Introduction To The Road To Crystal Tokyo.
People have been asking me about all the things I wrote about in TRTCT that didn't happen in the anime, wondering whether I wrote about these things in a previous story.
Sadly that is not the case. I haven't got enough inspiration to write complete stories featuring Nebula Supreme and the Soul Merchants. At least not yet.
My intention was to write a love-story for Rei and Usagi that takes place when they are in college and leads into the calamity that befalls earth and the subsequent creation of Crystal Tokyo.
This means several years have passed since the end of the anime and I didn't just want to pretend nothing of note happened in those years.
I wanted to have some things in my story that the characters would refer to so that the reader could broadly imagine the kinds of things that happened in the intervening years and have a sense of continuity. So I envisioned the other Sailor Senshi having gained their Eternal Sailor forms fighting several new enemies of which Nebula Supreme and Mesmerphistopheles and his Soul Merchants had the most lasting impact on their lives by respectively having Sailor Pluto sacrifice herself to stop Nebula Supreme and Mesmerphistopheles deeply traumatizing Sailor Moon.
These things, in turn, served also to inform and inspire my story because to be able to face the coming threat Sailor Moon is going to have to deal with that trauma. And not all the Senshi have attained their Eternal Sailor forms.
Due to for years on end spending an enormous amount of energy on restraining the enormous love she feels for her best friend, Sailor Mars has not been able to keep up with the others and is stuck in an intermediate form.
Several things have changed in the personal lives of the Sailor Senshi and I also took some liberties with the source material:
First of all, Minako finally got her chance to become an idol and loved her glorious career as "Ai No Shojo".
I tried to make a wordplay on her name and on the term Shoujo Ai, but I have no idea whether I correctly romaji-nated the sentence "Maiden Of Love".
Following the end of her celebrity life, she started an education to become a teacher.
But after all these years AND becoming a big star she still hasn't found any guy wanting a lasting relationship with her and that kind of got her and turned her into even more of a gentleman-killer than she already was, dragging the equally unlucky in love Makoto clubbing near every weekend.
Makoto herself has started a career in the restaurant business and has been making quite a name for herself since graduation. She is currently working as a commis-chef in one of Minato-ku's most popular restaurants.
Ami has gotten a little more carefree and spirited over the years.
After having been able to make a successful start on her way to becoming a doctor in the University of her choice she promptly got properly confessed to by an equally successful Ryo and they are currently very happy together. The only snag is that he enrolled in a university in Hiroshima so they still don't get to see each other very often.
Rei still works at the shrine.
I'm not the greatest fan of the romantic family-drama that was dealt her in the manga, so since her parents never came up in the anime I decided to make her mom a big-shot businesswoman and keep her dad a politician. As a result, they are both estranged from their daughter, but she loves them both. I think it's more interesting that way.
Over the years Rei mellowed a bit and because of that, her fellow students became less shy about talking to her.
This resulted in her becoming their confidante concerning lots of relationship and some deeper problems.
She met this initially with the expected exasperation, but after a while, she started to find a guilty pleasure in listening to other people's troubles and satisfaction whenever she was able to properly help someone change their situation for the better.
Though she also had a stint as student-council president and got her father's genes itching during that time she decided to study psychology and see where life took her.
During her time as a student council president, she did come up with the idea of forming an intelligence unit with Ryo and Michiru, in order to focus their clairvoyant powers so that they could be of more service to the Sailor Senshi.
The unit is half-jokingly called "The Visionary Club".
Rei was happily surprised when she learned Usagi came to the same decision about her career choice and enrolled in the same university
They have been having fun studying together and sharing their college life.
Usagi and Mamoru have by now become pretty used to each other and she regularly stays with him when she's not sleeping over at the shrine or sleeping at home.
He has never shared her bed at home though. It's just more comfortable staying over at his place.
Mamoru started a brilliant career after graduating University and joined a leading telecommunications company.
He loves every minute of his work and according to Usagi and her friends, loves it a bit too much for his own good.
Hotaru has become a much more outgoing and healthy person since her rebirth.
She got hooked on tennis and has been enjoying middle school life, making a lot of friends, though she is still very stoic and sober.
