The sun shone through the windows of Setsuna's office. A
beautiful, if not a little warm, Summer's day. Usagi was pouring
across the design sheets as the elder Senshi finished off the last
of the "Kingdom of Love" range of designs. The pair had worked
furiously over the last week to complete the range before its
looming release date.
With a sigh of relief, the pair sit back and look at the
designs.
"Finally," Setsuna put her hands behind her head, "they're
finished. I thought we'd never get through it all." Setsuna threw
the pencil high into the air and caught it with precision. Usagi
watched her and smiled.
"Not quite, yet." She looked down at the last design, one
that bore an... interesting resemblance to her own dress when
transformed into Serenity. Setsuna gave her a quizzical look, then
nodded understandingly.
Usagi took a pencil and signed underneath the design....
'DEDICATED TO MIKI - THE LITTLE PRINCESS GOWN'
Usagi stood and stared down at the gown, her eyes misty for a
few moments.
"You know...." She said. "For some reason, I can almost
vision her wearing this dress. Almost as if she had modelled it for
us."
Setsuna merely smiled.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
BISHOUJO SENSHI SAILORMOON
NOT A GOD
by Night Rider
Disclaimer - all characters pertaining to the series Bishoujo Senshi
Sailormoon are owned by Takeuchi Naoko, Bandai and Kodansya. All
other characters were thought up by me. Well, its true, isn't it?
Chapter 1
From Small Seeds
--------------------------------------------------------------------
From the Personal Journal of Neo Queen Serenity
(Tsukino Usagi I)
6/29/98
It's funny.... People say we're the greatest heroes this
world has ever seen. We never lose a fight, no matter how big or
how small.
What a joke. We may win, but that doesn't mean we REALLY win,
in the end. As someone once said, "What price victory"? The price
can be too high at times.
Where can I begin to tell this tale I have been holding within
me for so long? Perhaps at the beginning. It would seem logical,
but in this matter, logic is too cool a term to use.
It was a cold day in February. There was still snow on the
ground. Late storms had made living difficult across Japan.
Galaxia and the Starfighters had left Earth no more than a couple of
months ago. It had been difficult to say goodbye to Seiya.... But
I had been able to get over it. What was harder was to explain to
Mamoru the kind of relationship we had had whilst he had been
missing.....
He'd turned out to be rather more understanding than I'd given
him credit. And before long, things were pretty much back on track.
Mamoru left (properly, this time) to take up his scholarship in the
US. A little late, but better late than never.
He's back there now. It'll be a couple of months before I see
him again. I hate these moments apart from my Mamo-chan.
It was on a weekend, when I had left for his apartment to
water his roses and dust things down. A right little houseproud
girl I had become in those weeks.
For some reason, I'd found myself humming this tune.
Something or other Densetsu, or something like that. It was a
catchy little tune, whatever it was. I'd had my mind on other
things when I felt a hand land on my shoulder. It gave me something
of a fright, considering I was standing on the nearby wall, looking
down at Naru in a fighting stance. The look on her face had to be
seen to be believed.
"Ahem.... Sorry 'bout that, Naru-chan." I giggled, hand
behind the head, sweatdrop about the size of the Pacific running
down my forehead. There were times when I felt being attacked by
copious numbers of monsters had a lasting effect on me. It was
another five minutes before I could get down, as I suddenly
discovered, much to my chagrin, that I was afraid of heights.
And as the wall was only 4 inches thick, it took all my powers
to keep up. Well, fear maybe.....
--------------------------------------------------------------------
"Umm.... Naru-chan.... You wouldn't happen to have a ladder
on you, would you?"
Naru sighed. "Usagi-chan, why don't you just jump down?
After all, you jumped up there in the first place."
Usagi shook her head. "How can I do that? From up here
everyone looks like ants."
Naru looked down at the ground and chuckled. "Usagi-chan,
they ARE ants."
"Yeah, and they look such a long way down, too."
"Usagi-chan, if you don't jump down, I'll start pitching these
dumplings I bought for us to eat at you and make you fall."
Even before Naru had finished the sentence, she found Usagi
was no longer on the wall. She turned aside to find her friend
stuffing the last of the dumplings from one of the bags in her
mouth.
"Mmmf fmmfmmf mffmfm mmfmffmmmm mmfffmm." Usagi said,
happily. Naru spent most of the day trying to decipher this.
"Where are you going, anyway? I see you walking this way
every day, and it can't be to visit Mamoru."
Mmmffmfff...." Usagi swallowed a lump of dumpling roughly
larger than the width of her throat and smiled, her face a mess.
"Oh, I promised Mamo-chan that I'd look after his apartment and
roses whilst he was away."
"Quite the domesticated little wife, aren't you?" Naru
chuckled, digging her elbow into Usagi's side. Usagi giggled
inanely, blushing.
"Yeah, well... uhhh..."
"When are the pair of you going to tie the knot, eh?"
Usagi went dewey eyed for a moment. Visions of herself and
Mamoru in wedding attire flashing across a large field of flowers
coming to mind. Then she turned back to Naru, shrugging.
