Disclaimer: I do not own, nor claim to own, anything strawberry panic or marimite. it all belongs to the respective creators
Chapter Six: Old Friends, New Plans
"What on earth do they think they're doing?" Yoshino asked impatiently as she paced around the room.
"Calm down Yoshino," Rei admonished, "Sachiko and Sakura have a lot of things that need working out between them. It's only natural that it would take some time."
"Ano, I hate to be rude," Noriko said, "but who exactly was that person? You all seem to know her quite well."
"That's right," Yoshino said, hitting her face with her palm. "Neither you, nor Touko, were here last year."
"Allow me to explain," Sei said. "That person's name is Sakura and she used to come to school here last year. She spent most of her elementary years growing up with Yumi, who lived next door to the apartment complex Sakura shared with her elder sister Mizuki. After Sachiko asked Yumi to become her soeur, we, that is, the Yamayurikai, found out that Sakura was Sachiko's biological younger sister."
"Some things happened and Sakura ran into one of her old friends from when she was living with Sachiko," Rei continued. "Soon afterwards, he passed away. One the one-week anniversary of his death, Sakura and Mizuki were driving to visit his grave. They were in a car accident and rushed to the hospital. Mizuki died and Sakura was in a coma for two months."
"When she woke up," Youko took over, "she was informed of Mizuki's passing and became depressed, staring out the window constantly. One day, when the daughter of a friend of Mizuki's came to visit her, she surprised Sakura so much that she almost fell out the window of the sill she had been sitting on."
"The girl who surprised her caught her wrist" Yumi added, "and managed to get both of them back in the room unharmed. After that, Sakura opted to stay with that girl and her family for a bit before she returned to her biological family because she still had issues with them and what they had done to her in the past."
"And Sachiko got mad at me because of that," the group whirled around and saw Sakura and Sachiko, both looking drained, standing in the doorway. Sachiko had an arm around Sakura's shoulders and Sakura was leaning into the embrace, obviously exhausted.
"Sakura," Yumi exclaimed. "Are you okay?"
"I'm fine," Sakura said as she let Sachiko seat her between herself and Yumi as everyone began to take seats around the large table. "Just drained, we had a long and emotional discussion." She explained, indicating Sachiko and herself.
"Did you really work everything out?" Yoshino asked. "I only ask because I would rather not see Sachiko-sama hit you again."
"Don't worry about it," Sakura said, waving her hand dismissively. "Sachiko feels bad enough about that, it won't happen again."
"Good, I have enough to deal with, with school and finding a soeur and all, I don't need more drama," Yoshino replied.
"That reminds me," Sakura said, taking in Noriko and Touko fully now. "Shimako, Yumi, are you going to introduce me to your soeurs or what?"
"Ah! I completely forgot!" Yumi exclaimed, looking shocked and Sakura began to giggle.
"Well, that is Noriko, she is my soeur," Shimako stated, indicating Noriko, who had stood up to take the tea Sakura had previously prepared off the stove and had begun pouring it for everyone.
"Nice to meet you," Sakura said, smiling at Noriko who, unknowingly, turned pink at the brilliance of it.
"This," Yumi said, indicating Touko who was sitting on her other side, "is Touko, she's my soeur."
"Eh? Touko as in, our cousin Touko?" Sakura asked, turning with surprise to Sachiko who nodded in affirmation. "Well, something tells me that there is a story behind this one."
"And that can wait until you tell us what you have been up to," Yoshino said, getting a gleam in her eye that told Sakura it was gossip time.
"Yea," Yumi agreed. "We haven't seen you in so long and you haven't kept in touch very often."
"Don't blame me," Sakura said, putting her hands in the air in mock defence. "Blame Nagisa for never giving me a moment to myself; as soon as I walked in her front door it was all 'this is this room, this is that room, oh and my parents are going overseas for work so we're going to boarding school in two days so we need to go shopping for this and that' it was non-stop craziness, until we got to Miator."
"Miator, is that your new school?" Yumi asked.
"Hai, this, unfortunately, is the school uniform," Sakura said, indicating the black dress she was wearing. "Personally, I would prefer Lulim's uniform, even though it is pink, and don't even get me started on what those Spicans wear."
"Lulim? Spicans?" Shimako asked.
"Oh, my mistake," Sakura said. "Miator isn't the only all-female boarding school on Astraea Hill. There are two others, Lulim and Spica. All three schools share the same dorms, the Strawberry Dorms, as Nagisa's roommate Tamao, told us. There are three sections, one for Miator, one for Lulim and one for Spica. We all share common areas, lounges, dining hall and cafeteria though. Also, each school has their own Student Council and the three get together to plan events for the dorms. Each Student Council has a president and two assistants, think along the lines of the Rosas, except they're from different schools. There is no soeur system, so new students are looked after by their roommates, like Nagisa, and the Student Council members. Also, there is an Etoile."
