"Ta-da!" Umino announced before class. "Look! I finally got a poster of Mikan-chan!"
"Did you steal it from the pharmacy?" Usagi asked. She'd passed a pharmacy on the way to school that day that had the exact same poster in the window.
"Iie, I bought it online," Umino answered with a smile. "If you want one, I have several left over. I'll sell one to you at a reasonable price," he offered.
"No thank you Umino," Usagi said with a shake of her head.
"I don't want one," Naru added, though her tone of voice and the expression on her face disagreed with the words she said.
"As you know, Shiratori Mikan is from our Juban Municipal Junior High," Umino said, settling into the chair in front of Usagi's desk and tapping on his beige laptop, the thing was new, expensive, and heavy. Usagi didn't know why he brought it to school. Probably a bid to try and impress the girls in their class who saw him with it. "She's seventeen years old and already in eight commercials. She makes two-million yen a month."
"That's a lot of money," Usagi said, eyes wide, impressed with the sum.
"Wasn't she scouted while walking in town?" Yumiko asked, joining the conversation.
"She was lucky," Kuri said.
"Yeah, if I were lucky like her, I'd do the same thing," Naru agreed eagerly.
"Piece of cake!" Kuri said with a snap of her fingers
"I can't believe the scouts never spotted us!" complained Yumiko. "They just don't know a good thing when they see it!"
"To put it bluntly, the scouts do know when they see a good thing," Umino said. "That's why you girls were ignored."
"What did you say?!" Yumiko growled, Kuri and Naru right there with her, all looking thoroughly displeased with the socially-inept, nerdy boy.
"The next star to come from Juban Municipal Junior High, who will follow in Mikan-chan's footsteps, will be," Umino said, and paused dramatically, then rounded on Usagi, his arm extended as he pointed at her. "Usagi-chan!" he declared softly, bashfully, and with a blush on his face beneath his thick glasses.
Naru, Yumiko and Kuri all gave Umino flat, unimpressed looks, and knew then and there that it was his crush on the blonde girl speaking.
Usagi shook her head. "Iie," she disagreed. "Even if I got scouted -" and some of the people at Amade and Akiko's wedding had been interested in the cute blonde girl who was bride's maid, all dressed up in a pretty peach-coloured dress, and even given her their business cards "- I don't have time for that sort of thing right now."
"I'm surprised at you Usagi-chan," Naru said, her eyes wide. "Wouldn't you want to be famous?"
Usagi sighed. "Sure I'd like to be," she agreed. "But being famous would take up lots of time, and I have enough to worry about with just school and meeting my tutor afterwards every day."
"Tutor?!" Umino yelped. "I didn't know you had a tutor Usagi-chan."
"It's how I'm getting perfect scores on my homework and tests now," she answered. "Chiba-san is very helpful."
Naru giggled. "And very handsome!" she added. "If being famous took me away from a handsome tutor, I might be a bit more reluctant too," she agreed.
Haruna-sensei arrived then, and called the class to their seats.
~oOo~
"Did you hear about the Cinderella Caravan?" Yumiko asked the next morning.
"Eh? No, I didn't," Usagi answered.
"Oh, you're so behind Usagi-chan," Naru teased fondly. "They're looking for the next Shiratori Mikan through the Caravan. Since even Mikan-chan herself is assisting in the search, it's a pretty fast way to stardom!"
Usagi shook her head. "Like I said yesterday, I don't have time," she said. "I'll go along after my tutoring session and support all of you though," she offered.
"Yay!" the three other girls all cheered.
Usagi was surprised when Chiba brought up the Cinderella Caravan that afternoon though, and asked if she was going to join in the competition.
"You've already got a foot in the door from meeting all sorts of people at Amade-san's wedding, don't you? This would be good experience," he suggested, and smiled. "I'll bet you could do a great comedy act."
Usagi smirked. "Yeah, opposite you," she counter-teased, and shook her head. "Iie, Chiba-san. If I wanted to be famous at fourteen, I would have taken up some of the offers from the people at Amade-san's wedding, like you mentioned. I want to have as much of a normal teen-aged life as I can. I'll get to thinking about careers in a couple of years. I'll go and watch my friends who are going to be entering though."
