"This is a disaster!" said the manager.
"What's wrong?" asked Haruka. She had come to support Michiru during her special violin performance. It was for some charity or another, she couldn't be bothered to remember.
She had given the Senshi a few days off until she got back. They would have to learn the hard way that slacking off would only bite them in the ass now.
"The singer we had for the event backed out...apparently she had a major fight with her boyfriend and can't be bothered to come!" said the manager.
Michiru frowned.
"Wasn't she part of the main act?" she asked.
"What are we going to do? The charity expect someone to sing on stage, and it's too late to get anyone else!"
Haruka rolled her eyes.
"I'll do it. I'm not completely tone deaf and worst case scenario we cover it up with lip-syncing or something," said Haruka.
The manager looked ready to cry with relief hearing that.
"Are you sure about this?" asked Michiru.
"Just let me get dressed up. You know how I'm always humming when it's my turn to cook?"
"You want me to mimic that?" said Michiru in understanding. Haruka nodded. "That might work."
"It has to...this event could be a disaster otherwise," said the manager.
For the first forty-five minutes, Michiru played her violin like normal. Once she had a brief moment's respite, she went back onto the stage and noticed the addition of a piano. After learning their granddaughter did have some ability to play, they insisted she get a proper tutor for it. She had gone from a "passable beginner" to "acceptably competent". It meant she could play the harder pieces on the piano, but the expert level ones were beyond her. It made duets with Michiru a bit more fun because she wasn't fumbling from half-remembered practicing with someone she refused to name.
Michiru waited for a second to the first few notes of the piano, before following along once she registered which tune Haruka happened to playing.
Haruka was very well dressed, as she had switched out of her casual outfit to something better for the stage. She wore a black vest over an orange shirt, pressed black pants and expensive shoes, and her short hair was partially covered by a fedora with an orange band around it. Her tie was a sedate black and fit the entire ensemble, and if Michiru hadn't known better she'd swear Haruka was a boy.
Most people couldn't pull off the color orange, but her girlfriend did it better than most.
"I know you
You're a special one
Some see crazy
Where I see love
You fall so low
But soar so high
Big dreamers shoot
For open sky
So much life
In those open eyes
So much depth
You look for the light
But when your wounds open
You will cry
You'll cry on and on
And you'll question why
I can see a rainbow
In your tears
As they fall on down
I can see your soul grow
Through the pain
As they hit the ground
I can see a rainbow
In your tears
As the sun comes out
As the sun comes out
I am here
And I see your pain
Through the storm
Through the clouds, the rain
I'm telling you
You cannot escape
You can do it
Just feel, baby
I can see a rainbow
In your tears
As the sun comes out
As the sun comes out
Here comes the sun
Smiling down
Here comes the sun
Smiling down
Here comes the sun
Smiling down
Smiling down
I can see a rainbow
In your tears
As they come on down
I can see your soul grow
Through the pain
As they hit the ground
I can see a rainbow
In your tears
As the sun comes out
As the sun comes out
I can see a rainbow
(Here comes the sun)
In your tears
As they fall on down
I can see your soul grow
(Here comes the sun)
Through the pain
As they hit the ground
I can see a rainbow
(Here comes the sun)
In your tears
As the sun comes out
As the sun comes out"
("Rainbow" by Sia, from the My Little Pony: The Movie soundtrack.)
Michiru had to fight to keep the surprise off her face. She had no idea Haruka could sing. The surprise on her manager's face was pretty obvious from where she was standing, as was the pure relief knowing the concert wouldn't be an utter disaster.
The more she sang, the more hyped up the crowd was at this unexpected talent appearing out of nowhere. Sure, some of it was Sky attraction and the fact that her flames insured she was never off-pitch even once, but the thing that really made the crowd go wild was what Haruka pulled as a prank on Michiru for the end song.
She did her own rendition of "Kiss from a Rose" by Seal, complete with the actual flower before she cheerfully swept Michiru off her feet to the complete surprise of the other girl.
The crowd loved it though, and so did her manager.
