When I Was A Little Girl

Chapter 7

By: Chibi J

Rated: G

Standard Disclaimers.

This is dedicated to Sailor Sista, for her loving heart. Also, for her wonderful editing skills!! Also, to all my insane cohorts. *gets out bashful the bear* I hope you enjoy your reading!

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The silence on Minako's end of the phone line continued on so long that I almost hung up the phone. Sure, I may have stunned her, but the least she could do was breath so that I knew she was still alive.

"Minako, honey, if you don't breath you won't be able to fight evil." I said with a yawn. Looking over to my bed, my pillow looked very inviting. In the back of my mind, I registered that Minako had indeed begun breathing again. However, it did not seem as if she had come out of her unconscious state yet. Her mind was blank, nothing I did could prod her mind out of its stupor.

"Mina, if you don't come to soon, I'm hanging up. It's really late and I need sleep." I said finally. As much as I love this girl that I have never met face-to-face, she really could be quite a pain. Her middle of the night calls were often fun, but today was an exhausting day and I really wanted to go back to sleep.

"Usa, how did you know?" Minako's soft voice finally came across the phone line. That simple question confirmed the fact that I would not be getting much more sleep for the evening.

"Minako, it's a long story. I really don't want to tell you all of it by myself, so let me get Rei." I said, internally I was laughing. Rei has always hated having her sleep disturbed, yet I knew she would not want me to tell Minako all our secrets without her.

'Rei, wake up. I need you in my room.'

'Usa, what? Why? Go back to sleep.' Rei replied groggily. Again, I could feel her asleep. She always complained about how hard it was to wake me, but she was the original Sleeping Beauty, un-wake-able by any normal means.

'Rei, get up or I'll get the water bucket!' I shouted into her subconscious. Moments later I heard her footsteps outside my door. Throwing open the screen, Rei stepped in with an evil look upon her face.

"This better be important." She snarled before noticing the phone on my ear. "Is it Mina?" She asked with mild concern.

I simply smiled and allowed the message I had received from Mina's mind to play in my own. It was interesting to watch Rei's face change from exhaustion to worry to immense shock.

"Minako's a Sailor Senshi?!" Rei yelled, most likely awaking both Grandfather and Shingo at the same time. Quickly, she ran over and grabbed the second phone that connected to my phone.

"Mina! What's up?!" Rei asked quickly, but received an answer of empty air. Rei looked at me in question and I simply smiled.

"She seems to be having a bit of shock with all this." I said with a small hint of sarcasm.

"Understandable." Rei agreed.

Together, we sat on the phone and waited patiently until Minako felt ready to talk. We told her about our being Sailor Senshi, about our various talents and abilities, and about our special gifts that we had inherited from our family. Discussions of youma, Luna, and the battles we had fought left us talking into the early hours of the morning.

The idea of having to go to school jumped into my mind and I pleaded with Mina to let us go to bed for a few hours before we had to leave to pursue knowledge for the day. Although she really didn't want to let us go, she finally agreed to hang up the phone, but only after receiving a promise to talk later the next day.

*~*

School the next day was difficult, at best. Luckily, I have Ami in almost all of my classes. Although she understood my exhaustion, she refused to let me sleep through my classes. She was shocked to find there was another Sailor Senshi, especially in England. She found it terribly ironic that the same girl Rei and I met through a prank call was actually Sailor Venus.

As promised, Rei, Ami, and I spent the entire evening talking to Minako on the phone. She had explained how she met Artemis in the park at the exact moment a youma attacked. I was afraid that the monsters were spreading across the world, but Minako said that the beast seemed very lost. We all hoped that it was just some odd coincidence that he landed in that continent.

Time began to move quickly again, the winter holidays came and went without too much hassle from the dark empire. We still had an average of one youma per week, but they were not too terrible or difficult to handle. Minako had about three in the time we had twenty, yet she always said that they seemed very lost and confused. Ami quickly used her computer and determined that it was probably due to a portal. Quick as always, Ami mapped out the location for Mina and she destroyed the access point. Luckily for her, all was quiet after that.

Early in the month of February, our sensei at the martial arts center fell ill. He asked several of his older students to help him with his lessons, Rei and I included. Most of the classes were young children and Rei and I agreed to help.

*~*

"Kick, punch...(AN: lets just say this is a warm up routine)." I yelled out the instructions to the children, who complied immediately. Most of the children in my group were five and six year olds. Rei was working with a group of seven and eight year olds, including Shingo.

