10:45am
Rei stared aimlessly out the windows, twirling her pen around her fingers
as the wind breezed through the classroom. She saw the younger classes
outside in the playground on their ‘morning break’, one which occurred
every hour to suit the short concentration span of 6 year olds. Her eyes
focused specifically on one of the children on the swing, it was such a
long time since she had been on one of those, seven long years. The wind
against her closed eyes, laughter filling the whole back garden when she
was pushed…
“Higher! Higher!! Push me harder Kenta-kun, I want to see the world from here, I want to be like that bird that flies high above the earth!”
A fleeting shadow fell against the rice-paper door, sliding open. “Rei, that is enough. You will make none of such demands, apologise immediately to…”
The man in his late teens merely shrugged his shoulders, “I don’t mind at all, I enjoy spending time with her Hino-sama, she is still but a young child.”
“Still… she is not to be spoilt.”
“She is growing up quickly, she is becoming quite a young lady.”
“You are a contradiction in your own terms. A young lady and a young child are not to be put together in one entity. Come child, go back to your room, I have business to talk about with Inouye-san.”
“But oto-san (father), that is not fair!”
“REI! This is enough. You are becoming more stubborn everyday, you will not answer back to me.”
Rei looked at her father in distaste, her eyes burning with anger. Her fists clenched tightly and her lips pouted. “You are always working, you never have anytime with me or ota-san (mother). Your kodomo (child) is your work, not me, it is your kobito (lover), your inochi (life)!”
He glared at his child, the headstrong product of him and his wife. His wife was sick, and having to look after this child was impossible. He raised his hands and slapped Rei across the face before he even knew it.
Rei felt herself being flung onto the ground, her face stung from what had just hit her. She sat there for a while, stunned, hot tears streaming down her hot angry cheeks, already beginning to swell from the blow. Suddenly another hand reached out towards her.
“Rei-chan, I will accompany you up to your room, don’t cry, here wipe your eyes.” Rei looked up at Kenta-kun’s understanding eyes, and slipped her hand in his. Pushing herself up, she stood beside him. Taking his handkerchief, she wiped her eyes dry and stared with defiant eyes straight into her father’s eyes. She could see him suffering from the shock of what had just occurred. It was always like that, a slap across the face, and then he would play pretend shock and guilt. She silently handed the handkerchief back to Kenta-kun and allowed herself to be led back to the house.
12:39pm
Two cats sat in the sun out in Tokyo Park, their bodies curled up to each
other on the green bench beside the fountain. “Artemis, perhaps it is my
over-protectiveness, but I feel that change is to become Rei, like it was
to Ami. She must experience a lot of harshness in her world, something
which none of us can help her with.”
“We will always be there for her Luna, that is all we can do. Ami has grown much strong and happier from her experiences last year. It is a difficult thing for them to overcome, I have no doubt that all of the senshi will have to go through the same thing, and we can only support them with our friendship.”
“Yes, Ami’s experience has definitely made her a different person. She is now much more confident, I wish that she would be able to find happiness though.”
“It will happen, soon Luna. I believe, when she gets into university… if my predictions are not too wrong of course, which they usually aren’t.”
“What about Rei then?”
“She will find her love, in time of course. We will just have to see her through, make sure that she is not pressurized into making any rash decisions. Let’s stray off this gloomy topic shall we? I believe that your charge’s mother will be serving tuna today.”
“Hmmm… what heavens we live in… if only Ikuko would give us that every day… but then, looking after Usagi is sometimes too much of a sacrifice for good food.”
2:19pm
“I don’t give a damn what you think! I have every single right to do what
I want with her, who do you think you are? Trying to stop me from seeing
my…”
“Sir, please! I beg of you to remain calm. But it is against the rules for visitors during these hours, we cannot bend the rules…”
“Is this what I am paying for? If this is the case then I will withdraw…”
“Imaruru-san, please!”
The red-faced man turned to his companion, Inouye-san, and remembered his place. He turned back to the gentleman in long robes sitting at the other end of side of the desk. “Uhum, you must excuse my outburst just then, no doubt you have seen the paper… the lack of sleep, the stress…” he waved his hands vaguely to gesture and draw into the air as if it would better explain the situation.
