Death, Be Not Proud....
Chapter... uhm... I forgot how many chapters? *grin*...
~_~
It's been a long, long week, minna.
~-~
But, although the startled recognition in Mamoru's voice was honest, it was not exactly the Chibi-usa they had known.
Her hair was a darker shade of pink, almost purple, really. Her eyes were still the brilliant red of a pet rabbit, but her features were less rounded, more angular. She was perhaps all of two years old, but her eyes spoke of much more, her small hand in the queen's.
"No." The child stared at Mamoru, disdain on her features. "My name is Mordred. My mother gave it to me. It was all she gave. I don't know you, but I am supposed to be polite. Her Majesty would only let me come if I was polite." Her little voice was haughty, but very pretty for a child.
A low chuckle made them look back at the queen. "She isn't my daughter, minna-san." Her voice had changed. All of the lingering smidges of childhood had left them; it was a woman's voice, low and beautiful. "Stunning likeness, though, I must admit." She released Mordred's hand and knelt down, motioning gracefully to Minako, who was frozen, an equally stunned Artemis hanging from her arm.
"Mordred, that is the lady I told you about. Why don't you go talk to her while I explain my absence to them?"
Mordred nodded, and smiled. She flew across the room and glomped the senshi of love, giggling. "The queen has told me so much about you! Are you really Sailor V? My brother had all the comics..."
Minako relaxed in the presence of a fan and grinned. "Sure, kid. Hey, did you ever hear about the time I..."
Pluto stepped forward. "I trust it has been two years since you last saw us, My queen?"
There was a slight outraged gasp from Haruka and Rei, but Usagi nodded.
"Yes, that's right. Ko-chan said he would bring us back so that it had only been a couple of hours for you."
The man looked at her, eyebrow arched. Through the arrogance there was love. "Do you think after all the practice I've had with magic these past few months that I would mess up a simple temporal rip?"
She rolled her eyes. "Yes."
His melodramatic intake of breath was rather amusing. "Bloody hell, woman, I slave away at building you a castle while you sit in an office and argue with Romafeller, and this is the thanks I get? Verbal assault? My heart... if you hadn't stolen it..."
Usagi shook her head. "This isn't the time, Ko-chan." She looked at her senshi. "It's been two years. I've been working. We both have. Crystal Tokyo is built. Most of the alliances have been made, but everything is ready." She paused, and looked at each and every one of them, except Minako, who looked quite content entertaining Mordred. "If you want to come."
Ami was the first to trust her voice. "You mean... go back to Crystal Tokyo? But... I thought..."
"Wasn't there supposed to be a silence? And then the building of Crystal Tokyo?" Hotaru supplied, where Ami's words had failed.
"I believe I will answer that." Pluto spoke up. She looked at Usagi while she talked. "There are millions of paths. This one is different from the one I led you to believe you would follow. You now have a choice, and like all choices of this magnitude, it will not be without consequences. She is your queen, your destiny. Eventually, you will have to swear yourself to her."
"You can watch your friends and family die," Michiru added. "or you can go with Usagi and be spared that pain. I'm going."
Haruka closed her eyes and nodded. "If Michiru goes, I go."
Hotaru smiled. "You don't even have to ask, my Queen."
Makoto shrugged. "It isn't like I have anything to loose."
Mamoru cringed. Koto looked at him with great interest, and for a moment looked like he was going to stay silent. Finally, he sighed.
"Fine. May I do it the direct way and hit him or beg for forgiveness for stealing his girlfriend?"
Usagi gave him a dry stare. "Tactful, Koto. Tactful."
He shrugged. "Well, he's going to be a child about it, so I think tact is lost. Not that I ever admired the concept anyway."
Mamoru blinked and realized everyone was staring at him. He sighed heavily. "Alright. I'll go. I don't have to like any of this, but I'll go. And I'll be good." He added, for Usagi's benefit.
Makoto clapped him on the back. "Welcome back, Mamoru-san." She said earnestly.
And their eyes went to the two senshi who had something to loose. Family.
Ami kept her eyes on the floor. "How long do we have to say goodbye, Usagi? I... I can't leave my mother without saying goodbye."
Putting a firm, kind hand on Ami's shoulder, she nodded. "Ami, I understand completely. I wouldn't think of not letting you say goodbye. I need to say it myself."
