Subject to Change: Season 2 Chapter 7, a sailor moon fanfic

A/N: Numa, Numa, Numa…

Disclaimer: I own Buji, actually. I only just recently realized this. But Buji's my only real baby; the rest are adopted.

Subject to Change

Season 2

Chapter Seven: Shittenou

Serena shot forward, seizing Darien's arms and trying to yank him away from his death grip on Asanuma's throat. "Let go! Darien! Stop!"

His fists would not let go. They were like stone beneath her fingers – then, when she let out a miserable cry, his rigid fingers suddenly crumbled like shale.

Asanuma fell to the floor, but landed in a crouch, not on his butt. Serena, staring in uneasy anxiety up at a murderous Darien, barely noticed until a hand seized her skirt and hauled her backward. It was Asanuma's hand. Her eyes shot to the blond boy and saw his blue eyes aflame with a scary intensity, almost insane, that reminded her of Rei.

"Okay – " Lita shoved in, breaking Asanuma's grip on Serena, her eyes flashing. "Break it up – "

"Shut up, Lita." Asanuma didn't move his eyes from Darien.

Serena stared at him, pushing a stupefied Lita further behind her.

"I've got questions for you," Asanuma said fiercely. "Both of you."

He was like a different person. Fury toward him built up in her, scalding, boiling. She felt the urge to slap him and didn't even feel guilty about it.

She seized him by his ear instead, digging in with her nails. Then she dragged his head down to her height, and still he didn't move his eyes from Darien!

"Come here," she hissed, muscles bunching. She began to walk backward, catching him by the wrist and squeezing it as tight as she could. She looked anywhere but at Darien, anywhere but at anyone else; she focused on the door. And that was where she saw, in the doors' reflecting glass, Darien lunging forward.

In a move like lightning Serena had switched her and Asanuma's positions, throwing herself into his spot and him into hers. Her hand shot up and caught against her arms the fist that Darien had thrown forward. The impact made a loud, dull thud.

"Stop, I said." Serena kept both her voice and her arms steady. Then she saw in the mirror behind the counter their reflections, hers and Darien's, so close together, and she dropped her arms as though scalded. She took steps slowly backward, eyes fixed on his legs so that she would see any movement but not have to see his face. She kept going until she bumped into a chest.

"I said I had questions for both of you." Asanuma's hand was on her shoulder now, hot and squeezing.

"Let go of her."

Darien spoke for the first time since Serena had entered. It was the first time she had heard his voice since…finding out. She swallowed, almost forgetting the current situation. She heard his voice and wondered if it had sounded the same then, wondered if she had fallen for him the same way, gradually, or if she had been smarter then and seen it the very first time she spoke to him –

Loathing poured through her. She ducked from beneath Asanuma's shoulders and fled.

She heard footsteps pounding after her and shunted more power to her legs; there was no one, not even Darien, who could catch up with her when she didn't want to be caught, and she didn't want to be caught, she didn't –

Somehow they were already at the park, and she was tumbling hard, bones into leaf-covered stone and roots, into that hollow, and there were sounds following her into this place, their special secret place; she scrabbled to her feet and up out of the hollow but it was too late, they were crashing through the trees, now Asanuma fell heavily, Darien leapt down beside him with the soundless impact of a panther, Serena heard a shout and wasn't sure who it came from for Darien's fist was hauled back and Asanuma had half-risen, and suddenly Darien's hand was on fire –

As though a spell had been cast over the whole hollow, every person there froze still as statues. As though time had stopped.

Eternity passed. Measured only in the deafening beat of heartbeats and the crackle of the flame that danced around Asanuma's hand where it gripped Darien's fist.

"What the fuck." Lita was the first to speak. Her eyes stared at the two young men from where she stood on the rim of the hollow next to Motoki, three feet above the other.

Serena felt the blood retreating from the surface of her skin, rushing away. Her hand was at her brooch, her lungs tight and mouth dry to transform and interfere. Lita's hand, she saw with a flick of her eyes, was also in her pocket, ready to transform.

Motoki seemed to notice, too. He dropped from the rim of the hollow and ran to a still Asanuma and Darien, pushing them apart with one hand and throwing the other out toward Lita. "Stop! This isn't what it looks like!"

"Oh, Asanuma didn't just shoot fire out of his hand?" Lita snapped. She moved over to Serena. The gesture, reminding her of how weak everyone believed her to be, jarred Serena out of her stillness like a volleyball to the head; she moved away from Lita, toward the three boys.

"Look, we can explain," Motoki was saying, head going back and forth from Darien to the girls, as though trying to persuade both of them. He was using both hands now to try to push his two friends, who seemed to be having a who-can-crush-all-the-bones-in-the-other's-fingers-first competition.

"We?" Lita's voice was harder than Serena had ever heard it.

"You're the ones."

Darien spoke at last, suddenly releasing his grip on Asanuma and twisting his hand swiftly from the blond's grip. He moved a step away, then another, from all of them, though his golden eyes stayed in their direction. "You've both got special powers, don't you?"

