Disclaimer: still not owning Sakura Taisen...

Here's chapter 8. There are three parts here. The first one is told from Oogami's perspective, the second one from a general perspective, and lastly we have Sakura to tell us what she sees and hears. A new member for the Teikoku Kagekidan junior team (which name wouldn't be Hanagumi, by the way... you should have had a clue from their names by now ;)) will appear here. I'm trying to give her a clear personality here, I've just realised that I've been writing the previous new members vaguely - it's a bit hard to both focus the story on the Hanagumi and highlight aspects of the OC-s personalities and histories at the same time.

This chapter focuses on the High Commando and their decisions, as well as the recruitment of the newest junior member. This new girl is a bit different from the previous five girls, in that she'd had quite a few in her 15 years. You might want to skip the last part if you hate reading about corrupted teenagers. I'm not explicitly writing about her doing all the bad stuff though – just some mentions here and there.

Special thanks to Yumi Michiyo and James Birdsong for their encouraging reviews. Thanks to all of you my readers too. I'll keep writing and trying to improve my style and skill. Hopefully you all will enjoy this :).

Original Character guide:

- 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)

- 'The London Recruit', whose name is revealed at the very end of this story

- Two more girls who will join later, and a male captain who will join much much later.

Complete character/plot/relationship guide at the wordpress site listed in my author's profile.

Dawn of Seasons

Chapter 8: Because of Love and The Red Sunray

Daitekoku Gekijou, Tokyo

If the Commander could rewind the time for just one hour, he sure would. Saying 'no' to old Yoneda's latest barmy request was just easier than explaining what was happening to his girls – minus Leni and Iris, who were with him when the old fella mentioned the crazy idea.

The four he had contacted so far weren't too happy with this. Kouran and Orihime thought that putting the two new girls into Ai Yueni leading roles wasn't a good strategy to go with. Sumire looked at him as if he'd grown an extra head, then made a remark about how she hated training "clueless rookies". Kanna was still pissed off at him and acted as if she didn't care, but he knew her well enough not to notice the small frown of surprise on her forehead. The preparation and rehearsals would be hell for both the young girls and the seniors – and it meant that it would be hell for him as well.

Or, perhaps, he was in hell already.

Right now, he was staring at the Kinematron, waiting for either Maria or Sakura to answer his call. It had been pretty late in London and they might have gone to bed, but he must call them right now. He'd done something without informing them or involving them in the decision making, and they would be pissed off. However, delaying this until tomorrow or later wouldn't help much. They would even get more pissed off, in fact, for not being informed as soon as possible. So, he decided to just bear with the risk and make the call. Hopefully the two would not be too mad about this.

"Commander?"

The streaks and dots on the screen slowly formed Maria's concerned face. She had obviously been sleeping; slightly dishevelled hair and dressing gown and all.

"Hello, Maria," he said, smiling cheekily. "Sorry for interrupting your sleep."

"That's alright. Is everything alright there? Anything wrong happening?"

"Everything is sort of alright, Maria. Is Sakura there?"

Maria clung at something on her right, presumably Sakura's sleeping form.

"Yes, she is. She's sleeping like a baby right now. We had such a long day, for our London informant was just pathetic."

"Well, you know what kind of people Revue International throws at you," the Commander commented, grinning. "Can you wake the lady up? We – the three of us – need to talk."

"Alright. Wait a second."

The Kinematron on the other side was put down, and Maria disappeared from the screen. The Commander had almost five great minutes staring at the image of the hotel room's ceiling, before Maria reappeared with a slightly disoriented Sakura in tow. Now that the two were side-by-side, he could see that they were wearing matching dressing gowns. He would definitely make a joke about it, if only he wasn't too concerned about their reactions to his decision right now.

"Ichirou? What's wrong?"

He inhaled deeply. He knew it was just plain ridiculous to be scared at the two, but, honestly, having the two staring at him questioningly was just intimidating.

"We had a bit of a problem here," he finally admitted, deciding not to put this thing off any longer. "I said yes to old Yoneda's newest crazy request, and now all of your sisters are unhappy."

