Chapter 2: Confined space

The whole week since their agreement had flashed by quickly for the both of them. For Ami, it had been as her friends coined it, a battle of endurance. Between the start of the week and the last class on Friday, ten consecutive tests over five days stood between them which for Ami at least, it actually presented her with a challenge. While a test on its own was a cakewalk, having to study for ten, some on the same subject, actually gave Ami a chance to stretch her abilities and give her something approaching risk, since while the standard of pass was a lot lower, her own standards demanded something quite different. For the others, merely getting a pass was enough, and while they had close calls, by Friday, their confidence from passing exams had helped them fight through the last couple.

For Saeko, it had been a busier week. On Monday, she had made it the priority of the week to get all of Friday off, having expanded on her promise with her daughter, which in her mind for the moment had been etched into forty foot high stone tablets. After talking to fellow clinicians about the need for the time off, Saeko had gone to additional step to carefully rearrange the roster to place the most reliable of the staff — in terms of attendance and responsibility — to be on duty Friday. It had been a herculean effort to achieve at all, the roster was usually set in stone on Sunday and having it changed for any reason was almost considered blasphemy by the accountant types in the administration office, but Saeko got it to work her way. It meant that she had to do three consecutive late night shifts, but it had assured her that day off would be approved.

During the week, Ami had noted through the message board that her mother had secured Friday, but she had to work hard all week to get it. With that, Ami now had a goal not that much different from her friends, who merely just wanted to make it to Friday. She put more effort into her studies and by some providence, might have been the cause for her to get a better score in every exam. Things seemed to be coming together for both Mizuno's, at least until the previous day, where things started to fall apart. Just like Ami would inevitably miss a few details that appeared on her exam, Saeko missed a few details that she didn't prepare to cover.

The first harbinger had been delivered from the head of the ER department. While sympathizing with her position, he informed her that she would need to come in the cover for a doctor that was going with a group down to Kyoto to a conference that she had forgotten all about. Despite protests to the contrary and an informal plea to her own department head for a substitution, Saeko had come out of with no choice but to agree to a surrender of some time on her day off, which she had least had managed to reduce from a full day to just the morning shift with her being relieved at 2:00pm that afternoon. It was a compromise arrangement which allowed for enough time to rush home, change and be ready for greet Ami at the door for once.

But like all adult promises, Saeko had made the mistake of trusting too much in the words spoken the other day and despite assuring Ami this morning that this was a mild setback, her relief wasnt going to show after discovering that the doctor that was supposed to relieve her had a family emergency to attend to. As senior doctor in the department at the moment, Saeko wasn't able to simply leave the ward. The junior doctors and residents, the ones she hand picked for today — and had the most promise in — depended on Saeko for difficult cases and in rare advent, aiding in triage. Upon learning the circumstances that further delayed her departure, Saeko had put off making the call for an hour, instead trying to find someone to relieve her. When the hour passed and it came up on the time school was letting out for the day, Saeko faced the inevitable.

Now sitting in her office with only the anticipation of an accident requiring her attention, Saeko had run out of time to make excuses. Sighing into the phone as she heard the dial tone, she pressed in the numbers for her home, waited the seven rings, and then relayed a message she would rather not have delivered.


At roughly the same time of her mother's call, the final exam had been completed and in one combined action, pens dropped as every student suddenly felt exuberance upon completing the last of their exams and the three weeks of holiday became in range of their grasp. Homeroom soon followed and along with the usual spoken caution to be careful and warnings to not cause a civil disturbance during the break, teach homeroom teacher read out a lists of students who would be called back next week to re-do exams. Heavy in anticipation, Minako, Usagi and Makoto had held their breath as they waited for the homeroom teacher to stop speaking. When she put the paper down, the three almost ejected into the air from their seats in excitement.

Upon learning this, the three dunces were more than happy to report their success to Rei.

"You actually passed?" Rei cocked an eyebrow at Usagi

"Yep" Usagi poked her tongue at the miko "no cheating …55% was my lowest!"

Rei shrugged, taking one last prod at her friend, "Well, you may have passed, but at least I can rest assured that you wont be catching up to me any time soon"

It was a jab that Usagi fumed over and couldn't deny. At 78%, Rei was far out of her league, and Ami was a completely different level, who had an 'as expected' lowest score of 98% and 5 perfect scores of 100%. While none had doubted Ami's intelligence, they weren't aware of how much impact the important plans Ami had been working towards, had in affecting her performance. They had been the driving motivation that gave her the stamina she needed, which the other four had struggled all week to barely match. Even Minako had barely cut clear of 60%. Her pass was thanks in part to Artemis, who refused to accept any excuses and basically tutoring her intensely when Ami wasn't around. Throughout the week Minako rediscovered again that Artemis, when prompted, could be just as good a teacher of math as Ami was to her.

With the laugh that followed Usagi's misfortune at comparing grades, the talk of their exams faded into the past and the five talked about their plans for the rest of today. At once, Makoto asserted that a trip to karaoke was deserved, which proposal was quickly accepted by Usagi and Rei who were all for.

"So Ami, what are your plans now? Is your mother just waiting for you to come home?" Rei asked

"I think so" Ami replied "but she had it on the message board this morning that she had to go in this morning to cover for someone"

"What?" Minako got to ask first "I thought she got the whole day off?"

"Yeah, but they are short staffed a lot, so when someone calls in sick…she doesn't have much choice" Ami answered lamely.

"But she will be home in time right?"

