The morning sun entered the room, warming everything with her long fingers. Hotaru's eyes opened as the temperate rays reached her face. Sighing, she looked at the clock on top of the fireplace. 8:00! If she hurried she could just make it to school on time. She ran to her room and slipped on her black stockings and her school uniform. She looked at herself in the mirror. Remarkably, her face wasn't red from last night's crying session. Well, at least something good happened today. Quickly, she left the house and made her way toward her high school.
"Miss Tomoe, you are late." The teacher snapped as she entered her classroom. Her clock must have been wrong at home.
"Gomen nasai, Sensei Kishimura. I promise that this will be the last time." Oh no, she was really going to get it now. Hotaru's eyes cast down with shame as she bowed to her teacher.
"Well, I'm sure you have a perfectly good reason. Just don't let it happen again." He smiled at her. "You may take your seat now."
What?! No reprimand? No yelling? No embarrassment in front of her peers? Whatever was wrong with Sensei Kishimura she wanted to stay wrong! Quietly, Hotaru took her usual seat in the back of the room.
"Hotaru-chan, why are you sitting back there?" A girl Hotaru recognized as Hinto Sakuya whispered back to her. Sakuya was the most popular girl in the school, why was she talking to her- like a friend?
"Well I just always have, I guess." Hotaru whispered back, preparing herself for a cruel joke.
"Oh, come on.. You're not mad at me, are you? Come sit with me..."
Oh, this was low! Hotaru knew that she, herself was probably the least popular girl in school. But this....this, toying with her emotions like that. People can be so cruel.
"I think I'll stay back here, thanks." Better to be safe than sorry.
"But Hotaru-chan..."
"I wish some girls in the back of the classroom would continue their discussion after class." Sensei Kishimura commented rather kindly.
This was not right! People being nice to her? Even the teacher?
The class continued on quite normally after that, other than the fact that she was called upon quite frequently and the class paid attention when she spoke. And when the teacher found out that she didn't have her homework, he simply told her to bring it in the next day for a late-grade, almost as if she was the teacher's pet or something. And when the class ended for break, a group of the most popular students gathered around her desk to give her the most recent gossip.
The entire day was like that. Even Tsukino Shingo sat next to her at lunch, and her "friends" talked about him as if he was her boyfriend. In fact Sakuya, Arisu, and Ayeka made plans to go to the mall with her as if it was the most normal thing in the world. But the thing that astounded Hotaru the most was that at the end of the day, there was no joke. No one said anything to her to make her humiliated and no one laughed at her. This was the best day of her life.
Hotaru drove home with newfound happiness. She had to call the other Senshi even if this did turn out to be a joke. She picked up the phone by her bedside and dialed Usagi first.
Brrring...Brrring...Brrring. "Moshi, moshi! You have reached the residence of Chiba Mamoru and Usagi. I'm sorry we're not home right now, but-"
Hotaru hung up. She hated talking to machines more than anything.
Ami would defiantly be home. Hotaru knew she liked to have tea about this time.
Brrring...Brrring...Brrring...Brrring...........
She let it ring a few more times before she hung up. Basically the same things happened when she tried to call the others too. This day was beginning to get stranger and stranger.
"Come out of it, Hotaru." She thought to herself, "Tomorrow this will all turn out to be a big trick and everyone will laugh at the thought that you even thought you had friends."
Brrring!!!
This time the ringing belonged to the phone she held in her hand. She was so surprised to actually get a call that she almost dropped the phone.
"Moshi, moshi." She said into the speaker uncertainly.
"Hotaru?"
"Yes, who's speaking, please."
"It's me, Shingo." Shingo was calling her? Why?
"Yeah, hi Shingo. Why are you calling?"
"I have to have a reason to call you?"
"Umm, well no. That's not what I meant. I mean-"
"No, I just wanted to hear your voice. Don't apologize." Just wanted to hear her voice? What kind of prank call was this?
"Is this come kind of joke, Shingo? I didn't think you would be in on this, too."
"What?! No! What do you mean? I'd never give you a prank call." Maybe he was serious about this. Maybe this day wasn't a joke. Maybe her classmates had decided to give her a chance.
"No, I'm sorry. I've just had a confusing day. It's was nice of you to call, Shingo."
"Listen, do you wanna go somewhere?" What? Was he asking her on a date? Na... He just wanted to go somewhere. She shouldn't let it go to her head.
"Somewhere?"
