Sailor Moon Fan Fiction ❯ Suspicions ❯ Decisions ( Chapter 2 )

CHAPTER TWO: Decisions

Mina's day had not started well, but as the morning wore on, her situation did not improve. She'd been late for school, naturally, and she'd ended up standing in the hallway for most of the morning, waiting for her teacher to forgive her tardiness and let her back inside. She knew she wouldn't have to wait too long-as often as she was late, this had become something of a ritual, and she knew what to expect. Still, as she leaned against the wall outside her classroom, she couldn't help sighing. She hadn't fallen asleep again until nearly dawn that morning, and she could barely keep her eyes open now. She just hoped nobody expected her to do or say anything intelligent today, because from the way she was feeling, it clearly wasn't going to happen.

She sighed again, tilting her head against the wall and closing her eyes. She'd woken up too late to spend any real time with her parents that morning, but she also hadn't failed to notice the suspicious glares they'd sent her way as she sprinted past them towards the front door. She'd been too worried about getting to school to think anything of it at the time, yet now she realized just how serious her situation was. She'd hoped her parents would have forgotten last night's discussion, but they'd obviously hadn't. I really do have to lay low for a while, she mused tiredly. They're not going to let up until they think I'm safe, and it's not like the senshi can't handle a few youma without me. I just hope it's enough.

She grimaced, but she didn't really have time to dwell on the thought. A loud, earth-shattering and eardrum-popping wail had startled her out of her reverie, and she smirked, her own mood instantly brightening as a short blonde girl was shoved from her own classroom and into Mina's hall. Well, she mused, not really trying to hide her laughter from the pouting Serena, at least I wasn't the only one who didn't make it to class on time.

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Halfway across town, a tall, sharp-eyed man was being served tea by a woman so nervously energetic that a speed addict would have seemed calm in comparison. She was practically bouncing as she stood before him, her movements so erratic and dizzying that his silver eyes were beginning to cross. He sighed quietly, gritted his teeth and tried to keep his irritation from showing on his handsome, sculpted features. He thought he'd succeeded, though the woman was focusing so intently on her task that she probably wouldn't have noticed anyway. He sighed once more, asking himself yet again why he'd agreed to do this. Money, he reminded himself for the umpteenth time, hoping the mantra would be enough to ease his annoyance. I'm doing this because I'm being offered a fortune to babysit some silly little girl.

The woman flitted away, taking the tea things with her as she disappeared into what he presumed was the kitchen. Malachite breathed deeply as she left, some of the tension in his shoulders easing just from having her gone. He leaned back in his chair, vowed to avoid this woman as often as he could in the future, and cautiously sipped at his tea. It wasn't very hot, this tea, and it was clearly made from nothing more than a tasteless generic brand, but the liquid gave him back a small measure of the peace the woman's presence had stolen. He took another sip, hoping the daughter hadn't inherited her mother's obvious insanity. Then again, from both the little scene he'd witnessed that morning and from what he'd already been told about the girl, he suspected that she would probably be far worse.

He grimaced, allowing his silver eyes to rove over the room as he waited for the girl's father to make an appearance. He knew the family was wealthy, and yet nothing in the house really indicated that. Their furniture was well made but not fancy, the walls covered with family portraits rather than priceless artworks. Nor did the house have the polished look that came with having a maid. He'd noticed, as the wife had let him inside, that several pairs of shoes littered the hallway by the front door, that a jacket had been carelessly slung over the back of the couch. The house was comfortable rather than spotless, and he wondered at that. His experience with the very wealthy had taught him to expect something different. If he hadn't known better, he would have assumed this home belonged to some middle-class couple rather than to the multi-millionaire CEO of the second largest electronics producer in all of Japan. Were they trying to hide their wealth, or did they honestly just not care that they were two of the richest people on the entire continent?

The kitchen door swung open once more, and he braced himself, fearing that he was about to be subjected to another visit from the psychopath Mr. Aino had taken as his wife. The woman, however, wasn't alone this time. A man, presumably Mr. Aino himself, had emerged from the other room with her, his hand in hers. It was a simple gesture, his taking her hand, and yet it seemed to have calmed the woman somewhat. She was no longer bouncing, though her steps were still a little too quick as the couple crossed the room, the man reaching out to shake Malachite's hand before perching on the edge of the couch. "Sorry to keep you waiting," he said, pulling his wife down next to him. "A client called just as you arrived, and as important as this is, I couldn't get away until now."

Malachite inclined his head in brief acceptance of the apology, not answering verbally but using the opportunity to examine the couple before him. They weren't what he'd expected, anymore than the house had been what he'd expected. The woman was short and slender and very blonde, her features delicate and beautiful in spite of her obvious need to switch to decaffeinated coffee. She was an older woman, but he noticed that the lines around her eyes and mouth were from laughter rather than from anything darker. She'd tucked herself against her husband's side, her fingers still entwined in his, and the gesture was far more loving than he'd have believed was possible. He'd heard that she was nothing more than a rich man's trophy wife, but so far it didn't seem to be true.

