Chaotic Waters Act 1, Chapter 9: Explanations and Revelations.
"So...let me get this straight." Michiru muttered, her eye twitching. "You're saying that all of us, 'cept tuxedo boy over there, are reincarnations of alien princesses from a long time ago?"
"That's right." The girl in the green skirt, Sailor Jupiter according to the introductions she'd been given, said.
"And that we're supposed to protect the people of earth from other aliens and demons?"
"That's correct." The blue one, Sailor Mercury.
"And we do this by using magic powers from millions of years ago...all while running around in a skirt so short all it would take is a small breeze to flash anyone and everyone our underwear?" Michiru finished with a deadpan expression.
"Wereallytry not to think about that part to be honest." Rei muttered as a shudder ran through her body.
"And how long have you been involved with this Hino-san?"
"...huh?"
"I mean, it's pretty obvious that it's you, youarejust standing there in your school uniform after all."
"My school uniform...?" The shrine maiden asked quizzically, looking down at her outfit before smacking her forehead, she'd been so distracted by the teenager waking up that she'd forgotten that she'd transformed back!
"Forgot you were in your civvies?" The cursed girl asked with a small smirk.
"What're "civvies"?" Sailor Jupiter muttered curiously.
"It's a word originating in Britain, it refers to being out of a uniform." Mercury answered, giving Michiru an odd look. "It's more commonly heard in Britain or America then here in Japan, I'm surprised you know it."
"Is it? I've never been to either one, I guess I must have picked it up from someone who had." Michiru mused, tilting her head to the side."Come to think of it, I don't remember hearing anyone say it here or in China either, so wheredidI hear it?"
"I'm surprised you're taking all of this so well to be honest." The blonde with the straight hair, Sailor Venus.
"Oh believe me, normally I'd call you all crazy and walk out of here, but I can't feel my arms or my legs at the moment." Michiru said bluntly, smirking at everyone else's gob-smacked expression. Truth was she'd been trying to use her ki to get some feeling back in her limbs without much success."What the hell happened to me? I'd think these girls did something if bun-head over there didn't practically scream innocence." She thought to herself. "Don't get me wrong, I've heard crazier stories and had them proven true, butme, a princess? Try another one." She snickered lightly, shaking her head in amusement.
"Wha,that'swhat you have an issue with?! Not that magic is real or that aliens exist, but that you used to be a princess?!" Rei snapped.
"Yes, that's exactly why, the very idea is completely ridiculous." she laughed, really what were they gonna tell her next, that the dreams she'd been having were her past life's memories?
"...How did you know her name?" Mercury asked, giving the cursed girl a careful look. "We never said what it was, so you had to have known it beforehand."
"I mean, we've met before, I'm sure she knows who I am."
"I don't actually." The shrine maiden said staring at the cursed girl with narrowed eyes. "There's some kind of glamor or something that keeps us from being recognized when transformed, the only way around it is to see one of us actually transform or have one of us tell you our other identity."
"Perception filter."Her mind supplied. "Huh...that's useful, probably the only thing keeping you all from getting into serious trouble."
"We try not to think about that either." Venus muttered.
Michiru snorted, rolling her eyes. "No kidding...alright I've waited long enough can one of you explain what happened to me already?"
"Well...we aren't actually all that sure ourselves." Sailor moon admitted. "All we do know is that you transformed, got possessed, and then attacked Tuxedo Mask."
"...what?"
"It's true." Tuxedo boy said, giving Michiru a slightly uncomfortable look. "At first I thought you were one of the others, but the color and design of the uniform was different, though the design changed to match ours after Pluto...sent the spirit to the afterlife." He rubbed the back of his neck with the arm not holding Sailor moon and pulled her even closer with the one that was, their relationship easy for anyone with eyes to see. "To be honest I'm used to not being the most...useful when it comes to fighting, but I was helpless against the spirit that was possessing you, she would have killed me if Venus didn't step in when she did."
"She...I nearly killed you?" She had nearly taken another life? Another person's blood was almost on her hands because of some spirit? Because of her weakness?"Stop acting like such a weakling! Are you just a frail little girl who isn't good for anything?!Her own voice echoed throughout her mind in a thought that was not her own, a surge of fear following it as if it were the precursor to something far worse than mere words.
