Prologue


"Everyone, please give a huge round of applause for young talented 23 year old Kaioh Michiru!!"

The whole crowd of people rose and gave me a standing ovation for such a splendid performance! Wolf whistles! Cheers! The applause was so deafening that I had to cover my ears to ease the loudness…of course, elegantly covering my ears, that is. The flashes of cameras to capture my moment of glory on stage as a world renowned violinist were so numerous…ah, I think I'm going to be blinded by it! Nevertheless, I smile the nicest smile I have and stand proud to face the audience below me! And then a black figure at the front seat catches my attention and waves at me with a red rose in her hand…my love! Beside her would be more black figures of my family…

"Kaioh-san, please brief us on the proposal you and Tenoh-san had came up with."

How poor things they are! In the face of my success and glory they can only be my background pictures! But nevertheless I must show the world how important they are…So I look at their direction and waved. Immediately, all the cameras go to the direction of them! From black figures they are suddenly colored and clear faces! "There! The people behind my success!" I exclaimed as I see my parents' proud faces.

"There! Kaioh-san!"

"Kaioh-san?"

"And Kaioh-san again!"

"Kaioh-san."

My grandparents too! "And Kaioh-san and Kaioh-san!" Screamed the emcee!

"Kaioh-san, Kaioh-san!"

"Now for Kaioh Michiru's lover…." There was a drum roll, before the spot light shines on the love of my life and finally she is out of the darkeness and coloured, though I still can't make out her face…."She is-"

"Tenoh-san? Your assistant-"

"Ouch!" I felt a very hard kick on my calf under the table as I yelped in pain. Bloody hell who the-

Nine pairs of eyes look at me in shock, while one pair of green ones glared at me across the table. Not just any table; it was a meeting table, with ten other people from Mentos Incorporated board of directors sitting around it staring at me. All dressed smartly in formal office wear with a serious but shocked look on their faces. What can I say? Think, Michiru! Think!!

"Ooh, this new proposal flavor for Mentos candy is just hot!"

I gave a mega watt smile to the nine other faces whose mouth is gaping wide in silence now. My lips feel a little hard. But, ah, to hell with it. Then I touch the file containing the proposal and quickly retracted back, faking a pained expression.

"Woah! Ouch! Hot!"

"Yes! Hot!" Tenoh suddenly stood up and declared; while in a swift movement took the proposal file from me. I scowled and gave him a dirty look while he glared at me swiftly.

"This is the new concept for marketing the new flavour of our candy. Hot! It's not a secret that the society is more and more open nowadays. Products marketed with a little sexual connotations nowadays are the norm. If we stick to our minty image we might lose out to competitors who would realize the power of reaching out the masses using images that now, appeal to young and old alike. We could come up with catchy slogans with that image like 'Mentos, Smokin'!' and we could even change packages the candy (all flavours, I mean) to suit the new marketing programme. But of course, I love the old school Mentos style of packaging and marketing. So what we- " I noted his emphasis and a little sarcasm in the word 'we' "thought of was to keep the old. But bring out the new hot image as something like a limited edition. I'm sure all Mentos die-hard fans would love a new packaging and a new sizzling hot flavor!"

Now it was Tenoh's turn to flash a mega watt smile at the shocked and serious faces of the other nine board of directors in this oddly cold and dark meeting room at the first floor of the humongous building of Mentos Inc. At the corner of my eye, I noticed one of the directors (a bloody lecherous old man, if you ask me) glanced at me and I gave a mega watt smile too. I must say, Tenoh and me look quite alike when we did that. Big eyes, big smile, shining white teeth, good skin, frozen face.

Silence.

The chief of the board cleared his throat finally after a long period of silence. "Good job, Tenoh. I'll like to see you and your assistant work on it. Let's continue on with the weekly financial report-"

Ah, my face got cramped smiling too wide.


"Meeting is finalized and done. Alright, you all are dismissed" the chief of director announced. Well, he's looks like a nice old man in my opinion. Gray thinning hair, with a face crumpled with wrinkles from smiling too much, small eyes and a friendly nose. I don't know why, I found his nose really looked friendly. A far cry from the notorious nose on a scowling face that is now staring at me across the meeting table now.

"Kaioh-san, what in the world has gotten over you just now?" Deep husky voice. I used to like people with such voices, but because of him I found it annoying now.

"Well, it's a common human lapse in concentration," in a very nonchalant and defiant voice, and proceeded to pack my belongings.

Ah, I succeeded in annoying him again. His eyebrows were twitching.

He started packing too, and we both stood up at the same time. But I was nearer to the door, so I got to the door frame first but he put his arm in front of me and blocked my path.

"What is it, Tenoh-san?"

"You do know I can fire you, right?"

"I'll like to see you try," I replied in an icy voice, turning around to look up at him straight in the eye.

