Disclaimer: i do not own, nor claim to own, anything strawberry panic. it all belongs to the respective creators.

Chapter Three: New Mystery, New Revelations

The next day dawned bright and early and Sakura was still thinking about the Etoile and how she could possibly have known her. She had decided the night before that, in fact, she did know the other girl because that was what her gut was telling her and, ever since the episode with Lance, the Yamayurikai and her Grandfather, she trusted her gut more than she trusted her heart. However, this did not mean that she stopped thinking about it, in fact, the more she thought about it, the more confused she got, the more confused she got, the more she thought about it. Nagisa, taking note of her sister's more-than-thoughtful mood, finally got up the nerve to ask Sakura what was bothering her during breakfast that morning.

"Nothing in particular," Sakura had responded, shoving some scrambled eggs into her mouth. "Just that, for some reason, I feel a strong sense of familiarity towards Etoile-sama, as if I had known her very well at one point or if I had been a friend of hers before."

"But that's impossible," Nagisa pointed out as Tamao listened with interest. "We only met her for the first time yesterday, how can you possibly know her?"

"That's what I keep thinking," Sakura said, continuing to eat. "But the more I think about it, the more weird it seems that I would have such a strong feeling of connection between the two of us, and you and I both know how much I trust my sixth sense."

"I know, but still, it seems a little farfetched to me." Nagisa stated, shoving her own scrambled eggs into her mouth and ending the conversation.

Throughout the course of the next week and a half, Sakura continued to try to solve the puzzle of her feelings of familiarity towards the Etoile and even went so far as to 'accidentally' run into her a few times in hopes of getting a vision or some sort of clue as to why she was feeling the way she was. It wasn't until the end of her second week at Miator that she finally got her answer. It was the last day of classes for the week and Sakura was again eating breakfast in the dining hall with Nagisa and Tamao when Miyuki came up to her on her way to join the Student Council's table.

"Aoi-san," Miyuki said, coming up to the girls shortly after they sat down.

"Hai?" Both Sakura and Nagisa answered at the same time, looking up at Miyuki.

"The Head Sister just gave me a letter for you," Miyuki said, handing a slim envelope to Sakura. "She said that the young lady who delivered it requested that it be brought to you and that you open it immediately."

"Arigatou Miyuki-san," Sakura said, taking the envelope and paling slightly as she recognized the handwriting on it. Miyuki bowed and left Sakura to open the letter herself. Sakura gently opened the envelope and realized that there, along with a letter, was a book. She removed the letter, read the first two sentences and became stark-white.

"Onee-sama?" Nagisa asked, noticing her sister's face had suddenly drained of colour and turned white as a sheet.

"Excuse me," Sakura said, standing up so quickly that she knocked her chair over, gaining the attention of everyone in the dining hall. "I-I have to go." With that, she turned on her heel and sped out the dining hall as fast as decorum permitted, something Sachiko had taught her to do, as all eyes followed her. Once she was alone in one of the upstairs lounges, she read the whole letter over.

"Sakura," it read, "I hope this letter finds you well and settled into your new environment, however, I have, although I hate to be the one bringing it, some bad news for you. Your grandmother passed away just a few days ago and Sachiko is a complete mess. She, your grandmother, wanted to see you before she passed on, but your grandfather would hear none of you being brought home, no matter how desperately anyone pleaded with him. Sachiko is, shall we say, an emotional disaster and won't let anyone near her. There is a bright side to all this however. Before she passed on, even though she did not get to see you one last time, your grandmother got to see an old friend that she had been missing for quite a while and she went to Maria-sama peacefully. Sachiko is doing okay, considering the circumstances, and Yumi just arrived a few minutes ago to give her support so that should help considerably. Before she lost it, Sachiko was sane enough to get one of your old photo albums to send with this letter so that you could catch up on old, and probably forgotten, memories of the life the two of you shared together in your early years before, as Sei put it, all hell broke loose. We all miss you and hope that, once your grandfather either passes on or allows you back (Sei's money is on him dying before he brings you back), you come home and back to Lillian so that you get to graduate from there like everyone else. Sachiko requests that you write back and keep in close contact with her as she doesn't want to lose you because of distance again, her words, not mine. Write back and come home soon.

