BOOK THREE: "Star Dust Memories"
Chapter 6: "Falling Stars"
Author: etj4Eagle
Email: etj4Eagle at yahoo (com)
Webpage Geocities - etj4eagle
First Posted to 02/13/07
Last Edit: 02/13/07 (Version 2)
Disclaimer: A reminder I own none of the characters of this story, all rights are owned by others. However, the unique circumstances of the story are mine. If you distribute the story, do only so freely and inform me of where you post it.
As was normal during normal business hours, the train station was a beehive of activity with the various local, rapid, and shinkansen trains arriving as part of the evening rush. The current level of activity was nearly overwhelming for two children and one adult who had come to meet a relative. Being careful to stay out of the way so as to be not swept away by the crowd, Ikuko, ChibiUsa, and Diana were waiting outside of the paid fare zone for the arrival of Ikuko's sister. For ChibiUsa this was quite a new experience. She hadn't had the need to take the train yet during her current stay nor had she during her previous stay in the past, having only needed to get around the Juuban ward, and so had never been to one of Tokyo's train stations. And there was nothing quite like this in the now no longer existent future. Consequently, ChibiUsa was looking around wide eyed, taking in the sights, and was already planning on asking Naru if they could ride one of the shinkansen for her birthday.
Standing beside ChibiUsa, Ikuko was nervous about her sister's arrival. She had not slept well wondering how Misaki would take the news. She knew that she was being unreasonable with her fear. And after all if her daughter could come clean with her, then it should be no problem for her to come clean with her sister, but even still Ikuko was nervous. Seeing the blue hair of her sister, she shoved that fear away and instead cried out "Misaki!"
Hearing her sister's voice, Misaki looked up and waved. However, being still inside the paid fare area, she could not run over and give her sister a hug. Instead, she patiently waited her turn to pass through the exit gate. Though once her she was through, she began to quickly make her way over to Ikuko.
"It is good to see you again sis." Misaki said once she reached Ikuko. Putting down her bags, she embraced her sister. Then turning to look down at ChibiUsa, she added "And it is good to see you again too ChibiUsa-chan" before reaching down and pulling ChibiUsa into a bone crushing hug. Releasing ChibiUsa, Misaki looked around the platform for the rest of Ikuko's family and frowned slightly when she could find no sign of her niece or nephew.
"Shingo has a baseball game this afternoon" Ikuko said as she began to head off Misaki's unasked questions.
"Baseball? When did he get interested in baseball?"
"Just this year and I think it has more to do with his friends playing than anything more." Ikuko replied. "As for Usagi that is a more complicated explanation and it will have to wait to we get home."
"Oh?" Misaki asked, but did not press Ikuko having recognized the unspoken sadness in Ikuko's voice.
"Hai." Ikuko replied with her façade crumbling for a moment before she was able to pull things back together.
It was at this point that Misaki finally took notice that there was a second girl standing beside ChibiUsa. "And who is this ChibiUsa-chan? A friend of yours?"
"Konnichiwa Misaki-san, I am Diana and I am staying with the Tsukino family." Diana replied politely and with a slight bow. However, Misaki did not react other than to have an eye twitch.
Leaning down towards Diana, Ikuko whispered briefly into Diana's ear and Diana rephrased her greeting. "Konnichiwa Auntie Misaki."
This time Diana's greeting generated a reaction and with a cry of "Ooh, how cute!" Diana was swooped up into a bone crushing hug.
Seeing Diana swept up into one of Misaki's hugs, ChibiUsa smirked. However, her smirk was short lived as she soon found herself pulled into the hug as well while Misaki went on about there being two cute little children.
Noticing that her sister was beginning to draw some attention and that further Diana and ChibiUsa were starting to look a little blue in the face, Ikuko suggested "Misaki why don't we head on back to the house?" Thankfully for Ikuko, Misaki readily agreed to Ikuko suggestion forestalling any need for her to explain to any concerned police officers her sister's very affectionate reaction to anything cute.
Fighter stood on one of the trestles near the top of Tokyo tower. Looking out at the city below, which was lit by the early evening sun, she remarked to herself that the world looked so innocent. Yes it had its own problems, which her appraisal of the various media sources over the past few days had enlightened her to, but in the grand scheme of things those issues were minor and the world was for the moment safe and its people oblivious to the greater threats that raged across the galaxy. They weren't even fully aware of their Star Kin and the often contentious relationship between the guardians and the star system rulers had yet to establish itself on this planet. But for all of its innocence, this is just going to make its awakening to the true threat out there all the harder for the people of this planet to bear. This planet has done so well in recovering on its own from the loss of its guardian Silver Millennium so why does it have to become the focal point in the war? Fighter thought to herself
Feeling a pair of familiar bursts of energy, Fighter raised her head to the sky and smiled as she saw two shooting stars streak across the sky and past the horizon. "Maker, Healer." She whispered out. Turning to face the other horizon, she waited patiently for the two stars to encircle the planet as they decelerated. When they finally reappeared, they were no longer streaks of light across the heavens, but were definite points of energy angled towards Tokyo tower.
Arriving at the tower, the two stars reformed into Fighter's sisters. Excited and happy to see her sisters again, Fighter gave the two just arrived warriors no time to regain the bearings before she launched herself at them. She first glomped onto Maker, giving the oldest a crushing hug and nearly toppling the other Star Kin to the ground, before turning around and glomping onto Healer.
Watching as Fighter slowly began to release Healer, Maker smiled at her youngest sibling antics before saying, "Why am I not surprised that you are the one to find the hiding place of the Light of Hope for our princess."
"What do you mean?" Fighter innocently asked.
Giving a short chuckle, Healer said, "Only that you are the princess's favorite and the two of us know how much you yourself care for her as well, so it is only fitting that you would be the one to find this location."
"But…" Fighter began to say, planning on denying that she had any special feelings for the princesses and utterly sure that they were not reciprocated.
However, her retort was waved off by Maker. "There is no need for you deny anything. We don't love you any less and we are just happy that you can bring her the happiness that you do. Now why don't you start telling us what is so important about this world?"
"Yeah, while I am not surprised that the Light of Hope would be found on a backwater planet, I would think that something that powerful here would have been found a long time ago as if I remember my history lessons correctly, didn't this system once host Sailor Senshi?" Healer asked.
"Hai, it did and it now does so again." Fighter said.
"What!" Bother Healer and Maker shouted.
"But there are no colonies on any of the rocky planets or in orbit of the gas giants. They don't even have a colony on their own satellite yet. They just have some dinky tin can orbiting the planet." Maker said.
"I thought that thing felt like it had people in it when I passed it on insertion into the atmosphere, but was not sure." Healer said thinking of course about the MIR space station.
"Hai I know, but this planet does have Sailor Senshi on it. I have counted five of them plus an outsider. And in doing some research, there appears to have been at least one more, but she was apparently killed in a recent battle."
"There was a battle strong enough to kill one of us?" Healer asked with surprise, wondering what could have posed a threat to a Sailor Soldier on a backwater planet like this one.
"Hai, unfortunately the people here are only starting to realize that Star Kin walk amongst them and as such the records are fairly sketchy and lack any significant detail of the battles. But I was able to investigate the source of that battle and there is still a large amount of residual energy left. While the rest of the soldiers of this planet are quite weak, they do not appear to have been properly trained, this one that died had to have been quite strong from the mark that she left."
"You'll need to show us that location; there might be something there connected with the Light of Hope." Maker said. "So what were the princess's orders?'
"We are to locate the Light of Hope and protect it. And as a second objective we are to train the local Sailor Soldiers. She also said that all usual constraints on our actions are lifted that we are to do what ever we feel is necessary.
"So what is wrong with my niece that you are not telling me?" Misaki asked as she, Ikuko, Diana, and Luna entered the house.
Slipping off her shoes, Ikuko replied, "I am sure that you have heard some of the news reports about the Mugen incident."
"Hai I have." Misaki responded, wondering what that had to do with Usagi as she was sure that Usagi attended the local public school.
"Well Usagi was intimately involved in that incident. She saved us all with her actions, but at a terrible cost. Her injuries from that battle have left her in what is essentially a coma." Ikuko said. Describing to her sister even in the most general terms what had happened that day reopened the wound in her heart causing Ikuko to break down.
As soon as the first tears began to flow and Ikuko's chest began to shake, Misaki reached out and pulled her sister in against her body. Carefully guiding the distraught Ikuko into the living room, Misaki sat the two of them down on the couch. After Ikuko had began to regain some of her composure Misaki said, "Ikuko, I am so sorry to hear that. But why did you keep it this tragedy a secret? I would have come out here to help you through this if you had told me. I can't imagine the pain that you have been going through."
Now feeling some guilt for the hardship that had been placed onto her grandmother, ChibiUsa, who had followed the two grownups in the living room, spoke with a timid voice. "Ikuko-mama did not tell you because of who I and my mother are."
Looking up from Ikuko, Misaki regarded the young child who was looking very sheepish right now. "Demo, I don't understand? How does your mother's identify effect Usagi and what do you mean by who you are?"
Smiling a sad smile, ChibiUsa gathered what little courage she had at the moment and released her glamour spell – the only spell that she could still cast. "You see I am only half-human." ChibiUsa replied once she felt the spell dissipate.
Having been alerted that something was about to happen by the smile that ChibiUsa gave, Misaki had watched closely as the young girl's body shimmered for a moment. And as she watched, her eyes were instantly attracted to the child's forehead as a golden light seemed to break through for a moment before becoming an upturned crescent moon. Hearing ChibiUsa's words about being only half human, she wondered what the young girl meant by that and what connection this crescent moon, which she now noticed was overlaid on a very faint starburst background, might have to do with it.
Unable to control herself, Misaki reached out her right hand to stroke the mark with her thumb. As the logical part of mind would have expected, she did not feel anything special when she ran her thumb across the mark. But somehow the act in of itself allowed her to accept that maybe that this girl in front of her was only half human. Now moving her hand to lay gently on ChibiUsa' shoulder, she gazed into the girl's eyes, her eyes reflecting the endless multitude of questions that she did not know how to verbalize.
Feeling the warmth of Misaki's hand and absently registering that the hand was to give her comfort, ChibiUsa continued her explanation. "The mark you see on my forehead represents my birthright as the daughter of Neo-Queen Serenity and heir to the remains of the Moon Kingdom. My mother is of Lunarian descent, daughter of the last Queen of the Moon." Then pausing for a moment, ChibiUsa said the final part of her explanation with a cracking voice, "And you know her as Tsukino Usagi."
However, saying her mother's human name was too much for her and with the name said her composure fully crumbled. Staying at ChibiUsa's side through her explanation, Diana had been prepared for this collapse and as ChibiUsa's legs gave way, Diana pulled ChibiUsa in against her chest. Seemingly to wrap her body around ChibiUsa as she lowered the two of them to the floor, ChibiUsa ended up curled into a ball on top of Diana's chest. Focusing strictly on her charge, Diana held ChibiUsa tightly as she began to purr and softly rock the now sobbing ChibiUsa. This was something that she had gotten a lot of practice in those first weeks after Hotaru ran away. However, even with all of her practice, she knew she was not as good as Usagi or even Hotaru.
Thinking about Hotaru, Diana's mood darkened before she forced those thoughts away less ChibiUsa sense them and get more upset. While she intellectually understood that Hotaru was going through her own grieving, she couldn't help being upset with the other girl for breaking ChibiUsa's heart.
When ChibiUsa collapsed, Misaki was too stunned to do anything, something that she would later feel guilty about. But learning that your niece was not human, was the queen of some empire, and had a seven almost eight year old child was enough to stun anybody. And as hard as it was to believe what she had just learned for ChibiUsa and Ikuko, their reactions were all the proof that she needed. There was no way to fake that level of sorrow. Looking down at her sister and then at her niece she weakly asked "But how?" not expecting any answer given the current states of Ikuko and ChibiUsa.
As such she was completely taken by surprise when a strong female voice answered with, "Magic."
Turning to regard the owner of that voice, Misaki found a brunette haired girl who appeared to be about the same age as Usagi. Due to good timing, Makoto had just finished up with her tea preparations when ChibiUsa broke down and so was entering the living room with her tray just in time to take over the explanations.
Elaborating from her initial one word explanation, Makoto said, "The forces of magic are just as powerful as the ones currently known to science. With them, Queen Serenity of the Silver Millennium was able to send her daughter and protectors into the future to be reborn after the fall of her kingdom. Usagi is that reborn princess. The power of magic also allowed for ChibiUsa to travel into the past where she is now trapped." Pausing in her explanation to give Misaki time to absorb what she had just said, Makoto had trouble believing how eloquent she just was.
"As for how I know that this story is true; I am one of those protectors of Princess Serenity, now Tsukino Usagi." Then, summoning her transformation wand, Makoto called out "Jupiter Star Power Make-Up!"
"You… you're one of them." Misaki managed to get out as she tried to come to terms with what she was seeing in front of her.
"Hai, I, Kino Makoto, am actually the Sailor Senshi of the planet Jupiter."
As Misaki began to come to terms with what she had just been told and had just seen, her expression began to relax from the one of complete surprise that had accompanied Makoto's transformation. And once the initial shock had worn off, Misaki began to notice the various little elements of Jupiter's fuku. However, unlike Mizuno Rikou, she did not focus on whether or not the skirt was decent. No, Misaki quickly dismissed the skirt as just being decoration for what was essentially a standard leotard. Instead, she focused on the cute bows and jewelry. As she noticed these various elements, they were quickly adding up to one thing in her mind and with it a reaction that Jupiter was utterly unprepared for especially since it took some time to reach critical mass. When her thoughts did reach critical mass, Misaki practically launched herself across the gap to Jupiter, and performed what some might refer to as a perfect Chinese Amazon glomp while exclaiming "Kawaii."
One consequence of Misaki's sudden motion besides the toppling of Jupiter to the ground was that Ikuko who had been leaning on her sister fell off the couch. Hitting the ground, the impact knocked her out of her depression and allowed the healing she and Rei had gone through with each other to kick in. Her mind instinctively knowing what had happened, Ikuko lifted her head to look towards where Jupiter was flaying on the ground and couldn't help but to smirk at the scene. She just wished that she had her camera near by, but of course also knew that a picture like this could never be commercially developed.
Even though her sister's actions had resulted in her landing pretty hard on the ground – she had hit face first after all – she was in no ways upset with her sister. This was just par for the course with her sister and after having grown up with Misaki she had learned to live with her sister's eccentricities. By the time she had reached ChibiUsa's age she had experienced enough painful reunions with walls and floors courtesy of something cute and cuddly grabbing her sister's attention that being thrown into a row of lockers by a bully at school had not fazed her. Instead of breaking down into tears, she had simply stood up and complained to the aghast teacher – Ikuko's body had dented the lockers after all. There were some more pleasant upsides to her sister's eccentricities as well, as after her sister's abuse nothing that the opposing field hockey teams tried on the field worked to slow her down. She had been the star of her high school team each year that she played.
Ikuko cut short her reminiscing when she noticed that Jupiter had finally managed to escape from Misaki's glomp. That was not some meager feat, but Ikuko guessed that if anybody should be able to escape it would have to be the Sailor Senshi with their enhanced strength. Makoto had of course been warned by ChibiUsa about Misaki's way of greeting people, but Makoto had just thought that ChibiUsa was exaggerating as a way to hide her fear over being accused for what happened to Usagi. Plus adults also tended to greet children differently than adults and Makoto considered herself to be at least close enough to an adult to be greeted as such. Once she did manage to escape from Misaki's glomp, Makoto quickly reversed her henshin and made a mental note to be more careful around Misaki. She might not be a demon, but she could be just as dangerous with those glomps.
Backing a little bit away from Misaki, Makoto, a slightly sheepish look on her face, gave Misaki a low bow while saying, "Excuse me Auntie Misaki, but I must go check on dinner."
Letting the cute Sailor Senshi go, Misaki instead turned to regard her sister with an obvious question visible in her facial expression.
"Makoto is quite an accomplished cook. When she heard the time that your train was coming in, she insisted on fixing dinner for me so that I could go meet you at the station. Plus she figured her presence might make it easier for you to accept the situation with Usagi. Now I know how much you want to see Usagi, so why don't we go on upstairs and visit her."
Following Ikuko, Misaki asked, "Wouldn't Usagi be better off in a hospital. I am sure you are doing a good job carrying for her, but they would have more resources for taking care of a coma patient."
"Not in this case. You see, Usagi is not in a normal coma. From how Sailor Mercury described it, she is in a stasis crystal and as such there is nothing anyone can do for her. All we can do is wait until her soul has sufficiently healed that she wakes up. Plus if she was placed in a hospital it would be obvious that Usagi is not normal." Ikuko said as they walked up the stairs.
