Chapter 26: Tiny Beginnings of a New Normal
Usagi slowly opened her eyes to take in the near-darkness of the unfamiliar room that she was forced to call her bedroom for the next few days. She was residing in the guest bedroom at Saeko's house as it was unsafe for her to return to her own home. At that wee hour of the morning, and with all of the grueling physical and mental strain she had endured throughout the course of the past several hours, she should have been fast asleep. But sleep was something she was having difficulty finding that night, and the strangeness of the room was not making things easier. The mattress was slightly harder than what she was used to laying upon at home, the sheets were a little smoother than the texture she remembered hers having, and the pillow was less fluffy than her own. None of those issues were significant by themselves, and it wasn't like she always had slept in her own bed in her own room. There were many nights spent at Hikawa shrine, for example. The difference in that case, and in all other cases, was that ultimately she always returned home to her bedroom. As she sighed mournfully, she pondered if that could ever be the case again.
She pushed herself up from the bed, twisted her body around to allow her legs to dangle from the bed, and dropped her bare feet to the carpeted floor. That was another difference between her bedroom and this foreign space. It was very plush beige carpet that was comfortable to her feet and shielded it from an otherwise cold floor. However, it was still unfamiliar and unlike anything to which she had become accustomed at home.
"I guess I'll just have to get used to living differently," she mused as she stepped from the bedroom into the hallway. "Maybe a new life deserves new surroundings."
She trudged silently down the hall toward Saeko's bedroom. On the way she passed by the bedroom that belonged to Ami. Her feet stopped and she felt compelled to peek into the dark, vacant room. She had been in there before, with the blue-haired genius, shortly after learning that she was Sailor Mercury. It was an austere room compared to her own, simple and purposeful, but it seemed to suit Ami just fine. A lone tear escaped the corner of her eye and streaked down her cheek. It was followed by another tear droplet, and yet another. The mere thought that her cherished friend would never occupy that room again brought forth a storm of tears. No longer was she feeling guilty for Ami's death at Zoisite's hand. That was replaced by pure and overwhelming grief at the loss of the only member of the senshi she truly could have called a friend.
After collecting herself and calming her depressed emotions, she continued down the hall to the top of the staircase. Next to her was Saeko's bedroom. She could hear the muffled sounds of sobbing, punctuated by the occasional wail, from the other side of the door. It was the unmistakably sad sound of a mother expressing her personal grief for the death of a daughter. As despondent as she felt about losing Ami, it was minuscule compared to the utter heartache she sensed Saeko was suffering. It was a sensation she could not begin to fathom. She didn't know for how long Saeko was crying, but she guessed it had to be hours. Or, in other words, ever since they had arrived at the doctor's house. The sound of unmitigated despair was beginning to eat at her and she knew she had to get away, if only for her own sanity. She proceeded to slowly walk down the stairs and into the living room before the raw emotion caused her to shed even more tears.
She made her way to the darkened living room and plopped onto the sofa. If there were a television there she would have turned it on and mindlessly consumed the late-night programming genius of some random station. However, Ami's mother did not own a television, and it made perfect sense why. Saeko rarely was at home, and when she was her time was occupied mainly with sleeping, followed closely by reading. Ami, when she was home, was far more interested in reading for the sake of studying or for entertainment. In the rare times that both were at home at the same time, they would do something together or just talk. At no time was a television deemed necessary. Because of that, Usagi had to find something else to do to cure her sleeplessness.
From nowhere she heard and felt a sharp grumbling within her stomach as her body painfully reminded her once again that she needed to eat something. She slowly pushed herself up from the softness and relative warmth of the sofa and trudged into the kitchen, turning on the light and momentarily blinding herself in the process. The pain from her eyes soon vanished and she opened the refrigerator, where she found her dinner from last night sitting on the bottom shelf. Sighing loudly, she grabbed the plastic container and set it on the marble countertop. She then rummaged through the cabinets as quietly as she could to look for a plate as she didn't want to attempt microwaving the plastic. She had seen the end result of such a calamity one too many times. Finding success with the third set of cabinets, she softly set the ceramic plate down and unceremoniously dumped onto it the contents of the container. She narrowed her eyes and scrunched her nose at the blob that rested on the plate, thinking ruefully that she could have sworn it actually looked like food when she ordered it a few hours ago. But, as her stomach complained yet again, she ignored the inelegant aesthetics of her meal and concentrated on sufficiently warming it so she could actually eat.
