"How much farther?" Serena whined as the group of 10 ascended a large hill.
"It's just to the top of the hill," Kento said, "It's really not that far."
"But this hill is so big!" Serena complained.
"Aww, come on Serena, you've faced physical torture greater than walking up this hill," Mina said.
"Like what?" Serena whined.
"Beryl," Mina said simply.
Serena whined and said, "Why'd you have to bring that up, Mina?"
"Just an example," Mina said nonchalantly. Sage turned his head to look at the group of girls behind him.
"What's 'Beryl'?" Sage asked.
The girls glared at Mina, who had spilled something that would be hard to explain, again, and said, "Long story," as Mina apologized.
"Well, don't do it again," Raye said.
"I promise, I won't," Mina swore.
"Good," Raye said.
As they reached the top of the hill, Cye turned around and said, "Did I miss something? You guys seem to have a lot of inside jokes."
The girls just looked at each other with a knowing look and said, "We know."
"But, you guys have a lot of inside jokes, too," Serena said, giving the guys an unnerving look that said that she knew something about them that was supposed to remain a secret. In fact, she did. Serena knew that the guys were the Ronin Warriors, but she hadn't told the girls yet. I'll cross that bridge when I get to it. They just don't need to deal with that right now, Serena thought.
Serena's gaze traveled to a large building that was past the guys.
"Wow, is that where you guys live?" Serena asked, incredulously. The guys turned around and looked at their home.
"Yup, this is it. And I think..." Ryo said as he ran to the front of the house, checking the open garage.
"Yep, Mia's home. Her car is in the garage. Come on, let's go. I wanna introduce you guys to Mia." Ryo rushed into the house, everyone else in tow, and called out, "Mia! We're home!"
"Hold on a moment!" a female voice called out. The girls stood, looking around the house for a few moments before someone came into the front hall.
The girls turned to see a young woman, a few years older than they were, move towards Ryo with a large smile on her face.
"Hey you," she said before giving Ryo a quick kiss, one that Ryo wished he could have made longer.
"Hey Mia, how was your day?" Ryo asked, wrapping an arm around her waist.
"It's was ok, how was yours?"
"Interesting," the guys and girls said. Mia, for the first time, noticed the girls.
She looked at the girls and asked Ryo, "Who are they?"
"Oh, these are friends from school. Mia, I'd like you to meet Serena, Ami, Raye, Mina, and Lita." Mia stepped out of Ryo's embrace and shook hands with all of the girls.
"It's nice to finally be able to put faces to names."
"What do you mean?" Mina asked Mia.
"Well, the guys only talk about you all the time," Mia said like it was the most obvious thing in the world.
"Really?" Mina said, looking at Cye out of the corner of her eye.
Mia noticed Cye's discomfort and said, "Would you girls like something to drink?"
"Yeah, I could go for something," Lita said.
"Me too," Ami said.
"Ditto," the other girls said.
"Ok, I'll be right back. Guys, would you help me?"
"Sure," the Ronin Warriors said as they followed Mia into the kitchen, leaving the girls in the front hall. The girls didn't mind, however, as they looked around the spacious house. Ami, Mina, Lita, and Raye were content to look around the room, but Serena, her never ending curiosity, started looking around the house.
She entered the dining room and found a large, lone stack of papers sitting on the end of the table. Her curiosity piqued, she walked over to the table and looked at the piece of paper that rested on top of the pile and gasped.
It was a picture taken of the Scouts in Tokyo after a battle that occurred a few days before the Scouts left for Toyama. Really curious now, Serena sifted through the large pile of papers to find all of the articles and picture of the scouts, dating back to when the existence of Sailor Moon was made public knowledge.
"Oh my God," Serena said out loud. Moments later, the girls entered the room.
"What did you find, girl?" Lita asked.
"Look at these papers," Serena said, handing them to the girls. Ami's eyes widened, Raye's eyebrows shot up, Mina smiled, and Lita started to chuckle.
"Well, well. It's us," Lita said.
"And it appears we have secret admirers," Mina said with laughter in her voice.
Raye grabbed the pile of papers and started to look through them. She stopped on one and started to laugh.
"What's so funny, Raye?" Ami asked.
"Do you guys remember when we tried to fool the Negaverse into believing that we were splitting up?"
