Arc Five - Law and Order

Chapter Twelve - Gone Shopping! A Fun Day Out at the Mall!

Three days on, and the memory of power still lingered over the building for those who knew how to sense it. Vicomtesse Hubnerite leaned against a wall, lurking outside the pools of light from the streetlamps, and wrinkled her nose as a whiff of ice cut into her senses like a dagger. The psychosomatic scent made her jaw ache and gave her a faint headache. Worse still were the traces of a light so pure and bright that it made her eyes water.

Her nostrils flared, and her eyebrows rose. There were two scents, though.

That was interesting.

She pulled her hands out of her pockets, and crouched to examine the mess of twisted metal that still hadn't been cleared away from the cram school's grounds. Tilting her head up, she peered through the darkness at the roof it had fallen from and frowned. After splashing the toe of her boot through the puddles that still lingered under it once or twice, the short Chinese woman headed inside, her mouth a thin line.

The lobby of the building was as dark as the night outside, but Hubnerite could see it as clear as day. She paused for a moment as she saw the cameras mounted in discreet positions on the ceiling, and a delicate eyebrow arched.

With a vaguely annoyed sigh, she pulled her shadow in. The darkness rippled around her feet, and her reflection in the windows rippled in time with it before fading into nothing. With a satisfied nod, she set off again for the stairs, her steps soundless in the echoing confines of the empty building. The electronic gaze of the cameras passed over her as though she were a ghost.

The yellow and black police tape cordoning off the upper floors didn't even receive that paltry acknowledgement from her. Ducking under it casually, the small woman strolled leisurely through the building until she reached the classroom the conflict had started on. The same sharp scent of ice and cold mornings lingered around the room, diffuse and scattered.

Hubnerite pursed her lips and made a few quick gestures, whispering under her breath, before tapping one of the surviving windows. The room's reflection rippled and warped, settling on a very different scene. She eyed the stern teacher moving through the room and watched impassively as the students began to crumple to the floor. The door flew open, admitting a young blonde girl who wore the attire of the pathetic servants of modern false temples. She challenged the youma briefly and ineptly, barely avoiding its attacks, then stood up and...

The window exploded. Hubnerite flinched backwards, hissing in surprise and pain as a flying shard of glass lacerated her cheek. What had that been? The image hadn't faded – it was still recent enough that it only took a little more power than usual to dredge from the echoes of the room's recent past. No, it had shattered, unable to contain what it had tried to show. What could...

Her eyes narrowed suddenly, and she headed quickly upstairs, following the trail of destruction without stopping to examine it any further. For a suspicion of this magnitude, she'd need something rather more concrete to analyse. The running fight had apparently ended at the roof, and the windy night did nothing to dampen the scent of ice magic and the unmistakeable traces of a purification rite. One powerful enough to turn her headache into an oppressive pain behind her eyes.

Half-buried under a collapsed metal structure was a sad little pile of iron dust and sand. Hubnerite rolled her eyes in distaste. The stupid thing had either let itself be lured into a trap, or been struck by the consequences of its own collateral damage. Either way, it was a disgrace to the Dark Kingdom. She picked up a pinch of the stuff and let it run through her fingers assessingly. Her fingers almost went numb at the mere touch, and she let it trickle through her fingers again as she considered.

It wasn't enough to go back to Jadeite with. It wasn't even enough to confirm her guess. Lunar and Mercurian magic, a great deal of power, a blonde temple girl and a shattered window. But if she was right...

... if she was right, then this assignment had just become considerably more complicated. Granted, her foes were obviously immature, not yet comfortable or capable with their power.

But even an immature Senshi was still a Senshi. And if those hateful, ancient witches had returned, who knew what other remnants from that time might be lurking beyond the world's edge? How many of their servants might still be waiting, dormant, awaiting the call of reborn tyrants in places beyond this sphere?

This was too important to risk ignoring, she knew. It would have to be investigated. And for that, she needed something more than second-hand records and dead youma to examine. Eying the city lights, Hubnerite drew an obsidian knife from her belt and positioned herself between the brightest light source and a fairly clear patch of floor. Then she crouched down slightly and made two quick, economical slashes at her feet.

Her shadow, etched on the roof in front of her, flickered for a moment and drifted away from its tethers. Then, slowly and painfully, it sat up. It filled out as it climbed to its feet, colour bleeding across its features, depth flowing out from what had been merely height and width. After a few moments of metamorphosis, a perfect duplicate of Hubnerite stood before her.

