Monday 10:30am
They stood in the middle of a large square that was otherwise known as
the Kiyomori Square, or the Main Square. Each of them looking extremely
perplexed at the thought that they would soon be separating in a strange
place, even though they would be meeting in less than 3 hours’ time.
“Are you sure you all know the way?” Mamoru asked one final time
as he corrected Minako - who had been holding her map the wrong way.
“Sort of,” came Minako’s reply.
“Uhuh,” was Makoto’s nod.
“Yes mother duck!” Rei said.
And of course… “it’s not fair, Ami gets you to bring her to class!” as
Usagi began her overused powers of wailing and crying.
“We’re meeting in that” Mamoru pointed to the café on his right,
completely ignoring Usagi’s cries, “café over there at 1:10pm, and
if you don’t know how to come back here, ask, its called the Sakana.
Aww… Usako,” he hugged her and gave her a kiss on the forehead, despite
the embarrassment he was feeling due to the gazes he got from passersby,
“you will be fine, you’re all heading in the same direction, and you get
dropped off first according to the route I drew out for you.”
Finally, after their tearful goodbyes, Rei, Minako, Makoto and Usagi headed
off in the same general direction, whilst Ami and Mamoru went towards the
faculty of medicine together. “Alright,” Mamoru began as he turned
towards Ami and said for the hundredth time, “so you have Biomedical Science
first, if you’re lucky, you’ll get…”
The girls gasped as they saw the huge buildings that had tiny obscure signs
on them, they had been walking around the same building twice before they
found the name of the building in order to make sure they were walking
in the right direction. “Oh no!” Usagi suddenly exclaimed, “Mamoru’s
still holding my book bag!”
“Fantastic odango-dama! Now we have to go back to where we started
and try to find them,” Rei glared at her friend with her hands at her hips.
“…and of course, I have to introduce you to the technician down at the
labs, its very important that you get on their good side, especially when
you want to go in there for some after hour work, get extra lab results,
or even an extension - not that you will need it. Oh, and this side,”
he stopped and pointed, “is where we have all the tutorials for any extra
help you need during lunch time, or you can just use them as study rooms…”
“Urr… Mamoru, is that Usagi-chan’s satchel you are still carrying?”
He looked at the bags that he was still carrying over his shoulder and
sighed, “great, we have to go and find them, why don’t you lead the way,
just to make sure that you don’t get lost when we meet up again later on?”
“Okay,” Ami nodded as she turned around and walked of in the direction
that they had come from confidently, “this way I think.”
First day of university, he thought, he looked at all the people around
him, all fresh and enthusiastic, like he had once been too. Suddenly,
he felt old and somewhat out of touch, he didn’t know anybody around him,
he could already imagine walking into the lecture theatres and see those
younger faces sniggering at him for his comparatively old age. In
Japan, he was already considered a mature-age student at 23. He was
different from everybody else, for the past year, he had been spending
his time in the countryside, recovering from his illness, he had no physical
contact with the real world. During all the time that he had lost,
he had lost contact with his friends, and when he now tried to contact
them, the friendship had sounded strained and awkward… well, except a few
especially close friends. Most of them had given him the impression
as though he had the plague, something that could be transmitted over the
telephone, but no; anyone could have told them that amnesia could not be
transmitted, especially by phone! - not to mention when it wasn’t really
amnesia, but pretend amnesia.
So now, first day back into the city since having enrolled into his course,
he had not yet contacted his friends, ex-friends. Maybe there were
a few that he wanted so talk to, but there was also part of him that wanted
to surprise them, pop up where they worked later on in the afternoon, or
their old hangouts, just to show them that he was back, normal and healthy.
But as he stepped out of his limousine today, he had felt apprehension,
almost as though he knew that something was going to happen, or even a
sense of deja-vu… and now, as he exited the car park, walking into the
main square, he knew why. In the distance, he spotted his old friend,
Mamoru, talking with a girl with blue hair holding a map trying to figure
out where to go, Mamoru was laughing as he touched her shoulder and steered
them towards the commerce/arts section of the university. As the
girl turned, he froze, he had seen that girl before, it was like a dream
as he pushed people out of the way, running towards the pair…
“Mamoru Chiba!” Ami and Mamoru halted immediately, and as they turned
they found themselves face to face with another tall young man with short
sandy brown, almost blond hair and emerald green eyes.
Both Mamoru and Ami’s jaws dropped as soon as they saw him, “oh my…” Mamoru
stuttered, taking a step backwards to eye the person.
He grinned with a glint in his eye, “caught you in the act huh? Your
girlfriend? I always thought that you were more of a blond person.”
“Urr… this is urr…”
“MAMORU!!” Yelled four girls from across the main square of the university,
as they ran towards him, however, at the sight of the young man standing
face to face with Mamoru and Ami, and Ami shrinking away, they came to
an immediate stop about two meters away from them.
Mamoru came towards Usagi and handed her her school satchel, holding her
hand, he smiled, “this is my girlfriend, Tsukino Usagi.”
