Hello, everyone! Please enjoy this relatively light-hearted chapter to cleanse your palate for the rest of the drama to come :)
I love you all!
"Half of You" by Leland
"What flavor are you getting, Seiya?"
"No idea. I see a lot of people getting cinnamon so maybe I'll try that one. What about you?"
Usagi wrinkled her nose as she grinned and touched her chin to her shoulder. "Cookies and cream."
"Of course, you get the sweetest flavor." Seiya lightly elbowed her.
"The sweetest flavor for the sweetest girl." She quipped as she pushed the ends of her index fingers into her cheeks.
Once they approached the cashier and ordered, Usagi was quick to spot a small vacant table right by the front window to enjoy their small cups of sweet treats side-by-side.
"So," the blonde began as she finished off a bite, "your birthday is coming up soon. Do you know what you wanna do?"
Seiya shrugged. "I don't know. I haven't thought about it since, um… Kinmoku might happen by then."
"Oh yeah—have you heard anything about when we need to be there?"
She shook her head. "Not yet. But you need to be ready to leave within a day or two after we hear back."
"What's taking so long?"
"Our military has been doing some reconnaissance and studying enemy scout ship formations and patterns. They want to make sure," she paused to clear her throat, "One of our suns doesn't reflect off Taiki's giant forehead and give away our position during the return."
"Ah," Usagi giggled as she used her spoon to scrape the sides of her cup to gather up small chunks of cookie. "Well, then we'll make plans on Kinmoku if it comes to it."
Though Seiya nodded with enthusiasm, another thought popped in her head that was somehow both on and off-topic. She didn't know why she brought up the subject, but at this point a couple of weeks after Usagi's birthday, she considered it a nervous habit.
"Isn't Mamoru's birthday close to mine?"
Usagi's mood fell abruptly as she chewed on her bite while staring into the rest of her black and white treat. "Yes, August third."
Despite its obvious effect on her, Seiya continued. "Does he mind if you miss his birthday?"
"He won't care." She shook her head, still talking to the ice cream.
"What does he think of you going to Kinmoku?"
"Um… not much."
She raised an eyebrow. "What does that mean?"
Usagi sighed, visibly annoyed and partly ashamed. "I haven't told him yet."
Seiya froze with her spoon halfway out of her mouth, her other eyebrow joining the higher one. "Odango, why haven't you told him?"
With her cup and utensil still in hand, Usagi gestured in defense while finally facing the Starlight.
"It—It's fine, Seiya! It really doesn't matter. He's busy doing his own thing all the time so it honestly doesn't matter when I tell him or when I leave. He's been busy at work ever since we got back from the beach and we've barely said anything to each other, let alone seen each other. He'll be happy for me either way, I'm sure." She pulled her mouth into a smile as a measure of comfort.
It didn't help. "Don't you think he needs a heads-up? We're traveling to another galaxy to fight a war. You could be gone for months."
"He probably won't even notice I'm gone."
The conversation wasn't sitting well with Seiya. Being the 'other woman,' she knew she didn't have room to talk about what was the right or wrong thing to do, but it felt too obvious that this was something Mamoru needed to know sooner rather than later. How Usagi could be so comfortable not communicating with her partner of nearly fifteen years gave her a chill that spread from her chest to her stomach, with no help from the ice cream. A part of her knew she should be glad Usagi was giving her all of her attention but the other part was… unsettled.
But then again, was Usagi's marriage really any of her business? Seiya's moral compass wasn't exactly pointing due north at the moment, and the last thing she wanted to do was upset her and possibly ruin things again. It hurt so much to have been away from her—way more painful than feeling all the doubt right now—and the more she stared deep into her eyes, the faster she folded, turning her mouth into a smile.
"I doubt that. But whatever you think is best, Odango."
She smiled back and leaned in to press her cold lips on the edge of Seiya's mouth. "Trust me. I'll take care of it. Everything will be fine."
