おことわり

One day, Sasami and Ryo-oki were setting the day's received mails in order. It was now Ryo-oki's work to deliver these letters to each person with her carrot pouch. Though, this time, Sasami found one letter, which was for Washu. It was rare for her to receive such a letter and Sasami decided to pass it to Washu herself. Washu was working in one of her laboratories located far from Earth, which is connected by a subspace tunnel. Looking at the letter, Washu was puzzled, as she had no idea who would send such letter to her in an Earth style. After Sasami left the room, she opened it and found that the letter was from Taro's mother, Masaki Kasumi. She thanked Washu for taking care of Taro when she was sick in bed. The letter was polite but was in a simple style only telling the business. Then she found that the letter format was the one of the Galaxy Academy report. At the end of the letter, Kasumi asked Washu to keep this a secret to Tenchi. After folding the letter, Washu thought back of Taro, the little baby and another baby with gold hair and green eyes.

After lunch, Washu changed her clothes as a collector and walked to the door. Tenchi watched her at the doorway.
'Are you going out for collecting some samples?' Come down the stairs from the second floor, Tenchi asked her.
'…Er, yes.' Pretending to be calm, Washu replied to him. Though she was working hard not to blush her cheeks, in her heart remembering the letter and photo she was looking at in that morning, the part with Taro and the words she tried to tell Tenchi.
'Is something wrong?'
'Oh, no. It's nothing.' Like running away, Washu opened the door. Although it was spring, chilly air came through inside the house.
'It's like Winter is back again, isn't it Washu…san.'
After Taro left, Tenchi sometimes called Washu with '-san' instead of '-chan'. The adult form and tears Washu showed him then made him say so. Washu also didn't say anything about it now. Now Tenchi is not a past but a present to her.
'Are you all right with such clothes?'
'No problem. I'll come back soon any way.'
From a third person, it may have looked as an elder brother worrying about his younger sister. But the tone of Washu was that of a Mother who was comforting her uneasy son with love.
'…'
Tenchi must have felt so, too, and slightly blushed his face and turned away from Washu.
'All right then, I'll go now. Tenchi-dono,' calling to Tenchi in a gentle voice, Washu left the house and walked toward the mountains.
Tenchi watched her back for a while and then shivered in cold and looked up to the sky. A cold and white stuff fell on his warm cheek and melted into a twinkle.
'…It's snow.'
Tenchi watched the snow grow heavy and then recalled Washu and turned to where she headed.
'Washu-san, it began to snow…'
But Washu wasn't there. Just as if she melted into the snow…

A while later, the snow covered the outside.
Every one was in the living room talking about the snow and Washu. Then the topic changed to the word "the lady of the snow", (Which is one of the tales in Japan.), and this reminded Mihoshi of her Great grand mother's story. Sasami and Tenchi asked her to tell about that story to them. And surrounding a candle, which Ryoko brought for staging, Mihoshi began to speak…

'The planet "Seniwa", in which I was born, overs the land for more than half the year,' so began Mihoshi in a low tone.
'My great grandmother had a brother-in-law when her parents married together. When she grew up she married him and then my grandmother was born, and, and…'
'All right, you fool. I'm not interested in your family business. Just start the story of the snow lady!' cried Ryoko who was already drunk.
'Oh, I'm so~rry,' replied Mihoshi, '… Er, and so the story, which I'm going to tell you, is the story when my great grandfather was 5 years old and my great grandmother was 4…'
As Mihoshi started again, Tenchi and others listened to her in silent.
The snow continued to fall outside.


It was a room of antique fashion, just like a gorgeous mansion.
The interior was heavy weighted and simple but if one knew from what they were made from, they would have been surprised. The stuffs were grand styled but the size of the shoes and clothes, and the toys tell us that the room was for a child.
A girl, who was the owner of the room, was sleeping in a large bed standing in the middle of the room. She was a cute girl with brown skin, golden hair and blue eyes. She seemed to be sick and coughed sorely．And beside her was a woman probably talking care of the girl, sitting in a chair and doing her knitting.
(knock knock)
To the modest nock, the woman looked at the door.
'Come in.'
To her voice, the thick wooden door slowly opened.
There, looking in, stood a boy with white color and green eyes, which were different from them.
'Oh, what is it?'
'Mother… How is Miyuki?'
It was obvious from their appearance that this woman and the boy who called her "Mother" were actually not related. If there was a point, which they were similar, it was their bright golden hair.
'She is all right. Her fever is gone and she will be fine in a few days,' said his mother kindly looking at the boy.
'Brother…'
The girl looked at him with a flinging eye and the boy tried to come near to her when his mother stopped him with her hand.
'No! You might catch a cold. Then you won't be able to play for a while.'
'…All right.'
Watching the boy sinking, his mother smiled and admonished him.
'It is late. You should go to bed now.'
'…Yes. Good night, mother. Get well soon, Miyuki,' said the boy and tried to shut the door when he suddenly felt something and looked at the window.
'..!!'
Outside the window, momentarily, he saw a figure.
'What is it?'
'…I thought I saw someone out side the window.'
Hearing the boy's words, his mother rushed to the window he pointed at.
Not to make the children scared, she didn't move so fast but her movements were obviously of one who was trained. She looked out from the shadow of the window and also checked the security system. This house was one of the highest rank families' and had dozens of stringent guard systems. Without any alarm now, now one could have intruded into here… but their mother was evidently watching out for something.
Checking that there was nothing shown in the security system, their mother turned back to the boy.
'..It is all right. There is no one. …I guess it is the snow elf. They must have come here looking for you, as you two haven't gone out for a while. So you must get well.'
To her warm words, the boy felt ease and answered.
'Yes, you are right. … Good night, Miyuki. Good night. Mother.'
Watching the boy bow and leaving the room, their mother moved back to the girl's side and sat again. The girl was lonly because the boy left.
'If you get well, you can play with him again.'
To her mother's words, the girl nodded almost pouring into tears.
'Oh, so you love your brother so much?'
She asked the girl in a teasing tone just like asking her friend.
'You see, I… I want to marry him when I grow up,' said the girl pulling up the sheets to her face in shame and then covered all her face.
'I see…Yes, I hope so too,' answered her mother in a small voice. She looked rather sad and watched the snow fall outside the window.
The snow kept on falling, on and on.
The snow covered everything in white.