"Find somewhere nearby, in the same area as the previous attacks," Hubnerite commanded it. "Somewhere frequented by children and teenagers. Commandeer a few expendable youma and start something noticeable. Observe those who come to stop it and return to me at all costs. Do not be followed."

The doppelganger nodded once. And then Hubnerite was alone again on the roof, with only the night and the shadows for company.

...

Others in the city had their own mysteries to wrestle with. The next morning was a Saturday, but the weekend was no escape from torturous mental exercise.

"So... the ball is accelerating at two metres a second... and the slope is fourteen metres long... so the answer is... seven?"

Ami raised a sceptical eyebrow. "Seven what?"

"Uh..." Seated at her desk, Usagi looked around to see if any help was going to be offered. Ami was watching calmly from a beanbag beside her, and Luna; curled up on a pillow in the middle of the bed, gave her a flat look that suggested no aid was going to be coming from her quarter. "Seven... numbers? Look, I don't think it's very fair how we're expected to... to use letters as well as numbers in maths now!"

Ami sighed and closed her eyes for a moment. She'd tutored people before, but Usagi had a way of testing one's patience like nobody she'd ever met. "I don't understand how you can throw that tiara around and calculate angles and trajectories like some sort of savant, but not understand the theory behind what you're doing," she said. "Look, we went over it here. Distance, starting velocity, ending velocity, acceleration, time. As long as you have any three of them, you can calculate the other two."

"Okay... but I only have two! Oh wait... hang on... ah! It's..." Usagi looked cautiously sideways at Ami's face for signs of approval. "It's... starting... from being still? So the starting speed is... nothing?"

"Right," Ami smiled. "Well reasoned. So you look at the equations for the one that has distance, starting velocity, acceleration and time..."

"This one."

"Exactly. And then you rewrite it so that it's in the form 'time equals...' and then something you can plug the other three into. Okay?"

"Got it!"

Ami left her to it, and turned back to Luna, picking up where she'd left off. "So the Disguise Pen can't make you look like a specific person, then? Just general professions or recognisable subcultures; that sort of thing."

'Yes, more or less. It overwrites your Ren with a generic artificial one – something like a nurse or a reporter is a well-known job so it has plenty to work with, while "astrophysicist" wouldn't be nearly as effective.' Luna sighed, her eyes going misty for a moment. 'It's a form of magic you could conceivably learn yourself – Ren-singing was once widespread, and weaving a false Name like this wasn't beyond the reach of humans who applied themselves to study. But the art has been lost.'

Ami pursed her lips. "I don't like how you refer to humans in that way which seems to exclude me and Usagi," she said. "I know you said that we were 'human, but more', but…" She trailed off. In the three days since the fight at the cram school, Luna had shown a remarkable talent for evading questions she didn't want to fully explain. Especially, to Ami's irritation, anything about exactly how old she was, despite both subtle and not-so-subtle prodding. Ami refused to accept that it was merely a question of a lady not being prepared to give her age.

This attempt to get a plain answer fared no better. 'And that is what you are. But even normal humans – those born without natural magic or who lack augmentations like your own – could learn this.' Luna yawned. 'It would be easier for a spirit-born, of course. They have little in the way of longevity, but they have an edge of power from their inhuman heritage. In the days where spirits still walked the Earth, many children were born from their coupling with humankind. Such infants were always a little... more than human.'

She turned to eye Usagi. 'That shrine maiden friend of yours? She shows hints of it. A touch of the Sight, an unusual amount of spiritual strength for one so young... not to mention those thrice-damned crows. Pureblood cousins, perhaps, with a spiritual parent or grandparent. I wonder if she knows?'

Usagi blinked, looking up from her homework in surprise. "Wait, Rei-senpai might be half magical crow spirit?" She cocked her head, considering. "... yeah, I can see it. She's certainly mean enough sometimes." She frowned. "I don't think her grandfather is one, though," she said, disapprovingly. "Spirits don't act like him."

Ami gave her an odd look, but pushed on. "Okay, so... could we turn ourselves into, say, pretty JSSDF soldiers? What sort of equipment could the Pen provide us with if we did?"

Luna raised her head in surprise, quirking an eyebrow as far as the features of a cat allowed. 'Why in heaven would you... oh, I see your logic. Hmm. Yes, but it wouldn't work in the way you're probably thinking. Guns aren't effective against any youma worth their salt – the trash that you and Moon fought earlier this week might be slain by such things,' Usagi pouted slightly at the description of the creature as "trash", 'but a youma of any real power would not be so easily cowed.'