Entering into Usagi's room, the first thing that Misaki noticed were all of the roses spread around the room. Then walking up to Usagi's bed, she saw what her sister had meant by Usagi not being able benefit from the advance care available in a hospital, as she was fully enclosed in a giant crystal. Laying a hand on top of the crystal, Misaki looked down at Usagi who appeared to be sleeping peacefully. As she carefully examined her niece, the first thing she noticed was what Usagi was wearing or barely wearing as the case may be for a red ribbon loosely wrapped around her torso was the only thing that provided the girl with dignity. Letting her gaze travel up the girl's body, Misaki examined Usagi's forehead and found a faded starburst mark there. I guess that makes sense if the mark on ChibiUsa's head is supposed to represent her birth right. But why is ChibiUsa the only one to have a crescent moon as part of the mark? Misaki thought to herself before moving her examination on to Usagi's hair, like when Misaki had seen her last, Usagi's hair was still that stunning shade of silver – seeming to be made of moonlight. I guess that analogy is far more appropriate than I had realized. Misaki thought with a chuckle. Then following that silver hair down, she began to notice that some white feathers had been apparently encased in the crystal along with her niece. She was about to ask about the feathers when something else caught her eye.
"She has wings." Misaki gasped out as she broke away from her examination and turned to face Ikuko.
"Hai that she does. She has had them for quite a few months now. She got them the same time her hair returned to the silver of her previous life."
"But that would mean…" Misaki said
"Hai, she had them when she came to visit you. Normally she is able to pull her wings in and thereby go about her life normally out in the public. But actually when we were down visiting you she was ill, something about it not being good for her to be away from Tokyo, and after that first night her wings were out the entire time."
"That is why she was always wrapped up in a robe, blanket, or the like." Misaki said understanding coming to her.
"Hai, that was the best we could do at the time to hide them from you. Thankfully her wings are quite flexible. There would have been no way to have hidden them if it hadn't been for that flexibility, as they normally stick up to her head level when she has them folded at her back. As for why we are telling you this now. Usagi's condition has changed everything. There would be no way for you to avoid seeing the sadness carried in ChibiUsa' heart. And I couldn't let ChibiUsa feel that she was the one responsible for letting out the secret. I have already messed up with one of Usagi's daughters; I won't make the same mistake with ChibiUsa." Ikuko said, speaking that last sentence softly to herself. However, her words were still heard by Misaki.
Frowning as she heard the self-recrimination in her sister's voice. Misaki strode forward and pulled Ikuko in against herself. Then as she spoke some soft soothing words while telling her sister to let go of the grief, to let it all out, she directed the two of them towards an open space on Usagi's bed. She had a feeling that her niece would not mind sharing the bed with the two of them, especially considering the situation. When some minutes later, Ikuko had regained her composure, Misaki asked, "Now what is this about you failing another daughter of Usagi."
"Her name is Hotaru; she is about a year older than ChibiUsa. She is not biologically related to Usagi, but even so Usagi is now her adopted mother. One of Usagi's last actions was to adopt her." Ikuko replied.
"Why don't you tell me about this other grandniece of mine?" Misaki suggested.
When Ami finally finished up her homework for the evening it was quite late. Looking bleary eyed at the clock and seeing that it was showing that it was already the next day, Ami sighed. It would have had to have been yesterday that her history teacher would suddenly have assigned a long chapter to read with an essay to write for today as well. Unlike science and math, history was one subject in which it was quite difficult for her to get ahead of and there was no way to get any kind of head start on any of the homework. For both math and science, she already had the problems worked out for the next couple of chapters so on nights like tonight she would just have to copy them over for submission. But she couldn't really do that with history where there weren't any predefined text book problems to work out. That afternoon she had attended a progress review given by the team that was attempting to make headway into the information she had been able to get from the central computer regarding the armor that foot soldiers in the Silver Millennium wore.
At some point during the fall, one replica of the databanks had somehow been transferred to the Earth and were buried under what was now the Crown Video Arcade. These databanks which were accessible with her computer as well as from the command center contained an unbelievable wealth of information. Unfortunately, the utility of its knowledge was limited by its shear vastness coupled with her limited ability to find anything of importance in it. She suspected that nearly every iota of data generated during the Silver Millennium had been stored in the database; she had at one point even found a scanned image of a drawing she had apparently drawn when she was three years old when she had been looking for information on the Moon Princess. That picture now sat in a frame on her mom's desk at work – her mother of course, unlike Ami, did not see the query that had found that picture as a failure.
Due to the amount of data contained in the database it was impossible to find anything without constructing search queries. A team of librarians could spend centuries reading articles one by one and only scratch the surface of what the database contained. Unfortunately, with her still very faint grasp of the technology and magic of the Silver Millennium combined her tentative ability to translate written Japanese into the languages of the Silver Millennium, constructing those searches was always quite a challenge, especially since the more pertinent documents always seemed to contain only the highly technical jargon and not the simpler terms that she was more familiar with using. And even when she did find something that might be of use, those documents tended to range from being a couple hundred to a few thousand pages long. And of course, she never had the time to review those documents properly, starting with the basics and moving up to the more complex subjects; instead, she generally had to quickly pinpoint the relevant paragraphs and try to make use of the advance magical theory described without the necessary educational framework.
Just figuring out how to make their new communicators had been a small miracle. The one element that had saved her there was that there already existed a basic communicator design for a watch type communicator, which only took her half a week to find. Modifying that basic design to be able to broadcast on the various scrambled and unscrambled military channels, thankfully, only required loading in new software as she had lucked out in finding a communicator that was able to use electromagnetic frequencies. Not that writing the new module was without its headaches; after all magic based computer languages had their own paradigms in addition to the usual need to learn new syntax.
As such, it was not surprising that the meeting had run long as the research team had eagerly presented all that they had learned, not that any of it was near useful yet. And that long presentation had pushed back her homework time, but she was now finally done. Slipping her homework into its folder, Ami added it to her bag along with the text book. Then walking over to her dresser, she picked up her night shirt and headed out into the wall to wash up. When she returned a little while later, dressed for bed, she readily climbed in under the covers and was asleep within but a few moments.
As Ami dreamed, it was not long before she found herself once again beside the mountain lake. Smiling as she breathed in the air, she walked down to the lake. Stopping by its edge, she reached a hand in and felt the frigid water. Then standing back up with another smile on her face, she turned and walked a couple paces away from the lake. While for any normal person the water temperature was too cold for swimming, for Ami the purity of the water meant that her body did not care how cold it was. Undoing the buttons on her blouse, she slipped it off while also kicking the shoes off her feet, the rest of her clothing quickly following suit.
While awake, just the mere thought of skinny dipping would have caused Ami to blush like crazy. But here in her dream world, her mind raised no objections. Returning to the water's edge, this time she walked right in and once she was waist deep she launched herself out towards the center of the lake with strong powerful and graceful strokes.
Seated on his usual rock outcropping, Youko had watched as Ami appeared in this dream world as a result of his call. She of course did not realize the reason why she had appeared back here at the lake and Youko chose to spend a few minutes just observing the one he had bounded his fate to. He was not at all surprised when she entered the lake soon after her arrival. With the power of Mercury flowing through her blood, the call of the body of water would have been hard for her to resist. And here in the dream realm where the mind was at ease and normal inhibitions faded away, the draw would be even more pronounced.
When he decided that she had had enough playtime, he stood up and made his way down to the edge of the lake. Reaching the edge of the water, he took a hold of some of the energy he had built up over the past weeks and used it to take on a demonic human form. While this was going to setback his healing, it was worth it, especially since he had no desire to actually win this little game he was playing with the child.
The human form that he took was similar in size to Ami with many similarities, which was not surprising given that her body was providing the template for the transformation. While there was his original demonic human form that form would require more energy to assume and would be less successful in making the point that he wanted. The main differences between this human form Youko and a male Ami were that he still had vulpine ears, that he had long silver-blue hair that hung midway down his back, instead of nails he had claws, and of course he still had a tail. In assuming this form, a ghostly-blue loose fitting tunic set had appeared on his body while his feet remained bare and a silver symbol for Mercury adorned his forehead. The fur of his tail was the same shade as that of his hair; but unfortunately for his pride, he still had only one tail.
Dipping a foot into the water, he found the temperature to be quite pleasing, something that he had not expected. Must be my connection to the child that makes this water so pleasing to this body. he thought before stepped fully into the water. Continuing to wade out, he located Ami and then once he was deep enough he took off swimming.
"So have you decided to surrender child?" he asked after switching over to a side stroke when he finally caught up with Ami.
"Huh?" Ami mumbled not having expected anyone to be out here. Then turning to regard the owner of the voice her eyes widen in surprise. "Youko?" she asked.
"Hai, I thought I might try out your body to see how it feels, especially since you appear to have no desire to fight me. You know if you don't want to fight, we can just shorten everything and you can surrender your soul to me now." Youko said as he swam closer and grabbed a hold of Ami's body and pulled her backwards towards his body.
Ami was confused by his words for a few moments, which is what allowed him to catch her. But as his arm finished snaking around her lower chest, she remembered her deal with the demon and what he had vowed to do. Remembering the threat he posed, she cried, "Iie!" and attempted to force her way out of his arm.
Her efforts did result in turning herself around but she was prevented from fully escaping by his bringing a second arm around her body. Pulling her back in tight, he removed one of his hands from her back and used it to tilt her head back so that he could look into her eyes. "You have been neglecting your practice. It would be so easy right now to crush your free will and make you my slave. You're too valuable to kill with your ability to summon the power of your protector. But keeping your soul trapped here in the corner of your mind and taking full possession of your body would be just right. You are just lucky that I am too weak to take on even someone as open as you are right now."
As he had been saying this, Youko had been swimming the two of them towards the shore. Reaching the shore, he moved the hand that he had been using to tilt her head back to wrap around her bottom, providing a hold by which he was able to raise her out of the water as he stood up. Now removed from the blanket of the water, Ami suddenly felt self-conscious of her lack of dress. But as much as she wanted to get away from Youko, she found that her body no longer had any fight left in it. While her mind was screaming at her body to move and to get away from the demon, her body was not listening and was even allowing itself to be placed into a position that made it easier for Youko to carry her.
Walking over to his rock, Youko appeared to pay no attention to Ami's growing embarrassment with her nudity. Setting her down on the rock, he once again caressed her face with a touch that both pulled Ami's body to him at the same time that it repulsed her soul. Looking down into her wide and fearful eyes, he grinned, unable to help himself from enjoying the pleasure that having this power over of her brought him. For a moment he was tempted to escalate his actions and feed off of her fear, but he clamped down on that demonic instinct and instead spoke to Ami.
"Little one, look at me. This form of mine is a merging of your body and mine. That I am already able to take this here in the dream world shows how much I have already won. I chose you as my victim because I thought you were going to be a challenge. I hope that I was not mistaken. But even if I was, I am becoming quite attached to this body and I may just move up the time table for full possession."
Then stepping forward and once again placed a hand along Ami's face. He rested the hand there for but a moment before he flicked it and instead rested the tip of one of his claws at the top of her cheek. Slowly running that claw downward, drawing a faint line of blood, he said "And your inability to control your own body here in your dream plane is another indication of how much you have failed." As he spoke, he drew a line of blood down along Ami's side and down to her thigh before curving the cut so that he finished with his hand resting on top of Ami's knee. Adjusting how he held his hand so that it now rested more softly on Ami's knee, Youko ended by saying, "I trust that you won't make this same mistake again."
"Princess Usagi Lady Serenity." A voice called out over the night wind.
Following the voice that was calling her name, ChibiUsa, dressed in her pajamas, ran barefoot along the center of one of the downtown streets. With her steps falling along the median line she called out in response, "Who's there."
Receiving no response to her question, she continued to run, following the voice calling her name. And then from one moment to the next she found herself deep in a forest. Her bare feet now landing on the sparse underbrush grass, ChibiUsa slowed her pace as she caught site of a beautiful white horse. Slowing to slow walk, she exited from the thick woods into a clearing around a lake. Looking more closely at the horse, she saw that like her mom it had wings. Pegasus her mind supplied a few moments later from the stories that her parents used to read to her before bed.
The Pegasus stood there unconcerned as ChibiUsa approached, it seeming to be almost happy to see the young girl. When ChibiUsa was but a couple of steps from it, the Pegasus lowered its neck, bringing its head down to ChibiUsa's level. Reaching out a tentative hand, ChibiUsa whispered "beautiful" as she stroked the creature's snout. Unnoticed by ChibiUsa as she touched the creature, golden energy moved down her arm and through her body changing her outfit to that of one of her former princess gowns.
"Young maiden I am glad that we can finally meet." Helios said to the young princess.
Pulling back her hand, ChibiUsa looked up at the Pegasus and asked "Who are you?"
"A friend. But you must not tell anyone about our meeting." Helios replied. "I know you have many questions, but they will have to wait."
As Helios mentioned that the questions would have to wait, ChibiUsa noticed that forest around the lake was beginning to fade away into nothingness. Then looking back at the Pegasus, she noticed for the first time that it could also be termed a unicorn due to the golden horn on its head.
"Sleep well you highness. I will guard your dreams until you mother is able to do so again." Helios said as the last elements of the dream world faded from view and ChibiUsa fell back into a deep slumber. As for Helios, now that he had made contact with the conscious mind of his sanctuary, his own soul was eased and he allowed his consciousness to fade into the recesses of ChibiUsa's dreams.
When her alarm clock began to play a local news station, Ami slowly opened her eyes. As she expected from the time that she had turned in the previous night, she found it hard to wake up. But persevere she did and even with her eyes threatening to close again, she threw her legs over the side of the bed and got up. Walking over to her light switch, she turned on the room lights and with the extra illumination finally found her body starting to wake up.
Heading back to an open area on her floor, she began to perform some stretches, knowing that getting blood flowing was the most important thing to help wake herself up and to make sure that she was functional for her morning classes. But as she began her first stretch, a sharp pain in her left side halted her stretch. Confused as to why pain was radiating all the way down her side, Ami reached over to her to her side with her gaze following. Putting her hand on the side of her chest, her eyes shot open when she saw the crusted blood stain in her night shirt.
Panic starting to build, Ami quickly made her way from her room to the bathroom. In there she stripped off her night shirt and grabbing a washcloth she began to examine the cut along her side, using the rag to rinse off the dried blood. By the time she had finished cleaning the cut, her panic had begun to subside somewhat with her realization that the cut was closed, but there was still the issue of how she had gotten the cut. It had been a couple of days since the last demon attack and with it another appearance of that mysterious Sailor Senshi, so this wound could not have been from that. Tracing the scab again, she began to remember her dream from the previous night.
"But how can that be?" Ami softly asked herself. "Is this another warning from Youko, a physical reminder to prevent me from forgetting?"
Letting herself fall to the ground, Ami's mind replayed the scene in the dream realm and how helpless she had been. What worried her the most was how part of her body had actually welcomed the control that Youko had over her and wanted to give herself fully to him. It was the same part of her soul that wanted to give up and fade away when Usagi had been taken from them. Tracing the scab again, Ami realized that she could not let anyone else know about this cut. The cut was a symbol of her own shame and she did not want to anyone else to know how close she had come to losing nor of the pact that she had made with a demon. Thankfully, while it was summer she tended to dress relatively conservatively and so it would not be a problem to hide the cut and without being able to henshin even that problem was taken care of.
However, even if I am to bear this mark of shame in solitude, I cannot redeem myself alone. It is time that I resumed my lessons with Rei. Ami thought to herself as she gathered up her soiled night shirt. Thankfully her mom was working the early morning shift and so was not home yet and so she would not have to worry about her mom seeing her cleaning the night shirt. After cleaning the blood off her night shirt as well as her sheets, she packed some bandages and breams to take a long to school in case any of her scabs opened.
Giving Haruka a kiss, Michiru collected her bag and violin case and stepped out of the car. Closing the car door, she watched as Haruka proceeded to speed away, weaving her way into the flow of traffic with but a moment's hesitation. For not the first time, Michiru wondered how Haruka managed to avoid finding herself in jail over her driving habits. While Michiru felt perfectly safe riding with Haruka in that yellow sports car, she had the advantage of knowing that Haruka was an experienced race car driver and as such driving like this was not reckless for her. But Michiru doubted that any traffic cop would be willing to accept that as a valid excuse for the gross disregard for the rules of the road.
Once Haruka' car had vanished from view, Michiru turned back to the building that she had been dropped off at. Walking on up to the front door she wondered what her sensei, Albert George-Schram, would have her work on today. He was a bit of a character and always found a way to bring a smile to her face no matter how she down she might feel and as such she always looked quite forward to her lessons. He had only been her instructor for a little over a year now and Michiru had no illusion that she would have the honor of being his student for too much longer. Instructing her in the way of the violin was his way in taking a sabbatical in his long and distinguished conducting career that had taken him all over the world. Though, unlike the normal method of taking a sabbatical, he only reduced the amount of conducting he did, still traveling to the US and other locations to conduct summer concert series – particularly those for children and his sabbatical also had lasted for a number of years already.
