Arc Four - A Test of Courage
Chapter Nine
Usagi has Homework? Silence in the Library!
The morning sun shone down on a wan, wet Monday morning for Tokyo. And in one schoolgirl's room in particular, it illuminated an argument. It was rather earlier in the day than this particular room usually heard any sound save snoring, which perhaps excused the ill temper of one of its occupants.
"I don't know what happened after that, okay? Rrrgh!"
Despite her grouching and the duvet that she'd dragged off the bed to swaddle herself in, Usagi booted up her laptop, and drummed her fingers impatiently as she waited for it to finish turning on. "Besides," she continued, "I'm still all achy and hurty. Can't this wait until later?"
'It's waited a day already,' Luna said stiffly. 'So no. It can't. Now hurry up, I want to know what happened after you blacked out, and you're already barely going to get to school on-time.'
Usagi blinked. "Uh, Luna? Half my year was at that concert. And if I'm anything to judge by, they spent most of yesterday in hospital and still feel awful. And I wasn't that badly off. The paramedics were more worried about Naru than me." She shivered. "So was her mum. She was scary-level mad."
Luna raised an impatient eyebrow. 'Do you have a point with this?'
"Yeah." Usagi gestured at the duvet she had wrapped around herself and the bags under her eyes. "You think anyone else will be feeling any better than I do? They can't run classes when half the year is at home sick. I bet school is cancelled today." She crowed in victory as her internet connected, and quickly browsed to the school website. "Let's see... ha! Yes! Told you so! School's officially out today!"
"What's that, dear?" The door opened and Luna vanished behind the desk as Ikuko leaned in. "What are you cheering about? And you're up early, so clearly you're feeling better. Maybe you should get dressed so you don't have to rush out of the house for once."
"Uh..." Usagi pointed at the laptop screen. "School's out! Most of my year was at the concert, so they've suspended classes till we're better!"
Ikuko gave her a hard stare. "Is school cancelled, or do you just not have to go? Because if there are classes on, you're going, young lady. You're not that badly off." Usagi raised an eyebrow at this, given the maternal hysterics that had been waiting for her the previous morning when she'd finally escaped the hospital, but resolved not to mention this as the glare ratcheted up another notch.
"It's real, it's really real! Look, see! It says so here!"
Considerable suspicion met this claim, but eventually Ikuko nodded. "Alright, fine. You can have today off, then. Since I expect you've done all the homework you have due in when you do go back, haven't you?"
"... um. Yes?"
"Hmm." A steely glare. "You'd better. Don't spend all day in here, some fresh air will be good for you."
The door clicked shut again, and Usagi shivered, feeling as though she'd just escaped a narrow brush with death.
Alas, her freedom from one tyrant came at the cost of another's pitiless lash. Luna re-emerged, tapping a paw expectantly. Usagi dropped her head with an "uuuurgh", but obediently navigated to the first news site the net threw up on a search.
"Okay... let's see... aww! Politics and a business thing are higher up the page? No fair! I don't care what the PM is doing! Or that they've got a lead on Five! Or that Atsugessho Cosmetics is taking over Hanashobu!" She paused reflectively. "Though, uh, Mum'll be mad if they stop making her hair dye and then she'll probably... oh! Sweet!"
Luna's head perked hopefully at this exclamation. It drooped down again with the girl's next words; "Look! KAT-TUN are gonna be playing at the Tokyo Dome, I wonder if there are still tickets free? I should totally... wait, no, I don't care about that either! Show me my page!" She clicked furiously for a minute, then broke into a smirk. "Ha! Juuban Collapse is number two on Most Read! Take that, PM! Now, what does it say..."
Luna waited impatiently, annoyed by but somewhat resigned to her charge's ability to be distracted by a boy-band in the midst of gathering vital intelligence. "Uh... okay..." Usagi said distractedly as she skimmed the page, "yeah... okay, it mentions me... I collapsed, apparently, after that big... thing. Oh! Hey, it was Tuxedo Mask that saved me, look! It says 'a masked vigilante caught her as she collapsed and fled the scene'. So romantic! He must have got me to de-transform somehow; I just remember the dr ... that I woke up with the paramedics."
