Cherry blossoms fall
Bringing the colours of day
Their lives are transient.

... Something like that, Maria Tachibana mused silently as she brought herself out of her reverie. She turned her observation back to the great lumbering steam hulks carrying out their routines around her. She herself was seated within her own koubu, its entry hatch open to allow her to watch the others.

The various koubu moved with practiced ease, but she could still detect a sluggishness in their movements. She had been in more than enough battle situations to know that everyone in the Hanagumi could bring their machines to respond much better than they were currently doing.

Evidently, everyone was distracted and she had no doubts about the reasons why.

Finally, she activated the communicators. "That's enough," she told them. "Park the koubu and let's finish off for the day."

"Roger," they replied.

Maria waited until everyone else was done before shutting her own machine down for the day. Carefully disengaging the connecting tubes from her suit, she exited the cockpit. She nodded to the mechanics who came over to look over the machines as she made her way to the briefing room.

This was the third day they had been at the training facility, and with each passing day, the mood within the Hanagumi seemed to get even more sombre. The Captain's transfer seems to have taken out a lot more from this team than I first thought.

Entering the briefing room, her presence brought a temporary halt to yet another growing squabble between Kanna and Sumire. Momentarily, this brought an odd sense of gratitude from within her. At least those two didn't let their depression about Oogami's leaving interfere much with their normal routine.

"Good work today," she told them. "Most of the exercises were carried out without too many problems."

"Why does that 'most' reference make me feel like there's more you wanna say?" Kanna spoke up.

Maria hid a smile. "A few discrepancies between your performances in the past and what I've been seeing here at the training grounds."

"Discrepancies?" Kohran asked. "What do you mean?"

"A bit of lag here and there," Maria replied. "I was willing to overlook this sort of thing on the first day, but it's persisting." She looked at them in turn. "I don't need to tell you how dangerous this can be for all of us if we were in actual battle."

Iris said, "But this is just practice, isn't it?"

"That's still no reason to allow it to continue, Iris." She drew in a deep breath. "I hope that tomorrow's exercises will show some improvement. That's all I wanted to say. Dimissed."

They gave a reasonable effort to their acknowledgement and got to their feet. Before they left the room, however, Maria spoke up. "By the way... I know it's been a tiring day and all, but I'm scheduling some leave time for all of us tonight. Any objections?" Their response was immediate and unanimous.

"Heck, no!" Kanna exclaimed enthusiastically. She rubbed her hands together, grinning. "All right! We can go to the village and get some real food for a change."

"The hot springs!" Iris cheered.

"No way! I say we go out for eats!"

"Hot springs!" Iris was adamant.

"I agree," Sumire said, breezing past the two. "I would like a visit to the springs. The baths they have here are deplorable."

"What a spoilt brat," Kanna snorted. "If you keep yourself in the water so much, you'll give yourself more wrinkles than you already have."

"What was that?!"

Maria sighed.

In the end, they only managed to make it for a hearty dinner at the little eatery in the village. They had all cleaned up and piled into the little bus borrowed from the training facility. Driving the vehicle with its load of people proved to be a slightly trying ordeal, especially on the rough roads, but nobody seemed to mind.

Everyone proved to be in good spirits that night. Sumire, though disappointed about the no show at the hot springs, was even willing to let several of Kanna's comments slide without argument.

"Hey, pops!" Kanna called out. "Let's have another order here!"

The others blinked. "A-another?" Iris remarked, wide-eyed. "I don't think I can eat anymore."

"No problems here," Kanna said cheerfully.

"Kanna-san," Orihime said. "It constantly amazes me how much you can eat in one sitting."

"Heh," Kanna chuckled. "A great love for nourishment is a sign of good health."

"Is that so?" Sumire said, sipping at her tea. "I'd say it's more of an inability to control oneself."

The martial artist glowered at her. Fortunately, the proprietor arrived bearing several trays of additional food, and Kanna's retort was -- for the moment at least -- shelved.

