Heritage

Date Part 3

When the waitress brought Setsuna and Tenka's orders she was pale-faced and looked very uneasy. She set their orders on the table silently. Tenka reached out and placed a hand on her arm, startling her and surprising Setsuna.
"Mari?" He asked, "Are you alright?"
"Huh?" She responded, wide-eyed before her features relaxed, "Oh yes. I'm sorry."
"You're white as a sheet." He informed her flately.
Setsuna desprately scoured her memory, trying to figure out who this woman was in relation to her king. It dawned on Setsuna when she saw the resemblance. Kumo Mari. Tenka's great grandaughter. Her parents died when she was little and - Tenka being Tenka - he took her in without a second thought, ill feelings or complaint. If Setsuna recalled correctly the woman had no idea what the familial connection between them was, just that they were related.
"I'm fine, really." Mari insisted.
Tenka's unimpressed, disbelieving and annoyed look made it very clear what he thought of that statement. Mari sighed, giving up. She knew from experience that - at work or not - he would hound her relentlessly until she told him what had upset her.
"A few tables over is a politician - Hino Takashi-san - and his daughter. Hino-san is half Chinese and spent his summers in China with his mother's family. He..." Mari hesitated, then said all in a rush, "He gave her a white dress."
"Eh? That's it?" Tenka asked, confusion evident.
"White symbolizes death in China." Setsuna told him calmly, though anger seethed beneath the surface.
Mari looked over at her and fear stole over her features for a moment before she got her expression under control.
Ah, yes, that's right... Setsuna thought as she remembered, The Kumo family has power. She can probably sense my emotions... And the intent behind Hino-san's gift to Rei-chan now that I think about it.
Setsuna had gotten ChibiUsa's explanation for why she had to go on a blind date before leaving the house and had been uneasy about such interference in the timeline. She was co-operating because she understood that it was neccessary. Even so, they had to be incredibly careful or they would cause a paradox. In light of this, however, Setsuna found her trepidition for this endevour starting to evaporate. After all, Kumo Tenka was supposed to be her father in this life anyway. But Risa - Rei's mother - chose Hino-san instead for some reason. Chaos' doing if what ChibiUsa said is any idicator. Well, it seemed that she was going to be helping the pink-haired princess.
She wasn't even breaking any of the Temporal Laws by doing so; she was helping to repair the damage that Chaos had caused to the timeline in the first place, which is part of her job anyway.

The waitress brought the Hino's their food, her face pale and hands shaking ever so slightly. Rei refrained from reaching out and asking the woman if she was alright, though she wanted to. Her eyes involuntarily darted to the waitress' name tag: Kumo Mari.
"Would either of you like a top-up on your drinks?" The waitress -- Mari -- asked them politely.
Rei's father immediately shook his head with a polite smile and a quiet, "No, that's fine."
The waitress nodded, her forced smile still firmly in place, and left. Rei found herself feeling a little sorry for the woman. Something was obviously bothering her... Or, at least, that was what Rei was sensing. Lately her powers had been burgoning and she was finding that she could pick up on the general state of a person's mind and heart. She wasn't the only one. The other Sailor Guardians were finding the same thing. Not for the first time - and with good reason - Rei wondered if these abilities had been present in their past lives on the Silver Millennium. She knew that the Princess could pick up on things from them and was the closest out of all of them (besides Luna and Artemis) to her previous life on a genetic level.
Apparently the more any of them reverted to their past-life forms the more it effected their genetics. The Princess had reverted several times over the course two years. The rest of them had only reverted once.
When someone walked by their table and bumped into a waiter also walking past - while carrying red wine - and it spilt all over her birthday present Rei was more than a little surprised to look up and discover that Setsuna was the culprit. The older woman's maroon eyes traveled to the dress, then up to meet Rei's. Then the tall woman smiled. That was odd.
Realization dawned as the Guardian of Time walked away while the waiter babbled apologies and her father gave barely-polite and very intimidating answers. The poor waiter looked terrified.
"It's alright." Rei interjected calmly, "Someone just bumped into him. I'd rather not make this into any more of a scene, if at all possible."
"He's ruined your birthday present."
"I said it's fine." Rei answered with a slight edge to her voice that she hadn't intended to be there.
It gave her father pause. Finally, he nodded and told the waiter to get them a bag for the dress.

Setsuna sat back down across from Tenka, who was giving her a bland look.
"You know that you may have just made her day worse, right?" He asked.
"I'm friends with her." Setsuna replied with a knowing smile, "Just trust me."