Tuesday 4:52pm
    “Oh no! Rei-chan is bound to kill me for this one, I shouldn’t have drunk a second green tea milkshake after the chocolate ice-cream. Oooo… I have to go… I’m desperate… I need the toilet. Chikuso! (Damn!) Why does this place have to have so many steps?” Two blond pigtails flew past an old man slowly walking up the same steps.
    “Young lady, one should not swear in a sacred place such as this.”
    “I don’t give a damn!” Usagi shouted back at him out of sheer annoyance. In her mind, she could only think of the uncountable times that Rei had shouted. Almost immediately though, she lost her footing on one of the steps and crashed downwards… she must have fallen at least 15 steps.  “Kuso! ($h;t!)” She said as she tried to stand back up, and glaring at the old man who had turned around to look at her, however, she immediately stepped on one of her pigs tails which immediately caused a loud yelp and a huge jump backwards… and inevitable stumbling down another 20 or so steps.
    The old man smiled at her and wagged his finger at her slowly. “Now what did I say? This is not the place to swear, do you believe me now?” He turned around and continued walking up slowly.

Tuesday 4:53pm
    “Where is that girl?! She’s late again!! I mean… to think that she had grown up and learnt something, and that she is supposedly the leader and everything, she has sure stupid to not to know how to read her watch.”
    “Rei-chan, stop it, we all know that you are only so harsh on her because you care about her, but sometimes you should be…”
    “Me? Care? Her? HA!” Rei spat out at Makoto’s comment, “Makoto-chan, face it, you are as sick of her being late as I am, you just don’t fume externally.”
    Mamoru, used to his girlfriend being late, leaned back casually at the door and said, “Maybe she is practicing to be queen, they are always late to make an entrance.”
    At that precise moment, the door was flung open, and Mamoru immediately fell at the intruder’s feet. A slight giggling was heard, “Mamo-chan, you don’t need to bow at my feet! Oh, Rei, this place is so cursed, you will never guess what happened when I came up today.”
    Rei immediately burst into pieces… “Baka-Usagi-chan!! (Stupid Usagi!!) Cursed is not the word to describe these holy grounds, it is a sacred place!”
    “That’s what the old man called it. I was just swearing at myself, and then he told me not to swear, and then I swore at him, and then I suddenly fell down, and then I swore when I fell down, and then I tried to get up, and then I fell down again, and then the old man was like laughing at me, and then…” Usagi stopped to the laughter that greeted her little story, “Hey! It’s not funny, it hurted!”
    Minako stumbled up to her and said, “I can’t believe you did that.”
    Mamoru pulled his girlfriend down next to him, “Usako, you fall down so much, it’s normal, nothing to do with a curse.”
    She looked at Rei though, who had been staring at her without hiding her amazement, her lips moved silently, then… “Usagi-chan, I want you to come with me immediately and apologize to the Keeper of these grounds, you have insulted this whole place. It is not a curse, but just fruits, and the old man is right, you cannot swear in this place, not the kind of swearing you do anyway.”
    “You swear, Rei.” Usagi retorted.
    “Only mildly, nothing… expletive, but what you must have said, just then, is inexcusable and to also mock the whole religion, you must go directly to apologise.” Holding her friend’s arm, Rei dragged Usagi out of the room.
 

Tuesday 5:15pm
    “That took a long time, I have to go home to get dinner ready you know.” Makoto said pointedly once the pair returned.
    Mamoru, who had not said a word during the twenty or so minutes that the pair had left the room, suddenly cleared his throat, “Well, may I open the package now?”
    Rei, Minako and Makoto nodded, but Usagi’s eyes widened at the word ‘package’. “Rei-chan, what did you give to my Mamo-chan?”
    “It’s not from me, but from a doctor, I think it is from Ami-chan’s mother.” Rei answered.
    “Yes, I went to see her yesterday, after I dropped you home.” Fishing a pen-knife from his pocket, he slit the sticky-tape from the large package, revealing a CD, a note and a French Dictionary (with translation to Japanese of course ^v^). “Oh yes, definitely Dr. Mizuno.”
    “Why? Why French?” Rei asked.
    “Because I went to see her yesterday, and she said something in French, but I told her that I didn’t understand what she was saying.”
    “Then why the CD?”
    “She walked away, humming a song, must be one of them… oh yes, it says so on the letter.” Mamoru scanned the note quickly.
    “Read it out!” Usagi said excitedly.
 

    “I guess we know what we’ll be doing today.” Mamoru said.
    “What?” Minako asked.
    “Translating those words… we have an hour to do this so that we can get to her house on time. Okay, first word, J-‘-E-N, can you look it up you guys, and I’ll write it down.” Rei said, picking up and pen and slowly spelling the words out.
    “Re-spell that again Rei.” Makoto said.
    “J-apostrophe-E-N.”...
 

Next