The Thief Who Stole My Heart
By LadyPrin (Used to be signed up here as RoseWomen.)
My name's Serena Tuskino. I'm twenty-one years old, and currently employed at Tokyo's Art Museum.
I'm a secretary. I make appointments for Mr. Tamkato (the boss) and his clients, I number and catalog paintings, run errands for the boss, keep the coffee coming, the normal secretary stuff. The thing is, I'm no normal secretary.
A few years ago, when I was fourteen, I discovered that I had magic powers. Using a locket I had won from an arcade game (which mysteriously dissapeared two weeks after it was installed), I can transform into a magical super heroine, Sailor Moon.
During the two weeks that the game was in the Crown Arcade, four other fourteen year old girls won the game. They recieved magical transformation wands, and became Sailor Jupiter, Mars, Mercury, and Venus.
They teamed up with me, to become the Sailor Scout Team. None of us knew, and we still don't know, why we have magic powers. So, we decided to fight normal crime in Tokyo.
We've been doing it now for over seven years.
When we graduated from college, Lita Kino (Sailor Jupiter) opened her own flower shop. But since cooking is her best talent, she works part time as a chief.
Ami Mizuno (Sailor Mercury) went on to become a docter. She now works at Jubban Hospital. With an IQ of over three-hundered, she does her job well. And her co-workers respect her for it, even though they have to contend with her dissapearing for ten to twenty-five minutes at a time.
Rei Hino (Sailor Mars) became a preistess at her fathers temple up on Cherry Hill. Her grandfather's pretty used to her disspaearing at odd hours. He acts oblivious to what's really going on, but we all think he knows our secrets.
And finally, Mina Anio (Sailor Venus). She tried out for a singing career, but that never got off the ground. She found her true career in modeling. She proved such a hit, that she was offered a traveling deal. Modeling all across the globe! But by that time, we had developed such a strong bond with each other, that we couldn't bare to be seperated. Also, we had vowed that should we ever find out the true reasons behind our having magic powers, we would all be together when it happened. So she turned them down. She's now modeling for a local magazine.
And me? Well. . . I didn't know what I wanted to be. And with every job I tried, I failed at it. My friends even let me try their jobs. Flower arranging, flower delivery, being a preistess, singing, modeling, Ami even let me be an assistent (though she never let me come with her to help with a surgery), but I always messed up.
You're probably thinking, but you said you were a secretary! Yes, I did.
During a recent crime fighting incident, we found out that a famous thief (some tabloid labeled him The Rose Thief) would be hitting this museum. We figure he's going to try to steal a few paintings. I managed to get a job here as a secretary. It's my second day on the job. Personally, I'm still a little surprized at how long I've lasted. The other jobs I tried, didn't last for more than one day. But so far, I've had no accidents with this one. Which is good considering Mr. Tamkato is the kind of man who's like "one accident, no matter how small, and YOU'RE FIRED!". Which is why I'm secretary number. . . let me check the book. . . seventeen.
I used my magical pen, which I found out later came with the locket, to change how I look. I now have short blonde hair, and I wear glasses, though just for looks. My eyes are still baby blue. I didn't want to change them.
Anyway, the Rose Thief.
He's been stealing jewelry, paintings, rare objects and the such, all over Japan. Recently he hit Tokyo, so us Sailor Scouts have been on our toes. Nobody has ever really caught much of a look at him, just a few glimpses. He has short dark hair, wears dark clothes with white gloves, and hides behind a thin white mask. When he steals something, he leaves behind a red rose. Thus the name Rose Thief.
Anyway, he's the reason I'm sitting at this desk right now, drinking my sixth cup of coffee, and staring unseeingly at a huge book of numbers that I was supposed to be working on. I was up late last night fighting crime. In fact, I've been up late every night this past week fighting crime.
Oh, great! I'm yawning!
Oh, no! Someone saw me!
Oh, man, is he cute!
There's this cute guy who just stepped out of the elevater. He has neat short black hair, and is dressed in a gray suit with a white tie. He has peircing dark blue eyes, uh oh! I'm staring!
Okay, now I'm looking at the book. Only the book. Nothing else. Act busy.
A few seconds later. . .
Someone's coming toward my desk.
It's him!
"Hello, ma'am." He says. Nice strong, yet soft voice.
"Miss, not ma'am. I'm not married." Um, I haven't even gotten his name, and he already knows I'm not married! I must be on my guard with this guy! "How may I help you?"
Nice smile. . .
"My name's Shawn Melcot. I have an appointment to see Mr. Tamkato."
"Just a second."
I reach under the desk and pull out a thick notebook made specifically for appointment keeping.
I riffle through it looking for the appointment and trying to keep my cool. I can feel his gaze borrowing into me, though I can't see him.
I find it a few minutes later.
