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Chikyuu no Senshi
Part Two
A Sailormoon Alternate Reality Story
By Sefilin (aka Lei)
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Motoki laughed as he managed to tag a couple more youma, on
his way to defeating Mamoru for the first time in VR. And they
played often enough for a victory to be important to Motoki, even
if he knew his opponent was distracted.
The sandy-haired doctor-in-training had been topped by his
friend in pretty much everything. School, girls, looks... the
only thing he didn't have was Motoki's easy ability to make
friends or a long-term girlfriend. But even though there were
times when Motoki found himself almost green with envy - like the
time when Reika had seemed interested in Mamoru - he wasn't the
type of person to let it bother him for long.
Mamoru was the type of person who came across as cold as
ice to start with. It was only when you managed to get past that
that you realised he was the type who would do anything for his
friends. Even more so for those he loved. So Motoki put up with
Mamoru's obvious superiority in exchange for something more
precious than mere achievement or intelligence.
And Motoki knew he provided something Mamoru needed. He
was a friend, the only one Mamoru had that accepted him as he
was, without expectations.
But that didn't stop him from worrying about his friend and
whatever it was that was going on with Mamoru at the moment
worried him.
He'd be inclined to call it girl trouble if he didn't know
better, but after all, Mamoru had shown no interest in anyone.
Motoki snapped out of his musings with a surprised yelp as
another holographic youma appeared in his face. It disappeared a
second later when Mamoru shot it, tapping him lightly on the back
of the head.
"If you want to beat me, you're going to have to
concentrate harder than that."
"Uh, right," Motoki smiled ruefully and extended his focus
outwards, waiting for the next youma to appear and putting his
concern on hold until after he'd beaten Mamoru.
Unfortunately for his ambition, a daimon chose that moment
to appear in the room that they were in. The other few people in
the same room had drawn their attention to it with screams that
were far too real to be a recording.
For a second he froze, unsure what to do, he'd never been
involved in any sort of attack before. Reika had told him all
about what had happened to her when she'd somehow gotten
involved, even though she herself hadn't understood it, but he'd
never gotten closer than that.
Mamoru on the other hand hadn't hesitated. Within seconds
of hearing the disturbance he was right in there trying to kick
the daimon's butt. And doing a surprisingly good job.
Motoki knew his friend was into martial arts but hadn't
thought he was good enough to take on a daimon.
The daimon chose that second to send Mamoru flying
backwards with a sweep of it's arm.
Still frozen, Motoki watched as two people appeared in the
room, one a green-haired woman wearing a black, her arms and neck
encircled by black threads and her hair bound by the same. A
black star completed the outfit, situated as it was in the hollow
of her neck.
The other woman was dressed in what looked a little like a
Sailor fuku in that it had a sailor-style collar. But whereas
all of the Senshi he knew of wore almost identical costumes, this
one was a little... strange. Even cuter than the usual fuku, if
that could be believed.
The silver ringlets on either side of her head and what
looked like some sort of pyjamas he'd seen on television once,
both added up to the weirdest looking outfit he'd ever seen.
Well, there was that thing that Tenchi wore in Tenchi Muyo!, but
still, this was real life.
The green-haired woman moved towards one of the other
gamers and, grabbing her, held on until the little Senshi was
ready. Once again sending Mamoru flying backwards she turned
towards her victim and crossing her wrists, two lights shot from
the braces and hit the chosen victim. A little flowery-thing
bloomed on her forehead and a small glowing crystal was revealed
within the folds of the petals.
The Senshi stood back and watched until the crystal
darkened, the light it had shed disappearing.
"Not a proper StarSeed," the shorter of the two women
spoke, sounding both disgusted and disappointed.
"Then you'll just have to find one somewhere else, Iron
Mouse-san."
The green-haired woman followed the small Sailor Senshi
into a phone booth that appeared out of nowhere, leaving the
victim enveloped in a column of light.
When the light cleared an even stranger Sailor stood in the
room.
"V.R!... V.R!"
At this point in time, Motoki was seriously considering
leaving. He wasn't a hero and didn't pretend to be. But it
looked as though Mamoru was going to stay and fight and he didn't
abandon his friends.
The newly revealed Sailor V.R. mumbled something about
reality and imagination, nothing Motoki was all that interested
in hearing so he scanned the room to see if there was anything he
could do to help. Instead he saw Sailor V.R. attacking the other
patrons who had hung around. Frowning he looked further but
found nothing that wasn't nailed down.
He turned his attention back to the fight and once more saw
Mamoru attack followed by him being repelled. Motoki took a deep
breath and followed his friend in the next time, wishing he'd
taken those martial arts lessons his uncle had offered. Respect
for life was all very well, but in a situation like this that
meant being willing and able to fight.
He attacked Sailor V.R.'s flank, managing to hit it before
he noticed it's arm flying towards his face. He turned to one
side and felt it's forearm connect with the side of his head.
The next thing he knew, he was lying, crumpled on the floor,
having made painful contact with the wall.
Mamoru was bent over him, blue eyes concerned.
"Motoki? Daijobu?"
The blonde groaned and tried to smile at his friend, "I'll
be okay. Heh, maybe I should join up for karate lessons after
this, eh?"
Mamoru smiled, then a strange expression crossed his face
in time with Motoki's wince at a twinge in his back. Blue eyes
caught green and Motoki couldn't look away as Mamoru seemed to
weigh him for worthiness.
Then Mamoru smiled and turned back to the strange Senshi.
Motoki blinked in confusion then watched as his friends clothes
_changed_ and a masked man in a tuxedo stood in his place. A few
roses materialised in his hand as he made a motion such as one
does when one throws darts.
The roses cut through the air and hit the Daimon and Sailor
V.R., attracting their attention.
Then Mamoru, in mask and cape, flipped over his two
opponents and a cane appeared in his hand.
Motoki felt his brow furrow a little as his vision became
blurred, not understanding what was going on. He tried to clear
his vision but instead found his hearing had worsened and slowly
but surely the rest of his body was shutting down. The last
thought he had before slipping into unconsciousness was that
Mamoru had a _lot_ of explaining to do when they got out of this.
==========
Tuxedo Kamen swept his extended cane across the legs of the
two creatures he was fighting, knowing he had to keep them away
from the people in the room, most of whom were already
unconscious and unable to help themselves.
He'd been glad of that. He didn't think he could've bought
himself to transform if they'd all been able to see him, but in
the end only Motoki and a single other man had been in any
position to see him. And it had been Motoki, watching him with
pain-filled green eyes that had finally decided him and he'd
transformed.
Sighing to himself he found himself wishing that the Sailor
Senshi were there considering they had powers that could more
easily defeat the daimons and Sailor's such as he was currently
fighting. He dodged a wild swing from Sailor V.R. while keeping
a wary eye on the daimon that was in the process of sneaking
around behind him.
It was at times like this that he wished he was a Sailor
Senshi, or something similar, since he had no particular interest
in being a magical _girl_, per se.
~Flash~
Tuxedo Kamen staggered back a little, a gloved hand lifting
halfway to his forehead. He shook his head, disoriented, and
barely managed to dodge the next attack by the daimon.
~Flash~
//Darkness//
//Dripping Water//
//A hovering globe of light and sharp brown eyes//
//Falling...//
~Flash~
His breath left him with a whoosh as the strobe of light
that had emitted from Sailor V.R.'s hand-held gun, almost
identical to the one's he and Motoki had been playing with
earlier. He hit the wall next to his friend and groaned a
little, painfully.
What was that?
It reminded him of the dream, but why? Why was it
interfering now, in the middle of the day at a time when the
smallest distraction could mean death?
Tuxedo Kamen pulled himself upright, his sight focussing on
his opponents once again as he once more prepared himself for
battle.
"VENUS LOVE-ME CHAIN!"
"BURNING MANDALA!"
A glowing line of burning red-gold hearts encircled the
chest of the daimon, setting it on fire.
"SPARKLING WIDE PRESSURE!"
Then a globe of lightning joined the flames, reducing the
daimon to nothing.
Tuxedo Kamen took in the four Sailor Senshi now standing
openly in the room and the two hiding behind some of the rooms
props and allowed himself to collapse back to the floor. He
leaned his head back against the wall and let out a deep breath.
He found himself smiling as he rolled his head to look at
his friend who was still unconscious then turned back to the
battle.
Though the daimon was already vanquished, proving that the
Inner Senshi could actually work together when necessary, Sailor
V.R. was different. They found it more difficult to deal with
the Sailor Farce who obviously had more independent thought than
the daimons.
They'd tried the same tactic they'd used on the daimon
without success and followed using a number of different attack
combinations. Those didn't work either.
Frustrated with their inability to do any damage, Sailor
Mercury had once more taken a stance at the edge of the combat
and was busy analysing stuff on her computer, an expression of
determination on her face.
The masked man watched her closely as her fingers flew
across the keypad and her eyes roamed across the screen. He
found himself reluctantly moved by her determination and by her
fellow Senshi's perseverance. It was obvious by now that they
could not win yet they were still fighting. And they'd taken to
helping customers out of the room.
~Flash~
//Falling...//
~Flash~
Once more disoriented, Tuxedo Kamen turned his attention
away from the fight and looked inwards, searching for the cause
of these flashes.
~Flash~
//He found himself in the cave of his dreams, once more
sitting across from the small, wrinkled woman, who's eyes
still contained so much energy. Her lips moved and slowly,
slowly, he began to hear them//
//"Feel it, Prince. The Power that lies beneath you.
Feel it, embrace it. It is yours."//
//Light flashed off her tiara as she bowed her head, her
eyes sliding shut and he followed suit//
//And the sensation of falling, diving endlessly into
still darkness, then further into heat and constant
movement and then...//
//Then into Power and a Consciousness that was not his
own//
~Flash~
When Tuxedo Kamen once more returned to himself, he could
feel that something had changed within himself. The Power that
he had felt deep within the planet he sat on was now within him
also. And the Consciousness was there, silently watching and
listening.
And he smiled.
==========
Sailor Mercury kept half an eye on the fight that was
playing out in front of her as she accessed her computer's memory
banks and began to analyse all the incoming data on the bizarre
Sailor Senshi they were fighting.
She assumed that the creature was one of the new enemy that
Sailor Jupiter had told them about and was glad that she had this
chance to gather data. She was also sad that it was too powerful
for them.
She hadn't found any obvious weak spots she and the others
could take advantage of, nor had she been able to think of any
possible strategies that could work, even with the assistance of
her computer. There was no record of anything even remotely
similar to this thing in the Moon Kingdom's computer banks.
Except maybe the Senshi themselves and even they were rather
different.
She rubbed the bridge of her nose tiredly, her eyes
straining to keep up with the pages and pages of information, in
the dim light. Then something caught her attention.
Off to one side she could see something glowing and turned
her head sharply to observe it more closely.
It seemed to be Tuxedo Kamen.
She had seen him as she and the others had arrived and had
been glad they'd gotten there in time to stop him from being hurt
more than he obviously already was. She still wasn't entirely
sure what to make of him, but he was cute and mysterious and
sometimes, just sometimes Mercury couldn't help but fall victim
to romance any more than Jupiter and Venus. There had been those
dreams...
She snapped out of her daydreaming as Tuxedo Kamen pulled
himself upright, a tiny, wicked smile playing across his lips.
The glow intensified until Mercury had to avert her eyes until,
with a flash it was gone.
When she turned back, Tuxedo Kamen was no longer so.
Where he had been stood a tall, handsome man dressed in
black armour with silver accents. A cape still graced his
shoulders, this lined with a silvered midnight blue rather than
the scarlet of the masked man. Quartered circles of silver were
pinned to his collar, encircled his waist and graced the edges of
his tunic. A sword hung at his side, the quartered circle
appearing engraved on the sheath and ornamenting the hilt. The
final touch was a thin silver circlet engraved all around by the
same symbol.
All together, a very impressive looking costume.
She started at the focussed light in his eyes, so different
from the indifferent cynicism she'd seen there previously.
Watching the fight intently, the man who had been Tuxedo
Kamen drew his sword.