Chiba smiled and patted her on the head between her pigtails, then gestured for her to precede him into the arcade. Before they parted, they agreed to meet at the Shan Shan Plaza where the 'big concert' for the people who passed the initial stage of the competition was supposed to happen the following Sunday.
~oOo~
Despite waking up with the feeling that this was going to be an at least half bad day, Usagi arrived at the Plaza early – with Luna – and headed straight inside when she saw there wasn't any kind of line for tickets, or even a line for people with tickets. It made no sense. Surely the families of the people who were performing would want to see them on stage at least? It had been a somewhat disturbing week leading up to the concert as well. School work took an entirely back-seat to all of her classmates (as well as the senior students and a fair number of the teachers) as they prepared for their performances and a life of fame.
Seeing this behaviour was the reason Luna was coming along as well. There wasn't any evil aura or anything, but it was a deeply suspicious matter. Talent quests were a fairly normal thing, but this sort of reaction was not, and therefore warranted investigation.
Not even a whole minute into the 'show', Usagi was running scared, intent on hiding in the bathroom. That had definitely been a monster in the front row. A blue head that twisted completely around like that? Yeah, not human!
"Usagi!" Luna called through the stall door that Usagi had locked behind her in her effort to hide from the monster. "You need to transform into Sailor Moon! That monster is hurting your friends with what it is doing!"
Usagi took a deep breath. "Yeah," she agreed. "And before Chiba-san gets here and finds himself in the line of fire as well," she added, and transformed. Really, it wasn't that this particular monster was more terrifying than the others that had come before (they were all equally terrifying), but it had taken her by surprise.
Turning and revealing itself to be a monster when she'd expected the celebrity Mikan.
~oOo~
The first thing to do was stop whatever the monster was doing and distract it. That, unfortunately, meant making a target of herself, and there weren't a lot of places to hide from attacks while also keeping an eye on the enemy, looking for a chance to take the monster out.
It was terrifying, when the monster actually got her, and Usagi didn't know what it was but it looked like ice as it crawled up her body and prevented her from moving... and then covered her mouth and nose and stopped her breathing.
That, Usagi decided, counted as the reason for the feeling that it would be a bad day today.
She (literally) breathed a deep sigh of relief when a rose pierced the faux-ice at her hand, sending cracks throughout the rest until it all fell away and she could move and breathe again. She lost her balance and fell down, but the monster was distracted, searching for the one who had freed Usagi, so she had the time to right herself.
"Sailor Moon, you're the star of the show," Tuxedo Kamen said from where he stood on the railing of the balcony seats. "Good luck!" he called, and swept his cape around himself as he jumped down out of sight, disappearing again.
"How dare you interfere!" the monster said. "Come back here!" it ordered, and moved to chase after Usagi's hero. "Stop!"
Usagi, who had gotten to her feet again while Tuxedo Kamen was speaking, pulled off her tiara and sent it flying into the monster's back. The monster, and the disco ball, both shattered. Usagi quickly released the transformation and collected the latest rose from Tuxedo Kamen, and went to see if Chiba had arrived out front yet.
"Ah, Tsukino-chan, there you are," Chiba called with a grin as she came out of the building. "Sorry I'm late. I had another one of those black-outs I told you about."
"Are you alright?" Usagi asked, concerned.
"Hai," he answered. "Oh, a rose? Did you steal the show?" he teased. "I didn't think I was so late that I'd miss the whole thing."
"It turned out that the person running the show wasn't actually Mikan-chan, but an imposter, and the whole thing was a fake," Usagi answered, and hoped silently that she could get away with not answering about the rose as she carefully tucked it into her hair for safe-keeping until she could get it home, where it would be dried like the previous two and set in the vase with them.
Chiba sighed. "Alright, well, we've got time, so how about for the rest of the afternoon we pretend that I gave you that rose, and I'll take you to a café and treat you to afternoon tea?" he suggested.