"Yeah, I thought you might like to go to the park with me. Well me and my family. We're having a picnic at the park down in Shibuya."
"Yeah, I'd love to come." That's probably where Usagi and Mamoru were.
"Umm.. I can't pick you up now. But can you meet us at the center fountain at 6:00?" That was her fountain. Hotaru smiled; for some reason this felt special, as if this was the way it was supposed to be.
"Sure, I'll see you there. Ja ne!" She hung up the phone quietly and let a huge, deafening "YIPPEE!!" follow.
***
Hotaru showed up at the fountain at precisely 6:00 wearing a knee length black skirt, a black spaghetti-strap top, and tennis shoes. She wanted to make sure that she wasn't over or under dressed. Everything had to be perfect. In accordance with her daily ritual, she tossed a yen in the fountain's basin of flowing water and made the same wish she made every day.
When she turned back around, Shingo was standing right in front of her with a purple rose in his hand for her.
"I remembered that it was your favorite color." He said as he handed it to her.
Tears began to fill Hotaru's eyes. It really was her favorite color. Most people thought that it was black, though, and the fact that he cared enough to know touched her. "You really need a reality check," Hotaru thought to herself. "If what makes you get teary isn't the fact that a HOT guy gave you a rose, but that he knows your favorite color." She quickly brushed the tears from her violet eyes and gave Shingo a tight hug. She couldn't find any words to thank him with so it would have to do.
"Where's Usagi-chan and Mamoru?" She wanted to change the subject as quickly as possible.
"You know my sister?" Shingo's surprise was evident on his face.
"Well, yeah. We've been friends for a while." Okay... What was with him?
"Wow, you learn something new every day. Anyway... Hotaru, I'd like to introduce you to my parents, Tsukino Kenji and Ikuko." Hotaru and the couple gave each other small bows and shook hands.
"Yes, we met at Usagi's Christmas party." She smiled to the couple.
"Usagi's Christmas party?" Mr. and Mrs. Tsukino seemed a bit confused as well as Shingo. "But Usagi didn't have a party last year."
"Of course she did, don't you remember? That's when Urawa proposed to Ami."
"Ami's engaged?!"
"Well, yes. Of, course... You don't remember any of this, do you?"
"I'm afraid not, dear." Ikuko was very kind to Hotaru, even though Hotaru could tell that both she and her husband had thought she had gone crazy. But she wasn't! She could remember that night as clearly as if it were yesterday. There had been a hired photographer and everything. Pictures of night alone took up four pages -front and back- in her scrapbook. Yes, that's it! Her scrapbook! She could prove that she wasn't crazy. But not now.. It would probably be better to try and make a good second first impression on the Tsukinos.
"Heh.. Well, I suppose something must be very wrong with me then!" Hotaru decided that a laughable sarcastic reply would be the best one to lighten up the subject of her sanity.
Despite the rocky beginning, the picnic turned out quite wonderfully. And though Hotaru never could fully take her mind of Usagi's party, she at least could honestly say she had a fabulous time.
Interestingly enough, Shingo had cooked the entire meal. "No one will believe me when I report a better chef than Mako-chan exists," Hotaru thought with a smile. More than the food, however, the girl couldn't help but notice the way that Shingo looked at her. Whenever she caught his eyes with her own, he would quickly dart them to the darkening sky or the glistening lake and blush slightly. She was used to people staring at her. In fact, she couldn't remember a day when somebody didn't stare. But this was different. These looks didn't make her cringe, or want to disappear. These looks made her feel safe and loved like she'd never been before.
Shingo was just as enchanted with the petite brunette as she was with him. The only times he could bare to take his green-teal eyes of her was when she would catch him staring and embarrassed, he'd pretend it never happened.
The evening ended to the dismay of both couples. Though the teenagers took little notice, Kenji and Ikuko Tsukino had an equally good time and hurried to the car before their son as if it would make them return home quicker.
Hotaru and Shingo walked slowly back to her car secretly savoring every moment in each other's presence. Meanwhile, the hot day had become a warm night. The sky's blackness only lit by a small sliver of a crescent moon and the millions of stars that shone like silver glitter spilled on to black construction paper, a toddler's priceless piece of artwork.
"Tomorrow Night?" Hotaru broke the enveloping silence with her soft voice. "Take me here tomorrow night. And the next, every night. Every night from now 'till forever. I want to relive these moments for the rest of my life, until eternity ends and the universe is baron and empty."