"It's fine, I don't blame you and, after hearing her explanation on why she attacked me, I can't really blame her either." Tuxedo Mask frowned, what was that? He could have sworn he saw some kind of...shadow standing behind the girl for a second there, reaching for the girls throat. A quick glance around the room proved no-one else had seen it...no wait, Rei was staring at the spot the shadow had been with wide eyes. That confirmed it, his eyes weren't just playing tricks on him.
"It doesn't matter what he says, you're weak, you'll always be weak!"
"Still, Nerida could have at least apologized to you." Sailor Moon muttered, the slightest spark of anger flashing in her eyes.
The teenage girl froze as she slowly turned her head to look at the leader of the Senshi. It couldn't be...it was impossible! "What...did you just say?"
"I said she could have apologized for hurting Tuxedo Ma-"
"-No." Michiru snapped, interrupting the current leader of the Senshi. "What was thatname?!"
"That name...? Oh, you mean Nerida? That was the name of the spirit that was possessing you, she was you in your past life."
"...what...?"
"Haven't you had some dreams of another life, of being a princess in a strange kingdom? All of us have had them too."
"...no." The cursed girl lied looking away.
"Are you sure? I mean all of us-"
"-I said I've never had those kinds of dreams!" She snapped, glaring at everyone there. It meant nothing, it was just the curse playing tricks on her! She was a guy, she had to be! If she wasn't then what was the point of everything she struggled with?! Never letting herself show how she really felt, never letting herself cry, never letting herself do the things she wanted because they weren't manly, what was the point of it all?! That struggle was what made her a man!
"...for now why don't we just focus about getting you home, we can talk about everything else tomorrow if you're free?" Mercury offered.
"...I have club tryouts tomorrow and work after that."
"What about Sunday, we could meet up at the Hikawa Shrine before you have to leave for your job if you work that day?" Rei asked, crossing her arms.
"...yeah." Michiru muttered, too distracted to even notice that the meeting place wasather job. "I'll be there, if only to get answers."
"I mean we could always use the-" Jupiter started to say before getting cut off by a look from Mercury. "Right, Sunday."
"Great!" Sailor Moon exclaimed, clapping her hands together. "Now for the real question...how are we gonna get her to her apartment without drawing attention to ourselves?"
"Would be easy if you could just teleport me there." The cursed girl grumbled. "Then we could just avoid anyone seeing us."
"..."
"..."
"..."
"...why the hell didn't any of us think of that?" Rei muttered, her eye twitching as she saw everyone save her and the new Senshi facepalm.
-Michiru's Apartment-
Teleportation sucked.
Michiru grunted painfully as she crashed onto her pillow, groaning as her gut churned uncomfortably. Apparently using magic to instantly move from one place to another wasn't a good idea after being possessed, who could have guessed? Actually teleporting had been easy, too easy really. All she had to do was draw a line in her mind connecting where she was to where she needed to go and then envision herself moving across that line, magic did the rest. And wasn't that a shock? She could use magic.
"...no." She muttered, tapping the jewel on her chest to change back like she had been told. "I'm not dealing with this anymore today." She grumbled, pulling her blanket over herself. She would worry about things in the morning, maybe by then her chest wouldn't be aching.
-?-
"Well that went well."
"How do you figure?"
"Nothing exploded."
"...She's notthatbad is she?"
"Oh she absolutely is, you should have seen some of the property damage back in Nerima. Granted, usually it was from her being attacked for one reason or another, but she didn't exactly hold back either."
"Yeesh, and I thought Uranus was bad."
"..."
"What?"
"I just...I'm not sure what we can do from here. She's met the others and is coming into her powers but, with the way things are..."
"We've done all we can for now, you're doing everything you can to keep those...peoplein Nerima from figuring out where she is and I've got my hands tied with making sure Melinoe sticks to the plan."
"I guess...still wish we could do more."
"Yeah, me too."
"...you know she's gonna be pissed when she figures out we set this whole thing up right?"
"Oh definitely, but at least I wasn't trying to keep her memories from waking up."
"..."
"Sorry...that was uncalled for."
-Juban High School, the next day-
"Well that went well."Michiru snickered. Tryouts had been a breeze, the coach probably could have lit up the entire district with the stars in her eyes after seeing Michiru swim! It wasn't like she went all out, she didn't use her Ki during the tryouts, but she wasn't exactly holding back either. She'd pushed herself as far as she could without Ki, using it would have been unfair to the others trying to get on the team as far as she was concerned. Still, with the condition her body was in, making the team was easy, even after the events of yesterday.
