a/n: I have done research concerning exactly how the Star Locket/Moon Locket should look. It is damn hard to find a picture of that locket on Google let me tell you! And that is why the descriptions are a little- well, crappy. Hopefully I will get better at that. Anyway, also did some research on the Azabu Juuban districts in Japan. Found out that they are in the Minato Ward (district?) in Tokyo. I'm a little shaky on this guys, I know the Japanese have districts set up as addresses within actual cities, but it's sort of hard to understand! I'm trying though, and hopefully will get the hang of it as the story progresses. Also researched Ikuko- so hopefully she is in character!
Disclaimer: I do not own sailormoon. Only this story's plot, the original characters and- well. Nothing.
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Summary: When Usagi is induced into a day of antique shopping with her mother, the idea isn't appealing. That is, until she spotted the odd star shaped locket that played music only for her…And one man whom she doesn't much care for.
The Antique Locket: Chapter I. Two discoveries
Prologue
Minato Ward, Tokyo, Japan- Forty years ago.
There was nothing quite like the locket. The shape caught the eye of people who had the notion to look at it- for the locket also had an uncanny ability to not draw attention, for all its beauty it did not want to be bought. It was a star, constructed of smoothed out gold. There were no flaws, no sign of how the locket had been molded into such a unique shape. On the top of the locket was a raised oval that, without any appearance of hinges, flipped open. And inside it there was a crescent moon.
The locket had no known origin. It had been discovered on a dreary Tuesday morning in the middle of April several decades past. The, then youthful, Natsumi Amaya had fumbled with the lock on the outside of her mother's antique shop. Amaya, having decided to open the shop early, had proceeded to shake out her dripping umbrella after entering. She had glanced up to absently check the order of the store, not really expecting anything.
It had been sitting on the glass counter next to the cash register.
Amaya had wrinkled her brow, and set the umbrella on the counter. She walked up to the locket and scrutinized it. 'Pretty trinket,' And then: 'You should not be here at all,' She had thought of this with good reason, for she was sure the locket had not been in the store the day before and therefore should not be there at present. After all, the store had been locked.
Amaya sighed, and shook her head; it was too early in the morning for mysteries. She hesitantly reached out to touch the locket. It was freezing. Having transformed her wrinkled brow into a frown, she pulled her hand away and mindlessly wiped it on her damp green vest. 'Peculiar.' Using her always on hand handkerchief, Amaya carefully picked up the locket, and studied the oval dome situated on the top. She went to open the locket, gasping as the absurd coldness permeating from the locket traveled up her fingers, numbing her hand.
The locket opened.
After staring mindlessly for a moment, Amaya's breath calmed down. Slightly disappointed at the anti-climax, for she had been expecting no less than fireworks, Amaya closed the locket, and then reopened it again- just to be sure. "Nope," She concluded aloud in dissatisfaction and with a surprising amount of sadness. "It's broken."
And thus the locket found itself satisfyingly placed on a shelf behind the counter that contained the cash register. For although it should have been disposed of, Amaya could not make herself throw the bauble away. And so it stayed for some forty years; though it never collected dust.
Amaya, between juggling school, her mother's rising illness, and the shop, began to forget the incident had ever happened. Though in the back of her mind the seemingly impossible event perplexed her. And sometimes, very rarely, when she found herself with nothing to do, she would pause for a moment and reflect on the odd occasion that occurred during that dreary April day.
She knew that broken locket must mean something.
Chapter I.
Tsukino Residence, Azabu Juuban, Tokyo, Japan- Present Day
'Where is that blasted girl now! She better not still be in bed…'
Tsukino Ikuko was at the end of her very long rope. She had spent the past eight days sewing her son's Halloween costume; as she could not seem to find a Cheshire cat costume anywhere. Firstly she was frustrated because, was it really normal for a boy as young as Shingo to want to be a Cheshire cat for Halloween? And secondly, sewing was not Ikuko's strong suit, no, quite frankly she hated it- and it hated her. And thirdly, she had gone to wake up her daughter an hour ago, having been looking forward to a day of bonding, and hopefully relaxation. Obviously that wake up call had not been effective and Ikuko was, sadly, not surprised.
