Chapter VI
I do not own Sailor Moon or any of it's characters, all that goes to their respective owners Naoko Takeuchi and Toei Animation. Please support any and all official releases.
I slowly trudged to the locker room after gym to change back into my regular clothes.
"Hey Usagi," Naru who was right behind me began, "You know what sounds good right now? Some ice cream, wanna go to the corner shop to get some?"
I smiled, I was really sweaty from gym so that did sound like a good idea, plus who doesn't like ice cream? "Yeah, sure" I turned toward Usagi's other friend. Instead of agreeing, she slammed her locker and stormed off.
Naru sighed, "Kuri-chan said she got enrolled in Crystal Seminar last week, and she hasn't been herself since."
"Does that place actually help?" I asked
"Lots of people go there now so I guess," Naru continued, "They do all their work on computers. The students are assigned floppy discs that have some study program on it, apparently you get obsessed with it and you can't stop studying. I wonder what kind of program it is?"
"Ohh, I see," I said to myself as the realization finally hit me and I ran out the locker room, still in my gym shorts.
I found Ami in the computer lab, she looked like she was in pain as she stared at a computer screen, "Hey Ami-chan," I whispered, making her nearly jump out of her chair, "Are you doing that Crystal Seminar stuff right now?"
I noticed Ami quickly minimizing the screen so I couldn't see what it was, "Yeah, but it's just so hard to study from sometimes. I would prefer this," she held up her arcade pen and a notebook, "Call me old fashioned" she said with a small smile
"Hey our pen!" I quickly pulled mine out the pocket of my uniform, "I still have mine too. Hey my friends and I are gonna go get some ice cream, do you..."
Two students, a boy and a girl shoved me out of the way, I yelled at them but they completely ignored me.
"I need to go to seminar," the boy said robotically, and the girl replied in the exact same tone, "Yes let us go. Everyone is trying to catch up to you."
I saw Ami's face fall for a bit as she stood up and carefully packed her things, "Sorry Usagi-chan, I really should get going. Maybe next time."
I watched as Ami rushed down the hall, accidentally leaving her little disc by the computer. I then remembered in the anime that one of those dark kingdom monster were disguised as a teacher and these discs were actually brain washing programs, and Ami got in some major trouble for forgetting it.
"Well, time to go come up with a plan to stop those dark kingdom nutjobs from taking advantage of cram school students. It's just another day at the office." I said with a sigh, "But first, I need to ditch these sweaty gym clothes."
Luna was waiting for me outside of the school, and together we both set off for Crystal Seminar. We saw a very large crowd outside the cram school, and in the center stood a woman wearing a very tight and very ugly dress and passing out flyers, "Sign up now, there's no enrollment fee! Join now to discover your true potential!"
I grabbed one of those flyers, tuning out the lady's sales pitch. I looked at the flyer and was shocked; I found Ami all right, her face was smack dab in the center of every damn flyer.
I read it carefully. Luna sat on my shoulders to read as well, "Crystal Seminar, featuring the revolutionary Crystal disc program. Raise your grades and I.Q. Featured student: Ami Mizuno, the most brilliant girl in Japan."
"Raise your grades huh?" Luna began teasingly, "Maybe you should sign up too, Usagi-chan."
"Real hilarious" I said as I crumpled up the paper and tossed it over my shoulder, "I don't want to go to a creepy school like this."
"Hey!" I heard a man's voice from behind me, "Dumpling head! What am I, a trash can?"
I turned around and chuckled, "Hey Mamoru, sorry about that,"
I rolled my eyes when I noticed he donned a different, yet equally fancy, tuxedo and dark sunglasses.
"Do you ever get hot wearing all that?" I asked him.
"Believe it or not I don't wear a tuxedo all the time," he smirked.
"Could've fooled me" I shot back chuckling. he removed his sunglasses to stare at me more closely, "A couple minutes ago I thought I heard your little cat talking, or am I imagining things?"
"Of course not! Don't be stupid!" I said with a wave of my hand before turning around and running away.
"You are one lucky cat," I informed Luna as we ran into a alley.
She ducked her head, embarrassed, "As I was going to say before we were interrupted," I stated, "This is all very suspicious, I was able to acquire one of those floppy discs from Ami that this flyer is talking about. I think we should check it out. Let's go home and pop it into Dad's computer..."
"No!" Luna shouted, "It's too risky, we have absolutely no clue what's on there. It might be something... something we don't want others to find out about. Let's go back to the school and..."
Now it was my turn to interrupt, "Going BACK to school?" I groaned, "Cat, you're really killing me here." I begrudgingly made my way back to the school.
There were a few stragglers left wandering the hall, but thankfully the computer lab was empty. I popped in the floppy disc, and at first what appeared was a normal practice test. I scrolled through it, "Come on, show me the evil brainwashing subliminal messaging" I began hitting the monitor like I did to the arcade machine.
"Usagi-chan! What are you doing!" Luna hissed.
"I know what I'm doing!" I insisted, "You just gotta hit the sweet spot..."
The screen suddenly blurred, and a dark voice came out of the speakers, "Offer the energy of your brain and knowledge to our great ruler,"
"Told ya" I smirked, Luna however ignored me and continued staring at the screen in horror.
The computer continued, "You will become a slave to our great ruler, and you will gather everything you can find about the Silver Crystal."
"It's the enemy!" Luna cried out, "They're brainwashing students!"
I turned my head to look at the few remaining students in the hall, they were all walking slowly, like zombies and were mumbling, "Crystal... Silver Crystal... must find Silver Crystal..."