Love, Youko."

Sakura read and re-read the letter three times before it finally all sunk into her head. She folded the letter from her sister's onee-sama back up and put it back in the envelope it came in, along with the photo album she didn't open. Sakura didn't realize she was crying until she felt gentle arms wrap around her waist from behind. She turned around and discovered that the one holding her was none other than Chikaru; a fifth-year from Lulim Sakura had met the previous week when Nagisa had been playing hide-and-seek with her friends and picked the wrong room. There was a meeting of the three student councils of Astraea and Miyuki, the president of Miator and Shion, the president of Spica had been arguing and Chikaru, the president of Lulim had been watching, waiting for the meeting to end when Nagisa had burst in. Seeing Chikaru's concerned face, so much like Mizuki's and Sachiko's, Sakura couldn't take it anymore and just let everything out, burying her tear-filled face into Chikaru's chest as the other girl stroked her hair and murmured soothing words Sakura couldn't comprehend.

When she was calm enough to form coherent sentences again, Sakura showed the letter she received to Chikaru as the other girl guided the pair of them to a couch and sat down.

"No wonder you're so upset," Chikaru said, handing the letter back to Sakura who folded it back up and put it back in the envelope with the photo album. "Being adopted but knowing that your real family hates you so much that they won't bring you home to see your dying grandmother once more has got to be rough."

"Yea," Sakura agreed, "but not everyone in my biological family hates me. My mother, grandmother and my older sister care for me very much...even though none of them did anything to keep me from being disowned." As she said this, she opened the envelope and removed the photo album.

"What's that?" Chikaru asked, indicating the album and effectively changing the topic, for which Sakura was grateful as it gave her an excuse to leave memory lane.

"It's a photo album," Sakura explained as she opened and began flipping through it randomly. "My older sister gave it to her upperclassman, her onee-sama, to enclose with the letter. She said it was to remind me of the mostly forgotten memories of what my childhood was like before I was disowned."

"Is this you guys then?" Chikaru asked, indicating a picture of two little girls, identical except for the few inches of height difference, one in front of the other, both smiling happily at the camera.

"Yea," Sakura said, studying the picture and vaguely remembering the backyard picnic she was on with her mother and sister when the picture was taken. "The one in the front is me and the one behind me is my older sister Sachiko." Sakura smiled softly at the picture of her sister, remembering what she had said before Sakura had left with Nagisa.

*Flashback*

"Sakura!"

Sakura turned around, shocked, at the familiar voice yelling her name across the terminal. She was just about to pass through the gates that would take her to the plane that would take her to Nagisa's aunt's house and, eventually, her new school Miator when the voice she knew so well yelled at her. She stopped walking and motioned for Nagisa to get on the plane ahead of her. By the time Nagisa had left, the owner of the voice who had yelled at her had arrived to stand, a little breathless, in front of her.

"Onee-sama, what are you doing here?" Sakura asked, surprised, but happy , to see her elder sister Sachiko standing in front of her.

"You didn't think I'd let you leave without saying good-bye did you?" Sachiko asked, answering the question with another question, something she seemed to do quite frequently.

"Well, actually yea I did," Sakura admitted. "I thought you'd be at everyone's graduation ceremony."

"I was, but I ditched early to come see you off," Sachiko explained, trying to hide the hurt in her voice, but not succeeding very well.

"All passengers on flight 786 to Astraea Hill now boarding," a female voice came on over the intercom.

"That's me," Sakura said, stating the obvious. "I guess I'll see you around then onee-sama," as she turned to leave, Sachiko grabbed her wrist, spun her around and enveloped her in a bone-crushing hug.

"Come back as soon as you can," Sachiko whispered, her mouth right next to Sakura's ear. "Write to me every day and come back," here her voice cracked and became thick with emotion. "Come back to me, I wouldn't be able to handle losing you again. I love you."

