Chapter Text
Blossom Apartments, Ottawa, ON, Canada
December 30, 2016
9:27 AM
"I see your girlfriends got out of the end-of-year cleaning," Kuroko Shirai commented acerbically as she sat down in Rob Donaldson's office, the door still open.
Rob sighed. "First, they aren't my girlfriends any more, at least not right now. We were being mind controlled."
Kuroko looked shocked. "What? How? By who?"
"By whom," Rob replied automatically. "We don't know who or how. Everybody who'll be living here on New Year's Day except for Touma, Hyoga, and Cinnamon is protected from all versions of mind control known to the Norns now, and you can thank Skuld for that state of affairs. Yes, that includes you. Second, in Canada we usually do the big cleaning in the spring instead of at the end of the calendar year."
"I'm still internalizing your news about mind control. Why not Hyoga-san, Kamijo, and Cinnamon?"
"I didn't know about Cinnamon until I got back from Windsor. Touma can protect himself. Hyoga specifically asked to be excluded from the wish, and you can ask her why."
"I'll do that later. Do you know why you were controlled?"
Rob shook his head. "I have no idea. No, I have ideas, but they depend on who did it. Keeping Mii or Ami distracted would benefit any number of people who think Judgment or the Senshi are their enemies, keeping me distracted might cost Funtom Property Management some money, and keeping the three of us in a relationship might make some superpowered polygamist happy for some reason. Or maybe somebody wants to date Rei or Rei and thought I might have been competition for him."
"None of oneesama's clones are interested in anybody that way yet. I know that from experience.[1] And even I can see that Rei Hino doesn't like you that way."
Rob chuckled. "Yeah, I'd much rather have most of you as friends, not as lovers."
"Most of us." Kuroko said flatly as she raised one eyebrow.
Rob nodded. "It's no secret now; it looks like whoever controlled the three of us knew who I'd be interested in, that way. And, yes, Mii and Ami already know that. So we can rule out the 'keep me away from one of you' hypothesis, since whoever did it either did their homework or was very lucky."
"I agree. Does anyone else know about the mind control?"
Rob mirrored his computer display to the monitor on the wall. "I was writing up the report to Lord Phantomhive and the Advisory Board when you came in."
Kuroko stood up, walked over, and read what was on the screen. Finally, she said, "You're pretty good at writing reports."
"I did spend three decades as a bureaucrat."
"That doesn't show in this report. This is readable."
"Har, har. If you could let everybody know that I'll answer questions about this at lunch, I'd appreciate it. You too, Ruiko."
Kuroko took a quick moment to look around. "Saten-san isn't here," she finally said, missing hearing the next door down the hallway close.
Rob gestured to the wall behind Kuroko. "But her apartment is on the other side of that wall, which isn't soundproofed."
Ruiko Saten poked her head into the room. "I've thought for a few weeks now that you've been using me as a way to spread news, Rob-oji. And I don't mind knowing about stuff before everyone else."
"Good to hear," Rob replied with a smile. "Why wouldn't I use your tendencies to gossip for my own benefit?"
Ruiko mock-pouted. "Sometimes you're too logical."
"Say, do you want to be in charge of our internal news board?"
"No, you can keep sending us texts when you have something to tell us."
"I can live with that."
Kuroko raised a hand to her mouth so that the others couldn't see her teeth when she laughed. Then she said, "Oh, yes, I almost forgot with the whole mind-control matter that you mentioned. Why wait to do the cleaning, Rob-oji?"
Rob smiled. "So we don't freeze when we open the windows to air out the place. That's why we call it 'spring cleaning' in Canada."
"Oh. Yes, that makes sense."
"Besides," Rob added, "Kasumi Tendo is moving in tomorrow and Sailors Uranus and Neptune are moving in the day after. We would just have to clean up again next week." Kuroko nodded in agreement.
"We're getting Kasumi Tendo and Makoto Kino to mooch meals from?" Ruiko grinned. "We're going to eat well for the next few years."
Kuroko ignored her. Turning back to Rob, she said, "And now I know why you wanted to talk with me."
"If I could trouble you..."
She didn't let him finish. "I would be happy to help them with moving their possessions. Say no more, except to tell me where I'm teleporting their furniture to."
"We have no choice but to put them in the two basement apartments that we've converted from storerooms. Haruka and Michiru get the apartment between Setsuna's and the remaining storeroom, and Kasumi gets the apartment beside the stairs."
The Anything Goes Café, Antigonish, NS, Canada
2:17 PM local time
"Do you really have to go?"
Kasumi looked up from packing. "You know that I do. We can't afford my tuition if I'm an out-of-province student, so I have to live somewhere in Ontario before the beginning of 2017."
"I don't know why people think you're stupid," Nabiki said. "You knew exactly what to say to convince me. Should we settle your account now, or wait until you come back?"
A hint of sadness crept into Kasumi's voice. "Is that how we're going to do this, imouto?" Nabiki knew that she'd said something wrong; Kasumi never called either her or Akane "little sister" unless she was serious. "Very well. Take into account what you would have had to pay for someone to cook your meals and wash your clothes and sheets every day since mother died."
"Not every day; we went on holiday sometimes. But I see your point. Perhaps we should just forget about owing each other anything, since we're sisters."
Kasumi's ensuing smile looked genuine to Nabiki. "Of course! Families shouldn't need to owe each other for what families do for each other, after all." She went back to packing. A few minutes later, she said, "Oh, my. Should I take this?"
Nabiki looked over Kasumi's shoulder to see their mother's hand-written cookbook. "Take it. I won't use it, and Akane can't without Nodoka's help."