Retreating to her black hole of ignorance, Seiya turned her head to kiss Usagi on her mouth when an unexpected voice stopped her just in time.
"Usagi?"
The referenced blonde straightened up so fast that she almost fell out of her chair and knocked the table over catching herself.
"Usagi Tsukino?"
Despite the dizzying panic, she managed to eventually get a grip on the situation and focus. It took her a couple of seconds and squints before she realized the owner of the voice and her mouth formed into an open smile.
"Naru?!"
A short blonde with a bob haircut gasped. "Oh my god, Usagi!"
Usagi shot up to meet her in a hug—getting her foot caught in the chair leg and dragging it with her for a couple of hobbles—and the two women squeezed each other while releasing head-turning squeals. Seiya sat and stared with confused curiosity.
The two women then parted and transitioned to squeezing each other's hands.
"Naru! What are you doing here?"
"What are you doing here?"
"I almost didn't recognize you! Your hair is so different."
"Oh yeah. I've been blonde and short for like five years."
"It looks great! Welcome to the club!"
"Thanks! I knew it was you just by your buns. I was walking by and I look over and I'm like, 'I know that hair!'"
"Yep, still wearing these things. I'd have to get my middle part surgically repaired at this point."
"Well, they still suit you!"
"Thank you." Sigh. "Wow, I still can't believe it's you! Please sit, come join us!" Usagi grabbed a vacant chair from the table nearby for Naru to take a seat and then extended a hand toward Seiya.
"This is Seiya. Seiya, this is Naru."
She stood up to meet Naru in her slight bow. "Hi, nice to meet you."
Naru cocked her head and looked at the Starlight with intrigue. "Nice to meet you, too, Seiya." Even as she sat down, she couldn't stop staring. "I feel like I've seen you before…" A few seconds later and then it seemed to hit her like cold ice cubes down her back.
"Oh my God, Usagi! Do you remember when that idol boy group came to Juban for like half a term? They were so famous and it was total chaos the first day they came… What was their name?"
Seiya smirked as she pretended to guess. "Three Lights?"
"Yes! Yes! Thank you! You look just like the main guy! Not that… you look like a guy…" She went from hyped to horrified in less than a second, covering her eyes. "God, I'm so sorry! You are a very beautiful woman! I didn't mean it like that!"
She laughed it off. "It's okay. I've been called worse."
"I just meant that you could totally be his twin sister. He was definitely a pretty boy."
"I get mistaken for him all the time, actually."
"Good! I'm glad it's not just me!" She laughed but still held suspicion. "His name was 'Seiya' too. That is so interesting…"
"Crushing teenage dreams is interesting to say the least. I've thought about just rolling with it one of these days and really making them question their memories."
"And make them question their sexuality too," Naru muttered through a chuckle. "You should totally do it. That group completely disappeared from the planet so no one will know the difference."
Seiya raised a brow at that comment, deciding this would be a day to roll with it. "Really? No one's seen them around?"
"No! Not since their last concert. Their manager even reported them as missing but there have been no leads. There are so many fan theories out there as to what happened to them."
Curious as well, Usagi joined in the conversation. "What are these fan theories?"
"Oh there's lots," Naru looked up briefly to rifle through her mental Rolodex of useless celebrity trivia before explaining. "One theory is that they were aliens sent here to collect and send out data on us through their music. That one's my favorite."
Impressed that people had enough time on their hands to still think of them after so many years—and be half-right—Seiya sat back. "Really? Aliens?"
In truth, Naru had been waiting to talk to someone about this for quite some time… waiting for the perfect moment for someone to actually ask… And she wasn't about to waste the opportunity.
"Well, the theory goes that their band literally popped up out of nowhere and were popular out of nowhere. Like usually artists have to rise through the ranks and pay their dues before they hit it big. But not them. They just… appeared—Oh! And then this one music theorist analyzed the waveforms of their live vocals and he picked up every so often, like… like a second voice. There were two waveforms like it was two voices. But the second one was undetectable otherwise. They even tested other singers who sing in the same vocal range and professional beatboxers—y'know, 'cause they sound like they can make like, three different sounds at once—and that undetectable 'second voice' was not present in any of them."