After most of the Senshi gradually came to realize the way Rei feels about Usagi Hotaru opened up to the older girl about starting to develop similar feelings for Chibi-Usa, who had been visiting the past as a fourteen-year-old.
This and getting Rei into tennis developed a deeper bond between the two and Hotaru now regularly visits the Shrine.
Haruka is still burning rubber.
She was the one Rei opened up to first about her feelings for Usagi.
I'm sorry I have no idea how to write this event for the moment, but I imagine Haruka and Michiru being very sympathetic at first, followed by both of them mercilessly teasing Rei afterward and Haruka introducing her to some friends of hers in the hope that one of them might lead her heart away from her Princess.
I'm sorry to say that I have not imagined much for what happened to Haruka, Michiru, and Setsuna in the intervening years.
I imagine that the three of them got into good universities and continued to do what they love and being very happy living together with Hotaru.
I am going to do plenty of research on them and do some minor alterations to TRTCT in the future because I plan on giving them more focus in the sequel to TRTCT.
Yuuichirou has been having a hard time trying to give up on Rei.
He's had some flings and even had a steady relationship with a girl called Megumi, but that didn't work out either in the end.
He had come to realize that his heart strayed too much towards another woman.
About Nebula Supreme:
To me, the story involving Nebula Supreme would be like one of the animated movies had it been a canon story.
I hadn't imagined a great deal about her initially. At first Nebula Supreme was a young man in my imagination and had a different motive for what he did. But I am currently brainstorming for the sequel to TRTCT and now I am brainstorming for this introduction people were asking for, and I am getting a more detailed view on her. Though it is still messy and clumsy and not as well developed as the Soul Merchants story in my mind.
Her reasoning appears very warped, but I am interested in exploring the character development of such a benevolent but near-omnipotent being.
I find it intriguing to explore how such a being would try to find a place for herself in the world and how her powers would make her think very different about things that we would find of the utmost importance.
Very much like people with a lot of power don't understand what is so terribly important to people who have very little power over their own lives.
Kaito Nagahasu was Hotaru's homeroom teacher when she started her last year of middle school.
She was a tall, lively, somewhat eccentric and exceptionally intelligent young woman who genuinely enjoyed talking to the girl and Hotaru was quickly charmed by her manner and intrigued by her thinking.
Before long, Kaito had met the other Senshi and became loved by all.
She did talk a lot about things like collective consciousness and sharing your abilities with those less gifted, but the Senshi never felt she meant anything in particular with those things.
Then came the day the Senshi came home after having fought a random monster together.
Usagi's family behaved very strangely and when Ikuko wanted to see her hip, where she had got hurt during the battle, Usagi became nervous.
She hastily tried to go to her room but faltered at the foot of the stairs.
Sailor Saturn had healed all of their wounds to the best of her ability, but a late twitch of pain betrayed the wound Usagi had received there and Ikuko immediately saw it as proof of what she had seen and told her daughter she knew everything about her secret life.
After a very uncomfortable and painful scene during which threats of being forbidden to see her friends at all and exclamations of disbelief and worry were uttered, she got called by a furious Rei and a distraught Ami and Minako.
All of their guardians had told them that they had been approached by a woman named Kaito Nagahasu who had charmed them into inviting her into their homes.
The young woman had presented herself as a friend of their daughters and asked them whether they were aware of how amazing and pure Haruka, Makoto, and the others were.
Before they knew it they were all transported together with the woman to the place where the recent fight was taking place and witnessed the girls they had protected and nurtured for years, fight a desperate battle.
Kaito had even neutralized the disguise their uniforms normally would have provided the Sailor Senshi to onlookers.
Everyone understandably became upset and panicked, but as soon as those emotions struck, their feelings were artificially eased and Kaito told them that the Sailor Senshi had fought many battles like this one and would soon prevail.
After witnessing what had been predicted they were brought to their respective homes again.
Kaito told them she wanted for the Sailor Senshi to not have to hide their secret identity from their loved ones anymore, but after she left, everyone began to feel anxious again over the dangers their charges faced on a regular basis.
The Senshi discussed the matter together and ended up deciding that they had no choice but to give their guardians a proper explanation about their secret lives and try to ease their worries to the best of their abilities.
