diamante@gonzaga.org
Tell Me What You Dream
----------------------
Prologue
========
"My God this mixing is bad!"
"YOUR God? What about MY God?"
"You know, that's getting a bit old now."
"And, what do you suggest we do about it?"
"Stop saying it."
"No, not that you idiot, the mixing..."
"Uhm...no wonder! Why are there TWO guitar tracks?"
"I put up an omni...thought I could get some ambience..."
"Well, why did you do that?"
"Uhm...guys? Can you..."
"Because I wanted ambiance, like I said!"
"Well why didn't you just do a multi-tap on the dry?"
"Because I didn't feel like it...geez, just de-amp the wet out..."
"No...just eliminate it..."
"Uhm...guys?"
"NO! I WANT to keep it there..."
"My God..."
- - -
"You're leaving next week, eh?" he said into the phone. He then
switched the phone into speaker phone mode.
"...back on the 27th, yes." was all he could hear.
"So...I hear you have someone there..." said he to the
speakerphone.
A pause was heard, and was soon followed reluctantly by, "Uh...yes
you can say that."
"Why don't you bring her over," he replied as he started peeling
off his rather sweaty socks. "You know, for the party..."
"I can't," came the rather curt reply.
With one sock on, he made his way through stacks of paper to the
microwave, reached in, pulled out a slice of pizza, and munched down
on it quite hungrily. Through bread, cheese, and sauce, he tried
to say, "Hey...I, what's wrong?" It ended up coming out of his mouth
as, "Hey...writes a song..." This exiting was unfortunately mimicked
by his very hot pizza.
Amid his shouts of pain, he heard a response, "She's busy."
Geez, is that ALL he's going to say? he thought. As he tried to
clean his foot of semi-edible stuff, he asked, "Well...what's she
like?"
- - -
"Waaaiiiitttt! You're going so fast!"
For a few fleeting moments, Usagi and Makoto were running in
tandem, but (as one would expect with both), Makoto continued running
as Usagi slowed to catch her breath.
"Come on! Hurry up, we were supposed to meet Minako-chan a minute
ago at the temple..."
"But...(gasp!)...I...(puff!)...running...(huff!)...isn't...my...
(weez!)...thing!"
- - -
Michiru peered into her cup, regarding the faint image of herself
which the tea created. Then, with the tip of her spoon, she poked
the surface of the drink. She watched as the ripples produced
quickly spread to the edges of the cup, rendering her image
unviewable. The ripples deamplified, and soon, the likeness was
again true to Michiru's beauty. Another tap of the surface and the
beauty was lost...only to reappear in full glory.
Haruka looked over Michiru's shoulder to view this strange sequence
as it repeated no less than six times. Before the seventh iteration
could be executed, Haruka put her hand on Michiru's shoulder and asked
what she was doing. Michiru replied by putting down her spoon and
and sipping her tea.
"Pretty strong," she remarked to noone in particular.
- - -
The ocean was quite beautiful. Was; now, as most of his
companions have said, it has been polluted "..._by_ people as well as
_with_ people..." "Perhaps," he would always reply; "Define people,"
he would say. Truthfully, he didn't know, and he doubted anyone else
truly understood the concept. Oh well...just so long as...
"Hey! 'Tsup man! I've been tring to get a hold of you all day!"
He turned around to see the donor of the monologue. "Oh...hi...
uhm...er..."
As he struggled for the name, the other pressed forward: "Did ya
get the thing done?"
"Thing?" He thought for a moment and then realized, "the CD?"
"Yeah Hodge...what did you think I was talking about?"
"I don't know...not thinking I guess..."
"I expected that; oh well...I'll see ya..."
He was still trying to think of his companion's name as he
mumbled, "Yeah, you too..." He gave up on the name and turned around
to continue regarding the sea. He listened to the sound of water
slamming into the rocks below him which were Hokkaido.
"O-Hirasawa-san?"
"Hai?" he replied quickly...
"You've been fired..."
"I know..."
- - -
"When are you going to stop it with this?"
"Never, as far as I'm concerned..."
"Why don't you stop? This will kill you...I know...you know..."
"So much of a person consists of what he does in contrast to what
he is. Reaction to what he is; acting in correspondence to what he
is; acting in complete fulfillment of being. Much of a person is
what they do. I cannot eliminate what I do without removing an
important part of myself, of my soul, of my total being. I destroy
myself by being myself. I destroy myself by not being it. So,
perhaps you could tell me another way of living?"
"*sigh* Would you care to ask me if I agree with this?"
"I thought you've always wanted what was best for _us_?"
"And what about Serenity?"
"..."
"I've never seen her in...how long? But that doesn't mean that I,
we still care about her...I know he's looking for her right now...but
don't...don't you? I..."
"Of course I care...I love her with all my heart...as I do you.
But, can anyone decide which is truly more important? My own life?
The life of a people I would lay down my life for? The lives of whom
are of me and part of me? I would die for her..."
"But...would she want for you to die for her?"
"Tell me what I dream..."
"..."
"...tell me....tell me what I dream..."
"You dream of her."
"I know it. You know it. And so do a few million other people...
noone here denies the need for her. Even our enemies need her. If
for different purposes. Our world needs her...and the world needs
her, and she needs to be what she is...she needs to be a savior..."
Chapter 1
=========
"Hi Usagi-chan..."
And so began yet another conversation between Usagi and her friend
Naru at the ever popular lunch time, talking about the usual girls
stuff...boys, gossip, more boys, tests, then more boys. It got to
the point where they started assigning various ratings to the boys
that who eating outside as well.
"And," said Naru as she pointed to a person far off sitting next
to a tree, "what about him?"
"Who's he?" asked Usagi.
"What!?" Naru replied, almost shouting. "Haven't you seen the
test scores lately?"
"I don't bother..."
"You mean, you don't like seeing your name at the end of the list,
right?" said Naru.
They both laughed a little bit, then Usagi spoke up. "No, really,
what's his name?"
"That's the new number two guy here...he's always behind Ami...
and I heard him and Ami are starting to...well...you know!" she
explained. "His name is Hirasawa...ano...Usagi?"
Naru looked off into the distance and saw Usagi tip-toeing ever
closer toward the fifteen year old. "Why do I feel something weird
is going to happen?" she muttered under her breath...
- - -
He grabbed the nearest object and shoved it into his mouth;
never mind if it was edible or not, he needed energy to supply the
fuel for what he called "dictation." His dictation was music, never
mind that he was both the creator and receiver; he liked the term.
His thoughts were off the test he took and onto his opus, his mind
alight with an oboe solo along with brass counter melodies and
strings providing...
"Hello..."
"ACK!!!" He jumped into the air and turned to meet with the
provider of the startling voice. His breath became heavy and his
heart was pounding from the shock. To say that he was disconcerted
would be a vast understatement.
Usagi took a glimpse at the many papers scattered on the grass,
and then turned her attention back to the boy, no, change that, young
man in front of him. This one was all of six feet and carried around
the air of someone much older than a third year junior high school
student. It wasn't until a few seconds later that she realized that
she was staring; soon, she was blushing while she picked the
scattered papers up and placed them into the basket of his hands.