A few seconds later it was over, the light that bloomed
from the golden crystal embedded in the blade, combined with the
silver of the blade's light itself, cut through the air and
Sailor V.R. easily. And it disintegrated into golden dust that
faded to dull brown as it pooled on the floor.
Surprised by the abruptness of the defeat, Mercury's
companions turned to see the newcomer and the Outer Senshi forgot
themselves enough to emerge from where they had been hidden.
Ignoring his audience, the blue-eyed hero turned and walked
to one of the unconscious customers, sheathing his sword.
Bending he stared at the sandy-haired young man for a moment
before carefully lifting him into his arms and heading towards
the door.
The six Senshi remained quietly watching until he had
disappeared, each of them reluctantly in awe of the regal figure.
The two Outer Senshi looked at one another and leapt into
movement, following him out of the Virtual Reality Theatre.
Mercury glanced at her companions and smiled at the
expressions on their faces as they also looked to one another.
Seconds later they ran out the entrance in pursuit.
==========
Motoki blinked his eyes open, his head feeling rather the
worse for wear as he looked around the room he was in. It was a
room he'd never been in before, he was sure of that, but it
seemed a little familiar anyway. He slowly pushed himself to his
elbows and took in the late evening sunlight coming through the
windows and falling across the bed where he lay.
"Good, you're awake."
He sat up fully and winced as his body and skull protested,
then looked at his friend who was standing by the bed holding out
a glass of water and some pills. He looked at them suspiciously,
then back up at Mamoru.
"They're just aspirin," he said as he shrugged and put them
down on the table next to the bed.
Motoki glared as best he could before taking the pills and
swallowing them, following with a gulp of water.
"Thanks."
He lay back for a minute, resting his arm across his eyes
as he waited for the pills to take effect. He also took the time
to gather his thoughts, remembering that afternoon and Mamoru's
transformation.
Finally, he sighed and moved into a sitting position again.
"So, what was that?"
Mamoru watched him, his blue eyes a little uncertain then
he sighed.
"Ever since I was, um, six, I've been having these dreams,
of the moon and a princess..."
Motoki's eyes widened at the mention of a princess as his
mind began working. Maybe that was why... And here he'd been
starting to think maybe Mamoru was gay, or something.
"This may take a while, mind if I sit down?"
Motoki looked up and nodded, "Sure."
Settling himself cross-legged at the end of the bed, Mamoru
continued.
"In the dream I was older, maybe 20 or so and I was on the
moon, I could tell it was the moon because I could see Earth.
Anyway, I walk towards this palace..."
"Palace? On the moon?"
Mamoru smiled wistfully, "Yeah, a Palace on the moon. I
don't know why it was there, but it was. I think it's where the
Sailor Senshi come from. I heard them talking about going back
there once, before they had to fight Beryl and Queen Metallia."
Motoki frowned. He'd never got most of what went on with
the Senshi and the names meant nothing to him, something that
Mamoru seemed to pick up on.
"They were the leaders of the first lot of youma to come
through. They drained everyone's energy."
"Oh. So they weren't just monsters?"
Mamoru laughed, "Hate to say it, but none of them are.
There's always someone controlling them. Or ordering them about
anyway. The second lot called themselves the Death Busters for
some reason. They're still around, though..." Mamoru frowned,
"things have changed recently."
He trailed off as his thoughts turned inwards and Motoki
took the opportunity to take a sip of water while he watched his
friend avidly. Everyone was curious about what was going on in
the youma department and to get information from someone who knew
what he was talking about was rare. And for the person who knew
to be Mamoru... Motoki still had trouble taking it in.
"Anyway. The Dream."
Motoki _heard_ the capital in 'dream', and found himself
nodding in encouragement.
"So, I head towards a palace and I know exactly where I'm
going. I end up at a wall with a balcony and I see someone
there. It's the Princess and she's smiling, happy. I love
seeing her like that, can't stand it when she cries, when her
eyes fill with tears. She's beautiful, even when she cries, but
she was made to smile... don't want her to cry..."
Motoki stared in surprise as Mamoru shook himself out of
the reverie he'd fallen into and smiled wryly. Maybe he was a
romantic after all, but one thing was for sure - he had it bad.
"Yeah. So she smiles at me and I just stand there and
smile back. Most of it's like that until just before I wake up,
then she becomes sad, so sad and reaches for me. She says 'Free
me' and then I wake up."
Speechless, Motoki sat against the headboard watching his
friend, seeing more of him than he ever had before. It didn't
even occur to him to wonder if the dream didn't actually mean
anything; he knew it did. It meant Mamoru's life.
"What about lately? I mean, things have changed, you never
used to be this..."
"Out of it? Yeah." Mamoru sighed and ran a hand
agitatedly through his hair. "About a month ago, just before
that party the dream changed. She was crying and she sounded, I
dunno, desperate? She's running out of time and I have to find
her before it's too late."
"And if you don't?"
"I - I don't know."
Motoki considered for a moment then, deciding to change the
subject a little, smirked, "What about the Tuxedo Kamen thing?"
"Oh, that. About three years ago when I woke up from one
of the dreams, I was dressed like that and standing on top of a
building somewhere fairly close to the Tokyo Tower. I had no
idea how I got there, but knew I could do things like the Senshi
do. Jump roofs, create roses, that sort of thing."
"Mamoru! Hey, Mamoru!"
The two friends looked up at the yelling coming in through
the door and neither was surprised when, seconds later, Hiro
burst in. He dismissed the presence of Motoki focussing on his
brother.
"Kaasan said I had to tell you that dinner's almost ready
and to say you _had_ to come 'cause Kurumi-san's here," Hiro
leered as well as he could before continuing, "and she wants you
to look after her."
Mamoru blinked, then sighed, "Sure, tell her I'll be
there."
"Un. So, Mamoru? You gonna marry her?"
Motoki couldn't help himself at that, he laughed. Mamoru,
marry someone other than this princess of his?
Mamoru, on the other hand, sent a quelling glance at his
friend then made it quite obvious to Hiro that he was no longer
wanted.
Hiro grinned and raced out of the room.
"Will you be alright, Motoki? You should probably stay
here for a while, until we're sure there's no concussion."
"I'll be fine, it _is_ me who's going to be a doctor, after
all."
==========
It was a forest in the Northern reaches of Honshuu, just
beyond the Misawa Air Base. Summer was fully awake, along with
all her children who chirped happily in the dappled sunlight.
Beneath one of the camphor trees that adorned the slope of
a hill over looking Ogawara-ko a beep could be heard.
There was another beep, then another, followed by a hiss.
A small mound of moss and grass lifted, vapour curling from
beneath it, then it flipped over, revealing the inside of a small
canister of unknown origins.
And within the canister was a small-boned black cat with a
strange crescent-moon marking on it's forehead. Red-brown eyes
blinked open and Luna carefully stepped out of the canister that
had been her resting place for the past thousand years.
She watched the movements of shadows on the undergrowth,
still woozy from her release from cryogenic-stasis. She shook
her head carefully, attempting to remove the cobwebs from her
mind and tried to remember what she was here for. The last thing
she remembered was watching the advance of the Negaverse, the
Earth Prince dying, then...
Luna gasped in dismay. The Princess, she had followed her
beloved into death leaving her mother to make a decision. To
allow her daughter to live again, with the threat of the
Negaverse always in the background, or to destroy the Negaverse
once and for all.
In the end it wasn't all that hard a decision, for a mother
that loved her daughter as much as the Queen loved Serenity.
And Luna's charge was to find the Princess and guide her,
to awaken the Sailor Senshi to guard her and to prepare them all
for the possibility of the Negaverse.
She knew she'd have to find the control centre that had
been set up for this purpose, and to do that she needed the
homing device. Unfortunately she wasn't up to gymnastic feats so
soon after her slow thaw, so she began walking in a random
direction to flex her muscles.
Luna didn't notice the small flashing light on the side of
the canister or the glowing red words that read 'Error'. She
didn't notice that she'd been asleep longer than programmed. And
she didn't notice that her memory currently resembled Venusian
cheese.
==========
Sailor Venus stopped running, out of breath and bent over,
trying to catch it.
There was no point in continuing, they weren't going to
catch up with either Tuxedo Kamen, whoever he was now, or the
Outer Senshi. She felt the other Senshi slow down and look at
her.
"We've lost them."
Mars' anger flared, the way it often did these days and she
opened her mouth to yell at her leader, "You're just going to
give up? We need to know what's going on!"
Venus sighed and nodded her agreement, "Yes, we do, but
we're not going to be able to catch up to them, they're stronger
then we are and faster too. We'll have to wait for another
chance."
"So. Have Mercury find them with her computer."
Mercury looked up from the refuge of her computer, "You
know there isn't a way to track the other Senshi and I've never
had the chance to find out if it's possible to track Tuxedo
Kamen. He never gives me the chance to try."
Mars glared at the betrayal and, without saying another
word, stalked off towards the Hikawa shrine.
Mercury looked pained for a moment before shrugging and
immersing herself in the computer while Sailor Jupiter mumbled
her good-byes and left.
Once they were alone, the Senshi of Ice deactivated her
visor and looked at her leader, "Why do things have to be this
way? They weren't when we were on the moon."
Venus sighed and bowed her head, "The Princess was on the
moon. She was why we could work together as well as we could.
Even the Outer Senshi, I think, worked with her."
Mercury snorted, "You think we'd be able to work together
for her sake, even if she isn't _here_. And now Mars is starting
to think she doesn't exist, that you and Artemis made her up.
Even I'm starting to wonder if she exists. It may be possible
that she wasn't reincarnated with the rest of us."
"No!" Venus snapped, "She's alive! You heard what Queen
Serenity said, when we were on the moon, she sent _all_ of us
forwards."
Mercury nodded slowly, "But did you ever consider that
maybe she died here? There's nothing that guarantees her
survival on Earth."
Venus paused and considered. Was it possible? Was it
possible that the Princess had died before now? And what were
they going to do if she had? She began shaking her head, slowly
at first then with increasing vigour, until her hair was flying.
"No. We _have_ to believe she's alive. Everything means
nothing if she isn't."
"But why? Why is she so important? Why does everything
have to revolve around her? It doesn't make sense."
"I-I..." Venus found herself at a loss. She didn't know
why the Princess was so important, she just _was_. What she
didn't understand was how the others could doubt. Sure, they'd
managed to defeat Queen Metallia in the end, but even that was
indirectly because of the Princess.
Without the Crystal Sword - the remains of the sword the
Princess has used to commit suicide, the sword that had been
poisoned by her blood - they would have died and Beryl, backed by
Metallia would control the Earth.
Ever since that battle and the arrival of the Death
Busters, the Inner Senshi had lost as many fights as they had won
and that ratio could only go down. These new Senshi were more
powerful than anything they'd had thrown at them so far.
This world, their home, would not stand against the enemies
it faced without the Princess. There was something about her and
Venus _knew_ she could save Earth and the people that dwelled
here.
And it wasn't just Power. The Princess could save them
because she had _more_ than just Power.
But how could she explain that to her fellow Senshi who had
given up believing, given up hope. Now they fought because they
were too stubborn to give up, not because they had a cause, a
belief that they were right and that things would get better.
And now the Inner Senshi, who had at least looked like they
might become friends amongst themselves after defeating Metallia,
were nothing of the kind. Mars was bitter and angry that nothing
seemed to have changed for the better. She was frustrated by
them not winning every battle. Mercury was sick of always being
looked down upon by the rest of them, something Venus knew she
herself was guilty of. She was tired of having to come up with
ways to beat youma and daimons without receiving any recognition
for it. Jupiter was depressed that, no matter how much she tried
to change, she was still viewed as a bully, both in her life
outside of the Senshi and within it.
And Venus was slowly becoming disheartened. She _knew_,
but that didn't make it any easier to hold on to hope when she
was broken and bleeding after having defeated or lost to the
latest daimon. Her leadership was less than inspiring and so
often she found herself on the verge of tears, her heart begging
the Princess to arrive and save them from themselves.
"I - I _know_, Mercury. I don't know why, I just do. She
is _everything_," Venus' voice caught as she stressed the last
word, trying to put as much certainty and feeling into as she
could.