"Etoile?" Noriko asked. "What's that?"
"The Etoile is a representative of all three schools, she is the most loved and the most admired of the three schools. Every year there is the Etoile Election, where each school submits their candidates and the schools vote on who they want to represent them the next year. Usually it is a pair, but this year there is only one of the two, as her partner had a heart disease and passed away last year."
"That's so sad," Yoshino said, holding her hand to over her heart, having had heart problems in the past, but underwent surgery to fix the problem.
"Yea, and you'll never guess who this year's Etoile is," Sakura said, turning to both Sachiko and Touko.
"Who?" Touko asked, curious despite herself.
"A Miator student," Sakura said. "With long silver hair, amber eyes and goes by the name Shizuma Hanazono." At this, Sachiko, who had been drinking her tea at the time of Sakura's announcement, started choking.
"Onee-sama!" Yumi exclaimed, as Sakura handed Sachiko a napkin calmly. "Are you okay?" She asked, once Sachiko stopped coughing.
"I'm fine," Sachiko said, then turned to Sakura. "But did I hear you correctly? You said that Shizuma is the Etoile from Miator, the school that you are currently attending?"
"Yes," Sakura replied, calmly, but enjoying the effect her words had on her older sister.
"Does she know who you are?" Sachiko asked, getting right to her point of worry.
"I don't think so," Sakura said, shaking her head. "I didn't even realize it was her until I saw this," here Sakura reached into her pocket and pulled out the picture she had taken from the photo album which, thanks to Yumi, was now sitting peacefully on one of the counters.
"I remember that!" Touko said, getting up and looking over Sachiko's shoulder at the picture. "That was at your seventh birthday, before you were disowned. Sachiko was getting a picture taken with you and as soon as it was done, Shizuma jumped you and she and Sachiko had a verbal fencing match with each other."
"Of course they did, why do you think Sachiko's so good at dealing with Sei-san?" Sakura asked.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Sei asked, feigning indignance.
"It means that, thanks to Shizuma being such a playgirl, like you, and continually teasing me to get a rile out of Sachiko, like you do with Yumi, Sachiko has gotten good at dealing with people like you." Sakura explained, giving Sei a sideways grin.
"EH?!" Yumi asked. "You mean there's another person in the world who acts like Sei-sama?"
"Unfortunately, yes," Sachiko said, sighing. "In some cases, like Sakura for instance, Shizuma is worse than Sei."
"Worse than Sei?" Eriko asked, interested.
"How is that possible?" Yoshino asked, shocked that such a thing was possible.
"Don't know, don't care," Sachiko stated. "What I do care about is the fact that you are at the same school as her Sakura. Are you sure she doesn't know who you are? I don't want her to go back to her old ways and influencing you negatively."
"Eh? What, pray tell, do you mean by that, onee-sama?" Sakura asked, giving Sachiko a look out of the corner of her eye that had Sachiko flushing red with embarrassment.
"I-I-I mean...well..." Sachiko stammered, something neither Yumi, nor anybody else in the room, had seen happen before.
"I'm just teasing you," Sakura said, taking a sip of her tea. "I know what you mean, and I am quite sure she doesn't know who I am, but do you honestly think that Shizuma is still like that?"
"Yes, I do," Sachiko answered.
"You may be right," Sakura said thoughtfully.
"What do you mean?" Shimako asked.
"Well, on the first day that Nagisa and I arrived at Astraea, I lost track of Nagisa because she got herself lost. I followed the path I thought she had taken and wound up falling into the lake."
"You fell into a lake?" Noriko asked.
"Don't sound so surprised," Sakura said. "I tripped while walking around the edge of it; it was a lot deeper than one would originally think. Anyway, it was really cold and I inhaled what seemed like half of it before I got myself back onto the shore. Before I could continue my search for Nagisa, I passed out."
"You passed out?" Youko asked.
"Don't ask," Sakura said. "Long explanation that would highly confuse specific company," everyone knew then that it had something to do with Sakura being a Draconian. "When I was unconscious, I had a dream from Nagisa's point of view. She had gotten lost and found a tree in the middle of a clearing and went to stand by it. Only after she had relaxed did she realize that someone else was there. It was a girl in a black dress with silver hair and amber eyes. Nagisa started babbling and the key chain that was on her bag fell off. The silver-haired girl picked it up and handed it to her and when Nagisa looked at her, she couldn't move. The silver-haired girl leaned in towards Nagisa..."
"And?" Yoshino asked when Sakura stopped talking.
"And what?" Sakura replied, feigning ignorance.
"What happened after that?" Yoshino clarified. "Did she kiss her?"
"Yoshino!" Rei admonished.
