Disclaimer: as usual.

Finally, we reach magic number 7. Here I'll get more in depth about Orihime, Kouran, Sumire, and Kanna. The first part will be from Orihime's perspective, the second from Kanna's, and the third one – which is just a few lines long – from a general perspective. There's not much OC here, but as a reminder, here's a list of the Teikoku Kagekidan junior team members who had appeared up to this point:

- Natsue Oogami (Sakura and Oogami's daughter)

- Aki Kayama (Kayama and Kaede's daughter)

- Chiharu Tachibana (Maria's daughter, unspecified father)

- Mifuyuko Asakawa (daughter of Hanagumi's private Doctor, who was adopted by the Hanagumi after her mother and aunt was killed by evil forces)

- Ella Beltz (French cafe singer spotted by Oogami, Maria, and Sakura while they were in Paris)

There will be three more girls to go, and of course, a male captain to follow later, but I'm not introducing anyone new in this chapter. There are talks pointing to the identity and location of the next member, though ;).

Hope you enjoy the story. Oh, and before I go, I have one other thing to tell you. I've set a blog which acts as a mini 'wiki' for this story. I've put the background stories and family tree there, and am in the process of constructing profiles/avatars for my OC-s. The address of the blog is on my author's profile, you can have a look if you're interested :).

Dawn of Seasons

Chapter Seven: Story of a Scarred Soul

Hanayashiki Headquarter, Tokyo

Standing at the door of the Koubu workshop, arms folded on chest to help folding the cold, Orihime let her eyes wander throughout the room in front of her. There were lots of people – men – in protective clothings, running across the room with spare parts and tools in their hands. Several others were all over the two unfinished Koubu-s in the middle of the room. The person Orihime was looking for, though, wasn't there. And that could only mean a few things, all of which weren't particularly good.

Sighing, the former Italian – and now Japanese – noblewoman crossed the threshold and walked towards the corner of the room. The Assistant Head Mechanics was there as usual, studying pages of statistical reports which looked like nonsense.

"Hello, good afternoon!"

The man lifted his face from the report. The wide smile on his lips showed that he wasn't too surprised with Orihime's sudden distraction – well, he couldn't still be surprised, for she had done this to him about a hundred time before.

"Ah, Orihime-sama," he warmly said, "just come in, Kouran-sama is in her room. She wasn't well this morning, and I forced her back there. She definitely needs some rest."

Orihime sighed. "I've told her so," she muttered, shaking her head in despair. "Alright, then. I'll just brag in there and scold her for being so ignorant of her own health. I'll see you later!"

At the other corner of the room was a green door. Knowing well that Kouran's living quarter was just behind it, Orihime quickly walked there. Thank God she'd brought the spare keys with her today. She could just get in without disturbing Kouran, though she doubted that her Chinese sister was really resting. The lady never stopped thinking, even when she was on the bed laying.

The usual lovely mess greeted Orihime as she got in. Draft papers and blueprints were everywhere – even all over the tiny dining table. The floor was covered with tools and spare-parts, and Orihime had to jump over a few to get to Kouran's room. The door was currently ajar, and, just exactly as what Orihime thought previously, Kouran wasn't asleep. She wasn't even laying, in fact. She was sitting on her bed with a pen in hand, frowning over a thick bundle of paper in her hands.

"Put the pen and paper away, won't you?" the half-Italian affectionately scolded.

Kouran looked up from the paper and grinned.

"Give me some more moments," she said, waving the bundle in the air, "this is really interesting!"

After all these years, Orihime still could not see anything interesting in the thick reports some of her sisters usually dealt with. Nonetheless, those ladies did – so she just assumed that reports weren't her stuff.

"What's that about?" she asked, walking in and dropping herself on the bed beside Kouran.

"This is the complete analysis of the little girls' spirit energies," Kouran answered, pushing the paper towards Orihime so both of them could read. "Pairwise comparisons, group statistics, individual strength area analysis... This page is very interesting."

Orihime focused her sight on the names and graphs on the page Kouran was currently reading. It was a group comparison between four of the five girls, with two of the Hanagumi members as benchmarks. She instantly knew what was being analysed in this particular page. It had been quite a discussion among the four non-resident Hanagumi sisters: Sumire, Kanna, Kouran, and herself.

"If you see the graph on the lower right hand corner, Orihime, you'll really notice that those two newbies added up together is really similar to our two sisters added up together. Our nieces, individually or added up together, however, is really far from their mothers. It could be that it's their fathers' energies which causes that. I'll request them to make a familial comparison for the Oogami-s, to see whether their daughter is an intermediate between the Commander and Sakura. It's impossible, by all means, to get an energy analysis for the Tachibana girls' father, but if we compare Maria and the two girls, we might be able to subtract the father's energy out of the two."

Orihime nodded, letting her brain digest the whole lot of information Kouran had just told her. Apparently, the resemblance Ella Beltz and Mifuyuko Asakawa had with the two High Commando ladies spanned more things that they initially thought about. It wasn't just in the bits and pieces of personalities and gestures. It was in the energies as well.

"Both you and Leni told me that one's energy pattern is highly affected by what happened in their childhood," the Countess then told Kouran. "Considering Ella's whole history, it's actually little wonder that she matches Maria and Sakura. An unjustly orphaned girl who happens to inherit a sword from her ancestors, with a brief stint with a gang."

