"Moon Prism Power... Make... Up!"
In his dreams the magic words, so new for him, were called out again and again by her. In front of him he always saw Usagi, his little bun head, how she was then guided by a powerful energy, spun and magically whirled around. Finally, each time she transformed into the beautiful fighter for love and justice: Sailor Moon.
Usagi is Sailor Moon... Usagi. Sailor Moon is ... USAGI!!!'
With a jolt, Mamoru rode up from his bed. He was drenched in sweat, completely disoriented, and quite confused.
He remained in this position for a few moments, until his eyes fell on the white bandage on his shoulder in the semi-darkness. Thanks to his strong self-healing powers, he hardly felt his injury and carefully removed the bandage that Usagi had tied around his shoulder a few hours earlier.
Memories came back to him all at once as he continued to look around his bedroom. That had been such a strange situation last night in his apartment. She had left him without any further explanation, discussion or plan. Now a new morning had dawned.
After the great revelation.
As the first rays of sunlight made their way through tiny little holes in his blinds, welcoming him to the new day in their bundled form, Mamoru finally stood up. His thoughts, however, were still firmly engulfed by the events at the Starlight Tower.
What were they supposed to do now that they had found out their true identities? Usagi was deeply confused, he could see that in her beautiful eyes yesterday. But there was something else in them; uncertainty? Disappointment? Longing?
Mamoru went to his bathroom and took a long shower to clear his mind. A tried and true remedy, actually. As the cold water poured down on his body in jets, the refreshing effect gave him the opportunity to think more thoroughly about this whole more than confusing situation.
'Usagi. I want you to trust me so that we can both find the key to the Imperium Silver Crystal. Then, the princess from my dreams will surely be found as well. That is the only reason why I am involved in all this. Isn't it? Is it still? That night I didn't dream about the princess at all. It seems that she was replaced by the fact that Usagi is Sailor Moon.'
"Usagi...I think we really need to talk… About us."
Where it was just a slight feeling at first, it finally manifested into a strong resolution. There was no choice for Mamoru but to work with Usagi and the other warriors. Sailor Moon had to trust him so that she could convince the other soldiers to join him in obtaining the Imperium Silver Crystal. He could only hope that Zoisite would not find out about him before he could talk to Usagi properly. With these thoughts in mind, Mamoru got out of the shower, quickly put on his trusty outfit, and finally left his apartment.
--
When the alarm clock rang this morning, Usagi, contrary to her usual habit, was already up, freshly showered, dressed in her school uniform, and almost on her way to school. She startled her mother fiercely as she all but flew down the stairs, grabbed her breakfast from the kitchen table in all peace of mind, and walked out of the house elated. Cheerfully, the blonde girl waved a quick goodbye to her.
The put-upon facade still worked. Luna was highly confused when Usagi just left the room and she was still lolling around with pleasure, but obviously she had bought her story from yesterday with Naru.
Of course, Usagi was anything but awake, but rather tired as hell, but she had to pull herself together and make sure that she arrived at school on time. On the way to school, she had a little time to think and immediately the events of yesterday dominated all her thoughts again. In her dreams of the night the scenes in the elevator had repeated themselves constantly. She could look into Mamoru's stunned face like a hundred times, after she stood in front of him in full costume as Sailor Moon.
Mamoru.
He was actually not sooo wrong. Okay, he had regularly made her angry in various situations and apparently she was the only one whom he teased constantly, whom he constantly annoyed and pestered wherever he could. He never missed an opportunity to comment on her. But... was that somehow his way of showing her that he... liked her?
But then there was Rei. Yes, she had made quite a pass at Mamoru back then, and the two of them had something like a date at Café Amigo and even went to the park afterwards. But Usagi hadn't really seen them together, as a couple, since that boat trip on the lake.
Rei always talked about Mamoru and that she wanted to meet him all the time, but actually she only went out with him twice, as far as she could tell. Because supposedly Mamoru was totally busy studying the whole day. Strange. Usagi met Mamoru actually on a daily basis and oddly enough he ALWAYS found a reason to come with her into the (argument) conversation and so to spend some time with her.
If she thought about it more carefully, it had been quite often the case that Mamoru showed up at the Crown exactly at the times when she had just finished school and was spending some free time at Motoki's second home. Rei was NEVER there then. And besides: The last time she was at the Hikawa shrine Rei had kissed Yuichiro! Usagi had even sat right next to him. And the guy was head over heels in love with Rei and really brave, when he had defended her so heroically against her monster-turned-grandfather... so actually Rei and this slightly dorky shaggy bear would be the ideal couple... wouldn't they?