A few minutes later she retrieved the warm plate from the microwave and sat down at the table in the dining room. It wasn't an opulent table by any stretch of the imagination, but it was definitely much nicer than the table she was used to sitting at in her old home. She felt a little guilty about using one of Saeko's plates and her flatware without asking beforehand, but she inherently knew that the doctor wouldn't mind. She took a small bite of the steak that she had only played with previously. Even after a few hours being chilled and then reheated it wasn't horrible, and she might have even considered it passable. Even if her taste buds minded, her stomach certainly did not, and by then it was the one calling the shots. A few minutes into slowly finishing off the steak and the associated vegetables, her mind drifted away from the present and consumed itself with remembrances of her meeting with the graceful Michiru and the stunningly handsome Haruka.
"Oh God, Haruka was just so magnificent and handsome. Perfect sandy hair and eyes I could just drown in. And lips, luscious lips I wouldn't mind being kissed with, and kissing myself, over and over and over. I wish that he would just take me as his own," she thought sadly even as she stared dreamily at the wall in front of her. "But he already has Michiru, and I just cannot compare to someone as beautiful and elegant as her. No wonder someone like Haruka is with her. If I were even half as graceful as Michiru, maybe Mamoru wouldn't have broken up with me."
She sighed. She knew that mindset wasn't helping her one bit. Mamoru was not supposed to invade her thoughts anymore. He was out of her life as far as love interests went. Even with the death of Ami, she couldn't bring herself to reconsider Mamoru. Actually, especially because of Ami's death, she knew she shouldn't think about the man in such a way again. It would almost be like dancing on her best friend's grave. She couldn't imagine anything more reprehensible.
"No, that doesn't matter anymore. I'm perfectly fine without him," she whispered as she tried to shake the errant thoughts of Mamoru from her head. She lifted the fork and took another bite of the gradually disappearing steak. "I can't start thinking about him… not like that."
She signed yet again and forced herself to think about other things—namely Haruka and Michiru. She vacillated between two opposing thoughts. On one hand, she felt absolute giddiness thinking about the merely being in close proximity to, and being subjected to the rich flirting of, the gorgeous Haruka. Whether or not she had any realistic chance to somehow capture the heart of the striking blonde was inconsequential in her mind. On the other, she dreamily thought of learning the elegant mannerisms of Michiru, mainly to further distance herself from the ditzy, klutzy, unintelligent crybaby of a girl she once was. However, when she overcame her nagging self-doubt and feelings of intimidation, she also found that being in the presence of the turquoise-haired woman filled her with a pleasant and calm sensation. It was something she definitely did not mind feeling once more.
That was assuming she had an opportunity to see them again. In a few days time she would be moving to Kyoto, leaving the ward of Minato for the first time in her life. For the time being she would be staying with Saeko and keeping a low profile to avoid running into trouble with the Dark Kingdom. It was unlikely she would be going out much, which meant no trips to the arcade and no more walking to school. She didn't talk about it yet with either her mother or Saeko, but she assumed that school officials would be notified of her impending absence and eventual transfer. In any case, she strongly doubted her path would cross with those of Haruka and Michiru for a long time to come, if ever. That special pair did not have to worry about being hunted and having to flee for their own or their families' safety.
Then she remembered Michiru's last words to her. They were spoken with such amazing conviction despite it only being their first meeting and likely their last. It drove her to thinking and to disbelieving her own pessimistic thoughts. What did that attractive woman know that she didn't? It was one thing to hope for a reunion, but it was something entirely different to predict it. She smiled. Although it was a long shot, if Michiru was going to be optimistic in thinking that they would meet again, then so would she.
—|1|2|3|4|—
"Ugh… stop moving the room on me."
Those were the first words Kunzite muttered in several hours as he slowly opened his eyes. He felt extremely dizzy and slightly nauseous, but that was to be expected from the rapid infusion of energy he had received in order to resuscitate him after the severe beating he received at the hands of Sailor Moon. Despite the influx of energy, he still felt weaker than normal. The pale light that emanated from one of the few torches scattered along the walls of the room was more than enough to sting his eyes. He rapidly closed them once again to alleviate the painful sensation and to hopefully calm his stomach.
