Too late?
Smithu Usagi walked slowly and carefully along the road that
her doctor's office was on. She paid attention to where she stepped,
her aluminum cane shining in the sunlight. She didn't really need
the cane yet, mind, but it never hurt to be careful. After all, she
could tell it would rain tonight by the way her left arm ached from
when she broke it two years ago. It had been a very slow
convalescence, and she still had to see her doctor once a month. She
carried her cane in her left hand to keep exercising it. She would
have taken the bus, but had just missed it before it pulled away from
in front of the senior's home she lived in. The exercise was
probably good for her, she mused.
"I've got some firecrackers!" The triumphant voice sounded
from the middle of the parking lot she was passing, and she stopped
to look. A black cat almost escaped a group of children, and Usagi
decided to intervene.
"Hey you kids!" She shouted, waving her cane, "Leave that cat
alone!" They were young little things, and suddenly took off in all
directions, leaving the cat behind. Apparently all they had been
able to do to the poor thing was to fasten a Band-Aid across its
forehead. She was going to bend over to see if the cat was all
right, but to her relief it jumped up onto the truck of the car
beside her.
"Good kitty. Nice kitty," she tried to croon comfortingly as
she reached for the cat. She was worried that the kids might have
used the Band-Aids to fasten a firecracker of some sort to its head,
and luckily the cat stood still and let her feel its head. With a
sudden jerk, she had it off, pulling off some hair and somehow
leaving a crescent of a bald spot behind.
It must have hurt, as the cat silently leapt backwards,
landing on the roof of the car. For a moment old lady and cat
contemplated each other, and then she thought to notice her
watch. "Oh, heck! I'm late!" Moving as quickly as she dared, the
80-year old woman hastened to her appointment.
The cat watched her until she was out of view, but then leapt
down and carefully followed her benefactor.
***
Doctor Hanson was his usual self, reminding her to watch her
diet and to keep taking her calcium pills. Her arm still needed more
exercise, and he talked her through a new one she could do, touching
her left hip, right shoulder, then the top of her head and back
again, forcing her arm to regain the range of motion it had had
before. Afterwards she chatted with the receptionist as she made out
her check for the co-payment.
That done, it was time to relax. She waited outside of the
doctor's office, enjoying the late fall sunshine, when Naru drove up
in her Oldsmobile. Naru had been her friend since elementary school,
and they had kept in touch through college, marriage, children, and
all. Indeed, Naru was lucky enough to have children who could
support her – the family jewelry shop was in its third generation,
and the fascination her granddaughter Akane had for shiny things
suggested the fourth generation would be at it as well.
"Where to, young lady?" Asked Naru as Usagi climbed into the
car.
Usagi laughed, and thrust her arm out in a `charge'
gesture. "To the mall!"
Naru laughed with her, and they headed off. On the way they
passed her Jewelry shop, and Usagi was surprised at the big hand-
lettered signs announcing a `SALE'. She turned towards Naru. "I
didn't know you had a sale planned."
Naru looked a little worried. "Neither did I!" She turned
into the next alley and parked behind the store. "I'm going to see
what's up."
Usagi nodded, and got out as well, following her friend into
the bedlam that occupied the usually sedate and refined jewelry
store. Ladies of every age fought each other to grab up jewelry
deals that Usagi easily realized where impossible. One diamond
pendant she'd often fantasized owning was clutched in the had a fat
lady who was waving it about triumphantly, but not so wildly that
Usagi couldn't see the 500 Yen price tag on it. Even though she new
better, she had to fight the impulse to snatch the pendant away. It
helped that her left arm twinged in pain to remind her of the
penalties for being foolish. Instead, she pressed against the wall.
"Hello Smithu-sama!" Said Naru's daughter-in-law
Juri. "Could I interest you in some earrings?"
Usagi turned and saw the elaborate jewelry that Juri was
thrusting into her face, dripping with diamonds. "No thank you, Jari-
san. I am fine. Besides, I would worry that someone would try to
steal such extravagant jewelry from such an old woman."
Jury tried to smile conspiratorially, but Usagi got the
feeling that the saleswoman wasn't sure how. "Come, give them a
try? Just to wear around the apartment as a treat? Only 1,000 Yen,
since you're a friend of my mother.
Usagi's mouth dropped. The price was a thousandth of what it
should be, and the only the experience of her long life prevented her
from grabbing at the `too good to be true' offer. "No, thank you."
