Chapter 1- THE BEGINNING
White sheets and curtains. Doctors and nurses in white. That was my first impression of hospitals. My first impression of anything in my life, for that matter. It was a colour (or perhaps non-colour) that I found myself unconsciously staying away from for the next ten years. In fact, I went to the other extreme and dress myself in black or dark colours most of the time. Which was kind of ironic, looking back. After all, it is a colour that I am most associated with now. The colour of an armour from a past life. Or even of a muffler a certain girl gave me.
I am an orphan. Many would call that tragic, but it seems that fate did not abandon me after all and I was adopted by a wealthy businessman, Takeda –san, after my parents died in a car accident. At least, that was what I was told happened to them. I woke up in a hospital a day after my sixth birthday with no memory of anything before that moment. Takeda-san told me that he was my father’s partner in a firm they set up together and they had been close friends since college. Since I was all alone, he decided to adopt me. He took over sole ownership of the firm, but I was still left with a considerable inheritance.
Uncle Takeda was a widower and had only one daughter, Takeda Hina and we grew up together – the typical childhood sweethearts, I suppose. Hina… she’s a sweet girl, pretty, kind and totally in love with me. She had always wanted to be my bride and in one of those role-playing games we used to play when we were children, I promised to marry her. It might be a promise of a child, but it was a serious promise for her, and as we grew up, it became a natural course of event. Of course I will be marrying her. Never mind that I never felt the way she felt for me. I never felt that way about any other girl either and Hina was the one girl in my life who was a constant presence. I knew her better than I knew anyone else and we have been together for almost my whole life (the life I can remember anyway). It just seemed natural that we date and as soon as we came back from our first date, Uncle Takeda was already talking about announcing our engagement. He was pleased, of course. He knew me and knew I would take care of his daughter.
I knew Hina would make a good wife for me and I accepted the fact that she would always be by my side and we would be married one day. But it was still many years away. We were to wait till we both graduate from college, so it was not something I trouble myself over. Still, sometimes, at odd moments (and for some strange reason, when I caught sight of a full moon), I found myself wondering if there could be something more for me. I didn’t know it then, but my destiny was just beginning to unfold.
My 18th birthday was unremarkable, except that Hina-chan insisted on having a proper celebration. I stopped celebrating birthdays years ago, but I guess the first birthday after graduating from high school was an occasion for celebration. From Hina’s point of view anyway. I didn’t care one way or the other. But that night I turned 18 was when the dreams started. A girl in a long white gown, face always obscured in a fog, appealing to me desperately to find her the ginzuishou. I probably could have ignored that- blame it on the champagne I drank or something- but when I woke up suddenly after the dream, I found myself wearing a tuxedo, complete with a top hat and cane, standing on the rooftop. I did not even know how I got there. I was lucky that it was it was 3am in the morning and no one saw me.
After that, it was the same dream every night until I finally broke down and decided to get her what she wanted. Whether it was so that she would leave me alone or to know if she was somehow connected to my forgotten past, I did not know at first. Later, I realize that it was almost a compulsion to follow her request, as if I could not deny her anything. In any case, it was the start of my life as a thief. Of course, though most label me as that, I did not keep any of the jewels that I “stole”. I have no need of them once I ascertained that they were not what I was looking for. I left them (those that were not intercepted by Sailor V anyway) in different police stations where they were then returned to the rightful owners. The media simply chose not to broadcast that fact. Or perhaps the police did not reveal that fact, to maintain their reputation and not seem incompetent. In any case, I was branded as a thief till the end.
Sailor V was another story. From the very first, she seemed to know of me and thwarted my attempts several times. Of course, she did not gain the upper hand all the time. She seemed to know who I was and this was something I was not going to let slide. I could not afford to be caught. Though to give her credit, she never did make much effort to catch me, just to get me to return the jewels. Still, two can play the game and it was one of those times that I discovered her real identity. Idol singer Aino Minako. That was a surprise. Still, it did not mean I was going to reveal her identity to the world. It was simply a leverage and she knew it too. Unless she exposed me, I was going to let her be. After all, as I well know, we all have our secrets.
