For the One I Love
Chapter Ten
"Fighter's Slip Up"
"Dumpling? Dumpling… Du. M. Pling." Seiya leaned across the table outside the ice cream parlor and stared at her, tilting his head to the side. "Hmmm…there we go!" Quickly, he snatched away her ice cream cone.
"Hey! That's my ice cream!"
"That's what you get for spacing out! Now I get double. Ahhh..." He opened his mouth wide.
"Ah! Don't lick it!" She grabbed it away from him and sat back down in her chair. "That's rude you know, touching someone else's food!"
"It's also rude to space out on a date."
"That's because… wait, what date?"
"Minor detail." Seiya pushed her question aside. "So what's on your mind, you can tell me."
"Mmm." Usagi licked her strawberry ice cream trying to think of how to say it. "The last few days have just been busy I guess. So I'm a little tired."
"Busy?" Seiya asked. "You don't work do you? And we haven't had that much school work, except the study work for the test today."
"It has nothing to do with school."
"Could it be…something to do with all those UFO sightings lately?" Usagi choked on a bit of ice cream. "Usagi, it can't be that you are…" He leaned closely to her with a serious look upon his face.
"Eee-" Usagi backed up slightly, trying to avoid his eyes. "That I am…"
"That you are…in one of those UFO fanatic groups that goes out at night and tries to make contact with aliens, offering your body to them as a sacrifice?"
"Gah Hah!" THUD! Usagi fell backwards onto the concrete with ice cream still in hand. "What are you stupid?" She yelled at him as he laughed at her disoriented form. "What would make you believe I would be in a cult!"
"Shhh." Seiya still laughed waving his hands. "It was a joke, a joke."
"Honestly…"
"You don't have to tell me. As long as you haven't been sneaking out at night to meet with another guy it's all fine with me." Seiya of course, knew the real reason already, it was just amusing to tease her. Usagi had been out a lot lately as Sailor Moon; their enemy attacking one night after the other. For the most part, Seiya had been able to stay out of their business and let Usagi handle things on her own. But he once again found himself as Star Fighter in last night's previous scenario, arriving just in time to almost be sucked into a dimensional tear.
"Even if I was with another guy, that's none of your business." Her words brought him back to the present.
"That's harsh." He pouted.
"Seiya-kun?" He and Usagi looked up. A woman with brown eyes and short brown hair stood behind him holding a plastic grocery bag, wearing a red jacket and blue scarf. "Seiya it is you." She smiled at him.
"Hello Hitomi. Out shopping?" He asked.
"Yeah, my mother is visiting my place later tonight, so I thought I'd make a homemade meal for once instead of my usual takeout. So what are you up to, eating ice cream outside at the beginning of fall?"
"We were just stopping for a treat on the way back from school. Ice cream happened to be the preferred choice."
"We?" Hitomi asked confused. She caught sight of Usagi as she peeked around Seiya's side.
"Oh, sorry. Let me introduce you. Dumpling, this is my co-worker Ayuma Hitomi. Hitomi, this is my girlfriend, Tsukino Usagi. Ow!" Seiya added after Usagi kicked him under the table. "Right, future girlfriend I should say. Ow!"
"Friend." Usagi said sternly.
"For now."
"Grr…why you…"
"Okay okay!" Seiya dogged her third kick. "I give. This is my friend, Tsukino Usagi."
"Oh." She said unenthusiastically. "Seiya, are you in middle school?" She asked staring at Usagi's uniform.
"What?" He panicked. "Of course not! I would be in my second year of high school if I hadn't dropped out, one year under you remember?" Seiya pulled his coat closer to his neck to hide his uniform. "I've known Usagi for a while, and we decided yesterday to go get a bite today after she got out of school." Usagi raised an interested eyebrow at him as he looked to her for help.
"Yeah, what he said."
"Well, I'll see you at work tomorrow Seiya. Nice to have met you Tsukino-san. Bye."
"Dropped out of high school? Work?" Usagi asked as Seiya watched Hitomi run across the street before traffic started again. "No." She raised her hand. "I don't even want to know."
"What are you thinking? I needed a part time job and I told them I dropped out of high school to get it is all."
"So then you do know it's against school rules to have a part time job. But honestly, you in high school?"
"Let's just keep that a little secret between you and me. Okay?"
"Hmmm… alight, on one condition."
"And what's that?"
"You treat me to more ice cream sometime!"
"Somehow I knew food would be involved." He chuckled. "Alright. But just so you know, I would have treated you to ice cream again anyway, if it meant spending more time with you like this."
"Uh."
"You're too cute." He patted her on the head when she blushed at his words. "So when do you need to get home?" Usagi looked down on her watch and jumped.
"Oh crap!" She exclaimed. "I was supposed to meet with the girls fifteen minutes ago! I still have to go home and change out of my uniform!"
"I'll walk you home."
"No, I better run. See you later Seiya!"
"Well…" Seiya stood there alone. "I guess I might as well go home and do some of that exciting middle school homework, since Usagi is tied up in a Senshi meeting I can't exactly attend…"
"Save me…"
"Huh?" Seiya turned abruptly. "I could have sworn, someone just whispered in my ear…"
OoOoOoOoOoOoOoO
Seiya opened the door to his small and dark apartment. After slipping off his shoes, he walked across the room, flicking on the lights to grab his book bag in the bedroom. After picking it up, Seiya walked back out into the living room and sat on his recently purchased couch.
"Really, I feel like a fool doing this sort of work." He said to himself as he flipped upon an English book. "If Taiki and Yaten were here with me, Taiki would probably be bored with the work, and Yaten would be complaining how easy it is and wasting his time, although he still would put it off like usual." Seiya chuckled at the thought of them, and then stopped. "They wouldn't have come back with me. They probably think I'm an idiot for coming here too."
