Chapter 4.

I spent the better part of a week helping Natsuki sort through Fujino's belongings. I had to admit Fujino had great taste in clothes. But while I'd grown a few centimeters since our days at Fuuka Academy, Fujino still had me beat in the height department. Besides, I think Natsuki might have been upset if I'd asked to have some of Fujino's clothes. So we boxed them up for charity, except for a couple of pieces that Natsuki wanted to hang onto for sentiment. She also decided to hang onto Fujino's music, and a few of her books, though just the ones on poetry.

"I'm sorta torn on the jewelry," Natsuki sighed.

I frowned, "Well…any pieces that you gave her, you should definitely hang onto. And any that you saw her wear frequently. Maybe give the rest to her family?"

Natsuki scoffed, "Like I'm giving them anything after they kept me from attending the funeral. She was the most important person in my life, and I didn't even get to take part in her funeral."

"Yeah, I get it," I nodded, "What about her will?"

"I haven't seen it, yet. She left it with a lawyer, and he said he'd be reviewing it with me later. And that's why I…"

At that moment, there was a ring at the door. Natuski stood up and called, "Be right there."

"You expecting someone?" I asked.

"No. The charity pick-up is supposed to be tomorrow," She shrugged and headed to the door.

I heard her gasp, and I went to see what had happened. I nearly fainted.

There, standing in the doorway, was the spitting image of Shizuru Fujino as she looked in high school.

And she was carrying a funerary urn.

"Shi…Shizuru?" Natsuki fell to her knees.

The woman in the doorway looked something between alarmed and amused.

"Ara, ara, I'm terribly sorry," she spoke in a delicate Kyoto-ben, "I should have called in advance. No, Kuga-han…"

She reached out a hand to help Natsuki to her feet, "I'm not Shizuru, would that she were standing beside me. My name is Shizumi. Shizumi Fujino. Shizuru was my older sister."

~~*~~

We were seated around a table in a café just down the street from Natsuki's apartment.

"Again," She smiled, "I apologize for startling you. That wasn't my intention. I guess it's true that I look very like my sister."

"I'll say," I replied, "I think you nearly gave the both of us heart attacks."

She looked at me, and her face was drawn in that same serene, disturbing smile that her older sister used to wear, "Forgive me, I don't know your name. You are?"

"Nao Yuuki," I replied, "And this is the first I've heard of Fujino having a sister."

"I'd heard about you," Natsuki spoke softly, just above a whisper, "She didn't mention how alike you were."

Shizumi smiled a bit more graciously, "Not as alike as you might think. I only just turned twenty. Shizuru was six years my senior. But our hair and eyes were always very similar. As for meeting…well, it's complicated. I've wanted to meet you for a very long time, Kuga-han. Onee told me much about you in letters, and she much desired to have me meet you as well. But, well, when Onee came out of the closet, our parents forbade me from coming here to see her in person, and as you know, you were forbidden access to our home. So much time and money had been spent preparing Onee to take over the company that they couldn't just replace her in an instant, so our parents decided that they would neither oppose nor acknowledge her relationship with you."

"That's her, isn't it?" Natsuki nodded at the urn, "That's what's left of Shizuru."

Shizumi nodded, "Yes. We were reading the will with the lawyers. Shizuru was emphatic that if anything happened to her, and you survived, that possession of her urn fell to you. She also claimed she'd left a letter in your possession, and if the urn was not given to you by a particular date, you had been instructed to mail it to a local news organization. It supposedly had some very damning material regarding the family."

"So, you're here as their envoy to prevent that from happening?" I put on my most sour face.

"From their perspective, yes. As for me, I merely wish to see that my sister's final wishes are carried out dutifully. And, I admit, I wanted to meet the 'stunning radiant beauty' who had captured my sister's heart."

She grinned, and it was like I was back in Fuuka, looking at Fujino all over again. And I noticed that Natsuki was blushing furiously at the compliment.

"She…she actually described me that way?" Natsuki sighed, planting her face on the table.

"My sister didn't hold back in telling how she felt about people," Shizumi grinned, "Ara, ara, would you like me to show you the letters? She went on and on about how beautiful and kind and charming her Natsuki was, Kuga-han."

I grinned, "That's enough. You make her have a coronary if you keep it up."

"She told me about you, too," Shizurmi grinned at me, "'Nao Yuuki is a cute enough girl who is very sly, cunning, and someone whom I regret making an enemy of.' Are you really so bad as all that, Yuuki-han?"

Natsuki snapped her head up, "Hey, please don't antagonize Nao. She's been helping me with all the stuff that needs to get down…since Shizuru…"

Shizumi bowed, "Forgive me. I meant no disrespect. I feel as though I know you all, including the other HiME, from Onee's letters."

"You…know about the HiME?" I looked at Natsuki, and she at me, and we both had the same concerned expression on our faces.

"Oh, indeed. You see, that is another reason I wanted to talk to you, Kuga-han. You see…" she held out her arm and rolled up her sleeve.

"No…" Natsuki whispered.

"No way," I agreed.

There, on Shizumi Fujino's forearm, near the elbow, was an all too familiar shooting star birthmark.

~~*~~

"The mark appeared on my arm about a year ago," Shizumi explained as we returned to Natsuki's apartment, and Shizumi placed the urn on a shelf for safety, "So technically it isn't a birthmark. Onee had her mark just below her navel, but she was most definitely born with it. And she told me that the star was destroyed. Have either of your marks returned?"

Natsuki frowned, "Mine wasn't really in an easy to see place. Hang on."

She lifted the hem of her shirt. Her mark was, indeed, there.

"Mine was on the back of my right thigh," I sighed, "And I'm not pulling my pants down here."

"I'll check in the bathroom with you, Nao," Natsuki said, ushering me there.

"I can't believe I'm taking my pants off for you after only a week of hanging out," I quipped.

"Shut up!" she sighed, "Just turn around so I can…You want the good news or the bad news, Nao?"

"If that damn mark is back, there's no good news," I replied.

"Except for this," Natsuki smiled softly, "You're not alone in this."

We called around, urgently. Of the thirteen HiME from the last Festival, including Alyssa, seven had seen the return of their marks. Me. Natsuki. Tokiha (the original, not the one who married into the family), Mikoto, Kikukawa, Fumi, and Alyssa. Of the remaining members, we had Fujino's sister, and Yukariko's daughter. There were no reports of anything involving Munekata, Tokiha nee Okuzaki, Higurashi, and no one had heard from Suguira.

"You say this appeared a year ago?" Natsuki asked Shizumi as we returned to the living room.

"Yes."

"Did you tell Shizuru?"

"I did."

"She never mentioned anything to me," Natsuki shook her head, "Nao, do you think…?"

"That whoever is causing this to happen killed Fujino because she was looking into this?" I replied, "We don't have much evidence, but it's us. Put it this way, if I were gambling on this, I wouldn't bet on it being a coincidence that Fujino the younger here told her sister and Fujino the elder met with an accident. And ten other people just to make it look like one."

"I don't know what's going on," Natsuki said, "But I will get to the bottom of this. And if Shizuru was murdered…"

There was a glint in those emerald eyes, and it was both thrilling and scary.