She was sure that the woman would try again to press the earrings on
her, when a new customer coming through the door distracted her, and
she quickly pressed the diamonds on her for only 800 Yen.
"Something's wrong here," she said to herself.
"I know," said Naru from behind her and Usagi had to fight not
to jump in surprise. "But I can't get a straight answer out of
anyone! My son only tells me to go away, that I'm a silly old woman
who doesn't understand business!"
Usagi felt her heart sink at the careless words. Naru had
been a fantastic businesswoman when she was running the store, and
her idiot son well knew it. Shaking her head, she led her friend
back out to the car. "Let's go shopping like we planned, then."
Usagi had hoped that the fun of shopping would distract Naru
from her son's odd behavior, but it was no use. Soon enough she and
Naru admitted it, and her friend dropped her off at the senior's
home, driving off with a distracted wave. Usagi sighed, and went
inside, giving short greetings to her friends as she went back to her
room.
Arriving at her room, she called out for her cat. "Peter?
Peter?" Oddly enough, the answering cry came from the bathroom, a
room Peter never entered for fear of getting a bath. She looked into
her bathroom, and saw Peter staring out the window at the small black
cat she had saved earlier.
"Goodness, what are you doing here, kitty?" She reached up,
and one hand holding Peter down opened the window, letting the little
black cat in. She realized that this cat was not wearing a collar,
and after closing the window led both cats back to the small
kitchenette, where she fed them both.
Peter, who normally did not like other cats, was unusually
friendly with the new one, letting her eat first before he started in
himself. Usagi sat in her favorite chair and watched them from her
living room. "What a nice cat you are," she complemented the cat as
it rubbed against her in thanks for the meal. "I wonder what your
name is."
"Luna," the cat said.
Usagi rubbed her ear. "Silly me, kitty, I thought you just
talked to me."
"I did."
"Ah," Usagi nodded. "A dream." She wondered when she had
fallen asleep, and for a moment wondered if the incident at Naru's
store had been a part of the dream as well. She doubted it, though.
It wasn't illogical enough for a dream.
"I am not a dream! I am a talking cat!" Luna jumped up onto
the table beside her, narrowly missing an old glass of flat soda that
Usagi had forgotten to clean up. She sat down, and for a moment
Usagi was reminded of her eighth grade homeroom teacher, Miss
Haruna. "And you are the Beautiful Warrior, Sailor Moon."
Usagi broke into laughter. Her mother had apparently been
right when she had told her that those silly TV shows would rot her
mind. "I think you've mistaken me for someone younger, kitty."
Luna looked flustered. "I… I expected someone younger, yes.
But it's you – I can see it! Here," and the cat stopped, stepped
further from the old cup of soda, and did a flip in the air.
As Usagi applauded, she saw a shiny golden locket appear out
of nowhere, and drop to the table. She picked it up, examining it.
The magpie she had been fifty-five years ago she would have loved it –
gaudy and shiny like something out of a supermarket vending machine,
only larger. She smiled at the dream-cat. "What next?"
Luna sat down again, her tail neatly curled around her
feet. "Hold it up and say `Moon Star Power, Make-Up!"
Usagi had to fight another round of giggles, and went along
with the dream. The words came quickly to her lips, and she had a
moment of deja vu when suddenly the world exploded in a swirl of
color, some sort of almost-regal, mostly silly music accompanying the
light show.
If you had asked her, she would have thought that she would
notice the outfit first. But instead it was the absence – a lack of
pain in her left arm, a lack of the aches and pains that she had
simply gotten used to as she had advanced into her twilight years.
And then there was the feeling of well being – she remembered
feeling this way in her teenaged years, full of vitality and
promise. She almost started to weep at the cruelty of being teased
this way by her dream when she noticed the costume.
At base, it was a white leotard with fancy ruffles around the
neck, and a scandalously short blue skirt attached to it at the
waist. Additionally there were long white gloves, tall boots with
heels she was afraid she'd break her legs with. And she discovered a
simple golden tiara on her head, with a crescent moon on it matching
the one on the cat's head. Replacing it, she found that her silver
hair had grown very long, and was now gathered into the dumplings
that she had worn it in during her teen years, only with some sort of
hair ornaments attached to the front of them.
"Oh, my." She turned to her mirror, and then noticed that
although she still looked old, it was a regal maturity rather than
the slow collapse her body had looked to be in for the past seven
years. "Curiouser and Curiouser," she quoted, "I feel rather like
I've fallen down a rabbit hole."
