Hello readers!
Sorry this one is a little later than intended, it was a long week for me. This is another long one, not as long as the last but still crossing into the short story realm.
So this one is based on the idea of if Mamoru hadn't woken up with total amnesia in the hospital as a boy, but instead with the memories of being Endymion fresh in his mind. What would that have been like for him?
I swear I'll get around to writing something from a perspective other than Mamoru at some point but for now, I hope you enjoy!
The first thing Endymion noticed as he slowly regained consciousness was the surface he was laying on. It wasn't completely uncomfortable, just definitely not as soft as his bed in the palace. Sure, it was softer than lying on cold stone or the ground so that was a good indication that it was a bed, just definitely not his own or anywhere near that high of quality. His arms lay straight on either side of him and he languidly began running his palms over the sheets that covered him, taking note of the low-quality, starchy fabric. The bed was also small, as he didn't have to reach his arms far to find the edges on either side of him. Definitely not his bed. Perhaps some peasants had taken him in after…? He struggled to think back.
Although Endymion's eyes were already shut, he began to close them tighter as he started to become aware of the extremely bright lights in whatever room he was in. It must have been day time to be that bright. But what had he been doing before he started to wake up in this strange place?
Endymion's head turned back and forth on the pillow his head was propped up on as he tried to remember what had happened. Had there been a battle? Yes, that seemed right. He must have been injured. That thought seemed to make him aware of the pain in his head. He reached a hand up and felt a bandage around his forehead. He didn't remember how he could have gotten a head injury. A deep sigh escaped his lips and he felt a sudden longing to see Serenity…
…That's when it hit him.
The Moon, Beryl, his brainwashed Shitennou, the Sailor Senshi, and his Serenity.
He shot up in bed so fast it made him dizzy. His eyes, which had been wide in shock, squinted in the light as he took in his surroundings in terror. He was in a room with white walls with strange objects he didn't recognize all around him. The bright light he assumed was the sun, was coming from the ceiling somehow, and the window to his right revealed it was night outside. On the wall his bed was facing there was a black framed painting, but there was no actual painting. It was all black. Next to him there was a smaller similar 'painting', but instead of plain black there was a line that was moving in the middle, rising and falling to a strange pinging noise that accompanied it. It was held up by an unappealing metal pedestal with many strange wires attached to it. He followed some of the wires and quickly realized they were connected to him. He held up his left arm and saw the clamp on his pointer finger with a wire and a clear tube coming out of his arm, but that wasn't all. The arm he held up wasn't his own. It was the arm of a boy. He held up both his hands in front of his face and saw the small fingers he recognized from his childhood, but how? The pinging in the background grew faster.
Endymion was now certain he had been captured by the enemy. This must be their brainwashing process. His little hands ran across the various wires hooked up to his chest. How had they turned him into a boy? And why?
His head whipped towards his left where a curtain hung from the ceiling shielding his view of what was beyond. Muffled voices from what sounded like another room had his senses on high alert as he struggled to make out what they were saying. It wasn't his first language but he was well versed in many languages as the Crown Prince of Earth so he tried to pick out different words to determine what they were speaking. To his surprise they were speaking Japanese. Not one of his better practiced languages but doable for him. Why were they speaking Japanese in the Dark Kingdom? Beryl hadn't.
From some of what he could make out, they seemed to be discussing him. Boy. 8 Years old. Head injury. Accident. And some words he didn't recognize. He needed answers.
"Hello?" he called out in their tongue. He winced at his boyish voice.
The voices on the other side of whatever room he was in silenced. There was the sound of a door opening that he couldn't see from behind the curtain. Suddenly the curtain was carefully pushed back and a man and a woman in strange white robes stepped in to view. They looked…kind. What was going on?
"Glad to see you're awake," the woman smiled. Endymion frowned.
"Where am I?" he demanded in the strongest voice his little vocal chords could muster.
"You're in a hospital," the man stated delicately.
Endymion frowned. This was unlike any hospital he'd ever seen. He thought briefly that he was on another planet but for one, he'd seen the technology in the Moon Kingdom which should have been no different from the other planets in the Alliance which all shared their knowledge and two, the other planets spoke the divine language of the gods.
"How did I get here?" he questioned a little more lightly this time.
The man and woman shared a look.
"There was a car accident. Do you remember that?" the woman's voice had concern laced in it. Endymion didn't understand the word 'car'. He wondered what the translation was but he couldn't ask that. He couldn't give away who he was in case they didn't know. At least he understood accident, but the last thing he remembered was no accident. The look of confusion on his face was hard to hide, and the pair staring at him definitely noticed.
"Can you tell us the last thing you do remember, Mamoru?" the man asked after a moment.
Mamoru?
"What did you call me?" Endymion asked without hesitation, which he instantly regretted when he saw the taken aback looks on the man and woman's faces.
"…That's your name, son," the man stated carefully. It was Endymion's turn to be taken aback.
"Son? Are you my father?" Endymion asked, sounding flabbergasted. The man sighed.
"No," the man said sadly, "can you excuse us for a moment?"