"I've been thinking about that as well," Kouran responded, pushing her sliding glasses up her nose. "If we are to create a perfect match for the whole Hanagumi, we would need four other kids who share similar lives with the rest of us. Perhaps after we get the right new members, it would be apparent whom Natsue, Chiharu, and Aki actually resemble – Mifuyuko didn't look like a Maria-Sakura mixture until she started bonding with Ella, right?"

"Kouran, if you would slow down a bit... you're overloading me with information," Orihime muttered, defeated. Kouran had got too excited and seemingly forgot that she wasn't talking to the Commander, Maria, or Leni, who would absorb everything in the matter of seconds.

"Alright, sorry about that. I was trying to say that once we get more junior members, we might observe another remarkable similarities."

"That's much better."

The two women looked at each other and started laughing, realising that they've just had one funny sisterhood moment. Orihime was well aware that she and Kouran hadn't been as close as the other three Hanagumi 'pairs' were. They might be on their ways there, though, considering that they'd been able to sense if the other was having trouble recently.

"Speaking of similarities," Orihime said, suddenly recalling something, "what do you think about that London girl they're currently trying to recruit?"

"Well, I can't really say much until I see her in person," Kouran answered. The grin on her face faded, and her expression turned serious. "Physically, there's a slight similarity between her and one of our sisters, though."

"Sumire," Orihime said, specifying Kouran's statement. "I wonder how Sumire would react if we end up recruiting this girl, though. She's exactly the same age with..."

She suddenly paused, looking hesitatingly at Kouran.

"... the Baby Girl," Kouran finished. She put her report and paper away and clasped her hands together. "You might not know this, but Kanna is currently at odds with the High Commando. She strongly opposes the idea of recruiting that girl. I overheard their argument when I was in the theatre the other day. She was practically shouting at them about how this might end up ruining Sumire's mental health."

Orihime sighed and closed her eyes in despair.

"This is complicated," she said. "What if that girl is really our missing niece? What would we tell Sumire? That we decided to lie and tell her that her daughter is dead just because we don't think we'll ever find the poor girl?"

"I've told you guys from the start that telling Sumire a lie is such a bad idea," Kouran responded, shifting and leaning against the wall. "A small possibility is still a possibility. Just because it's nearly impossible that the missing Baby Girl will appear in the future, doesn't mean that she definitely won't appear. But then Kanna kept insisting and all of you agreed with her, so I just hold my peace. Now, all we can do is crossing our fingers that the girl is not a suitable recruit, or, if she is, that she is not Sumire's kidnapped baby."

Kanzaki/Kirishima Residence, Tokyo

This had been a particularly bad day for Kanna.

The misfortune started in the morning, when both Sumire and her overslept and were late for work. Sumire was snappy all day as the result – and being the personal assistant, Kanna was the one bearing the most of her snappiness. Sumire went absolutely up the wall when they got home just to find that their sons had been causing havoc at their school, and Kanna had to deal with both Sumire and the boys. By the time all problems were settled, she was totally exhausted. Yet she couldn't sleep, for something was bothering her mind. After two hours of tossing and turning on her bed, she gave up and headed down to the kitchen instead, seeing if there was something for her to eat. Hopefully the food would help her forgetting about the High Commando and their ridiculous decision. There was nothing she could do at this point - Maria and Sakura had left for London yesterday, and their London informants had been told to arrange a meeting between the two and that goddamned potential recruit.

The fridge was, as usual, well-stocked with fruits and some leftovers. Grabbing some of tonight's dinner food, which was pretty much untouched due to everyone's bad mood, Kanna sat down and started eating. She didn't care too much if the food was cold. She wasn't in the mood of going to the kitchen and reheating everything.

"Kanna?"

Kanna stopped and turned around. There was Sumire, wearing nothing but her nightgown despite the freezing winter temperature. She looked so confused and disoriented, anxiously scanning the room as if searching for something.

Please, not again.

"... where's the baby?"

Oh, damn.

Putting down the chopsticks, Kanna stood up and crossed the room. She stopped right in front of Sumire, placing both her hands firmly on her younger sister's shoulders.

"There's no baby, Sumire," she said, looking into the Directress' hazy eyes. "The boys are now sixteen years old, they are no longer babies."

"Not the boys. The girl."

Sighing, Kanna pulled Sumire into her arms. The former Top Star obediently surrendered, resting her head against the older woman's chest. She looked so weak and vulnerable – so unlike the Cactus Woman who constantly picked fights with Kanna when they were younger.

"You must be dreaming again," the Okinawan martial artist said, rubbing the younger woman's back. "She is dead, Sumire. You shouldn't be looking for her here."

"Dead? How...? Was it my fault?"

"It's not your fault," Kanna said, wiping away the single teardrop rolling on Sumire's cheek. "She was sick. Really sick. Just go back to bed now. She's watching you from above, and she'll be really sad knowing that you're sad."

Daitekoku Gekijou, Tokyo

"Ella and Mifuyuko for Ai Yueni?" the Commander asked, surprised.

"Yes," Yoneda answered, "the two for Ai Yueni."

"Aren't the two a bit too young?" Leni asked, a big frown on her face. "By showtime, they would only be seventeen and fifteen – not that I say that the two should play something like Aoi Tori, but they're not old enough to play heavy love stories."

"Would you rather see them playing Benitokage or Kaijin Bessou?" Yoneda asked back.

"Well, no, but..."

"Then let them play Ai Yueni. Trust me, they'll manage it."

To be continued...

'till next week,

TheWritingProgrammer