Alright, he's taller. And he's handsome. He has the most perfect boyish face I've ever seen. And to be honest, I have never seen anyone as attractive as him. His figure beneath the suit that hides it must be hot, judging by the built of it. His sandy blonde hair looks almost silky, though they are most of the time, ruffled and messy. Well he can blame himself for that- he likes to run his hand through his hair very often. He has the most brilliant green eyes I've ever came across and his nose is perfectly shaped to fit his face. Not to mention, he has the most kissable lips I've ever seen. But, everything out of that mouth in words can only be described in one word.

Infuriating.

"Ah well, maybe I won't. Since I have you to thank for that the directors liked my out-of-nowhere-last-minute-though-of proposal," he leaned a little closer to me that now our faces are inches apart.

I suddenly feel really hot.

"Well, of course. My brilliant brains paved way for your success. I'm sure that was better than the original cliché one we, or rather, you, came up with."

"You couldn't think of anything better, then, you said."

"Oh? Try me again. With more time and energy I would have."

"With your brilliant brains?"

I smiled proudly, "yes."

He smirked and leaned a little closer. "More like brilliant dried drool that everyone saw when you smiled and thought my proposal must be hell of a delicious."

Drool?! I rubbed the side of my lips and felt something like dried glue sticking on my face- oh no. Oh my gosh. He's right.

He laughed and nudged me sideways gently, before passing me and walking away.

What a jerk! Why didn't he tell me earlier! Fine, jerk wins!


Sometimes, I wished I could just throw my cell phone away, especially every time it rings and I look at the caller id and see my real boss's name. Meioh Setsuna. Sometimes, I wonder if she had a CCTV or 

some camera installed, or maybe a detector specially for me installed in the posh toilets of Mentos Inc. building. My cell phone rings almost every time I enter one of the posh bathrooms in the office.

"Hello old virgin"

"Shut up Michiru, you're no better. And stop using that...vulgar name of me."

"It's your code name, boss."

"Choose a better one!"

"Well, we need to get through the paper work, get approval from the Defense Minister, then let it process for a few weeks at the admin-"

"I get it, I get it!"

I giggled. I loved it when I get my boss all mad with my teasing. Well, her weakness is pretty well mine as well- no wait, minus the age difference and wrinkles. Her forehead crumples a little when she frowns, and I'm proud to admit mine doesn't, though I never said it aloud before. Maybe one day I should point it out and annoy her.

"Anyways, the point of me calling is to tell you we got an informant on the drug funding activities. Seems like a transaction is going to take place soon between Mentos Inc. and some gang called Decaymakers. They are going to using large amount of Mentos candy as a cover for the drugs. The informant is apparently an employee at Mentos Inc. Now, I want you find the informant and/or confirm reliability of the information before we take action. The information was given to us via an unknown email address that we traced to the Mentos Inc. to be the source of it."

"What leads do I have?"

"The guy's crafty, only leaving the exact information of the transaction but no source or evidence. He or she had e time, date venue, even who's involved in the transaction and the estimated amount of guards that will be stationed."

"Military genius?"

"I guess so, or an analyst expert. And this person must have either dug the information out with his bare hands from one of those involved, or have excess to the database so deep into the system of Mentos Inc. that he could deduce all of these out. I think the former is not possible in reality, so it's the latter."

"But why would anybody do that? For us?"

"Beats me. But we'll worry about that later. For now, just confirm the reliability of it. You do not have permission to engage anybody else unless for self defense. So you would have to snoop around. But you are allowed to beat the crap out the informant for information."

I sighed. "How much time do I have?"

"24 hours."

"Roger, old virgin."

"Shut up, bluetooth."

I hung up immediately.

I know, I have the worst codename in the century. It's not my fault, really. I just had a bad hair day and bad luck then. Well, my friend and colleague, Aino Minako, wanted to send me a song that she sang. Her own rendition of Utada Hikaru's First Love, actually. She had it in her cell phone and was mouthing the words to me that she wanted me to hear the song and tell her what I think about it. Since it's convenient and free, I wanted her to send it to me using Bluetooth. I have no idea how many times I mouthed the word Bluetooth before I got fed up.

"Bluetooth, Minako!"

"Bluetooth?" Chiba Mamoru, my boss's boss, or rather the chief my headquarters, repeated.

"Bluetooth?" I repeated in confusion.

"Bluetooth!" Meioh Setsuna laughed at it.

"Huh?"

"Alright, Kaioh-san. Bluetooth is your codename." Chiba Mamoru said with finality

"What?!" And there here goes my dream of having a nice codename.