"I love you too, onee-sama," Sakura said, hugging Sachiko back just as fiercely as she fought back her tears. "I love you too. I have to go now," she said, giving Sachiko another hug as the other girl kissed her lightly on the forehead. "Say hi to everyone for me," Sakura said, moving through the gates, "and whatever you do, don't worry," she told her sister, before walking through the gates and onto the plane where she joined an excited Nagisa and began the flight to Miator.

*End Flashback*

"Who're these girls then?" Chikaru's question brought Sakura out of her reverie as she looked at the picture Chikaru was pointing at. It featured three girls around the ages of seven and eight. Two were identical; black hair, deep blue eyes, beautiful skin and smiling faces, the other girl also bore beautiful skin and a smiling face, but her hair was a shimmering silver and her eyes a wonderful shade of amber. The silver-haired girl had her arm around the shoulders of the smaller of the black-haired girls, while the taller black-haired girl held the smaller one around the waist in a kind of half-hug, the smaller black-haired girl had one arm around the waist of the taller girl and the other hand holding the silver-haired girl's forearm.

"Well, the two black-haired girls are me and onee-sama," Sakura said, studying the picture and vaguely recognizing the silver-haired girl. "I have no clue who the other one is though, I don't even remember when this picture was taken."

"Really?" Chikaru asked, only slightly surprised, then she started giggling uncontrollably.

"What's so funny?" Sakura asked, thoroughly confused by Chikaru's behaviour.

"Well, it's kind of funny, if you look closely, it almost looks like you're being fought over by those two," Chikaru said, indicating Sachiko and the girl Sakura couldn't remember.

"Hey yea, you're right," Sakura said, looking at the picture a little closer and begging to giggle along with Chikaru. "Let's see who that silver-haired girl is, anybody who tries to pick a fight with Sachiko is pretty brave, I want to know who in their right mind has the guts to do that." With that, Sakura gently removed the picture from the album and turned it over, recognizing the graceful cursive of her mother, reading the caption that had been written on the back. It read: Sachiko-chan, Sakura-chan and Shizuma-chan: The Triple Threat the day after Sakura-chan's seventh birthday.

"'Sachiko-chan, Sakura-chan and Shizuma-chan'," Sakura read to herself, forgetting that Chikaru was still there. "Shizuma-chan..." Sakura thought, trying to place the familiar name. "Shizuma-chan...Shizuma-chan...OH MY GOD!" She exclaimed, making Chikaru jump, as she realized where she had heard the name before and why the silver-haired girl had looked so familiar to her before. "OH MY GOD!" She repeated. "I don't believe this! No wonder I thought I recognized her! It's really her!"

"What are you talking about?" Chikaru asked her.

"Sorry Chikaru-chan," Sakura said, hurriedly closing the photo album and putting it back in the envelope with the letter from Youko. "I gotta go, could you put this back in my room for me? It's on the right-hand side, next to Miyuki-sama's room on Miator's side of the dorms." Sakura asked, handing the envelope to Chikaru.

"Sure," Chikaru agreed, still completely confused by Sakura's actions.

"Thanks," Sakura said, smiling. "I'll explain everything to you later, I promise!" With that, Sakura blew through the door like a whirlwind, the photo of the three girls still in her hand, and disappeared.

"What a strange girl," Chikaru mused to herself, smiling, before shaking her head and heading towards Sakura's room to deposit the envelope that Sakura had asked her to drop off.

"Onee-chan!" Nagisa called, "Onee-chan, where are you?"

"Did you find her yet?" Tamao asked, appearing from a side door and walking up to her roommate.

"No, not yet," Nagisa replied. After Sakura had so obviously left the dining hall a little upset after receiving the letter, Nagisa had begun to worry and she and Tamao had been looking around for the black-haired fifth-year since. "I don't where she could have gone, it's not like her to just up and disappear on me."

"Who's disappeared?" A voice asked, making both Nagisa and Tamao jump and turn towards the right where the voice was coming from. It was Shizuma and Miyuki. Shizuma was the one who had spoken.