Usagi continued to try to talk herself out of the situation and was just turning into the street from her school when she saw a new problem approaching from afar.
"Oh no, there are Mako-chan and Ami. Ouch, I really need to talk to Naru so I don't blow my cover from yesterday!"
Since offense was still the best defense for her and it had already worked fantastically for Luna, Usagi sprinted the last bit to the school and thus directly towards her two friends. All her classmates were completely stunned when she reached the school gate and that even fifteen! Minutes before the school bell rang.
Makoto and Ami were standing right behind the entrance. When they spotted the bubbly girl with the two funny braids about to hop into the schoolyard, Makoto tried to intercept her. Before she could even begin to speak, however, Usagi clapped her hands together over her head in a prayer gesture and apologetically told them
"Mako-chan, Ami-chan! Please forgive me for not showing up to the senshi meeting yesterday! I was delayed by Naru, who is currently going through hell on earth...uh ahhh...Naru, hey wait!"
Usagi quickly ran over to Naru, who had just come scurrying through the school gate, and frantically pushed her through the main entrance of the school building to avoid any further discussion with the two warriors. "Mako-chan, Ami-chan. See you later!"
She waved cheerfully to her classmates, flashing them her typical one million watt Usagi smile.
As she passed through the doors with Naru, her smile turned into a sad frown. Usagi felt much more guilty now for having to lie to the girls. Even more so than the night before with her mother and Luna. But she had no choice.
Usagi had to protect him.
'Dear God, I can only hope that Naru agrees to cover my story. She is my best friend. I should tell her what happened yesterday... well, at least part of it.'
Naru really was her best friend. Even if she wasn't allowed to share her biggest secret with her, anything that involved boys was usually discussed uninhibitedly with each other. Whether it was during breaks, on the way to school, in the girls' bathroom, or on the phone in the evening; boys were a pretty present topic with the two of them. Regarding Umino, Usagi knew almost every detail and Naru also knew Mamoru from various encounters in the arcade. Again, Usagi was struck by how often she had met Mamoru within the last eight months since their first encounter. Suspiciously often. Was this all really a coincidence anymore?
"You did WHAT?!" - "Shhhhh!!!!!"
Usagi desperately tried to close Naru's mouth with her hand while panicking and turning in all directions
"Not so loud, Naru! I don't want anyone to know about this, and I need you to cover for me, because neither my parents, nor Ami, nor Mako-chan have any idea about what really happened yesterday. Besides, I don't want anyone to overhear what we're talking about right now, okay?"
So far, Naru and Usagi had been the only ones in the classroom, but the door was open, so it was theoretically possible that they could be heard by someone outside.
Naru gingerly took Usagi's hand from her mouth and replied in a slightly lowered voice
"Usagi, I can't believe! you went to Mamoru's apartment! Why would you go to his place of all places? You can't even stand the guy, can you?"
"It was a pretty... uhh... special situation. He was hurt and I wanted to help him. That's all… really. Nothing else happened. Honestly, nothing."
'Apart from the undeniable facts that he was topless, dangerously handsome and - let's be honest here - also breathtakingly sexy. Oh yeah, I almost forgot; As a side note, he's also my biggest crush Tuxedo Mask!'
Right now, Usagi had to deal with a whole lot of lies and half-truths, so she simply put on an innocent face to back up her story of a harmless run-in with an injured Mamoru-baka with an obviously necessary harmlessness.
"Okay, I'll cover for you," Naru finally promised, which gave Usagi a great sense of relief, "but personally, I doubt anything happened between you two at all. I know he's very handsome, and between all your arguing and daily bickering, there's always a certain tension in the air."
Naru giggled as she noticed Usagi's face had turned the color of a ripe tomato.
"Nooooo Naru. You just don't understand what I mean!"
Naru continued to giggle unperturbed and now flashed Usagi a wide, meaningful grin
"Alright, alright, don't worry about it. Now let's rather look forward to some very boring English lessons with Mrs. S. and discuss the subject extensively later after school!"
The red-haired girl laughed mischievously now, while the classroom slowly filled up. Usagi had once again so not in the mood for English lessons. How should one be able to follow what the teacher says at the blackboard, while all senses are with a single person, who is not even present in this room! At least physically.