What did she just hear herself say? How could she have been this bold? Until today, they'd hardly spoken three words to each other. "Kami-sama, please let the world end now!" She pleaded in her mind to the all mighty deity.
"From now 'till forever." Shingo kissed the cheek he had wanted to kiss so many times and quickly ran back to his parents' car in the middle of the lot.
"He kissed me." The purple-eyed girl stood dumbfounded at the door of her black car for nearly a half an hour before she had the courage to pinch herself and risk waking up from her dream. "He kissed me." This was no dream. Reality had become heaven. Hotaru drove home in a lover's daze. "Tsukino Shingo kissed me..."
***
The week went on as un-normaly as the preceding day. Her classmates became her friends, Shingo picked her up every afternoon at six, her professors made her out to be a teacher's pet, and almost everything was great. On the not-so-perfect other hand, Michiru-mama and Haruka-papa were not home yet and had not even called, and Setsuna-mama should have been home on Wednesday and was apparently still at the Gates of Time, none of the senshi had answered the phone all week, and most confusing of all, her scrapbook was missing and she had no way to prove her sanity. If only the wrongs hadn't practically, well... completely out weighed the rights...
But it was Saturday and Saturday meant dinner at the Chiba's. At last she could confide in someone who wouldn't think she was mad.
Hotaru arrived at the apartment's door at precisely six thirty. And following her signature "shave and a haircut, two bits" knock turned the oval shaped knob to the door marked 14E, only to find it locked. This was odd. They never locked their doors when they were home. She ran her fingers across the top frame of the door until they reached a small silver key. Hotaru had spent many nights at the Chiba's house when her parents were away and knew how to get in.
She fit the key in to the vertical hole in the knob and turned it clockwise until it clicked open. The lights were out. Uncertainly she entered the foyer tiled with blue/gray marble and flicked the light switch up. A mess! Hotaru had to check the number of the apartment to make sure it was the right one. Usagi had never been the perfect housekeeper, but a pig could keep a room cleaner than this!
"Usagi-chan? Mamoru-san? Hello?" She tried to walk through the mess, toward the kitchen but could barely make it as it was nearly impossible to see the floor. The kitchen was no better than the rest of the house. Half-eaten cereal and milk sat, looking two days old in chipped and browning bowls. Two flies swarmed around the room before landing on a greening orange peel in the sink.
Where were they? And more importantly, what was this?
Her delicate nose barely standing the stench, Hotaru ran from the apartment and outside to the fresh (well fresher) air of the city. The sun was just setting and the sky was confused in deciding what colors to be. A violet color meshed in to the rosy-orange that surrounded the burning orb which was parallel in height to the electric sky scrappers, making the skyline stand out as no other had before.
Alone and confused the small girl walked the sidewalks lining the traffic-full roads. When the sun hit her hair, you could tell that it had a violet tint to it. Through out the neighborhoods, the new and the run-down, past the small, privately owned shops and the gigantic chain stores, and past the indigo river that flowed through the center of Juuban, she wandered. Hotaru pondered how she could be suddenly so popular and yet still so alone.
She had canceled her date with Shingo in order to keep the Chiba tradition alive. He had wanted to join her at his sister's but had been over-piled with homework and scholarship application forms. Even though she understood, Hotaru was secretly upset.
Juuban Central Park
It had seemed to her as though she hadn't wandered quite far away from the Chiba's building, but the sign in front of her proved otherwise. The cold hand in the pocket of her black jeans felt a yen between her fingers. Might as well keep tradition. Hotaru passed through the still open gates of the park toward the center fountain that she knew had to be there.
Though she didn't realize it, a few hours had passed and the evening star had long since appeared along with several others.
"Aaaghh!" The moan of pain could barely be heard through the mass of thick trees. Nevertheless, she cut across the thick grass, running toward the source of the cry. The maroon shirt, patterned across the bottom with pine green ivy, she wore snagged and finally tore on a briar as she shuffled through a bed of roses.
"Damn, my favorite shirt," Hotaru clutched the right side of her stomach were the thorns had attacked her. Warm, sticky blood slowly began to flow. But she couldn't stop.
She didn't know what made her run. She just did. Something in her just made Hotaru want to help, to heal. And since she had been born with a special gift for it...
Finally she made it to the scene, or at least behind a tree at the scene. Slowly, she peeked her head out from behind the giant oak.
"Honestly, what's the big deal? We'll have you fixed up in no time. So quit moaning!"