As her thoughts focused on her sensei, her feet followed the well known path along the hall to her practice room. She was just turning the final corner to her room when she came on her sensei.
"Good afternoon Kaioh-san" George-Schram said in greeting.
"Good afternoon to you too, sensei." Michiru replied with a slight bow as waited for her sensei to reach the corner as well before falling in step behind him.
Michiru was quite thankful for the quirk of fate that resulted in him taking a sabbatical in Japan to teach the violin to high school students. She was sure that he was personally responsible for how well her talent had developed in the past year and that her ability would have been a pale shade of what it currently was if it were not for him. As strange as his desire to suddenly teach the violin was, her becoming his student was another quirk of fate. A few years ago she was like any other kid her age learning to play the violin. She was fairly decent having played it from a young age, but she also was no where near the best in her class at school either. But he had seen something at her school recital, something that had him talking about her potential and the emotion and energy that was just below her surface. He had quickly convinced her parents that she would benefit from private lessons, a decision which they had not regretted one bit.
At the time she had not understood what he had meant, but now a year later she had no trouble understanding his meaning. The song that she had ended up playing the night that Pluto had awoken her and Haruka to their destiny was what he had been talking about. She did not know if any of the others felt the same way she did, but since her awakening it felt as if a shackle that had been unknowingly present on her soul had been removed – letting her soul finally take flight. She knew that her sensei had noticed from his comments on how her talent had really begun to blossom in the half year. Correct that, I know Usagi has felt that way. While maybe not at first from the stories the others tell, but certainly once she accepted her destiny with the arrival of her daughter she has been freed of her previous shackling. Michiru thought to herself.
Noticing the expressions crossing Michiru's face as she began to unpack her violin, George-Schram said, "You looked troubled in your thoughts Kaioh-san, I hope nothing is threatening to cloud that fine music that you can produce."
"Iie, sensei. I was just thinking for a moment about how much more free my music feels these past months." Michiru replied.
"Yes, your music has truly become majestic. There is an indescribable quality to it now, far more profound than what I had thought that you had hidden in you." George-Schram said with a smile. Then after pausing for a moment, he continued with, "There is another student who is also quite skilled with the violin. Like you, he has been practicing since an early age and has a way of really bringing out the spirit of the music. His instructor is an old colleague of mine and recently invited me to attend one of his lessons. If you are so inclined, I think the two of you would be very well suited for performing a duet together."
Pausing before lifting her violin up to her shoulder, Michiru replied, "I would be honored Sensei."
"And I was thinking that instead of being traditional and working from a set piece that the two of you could instead improvise and play from your hearts. The other student, Saotome is quite skilled in the improvising and I really enjoy the music that you play from your heart. You really should think about writing it down or at least playing with a tape recorder so that someone else could transcribe it." Michiru's sensei said referring to the various times she had unconsciously shifted from following the sheet music to playing a melody from the Silver Millennium. He never criticized her when she made those deviations, for he quite enjoyed the heart and soul she brought to life in those melodies.
"Hai." Michiru replied nervously now that she realized that she was no longer going to be just playing but also essentially composing their duet as well.
"Don't worry Kaioh-san; you'll do fine." George-Schram said as he placed a hand on Michiru's shoulder. "Now why don't we pick up where we left off last time with the third movement?" he suggested, getting the lesson started. And with that Michiru's violin once again began producing its wonderful music.
Watching the petite girl on the practice range, the sergeant had to admit that she was quite skilled. He found it hard to believe that until recently that she had never held a rifle given that she was already at a sharp shooter skill level. By the US NRA standards she would be qualified at the Bar 2 level prone and basic sharpshooter standing. What was even more amazing for the sergeant was how she was able to achieve this mastery with so little practice. While this practice range was inside of the research facility (some one had gotten a little greedy when they learned that volume of the facility was going to be magically expanded), Ami with the rest of her duties only was only able to spend an hour a couple days a week practicing. Sergeant Morisato understood those reasons; though, he still wished he could run her through a proper weapons' training regime. He was sure that she had the innate talent needed to be a sniper.
His initial impression of Ami, though, had been quite different. That first day she had nervously walked into his range she had barely been able to hit the target. That day had been a big disappointment for the two of them – Ami for feeling like she was failing yet again and for Morisato for having expected too much. He had heard the stories from some of the soldiers that had been deployed to stop the demonic Energizer Bunny of what this young junior high child had done. But when she had come onto his range, Ami had been just like any other raw recruit and not an experienced marksman. However, over the subsequent sessions with his readjustment expectations and working with her like any other novice he quickly found her exceeding his expectations.
Noticing that Ami had placed her rifle down on the ground and stepped back away from the firing line thereby indicating she was finished, Morisato walked over. Walking up to the firearm, he knelt down to verify that it was clear. With that confirmed, he stood back up and activated retrieval of her target before removing his ear protection. Slipping her target off of the hook he examined her shot placement. She really is a natural. Morisato thought as he concluded that she had aced this target. For the soldiers tasked with going up against demons a special series of targets had been commissioned – ones in which target points were in non-traditional locations and where the shots were required to be divided up amongst 3-5 target points for every 5 shots. And then as a further challenge there was a time limit.
Looking up form the target and over at Ami, Morisato said, "Mercury-san very good job. Each of your shots fell within the nine rings."
"Arigato Morisato-sensei. You're a great instructor" Ami replied with a bow.
"It's not so much my instructing ability but your innate skill. If all of the soldiers were as good as you, I would be out of a job." Morisato replied to a blushing Ami.
"Demo, I'm not that good. I couldn't even hit the target that first time." Ami replied.
"That's to be expected you were nervous and you were using your head too much. Your body has been a quick study and now that we have you listening to your instincts and not your head you are a natural."
Ami had no chance to ponder that comment when her communicator began to emit a very loud high pitched tone, the kind that was obviously an alarm. Instantly realizing what that particular alarm meant, Ami's eyes widened in horror. Retrieving her computer from her subspace pocket, Ami prayed that one of the communicators was just malfunctioning. There was only one event that could trigger this particular alarm, an alarm that was designed to override any silent running settings for the untransformed Sailor Senshi – a communicator going offline. In of itself a communicator going offline was not a real problem; instead, it was what it meant for the wearer. Given how robust the communicators were, Ami did not want to think of how badly hurt one of her friends would have to be for the communicator to fail.
With her computer now open and commanded to query the status of the communicators, Ami whispered one word when the ping results returned with one non-responding node, "ChibiUsa."
Sitting on the back of a beat up flatbed truck, Hotaru watched the scenery fly by. As much as she had enjoyed the beauty of hiking across China and then Mongolia, she also appreciated being able to hitch a ride that was going their direction. For the first few months, her guilt prevented her from accepting any easy form of transportation. But eventually the need to rest as well as realizing that the only way that they were going to make it to their destination in time won her over. And now that she was more at peace with who she was and what had happened she was able to truly able to enjoy these rest breaks.
Looking down at the battered map that she held in her hands, she traced the line that they had traveled – or the line as best as Luna could figure it. Examining the map for a bit and locating some of the recent land marks they had passed, Hotaru saw that they were a few hours from the next city on their route – Almaty, Kazakhstan. Until a couple of weeks ago, the route they had been dutifully following was based on the faint energy that Hotaru was able to sense and had been nearly dead west from where they had landed on the main land. A fortnight ago after they had set up camp for the evening, Luna had gotten out the maps she had bought before they left and was looking over the upcoming terrain.
Even though she did not know their path exactly and they had no idea where the trace would lead them next, Luna still wanted to project their current path forward so as to have some idea of what they might be coming upon. During the first months of their travel, she only needed to do this infrequently, but now with their frequent hitch hiking, she found herself needing to update her projections every few days. When Luna did her projections that evening a fortnight ago, she had noticed that their path was angling back to the south. Projecting that route forward towards the Mediterranean Sea, she had read off the names of the various countries they would cross and as she did so, some their names raised alarm bells in her mind. It had taken her most of dinner before she placed why she had a nagging feeling that they should avoid the countries of the Middle East, finally having remembered some of the reports that had been broadcast while Ikuko or Kenji had been watching TV. Thankfully, while Hotaru was ignorant of the happenings in that part of the world, Luna had been able to convince her why a pair of girls traveling alone should avoid that part of the world.
The one sticking part in convincing Hotaru had of course been Hotaru's reluctance to deviate from the path that was being laid out in front of them and a part of Hotaru's psyche also still looked trials and tribulations for her journey as being divine judgment. After convincing Hotaru that going through the Middle East was not some sort of punishment for what happened to Usagi, Luna was able to work on convincing Hotaru that they could afford the detour. Furthermore, she had given the promise that they would return to the original path if the energy Hotaru was feeling faded too much. This, and the fact that they were now making quite good time, convinced the young girl.
While Hotaru was tracing their path along the map, Luna was gazing forward watching the approaching landscape. Once again, it appeared that the two of them had lucked out, finding a friendly person to give them a lift. Even though Luna had never explicitly been told that hitchhiking was dangerous, she instinctively understood the implied danger and each time a vehicle rolled to a stop in offer of a lift, she mentally crossed her fingers. And while they still hitchhiked, that did not mean she did not take precautions, only allowing the two of them to ride on the back of open vehicles, wanting the ability to make a quick getaway if necessary.
Her unease was raised not just with each new hitchhike but any time that they came across others during their journey, as they were after all just a pair of young girls all by themselves. Her biggest fear was either that they would be overwhelmed by a large number of attackers and Hotaru taken down before she could let her warrior instincts take over or that Hotaru would be forced to kill. The second option actually worried her more as with the first option they would probably just be abducted and she had faith in Hotaru's abilities as Sailor Saturn, but Hotaru's heart was still too fragile. While Hotaru was hiding it, she knew that the young girl still had qualms about what had happened with the warlord and that it was weighing heavily on her heart. Thankfully, so far the number of times they had been attacked could be counted on just one hand, each of them having occurred in or near a town and each of those times it had been someone just looking to rob them. And Hotaru had been able to chase away the would be robbers by either just summoning her glaive or in one case sparing with them for a few moments. Attacking two unarmed girls was one thing, but when one suddenly had a very nasty looking weapon and could move like the wind things were different.
Having finished tracing the path and examining the map for Kazakhstan, Hotaru carefully folded up the map and returned it her pack. As she did so, on an impulse she decided to pull out the map for Europe as they after all still had a fair bit of traveling on this road before their ride would end. Unfolding the map before her, she held her finger above the map and tried to impishly divine their final destination. This had of late become a new game for her to play while they were hitchhiking. She of course knew that there was no way she that was going to know where they were going to be going from this but it was still fun. Dropping her finger down onto the map, she looked at where her finger had landed and read the name of the nearby city – Frankfurt.
Some of her social studies classes at school had discussed the history, art, and unique architecture of the various cities of Europe. The classes had just barely touched on the cities, given the age of the children, and had been primarily geared to firing up the imagination and enthusiasm of the kids, succeeding quite nicely with Hotaru. Hotaru had gotten all fired up some months back when she realized that because of this trip that she was going to actually get to see those cities. However, that enthusiasm was tempered somewhat when she realized that the she would not be able to see Moscow, as the pictures of the buildings in that city had always grabbed her imagination. Her thoughts now turning to those cities, Hotaru began to imagine herself in those cities and thought about the souvenirs that she would need to pick up for ChibiUsa.
Turning her gaze away from road ahead, Luna adjusted her position so that she was no leaning against the side of the truck. Now looking over at Hotaru as the young girl examined the map of Europe, Luna thought, She looks so cute like that. I should have gotten her a compass to play with. As she thought that Luna decided that what Hotaru could really use was some surveying equipment like the explorers of the old days used, as she figured that Hotaru probably would have really enjoyed being able to play explorer during their trek. Unfortunately, we need to conserve our limited funds as much as possible. While out here in the wilderness finding food to eat along the trail has been okay, if not the most pleasant, when we find ourselves in civilization we will be forced to buy. But at least I did get her that diary, which she has been writing in a fair bit. The diary for Hotaru, the camera with film for herself, as well as some supplies for writing home were the limit to the nonessentials that Luna had brought with them on this trip. That diary got little use before they reached the Great Wall but since then it had seen substantial use and while Luna did not pry into what Hotaru was writing she saw glimpses of what at least appeared to be sketches of parts of their journey.
"CHIBIUSA-CHAN!" Hotaru suddenly screamed out in terror, instantly grabbing Luna's undivided attention.
Instinctively rolling into a crouch as she shifted into hunter mode, Luna looked over at Hotaru and noticed that the younger girl had reverted to her Sailor Fuku with Silence Glaive in hand. Wondering where the enemy was, Luna regarded Hotaru more closely so as to see where the other girl was looking. However, as she did so, she saw that Hotaru's gaze was not focused on anything. Confused, Luna began to take in Hotaru's posture, now realizing that the young warrior did not show any signs of expecting any kind of attack.
"Hotaru-chan what is it?" a confused Luna asked.
"ChibiUsa, she is in danger. I should never have left." Hotaru replied, guilt in her voice.
"You can't be sure of that and even if there is a battle the others are all there." Luna said trying to reassure Hotaru.
"Iie, they are not. ChibiUsa, she has been badly hurt. It's my fault for not being there, for her, to protect her like I am supposed to do."
Knowing that she needed to do something quickly to calm Hotaru down before the young warrior did something rash, Luna asked, "How do you know that ChibiUsa is in danger?"
Turning to regard Luna, Hotaru lowered her glaive as she placed a hand over her heart and said, "I can feel it here in my heart. The two of us are connected. Since we have met, I always know when she in danger. Like the queen has her prince to protect her, the princess has me."
"Saturn?" Luna hesitantly asked, realizing that she was no longer exactly speaking to Hotaru anymore.
Sailor Saturn simply smiled in response to Luna's question before continuing. "Hotaru-chan and her imouto may not share the same type of love that their mother and father share for each other, but it is just as powerful."
"Demo…" Luna began trying to puzzle through what the power of Saturn was telling her while another part of her mind was trying to work out what it meant that there was this dichotomy in Hotaru's spirit that allowed the planetary power to act as a separate personality.
Sailor Saturn did not react to Luna's unspoken statement; instead, she just turned her head to gaze back to the east. She could feel the human half of her soul struggling with all of her might to return to the one that she loved more than anything else. If it were not for the task that the guardian of the Golden Crystal of the Earth had set out for her, she would have released control over the teleportation magic to Hotaru. Thankfully for Luna, Sailor Saturn knew that the Messiah of Silence had to initiate the process to awaken the final star of the system, if they were save her other half – the Messiah of Light. But even still, Saturn like her sisters could not turn a blind eye to the cries of the human half of her soul. Love might not have the same meaning for her, but she still felt love and she wanted to feel all that love was. That left only one thing for her to do then.
Waves of violet and black energy began to build around Sailor Saturn as she firmly grasped a hold of her glaive holding it in front of her body with its butt end on the ground. Around her the sky darkened into twilight as the tendrils of energy multiplied becoming more of a thick fog. The driver of the truck turned on his headlights as he began to say prayers utterly spooked by what was going on and thankfully not realizing that one of his passengers was the cause.
Watching the building of energy, Luna did not know that to do. The power available to Hotaru as the Soldier of Silence was frightening in its enormity and only the fact that she knew that Usagi had also wielded such levels of power kept Luna from freaking out. Still, the chilling effect that the use of that power caused was giving Luna quite a challenge in remaining calm. She could only hope that Hotaru was not about to do something too reckless. She took a little measure in the fact that the guardian planet had made its presence known, but she was not really sure if that was all in all really a good thing, Saturn's grief being what had obliterated the remains of the Silver Millennium from the solar system
Hotaru was of course unaware of the maelstrom that her emotions were causing, thinking instead only about ChibiUsa and all of the times that she had seen her friend hurt. Now for the first time, the gaps in her memory that existed whenever the power of Saturn had acted independently broke and Hotaru saw how she had responded each of those times. That knowledge of how she had protected the star that drew her own provided warmth to Hotaru's heart and boosted the flow of energy from her star to even higher levels. With that final boost, the tendrils of energy that were slipping around her body like a blanket finished plunging an area 25 kilometers in radius to darkness beyond that of the blackest pitch. Not even the headlights of the truck they were riding on could provide any illumination through that darkness for those final few moments that the engine continued to live before sputtering out, followed soon thereafter by the truck's battery.