She browsed further, opening a link or two and skimming those for information. "Um... apparently some company's been hired to clean up the site? I... guess I kinda caused a mess. I definitely remember the stage collapsing." She bit her lip. "Oh, and it has a few bits from the people... hey, look, a load of them like me! Look, see? 'She saved us all. Thank you, Sailor Moon!' And here, 'I felt like I'd just run a marathon and everything went black, but then there was a white light. I was sure I was dying, but then I saw the blonde girl. She looked like an angel. That's when I knew I was going to be okay.'."
A faint blush spread across her face, and she hugged herself. "They like me," she whispered blissfully. "They really like me. I'm helping people. I'm a heroine. Just like Sailor V."
Luna paused, watching her. Usagi really was delighted, happier than Luna had ever seen her before. At the fact that she was helping people, and doing good. She smiled fondly. Ditzy the girl might be, but nobody could deny that her heart was in the right place. 'You're certainly getting there,' she agreed, and she surprised herself a little with how much she meant it. 'Is there anything else?'
"Hmm? No, not much. Just that there's some weird medical stuff, though. Mysterious recovery of heart conditions, old scars... uh... a missing arm regrowing?"
Luna stared. Usagi shifted uncomfortably under the scrutiny and laughed nervously.
"Heh... s-so... they're better now! That's good! Right?"
The stare continued. Usagi squirmed, unable to outstare a cat.
"... okay, so maybe I shouldn't have... shall I just look for more news stuff and promise not to do it again?"
'Yes,' Luna replied flatly, the stare not wavering. 'In fact, the "never do it again" bit sounds like something you should have resolved, say, a week ago.' She sighed, missing the quiet "unless I really have to" that Usagi muttered under her breath. 'But I suppose we'll just have to deal with this. By which I mean I'll probably have to deal with this. Somehow. Later. What...'
"Hey!" Usagi interrupted her. She was staring at her screen in a mixture of shock and rage. "There's... I... this is an outrage! There's someone pretending to be me on Twitter! Look!" She fumed angrily, shaking a fist at the list of followers highlighted onscreen. "Why, I oughtta... that's it, I'm making a real Sailor Moon profile and..."
A set of very sharp claws rested almost gently on her thigh. 'And what?' asked Luna, with dangerous calm.
A brief silence descended upon the room.
"... and listening to what you tell me and not doing anything to compromise my identity and please take the claws away now please?"
The claws were mercifully withdrawn. 'Good girl. Now, is there any more direct coverage of the concert?'
"Uh huh. Just let me..." Cycling through several different windows, Usagi tapped at the keyboard once or twice as she surfed for more news sites. One in particular caught her eye, and she enlarged it with a gasp. The page picture was a full-colour shot of the stage, with Moon on the right of the picture. Her surroundings were impossible to see, because she was surrounded by a light so bright that it blotted out everything else in the area, as if the very air itself was shining. Only Moon was left untouched, etched in brilliant detail at the centre of it all.
On the left of the picture, opposite her, the area of the stage the youma should have occupied was blotched out as if the picture had been taken on film that some caustic chemical had dripped on. Metallic tendrils of tarnished rust spread out from the marred portion of the picture, shrivelling before they made it even halfway to the brilliant radiance Moon stood wreathed in.
"Wow. I looked like that?" Usagi's eyes widened in awe and she traced the shape of her image with a finger. "So pretty..."
Luna hissed, low and angry. 'So dangerous, you mean. I hadn't realised you had actually... Usagi, listen to me. I want you to promise me you will never use that again.'
"What?" The look Usagi gave Luna hovered somewhere between 'incredulous' and 'mutinous'. "But..."
'No. No buts. Listen to me, Usagi. That mandala isn't just pretty light. It is one of your souls. Yes, you are far more powerful that way, and you can do things you couldn't do normally.'
Luna fixed Usagi with a stern glare. 'But you are also vulnerable when you use it. That halo is your spiritual link with the Moon made manifest, and its presence invites attack. Your spells and powers will likely be sluggish for days, perhaps more, as it repairs itself. A mature Senshi draws on such power only when she must. Under normal circumstances, she uses minimal power, wielding it skilfully to maximum effect. A trained Senshi should be capable of deciding most battles with nothing but her affinity and a few basic spells.'
She nodded at the picture, tail lashing in emphasis. 'And more than that, greater power requires greater control. You said so yourself; a single blow to your concentration allowed the healing to surge out of your ability to restrain it. And if you were using a halo... frankly, I doubt you would have been able to end the spell even had you not been attacked.'