Rei slapped herself out of her stare. "Usagi, if you go up to your father looking like that, he's going to kill you both. When you left him you were SIXTEEN years old, blonde, INNOCENT, and... a schoolgirl, for crying out loud! You look like from seductress from the right side of temptation! And your hair is bloody WHITE."
Usagi smiled faintly. "I can only imagine his expression. So, Rei, are you coming?"
Rei whacked her old friend upside the head. "Of COURSE I am, Odango Atama! Don't be stupid! Someone has to go and keep you from falling into old habits!"
Koto's eyebrow quirked. "I thought that was my purpose." There was something incredibly ecchi about his smirk that earned him a whack on the back of the head by Haruka.
"Watch it, tomodachi." She warned.
Koto merely smiled at her.
Usagi rolled her eyes and took her lover's arm. "We need to go visit my family, Ko-chan. They're probably worried sick. The rest of you... go say goodbye!" Her eyes were solemn. "You'll see me around. I have a lot of friends to kiss goodbye."
Koto nodded. "I have to be yanked around by this stunning succubus..." Usagi growled at him and dragged him out the door.
"Baka! Do you want to be killed? I can do that, you know..." Her voice trailed away as she dragged her companion down the stairs.
Mordred sighed. "And there they go again." She giggled and jumped down off Rei's bed. "I'd better go after them. Koto-baka gets into trouble a LOT..." She ran after the pair with a definite air of importance that only a child could assume so pompously without ridicule.
Mamoru stared after the little girl with disbelief written all over his face. "She looks so much like Chibi-usa." He said, without really meaning to.
Setsuna nodded. "I was rather surprised myself. I wouldn't be hesitant to say that Usagi had a hand in that birth. After all, she can't have children and she will need to train a heir, even though her life span is indefinite."
She found, after a blink, that everyone left in the room was staring at her. "What? Surely you were able to deduce that." She sounded innocently confused.
"She can't have children? Why not?" Minako asked, standing inconspicuously behind Makoto. Her voice was quiet, and her eyes lowered and guarded.
Setsuna's face grew considerably darker. "Besides the fact that she simply cannot, if she were to use the ginzuishou in a manner as to allow herself to conceive, her own body would work against her. She would die before the infant could survive without her." Something black appeared in her eyes. "It has been tried, many times. Usually, a child is born with the aid of the Queen, and the Queen gives her blood to that child, and raises her as her own daughter."
Ami blinked. Her mind was already systematically running through the technical details derived from the implications of Setsuna's statement. "Does Koto know?"
It was Michiru's low chuckle that answered.
"Haven't any of you figured it out yet? They're exactly the same. Of course he knows. He's just like her."
"I wasn't aware that Koto could bear children." Mamoru commented, leaning against the wall in amusement.
Setsuna looked at him with only a hint of displeasure in her eyes, trying to ignore that Haruka, who stood beside her, was also waiting for the answer.
"Michiru means that they are the same sort of creature. If Koto were a female, which I assure you he is not, he, too, would have the same difficulty. So he understands. I wouldn't be surprised if he'd helped and offered his own blood. Mordred is most likely as much his child as Usagi's, which, honestly, is not much but is sufficient."
Sufficient for what? But no one had the chance to ask. Makoto stretched and took Minako's arm.
"I believe we have an apron-clad hottie to say farewell to, if none of you mind. See you all later." They left, without any sort of protest from a brooding Minako.
Ami nodded. "I need to go explain things to my mother." She sighed rather darkly. Rei agreed and muttered something about finding her grandfather and Yuichiro before walking Ami out the door.
Hotaru nodded. "I have no one, really, to say a goodbye to." She smiled sadly. "Would you like company, Mamoru, when you go to say adieu?"
Mamoru shook his head. "No thanks, Hotaru." He sighed and looked towards the door. "I'd better go by myself. I need to speak to my professors, and if I run I should catch most of them.
*Minna? Don't be alarmed. Telepathy is something I'll use with you often. But I had to warn you all... in about five seconds, you're going to ascend into the bodies that are rightfully yours...*
Usagi's sweet whisper flashed through his head and he froze at the top of the stairs leading away from the Hiwaka Shrine.
"What's THAT supposed to mean?!" He yelped aloud, just as a strange green glow took his body.
