Chapter Two: The Senshi of Love; Clearing of the Fog

"Well, now that I have a pet to take care of, I better go to the store, okay Mama?" I inquired.

"Absolutely. And maybe you should also get him neutered. Who knows what kind of trouble the cat will get into."

I snickered at Combat C, whose eyes had eyes had gotten a big as saucers. "Don't worry, Mama, I think he's already neutered."

"How can you tell?"

I blinked, and said, "Well, I think he's missing parts of his atonomy."

Mama looked at me and then at C.C. with a critical eye. "Never mind."

I left to enter my room, poor C.C. huffing and puffing along.

"You are an entirely despicable person." He growled.

"Well, it was either that or take you to the vet. What's it going to be?" He merely settled himself on my bed, muttering to himself. "Anyways, what do you eat?"

"The good kind of cat food. No substitutes or something gross, alright?"

"Can do, C.C." I answered as I left the room and headed out to town. The weather had cleared up since that fateful day I discovered my destiny. To fight and defend. What it was was still a mystery, even to C.C. He told me that his memories were limited and that as time wore on, he'd be sure to remember more. Now all we had to go on was the fact that I was to find the other three that made up my team, the Aura Senshi.

'Aura senshi? What the hell?' I thought to myself as I waltzed into the store and nearly knocked a girl about my age on her rump.

"Oh, I am so, so sorry. I was so lost in thought that I didn't see you...." I blinked in surprise. 'How could I not miss her?' was my first thought. My second thought was 'Wonder if her mom let's her wear that kind of clothing?' Her hair was cut around her ears, colored dark red. Her eyes were unusual as she had one orange eye and one yellow eye. She was taller than me by about five inches and wore a white bikini top that was covered by a black leather jacket. Her pants hugged her, colored from top to bottom in the order of yellow, orange, and red that ended with white ankle-high boots. Her face, to my surprise, was clean of makeup and her smile seemed genuine, not at all as wild as her outfit told me she'd be.

"Please forgive me," she bowed. "I wasn't watching where I was going."

"Oh, oh, no, it was my fault," I tried to interject but she interrupted me.

"To make it up, how about an ice cream treat?" That quickly changed my mind.

"Sure, I know this great place to go."

It ended up to be both one of our favorite places to go. We settled down and introduced ourselves.

I went first. " My name is Shukumei Shuushi but you can call me Shuu. I'm in the ninth grade where I go to Kagoshima High."

"Really? I go there too. I am Rekisuu Aijou but you may call me Aijou. I was just at the store to buy some items for my grandparents."

"Heh, I was buying some cat food."

"You have a cat? I love cats, especially the soft beautiful ones."

"Well, this one's scrawny and scraggly." I grinned at her. The waitress came up and I asked for a double chocolate sundae while Aijou asked for a strawberry sherbet shake.

"Yum," I exclaimed, digging into my order. Aijou smiled sweetly and ate slowly. In minutes, I had finished my treat and we had become the best of friends.

"It's surprising, really. We go to the same school, we're in the same grade and yet we never met each other before. Especially since this is such a small town."

"Maybe it was fate," I suggested. I was licking my spoon off when I choked, spying C.C. at the windowsill. He meowed loudly, rather pompous, getting more than the attention he wanted. The ice cream owner grabbed his broom and Aijou and I ran outside to watch him be chased down the street. I was laughing so hard, I thought my sides would split.

"Aw, poor C.C." I giggled.

"You know that cat?"

"Yea, he's mine."

The owner had returned and entered his store. I walked down the street looking for C.C. I was surprised by a familiar stinging pain on my leg. "Could you scratch me in another leg? This one's still healing from last time." He only meowed at me and surprised me again by jumping up into my arms.

"He's not scraggly. He's pretty." Aijou spoke from behind.

"Yea, well do you want him?" That gave a painful response as C.C. bit my thumb. Thankfully for him, I managed to not throw into temptation and toss him over my shoulder. "Just kidding."

She only smiled and shook her head at me. We walked back to the grocery store and I remembered my errand. "Could you hold C.C. for me?" I asked.