"I can't help it!!!! It Hurts!!!! Ow! Could you be a little more gentle, please?"
"It wouldn't hurt as much if you'd quit moving."
"Can't Sailor Mercury or Tuxedo Kamen-sama fix me?"
"She needs the practice..." "She needs to work on her gift..."
"What gift?....." Usagi whispered scornfully.
Hotaru stared in disbelief.... The Senshi.... In uniform.... Without her!!!!
But the thing that startled her the most wasn't that she hadn't been called, nor that Sailor Moon was injured. It was the girl working on Moon wasn't Mars (as it sounded) but a girl with a slightly dazed expression wearing her fuku! Sailor Saturn's fuku!! This was Not right.
"Guys? Who is she?" Hotaru made her presence known.
The senshi assumed their attack positions after a split second of surprise.
"I am Sailor Moon! I will right wrongs and-"
"No, no..... You don't have to give me the official greeting/warning/whatever you want to call it... Who Is She?" Pointing to the red head in her fuku this time.
The girl looked obliviously at Hotaru. She finally asked after a very lengthy pause, "Me?...."
"Well of course you! Who are you? Why are you wearing my fuku? Why are you carrying my glaive? Who are You?!!" She was not in the mood to play games and yet she wasn't angry with the slightly moronic girl.
"I am the Senshi of Death and Rebirth. I am Sailor Saturn." The girl's reply was a sorry one, not said with the usual grace and power that the senshi possessed.
"No, you're not..." Hotaru informed her only slightly annoyed. She looked to her friends this time for help. "Who is she?"
"She just told you... Who are you?.." Jupiter looked at the small, violet-eyed brunette, not knowing what to think.
"Me?.. Hotaru, Tomoe Hotaru...." **awkward pause** "You know.... ME!! Sailor Saturn!!! Senshi of all that stuff, death, destruction, rebirth, silence, SATURN....! Ring a bell?" She felt through her pockets for her henshin, a piece of evidence.... Where was it? And what game were they playing?
"Do you know her?" Venus whispered to Luna.
"I'm at a loss." The purple-black cat replied.
"Then how does she know us?"
Hotaru was still searching her pockets for the violet henshin when she spotted the family she had missed for so long... They were back!!
"Haruka-papa, Michiru-mama, Setsuna-mama! I've missed you!" Hotaru ran up to the three to tackle them with hugs, forgetting that her identity was on trial. But before she reached arm's length, Pluto swung her time key out in front of the teenager to stop her. Hotaru tumbled to the ground to prevent a head on collision with the staff.
"Setsuna-mama, is this some kind of game? Why are you doing this to me.......don't you know me?" Hotaru had lost the slight angry edge in her voice; and now she spoke with timidity and fear.
"Are we supposed to?" Sailor Uranus had only a minimal of the usual coldness in her voice as she spoke to the confused girl. Neptune noticed this and wondered why her partner would show such an unusual side of her personality to this stranger.
"Oh, God... what is this? This really isn't a game is it? You're ...You're not playing..." Hotaru stumbled up to Sailor Moon and Mercury. "Ami, Usagi don't you recognize me? It's all a joke, right.....please........" With this, Hotaru collapsed in front of the two, unconscious.
"She's bleeding!" Usagi knelt before the figure, ignoring her own wound that still stung throughout her body. She indicated a deep graze in the side of the girl where the rose's thorns had ferociously torn her fragile body.
"I can treat this if we can get back to my house." Mercury examined the would with a doctor's eye.
"But we don't know who she is!" Mars protested.
"She seemed to know--" Venus turned around to find the Outer Senshi. "Well, they certainly left quickly and quietly." Indeed the Outers, excluding Saturn, were nowhere to be seen.
"We can't just leave her like this!" Sailor Moon's gentle compassion for the stranger was evident in her dark blue eyes.
"This is not something to take lightly." Luna spoke.
"Luna's right." The silent Tuxedo Kamen cited. "She did seem to know all of us."
"Not me!" The Sailor Saturn-imposter almost seemed proud.
"We should take her to Ami's.." Jupiter cast her vote. "Even if she does pose a threat, she deserves to have her say."
Mars knelt down beside Moon to have a better look at the girl who was posing such a mystery. Indeed, she was wounded badly (obviously by briars). But how briars could do this much damage was beyond her. "Ami, isn't you're mother still at your house? She can come to the temple. It'll be much safer for her there."
