Edited- 12/20/2018
Chapter Eight
Ikuko Tsukino was a kind woman in nature, she didn't get angered or freaked out easily. But upon finding her child and her friend conversing with a talking cat drew the line. So when she heard her daughter and Ami talking in her room with another older voice late at night had her barging in there to see only the two girls and a black cat.
The only reason they were caught was because of their argument on whether or not the to get on the "demon" bus, resulted in the awakening of Mrs. Tsukino to see what all the noise was.
"Where's the owner of the other voice and why are you girls up so late on a school night?" Hands on her hips in an authoritative stance. She was greeted with silence. "Well are you going to tell me or not?"
"Mom-mom what are you doing up so late heh?" Serena stumbled.
"I just asked you that young lady."
"Mrs. Tsukino we were just working on a class project," Ami tried to lie but she was terrible at it to her new mother figure.
"Highly unlikely," Ikuko Tsukino puckered her lips. "Now I want you to tell me where that cat came from, where the other person is, and why you two are up so late."
"Mom uh I don't think we're allowed to tell you?" Serena questioned as she glanced towards Luna.
Narrowing her eyes she look at her daughter. "As your mother I believe I have the right to know what you're talking about. I think I gained that privilege giving birth to you now tell me!"
"I'MSAILORMOON!" Serena shouted quickly not wanting to anger her mother even more. Luna and Ami looked at her in shock.
"Serena!" Ami gasped.
"What did you just say?" Ikuko pronounced every word anger rising in her voice.
"I'm Sailor Moon," the blonde girl mumbled waiting for her mother to blow.
"YOU'RE WHAT NOW!" A few shouts from their next door neighbors alerted to them to quiet down.
After a few minutes for her to calm down Ikuko sat down on her daughters bed.
"So let me get this straight, you saved this cat and later that night she made you Sailor Moon. You then fight a 'youma'," she paused. "Get saved by a man in armor and save the day. You are also a reincarnation of an ancient warrior from a some ten thousand years ago and you have a duty to defeat this dark kingdom. And your friend is also your fellow warrior? Did I get all that right?"
"Yes all of that is true , and I apologize that your daughter is in this mess." Luna told the frightened woman in front of her.
"Talking cat, I guess I can't say that is the weirdest thing that has happened today," Ikuko starred the feline in the eye.
"Mom you're taking this better than I thought."
"Serena, I don't think she is I think she's in shock," Ami told her companion quietly.
"Huh I guess you're right. Do you know when she'll snap out of it and start yelling?"
"Can't tell."
"So you girls are fighting-fighting demons?" Ikuko Tsukino finally spoke to them both.
"Technically they are called youmas to us, but yes in a way they're demons," Ami supplied the answer to her mother like figure.
"And this man in the armor he is?"
"King of Earth Endymion," Serena said. "He's helping defeat them in this region."
"A king? Region?"
"Yes he is the king most likely reborn into this life, and as for the region you don't honestly think that the youma would stick to just one place after they keep on getting defeated?" Luna responded.
"No not really, but is he really a king and of this planet?" Ikuko wondered.
"Yea I mean he doesn't seem like the type of person to boast about something untrue," Serena said.
Nodding her head Ikuko began, "Alright then, ground rules if you are going to keep doing this" A dangerous tone took her voice as she stared at the other occupants in the room who wanted to protest. "I can't just let you leave me in the dark about this, I am your mother and I worry so,
"One, leave a note somewhere where I can find it about where you are fighting and when you should be back. Text messages should suffice. I'm your mother I want to no, need to know where you are and if you're safe.
"Two, I want you to tell me if you're hurt or in more danger. I don't know what I'll do if I lost you," tears watered in her eyes. "Three, I want you girls to get good grades still, I don't care if you stay up all night studying I don't want you failing. You still have a future when this is all over." Sniffing to hold back from crying she continued.
"Number four, Ami I want you to at least notify your family where you are at you are over here all the time," this gave the blue haired girl to shrink back a little. "Number five, Luna please don't get my baby girl killed I will skin you if you if you let her. "
Luna looked at the frightened mother, "I-I promise that I'll help her stay alive."
