Chapter Two: In Loco Parentis

Ayame Kino loved to clean her house and make sure that her family looked their best at all times.

As a result, Tamotsu Kino's shoes were the shiniest Makoto had ever seen in her life.

Even the shoes her father wore into the workshop everyday to carve the enormous blocks of wood he had shipped in from different countries into fine statuary or furniture were kept to a resilient shade of shiny chocolate.

Ayame gave her daughter and her home likewise Spartan devotion. Makoto's longish auburn hair was always tied back into a flawless ponytail that could mostly hold its own when the girl played with other kids on the playground. Her little school uniform was pressed every evening and hung out ready to wear every morning. Even her socks and shoes were laid out with care every single night before the little girl went to bed so that she knew they would be there for her when she woke up.

Ayame also cooked all of the family's meals from scratch. No box recipes where most of the ingredients were already in the bag and all you had to do was pour it out and add water (those weren't even allowed past her front door).

She did things the hard way and she liked it that way.

Makoto could remember being amazed by that aspect of her mother's character. Ayame's stubbornness and obligation to hard work where life and her family were concerned were things most of the other adults in her daughter's life didn't share on the same level.

And never would.

Makoto remembered her mother's laugh when they would come home from school and bake cookies for after dinner that night. Her mother was always happiest where her love of baking and of her daughter could comingle and their after school moments together brought about a perfect mixture of the two with lots of laughter to go around.

It hadn't been perfect by any means, the relationship between a child and its parents never is. They fought sometimes, even at that tender age. Makoto was a spitfire and so was her mother. Like most mother daughter teams, they mopped the floor with one another every now and again, with the end result being that the little girl was put in a time out and that was the end of it. Then things would go back to normal.

Makoto's father very seldom punished her nor did her very often have to. At that age, he was her "favorite parent" being that she saw him and fought with him less than she did with her mother. Despite the foggy affect time had on childhood memories, Makoto remembered her father fondly as she did her mother. He had several quirky qualities that she had never encountered in anyone else before such as taking more time than her and her mother put together to get ready for work in the morning or folding his clean shirts into triangles instead of squares.

They used to play soccer, kickball, and baseball together and he used to run little kids' races alongside her.

No period in Makoto's life could compare to those early years in the amount of happiness she had known then except for the amount of loneliness she would know after.

Hindsight was a lost person's worst gift. It focused spotlights on what could not be fixed or undone and it also took the times when everything had happened normally without a hint of foreboding and bathed them in overcast shadows that could only be seen after the invisible threat present had vanished. Like a lone stranger lurking in a corner, or in Makoto's case, a passenger plane waiting to take off on its airstrip at Haneda Airport.

Tamotsu and Ayame Kino had been two people who loved to travel. In fact, it had been a fateful flight aboard a standard airliner from Kyoto to Narita where the two had crossed paths for the first time. And so it was almost comical that the very mode of transportation that had allowed them to meet and begin a life together had so cruelly taken away their lives on a routine trip to visit Tamotsu's parents in Aomori.

Makoto hadn't wanted them to go, but it had been unanimously decided between her parents that she should finish out her last week of school before she, along with her Uncle Seki and Aunt Toya, were to take a separate flight where she would meet up with her parents again at Aomori Airport.

Whatever benevolent force in the universe that had kept her off of that plane had not stopped to consider what it was taking away from her.

Or maybe it had, Makoto would ponder later. It just hadn't cared enough to spare the only two people who had meant everything to her at that age and she hated the universe for its magnanimous lapse in cosmic judgment.

And, no matter how many years went by, Makoto Kino would never forgive destiny for the empty existence it had allotted her in the place of the parents she had treasured.

And she had vowed when she was young, that whatever forces in the universe that were responsible would pay, they would pay big time.

Ten Years later…

"Why do you think she always sits over there alone? I'm telling you, Satsu, that girl is different."

Satsu Misaki shrugged her shoulder and stuffed her mouth with another spoonful of her tapioca pudding instead of outright agreeing. Middle of the fence was where she had always been the most comfortable and it was where she tended to stay.

"It's probably why she's also in all of those special courses, you know, for those genius students who are so high above the rest of us that God forbid they be brought down to our level." Chiyo Misaki gestured animatedly as she spoke to make her point clear: the Mizuno kid was some sort of freak, or at least that was her sister's rave topic for now.

Tomorrow morning none of what they were talking about would matter anyway. Satsu's twin would be onto a new topic like 'Godzilla finally destroyed Tokyo '(God knows he had invaded the place enough in the movies) or some other such ridiculousness. It was never the same from day to day and Satsu had to hand it to her other half for her creativity.

