AN: Hey everyone welcome to Chapter 11. Hope everyone's had a good week. I've been relaxing and enjoying Spring Break. So that's always nice.

Not much to say. Thanks again to tsukikageshi for betaing for me. Please remember to leave a review or comment after letting me know what you thought. And enjoy the chapter!

Chapter 11

Scopophobia

"It will be fine Usagi." Naru argued from her spot next to the bed. It was the next afternoon and they were waiting for the arrival of Haruka and Michiru. Luna had at first hesitated when she had asked about having Naru there but had eventually agreed that having her there for moral support wouldn't be the worst idea. Left unsaid was that she could also help supply certain things or fill in the blanks on details that either Usagi didn't remember or was reluctant to share.

"I can't help but be scared Naru." Usagi said finally flopping down on the bed next to her longtime friend. "What if they don't accept this?"

"Knock some sense into them?" Naru suggested earning a snort from Luna who had been just listening to the back and forth at this point.

"Naru!" Usagi said.

"I'm joking. But seriously if they hold your legs against you then someone should knock some sense into them." Naru said crossing her arms.

"I guess if we needed to we could try and start locating the remaining Inner Senshi but with the way things have been escalating I'm not sure how good of an idea that is." Luna confessed.

"Wait I thought you thought that this wouldn't be a problem." Usagi crossed her arms frowning at that. Luna and Naru, with Luna mainly speer heading it, had been pushing her for weeks now to tell the others and had been insistent that it would all work out.

"I don't think it will be a problem." Luna said shrugging her shoulders.

"You two are worrying too much something that I'm betting won't even happen. Don't think about the worst case and how you might have to move forward from there until your faced with it." Naru said shaking her head slightly.

"Well we don't have much more time to entertain any kind of scenarios. They're here." she said standing up. She had just heard the doorbell going off as Naru had made her point.

"Did you really not trust us enough to think that we couldn't handle what you were hiding?" Haruka asked finally breaking the silence. Usagi was slightly relieved to notice that she wasn't really mad just sounded disappointed. Though she felt kind of bad about that too…

"It's not really you guys." Usagi tried to placate Haruka. It was true it really was they hadn't done anything to make her not trust them. It was just a carryover issue from having dealt with Juuban for over a year.

Michiru frowned slightly, even with all the things she had picked up observing the other girl… "I find that hard to believe."

Naru broke in there. "She's actually telling the truth. Usagi has been dealing with some girls who have bullied her about her legs for some time now. Usagi thinks she has to hide this or be treated that way. Sometimes I just want to go take those girls and- It really wasn't anything against you."

Maybe Usagi wouldn't have had the same reaction if there had been more time between the quake and the Yuki incident as she and Naru referred to it as. As it was it was when she was still fairly early on in the recovery and probably had impacted her more because of that.

"That still doesn't explain how we got here in the first place." Haruka commented frowning.

"Haruka-" Michiru began in a warning voice.

"It's fine Michiru." Usagi said trying to placate the older girl. She had been prepared to answer that question. She was actually surprised that it was only coming up now. "Naru and I originally are from a small town just a few hours north of here. Naru moved down about three years back. I officially moved down with my parents in August of 2011 after the-." Usagi broke off there unable to continue. Why was it so hard to talk about it even now?

Michiru however was frowning slightly. The timing and old injuries were a little too coincidental, "The Tohoku Quake."

"But the quake was in March if that's why at the root of it all this happened why did you wait until August to move?" Haruka asked frowning slightly. It made sense sure that the quake was the cause of her injuries but the timing was a bit odd.

Usagi chewed her lip slightly before deciding to continue. She hated talking about those first few months the most but it was a legit question so there was no reason not to answer it. "I was in a coma. I was in bad shape for a while. It took a while before it was safe enough to move to Tokyo. They never were sure how I survived since-."

Naru thankfully picked it up there seeing that she couldn't continue talking. "Usa's younger brother Shingo died in the tsunami. They were together when it hit."