The blistering fury of his voice had been tempered by a note of realization and then resignation and something else. Serena, not allowing herself to look at him, had to read all that from his voice, and then she whipped her eyes suddenly to fire-eyed Asanuma and freckled Motoki. Realization cracked open within her. Were they the Shittenou that Helios had foreseen returning?

Lita still wore her pissed "someone better tell me what the hell's going on before I break something" look.

"The generals," Serena said softly to her, still looking at their two friends.

Lita's expression hardened like paper mache into a mask. "Toki?" she said.

Motoki forced his eyes up to her face. A rueful grin made a sickly flicker on his lips. "I guess we both had some secrets, huh, Leets?" But there was nothing amused in the laugh that left his lips. He turned back to Darien, leaving Lita still with that hard mask. "It started around Serena's birthday."

Serena, intent on what was happening, shot Lita a quick, concerned look, but Lita was not looking at her. Serena almost moved to touch her arm – then Asanuma suddenly moved.

It was just a jerk of his arm, which was still wreathed in orange flame. But suddenly everyone was stiff, muscles rigid and prepared, again. They all – except Darien – saw the look that he shot Motoki.

"Stop it, Numa," said Motoki tiredly. "It was stupid to keep it secret anyway."

"You mean the way they kept it from us?" Asanuma lashed out, voice edged.

"Oh, so now you're the victim?" snapped Lita. "Wah, wah, why don't you run off to wherever your bitch girlfriend ran to – "

"That's enough!" Serena's voice cracked like a whip. She even flinched a little at the sound of her own voice. Then she shot Lita, then Asanuma, venom-filled glares. "None of us asked for any of this – "

"He asked for this," said Darien softly, barely loud enough to hear, and smashed his fist into Asanuma with a force that sent the latter flying.

"Darien Shields!" With the same speed she had shown at the arcade, Serena blurred behind Asanuma, catching him before he could hit the wall behind him. She stumbled into it instead, back into the bricks.

"I'm fine!" Asanuma shouted, shoving out of her grasp. He wove a bit, then swiped a trickle of blood from his lip.

"STOP!" Serena shouted, for fire had begun to crackle in Asanuma's fist, and the tree roots all around them began to tremble and fight loose of the soil.

Serena was not sure what would have happened had not what happened next transpired. She was never so thankful to see Buji in her life as she was then.

"Onee-chan! Darien-baka!" The elementary schooler came trotting from between the trees, feet away from her, an action figure in his hands, and then stopped short. "Miina?"

Asanuma lowered his hand, which no longer flamed. The tree roots had fallen still. Serena reached for Buji with trembling hands and then balled them to keep herself from grabbing Buji into a hug.

But she could not help her voice from shaking like a tree in a storm as she greeted him. "Buji," she managed. "What are you doing, sweetheart?"

"I came to find leaves for a scavenger hunt. I need a red one," Buji informed her. He looked away from her, eyeing the rest of them, Asanuma and Darien especially. "What are you guys doing here?"

Serena invented wildly. Before she could gush out a lie, however, Asanuma's voice came from behind her.

"That's for us to know and you to find out, Buji, my boy," he said, voice returned to his usual teasing lilt. "Shall I help you find a red leaf?"

"We're not allowed to paint it," said Buji dubiously; he was familiar with Asanuma's methods of accomplishing things.

Asanuma's laugh was hearty. "C'mon!"

He strode past Serena and climbed with an easy swing of his leg up out of the hollow. Then he grabbed Buji's hand and trotted away with him, talking about last week's Naruto episode with youthful animation.

Which left Motoki, Lita, Darien, and Serena.

Motoki couldn't look at the rest of them. "He's probably embarrassed by what a git he's been." He cleared his throat. "I'll go…I'll go talk to him. Is there anything – we need to know? Or do?"

His eyes flicked to Serena and Lita. Serena shook her head at him and, silently, nodded her head toward Darien. She cleared her throat once. It took two tries before she could speak. "Prince Endymion will tell you."

"You felt it?"

Michiru nodded her head. "The fire one, I think."

Haruka let out a frustrated sigh. "That damned prince messes with the wind – "

Michiru nudged her. Haruka cut off, eyebrows lifting.

Michiru nodded her chin delicately in the direction of the window. Just visible without, in the slanting rays of the afternoon, was a jet-black head disappearing through the gate.

"What do you think?" said Michiru.

"Not on her agenda, she's not," growled Haruka, rising from the crouch and disappearing out of the house.

Only a few minutes passed before she returned, a spitting-mad Rei Hino in tow.

"Why, hello, Rei," said Michiru, setting aside her violin bow. "I didn't even realize you'd left, you were so quiet. Were you looking for the princess? Or – something else?"

"So you sensed it, then?" Rei wrenched out of Haruka's grip, her hair falling over one eye so that only one glared out, violet and spiteful. "Someone's using fire. My fire – "

"It does not suit our plans for you to be seen yet," said Michiru. "Unless you prefer to compromise the princess's safety, of course…"

Rei glared. But she stomped upstairs to her bedroom.

"He really wasn't happy with you for calling him that," Lita said.

"It's what he is." Serena, fighting all the emotions within her, was far more successful in keeping her voice blank than she had expected.

Lita stuck her hands into her pockets.

