Hello~
*ahem* Okay, I have no idea where this came from. It was sort of a word vomit in the summer and before I knew it I had almost 60k words. I'm revising and rewriting now and the story is changing from the original but the essence is still the same (Rini teaches Gohan how to be a dignified super hero). I'm posting this chapter now just as a test run, to see what kind of reception comes my way.
Some things you should know: This is obviously AU. Crystal Tokyo and the Neo monarchy exists but it's only a century after the end of Sailor Moon, not centuries later. The Silver Crystal's immortal powers only affect the Sailor Scouts/royal family. Rini is seventeen, not 900 years old because if there's romance in this story, I don't want a creepy age gap. Yes, the Sailor Scouts were around the Android Saga and no, I'm not going to write it. But it happened and they are a part of the world.
Finally, about me: I live and work in Japan. Uh..that's about it.
Anyway, let me know what you think. Enjooy~
Tired of her life as princess and her looming destiny, Rini moves to Hercule City for a chance at a normal life. Unfortunately, that's quickly interrupted when the Great Saiyaman appears on the scene. She's drawn back into the world of superheroes and before she knows it, she's Saiyaman's reluctant mentor. Add new friends, secrets, self discovery, and a strange new threat to the city and Rini is soon in a world of...fun.
Orange Star High School was unassuming in the early autumn sun, idyllic with its groomed shrubbery and laughing students. It was how it should be. The world had been at peace for almost a hundred years, thanks to Queen Serenity and King Endymion, and it showed. Sure, there had been a few hiccups now and then, but nothing that couldn't quickly be resolved.
Rini yawned as she walked past the fountain, the water glimmering. A few female students, more awake than she was at the moment, brushed past her, talking excitedly about something. Something about a mysterious boy? Rini shook her head, her long pink hair swaying with the motion, and yawned again. It was too early for this.
Rini walked in a daze through the school, going to her locker first and then class, all the while dodging her classmates as they related a story-the same story, she finally realized as she walked into her classroom, that everyone was telling. Something about a bank, and a weird guy and...oh.
Rini took her seat, setting down her white bag beside her, and dug out a textbook and started reading, effectively shutting out the rest of the gossip around her. It wasn't that she had no interest in the the gossip it was that...she had no interest in the gossip. Or rather, the gossip subject. A superhero. Rini almost snorted.
Call her jaded, but being the daughter of the moon queen and earth king and a member of the planet's team of guardians had kind of desensitized her to the novelty.
Besides, she had heard of Earth's regular superheroes-they popped up at tournaments every once in awhile-and they were less than impressive, especially one certain...gentleman for whom the city had been renamed…
"It was totally amazing," a bright voice gushed; Rini looked up to see Erasa animatedly talking to her friend, Videl.
"You don't say," Videl responded dryly, a scowl pulling at her pretty features. She and Rini made eye contact and she frowned slightly; Rini returned to her book.
"Yeah, I mean, stopping a bank robbery with his bare hands..." Erasa continued related the story that she probably wasn't even there to see, bumping into Rini's seat as she wedged herself past. She didn't pause for breath as she plopped down in the empty seat beside Rini. "...Doing the light things and flying away! He just totally disappeared, it's so mysterious!"
Rini didn't want to take the bait but...not many people could fly. Those that could kept to themselves, which was fine with her as long as they didn't try to blow up the planet (see: hiccups). Rini peeked over at Erasa and Videl; Videl was still scowling off into space or anyone who dared to look at her. Erasa was completely oblivious and kept gabbing away.
The image brought to mind another pair of friends, one a bubbly blonde and the other raven haired and grumpy. Her mother and Rei had come along way since their junior high school days but Rini couldn't help but be reminded of their dynamic when she watched Videl and Erasa. The thought brought the smallest of smiles to Rini's face.
"Can we help you?" Videl's sharp violet eyes cut toward Rini in the smallest of glares.
Oh, Videl. Fearless, heroic Videl, who saved the city as often as normal people did laundry. She was also as sweet as snake poison if she chose to be, which she did toward Rini for reasons the pink haired girl chose to ignore for their pettiness.
Videl's eyes searched Rini, flicking subtly over her features. Rini's smile disappeared and she cocked her head to the side and took on Videl's suspicious assessment.
"Just thinking about how history repeats itself," Rini said, before nodding at Erasa in greeting.