She could practically see the final puzzle piece slide into place at Naru's explanation. A lot of her behavior did derive from the regrets she had around Shingo's death both in and out of battle arguably. She couldn't remember that awful day, not really anyway, and part of her really didn't want too but not knowing if she could have saved Shingo always made it feel like it was her fault somehow that she had survived when he had died. It being a mystery that she had somehow survived didn't exactly help matters either. Though she had begun to accept that she probably would never know what had happened or why it was becoming Sailor Moon, as much as she liked to complain at times, had almost given her a new purpose that wasn't tied to Shingo. That helped.

It was a few hours before Haruka and Michiru finally got up to leave. Usagi had eventually exhausted herself out and had fallen asleep. Leaving the conversation more to Luna, Haruka, and Michiru since it was no longer in the corner where Naru could really say anything.

"Hold on!" Naru called jogging down the stairs in her house so she could catch them before they left. Coming to stop at the bottom step she said, "I just wanted to say thanks."

"You're welcome though I'm not sure what you're thanking us for." Michiru replied frowning slightly.

Naru shook her head slightly. They didn't know she surmised. "It's just nice to see Usagi finally having more people she can trust again. After Yuki she tended to get a lot more closed off around new people." Yuki had kind of broken Usagi in a sense during her reign of terror over Usagi. Really just based on how long that had gone the fact she had been able to these two as much as she had was a huge step in the right direction.

"That's good to know." Haruka said frowning slightly.

Michiru changed the subject slightly away from Usagi. "The girl, Yuki? Do you happen to know what her last name is?" Now that she knew for sure why Usagi had turned down her offer of help initially to get into Mugen Gaken. Anyone with two eyes could see Usagi wasn't happy at Juuban and she had a feeling at this point that Usagi wasn't asking because she didn't want to cause trouble. Plus she had a feeling having Usagi closer with her accidental tendency to attract trouble wouldn't be the worst idea. If she could get Usagi into Mugen Gaken she wanted this other girl on the list of people who could not be accepted. But she needed a last name for that. Admittedly she probably could look it up since it was a public school and that data should be available to anyone. And if not well she knew people who could.

"Sorry I don't know." Naru said making a face slightly. Yuki had never shown any interest in interacting with her outside of once or twice because of Usagi so it had been a bit of a shock when the girl's true colors had finally shown true.

"What did that girl do?" She heard Haruka mutter. That was a good question. When they had tried to pry lightly about further details on the Yuki incident Usagi had sidestepped the question. Naru hadn't been forthcoming about details and by the look on Luna's face she probably knew as much as they did about this Yuki.

"That's Usa's story. Its a long one and I'm not sure if I even have the full details." Naru confessed. That later part was actually a lie. She knew too well what hell Usagi had been put through by Yuki. Her mind flashing back to the one many times she had found Usagi in the bathroom stalls crying over the latest part of Yuki's reign. But it was true that the story was a long one and more Usagi's to tell then hers.

"Fair enough. Thanks for your time and for hosting us." Michiru said starting to turn

"Anytime. Thank you for helping Usagi." Naru said cheerfully before turning to go back up the stairs.

"Michiru um…. you know Usagi's not here at the moment, right?" Naru asked letting her in. Not that she minded seeing Usagi's other teammates but they usually only came by when Usagi was around. Outside of coming over to talk to Luna that one time. "Or Luna for that matter."

"Yes, I came by purposely now because of that." Michiru said. Usagi and Haruka were at the arcade that they seemed to have taken a liking to. So now was the best time to get Naru's opinion on a certain matter.

"Not that I don't mind you stopping by, your both welcome here, but why?" Naru asked frowning slightly.

"I wanted your opinion on a certain matter concerning Usagi. Your closer to her right now then Haruka and I are so I'm hoping you would have a better idea of what her reaction might be to an idea I have." Michiru explained.

"Which is?" Naru asked raising an eyebrow. She was kind of curious what in the world Michiru was asking her opinion on something.

"I was thinking about getting Usagi's application to Mugen fast-tracked so she would be starting in the spring. I'm a bit concerned on how she would react." Michiru admitted. Her gut said that Usagi would be okay with it but asking someone who would probably actually know was her way of hopefully putting her concerns at ease

"You know someone at Mugen's Admissions Office?" Naru asked a bit surprised. Usagi hadn't really mentioned much about Michiru's family other than mentioning the sister they were working with. And while she had gotten the idea that the other girl's family had connections in high places but this still kind of surprised her.