“Nice to meet you,” he said as he approached the group with an easy stride,
standing approximately a meter away from her, he bowed. His eyes
averted however, to the now lone figure that had taken several steps backwards,
away from them.
“And these are our friends,” Mamoru continued, seemingly not noticing Ami’s
reaction, “Hino Rei, Kino Makoto, Aino Minako and…” he pointed at the direction
which he had left Ami, who had melting into the crowd as she ran off towards
the medical facility… “that was Mizuno Ami.”
“Ami? You mean…” he trailed off as he stared at mass of blue that
was fast disappearing from his sight, “Mizuno Ami, the daughter of the
doctor Mizuno Mewagi?”
Mamoru gave his old friend an odd gaze and said, “yes, and girls, that
is…” as he turned to look at the girls, they found them giving him a look
of pure dread. “He is my old friend…” as he turned to point at his
friend, he shook his head when he realized that he was also disappearing
into the crowd.
Usagi squeezed his hand as she looked into his eyes and he noticed that
the rest of the girls had already run off in the same direction that his
friend and Ami had gone to. She spoke in a shocked whisper that traveled
through the noise of the congregation, “do you realize who he is?”
“Of course I do!” Mamoru exploded, “I don’t know what is going on, but
he was one of my best friends when I was in high school, his name is Kunki
Saito-Sato, the person who disappeared five years ago, the same person
that Ami had once named as a childhood friend as well! What I want
to know is what on earth everyone is doing, why is everyone running away
like they’ve seen a ghost.”
“Kunki Saito-Sato is supposed to be dead,” Usagi whispered softly, “Ami
killed him by mistake when we knew him to be Avarice – Ami killed Avarice
to stay alive. He’s not supposed to be here, alive, not to mention
that the person just then was not Avarice, when we met him, he was…”
Mamoru was dumbfounded as he struggled to speak, hardly hearing the end
of her sentence as he cut her off, “he… he came… he called me… about a
month ago, in his family condo out in the countryside… he didn’t know what
had happened, just that he had lost a few years of his life… I… I had no
idea… you never… you never told me that he was supposed to be dead, you
never even told me what happened there.”
The older and wiser Usagi gave him a perplexed look and said, “well now
you do, and what we have find out is who he really is and why he is here.”
Hesitantly, Mamoru ventured, “do you think that he might be a fake?”
“No matter who he claims to be, he’s supposed to be dead.”
“So you do think he is a fake…?”
“Well if he is, then we’d better stop him from getting to Ami.” Usagi
pulled on his hand and dragged him through the crowd.
“AMI!” His long legs and determination caught up to her in a second, grabbing
her shoulders in a firm grip, he spun her around to face him, “stop running,
do you even know who you are running from? Do you remember who I
am?”
She let out a soft squeal
as she was spun around, “of course I do, I…”
Flashback
“Hey!” He said softly, dressed in his tailor-made tuxedo, he smiled
at her wearing a party dress. Looking at her with a silly grin, he
bowed elaborately, “May I claim your hand to this dance?”
“But… you know that I don’t know how to dance.”
“Well, you’ll have to learn then, won’t you?”
“I… I have really bad co-ordination, I…”
“Don’t worry, hey, I wore steel-capped shoes; you can step on me all you
like.” He grinned at her expression from his remark, and reached
out to pinch her tiny nose. She reached out to punch him lightly
in the arm but he caught her fist before it reached him, turning her hand
slightly, he held her hand gently. She did not struggle, only smiling
in return. “I take it that it is a yes then?”
She did not speak, but stood from her seat and followed him to the dance
floor. Standing amongst all the other graceful dancers, they caught
glances from others, namely their amused chaperons. She was not as
tall as he was, and only reached his chest, but boy did they dance that
night.
Ami’s voice faltered as the conviction that she previously held, slipped
away, she repeated herself, more for the benefit of herself, than for the
person she had been speaking to, “of course I do, I know who you are.”
“Well then, who am I?” He released her from his grasp and stood in front
of her with his hands on his hips, he stood towering over her as she shrunk
away from him, and he took a commanding position in front of her waiting
for her answer.
The last thing that he would have expected at that at time was a blow to
the back of his head, and approximately two girls jumping onto him from
behind. He could feel one of them using their legs to sweep him onto
the floor, with a bang; he fell down, looking up at the three girls who
towered over him. He gasped, wondering what he had done to warrant
such violence on him, he stared at those girls with a puzzled look, two
of them, one with chestnut hair in a ponytail, and a blond girl gave him
looks of menace, whilst a dark haired girl’s eyes seemed somewhat hesitant
about the attack.
Before he could answer however, Ami whispered softly, “I don’t know who
you are anymore, I thought you were… but… you’re obviously not… excuse
me, I’m sorry.” Without another word, Ami took off into the crowd
once more, leaving him sitting there, open mouthed, faced with three girls
who had just tackled him to the floor.