Ami didn't answer, as much as she was looking forward to it, she hadn't stop ignoring the little niggling doubt that she would be able to make it and when that doubt found its mark this morning it worried Ami. She was sure that it could only be until two in the afternoon, but that might not stop the hospital from giving her more work to do. As the hours passed throughout the day, Ami's enthusiasm for the day had slowly soured slightly as reminders came and went, knowing it could go either way. Her mother had worked pretty hard this week, each night coming home very tired...but it only took one thing for all her effort to go to waste.

"Ami?" Minako prompted.

"I hope so…"Ami finally answered, still unsure of herself "mom did arrangements to try get today off"

Doubt was truly the enemy of confidence, at least in the case of Ami. Minako pondered the reply, while not so sharp on the books, her grades didn't mark her ability to read minds and emotions. In the case of Ami, her lack of assurance told much to the blonde-haired teenager about the concern she hadn't voiced. Minako still felt guilty for putting Ami on the spot like that on Sunday and remembered that it was that conversation that prompted this promise in the first place. Now it sounded like Ami's mother couldn't even get an afternoon off.

'Well, it's not like neither worked real hard to make this happen' Minako thought before framing her reply "I'm sure she'll be there…she did promise you didn't she?"

It was a good try at assuring her friend, but Ami's reply pretty much summarized reality.

"I'm a little too old to believe in those kinds of promises"

Nobody really had an answer to that, not even Usagi whom always forwent the usual restraints of logic and common sense to say something about not giving up. They were not in middle school anymore, all of them were second year high school students, about to become third year students in another three months. Even for their age, they weren't too young to understand the fundamental place reality had on life. But despite that and because of her more than implicit understanding of reality, Minako — whom hadn't even decided yet on what she would be doing — decided then and there to intervene.

"Well, if she doesn't, give me a call…you still need to go anyway right?"

"Eh?" Usagi turned in surprise "I thought you were coming with us!"

"Sorry Usagi" Minako replied apologetically, bowing with hand up and praying "After all those exams this week, I just want to lie down and take a breather for a bit…I'll go next time"

Ami was surprised at what Minako just offered, but she wasn't sure about it. It sure wasn't the same as spending time with her mother, but at least it wouldn't be a wasted afternoon. Ami was troubled over her explanation and wondered if it would be too much to ask of Minako. None the less, it was a nice offer.

"Thanks…"

The five of them reached the next corner where would go their own ways. Rei, Usagi and Makoto headed towards the shopping district, while Ami and Minako left for their respective homes. Walking alone now, Ami thought about the offer from Minako, which didn't require too much consideration. If mom was home, then there were no worries, but if she wasn't, then Ami had the option to call Minako and go with her, if of course Ami felt like actually going out at all after learning of any new arrangement in their plans. Ami sided with her optimism for now and do so until she had a reason to think otherwise, but in the meantime, she still had to ask herself what she would do if her mother wasn't at home, it would occupy her thought process for the entire duration of her walk home.

On another road not too far away, Minako's thoughts were, as usual for the moment, focused on someone else's problems. Ami's mood was concerning her, it was bad enough that she couldn't get to spend Christmas with her family — a fact that she confirmed on Tuesday— but hearing that her mother couldn't even spare several hours to go shopping was worrying. Her interest in Ami's problem only spawned further when she thought about the relation between the two, which unlike her own mother, Ami's actually did make honest efforts to see her daughter when she could. There had to be some cruel reason why Ami's mother never really had the chance to talk to her daughter.

Minako had heard the reasons from Ami, but it was still something for the self-proclaimed goddess of love to consider.


Ami's thoughts halted after she realized that all it was doing was giving her a migraine asking the same question over and over, and she simply walked thoughtless until she reached her home. Everything there looked the same, from the lack of mail in the lobby box — mail day was typically Wednesday — to the same elevator music and to the same city wind she got as she walked to the door.

"I'm home!"

Nothing…well it wasn't like she was really hoping for it at the end. The second or two Ami took to register even a muffled reply passed and it confirmed for her what she had detested from learning. Stepping into her apartment, Ami's mood now of apathy changed while she exchanged her shoes for slippers and by the time she walked into the kitchen, it had become depression while she proceeded to check one final thing. The board was unchanged…still said she was going to be home at 2:00pm after stating at 6am. Ami's side simply said she left for school at some ninety minutes later and her planned return time was shy of two minutes later than she actually arrived home.

"Well, that means…" Ami sighed as she turned her eyes to the other wall where sure enough, the black phone with a blinking red light flashed '...well, at least you know now…now what is the reason this time?'

Ami's apathy induced depression turned into dejection when she heard the message.

"Hey Ami …" her mother spoke, not quite as cheerful as normal messages "I'm sorry but…the evening duty doctor couldn't come in…I don't know how long I'll be…just…just go ahead to the place we going to…I'll try find a way to get there, please…I'll see you there then, Bye Ami"

For at least a minute, Ami's eyes only focused on the red light on the phone, its blinking constant as a heartbeat. Eventually it sunk in for her and Ami jammed her finger home on the delete key. In as many words, her week of anticipation had drained away and all that was left was a melancholy feeling that the day now felt meaningless. Could she really have expected it to happen? Was it really possible to arrange such a thing? While Ami couldn't have means-tested it, the answer was pretty obvious now. Ami took a deep breath and looked down for a moment. When she was done expelling air and what anger she felt in Ami head, she for now didn't know what to do. After the obvious moment of pause, Ami collected her school bag from the kitchen bench and walked back to her bedroom.

In one mighty breath, Ami expelled all the air when she hit the bed and closed her eyes for a moment. That moment turned into a minute…then five minutes, then seven minutes before she opened them again. Rolling over onto her back, Ami looked back upto the ceiling, she had…in her head wasted enough time on nothing, now it was time to work out what to do. Her previously ignored options now became relevant and at the same time pointless.