They also decided that whatever her intentions it was clear that Kaito would be dangerous to have as an enemy and that she should be questioned about her motives for doing what she did without their consent.
This was all done in order and went about as well as can be imagined.
Kaito angered several of the Senshi by insisting that they should have been honest with their loved ones far earlier.
When they argued that she had taken the peace of mind of their parents without consulting anyone, she replied that they had merely traded ignorance for awareness and that especially Yuuichirou and Grandpa would be better prepared if another attack would happen at the shrine.
She then declared that she wanted to give the Senshi the gift of being able to share their secret with their loved ones because she was going to change everything and she wanted the Senshi to be the first to know because she had admired their goal and their efforts so much.
She confided to them that she was far more powerful than anything they had encountered before.
At the age of ten, she had mastered all the knowledge of the galaxy and gained access to the thoughts and feelings of everyone in it.
By the age of twenty, so she said, she had succeeded in the same with the entire universe.
When she became twenty-two, she realized she could alter the shape of every detail in the universe.
She was, so she empathetically said, unfit to live in this world with the powers at her disposal.
So she sought for an existence more fitting for one like her.
After much consideration, she decided to explore what the sort of existence was that, taking as many parameters as possible into account, was considered most preferable by every single creature in creation.
She came to the conclusion that the feeling of being born again or various interpretations thereof coincided with the most desirable moment in existence to everyone.
Then she considered that it would be selfish to restrict this possibility to herself alone.
"Call me Nebula Supreme," She said. "Because I plan on having all of us experience that feeling together.
To end our existence and in a moment of pure bliss, start anew as a completely fresh universe."
The Sailor Senshi couldn't believe their ears. Sailor Saturn remonstrated that what Kaito planned to do was mass murder, but the woman was adamant that deep down, this was the most overlapping desire of every creature in the universe and that considering her abilities she would be unworthy of them if she didn't use them to the benefit of all.
Before she disappeared she told the Sailor Senshi to treat the next 24 hours as if they were having a flower viewing and feast on the beauty of the world and the love they shared with everyone around them before that feeling of love would be stretched out to contain the entire universe as everyone would become one before the spring of their new existence.
The Senshi agreed that they would try all that they could to dissuade Nebula Supreme from her warped plan.
The next afternoon, all over the world and indeed all over the universe, every single creature was confronted with the image of Nebula Supreme addressing them. On television, radio, computer screens, walls, the sea and in the sky.
The Senshi gathered and searched for her location while Nebula Supreme announced to billions upon billions of artificially calmed beings that in a few hours everyone would become one before being spread around in a moment of sublime beauty to start their existence anew.
When they finally found her, Sailor Moon, Saturn, and the others tried every power of reasoning and heartfelt pleading they could muster. To no avail.
Nebula Supreme even managed to impress upon them the notion that maybe in some way this was a forbidden desire inside everyone.
But when the entire world started to disintegrate and was being absorbed by the woman, the Senshi tried to prevent Nebula Supreme from doing worse by using their powers to envelop her with a barrier.
She simply teleported them away.
Sailor Pluto tried to go back in time so that she could try to find a way to stop Nebula Supreme before she became too powerful but was frozen in time just after she left the present.
As more and more planets and stars were absorbed by Nebula Supreme's omnipresent form, the Senshi decided that they would engage the young woman all at once while Sailor Moon would merge with her to absorb her powers.
When this was attempted Sailor Moon felt the love emanating from the woman who was about to recreate the big bang and asked aloud how she could think this was a good idea.
Nebula Supreme answered that Sailor Moon tried so hard to stop her when she was probably the one who wanted this - everyone becoming one in peaceful coexistence, a single all-loving unity with the purpose of a new benevolent creation - more than anyone.
Sailor Moon answered that the woman she was merged with was violating the right of everyone to choose their own path in life.
Nebula Supreme told her that she was arguing with things that were like the whim of a moment compared to the most overlapping, deepest desire of all souls in creation.
She promised a new universe, regulated so that despair and strife would not be able to rear their angry heads.
Sailor Moon argued that all the people who existed now would no longer be there, but inside she was doubting.
Eventually, she asked the other Senshi whether it would not be better for everyone to start anew after all, without the pain, strife, and losses of the past.
