Ami looked at the sleeping enigma with warm, but questioning eyes. Though Rei had had everything that she had needed to mend the girl's (and Usagi's) wounds, she was still worried about the girl's mental health. Not that she thought mystery girl was crazy, but when Pluto had stopped her so suddenly the girl looked as if she might die. Ami knew what it felt like. The body goes numb and the world begins to blur. You lose all hope. She quickly pushed the thought from her mind. There's always hope.
"Who is she? Why is she here?" Minako wondered silently. The poor girl, Hotaru she had said was her name, had known her... all of them. Of that she was sure. And they were supposed to know her... But how? Could she have been Sailor Saturn? No. That's impossible. They had already found the princess of that planet. Or had they?
"She's running a fever," Usagi whispered as she pressed a cool, wet rag to the sleeping girl's forehead. "What's going to happen to her?"
"She can't stay here much longer. Ojii-san is coming back from his conference tonight and he doesn't like strangers spending the night." Rei apologized. "Plus, she'll likely kill herself after he flirts with her," she added in her head. The rest of the girls thought this too but didn't dare say it.
"Well, we have to keep an eye on her somehow, just in case. I don't think I was the only one to notice that she claimed to be Sailor Saturn." Makoto pointed out.
"And saw through our disguises." Ami added
"We'll it's about time somebody did. I was beginning to think that this entire city was dense! What's there to keep people from distinguishing us- a tiara and a really short skirt? Come on!" Minako joked.
"Oh, is that fuku really shorter than the clothes you wear anyway, Minako-chan?"
Usagi teased back.
"Look whose talking!"
"You guys... Sshhhh!" Ami whispered as she nudged Usagi and attracted the full attention of the rest of the girls. "The girl --Hotaru--; she's waking up."
The world blurred slowly back into focus before Hotaru's minutely opened eyes. What a nightmare she had had. And the pain in her side, ouch! Most of her body wanted to go back to sleep, until it saw her slightly fuzzy friends hovered above her.
"Guys, what are you doing here? Where am I? What happened?" Hotaru sounded a little drugged from her several hours of coma-like sleep.
"We brought you here when you collapsed in the park. You seem to be suffering from loss of blood so don't try to move much." Ami's doctor-like tone couldn't hide the compassion she felt for her patient. She knew that this girl could mean trouble, but somehow she couldn't believe that to be possible.
"I collapsed in the park?" Hotaru's eyes glazed over with a tint of worry. "Juuban Central Park?" All five senshi nodded. "Then it wasn't a nightmare... You really don't know me?"
"....no...." Usagi said as she re-wet the cold rag and patted her patient's forehead.
Tears flooded Hotaru's eyes and for well over two hours, all she could bare to do was cry. The only true friends she'd ever had didn't remember her at all. How could this have happened? What did she ever do to deserve this? She wished. That night. She remembered now. That night she had wished for the first time that she'd never been a senshi. And it was the next morning that things were different. Yes, of course she would have been popular if her odd gift of healing hadn't isolated her from others. Yes, teachers would like her if she hadn't always been absent after frequent beatings from her father. And Shingo. Yes, even she might have had a chance to be with the man of her dreams...if. If she had never been a senshi.
But was it worth giving up her true friends? The ones who liked her despite her differences. Would Shingo have cared? Was he really one of the lemmings? Or one who cares, despite everything. Well, she knew one thing. He had never seemed to care before Monday. Oh, to have to choose between the two was impossible. Her love (even if it was only a lie) or her friends.
The truth....
"I wish I were Sailor Saturn again!" She cried aloud automatically. Again and again, she yelled the words until she was screaming them at the top of her lungs. But she remained unchanged, the useless words fell her feet. The world might as well have ended then forever for all she cared. What hope was left for her now?
The five girls (who had left the room after Hotaru's request about an hour previous) ran into the room in a panic upon hearing her cries.
"What?! What is it?" Usagi, the first to enter, was surprised to see the violet eyed girl tears now flowing softly down her face while sitting quietly in a chair.