"Not exactly. My family has connections in high places. So while I may not know the people in Mugen's admission office to personally pull the strings to get her in I do have the connections needed to get them to admit her. I offered to get her off the waitlist the first time she brought up Mugen and she turned it down at the time. However, in hindsight, I'm wondering if her turning it down was less because she didn't want the help and more because she was trying to hide everything with the Tohoku Quake." Michiru explained.

"You're wondering how she would react if you used your connections to get her officially admitted." Naru realized. "I'm guessing if you're asking me you haven't made another offer again?"

"No, I debated it. I have a feeling if I offered again she would turn me down but more so because she doesn't want to cause problems for others." Michiru admitted.

Naru made a face. "Yeah, that's Usagi alright." Pausing for a moment in thought. "As for your question, I'm not a hundred percent sure since she still surprises me at times even after all these years. I think, though, she would appreciate it. She'll be embarrassed but she will be grateful too." Naru said after a moment. She might be slightly embarrassed at first but Usagi wasn't exactly the overly prideful type. When she hid stuff, it was usually because she didn't want to bother others not because of some sense of pride. And considering how much Juuban seemed to drag Usagi down and how worried she as about the upcoming school year she couldn't see the girl not being glad to just be out of there, to be honest. "Besides even if she did get angry. Usagi's not exactly the type to hold the grudge. Even if she did get made initially for your involvement for some reason I don't think she would stay mad for very long."

"And you're okay with her transferring?" Michiru asked. She was more being curious now than anything. With Naru's comments, she probably more than a bit supportive of it. But still good to ask.

"Usagi needs to get out of Juuban. Really needs to get out of Juuban. What kind of friend would I be if I wasn't?" Naru said pausing for a moment. "Actually, I might try applying anyway if Usagi is going to be moving there."

"That seems a bit sudden." Michiru mused. Naru and Usagi seemed close but she was still a bit surprised by the other's willingness to follow her.

"Not really. Mom and I looked at attending Mugen Gaken right after we moved to Tokyo a few years back. Mom decided after everything with Dad that starting me at a more normal school at first was probably better before moving into a private setting. Then after everything happened with Usagi and we knew she was moving to Tokyo priorities kind of got shuffled and I decided to stay at Juuban. The offer to try and test in was still open last I checked." Naru explained. Her Mom could definitely afford the fee so that wasn't a problem.

"Would you like an assist with getting in if you get waitlisted?" Michiru offered after a moment. Normally she wouldn't extend it but she was a close friend of Usagi's.

Naru blinked a couple of times. That was unexpected… "No, I think I should be okay with that. I wasn't trying for a specialized program like Usagi so as long as they haven't met their quota for the year with new students or something I should hopefully get in." If it came down to it she might take up Michiru on the offer. She would rather transfer in at the same time as Usagi then not.

"Naru tell Luna that I'm the last person that they would be looking for in a model contest." Usagi said to her friend as she came into the room. It was a day or two later and Luna was currently trying to convince her some new modeling contest was actually a Dark Kingdom plot. Haruka and Michiru were out for the afternoon having had a prior commitment to attend too. So it was just the three of them at Naru's place for the moment.

"Wait why are we talking about a model contest?" Naru asked frowning.

"Luna thinks one of the sponsors works for the Dark Kingdom." Usagi explained sighing while handing over the flyer. Luna was currently arguing that the head sponsor, a Masato Sanjouin, was actually Nephrite and that she needed to partake in the modeling contest. Admittedly from what she had seen of Nephrite before he did bear an uncanny resemblance to him. But she would be surprised if it was the same person.

"Masato Sanjouin? Why in the world would a hot billionaire want to or need to work for the Dark Kingdom?" Naru asked sounding kind of dumbfounded.

"You have a crush on him. You have his biography under your pillow and a poster of him on your wall. You'd likely know more about him than me. That doesn't change the fact he bears a strong resemblance to Nephrite" Luna pointed out frowning. She wasn't going to hold Naru to the same standard but she thought the girl had more common sense then let her own judgment get in the way of a possible problem.

"Maybe." Naru confessed handing the flyer back eyes shifting to the book sticking out from under her pillow.