Witnessing the sadness in her eyes a change happened in Sailor Saturn and Sailor Pluto simultaneously.
Saturn transformed into her final form before everyone's eyes while telling her Princess that she knew Sailor Moon was aware that the whims of a moment could be just as important as a desire shared by all, and confidently proclaimed that if anyone would be able to convince Nebula Supreme of this it was Sailor Moon.
With her new secondary attack, Styx Supreme Barrier, Sailor Saturn then separated her Princess from the woman who had by now absorbed several galaxies into herself and shielded the universe from Nebula Supreme.
Meanwhile while also transforming into her Eternal Sailor form it dawned on Pluto that the reason Nebula Supreme had prevented her from going back in time might be that the power over space-time was something the otherwise omnipotent woman didn't possess.
She then began to ponder that both of them were very similar in many ways and that they both possessed powers that prevented them from participating in life like an ordinary person.
Only in Nebula Supreme's case, that fate of feeling overwhelmed by the responsibility of your knowledge and power would naturally be more extreme.
Sailor Pluto realized she could not take those powers or that plight from Nebula Supreme, but in taking it on herself to make the desire of all of creation a reality perhaps the woman they were trying to stop might be doing herself as much of a disservice as the souls she wanted to serve.
If so, Pluto realized, she might be the key to the salvation of all.
She broke out of time and instantly appeared beside Nebula Supreme, taking her by the hand.
A short conversation took place between the two young women that the other Senshi could not hear.
Nebula Supreme quickly understood what Sailor Pluto was going to do and to what end.
Instantly the universe was turned to normal again and all of the other Senshi found themselves at the moment when they decided to confront Kaito Nagahasu.
But they realized that neither that woman nor their friend Setsuna Meioh was to be found anywhere anymore.
Grieving for their loss, but relieved that the universe had been spared, not knowing or understanding what had happened to their friends they continued their lives.
Only one thing remained of Kaito who seemed as if she had never existed to anyone but they and their guardians. The gift of not having to lie to their loved ones anymore.
(I realize I am still a little vague about the end, but what happened between Kaito and Setsuna will play a small but important part in the sequel to TRTCT that I don't want to spoil yet.)
About Mesmerphistopheles And The Soul Merchants:
A few months after the events that ended with Setsuna's demise, Minako became aware that one of her musicians had gotten a fan of his own and that the two had started dating.
After a while, the young man got called into the management office.
The girl had claimed that he had assaulted her and was stalking her and management had seen fit to suspend his contract.
He was gossiped about everywhere and took it very hard, not understanding why she was accusing him of these things.
Minako couldn't believe any of this was true and together with Ami - who as part of one of the group assignments her new physics teacher had given her was doing research on acoustics - she started to investigate.
They found something very odd about the young woman and when they eventually found her attacking the musician they intervened.
The woman proved extremely strong and to their astonishment quickly transformed into a golem.
Together with the other Senshi they fought it and were victorious, managing to help their friend clear his name eventually.
A new enemy was evidently active and they had to find out what they were planning while fighting several other golems that had tried to mess with people's lives before killing them.
Meanwhile, Ami was having a hard time with her partner in the projects their teacher assigned them. The guy didn't do a thing but he constantly took the credit for her work, which was pissing her off.
So after a while, she decided to teach him a lesson and exposed his laziness and lies in class.
The guy was seriously reprimanded and Ami was congratulated by the teacher for sticking up for herself.
But it turned out her classmate failed physics class because of the incident and Ami started to feel a little sorry for him because it appeared he might not graduate because of it.
Meanwhile, Ultra-Gretchen, one of the generals of Mesmerphistopheles who were in charge of sending out the golems to collect restless souls, decided to take matters into her own hands after the Senshi had foiled them so many times and attack one of them at home, where they would be vulnerable.
Having carefully observed the Senshi after battles with the golems she discovered that Sailor Mars lived in the shrine they often gathered at afterward.
She approached Yuuichirou and grandpa in the evening at the shrine.
Yuuichirou quickly felt something was up with the woman, having been put on edge about strange occurrences and people by Nebula Supreme.
He slyly got grandpa to alert Rei and have her come to meet the woman that had started talking to them, but Ultra-Gretchen was on to him and took both of their souls before Rei came outside to see what was going on.