"Hmm... We're not quite ready for that kind of committment,
yet. I'd prefer to be finshed with High School first." Usagi would
have quite happily finished school right there and then. Of course,
that would be cheating. And her parents would have something to say
about it, as otosan still didn't trust Mamoru yet. What was the
term he used... "cradlesnatcher"? Otosan could be a cruel little
man when he wanted to be.
Usagi asked Naru if she wanted to join her whilst she was
cleaning the apartment, and Naru agreed. As they made their way
along the street, they approached a woman going up the front path of
her house, not really paying any attention to things. Suddenly,
there was a blast, and they were bowled over as the woman landed on
top of them, followed by the door.
Usagi was the first to get to her feet. Something to be said
for being a senshi, at least in terms of her resistance to pain and
injury. She then pulled the door off the woman as Naru sat up,
helping the woman into a sitting position.
"Hey.... Hey, are you alright?" Usagi knelt beside the woman
as Naru looked over at the smoking doorway of the house. The woman
was bleeding from somewhere above her hairline, and was clutching
her leg, grimacing in pain.
"M... Miki..." She mumbled.
"What?" Usagi questioned.
"My little girl, my daughter. She's in the house.... Up in
her bedroom...."
A look of concern crossed both Usagi and Naru's faces. "What
happened? What was that explosion?" Naru bit her lower lip.
"Don't....know. I was just...visiting the shops... Only
opened the front door when... there was this... ooohhhh.." The
woman was now in tears as her leg began to turn blue. Naru started
to panic. Usagi quickly grabbed the woman underneath the arms and
dragged her back against the wall. Naru watched her, getting to her
feet.
"What do we do?" Naru shook with encroaching panic.
"Call the fire service, and an ambulance. Quickly." Usagi
turned back to the house, sweat running down her forehead as she saw
flames licking out of the top of the doorway.
Naru ran towards where some neighbours were standing at their
front door, crying out for them to call the authorities. Usagi
kneeled beside the woman.
"Where is your daughter's bedroom? Quickly, tell me now!"
Usagi began to wrap her hair around herself, around her neck and
over her face.
"Just... to the left of the front doorway... Set of stairs.
To the right at the top of the stairs... is where....."
"Right then..." Usagi quickly stood and steeled herself. Oh
if only there weren't so many people around. Doing this would be so
much easier as Sailormoon. Somebody's gotta do it. She took off,
up the garden path like a demon pssessed, running through the
doorway without even thinking twice about the danger she was putting
herself into.
Naru watched her go. "USAGI! DON'T!" Naru shivered and was
about to take off after her as the neighbour gripped her by the
shoulder, shaking her head. Naru stared at the woman for a moment,
then returned to the side of the injured mother, holding her hand,
the both of them staring at the house as thick black smoke began to
billow from every opening. The sounds of appraoching sirens seemed
to underline the fact that things around them suddenly seemed pretty
quiet.
It was worse than Usagi had thought. She couldn't see the
fire for the amount of smoke. Even with her long ponytails wrapped
around her nose and mouth, it was chokingly thick, and her eyes
immediately started to water. The stairs were to the left, so she
felt along the wall for the rail. It was getting hotter the further
she moved in.
Eventually, she found the rail, descending towards her level.
She climbed over the side of the rail, not even bothering to find
the foot of the stairs, and crawled her way up. The fire had not,
obviously, reached this part of the house yet, because the heat was
not increasing as she reached the top. She then panicked. Left or
right? Was it left or right here? No, think.... To the right.
Usagi crawled along the floor, trying to stay below the smoke.
Eventually she reached what appeared to be the door to the bedroom.
Within, she could hear the girl, coughing. Usagi was partly
relieved that the girl was, thus far, alright. Suddenly, there was
a thump on the floor and all went silent in the room.
Usagi panicked and scrabbled for the door handle, an icy
sensation running through her chest. The door swumg open to reveal
the girl, lying face-forward, on the floor of the room after having
scrabbled her way, weakly, from the bed. The girl was moving
slightly, trying to get up herself. For some reason, the girl
seemed unable to muster the energy to do so. Usagi got to her feet,
the smoke in the bedroom nowhere as thick as it had been in the
hallway. She picked up the girl and moved her into a seated
position, checking that she was alright.
The girl stared at her with bleary, frightened eyes. "Whats
happening? Who are you? Where's Mama?"
Usagi gritted her teeth and tried to smile. "Your Mamas
alright. She's waiting outside for you."
"Outside?' The girl looked confused. "You mean I have to go
outside?" The suggestion seemed to excite the girl somewhat.
"Of course. I'll get you out of here, just stick with me and
don't worry." Usagi wondered why someone would be so excited about
leaving a house. She put it out of her mind as she grabbed the
blanket from the top of the bed and began to wrap it around the
little girl.
"Your name's Miki, right?"
"Hai.... Takimi Miki..."
"Well, Miki-chan, just hang onto me, and don't be scared.
I'll protect you."