Of course not everything went well.
She wasn't blind, she'd seen the glares and jealous looks from the other girls participating in the tryouts, hell even some of the actual swim team members had given her unpleasant looks. It wasn't like she didn't expect it, shedidhave a bit of an unfair advantage over the high school girls considering all of the martial arts training she had done. Hell, She'd swam to Japan fromChina, over three thousand kilometers! Doing something like making the cut of a high school swim team was nothing!
"Of course, the real problem is what comes after practice."She mused, wincing slightly. The showers. It was honestly the riskiest part of joining the swim team and the one thing that she was hesitant about. She'd have to keep the water pretty cold and someone was bound to notice that there was never any steam when she was in the shower, if just one single member of the team messed with the controls her whole plan would go up in flames."Not that I've made much headway on the plan either, I still don't have any idea what I'm going to do about my situation. It's not like I can just stay away forever, I have to go back at some point."
"So, how did tryouts go?" She heard from behind her, pulling her from her thoughts. She turned around, slightly surprised to see Mayu standing behind her with an expectant grin. "Well? Do you think you made the team?"
"Oh it's you Sasaki-san, I would have thought you'd have gone home by now." She said in surprise. Come to think of it, whywasher class president still here?
"Nah, I was supposed to have cleaning duty with Nishikawa but she just took off so I had to do it on my own." The teenage girl just shrugged, seemingly not bothered by being screwed over.
"That wasn't very nice of her."
"No, but that's Nishikawa for you. She's never been "nice", 'cept when we were back in pigtails."
"You've known her that long?"
"Well...yeah, we've been neighbors for as long as I can remember, our parents are actually really close and we do group dinners once a month, Nishikawa hates them." The raven haired girl snickered, covering her mouth with her fingers. "We used to be best friends, all the way till last year actually but...well let's just say our friendship didn't have the best ending." Her voice was wistful, like she would have given anything to go back to those earlier days. "Anyway-" She started, shaking her head as if to clear it of her own thoughts. "-enough about me, you never answered my question. How did tryouts go?"
"They went fine I suppose, I won't know for sure until the day after tomorrow, the coach said she'd post the results on the board then."
"I think we can pretty much assume you made the cut. Ishioka-san was nearly frothing at the mouth complaining about the "teal-haired menace"."
"...who?"
"Ishioka Kana, she's a third year and the current captain of the swim team. Apparently she thinks you're out to take her spot."
Michiru sighed, why wasn't she surprised? "I'm not out to take anyone's spot, I just want to swim." None of the sports teams had looked interesting, and the Judo club was a joke...ok maybe that wasn't fair, but it had nothing on some of the fights she'd been in! Then again, it wasn't like she could actually spar with anyone, her hands still shook at just the thought of it.
"I figured as much, you don't seem the type to do that."
"Well I am, but "Michiru" isn't."She mused to herself."Come to think of it...why do I always have to be the best at everything? It's not like there aren't people who are better than me at some things, like that woman..."She frowned remembering the tall warrior woman she had met in that strange room."Who was she?"
"You okay in there?"
"Hmm?" She blinked, how long had she been lost in thought?. "Sorry...I guess tryouts wore me out more than I thought."
"If you say so..." Her classmate seemed to hesitate for a minute before continuing. "Hey, do you have anything planned today?"
"Well...no, I don't have to work today so I'm pretty free, why do you ask?"
"You have a job? Youdoknow you're a high school student right?" Mayu asked incredulously. "You should be going out, having fun, not spending your days working a job!"
"Unfortunately, that's not really an option, I kind of need a job." Michiru said simply, as the two girls walked past an arcade. "I live on my own, so I need a job to get groceries, pay rent, all of it." Actually that wasn't entirely true, she did need it for groceries, but not rent. She'd asked Hibari about rent when the yakuza princess had offered the apartment she was currently staying at. The girl had just looked at her weirdly and proceeded to laugh her ass off for half an hour, barely managing to get out that Michiru didn't need to worry about rent. Every single time she brought up rent the girl would laugh loudly and she would never manage to get a word in edge-wise and after the fifth time it happened Michiru had just given up. Instead, she had decided that whatever extra money she made she'd save for a rainy day when she eventually went back to Nerima. "Not that I'd be able tokeepany of the money, I'm sure Nabiki would find some way to cheat me out of it."