"Request?" Sakura asked, frowning. "What kind of request is it?"

He stared at them for some moments, thinking hard to formulate his words.

"Well," he eventually answered, "he wants Mifuyuko and Ella to make their stage debuts."

"It's about time, actually," Maria commented. "At least for Mifuyuko. She's been with us for almost a year, and people have started talking about whether she would end up sweeping the stage instead of performing."

"That's true," the Commander agreed. "The thing is... he wants them to be the leads. For Ai Yueni."

"Ai Yueni?" the two simultaneously shouted.

"Yes. Ai Yueni – your first play as a pair."

The two ladies sighed and closed their eyes.

"Why Ai Yueni?" Maria asked, a strong hint of disagreement in her voice.

"Well," the Commander answered, "his two other options were Benitokage and Kaijin Bessou."

"He's not being fair," Sakura complained. "Ella and Mifuyuko are still children. They're nowhere near ready to play any of those three love dramas. Why didn't you just say no to him?"

The Commander rested his head on his hand and rubbed his temple. "That's what I've been asking myself as well," he muttered, defeated. "But I've said yes, and there's no going back... Yoneda wouldn't take it kindly."

There was a rather long moment of silence, as they all tried to figure out what to say.

"In this case," Maria eventually broke the silence, "we have some serious problems here. Even though we intend Ella to play male roles, we haven't yet trained her specifically for it. We have to practically enslave her to make the performance happen. Everything needs a lot of work – from her girly gestures to her accent. Mifuyuko, well, our Mifuyuko is painfully shy. I don't know how she would cope with all the love scenes – we've never had someone that shy playing romance before."

"To be honest, I still can't picture them singing Ai Yueni," Sakura commented, shaking her head. "Even though Ella has lower voice, she sounds more girly than Mifuyuko... This could be Ai Yueni the comedy if we're careless about it."

The Commander took a deep breath. Even his ever-optimistic wife sounded so sceptical about the prospect of their two newbies in Ai Yueni. But, thinking about it, Sakura and Maria both had valid points. Ai Yueni just wasn't the play for Ella and Mifuyuko – at least for now. Both of the girls were extremely underdeveloped as actresses, even though they had the potentials.

"Alright then," he firmly said, "let's devise a strict training regime for the two. I'm relying on the two of you in this matter, I've never been an actor before and clearly you know about this better than me."

Daitekoku Gekijou, Tokyo

"Ai... Yueni?" both Ella and Mifuyuko asked.

The four Hanagumi sisters – Kouran, Orihime, Iris, and Leni – nodded.

"It's the one with the flower seller and the knight, right?" Ella asked, looking doubtful.

"Yes, it is," Orihime answered. "I'm sure I played the theme song recording for you a few weeks ago in your music class. Do you still remember it?"

"The one ending with "I'll die for you" ?" Ella asked again.

"That's it," Leni answered. "We last performed it a few years back, with Iris and myself as leads. We'll be performing it again on February next year, and we want you both to be in there."

"Umm... alright," Mifuyuko said. "Who will we be in the play?"

"Well, girls," Kouran answered, "you are the leads this time."

"EEH?"

"Yes, girls," Iris said, "you are the leads. You'll play Clementine, Mifuyuko. And you, Ella, will be Andre. We're preparing the script now, and your training will start tomorrow morning. This will be a big play and we're expecting some international guests there, so you'll be trained by the entire Hanagumi. Expect some changes to your routine – you've got to work hard for this."

London

Standing in front of the antique main gate, Sakura stared at the luxurious, white-painted house behind it. This was totally irrational. The house was big enough for the entire Hanagumi extended family. Yet, their newest recruit – apparently a lonely rich kid – lived by her own there. Well, she had maids and staff to take care of the house, but, still, no child should be allowed to live alone and unsupervised. Especially when the said child had the control of a vast amount of virtue, for which she didn't even have to lift a finger.