"Don't you have to go back to the arcade?" Serena asked at last, as they rounded the corner to her street.

"Don't you have to get your schoolbag?" returned Lita.

Serena remembered – she had dropped her bag when she spotted Darien strangling Asanuma.

Lita was studying her. "I'll get it and bring it over for you."

"No – " Serena shook her head. "I'll come get it."

They turned around. The bright sunlight seemed very unsuited to the occasion. Serena wondered if the planet was expressing its happiness that two of its prince's guardians had been rediscovered.

She wondered if the prince and his guardians were as happy.

Asanuma walked into the art museum with the sun splashing happily down onto his sunglasses and the rim of his baseball cap. When he pushed the door open to leave half an hour later, fat gray clouds hung like potbellies from the sky.

It fit his mood, he decided grimly. The last week had been worth a pile of BS.

That painting by Miss Lanai that the museum had put in one of their galleries certainly had a lot more meaning now, though. He wondered if Miss Lanai had any inkling of the fact that Darien really was a prince. Had she noticed a royal sort of aura about him or just decided he was handsome?

Thinking about this just made Asanuma grumpier. He yanked down the bill of his cap, wishing that Motoki had just kept all that Darien had told him to himself. Yeah, so Darien was the reincarnated prince of earth, and he could heal stuff, and he had a magic crystal, and Asanuma and Motoki were really just his followers…whatever. Asanuma wasn't reincarnated anyone. He was himself.

He pulled down his cap again and made his way across the parking lot to his car. It needed a wash; it was about the same dull, gloomy gray as the sky, its shimmery silver coated in leftover pollen and dust.

"I've been neglecting you, haven't I, buddy?" Asanuma gave the steering wheel a rueful pat as he shifted into reverse and glanced out the rearview mirror. There was a group of college kids crossing behind his car… he kept his foot on the brake and fiddled with the radio channels. Then he blinked, his eyes flicking back to the mirror.

It was empty, only car bumpers stared back at him. He jerked around in his seat to peer out the window. The people were gone; a gleaming black sports car had its parking lights lit up.

Asanuma wrenched the gear back to park and clawed off his seatbelt, scrambling out of the car. His head collided with the roof of the car, and he stumbled, catching his foot on the car floor. He crashed heavily onto his hands on the asphalt, his knees stinging.

The black Viper peeled out of the parking space.

"Hey! WAIT!" he yelled, leaping to his feet.

With a throaty purr of the engine, the black car zoomed down the parking lot.

Asanuma cussed, throwing himself back into the car and wrenching out of the parking space, barely glancing at the rearview mirror. His Mustang tore out of the parking lot after its black prey.

"Damn it!" The light turned red just as the Viper rounded the corner. Asanuma gassed it, air hissing out through his clenched teeth, and gunned into the intersection, swerving past a white mini-van. In the back of his mind it registered that he had just committed a crime; a little closer to the front of his mind he realized with trembling fingers that he had been a centimeter away from killing someone; somewhere further up he hoped to dear, sweet God that there were no policemen around. He pushed all these things away and focused all his attention fiercely on the black Viper.

It changed lanes like something out of a movie, swerving in and out of cars. Asanuma let out another profanity and wove after it, inciting a chorus of horn honks and brake squealing. Asanuma could taste his heart in his mouth.

At last, the two cars had shaken free of the other cars and were speeding along the road unhindered. Now Asanuma was sure the driver of the black car knew that the silver Mustang behind him was tailing him; why else would a car drive ninety on a forty mph road?

Asanuma glimpsed the sign announcing the side road just before the black Viper let out a ear-piercing squeal of brakes and veered sharply onto it. Asanuma slammed down on his brakes and swore he felt his car go up on two wheels as it struggled to make the turn onto the side road after the black car.

His jaw clicked together as the wheels hit the road again, and he forced his trembling foot down on the gas again after the rapidly accelerating black Viper. He was losing his nerve, and he hated that. Darien the Earth Prince wouldn't lose his nerve. Just because this driver seemed a little dangerous…

The radio announcer, who he had almost totally blocked out, announced the song just played had been sung a by a new artist name Crystal Something-or-Other –

Crystal. It echoed somewhere very deep in Asanuma's mind and jarred an idea from his brain.

Keeping one hand steadily gripping the steering wheel, he pressed the button to open the driver's side window. The wind of the car's velocity tore at his hair and face. His baseball cap went flying.

He forced his arm out of the window, clenching it into a fist. He tried to keep on the small, side road, and aim at the black car's back tire at the same time.

He felt the uncomfortable suction of the shard of crystal pushing from his palm. He pushed it harder, willing it to have enough momentum to go shooting toward the tire –

With a bone-shifting pop, the crystal burst from his hand. A grin spilled across Asanuma's face as the long shard went hurtling dead-on toward the car's tire.

Then something went wrong. A sudden humungous gust of wind whipped up, even stronger than the wind of his speed. Asanuma saw the crystal shard reverse direction. He had just enough time to slam on the brakes, wrench the car into park, and duck with his arm over his head before the windshield exploded in.

"That effing bastard!" Haruka was spitting, kept glancing back into the rearview mirror. "What the effing hell did he think he was effing doing – ?"