'More to the point, you'd be vulnerable. Mundane armour is nowhere near as protective as your Senshi transformations, and you'd have none of the strength and speed that you do when transformed.' She shifted position, her tail coiling languorously behind her. 'Anyway, the point is moot. The Pen can only overwrite a single Ren at a time. That's also why it's mutually exclusive with your Senshi transformation, actually – it can't hope to overwrite the Name of a planet.'

"Do the other planets have Senshi as well, then?" Ami asked quickly, lighting up. "Because I was looking at a few sources on Palaeolithic art, and they certainly knew about the planets out to Neptune, and there are a few cases of figures being associated with them, which are linked to Palaeolithic conceptualisations of the 'Mother Goddess' and..."

She tailed off as Luna held up a paw. Silence fell for a moment, save for the sound of Usagi's scribbling and maths-cursing muttering, as the cat mustered her thoughts. As it stretched on, even that background noise tailed off as Usagi looked up in interest.

'... yes,' said Luna eventually. 'There are Senshi besides you. Or were, rather. One for each planet apart from Earth, and then one for the Moon.' She nodded at Usagi. 'Though only the inner planets and the Moon were inhabited. Only you two have come into your inheritance so far.' She looked pensive. 'I wish I knew where the others are.'

Ami blinked. "What are you defining as a planet? Because dwarf pl…" Then she blinked again. "Wait, what?" She rocked back onto her beanbag and half-turned towards the desk. "Uh... Usagi? I think your cat has read too much sci-fi. I mean, I can accept that Palaeolithic civilisations had magic because… well, I transformed into an avatar of Mercury and used paranatural abilities to fight a monster. But space travel? Really?"

Luna shot her a scathing look. 'Do not be so quick to mock. Modern magic is but a weak, pale reflection of what once was common. Great canals connecting the planets that allowed ships to sail between then in mere days, castles in the void, glamours making barren worlds lush and fertile... all ruins at best, lost like ash in the breeze.' For a moment, the cat seemed very old and very sad.

'Hmm. But... yes, I just hope we can find the others, especially the inner guard. The Venus, the Mars and the Jupiter would be valuable additions to our group. Every last one of them was a formidable combatant, even if the women themselves were...' She trailed off, her tail lashing agitatedly.

'Well, anyway. The Uranus and the Neptune would be even greater allies if they took after their predecessors, but I am… even less certain of our ability to locate them. Their powers were shaped to pass unseen to the eyes of the youma and any who would seek them out. I doubt I could recognise their reincarnations, especially if their inheritance was still dormant.' She paused, seeming hesitant and almost nervous. 'Of... the others, I will not speak. Save to say that you should pray you never meet them. Were they to walk this world in the full of their powers... well, it would be an ill omen. Such is all I shall say on that topic.'

Ami opened her mouth eagerly to ask for more detail, but something about the tone of Luna's voice stopped her. It wasn't exactly hostile, but it gave the distinct impression that she wasn't kidding about refusing to speak further on the mysterious other Senshi. "Well... alright then. It sounds like… like the Venus, Mars and Jupiter – why do you use the definite article? – are our best bets. How do we find them?"

Luna winced. 'I'm... trying my best. It's not as easy as it might sound. There's little that the two of you can do to help – well, unless Usagi literally runs into another of you.' She paused. 'Which I suppose isn't implausible. You may well be drawn to one another. Keep an eye out for strangers who seem familiar, but otherwise leave it to me. I'll let you know if any of the leads I'm looking into turn up something solid.' She paused. 'And I use the definite article because it is a title of sorts, as well as…'

"Three point seven four seconds! Hah!" Usagi yelled, standing up abruptly and sending her chair skidding backwards. "Take that, maths homework! I win! I'm free of you and your stupid complicated equations and stuff! So there!"

She spun around giddily and yelped in surprise. "Ahh! I... uh... forgot you two were there." She rubbed the back of her head sheepishly. "A-anyway, Luna. I'm free of horrible homework now – thank you Ami so much for helping me! – so I'm off to meet Naru at the mall. Oh! Ami! You should come!" She looked Ami up and down, taking in the pink cardigan and green skirt. "We could give you a makeover and get some new clothes... I think there's a sale on at one of those cute little quirky shops. And I bet you'll like Naru! What do you say?"