"Yeah," Lita said, motioning for her to continue.
"Well, do you guys remember the picture that appeared in the paper the next day after the robbery at Molly's mother's store?" Raye flipped the picture around to show the others and they all saw Serena, as Sailor Moon, facing the Sailor Scouts with her mouth wide open. Serena turned crimson red and the others started to laugh.
"I still maintain that you have a big mouth, Meatball Head," Raye said, snickering.
"Raye, stop making fun of me," Serena said, starting to laugh as well.
Serena looked at the picture again and said, "I do have a big mouth, don't I?" After one last glance at the picture, Serena burst into hysterical laughter, the same as all of the other girls.
This was how the Ronin Warriors found them as they walked into the room. The Ronin Warriors walked into the dining room to find out what was so funny, with Mia behind them carrying drinks. The guys spotted the girls looking through the large pile of newspaper clippings and immediately became very embarrassed. No one, except for Mia, knew that the guys had been following the Sailor Scouts' career since the beginning and they were very bashful about it.
"What's so funny?" Ryo asked defensively, letting Mia get passed them with the drinks so she could set them down on the table.
"We were just looking through these pictures and we saw one of Sailor Moon that looked a lot like Serena," Lita said as a simple explanation.
"So, you guys like the Sailor Scouts?" Ami asked. The guys all looked away, heads down, and muttered a "Yes."
The girls gave each other smirks, that the guys missed, and Mina said, "It's alright to like them. We won't tell anyone, if that makes you feel better."
"Thank you," Sage said.
"No problem," Lita said, "But believe me, they are very flattered to have fans like you."
"Huh? How do you know that?" Rowen asked.
"Well, anyone is flattered when they have adoring fans. I speak from experience," Mina said.
"Were you someone famous?" Mia asked, handing out glasses of water.
"Yeah, I was an actress back when I lived in England," Mina said, following the guys and Mia into a large family room.
The girls sat down on the various couches and Kento asked, "So, what kind of acting stuff did you do in England?"
Mina checked the clock and said, "I'll show you."
Walking over to the TV, she turned it on and began flipping through the channels until she found the one she was looking for. She smiled as the opening credits for her old show played out on the screen. She stepped away and motioned at the TV screen.
"That," she said, indicating that it was her on the screen.
"You were Sailor V?" Cye asked incredulously as Mina's name appeared on the screen in the opening credits.
"Sure was," Mina said, with a smile on her face.
"Why did you leave?" Ryo asked.
"Well, to tell the truth, I was getting tired of it. I just wanted to lead a normal life. Not like I do now, anyway, but oh well. I'm a lot happier now than I was then." Even with my new memories, Mina thought.
There was a pause in the conversation as they had run the topic dry, so Mia picked a new one.
"So, you guys are from Tokyo. Do you like living there?" she asked.
"Yeah, it's pretty cool," Raye said.
"Yes, even with all the monster attacks that happen there," Ami said.
"Yeah, I noticed that," Mia said, "But, there haven't been any attacks there since the Sailor Scouts left Tokyo and came here a couple of months ago. Now, the attacks are here. Do you guys know why that is?" Mia asked.
"We don't know," Serena lied.
"You know what's really weird?" Rowen said, "How the Sailor Scouts showed up around the same time you girls did. Isn't that a little weird?"
The girls eyed each other nervously and Lita said, "That's probably just a coincidence," laughing a little nervously. Rowen picked up on their nervousness, but chose not to comment on it. Instead, he filed that information away and chose to examine it at a later date. The topic from then on moved to anything else but the Sailor Scouts. A few hours later, the girls felt that it was time to go.
"You know what, we have homework to do," Ami said, looking at her watch.
"Yeah," the other girls muttered. Getting up, the girls walked over to the door and put on their shoes, the guys walking them to the door.
"Thanks for having us over for so long," Raye said.
"No problem," Sage said, "Anytime." Raye just smiled at him as she put on her shoes and opened the door. The others followed, saying their good-byes, and before they shut the door behind them, Mia called out Serena's name.
Serena turned around and said, "Yeah?"
"How would you guys like to have dinner over at our place on Friday?" Mia asked.
Serena smiled slightly and said, "We'd love to."
