Seasons in the Sun

Part Zero of Five

By Gabi-hime ([email protected])

Spoilers: The end of Angelic Layer TV

Pairings: Misaki/Oujiro, Shuuko/Icchan, Tamayo/Koutaro, Kaede/Sai, Ringo/Clary, although primarily Misaki Oujirou and Kaede/Sai

Rating: PG

Synopsis: Four years after the third National Angelic Layer tournament, the grand circuit deuses of Angelic Layer finally leave their fields of gold.

A/N: This fanfic assumes an international tournament took place the fall after the third national tournament. While I may eventually go back and write the international tournament fic (if only for the Brit deuses, whom I love) at the moment I've put it off because it doesn't involve any really major character development, just fun hijinks. The only character from the international tournament who actually comes back to Japan with them is Clary Dogtown, the dweeby American deus of Calamity Jane, and he's only a minor character in this story so you really shouldn't worry about him too much c_c. This fic also assumes a continuity with my other Chobits and Angelic Layer fanfics, although they probably aren't necessary for enjoying this story. If you like the way I write, I dunno why you don't go and read the others c_c. For those curious, the prologue happens less than a year after the end of Angelic Layer TV. The rest of the series will be happened four years later. Also, if you're trying to figure out exactly how my fics fit into a continuity, I'll try and provide you with a map. (1)Of Waltzes and Waiting, (2)Public Relations, (3)A Snowball's Chance, (4)You'll Find the Quickest Way, (5) Mystical Unwritten International Tournament Fic, (6) Seasons in the Sun, (7)And Miles to Go Before I Sleep, (8)Love in the Age of Intelligent Machines. Anyway, enough random prattle and onto the prologue.

------------------------------------------

Four Years Previous

Hamasaki Etsuko leaned forward over the lip of the layer, her hands so tight on the edge that her knuckles turned white with the strain. The headset was loose on her head. She hadn't quite known how to size it down and there wasn't any one around who didn't look very busy with much more important things. This was her first time to the National Tournament Ground Open Air Exhibition and it was also her first time trying out a real layer.

She'd had her angel, Pink, for months. She'd had her since her last birthday in fact, but her mother was always so busy that she'd never had time to take Etsuko to a Piffle Princess to learn how to control Pink on the layer. Besides, her mother had gently told her that she didn't think a kindergartner was ready for competition. Genius savant children like Kobayashi Hatoko were one thing, but for average kids like Etsuko, it was just another one of those mysterious and enticing rituals that would have to wait until she was "bigger," whenever that was. So Etsuko and Pink simply stayed at home and played on the carpet by her bed. She and Pink had gotten to be good friends and she loved the little angel. It was just the idea, the concept that Pink could move and walk on her own that kept at Etsuko, no matter what she tried . . .

So when her uncle, whom she very rarely saw, offered to take Etsuko along to the Open Air Exhibition she had jumped at the chance, if only to see the beautiful angels that she so raptly watched on tv in person. She hadn't dreamed that she'd actually get to try out a layer, but when a taller lady with an ID badge that identified her as exhibition staff had seen that she was carrying an angel in her arms, Etsuko had found herself on one of the dozens of temporary layers set up on the parade ground around the stadium before she could open her mouth to say thank you, like mama had always taught her to do. The lady had looked as if she were going to help Etsuko into her headset, but then she had been nearly dragged away by a flailing young man squalling something about a "chee-hu," whatever on earth that was.

Etsuko had been nervous about putting Pink onto the layer before she noticed that despite the fact that the parade ground was incredibly crowded absolutely no one was paying attention to her or her small rosey-hued angel. She'd seen her favorite Deuses throw their angels onto the layer countless times on her favorite television show 'Super Fighter Tech: Angelic Dancer,' but most of the time they glossed over the technical details and just went straight for the glitzy and often show-stopping entires. Etsuko had a hard time following the more complex aspects of the real life Angelic Layer technical shows and didn't watch them very often. Now she wished that she had. If she'd paid more attention then maybe she'd have known what to do instead of just blundering her way through it.

Now Pink was on the layer, but not very gracefully, face down with arms splayed. Etsuko desperately wished her uncle hadn't gone off looking for programs, because then she'd at least have an adult to ask for help, even an adult that didn't know that much about Angelic Layer. Etsuko was beginning to think that making Pink move was impossible, a feat better left up to bigger or smarter people. In desperation, she gritted her teeth hard and leaned forward, thinking as hard as she could about Pink moving around, not even realizing that she was holding her breath until it exploded out as she slumped forward, defeated.

She had very nearly given up when she felt the headset being lifted from her head.

"Here, let me help you. It's on too loose. If you don't watch out it might fall off," the voice was high-pitched, airy and very kind.