Usagi let out a sigh turning back to Luna. "Look there's no way they are going to let a noticeably disabled person into a swimsuit modeling contest. I'll probably be laughed out the door." Plus there was the fact she wasn't even sure if her swimsuit had made it down to Tokyo. It wasn't like she had gone for a swim very recently.

"I feel like we should investigate it. If they don't allow you to enter then we should find another way." Luna said frowning.

"Doesn't Michiru swim a lot? Maybe she would be the better choice to infiltrate the contest." Naru suggested.

Luna frowned muttering. "Maybe..."

"Luna even if I didn't live with prosthetics Michiru would still be the better choice. As it stands, I do. My prosthetics aren't waterproof and I have no swimsuit and no desire to be in front of people in one." Usagi argued when she saw Luna about to open her mouth. Well, she did have a swimsuit somewhere. Buried deep in her closet but considering it hadn't seen any use since before the earthquake she wasn't sure how good shape it was in.

"All right I'll ask Michiru." Luna finally agreed after a moment. It seemed like she still wanted her to do the photo contest but hey if she agreed to Michiru then that wasn't her concern.

Thankfully Michiru had agreed that her competing was the most logical choice. But Luna being Luna had insisted that all three of them attend even if only one of them was competing. Not that Usagi disagreed it was a bad idea. But since her and Haruka weren't competing they didn't have the same kind of access Michiru had. So her and Haruka were hanging towards the back of the auditorium where most of the contest was being held. Since neither of them were actually participating in the contest all they could really do was watch and look for anything particularly weird. Everything was going great as far as they could tell up until the point she saw a familiar red head bobbing in the crowd.

"Oh my god Naru." Usagi facepalmed. She had told her friend to stay home since there was no way to know if this was or wasn't a plot by the Dark Kingdom. Apparently, her friend hadn't headed her advice.

"It's too dangerous for this." Usagi could hear Haruka's voice apparently catching sight of her too.

"She probably wants to see the sponsor up close in person. She has a thing for older guys for some reason. Heck, the whole reason she wanted to sneak into the concert the night we first met was because she wanted to see that jazz musician that was performing." Usagi confessed. She wasn't exactly sure why Naru fancied older guys but hey she wasn't going to really question it.

"Didn't you tell her that this might be a Dark Kingdom plot..?" Haruka asked confused.

"Oh no she knows. She was the one that suggested Michiru take part in this contest in the first place when I couldn't get Luna to understand that I probably wouldn't even be allowed into the competition let alone close enough to confirm if it was a plot." Naru was her best friend but sometimes she seriously questioned her decision making. She had been able to keep her away from quite a few youma plots so part of her wondered if Naru really realized how dangerous they could be. Yeah, she had been the victim of that first youma but most of the others she had gotten out of the area before she was in danger. Mostly. There was that other youma at the idol contest she had nearly forgotten about.

"Let's just hope we eliminate any trouble before it puts her in danger." Haruka said frowning. "Again." Usagi muttered under her breath. It had been her crush on the musician that had put her at the scene of the concert. And while she wouldn't completely complain about it since who knows how differently things would have gone if Naru hadn't dragged her there she still didn't like seeing her longtime friend getting wrapped up in youma plots.

"She might be safe Michiru hasn't given the signal yet." Haruka tried to reassure her.

"I hope so but then again with the Dreamland plot..." Usagi pointed out. Left unsaid being the fact they didn't see it until one of them was already trapped in the plot as a victim and the others had to rescue her...

"That's true sometimes these plots aren't the most obvious. The bus shrine incident was similar. We had suspicions but didn't have anything concrete until we saw Jadeite open a portal." Haruka explained.

"Okay, now I am really questioning how that didn't get more publicity." Usagi said to herself. She couldn't remember anything about disappearing busses. Naru was more of the conspiracy theorist then she was but it almost sounded like a cover-up.

"You said you were pretty busy with school." Haruka pointed out. "Yeah but even then, you would think I would have noticed something even with my nose buried in a book half the time." Usagi argued.

"We could always try asking the government guy." Haruka suggested with a bit of hesitance. "Do you think we would honestly get a straight answer out of him if they are involved in covering it up?" She turned to the older girl in skepticism.

Haruka made a face at that, "No probably not."