Luna sighed. "I am not a dream," the little cat cried out as
she slashed at Usagi's hand. The pain was intense for a moment, but
it was a sharp pain that she quickly found she could push to the back.
"Not – a dream?"
"You are Sailor Moon, protector of the Moon Kingdom. I've
awakened you to find the Moon Princess. A great evil has finally
awoken and you are necessary to fight it."
"Fight? Are you crazy?" She felt good, yes, but she cringed
at the thought of newly broken bones.
And then suddenly she heard her oldest friend Naru crying out
in pain. A vision came in front of her eyes, her friend in her son's
store, menaced by a group of zombies resembling the customers she had
seen at the sale.
"Naru! What can I do?"
"Run, Sailor Moon! You can save her!"
Usagi almost opened the door to the hallway before she
realized how she was dressed. Instead she opened a window, blessing
the fact that she was on the ground floor, being careful to shut it
afterwards to leave Peter inside. "I'll be back," she whispered to
her friend before she started running to Naru's store.
With the other changes to her body, she expected to run
something like she had when she was a teenager. Instead, she ran
even faster than that, speeding around corners like a car. Luna, who
would have had trouble keeping up, lay on her shoulder as they went.
***
Arriving at the jewelry store she ran to the back of the two-
story building and jumped to a second story window before realizing
what she was doing. The window, open to let in the cool air, opened
further with a crash as she hit it.
Down below she saw more of the zombies and a horrible
caricature of Juri who was holding Naru against the wall. "Keep
quiet, old crone," hissed the creature, "and maybe I'll leave you
enough energy in your withered old husk to live!"
That was enough for her. "STOP!" She cried out, louder than
she meant to, feeling her head-ornaments vibrate with the
word. "Leave N- that woman alone!"
The creature whiled in surprise. "A senshi? You are all
supposed to be dead! Well, if you want to save this pitiful mortal,
come and get me!"
Sailor Moon looked down with a worried expression, but
remembering the ease that she had jumped up there, trusted to her
reflexes and jumped back down. Back down right in the face of the
zombies, unfortunately. They growled and rushed her.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!" she screamed, and suddenly she felt her
hair ornaments vibrate with her voice. Some long-forgotten memory
told her to keep screaming and suddenly she let loose with a wave of
sonic force that knocked out the zombie mob. Steadying herself for a
moment, she grinned. "Hey, this isn't so ba-urk!"
Juri's doppelganger didn't bother to announce her attack, but
instead grabbed Sailor Moon by the shoulders with arms that elongated
to smash her into the wall. She winced, anticipating the sound of
every bone in her body breaking when she slammed into the wall. It
was a relief to feel herself just bang against the wall, her
assailant's razor-sharp nails cutting into her shoulders.
She almost laughed. In her long life, she'd felt
worse. "Luna, I need some way of putting down this thing," she cried
out as she demonstrated to it how painful a spiked heel to the shin
was. As it let go of her, she flipped across the room to get some
space.
Luna looked panicky. "I can't remember!"
"Use your tiara, Sailor Moon!" The rich voice came from
above, and she sneaked a peek to see a gentleman in full tails,
domino mask, and hat throw a rose at the creature. The rose, unlike
any flower Usagi had ever seen, flew straight and stuck in the
creature's arm, which howled in pain. "Take it off, and say `Moon
Tiara Magic'!"
"No stranger than anything else tonight," she muttered as she
followed his instructions. Crying out the incantation, she watched
her tiara spin around itself until it became a discus of light. No
further instructions were needed as she threw the discus at the
creature, which suddenly turned into dust. She caught the discus
automatically as it returned to her, and replaced it on her head as
it changed back to her tiara.
Now that the enemy was gone, she turned to view the man who
had aided her. Looking closer at the masked man, she realized that
he was around her age.
"Sailor Moon!" The man cried out with a dramatic gesture that
she found pretentious and somehow endearing, "I am Tuxedo Mask, and I
shall help you again when you next enter battle!" With that, he
jumped out the window. She wanted to follow him, but concern for
Naru stopped her.
Looking at Naru, she breathed a sigh of relief as she realized
that her friend was out cold, but coming to. "Who?" The woman
mumbled, and looked up at Sailor Moon. For a moment she thought Naru
recognized her, but then she realized that her friend was looking at
her as a stranger.