"It's all over now. I made a terrible wish, and it came true." Hotaru replied, emotionless.
"Can't you un-wish it?" For some unknown reason, a part of Usagi believed her.
"I tried. I wish I were Sailor Saturn again." She whispered now. She told her story as if she didn't care about what had just happened to her. When she finished the five other young women sat in an uncomfortable silence, afraid to speak as if it would shatter a world of glass that domed around them. Perhaps afraid to believe her. To find out that all of their own memories were lies. Stranger things had happened.
"I know you can't believe me. I'm not asking you to anymore....I'll go now."
"Please, stay." Usagi stood up to stop the girl.
"You need to rest..." Ami supplied.
"No, I---"
"Please, just wait one moment..." The blonde odangoed girl pleaded with the violet eyes that looked dull and lifeless. Hotaru sat down and Usagi motioned her friends to the other side of the room. "What do you guys think?"
"Well, her tale is pretty.... Remarkable." Mako-chan tried to piece the odd facts together unsuccessfully.
"Ami, do you have any doubt about Hotaru's...um... mental wellness?" Rei tried to ask tactfully. She failed.
"I can't say.. I know that I ought to refer her to a specialist... I don't know. Perhaps I just want to believe her."
"It does sound so much better in her world. To think that we might have defeated everyone five years ago. That in her world we now can lead our normal lives again. That Mamo-chan is.....my husband...."
"No time for dreaming, Usagi. Although I have got to admit that Osaka Naru makes a pretty bad Sailor Saturn." Rei barely contained laughter at the thought. "Even Ami will agree to that."
The girl with indigo hair blushed redder that her friends had seen her blush before. "Well...I.... I mean..... She is... No, that's not it... I might have said something to the effect of.....What about Hotaru?!" She scarcely escaped with her life.
"She can live with me until we figure this out." Usagi's statement was not even a suggestion.
"Usagi! We don't know anything about this girl." Luna, who had learned years ago that it was just better to let the girls decide what to do in these matters, could stay silent no longer.
"We know that her name is Tomoe Hotaru and that she is in a lot of pain." Usagi defended.
"You're parents will never let a strange girl just come to live in your house." Makoto pointed out.
"Mako-chan, my mother has on not one, but two occasions let strange girls live in my house for long periods of time."
"Usagi, she was made to believe that they were your cousin and your sister. Some how I don't think she'll do that again." But Makoto's words came too late. Usagi had already gone over to the girl (who was now asleep) and whispered in her ear, "You're going to live with me for a little while, okay?" And no one could deny that the slumbering Hotaru had answered with a small nod.
***
As Hotaru slept heavily under the bunny covered sheets, Usagi sat watching her and quietly spoke words that she knew were lost on the raven-haired girl. "There's something about you that I don't understand. I know in my head that you're probably some evil villain that will only try and destroy the world, but... But... I just can't make myself really believe that. I know this sounds stupid, but in my heart, I think you might be who you say you are."
The rising sun caught Usagi's eye as it glistened off of the glass of a picture frame containing an old photo of her best friends. Her blue eyes scanned the familiar and smiling faces. But who was that? A new figure she'd never seen was sitting and laughing among the group. She removed it from the glass to further examine it. The figure looked like the sleeping girl... But the most disturbing thing was that you could see through it. She looked back and forth from Hotaru to the picture, unable to believe the obvious truth. Hotaru was in her photograph!!
The girl in her bed turned over, shattering the complete silence that once had filled the room and almost gave Usagi a heart attack. She looked again at the picture, but the figure was gone and replaced with another. Where Hotaru had stood, Naru now sat, smiling the exact same way and yet, only reminding her how annoying the redhead was. What the?!
"I'm seeing things now... Oh, well, that's what lack of sleep will do to you," The odangoed girl told herself. The fact was that Usagi hadn't slept all night. She was too worried. Worried for Hotaru. Worried for the rest of her friends, for herself. Life hadn't been easy recently and she didn't know how long she could keep up the strength to continue this seemingly endless battle. Usagi sighed and placed the picture back in the frame. She picked up the bowl of chicken-noodle soup she had prepared and sat down at the end of her bed wishing the sleeping girl would awaken.