"Sooo what is this signal you mentioned earlier if Michiru sees something suspicious?" Usagi asked deciding to move away from possible conspiracy theories.

"It's not something you would see." Haruka said waving off the question.

"What does that even mean?" she asked frowning.

"I'll explain later. Now's not the place or the time for that matter." Haruka said.

"Okay then." she wasn't sure why the older girl wanted her to drop the subject but she could tell that was what was wanted.

She never did quite get an answer out of the older girl about what the signal was. But a few minutes later Haruka tensed up and got the confirmation that yeah, they were dealing with a youma plot all right. Now came the hard part and one they really hadn't thought through, to be honest, getting to Michiru.

It had been surprisingly easy to get out of the auditorium and into the halls. But the problem remained of getting past security, and again, finding Michiru. Well, maybe the later wasn't too much of a problem since Haruka for whatever reason seemed to have a fairly good idea of what direction she was in.

"We should have snuck Luna in." Usagi said more to herself. If anything else turning the cat loose would distract the security guards really quickly. Also, it would have maybe stopped Naru from showing up to the contest. She looked down in surprise when she heard a clearing of the throat. Well, this was a stroke of luck. "Luna what are you doing here? How did you get here?"

"I snuck out when Naru left the house. I decided if I was out I might as well come check out the contest." Luna confessed.

"You didn't try to stop Naru!" Usagi asked a bit surprised. She would have thought that Luna would maybe have interfered.

Luna basically made a few comments under her breath that she didn't quite catch. Sounds like she had only found out Naru was even here when she had probably spotted her in the crowd. Usagi raised an eyebrow. "You didn't know she was coming out here?"

"No, she said she was going to run errands." Luna said shaking her head slightly.

"I thought you said she wasn't much of a liar." Haruka asked after a moment.

"No, but if she really wants something she can get rather tenacious at times. As I said earlier it was her idea to sneak into your concert." Usagi said frowning. She must really like this Masato if she was putting herself in the possible line of danger or confirmed in this case. She was going to have a long talk with Naru after today.

"We are sure that it is an actual plot by the Dark Kingdom correct?" Luna asked.

"Michiru was able to somehow tell Haruka that there was an actual plot involved." Usagi added.

"Really?" Luna asked raising an eyebrow turning towards the older girl.

"It's a long story." was Haruka's answer. Guess they were all going to be having a long talk after this.

"We really need to work on being more open with each other." Luna could be heard commenting.

"You're bugging me about not being more open after the whole thing with Usagi?" Haruka asked raising an eyebrow. Usagi grumbled a bit but she knew the other girl had a point. If she hadn't made Luna wait on the subject they probably would have had the conversation they had a few days ago, a few weeks ago.

"Actually I called her out on it several times but it was part of the agreement when she first became Sailor Moon that she told you two on her own terms." Luna explained.

Haruka sighed after a moment. "I need to talk to Michiru about this. Telling you both involves her just as much it involves me."

"Fair enough." Luna said finally backing off a bit.

"Anyway, we need to get to where the contestants are the problem is getting past the security." Usagi explained to Luna.

"Your hoping I can provide some distraction." Luna said more rather than asked.

"Precisely. If one of us did the distraction then only one of us gets to where the youma is." Usagi pointed out.

"All right I'm not sure if you'll both get past though." Luna argued.

"We have to try." Usagi said shaking her head. It was going to be difficult but that seemed to be the story of her life right now.

The good thing was Luna's distraction had been a success. The bad thing? Her and Haruka had gotten separated when one of the guards had spotted them at the last moment. So now she was lost wandering the halls. Trying to figure out where possibly Michiru or Haruka were.

"Usagi?" Usagi turned to see Naru. Oh thank god, she was safe and Naru might be able to point her in the direction she needed to go. Maybe her being in the contest wasn't the worst thing after all… "It's a youma plot." Naru continued making a face. Apparently, she was starting to associate her being places where she wasn't with youma plots. That could be a good or a bad thing depending on the situation.

"You knew that was a possibility. We had a whole conversation about what to do about the contest." Usagi commented shaking her head.

"I actually got to meet him!" Naru piped up excitedly. Apparently deciding to ignore the reminder that she had walked straight into a youma plot.