“Of course Imaruru-sama! I understand your position completely. I will see what I can do for you. You rarely come and visit us, my obliging you is but a small honor.” He rose from his seat and bowed to them, they did the same, and he hastily left the office to give instructions to his secretary.
The two gentlemen who stayed behind in the office smiled slightly. “Imaruru-san, perhaps I might remind you that you are in the limelight now, you must not lose your calm, otherwise we will lose our cause. Please, try, I have known you long enough to know that sometimes even you do not know what you are doing.”
Imaruru-san raised his hand up to silence him, “that’s enough, I realise what I did was wrong. Write out a check to them, as a donation to the building fund, and send him some gifts, personally, will you?”
“How much?”
“As much as you like, the cheque book is in your hands, as much as you think is necessary.”
Inouye-san nodded his head and made a mental note of it. For years he had been picking up the pieces after his mentor. On good days, Imaruru-san was as smooth as oil, on bad days, he was like a hurricane, leaving tattered bits of half-built relationships with people for his junior to pick up. Now that they were going to start their own political campaign, it was more the important. He turned his eyes to the window, the architecture that reminded him of his own school days in England… he had returned to Japan since he was 20, he had graduated early, and served the political party faithfully. He had been glad that Imaruru-san had taken him under his care, as the prodigious son, and now, made him his partner. Today, they were going to see someone special, someone special in both their lives. Unconsciously, his hands reached to his neck and touched his tie, a little crooked, he decided, and straightened it up.
“You’re not meeting the Empress or anything. You look fine, just stop fretting. You know that she has always preferred you to me, I can’t get a word into her, can’t make a single opinion without fearing for the worse. All this for the party… for some sort of political power, political power my foot…”
“Imaruru-san… please! Stay calm!”
“Yeah, ‘scuse me, I’m damn stressed. This is not a good day for me, man I need a cigarette, damn the rules in this *&$@ place.”
“No! You are running a health-conscious campaign for God-sake! A cigarette will ruin everything we have been doing…”
“Damn it all!”
A gray figure swung around from his chair to face the man who had just rushed into his office. “I told you it was going to happen, don’t bother me with useless, old information. I want new stuff, not those stale things! What have you been doing with finding me a partner to run for election? Any sleaze at all from those two?”
“No sir, we are still digging that up, Inouye-san seems pretty clean though… sir, we have three candidates, can we ask that you peruse this files before making your decision?”
“Don’t fool around with me, everyone’s got sleaze. Now, I want the best for a partner.”
“These are the best sir, we are going to produce the cream team.”
The small man in the grey suit reached out for the files that were handed to him. “You’d better!”
Rei jerked up to face her teacher who was tapping on her desk. She realised that she must have drifted off, indeed, she had not heard a single word that her sensei had said during class. Rei immediately jerked up to her feet and with her head bowed, she answered the nun. “Excuse sensei, I was not paying attention, I will accept any punishment that you see fit and…”
“Miss Hino, come outside, we will talk for a moment.”
“Yes sensei.” Rei followed her sensei dutifully to the corridor. As the door opened, she looked out at the medieval archways of the old building in the shape of a quadrangle. The small garden in the middle of the quadrangle, and the fountain was the centerpiece for the whole building. Rei flinched, she suddenly felt out of place of the picturesque sight, like she did not fit into this life that she had loved and yearned for.
“Miss Hino, your reputation has always seen you be the role model for the younger girls, and others in your class. I did not wish to spoil it. I am concerned, this is your final year, and you seem to be increasingly distracted. I understand, previously, the loss of your friend, Miss Mizuno was a great shock to you, but now…”
“I apologise sensei, I will not disappoint you again.”
Another nun appeared from one of the doorways, rushing towards them, in a fashion that only a nun could manage. Not quite running, but haste steps, almost like she was power-walking, to hide the fact that they were flustered. Rei noted that she had rushed out from the coordinator/principle’s office, it could only be an emergency that she was waving her arms so frantically at them. Her sensei stepped forward, and the two conferred in hushed whispers. Seeing their worried faces, Rei turned and began to open the door back into the classroom.
“Wait, Miss Hino. I believe that this news concerns you.”
Rei turned, and found the other nun that signal for her to follow. “Follow me if you please Miss Hino, this way.”