Rei, in the backseat, felt as though she was about to throw up. Not from the nauseating déjà vu caused by the painting they'd seen, not the Tokyo Drift car chase she'd just been part of, but because of the silver car that chased them. That had been Asanuma's car. Asanuma's.

"Haruka." Michiru laid her ever-soothing hand on Haruka's arm. She wore a tiny smile. "I think you enjoyed it just a bit."

Haruka's lips, too curved up in a little smirk. "Damned right I did."

Rei, in the backseat, had not enjoyed it one bit. Even if now she was pretty sure she knew who had been using her fire.

She dared not turn around to look out of the back window for fear that she would see his spirit peel away from his body and float up into the rainy sky.

"Mom!" Serena called as she ran down the stairs and toward the door. "I'm going to watch Buji! I'll be home for dinner!"

"Okay!" her mother yelled back over the din of the dryer.

Serena picked Buji up from the Iwaras' apartment, and then they headed for the park, swinging the picnic basket that Mayuko had packed for them before she left for her doctor's appointment.

"What was up with Asanuma-nii-san, nee-chan?" Buji wanted to know as they claimed a picnic table near the playground. "He just left all you guys."

"Well, we were done talking." Serena pulled out two juice pouches and held them out to him. "Open mine for me?"

Buji snorted and took them. "You're such a baby, nee-chan." He handed hers back to her, and they both took slurps. "Why did Darien-baka look so angry?"

Serena sighed. She should have known she couldn't get past the sharp elementary-schooler so easily. Yet there was a little note of something in his voice, not his usual brashness, but a tinge of worry, of fear.

She placed a hand on his bouncy curls and ruffled them through her fingers, trying to soothe him. "I think Darien-baka's just a little scared, Buji."

Buji looked up at her from beneath his curls. His dark eyebrows drew together; he glared. "Darien-baka doesn't get scared."

"Everybody gets scared, Buji-kun."

The dark brows unknit. But the brown eyes still stayed narrowed. "What is Darien-baka scared of?"
"I think…" Serena's fingers paused in their stroking of Buji's curls. She had fought so hard to keep from thinking about Darien, and yet the words rose so effortlessly to her tongue. "I think he's afraid that too many things are changing because of who he is."

Buji shook off her fingers, climbing up on his knees to stare at her. "What do you mean, who he is? He's Darien!"

"Well…yes. But…ummm…" Serena struggled between not thinking about Darien and explaining what she innately understood. "Do you remember what you were like when you were in kindergarten, Buji?"

Buji wrinkled his nose. "That was forever ago."

Serena smiled. "But do you remember?"

Buji's grimace didn't lessen. "Yeah."

"Are you still like that now?"

"I dunno…I'm bigger," said Buji, forehead creased in thought. "I can kick the soccer ball farther."

"But…" Serena saw the stubbornness in Buji's expression and knew that she couldn't just say, 'oh, well, you'll understand when you're older.' "Do you have the same friends now that you had in kindergarten?"
Buji's forehead furrowed again. "Some. Not all of them. Tai moved away. And Mizuki doesn't like Ninja Turtles anymore. And Umi likes girls."

Serena would have grinned if she did not feel so depressed by the way people changed. "So you guys don't really talk anymore, huh?"
Buji's lips twisted down. "No…"

"That's what Darien's afraid of." It seemed the only explanation to Serena. "He's afraid that his friends like Asanuma are going to change, and then they won't talk anymore. I think. Does…that make sense?"

Buji hunkered down over to think about it, his eyes narrowing in concentration as he slurped thoughtfully from his juice. He nudged at some stones on the ground with his foot, frowning down at them.

At last, he looked up. "But then onee-chan, if Darien's afraid of his friends not talking to him, why won't you ever talk to him anymore?"

Serena should have seen that one coming from a mile away. But she hadn't. She compressed her lips, eyes stinging.

But before she could answer, Buji grabbed her hand.

"Sorry, nee-chan!" he cried, staring up at her with repentant brown eyes. "Let's not talk about it anymore. Talking to Darien-baka makes you sad."

A hot stream of tears escaped Serena's eyes before she could even think to blink them away. She looked away, swiping at them with her long sleeves.

"No, Buji." A fresh flood of hot tears spilled out. "Not talking to Darien makes me sad."

When Asanuma woke up, it was raining. He was soaked and shivering, and water had pooled in his open mouth. He gagged as he regained consciousness and doubled over the steering wheel for a minute, coughing.

Finally, he blinked water from his eyelids and looked around. It wasn't nighttime dark, but it was dim. He could see his hand in front of his face but not much farther. A flash of lightning conveniently, though momentarily, fixed that.

The white light illuminated the gaping hole in his windshield and the spiderweb of cracks extending across its whole expanse.

"Shit," he said, eyes wide. He replayed the last few minutes of what he could remember before he blacked out. His crystal shard had been blown back at him; it must have gone through the windshield.

He moved his head and something cold and hard was against his neck. He froze, then glanced down, turning his head. The crystal shard had stabbed right through his headrest.

"Shit," he whispered again. He moved in his seat, and it squished wetly beneath him.

He had been this close to dying.

