ONE MOMENT IN TIME

Author's notes : ¾ of this chapter was sitting on my hard drive for half a year before I manage to write the conclusion. Anyway- hope you enjoy the read! Don't forget to review as usual, you'll make my day xD.

Disclaimer : nu-uh, not mine.

"Who are you?"

The two women's conversation halted and one pair of eyes turned to the little girl while another drift up to the dumbstruck apparition.

If it was possible, Ruka paled even more. The kid's eyes were staring right into her, the sharp gaze as though sizing up the apparition.

Ruka immediately turned to Michiru who more or less looked as surprised at her "I honestly don't know this kid, or why, but she can see me!!"

The violinist frowned, Ruka sounds almost scared of Hotaru. And if she never met the little girl before, what would cause her to be so?

"Ne, ne, Setsuna nee-chan, who is that nii-chan hanging near Michiru-san?" the little girl known as Hotaru tugged at Setsuna's hand, which she was clutching tightly at the moment, yet her eyes never leaving Ruka. The jade haired woman could only raise her eyebrows and looked around for the 'nii-chan' Hotaru spoke of.

"Hotaru, there's no nii-chan here," Setsuna was bewildered, she look up at Michiru with a helpless expression before returning to her niece "it's only us. You, me and Michiru."

The little girl finally looked at Setsuna with a hint of a frown "no! There's a nii-chan! And he's there!!" she points one short stubby finger at the space right next to Michiru, where Ruka was currently hovering at.

"I'm very much a female, friggin' dammit!" apparently forgetting about the main issue, Ruka let out a cuss and defended herself out of habit. The violinist had to fight down a smile at this.

Hotaru lets out small squeak before hiding behind Setsuna's long legs "and he's mad at me…" the little girl said in a small scared voice. The jade haired woman could only blink at this and turned to the violinist for help. Apparently, Michiru also have no idea what to do.

The violinist tried her best to act normal as she lowered herself down to the little girl's level "Hotaru-chan, which nii-chan did you mean? Was it the one with the black hair?" she asks, referring to Kouki while Ruka gave an unnecessary huff somewhere behind her.

The little girl tilted her head and looked at Michiru as though the violinist wore her bra upside down "no. He's blonde with green eyes, scary, rude and he's transparent."

At this you could practically hear Ruka's jaw fell to the ground with an impressive crash and the inner Michiru screech in shock. Oh and there's some crows cawing behind Setsuna's head for the lack of information in the tall woman's part.

After regaining back her composure, Ruka hovered down to Michiru's level and stared at Hotaru straight on the eyes "tell her, then." She said to the surprise of the violinist.

Michiru widened her eyes at the apparition beside her "Are you sure?" she asked in a low voice, at which Ruka nodded confidently.

"Maybe she knows how or why I ended up this way," the apparition pondered as she straightened up, aware of Hotaru's piercing eyes on her every move "She's able to see me, anyway. The first other than you. It won't hurt to try, right?" the aqua haired girl nodded in agreement. The two of them had talked about this, about getting to the bottom of the mystery of Ruka's sudden haunting. The blonde wants to make sure that she was not one of those victims to some tragic love stories. She hated those.

"Um, are you alright Michiru?" the still clueless Setsuna managed to pull Michiru back to the land of the living "you're talking to…thin air." The tanned woman sounded a bit scared. None of her companions is showing signs of good mental health with them talking about a 'nii-chan' who doesn't exist.

The violinist took a deep breath before she stood up and looked at Setsuna with renewed vigor. The latter flinch, thinking that the former might want to devour her.

"Setsuna," Michiru began confidently, albeit a little quietly so none can hear the conversation "I want to tell you something."

An elegant jade eyebrow lifts up in confusion "okay…"

"But whatever you do, don't faint." The last 2 words were put in a strong emphasis for Michiru knew of Setsuna's fear of ghosts, may it be blonde and handsome or not.

The tanned woman only nods silently. Hotaru giggled at her expression while Ruka gave a careless smirk. The blonde bend down to whisper on the youngest one's ear.

"Bet you a Jack Daniels she's gonna scream."