"Hai, oneechan." The girl smiled at Usagi, and she returned
the expression, picking up the girl and feeling her small hands
gripping her shoulders weakly. Usagi turned and looked for the
doorway, disappearing into the smoke haze. Usagi steeled herself
again and bent slightly double, dashing into the mist.
The house was now well alight. She could hear the flames
crackling along the ceiling above her. There were loud crashing
noises all around as she felt her way down the stairs, able to see
no more than the next step down. The smoke was now hellishly thick,
and she felt her chest heaving for fresh air. Before she knew what
was happening, she had reached the foot of the stairs. Slowly, she
managed to turn around and make her way to where she thought the
doorway might be.
In a matter of a millesecond, she found herself standing face
to face on the verandah with two firemen, kitted up with oxygen
equipment. The expression on her face matched the ones on theirs.
Before anything was said, one took her by the arm and guided her, as
quickly as possible, away from the smoking doorway as hoses began to
rain down upon the blazing residence.
Usagi was guided to the other side of the street, where
ambulance officers were attending to Miki's mother. Usagi unwrapped
Miki as she arrived, the girl landing in her mother's arms before
the woman was even able to call out her name.
Usagi collapsed against the wall as the woman hugged her
daughter, the girl in tears of relief. Before she knew what was
happening, a mask was placed on her face. The taste of pure, sweet
air was one of the most unbelievably beautiful sensations she had
ever experienced in her life. That was shortly before Naru
attempted to crush the oxygen out of her with an enormous bear hug.
"Usagi no BAKA!" Naru said, tears filling her eyes. Usagi
smiled back blearily, still not able to see very much, her eyes
burning red with the after-effects of the smoke.
"Heh. And everyone said I was the cry-baby." Usagi turned
aside. "How's Miki." She squinted and watched as the mother and
child hugged each other. Naru smiled.
"I think they'll be fine."
Miki sat up in her mother's arms and looked over at Usagi, the
mother turning and smiling. "Say thankyou to oneechan, Miki..."
"Arigato, oneechan." Miki seemed on the edge of collapse,
being supported only by her mother. For some reason, Usagi seemed
to feel pretty much the same way. Then things went very dark.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
From the Personal Journal of Neo Queen Serenity
(Tsukino Usagi I)
6/29/98
I wish I could say that I remember more of what followed. But
I don't. All I know is from what Naru has told me. After passing
out, I was placed on a stretcher and put into an ambulance.
Apparently, both Miki and her mother had to travel with me to the
hospital. Miki refused to go unless I was with her. As well as
Naru, who had taken to holding onto my left arm like a limpet.
Apparently they had to prise her off me when we got to the hospital.
It is a fortunate thing that Ami's mother works at that
hospital. When she recognised both Naru and myself, she took charge
of things and had my parents contacted within minutes. Naru was
taken away to lie down in her office.
I had had enough tears running out of my eyes to soak the
stretcher. Well, I have had practice over the years. They had to
clean my eyes out with special eyedrops whilst I was unconcious. It
was about the most damage there was to my body. Still, it was close
to five hours before I came round.
Its strange to think back to that moment, now. The first
thing that crossed my mind was that I'd forgotten to water Mamoru's
roses, and wondered if he'd be mad that I'd let them die. Not that
one day missed would do much damage, but its the kind of thought
that runs through one's mind when one has just come round from
stress-induced sleep.
My mother was sitting in the room, asleep on a chair. Her
face was covered in dried tears. It was then that I realised that I
wasn't home. And at that moment I wondered how much trouble I was
in. All things considered, the only times my mother ever cried were
in those moments of despair when she thought her only daughter would
never achieve anything in life. Oh if only I could tell her what I
was destined to achieve. It'd put her mind at rest. Not that she'd
believe me. Initially, anyway.
It was Ami's mother who discovered that I'd come round, whilst
checking up on things. Before long I was being strangled with my
mother's arms wrapped round my neck, and my father standing in the
corner bawling his eyes out. Quite how my mother thought I was an
idiot whilst simultaneously telling me how proud she was of me was
something my brain took another few days to properly decipher.
Before long, the whole gang was in there, assaulting me one by
one. At one stage, I had four inner senshi all piled on the sides
of my bed, doing a better job than the fire at killing me. Rei had
to be controlled after grabbing me by the collar and screaming the
most foul abuse one could hope to hear from her mouth. And all this
with more tears flying out the corners of her eyes than I had ever
achieved. Ami and Minako were more reserved with their relief that
I was still alive, whilst Makoto actually looked quite angry with me
for a while. She came back some time after everyone else had left
and expressed her relief then. Makoto has a good heart, but she
never found it easy to express things verbally. Probably why she
always found herself getting into fights before she met us.
Naru was the last to see me that afternoon, having recovered,
somewhat, from the trauma of the experience. It was hard to tell,
exactly, how she felt at that moment, because she was as totally
washed out as I felt. Fortunately, her mother had been summoned to
collect her from the hospital, so I knew she'd get home, safely. In
the state she was, making her own way back was certainly not on the
cards.