Slyly she pulled open the blinds of the window above the bed in order to use the full effect of the sun to her advantage. It worked.
Hotaru squeezed her closed eyes tighter and rolled back under the pink satin pillow while letting out a soft moan as the blinding sun's fingers touched her pale face. She knew this time that she had not been dreaming and wanted now more than ever to stay in her pleasant world of slumber. Only when her head was buried safely under the protection of the pillow did she dare to open her eyes to examine her new surroundings.
"AAAHHHHH!!!"
The sight of Usagi pirched at the end of the bed holding a bowl of noodly-something-or-other and the wide grin that spread across her face was actually quite frightening. Perhaps the more frightening thing, though, was that Usagi was awake before someone.
"Kami-sama, I must have REALLY slept in!" Hotaru thought to herself.
"I made you some chicken soup!" The fact that Hotaru had just been scared out of her wits somehow managed to escape the blonde. Usagi had wanted to talk to the girl for forever now and was not planning to waste any time. "With this special recipe, you'll feel better in no time flat."
The violet-eyed girl practically jumped at the soup. Usagi's cooking had always been wonderful. "Thank you. I really can't tell you how much I-- ACK!- appreciate-- HESC!- all of-- GULP!- this. ..GASP.." Horrible!! The so-called-soup was obviously sent from the depths of hell just to torture her! When the senshi would joke about Usagi's "pre-marriage cooking" she never thought they REALLY meant it. Never mind the pre-mentioned thanks; she was trying to kill her!
"This is really happening, isn't it?" Hotaru starred down at the soup in her lap as she played with it with the spoon.
"I'd like to help you." Usagi blurted out, ignoring the question.
"Why?..." The younger girl set the bowl down and rolled back under the covers, "You don't even know me."
"I know what pain is. I know your someone who's obviously been through a lot of sadness and struggle." She slowly pulled the bunny-covered blanket from her head. "Besides, if you really do turn out to be --- Sailor Saturn--- everybody wins!"
"What do you mean?"
"Well, just between you and me---- Osaka Naru is the worst senshi in the world."
"Osaka Naru? The Naru I know? The one whose mother owns the Osa-P jewelry store?" At this both girls, though each had taken to heart different memories, fell of the bed in a fit of laughter so strong that each time they looked at each other it would start all over again.
***
"Damn it! She actually believes her!" A plain looking ten-year old girl with orange red hair flung herself onto her bed.
"Like that's my fault! I did everything you asked me too." Another girl answered. She was fourteen and much prettier with her chocolate hair nearly reaching her waist.
"Well if you had done your job and kept her away from the park she would never have run into them."
"But you never asked me to--"
"How am I going to destroy them if you keep messing up my plan?" (ha! a plan! like Nakago... sorry, wrong anime!)
"It's a stupid plan if you ask me." The brunette said under her breath.
"What?!"
"I'm just saying that I think it's pointless to try and defeat them, especially with such a senseless idea."
"Can you think of anything better?"
"No. But others have, and they failed. What makes you think you'll be different?"
"Because I know something they didn't. Their wishes. What do you think would happen if every senshi got their wish granted? Complete pandemonium! It would be impossible to defeat me. Don't you get it? They're practically begging me to do it!"
"Kami, you really are daft! Come on, let's go get some ice cream."
"Your treat?"
"Sure."
"Race ya there!"
***
Mizuno Ami lay on her couch staring up at the ceiling tiles and tried to graph a fly on it. She came to a sudden realization of what she was doing and quickly sat up to continue a chess game that she had started with herself a few days ago.
"I am such a brain." She picked up one of the little pawns squeezed it in her palm until she knew she had bruised herself.
"Guess who!" A pair of ivory hands fell over Ami's sea blue eyes.
"Jonathan Davis!"