"Thank you, Nabiki." And Kasumi put her most treasured inheritance into her suitcase.
Club Lofts, Windsor, ON, Canada / Blossom Apartments, Ottawa, ON, Canada
1:46 PM
Ami was taking a few minutes away from learning about Saint technology at the Windsor residence to "test the newly-installed videoconference software", as she put it. Of course she called Rob... but not before wondering whether she should, and not before she called somebody else.
"I finally got to talk with Hyoga about that link we all share."
He knew exactly which link she was talking about; under whatever spectrum it was that Skuld's glasses let them see, it manifested as a red string tied between their pinkie fingers. It was there when they first had the ability to look – which was after they had confessed their love for each other while under emotion control – and was strengthened when Hyoga Kazakiri learned how to stop her feelings for Rob from bleeding across their link. They thought that it would have dissolved once they discovered that their emotions were being controlled... but the connection was still there after they had used a divine wish to become free of outside influences.
"I'm almost afraid to ask what she said."
Ami knew that Rob was three times as old as her, which was part of why she liked him.[2] But whatever his emotions toward her were when they weren't being controlled, he had manifested them only with words, not with deeds. She chose her words carefully. "Hyoga's our protector now, just like Mamoru protects Usagi, and I'm glad that I didn't have to try saying that in Japanese. Hyoga cares for you deeply; she doesn't want to see you hurt."
"So, she... did something?"
Ami nodded. "She strengthened and armoured the bond between us. The imposed bond isn't there any more – it's as if your wish untied the knots that somebody had tied to connect the red string of fate between us. But we excluded Hyoga from the wish's effect."
"We excluded her from being shielded, not from being able to affect us."
She shook her head once. "She's affecting herself. It's Hyoga's red string between our fingers now, not Urd's or Peorth's or anybody else's."
Rob didn't know how he felt about that. "Can she untie it?" In a whisper, he continued, "And do I want her to?"
Ami sighed deeply, then pretended that she hadn't heard the whisper. "She can, but she doesn't want to. She says it's all or nothing, and she's afraid you won't like her any more if she changes things between us. Including between us and Mii."
"Oh, dear. Ami, you know what I think of you, and you know what I think of Mii – you were there when I answered you, and even if our emotions were being manipulated, in my case they were emotions that were already present." She smiled at his words even as she blushed; she still wasn't used to hearing a confession of love from somebody who she was sure that she loved in return. Then her smile dissolved – did she still love him? Not knowing Ami's thoughts, Rob continued, "But Hyoga doesn't know that. She knows what I think of her..."
"So do I, every Friday night."
Rob looked startled. "Are we distracting you? I thought that she wasn't leaking her emotions across our link any more."
"It isn't that – Hyoga needs to consciously push an emotion across the link now, or purposefully listen for our emotions. But my apartment is directly above yours."
He winced. "Oh. I'm so sorry about that, Ami."
"Don't be." She smiled an honest, pure smile. "She deserves all the happiness you can give her, and if that's what makes her happy and it doesn't hurt you, who am I to complain? Especially considering what my birth certificate says; I'm still the youngest person who you were in love with. Or are in love with?" she added with an impish smile. Without letting Rob react, Ami continued, "And I'll admit that some of the things the two of you say give me a different perspective on what my Gross Anatomy textbook says about the matter."
He was very happy that nobody could overhear their conversation. "I'll pretend I didn't hear you say that. Ask Mii why." They both knew that Mii knew the laws about such behaviour better than any of the others in their... Group? Circle? Family? None of them knew what to call their relationship any more. Definitely not karass; the Sailor Senshi and the girls from Academy City were still two distinct karasses even though they had become friends. "And I'll see about putting some soundproofing in my apartment, even though that will make it more difficult for Rui-chan to overhear what I say in the office."
"Ruiko-san shouldn't be listening in on all of your work conversations. And thank you for being considerate of my feelings, Rob."
"But getting back to what you said about the red string... What do you want? This affects you, just as much as it does Hyoga and Mii and me."
She looked straight at his face and gave him an honest answer. "I don't know."
"If you want Hyoga to untie the red string between us, I'll respect that decision. But think about it. Don't rush to any decision."
"I've thought about it all night. I might not know what I want, but I know that I don't want any doubts whether whatever it is I feel for you was forced upon us."
He nodded. "I'll talk with Hyoga, then. Changing the topic slightly, are you, Kazari, and Mii coming back today?"
"No, we'll come back tomorrow. Hokaze-hakase is still showing us what he can do about Mahoro's technology, and Chizu-chan is still showing Mii the local restaurants."
"Don't forget that Kasumi Tendo moves in tomorrow morning."
Ami smiled. "Then we won't expect to be able to use the portal until tomorrow afternoon."
"We'll see you then." Only after he was sure that the call had ended did Rob add, "I miss you."
It was only after he'd started work on a completely unrelated matter that he wondered why Ami had said "about Mahoro's technology" instead of "with Mahoro's technology".
Blossom Apartments, Ottawa, ON, Canada
2:26 PM
"Hyoga, do you have a minute?"
She smiled. She'd been smiling a lot more often since she got a flesh-and-blood body... and a boyfriend. "For you, Rob, always. Please come in."
He walked into the 18-year-old's apartment, closed the door behind him, and gave her a quick kiss, which she returned.
"How are things going now that you have your free will back?" she asked.
He winced. "That's... what we need to talk about. I don't have my free will back, at least not yet."
"What?" She looked alarmed. "Who's still got a lever on your emotions?"
He sighed deeply. "You do."