An odd impulse seized her for a moment, and she struck a silly
pose. "I am Sailor Moon, defender of love of justice! Are you all
right?"
Naru blinked for a moment. "Uhhh… yeah. I'm fine. Then she
started to look around. "What happened?"
As they looked around the room, she explained to Naru what she
had seen. Shortly enough the real Juri and Naru's son were found in
a closet, fast asleep. After that, Sailor Moon bid them farewell,
and jumped from roof to roof enthusiastically on her way home.
"Did you see that, Luna?" She shouted out happily as they
arrived. "I really did it." She opened her window and let the cat
in before she faulted the sill herself, posing for Peter. After
accepting Peter's meow of praise, she closed the window and admired
herself in the mirror again.
"Aren't you going to change back?" Luna asked.
Usagi shook her head. "Not if I can get out of this
bodysuit. Maybe not even then."
Luna frowned. "But…?"
"Can I turn off whatever it was that prevented Naru from
recognizing me?"
Luna shrugged. "I think so."
"Well, then, I'm in good health for the first time in years.
No aches, no pains, no need for that damn cane, and no fear of
breaking a limb from a silly little fall."
"But…?"
"Do I have to?"
"Well, no," Luna grudgingly admitted, "but it's just not how
things are done!"
Usagi smiled in triumph. "Well, it's not how things are done
anymore."
It took a little twisting, but she got the leotard off,
marveling once she had it off how similar it was to modern-day school
uniforms for girls. Luna mumbled something about the collective
unconsciousness, and Usagi shook her head and went to bed. She fell
asleep quickly like a young person does, not with the long hours of
staring into the dark like she had become accustomed to.
She dreamt of a princess who lived in a fine castle
illuminated by light reflected from the earth.
And across town Chiba Mamoru woke up on his kitchen floor,
wondering how he could have gotten so far from his wheelchair, still
parked next to his bed.
****
Author's Notes:
I know this looks like the start of a series. And maybe someday
it will be. But right now, it's a standalone. Maybe after I finish
'Missing Persons' I'll get around to doing up more.
Sailor Moon is the property of other people than myself. This
story is not intended to challenge the ownership of Sailor Moon in
any way.
Thanks for reading my fic!
Smithu Usagi walked slowly and carefully along the road that
her doctor's office was on. She paid attention to where she stepped,
her aluminum cane shining in the sunlight. She didn't really need
the cane yet, mind, but it never hurt to be careful. After all, she
could tell it would rain tonight by the way her left arm ached from
when she broke it two years ago. It had been a very slow
convalescence, and she still had to see her doctor once a month. She
carried her cane in her left hand to keep exercising it. She would
have taken the bus, but had just missed it before it pulled away from
in front of the senior's home she lived in. The exercise was
probably good for her, she mused.
"I've got some firecrackers!" The triumphant voice sounded
from the middle of the parking lot she was passing, and she stopped
to look. A black cat almost escaped a group of children, and Usagi
decided to intervene.
"Hey you kids!" She shouted, waving her cane, "Leave that cat
alone!" They were young little things, and suddenly took off in all
directions, leaving the cat behind. Apparently all they had been
able to do to the poor thing was to fasten a Band-Aid across its
forehead. She was going to bend over to see if the cat was all
right, but to her relief it jumped up onto the truck of the car
beside her.
"Good kitty. Nice kitty," she tried to croon comfortingly as
she reached for the cat. She was worried that the kids might have
used the Band-Aids to fasten a firecracker of some sort to its head,
and luckily the cat stood still and let her feel its head. With a
sudden jerk, she had it off, pulling off some hair and somehow
leaving a crescent of a bald spot behind.
It must have hurt, as the cat silently leapt backwards,
landing on the roof of the car. For a moment old lady and cat
contemplated each other, and then she thought to notice her
watch. "Oh, heck! I'm late!" Moving as quickly as she dared, the
80-year old woman hastened to her appointment.
The cat watched her until she was out of view, but then leapt
down and carefully followed her benefactor.
***
Doctor Hanson was his usual self, reminding her to watch her
diet and to keep taking her calcium pills. Her arm still needed more
exercise, and he talked her through a new one she could do, touching
her left hip, right shoulder, then the top of her head and back
again, forcing her arm to regain the range of motion it had had
before. Afterwards she chatted with the receptionist as she made out
her check for the co-payment.