Mercury looked at her, eyes shuttered and blank as she
weighed Venus' words. Then she lowered her eyelids and sighed.
"I don't know how long we can last, Venus, but we'll try.
We _all_ will, and somehow we'll find the Princess."
The two Sailor Senshi looked at one other for long moments
then each broke into smiles. And by general consensus they
detransformed and walked quietly home.
==========
Endymion, Prince of Earth watched as his Princess left once
more, heading for her home on the moon, in the company of Lady
Venus and Lady Jupiter. They'd managed to spend a good four
hours together this time and had quickly planned their next
meeting before anything had had the chance to break them up. It
had been a blissful evening, spent in the arms of his beloved
Serenity, a tinge of bittersweet colouring their every moment
until parting.
Now he stood, carefully watched over by General's Kunzite
and Jadeite until the three visitors from the Moon Kingdom had
faded from sight.
Turning away from the garden finally, Endymion wandered
through the palace unseeing. His generals called it moping and
Endymion sighed as he acknowledged that it was true, but he
didn't care. His Serenity was gone and he was once again left
bereft.
He didn't notice his shadow until he'd reached his suite
and found himself unable to close the door due to the presence of
a tiny old lady standing there.
He blinked and opened his mouth to speak, only to find
himself shoved in through the open door and it firmly shut behind
the two of them.
Still somewhat dazed from his time with his Princess, he
didn't protest as she sat him down and explained that she had
come to tell him that he was going to be to Earth what Serenity
was to the Moon. Directions were given and the tiny lady
disappeared, leaving Endymion to follow the directions.
Curiosity aroused, he followed them to the letter and found
himself at the entrance of a cave in the gardens that he'd never
seen before. He entered and followed the narrow passage
downwards until it opened into a large chamber, and the lady was
sitting there, behind a small, black pool of water a tiara across
her brow and a twinkle in her brown eyes...
==========
Mamoru woke.
Another dream.
Then he smiled. At least it was a useful dream this time.
==========
Makoto wearily trudged homewards, trying not to put to much
weight on her still-damaged ankle. She and the other Inners had
managed to defeat another of the strange Sailors today, with a
little help from the Sailor StarLights. They hadn't managed to
get any more information from them and they still hadn't found a
way to return the Sailors to their human forms instead of
destroying them.
Makoto sighed and decided she was officially depressed.
Things hadn't been going well for a long time now. She'd
recently been kicked out of her third school of the year and was
finding it more and more difficult to find close-by schools that
were willing to take her in.
At least she was going to the same school as the Three
Lights now. She immediately perked up, her thoughts turning to
the three beautiful boys that were attending Juuban High School
with her and Minako. She found Minako to be a little too hung up
on herself to really enjoy spending time with her, but her
determination to befriend the Three Lights made for wonderful
entertainment and the opportunity to at least talk to the idol
singers while Minako was doing her thing. She rather thought
they liked her better than Minako, at least _she_ wasn't quite so
irritating.
She wasn't sure which one of the Lights she liked the best,
but ever since she'd bumped into Taiki in the school greenhouses,
she'd been leaning towards him. Mind you, before that, she'd
spent most of her time dreaming about Yaten. Particularly after
she'd seen him being so nice to that little black cat with a
similar marking to Artemis' on her forehead.
Makoto trouped up the steps to her apartment and found, to
her surprise, someone sitting outside, a backpack by her side and
a piece of paper in her hands.
Slowing down, she took in the sight, noting certain
characteristics. About her own age, the girl looked very like
Minako with bright golden hair and brilliant blue eyes. But
unlike Minako's long tresses, this girl had hair that barely
reached her shoulders. She wore blue jeans, a white t-shirt,
brown leather jacket and brown boots to match.
Looking up at the sound of shoes against the stairs, the
girl smiled at Makoto and climbed to her feet.
"Hi. Are you, uh," She glanced down at the piece of paper
in her hands, "Kino Makoto?"
Makoto nodded, "Yeah. Why?"
"Oh, the ad in the newspaper about a roommate? I just came
to inquire about it."
Makoto found herself a little surprised. All of the other
girls her age that she knew lived at home. When she'd finally
decided she couldn't _not_ advertise for a roommate to help with
expenses, she was certain she'd end up with someone who was no
longer a high school student at the least and retired at the
most.
"You want to move in?"
The blonde laughed, "I don't know yet, do I? After all,
your apartment could be a mess or something."
Even though she was shocked by the possible slight on her
house-keeping abilities, she found herself unable to work up even
the slightest annoyance in the face of the other girl's dancing
eyes and obvious teasing.
She smiled back and shrugged, "Only one way to find out."
"I'm game if you are."
Makoto's heart was light as she unlocked her door and with
a tiny bow waved her guest in. This girl... she hoped she'd
decide to stay, there was something about her that made Makoto
want to be with her.
"Okay, so the place isn't a mess. I take it you like
plants?" The blonde was inspecting the fern on the table next to
the door, gently brushing the tips of her fingers over the soft
leaves.
"Yeah, almost as much as I like cooking."
"Cooking? I'm starting to think I could like it here,"
she grimaced, "I'm not much of a cook. I can do a wonderful
curry, so I'm told, but they make sure I stay away from
everything else."
Makoto slid her shoes off and went to stow her satchel in
her room before returning to watch the girl wander about the
room, light following her about. She shone. There was no other
word for it. Her eyes laughed and happiness and joy were a
palpable aura around her.
"Where would I be staying?"
"Oh, your room. That's this way," the brunette led her new
friend to a closed door and opened it. "It's not quite as big as
mine, but it has a nice view."
The blonde walked in, looking around, opening the cupboard
and looking out the windows before turning back to Makoto with a
wide smile, "Well, I'd love to stay here if you wouldn't mind
having me."
"Really? That would be great! I was thinking I'd end up
with someone twice my age."
"So did I. After the past week, I was seriously
considering moving into my own place. I'm glad I decided on one
more day of looking."
"So am I," Makoto grinned at her friend, then frowned, "If
you don't mind my asking, why are you looking for a place at
all?"
She almost wished she hadn't spoken when the other girl
turned away a little and she realised that it wasn't something
that she was likely want to talk about, especially to someone
she'd only met ten minutes ago.
"Uh, gomen, I wasn't thinking, you don't have to ans..."
"It's okay. I'm going to one of the schools near here and
I was tired of taking the train such a long way every day. I
live in an orphanage in Koyama at the moment. Don't much like it
there either and I thought it was time to move on. I'll miss the
other kids, but at least I can be my own person."
"Un. That's why I moved out of my Aunt's place."
The two girls stood in silence thinking of their pasts and
hoping their futures would be better, until the blonde finally
noticed the darkening sky.
"Oh! I'd better be going. Is it all right if I come by
tomorrow after school so we can organise details and stuff?"
"Hmm? Oh, sure."
"Great, I'll see you then," she said, slinging her backpack
over her shoulder and heading for the door. Then she giggled and
turned back. "By the way, I'm Tsukino Usagi, glad to meet you."
It wasn't until then that Makoto realised she hadn't even
asked the other girl's name. She smiled sheepishly and saw Usagi
out the door before heading for the kitchen to make dinner and
see what she could do about a snack for tomorrow afternoon.
==========
Queen Galaxia, the most powerful Senshi in the universe,
was sightseeing. She'd decided, while polishing her bracelets
for the fiftieth time that day that she was bored. Being an all-
powerful being with many less powerful subordinates and the
ability to play with anything in the universe - stars, galaxies -
was not the most interesting of jobs, so she had decided to see
what there was in the way of shopping on this tiny little planet.
She'd spent the morning in Shinjuku, had managed to see the
Twin Towers before heading to Ueno Park and Juuban. She'd
briefly considered stealing the Tokyo Tower but decided that the
colours wouldn't match very well with her decor.
So she'd wandered around, carrying bags of clothes and
wearing comfortable clothes, which the sales assistant had called
'jeans'.
It hadn't been till the afternoon that she'd first wandered
into a shoe-shop, but once she had it would have taken more
Sailor Senshi that currently had StarSeeds of their own to drag
her away from there.
She _loved_ shoes.
It was a wonder she hadn't noticed what masterpieces of
fashion and design they were. It was a wonder people on other
planets hadn't thought to cash in on these items.
Stacked next to her were a good score of boxes containing
the widest range of shoes she'd ever seen. Some were leather,
others clear plastic, some had no heel, others had heels that
made her taller by a number of inches. They were _wonderful_.
She directed the young girl who acted as sales assistant to
bring her another pair of shoes that had just caught her eye. In
her size, of course. They were made up almost entirely of
rhinestones that glittered with every movement.
Galaxia fell in love.
So it was an annoyance, a most horrible annoyance that
distracted her from her enjoyment of trying them on.
She tilted her head to one side, her eyes hard, as she
extended her senses to find out what it was.
Ah! There. It felt like those (what were they called
again?) Sailor StarLights that had managed to avoid capture back
on the planet Fireball. She'd managed to get the Princess who
made a lovely addition to her collection of StarSeeds, but the
three Senshi who were her guardians had managed to get away.
Now they seemed to be searching for someone. Galaxia
listened carefully while calling a few of her subordinates to her
position.
She ignored the shocked looks on the faces of Sailor
Aluminium Siren and Sailor Iron Crow at her attire and told them
to find the Sailor StarLights and capture them. A wave of her
hand to enforce the command and they were gone, leaving her to
smile in satisfaction at the sight of rhinestone sandals on her
feet.
"I'll take them."
She took one look at the terrified sales assistant's face
and decided she'd stay awhile longer as the service had just
gotten better.
==========
Seiya didn't understand how so many people could listen to
the music he and his brothers were playing without hearing the
message they were sending. Was it that they didn't have the
necessary sensitivity to hear or were they deliberately shutting
it out? Not that they wanted everyone to get the message, but it
seemed rather too convenient for _none_ of them to hear it.
They'd been here for almost two months and the only person
who'd come close to hearing was a young girl Taiki had met in
hospital just the other day. And she hadn't understood what it
was she was hearing. But it had the result of inspiring all of
them to keep going. Surely, if the Princess listened to one of
their songs she'd hear the message and would help them.
So he sang as well as he could, gathering the strands of
magic, weaving them into the music so that the message would
reach the Princess.
He wasn't the least bit surprised when a couple of daimons
and a Sailor Farce appeared during the middle of one of their
songs. It had been a long time coming but it had to happen
eventually. Seiya sighed before gathering himself to dash off
stage to find somewhere to transform, his brothers a few metres
in front of him.
The daimons followed right along, quite happily spoiling
any chance for changing without an audience as everyone else was
running in the same direction. Seiya was on the verge of calling
out his transformation phrase anyway when a flash of light cut
through one of the daimons.
Spinning around, he found himself watching one of the Earth
heroes, the male, dodging the Sailor Farce's attack while
throwing a number of quicksilver roses at the remaining daimon to
keep it occupied.
Grinning, Seiya managed to find himself somewhere to
transform and headed back out, almost expecting there to be
nothing left to do.
But the opponents had multiplied and now, as well as a
group of daimons and a few newly created Farce's they had two of
the Sailor Anima-mates to deal with.
StarHealer and StarMaker appeared and the three went to
work, attempting to cut down on the number of occupants in the
fairly small backstage room.
The space problem didn't remain for long though, once Iron
Crow and a daimon removed the wall that was in the way. There
was a brief scramble for positioning in the newly revealed room,
which resulted in the dissolving of a daimon and the trapping of
another under the wall that had disintegrated.
"STAR SENSITIVE INFERNO!"
StarHealer sent off one of her attacks in response to the
attempt by Aluminium Siren to get her out of the way, while
StarFighter dealt with the daimon under the wall. The unnamed
fighter, his cloak swirling in dramatic fashion, made a lunge
with his sword that took out one of the Sailor Farce's and almost
managed to take Aluminium Siren's arm off.
Much less complacent than she had been, the blue-haired
Senshi dropped half of the empty-headedness that had
characterised her fighting till then and went all out against the
black-haired hero.