"Me?" She looked puzzled... and a bit upset.
"Maybe we should sit down." They did so, at her kitchen table. "Hyoga, let me start by saying that I will not stop loving you no matter what happens today. We went through Nifelheim and back together and lived to tell the tale; that means a lot to me."
"To me, too," she said.
"But you've done something to our red threads of fate. Including the ones that whoever controlled Ami, Mii, and me tied around our fingers. As long as what you did is still in effect, we'll never be completely free of that control."
She looked at her lap, or rather at the kitchen table. "You've talked with Ami." After a moment, she whispered, "I don't want to lose you."
"And I don't want to lose you, either. I'm reminded of something that Jess Lair quoted back in 1969: 'If you want something very, very badly, let it go free. If it comes back to you, it's yours forever. If it doesn't, it was never yours to begin with.' Can you trust me that I want to come back to you? Please?" He didn't tell her that he'd looked up the quote earlier in the afternoon, expecting to need to repeat it.
After a moment, she said, "Yes." Then she took the smallest version of her angelic form – the one that would fit inside of a normal room – and did... something. "It's done," she said as she returned to her human form.
"I don't feel any different, darling. Whatever you did didn't affect what we created together at Hvergelmir, as far as I can tell." He reached across the table and held her hand tenderly.
Then, because Rob wore his debugging glasses as a matter of course, he noticed the red threads tied to his pinkie finger. Two red threads, not three. One was so short that it was obvious his and Hyoga's hands were tied together. The other went off... somewhere.
She noticed that he was looking at their hands, took a close look herself, and smiled. "There are stories about how mortals thought Yuè Xià Lǎorén must have been drunk or distracted when tying some of the red threads, because some people's soulmates appear remarkably unsuited for them at first glance. This –" She held his hand up so that they could both see it. "– is the first time I've ever heard of Yue Lao tying two red threads to the same person's finger, and now I'm wondering why I didn't remember that before now."
"We were being controlled. Maybe we were prevented from remembering."
"There is that." She looked off into the near distance and smiled. "This one's tied to me. The other one..."
Rob held a finger up to her lips. "Hyoga, please, don't tell me, or either of them. If they want to know, they can look themselves. Protect our free will by leaving at least a small mystery to our romantic destinies."
Hyoga nodded, and quoted from The Princess Bride. "As you wish." Then, as long as his finger was already at her mouth, she kissed him quickly.
As they stood up and kissed again, showing each other that their love still existed, he wondered which of the young ladies who had been controlled alongside him was destined to share her life with them. But that was a question for another time.
Blossom Apartments, Ottawa, ON, Canada
December 31, 2016
8:11 AM
Kasumi greets her new neighbours with a gift.
"My name is Kasumi Tendo, and I will be living here starting today. Please take care of me." She bowed to the small group who had met her at the security door to the portal, then presented a box to Rob. "While this is a small thing, please feel free to make use of it."
"My name is Rob Donaldson, and on behalf of everyone at Blossom Apartments, I welcome you to our building." He bowed almost as deeply to his new tenant, then accepted her new-neighbour gift. The ritual completed, he added, "I apologize that the only place available for you to live is in the basement. If you'll step this way, please?" Kasumi got out of the way of her father walking through the portal, carrying two suitcases and a garment bag. "Mr. Tendo, welcome to Ottawa."
"You'll forgive me if I don't bow, Mr. Donaldson," Soun replied while nodding his head. "And I trust that nothing untoward will happen to my daughter while she is under your care."
Knowing how overprotective Soun Tendo could be on occasion, Rob simply replied, "Considering that both Sailor Moon and Railgun live here, Blossom Apartments is one of the safest places on Earth. As for other activities that you might be worried about, each male who lives here either already has a girlfriend or isn't yet interested in girls."
"But if she brings someone home..."
"Then that is her choice." Rob turned from Soun to Kasumi. "By our standards, Ms. Tendo, you are an adult. I'll point out that our building's tutelary frowns upon promiscuity, though. Please do not do anything to bring divine retribution down upon yourself."
That calmed Soun enough to let Kuroko take the suitcases that he was carrying. "I'll just put these in Kasumi-san's apartment," she said while teleporting them away. As Ranma walked through the portal while carrying three boxes, she added, "Kasumi-san, please let us take your hat and coat; we'll put them in your apartment. Rob-oji, the Reis and I can handle the rest of the moving, should you want to show the Tendos around." Kuroko took the garment bag from Soun as Rei Misaka took Kasumi's coat and gloves and Rei Hino accepted her hat and scarf.
"I'll take you up on that offer, ladies. Thank you all. Kasumi-san, Soun-san, if you would follow me?" As the three of them started walking, Rob pointed out the line of mailboxes while handing a ring of keys to Kasumi. "This is where you pick up your mail. Your box is number five, and the key with the Canada Post logo opens it." Stepping out of the mail room, Kasumi could see a stairwell across the hallway. Instead of taking her to it, Rob turned left. "This wing is the busiest in the building," he said while stopping at the first door. "Mainly because this is our common room. If you choose, you can spend all of your time in your apartment, but we usually take at least three meals a week here with some or all of the other residents." He opened the door and gestured to the others, then followed them in. "As you can see, we have plenty of room." They saw three tables big enough for four people each with comfortable chairs around them, and one end of a very long table with matching chairs straight out of a medieval romance.
"How many people can fit in here?"
"Twenty-eight, comfortably," Rob replied. "Once Haruka-san and Michiru-san move in tomorrow, every seat will be filled if we all have dinner together and the Mau stay in their cat forms."