The blonde haired girl beamed and punched Videl's arm lightly as the other girl opened her mouth to no doubt demand Rini's meaning. "Sheesh, Videl, lighten up! Maybe she just liked the story. Hey Rini-how was Crystal Tokyo?"
Rini let out a genuine smile. She may have had a strained and difficult relationship-if you could call it that-with Videl, but it seemed Erasa didn't have a bone in her body that let her be anything but agreeable and welcoming.
"Same as ever," Rini replied. She would have said more, but a shadow fell on her, completely snagging Erasa's attention away as she look to what Rini realized was a person standing behind her.
Rini turned and blinked at the unfamiliar face of a confused looking boy. He blinked his black eyes down at her and opened his mouth, looking from her to Erasa, and back.
"Can I help you," Rini said, echoing Videl's words.
"Uh." He sounded hesitant and Rini's brow flicked upward. "I think you're in my seat?"
Rini squinted. "Your seat?"
She looked him over; new student, obviously. Weird fashion sense-tiny black vests were a little twentieth century-but his hair was cute, the way his short black locks stood on end. That brought her back to the matter at hand. Cute new student. She turned back to Erasa who was predictably staring at him with stars in her eyes.
"You gave away my seat?" She sounded vaguely betrayed.
Erasa had the grace to flush a pretty shade of pink and look a smidge guilty. "Oh, well, I guess I did."
Rini pursed her lips. "Thanks for the loyalty."
They weren't great friends. Their friendliness was a by-product of the preference for these two seats in this row and Erasa's bubbly personality. But still, it would have been nice to not be dropped the second she leaves for a week.
The boy looked a little guilty too, which in turn made Rini feel bad. She almost stood because after all, it was only a seat and he was the new kid. He needed guidance and a gentle hand to wade the waters of this school, not some jerk classmate with an unhealthy attachment to an arbitrary seating preference. Besides, it seemed like Videl was in a mood and she didn't feel like dealing what that today.
Rini smiled up at the boy and started to gather her things, while he looked around the classroom that was filling up by the second. Erasa beat them to it by turning to the bespeckled boy next to Videl and pinning him with a sweet smile.
"Hey, I need your seat, do you mind?"
He looked like he most certainly did mind, but between Erasa's fluttering lashes, and Videl's hard stare-mostly the stare-he sighed and gathered his things. "You owe me," he said grumpily.
Erasa beamed and stood, grabbing the new kid's hand over Rini's head and pulling him into her seat. There was no mention of what their other friend, Sharpner, would do whenever he showed up, though Rini wasn't complaining if he was forced to sit else where...
"There," she said proudly, gripping New Kid's-who looked dazed by this turn of events-shoulders. "All fixed. And now you can meet Rini. Rini, this is Gohan, he's just about as smart as you. Two new geniuses-what are the odds?" She sat on Videl's other side, in the newly vacated seat.
Rini coughed at Erasa's flattery but gave Gohan an amiable smile, despite the whole seating drama. She meant to go back to her textbook to distract her until the class started, but Gohan spoke up.
"You're new," he asked, voice a pleasant tenor now that he wasn't nervous.
"When school started a month ago, yes," Rini answered. "Where are you from?"
Before Gohan could open his mouth to answer, Erasa jumped in for him. "Gohan's from a mountain district five hundred miles away. It's a crazy long commute but I guess it's not as far as where Rini's from."
Five hundred...how did he get here? Rini looked disbelievingly at Gohan. "Do you just get home and sleep for two hours? When do you do your homework?"
"Oh, you know, on the way...home. Actually I'm, uh, staying at a friend's in West City," Gohan said with a nervous laugh, as if a two hour commute instead was no big deal. He scratched the back of his head before shaking it. "What about you, where are you from?"
"Crystal Tokyo."
Gohan's mouth gaped open and he blinked several times. "What? But that's on the other side of the world. Do you also commute?"
Rini's mouth twitched into a small smile. "It's about ten hours away by plane, so no, I live here."
"Rini's almost as mystery as you, Gohan," Erasa said with a wink. "She sort of keeps to herself. She's probably as smart as you. Her dad's a doctor and her mom works in fashion."
Rini coughed because technically that was true. It was just not their present occupation. Still, once a doctor alway a doctor, even if one was king, right?
"Thank you, Erasa, for over-sharing," Rini said once her throat was sufficiently cleared. Videl's eyes slid over Rini, as if trying to find something she missed.
