Till Our Lives Burn Out


Chapter 008 – Spiral Curricula

(Part 3)


Epigraph:

"… what we've seen speaks for itself. The Corvair

spacecraft has apparently been taken over … by a master

race of giant space ants … One thing is for certain: there is

no stopping them; the ants will soon be here.

And I for one welcome our new insect overlords."

Kent Brockman, The Simpsons Ep. # 96


As she settled in to her bed, with Hotaru nestled in her lap, Setsuna found herself feeling a bit guilty over how quickly she'd shot down any idea of Kuryakin staying in the house with them, and over how rude she'd sounded doing it. She had not been unmoved by his story, and, despite the details, she did not think any less of him. Indeed, she was saddened to hear of how he lost his first love, and how troubled his life had been since. In some ways, she understood better than most about how he felt when his 'manipulations' and good intentions didn't go as planned. She just always had so much trouble with her own feelings whenever he was physically too close to her. As she fell asleep, she did wonder how cold it was out there tonight, and whether Kuryakin had some kind of space heater in that van.

About an hour later, Hotaru was awakened by Setsuna, who was trying to get out of bed without waking her. Her bedroom had a view of the circle drive, and Hotaru, sneaking a peek, saw her walk over to the window, pull the curtains aside and look out for a minute or so. Setsuna was momentarily startled when something appeared suddenly right in front of her face. It was that black cylinder that was, apparently, floating about the perimeter of the house, 'keeping watch.' Then Setsuna looked at Hotaru, who quickly snapped her eyes shut, and left the room for several minutes. Hotaru had a pretty good idea where Setsuna was going, but a little empirical verification wouldn't hurt. She snuck out of bed, careful not to disturb the blankets too much, and took a peak out the window.

'Yup,' she smiled, as she climbed back into bed.


Kuryakin was as good as his word. Morning arrived a few hours later, and the Senshi began waking up, having slept quite well, despite the knowledge that a stranger was guaranteeing them uninterrupted slumber against the predations of a still mysterious enemy. Michiru awoke just before Haruka. There was trouble looming, yet somehow she felt very calm about it. There was one thing worrying her though. She sat there, looking puzzled for a few minutes until Haruka, her eyes now open, said, "What's wrong?"

"Haruka, I don't remember falling asleep last night."

"You mean last evening, and not after he came over?"

"Yes."

Haruka looked thoughtful for a minute, and then appeared puzzled too.

"Neither do I. I remember … opening the door to our bedroom, and then … wow, that's weird. Huh. Well, c'mon, we got an enemy to find."

Haruka and Michiru came down stairs to find Setsuna cooking breakfast. She looked very distracted about something, as she often did, lately. Hotaru came down a few minutes later smiling about what she'd seen just a few hours ago. The smile widened as she continued to watch Setsuna. As she moved about, the Time Guardian would occasionally glance out the window over the sink. After a few more glances, she seemed to be getting more and more exasperated about something.

"He is doing that on purpose," she finally mumbled to herself.

"What was that, Setsuna?" asked Haruka, idly.

Hotaru jumped up and went over to the window.

"Hotaru, what's he doing?" asked Michiru.

"Well, let's see …"

The side door of Kuryakin's van was open. He sat there in a pair of sweats, his legs hanging out and his bare feet on the ground. He was reaching about for various containers, opening them, and putting spoonfuls of the contents into a cup. Then, he added a couple of liquids, and what appeared to be a small carton of yogurt. He put a lid on the cup and began shaking it.

"It looks like he's making some instant breakfast … and … oh my …"

"What is it, Hotaru?" asked Haruka.

"Now he's drinking it!" she said archly, as Haruka chuckled.

Kuryakin set the cup down, and began nibbling on something white and rubbery-looking.

"He's eating something now," said Hotaru, who had to admit he looked sort of … cute, like a squirrel that had found a particularly tasty nut. Then suddenly, he made a face, and stuck his tongue out as if to say, "Oy, this is nasty." He did, however, continue to eat it. It must have be a dietary staple that he was becoming bored with.

"So, what is the problem, Setsuna?" asked Michiru.

"He is looking pathetic, and he is doing it on purpose," she replied.

Hotaru, Haruka and Michiru looked at Setsuna, and then at each other.

"Looking pathetic …" said Michiru, her eyes raised.

"On purpose," said Haruka, her expression thoroughly amused.