"Will there be anything else?" the old man asked. He looked exhausted.

"No, thank you," Maria replied. "We appreciate your hard work, sir."

He smiled. "It's not often I get to serve so many visitors at once." He glanced in Kanna's direction. "Especially ones with such hearty appetites."

"You don't get many people here?" Sakura asked.

"No. This is a small village," he said by way of explanation. "We don't get a lot of people coming in, and nothing much changes around here. The only new things we have here are that military facility some miles away and our doctor."

"Doctor?" Kohran asked.

The old man nodded. "Dr. Yamaguchi Ken. He came in here from Tokyo about... hmm, about three years ago. He can be a little strange, but he's a good man. His clinic's just a few buildings down."

"I'm surprised," Sumire commented. "This region is known for its hot springs. I thought it would be a little busy."

The proprietor shook his head. "Our springs aren't so popular or well-known that they draw in many visitors. They prefer to go to the ones near the other side of the mountain."

Orihime shrugged. "They do say that the view over there is better."

The man chuckled. "They do say that." He sighed. "A lot of our youngsters are moving there to look for work, too. There aren't as many kids around here as there used to be. The only people who hang around are old ones like me, or eccentrics like our doctor." He shook his head. "Why, just two days ago a couple more of our kids went off."

"What, just like that?" Kohran asked.

He nodded. "Rumour is they eloped. Left without a word. Broke the poor parents' hearts, too. Youngsters nowadays..." He flushed and bowed to them. "Present company excepted, of course."

"No, it's all right," Sakura hurried to assure him.

Maria said, "We're done for the night. How much do we owe you?"

As the man took stock of the piles of dishes and calculated, the others rose and stretched.

"Man, that really hit the spot," Kanna remarked, rubbing her stomach contentedly.

"It should," Iris remarked. "You ate enough for three people, Kanna."

Sumire smirked, heading out the door. "That was rather restrained of her. Perhaps Kanna-san is on a diet tonight."

"Say that again, you snake-woman!"

"That's enough, you two," Maria ordered, handing some money to the old man's waiting hands.

They walked slowly to the bus parked a short distance away. Almost all of the other buildings in the village were darkened, their inhabitants asleep already. Maria absently listened to the others talking as they walked. Two of the Hanagumi were keeping noticeably quiet, however. Leni's silence was normal, but Sakura's wasn't.

She threw a look at the young woman walking just a little ahead of her. Sakura was preoccupied and distant; a common sight to everyone ever since Oogami had left. Even Iris, who was very much attached to the Captain, had managed to recover her high spirits within a relatively short time.

I should have a talk with her soon, she told herself. Maria sighed silently and wished she had half the knack that Oogami displayed for dealing with this sort of thing.

As if she had read Maria's concern, Kohran sidled up to Sakura and nudged the other girl with her elbow. Sakura gasped and blinked. "Wh-what?"

"Hey, Sakura-han," the Chinese girl said. "It's kinda late to be daydreaming, don't you think?"

"Daydreaming...?"

"If you keep moping around, your face will be stuck that way for good, you know."

"I... I wasn't moping!" Sakura protested. Then, in a softer voice, "I was... thinking."

"Thinking?" Kohran peered at her, then shrugged. "If that's what you're like when you're thinking, then I'd really hate to see you when you are depressed."

"Kohran's right," Iris chimed in. "You're no fun anymore when you're like this."

Sakura gave her a pained expression. "You, too, Iris?"

"They both got a point," Kanna called back. She and Sumire had already reached the vehicle. "You ain't the only one who feels that way, you know, but when life knocks you down you gotta pull yourself up."

Sumire hmmphed. "I don't know why you bother saying such a thing to her. Sakura-san couldn't pull herself out of a bucket even if she stood up on tiptoe."

Sakura's eyes narrowed.