"Breath." I reminded the children as I wandered around the small group to observe their technique. However, my attention wandered over to a set of mats on the other side of the room. The building was large and had nine areas with mats and mirrors for lessons; my class was at mat two. On mat nine, was a man and a woman actively involved in a fight.

However, to simply call it a fight was to call an opera just singing. Their movements were fluid and graceful. It was as if the two people were dancing a routine that they had practiced for years. They seemed to read each other's mind in anticipation and preparation for the next move.

I found myself staring and completely ignoring my class. The beauty of the man with dark ebony hair and the girl with deep brown hair entranced me. Both were smiling, as if teasing one another. Their kicks and punches were accompanied by flips, twists, and high jumps. The mats below their feet seemed untouched by their light feet and movements.

I was fascinated. Silence filled my ears, and for a moment, I noticed nothing but "the dancers" performing. Snapping briefly to reality, I gave a quick check behind me that was still continuing through the warm up routine. I brought my eyes back to the match just in time to see the brunette make a swipe at the dark haired man. She missed, causing him the opportunity to bring her down and end the match.

With a sigh, I turned back to my class and resumed our lesson. However, my mind wandered. Who were those two? Why had I never seen them before? Unfortunately, Rei, who had been reading my thoughts, had no answer for me.

*~*

After a few weeks of working at the center, our sensei was back to perfect health and working again. Although I enjoyed my time working there, I was grateful to have back my small amount of free time. But I was slightly upset that I never saw the mysterious couple that sparred so beautifully.

With only a month and a half until summer vacation (AN: I don't know if I said before that I follow an American school calendar because I don't know the Japanese school year), I applied my self fully. Entrance exams were coming up and Ami kept me studying hard. Rei studied with us, but TA didn't require exams to enter the high school. It just reminded me of one more reason why I wanted to go back.

The week before the exams, the school was in a flurry of activity, so much so, that hardly anyone noticed a new girl enter through our classroom door. She seemed very familiar to me, but I put it aside and concentrated on my textbook.

"Class, this is Kino Makoto." The sensei said from the front of the classroom. I looked up and smiled at the girl. She had a tough demeanor and refused to meet my smile. With a slight huff, I began to work again. "Normally I would have you introduce yourself, but everyone is busy studying for exams." Sensei said to Makoto. She merely nodded and proceeded to the open desk the sensei pointed out.

"Ami, I just don't get this one." I pleaded to Ami, who in turn gave a sigh. She knew the information forward and backwards and promised to help me study. Ami had made a vow to not let me fail, which she probably wished she had never done.

"Usa, it's simple. Look." She said and worked through the problem. Her hands moved the pencil across the paper like an artist with a paintbrush. "Done." She said with a smile.

I looked up to see that about five faces were turned and watching Ami do the problem. Being the school genius, many looked to Ami for advice and help, but she concentrated on me.

"Okay, enough of all this." I said and put my pencil away. "Let's talk about this weekend, after the exam."

Ami smiled at me and sighed. She knew not to try and persuade me to work more. After all, there is only so much a mind can take, especially mine.

"Well, what does Rei say?" Ami asked, knowing that all three of us needed to agree on something this time. Agreements between the three of us were very seldom.

"She insists on a sleepover." I told Ami, after a brief communication with Rei.

"Okay, that's doable." Ami said, and scribbled on the notepad in front of her. "How about we go to the museum?" She suggested.

I simply turned up my nose, effectively sharing my feelings. "Rei agrees with me, no museum."

Ami chuckled and thought for a while. Rei was rambling in my head, leaving me little time to have my own thoughts on the subject.

"Rei thinks we should go skating, get ice cream, or go to the mall." I supplied to Ami, who turned up her nose.

"We always go to the mall!" Ami argued. Now my mind was really turning. Rei was arguing with Ami, even though I had to voice the words.

"Rei says we do not and that you always want to go to the museum." I supplied. Ami was turning red.

"I do not!" She shouted, before quickly covering her mouth. A dirty look from our teacher had Ami quickly apologizing. "Gomen sensei." Turning a brilliant shade of red, Ami turned back to me with a glare.

"Hey, don't shoot the messenger!" I pleaded with my hands raised in innocence. Ami huffed and decided not to finish the conversation.

I sighed and replied to Rei that we were done planning. She "signed off" and I went back to working at my desk. Too flustered to work on academics, I began doodling on scrap paper, unaware that someone had been watching throughout our entire conversation.