Usagi's face had grown more and more rebellious during the little speech, and she grunted when it concluded. "Yeah, well," she muttered sulkily, and slammed the lid of the laptop down. "I'm not a 'mature Senshi', am I? I barely know what I'm doing half the time! How am I meant to know all of this?" She flinched reflexively, expecting a rebuke. But when she looked up, Luna's stern look had melted away. Her ears and shoulders drooped; her tail fell from its lashing. She just looked sad, and incredibly tired.
'No,' she agreed apologetically. 'No, you're not mature yet. This isn't really fair on you; for all that you make mistakes, you're trying your best.' She sighed wearily, bowing her head. 'And there is so very much you need to know, and so little time to tell you. Many of the things you should know, I cannot explain, because as a child of this Age you lack even the foundation to understand them.' She sighed. 'And by normal standards, you should not even be attempting to reach for that power for a decade or more. Events are pushing you too far, too fast, and I have no choice but to push you further still and hope that you can manage.'
She looked up, pinning Usagi again with an imploring look. 'But please, Usagi, promise me that you won't call on such power again. I know that this is hard for you, and that I have not advised you of all you need to know. And you're being incredibly brave. You might cry, you might complain, but you've never done anything less than try to help people with your powers. But in this, I think only of your safety. Had Tuxedo Mask not shattered the spell when you collapsed, you could very well have drained yourself to death in healing that crowd – healing them far past the point they needed. If there is any other option besides that, in future, I want you to take it. Even if it means running away.'
"Running... but that would have left the people with the youma!"
'Yes.' Luna closed her eyes tiredly. 'I know the choice hurts. Believe me, I know. And I hope, I dearly hope, that you never have to make it. But if it is a choice between running away and living to save others in the future, and dying – perhaps without even saving those you attempt to protect... I may be biased, but I would rather you chose the former. There will be other youma. There will be other victims. You cannot save them if you are dead.'
That hit home, and Usagi's horror wavered into confusion and uncertainty. "But..." she whispered, "... I can't just leave people. I..." she searched for words for a moment, struggling, and finally sighed. Luna's expression was a mix of worry, sympathy and sad resignation that made her heart hurt and her head spin. Eventually, her shoulders slumped and she nodded miserably. "I'll... I'll think about it, Luna. And I promise I'll try really hard to find any other way besides using the halo." She shivered. "You don't have to tell me that twice. I remember what it felt like when it went wild."
Luna rubbed her cheek against Usagi hand soothingly, purring softly. 'I have faith you'll find a way. And I hope you never have to face such a choice. Don't worry about it now; give yourself some time to be normal.' She allowed the girl a few moments of peace before resuming a stern expression. 'Speaking of which, I believe you have homework due in tomorrow?'
"Aww. Do I have to? It's still morning," complained her charge, and hastily reversed course at Luna's mild glare. "Okay, I have to. Fine, fine. I'll do it on here. Let's get it over with." She reopened her laptop, tapping the power key to wake it up again. "Let me just..."
The screen turned on. It was not, however, Usagi's desktop that was revealed. A blue background framed white words and letters, most of them gibberish technical jargon.
"Huh?" Usagi stared. "What... hey! No fair! What... 'A problem has been detected and Windows has been shut down to prevent damage to your computer. The problem seems to be caused by...' blah blah blah... argh, what does all of this mean? Oh, uh, 'If this is the first time you have seen this Stop Error screen, restart your computer'... okay." She hammered the power button, shutting down the machine and turning it back on again. This proved even less helpful, and resulted in a black screen with the message 'Internal hard drive not found' in the top left hand corner.
Turning it off and on again failed to improve matters; producing the same message and exhausting the depths of Usagi's technical knowledge.
"Argh! Luna! Do you know how to repair computers?"
She was met with a flat glare. 'Do I look like I know how to repair your computer?'
"You know lots of things!" Usagi protested. "How am I supposed to know what psychic moon cats can do?" She turned back to the computer and started clicking furiously on nothing in particular in the hopes of finding a hidden button that would make everything start working again.
Further attempts to rouse life from the machine –getting steadily more annoyed as they progressed – met with similar failure. Eventually, she gave up with a frustrated growl and flopped back in her chair.
"Argh! I can't fix it, stupid thing! I'll have to get it repaired or something. I guess I can get Dad to take a look at it this evening, or something. Or... hmm."
