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Hakucho turned around to see a young girl shyly looking at her. "Yes?"
"Umm...can...do you mind...umm...signing this?" the girl asked, holding out a pen and paper.
Hakucho smiled as she took them and quickly signed her name. When she looked at the gratitude that shone there in the girl's eyes, she couldn't help but think about how she probably seemed so far away from everybody else. She remembered when she was younger and fame had not found it's way into her life yet.
She was walking toward the T*A private girl's school when she saw a young girl with red hair walking by and chatting with another girl. She looked at this young girl with a kind of awe as she felt a strange shiver go through her body.
That girl...do...do I know her?
Hakucho had frozen and the expression on her face was that of pure surprise. It wasn't until somebody accidentally bumped her from behind that she came back to reality and saw her books strewn across the ground. Sighing, she bent down to pick them up.
"Are you okay?" Hakucho looked up to see the young girl with red hair picking up her books while looking at her.
"Oh, oh yah...thanks," Hakucho quickly answered.
"You're Hoshino Hakucho, right?" the girl asked.
"Oh, yes...and you are?" Hakucho answered.
"Uchuno Asahi...it's a pleasure to meet you, Uchuno-san. I've heard so much about you and I even wanted to see you at the mall," Asahi replied while placing the last book in Hakucho's arms.
Hakucho looked at this girl with a strange feeling stirring inside. Although she never really liked to socialize, she was compelled to somehow know her.
"Well, I have to go, but it was nice to actually see you in person," Asahi said as she turned around and walked away.
Hakucho wanted to say something, but somehow couldn't find the words. She wasn't superstitious and wasn't about to start now. The feeling she felt must have been because she had seen Asahi before. After all, everybody knew about Uchuno Asahi, the child actress who had left the movie business for reasons unknown.
When she reached her doorstep, she was surprised to see a small box sitting in front of the door addressed to her. Taking the box under her arm, she opened the door to her apartment and went straight to her room. Humming a tune to a recent dance concert, she ripped the tape to the box and opened it to see a strange pendant with a swan insignia etched into it's gold.
"What..." Hakucho gasped, then dropped the pendant, making a heavy thudding sound on the carpet.
She grabbed her head as it began to throb again and images of her dreams came floating back like torn pieces of a picture on canvas.
Hakucho was floating in the air, her hands on her heart as she felt the wind all around her. She closed her eyes, then opened it to see that she was surrounded by a darkness dotted here and there with twinkling stars. A young child with pink hair done in flower-like odangoes floated before her with her eyes closed and an infinity sign glowing on her forehead.
"I know you..." Hakucho whispered, her hands over her mouth in shock.
Her vision was blurred by tears she did not understand. As they streaked down her cheek, Hakucho heard the pounding of her heart resound loudly into the darkness.
"Please...tell me...what do you want?!" Hakucho shrieked, her eyes shut tightly as though trying to keep the vision away.
Ragged gasps surrounded her. Hakucho opened her violet eyes, sending tears floating into the air like polished crystals. She choked back sobs as she sat up, not knowing where the pain that suddenly erupted in her chest came from.
"I just want...I want to help you..." Hakucho whispered.
Asahi looked up at the midnight skies, a soft look in her eyes. She heaved a contented sigh and turned around only to come face to face with Okashi.
"Asahi?" Okashi asked, blinking. "Just now...I thought you looked happier than you have been for the longest...your hair..."
"I was remembering...memories...," Asahi said, a dreamy look on her face.
"Do you feel it?" Okashi asked, looking out into the night sky suddenly alert.
Asahi stood up quickly and turned around, the dreamy look gone and a fierce expression falling like a dark cloak over her smile.
"A strange sadness...I can feel it. A mourning for something she is in dire need of," she nodded.
"Whose presence is this that is so strong?!" Okashi questioned to nobody.
"A presence?" Valin asked the next evening.
"Whatever or whoever it was sent out an aura of overwhelming distress," Okashi continued to explain.
Asahi sat on her usual spot on the floor across from Valin who sat on the couch. Okashi, almost like a speaker, stood on the coffee table, assessing their situation.
