Chapter 2: Summer, June, Year 1
"Hey, Mari." Ren said to her as she sat on a cushion. She looked up to him with those innocent, naïve eyes. "Let's go out for a bit."
"Anna-sama!" Kanna Bismarch, who still smelled of smoke, demanded an answer from her employer. "Why hasn't Ren left yet?"
"Why should he?" Anna said nonchalantly as she ate some rice at lunchtime.
"Why? He hasn't paid for his board! A-And, Mari, she's been acting weird since he got here…"
"Ah, so that's your true motive. Watching after your little sister."
"…She may not be related to me by blood, but she's the closest thing to family I have. Both her and Macchi." Kanna remembered Macchi, the middle sister who had left the city and gone to Hokkaido with Horo Horo, her new boyfriend.
"Lonely? Scared that Mari might go away?"
"…"
"Kanna, all birds leave the nest. Whether you like it or not, your 'sisters' are moving on. What YOU do in the future is you path to take."
"…My path… Huh…" Kanna started to light her cig with her black lighter with a blue lotus on it.
"NO SMOKING IN THE INN." Anna snatched away the cigarette and not the lighter, because she knew how much it meant to her.
"Aw, damn, my lighter broke." Kanna tossed her old cheap lighter into the trash can as they did a mission from Hao around 5 years ago.
"Aw, don't throw it away!" Macchi pulled it out and popped the top open. "See, if you mix a little lighter fluid with spiritual energy, the flame will last forever." Macchi put a needle to her finger, and a drop of her own blood dripped into the lighter fluid. "There."
"No, really, it's all scratched up and ugly. I'll buy a new one…"
"Then Mari will paint it." And she did. She painted the lighter black with a hard, solid paint, and then with great detail she painted a beautiful lotus onto it. She then sloshed a gauze over it so that it would stay in it's state.
"Kanna… Do you know what "lotus" means in the language of flowers?" Mari asked as she finished the gauze.
"…? No, what?" Kanna said, completely confused. Mari giggled.
"Someday, you'll understand."
Kanna held the lighter close to her heart. This lighter was the object that proved the bond of the Hanagumi. But she knew. She knew she couldn't stand still forever.
In the shopping district, Mari and Ren sat at an Italian restaurant, eating silently. Ren knew that he would have start the conversation. A silent Mari wouldn't get anything started at all.
"So…" He twisted at his pasta, "What do you like to do?"
"Reading. Working. Drawing." Mari told him quietly.
"Hmm… What do you like to draw?"
"Flowers, mostly. But animals and scenery is nice, too." She shuffled through her small purse.
"No people?"
"Humans are worthless to me." Mari passed him a picture on a piece of paper. It was a vase of three kinds of flowers, sketched and then colored with watercolor.
"This is really good." He looked at it in amazement.
"It's trash." She looked down. "No matter how many times I try and draw it, it never looks right. The shape, the color…"
"What are these flowers?"
"The Hanagumi." She replied. Ren tried seeing if he could see faces in the flowers, but with no prevail. Mari, noticing his efforts, pointed at the first flower.
"The Tiger Lily is Macchi." The first flower came to life before his eyes. The blazing orange and red that was her hair, but also her spirit. Yet, through the energy came the beauty that lay within.
"The Lotus is Kanna." A flower that matched the blue-haired German. A large, single flower that was graceful and beautiful, but still strong with a slight shade of color.
"And the Lily-of-the-Valley…" Mari pointed to herself. "Is me." The womanly, mature color, but the innocent, cute bells… They matched the beauty that lived in her heart.
"So, that's the Hanagumi, huh…?" Ren leaned back in his chair. Then, he picked up the slip of paper. "Will you give this to me? It's trash, right?"
"You want it?" She looked confused. Ren put it in his pocket.
"It's nice." Mari looked down, still trying to figure out why he would want it.
Walking back to the inn from the restaurant, Mari held her arms crossed. Ren noticed the bones popping out of her arms. She hadn't been eating right. Was Anna feeding her right?
"Ah!" Mari stopped in her tracks and looked up. Ren peeked over at her.
"What's up?"
"Miao." Mari made a strange sound. With a dumbfounded face, Ren tried to figure out what she had realized.
"Miao?"
"Kitty." Mari leaned over and cooed to a little creature who poked out from behind the green trash can on the curb of the walkway.
"Meow." It was a small, stained brown kitten, covered in dirt and fleas. Mari reached her hand for the little one.
"A stray cat." Ren told her. "They sometimes show up around this area."
"Kitty." Mari picked up the cat and held it close.
"Mari, that cat's dirty!"
"But it's cute…" Mari made a slightly pouty face. "And it's hungry…" Ren, not knowing Mari could be this cute, looked at her with his mouth open. But he knew what she was aiming for.
"No. Not happening. Anna would never allow it."
"Please~?" She held the cat in front of her and pretended to be it's voice.
"No."
"Ren~" She made another cute face, as if she were about to cry. Finally, his face red as a tomato and as hot as a pot of tea, Ren gave up.
"Fine… I'll help you convince Anna." Ren scratched his head.
"Yay…" Mari smiled softly and held the cat close. THUMP. Ren fell on the ground. "Ren?"
"So… You fainted from a cute attack, huh?" Kanna laughed tom boyishly sitting manly-like on the floor next to Ren with a wet towel on his forward.
"…Shut up." He took the towel off and got up. Apparently, while he was knocked out, Kanna had helped Mari convince Anna to keep the cat.
"Why not?" Anna had said. "The cat can be our mascot." The cat meowed in approval.
"She's washing the cat now in the bathroom. Why don't you go help out?" Kanna scratched her head and pulled herself up.
"Mari, how's the washing go-" Stopped in his tracks, there was the pigtailed Italian with her hair in one ponytail and in a black bikini. "WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" He exclaimed, his hair spikes stabbing up.
"…" Mari blushed and kept washing the cat. Ren came over and put some shampoo on his hands.
"I came to help wash him." He scrubbed the cat behind it's ears. It seemed to like it.
"…The kitty's a girl." Mari reported.
"Ah…"
"Anastasia."
"Huh?" Mari kept looking down at the cat as Ren looked at her.
"The cat's name…" She told him. "Is Anastasia."
"That's a nice name." As Ren sprayed the shower head on the kitten, Anastasia, he noticed that the cat wasn't brown, after all. This kitten was a Siamease cat. There were brown tips on the ears, face, tail and feet.
The two started to dry the kitten, when they saw it start to dance in the warm air. The cat seemed really happy be clean and warm, perhaps for the first time in her life.
"Here you go, Anastasia." Mari leaned over and placed a small bowl of food. The cat ate out of it like she hadn't eaten in weeks. She probably hadn't. "Good girl…"
From then on, wherever Mari went, Anastasia followed. Whenever Mari ate, Anastasia ate out of her bowl. When Mari took a bath, Anastasia jumped in too. And when Mari slept, Anastasia slept right beside her in the bed.
"Jealous?" Ren asked Kanna who leaned against the wall, spying in on what Mari and Anastasia were doing. The kitten pawed at the feather on a stick Mari teased her with.
"…What about you?" Kanna said quietly and coldly and walked away. Ren didn't know what an impact that one conversation would have on their lives.