Chapter
One – Through a Cloudy Mirror
In the order of night, Tokyo shimmered like a thousand forgotten diamonds in the rich black of a coal mine and inherited the bedlam of the stars. To live in Tokyo was to live in peace. And all was peaceful until a large flash of light coursed through the veins of downtown, spreading like great white fingers through folds of black silk. It was only a brief moment of excitement, and it faded into the pulsing sparkle of the city. Nearby residents and spectators were content to suspect a power surge and went about their business, for they had seen far more bizarre incidents to justify concern.
Usagi was late.
Amidst the wailing and running, she barely had enough sense to keep from being run over in the street or caught in a current of businessmen on their way to work. Tokyo was a very busy city and the frantic rambling of a late schoolgirl was lost in the hustle and bustle of cars, voices and feet. It was all because she slept in. But that was not a great departure from the standard, though recent events had placed the fate of mankind and the Universe above her own petty troubles. A pastel reality had come back and demanded that she sweat over the small things.
Life had gotten fairly smooth for her lately. She was actually keeping up with her schoolwork under the strict guidance of Ami and she was finding the time to be a normal girl again. There were a few things that made her feel uneasy, such as the fact that Hotaru was taken by Sailor Pluto for 'matters involving the timeline' and that Chibi-Usa was now back in her own time, leaving Usagi without a sidekick. But nevertheless these things were good. If these two senshi were not needed, that meant the peace might actually last. The others were finding joy in the reprieve and life was beginning to blossom for the young girls. High school was a pain, but infinitely more normal than fighting heart-sucking demons or power-hungry umbra. Thus, the only things she had to worry about were spending time with her beloved Mamoru and attending to her school duties.
At the moment, she was not doing so well with the latter.
"Mou! Mom could have done more to wake me up! I'm sooooooo late!" she wailed between her labored breathing. There was one upside to all of her fighting with the minions of evil and that was she had gotten really good at dodging, letting her weave through the crowded walkway somewhat gracefully. But when Usagi and grace met on the street, something bad was bound to happen.
Rounding a corner, she suddenly ran right into a stolid figure looming in the middle of the walkway, jarring her troubles and sending her flatly to her rear end as she found herself remarking inwardly how similar it was to running headlong into a thick tree. While it certainly surprised her and sent a spike of pain through her body right from the tip of her nose, it was even more surprising that the person she had hit did not even stumble from the impact, but rather just slowly looked back at her with extremely annoyed eyes.
But Usagi was also annoyed at the fact she would be even more late and soon she was pumping her fists into the air and yelling, her eyes pressed closed and her lithe body trembling at the force of her outrage. "You dumb jerk! Why don't you watch where you're going?!" she howled. There was no time to even address the truth of the matter and she was simply reacting to her own dilemma. This person, whoever it was, was going cause her so much trouble!
However, when she took the time to open her furious eyes and peer up at the menace, her blue pupils shrank and she froze in the middle of her tantrum, like someone had suddenly pressed pause on her life. A young man named Yamamori Kage, in his towering, terrifying form, was looking over his shoulder at her with his glowering green eyes. The ominous glow from his entire figure, with his wild and unkempt hair and scowling face doubled as he turned upon her and leaned forward, letting her see own reflection in his dangerously unstable eyes. He had just gotten to this crystal-clear world and already some dumb girl was asking for his wrath. There was also the matter of him already being in a very ominous moon. "What did you say, you little bug?" he growled, shaking the cement under her with the force of his voice.
Usagi winced and slid back on the ground slightly, her hand raised up to try and protect her from this brute. In a moment of retrospect, she regretted calling him names, but currently she was only occupied with the task of not being beaten to a pulp by the brawler.