Life with her certainly wasn't dull and Satsu preferred it that way…even if she did have to listen to her twin's trumped up stories every once in a while.

As for where Mizuno was concerned, Satsu had to admit that she didn't know the girl all that well and she wasn't sure anyone did, really. She was always quiet and acted beyond shy when anyone tried to talk to her. Which might be part of the reason why Chiyo was so stuck on her as a topic today. Satsu knew full well that her twin was very social and should someone like Ami chose not to socialize with her because she was very introverted, Chiyo might have taken it as a sign that the girl was stuck up instead of just deathly shy.

It was a common misconception on her sister's part, though Satsu was not sure she was able to determine whether or not that was the case with this Mizuno girl.

The rumor was that she never talked except in class when she answered almost every question the teacher asked, so much so that many of the other students didn't even bother to raise their hands anymore because she always had the answer. Ami didn't appear to have any friends, which was odd for a girl her age. She sat alone at lunch everyday and also didn't share a table with anyone in the library during their classes study period.

In fact, she didn't just not talk to Chiyo, Ami didn't talk to anyone not even in the hallway after school ended.

Who knows, maybe Mizuno was stuck up after all.

"Satsu, look!" Her twin whispered loudly.

Satsu rubbed her eyes and looked in the direction her sister was indicating. Sure enough, walking through the doors at the opposite end of the cafeteria was the blue haired girl they had been discussing. She was carrying a tray with nothing more on it than a red apple and a sandwich wrapped in wax paper with a bottle of water flanking it unsteadily on the other side.

For a genius, the kid really didn't eat much did she?

Carefully, Mizuno set her tray down at an empty table by the far wall and then meticulously tucked her uniform skirt in as she sat down on the bench in front of her food. A couple of girls walking past her gave her a dubious side long glance as if to say 'why on earth are you sitting by yourself', but Ami didn't pay any attention to them and instead took a long drink of her water.

"You see! I bet you she is a snob." Chiyo started in again, "And she sits alone every day just because she doesn't want to socialize with us lesser mortals."

Satsu sighed and looked back down into her empty tapioca cup, wishing there was still another mouthful left in it to distract her from her sister's musings.

"And you know what else, Satsu? You know what else, if Mizuno is a snob, I bet that Hiarakiri girl is a witch."

Oh, for the love of….

"The other day," Chiyo continued regaling the small group at their table while skillfully ignoring her twin as she rolled her eyes at her, "Yukio told me that she had bumped shoulders with her in the hallway between classes and she had almost stared right through her."

"I am sure Yukio was exaggerating like she always does." Satsu drew the attention of their friends away from her other half as she tried to make a basket with her empty pudding cup into the trash can by the wall and failed miserably. "After all, she still talks about the Thursday afternoon food fight last week as if it was the gunfight at the O.K. Coral or something and the blonde at table 16 still holds the reputation of being the biggest klutz to walk the Earth since the dinosaurs all because she tripped in some potato salad."

"She didn't just trip!" Chiyo chipped in, making her theatrical come back into the conversation. "She slid under two tables and slammed head first into Nurse Sedi. It was hilarious, though I sort of feel bad for her. She's probably catching hell for it in afterschool detention for the rest of the month."

"Who is she?" One of the other girls at their table asked conspiratorially, leaning her chin on her hands and leaning in towards the center of the table.

"Um….her first name is really familiar…" Chiyo rubbed her temple as she thought hard, killing brain cells by the millions with the effort, "I want to say it's Usagi? Yeah, yeah, Usagi that's it. What's her last name, Satsu?"

Everyone turned to her twin and Satsu became very quickly annoyed with the scrutiny of four pairs of curious eyes trained on her out of seemingly nowhere.

"Tsukino." Satsu muttered testily, trying her best to ignore the attention being placed on her.

But that wasn't enough for Chiyo. Very stealthily, she leaned forward towards her sister until she was half laying, half leaning against the table top. And then it came.

"YOU SAY WHAT, SIS??"

At the overly loud exclamation, their side of the cafeteria stared over at them and Satsu's eyes went wide as dinner plates as she sank down in her chair praying mentally for invisibility.

"Sorry." Chiyo back off a little with a smile that said she clearly wasn't as she made eye contact with her mortified sister across the table, "I couldn't hear you. What was her last name again?"

Couldn't hear me?! Funny, you can usually hear a pin drop when a cute boy is within stalking range. Satsu wanted to add this out loud, but thought better of it as most of the staring pairs of eyes from around the room still hadn't left her alone yet.

"I said her name is Tsukino." Satsu repeated in a normal tone, her eyes narrowing at her twin's knowing smirk as she thought of various ways to wipe it off of her face.

"Ah, her name is Usagi Tsukino everybody!" Chiyo announced to the group enthusiastically.

