AUTHOR: JediSenshi aka
MinaP ainominako@hotmail.com
DISCLAIMER: Sailor Moon belongs to Naoko Takeuchi, Meiyo and
other characters are mine. MINEMINEMINEMINEMINE! :)
READ ME: I used the Japanese names, so dub. people should
get aquatinted with those, tried to be accurate, email me if you have any
comments. ANY! Also, some of you will recognize the name Keiichi from Ah!
Megami-sama (Ah! My Goddess) and the name Jachi belongs to one of my friends,
too pretty to pass up :) also, Minami was one of V-chan's crushes in the Sailor
Moon RPG and Arashi is after my online little brother.
WORDS YOU SHOULD KNOW:
daijobu= are you okay/I'm fine
tanjobi omedeto=happy birthday
odango atama=english version meatball head (odango-round
dumpling thing atama-head)
hai=yes
iie=no
sugoi=cool
kawaii=cute
-chan(on end of name)=suffix of respect, although generally
reserved for friends and children
-san(on end of name)=suffix of respect, one higher than
chan
-kun(on end of name)=suffix of respect, generally reserved
for men, kinda like sir.
-sama(on end of name)=suffix of utmost respect, used for
gods and very, very respectable people (and in hormonal teenage girl cases,
really cute guys! ^^)
-ani(on end of name)=big brother
dozo yoroshiku=pleased to meet you
shimatta=explicit along the lines of damn
youma=monster
gomen nasai=sorry
henshin=transform
fuku=outfit
Prologue
In the middle of Tokyo,
unnoticed, a little girl about the age of four with long blonde hair wailed in
terror and sadness. She was alone, all alone. Her mother and father were gone,
and weren't coming back, that was all she knew - but it was all she needed to
know. The strangers on the street passed her by, ignoreing the small girl crying
at the side of the street.
All of a sudden, a woman stopped and stooped down to the
child's eye level. She took the child in her arms and there, in the street,
cradled the young girl in her arms. After a few minutes, the girl quieted some.
Her wails slowly turned to sobs and hiccups and gasps for breath.
"Little one, where are your parents?" the woman asked. She
had the kindest face the little girl had ever seen, and a melodic voice that
made her feel safe for the first time in what seemed like an
eternity.
"Gone," she managed to reply. "All gone," she shivered as
cold suddenly envelopped her; a strange cold that froze her all the way to her
insides. A cold quite out of place in the mid-summer heat.
"Poor, sweet little one," the woman stood, still cradling
the four year old in her arms. "You're safe now. I'm Meiyono Hoshi. Let's go
home and get you some food."
Meiyono Hoshi took the small girl home and made her some
soup, rice and a simple seafood dish. The girl ate like she hadn't eaten in a
week - and by the looks of her, it wasn't that far off.
"Meiyono-sama, arigatou! I've never eaten anything so
delicious!" the little girl's arms wrapped around Hoshi's neck in a hug. Meiyono
laughed with delight, for she'd never seen such joy at a simple meal. Hoshi
loved children, and couldn't wait until her own arrived. The small child yawned
in Hoshi's arms, and Hoshi could feel her starting to fall asleep. She took the
little girl to her room and tucked her into the bed. Then she sang, all the
lullabyes that her mother had sung to her, the girl fell asleep to Meiyono's
singing, but she didn't stop.
A little over an hour later, the little girl's face lined
with malcontent as she furrowed her brow in her sleep at the sound of shouts
from another room.
"She's lost and helpless, with no where to live, no one to
look after her!"
"We can't afford it! You have a baby on the way, and if
fortune favours us, then it will be a boy!"
"How can you just turn your back on such a sweet little
child!?"
"We're not turning our backs on her! The orphanage will take
good care of her!"
"She's special! Can't you see it in her? She doesn't deserve
to be tossed into a delapidated home with thirty other unwanted
children!"
"Special or no, she can't stay with us."
***
So when the small girl awoke, she was in a different bed, in a
different room, in a different house, miles away. This room wasn't as nice. It
smelled funny, was much larger, not as clean and there were many, many more beds
in it.
"So you're finally awake," this woman wasn't Meiyono-sama.
Her voice was hard, her face harder. Her black hair, streaked with silver was
pulled back into a tight bun. The woman looked as if she did not even know the
meaning of kindness, and it almost made the girl sick to her stomach. "What is
your name?"
She hesitated. The child didn't remember her name; she'd
forgotten. She had forgotten her parents, her entire life up until that point.