"That's great and I'm happy for you, really. Just maybe a bit more careful about chasing guys in the future? This is the second youma plot you've got caught up in because of a crush." Usagi pleaded. First, there was the jazz musician, which okay she couldn't complain about too much considering that was how she finally met Haruka and Michiru, but still. Now it was this crush she had on this billionaire.

"I know I'll try to be more careful in the future." Naru assured.

"Haruka seemed to know where we were supposed to be going but we got separated when trying to pass the security guards." Usagi said scratching her head.

"How did ya manage to get past them anyway?" Naru asked.

"Oh, Luna apparently snuck in without any of us knowing and we ran into her while trying to figure out how to get past security. She provided a distraction just one of the guards I guess was on higher alert then any of us anticipated. So all of us ended up separated." Usagi explained.

"Well I can't help you find Haruka but I can tell you where we were told to get our photographs it's not that far from here actually." Naru said pointing down the hallway and to the left. She could make out a door that probably was where the photographs were being taken.

"Thanks." Usagi smiled. Hopefully, she would run into the others girls there though she did have a question, "Wait if you are already at the photographing point why aren't you over there?"

"I got sidetracked and got separated from the group." Naru shrugged. Well, she couldn't really complain she would probably still be wandering the halls lost if she hadn't run into Naru.

"I would get out of here before things get messy." Usagi advised starting to walk in the direction Naru had pointed in. Though pausing after a second. Maybe she should find a place to transform before walking into a possible fight first.

"Yeah I got to swing by the locker room to get my stuff first and then I'll wait for you three outside." Naru agreed.

"See you soon." she waved off her friend. Well at least she knew Naru was out of danger. Now to see to the youma. "Here goes nothing." She gripped her transformation broach.

"MOON TIARA ACTION." Usagi yelled upon entering the photography room, tossing her tiara at the youma who managed to duck only for it to smack into the back of its head thing but not actually turning it to dust. Right, Luna had warned that was a possibility oh well at least it seemed to have momentarily stunned the youma as she ran up to a Neptune who was sitting up now. Having dropped to the ground to dodge some energy blast as she was coming into the room. "Are you all right Neptune?"

"I'm fine she just took me by surprise." Neptune assured her using the youma's momentary confusion to their advantage and tossing one of her own attacks. It knocked it back a few feet but didn't turn it to dust. She frowned for a second before turning to Usagi, "Be careful she can capture people using that energy blast you saw me dodging when you got here. Where's Uranus?"

"We got separated when we ran into a problem with the security on the way here." Sailor Moon explained. Hopefully, Haruka hadn't run into too much trouble when they been had split up and wasn't too far behind. "Okay besides the really worrying energy attacks what else is there to know about this youma?"

"It's built like a tank. My attacks are barely landing any damage." Neptune admitted as they quickly sidestepped another set of blasts from the youma.

"Combined attack then?" Sailor Moon suggested. That's how they had managed to take down the more troubling youmas in the past.

"Seems like the only solution." Neptune agreed powering up a Splash Edge as Sailor Moon reached up for her tiara. This was going to take some immaculate timing to make sure neither of them accidentally got caught in the crosshairs of the youma's energy blasts.

"Splash Edge!" Moon Tiara Action!" Came the simultaneous call as they tried to use a combined attack.

"Neptune!" Sailor Moon yelled paling slightly as she disappeared into the beam of light leaving only an old-fashioned picture in her place. How had they missed the youma aiming and firing yet another beam attack? There had been an opening it had appeared safe. How could they have missed something so obvious? Had the youma managed to fire one beam on top of the other?

"SPIRAL BUSTER!" The loud very angry yell signaled Uranus had finally managed to track them down. Judging by the amount of anger she probably had seen what had happened but had been too late to act to prevent it.

Sailor Moon decided the best course of action for the moment was to stay out of both of their ways and try to find an opening to try and get her tiara to combine with Uranus's attack. Uranus was doing a good job of keeping the youma distracted. Apparently making Uranus angry somehow made her a slightly better attacker. Or at least able to power up a lot more quickly than normal.