Luna couldn't promise the woman that she would not get her child killed, she had no power over that but she could give her comfort that she would try and keep her alive to the best of her ability. Ikuko Tsukino nodded at that she also knew she couldn't make Luna promise something she didn't have control over.
"If you gain more… scouts or allies tell them the same thing. You… I want you all to feel safe, so you can stay here and do what you need to do… just tell me in advanced alright?" Mrs. Tsukino spoke. Tears fell from her hope filled eyes that her daughter would keep her in the "loop".
"Yes mom I… promise."
"You won't leave like your father did promise me that!" Mrs. Tsukino was now in front of her daughter gripping her shoulders like a lifeline.
"Mom I don't," Serena stopped the rest of her words when she saw the look in her mother's' eyes. Swallowing hard, "I promise I won't leave like dad alright mom you don't have to worry." She tried to comfort her mother with her words. Ikuko Tsukino nodded her head letting go of her daughter.
"So what were you talking about?" She broke the silence that had settled into the room.
"Talking about how to stop the youma from taking the people on the buses," Ami said from her spot on the floor. Ikuko wanted nothing to do with talking about this still trying to grasp her new reality.
"Alright, don't stay up to late okay? I'm going to check up on Sammy, night girls." With a smile she left the room to go do what she had said she would.
Luna looked up at Serena, "Good thing your mom is supportive, but you don't go telling people you're Sailor Moon what is wrong with you?"
"I'm sorry she's my mom what else was I supposed to say?"
"That you were working on a project and your friend was on the phone helping you?" Luna gave her a pointed look.
"It's almost midnight, sure I'm going to be calling my friend and working on a school project?" Serena sarcastically bit back.
"She does have a point Luna," Ami pointed out.
"Alright fine, you're lucky she didn't freak out worse than what she did," Luna conceded defeat. Serena puffed out her chest in victory bringing a small smile to Ami's face.
"Speaking of telling others what are we going to tell the other scouts when we see them?" Serena calmed down.
"Well from what Endymion told us he has found the other twelve planetary warriors so we shouldn't worry about that at the moment. No clue if they have their memory intact or not so don't expect the rest." Ami calmly stated looking up from her now opened Mercury computer.
"Oh don't forget his opinion, feelings on the moon princess, or queen if she had married," Serena mumbled looking through her backpack.
"Wouldn't whoever she married get her title and throne?" Ami turned to Luna.
"Normally the moon royalty was a matriarchy so the moon princess would still be called moon princess or queen depending on if she was married the king wouldn't really matter to the kingdom because the queen held the highest power," Luna explained to the girls.
"And that helps us how?" Serena stopped rummaging in her bag to look at the cat.
"Most of the planets had a monarchy system and wouldn't want to change to matriarchy or vise-versa unless extreme circumstances took place, meaning the she would have married someone from the moon."
"Again, and that helps us how?"
"It means we can keep calling her the moon princess since she would have married someone from the moon and not elsewhere, until our memories return. In the meantime we should come up with something that we all know is fact and tell the new scouts that to not come off like we are lying or don't know anything." Ami spoke while furiously typing on her computer.
"Alright so we need a true story," Serena looked to Luna, "Your time has come to be useful cat."
Luna sputered, "Useful? When have I ever not been useful?"
Giving Luna a pointed look Serena sighed. "You nag us all the time on our duty, you have temporary amnesia, and you can't even fight The only way you train us how to fight is through simulators which aren't that realistic. How is that useful to us at all the least you could do is come up with a true story that would buy us enough time to find out the whole truth."
"Okay I think I can do that… you make me sound so useless," Luna muttered the last part jumping off the bed and heading towards the open window. "You both should head to bed soon, we can start on the bus plan tomorrow."
"You heard what the boss said time for bed," yawning Serena crawled under her blankets. "Night Ami."
Ami got up to turn the light off that Serena neglected to do. "Night" was mumbled back as she got under her own blankets. Glancing at her closed computer and shut her eyes, lulled into a deep sleep.
Thankfully when the girls went down the stairs for breakfast it wasn't awkward between Mrs. Tsukino and them. Saying goodbye to the woman off to work with Sammy they got busy getting ready.
