Disclaimer: I still haven't yet owned Sakura Taisen... ;)

Third chapter is here! I had a bit of hard time writing it, wasn't really sure what to put. It's really difficult to go into details with the characters' emotions without being slow and draggy... Initially I was planning to write some events from Leni's and Iris' perspectives, but somehow those events just didn't fit. The first part of this chapter was done from Maria's perspective. Not that I favour her much more than the other Hanagumi members, but she's the Vice Commander and I need to present the events as seen by a Vice Commander. The events in the second part were seen from my original character Natsue Oogami's eyes. I understand that there is a negative sentiment about original characters among the fanfiction readers, and I can only hope that it doesn't bother you much :).

There is one other thing I need to say. I had been such a bad girl last week, forgetting to thank my readers and reviewers in my last chapter. Hereby I thank Yumi Michiyo and James Birdsong for their reviews. Thanks to all of the other readers too. I promise I will continue giving my best :).

So, enjoy!

Dawn of Seasons

Chapter 3: The Early Hours

They began training the three girls in combat a week after that night meeting between the High Commando and Yoneda. All nine Hanagumi members participated in this effort, though not all of them were actually alright with it.

Today, Maria found herself in the VR control room, standing next to Sakura and the Commander. A full-gear VR training was taking place in front of them, with Leni as Field Commander and Iris plus the three girls – Aki in Sumire's Koubu, Natsue in Sakura's Koubu, and Chiharu in Orihime's - as her team members.

"Chiharu, the enemies are not only coming from your right. Pay attention. Natsue, you're holding a sword there, not a gun. You have to be really close to the enemies."

Leni's fiery, commanding voice echoed from the speakers. On the screen was a total battlefield chaos, the team were losing. It wasn't Leni's fault. The German was a competent Field Commander, the incompetent ones were her team members.

She saw Aki charging straight into the target point, playing her role fairly well. Leni was dashing around the battleground with Iris, trying to cover the areas the girls failed to cover. Apparently Chiharu and Natsue were too busy trying to move their Koubu-s to remember the instructions Leni briefed them with earlier.

Leering at the Commander, Maria saw him rubbing his temple in despair. Natsue and Chiharu's poor skills with Koubu-s had been their problem all these times – the entire Hanagumi agreed that the two girls were worse than average rookies. Kouran hypothesised that the problem lies within synchronisation, and Maria seconded that. The Hanayashiki branch and Kanzaki heavy industries had been working on special units tailored for the girls. They were almost done with the physical developments now, and just have to wait for the spirit crystalets to grow into full crystals.

Of the five crystalets resulting from the fusion of the Hanagumi's nine, only one seems to thrive. It was unfortunate that the thriving crystal wasn't a good match for any of the girls, but at least the girls' three matches were still growing, albeit slowly. The fifth crystalet stagnated completely – the researchers reckon that it was dying. They were now preparing another fusion procedure to get more crystalets, since the Commander blatantly objected the idea of having a defense team with only four members. Maria herself agreed that four weren't enough. Reports from those other countries suggested that the scales of nowadays' demon attacks were larger than what four young pilots could handle.

"Natsue, ON YOUR BACK!"

Maria snapped back to the screen. Iris' panicked warning was too late. Natsue's unit – Sakura's, more exactly – was now on the ground, smoking all over. It was totally ruined, the emergency eject system wasn't even working. Bracing for the worst, Maria dashed to the control panel and force-quitted Natsue's simulation system. It was slightly too late. The virtual Koubu had exploded before the system finished shutting down.

"ENOUGH!" the Commander roared, slamming the central switch off. "All of you are dismissed NOW!"

The VR pods expelled their pilots at the sudden shutdown. Leni and Iris – being used to their pods and the whole simulation system – quickly regained their footings. The youngsters weren't so lucky. They were all thrown face-down to the floor. Maria lurched in reflex, only to remember, a moment later, that today she was their Vice Commander. The three girls were her subordinates, not her baby daughter and little nieces.

"I'll go and check them," mumbled Sakura, turning around and running towards the door. She didn't make it any further, though. The Commander had blocked her way.

"You're not going anywhere," said the man, firmly squeezing his wife's upper arms. "Let them handle it themselves. They're soldiers now, not little princesses."

Yes, soldiers. Not little princesses.

Inhaling deeply, Maria closed her eyes. This was like training Lievya and Kazuma all over again, except that Aki, Natsue, and Chiharu were younger and less resilient. They also weren't as physically agile and dexterous as the elder two. Three months had passed, and their skills hadn't improved by much. They weren't talented in kendo and fencing – a surprising finding, considering Natsue and Aki's ancestries. They had no hope in empty-handed fighting either, their tender figures and limited innate strengths stood in the way. They had also been sent to Sumire for naginata training, with so far no observable results. All the ordeal put a lot of stress on the Hanagumi members. The Commander bore the most of the stress, though – his frustration was understandable.

She felt Sakura sinking down to the chair next to her. The secretary was upset, Maria could feel her low mood. No matter how hard they try to be indifferent, the girls were still their daughters. Watching Natsue, Chiharu, and Aki struggling and agonising night and day from the trainings was enough of a punishment for putting innocent children into war.

"Maria, I want Chiharu and Natsue to start using your and Kouran's units from tomorrow on," the Commander said, defeated. "I'll tell Leni to bring them to the shooting practice room this afternoon."

"You're going to teach them how to fire?" Sakura asked. There were disbelief and anger in her voice. The Hanagumi, including Maria, had agreed that introducing the girls to guns and explosives was a last resort.