Her husband glanced briefly down at her, an equal affection twisting his lips into a brief smile. Malachite watched them interact, thinking that the husband, too, wasn't quite what he should have been. This man didn't look anything like the ruthless and clever businessman he was supposed to be. His clothes were simple and slightly old-fashioned, his face kind and open and a little too blank. He looked, quite frankly, more like a stereotypical university professor than anything else.

The man had stayed silent for a moment, obligingly letting Malachite assess him, but now he cleared his throat, capturing Mal's attention once more. Malachite met his gaze, and the alert intelligence that was suddenly in Mr. Aino's eyes had the younger man instantly revising his first impressions. "I assume you know why you're here?" The CEO regarded Malachite, and his own glance was just as appraising as Malachite's had been.

His voice was harsh and clipped, straight to the point, but Malachite only nodded. "Yes," he answered, "though I wasn't given the details." He glanced at the Mrs. Aino, then back to her husband, his own eyes suddenly hardening as he focused on the job at hand. "You want protection for your daughter," he continued softly, his voice completely free of any inflection at all. "Why? Is she in some sort of danger?"

The girl's father sighed heavily, some of the sharpness in his expression suddenly replaced with weariness. "Not that I know of," he admitted quietly, "but we don't really know what goes on in Mina's head or in her life. It's obvious that she's keeping something from us, so it's possible." He grunted, sounding more like a frustrated father than he had until now. "With Mina," he added rather sourly, "anything is possible."

Malachite arched an eyebrow at the pair, not really trying to keep the skepticism from his face. What could a schoolgirl be in danger from? Then again, she is an heiress, even if nobody here seems to remember it. "Has she been threatened in any way?"

The girl's mother finally chose this moment to step in. She shook her head, her fingers tightening on her husband's. "If she has been," she admitted softly, her words echoing her husband's, "she hasn't said anything." She sighed, bit her lip. "Mina tends to handle things on her own. If she has a problem, no matter what it is, I doubt she'd tell us."

Malachite frowned. Handle things on her own? She's what-seventeen? What kind of seventeen-year-old girl wouldn't tell her parents when she's in trouble? And how would she `handle' it on her own, if she was? Something about this situation isn't right. He frowned at the girl's parents, wondering if they were just terrible caregivers or if this Mina was as strange as they made her sound. "Why am I here, then?" he demanded suddenly, his voice colder than he'd meant it to be. He didn't like people who wasted his time, and their unwillingness to get to the point was doing just that. "If her own parents don't know when she's in trouble, what am I expected to do for her?"

The girl's parents looked distressed, though he thought it was more from their daughter's situation that from the faint accusation in his voice. "We mostly want you to protect her…and we want you to follow her," the father eventually confessed. "We think Mina is involved in something she shouldn't be, and we need to learn what it is before she gets herself hurt." He nodded briskly at Malachite. "That's where you come in. We want to know who she talks to and where she goes, and we want to know what she gets up to when we're not around." He paused, then added, "We know what your background is, and we thought that if anybody could keep her safe and learn her secrets at the same time, it's you."

"Learn her secrets? I'm not a detective, Mr. Aino."

The man shook his head, his eyes suddenly becoming very intense. "I know that," he retorted easily, "but I also know how you've been trained. You're more than capable of being both a bodyguard and a spy." He sat back, a gleam of mischievous humor flashing through his dark eyes. He was once again the businessman. "And since we're offering three times your regular salary, I just didn't think you'd have a problem with it."

True enough. "And what would I have to do? Will the girl know you've hired me?" Having to slink around in the shadows would make protecting her all but impossible…

Mr. Aino gave a quick, almost eager shake of his head. "Yes, of course. We don't want Mina to know you're spying on her for us, but she'll know you're there to watch over her." He shrugged, his expression suddenly sheepish. "To tell you the truth," he said, "we couldn't hide you from Mina even if we wanted to. She's a lot more observant than she seems, and if she's going to find out about you anyway, we'd rather it was through us."

Malachite thought that over, filing the admission away with every other oddity. This is getting interesting, he thought, but do I really want to spend my time trailing after some spoiled princess? And even if I was willing, why are they so certain she's in some kind of trouble? She sounds a little odd, granted, but that doesn't mean she's any different from every other teenager on the planet. "Before I agree, I still need to know what will be involved. How often will I be accompanying your daughter?"

The girl's parents glanced at each other yet again, but Mr. Aino hesitated only for an instant. "All the time," he quietly answered. "Every minute of every day. Mina's a precocious girl, and she's not above sneaking around when she wants to. If you're not with her all the time, we can't know that she's safe. You have to stay with her as much as you can."

Malachite nodded. He'd been anticipating this ever since the conversation had begun. He didn't even have a problem with it, really, though he hadn't expected to become quite so invested in this girl's life when he'd agreed to this interview. If I hate her, he mused ruefully, this is going to be the worst decision of my life.