*~*

Ami and I met for lunch at our normal tree on the outskirts of the school. It was always quiet and we could discuss anything without worry of interruption or being overheard.

"Um, Ami, what about going to a movie?" I asked her, as I unpacked my lunch onto a napkin. "Anything new out?"

Without a pause, Ami reached into thin air and produced her mini-computer. She flipped it open and pushed a button.

"Ami-1022-9." She said in a monotone voice that the computer would recognize.

"Welcome Mercury." The computer responded in a digital voice. "How may I help you?"

"Movie listings please." After a moment of humming, the computer listed a display of the local theaters, shows, and times.

"Anything new we haven't seen?" I asked. Even looking over her shoulder, I had difficulty reading the mini-computer. Not only was it small, but organized in a way that worked best for Ami.

"Nope." Ami said as she closed down the screen.

"Would you like anything else today Mercury?" The computer asked.

"No thank you, I think we are set. You may shut down." Ami replied as if talking to a friend she had known for years.

"Thank you. Shutting down." The computer responded. When the screen went blank, Ami closed it and set it aside.

Ami and I finished our lunch and returned to class, where we were again given a free period to study. Knowing how important the exams were, it was more than likely that we would not be given an actual lecture or assignment all week. The teachers were too involved in helping those who needed to catch up desperately, or be stuck with them another year. I was lucky to have Ami as my personal tutor.

We took two seats near the back. We were studying English when I heard an unfamiliar voice cussing behind me.

"Work damn it!" The girl kept shouting. Ami and I looked back to see that someone had set up a folder and was hiding behind it. "Come on, work!"

"Command not valid." A digital voice spoke out. Ami and I quickly looked to each other, immediately recognizing the voice. With a quick move, Ami tried to reach into her dimensional pocket, only finding her henshin wand.

"I didn't put it away!" She whispered fiercely to me. We both stood and walked to the desk behind us.

"Excuse me?" I asked as I approached the girl. She was the new girl from this morning.

"What do you want?" She said with a growl. Although pretty in face, her attitude sucked.

"That belongs to my friend Ami. Please return it." I said in my most calm, clear, and insistent voice.

"Doesn't matter. It's a broken piece of crap." She said as she threw it into the air. Ami and I both gasped, watching it fly through the air as if in slow motion. I immediately launched my body to catch it, forgetting the desk in front of me. I flopped on the desk most ungracefully. Ami lunged for it, being on the correct side of the desk, but came up short.

Within a moment, however, another hand snaked out and grabbed it. The hand was the same that threw it. With a smile, she pocketed the device in her skirt pocket.

"Tsukino, Mizuno, Kino-hall now!" The sensei shouted from the front of the class. In my attempt to get the computer, I had flopped the desk to the ground and Ami was sprawled on the floor. We made quite the sight, although my teacher seemed to thing we were being disruptive. Possibly due to everyone laughing hysterically at us.

With our heads down in shame, Ami and I walked towards the front of the class and out the door. However, the girl, Makoto, walked with her head held high and proud. We were all stuck out in the hall for the rest of the class to "contemplate" what the exams mean to us and if we could afford to waste study time.

As Makoto passed us out the door, she slipped the mini-computer to Ami. I looked up to see her smiling as she leaned against the wall. Ami immediately opened the computer and clicked away at buttons. Again giving it her password, the computer complied.

"Hey! I said that and it wouldn't do a thing!" Makoto cried out from her position on the wall. Ami and I chose to ignore her.

"Memory check."

"Clear."

"File check."

"All files found."

"Theft lock."

"One attempted unauthorized entrance."

"Storage."

"No items removed from storage."

"Secrecy."

"No secrets revealed."

Ami finished her system checks with the computer while I watched. Unknowingly, Makoto had scooted closer to us on the wall.

"Geez, talk about computer friendly." She commented from behind my shoulder. I immediately turned to glare at the girl, that unfortunately stood a good four inches taller than me.

"It's none of your business." I replied with anger.

"Usagi." Ami admonished me with a look. "Thank you for returning this." Ami said with an even tone. As always, Ami tried to keep peace in the world, not just from monsters, but with everyone.

"Whatever." Makoto replied before scooting back down the wall. We all stood there quietly until Ami decided that she could keep me studying in the hall. She would ask me a word and I would give the English translation. I was doing well until I hit a word that I thought I had never heard before.

"Bacon?" I asked unsure.

"No."

"Tomato?"

"No."

"Relish?"

"No. Come on Usa." Ami pleaded with me.