The miko quickly transformed when she saw what was going on and attacked, threatening Ultra-Gretchen to release both souls but her Mars Sniper attack was no match for Ultra-Gretchen's freezing powers.
The woman, at last, managed to freeze Mars herself, promising to take her angry soul to Mesmerphistopheles once she was frozen to death.
But her determination to save Yuuichirou and grandpa thawed Sailor Mars's body and activated her Sailor Crystal. With her new power, Blades Of Fury, she penetrated the icy wall her assailant was trying to defend herself with.
After a violent battle, Mars had Ultra-Gretchen at her mercy and got her to release all of the souls she had captured after which a frightened Ultra-Gretchen was teleported away by her boss.
Makoto and Minako were similarly targeted by Ultra-Marthé and Ultra-Valentine soon after.
In the meantime, Ami was being increasingly beleaguered by her teacher who praised her for weeding out the guy that had been in the group assignment with her, claiming a scientist should be able to count on the friendship of a fellow-researcher and that her classmate was a good for nothing who would have led her to ruin.
Satisfied that he had sown the seeds of self-reproach into her heart the teacher transformed into Ultra-Wagner and attacked with his daggers.
Ami dodged just in time and transformed, declaring that a scientist should be kind as well as sober if they are to be of benefit to others and that it wouldn't do anyone any good to allow those who made a mistake to their own devices.
She grinningly declared that she had been tutoring her classmate in private since the incident and with great success.
She managed to defeat Ultra-Wagner, but Mesmerphistopheles teleported him away.
The Sailor Senshi continued to deal with the golems and learned that the new enemy was Mesmerphistopheles.
For millennia the devil had been collecting restless souls and storing them via his Hellmouth.
Now, the number of restless souls in hell nearly exceeded the living and when that happened he could manifest himself in his true form and take dominion of the earth.
Shingo was taking his girlfriend to a concert being given in the mall to celebrate the new year.
When he recognized the Soulmerchants his sister had described to him as the band he realized something was up and contacted Usagi.
Sailor Moon was already on site while the other Senshi hurried there. Hearing the band play she knew something terrible was going to happen and she couldn't wait any longer so she rushed in.
The Soulmerchants were manipulating the emotions of the audience, getting them into a huge fight.
The more they played the angrier everyone got.
Sailor Moon tried to calm everyone down and threatened the Soulmerchants to stop playing.
Then, Alpha-Faust who had been watching from behind the stage called forth his boss, saying they had a huge opportunity to take out the leader of the Sailor Senshi.
Mesmerphistopheles appeared, filling the central area of the mall with his huge form.
He teleported Sailor Moon away, encasing her in an asteroid in another galaxy and conjured a projection on the wall of the asteroid so she would be forced to watch how he killed the fighting people and took their souls with him.
The other Senshi appeared just in time to see Moon disappear and Mesmerphistopheles kill the shoppers.
Declaring that he had collected what he needed he instructed his generals to deal with the Sailor Senshi, which he was satisfied should be easy enough with their leader gone.
As he vanished the Soulmerchants closed in on the Senshi.
The latter were able to hold their own very well until Alpha-Faust attacked.
Being blasted with gamma radiation the Senshi did all they could, but ultimately their concern for what had happened to their friend left them unfocused.
Sailor Mercury tried to rally them, but with five to four the enemy eventually had them beat.
Alpha-Faust reproached them for standing in the way of Mesmerphistopheles bringing humanity back to its original state while he kept blasting them with radiation.
According to Alpha-Faust, curiosity and the pursuit of knowledge had caused the human race nothing but harm.
He knew first hand how that greed to know ever more, could ultimately destroy what you are fascinated by.
Knowledge lead only to ruin according to him.
Humanity should never have left the ways of its prehistoric state, was his conclusion.
Sailor Mercury utterly denied his words as she got up and her Sailor Crystal started to glow.
She declared that the pursuit of knowledge was one of the most wonderful drives of the human race. And that it had brought us much beauty and happiness.
The light she emitted by transforming into her final form blocked Alpha-Faust's gamma radiation and the other Senshi slowly got up too.