That night, Haruka and Michiru made a belated appearance,
virtually to see how things were coming along. I asked them where
Hotaru and Setsuna had been, but they said they hadn't seen them
when they'd heard what had happened. It was only when Hotaru came
to visit me afterwards that I realised that both she and Professor
Tomoe had been in the hospital due to the fact that she had had an
attack of anemia earlier that day. Hotaru was never a healthy girl.
I often wonder how much being Sailorsaturn actually had to do with
the state of her health.
But I digress. It was Haruka and Michiru who brought Miki
into my room. I was surprised to see Miki in a wheelchair, and
asked why. Apparently, Miki had always been an unhealthy child,
herself. Well, for the past couple of years anyway. There were
reasons for this, but nobody knew it at the time.
Haruka and Michiru left the pair of us alone in the room for a
while, and we began to talk about things, getting to know each
other. Miki was about seven years old, and I was surprised to find
that she shared the same birthday as mine. Despite the fact that
she seemed tired, Miki seemed to be drawing on some reserve....
--------------------------------------------------------------------
"Oneechan..." Miki was now sitting on the bed, leaning back
against Usagi, whose eyes were partially covered with a small white
cloth. Usagi's eyes were still sore and sensitive to the light.
Usagi lifted the cloth slightly and looked down on Miki, who was
looking up at her with a smile.
"What is it? Is there something on my face?"
"No, silly." Miki giggled. "Its your hair."
"My hair?' Usagi grabbed one of her now tatty looking
ponytails and sniffed it. She pulled her face away in disgust and
dropped it back where it fell naturally. "Indeed, a most
unappealing smell."
"No no no, not that. It's the way you've got it done up."
Miki reached up and touched the point where the ponytails were tied
up at the top of her head.
"What about it? Don't you like it?"
"No, they're fine. Its just.... You know, this sounds kinda
silly...."
Miki sat back again, leaning against Usagi, who put her chin
on top of Miki's head, holding her shoulder. "You can tell me. I
won't laugh."
"Really?"
"Of course. I'm big, tough Usagi-chan. I can take it.
After all, I can walk into burning houses without fear." More
likely out of stupidity, Usagi thought. She immediately put that
thought out of her mind when she realised that, if she'd been smart
enough to stand and ogle at the burning house like everyone else,
Miki would probably be dead.
"Well, its just that, when you lifted me up, off the floor in
my room after I fell of my bed...."
"Hmm?"
"You.... I thought you were Sailormoon...."
Usagi's jaw hit the bedsheets. "Really? Do I look that much
like her?"
"Yeah. Ever since I got sick, I've been a fan of Sailormoon."
Usagi smiled at her, feeling inwardly proud, even though she
knew she shouldn't be. "How come?"
"Well, I've always wanted to be like her. If I ever get well,
I want to go around and fight monsters and villains too. It helps
me to feel better whilst I'm stuck in bed." Miki looked a little
glum, then smiled back up at Usagi. "In a funny way, I feel happy
the house burnt down."
Usagi stared at her, not knowing what to say. "Wh... why?"
"This is the first time in a year and a half I've been out of
it. If what Mummy tells me is true, it'll be a while before we can
move back in."
Usagi smirked. "Perhaps your dream for adventures came a
little too true, eh?" Miki simply shrugged.
"At least I got to meet a hero, even if it isn't Sailormoon."
Usagi felt herself choking back a sob as she hugged Miki.
"I'm glad to to meet you too, Miki. I hope we can stay friends."
When Usagi let Miki go, the younger girl looked up at her face,
smiling, nodding simply.
"Mama is going to have to stay in here for a while. So I
won't be far away from you. Will you be leaving soon?"
"Hmmm, not too soon, I hope."
"Alright then. Can I see you tomorrow?"
"Sure. We're friends, right." Usagi put out her little
finger, and the girl put hers around it.
"Yep, friends forever." Miki smiled.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
From the Personal Journal of Neo Queen Serenity
(Tsukino Usagi I)
6/29/98
It was a couple of days before I was cleared to leave the
hospital. My eyes were still sore, but at least most of the garbage
that had worked its way into them through the smoke had cleared out.
It was only as I was being let out of the hospital that I'd decided
to visit Miki to tell her that I was being released. Miki was
sleeping in a small bed in her mother's room. Miki's mother, Akiko,
had had her leg plastered, and her head bandaged. From the looks of
things, she was going to be in here for quite a long time.
I found out that Miki was to be fostered out to one of her
relatives, somewhere outside of Tokyo, until her mother had fully
recovered. This would have meant long hours of travel if she'd
wished to visit her. In Miki's condition, this was next to
impossible. It was then that I hit upon my cunningly devised and
inspired plan.... Take Miki in myself. Now all I had to do was
convince otosan and okasan that it was a good idea.
I was surprised by their enthusiasm for the idea. Little did
I know they felt it would be a good test in responsibility for me.
I surely couldn't have been that bad at the time? Now was I? Was
I?
Whatever the case, I didn't quite know what I was getting
myself into.