As the truck coasted to a stop at the side of the road, the only thing that Hotaru could think of was saving ChibiUsa's broken body and then with the whispered words of "Saturn Eternal Power Make-Up." she passed out. As those words left her lips and her eyes fell closed, the energy that had been building around her imploded from the surrounding country side into a pillar of brilliant violet energy and then after a few moments that pillar too imploded down into a single point of energy that was located just above the center of the bow on the front of her fuku, leaving behind a handful of black feathers that slowly fell to the ground.
With that collapse of energy, Hotaru fell unconscious and as she began to slip down and away, that point of light grew a little bit into a baseball sized orb of pulsing energy. Then as Hotaru's body came to a stop, the orb began to shimmer as its shape changed to that have a butterfly. This butterfly had a wing pattern that fluctuated in tune with its being composed of pure energy and with colors that favored the various shades of violet. Flapping its wings, the butterfly took a few moments to get its bearings before taking off into the now once again sunny sky heading east.
Crawling over to Hotaru, Luna pulled the unconscious girl into her lap while absently noticing that Hotaru was no longer wearing her fuku.
"Are you two girls okay?" A gruff man said from beside the truck, the driver having decided to get out and to check on his passengers now that the strange darkness was gone.
"Yes." Luna replied shakily, conveying in her tone that she meant more of "I think so" than a definite yes. Then pointing to Hotaru, she said "Passed out, demo Okay." And while she had a word of Japanese thrown in with that last statement, her meaning was clear.
"I am glad to hear that. I have no idea what that was, gives me the willies just thinking about it. It is a good thing you two found me on the road, I would hate for the two of you to have experienced that out by yourselves."
"Hai. Glad over." Luna replied before turning her attention back to the unconscious Hotaru she began to speak in Japanese to the unconscious girl. "What have you done little firefly. I really wish Usagi was here. She would be much better suited with helping you to understand your powers. Each time you do something like this you frighten me. Not out of fear of you doing something wrong, but fear in that you might lose yourself or even if you don't go that far that your scars will be beyond my capabilities.
"I now know that you meeting up with Usagi and ChibiUsa could not have been coincidence. I remember when ChibiUsa first showed up, she had a letter from Usagi's future self telling her that she would make a special friend. I am sure that her majesty was referring to you and specifically sent ChibiUsa back so that the two of them could befriend you and help you learn to use your powers.
"I just did not realize how much of a connection you had with ChibiUsa. I should have known, though. But your little stunt here has enlightened me. I know you are going to be terribly worried about ChibiUsa and while it will delay our journey we will stay in this city long enough for me to send a letter home and for us to get a response. I don't know how we will be able to receive a response, but I promise you this that I will find a way for us to hear word about ChibiUsa's condition."
Naru was examining one of the park's flower arrangements when a well dressed gentleman came up beside her.
"Excuse me miss but I couldn't help but notice you enjoying these flowers. I am not very surprised as they seem to suit you very well."
Blushing slightly at that comment, Naru looked up at the other man and replied, "Hai, I do like this variety quite a bit, but I am not sure if they are my favorites. There are so many different styles here and it's the combination of all of them that I really like."
"You truly are a maiden of the flowers then." The man said as he grasped her hands while pulling her in so that they were standing practically chest to chest. "To have such an appreciation of such fine things, you must have really beautiful dreams."
Starting to get a little disturbed by the way this man was acting, Naru tried to look for a way to extract herself. But before she could find anything that she could use as a distraction, the man continued.
"While I am not much a believer in love at first sight, I can not deny what I am feeling now. The purity of your dreams is calling to me…"
Naru had no illusion that she would be able to overpower this creep if things developed into a fight and with no one in the vicinity she was fearful of doing anything that might set him off. However, even with that said, she was starting to feel that she had no choice. If only Usagi were here. She would know what to do. Naru thought to herself. And even if her silver haired friend did not know what to do, Naru knew she would just feel safer with her friend present.
Following that thought as a means of distancing herself from what was happening, Naru realized that even when they were just little girls that Usagi's presence always made her feel safer. Her friend might have been a cry baby and utterly afraid of thunderstorms, but she never abandoned her. When middle school bullies a few years older had picked on them, Usagi with legs trembling had stood up to them even though each previous time she had stood up for Naru she had ended up with her long hair tied up around the school's flagpole. Internally smiling at those images, Naru realized for the first time how much being a Sailor Senshi was ingrained into Usagi's being. Unfortunately, while thinking about Usagi distracted her from the pervert in front of her it did nothing to help her escape from the pervert and she was rudely returned to reality when said pervert decided to kiss her. Stunned by his brazen act that caught her off guard, Naru did not react. Just as he finished pulling back from the unwanted kiss, her wished-for distraction finally arrived in the form of ChibiUsa.
Today it was just the two of them out on the town and upon entering into the gardens they had decided to split up to explore separately first given that they only had a limited about of time before they needed to head home, Naru's mom had finally decided that she needed to really meet this young child that Naru was spending all of her time with and so they were to have dinner at Naru's. And, so ChibiUsa had immediately headed over to the rose exhibit. That exhibit had brought back memories of her father's garden and before long ChibiUsa was in need of some cheering up from her surrogate mother.
Subdued, ChibiUsa walked along the path towards the part of the gardens that Naru had said she was going to be. As she came around the final hedge that separated her from Naru, it was just in time to see Naru receive that unwelcome kiss. Concerned for Naru, ChibiUsa broke began trotting over while calling out "Naru-chan!"
Hearing ChibiUsa's cry, Naru turned and upon seeing ChibiUsa let out a sigh of relief. Though, even as she did another part of her tensed realizing that ChibiUsa was now involved with whatever this pervert might decide to do. She just hoped that he was the discreet type and that she would be able to use ChibiUsa's arrival as an excuse to break away. Seeing ChibiUsa open her arms as she ran over, Naru responded by kneeling down and gathering the young girl up.
For his part, the man's expression turned sour as soon as he saw the little kid running over. A little sister maybe? he thought to himself as he watched Naru kneel down. But then as he saw how Naru looked at the child, he changed his initial assessment. No, there is too much care there for this to simply be a little sister. Could this child be her daughter? As Hawk-Eye thought those thoughts, he realized that his affection had been spurned and cast aside. Now with a very dark mood, Hawk-Eye's eyes turned dangerous and he slapped the once again standing Naru across her face.
"I offer you my love and you betray me with this thing!" Hawk-Eye exclaimed to the stunned Naru and ChibiUsa.
Then reaching out he yanked ChibiUsa right out of Naru's arms, causing Naru to cry out "ChibiUsa-chan!"
"Your beautiful dream will still be mine." Hawk-Eye exclaimed as he held ChibiUsa from the back by the neck of her shirt.
"Let her go, please she is just an innocent kid." Naru pleaded with her attacker, now focused strictly on saving ChibiUsa. "I will go with you, just let her go, please."
Listening to Naru's pleas, ChibiUsa felt a warmth in her heart that prevented her from feeling the fear that was threatening to overwhelm her. Unfortunately, while she was in the right frame of mind to use her communicator, she was unable to as both of her hands were currently occupied with the task of trying to keep the front of her shirt from crushing her neck. As it was, she was barely succeeding and was already feeling quite faint.
"That is right. You will give me your dream mirror. But first I need to dispose of this nuisance that is preventing you from dreaming about only me." Hawk-Eye said before tossing ChibiUsa up into the air.
"ChibiUsa!" Naru screamed.
Once he had thrown ChibiUsa, Hawk-Eye snapped his fingers and said "One." With that count his outfit changed to that of a circus performer while a table appeared behind Naru. "Two" Hawk-Eye said as he unleashed a blast of energy from his hand and Naru was suddenly pulled against the table by its restraints. "Three" Hawk-Eye finished with when the energy blast slammed into ChibiUsa, the resulting explosion slamming her into the ground. However, worrying about ChibiUsa's condition was no longer on Naru's mind as she suddenly screamed out in pain when at the same time the blast of energy hit ChibiUsa, her dream mirror was ripped from her chest.
Walking towards the girl who had managed to clamp down on her screaming, Hawk-Eye jammed his head into her dream mirror, breaking the composure that she had been able to gain. Taking his time to poke his head around in her dreamscape, he frowned as he noticed that her dreams seemed to have become concerned primarily with that child. What a waste. he thought to himself before pulling his head out.
When the blast hit her body, ChibiUsa screamed out in pain as the faint traces of Moon energy in her body along with her own nescent golden energies did their best to shield her from the energy of the attack. However, the traces were too faint and too few to put up more than a token shield. As the energy flowed across her body, her clothes were burned away. Her skin soon followed suit in blistering while ChibiUsa screamed as she never had before. Even the transformation into Black Lady was nothing like this. But even as her arms, legs, and face began to blister and blacken, she felt an energy building from inside of her and then a golden arrow of light punched out from her chest and through the attack.
As her body began to fall back to the ground, ChibiUsa followed that energy as it arced around before disappearing. In the moments before it vanished, she thought she saw a Pegasus behind the golden arrow, but the moment was too brief.
"I'm sorry that I could not do more young maiden." A kind sad voice said once the golden arrow had vanished.
Recognizing the voice as being the same one as from her dream the previous night, ChibiUsa replied, "Arigato." Having said that she found her eyes feeling heavy and she fell unconscious, loosing all feeling moments before she impacted the ground, hard, shattering her already severely damaged communicator in the process.
Picking up her bag, Minako got off the bus. With the onset of the summer weather, she was finally able to indulge in one of her favorite pastimes – volleyball. She had of course thought about trying out for the team at school and not long ago she would have. But with her responsibilities to her princess, she could not make the firm commitment that the team required. It would be unfair to the other members of the team and especially to those who did not make the team if she skipped out on practices and games whenever a demon was rampaging around.
The answer to her desires had come a couple of weeks ago when Erion had stumbled upon a certain little gaijin establishment. At first glance one might miss that it was really a bar with its sand volleyball courts, but from the town that its owner's came from these types of bars were quite popular. After all, what better way to work up the thirst for some adult beverages than by playing volleyball with your friends. However, here in Tokyo the bar was unfortunately not that very popular; now if the owner had decided on a karaoke bar, things would have been quite different. And under normal circumstances the bar would gone out of business, but as fate would have it an airman from Zima had found it and within one week the bar had become a favorite place amongst the burgeoning military force stationed at Zima. Where before it was fun to play volleyball with your friends it even better when you could engage in friendly inter squad rivalry with the losers buying drinks.
With Erion's current day job of training the newly arrived soldiers in the peculiarities of what they would be facing when Galaxia's forces arrived, it was not long before she had been brought along to the bar to join in the fun. That following Saturday afternoon, Erion had returned with Minako knowing from her interaction with her fellow Sailor Senshi how much their leader enjoyed playing volleyball. The question of whether or not it would be wise to bring a junior high student to a bar of course never crossed Erion's mind. Outside of Earth there never would have been a question as to whether or not Minako was underage. She was a Star Child and that made her of age once she could reliably call upon her powers.
Seeing the volleyball courts when they arrived had instantly perked Minako's attention. However, as there were no games currently going on the two of them had headed in to sit down and eat an early dinner. By the time they had finished up, a pickup game had started and Minako quickly made her way out to see about joining in. She was readily accepted into the game as the young twenty year olds were all about having a cute girl joining them – not that they realized just how young Minako was. Though, soon after joining in she proved that she had value besides being cute with her team easily out playing the other one.
After that one time, Minako fell in love with that bar and its sand volleyball courts and many evening would find her down there looking to join with who ever needed an extra player. However, due to her age, when she was not accompanied by Erion the bartenders would force her to leave as the night began to move beyond the early dinner hour. Disappointed as she was in having to leave just when the games were getting good, especially those nights when she did not have school the next day, Minako understood their reasons and she did not want to get them in trouble with the law. However, whereas Minako was content many of the other patrons were not and instead wanted the cute star volleyball player to stay as late as she wanted. With some negotiations they were finally able to convince the owners of the bar to allow Minako to extend her curfew from 7 to 10 with the stipulations that she wear a special set of plastic bands on each of her wrists to aid the staff in making sure that she never drank anything stronger than soda and the understanding that if she was found with any alcoholic beverage even once she would be banned.
When the owner had met her the following day to discuss the terms that he was offering to allow her to stay later, Minako was ecstatic. And after profusely thanking him for the extra leniency she had readily accepted the bands and wore them with pride, knowing the trust that they signified. Her opponents that night had been left wondering if maybe they had made a mistake given how energetically she was playing – sending more than one player to the sidelines after they got in the way of one of her spikes.
Now turning off the sidewalk, on in through the gates, and onto the grounds of the bar, Minako couldn't help but let her stride pick up a little extra bounce. She loved playing volleyball and now she had the perfect stress relief. And with the summer holiday coming up she would be able to spend even more late evenings here. I will have to get the others together for a game for one of the days during break. Minako thought to herself. Then letting her mind wander along that line for a bit she imaged getting them together for a game with them all transformed Now that would be a good game. Minako thought this time with a large smile. And she was sure that the publicity that word of that little game would bring would ensure that this bar was around for a long time.
Looking over at the courts she saw that none of them were currently occupied. With it being midweek that was not too surprising and anyways she needed to do her homework first. Her parents, busy as they were with their own careers and social climbing, did not worry that Minako tended to stay out late. All they expected from Minako was that she maintain decent grades. While at times she wished for a family more like Usagi's, she knew that for her duty as Sailor Venus her family was just what she needed. She knew that they loved her, even though they might not show it all the time, and she appreciated the level of trust they showed. Without the extreme level of trust that they had in her, she never would have been able to make those various journeys out of the country alone in pursuit of her duty as Sailor V. And as long as she kept her grades respectable, they did not expect perfect, and stayed out of trouble they would continue to let her have her freedom.
Smiling at Tanaka Rie as she entered, Minako headed over to her normal table. Sitting down, Minako removed her books from her bag so as to begin her homework.
"How was school today?" Rie asked as she returned with a glass of water for Minako.
"The usual. Too long and too much homework. I think they want to make up for us getting time out for summer." Minako replied.
"Hai, I know what you mean. College is not that much better. It seems that any time I have a break coming up they want to load us down with extra work. They seem to believe that because we don't have classes that we can spend all of that extra time doing extra homework." Then turning to business, Rie continued, "So are you going to have dinner here tonight and stay late playing games or are you going to be eating at home tonight?"
"Tonight's a game night." Minako replied as she cracked open her first book. "So I'll just have …" Minako was saying when her communicator cut her off. "Sorry about that, but I need to check on something." Minako said quickly as she grabbed her cell phone from her bag and got up and headed outside. Her actions had been so quick that Rie did not have time to realize that something might have been odd about the source of the loud alarm.
"Venus here." Minako said once she was outside and thankfully opening the channel proved to at least temporarily silence the alarm.
Makoto, who was working on her Language Arts research paper, slowly walked down one of the isles at the library, reading reach of the book titles in turn. Every now and then she would remove one of the books and examine its table of contents to see if it was worth taking it back to the table where she had set herself up. She already had a nice stack of books on Ancient Greece there already; unfortunately, none of them contained much in the way of useful information on the weapons used during the time that the Odyssey was supposed to have taken place. Her teacher of course had to go and assign her one of the harder topics; though, in some ways she guessed that the topic was fitting given that she was a soldier after all. She had thought of asking Ami for some help in getting started on the research, but one look at the bags under her friend's eyes this morning dispelled that thought.
Ami already had enough on her plate with the research she was doing and Makoto couldn't ask for a selfish request like this. As such, Makoto was here at the library by herself doing her best to do her own research. She had seen Ami research things enough times and had paid some attention in class those days that their teacher had discussed research techniques that she had some idea of what she was doing. Of course, even still it looked like she might end up relocating the entire section on Ancient Greece to her table before she finished. Something that she was sure was going to make the library workers so very happy.
Seeing a title entitled "Warfare in the Ancient World," Makoto smiled. Removing the book from the shelf she began to flip through it, her eyes widening in glee as she read the table of contents, then flipping to the specified pages, her mood continued to increase as she skimmed the first page. Yes! Now this is exactly what I need. Makoto thought to herself.
Unfortunately, for Makoto fate decided to throw her a new curve ball when her communicator suddenly began blaring a very loud alarm. Dropping the book, Makoto rapidly brought the communicator up to her eye level as she tried to figure out how to silence it. She tried to hit what she thought was the acknowledgement button, but to no effect. Now hitting buttons in near random motion, a quite embarrassed but also very worried Makoto began to quickly make her way towards the library exit, apologizing to the very unhappy looking patrons and library workers as she passed. With the ruckus her communicator was making there was no way she was going to be able to collect her gear first and she definitely was not going to be able to check out that book.
Having finally exited the library, Makoto quickly moved behind a pillar and out of the immediate sight of anybody before her henshin into Sailor Jupiter. Having completed her henshin, she noticed that the alarm appeared to have silenced itself. Figures. Jupiter thought to herself, before thumbing the channel to Ami open.
