Disclaimer: Neither W.I.T.C.H. Nor Sailor Moon nor anything else that might pop up belong to the writer of this story.

Chapter II: Beginnings, Part 2

Sorry. I can't help her too much without making things worse. Please bear with it. - Silent S.

"What on earth is going on over there?" Will exclaimed in frustration.

"Er... I have bad timing, don't I?" Irma spoke up from behind, prompting Will to jump in surprise.

At the Silver Dragon

Hay-Lin's grandmother, Yan Lin, walked about the table setting various beverages down around the girls she was hosting.

"So, your younger sister mailed you the original reply to your correspondence, saying that her friend found it, but she herself doesn't remember you?" Cornelia spoke, summarizing Will's situation, "...I don't buy it. There's something else going on other than some illness. She'd have to remember something."

"It's not impossible, just uncommon." Taranee countered.

A loud sound came from a door behind Yan Lin, prompting everyone to turn around in surprise and confusion. "Just a mouse. Go on, I'll take care of it." She assured them, opening the door and searching about.

"What's your Grandma hiding?" Will whispered to Hay-Lin, who shrugged in response.

"No clue." The bubbly girl responded.

"Anyway, Will... Just what was wrong with your sister, anyway?" Cornelia spoke, redirecting the conversation back to its original topic.

"I'm not sure, I don't think she was, either. Her doctors speculated everything from some sort of nerve damage to her body simply shutting down. What's really confusing me is this," Will placed the second letter face-down on the table, revealing the second message. "That's not Hotaru's handwriting – I don't recognize it at all, and why use an alias?"

"Maybe it's her friend?" Taranee proposed.

"Why would her friend use an alias?" Will countered.

Irma cut in. "Not like it's an inconspicuous alias, either. I mean, Silent S., come on?"

"Well... All we have is conjecture right now... Summer break is coming up next week..." Cornelia mused aloud.

"You aren't suggesting what I think you are, are you, Corny?" Irma spoke up.

"Yes, I am. Over Summer Break we should go to Japan. In the mean time, Will should keep trying to find things out via mail."Cornelia said.

"Right... But wouldn't that seem awkward?" Will asked.

"Just send a 'thank you letter." The blond responded.

Will still had another concern. "But... where are we going to get the funds to go to Japan?"

"Will... I'm rich. Taranee's mom is a judge... Heck, scatter-brain here has a pretty well-off family too, don't be fooled by how modest they are." Cornelia answered, pointing out Hay-Lin who was currently carrying a tray of tea into the room in place of her grandmother.

"Okay..." Will started, only to be cut off by Irma.

"Don't worry about it, we'll figure it out!"

Tomoe Mansion, Tokyo Japan

Chibiusa wasn't lying when she said that Hotaru might be staying over. Hotaru did, in fact, stay the night at the Tsukino residence... if only so the two best friends could have an excuse to visit the Tomoe Mansion again. Which they did. They were currently in Hotaru's old room, flipping through the scrapbook they had found. It depicted Hotaru and a red-haired girl slightly older than her standing in front of Hotaru's father and a woman with dark blue hair. They were standing around the table in the mansion's kitchen, a small cake resting on it. All four of them were smiling, Hotaru and the red-haired girl at the camera – the woman and Souichi at the girl and Hotaru, respectively. Below it was a note that Hotaru read aloud. "January Sixth, Hotaru's Eighth Birthday. From left to right: Back Row – Susan, Souichi; Front Row – Will, Hotaru."

Behind Hotaru, Chibiusa winced. "So you two probably do know each other."

"It looks like it..." Hotaru flipped to the next page, but it was blank, as well as all the others after it. "That's the last picture in the scrapbook." She closed it, revealing the title, 'Will and Hotaru.' "...I should send her an apology and mail one of these pictures to her."

"Hm..." Chibiusa looked thoughtful, "But... after your last two letters, it would probably seem strange now..."

"I think... she at least deserves one of these mementos. I'll send her the last picture..." Hotaru spoke, reaching into the scrapbook and pulling out the aforementioned picture.

"If you think so..." Chibiusa replied, taking the picture. "Let's start writing..."

Will's House, Heatherfield, United States

A week after the friend's meeting in the Silver Dragon, Will opened her door after school to see Irma's face and a car being driven by Yan Lin with Cornelia, Taranee, and Hay-Lin seated in it. "Done packing yet?" She asked, her trade-mark smile on her face.

"Yeah," Will responded, "Just let me check the mail before we go." She hefted her school bag, loaded down with seven outfits of clothing and other necessities. Irma nodded, returning to the car as Will reached into the mailbox to pull out, to her surprise, another letter from Hotaru. Since they had a flight to catch, she opted to hurry over to the car and into the passenger seat (next to Taranee, who was sitting in the middle seat between Will and Yan Lin and looking decidedly uncomfortable). As soon as she was seated and buckled in, she opened the letter and began reading aloud as Yan Lin started driving, tuning into the monologue.

"Dear Will, my friend found this in the same place she found the letter I sent you before... I'm sorry this one took so long, we couldn't afford to send another one first class. - Tomoe Hotaru." Will flipped the paper over to find the picture from the scrapbook Hotaru found taped to the back with another note below it. "Good luck. - SS" Will passed it around.

"What I don't get," Irma spoke as they drove, "Is why this Silent S character changed their alias."

"Maybe it really is her friend? It'd make since since it was her friend who found the picture.. and when you take the location of the note into account..." Taranee suggested.

"But why is her friend using an alias?" Cornelia posed.

Surprisingly, Hay-Lin was next to speak. "Maybe she doesn't want us to talk to her when we get there?"

Everyone turned to Hay-Lin in surprise (minus Yan Lin, who had to focus on driving). It was Irma who recovered first, "Wow. That was surprisingly logical of you."