Sailor Moon frowned for a moment glancing back between the two. Well, technically the youma's picture thing was a form of energy blast. Her tiara had shown the ability to absorb energy from the other Senshi blasts maybe it could absorb the youma's blasts? Only one way to find out she thought removing the tiara. She let out a sigh of relief as the tiara absorbed a good portion of the energy (enough to take Uranus out of the danger zone) and then continued on its merry way since it hadn't actually made contact with anything. So it could absorb negative energy along with Senshi energy. That was a really good trick to know for the future.

"Hah! You missed." The youma declared turning her attention away from an angry Uranus at the moment. That was a mistake as Uranus took advantage of the opening to slam it with another Spiral Buster.

Incidentally, Uranus's attack managed to knock the youma back straight into the tiara's attack as it started to come back to her. The tiara's combined strength with the energy blast it had absorbed was enough to finally do the job it appeared as it made contact with the youma again turning it into dust. She let out a sigh of relief as she saw Neptune rematerialized looking slightly worried but otherwise okay.

"I'm fine Uranus." Neptune assured her getting back to her feet.

"What happened anyway? I arrived just as you got caught in the youma attack," Uranus commented frowning slightly looking back and forth between the two of them as Sailor Moon walked up.

"We were trying to combo attack the youma. It took advantage of the opening to capture Neptune." Sailor Moon said speaking up with some hesitance. She felt responsible for somehow not getting hit while Neptune had been. Even if that would have thrown a wrench in taking the youma down. At least Neptune looked like she was no worse for wear from being temporarily captured in the photograph.

"We both missed the fact it was firing that wasn't entirely your responsibility I should have been more careful." Neptune said cutting off whatever Uranus looked like she was about to say in response.

"So what do we do now. Most of the people in the contest appear to be out cold." Uranus commented glancing around the room. Sailor Moon followed her gaze and realized in her hurry to make sure nothing was wrong with Neptune she had missed everyone rematerializing from the photos that had been taking.

"We need to get out of here before the security tracks us down. I'm not sure how you were able to shake them Uranus. But they seem to be fairly decent at their job so I don't think it will be long before they track us down here." Sailor Moon said. Considering all the trouble they had had with security today maybe they should spending more time talking to that government official about IDs to get into places. That would have sure saved her and Haruka a lot of trouble and worry today.

"That is true." Uranus agreed making a face at the thought of having to deal with the security officers. Sailor Moon was kind of curious how she had finally ditched the security but that was a question for another time.

"We should probably split up and meet up again outside just in case. We can meet up again once we are back outside and have no worries over security." Sailor Moon said making a move for the open door hoping they would follow and take her queue. She would rather not split up at all considering who knew if Nephrite wasn't planning more trouble. But if they got caught by security they might have bigger concerns. AS she reentered the hall and made a sharp right and sprinted away from the contest was being mainly held she heard what sounded like a security person yelling for them to stop.

It had been easier then she had expected to lose the security guards that she had heard following her and find a spot to drop the henshin. She thought she was home free until she ran smack dab into someone else. "What is with today?!" Usagi muttered rubbing her nose.

"Sorry Odango didn't see you there." Came a familiar teasing voice.

"I thought I told you not to call me that." Usagi grumbled taking the offered hand. She had fallen on her butt when she had run into the guy yet again yet still managed to be and appear so angry one could imagine flames burning behind her.

"Yeah, you have. What are you doing here? Your certainly not dressed like you're doing the competition." He commented.

"I'm not a friend of mine is." Or was since once things settled Michiru was going to slip out.

"Then you really shouldn't be back here." He said raising an eyebrow.

"I took a wrong turn and got lost." She fudged an excuse. Not exactly a lie either she was lost it just wasn't the reason she had ended up back here.

"Fine since you don't have much in the sense of direction Odango I'll make sure you get back in the public area." he said turning to lead the way.

"Why do you keep calling me that anyway? I've told you before I dislike it." Usagi asked after a slight pause.

"It's not like you've ever given me a name to actually call you." He said glancing back at her raising an eyebrow.

"I -" She broke off after a second realizing he was actually right. She could have sworn she had mentioned it before but no she actually hadn't. Though now that she thought about it. "It's not like you gave me one either."

He seemed to think for a moment before making a huh noise and turning to her fully extending his hand. "Fair enough, Mamoru Chiba."