She raised her voice to a yell, making Luna wince, and hollered at her bedroom wall. "Hey, Shingo! I need to borrow your laptop, mum says so!"
"Liar!" came the muffled reply through the wall.
"Am not! I need it for homework!"
Something thumped the wall. "You have your own! Use that!"
Usagi scowled and grabbed for the nearest object – a wastepaper bin – to hurl back, when the door opened again and Ikuko leaned in. Usagi hastily dropped the bin and scooted in front of it, but Ikuko didn't seem to notice.
"Usagi," she snapped. "It is half past six in the morning. Keep it down."
"But..." Usagi gestured at her laptop helplessly, "my laptop's broken! I need to borrow Shingo's for my homework and he's being a brat about it!"
"Am not!" came the muleish yell through the wall.
"Shingo!" Ikuko snapped again, glaring at the wall. There was a faint "eep" from the next room, then silence. She turned back to Usagi, who shrank back. "And as for you, you know the rules. Your laptops are your own territory, to stop you arguing over them. If yours is broken, go out to the public library and use a computer there. And I don't want to hear any complaining." She ducked out of the room, closing the door behind her, and Usagi waited until she'd told Shingo off and left before continuing.
"So... Luna? Does this mean I get out of..."
Luna rolled her eyes. 'No, you don't. But if you'll be going to the library to do it, I suppose I can let you sleep in until it's likely to be open.' She peered at the girl appraisingly. 'You didn't get much sleep last night... you're probably still running on the after-effects of that halo manifestation.' She sighed. 'Which means you'll crash when it wears off. Go on; get some sleep now, even if you don't feel like it. I'll wake you when it's time to go.'
...
A mailed fist crashed down on black stone, lit by violet witch-pyres under the void-black sky. The impact threw up broken chips and fragments and left a shallow crater in the glassy rock. Jadeite scowled, ignoring the minor damage to the arm of his throne and concentrating his attention on the glowing ball of energy before him. It was impressively large, that much was true. But it was not as large as it should have been. Something, or rather someone, had cut it off before it was finished.
He would pay for that, this unknown assailant. Whatever had happened at the concert, it had destroyed the flow of energy with incredible speed and ferocity. Jadeite had no doubt that it was he who had destroyed the trap operation as well, however that had happened – all that scrying had revealed was a burnt-out ruin where it had been, and all his instruments and sorceries combined had failed to show him what had happened at the concert.
The media at least had given him pictures of a girl who had apparently stood up to his youma, but they were all but useless in telling him what had actually occurred; half of them blotted out with light or imago, the other half blurred or badly angled by the collapse of the cameramen. The meagre amount they did tell him only raised more questions. Who was this girl? Who was pulling her strings? Where was she being directed from, and who was empowering her? Some of the reports mentioned a man in black – had he taken to the stage when his subordinate had proved too weak to handle the situation alone?
This enemy was cunning, competent and cautious, to be sure. But regardless of his confidence and skill, Jadeite would see him dragged out before Beryl's throne, and would take the coward's head himself. He would not be made a fool of!
"Your grace," came a voice from the shadows. "As requested, I have come."
"Vicomtesse Hubnerite," he acknowledged, pulling a mask of cool contempt across his face. Dealing with this woman was... aggravating. Her knew her type, and didn't trust her any further than he had to. "A troubling situation has developed with regard to our operations."
The speaker moved into the meagre light, revealing herself as a tiny Chinese woman, dark-eyed and with short hair. She wore an off-the-shoulder dress that shimmered alluringly as she moved, and brass bangles adorned her wrists, inset with black crystals that glittered red where the light fell on them. Tattoos that matched them dappled her skin, shifting and swaying sinuously like serpents. She nodded knowingly as she approached. "Quite the dilemma," she agreed, her accent not one native to this fallen era – nor the same as his, born of long-ago Earth. "This makes the third of your harvests disrupted? Or the fourth, I suppose, if you count both of them. The Queen must not be... pleased."
Jadeite's eyes narrowed further. "The Queen is content with the energy I am providing," he growled. Technically speaking she shouldn't even know about the failed operations. Regretfully, her talent for finding out secrets she shouldn't know – including his own – was precisely why she had been placed under his command. "You will find out who is doing this. Find this girl, this 'Sailor Moon', and find whoever directs her. Make no overt moves against him yet. Just bring me information. You may act as a local commander and take whatever resources you need, but be prepared to justify them to me at the end of this."
