DISCLAIMER: I don't own anything even vaguely related to Sailor Moon. That's all Naoko Takeuchi's stuff. Anyway... Don't send the lawyers after me, please. I have a cousin who's an attorney in Washington, D.C. so if you get a bit adventurous I've got the big guns backing me up.
WARNING: I am taking some big creative licenses with this, mixing the manga and anime a lot, so please don't complain right off the bat about time frames being mixed up and stuff like that. This is not your typical SM fic. Trust me. It will greatly offend some SM fans, I promise (though I don't intend that). Please don't kill me. Critiques are welcome, letter bombs are not. And if you have read my other two fics (YUA The Siege and BGC2040 Shadow Guard), yes, I use essentially the same character name for my main character and a lot of the same background information. So I lack name creativity. Oh well. Actually he's just my generic character, so deal with it. I find it a challenge to see how I can fit him into any anime situation. This is my take on him in SM. And if you haven't read my other fics, thank God. You at least can't complain about my main character's reuse.
The Last Officers
Prologue: Moving Forward
By JagdPanther
It was around 6:00 PM when Christopher Rivera finished typing up and printing out an arrest report. He turned off his computer monitor, stood up, and grabbed his jacket off of his chair before heading downstairs to the parking garage. He didn't really need to work here. It wasn't necessary, but it was sort of enjoyable. Well, that wasn't entirely true. His current job in the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department wasn't a choice as much as it was an order from his parent employer, the United States Army. He was on loan to Metro from the U.S. Army to train Metro's historically weak special units. Metro's Special Weapons and Tactics teams and their Special Assault Teams were essentially Japan's most elite units, since the JSDF wasn't allowed to have special operations units according to the Japanese constitution. His job also entailed working in Metro's investigations unit, since they were severely short-handed there. All in all, it was a fun job, getting to play with guns all day and bust criminals. The pay sucked, but that didn't matter. Chris had plenty of money.
Plenty of money that he'd been making on his own for years, that is. Chris's parents, both highly successful individuals, had started Chris in the stock market at a young age. His mother, a cardiovascular surgeon, had advised him to invest in medical companies. His father, a retired Army Brigadier General and now corporate attorney for Boeing Aerospace, had advised him to dabble in the defense industry. Chris had decided that he'd do what he wanted. Since the age of eleven, Chris had followed the market on his own and made his own decisions. With his summer earnings and a starter fund of $10,000 from his parents, he jumped into the market. The most prolific of his decisions occurred when, at 15, he invested $13,000 in Apple Computers when the stock was sitting at $11 in the early 2000s. The stock skyrocketed when the iPod craze hit the world. Within a year and a half, the stock had reached $88 per share and then split 3 for 1 before rising again, with Chris buying and selling shares along the way up to multiply his fortune. Coupled with other good (or at least lucky) decisions over the next decade or so, Chris had amassed a sizable fortune for someone still in his mid-20s. His net worth in stocks was well in excess of the first number with 7-digits, before adding his cash bank accounts.
The fortune allowed him to have a fairly good-sized apartment in Tokyo, a city which rivaled New York City in price. It also allowed him to have his baby, a pearl Spirit Blue Audi RS4. It was Audi's premiere sport racing model that was only offered in the German market. It was as nimble as a cat and as fast as a fighter jet, and Chris loved every second of driving it. He got into his car after exchanging pleasantries with a few officers arriving for their own late-evening-to-early-morning shift. The powerful Audi racing engine came to life and propelled him out of the parking garage and into the streets of Tokyo.
Despite having so many Western amenities with him, Tokyo would never really be home, though. Chris, surprisingly, hated living here. It wasn't that Tokyo was a bad place to live; it was just that Tokyo was, well, Tokyo. It wasn't Allentown; that was for sure. The small Pennsylvania town would always be his home. His entire life, Chris had only lived in small, quiet towns. Tokyo was a major culture-shock for him. Four years of living here were taking its toll on the American. Tokyo should've been great for Chris, since he was Japanese-American. But he sure as hell didn't look Japanese-American. His mother was an Asian-Caucasian mix, too, and his father Caucasian. Recessive Caucasian genes from his mother had bypassed the typically more dominant Asian genes and met up with his father's Caucasian genes to produce a Japanese-Italian-American who looked neither Japanese nor Italian. Chris's sister was decidedly more Asian-looking than him. She'd received the more dominant Asian gene. She even had the name to prove it. It was family tradition on their mother's side for girls to keep the family name, so his sister had a Japanese name while Chris had an Anglo-American name. People were always incredibly confused as to how the Japanese girl and Anglo-American boy could possibly be related by blood and explanations were generally required.
It was just one more part of Chris's strange life. 'So many things to worry about, so many things to do, so much control Tokyo has over my life,' he thought as he drove towards home. It was Friday, there were reports to write, movies to go see, sleep to catch up on, and other things.
But it's not like he had a choice. Nothing could save him from Tokyo. He was under orders from the U.S. Army to aid and assist the Metro department in training their special forces. Metro in turn wanted him to work in investigations because they were short handed. He'd never finished his MBA before going on active duty in the Army. Chris-the-Overachiever took night classes for that to complement his B.S. in Aerospace Engineering. On top of all that, the Army still made Chris deal with intelligence analyst duties. That job was odd, because Chris was a combat infantryman by training. He'd always figured that his father had something to do with that appointment. Retired Brigadier General Joseph Rivera still had contacts in the active Army that he could influence. His father was probably too scared of seeing his son go into combat again after the 8-month long Malden Islands conflict in which Second Lieutenant Rivera had almost died multiple times leading an infantry platoon in the 101st Airborne Division. Then his parents had pretty much told (not asked) their son to go to Tokyo (which is probably when Joseph had made a few "phone calls" to get the intelligence analyst appointment) to look after his sister, who in her typical hot-headed independence had decided upon turning 16 that she'd rather live in Japan than America. She had spent the three previous years living in Japan, actually, but she traveled home each break during school and she had lived with relatives. But at 16 she wanted independence from the relatives. 'And if that wasn't enough,' he thought, 'I still have that other job; that other job that only a few select girls and a guy know about.'