"Well, Setsuna," said Michiru, airily, "there is a simple solution to this base trickery."

"What?" she asked, as she took another glance out the window.

"Quit watching him, Setsuna-momma?" volunteered Hotaru, as she sat back down at the breakfast table.

"Two-to-one he's in the guest room by tonight," Haruka whispered to Michiru.

"You'll have to give me better odds than that," she whispered back. "Even money has him at least sleeping in the genkan."

Setsuna, who seemed to hear absolutely none of this and continued to look out the window, finally dropped her head, sighed, then took a bowl out of the cupboard, filled it with steamed rice, and ladled a sweet cinnamon sauce onto it. Then, she sat it on a plate and set two slices of buttered toast beside it.

"Extra hungry this morning, Setsuna-momma?" asked Hotaru nonchalantly. Haruka and Michiru were barely able to conceal their amusement when, looking supremely disgusted with herself, Setsuna headed to the front door. Then as if she'd thought better of it, she reappeared in the doorway of the dining room and said, "Hotaru, you are fully dressed. Come here, and take this to Mister Kuryakin, please. And tell him it was your idea."

"I will take it, Setsuna-momma," she said, getting up and taking the bowl from Setsuna, "but I will not lie to him about who sent it."

Once Hotaru went out the front door, Haruka and Michiru could no longer contain themselves.

"Y'know, Setsuna, it's worth putting up with him just to watch you come apart," Haruka said as Michiru smiled.

"Why are you two so insistent on tormenting me?" Setsuna said dryly.

Michiru smiled and said apologetically, "It's just so cute when you start acting motherly like this. It's like how you are with the kids at Juuban Elementary. You are actually a very gentle-hearted person, whether you realize it or not."

"Yes, you are obviously feeling a bit guilty this morning," said Haruka through a sip of coffee. "Why can't you just admit …"

"I have admitted it," Setsuna said, cutting her off. "I have also been very clear that it is irrelevant."

Hotaru came back in. "He said he'd leave the dishes on the porch in a few minutes. He'll ring the doorbell to let us know."

"Did you tell him I sent it?"

"No, Setsuna-momma. He did not ask."

Everyone sat down to finish breakfast. Ten minutes later, as Setsuna got up to get a second cup of tea, the doorbell rang. She sighed and waited just a moment, hoping that he would simply leave the dishes and get back to … well, whatever he ought to be doing right now to make himself useful. Then she went to get them. When she opened the door, he was not there. She picked up the bowl, saw that he had cleaned it, and left a folded up piece of paper inside with the words "Thank you, Miss Meioh, very much," written on it.

'How does he do …'

She looked up, and gasped loudly.

"Mister Kuryakin!"

The others came running. Kuryakin was walking toward the wooded area next to the house, with a short handle shovel in one hand, and roll of toilet paper on a stick in the other. Nighty, robe, slippers and all, Setsuna stormed into the cool morning after him as the others poked their heads out the door.

"Mister Kuryakin, what are you doing?!" she demanded, hands on her hips.

He looked a bit shocked. It was the most exasperated she'd ever sounded within his hearing.

"Well, I … may be from another galaxy but I still have to … y'know …"

"In the woods?"

"Unless you have a better idea …"


Hotaru was humming a little tune as she helped Kuryakin carry a few things up to the second floor guest room, which was the only one with a bed that might be big enough for him to sleep in without him hanging over the edge too much.

He then joined the Sailor Senshi at the dining room table. He had two things with him: the little black cylinder and rectangular something that appeared to be made out of polished azul noce granite. It was, so he said, his "laptop computer," or really a device analogous to it used by his people. Hotaru had seen it many times in his studio but thought it was merely for decoration, though one day she did touch it and noted that it was strangely cool. Whatever it was made out of, it was sturdy enough, since it was one of few things still in the studio that had survived the fire.

Hotaru then began to watch carefully as she, 'The Kittens,' Setsuna-momma and Kuryakin-sensei gathered around the dining room table to talk about what to do next. When it came to matters of a looming fight, the Outer Planet Senshi, as Hotaru well knew, took their task seriously. As soldiers, they could be ruthless, cold, calculating, not inclined to accept help, and quite fatalistic. Such was the situation now, yet Setsuna had given into Kuryakin's presence among them and the general arrangement quicker than expected. Though she was still clearly uncomfortable and aloof with him, it was clear that, like it or not, circumstances were putting them together until this new enemy was found and dispatched. Equally strange, Haruka and Michiru also found themselves more or less at ease with the situation, too. This was, in part, Peter Kuryakin's fight, but though Haruka alone suspected that there was a second trajectory subtly at work here, and it might be that there were two fights and that they were merging together, the three elder Outer Planet Senshi fell right in with the discussion.