Rini wasn't worried; her alibi was iron clad with fake documents and news reports put out by Sailor Mercury to protect her school identity. She was Serena "Rini" Shields, daughter of a well respected doctor and fashion designer in Crystal Tokyo, the internet said, and nothing more.
Erasa nodded, like she was proud of her introduction, but that was only because she was oblivious of Rini's sarcastic tone. "Anyway, guys," she addressed them and Videl as a group, "have you heard of the Great Saiyaman? I was just telling Videl all about him but he's so mysterious, so not much is known about him except that he can fly and do those light tricks from the Cell Games, isn't that amazing? But he's not as cool or mysterious as the Golden Fighter. He kind has these goofy poses and costume but still. I bet he's really handsome under his tunic, with a lot of muscles and…"
Videl had flopped her head in her crossed arms in the middle of Erasa's impassioned speech while Gohan slumped lower and lower in his seat, burying his head in a textbook he pulled out of his bag.
Apparently they had heard the story before. Rini was again skeptical so she muttered under her breath, "can we forever ban the word mysterious?"
Beside her, Gohan snorted, which made Rini smile. Videl shot them a short glare.
"So," Rini said to Gohan, "how was your first week here?"
"Oh, you know," Gohan said with a small chuckled, and stratching the back of his head. "Just getting used to being in actual classes. I was homeschooled before this so everything is new."
Erasa's hand came out and smacked Gohan's shoulder. "Don't be so modest! Gohan is a pro at baseball. He jumped twenty feet in the air to catch the ball on his first day," she happily supplied, oblivious to Gohan's red faced cringe.
"It's also quite the coincidence that he showed up on the same says as the Golden Fighter and the Great Saiyaman," Videl ground out, staring at Gohan as if willing herself to see something more.
"Ah." Rini put the pieces together. "She thinks you're one of them."
"Someone said the Golden Fighter was wearing the same things as Gohan," Videl said, not looking at them anymore, but staring off as if going through a list in her head. "And then another guy shows up in a costume with the same tricks as him."
Rini looked Gohan up and down again. The vest was truly tragic but, "a lot of people wear white shirts and red pants. Are you going to be suspicious of them too?"
"Saiyaman shouldn't interfere, he's not a police officer," Videl yelled, as if her contempt for superheroes wasn't getting through.
"Neither are you," Rini said carefully.
The room around them was deathly quiet, the tension thick. Gohan was still and Erasa looked dismayed. Rini and Videl glared at each other.
"Aw, ease up, Rini," Sharpner called out from the front, where he had apparently shown up at last. "She's Hercule's daughter, she can do what she wants."
Being the offspring of the biggest fraud in history didn't entitle Videl to anything. Maybe Videl knew this because her cheeks flushed pink and she looked away. Rini would have felt guilty if she hadn't been so annoyed by everything. She had been gone a week and this is what she came back to?
Rini crossed her arms again and turned away, staring hard at the blackboard. Conversation over. And just in time, too. The young teacher strolled in and set down her stack of textbooks and greeted everyone with sparkling eyes.
"Did you hear about the city's new superhero," she said with a breathless wonder.
Rini groaned and was even more annoyed when everyone-excluding Gohan-threw out their piece of gossip. She went back to her textbook, tuning everyone out. She gave it a week. A week for the Saiyaman thing to blow over and for things to go back to normal. For everyone to be as over this whole superhero thing as she was.
Thankfully, despite the annoying start of first period, the day mellowed out. Gohan and Rini took notes; the fact that the former even bothered surprised Rini because the rest of the class usually dozed off or did anything to avoid any semblance of a productive school day.
Rini was relieved when their chemistry teacher replaced Rini's lazy partner with Gohan, claiming it would be good for the both of their academic careers. She was also relieved when no other teachers brought up the Great Saiyaman. The relief was temporary, however, when the so-called superhero popped up in Rini's thoughts-and stayed there.
Rini ate lunch out in the school's courtyard alone, back against a tall oak tree that bordered the edge of the yard. A soft breeze caressed her and she heaved a sigh before taking another bite of her sandwich.
A new superhero. Why did it bother her so much? She told herself it was the same, that this hero would be the same wanna-be crime fighter as the rest of them. She had no interest in that; she heard enough of that about Hercule, supposed savior of the world.