END OF PART 1
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Be Gentle - First Fanfic ^_^
Night Rider ikari@wantree.net.au
13th Apr 1998
beautiful, if not a little warm, Summer's day. Usagi was pouring
across the design sheets as the elder Senshi finished off the last
of the "Kingdom of Love" range of designs. The pair had worked
furiously over the last week to complete the range before its
looming release date.
With a sigh of relief, the pair sit back and look at the
designs.
"Finally," Setsuna put her hands behind her head, "they're
finished. I thought we'd never get through it all." Setsuna threw
the pencil high into the air and caught it with precision. Usagi
watched her and smiled.
"Not quite, yet." She looked down at the last design, one
that bore an... interesting resemblance to her own dress when
transformed into Serenity. Setsuna gave her a quizzical look, then
nodded understandingly.
Usagi took a pencil and signed underneath the design....
'DEDICATED TO MIKI - THE LITTLE PRINCESS GOWN'
Usagi stood and stared down at the gown, her eyes misty for a
few moments.
"You know...." She said. "For some reason, I can almost
vision her wearing this dress. Almost as if she had modelled it for
us."
Setsuna merely smiled.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
BISHOUJO SENSHI SAILORMOON
NOT A GOD
by Night Rider
Disclaimer - all characters pertaining to the series Bishoujo Senshi
Sailormoon are owned by Takeuchi Naoko, Bandai and Kodansya. All
other characters were thought up by me. Well, its true, isn't it?
Chapter 1
From Small Seeds
--------------------------------------------------------------------
From the Personal Journal of Neo Queen Serenity
(Tsukino Usagi I)
6/29/98
It's funny.... People say we're the greatest heroes this
world has ever seen. We never lose a fight, no matter how big or
how small.
What a joke. We may win, but that doesn't mean we REALLY win,
in the end. As someone once said, "What price victory"? The price
can be too high at times.
Where can I begin to tell this tale I have been holding within
me for so long? Perhaps at the beginning. It would seem logical,
but in this matter, logic is too cool a term to use.
It was a cold day in February. There was still snow on the
ground. Late storms had made living difficult across Japan.
Galaxia and the Starfighters had left Earth no more than a couple of
months ago. It had been difficult to say goodbye to Seiya.... But
I had been able to get over it. What was harder was to explain to
Mamoru the kind of relationship we had had whilst he had been
missing.....
He'd turned out to be rather more understanding than I'd given
him credit. And before long, things were pretty much back on track.
Mamoru left (properly, this time) to take up his scholarship in the
US. A little late, but better late than never.
He's back there now. It'll be a couple of months before I see
him again. I hate these moments apart from my Mamo-chan.
It was on a weekend, when I had left for his apartment to
water his roses and dust things down. A right little houseproud
girl I had become in those weeks.
For some reason, I'd found myself humming this tune.
Something or other Densetsu, or something like that. It was a
catchy little tune, whatever it was. I'd had my mind on other
things when I felt a hand land on my shoulder. It gave me something
of a fright, considering I was standing on the nearby wall, looking
down at Naru in a fighting stance. The look on her face had to be
seen to be believed.
"Ahem.... Sorry 'bout that, Naru-chan." I giggled, hand
behind the head, sweatdrop about the size of the Pacific running
down my forehead. There were times when I felt being attacked by
copious numbers of monsters had a lasting effect on me. It was
another five minutes before I could get down, as I suddenly
discovered, much to my chagrin, that I was afraid of heights.
And as the wall was only 4 inches thick, it took all my powers
to keep up. Well, fear maybe.....
--------------------------------------------------------------------
"Umm.... Naru-chan.... You wouldn't happen to have a ladder
on you, would you?"
Naru sighed. "Usagi-chan, why don't you just jump down?
After all, you jumped up there in the first place."
Usagi shook her head. "How can I do that? From up here
everyone looks like ants."
Naru looked down at the ground and chuckled. "Usagi-chan,
they ARE ants."
"Yeah, and they look such a long way down, too."
"Usagi-chan, if you don't jump down, I'll start pitching these
dumplings I bought for us to eat at you and make you fall."
Even before Naru had finished the sentence, she found Usagi
was no longer on the wall. She turned aside to find her friend
stuffing the last of the dumplings from one of the bags in her
mouth.
"Mmmf fmmfmmf mffmfm mmfmffmmmm mmfffmm." Usagi said,
happily. Naru spent most of the day trying to decipher this.
"Where are you going, anyway? I see you walking this way
every day, and it can't be to visit Mamoru."
Mmmffmfff...." Usagi swallowed a lump of dumpling roughly
larger than the width of her throat and smiled, her face a mess.
"Oh, I promised Mamo-chan that I'd look after his apartment and
roses whilst he was away."
"Quite the domesticated little wife, aren't you?" Naru
chuckled, digging her elbow into Usagi's side. Usagi giggled
inanely, blushing.
"Yeah, well... uhhh..."
"When are the pair of you going to tie the knot, eh?"
Usagi went dewey eyed for a moment. Visions of herself and
Mamoru in wedding attire flashing across a large field of flowers
coming to mind. Then she turned back to Naru, shrugging.