He looked down to find himself wearing the black armor of Endymion. His eyes wide, his felt his hair. Softer. He knew it now had a lavender sheen. Taller, stronger, with the earth humming in his veins.
He might have remarked something very sarcastic about tromping through Tokyo dressed like that, but Haruka's outraged shriek made him turn just in time to see her storm out of the Shrine, blue eyes blazing.
Her hair was now paler, with a blue tint here and there. Her face was older, more refined, but really, she was still the same Haruka, still tall and proud.
Except...
Haruka Ten'oh, tomboy extraordinaire, was wearing a gown. A strapless, navy blue gown that looked like it had been spun from the wind itself.
"I WILL NOT WEAR THIS DRESS!" She howled in absolute dismay. "I HAVE *CLEAVAGE*!"
Endymion's eyes dropped.
He felt decidedly uncomfortable.
Yes, Haruka did have cleavage. And what wonderful cleavage it was. So soft, so creamy...
She noticed his stare and her anger soared. Within half a second Endymion had the pleasure of knowing what it was to be socked in the jaw by Haruka.
"Don't LOOK AT MY BOOBS!"
Endymion wiped away a small tendril of blood that had leaked from his lip.
"Sorry, Haruka-kun." He kept his eyes on her forehead.
~'~
Endymion was rather enjoying himself. His new body liked a long, fast, sweeping stride and for some reason people instinctively moved out of his way in the usually impossibly crowded streets. The twenty minute gauntlet was now a quick five minute walk and he liked it.
He strode into the Arcade, pleased to see that Makoto and Minako, fully clad in their own sort of gown, already there and looking rather flushed.
Makoto was wearing a very short sort of Greek tunic, almost the same length of her senshi fuku and tinted a royal green. Her hair was pink, a startling change. Minako wore a long, golden gown that shimmered and shone, the hem slanting from her uppermost right thigh down to the of her left side, and her hair taking on a vivacity that was clearly inhuman.
"I see you both have experienced that lovely change." He said, his new voice just a tad deeper and possessing an almost hypnotic quality.
Minako nodded, the blush very becoming. Her hair moved constantly-- or was that just the glow?-- and she looked every bit a Queen of the planet of love. "We were in here when it happened. Did you know that you go fully naked for a moment?"
Makoto looked ready to kill. "Motoki saw us naked!" She pointed to an abashed male half hidden behind the counter. There was a very distinct handprint still pink on his cheek.
"*Everyone* saw us naked." Minako moaned.
Endymion chucked. "If it helps you, Queen Minako, Queen Haruka is now wearing a floor-length blue gown that shows off her cleavage."
Makoto slammed her fist down on the table of the booth and guffawed. "Oh, I bet she just *loves* it. I do notice that lovely purple in your jaw, though."
Minako smiled in a rather feral manner. "Were you staring at her cleavage, Endymion?"
Endymion was taken aback. "She drew my attention to it." He defended himself.
"MAMORU! Endymion! You RAN from me, you little coward! Get back here and fight!"
The Queen of Uranus exploded through the door of the Arcade. Whatever people who had dared to stay after the transformation of Makoto and Minako promptly fled at the sight of the Amazon, welding the Space Sword.
Michiru stood behind her lover, shaking her head sadly. "Darling, perhaps you should calm down. I'm sure the Prince didn't mean to look at your cleavage. And if he did... well, darling... it is such pretty cleavage..."
In the face of The Look, Haruka crumpled. The sword vanished and she sulkily walked over to the booth that Endymion stood in front of and took a seat beside Minako and buried her face into her arms.
"My life is over." She announced into the table.
Michiru slipped past Endymion to sit across from Haruka. "Dear, it's not all that bad. Think of it as an added advantage. What adversary would suspect a lady of violence?"
Haruka teetered for a moment, and then nodded, but did not sit up. "Maybe." She muttered.
Endymion let the breath so, relieved he would not loose his pride that particular day. "Did Motoki leave, too?" He asked, looking for his friend.
"No, Motoki did NOT, because Motoki wants to keep his job." A rather high, nervous voice came from behind the counter. "So, Mamoru... tell me this is just some weird Cosplay... that the glowie thing was weird props..."
Endymion shook his head. "Sorry, chum."
Minako smiled alluringly. "We wanted to tell you before, Motoki. Honest."
Motoki's head peeked up over the counter to examine the small group of celestial royalty.
"Someone really owes me an explanation..."