And it was then that he realized that _he_ was staring at her.
Usagi giggled for a moment, which broke him from his trance.
This, unfortunately, caused him to drop his papers at Usagi's
feet. Again.
He realized both the former and the latter blunders and blushed,
his face turning a deep burgundy as he bent down to pick up his
"dictation" off the ground...
Owwww.
That was the sound made by both as they hit their heads together
while attempting to gather the strewn paper. They both looked at
each other. Again. This time, Usagi gestured for him to do the
honor of gathering. He obligingly did so, his quiet laughter
permeating the air as he gathered the manuscript. He finished doing
so, and soon, both were in their upright positions again.
"Hi," proffered Usagi.
"Hi," he returned. "I'm sorry, but your name is?"
Usagi thought it was rather sophisticated the way he spoke that
phrase, or rather, he spoke it with a sophisticatedness which others
in the school did not possess. "Uhm...I'm Tsukino Usagi...What's
your name?"
She looked at him quizically and wondered why he seemed, so, so
out of it. He was looking at her in a rather strange way. She
blinked hard.
She winced in pain. What WAS that? she thought to herself...like
someone hit her in the back of the head with a rock or something.
She instinctively turned around to regard whoever was behind her.
"No one?" she said as she rubbed the back of her head. She turned
back toward the boy, who seemed to be waiting for Usagi to give him
her full attention.
He finally said, "They call me Hajime...Hirasawa Hajime." He
looked at watch and said to noone in particular, "Twelve fifty." He
then looked up at Usagi and smiled. He then quickly glanced back at
his watch and stated in semi-shout (again, to noone in particular,)
"TWELVE FIFTY!" Hajime picked up the bag which rested by the tree
and started running to the building. As he ran, he shouted back to
Usagi, "I'll see you later, tomorrow? Okay?! Bye Usagi-san!"
Usagi was left standing there, still trying to contemplate exactly
what had happened. "He isn't even that cute," she thought...
- - -
She wasn't searching; rather, she probed around, felt around
mentally within the void of the world for anything that might be of
use to her or to her friends. Searching, she often said, would imply
that she knew exactly what to look for.
She never did.
But when she finds it...she knows it is the "it" she searches
for: she is close to it now...the feeling becomes ever more present,
the image ever clearer...
The sacred fire flared for a moment, but she didn't notice it.
Her eyes were shut closed as she looked at the nothingness which
permeated the void...and then the...the...eyes?
Her own flew open, and she lost the vision. She cursed herself
silently for her lack of discipline, and she again closed her eyes,
trying to find "it." In the vacuum of nothingness, she again saw
them...
For the smallest moment, she saw the eyes, looking at her, so
real, so clear, she could see the reflection of herself in those
deep blue eyes...suddenly another picture started to come into focus,
it came slowly, slowly unfurling itself...
"HI REI!"
...and sinking, yet again, into the depths of the intangible.
Rei turned around to meet the ever cheerful Usagi.
Usagi, for her part, saw the displeasure on Rei's face and asked
in the meekest tone possible, "Did I, er, interrupt your...er?"
Now, Rei was quite upset. "Did you HAVE to do that?" she scolded
Usagi. "Didn't Yuuichiro tell you that I was busy?"
"Uhm...no..."
At this Rei, shook her head and muttered something of negligible
value regarding him. Usagi started to say, "I'm really, _really_
sorry if I messed up your..."
Rei interrupted her and said, "No, that's okay...I'm just sort of
surprised you came first." With a smirk, she continued, "I would
have thought that you would have gotten detention...again..."
Usagi forced a quick laugh and explained, "Nope, she's in a good
mood today!" She laughed again, this time in tandem with Rei. "Oh
well...where _is_ everybody?"
Just as Rei was about to answer, Makoto and Minako came in
together, huffing and puffing as if they've just swam to China and
back. (With the way they were sweating, a swim may have been
plausible.) Usagi was happy; Rei can vent her anger on this late
twosome, she thought. But just before Rei could say so much as a
syllable, Minako-chan went right out and said, "(Huff!) Sorry we're
so late! (Puff!) There was this (Puff!) REALLY cute guy we saw
after school and, and, (Wheeze!) I just COULDN'T get away!"
"Until _I_ dragged her out of the conversation," said Makoto.
"I can't believe how she can be so set on that guy..."
"Hey! If I remember correctly, _I_ came across _you_ after school
with him before I even met him! And _I_ was the one who had to drag
you back here!"
"What?!" exclaimed Makoto. "You've got it ALL wrong!"
"Oh yeah?!" chimed Minako.
"Yeah!"
"Yeah!"
And in full force a tongue fight started, a stand-off of a length
that Usagi and Rei would have been proud (embarrased?) of. Both
Usagi and Rei let out two huge sighs of exasperation and wondered
aloud why Minako and Makoto were acting like such dolts.
"My, how the tables have turned..."
Rei looked up to greet the newcomer; "Hi Ami-chan," she said. "Here
to see the show?" she asked with a mild giggle.
"Not really," replied Ami, who tried her best not to look at the
scene the two were making. Unsuccessfully. She couldn't help but let
out a quiet laugh as she said, "Mako-chan? Who was that guy you were
talking to on the way here...didn't I see you with him at school..."
Makoto immediately ceased with the tongue fight and dropped her
head to Minako, who immediately let out into a spiel of victory
statements.
Ami continued, "...because I saw Minako-chan with him earlier
today while I was coming here...is he a friend of you two?"
Minako dropped her arm, which was been raised in victory. Usagi
and Rei giggled in tandem as both Minako and Makoto slumped onto the
floor.
"Is it a crime to look at a cute boy?" Minako and Makoto wailed
simultaneously.
- - -
"So what do you think...five hundred CDs...do you think they'll
sell out, Hajime-chan?"
"I'm not sure, they said selling out five hundred at the beginning
is a conservative estimate; didn't they want eight hundred or around
that? Right Ya-chan? Fumi-chan?"
The one who was called Ya-chan, Mitsuda Yasunori, said, "Fumi-chan
went to the car to get something...I think..."
"Oh, okay," Hajime said. The two continued down the hallway of
the apartment complex, humming to themselves continuously the new
tune which they were working on. They turned a corner and waited for
the elevator to come. As they did so, they started talking again...
"So...how was school?" Asked Ya-chan.
"Always the father figure, aren't you?" replied Hajime with a smirk.
"I'm just interested, that's all...I like high school so far. I'm
just wondering if the junior high schoolers fare just as well."
"It's okay, I guess..." and Hajime left it that. Yasunori tried
to coax some more out of him, but Hajime merely mentioned that the
elevator has come.
As the elevator doors opened, Yasunori saw a familiar sight within
the elevator, or rather, a person stepping into it. "Hi Mamoru-san,"
he said.
- - -
While the party was talking among themselves within the apartment,
in came a young girl, probably fifteen or so, with light complexion
and dark brown hair cut just above the shoulders. One somewhat older
man, perhaps a college student, came up to her, bent down, and asked
something into her ear. She answered him in similar manner. The
girl then ran out the door. The young man, after closing the door
behind her, said, "They're almost here. Get ready!"