Leaving them to themselves, StarFighter turned her
attention to Sailor Iron Crow.
"STAR SERIOUS LASER!"
The attack crashed against Iron Crow's side, sending her
staggering to the left. Without waiting for her to recover,
StarFighter let loose another attack, joined by StarHealer who
had found herself with a few moments to spare. The two mana
projectiles sped towards the rust-haired Senshi, strengthening
exponentially upon joining together.
With a startled and angry look, Iron Crow vaulted out of
the way. Then she was hit by a further two attacks, made of
water and earth.
Sailor's Neptune and Uranus joined the other fighters as
Aluminium Siren, who was as worn as her colleague slipped an arm
around Iron Crow. She ordered the two remaining daimons and the
single Sailor Farce to run interference for them as they left.
They knew when they were overpowered.
From then on it was easy for the three StarLights, the two
Outer Senshi and the unnamed fighter. Seconds later, the fight
finished and all six of them stood warily facing each other.
StarFighter locked gazes with the unknown fighter, having
been introduced to the Outer Senshi previously. Blue eyes met
blue and a stale mate was created.
"If you keep singing songs like that..."
StarFighter smirked, "Yeah."
Understanding flashed between the two and they both turned
their attention to the Outer Senshi who were watching with
interested and suspicious eyes.
"Who are you?" Uranus broke the silence, directing a
question towards the man who had been Tuxedo Kamen.
StarFighter and the other StarLights remained silent, also
wanting to hear the answer.
The black-clad male laughed, "Would you believe... the
Senshi of Earth?"
And taking the others' silence as a cue, he left.
==========
Sailor Galaxia watched, having put aside her shoes for the
moment and leaned back in her throne as Sailor Aluminium Siren
and Sailor Iron Crow limped back to the Tomoe Mansion. They
passed young Hotaru who looked at them with wide purple eyes and
continued on into the basement where the Professor was busy
attempting to improve his daimons abilities by fusing their DNA
with that of the Sailor Anima-mates who had been ordered to co-
operate.
Galaxia sighed in disappointment.
It was terrible that the removal of StarSeeds resulted in
less resourcefulness. Had the two Senshi been in full command of
their intellect, as they had been upon first meeting Galaxia when
she invaded their planets, they may have won.
It was a pity she had decided long ago to allow her
subordinates a certain number of failures before termination.
She wasn't about to make exceptions now and Aluminium Siren's
time was up.
Standing, Galaxia prepared to make her presence known to
the unfortunate Senshi.
It looked like it would take longer to find the Star of
Hope than she had thought. Although if she was correct, this
solar system was home to the ginzuishou. She vaguely recalled
the white-haired wielder of the crystal that was the only known
object that could possibly match her own power. Maybe she should
inform the Witches 5 and her Senshi to keep an eye out for it
also.
Decision made, Galaxia stifled a yawn of boredom and went
to visit Sailor Aluminium Siren.
==========
Luna followed the blonde at a distance, waiting for the
chance to catch her alone. She was almost positive this was one
of the Sailor Senshi and it was her duty to awaken them.
If only the brunette would leave, but it looked as though
the tall girl was in for the duration. Luna was going to have to
wait until the two went home and catch her quarry then.
She hoped Yaten wouldn't worry about her too much. He was
cute but he worried, which always had the effect of making her
smile. The silver-haired idol had the reputation of being cold
and uncaring, much as his brother Taiki did. But in reality he
was as big a softie as anyone she'd ever known.
Daydreaming about her 'owner', Luna almost walked straight
past the blonde and her companion, who had stopped to talk to a
trio of people who had been walking in the opposite direction.
She was surprised to find that it was the Kou brothers,
Seiya, Yaten and Taiki. The brunette addressed them by name,
obviously familiar with them. Each of them looked bored by the
girl's greeting and all of them avoided eye contact, hoping for
as short a conversation as possible.
It was pure coincidence that Luna was watching Seiya when
he turned his head to look at the blonde following Makoto, the
brunette's, introduction. And pure coincidence that he was not
wearing his sunglasses.
Luna saw something run through his eyes on looking at her,
the frission of awareness, surprise and something more that was
there to be seen for a split second.
She switched her gaze to the blonde, Usagi, and looked for
something there. Apart from a tiny puzzled frown, there was
nothing.
She smiled brilliantly at the three idols, not recognising
them and bowed politely. Seiya appeared positively blinded by
the smile and grinned back, seeming unable to stop himself.
Yaten and Taiki returned her greetings appearing surprised
that there was a girl out there that wasn't interested in their
fame. Despite themselves they also smiled.
Makoto opened her mouth to continue talking when screams
were heard from the other end of the park they were walking in.
All of them turned to stare in that direction then, of one
accord, ran towards the distraction. Luna followed, still hoping
for a chance to catch Usagi by herself.
When she caught up to the blonde the other four were no
longer in sight. Usagi was crouched behind a bush and seemed a
little confused as she searched for something, or someone. Her
attention was caught by the Sailor Farce that was attacking
civilians and she winced in sympathy of the blow that sent one of
them flying.
"SUPREME THUNDER!"
A ball of lightening shot from beneath the trees and a girl
in a green fuku stepped out from the shadows, posing in the best
magical girl style. A short distance away, the Sailor StarLights
also appeared, their poses containing a little more refinement
and style.
This was the chance she had been waiting for! Luna sped
towards the blonde, an ornate pen clutched in her jaws, following
a somersault and brief expenditure of energy.
Luna placed the pen on the ground and nudged Usagi's thigh.
The blonde jumped, ending up a metre away and staring at
Luna with spooked eyes.
"Oh, it's just a cat," she breathed, a hand resting on her
chest, over her thundering heart.
"I don't know about that, Tsukino Usagi."
Wide blue eyes widened even further as Usagi froze in
place.
"I am here to tell you that you are one of the Sailor
Senshi. Here," Luna dropped the pen in Usagi's lap, "Use this to
transform. Just hold it and say the first thing that comes to
mind."
"The first thing that comes to mind?" Usagi slowly reached
out a hand and picked up the pen and opened her mouth. Luna
tensed in anticipation of her transformation.
"A talking cat. You're a talking cat."
Luna face faulted.
"Uh, yes. Usagi, you must transform to help them."
Luna had been monitoring the fight happening on the other
side of the bush and didn't like what she was seeing. The Sailor
Farce was acting rather differently than the few others she had
seen in battle since coming to Tokyo. It was much stronger, with
faster reflexes and an ability to learn, or so it seemed.
"MOON CRYSTAL POWER, MAKE-UP!"
When Luna turned back around, Usagi was dressed in a Senshi
costume.
The cat frowned. She didn't remember seeing that
combination of colours on the moon. And her transformation
phrase would indicate that she was Senshi of the Moon, but there
was no Moon Senshi. She was sure of that.
So what did this mean?
Blinking at her revealing Sailor fuku, the newly-christened
Sailor Moon stood up shakily and looked down at the feline by her
feet.
"This means I have to help them, right? And save the world
from the bad guys?"
Luna nodded and watched as the Senshi walked semi-
confidently onto the battle field, watching what was going on
carefully.
==========
Sailor Moon watched the Sailor Farce carefully, noting the
effects the various attacks of the other Senshi had on it.
Like Luna, she had been witness to many daimon and Farce
attacks since moving in with Makoto a few weeks ago. They always
seemed to happen when she was in the vicinity. She had wondered
if it could be more than coincidence, but had dismissed the
notion, dreams were just dreams after all.
The first time she'd seen a fight had been in Ueno Park
where she had just retrieved a hat belonging to a young girl
named Hotaru. The two had been talking together and getting on
very well, when a daimon had arrived followed shortly after by
Sailor Mars who had dispatched it with a fast and intense burst
of flame.
Most of the other fights had been similar, a daimon would
appear and a Senshi, then the Senshi would defeat the daimon and
there would be an end to it. The only other type of fight she'd
been witness to was one concerning a Sailor Farce and the two
Senshi known as the Outers. The fight had been harder than the
others, requiring both Senshi to beat it, but eventually they
had.
Usagi had been shocked when the Farce had briefly melted
into human form, then into goo, after the Senshi had left. And
she had no idea if it had truly been human or if it was a normal
thing.
She'd been keeping track of the disappearances of people
from the Juuban area and wondered if there was any connection.
She hoped not.
Then, recalling where she was, she decided that this Sailor
Farce was stronger than the other she had seen. It was strong
enough to be on the verge of defeating StarMaker when she decided
to take a hand in the fight.
Sailor Moon assumed that, like the transformation, her
powers, whatever they were, would be instinctive. She allowed
her mind to go blank and immediately discovered Power attached to
a phrase that had it wrapped under control.
"MOON TIARA ACTION!"
The glowing golden disk spun in a glittering arc, to hit
the Farce directly in the face.
Sailor Moon grinned and recalled it to her hand, "Hmm. Now
what?"
She knew there was no way the tiara could defeat the Sailor
Farce and, fortunately, it didn't need to. The Sailor StarLights
took the opportunity afforded by the distraction to combine their
attacks and disintegrate the Farce.
Sailor Moon watched in sick anticipation to see if it would
become human and wondered what her reaction would be if it did.
While they didn't look human, it was easy to forget that they may
have been human once, but after the fight...
It dissolved directly into goo and she breathed out a sigh
of relief. Glancing briefly at the curious faces of the other
four Sailor Senshi, she smiled, her eyes alive with the emotion.
She bounced over to them and held out her hand, "Hi! I'm
Sailor Moon. Yoroshiku."
"Aa..."
None of the three took her up on her offer, their
expressions turned suspicious. None of the Senshi were nice to
those in the other groups.
Sailor Moon shrugged, "Suit yourselves. Well, I'm off,
Ja!"
She jogged away, rejoining a black cat behind some bushes
and becoming Usagi once more.
She then sat down and let Luna talk some more about her
mission to find the other Sailor Senshi and the Princess and
protect her.
"Other Sailor Senshi? Like Sailor Jupiter and the Sailor
StarLights?"
Luna looked nonplussed for a moment, "Uh..."
"You don't know?" Usagi frowned.
"Well..."
Usagi was half-annoyed, half-amused by the cat's ignorance
which was almost as great as hers. She vacillated between
snapping at the cat or laughing and, from habit, chose to laugh.
"Oh well, I suppose we'll find out eventually, ne?"
Luna didn't get the chance to reply, even had she had
something prepared to say, as Makoto and the Three Lights joined
her.
"Oh, good. You're okay. When I couldn't find you, I got
worried," Makoto asked, looking down at her roommate sitting
beneath a tree behind a bush.
"Oh, I've been here the whole time." She affected
excitement, "I saw the Senshi fight!"
"Again?" Makoto laughed at her. The brunette was well
aware of how often Usagi had ended up in the close proximity to a
Senshi battle.
"Yep! I'm glad you're okay, too."
Luna jumped off Usagi's shoulder, where she had been
sitting and jumped at Yaten, purring loudly as he gathered her
into his arms.
"Oi! It's Kuroi!" Seiya exclaimed.
"Baka. Her name isn't Kuroi," Yaten retorted, glaring at
his brother.
"Oh, is she your cat? She's cute."
Luna purred contentedly at the compliment.
Yaten looked down at the blonde and slowly nodded, "I guess
she is."
"What's her name?"
Yaten said nothing.
"He doesn't know," Seiya told her, smiling behind the
sunglasses he had retrieved from his pocket.
Usagi chuckled and made a suggestion Luna would probably be
happy with, "How about Luna? It's got something to do with the
moon and that bald spot on her forehead looks like a crescent
moon."
Yaten tilted his head to one side and looked down at the
cat then nodded, "That's a good name."
Luna purred again in agreement and sent a grateful look
towards Usagi. She had been getting sick of being called 'cat'
all the time, even if it was by someone as cute as Yaten.
"Hey, Usagi-chan? We'd better go, we've still got our
shopping to do."
The blonde jumped to her feet, still smiling and nodded,
"Sure, let's get going. Nice to meet you guys, see you round."
Yaten, Taiki and Seiya watched as the two girls walked away
from them with a friendly wave.
