Yuugasa Usagi – Chapter 8
Disclaimer: Story – own. Characters – don't own.
Now that that's settled, on to the story!
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It had been three days since Usagi had gotten the new pair of ballet slippers. Now she was rubbing the sores on her feet in a bucket of hot water. 'These have got to be the best pair of slippers I've ever had, but I really wish I had kept dancing while I was here...' she thought, wincing in pain.
"How are your feet feeling, Usagi?" Ami asked.
Usagi looked up, "better. Especially after soaking them." Ami sat down next to her friend and smiled. "What's on your mind?"
"It's so weird that it was you that gave us a second chance at life, Usagi." Upon seeing Usagi's confused look, she continued. "We were all gone, and it was you, Usagi, who wanted so much to let us live normal lives that brought us back. And now look at us." Usagi looked around. Makoto, Rei, Duo and Wufei were playing a game of basketball; Minako and Quatre keeping score.
"I see your point, Ami. I'm glad I got to give you a second chance. It was well deserved." Usagi said. She wrapped her feet back in the bandage wraps Ami had given her and stood up to pour out the water. "Ami... Do you-- do you think that Chibi-Usa really could come back?"
Ami looked startled at the question, but then thought about it. "I honestly don't know, Usagi. You somehow managed to get us back. But Chibi-Usa died a full year before the rest of us. It's possible that she cannot be brought back."
Usagi's face fell. "Yeah, I hadn't thought about that." And with that Usagi turned and dumped the water out next to a tree. "I'll be back in a while. I want to talk a walk before dinner." She walked into the woods and immediately went towards her "special spot."
'If Chibi-Usa were to come back, would things be messed up? ... I don't blame her for Mamoru and I breaking up ... but I don't know how the guys would take it. They already are nicely putting up with the gang. I don't know how they would take to Chibi-Usa. What would I say? "Hey, guys, this is my future daughter, she was dead but now she's alive again." I'm real sure they would like that one.'
She shook her head to clear it of all its thoughts. She just needed to relax and let the solution come to her.
"Chibi-Usa! Stop that now, please." An exasperated voice asked.
"Gomen ne." Usagi said. "I just cannot help it, Mihoko, I might get to go back!"
Mihoko sighed and rubbed her temple, "I know, I know. You have spoken of it a million times over. Just ... tone it down a bit. Not everyone here is as lucky as you."
"What do you mean, Mihoko?" Chibi-Usa asked. Her now teenaged face twisted in confusion.
"You, Chibi-Usa, have been here but a year and you are already getting the Trial. I, on the other hand, have been in this place since five years prior. Do you see what I mean?" replied the chestnut haired girl.
Chibi-Usa nodded. "Why, then, am I getting the Trial on my first year?"
"Unlike many of us, you are special. Your mother cared so deeply for you that she was in angst for a long time. The Trial members saw this, and have considered your release. If they say "Yes" you are a lucky on indeed."
"Mihoko ... what if they don't say yes?" the teen asked.
Mihoko seemed to hesitate. "You shall be sent straight away."
"Away?" there were many things that Chibi-Usa still didn't know about her current living area.
"Up there." Mihoko said, jabbing her thumb towards the sky.
"You mean..?" Chibi-Usa started, but stopped at Mihoko's nod.
"...Usagi. Usagi, wake up." A voice said breaking threw Usagi's dream. Sleepily, she opened her eyes and realized that she was lying on the hard floor of the forest.
"Wha—who?" she said groggily. Her eyes focused and she looked at who had awoken her. "Hiiro? What is it? I was having a nice dream."
"C'mon, get up. The girls are worried about you. It's 11:45." He said hoisting her to her feet.
"11:45!" the blonde exclaimed. "How on earth did it get so late! I left camp at 7 o'clock..."
"Well, now its quarter till. So let's get back."
Usagi walked next to him in silence, still thinking. 'Would Chibi-Usa change this?' What this was exactly, Usagi wasn't sure.
"Usagi!" Minako exclaimed when she exited the forest. "Where on Earth have you been? You scared us all half to death!"
Ignoring Minako's questions, Usagi asked one of her own, "where are the guys?"
"They all went to look for you." Minako said in that I-am-not-happy-voice.
"Why? He knows where I go when I disappear." She said, pointing her thumb at Hiiro who was behind her.
"And you didn't tell us you knew where she was earlier because..." Minako said now talking to Hiiro. Hiiro shrugged. Minako muttered something in English and walked away. Usagi, who had been keeping a relatively straight face for the whole thing now, started to snicker.
"What's so funny?" Hiiro asked.
"Oh, nothing. I just like annoying Minako like that sometimes." Usagi replied. She turned around and looked at him, "what?" she asked indignantly.
"Nothing." Hiiro replied.