Hotaru blinked innocently at the blonde apparition "…who's Jack Daniels?" the blonde blinked, yet she couldn't say anything since Setsuna's sudden shout of 'what?!' filled the air.

Michiru let out a sigh at the sight of her paling friend "yes, like I told you, there's a ghost hanging around me. And apparently Hotaru can see her too."

The aforementioned girl tilted her head in wonder "nii-chan's a girl?" At which Ruka groaned out loud.

Seconds go by slowly.

Stare.

Stare.

Blink blink.

"Are you quite, quite sure? I mean, Hotaru's a child after all…" though Setsuna doesn't seem to be sure herself. The aforementioned black haired girl pouted at her words.

Ruka decided to take measures to her own hands. She dived at the tanned woman.

"KYAAAAAAAAAAAA-!!!" birds flew off in alarm and glasses alike breaking in after effect as Setsuna screamed like a mad woman in the middle of the campus.

"Ruka!!" Michiru scolded harshly at the blonde who immediately dropped the skirt she lifted up.

"Sorry, can't help it." The blonde grinned sheepishly while rubbing the back of her neck as Hotaru's laughter filled the air.

0-0-0

After a hassle of getting a shocked Setsuna to calm down (Ruka got a healthy dose of the rare Kaioh Michiru glare all the while) the four of them (apparition included) ended in a café near campus. Michiru received a call from her driver telling her that the car broke down and she might have to wait for half an hour or so, which the violinist didn't mind at all.

Michiru sipped her café latte serenely while Setsuna stared blankly at the swirl of green tea latte on her cup across the table. The children (once again, Ruka included ) were busy laughing and giggling, earning shocked looks from surroundings.

"You," the violinist looked up at her friend who's making weird hand gestures "you're not joking, right?"

"No. and you knew that better than anyone." Setsuna groaned as she remembered that Michiru's apparition friend had flashed her underwear for the world to see.

"How come only you and Hotaru can see it?" the tanned woman continued, eager on forgetting the embarrassing event.

"Her," Michiru corrected automatically as she sipped on her drink.

"Him," Hotaru added with a determined pout.

"I'm a womaaaaaaaaaaan!!!!" this seems to be Ruka's last straw as then and there she ripped open her blouse and showed her bra-clad figure to the two people who could see her.

Hotaru's eyes bugged out in shock and Michiru uncharacteristically spit out her hot drink.

Setsuna, however, was drenched courtesy of the violinist. 'God must hate me' she wailed inside as her musician best friend apologized endlessly.

15 minutes later, dry and de-caffeine, Setsuna brought back up the topic they're currently discussing without much disturbance.

"So, um. How again did only you two can see - -" two pair of mouths open to correct the tanned woman, who sped out to avoid being drenched once more "- - the apparition? Again, I haven't even heard of someone being haunted by a ghost before, unless- -oh my god!" two pair of garnet eyes widened comically and Michiru felt slightly alarmed.

"S-Setsuna? Are you alright?" the jade haired woman looked as though she had received words of wisdom from the Gods. Ruka and Hotaru sniggered at the expression on her face.

Setsuna turned to Michiru still with the wide eyed expression "you," she began with low trembling voice "you didn't kill anybody these few last weeks did you?"

At this Michiru knows not whether to laugh or cry as she herself was confused if Setsuna was joking or not.

0-0-0

Evening came and the violinist found herself slumped on her desk in her wide room. Today was just too much, she concluded. After the fiasco in the café, which included Setsuna drenched by hot café latte, Michiru decided she might call it a day and went home. It didn't go as smoothly as she'd wished though. Hotaru was crying, insisting she still wanted to play with 'nii-chan' and want to come with the violinist. Strangely, Ruka didn't make any comment about this; in fact, she looked slightly like Hotaru, slightly crestfallen to find that they have to part ways.

"She's a good kid," the apparition answered when Michiru asked about her solemn face on the way home. Perhaps Ruka was happy to have made another friend? Someone other than Michiru? These thoughts brought an uncomfortable squelch on her middle and the aqua haired girl shook her head to rid of it.

"Ruka?" the violinist called out when she felt the room was quieter than usual.