Seiya and Usagi both had gaping mouths and wide eyes; the former was now more scared than impressed to hear of earthly technology that could detect their secret message, even through old recordings. But were the people of Earth really so bored that the only thing they thought to do was analyze their vocals and make videos about it?
Naru continued. "So then it goes on to say that that's not normal human vocals and so they're probably aliens…blah, blah… but then you think, 'okay, but what's the point of the second voice then?' and—I forget how or why exactly—but they came to the conclusion that since the Three Lights attracted such huge crowds and made so many live appearances, that they wanted as many people to hear them so they could relay all the info back to their home planet, y'know? And then—oh my god, this one kind of freaked me out—but they did a special 'plane-ride' showing of this movie they made, and multiple people who were on that plane all claim to not remember the movie!" She hit the table with a flat palm as she enunciated the last four words, her expression stupefied.
"Multiple. People. Like they all reported 'falling asleep' within the first ten minutes and didn't wake up until the plane landed. They think maybe the Three Lights were testing their second voice powers through the screens and it was too strong for our human brains to handle and so it knocked everyone out. Isn't that creepy?"
The other two women still hadn't moved, their mouths still ready to catch flies. Naru paused to give them time to actively respond but when it didn't happen after some time, she interpreted it as a sign to wrap it up. She calmed herself and cleared her throat.
"And uh… of course again, they haven't been seen since their last concert. It's common to see retired musicians working behind the scenes or doing other projects or at least making appearances here and there, but they literally haven't been seen anywhere in the world since their last concert. Not even a trace of them on social media." She shrugged with a nervous giggle. "And so yeah—aliens!"
Seiya and Usagi looked at each other before finally mustering the strength to speak.
The latter went first. "So the people on the plane… are all okay, right? Like are there any lingering effects?"
"No, weirdly they're all fine. One of them claimed it cured their insomnia."
"So, have they… um," Seiya began as she moved her hands around to help her brain focus on finishing her sentence. "Figured out what the 'second voice' was saying?"
"I don't think so. I haven't seen any updated information on that and these videos were from like three years ago. There is another theory that they were in trouble with the Yakuza and were murdered and buried in Ichi-No-Hashi park," she paused as she had to shake her head at what she was about to add.
"...Along with Sailor Moon."
"Sailor Moon?!" Usagi's volume caused people to look over at them judgmentally again. "Involved with the Yakuza?"
"Yes! She also hasn't been seen since the Three Lights disappeared!" Naru held up her palms with mischievous eyes. "Coincidence?"
Seiya had to chuckle, now loosened up at the fact that these theories took a ridiculous turn once they involved Usagi's alter ego. She leaned forward to resume eating her ice cream.
"What would Sailor Moon have to do with the Yakuza?" Usagi continued.
"I'll admit I didn't get that far." Naru shook her head. "That was a whole other series my heart wasn't ready for."
She smiled. "Aw yeah… I remember you were saved a few times by Sailor Moon, right?"
"You would have thought I was a literal magnet for crazy people!" The trauma of her multi-targeted experience was visible in her expression. "It got to the point my mom was thinking about moving us out of the country."
"Maybe that's what Sailor Moon ended up doing."
"You gotta admit that the crazy crimes stopped happening once she stopped coming around," Naru spoke from the side of her mouth and shifted her eyes. "Kind of makes you wonder."
"Wonder if… she was working with the criminals?" One would have thought Usagi asked the question as if she was being personally attacked.
Naru waved her palms in defense. "I personally don't believe it, but some people suspect she was running some kind of insane unethical PR campaign. All I know is that she saved me too many times for me to say anything bad about her."
