
Motoki gave a lazy shrug. "Mama's not here."
Unazuki couldn't argue with that.
However, after two hours or so, Unazuki couldn't help but notice there was something off about her big brother. He was tapping his pen against the desk out of habit, something he only did when something was irritating him. Eventually, curiosity got the better of her. "So…why'd Endô have to drop out tonight?" she probed.
Motoki stopped tapping the pen. "Actually…I pulled out."
Unazuki had suspected as much. "How come?"
Motoki shrugged again. "Just wasn't in the mood I guess." He gave her a small, and entirely unconvincing, smile. The same sort of brave, yet disappointed, smile many boys had given Unazuki when she'd turned them down.
Before she could say anything though, Unazuki heard a rap upon the entranceway door. Unazuki's hostess instincts immediately kicked in and in seconds she'd traversed the parlour floor.
"I'm sorry, the kitchen is now closed."
"Oh, I figured," replied the redhead, "Actually, I came to see-"
"Reika?"
Looking over her shoulder, Unazuki spotted her brother approaching the entranceway with an awkward walk she'd never seen before. It was like he was trying to run but also stroll leisurely at the same time.
"Motoki! I thought it was you," said the redhead.
"Do you two go to the same college or something?"
As the pair nodded at Unazuki, gears began whirring in her brain.
"I was heading home after the mineralogy workshop when I spotted you in the window," Reika explained to Motoki. "Call me nosey, but I couldn't resist wondering what you were doing here this late."
"My little sister works here and, oh right, Reika, this is my sister Unazuki," her brother gestured towards her, "Unazuki this is my friend Reika."
Unazuki noticed the slightest emphasis upon the word friend; and how Reika's eye seemed to twitch for a split second as he said it.
"Anyway, she was working late here and I promised to take her home. Once we get her homework done, of course." Feeling babied, Unazuki shot her brother a disdainful look that went completely unnoticed.
Reika by contrast, tilted her head in confusion. "I thought you'd gone for drinks with- Oh, sorry," Reika laughed, "I'm being a little nosey again."
"Hey, aren't you scientists supposed to be all inquisitive and stuff?" Motoki chuckled back.
"You're right, what would the world be like if no one had discovered zoisite or kunzite?"
In utter confusion, Unazuki observed the pair laughing far too hard considering they were talking about lame old rocks.
"Well…" began Reika as the laughter died down, "I've made my 'inquiries' now. I guess I should let you two get back to work. Nice meeting you," she said to Unazuki, "And see you next week at the club, right?"
"Sure thing…Next week. " Motoki hid it well, but his little sister could hardly fail to notice how crestfallen he was.
"Reika, wait!" Unazuki felt her cheeks flush as both Reika and her brother stared wide eyed at her outburst. "Um…zoisite and kunzite…those are…That is…you're a geologist, right?"
Reika's brow furrowed. "Well, I mainly study mineralogy."
"Perfect! I know this is maybe really forward, but…do you think you could help me with my homework? I've got an essay to write and I don't know enough about the sciencey stuff."
Motoki alternately glared daggers at Unazuki and cast furtive, hopeful glances at Reika.
"Um…alright. High school geology shouldn't take too long to finish up."
"Oh, wow, thanks so much!" Unazuki exclaimed, tugging Reika over to the booth she and Motoki had been working in. "Before we start though, let me whip up something for us to drink."
Unazuki departed for the kitchen and took her sweet time preparing the smoothies. When she returned to the booth, she was pleased to see Motoki and Reika chatting away.
"You know what, I'm such a klutz! I made a real mess in the kitchen. Let me just go clean that up real quick." Unazuki was not quick.
However, peeking through the kitchen door, she was delighted to see her brother flashing a smile that was neither brave nor disappointed. A smile that was rather similar to the one Reika sported.
A rather wryer smile crept across Unazuki's own face. "Guess the 'Crown Prince' found himself a princess…"
A/N: So I totally forgot that Reika debuted in 1992. And that I hadn't done anything with the manga version of her or Unazuki. Worse, I felt I'd undersold Motoki in my prior story 'The Day Before…'. So this fic, released in accordance with Reika's 30th anniversary, is a correction for those oversights. Moreover, I must say I'm much happier with this story vs. the anime canon Furuhata family fic that I did.
For the record, this story was predominantly extrapolated from Reika's debut scene in Act 11 of the manga and her appearances in Acts 30-31, Act 30 specifically taking place just before the last scene of this story.
Also, just to let you know I am involved in a discord called 'Moonlight Legends' which is dedicated to sharing all sorts of Sailor Moon fanworks, including other fanfics. If you would like to join so you can share your own work, get help with your current projects or just connect to other fan creators shoot me a PM and I'll send you an invite. All are welcome!