She'd never forget Meiyono-sama though. She knew she would never see her saviour
again, but that kind woman would always be in her heard. Only four years old,
and instead of being insecure, untrusting and secluded, as one would think
abandonment would do to such a young child, she had developped a stronger sense
of loyalty than most people get in a lifetime.
"Meiyo. My name is Meiyo."
Chapter 1
"Meiyo-san, you're so lucky!" Meiyo half smiled. She'd been
hearing that phrase since she'd arrived a year and a half ago. The girl she
shared bunk-beds with, Lana-chan, stuck her head down from the top bunk.
Tomorrow you get a family- most people wait here years!"
Meiyo sighed. She hated to leave Lana-chan and everyone
behind. She hated the fact that ever since the Aijono family had requested to
adopt her, Lana-chan, a year her senior, had taken to replacing the `chan` on
the end of her name with `san`.
"I'll miss you," Meiyo stated. "And the others-"
"Like you onii-san?" Lana asked with a sarcastic tint to her
voice. She didn't quite understand Meiyo's relationship her one and only guy
friend.
Meiyo continued, ignoring Lana's interruption, "And when I
write, I expect an answer!"
Lana giggled softly. "I don't think I'll have much to say.
Dear Aijono Meiyo-san everything's normal, same old horrible food, take care,
Lana." they both laughed -still softly so as not to wake the other sleeping
girls. "Can you even write Meiyo-san?"
"I'm planning on learning quickly," Meiyo replied
indignantly. "Now quiet! I think I can hear someone coming!"
***
The Aijono family was easy to fit in
to. Meiyo's exceedingly long, blonde hair and big blue eyes didn't even look all
that out of place, as one of her cousins had blonde hair. It was a very close
nit family too, something Meiyo appreciated. Grandmother, two children with
spouses and grandchildren - the category Meiyo fit into- all lived under one,
albeit big roof. And all of them were wonderfully nice, treating Meiyo like
flesh and blood.
By the time she was ten, Meiyo had even picked up all of the
family mannerisms. The only thing that gave any indication of something amiss
was that Meiyo's hair was about two or three feet longer than anyone else could
grow it - and it was still getting longer. Since her eldest cousin, five years
older than herself and the only other female grandchild, was about to become a
hairstylist, Meiyo got her long hair looked after well. Her cousin would always
put it in a high ponytail, divided into three long braids. Once Meiyo's hair
started trailing on the ground, her cousin Jachi added three odangoes to the
three braids, since they had luckily come into style thanks to Sailor
Moon.
When Meiyo was 18, she was proven an official part of the
family. She got to continue the best tradition the family had.
"Tanjobi omedeto Meiyo-chan!" Family called as she walked
down the stairs. Her mother and father were there, her father not even dressed,
in a housecoat and bunny slippers with a mug of coffee, looking half asleep; her
mother however was a different story, she looked like she'd been up for hours.
Meiyo's uncle and aunt and grandmother were also there, looking like her mother,
Meiyo's dad seemed to be the only one who wasn't a morning person. Jachi and
Keiichi both had black hair and the same blue eyes, but Keiichi was a few inches
taller, and built like an ox, whereas Jachi was slight and delicate looking.
Minami had brown eyes, and was a tad shorter than Keiichi, but otherwise they
looked more alike than the twins.
"Everyone, arigatou!" she smiled and exchanged hugs. Meiyo
really treasured her family, they were her life. She loved these family
celebrations so much, she loved watching people open their own presents as much
as she enjoyed opening her own.
"Now for the presents!" her youngest cousin, two years older
than herself, Minami announced. Her father laughed.
"Firstly, there's this, which was really already yours," he
handed her a small package. Meiyo had no clue what it was. She unwrapped the
blue paper to reveal a large jewelry box. "It was in your pocket when you were
brought to the orphanage. They thought you were too young to have it. When you
joined this family, they gave it to us and we put it away. Grandmother found it
just last week."
Meiyo nodded at her father's explanation and then opened the
box.
A warm, loving woman smiled as she put a necklace with a
silver, shining stone hanging from it around Meiyo's two year old neck. The
woman chuckled a bit, in unison with a deep, male voice, somewhere out of view.
The woman looped the chain around Meiyo's a few times, so the stone hung around
her belly button instead of her knees.
"Here you are my sunshine," she said. "This will always
protect you."
The same woman, now crying and worried, her hair a mess,
quickly took the necklace off the now four year old Meiyo and put it into the
pocket of her overalls. "So no one will take it. Good luck, my
sunshine."