He swiped the fresh coating of rain from his face and crawled into the backseat, which was drier, though smaller. In his cramped position, he fished in his wet back pocket for his cell phone.

Thank you, God. It was working fine, and it told him that an hour had passed: it was three o'clock. Asanuma started punching in a phone number, but his thumb slid all over. It was slippery.

A drop of liquid plopped down and landed on the phone screen. It wasn't clear. Asanuma frowned and touched his hand gingerly to his forehead. Warm liquid came away, and he inspected it in the light of the phone screen. Uh-oh.

He wiped his hand on the car seat and dialed Motoki's cell.

"Hey, this is Motoki, I'm not available at the moment, please leave your name and number so I can back to you."

Damn. The message that meant his phone was off. Asanuma pressed his sleeve over the bleeding gash in his forehead and sat for a few more minutes. Then he dialed Motoki's number again.

The same message answered him. He hung up and, nausea churning in his stomach, dialed a different number.

Ring.

Hazily, he thought of all those commercials where people got dropped calls and decided that first he would say where he was. Provided the bastard picked up his phone at all.

Ring.

Come on! Pick up the damned phone!

Ring – "Hello."

"Darien!" Relief exploded inside Asanuma like a firecracker. "I'm on a side road off Highway 30!"

"Wow." Darien's voice was bland. "I'm so happy for you."

"No!" Asanuma glanced up as lightning flashed and thunder rumbled again. "Something – happened. Long and short of it is, my windshield's smashed and my head's bleeding. Oh, and there's a big crystal in my headrest." Was his speech a little slurred? Or was it just him?

He heard the background noise on Darien's end recede, as though Darien had moved away from people.

Darien's voice was lowered, but still managed to crackle with wrath, when he spoke next. "You idiot, were you drinking?"

"NO!" Asanuma shouted into the phone, and his head spun. He winced and grabbed it. "Damn. No – I thought I saw Rei."

He heard Darien's sound of disgust over the phone. "Damn it, Asanuma – "

"Look, chew me out later, okay?" Asanuma snapped. "I screwed up, I get it! But at least I called you instead of calling 911 first and getting us all found out!"

He heard Darien's snarl-sigh. "Take off your shirt."

Asanuma blanched, wondering if he had a concussion.

"Ball it up and put it against where your head's bleeding," continued Darien. "We'll be there soon."

Asanuma's phone made the noise for a call disconnecting. He sighed and snapped it shut, stowing it in his front pocket, then wriggled out of his t-shirt. He stuffed it between the corner of the backseat and the window and leaned his forehead against it. He inhaled a noseful of Old Spice and coughed.

"Man," he muttered to his car, "This blows."

When Asanuma woke up for the third time that day, he found his head in a lap and Motoki's face very close to his.

"Whoah," he said, a little murkily, "Hi, honey."

Motoki made a strange face – half horrified, half overjoyed. Then Asanuma found himself being hugged. "You're okay! Darien, he's okay!"

"I told you he would be," came Darien's dour voice from a distance away. "A little faith would be nice."

Asanuma pulled away from Motoki and sat up, feeling his head. "It's gone?"

"Would you two stop sounding so astonished?" Darien walked around the car into Asanuma's line of sight. "I didn't make up the whole being able to heal people thing just to sound cool."

Asanuma squinted up at Darien through the water in his eyes. It was still raining, though not pouring like before. "Thanks."

"You owe me an explanation," said Darien. He held up the huge crystal that had been lodged in Asanuma's headrest.

Asanuma grimaced. "Yeah…could we go somewhere dry first?"

Motoki glanced down at his watch. "I've really gotta get back," he said, sounding guilty. "I promised my dad I'd watch the arcade for him…"

Darien nodded. "Go ahead. Thanks for driving me."

"How are you gonna get back?" Motoki asked, looking at Asanuma's car.

"I've got someone coming," said Darien.

"Okay. Tell me what's up later, right?" Motoki looked back at Asanuma. "I'm glad you're okay, man."

"I know," said Asanuma, still a little giddy despite the fact that his head had been fixed up. Blood loss, he supposed. "I felt it in your embrace."

Motoki blushed under the water dripping down his face. "You fruit."

"You in-the-closet-fruit." Asanuma waved his hand toward Motoki's car. "Get going before your dad totally emasculates you."

Darien waited until Motoki's headlights had disappeared to fix his stony expression upon Asanuma.

"Warm and dry?" ventured Asanuma.

"You're the one who can use fire."

Asanuma sneezed. He caught the little fireball that had erupted from his mouth and held it in his palm, coaxing it a little higher with his breath. Still not dry, but warm.

"You thought you saw Rei."

Darien's voice had just the slightest emphasis on "thought." Asanuma tried to ignore the hackles it lifted on his neck. Darien had just saved his life, after all. Well, probably. Motoki had probably had to promise him his firstborn to persuade him do it – but still.

"Outside the art museum. I saw a girl with black hair and – you know, sometimes she had those violet highlights in her hair – " Asanuma stumbled, mumbling. "I thought it was her. I followed the car, and it was speeding like Ghost Rider or something. The driver knew – "

"There was a driver, or it was the black-haired girl?"