"Umm, it's not the room that's spinning. Just your head," Sazaratha said disdainfully as she stood with her arms crossed at the side of his bed and stared at the disheveled man with a contemptuous look on her face.
"Wait, what are you doing here?" he asked with palpable annoyance. She was the last person he wanted to talk to in his moment of weakness.
"Someone had to nurse this pathetic excuse for a supreme leader back to health," she retorted with equivalent irritation. "You were practically unconscious after you returned. I mean, you weren't really unconscious, but at the same time you weren't really in much shape to be useful. It would have taken forever for you to regain the energy on your own."
"So… you took it upon yourself to help me?" he asked in confusion.
"Heh. You might wish that I did it because I love you so much," she scoffed, "but I just need you alive so you could fulfill your end of the bargain."
He sighed resignedly. He figured her self-serving reason for helping him was better than nothing, but only slightly. If anything good came from her assistance it was the fact it only took him hours to almost fully regain his health instead of days. That didn't include the fact that she was effectively saving his life during the entire battle, up to the point he sent her away on that special mission.
"I'll keep my word and talk with Beryl later today," he said curtly. He was annoyed to even fathom having a creature like Sazaratha considered an equal among the ranks of the Shitennou. However, he was a man of his word and he intended to keep his promise, no matter how painful it would be or how much he felt he would regret it later.
"You'd better," she replied even more succinctly. She took a few steps around to the footboard of the bed. "Anyway, I'm sure you want to know how the mission went," she said calmly but with unmistakable confidence.
"Absolutely," he replied. He slowly pushed himself up so he could see the blond-haired woman. "Did you do what I asked of you?"
She turned and shot him an angry look that she held for a few seconds before averting her gaze, her disappointment obvious. "Well, I failed to completely eliminate them—"
"You failed to kill three civilians who had no knowledge of what they were up against. Yet you demand respect," he interjected derisively.
"I'd like to see you try to attack three people in the open without creating a spectacle and without the targets even knowing an attack was taking place," she retorted irately as she glared at him once again. She took a few deep breaths to calm herself down. As much as she loathed the silver-haired man, she tried to interact with him civilly, if only for her own benefit. He had yet to give Beryl his recommendation, and even though both of them knew how painful she could make his life without it, a poor recommendation would have led to a worse promotion than she desired, assuming she received one at all.
"In any case, I think it actually gives us an advantage," she said evenly and with a curious gleam in her pale indigo eyes.
"How so?" he asked incredulously.
She pulled her lips into a small, mischievous grin. "Right now she's frightened. She's concerned for the health of her family and likely would want to stay with them until they recover."
Her words drew from him nothing more than a blank stare. "I still don't see how this helps us in our mission to bring the princess to Beryl."
"Come on, are you really that daft?" she shouted, startling the eldest Shitennou member. She cursed to herself, took another deep breath, and coughed lightly to clear her throat before continuing. "Her parents are laid up in a hospital somewhere in the city. She's likely to be there with them for the majority of her time before heading home. It's unlikely she'll have the time or desire to go to many other places. Maybe the arcade-slash-cafe, but that's it. In other words, it vastly reduces the number of places she would be, and it's very likely she would be alone in said locations."
"But I still don't see how this gives us an advantage over killing them the way I intended you to do."
She had to bite her tongue and resist the temptation to immediately spew forth a snide comment. Even then, she couldn't completely contain her anger.
"The way you intended would have immediately destroyed her psyche, but the way I think this could work would be just as effective," she said with a huff. She took a few short paces away from his bed. "Remember, she may no longer have her senshi around her, but she's still Sailor Moon and Princess Serenity, and sooner or later—if she hasn't done so already—she will find out that what her family suffered through wasn't an accident. That instills fear within our lovely little princess. Fear that we will attack them yet again. That fear will consume her and gradually weaken her to the point where it will be a piece of cake to capture her."
