Furuzeki Warzone IC

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A younger year old Miaka stood looking out over the playground at the children romping and having fun. She had claimed the semi-spherical jungle jim as her own against all comers and with her feet precariously resting on points between the metal pipes she was the tallest thing around.

"Mi-chan." Yuri's voice reached her and she turned to look down at the girl sitting next to her voice. "Do you believe in magic? Do you believe wishes come true?"

"No." Miaka's answer to the childish question was instant. "If they did...I would wish myself away."

Now when Hotaru had left them and they were alone Miaka's iron visage once again faced the younger girl. "Do you believe in magic?" she asked suddenly. "Do you believe wishes come true?"
 
Yuri sat up and looked at her friend. Miaka never frightened Yuri, but there were times she could be frightening. This was not one of those times, but there was a weight in what Miaka was saying, coupled with her pose out in the hallway, that made it hard for Yuri to escape from the thought. "Magic?" her voice had a hitch to it, it was almost in awe, but not quite. "I think I've always believed in magic, but wishes... I think wishes have to be worked for." It was more introspective then most people would have given the younger girl credit for having. Most people, but not Miaka.

Standing, Yuri took Miaka's hands into her own. "I know there's likely not much I can do for you, but whatever it is that's going on, know you can lessen your burden at least a little on me, even if it's just to say things that no one else will listen to you about." She smiled, trying to tell Miaka without words that she could spill all her worries on Yuri and her 'little sister' would be there for her, would be the pillar in turn for all the times Miaka had been the strong one. Yuri could be strong, and for Miaka she would be. Yes she had other obligations. Yes it might be difficult. Yet even if her life was left as nothing more then obligation for a time, it would be worth it. Miaka did not need to battle her demons alone!
 
"If you want to do something for me then stop believing." she said pulling away. "Wishes don't come true and when you think they do they're not what you wanted." her gaze never lost its intensity. but her face and was beginning to crack before she caught herself with a deep breath. "Things are not the same as they used to be." Instead of looking distressed or upset she looked determined. "I cannot protect you and I get a bad feeling about your new friend..."

She ran into a wall as far as talking went. She always had trouble planning her conversations ahead and not it was back off or tell her everything. But what could she say? That she was in a war? That she killed people.

"I don't want you to worry about me. I will be fine, but we are not children anymore and I need to know that you can look after yourself without me."
 
Yuri smiled at Miaka, it was a sad smile and how could she not be sad when she saw her oldest and dearest friend suffer so? "You're right, things aren't as they use to be. Maybe things aren't meant to. Isn't that what this whole growing up business is about? But I can take care of myself Miaka." Yuri's smile changed from sad to proud. "I know it's hard for you to believe, but I can and not by just wishing all the bad to go away." She wouldn't explain wishing was just a first step, right now Miaka couldn't seem to wrap her head around miracles.

Yuri went back to the bed again and sat, tapping the space next to her, hoping this time Miaka would sit down. "As for Hotaru, she's not so bad once you get to know her. She's just , well I'll just say she's got her reasons for being a big nervous right now, but eventually I hope those barriers come down for her sake." Tilting her head she looked at her big sister, her oldest friend, the person she grew up admiring. "I can't help but worry about you when you're being so cryptic. The unknown is the scariest thing out there." That wasn't so much wisdom beyond her ages up the realization after one too many horror movies.
 
It started as a low chuckle but quickly grew to an uncontrollable laugh that lasted just too long to be normal, her face hidden behind her hair as she looked down. Then face still hidden she reached out and placed hand on top of Yuri's head. "I used to think that too." she said, brushing the hair out of her face with her other hand and pulling the younger girl closer into a one armed hug. "There's things far scarier." For a moment she looked lost, uncertain, frightened; Then she broke away and sat on Yuri's bed.

"I would tell you if I thought you'd believe me and if I didn't know you would try to help me. I can't let you get involved so I will say that I am doing what I know to be right and now I would like to talk about something else." She set her bag down with the clink of glass in crystal and folded her hands in her lap. "Let's meet this friend and see if she is as good as you say..."
 
She laughed, and not in merriment. It was like a bad joke that only Miaka was privy to. Her expression caused Yuri to feel protective of her big sister. It was a new feeling, for it was a complete role reversal. It seemed though that Miaka still knew her too well, because before she could offer, Miaka was telling her she didn't want her help. It hurt a little, after all she cared.

"I would believe you Miaka. Don't ever doubt that." Yuri gave Miaka a quick hug then looked at her. "So you're ready to give Hotaru a shot? I'm glad. She's a good person and she needs good people around her." And normal. A very normal dinner would be good for her. Yuri then glanced down at Miaka's bag, then up at her friend.
 