Mars's sudden change in attitude surprised them all. But nobody could object. Tuxedo Kamen picked up the little adolescent in his arms and seven dark figures followed by two cats made their way back to the Hikawa Jinja as they had done for so many nights.
"Miss Tomoe, you are late." The teacher snapped as she entered her classroom. Her clock must have been wrong at home.
"Gomen nasai, Sensei Kishimura. I promise that this will be the last time." Oh no, she was really going to get it now. Hotaru's eyes cast down with shame as she bowed to her teacher.
"Well, I'm sure you have a perfectly good reason. Just don't let it happen again." He smiled at her. "You may take your seat now."
What?! No reprimand? No yelling? No embarrassment in front of her peers? Whatever was wrong with Sensei Kishimura she wanted to stay wrong! Quietly, Hotaru took her usual seat in the back of the room.
"Hotaru-chan, why are you sitting back there?" A girl Hotaru recognized as Hinto Sakuya whispered back to her. Sakuya was the most popular girl in the school, why was she talking to her- like a friend?
"Well I just always have, I guess." Hotaru whispered back, preparing herself for a cruel joke.
"Oh, come on.. You're not mad at me, are you? Come sit with me..."
Oh, this was low! Hotaru knew that she, herself was probably the least popular girl in school. But this....this, toying with her emotions like that. People can be so cruel.
"I think I'll stay back here, thanks." Better to be safe than sorry.
"But Hotaru-chan..."
"I wish some girls in the back of the classroom would continue their discussion after class." Sensei Kishimura commented rather kindly.
This was not right! People being nice to her? Even the teacher?
The class continued on quite normally after that, other than the fact that she was called upon quite frequently and the class paid attention when she spoke. And when the teacher found out that she didn't have her homework, he simply told her to bring it in the next day for a late-grade, almost as if she was the teacher's pet or something. And when the class ended for break, a group of the most popular students gathered around her desk to give her the most recent gossip.
The entire day was like that. Even Tsukino Shingo sat next to her at lunch, and her "friends" talked about him as if he was her boyfriend. In fact Sakuya, Arisu, and Ayeka made plans to go to the mall with her as if it was the most normal thing in the world. But the thing that astounded Hotaru the most was that at the end of the day, there was no joke. No one said anything to her to make her humiliated and no one laughed at her. This was the best day of her life.
Hotaru drove home with newfound happiness. She had to call the other Senshi even if this did turn out to be a joke. She picked up the phone by her bedside and dialed Usagi first.
Brrring...Brrring...Brrring. "Moshi, moshi! You have reached the residence of Chiba Mamoru and Usagi. I'm sorry we're not home right now, but-"
Hotaru hung up. She hated talking to machines more than anything.
Ami would defiantly be home. Hotaru knew she liked to have tea about this time.
Brrring...Brrring...Brrring...Brrring...........
She let it ring a few more times before she hung up. Basically the same things happened when she tried to call the others too. This day was beginning to get stranger and stranger.
"Come out of it, Hotaru." She thought to herself, "Tomorrow this will all turn out to be a big trick and everyone will laugh at the thought that you even thought you had friends."
Brrring!!!
This time the ringing belonged to the phone she held in her hand. She was so surprised to actually get a call that she almost dropped the phone.
"Moshi, moshi." She said into the speaker uncertainly.
"Hotaru?"
"Yes, who's speaking, please."
"It's me, Shingo." Shingo was calling her? Why?
"Yeah, hi Shingo. Why are you calling?"
"I have to have a reason to call you?"
"Umm, well no. That's not what I meant. I mean-"
"No, I just wanted to hear your voice. Don't apologize." Just wanted to hear her voice? What kind of prank call was this?
"Is this come kind of joke, Shingo? I didn't think you would be in on this, too."
"What?! No! What do you mean? I'd never give you a prank call." Maybe he was serious about this. Maybe this day wasn't a joke. Maybe her classmates had decided to give her a chance.
"No, I'm sorry. I've just had a confusing day. It's was nice of you to call, Shingo."
"Listen, do you wanna go somewhere?" What? Was he asking her on a date? Na... He just wanted to go somewhere. She shouldn't let it go to her head.
"Somewhere?"
"Yeah, I thought you might like to go to the park with me. Well me and my family. We're having a picnic at the park down in Shibuya."
"Yeah, I'd love to come." That's probably where Usagi and Mamoru were.