What Hotaru had attempted the previous evening had many facets to it. First of all, she sought to do something about the 'wholesale' way –so Kuryakin had put it- that her powers worked. Even before he described himself as an attenuator, she had already begun to get a feel for doing that herself, and it was by his example as her tutor that she had first begun to think this way. Here was a very tall, very fit, very smart, very charismatic man, who nevertheless used his strengths to help others, and give hope to those who needed it, regardless of their lot in life. He cared little or nothing for position or power, and even as the Ravagers did not disdain the slightest cruelty, he did not disdain the smallest kindness. She had realized that being an, or possibly the, angel of death, didn't necessarily mean she was herself was cursed, and loveless toward herself or others. As Hotaru thought more about it, what she had attempted with her guardians the previous evening was best described by analogy with the word 'elision,' a term in music that Michiru-momma had first taught her, and that Kuryakin-sensei explained further, whenever they played music together during her lessons. In an elision, a note or cord that ends a phrase becomes, in the same moment of musical time, the first note or chord of the next musical phrase. This happens often in classical music at weak cadence points, and Hotaru could think of no weaker cadence point in their lives than the failed attempt to defeat Galaxia. She herself had not quite known what the exact results would be, but she had finally understood that love occasionally manifested itself in a "Cold Look" too. Indeed, as Kuryakin had once quipped, Love is not blind: it is bound to those who are loved; blind is the last thing real love is. She had poured her deep love for all her guardians into her "discussion" with each of them, and though hers was a touch of death, she hoped that she could attenuate it enough for her touch to bring not just an ending, but also new birth in the same moment. Whether it had worked was up for grabs, but as they talked with each other and with Kuryakin, she realized that this new unity and comity she was seeing might have something to do with that. For now, things looked promising.

None too soon either. Kuryakin had seen and quickly assimilated the content of Haruka's notebook, and he and "Tomboy Kitten" were now thinking along the same lines. In the course of the discussion that followed, it became clear that they both thought the appearance of the ravager might not be mere coincidence. It might not have been planned in the strictest sense, but the Ravager had positioned itself to take advantage of any opportunities, and one had come in the form of a star in the Andromeda galaxy that burned a little brighter than usual one day.


On the table sat Haruka Tenoh's notebook, which she, over the last three and a half weeks, filled with streams of thought, coupled with news articles, internet items and deeper research that she first began because of something curious that had happened when she and Michiru had attended a party. It was a very fancy affair. Many of the people there were well-known to them, though it would be stretching comity to say these were 'their friends'. They were however, certainly, 'their set:' bankers, captains of industry, intellectuals, entertainment idols, supermodels, the usual crème de la crème, with whom Haruka and Michiru naturally fell in. She was having a not-too-unpleasant time. Michiru looked especially fetching in a lavender gown, and Haruka took a certain pleasure in the people taking note of her as they danced.

The evening took a marked downturn when a very handsome man came up to Michiru and asked to dance with her. Haruka had never met him before, but it was clear Michiru was acquainted with him. In fact, it quickly became clear this person was more than an acquaintance. That day at the dolphinarium, Michiru had told Kuryakin about how both she and Haruka had been approached by more than a few well-off men for the purpose of enjo kosai, or 'compensated dating.' Haruka was hardy a prude, far from it, but somehow, she had always seen that the way many westerners saw it: as pure, if high-tone, prostitution. When she got a bit older, and began to appreciate how expensive her tastes ran, it was entirely possible she might have reconsidered that 'way of life.' But then Michiru entered her life, and thanks to her and her alter ego, Sela Neptyune, not to mention her first, big racing success and subsequent sponsorship, it was never necessary to reconsider.

