A/N: Rewriting because I've been wanting to write from this perspective, and my slated story pile won't support me rewriting that. Some things may change as details are added, revised, divided, posted to general ledger accounts and responded to in triplicate.
So here we go, the sequel or continuation of Hindsight. Setting remains AU, but more the Anime/Manga/PGSM setting. A.k.a. it's modern times now or something like that. This will only go so far, by the way; I'm not going to rewrite the entirety of Sailor Moon, just to a certain point that seems good. Anything beyond that will be ... well obviously, something else and you'll see another story from me.
Standard disclaimer: I own nothing save the demented thoughts in my head. I'm merely borrowing with intention to perhaps one day return, but don't count on it.
-Minako
1:47 am, Saturday, London
What a fucking night.
That was how I was going to best sum it all up. It was safer that way, just thinking what a fucking night because honestly, that's what it all was about. With far more effort than should have been really necessary, I dumped my school satchel in the chair at my desk, feeling exhausted beyond comparison to anything I had felt before. I was silently thankful it was the end of the week, so the constant stack of homework could wait until I felt like doing it. Even if it meant buckling down far too late Sunday evening to accomplish it, there was simply no way I was going to work on it now. Hell, I didn't even want to shower which was a rarity; the only thing I wanted right now was my bed.
My hands went to my uniform, drawing the top off to cast to the laundry basket for the most part. It partially hung over but not by much, a reminder that I kept putting off the concept of clean clothes due to its overflowing nature. It was a shame that, another thing that I'd have to do or when Monday rolled about again, I wasn't going to have anything school related to wear. How typical, if it wasn't one thing it was another. Down to my skirt my hands continued, kicking it off haphazardly to join the growing mound of clothes. Really, just why not. At least they were hitting the hamper instead of being all over the floor. I might be a slob; God knows my mother used to screech at me about it, but I tried to keep the floor mostly clean.
Besides, dirty clothes I found called to one another like something else did. Wasn't it birds? Didn't they flock or something? But one too many times of finding my socks mismatched because their other halves were on the floor and were missed when I actually did laundry was reason enough to finally convince me to pick up after myself. Mismatched socks were not all the rage too, no matter what fashion dictated. So I tried to use the hamper. Silly thoughts to keep me going towards my end goal, my bed.
I shook my head, trying to get a grasp on why my mind was running rampant in every direction with thoughts that didn't mean anything. Off came my socks, followed by my bra and panties before I just stretched. It felt so wonderful to just do that, to just stretch, completely nude to the soft light by my headboard. I didn't give a damn how it cast my shadow to the opposing wall; stretching felt great. My back thanked me at once with a series of soft pops as my spine seemed to realign themselves back to properness, instead of the absurdity I had required of it. My muscles ached, releasing some of their tension but not all of it. Just enough though to coax me or perhaps coerce me that if I took a hot shower, they'd relax all the way.
A shower… oh it was so tempting that. I knew a shower would completely relieve me, but so would a hot bath. Something that I could soak in. It was so incredibly tempting right now but my bed had won out as it had a habit to do so. On bare feet I made my way to it in that stumbling sort of half awake, more asleep than anything walk that only those in the grip of slumber could accomplish. Back came the covers and in I went, hardly bothering me at all that I was nude. There was no one here to tell me otherwise; I wasn't entirely modest in the first place, and on occasion when the temperature was positively roasting, there was nothing better than cool cotton sheets anyway.
The moment my head hit the pillow I was closing my eyes, feeling my ability to stay awake falling to the wayside. I didn't care, I didn't want to stay awake. I wanted sleep, and with that I grasped the edge of the sheet to bring around my body as I turned. With my final thoughts of being the newly appointed and proclaimed Champion of Justice, Sailor V, I was out for the count.
Something though drew me from my sleep, my dreams. They were fleeting, like wisps of smoke as some annoying sensation told me it was in my best interest to wake. Try as I might to grasp my dreams before they slipped away, all I could recall was something that looked like the night sky but wasn't the night sky. They were eyes that, eyes of some shade of purple. I hadn't set an alarm; that was a foolish venture especially on the weekend. I trashed so very many of them with a wayward fist, smacking it into oblivion somehow, someway. Some of them hit the wall, others the floor, still others were crammed under my pillows and pointedly ignored. Those lucky ones managed to survive until I later threw them across the room. So maybe, if I got right down to it … surviving wasn't the right word. They merely had a reprieve from their fate, a delay in execution.