She nodded at that. "My thanks for your generosity in this. May I see the map? I would like some idea of where to start before I go."
The duc sighed with affected weariness, but tapped his foot sharply against the floor of solidified shadows. A table rose from it between them, a solid slab of material that grew upwards with excess shadow-matter pouring off it like smoke. As the last trickles fell back down to the floor, they left a miniature version of the city, cast in three dimensions like a tiny model. Here and there, gemstone beads of bright, arterial scarlet were inset into the inky black stone, gleaming like blood droplets in the dim light.
Here and there on the local scale, at least.
Collectively, there were dozens of them. They formed a pattern, to one who had knowledge of such things – a pattern that stretched across the entire city. It wound and coiled around the districts of Tokyo, concentrated where the population was densest, thinner in those parts that lacked as many people. Hair-thin strands of crimson light linked them, etching out the sigil in its totality.
Three of the gems, however, broke the pattern. They had lost their lustre, and their dim light was insufficient to support the light-strands. Their presence was a rent in the glyph, a torn hole in the perfect geomancy of the largest draining sigil that Hubnerite had ever seen.
She'd known about it already, of course. But it was still impressive to see spread out before her on a table as long as she was tall, and almost as wide across. A low, appreciative gasp escaped her, and she flashed Jadeite a brief but genuine look of respect.
It didn't last long, of course. A split second's glimpse, and then it was concealed under the same faintly amused expression she had entered the sanctum with. "Very nice indeed," she murmured. "A true shame about the holes in it. Will you be replacing them?"
Chilly silence met her.
"I only mention it because putting them so close to the originals would likely..." Hubnerite glanced across slyly as she spoke, and abruptly stopped speaking as she caught sight of Jadeite's expression. The ambient temperature seemed to drop by several degrees. His face was completely composed, as hard as stone. Only his eyes betrayed his inner fury at her insolence.
Hubnerite had made a long career out of knowing how far she could push her luck, and when to stop and focus on her continued survival; when to draw attention to herself for her willingness to challenge the status quo and when to be silent and let her superiors make their mistakes. She hastily backed away, bowing low. "I will return with news of the attacker, your grace," she promised as she went. "I can assure you; one week should be all that I require."
She didn't risk waiting for a response. The dark tattoos on her skin swirled out to cover every inch of her, and with a swirl of shadows she was gone.
...
There was no other recourse. If she returned with her mission undone, she would surely be slain most agonisingly and torturously. And yet the task was formidable – impossible, even, without her own private resources to call on. She was trapped in a terrible dilemma, and could see only one way out. She would have to accomplish what she had been sent out to do using only what aid she could scrounge in a place both alien and unfamiliar. A dangerous, treacherous arena in which lurked enemies both stealthy and dangerous, who could ruin her with sadistic ease.
Yes, there was no other path for her to take.
Usagi was headed to the public library.
'You know,' remarked Luna from her seat in Usagi's satchel, 'I can't help but think you're being somewhat melodramatic about this.'
Usagi paid her no attention, preoccupied as she was with the cloud of encroaching doom that hovered over her head like a stormy anvil. She trudged along glumly, scuffing her shoes on the pavement. Her route took her through the park, and she glanced around in envy at the happy students laughing and playing freely, unburdened by Sisyphean labours like her own.
Well, okay, there weren't actually that many students, because it was a school day and most of the people her own age that weren't in school were still in bed or hospital. But there were... like, dog-walkers and little kids and people taking coffee breaks! They mocked her with their happiness, and their blissful states of not-having-tonnes-of-impossible-homework-to-do!
Salvation beckoned halfway through the park, though, in the form of the delicate strains of a melody she knew well. Usagi's slumped shoulders rose, her eyes perked up and her entire demeanour brightened at the sound.
For her part, Luna narrowed her eyes suspiciously. 'What is it?' she demanded. 'Why are you so cheerful all of a sudden?'
"Oh... no reason. Nothing you need to worry about. I'm just... ah!" With a happy sigh of relief, Usagi's eyes settled on the ice cream seller. Instinctively, her hand went to her pocket to check for change.
'Weren't you meant to be going to the library? You know, to do your homework?' Luna asked snippishly.