~'~
Chapter... uhm... I forgot how many chapters? *grin*...
~_~
It's been a long, long week, minna.
~-~
But, although the startled recognition in Mamoru's voice was honest, it was not exactly the Chibi-usa they had known.
Her hair was a darker shade of pink, almost purple, really. Her eyes were still the brilliant red of a pet rabbit, but her features were less rounded, more angular. She was perhaps all of two years old, but her eyes spoke of much more, her small hand in the queen's.
"No." The child stared at Mamoru, disdain on her features. "My name is Mordred. My mother gave it to me. It was all she gave. I don't know you, but I am supposed to be polite. Her Majesty would only let me come if I was polite." Her little voice was haughty, but very pretty for a child.
A low chuckle made them look back at the queen. "She isn't my daughter, minna-san." Her voice had changed. All of the lingering smidges of childhood had left them; it was a woman's voice, low and beautiful. "Stunning likeness, though, I must admit." She released Mordred's hand and knelt down, motioning gracefully to Minako, who was frozen, an equally stunned Artemis hanging from her arm.
"Mordred, that is the lady I told you about. Why don't you go talk to her while I explain my absence to them?"
Mordred nodded, and smiled. She flew across the room and glomped the senshi of love, giggling. "The queen has told me so much about you! Are you really Sailor V? My brother had all the comics..."
Minako relaxed in the presence of a fan and grinned. "Sure, kid. Hey, did you ever hear about the time I..."
Pluto stepped forward. "I trust it has been two years since you last saw us, My queen?"
There was a slight outraged gasp from Haruka and Rei, but Usagi nodded.
"Yes, that's right. Ko-chan said he would bring us back so that it had only been a couple of hours for you."
The man looked at her, eyebrow arched. Through the arrogance there was love. "Do you think after all the practice I've had with magic these past few months that I would mess up a simple temporal rip?"
She rolled her eyes. "Yes."
His melodramatic intake of breath was rather amusing. "Bloody hell, woman, I slave away at building you a castle while you sit in an office and argue with Romafeller, and this is the thanks I get? Verbal assault? My heart... if you hadn't stolen it..."
Usagi shook her head. "This isn't the time, Ko-chan." She looked at her senshi. "It's been two years. I've been working. We both have. Crystal Tokyo is built. Most of the alliances have been made, but everything is ready." She paused, and looked at each and every one of them, except Minako, who looked quite content entertaining Mordred. "If you want to come."
Ami was the first to trust her voice. "You mean... go back to Crystal Tokyo? But... I thought..."
"Wasn't there supposed to be a silence? And then the building of Crystal Tokyo?" Hotaru supplied, where Ami's words had failed.
"I believe I will answer that." Pluto spoke up. She looked at Usagi while she talked. "There are millions of paths. This one is different from the one I led you to believe you would follow. You now have a choice, and like all choices of this magnitude, it will not be without consequences. She is your queen, your destiny. Eventually, you will have to swear yourself to her."
"You can watch your friends and family die," Michiru added. "or you can go with Usagi and be spared that pain. I'm going."
Haruka closed her eyes and nodded. "If Michiru goes, I go."
Hotaru smiled. "You don't even have to ask, my Queen."
Makoto shrugged. "It isn't like I have anything to loose."
Mamoru cringed. Koto looked at him with great interest, and for a moment looked like he was going to stay silent. Finally, he sighed.
"Fine. May I do it the direct way and hit him or beg for forgiveness for stealing his girlfriend?"
Usagi gave him a dry stare. "Tactful, Koto. Tactful."
He shrugged. "Well, he's going to be a child about it, so I think tact is lost. Not that I ever admired the concept anyway."
Mamoru blinked and realized everyone was staring at him. He sighed heavily. "Alright. I'll go. I don't have to like any of this, but I'll go. And I'll be good." He added, for Usagi's benefit.
Makoto clapped him on the back. "Welcome back, Mamoru-san." She said earnestly.
And their eyes went to the two senshi who had something to loose. Family.
Ami kept her eyes on the floor. "How long do we have to say goodbye, Usagi? I... I can't leave my mother without saying goodbye."
Putting a firm, kind hand on Ami's shoulder, she nodded. "Ami, I understand completely. I wouldn't think of not letting you say goodbye. I need to say it myself."