"Two-thirty-four p.m. Melcot, S. It seems your appointment coencides with a meeting of the employees. . ."
I trail off, looking at my watch. Then I realize my watch is dead. It got fried last night, thanks to one of Jupiter's thuderbolts that went astray.
I look around for a clock, then realize there isn't one in this room.
I am just about ready to bang my head against the desk, when the stranger checks his perfectly working watch.
"It's two-thirty-two." He said, with a slight smile.
I'm about to thank him, when it hits me. Two more minutes and we'd be late.
I jump up from my desk, nock over my (empty) coffee mug, spill a case full of penciels while trying to catch the coffee mug, and nearly fall over the desk in my attempt to catch both the mug and the penciel case.
And guess who caught me? Right. . . Mr. Melcot.
In a few smooth motions he caught and uprighted me, caught the mug and sat it back on the desk, and caught the penciel case. Sadly, all the penciels achieved freedom. But I couldn't worry about that now!
I stammered a thank you to him, as I tugged on his sleeve trying to make him follow me.
Realizing what I was doing, I quickly let go and walked very quickly to the elevater. The elevater was in use, and I realized that it would take too long to call it to the second floor from the tenth floor. So I quickly did a U turn and passed by Mr. Melcot as he caught up with me. He did a spin to follow me as I headed for the stairs.
"I hope you're in good shape Mr. Melcot." I told him as we ran up the seemingly never-ending flight of stairs.
"I am in very good shape, Miss." He replied.
"Good. 'Cause we're going to the eleventh floor."
"How many floors are there?"
I paused just slightly, trying to remember.
"Twelve." I replied, continuing my run up the stairs.
We made it to the eleventh floor with thirty seconds to spare.
I lead him through the maze of cubicles to the meeting room.
I opened the door and we both slipped inside. I was kinda' hoping we wouldn't be noticed. But we were.
As the door to the room closed, everyone turned in their seats to look at us. The boss stood up, and he looked like he might explode.
My eyes flickered to the clock on the wall, and I knew I could handle this outburst. After all, I had handled so many of Rei's.
"First of all, Mr. Tamkato," I started, with a bow of respect. "It is just now two-thirty-four, so we are not late. Also, your other appointment is here, Mr. Melcot."
Mr. Tamkato deflated like a balloon.
"Ah, Mr. Melcot. Glad to see you could make it!" He said with a smile. His walrus mustache bristling as he smiled. "Please take a seat, and we'll begin this meeting."
"Over there." I said to Mr. Melcot while I pointed at an empty chair that was just two seats down from Mr. Tamkato's seat.
He took his seat as I took mine in the middle of the employees.
"Okay, to start off, welcome Miss Yomo." The boss said, as a red haired women dressed in a crisp gray suit stood up to acknowledge the welcome.
"She is the aclaimed artist of over a hundred paintings, and now she has given Tokyo Art Museum a great honor and a great responcibility. She has given into our possesion her hundredth and one painting, which she calls The Forbidden Yet Not Forgotten Love. Tomorrow afternoon, we shall be the first museum to showcase the painting! But until then, it will be stored in a newly built vault on the twelveth floor. And, for extra measure, will have a bodygaurd as well. Mr. Melcot has been choosen for the duty."
Mr. Melcot stood up to acknowledge his name.
I can't believe it! Mr. Melcot's a bodygaurd! Well, he does have the right build for one. . . And having a vault installed would explain for all the construction tape. . .
As Mr. Melcot sat down again, Mr. Tamkato continued.
"Now, there's just one more thing to take care of. Miss Tuskino?"
I stood up.
"Yes, sir?"
"Please show Mr. Melcot around. Let him get a feel for the museum, map it out."
"Yes, sir."
With that the meeting was dismissed.
I met up with Mr. Melcot just outside the room, and we started his tour of the museum.
Though he was quite good looking, and could charm the socks off a snake, my first reaction to him had worn off by now. And a strange feeling was taking its place.
I was suspicious of him, though I didn't know why. But by now I had learned to trust my insticts as a Sailor Scout. And right now, my Sailor Scout side had kicked in.
After the tour I went back to my desk and called my friend Ami. In a low voice, I told her about the vault and the painting. She promised to make some security gadgets and install them on the vault before the day was through.
As I hung up the phone, Mr. Melcot came over to my desk.
"Miss Tuskino, I reconize that most of these paintings are not real paintings?" He said questioningly.
"Yes," I explained. "This Art Museum, contrary to what the boss would have you to believe, never holds real paintings. It's always very good copies. That's why there's so much fuss over this painting. It's actually real. Nothing in this museum is real. Not even Mr. Tamkato's victorian chair is real! Although he'd have you to believe it once stood in the palace in England. The queen's favorite."
He smiled at that.
"Then robbers would have no reason to rob this place." He said.