It proved a bit difficult for Usagi to digest such words, causing her to suddenly lose interest in touching her ice cream.
After a sigh and shaking her head, Naru filled the silence. "God—experiencing Sailor Moon and an alien boy band in a span of three years—was our childhood even real?"
Usagi forced a smile as she crossed her arms on the table. "It feels like a fever dream sometimes."
"I don't even know how we all survived. Over half the people I know have their own Sailor Moon rescue story. It's like our generation's collective trauma. Did you have to get saved by Sailor Moon at any time? I can't remember."
"Lots of times actually. But it… it's all kind of a blur." She meant that at an emotional level.
"What about you?" Naru looked at Seiya.
Somehow not expecting to be pulled back into the conversation, Seiya's eyes widened as she struggled in swallowing her bite. "Um… yes." She nodded as she wiped her mouth with the tip of her middle finger. "Once or twice."
"Hmm, really?" Usagi winked at her. "I feel like she's saved you more times than that."
Seiya chuckled. "Are you sure about that?"
"I'm pretty positive about that."
"Well, I must have been drunk during those other times, then."
"So you mean… every time?"
As the two women shared a laugh, Naru pivoted the conversation while waving a finger between the two secret lovers, her still-brown eyebrow raised in curiosity.
"So how exactly do you two know each other?"
They looked at one another, silently waiting for the other to answer first. Though Seiya didn't miss a beat and stuffed her mouth with an overstacked spoon to pass Usagi that torch.
"Uh… mutual friends." She cleared her throat.
"Ah, you both seem so close."
"Yes. We've become very close." Usagi looked at Seiya with a restrained adoration. "Almost… like sisters." Ew, what? Even Seiya showed an obvious close-lipped wince while releasing a few awkward chuckles.
Luckily, Naru wasn't paying attention to their reactions as something shiny distracted her.
"Oh my god, Usagi, that is the most gorgeous pink diamond I've ever seen!" She reached over the table to grab her hand and gawk at her wedding ring. "What is that, three carats? Who's the lucky guy?"
In her defense, Usagi had worn the piece of jewelry long enough that she was legitimately surprised when people noticed it. She feigned a smile as she allowed Naru to admire it—listening to her 'ooh' and 'ahh' in between gasps—all the while praying the sweat on her palms wasn't too conspicuous. Once the eternity was over, she gently took her hand back and hid it under the table.
"You remember Mamo, right?"
"No way!" Naru's jaw was on the table, so that was a 'yes.' "That same guy that you dated in middle school?"
"Yes, that's the one."
"No!" The energy of her denial had her putting both hands on her chest. "Oh my god! I can't believe that! That's so cute! How long have you been married?"
"It'll be ten years in December."
"Ten years?" The revelation nearly made her bones give out. "Wow… I can't believe that. That's amazing. That is truly amazing!"
Keeping her composure not too forceful or uninterested, Usagi nodded with a small smile and began to fidget with her hair in her lap. "I can't believe it sometimes either."
"I remember when you two first started dating. We were… in second year of middle school, or was it third year?"
"Um… yeah, second year."
"Wow! Now that's goals right there. I love that. I'm so happy for you!" Naru's smile was so bright and authentic.
"Okay but don't tell me you're still dating Umino, though!" Usagi broadcasted with laughter. Perhaps to the untrained eye, she was being modest, but Seiya knew she wanted to get off the subject sooner than now.
"God no!" Her response was accompanied by a scoff and an eye roll. "We barely lasted halfway into first year in high school."
"Aww, what happened?"
She shrugged. "Normal teenage stuff—he ended up testing into one of those fancy over-achieving high schools and we kind of got too busy for each other. Became different people."
"I see. Do you still talk?"
"It's funny you ask! I did find him on Instagram last year." Her head lowered with intrigue. "He's married with four kids."
"Four kids?" Usagi's jaw was now the one on the table. She even instinctively grabbed her stomach at the thought of her own body carrying a baby four different times at her age.