"Nothing? Nothing, nothing, nothing, tralala!" Usagi said with a smile as she quoted one of her favorite movies, "Labyrinth."
"What?" said Hiiro, a puzzled look on his face.
'Guess he's never seen "Labyrinth." Sucks for him!' Usagi thought and then with a sly smile replied: "nothing." And walked off.
Hiiro almost rolled his eyes. Almost.
"Hey, what took you guys so long?" Usagi asked from the base of a tree outside her tent. Wufei, Quatre, Duo, and Trowa all stopped dead in their tracks. Usagi smiled and waved.
"Usagi? But—how—when—where—oh never mind." Duo sputtered as he rolled his eyes and walked sleepily into his tent.
"Sorry I worried you guys, I feel asleep in my secret spot when I was thinking. Well, have a good sleep!" said Usagi as she got up and walked into her tent to go to sleep for the night. She could only hope she would be visited with a good dream.
"Mihoko! When am I to know?" Chibi-Usa said again as she tapped her foot and paced.
Mihoko couldn't help but smile at Chibi-Usas' antics.
"Soon enough, Chibi-Usa. You will just know. Now can I please get some sleep?"
"Sorry, Mihoko. Sure you can. I guess I had better as well." The teen said a bit reluctantly. She curled up on her four poster bed that was next to Mihoko's and tried to fall asleep.
Usagi tossed and turned, her dream did not agree with her hope of a peaceful one.
"Chibi-Usa..." Usagi murmured sadly.
"She's gone, Usagi. Get over it." A cold voice said from behind her.
"Mamoru! How can you say that about Chibi-Usa? I thought you cared for her." Usagi said, her voice hurt.
"I did care for her, Usagi. But she is gone and there is nothing you nor I can do about it." Mamoru replied.
"Are ... are you coming to the funeral?" she timidly asked.
Mamoru shook his head in a negative gesture, "I can't. I leave for America that day."
Usagi just nodded.
Usagi shot out of her bed, sweat very apparent on her face. 'It was horrible of him to leave. He should have gone on the next flight out. ... Not even staying for her funeral.' She thought. Laying back down to fall back into a sleep, another dream-memory collided with her.
"CHIBI-USA!" Eternal Sailor Moon screamed. In what seemed like slow-motion Chibi Moons body flew threw the air and landed with a loud and sickening THUD. She never got up, nor moved afterwards.
Eternal Sailor Moon ran towards her future daughter with a speed that made Haruka look slow. "Chibi-Usa ... please. Wake up, please, Chibi-Usa." She said in distress. She knew with all her mind, body and soul that she couldn't bring her back. But she also knew that she would never let something like this happen again. She put down Chibi-Usa's body and stood up, a determined look on her face.
"I won't let you hurt any more people." She vowed. "Silver Moon Crystal Power Kiss!" she shot the beams, and only the screams could be heard as they made contact. When Eternal Sailor Moon turned back around to try and heal Chibi-Usa, she found that her body was already evaporating into nothingness.
This time, when Usagi woke is was dawn. She was covered in a cold sweat and gasping for breath. Wiping her face off she grabbed her bag of essentials and clothes and she ran out of the tent. The faster she could get to the pond the better. Then no one could see her in her current state. Right when she got the pond she looked around and then shed her clothes and jumped in. She hoped to rid herself of the dreams just like she could get rid of the dirt in her hair in the water. It didn't happen like she hoped it would.
"You're pretty quick for just waking up, you know." A voice said. Usagi yelped and dunked herself up to her chin in the water.
"Who's there? What do you want?" Usagi said. She was slowly trying to get to her things without the person, or whatever it was, knowing.
The person laughed and said, "here," throwing Usagis towel at her whom caught it and wrapped it around herself.
Usagi grabbed her clothes and somehow put them on without dropping the towel once. Once she had them on, she brushed threw her hair quickly and tied it up into a tight bun with her rubber band. "Now, just who are you? Not many people know about this pond."
"Well, it wasn't hard to find the place if you are just dropped here." The girl, as Usagi had determined, said with a hint of annoyance in her voice.
"What on this Earth are you talking about?" Usagi said as she slung her bag over her shoulder and tried to follow the direction the voice was coming from.
The girl came into view, though it was only the bottom half of her body. From what Usagi could tell and see, she was a teenager. She was wearing a pair of blue jeans and sneakers and what looked like a shirt that said 'Tokyo' on it in glittery letters.
Usagi cocked her head to the side. Confusing as it sounded; it seemed entirely possible to Usagi who had been threw some pretty weird things too.
"I knew I shouldn't have given you too much credit. But then again, it's no surprise you don't recognize me. It has been quite a long year. The girl finally stepped out from the shadows and let Usagi take her in. Her hair had long since grown out to her waist and was no longer pink. It was more of a blonde-ish pink. But the girls' smile was still the same.