"Sumire-han," Kohran chided goodnaturedly, "that might have been a bit too harsh."

Iris agreed and Sumire frowned at the little girl. "What? You're supposed to be on my side, Iris."

The young French girl held up pretty well under Sumire's laser-eyed glare, but inched closer to Leni. "Nee, Leni, you agree with Kohran too, don't you?"

"I have no comment," Leni stated, proving once again that she could be as prudent as she was smart. As if to avoid any more trouble, she quickly got into the bus.

"Let's get going, everyone," Maria said. "We've still got an early day tomorrow."

"Ah," Sumire sighed, taking a seat near the front. "It's too bad we took so long to get here. I would have enjoyed a dip in the springs..."

"Keep it up and I'll be glad to drop you in there myself," Sakura muttered. Kanna snickered.

"I heard that!"

The drive back to the training grounds was done in better spirits than their journey to the village. As they moved slowly along the roads, their path barely lit by the dim lights of the bus, Maria gave silent thanks for the conversation that had just taken place. She hadn't done anything to initiate it, nor to spur it along, but she hoped that it had given Sakura something to think about, at least. It would make it a little easier to approach the swordswoman later on.

Something moved into their path and Maria reflexively stomped on the brakes. Behind her, she heard the cries and thuds as the others were thrown from their seats. The bus slid ahead a bit before screeching to a halt on the road.

"What in the world was that?" Sumire asked. Maria didn't answer, but opened the door and slid out of the cabin.

Kanna's face peered out from one of the windows. "What's going on?"

"Did we hit something?" Orihime asked immediately after.

Maria walked ahead of the stalled vehicle and its occupants, saying nothing. There was a young man there, huddled against the ground. He was shaking as he stared up at her.

She knelt closer to him. "Are you all right?"

He didn't answer.

She gave him a check, seeing no signs of injury on him. She repeated her question. He opened his mouth as if to speak, but broke off when he saw the others coming up to them.

"Who's this?" Kohran asked. "Someone from around here?"

Maria looked at him. Dazed, confused, shivering with cold, very pale. "Kanna," she said, "help me put him into the bus. We're taking him to the village."

The doctor hadn't been very happy to have been jolted awake but after taking one look at the young man, he immediately got down to business.

"Where did you find him?" he asked as he worked at his new patient.

"Just a little way out from the village," Maria replied. "He ran right in front of our vehicle."

Dr. Yamaguchi grunted. "Good thing you didn't hit him. That would have made my work a lot harder."

He and his nurse moved quickly, pulling the young man out of his stained clothes and cleaning him up. Now the patient lay in one of the beds, swathed in warm blankets. The rest of the Hanagumi were lounging outside with varying degrees of patience. Maria had been the only one the doctor allowed to stay.

She cleared her throat, drawing Dr. Yamaguchi's attention. "Do you know who he is?"

He nodded assent. "Hiroshi. He lives alone near the outskirts of the village. I thought I'd seen the last of him," he mused.

Maria frowned. "Why do you say that?"

"Well, he and Tamiko just up and went a few days ago. We all figured that they both decided to elope." He paused, as if struck by an afterthought. Yamaguchi turned to his nurse. "You'd better go to the foreman's place and tell him about Hiroshi. I'm sure he'll want to let Tamiko's parents know about this, too."

"T-Tamiko...?"

As one, they looked at the young man. He was still very pale, but he extended a shaky hand out towards the doctor.

"Hiroshi-kun," Yamaguchi said gently, "how do you feel?"

"... Where is she?" Hiroshi asked. "Tamiko."

Yamaguchi's eyebrows beetled together. "We thought she was with you."

The young man shook his head. Yamaguchi chewed his lower lip for a moment, then sent his nurse off. Pulling up a chair, he set it closer to the bed and settled himself into it.

"What happened?"

"Don't know. We... walked for a bit," Hiroshi stammered, "... and... Something happened." He paused for a while. "I-I woke up somewhere in the forest. Tamiko... Couldn't find her..."