"Yes! Can you believe that?"
"No! I hardly thought he'd even lose his virginity in this lifetime."
Naru cackled. "Well, he's all grown up now. And his kids are so freaking adorable. His new baby girl just melts my heart."
"But how's his wife, though? Is she… sane? Is she okay? Does she have to blink once for yes?"
"Oh my god, Usagi." Naru could barely contain her laughter and had to put her hands over her mouth. "No, no, she seems really sweet from all the photos and videos he uploads. They met when they were studying abroad in Germany, actually."
"Oh so is she German?"
"Nope—Japanese. They were in the same exchange program studying nuclear physics or political science or something."
Usagi giggled and playfully remarked, "Wow, those are totally the same things."
"It was something that started with a 'p,' okay!" The barely-contained laughter returned. "My memory is like a bunch of old Post-its and one always falls down when I stick a new one up. I'm surprised I remember that much!"
"You seem to know a lot, though."
"Well, after we followed each other, he messaged me and we got to chatting for a little bit. But we just comment now and then on each other's stories and photos…" Allowing herself to trail off, she lowered her head in intrigue once again.
"Speaking of… do you and Mamoru have any kids?"
Every time Mamoru was brought up felt like an extra twist of the grip on Usagi's heart and was another reminder of how terrible of a person she was to talk about him right in front of her mistress. Not to mention, talk about him as if they hadn't been drifting apart the last few months. She understood it was natural for Naru to ask but it still annoyed and agitated her anxiety to a level of adrenaline that made her want to bust through the window to escape.
"N—no, we don't." She shook her head.
"Are you thinking about kids soon?"
"Um, well… we've thought about it. Mamo just finished his residency and he definitely wants to get settled into his career first. So we're not in a hurry, obviously. But we're just… um… still enjoying married life."
Naru, sensing her reluctance, nodded along. "Sure. As long as you both are happy, that's all that matters. Kids aren't for everyone."
"So what about you? What have you been up to since high school?" Usagi swerved them onto another subject practically on two wheels.
Yet, she didn't protest. "Lots of things, really! I ended up going to The States for school. And, um…" the light from her face dimmed slightly, "well in my last year, Mom got sick and so it got kind of crazy trying to finish school and then take care of her and then take over the store—"
"Oh no!" Genuinely shocked and saddened, Usagi placed her fingers over her mouth. "I'm so sorry to hear that! Is she okay?"
"She's okay! She's doing well. It was breast cancer and she's actually been in remission for… four or five years, now? We've been very thankful."
She released a soft breath of relief. "That's great. I can't imagine."
"It was very stressful but we made it." Naru displayed a content smile. "Mom decided to retire after that and left the store to me and that's pretty much been my life since then. But I love it! I get to travel with my lapidarist and go to conferences and meet a bunch of cute guys." She punctuated that sentence with a wink before she felt a vibration from her purse in her lap. Not even half a second after reaching inside for her cell phone and glancing at the incoming call on the screen, she inhaled a gasp so strong her voice cracked.
"Oh shit, I gotta go! I was supposed to meet someone fifteen minutes ago!"
"Oh no! I'm so sorry we kept you!"
"Nonsense, she'll understand—hey, I'll be there in two seconds!" She accepted the call for only the abrupt utterance of seven words before hanging up as she flew out of her chair and shuffled over to meet the standing bunhead for a hug.
"We gotta have lunch ourselves!"
"Yes! What's your number?"
Both women tapped on their phones while exchanging digits before coming together again for one more parting embrace. Naru then waved with genuine enthusiasm toward Seiya.
"It was nice to meet you!"
"You too." Seiya fluttered her fingers
Her phone still in hand, Naru jogged out of the ice cream parlor without a look back.
After Usagi sat back down, she stared at Seiya with exhausted confusion, keeping silent for a few moments.
"What is it?" Seiya asked.
"I had no idea she went to Juban High."
