Disclaimer: as usual
Chapter 11 is here! Still revolving around OC Ella and Mifuyuko's debut with a rewritten version of Ai Yueni and issues with other OC Noreen, this time we'll see the events from Mifuyuko's, Sakura's, and finally a general point of view. Now that I have so many subplots and details in mind, it's getting harder and harder to write. Hopefully I'm presenting something you can enjoy this time :).
Thanks to Yumi Michiyo and James Birdsong for their reviews, and all of you my readers. I'll try my best to improve my skills and be a better writer.
Happy reading!
OC guide:
TeiGeki Junior Team:
- 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)
- Noreen Russell (rich girl recruited from London; has similarities with Sumire)
- two more girls, and one male captain to join later
More about them and their relationships with the Hanagumi/others in the wordpress blog listed on my author's profile.
Oh, and as what I've always said, no Mary Sue-s and self-insertions :).
Dawn of Seasons
Chapter 11: of Seniors and Juniors
Daitekoku Gekijou, Tokyo
Looking around the stage, Mifuyuko couldn't help but feeling slightly nervous. Whilst she was pretty much used to the sight of the two youngest Hanagumi sisters in their rehearsal attires, the sight of the six others in similar clothings was pretty intimidating.
She couldn't stop stealing glances at Sakura-obasama and Tjotja Maria since she saw them entering the room. She'd never seen them wearing anything but their Daitekoku Gekijou uniforms before, and the sight of them in their rehearsal attire was an entirely new thing for the quiet girl. Right now, they were discussing something with Ichirou-oji, who had hailed down from the Managerial Office to watch the rehearsal.
"Having a crush on Tjotja and Sakura-obasama, aren't you?" her comrade Aki, who had suddenly stood next to her, joked.
"N...nope," Mifuyuko responded, heat creeping to her cheeks. Getting caught admiring the two High Commando ladies was just too embarrassing for her.
"Aaw, don't be shy," Aki teased again. "They're really good-looking, there's nothing shameful about admiring them."
Mifuyuko chuckled awkwardly, walking away from the centre spot. Aki tailed behind her, certainly ready to have another go at teasing her. The tease never materialised, though. They both stopped in awe when they realised they were just about to walk into Noreen and Natsue's heated argument. The two hot-headed girls chastised each other in English – it was ridiculous that they'd already started fighting and hating each other when Noreen had just been here for a week or so and hadn't yet spoken Japanese.
"Ssh, you two!" Ella hissed, breaking in between the two firecrackers in an attempt to stop the argument. "Please stop! The seniors won't like it!"
"What's the matter with it?" Noreen challenged, waving her hand ignorantly. "I'm having problem with this Princess Brat here, and they have no say in that. By the way, your English sounds really funny, Mademoiselle – perhaps you should just stick to French or ask the Ma'ams to teach you Russian or German."
Mifuyuko sighed, and she could hear Aki sighing too. Circling her arm around a disturbed Chiharu, who had run to them from her former position behind Ella, the copper-haired teen wondered if they would ever get along with Noreen. The new girl was so callous, rude, and stubborn.
"Alright, girls!" Ichirou-oji shouted, clearly unaware about the ongoing fight. "Time for cast announcement! Come here!"
Taking Chiharu's hand, Mifuyuko turned around and made her way to the corner of the stage where all the Hanagumi – nine of them – were gathering. She could feel all her other comrades quietly following behind; apparently Noreen and Natsue were more interested in the new play than continuing their pointless bicker. Moments later, all the six girls had gathered around their seniors, expectant of what was coming. Now, this was really stupid, but Mifuyuko still felt this strange flutter every time she caught the sight of her female seniors – her adoptive mothers – in their old rehearsal clothings. She nearly blushed when Sakura-obasama handed her a freshly printed scriptbook, and could barely made out the words on the cover: Mada, Ai Yueni.
"We'll be performing Mada, Ai Yueni," Ichirou-oji started explaining, looking around at all his fourteen girls and ladies. "This play was written by our own Maria, Sakura, Leni, and Iris; based loosely on the original Ai Yueni story."