"Great. See you all then."
"Bye Mia," all five girls chorused as they shut the door behind them.
Mia and the guys watched the door for a moment until Mia said, "I like those girls," before turning around and going into the kitchen to make dinner. Ryo followed Mia into the kitchen, leaving the others by the front door. Yeah, so do we, they all thought before turning to go into the kitchen.
***
The Scouts walked down the hill from Mia's house in twilight.
"Well, that was nice," Ami said.
"Yeah, I just wish Mina could keep her big mouth shut," Raye teased, but there was an edge to her voice that said she wasn't just teasing.
"Look, Raye, I'm sorry. I'm just bad at keeping my big mouth shut, especially around Cye. It's like whenever I'm around him, my brain short-circuits. You sometimes do the same thing with Sage. Remember when he caught you playing with your transformation pen in the middle of class a few weeks ago? I'm surprised he didn't recognize it when Serena gave it to him today," Mina said.
"Alright, alright. I'm guilty too," Raye said.
Raye paused for a moment and said, "Hey, speaking of the guys, did anyone else besides me pick up that Rowen is a little suspicious about us? I mean, the way he picked up on how we arrived at the same time as the Sailor Scouts and pointed it out to us is a little weird, but the tone of voice he said it in said that he knows something, or he's making the connection."
"I picked up on that too," Lita said, "And it scares me a little bit. I don't want to have to get them involved in this. It was dangerous involving Ken, Greg, Andrew, and Chad in the first place. But, at least they know the dangers of knowing our identities. These guys don't."
"Do you wanna bet?" Serena muttered.
"Did you say something, Serena?" Mina asked.
Serena, startled by Mina's question, said, "No, I didn't say anything. Why do you ask?"
"Because I thought I heard you say something," Mina continued.
"Nope, you must be hearing things," Serena said. Mina scrutinized Serena closely, knowing that Serena was hiding something, but she also knew that it was pointless trying to force it out of her, so she let it slide.
"Anyway," Ami said, "We have to keep the guys from finding out. But, that's going to be hard with Rowen. You guys don't seem to understand just how smart he is. He makes connections really quick. I think he just might find out our identities without us having to tell him."
"Well, you know, I could use my crystal to keep them from finding out," Serena said.
"You can do that?" Lita asked.
"Sure, I did it with you guys and your memories of the Silver Millennium...uh-oh," Serena trailed off as she saw the other girls stop and glare at her.
"What do you mean, you did it with us?" Raye asked, fire starting to burn in her eyes.
"Well, when I got my memories back of the Moon Kingdom, they were so painful that I wanted to stop you guys from getting hurt, so I used the Silver Crystal to keep you guys from getting your memories back and I know it was wrong, but I didn't want to see you guys get hurt.
"I know it was wrong and that it backfired, but I really thought I was doing the right thing. Those memories are very painful to have to remember and I didn't want you guys to go through the same pain that I went through. I'm really very, very sorry."
"Sorry or not, you had no right to do that," Raye said.
"I agree. It was wrong for you not to let us get our memories back on our own," Ami said.
"How could you, Serena?" Mina said.
Out of pure guilt and stress from the last three days spilling out, Serena started to cry. Not her usual wailing, but soft tears that worried her friends.
"I know, it was very wrong of me to do and I feel really bad about doing it. If I could do it all over again, I wouldn't have done that and you would have gotten your memories back earlier, but it still would have hurt, maybe even more because you guys are stronger now than you were earlier. I don't expect you to forgive me, either."
Lita smiled at Serena because she knew where her intentions were coming from and gathered Serena into a hug.
"I'm not mad at you Serena and I don't think the others are either."
"No, we're not mad," Raye said, really meaning it.
"You're not?" Serena asked, not believing.
"No, of course not. We couldn't be mad at you," Mina said, "Who has gotten us through these last few days and not expected anything back?" Serena's tears stopped and she smiled at her friends.
"Thank you, guys. I promise, I won't do anything like that again."
"You better not," the others all said. They all started laughing and Mina linked arms with Serena.
"Come on," Mina said, "Let's go home." Serena nodded and they all began walking again.
As they walked home, Serena smiled, listening to her friends talking in the background, happy that they forgave her for doing what she did, a heavy burden lifted off of her shoulders.