Again, it was as if her heart was occupied by Mamoru. As if he were with her. As much as she wanted to focus on something else; all she could see everywhere were those ocean blue eyes. But she had to pull herself together! Just don't risk detention today. There was still a lot ahead of her that she had to master today. And Usagi had at least as little desire on it as on English grammar and vocabulary.
The ringing of the school bell for the break was unfortunately no salvation today, but rather a warning sign that she had to pull herself together even more. During the lunch break, the two Sailor warriors would have plenty of time to talk with Usagi in detail about their missed Senshi meeting.
Makoto had brought extra bribery bento in hopes that Usagi would confide in them about what had really happened yesterday and how she had made it out of Starlight Tower together with Mamoru. But this hope had already been shattered early in the morning, when Usagi had told them the same story at a breathtaking speed as she had done with Luna the night before.
Now Makoto looked spellbound at the opened box, while the blond girl greedily and visibly amused about the opulent provisions devoured one delicious-looking morsel after the other.
"You're the best, Mako-chan! Not even my mom can make onigiri and tamagoyaki this great. How do you do it!"
At her best, Usagi opened her mouth wide to inhale a sausage decorated as squid. Ami finally took heart and began to tell Usagi about the events of yesterday from her perspective (agreed upon with the others). More or less, anyway.
"You know Usagi, while we were at the Hikawa temple and... waiting for you, Rei had suddenly felt a strong energy that seemed to come directly from Starlight Tower. We immediately rushed there with the strong suspicion that something must have happened to the Rainbow Crystals. At least this was consistent with the information I had received from a data analysis on my computer."
Ami exchanged a long, meaningful look with Makoto and finally turned back to Usagi.
Something wasn't right about Ami's version of events, but Usagi just couldn't put a finger on what it was exactly as she took a second sausage and chewed thoughtfully
"When we arrived at the skyscraper, we couldn't find anything there. Absolutely no trace was there of the crystals. However, since there have been no further actions by the Dark Kingdom since then, we assume that someone was able to collect all the Rainbow Crystals. This is just a guess and we are waiting for a final feedback concerning this assumption from Artemis. For now we have no proof of this to be perfectly honest. However, if someone had the Imperium Silver Crystal, the energy source would have been incomparably higher, which means that this someone was not able to create the Imperium Silver Crystal as such from the seven shards."
"So you mean something is missing to activate it, Ami?"
Usagi's unexpectedly direct question caused the blue-haired genius to stare at her in complete surprise. She frowned and answered with just one word.
"Right."
"Wow, okay. Yeah uh...what's next then? I mean, what are we supposed to do now?"
"Usagi!" called Naru from across the schoolyard. "Should we go to the Game Crown Center together after school? Since you didn't get detention today, why don't we try out the new version of the Sailor V game later, what do you think?"
Usagi took a quick glance at the girls and turned to Naru with an enthusiastic expression on her face
"Yeah, sure. That sounds awesome! I was going to the arcade later anyway, because I was going to meet Rei, Mako-chan, Ami, and a new friend of ours there for... uh... study."
"Oh great!"
Naru grinned broadly at the girls.
"I'll see you both there then. Come on, Usagi. Let's go back to the classroom."
As Usagi danced away with her friend, beaming with joy, Makoto and Ami looked at each other, somewhat perplexed
"She continues to insist on her version with Naru... And she seems to be covering for them too, just like Luna suspected she would."
Makoto let out a loud sigh of disappointment
"I don't understand. What on earth is Usagi not telling us? She was in the elevator after all."
Ami glanced at the screen of her supermini computer and frowned again
"Yes, they were BOTH in the elevator. I'm absolutely sure of it. But like Luna said, we can't press them in any way. Usagi must have a valid reason, and Mamoru certainly plays a significant role in that."
Makoto kicked a small stone on the gravel path in the schoolyard, lost in thought
"We have to trust her for now. She is our leader, after all. However Usagi managed to get out of there alive yesterday... we have to be gentle with her, and then we'll find out the truth. And besides -"
The tall brunette flinched briefly at the ringing of the school bell
"Am I quite sure that the Game Crown Center is a more suitable place for our meeting today than the Hikawa Temple. Rei is already in a very bad mood anyway because Usagi didn't show up for the meeting yesterday. And then she can't reach Mamoru the whole time and finds out that he's riding an elevator together with Usagi. So it's clearly better if we all meet on neutral ground."
Ami nodded in agreement, and the two girls walked back into the building as the school bell began to ring again.