By Jaded Angel and Guardian
***
"Usagi?"
Tsukino Usagi was having a very nice dream, one of which she did not particularly want to be interrupted from. With deft skill born from years of experience, she ignored her mother's gentle calls and went straight on having it. One of her long pale ponytails, fixed up in a knot at the top of her head, twitched lightly as she buried her head under the covers. One of her legs stuck out from underneath it, as did the opposite arm and most of her back. A pillow was left, stray and lonely, on the floor where she had kicked it. Even sleeping, Usagi managed to be blissfully untidy.
"Usagi, dear, it's past 8:00 AM."
"NANI?"
Usagi looked blearily at the alarm clock next to her bed. In bright damning digital letters it read: 8:14.
With a yelp, immediately jolted out of any sort of blissful morning doze, the sleepy little blonde pushed away her rabbit-embroidered bed-cover and ran out into the hallway with a sort of rising operatic scream. "Kaasan! I asked you to wake me up earlier!"
"I did, dear," Tsukino Ikuko said mildly, brushing off her neat apron and opening the curtains in her daughter's room as, all knees and elbows, Usagi went around gathering her uniform up and rushing to the bathroom. "You went back to sleep."
"You should have tried again," Usagi said, too hysterical to put any sort of real vengeance in her voice, practically bouncing up and down in agitation, blonde tails twitching. "Oh, no, oh, no, oh nooooooooo, it's Monday and I'm going to be so late…"
Managing to take a shower that should have broken records for the time it took, scrubbing herself half-raw in her effort to get cleaner quicker, Usagi bounced up and down as she brushed her teeth in order to speed up the drying process. She tugged a brush through her long hair so fast that foot-long golden hairs decorated the bathroom foor in a macabre display of scalp masochism, pulling on her uniform and still buttoning it up as she hurried out. Guiltlessly steamrolling her little brother Shingo flat and picking up her satchel as she headed to the kitchen, Usagi inhaled a piece of toast, kissed her mother on the cheek and put on her shoes (in a rare display of dexterity, all at the same time).
"Usagi, wait!"
Skidding to a stop on her doorstep and adjusting the bow on the front of her school uniform, Usagi looked back at her mother with panic-stricken blue eyes.
Her mother planted a kiss on her forehead and handed her the single item Usagi loved more than anything else in the world and sometimes hugged at night with if she was feeling sentimental; her lunchbox. "Don't forget your lunch."
"Thanks!" Usagi barely had time to squeal breathlessly before snatching the box out of her mother's hands and, legs pumping, beginning the long sprint to Juuban Junior High.
Smiling amiably, Ikuko went back to her daughter's room and carefully set the alarm clock back to it's normal time; now just a quarter past seven. After living with her daughter and public education for the past ten years, she knew her daughter too well by now to leave things up to fate. After all, you could call Usagi's mother many things, but never stupid.
***
Tsukino Usagi was fourteen, blonde, blue-eyed, and a bouncy student at junior high when she wasn't asleep, which unfortunately was not most of the time. Although she got bursts of guilt and tried very hard, in Usagi's philosophy, school was something you went to in-between babyhood and getting married to a rich millionaire. She wasn't ashamed to admit she aimed high; she wanted a handsome rich millionaire to boot. She quite liked Home Economics, cooking and learning about vitamins and babies and kitchens, and failed miserably at everything else, which she didn't mind most of the time but which her parents disliked a great deal. She had a little brother called Shingo and a loving set of parents and greatly desired a cell phone for her birthday, which she would not get. All and all, she was an exceptionally normal little girl, if a one rather prone to having her head so far up in the clouds her body stumbled beneath it. Usagi also fancied herself rather late for school, which was why she was doing her best impression of an Olympic runner. If she had bothered to look around her in the cool grey Tokyo morning at the enormous clocks on the buildings, she might have had an easier time of it.
Slowing to a walk and bemoaning the fact that no matter how hard she ran she'd still be late, Usagi was drawn to the sound of voices coming from a car park next to her. It sounded like a group of young boys and something mewling in distress; without any second thoughts, she ran between the cars and looked indignantly at the situation. They were laughing meanly as they poked at a poor little black cat.
"Hey!" she immediately protested. "You stop that right now! Haven't your mothers ever told you about cruelty to animals?"
The boys stopped poking at the feline, but looked up at her belligerently; used to this sort of thing with her brother, Usagi bared her teeth and pulled herself to her full height (which didn't even brush five feet). Nonetheless, she had a loud voice, and caught and guilty, the young boys fled. Usagi knelt down beside the kitty, heart filled with sympathy.
"Poor Neko-chan," she fussed at it. It was a rather pretty thing, coal black with big melting brown eyes, and Usagi checked her over carefully to see whether there were any injuries. The cat backed away from her in immediate wariness.
"Hold still," she commanded it sternly. There was something on it's forehead; a band-aid? Cats shouldn't wear band-aids, it's not right. They could pull on the fur. They might eat them. They aren't made for pets. Whoever owns you, kitty, isn't taking very good care of you!
Decisively, Usagi made to pull the sticky thing off.
"Ano - what are you doing to that cat?"
Looking around in surprise, Usagi found another student behind her, hands clutching her satchel demurely to her chest as she looked at the blonde sternly; her eyes were icy pale blue, reminding her of a picture she'd once drawn of the Antarctic that had used lots of pretty cold colours. (It had, of course, been the best picture in preschool.) Her hair fell in a neat bob at her neck, vividly azure, and the sort of shy pretty face that Usagi liked immediately.