She wasn't ready to give anyone a fair shot, but She didn't want her last day with Yuri to be marred by conflict. "You wouldn't believe me this time." she said "Or maybe I just need to believe you wouldn't..." she didn't explain further, she refused to. Some small part of her needed to believe the Yuri's life was free of the hardships before her. "There is blood on my hands, Yuri. Blood that will never wash off."

She opened the door and was through before the younger girl could respond her face that of a proper lady. Calm, collected, expressionless. "Hotaru." she greeted cutting between the girl and her friend's brother. "Please forgive me if I am interrupting but I am done talking to Yuri so you may join us now. Sorry if my need for privacy caused offense."

Miaka always had her 'perfect lady' backup personality, for when she needed it, or when her primary one was overwrought with emotion. "I would like to get to know you better as well in the short time we have before my duties pull me from her life once more."
 
"Yes?" Hotaru asked after hearing someone call her.

It was a welcome signal. The magical girl was half worried that she was going to be spending the entire time with Yuri's family instead of her new team partner. She was in the mood to slap Yuri's brother since he hadn't stopped trying to flirt with her.

"Nope. Nothing important going on here!" She said, while nearly jumping across the room. "It's all good. It really is. You've been friends longer with Yuri than I have. I mean friendship is important. Though you make it sound as if you are going to be leaving forever somewhere. In this day and age, you could keep in contact via phones or computers. It's not like someone can completely disappear. Heck, the only way for something like to happen is for the world itself to be altered and I highly doubt that's possible."

Hotaru forced a smile on her face. She was sure that Miaka had no interest in her rambles. She then placed her hands in her pockets and walked towards the dark haired teen.

"Sure, I guess it's okay for you to learn about me a bit. I can't say I'm that interesting. Yuri will probably come up with a better story of how we met. Isn't that right Ri-chan?"

Hotaru wanted to cringe for coming up with such a lame nickname, but it helped to create an illusion of friendship. Or so she hoped.
 
Miaka chose to sit on the floor with her bent legs under the low table and waited for the other girl to follow suit. "It is possible." she said with a flick of her hair and a cold stare. Then out on a well practiced 'natural' smile and folded her hands on the table. "Especially with my family. They are all Yakuza and I though I could escape that life... once... But that was a child's dream."

She could only speak about it this plainly because it was only partly true. What she did she felt was just as bad as what her family did but it was the task handed down to her and her upbringing made her uniquely suited to the task.

"I am only happy that Yuri will not have to face the world alone without me. She was being bullier when I met her and my reputation and my family were enough to keep those people away from her once I made it clear that she was with me. I don't think you have that kind of reputation, but Yuri isn't a little girl anymore so you don't need it so you can stop trying to impress me with false familiarity with her and tell me why you're protecting her. That matter more than anything else."

Miaka had tried to keep it friendly... honest."
 
Hotaru followed along with Miaka's pleasantries and sat across from her. The fact that she brought up being related to a crime family made the magical girl's heart race. Though, it certainly explained her protective nature of Yuri. It seemed like an odd concept for a friendship, but even criminals were human.

However, once it became clear that Miaka had seen through her acting her gut knotted. For all these month, she had kept her magical girl self and the timid glasses wearing girl separate. If she were to be found out, Hotaru knew that her family would probably be targeted by her foes. It was one of the reasons she never went back after Umi's death.

"R-Right." Hotaru mumbled. "You are correct. I'm no one that impressive. My past isn't that interesting, neither. I'm just a hoodlum. Only met Yuri a few days ago. Beat up a thug that was trying to steal her purse. Thus, she's been inviting me all these places to try and get my life back in line. I suppose, it's something like that."

Hotaru didn't care that she was lying. It was better than saying that she was a colorful soldier fighting some war that made actual little sense in the grand scheme of things. Of course, at this time Hotaru had no idea that Miaka was a foe….
 
"Well at least she has a type." Miaka said flatly, remarking on how similar their stories were. "And why do you care about a timid girl who attracts abuse?" she asked. "If you are just a hoodlum?" She had her fingers meshed and resting on the table, not seeming to care if her questions were strange and Yuri's brother could hear them. It was like she was conducting and interview.

But in her head it was very different. None of this seemed real to her. It was an illusion and lurking just behind it was the blood and murder that make up her life. Being hunted by her family, her former companions, the chosen... They were all waiting just out of view. The experience was oddly surreal.