The planned to wait out the bus and have Serena get on it untransformed but disguised with the Luna Pen. Hopefully Endymion would be able to sense their need of help, maybe even bring along another hand to help them face the dark kingdom in the Jubann region.
They made sure to pack extra snack and some medical supplies that they had found around the house. Some spare clothes were packed incase their current ones got ruined, again. They were attacked in their civilian forms once by a youma with acid like attacks, not very fun at all.
After school they walked to the bus stop of the so called "demon bus". After a couple of hours waiting for the six o'clock bus Serena decided to get on one of the bus rides just to kill time.
Getting on the bus she headed to the back and took a seat. Sighing she leaned back in her seat closing her eyes. Feeling an itch like someone was watching her she opened her eyes and looked to where they were coming from.
Next to her sat the man she most likely hated the most on the planet, oh the irony of it all.
He stared at her as she sat down and closed her eyes not noticing him in the least. He swore on the sky being blue and orbiting around the sun that he didn't know she was going to be sitting next to him on the bus. He promised.
"You have got to be kidding me," groaned the blonde. "You're basically everywhere!"
"Or you're stalking me," he just didn't know when to shut up did he?
"Why would I stalk a baka like you?"
He shrugged his shoulders, "Must be fate then."
"Then fate has some messed up sense of humor," she scoffed.
"Eh or fate wanted us to meet." He stared at her with that look he always looked at her with.
She looked at him staring at her with some hidden meaning behind his eyes. "Why do you stare at me like that?"
"Like what?" He wanted to tell her so badly, shout it out to the whole world, no the whole universe. He couldn't on the simple fact that she wouldn't understand just yet.
"Don't know, just wanted to know why you stare at me like that, I would say it's creepy but then again it's not a creepy look."
"You'll find out soon, I promise." He couldn't look at her anymore without doing something he would regret later on.
Seeing that he looked away from her Serena she sighed, "I tend to find that promises get broken easily."
"Not this one, I'll make sure of it," he whispered to her.
"That doesn't sound so reassuring," Serena stood up as the bus came to a stop. Starting to walk away from the seated male she turned her head. "I hope you keep this one though." His eyes widened slightly at her parting words.
As she walked off the bus she would swear she thought she heard him whisper a 'me too' before looking out the window to see her walk down the street.
Staring at the expanse of water Caudata turned to Felidae. "Oh great and mighty leader how in the world do you expect us to travel across the sea without a boat. Oh wait let me ask our team member who has an affinity to water. Oh that's right we don't have one."
"Do you have to be so damn sarcastic Caudata?" Plecia asked.
"I don't need your smart ass remarks Caudata. I know we don't have anyone like that right now." Felidae responded as stoic as ever.
"Well do we have anyone who can fly us over?" Caudata was still being a sarcastic ass at the moment after what they had just done.
To be honest they weren't surprised about the sneak attack their enemies made on them but they were damn near exhausted after killing them. Especially sense Plecia decided to make it into a contest and light show on her part like always.
"God can you tone the sarcasm down a bit it's not helping the headache I have from you flinging me across the forest," Plecia moaned.
Another thing that happened, Caudata threw his light show of a teammate across the forest in an attempt to destroy most of the monsters around them. She hit a tree in case you were wondering and she is almost healed by now if you were concerned.
"Would you two shut up!" Felidae shouted bring his hands to his temple. "There should be a boat around here somewhere start looking!"
As they were searching Caudata would say sarcastic comments on the environment around them and Plecia would shoot beams of energy into the water bored after the first few minutes of searching. Felidae would then order silence now and again trying to regain his lost sanity searching for the "boat".
"Hey boss man, I thought you said there was a boat. We've been searching for an hour now!" Caudata whined plopping down next to their female companion.
"THIS IS IT I'M CALLING VULPES I DON'T GIVE A FUCK WE NEED TO GET THERE IN THE NEXT FEW DAYS BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE!" Plecia shouted in anger grabbing the mobile phone from her pack.
"God could you be anymore dramatic Plecia I called the man a few minutes ago. It'll take a few days but he should be bringing the boat here," Felidae tried to placate the blonde girl.
"Speaking of boat, why was our boat not here in the first place?" the question asked by Caudata left everyone confused and worried that an enemy could have gotten there before them. This derived their urge to get there even sooner than planned.