'Meet me at the place we were going to meet up, I'll catch up' Ami summarized the message she received before asking herself "for how long do you want me wait?"

She didn't hate her mother; Ami couldn't have ever had it in her. At the same time, her ability to rely on her words was marred twice by the compromise in a single day. We'll…it wasn't her fault, the hospital simply needed her right now and Ami was use to that by now, wasn't she? Maybe she could make the third…arrangement...work. Well, it really depended, was she actually trying to meet up with her daughter, or was the hospital trying to test how gullible both Mizuno's were. If that was the case, why should Ami really go? But what if she did end up making it out there and Ami didn't go…wouldn't that look great. It was a classic impasse and a simple phone call to the office of Dr Saeko Mizuno could at least directly answer that.

"Well, I guess I'll give it a try" Ami decided, "what do I have to loose?"

That though took a moment to process and as a result, Ami's next action was to get out of bed and return to the phone, after several rings finally the other end picked up.

"Hey, it's Ami" hey voice doing its best to hide her disappointment "Where do you want to meet up?"


It had been an afternoon where she wished that if justice existed everywhere, Saeko could've left responsibility to the most trustworthy person and run off. But even then, even if it was all okay and nothing bad happened, Saeko would feel forever guilty for doing such a thing. Sitting in her office, now well after over two hours past the time she was suppose to return home, Saeko knew she was too detached to be visibly upset, too professional to complain, but it didn't mean she couldn't have feelings for the moment. Gloom, guilt and apathy all rolled into one emotion of failure, she had be unable to find a single clinician to cover for her at all, which meant she would be covering until 10:00pm. It would be ruinous to her health — no doctor in his or her right mind operated that long — and what seemed more important right now, it would be destructive to her relationship with Ami.

And from the looks of things, it was all for nothing. Sitting in her office since 1:00pm, Saeko had really had nothing to do, the patient load didn't really occur until later at night anyway and she had really had nothing else to do but review the medical notes left by the doctor who did the graveyard shift. It was the most annoying thing about her job sometimes, when it turned out that she had nothing to do. Saeko could walk the halls and find herself something, but her task here was to be there when something complicated came up, but in selecting the best junior residents for Friday shift, she had almost availed herself of that task. They could handle the job quite well on their own since all of them the best of the current group with certainly a few promising long term prospects if they didn't get bought up by the private clincs elsewhere first.

It meant a slow day, promising to be a slow night which in that time Saeko could do nothing else but stare at the clock on her desk and watch her chance to do something with her daughter slip away. Saeko felt doomed, at least until she heard the knock on the door.

"Kaya, is that you? Come in" Saeko sat upright and focusing her attention to the door. Much to her surprise the door revealed not a junior resident, rather a senior doctor.

"Hiro" she stood up "Aren't you early?"

"I am?" Hiroyoshi looked down at his watch and checked "Indeed your right...they won't be serving the dinner menu for another hour"

The two chuckled, thought Saeko retained her surprise. Dr Hiroyoshi Reed was actually the doctor that was supposed to take the next graveyard shift. The man had a quiet, friendly demeanor about him, coming from many years as an instructor for the surgery teams and a supervising doctor in the pediatric wards. He didn't really converse a lot with the other senior doctors, mainly due of his casual nature, but he did have a small following of friends among the staff. While frowned upon by the others, Hiroyoshi had a good bedside with patients, and an almost easy-going relationship the junior residents and nursing staff around him.

"So why are you really here so early?" Saeko sat down again and relaxed,

"Well to be honest…" Hiroyoshi sat down "...your friend Hatori called me a call when he called in…he told me you were in a bit of a predicament"

"If those words were more accurate, they would cause penetration wounds…" Saeko replied with subtle humor, then continued "...I guess it's my fault, I knew it was possible but…"

Hiroyoshi just sat their listening to Saeko's explanation. When she finished he simply asked "So what she got that message and went? Where do you think she'll be right now?"

"Oh I don't know…" Saeko started to do the math, "time to get changed…and if she went alone, she'll be down at the station in around 30 minutes"

"Well then..." Hiro stood up again "...Why don't you see if you can beat her there?"

Saeko's eyes lit up like a Christmas tree when his veiled invitation was heard, but soon the bulbs dimmed out when reality sank in, "I don't think she'll come, I've already let her down twice today"

"Well, why don't you give her a call? Tell her your heading out now"

It couldn't hurt to try. With Dr. Reed watching, she entered her phone number and waited, after seven rings, she got the answering machine.

"Nobody is home"

"Well, either she headed straight to the shopping centre or left before you called" Hiroyoshi replied, and continued before Saeko could make another comment "…I'll fiddle around with the timetable to try get Hatori or Ryosuke to cover me later on"

"How can I thank you?"

"Don't worry about it" Hiro went to the coat stand to collect her associates jacket "…only reason why I'm here at all is because I had to drop my daughters off for a sleepover"

Draped with her jacket, Saeko grabbed her bag and thanked her walking miracle again; every now and then it was nice that she wasn't the one performing the difficult task of making the impossible happen.


"Our first task is to update our information"

"Tch…."

The first response didn't take a lot of guessing, Denisa proving forever that she would only be a warrior, just as Azrael would forever be an intelligence officer, the common problems with warriors were they didn't understand how helpful knowing their enemy was. The general however had long since learnt this lesson and therefore had reason to listen to Azrael.

"Elaborate"

"Since we have very little to work with, I think it would be prudent for us to execute some sort of test attack on them" Azrael started to explain "there is also the distinct, but not entirely unlikely possibility that the senshi are no longer in the same area they have been living, if we're to determine where to attack, we need better information…where they are, how long it takes them to show up. How many are alive, how powerful are they as individuals and as a team"

It was a tall order, but as typical for the man who spoke, it was also correct. For the general to achieve his objective, he would need to know all of this.