"Somebody's put a band-aid on this cat's head," she said cheerfully. "I was trying to take it off."
The blue-haired girl set her satchel down and knelt beside her, rubbing a gentle thumb under the cat's chin and causing it to purr immediately. With gentle firmness, she caught the end of the band-aid between thumb and forefinger and ripped it off so quickly the cat only gave a slight mew, ducking it's head back in surprise. Usagi looked on admiringly.
"That was good," she complimented the unknown girl.
"I want to be a doctor after I graduate," she said softly, "and I like cats. What's that?"
There was something funny on the cat's forehead, unnaturally shaped, glittering in the morning sun as it leapt away from both the startled girls. It stared at Ami hard, sitting back on one of the parked cars, eyes intense. Then, as if remembering to appear more catlike, it began industriously washing its paw.
"Maybe it's a bald spot," Usagi said distractedly, "but – I'm going to be so late. I have to run or they'll make me stand outside the classroom like they did last year, and it was so embarrassing I almost cried, but then I ate a donut! Sayonara!"
Staring after the retreating blonde in bewilderment, Mizuno Ami looked down at her watch.
"What's she talking about?" she asked the cat. "It's only twenty past seven. I got up early specially."
Lightly, the cat meowed. Ami scratched behind one of its ears affectionately. "I'll never understand other girls my age, Miss Neko. Isn't it a pity I find you easier to talk to than them? After all," she said, flushing a little, "you're only a cat and you can't understand what I'm saying."
The cat cocked its head as if to say, oh, really?
"Personification," Ami said carefully to herself. Really, daydreaming wasn't her forte. "Giving animals and objects human qualities. That's all. Now – what's that on your forehead?"
There was a shiny curved line on the dark cat's head as Ami looked close-up. She'd thought it might be a scar at first, but it wasn't the colour scar tissue should be; it was bright, shiny, metallic gold, perfect. She stared at it, aghast. Had somebody stuck it there, cruelly? No, it appeared to be part of the fur and flesh. She reached out her hand to touch it, and then drew it back as an incredibly unpleasant sharp tingling feeling rushed through her finger.
"Ouch!" Ami said immediately, and stuck her finger in her mouth, staring down at the placid cat. "Did… did you bite me?"
It sniffed haughtily, as if biting humans was far below it.
The schoolgirl took a step back. Ami was feeling very unnerved, and did not need first thing in the morning; besides, she told herself, if I don't keep on walking, I may miss having the time to check out the library.
"I'd better go to school now," she said hesitantly, then scolded herself inwardly for feeling the need to apologize to a cat. Taking one last look over her shoulder at it – poor thing, it was really rather pretty – she hurried out of the car park.
Watching her go, curiously and warmly, the cat smiled.
***
Aino Minako had, in her mind, four names.
The first, and the most beloved, was Minako, of course. Minako to her was the laughing pretty pale-haired Japanese girl who loved her parents very much and would one day appear in fashion magazines looking elegant, poised, yet still crazy with her own sense of fun style, as the interviewer would ask her, "Is it all right if I call you Minako-san?". Like her name, Minako was determined to be the love of everybody, an idol who little girls would hold as the pinnacle of who they really wanted to be when they were older and whose picture they would cut out and paste on their diaries and show off to their friends. They would listen to her music and find a meaning in it. They would see her smile and know she really meant it. She would be, simply… Minako. (Cue flourish of guitars and hail of sakura petals.)
The second, and more commonplace nowadays, was Mina. Mina was the captain of the volleyball team and the swimming team and the gymnastics team and leader of the soprano section in the choir and was a bubbly student with the faint asian accent behind her perfect English, who had come out to London when she was young and was now going to Tokyo again because her mother wanted her to be educated back in her birthplace of Japan. Mina was less exotic than Minako. It was a name people could rely on. (She had a faint worry that Mina sounded a bit too much like some sort of geographical term. "Now, children, let's examine the Mina of this fault line.") Mina cracked ten jokes a minute (minate!), could down tear-inducing curry without batting an eyelid and really quite liked short skirts. There was an urban legend surrounding her that once she had caused a car accident whilst walking down a busy street and adjusting her skirt so that it accidentally slipped up her thighs. It was unfortunately wistful lies on somebody's part, but did her reputation as a beauty goddess no harm nonetheless.
Her third name was Sailor V, or, in the non-shortened term, Sailor Venus.
Sailor Venus, pretty sailor soldier of love! How grand it sounded, spread out like that. She'd been terribly impressed when Artemis, her guardian cat, had first informed her of the fact, but had gotten steadily less impressed with her title as time went on. Sailor Venus was a sailor senshi – a warrior – who fought crime wearing a short skirt and managed to look beautiful while she did it. Well, as beautiful as one could look when one was fighting for one's life, trying to keep one's tiny skirt from flying up, and wondering who in God's name thought that anybody could ever fight sensibly wearing heels. It had all seemed very hokey at first, maybe even a little bit of a joke, but after flinging herself into her bed for the hundredth time bandaging her wounds at three AM in the morning and waking up screaming from incoherent nightmares of a time when perhaps she would not be saved in the last possible moment, there was little funny business about being Sailor V. She had managed to get a name for herself – notoriety, hell, someone had even taken her name and run with it and she even had a couple of video games – but now, Venus was thought by all to be lying dead somewhere, body never recovered from an explosion in a building. The masked heroine of London was dead and gone. It was a little unnerving, being a dead superhero.