"Yup." I saw an opening and I took it. "Recently the Rose Thief has been hitting Japan's art and jewelery stores and museums. Is that why this painting needs a bodygaurd?"
"Yes." He replied looking at me thoughtfully. I think now would be a good time to back down.
"Is there anything else I can help you with?" I asked.
"No, I'm fine." He replied with a charming smile.
"Then I need to get back to work." I replied with a half a smile.
He bowed slightly mockingly, and left.
It was then that I decided I wouldn't leave the museum tonight. I would stay there and keep an eye on Mr. . . Melcot.
I don't know what happened to me. . . I went to get another cup of coffee (about my nineth), around five forty-one, and. . . well, here's Ami point of view on it.
She had come in to tell me that she had installed the security stuff.
She found me banging my head against the wall by the coffee pot. I was asleep.
She said that when she asked someone how long I'd been doing that they said about an hour. I guess I had been trying to wake myself up, but had gotten into the rythum of it, and just fell asleep.
She pulled me away from the wall, but I just stood there, chin on my chest.
She tried saying my name, no responce. She even slapped me. I started to fall over, so she pulled me back upright, but I still slept on.
By this time we had gathered a crowd. Mr. Melcot included. I'm just thankfull the boss wasn't there. He had driven Miss Yomo to her apartment, and had gone to another meeting elsewhere, he still wasn't back.
She had apoligized to the crowd, before she screamed BANG at the top of her lungs.
That woke me up.
My eyes popped open, I grabbed Ami around the shoulders, and pulled her to the floor.
I looked at Ami's face. She was smiling at me sheepishly.
I asked her what she did that for. She told me.
I blushed so much I would've made a berry look humble.
I jumped back up, pulling Ami up with me.
I told her never to do it again while looking around. The crowd was breaking up by now, though Melcot was staring at me thoughtfully, a smile tugging his lips.
After Ami had told me that she had installed the new security gadgets, using her powers of Illusion as Sailor Mercury so as not to be seen, she gave me a new wristwatch. Well, actually, it was a gadget that was linked with the other gadgets on the vault. It'd let me know if the security was breached.
She was about to leave, but she told me this before she left.
"You know, scientificlly, banging your head against the wall is a good way of losing calories."
She smiled and left.
And my head, now hurts. . .
It's around midnight now. . . I'm having a hard time staying awake.
Everyone in the building has left, except for me and Mr. Melcot. I kept making up excuses for being here, but I ran out around nine. But by then only us two were here.
I tried to keep Mr. Melcot within my sight, but there's been a couple times when I couldn't.
For some reason I don't like him. . . But I don't hate him either. . . I don't know how I feel toward him. . .
"Excuse me."
I look up to find Melcot standing by my desk.
"You don't have to stay here, you know." He said.
"I know." I said defiantly.
"But. . .?" He asked.
I had to think for a moment.
"But, I don't want to."
"Lame excuse."
"I know. The thing is, I don't trust you."
He put on a mocking expression of hurt.
"Everybody trusts me."
"Not everyone. I don't." I decided it was time to drop the bomb on him, and see if it exploded. "And maybe if other people didn't trust you so much, they'd still have all the stuff you stole."
He looked shocked.
"How'd you--?" He begain.
But before I could gloat about figuring out that he was the Rose Thief, my wristwatch went off.
"Security breached, security breached." It chanted.
I vaulted over my desk and ran past Melcot, or Rose Thief, or whoever he wanted to be called, and ran to the stairs.
"What's wrong?" He asked following me.
"The vault's been breached." I told him staring at my watch.
I ran the entire way up the stairs and through the cubicles on the twelveth floor to the vault still staring at the watch. As I ran, I wondered who else wanted to steal the painting.
When I got to the vault, I had to dodge a fireball aimed my way.
When I looked behind me to see if Shawn was alright, I didn't see him anywhere. I just saw a wall. A wall where a door had once been.
I turned to look at my opponent.
From somewhere deep in my forgotten memories, I reconized him.
"Jedite. . ." I wispered.
Then I transformed.
Meanwhile, Mr. Melcot, who's real name was Darien, was having a nervous breakdown by the door to the stairs.
He had followed Serena to the twelveth floor, but the minute he took two steps into the room a wall had appeared infront of him.
And on both his sides.
He had turned around to go back down the stairs, but the door was no longer there.
He was trapped.
He wanted desperately to help Serena. He didn't know who this thief was, but Darien knew that he would be real angry when he found out that the painting wasn't there.
Darien had stolen it soon after his tour of the museum. And Darien was afraid that this thief would take out his anger on Serena.
For some reason Darien felt protective of Serena, even if she didn't trust him.
About five minutes into his nervous breakdown, he heard noises coming toward him through the wall.