"Wait, you live on your own? What about your parents?"
"...let's just say we have different views on what my future should be." Michiru said delicately.
"What do you mean?" Mayu asked.
"Well...a long time ago my dad and his friend got drunk at a bar." Michiru started, rubbing the back of her neck awkwardly.
"Never a good way for a story to start, but continue." The class president said, amusement shining in her eyes.
"No kidding." Michiru grumbled. "Anyway, they got this stupid idea in their heads about "joining the families" and they set up this arranged marriage promise for their kids."
"People still do that?" The other girl muttered questioningly to herself. "Wait, does that mean you're engaged?!"
"Technically, yes." Michiru scowled. "To be honest I'd rather have nothing to do with my fiancée at this point."
"Sounds like an interesting story, something happen between him and you?" Mayu asked, making Michiru have to remind herself that she was currently female and anyone she was engaged to would therefore have to be a guy.
"A lot of things happened." She said after a moment. "Some of them good, more of them bad." She stopped for a moment as Akane's smile when she offered to be friends flashed through her mind. "H-He wasn't bad at first,-" She started, stumbling over the male pronoun. "-he was actually kind of nice in the beginning."
"But...?"
"He has anger problems." Michiru explained rubbing her upper arm, not noticing how the class president's eyes narrowed sharply in response. "Whenever something happened that he didn't like he would explode at me, whether I was actually at fault or not." She paused, shifting uncomfortably as she remembered the last time Akane had hit her in the ribs. "It wasn't like I was completely blameless, I said and did some things I shouldn't have in hindsight." She said, looking back at her classmate. "Either way, whenever he exploded at me our dads practically forced me to apologize but never did the same to him."
"Did he ever hit you?" Mayu asked sharply, looking at Michiru with an intensity that surprised the cursed girl.
"Sometimes, I said some things I shouldn't have and-"
"-And your dad still forced you to apologize when yourfiancéhityou?!" Mayu practically growled.
"Well...yes but it really was my fault, I shouldn't have-"
"-Michiru." The class president spoke firmly, cutting off the cursed girl with a fierce look in her eye. "There is no good reason for someone to hit their partner, whether they be a girlfriend, boyfriend, or anything else."
"I...what are you...?"
"What about your mom, what did she have to say about it?" Mayu asked, gritting her teeth.
"My mom...?"
"Yes, your mom, what did she have to say about it?!"
"She, well she said the same thing. That I should "apologize to my fiancée"." Michiru replied. "She said it was my duty as the ma-woman." She finished, correcting herself before she could give her real gender away.
"Are you fucking kidding me?!" Her classmate snapped, shocking Michiru. "That has got to be the stupidest thing I've ever-who even says shit like that?!" As she spoke, Mayu glared at a spot behind Michiru, as if she could see the cursed girl's parents and fiancé there. "If they were here I'd strangle them with my bare-" She started, looking Michiru in the eyes. Ice flooded her veins while a heavy weight settled in her stomach for what she saw in the cursed girl's eyes filled her with a horror that chilled her down to her bones. Complete and utter incomprehension. "You...you don't understand why I'm angry do you?" She whispered, her eyes wide.
"Well...no, isn't that sort of thing normal?"
"Normal? It's just about the farthest thing from normal you can get!" Her classmate groaned, rubbing her temples to ward off the migraine that was starting to build behind her eyes. "Okay, no, we need to have a serious talk about this, preferably somewherenot in public."
"I really don't see what the big deal is Sasaki-san..." Michiru muttered.
"And that's the problem!" The class president frowned as she looked around to catch her bearings. "My house is about a twenty minute walk that way." She said pointing off to the left. "We can talk there."
"If all you need is privacy, my apartment is closer?" Michiru asked, pointing in the opposite direction. "It's just around the corner really."
"Even better." The raven haired girl growled, stomping in the direction of Michiru's apartment. She had barely taken three steps before she stopped and took a deep breath, very clearly trying to calm down. "Sorry...I know I'm being a lot right now, but I need you to trust me when I say this is important."
"If you say so." The cursed girl shrugged, walking past her classmate. "I don't really see how though."
"That's what worries me." Mayu whispered.
It didn't take long for the two girls to get to Michiru's apartment, the door unlocking with a smooth click. "You can just drop your stuff wherever you want, I don't mind." The cursed girl said as she walked in, dropping her bag by her couch. "I'm gonna change into something more comfortable, be right back."