The person they ran into at this party was one of those very rich men who had first approached Michiru a few years back. He was very familiar with her, not to mention persistent, and worse, at the end of the conversation, he explicitly propositioned Michiru right there in Haruka's presence. When he said, "and bring your friend, too," Haruka damn near punched his lights out. When Michiru wisely intervened, explaining that Haruka was "that very special person" in her life, the man took the hint, and then left, looking unusually sad about it. Haruka had no business being judgemental about this really, but for some reason, this rankled, and it was not just jealousy or her usual dislike of men. She wanted to know more about this guy, and when she saw that man later heading upstairs with a few other very well-off men, including Member of Parliament Kajiwara, she decided to follow them. She lost them for a bit, searched for them, and nearly gave up trying to find them, but then stumbled upon a hush-hush conversation, barely audible through a cracked door. Haruka had a great deal of trouble hearing it, but certain snippets were very clear: "this thing is real … it is going to happen … you should prepare … they are already here in some way … there is no stopping this ..."

At that point, Haruka had to take cover because the wait staff began bringing out a new wave of hors d'œuvres, and when she was able to come out again, that meeting was breaking up. The man who had propositioned Michiru came out, but then lagged behind, waiting for the others to leave. He very sadly took out a picture from his wallet. "I wish she had said yes," he muttered quietly, and then, deeply saddened, discarded the picture. Haruka waited till he was gone, then went to the waste basket and took it out. It was a picture of Michiru, younger, but definitely her, playing her violin in a beautiful evening gown. If these things meant what she thought, this was actually quite touching. The man had truly cared about Michiru, and wanted to help her escape what he saw as some coming danger. It was an excellent picture of her. Haruka took out her wallet and slid it into a plastic holder. There was one word she heard that had puzzled her; one of them had said 'they' –whoever they were - were called 'The Macrobes.'

A week later, she had largely forgotten about the party, but as she and Michiru were out one day with some time to kill, they thought it might be fun to take in a movie. They decided on an apocalyptic film, which they, having been through a few "end of the world" scenarios themselves, viewed as a source of comedy more than anything. This movie did not disappoint. It had the usual clichéd dialogue, a boilerplate symphonic score, and lots of good special effects showing world landmarks getting thumped. But there was one character in the movie Haruka actually liked: a sardonic know-it-all, who gave the usual quips at the usual places. Then, out of nowhere, he uttered a phrase that stuck in her mind. As someone asked where the government was in the midst of the disasters befalling the world, that character had replied saying, "I wouldn't count on them if I were you. The elites have checked out of this one."

As someone whose lover was an artistic type, Haruka had many opportunities to consider the position of artist in a society. The artist has often been referred to as the cultural canary in the mineshaft. Whether that was true or not -and in Michiru's case, it very often was true- Haruka wondered if there was some special reason why that line from an otherwise thoroughly "B" movie echoed in her brain now and then, especially in quiet moments. Haruka found herself spending idle moments thinking about just what the end of the world might look like, and more specifically, what "the elites checking out" would look like. Little would have come of this, but it was shortly thereafter that the scandal in the Japanese Parliament broke. When MP Kajiwara killed himself –a 'checking out' of the most decisive kind- Haruka decided it was more than just a coincidence. There was something on the wind, faint but there, and thus she began her researches. She had not really expected to find anything, so it was a real surprise when she did.

The evidence was mainly anecdotal and the contexts were often not very well explained. Still, Haruka began noticing little things, which she then followed up via television news, the internet, and Funabashi Academy's excellent research library. It was there that she discovered the usefulness of certain internet subscriptions sites that served as ad hoc intelligence services for civilians. Usually, these sites were profit-making sites run by ex-members of various intelligence services, and run for the benefit of corporate patrons who depended on them to help keep their people safe in foreign countries. However, anyone willing to pay the subscription price was welcome. It did not take long for Haruka to realize that often these sites were a step or two ahead of state run intelligence agencies, especially Japan's rather inept one.

The main things she was looking for were scandals involving huge sums of money that had gone missing, unusual retirements, assassinations or suicides of high government officials, and anything else that might be considered 'checking out.' She had not had much luck finding out about missing monies, and if that was part of this, those trails were being covered very well. However, there had indeed been an unusual rash of suicides and otherwise suspicious deaths not just among government officials, but sometimes media people as well. It was far flung enough so that no one would notice unless someone was looking on a big enough scale, but this was mildly suspicious to Haruka. Surely, the hearts of so many had not all failed at once? What could be so terrible as to cause that? Then occasionally she'd see news where 'the cause of death' was disputed. Again, the evidence was purely anecdotal, but this suggested a sort of conspiracy. Her own run-ins with Infinity Academy's Witches Five and Sailor Galaxia's Anima-mates aside, Haruka's usual attitude toward conspiracies was one of "whatever happened, somebody, somewhere always knew it would." She was also keenly aware that when it came to secrets you could easily calculate the odds of the secret being compromised: square the number of people who know the secret, and that is the percentage chance of it being blown. If this weren't the truth, the Sailor Senshi would have little need of concealment auras.

