Standard disclaimer

Standard disclaimer – actually, if you want a disclaimer, look at the previous chapters. I don't feel like writing one out for this.

Oh yea, and peoples, please be nice! I know next to nothing about the Japanese schooling structure, so I am simply going to make it incredibly westernized!

( p.s. – anyone with inf. on the structure please email me at spirit_of_cosmos@hotmail.com!)

Got some Japanese words in this one!:

Bento – lunch box – the presentation is very important and its considered nice to share it.

Chan – ending suffix usually used only with girls and their close friends – used affectionately

Fuku – literally, clothing – used to describe the uniform the senshi wear

Hai - yes

Thanks goes to Immora for the definitions!

Chapter 5 – Arrival??!!

With a flash of brightly colored lights, four girls appeared in the middle of a small grove of trees.

"Wow," Venus sat down unceremoniously in the soft carpet of moss she was standing on. "So guys, I'm guessing we're here?"

"According to my readings, we have arrived in dimension 784522, space and time coordinates all match up, the parameter alignment is in the correct alignment…" Mercury typed away at a small keyboard, reading the results that scrolled across her visor.

"Please Mercury, layman's terms?" Mars said, exasperated with the definitions, which meant nothing to the priestess.

Ami glanced over at the violet haired girl, and blushed as she realized her explanation had gone right over her friend's heads. "We have arrived."

"Come on Usagi!" A red haired girl called from across the wide, grassy lunch area.

"Coming Naru-chan!" A tow headed girl of nine skipped over the grass to her best friend in the whole fourth grade. "So, what did you bring today?"

Opening the lunch box, Naru proudly showed off the contents of her bento; sushi, carefully arranged in one corner of the box, rice, some snacks, and a strangely, brightly colored package.

"What's that?" Usagi pointed toward the foreign object nestled between the rice and the sushi in Naru's bento.

"Oh, its called a 'Fruit Roll Up,'" Naru explained. "My mom says its made in America."

"Really? What does it taste like?" Usagi asked, a curiosity evident in her features.

"I'm not sure. I've never had it before – today will be the first time I will have ever eaten it."

"Can I have some?" Usagi asked eagerly, always on the lookout for new food.

"Yes, but lets save it for dessert. What do you have?"

As Usagi opened her bento to show her friend all the food her mama had made for her, she felt a sudden power towards the east. Food forgotten, her head snapped up as she tried to pinpoint the exact location it came from.

In a fifth grade classroom located inside the building, a boy of 11 also felt the sudden power. Straightening up from the notes he had been taking, Trunks stared out the window overlooking the lunch area. He noticed Usagi had stood and was facing the east. She must have felt it too. He thought to himself, wondering what could have caused such a large disturbance.

A ruler snapped down on his desk, creating a loud, resounding smack that echoed throughout the classroom, drawing the attention of the other students. Trunks looked up into the face of his sensei, cringing as he saw the expression on her face.

"Kindly explain, Briefs, why it is you are more interested in what's going on outside than what is going on inside your classroom?"

"Go-gomen nasai, sensei," Trunks spluttered as he realized that his teacher was waiting for an explanation. "I was simply… ummm…"

"Yes, as I thought. Tonight I would like you to do pages 187 through 199, numbers 1-25."

Trunks breathed a sigh of relief at the low number of problems the teacher had assigned him. That look was quickly wiped off his face as his teacher added more to the assignment.

"Numbers 1 – 25 on page 187. On page 188, numbers 1-19, on page 189, numbers 1 through 27, on page 190…"

Trunks groaned as he realized he wouldn't be able to have any time to investigate the sudden surge of power that had suddenly shown up in the east. Well, I guess its all up to Usagi-chan now…

Back in the lunch area, Usagi had now stood up and was staring intently to the east.

"What's wrong, Usa-chan?" Naru stood up as well, straining to see what Usagi was so obviously staring at. "What is it? I don't see anything…"

"Shhh…." Usagi said to her friend, bringing a finger up to her lips to hush her. "Someone's here. I have to go see what happened… Cover for me, Naru-chan?"

Naru looked at Usagi speculatively. "Well… I guess I will…"

"Thanks! You're the greatest!" Usagi enveloped her friend in a huge bear hug, practically crushing her.

"Umm- Usa – I – really can't breathe too well when your crushing the life out of me…" Naru choked out, her face gaining a rather bluish tint as a result of being the recipient of a hug from Usagi.

"Sorry, didn't mean to. I really should watch my strength, shouldn't I?"

"That's…" Naru said in between breaths, "that's really an understatement there Usa-chan…"

Usagi giggled at Naru, and as she began to sprint across the grass, called back over her shoulder, "Oh, and by the way, you can have the rest of my lunch! And tell Trunks I went searching! He will understand!"

"Right…" Naru said to herself, not bothering to yell back at Usagi's swiftly retreating figure. "Like she would be able to hear me anyway…" Naru sighed in defeat, and sat back down to eat her lunch.

"We're here! Yes! Now we can get Usagi, and our job here will be done!" Jupiter crowed triumphantly.

"Remember Jupiter, we can't force her to come back," Mars said quietly. "Remember what Pluto said?"

"Hai… No forcing… but she will have to remember! We will just sit her down and explain the situation, and try to make her understand," Venus said quickly.

"Perhaps here she will be more mature, and listen to what we will say with a level head," Jupiter said.

Mercury quickly jumped to Usagi's defense. "You know, Usagi was mature for her age. She may not have acted like it all the time, but she could act very adult when she wanted to."