Usagi smiled. "I really like that idea," she answered, and stood up on her tippy-toes to give Chiba a peck on the cheek. "Thank you for the rose, Chiba-san," she said softly.
He blushed. "Did you do that for the person who really gave you the rose?" he asked.
Usagi cocked her head slightly as she considered Chiba's face. "You know, I think I just did," she answered softly. "And if you don't remember what happened to you in the last ten minutes, who are you to dispute that?"
Chiba relaxed a little and smiled. "Alright," he agreed. "But next time you see the person who gave you that rose, why don't you give them something? Then, if it's me, we'll both know."
Usagi giggled. "I'll try that," she agreed. "But the mysterious masked man who gives me roses always leaves so quickly."
~oOo~
"Usagi, how did you go in the mock exam?" Ikuko asked, interrupting her daughter as she laughed at a gag in her comic.
"Results come out tomorrow," Usagi answered, wiping away the tears that had come from laughing so hard and breathing deeply. "But you know Mama, there's a genius girl who recently transferred in, so even with Chiba-san being an awesome tutor, it's unlikely that I'd have the top spot."
Ikuko nodded. "As long as it isn't a failing grade," she said.
Usagi waved her hand dismissively. "I may not have the top spot because of a genius in my year group, and the mock exam was harder than any of the tests we've had so far, but I'm fairly confident of having gotten a good score. Chiba-san's tutoring might not have me beating a genius for the top spot, but he helps me get pretty close!" she finished with a fist-pump and a cheer.
Ikuko smiled. "Well, I'm glad to hear that," she said happily.
"I just wish you'd put as much effort into finding the Moon Princess," Luna commented when Usagi had retreated to her room to read her comic there – where her laughter wouldn't disturb Ikuko doing the housework.
"Luna, you can hardly tell me anything about the enemy or their motives, can't describe the Moon Princess to me in any way that is meaningful for searching, and I say again – I'm fourteen! We are both lucky that I haven't been killed fighting these monsters, and I owe Tuxedo Kamen a big fat thank-you for saving my life three times now!" Usagi countered. Then she blinked. "I should write him a thank-you letter," she said thoughtfully, and hopped up from her bed to suit actions to words.
It ended up being a hand-made card with a picture of a crescent moon and a red rose on the front, and a simple 'thank you for saving my life' written inside. She kept out names, just in case, and then just had to figure out how she was going to give it to her hero when she saw him next.
Tuxedo Kamen hardly ever came close enough for her to hand him anything after all, and more often than not he disappeared again as quickly as he had come.
Hardly a window of opportunity.
~oOo~
"As expected, Mizuno Ami is best in the class," Naru commented when they had all checked their scores on the mock exam.
"Not only that, but she's the best in the country too!" added Hiroko.
"The best in the country?!" Naru and Usagi both yelped.
"According to rumours," Umino said, ducking into their conversation quite literally by slipping in under Naru's arm when she'd been using it to prop herself away from the wall. Naru jerked back away from the wall – and Umino – completely. "Her IQ is supposedly three-hundred."
"Wow, so she would really be a genius," Usagi said.
Umino nodded.
"By the way," Naru said with a frown directed entirely at Umino, "don't pop up suddenly from weird places!" she instructed, and emphasised the final word with a strike to Umino's head. Trying to beat the lesson into him.
"Ah, there's Mizuno-san now," Usagi noted, seeing the girl over Umino's bent form.
The other three all turned to look, and indeed there she was, looking out the window and not a happy expression on her face to be seen, even though she'd taken the top spot.
"I heard she attends Crystal Cram School," Umino said, "and goes every day!"
"That's the new place that's just been built, isn't it?" Usagi asked, and a bad feeling settled in her stomach. Her mother had told her about the new cram school, and that it was very expensive, before chirping happily that they were so lucky Usagi had found Chiba-san and somehow convinced him to tutor her. "Mama said it was very expensive," she added thoughtfully.
"I heard that Mizuno-san's mother is a doctor," Naru stated.
"They're probably rich," Hiroko said, with her nose in the air.