"USAGI TSUKINO! YOU HAD BETTER BE MOVING UP THERE!" Pausing to take a breath and a sip of lemonade, Ikuko sighed to herself as she heard the thud that could only be from a body falling out of bed. Taking a breath she resumed her shouting, "HURRY UP USAGI, I WANTED TO LEAVE FIFTEEN MINUTES AGO!"
"WAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! MY HEAD!" Came the expected reply, and Ikuko hummed to herself as she washed out her glass. Glancing at the clock and sighing at the time of 2:30 she took a resigned seat on the couch and snatched up the sketchily made costume. 'This had better fit him,' Ikuko grumped to herself as she took up the needle and began trying to string the thread through the
impossibly small eye. 'I hate sewing….'
"Ma?" She glanced up and smiled at her son. The boy stood in the doorway of the living room.
"Yes dear?" He was looking dubiously at the costume she had in her hands, and then he looked guiltily at her. Ikuko had a feeling of trepidation and she stopped trying to thread the needle. "What is it Shingo?" She asked again.
"Umm," The boy was nervous as he eyed the needle in his mother's hands, and then he looked down the hallway. Ikuko narrowed her eyes. "Umm…Ma, about the costume…" He wrung his hands. "I talked to Daichi today at school and I decided to be a pirate…" The rest of Shingo's words faded into the background as a buzzing took over Ikuko's thoughts.
He doesn't want to be a Cheshire cat anymore….
I have been sewing this costume for days….
Poked my finger so many times with that needle…..
He doesn't want to be a Cheshire cat….
Manual labor for nothing….
At his mother's glazed look, Shingo stopped talking and began to back slowly out of the room.
"Ah, so…Usagi failed her last test…" His voice fumbled.
"I HEARD THAT YOU TRAITORIOUS LOSER! TRYING TO TAKE THE HEAT OF YOURSELF ARE YOU!" Usagi Tsukino walked- stomped- into the living room. Shoving her brother into the wall with her hand, she glanced at her still frozen mother and the costume on Ikuko's lap. "What is that supposed to be mom?" She asked innocently. "A pink tiger?"
Ikuko's rope snapped.
"Usagi," She stated calmly. "Shut up. Shingo," She looked at her son, who had pulled away from the spot in which he had been shoved and was rubbing his head while glaring at his sister. At his mother's calm voice he paled and turned to her.
"Uh…"
"WOULD YOU CARE TO EXPLAIN THIS TO ME!"
"….Well…."
"DO YOU KNOW HOW LONG I HAVE WORKED ON THIS YOUNG MAN-"
"…I…"
"DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA HOW MUCH I HATE SEWING-"
"…actually…"
"Well you know the solution to this don't you?" Shingo blinked at the decimal change and shook his head meekly, still pale. "You'll just HAVE TO BE THE CHESHIRE CAT ANYWAY."
" Yea- wait. WHAT?! BUT MOM!" Shingo glared at his snickering sister and then pouted. At his mother's reinforced glare he paled further and sighed. "Fine." He stated in resignation.
Minato Ward, Tokyo, Japan- Present Day
"Usagi! Come on!" 3:45 and Ikuko was excited. Having spotted the 'Starlight Antiques' shop from across the busy street, Ikuko was now determined to go in and investigate. 'Maybe they have a cute little cabinet I can put in the front hall.' She thought to herself giddily as she glanced at her daughter who, at the moment, was diligently licking a chocolate ice cream cone.
"Hold on, hold on!" Usagi took a slurp and sighed in satisfaction. She eyed the antique store doubtfully "Why don't you go in and I'll wait here and eat this?" Her mother glared at her and Usagi sighed again, this time without the satisfaction. "Fine, fine…" Four seconds later the half-melted ice cream cone had disappeared and Usagi Tsukino was rubbing her belly in contentment. "Hmmm… That was so good!" She glanced again at the antique shop and jumped as her mother grabbed her hand and dragged her across the street.
And the traffic.