She blinked a bit. Honestly, she wasn't sure what she had been expecting but actually getting the name hadn't been on the forefront. Breaking out of her surprise she shook the extended hand. "Usagi Tsukino."

"So what is the deal with the hatred for the nickname anyway if you don't mind me asking?" Mamoru asked as they started moving again.

"My brother used to call me that. He's dead. It's all I have left of him." Usagi explained.

"Oh." he made a face for a moment before seemingly balking at himself. "I am so so sorry. If I had known-"

"You didn't. Next time someone tells you to stop calling them something maybe you will." She commented with a shrug. And she may have slightly overreacted in hindsight. But it was hard not too considering the emotional attachment to the nickname. She wasn't entirely all right with it considering she had asked him before to stop but yeah she might have been over the top a few times with the nickname. Plus there was something about Mamoru that seemed to get her worked up.

"What did you mean by if you had known anyway." She asked frowning slightly. Quite a few people had made comments like that but something about Mamoru's tone when he had started the sentence tipped it off to being just a bit more than an apology.

"I lost my parents as a kid. I can't remember anything before the crash. Doctors seemed to think it would return in time but its been over 10 years and I can't remember anything. I've given up at this point. I may not have anything to cause a similar sentiment for me but I can at least understand it." He admitted.

"That has to be difficult." Usagi said. She may have lost Shingo but she at least had the memories of him to look back on. To not even have that would have made things a lot more difficult.

"Wait so is Mamoru Chiba your actual name?" She asked after a moment. If he couldn't remember anything from before the car crash then how did he know if it was his actual name.

"Yeah, it is just because I couldn't remember who I was didn't mean they didn't have a way of identifying me and getting in touch with my parents next of kin." He explained. "Well, at least you have family around you. Do you live with them?" Usagi asked.

"No, I live by myself. My aunt lives to the south of here in a more rural area. I came to Tokyo to attend a preparatory high school for when I go to college to become a doctor. I still go back during vacation time. I am actually going to be headed back to see her in a few days." He confessed.

"Wait you're in high school?!" Usagi asked in surprise. For some reason, she had always thought he was older.

"Just finished up the first year." He said. "What about you?"

"Just finished what's supposed to be my eighth year." She said.

"Supposed to?" He asked frowning slightly. "Does this deal with that test you threw at me?"

"More with school administrators and a bad teacher being a problem than anything else but technically yes." She answered.

"Have you tried-" Mamoru began.

"I appreciate the help but I've tried just about everything so the answer to whatever you were going to probably ask is yes I've almost certainly have tried that. I may have tried it multiple times in fact and will try it again in the new year. Right now I'm just worried they are going to hold me back. I'm not sure if I can take another year of that teacher." Usagi grumbled the last part more to herself.

"Sorry." He said realizing he had touched a sore spot.

"No, it's not your fault. Its just been dragged out so long at this point." She said shaking her head slightly. She wasn't mad at him really. She probably would have asked if the situation was reversed. She was just tired of having this revolving conversation about school.

"You know its kind of funny since we both know Motoki that neither of us thought to ask him about the other." she said after a momentary lapse in conversation. Okay so she might not go as much to Crown Arcade as Naru but she did go fairly often to know Motoki. And considering she knew the two knew each other that would have solved the whole name issue quickly. But then again up until today, she hadn't really thought about the fact she didn't have a name for him.

"Huh," Mamoru said as they stepped through a door into a crowded foyer. "Yeah, that is kind of interesting. Or that he didn't volunteer the information."

"Something to ask him about next time we're at the arcade." Usagi said shrugging her shoulders. Admittedly she hadn't hung out with Motoki enough to think of it. But Motoki and Mamoru had seemed like good friends so the fact that the info had been volunteered was interesting.

"Anyways you should be good from here on out. I need to get back to the backstage area and see what's gotten the whole security in such a conniption." He said frowning slightly.

"Thanks for the escort." Usagi said meaning it. It had been nice to go the rest of the way back without having to worry about the security. "See you around the arcade?"

"Yeah see you around." he said waving a farewell before disappearing back the way they had come.

End Chapter 11

AN: And that's a wrap for this week. Please remember to review or comment.

See you on the 13th!