"You wish! Come on, I'm heading out to the hospital. Whadyasay we take a break from life and go out to breakfast? Just you and me- girls day (or morning at least) out."
"Sorry Mom, I'd love to but I've got a lot of extra work to do before med-school tomorrow."
"Party pooper! One day, Ami, your going to realize what you're missing!" Ms. Mizuno said as she closed the door.
"And what's that?" Her daughter called back.
"A life!" A faint voice called through the door.
A life. She almost wondered what that was for a minute. She spent most of her time either fighting evil or doing extra work she requested from the teacher. What was her problem?
"I'm smart." Ami answered her own question aloud. All of her life she had been put in advanced classed and praised for her genius. She was the teacher's pet in all of her classes and her papers were used as examples for the class constantly. And she loved it. It was fantastic to have her peers ask her for help and regard her as someone who deserved respect. She loved to figure out tough problems like puzzles and then reward herself with another problem. She had fun. She had a life.
She scanned the chessboard in front of her. The little castles were here favorites. Some times Ami would imagine herself a princess atop one of the rooks waiting for her knight to come and rescue her. But there was no castle and there was no knight, only herself, her books, and a chessboard.
"I wish I weren't so smart." The Asian beauty whispered as she pulled her knees up to her chest and rocked herself. "That's it. I could have a life and fun. REAL fun. Not these stupid numbers and marble figures. Mom!!" Ami quickly stood up and rushed for her coat at the door. If she hurried she could just catch up with her in time for breakfast.
"Mom!" Ami called again as she made her way down the busy city sidewalks.
"Ami?" Ms. Mizuno turned around with a start. " I thought you had to study." "That can wait. I need some time to loosen up. So, is breakfast still on?"
"If you say so... Are you sure everything's alright?"
"Of course!" Was she really that predictable... No, that was the old Ami.
"So what are ya hungry for?" The still baffled mother questioned.
"Mmmm.. And egg sandwich." Ami's mind reveled in the thought of it. Perfectly toasted bread and a tiny bit of mayonnaise, a dash of salt and pepper and a warm fried egg to top the perfection off.
"Well that's one thing that hasn't changed!" Mom joked. "Can't you just eat food without it being on top of bread, like normal people?"
"Okay!" The sandwich left her mind as quickly as it had entered.
"No Ami. I didn't mean that you--"
"No mom, your right. Sandwiches are so boring." Reliable, she thought but boring none-the-less. Chocolate ice cream will do nicely... "Let's have an ice cream."
"For breakfast?" Not wanting to fuel another mini-rebellion in her confused daughter, Ms. Mizuno left it at that.
The two, with out thinking, walked toward the park having, what Ami believed, to be the best time they'd ever spent together. The rest of the morning was spent like that. Even after her mom finally left for work, Ami never went home. And instead wandered the streets and back alleyways of Tokyo, ate five dark chocolate ice-cream cones & raspberry slushy, got a stomach ache and loved it. There was only one thing missing.
"Mako-chan..." She thought aloud. No, she'll want to cook for me and I can't eat another thing. Usagi has that Hotaru girl over... We'll go out for a movie or something. And with that the indigo-haired girl headed back for home. Wherever that was...
And just exactly where was she? Ami looked around. No, this was definitely not a familiar area. "Well, I'll just leave the way I came." She thought to herself. But where was that? "This isn't right. I don't get lost." But she was lost. And this was right, whether she knew it or not.
And suddenly, for the first (but certainly not the last) time, Ami Mizuno, straight-A-honor-student, computer prodigy, missed her chess pieces and textbook more than ever. At least they were solid, constant, and immutable, not this random insane mess, not lost.
"Are you okay?" A cute little red head who appeared to be about 10 or 11 shook Ami from her reverie with her words.
"Hehh.. Yeah, I'm just a little lost." The embarrassed pre-med student couldn't believe what she was saying.
"Would you like to sit down with my friend and me while you get your bearings?" The new girl pointed to where an older girl, maybe 13 or 14 sat enjoying an apple under a tree and watching her friend with an annoyed and careless attitude.