"No, there were like three of them or something. Rei can't drive, so it wasn't her."

"Rei couldn't drive last time you saw her," Darien corrected.

Asanuma smiled sourly. "Yeah. Anyway, the driver knew I was following him, and he didn't want me to catch him; he was driving insane. So I figured something HAD to be up. Then he, like, fishtailed all of a sudden onto this side road, and I KNEW he was hiding something. So I – " Asanuma winced. " – sent a crystal shard flying at his tire."

Darien's silence was ominous.

"But then this huge wind kicked up and the crystal hit my window," Asanuma finished. "When I woke up, the other car was gone."

He looked up at Darien.

Darien sat down in the wet dirt across from Asanuma. His eyes were especially glow-y in the dimness of the rain.

Then the grumble of an engine peeled away from the background sound of the rain.

Asanuma turned and squinted into headlights. "Motoki?"

"Our ride," said Darien. He stood up.

Asanuma eyed him curiously, but Darien did not speak any more. Asanuma rose to his feet also, stuffing his cell phone a little further into his pocket.

"Fire out."

Asanuma's eyes bulged, and he hurriedly extinguished the ball clutched in his hand. "Thanks," he said, a little begrudgingly.

The tow truck that bowled through the muddy ground was bright red, as many tow trucks are, and had a name painted across the side that was too mud-daubed and the light too dim for Asanuma to read.

It pulled to a stop, sighing and sinking into the wet ground, and the door swung open. The person that jumped the considerable distance from the cab to the ground was considerably younger and less pot-bellied than Asanuma had expected. Brighter hair, too.

And even more surprisingly, he appeared to know Darien.

"Darien Shields!" The driver greeted, reaching into the cab and pulling out a baseball cap that he plopped on top of bright orange hair. "Long time no see."

"No kidding." Darien's voice was astonishingly not-cold.

Asanuma glanced at Darien, who was smiling, then back to the driver. He was young, maybe a little older than them, and had very defined arm muscles that were quite visible as he was wearing a white wifebeater that was quickly becoming plastered to him in the rain. A silver hoop pierced one of his eyebrows, and he wore earrings in both ears. Asanuma noticed these features after the man's hair color, which was an obviously-dyed orange that inspired a little jealousy in him. That was like Ichigo hair…

"Asanuma, this is Kentaro Mikai. Mikai, this is a friend of mine, Itto Asanuma."

Asanuma flicked his eyes hurriedly away from the spiky orange hair, but apparently Mikai caught him looking at it, for he flashed him a knowing grin. "A pleasure."

"Likewise," returned Asanuma, pushing a hand into his pocket and looking at Darien again. Who was this guy…?

Kentaro Mikai also moved his eyes back to Darien. "So that's what happened to your eyes, huh?"

Asanuma's jaw may have dropped at the man's nonchalant posing of this question. It dropped even further at Darien's unaffected reaction. He had expected frigidity, instead Darien smirked a little – albeit bitterly.

"Of course you would have found out about it."

Another grin crossed Mikai's face. He pushed some dripping hair from his face. "It wasn't difficult. You should hear what some of the bloggers are speculating about you."

"I'm sure it's intriguing and entirely realistic," Darien said.

"Yes, they're just painting you as a brainwashed corpse sent back by the youma to infect the entire human race." Mikai's teeth were white in his tan face. "Some think you're Jesus reincarnated. A couple even say they've seen a figure walking on the water in the park at night. The usual."

Had Asanuma not been watching Darien's face so closely, searching for some clue to why he seemed to close with this guy, he would have missed the millisecond blanche that drained Darien's face of color. It was so quickly covered that Asanuma might have thought he had imagined it – had he not already known about Darien's other abilities. Walking on water, huh…he squished down his irritation.

"And did you happen to participate in any of these chat room forums and say that you know me?" asked Darien with perfectly-coiffed joking wariness.

"Ahem." Asanuma felt it was time to speak up. "Hate to break up the friendly woman chat, but if anyone's noticed, it's raining and we're in the middle of nowhere."

"Off Highway Thirty," said both Darien and Mikai.

"I was exaggerating," said Asanuma, knowing he was sounding like a snappy little kid. But sheesh. This camaraderie was just too much. Why didn't they just hug and decide to watch Brokeback Mountain together, huh? "Can we tow the car now?"

"Sure. You guys go ahead and get in the cab, I'll get her hooked up." And, flexing his impressive biceps, Mikai went climbed up on the back of the two truck.

"And then Shields went with this guy to have some coffee, and Asanuma went home." Lita finished narrating the story of the boys' adventures the previous day to Serena and arched her brows. "Interesting, huh?"

Serena was paying very close attention to cleaning out her pencil bag, though her heart had stopped when Lita first began telling her about Asanuma's accident. "Poor Numa."

"Serves him right if he's acting so PMS-y," said Lita, stretching and looking at the clock. The bell would ring to start school soon. She said, carefully, "That's weird, though, Shields being sociable."

Serena didn't say anything for a minute. She was thinking of what she had tld Buji, about Darien being afraid of losing his friends. Perhaps she had not been right at all. Then, dragging her thoughts back to the present, she said, "So they're not going to train or anything?"