The data given by their informant showed that this girl had gone wild. She stopped going to school immediately after her father's sudden death, and had last year sacked her tutor for reprimanding her about her increasingly uncontrollable behaviour. She frequented pubs and clubs, spending her nights dancing or drinking senseless, and slept during the day. At fifteen years old, she'd had quite a lot of ex-boyfriends, ranging from a gardener to some other rich kids. Her newest photograph – given by the Revue International informant when Maria and Sakura landed at London – showed that she had pierced her ears quite extensively. Apparently she was considering tattoo-ing herself next, for she'd been spotted seeing a tattoo artist in a cheap pub at a red light district.

"Ready?" Maria asked.

Sakura turned her head and nodded. Now that they were here, there was no time to chicken out and back off. The intimidating business of recruiting the Sumire-lookalike must be finished today.

Maria gave Sakura a reassuring look, then turned around to ring the doorbell. A young lady in maid uniform immediately came out of the house. She eyed them suspiciously as she strode towards the gate, as if she was afraid that they were thieves or frauds.

"Good afternoon. Anything I could help?" she asked in such a wary tone.

"Good afternoon," Maria answered, "we're here to meet young Miss Russel. Is she here?"

"Pardon?" the maid asked, frowning as if she didn't understand what Maria was saying. This surprised Sakura, for Maria's English was considerably flawless. No one had ever had trouble understanding it before.

"We are here for Miss Russel," Maria repeated calmly. "Is she home?"

"Oh, you're here for Miss Noreen," the waitress responded, finally getting what Maria was saying. "Please wait for some moments, I'll go and check with her if she was expecting some guests. Can I take your names?"

"Well, she might not knew who we are," Maria explained. "Could you please just put us through to her? We're willing to be searched for any weapons or harmful goods."

The maid pursed her lips.

"In that case," she said harshly, "I'm afraid that I couldn't do anything for you, Ma'am. The Miss has specifically instructed not to let uninvited guests in. Please make an appointment with her first."

Sakura watched quietly as the young woman turned on her heels and walked back towards the house, disappearing behind the carved wooden door. She looked at Maria and sighed, knowing that they were facing more trouble than what they initially predicted.

"Seems that we really have to get that useless guy doing his job and put us through with her," she said, annoyed. "This girl really has an attitude."

"She's smart, though," Maria commented, a subtle smile on her lips. "You shouldn't be too trusting if you want to survive. That's the norm of the life she's living. Let's just go back and do our plan B, we - "

"EXCUSE ME, LADIES!"

The distant shout startled Sakura. She found herself getting into a standby position, looking up to the source of the voice. There was the girl they were trying to meet, standing at the second floor balcony in low-cut long sweater and threadbare tights. The sight instantly made Sakura shivered. The pictures weren't lying. This girl had resemblance to Sumire, in both appearance and poise.

"If you two could just stay there for five more minutes, I'll get the maid opening the gate for you."

She went inside and shouted something Sakura couldn't hear clearly. The maid who had previously rejected the two Teikoku Kagekidan ladies scrambled out of the house less than two minutes later, muttering a half-hearted apology as she opened the gate for them. She escorted them inside without any further words and left them standing in the study. The huge room looked like a place Maria would happily lived in. On the walls, stretching from the floor to the glass ceiling, were bookshelves – all of which were full of books. Sakura recognised some English novels and literature pieces there, as well as some French titles. There were books marked with Cyrillic alphabets, presumably Russian. The most interesting books, however, were stashed together at a neglected end of the shelves. Apparently, the girl or his late father read Japanese as well.

"Sorry for that," the girl said, entering the room. She'd changed into pants and a more modest sweater, the fringe of her short, dark-blonde hair swept back with a headband. "I'm having a bit of trouble with some jerks, so I instructed the maid not to let anyone suspicious in. It's such a pity she couldn't distinguish gangsters from commoners."

"How did you know that we're not part of the gang?" Maria asked, smiling meaningfully.

"That's simple, Ma'am Russian American," the girl answered, hopping onto the desk and sat on it. "You'll fit nicely into a gangster, but your friend there won't. Besides, female gang members usually retired after they had children, and looking at you, I can tell that both of you have children. You've done a good job keeping your figures, Ma'ams, but there are just some things you can't restore."

