Rei held her breath as she saw the girls eye one another. She had already told them about Kioshi who looked to be Jadeite's twin brother, if he ever did have one. It was the first thing she did as she ran off, leaving Kioshi that day they first met, in order to help her friends fight off one of their many enemies...
—"He really looked like Jadeite," Rei, as Sailor Mars, had told them that day, panting. She parried off one of their enemy's many tentacles with her left arm and blasted the squid-cat's—because it had tentacles for legs and a cat's ears and whiskers on its upper human body—torso with her right fist, causing it to fall far back, dazed.
"I swear," Sailor Mars continued once she got hold of her breath, "everything about their physical appearances are pretty much the same but when I examined his aura and few mannerisms, it's as if I'm talking to a different person." The fire-powered sailor leaped on the monkey bars of the playground just in time to dodge a detached and yet still alive tentacle that tried to grab her leg.
"So who do you think—" a blonde girl with hair tied in half by a red ribbon dived across the sandbox, body slamming another monster. This monster was the complete opposite of the squid-cat with the head of an octopus and a feline's body. She also wore a sailor's outfit but in orange theme as opposed to Sailor Mars's red. Again, the orange-clad girl winced at the grotesque creature, rolled over its unconscious body, before continuing, "—he is? Jadeite or this Kioshi-person?"
"Fire Soul!" Sailor Mars shouted, shooting off a fiery phoenix from her clasped hands. It scorched through the detached tentacle into ashes. "I don't know, Sailor Venus," she sighed, addressing the girl in orange while looking over the squid-cat near the slides. It was steadily regaining its balance. Running to it she shouted back, "I believe he is a different person but I'd feel better if you girls check him out the next time I meet him."
"No problem," gently put in by a blue haired girl in almost the same sailor outfit matching the color of her hair. She reached the slides at the same time as Sailor Mars and they multiplied their force, hitting the squid-cat on its right and left sides with Sailor Mars's heeled shoe and Sailor Mercury's right elbow. She wiped the sweat off of her forehead using her gloved arm and smiled at the raven haired sailor, "Sailor Jupiter and I were about to suggest it anyway."
Sailor Mars looked over to the tallest and the only brown haired girl in their group. Also dressed in a sailor's outfit in shades of green, she was busy waking a pigtailed blonde lying near the benches. Sailor Jupiter was gently slapping the cheeks of their companion when the other monster threw Sailor Venus off and against a tree then charged at them.
Alarmed, Sailor Mars and blue-haired sailor ran to the other two girls' rescue but it seemed that the distance between them stretched and it would be only too late before they reached their companions. Suddenly, something zipped past them and gashed a long but shallow wound on the squid-cat's head.
"Even for an enemy almost lost in combat, treachery is bad form," boomed a voice from one of the cluster of trees. Sailor Mars smiled knowing that their chivalrous knight has come to save them—or Sailor Moon only—from their misses in battle. She looked towards one of the trees, her eyes keen and saw the knight, clad in a jet black tuxedo, matching top hat and cape swirling in the wind. His stance is always perfect as Sailor Mars caught herself in mid-sigh. In his hand he held a long staff similar to a magician's wand only longer.
The knight leaped and gently dropped between the squid-cat and the sailors Jupiter and Moon. "Sailor Mercury!" he cried to the blue sailor. "Help us a moment please."
The addressed sailor nodded, assumed her position and gathered her aura. She walked a few steps, twirled and turned, the air near her rippling blue. "Bubble Spray!" she shouted. Bubbles blew out of
her open hands gathering around the monster while blue mist rose from the ground covering all of them.
That will confuse the monster, Sailor Mars thought, adjusting her eyesight and hearing to accommodate the sudden change. She saw her friends and quickly but silently rushed to them, already the knight had turned his back against the monster and was lifting Sailor Moon to his own arms.
"Sailor Moon," he whispered in the unconscious girl's ear. "Wake up. A mere bump in the head shouldn't leave you like this." He brushed a loose strand of hair from Sailor Moon's face and kissed her gently on the lips. Sailor Mars looked away, a little embarrassed at the show of affection. At the other end of the playground she saw Sailor Mercury helping Sailor Venus up.
"Uhnn..." Sailor Moon moaned. Sailor Mars looked back as the pigtailed princess slowly got up, like sleeping beauty after her prince charming kissed her. Smiling a bit, Sailor Mars assumed her stance beside Sailor Jupiter who was then alert knowing that the mist and bubbles created by Sailor Mercury will soon evaporate. "Thank you, Tuxedo Mask," she heard Sailor Moon whisper to the knight and then there was a rustle of cloak as the man leaped off again somewhere, leaving them.
Sailor Mars smiled her thanks as the Tuxedo Mask darted past her. Beside her, Sailor Moon brushed off some of the dirt on her face and posed herself ready for the final blow. Their leader nodded and as one, the four girls charged their opponents—Sailor Jupiter and Sailor Mars towards the squid-cat whereas Sailor Venus and Sailor Mercury towards the cat-squid. The two pairs leaped to the air and kicked their respective opponents causing the two monsters to collide against each other with a thud. And slowly, as the girls drew back, the two monsters started melding into each other forming a more hideous monster than before and probably more dangerous.
Halfway through the transformation, Sailor Moon got out her wand and administered one of her finishing moves. A faint silhouette of the Holy Grail shown in the back ground as she twirled the wand like a baton in her hand, moving her arms in a fairly like fashion, until she finished at a particular stance: arms outstretched, one up holding the wand and the other across her body to the other side. She turned in place, spinning fast like a practiced figure skater, her pigtailes trailing around her as she shouted, "Rainbow Moon Heart Ache!"
Pink light shot out of the jewel in Sailor Moon's wand, trailing hearts in its wake. The monster, vulnerable in its half-transformed state, froze as the pink light glared and enveloped it body. A rainbow shot past it and just as suddenly a huge heart crashed on to its body, contorting it and eventually blasting it into smithereens, leaving sound that seemed like a cross between a cry and a shriek.—
"Youch!" Rei cringed as a shrill voice pierced her ear returning her to the present problem at hand. Her pigtailed friend ran past her and abruptly stopped in front of Kioshi, bending at the waist and leaning forward. Her friend's face was inches from the guy's, obviously inspecting him with wide innocent eyes. As always, it was her curious and seemingly stupid friend who will first voice her opinion.
"Hi!" the pigtailed girl announced in Kioshi's face. "I'm Usagi Tsukino, the most beautiful in the group. Nice to meet you." She stood back up in order to offer her hand to Kioshi in greeting, her face lit with childish happiness.
Kioshi tentatively lifted his own hand; hesitated a bit before taking the girl's hand and shaking it. "I'm Kioshi Hotaka," he replied.
Rei saw Kioshi's eyes dart towards her direction and she smiled at him, assuring him that it was alright. Also, she rolled her eyes a bit and walked towards Usagi, draping an arm around the girl's
shoulders. "Usagi," she said in a motherly like way of educating her child. "If you're going to greet all my friends like that, you'll scare them."
"Beh!" Usagi teased, sticking her tongue out at her friend. She let go of Kioshi's hand, winked at him, and wriggled off of Rei's grasp, whispering only to her, "He's okay."
Rei smiled inwardly, knowing that the rest of the girls will eventually voice the same opinion about Kioshi. She knew to trust her pigtailed friend's opinion. Usagi was always easy to trust people and yet she never failed to do so. It's as if once she gave her trust to someone, that person will never do anything to break that trust, no matter how much he or she broke other people's trust in the past. That is Usagi's magic, Rei thought to herself as she started preparing the rest of the plates for her friends as the three other girls introduced themselves to Kioshi.