"Thank you, but--" Things began to get dark.
"Miss?"
The last thing Ami saw before she passed out was the little red head above her, with a twisted smile on her face.
"Who is she? Why is she here?" Minako wondered silently. The poor girl, Hotaru she had said was her name, had known her... all of them. Of that she was sure. And they were supposed to know her... But how? Could she have been Sailor Saturn? No. That's impossible. They had already found the princess of that planet. Or had they?
"She's running a fever," Usagi whispered as she pressed a cool, wet rag to the sleeping girl's forehead. "What's going to happen to her?"
"She can't stay here much longer. Ojii-san is coming back from his conference tonight and he doesn't like strangers spending the night." Rei apologized. "Plus, she'll likely kill herself after he flirts with her," she added in her head. The rest of the girls thought this too but didn't dare say it.
"Well, we have to keep an eye on her somehow, just in case. I don't think I was the only one to notice that she claimed to be Sailor Saturn." Makoto pointed out.
"And saw through our disguises." Ami added
"We'll it's about time somebody did. I was beginning to think that this entire city was dense! What's there to keep people from distinguishing us- a tiara and a really short skirt? Come on!" Minako joked.
"Oh, is that fuku really shorter than the clothes you wear anyway, Minako-chan?"
Usagi teased back.
"Look whose talking!"
"You guys... Sshhhh!" Ami whispered as she nudged Usagi and attracted the full attention of the rest of the girls. "The girl --Hotaru--; she's waking up."
The world blurred slowly back into focus before Hotaru's minutely opened eyes. What a nightmare she had had. And the pain in her side, ouch! Most of her body wanted to go back to sleep, until it saw her slightly fuzzy friends hovered above her.
"Guys, what are you doing here? Where am I? What happened?" Hotaru sounded a little drugged from her several hours of coma-like sleep.
"We brought you here when you collapsed in the park. You seem to be suffering from loss of blood so don't try to move much." Ami's doctor-like tone couldn't hide the compassion she felt for her patient. She knew that this girl could mean trouble, but somehow she couldn't believe that to be possible.
"I collapsed in the park?" Hotaru's eyes glazed over with a tint of worry. "Juuban Central Park?" All five senshi nodded. "Then it wasn't a nightmare... You really don't know me?"
"....no...." Usagi said as she re-wet the cold rag and patted her patient's forehead.
Tears flooded Hotaru's eyes and for well over two hours, all she could bare to do was cry. The only true friends she'd ever had didn't remember her at all. How could this have happened? What did she ever do to deserve this? She wished. That night. She remembered now. That night she had wished for the first time that she'd never been a senshi. And it was the next morning that things were different. Yes, of course she would have been popular if her odd gift of healing hadn't isolated her from others. Yes, teachers would like her if she hadn't always been absent after frequent beatings from her father. And Shingo. Yes, even she might have had a chance to be with the man of her dreams...if. If she had never been a senshi.
But was it worth giving up her true friends? The ones who liked her despite her differences. Would Shingo have cared? Was he really one of the lemmings? Or one who cares, despite everything. Well, she knew one thing. He had never seemed to care before Monday. Oh, to have to choose between the two was impossible. Her love (even if it was only a lie) or her friends.
The truth....
"I wish I were Sailor Saturn again!" She cried aloud automatically. Again and again, she yelled the words until she was screaming them at the top of her lungs. But she remained unchanged, the useless words fell her feet. The world might as well have ended then forever for all she cared. What hope was left for her now?
The five girls (who had left the room after Hotaru's request about an hour previous) ran into the room in a panic upon hearing her cries.
"What?! What is it?" Usagi, the first to enter, was surprised to see the violet eyed girl tears now flowing softly down her face while sitting quietly in a chair.
"It's all over now. I made a terrible wish, and it came true." Hotaru replied, emotionless.
"Can't you un-wish it?" For some unknown reason, a part of Usagi believed her.