Usagis eyes widened, "Chibi-Usa...?"
Chibi-Usa nodded, "hai."
Usagi ran towards Chibi-Usa, bag almost dropping from her shoulder at the same time, and hugged her tightly. Chibi-Usa hugged back just as tight.
"What are you doing here?" asked Usagi.
Chibi-Usa laughed, "I had the Trial where I was, and they decided that I could come back. I never fully died because I have Moon blood in me... and that was taken into consideration."
Usagi stepped back to take in her now matured child. She reached out and touched a lock of the blond-ish pink hair. "How'd this happen?"
"Don't know. It's just be slowly changing. Guess it didn't want to be pink anymore." Chibi-Usa said with a laugh. "Now will you tell me about this camp you've been staying at?"
"Sure," Usagi said. "Now, lets see. There's Hiiro Yui, he's really quite but I can get him to talk sometimes to me, you'll spot him right away. Trowa Barton is really tall, kind of stoic, but very kind—plus, he likes Ami. Quatre Winner is the blonde one—Minako really likes him—he is really sweet. Duo Maxwell is very happy-go-lucky, he has a really long braid—he's perfect for Makoto. And Chang Wufei is the Chinese one. He doesn't like women much apparently, but I have gotten as much respect out of him as I will—Rei keeps him in check."
Chibi-Usa nodded, "they all sound so cool. How did the girls get there?"
"That I am not sure of myself. I think it is because I wished so much for them to be back with me that the Ginzuishou granted it for me." Usagi said with a shrug. "Do you want to go check out the camp?"
"Sure."
They walked in silence for a while until Chibi-Usa finally had to ask.
"Why were you running so fast this morning?"
Usagi smiled weakly. "Bad dream. I wanted to wash the memory of it away." Chibi-Usa nodded. She knew what it was like; she had been having a lot of nightmares since the last battle.
Usagi pulled back the leafy branch from a Weeping Willow out of the way and let Chibi-Usa check out the camp. "This is it. I sleep in that tent. The girls sleep in that one over there. And the guys have their separate tents."
"Which ones are they?"
Usagi looked around, "you know the girls. Duo, Trowa, and Quatre are the ones by the fire. Can you tell them apart?"
Chibi-Usa nodded her head.
"Wufei is over there, at his training ring. And Hiiro is most likely in his tent typing away on the computer." Usagi said with a slight shake of her head.
This didn't go unnoticed by Chibi-Usa, "he on that computer a lot?"
Usagi nodded, "he's very quite and just talks in 'hn's and grunts. Sometimes he will talk. It's rare though." She looked down at her daughter, "so, you have a new look now. Do you want us to call you something else? Chibi-Usa doesn't seem to really fit you now, you've grown up."
"You're right, but I haven't really thought about that." Chibi-Usa said. "Usagi is your name here... Usa?" she said.
Usagi thought about it, "yeah, that's good."
"Who is Usagi talking to?" Quatre asked, trying to see if she was talking to someone or she was just talking to herself.
"Dunno." Duo answered. "She isn't talking to herself. –Is she?"
"I doubt it. Usagi doesn't talk to herself." Trowa replied.
"Okay, so my new name is Usa," Usa replied.
Usagi looked over and saw the guys staring at her, 'they must think I am talking to myself.' She thought with a laugh. "Ready to go meet the guys?"
"Yup! – Do I look presentable?" Usa said warily.
Usagi looked her over; "you couldn't look any better. Come on, let's get out there before the guys think I have really lost it."
Usagi stepped out from behind the Willow's branches and waved to the guys. "Hey! I have a surprise for you all." She announced loudly.
That caught everyone's attention, even Hiiros'. People popped out of all areas of the camp.
"So, what's the surprise, Usagi?" asked Ami, they all had quickly learned that the old suffixes were no longer used.
Usagi smiled, "this!" she turned around and waved to Usa threw the branches.
Usa took a deep breath and then stepped out so that she stood right next to Usagi.
Ami, Rei, Makoto, and Minako gasped and put their hands over their mouths in surprise. All the guys just looked confused.
Usa looked up at Usagi with a look that said 'why are they staring at me?' Usagi just smiled with her own look that said 'they don't know who you are.'
Finally Ami recovered and breathed, "Chibi-Usa..."
"Its Usa now, Ami." Usa replied with a smile.
Makoto looked Usa over; "you've changed a lot, Chi—Usa."
"Yeah, I know. It was a long year..."
"Er... Usagi, who is this?" Duo finally asked the question all the guys were thinking.
"This," Usagi started, "is my future daughter. I know that sounds confusing but she is. Her name is Usa."
Duo looked ready to fall of the stump he was seated upon. "Your ... daughter? – How?"