Satsu rolled her eyes yet again and didn't bother to hide the cringe she felt as her sister's voice went up in volume on the last few words.

Yeah, life with Chiyo certainly wasn't dull.

The bell that signaled the end to the school day chimed loudly over the students' heads and the vast majority of them got up from their seats, happy that they could finally leave the hellhole their parents called an educational establishment and rushed them out to every morning.

But at least one of them didn't share in the excitement of the rest.

Ami Mizuno sat at her desk as her classmates filed out of the room, her back straight and her hands folded on the desk in front of her as if the absent teacher was still there giving one of her infamously boring lessons. She remained at attention as the room cleared and then when no one was left except for her, the girl let out a deep breath that slowly became a tired sigh on its way out and slumped back slightly in her chair.

Ami felt so drained at the end of every day, but her pride in herself wouldn't let anyone know it but her. That was how it had always been and how it would always be. Outwardly, she wasn't an overly assertive or emotional individual, but on the inside she was so much more than she appeared.

And she just had to remember that when she heard snippets of her classmates' conversations in the hallway or the lunch room that would cite her as, "a snob" or an, "annoying little know it all". She found it hard sometimes, having confidence in herself in the face of all the whispers that seemed to follow her through the halls and down the sidewalk as she made her way home every evening.

It was almost a constant buzz in Ami's ears which she hadn't completely learned to block out yet even though it had been with her for as long as she had been in school with kids her own age and likely would be until she graduated her final year.

Taking another deep breath as she struggled to keep her eyes open, Ami raised her arms above her head and stretched to wake herself up a little before getting up and beginning to gather her things. Once all of her books and supplies were neatly fitted into her backpack, Ami slid the blue leather bag onto her shoulders and made her way down the mostly empty halls.

The aquamarine water parted like waves of cloth as Ami's long strokes pulled her from one side of the pool to the other. Stopping at the far side, Ami clutched the wall as she went under one last time to get her blue locks out of her eyes. Surfacing again, she took a deep breath and hugged the wall so she could rest for a couple minutes.

In all fairness, she should have been back home studying, but she had decided rather quickly after class that it could wait. On the short walk home, the whispers (loud and soft) she had heard going around about her all day kept running through her mind over and over like a bad cassette tape..

"That girl is weird. There's definitely something wrong with her."

"I bet you she is a snob and she sits alone every day just because she doesn't want to socialize with us lesser mortals."

"It's too bad they don't teach these geniuses how to speak anything but geek."

Her legs, kicking straight and powerful, helped Ami flip over and reverse directions as she dunked below the surface of the water again and started back towards the other long end of the pool. The splashing and underwater drone of the water around her made the whispers repeating themselves in her mind get quieter and quieter though she knew from experience that distraction could never drive them away completely.

Going for a swim was always the only escape for her.

Books were a nice retreat, but they really didn't tip the scales of the equalizer enough to compensate for her over active mind. Watching a movie or television program just seemed to amplify the sense of not fitting into the social norms that were floating through her head at the time after catching an ear full of them at school every Mizuno was anything but normal and she was reminded of that particular undeniable truth every single day or her life.

The crystalline façade of the undisturbed surface water was rudely destroyed as Ami came up for air near the opposite wall, having swum the whole length of the pool under water for the last few laps.

Alright, now she was tired. Moving towards the ladder, she swiftly pulled herself and walked the short distance over to the pool chair where she had laid down her activity center issue white towel and school things. After drying herself off thoroughly, Ami reached down into the front pocket of her backpack and pulled out an electronic wrist watch. Catching sight of the time, she let out a tired sigh.

It was now 7:45 PM which meant that she had been exercising for over four hours which could have been spent better studying, and as an added negative, she had also managed to miss dinner. Not that it really mattered anyway. Time was negotiable, though nonrefundable, and all this extra excursion meant was that she would have to stay up approximately four hours later than usual to retrieve the study time she had traded in for her evening activity. And dinner didn't matter so much. Her mother worked most nights until the wee hours of the morning and even then she only took about four hours or so off before starting the next day's shift so Ami was used to being practically self sufficient where making her own meals and taking charge of the household responsibilities were concerned.

And a plate of instant curry and rice warmed up in the microwave was looking fairly good right now.

Ami slung the towel around her shoulders and picked up her schoolbag, ready to head to the locker room and change back into her uniform for the walk back home. When she arrived at the apartment she shared with her mother, no one was home as she had expected. When she came into the kitchen, a lone note had been stuck between two magnets on the fridge.

Setting her things down on the breakfast counter, Ami moved over to the note and took it off of the fridge, so that it could be better read:

Ami,

I will be staying the night in the ER tonight. Don't stay up too late and I will see you tomorrow night for dinner together. Hope you had a good day at school today. See you tomorrow.