"Umm.. I can't pick you up now. But can you meet us at the center fountain at 6:00?" That was her fountain. Hotaru smiled; for some reason this felt special, as if this was the way it was supposed to be.
"Sure, I'll see you there. Ja ne!" She hung up the phone quietly and let a huge, deafening "YIPPEE!!" follow.
***
Hotaru showed up at the fountain at precisely 6:00 wearing a knee length black skirt, a black spaghetti-strap top, and tennis shoes. She wanted to make sure that she wasn't over or under dressed. Everything had to be perfect. In accordance with her daily ritual, she tossed a yen in the fountain's basin of flowing water and made the same wish she made every day.
When she turned back around, Shingo was standing right in front of her with a purple rose in his hand for her.
"I remembered that it was your favorite color." He said as he handed it to her.
Tears began to fill Hotaru's eyes. It really was her favorite color. Most people thought that it was black, though, and the fact that he cared enough to know touched her. "You really need a reality check," Hotaru thought to herself. "If what makes you get teary isn't the fact that a HOT guy gave you a rose, but that he knows your favorite color." She quickly brushed the tears from her violet eyes and gave Shingo a tight hug. She couldn't find any words to thank him with so it would have to do.
"Where's Usagi-chan and Mamoru?" She wanted to change the subject as quickly as possible.
"You know my sister?" Shingo's surprise was evident on his face.
"Well, yeah. We've been friends for a while." Okay... What was with him?
"Wow, you learn something new every day. Anyway... Hotaru, I'd like to introduce you to my parents, Tsukino Kenji and Ikuko." Hotaru and the couple gave each other small bows and shook hands.
"Yes, we met at Usagi's Christmas party." She smiled to the couple.
"Usagi's Christmas party?" Mr. and Mrs. Tsukino seemed a bit confused as well as Shingo. "But Usagi didn't have a party last year."
"Of course she did, don't you remember? That's when Urawa proposed to Ami."
"Ami's engaged?!"
"Well, yes. Of, course... You don't remember any of this, do you?"
"I'm afraid not, dear." Ikuko was very kind to Hotaru, even though Hotaru could tell that both she and her husband had thought she had gone crazy. But she wasn't! She could remember that night as clearly as if it were yesterday. There had been a hired photographer and everything. Pictures of night alone took up four pages -front and back- in her scrapbook. Yes, that's it! Her scrapbook! She could prove that she wasn't crazy. But not now.. It would probably be better to try and make a good second first impression on the Tsukinos.
"Heh.. Well, I suppose something must be very wrong with me then!" Hotaru decided that a laughable sarcastic reply would be the best one to lighten up the subject of her sanity.
Despite the rocky beginning, the picnic turned out quite wonderfully. And though Hotaru never could fully take her mind of Usagi's party, she at least could honestly say she had a fabulous time.
Interestingly enough, Shingo had cooked the entire meal. "No one will believe me when I report a better chef than Mako-chan exists," Hotaru thought with a smile. More than the food, however, the girl couldn't help but notice the way that Shingo looked at her. Whenever she caught his eyes with her own, he would quickly dart them to the darkening sky or the glistening lake and blush slightly. She was used to people staring at her. In fact, she couldn't remember a day when somebody didn't stare. But this was different. These looks didn't make her cringe, or want to disappear. These looks made her feel safe and loved like she'd never been before.
Shingo was just as enchanted with the petite brunette as she was with him. The only times he could bare to take his green-teal eyes of her was when she would catch him staring and embarrassed, he'd pretend it never happened.
The evening ended to the dismay of both couples. Though the teenagers took little notice, Kenji and Ikuko Tsukino had an equally good time and hurried to the car before their son as if it would make them return home quicker.
Hotaru and Shingo walked slowly back to her car secretly savoring every moment in each other's presence. Meanwhile, the hot day had become a warm night. The sky's blackness only lit by a small sliver of a crescent moon and the millions of stars that shone like silver glitter spilled on to black construction paper, a toddler's priceless piece of artwork.
"Tomorrow Night?" Hotaru broke the enveloping silence with her soft voice. "Take me here tomorrow night. And the next, every night. Every night from now 'till forever. I want to relive these moments for the rest of my life, until eternity ends and the universe is baron and empty."
What did she just hear herself say? How could she have been this bold? Until today, they'd hardly spoken three words to each other. "Kami-sama, please let the world end now!" She pleaded in her mind to the all mighty deity.
