Sailor Soldiers: Revolution One
Prologue
Dear Diary,
Nice day today. It's one of the last nice days I get to enjoy this year... ugh, I so don't want school to start. I want to stay in 8th grade forever! But it's starting a week from now. On the upside, at least I get to see Kioko-chan a lot. We have most of our classes together. My days are going to pretty interesting with her around...
I can't stop thinking about what happened today, though. I was at the temple this morning. Harusho-chan had made some really nice new tea (she said it was from Africa) and we were just sitting there and drinking it, when Rei-san came in. She said she couldn't read the fire and that it had tried to ward her off. Harusho-chan got this really weird, empty look in her eyes and said she'd go try. Now, despite the fact that Harusho-chan is really wise and a great priestess and stuff, she could never read the sacred fire that always burned in the shrine. She always told me it resisted her because she "wasn't ready." But today, she did it. And she didn't tell me what she saw exactly, but she looked at me really hard—almost coldly—and told me that everything was about to change. And for no reason at all, I believed her.
I think today was the calm before the storm.
Until later,
Chiba Usagi
Usa closed her diary with a slap and rolled over onto her back, heaving a long sigh. "Why did I believe her?" she groaned. "It was a crazy premonition she saw in there. Who believes that kind of stuff besides Harusho-chan and her mom?"
"But Usa-chan, you know that Harusho's premonitions always come true," a small, high-pitched voice rang out.
Usa shifted her gaze to one side to see a gray, crescent-spotted kitten sitting next to her on the bed. She smiled and stroked the kitten's back. "They're always so morbid, though, Diana-chan," she contested. "They're never as bad as they sound."
Diana purred as Usa scratched behind her ears. "Well, I don't know, then. Why did you believe her?"
"It must have been some psychological trick that I pulled on myself." Usa twirled a strand of her pink hair around her finger. "It happens sometimes."
Diana shrugged as effectively as a cat could shrug and flipped her tail about. "If you say so."
"Chibi-usa! Dinner's ready!" a voice called from below. Usa rolled her eyes as she sat up and adjusted her new miniskirt. "Why in the world does she still call me that? COMING!" she shouted only the last word as she adjusted her odangos in the mirror. She froze in mid-twist. "Oh no!" she cried as she pressed her forehead to the glass surface.
Diana jumped up in worry. "Usa-chan, what is it?"
Usa sank to her knees in disdain and turned toward Diana, pointing toward her forehead. "Look at this horrible, ugly, gross thing!"
Diana came closer only to see that Usa had a yellow, moon-shaped bruise smack in the middle of her forehead. "Ew... hey!" she retorted. "I have a yellow moon on my forehead too, you know!"
"Well at least yours is pretty and furry," Usa grumbled. "I'm a human teenager and this is one BAD place for a bruise!"
"It should go away in a few days," Diana said. "You can live with it. Besides, it's not ugly, it's cute."
"Easy for you to say," Usa muttered as she rubbed the bruise. "It's not even sore, though..."
"Usagi! Come down NOW!" her mother screamed from downstairs.
"Ugh... fine," Usa growled as she got up and went out the door. Diana sat quietly on the floor, thinking. She had lied to Usa and managed to hide her thoughts from the girl. She knew there was something more to this. She only hoped the 14-year-old could handle it.