"However, she's attending on a scholarship, so for her it's free!" Umino contributed.
"But she's got a bad attitude," Hiroko said with a slightly disparaging gesture. "It's like she thinks she's better than everybody else," she added darkly.
"Oh, I can't stand people like that," Naru said with a superior nod.
"If she's got an IQ of three-hundred, then she is better," Usagi pointed out, "and maybe she's lonely. If she goes from here to cram school every day, what does she do for fun?" she asked speculatively, and looked over to where Mizuno was still looking out the window, not looking at all happy despite having gotten the number one ranking on the mock exam.
~oOo~
Chiba was escorting Usagi to the arcade when Usagi halted mid-stride and stared. Luna was stalking along the top of a fence, but rather than a bird, it appeared as if her cat was stalking Mizuno.
Then she pounced.
"Luna isn't a normal cat, is she?" Chiba asked softly.
Usagi sighed and shook her head, though her blue eyes never left the interaction between Mizuno and Luna.
"You're so soft," Usagi heard Mizuno compliment. "If only we didn't live in a high-rise apartment, I could get a nice cat like you," she continued as she petted and stroked Luna.
Usagi smiled. "Yeah, I thought she was probably lonely," she commented to herself. "Luna!" she called.
Luna's head immediately snapped up and around. Luna hopped down from Mizuno's shoulders and scampered across to Usagi a moment later, and Usagi was there to scoop the cat up in her arms.
"Gomen, are you okay?" Usagi asked when Mizuno turned around to look at her.
"Is that your cat?" Mizuno asked.
"Un," Usagi answered with a nod.
"Since she was from the sky, I thought she was an angel," Mizuno admitted softly.
"Luna, an angel?" Usagi repeated, surprised. "You hear that? Somehow you made a good impression when you jumped on somebody," Usagi said, and tickled Luna's ears – just the way Luna liked it. "You're Mizuno Ami from class five, right? I'm Tsukino Usagi from class one. Pleased to meet you."
"Nice to meet you too," Mizuno said.
"This is Luna, who you've already met," Usagi continued.
"For the moon, right?" Mizuno asked.
Usagi beamed. "Yup! You're the first person to have actually gotten that," she praised, "or at least said so," she added when Chiba grunted in that put-out way he had. "And this is Chiba-san."
"Chiba Mamoru," he supplied with a nod. "I'm Tsukino-chan's tutor."
Mizuno bowed politely. "Pleased to meet you."
"Usagi, I sense a strange energy about this girl. She could be a monster sent by the enemy, so be careful," Luna whispered.
"Would you like to join us for a milkshake or something, Mizuno-san?" Usagi offered, ignoring Luna's warning to check with Chiba that it was okay for her to extend the invitation.
After all, why would an enemy monster hang around in a high school for three weeks and do nothing more than get top scores at everything? Mizuno didn't have any sort of social circle at all, so she wasn't bringing people in for whatever, and she basically did nothing but study. To Usagi, that seemed more like setting herself up to be made a victim of, than the other option.
Besides, she could sense the strange energy about Mizuno too, now that she was actually talking to the other girl, and she could tell that it was distinctly different from a monster. Something about that energy of Mizuno's made Usagi think of water for some reason though.
Chiba nodded. "Sure," he agreed. "We're just going to be going over the few questions in the mock exam that Tsukino-chan got wrong today. A little more company isn't going to hurt anything."
Usagi had already explained that there hadn't been any homework assigned that day except to go over the mock exam and understand where they'd gone wrong – if they had – and Usagi hadn't gone wrong very often at all. She'd gotten the tenth ranking, which she was pretty proud of.
Mizuno hesitated a moment, then finally nodded. "Alright," she agreed with a hesitant, shy smile.
~oOo~
"Crystal Cram School?" Chiba asked as they settled down in a different booth to the usual one at the arcade. "I've heard of that one because it's new. They use some sort of special disc, don't they?"
Mizuno nodded a little unhappily. "It's a floppy," she answered. "And using it always gives me a headache."
"If it gives you a headache, then you probably shouldn't use it," Chiba stated plainly.