"Michiru, your fiancé...he doesn't live here with you does he?" Her classmates tone was strange, guarded like she was ready to drag Michiru out of this apartment in a second depending on the cursed girl's answer.
"No, why would you ask?"
"Then...whose are those?"
"Whose are what...?" Michiru asked as she turned around, her cheeks flushing at the sight of a pair of green boxers on the floor."Crap those must have fallen out of the basket when I did laundry this morning."Quickly, she snatched them up and threw them into the second bedroom, the one she had set up as "Takeo's" room, cursing her carelessness in her mind. "Sorry about that, those are my brother's."
"Oh, that's a rel-wait you have a brother?!"
"Yeah, his name's Takeo, he works a lot so I only see him occasionally, but he stops by from time to time. Some of his clothes probably just got left behind from the last time." She lied sweating nervously."Please just drop it!"
"Huh...who's older?"
"That's not dropping it!"No, whining wasn't manly, she could deal with this, she just needed to end this conversation as quick as possible. "Well I am, but you wouldn't know it by looking at us together, he's taller than me." She explained, walking into her bedroom and closing the door."It's okay, you got this, Sasaki-san has no reason to suspect that you and your "brother" are the same person."She stayed where she was for a moment to take a few calming breaths before changing out of her uniform and into a pair of blue jeans and a black tank top."I'd planned on turning back into a guy after school, but I can't do that with Sasaki-san here."She'd spent too long as a girl already! True, it hadn't even been three full days, yet she felt like she'd been in this form for a month! She was about to walk out of her room, but stopped and grabbed a light long sleeved shirt and threw it on, not bothering to button it up. She wasn't sure why she felt like she needed to wear it, it wasn't anything special after all, hell she'd only bought it because she'd liked the pattern.
"This girl is gonna kill me!"Mayu thought, desperately trying to control her flushed face. Why, oh why, did Kaioh have to come out of her room inflannelof all things?! She had a hard enough time not turning into mush when the girl was around, especially anytime her muscles became apparent, now this?! The gods were cruel."Shehasto know the effect she has on people right?!"
"You want a snack or something to drink?"
"You as a snack'd be great." Mayu muttered under her breath, her face turning even redder at the realization of what she had said.
"What was that? I couldn't hear you."
"I said water would be great!" The class president lied, chugging the water down after Michiru handed it to her.
"Wow, you must have been really thirsty."
"You havenoidea."
"So why was it that we needed privacy?"
"Right! That!" Mayu exclaimed, shaking her head."Anything to get my mind off of being under this girl!"She cleared her throat and slapped her cheeks to ground herself. "Right...okay, uhm...sorry, I'm trying to figure out the best way to talk about this."
"You're not about to suddenly declare your love for me are you?" The cursed girl asked, shifting uncomfortably from the other side of the couch. "I don't have anything against girls who like other girls, but I'mreallynot looking for a relationship right now...plus the last girl who did that was a psycho who kept trying to drug me." Well drug her male form and kill her female one, but either way, Kodachi still wanted to drug her.
"What, no! I wouldn't do it like thi-drug you?!"
"Yeah, she shoved this bouquet in my face and it let out some kind of paralysis gas. I couldn't so much as move a muscle." She shuddered, it wasn't uncommon for her to have nightmares of that night, sometimes they even got mixed in with her nightmares of what Sanzenin Mikado had done to her. The less she thought aboutthosenightmares the better.
"What the...you're joking, tell me you're joking!"
"I wish I was, that girl is nuts."
"She didn't...you know, hurt you did she?"
She shook her head and took a sip from her own glass of water before answering. "No, my fiancé actually stopped her...and then left me there on the roof."
"Seriously?! He just left you there?!"
"Mhm." Michiru nodded, setting her cup on the small coffee table in front of the couch. "If I hadn't been unable to move I wouldn't have minded, I love looking at the stars." Granted, the view from the Tendo Dojo's roof wasn't as beautiful as the ones she saw on the road, but it was still nice. "So what was it that you wanted to talk about?"
"...right...that." Mayu sighed, fiddling with her glass. "You said...you said that there were some good moments with him, your fiancé I mean."
"What does that have to do with anything?"Michiru wondered, tapping her fingers on her leg. "Well...yes, but I don't see what that had to do with anything." She said with a frown.