"But it still doesn't explain why she changed the alias." Cornelia spoke, recovering her bearings.

"Maybe she just wanted to mess with us?" Hay-Lin responded.

"...You know... you're probably right." Will spoke, "The odds are we're over-thinking this."

"We're here." Yan Lin announced, "Come on, everybody out. We've got an over-seas vacation to get to!"

The girls piled out, retrieving their bags, or suitcases (in Cornelia's case) and following Yan Lin's beckoning hands into the throng of people.

"You know... can't we go by boat or something?" Taranee asked as they waited in line, "I really don't like heights."

"Relax Taranee! Our luck's not so bad that our plane will be the one out of every eleven million to crash a year." Irma assured.

"Somehow, that doesn't make me feel any better." Taranee responded as they approached the terminal.

Despite Taranee's misgivings, nothing of particular note happened on their trip other than Irma blindfolding Taranee and handing her a pressure ball, which she clutched extremely tightly whenever there was even the slightest amount of turbulence. When they touched down, the pressure ball had been destroyed and Taranee almost kissed the ground as soon as they exited the airport if it weren't for Will and Cornelia holding her back.

"So this is Japan." Cornelia spoke, and Will nodded.

"The Minato Ward of Tokyo, to be precise... Normally, I'd ask Souichi if we could stay with him but... I don't think that's a good idea given the circumstances." Will turned to Yan Lin who was watching them, listening to them converse contentedly with an interested expression on her face. "So... Where are we staying?"

"A friend of mine owns a cheap hotel nearby and agreed to reserve us some rooms." The aging matriarch responded.

"Care to lead us there?" Will asked, only for Yan Lin to smile and point to the edge of the street where an aging Asian man was holding up a sign that read 'W.I.T.C.H.'

"He's already waiting for us." She spoke, though it was a mostly redundant statement. "Come on, I'd like to have some tea." And so she led them over to the man, whose name was Gourou Sanazaki. The inn he ran was called 'A Thousand Dreams.' It was a modest affair built in a pseudo-traditional manner with heavy western influence. The structure stood at about three stories tall and just as wide and long, so it had ample room to spare since, partially due to its location, and partially due to its design, it didn't receive as many customers are its competitors. As a result, Gourou made his living off of patrons who were looking for a cheap place to stay.

The girls would all be staying in a single room while Yan Lin had a room to herself.

"Alright, so... where do we start?" Irma asked once they finished unpacking.

In response, Will pulled a book from its resting place on a nearby shelf, "With the phone-book, of course."

"Oh? You're sister's about thirteen years old... you think she's in the phone book?" Cornelia criticized.

Will didn't look up from her searching as she responded."No... I'm looking for her father, a famous scientist and, last I heard, the headmaster of a popular school."

"Ah..." Cornelia responded, unable to come up with a counter to that.

For a while, they sat in silence, amusing themselves as Will scanned the phone-book with a level of focus unrivaled. "Ah! Here it is... but..."

Everyone turned to her as soon as she spoke, and then immediately noticed her pale expression. "It's listed as a memorial site... the owner is one Tomoe Hotaru, but the caretaker is listed as Meioh Setsuna..."

"Wait... what?" Cornelia asked, "This is the house you grew up in right? Why's it a memorial site?"

"I don't know..." Will responded, turning several pages. "The school's listed as a memorial site too... No caretaker."

"Well... We should probably visit them... We'll probably find out why their memorials." Taranee suggested.

Will's reply was distracted. "Yeah... Let's go to the school first..."

They nodded. "I'll go tell grandma." Hay Lin spoke, leaving the room.

Upon reaching the site of the campus, Will grew paler still, if that was possible. It was nothing but rubble. Rubble, rubble, and more rubble. There wasn't anything left of the actual buildings' frames. There was a plaque on a pedestal set up in front of it as well as a picture of what it used to look like. Shakily, Will walked over to it and started reading, "Mugen Academy. Site of the final battle between the heart-snatchers and the sailor soldiers. Other than the sailor senshi, only two people who were in the building are known to have survived, though it was empty save for them and the belligerents. These two are Tomoe Souichi, former headmaster, and Tomoe Hotaru, his daughter. Recently, Souichi died of a terminal illness. His daughter is currently well and under the care of foster parents..." At several points Will paused until she was about half-way through and Irma took over.

"Well... This probably explains a lot." Cornelia spoke, though no one answered. At this point Will was sitting on her knees, looking over the ruins with her eyes glazed over.

"Come on, let's head back to the inn." Irma spoke, tapping Will's shoulder. In response the most easy-going of the group received little more than a nod.

Will spent the entire taxi ride staring out the window. "Now we know why there wasn't a caretaker." Irma spoke, thought it did little to alleviate the mood. It probably wasn't really intended to, either.

Hotaru, Haruka, Michiru, and Setsuna's House (to be referred to as the Tenoh / Meioh Residence from now on)

Hotaru was sitting on her bed flipping through the scrap book she had found... well, about three pages of it, anyway. She had placed a book cover on it to hide the title and said it was a exchange diary she and Chibiusa were making. With some help from Chibiusa she had even fastened a latch and key to it.

Suddenly, a cold shiver ran down Hotaru's spine and she turned in the direction of her father's old academy. 'If the premonition is strong enough for me to feel... what are Michiru-mama and Rei-san feeling right now?'

Time Gates

Something just made a large impact on the time-line, Setsuna could tell, hence her immediate transporting to the Gates from her place drinking a cup of coffee and reading the newspaper. But, as large as an impact as it made, for the life of her Setsuna couldn't find it. All she could figure out was that, whatever it was, the catalyst was centered around the ruins of Mugen Academy.

'This can't be good.' She knuckled her forehead, and sighed, "I need more coffee."