"It's just to the top of the hill," Kento said, "It's really not that far."
"But this hill is so big!" Serena complained.
"Aww, come on Serena, you've faced physical torture greater than walking up this hill," Mina said.
"Like what?" Serena whined.
"Beryl," Mina said simply.
Serena whined and said, "Why'd you have to bring that up, Mina?"
"Just an example," Mina said nonchalantly. Sage turned his head to look at the group of girls behind him.
"What's 'Beryl'?" Sage asked.
The girls glared at Mina, who had spilled something that would be hard to explain, again, and said, "Long story," as Mina apologized.
"Well, don't do it again," Raye said.
"I promise, I won't," Mina swore.
"Good," Raye said.
As they reached the top of the hill, Cye turned around and said, "Did I miss something? You guys seem to have a lot of inside jokes."
The girls just looked at each other with a knowing look and said, "We know."
"But, you guys have a lot of inside jokes, too," Serena said, giving the guys an unnerving look that said that she knew something about them that was supposed to remain a secret. In fact, she did. Serena knew that the guys were the Ronin Warriors, but she hadn't told the girls yet. I'll cross that bridge when I get to it. They just don't need to deal with that right now, Serena thought.
Serena's gaze traveled to a large building that was past the guys.
"Wow, is that where you guys live?" Serena asked, incredulously. The guys turned around and looked at their home.
"Yup, this is it. And I think..." Ryo said as he ran to the front of the house, checking the open garage.
"Yep, Mia's home. Her car is in the garage. Come on, let's go. I wanna introduce you guys to Mia." Ryo rushed into the house, everyone else in tow, and called out, "Mia! We're home!"
"Hold on a moment!" a female voice called out. The girls stood, looking around the house for a few moments before someone came into the front hall.
The girls turned to see a young woman, a few years older than they were, move towards Ryo with a large smile on her face.
"Hey you," she said before giving Ryo a quick kiss, one that Ryo wished he could have made longer.
"Hey Mia, how was your day?" Ryo asked, wrapping an arm around her waist.
"It's was ok, how was yours?"
"Interesting," the guys and girls said. Mia, for the first time, noticed the girls.
She looked at the girls and asked Ryo, "Who are they?"
"Oh, these are friends from school. Mia, I'd like you to meet Serena, Ami, Raye, Mina, and Lita." Mia stepped out of Ryo's embrace and shook hands with all of the girls.
"It's nice to finally be able to put faces to names."
"What do you mean?" Mina asked Mia.
"Well, the guys only talk about you all the time," Mia said like it was the most obvious thing in the world.
"Really?" Mina said, looking at Cye out of the corner of her eye.
Mia noticed Cye's discomfort and said, "Would you girls like something to drink?"
"Yeah, I could go for something," Lita said.
"Me too," Ami said.
"Ditto," the other girls said.
"Ok, I'll be right back. Guys, would you help me?"
"Sure," the Ronin Warriors said as they followed Mia into the kitchen, leaving the girls in the front hall. The girls didn't mind, however, as they looked around the spacious house. Ami, Mina, Lita, and Raye were content to look around the room, but Serena, her never ending curiosity, started looking around the house.
She entered the dining room and found a large, lone stack of papers sitting on the end of the table. Her curiosity piqued, she walked over to the table and looked at the piece of paper that rested on top of the pile and gasped.
It was a picture taken of the Scouts in Tokyo after a battle that occurred a few days before the Scouts left for Toyama. Really curious now, Serena sifted through the large pile of papers to find all of the articles and picture of the scouts, dating back to when the existence of Sailor Moon was made public knowledge.
"Oh my God," Serena said out loud. Moments later, the girls entered the room.
"What did you find, girl?" Lita asked.
"Look at these papers," Serena said, handing them to the girls. Ami's eyes widened, Raye's eyebrows shot up, Mina smiled, and Lita started to chuckle.
"Well, well. It's us," Lita said.
"And it appears we have secret admirers," Mina said with laughter in her voice.
Raye grabbed the pile of papers and started to look through them. She stopped on one and started to laugh.
"What's so funny, Raye?" Ami asked.
"Do you guys remember when we tried to fool the Negaverse into believing that we were splitting up?"