The other four Hanagumi ladies clapped, and the girls followed. Tatie Iris stood up and made a curtsy; they all laughed at her antics.
"We'll be having Sumire and Kanna as our producers and directors," Ichirou-oji continued, gesturing at the two funny-but-scary ladies. "On the first page of your scripts are the role lists, take a look now and let us know if you feel you need to be re-casted."
He paused, turning to Noreen and looking apologetically at the British girl. "I know this sounds a bit unfair, Noreen," he then said in English, "but we have discussed about this, and it seems that it's not yet your time to be on stage. You'll be working on ticketing and front of house with me, though – that should be an interesting experience for you."
"Alright, if you want me to," Noreen said somewhat ignorantly. Mifuyuko could see some of the Hanagumi ladies glaring in disapproval of the callous rebel's behaviour. It was rude for the standard of Japanese manner.
"Wow, these names are diabolical," Mifuyuko heard Aki muttering. She suddenly recalled that she still needed to check the role list, and hence took a deep breath and opened her script. While they had said that there would be some recasting, she was well aware that she was likely to still be the lead female – the seniors had always alluded that it was her play.
Mada, Ai Yueni
CAST
-LEADS-
Julien Martin-Dubois - Ella
Victoire d'Estaing - Mifuyuko
-D'ESTAING FAMILY-
Viscomte d'Estaing, Victoire's father - Maria
Viscomtesse d'Estaing, Victoire's mother - Sakura
Eugenie d'Estaing, Victoire's younger sister - Chiharu
Michel d'Estaing, Victoire's uncle and royal army captain - Leni
Mademoiselle Euphrasie, Victoire's governess - Iris
-DUBOIS FAMILY-
Annette Dubois-Martin, Julien's mother - Sumire
Monsieur Dubois, Julien's uncle - Kouran
Madame Dubois, Julien's aunt - Orihime
Zoe Dubois, Julien's cousin - Aki
-OTHERS-
Revolution Leader - Kanna
Adele Petit, Julien's childhood friend who loves him - Natsue
"This story revolves around a forbidden romance between Julien, a commoner, and the noble lady Victoire during the months leading to French revolution," the Commander briefly explained. "Rehearsal starts today, and I'm leaving this to you, Sumire, Kanna."
"Thanks, Manager," Sumire-obasama said, nodding at Ichirou-oji. She clung at Ella and Mifuyuko – Mifuyuko flinched under the directress' sharp glare. "We promise we'll make a really unforgettable performance, and turn our juniors into top stars."
It started like a typical morning in Daitekoku Gekijou, at least for Sakura. She woke up automatically at her set hour – to the sight of her husband walking out of their room, fully dressed – and went straight to the bathroom, wrapping her dressing gown tightly around her frame as she walked. Freshened up and fully awake, she then strode towards the big window and opened the curtain, standing still for a while to take in the sight of the gardens. This was where the typicality of the morning stopped, though. Apart from the usual view of the winter-raided gardens, she caught a rather shocking scene. There, wearing her dull grey junior tracksuit without any head covering, was Ella. The girl was running along the footpath, defying the cold, harsh wind and snow; her soaked jacket sticking to her willowy frame.
The next few minutes were all blur to her as she quickly put her Daitekoku Gekijou uniform and dashed downstairs, out to the shielded terrace separating the garden with the main building. There stood Maria and Leni, wearing their tracksuits instead of the formal uniform.
"What are you doing?" she whispered to the two, confused and worried. She knew that Ella was supposed to be put on bootcamp in order to prepare her for male roles, but she thought what her sisters were putting the girl through this morning was too much. "You'd better stop this now, she will get sick!"
"Nah, she won't," someone said behind her. Turning around, Sakura saw Kanna, also in her tracksuit. On the martial artist's hands were two big buckets full of water – Sakura's eyes widened in shock as she realised what they were intended for.
"Kanna," the raven-haired said, tugging on her redhead sister's sleeve, "are you going crazy? She's already cold, I don't think there's any need to soak her..."
