Chrono X Angel, Book 5: Winds of Change

Chapter 4

September 24th started like any other Friday for Hyoka Kagari. She woke up, put on her Yokai Crystal, wiped the snow dust from her eyes, entered the living room and turned on the TV. Normally she would have done this in her own home, but today was a little different. Today was her wedding, and so she had spent the night with Sarah in the Banshee's GARDNA quarters in order to make travel in the morning a little easier. In fact, everyone had paired off for today: Usoko and Emiko were already living together in the upstairs penthouse at Usoko's apartment building, while Nonami slept on Hitomi and Rei's downstairs sofa, after pushing a tall bookcase against the small window to block out the sun. She had hardly gotten any sleep that night though, due to certain noises emanating from the Kobayashi's bedroom until late into the evening much to the Vampire's chagrin.

Hyoka was in the living room early that morning watching the morning news, when Sarah shambled her way through her bedroom door barely wearing a robe, looking quite bedraggled. Despite being a Spirit, for whom sleep was a suggestion rather than a requirement, going for a long time without rest or energy absorption was not healthy for her. The reason for her sloppy state? She had been up all night working on a massive gunpla kit, and had devoted far more energy to it than intended.

"Sarah!!" Cried Hyoka upon seeing the Banshee's state, "Please tell me you can juice up in time for the wedding right? And can you um... please put something more on..? I can see your boobs..."

With the swipe of her hand and a yawn, Sarah levitated over a tshirt, quickly tossing off her robe and pulling the shirt on in the course of about two seconds. Fortunately for Hyoka, who was staring at the floor as a heavy blue blush of embarrassment crossed her cheeks, Sarah had at least remembered to wear panties. This time.

"Jeez Sarah... anyway, yeah, please juice up, okay? It's the big day."

"Ahnoe," she grumbled, moseying over to the television and placing her hand on the screen. The picture flickered and glitched as energy flowed from it into Sarah's ethereal form. The rings around Sarah's eyes vanished, and the sagging hunch of her back straightened up. After about thirty seconds she pulled her hand away and sighed contently.

"Much better," she smiled, "Sorry if I scared ya there Hyoka. Gimme a few minutes t'gather me things and I'll be ready!"

Sighing as well, in relief, the Yuki Onna stood up, grabbed her own purse, and made her way to the door. Once the two spectral women were ready, they headed out the door and towards Tsushima Park!

About a quarter mile away, Usoko was also just awakening. She had been up late as well, though not nearly as late as Sarah had, mostly because she genuinely couldn't sleep. Not with everything she had been told by her own future daughter just a few hours before. It terrified her to think she was capable of the awful things Misato had described, but the more she thought about it, the more Usoko wondered about other things. Misato had not known or recognized Hyoka, that had been clear from her initial reaction. According to Misato, the catalyst for Usoko's own despotic rise was her failure to revive Kuroko, an event that happened long after she had met her frosty friend. It was possible, sure, that perhaps something in between now and Misato's birth could have estranged Hyoka from the team in some manner, but even then... and then there was the mention of a visit to Camelot that would have occurred when Usoko and the team had been on Kaiju Island...
Perhaps, thought Usoko, when Misato travelled back in time it sent ripples into the stream that altered events?

Or, mused the pinkette humorlessly, maybe she had been caught in a lie. Misato had already admitted to one lie, that being the false name she had given to Emiko when the two had met several months prior.

It had been at that point, around 2AM or so, that Usoko had nodded off to sleep. It was now 9:30 AM, and she could feel Emiko stirring next to her in bed. The Oni had likely been awoken either by the change in Usoko's breathing which her heightened Oni senses detected, or by the accidental sharp kick Usoko had let off into Emiko's butt as she had jerked awake. Thinking about it, Usoko wagered it was probably the second one.