The other three Scion of the lost Tokyo were standing nearby, their human forms a pallid reflection of their previous woes and the eyes just barely getting used to the bright sunlight. There were many things on their mind – many questions that followed their flight from a dying world. However, the immediate situation required Yamito to try and weather Kage's temper in fear that he might actually do this unlucky girl some harm. "Control yourself, Kage," he said, like an angel's command that would save the poor girl. Usagi looked to the side to the rest of the crew, but instantly settled her eyes on the dark source of the voice and her heart froze within her chest.
Like a moment out of time, both Yamito and Usagi were struck at the same time. Upon seeing him, Usagi had a beat seize her heart and a visible tremor coursed through her, her mouth dropped slightly and her eyes oppressed by his. She had never seen someone have such an aura around him or with the kind of look in his eyes that was beating down on her as brightly as the midday sun. Just looking at him made her chest begin to throb and her breath fall short, though she could barely understand why. There had only been a few rare and beautiful times in her life when something similar had happened, but those were the moments that shook her and made her the person that she was today. This feeling made her powerless, powerless to move. She could only stare back.
For Yamito, it was a strange, unspoken feeling he got about her. Initially, he had intended to save a poor soul from the onslaught of one of Kage's tantrums, but now he was entirely occupied by something about the girl. She was familiar. He had never before seen her, but she was familiar. This fact made him stare, forgetting his crusade to assuage Kage from his wrath, and his face reflected just how taken he was with the girl sprawled out before him. One other noticed the moment with understanding. It brought out a smile.
"Control? Tch, you gave up any chance of that when you dragged me here," Kage snorted as he stood straight, stabbing his hands into his pockets and glaring at Yamito in challenge, though Yamito seemed oblivious to his taunt.
Then, breaking the connection he had been lost in, the dark young man shifted his eyes to the challenger and pressed his lips, not responding but for his darkly pooled eyes.
Usagi, seeing the breaking tide, shook herself from the trance and leapt to her feet, rubbing her back her head sheepishly and bellowing out in a loud, laughing voice, "Maa, sorry about that! Glad you accept my apology! Bye!" With unusual grace, she darted between them all and sprinted towards school once more, though an intense moment sparked when she passed Yamito and she felt slowed as she passed. In fact, both of them felt it. But, out of fear of both bodily and emotional harm, she just ran until the feeling began to fade.
After she was down the sidewalk farther, Usagi turned and looked at the four bounding away into the distance as she ran. Whatever she felt when she passed him, besides the obvious sin, it left an impression on her. Something about the four was insidious, like a shadow that lingered just below the surface of water. That impression led her into the road where she was almost hit but a passing truck, whose driver blared a horn and yelled out at her for being careless. Another commotion ensued but finally she was back on her way to school, flustered and sweating.
The four, on the other hand, were left in wonder about the whole thing, but none more affected than Yamito. "That girl was..." he started but could not find the words to finish, his eyes staring forward and away from her disappearing figure. The others were looking at him with great curiosity, except Kage, who just seemed very irked about having been dismissed so abruptly.
When Yamito found his mind again, his dark eyes shifted to Suteki and all telltale signs fell away in a heated, but sincere expression. With eyes narrowing, he spoke in a far more intense voice. "What are you smiling about?" he snarled. Suteki just grinned and tucked his hands back behind his head, claiming innocence of knowing something about anything.
It was then that the others noticed Kage walking away from them all, his posture frigid and dangerous. Kurai called out after him after taking a reluctant step to follow, but he did not respond. Instead, it was Yamito who spoke to them on behalf of their estranged companion, his eyes following the fading figure. "Leave him alone. He's correct about no longer having a reason to control himself. Hopefully, he doesn't do anything brash, but that's his own choice. I dare not push him any further than I already have," he said sadly and sighed at another failure he considered as his fault. Staring after the tall figure, he considered just what he had done to save them all and silently sought out Kage's forgiveness, though he knew he would never be favored in Kage's eyes again.
In the end, Yamito walked the other way and began their investigation into this new world they had found. With reluctance, and a failing glance to their fading brother, the others followed Yamito.