"I will, I will," Usagi said, grinning as she found two hundred-yen coins. "I'm just... uh, checking that this ice cream stall isn't a wicked youma conspiracy." Just in case, she extended her senses, eyeing up the middle-aged man. If he was a wicked energy-stealing monster, she'd know!
As it turned out, he was not. Smirking a very satisfied smirk, Usagi trotted over to inspect his wares.
Sadly, sitting down with her newly-purchased triple-scoop vanilla-strawberry-chocolate ice cream with sprinkles, wafers, toffee sauce and a flake proved impossible. The ground was still damp from brief showers of rain earlier, and a couple of teenage girls were already occupying the only bench in sight; one with short pink hair, the other with long black braids and glasses. Robbed of her chance to sit around and delay things further, Usagi stuck her tongue out at them, and received a glare from the pink-haired girl in return.
At least having to balance the ice cream gave her an excuse to dawdle.
The concert stage, when she passed it, was fenced off. Tall plywood boards surrounded the site, and a couple of large vans were parked outside them, with logos that read "Achiral" and "JCC". Clanking and crashing sounds came from within, and peeking through a cap between two boards, she could make out half of a skip, which workmen were shovelling debris into. She winced.
"I... didn't do that much damage. Did I?"
Luna forbore to comment on this, which was somehow worse than a snarky remark. Sighing at the unfairness of it all, Usagi finished off her ice cream, hefted her bag on her shoulder and continued on her way.
...
The library building was a bulky and unattractive concrete edifice which some builder in the 1950s had apparently thought was a good idea. Usagi could almost feel the quiet malevolence radiating off the structure. With so many books packed so close together, she was sure, doom and calamity was soon to follow.
"Luna," she whispered softly, her voice hushed just from the sight of the dreadful place, "there aren't... book-themed youma, are there? Or, like... librarian ones?"
'No. And should I really be going in with you?' Luna looked around warily from her seat in the bag, keeping her head low and unobtrusive.
"Look," Usagi said, nodding at the display next to the entrance, "the sign says 'no dogs apart from guide dogs'. It said nothing about 'no cats', so you're allowed in. Perfectly logical, see?"
'If you believe that,' Luna hissed back, 'then why are you keeping me hidden in your bag?'
"Well, it's logical to me. Other people might not see it that way. Best not to risk it."
Red eyes flickered around in search of eyewitnesses or cameras as Usagi took to the stairs. Judging herself safe, Luna quickly stuck a paw out of the bag and jabbed her charge in the side with claws unsheathed, drawing a yelp of pain and a sideways hop.
"What was that for?" Usagi demanded angrily, only just remembering to keep her voice down.
'Your attempt at logic. Let me out.'
"What? No! I need you!"
Luna rolled her eyes and jabbed at Usagi again, though this time the girl saw it coming and managed to twist out of the way so that the claws caught nothing but cloth. 'I'm not going to leave you,' she said with strained patience, 'but if you try and take me in there in the bag, you're going to get us both caught. Let me out.'
Usagi paused on the landing between two flights and stared at her. "... how will that help the situation?" she asked. "You'll get noticed even easier."
'No I won't. I can go unseen when I need to. But not while I'm stuck in a bag being prodded by an empty biro and your housekeys. Let me out onto the ground and I'll get in my own way and meet you inside.'
"... you promise?"
'I promise.'
Usagi thought quickly. "It's, uh, a big library, actually. Maybe I should wait until we're inside to let you out? Behind the shelves or something? And then I could get some books down for you which... uh," she trailed off, "will tell you things about the human world?" she hazarded.
Luna looked at her for a long moment, then dropped her head in defeat. 'Fine,' she groaned. 'As you wish. Just try to get us inside without any disasters, please, it's starting to get uncomfortable in here.'
Usagi pouted at the lack of faith her mentor had in her, but slunk into the library obediently. A scary-looking woman with shiny glasses glared at her, but no torrent of unholy doom and literature erupted from the shelves to expel her from the room.
It was a largeish room, more or less square, which was two floors high so that people on the floor above could see into the large space from the balconies, reading rooms and extra shelves that were up there. Rows of shelves stretched off on one side of her, while the other had computers lining the wall and a few desks in an open space. In the corner beyond them, a set of shorter shelves formed a pseudo-wall for the children's section. The whole place was filled with a busy kind of silence that managed to be surprisingly filled with sound for a quiet room; paper rustled, a low murmur of voices drifted over from the desks and shelves, and a printer was active somewhere on the upper floor.