"What were they like? I don't mean specifics, but how did you feel during those times?"
"How did I feel?" What was this about? Why was this girl asking about Akane? "Fine I guess...? I mean I had to be careful not to upset him but other than that everything was fine."
"So you felt like you were walking on eggshells?"
"..I don't know if I'd put it quite like that, but I suppose that's an accurate enough description." Her frown deepened, what was all of this about?
"And...the bad times, how did they make you feel?"
"Bad I guess? I mean they were usually my fau-"
"Was it actually your fault, or were you just blamed for things?"
"...I guess...if I had to say one way or the other, it was usually the latter. Sasaki-san, what's this all about?"
The raven haired girl frowned and looking into her empty cup as if it help all of the answers to the universe, just quietly sitting there. "When...when a person in a relationship feels like they have to walk on eggshells around their partner it's usually not a good sign." She began, her grip on her cup tightening. "And it's never a good sign when one of them hurts the other, whether with their words or by actually hitting them. In a healthy relationship, those sorts of things don't happen." She frowned, grimacing before clarifying. "Well they can happen, but usually not without consent from both people in the relationship, and I'm guessing you never told your fiancé that he could hurt you?"
"Well...no but, Sasaki-san what is this all about?"
"A relationship where one partner repeatedly hurts or tries to control the other without consent has a very specific name. It's called an abusive relationship."
-Okonomiyaki Ucchan's-
"Hey Konatsu, did you put in the ingredient orders I asked you to?" Ukyo called from the back.
"Yes Ukyo-sama, along with all of the other supply orders." The kunoichi replied, counting up the bills in the register.
"That's...that's good."
"Ukyo-sama...?"
"...do you think I'm a bad person Konatsu?" Ukyo asked as she leaned against the doorframe. "I've been wondering about that a lot lately."
"Is this about what Ranma-san said to you the other day?"
"..."
"I thought so." She said, finishing her counting. "To answer your question, no I don't think you're a bad person, but I do think you've made some bad decisions, especially when it comes to Ranma-san." The kunoichi closed the register with a small click, as she thought about what to say next. "Did you know I caught Ranma-san cutting their upper arm after the wedding?"
"You...you what?" Horror oozed from the chef's voice, her eyes wide as a glass slipped from her hands and shattered on the floor.
"It's true, they were using one of Mousse's daggers." Konatsu said as she went over to grab a broom. "They were in a dark place after the wedding, and I think it was the only way they could manage how they were feeling."
"But...cutting?"
"It's the reason I helped them leave Nerima...well one of them at least." Konatsu frowned and chewed her bottom lip in thought. "I think...I think Ranma-san needed to leave, to figure out exactly who they are and what they want to do next."
"But if he's cutting himself then-"
"They aren't." Konatsu said, cutting off Ukyo. "It was one of the conditions for my help, along with asking you for your own. I made them swear on their honor to never do it again and Ranma-san isn't the kind of person to go back on a promise like that."
"Still...I didn't realize it was affecting him so bad."
"Most people wouldn't, despite what a lot of people think, they really are a good actor when they put their mind to it. I only noticed because...well you've seen my scars after I take off my concealer." She said as she swept up the glass, throwing it away in the trash once she was finished. "All of the pressure they were under, from the fiancées, from their parents, from the school, from the rivals, all of it, it was just too much. To be completely honest, I was surprised that they were just cutting and not trying to end it all."
"Are...are you saying I nearly drove him to end his life?" Ukyo whispered, her vision spinning just from the thought of such a thing.
"Not you in particular, if anything you were the least problematic of the fiancées, but you were still part of the problem."
"If...if you knew that why didn't you tell me?!"
"Would you have listened to me if I had?" Konatsu asked plainly, giving the woman she loved a tired look. "When it comes to Ranma-san you and the others all are so focused on what you want that you don't notice anything else. Not Ranma-san's pain, not their suffering, not their tears...not even my love for you."
The chef reeled back as if slapped, all this time, Konatsu had had feelings for her? "Konatsu...I..."
The kunoichi shook her head and turned away from Ukyo, looking out through the glass door. "It's alright Ukyo-sama, I accepted a long time ago that you would never feel that way about me. I've known since I met you that your heart belonged to Ranma-san and to them alone."