"Well, I know it's a food!" I whined. I really hate studying.

"Potato."

"Huh?"

"She's right." Ami supplied.

"She's right?" I asked. Makoto had supplied the answer that I had been trying so hard to get. "How do you know?" I asked her, maybe a little harsher than I should have.

"I like to cook, so sue me." Makoto replied in a huff. She once again turned away from us. I looked back to Ami and she nodded to me. Without a word between us, we both walked the few steps to stand besides Makoto.

"Look, we started off on the wrong foot. I'm Usagi, this is Ami." I said as I stuck out my hand. She took it in her slightly larger hand and shook it. As if a peace offering, Makoto smiled.

"Okay, first, I'm Makoto." She started. However, with her tone of voice and the way she talked, I knew that there was more coming. "Second, I've seen you before at the martial arts center." She said looking at me. As if a dawning light, my face lit up with recognition. This was the girl that had been sparring the other day on mat nine! "And I can see that you now recognize me. Third. Who is Rei? Do you have some kind of mental disorder with multiple personalities or something?"

Ami looked to me and I could see her face drain of color, as mine was. I tried quickly to think of a dozen excuses, none forthcoming. I thought of asking Rei for help, but knew that I needed to answer quickly. Ami, bless her genius and ability to work under pressure, simply shrugged her shoulder.

"Are you busy this afternoon?" I asked. Maybe it was a stall, I'm not certain. "It will take a while to answer everything."

"I suppose so. I just have to check in at, umm, home." I nodded, but noted that the last word, "home", came out in a sense of confusion. Perhaps I wouldn't be the only one sharing secrets by the end of the night.

For some reason, I had a feeling that I could trust this girl, although I knew nothing of her.

*~*

I had informed Rei of the fact that Makoto would be coming over shortly after school let out, although I didn't tell her why. Ami told me that I should warn her, but I felt that I could wait to be burned until later.

Ami and I arrived at the shrine to find Rei already sweeping the steps. Not one to waste time, I picked up a rake and started working on the yard. Ami, as usual, was working on her computer with Luna asking some questions. We had been trying to determine the motives of the youma, but so far hadn't gotten farther than energy collection. There had to be some other underlying plan.

So, immersed in what we were doing, we never heard Makoto coming up the stairs. At first, it seemed that nothing was wrong and that she hadn't heard Luna speaking or Ami speaking back. Nor had she noticed that Rei and I were having an argument, in which only she was speaking.

"Makoto! Welcome to the Hikawa shrine!" I said and skipped merrily to her side. She seemed to be laughing at me, though I was used to people doing that. "Okay, introductions. Kino Makoto this is my cousin Hino Rei and you remember Ami from school and of course you all know that I'm Usagi." I ended with a chipper laugh.

Which caused Rei to groan. "Give up Usa! We all know that your nuts, stop trying to prove it!" Rei said and stuck out her tongue.

'Yeah, well, if I'm nuts, so are you Pyro!' I yelled in my mind, knowing that it would scream in her mind.

"I'm not a Pyro!" Rei yelled and began to chase me with a handful of leaves. I ran, although I could still hear Ami.

"Please excuse them, they are always like this." She said with a smile.

Shortly later, out of breath, Rei and I collapsed on the stairs by Ami and Makoto. Someone had brought out tea and cookies, most likely Grandfather, and the two girls were talking quietly about the school.

"What we talking about?" I asked, finally gaining back my breath.

"The school. You know, classes, teachers, rumors...that kind of thing." Ami replied with a smile. I knew that she was just trying to assure me that she hadn't been talking about anything really important.

"Okay, so I want some information." Makoto started roughly. I could tell that it was just an act, or Rei would have said something about her aura by now. "First, what's with the talking cat?"

The blood rushed from all of our faces and Luna simply stared at her. The girl was observant.

"Okay, no answer to that one, so I'll ask it directly." She said, and then turned to Luna. "How is it that you, a cat, can talk?"

"Well..." Luna started. The cat was out of the bag (AN: I know, bad pun) so she decided to just give in. Besides, she sensed something from this girl. "I am what you might call a guardian. I have been sent here to care for and train Usagi, Rei, and Ami."

"Okay." Makoto answered simply. The fact that the cat could talk seemed to have little affect on her. "That makes sense. Can't train someone if they can't understand you."

I looked in-between Rei and Ami, wondering if they could believe what was happening here. This new girl was having a conversation with our cat as if it were completely normal. Even though we accepted it, we never considered it to be a normal occurrence.