Meiyo stared at the silver stone pendant that had brought on
such memories and blinked. These were memories of her past, something she had
forgotten, or blocked out. She looked up at her parents, and grandmother and
smiled as tears welled up in her eyes. They had given her a part of her history,
something she'd lost a long, long time ago.
"Arigatou," she managed.
"Oh, come on," Keiichi, Jachi's twin, slapped her on the
back. "Don't get all mushy on us!"
That broke the spell, the stone was a normal, semi-precious
stone again. Meiyo took the pendant from the box, and put it around her neck;
the weight of the stone feeling oddly familiar.
"Last but certainly not least," her mother started, "from
all of us, your right of passage." Meiyo's eyes lit up as she remembered Jachi's
18th birthday. "Here's your money, now, your cousins have agreed to go with
you-"
"Since when di-"
"ALL your cousins, and we expect you back here for dinner
and cake and to show us what you got," her mother stated.
"Arigatou minna!" Meiyo hugged everyone and thanked them
individually. Then, Meiyo grinned maniacally. "Now we shop!" She opened the
front door and Minami's best friend was coming up the walk. Arashi-kun had been
hanging around the house ever since he'd become friends with Minami six years
ago. He had blonde hair, like hers, kept passed his shoulders, always held back
in a tidy ponytail, and he had green eyes. Arashi always stuck up for Meiyo-
said that fellow blondes should stick together.
"So here's the birthday girl!" he smiled at her. "I got you
a present, but I ate it on the way here, don't worry though, I'll get you
something this afternoon-"
"Can't talk, shopping!" Meiyo raced passed him, trailed by
Jachi, Keiichi and Minami. Minami grabbed his friend's upper arm and dragged him
after Meiyo.
"You're coming too," Minami stated.
"What's going on?" asked a confused Arashi. "Why are we all
leaving? It's not even lunch time yet! I just got here!" Arashi stumbled along,
arm still in the vice that was Minami's grip.
"Meiyo got her birthday present," Keiichi explained, "a
shopping spree. And we have to go."
Arashi smiled. "So you have to go."
After about seven or eight shops, Jachi, Minami and Keiichi
each had at least one parcel to carry. Meiyo was skipping backwards a few paces
ahead of everyone, trying to decide where to go next.
"Should we go for some accessories, or more
clothes?"
"Meiyo-chan, look out!" Meiyo spun around just in time to
smack into someone and get thrown backwards to land unceremoniously on her
butt.
***
Usagi was going shopping
with money she'd received from her birthday yesterday. Of course, Mamoru, Mako,
Rei, Ami, Mina and the cats had come. Mako, Mina and Rei rarely gave up a chance
to go shopping, and Ami, the cats and Mamoru had just gotten caught up in
Usagi's usual enthusiasm. As they were walking by a shop, Usagi's head turned as
a dress in the window caught her eye. She kept her eyes on the dress as she
walked, and was about to speak up, when she heard one of her friends call
out.
"Usagi-chan! Look out!" Usagi spun around and ran straight
into someone walking the other way. She went flying backwards and landed on her
butt. As she recovered from the initial shock, Usagi was presented with a new
surprise. The girl she'd run into seemed to be Usagi's twin!
"Usako, are you alright?" Mamoru asked as he helped her to
her feet. Usagi couldn't take her eyes off the other girl, who was assuring a
blonde guy who was fairly handsome, but obviously smitten, that she was alright.
The girl then turned to Usagi, and without really seeing her she bowed low. The
three friends with her were staring at Usagi, mouths agape.
"Gomen nasai! It was all my fa-" Usagi's doppleganger
stopped short as she caught sight of Usagi's face. The two parties just stood
there, staring as they tried to find something to say in this odd
situation.
"I'm Tsukino Usagi, dozo yoroshiku," Usagi bowed to her
"twin". The girl grinned widely.
"I'm Aijono Meiyo, dozo yoroshiku Tsukino-san."
"Call me Usagi," Usagi laughed. "I think you have the
right."
Meiyo grinned wider. "This is Chusei Arashi, and my cousins,
Aijono Jachi her twin Keiichi and Minami."