Ami opened her mouth to politely decline, but Usagi was a bubbly cyclone of enthusiasm, and somehow between brain and mouth the words mutated to become a small "okay". Usagi cheered in delight, grabbed her in a hug, threw on a blue jacket over her t-shirt and shorts and tugged Ami to her feet.

"Awesome! Come on then!" Throwing open the door, she called out in the rough direction of the kitchen as she trampled downstairs. "Mom! Ami and me are done with homework, we're going out to meet Naru at the mall, okay?"

"Alright," Ikuko's voice came from the opposite direction. Usagi yelped, spinning around to find her mother walking down the hall with a bundle of papers in hand and a cordless phone cradled between her ear and shoulder. "Don't spend too much, though, and be back for dinner. Oh, no, just my daughter, don't worry about it. How soon can you get the permissions out? And do we have an estimate on the budget revisions yet? I understand they're saying it's an emergency, but this is the weekend and… yes, yes, I do understand."

"Mom's head of one of the town planning departments," Usagi whispered to Ami. "Best not to disturb her when she's on the phone with work; she gets super-scary if you do. Come on, let's go before she remembers to give me a proper curfew."

"Dinner is at six!" Ikuko called after them as they put their shoes on and slipped out through the front door. "If you miss it, you're not eating!" A distant cry of frustration assured her that Usagi had got the message, and she smiled faintly as she finished her call. Looking out through the window as the pair strolled off down the street, she sighed morosely. A furry presence brushed against her ankles.

"You're sure I can't tell her?" she asked, though she was already sure of the answer.

'Please don't.' Luna jumped up onto the counter beside her. 'I need her focused. And I need her to think that she can't let anyone know, because... well, you know her better than I do. If she can't see any immediate consequences from one person knowing, can you honestly tell me she won't think it's safe to share the secret?'

"... no, I suppose not." Ikuko pulled a chair over with her foot and sat down, playing with a wooden spoon from the kitchen counter. "Well, at least I can be someone she can go to when she needs to be normal. Just... keep me updated on what she's doing? I'll feel much happier if I don't have to try and piece it together from the news. Even if I suspect I'll regret knowing some of it."

'I'm keeping an element of need-to-know,' Luna deferred. 'But... yes, alright. And another pair of eyes looking out for... strange goings-on wouldn't go amiss, anyway. You're on the town planning department? Keep an eye out for any odd construction orders, abandoned buildings suddenly having shops in them, that sort of thing. Every little bit of information helps.'

Ikuko huffed. "I'll keep an eye out. But sooner or later, Luna, you're going to have to tell me exactly what my daughter is fighting against."

'We'll see.'

...

Azabu-Juuban shopping centre wasn't far from Usagi's school; a bustling assortment of clothing shops, food vendors and a lot of other places Usagi paid only vague attention to due to the amount of time she spent in the first two. Naru was waiting by the entrance, wearing jeans and a green top, glaring at a group of skateboarders who were rolling up and down the street and ramping off benches.

"Usagi, there you are!" she greeted in relief. "Come on, quick, let's get inside before they start catcalling agai... uh... hello?"

Ami smiled shyly and essayed a half-hearted wave, already having second thoughts about letting Usagi drag her here. Naru bemusedly waved back, then turned to Usagi. "And this is..."

"Oh, right! Naru, this is Ami; she's really smart and kind and helped me out a bunch with evil homework and fixed my laptop! Ami, this is Naru, she's been my best friend practically since we were born and her mum runs a really neat jewellery store." She eyed Naru. "How's that going, by the way? I haven't had a chance to drop in since, uh... you know."

Naru eyed Ami sceptically, but allowed the change of topic as the three of them entered the mall. "It's been... okay, I guess. Nothing much has changed – I think I told you about getting the insurance payout. Mum was still super-not-happy, even though we got it. Uh... oh, Sara got out of hospital a few days ago. She'll be coming back to work soon, though I... I'm kind of not sure I want to see her again." She made a face and shrugged. "If anything positive came from that... thing, at the concert, it's that it gave Mum something new to grumble about."

"Um... sorry, what's this about?" Ami asked tentatively. "I hadn't heard about... I mean, was it something like..."

"I'll tell you later," Usagi hastily assured her. "Anyway, right now is shopping time! Naru, do you know if there are sales on anywhere? Ami needs new clothes. Ami, where do you usually get your clothes from?"

"I... don't know?" Ami fidgeted slightly. "My mother usually picks out my clothes for me."