- - -
Mamoru recognized the one on the right, the one frequently spoken
of as "Mamoru's long lost younger brother" or, even more strikingly,
"A 16 year old Mamoru." He had to agree that those descriptions were
pretty accurate, and he could do nothing except agree more and more
with them while he greeted Yasunori. Both Yasunori and Mamoru
exchanged the usual salutations.
Mamoru quickly asked, "And who is this?" referring to the boy
besides Yasunori.
Before Ya-san could say a word, Hajime introduced himself, taking
off his thin, copper colored glasses as he did so.
As Hajime cleaned his glasses, Mamoru noticed, "My gosh, we could
all be brothers couldn't we?" Mamoru pointed out to Yasunori how
without Hajime wearing his glasses, he looked very much like Mamoru
with light brown hair and shimmering blue eyes. Both Ya-san and
Mamoru-san laughed.
Hajime didn't know what was so funny, and put back on his glasses.
The elevator doors opened. No one came in, and no one came out.
The doors closed. As the three guys continued talking, the doors
opened yet again; again, no one came in, and none of the three moved.
Hajime stated, "Geez, I wish they could stop playing with the
elevator.
- - -
"Hey! Mike!"
"Yeah...what?"
"Hurry up! They just passed the fifth floor!"
"All right already..."
"I mean, they just passed the sixth floor!"
"I'm going as fast as I can, but it's hard to do the letters..."
- - -
"Geez, it's going to take forever to get up to our floor..."
"Oh well," said Hajime, "Do you want to take the stairs? This
stop and go is getting somewhat annoying."
"I agree," said Mamoru.
The three exited out of the elevator car and went down the hallway
to the stairwell. As they walked on, Yasunori asked, "So,
Mamoru-san, how was the trip to California? You finally decided on
Souther Cal?"
"Oh just fine, thank you," Mamoru replied. "Pretty nice place,
the university is, I mean." He paused for effect. "The city...now
that's a somewhat different story..."
- - -
"Oh great, they've gotten out of the elevator!"
"Geez! People! It will be finished...I have enough time..."
- - -
"...and an hour later, they told me that it was a...uhm...gay
bar..."
At this, Hajime couldn't help but start laughing...it started with
a quiet giggle, then burst out into full outbreak of laughter. He
had to stop laughing or his sides would split, he felt.
Ya-san turned toward Hajime and said quite sternly, "I see nothing
funny in that,"
Trying to surpress the laughter, Hajime replied, "I'm (chuckle)
sorry, I (heh) can't help but (giggle) remember my own experience
with that...hehe..."
"Hey! You never told ME about that!" Ya-san said somewhat
defiantly.
Hajime finally interred the laughter and started on nonchalantly,
"Yes I did, remember when I used to live on DuPont Circle?"
Mamoru then came in, "Uhm...where's that? In California also?"
"No," Yasunori explained. "We met each other in Washington, D.C."
"Ah...you were born in America?" Mamoru asked inquisitively.
"Yep," replied Hajime, "I'm not even full Japanese..."
"Oh really?" said Mamoru as they exited out of the stairwell.
"You could say I'm in the _other_ category in those little
boxes..." Hajime said with a smile. "I bet you are too..."
- - -
"C'mon...almost finished...will you HURRY UP with the edges?!"
"Just this corner...I'm almost...DONE! SEE?! I _TOLD_ you I
would get it done!"
Immediately, the door opened, and who else but Hajime walked in,
who immediately asked, "What's done?" He looked around the room at
the many people. As he panned his vision across the room, he took
a look at the large banner unfurled over the apartment's dinner
table. It said in big bold characters, "Congratulations On Cutting
Your First CD: Mitsuda Yasunori, Hirasawa Hajime, and Fujii Fumiko."
Hajime looked at this banner a second time, then a third time. He
shook his head each time he read through it. He looked again at the
many people which gathered in his apartment. And started to laugh.
Again.
After a few seconds of laughter, Hajime looked back at the
doorway. Mamoru and Yasunori had finally come in...but where was
she? "Where is she?" he said to himself, and then quite audibly, he
said, "Where _is_ she?"
At that moment, who else but Fumiko ran through the door to see
the disrupted surprise (surprised?) party. She put her hand to her
face in embarrassment. She was surprised to suddenly feel her hand
being lifted off her face. She took a look at the taker of the hand,
and soon saw him bend down, lovingly embracing her. She spoke into
his ear, "Hajime...they're all watching..."
Hajime didn't care; he lifted her up high into the air, spun her
around one and a half times, brought her down to solid ground, and
kissed her lovingly for what seemed like eternity.
And when it finished, Fumiko looked up lovingly into Hajime's blue
eyes...and kissed him again. She who initially minded being watched
by so many people now did not. Fumiko neither heard the applause,
nor did she notice the many people staring at her and her beau like
spectators at a baseball game. When she finally released her kiss,
the two looked upon the crowd in tandem.
Hajime summed it up quite nicely, "What are you looking at! It's
our party and we say...LET'S EAT!"
And thus the dinner table was summarily sacked.
Chapter 2
=========
"Hi, Ami-san..."
Ami turned around to look at Hajime; she smiled, said hi, and
turned around to start on toward the temple.
Hajime wouldn't have this at all. He ran up until he was side by
side with her and started talking before Ami could reacknowledge him.
"Ami-san, I'm really sorry I wasn't there after school the last two
days; I've been pretty busy lately...you must be angry at me, aren't
you?"
No reply.
"Well...I guess leaving you there for a half hour isn't very nice,
I understand...if you don't want to..."
At that point, Ami finally turned around, looked at him sweetly,
and said, "No, I'm not angry with you at all, I'm just in a hurry!"
Which startled Hajime for a moment. Once he recovered, he asked
quite meekly, "You aren't?"
"Of course not!" Ami said. "Do you want to have some tutoring
after school next week? A half hour before I go to my juku?"
Hajime thought for a moment, and then replied, "Sure...how about
Tuesday we start?"
"Tuesday? Why can't you start Monday?" Ami asked.
"Oh...well...uhm...I have some work to do...that's all," said
Hajime. Not a complete lie, Hajime thought.
"Really?" said Ami. "You have a job after school?"
"Heh heh..." Hajime took his glasses off and wiped off a bit of
sweat which formed on his brow. "Well," he started, "I've got a part
time job, yes...uhm...Do you mind if I walk with you to wherever you
are going?"
"Oh, sure. I'd like to talk with you a little more," replied Ami
as she restarted her brisk walk. "So, what do you do?"
"Uh, me?" replied Hajime rather sheepishly.
Ami giggled, "Of course you! Who did you think I was talking
about?"
"I don't know; wasn't thinking I guess," he said as he tried to
think of just what to say to get of the subject.
They continued on for a moment in silence when Ami finally broke
it with a quiet, "Well?"
"Well what?"
"What do you do, of course!"