This was insane, Meiyo thought as she grinned. This girl,
Usagi, could be her long lost twin or something, this was one of those things
that every adopted kid dreamed of. This girl seemed so familiar, they HAD to be
related. "These are my friends," Usagi continued with the introductions. "Kino
Makoto," she pointed to a tall brunette with stunning green eyes, "Hino Rei," a
girl with raven hair that Meiyo had seen dressed in priestess' robes at the
Shinto shrine, "Mizuno Ami," a girl with black hair so dark it looked almost
blue, and blue eyes to match, "Aino Minako," another blonde, resembling Usagi
and herself, however her hair was a tough lighter, "and Chiba-"
"Mamo-ani! It IS you!" Meiyo ran at Mamoru and jumped into
his arms wrapping her arms around his neck, and her legs around his waist. "I
missed you sooo much!"
Usagi's eyes grew to the size of beach balls and she almost
choked as Meiyo jumped into HER Mamoru's arms. Everyone stared at the two,
except Arashi-kun, who seemed to be shooting daggers at Mamoru.
"Well I'm not the one who stopped writing!" Mamoru usually
didn't like such public displays. In fact, Usagi her friends, and Meiyo's
friends weren't the only ones staring at the two of them. Usagi had no clue what
was going on, and by the expression on Meiyo's family's faces, they didn't
either.
"It's not my fault someone forgot to leave a
forwarding address!" Usagi decided to take action and went and wrapped her arms
possesively around Mamoru's right bicep.
"Mamo-chan, you know this girl?" she asked, a bit of strain
entering her voice. Mamoru, as usual was completely oblivious, but Meiyo
released him from her hug.
"She was the closest I've ever had to family," Mamoru
replied. "We were in the same orphanage."
"You were adopted?!" Arashi blurt out astonished. Jachi,
Keiichi and Minami looked at him for a confused second.
"Oh!" Exclaimed Minami, Usagi could hear the lightbulb
clicking on over his head, "it's never really come up when you've been
around."
"But I'm at your house all the time!" Arashi protested,
obviously outraged that such important information about Meiyo had been kept
from him. Jachi, Keiichi and Minami exchanged looks with Meiyo and shrugged.
Usagi could see why Arashi was surprised, they certainly acted like a family.
Usagi's stomach took that moment to growl and let her hunger be known to the
crowd around them.
"Anyway," Meiyo turned to Usagi. "You sound as hungry as I
feel, let's go get something to eat and catch up on life."
"I don't know if I have enough yen for lunch," Rei spoke up.
A few others echoed the statement.
"Well who's house is closest?" Mako asked. "I could make us
all lunch!" she volunteered. Mina, Rei, Ami even Mamoru and especially Usagi
perked up at this.
Soon they were all at Mamoru's apartment, Mina hanging off
of Keiichi, and Rei hanging off of Minami, Ami was subduedly sitting in the
corner of a couch, and Mako was in the kitchen making lunch. Jachi, Meiyo,
Mamoru and Usagi sat on the other side, two cats, one black and one white, each
with a crescent moon on their forehead sat in a comfortable looking chair near
the end of the coffee table, they were introduced as Luna and
Artemis.
"Do you want any help in there Mako-chan?" Meiyo
volunteered.
"It's alright," Mako assured, "you seem to be like Usagi in
enough ways that I don't want you anywhere near the
kitchen."
"Smart move," Keiichi called to Mako, "I'll help you, I seem
to be the only one of the family who's inherited any talent for
cooking."
Mako smiled, and Mina looked a bit but out, but she soon got
over him and started fawning over Minami with Rei. Meiyo giggled at her older
brother's discomfort at having two girls hanging off of him, and turned to
Usagi.
"So, Usagi-chan, you still haven't told me how you met
Mamoru-san," she said conversationally.
"I hit him on the head with," here Usagi paused to reminis,
"oh it was either a crumpled test or a shoe," Usagi smiled, "I hated him, or at
least I thought I did, for almost a year."
Meiyo sighed, "Ah, destiny," she smiled at the celing, then
at Usagi and Mamoru beside her. "How did you figure out you loved each
other?"
Here they hesitated. Meiyo could sense a tension coming from
Rei, Ami, Usagi, Minako and even Mamoru. She glanced at Jachi across from her
and Arashi beside her to see if she'd said something wrong.
"Sailor Moon and Tuxedo Kamen helped us," Usagi replied
finally. As with any mention of the Sailor Senshi, Jachi's eyes lit
up.
"Sailor Moon?! Sugoi! I can't believe it! And
Tuxedo Kamen!?" Jachi started into her `I idolize the Sailor Senshi` speel and
the tense moment was over.
The group was still discussing Sailor Moon, and whether or
not she was a ditz, when lunch was ready and Makoto and Keiichi joined them.