"Yeah," Lita said, motioning for her to continue.
"Well, do you guys remember the picture that appeared in the paper the next day after the robbery at Molly's mother's store?" Raye flipped the picture around to show the others and they all saw Serena, as Sailor Moon, facing the Sailor Scouts with her mouth wide open. Serena turned crimson red and the others started to laugh.
"I still maintain that you have a big mouth, Meatball Head," Raye said, snickering.
"Raye, stop making fun of me," Serena said, starting to laugh as well.
Serena looked at the picture again and said, "I do have a big mouth, don't I?" After one last glance at the picture, Serena burst into hysterical laughter, the same as all of the other girls.
This was how the Ronin Warriors found them as they walked into the room. The Ronin Warriors walked into the dining room to find out what was so funny, with Mia behind them carrying drinks. The guys spotted the girls looking through the large pile of newspaper clippings and immediately became very embarrassed. No one, except for Mia, knew that the guys had been following the Sailor Scouts' career since the beginning and they were very bashful about it.
"What's so funny?" Ryo asked defensively, letting Mia get passed them with the drinks so she could set them down on the table.
"We were just looking through these pictures and we saw one of Sailor Moon that looked a lot like Serena," Lita said as a simple explanation.
"So, you guys like the Sailor Scouts?" Ami asked. The guys all looked away, heads down, and muttered a "Yes."
The girls gave each other smirks, that the guys missed, and Mina said, "It's alright to like them. We won't tell anyone, if that makes you feel better."
"Thank you," Sage said.
"No problem," Lita said, "But believe me, they are very flattered to have fans like you."
"Huh? How do you know that?" Rowen asked.
"Well, anyone is flattered when they have adoring fans. I speak from experience," Mina said.
"Were you someone famous?" Mia asked, handing out glasses of water.
"Yeah, I was an actress back when I lived in England," Mina said, following the guys and Mia into a large family room.
The girls sat down on the various couches and Kento asked, "So, what kind of acting stuff did you do in England?"
Mina checked the clock and said, "I'll show you."
Walking over to the TV, she turned it on and began flipping through the channels until she found the one she was looking for. She smiled as the opening credits for her old show played out on the screen. She stepped away and motioned at the TV screen.
"That," she said, indicating that it was her on the screen.
"You were Sailor V?" Cye asked incredulously as Mina's name appeared on the screen in the opening credits.
"Sure was," Mina said, with a smile on her face.
"Why did you leave?" Ryo asked.
"Well, to tell the truth, I was getting tired of it. I just wanted to lead a normal life. Not like I do now, anyway, but oh well. I'm a lot happier now than I was then." Even with my new memories, Mina thought.
There was a pause in the conversation as they had run the topic dry, so Mia picked a new one.
"So, you guys are from Tokyo. Do you like living there?" she asked.
"Yeah, it's pretty cool," Raye said.
"Yes, even with all the monster attacks that happen there," Ami said.
"Yeah, I noticed that," Mia said, "But, there haven't been any attacks there since the Sailor Scouts left Tokyo and came here a couple of months ago. Now, the attacks are here. Do you guys know why that is?" Mia asked.
"We don't know," Serena lied.
"You know what's really weird?" Rowen said, "How the Sailor Scouts showed up around the same time you girls did. Isn't that a little weird?"
The girls eyed each other nervously and Lita said, "That's probably just a coincidence," laughing a little nervously. Rowen picked up on their nervousness, but chose not to comment on it. Instead, he filed that information away and chose to examine it at a later date. The topic from then on moved to anything else but the Sailor Scouts. A few hours later, the girls felt that it was time to go.
"You know what, we have homework to do," Ami said, looking at her watch.
"Yeah," the other girls muttered. Getting up, the girls walked over to the door and put on their shoes, the guys walking them to the door.
"Thanks for having us over for so long," Raye said.
"No problem," Sage said, "Anytime." Raye just smiled at him as she put on her shoes and opened the door. The others followed, saying their good-byes, and before they shut the door behind them, Mia called out Serena's name.
Serena turned around and said, "Yeah?"
"How would you guys like to have dinner over at our place on Friday?" Mia asked.
Serena smiled slightly and said, "We'd love to."
"Great. See you all then."