One of those Mau spoke up from the corner of the room nearest the balcony door. As she padded over on little cat feet, she continued, "Hello. You must be Kasumi and Soun. My name is Luna." She jumped up onto the long table, then jumped up again and transformed to human before landing in front of Kasumi. Offering to shake her hand, she added, "I'm happy to make your acquaintance."
"Kasumi Tendo. Usagi-san told me about you when we hosted Minako-san's birthday party. Please be kind to me," she replied while shaking Luna's hand. "But is it fair of me to take your place at the dinner table, Luna-san?"
The Mau smiled. "First, nobody has an assigned chair. We trade places so that we can talk with everyone else at least once in a while. Second, Artemis, Diana, and I never join the household for meals when any of the Misaka sisters are present. Their electrokinetic abilities cause us physical discomfort even when they aren't using their powers. Don't worry about that; just think of it as a medical condition that needs to be accommodated."
Rob motioned to Kasumi. "If you'll come over here, Ms. Tendo?" She did so, seeing the rest of the very long table, and a small two-person table sitting beside a china cabinet against the outer wall. The far wall held a large flat-screen television with a side table immediately below it. The TV's remote sat on the side table. There was also a door that Rob knocked at. "Mako-chan, are you in there?"
"I'll be right out!" A short moment later, the door opened to reveal the speaker. "Hi! I'm Makoto Kino," she said to Soun, "and this is my kitchen," she said to both Soun and Kasumi.
"Mako-chan," Rob sighed, "it's everybody's kitchen. Kasumi-san, Mako-chan is very territorial about the common room's kitchen. However, you only have a hotplate, a microwave oven, and a bar fridge in your apartment, so you'll be doing most of your serious cooking and baking here."
They heard a bell ding. Makoto smiled. "Oh, I have to go. I have three loaves of bread baking in the smaller oven and a chicken roasting in the larger oven, for hot chicken sandwiches at lunch today. Kasumi-san, stay after lunch and I'll show you where to find everything, but right now Cinnamon and I are busy. Sorry!" She closed the kitchen door behind her.
Rob looked sheepish. "It appears I won't be showing you the kitchen after all. It is a bit cramped in there. Let's continue with the quick tour, shall we? Luna, will we see you at lunch?"
"I doubt it, Rob," she replied. "Niiko and Nana said they'll be joining you."
"Until next time, then. Later!" Rob turned back to the Tendos. "If you'll follow me out, I'll show you more of the building. Oh, and you're welcome to do homework in the common room if you need a large table to spread your books out on. First come, first served."
As they left the common room and turned right, Kasumi asked, "Who is this 'Cinnamon' person who Mako-chan mentioned?"
"You didn't see her hovering above Mako-chan's shoulder? That's probably for the best; that means you are not a mage or someone with a destiny to become a pastry chef. Cinnamon is Mako-chan's newest friend and her kitchen partner." As they walked along the hallway, Rob motioned to a door that they passed without stopping. "That's Ruiko Saten's apartment. Until you moved in, Kasumi-san, Rui-chan was very unusual here in not having a metahuman power of some sort. This," Rob stopped at the end of the hallway at a door marked 'Office', "is where I usually work. If the door is open, you're welcome to come in and ask me for help." He unlocked and opened the door to reveal a small private office with a wall-mounted TV, enough seats for a half-dozen people if they were friendly, and an unmarked door. "While we're here, let's get your signature on the move-in paperwork so that you can get that reduced tuition rate you need."
Once the legal formalities were complete, and they were ready to continue the tour, Rob pointed out the door in the office. "My private apartment is on the other side of that door, and it's called 'private' for a reason. Please respect that." He closed and locked the office door once all three of them were back in the corridor. Leading the Tendos back to the mail room, Rob said, "I should mention that the entire property, building and grounds, is a non-smoking area. We have two pre-teen girls in residence, and I happen to be allergic to tobacco."
"That won't be a concern," Kasumi replied with a smile.
"I'm happy to hear that. My allergies appear to include marijuana as well, so if if gets legalized,[3] it will be included in the smoking ban."
As they passed Ruiko's apartment, the door opened and Ruiko stepped out. "Oh, hi, Kasumi-san! Welcome to our home away from home." After locking her apartment door, she started walking beside the group.
"It's good to see you again, Saten-san."
"Please call me Ruiko, or 'Rui-chan'. We are living in Canada, after all." She turned to Rob and added, "Rob-oji, some of us are going shopping. We should be back before dinner, but don't wait lunch for us."
"Does Mako-chan know?"
"Yep!"
As they passed the mail room and the front door, Rob said, "This wing is sometimes called the 'power wing', because both Railgun and Sailor Moon live here."
The door to the closest apartment was already open, and its occupant was standing at it, looking at her watch. She looked up and smiled. "The press calls me Railgun. My friends call me Mikoto." She offered to shake Kasumi's hand. "Mikoto Misaka, from Tokiwadai in Academy City. I was too busy to meet you at the Christmas party, and the less said about our visit the week before Halloween, the better." Soun nodded in agreement with her last statement.
Kasumi accepted her building-mate's hand. "And I was too busy to meet you at the Christmas party. Kasumi Tendo, from Nerima. Back home, Tokiwadai was in Itabashi ward."
"That's one of the ways my home Earth is different from everyone else's. Itabashi and Nerima were both absorbed into Academy City when it became independent from Tokyo. I'd like to stay and chat, but Rui-chan, Mina-chan, and I are going shopping."
The door to the next apartment opened and its occupant stepped out. "I heard somebody say my name. Keep up the good work!" Then she noticed who was in the hallway. "Oh, hi, Kasumi-san! Welcome to Blossom!"