"Do we have another choice?" the Commander asked tensely. Turning around, Maria saw him leaning against the door. He was shaking all over in anger – this was one of those rare moments when he was really angry.

Sakura didn't reply. She put her elbows on the control panel and leaned forward, tears flowing from the corners of her eyes. Maria pulled her sister into a hug and closed her eyes again, restraining her own tears. She wasn't sure whether those were tears of anger or sadness. There would be nothing but confusion when logic met love, and it was what they had been experiencing so far. They were actually three confused people.

"I want you to train them, Maria," the Commander continued after a while. "No one knows guns better than you. They'll be using those spare guns we keep in the office."

"Alright," Maria answered, knowing that she had no other choice. Memories of the days in which she lost her innocence flooded her again – her Papa, Yuri, all those comrades, snow, and rain of bullets.

"Don't rush. Concentrate."

Tjotja's voice echoed throughout the room. Ignoring the discomfort from her soaked combat outfit, Natsue lifted her gun and took a deep breath. She was going to master this. There was no way she would fail this as well, after her failures in all the previous trainings. She could not afford being branded a stupid child.

The barriers between the slots obscured the sights of her cousins-cum-friends Aki and Chiharu, but considering that Tjotja and Otou -sama hadn't yelled at anyone so far, they seemed to be doing good as well. Could be that the two Drill Sergeants were tired of shouting, though. This whole shooting ordeal had been running for a whole week.

She moved her right arm around a bit, trying to find a good aim. The strange yet familiar feeling told her that she might have been watched. Could be Oka-sama. Her mother had been standing at one of the room's corners, huddling quietly with Tante and Tatie.

"That's a good one, Aki."

Damn. Aki had beaten her again. Was there anything that cousin of hers couldn't beat her on?

Pissed off, Natsue pulled the trigger and fired. She hadn't yet mastered the art of observing a bullet, but she could tell that it would hit the target. It definitely looked and felt different than those times when she fired into the wall.

"Good job, Natsue. Your first bull's eye."

Natsue knew she shouldn't be too proud of an achievement as small as this, but being at the receiving end of Tjotja's praise really made her happy. Her eldest aunt had such a high standard for all the trainings.

It seemed to boost her mood, for she managed to hit several more bull's eyes during the rest of the practice. At the end of the day, she got six of those – not bad, considering that none of her cousins had even got one. Aki was really close, though. Natsue made a mind-note to work harder so that her cousin wouldn't overtake her. Aki was already Otou-sama's favourite student, synchronising well with all the Koubu-s she was given and so on. There was no way Natsue would let her cousin be Tjotja's favourite student as well.

Aki went back to her room on her own after the training, somewhat upset. Having no desire to deal with her brat of a cousin, Natsue just let her be. She walked out with Chiharu-the-talking-machine instead. The little sunny scatterbrain blabbered about anything and everything – from the predicted dinner menu to Sumire-Obasama's teenage son Ryuhou Kanzaki. Natsue felt bad for treating her kind, gentle little cousin like this, but honestly she wasn't really interested in all those stuff. She just nodded and hmmph-ed to keep Chiharu talking, so that she didn't have to say anything. She was exhausted.

"And Ryuhou-niisan said that Natsue-neechan was really cute in the cat costume!" Chiharu finished her story. Looking at the little girl's differently-coloured eyes, Natsue saw nothing but innocent sparkles. Everyone thought it was cute that Ryuhou and Natsue were such solid friends, and Kouran-yiyi and Tatie had always been hinting that they should get married someday. It wasn't a bad idea, actually. Perhaps Natsue would submit to their will sometime later, after she became Teigeki's top star.

"Glad he liked that ridiculous cat costume," she responded cooly, not wanting to disappoint Chiharu, the only person in this whole theatre building she could bear to deal with now.

"He should have seen you in the shooting practice!" Chiharu exclaimed excitedly. "I cheated and peeked on you – you were really cool. You made Mama really happy today!"

Natsue smiled. Chiharu might be childish and annoying, but she could be such an angel at times.

"Let's take our showers," the older girl said, subsiding her happiness and wonders. "If you were right and Tatie would be making crepes for dessert tonight, we'd better be quick before Aki eats all!"

There was no crepes that night, though. Chiharu and Natsue arrived at the common dining room only to be greeted by a troubled Leni. The order given to them afterwards was shocking and quick – they should be packing a small suitcase for a short trip, for someone they knew had died. It was Dr. Asakawa, the physician who had been taking care of them since they were newborns. They weren't told what exactly happened, but seemingly the doctor had an accident at her Hokkaido hometown while on vacation.

As she hurriedly threw in her box of hairclips, Natsue wondered what really happened to the soft-spoken, kind woman who always knew how to fix her health problems. She froze for a moment when she recalled that Dr. Asakawa had a daughter slightly older than her. What happened to the girl? Was she there as well? Did she make it?

Natsue slammed her suitcase closed and hurried out of her room. She could always think about that girl she didn't know sometime later during the journey. Right now she just wanted to beat Aki to the car.

To be continued...

Note:

Tjotja(Russian), Tante (German), Tatie (French), Yiyi (Chinese),and Obasama (Japanese)all mean 'Aunt'. The little girls refer to their aunts differently, based on their countries of origin. They also refer to their parents based on their ancestries – Natsue called her Dad 'Otou-sama' and her Mum 'Oka-sama', and Chiharu called her Mum 'Mama'.

See you next week!