At the Crown, Usagi and her friends were sitting at a booth.
"When did Ami say she would be back?" Rei asked.
"She should be here soon. She just needed to get her books," Makoto said. Minako turned and looked to Usagi.
"So has Chibiusa introduced her new friend yet?" Minako asked.
"No, not yet," Usagi said. "She says I will embarrass her, can you believe that?"
"Here's you special banana-split" Motoki said, placing the bowl of ice cream on the table.
"Thanks," Usagi said as she grabbed a spoon and started digging enthusiastically into the dessert very quickly.
"Yeah, I can't imagine why she'd think you'd embarrass her," Rei said ironically, though the statement went unnoticed by Usagi.
"Minako," a girl's voice asked from across the room. The girls at the booth turned to see a short black haired girl, who had some resemblance to Ami. The girl rushed to the booth as Minako screamed in joy as she jumped out of the booth, pushing her friends out of the booth in the process.
Minako and the girl hugged in joy, "Hikaru! What a surprise!"
"I know. How long has it been?"
"At least two years."
The other three Senshi stared at Hikaru in surprise. They were speechless by shock as to how closely the new stranger resembles Ami. Minako turned to her friends, remembering her manners.
"I'm sorry, guys this is Hikaru Sorano. Hikaru, these are my friends Makoto, Usagi, Ami, and Rei. Me and Hikaru both went to school together before I had to move."
Each of the girls greeted Minako's old friend kindly. Eventually Minako and Hikaru got their own booth away from the others to catch up on old times. "Oh, Minako, I know it's been a long time, but I forgot to say sorry for your loss."
"What do you mean?"
"The disaster during the audition for a part in the Sailor V movie. I am glad you weren't killed in that disaster, but I was sorry to hear about Seijo Ace. I know you had a crush on him."
"Oh" Minako started to remember her days before she realized her destiny to protect the princess. "Thanks. It's been a while but I'm good now. Time healing wounds and all."
"That's great. And are you still playing volleyball?"
"Well, I kinda had to give that up. My life became very hectic after I left. What about you?"
"I'm actually pretty good now. I might even be able beat you one-on-one now"
"No way" Minako said, competitively, "I might be out of practice, but there is no way anyone can beat my spike."
"Well, maybe you can drop by during practice. We will see who's best."
"You're on."
Hikaru walked to the door, just as Ami arrived at the Crown. Ami held the door open for Hikaru.
"Thanks"
"You're welcome"
As the two passed each other, Usagi, Rei, and Makoto were in awe how neither girl seemed to take notice of the resemblance to one another.
"So, you never told us you played volleyball for your school?" Rei said, "We know how good you are, why did you give it up?"
"Well, that was another life time ago. You know, before I had responsibilities."
"So what about this Seijo Ace? Was he your first crush?" Makoto stated
"Well, you could say he was my first serious crush."
"Really, what happen?"
"He died," Minako said in a hard tone.
"Oh, I'm sorry."
"Don't be. It turned out that he was just a Dark Kingdom agent and I put him down. Like I said, it was a life time ago. No need to worry about it now."
Minako was shaking. Usagi approached her, "Are you sure?"
"I said it's fine," Minako said in a forceful yet deceptively joyful tone, "Besides, we have bigger issues to worry about right now than some ghosts from the past".
You will be hopeless when it comes to love, for all eternity. Those words haunted her. It had been almost two years now. Why did she think these things she had no control over? He was gone, yet his words could still sting.
Meanwhile, at Mugen Academy, specifically in one of the greenhouses in the botanical gardens, the student known by her colleagues as Tellu, was marking down the results of her latest test of her new plants on a clipboard. She looked at one of her plants and was sad to see it begin to wither.
"Don't worry, soon you will be ready," Tellu said to her plants.
"At the rate the Daimons are failing, we might be in need of your beauties soon," Professor Tomoe said from behind her. She turned around and smiled to him.
"Why professor, what brings you to my garden?" Tellu asked.
"I was informed that you got approval to go after another target and I brought you a Daimon egg." Tomoe said, presenting her with a Daimon egg.
"Thanks, but I was going to be down after my experiment."