"Wouldn't attacking only announce to the Senshi on be alert?" Denisa argued "you're giving away the element of surprise"

"The generals who worked under beryl threw away the element of surprise by attempting to act covertly under their noses…" the intelligence officer corrected his equal "and without knowledge on where they hide, the element of surprise is useless to even us"

"You want us to just storm a place and hope that some Senshi will show up?"

"Yes"

The general was silent and unmoved, his eyes gazed at both arguments. One thing he knew that resulted in the failures of before was the inability to object to the queen when her decisions didn't even follow a clear objective. While there had been certain logic to it, it had been strategically flawed by the fact that the enemy was constantly defeating the operations trying to achieve this. But while the general was pleased to see that at least one of his colonels was objective in thinking, it was Azrael's logical analyzing to the situation that won out. To achieve their objective, they would need to size up the forces and work out the best target — logically the weakest of the group — which would be preferred given his limited fighting force.

Without words, he turned his head to Azrael and nodded for him to continue, confirming that at least this time, the general preferred the intelligence officer's analysis over the objectivity of the warrior. Denisa was the only one uncomfortable with that arrangement, typically relying on instincts instead of calculated plans, the intelligence officer's plan sounded awfully like the kind of schemes that the four generals tried last time. While a legitimate thought, she had also forgotten that those general's schemes never truly aimed themselves at targeting the senshi. Azrael was doing the reverse, instead of operating covertly, he was deliberately looking for the senshi.

"The first attack will need to identify at least three of the things we need to know...their locale, their reaction time, and their strength" Azrael described "based on previous attacks, they have remained consistent in an area called Juban…but we need to confirm this"

"Why?" another colonel to Denisa's left asked "that's a pattern we can work on"

"Colonel Soyuz...It's been 18 months since the known activity and if they are people like the society they live in, their prone to migrate according their needs…determining this is important in evaluating how difficult our task is…"

Everyone nodded, with the general noting that even Denisa was now listening to reason. She however was not as impressed, Denisa did get it that finding the senshi in the first place was necessary, but doing so without really trying to locate them for a surprise attack felt like a mistake. If the senshi were in full force as general conferred to believe, their limited forces were not strong enough for the kind of objective that the general was after. With that in mind, she decided that despite Azrael's cunningness, there was only one way to execute a plan, and only a warrior knew how to do best accomplish this.

"I'll lead the attack party" Denisa spoke.

The others looked wary of her, but were not going to comment on her ruthlessness, she was among the best fighters gathered here, nobody could dispute it, but the general however did.

"The need for you to lead this attack is not necessary, you are a too valuable a warrior for this mission, when the time comes for your distinct abilities, we'll need you then" the general wisely, but sternly commanded, looking to the end of the table at the person best suited. Without flinching, he chose the person who would lead the attack.

"Achen, prepare for battle for tonight, take your auto-troops and prepare to move"

Achen rose from his seat and bowed, not that he was really sure why. The man before him could've sat on the throne by now, and was a respectable warrior and leader who fear trailed behind him. But at the same time, by assigning him the first group, his value was accessed and his was deemed the least needed of the group.

"Fight to the last auto-troop; insure you collect as much information you can for Azrael and return to us...use your instincts well and cautiously"

"I will not fail my objective, General"


Despite Saeko's earlier calculation, Ami wouldn't have been at the train station now had she not been waiting for Minako to catch up. She had been napping for just over half an hour when the call came through from Ami taking up on her offer. While disappointed as well for Ami's bad fortune, Minako would at least fulfill the promise she had made before and come along. After first getting ready for a night out and deciding that Artemis could come as well, Minako had run for the train she had missed by mere seconds. After waiting for the next one, Minako and Artemis — whom the latter had been hiding in former's backpack, as so to not annoy JR staff — arrived fifteen minutes later than planned.

Upon arriving, all they had to do was find Ami among the crowds of homebound salary men and the early Friday night crowd, padded in numbers tonight by high school students now on holiday. With Artemis hanging on to Minako in the confines of her backpack, they eventually found her where she was suppose to be.

"I was starting to get worried" Ami replied surprised to see them finally; she had been looking the other way when Minako tapped her on the back.

"Sorry…" Minako apologized "we had trouble leaving the house"

"Like what she was going to wear" Artemis very quietly murmured, his proximity to Minako's ear ensured that he was knocked on the head.

"So where are we going?"

"To the super centre" Ami replied "I haven't been there yet..."

"Oh that place" Minako was now excited "that place is huge, I'm surprised you haven't, it's got everything in there"

The Juban Super center was a new development recently completed, with an indoor public pool, a bowling alley, and a roof miniature golf course which had views of the bay. The shopping centre was the first stage of a massive building project that included a residential condo tower and an office tower. The completion of the centre meant the profits could go towards bankrolling the venture for the next stage of construction. Even with the profits however, the proposed stage 2's 'office tower' wouldn't even be finished until early 1999 according to the advertisement.

"So your mother couldn't show up after work?" Minako asked, hoping for a positive answer

At the moment Minako said that, Saeko finally emerged from the exit of the train station. She hadn't really checked to see where she was on the train, it just hadn't been feasible, and her luck now relied on finding Ami at the station, if not, her next guess would be the shopping centre the both were planning on visiting. Saeko tried her best to look beyond the walls of human migration heading outside, but just before she gave up, the elder Mizuno suddenly noticed the distinct long blond hair of someone familiar. Focusing on it for curiosity sake, she then saw the person standing next to her. Saeko's absent luck day had just pulled another miracle in the space of an hour.