==========
Chikyuu no Senshi
Part Two
A Sailormoon Alternate Reality Story
By Sefilin (aka Lei)
===========================================================
Motoki laughed as he managed to tag a couple more youma, on
his way to defeating Mamoru for the first time in VR. And they
played often enough for a victory to be important to Motoki, even
if he knew his opponent was distracted.
The sandy-haired doctor-in-training had been topped by his
friend in pretty much everything. School, girls, looks... the
only thing he didn't have was Motoki's easy ability to make
friends or a long-term girlfriend. But even though there were
times when Motoki found himself almost green with envy - like the
time when Reika had seemed interested in Mamoru - he wasn't the
type of person to let it bother him for long.
Mamoru was the type of person who came across as cold as
ice to start with. It was only when you managed to get past that
that you realised he was the type who would do anything for his
friends. Even more so for those he loved. So Motoki put up with
Mamoru's obvious superiority in exchange for something more
precious than mere achievement or intelligence.
And Motoki knew he provided something Mamoru needed. He
was a friend, the only one Mamoru had that accepted him as he
was, without expectations.
But that didn't stop him from worrying about his friend and
whatever it was that was going on with Mamoru at the moment
worried him.
He'd be inclined to call it girl trouble if he didn't know
better, but after all, Mamoru had shown no interest in anyone.
Motoki snapped out of his musings with a surprised yelp as
another holographic youma appeared in his face. It disappeared a
second later when Mamoru shot it, tapping him lightly on the back
of the head.
"If you want to beat me, you're going to have to
concentrate harder than that."
"Uh, right," Motoki smiled ruefully and extended his focus
outwards, waiting for the next youma to appear and putting his
concern on hold until after he'd beaten Mamoru.
Unfortunately for his ambition, a daimon chose that moment
to appear in the room that they were in. The other few people in
the same room had drawn their attention to it with screams that
were far too real to be a recording.
For a second he froze, unsure what to do, he'd never been
involved in any sort of attack before. Reika had told him all
about what had happened to her when she'd somehow gotten
involved, even though she herself hadn't understood it, but he'd
never gotten closer than that.
Mamoru on the other hand hadn't hesitated. Within seconds
of hearing the disturbance he was right in there trying to kick
the daimon's butt. And doing a surprisingly good job.
Motoki knew his friend was into martial arts but hadn't
thought he was good enough to take on a daimon.
The daimon chose that second to send Mamoru flying
backwards with a sweep of it's arm.
Still frozen, Motoki watched as two people appeared in the
room, one a green-haired woman wearing a black, her arms and neck
encircled by black threads and her hair bound by the same. A
black star completed the outfit, situated as it was in the hollow
of her neck.
The other woman was dressed in what looked a little like a
Sailor fuku in that it had a sailor-style collar. But whereas
all of the Senshi he knew of wore almost identical costumes, this
one was a little... strange. Even cuter than the usual fuku, if
that could be believed.
The silver ringlets on either side of her head and what
looked like some sort of pyjamas he'd seen on television once,
both added up to the weirdest looking outfit he'd ever seen.
Well, there was that thing that Tenchi wore in Tenchi Muyo!, but
still, this was real life.
The green-haired woman moved towards one of the other
gamers and, grabbing her, held on until the little Senshi was
ready. Once again sending Mamoru flying backwards she turned
towards her victim and crossing her wrists, two lights shot from
the braces and hit the chosen victim. A little flowery-thing
bloomed on her forehead and a small glowing crystal was revealed
within the folds of the petals.
The Senshi stood back and watched until the crystal
darkened, the light it had shed disappearing.
"Not a proper StarSeed," the shorter of the two women
spoke, sounding both disgusted and disappointed.
"Then you'll just have to find one somewhere else, Iron
Mouse-san."
The green-haired woman followed the small Sailor Senshi
into a phone booth that appeared out of nowhere, leaving the
victim enveloped in a column of light.
When the light cleared an even stranger Sailor stood in the
room.
"V.R!... V.R!"
At this point in time, Motoki was seriously considering
leaving. He wasn't a hero and didn't pretend to be. But it
looked as though Mamoru was going to stay and fight and he didn't
abandon his friends.
The newly revealed Sailor V.R. mumbled something about
reality and imagination, nothing Motoki was all that interested
in hearing so he scanned the room to see if there was anything he
could do to help. Instead he saw Sailor V.R. attacking the other
patrons who had hung around. Frowning he looked further but
found nothing that wasn't nailed down.
He turned his attention back to the fight and once more saw
Mamoru attack followed by him being repelled. Motoki took a deep
breath and followed his friend in the next time, wishing he'd
taken those martial arts lessons his uncle had offered. Respect
for life was all very well, but in a situation like this that
meant being willing and able to fight.
He attacked Sailor V.R.'s flank, managing to hit it before
he noticed it's arm flying towards his face. He turned to one
side and felt it's forearm connect with the side of his head.
The next thing he knew, he was lying, crumpled on the floor,
having made painful contact with the wall.
Mamoru was bent over him, blue eyes concerned.
"Motoki? Daijobu?"
The blonde groaned and tried to smile at his friend, "I'll
be okay. Heh, maybe I should join up for karate lessons after
this, eh?"
Mamoru smiled, then a strange expression crossed his face
in time with Motoki's wince at a twinge in his back. Blue eyes
caught green and Motoki couldn't look away as Mamoru seemed to
weigh him for worthiness.
Then Mamoru smiled and turned back to the strange Senshi.
Motoki blinked in confusion then watched as his friends clothes
_changed_ and a masked man in a tuxedo stood in his place. A few
roses materialised in his hand as he made a motion such as one
does when one throws darts.
The roses cut through the air and hit the Daimon and Sailor
V.R., attracting their attention.
Then Mamoru, in mask and cape, flipped over his two
opponents and a cane appeared in his hand.
Motoki felt his brow furrow a little as his vision became
blurred, not understanding what was going on. He tried to clear
his vision but instead found his hearing had worsened and slowly
but surely the rest of his body was shutting down. The last
thought he had before slipping into unconsciousness was that
Mamoru had a _lot_ of explaining to do when they got out of this.
==========
Tuxedo Kamen swept his extended cane across the legs of the
two creatures he was fighting, knowing he had to keep them away
from the people in the room, most of whom were already
unconscious and unable to help themselves.
He'd been glad of that. He didn't think he could've bought
himself to transform if they'd all been able to see him, but in
the end only Motoki and a single other man had been in any
position to see him. And it had been Motoki, watching him with
pain-filled green eyes that had finally decided him and he'd
transformed.
Sighing to himself he found himself wishing that the Sailor
Senshi were there considering they had powers that could more
easily defeat the daimons and Sailor's such as he was currently
fighting. He dodged a wild swing from Sailor V.R. while keeping
a wary eye on the daimon that was in the process of sneaking
around behind him.
It was at times like this that he wished he was a Sailor
Senshi, or something similar, since he had no particular interest
in being a magical _girl_, per se.
~Flash~
Tuxedo Kamen staggered back a little, a gloved hand lifting
halfway to his forehead. He shook his head, disoriented, and
barely managed to dodge the next attack by the daimon.
~Flash~
//Darkness//
//Dripping Water//
//A hovering globe of light and sharp brown eyes//
//Falling...//
~Flash~
His breath left him with a whoosh as the strobe of light
that had emitted from Sailor V.R.'s hand-held gun, almost
identical to the one's he and Motoki had been playing with
earlier. He hit the wall next to his friend and groaned a
little, painfully.
What was that?
It reminded him of the dream, but why? Why was it
interfering now, in the middle of the day at a time when the
smallest distraction could mean death?
Tuxedo Kamen pulled himself upright, his sight focussing on
his opponents once again as he once more prepared himself for
battle.
"VENUS LOVE-ME CHAIN!"
"BURNING MANDALA!"
A glowing line of burning red-gold hearts encircled the
chest of the daimon, setting it on fire.
"SPARKLING WIDE PRESSURE!"
Then a globe of lightning joined the flames, reducing the
daimon to nothing.
Tuxedo Kamen took in the four Sailor Senshi now standing
openly in the room and the two hiding behind some of the rooms
props and allowed himself to collapse back to the floor. He
leaned his head back against the wall and let out a deep breath.
He found himself smiling as he rolled his head to look at
his friend who was still unconscious then turned back to the
battle.
Though the daimon was already vanquished, proving that the
Inner Senshi could actually work together when necessary, Sailor
V.R. was different. They found it more difficult to deal with
the Sailor Farce who obviously had more independent thought than
the daimons.
They'd tried the same tactic they'd used on the daimon
without success and followed using a number of different attack
combinations. Those didn't work either.
Frustrated with their inability to do any damage, Sailor
Mercury had once more taken a stance at the edge of the combat
and was busy analysing stuff on her computer, an expression of
determination on her face.
The masked man watched her closely as her fingers flew
across the keypad and her eyes roamed across the screen. He
found himself reluctantly moved by her determination and by her
fellow Senshi's perseverance. It was obvious by now that they
could not win yet they were still fighting. And they'd taken to
helping customers out of the room.
~Flash~
//Falling...//
~Flash~
Once more disoriented, Tuxedo Kamen turned his attention
away from the fight and looked inwards, searching for the cause
of these flashes.
~Flash~
//He found himself in the cave of his dreams, once more
sitting across from the small, wrinkled woman, who's eyes
still contained so much energy. Her lips moved and slowly,
slowly, he began to hear them//
//"Feel it, Prince. The Power that lies beneath you.
Feel it, embrace it. It is yours."//
//Light flashed off her tiara as she bowed her head, her
eyes sliding shut and he followed suit//
//And the sensation of falling, diving endlessly into
still darkness, then further into heat and constant
movement and then...//
//Then into Power and a Consciousness that was not his
own//
~Flash~
When Tuxedo Kamen once more returned to himself, he could
feel that something had changed within himself. The Power that
he had felt deep within the planet he sat on was now within him
also. And the Consciousness was there, silently watching and
listening.
And he smiled.
==========
Sailor Mercury kept half an eye on the fight that was
playing out in front of her as she accessed her computer's memory
banks and began to analyse all the incoming data on the bizarre
Sailor Senshi they were fighting.
She assumed that the creature was one of the new enemy that
Sailor Jupiter had told them about and was glad that she had this
chance to gather data. She was also sad that it was too powerful
for them.
She hadn't found any obvious weak spots she and the others
could take advantage of, nor had she been able to think of any
possible strategies that could work, even with the assistance of
her computer. There was no record of anything even remotely
similar to this thing in the Moon Kingdom's computer banks.
Except maybe the Senshi themselves and even they were rather
different.
She rubbed the bridge of her nose tiredly, her eyes
straining to keep up with the pages and pages of information, in
the dim light. Then something caught her attention.
Off to one side she could see something glowing and turned
her head sharply to observe it more closely.
It seemed to be Tuxedo Kamen.
She had seen him as she and the others had arrived and had
been glad they'd gotten there in time to stop him from being hurt
more than he obviously already was. She still wasn't entirely
sure what to make of him, but he was cute and mysterious and
sometimes, just sometimes Mercury couldn't help but fall victim
to romance any more than Jupiter and Venus. There had been those
dreams...
She snapped out of her daydreaming as Tuxedo Kamen pulled
himself upright, a tiny, wicked smile playing across his lips.
The glow intensified until Mercury had to avert her eyes until,
with a flash it was gone.
When she turned back, Tuxedo Kamen was no longer so.
Where he had been stood a tall, handsome man dressed in
black armour with silver accents. A cape still graced his
shoulders, this lined with a silvered midnight blue rather than
the scarlet of the masked man. Quartered circles of silver were
pinned to his collar, encircled his waist and graced the edges of
his tunic. A sword hung at his side, the quartered circle
appearing engraved on the sheath and ornamenting the hilt. The
final touch was a thin silver circlet engraved all around by the
same symbol.
All together, a very impressive looking costume.
She started at the focussed light in his eyes, so different
from the indifferent cynicism she'd seen there previously.
Watching the fight intently, the man who had been Tuxedo
Kamen drew his sword.