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Every afternoon, right after school, five of the most powerful warriors in the universe-and often two cats-met at a tiny shrine situated right in the middle of Tokyo. The purpose of these meetings was ostensibly to make strategies, discuss the latest attacks on their adopted world, and try to make sense of the senseless, evil-haunted universe they lived in. And sometimes, on very rare and very special occasions, they even got around to some of that.

Today was not one of those days. Both Mina and Serena had been held after school yet again, their tardies having accumulated to the point where even these two felt almost ashamed, and detention had made them even later for the daily meeting than they'd been for school. By the time they arrived, the other senshi had long since stopped even pretending to focus on their continual war with evil. The group had split up, Amy curled up on one of the courtyard benches, her blue eyes riveted on a textbook so large and thick that the others were getting headaches just looking at it, Raye standing off to one side, her slender fingers gently stroking the huge black crow perched on her shoulder. The dark-haired priestess was murmuring something to the bird, not seeming to notice the two blondes trudging wearily up the temple steps any more than Amy had. The cats had left altogether, and only Lita witnessed their arrival. She, too, had been sprawled on a bench, rifling through the small stack of Raye's manga that lay beside her. The brunette looked up and smiled at them as they approached, her easy grin only widening as Serena squealed and immediately bolted for the magazines. The petite blonde threw herself down at Lita's feet and grabbed one of the manga, and Mina sighed, knowing she'd just lost Serena, as well. And that, Mina thought with a sort of tired amusement, is the future queen of the Earth. She bit off a laugh. The planet is doomed.

Mina's smile faded as she wound her own way over to where her princess and her strongest warrior were giggling together, wishing she could just forget her problems as easily as Serena usually did. She might be happier that way, if only in the short term, but she knew she couldn't. For once, she had a serious matter to bring up before the other senshi, and that issue wouldn't go away for wishing. The blonde grimaced, close enough now to reach out and gently pull the manga from Lita's hands. "We need to talk."

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They'd moved back into Raye's bedroom, wanting the added privacy. Serena, Amy, and Lita were perched on Raye's bed, Mina leaning with crossed arms against the wall, Raye pacing back and forth like some mulberry-eyed jungle cat. "Why now?" the priestess all but snarled, pausing just long enough to glare at Mina as though this whole thing was her fault. "They've always been so…so…" She stopped, grimacing as she failed to find the right word to describe her blonde friend's parents.

Mina's lips lifted in a brief smile that was gone as quickly as it had come. "Oblivious?" she quietly supplied, and Raye nodded. "I don't know. Maybe they just got tired of believing all the awful excuses that I gave them. Maybe they got tired of seeing me come home bruised and dirty and not knowing why." She shrugged. "Maybe they finally realized that I've been lying to them for the past five years, and they've decided not to believe anything I say ever again." She grinned suddenly, and this time the grin stayed for just a little longer. "This is going to put a real damper on my social life," she quipped.

Raye's glare intensified. "You're taking this too well."

Mina snorted, at that, though she still seemed just as overly calm as Raye had accused her of being. "No," she retorted, the smile finally disappearing, "actually, I'm not taking it well at all. I'm as nervous about this as you are, Raye. It's just that I don't see the point in fighting it. It's taken my parents five years to realize I'm not normal," she explained quietly. "Now that it's finally sunk in, they're not going to believe me if I tell them everything is peachy-keen fine. They're going to be watching me all the time, now, trying to catch me doing something wrong, trying to find out what I'm up to." She sighed, bit her lip. "I know they love me," she admitted, "but this isn't going to go away, guys, and I don't know what else I can do about it, except step down and stop fighting so much."

The senshi paled, their eyes widening with surprise, but it was Serena, of all people, who voiced their unhappiness with that. "There has to be some other way, Mina! Your parents don't really know anything for certain. Are you sure you can't convince them that they're wrong about you?"

Mina shrugged again, all trace of humor gone from her beautiful face. "That's just it, Sere," she murmured. "They're not really wrong about me at all, are they? They may not know exactly what I am or what I do, but they know that I'm…different, and that I've been less than truthful with them. And if they think I've been lying to them, how am I supposed to convince them otherwise? Even if I could come up with a plausible reason for my behavior, they've already decided not to believe me." She sighed, shook her head. "All I can do now, Serena, is try to act normal for a little while-stop sneaking out at night, stop coming home bloodied and broken. Maybe it'll be enough to throw them off my trail."

Serena didn't look convinced or mollified, and neither did any of the others. Still, she didn't see a way out of this any more than Mina did. "Do you think that will work?"

Mina only grimaced in answer. "I don't see what choice we have, Serena. If I stay out of trouble for a little while, maybe this whole thing will blow over." Her expression abruptly eased, and although she still wasn't smiling, her eyes brightened in another mercurial shift of emotion. "And maybe it won't," she added, "but I turn eighteen in just a couple of months, and they won't be able to stop me from doing whatever I want, after that." She looked at her companions, spreading her hands in a wordless plea. "It's worth a shot, isn't it? With any luck, everything will be back to normal within just a few weeks, and besides, I'll still be able to help you out once in awhile. They can't watch me all of the time, after all."