Notes: Episode 137, "Forest of Illusion! Invitation of a Beautiful Fairy". Or, "The one with that dude who is way into fairies."
Episode 137
"Kitakata-san! Your fairies are right here!"
Everyone froze, ears straining, waiting for the inevitable sounds of Kitakata tearing through the forest to find them. He wanted fairies, right? Dude was pretty clearly hung up on this fairy thing. Minako, Rei and Mako may not have been fairies in the strictest sense, in that they were not fairies in any conceivable way, but then reality didn't seem to be something Kitakata was too hung up on.
So they waited, barely breathing. Mako narrowed her eyes at the trees, daring them to not produce Kitakata. Rei had brought up her arms and clenched her fists like a prize fighter going into the final round. Minako was poised with one foot forward, ready to rush at the slightest noise that sounded Kitakata-esque.
Ami closed her eyes and again wondered why she'd come.
Several seconds passed with no Kitakata. On some unspoken cue, the three girls simultaneously slumped.
"This guy NEEDS a fairy to fix his stupid ears," Mako grumbled.
Minako glared at the map. It refused to magically reveal their location in relation to Kitakata. She glared harder.
The sky turned a deeper shade of pink and Ami glanced at it worriedly. "If we start now, we should be able to find the way out before the sun sets." It was her third attempt in as many minutes to curtail this madness, and so she couldn't even be surprised by the vehement reaction anymore.
"No way!"
"Absolutely not!"
"That's talk for quitters!"
Ami frowned at her friends. The same friends who wanted to give up after five minutes of algebra. "Do you guys even remember what Kitakawa-san looks like?"
As one, the girls opened their mouths. As one, nothing emerged.
"He's cute?" Mako put forward tentatively.
"He wears glasses!" added Rei, full of conviction.
"Clearly he is perfect!" Minako concluded, and then began to again cry to the heavens for her lost bespectacled true love she saw in a picture yesterday.
Ami shook her head and gave up completely.
Mako rescued the map from being torn to pieces in Minako's dramatic monologue. She smoothed out the crinkles and studied it, turning it first one way and then the other. "You know," she said thoughtfully, "if we transformed, we could get to the top of one of these trees and maybe figure out where we—"
Suddenly Rei and Minako were peering at her like she'd suggested deposing Usagi and fighting to the death to become the new Moon Princess.
"That is CHEATING, Mako-chan!" Rei admonished. "If Chibi-Usa could find the lake on her own …"
"...how can fearless love-struck maidens such as ourselves not do the same?" finished Minako.
"Ahh, sorry, sorry," Mako hastily apologized. "Let's get going though, the lake's not going to find US. Which way do you think, Ami-chan?"
Mako turned toward Ami. Only Ami wasn't there.
"Ami-chan?"
The three girls spread out in the clearing calling for Ami, but there was no answer.
Rei turned in a full circle then put her hands on her hips and frowned. "That's weird. She didn't say anything did she?"
"I don't think so," Mako said worriedly.
"She's been eaten by a bear!" screamed Minako.
Mako immediately looked like she was going to track down every bear in existence and beat them to death with her own hands. Rei merely rolled her eyes.
"She wasn't eaten by a bear."
Mako visibly relaxed.
"A crocodile!" Minako corrected, and Mako was back to revenge on the animal kingdom. "I saw it on TV! A crocodile snatched up poor Ami-chan like a delicate young gazelle crossing a river, oh god!"
"Seriously, there's something wrong with you," Rei told her, and then yelped as Minako yanked her to one side.
"Shut up, you fool, there's a mad crocodile on the loose! We have to hide!"
Minako cowered in her hiding place. She'd locked a death grip on Rei, so she was forced to cower also.
Mako, as it turned out, WAS the hiding place, and a very indignant one at that. "Hey!"
"Shh!" Minako hissed. "The crocodile will hear you!"
The communicator going off was all that saved Minako. Mako spared one final smoldering look before answering. Ami's face materialized in the tiny viewscreen, and all anger was forgotten. "Ami-chan!"
Instantly Mako's face was squished from both sides as Rei and Minako pushed in.
"Where are you?" Rei asked.
"And how did you escape from the crocodile?"
Ami blinked at Minako, but decided it wasn't worth pursuing. "I'm at the bus stop."
Rei glanced at where she'd last seen Ami, just a few minutes before. "But how did you find it so fast?"
"I used my computer," Ami said, to a trio of shocked gasps.
"That's cheating!" Mako exclaimed. "Apparently!"
"Ami-chan, you of all people?" Rei was so shocked it was a rare moment where she couldn't seem to figure out what else to say.
Minako was content to merely shake her head in infinitely stern disapproval.
"I prefer 'using all available resources'," the tinny little voice corrected without an ounce of shame. "I finished both of my books an hour ago and it's getting late. If you'd like, I can lead you out of there."
The three girls exchanged a look.
"It IS kinda late …" Mako tentatively began.
Rei weighed up the situation for a moment then nodded, her mind made up. "If Kitakata-san is THIS blind to wonderful girls, he's hardly good enough for us anyway."
All eyes fell on Minako. It was clear she was torn. On the one hand, cute boy and unfulfilled objective. On the other, not being in these stupid woods anymore.
But was that enough?
"Crocodile," Rei whispered in her ear, and THAT was enough for Minako.
"Home!" she announced, and promptly strode off.
"Wrong way, Minako-chan," Ami's voice corrected.
"Home!" Minako repeated, as she spun and walked in the other direction.