"Second question. Your Rei." Makoto said pointing. "Usagi was answering questions for you to Ami. How did she know what to answer? It seemed like she wasn't just making up an answer based on how she knows you."

Again, silence greeted her question. At that moment, another voice joined our conversation.

"Usagi and Rei can communicate telepathically. It's a gift handed down in our family." Grandfather answered the girl. She nodded her head as if in appreciation of the question. By the time I had turned around to ask Grandfather why he told her, he was gone.

"Nice guy. Gets straight to the point." Makoto said with a laugh. "Okay, so that leaves one last question. You have a talking cat, can communicate telepathically, I've seen the things that computer can do, and I know that at least Usagi here can fight. So who are you guys really?"

I shrugged my shoulders. After all, she knew everything else, why not blow all our secrets. "We are the Sailor Senshi. I'm Sailor Moon, Rei is Sailor Mars, and Ami is Sailor Mercury."

Again, Makoto just nodded her head, as if she was finding the last pieces of a large puzzle. "Makes sense, the computer called Ami Mercury." She paused for a moment before her face lit up. "So, how do I join?"

"You can't just join. You have to be..." But Rei's sentence was cut off by Luna doing one of her ever-famous back flips. A green henshin wand fell to the ground in front of Makoto.

"It's really quite simple." Luna answered. Makoto picked up the wand and the previously silent wind seemed to pick up around us. Energy was surging through Makoto's body and we all felt it, like a shock from an electrical socket.

"I knew it. I always knew it." Makoto mumbled to herself, as if confirming every suspicion she had ever had. "I told him I was right."

"What?" I asked, curious about the pieces of information I was obviously missing.

"Nothing." She said with a tone that indicated no further conversation would occur on the subject.

"Welcome Sailor Jupiter." Luna said with a smile as Makoto continued to twirl the henshin wand in her hand. "All you need to say is 'Jupiter Power Make-up' and you will transform. But I don't advise you to do it now; we are in too public of a place. The girls can take you to the training area later. For now, I believe they have some questions for you."

Makoto nodded her understanding and put her wand into her dimensional pocket, immediately knowing where it was. This stunned all of us, even Luna, as none of us had that information until Luna told us.

"Okay, me first. How did you know what to do with your wand?" Rei asked skeptically. She could believe that this girl was Jupiter, but it appeared that she couldn't trust how she knew everything. But, that was my darling cousin.

"I've always known about things. Kind of like a premonition. My dreams tend to dictate the course my life will take. A friend of mine used to share his dreams with me and we tried to discover the meaning of them. Shortly after that, we realized that my dreams had meaning too."

"Works for me." I said with a smile. "Why did you transfer to Juban Junior High?" I asked, which caused her to look down in shame.

"I got kicked out for fighting and having a bad attitude. I couldn't care less. People were always teasing me. I'm better off with a fresh start." She answered, almost as if explaining it to herself.

"Why do people tease you?" Ami asked quietly.

"Because I'm an orphan. My only friend is a guy that I know from the orphanage. Actually, he's letting me stay at his apartment until I can get my own. I can't wait!" Makoto ended with a smile. Her smile quickly turned to a frown as she realized that she perhaps shouldn't have said what she did. "Great! Just great! Now you'll all either have pity or nicknames and rumors to start about me." She said with a sigh. She stood and started pacing.

I quickly leapt to my feet and approached the girl. Makoto stopped and looked at me. I could not only see the small tears forming in the corners, but also the fear.

"Please, don't ever worry about that." I said and took her hand into mine, trying to comfort her. "I lost both my parents when I was seven. Rei's mother died when she was six. Ami's father passed away when she was only four. We all share the tragedy of death in our lives. Never fear the need to talk about it with any of us."

"Thank you Usagi. I truly appreciate it." Makoto answered, wiping a few tears from her eyes. "Any other questions?" She asked, her voice taking on a much more chipper tone.

"Yeah!" I said with a giggle. "Who were you sparring with the other day?"

Rei gave a small giggle once she heard my question. Makoto looked at her and realized that she had been at the center that day too. A blush rose on Makoto's cheeks. "I didn't realize that anyone had been watching us."

"Well?" Rei pressed for the answer.

"Oh, he's my roommate, Chiba Mamoru."

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You wanted it, you got it. End Chapter 7! Wait for Chapter 8 *wink, wink*

Please review or e-mail or let me know in some way that you liked or disliked what you just read. ChibiJ77@yahoo.com