"Yep, they're brainwashed all right," I said, "We have to save Ami-chan! But how?"
"Your pen, Usagi-chan!" Luna said resolutely.
"Oh yeah!" I tossed the pen in the air and shouted, "Moon Power! Change into a..."
I thought of Ami, and called out, "Doctor!"
In a flash, my school uniform transformed into a very short nurse's outfit, complete with name tags and a stethoscope.
"I said 'Doctor' not 'Halloween Nurse'" I grumbled as I pulled the dress down to at least try and cover myself, "Luna, we gotta talk about these outfits."
"Usagi-chan, there's no rush or anything," Luna said a little frantically.
I nodded, and we ran back towards Crystal Seminar.
I burst through the front doors of the school and quickly told the person a the front desk, "I have an emergency call!" and rushed into the building. I found Ami listlessy wandering through the hallway, I grabbed her arm, noticing her face was very pale.
"Ami-chan" I shook her, to no reply, "You've been brainwashed, you have to snap out of it! Oh man, I have to find the monster behind all this."
I yelled, "Moon Prism Power, Make up!"
The power washed over me quickly, and soon I found myself in my familiar Sailor Moon outfit. I burst into each classroom, looking for whoever was responsible for this. When I stumbled into a full class, I cried out, "Everybody! Get away from the computers! They're brainwashing you!"
"Who are you?" the monster cried out angrily.
I did not answer her, I just simply sent my tiara out over them all - moon tiara stardust, it cured them of their hypnotism and put them to sleep.
"I am the monster of knowledge, Garoben!" she announced as her human form melted away into her more genuine, and legitimely monstrous, form.
I winced at the incredibly stupid pun. I remembered my little sister studied Japanese and she would tell me certain phrases and their meanings, one of them was gariben. A gariben is a person who studies a lot, this monster who uses studying to brainwash people calls herself Garoben? Are they really that lazy? I thought back to the previous monsters I've fought and wondered if they also had incredibly 'punny' names.
The teacher's (I refuse to call it that incredibly stupid name) eyes began glowing white, and when she reached out her long arms, papers flew from them. They sailed straight at me, I just barely dodged them. I lunged at the monster but she sent more paper in my direction, this time a couple of them actually hit me. I pushed one of the desks over and hid behind it, I had scratches all over, blood was dripping down my legs and arms. I carefully peeked over the desk and saw that Ami had been grabbed by the monster and was struggling in her grip.
"Let her go!" I yelled as I leaped to attack, but the monster used her free hand to again send out the super sharp paper, this time I was hit head on. My scratches were now full on cuts, the blood was now pouring out.
"Ami! Your pen!" Luna called out "Hold your pen in the air!"
The teachers long, gnarled fingernails transformed into blades, and as she began to held it up over Ami's head, the pen in Ami's pocket flashed a bright blue light. A symbol began to grow on Ami's forehead, and suddenly the air was covered in a thick mist.
"W-w-where did you go? I'll cut you into little pieces." the monster cried out, I followed the general direction the voice came from, as the mist started to settle I could make out the monster's figure, I also noticed another figure performing a jump kick and sending the monster flying. The mist cleared and I saw who it was, Tuxedo Kamen. He was actually doing something, I reached for my tiara and hurled it at the monster, and with a loud scream she was sliced in half and turned into a pile of dust.
It was then that my knight in shining armour (gag), Tuxedo Kamen turned around, "So you finally show up" I said with a smirk, he chuckled, "Go rescue your friend, Sailor Moon, I'll check on the students and make sure they're okay."
I gave him a nod and while he made his way to the classroom, I made my way to the hallways to look for Ami.
"Usagi-chan," Luna called out, "Come and see Ami-chan!"
Ami was staring down at her body with an expression that I knew all too well. Her uniform hd changed into one that was simmilar to mine before I made my altercations to it: a short skirt attached to a white sailor leotard with a matching blue collar and bow on the chest, white gloves, blue boots, and even her own tiara with a blue gem in the middle.
"Wow!" I exclaimed, "Look at you Ami-chan!"
"Just as I predicted," Luna proudly said, "That intellect of yours gave it away. Ami Mizuno, you're the soilder of water and intelligence, the protector of Mercury, Sailor Mercury! We've been searching for you, our ally sailor soldier."
"The cat is talking" Ami said weakly, "The cat is talking"
I put a hand on her shoulder, "You get used to it," I told her, giving her a small smile, "If you want I can modify your suit, those leotards really chafe" I giggled when I saw her blush, she looked down and saw the cuts on my legs.
"Oh my gosh Usagi-chan!" Ami gasped, "Are you all right?"
"I'm fine," I answered, "Nothing a couple band-aids can't fix, looks like I'm gonna be wearing pants for a while, and I just bought the cutest skirt!" I fake pouted for emphasis.
Ami shook her head and chuckled, "You really are quite peculiar Usagi-chan, but you really should take care of those wounds. my mom has a first aid kit in our apartment, let me take you there and disinfect all those nasty cuts."
"Okay" I agreed and she took my hand and helped me up, "Besides," Ami began, "I have a lot of questions."
"Like what?" I asked.
"Why is the cat talking?"
Author's Notes:
Hey everybody, I'm not dead, (well I am dead tired haha) and neither is this fic. I'm trying to update this every other Sunday, I hope I can stick to this schedule, my new work schedule should also help with this as well.
Now let's get to the real matter at hand, this chapter has the first appearance of Sailor Mercury (oohh ahhh) also Tuxedo Kamen actually helping our protagonist out? I never thought I'd see the day, I wonder how things will go with the three of them working together?
See you all next time.
