Naru Narusegawa smiled as she finished her class, the brown haired woman watching happily as the children filed out. She tidied up her desk and headed out of the small school on the island, hurrying over to her friend who was waiting nearby. "How's teaching the kids going?" Haruka Urashima asked, the darker brown haired older woman having her usual unlit cigarette dangling from her mouth. "They're young enough not to talk back," Naru chuckled softly. Since coming to the island with her husband Keitaro and their friend Seta Naru had put her teaching skills to good use. Joining a improvised school for the children of the archeologists Naru assisted where she could, in the process gaining credit she could use towards her advanced degree work. "Hey, Naru!" Sarah McDougal yelled, the little blonde laughing as the young girl broke away from one of the other class groups to race over to their side. "When are you coming to teach us?" she demanded. "When your teacher gets too scared to come back?" Naru teased her impishly. "Yeah, right," Sarah scoffed before pelting off in another direction. "That girl's got way too much energy," Haruka laughed softly as they left the improvised school buildings and headed for the nearby archeological site. "Got that right," Naru chuckled, "I'm almost dreading having to teach her." Haruka raised her eyebrows, "I thought you two got along?" "We do, but....," Naru shrugged and Haruka grinned in understanding. Sarah was going to be a handful, no doubt about that. This pacific island was the latest site where traces had been found of the long lost Turtle civilization that Seta had devoted himself to finding. While the discovery of the civilization's capital Todai had helped the research immensely, Seta and his crew of misfits were determined to prove that the Turtle civilization had been wide spread and vital in the region. "Ho!" Seta called from one of the pits the group was carefully digging, cautiously removing layers of dirt to reveal the secrets beneath them. The gangly but athletic Seta bounded up the ladder and swept up the startled Haruka in a hug as he said, "Good news!" Wham! Without even thinking about it Haruka hammered Seta with her fist, barely fazing the man but making him let her go. "What have you found now?" she asked, grinning. "Keitaro fell into a abandoned well," Seta grinned at them, "and tracing it we found a series of water carrying canals, too. Looks like we might have found the key to mapping out the whole settlement." "Good for you," Naru chuckled, glad to see Keitaro's uncanny gift for archeology was continuing to do it's work. No matter where he was Keitaro could seemingly fall into a hole, trip over something or some other accident and somehow end up finding a valuable artifact or discovery. It was positively uncanny, and Seta had learned to use him like a dowsing rod to find what he was looking for. "He all right?" Haruka asked mildly. One of Keitaro's other gifts was a near miraculous ability to survive injury, but it never hurt to check. "He's fine," Seta waved that off casually as he continued, "in fact, I left him digging near the central fountain." Just then, they felt a low rumble deep in the earth, and everyone paused to look at one another. "Where's the fountain?" Naru yelped as Seta bolted off, both women quickly following after him. The village they had excevated was roughly circular, but so far only the town center had been fully uncovered. The homes were stone walls, the thatched roofs long having surrendered to decay, and in the center of the city was a large fountain, presumedly fed by channels from the well and canal system they had already discovered. Apparently, they were wrong about that. Keitaro smiled sheepishly as water geisered up from the fountain, raining down on the workers around them, many of whom were dancing under the water after dealing with so many got summer days. "Sorry, Seta," Keitaro said sheepishly, the brown haired man still holding his shovel, "I was clearing some rubble when...." "Well, that solves our water problems," Haruka noted wryly, tilting her head back to let the cool water splash her face. 0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0 Meanwhile, in another part of the world the group of weary warriors returned home, a bit battered but otherwise unharmed. "All right, everyone out," Kitsune said briskly, the sandy blonde haired woman sliding the door to the battered van open. "If we're going to do this more often," Rei Hino noted as the black haired miko climbed out stiffly, "we need more seats." "I'll try to budget for that," Kitsune promised. She looked up at her guest, "Nice support work, miss Tenjou." Utena Tenjou smiled back coolly, the pink haired woman climbing out then offering her hand to help Anthy down. "Glad to help," she answered honestly, smiling as Anthy stood close to her side. Ema Maeda sighed softly, 'Those two are SO cute.' Shaking herself the brown haired girl patted her laptop lovingly as she said, "I think I got a lot of good footage today for the website." "I still find it hard to believe that people watch such things," Makoto frowned slightly, her long black hair still tied back like when she went into battle, her katana resting at her side. "You're very popular," Ema blushed faintly as she elaborated, "in fact, the polls rate you as top member of the Phantom Quest Corp." "Ehh?" Makoto blushed brightly. "I'm not surprised," Kitsune murmured as the group tiredly trooped inside the Hinata girl's dorm and inn. Taking their shoes off at the door they broke up to head to their rooms, as well as heading out to the baths for a after work dip. "Welcome back," Ami Mizuno smiled as Rei entered their room, the smaller blue haired woman squeezing her in a hug. "Have a good study session?" Rei asked as she hugged her back then quickly began to change out of her white and red miko's garb. "We've moved from gastric to colon," Ami said dryly. "Enough said," Rei agreed as she slipped into a towel. She smiled charmingly, "Want to join in at the hot spring?" "Depends," Ami winked, "what are we doing after?" "We'll be here in our bedroom all alone," Rei grinned back, "guess." "Then I'll certainly join you," Ami laughed, stripping out of her usual blue skirt and white top and grabbing a towel too. When they emerged they saw Anthy talking to Kitsune, "I'm sorry, but Utena and I will wash up later." "Oh?" Kitsune looked curious. Anthy hesitated a moment, "She has... scars. Utena's not exactly comfortable showing them to people yet." Kitsune's eyes widened a bit, "I'm sorry. Do you want us to clear out in a hour or so, that way you can bathe in peace?" Anthy smiled, "We'd appreciate that." 'Should I mention it to the others?' Kitsune thought as she, Ami and Rei went out into the hot springs. 'No,' she decided, 'they deserve their privacy.' "Where's Utena and Anthy?" Ema asked curiously. "They'll be down later," Rei said mildly.
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