"I don't think so…" Ami said not noticing from a distance someone looking back at her

"I know the feeling" Minako replied "...but at least your mother tries, mine wouldn't even make the effort"

"I mean I understand why…it's just…" Ami caught a glimpse finally of the person making a bee-line through the human traffic to them. At first Ami thought it was nobody special, another worker just crossing the tide of salary men and evening goers to get somewhere else, but Ami focused on the person and failed to continue her sentence.

"Ami…what is it?" Minako quickly turned her head looking at the crowd. Not seeing what Ami was looking at, she turned back and saw that her friend's expression had changed completely.

"Mom!"

The two Mizuno's briefly embraced.

"You made it" Ami was almost at a lost for words, not quite emotional, just surprised.

"Well, someone finally came through for me" Saeko explained "sorry I was so late"

"That's alright mom"

"And you though I was late" Minako chuckled "Hello Dr. Mizuno, long time no see"

"Good evening Ms Aino" Saeko replied "I take it Ami invited you"

"Sort of" Minako laughed "You see…uh…"

Ami took over for Minako, feeling it was justly her right to explain herself "When I wasn't sure you could come tonight… I asked Minako if she could come…and keep me company while I waited…"

Touching as it was, it wasn't quite the truth, Saeko knew it, but she wouldn't punish her daughter for it. As she could summarize, her daughter had been worried about if she hadn't shown up and had invited her friend as backup plan. She had it right, thought Saeko she didn't quite get the details exactly right.

"Well, I guess with you two together…I guess you can go along without me" Minako chuckled

"Why? where are you going?" Ami asked, she hadn't thought about what would happen if her mother had shown up, but then again, today seemed to be a day where she had missed minor details.

"Well…you two…I mean"

Minako was looking for a polite way of saying it, and Ami knew it. Saeko however helped ease the situation and put everyone's concern to rest.

"Well you don't have to go home now do you?" Saeko offered "Why don't you tag along with us?"

"Are you sure?"

"Please, I rarely get to see my daughter's friends as it is"

With that invitation, the three girls nodded in agreement and walked off towards their destination.


Already inside and several floors up from where entrance was, two other senshi were already making use of the complex. But their reasons for being here was really different from the one that Ami and Minako were coming for. With their trip to Hokkaido less than a week away, the purchase of new winter wear had become the priority for one, and the worry of another.

"I can't believe you haven't even bought your ski gear yet" the smaller of the two pouted "you know you could've gotten it when I was getting mine"

"Yeah, but I still like to pick our my own things" the taller of the two replied "Michiru still thinks I can't pick out my own clothes"

"You sound like a boy sometimes, you know that right?"

"That's the whole idea"

Hotaru giggled, they were two of a kind in the weirdest couple she knew in her limited social circle, but none the less understandable. Despite their interaction and close relationship, they still had their foils and arguments sometimes. One of those arguments at the moment was currently being voiced, having booked for the vacation in October, Haruka hadn't even bought so much as a snow glove — let alone skis, weather gear, boots, a bag — citing being quite busy in the shop the last few weeks as a valid excuse. Her university grade mechanic's apprenticeship didn't allow her the time she wanted off for this sort of errand, though it did perplexingly provide plenty of time to drive around town and tour the country on weekends.

But eventually Haruka knew she had to get around to the task of buying her gear. This vacation after all had been Michiru's planning and with the endorsement of Setsuna, there was really no way that they could get out of it, short of an actual attack on the senshi, and that wasn't something to pray for. It was not like they could wait around for the next fight forever, there had been a good 18 months since Galaxia and this winter holiday after all was deserved time off. After all, waiting for disaster was boring, and the absence of activity was a relief, despite the superstitious thinking to the contrary. Everyone had adopted the fear about when the next enemy was about to attack, but eventually waiting for the enemy became boring, and this ski-trip was designed to at least take advantage of the free time.

"We'll Hotaru, when you grow up, your going to realize that sometimes its best to pick out your own clothing" Haruka explained "sometimes you cant trust anyone when it comes to you're your style"

"I have no problem with what I got…its cute" Hotaru replied

"As I said…when you grow up" Haruka chuckled


For Ami, the night had been one really new experience, with Minako tagging along, the night had been on fun time out shopping. Despite their initial awkwardness, Minako felt less like a third wheel by the time they had gone to the second store, thanks in part to her mother who could get almost anyone to open up easily enough, which in turn was thanks in part to her bedside manner that had taught her how. While Ami did feel a little displeasure for having her time with her mother shared with her friend, the compromise soon paid dividends when Minako continued to provide humor appropriate for the moment. In fashion stores, this humor was laced further by her attire recommendations for Ami, which lead to Saeko having a good laugh and even getting a few ideas what her daughter would look good in.

For Minako, the night had been one unique experience. Initially feeling out of place and awkward about the whole night, Saeko eventually helped ease her discomfort by asking her advice on clothes for Ami, which had the desired effect of letting Minako feel better about her tag-along status. The rest of the evening after that time was just as fun, having never really done something similar with her mother except when she was too young to understand it, it was a learning experience. There were differences of course, where as Minako's mother tended to focus on the beauty parlor and the boutiques, Ami and her mother found more interest in like visiting bookstores and electronic stores. Despite how often Minako was harassed for converting electronic devices — like her stereo— she quickly learnt that she was nothing compared to the more tech savvy pair, the senior Mizuno interested in CD players she could take to the office and the junior Mizuno really interested in a new laptops and software she wanted to use on it.