"Oh, that," Maybe _this_ would work, thought Hajime. "Well, I
work over at the Kondo recording studio...just do some cleaning over
there." Hajime breathed a sigh of relief. Not entirely untrue.
"Interesting...that's pretty close to my apartment...maybe I could
visit you after school one day..."
Hajime looked at Ami in disbelief; what did he do?! "Uhm...sure.
why not?" He mentally slapped himself; why did he just say that?
Ami smiled and said, "Okay...Monday you'll be there...right?"
Sighing heavily, Hajime replied, "Yeah, sure." Oh well, better
make the most of it, he thought. Keep your spirits up, Hajime!
"So," he said, "you live near the studio, eh?"
"Yes..."
"Then," he said, "why are you going over here, out of the city?"
"Oh, I'm just going to a friend's place...Hajime?" Ami looked
back to see Hajime strangely quiet...almost in a trance...his eyes
were closed as he walked and he did not make a sound. Ami looked
back to where she was walking, wondering what he was thinking...
- - -
The other four girls were in Rei's room, attempting to study. Or
at least three of them were. Rei was in there, sleeping face down on
her bed, simply too tired from the fire reading which she did that
afternoon. Much to everybody's surprise, Usagi was putting in some
fairly decent effort into her studying.
Just as Mako was starting to explain a problem to Usagi, again,
Rei started making some noise...literally, noises: grunts, groans,
and heavy breathing interrupted the three's study session. They
stopped and wondered aloud what Rei was thinking.
"Maybe she's having a bad dream," Makoto offered.
Minako started to say something but stopped once she noticed how
open Rei's eyes were; they stared blankly ahead as Rei's head turned
slowly from left to right.
"Look at her face...her eyes," Minako tried to point out, but by
the time she said this, Rei's eyes were closed and she had started to
revert to her face down status.
"Look at...ow!" Usagi turned her head quickly back...what was
that pain...
- - -
"Isn't their a Shinto shrine close by?" Hajime asked.
Ami thought this question was somewhat unusual, which didn't
prevent her from answering it, "Yes, that's where one of my friends
lives."
Once she said this, Ami noticed that Hajime was somewhat taken
aback. "What's wrong?" she asked.
Without thinking, Hajime replied, "I'm sorry..." and didn't say
another word. "Uhm..."
Now, Ami was getting worried. "Are you all right? Why are you
sorry?"
Hajime looked all around, as if a solution to this problem might
be embedded in one of trees he passed by. He looked to his watch,
and, feigning sudden shock, said "Oh no. I should have been at work
by now. Sorry...gottta go. Bye Ami-san," and he ran in the opposite
direction.
"Strange," Ami said to herself...
- - -
The first thing that Ami saw when she went up the steps and past
the torii of the temple was Rei limping outside. Immediately Ami
rushed to her and asked "What's wrong?"
Rei tried to brush Ami off, but couldn't as Ami forced her to sit
down on the steps of the temple. "Nothing," Rei said. "I'm just a,
a little tired."
"You look terrible!" exclaimed Ami.
"Do you need a drink?" proffered Usagi, who had just exited Rei's
room and gone outside.
"Yeah," complemented Minako. "You were making a lot of noise in
your room. Are you sure you are okay?"
Rei opened her mouth as if she was starting to talk, and then
decided not to. However, her mouth didn't share that feeling, and
impulsively, she said, "Do you ever feel like you are being used?"
Rei closed her mouth quickly, bringing her hand to it as if to make
sure that it stayed closed.
Usagi was the only one with any sort of reply: "Yes, I do..."
she said blankly.
Rei continued, "I feel...something big is going to happen..."
- - -
"OH MY GOD! IT'S HER! I FOUND HER!! SHE'S HERE!"
Hajime was jumping all around the room. He was bouncing off the
walls and in quite a literal fashion. He was at the studio along
with Fumiko and Yasunori, and he was trying, quite unsuccesfully, to
tell them what he had found out.
"Geez," said Fumiko to Yasunori, "the last time he was like this
was when I introduced him to espresso at a Hannibal's coffee in
Tacoma."
"Really?" he replied, "ONE espresso?"
Fumi-chan answered, "No, five actually...it was quite good." She
then said (actually, shouted) to Hajime, "WHAT? WHAT DID YOU FIND?"
That had no effect on him. Time for drastic measures.
Both Fumiko and Yasunori eyed each other with a smirk.
"So," she asked, "what will it be this time?"
"How about some Final Fantasy soundtracks?" he asked
"Good idea," and immediately, Fumiko retrieved a digital audio
tape, inserted it into one of the many backup DAT players which
adorned the mixing room the three were in. Soon, two monitor
speakers filled the room with the booming sound of the music of the
game, Final Fantasy 4.
Almost as quickly, Hajime got out of his hyperactive state and
into a trance like one: silent, still, listening, heeding only the
music.
A few seconds later, Fumiko turned off the player.
"First of all, he's got to learn how to do multi tap echos on lead
instruments. The trumpet has every echo coming from the same stereo
pan position, which is very boring. Second, his use of comping
strings in the background is not effective at all, since all they do
is mimic the trumpet lead. The harp is the only redeeming...what?"
"You back down to Earth now Hajime-chan?" Yasunori said with a
somewhat impish smile.
"Uhm...yeah...anyways," Hajime started, "I know where the inner
senshi are now."
"Oh really?" said both Yasunori and Fumiko in tandem.
"Yes...they're all local...three of them go to our high school!"
"And," interrupted Fumiko, "how would you know this?"
At this, Hajime stopped. He would be ashamed telling them how he
retrieved such information. "Well...uhm...you know..."
"You did it again?!" exclaimed Fumiko. "You know that that will
get you into trouble. You'll be rooted out if it ever is well known,
you know that."
"I'm sorry," apologized Hajime, "but some good came out of it this
time...we've got to get their help...and soon."
"That's a given...but...when will we get to them?" inquired
Ya-chan.
"Monday. Here." stated Hajime quite simply.
"HERE?! Are you nuts?" Fumiko was somewhat alarmed by this
strange proposition.
"It's quite simple, really," explained Hajime. "We don't go to
them. They rescue us."
"You're crazy. That's just crazy," replied Yasunori.
"Ano, Ya-chan?" Hajime said.
"What?!"
"I do not know what you believe, nor will I ever probably fully
understand everything you believe, but I believe that Sailor Moon is
invincible..."
- - -
He kicked the box a second time, this time making its contents
spill out. The ornate sticks were spewn all over the floor. One of
them unwillingly bore the weight of the kicker. It then gave way and
rolled underfoot. The kicker of the box then fell to the ground with
a satisfying thump. In any other situation, this would have been
cause for laughter. But Nobuo was not laughing. The man at his feet
soon got up and went into his face.
"Do you understand?! There are only ten in here...we WANT FIFTY!
If you short change us next time, you will IMMEDIATELY die!"
"Fine then. But then, he will not be able to fulfill his demands.
Now I know that you wouldn't want that, now would you?"