"I tried. I wish I were Sailor Saturn again." She whispered now. She told her story as if she didn't care about what had just happened to her. When she finished the five other young women sat in an uncomfortable silence, afraid to speak as if it would shatter a world of glass that domed around them. Perhaps afraid to believe her. To find out that all of their own memories were lies. Stranger things had happened.
"I know you can't believe me. I'm not asking you to anymore....I'll go now."
"Please, stay." Usagi stood up to stop the girl.
"You need to rest..." Ami supplied.
"No, I---"
"Please, just wait one moment..." The blonde odangoed girl pleaded with the violet eyes that looked dull and lifeless. Hotaru sat down and Usagi motioned her friends to the other side of the room. "What do you guys think?"
"Well, her tale is pretty.... Remarkable." Mako-chan tried to piece the odd facts together unsuccessfully.
"Ami, do you have any doubt about Hotaru's...um... mental wellness?" Rei tried to ask tactfully. She failed.
"I can't say.. I know that I ought to refer her to a specialist... I don't know. Perhaps I just want to believe her."
"It does sound so much better in her world. To think that we might have defeated everyone five years ago. That in her world we now can lead our normal lives again. That Mamo-chan is.....my husband...."
"No time for dreaming, Usagi. Although I have got to admit that Osaka Naru makes a pretty bad Sailor Saturn." Rei barely contained laughter at the thought. "Even Ami will agree to that."
The girl with indigo hair blushed redder that her friends had seen her blush before. "Well...I.... I mean..... She is... No, that's not it... I might have said something to the effect of.....What about Hotaru?!" She scarcely escaped with her life.
"She can live with me until we figure this out." Usagi's statement was not even a suggestion.
"Usagi! We don't know anything about this girl." Luna, who had learned years ago that it was just better to let the girls decide what to do in these matters, could stay silent no longer.
"We know that her name is Tomoe Hotaru and that she is in a lot of pain." Usagi defended.
"You're parents will never let a strange girl just come to live in your house." Makoto pointed out.
"Mako-chan, my mother has on not one, but two occasions let strange girls live in my house for long periods of time."
"Usagi, she was made to believe that they were your cousin and your sister. Some how I don't think she'll do that again." But Makoto's words came too late. Usagi had already gone over to the girl (who was now asleep) and whispered in her ear, "You're going to live with me for a little while, okay?" And no one could deny that the slumbering Hotaru had answered with a small nod.
***
As Hotaru slept heavily under the bunny covered sheets, Usagi sat watching her and quietly spoke words that she knew were lost on the raven-haired girl. "There's something about you that I don't understand. I know in my head that you're probably some evil villain that will only try and destroy the world, but... But... I just can't make myself really believe that. I know this sounds stupid, but in my heart, I think you might be who you say you are."
The rising sun caught Usagi's eye as it glistened off of the glass of a picture frame containing an old photo of her best friends. Her blue eyes scanned the familiar and smiling faces. But who was that? A new figure she'd never seen was sitting and laughing among the group. She removed it from the glass to further examine it. The figure looked like the sleeping girl... But the most disturbing thing was that you could see through it. She looked back and forth from Hotaru to the picture, unable to believe the obvious truth. Hotaru was in her photograph!!
The girl in her bed turned over, shattering the complete silence that once had filled the room and almost gave Usagi a heart attack. She looked again at the picture, but the figure was gone and replaced with another. Where Hotaru had stood, Naru now sat, smiling the exact same way and yet, only reminding her how annoying the redhead was. What the?!
"I'm seeing things now... Oh, well, that's what lack of sleep will do to you," The odangoed girl told herself. The fact was that Usagi hadn't slept all night. She was too worried. Worried for Hotaru. Worried for the rest of her friends, for herself. Life hadn't been easy recently and she didn't know how long she could keep up the strength to continue this seemingly endless battle. Usagi sighed and placed the picture back in the frame. She picked up the bowl of chicken-noodle soup she had prepared and sat down at the end of her bed wishing the sleeping girl would awaken.
