Usagi didn't actually need tutoring in English, Ami discovered.
"The class is really easy, honestly," said Usagi, apologetically. "I just started failing tests on purpose because I knew that my mom would freak and try to hire you as a tutor. She's done that before."
"No, that's alright," Ami said, feeling sheepish. "I get that you needed an excuse to spend time with me one-on-one. It's no big deal, really." On the bright side, this meant that she wasn't expected to keep calling Usagi 'Sailor Moon' while they were both in civilian guise. That seemed like a good idea on principle, with the added benefit of sparing Ami's ego.
Honestly, Ami hadn't been enthusiastic about tutoring Usagi, even before Usagi and Luna put her through their recruitment routine. She'd realized, feeling some embarrassment, that she'd labeled Usagi a dumb blonde before she'd even talked to her. She didn't want to believe that Usagi was a magical girl, because even if magical girls were real, why should she be one? Why would Usagi deserve it more than her? Ami had felt that Usagi was stupid, that she didn't deserve vindication or the luxury of being special. The opportunity would be wasted on her.
And Usagi and Luna had clearly anticipated that, as they'd brainstormed ways to make Ami awake as Sailor Mercury. Admitting wrongness was a simple kind of growth, maybe too simple for a Star Seed to detect. But to a person called smart, a person known for knowing things, being wrong is a crisis of identity. It was easy to steer Ami into arguing a false premise. They knew what people – most people, not just Ami – would assume about Usagi. All Usagi had to do to trick her was give her no reason to think differently.
"I'm sorry for assuming that you were an idiot," said Ami, wringing her hands.
"Hmm?" Usagi tilted her head.
"Just, like," Ami gestured vaguely, not making eye contact, "I mean, you know."
That was a lame apology, Ami thought, giving herself a hard mental kick.
Ami opened her mouth to better explain herself, and was interrupted by Usagi walking over and giving her a hug. She could smell her perfume, fruity and floral. Ami flushed, and for a moment, she imagined that Usagi would kiss her on the cheek.
That was the reason why Ami had agreed to tutor Usagi. Usagi was hot. Puberty had done her great favors. It had taken some time for Ami to realize that her lack of interest in boys wasn't just introvertedness, that she was actually gay, so resolutely and passionately gay that she could star in a Subaru commercial. In moments of distraction, Ami would imagine popping one of Usagi's hair buns into her mouth like a cherry tomato.
This all reflected rather poorly on herself, Ami realized.
"It's alright, Ami-chan," Usagi said, returning to her seat. "It's not even your fault. We wanted to make you look foolish. We literally weren't even trying to convince you that I was Sailor Moon. What matters is that you recognize your mistake. So, now we're here."
Ami nodded, waiting for her cheeks to regain their normal color.
"So, if I'm not teaching you English, then what are we doing for today?" Ami said, putting her books into her bag. She wouldn't be needing them.
"We're here to clarify things," Luna said, perched on Usagi's bedside. "I expect that you have questions about assuming the mantle of Sailor Mercury."
"I do." Ami nodded. "So, this is like an orientation, then? Building off of last night?"
"Yes."
Fair enough. So they were taking reasonable steps to prepare her, rather than shoving her into the deep end of the pool and holding her under the water.
"Usagi said that we fight monsters?" Ami asked.
Luna nodded.
The 'monsters' were youma – Luna explained, her ears twitching – warriors of the Dark Kingdom tasked with harvesting energy from human innocents, which would hurt them in different ways. Some were enfeebled, made sick. Others became violent and irrational, ending close relationships and starting fights with strangers. To steal a person's energy was to steal their life essence, hollowing them into twisted, shallow parodies of their former selves.
The Dark Kingdom was populated by youma. Coming to Earth to harvest energy from humans was some kind of duty to them, like bees collecting nectar. Ami pressed Luna for more details, particularly on how they were governed, but Luna was vague. She didn't seem to know that much more, or acted like she didn't, anyhow.