Sakura felt heat creeping to her cheeks. The girl's straightforwardness was a bit too much for her standard. Clinging at Maria, she could see that her sister was blushing too – beneath her calm, poker face.

"Anyway," the girl continued, ignoring the fact that she'd just embarrass the two women, "what are you here for? If it's for anything related to my Father's company, you'll be really disappointed. I've just sold the Company to someone else – it's no longer mine now. Can't really say this new owner is a good person, though, so I'll give you some other names you could go to. Ivanovic has some really good stuff, and you can probably understand what he says, so..."

"We are not here for business, Miss," Maria cut in. Sakura silently sighed, relieved. This girl was a talking machine – not dissimilar to her youngest niece Chiharu.

"So?" the girl asked, raising an eyebrow.

Maria looked at the girl, cooly brushing away her fringe from her left eye. "Have you ever considered working overseas?"

"Work?" the girl asked, half-laughing. "I've never considered working, Ma'am. I have enough money for my entire life. That's not to say that working won't be a nice experience, though. May I inquire what kind of work that is?"

"Alright, Miss," Maria answered. Sakura could feel her sister tensing up a bit. This was the climax of their mission today – telling the girl about who they were and try to get her to join. "Do you remember that time, when you were admitted into hospital following a pub riot?"

"Hell, yes," the girl said, slouching down a bit. "It was a total disgrace. I was just trying to have a bit of fun, I was so unlucky that those brainless dudes decided to start a fight right there. I couldn't really retell the story for I was half-drunk when it happened, but I remembered throwing something to stop the fight – then fainted for no reason. Alcohol and combat don't work together, at least for me."

"Do you know what you actually threw?" Maria asked, looking sharply at the girl's face.

"No idea," the girl shrugged, grimacing. "Hopefully not the pubmaster's cat, he's mad in love with that thing. Actually, the cat wasn't too bad. I heard that some stupid person ended up burning the pub that night, the cat might have ended up roasted anyway."

Both Maria and Sakura smiled warily at this remark. This girl obviously didn't realise that she had thrown a burning dagger.

"It was you who burned the pub, Miss," Maria explained without attempting to hide her smile. "You threw a dagger, which burned for no apparent reason once it hit the ceiling."

"Really?" the girl asked, sounding both sceptical and interested. "It's just not possible. I might have accidentally hit someone's lighter when I threw the dagger."

"There's no such thing, Miss Russell," Maria said, smiling a bit wider. "The fire came from you."

Upon hearing it, the girl slid down from the table and looked confusedly at the two ladies.

"You're special, Miss," Sakura said, touching the girl's lower arm reassuringly. She secretly prayed that this girl would be able to understand her English, for she really wanted to say something right now. "And that's why we want you to join our Defense Troupe. Some affiliate of ours had secretly tested your ability when you were unconscious, Miss. Your energy suits those of our existing personnel well."

"Defense Troupe?" the girl asked, looking at Sakura as if the Secretary had grown an extra head. "Are you trying to tell me some cheap joke or what, Ma'am Japanese?"

"This is real, Miss," Maria assured, pulling out her Teikoku Kagekidan identity badge and showed it to the girl. "The Japanese Imperial Capital Defense Troupe hereby requests your service, Miss Noreen Russell, as a combatant... and an actress."

To be continued...

Hope you enjoyed the story. The title, "Because of Love and The Red Sunray", came from the two main things discussed in this chapter – the plan to reproduce "Ai Yueni" ("Because of Love") and the recruitment of the new member Noreen Russell (Noreen = light/sunray, Russell = red – both are general Western names).

Oh, and as for why Noreen's English waitress didn't understand what Maria was saying, it was because Maria spoke with American dialect (on top of her Russian accent). Noreen called Maria 'Ma'am Russian American' and Sakura 'Ma'am Japanese' because she recognised their accents - the girl's a little witty thing :).

Till next week,

TheWritingProgrammer.