"From now 'till forever." Shingo kissed the cheek he had wanted to kiss so many times and quickly ran back to his parents' car in the middle of the lot.
"He kissed me." The purple-eyed girl stood dumbfounded at the door of her black car for nearly a half an hour before she had the courage to pinch herself and risk waking up from her dream. "He kissed me." This was no dream. Reality had become heaven. Hotaru drove home in a lover's daze. "Tsukino Shingo kissed me..."
***
The week went on as un-normaly as the preceding day. Her classmates became her friends, Shingo picked her up every afternoon at six, her professors made her out to be a teacher's pet, and almost everything was great. On the not-so-perfect other hand, Michiru-mama and Haruka-papa were not home yet and had not even called, and Setsuna-mama should have been home on Wednesday and was apparently still at the Gates of Time, none of the senshi had answered the phone all week, and most confusing of all, her scrapbook was missing and she had no way to prove her sanity. If only the wrongs hadn't practically, well... completely out weighed the rights...
But it was Saturday and Saturday meant dinner at the Chiba's. At last she could confide in someone who wouldn't think she was mad.
Hotaru arrived at the apartment's door at precisely six thirty. And following her signature "shave and a haircut, two bits" knock turned the oval shaped knob to the door marked 14E, only to find it locked. This was odd. They never locked their doors when they were home. She ran her fingers across the top frame of the door until they reached a small silver key. Hotaru had spent many nights at the Chiba's house when her parents were away and knew how to get in.
She fit the key in to the vertical hole in the knob and turned it clockwise until it clicked open. The lights were out. Uncertainly she entered the foyer tiled with blue/gray marble and flicked the light switch up. A mess! Hotaru had to check the number of the apartment to make sure it was the right one. Usagi had never been the perfect housekeeper, but a pig could keep a room cleaner than this!
"Usagi-chan? Mamoru-san? Hello?" She tried to walk through the mess, toward the kitchen but could barely make it as it was nearly impossible to see the floor. The kitchen was no better than the rest of the house. Half-eaten cereal and milk sat, looking two days old in chipped and browning bowls. Two flies swarmed around the room before landing on a greening orange peel in the sink.
Where were they? And more importantly, what was this?
Her delicate nose barely standing the stench, Hotaru ran from the apartment and outside to the fresh (well fresher) air of the city. The sun was just setting and the sky was confused in deciding what colors to be. A violet color meshed in to the rosy-orange that surrounded the burning orb which was parallel in height to the electric sky scrappers, making the skyline stand out as no other had before.
Alone and confused the small girl walked the sidewalks lining the traffic-full roads. When the sun hit her hair, you could tell that it had a violet tint to it. Through out the neighborhoods, the new and the run-down, past the small, privately owned shops and the gigantic chain stores, and past the indigo river that flowed through the center of Juuban, she wandered. Hotaru pondered how she could be suddenly so popular and yet still so alone.
She had canceled her date with Shingo in order to keep the Chiba tradition alive. He had wanted to join her at his sister's but had been over-piled with homework and scholarship application forms. Even though she understood, Hotaru was secretly upset.
Juuban Central Park
It had seemed to her as though she hadn't wandered quite far away from the Chiba's building, but the sign in front of her proved otherwise. The cold hand in the pocket of her black jeans felt a yen between her fingers. Might as well keep tradition. Hotaru passed through the still open gates of the park toward the center fountain that she knew had to be there.
Though she didn't realize it, a few hours had passed and the evening star had long since appeared along with several others.
"Aaaghh!" The moan of pain could barely be heard through the mass of thick trees. Nevertheless, she cut across the thick grass, running toward the source of the cry. The maroon shirt, patterned across the bottom with pine green ivy, she wore snagged and finally tore on a briar as she shuffled through a bed of roses.
"Damn, my favorite shirt," Hotaru clutched the right side of her stomach were the thorns had attacked her. Warm, sticky blood slowly began to flow. But she couldn't stop.
She didn't know what made her run. She just did. Something in her just made Hotaru want to help, to heal. And since she had been born with a special gift for it...
Finally she made it to the scene, or at least behind a tree at the scene. Slowly, she peeked her head out from behind the giant oak.
"Honestly, what's the big deal? We'll have you fixed up in no time. So quit moaning!"
"I can't help it!!!! It Hurts!!!! Ow! Could you be a little more gentle, please?"
"It wouldn't hurt as much if you'd quit moving."
"Can't Sailor Mercury or Tuxedo Kamen-sama fix me?"