"Can I see it?" Usagi asked curiously.
Mizuno chuckled. "Just looking at a disc won't tell you much," she pointed out, but reached into her bag and pulled out a red floppy disc all the same. "As soon as I finish this milkshake though, I'm going to have to hurry. I have cram school every day, and I don't want to be late."
"Every day?" Usagi yelped in surprise. Naru attended a cram school, Usagi knew, and she did not go every day.
"My only talent is studying," Mizuno answered with a smile, as though that statement didn't bother her at all.
Usagi frowned as she looked over the red floppy disc that Mizuno had pulled out of her bag. "How do you know?" she asked. "If studying is the only thing you do, how do you know you're not good at anything else?"
"I suppose," Mizuno agreed.
"Now me? I'm good at telling when something is suspicious," Usagi said with a grin. "And knowing from the moment I wake up if my day is going to be a bad one. I'm also getting pretty good at self defence," she added, then giggled. "Who knows, maybe you have a talent at arcade games that never gets to see the light of day because you're always studying!" Usagi suggested.
Mizuno blinked in surprise. "So... I should try other things..." she said softly, and a thoughtful look entered her eyes as they swept across to the rows of games across from the café. "Ah, but not today, I have to get going!" she exclaimed as she noticed the time.
She was up and out of her seat, and then out of the building, before Usagi even had the chance to give her back the red floppy disk she would need for her cram school.
"What are you thinking, Tsukino-chan?" Chiba asked.
"I'm thinking... that I have a bad feeling about this thing," Usagi answered, and waved the floppy slightly for emphasis. "And I'm thinking it's a good thing that Mizuno-san forgot it with me. I'm going to find a computer and see what's on it."
"Eh?!" Chiba exclaimed, surprised. "Wha-? Wait, Tsukino-chan! That's an invasion of privacy!"
Luna chose that moment to clamp her teeth on the floppy disc and run off with it.
Usagi and Chiba both chased after her. When they eventually caught up, Luna was pushing the floppy into the appropriate space of one of the computers in the computer lab at Usagi's school.
"The cat can type," Chiba noted softly.
"She can talk too," Usagi whispered back out of the corner of her mouth.
A high-pitched ringing came from the computer as the disc's programme started up. Usagi and Chiba both quickly clamped their hands over their ears to block out the piercing tone. Still, it was possible to hear the automated voice that came next perfectly clearly.
"Offer the energy of your brain and knowledge to our great ruler," it said, "and become a loyal follower."
"It's a brain washing programme! Mizuno-san is a monster!" Luna said angrily, and turned to Usagi – only to freeze when she realised that Chiba was there too.
"No, Mizuno-san is a victim," Usagi corrected. "The monster is the one giving out these discs."
"Tsukino-chan, your cat talks, and can operate a computer," Chiba said, still a little stuck on that.
Usagi smiled. "Ne, Chiba-san, you haven't had enough coffee today," she said kindly. "I'll see you at the arcade later, okay?"
"Yeah," he agreed. "Yeah, coffee, see you at the arcade Tsukino-dango-chan," he said, and with a wave, left the girl and the cat alone.
"You are very lucky," Usagi informed Luna.
Luna ducked her head, embarrassed.
"Well, time to go and stop some monster from taking advantage of cram school students," Usagi said with a sigh, and transformed into Sailor Moon. She'd go across rooftops to Crystal Cram School, since she knew where it was, and it wasn't far.
~oOo~
When she got to the room filled with computers and hypnotised students, Usagi sent her tiara out over them all – moon tiara stardust, rather than action. It 'cured' them of their hypnotism and put them to sleep... which just left Mizuno (who hadn't been hypnotised due to lack of disc) and the monster who had been handing the discs out.
"I am the monster of knowledge, Garoben!" she announced as her human appearance melted away into her more genuine, and genuinely monstrous, form.
Usagi repressed a wince at the pun. A gariben was a person who studied too much, and this monster called herself Garoben? Ooh, not cool. For a brief moment, Usagi wondered if the other monsters had also had such pun-like names. This was the first one to actually introduce itself, after all.
