Hikaru the Kitsune: A Future Hope/Prologue

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This is the prologue of the story, detailing a memory of Hikaru's childhood. I hope you guys enjoy it. :)

Prologue

If there was one thing Sayaka Youko hated about weather, it was windy days. As it was, the wind was blowing her long dark blond hair around in her face. She sighed; she'd have to deal with her hair later.

She definitely hated windy days. And she was fairly certain her twelve-year-old daughter, Hikaru, felt the same way. Speaking of Hikaru, Sayaka was on her way to retrieve her daughter from school and bring her home.

As she walked, she reflected on one particular memory; the last day she had taken her daughter, then nine years of age, to visit Takara.

She had eavesdropped on their conversation, only entering the room at the end of the said conversation, angry with her own mother.

Thinking back on it, the adult kitsune regretted what she had said. Tonight or tomorrow, she would visit her mother and apologize.

Sayaka found the pace she was going at too slow and picked up the speed, going at a rather brisk run. By the time she made it to the school, the wind had finally died down - much to her relief.

She spotted her daughter sitting on a nearby bench. As she approached the said bench, she noticed Hikaru looked sad.

Had something happened while she was at school?

"Hikaru?" Sayaka spoke, sitting next to her daughter. "Is something wrong?" For a moment, Hikaru didn't even acknowledge her mother. When she finally did look at her.... were those tears falling from her green eyes?

"Mama?" Even her voice had hints of sadness. Sayaka hugged her daughter in a comforting manner, which was a given with her maternal instincts.

"Please, tell me what's wrong." Sayaka said soothingly. Such a soothing tone seemed to help, somewhat.

"Some mean kids at school just insulted me about my....." Hikaru paused, but her mother knew what she was about to say.

Hydrophobia, the fear of water.

Sayaka frowned. She knew what mean people were like, seeing as she had the same phobia as her daughter and was also insulted about it. That didn't mean she let such people get to her.

"Don't let them get to you, Hikaru. I myself have the same phobia as you." said Sayaka.

Hikaru sobbed and clung to her mother.

The wind picked up, ruffling Sayaka's hair. She looked up at the sky; much to her horror, it was very cloudy and looked it was about to rain.

"Let's go home, Hikaru." Sayaka got up from the bench, holding her daughter in her arms. "It looks like it's about to rain, and I do not want to get caught in that kind of weather."

"Okay...."

Sayaka ran to the Youko house as quickly as she could, although it was lightly drizzling by the time she finally got there.

She sighed. Tomorrow was most likely going to be a very long day.