Again she tried to lead by example, showing her hand to Hotaru would feel she could show hers. "I wanted someone who could show me how to be normal. I was scared to ask so, as is my family's way I put someone in my debt so that I felt like I could talk to them... I was young... "

She offered another smile. "I didn't mean t use the situation like that but I had good luck. Yuri helped me feel normal."

And now nothing could. Miaka could see them when she closed her eyes. Those she hunted and those who hunted her. But it never showed on her face. "Yuri still means a great deal to me, and not being able to see her makes me sad... So why do you care for her?"
 
Hotaru raised an eyebrow and chuckled. "We come from two very different worlds, Miaka-san."

Hotaru hated using honorifics, at least with her 'new' personality. Back when she was just a stuttering introvert, she added honorifics all the time to seem educated and refined. At this point, she really didn't care about them anymore. However, if she was actually dealing with a crime lord's daughter, being polite was the best option to get through this affair.

"I go by impulse and instinct. If you're into that New Age stuff, I guess you could say that Yuri has a good aura. Ya know? I don't have a real 'need' to be her friend. I simply want to be. Sometimes you meet a person and think, 'this friendship thing is weird. I find another person and want to hang out with 'em.'" Hotaru continued.

She then placed both of her hand on the back of her head and did a hearty laugh. "I suppose I'm not exactly a hoodlum. I just like to make light of myself. My past really ain't anything that interesting. Both parents are office workers, rarely around….Had to care for my own well-being. Got good grades in school, but upon entering high school I had a change of heart. Felt that it was kind of useless. Decided to learn about the world the "hard way." Stupid, I know. However, this way I feel more alive. Hahah."
 
As the turned her head her hair seemed to make a sound like leaves in the wind, dramatically highlighting the fact that she was looking away.

Feeling alive was something she had never known and she knew she never would. She wasn't destined to survive this war and even if she was there was no going back.

"Then maybe Yuri is in good hands." she commented. "I do not think much of myself either, I'm a criminal and the world has no place for people like me." with a smile she moved her hands into her lap. "But I trust that you can take care of her."

That was the end of that conversation and now Miaka didn't have anything to say. In the silence she couldn't ignore her pursuers... that is someone has seen her come here? What in Yuri's family were now targets. "Part of protecting her is keeping her away from me. I hope you understand that."
 
Hotaru then lowered her arms and crossed them in front of her chest. Once again she gave Miaka a quizzical look. She pondered what the other girl stated.

"I don't know how that mob stuff works, nor do I really want to. However, all the great minds of the world do say that just because you can do something, that doesn't mean you have to go through with it. Unless it is something a war of ideologies, I guess. But those are worse…Hahaha. Sorry, just speakin' instead of thinkin'."

She then turned to look at Yuri. "Maybe, you would be the better one to be speakin' than I. I'd think the hostess would want to do more than just listenin' to two of her comrades chattin' about boring stuff."
 
Blood on her hands? What did Miaka mean by that? Before Yuri could ask about what the family had gotten her friend involved in, because it had to be Miaka's family, hthe older girl had gone out to the hall to invite Hotaru in.

Hotaru seemed more then happy to be in the bedroom with the girls, Yuri was going to step on her brother's foot later for that, but seemed not to know how to interact with Miaka. Was she intimitated? No. It seemed she was just a poor liar and was trying to not have her friend think anything suspicous was going on. Yuri had to restrain herself from smacking her own face when Hotaru said 'Ri-chan' and with the story of the purse snatcher. Miaka when she returned, because Yuri refused to believe she wouldn't, was going to think she needed to live in a guilded cage! And after she tried so hard to convince Miake she could not only take care of herself, but also be helpful!

'Oh well,' she thought and the voices reminded her she had bigger problems ahead of her, which really wasn't reassuring. As Miaka continued her interrogation of Hotaru, which all things considered was going quite well, Yuri picked up Miaka's bag. She had heard something earlier and since she didn't think it was something she shouldn't see, like a gun, she took a look.

It wasn't a gun, which had it, Yuri would have preteneded never to have seen it and placed the bag back down. No, it wasn't anything illegal at all, but something pretty...

"Hm? Oh yes! I think we can spend the time until dinner's ready with something a lot more fun and a lot less serious..." It almost seemed surreal that she was about to turn on some music and pull out the latest magazine for readying of silly articles. She always was amazed by the stuff written in from girls' around Japan but really she liked the make up tips and newest trends best.

As she turned, the crystal object of Miaka's in hand, she looked at Hotaru, or rather looked at where she should have been. Yuri wondered what she was noticing, recalling the ghost Umi telling her about the girls ability to disguise, but she wasn't doing that now, was she?
 