They would be alerted of youma activity by something called the Eternity Main System. That would give them time to prepare a plan of battle, and also spare them the trouble of needing to find youma by going on patrol. That was a relief, Ami was slightly ashamed to admit. Trying to find evildoers by walking the city on foot seemed like drudgery that she was happy to skip. And the chances of them bumping into a youma by pure happenstance were probably negligible, anyhow.
"What happens if a youma attacks outside Tokyo? Someplace we can't reach?" Ami asked, frowning. "Do they attack outside Tokyo?"
Luna stood in silence, thinking. "There are other Sailor Scouts," she said slowly, "besides your own selves, that can handle attacks outside of the local area. You may encounter them as you go about your duties."
Ami's eyebrows rose. "Will they fight us? Should we worry about them attacking us?"
"This isn't like Madoka," Usagi said. "We're not fighting over limited resources."
"Sailor Scouts fight for love. Sailor Guardians fight for love." Luna said. "I can't say they never disagree, that their loyalties never conflict. But all Sailors have kinship with one another. They are not meant to be enemies."
"Is Sailor V a Sailor Scout, too?" Ami asked.
Ami had thought that Usagi's talk of being 'Sailor Moon' was just an unoriginal riff on Sailor V. Now she knew better, but the similarity was still too strong to be pure coincidence. They looked almost exactly alike, the only notable difference being that Sailor V wore her blonde hair down and not in twin ponytails. They had similar facial features, similar names, and similar costumes. Ami wasn't sure if Sailor V also had superpowers, but if she did, it would explain a lot about how successful she was. Ami would have guessed that Usagi and Sailor V were literally the same person were it not for the fact that she saw Usagi every day at school, while Sailor V worked a busy tour schedule in Europe and North America.
That aside, Ami saw nothing weird about the fact that Usagi Tsukino looked exactly like a blonde-haired, blue-eyed white girl from London.
"Yes, she is," said Luna.
So, being a Sailor Scout meant that you could become an international superstar. Ami wasn't sure how she felt about that. Ami relished being a superhero because it meant being important, but wanting to be a superhero because it meant being famous felt obviously twisted to her.
"Do you work with her?" asked Ami. Luna had said that Sailors weren't enemies, but that wasn't the same thing as being allies.
Luna paused. "Yes. I can't say more than that, though."
"How come?"
"You don't need to know," said Luna.
So, being a Sailor entailed a level of intrigue.
"Is there a difference between a Sailor Scout and a Sailor Guardian?" Ami asked.
The two were different, Luna explained. Being a Sailor Scout was like an apprenticeship. Sailor Guardians were Sailor Scouts who had achieved veterancy, found deeper revelation in the course of their duties, and reached a spiritual understanding of that for which the Sailors fought. The hope was that Usagi and Ami would both become Guardians, along with the others that they would recruit.
"So, it's not just us two working together, then?" Ami asked. "There are more nascent Sailor Scouts out there, waiting to join our team?"
"Yes," said Luna. "Finding and enlisting them will be a primary focus for the two of you, alongside fighting youma."
That stirred something in Ami, made her smile. More Sailor Scouts on their team meant that she'd have allies, that she'd have friends.
"Do we need to maintain secret identities? I remember you telling me to call Usagi 'Sailor Moon' when we were transformed," Ami asked.
That might be challenging. Usagi felt different when she transformed, Ami remembered. She had an aura of serenity that was probably the result of some kind of magic, against which Usagi-the-plainclothes-civilian didn't seem to compare. But their Sailor Scout uniforms did very little to hide their appearance. They wore no masks, their hair stayed the same. (Well, polished red hair pieces would decorate Usagi's odango when she transformed, but her basic hairstyle didn't change.) Looking at pictures of Sailor Moon and Usagi side-by-side, you could easily tell that they were the same people.