"Hmm... We're not quite ready for that kind of committment,
yet. I'd prefer to be finshed with High School first." Usagi would
have quite happily finished school right there and then. Of course,
that would be cheating. And her parents would have something to say
about it, as otosan still didn't trust Mamoru yet. What was the
term he used... "cradlesnatcher"? Otosan could be a cruel little
man when he wanted to be.
Usagi asked Naru if she wanted to join her whilst she was
cleaning the apartment, and Naru agreed. As they made their way
along the street, they approached a woman going up the front path of
her house, not really paying any attention to things. Suddenly,
there was a blast, and they were bowled over as the woman landed on
top of them, followed by the door.
Usagi was the first to get to her feet. Something to be said
for being a senshi, at least in terms of her resistance to pain and
injury. She then pulled the door off the woman as Naru sat up,
helping the woman into a sitting position.
"Hey.... Hey, are you alright?" Usagi knelt beside the woman
as Naru looked over at the smoking doorway of the house. The woman
was bleeding from somewhere above her hairline, and was clutching
her leg, grimacing in pain.
"M... Miki..." She mumbled.
"What?" Usagi questioned.
"My little girl, my daughter. She's in the house.... Up in
her bedroom...."
A look of concern crossed both Usagi and Naru's faces. "What
happened? What was that explosion?" Naru bit her lower lip.
"Don't....know. I was just...visiting the shops... Only
opened the front door when... there was this... ooohhhh.." The
woman was now in tears as her leg began to turn blue. Naru started
to panic. Usagi quickly grabbed the woman underneath the arms and
dragged her back against the wall. Naru watched her, getting to her
feet.
"What do we do?" Naru shook with encroaching panic.
"Call the fire service, and an ambulance. Quickly." Usagi
turned back to the house, sweat running down her forehead as she saw
flames licking out of the top of the doorway.
Naru ran towards where some neighbours were standing at their
front door, crying out for them to call the authorities. Usagi
kneeled beside the woman.
"Where is your daughter's bedroom? Quickly, tell me now!"
Usagi began to wrap her hair around herself, around her neck and
over her face.
"Just... to the left of the front doorway... Set of stairs.
To the right at the top of the stairs... is where....."
"Right then..." Usagi quickly stood and steeled herself. Oh
if only there weren't so many people around. Doing this would be so
much easier as Sailormoon. Somebody's gotta do it. She took off,
up the garden path like a demon pssessed, running through the
doorway without even thinking twice about the danger she was putting
herself into.
Naru watched her go. "USAGI! DON'T!" Naru shivered and was
about to take off after her as the neighbour gripped her by the
shoulder, shaking her head. Naru stared at the woman for a moment,
then returned to the side of the injured mother, holding her hand,
the both of them staring at the house as thick black smoke began to
billow from every opening. The sounds of appraoching sirens seemed
to underline the fact that things around them suddenly seemed pretty
quiet.
It was worse than Usagi had thought. She couldn't see the
fire for the amount of smoke. Even with her long ponytails wrapped
around her nose and mouth, it was chokingly thick, and her eyes
immediately started to water. The stairs were to the left, so she
felt along the wall for the rail. It was getting hotter the further
she moved in.
Eventually, she found the rail, descending towards her level.
She climbed over the side of the rail, not even bothering to find
the foot of the stairs, and crawled her way up. The fire had not,
obviously, reached this part of the house yet, because the heat was
not increasing as she reached the top. She then panicked. Left or
right? Was it left or right here? No, think.... To the right.
Usagi crawled along the floor, trying to stay below the smoke.
Eventually she reached what appeared to be the door to the bedroom.
Within, she could hear the girl, coughing. Usagi was partly
relieved that the girl was, thus far, alright. Suddenly, there was
a thump on the floor and all went silent in the room.
Usagi panicked and scrabbled for the door handle, an icy
sensation running through her chest. The door swumg open to reveal
the girl, lying face-forward, on the floor of the room after having
scrabbled her way, weakly, from the bed. The girl was moving
slightly, trying to get up herself. For some reason, the girl
seemed unable to muster the energy to do so. Usagi got to her feet,
the smoke in the bedroom nowhere as thick as it had been in the
hallway. She picked up the girl and moved her into a seated
position, checking that she was alright.
The girl stared at her with bleary, frightened eyes. "Whats
happening? Who are you? Where's Mama?"
Usagi gritted her teeth and tried to smile. "Your Mamas
alright. She's waiting outside for you."
"Outside?' The girl looked confused. "You mean I have to go
outside?" The suggestion seemed to excite the girl somewhat.
"Of course. I'll get you out of here, just stick with me and
don't worry." Usagi wondered why someone would be so excited about
leaving a house. She put it out of her mind as she grabbed the
blanket from the top of the bed and began to wrap it around the
little girl.
"Your name's Miki, right?"
"Hai.... Takimi Miki..."
"Well, Miki-chan, just hang onto me, and don't be scared.
I'll protect you."