"Well, the Commander said he wants Ella to man up," Kanna replied, smirking evilly. "This is the way. OOI, ELLA! COME HERE NOW!"
Sakura clung at Maria, secretly begging her eldest sister's help to stop Kanna. Maria just smiled and looked back calmly at her, though – the Vice Commander seemed alright with the martial artist 'abusing' Ella. Shifting her glance to Leni, Sakura found out that the younger sister was no different. The silver-haired just stared analytically at the scene before her, crossing her arms on her chest.
Ella scrambled towards the terrace, nearly tripped twice on her way. With her messy, dampened hair and blu-ish lips, she looked really pitiful – Sakura felt like pulling her in and giving her a cup of hot milk to ease her evident shiver. There was nothing but determination in her grey eyes, though. She stood still and tall, looking at Kanna without blinking.
"Ella Beltz reporting, Ma'am," she said firmly.
"Good," Kanna said light-heartedly, putting one of the buckets on the floor. "Well, since you seem cold, you might as well have some warm water here. Take this!"
Ella gasped in surprise as Kanna poured the entire content of the bucket over her head. While Sakura still strongly disagreed with the slightly cruel practice, she did notice that the bootcamp had worked, though. The old Ella would most likely shriek like other girls would do when she got soaked.
"Have some more!" Kanna said cheerfully, throwing the content of the second bucket all over Ella's front. Again, there was no girly shriek – Ella had, to some extent, man up.
"That should be enough for today," Maria cut in, before Kanna had a chance to go on with other evil plans. "Dry yourself up and change, Ella. We'll be having breakfast in an hour."
Leni handed Ella a fresh towel. The girl took it with a firm nod of gratitude, drying her face, hair, and clothes quietly.
"Oh, well. What a pity."
Turning to the door, Sakura saw Noreen leaning against the jamb, still in her sleepwear. The Secretary's head ached a bit; it seemed that the brash rebel was ready to cause yet another problem. All approaches - gentle and firm, kind and harsh – had so far failed in getting the girl to cooperate with the Hanagumi and her comrades. She always had something annoying to say or do.
"I hope none of the potential audiences happen to see you like this, Ella," Noreen continued, looking at Ella up and down. "You look like hell. They will think that you're a..."
Noreen's sentence was cut when she realised that Ichirou was standing behind her.
"Seems that you're really interested in the bootcamp program, Noreen," he said, patting the girl on the back. "You should be joining Ella from tomorrow on. You have the makings of a dashing male lead, you'll do better with some preparations."
Noreen laughed arrogantly as a response. However, looking at the British girl's face, Sakura noticed that there was actually a slight panic in her eyes. She clearly hated the idea of the bootcamp.
"Alright, alright," she said, lifting both hands to acknowledge her defeat. "I'll join your program from tomorrow on – that shouldn't be too hard to do."
"You say, Miss," Kanna said loudly, smirking. "Watch out – I will really crush you this time, and I mean it."
"Well, then don't expect it to be an easy job, Ma'am," Noreen quickly replied with an almost identical smirk on her face. She turned around and walked back in, snorting cynically before she disappeared up the stairs.
"Say what you say, loser," Kanna muttered. She got an icy glare from Maria on this remark. Sakura knew how annoyed Maria was at Kanna for challenging Noreen earlier. The Vice Commander had always emphasised the importance of neutrality when dealing with the juniors – something Sakura also believed in.
"Let's go in, Ladies," Ichirou said, not wanting to let the unpleasant situation hanging around further. "Ella needs to dry up, and I have something to discuss with you Hanagumi ladies."
"Putting the girls under specific mentorships?" Iris asked, looking questioningly at the Commander.
The Commander nodded.
"At this stage, I can see that some of them stand out more than others," he explained, meeting each of his ladies – five who were in the room, and the three others: Sumire, Kouran, and Orihime on projected Kinematron screens – on their eyes. "It would be better for everyone's interest if each girl can have one of you looking closely after them and help them dealing with their personal issues, which I feel they sometimes are reluctant to let on. We will still have group lessons, but each girl will have a particular mentor – a senior whom she's most similar to, who knows how to deal with someone like her."