"Hello, Minako-san."
"Mina-chan!"
Rob chuckled. "Everyone else calls Aino-san 'Mina-chan'. You may as well get used to it."
He stepped out of her way as she headed for the building's front door, grabbing Mikoto's and Ruiko's hands along the way. "C'mon, Mikoto, those end of year sales are waiting!"
"You were the last one to be ready..." replied Mikoto as she was almost dragged out the building's front door.
Soun watched them leave, then turned to Rob. "This certainly seems to be a lively building."
"It is, for most of the residents. Sometimes it's difficult to tell whether we're nakama or an extended family. There are a few people here who keep to themselves, though."
"Not us, though," they heard from the door at the end of the hallway. "It's good to see you again, Kasumi-san and Soun-san."
"Hello, Tsukino-san," Soun replied neutrally.
Usagi bowed. "I apologize again for what I did before Halloween, sir."
"I expect the man who marries my daughter to behave in a manly manner, just as his parents expect the same thing. Asking him to wear a seifuku was in poor taste."
"Father," Kasumi said before Usagi could reply, "she's already apologized for that. Twice, now."
"Very well. But I don't want you getting too close to her."
Sadly, Usagi said, "I suppose that means I shouldn't invite you in for a cup of tea, then."
Before anyone else could answer her, Rob said, "While the thought is a good one, we don't have time right now, Usagi-san. I haven't shown Kasumi-san where her apartment is yet, let alone what's behind the special door."
"Oh!" Usagi grinned as she added, "I should leave you to that, then. I'll see you at lunch!"
After Usagi closed her apartment door behind her, Rob motioned to the Tendos to follow him. "It's time to show you what we have downstairs. Besides your apartment, Kasumi-san."
Rob lead them back to the doorway, turning right to get to the stairwell. "That's the back door," he pointed out the clear-window door past the stairs. "Your front door key will open it as well."
As they headed downstairs, Kasumi asked, "Why do we need to lock our apartments if the doors into the building are locked?"
Rob sighed. "Unfortunately, we've already had one group get past the back door by mind-controlling one of our residents to open it. While we've taken steps to ensure nobody who lives here, including you, can be mind-controlled again, we aren't so foolish as to assume that's the only way that someone unfriendly could get in. Your apartment door is a second line of defence, and I'll show you the third line later."
Once they reached the foot of the stairs, Kasumi asked, "What's behind that door?"
"That's the special door that I mentioned earlier. I'll show you what's in there after I've shown you your apartment and our more mundane amenities." Turning away from that door, he lead the others to the basement hallway and turned left. "And now the room that you've been waiting to see: your own apartment. If you would do the honours...?"
"You don't have a master passkey?"
"I do, but just as I expect you to respect my privacy, I respect your privacy and never use it except during an emergency, Kasumi-san."
"Ah. Thank you for your consideration." She unlocked and opened her own door, and they stepped inside. Rob turned the lights on as he passed the switch, supplementing the natural light that had found its way in through the only window.
Kasumi's new apartment was utilitarian, to say the least. It held a private room in one corner, an area that could laughably be called a kitchenette in another, a closet (with Kasumi's garment bag hanging directly from the clothing rod and her coat hanging on a hanger beside it), a bed, a small table, a chair, and various boxes and suitcases. The only hint that this was a living space rather than just a place to sleep and eat was the wide-screen wall-mounted TV above the table and a ladder attached to the wall below the room's only window. Like in the common room, the TV's remote control was sitting on the table.
Kasumi immediately started inspecting the kitchenette, picking up the spare key that Kuroko, Rei, and Rei had left on the counter. She quickly commented on the first thing she noticed: "There isn't any food stocked here."
"We didn't know what you would want to eat. We can go shopping for necessities after lunch, or you can accept our hospitality and be our guest until Monday when I was planning on taking you, Haruka-san, and Michiru-san shopping for any necessities you might need. And that includes furniture and housewares."
Just then, Kuroko teleported in with a box. "Oh, you're here! Ranma-san said this is the last of your things, Kasumi-san."
"Thank you for helping me move in, Shirai-san."
"It was my pleasure."
"But now that she is here..." Rob started.
"That means this is an occupied apartment and I shouldn't just teleport into it. My apologies for the intrusion."
Kasumi smiled her usual smile. "Think nothing of it."
Soun, on the other hand, was looking into that small room. "There's no bath in this washroom, just a shower enclosure."
"Oh, my."
Kuroko smiled. "You haven't seen the big bath yet."
"Which I will show them after they've seen the rest of the basement," Rob added. "Kuroko-san, if you will...?"
"I'll leave you to it." Curtsying, she teleported out of the apartment.
Rob chuckled, then he turned back to the Tendos. "Unless there's something that needs to be unpacked right away, shall we continue with the tour?"
"I'd like to see the rest of the building, please," replied Kasumi.
So they left the room. Once Kasumi locked her door behind her, they walked down the hallway to the next room, where Soun kept Kasumi from walking into a collection of wooden boards that was just leaving the room.
The boards were being carried by Mamoru Chiba, who was weaning blue jeans and a work shirt. "Oh, hello! I'm sorry about delaying you; I didn't expect anyone to be here."
"Mamoru, what are you doing? I expected you to clean the room before Haruka-san and Michiru-san move in, not dismantle it."
"Haruka and Michiru told me that they're bringing their own furniture tomorrow, so I'm putting the IKEA bed that we had set up for them back into storage."
"Ah. Thanks."