"I can see that," mumbled Naru under her breath. She carried on in a louder voice, "Okay, but I want to stop by the bookstore first. I want to see if I can pick up the last two Prince of Tennis volumes." She had to raise her voice again to make herself heard over a heavy lorry passing by.

Ami perked up. "That would be nice! I... uh..." She wilted again slightly at the attention from the other two. "I... wouldn't mind going to the bookstore either. I'm almost out of reading material. Again."

Usagi grumbled a bit, but allowed herself to be mollified by the promise of manga and dragged along. Conversation tailed off for a short time as the trio delved into the shelves in search of their preferred literature, before converging again at the checkout.

"So," Ami said as Naru paid. "Naru seems, um, nice. And this has been... nice, so far. What are you getting?" She looked at the small pile in Usagi's arms. "Gatchaman... Lucky Star... Games Team Seventeen... Usagi, do you read anything other than manga?"

Usagi considered this for a moment. "Why would I want to?"

Ami looked mildly offended. "Because it's enjoyable!" she protested, forgetting her shyness in front of Naru in the face of Usagi's phobia of books without pictures. "Great works of literature can inspire, they can enthral... they tell us what it means to be human!"

"Huh. They mostly make me fall asleep." Usagi eyed the rather larger pile of books in Ami's arms. They looked, to her eye, like the kind of tome that was very thick, and full of words in very small font, and which was about complicated things like politics and talking a lot and subtle hints that the reader was expected to pick up on and decipher in order to understand what was going on.

Usagi found this sort of book rather unfair, and suspected that the kind of person that wrote something that was deliberately meant to confuse people reading it probably had too much time on their hands. And thought everyone else had time to try to understand it and keep notes and turn reading into extra homework.

"So..." she asked slowly. "Do you have any... other hobbies? Cause, uh, it's really cool that you can understand that sort of thing, but I really don't." She grinned sheepishly. "Like... Naru likes jewellery – her mum runs a jewellery shop. You know about my job with Rei, and I'm a connoisseur of ice cream..."

"How do you even know that word?" Naru shot over her shoulder, obviously having overheard. "Was it in a cooking show? I bet it was in a cooking show."

Usagi stuck her tongue out at the girl, and grinned triumphantly as Ami stifled a giggle. "So! What do you do other than read scary-huge books and learn everything in the world?"

Ami's lips twitched again as she fought off another giggle at her new friend. "Um... not much, really. I don't have many hobbies like that, I guess. Oh, does swimming count? I like to swim."

Usagi narrowed her eyes in mock suspicion as Naru finished and she and Ami stepped up to the counter. "Oh, come on. What do you do when you get home from school?"

"I do my homework."

This earned her two odd looks. "... what, like... immediately?" asked Naru. "Right away?"

"Yes. We do get quite a lot at Mugen. More than I got at my old school. And I like to keep on top of things."

Silence reigned for a moment, until the cashier patiently cleared his throat and Usagi hastily gave him her books to ring up. Naru kept staring incredulously.

"It... leaves the rest of the evening free," Ami defended. "And gets it out the way so it isn't hanging over my head later."

"Huh." Naru grudgingly nodded, conceding that point. "Well, what do you do then?"

Ami hesitated briefly and gratefully took advantage of the cashier gesturing for her books to buy a bit more time to think. "I... read? Or... do things on the computer."

"Aahh." Usagi grinned knowingly. "Bit of a gamer, then?"

"No."

"Final Fantasy? Zelda? Oh, have you at least played some of the Sailor V games?"

Ami gave her a nervous smile of embarrassment. "None of them, I'm afraid. I play a few games, but all on my computer. I don't have any consoles. Honestly, the television hardly ever gets used at home. I do talk with people online, though. And play chess with them... although that counts as gaming, doesn't it?"

"Chess?" For that to be the height of one's gaming experiences was nearly unthinkable. "You mean... you've never..." Usagi blinked at her in horror. "Not even Sailor V? Never?"

A quick glance told Ami that Naru had her head in her hands, but that seemed more directed at Usagi's theatrics than at her. Rather bemused, she turned back to Usagi and shook her head in confirmation. Usagi's expression crumpled.

"I-it's okay, Ami," she said sympathetically. "We can fix this. We can make this better. You just need to hold on, and we'll pull through. Come on, we'll get you to a gaming store, and then we can make this okay. You and me and Naru. We'll get through this."