Yamaguchi nodded. "Can you tell me where you woke up?" His voice was deliberately gentle.

Hiroshi groaned. "Somewhere... I don't know!"

"All right," Yamaguchi assured him. He turned to Maria, speaking softly, "He's in a bit of a shock. I doubt that he could have woken up too far from where you found him."

Maria nodded, but a noise from outside curtailed her reply.

"That would be Ootani-san, our village foreman...," the doctor predicted.

The door to the patient's room slid open and a middle-aged, thin man looked in. "Dr. Yamaguchi," he said, bowing slightly, "may I come in?"

Yamaguchi stood. "Of course, sir."

The other man sat at the chair the doctor had vacated, greeting Maria politely but quickly as he passed. He leaned closer to the shivering Hiroshi.

"Is he all right?"

"Yes, Ootani-san, but he's in shock. He seems to have had a pretty bad experience out in the forest," Yamaguchi explained.

"He hasn't been injured in any way, has he?" Yamaguchi shook his head. Ootani seemed to ponder something. "What about Tamiko-chan? Is she here?" He looked at Maria. "Did you find her, too?" he asked her.

"I'm afraid not, Ootani-san," she replied. "We didn't think to search for anyone else when we found him. We thought it better to get him some medical attention right away."

Ootani grunted. "Has he said anything yet?"

"Ah, yes," Yamaguchi started, "but he doesn't remember much of what's happened to him. Or to Tamiko," he added. "He said he woke up somewhere in the forest and stumbled around until he was discovered by Tachibana-san and her friends."

Ootani turned to Maria. Anticipating his next question, Maria said, "We were driving down the west road, Ootani-san. Hiroshi appeared in front of us when we were about a mile from here."

"The west road...?" Ootani repeated. "Where were you headed for?"

Maria hesitated, then said, "The military training facility."

Ootani and Yamaguchi blinked. "Are you from the military, then?"

"Yes." Of a sorts, at least, she thought.

The foreman broke into a relieved smile as he got to his feet. "Then this is truly a fortunate meeting for us. Please," he said, bowing deeply, "we have to look for Tamiko-chan. She may be out there, near where you found Hiroshi." He held his bow. "I know this is asking too much of you, Tachibana-san, but we would truly appreciate your assistance in our search." He gestured towards Yamaguchi, who sighed silently and followed his example. "With your help, we're sure to find her."

The Russian hid a grimace. Faced with this kind of display, there was only one answer that she could give. "We... wouldn't think of turning away from such a plea," Maria said weakly.

"Man, where the heck could that girl have gotten herself to?" Kanna grumbled as she crashed through yet another obstructing bush. "We haven't found one little sign of her anywhere."

"How far are we from where we found that Hiroshi, anyway?" Kohran asked.

"Just about a hundred metres," Maria replied calmly, surveying the area.

Kohran's shoulders slumped wearily. "Aaah, that's not very far," she huffed, "and we've been searching for almost an hour...!"

There was the sound of cloth ripping, followed by an indignant yelp from Sumire's direction. "My dress!" she exclaimed, dismayed. "Really, if I'd known that we would be ending our evening in such a distasteful place, I wouldn't have come at all."

"Quit complaining, you crybaby," Kanna told her in the usual gentle manner she reserved for Sumire. "We're looking for a lost girl, right?"

Sumire didn't look any happier, but continued her search. Still, she complained. "I don't see why you couldn't have sent me back to the training grounds along with those three, Maria-san."

"We don't need that many people to go check up in that part of the forest, Sumire," Maria said. "Iris, Leni and Orihime are enough to work with the rest of the personnel stationed there."

"'sides," Kanna added, "you didn't exactly object to Maria's orders. You should've said something sooner."

Maria could almost feel Sumire's glare from where she stood even if she couldn't see it in the dim light. "Sakura," she called out, more for the need to divert the pair's focus than anything else, "can you see anything?"

