A few days later, Ami was studying at her cram school, but in her head, she kept drifting off about what was going on with her. Not helping were intrusive thoughts about Ryou. "Jadeite mentioned a sister," she thought to herself. "Could it be that he's related to Shouko? Last I heard, she didn't go to her high school for a full week after whatever had happened between me and her. How would she be related to my enemy as Sailor Mercury? Speaking of, what happened while I was blacked out? What caused Jadeite to be so haunted and broken emotionally?"
She then turned back to her work, trying to focus. It felt as though the whole weight of the world was on her shoulders. Considering that Shouko had revealed herself as Beryl only when Dark Ami was in control, she had no idea what the connection was between them. Again, as she got to the end of her page, the other topic of her thoughts emerged: Ryou Urawa.
"I wonder what he's doing right now," Ami thought to herself. "I wonder if he ever thinks of me... Wait a minute, why am I thinking this? I told myself I'm not ready for romance! I have to focus on my work!" As she thought of Usagi's words of romance from the past, she sighed. "Usagi-chan's always talking about falling in love, and Makoto-chan is boy-crazy and always talking about how seemingly every decent-looking boy she meets reminds her of the upperclassman she once had a crush on. I always found it weird, but ever since I met Urawa-san..."
...
The next day, as Ami and her mother sat together eating breakfast early in the morning, Saeko showed her a newspaper article about a museum exhibit. "This is pretty interesting, Ami. They're doing an exhibit on the Arctic ruins that me and your father helped excavate in the early 80s."
"No way," Ami replied in surprise as she took the newspaper from her and read its title. "New Exhibit on the Ancient Arctic Ruins in Juuban Museum..." As she continued to read the article, she looked down at the Mercury Puzzle around her neck and said to herself, "Maybe I can get in contact with the guy in charge of this and see if he can look at the puzzle."
"I knew him from my college days with your dad," she replied. "His name is Kusunoki Taku. He was an archaeology student, but your father got to know him through GenEd classes in college. He really knows his stuff, Ami. I'll talk to him and see what I can do. Anyway, is everything with that Nakamura kid giving you any issues anymore?"
"None at all," Ami happily replied. "He's left me and my friends alone ever since what happened."
...
That weekend, Ami, Usagi, Makoto, Rei, and Naru visited a museum in the Juuban district, the same museum where the Arctic Explorations exhibit was being held. As they waited for Ami's mother to return, they spotted her bringing along a man that was a few years older than her. "Everyone, I'd like you to meet Kusunoki Taku! He was the lead archaeologist on the excavation."
"It is a pleasure to meet all of you," Taku replied before he looked at the Mercury Puzzle. "I must say, it is amazing to hear that someone solved the Mercury Puzzle after so long, but especially someone close to me. Mizuno-san, do you mind if I look at it?"
"Sure thing," she replied as she took the puzzle off and handed it to Taku. "It took many years, but I finally did it, Kusunoki-san."
"I see you're already looking it over," then said another man who walked over. He was older, and had grey hair. "My name is Miyashita Shou, and I'm the superintendent of the museum."
"Miyashita-san financed this most recent exhibition," Taku told the gang before handing the puzzle carefully to him.
"My, oh my, after all this time," Shou said to himself. "It's finally finished." He then turned to Ami and her mother with a brilliant idea. "Say, what if I were to exhibit this at the museum for a day? Once we close, just swing by and I'll hand it back."
Ami and her mother looked to each other and nodded. Then, her mother replied, "Absolutely. I'll make sure Ami retrieves it later."
Ami was on board with the idea, but she still felt weird about it. "I've never really been separated from the Mercury Puzzle for a full day before," she thought to herself. "It's gonna feel weird walking around without it."
Meanwhile, Rei felt something off about Shou, as if he had other plans for the puzzle. "I'm not exactly sure what," she thought to herself. "But I think he intends on doing something with it. Whatever it is, I have a bad feeling about this."
As it turns out, Rei's suspicions may have been correct. Shou thought to himself as he took the puzzle into the museum, "Perfect. One day is all I need..." Unbeknownst to everyone, even Taku, Shou was in fact involved in the underground artifact trade, illegally selling them to buyers across the world.
...
Inside the museum, as the gang viewed the various exhibits, Makoto and Usagi were freaked out by a rather disturbing cave painting found on a large piece of stone that had seemingly fallen from the wall of a cave. Usagi clung to Makoto, telling her, "Mako-chan, that painting is so scary!"
"Tell me about it," she replied, uncharacteristically afraid of its contents, which contained a grotesque depiction of a seemingly demonic entity and its red-and-black face. In its mouth were sharp and deformed teeth, which were gnawing on what appeared to be a human arm. "This thing is givin' me the creeps!"
Rei, Naru, and Ami looked on, finding their fear of the cartoonishly horrid painting funny. Rei told the duo, "Come on, girls. It's just a painting."
"But it's so gross and disturbing," Usagi replied. "I'm gonna have nightmares about it!"
Naru shook her head and chuckled, telling herself, "Well, I can't say I'm surprised she'd be scared by it."
Usagi took some offense to the remark, telling her, "Hey, what's supposed to mean?!"
"I'm most surprised that Makoto-chan is so scared by it," Ami remarked. "You'd think she'd handle it just fine."
Meanwhile, in another part of the museum, Shou was discussing a business deal with a German antiques dealer, well away from the gang and well out of earshot of anyone else. "So," asked the German man in accented English. "Mr. Miyashita, this Mercury Puzzle will be ready by the end of the day, correct?"