"Well, when I was back in my time... she just kind of popped out of the sky one day. Later on we found out that she is my daughter from my future." Usagi started.
"And then when I came back for Senshi training, I was killed in the final battle. I have been waiting a year to see if I could come back." Usa finished.
"Hn." Hiiro grunted. 'They do look like mother and daughter. But if Usagi isn't with Usa's father, then how is she in existence?'
Usa seemed to be reading Hiiros mind and answered, "I don't know exactly how I can exist when the man that was said to be my father isn't with Usagi anymore. Time is very confusing."
"That it is. That it is..." Usagi muttered. "You're going to need some stuff. But right now I think you can borrow some of my clothes. Okay?"
"Sure." She walked to the tent with Usagi and watched as Usagi rummaged threw her things trying to find clothes that would fit Usa.
"Here, these should work for pajamas, and I guess we can go into the town tomorrow to get you some clothes." Said Usagi as she tossed the large shirt and sweatpants at Usa.
"Usagi-mama?" Usagi looked up; "do you ever feel alone?"
"Alone?" she questioned.
Usa nodded, "I know all the girls are here and all, but don't you ever feel alone?"
"Yes, sometimes. But I think everyone is entitled to that feeling." Usagi replied.
Usa nodded.
"Usa, are you ready?" asked Usagi.
"Yeah, I'm coming," said Usa. "It's so weird to see you up this early in the morning, Usagi-mama."
Usagi smiled, "tell me about it."
Usagi lead the way into the town, her pockets laden with money for necessities. The whole way there, neither of them spoke a word. There was no need for it.
(AN: o_o; writers block—shall skip store part.)
They came back with only three shopping bags. Two of them belonged to Usa and the last, Usagi.
"Oh!" Usagi said suddenly, so suddenly that Usa jumped.
"What?" asked Usa, trying to make her heart go back to it's normal pace.
Usagi smiled, "I finally recorded a song.... But, just on my computer."
"Really!" Usa exclaimed.
"Yes, really," said Usagi.
"Can I hear it sometime?" asked Usa.
Usagi nodded. "I can sing it for you, too, if you want."
"Right now?" Usa asked hopefully.
Usagi laughed, "sure. Sit down."
Usa set her bags down next to her as she sat on the side of the hill facing the campsite. Usagi set her bag down as well and cleared her throat.
"What on earth are they doing?" Rei asked as she saw the pair stop in their walk.
Hiiro shrugged in reply.
"Okay, here goes." Usagi said. She took a deep breath and then said:
"I don't like to be alone in the night.
I don't like to hear I'm wrong when I'm right.
I don't like to have the rain on my shoes.
But I do love you.
But I do love you.
I don't like to see a sky painted gray.
I don't like when nothing's going my way.
I don't like to be the one with the blues.
But I do love you.
But I do love you.
Love everything about the way you're loving me.
The way you lay your head upon my shoulder when you sleep.
And I love to kiss you in the rain.
I love everything you do, I do.
I don't like to turn on the radio on,
Just to find I've missed my favorite song.
I don't like to be the last with the news.
But I do love you.
But I do love you.
Love everything about the way you're loving me.
The way you lay your heard upon my shoulder when you sleep.
And I love to kiss you in the rain.
I lover everything you do, oh I do.
I don't like to be alone in the night.
I don't like to hear I'm wrong when I'm right.
I don't like to have the rain on my shoes.
But I do love you.
But I do love you.
But I do love you."
"Oh, Usagi-mama..." Usa said.
"D- do you like it?" asked Usagi, she didn't know if it was good or not.
"Like it?" Usa exclaimed, "I love it! It's so beautiful, Usagi-mama."
"Thanks, Usa. That means a hole lot to me."
"Welcome, Usagi-mama. Now, lets get back down to camp because I think they are wondering why we just stopped up here."
They picked up their bags and started to walk back down the hill.
Usagi dropped hers off in the tent first and then grabbed her laptop to go to her spot and write.
"What were you doing up there?" Hiiros familiar voice asked when she entered the woods.
"Singing my song to Usa. You wouldn't like it." Usagi said.
Hiiro raised an eyebrow, "says who?"
"What?" said a surprised Usagi, "y- you would actually want to hear my song?"
"Why would I not?" Hiiro said.
Usagi smiled, her cheeks a little pink, 'sometimes I wonder about him. He's so cold towards everyone else – and yet he is so nice to me. – And he even started talking to Usa!' Usagi thought.
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Oh my God! I am soo sorry that I didn't get this chapter out sooner! I had MAJOR writers' block on this chapter. And I mean major. I am thinking that this will end in two more chapters so that it stays remotely short. I don't know. Anyway, this chapter didn't turn out quite like I had in mind but that's writers' block for you! I don't know when the next chapter will be out – but it will hopefully be soon! Hope you liked this chapter – bai!