"You should make a reasonable effort to not be seen transforming, and you should exercise common sense. Don't go telling people that you're Sailor Mercury, and so on." said Luna. "But our foremost concern is youma, and youma concern themselves with the collection of energy. Your civilian identities are of no importance to them, only the fact of your interference as you move to fight them."
"They're not intelligent, then?"
"They are," said Usagi, softly, ignoring the sharp look that Luna gave her. "The youma I've fought, they spoke to me. Taunted me. Understood what I was saying when I talked back to them."
Ami frowned. "Then shouldn't we be worried about them learning who we are? Couldn't they follow us home from school and attack our families?"
"That would seem a needless diversion to them," Luna said. "They seek energy. That is their goal and their motivation. Given the choice between hunting your loved ones and harvesting energy, they will always choose the latter."
"But we're the only ones who can stop them, right? Especially as we start beating more of them, they'd start to expect us. They wouldn't just ignore us until the last possible second."
"If you or I were youma, then perhaps. But they are not creatures of reason," Luna said. "And even if they were, and they sought to learn your civilian identity, they would fail. And humans would do no better."
"How can you be so sure?" asked Ami, brow deeply furrowed.
"Oh, you should know why, Ami," Luna said, grinning.
Ami scowled. "That's different, and you know it! You wanted me to think–" that Usagi wasn't Sailor Moon, Ami thought, stopping mid-sentence. That didn't support Ami's point the way she'd thought it would.
In lieu of a reply, Luna hopped down and vanished underneath Usagi bed frame, emerging a few seconds later with a newspaper in her mouth. She dropped it at Ami's feet and scooched it towards her with a paw. "Read it," she said.
Ami looked down.
MONSTROUS JEWELRY PEDDLER DEFEATED BY MINISKIRTED HEROINE 'SAILOR MOON'!
"Whuh– Buh–" said Ami.
The paper was dated more than two weeks ago, before she'd even been hired to tutor Usagi.
"How did– Everybody could–"
The article had a picture of Sailor Moon. Ami could tell, barely needing to squint, that it was Usagi in the photo.
Ami looked at Usagi, then to Luna, then back to Usagi.
"How could anyone not know that that's you?!" she shouted. "How could anyone not know that you're Sailor Moon?! You're in the newspaper, Usagi!"
"Exactly," said Usagi, brightly. "Nobody reads print news anymore."
Ami put her face in her hands. She needed a moment to compose herself.
"I just realized that I shouted your secret identity out loud," Ami said, slowly. "I'm sorry, that was foolish of me."
"Don't worry," said Usagi. "The walls are soundproof."
Ami sighed. "Okay. Okay, so, I really wasn't doing a good job of falsifying my beliefs earlier. I think that's what you're trying to convey. But I still don't know why you're so certain that people won't try to find out who we are. If someone, like a stalker at school or something, saw that newspaper, I don't see how they wouldn't recognize it as Usagi."
"It's part of the transformation," Usagi said. "Luna calls it a 'glamour'. It actually changes your body, how you look. It makes you prettier. You recognize me in the photo because you already know that Sailor Moon is Usagi Tsukino. But other people would only think that I kind of look like Sailor Moon."
Ami picked up the newspaper and stared at it more closely. Yes, the picture of Sailor Moon was clearly Usagi. But she still looked different in the photo. It was the difference between a woman dressed smartly with a full face of makeup, and the same woman in sweatpants after rolling out of bed. Sailor Moon looked like the best possible version of Usagi, like a woman greater than Usagi Tsukino could ever be.
"But can't they still recognize you from the hair?" Ami said, weakly.
"What do you mean? Lots of Japanese people have hair like me," said Usagi, fingering a blonde ponytail.
Ami slumped in her chair. Usagi took pity on her. "Luna and I are messing with you, Ami. You're asking good questions. You just take things so seriously, it's hard to resist."
"I think I'm taking things just seriously enough," said Ami.