Suddenly things started to click into place for Endymion. He was a boy. He had been in some sort of accident causing head trauma. He had a different name. He was in Japan. The beeping that had continued in the background sped up when his heart did, it was new technology. He had been reborn.
The man and woman were walking away from him and he had so many questions.
"Wait!" Endymion shouted, reaching his arm towards them in desperation. When they turned back to him all the questions he had seemed to flee his mind. Did it really matter who he was or where or when he was right now? Instead he said what any boy his respective age might say in this situation.
"I'm scared."
The man and woman gave him sad looks, mirroring the helplessness and confusion that Endymion felt. Or rather, that Mamoru felt.
"We'll send in a nurse in a minute to bring you water and make you comfortable, okay?" The woman said before the pair turned and walked out of sight.
That's when Mamoru put his head in his hands and began to cry.
Apparently even though you had the memories of being a full grown man, if you were thrust into the body of a boy, you had the emotional maturity of a boy. Two days after awaking in the strange hospital and learning his new identity, Mamoru still sat crying during another lonely night.
He had found out his full name was Chiba Mamoru, and that his parents in this life had died in the same crash that had stolen his memories of ever being Chiba Mamoru. The doctors had told him that he had no other living family members that they knew of. It was still uncertain what would happen to him or where he would go when he got better and would be released from the hospital.
This new world he was in was so strange and so different from the world he knew. The black painting on the wall was one of the most shocking things he witnessed so far. It was something called a TV and at the click of a button, moving images of the real world would appear. He found out the year was 1999, but it didn't help him know how long ago his past life was, as Endymion's last recorded year was 5692. Obviously, time keeping had changed a bit.
What bothered him the most was not knowing what happened to Serenity. Was she killed after he was? Did she get reborn too? Was she safe? He wept for her. He wept for his friends and family that had perished before him in his past life. He wept for his parents' in this life whose only son couldn't even remember him. He wept for the life he lost on the Moon and the life he had seemingly lost now.
His whimpers and soft sobbing could be heard from the hallway outside his room. The nurses in this hospital were kind, and he had to more than once over the past couple days politely ask them to leave him alone when they came and checked on him at the sound of his distress.
It was a little past 8 in the evening, when visiting hours were ending and the hospital was quieting down while young Mamoru sat on the edge of his bed, his head hung low, while he softly sobbed. The beeping of the monitor played the sad beat of his heart to him as salty tears streamed down his face. He felt so weak, emotionally and physically. As Endymion, he couldn't remember the last time he cried, and yet here he was, unable to stop crying since he woke up in this cold room.
Hopelessness continued to consume him when he felt something touch his knee. His eyes shot open in alarm and he sucked in a breath in shock.
"Don't cry," a soft caring voice cooed at him. A little girl had her head leaning on his knee.
Could it be…?
When big blue eyes and a sweet innocent face looked up at him with a gentle smile, he knew without a doubt.
There she was. His sweet Serenity; born again, only a few years younger than him as she was before. Same colored eyes, same hair color, and same aura of light around her that brought warmth into the room. She had found him, of course she had. They would always be pulled together, how could he have doubted?
"Why are you crying?" she cocked her little head to the side.
Mamoru wiped away the tears on his face with his sleeve before giving her a light smile.
"I was sad, but don't worry. I'm okay now," he reassured.
"What's your name?" her smile grew and it melted his heart.
"Chiba Mamoru."
"Hi Mamoru! My mommy just had a baby and my papa and I are on the way to see her! Look! I got her these flowers," she said excitedly, showing him the bouquet of red roses she was carrying, "you can have one!" she then pulled out one of the roses to hand to him. He took it from her hand gingerly, just brushing fingers with her as he reveled in their warmth.
"Thank you," he smiled sincerely.
"Usagi! Usagi where are you!" a male voice called from the hall.
"That's my papa, I have to go! Bye Mamoru!" she waved excitedly and turned to leave him.
"Wait! What's your name?" Mamoru called hurriedly.
"Tsukino Usagi!" she said turning around and giving him the brightest smile before skipping out of view.
Mamoru chuckled. Of course her name would be Tsukino Usagi.
"There you are Usagi! You had me worried sick!" Mamoru heard the man speak from the hallway. He couldn't see past the privacy curtain, but he could hear the love in the man's voice and it filled his heart.
"Papa, I made a new friend!" Usagi's voice carried as the two walked away.
Mamoru's heart was filled with hope now. His love had been born in the same time and same planet and even the same city as him. She was with a loving family and she seemed so happy and carefree. A strength he hadn't felt since waking up here seemed to fill him again and he became determined. He would persevere and rise above the unfortunate circumstances he had been thrust into. He would study hard and learn how to survive and thrive in this new world. He would find Tsukino Usagi again as soon as he possibly could and protect her for as long as they lived this life, and he would make sure she would always be happy. With the knowledge that she was alive and cared for, he felt he could accomplish anything. For the first time since waking up here, Mamoru genuinely smiled.
Thanks for reading! Reviews are always welcome. I'd love to know how I could improve and also let me know if any one has any story ideas they'd like me to try.
-Narsenic