'AH! She's gonna kill us!' Usagi closed her eyes and, after tripping on the curb that signified the end of the street on the other side, she opened them again to watch her mother flounce into the store. 'Geeze,' She thought in amusement, 'Who's the kid today?' Slower than her mother, but no less bubbly, Usagi entered the store.
"Welcome to Starlight Antiques' clearance sale! Everything here has a story, everything here is one of a kind, and EVERYTHING here is ON SALE!!" The woman behind the counter was animated to an extreme that was almost, even for Usagi, terrifying. Usagi edged around a shelf and sighed in relief when she was not spotted by the raving woman behind the counter. Glancing around for her mother, and absently noting Ikuko's involvement in an argument over a monkey shaped clock with a woman who bared an uncanny resemblance with the said monkey, Usagi began to inspect the shelves surrounding her.
All kinds of gadgets were cluttered about. Clocks, figurines of soldiers and Dutch village girls, old gloves, necklaces, books, and fancy pens to name a few. Usagi studied a pretty pearl necklace for a moment before meandering toward the back of the store. She wanted to get away from the woman's screeches- and her mother.
'I know she wants us to bond,' Usagi thought, while walking- the store was awfully big, bigger than she'd expected. 'But, antique shopping! Couldn't we have gone to the movies?' Reaching the back of the store, Usagi looked around noting that the shelves lining the back wall were not nearly as cluttered with things as the shelves in the front of the store. She walked along the back wall, absently trailing her hand along the shelves, touching the broken clocks and books that were missing pages. She looked away from the shelf and glanced to her right gasping as a particularly pretty broach caught her eye. Usagi turned to walk toward it, and began to pull her hand up off of the shelf.
But found that she had caught it on something.
"OW!" She jerked around and glared at the chain that had, somehow, encircled itself around her pinky and ring finger. "How did this happen!" Huffing to herself, Usagi began to unwind the linked gold from around her hand and then glanced at the trinket the necklace was holding. She gasped in delight as she beheld the locket.
"Wow!" Gaudy broach forgotten, Usagi stared at the oddly shaped locket curiously. It had to be the prettiest thing she had ever seen in her entire life! And she said so, as she reached out a hesitant hand to pick it up. And when she did pick it up, she almost dropped it again. "AH! It shocked me!" The locket was very warm, and Usagi looked at it in suspicion and then shook her head. "…Weird…" She went to open the top of the locket.
"What do you think you're doing."
"AH!" Usagi jumped in surprise and nearly gave herself whiplash in her haste to turn to the voice that had spoken. An old woman was standing at the end of the isle, and she was staring at Usagi with a look that made the girl's skin crawl.
"Uh…What?" Usagi frowned, and adjusted her grip on the locket, absently noting how the woman's gaze frequently darted down to it. "Do you want this?" Usagi held the trinket out and became even more curious as the woman flinched back.
"NO!" Then calmer, "No, child I have no want of that locket but I wonder…" The woman continued to eye Usagi and then her wrinkled face broke out into what was almost a smile. "I wonder…maybe you do."
'Me?' Usagi thought eyeing the woman right back. '…She's nuts…'
What she said was, "Yeah, it sure is pretty." Trying to ignore the woman, Usagi reached again to the top of the locket. Taking a breath, and bracing herself for no reason she could understand, Usagi flipped the locket open.
The music was ethereal. It seemed to fill the isle that Usagi was standing in with notes that carried no Earthly tune and yet seemed alive. The locket itself glowed, the crescent moon inside rotated in a circle and produced a beam of luminosity that was so bright the florescent lighting in the store seemed dim by comparison.
Then the music stopped abruptly and Usagi jumped at the shock the silence produced. The light from the locket flickered out, and for a moment Usagi forgot to breath. When she found the strength to look up from the locket, the woman was staring at her in awe and something else.
"So," The woman said after a long moment of silence in which she and Usagi stared at each other. "You are the one it wanted."
End Chapter I. Two Discoveries.
A/N: So….Was it good? REVIEWREVIEWREVIEW- I don't want my hard work to be in vain……….Do you? If people review I will update the next chapter promptly and just so you guys know- IT HAS MAMORU IT!