"Do you really think it'll happen the way you describe it?" he asked skeptically. He clearly was much stronger than he was even a few minutes ago and he was able to rise from his bed and stand tall on the stone floor. He continued to speak with an explanatory, if not slightly patronizing tone. "Killing her family would have removed everything the princess ever considered dear. Think about it. The senshi hate her and no longer believe in her. They're not going to do anything to help her. Luna's gone, and though Artemis is still there, I doubt that silly little cat can do anything to help. So that removes one pillar of support for her."
He walked around to the front of the bed so that he was standing only a few feet away from the displeasured Sazaratha. Fury was welling up inside of her as she found the tone and attitude of the man who, for the moment, continued to be her superior insulting. Amazingly, she remained silent throughout his speech despite the strong compulsion she had to say something incredibly nasty.
"Now, the other pillar of support for the princess is her family," he said, continuing with the same calm, erudite tone. "If we were to kill them, then that would eliminate any form of support and completely crush her spirit, thus leaving her vulnerable. However, keeping them alive, as you have done, gives her hope. She may be afraid but she is also hopeful, and if she is hopeful then she is strong. Stronger than we can imagine. In other words, you just made this a whole lot more difficult for us by not completing your mission."
She sighed resignedly as she knew he had the logical advantage. "Okay, okay… you got me. I was trying to put a positive spin on this, but… whatever," she said somewhat dejectedly. She looked down at the dark grey stone floor and the few dark, wavy shadows created by the dim flames dancing atop the torches. "So, what do we do now?"
"What do we do now?" he echoed with a disdainful tone. "It's more like, 'What do you do now?' And what you will do is find the princess, which should be easy as there aren't that many places she could be, as you said yourself. Once you find her, immediately notify me for further instruction, but be careful not to lose her."
"You're asking me to do something that any one of the youma here can do?" she asked angrily as she glared directly into the blue-grey eyes of the oldest Shitennou leader. "Do you suddenly have that little faith in me?"
Kunzite stood his ground and delivered an equally harsh stare. "If you had done your job properly the first time, you wouldn't have to do something you consider menial right now," he retorted. He lifted his arm and pointed at nothing in particular, but the gesture was immediately understood by the dour blonde. "Now, I suggest hurrying while we still have plenty of time and some semblance of an advantage."
Without saying another word, or at least anything he could readily hear, she turned and walked away from the grey-suited man, the clicks of her heels echoing loudly about the cavern-shaped room. She looked like she was about to walk directly into one of the solid rock walls but teleported right before impact with a small flash of white light.
He waited for her to leave before he sat at the edge of his bed and looked down at the floor. An almost imperceptible smile crept onto his lips.
"As hard of a time I gave her, she probably did the best she could have done given the situation," he thought. "If she does manage to find the princess today, and we are able to bring her in, then maybe I'll give Beryl good recommendation of her after all."
—|1|2|3|4|—
A warm, gentle light radiating from the early-morning sun flooded the serene expanse of the living room and enveloped the slumbering blond girl who was sprawled across the cream-colored sofa. Usagi had fallen into a peaceful sleep with thoughts prancing through her mind of meeting the gorgeous Haruka and the lovely Michiru once again. It was almost eight o'clock in the morning, and she only had a few hours sleep, but those few hours were vital and she took full advantage of them. Saeko had to poke and gently shake the girl a few times to rouse her from the near coma-like state she had attained. After a few minutes of agitation, Usagi finally opened her eyes and stared into a calm pair of auburn eyes and a tender smile.
"I'm glad to see that you're finally awake," Saeko said softly. She held a mug of freshly made coffee in her hands.
"Can't I sleep for just a few more minutes?" Usagi asked drowsily as she turned her body over onto her side.
A small smile came to Saeko's lips. "Now I see what Ikuko-san had to go through for all that time," she said with a light chuckle at the end, which drew a tiny pout from the lethargic blonde. "But, I also can sense you had a rough time sleeping last night." She took another sip from the mug.
"As did you," Usagi retorted quietly as she yawned and slowly pushed herself into a more upright sitting position.
Saeko expelled a light, tired sigh. "Yes, as did both of us."