But back to work. I checked around the washroom if anyone overhead my conversation. Negative. I finish my final touches of my make up and walked out of the washroom. First thing to do, check the company database on who has military intel. But that probably won't work, though it's worth a mention. I know I would surely get caught trying to access employees' database at unholy hours. Then next, for the real deal: snooping around the accounts of the Mentos Inc. If anybody can have information at this level of detail, it's surely one of the accountants. Finally, some drama and action after my first week at Mentos Inc. as a police spy. I'm an agent working under Chiba Mamoru and Meioh Setsuna for the Special Police Operations. Get ready for a drug bust by Kaioh Michiru codename, Bluetooth! Ah well, soon. But this only means I have to work after the normal office hours. Technically, I secretly have two jobs now. Goodness. And besides, both are really stressful. My day 'job' I have to take care not getting picked on constantly by the irritating Tenoh and at night, I have to-

"Ouch!"

I banged onto somebody with a strong built and we both fell on the floor. Guess I haven't been looking at where I was – oh my goodness. Oh my goodness. MY GUN! My hidden gun inside my stockings strapped to my thigh covered by my knee length working skirt actually dropped out in the collision and slided on the floor!

"Ah…" A male voice. Not very deep, but pleasant sounding.

Oh shit. I scrambled to crawl to where my gun was but unfortunately, he saw.

"Gun?" he asked.

I scrambled even more and managed to reach it before he could do anything else. I looked around. Luckily, there was nobody else around in the area. I quickly stood up and checked the corners. All clear. The guy I ran into was still sitting on the floor, though now looking at me in shock and confusion. In a sudden movement, I grabbed him by the collar and dragged him up and into the female bathroom and closed the door. He didn't resist my actions, but he didn't seem like he was scared, too.

"Standard procedure, I'm sorry," I said and pointed my gun straight at his nose.

"Wha-"

"What's your name?"

"Ya-Yano Ethan." His voice is strangely calm.

"Where do you live?"

"Who are you, espionage or something?"

"Where do you live?" I repeated, with a firm voice.

"Juuban Heights, unit 13C" Near my place.

"Alright sir," I took out my police crest badge and showed it to him, "I'm from the police. What you have just seen is totally an accident. But I need to keep it secret, so I would have to ask that you-"

"You're a Narcotics Agent?"

"Excuse me?" How did he guess I'm here because of drug dealings?

He chuckled, "you're not the first."

"You've seen others?"

"Yeah, the previous one Kino Makoto-san, isn't it?"

"H-How…?" Makoto-san actually got exposed?!

He put a finger to his lips. "Your secret is safe with me. If you don't believe, you can call her up to ask."

I look at him. He has a nice boyish yet mature face, with a little stubble all over. His brown hair is kind of a little curly and not too long, but not too short. It curled just nice like Superman's hair does. His eyes were dirty blue, like it's seen a lot already though he looks young. Around 23? And he is wearing…a janitor uniform?

"How can I trust you?" I doubt him. A janitor? He has the looks of a refined gentleman, and the way he articulates his words is too clear and precise to be just merely a janitor.

"I know your superiors are by the name of Meioh Setsuna and Chiba Mamoru. And you…you're the next person assigned…I think Makoto said you were Kaioh Michiru?"

I am utterly shocked. Makoto-san trusted this guy so much to divulge so much information to him? What if he's involved in-

"You're gonna look for the drug dealing involvement of this company, right?"

He knows! I nodded wildly.

He smiled a kind friendly smile. I noted, it looked nothing like Tenoh's smiles, that seemed almost void of emotions. "Trust me now?" he asked. I'm beginning to like his voice.

"Seems like I don't have a choice…"

He laughed at my response and pointed at my gun. I felt my cheeks blush as I kept my gun away. All the time we had the conversation I was holding my gun towards him. Better still, my finger at the trigger. But at least, it's nice to know somebody actually knows who I am, though I have to be careful, for now.


Ah well, here I am again. Alright, this is an entirely new story by me. A few things...

Disclaimer : I own nothing but the plot. I don't own Sailormoon, neither do i own the name 'Mentos' (I bloody love that sweet!). The whole story is fictitious and I'm not getting any money for it. Any relevance to actual living persons or events is entirely coincidental.

Well, this is the prologue of the story. Yes, Michiru is a secret police agent here. Haruka is not a male here, just that Michiru doesn't know he's actually a she yet. Michiru might look a little out of character here, but bear with me, she will get in character the next. We're riding with her thoughts for this chapter, so yeah, who knows what thoughts go through the real Michiru from Sailor Moon lol. Only for this prologue, is Michiru's POV. For the subsequent ones, it will be third person perspective, but ah, you'll see then how i jump around thoughts x) All senshis will make an appearance. And this story is completely AU. Pairings...well, let's keep a suspense, shall we? Though don't worry, it's definitely Haruka and Michiru. Though i would like to keep the others a secret.

I don't have a beta for this story (cos my favourite author/beta (Vanessa Riverton) is thoroughly overworked, i should give her a break :P) so yeah, pardon my silly typos and grammar mistakes.

Please tell me what you think about this, and if i should continue it! Please!! I already got chapter 1 (and it's longer than this chapter) written out! But thought i should get some feedback on it first... So yeah, please tell me what you think about it!

-impersonal