"Bye Mia," all five girls chorused as they shut the door behind them.
Mia and the guys watched the door for a moment until Mia said, "I like those girls," before turning around and going into the kitchen to make dinner. Ryo followed Mia into the kitchen, leaving the others by the front door. Yeah, so do we, they all thought before turning to go into the kitchen.
***
The Scouts walked down the hill from Mia's house in twilight.
"Well, that was nice," Ami said.
"Yeah, I just wish Mina could keep her big mouth shut," Raye teased, but there was an edge to her voice that said she wasn't just teasing.
"Look, Raye, I'm sorry. I'm just bad at keeping my big mouth shut, especially around Cye. It's like whenever I'm around him, my brain short-circuits. You sometimes do the same thing with Sage. Remember when he caught you playing with your transformation pen in the middle of class a few weeks ago? I'm surprised he didn't recognize it when Serena gave it to him today," Mina said.
"Alright, alright. I'm guilty too," Raye said.
Raye paused for a moment and said, "Hey, speaking of the guys, did anyone else besides me pick up that Rowen is a little suspicious about us? I mean, the way he picked up on how we arrived at the same time as the Sailor Scouts and pointed it out to us is a little weird, but the tone of voice he said it in said that he knows something, or he's making the connection."
"I picked up on that too," Lita said, "And it scares me a little bit. I don't want to have to get them involved in this. It was dangerous involving Ken, Greg, Andrew, and Chad in the first place. But, at least they know the dangers of knowing our identities. These guys don't."
"Do you wanna bet?" Serena muttered.
"Did you say something, Serena?" Mina asked.
Serena, startled by Mina's question, said, "No, I didn't say anything. Why do you ask?"
"Because I thought I heard you say something," Mina continued.
"Nope, you must be hearing things," Serena said. Mina scrutinized Serena closely, knowing that Serena was hiding something, but she also knew that it was pointless trying to force it out of her, so she let it slide.
"Anyway," Ami said, "We have to keep the guys from finding out. But, that's going to be hard with Rowen. You guys don't seem to understand just how smart he is. He makes connections really quick. I think he just might find out our identities without us having to tell him."
"Well, you know, I could use my crystal to keep them from finding out," Serena said.
"You can do that?" Lita asked.
"Sure, I did it with you guys and your memories of the Silver Millennium...uh-oh," Serena trailed off as she saw the other girls stop and glare at her.
"What do you mean, you did it with us?" Raye asked, fire starting to burn in her eyes.
"Well, when I got my memories back of the Moon Kingdom, they were so painful that I wanted to stop you guys from getting hurt, so I used the Silver Crystal to keep you guys from getting your memories back and I know it was wrong, but I didn't want to see you guys get hurt.
"I know it was wrong and that it backfired, but I really thought I was doing the right thing. Those memories are very painful to have to remember and I didn't want you guys to go through the same pain that I went through. I'm really very, very sorry."
"Sorry or not, you had no right to do that," Raye said.
"I agree. It was wrong for you not to let us get our memories back on our own," Ami said.
"How could you, Serena?" Mina said.
Out of pure guilt and stress from the last three days spilling out, Serena started to cry. Not her usual wailing, but soft tears that worried her friends.
"I know, it was very wrong of me to do and I feel really bad about doing it. If I could do it all over again, I wouldn't have done that and you would have gotten your memories back earlier, but it still would have hurt, maybe even more because you guys are stronger now than you were earlier. I don't expect you to forgive me, either."
Lita smiled at Serena because she knew where her intentions were coming from and gathered Serena into a hug.
"I'm not mad at you Serena and I don't think the others are either."
"No, we're not mad," Raye said, really meaning it.
"You're not?" Serena asked, not believing.
"No, of course not. We couldn't be mad at you," Mina said, "Who has gotten us through these last few days and not expected anything back?" Serena's tears stopped and she smiled at her friends.
"Thank you, guys. I promise, I won't do anything like that again."
"You better not," the others all said. They all started laughing and Mina linked arms with Serena.
"Come on," Mina said, "Let's go home." Serena nodded and they all began walking again.
As they walked home, Serena smiled, listening to her friends talking in the background, happy that they forgave her for doing what she did, a heavy burden lifted off of her shoulders.