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Miaka had been in a state of false relaxation. Monopolizing Yuri's bed and sprawled out on her back like she hadn't slept in a week. A moment later she was cursing herself for dropping her guard so easily.

As soon as she saw Yuri holding her crystal she reached out and grabbed it to forcefully pull it from the girl's hands. In her life she had only ever snatched one thing from her before, the day Yuri had found her gun.

The crystal was stuffed back into her bag and the bag zipped up to be put against the wall on the other side of Miaka from Yuri before the girl went back to staring at the ceiling.

She couldn't really say anythign in front of Hotaru so she would have to explain later, she hoped the warning look she had shot Yuri was enough for now...
 
That was unexpected. In fact Miaka's reaction was so startling that Yuri forgot what she had seen, or didn't see. She couldn't ask in front of Hotaru. She couldn't react, even thiugh she wanted to. Instead she put on a smile. "Now what does Tiny Pop have to say about the perfect foundation for under ¥1000?"

Yuri was happy for the call to dinner later on as she had been about to try to engage the other girls into answering questions for one of the sillier quizes she'd yet seen in one of these magazines. Leading the girls into the dinning room she smiled at her father who was already in there. "Father, I'd like to introduce you to my friend Hotaru," she said to him with a smile.

He greeted the girl then looked at his daught inquisitively. "Well?"

"Well what?"

"Your other fri..."
He was interrupted as Yuri's mother called from the kitchen, "Yuri, come in here and help me with these dishes."

"Coming..." She went into the kitchen confused, what was her father trying to ask. He couldn't have been asking what it sounded like. No sooner had she left, then she came back, with dishes in hand. After a bit of negotiating, everyone was seated and dinner started.
 
"Onigaueara Miaka." she introduced herself politely. "I have been friends with Yuri for so long she forgets I have not met her family for a long time and you might not remember me." That was that explained neatly before Yuri came back.

She took the place left for her, not really caring where she sat, the close call with the crystal she had realized that she was a danger to Yuri, she shouldn't be here. This was not her life anymore and never could be again.

This was her last night where she could ever be normal and it was now that she realized how much she had sacrificed for the plan.

She sniffed before she could catch herself. She was feeling something she hadn't felt in a long time, sad. Alone in a crowd... surrounded by a loving family but utterly, completely cut off.

She shook herself, reminding herself this was how it had always been, not with Yuri's family bit with her own... and it was no turning back now...
 
Yuri almost didn't catch it, the melancholy look of her oldest friend. She needed to find a way to have some one on one time with Miaka, to find out what was truly going on. She had an important thing to do, something she was not going to neglect, but she had to find time.

That time was not now however. Yuri negotiated her time between her family and friends at the dining room table, complementing her mother's food, explaining to Hotaru and Miaka what she liked about it, making comments about fun childhood baking, which had involved Miaka, but Yuri did not out right state that since everyone knew she was involved!

Yuri's parents made polite conversation trying to get to know Yuri's two friends, her brother's attempts at flirting had been squashed by Hotaru, and for now he didn't try more then half heartedly at any more than friendliness. Soon though dinner was over and Yuri's mother was shaking her head at the offers to help clean up. "Go ahead, scoot along girls, I'm perfectly able to clean up this small mess, but thank you."

With her mother in the kitchen and her brother and father abandoning the table for their own activities, Yuri looked over at her two friends, one brand new, the other old and dear, and grinned. "That was nice, wasn't it?"
 
Hotaru patted her stomach after eating the meal that Yuri's mother had prepared. It had been a long while since she had a good family meal. Ever since Umi's death, Hotaru had eaten instant Ramen or whatever fast food she could steal from others.

"Of course it was!" Hotaru exclaimed. "One should never reject food. Unless they are sick, I suppose."

Deep down, Hotaru longed for the days before she had become a magical girl. She wished that she could have pulled herself up by her own will power instead of having to rely on magic to constantly change who she was all the time. There was another side of her that wished that there was a way for her to truly become someone else. The wish she had made allowed for her to become anyone; however, she was starting to realize that she actually liked having friends and a family.

Meanwhile, glaring into one of the windows loomed Saru. While he had a plastered smile on his face at all times, it was easy to tell that he was unhappy with Hotaru not training the new girl.

"Why is this set of girls breaking the rules? This has never happened before. The fact that they've removed their bracelets makes tracking them down harder to do. No good, no good. Uguu." Saru said with a chipper tone, even though he was upset.

Just then, there was rustling in the brush that Saru had hid in. It was Miaka's cat familiar.

"I see that you two have come here, Salem. Shall we talk about we should do to get these girls going on their duties? Uggu."
 
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