"No enemy has been appearing for some time...," Valin began to suggest.
"No...she's not an enemy!" Asahi burst out, surprising her two companions including herself.
"Asahi-chan...calm down...it was a suggestion," Valin blinked, taken aback.
"No...I'm sorry...it's just that I could feel something...strange coming from inside her. Like I could reach out and touch her pain...like I know her," Asahi spoke brokenly.
Hakucho raced outside of her apartment, looking down at the face of her clear watch.
"Ohh...Late...I've never gotten late!" she scolded herself.
Suddenly, she completely froze in her tracks, a stirring in the wind made her look around her.
The wind flows through me...carrying an evil...a familiar vice...
A shriek made her look up in surprise. She had no time to wonder about how she knew that would happen, and ran into an alley. Hakucho's inner being rolled into turmoil at what she was doing-running into a fight without any true knowledge of what she could do to even help. Through this, however, something was fighting to resurface...something strong.
She allowed her eyes to adjust to the blindness that came over her senses which came from the selfish height of the two buildings that made this small pathway and refused the sunlight. A twisted version of a male human being stood in this dangerous darkness, a perfect picture of a nightmare. In his large, powerful, almost deformed hands, he held the throat of a girl whose blood oozed from two marks driven into her tender neck.
"Ahh!" she gasped out in a panic.
The vampiric apparition turned toward her and his eyes clearly shone red, burning into her own. Surprised by the intensity of their light, Hakucho backed up, only making the vampire angrier. In a single bound he was upon her, ready to drink the blood that pulsated through her veins.
Hakucho, by nature, was not one to give up easily. She was one of those people who had the curious habit of hoping even when the ray of light is completely beyond her grasp. She did not...could not give up now.
Fight!...What...I must...
The inner turmoil within her began to grow more restless as she felt a humming source of strength flowing from inside her. Finally, she could no longer bear it and Hakucho completely collapsed. As soon as she surrendered, a brilliant flash of yellow light erupted from her body and blinded the monster whose mentality did not allow it to understand what was going on. Surprised and injured, the monster jumped back with a roar, dropping Hakucho to the cold ground.
"Hakucho-chan?!" Asahi's familiar voice reached her ears, but she did not recognize it.
Hakucho had not felt the impact. She stared blankly at her surroundings, unable to understand what had happened and what she was doing at an alley when she believed that she had intended to go to the dancing academy.
Asahi...what is she doing here...?
"Apollo Golden Starlight! Make up!" Asahi screamed desperately, raising her hand to the sky.
Drat! Still won't work!...But I must help Hakucho-chan!
"Genki!" Valin's deep, rich voice filled the air around her and Asahi turned in time to see a gigantic lightning bolt fly from his hands.
When she turned to the monster, it had completely disintegrated.
"Hakucho-chan!" Asahi cried, running to the fallen girl.
A young woman watched this scenery with a flash of aggravation passing through her eyes. Angered, she slammed the mirror she was looking into down to the ground. The mirror promptly shattered.
She is here...I knew it! Even death cannot seem to keep her...just like the mistress of the Heart of the Empress. Although she is in human form, she seems to be dealing with her inner memories!" the woman grumbled, clutching a goblet, sweat trickling down her forehead. "This is enough...the swan cannot awaken!"
"She'll be okay," Asahi announced, coming into Valin's living room as she closed the door to his room.
"The other woman, on the other hand..." Valin said grimly, his lips pursed together tightly. "She was almost completely drained of blood. The doctors couldn't do anything for her."
Asahi sat down on the floor between the coffee table and the couch where Valin sat, his elbows rested on his knees, and his hands together in a prayer-like fashion, supporting his head through his chin.
"Argh!" Asahi cried in frustration, slamming her fist down onto the coffee table, making a dull sound. "This would have never happened if I could transform!"
"Asahi-chan...whatever is preventing you from transforming...I'm sure we'll find out what it is soon enough," Okashi assured her, staring at her anger. He couldn't help but realize that he had never seen her so mad.