He watched the wall intently, and soon Sailor Moon leaped out of the wall and. . .
Crashed right into him.
"Oh, sorry." She said as she got up.
"Who are you?" Darien asked.
"The name's Sailor Moon, and we've got to go."
She grabbed him by the hand and ran into the wall where the door had once been.
It was still there.
They ran down the stairs till they got to the first floor. They tried to run outside, but the door wouldn't open.
"Great." Sailor Moon said, rolling her eyes. "I'm trapped in a museum, where nothing's real, holding onto the thief's hand who I've been trying to catch, yet being chased by another thief with powers like my own. Just great."
Then she pushed Darien into an elevater and hit the third floor button. When the elevater was halfway between the first and third floor, she pulled the emergancy stop button.
The elevator stopped and the main lights went out. And the emergancy red lights came on.
"Who are you?" Darien asked again.
Sailor Moon looked at him for a moment.
"Well, I guess we're on the same side right now."
Then she destransformed.
"Serena?" He asked in surprize.
"Yeah, except the short blonde hair, the glasses, and me being as short as this isn't really me." She dropped the desguize.
The real Serena Tuskino stood before Darien in the cramped space, long blonde hair up in Odango's, long trains streaming behind her. She stood slightly taller than before, but still shorter than Darien.
But she still had the same blue eyes.
"Okay, we're both not what we seem." Darien stated.
Then things got REALLY cramped when Jedite tried to matearialize in the elevator.
With all three of them 'ow'-ing in pain, Jedite dematearialized.
But then he started blasting the outer doors to the elevator, denting them badly.
"Okay, we've got to think real fast." Serena said. "What are a theif's ideal job conditions?"
"We like to steal things from places that are dark, quiet, and deserted."
"Right, which means even a thief with supernatural powers, wouldn't like a place that was lighted, noisey, and crowed!" Serena said with a smile.
She flipped out her cellphone.
"I'll call the boss, you call your employer, if Miss Yomo really is that. Then I'll call the media. Act like Jedite is really the Rose Thief."
They started dialing their phones.
Twenty minutes after they finished their calls, and when they thought the doors would give way, the media, the police, the boss, and Miss Yomo were outside the museum.
With the police about to break through the doors, Jedite just couldn't stay around.
He dissapeared without a trace.
Well, almost without a trace.
Ami had installed a security camera on the vault which had snapped a picture of him. It then sent the picture to Serena's watch, which then sent the picture to Ami's compact computer.
After all the comotion had ended, and the media had left, the boss wasn't at all pleased at what had happened.
"Was the painting stolen?" He asked.
"Well," Serena started. She knew that the painting wasn't in the vault cause Jedite still wanted it. So she knew Darien had it. But she wasn't sure if she wanted to rat out Darien. She felt she couldn't.
"No, sir." Darien said.
He reached into his jacket, and pulled out a circular tube, which held the painting.
The boss was relieved, but Miss Yomo looked surprize.
"You have it?" She asked.
"Yes." Darien handed it to her.
She opened the tube and pulled out a small piece of paper.
"Yup, you have it." She said.
"That's not the painting surely?" The boss exclaimed.
"No. The real painting is in London about to displayed tomorrow." Miss Yomo explained. "I had given this museum this tube and pretended it was the real painting, so that any thief who tried to steal it wouldn't get the real one. A decoy if you will."
Everyone was shocked.
Serena turned to Darien.
"Like I said, nothing in this museum is real. I'm going home."
She paused just long enough to tell the boss she quit.
Darien followed her out.
"Well, I feel stupid." He said, walking beside her.
"Don't be. But that was a noble thing to do, giving it back to her." Serena told him.
"Yeah."
They stopped by his motorcycle.
"You know, I came here to steal a painting, but. . ."
He turned around and kissed Serena on the lips.
And for a moment, while they were lost in their love for each other, they became their real selves.
Prince Endymion in black armor, and Princess Serenity in a flowing white dress.
It was at that moment that Miss Yomo had looked out a window, and she saw them.
Actually, what she thought she saw was her painting come to life. For that was what she had painted and called The Forbidden Yet Not Forgotten Love.
But she blinked and the image was gone. But she would never forget it.
As soon as they broke their kiss, Darien got on his motorcycle, winked at Serena, and rode off.
Serena had a dreamy look on her face, but realized that she held something in her hands, just above her heart.
She opened her hands to find a red rose.
And she remembered.
'They say that when he steals something, he leaves behind a red rose. Thus the name Rose Thief.'
"You came for a painting, but you left with my heart." She wispered to the star filled, moonlit night.
A few weeks later, Miss Yomo would paint a sequel to The Forbidden Yet Not Forgotten Love.
She would name it Love Will Find A Way.
It was a painting of a young girl standing with a rose in her hands, while a man drove away on a motorcycle into the night.