The man in front of him was infuriated. He slammed his fist into
Nobuo's chest, causing him to go crashing down to the floor. As
Nobuo clutched his chest, the other mocked him, "Sixty years you've
been here, you must have had a pretty good life before this; you
probably wouldn't mind dying..." He went out the door, oblivious to
Nobuo's son's verbal abuse, which soon died out as he tended to his
father...
- - -
"Interesting? Now that's an understatement if I've ever heard
one..."
"Well, perhaps you've never heard one, because that is all this
will ever be; interesting is all that it will ever be."
"Really? How so?"
"Let's put it this way. What are the chances that we can catch
her, under circumstances which favor us to an impossible degree? Us
having choice of location, choice of time, choice of her immediate
protection, and most importantly, amount of resources we can
allocate for the job?"
"Let's not look at that...we might as well just look at two days
from now and...sir!"
The two men stood at attention as the man walked quietly, briskly,
through the double doors. They noticed that his healthy blue shade,
which was present the last time they saw him, had turned into a
somewhat violet luster, which one described in a whisper as "quite
interesting...sort of like rhodium..." No one questioned if he was
human..."Human?! How absurd, to be like them, those...those..."
"Colonel Shimizu!"
Takao immediately snapped out of his trance and replied to the
blue face which had gotten into his face. "Sir, yes, sir!" he said
as he saluted.
"Colonel Noto!"
Eiji crisply snapped his hand to his forehead and saluted as he
also replied "Sir, yes, sir!"
"At ease."
The relaxed a bit as the blue (and rather large, and tall) mass
moved around them to the desk behind them. He sat down at it, and as
he did so, the two turned around to face him. On the desk in front
of the many papers was a large brass plate which stated in ornate
script, "General Morita Kazuki"
Kazuki propped his feet onto his desk and stretched. "So, I hear
you have some interesting news to report..."
Chapter 3
=========
Sundays. Sunday meant Hajime alone. Just him and his music. Or
perhaps someone else's music if he was as tired as he was today.
This someone else happened to be quite throughly dead. Mozart. He
is dead. Period.
Hajime hated periods.
Boring. Inadequate. Mozart is not quite thoroughly dead. It's
almost like saying "I finished my homework. Period." Why did you
finish your homework? In what manner did you finish your homework?
Who was affected in your finishing your homework?
"I am boring," he said to no one in particular.
He listened to a requiem as he worked out the details on his
inverse kinematics...must get out...do something normal people would
do...must talk...socialize...shop...must go to stores...once I
finish with physics model 7a...
Before he restarted his homework, he asked himself the question he
asked every day, "Why am I this type of person?"
- - -
"If I do one more, I will surely die," Nobuo stated to his son.
"Yes." was the only reply.
"Tell him that I do love him."
"Yes."
Slowly, Minoru came to his feet and inched toward the table that
his father was seated at. He watched as his father picked up one of
the sticks which was on the table and placed it in an old and fragile
hand. He could imagine the hand saying something...perhaps it would
say, "Dying with creation; dying with my own creation." Or perhaps
it would reject it?
Fingers slowly came around the rod until it was clenched as
tightly as a nine hundred and seventy three year old hand could do.
Nobuo stood up and brought his yield to his breast; he cradled it
lovingly in his hands. Magic, life, power, energy. He made these.
"Evil and death as well," the pen seemed to say to him. Nobuo
shuddered at the thought. No more. Today is Sunday. My time to
rest.
He turned his head lovingly to his youngest son. With his eyes,
he beckoned he be outside. Minoru, with tears in his eyes, nodded
his head and moved slowly towards the door. "Today is Sunday,"
Minoru said as he turned and walked out the door.
"Hajime...I know you can hear me...Serenity...please...if you
can..."
- - -
"OH NO! I DIED AGAIN?!?!!?"
Ami was at Usagi's house to...er...help Usagi with homework. Or
so Usagi convinced her. Instead, she had filled up an hour of
otherwise useful time with watching Usagi struggle at, no, not the
SAILOR V video game, but the SAILOR MOON video game.
"Uhm...aren't you supposed to finish your math homework?"
"NOT NOW! I'VE ONLY HAD A TWENTY MINUTE BREA...ACK!!!" Usagi
watched helplessly as her electronic counterpart succumbed to yet
another youma; again, she had the privilege of watching herself cry
her eyes out.
"Okay...game over...come on! We have to..."
Usagi looked knowingly at Ami and said, "Tsk, tsk; thou doesn't
knowest the immense power of ye olde continue! For thou must only
do so much as press thine...ACK!"
Ami, quite thoroughly tired, reached over and pulled the the
Super Famicom plug out of the wall socket. "Give me reason, or give
me sign; for 'til I shalt see it, thou shalt not divine."
"Huh?"
Ami shook her head in exasperation, "Let me guess, you didn't
read the essay on Arakawa...ano...Usagi?"
Usagi was staring out into space just in front of Ami's face. Her
breathing slowly inched toward the point of hyperventilation, until
Ami was afraid she was having something similar to an asthma attack.
If so, why was her face so expressionless? Why didn't she move off
the floor as she continued to sit and stare? Ami's attempts to move
Usagi were futile; she was seemingly clamped to the floor by some
unknown force. Just sitting on the floor...staring. Sitting and
staring. Staring. Sitting...
Until, suddenly, her knees gave way and Usagi found herself face
down on the floor. She only had two thoughts running around in her
head. The first she kept to herself and the second she made verbal.
She first thought, what WAS that?
Her second thought? "Owwwww..."
Ami sighed as she pulled Usagi up to her feet. "Maybe you should
rest a bit before we start again..."
- - -
"Sakurauchi has a 1.90 ERA in his last 11 games...that MUST
account for SOME talent...neh?" Yasunori let a bright twang of sound
fly from his Stratocaster.
"Whatever," replied Fumiko, who didn't put down the book she was
engrossed in to do so. "And the combined win-loss percantage of the
teams he's faced is...what? .300? .350?"
"Uhm...lemme think...er, it's .336...yeah."
"Why ARE you talking to me about this?"
"Bored I guess," and another chord came through the amp. "What do
you think?"
"Think? About what?"
"You know...Hajime..."
"He's a total idiot."
Ya-chan stopped fiddling with the guitar and asked, quite
plaintively, "Would you care to elaborate on that?
She let out a deep breath in preparation for the upcoming tumult
she would spew forth.
"Hajime is an idiot. Hajime is a right-brained genious. Hajime
has powers that we cannot even begin to comprehend. Hajime has IDEAS
we cannot even BEGIN to comprehend. Hajime is not human. Hajime is
one of the most incredible beings on this earth..." Fumiko put the
book down. "Would you care for me to go on?"
A sigh let out from Yasunori's tired mouth. "You haven't
mentioned anything about his correctness."
"He's always correct..."
He looked at her quizzically.
She put down her book and looked at Yasunori with a seriousness
only paralleled by Hajime. Slowly, methodically, she stated, "He is
ALWAYS correct..."
- - -
Sundays are great days. Days to go to the park. Days to go and
listen to the sound of nothing in the vegetable garden. Days to
contemplate the essence of a single rock.