"Ami-chan what is going on?" Jupiter asked as she bounded up to the top of the library so as to ensure some privacy.
"The carrier signal for the princess's communicator has dropped out." Ami replied.
Makoto at first thought that Ami was talking about Usagi, but then a moment later realized that Ami was of course talking about ChibiUsa. While Ami's identity had been revealed to the government, none of the other's were revealed and so Ami of course needed to refer to ChibiUsa by title and not by name. "What do you mean?" Jupiter asked instead, confused by Ami's use of terminology.
By this time the others had all joined in on their own communicators and it was Haruka who replied, "What she means is that her highness's communicator has been destroyed."
"Nani." Everyone else but Ami shouted over the channel.
"Demo, how can that be?" Venus asked between breaths as she ran towards the Juuban district. "I thought you said these things are nearly indestructible."
"Hai." Was all that Ami said, but the inflection of her voice and the facial expressions that were visible across the communication told what Ami could not vocalize.
"Where?" Haruka said breaking the moment of silence that had followed Ami's reply.
"Shiba Park. I am heading there now on Shinjuku Dori with a squad of security from the facility." Ami replied, "We will be arriving soon."
With nothing else to be said, the Senshi closed the links and Ami returned her attention to the road. While the road was fairly busy with traffic given that it was the end of the work day, the humvee was still making very good time through the streets as the other drivers quickly made way for the military police vehicle. As the vehicle skidded around a corner, Ami was very glad that she had made sure to securely fasten her seatbelt first as she was sure that she would have been tossed out of the vehicle otherwise.
Now able to see the entrance to the park up ahead, Ami and the others put their helmets on, fastening them in place with the chin straps. When the vehicle came to a stop moments later, she and the others quickly exited and finished loading the live ammo into their rifles. Though, whereas the others had loaded regular ammunition, Ami had loaded hers with a magazine of the experimental bullets produced by the wizards. She had no idea of how they would work against a real demon, but she also knew that the regular ammunition would be insufficient.
Following the lead of the First Lieutenant, the squad quickly made their way into the heart of the park. As they advanced, Ami had her computer out, scanning the area and passing along the relevant information to the lieutenant using the limited hand signals that she had learned. Her computer easily picked up an energy reading that she interpreted to be the enemy attacking another victim, but it was unable to pick up anything that gave her any idea as to ChibiUsa's condition or location.
Doing her best to keep her heart under check, Ami obeyed the hold command as they reached the last of the cover. Turning back to look at his troops, the lieutenant confirmed that they all were ready. While he and his men did have a fair bit of combat training, even as military police officers who had spent their careers patrolling city military assets, he still wondered if they were truly ready to go up against a real demon.
Looking over at the "civilian" that had tagged along, he used that term as he still had trouble believing that she was a real warrior, he saw that she seemed to be handling herself sufficiently well. While he could see the fear that was on the girl's face, he had to admit that she looked better than a raw recruit would in facing his first firefight. Well Hojo, it is time to show everyone what being military police really means. he thought to himself before giving the signal to move out.
"Such a beautiful dream potential you have my dear, it is a shame you waste it on that brat. If you had saved it for me, I would have spared you. But I really can't let you remain as a refuge for that Pegasus." Hawk-Eye said after having just stared at Naru's unconscious body for some minutes after he had pulled his head out of her dream mirror.
Reaching down to his right ankle, he removed a throwing knife. Standing back up he closed the gap between him and Naru. "Even if you did spurn my love, you are still quite beautiful." Hawk-Eye said as he leaned in and kissed Naru lightly on the lips.
While her mind had shut itself down over the pain that had accompanied his assault into her dream mirror, Naru found herself wakening back up as Hawk-Eye kissed her. Blinking to regain her vision, Naru tried to remember what had happened. Lifting her eyes up, she saw her attacker. Now remembering what had happened, she turned her head as much as she could and spit before turning her gaze back venomously to Hawk-Eye.
"You, you, how dare you!!!!" Hawk-Eye yelled as Naru spited him with the last minutes of her life. "I was going to kill you myself; it would have been gentle and caressing. But no, you can't get that honor. Lemure come forth and kill this wench!" Hawk-Eye yelled.
The appearance of a grotesque looking juggler was accompanied with the retort of automatic weapon fire. To Hawk-Eye's good fortune, the lemure had appeared in between himself and the soldiers, shielding him from their bullets. For their part, the soldiers did not let the Lemure's appearance faze them and continued their attack, effectively distracting it from its task of killing Naru.
While the soldiers had all opened fire as one, Ami had held her fire as she assessed the situation, knowing that her fire probably would not make a difference against the Lemure and not wanting to waste her special ammunition. Looking for the victim, her eyes quickly located Naru. If this attack proved true to the pattern that this enemy was following, the demon master would attempt to kill Naru now. As such, Ami knew that she would need to save her shots to distract the demon master long enough for them to rescue Naru. Turning her attention now to assessing the demon master, she saw a glint of metal in his hands. Even as Ami took notice of the metal, training from her past life took over with her mind exclaiming weapon and before she knew it, she had raised her rifle and fired off a single round.
The crack of that round firing was lost in the noise of the rest of the weapon's fire and as such Hawk Eye was caught utterly unaware when the round slammed into his chest just below his right shoulder blade. Impacting against his warding spells, the lead shell of the needle round was quickly stripped away from the spell crystal. No longer stabilized by the magical equivalent of a Faraday Cage, the stored spell activated, releasing in a flash of blue light forward and backwards along its spin axis, a cutting spell.
Taken by surprise both by its unexpectedness and the intense pain it caused, Hawk-Eye screamed and dropped his knife. Smiling as she saw that her shot had the exact intended result, Ami advanced. She had purposely not aimed for the demon master's head or the center of his chest, knowing that her best course of action likely lay with disrupting his attempt to kill Naru. Slowly walking forward to bring herself into a better firing position, Ami sighted four other locations on Hawk-Eye's body and fired off four more single shot rounds.
Even with five direct hits, Hawk-Eye was not seriously injured for as effective they were in piercing straight through hid body they caused minimal damage – the cutting hex was too tightly focused. However, as trivial as the wounds may have been, their suddenness broke Hawk-Eye's composure.
"Lemure kill them, kill them all. I want no mercy. Kill them all but that blue haired one. Bring her mangled body to me so that I can kill her myself." Hawk-Eye yelled with madness creeping into his voice before teleporting away.
Ami's stomach had first sunk when she had heard Hawk-Eye begin to speak certain that she was in deep trouble. Without the Sailor Senshi here there was nothing to stop the demon master from ripping her to shreds in his madness and that was sure what was about to happen. But then to her relief he had teleported away. Looking over at the other soldiers and the demon, she noticed that it had not changed its fighting style as a result of its master's instructions, obviously unaffected by the madness that had consumed Hawk-Eye. Then as she was in the process of turning her attention back to Naru, a portion of the hedges garnered her attention.
Letting her attention focus on that section of the hedges, Ami's blood began to run cold as her mind started to assemble a possible scenario. No longer interested in the rest of the battle or even concerned with making sure that Naru was okay, Ami rose from the kneeling position that she had attacked Hawk-Eye from and made her way over. Thankfully, even as Ami's conscious thoughts were occupied with ChibiUsa's fate, her self-preservation instincts subconsciously navigated her over to the hedges along a route that kept her out of her allies' line of fire. Each step that Ami took on her way to the hedge was slightly bit faster than the previous one and by the time she had reached the hedges she was sprinting. Even when Ami reached the edge of the hedges, she failed to slow down; instead, she leapt over the initial row. In so doing her eyes caught sight of what she had feared that she would find – the broken body of ChibiUsa.
"ChibiUsa-chan" Ami cried out in sorrow as she reached the apex of her leap.
Drained of energy by her discovery, Ami with tears in her eyes fell limply back to the ground, barely landing on her knees. But even as she hit the ground, she gathered her strength, took a deep breath, and pushed on. Standing back up, she walked over to ChibiUsa's body. Kneeling down beside the young girl, she carefully adjusted her hold on her rifle so that it remained ready but was held in her left hand. Then using her right hand she began to check ChibiUsa's vitals. Finding a pulse, Ami breathed a heavy sigh of relief before retrieving her computer and using it to run a detailed scan. What she saw did not please her one bit. While ChibiUsa was currently alive, she would not last long with out advanced medical care, the kind only available in a hospital. And even then it would be iffy.
A sudden explosion from the battlefield drew Ami's attention away from ChibiUsa. Turning her head, she was just in time to see the soldiers dive for cover as the demon tossed another burning and explosive bowling pin their way. However, it was not all bad for the good guys, as help had finally arrived and the Jupiter decided to return the favor by giving the demon a ball of lighting to play catch with. Hoping that this meant that they now had the upper hand, Ami returned her attention to ChibiUsa. Examining her scan results and analysis again, Ami began to run some calculations through her mind. But as she finished her mental calculations and rechecked them the initial optimism the Jupiter's arrival had brought faded completely.
ChibiUsa would not survive if she waited for the demon to be defeated; it took them far too long to kill them without Sailor Moon. However, the only viable exit from the park was back by the demon and without properly immobilizing ChibiUsa her injuries would likely kill the girl just by moving her. But moving her was the only option that Ami saw with the possibility of ChibiUsa living. Now with her decision made, Ami carefully examined her immediate area, looking for anything that might be helpful and in that aspect she was in luck. Before the afternoon's disturbance workers had been in the processing of tying vines up onto a trestle not far from where ChibiUsa had landed.
Grabbing the twine without any concern of her appropriation, Ami quickly made her way back to ChibiUsa. Once she returned to ChibiUsa's side she knelt down and set her computer down on the ground with its medical scanning functionality active. Then, working as fast and carefully as she could, Ami proceeded to wrap the twine around ChibiUsa's body, using the girl's own body as a splint. Ideally she would have liked a nice straight sturdy object to use as the splint, but she hadn't seen anything that would have been useful in her survey. As Ami wrapped ChibiUsa she had to be very careful in passing the twine below the young girl's body so as to not jostle any of the broken bones. But after quite a few minutes, Ami succeed in doing her best to immobilize ChibiUsa.
Once she had finished, Ami put her computer away. Then after saying "Forgive me ChibiUsa-chan, but this is probably going to hurt a lot" Ami gently hefted her princess up into her arms. Then after adjusting ChibiUsa's position so that she would have an arm free, Ami reached down flicked the selector on her rifle, which she had placed down while binding ChibiUsa's body to full auto, before retrieving it. Now I just need to somehow get past that demon with out it taking a pot shot at me. Regardless of how badly I would be injured any hit would surly be fatal to ChibiUsa. Ami thought to herself once she had stood back up and as tried to think of a better option than just making mad dash. But even as she began to try to think of a plan, a thick fog bank seemed to roll in. Demo how is that possible? Isn't this my shabon spell?
Even though Ami had no idea where the fog was coming from or why it seemed so much like her own spell, she was not about to let the good fortune go to waste. And so capitalizing on her newly found cover, she decided to go with the mad dash option. As Ami ran through the fog bank, she was unable to see more than a few paces in front of her and then only when she followed a path laid out by the fog. For someone who was used to being able to see extremely well in their own summoned fog bank, it was a disconcerting sensation. But Ami made it no heed, just hoping that the demon was equally blinded. As she ran, she could hear the others, which now numbered more than just Jupiter and appeared to include Mars, Uranus, and Neptune attempted to coordinate their attacks through the loss of visibility.
Reaching what Ami estimated to be her closest approach to the demon, she sharply veered off to the right as she blindly trusted the path that the fog bank was laying out for her. That faith, however, began to waver as she heard the howls of what sounded like wolves in the night followed soon after by the sounds of predator attacking its prey – sounds that she had last heard at Mugen. Now pushing her legs even faster, Ami prayed that she would be able to make it out with ChibiUsa before this new demon turned its attention to her.
Finally reaching the edge of the fog bank and coincidently the edge of the park, Ami found herself suddenly in the clear. Momentarily blinded by the bright sun as its light suddenly returned, it took Ami a few moments to realize where she was – in the middle of a busy Tokyo street. Reacting purely on instinct, she dodged between the cars as she began to reassess the situation. Without even thinking about it, she brought her rifle back up to a ready position so as to be prepared. Seeing that rifle, the Tokyo drivers went from cursing the crazy girl to cursing even more loudly as they quickly cleared out of the way and causing a massive pileup in the process. However, Ami did not notice, as she was running on pure adrenaline by this point, with only the protection of ChibiUsa on her mind.
Quickly spotting a military ambulance parked some distance down the road Ami began to head in that direction. As she ran, she paid limited attention anything else, simply categorizing them in her mind as obstacles. As such, when a car got in her way, if she could leap onto its hood or trunk, she did so, otherwise she went around it. By the time that Ami had made it halfway to her goal, the military medics had been alerted to her presence by the commotion that she was creating and had moved to intercept her, while the driver of the humvee that was the ambulance had taken to driving on the sidewalk so as to close the gap.
"Ma'am we'll take it from here." One of the medics said as he reached Ami.
Hearing the voice, Ami reacted by sighting her rifle on the young medic's chest. But then as her eyes followed her rifle, her mind was able to vaguely recognize the uniform. Now recognizing the man as an ally, Ami lowered the rifle and carefully handled over ChibiUsa.
When Ami, brought her rifle to bear on him, Kite's eyes went wide and then as a he caught sight of her eyes, his heart skipped a beat. The mental state reflected in those eyes was of a soldier pushed past her limits, one that would not necessarily recognize an ally. But then recognition flashed in the other soldier's eyes and Kite released his breath as Ami lowered her rifle. When a few moments later Ami transferred ChibiUsa to his arms, Kite was in for a second shock.
"Shinji, this one's critical. We need morphine, transfusion stock, the defibrillator…" Kite called out as he turned and began jogging as fast as he could to the humvee where the others were already breaking out their heavy duty supplies.
Following a few paces behind Kite, was Akiko, a military police officer attached to the medic corps as they operated here in the city. Her breath too had caught when Ami had brought up her rifle. However, she, unlike Kite, was armed with more than a service pistol. But instead of making any motion for her firearm, Akiko had stopped and turned her palms up while bringing her hands partially up until Ami had lowered her rifle, knowing from her hostage training that the last thing she wanted to do was to make any kind of threatening gestures.
Thankfully, Ami had quickly recognized them as allies and then once Ami had handed over the casualty, Akiko approached Ami. As she got a good look at the other soldier now, she was amazed to see how young she looked. Shoving that thought to the back of her mind, Akiko reached out and after receiving a nod, took Ami's rifle. Then after taking a moment to eject the magazine, clear the chamber and engage the safety, she slung the rifle up onto her shoulder. With the weapon safed, she turned her attention back to Ami and said, noticing the glint of lieutenant bars on Ami's flak jacket, "Ma'am you have done a good job. We'll make sure that she gets the best possible care possible. Now why don't you come with me so that we can take care of you as well."
With those words said, Akiko moved to lead Ami to the humvee. However, Ami's body, unsupplemented by her planetary power, had been pushed past its limits. Until now the flow of adrenaline in her blood had kept it functioning, but with the moment's rest that had accompanied the handoff of ChibiUsa that flow had stopped and with it Ami's body crashed into a recovery state. Seeing, her companion stumble, Akiko realized that this officer probably would not be able to make it over to the humvee on her own power and so guided her down to the street.
"Don't worry we can always wait for the others to bring a stretcher over for you as well. But while we wait, you should drink some water." And with that Akiko handed over to Ami her canteen. And, with Akiko helping to guide her hands, Ami took a few sips of the water before her mind finally finished shutting down.
By the time that the Sailor StarLights arrived on the scene of the demon battle, the flower garden had been utterly destroyed. Even though a full brigade of military assets had arrived on scene not long after Ami had arrived with her advance guard of the regular MP guards from the facility, the Sailor Senshi still had not been able to gain an upper hand with the demon. Part of this was due to this demon's ability to juggle any of the heavy ordnance fired at it and to then return those rockets back to the Senshi, soldiers, or aircraft. It did not matter how many rockets they fired off at once, as the demon had juggling skills that defied logic.
Thankfully for them, the Sailor Senshi did not have too much trouble in dodging the returned ordnance; though, they did pick up a fair number of scrapes and bruises from near misses. The ground forces were luckily only considered a nuisance by the demon and as such were not target by any of the demon's attacks of yet. The gunships, however, were less fortunate. The only thing they had going for them was that the returned ammunition traveled along a haphazard ballistic path and so was relatively easy to dodge. But even still, more than one gunship had taken critical damage and was forced into a crash landing nearby.