Rini snorted. Savior. Anyone with even an ounce of ki training could see plain as day that Hercule was not a fighter capable of defeating Cell.
Not...that she had been there to see the Games…
She had only heard about them after her return from the past, how a group of mysterious fighters stepped up to Cell's challenge for a fight, how many people had died between his appearance and the Games. Many people, including some of the Sailor Scouts. They had tried to defeat the androids but their power wasn't enough, and Rini hadn't been there with the pink crystal to stop them herself.
But still, she knew the Sailor Scouts. If they weren't able to defeat an enemy then the power difference must have great. Not Hercule great. Maybe...a boy with golden hair, who was able to fly and blast ki from his hands…
Out of all the rumors flying around that day, Rini was more interested in the Golden Fighter rumors, though she hated to admit it. She had never met the boy who finally killed Cell, none of the Sailor Scouts had. In the aftermath of the Games, the fighters had disappeared, used the Dragon Balls to resurrect the android's victims-and Hercule stepped up to claim victory.
Rini had at least been there for that, the stupid ceremony that her parents held for the phoney champion. She remembered having a hard time keeping a straight face through it all, how her mother gently lectured her on keeping up the facade.
The world did not need to know, she said. They were content to live in ignorance, so long as they did not have to live in fear. They accepted the Sailor Scouts for their healing powers. A boy, indeed, an entire group of super strength warriors, capable of that kind of destruction, would only be feared, and hunted. If they were content in not receiving recognition, they would be granted it and allowed to live normally with the same peace as the rest of the world.
A great lesson from Queen Serenity, Rini thought. Yet it didn't make the guilt that resided within her lessen. She wasn't there, and people had died.
Not that it would have mattered. Even if she were there with the pink crystal, she doubted she could get it to work. Rini slipped her hand into her sub-space pocket and felt for her transformation brooch. If it weren't for the little spark of power she got whenever she touched the brooch, she would have thought the crystal was powerless. It hadn't done more than spark since the time she got it.
Her mother wasn't much help in the matter, either. The queen had experience in magical crystals but that was during times of duress and great need. Rini hadn't had a near death experience in seven years so Great Needs were a bit sparse these days. And she could only believe in herself for so long before she dissolved into tears of frustration.
No wonder the world was descending into chaos; how else could it be with her, the planet's star seed, unable to get her act together?
Rini groaned and leaned her head against the rough bark of the tree. This was typical; she had finally escaped her life in Crystal Tokyo, successfully avoided all of her responsibilities for the next year-nine months and twenty-six days, her brain helpfully supplied-and this was happening.
But of course, it didn't have to as long as her brain cooperated and avoided thinking about the topic with the same diligence it was using to avoid her heritage. A normal school year-just one year of normal teenage life where she could be completely ordinary, that was all she desired in the universe.
A normal teenage life plus one week every month of Sailor Scout training and exercises, her brain helpfully reminded her again, like the traitor it was.
Rini sighed and looked around the school courtyard. Everywhere she looked, her classmates sat in groups small or large, all laughing or at least looking content in their lives. She swallowed and tried to remember the last time she had felt so normal but struggled to come up with the single instance in the past year.
Try as she might, desire as she did, her ideal teenage life, the one Serena and the others had-laughing trips to the arcade, boy drama, celebrity crushes-seemed out of her grasp. She had a deadline-nine months and twenty-six days-and the looming reminder made her uncharacteristically tense and aloof.
Rini didn't know how to let go and truly be unburdened. She wasn't sure if it was possible, there were so many secrets involved with her life coupled with the simple fact that she would have to leave it all behind in the end.
But, when a pair of black ballet flats stopped in front of her, Rini looked up and blinked at Erasa. The blond girl beamed down at Rini like a second sun. "Want to get milkshakes at the arcade with us after school," she asked. "Since you're Gohan's lab partner-you should get to know him, and you can finally tell me all about Crystal Tokyo."
Rini's mouth popped open at the invitation and she looked past Erasa to where Videl, Gohan and Sharpner were still eating lunch and pretending they weren't waiting for Rini's response. Well, the boys were; Videl's sharp violet eyes were clearly pinned on Rini.
The pink haired princess looked back up at Erasa and swallowed. Tense, aloof, burdened…normal. This...was it. This was how she became normal again. With a trip to an arcade for a milkshake. It truly was amazing how history seemed to repeat itself.
Rini smiled up at Erasa and nodded. What could go wrong?