DAYS TO SHOP FOR SALES! BIG SALES! HUGES SALES! SALES SO
GIGANTIC THE ONLY SALE LARGER WILL BE THE ONE THAT COMES _NEXT_ WEEK!
Needless to say. it was this final call that Minako listened to
every first of the week. It was two in the afternoon and she was now
on her way to ransack the music stores (man...excuse me, woman cannot
live on bread, clothing, jewelry, movies, and manga alone.) Just as
she was about to enter the store, she saw Makoto waving at her out of
the corner of her eye.
Minako flung one bag laden with clothes over her shoulder and
smiled. "Hey! Where are you going?"
"Eh...no where in particular," came the reply. They went into the
store in tandem.
"Yeah...things are getting boring around here, ne?" Makoto picked
up a CD. "See this? "Sakura Taisen," battling monsters and mecha
everyday...1930s...now that's life..."
Minako looked at her with a more-than-strange look on her face.
"Yep," she started, "that's fun. And getting energy sucked out of
you and being slammed into metal doors is cool."
"Well...I do miss it...being her..."
Minako exhaled deeply. "Yeah...I guess so..."
Makoto sighed and picked up a CD...an old Rap single from some
really old group named Krush Posse. She held it up..."You like
them?"
"They're still around? Bleh..."
"Naah...I used to like them...like...three years ago," she said.
Minako picked up another CD and held it up. "Now this is a really
good new CD...Tell Me...HEY!" she exclaimed as Makoto snatched the
CD out of her hand. "What's the big deal?"
Makoto stared at the picture on the back. Could it be...yeah,
it is him! She looked down and saw quite prominently the names of
the three producers of the album. She flipped it around again.
"Tell Me What You Dream" was the title. She handed it back to
Minako. "Cool..." she said.
"What's cool?"
"Oh...nothing...you like the songs on there?"
"Uhm, yeah," Minako said, "extremely...uh...wuh..." She stared
out at a point behind Makoto and beyond the entrance to the store.
She stared and stared until her eyes grew to what seemed like the
size of oranges. Makoto turned around and realized what she was
looking at...or who, rather. None other than Hajime.
Suddenly, in a remarkable feat of physics law breaking, they
were simultaneously climbing over themselves and running towards
an _extremely_ handsome Hajime. Not making the slightest bit of
forward movement, mind you. Seconds later, through the large cloud
of dust which they made, they could see Hajime turn and...GASP!...
acknowledge their presence! They simultaneously stopped, sighed,
and started again in simultaneous climbing over themselves. This
lasted until Makoto, obviously the stronger of the two, pushed
Minako and felled her with a sweep of the foot. Minako, who was at
that moment _very_ thankful for shag carpet, ran toward Makoto,
who was running toward Hajime at a speed which would have broken
Olympic sprint times.
- - -
"Oh no," muttered Hajime as he saw the two girls. It was only
the seventh time this has happened, as he was nowhere near the
status of the major Japanese pop stars. But the first experience...
He did NOT want to remember the first experience. But that was
more for the fact that the girl wanted something from him, and it
most certainly was not music. Which didn't stop him from
associating this with that girl...
Wait...it was them...wasn't it? I must make sure...I have to...
But I can't or...or else it will happen...
But this was important, he did need to know. This could be an
extremely important event...just this simple meeting. Or it might
not. Oh well, depends on how you handle...and I'll handle it like
this, he thought.
"Hold on," he said to noone in particular as Makoto came within
a foot of his face and proceeded to drone on, "Hi...I go to Juuban
High School with you...you're in some of my classes..."
He didn't regard the two when they finally came into speaking
distance. "Be gentle with them," he said to noone in particular.
Just have to make sure they are, he thought...
Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed Minako wince in pain.
She let out a slight groan as she went down onto one knee and put
her hand to the crown of her head.
"No, I'm doing it again," he said inaudibly as Makoto knelt to
help her up. He went down on one knee, as well, and made Minako
to sit up on the floor amid a repitition of "I'm fine. Really.
*groan* I'm fine..."
She wasn't listening very well as Hajime was also repeatedly
saying something to her: "Are you okay? I'm sorry, please forgive
me...are you okay? I'm sorry, please forgive me..." She faded
into subconsciousness, the last image she saw being her own
reflection in Hajime's glasses...
- - -
"Okay Usagi-chan...what did you get for...er...number 12?"
Luna and Artemis were sleeping on a pillow as the dialogue of
homework insued from opposite sides of the bed...no, perhaps
dialogue is a little too much. Because Usagi's statements mostly
consisted of "How long has it been"s and "I'm tired"s. Ami
truly envied the dormant felines...
"All right...last one..." Ami sighed. "you take...*yawn*...
this angle, and you take the sine of it..."
Usagi, for her part, was doing the usual: hearing but not
listening. Math was, is, and always will be boring. School's
boring. Everything is too boring...too quiet. She thought to
herself, "I love being Sailor Moon..."
"...and you get?" Ami finished.
"Uh..." Usagi looked frantically at the problem. Oh, great;
the last problem...oh no! Oh what's the answer...too much Ami
and homework today! Ack...must get away...what's the answer...
She guessed, "Twelve?"
Ami was somewhat relieved at that point. "There's hope yet,"
she said, more jokingly than insultingly. She stretched her arms
up high, "UHHHHAAAAHHHHhhhhhhh...much too long...two o' clock...
well, I guess *yawn* I still have time to do that favor for Rei,"
"Oh YEAH!" exclaimed Usagi as she suddenly remembered what Rei
asked of her yesterday. "I'm supposed to meet her at the new
store that was opening up! I was...OH NO! That was HALF AN HOUR
AGO! ACK!"
The next thing Ami could see was a blur of white blouse, blue
skirt, and blonde hair flying through the air and out the door.
As Ami gaped at the all-too-short concert of speed, Artemis
whispered, "Just another typical day, ne?"
Luna sighed, "Another typical day..."
- - -
Okay, you can hear me okay?
Uh...who are you? thought a rather confused Minako.
It's...uh...me. Hajime.
Oh great...now I'm dreaming.
No you aren't...look, I know this sounds wierd but I just want you
to know...
Where am I?
That's not really important right now. I just want...
Hey! I want to know where I am!
Was it her or did she feel someone sigh?
Where am I?! Where...wha?
Immediately, she could see Makoto's figure pacing back and forth
in front of her. And then no more.
Oh god, she thought...what's going on?
I just opened one of your eyes.
WHO ARE YOU!
I told you who I am...
Then, tell me where we are!
Sailor Venus...please listen to me.
She would normally feel shocked; instead, she felt a sudden pain.
Did I feel someone cry? she thought...
I'm sorry about this...I wanted to tell all of you some other way,
but since this happened...well...I might as well tell you now. A
pause. I need your help. I want everyone to meet me, after school.
Monday. Please be prepared. I know I'm bringing you into something
I shouldn't...but...we really need you. I mean...someone is planning
to kill me...all of us. And then we'll all die...I...please let
Usagi know...please...it's extremely important she know this.
Please be prepared. Please.
He stopped.