A few seconds later it was over, the light that bloomed
from the golden crystal embedded in the blade, combined with the
silver of the blade's light itself, cut through the air and
Sailor V.R. easily. And it disintegrated into golden dust that
faded to dull brown as it pooled on the floor.
Surprised by the abruptness of the defeat, Mercury's
companions turned to see the newcomer and the Outer Senshi forgot
themselves enough to emerge from where they had been hidden.
Ignoring his audience, the blue-eyed hero turned and walked
to one of the unconscious customers, sheathing his sword.
Bending he stared at the sandy-haired young man for a moment
before carefully lifting him into his arms and heading towards
the door.
The six Senshi remained quietly watching until he had
disappeared, each of them reluctantly in awe of the regal figure.
The two Outer Senshi looked at one another and leapt into
movement, following him out of the Virtual Reality Theatre.
Mercury glanced at her companions and smiled at the
expressions on their faces as they also looked to one another.
Seconds later they ran out the entrance in pursuit.
==========
Motoki blinked his eyes open, his head feeling rather the
worse for wear as he looked around the room he was in. It was a
room he'd never been in before, he was sure of that, but it
seemed a little familiar anyway. He slowly pushed himself to his
elbows and took in the late evening sunlight coming through the
windows and falling across the bed where he lay.
"Good, you're awake."
He sat up fully and winced as his body and skull protested,
then looked at his friend who was standing by the bed holding out
a glass of water and some pills. He looked at them suspiciously,
then back up at Mamoru.
"They're just aspirin," he said as he shrugged and put them
down on the table next to the bed.
Motoki glared as best he could before taking the pills and
swallowing them, following with a gulp of water.
"Thanks."
He lay back for a minute, resting his arm across his eyes
as he waited for the pills to take effect. He also took the time
to gather his thoughts, remembering that afternoon and Mamoru's
transformation.
Finally, he sighed and moved into a sitting position again.
"So, what was that?"
Mamoru watched him, his blue eyes a little uncertain then
he sighed.
"Ever since I was, um, six, I've been having these dreams,
of the moon and a princess..."
Motoki's eyes widened at the mention of a princess as his
mind began working. Maybe that was why... And here he'd been
starting to think maybe Mamoru was gay, or something.
"This may take a while, mind if I sit down?"
Motoki looked up and nodded, "Sure."
Settling himself cross-legged at the end of the bed, Mamoru
continued.
"In the dream I was older, maybe 20 or so and I was on the
moon, I could tell it was the moon because I could see Earth.
Anyway, I walk towards this palace..."
"Palace? On the moon?"
Mamoru smiled wistfully, "Yeah, a Palace on the moon. I
don't know why it was there, but it was. I think it's where the
Sailor Senshi come from. I heard them talking about going back
there once, before they had to fight Beryl and Queen Metallia."
Motoki frowned. He'd never got most of what went on with
the Senshi and the names meant nothing to him, something that
Mamoru seemed to pick up on.
"They were the leaders of the first lot of youma to come
through. They drained everyone's energy."
"Oh. So they weren't just monsters?"
Mamoru laughed, "Hate to say it, but none of them are.
There's always someone controlling them. Or ordering them about
anyway. The second lot called themselves the Death Busters for
some reason. They're still around, though..." Mamoru frowned,
"things have changed recently."
He trailed off as his thoughts turned inwards and Motoki
took the opportunity to take a sip of water while he watched his
friend avidly. Everyone was curious about what was going on in
the youma department and to get information from someone who knew
what he was talking about was rare. And for the person who knew
to be Mamoru... Motoki still had trouble taking it in.
"Anyway. The Dream."
Motoki _heard_ the capital in 'dream', and found himself
nodding in encouragement.
"So, I head towards a palace and I know exactly where I'm
going. I end up at a wall with a balcony and I see someone
there. It's the Princess and she's smiling, happy. I love
seeing her like that, can't stand it when she cries, when her
eyes fill with tears. She's beautiful, even when she cries, but
she was made to smile... don't want her to cry..."
Motoki stared in surprise as Mamoru shook himself out of
the reverie he'd fallen into and smiled wryly. Maybe he was a
romantic after all, but one thing was for sure - he had it bad.
"Yeah. So she smiles at me and I just stand there and
smile back. Most of it's like that until just before I wake up,
then she becomes sad, so sad and reaches for me. She says 'Free
me' and then I wake up."
Speechless, Motoki sat against the headboard watching his
friend, seeing more of him than he ever had before. It didn't
even occur to him to wonder if the dream didn't actually mean
anything; he knew it did. It meant Mamoru's life.
"What about lately? I mean, things have changed, you never
used to be this..."
"Out of it? Yeah." Mamoru sighed and ran a hand
agitatedly through his hair. "About a month ago, just before
that party the dream changed. She was crying and she sounded, I
dunno, desperate? She's running out of time and I have to find
her before it's too late."
"And if you don't?"
"I - I don't know."
Motoki considered for a moment then, deciding to change the
subject a little, smirked, "What about the Tuxedo Kamen thing?"
"Oh, that. About three years ago when I woke up from one
of the dreams, I was dressed like that and standing on top of a
building somewhere fairly close to the Tokyo Tower. I had no
idea how I got there, but knew I could do things like the Senshi
do. Jump roofs, create roses, that sort of thing."
"Mamoru! Hey, Mamoru!"
The two friends looked up at the yelling coming in through
the door and neither was surprised when, seconds later, Hiro
burst in. He dismissed the presence of Motoki focussing on his
brother.
"Kaasan said I had to tell you that dinner's almost ready
and to say you _had_ to come 'cause Kurumi-san's here," Hiro
leered as well as he could before continuing, "and she wants you
to look after her."
Mamoru blinked, then sighed, "Sure, tell her I'll be
there."
"Un. So, Mamoru? You gonna marry her?"
Motoki couldn't help himself at that, he laughed. Mamoru,
marry someone other than this princess of his?
Mamoru, on the other hand, sent a quelling glance at his
friend then made it quite obvious to Hiro that he was no longer
wanted.
Hiro grinned and raced out of the room.
"Will you be alright, Motoki? You should probably stay
here for a while, until we're sure there's no concussion."
"I'll be fine, it _is_ me who's going to be a doctor, after
all."
==========
It was a forest in the Northern reaches of Honshuu, just
beyond the Misawa Air Base. Summer was fully awake, along with
all her children who chirped happily in the dappled sunlight.
Beneath one of the camphor trees that adorned the slope of
a hill over looking Ogawara-ko a beep could be heard.
There was another beep, then another, followed by a hiss.
A small mound of moss and grass lifted, vapour curling from
beneath it, then it flipped over, revealing the inside of a small
canister of unknown origins.
And within the canister was a small-boned black cat with a
strange crescent-moon marking on it's forehead. Red-brown eyes
blinked open and Luna carefully stepped out of the canister that
had been her resting place for the past thousand years.
She watched the movements of shadows on the undergrowth,
still woozy from her release from cryogenic-stasis. She shook
her head carefully, attempting to remove the cobwebs from her
mind and tried to remember what she was here for. The last thing
she remembered was watching the advance of the Negaverse, the
Earth Prince dying, then...
Luna gasped in dismay. The Princess, she had followed her
beloved into death leaving her mother to make a decision. To
allow her daughter to live again, with the threat of the
Negaverse always in the background, or to destroy the Negaverse
once and for all.
In the end it wasn't all that hard a decision, for a mother
that loved her daughter as much as the Queen loved Serenity.
And Luna's charge was to find the Princess and guide her,
to awaken the Sailor Senshi to guard her and to prepare them all
for the possibility of the Negaverse.
She knew she'd have to find the control centre that had
been set up for this purpose, and to do that she needed the
homing device. Unfortunately she wasn't up to gymnastic feats so
soon after her slow thaw, so she began walking in a random
direction to flex her muscles.
Luna didn't notice the small flashing light on the side of
the canister or the glowing red words that read 'Error'. She
didn't notice that she'd been asleep longer than programmed. And
she didn't notice that her memory currently resembled Venusian
cheese.
==========
Sailor Venus stopped running, out of breath and bent over,
trying to catch it.
There was no point in continuing, they weren't going to
catch up with either Tuxedo Kamen, whoever he was now, or the
Outer Senshi. She felt the other Senshi slow down and look at
her.
"We've lost them."
Mars' anger flared, the way it often did these days and she
opened her mouth to yell at her leader, "You're just going to
give up? We need to know what's going on!"
Venus sighed and nodded her agreement, "Yes, we do, but
we're not going to be able to catch up to them, they're stronger
then we are and faster too. We'll have to wait for another
chance."
"So. Have Mercury find them with her computer."
Mercury looked up from the refuge of her computer, "You
know there isn't a way to track the other Senshi and I've never
had the chance to find out if it's possible to track Tuxedo
Kamen. He never gives me the chance to try."
Mars glared at the betrayal and, without saying another
word, stalked off towards the Hikawa shrine.
Mercury looked pained for a moment before shrugging and
immersing herself in the computer while Sailor Jupiter mumbled
her good-byes and left.
Once they were alone, the Senshi of Ice deactivated her
visor and looked at her leader, "Why do things have to be this
way? They weren't when we were on the moon."
Venus sighed and bowed her head, "The Princess was on the
moon. She was why we could work together as well as we could.
Even the Outer Senshi, I think, worked with her."
Mercury snorted, "You think we'd be able to work together
for her sake, even if she isn't _here_. And now Mars is starting
to think she doesn't exist, that you and Artemis made her up.
Even I'm starting to wonder if she exists. It may be possible
that she wasn't reincarnated with the rest of us."
"No!" Venus snapped, "She's alive! You heard what Queen
Serenity said, when we were on the moon, she sent _all_ of us
forwards."
Mercury nodded slowly, "But did you ever consider that
maybe she died here? There's nothing that guarantees her
survival on Earth."
Venus paused and considered. Was it possible? Was it
possible that the Princess had died before now? And what were
they going to do if she had? She began shaking her head, slowly
at first then with increasing vigour, until her hair was flying.
"No. We _have_ to believe she's alive. Everything means
nothing if she isn't."
"But why? Why is she so important? Why does everything
have to revolve around her? It doesn't make sense."
"I-I..." Venus found herself at a loss. She didn't know
why the Princess was so important, she just _was_. What she
didn't understand was how the others could doubt. Sure, they'd
managed to defeat Queen Metallia in the end, but even that was
indirectly because of the Princess.
Without the Crystal Sword - the remains of the sword the
Princess has used to commit suicide, the sword that had been
poisoned by her blood - they would have died and Beryl, backed by
Metallia would control the Earth.
Ever since that battle and the arrival of the Death
Busters, the Inner Senshi had lost as many fights as they had won
and that ratio could only go down. These new Senshi were more
powerful than anything they'd had thrown at them so far.
This world, their home, would not stand against the enemies
it faced without the Princess. There was something about her and
Venus _knew_ she could save Earth and the people that dwelled
here.
And it wasn't just Power. The Princess could save them
because she had _more_ than just Power.
But how could she explain that to her fellow Senshi who had
given up believing, given up hope. Now they fought because they
were too stubborn to give up, not because they had a cause, a
belief that they were right and that things would get better.
And now the Inner Senshi, who had at least looked like they
might become friends amongst themselves after defeating Metallia,
were nothing of the kind. Mars was bitter and angry that nothing
seemed to have changed for the better. She was frustrated by
them not winning every battle. Mercury was sick of always being
looked down upon by the rest of them, something Venus knew she
herself was guilty of. She was tired of having to come up with
ways to beat youma and daimons without receiving any recognition
for it. Jupiter was depressed that, no matter how much she tried
to change, she was still viewed as a bully, both in her life
outside of the Senshi and within it.
And Venus was slowly becoming disheartened. She _knew_,
but that didn't make it any easier to hold on to hope when she
was broken and bleeding after having defeated or lost to the
latest daimon. Her leadership was less than inspiring and so
often she found herself on the verge of tears, her heart begging
the Princess to arrive and save them from themselves.
"I - I _know_, Mercury. I don't know why, I just do. She
is _everything_," Venus' voice caught as she stressed the last
word, trying to put as much certainty and feeling into as she
could.