"Nothing, Maria-san," she replied. She stepped into Maria's field of vision, looking concerned. "I wonder how the others are doing..."

Kohran paused to listen to the loud calls and tromping that indicated the villagers' enthusiastic search taking place not far off. "From the sounds of it, they're not having much luck either."

"Could she have run off, you think?" Kanna asked.

Maria shook her head. "I doubt it. From what little that Hiroshi managed to tell us, something bad definitely caused their two-day disappearance."

"Kidnappers?" Sumire hazarded. "Or wild animals?"

"Both don't sound like very good answers," Sakura said. Sighing, she moved further away from the rest. "I'll try looking up ahead again."

"Be careful," Maria told her.

They resumed their efforts. They had already fanned out quite a bit to widen their search area while still keeping close enough to keep tabs on one another. It slowed down progress, but it was better than taking the risk of falling into some unseen hazard without some backup nearby.

Suddenly, they heard Sakura's voice calling for them. Maria stiffened and headed straight for her.

She found the swordswoman within moments. Immediately upon approaching her, she was aware of a feeling of wrongness around them, so slight it was almost unnoticeable. A demonic presence...? she wondered as she slowly approached her comrade. If it is, I've never felt it like this before. "What is it, Sakura?" she asked.

Sakura pointed ahead. "Uhm, I'm not really sure, but it looks... and feels... terrible."

Maria looked at where she indicated and frowned. Standing against a tree was something that looked like a large grey sack. It glistened in the poorly lit night like a grotesque diamond. There was an opening torn from it and pieces of it were littered around on the ground.

Maria came up to it, carefully stepping around the torn fragments as the others piled into the area.

Kanna whistled. "What the heck is that?"

"Looks like a giant cocoon," Kohran remarked, joining Maria in her examination of the thing.

Maria looked at Kohran in surprise for a moment before nodding. "You're right," she muttered. Why didn't I think of that before...?

"So, if it is a cocoon--," Kanna began.

"I didn't say it was," Kohran interjected, but Kanna ignored her and went on.

"-- then what was inside it?" She threw her gaze around them, as if expecting something to emerge from the forest. "I'd really hate to come up to the butterfly that came out of that."

"Afraid of butterflies now, Kanna-san?" Sumire said, moving past the cocoon.

"She asked a good question, though," Kohran said absently. Taking out a small piece of cloth from her pocket, she carefully gripped at a small section of the cocoon. She seemed to have no qualms at all about coming right up to it. "I've never heard of this sort of thing. I should get some samples," she said, excitedly.

Tightening her hold, she gave an experimental tug. When nothing happened, she pulled even harder. In moments, her face turned into an impressive shade of red. A small mass came away into her hand with a wet tearing sound. Kohran wrapped the rest of her handkerchief around the sample and made as if to put it back into her pocket, but wisely changed her mind.

"Here, can you hold this?" she asked, holding it out to Maria.

She took it gingerly from the inventor. "Can you make anything of this?"

"What do you mean, Maria-han?" Kohran was already back at the cocoon. "You have another handkerchief on you?" she asked a moment later. Maria passed it to her. "Thanks."

"What's it made of?" Maria asked.

Kohran made a noncommittal sound. "Not silk. Saliva, I think."

"Saliva?" Maria looked down at the piece in her hand and grimaced. The handkerchief was gradually being stained wet by the sliver of cocoon inside it.

"Seems like it."

"Maria-san!" Sumire's voice came from behind the tree. Maria immediately headed for her.

"What is it?"

"I found something else," Sumire said. "It's not quite like that cocoon, but it looks just as strange." She gestured. "In fact, I'd say it looks like an egg."

It did. It sat on the forest floor, looking squat even with a height of more than two feet. The top of the egg was opened like a huge seed pod, the shell spread open like the petals of some dull grey flower. Inside, they could see a mass of whitish-grey coils looped messily about, all coated with a thick gooish substance. It smelled terrible.