Slyly she pulled open the blinds of the window above the bed in order to use the full effect of the sun to her advantage. It worked.
Hotaru squeezed her closed eyes tighter and rolled back under the pink satin pillow while letting out a soft moan as the blinding sun's fingers touched her pale face. She knew this time that she had not been dreaming and wanted now more than ever to stay in her pleasant world of slumber. Only when her head was buried safely under the protection of the pillow did she dare to open her eyes to examine her new surroundings.
"AAAHHHHH!!!"
The sight of Usagi pirched at the end of the bed holding a bowl of noodly-something-or-other and the wide grin that spread across her face was actually quite frightening. Perhaps the more frightening thing, though, was that Usagi was awake before someone.
"Kami-sama, I must have REALLY slept in!" Hotaru thought to herself.
"I made you some chicken soup!" The fact that Hotaru had just been scared out of her wits somehow managed to escape the blonde. Usagi had wanted to talk to the girl for forever now and was not planning to waste any time. "With this special recipe, you'll feel better in no time flat."
The violet-eyed girl practically jumped at the soup. Usagi's cooking had always been wonderful. "Thank you. I really can't tell you how much I-- ACK!- appreciate-- HESC!- all of-- GULP!- this. ..GASP.." Horrible!! The so-called-soup was obviously sent from the depths of hell just to torture her! When the senshi would joke about Usagi's "pre-marriage cooking" she never thought they REALLY meant it. Never mind the pre-mentioned thanks; she was trying to kill her!
"This is really happening, isn't it?" Hotaru starred down at the soup in her lap as she played with it with the spoon.
"I'd like to help you." Usagi blurted out, ignoring the question.
"Why?..." The younger girl set the bowl down and rolled back under the covers, "You don't even know me."
"I know what pain is. I know your someone who's obviously been through a lot of sadness and struggle." She slowly pulled the bunny-covered blanket from her head. "Besides, if you really do turn out to be --- Sailor Saturn--- everybody wins!"
"What do you mean?"
"Well, just between you and me---- Osaka Naru is the worst senshi in the world."
"Osaka Naru? The Naru I know? The one whose mother owns the Osa-P jewelry store?" At this both girls, though each had taken to heart different memories, fell of the bed in a fit of laughter so strong that each time they looked at each other it would start all over again.
***
"Damn it! She actually believes her!" A plain looking ten-year old girl with orange red hair flung herself onto her bed.
"Like that's my fault! I did everything you asked me too." Another girl answered. She was fourteen and much prettier with her chocolate hair nearly reaching her waist.
"Well if you had done your job and kept her away from the park she would never have run into them."
"But you never asked me to--"
"How am I going to destroy them if you keep messing up my plan?" (ha! a plan! like Nakago... sorry, wrong anime!)
"It's a stupid plan if you ask me." The brunette said under her breath.
"What?!"
"I'm just saying that I think it's pointless to try and defeat them, especially with such a senseless idea."
"Can you think of anything better?"
"No. But others have, and they failed. What makes you think you'll be different?"
"Because I know something they didn't. Their wishes. What do you think would happen if every senshi got their wish granted? Complete pandemonium! It would be impossible to defeat me. Don't you get it? They're practically begging me to do it!"
"Kami, you really are daft! Come on, let's go get some ice cream."
"Your treat?"
"Sure."
"Race ya there!"
***
Mizuno Ami lay on her couch staring up at the ceiling tiles and tried to graph a fly on it. She came to a sudden realization of what she was doing and quickly sat up to continue a chess game that she had started with herself a few days ago.
"I am such a brain." She picked up one of the little pawns squeezed it in her palm until she knew she had bruised herself.
"Guess who!" A pair of ivory hands fell over Ami's sea blue eyes.
"Jonathan Davis!"
"You wish! Come on, I'm heading out to the hospital. Whadyasay we take a break from life and go out to breakfast? Just you and me- girls day (or morning at least) out."
"Sorry Mom, I'd love to but I've got a lot of extra work to do before med-school tomorrow."