Rei slapped herself out of her stare. "Usagi, if you go up to your father looking like that, he's going to kill you both. When you left him you were SIXTEEN years old, blonde, INNOCENT, and... a schoolgirl, for crying out loud! You look like from seductress from the right side of temptation! And your hair is bloody WHITE."
Usagi smiled faintly. "I can only imagine his expression. So, Rei, are you coming?"
Rei whacked her old friend upside the head. "Of COURSE I am, Odango Atama! Don't be stupid! Someone has to go and keep you from falling into old habits!"
Koto's eyebrow quirked. "I thought that was my purpose." There was something incredibly ecchi about his smirk that earned him a whack on the back of the head by Haruka.
"Watch it, tomodachi." She warned.
Koto merely smiled at her.
Usagi rolled her eyes and took her lover's arm. "We need to go visit my family, Ko-chan. They're probably worried sick. The rest of you... go say goodbye!" Her eyes were solemn. "You'll see me around. I have a lot of friends to kiss goodbye."
Koto nodded. "I have to be yanked around by this stunning succubus..." Usagi growled at him and dragged him out the door.
"Baka! Do you want to be killed? I can do that, you know..." Her voice trailed away as she dragged her companion down the stairs.
Mordred sighed. "And there they go again." She giggled and jumped down off Rei's bed. "I'd better go after them. Koto-baka gets into trouble a LOT..." She ran after the pair with a definite air of importance that only a child could assume so pompously without ridicule.
Mamoru stared after the little girl with disbelief written all over his face. "She looks so much like Chibi-usa." He said, without really meaning to.
Setsuna nodded. "I was rather surprised myself. I wouldn't be hesitant to say that Usagi had a hand in that birth. After all, she can't have children and she will need to train a heir, even though her life span is indefinite."
She found, after a blink, that everyone left in the room was staring at her. "What? Surely you were able to deduce that." She sounded innocently confused.
"She can't have children? Why not?" Minako asked, standing inconspicuously behind Makoto. Her voice was quiet, and her eyes lowered and guarded.
Setsuna's face grew considerably darker. "Besides the fact that she simply cannot, if she were to use the ginzuishou in a manner as to allow herself to conceive, her own body would work against her. She would die before the infant could survive without her." Something black appeared in her eyes. "It has been tried, many times. Usually, a child is born with the aid of the Queen, and the Queen gives her blood to that child, and raises her as her own daughter."
Ami blinked. Her mind was already systematically running through the technical details derived from the implications of Setsuna's statement. "Does Koto know?"
It was Michiru's low chuckle that answered.
"Haven't any of you figured it out yet? They're exactly the same. Of course he knows. He's just like her."
"I wasn't aware that Koto could bear children." Mamoru commented, leaning against the wall in amusement.
Setsuna looked at him with only a hint of displeasure in her eyes, trying to ignore that Haruka, who stood beside her, was also waiting for the answer.
"Michiru means that they are the same sort of creature. If Koto were a female, which I assure you he is not, he, too, would have the same difficulty. So he understands. I wouldn't be surprised if he'd helped and offered his own blood. Mordred is most likely as much his child as Usagi's, which, honestly, is not much but is sufficient."
Sufficient for what? But no one had the chance to ask. Makoto stretched and took Minako's arm.
"I believe we have an apron-clad hottie to say farewell to, if none of you mind. See you all later." They left, without any sort of protest from a brooding Minako.
Ami nodded. "I need to go explain things to my mother." She sighed rather darkly. Rei agreed and muttered something about finding her grandfather and Yuichiro before walking Ami out the door.
Hotaru nodded. "I have no one, really, to say a goodbye to." She smiled sadly. "Would you like company, Mamoru, when you go to say adieu?"
Mamoru shook his head. "No thanks, Hotaru." He sighed and looked towards the door. "I'd better go by myself. I need to speak to my professors, and if I run I should catch most of them.
*Minna? Don't be alarmed. Telepathy is something I'll use with you often. But I had to warn you all... in about five seconds, you're going to ascend into the bodies that are rightfully yours...*
Usagi's sweet whisper flashed through his head and he froze at the top of the stairs leading away from the Hiwaka Shrine.
"What's THAT supposed to mean?!" He yelped aloud, just as a strange green glow took his body.
He looked down to find himself wearing the black armor of Endymion. His eyes wide, his felt his hair. Softer. He knew it now had a lavender sheen. Taller, stronger, with the earth humming in his veins.