Indeed, those concealment auras represented a sine qua non of any erstwhile conspiracy: something that enforced secrecy against the fact that all actions have effects and eventually somebody will notice. Kuryakin-san was an excellent case-in-point, but there a few people without his unique abilities who also knew or at least suspected some of the identities of the Sailor Senshi. The impromptu interview with Mrs. Kajiwara was a badly needed step in getting to the bottom of this, and Haruka found herself continually grateful for her courage in telling her about the 'man with no eyes.' That gave Haruka her first whiff of what the conspirators' secrecy enforcer squad might look like. Since then she had picked up on other stories about "people with no eyes," though regrettably, these stories were usually to be found in the tabloid press. Still, some of them seemed quite plausible. Because of this, Haruka remained convinced that MP Kajiwara had not killed himself. She no longer doubted that he had done so by his own hand, but she was not at all sure that the man was in full control of himself when he did.

But she had accepted that, as Mrs. Kajiwara had told her, his death clearly had to do with the embezzlement scandal in the Japanese Parliament. The problem: she had been going on the assumption that any missing monies were being taken in order weather what ever storm was coming. If these monies were being stolen so people in the know could hole up in some survivalist hideaway, committing suicide rather circumvented the need. Thus, she had pretty much hit a brick wall. There was simply no way she could think of to follow that kind of trail, but at least she realized this might not be about "the elites checking out," but something different. It was Kuryakin who provided the answer.

The appearance of the Ravager was one clue. Now Kuryakin stepped in with an analysis that he had begun as the others went back to sleep. Not only was his 'laptop' a computer far more powerful than anything known on earth (except perhaps, Sailor Mercury's quantum computer) it was in fact, an adjunct to the little black cylinder. With the two of them, Kuryakin had the handheld equivalent of the American CIA's notorious "Echelon Program" for monitoring and analyzing all wireless communications around the globe. Given its advanced nature and a computing power four orders of magnitude greater than anything on earth, it was also a hacker's dream machine, and in fact, amounted to whole intelligence service in its own right.

After leaving the Senshi with his promise to keep their sleep undisturbed, he input some search parameters, and set the computer to work. Then he went back to sleep as well. Just as he was drifting off, he was awakened by a tapping on the window, and bewilderingly but pleasantly surprised to find Miss Meioh there. She wanted to know that he was warm enough. He told her that he was fine, that he was well aware how uncomfortable he made her but that he felt very strongly he should keep close to them during this crisis, and that his present lodgings were fine. She seemed satisfied and he could not help but follow her with a wistful gaze all the way back into the house. God, but he had it bad for her. He could also see the difficult fight was occurring inside of her, and even said a short prayer on her behalf.

He awoke that morning, about a half an hour ahead of the Senshi. When he did, his computer chirruped, and he checked the results. They looked promising. He refined this analysis adding layer after layer of probability elimination variables and functions, and then settled down to breakfast – such as it was. All during this time, Kuryakin suspected he was being watched from the house, and when Hotaru emerged a bit later carrying a bowl of rice, and some toast, he was certain of it. The aura on it was not Hotaru's, and though he thanked her for bringing it, he knew exactly who had sent it. As he enjoyed Miss Meioh's sweet cinnamon rice, the computer chirruped again, and surprisingly clear picture emerged from the results.


This is what he now showed the Senshi.

"Now I've classified these results by order of probability, highest to lowest."

"I do not understand," said Setsuna. "How can you possibly have followed a trail of laundered money?"

"Ah," said Michiru, remembering something he'd said in passing at the dolphinarium. "You are mildly dyslexic."

"That was the beginning of it, yes," he said, as though it was something he was slightly ashamed of. "That is part of the reason Oyarsi-Viritrilbia said my head was 'too bent.' But between he and Oyarsi-Neruval they found a way to make that work for me. Neruval is the oddest one of the Great Six. Neruval can see things that no one else, not even Lurga or Glund, can see. Really, Miss Meioh, it should be impossible, unless it's actually happened. But since we know the goal, it really is possible for me to look for patterns that come to that goal.