"Party pooper! One day, Ami, your going to realize what you're missing!" Ms. Mizuno said as she closed the door.
"And what's that?" Her daughter called back.
"A life!" A faint voice called through the door.
A life. She almost wondered what that was for a minute. She spent most of her time either fighting evil or doing extra work she requested from the teacher. What was her problem?
"I'm smart." Ami answered her own question aloud. All of her life she had been put in advanced classed and praised for her genius. She was the teacher's pet in all of her classes and her papers were used as examples for the class constantly. And she loved it. It was fantastic to have her peers ask her for help and regard her as someone who deserved respect. She loved to figure out tough problems like puzzles and then reward herself with another problem. She had fun. She had a life.
She scanned the chessboard in front of her. The little castles were here favorites. Some times Ami would imagine herself a princess atop one of the rooks waiting for her knight to come and rescue her. But there was no castle and there was no knight, only herself, her books, and a chessboard.
"I wish I weren't so smart." The Asian beauty whispered as she pulled her knees up to her chest and rocked herself. "That's it. I could have a life and fun. REAL fun. Not these stupid numbers and marble figures. Mom!!" Ami quickly stood up and rushed for her coat at the door. If she hurried she could just catch up with her in time for breakfast.
"Mom!" Ami called again as she made her way down the busy city sidewalks.
"Ami?" Ms. Mizuno turned around with a start. " I thought you had to study." "That can wait. I need some time to loosen up. So, is breakfast still on?"
"If you say so... Are you sure everything's alright?"
"Of course!" Was she really that predictable... No, that was the old Ami.
"So what are ya hungry for?" The still baffled mother questioned.
"Mmmm.. And egg sandwich." Ami's mind reveled in the thought of it. Perfectly toasted bread and a tiny bit of mayonnaise, a dash of salt and pepper and a warm fried egg to top the perfection off.
"Well that's one thing that hasn't changed!" Mom joked. "Can't you just eat food without it being on top of bread, like normal people?"
"Okay!" The sandwich left her mind as quickly as it had entered.
"No Ami. I didn't mean that you--"
"No mom, your right. Sandwiches are so boring." Reliable, she thought but boring none-the-less. Chocolate ice cream will do nicely... "Let's have an ice cream."
"For breakfast?" Not wanting to fuel another mini-rebellion in her confused daughter, Ms. Mizuno left it at that.
The two, with out thinking, walked toward the park having, what Ami believed, to be the best time they'd ever spent together. The rest of the morning was spent like that. Even after her mom finally left for work, Ami never went home. And instead wandered the streets and back alleyways of Tokyo, ate five dark chocolate ice-cream cones & raspberry slushy, got a stomach ache and loved it. There was only one thing missing.
"Mako-chan..." She thought aloud. No, she'll want to cook for me and I can't eat another thing. Usagi has that Hotaru girl over... We'll go out for a movie or something. And with that the indigo-haired girl headed back for home. Wherever that was...
And just exactly where was she? Ami looked around. No, this was definitely not a familiar area. "Well, I'll just leave the way I came." She thought to herself. But where was that? "This isn't right. I don't get lost." But she was lost. And this was right, whether she knew it or not.
And suddenly, for the first (but certainly not the last) time, Ami Mizuno, straight-A-honor-student, computer prodigy, missed her chess pieces and textbook more than ever. At least they were solid, constant, and immutable, not this random insane mess, not lost.
"Are you okay?" A cute little red head who appeared to be about 10 or 11 shook Ami from her reverie with her words.
"Hehh.. Yeah, I'm just a little lost." The embarrassed pre-med student couldn't believe what she was saying.
"Would you like to sit down with my friend and me while you get your bearings?" The new girl pointed to where an older girl, maybe 13 or 14 sat enjoying an apple under a tree and watching her friend with an annoyed and careless attitude.
"Thank you, but--" Things began to get dark.
"Miss?"
The last thing Ami saw before she passed out was the little red head above her, with a twisted smile on her face.