Her last, and most aggravating name, was Venus Don't, the alias her cat gave her.
"Venus, don't argue with me."
"Venus, don't – if you don't get away now what'll happen in Tokyo?"
"Venus, don't look away from me while I'm talking – you've got to go, all right? You have to. You agreed."
"Venus, don't be like that – there's not always going to be some guy out in the shadows waiting to save you. I want you to go train."
"Venus, don't behave like that – you're a leader!"
"Venus, don't – darn it, why do I even bother!"
"Venus, don't – oh, Venus, please don't cry, it'll be all right, I'm always here for you."
"Venus, don't you dare put me in that rubbish bin or I swear I'll claw you!"
The milder version of Venus Don't was the rarer Minako Please, such as "Minako, please tidy your room, I can't find the bed any more," and "Minako, please, you haven't gone out on patrol in a week," and "Minako, please can I have a fish treat?"
Sometimes it was hard to realize that she spent most of her time taking orders from an undersized white lion who did nothing more energetic than sleep all day. However, now she had her own back – her white cat guardian was currently in a very uncomfortable cage in the back of the aeroplane enduring the long flight from England to Japan. As he had been the one to push her into agreeing with her mother that she wished to be schooled in Tokyo, she felt no goodwill towards his plight. Apparently Tokyo was a focus point of all evil and soon monsters would roam free there like bunnies. (How lovely.) Therefore, Artemis was keen Venus should get in on the action. (Minako often granted herself periods of what she felt was deserved self-pity; she had to be the only fourteen-year-old in the world with this stupid problem.)
And now? She'd be going to Tokyo, a place coated in nostalgia from her carefree childhood, to the little studio apartment her parents had organized for her and a very prestigious private school that didn't mind that she was on the plane only now and would be two days late into the school year; they'd half-fawned over her mother, assuring her that yes, of course Minako would be fine coming in late, they understood very well how long it was getting from England to Tokyo, yes, they'd only just decided on her daughter's schooling, yes, she'll be in good hands…
Maybe I'll join the volleyball team. And I'd like to join a dance school this year too, maybe… I was going to this year in England but I left, so I won't be able to take part in the stage challenge between the highschools I was looking forward to…
Thinking of Venus, and England, and her mission all made her heart ache. Luckily, there was a soft ding and one of the flight attendants' voices travelled throughout the compartment, soft and light.
"We will be landing at Tokyo Airport in half an hour. Please remain seated. We'll inform you as we get closer. Thank you for flying with us." Ding.
"Ding," Minako said lightly and ignored the look she immediately got from the old lady sitting next to her, who probably thought she was quite mad by now. She hid a smile behind one hand and looked out of her window down at the clouds, the familiar rush of the aeroplane's engines loud in her ears as she strained for a glimpse of the bustling city that would soon be her home, where a Mizuno Ami was currently sitting attentively in a mathematics class, where a blonde Tsukino Usagi sat in English dreaming of lunch, and where a black cat with a crescent on it's forehead just like her own pet's lolled in the sun thinking of days past on a world that was not Earth. Tokyo would be Minako's home.
And Sailor Venus', as I continue my quest. Geez, Artemis, why couldn't I have been just a normal girl…
***
"Thirty!" Usagi shrilled to the girl sitting beside her, half-hysterical. "I only got thirty on the test! That's not even a D! Or an F! It's… it's… it's a G!"
Naru patted her friend on the shoulder as she opened her lunchbox, pulling out her hot canteen of tea and pouring some into a cup to sip at it. "It's all right, Usagi-chan. I suppose you just have to try harder next time."
"There won't be a next time. My mother will kill me." Usagi's voice was stricken. "And did you see what Umino-kun got? Ninety-five. Ninety-five. I couldn't even dream of getting ninety-five. Not if I studied until I was thirty."
Naru had gotten sixty-six and felt magnanimous, so gave a big friendly smile to her friend. "That test was really hard, you know. And it was a… high thirty," she said tremulously. Seeing her friend's lower lip wobble, she comforted immediately, heart sore. "Bunny-chan, tell you what, let's go to my place after school. My mother's got some new jewellry stock in and she's having a sale."
"Really?" Usagi cheered immediately. "I hope she doesn't get a jewel thief like Umino was telling us," she half-chuckled, remembering the story the class overachiever had told her before. "After all, we don't have a person like that Sailor V girl to save it."
However, Naru was looking faraway. "It's all really pretty, but…" she faltered.
"But what, Naru-chan?"
"My mother's been acting really strange lately. And it's weird for her to have this sale so out of season."
"Strange?"
"She came in one night and her eyes were…" Naru trailed off, pushing the image out of her mind. "Well, she talked all funny. It was Saturday. And then she decided to have this sale. I think she's coming down with something."
"All the more reason for me to come with you," the blonde said cheerily. "Maybe we can help her."
"That'd be nice." Naru immediately brightened, auburn curls bobbing in the warm sunlight as she deftly stole a tidbit from Usagi's lunchbox. "Oooh, look, your mother made that sauce you like."
"Yeah – and she made it for me! Put that back, you pig! I missed out on a proper breakfast this morning! Naaaaaaru!"