That done, it was time to relax. She waited outside of the
doctor's office, enjoying the late fall sunshine, when Naru drove up
in her Oldsmobile. Naru had been her friend since elementary school,
and they had kept in touch through college, marriage, children, and
all. Indeed, Naru was lucky enough to have children who could
support her – the family jewelry shop was in its third generation,
and the fascination her granddaughter Akane had for shiny things
suggested the fourth generation would be at it as well.
"Where to, young lady?" Asked Naru as Usagi climbed into the
car.
Usagi laughed, and thrust her arm out in a `charge'
gesture. "To the mall!"
Naru laughed with her, and they headed off. On the way they
passed her Jewelry shop, and Usagi was surprised at the big hand-
lettered signs announcing a `SALE'. She turned towards Naru. "I
didn't know you had a sale planned."
Naru looked a little worried. "Neither did I!" She turned
into the next alley and parked behind the store. "I'm going to see
what's up."
Usagi nodded, and got out as well, following her friend into
the bedlam that occupied the usually sedate and refined jewelry
store. Ladies of every age fought each other to grab up jewelry
deals that Usagi easily realized where impossible. One diamond
pendant she'd often fantasized owning was clutched in the had a fat
lady who was waving it about triumphantly, but not so wildly that
Usagi couldn't see the 500 Yen price tag on it. Even though she new
better, she had to fight the impulse to snatch the pendant away. It
helped that her left arm twinged in pain to remind her of the
penalties for being foolish. Instead, she pressed against the wall.
"Hello Smithu-sama!" Said Naru's daughter-in-law
Juri. "Could I interest you in some earrings?"
Usagi turned and saw the elaborate jewelry that Juri was
thrusting into her face, dripping with diamonds. "No thank you, Jari-
san. I am fine. Besides, I would worry that someone would try to
steal such extravagant jewelry from such an old woman."
Jury tried to smile conspiratorially, but Usagi got the
feeling that the saleswoman wasn't sure how. "Come, give them a
try? Just to wear around the apartment as a treat? Only 1,000 Yen,
since you're a friend of my mother.
Usagi's mouth dropped. The price was a thousandth of what it
should be, and the only the experience of her long life prevented her
from grabbing at the `too good to be true' offer. "No, thank you."
She was sure that the woman would try again to press the earrings on
her, when a new customer coming through the door distracted her, and
she quickly pressed the diamonds on her for only 800 Yen.
"Something's wrong here," she said to herself.
"I know," said Naru from behind her and Usagi had to fight not
to jump in surprise. "But I can't get a straight answer out of
anyone! My son only tells me to go away, that I'm a silly old woman
who doesn't understand business!"
Usagi felt her heart sink at the careless words. Naru had
been a fantastic businesswoman when she was running the store, and
her idiot son well knew it. Shaking her head, she led her friend
back out to the car. "Let's go shopping like we planned, then."
Usagi had hoped that the fun of shopping would distract Naru
from her son's odd behavior, but it was no use. Soon enough she and
Naru admitted it, and her friend dropped her off at the senior's
home, driving off with a distracted wave. Usagi sighed, and went
inside, giving short greetings to her friends as she went back to her
room.
Arriving at her room, she called out for her cat. "Peter?
Peter?" Oddly enough, the answering cry came from the bathroom, a
room Peter never entered for fear of getting a bath. She looked into
her bathroom, and saw Peter staring out the window at the small black
cat she had saved earlier.
"Goodness, what are you doing here, kitty?" She reached up,
and one hand holding Peter down opened the window, letting the little
black cat in. She realized that this cat was not wearing a collar,
and after closing the window led both cats back to the small
kitchenette, where she fed them both.
Peter, who normally did not like other cats, was unusually
friendly with the new one, letting her eat first before he started in
himself. Usagi sat in her favorite chair and watched them from her
living room. "What a nice cat you are," she complemented the cat as
it rubbed against her in thanks for the meal. "I wonder what your
name is."
"Luna," the cat said.
Usagi rubbed her ear. "Silly me, kitty, I thought you just
talked to me."
"I did."
"Ah," Usagi nodded. "A dream." She wondered when she had
fallen asleep, and for a moment wondered if the incident at Naru's
store had been a part of the dream as well. She doubted it, though.
It wasn't illogical enough for a dream.
