As Hotaru continued to read both her grandfather's journal and the lessons encoded in the ornate border, Hotaru heard a car pull up to the house. Hotaru quickly closed the journal; as she did so the clasp on the side closed itself, sealing the journal to anyone else but Hotaru. Hotaru opened her dresser and hid the journal in the back under some sweaters. As she closed the drawer she heard her guardian's daughter Michiru Kaioh yell "Hotaru, we're home!". Hotaru quickly ran downstairs to greet her adoptive sister. As she embraced her older sister, she could not have known that the 'race' they had come back from was much more than just a race.
***
What Hotaru could not have known, and even a majority of the public did not know, was that Michiru Kaioh had lead a different life from what most people knew. While most people knew of Michiru Kaioh as a concert solo violinist, what only a few people knew was that from a young age she was also a brilliant amateur detective. Starting from a young age Michru had put her mind to work solving crimes in her neighborhood. Early on she had made a fast friend in a local tough girl, Haruka Tenoh. With Haruka watching her back, Michiru was able to concentrate on solving crimes. However, Michiru also worked hard to keep her image as normal as possible, concealing her intelligence behind her skill and talent playing the violin.
Michiru was successful enough in this endeavour that when she turned 18 she was known for her skill as a violinist rather than as a detective. Haruka had found her calling behind the wheel of a car; she had sufficient talent that had she been a boy she would have had several offers for jobs out of high school. As it was, she had to disguise her gender in order to race at any level. The two of them had thought that things would stay that course through high school; it would have, until the case surrounding The Cult of Tanis.
Michiru had noticed that some of her classmates had been suddenly walking around in a daze more than usual, and Michiru had traced the effect back to The Cult of Tanis which had become popular with the school kids, and its leader, the mysterious Pharaoh 90. Michiru had thought that Pharaoh 90 was the noted scientist and Egyptologist Professor Tomoe Souichi and was trying to prove it. However, before she could prove anything Prof. Tomoe was murdered. Her father, the Chief of the local Koban, did not see who did it but he did find the Professor's young daughter crying for her papa outside the Professor's house.
The police investigated but could not find the murderer. After most of the furor died down, Michiru managed to convince her father to adopt the orphan Hotaru as she did not have any living relatives. Reluctantly he agreed, and Hotaru moved into the Kaioh household. This was helped by the fact that Michiru's father was often away from home on business after he retired from the force.
***
What Hotaru did not know was that Michiru and Haruka had been doing was trying to find out more about the mysterious organization known as The Cult of Tanis and its leader, the shadowy Pharaoh 90. Haruka's racing schedule gave Michiru a lot of time to investigate leads on the Cult, usually by following up on people that had disappeared into the Cult and never returned. So far, though, even her deductive mind had not been able to penetrate the secrecy of the organization. Meanwhile...
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(Posted Wed, 22 Jun 2005 22:59)
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