For Saeko, the night had been just fun. It was a break from weeks of tense scheduling and the general mood of her line of work offered a contrast to everything going on at the moment. It also gave Saeko the chance to learn a couple of new things that were either forgotten or entirely new to her. The problem with not seeing her own daughter all the time was the discrepancies in her development. Up until the second year in middle school, Ami had been a quiet, shy and overall reserved person, but nowadays — for reasons still unknown to Saeko — she was a definitely changed person since then, which often made her wonder how that had happened. Had it been maturity, or had it been from influence? She was no psychologist; but Saeko could tell that at least some of it was attributed to the impact Minako had on her daughter, just as Ami had on improving her friend's grades as was to learn.

While walking around the stores, Ami had related the results of her exams and while there was no doubt that she was brilliant, but it was her friend's immediately praise in tutoring her to a laudable result that had surprised the senior Mizuno. Saeko didn't know what to make of that, except it reinforced an idea that maybe Ami should consider becoming a teacher instead. Apart from that minor piece of consideration, Saeko's other observations were of Minako herself.

"Hey Ami, look!" Minako pointed towards a glass display. Minako divert from their original path to another store and stopped to see into the front windows of a toy store.

'Forever a child' Saeko thought. It seemed was the best description of her personality, not that it was in any way a problem. She found Minako a fairly interesting person in her brief time with her so far and while she had some strange eccentricities and was nowhere near as smart as Ami, Minako Aino was by far the most cheerful person she had encountered in awhile. Saeko, like Ami, turned their attention to the store which had several displays behind its windows. The first window was where the Pokemon toys and merchandise were and in the second window was Nintendo and Sega games, but the one that the Minako had obvious interest in was a range of 'Sailor Stars' action figures in the third window.

"It's the new ones! I've been waiting for ages to see these come out!"

In one of the odd commercial spin-off applications of first Sailor V, and now Sailor Moon and the other senshi, the sailor stars displayed in the store window were the third generation of action figures that were suppose to — with some remarkably accuracy — portray the entire Sailor Senshi line. Originally conceived by Konami's toy division, the sailor star series was one of the few remaining toy lines still around not completely submerged by the pokemon craze. While they didn't sell as much as before, a hardcore following of original fans, a university aged otaku community and little girls in love with the idea of a real life magical girl kept the franchise alive.

The portrayal of the senshi was a hit or miss affair however, with the first and second editions had been progressive refinements on interpretations of the battles fought, with the latest generation getting most of the important facts right. They were all present in the display, with Sailor Moon, Sailor 'Moon junior' and the subtly inaccurate tuxedo mask as 'Prince Moon' taking the center stage. And flanking either side from left to right; Saturn, Mars, Uranus, Venus, Jupiter, Mercury, Neptune and Pluto. While their appearances were practically true to the actual senshi, that was were the similarities ended.

Luna and Artemis and 'Apollo' were respectively a midnight black, snow white and chrome silver Cerberus. Further, as a consequence of sailors' Moon, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto having something like a weapon, the other senshi were given weapons to both justify the purchase of the newest generation of figurines, and to fulfill some popcorn logic that some of the fans had debated about. As a result, Venus also was given a futuristic looking handgun that clipped to her belt, mars was given a golden archer's bow and a couple of arrows with both iron and flame tips, Jupiter was given strange looking man-portable anti-tank rifle that — according to the blurb — included a lighting capacitor that shot 'lighting shells', and in one of the weird examples of fiction beating reality, Neptune's mirror was replaced with a trident.

"You're a fan of sailor moon?" Saeko asked curiously,

"Yeah!" Minako replied, still gazing at her latest toy incarnation "I've been a fan ever since Sailor V" which Minako was vaguely disappointed to see was no longer being made, the compromise however came in the form of Sailor Venus now coming with Sailor V's outfit as an accessory.

"That was a really a thing back in the day" Saeko chuckled, "the kids we had in hospital always talked about them…especially those who claimed they saw the real Senshi in action"

"I'm sure they did too" Minako chuckled, "I mean they must've been, right?"

Only because of the media attention did Saeko know that this was actually true, unlike Santa or the Easter bunny from western culture, the senshi were real, the incidents that occurred were real — that they were portrayed as childhood heroines was a consequence of a overtly commercial enterprise — and she knew how real they were because the police certainly took it seriously. Every time a patient brought in from a serious attack that required medical care, a detective questioned that person. A lot of the details of the senshi came from these interviews, which were relayed back into public consumption and eventually aided in making merchandise like these figurines becoming very accurate to the real deal.

"Hey Ami look" Minako pointed at mercury "your favorite one comes with a sword now"

At the same time, Ami and Saeko looked down at the figurine pointed out by Minako. In this latest incarnation, Ami could've sworn that this Mercury virtually identical to the real one, despite the added fiction that in the form of a European rapier sword that looked like it was made of ice. Saeko carefully glimpsed at the figurine and then turned to look at Ami. Her first impression of the toy's resemblance to her daughter disappeared in a heartbeat when she saw the look on Ami's face. Her look was not one of excitement, boredom or even displeasure, rather of distant but pale surprise.

"I didn't know you liked Sailor moon"

"I did…a little bit…" Ami replied, already guarded with her words. Upon first seeing them, she had at once hidden her embarrassment at seeing her likeness in a toy, but to any an outside observer, she appeared pale when Minako pointed out her secret alter-ego to her mother. From what Saeko could tell, Ami had never expressed interest in the Senshi fad as it was, ever. That as a child she was denied a lot of toys and fads because of their tight budget had instituted a waning discipline against luxuries was reason for her soft denial now.

"...and mercury was your favorite?" Saeko surprised at learning this, if Saeko had to pick a favorite, as so many children had asked her, in reply she often answered that she was a fan of Mercury.