Mamoru nodded. "If you'll excuse me, I have to put this into the storeroom and then print out an instruction sheet so we know how to put it back together if we need it later."
"Of course." Rob turned back to the Tendos. "Mamoru Chiba is Usagi Tsukino's boyfriend from the Silver Millennium. In my capacity as Usagi's foster parent, I've let them know that I expect them to wait until she graduates from high school before they get any closer than simply dating, although I have no way to make sure they're actually doing that. Or perhaps I should say not doing anything." Walking down the hallway, they passed a doorway with a Do Not Disturb sign hanging from the doorknob. "That's Meioh Setsuna-san's room."
"She doesn't appear to want to meet us."
"She's probably busy, Kasumi-san. As to what she's doing..." he shrugged his shoulders."Let's just say that she spends a lot of time meditating about reality, and leave it at that. The room at the end of the hallway is the storeroom." The door to said storeroom opened and Mamoru walked out, nodding in greeting as he passed them. "If you don't have room for everything that you packed, you can store the rest in there."
"That shouldn't be a problem once I get some storage shelves. Your apartment is almost as large as the one I shared with my sister in Antigonish."
"In that case, let's not bother looking at a storeroom. If you'll come with me, please?" Rob walked back to the junction with the stairs, and kept going past another door.
"What's in there?"
"That's the HVAC room for the entire building. You shouldn't need to go in there." As he kept walking Kasumi and Soun started hearing some near-tuneless humming coming from the next room down the hall. "Oh, good; Maika's in the laundry room." He opened the door and walked in while saying, "Maika, our new resident is here."
She put down the fitted sheet that she was folding, turned around, and smiled. The first thing that Kasumi noticed was that, unlike every other girl she'd seen so far in Blossom Apartments, Maika wasn't drop-dead gorgeous. Nor was she ugly; she was at least somewhat attractive, but not as attractive as the others. "Maika Tsuchimikado, at your service," she said as she bowed. "While I've been trained as a maid-of-all-work, my duties here are solely in the house-maid area."
"Kasumi Tendo. I'm happy to meet you. What's the difference between a maid-of-all-work and a house-maid?"
"House-maids stay out of the kitchen."
"Also," Rob added, "Maika is only responsible for cleaning the common areas of the building, unless you come to an arrangement with her to help you with your own domestic requirements."
Kasumi smiled. "I'm used to tending to such details myself, thank you."
"Then I'll just show you around the laundry room."
As Maika showed Kasumi where to find everything she'd need for cleaning and laundry, Soun turned to Rob. "You will make sure nothing happens to my little girl, won't you?"
"Of course, sir. She is as safe here as she was in Antigonish."
"And will you be treating her the way that our apartment manager treated her?"
Having known Epsilon since before the residence system was started, Rob knew the subtext behind that question and chose his words very carefully. "Mr. Tendo, I intend to treat your daughter as a human being with her own hopes and dreams, not as a character from a story. That said, I already have a girlfriend; I'm not looking for another. I am hoping that Kasumi-san and I will become friends and nothing more."
"I will hold you to that, sir."
"I would expect nothing less, sir."
Then Kasumi walked back to them. "Have you two finished your chat?"
"I believe so," Soun replied.
"Oh, good." Of course Kasumi smiled, but this time her smile looked more natural than it usually did.
"Shall we proceed?" Rob lead the Tendos out of the laundry room, saying as he left, "Oh, Maika, Mako-chan has hot chicken sandwiches on fresh bread for lunch. You can have the afternoon off, with pay."
"Thank you, Mr. Donaldson!"
As the laundry room's door closed behind them, Rob motioned toward the end of the hall. "Maika's apartment is next door, and my personal storeroom is at the end of the hall. I might possibly have something unusual in storage that you need, but don't bet on it." He turned to go back to the stairwell... and the special door.
"I thought we were already in the basement," Kasumi commented as they walked down the stairs behind said door.
"We were. This is a pocket dimension that Washuu-chan made for us a few months ago. I don't know whether we're in a separate reality altogether or a room in a building somewhere in Washuu-chan's lab, but either way, this is something that nobody else in Ottawa has. This room," Rob stopped and opened the door marked with the Japanese symbol for an onsen, the first door on the left, "is why I said you don't need to worry about not having a bath in your apartment." They saw inside the room a public bath straight out of Okayama... except that the signs were in English, and the men's side of the bath was noticeably smaller than the women's side. "There are teleport wards up; Kuroko-san can't teleport in, although she can teleport out. You know better than I do what the etiquette is here. Just let Maika or me know if anything's in short supply."
"How does this fit in here?" Kasumi asked.
"I barely understand the topology of this pocket dimension," Rob admitted. "If you aren't comfortable with transfinite math,[4] it's best to say that it just does. If you're still interested, Kazari-san and Ami-san can explain it better than I could." Closing the door, he walked down the short hallway to the other door on the same wall. "This is the closest we have to a dojo." He opened the door and motioned Soun and Kasumi to step inside. Following them in and closing the door behind them, he added, "Welcome to the sparring room. We call it that because that's why it was installed for Mikoto and Makoto. But it's much more versatile than just a place to spar. Computer, run program 'Foot Town'."
And it suddenly seemed like they were just outside the building at the base of the Tokyo Tower.
"It's like something out of Star Trek," Soun said, amazed.
"It's operated the same way, too, although sometimes it takes a few minutes to fully create or remove an environment. Especially if it involves water, which has to fill or drain whatever it's kept in."
Kasumi thought for a moment. "That implies that we can take things out of this room after they're created."
Rob didn't see how that implied her conclusion, but he didn't see anything obviously wrong with the conclusion, either. "I've never thought to try that."