"I am not a dream! I am a talking cat!" Luna jumped up onto
the table beside her, narrowly missing an old glass of flat soda that
Usagi had forgotten to clean up. She sat down, and for a moment
Usagi was reminded of her eighth grade homeroom teacher, Miss
Haruna. "And you are the Beautiful Warrior, Sailor Moon."
Usagi broke into laughter. Her mother had apparently been
right when she had told her that those silly TV shows would rot her
mind. "I think you've mistaken me for someone younger, kitty."
Luna looked flustered. "I… I expected someone younger, yes.
But it's you – I can see it! Here," and the cat stopped, stepped
further from the old cup of soda, and did a flip in the air.
As Usagi applauded, she saw a shiny golden locket appear out
of nowhere, and drop to the table. She picked it up, examining it.
The magpie she had been fifty-five years ago she would have loved it –
gaudy and shiny like something out of a supermarket vending machine,
only larger. She smiled at the dream-cat. "What next?"
Luna sat down again, her tail neatly curled around her
feet. "Hold it up and say `Moon Star Power, Make-Up!"
Usagi had to fight another round of giggles, and went along
with the dream. The words came quickly to her lips, and she had a
moment of deja vu when suddenly the world exploded in a swirl of
color, some sort of almost-regal, mostly silly music accompanying the
light show.
If you had asked her, she would have thought that she would
notice the outfit first. But instead it was the absence – a lack of
pain in her left arm, a lack of the aches and pains that she had
simply gotten used to as she had advanced into her twilight years.
And then there was the feeling of well being – she remembered
feeling this way in her teenaged years, full of vitality and
promise. She almost started to weep at the cruelty of being teased
this way by her dream when she noticed the costume.
At base, it was a white leotard with fancy ruffles around the
neck, and a scandalously short blue skirt attached to it at the
waist. Additionally there were long white gloves, tall boots with
heels she was afraid she'd break her legs with. And she discovered a
simple golden tiara on her head, with a crescent moon on it matching
the one on the cat's head. Replacing it, she found that her silver
hair had grown very long, and was now gathered into the dumplings
that she had worn it in during her teen years, only with some sort of
hair ornaments attached to the front of them.
"Oh, my." She turned to her mirror, and then noticed that
although she still looked old, it was a regal maturity rather than
the slow collapse her body had looked to be in for the past seven
years. "Curiouser and Curiouser," she quoted, "I feel rather like
I've fallen down a rabbit hole."
Luna sighed. "I am not a dream," the little cat cried out as
she slashed at Usagi's hand. The pain was intense for a moment, but
it was a sharp pain that she quickly found she could push to the back.
"Not – a dream?"
"You are Sailor Moon, protector of the Moon Kingdom. I've
awakened you to find the Moon Princess. A great evil has finally
awoken and you are necessary to fight it."
"Fight? Are you crazy?" She felt good, yes, but she cringed
at the thought of newly broken bones.
And then suddenly she heard her oldest friend Naru crying out
in pain. A vision came in front of her eyes, her friend in her son's
store, menaced by a group of zombies resembling the customers she had
seen at the sale.
"Naru! What can I do?"
"Run, Sailor Moon! You can save her!"
Usagi almost opened the door to the hallway before she
realized how she was dressed. Instead she opened a window, blessing
the fact that she was on the ground floor, being careful to shut it
afterwards to leave Peter inside. "I'll be back," she whispered to
her friend before she started running to Naru's store.
With the other changes to her body, she expected to run
something like she had when she was a teenager. Instead, she ran
even faster than that, speeding around corners like a car. Luna, who
would have had trouble keeping up, lay on her shoulder as they went.
***
Arriving at the jewelry store she ran to the back of the two-
story building and jumped to a second story window before realizing
what she was doing. The window, open to let in the cool air, opened
further with a crash as she hit it.
Down below she saw more of the zombies and a horrible
caricature of Juri who was holding Naru against the wall. "Keep
quiet, old crone," hissed the creature, "and maybe I'll leave you
enough energy in your withered old husk to live!"
That was enough for her. "STOP!" She cried out, louder than
she meant to, feeling her head-ornaments vibrate with the
word. "Leave N- that woman alone!"
The creature whiled in surprise. "A senshi? You are all
supposed to be dead! Well, if you want to save this pitiful mortal,
come and get me!"