Creeping as quietly as she could, Usagi snuck into the nearest row of shelves that didn't have anyone in it and bent down as if she was looking at the books down there. Shielding her bag with her body in case there was anyone behind her, she let Luna out. The cat gave her a quick nod before slipping into the gap beneath the shelves. Not a moment too soon, because someone bumped into Usagi from behind not a moment later.
She had just enough time to hear an "oh no-" before several heavy somethings landed her on the head with a thump and sent her painfully into the floor.
"Owww..." she moaned, from carpet level.
"Oh no, oh no... um, I'm very sorry! I couldn't see where I was going, or at least I couldn't see down because I was... I mean, sorry, um... are you hurt?"
"I told you the books would attack me..." Usagi moaned, not thinking entirely clearly. "Oww... oh, my head..." She clutched at her skull feebly, checking to see if she was bleeding or had her head cracked open.
"Okay, um, I'm not really sure how to respond to that," said the voice. It was female, clearly enunciated and now sounded more confused than frantic. "How about I, uh, help you up and get you to somewhere you can sit down? Does that sound good?" Through her spinning vision, Usagi felt an arm wrap around her waist, and the girl heaved her to her feet with a gasp of effort. "Oof. Um, can you... actually no, I'll come back for the books in a minute. Here, this way..."
The arm guided her down the stacks and round a corner. Usagi caught glimpses of a red sleeve and a green skirt, but her head was pounding too much for her to protest much or see who her assailant and helper was. She was led to a small table in an alcove, scattered with papers and a couple of books. A bag hung on the chair, which she was gently guided into, and she settled into it with a sigh as the girl rushed back to collect up what she had dropped.
It only took a minute or so for Usagi's head to clear, and by the time the girl returned, she was feeling more or less herself again. The towering pile of books – it wasn't surprising that the girl had bumped into her, with a stack of texts that high – was dumped on the desk in front of her, and she was distinctly sure she heard the legs creak under the weight. Surreptitiously, she edged her legs out from underneath it, just in case it collapsed.
Then she turned to look at the girl who'd dumped them there, and froze for a moment. What sound there was in the library seemed to die away at the sight of the girl; pale from too much time spent indoors, her short hair cropped close to her face, and somehow familiar in a way that eluded Usagi, as if it were an answer on the tip of her tongue. She wore a school uniform that Usagi didn't recognise offhand, and was staring back with a mixture of nervousness and mild confusion.
"Uh. Hi," Usagi said. "Thanks, I think. Um..." She felt a gentle pressure against her legs, a furred body rubbing past them, and had to force herself not to look down. "I'm... Usagi! Usagi Tsukino. Nice to meet you!"
The girl nodded slowly, warily, unaccustomed by Usagi's enthusiasm. "Ami Mizuno," she replied quietly. "Are you okay? I didn't see you, I hope I didn't..."
"Oh, I'm fine," Usagi grinned disarmingly. "I take knocks like that all the time. Naru-chan always says that if my head were any harder, you could use it as a cannonball. Besides, it was as much my fault as yours."
Ami blinked in surprise, her lips twitching, and then giggled. She looked faintly surprised as she brought herself under control, as if Usagi had caught her off guard. "Well... even so, please allow me to make it up to you," she offered. "Those books had to hurt."
"Well..." Usagi pondered. The girl was carrying around a load of heavy textbooks on – she snuck a glance – 'Essentials of Anatomy and Physiology' and 'An Introduction to Cell Biology', whatever they were. So she had to be smart, right? "... I do have some homework that I've, uh, been sort of having trouble with," she said innocently. "You could help me with that, if you wanted to make it up to me?"
She was probably a terrible person for exploiting this opportunity like this, but the lure of a reprieve from her monstrous homework was too good to pass up. Surprisingly, though, Ami smiled rather than sigh, and agreed without any hesitation. It was almost like she found the prospect of homework attractive!
Actually, given that she was reading a pile of books that Usagi estimated to weigh almost as much as she did, that might not be so far from the truth. A little of her guilt for exploiting the girl evaporated, and was replaced with determination to show her how to relax in a way that didn't involve evil schoolwork. At least once the stuff hovering over her own head had been disposed of.
"So," asked Ami as they settled down to work, "why aren't you in school?"
Usagi bit her lip. "Ah... well, basically, my whole year's off for the day. Most of them were, well..."