"Hai, oneechan." The girl smiled at Usagi, and she returned
the expression, picking up the girl and feeling her small hands
gripping her shoulders weakly. Usagi turned and looked for the
doorway, disappearing into the smoke haze. Usagi steeled herself
again and bent slightly double, dashing into the mist.
The house was now well alight. She could hear the flames
crackling along the ceiling above her. There were loud crashing
noises all around as she felt her way down the stairs, able to see
no more than the next step down. The smoke was now hellishly thick,
and she felt her chest heaving for fresh air. Before she knew what
was happening, she had reached the foot of the stairs. Slowly, she
managed to turn around and make her way to where she thought the
doorway might be.
In a matter of a millesecond, she found herself standing face
to face on the verandah with two firemen, kitted up with oxygen
equipment. The expression on her face matched the ones on theirs.
Before anything was said, one took her by the arm and guided her, as
quickly as possible, away from the smoking doorway as hoses began to
rain down upon the blazing residence.
Usagi was guided to the other side of the street, where
ambulance officers were attending to Miki's mother. Usagi unwrapped
Miki as she arrived, the girl landing in her mother's arms before
the woman was even able to call out her name.
Usagi collapsed against the wall as the woman hugged her
daughter, the girl in tears of relief. Before she knew what was
happening, a mask was placed on her face. The taste of pure, sweet
air was one of the most unbelievably beautiful sensations she had
ever experienced in her life. That was shortly before Naru
attempted to crush the oxygen out of her with an enormous bear hug.
"Usagi no BAKA!" Naru said, tears filling her eyes. Usagi
smiled back blearily, still not able to see very much, her eyes
burning red with the after-effects of the smoke.
"Heh. And everyone said I was the cry-baby." Usagi turned
aside. "How's Miki." She squinted and watched as the mother and
child hugged each other. Naru smiled.
"I think they'll be fine."
Miki sat up in her mother's arms and looked over at Usagi, the
mother turning and smiling. "Say thankyou to oneechan, Miki..."
"Arigato, oneechan." Miki seemed on the edge of collapse,
being supported only by her mother. For some reason, Usagi seemed
to feel pretty much the same way. Then things went very dark.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
From the Personal Journal of Neo Queen Serenity
(Tsukino Usagi I)
6/29/98
I wish I could say that I remember more of what followed. But
I don't. All I know is from what Naru has told me. After passing
out, I was placed on a stretcher and put into an ambulance.
Apparently, both Miki and her mother had to travel with me to the
hospital. Miki refused to go unless I was with her. As well as
Naru, who had taken to holding onto my left arm like a limpet.
Apparently they had to prise her off me when we got to the hospital.
It is a fortunate thing that Ami's mother works at that
hospital. When she recognised both Naru and myself, she took charge
of things and had my parents contacted within minutes. Naru was
taken away to lie down in her office.
I had had enough tears running out of my eyes to soak the
stretcher. Well, I have had practice over the years. They had to
clean my eyes out with special eyedrops whilst I was unconcious. It
was about the most damage there was to my body. Still, it was close
to five hours before I came round.
Its strange to think back to that moment, now. The first
thing that crossed my mind was that I'd forgotten to water Mamoru's
roses, and wondered if he'd be mad that I'd let them die. Not that
one day missed would do much damage, but its the kind of thought
that runs through one's mind when one has just come round from
stress-induced sleep.
My mother was sitting in the room, asleep on a chair. Her
face was covered in dried tears. It was then that I realised that I
wasn't home. And at that moment I wondered how much trouble I was
in. All things considered, the only times my mother ever cried were
in those moments of despair when she thought her only daughter would
never achieve anything in life. Oh if only I could tell her what I
was destined to achieve. It'd put her mind at rest. Not that she'd
believe me. Initially, anyway.
It was Ami's mother who discovered that I'd come round, whilst
checking up on things. Before long I was being strangled with my
mother's arms wrapped round my neck, and my father standing in the
corner bawling his eyes out. Quite how my mother thought I was an
idiot whilst simultaneously telling me how proud she was of me was
something my brain took another few days to properly decipher.
Before long, the whole gang was in there, assaulting me one by
one. At one stage, I had four inner senshi all piled on the sides
of my bed, doing a better job than the fire at killing me. Rei had
to be controlled after grabbing me by the collar and screaming the
most foul abuse one could hope to hear from her mouth. And all this
with more tears flying out the corners of her eyes than I had ever
achieved. Ami and Minako were more reserved with their relief that
I was still alive, whilst Makoto actually looked quite angry with me
for a while. She came back some time after everyone else had left
and expressed her relief then. Makoto has a good heart, but she
never found it easy to express things verbally. Probably why she
always found herself getting into fights before she met us.
Naru was the last to see me that afternoon, having recovered,
somewhat, from the trauma of the experience. It was hard to tell,
exactly, how she felt at that moment, because she was as totally
washed out as I felt. Fortunately, her mother had been summoned to
collect her from the hospital, so I knew she'd get home, safely. In
the state she was, making her own way back was certainly not on the
cards.