Michiru was already extremely popular for her skills and the fact she was extremely pretty. She had hinted to interviews she had a lover already, even though the most they had done so far was cuddling and heavy making out sessions. But Haruka confirming that particular rumor in such a public setting had the tabloids going crazy trying to find out more about her.
Later that night...
"You are absolutely incorrigible!" said Michiru huffing.
Haruka snickered at her tone. She was exasperated rather than angry.
"You're not mad are you?" asked Haruka.
Michiru might play at angry, but her expression said more than she was willing to admit right now. She was more amused than anything.
"Thanks to you the concert was a complete success, so there is that," said Michiru. "You know it's not going to take long for them to realize who you are."
"Bah, the worst that could happen is a bunch of fan girls come after me," said Haruka.
It would take more clout than a civilian had to find out her real identity, and even then she was being openly protected by the Vongola which would deter the worst of anyone from the underworld.
Worst case scenario, she got a really obsessive Element again or she had to hire the Varia to deal with them. Not her problem.
"You're a demon," gasped Usagi.
"Actually this is just a lesser version of what my ex-military tutor had me do until he realized I was putting myself through worse before he showed up," said Haruka pleasantly.
Finding out he was sorely outclassed by a civilian, and someone who hadn't hit puberty yet had been an unpleasant blow to his ego. To be fair, Haruka had been putting herself through the same regimen Lal Mirch would have put her through on top of the hell training Reborn would put her through for shits and giggles. She was far more familiar with how to put a gun together than he was, and guns were more or less banned in Japan except for military personnel and the rare cop.
So during the times she couldn't oversee training herself (which was often) Haruka called him in to take her place.
All he had to hear was that it was related to making the 'Sailor Senshi' far less embarrassing as fighters and he was in. He didn't need to know their identities, he was just there to bring their teamwork and overall conditioning up to snuff.
Under normal circumstances, that wouldn't be too bad. Except Haruka was also making sure their grades were up to snuff.
Usagi could complain all she wanted, but there had been a marked improvement in her grade point average. Her mother was thrilled.
"Is this all really necessary?" asked Minako, feeling like crap.
"Yes. If what you said is true, then she (Haruka pointed her pencil at Usagi) is supposed to be the next queen of the world or something equally cliché. And unless you want whatever government you plan to implement to implode, you need better grades. The training my old tutor is giving you is to insure you live long enough to actually see that future," said Haruka flatly.
Seeing they didn't get it (though Rei apparently had some idea what she meant) Haruka sighed.
"Do you have any idea how much work goes into keeping any system of government or ruling authority in place without it falling apart?"
"Not really," said Usagi.
"You have to deal with paperwork. An unholy amount of it. And that's not getting into dealing with headaches such taxes, infrastructure, internal politics..." listed Haruka, mostly from her experience as Vongola Decima. Seeing the growing horror on Usagi's face, she had a slight sympathetic expression on her own. "Being queen sounds fun, but it's a monumental pain in the ass."
Out of all of them, only Chibiusa nodded in understanding. She had seen the mountains of paperwork her mother had to deal with on a daily basis.
"Why do you sound like you have experience with this?" asked Rei.
"Not really a story I want to get into, but let's say time travel was involved," said Haruka.
Chibiusa perked up at that.
"Do you know Sailor Pluto?" she asked.
"Who?" said Haruka baffled. "Wait, there's a senshi that deals with time travel?"
Chibiusa nodded.
"Maybe she knows why I keep getting stuck in these stupid loops..." muttered Haruka.
"Loops?" said Usagi.
"Let's just say this isn't the first time I've dealt with time travel, but if the idiot trio of scientists get their hands on the bazooka one more time I'm going to strangle them," said Haruka darkly.
Chibiusa blinked, twice.
"Bazooka? You don't mean the ten year bazooka P-chan is always complaining about right?"
Haruka stared at the pinkette.
"You know about that stupid thing?" she said incredulous.
Chibiusa nodded.
"P-chan is always complaining about it because it gives her headaches whenever it's used. She said that it creates ripples in the time gate," said Chibiusa.
Haruka's expression said volumes.
"I believe you. And to be honest, the people who created it deserve everything that would come to them if I pointed them her way," said Haruka. Something told her the Bovino would be in for a nasty surprise if Pluto showed up. Couldn't happen to 'nicer' people.