After the third Cobra had been knocked out of the fight, the remaining ones decided to pull back. But even as they were withdrawing to a safe distance a fourth Cobra was forced down. Once they reached what they felt to be a safe distance, the remaining gunships proceeded to setup a perimeter, waiting until they could swoop in to avenge their fallen friends. While the Cobras waited, the newly purchased Warthogs, circling above them, waited as well. Popularly known as the Warthog for its distinctive, unusually unsleek shape, the A-10/OA-10 Avenger II is a tank's worst nightmare, armed as it is with numerous anti-tank rockets and an immense depleted uranium Gatling cannon the size of a VW Beetle, and it was hoped that these new purchases would be able to tear apart the magically enhanced demon hide as easily as they did tank armor.
Even though the Warthogs were expected to be able to shred the demon, they had not been issued the "Weapons Free" order due to fear of collateral damage. While they were designed for close in air support on the battle field that close in support did not extend to the limit of what was essentially hand-to-hand combat in a city environment. If the power of the Warthogs was to be unleashed anyone not able to clear the immediate area would be killed and there was also likely to be massive damage to the office buildings surrounding the park. A further concern, especially in Japan, though one that barely registered next to the others, was the likely public reaction once it got out that depleted uranium munitions were used. It would not matter that depleted meant that the level of radioactivity was reduced below that of natural uranium ore, the public fear would not care and there was still the issue that any heavy metal, radioactive or not, was toxic if ingested. As such, the three Warthog pilots were afforded with an excellent view of the battle from their bubble cockpits but were unable to do anything.
As such all participants were quite relieved when three blasts of energy announced the arrival of the latest set of Senshi to arrive on the planet. Caught off guard by the new threat, all three attacks hit home and blasted the demon off its feet. Seeing the moment they were waiting for, the Cobra gunships swarmed back into action, dumping all of their remaining munitions at the demon before pulling up and away. As the Warthog flight was also communicating with their controller on the same frequency that the rest of the forces were using, the announcement that the demon had been momentarily incapacitated was also heard by their controller and they received limited weapons free. While they were still forbidden from using their nose cannons, the numerous rockets and missiles were fair game and as they screamed in from the east, they unleashed as many munitions as they could fire before they were past the target, resulting in a massive explosion
"I think somebody has gotten a bit fed up with this demon" Venus, who had been tossed a fair distance by the explosion, said as she picked herself up off the ground.
"I don't think they left any of it behind." Jupiter replied with a grossed out expression as she got a good look at the splattered demon remains, some of which was on her fuku. "Well this does prove the adage that with enough explosives you can take anything down."
Walking up on the other side of the resulting crater, Mars took out a series of spirit wards. Then using the wards as a focus, she drew upon her power as Sailor Mars and her powers as a Shinto priestess to generate spheres of purifying energy. Letting those spheres absorb into her foci, she tossed the six strips of paper in a star formation at the ground. Hitting the ground, lines of energy arced between the wards in sets of three, revealing the star formation. Once the lines were formed, the star pulsed and the wards incinerated themselves as they released a pulse of white energy across the ground dispelling the last of the demon energy.
"I am glad that is over." Uranus said as she and Neptune walked over towards Mars.
"Hai." the rest of the Senshi agreed.
As the assembled Senshi began to head over towards Naru, Venus paused for a moment to look up in the direction that their helped had arrived from. There's more of them? She thought with surprise as she made out that there was more than one Senshi clustered on top of the building from which the attack had come from. Giving a wave of thanks and one that also indicated that they should come on down, she turned so as to go check on Naru as well. But why do I feel like this is may not be such a good thing. she wondered as fear of an even bigger battle with Galaxia than what Erion had alluded to began to eat away at her.
Watching the local Sailor Soldiers who were being more jubilant than they had a right to be Maker turned back to her two sisters. "You're right Fighter. These Sailor Soldiers are barely trained. They had far too much trouble with such a weak demon. They will be slaughtered when Galaxia arrives."
"I agree, and furthermore they appear to know only low level attacks. Though, that red suited one did use an interesting finishing attack there at the end. Too bad she is not skilled enough to incorporate that into her fighting as if she had, they would have been able to easily take down that demon long before it created this mess." Healer added.
"So then, what do we do?" Fighter asked. This was a question she had thought long and hard about since she had made her report to the princess. She still had no idea what to do and hoped that her elders would know what to do.
"There is only one thing that we can do. We must force them to get better and the fastest way to do that is by striking at something they hold dear." Healer said, earning a gasp of shock from Fighter.
"But…" Fighter began.
"Healer is right. As Star Children we are at our best when we are protecting. If they are going to be able to help us, then we need them to be a lot stronger and we also need to find that Light of Hope. And, we don't have the time to waste doing this the nice way."
"You're right, but still…" Fighter said.
Laying a hand down on Fighter's shoulder, Maker continued with a more somber tone. "I don't want to do this either. This goes against everything we stand for, and that is why the princess gave us those orders. Once this mess is over, assuming that we are all able to survive Galaxia we can see about making amends.
Knowing that both Maker and Healer were right, Fighter let her objections drop. She knew that she was lucky to have the two of them around to make those decisions. Even though the path they were about to start down was one to save not only the galaxy, but potentially even this planet, she still felt incredibly guilty about what they were about to do. But as the youngest of the three, by many centuries, she had that luxury of feeling guilty and could instead let Maker and Healer make the hard decisions.
Turning to look back at what had been ground zero, Fighter absently noted that the military forces appeared to be moving off while the local Sailor Senshi were congregating around the apparent victim of this demon attack. The one complication in the plan of attacking something that the local Sailor Senshi held dear was the fact that the not much was known about the Sailor Senshi of this planet. They vanished back into the regular populace, not yet holding roles in the government, and so there was no personal information that could be used against them. Still watching the Sailor Senshi as she continued her thoughts, Fighter noticed something. Unlike the previous battles she had observed, they appeared to be spending a large amount of time with this victim and it was not just one of them either, but pretty much the entire group.
Turning back to the others, Fighter reluctantly said, "I think I know what we can use. And there is nothing like the present to start with their training."
"Arigato minna-san" Naru said to the gathered group of Sailor Senshi as they helped her back to her feet. "But what about ChibiUsa-chan?" she asked with a fearful tone, the image of ChibiUsa being hit dead on in the middle of the sky having been etched into her mind.
Laying a hand down on Naru's shoulder, Mars said, "We have to hope for the best. I sensed Ami running out earlier with ChibiUsa. She seems to have regained enough of her powers to call upon her fog bank to cover her escape so I am sure she escaped. Knowing Ami, she is probably right now aiding the doctors in helping ChibiUsa recover. And you have to remember that even though ChibiUsa can't henshin anymore even in our civilian forms we can take a lot of punishment." Of course in thinking about the amount of abuse that they were able to take, Rei made the typical mistake of forgetting that Usagi and ChibiUsa were different from the rest of the Senshi.
"She was able to use her powers?" Naru asked, trying to grasp onto something positive to boost her spirits with.
"Hai, and boy was that some creepy fog bank she summoned. It's nothing like her old shabon spray. That one we could still see in. This one we could only vaguely make out the demon and some landmarks immediately around us. And then there were that howling." Jupiter said with a slight shiver as she thought about what it felt like to be in the fog bank.
"Tell me about it. I would never have thought that she had it in her to create something so creepy. Though, it would be one hell of a neat trick to use on Halloween." Uranus added. That last comment though did not go over well with Neptune, who gave Uranus a look that told her what she thought of that comment.
"Guess it is true what they say about the most dangerous ones being the ones that you would least expect. I mean who would have thought Ami, Usagi, or Hotaru would be the last people that you would want to run into in a back alley at night." Naru said with a smile.
However, before anyone could respond to that comment, a narrow beam of energy impacted in the middle of the group. Reacting on instinct, each of the Sailor Senshi jumped clear and dropped into a defensive crouch. Taking advantage of the moment's opening that she had gotten, Fighter swooped in and grabbed a hold of the back of Naru's shirt and then leapt clear.
"Let Naru go! I thought you were on our side." Venus yelled as soon as she saw what was happening.
"We will happily exchange this girl who is obviously a good friend of yours for the Light of Hope." Fighter said as she landed.
"Releasing Naru is not a negotiable item." Uranus said as she began to charge forward with Space Sword in hand.
"That's right, this is not a negotiation." Maker said as she fired a ball of energy into Uranus's path forcing the other girl to halt her advance.
"Now there are only three of us, though. And, Fighter here is going to be fairly occupied watching our bargaining chip, so you do have a three to one advantage. It's your choice, you can either take the girl back by force or you can give us the Light of Hope and we will release her. We don't really want to harm her, but the Light of Hope is of utter importance and if she must be sacrificed to save our planet then that is what we will do." Healer added.
"You bastards!" Uranus swore before unleashing a powerful but horribly aimed blast from her talisman.
Easily dodging the opening salvo, the two fighting StarLights counter attacked. With how worn out the Sailor Senshi of the Silver Millennium and Sailor Erion were, the disparity in skill between the local warriors and the Star Lights became even more pronounced. And while Erion was able to keep up fairly well, Maker and Healer double teamed her first, quickly neutralizing her with a series of non-lethal injuries that would likely keep her down for some days.
As this fighting was going on, Fighter turned Naru around. Releasing her hold on Naru, Fighter began to pat down the young girl looking for any information that might be useful. Knowing that she would not get more than a half step away if she tried to make a break for it, Naru simply stood there. As Fighter began to rummage through her purse, which by some miracle had remained with her throughout the afternoon, Naru felt compelled to speak up, filling Usagi's role.
"Why are you doing this? The others have no desire to be your enemy and I know you have helped them before."
Looking up at the young girl's eyes, Fighter could see the sincerity in them. She was also surprised to see an innocence of the soul combined with a maturity, two items that should have been mutually exclusive. Looking into those eyes, Fighter realized that this was girl who while having seen the worst horrors still retained her ability to see the world in its underlying purity. That paradox, which shone through the girl's eyes, tugged at her heart so much that she actually felt ashamed of her actions for a moment. But then remembering the fate that was bound to befall her princess shortly, she steeled her heart.
Looking down at the ID card that she now held, Fighter replied, "You would not understand. There are horrors in the galaxy far beyond what you can imagine. We will do whatever it takes to save our planet. Even if we have to sell our souls to Chaos itself we would gladly accept oblivion if it could spare our princess and our people a few more days." Then handing back the purse to Naru, Fighter finished with "I know it is harsh Osaka Naru, but you are expendable."
Hearing this new enemy speak her name, Naru's face went white. The terror she had faced when being molested by the previous enemy was nothing compared to what she felt now. Looking down at the purse as she accepted it form Fighter, she noticed that her wallet was open to her school ID. She was no longer just some random victim; the enemy knew who she was and where she went to school.
Looking back over her shoulder, Fighter took notice of how much her sisters were trouncing the others. Turning back to Naru she added, "It is a shame they are such poor fighters. But if they had just given us the Light of Hope then this would not have been an…"
Fighter's last words were caught off when she suddenly grasped her chest as blood spurted out from it. Falling to her knees, she felt another spike of pain stab through her chest as yet another series of spurt of blood opened up. Lifting her head up to scan for threats, she this time was able to see the muzzle flashed of a rifle moments before yet another one of Ami's needle shots flashed through her chest. Letting her body slump to one side and using her left hand to support her, Fighter fired off an attack in the direction of her attacker. Unfortunately, for her the other soldiers had joined in with Ami and her attack, poorly aimed as it was, was aimed towards them and not Ami.
Realizing that the tides were starting to turn against them, Fighter called out, "Maker, Healer its time to go."
Then gathering what little strength she had left, Fighter let her body flow into a shooting star. The transformation to pure energy saved her from a salvo of semiautomatic anti-demon fire. However, with her energy already weakened by the unexpected hits, the fleeing star only managed to travel to the outskirts of Tokyo before falling back to the ground.
Seeing Fighter star travel away, Maker and Healer quickly followed suit puzzled as to why she would be leaving so suddenly and in such a manner. When they rematerialized by Fighter's crash site it was to find their sister crumpled on the ground where she had skidded upon landing with blood seeping from her chest.
"Fighter what happened?" Healer asked as she ran up to her young sister, concern clearly evident on her face.
Looking up at the worried faces of the others, Fighter tried to put on a brave smile as she replied, "I got careless. I let my warding spells lapse somewhat and got caught off guard when the local military began using techno-mage weapons." And as injured as she was, she actually felt grateful that they had been driven off, not having wanted to hurt that paradoxical girl. And maybe these people are not in such bad shape.
Kneeling down next to Fighter, Maker checked her sister's wounds and found them to be all minor and to be already healing. Standing back up she said, "I hope you have learned your lesson about never letting your guard down." slightly chiding Fighter for the young warrior's bad habit, but with a smile to let the younger warrior know that she was not angry.
"I don't think you have to worry me forgetting that lesson again. I have no desire to be taken down by these needles again." Fighter replied, knowing that she had just been lucky that none of the local Senshi had capitalized on her distraction and that she had retained the energy to Star Travel.
Smiling her agreement as well as showing that she was not upset at Fighter for her carelessness, Maker helped Fighter up. "Now then we need to see about securing ourselves a method of living here." Maker said once Fighter was back on her feet.
"That is not going to be simple. We will need an identity that will allow us to move around a fair bit, plus we don't know what kind of resources we might need to locate the Light of Hope. If we are going to be training the Sailor Senshi, then we are going to need to hire others to help with the research."
"True." Maker and Fighter replied.
"Before we move onto that topic, I was able to learn some information about that girl we were using as a hostage. I now know her name and where she goes to school."
"Good going Fighter." Healer said. "This will help quite a bit if we don't have to hunt down the Sailor Senshi when it is time to work on their training."
Elsewhere in the city while the Sailor Senshi were battling one of the Dead Moon's demons, life went on as normal. And with how beautiful this early June day was turning out to be, the various parks were full with people out enjoying the pre-summer warmth. In one of those parks, a girl with auburn hair faded in from nothingness as she crossed into the park, not that anyone paid her arrival any attention. The well tailored kimono that she was wearing, though, did generate a couple of second looks, since it was rare to find children these days dressed up that nice when they were just out and about.
Aware of the looks that she was getting from some of the adults, Izumi just smiled back at them, receiving in return a smile and sometimes a "You're such a nice little girl" comment in addition. Taking the time to enjoy the late spring air herself, Izumi stretched her arms out for a few moments as she made her way over to the swings. As she passed by a group of children playing in the grass with their parents, Izumi paused for a moment with a semi-happy semi-sad smile, saddened by the memories of growing up having lost her mother to a mysterious illness. Shaking her head to force away those thoughts, she told herself Remember oka-san is a Choushin and only that reflection of her died. You live with her true-self now. And any ways Usa-chan needs me.
Pushing her sad memories out of mind with a promise to herself that when she got home that she would have her mother and father baby her, Izumi resumed following the bond that linked her to her kin sister, Usa-chan. Even though they were not sisters by blood and had not spent much time together, each saw the other as a true sister. The two of them had first met a year ago, as time passed for Izumi, when Usagi lost in her grief from loosing the last of her childhood friends, Rei, had unknowingly used her powers over spacetime to plane jump.
Izumi had been heading out to the carrot field that afternoon to get some carrots for dinner when the older winged girl had appeared before her. Feeling the other girl's sadness echoed in her own heart, Izumi had been drawn to Usagi. Discarding her basket, she had knelt down beside the crying girl and pulled her into a hug. The two of them had stayed like that for many hours, with Usagi releasing all of the sadness that she felt. At some point during the afternoon, Izumi had, unknowingly, for the first time manifested her own seven Wings of the Light Hawk. One of the wings had formed into a gown while the other six had taken the form of wings, which she had wrapped around Usagi.
When Usagi had finally stopped crying and looked up into Izumi's eyes, an understanding of sister-hood passed between the two girls. While neither knew how they knew, each knew that the other was their counterpart - a guardian of the Cosmos. Over the course of the following week, the two of them, with the help of Izumi's aunt, had spent their time learning to harness their powers. And for Usagi through her interactions with Izumi, she was able to slowly deal with her grief. But a seed of that grief had remained, a seed that would eventually in the distant future overtake her again. After that first meeting, the two only saw each other three other times, each time for but a few minutes, and while only a year passed for Izumi many years passed for Usagi. And, that was how things would have continued but for a change in destiny, a change that a week ago brought a badly injured Usagi to Izumi.
While helping Usagi recover from her injuries, Izumi had learned of the changes to Usagi's timeline. Desiring to help, Izumi had gone to the Sea of Cosmos to check on her kin sister's younger-self. And now today, on her own initiative, after feeling intense fear across their bond, she was here in Usagi's Tokyo. Hastily jumping to be with her sister as soon as she felt that fear; Izumi, unfortunately, made a series of miss-jumps and so by the time she had arrived that fear had become just a low level sadness. Even though this change meant that she probably was no longer needed, Izumi continued on, just walking at a leisurely pace as opposed to a frantic run.