"C.C.?" She asked, taking him from me.

"His full name is Combat C." I answered as I went into the store. I was in there for a few minutes and left. Aijou escorted me home, holding C.C. all the way there.

"It was very nice meeting you." She said, bowing slightly.

"I had fun. We should do this again." I smiled brightly at her.

"Goodbye," she waved as she left. The instant she disappeared from my sight I grasped C.C. by his cuff and glared at him. "What was that attitude for? I have half a mind to not feed you."

He hissed as he jumped to the ground. "Well, if you hadn't been laughing at me, maybe I wouldn't have to punish you."

"Punish me? Why you little.."

"Anyways," he interrupted. "I think that girl has something we're looking for. She maybe one of you."

"Cool, let's go tell her."

"Ah yes, and while we're at it, why don't we prance around in silly outfits chanting, La La la."

"I don't get your sense of humor."

"Shut up and follow me. She couldn't have gotten far."

"You know," I yelled. " We could have had her stay, you stupid dumb-ass cat." I chased him down as he turned a corner and another, leaving me spinning. He came to a stop and I nearly tripped over him.

"Shuu?" I tried to come with an excuse why I was lying face down in the dirt but C.C. did it for me.

"Rekisuu Aijou, you are one of the legendary soldiers of the Moon Combat Unit, Sailor Cupid, the senshi of love."

Aijou frowned. "Who said that?" Her head moving sideways.

"Look down," C.C. answered. Promptly she did and then screamed and collapsed.

"Oh great, this is just perfect," C.C. muttered. I on the other hand was gaping into the sky. I seemed to be seeing an gigantic mosquito flying right toward me.

"Uh, C.C.?" I stammered. "I think we have a bug situation." The huge creature lands several feet away, it's wings going so fast and kicking wind so hard that some of the trees broke down. It was a miracle that I was still standing. Until Aijou's limp body collided with mine and we both fell backwards.

"Shuushi, transform now," C.C. shouted.

"But what about Aijou?"

"Never mind about her. I'll watch her. Go get that bug."

I pushed Aijou off of me and found my pen.

"Moon Janus Aura Mode." The light again blasted through me and I stood in my senshi outfit.

"Hey, you, you icky bug, you." I shouted. "As the warrior of the moon, under the god of Janus, I am the senshi of beginnings and it's time to begin the countdown to your defeat."

The bug lunged at me, it's fat arm swiping at me. 'What am I supposed to do now?' I thought bewilderly.

"Damn it, Janus, attack the thing already." I heard C.C. shout. "The power is in you, find it now."

I closed my eyes and concentrated. To me it felt like forever to find that power but in reality it took only seconds.

"Janus's Beginnings of Chaos Create." I raised my hand straight in front, my palm facing outward and the blast exited my body and hit the monster head on. It screamed and I jumped to the side to avoid it withering body. I tripped and felt pain in my ankle as I found the creature staring down at me with hungry, empty eyes. "C.C. help me, please."

It moved closer when I heard the words, "Cupid's Love Arrow." The attack hit the monster in the back and went straight through its chest and it turned to dust that blew away instantly.

"Sailor...Cupid?" I asked.

Aijou, now Sailor Cupid, faced me. Her outfit was just like mine, only the pants were red, the buttons orange and her crescents on the boots being red. Her tiara was silver save for the diamond that was red as was the choker she wore around her neck. "What happened?"

"Alright," I shouted, jumping on Aijou with happiness in a frenzied hug. "We're partners in crime."

"But I did nothing wrong," she protested as poor C.C. howled in pain as his tail was stomped.

Things eventually calmed down and the truth was told to Aijou. Of course we still didn't have a lot of info on why we were who we are, all we knew was that soon we would be needed. And that was all we needed to know for now. As for our friendship, we became the best friends for each other and unbeknownst to ourselves, our friendship strengthened our powers, as well as our bond. Now that there's two, I'm looking forward to the others as well. After all, it takes more than two to tango. Until next time, End Combat Mode.

FIN