Epilogue: Kagetsu, Bright Moon
"Aino Minako?"
"Here!" The golden-haired, blue-eyed student waved happily at Haruna-sensei, who didn't seem to share her enthusiasm. The effervescent smile on Minako's face was bright and completely free of sorrow, and she turned to chat with the girl sitting to her right...
"Hino Rei?"
"Present, sensei!" She smiled at Minako and continued their conversation, flipping back a curtain of jasmine-scented, raven-dark hair. "Yes, I just transferred from a private school...I live at the Hikawa Shrine."
"Kino Makoto?"
"That's me!" Just as the pretty brunette reached into her bag for something her fingers touched those of her brown-haired neighbor, who was retrieving his pencil. They pulled away, laughing and apologizing, and started to talk...but both kept the memory of the other's shocking, tingling touch.
"Nice to meet you, Makoto-san. I'm–"
"Kousei Kyosei?"
"Here, sensei!" Kyosei smiled wryly at Makoto, whose forest green eyes went dreamy as she flushed slightly.
"Kouseki Yosouya?"
There was a pause, and no one answered.
"Kouseki Yosouya??" The teacher tried again, her tone frustrated.
A blond-haired, blue-eyed boy jabbed his neighbor in the side with his elbow, and a tousled blond head unearthed itself from the pages of a thick book. Yosouya had been so involved in the subject matter that he had blocked out the noisy classroom. "Sorry, sensei!!"
She shook her head, muttering under her breath, but Yosouya merely smiled to himself and shut his book, stowing it carefully away into the depths of his bulging bag. He then turned and winked one of his emerald-green eyes at the girl behind him. "Do you think she's succumbing to my charms yet?"
"I–"
"Mizuno Ami?"
"Present, sensei!" Her cheeks flushed as Yosouya turned around yet again to engage her in conversation. She had a feeling that he would be doing this often during the year...the strange thing was, she didn't think she'd mind a bit.
"Seishou Kouseinou?"
The silver-haired boy seated directly in front of her raised his hand and gave her a stiff nod.
Minako burst into giggles as Rei turned to address Makoto. "I'm Mina," she introduced cheerfully.
"Kouseinou," he replied curtly.
She smiled to herself. He was absolutely adorable...and absolutely stone-faced. Looking directly into his silver-lit gray eyes, she said, "So, Kousei-kun..."
"Tabiki Kasen?"
At that moment, the majority of the girls in the class screamed loudly as a silvery-skinned snake, having escaped from a mischief-maker's pocket, wreaked havoc in the schoolroom. They were standing on their desks, with the notable exceptions of Minako, Rei, Makoto, and Ami. Minako remained in her seat, calmly chatting with Kouseinou (who listened to her straight-faced while keeping his eye on Shippou...he knew Kasen had been up to something, asking to borrow his pet), while Rei glared pointedly at the boy who was laughing riotously on her other side. Makoto caught up the snake, strode over to the open window, and released it. Ami's eyes had initially gone wide with surprise, but she had recently identified the species of snake and the fact that it was completely harmless. Yosouya, who had also been in on his half-brother's joke, grinned at her in admiration.
Unfortunately, Haruna and Rei were directing towards Kasen...less than admiring looks. In fact, they could quite possibly be described as poisonous glares. "Detention!" she declared.
He saluted her jokingly. "Always happy to oblige, ma'am–sensei."
"You're an idiot!" Rei hissed.
"And you're annoying!" he retorted good-naturedly.
"Oh yeah? Well, you're childish and immature!"
"Well, you're a priestess!" he replied, mimicking her irate tone.
"How dare you–wait a minute..." A confused look crossed Rei's face, and Kasen laughed at her uproariously.
"Got you there, Rei-san. That's a nice temper you have."
She glowered at him. Coolly, she replied, "That's a nice detention you've earned within the first five minutes of class, Kasen-san."
Kasen shrugged it off as if he was taking a compliment modestly. "Oh, it's not so much. I bet you I'll have at least another one by the end of the day."
"You're incorrigible!"
During their conversation, the teacher had been trying to finish the roll-call, but she had been calling the last name on her list unsuccessfully for the past ten minutes.
"Tsukino Usagi?"
"Tsukino Usagi?!"
"Tsukino Usagi!!"
A snoozing, blond-haired girl jerked awake suddenly, the long streamers of her hair issuing forth from her buns whacking those on either side of her. The buns resembled, quite curiously, meatballs... An upperclassmen had recently teased her about that this morning when they had run into each other. He had called her "odango atama," but it was just coincidence that his name was Chiba Mamoru. "Here, sensei!" she called out hurriedly, trying to hide the evidence of her nearly-finished lunch.
Haruna sighed to herself. It was going to be a long, rough year ahead, she thought, as her eyes drifted around the room:
Minako was flirting with Kouseinou, who was trying to catch Yosouya's attention. Yosouya was busy charming Ami... Ami was looking helplessly at Rei, but she and Kasen were in heated argument once more...and Makoto and Kyosei were flirting with each other. Down the hall, upperclassmen Chiba Mamoru was remembering his run-in with the odango atama who had rushed in late, tripped over his feet, dropped all her books, and still managed to look absolutely adorable...
~*~*~
Meiou Setsuna, senshi of Pluto, smiled her usual enigmatic smile as she watched the prince, the princess, the Shittenou, and the senshi from the Gates of Time. Their universe had been reconnected to the Time Stream, but time still passed differently for their little pool... She couldn't read the destinies of their destinies, but she trusted that things would work out, this time around. There was life: there might be pain, but there existed promise...and there would always be love. All of it implied hope.
~*~*~
FINIS
~*~
AN: This is the last author's note ever for Paths of Thorns...isn't this sad?? I'm going to admit that my personal selfish reason for finishing Paths is because I wanted to go on to Crystal Tokyo somehow and cover their kids...who would want to know why it's taboo to mention the previous generation (yes, previous generation) of Planetary Knights to their dads...and suffer training on the Moon under the Outer Senshi. And the Dark Moon invasion. And a whole lot of other unpleasant things...but this will probably not come into being, as readers do not much like stories about Shittenou/senshi children. But I had to confess my bad, bad intentions ^^;;.
Even though I'm sad, I have to admit that I'm extremely relieved to have this story done and over with after a record three years (approximately) of working on it. It's managed to survive multiple revisions and rewritings, and I don't believe I'll ever touch it again–because if I do, I'll have to suppress the urge to delete the whole entire thing and write it on a more coherent fashion, and I'm absolutely sure that that would kill me...
So thank you, everyone, who's read the story ^^ I appreciate it. And to the readers from GL who have suffered through almost the entire story process...you guys are the best. ^^ Lots of thank-yous in order to everyone!! Especially for the reviews–those reviews got me through the rewriting process of these final few chapters. :)
Anyone who asks me to write about the aftermath more thoroughly (as in another story) in the near future will...not suffer any horrible fate, because upon reading such a request, I'll probably suffer a heart seizure of some sort.
And this is Ice, signing out for Paths of Thorns.~
02/16/03
Paths of Thorns