Finally seeing Usa-chan's disguised form, Izumi gave a smile and thought Well that explains why she is no longer in fear. for ChibiChibi was playing on the swings. Though, what was wrong in the first place? Izumi wondered as she reached the wood that boarded the swing's sandpit. And, then with a large smile and a wave as she stepped into the sand, Izumi called out, "Konnichiwa Usa-chan."
Seeing Izumi, ChibiChibi's mood became one of pure happiness now that her kin sister was here. Quickly bringing her swinging to a stop, she jumped off and ran towards her "big sister" calling out "Chibi!" moments before flinging herself into the other girl's arms.
Catching the little bundle of energy, Izumi gave ChibiChibi a hug before placing her back down and the ground. Then standing up, she took a hold of the little girl's hand. Letting ChibiChibi lead the two of them around the park, Izumi just walked with ChibiChibi for some minutes before she finally spoke.
"Usa-chan what's wrong?" Izumi asked
And with that question, ChibiChibi began to cry. Stopping and kneeling down beside the younger girl, Izumi said. "Don't worry your younger-self will be okay. I did as you asked and gave her the crystal dagger. She will come home to you shortly." before pulling the little girl into a hug.
When ChibiChibi finally got a hold of her tears some time later, she said, "Chibi, home don't." before launching into a new set of tears.
"Sush, its going to be okay." Izumi said as this time she just used calming words while stroking ChibiChibi's back in an attempt to calm the other girl. What's bothering her. I wish Usa-chan had taken a form that could talk properly. Izumi thought to herself as she tried to puzzle out what ChibiChibi had said.
Standing up, with ChibiChibi in her arms, Izumi began to walk around the park. While in this form Usagi had the mentality of a three year old and as such anything that could upset a three year old would upset her, Izumi was certain that something serious was bothering her kin sister. Sitting down on a bench, she finally realized what was bothering ChibiChibi. Adjusting her hold on the other girl, so that she was looking int ChibiChibi's face, she said, "Usa-chan you don't know how to get home to do you?"
Shaking her head no, ChibiChibi cried some more tears. Before taking her ChibiChibi form, Sailor Cosmos had been sure that her past-self's star seed would draw her. That star seed was a beacon of light that had drawn both her time traveling daughter and various enemies. However, Cosmos had forgotten one thing - that the star seed had been shattered and would not fully heal until her younger-self awoke. As such, ChibiChibi had found herself lost with now idea of how to find her younger-self.
"Well then you are in luck princess as I know where you live." Not exactly, but a phone book and then we are good.
"Chibi?" A tentatively optimistic ChibiChibi asked.
"Hai!" Izumi said with a very reassuring smile. "Now is anything else you want to do before we leave Usa-chan?" Izumi asked.
"Chibi do?" ChibiChibi asked before suddenly nodding before slipping out of Izumi's lap and onto the ground where she proceeded to take and then taking off in a dash.
Chasing after the little girl, Izumi called out "Usa-chan wait up!" but of course the little girl did not listen and, due to her little size, she was able to navigate her way easily through the crowd of people that she had run into while Izumi was left constantly having to apologize to those that she had run into.
Finally arriving at a concession booth, Izumi caught up with ChibiChibi. Breathing heavily, she looked down at the little child and prepared to scold her. At the moment she could care less that this little girl was really Usagi once she had fully come into her powers as a Kin of the Cosmos or that a moment ago that she had been balling her eyes out. No right now all she wanted to do was pick this little girl up and give her one heck of a spanking. Choosing a little preschool girl's form was no excuse, there were plenty of better forms, such as the sentient trees that her mother preferred. However, the puppy dog eyes that ChibiChibi were giving her quickly derailed those thoughts and instead Izumi found herself buying the kid a giant stick of cotton candy, one that was just about the size of ChibiChibi.
Yes, mom should be very glad that she only had to play my RPG game and not deal with Usagi here. Izumi thought as she led the now quite content ChibiChibi out of the park. As she guided the little kid who could not see in front of her due to the large fluffy candy, she had to repeatedly fend off questions from people who kept asking her if ChibiChibi was her little sister and wanting to remark how cute ChibiChibi was.
By the time ChibiChibi and Izumi arrived at the Tsukino household ChibiChibi had managed to polish off her cotton candy, proving that she had retained her true form's appetite. As Izumi had expected, finding the house was not too difficult once she had gotten the address from a phone book, thankfully there had been only one Tsukino listed as living in the Juuban ward. They did, though, have to stop for directions a few times as Izumi did not know her way around Tokyo.
Now standing on the front porch of their destination, Izumi rang the doorbell before turning to give ChibiChibi a smile. But as she did so, she saw instead of the expected ChibiChibi two girls holding hands. Nani! thought Izumi as she rubbed her eyes to make sure that she was not seeing things. Taking a second look, she saw that her mind had just been playing tricks on her as once again their was a single little girl standing there on the porch. I must be more tired than I thought, if I am starting to see double. Guess that is what I get for staying up late last night playing Sailor Q. Though, why was one ChibiChibi's hair streaked red and silver and the other purple and silver? Any more thought over the trick her eyes were playing on her were forgotten when the door was opened by a blue haired lady to whom Izumi said "Konnichiwa Tsukino-san."
"Konnichiwa, I am sorry but you appear to have me at a loss." Ikuko replied
Smiling Izumi replied, "That's understandable as this is both the first time the last time that we will meet, as I am not of this universe. You can call me Izumi, like your daughter I am Kin of the Cosmos. I just wanted to let you know she will return to you before long so keep your heart up."
"Arigato, Izumi-chan." Ikuko replied "please come in."
"Iie, I have to be going. However, ChibiChibi here…"
Hearing Izumi say the name of the little girl that was with her, Ikuko remembered that strange birth certificate that had come with the documentation for ChibiUsa and Hotaru. "ChibiChibi did you say?"
"Hai, ChibiChibi here will be staying with you for a while. I can't explain why, but I expect you understand some of the reason. As for anything more, I am not allowed to say." Izumi said as she ushered ChibiChibi into the house. "Oh, I have to warn you; just before coming here she managed to get me to buy her a large stick of cotton candy. Well it was nice to meet'cha queen mother." And with that Izumi gave Ikuko a low bow before turning and taking a few steps after which she faded out of existence.
Looking down at their apparently new house guest, Ikuko looked over the little child "Well you must obviously be the ChibiChibi that we have been waiting for. After all you have the same hairstyle as the other two and after ChibiUsa I guess I am not surprised to see red hair."
For her part, ChibiChibi looked up at the tall blue haired woman who stood in front of her. She felt a little afraid now that her onee-chan, Izumi, had left. But as she looked at this new woman a distant part of her mind reassured her that she was safe with her and so after a few moments, ChibiChibi's face broke into a large smile and with a cry of "Chibi" she threw herself at this new person.
"Ikuko-chan who was at the door?" Misaki said as she stepped out the kitchen.
"You remember how I mentioned that there was another set of documents in that package that contained the documents for ChibiUsa and Hotaru?" Ikuko responded with instead.
"Hai." Misaki replied, unsure of where her sister was going with that question.
"Well that was ChibiChibi being dropped off by another girl who says that Usagi will wake up before long."
"That's great news Ikuko!" Misaki replied.
"Yes, it is. I knew that Usagi would find some way to return. After what I have seen this past year, I knew that there was no way that she could stay away for long with her daughters needing her." Ikuko replied. Then setting ChibiChibi who she was holding in her arms down on the ground, she said "And this here is ChibiChibi."
"She is so adorable!" Misaki exclaimed as her eyes went wide.
"Chibi?" ChibiChibi replied in question as she turned to look at this new person and for the one of the first times in her existence feeling the need to be elsewhere.
"ChibiChibi-chan, this is your Auntie Misaki." Ikuko said as she quickly stepped a fair number of steps away from the little girl so as not to be bowled over when her sister's restraint snapped. And Ikuko just barely cleared the danger zone when that restrain did snap and Misaki gathered ChibiChibi up into a bone crushing hug.
Ugh. Ami thought as she regained consciousness. Her mind fuzzy as to any details of what was happening, Ami remained lying for a few minutes as her thoughts straightened themselves out. That's right there was a demon attack and ChibiUsa was hurt. ChibiUsa! As the memories now came flooding back, particularly those dealing with how bad ChibiUsa was hurt, Ami sat up quickly. However, her still exhausted body was not quite ready for that motion and responded with a wave of pain to which Ami thought Ow, not smart.
Now knowing that she was going to have to move slowly so as to avoid overstressing her body, Ami turned her attention to where she was. Seeing the medical supplies on the walls, the drawn curtain in front of her and of course the IV in her arm, she realized that she was in a hospital. Yes, that's right. I did get ChibiUsa to the medics. They must have collected me as well when I passed out. Now looking down at her body she noticed that she was still dressed in her street clothes, though her flak vest had been removed and was now draped across a nearby chair. Well that means either they do not think that I was badly injured or that they haven't had time to deal with me properly yet. Ami thought to herself. And given that she could not remember having taken any real hits, she leant towards the first explanation being the case.
With that decided, Ami figured that she was healthy enough to leave her bed. And while the rule abiding part of her mind reminded her that she should wait for a doctor, she was too worried about her best friend's daughter. Therefore, she carefully swung her legs over the side of the bed and stood up. She stayed like that not moving away from the bed for some moments as waited to ascertain whether her legs would be capable of supporting her. When she felt certain enough that they would be able to support her even with their shakiness, she turned her attention to transferring her saline bag from the ceiling hook to one of the portable towers. And as she transferred the saline bag she absently noted the various additives that had been part of her prescription so that she could question her mother on them later. Now free to move about and making use of the tower as an additional support, Ami made her way out of her ER bay and into the main hallway of the ER.
Leaving her room, Ami realized that she had absolutely no idea of where to go to check on ChibiUsa – she might not even be in the ER and instead be in an operating room. Looking at her bay she noted that its number was 42 and it was not the highest numbered one that she could see. However, standing around would not help her and so Ami began to walk letting her heart lead the way. As she walked, she made to keep her face schooled with an expression of determination so as to avoid being accosted by unwanted nurses or technicians.
After turning down a couple of corridors (this particular hospital had a quite large emergency room facility) Ami knew that her heart had led her on the true path when she saw a bay seeming to overflow with various medical professionals. Now approaching more quietly so as to not be noticed, Ami stopped outside of ChibiUsa's bay on the far side of the corridor and looked in. What she saw turned her stomach and she fought hard to avoid crying out. While she had seen ChibiUsa back at the park, then her mind was too focused on the immediate to really take in how exactly how bad the girl's condition was.
Looking at ChibiUsa now, Ami could plainly see how badly burned the young girl was. Her whole front was a dark shade of red where it was not covered in puss from burst blisters or black from being charred. Thankfully the blackening appeared to be limited to ChibiUsa's extremities, which gave Ami some hope. What little clothing that had survived Hawk-Eye's attack had of course been removed by the nurses in the attempts to treat the wounds.
Now turning her attention to the other occupants of the room, partially so that she could learn what ChibiUsa's condition was and partially so that she would not loose her lunch, Ami noted that in addition to the regular medical staff there appeared to be a couple of people who were wearing robes. Instantly recognizing them as witches and wizards, Ami's hope rose. Maybe they will have some potion or spell that will help ChibiUsa recover quickly. But as Ami listened to the conversation between them and the regular doctors, that hope was crushed.
"I don't understand why the skele-grow potion is not taking effect." One of the witches said.
"Hai, not even the salve we have put on her burns seems to be working." A wizard said.
"Maybe we just need to wait longer. Her body is extremely stressed. With the IV, oxygen and the triage spells that you are using on her, her condition appears to have finally stabilized. We should, though, transfer her to an isolation ward to protect her from infection." One of the doctors this time interjected.
"You don't understand. These potions have never taken this long to take effect, even with someone as badly injured as this girl. It is almost as if she were non-magical, but the magic resonance scan returned a positive reading." The witch replied.
"Wait. That may be the problem." A different witch said, with understanding beginning to dawn.
"What do you mean?" a different doctor asked.
"All of the potions that we have been giving her rely on her own innate magic to trigger them. Now the level of magic required is so small that as long as you are magical they will work. However, it has been hypothesized that if one's magic core was to be burned out that they would still test positive for resonance but that they would have insufficient magic in them to activate anything in our world." The nurse replied in response.
"But that is preposterous, nothing can collapse a magic core and especially not injuries no matter how severe they are."
"That may be true to for humans, but not for our kind." Ami's weak voice said interjecting into the discussion. Suddenly finding herself the focus of attention, Ami blushed realizing that she was probably going to be scolded real soon for leaving her bed. However, focusing instead on ChibiUsa, she explained her comment. "I don't know all of how magic works for the witch and wizards of Earth, but our power is different it directly feeds into our soul and from there to how we command it. While she is not a Sailor Senshi, the nourishment for her soul is too small, she is otherwise likes us." As Ami spoke, half formed thoughts that she had been developing as a result of her lessons with Rei in addition to her own scans of Usagi when she was "sick" and of herself began to coalesce into a much firmer understanding of what a Sailor Senshi was and how their powers were used.
"The reason why we are able to take such severe punishment and to heal quickly is not so much because our bodies are more resilient than those of normal people, though they are that, but because we have the power that is ours to call to keep our soul alive when our bodies are mortally wounded and to then rebuild our body afterwards. While with us Sailor Senshi we have the power of our guardian planets to call upon, ChibiUsa only had the dieing powers of the Moon to protect her. Powers that were likely fully spent keeping her alive from something that should have killed her outright."
"But that would mean…" one of the nurses began.
"Hai, her magic core as you call it will never recover as there is no longer a reservoir for her to call on." Ami said with loss clearly written on her face. "If I still had my powers, I may have been able to infuse her body and trigger those potions. But even if I call one of the others, I am afraid that her body is too weakened to take the strain."
"But if her body were to strengthen enough? There are old spells from back when potion making was unreliable that we could use in conjunction with your healing technology in this hospital. They should be able to support her body if her will is strong enough to fight back and not give in. It will take a team of healers to administer them, but now that we know what we have to do we can't give up." The first wizard said
"In that case I will have orders immediately drawn up for transferring her to the AMT unit. The more strain that we can remove from her body the better her chances." one of the doctors said.
Now smiling a small smile of hope that ChibiUsa would be okay, Ami turned her attention away from the doctors. She hoped that they at least let her stay long enough to see ChibiUsa moved before they sent her back to her bed. What's that? Ami thought as her current line of thoughts was distracted. Turning her head to get a better view, she saw that it was a butterfly. How did that get in here? Ami wondered.
As she watched, the how became quickly apparent when it fluttered through a solid wall as if it was not there. With her attention fully occupied on this apparently magical butterfly, Ami watched as it slowly made its way down the ER towards her. As it got closer Ami noticed that it had a very unusual shifting violet color. When the butterfly headed into ChibiUsa's bay, Ami was not surprised, having already expected that somehow that butterfly's presence was associated with ChibiUsa.
The arrival of the butterfly naturally surprised and disturbed the medical staff given how sensitive ChibiUsa's condition was. However, their attempts to bat it away proved fruitless when clipboards passed cleanly through it and it managed to bob out of the way just in time to avoid any spell sent its way. Seeming to not take notice of its unwanted status, the butterfly soon made its way to ChibiUsa's chest where it landed in the spot where ChibiUsa's fuku chest bow would have lain.
When the butterfly touched down, it seemed to melt into ChibiUsa's chest and as it did so a circle of violet and golden energy began to expand out from its entry site. As that energy expanded to encompass the body of the battered girl, everyone watched on in amazement as the girl's injuries began to melt before their very eyes. Blisters cleared up and vanished, while charred skin flaked off to reveal pink skin below and ChibiUsa's chest began to rise and fall more firmly and without any sounds of labored breath.
Ami was the first one to recover, having seen something like this before; though, not to such an extreme. Hotaru, but how? she silently asked herself as she sat down on a thankfully nearby gurney and began to scan ChibiUsa with her computer. Seeing the results of her scan she gave a large sigh of relief as the computer began to overlay them with the previous reading taken that afternoon. It appeared that the worst of ChibiUsa's had been healed. There, however, was still a large amount of first and second degree burns on the girl's body, a bone remained broken and others badly bruised, and a good chunk of ChibiUsa's hair was likely to be a lost cause.
