Notes: Episode 127, "Self-Awareness as a Soldier! Strength Lies in the Pure Heart". Or, "The one where everybody throws Chibi-Usa a going away party."

Episode 127

"I think we may have to admit defeat here, Minako."

Minako twitched.

"Mako's right. I don't like it any more than you do, but we can't win."

"Et tu, Rei?" Minako muttered darkly.

Ami was quick to jump in and cut off Rei's retort. "There must be another option."

But Minako refused to be swayed, and she glared at the sign with every ounce of bitter hatred she could muster. Which, it turned out, was quite a lot.

This was as one-hour photo development place. ONE-HOUR.

And yet.

"How can they do this?!" she demanded of her friends.

Rei rolled her eyes. "Here we go."

"I'm serious! I may not get the whole math thing super well, but I'm gonna go out on a lamp and say that one hour is not three hours! I'm pretty sure that's two extra hours we just don't need!"

She looked at Rei expectantly, waiting for an answer, waiting for some justification to this deep betrayal of time itself. When Rei said nothing she spun on Mako, who only rubbed the back of her head and glanced away, then Ami, who was closely inspecting the sign.

"It says that it's one hour from when they begin to process it, so if there are others ahead of you—"

"A complete breach of contract, I know!" Minako readily agreed, thoroughly ignoring Ami's attempts to correct her.

"C'mon, let's just go find another picture, huh?" Minako glared at the arm Mako had slung over her shoulder, like perhaps it was one of the hated few who also unreasonably wanted film developed today. "Between us we should have something that'll work for the album."

Rei was already walking away, the matter clearly settled in her mind. "You, Mako, and Usagi are ridiculous with your cameras. I fail to believe there's nothing else."

She squawked as suddenly Minako was before her, fist clenched and eyes wide. "There is nothing else. There is only this." Minako's voice was deep and grave and also Rei's cue.

"I'm going now," she announced to the others over her shoulder as she stepped around Minako.

"Come back here, photo coward!" Minako yelled at Rei's retreating back. "You are a soldier of love and justice and a one-hour photo that takes longer than one hour is the highest injustice in the land! AND WHERE ARE YOU TWO GOING?"

Minako's head snapped toward Makoto and Ami, who were attempting to slink away unnoticed. They jumped, Mako's back locking straight as she thrust her hands out like a ward against the terrifying image before her. Ami peeked out from behind Mako's hip, her eyes taking up a full two-thirds of her face.

"Ahh! Ahh nowhere! Yeah, we were just going to go check! On the photos!"

Minako leaned forward until her nose was less than an inch from Mako's. "You lieeeeeee," she hissed.

With a heavy sigh, Mako dropped her hands. "Look, I've gotta get home and finish up Chibi-Usa's bento. They're already waiting for us at Mamoru-san's. We just don't have time." She blinked, and then her face split in a wide grin. "Hey, that's kinda ironic when you think about it! Isn't it? Huh?"

Minako did not find this particularly interesting and her expression refused to change. Mako looked down at Ami, who only tried harder to hide. With a shrug, Mako gave up. Irony was hard.

"Well I still have to go get it ready. Find another picture, Minako," she counseled.

"I question your dedication to everything," said Minako, still glowering.

Mako nodded. "That's fair."

This left only Ami, who soon discovered she was hiding behind nothing at all. She considered Minako. Minako's eyebrow was quivering. Ami – who had made something of a study of her friends and quietly considered herself an expert in them – didn't hesitate.

"Please try very hard not to be arrested," she said, and walked away. Quickly.

Minako glared at the one-hour photo sign. "I promise nothing," she solemnly vowed.

... ... ...

Sailor Venus crawled through the air ducts.

Sailor Venus did not in fact need to BE in air ducts.

But she was in air ducts all the same.

It seemed better this way, it felt RIGHT.

Crawling in an air duct meant a MISSION.

One rarely crawled in air ducts without a mission, after all.

Sometimes. But rarely.

And oh yes this was a mission.

Finally, after fifteen minutes or so of crawling, including a few rather panicky moments in a T-bend, Venus had found the processing room, and the lone clerk working within.

Only one clerk! No wonder there was this ridiculous extra-two-hours situation happening! If you were going to advertise a service, you should make sure you were properly staffed to handle customer expectations! Honestly.

Oh well, there was only the one, and that meant he alone would have to answer to the Soldier of Love and Beauty and Complete Lack of Patience.

Venus lashed out with a well-placed kick. The cover went flying off of the duct, across the room and clattered into the opposite wall. The photo clerk gasped and dropped the tongs he was using into the solution, not noticing as it splashed all over the table and his shirt.

"Hold it right there!" Sailor Venus commanded as she gracefully landed on the ground. In the blacklights, her fuku became luminescent. It was kinda cool, she had to admit, and wondered briefly if she should ask the clerk to take a picture of her, but yeah, not the point right now.

"Photographs are the windows to our memory! Providing them in a timely manner is the duty of every one-hour photo center! False advertising is a lie directly to our hearts! A three-hour processing time is unforgivable! On behalf of love, I'll punish you!"

Venus waited for the inevitable apologies. Possibly even a little groveling, that would really go a long way right now.

She realized with surprise that the clerk wasn't even looking at her. Instead, he was yanking down drying photographs as fast as possible.

When she caught a glimpse of one, she understood why.

"You pervert!" Venus shrieked, quite beside herself.

The clerk's blush was visible, even in the dim light. "I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry" he kept repeating. He'd just meant to develop a few over his lunch break, but now he was all backed up and now here was a Sailor Senshi (a real honest to god Sailor Senshi! Here! And SO MAD at him!) and his boss was probably going to find out and—

Oh god.

"Please don't tell my boss!" the clerk wailed, falling prone at Venus' feet.

See? A little contrition was all she wanted. Almost.

"Develop this," she said, producing a roll of film. "Right now too, none of this 'three-hour' crap."

"Yes! Yes of course!" the clerk said, reaching out.

But Venus wasn't done. She pointed to one of the pictures still hanging up. "And a copy of that. Rrrowr."

It was all worth it for Chibi-Usa. The little girl deserved the best going away present Minako could give her.

And if Minako walked away with a little bonus for her trouble, well so much the better.