First you have to learn how to see layers of patterns. A little prescience and insight doesn't hurt either. But even at the practical level, the one universal constant is bureaucracy. You'd be amazed as how well organized this world given its relative chaos. You might think that there are a huge number of similarly sized transactions going on throughout the world, but record keeping is pretty solid and detailed, and the number is … manageable. Those Swiss banks are remarkably well protected, but I was still able to find a way in, and be get specific about what I was looking for. I started with the amount reported by the media. Even an amount such as that can only be broken up into so many smaller units. If you cross check the amounts, you can develop a pretty narrow pool.

This morning when I woke up, I started increasing the number of variables of low probability to pare the list down a bit, and low and behold, a pattern emerged. Now either this is a clever but pointless mathematical illusion fueled by my own, admittedly febrile, imaginings, or this little conspiracy goes all the way around this world. And I can tell you where some, though not all of that money has gone. This money isn't being used so the elites can 'check out' although a cursory look at some of the patterns I'm seeing in the European banks suggest that is happening. As you've suspected, Tenoh-san, this money is being stolen, from all over the world, for a purpose. The question now is what? And does it have anything to do with the Ravager?"

"That guy at the party …"

"Speaking of which, Haruka," Michiru interrupted, "I want to talk to you about that later."

"Yes, Michiru," Haruka said, smiling nervously. "Anyway, that guy said they were called the Macrobes."

"The Macrobes, huh?" said Kuryakin looking pensive.

"Yup," Haruka replied. "Have you heard of them?"

"Well, no," he replied, "but the formation of the word explains itself, I think. Microbes are minute single celled life forms, well below humans in organization and complexity. A 'Macrobe' then would be something more advanced in some way than human life. I've never heard the Ravagers call themselves that, but it'd be just like them to give themselves such a name. Question is, how did humans ever come into contact with the ravagers … assuming that's what has happened? And that is why I am very interested in this …"

Kuryakin's little black cylinder was projecting his findings on a rotating global map. Now he stopped the rotation and centered the image on Japan. "There are two locations very near here with a high probability that some of that money was used to buy services from them. One company is right here in Kisarazu. They make high tech electronics, and their forte is transmission equipment, which I find very interesting, if indeed this has something to do with the appearance of a ravager here. They have the contract to build the new transmission tower in the Sumida Ward, the one that will replace Tokyo Tower. And then there is this one: it appears that a disbursement went to the Toshimaru shipping company in Nagoya. For the moment, we should assume that the equipment being made here is going there for shipping."

"I thought you were going to avoid any more assumptions," said Setsuna dryly.

"Well, assumptions are all we've got right now. As elegant as this is, it is still just a probability construct."

"So where do we go from here?" asked Hotaru.

"Well, there's one sure way to find out. Whoever these people are, and whatever they have to do with the ravager, they are trying to hide something. We don't know what it is, so let's be proactive, if only to put the burden of uncertainty on them. Then, instead of us wondering so much what they're up to, we'll make them worry about how much we know."

Haruka especially liked the sound of that very much. She began banging away on her laptop.

"I'll start with the company here in Kisarazu, and tomorrow I'll hit the one in Nagoya," said Kuryakin, looking thoughtful.

"But I wonder if we have time for that?" Michiru asked.

"As do I. It does feel like something that is far along, does it not?" said Setsuna.

"Are you volunteering, Miss Kaioh?"

Michiru merely smiled.

"Well, to tell you the truth I really wanted to be the one to take all the risks here, but I agree: there may not be much time. We need answers."

"Why haven't we seen this coming?" Hotaru asked.

"We have, Hotaru," Haruka winked. "We have." Then after a few more clicks on her laptop, she said, "That shipping company also has a small ship building division. They're small, but I knew I'd heard of them before. They make yachts –very posh ones - and they actually have guided tours. Including one this afternoon. You up for it, Michiru?"

Michiru smiled.

"Mister Kuryakin," said Setsuna, "I am coming with you, when you go to the electronics firm."

"That's not necessary, Miss Meioh."

"I insist."

"Very well," said Kuryakin, surprised but not unhappy to hear this.

"We leave in one hour," said Haruka.

"Will Hotaru be coming with us?" Kuryakin asked.

The Elder Outer Senshi looked at each other. It felt strange to think of Hotaru coming along on clandestine operations, but they were all Senshi, and she, in her way, was the strongest of them all.

"Hotaru," Setsuna smiled. "You shall come with us."

Hotaru smiled as the rest of them nodded.