"If we can, then we don't need to go shopping, do we?" she said hopefully.
Rob thought for a moment. "Let's not say anything about that to anyone until I've talked with Washuu-chan about it and we've run a few experiments. We shouldn't get anyone's hopes up. Anyway, while this room can be used for recreational purposes, Washuu-chan can monitor everything that happens inside it, so don't use it for anything that you wouldn't want to have show up on the evening news. I can hook up a monitor, too, but I respect everyone's privacy so I haven't done that. That said, you can use it for all sorts of homework, not just sparring. Computer, end program." And the Tokyo Tower disappeared, showing the room in its default state of empty with a crab motif on the walls. "Computer, run program Mizuno triage exercise 1."
A voice that sounded remarkably like Majel Barrett's came from all around them. "I'm sorry, Rob. I'm afraid I can't do that."
"Why not?" he asked out of curiosity.
"Ms. Mizuno has restricted access to that program. Only she and Mr. Chiba can run it."
Then a holographic version of Ami wearing her high-school uniform appeared in front of them. "Hello. If you're seeing this message, you tried to run one of my self-study programs. Please don't. They're programmed to be completely realistic and I don't want to have to treat you for shock." The hologram then popped out of existence.
"Okay..." Rob said. "I've never seen that happen before."
"You learn something new every day," Kasumi replied with a smile.
"True. Let's finish the tour and let you start unpacking, shall we?"
They left the sparring room and crossed the hallway to see an unmarked door. "Unless you have a firearms licence, you don't need to ever set foot in this room. Although we have room in there for secure storage of polearms, if you have any."
"You don't mind if my little girl carries a smaller weapon?"
"Mr. Tendo, I told the others this when they moved in: I'd rather have to pay bail than identify a body. Kasumi-san, if you feel a need to go armed and you're actually trained to use the weapon, I'm not going to stop you no matter what the local weapon laws say. And I would prefer to leave it at that." Walking back toward the stairs, they quickly reached the final door in the pocket dimension. He knocked on the door: one knock, a pause, two quick knocks, another pause, then he repeated the pattern. The door opened to reveal a room straight out of a survivalist's bunker but with new furniture and appliances. "This is the third line of defence that I mentioned: our bolthole. If something goes very wrong and we're invaded, this is where the noncombatants hide. We've only had to use it once."
"How do I get in?"
"Until I can get a short-range emergency teleport control from Washuu-chan for you, you knock, using the pattern that I just used. I'll repeat it later. If the room's unoccupied, the door will open. If anyone's inside, though, it can only be opened from the inside."
"Do all of you have these controls?" asked Soun. "And how short is short range?"
"No. Only Rui-chan, Kazari Uiharu, Mimi Misaka, Chibiusa, each of the Mau, and I have them. And short range is pretty much only on our property. Kasumi-san, I'd appreciate your advice on what needs to be added to the first-aid kit that we keep here, but not today."
"Why not?"
"Because this is the end of the tour, and I presume you'd like to unpack at least some of your things before lunch. Also, Ami-san packed our kit and I expect she'd want to know about any changes we make to it. She should be back some time this afternoon."
"We don't get to see the second and third floors?"
"There are just apartments on those floors. If you're curious, ask whether someone will invite you in. I suspect Mina-chan would love to show off her apartment and her plushie collection if you ask nicely once she's home from shopping."
12:27 PM
"We're home!" The common room's door opened and Ami, Kazari, and Mii walked in, each loaded down with shopping bags.
Rob's smile wasn't as large as everyone expected, but he was still happy to hear Mii's voice. "Welcome back! You're still in time to join Kasumi-san in her first meal here!"
Ruiko added, "And Rob-oji's been telling us about the wish he made, so we've pretty much thrown Kasumi-san into the deep end of our relationship pool. I've been recording what he's been telling us so the Mau and everyone else who aren't eating with us get to hear it, too."
"And I suppose you want to hear our take on the matter, too," Mii mock-grumbled with a smile. "Sure, set me a plate and I'll tell you over second lunch."
"Just a light lunch for Ami and me, since Mahoro-san insisted on feeding us before we left," Kazari said while putting a tray of sweets down on one of the smaller tables, beside the plate of sweets that Kasumi had given the residents of Blossom. "Mahoro-san sent these home with us and says Merry Christmas." Then she gasped as one of the cookies appeared to levitate. "How...?"
"Go get your debugging glasses, Uiharu-san," Mii said. "We have a new building-mate, but I can't see her unless I'm looking through the glasses that Skuld gave us. Cinnamon, I presume?"
"That's right. And you'd be Ms. Konori?"
Mii looked puzzled until Usagi said, "She just asked whether you're you."
"Ah. I can see you, but I can't hear you. I'm sorry." Mii bowed to the Sweets Spirit, who returned the courtesy with a curtsy. "Yes, I'm Mii Konori, Blossom's representative on the Advisory Board."
"You aren't the only one who can't hear her," Rob said. "The Senshi can talk with Cinnamon just fine because they're magical girls, but I can only hear her when I use my phone's translation mode. I'll ask Skuld to install that app on your phones."
"Thank you," Cinnamon said with a relieved smile.
Kasumi stood and bowed to all three of the girls who'd just returned from Windsor. "I've met you all, but I'll introduce myself again. I'm your new neighbour, Kasumi Tendo. Please take care of me."
"I'm Kazari Uiharu. Welcome to our home."
Then Rob realized who hadn't yet said anything. "It's good to see you back home safely, Ami-san," he said... to which she turned away from him and quickly left the room.