Mercury looked at her, eyes shuttered and blank as she
weighed Venus' words. Then she lowered her eyelids and sighed.
"I don't know how long we can last, Venus, but we'll try.
We _all_ will, and somehow we'll find the Princess."
The two Sailor Senshi looked at one other for long moments
then each broke into smiles. And by general consensus they
detransformed and walked quietly home.
==========
Endymion, Prince of Earth watched as his Princess left once
more, heading for her home on the moon, in the company of Lady
Venus and Lady Jupiter. They'd managed to spend a good four
hours together this time and had quickly planned their next
meeting before anything had had the chance to break them up. It
had been a blissful evening, spent in the arms of his beloved
Serenity, a tinge of bittersweet colouring their every moment
until parting.
Now he stood, carefully watched over by General's Kunzite
and Jadeite until the three visitors from the Moon Kingdom had
faded from sight.
Turning away from the garden finally, Endymion wandered
through the palace unseeing. His generals called it moping and
Endymion sighed as he acknowledged that it was true, but he
didn't care. His Serenity was gone and he was once again left
bereft.
He didn't notice his shadow until he'd reached his suite
and found himself unable to close the door due to the presence of
a tiny old lady standing there.
He blinked and opened his mouth to speak, only to find
himself shoved in through the open door and it firmly shut behind
the two of them.
Still somewhat dazed from his time with his Princess, he
didn't protest as she sat him down and explained that she had
come to tell him that he was going to be to Earth what Serenity
was to the Moon. Directions were given and the tiny lady
disappeared, leaving Endymion to follow the directions.
Curiosity aroused, he followed them to the letter and found
himself at the entrance of a cave in the gardens that he'd never
seen before. He entered and followed the narrow passage
downwards until it opened into a large chamber, and the lady was
sitting there, behind a small, black pool of water a tiara across
her brow and a twinkle in her brown eyes...
==========
Mamoru woke.
Another dream.
Then he smiled. At least it was a useful dream this time.
==========
Makoto wearily trudged homewards, trying not to put to much
weight on her still-damaged ankle. She and the other Inners had
managed to defeat another of the strange Sailors today, with a
little help from the Sailor StarLights. They hadn't managed to
get any more information from them and they still hadn't found a
way to return the Sailors to their human forms instead of
destroying them.
Makoto sighed and decided she was officially depressed.
Things hadn't been going well for a long time now. She'd
recently been kicked out of her third school of the year and was
finding it more and more difficult to find close-by schools that
were willing to take her in.
At least she was going to the same school as the Three
Lights now. She immediately perked up, her thoughts turning to
the three beautiful boys that were attending Juuban High School
with her and Minako. She found Minako to be a little too hung up
on herself to really enjoy spending time with her, but her
determination to befriend the Three Lights made for wonderful
entertainment and the opportunity to at least talk to the idol
singers while Minako was doing her thing. She rather thought
they liked her better than Minako, at least _she_ wasn't quite so
irritating.
She wasn't sure which one of the Lights she liked the best,
but ever since she'd bumped into Taiki in the school greenhouses,
she'd been leaning towards him. Mind you, before that, she'd
spent most of her time dreaming about Yaten. Particularly after
she'd seen him being so nice to that little black cat with a
similar marking to Artemis' on her forehead.
Makoto trouped up the steps to her apartment and found, to
her surprise, someone sitting outside, a backpack by her side and
a piece of paper in her hands.
Slowing down, she took in the sight, noting certain
characteristics. About her own age, the girl looked very like
Minako with bright golden hair and brilliant blue eyes. But
unlike Minako's long tresses, this girl had hair that barely
reached her shoulders. She wore blue jeans, a white t-shirt,
brown leather jacket and brown boots to match.
Looking up at the sound of shoes against the stairs, the
girl smiled at Makoto and climbed to her feet.
"Hi. Are you, uh," She glanced down at the piece of paper
in her hands, "Kino Makoto?"
Makoto nodded, "Yeah. Why?"
"Oh, the ad in the newspaper about a roommate? I just came
to inquire about it."
Makoto found herself a little surprised. All of the other
girls her age that she knew lived at home. When she'd finally
decided she couldn't _not_ advertise for a roommate to help with
expenses, she was certain she'd end up with someone who was no
longer a high school student at the least and retired at the
most.
"You want to move in?"
The blonde laughed, "I don't know yet, do I? After all,
your apartment could be a mess or something."
Even though she was shocked by the possible slight on her
house-keeping abilities, she found herself unable to work up even
the slightest annoyance in the face of the other girl's dancing
eyes and obvious teasing.
She smiled back and shrugged, "Only one way to find out."
"I'm game if you are."
Makoto's heart was light as she unlocked her door and with
a tiny bow waved her guest in. This girl... she hoped she'd
decide to stay, there was something about her that made Makoto
want to be with her.
"Okay, so the place isn't a mess. I take it you like
plants?" The blonde was inspecting the fern on the table next to
the door, gently brushing the tips of her fingers over the soft
leaves.
"Yeah, almost as much as I like cooking."
"Cooking? I'm starting to think I could like it here,"
she grimaced, "I'm not much of a cook. I can do a wonderful
curry, so I'm told, but they make sure I stay away from
everything else."
Makoto slid her shoes off and went to stow her satchel in
her room before returning to watch the girl wander about the
room, light following her about. She shone. There was no other
word for it. Her eyes laughed and happiness and joy were a
palpable aura around her.
"Where would I be staying?"
"Oh, your room. That's this way," the brunette led her new
friend to a closed door and opened it. "It's not quite as big as
mine, but it has a nice view."
The blonde walked in, looking around, opening the cupboard
and looking out the windows before turning back to Makoto with a
wide smile, "Well, I'd love to stay here if you wouldn't mind
having me."
"Really? That would be great! I was thinking I'd end up
with someone twice my age."
"So did I. After the past week, I was seriously
considering moving into my own place. I'm glad I decided on one
more day of looking."
"So am I," Makoto grinned at her friend, then frowned, "If
you don't mind my asking, why are you looking for a place at
all?"
She almost wished she hadn't spoken when the other girl
turned away a little and she realised that it wasn't something
that she was likely want to talk about, especially to someone
she'd only met ten minutes ago.
"Uh, gomen, I wasn't thinking, you don't have to ans..."
"It's okay. I'm going to one of the schools near here and
I was tired of taking the train such a long way every day. I
live in an orphanage in Koyama at the moment. Don't much like it
there either and I thought it was time to move on. I'll miss the
other kids, but at least I can be my own person."
"Un. That's why I moved out of my Aunt's place."
The two girls stood in silence thinking of their pasts and
hoping their futures would be better, until the blonde finally
noticed the darkening sky.
"Oh! I'd better be going. Is it all right if I come by
tomorrow after school so we can organise details and stuff?"
"Hmm? Oh, sure."
"Great, I'll see you then," she said, slinging her backpack
over her shoulder and heading for the door. Then she giggled and
turned back. "By the way, I'm Tsukino Usagi, glad to meet you."
It wasn't until then that Makoto realised she hadn't even
asked the other girl's name. She smiled sheepishly and saw Usagi
out the door before heading for the kitchen to make dinner and
see what she could do about a snack for tomorrow afternoon.
==========
Queen Galaxia, the most powerful Senshi in the universe,
was sightseeing. She'd decided, while polishing her bracelets
for the fiftieth time that day that she was bored. Being an all-
powerful being with many less powerful subordinates and the
ability to play with anything in the universe - stars, galaxies -
was not the most interesting of jobs, so she had decided to see
what there was in the way of shopping on this tiny little planet.
She'd spent the morning in Shinjuku, had managed to see the
Twin Towers before heading to Ueno Park and Juuban. She'd
briefly considered stealing the Tokyo Tower but decided that the
colours wouldn't match very well with her decor.
So she'd wandered around, carrying bags of clothes and
wearing comfortable clothes, which the sales assistant had called
'jeans'.
It hadn't been till the afternoon that she'd first wandered
into a shoe-shop, but once she had it would have taken more
Sailor Senshi that currently had StarSeeds of their own to drag
her away from there.
She _loved_ shoes.
It was a wonder she hadn't noticed what masterpieces of
fashion and design they were. It was a wonder people on other
planets hadn't thought to cash in on these items.
Stacked next to her were a good score of boxes containing
the widest range of shoes she'd ever seen. Some were leather,
others clear plastic, some had no heel, others had heels that
made her taller by a number of inches. They were _wonderful_.
She directed the young girl who acted as sales assistant to
bring her another pair of shoes that had just caught her eye. In
her size, of course. They were made up almost entirely of
rhinestones that glittered with every movement.
Galaxia fell in love.
So it was an annoyance, a most horrible annoyance that
distracted her from her enjoyment of trying them on.
She tilted her head to one side, her eyes hard, as she
extended her senses to find out what it was.
Ah! There. It felt like those (what were they called
again?) Sailor StarLights that had managed to avoid capture back
on the planet Fireball. She'd managed to get the Princess who
made a lovely addition to her collection of StarSeeds, but the
three Senshi who were her guardians had managed to get away.
Now they seemed to be searching for someone. Galaxia
listened carefully while calling a few of her subordinates to her
position.
She ignored the shocked looks on the faces of Sailor
Aluminium Siren and Sailor Iron Crow at her attire and told them
to find the Sailor StarLights and capture them. A wave of her
hand to enforce the command and they were gone, leaving her to
smile in satisfaction at the sight of rhinestone sandals on her
feet.
"I'll take them."
She took one look at the terrified sales assistant's face
and decided she'd stay awhile longer as the service had just
gotten better.
==========
Seiya didn't understand how so many people could listen to
the music he and his brothers were playing without hearing the
message they were sending. Was it that they didn't have the
necessary sensitivity to hear or were they deliberately shutting
it out? Not that they wanted everyone to get the message, but it
seemed rather too convenient for _none_ of them to hear it.
They'd been here for almost two months and the only person
who'd come close to hearing was a young girl Taiki had met in
hospital just the other day. And she hadn't understood what it
was she was hearing. But it had the result of inspiring all of
them to keep going. Surely, if the Princess listened to one of
their songs she'd hear the message and would help them.
So he sang as well as he could, gathering the strands of
magic, weaving them into the music so that the message would
reach the Princess.
He wasn't the least bit surprised when a couple of daimons
and a Sailor Farce appeared during the middle of one of their
songs. It had been a long time coming but it had to happen
eventually. Seiya sighed before gathering himself to dash off
stage to find somewhere to transform, his brothers a few metres
in front of him.
The daimons followed right along, quite happily spoiling
any chance for changing without an audience as everyone else was
running in the same direction. Seiya was on the verge of calling
out his transformation phrase anyway when a flash of light cut
through one of the daimons.
Spinning around, he found himself watching one of the Earth
heroes, the male, dodging the Sailor Farce's attack while
throwing a number of quicksilver roses at the remaining daimon to
keep it occupied.
Grinning, Seiya managed to find himself somewhere to
transform and headed back out, almost expecting there to be
nothing left to do.
But the opponents had multiplied and now, as well as a
group of daimons and a few newly created Farce's they had two of
the Sailor Anima-mates to deal with.
StarHealer and StarMaker appeared and the three went to
work, attempting to cut down on the number of occupants in the
fairly small backstage room.
The space problem didn't remain for long though, once Iron
Crow and a daimon removed the wall that was in the way. There
was a brief scramble for positioning in the newly revealed room,
which resulted in the dissolving of a daimon and the trapping of
another under the wall that had disintegrated.
"STAR SENSITIVE INFERNO!"
StarHealer sent off one of her attacks in response to the
attempt by Aluminium Siren to get her out of the way, while
StarFighter dealt with the daimon under the wall. The unnamed
fighter, his cloak swirling in dramatic fashion, made a lunge
with his sword that took out one of the Sailor Farce's and almost
managed to take Aluminium Siren's arm off.
Much less complacent than she had been, the blue-haired
Senshi dropped half of the empty-headedness that had
characterised her fighting till then and went all out against the
black-haired hero.