"I'm here," the apparition called back from somewhere behind her. Michiru turned around to see Ruka sitting with both legs folded above the bed. She was fumbling with something in her shirt, no wonder she was quiet.

"What's wrong?" the apparition looked up as Michiru got close to where she was.

"It's my shirt- I pulled on it too hard this afternoon, and the buttons split, agh!" Frustrated, the blonde left the top 3 buttons on her shirt open. The violinist looked amused at this as she went to her dresser and took out a sewing box.

"Well, I would've offer to sew it back to you or give you a safety pin, but I don't think- - "

Ruka rolled her impressive green eyes almost lazily "yeah, it might go right through me or something. It's fine, it's not like I feel cold or anything."

No, but it might affect my sanity, the violinist thought inwardly as she saw how low the opened buttons is to the blonde's cleavage. But something other than cleavage on the blonde's chest made Michiru frown.

"Ruka, what's that on your chest?"

"Huh? What's what?" the apparition looked down on her chest where a gleaming blue pendant peeked out from inside her shirt. The expression she wore when she looked up to Michiru, however, was not appropriate for one to wear when asked about a pendant they're wearing.

"Arararara, good girl Princess Michiru-chan is looking at my chest! Aww, dont worry, if you're a good girl I might let you take. A. Peek!" the sultry look the apparition wore made blood rushed up to Michiru's face in record time.

Scowling lightly, Michiru tried to return to attention to the pendant "the pendant! I was talking about the pendant!"

Ruka still had that infuriating look on her face when she looked down at the pendant on her chest, which vanish immediately and replaced by a frown, much like what Michiru wore on her face.

"What on earth is this?" Ruka held it out so Michiru could see it too, the symbol on the back of the pendant "and what's that? A W with a stick on the bottom?"

The violinist gave a small snort as she squint her eyes to see the symbol on the transparent blue pendant. What she saw made her confused more than ever.

"Whassat? A W that stands for Woman or something? I already know I am one." Ruka kept on mumbling as she looked at the symbol upside down, squinting her eyes so hard as though it'll help her understand.

"No, it's not," the violinist's voice was quiet. The apparition looked at where the aqua haired girl is, hunched in her bed, reading something off a book "it's the symbol of the planet Neptune, Ruka."

This revelation didn't get any remark from the blonde apparition, who only frowned and landed on the bed right beside Michiru.

"I don't get it." Ruka said after moments of silence.

The violinist nodded in reply "I don't either," she said softly as she fingered the Neptune symbol on the page of the Roman Mythology Encyclopedia opened in front of her. From when she was little, she always felt she had a connection to the planet itself, and that was what spurred her interest on Roman Mythology. But then an apparition came to her bearing a pendant with the Neptune symbol on it. What could it mean? Is it some kind of a clue? Was she supposed to look for something?

Unknown to Michiru, Ruka was looking at her with a solemn look on her face. Her green eyes flickered with emotions, which disappeared as the owner blinked and looked away towards the darkened sky outside the window.

"Who am I?" the blonde voiced out softly, her words only for the gods to hear.

0-0-0

The man jerked as a slam came from behind him followed by curses in 3 languages. He peered slowly to his back, as though afraid to get caught.

"Everything alright, father?" he asked tentatively as he prepared himself to run if his father decided to throw the phone at him.

The grey haired man gave a growl and took a drag out of his pipe before answering "that bastard didn't pick up his phone! He's weaseling out of the deal!" the scowl he wore deepening the frightening look upon his face.

"B-but sir, it was only 2 days- - the deal was that he had a week of time, wasn't it?" the younger man shut his trap immediately when his father glowered at him.

The bulky man stood up from his desk and went to the window, where he glared to the passerby's on the road below. He was thinking hard, for what he wanted was priceless even more than the sport cars he had in his garage or the all the money he had in his bank account. What he wanted was something from the past. A malicious smile graced his face.

"I don't care. That pendant and its twin will be mine. Get a move on, Kouki, I want that bastard here in my office this time tomorrow. I'll make him a deal he wont refuse."

Morinaga Kouki's metallic grey eyes flickered with a smile before he replied "of course, father."