"I agree with Mercury," Mars responded quietly. "I may have teased Usa-chan, but if you looked inside her eyes, you could tell that she has gone through a lot. So many things have aged her, and if she truly bared her soul, anyone would feel like she had gone through more than her share of hard times in her life."

The four girls faced each other quietly, a look of somber understanding passing between them. Suddenly, Mercury broke the ensuing silence with a small uncomfortable laugh. "You know guys, we should really get out of our fuku. People here have likely never heard of the Sailor Senshi, and we are bound to get strange looks if we walk out of here and into civilization looking like this."

Each girl nodded, and in a flurry of lights, changed back into regular street clothes. "Alright, are we ready to go?" Minako asked, addressing the group as a whole.

A flurry of echoing positive responses, and seconds later, a group of four girls stepped out of the forest and into a hopefully civilized world.

"Now, where did that energy come from?" Usagi said quietly to herself. She had been flying straight toward the energy that had suddenly appeared for about ten minutes, when it suddenly gone out, if you will. She had lost the beacon of energy that had caught her attention, and had been steadily cruising above a large section of virgin forest, populated only with white ash. The trees grew tightly together, and their interlocking branches covered anyone walking beneath them. It was definitely not helping Usagi search for the new power that had mysteriously manifested itself somewhere around, and was also definitely not helping Usagi's temper. Used to succeeding at (mostly) anything she tried her hand at, and quickly at that, the current situation was making Usagi get very annoyed and impatient, almost to the point of true anger.

"If I don't find those powers soon…. I'm gonna go Super Sayjin! That is, if I could go super sayjin… I need to learn that…" Usagi clenched her fist as she flew over the forest. Sparks were literally flying, and she was on the verge of conjuring up a ball of energy and destroying some trees when she saw a flash of color about 100 yards away in the forest. Her tension suddenly vanished as she grinned and veered toward what she had seen.

"Bingo," she muttered, excitement now coursing through her.

"You know Ami, didn't you say that we were going to walk into civilization a little while ago? Well… I believed you then… But look where we are now! Still in the middle of a freaking forest!" Minako cried out, and turned to face the senshi of Mercury questioningly.

"Ummm… yea, well this is a new dimension…. Maybe my equipment doesn't work the same here…"

"You mean maybe it doesn't work at all here," Rei muttered, swatting at a bug that buzzed around her head.

"Yea, well I would do another scan, but I'm afraid that I will simply get us more lost by trying that. Besides, we have already reverted back to our normal forms, and transforming again wouldn't be too smart. Lets just not worry about it and get back to the task of getting out of this forest," Ami explained, a small blush apparent on her delicate features.

"Mmmm… and I have the feeling that transforming attracts attention. When we are in our senshi forms, I think we exude energy. To a person trained to sense that kind of stuff, we would be veritable candles to a moth," Makoto spoke up. "Rei, can't you sense that kind of stuff?"

"Yea, I can actually. But usually its peoples auras and things like that. I would have to learn to focus my senses and locate powers that are far away from me," Rei confirmed Makoto's statement as she fought her way through some thorns. "I swear this forest has something against us. Those thorns are killer."

Her remark was met with resounding groans and deep sighs. "May as well keep going, and try not to think about our wonderful situation, right girls?" Minako said.

"Don't talk to me…" Makoto said, wincing as a tree branch came and hit her in the back of the head. "Ouch! Dammit!"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ meanwhile ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Huiri Ayashi?"

"Here."

"Bakemono Sanosuke?"

"Here."

"Briefs, Usagi?" There was no response. The teacher raised his head and looked around the room. "Usagi?"

"Ummm… Ms. Moyoko… Usagi's mom came… and she took her away… for an appointment…" Naru struggled to piece together a reasonable sounding explanation for the teacher. "A dentist appointment…"

"Hmmm…wonder why she didn't notify me," the teacher mused. "They should have rescheduled or something…"

"It was urgent…" Naru said quickly.

"Urgent, huh?" Ms. Moyoko raised an eyebrow at her red headed student. "Must have been some cavity…"

"Yea…" Naru laughed nervously, sweatdrops rolling down her face.

"Well, onto the lesson…."

"Not again! My skirt is going to be in tatters by the time we get out of here!" Rei yelled at a wayward thorn that had gotten caught in her skirt.

"Rei… it's ok, we will find a way out eventually," Minako placed a comforting hand on Rei's shoulder, trying to calm her.

"Minako, give it up. I don't thing Rei…" Ami trailed off as her eyes widened and her jaw dropped at the sight in front of her.

"You were saying, Ami?" Makoto asked tiredly, and looking up at her blue haired friend, stopped dead at what she saw. Minako was plodding along slowly behind Makoto, not looking where she was going, and so was unprepared when the senshi of Jupiter stopped.

"Makoto, why did you…" Minako stopped talking as she realized why all progress had halted.

"You know guys, the sooner we - " Rei fell silent at the sight of a nine year old, blond haired girl, hovering about a foot in the air in front of their small group.

"Having a hard time getting out of here?" the new girl asked in a quiet voice, gracing them all with a small smile. "You sure look it."

Four girls gasped as she went on. "My name is Son Usagi, and I live around here. I know these forests like the back of my hand… Well, maybe not the back of my hand…" Usagi landed in front of the group.

"Usagi… Usagi?" Rei asked, stumbling over the name.

"Yea… that's my name… what's yours?"

Well, what did you guys think? I know, weak ending and all, and I apologize for all grammatical and spelling errors, as always. And oh yea, if I used any words wrong (Japanese ones, that is) please tell me. Remember, r/r! Or you won't get any of these wonderful brownies I just made? What? You're scared of my cooking? Yea, so am I… don't worry, these are store bought anyway…

Spirit of Cosmos