Etsuko turned around and nearly bumped into the older girl who was attempting to resize her headset, "I'm sorry! I didn't know how, or who to ask. I wasn't trying to break anything, I promise!"

The older girl (who was really not all that old at all) threw her hands up immediately, looking slightly panicked, "No, no, it's all right. I just came over to help you because you looked like you were trying very hard. I didn't know how to put on my headset the first time either," she smiled sheepishly, "Someone had to adjust it for me."

The other girl was so nice and unassuming that Etsuko managed a hint of a smile, "You were small too?"

The girl seemed somewhat surprised by this statement, "Were small? I am small," she smiled again reassuringly, raising a hand over her head to mark off her height which was several heads shorter than most of the surrounding crowd, "I haven't been playing for that long."

Etsuko shook her head as this other girl was much older than she was and thus obviously fit into the category of "bigger." Still, she pressed her point, looking back at her prone angel, "Then I can, even though I'm small? I can make Pink walk?"

The other girl leaned forward over Etsuko's shoulder and the child felt warmed by her presence, "Of course you can. On the layer, what matters isn't the size of your hands or your feet, it's the size of your heart. Pink won't stand up if all you think about is making her do it, but she will if you believe with all your heart that she will."

"Then all I have to do is believe in her? I can do that! I love Pink!" Etsuko leaned forward again excitedly, believing in the way only a child can believe, recklessly and without thought.

"You should always love and believe in Pink and then one day you'll realize that she'll always love and believe in you. Belief is the most powerful force in Angelic Layer. It doesn't matter how big you are, or how smart, as long as you love Pink and she loves you, you can do anything," the older girl reassured her, squeezing her shoulder for good measure.

"We can do anything," Etsuko breathed softly, and as a thought occurred to her she swiftly swiveled in her chair so she could catch a glimpse of the large screen which was constantly skipping through highlights of the national and international tournaments. She caught a glimpse of Hikaru, her favorite, in white-winged splendor folded against herself and spiraling through the a dark, jeweled sky. She turned back to the other girl and repeated herself, almost against hope, "Anything?"

"If you believe, then you can do anything," sighed the other girl dreamily, straightening up, "Even touch heaven."

"We can touch heaven," repeated Etsuko softly, gazing quietly at her angel, her partner, her Pink. They could do anything, even . . .

Suddenly an announcement over the loudspeakers shook both of the girls out of their dreamy state.

"Would the International Champion Suzuhara Misaki please report to the exhibition area for her match! The International Champion to the exhibition floor, please!"

The older girl's eyes widened and she jumped visibly, pulling her sleeve back to check her watch and finding it did not agree with her accounting of time at all, "Naa?!"

If the other girl's eyes widened then Etsuko's were like pie plates, her mouth hanging slightly slack as the situation realized itself in her mind. Later in her life she would think back at how ridiculous the first thought that had gone through her mind had been: Misaki didn't look or act anything like the actress that played her on television.

From somewhere in the crowd behind the newly recognized International Champion another girl appeared, one whom Etsuko immediately recognized as her favorite tv star, Seto Ringo.

"Misakichi, I've been looking all over for you! Everyone's waiting, we have to go!" the highly excitable blonde girl was hopping around as if she were possessed by a crack-fed weasel.

Suzuhara Misaki was so flustered by the idol singer's arrival that she let herself be dragged away with little protest. Before she was entirely engulfed in the crowd, she looked back over her shoulder at the small girl standing in the deus chair and staring open-mouthed after her and waved, calling, "Good luck!"

It took a full minute for Etsuko to recover from the shock of seeing her idol disappear into the crowd and it would likely have taken longer if she had not remembered Pink, still lying face down on the ground. She sat back in the deus chair, put on her headset, and took a long, deep breath and then believed.

And Pink slowly stood and smiled at her.

*

Jounouchi Sai couldn't help but share a small smile with herself as she stood watching Misaki coach a small girl with long, dark hair from several paces away. Misaki had been talking with all of them about the importance of believing since Icchan had started her on more advanced trials of the system, trying to measure what was possible on the layer. Sai had to admit, even though she'd only sat in on one of these trials, if that was a sampling of what Misaki could do then her words about a lack of upper limits did have a ring of truth to them. Sai didn't know what the limitations of the system were, didn't even want to hazard a guess, but with Misaki backing the open horizon she felt she had to support it to some degree too. After all, a world where anything is possible is very enticing.

That night, Sai dreamt of the encounter again, only this time the little girl was Lin and Misaki was helping her teach Shirahime how to dance. She awoke to a flush of feathers in her periphery and as she hugged a pillow to her chest she could not help but repeat Misaki's honestly given words.

"If you believe, then you can do anything . . . even touch heaven."

*