"I don't know," Sakura replied. "I woke up after that, but I don't think she did."
"What makes you say that?" Eriko asked.
"Because, at dinner that night, we met that girl," Sakura said. "Nagisa had mistaken another girl for the Etoile and started blathering. When she was finished, the girl with the silver hair from my dream came up behind her, without my knowing. The two of them exchanged a few words and the silver-haired girl was advancing on Nagisa. Nagisa said something along the lines of 'you can't do this' to which the other girl responded by saying 'who says I can't?'"
"I get the feeling this doesn't end well," Touko said.
"For Nagisa, it does, for the silver-haired girl, it didn't." Sakura said.
"What did you do?" Sachiko asked, getting the feeling Sakura had done something.
"What you would do, though probably a lot less lady-like," Sakura explained. "I got between the two of them and the silver-haired girl turned her attention to me instead of Nagisa, who ran and hid behind her roommate. The silver-haired girl grabbed me around the waist and pulled me close to her."
"Don't tell me..." Sei said.
"She kissed you didn't she?" Yoshino asked, barely able to contain herself.
"She tried to," Sakura said. "I was faster than her though."
"Wait, you mean you kissed her?" Touko asked, not believing her cousin was capable of such a thing.
"WHAT?!" Sachiko gasped, shocked and really, really mad.
"Calm down onee-sama," Sakura said, "and no, I did not kiss her. When I said I was faster than her, I meant that I had her wrist pinned behind her back before she could do anything."
"Oh," Sachiko said, sighing with relief. "So what happened after that?"
"I told her that if she tried anything like that again, with me or Nagisa, she would regret it." Sakura explained. "Then I left the dining hall and went to my room to think, because I recognized her, not from my dream, but from somewhere else. It bugged me all week, then I got Youko's letter, figured everything out and came here as soon as I could."
"Wow," Yumi said. "You've had a lot more going on than we have."
"I know," Sakura said, "but unfortunately I don't have enough time to hang around."
"What?" Yumi asked, sad that Sakura was leaving so soon.
"Why?" Youko asked.
"Because," Sakura said. "After reading your letter I panicked over Sachiko a little bit, thinking I would be here for weeks. After coming here though, well, it seems everything is just fine."
"Everything may be fine," Youko said.
"But you should stay a little longer!" Yumi interjected. "We miss you and once you go back, you may not be able to visit for a really long time!"
"That's true," Shimako said. "I read over the pamphlet Sakura brought to school once she decided to switch schools at the end of the year last year and Astraea Hill schools have different holidays than us as I recall."
"I don't have a problem with Sakura hanging out for a while," Touko said, Noriko nodding her head in agreement. "After all, I haven't seen her since I was seven. If she stayed a couple weeks, it would be the perfect time for us to catch up."
"Hey! Don't go deciding things like that on your own!" Sachiko said, not wanting Sakura to leave just yet but also not wanting her to miss too much school because she decided to come down and check up on Sachiko.
"I don't have a problem with it either," Rei said, smiling at Sakura.
"Rei!" Sachiko exclaimed. "You're supposed to be on my side!"
"Sachiko," Rei said, "you have never acted like this before, not even when Sakura first showed up at the mansion. Today, you have gone from pure hatred, to sisterly love, to shock, to concern, to argumentative all in," she checked her watch, "an hour and a half. If that isn't proof that you need Sakura right now, to help you get over everything that's happened since she left, then nothing is."
"It's settled then," Yoshino decided. "Sakura, you are now going to stay here for two weeks and no less!"
"But..." Sakura and Sachiko said at the same time.
"No buts," Yoshino said, wagging a finger at the pair of them. "Sakura's staying and that's final!"
"Fine," Sakura and Sachiko sighed in resignation.
"Good," Yoshino said.
"Now that that's settled," Sachiko said, sitting down. "May we please start this meeting?" Taking their cue, the former Rosas and Sakura rose from their seats and left the room, heading out of the Rose Mansion and into the bright afternoon sunshine.
"Well that went better than I expected it to," Sakura said, stretching as she walked with the former Rosas towards the entrance of the school grounds. "Thank you, Youko, for sending me that letter to let me know what was going on."
"You're welcome," Youko said. "Someone had to tell you, and since neither Yumi nor Sachiko thought to, it might as well have been me."
"I still don't understand why Sachiko hit you though," Sei said.
"It's complicated," Sakura said.
"Everything about you is complicated," Eriko pointed out.
"Exactly," Sakura said, giving the three older girls a sideways smile as she said her farewells and headed back towards the taxi that was waiting to take her back to her apartment that she was staying at.
A/N: hey peoples. chapter six now complete! YAY! next chapter: sakura goes back to Miator and drama with Shizuma ensues...what will happen? R+R to find out!