"Holy cow! This is delicious! Kei-chan, did you even touch the food?"
his twin asked with a raised eyebrow.
"It's my recipie," Mako told them, "but Keiichi-san added a
few things that make it even better."
"Usagi, slow down!" Meiyo laughed as she watched Usagi all
but inhale her food, "No one is going to take it from you!"
"She always eats like that," Rei said, rolling her
eyes.
"Not usually that fast!" Mina exclaimed.
"Yeah, Usagi, slow down, if you keep up at that speed, you
might choke-" Mako was interrupted as all of a sudden Usagi was enveloped by a
pulsating black light. She screamed in pain as it turned to black lightning
climbing over her body.
"Usako!" Mamoru was holding her head on his knee as she
convulsed on the floor.
"Usagi-chan!" food went flying as Mina, Mako, Rei, Ami and
Meiyo jumped to their feet. Meiyo knelt beside Usagi, the feel of what could
only be described as evil making her gag. That evil was what was hurting Usagi,
and it was coming from something in her pocket.
Without thinking, Meiyo plunged her hand into Usagi's pocket
and her hand closed around a heart shaped object. It stung her hand as she
pulled it from Usagi's pocket and flung it across the room. There were several
strangled gasps as Mina, Mako, Rei, Ami and even Mamoru watched the heart shaped
locket fly across the room. As it sailed, it took the black lightning with it,
and Usagi fell unconcious. Meiyo bent over Usagi to check if she was okay as the
locket bounced of the wall and onto the floor.
When the locket hit the floor, it opened and dark energy
poured from it. Meiyo didn't know what was going on. Her silvery pendant started
glowing golden, the rays fighting back the evil. She stood, and she was dressed
in a black, silk dress that fell smoothly to the ground. It had gold trim on the
hem at the bottom and at the bosum. At the shoulders, attatched to the black
straps that held the dress up, were wide strips of cloth bunched where they were
attatched, but eventually flowing down each side like a cape.
Meiyo held up the crystal as far in front of her as the
short pendant would allow. Normally, she would have found it odd that there was
four inches of thin air betweenherhands and the crystal, but it seemed natural
now. A golden stream of light shot from the crystal pendant and fought back the
dark energy that threatened her friends and family. The dark energy dissapeared,
and the light, warm as the sun, cleansed the ginzuisho
The giant shadow was invincible. It struch down the
senshi without so much as a thought. The five of them lay in a circle, and in
the center, Princess Serenity also lay dead, her hand clutching that of her
eternal love and the cause of this war, Prince Endymion. The age of peace was
over.
As the light stopped, so did the
vision, and Meiyo returned to her original clothing. She managed a slight noise
in her throat and then collapsed. Arashi caught her and cradled Meiyo's slight
form as she cried for the destryoed kingdom.
"What the hell was that?!" Keiichi yelled
angrily.
"Meiyo-chan, are you okay?" Arashi asked the sobbing girl as
Mako, Mina, Rei and Ami all huddled around the unconcious Usagi.
"They all died," Meiyo sobbed, "everyone in the entire
kingdom! It was totally destroyed! Even Seren-" Meyio hiccuped, "Serenity!" At
that, the four girls and Mamoru looked at her in wide eyed
astonishment
"You know what she's talking about," Jachi
frowned.
"What's going on?!" Keiichi demanded. Mina, Mako, Rei and
Ami all exchanged glances. They all seemed to end at Mina, who then
stood.
"It's not something you would understand," she told them
cryptically. Mina then went and picked up the locket, snapping it shut, "We
don't even understand what's going on."
"You're hiding something," Keiichi stood menacingly in front
of Mina, looming over her. Mina stared defiance up at him, not giving him an
inch. Mamoru glanced at Usagi, brushed her bangs out of her eyes and stood.
These girls were sisters to Usagi, therefor family to him.
"Stop," Meiyo managed. She took a deep breath to calm
herself and stood, wiping tears from her eyes, "Kei-chan we should
leave."
"But," the protest came not from Keiichi, but
Minami.
"We should leave," Meiyo repeated steadily. She turned and
smiled at Mamoru, their eyes locked, and he saw the newly acquired knowledge,
"I'm sorry," It was not an apology for the behaviour of her family. Behind
Meiyo, Arashi bristled.
Mamoru nodded sagely, and made a small bow, "I hope to see
you again sometime soon," he said. Meiyo bowed back, deeper, turned and left;
Jachi, Minami and Arashi close behind her. Keiichi hesitated a second, then
joined them as well.