"We gather here to mourn the loss of one of us. A dutiful son to some,
friend to others..."
"Some friends." One woman among the small crowd glared at three girls.
"Ami couldn't even be bothered to show up at Ryo's funeral. She's
probably still in denial about what she *did* to him!"
Two of the trio did not bother to disguise their irritation, but the
tall male next to them spoke for them. "Ms. Urawa, the only reason Ami
is not here is that she is not capable of showing up without making a
scene. Believe me, she misses him as much as you do. As for the
suicide, the police *have* ruled it a suicide. Ami would have stopped
him if she was there."
"Then how do you explain his note?"
The so far motionless girl with twin ponytails met her detractor's
gaze. "It is a disservice to Ryo's memory to argue over his grave like
this. If you will not be reasoned with, we can pay our respects another
time." She spun on one heel and marched away, soon followed by her
friends.
As they walked away, they could hear an argument starting over whether
to dig up Ryo and rebury him elsewhere, so as to prevent Ami from
finding his grave.
******
Four doors slammed in near unison, and soon, another car joined the
light traffic headed for the highway.
"How *do* you explain that note, anyway?"
"Don't you start, Mina!"
"Don't worry, Rei, I'm sure he didn't mean to implicate Ami. But still:
'Dearest Ami, thank you for making my life complete. I have always
known that you would bring my fate.' I can't blame Ms. Urawa for
thinking Ami poisoned Ryo or something."
"Well, *I* can. And I can definitely blame her for holding a grudge!"
"What, just because you pointed out that she kept dragging him along to
be with his father, and that Ami probably spent more time with him this
past year than his own mother actually spent *with* him, rather than
just being in the same room with him, for his entire life? Nope, can't
blame her for that, no matter how right you were. Besides, *we* all
know he was just referring to that story she wrote."
"Hey, you two," Mamoru interrupted from the driver's seat. "Do I have
to turn this around and go home?"
"Actually, yes you do. We're going home anyway, and you just missed the
highway onramp."
******
Makoto gently rocked Ami, cradling her slumbering friend like a baby. A
very large baby, true, but Makoto's strength and Ami's light weight made
up for it. When she heard the front door squeak open, she set Ami down
on the bed, tucked her in, and tiptoed out of the bedroom.
Usagi and Mamoru waited at the front of Makoto's apartment, both
staying very still until Makoto slid shut the door to Ami's location.
"How is she?"
Makoto shook her head. "I've seen worse, but...I'm glad we're not
leaving her in her own house. Even if her mother wasn't on vacation,
she'd be at work so often that Ami would almost be all alone anyway.
And I thought *I* had it bad for my old boyfriend."
Usagi glanced at Makoto's damp shoulder. "She cried herself to sleep,
huh?"
"Yeah, after I had to wrestle her down when she got the bright idea of
'joining Ryo'." Makoto rubbed some faint tooth marks on her wrist.
"She can fight nasty when she thinks there's nothing to lose."
Usagi winced. "Well, when she gets up, tell her Rei wants to go ahead
with their lab tomorrow. She said that getting on with life would help
her get over it."
"Good advice."
"Maybe, maybe not. You know which lab this is?"
"No."
"Extra credit assignment for their psychology class. Monitoring brain
waves of people doing certain activities. Their last session had them
reading that short story Ami wrote...the one she showed to Ryo, just
before he..."
Makoto blanched. "I see."
"Rei said she'll try to make sure no one mentions the story. And none
of the test subjects knows about Ryo, so that shouldn't be a problem."
---
co-in-ci-dence. (noun) A sequence of events that, although accidental,
appears to have been planned or arranged.
---
Three seconds later, Rei's face was on Usagi's communicator's screen.
"We've got a problem."
"Ryo's mom moved the grave?"
"Worse. I've been calling our lab subjects to confirm for tomorrow's
session, and...well, half of them committed suicide within 24 hours of
our last session."
"..."
"I'm cancelling the study. Something's gotta be up. Even if it's not,
we don't have enough subjects to do a statistically valid study now."
Makoto looked over Usagi's shoulder, to get her face in the
communicator's camera's view. "I'll tell Ami. Any idea what could be
going on?"
Rei shook her head. "We tried to get as diverse a group as possible.
I've already informed the lab, and the techs swear that the equipment
could not possibly have caused this. Just about the only thing they
all had in common was that they all read Ami's story."
Before anyone could respond, Mina's face appeared in split screen with
Rei's. "Hey, everybody! I've got some news I just know will cheer Ami
up!"
Usagi smiled. "She could use it right now."
"I was talking to some publisher friends of mine. You remember that
story Ami wrote? Well, I showed it to them, and they liked it so much
they said they're going to publish it in a bunch of Japan's major
newspapers. I hope she doesn't mind, but I forged Ami's signature on
the permission forms. It's not paid, but all of Japan's going to be
reading her words within a week."
******
One week later, as the dust settled, two senshi - one reborn twice
during modern times and still regaining her lost years, and one
seemingly older than time itself but not showing her age - gazed upon
the once-thriving metropolis of Tokyo, now a city in mourning.
"Setsuna-mama?"
"Yes, Hotaru?"
"When it comes time to destroy the world for real, will I write the
story myself rather than ghostwrite for Ami and let her edit it? Or
will I use a song, or a film?"
******
Author's Note: Ok, ok, I get the hint about Ryo-ohki's Lover. But,
believe me, it could have been much worse. (And to think, I had thought
it only a myth that mere words could inflict actual physical suffering
on such a wide scale...)