How much do you know? thought Minako.
As much as you know...maybe more.
Where are we?
Well...that's somewhat hard to define. You want to rack your
brains over abstract multi dimensional concepts?
Uh, well, could you put it simple?
I'm inside your consciousness.
Er, that IS pretty deep...that's all I have to know.
Do you want me to get out now?
Well, she thought, if it would help me, uhm, wake up?
Alright...Makoto is wondering what I'm doing and I'm pretending
I'm asleep right now...so I better.
Should I tell the others?
Yes please, it's important
Okay...all right...
...and by the way?
Yes?
Shout out real loud to wake up.
Shout?
It's the fastest way...but, it's not always the most discrete...
- - -
"Things like this just have to happen to us, ne?" Makoto asked
herself as she paced for the seventh time into her room, where both
Minako and Hajime were; Minako was apparently sleeping on Makoto's
bed, while Hajime sat down and leaned his head against the
window sill...
Suddenly, Hajime's bolted upright and looked straight into
Minako's prone body. Both he and Makoto saw Minako start to stir.
As her head started moving from side to side, both Makoto and
Hajime noticed that her lips were starting to move...forming words,
perhaps, or just...
"Uh...er...ano...Mako-chan?"
"..e?"
"Uhm...I'd advise you to cover your ears..."
"And...WHY?!"
"Just...uh oh..."
Hajime stopped as he noticed Minako's eyes flutter. With that, he
started a mad dash toward Makoto. Getting behind her, he cupped his
hands over her ears, preparing for the impending noise...
Makoto was about to exclaim quite loudly what the heck was he
doing, and was thinking seriously about throwing him...until it came.
- - -
One would probably imagine that Minako was a very social person.
Her voice had a lot of exercise. Her vocal chords were a force to
be reckoned with. With workouts consisting of talking and karaoke,
one could only imagine the sound. The pure sound which eminated from
the lips. That such a horrendous and incredible sound could come
from a person so beautiful...for a few seconds, the air was saturated
with the slam of air which came. People in houses blocks away could
hear the boom...some panicked at the thought that it was a sign of
earthquake...others were shaken, both physically and mentally. Still
others, the lucky few, were fortunate enough to have headphones.
The cacophonous jumble of noise, the rumble of sound, and only one
thought permeated Hajime's mind...
- - -
That hurts.
- - -
Oh, god, what WAS that? Makoto thought...thank god Hajime was
covering my ears...whoa...oh wow that was loud...
She turned around to thank him, but immediately decided to say
nothing as Hajime was wincing in pain and verbally reacting to it.
"Kyaaaaaaaa!...chikusho....AH...kami-sama, itaa...kuso..."
Since he wasn't exactly in the best of moods, Makoto turned to a
hyperventilating Minako who was now sitting up the bed..."Daijoubu
ka?"
She didn't pay attention to Makoto's statements...she was very
much what one would call, "out of it." All she did was sit there and
say to herself, "He was there? He was there? He was...here? He was
here?..."
"Who was here...or there? Or...what ARE you talking about?"
Makoto continued. But she just got the same reply...he was here?
"WHO was here? Who? Hajime?"
Minako finally snapped out of her spiel and looked up at Makoto.
"Ha...Hajime...he was here...he...Hajime..."
Makoto heard the clicking of a door and turned around. Hajime had
left...typical. Makoto let out a sigh..."What IS going on?"
"uh...eh...Mako-chan?"
"Eh?"
"Something...something BIG is going on..."
- - -
Within the space of darkness, there is no such thing as
nothingness; if that were the case...then call it "space" instead of
"space of darkness" Or if the "space" were nothingess, why call it
"space?" Why not simply "nothingness?" But that is something too...
Rei said silently to herself in a spiel of eloquence, "How
pitifully inadequte be our Japanese language..."
She cleared her head of this thought and knelt down on the
hardwood floor before the fire. The flame flickered as her mind
concentrated on the world. The people. The simple idea of "being."
The insanely complex idea of "being." The idea of a spirit which
flowed through "being" and within "beings."
Not that she really understood it, nor did she really bother with
the idea of needing such understanding. Simple faith was everything.
Faith in spirits. Faith in magic. Faith in herself...
That she would find what it was that's been bugging her the past
few days. Or who it was...which she thought was far more likely.
Whoever it was, he was touching her. Touching her mind in ways
which did not neccessarily feel awkward, as the word "touching" is
often referenced to. It hurt. Quite literally.
All she wanted was to stop the hurt. Such a simple task, really.
Find the cause. Stop the cause. Mission accomplished.
But nothing was ever that simple in her life, was it?
"I guess these things would happen at least a few times in a life
of more than a thousand years..."
"I'm sorry..."
Rei turned around to look at the voice which came from behind her.
She saw nothing. Then did she realize exactly how that voice felt
when it was delivered. Oh, kami-sama, it is him. "What do you
want?" she threw into the void. So strong a thought it was that it
startled the sender enough to not immediately reply.
"...no...noth...I'm sorry...that's all..."
She probed around the darkness...the thought had been cut off...?
"Rei-chan?"
She turned around and saw the faces of Usagi and Makoto poking
through the door opening. Luna then walked under Usagi's legs and
into the room, saying as she did so, "Something's going on..."
- - -
Today is not a good day...whenever today is, it is a bad day...
"Life sucks..."
"Don't I know it, Eiji..."
They continued walking down the marble corridor, disregarding the
orange plastic strips strewn across the walkway. Through the plate
glass on their left, they saw one craft fixated in mid-space. A
small plate suddenly unfolded into the space in front of the ship.
It folded with extreme quickness back into the wall of the shaft and
suddenly, the ship was moving faster than the speed of sound...but
there was no sonic boom...for there was no air in the shaft.
"Technology," remarked Minoru. "...technology..."
"It has its uses..."
"Then, why does it take just as long to clean a house with
Eurekas and Electoluxes as it does without? Why does it cost the
same amount or more to travel from New York to Paris if information
is supposedly making the world smaller?"
"How about a reference which has to do with here and now?"
"Perhaps," Minoru continued as he peeled off an old Funkengruven
bumper sticker from the handrail, "you don't realize the biggest
evidence of this world...that people do not love life here."
"Thank you for saying that. Again." Eiji said methodically. The
two turned into a room which contained a guard and small electronic
unit suspended from the cieling above the guard. "Good evening,
ma'am." She made no reply.
"Well, this event has most decidedly clinched the idea that this
is indeed an extremely poor life," remarked Eiji.
"Colonel Noto Eiji, sir. Please enter the capsule," said the
young girl. "Hirasawa Minoru, please enter the capsule and take the
left most seat. Estimated time to Sapporro is 24.752 minutes..."
She continued to drone on with statistics about Minoru's flight
experience and the various idiosyncracies of the craft, all without
making reference to anything, not paper or computer. Only her own
altered mind.
Eiji entered through the door which revealed itself in the marble.
Minoru soon followed afterward, but not before looking behind him at
the young guard dressed in an extremely tight fitting white suit with
short red skirt attached. He shook his head; "Magic," he started,
"...magic...how thoroughly abused..."
