#taikimako

Usagi doesn’t want to overrule her, but she begins hatchinga Plan.

The Plan involves a lot of “Oh my God Mina, we didn’t knowyou’d be here! Seiya, Taiki, and Yaten and I were just hanging out, what acoincidence we ran into you.” “Usagi, this is my house.”

The Starlights can tell when they’re not wanted, and so theydrop playing along and the Plan, ultimately, fails.

But they don’t go away, they each have connections that,with the loss of everything else, they can’t discard.

Taiki spends a lot of time with Mako, helping her withplants and learning about cooking. It takes a long time, but eventually Makostarts learning from her, too. The sort of plant life they had on Kinmoku, theway the smell of cinnamon reminds her of the palace. That she never had a namebefore they disguised themselves on earth, she had a title and that was who shewas.

(Mako does not have great memories of the Silver Millennium,but she knows that Jupiter was once like that. She begins to wonder if theStarlights might come to love their new home better.)

Yaten adopts a cat. They have one thing they like on earth,and it’s cats. They get a cranky old shelter cat to be cranky with.

And occasionally, they go bother Rei. Not because they care,but because Rei is the least annoying and Seiya won’t stop telling them to getout of the house.

They ask Rei about the fires, about things she sees, abouthow she can believe any of it is real. Yaten is a skeptic, always has been,they questioned the beliefs of their home culture and now—well, it was allwrong, wasn’t it? They were right, the fires of Kinmoku were not eternal andthe Light of Hope could never be salvation for all. So how can Rei say sheknows the future, how can—

Rei silences them with an ofuda over their mouth. Sheexplains the things she sees are possibilities. She explains the way her faithworks, the things she believes and the things she doesn’t, the way she takeswhat she feels and what she knows and makes a way to live.

Yaten says they still don’t care, but they listen. Andsometimes, when they have nothing better to do, they help out at the shrine alittle. Just because Seiya has forced them to get out and socialize. Notbecause they want to be there.

Seiya struggles, and tries to hide it. She was supposed tobe the protector, of her princess, of her planet, of everything she loves. Andnow, everything she loves is gone, except for one person, and that person hasother (better, she is sure) protectors (whom she cannot join) and a differentlove, and it’s hard for her to not project all of her feelings onto that onething, onto that one person, because rejection is easier to think about thanlost lives and lost homes. It is easier to think she is not good enough for oneperson than to feel the weight of all the millions of people she failed.

For all she yells at Yaten to socialize, she secludesherself. She just does it outside of the house.

She capitalizes on her fame to go to clubs, to dance butnever have conversations with anyone, to sometimes sit alone and be admired butnever approached.

It’s actually Haruka who draws her out. Haruka hates her,but it’s hard to hate someone when they’re laid low. She tries to goad Seiyainto fights when she sees her. Seiya takes no bait, until Haruka makes a crackabout her abilities as a soldier and it hits too close and Seiya snaps.

She tackles Haruka, and Haruka ends up on the groundprepared to take a hit, because she understands the self-loathing better thananyone.

Of course Seiya realizes she’s not fighting, and they have avery honest, emotional conversation that they both agree to never speak of toanyone ever.

The others notice, though, that they become sparringpartners and gym buddies, competitive as ever but with a kinder undertone thanthey ever had before.

Mina observes it all, and considers. She is not ready tointegrate them yet, but she’s seeing she can’t stop the trust forming betweenthem and her soldiers. She begins to strategize what roles they’d fit into.

Yaten is a good stealth hitter, she decides, while Seiya isanother power house. Taiki is harder to place, though Mina figures she’s a goodsupport for the more single-minded soldiers, and she could cover the back ofMako or Seiya (Michiru already covers Haruka fully).