"This genius girl is going to sacrifice her brain energy to our great ruler!" the monster continued, and grabbed Mizuno forcefully, then pushed her face against the computer screen. "Why isn't it working?" she demanded a moment later, and pulled Mizuno up to get a better look at her face.
An action that revealed a glowing symbol on the girl's forehead that Luna recognised.
"Mercury!" the cat exclaimed, wide-eyed. "That's why her energy signature was noticed!"
"One of the 'others'?" Usagi asked, even as she got her tiara ready again to throw at the monster.
"Hai," Luna agreed.
"Well, we can't let her get hurt then," Usagi noted.
"If I can't take your brain energy, then I'll just take your brain!" the monster said, and pushed Mizuno to the floor. It raised one hand, and it reformed into a very sharp-looking axe.
"Moon tiara action!" Usagi said quickly, and took off the monster's head. "Now," Usagi said, and turned to Luna. "You owe Mizuno-san an apology for believing she was a monster, and you can explain the situation to her while I do damage control with Chiba-san. Okay?"
Luna nodded.
"Tell her I'll see her tomorrow, or bring her to the arcade when you've finished explaining, okay?" Usagi instructed.
Luna nodded again. "Hai," she agreed.
~oOo~
"Usagi-chan!" Motoki called when he spotted her enter the arcade. "Get over here and talk to Mamoru! There's something wrong with him. He just keeps drinking mug after mug of coffee and he won't say anything to me that isn't requesting a refill!"
Usagi shook her head, but moved over to the milk bar and sat on the stool beside Chiba.
"Tsukino-chan, please tell me that your cat can't talk, or operate a computer," he requested softly – softly enough that Usagi was the only one who heard him. "Please tell me that I didn't hear a computer programme trying to brainwash people into giving some nameless leader their brain energy."
Usagi giggled. "That sounds like a very strange dream, Chiba-san," she agreed, just as softly. "Probably brought about by drinking too much coffee and only socialising with Motoki-onii-san and a fourteen-year-old."
"But I only like socialising with Motoki and you," Chiba grumbled. "And I need my coffee," he defended, and pulled his mug closer to his chest.
"Addict," Usagi teased. "You forgot to pick me up from the school gate today," she said at a volume that Motoki would be able to hear. "I was worried you had had one of those black-outs you told me happened to you sometimes, and what do I find? You here drinking coffee like it's going out of style," Usagi pouted.
Motoki looked at Usagi with an expression of confusion, but she quickly waved for him to keep his peace when he looked about to open his mouth and say they'd come in and left together today once already.
Chiba sighed in relief. "Right, a hallucination, a crazy dream while I had a black-out. That hasn't ever happened before, but I can't think of a better explanation for what happened. Arigato, Tsukino-chan," he said, and finally turned to her, a smile on his face. "How did your mock exam go?"
"I placed tenth!" Usagi said proudly.
"Congratulations," Chiba said with a proud smile of his own. "I think that deserves a chocolate milkshake to celebrate."
"Yay!"
"Usagi-chan?" Motoki asked quietly when he brought the milkshake over.
"Chiba-san just saw something earlier that his brain couldn't handle, to do with Mizuno-san – that other girl we brought with us to the arcade today," Usagi answered in a whisper. "By denying that it happened, he can now function again."
Motoki accepted that with a silent nod, and returned to his duties.
"Ne, ne, Chiba-san, look!" Usagi called, and pulled out the card she had made for Tuxedo Kamen – she carried it with her constantly, just in case. "I took your advice! If I see the man that gave me that rose again, I'll give him this, and then if you have it after one of your black-outs, then we'll have some idea of what happens!"
Chiba smiled and accepted the card to look it over. "It is very nicely done," he praised. "I didn't know you had a talent for arts and crafts."
Usagi shook her head. "I don't really," she said modestly. "The rose is cut out from an old magazine, and I drew the moon using a bowl."
"I think it's lovely anyway," Chiba said firmly, and returned the card.
"Arigato."