Sailor Moon looked down with a worried expression, but
remembering the ease that she had jumped up there, trusted to her
reflexes and jumped back down. Back down right in the face of the
zombies, unfortunately. They growled and rushed her.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!" she screamed, and suddenly she felt her
hair ornaments vibrate with her voice. Some long-forgotten memory
told her to keep screaming and suddenly she let loose with a wave of
sonic force that knocked out the zombie mob. Steadying herself for a
moment, she grinned. "Hey, this isn't so ba-urk!"
Juri's doppelganger didn't bother to announce her attack, but
instead grabbed Sailor Moon by the shoulders with arms that elongated
to smash her into the wall. She winced, anticipating the sound of
every bone in her body breaking when she slammed into the wall. It
was a relief to feel herself just bang against the wall, her
assailant's razor-sharp nails cutting into her shoulders.
She almost laughed. In her long life, she'd felt
worse. "Luna, I need some way of putting down this thing," she cried
out as she demonstrated to it how painful a spiked heel to the shin
was. As it let go of her, she flipped across the room to get some
space.
Luna looked panicky. "I can't remember!"
"Use your tiara, Sailor Moon!" The rich voice came from
above, and she sneaked a peek to see a gentleman in full tails,
domino mask, and hat throw a rose at the creature. The rose, unlike
any flower Usagi had ever seen, flew straight and stuck in the
creature's arm, which howled in pain. "Take it off, and say `Moon
Tiara Magic'!"
"No stranger than anything else tonight," she muttered as she
followed his instructions. Crying out the incantation, she watched
her tiara spin around itself until it became a discus of light. No
further instructions were needed as she threw the discus at the
creature, which suddenly turned into dust. She caught the discus
automatically as it returned to her, and replaced it on her head as
it changed back to her tiara.
Now that the enemy was gone, she turned to view the man who
had aided her. Looking closer at the masked man, she realized that
he was around her age.
"Sailor Moon!" The man cried out with a dramatic gesture that
she found pretentious and somehow endearing, "I am Tuxedo Mask, and I
shall help you again when you next enter battle!" With that, he
jumped out the window. She wanted to follow him, but concern for
Naru stopped her.
Looking at Naru, she breathed a sigh of relief as she realized
that her friend was out cold, but coming to. "Who?" The woman
mumbled, and looked up at Sailor Moon. For a moment she thought Naru
recognized her, but then she realized that her friend was looking at
her as a stranger.
An odd impulse seized her for a moment, and she struck a silly
pose. "I am Sailor Moon, defender of love of justice! Are you all
right?"
Naru blinked for a moment. "Uhhh… yeah. I'm fine. Then she
started to look around. "What happened?"
As they looked around the room, she explained to Naru what she
had seen. Shortly enough the real Juri and Naru's son were found in
a closet, fast asleep. After that, Sailor Moon bid them farewell,
and jumped from roof to roof enthusiastically on her way home.
"Did you see that, Luna?" She shouted out happily as they
arrived. "I really did it." She opened her window and let the cat
in before she faulted the sill herself, posing for Peter. After
accepting Peter's meow of praise, she closed the window and admired
herself in the mirror again.
"Aren't you going to change back?" Luna asked.
Usagi shook her head. "Not if I can get out of this
bodysuit. Maybe not even then."
Luna frowned. "But…?"
"Can I turn off whatever it was that prevented Naru from
recognizing me?"
Luna shrugged. "I think so."
"Well, then, I'm in good health for the first time in years.
No aches, no pains, no need for that damn cane, and no fear of
breaking a limb from a silly little fall."
"But…?"
"Do I have to?"
"Well, no," Luna grudgingly admitted, "but it's just not how
things are done!"
Usagi smiled in triumph. "Well, it's not how things are done
anymore."
It took a little twisting, but she got the leotard off,
marveling once she had it off how similar it was to modern-day school
uniforms for girls. Luna mumbled something about the collective
unconsciousness, and Usagi shook her head and went to bed. She fell
asleep quickly like a young person does, not with the long hours of
staring into the dark like she had become accustomed to.
She dreamt of a princess who lived in a fine castle
illuminated by light reflected from the earth.
And across town Chiba Mamoru woke up on his kitchen floor,
wondering how he could have gotten so far from his wheelchair, still
parked next to his bed.
****
Author's Notes:
I know this looks like the start of a series. And maybe someday
it will be. But right now, it's a standalone. Maybe after I finish
'Missing Persons' I'll get around to doing up more.
Sailor Moon is the property of other people than myself. This
story is not intended to challenge the ownership of Sailor Moon in
any way.
Thanks for reading my fic!