Leaving them to themselves, StarFighter turned her
attention to Sailor Iron Crow.
"STAR SERIOUS LASER!"
The attack crashed against Iron Crow's side, sending her
staggering to the left. Without waiting for her to recover,
StarFighter let loose another attack, joined by StarHealer who
had found herself with a few moments to spare. The two mana
projectiles sped towards the rust-haired Senshi, strengthening
exponentially upon joining together.
With a startled and angry look, Iron Crow vaulted out of
the way. Then she was hit by a further two attacks, made of
water and earth.
Sailor's Neptune and Uranus joined the other fighters as
Aluminium Siren, who was as worn as her colleague slipped an arm
around Iron Crow. She ordered the two remaining daimons and the
single Sailor Farce to run interference for them as they left.
They knew when they were overpowered.
From then on it was easy for the three StarLights, the two
Outer Senshi and the unnamed fighter. Seconds later, the fight
finished and all six of them stood warily facing each other.
StarFighter locked gazes with the unknown fighter, having
been introduced to the Outer Senshi previously. Blue eyes met
blue and a stale mate was created.
"If you keep singing songs like that..."
StarFighter smirked, "Yeah."
Understanding flashed between the two and they both turned
their attention to the Outer Senshi who were watching with
interested and suspicious eyes.
"Who are you?" Uranus broke the silence, directing a
question towards the man who had been Tuxedo Kamen.
StarFighter and the other StarLights remained silent, also
wanting to hear the answer.
The black-clad male laughed, "Would you believe... the
Senshi of Earth?"
And taking the others' silence as a cue, he left.
==========
Sailor Galaxia watched, having put aside her shoes for the
moment and leaned back in her throne as Sailor Aluminium Siren
and Sailor Iron Crow limped back to the Tomoe Mansion. They
passed young Hotaru who looked at them with wide purple eyes and
continued on into the basement where the Professor was busy
attempting to improve his daimons abilities by fusing their DNA
with that of the Sailor Anima-mates who had been ordered to co-
operate.
Galaxia sighed in disappointment.
It was terrible that the removal of StarSeeds resulted in
less resourcefulness. Had the two Senshi been in full command of
their intellect, as they had been upon first meeting Galaxia when
she invaded their planets, they may have won.
It was a pity she had decided long ago to allow her
subordinates a certain number of failures before termination.
She wasn't about to make exceptions now and Aluminium Siren's
time was up.
Standing, Galaxia prepared to make her presence known to
the unfortunate Senshi.
It looked like it would take longer to find the Star of
Hope than she had thought. Although if she was correct, this
solar system was home to the ginzuishou. She vaguely recalled
the white-haired wielder of the crystal that was the only known
object that could possibly match her own power. Maybe she should
inform the Witches 5 and her Senshi to keep an eye out for it
also.
Decision made, Galaxia stifled a yawn of boredom and went
to visit Sailor Aluminium Siren.
==========
Luna followed the blonde at a distance, waiting for the
chance to catch her alone. She was almost positive this was one
of the Sailor Senshi and it was her duty to awaken them.
If only the brunette would leave, but it looked as though
the tall girl was in for the duration. Luna was going to have to
wait until the two went home and catch her quarry then.
She hoped Yaten wouldn't worry about her too much. He was
cute but he worried, which always had the effect of making her
smile. The silver-haired idol had the reputation of being cold
and uncaring, much as his brother Taiki did. But in reality he
was as big a softie as anyone she'd ever known.
Daydreaming about her 'owner', Luna almost walked straight
past the blonde and her companion, who had stopped to talk to a
trio of people who had been walking in the opposite direction.
She was surprised to find that it was the Kou brothers,
Seiya, Yaten and Taiki. The brunette addressed them by name,
obviously familiar with them. Each of them looked bored by the
girl's greeting and all of them avoided eye contact, hoping for
as short a conversation as possible.
It was pure coincidence that Luna was watching Seiya when
he turned his head to look at the blonde following Makoto, the
brunette's, introduction. And pure coincidence that he was not
wearing his sunglasses.
Luna saw something run through his eyes on looking at her,
the frission of awareness, surprise and something more that was
there to be seen for a split second.
She switched her gaze to the blonde, Usagi, and looked for
something there. Apart from a tiny puzzled frown, there was
nothing.
She smiled brilliantly at the three idols, not recognising
them and bowed politely. Seiya appeared positively blinded by
the smile and grinned back, seeming unable to stop himself.
Yaten and Taiki returned her greetings appearing surprised
that there was a girl out there that wasn't interested in their
fame. Despite themselves they also smiled.
Makoto opened her mouth to continue talking when screams
were heard from the other end of the park they were walking in.
All of them turned to stare in that direction then, of one
accord, ran towards the distraction. Luna followed, still hoping
for a chance to catch Usagi by herself.
When she caught up to the blonde the other four were no
longer in sight. Usagi was crouched behind a bush and seemed a
little confused as she searched for something, or someone. Her
attention was caught by the Sailor Farce that was attacking
civilians and she winced in sympathy of the blow that sent one of
them flying.
"SUPREME THUNDER!"
A ball of lightening shot from beneath the trees and a girl
in a green fuku stepped out from the shadows, posing in the best
magical girl style. A short distance away, the Sailor StarLights
also appeared, their poses containing a little more refinement
and style.
This was the chance she had been waiting for! Luna sped
towards the blonde, an ornate pen clutched in her jaws, following
a somersault and brief expenditure of energy.
Luna placed the pen on the ground and nudged Usagi's thigh.
The blonde jumped, ending up a metre away and staring at
Luna with spooked eyes.
"Oh, it's just a cat," she breathed, a hand resting on her
chest, over her thundering heart.
"I don't know about that, Tsukino Usagi."
Wide blue eyes widened even further as Usagi froze in
place.
"I am here to tell you that you are one of the Sailor
Senshi. Here," Luna dropped the pen in Usagi's lap, "Use this to
transform. Just hold it and say the first thing that comes to
mind."
"The first thing that comes to mind?" Usagi slowly reached
out a hand and picked up the pen and opened her mouth. Luna
tensed in anticipation of her transformation.
"A talking cat. You're a talking cat."
Luna face faulted.
"Uh, yes. Usagi, you must transform to help them."
Luna had been monitoring the fight happening on the other
side of the bush and didn't like what she was seeing. The Sailor
Farce was acting rather differently than the few others she had
seen in battle since coming to Tokyo. It was much stronger, with
faster reflexes and an ability to learn, or so it seemed.
"MOON CRYSTAL POWER, MAKE-UP!"
When Luna turned back around, Usagi was dressed in a Senshi
costume.
The cat frowned. She didn't remember seeing that
combination of colours on the moon. And her transformation
phrase would indicate that she was Senshi of the Moon, but there
was no Moon Senshi. She was sure of that.
So what did this mean?
Blinking at her revealing Sailor fuku, the newly-christened
Sailor Moon stood up shakily and looked down at the feline by her
feet.
"This means I have to help them, right? And save the world
from the bad guys?"
Luna nodded and watched as the Senshi walked semi-
confidently onto the battle field, watching what was going on
carefully.
==========
Sailor Moon watched the Sailor Farce carefully, noting the
effects the various attacks of the other Senshi had on it.
Like Luna, she had been witness to many daimon and Farce
attacks since moving in with Makoto a few weeks ago. They always
seemed to happen when she was in the vicinity. She had wondered
if it could be more than coincidence, but had dismissed the
notion, dreams were just dreams after all.
The first time she'd seen a fight had been in Ueno Park
where she had just retrieved a hat belonging to a young girl
named Hotaru. The two had been talking together and getting on
very well, when a daimon had arrived followed shortly after by
Sailor Mars who had dispatched it with a fast and intense burst
of flame.
Most of the other fights had been similar, a daimon would
appear and a Senshi, then the Senshi would defeat the daimon and
there would be an end to it. The only other type of fight she'd
been witness to was one concerning a Sailor Farce and the two
Senshi known as the Outers. The fight had been harder than the
others, requiring both Senshi to beat it, but eventually they
had.
Usagi had been shocked when the Farce had briefly melted
into human form, then into goo, after the Senshi had left. And
she had no idea if it had truly been human or if it was a normal
thing.
She'd been keeping track of the disappearances of people
from the Juuban area and wondered if there was any connection.
She hoped not.
Then, recalling where she was, she decided that this Sailor
Farce was stronger than the other she had seen. It was strong
enough to be on the verge of defeating StarMaker when she decided
to take a hand in the fight.
Sailor Moon assumed that, like the transformation, her
powers, whatever they were, would be instinctive. She allowed
her mind to go blank and immediately discovered Power attached to
a phrase that had it wrapped under control.
"MOON TIARA ACTION!"
The glowing golden disk spun in a glittering arc, to hit
the Farce directly in the face.
Sailor Moon grinned and recalled it to her hand, "Hmm. Now
what?"
She knew there was no way the tiara could defeat the Sailor
Farce and, fortunately, it didn't need to. The Sailor StarLights
took the opportunity afforded by the distraction to combine their
attacks and disintegrate the Farce.
Sailor Moon watched in sick anticipation to see if it would
become human and wondered what her reaction would be if it did.
While they didn't look human, it was easy to forget that they may
have been human once, but after the fight...
It dissolved directly into goo and she breathed out a sigh
of relief. Glancing briefly at the curious faces of the other
four Sailor Senshi, she smiled, her eyes alive with the emotion.
She bounced over to them and held out her hand, "Hi! I'm
Sailor Moon. Yoroshiku."
"Aa..."
None of the three took her up on her offer, their
expressions turned suspicious. None of the Senshi were nice to
those in the other groups.
Sailor Moon shrugged, "Suit yourselves. Well, I'm off,
Ja!"
She jogged away, rejoining a black cat behind some bushes
and becoming Usagi once more.
She then sat down and let Luna talk some more about her
mission to find the other Sailor Senshi and the Princess and
protect her.
"Other Sailor Senshi? Like Sailor Jupiter and the Sailor
StarLights?"
Luna looked nonplussed for a moment, "Uh..."
"You don't know?" Usagi frowned.
"Well..."
Usagi was half-annoyed, half-amused by the cat's ignorance
which was almost as great as hers. She vacillated between
snapping at the cat or laughing and, from habit, chose to laugh.
"Oh well, I suppose we'll find out eventually, ne?"
Luna didn't get the chance to reply, even had she had
something prepared to say, as Makoto and the Three Lights joined
her.
"Oh, good. You're okay. When I couldn't find you, I got
worried," Makoto asked, looking down at her roommate sitting
beneath a tree behind a bush.
"Oh, I've been here the whole time." She affected
excitement, "I saw the Senshi fight!"
"Again?" Makoto laughed at her. The brunette was well
aware of how often Usagi had ended up in the close proximity to a
Senshi battle.
"Yep! I'm glad you're okay, too."
Luna jumped off Usagi's shoulder, where she had been
sitting and jumped at Yaten, purring loudly as he gathered her
into his arms.
"Oi! It's Kuroi!" Seiya exclaimed.
"Baka. Her name isn't Kuroi," Yaten retorted, glaring at
his brother.
"Oh, is she your cat? She's cute."
Luna purred contentedly at the compliment.
Yaten looked down at the blonde and slowly nodded, "I guess
she is."
"What's her name?"
Yaten said nothing.
"He doesn't know," Seiya told her, smiling behind the
sunglasses he had retrieved from his pocket.
Usagi chuckled and made a suggestion Luna would probably be
happy with, "How about Luna? It's got something to do with the
moon and that bald spot on her forehead looks like a crescent
moon."
Yaten tilted his head to one side and looked down at the
cat then nodded, "That's a good name."
Luna purred again in agreement and sent a grateful look
towards Usagi. She had been getting sick of being called 'cat'
all the time, even if it was by someone as cute as Yaten.
"Hey, Usagi-chan? We'd better go, we've still got our
shopping to do."
The blonde jumped to her feet, still smiling and nodded,
"Sure, let's get going. Nice to meet you guys, see you round."
Yaten, Taiki and Seiya watched as the two girls walked away
from them with a friendly wave.
==========