"It's Sakura-san, Etoile-sama," Tamao replied, voicing both girls' worry over Sakura. "Rokujou-sama gave her a letter during breakfast, she read it and took off. We haven't seen her since."

"Really?" Miyuki asked, starting to worry a little bit too. "Why would that be?"

"I think that something in the letter she got made her upset," Nagisa clarified, bringing everyone's attention to her. "Onee-san recognized the writing on it and I think it was from her elder sister."

"Her elder sister?"Miyuki asked, her curiosity piqued with interest.

"Yes, her biological sister. Even though she was disowned, she still remains close with her sister and I think that the letter might have contained something about what is going on back at her family's house, something upsetting. I'm worried about her."

"Don't worry Nagisa-chan," Tamao said, squeezing her friend's hand. "I'm sure she'll turn up somewhere." Just then, the group heard a yell coming from upstairs.

"NAGISA!"

"Told you so." Tamao said, turning to Nagisa.

"Onee-sama!" Nagisa hollered back, "I'm down here!" The group watched as Sakura's head peeked around the corner at the top of the stairs to look down at the group.

"There you are!" She exclaimed, rounding the corner and putting her hand on the top rail of the banister.

"Onee-chan! Don't!" Nagisa cried out with fright, as she saw that Sakura was going to jump over the railing, but it was too late. Sakura leaped over the banister and, holding her skirt down as she fell, landed with all the grace of a cat on the floor a few feet in front of Nagisa and the rest of the stunned group.

"Nagisa! I need to talk to you!" Sakura exclaimed as she ran over to Nagisa. "Excuse us," she said, bowing quickly to Shizuma, Miyuki and Tamao before dragging Nagisa into a spare room. "You are not going to believe this!" She exclaimed as she closed the door behind them.

"After what you just did, I think I'll be able to believe almost anything," Nagisa replied, getting over the shock of seeing her sister jump from the top of the staircase to the floor without killing herself.

"I still don't think you're going to believe this, it's almost too crazy for even me to believe," Sakura said, reaching Nagisa and handing her the picture she took out of the photo album Sachiko sent her.

"What is it?" Nagisa asked, examining the picture and realizing that it was a picture of Sakura, her elder sister and a silver-haired girl that looked vaguely familiar to her.

"It's a picture, of me, onee-sama and one of our friends right after I turned eight," Sakura explained patiently, but barely able to contain her excitement.

"I see that, but why are you so excited about this?" Nagisa asked, still slightly confused.

"Do you remember our breakfast conversation a few days ago?" Sakura asked, taking a leaf out of Sachiko's book and answering a question with a question.

"Yes," Nagisa said, not sure where Sakura was going with this.

"Well, I now know why my sixth sense was going crazy," Sakura stated, pointing to the picture. "I didn't realize it at first, but when I read the caption on the back that my mother had written on, I remembered."

"Remembered what?" Nagisa asked, still confused.

"I remembered that, when Sachiko and I were little, my uncle had been doing business with another family company just as powerful as the Ogasawaras. My uncle and parents became good friends with their business partners and their daughter was the same age as Sachiko, a year older than me. The three of us became fast friends and I remember always having so much fun whenever she came over...until I was disowned and never saw or heard from her again." Sakura explained.

"And this has to do with our earlier conversation how?" Nagisa asked, still not getting it.

"The silver-haired girl in that picture is the daughter of that company," Sakura explained patiently. "Do you know what her name is?" She asked Nagisa.

"No," Nagisa answered, getting a strange feeling in the pit of her stomach.

"Her name was Shizuma, and the other company was run by her parents, the Hanazonos." Sakura said.

"So you're saying that...?" Nagisa asked, beginning to catch on slowly.

"The girl in the picture is Shizuma Hanazono."

A/N: not much to say on this chapter...might be a little rushed and i apologize for that. thanks to 69 for being the onlyt person to review, and to those of you who liked MOP POP...YOU BETTER START READING THIS IF YOU WANT MORE! anyway, if you want to find out what happens next just hit that little button and R + R!