The humidity was a welcome change to the late fall cold. Super Sailor Grus landed on her own planet of Grus, feeling wet leaves against her leg, and water start to fall on her head. It was raining. She hurried to pull the hood up on her jacket. She had worn if over her fuku to keep her warm while she traveled with the intent of hanging it from a tree or something until she wanted to go back. But apparently, her jacket was going to remain on for this trip. She picked her way through the ferns to the now familiar ruins. she clambered up the wet rope, looking around at the soggy wood. The remaining paint on the walls wasn't falling away, turning a dark version of its dry self. The raindrops fell quickly above, deflecting off of the leaves and plopping onto forest floor. The rhythm had a calming effect, and she searched for a relatively dry place to sit. this ruin didn't have a dry space, the roof being completely gone. She avoided the hole the floor caused by her own body carefully. The last time she was here, Chaonis was with her, and she had fallen. The fall had been accompanied by a vision that dove into her past as a senshi assigned to protect this planet.

She still wondered how she managed to get this responsibility. Was is chance? Or were her ancestors really people that lived far away in tree houses, surrounded by rainforest? She slid down the main ruin, and walked over to a second one, connected the main by a single rope that would have been a bridge. There was also a rope she could climb up to this one. Part of roof still clung to this house, which was just as big as the other, and had the remnants of a staircase attached to the main trunk of the tree. She took a seat on the ground under the roof, watching trails of water flow over the side and down the other walls of the house. It was in this one that she found the doll, and the reality that there were other people living here at one point really hit her.

Grus wasn't sure how long she sat there until she fell asleep. Something about the warm rain and the safeness she felt under that mostly destroyed roof made her drift off to sleep.

There was music. A strange mixture of notes that sounded like two guitars playing together. She thought back to the Surrounding, and the double necked guitar she and Felix had found. What was the name of it?

Curious, she crawled away from the wall to find the roof had completed itself. She was in a whole room! No holes in the floors, no fallen walls. The windows weer filled with glass, and covered with bright gold curtains. The walls were a deep shade of crimson, and a gold carpet led up the whole and complete stairs. There was furniture, oh and decorations! But her mind didn't want her to focus on these, however splendid they were. She was drawn to the window, where she pulled aside the curtains to see that it was nighttime. And raining. The houses were all complete, with walkways around each one and bridges connected them. Covered torches lit the way, and colorful lights were hanging from all the buildings. There were people everywhere. And through it all, she heard the sound of the guitar...

The mayatobe. Someone was playing the mayatobe. And it was beautiful. She could hear kids singing along, and when she focused on the house where the man was playing the instrument outside under an awning, her heart stopped.

She vision abruptly ended when she shouted herself awake. Grus clutched at her heart, feeling it pounding against her palm in tandem with her labored breath. What the hell?! She rose on shaky legs, hearing the rain still pounding above. Leaning against the wall, she pressed her hands against her eyes. The rain must be messing with her head. She practically fell down the rope to the forest floor. It took a moment, but she was able to concentrate long enough to get home, where she collapsed on her bed. The last part of her vision came to mind, and she sighed.

A little girl in a red dress with twin buns on her head was sitting on the ground in front of the man playing. There were other kids clapping along with him. One boy sat next to the dark blonde haired girl. A boy with shaggy brown hair that had his arms crossed as if defying clapping openly. When the girl looked at him and smiled, it was like seeing herself...and then the boy smiled back in a lopsided way that she was sure she had seen before...


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