However, even with what she knew of Hotaru's healing gift, Ami was still stunned that it had healed this much of ChibiUsa's injuries. No matter how strong Hotaru now was without that demon siphoning her energy; she could not have done this on her own. But those potions they gave her could have. ChibiUsa needed a jump start to get them active and my readings do show that her body still has a good amount of Saturn's energy left in it. Hotaru did what I could not and with her healing powers she was able to make sure that the infusion process did not hurt her. Ami finally realized.
Ami quickly relayed her conclusions to the doctors and healers and while they were a bit skeptical they did agree that it made the most sense. When the healers performed some further tests to examine ChibiUsa's magic levels and the status of the administered potions more credence was lent to Ami's theory. Once they had determined the why, the healers went back to healing the rest of ChibiUsa's wounds. However, realizing that healing ChibiUsa too much might give things away, Ami instructed them to just make sure nothing critical was missed and then to let the regular doctors finish patching ChibiUsa up.
Of course the moment that Ami finished giving directions, one of the nurses got a hold of her and very firmly escorted her back to her own bed while admonishing Ami for being reckless, even if she was likely to be discharged when her doctor saw her – a doctor who had been quite perplexed to find Ami's bed empty.
Osaka Abe had expected to spend a pleasant relaxing evening at home whose only highlight was to be dinner for which her daughter's new friend, ChibiUsa, would be over for. She was just getting ready to close up shop so as to begin dinner preparation when her plans were thrown right out the window with the arrival of a pair of military officers at her store. At first she had thought that maybe one of them was here to buy an engagement ring with the second providing moral support; however, as she had turned to great them their solemn expressions had killed her unspoken words of greeting.
Learning that Naru had been involved in a demon attack nearly gave her a heart attack. And even as she felt her body going weak, they took action to help her, being well trained in grief consoling. Once they had gotten her seated, they had explained that Naru had only suffered minor injuries. But that ChibiUsa was not so lucky. When they asked her to accompany them to the military hospital, she quickly agreed.
Now sitting here in the waiting room, she waited nervously with her daughter, who had been released soon after her arrival. She had been ready to go home then, but Naru was not willing to leave until she got word on ChibiUsa's condition and so they waited. As she waited, her mind reviewed what she knew of the little girl that her daughter had befriended and wondered how much tragedy that that child would be forced to bear. While she only knew vague generalities of ChibiUsa's situation, she did know that ChibiUsa had lost her home and family, which was what had brought her to Tokyo, and then there was the accident that had claimed Usagi this past spring. She prayed that ChibiUsa would recover, having been informed by the hospital staff that they were not optimistic with her chances of survival. This being reason why she was willing to stay here overnight if it took that long to learn if ChibiUsa would make it.
Given the shocks that Abe had suffered it is not surprising that she had of yet failed to take notice that neither Ikuko nor Kenji were here. Even though ChibiUsa had yet to worm her way into her heart, Abe was still devastated to hear how badly ChibiUsa had been injured, which was further magnified when she realized that it could easily have been her daughter as well. As for the hospital personal, with only sketchy reports to go on with what happened and no ID left intact on ChibiUsa, they had just assumed that the two girls were related, especially with how concerned the older one was for the younger one.
Her admittance to the ER was at the insistence of the medics who had wanted her checked out after having been a victim twice. While she might normally have insisted that she was okay, she was shell shocked over what had happened to ChibiUsa and so let herself be escorted to the ambulance without any hassle. Her concern for ChibiUsa was obvious to the medics during the drive to the hospital, so they explained that a medevac had collected ChibiUsa and transported her by air earlier. But as the ambulance weaved its way through the traffic, they were able to calm her down.
However, all of that calming was for naught as within moments of arriving at the ER, Naru overheard elements of frenzied discussion between various medical personal as the ER staff attempted to save ChibiUsa's life. Hearing how bad ChibiUsa was, Naru had completely broke down and it was a good thing she was already strapped to a gurney as she would have collapsed to the ground otherwise. Seeing Naru's reaction, the doctor that was taking receipt of her had called for grief consoling in conjunction with a suicide watch.
However, as if someone above knew her soul needed some support, Father Morgan who had been having a twisted ankle taken a look at, walked by the bay she had been placed in on his way out. Recognizing her voice, he had entered and come to her side and with his help she was once again able to regain control of her emotions and before long the suicide watch was canceled. Even so, Morgan remained with Naru up through she was released to her mother and even now waited with the two of them in the waiting room. And as they waited he wondered how fortuitous it was that he had slipped, fallen and twisted his ankle in front of this particular hospital on this particular day.
It was nearly three hours after Abe's arrival when a doctor entered the waiting room with news of ChibiUsa. "Osaka-san?" he asked as he walked up beside where she was sitting.
"Hai?" Abe replied.
"I am Machi Yuji; your daughter is going to be just fine. With the help of the Sailor Senshi we have managed to heal the worst of her wounds. Even still she has a badly bruised forearm and some serious burns that will have to be carefully cared for to avoid infection."
"My daughter?" a confused Abe replied. "But, Naru is…"
"You mean ChibiUsa?" Naru asked interrupting her mother.
"Hai, she's not your daughter?" The doctor asked, now confused himself.
"That's right; she is a friend of the family. But Naru seems to be raising her almost as if she were her little sister or maybe even daughter." Abe said feeling great relief in learning that ChibiUsa was going to be okay, which allowed her to even make light of what had been bothering her earlier today – how focused Naru had become with taking care of ChibiUsa.
That comment about her acting as if she were ChibiUsa's mother caused Naru's face to go pale, but thankfully neither of the doctor nor her mother noticed, though Father Morgan did. "Can I see her?" Naru asked.
"In a little bit, they need to transfer her to the observation area first." The doctor said, then turning back to Abe he continued. "If you are not ChibiUsa's mother, then could you provide us with the contact information for her mother?"
"That won't be necessary doctor." A young female voice said from behind the doctor.
Recognizing the voice as Ami's, Naru's spirit perked up. Lifting her head to look past the doctor she saw a grinning but quite tired looking Ami who was holding ChibiUsa in her arms.
Crying out "ChibiUsa-chan!," Naru practically teleported over to Ami and took ChibiUsa into her own arms. Carefully holding ChibiUsa close to her bosom so as to not aggravate the young girl's wounds, Naru allowed her body to relax in the warm feeling that she felt when ChibiUsa proceeded to hug her. Now for the first time Naru understood why Usagi seemed to have an extra lift in her step ever since ChibiUsa's arrival. But then pushing aside that warmth, she began to rapidly apologize to both ChibiUsa and Ami.
"Onee-chan stop!" ChibiUsa finally yelled out weakly. Then seeing that she had gotten the older girl's attention she continued, "It's okay, you did nothing wrong. No need to apologize." The last part, ChibiUsa said as she dropped back off to sleep while also snuggling in tight to Naru's embrace.
"Naru, ChibiUsa is correct there is nothing for you to apologize for. You have all of our thanks for watching over the princess. If anyone is at fault, it is us for not being there fast enough."
"Ami-chan, it's not your fault that I was attacked and you can't be with me all the time."
"If we who are soldiers are not at fault, then how can you a civilian be at fault?" Ami asked with a smile, knowing that she had trapped Naru with her logic.
"Hai, you're right, I guess." Naru admitted. Then gazing down at ChibiUsa, she smiled. Usagi must be stronger than she looks as my arms are already starting to get tired from holding ChibiUsa. I better sit down for a bit so that I don't drop her.
"Your friend is right Naru-san. You cannot take the blame for the challenges that are being placed in front of the warrior angels as the darkness makes its last stand against the light. Be strong for the task that the Lord has set out for you." Farther Morgan said. As he spoke he looked at Ami when he spoke of the warrior angels and then at ChibiUsa as he mentioned the task that had been laid out in front of her.
"Hai, you're right as well. Arigato, Father Morgan. You have helped me again."
"It is my purpose Naru-san. Remember that my door is always open for you if you need to talk, no matter the time of day or right. A friend of the savoir is always welcomed." Morgan said before bowing lightly and taking his leave.
Watching the priest leave, Machi turned his attention to Ami, not at all happy that ChibiUsa had been brought out here when she should still be under observation. He was not one of the ER doctors who had worked to stabilize ChibiUsa's condition, those doctors were currently getting some much deserved rest; but was, instead, one of the doctors of the observation area to which ChibiUsa was currently supposed to be transferred to. Consequently, he had no idea who Ami was, thinking her to be just some punk ass soldier who had no idea what she was doing.
As such Machi turned to Ami and demanded "You young lady authority do you have to take a patient out from the ER. That girl is nowhere ready to be released."
If Machi had been expecting Ami to flinch with his words, he was disappointed as Ami weathered his harshly asked question and just defiantly looked back at him with steadfast eyes, seemingly challenging him to try to do something.
"Machi-san let the matter drop." A second doctor who had followed Ami out into the waiting area said, making his presence known.
"What do you mean? That child is in no condition to be out here."
"She has been formally released. One of the Sailor Senshi has requested her release and unless you want to take it up with the director, Osaka Naru is free to take ChibiUsa home with her.
"Wait you mean that you are releasing ChibiUsa into my daughter's care?" Abe asked.
"Hai. Sailor Mercury did not explain any further than to say that Osaka Naru is a very close friend of ChibiUsa's mother. Now Naru-san if you would mind signing some forms we can let you get on your way." The second doctor said before escorting Naru who had returned ChibiUsa to Ami's arms for the moment away from her stunned mother so as to take care of the paperwork.
When the foursome arrived home at the Osaka residence thirty minutes later, the first question out of Abe's mouth when they entered into living quarters was, "Naru, I hope that you have a very good explanation for what is going on."
Now with the scare over, the concerns that had been building over the past few weeks from how close ChibiUsa and Naru were surfaced. She already had been getting fairly concerned when she found a copy of ChibiUsa's report card while cleaning Naru's room and then the words that were being exchanged this evening spoke of even more questions.
"That she does, and I will explain it to you." Ami said.
Turning to face the blue haired classmate of Naru, Abe regarded the girl with an intense gaze before asking "While I appreciate your offer to tell me what is going on I would like to hear my own daughter explain herself. While I do that you may want to call your parents to let them know where you are."
"Iie." Ami firmly replied getting Abe's full undivided attention. "It is not Naru's story to tell, limited as she is by her promises. I will explain to you what is relevant for you to know. While I do that Naru can look after her imouto, the princess."
Hearing the dismissal in Ami's voice and knowing that she had been assigned a task, Naru quickly left the growing confrontation and made her way to her room. Imouto, onee-chan? Naru thought to herself a little while later as she carefully laid ChibiUsa down on the bed. And its now not just ChibiUsa, but Ami as well and she was speaking as Sailor Mercury back there. Naru's thoughts continued as she began to realize that Ami really did not hold any hard feelings against her. Well it's too late for dinner now; though I am guessing that Ami will answer mom's questions. Guess I should get ChibiUsa ready for bed. After that I can see if she wants something light to eat before bed. With that decided, Naru first looked for some clothing that would do well as make shift clothing before rousing ChibiUsa and helping the younger girl get changed. With her burns and the "bruised" arm that was really broken, ChibiUsa needed a fair bit of help to get herself changed and as expected ChibiUsa being her mother's daughter was not at all interested in going to bed without first eating.
As Naru was taking care of ChibiUsa, Abe and Ami were staring down each other. While Abe knew some about Ami from what Naru had described to her, she had never met the girl before today and was quickly wondering who Naru had been describing as this was definitely no meek bookworm girl. And, Ami's defiance was further enhanced by the dirtied school uniform and the open flak vest that she was wearing; though, thankfully for Abe Ami did not have her rifle with her and her sidearm was tucked away in her subspace pocket.
"Osaka-san I apologize for my disrespect but there are substantial facts that have been kept from you. There is a good reason for why they have been kept from you, one that I hope that you will understand and there are reasons why I will be limited by what I can explain. All I ask is that you please hear me out first before forming opinions." Ami said deciding to offer an olive branch.
"I will listen for now Mizuno-chan, but understand I am quite shocked with how you have been acting. I imagine you have been through a lot this afternoon given that you were also caught up in that demon attack, but that only gives you some allowance."
"Hai, as we have never been formally introduced, I guess it would be best to start from there. I am Mizuno Ami, a reborn soldier from the remains of a kingdom that once stretched across this solar system and protected the Earth. By the course of destiny, I have been granted the power of my guardian star, the ice planet Mercury, to protect my princess, Her Highness, Princess Serenity of the Moon, and to aid her in her task of protecting the people of the earth." As Ami spoke these words, the sigil of Mercury glowed brightly on her forehead and Abe reluctantly accepted that a veteran warrior and not a child stood before her. Then continuing without quite the previous presence, Ami said, "My princess you know as both Sailor Moon and Tsukino Usagi, Naru's best friend."
Holding up her hand to cut off Abe's attempted interruption, Ami continued. "I, my fellow guardians, the Sailor Senshi, and our princess are the reborn souls from a kingdom that fell a thousand years ago. We were reborn without memory of who we had been, but when the evil that had been sealed away awoke our slumbering souls awoke as well so as to protect this world. To protect our loved ones, we have kept our true selves hidden from all but those that circumstances have forced as to confide in. Know this, if needed each of us would willingly give our lives to save that of another and this past spring Usagi did just that to thwart an evil that threatened to destroy the entire universe. She now lies in a stasis crystal essentially dead.
"The responsibility that we have been entrusted with extends even to protecting time itself. In carrying out this responsibility, Usagi's daughter from the future has been trapped here in the past unable to ever return home, a daughter that you know as ChibiUsa." Then seeing the gasp of surprise and understanding on Naru's mother's face, Ami continued, "A child who has in essence lost her mother twice in about six months time, a loss that was further exasperated by her best friend losing herself to her own grief and running away.
"Your daughter has provided ChibiUsa finally with an outlet that will allow her to heal her broken heart. Of all of us, Naru was the closest to Usagi and in her acceptance ChibiUsa finds absolution for what has happened to her mother. In their friendship the two of them are helping to heal each other's hearts and to grieve for their loss." Then pausing to let what she said sink in, Ami continued this time in a stern tone, "Know this, the princess has requested that Osaka Naru be her big sister and whatever Naru's decision may be as long as it comes from her heart, it will be respected by us. And if we need to intervene so as to allow Osaka Naru to act as a big sister to her highness Princess Chiba Tsukino Usagi Lady Serenity then we will do so."
Abe opened her mouth to ask a question, but was unable to formulate one from the multitude of thoughts that were running through her mind. While many of the thoughts were questions over what she had just learned others were outrage from how Ami was in essence talking down to her and in so doing showing substantial disrespect to that of an elder.
"I know it is getting late and it will be better if you have the night to think over what I have said. I will come by tomorrow night and will then answer your questions. Don't worry about ChibiUsa I will let her grandparents know where she is, they have already been told of her condition." And with that Ami took her leave.
Abe stood standing there for some minutes after the door closed, not quite sure what to do now that her world had been turned upside down. Finally hearing some noise behind her, she turned and saw Naru leaving her room and heading to the kitchen.
"I am going to fix some cinnamon toast for ChibiUsa. She may be hurt, but like Usagi that hasn't done much to her appetite." Naru said as she saw her mother's questioning look.
"Naru, why are you doing this?" Abe decided to ask after a moment.
"Taking care of ChibiUsa?" Naru asked. Seeing her mother's nod, she continued, "The pain from losing Usagi is less when I am with ChibiUsa. Helping her also makes me less guilty for not having been able to do more for Usagi this past year. Also I know if our roles were reversed, she would have done the same for any child of mine no matter how hard it might have been for her."
Letting her daughter go, Abe thought about what Naru had said. For the first time since she had first started to notice how close the two girls had been getting, she thought that maybe this wasn't such a bad thing. She still had many questions for that Mizuno girl and she was still quite displeased with how she had been treated, but she also knew that this was the best therapy for her daughter. Abe only wished she realized how much Naru had been hurting from Usagi's loss. Tonight as Naru explained why she was taking care of ChibiUsa she was finally able to see that hurt in Naru's eyes, which her mind superimposed on how Naru's eyes twinkled on those days that she spent with ChibiUsa.
-End Chapter
The name for Naru's mother is based on Michiko Abe who voices her in the anime
The name for the doctor comes from the VA for Tsukino Kenji
I also want to thank Ethan who besides helping me with my Gundam Seed fic is also with chapter helping me with this story as well. For those of you who are Gundam Seed fans, please be sure to check out "The Archangel of Peace." This story, however, will still be my primary focus.
The reference to Ranma being a violinist is a nod towards the wonderful fic: "Genma's Daughter" by Deborah Goldsmith
I appologize for the long delay, but life, getting quite sick a week ago (who would have thought a stomach bug could keep you down for almost a week after it was gone), and the busy course loads of my reviewers have all attributed to the delay. But I hope it was worth it
And as for a good time waster while you wait for the next chapter, check out MegaTokyo which is a great online comic/magna.