"Indeed," he replied back in English. "It's worth hundreds of thousands, if not millions, in any currency you can think of. Marks, Dollars, Pounds, Yen, Yuan, Francs, Rubles, Won, Guilders, Lira, Pesetas, Escudos, Pesos, Schillings, whatever you can think of."
"That sounds wonderful," the German replied, eager to get his hands on the puzzle. "I'll come back when the museum closes to finalize everything."
Unbeknownst to the two men, they were not entirely alone. A mysterious woman with long and dark green hair in a business suit was standing around a corner, listening to them intently with a hint of anger in her expression. As the two of them separated, she quickly hid herself in a women's restroom before the German man passed by. She muttered to herself, "I can see why my queen was so concerned. These bastards plan on selling the puzzle off." She then pulled a small communicator out of her suit coat pocket and opened it, revealing a small screen inside.
"I see you have arrived," replied a woman about the same age as her with golden hair, a crown, and earrings. "What's going on with the puzzle?"
"You were right," she replied. "That museum director is a black market artifact dealer. I'm gonna take care of him."
"Make sure the puzzle returns to its rightful owner," the woman replied. "You will find out soon enough who it is."
"Why won't you just tell me who she is, my queen?" She was clearly slightly annoyed.
"It wouldn't be fun if I did that," said the other woman with a mischievous smile. "Come on, it won't take you long."
...
Soon after the museum closed for the day, the German man returned and approached Shou's office. However, closely following behind him was the same woman who had snooped on their conversation from before. As the German man knocked on Shou's door, he told him in English, "Mr. Miyashita, I'm here."
"Come on in."
However, just before the German man could turn the knob, the woman pulled a metal pipe from behind her and whacked him across the head with it, knocking him out and sending him to the floor with a loud thud that quickly got Shou's attention. As the woman let herself in, she asked him, "Who are you, and what do you intend to do with the Mercury Puzzle?"
"Who the Hell are you?!" Shou was startled to see the unexpected visitor appear in front of him. "If you're from the police, I'll have you know that I oppose selling artifacts on the black market. I would never do such a thing!"
"I'm not from the police," the woman replied. "I am Samira, Princess and Sailor Guardian of Pluto, and the Guardian of the Door of Space-Time. You can call me Sailor Pluto or Setsuna if you must. I have come here on an assignment from my ruler because I know for a fact that you intend on stealing the Mercury Puzzle and selling it to the highest bidder."
"I will do no su-"
"Cut the shit," Setsuna immediately spat back at him. "I heard you and that German man discuss it. I can speak English, too." She then set a briefcase down on his desk and opened it, revealing a set of scales and a large key. "These items were made on my home planet, and are used to judge those of wrongdoing and to look into the souls of others. They are the Pluto Scales and the Pluto Key." As she pulled the Pluto Scales out and set them down on the table, she shut her briefcase and took a pen off the desk, placing it on one side of the scales. "This pen will represent your heart. The other side of the scale will represent the evil that resides in it. If it tips all the way over to evil, you will face a terrifying judgement."
Realizing he was backed into a corner, Shou relented. "Fine, I'll play this game. It sounds awfully like the Judgement of the Dead in Ancient Egypt."
"The cultures of the Silver Millennium have continued to influence humanity long past its demise," Setsuna replied. "And Ancient Egypt was no exception. Now, you will be judged based on a series of questions I'm going to ask you. First, let's say a boy falls down a ravine and gets knocked out like your friend over there near the door. You are the only one who sees it happen, and you do not have a cellphone with you. However, the boy was carrying a golden necklace, and it came off and landed at your feet. You can only save one of the two things I just mentioned. Who or what do you save? Choose wisely, and choose truthfully, as a lie counts just as much as doing something bad."
"I would save the boy," Shou immediately replied, worried about his chances. However, it was not good enough, and the bad side of the scale inched closer to the ground. "What?! No!"
"Next question," Setsuna then asked him. "A man leaves his wallet on the train. Inside is 7000 yen. Do you take the money or track down the man?"
"I track down the man!" Once again, the scale determined he was lying. "Are you kidding me?!"
"Next question," Setsuna went once again. "Your grandmother had died, and you have been instructed to leave an expensive diamond with her body. Do you let her keep it or take it?"
"I let her keep it." As the scale tipped again to the bad side, he exclaimed, "This game is rigged!"
"You're wrong," Setsuna replied as she snapped her fingers. As soon as she did, the armrests of Shou's chair changed shape, and two decaying arms emerged to hold him down to his seat. As they gripped him, he screamed in horror. "This game is fair. Now, one last question. Is it true that you deal in the illegal smuggling and black market of ancient artifacts of many cultures?"
"Get me out of here," he yelled, fearing for his life as the bad side of the scale fell to the table. "Somebody, anybody, help me!"
"I've heard enough," Setsuna concluded before pointing directly at Shou, the Symbol of Pluto appearing on her forehead. "Penalty Game! Forever Aging!"
Starting from where the decayed hands had grabbed him, Shou's body began to rapidly age and then die. As it spread up his body, he screamed. "Oh God, help! Help me! Within seconds, the aging process had reached his face, and as he looked to a reflection of himself in a nearby mirror on a wall, he screamed as he saw his skin fall off, as if he was turning into a rotting corpse. "No! No! No!" As his eyeballs fell out, he let out an ear-piercing shriek that made even Setsuna recoil and cover her ears.
After half a minute, Shou collapsed onto his desk, completely dead. In reality, he had been subject to an illusion, but the stress was enough to deliver what would turn out to be a fatal heart attack. Setsuna immediately put away the Pluto Scales and grabbed the Mercury Puzzle from his desk. She remarked to herself, "I still can't believe someone solved it after so many millennia of it being stowed away. Now, I need to find its rightful owner."