"Ahh. The concert, right?" Ami nodded in understanding. "My year is the same. Not many of them were hospitalised, but enough got orders of bed rest that the teachers didn't think there was any point in ordering everyone else in." She shrugged. "I was studying, myself. I suppose one of the benefits of staying home in the evenings is that you don't get caught up in stuff like this."
"Uh... I... guess so?" While technically true, it seemed a bit lonely to Usagi. "Don't you have any friends you spend time with, though?"
Ami stilled for a moment, then smiled oddly at her. "I have friends," she said. "Just... not really many that are my age. Or who live nearby. Or, well..." she shook her head. "It doesn't matter, anyway. I don't think I'd have gone even if I'd had friends who were going. Big crowds and loud music aren't my idea of a good time. And like I said, it got me off getting hit by whatever happened there, so it's really a net positive." She flashed that quick, cold, slightly brittle smile again, and turned back to the mess of papers and textbooks.
The only explanation Usagi could offer for her next comment was sheer, morbid curiosity, mixed with a strong feeling that staying on the topic of friends any longer was something best avoided. "So, uh... what do you think it was that happened, exactly?" she asked. "Everything I've heard seems a bit... confused."
Ami turned back to her, and for the first time Usagi found herself the recipient of the girl's full and complete attention. It was a faintly unnerving experience to be pinned by the sharp blue gaze. "Uh..." she gulped. "I'm just curious what you think?"
This seemed to be accepted, and Ami scooted her chair back and round to face Usagi better. "Well," she started. "Obviously it was something paranormal. The people shouting about conspiracies and hoaxes don't know what they're talking about."
Usagi's smile wavered slightly as fur brushed against her ankle. Luna was listening. How had she got under the table without either of them noticing? "R-really?" she croaked, arranging her face into what she hoped was a convincing facsimile of polite interest.
"Oh, yes. All the factors line up – apparently psychically sensitive people felt it as far out as Fuji, all at the exact same time. You'd have to be pretty stupid to deny it like the hyper-skeptics do. It was probably something like that cruise ship last year – you remember?"
She was met with a blank look. A year ago might as well be a lifetime for Usagi, who hadn't paid much attention to the news until her secret nightlife had become closely tied to it.
"You don't? Really?" Ami asked in mild surprise. "Huh. Well, this luxury cruise ship that had been advertised everywhere was found run aground on a sandback a few miles out from shore, all rusted and broken and ancient and with everyone inside dead or dying. All the footage and eyewitnesses show it looking brand new when the passengers were boarding, but when they looked at the wreck it turned out to have been sunk forty years ago. They never got the bottom of how it turned up looking brand-new in the harbour, and there were allegations of corruption in how the docking permits for it had been granted. Though I don't think any convictions got made. I'm surprised you don't remember it, it hit the news pretty hard."
"Ah... oh, right." Usagi winced, remembering. "This wouldn't have been around May, would it? Because that was..." she shuddered "midterms. And I was so snowed under with exams and Mama being... scary at me... that I barely knew what day it was for about a month leading up to them." She held her head high, playing up the very real tragedy which had afflicted her to get the other girl to smile again. "I passed, though! Barely! I had to sacrifice stuff like eating and sleeping, and be driven by my cruel and heartless slave-driver mother, but I passed!" She paused, and deflated as the triumph ebbed away. "Now I just have to find some way to pass the next set..."
Ami's cheeks twitched again. Usagi grinned at her ruefully, and the faint, shy smile emerged again along with a giggle. "Well," she said, a good deal more warmly than she had been at the beginning of their conversation, "I have an exam at cram school tomorrow which I'm studying for. They're not so hard, once you get the hang of them. We'll see if we can't make it a bit easier for you this year, shall we? What areas do you have problems with?"
Usagi thought about this. She considered not only her schoolwork, but found her mind wandering – as it so often did these days – to her alter-ego, and the problems she was facing there. Like demons they loomed over her; language tests and maths, slave-driver teachers and complicated grammar rules, being grounded and facing difficult moral choices, keeping secrets and having to deal with evil monsters trying to kill her. Not to mention the issues with her love life, or lack thereof. Eventually, pulled from the depths of her soul, she blurted out the first thing that came to mind; in the most accurate way she could express it with words.
"Everything," she sighed mournfully, and let her head fall to the desk with a gentle thud. "I have problems with everything."
...