Temptation of the Sea

Division of the Sea and Sky

Chapter 4: Division of the Sea and Sky

August 1993

It had been a couple of months since my first battle. Michiru and I had been dating since the day I modeled for her. Her parents didn't know. She wasn't out to her parents. Coming from a wealthy family, her parents wanted the perfect daughter, which included marrying the perfect husband. She's not sure if she'll ever come out to her parents. She's afraid of how they'll react. Like a majority of Japan, her parents seemed to be anti-gay so I understand her not wanting to come out to them and I am completely fine with that. Her parents weren't around a lot either but when they were around, they were very nosy about Michiru's life. We had to be very careful about our relationship and about us being senshi. I have met her parents, but they only know me as her friend.

I, on the other hand, am out to my parents. My parents were very understanding and don't really care what I do with my life as long as I'm happy and I don't die. My parents knew that I was different when I was younger and weren't surprised when I came out to them last year. My parents have met Michiru and they know that she is my girlfriend and they absolutely love her.

These past couple of months have been filled with training. I had to learn how to fight, how to use my powers, and to develop my intuition. I don't think my intuition will ever be as good as Michiru's, but I'm getting there. This is the part of my training that Michiru finds the most challenging. Michiru's been pretty intuitive her whole life and was able to tap into her intuition right away after becoming a senshi. Also, our intuitions were very different. She gets hers from the seas and I get mine from the wind.

We also spent a lot of time trying to learn about the enemy and our mission. We knew that they called themselves the Death Busters and that they were looking for three talismans to get to the Holy Grail. We were also looking for the talismans, which we knew were concealed in pure hearts. However, to obtain a talisman, the person that the pure heart belongs to will have to die. I have accepted this because I've seen what the end of the world looks like, and I never want to see it again. Michiru is less willing to take lives so we decided that I was going to be the "leader" because when it comes down to it, I was willing to make sacrifices and Michiru wasn't. I had to take the mission seriously because if I didn't. Michiru would crumble. I had to do it for her.

We balanced our senshi lives and personal lives very well. We train, we go to school, we research, we study for high school entrance exams, even though neither of us know where we want to go yet. Although, when school let out in July, time for school was replaced with more studying.

Michiru was keeping tabs on the Death Busters through her intuition. They seemed to be lying low in an unknown location but we think that they are fairly close to us, so if anything big were to happen, we'd probably know right away.

About halfway through August, we started to prepare to go back to school. Like start working on homework that we hadn't done yet (it wasn't procrastinating because we still a couple weeks before school started).

We were currently at a café, taking a break from a long morning of homework and studying. I was enjoying a cup of coffee and Michiru was sipping her tea when suddenly, she gasped and dropped her cup, spilling tea all over the table.

"Michiru!" I yelled, startled, worried about her burning herself more than anything.

A waitress rushed over to clean up the mess and Michiru apologized profusely to her.

As soon as the waitress walked away, I leaned over the table towards Michiru. "What's wrong?" I asked, concerned.

"The Death Busters, they're not here anymore," she said quietly.