"Isn't this too early to decide on the assignment?" Sakura asked, frowning at her husband. "I mean, we haven't yet had the full team. We might be able to form better matches after we recruit the other two girls."
"I have a similar view," Leni agreed. "Whilst some of the girls had started showing the tendency to assume the role of particular Hanagumi members in their team, their interaction pattern might change once their new teammates arrived."
The Commander smiled at the two women.
"You don't have to worry about wrong assignments," he said, pressing a button on the projection control panel. Another blank screen scrolled down, and one of the unused projectors started humming. "I know you better than you realise, ladies. I can confidently assign all but two of you each of those six girls, and still have the assignment valid even after the new girls arrive."
He stood up and pulled some slide sheets out of the open folder in front of him. All the eight ladies watched curiously as their Commander walked towards the projector and placed one of the transparencies on it. There were chuckles, snorts, and smiles as they realised what their former Captain was trying to project – one of their old photographs, taken when Leni was still short and Iris was still a child.
"This was the eight of you, during a rehearsal break," he told the ladies, smiling. "While you might not realise it, what each of you were doing that time really define who you are."
The Hanagumi sisters laughed as they took the sights of their younger selves in. Now that they were older and wiser, they could say that the Commander's last statement was true. Maria would always be serious, Sakura would always be dedicated, Sumire and Kanna would always be vocal and headstrong, Orihime would always be loud, Kouran would always be the easy-going watcher, Leni would always be the quiet observer, and Iris would always be the energetic little sister. Though life hadn't been too kind to some of them since then, they had not changed by much – still the same women at heart.
Without waiting for the laughter to cease, the Commander took the slide off and replaced it with another. The Hanagumi immediately quieted down as they saw the second photograph. Some of them gasped; this second picture was similar to the first if not for the location and the people pictured.
"This was our six girls in the recreation room," the former Captain continued, his hand hovering above the projector. "As what you might have noticed, this is just like the former picture – with two of you removed. Kouran, Leni, seems that the two of you have to wait for your mentees to arrive."
"Wait," Kanna said, panicking. "Does this mean I have to mentor that brat?"
"Unfortunately yes, Kanna," the Commander answered. "All the observations and the energy analysis showed that Noreen and Natsue match you and Sumire the most, with all the bickering and differences and stuff. Noreen is the bolder of the two, she's just like you."
The second eldest sister moaned, putting her elbows on the table and burying her head behind her arms. Iris pat her back sympathetically, whilst the six others either smiled or sighed.
"So, I'm getting Aki," Orihime commented across the Kinematron, curious and slightly excited. "I've never realised that she's similar to me, though, apart from her interest in piano."
"That's because she's always overshadowed by the others, Orihime," the Commander responded, looking at the screen projecting the noblewoman's face. "Once you start having one-on-one with her, you might be able to see your similarities better – and perhaps bring her out a little more."
"Are you sure about Ella and Mifuyuko, Commander?" Maria asked, frowning in thoughts. "Iris and Chiharu's similarities are indisputable, but I feel Ella resembles Sakura more and Mifuyuko resembles me more."
"Superficially speaking, yes," the Commander said, smiling at his Vice, "but not at heart. Ella is actually a more reserved, thoughtful soul; she just talks more than Mifuyuko does. She'll lead her comrades just as you lead your sisters, I can already see it in her."
"How much additional time we need to allocate for this mentorship, Commander?" Sumire asked, looking a bit concerned. "I'm really delighted to mentor Natsue, but I don't have much time to spend – I have a company to lead."
"It's up to you," the Commander answered. "Each of you are free to approach the mentoring task in your own way. There's no deadline, no goals whatsoever. You just have to be there for them, and in the case of orphaned mentees, ladies, be the closest thing they have to a parent."
To be continued...
'Till I write again!
Oh, and 'Mada, Ai Yueni' simply means 'Still, Because of Love' – I just added the word 'Still' to the original title (cheeky cheat, yes XD).