As he pulled into the parking deck next to his apartment building, Chris continued reviewing his life in Tokyo. All in all, Chris hated his life, but at the same time loved his life. He was always busy, but everything he did had some positive factor to it. Working on improving the Japanese SWAT and SAT teams was highly aggravating at times, but satisfying because he knew that if these officers paid attention, they'd be more likely to survive when the worst situations faced them. Intelligence analysis was just plain boring, but he knew that someone had to do the job and his work helped keep China and Russia in check. Looking over his little sister was a terrible bother, but at least she was 20 now and that job was essentially over. And the "other" job in his life almost gave him several heart attacks over the past years, but the biggest perk was getting to hang around several really cute girls. One of the young women actually lived with him. That was the best part. Without her, this city would just make him want to cry. But her… She made his entire life worthwhile. She was the best thing that ever happened to him. 'I don't know what I'd do without her,' he thought, collecting his mail from his box on the ground floor before walking up to his 10th floor apartment by stair.
There were some bills. "Bills, bills, bills. They never stop coming," he said to no one in particular. "A letter from Keio University, hmm. I wonder what that's about. Her tuition is paid up." Chris paid for his girlfriend's tuition to one of Japan's most prestigious universities. He pampered her, but it was just his nature. Plus her parents certainly didn't mind. There was a large manila envelope from the Department of the Defense. "Great. What else can they possibly drop on me now? Well, it wasn't hand delivered so it can't be too bad. If it were classified crap they'd have sent a courier to me directly." He had a tendency to talk to himself at times. Some other various things, including a large, white envelope were in the mail. The large, white envelope designed to keep standard letter paper flat and unfolded caught his eye. "A packet from the Japanese Olympic Commission! I hope it's what I think it is. It has to be. There's no way they said 'no.' They don't send packets this big to people they say 'no' to! She'll be so happy! Yes!"
Opening the door to his apartment, he smelled food and heard the sounds of cooking. 'Hmm, she got home before me again. I wonder what she's making. Her cooking has become pretty good since I met her, jeez, what, 4 years ago now. Amazing how time flies.' He quietly closed the door and slipped off his shoes. He wanted to surprise his girlfriend. With the Japanese Olympic Commission letter in hand, he crept up behind the pretty young woman watching TV while stirring a pot of noodles. The letter had to be a positive one. 'This would be the antidote to years of disappointment for her,' thought Chris. He was just about to put his arms around his girlfriend's waist when she spoke.
"Hello, honey. How was your day?" His girlfriend had heard the key enter the lock. She had very good hearing.
"Damn, so close. I can never pull one over on you." Chris just smiled and responded, "Not too bad, but no matter how your day was, I think it's about to get a whole lot better." He kissed her on the forehead as she turned around and flashed a broad smile.
"Why so?"
"Here." He handed her the packet and waited for her reaction.
Immediately her free hand came to her mouth. "Oh my God! Oh my God! It's here! It's finally here! I can't believe it! Woohoo!" She walked over to the counter and opened the drawer under the phone to get a letter opener. Carefully, she slit the packet open and extracted the contents out onto the table. On top of everything else in the packet there was a single white sheet of paper with the International Olympic Commission logo next to the Japanese Olympic Commission logo in the header. She only needed to read the first sentence of the letter before she burst into tears. Chris was looking over her shoulder but couldn't see the letter. He backed away when she spun around quickly and jumped onto him, hugging him. "Thank you, thank you, thank you," she choked out through tears; tears of joy and elation.
Chris picked his girlfriend up in happiness and hugged her even tighter. He set her down on top of the counter before pushing her back a bit and looking into her red-rimmed eyes. "Why are you thanking me? You did everything. It's your talent, not mine."
"Without you, I would've never, ever thought of practicing again and trying out. I always thought my duties as a senshi prevented me from doing anything for myself like this. But I learned differently from you. It's all because of you. Thank you, thank you, thank you," she repeated, latching onto him again. Behind them, the pot of noodles was about to boil over. Dinner wouldn't be the best they'd ever had, but none of that mattered anymore. They were just happy that something abnormal for other people was tonight their first step towards being a normal couple.
The letter, slightly disheveled and wet from tears, fell from her grip and floated to the counter. The first sentence read simply, "Congratulations, you've made it!" For Aino Minako, it meant that everything about the past six years of her life was finally behind her. Now she could be normal in a not-so-normal way. Not every girl, after all, was selected for the Japanese Olympic volleyball team. It wasn't too normal, but anything was better than fighting and dying (again). Maybe she could still become an idol. 'No, one thing at a time,' she thought, still clinging to Chris, still crying and smiling. 'Well, two things at a time. I still have to finish the university.' The unopened letter from Keio University on the table by the door was about her tuition. It was going up again. Oh, well. Chris would pay for that.
QUESTIONS AND COMENTS: Bravo26Flashpoint(at)yahoo(dot)com You can tell I LOVE how deals with e-mail addys in stories