All worries gone, the schoolgirls argued, carefree, thoughts of odd mothers or bad test scores immediately gone with the food Naru had popped into her mouth, also completely unaware of other things that were going on in the city around them...
***
The throne room was full. It was always full, of the most monstrous youma the queen could muster, her personal honour guard. Their effect was really mostly psychological – in fact, the effect of the whole throne-room was set up to unnerve those who had to visit Beryl, dark and threatening. A cavernous chamber, the largest in the palace save only for Metallia's, which few but Beryl ever saw, it had massive stalagmites rising out of the ground, in a pattern towards the back wall, where they were met by stalactites from the ceiling, forming three pillars – the centre pillar had stairs carved into it's front, and at the top of the stairs, raised above her subjects, was Queen Beryl herself, seated on a throne of cold black rock.
Beryl had, once, perhaps when the world was young, been an extraordinarily beautiful woman. However, time and the dark energies she had turned to had not only warped her mind, but warped her body; statuesque and graceful, her skin was pale to the point of cadaverous, with no flush of health or even life within it. Her eyes similarly had no warmth in them, though all who knelt before her knew how easily they could spark in angry; her thin lips were painted red like blood - or, perhaps, not painted or coated naturally with any substance her subjects might care to name. Her long red hair spread out behind her, curly, though that did nothing to soften anything about the Queen; the voluptuousness of her body was more intimidating than inviting through her thin silk gown. One long-nailed hand was held chivalrously by the knight who stood constantly by her side, dark-haired and blue-eyed, who was the receptacle of many smouldering looks every so often when Beryl was bored by what people were telling her. She sat up ramrod-straight in her uncomfortable seat, as hard and unforgiving as the material it was carved from.
"Approach the throne," the queen said quietly, and she did not have to speak loudly to be able to command the two men in front of her with tones of steel. As both of them moved forward, however, her free hand flicked up imperiously; her eyes focused on the first man in front of her, golden-haired and green-eyed. "Jadeite, rise. Report to me."
Jadeite did so, rising and bowing low. "Yes, my queen. I have established a presence in the second city, as you requested, and have already set about my first scheme to gather energy from the humans." Jadeite's face bore a smirk, as always – it seemed a permanent feature. "Humans, especially young females, place a great deal of value in small trinkets. I have placed our mark on a quantity of such trifles, and my youma has possessed a merchant. I expect they will sell well, and every one will sap the energy of those who wear it."
"If this venture works, I will be well pleased, Jadeite," Beryl purred low, not bothering to mention what her reaction would be if it didn't.
"Of course, my queen." Jadeite bowed again, and resumed kneeling.
"Kyanite, rise." Beryl's paper-white hand beckoned to the second figure beside her first captain, this one heavy contrast to the golden looks of Jadeite - small and slight and young, shaggy dark hair waved against the collar of his iron-grey uniform as he regarded her with cool violet eyes. "Report."
Kyanite rose, and bowed, as Jadeite had. He and Jadeite wore the same uniform, though Kyanite's had a slightly less decorative shoulder, showing his lower rank in the hierarchy of the dark kingdom. "Yes, my queen. I have established a human identity under the alias 'Shinwano Kyuu.'"
"A... human identity." A twinge of curiosity entered Beryl's eyes as she regarded her youngest officer, pursing her lips lightly. "And how will that serve our ends, my lieutenant?"
"My mission is to learn more about the humans in order to allow us to better accomplish our goals. With a human identity, I will have leave to be amongst them without arousing suspicion, and have enlisted in the local school in order to gain learn more of their history." Kyanite left out the fact that he was legitimately curious about the details and customs of this world it was his destiny to conquer, and the fact that he found many of the females at the school rather pleasing to his eye. Beryl did not need to know.
Whether she was affected or not by his pretty little speech, Kyanite could not read from his Queen's face. The curiosity had once more left her eyes and she flicked them upwards lightly, dismissing him from her thoughts if not her presence. "Do as you will, lieutenant. Report to me on what you find on humanity; if there is anything of import come to me sooner." The faraway look left her eyes and she surveyed the two in front of her. "I may have new roles for you both to play soon."
Jadeite dared to speak. "New roles, my queen?"
"I have not yet heard from Quartzite." From the tone of her voice, she wasn't mourning too openly. "He's either managed to get himself killed or thinks he can leave the fold. If you see him, bring him to me." Beryl paused. "In... whatever condition you see fit. However, if the fool is dead, you two will certainly be working much harder."
Kyanite was somewhat shocked – Quartzite had been one of the more formidable of Beryl's underlings. The humans had no knowledge of them and nothing to match the powers they wielded – what could possibly have defeated Quartzite?
Jadeite nodded. "I look forward to any duty you assign of course, my queen."
Quickly, Kyanite added to his fellow general's statement. "… and I as well."
"Good. I did not expect less. You may go." Immediately, as if she could make them invisible with a word, they were gone from her interest as Beryl turned to the figure beside her. There was heat in her eyes as her hand travelled up to his wrist, thumb caressing the veins of his hand as she licked her lips. "Endymion, my love, let us adjourn..."
Standing and bowing once more, the two generals left the queen to her concubine.. moving through the crowd of youma to the exit of the throne room – two of the largest youma in the kingdom opened the huge iron doors for them, and they exited, the doors crashing shut behind them.