As Usagi's eyes adjusted to the light, she could see that the doctor and late-best-friend's mother appeared haggard. The woman had taken care to cleanse her face of the tears she had shed, but she didn't do much more to make herself look presentable. Formality could wait for a few more hours. It was just as well, considering that she and Usagi's family were already close and were going to become even closer in the upcoming weeks and months, if not longer.
"I made tea and breakfast if you feel like eating something, Usagi-san," Saeko said. "I hope you like pancakes as I didn't feel like making anything too fancy."
"Thank you," Usagi replied. She gave a smile that, although relatively minute, was incredibly warm and heartfelt. "And yes, I absolutely love pancakes."
The pair walked into the dining room where two stacks of warm pancakes already were sitting on the table along with a small container of maple syrup and a steaming kettle of green tea. Usagi was ushered to sit at the head of the rectangular table while Saeko took the seat next to her. The doctor lifted the kettle from the table and carefully filled the teacup next to Usagi's plate until it was three-quarters full. Meanwhile, Usagi gradually poured the syrup over the golden-brown and unusually thick pancakes, not drowning them the way she used to.
"I talked with a few friends of mine from university," Saeko started as she set the kettle back onto the table and began cutting into her trio of pancakes. "One of them is in the moving business. He owns a company that does the majority of the work—"
"Oh my goodness, these are amazing!" Usagi interjected cheerfully with wide, sparkling sapphire-blue eyes turned toward Saeko. "And chocolate chips? How did you know I liked chocolate-chip pancakes?"
Saeko smiled at Usagi. "How could I not know that about you?" she replied with a wink.
Usagi giggled as she took yet another bite of the delectable pancakes. They were pleasantly surprising as the smooth surface of the pancakes gave no clue to the presence of delicious chocolate chips within. "I'm sorry. You were saying," she said a few seconds later after her she had calmed down.
"It's quite okay. I'm glad they helped to put you into a good mood," Saeko said with a smile. She took another sip of coffee. "Anyway, my friend Hayato owns a moving company that does the bulk of its business in Shibuya, but he said he could spare a couple of trucks for this job. I also found a few other moving companies to help with the move."
Usagi's nose scrunched upward as she gave Saeko a perplexed look. "Why so many moving trucks?" she asked. "Our house isn't that big and we don't have that much stuff."
Saeko smiled at Usagi yet again, although this one was more mischievous. "You said you're afraid of Kunzite following us and finding out where we lived, right?" she asked, with Usagi slowly nodding in reply. "Well, I figured we could use some misdirection to help confuse them."
"What do you mean?" Usagi mumbled innocently between bites of pancake.
"Well, think of it like this," Saeko said as she began to explain the plan she concocted, albeit with a familiar tone as opposed to the scholarly voice with which she was accustomed to speaking. "If we only used one moving truck, Kunzite would be able to easily track it on its way to Kyoto. However, what if we used two trucks, and one truck went to Kyoto and another went to, say, Sendai? Then Kunzite would not be able to follow both vehicles, would he?"
"Nope," Usagi said as a light grin crept onto her lips.
"However, I can imagine that the Dark Kingdom consists of more than just Kunzite. You said there were Queen Beryl and the Shitennou, of which there were four generals," Saeko said.
"But two of them are dead, as far as we know, leaving just Kunzite and Zoisite," Usagi said casually while taking a sip of tea.
"Okay, just two generals of the Shitennou," Saeko said. "It would require both of them to determine where the trucks are going and to figure out which one is a decoy and which one is not. As such, one of them will be lead astray and would not be able to do anything. However, the other general would still be able to follow the truck leading to your new home."
"I would imagine that would be bad," Usagi suggested.
"Very bad," Saeko concurred. "However, if we continued to increase the number of moving trucks and the number of locations to which those trucks were sent we could overwhelm the Dark Kingdom. They would never be able to track all of them, and it vastly decreases the probability that they would find the correct truck going to the correct house."
Usagi's eyes lit up as she identified what she perceived to be an oversight within the plan. "But they could still get lucky and find the right truck, which means they'll still be able to find us," she said excitedly.
Saeko grinned. "You're absolutely right, Usagi-san, which is why I thought of two more complications for them," she said enthusiastically. "The first is to have two moving stages, where we move your belongings from your current house to an intermediate point, and then from there to your new house. The second is to make sure that any truck they see has furniture and other items within it, so that they will not be able to find out which truck to follow by intercepting the vehicles."