So it wasn't an alarm that woke me up. It was way too dark out still, even though it was technically morning by sheer virtue of the hour. It was … it was like there was someone in my room with me, a presence. Like that feeling when you knew someone was looking at you, sometimes close by and other times a ways away. Maybe it was the cat? My mind seemed to think that was a good choice, the cat with the feminine name of the moon. But my mythology was also off too, especially when I was so very fucking tired. Was it Greek? Or was it Roman? The last class of my day was history, and it just figured to be so before I met the cat.
Lightly the class had begun discussion of the religious beliefs and how the Romans were ultimately so successful in their territory expansion by assimilating other cultures' systems into their own. Zeus became Jupiter, Hermes became Mercury, Aries became Mars, and Aphrodite became Venus. There were more of course, but my mind ignored that, instead choosing wisely to focus on the fact that there was a presence in my bedroom.
There was a presence. A presence. It was in my bedroom. My body was finally jolting towards action, the bedsheet being clutched in my hand and pulled tightly around me as I sat up in bed, my back to the wall as I began looking around almost frantically before my gaze; freed from the haze of sleep, decided to focus on my visitor. It wasn't the cat.
That I could see right through it was unnerving. The lights from the city shown through my curtains like they always did, a bit dimmer than daytime but the city never went to sleep anyway as it were. It cast my room in a shadowy scene of blue, allowing me to see through the evanescent figure to where my desk was.
I swallowed, feeling like I should scream. I would have, if it wasn't for the fact that the figure; it was a woman, was a ghost. Did I believe in ghosts? I wasn't sure, no one had ever queried such an inquiry of me in the first place. That one was in my room should be unnerving me but my mind was still yet processing the events of the night before. Talking cats, transformations, something about some long lost Princess. It was maybe the only reason I didn't scream. Gasp yes. Go wide-eyed yes; it was still mostly dark in the room, but scream I was proud to say I didn't do.
The ghostly woman was my height, maybe a bit taller. It was only the history class of the day before that allowed me to pinpoint that she wore a Greek style breastplate. A plumed helmet was tucked under one arm, a sword of some sort that didn't go with the armor style at all was belted around her waist. It wasn't a katana, it wasn't some European longsword, but it seemed to have a slight curve to it. I didn't know swords though, so it could have been any of those save that I knew it wasn't. Pants were tucked into boots that came up mid calf, a cloak hung from her shoulders to just the tops of her boots. She had long hair; I couldn't pick a color out because a ghostly form just had a bluish white outline to it. A piece of cloth was tied to her hair at the top, like a bow, save that even from here, from my bed, looking at the spectre, the cloth was never a bow in the first place and instead was used as it.
The woman looked at me, an almost expectant expression to her features but mostly stoic. She moved, seeming to walk on the floor which was unnerving all within itself. She didn't say anything, she didn't open her mouth. It didn't seem possible but maybe she breathed. It was too much for my mind, finally finding my voice to utter out something that perhaps was utter nonsense but I didn't care. Not right now. Not to a fucking ghost.
"Who.. what. Who the fuck are you!? Why are you in my room!? Where did you come from?!"
The ghostly woman soldier tilted her head to the side a bit before she seemed to be smirking as though something I had said was funny. It seemed to be directly questioned allowed her to speak, and speak she did. The words were accented, it reminded me of aristocracy or a famous Hollywood star. Someone that was confident, flirtatious, yet commanding. "I asked similar questions. Save about why was the being in my room." She merely placed her helmet on the desk; no fucking way, a ghost wasn't supposed to be able to do shit like that. They weren't supposed to be able to interact with the physical world, the real world, like that. They just were not supposed to, it went against laws or something. It was a violation. It had to be.
The ghost did though. The ghost had walked across my floor and didn't glide or float or levitate. The ghost had set her helmet on my desk as though the ghost's helmet was something tangible. The ghost had fucking spoke to me. The ghost did all that and tucked her hands around her sword belt to rock back on her heels.
"My name is Princess Minako of Venus," The ghost continued on with, pressing forward on a rock of her heels to take a step closer to me. "Embodiment of Love and Beauty, Essence of the Goddess," She reached my bed, just like that. "Commander of the Royal Princess' Honor Guard." Her knees pressed to the side of my bed, pressing against it as her hands found placement on either side of my huddled to the wall form, leaning over. Crawling over me on hands and knees, until she was looking at me straight in the eye. "It's time for you and I to have a talk, Minako."