"Sadly, the place is a little bit of a mess. I've been using the lab for a crucial experiment and I'll need absolute peace if I need to finish it so I'll be giving you and the others Daimon eggs for now."
"Of course. I understand some experiments need total dedication for success. Good day professor."
"Good day Tellu."
As he walked away, he looked at his hand as it shifted into a claw and back to normal.
Minako walked down the sidewalk and stopped at the Crown. She sat at the table, placing her head in her folded arms. Ever since her Hikaru arrived, the old memories she buried years ago came flooding back. It wasn't that she blamed Hikaru. It was the fact that Hikaru was a part of her life she left behind. A life that ended in heart-break and pain. A life she also wished to protect Hikaru from. Meeting Artemis, becoming Sailor V, fighting the Dark Agency, meeting Ace Kaitou (or Danburite), and being forced to kill him in the end. All these things came back to her. Someone tapped Minako on the shoulder, bringing her back to reality.
"Are you O.K?" a woman's voice said.
Minako looked up to see a woman with long dark greenish hair and wearing a college uniform.
"I'm sorry. I saw you there and just wanted to make sure you were fine."
"It's good. I'm good. Sorry, I'm a little embarrassed."
"Don't be," she said. "You look a little under the weather. Would you mind a little company?"
Minako was surprised by the offer. But something about this woman brought some comfort.
"Not at all."
The woman smiled and shook Minako's hand, "Setsuna"
"Minako, nice to meet you."
Setsuna took a seat and looked at the menu. "So Setsuna, what brings you to the Crown? The food or the games?"
"Well, actually, I've been meeting my class partner here for our projects. I expect he is running late again. He complains about his girlfriend tardiness, but I think he's picking up her habits."
Minako laughed a little. The two made small talk, until Setsuna brought up the subject Minako was avoiding.
"Do you want to talk about what was on your mind earlier?"
"Well, I don't know. It is silly."
"It's fine. I won't judge."
Minako hesitated, but something about Setsuna made her feel safe. That she knew about real hardships. Without going into details, Minako told Setsuna of the events yesterday and some things that happened a few years ago, omitting a few details of her Senshi career.
"Well, I think that you should talk your friend. I'm sure she will understand. The boy was your first real love, and he broke your heart."
"And died," Minako added.
"Of course you will have some demons, but you can't let them get in the way of rekindling a friendship."
"I just don't want to bother her with this. I moved away shortly after he broke my heart and I started a new life. It's hard to see old friends without remembering everything else. And I don't want to burden Hikaru with my petty problems."
"I'm not saying you have to. Just talk to her. About anything. She obviously misses you."
"Well…"
"My advice: why not make new happy memories to cover up the bad ones?"
Minako thought about it. She did miss Hikaru and would feel awful to miss out on the chance to rekindle an old friendship.
"Hey Setsuna, I hope I didn't keep you waiting too long,"
Minako snapped out of her thoughts as Usagi's boyfriend entered the arcade, greeting Setsuna.
"Nope, I was just talking to Minako here"
"You know each other," Minako asked.
"Yeah, we're biology partners." Mamoru said.
"That's cool. Setsuna, you should come here again tomorrow. My friends would love to meet you."
"I'd like that."
"Well, I've got to go," Minako said, getting up, "Thanks for the advice. See you around."
Minako stopped at her Hikaru's school, as classes were getting out. She went to the gymnasium and saw Hikaru holding a volley ball in her hands and talking to a green-haired Mugen student.
"With your skills, you could be a prime candidate for our athletics program."
"Well, your offer is tempting but-"
"Hey, Hikaru!" Minako shouted, waving to her friend.
"Well," the student said, ignoring Minako, giving Hikaru a card "My offer still stands. If you change your mind, you can contact me here".
"Sure, thanks" Hikaru said, no longer paying attention. She ran to Minako, "What are you doing here?"
"I thought that you might want to play a few rounds. See if you really have improved."
"I'd like that."
The Mugen student left, and Hikaru grabbed a basket of volley balls. The two played for three long rounds, both equally matched. Hikaru took out another ball, but it started to glow brightly, turning into a Daimon. The Daimon attacked Hikaru and knocked her unconscious.
"No!" Minako shouted, "Get away from her!"