"She needs the practice..." "She needs to work on her gift..."
"What gift?....." Usagi whispered scornfully.
Hotaru stared in disbelief.... The Senshi.... In uniform.... Without her!!!!
But the thing that startled her the most wasn't that she hadn't been called, nor that Sailor Moon was injured. It was the girl working on Moon wasn't Mars (as it sounded) but a girl with a slightly dazed expression wearing her fuku! Sailor Saturn's fuku!! This was Not right.
"Guys? Who is she?" Hotaru made her presence known.
The senshi assumed their attack positions after a split second of surprise.
"I am Sailor Moon! I will right wrongs and-"
"No, no..... You don't have to give me the official greeting/warning/whatever you want to call it... Who Is She?" Pointing to the red head in her fuku this time.
The girl looked obliviously at Hotaru. She finally asked after a very lengthy pause, "Me?...."
"Well of course you! Who are you? Why are you wearing my fuku? Why are you carrying my glaive? Who are You?!!" She was not in the mood to play games and yet she wasn't angry with the slightly moronic girl.
"I am the Senshi of Death and Rebirth. I am Sailor Saturn." The girl's reply was a sorry one, not said with the usual grace and power that the senshi possessed.
"No, you're not..." Hotaru informed her only slightly annoyed. She looked to her friends this time for help. "Who is she?"
"She just told you... Who are you?.." Jupiter looked at the small, violet-eyed brunette, not knowing what to think.
"Me?.. Hotaru, Tomoe Hotaru...." **awkward pause** "You know.... ME!! Sailor Saturn!!! Senshi of all that stuff, death, destruction, rebirth, silence, SATURN....! Ring a bell?" She felt through her pockets for her henshin, a piece of evidence.... Where was it? And what game were they playing?
"Do you know her?" Venus whispered to Luna.
"I'm at a loss." The purple-black cat replied.
"Then how does she know us?"
Hotaru was still searching her pockets for the violet henshin when she spotted the family she had missed for so long... They were back!!
"Haruka-papa, Michiru-mama, Setsuna-mama! I've missed you!" Hotaru ran up to the three to tackle them with hugs, forgetting that her identity was on trial. But before she reached arm's length, Pluto swung her time key out in front of the teenager to stop her. Hotaru tumbled to the ground to prevent a head on collision with the staff.
"Setsuna-mama, is this some kind of game? Why are you doing this to me.......don't you know me?" Hotaru had lost the slight angry edge in her voice; and now she spoke with timidity and fear.
"Are we supposed to?" Sailor Uranus had only a minimal of the usual coldness in her voice as she spoke to the confused girl. Neptune noticed this and wondered why her partner would show such an unusual side of her personality to this stranger.
"Oh, God... what is this? This really isn't a game is it? You're ...You're not playing..." Hotaru stumbled up to Sailor Moon and Mercury. "Ami, Usagi don't you recognize me? It's all a joke, right.....please........" With this, Hotaru collapsed in front of the two, unconscious.
"She's bleeding!" Usagi knelt before the figure, ignoring her own wound that still stung throughout her body. She indicated a deep graze in the side of the girl where the rose's thorns had ferociously torn her fragile body.
"I can treat this if we can get back to my house." Mercury examined the would with a doctor's eye.
"But we don't know who she is!" Mars protested.
"She seemed to know--" Venus turned around to find the Outer Senshi. "Well, they certainly left quickly and quietly." Indeed the Outers, excluding Saturn, were nowhere to be seen.
"We can't just leave her like this!" Sailor Moon's gentle compassion for the stranger was evident in her dark blue eyes.
"This is not something to take lightly." Luna spoke.
"Luna's right." The silent Tuxedo Kamen cited. "She did seem to know all of us."
"Not me!" The Sailor Saturn-imposter almost seemed proud.
"We should take her to Ami's.." Jupiter cast her vote. "Even if she does pose a threat, she deserves to have her say."
Mars knelt down beside Moon to have a better look at the girl who was posing such a mystery. Indeed, she was wounded badly (obviously by briars). But how briars could do this much damage was beyond her. "Ami, isn't you're mother still at your house? She can come to the temple. It'll be much safer for her there."
Mars's sudden change in attitude surprised them all. But nobody could object. Tuxedo Kamen picked up the little adolescent in his arms and seven dark figures followed by two cats made their way back to the Hikawa Jinja as they had done for so many nights.