"Why do I get the feeling you would enjoy whatever Pluto would do to them for creating it?" asked Rei suspiciously.
"Let me put it this way...the people who made it were also callous enough to send an actual five year old kid with no sense and is a total crybaby on a literal suicide mission with no supervision and actual weapons that can and would have killed him if his aim were off," deadpanned Haruka. "The only reason he's even alive is because the man they sent him to go after doesn't think he's worth the time to kill."
Reborn regarded Lambo as an annoyance, not a serious threat.
Seeing their expression, Haruka sighed.
"Seriously?" said Rei twitching.
"You don't want to know, trust me. You're better off staying ignorant, unless you want to deal with actual zombie cops."
"You're kidding," said Makoto.
"I wish I were, I really do," said Haruka tiredly. "And to top it off, the zombie cops can teleport, so you literally cannot escape them."
Seeing their expressions, they dropped the matter instantly. Usagi was not a big fan of horror, apparently.
By the end of the studying session, Haruka finally remembered something she had been curious about regarding Chibiusa.
"You're Usagi's future kid, right?" she asked. Chibiusa nodded. "Then maybe you can explain a few things I've been wondering about this 'Crystal Tokyo' place."
"Mama made it clear I wasn't allowed to share any significant events, and had them blocked from Luna P," said Chibiusa immediately.
"I could care less about that. I know the time line has an annoying habit of correcting any anomalies. I'm more interested in looking at certain statistics, since from what you girls told me the future is supposed to be a Utopian society."
"What sort of things?"
"Nothing that would openly affect the future in any way or form," Haruka assured her.
She was extremely dubious about the whole 'Utopia' nonsense. Especially with someone like Usagi at the helm.
Chibiusa was rather dubious, but when she heard the things Haruka requested, she saw no reason to keep the information from the older girl.
It took her a few moments to figure out how to use the interface, but when she got the hang of it she was scanning and reading information faster than most could.
The more Haruka read, the more horrified her expression became.
"Please tell me this isn't accurate," said Haruka.
"It's straight from our servers, why?" asked Chibiusa confused.
Haruka clearly had to take a few moments to herself, because there was a minor explosion of Italian that sounded distinctly like swearing.
She looked pissed.
"What's wrong?" asked Usagi, noticing Haruka's unhappy mood.
"What's wrong? What's wrong is this so-called utopia is a complete lie! If this information was accurate, then what your future self did is little more than outright brainwashing."
Seeing they didn't get it, Haruka pulled up some of the statistics she asked for. Most of it was rather harmless on the surface...but when added up it came to something far more sinister.
"Birth rates? Tax information? What's the big deal about this?" asked Minako.
Haruka's expression turned dead serious.
"Tell me, how many people do you think are alive in the world right now, including those just born and those who are on their last legs?"
"A couple billion, maybe?" said Minako dubiously.
"Around seven billion, at a rough estimate. So tell me...does this look like the sort of spreadsheet you'd see in a future where health care is no longer a concern?"
Ami was the one who spotted it, and she started frowning too.
"The birth rate is way too low. Unless they have some really good contraception, there's no way the number of births should be that small," she said.
Haruka looked satisfied someone caught it.
"Next is this. The tax information looks like someone with no idea of what they were doing made this," said Haruka. "And to be honest, I'm really dubious that all the religions of the world suddenly accepted a queen of a kingdom that was literally based on the moon so easily."
Rei was frowning as well.
"You know she has a valid point. I mean I'm not an expert but I really don't see the several million Catholics of the world suddenly accepting an immortal royal couple over God, and that's not even getting into the Muslim, Jewish, or any number of different religions around."
Usagi really didn't get it at all.
"Look, when it comes down to it Humanity isn't ready for something like Utopia. Maybe in the past, when things were much simpler, but now? Now the idea of utopia would cause nothing but strife and war."
Usagi looked unhappy at the unexpected assignment Haruka gave them, but once she realized what the older girl was trying to tell her, she would understand exactly why Haruka was so horrified at the idea of Crystal Tokyo.