The next day, unusual for this season, the snow stopped.
Having the sunlight reflecting and dancing on the covering snow, the scene was wonderful.
In her bed, the girl was watching the sight through the window. As she went to bed early last night, she got up early this morning and was bored. She felt better and sat on the bed. Watching out, she found a figure running in the white snow world. It was the boy throwing snowballs alone.
'Oh, Brother, that's not fair…'
She wanted to play with him and got off the bed when she thought of her mother's troubled face and stopped and watched the boy in silence. She could clearly see from far away that the boy was in joy. Of course it had been long since he could go out, but also he had some stress playing with the girl and was not able to run as much as he could and now he was lost in chasing the snowballs. He could kick the ball further. He could run faster, more and more.
'Brother…'
Watching the boy getting faraway, the girl was discomposed in something.
It seemed that he would go away.
It seemed that he would just disappear in the snow.
The boy ran chasing after the snowball flying high in the blue sky.
'…Hey'
Suddenly a wind blew and the swirl blowing up the snow rushedrash through the ground surface. It caught the boy and he stopped. The wind wrapped him and the boy was in loss. A few seconds later the swirl passed and the boy opened his eyes. The ball, which was in the air, was now beside him on the ground. He tried to pick it up when he found a lady standing beside it.
"-!!"
The boy armed himself in alarm. It was natural for him as suddenly a lady appeared in the middle of a vast field of snow.
"I must get away," the boy thought by instinct.
His family possessed all of this area and no stranger would be here without any guards. It was natural for him, as one of the families of power, to be trained to know that there are persons who would approach him with some purpose, especially with mischief. The young boy knew what to do in such cases.
"Activate the Guardian System and … and…" he thought so but he didn't move. He only looked at the lady in her eyes.
In black clothes, the lady had an aspect of red hair and fabulous beauty. But what attracted the boy were her eyes; just the same with the boy, green eyes.
He didn't feel fear.
What's more, she even was familiar to him.
"I know. I know her..." He didn't know why, but the boy felt so.
Picking up the ball, the lady moved closer to him.
'This is yours, isn't it?'
He shivered.
He didn't know why, but he felt tears in his eyes. The lady's voice had such a luminous tone, which shook his heart. If he moved, he might have wept. The boy couldn't move a step till the lady came near.
With a gentle smile on her face, the lady handed out the ball to him and the boy took it staring at her eyes.
'Thank you … very much,' he could hardly say so and then the intention which strained him disappeared.
It might be because they touched each other when she gave him the white ball. In the boy's face, still surprise was shown but there was no alarm left.
From the bush near them, eyes were watching both of them; the boy and the lady staring at each other. It was the girl who came out from her bed. She couldn't call for them when she saw the boy and the stranger. Her mother treated the boy just as same as she did with the girl. But the young girl felt something in the relationship of the two. However, the boy and the lady stood there very naturally. It was as if they used to be one.
"That lady must be the lady of the snow."
The superhuman mood from the lady reminded the girl of the tale of the snow lady. The story of a lady, who disappeared into the snowing mountains in grief of losing her child. She lost her body and only her soul was left looking for her lost son. And when a child was playing she thought him as her child and takes him away. A sad story of a lonely lady.
The girl could not catch what they were talking but she could find out that they were talking in delight. The girl only could look at them.
"-!!"
Suddenly the girl felt the air change. No sound of the wind and trees could be heard now. Silence covered the area.
The lady slowly stretched her hand toward the boy. The boy didn't feel any resistance to her action. He didn't even remember what they were talking about. He just felt strong in his heart to hold her hand.
And the boy naturally stretched out his had to grab her hand.
"He is going to go away…the lady of snow is going to take him away…" The girl sensed it.
She tried to call out for the boy, but her voice didn't come out. It was as if the time around the two had been stopped-.
"He is going to go away."
But in spite of her haste, she couldn't even move one of her fingers. Tears appeared in her eyes with sadness.
"She is going to…take him away. Far away…"
Just when the hands of the lady and the boy were to touch each other, warm tears fell along her cheeks.