It transpired that 'making it okay' involved a long-winded high-speed babble of explanation about the titular superheroine as they made their way over to the game store. Ami silently marvelled at the fact that Usagi appeared to be immune to the need to breathe, and politely refrained from mentioning that she already knew most of the publicly available information on the masked vigilante.

Besides, there was a refreshing sort of novelty to hearing it from Usagi's point of view.

"... and she must have started pretty young because she's about our age and she first showed up like three years ago, but I guess she's just really brave? Though who wouldn't be in a costume that cool, I mean wow! And she fights crime and helps people instead of using her powers for evil - like there was that terrorist attack she helped the rescue people with, the one with the picture of her hauling rubble out of the way for the crews! She's only been interviewed once or twice – my dad said that it would be a career-making thing to get an interview with her..."

Usagi tailed off for a second, her eyes lighting up with an idea. But it was only there for a moment before she shook it off and continued, "But both times she was really nice! Did you know she gets a cut of all the merchandising in her name? It's meant to be, like, tonnes of money. But she sends it all to charity efforts for people who get hurt by terrorists and stuff!"

"It would probably be difficult for her to collect it herself," Naru pointed out. "You know, secret identity and all."

Usagi blew a raspberry at her. "And yeah, she fights that terrorist group! Five or whoever they are... they're evil or something and have something to do with the... recession? I dunno; I don't really listen to that stuff. Oh oh oh and some people think she's a pop star! Who do you think she could be? Maybe Mikan? No wait; she'd have been at the concert if she was. Hmm. Well, I bet she has a really hot boyfriend who waits on her hand and foot because it's gotta be hard saving the world like that, right?"

... well, the novelty was definitely there. Ami glanced at Usagi out of the corner of her eye, mentally compared her costume as Sailor Moon to that of Sailor V, and tried not to smile. She suddenly had a rather better idea of where some of Usagi's ideas on being a superheroine had probably come from. Like the speeches.

Of course, she had based her own attire on what Usagi had been wearing, so that meant that Sailor V's costume was Sailor Mercury's costume's grandmother. At least in a certain sense.

"And I'm pretty sure she can shoot lasers? From her finger? She can in the game, but maybe that's just a gameplay feature, like how she probably doesn't have to hit the buttons at the right time in real life to make her spee- oh, huh. Hey, Naru, check it out." Usagi pointed, and the other two followed her finger to where the skateboarders from outside were being led rather firmly by a couple of security guards into a staff-only door. The spiky-haired ringleader was meek and compliant with a meaty hand gripping his shoulder in ill temper, and followed where he was being led with no sign of a struggle.

"Guess they pissed someone off with their comments," Usagi theorised. Naru's smile was a vindictive thing of delight as they entered the store. But it was nothing compared to Usagi's cry of glee as she scanned the titles on the shelf marked 'Sale' and dived for one on the bottom.

"Yes! Sailor V, right here! And it looks... cheap enough for me to get! Yes!"

Caught up in the lure of the half-price offer, she missed something fluttered off her handbag and fell to the ground. Ami picked it up and tapped her on the shoulder. "Uh, Usagi, you... dropped this?"

"Huh? Oh!" Straightening with a couple of new games in hand, Usagi took it back and held it up to the light; showing it to be an immaculately inked ofuda. "Phew. Thanks. Rei-senpai made it for me. Well, I say 'made it for me'. It was more like 'made me take it'. And promise to keep it on me. At knifepoint."

Naru looked at her flatly.

"Well, broompoint. Well, broom... bristly bit. Because she was sending me to sweep the steps. Again. But yeah, it's a protective charm. I think she's getting really worried about the..." she stumbled for a moment, "... the weird stuff that's going on lately. Like the concert, and the disappearances from the buses. I've seen her normal work on charms, and compared to them this is..."

She drifted off; staring at the slip of paper with a faraway expression, until Ami cleared her throat inquisitively and Naru prodded her. "Is what?"

"Huh? Oh, uh... it's much better. She must have put a lot more effort into it." Usagi grinned with the faintest tinge of a blush, her attempt to put on a mock-sulky expression failing pathetically. "I guess she doesn't want to have to go to all the trouble of training a new slave to torture."

She perked up again. "And speaking of accessories, we still need to do what we came here to do! Clothes!" She whirled around, her face alight with excitement at a new challenge. "Ami, I promise you; once we're done with your makeover, you won't even recognise yourself in the mirror!

"... right after I buy these games."

...