Sailor Mercury went on to declare that it is knowledge that brings us closer to one another and makes humans accomplish such great feats. Particularly the pursuit to know the thoughts and feelings of those around us.
As her Sailor Crystal lighted her surroundings she saw the outlines of the encasements Mesmerphistopheles had imprisoned the souls of his servants with.
Performing her new attack, High-Pressure Beam, she broke the spell that chained their souls to their evil master.
Faust and the others realized how easy Mesmerphistopholes had been able to lead them to ruin because instead of seeking to understand one another they had only been concerned about their own pursuits. Trough this realization their souls were able to finally find peace, but before they left, Faust used his power to find Sailor Moon for the Senshi.
They used Sailor Teleport to go to her and bring her back and Sailor Mars held her for an hour before she stopped crying.
Her friends discussed what they should do, but ultimately they decided it would be best for Usagi to stay over at Mamoru's.
The next days it became apparent that Usagi had repressed the entire traumatic event.
While the Senshi were at a loss on how to deal with this, Mesmerphistopholes was beginning his transformation at the Hellmouth.
Rei clearly felt how restless souls from all over the world were convening. After doing multiple fire-readings and research she and Ami pinpointed their gathering at a place in the north of Greenland.
Meanwhile, the entire world was being besieged by natural disasters. Floods, earthquakes, and typhoons were attacking Japan on all sides while the rest of the world was similarly affected.
Mesmerphistopheles was not wasting any time in bringing humanity back to prehistoric times.
The Sailor Senshi knew they had to act fast in order to stop Mesmerphistopholes from transforming into Chaos, but it was clear Usagi was in no condition to fight.
While in the daytime she pretended that nothing had happened, at night she had horrible, screaming nightmares.
Making her confront Mesmerphistopholes now might even make things worse, let alone endanger them all.
Eventually agreeing to trust in how powerful Mercury, Jupiter, and Venus had become, the Senshi decided that the three of them would take on Mesmerphistopholes while Rei tried to channel her and Usagi's spiritual energy to them.
Asking Usagi to sleep over before they would attack Mesmerphistopholes, Rei got her to dress in miko clothing with her because she wanted to do a prayer together.
During a due to circumstances for Rei awkward and intimate preparation before the ceremony, she learned how Usagi had decided to also try and get into Tokyo University, hoping to be able to study psychology together with her best friend.
Before they sat down to pray together Rei told her friend the plan.
Usagi was furious and terrified, but eventually, Rei managed to persuade her to trust in her friends' power and the example she had always set them.
While this happened the three other Senshi teleported to the north of Greenland and found Mesmerphistopholes transforming into a gigantic column reaching into the exosphere.
Restless souls were twirling around him and being consumed while he transformed into Chaos.
Not impressed by only three Senshi trying to stop him, the creature struck them with immense power but found them protected by the power from Usagi and Rei's prayer.
Sailor Mercury reprimanded Mesperphistopheles for thinking he had defeated Sailor Moon and told him that their Princesses greatest strength lay not in her own power but in how she inspired those who love her and in her unconditional love for every soul in creation.
Venus and Jupiter channeled their power into Mercury while the massive creature in front of them blasted them with all it could muster, the violence of its attacks utterly destroying the entire area for miles and miles around.
The Sailor Senshi ended up floating in the air, protected by Rei and Usagi's prayers while the arctic ocean claimed the crater that had been solid ground and ancient mountains a mere minutes before.
As Sailor Mercury received power from the friends beside her and the friends at home, the Senshi let loose their new joint attack: Sailor Senshi, World Cleansing!
A spiritual shockwave washed over the world in all directions, scattering Chaos into billions of saved souls and sealing its fate with a global Akuryou Taisan.
After this the Senshi went about their daily lives, worried about Usagi - who still wouldn't talk about what had happened - though relieved that her nightmares became less and less frequent and thankful every day that passed without an enemy in sight.
The chances of a new threat to their peaceful lives became a faraway little dreamt of possibility, but unknown to them, a vast new kind of enemy far far away had set its sights on humanity and it's richly populated planet.
I hope this introduction was somewhat coherent, entertaining and informative concerning my idea of what happened between the last season of the original anime and my story.
I hope it will enhance your enjoyment of The Road To Crystal Tokyo.