As soon as the door was closed, Kyanite turned to the older general. "Quartzite has failed..?"
Immediately, Jadeite spat on the ground in distaste, brushing a lock of blonde hair out of his face. "Who knows? He always was an arrogant ass. I won't be crying if he turns up dead - and I'll help him on his way if he's not there yet."
Kyanite sighed. "Yes, Jadeite, I cared little for Quartzite myself, but I worry about what could have killed him."
"Other than his own overwhelming stupidity?"
"I think you take the issue too lightly, my lord. Whatever destroyed Quartzite could easily deal with us."
"You worry far too much, young one," the captain said patronizingly, sticking his hands in his pockets as he moved into the cold corridors of the palace. "Both of us are stronger than that bag of useless bones."
Kyanite bowed, and then wondered why he bothered, as Jadeite's back was to him. "Perhaps, my lord. I will see you on Earth."
"Perhaps," Jadeite nodded airily and disappeared into the darkness.
Kyanite walked after him, keeping his distance. He would visit his home to relax for a time, then he would go back to the Earth and not return to the Dark Kingdom for a long while, he would live on Earth like a native, and learn their ways. It was his mission, and he would accomplish it to the best of his abilities.
***
The sun was dust-dry and bright on Tokyo after school was out, and Mizuno Ami carefully walked home afterwards quite disappointed that they hadn't got any homework yet. (Well, she had gotten a little bit of English homework, but, despite herself, indulged in finishing it in the library during lunch.) Cram school hadn't started yet either, and so all she had to look forward to was the long walk home and then maybe some hot tea in an empty house. Her mother came home at completely obscene hours and sometimes just slept in her office; really, she hadn't seen her parent in what seemed like ages. Ami lived a lonely life.
Shielding her eyes lightly from the sun that was reflecting off the brightly-painted hoods of cars, Ami looked to the left. She had stopped by the parking lot that she had been in that self-same morning; wistfully she wondered whether that cat was still there, then half-jumped when something warm and furry wound it's way around her ankles.
"Neko!" she exclaimed, then blushed as she knelt down to rub it under it's chin. "Why, hello, there." The cat gave a happy purr, then Ami sat up, brushed herself off and began walking on sensibly.
As she rounded the block, there was a noise behind her. Turning around, there was the black cat.
"Are you following me?" Ami asked in half-annoyance.
The cat attempted to look innocent.
"Don't you have a home to go to?"
Ami knew the feline would not respond, but in a sickening display of cute affection, it nuzzled against her ankle. The blue-haired girl sighed.
"Maybe I have a bowl of cream at home, if you want to follow me. I might want to take a closer look at that thing on your head, anyway, Miss Neko. Shall we go?"
It was quite nice, having a cat tag along behind her as she made the dreary walk home in the bright sunshine. Ami hadn't had a pet before; she wasn't exactly an animals-oriented person, but cats were among her favourites. It trotted after her like a little dog, even going so far as to jump onto her knapsack when it apparently got tired. It purred in her ear all the way home.
When she got to the apartment she and her mother shared, she gently placed the cat down in the kitchen and began scrabbling in the cupboard. "I think we have some cream in here – "
"Milk will do nicely, thank you."
Ami turned around and stared wide-eyed at the calm cat, sitting on her table. Wildly, she looked around to see if perhaps she had left the radio on.
"Maybe watered down a bit," the cat suggested again, looking at her directly. She had a light, most definitely female voice. "Greetings, Mizuno Ami. I am Luna."
She dropped the milk bottle on the floor and thanked her lucky stars it was plastic, picking it up again dumbly as she stared.
"That might have sounded a bit pretentious," Luna muttered beneath her breath. "H'n, let's see – Ami, my name is Luna. Yes, that sounds better…"
"You're a talking cat," Ami said.
"I'd noticed that."
"… Cats don't talk. It'd be physically impossible."
Luna looked quite cross. "Really, Mercury, I'm not in the mood for this. I've been searching for you for ages, and I don't need you to start on a big 'you're not real' thing. Let's be sensible about this situation, shall we?"
Ami reached out with trembling hands to pull herself into one of the hard-backed chairs of the kitchen table, settling her hands in her lap. The crescent on the cat's forehead glittered like a pretty ornament in the afternoon sun. "Why did you call me Mercury?"
"You were chosen before you were even born to be a warrior, Ami. A sailor senshi. Sailor Mercury, to be exact." Ami looked so comatose at the thought of a talking cat anyway that Luna gave her a quick nip on her hand. "Wake up, Ami!"
"I wasn't dreaming," she said guiltily, rubbing her fingers. "… I think."
Luna sighed. It was much better in the old days. She'd had a sinking feeling this was going to happen. With a shower of sparkles, Luna somersaulted, catching the object she'd been holding in subspace neatly in her teeth.
"What's that?" Ami asked weakly.
"That, Ami-san, is your transformation pen." However, since her mouth was full, she was completely unintelligible, so she dropped it from her teeth to a startled Ami's hand. "That, Ami-san, is your transformation pen. Take it in your hand and say, 'Mercury Planet Power, Make-Up!'. Then you will become Sailor Mercury, and start your mission to rid Tokyo of evil and search out the Princess."
"Mercury what?" the blue-haired student asked, confused, holding the pen in her hand and trying to ignore the tingling feeling she was getting out of it. "Mercury Planet What?"