The girl, perhaps no more that 18 years old, closed the door with
a mere thought. She let her mind drift...but it had nowhere to drift
to. She tried to ask herself why? to every question she could create,
but she created not one. She had the want to cry, but she had so
perfectly forgotten how to shed tears.
As another craft replaced the one which Minoru had piloted down
the shaft, she turned to see a group of three come toward her.
Statistics piled up in her mind and she iterated them with accuracy.
Numbers flooded her sight and she stated them without hesitation.
That she thought nothing of a person's humanity would be a stretch.
She thought nothing.
She had forgotten tears.
She had forgotten joy.
She had forgotten dreams.
Another group came toward her, statistics came into her mind and
she iterated them...
Chapter 4
=========
"Shimizu!"
He looked over his shoulder to see the ever apathetic face of his
boss. Joy. Rapture. Okay mind, prepare for inundation of verbosity
to be spewn forth. He turned quickly on his heel and made way to the
blue presence which always appeared more purplish outside of
buildings, due to the different artificial lighting sources used.
"Okay, now what's the problem?"
Takao waited for the response. The general pointed downward with
his eyes. Takao looked down and realized that Kazuki was in uniform.
They both gave each other a quick and informal salute.
Kazuki proffered a paper in one hand. Takao took it and quickly
read over it. He lifted a single eyebrow.
Before he could express his surprise, Kazuki stated in monotone,
"Kill her. She's another user."
"Her mother was a creator. She has potential to be..."
"That really helps. Kill her."
"Sir, yes sir," he said as he started away from the general toward
his original destination. As he walked, he took a final glance at
the text written on it. He noticed on the bottom of the page the
following words: "This is eyes-only information for all clearance
levels. Destroy after abtaining this item."
He crumpled it into a ball-shaped wad. After a few seconds of
throwing the wad up and catching it on its return, he clutched it
tightly in his right hand. A second later, it burst into flame. He
tossed it idly from hand to hand for a few moments. Once he tired of
the game, he threw it over his shoulder. As it hit the ground, the
ball of flame ceased to be, and instead, small bits of brown
particles took its place.
A person who saw this display simply muttured, "Showoff," and
continued on his sweeping of rhodium dust from the sidewalk of his
store...
- - -
"Would you please get some sleep?"
Hajime continued into the 5th minute of his orbiting the
apartment's dinner table. "Right," he said. "Sleep...good one
there." He continued through another orbit, all the while fingering
the small pen-shaped item in his hand. He twirled it around with
his fingers, sometimes allowing it to rest in his pants' pocket for
short durations of time, until another iteration of twirling would
come from his right hand fingers.
"Look, would you sleep if you felt you had the obligations he
has?" intoned Yasunori as he casually took a black leather attache
case from under the couch and placed it on the orbited table.
She sighed. She would never understand the obligations which
Hajime has imposed upon himself. He has said to her not to even try
to understand _what_ exactly he is. Emphasis on "what" being his.
Yasunori pulled out a chair and sat at the table, in front of his
now open attache case. He began to pull out one of the arms
contained within: a .22 caliber pistol...
Hajime, still continuing his orbiting, saw this out of the corner
of his eye. "No, too big." he said.
Yasunori turned his attention toward Hajime and acknowledged his
opinion with a nod of the head. He returned the pistol and retrieved
two other items. Another pistol, unloaded, and its accompanying
clip. He showed them to Hajime, hoping to ellicit a positive
response.
"Beretta 93R, 9 mike mike automatic, 20 shots...that will suit.
The others?"
As Yasunori went off into the apartment's one bedroom, Hajime took
the gun, loaded it, and, pulling up one pant leg, slipped it into the
holster of his right leg. Yasunori returned, this time with two
other guns, identical to Hajime's, and their accompanying clips.
He tossed one gun and clip to Fumiko, who caught both and commenced
with loading it.
Fumiko was already in her seifuku, ready for Monday. Once she
loaded her weapon, she emptied out her school bag of various books.
"Not like we'll need these any more after this episode. Are you sure
about this Hajime-chan?"
He momentarily stopped his orbiting and, looking to her, stated
matter-of-factly, "I don't want them to bear the knowledge of killing
someone. Technology does not comprise the most powerful offensive
power in the world." He started on his way to the bedroom, snapping
his holster closed as he did so.
Fumiko sighed. "About time..." She followed him into the bedroom
and flopped down beside Hajime on one of the two double beds in the
room.
"You know," she said to Hajime as visions of stucco filled her
head, "It's been a long time since you've actually did...er...the
change. You know that...Hajime-chan? Hajime-chan?" She turned on
her side to find that he was already soundly sleeping. She sighed
in exasperation and put her hands behind her head as she continued
to stare upward into space. She remained silent as she heard
Yasunori take the other double bed. She waited until she heard the
gentle rumble which came from him every night. Reaching into a
pocket she had sewn into her skirt, her fingers pulled out the
object. She held it up, faintly seeing from the kitchen light
outside that it was a blue pen.
"If need be, I hope you do me good tomorrow..."
- - -
She stood there in her long white dress, her hands being clasped
but the young man who had just seconds ago asked for her to dance.
He, with medals dangling from his dark coat, was large. Positively
gargantuan. No, not even that...he was simply a big, fat, ugly oaf.
And by the smell of him, he had no control over his flatulence.
"Excuse me," she said. "I have items to attend to."
She wrenched her hands from the grip of the behemoth in front of
her and turned around. She walked at a brisk pace away from the
dance. Stepping around a guard, she turned onto a private corridor
of the palace.
The orchestra continued to drone on in the background. She hummed
the melody for a few seconds...until she found herself turning around
to see who it was that tapped her. She saw nothing...but...
"You left already?" she said.
Something in the shadows of the corridor moved, and slowly, a
young man in a tuxedo manifested himself in front of her. She could
not see him very well in the shadows of the corridor, but he was
indeed there. He shook his shrouded face and emitted a deep sigh.
"Sometimes," the young man said, "I abhor these responsibilities."
"That feeling is shared..."
The two could barely hear the orchestra end its waltz and start
a slow ballad. "May I have this dance?" the young man asked.
She stepped forward and with and extension of the hand, said,
"You may."
As the young man took her hand, she was not at all surprised at
the site of his face; he drew her close and began stepping slowly
to the rhythm of the ballad. She knew, then, that she would always
be safe in his arms, and he in hers. She lay her head on his
shoulder and said with the softest of voices, "You I shall always
love."
She looked up into his large blue eyes and said again, "You I
shall always love..."
- - -
Usagi jolted upright in her bed. It was a nightmare, she
convinced herself. Yet, she was not sweating. She was not breathing
heavily. She showed no sign of fear. Yet she knew it must have been
a nightmare.
Two in the morning. "I've got to stop doing this," she said to
noone in particular.
She lay down in her bed, trying to go back to sleep, continually
pondering the same idea that has plagued her in this recurring
"nightmare."
"...he wasn't Mamoru...he wasn't Mamoru...he wasn't Mamoru..."