"I can't believe I had to stand in the hall all day because I was forty- five minutes late," Usagi groaned to herself as she walked home, dropping and wilted from her day's excitement. Idly, she suppressed the thoughts of the boy that had sparked something between them, instead focusing her thoughts on the brute that had nearly killed her with his bony, rigid stance. Feeling better for the choice, she boiled inwardly about it and swung her school bag onto her shoulder, kiting her nose into the air with a huff. "Huh! That big idiot. If I wasn't already so late for school, I would have showed him!" she declared with a sound nod. A thousand different scenarios flashed through her mind, each with her laughing maniacally over the beaten body of the brute and she could not help but grin at the prospect, pleasing herself as if she had actually stayed and defended her injury. This train of thought seemed to fill her world, until she heard her name being called by a very familiar voice. Upon looking back to Earth, she saw two familiar faces at an outside café. It brought her out of her fit of rage. "Hey, you two!" she called, her face returned to the natural smile that fit it so well.
Minako and Makoto were waving her over when she came. Dressed for the summer, they had been enjoying the warming days and finding the sun to be most welcoming on their winter-worn lives. While Makoto sipped on a fruit drink and tapped her nails across the glass table's placid surface, Minako tipped her sunglasses down and grinned at Usagi in the utmost pleasure at her arrival. "I heard you were standing in the hall all day. Serves you right being late again!" she teased with a grin.
Usagi was not amused and sulked up to the table, laying her head across the surface while groaning loudly. "Ugh, don't remind me. At least she didn't make me hold the water buckets this time," she moaned and finally let her rump fall onto the bench next to Minako.
Minako only giggled as she leaned back and took a few sips of her shake, her head shaded by the fashionable large-brimmed hat and scarf tied up in the beautiful, flawless strands of her golden hair. Makoto had set her drink on the table just in time to give Usagi a stern glance, playing the part of the disappointed older sister as she frowned. "You can't be late anymore, Usagi. If you miss anymore classes, your grades will be so low that even Mamoru won't want to come around," she lectured, giving a stout nod at the end to firm her resolve.
Usagi looked up with a smirk and lazily accusing eyes, speaking with a quick and sharp tone, "What did you get on your last exam, Mako-chan?"
That small fact drove Makoto into a sheepish fit and she waved her hand through the air to wave away the question like a bad odor. "Oh, we don't need to bring that up," she laughed loudly. There was a certain triumphant expression that came to Usagi, mostly because Ami was the only one who could proclaim perfect grades and all of the others were fair game. Being confronted about her ailing grades at Juuban High School was not something she wanted to entertain at the moment, for she still reflected on the as being very, very troublesome.
After some idle chatting concerning the only things that truly coated a lazy, summer day, Usagi asked them about their hunting activities for the day, for she knew that they had come to popular café for reasons desperately apart from the drinks they had long finished. "I know you've been here for awhile. See any cute guys yet?" she cooed with a devious smile. There was a part of her that loved to flaunt the fact she had a boyfriend, that her life was consumed by the love that seemed to dominate their lives. With the others still caught in a dry spell, she always took great pleasure in the fact that Mamoru had come back to Tokyo to stay. As cruel as it may have seemed, she always was quick to flaunt her boyfriend and revel in their jealous, benign responses.
A dirty look from Makoto made Usagi even higher but Minako's attention was elsewhere. "Hey, do you feel something weird?" she asked. She was arching her neck around, feeling something crawling up the back of her spine, while her instinctive eyes scanned the rails of people and things, hoping to discover what it was that tickled her sixth sense.
"Suteki-kun, try and control yourself. I fear none of these girls know where you've been," Kurai said timidly, though his smile was thick and his sense of humor shone slightly.