Ami only nodded, committing herself to admit at least a false truth, which only confused Saeko. To her, Ami, she admitted to liking the character, but saying so in a way that made it sound like she didn't? It felt like a lie, was she really a fan of sailor moon or was it just denial, or was she simply mistaken?

Minako's brief lapse from realizing what she had dragged Ami into finally caught up to her consciousness and when she saw it in Ami's eyes that she really didn't know how to talk about this topic, Minako realized at how awkward the situation was and acted accordingly.

"Well Venus will always be my favorite" Minako spoke up "Me, Usagi, Rei and Makoto...we all were into it during middle school"

It was a push to bring the attention away from Ami, and it worked. Saeko took in the relevance of what was said by Minako and figured it out a plausible explanation that involved Ami showing interest because her friends followed it, which wasn't a bad thing of course, but it at least made a lot more sense than Ami's appearance of a straight denial.

"Well, I guess we should be going if we want to get the rest of the shopping done" Saeko decided, somewhat sounding like a mother directing two five year olds away from the windows.

While she was surprised by the manner in which Ami reacted to the toys and Minako's fascination, her doctor's logical mind didn't try to think too much into it and assumed simply that the two were remising in their own ways. She would've been surprised to learn however that Minako was already making plans to come back later and collect them all, as she did with the previous edition. Despite what she said, Minako never stopped being fascinated by the fictional adaption of her alter-ego. What would have further surprised Saeko however, was her daughter actually wished she could have bought one for herself, but with both the enforced guilt in buying something she was far too old to enjoy and the further fear that came along with such an object cancelled the temptation out.

While never really discussed among members of the senshi, Ami's sudden anxiety when confronted with her mother's reaction to her alter-ego was something paramount among the fears that they all faced. Minako didn't quite pick up on the signals as fast anymore since she had long since assumed her mother would never learn her identity. But when she saw the look, Minako knew she had gone too far. Fortunately, Ami's mother didn't go too far into prosecuting the miniature anxiety attack that Ami had and moved on. Of all the things going well, this was really the stupidest thing she could've done tonight. That she wasn't aware how important this conversation would play in the next five minutes was a hindsight that she would never really appreciate.


Achen wasn't especially skilled in a lot of areas, 'and maybe…' he concluded 'that was why he had been picked for this mission'.

He had neither the poetic like logic and diplomatic skills of Azrael or the intensive ruthless command and raw brutality that Denisa had grown up with. He was loyal however to the men he commanded, and to the men that commanded him…such as the general, who If all according to plan, would take down a senshi, and in doing so reunite the shattered factions of the kingdom and bring to bear a force that would finish what him and his platoon of auto-troops started tonight. That wasn't to say he planned on dying, he orders didn't say so. His orders were to take his platoon into the selected area and to probe until a senshi shows up. Fight them, injury them if he could, and once his forces of automation troops were destroyed, he would recover the floating orb he was taking with him and retreat.

The process took a lot of power but in an instant, at least half a dozen orbs of light appeared in the void and above the third floor concourse. Dropping out of each of the portals was one of his Auto-troops, which included four seven foot high, black semi-organic robots with a rifle-cannon built into one arm. Their design was simple, elegant, fearsome, and they were amongst almost a dozen had just dropped into a busy shopping centre on Friday night.


Ami, Minako and Saeko were standing in an elevator waiting to head down the second floor to get to an antique shop that Saeko planned to visit. There Saeko was sure, she could find something for her own mother. They could've walked, but Minako cited it would've been quicker to take the lift instead. While waiting for the doors to open again, Saeko looked over again to her daughter, knowing Ami was bothered with what happened before. What could've made her so uncomfortable so quickly? Well the dolls of course, but as to why was the reason seemed to be of concern, why was she feeling guilty because of that?

Saeko however didn't get to even start to speak her sentence before the elevator cart started to shake violently. Outside it didn't take long for explosion to rock the gears and the resulting vibrations let the cable holding up the car slip to the tune of an entire floor before the emergency braking system caught the cable and brought the falling cart to a sudden, but non-fatal stop. The vibrations had taken a short time to settle down, so much that by the time Ami regained her hearing from the initial shockwave, the shaking had ceased. Inside, the three had momentary been rocked about before feeling roughly a second or more of weightlessness before finally falling hard onto the floor, Minako having been the most awkward position prior to explosion, had fallen back and almost smacked her head against the metal rail that lined the elevator car interior. For Ami and her mother, they simply fell and landed on their behinds after their feet only cushioned their fall for a second.

For half a minute, they had all technically passed out before they came too and started to get their bearings. One thing that seemed to come as a surprise was that they had survived a fall in an elevator. What they were not yet aware of was how the emergency break had caught the cable and how it had stopped the elevator car from falling from where they were to the basement, which would have certainly been fatal. Before they had come to their sudden jolting stop however, the lights flashed out and the impact of their stop had broken the door ajar open; leaving them in a dark closet-sized space with only the lights outside making it through the almost closed door.

Minako was the first to come about and thus the first to speak and first to cough from the dust that liberated itself from the explosion

"Ami! You alright?" she got no reply "Ami!"

"Yeah…I'm alright" Ami shook her head as she finally came around, the first possible question Ami asked herself was the obvious "what was that?"

Saeko was the last to recover consciousness and the last to get the ringing out of her ear, when she could finally hear herself breathe, her first enquiry was also obvious "Ami! Minako!"

"We're here" both replied at nearly the same time, Ami continued on "you alright mom?"

"I'm alright" Saeko replied before asking the next important question "are you two hurt?"

"I'm aright" Minako replied as she finally righted herself.

"I'm fine" Ami replied.