Sighing, he slipped down on the couch and let the book slide off his legs and onto the floor. "How long can I keep this up?" He thought. "Dumpling…" The kitchen faucet dripped quietly in the background. Seiya placed his arm over his eyes to block out the light, beginning to get a headache. "Probably shouldn't have had that cold ice cream." "I should get some of that aspirin I bought yesterday…"
The dripping water became the sound of a music box. Seiya stood in the middle of nowhere, which became an empty ballroom, the music box echoing off the walls. In the distance was the figure of a woman moving gracefully… dancing. Usagi looked more beautiful and innocent than he had ever seen her before, and it took his breath away. She moved softly in her white flowing gown with gold beading. She continued swaying; unaware he was watching her, as she moved closer and closer to him. She stretched out her arm and spun right in front of him. Seiya reached out his hand wanting to dance with her, but she stopped spinning before he touched her arm. She looked up at Seiya, and stared him hard in the eyes.
"It's all your fault."
"What? Arrgggg!" A huge gust of black wind caused Seiya to fall to the marble floor, trying his hardest not to be blown away by the power of it. "Usagi!" He screamed peering over the arm he used to cover his face.
"Heeh heeeh…" He could barely make it out, the figure of a man dressed in white, carrying her away…
"It's all your fault…" She said sadly.
"Usagi!" Seiya tried to stand. The man was still there, but Usagi changed. Still in a white gown, she grew older in an instant, a crown now centered on her head in place of white beads.
"Don't come!" Then she became younger once more.
"Save me…"
"Usagi!"
CRASH! The Earth seemed to shake all around him, the lights to his apartment flicked off just in time to reveal the full intensity of the purple lighting that flashed outside his apartment window. Seiya was now wide-awake yet completely confused. "What the hell?" He hurried from the couch and ran out of the door into a scene of complete chaos. All of his neighbors were running out of their rooms and flying down the stairs in complete panic and awe to join the people on the street.
"Excuse me!" Someone yelled as they hit Seiya in the shoulder running past.
"Wait!" Seiya grabbed the woman by the shoulder. "What's going on here? An earthquake?"
"Look at the sky! The sky!" She said panicked. "A UFO!" Seiya looked up, and let go of the woman who continued down the stairs. Taking up his whole field of vision was what appeared to be a gigantic black crystal, a spaceship. "What the? Wait, it can't be! Damn! Usagi!" It had to be the Sailor Senshi's enemy. If an enemy were going to appear like this to the public, that could only mean something bad was about to happen. Seiya continued down the stairs and out onto the street, pushing past all the frozen fearful people.
"Fighter Star Power, Make-up!" Seiya transformed and looked back up into the sky. A beam of light shot from the ground aimed right at the ship, and had a tiny floating figure by it. "That must be them, they're already fighting. I'm not that far from them then, I got to get there!"
Chibi-Usa was frozen on the ground at the Sailor Senshi's feet, whom had just used Planet Power to try and give her time to escape.
"You idiot!" Mars yelled over the attack, trying not to break concentration. "Hurry up!"
"Leave Chibi-Usa to me. You guys hurry up too!" Tuxedo Kamen kneeled down and grabbed the child. Sailor Star Fighter turned the corner as Tuxedo Kamen jumped away carrying the pink haired girl in his hands.
"Damn you…" The voice came from the man floating over them, the same man Fighter had last fought at the construction site. "In that case…"
"No!" Fighter shouted. The Senshi's attack had been cancelled, and they floated up toward the ship.
"Everyone!" Usagi, who had been running to them, stood in the empty crater where her friends had just been. The Sailor Senshi continued to soar higher and higher until the ship's ray pulled them all the way in. "Everyone!" She screamed harder, tears starting to form in the corner of her eyes.
"Usagi!" Without thinking, Sailor Star Fighter ran over to her.
"Are you okay, Chibi-Usa?" Tuxedo Kamen knelt down next to her.
"Yes…" She mumbled. Usagi shook in anger.
"CHIBI-USA!" She raised her hand to slap the child, but someone held her back.
"Usagi, don't." Sailor Star Fighter said. "You'll only regret it."
"You…" Usagi looked at the person holding her hand in surprise. "How do you… know me?"
"Heh?" It took a second before Fighter realized what she had just done. "I am…I mean, I know you because…"
Rubeus's laughter rang all around them. Usagi looked up at the hovering ship and the man standing before it, tears falling down her face.
"Now's not the time." Fighter lowered Usagi's hand but kept it in her own. "We need to get out of here before he spots us. Follow me." Sailor Star Fighter led the way down the road, where they ducked behind an alleyway.
"Sailor Moon!" Rubeus's voice echoed throughout all of Tokyo. "It was quite wise of you not to show up. But after losing all the other Sailor Senshi, I doubt there's anything you can do to me. However, I will give you time to think it over. Three hours from now, at 3:00am, I will appear at this location again. Make up your mind by then."
"Bastard." Fighter cursed as he disappeared into the sky with his ship.
"Everyone…" Usagi walked out from the alleyway.
"Don't worry." Fighter placed a hand on her shoulder. "We'll get your friends back, I know we will." "Somehow…" She thought.
"Sailor Star Fighter." Usagi turned her attention back to the Senshi. "You… you know I'm Sailor Moon? But how?"
"I've known for a long time. As well as who you are, Chiba Mamoru." She directed at Tuxedo Kamen.
Chibi-Usa looked up at the masked man. "Mamo-chan?"
"We can talk about this as much as you want later, but right now we need to get out of here."
"Let's head back to my place." Tuxedo Kamen picked Chibi-Usa back up. "Okay?"
Usagi nodded, and Fighter followed them in silence.