"I know I'm new to the group, so let me make sure I have this right," Minako said as she sat in the stool next to Usagi, "Tuxedo Mask has two crystals, and Zoicite has five?"
"Exactly," chimed in Ami, as she brushed her blue hair out of her sapphire eyes. "Tuxedo Mask has the orange and violet crystals. Zoicite has all the others."
"How did you guys miss out on all of them?" Minako questioned, her voice full of shock.
"Well, we would have had the yellow one if Usagi didn't give it away!" Rei said, pointedly glaring at the clumsy blonde.
"Hey!" yelled Usagi, "I didn't just 'give it away'!" She used air quotes to emphasize the difference between what Rei was alluding to and what actually happened.
"Oh, yeah, you believed the bad guy when he said he wouldn't hurt anyone if you gave him the crystal. You're so gullible, Usagi," remarked Rei.
Usagi's volume kept increasing as more words came out of her mouth, "I did it to save Naru and Umino. I'm supposed to protect people, right!? Isn't that my duty? Love and justice and all that!?"
The girls shushed Usagi as her voice began to gain attention from other people in the arcade. Usagi caught her mistake and stared at the shiny tiles of the floor as her hands balled into fists in her lap. Slightly hunched forward, she tried to hide her embarrassment. Not only was she ashamed of her loudness when talking about such secretive topics, but she really did feel guilty about losing the yellow crystal. Even more, because of her tactlessness, she was worried about indirectly causing Tuxedo Mask harm. Zoicite was now only two crystals away from getting his hands on the Imperium Silver Crystal, and he had enough power to find and attack Tuxedo Mask for the final two crystals. Despite what the other girls – as well as Luna and Artemis – thought about him, Usagi truly felt that Tuxedo Mask was on their side. He was a friend to them and a protector. Sailor Moon would have been seriously injured or killed multiple times if it wasn't for Tuxedo Mask's wonderfully-timed crimson roses. She cared for him, too. She wasn't entirely sure why or how since they hadn't had much of a conversation, but she felt as if he was an important part to her life.
"I'm sorry," mumbled Usagi as her fists tightened.
The normally talkative group of girls remained quiet for a bit. They understood. They knew she felt bad about giving Zoicite the crystal, but they also knew her growing crush on her masked protector, but since they were both after the Rainbow Crystals, the guardians couldn't trust him. For this reason, Usagi wasn't allowed to explore her feelings for Tuxedo Mask, and she was left with only his short bits of inspirational advice and a music-box locket.
"Usagi," a calm voice said gently.
The girls all turned toward Rei, the one who spoke up. Rei stepped forward and briefly touched one of the buns on Usagi's head.
"Your odangos," she said soothingly, "they're a bit lopsided. Want me to fix them for you?"
Surprised at Rei's niceness, Usagi could only nod. Rei's hands tenderly prodded and pulled on the hair that formed the blonde's odangos. She took several moments to smooth them into perfect knots, and after she fixed them, Rei crouched down in front of Usagi and made direct eye contact.
"It will be okay, Usagi."
With Rei full of sincerity, Usagi couldn't help but smile and lunge forward to hug the raven-haired hothead, her embarrassment quickly forgotten.
"I don't mean to ruin the moment, but we really need a game plan," said Makoto. She tightened her ponytail as Rei stood back up.
"The plan is about the same," Ami chimed in, "we need to find the Moon Princess and Imperium Silver Crystal, and for both of those things we need the Rainbow Crystals. However," she paused to pull out her handheld computer. Her slim fingers clicked away at the small keys as she said, "We don't have enough data to pinpoint where Zoicite is or when he'll attack next. We can easily conclude that Zoicite will be staying close behind Tuxedo Mask, though, but we don't have enough data on him either to determine his location or identity." Ami closed her computer with a sigh and leaned back against the game machine.
"So we have nothing to do but wait," concluded Makoto, grimly.
"We still need to be alert! I wouldn't consider that nothing," said Minako.
The girls murmured in agreement although the mood wasn't one of encouragement.
"We might as well do something productive and study!" said Ami, excitedly moving on to a topic she had more control over.
Before anyone had the opportunity to respond, Usagi's stomach let out a noisy rumble so loud that a couple of kids across the arcade stopped the conversation to turn and stare.
The girls laughed as Usagi held her stomach and complained of starvation. Since studying is not one of her strengths (which were eating, sleeping, and reading manga, by the way), she decided to stay at the arcade and grab a snack. Minako, Rei, and Ami got up to leave the arcade as Makoto began fishing in the pockets of her pleated skirt. She pulled out a slightly rusted quarter, handed it to Usagi with a wink, and quickly caught up with the other girls.
Usagi smiled and slid the quarter into the slot on the Sailor V Game. Her face was illuminated by the screen, and joy seeped through every fiber of her being. She was reminded by something that Tuxedo Mask once told her: "No matter how bad things look, you must never, ever give up." Her friends loved her and really cared about her feelings. So what if they didn't have any crystals right now? So what if they're just as clueless as to where the Moon Princess is as they were before? The guardians all had each other, and that was something very important.
Her stomach rumbled again, reminding her that she hasn't eaten since this morning's cereal. She looked down at her stomach, momentarily ignoring her game, and the short distraction caused her Sailor V avatar to miss a jump and fall to her death. A bright GAME OVER flashed across the screen, and much to Usagi's dismay, her tummy grumbled again. With a loud whine, she turned in her stool and left the arcade to grab a bite to eat.
Little did she know that a dark-haired boy was watching her from Motoki's counter with a warm smile on his face.