"'Mercury Planet Power, Make-Up!'," Luna said calmly.
"Mercury Planet Power, Make-Up!"
Ami was given the sudden impression of water and bubbles and light as she was flung back from her chair, extremely disoriented. She felt – different. More… hyped, powerful, nervy. She felt… colder.
Ami looked down.
"Aaaaaaagh!" she half-shrieked. "I'm not wearing anything!"
"It's very pretty," Luna said, unruffled.
Mercury made a desperate attempt to hold the tiny little pleated skirt of her fuku down as she looked at her uniform in intense horror. "It's so short!"
"Your legs look pretty in the skirt."
"Oh, no!" She attempted to pull the skirt even tighter. "People can see my legs!"
"People usually can," Luna assured her, staring in mild amusement at Ami's desperate attempts to try and cover up her thin little thighs.
"I'm not wearing this!"
"It's not that bad, Sailor Mercury. The outfit is the least of your problems. People won't recognize you in it and that's what matters."
"But, it would be impossible to – "
"Someone! Help! Please!"
Mercury looked up in surprise at the muted screams coming from down the street. "What was that?"
"Help… my mother…"
"Somebody in trouble already?" Luna sighed. "Come, Mercury, let's go!"
"… I still don't want to wear this skirt!"
***
Somehow, things had managed to go all wrong. Kicked out of her house poutily by parents who were indeed exceptionally angry and threatening due to the aforementioned low mark on her test, Usagi had puttered over to Naru's mother's jewellery store and had become even more pouty as she was unable to buy any of the stock. However, things had gone wrong when all the women wearing jewellry had started falling to the ground in a dead faint, and Naru's mother had changed into a hideous monster. Usagi was quite used to parents turning into hideous monsters, but not literally.
Usagi and Naru huddled behind a counter, surrounded by unconscious women as they practically wept in terror. Naru's mother was now draining the energy of all the women who wore the jewellry bought from the store – the two girls, who had thankfully touched none of it, remained unhurt and conscious, though at the moment they didn't exactly find anything to be thankful about. However, this was probably not going to be for long, as the monster overturned the display and found both frightened teenagers clinging to each other and screaming for all they were worth.
"Do you think it's noticed us?" Usagi half-sobbed in hushed tones.
"Quiet, Usagi-chan!" Naru begged her. "It'll hear us!"
It was too late, however; the monster had already plucked hapless Naru-chan from behind the counter and had it's hands around her throat despite her kicking and screaming, as Usagi was so hysterical in terror that she couldn't do anything but look for a weapon. Naru choked and cried and turned slightly blue, her hands falling limp as her breath left her, curly brown hair tossing back and forth as she tried to loosen the monster's grip.
"Put her down!"
Naru dropped to the floor in a tumbled gasping heap as the monster looked to the doorway in surprise at the ringing tones of Sailor Mercury, standing at the entrance and looking much more fierce than she felt. Luna stood a little way behind her, leaping to the side and out of harm's way.
"And who are you?" the thing finally husked, voice harsh and rough.
"I am…" Mercury looked back at Luna for desperate confirmation. "Sailor Mercury, sailor-suited soldier of… uh…. Love, and justice. I think," she ended lamely.
Luna rolled her eyes in half-despair.
***
Outside the jewellery store, the commotion within had not gone unnoticed – a crowd was gathering, all unsure what to do, as a monster faced off with a girl in a short skirt. One man, however, did not join the milling crowd, didn't talk about the incident with the others around him, hardly batted an eye at the spectacle – it was all old news to him. He just lit another cigarette and tried to look nonchalant. He was dressed well, in a white shirt and black pants with a long black coat overtop, but the clothes were worn, he had his hands self consciously in his pockets – altogether he looked like a regular man in his late teens, perhaps slightly down on his luck. An excellent disguise – Unmeino Tenshi, regular ordinary guy.
The girl who faced off against the monster, the Sailor Senshi, was new to him, in a different costume then the other one he knew. She had called herself Sailor Mercury, and she had a black cat following her. He hoped she was competent, he would hate to have to go in to rescue her at this early point in the game, it would be a little too open, the crowd would see him, and he could see a few of them had cameras – no doubt this 'Sailor Mercury' would be in the newspapers tomorrow. That was fine, the Sailor Senshi had always caused quite a stir – Sailor V in London had attained a measure of stardom.
Pushing his long dark green hair down over his crimson eyes, to hide them, Tenshi surveyed the area again. One person stood out, as he seemed to be attempting an impersonation – on the opposite side of the street, watching through the crowd to the jewellery store, his hands in his pockets. He was younger then Tenshi, with rather messy black hair and clear violet eyes, his gaze met Tenshi's for a moment, then he turned his head immediately, as if he had something to hide. Very curious, not to mention suspicious. Tenshi moved to investigate, but a noise from the crowd interrupted him – another of the girls had arrived, and leaping down from the roof, and this one WAS familiar to Tenshi – long blonde hair, short shirt, short skirt, her stomach fashionably bared, a red ballroom mask on her face – Sailor V. From London, in her Tokyo debut. Intriguing. No wonder he had been ordered back to Tokyo...
When Tenshi looked across the street again, the boy had gone – hopefully he was just a nervous youth, and nothing to worry about. Tenshi was pretty sure he was more then that, but he had to keep an eye on the girls, it was his duty, and his pleasure.