Love,

Mom

Ami sighed. That was the third night this week her mother had decided to spend at the hospital instead of coming home to sleep. Even her day off had been spent in surgery. Now, Ami loved her mother and was very proud of her and all of her achievements, but even she was willing to admit that there were times when her mother just pushed herself too far.

But then again who was Ami to speak? She pushed her own limits every day and had new standards set for herself every night.

Taking a deep breath, Ami set the note on the counter as she moved to the freezer to pull out the frozen curry box. Silently, she went about preparing the ingredients: taking the plastic bag with the frozen vegetables and curry sauce and setting it on a dish while simultaneously taking the bag of dry rice and opening a corner of the resealable plastic to fill the bottom with water before sealing it up again and placing it on the dish as well. She then put the dish in the microwave and set it to cook for the appropriate amount of time.

Waiting for the food to get done, Ami decided to get some of her household chores out of the way so that she would have less to do tomorrow morning and that following afternoon.

She got out a bucket and a rag in preparation for moping the floor before Ami decided that the task might be undertaken easier if she turned on the radio to give her something to entertain her while she worked.

When the power button was flipped on, the radio had already been set on a news station and had it not been in the middle of a broadcast, Ami might have turned it to a different one, but this particular news story held her interest:

"Our on location reporter, Ryota Masahiro, has the story."

"Hi, Ujio, this is Ryota Masahiro and I am reporting to you live from the Marunouchi business district where a unique disturbance has rose up at Tokyo Station. It appears there is some sort of creature causing havoc on the ground level and we are uncertain where it came from. Authorities are trying to keep it contained on the lower level, but with limited success as the creature seems to be gaining ground. The Tokyo Metro has been closed down completely for the night and many main lines have been evacuated out onto the top level. This is a strange incident folks, a strange one indeed. There was some question in the beginning about what sort of animal this could be, but the authorities who have come into contact with it say it is not an animal but something out of science fiction, ladies and gentlemen. Descriptions of the creature seem to detail it pretty consistently as a blue woman with train wheels on her feet and wrists and a locomotive whistle on her forehead which she blows when she charges the authorities trying to contain her. "

Ami shut off the faucet she had turned on so that she could fill the mop bucket with water, and stared wide eyed at the little black box set in the niche between the cabinets above the microwave.

Were they serious? Was this an actual news cast or had the dial somehow been set on the sci-fi station? No, that couldn't be right. No one in their house hold was a science fiction fan, yet alone would have left it on that station. But then that meant that this was a real news story?

But how could that be? A blue monster terrorizing downtown Tokyo, it was absurd.

But somewhere in the back of Ami's mind, something stirred and she suddenly knew, she didn't know how, that this monster was real and whatever the reason it was in Tokyo, its coming meant dark days were ahead for all of them. Where had that thought come from? Ami tried to shake it off, but the feeling persisted full tilt.

"Wait ladies and gentleman, someone else has just entered the fray from the direction of the Ginza commercial district."

Ami's ears perked up at that. A person? What person in their right mind would put themselves in between a monster and greater Tokyo? But in the back of her mind again, Ami felt and over powering concern overriding her sense of logical thought and it was telling her that she too should be fighting this thing.

It was absurd really, Ami thought to herself as the feeling began to build stronger now in her chest, her fighting a monster? She had trouble taking on the opposing volleyball team in gym class, how could she take down a monster that the local authorities couldn't even handle?

"It's Sailor V ladies and gentlemen!!"

The crowd in the back ground of the reporter cheered as the girl in the odd sailor uniform hopped from car top to car top through the customary evening traffic jam until she reached the station.

Ami immediately turned off the radio, her hands shaking as she moved over by the door way, dinner and chores forgotten to grab her jacket and her shoes. She had no idea what she was doing, but Ami knew she had to do something.

Without a second thought, the unknown senshi of Mercury bolted out the door and raced down the hallway towards the stairs, not even bothering with the elevator, as a strange feeling compelled her down into the street.

"Those things that hurt, instruct."

-Benjamin Franklin- (1706 – 1790)

"Fate is not an Eagle, it creeps like a rat."

-Elizabeth Bowen- (1899 – 1973)

A/N: Hello everyone!'In Loco Parentis' is a Latin phrase that means 'in the place of a parent' and I felt as though I had to use it as a chapter title somewhere because it fit in with Makoto's family situation when we first meet her. I hope you all enjoyed this chapter and that you continue to enjoy the story. I would appreciate it if you lovely readers out there could drop me a review or two to let me know your opinion of the story and how it is progressing. Thank you for reading and taking the time to comment!