"Well, I told Toki if he wanted to, I would." Lita's voice still sounded a little odd; Serena immediately regretted asking.

"Are you mad at him?" she asked quietly.

Lita lowered her arms. She placed her elbows on the desktop. "I don't know."

"Motoki would never hurt you," Serena said, as honest as a Quaker.

Lita smiled, a little. "I know. It was just…" She shrugged. "I feel like if he really loved me, he would have told me." She paused, looking at Serena's carefully bland expression. "I know, I know, I should have been nicer to Asanuma since I feel the same way he does – "

Serena's lips curved up a little bit. "Yes," she said. "Maybe."

"What about you?" Lita propped her chin in a hand. "You, me, Toki, and Nuam if he wants to come, and we can all have some spars, you think?"

Serena zipped up her pencil bag. "Um – we'll have to see. There's another art contest coming up, and I actually think I might have a chance at this one – " Desperate, suddenly, to stop lying to Lita, for something she said to her to actually be the truth, she pulled out her sketchbook and flipped to the right page. "I drew a picture – it's just pretend – but it's supposed to be Sailor Neptune, see?"

Only at that instant did she remember that Miss Lanai had spelled the sketchbook so that people wouldn't be able to see the Senshi she drew within it, but Lita frowned and peered at the picture. "She looks familiar…" she mused. "But she's not wearing a fuku; how are people supposed to be a Senshi?"

"Um – it's a secret," Serena explained, a little confused but deciding that Miss Lanai's spell must make the drawings look like something else. "I, um, just pretend she's Neptune."

Lita looked up at Serena. "This art thing really makes you happy, doesn't it?" Her tone sounded a little suspicious, but hopeful and relieved also.

Serena returned her friend's gaze. Then she smiled and nodded. "Uh-huh!"

A few days later, Darien informed Asanuma that the repairs to his car were complete. Asanuma attempted, multiple times, to force the cost of the repairs from Darien so that he could write a check, but Darien rebuffed him with ever-increasing annoyance, so that they were both in a rather sour mood by the time they reached the garage.

"There were a couple dings and scratches on the front and back, too." Mikai led them to the front of the garage. "Have you a special affection for curbs, Mr. Itto?"

"I've been teaching a friend how to drive," said Asanuma shortly.

"Ah," said Darien from beside him. "When you first called to say your car was totaled, I'd assumed Serena was the responsible party."

Asanuma felt a little anger toward Darien for criticizing Serena in front of an outsider. "She learns really fast," he said. "All those driving games at the arcade have taught her a lot."

"Mmm," said Darien.

Asanuma kept going. "You're just jealous cause I'm teaching her instead of you."

Oops.

Mikai's eyebrows were lifted. Asanuma didn't dare look at Darien's house to see what his expression was.

"Apparently we're due for coffee," said Mikai at last. "Is this the same Serena from the attack?"

Asanuma cringed again.

Darien merely raised his eyebrows.

Along with coffee, Mikai ordered a plate of spaghetti and some breadsticks.

"Hang on," said Darien, holding up a hand as he heard the waitress's shoes turning to leave. He hadn't planned to eat, but since Asanuma had left, he didn't have any further obligations. Especially if he wanted to check that Mikai had not gotten too close to the truth in his internet sojourns. "If he's eating a whole meal, I'd like to order food as well."

"What would you like, sir?" An Osaka accent lent a little spice to the waitress's sweet voice.

Darien realized suddenly that the menu in his hand was useless. Damn, he hadn't been somewhere he didn't already know the menu by heart (the arcade) since – since before he could remember.

"I'd recommend the spaghetti, Darien," said Mikai's voice. "They put all sorts of seasoning on it."

"Yes – that please." Darien allowed the waitress to slip the menu from his fingers. He moved his hand to the warm mug of coffee in front of him. It took a while fighting its way up his throat and out from between his teeth, but at last a "Thanks" emerged.

"My fault for ordering food." He felt the tiny waft of air as Mikai shrugged.

"I'm starving. No lunch break today."

"Doesn't sound like you."

"We had a rush job." There was a tearing sound as Mikai opened some sugar packets to pour in the coffee. About fifteen, from the tearing sound. Then the quieter sound of creamer being opened. "Sugar?"

"No thanks, Madame," said Darien, taking a sip of his own black coffee.

"It was a sweet car, anyway," continued Mikai. "Nicer than your friend's, even, and we don't usually get ones those nice except when you bring your Mustang in. Speaking of, what'd you do with her? Sell her?"

"She's in a garage."

"You're not going to leave her there?" Mikai's voice held horror. Darien he held in little awe, but his car was a totally different story.

"I was planning to give her to someone…" Darien lowered his mug and leaned back, shrugging. "I don't know now. I'll…wait and see."

Asanuma at this point would have asked who he planned to give it to. Mikai didn't.

"Well, I'm always open to a Mustang."

"Another one, you mean." A smirk curved Darien's lips. "How much interest are you earning on that hydrogen engine patent you sold now?"

Mikai laughed. "Enough to buy a Monte Carlo," he said. "But seriously, man, I still don't get where you found out about that from!"

"Keep wondering," said Darien, taking another sip. "You planning to stay at that garage?"