***
"Look," Usagi whispered in great excitement to Naru as both of them clambered behind the counter again, watching wide-eyed in awe. "That girl's beating up that monster!"
Indeed, Mercury had been making a good throw of it – directed by Luna, she had engaged the monster in battle. Unfortunately for her and the women all around them, the monster had pulled them back from their unconscious states and directed them to attack the blue-suited senshi. Under more of the cat's careful guidance, Sailor Mercury attacked with a Shabon Spray – a misty, cold, ice-based attack that seemed to fog up the entire room. Unfortunately, it made her cough and sputter as well, so she was helpless and out of action for a few moments. The two civilian girls coughed and tried to keep their heads down as well, shaking in cold as the mist filled the room. All too soon, though, it was clearing.
"This is no good," Naru said despondently. "It's not doing anything at all, Usagi-chan, let's run, all right?"
"Hey, youma! Over here!"
All four coherent occupants of the room looked up as a long-haired blonde girl, cheerful and smiling, somersaulted down from the beams in the ceiling and landed in the midst of everybody. "Mind not picking on my comrades, here? When Sailor V's angry, Sailor V's angry!"
Mercury and Luna stopped dead in the ensuing confusion, looking at the new girl. She was kitted out the same as Mercury in a fuku, though of a somewhat different design (that somehow managed to show even more skin). She wore a red mask and, unlike Mercury, she seemed entirely at ease with her surroundings.
"My!" Luna gasped, wide-eyed. "It's Sailor Venus!"
"Ohmigod!" Naru and Usagi squealed in unison. "It's Sailor V!"
"Konnichiwa, minna-san!" Sailor V said gaily, then remembered the monster. "Oh, yeah – Crescent Beam!"
Sailor Mercury watched as a bright beam lanced from V's finger to arc out and hit the baffled youma and pin it against the wall explosively. Nothing loath, the blonde immediately flipped herself forward and kicked it with a sickening crack... the youma fell back against the wall, and, defeated, reverted back to Naru's mother, unharmed but unconscious, giving off a sickly green-grey fog in the process.
"How come I couldn't do that?" Mercury muttered. She was getting the sickening feeling of somebody who'd just sat an exam and studied the wrong material. It was one thing to become a Sailor Senshi; it was another to walk in, fail it miserably and have someone suddenly be much better at it than you were. Study freak Mizuno Ami wasn't used to that feeling.
Luna sniffed. "She's trained. And I doubt that could mean anything other than that she's Artemis' protégé."
"Who?"
"I'll tell you later," Luna sighed. "Don't hold your breath – I imagine you'll meet him much sooner than you could possibly wish. Look – she's coming over here!"
***
"LITTLE GIRLS." Kyanite murmured aloud, in his surprise. Little girls! Little girls in sailor suits had just defeated Jadeite's youma. Looking down from the roof of one of the buildings on the street – there had been a tall man who seemed to take too much interest in him when he was at street level, and he couldn't take the risk.
Confusion reigned in the young lieutenant's mind.. had one of these girls been the ones to defeat Quartzite? No wonder the arrogant king had kept it quiet – Kyanite wouldn't admit losing to them either. Jadeite was out of luck, however, because if he failed to mention it to the queen, it was Kyanite's duty to do so – after all, he was the chief of intelligence in Tokyo, the second (and now, seemingly only) target city.
Moving to the edge of the building and leaping an extraordinary distance to the next one (something he had little trouble doing, it was really a very mild talent), he made his way through the city, heading for his 'HQ' – a small apartment he had rented with money stolen by dark kingdom youma during the preliminary scout of the city. Those youma had found no sign of any such resistance, but Kyanite didn't hold them responsible – these girls just weren't the kind of thing you looked for when looking for threats. They WERE a threat, however, that much was obvious, and Kyanite had to find out more.
Reaching his building and heading down the fire escape, the lieutenant slipped in through his window – the apartment was not furnished, all it had was a cot and a phone, and the latter wasn't even connected. The only other thing in the room was a huge stack of books, borrowed from the library under his false name.. sitting down at the edge of his cot, he picked one up and began to read it – if he was going to pass for a regular student in this city, he had a lot of catching up to do.
Let Jadeite explain to the queen about his defeat, Kyanite didn't particularly want to be present when she heard the news – Beryl had a tendency to lash out at all those around her when angry, and it didn't pay to get caught in the cross fire.
***
"You must be Sailor Mercury!" Venus said cheerfully.
"Uh, yes," Mercury hazarded, trying not to stare. "And you're… Sailor V?"
"You can call me Sailor Venus!" The blonde looked to the side and made a face at all the people screaming and cheering. Giving them a little wave, she grasped Mercury's hand in hers and tugged her out the back entrance, her uniform melting as she went amidst hoots and congratulations. "C'mon, detransform!"
With some relief, mixed oddly with trepidation at meeting this more experienced senshi, Ami did so and immediately felt much warmer. That skirt really was obscenely short. Unfortunately, with comparisons to V's uniform and what she was wearing in civilian mode, there wasn't much difference…
Sitting in the cold back alley outside and looking at her companion, Ami wrinkled her nose a little. Sailor Venus was a young girl, looking to be almost precisely the same age as Ami herself, with long golden hair and a body that was usually only seen in model magazines and that the doctor's daughter usually thought was 'unhealthy', but Ami had to admit that she was one of the most exquisitely beautiful girls she had ever seen. Her eyes were a deep and friendly cornflower blue, and her heart-shaped face was so flawless that she seemed almost too perfect to be alive. As she took Mercury's hand, Ami suddenly flushed at the warmth and at the way those blue eyes searched over her face intensely.