Kuroko looked surprised. "Since when does Ami-san act like that?"
"Since we broke free of being controlled," Mii replied.
Rob sighed deeply and sadly. "And that answers your earlier question, Mina-chan. Our imposed emotions are gone, but anything we developed since those imposed emotions were imposed still exists. And somebody please punish me in the name of the Moon, because I'm very much afraid that I just made Ami cry."
Instead of doing what he asked, Usagi got up and went after Ami. She found her close friend just outside the common room... and she wasn't crying.
"Ami? What's wrong?"
"I thought I was ready. I talked with him yesterday. But seeing Rob-san... I wasn't ready."
"You weren't ready for what?" Usagi asked quietly as Mii stepped out of the common room, looking for them.
"I don't know," Ami whispered. "And... that frightens me."
"Ami, Hyoga-san told me last night that she undid whatever it was that she did to protect our relationship with Rob-san. We don't have that emotional link any more, and she isn't protecting our feelings for each other."
"And this is the first time you've seen him since then," Usagi realized.
Ami nodded as she calmed down slightly. "That's right, Usagi. Mii, how can you act so normally?"
"Remember what I told you in Windsor? I came to terms with the possibility of being mind-controlled years ago, back in Academy City." Usagi looked alarmed at Mii's words, remembering what nearly happened when Diamande controlled her, then remembered that it couldn't happen to her again. If Mii noticed, she didn't react. "When I looked at Rob-san and I didn't feel a rush of happiness, I thought that this was just how I should feel. It was like I saw an ex-boyfriend for the first time after we broke up."
"Is that what we are?" Ami asked. "Ex-boyfriend and ex-girlfriend? I've never broken up with anybody. Am I supposed to feel something for Rob-san?"
Instead of assuming, Usagi asked, "Do you feel something for Rob-oji?"
Nobody said anything for a long moment.
"I... I don't know," Ami whispered again. "And I hate not knowing. Mii, do you feel anything for Rob?"
The lack of an honorific wasn't lost on the other two.
Mii finally replied, "I think he's trustworthy, and a nice guy, and I really want him to notice me as a woman and not just as a resident, but that's what I thought of him before Halloween."
"Konori-san," Usagi said, "just how do you want Rob-oji to notice you as a woman?"
"Well, I know he isn't gay, and I do have a nice body." Neither of the Senshi were as well-endowed as Mii. Neither of the Senshi said anything about it, because they liked their own bodies. Mii continued, "It would be nice for him to acknowledge that."
"He won't, not as long as he's our foster father," Usagi pointed out. "The mind control aside, he's always done his best to treat us equally."
"As long as you realize 'tried' doesn't mean 'succeeded'," Mii replied. "Rui-chan and Ami have always been his favourites."
Ami sighed deeply. "Which I was never really comfortable with except during the mind control. But now... I don't seem to mind that he pays more attention to me and Saten-san than he does to everyone else. Remember the dress he bought for her for the Christmas party?"
Mii nodded. "Something pretty, but also something a father would buy for his daughter, with that lack of décolletage."
Ami was relieved to hear that... then wondered why she was relieved. "That doesn't help me, though. What should I be feeling right now?"
Usagi took both of Ami's hands in her own, and softly replied, "Whatever you are feeling right now. I can't pretend to know what it's like to see an ex-boyfriend because I've never had one. But I can't pretend to be you, either. Whatever you're feeling right now is what Ami Mizuno is supposed to be feeling. We can't feel anything that we shouldn't, now that our minds are protected." She hoped, but didn't say that where a friend who needed her help could hear.
"Well," Mii said, "you might still be too young for some thoughts."
Ami smiled slightly. "That's 'not supposed to', not 'shouldn't'."
Usagi grinned. "And there's the Ami who's my close friend."
"Do you think you're ready to go back in?"
Ami thought for a moment, then replied, "I don't think so. Not yet."
"Then I'll get your bags and bring them up to your apartment later," Usagi volunteered. "In the name of Love and Justice, take the time you need."
"Thanks."
11:59 PM
Almost all of the residents at Blossom were gathered in the common room, watching television together. While Ami had joined the others, she was not sitting anywhere near Rob.
Kazari had split the display into six windows. One showed Ui Hirasawa's live feed from Times Square using the GoPro that she'd borrowed from Douglas Gardens Apartments; the others showed their friends from Somerset who didn't want to brave the crowds in Manhattan, and everyone in Philadelphia (who were planning to watch the Mummers Parade the next morning so didn't make the night trip into New York City), Montreal (who'd brought their own GoPro to the Vieux-Port so they could share watching the fireworks), Windsor and Okeechobee (both of whom, like the folks in Ottawa, didn't have anything local to attend for New Year's Eve).
They were all counting down with the crowd who were watching the Ball Drop live:
"Ten! Nine! Eight! Seven! Six! Five! Four! Three! Two! One!..."
- ↑ RK: Kuroko has a blind spot here, in that she has trouble imagining Misaka 10032 or anyone else being interested in Touma.
- ↑ RK: We've footnoted this before: Aya Hisakawa mentioned during an interview in the October 1992 issue of Animage that she saw Ami Mizuno as liking men who were older than her father. (There's a translation of the interview on Tuxedo Unmasked.) This bit of Sailor Moon deuterocanon is one of the things that sets our story apart from many other fan works.
- ↑ RK: Which happened in October 2018.
- ↑ RK: The fact that Rob uses the term "transfinite math" shows that he doesn't understand the mathematics of infinite series after all. My SI is not as smart as I am, which is reasonable since I'm older and better-informed than he is.