Minako ran to the Daimon, but the Daimon easily fought her out of the building. She turned on her wrist-watch, "Usagi, a Daimon has appeared at Hikaru's school."
"I'll be right there," Usagi responded, cutting the communication.
Minako grabbed her transformation rod, "Venus Planet Power."
Sailor Venus entered the gym to see the Daimon finish extracting the Pure Heart, with Tellu now there, inspecting it.
"Another dud," the witch said.
"Give that back," Minako said angrily. "Venus Wink-Chain Sword," she shouts, sending an energy sword at the two villains. Tellu ducked while the Daimon was hit by the blast.
"You want this," Tellu said with a sly smile. She gave it to the Daimon. "Then take it if you can". The Daimon put an energy field around the crystal heart. The creature fired it at Sailor Venus at turbo speed. Minako dodged it, but the Daimon kept redirecting it at her.
Seeing the Senshi distracted, Tellu took the opportunity to retreat. Sailor Venus continued to try and deflect the attack but it came from too many directions. Suddenly a glowing disk flew in between Sailor Venus and the ball, deflecting it. The ball was caught by Sailor Jupiter.
"You made it," Sailor Venus acknowledged Sailor Moon and Sailor Jupiter.
"You decided to start playing without us, I see," Sailor Jupiter said.
"Guys, be careful not to break the ball. It will destroy Hikaru's heart," Venus said.
The Daimon motioned its arms and the ball forced itself out of Sailor Jupiter's hands. The ball flew around at high speed as the Senshi tried to dodge it. Suddenly Minako had an idea.
"I have an idea," Sailor Venus said, catching her companions' attention, "But I'll need your help".
"What's the plan," Sailor Moon asked.
"You guys remember back at the beach, how I always won a play?"
The two paused and suddenly remembered how the Senshi of Love always won in volleyball.
"I need your help to set me up."
The Senshi quickly got up and got into position. The energy ball flew at Sailor Jupiter.
"Sailor Moon!" Sailor Jupiter shouted, hitting the ball away using a volleyball stance. The ball flew to Sailor Moon, and she hit it up in the air. Sailor Venus ran you it and gave it her signature hit, sending the projectile to the Daimon, hitting it down, and the ball bounced back to Sailor Jupiter. Seeing an opening, Sailor Moon used her Spiral Moon Heart Rod and destroyed the Daimon.
With the Daimon gone, the energy barrier faded and the Crystal Heart was free. Sailor Jupiter put the heart back into Hikaru. The Senshi quickly reverted back to their civilian identities and Minako checked on Hikaru as she started regaining consciousness.
A day later, the girls were watching Minako and Hikaru competing in one-on-one volleyball. In the end, Minako won by a very narrow victory. Both girls were tired but they were in good spirits.
After the match, both girls were outside, saying goodbye to one another.
"It was great catching up with you," Hikaru said to Minako.
"Yeah, sorry again for not keeping in touch"
"It's fine. I know you are very busy. I don't blame you."
"Thanks. We should do this again sometime"
"I'd like that."
Looking at her watch, Minako saw it was getting late. She told her friends to go on ahead as she needed to talk to Hikaru alone.
"Hikaru, I really enjoyed seeing you again. I promise that I will try and make up for lost times."
"Minako, you don't have to explain it to me. I know that you have other responsibilities. You can call me anytime when you want."
Minako hugged her friend, "I'll see you later."
Hikaru hugged back, saying nothing
After saying goodbye, Minako ran to catch up with her other friends. What Minako didn't know was that now she and Hikaru now share a secret. Hikaru thought back to the incident in the gym with the Daimon. Hikaru remembered struggling to stay conscious and she remembered seeing Sailor Venus fighting. She recognized the fighting style because it had been the same style of her long time hero, Sailor V. And when Sailor Venus struck the energy ball, Hikaru recognized it as the same style Minako used in all her matches. After all these years, she finally realized her hero and her best friend were the same person. And that Minako still fights to protect the planet.
"Good luck," Hikaru whispered to herself as she watched Minako and her friends leave.
In this chapter, I really wanted to include a reference to Sailor V in the chapter and I thought the volleyball episode would be a good place to include it. Instead of some random crush that Minako suddenly had, I made it on of Minako's oldest friends prior to becoming a Senshi.