"I'm Aino Minako," she smiled, and her voice was perfect too – high and sweet and satin-smooth. "And I don't meet pretty girls every day. What's your name?"
"I'm Mizuno Ami," she faltered.
"Yay! We have the same initials round the wrong way!"
Ami looked at her hard. The golden-haired goddess merely beamed maniacally.
"Why hasn't Sailor V ever appeared before?" Ami hazarded lightly, brushing a lock of blue hair out of her eyes.
"I only arrived today," she said apologetically. "Been here a couple of hours."
"And you started fighting immediately?"
"Artemis wanted it – and guardians will be guardians! Hi there!" Minako waved gaily to Luna, sitting by Ami's ankle looking gobsmacked.
"My white friend has developed a work ethic?" Luna said dryly. "My, how things have changed."
"He just likes torturing me." She giggled, but changed the subject back to Ami, who she seemed to have a hot interest in. "So how long have you been a sailor senshi?"
"Half an hour?" Ami said miserably.
"Wow! And I thought I got pushed hard!" Minako immediately wrapped her arms around the smaller girl and pulled her into a tight embrace, one that involved rather a lot of nuzzling on the blonde's part into Ami's neck. Ami began an unfortunate tomato-coloured blush as she attempted to politely disentangle herself. "I hope we'll be really good friends, us being on the same team and all. All for one and one for all, ne?" She stroked Ami's hair.
Ami looked at her like a deer in the headlights. She was feeling rather like a cosseted puppy. "Hai," she managed intelligently.
"As we're on the same team, and as Artemis always says, we 'fight for love and justice', though whoever thought that one up is really awful, I just sometimes get the urge to say it on the battlefield, you know? What do you think of these uniforms? I really didn't like mine at first because, hey, it shows off my stomach, and I wasn't sure whether my stomach is my favourite thing to show off, I prefer my legs – I like your legs too, they're really pretty – " Minako demonstrated this by touching one of them, making Ami go pale – "but after a while I got used to it, and actually it's rather pretty, and you can move well, and…"
Luna moved over to Artemis as Minako went on with her babble, arms locked around Ami's neck as the poor blue-haired girl looked extremely out of her depth. "Your girl is very… wordy."
"She's spent a few years in England," Artemis admitted. "You're looking well, eh, Luna?"
"Hmph." The dark-eyed cat glared at the lighter one. "How come you didn't come earlier?"
"I was only able to convince her now. I see you've found one already?"
"No thanks to you."
"Bitter, I see. Cheer up, old girl."
"You must be joking. The Dark Universe is here and all I've been able to do is find Mercury, thank the heavens you came along with Venus, and locating out the Moon Princess is going to be a long and gloomy task – "
"Well, I have the leader of the Inners, don't I? Minako's perfectly capable."
"… she looks like a bubblehead."
"What did you say?!"
"Oh, Arty-chan, don't be so rude," Minako said over Ami's shoulder, finally releasing her to sniff at him in distaste. "I'm sure Luna's much nicer than you are. Look, Ami, we'd probably better go – what school do you go to?"
"Juuban High."
"Oh, good, that's pretty near mine then – " Minako snaffled a pen out of Ami's pocket, taking what Ami thought a little too much time to dig around for it, and beamed at her. "I'll just write my address and phone number on your hand, shall I? Then we can keep in contact. You do it to mine, too."
Self-consciously, Ami scribbled down on Minako's hand, feeling almost ashamed to mar the creamy whiteness of it. However, Mina gave her a sweet smile in return, and kissed her cheek as she popped the pen back in her pocket. She smelt like violets.
"I'm so glad I met you," she said, so warmly that Ami cheered up a little about the entire situation. "It'll be much nicer with two. I've been so lonely."
"I'm sure it will," Ami said quietly. "I hope I see you soon."
"Sayonara, Ami-chan!" Giving her a wave and as Artemis gave Luna a friendly wink, both of them ran down out of the back alleyway into the distance.
Luna and Ami exchanged a look.
"Did all of that just happen?" the student said faintly.
"It did. Very unexpected, it was. Oh, well, I suppose having Artemis and Venus around as the leader will do some good – "
"No. I mean, her touching me."
Luna sighed. "Let's get home, Ami. That is, if you have a spare corner to keep me in. I'll explain everything – as well as, obviously, some of the facts of life – to you. Maybe over some milk?"
The blue-haired girl nodded faintly. Keeping a cat would, seemingly, be the least of her problems, and at least Luna could be the textbook she got her answers from over this whole fiasco. "That would be… Nice."
Luna slept on her feet that bed in light. Ami thought she liked it.
***
"I had," Naru announced at lunchtime, "a really neat dream."
"What was it about?"
"That Sailor V and this other sailor-suited girl came to save me and my mother and you in the jewellery shop. That she turned into a monster."
"Funny," Usagi said slowly, scratching her head. "I had that dream too."
"And me," chimed in Umino.
"And me!"
"Me too!"
"Isn't that strange!"
"Wasn't Sailor V neat?"
In a corner, Ami smiled.