For the next few seconds, nobody knew what to do, but then the two teenager's instincts switched on and Ami and Minako took her first look around. Darkness, but a little red light told them that the CCTV was still operating. Minako, shifted over and looked out the tiny peep hole created to see what it was that had caused it. While she didn't know what transpired the door to open, but it didn't aid in helping her see outside all that well anyway.

"What's going on Minako?" Ami asked, sitting down properly and trying to find her mother in the dark "Was that an earthquake?"

"I can't see much…wait… people are running" Minako flinched for a split second when she saw something else, but before the thought of what she saw completed by itself, another smaller explosion rocked the elevator car again. Minako dropped to the ground covering her head and waited for the lift to give way and drop. Fortunately this time, it didn't and the rocking stopped in short order but it didnt stop Ami's mother — who hadn't quite recovered from the first explosion — falling backwards into the lap of her daughter, while Ami herself fell over to her side and hit her head against Minako's bag. The bag saved her from a head injury, but it did give Atermis a body blow he didn't deserve, his resulting shriek was one that nobody failed to notice.

"What was that?" Saeko asked, now quite disoriented, and now convinced that this was no earthquake.

"What do you mean?" Minako asked in a tone as if she was still referring to the explosion.

"I heard a cat"

Both teenagers didn't know how to respond to that except denying it now would be impossible. But beyond that simple problem, both Ami and Minako started to take in the situation presented to them and quickly concluded this was no accident. Minako was almost certain given what she saw before the second explosion and at that very moment, in a darkened out elevator car with a fellow senshi and a non-combatant, her mind switched from peacetime mode high school student Minako Aino to combat mode Sailor Senshi Venus.

"I think that's Artemis…" Minako started, coming clean now to try buy time "he's my cat"

Without prompting, Ami unzipped the bag and a creature's head popped out, making a innocent cat noise.

"You brought your cat along?" Saeko was surprised, "and he's been in there the whole time?"

"Yes" Minako admitted "…and yes, he likes to travel with me a lot"

"You know you can't do that to animals…" Saeko almost reprimanded "and why is he with you in a shopping centre?"

Neither Ami nor Minako could explain it, and they offered no answer as a result. On hearing no excuse Ami's mother decided to drop it while her mind racked in wonder at what to do next instead. Her predicament was bad, but she wouldn't ever appreciate the predicament that both teenagers were now starting to realize they were in. The two senshi locked eyes with each other while Minako relayed without voice — but through her eyes — to Ami that just before they dropped again, she sighted a monster. Without even having to convey through a muscle movement, both knew at once there was an additional problem. Ami's mother was the problem, the CCTV camera still operating, was also the problem. Upon recognizing that Ami understood what the problem was, Minako started to think about the situation again.

Outside there was an attack underway, who? Reason? Objective? All of that was unknown and she couldn't find out, because of the further two problems inside the lift. For once, Minako wished she already had guidance on this sort of situation. Her only two sources for it at the moment was Artemis and Ami, but they right now couldn't even move a muscle let alone advise her on what to do and divine providence in the form of hindsight which was never an option. Without anything to do, Artemis slid out of the bag he had been hiding in and after a few steps, leaped to his master's lap. Artemis's body acted like a cat, but his eyes acted as an advisor, and he didn't know what to do.


Both Haruka and Hotaru were almost done with their shopping when the first explosion went off. To their good fortune they hadn't been too close to it and what flying debris that did fly this far only was small enough to land softly on the ground. But after their small fortune receded into recent memory, the two off them got off the ground they had so recently jumped down upon and looked for somewhere to hide.

"Of all the…" Haruka yelled. She had briefly wondered if this was really happening, but that thought had come to a quick conclusion when she sighted her first auto-troop. It had appeared from around the corner, looking directly at her now and before Haruka could work out what the long barrel attached to the arm did, the auto-troop demonstrated again. The round flew right past the corner she was hiding behind and into the bench and shrub box they had dived by moments before.

"That was too close" Hatoru commented, lined back up against the wall, "Haruka, I think its time for Sailor Uranus and Saturn"

"I hear that…" Haruka replied, she was already checking her surroundings. As always, upon seeing danger, everyone had run for the stairwells and the pocket hallways like she had run into, except hers was backed by locked doors. Haruka had almost been worried about a camera sighted on them but the problem corrected soon itself by another rocking blast by their enemy. Haruka smirked at her luck, with the camera pointing directly at them destroyed — along with half the ceiling that housed it — her concerns were laid to rest.

"Uranus Crystal Power!"

"Saturn Crystal Power!"

In an instant, the pocket hallway glowed while light enveloped the civilians which after a moment dissipated, leaving two senshi in their place.

"Saturn, call for help, I don't think this is a simple monster we're dealing with"

"Right" Saturn whipping out her communicator "Lets hope someone is close by…"


Looking in the dark, Saeko shifted her gaze away from the cat from that had come out of the bag, back to her daughter sitting on the opposite wall to Minako. Through the slit of light, Ami looked tense, but not frightened. At once Saeko noticed something was not right, she could tell that Ami was thinking of something else, thinking of the situation, but not of her own safely. Saeko noticed her eyes transfixed on Minako and her once hidden cat. Something wasn't right, the tense moods she could now feel, emulating from both of them, it was not fear, it was concern.

But before Saeko was at breaking point to ask why, the divine providence Minako had asked for came. Not quite what she was expecting, but its suddenness was a relief that, for good or worse; it was now too late to turn back and when it was all done and said later, she could at least lay claim that it was not her fault. In both her and Ami's bag, a ringing tone came which at once Saeko snapped out of her glare to ask the obvious question.

"What is that noise?"