Kurai's stab was ignored, lost in the hormones where were soaking the blonde-haired element of this crew. Suteki was far too busy looking at all of the people on the streets to even dignify a response to him, for his eyes had so very little time to look upon all of the missed things that had long eluded him. It had been so long since he had seen fashion and style that it nearly overloaded him. This was all secondary to the girls. Every one that passed in a school uniform, he eyed handsomely and made a few passing remarks to them. Of course, his natural charm gave him plenty of giggles and wild chattering to bolster his ego. He was in heaven. "Kuri-chan, there's nothing to can say that would ruin this for me. Do you see all of these girls? I could just die happy right here!" he remarked, puffing his chest out and marching like a hero coming back from winning an entire battle by himself.
Everyone had their own way of reacting to him, though he did force everyone to at least react. Yamito tended to faze him out and walk on, more or less attuned to his banter and able to consistently stay out from under its possessive sway. However, Kurai was amused and watched him with a hidden admiration, his smile wide and his footsteps wandering unconsciously towards him. "You do settle into things quickly. Some things never change," he said.
After watching the furor of Suteki's glee, Kurai looked forward to Yamito and began to consider all of the things which needed considering. There were many issues beyond the glow of the sun. "Our arrival here presents some unusual problems, sempai. We have no place to stay, no records of which to build a life and our monetary resources may be less than adequate," he said gravely to Yamito. Kurai always had a way of putting things in perspective. Yamito had a knack for taking those observations and finding solutions to them. That was their chemistry.
"I agree. We shall be rationing for food and little else, it seems," Yamito replied and shrugged to the idea, for it did not mean much difference to him.
However, when Suteki loudly protested and thumbed through their combined money, which was for all appearances the same as the new Tokyo but still not enough to support four young men for more than a day, Yamito shot him a glance and echoed the practicality of their situation. "For the moment, we will…" he started, but suddenly stopped as he watched Kurai looking gravely into the square of people and furrowing his eyes. "What is it?" he asked.
Kurai, still trying to figure what this familiar, powerful aura was, felt a bit surprised that Yamito did not feel it also, but them dismissed it as him being occupied. Yet, the presence did not feel malignant, and Kurai's ability to sense things had always been more refined than the others, so he shrugged it off and turned his attention back to the leader, urging them to resume. "Forgive me, sempai. I was distracted, but it's nothing. Let's continue," he replied and they walked on through past the café at a distance.
"I guess it's nothing. I thought maybe Rei-chan was nearby but she was busy at school today. I might be going crazy!" laughed Minako and waved off the worried glances from the others. Usagi and Makoto flew into a harried conversation about upcoming tests until Minako chimed in it was time to head towards the park. The day was waning and the sun began to cool, bringing about the stage for night and the duties at hand. However, Minako only received a blank expression from their renowned leader. Both she and Makoto nearly popped and sighed heavily at the expression of Usagi, for they had come to expect her wandering mind but sometimes, more often many times, she surprised them. "Don't tell me you forgot. We're going to practice tonight? Everyone is supposed to be there," she reminded her with a stiff tone.
The reminder hit Usagi hard and she groaned, laying her head onto her arms with great drama. Although Minako had used an emphasized word to hide some deeper meaning, Usagi simply blurted out the true nature of their meeting and caused the other two to sigh heavily. "Training? I hate training! I think I'd rather study!"
Minako sighed again and decided that the charade was no longer good, and spoke of the truth. "You're hopeless. But you know Luna and Rei; they want us to stay ready for anything. They'll be waiting and you know what they'll say if we're late," she warned. Both Minako and Makoto watched the visible paling that stripped Usagi of her motivation and they both sighed once more, knowing that were going to have to drag her to the gathering.
However, they were both surprised when Usagi stirred after a moment, showing all the signs of moving under her own discretion to the dreaded session ahead. The prospect of being screamed at by Rei was a far more frightening prospect, so Usagi dragged herself up from the table and looked to them both passionately, hoping for a combined desire to go truant from an unnecessary session of training. Much like a great, heart-wrenching scene in a movie, her eyes became glassy and her bottom lip quivered ever so lightly, her voice glowing in the throes of suffering. She was still going to resist the plan.
"I hate training," she cried.