"Okay, I'm already starting to get confused," Usagi said playfully with the hint of a wink that alerted Saeko to the fact that she actually still understood everything she was saying to that point.
"I'm certain they would, too," Saeko said. Her voice gradually revealed even more of the eagerness she felt for the plan she created. "So, back to the first part. I'm envisioning the moving trucks going to three separate cities. The items would be placed in storage there for a short amount of time, maybe a few days at most. Let's call this stage 'A', alright?"
"Yep," Usagi said while nodding in acceptance.
Saeko continued with even more fervor. "Now, stage 'B' would be going to each of the three cities with six moving trucks apiece. Each of the six trucks will go to one of six different cities. That's eighteen moving trucks total that they would have to track, which may or may not be overwhelming to them already, but that's not the end of the plan."
"There's more?" Usagi asked with genuine surprise.
"Yes, the last bit of the confusion and deception," Saeko said. "Now, for the last part the moving trucks will be shuffling between the six cities, or even to different parts within those cities. That would significantly increase the burden on them to track where you are going. However, there's one last interesting and, if I do say so, rather sneaky part to this whole plan."
"What's that?" Usagi asked expectantly, her eyes widening and gleaming as she leaned toward the older woman and stared at her intently.
"By including the last six cities I'm sending them on a wild-goose chase," Saeko said with a wry smile on her face and an equally bright shine in her eyes. "One of the first three cities would be our destination Kyoto, but none of the last six. Therefore, we would be leading them away from you, as they would be spending much of their time trying to find out which of those six cities you lived in, instead of searching the three where you actually do live."
The smile on Saeko's face grew even larger, and Usagi also grew a wide smile as that detail of the plan absolutely delighted her. However, the more compassionate side of Usagi's personality kicked in as she recognized the amount of sacrifice that Saeko needed to endure in order to successfully put the plan into action.
"But, wouldn't that be awfully expensive, with all the moving trucks you'll have to rent, never mind storage? And where would you get the other furniture?" Usagi asked with concern.
"Don't worry," Saeko said reassuringly as she gently rested a hand on Usagi's shoulder. "Another one of my old friends from university owns a furniture store. She agreed to let me 'borrow' some items, with fair compensation. After a while I'll slowly return the furniture and she'll refund the money—minus a small fee, of course. I'll take a loss but not nearly as big of one compared to directly purchasing the furniture. As for storage, it's only going to be a few days in any one location, so the costs should be very low."
Usagi slowly nodded as her fears of placing too much of a burden on Saeko were assuaged. The smile she had previously reappeared on her face as she took the last bite of her pancakes and pushed the empty plate away from her.
"Now, what are we going to be doing today?" Saeko asked nonchalantly as she finished off her coffee. She tilted her head slightly to the side as she glanced at Usagi. The blonde was wearing a light-blue set of pajamas that belonged to Ami, and although it fit surprisingly well given that Usagi was shorter than Ami, it did highlight a pressing issue. "I think the first thing is that we need to get you some clothes," she said. "I wish it were as simple as going up to your place and grabbing some of yours, but clearly it's a bit more difficult than that."
"Maybe we can get someone else to run up to my house and grab something…" Usagi started to say enthusiastically, but her voice faltered as she realized the danger in doing that. She looked up at the ceiling, her mind deep in thought looking for a way to resolve that issue with her intended plan, but came to the conclusion that there was no way. At least, there was no easy way. "No, it won't work," she conceded softly with a disappointed pout.
"I guess that leaves only one option. It's a good thing then that I'm officially on vacation," Saeko said.
"Wait, you're taking the day off?" Usagi asked in a combination of worry and confusion.
"Yes. As I said before, I have about two months of vacation time. With everything that has happened in my life in the past day or so, I think now is a good time to take it," Saeko replied calmly. She stood from her chair and looked over at Usagi. "Now, I think we had better hurry up and get some shopping done, unless you want to go out wearing your school uniform today," Saeko said with a lively smirk.