He might have remarked something very sarcastic about tromping through Tokyo dressed like that, but Haruka's outraged shriek made him turn just in time to see her storm out of the Shrine, blue eyes blazing.
Her hair was now paler, with a blue tint here and there. Her face was older, more refined, but really, she was still the same Haruka, still tall and proud.
Except...
Haruka Ten'oh, tomboy extraordinaire, was wearing a gown. A strapless, navy blue gown that looked like it had been spun from the wind itself.
"I WILL NOT WEAR THIS DRESS!" She howled in absolute dismay. "I HAVE *CLEAVAGE*!"
Endymion's eyes dropped.
He felt decidedly uncomfortable.
Yes, Haruka did have cleavage. And what wonderful cleavage it was. So soft, so creamy...
She noticed his stare and her anger soared. Within half a second Endymion had the pleasure of knowing what it was to be socked in the jaw by Haruka.
"Don't LOOK AT MY BOOBS!"
Endymion wiped away a small tendril of blood that had leaked from his lip.
"Sorry, Haruka-kun." He kept his eyes on her forehead.
~'~
Endymion was rather enjoying himself. His new body liked a long, fast, sweeping stride and for some reason people instinctively moved out of his way in the usually impossibly crowded streets. The twenty minute gauntlet was now a quick five minute walk and he liked it.
He strode into the Arcade, pleased to see that Makoto and Minako, fully clad in their own sort of gown, already there and looking rather flushed.
Makoto was wearing a very short sort of Greek tunic, almost the same length of her senshi fuku and tinted a royal green. Her hair was pink, a startling change. Minako wore a long, golden gown that shimmered and shone, the hem slanting from her uppermost right thigh down to the of her left side, and her hair taking on a vivacity that was clearly inhuman.
"I see you both have experienced that lovely change." He said, his new voice just a tad deeper and possessing an almost hypnotic quality.
Minako nodded, the blush very becoming. Her hair moved constantly-- or was that just the glow?-- and she looked every bit a Queen of the planet of love. "We were in here when it happened. Did you know that you go fully naked for a moment?"
Makoto looked ready to kill. "Motoki saw us naked!" She pointed to an abashed male half hidden behind the counter. There was a very distinct handprint still pink on his cheek.
"*Everyone* saw us naked." Minako moaned.
Endymion chucked. "If it helps you, Queen Minako, Queen Haruka is now wearing a floor-length blue gown that shows off her cleavage."
Makoto slammed her fist down on the table of the booth and guffawed. "Oh, I bet she just *loves* it. I do notice that lovely purple in your jaw, though."
Minako smiled in a rather feral manner. "Were you staring at her cleavage, Endymion?"
Endymion was taken aback. "She drew my attention to it." He defended himself.
"MAMORU! Endymion! You RAN from me, you little coward! Get back here and fight!"
The Queen of Uranus exploded through the door of the Arcade. Whatever people who had dared to stay after the transformation of Makoto and Minako promptly fled at the sight of the Amazon, welding the Space Sword.
Michiru stood behind her lover, shaking her head sadly. "Darling, perhaps you should calm down. I'm sure the Prince didn't mean to look at your cleavage. And if he did... well, darling... it is such pretty cleavage..."
In the face of The Look, Haruka crumpled. The sword vanished and she sulkily walked over to the booth that Endymion stood in front of and took a seat beside Minako and buried her face into her arms.
"My life is over." She announced into the table.
Michiru slipped past Endymion to sit across from Haruka. "Dear, it's not all that bad. Think of it as an added advantage. What adversary would suspect a lady of violence?"
Haruka teetered for a moment, and then nodded, but did not sit up. "Maybe." She muttered.
Endymion let the breath so, relieved he would not loose his pride that particular day. "Did Motoki leave, too?" He asked, looking for his friend.
"No, Motoki did NOT, because Motoki wants to keep his job." A rather high, nervous voice came from behind the counter. "So, Mamoru... tell me this is just some weird Cosplay... that the glowie thing was weird props..."
Endymion shook his head. "Sorry, chum."
Minako smiled alluringly. "We wanted to tell you before, Motoki. Honest."
Motoki's head peeked up over the counter to examine the small group of celestial royalty.
"Someone really owes me an explanation..."
~'~