Again, Mikai's shoulder shrugged, pushing air off them toward Darien. The faint scent of oil was tangy in his nose. "I dunno. Not forever. It's nice now, though. I like the guys."

"Oh?"

"Someone's humor has matured from a five year old's to a middle schooler's," said Mikai. "Speaking of…" The booth cushion exhaled as he sat back. "You're a senior now, huh?"

Darien grimaced.

"What?" said Mikai, perhaps at the expression on his face. "Not enough colleges clamoring on your day to beg you to attend?"

Ha ha. If only, thought Darien, thinking of Dr. Lydisae. The principal still hadn't forgiven him.

"I don't know what I'm going to do," he said instead. "Blind kids can't exactly take notes from the board."

"I take your point – ah! Dinner!"

Darien leaned back as something steaming was set under his nose.

"Here you are, sirs – can I get you anything else?"

"The dessert menu," said Mikai with a laugh. And a wink, if the giggle from the waitress was anything to go by.

"What color is your hair now again?"

"It is currently orange," said Mikai. "Mmmm…pass the cheese?"

Darien's hand found the round glass container and passed it with the phantom sound of cow mooing in his mind. "And girls still give you a second glance."

"Not girls, my friend. Women," Mikai corrected. "Genius at academics you may be, but you are still a novice in the ways of the world, I see."

"Someone like you calling me a genius is like the pope calling Satan religious." Darien wove his fork through the spaghetti, unearthing the hottest pockets so the steam could billow out. His face felt as though it was in a greenhouse.

"Such insecurity." Mikai was already chewing away.

For a few minutes, there was no talking. Not like at the arcade, where talking did not even stop for food – except in Serena's case. Darien choked and cleared his throat.

At last, Mikai set down his fork with a clink. "About school," he said. "How many credits do you still need to graduate?"

Darien finished chewing a particularly cheesy mouthful and swallowed. "None."

"Well, then, why're you going?" Mikai sounded surprised.

Darien thought of Serena, the fact that she was currently avoiding him, and wondered the same thing himself. But no.

"I don't have a genius invention to sell and cushion me for the rest of my life," he said by way of explanation instead. "Besides, I'm college-bound."

"Right, you're one of them." Mikai sighed. "And college poses the same problems as high school – though most everyone just tapes the professors anyway. You could do that."

"It's not so much the learning I'm worried about," said Darien. "I know I can handle that. It's the application – taking tests, for example. I can't have someone sit there and read every question to me."

"Although it would be a sweet situation if the someone was a hot chick," pointed out Mikai.

Darien thought of Serena and felt his neck turning red. He cleared his throat. "Then real life," he continued, ignoring Mikai's comment. "How does one examine patients if one can't see them?" He thought of the woman at the doctor's office. I would be able to heal them automatically, but how would I explain how I knew what was wrong?

"Is a physician really what you want to be?"

Mikai's question surprised Darien. It hadn't been the response he'd expected.

"Because – no offense – I've just never been able to reconcile the concept of a physician," Mikai stressed the word and paused, "and you. It just…doesn't purr for me."

"Disturbing use of car lingo," said Darien, giving himself a moment to absorb Mikai's words.

He'd decided to become a doctor because of his sparks. He could heal himself automatically; he'd thought there had to be a way to extend that to others. It seemed sort of like a responsibility, an obligation to find a way to do that. like when he was a kid on the soccer field and he could run faster than everyone else, it didn't seem fair, so he said he didn't want to play anymore to give other kids a fair chance. And now he had that way to heal other people, the Golden Crystal, and that just sort of sealed the deal. That was the only possible job of an obsolete prince, anyway.

"Okay," he said. "What does fit your schema?"

"Oh, that wounds me, Shields. You know I don't subscribe to the cognitive perspective."

"You and Asanuma both," muttered Darien, recalling a conversation they'd had when Serena needed help with her Psychology course. "Come on, I don't have all night."

He felt Mikai shrug again. "Well…I don't know. Something I could picture you doing…you kick ass at video games."

"Something I don't know, please."

"You'd excel as a professional snob." Mikai laughed at his own joke, snapping a breadstick in two and handing one half to Darien. "Uh…" he snapped his fingers. "Got it. Assassin."

Darien nearly choked on the breadstick.

"No, really." Mikai leaned back. "It's all that fits. Quiet, deadly, cunning – "

"On the opposite spectrum from being a doctor?" suggested Darien. "No one even uses assassins any more – "

"Not true!"

Darien stirred his half-gone coffee. "Yeah, because of the conspiracy to harness Santa Claus's caribou for time travel, right?"

"What? No!" Then Mikai realized. "Oh, you're making fun of me. Just you watch, Mr. Snob, the internet's not all bunk. And neither is time travel – I have it on very good sources there was a distortion in the time field just a while ago. Several of them, in fact."

"Oh? And how do these good sources of yours detect distortions in this time field they've somehow discovered?"

"People have all sorts of inventions that the mainstream knows nothing about. In this case, it's military technology, very top secret, very classified."

"And you obtained this very classified information how?"

"If I told you, then I'd have to assassinate you."

Darien smiled bitterly. "Get in line."