"Okashi, my mission is to protect this world from the evil that is attracted by the destruction of Orion's kingdom in the Underworld...if I cannot do that..." Asahi muttered frustratedly.
Valin looked at her with surprise. He had always known that Asahi, as the heir to the throne of Eterna had a responsibility for the Heart and everything that came with it. It had never struck him, however, that she knew more about her responsibility than he would have liked her to know.
"Asahi-chan," Valin said gently, lowering himself to the floor and taking her by the shoulders. "If you can't do it...at least for now...through your weakest moments, I promised you...a long time ago that I would always be there for my little Empress."
Asahi stayed there, a startled expression on her face as she leaned on his shoulder, wrapped in a warmth that began to seep in. A strange, captivating sensation traveled from her spine to her heart and soon, took over her entire body. She felt so weak at this moment that tears began to form into her eyes.
Asahi despised crying. It made her feel undeserving of the title of a soldier. A soldier, she often told herself, was one who could not be weak. Eterna...the universe itself depended on her and she could never allow her weaknesses to take over her. Instead, she gritted her teeth and scolded herself for even thinking about crying.
"No...Valin-kun...please don't hide the truth from me. I know that I am the one designated to protect this world...please...," Asahi's voice shook as she hastily drew herself up.
"Cygnus," a girl's voice awokened the sleepy Hakucho.
Hakucho snapped up suddenly, her eyes wide, her mind restlessly combing through the events that had taken place before the world disappeared into an empty void. The woman's presence was obvious, but she did not realize this until she blinked and her mind finally cleared.
"I told you once..." the girl continued.
"Who...who are you?!" Hakucho demanded, clutching a strange blanket as she stepped onto an unfamiliar floor from an unknown bed.
The girl frowned, a glint coming into her deep jade eyes, "You know me...If you don't...you will die. You know this as well. Cygnus...wake up!" So saying, the girl reached out with her index and middle fingers and pointed them directly at her forehead, although she stood at least six feet from the frightened Hakucho.
"Hydra...I am called Hydra," Hydra said, keeping her voice level with much difficulty.
Hakucho saw the muscles around her mouth twitch as this girl tried to keep her temper down. Hakucho then took this moment to study this strange being who was ready to flame into a rage.
She wore a strange clothing that reminded Hakucho of the Sailor Senshi that guarded her home, but this fuku was much neater. Where her gloves should have been, a gold clasp went around her wrist, bare of any decorations. A dark green bow was the only addition to her smooth green dress and her shoes were sandals with brown bands that clung to her ankles. The girl herself would have been pretty had a scowl not crossed her face at that moment. Black, luscious, shimmering thick hair flew behind her, her face framed with two braids that accented her hair and kept it from becoming too plain. Her eyes, as we have said before, were two glittering deep green jades, complete with the mineral's coldness.
"I told you once to run from this war," Hydra had continued even as Hakucho continued to study her. "She does not exist...a mere legend...you wish to endanger your life and countless others in a belief that is more myth than fact?"
Hakucho stared, her face contorted into a confusion she did not understand. Something boiling inside her wanted to get out. She wanted it to get out, but she was afraid of being unable to return. Yes...she was beginning to remember. The pendant had told her that it was time. Of course, this most certainly did not mean that Hakucho was any less frightened.
"What are you talking about?!" Hakucho tried to scream, but her voice only squealed.
"You are trying to fight it!" Hydra said irritatedly. "Stop it! If you do not resurface, I will be forced to destroy you...mortals are not prepared to see me, yet."
"No...no...no no no no!" Hakucho's lungs finally gained enough air to throw out the words she wanted to say.
"Hakucho-san?" Asahi's voice inquired from behind the door, seemingly coming from another world.
"Grr," Hydra growled. "I will return, Cygnus. You cannot escape the truth. You tried before...it has never proven to be fruitful."
Hydra's hissing voice continued to echo in Hakucho's ear as she disappeared in a flurry of what appeared to be glowing snakes. Hakucho stood frozen with terror. The headache was back and now she was completely aware of it.