That night, Haruka and Michiru made a belated appearance,
virtually to see how things were coming along. I asked them where
Hotaru and Setsuna had been, but they said they hadn't seen them
when they'd heard what had happened. It was only when Hotaru came
to visit me afterwards that I realised that both she and Professor
Tomoe had been in the hospital due to the fact that she had had an
attack of anemia earlier that day. Hotaru was never a healthy girl.
I often wonder how much being Sailorsaturn actually had to do with
the state of her health.
But I digress. It was Haruka and Michiru who brought Miki
into my room. I was surprised to see Miki in a wheelchair, and
asked why. Apparently, Miki had always been an unhealthy child,
herself. Well, for the past couple of years anyway. There were
reasons for this, but nobody knew it at the time.
Haruka and Michiru left the pair of us alone in the room for a
while, and we began to talk about things, getting to know each
other. Miki was about seven years old, and I was surprised to find
that she shared the same birthday as mine. Despite the fact that
she seemed tired, Miki seemed to be drawing on some reserve....
--------------------------------------------------------------------
"Oneechan..." Miki was now sitting on the bed, leaning back
against Usagi, whose eyes were partially covered with a small white
cloth. Usagi's eyes were still sore and sensitive to the light.
Usagi lifted the cloth slightly and looked down on Miki, who was
looking up at her with a smile.
"What is it? Is there something on my face?"
"No, silly." Miki giggled. "Its your hair."
"My hair?' Usagi grabbed one of her now tatty looking
ponytails and sniffed it. She pulled her face away in disgust and
dropped it back where it fell naturally. "Indeed, a most
unappealing smell."
"No no no, not that. It's the way you've got it done up."
Miki reached up and touched the point where the ponytails were tied
up at the top of her head.
"What about it? Don't you like it?"
"No, they're fine. Its just.... You know, this sounds kinda
silly...."
Miki sat back again, leaning against Usagi, who put her chin
on top of Miki's head, holding her shoulder. "You can tell me. I
won't laugh."
"Really?"
"Of course. I'm big, tough Usagi-chan. I can take it.
After all, I can walk into burning houses without fear." More
likely out of stupidity, Usagi thought. She immediately put that
thought out of her mind when she realised that, if she'd been smart
enough to stand and ogle at the burning house like everyone else,
Miki would probably be dead.
"Well, its just that, when you lifted me up, off the floor in
my room after I fell of my bed...."
"Hmm?"
"You.... I thought you were Sailormoon...."
Usagi's jaw hit the bedsheets. "Really? Do I look that much
like her?"
"Yeah. Ever since I got sick, I've been a fan of Sailormoon."
Usagi smiled at her, feeling inwardly proud, even though she
knew she shouldn't be. "How come?"
"Well, I've always wanted to be like her. If I ever get well,
I want to go around and fight monsters and villains too. It helps
me to feel better whilst I'm stuck in bed." Miki looked a little
glum, then smiled back up at Usagi. "In a funny way, I feel happy
the house burnt down."
Usagi stared at her, not knowing what to say. "Wh... why?"
"This is the first time in a year and a half I've been out of
it. If what Mummy tells me is true, it'll be a while before we can
move back in."
Usagi smirked. "Perhaps your dream for adventures came a
little too true, eh?" Miki simply shrugged.
"At least I got to meet a hero, even if it isn't Sailormoon."
Usagi felt herself choking back a sob as she hugged Miki.
"I'm glad to to meet you too, Miki. I hope we can stay friends."
When Usagi let Miki go, the younger girl looked up at her face,
smiling, nodding simply.
"Mama is going to have to stay in here for a while. So I
won't be far away from you. Will you be leaving soon?"
"Hmmm, not too soon, I hope."
"Alright then. Can I see you tomorrow?"
"Sure. We're friends, right." Usagi put out her little
finger, and the girl put hers around it.
"Yep, friends forever." Miki smiled.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
From the Personal Journal of Neo Queen Serenity
(Tsukino Usagi I)
6/29/98
It was a couple of days before I was cleared to leave the
hospital. My eyes were still sore, but at least most of the garbage
that had worked its way into them through the smoke had cleared out.
It was only as I was being let out of the hospital that I'd decided
to visit Miki to tell her that I was being released. Miki was
sleeping in a small bed in her mother's room. Miki's mother, Akiko,
had had her leg plastered, and her head bandaged. From the looks of
things, she was going to be in here for quite a long time.
I found out that Miki was to be fostered out to one of her
relatives, somewhere outside of Tokyo, until her mother had fully
recovered. This would have meant long hours of travel if she'd
wished to visit her. In Miki's condition, this was next to
impossible. It was then that I hit upon my cunningly devised and
inspired plan.... Take Miki in myself. Now all I had to do was
convince otosan and okasan that it was a good idea.
I was surprised by their enthusiasm for the idea. Little did
I know they felt it would be a good test in responsibility for me.
I surely couldn't have been that bad at the time? Now was I? Was
I?
Whatever the case, I didn't quite know what I was getting
myself into.
END OF PART 1
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Be Gentle - First Fanfic ^_^
Night Rider ikari@wantree.net.au
13th Apr 1998