"Why...why are you doing this to me?!" Ukyo screamed swinging her arm to the side as tears poured down her face. "You force Ranma to ask me for help when youknewI was going to ask him why! You tell me all of this, that I've been so blind that I've been hurting the people I care about and nearly drove one of them to suicide! What was the point?!"
"...because what you've done in the past doesn't matter." Konatsu said looking Ukyo in the eyes with a sad smile. "What matters is what you do going forward. Ranma-san is very kind, if any of you asked for their forgiveness they would give it in a heartbeat, I'm sure of it. But that won't happen so long as you all remain blind to what's going on. You may never win their heart with all that has happened, but you might be able to get back their friendship."
-Michiru's Apartment-
"An abusive relationship?" Michiru frowned, she knew the term of course, but having it used to describe her and Akane's relationship that way didn't seem accurate. "I don't know if I'd call it that."
"Hear me out, your fiancée would blame you for things that weren't your fault and would explode at you as a result, sometimes even hitting you?"
"Well...yes, but-."
"-Kaioh-san, that is almost the definition of an abusive relationship."
"I...what?" That didn't...that couldn't be right...could it? "That's impossible, I would know if I was in an abusive relationship!"
"Most victims of abuse don't know that they are or used to be in a relationship like that." Mayu explained. "In fact it's pretty common for people to need someone to point it out to them."
"But that's..."
"My uncle was in a relationship just like the one you described...his girlfriend beat him into an unrecognizable mess." Mayu said, giving the cursed girl a blank look. "My uncle was a member of the JSDF, he knew how to handle himself in a fight, but he couldn't bring himself to hurt the woman he loved, and he died because of it."
"Just like..."She shook her head, no this was impossible! "Look, I'm telling you it's not the same!"
"She's not going to listen to me."The class president thought as she looked at her classmate."No, it's not that she's not listening to me, it's that she doesn't want to hear it. In that case, what I need to do is..."She took a deep breath, looking into her empty cup, choosing her next words carefully. "...alright-" She started. "-I won't say anything else on the subject. Just promise me that you'll think about what I've said." She finished, setting her cup down."For now, I need to back off and let her think about it on her own, let her come to her own conclusions."
"I really don't think there's anything to think about." The cursed girl muttered, looking away.
"Please?"
Michiru sighed and ran her hand through her hair, ruffling it in frustration. "...fine, it's not like thinking is going to hurt me any." She muttered.
"Thanks." Mayu said with a smile, before wincing at seeing a clock on the wall. "Crap, is that the time?"
Michiru looked at the clock and then out the window, frowning at what she saw. "I guess so, it's pretty dark out there..." She glanced at the raven haired girl before sighing and pointing at her apartment's phone. "Why don't you call your parents and let them know you're staying the night?"
"Stay the...night?" Oh look, her cheeks were on fire again. "T-that's not necessary, my house isn't that far away!"
"Even so, I'd rather not risk it, not with the youma attacks I've heard about on the news." Michiru stood, stretching her arms above her head. "I'll take the couch, you can take my bed." She said pointing to her room.
"Y-your bed?! Really, I could just-"
"I'm not arguing Sasaki-san." She said firmly, walking over to a closet and pulling out a thin blanket for herself. "Really, it's no issue."
"This girl is gonna kill me!"
"Abuse huh?" Michiru murmured after finally convincing Sasaki to take the bed. She'd tried getting to sleep herself with little luck, her mind kept going back to the conversation she'd had with her classmate. Her mind seemed to keep bringing up all of her memories with Akane and the other fiancées, over and over and over until she couldn't think of anything else. It was true that all of them had hurt or tried to control her in some way, she'd even told Ukyo as much, but to say she was abused...
She sighed and reached over, turning on the tall lamp she had behind the couch before walking over to the bookcase, if her brain wouldn't let her sleep, than she might as well distract herself in other ways. She skimmed over the titles with her fingers, Hibari had filled the bookcase with more than a few genres, from romance to horror in both fiction and nonfiction."Once again Hibari goes overboard."She mused, before stopping on a book with an odd title. "Black Goat's Egg by Takatsuki Sen...why not?" She shrugged, taking it to the couch.
"You're just going to spend another night as a weak girl?!"
She flinched and hesitated for a moment before squaring her shoulders and walking over to the dryer where a load of clean guy clothes resided. She'd already told Sasaki-san that Michiru's "brother" stopped by from time to time so having a guy in the apartment shouldn't surprise the girl too bad, right?