"A giant cocoon and a giant egg...," Sakura said from beside Sumire.

Maria knelt to the ground. "There's a trail here," she remarked. "It looks like it's made of the same stuff that's coating the insides of that egg." She tracked the line of goo with her gaze, noting its direction. "Whatever came out went straight for the cocoon."

She stood up and went over to Kohran. "There's something else you should take a look at," she started to say, but was interrupted by loud exclamations as a few of the villagers arrived. The foreman was among them.

"What in the world...?!"

With a quiet sigh, Maria handed the sample over to Kanna. The martial artist smiled sympathetically. "Better you than me," she whispered as Maria went over to Ootani.

"What... is that?" Ootani demanded.

"We don't know yet," Maria replied. "Did you have any luck finding the girl?" she asked.

"Hmm? Oh, right. No, we didn't." Ootani still had his eyes glued to the strange sight before him. "In fact, we came over to tell you that we're stopping the search for now. It's too dark to be venturing this far off from the village."

"So you'll be resuming your search tomorrow, then?"

He nodded. "As soon as it's light." He looked despondent. "Poor Tamiko-chan. I really hope she's all right. The forests just aren't as safe as they used to be."

Maria looked quizzically at him. "What do you mean?"

"We've been getting some wild animal attacks for a while," he explained. "Granted, we've always had them in the past, but they seem to have picked up a lot more recently. No one's been hurt yet," he assured her, "but some of our livestock and pets have been taken off."

"I see." She gestured to the tree and its disgusting accessory. "I take it you've never had this sort of thing around here before."

Ootani shook his head. "Is it dangerous?"

"We don't know yet," Maria told him again, "but it'd be better if you tell your people not to come too close." She threw a pointed look at the milling villagers who were inching closer for a better look.

Ootani grunted and turned to them, leaving Maria to go back to Kohran. "Anything more?" she asked.

Kohran shook her head. "Not without running some tests on the samples."

"Do you have enough?"

The bespectacled inventor nodded, gesturing at Kanna. The tall woman was standing awkwardly, her arms laden with piles of cloth, cocoon and egg. Maria resisted commenting on Kanna's dismayed expression. "I've got a small kit back at the training grounds," Kohran said. "It's not ample, but it'll be enough for a start."

"All right. Then there's nothing more we can do here."

Back at the village, they found the bus waiting for them in front of the clinic. One of the facility's personnel was there, too. Evidently, he'd been sent to bring them all back once they were done.

Maria nodded to him but headed straight into the clinic. She found Dr. Yamaguchi tending to Hiroshi in his room.

"Didn't find anything?" he asked, taking in her expression.

"Not Tamiko," she told him. "Something else, though."

"What?"

"It's hard to say. I'll need to ask Hiroshi about it."

"That's going to be difficult," he said, somewhat apologetic. "I just gave him something to help him sleep. As you can see, he'll be out for a while."

Maria hid a sigh. "Will he be up to talking tomorrow?"

Yamaguchi shrugged. "Most probably." He cocked his head to one side, listening to the growing noise as the foreman approached. "If you're thinking of coming back to talk to him, though, you'd better make it around noon. He should definitely be up by then. I can't guarantee that he'll be in any shape to talk for long, though."

Maria nodded and left the clinic, stepping aside to allow Ootani to pass. After he had gone through, she went over to the others who were waiting with the bus.

"Well?" Kanna asked. She had already unloaded all the samples into the bus and looked greatly relieved at having gotten rid of them.

"Hiroshi's in no shape to talk for now," Maria told her. "I'm coming back here tomorrow."

Kohran shrugged. "Can't help that, I suppose. We'd better be getting back ourselves. I want to start working on the samples as soon as I can."

"All right."

They boarded the bus and moved out.

Starting point | Chapter 2