—|1|2|3|4|—
Sazaratha slowly walked down one of the main north-south streets in Juuban district with glazed eyes. She was deep in thought about what her next plan of attack would be. Her mission was to locate the princess and keep track of her while notifying Kunzite of her position, presumably so they could subsequently capture her. However, she had no firm lock on her location. She knew where her target lived, having visited the place only hours ago the previous evening. She also knew that the princess's family was in the hospital, but she wasn't sure about which one. There were two hospitals in the immediate vicinity and she didn't remain nearby after creating what everyone else saw to be a horrible automobile accident in order to see where her three victims were taken. She was aware that the civilian mother of one of the senshi worked at Azabu-Juuban Second General Hospital, but that particular senshi was neutralized and the woman was disregarded as a threat. Nevertheless, it was a piece of information she kept in the back of her mind. Civilian relatives of senshi always were important bargaining pieces.
Her feet came to a stop and she sat on one of the benches at the bus stop. She didn't know why. It wasn't that she particularly needed to use human transport, especially mass transit. No force in the universe could compel her to sit in that close proximity to those sickening creatures for even a few seconds. Not after that horrible experience she had the misfortune of suffering a few months ago while surreptitiously trailing Jadeite as the former Shitennou general was investigating some new ideas to obtain human energy for Queen Beryl. Merely sitting there on that hard bench and witnessing a bus pull up, open its doors expecting the exotic, fair-haired woman to board, and speed away without gaining a passenger was enough to remind her of the painful incident.
"Of course that blazing idiot had the cockamamie idea of taking the underground train," she thought with mounting fury. Her hands unconsciously balled into fists. "Yes, there were a bunch of people there, but even I could have told him without boarding that there was little to no energy to be had from those dull beings. Yet he insisted on checking out the idea." Her body involuntarily started to tremble ever so slightly. "And then I had the bright idea of choosing that particular disguise when I went to follow him. I didn't know humans could be such… disgusting… perverts. The second that thing tried to touch me… there… I swear…"
By then, she was staring blankly at the pavement near her feet and tightly clutching the bottom of her skirt within her unsteady fists. That painful memory had left her in a surprisingly fragile state. Even more startling was that she was not human, and any human visage was a disguise she wore for her mission. Yet, it still left her feeling enraged and sullied and depressed all at the same time, something she didn't fully comprehend. If she could have finished her thought, she would have revealed that the unwanted physical contact drove her to uncharacteristically lose her composure and compromise her mission. That, and nearly destroy an entire train-full of people, the pervert and all, in a blind fit of rage. Instead, she just ended up elbowing the person in the face and kneeing him in the groin with so much force he was rendered sterile. That was followed by her igniting a series of bright flashes of light and smoke intended to blind and distract the stunned bystanders from the fact she vaporized into thin air right in front of them.
She shook herself and stood from the bench with renewed vigor. She pointed a defiant stare at the busy crowd of people that streamed from one shop to the next. She didn't need to be sidetracked by such horrific memories. Instead she needed to get to somewhere, anywhere, other than the main commercial district. She had a very important mission to complete and nothing was going to get in the way of that. With that determined mindset she turned and marched steadfastly in the direction of her first target.
Before she could take her first step, she crashed directly into an older brunette and a much smaller teenage girl with long, straight blond hair. The woman stumbled backward a few paces but managed to catch her footing before she fell. On the other hand, the girl was knocked to the ground and was sprawled on her back. The shopping bags the girl carried were scattered across the pavement, the contents of some nearly spilling onto the concrete. The startled girl looked up at her with wide, questioning sapphire-blue eyes, while she glared back at the silly little human with narrowed indigo eyes.
"Sorry," Sazaratha said brusquely as she turned her eyes away and walked right past them without giving them another glance.
Under normal situations, if only to maintain her ruse as a beautiful, polite, and gentle young woman, she would have helped the girl to her feet and offered to pick up her bags. Perhaps the girl knew the civilian identity of the princess and could unwittingly provide some information as to her whereabouts during idle conversation. Humans were easy like that, ignorant of the vital information they continuously let slip away. However, politeness could be damned. She had to be intently focused on her mission. As such, she was so focused that she failed to get a good look at the two people she had rammed into so rudely. Only when she was a block away from the bus stop did the terrible realization hit her that she might have made a crucial mistake in being too hasty.