Sailor moon

Court of Stars

Chapter 6: A whole new can of worms.

"Usagi!" the blue haired woman that was her mother walked along the landing to her daughter's door. "Usagi! If you don't wake up soon you'll be late for school again." Pressing her ear to the door she slowly opened it and looked inside only to find Usagi's bed already made and the blonde already long gone…

Usagi walked slowly through the gardens at the back of the school, her bent, as she thought hard about all she'd heard the night before. She'd never seen the other scouts look so… creepy. It was like that whenever anyone even so much as mentioned Crystal Tokyo. Had she been like that? She walked a little longer until she accidentally bumped into someone on the path.

"Ooof!" the girl she'd walked into landed on the path with a muted thud. Usagi looked up and took a moment to realize who she'd bumped into as the girl began muttering to herself.

"I can't believe I did that again." Her voice was soft, and Usagi had to strain to hear it. "That's the second time in a week that I've bumped into someone like that, first Ranko and now this…" Kotori looked up at last and nearly passed out at who she saw. "Oh I am soooo sorry I didn't mean to bump into you." Kotori knew she was running away from the confrontation but she couldn't help it. Dante had told her about the disguise fields that covered the other Senshi and herself when they where transformed but when the fairies just happened to be running around in her vision wearing little fukus and throwing around paper hearts that looked like one of Sailor Moon's attacks it wasn't hard to connect the dots and find the correct conclusion. As far as she knew, the little magic constructs where never wrong. Usagi shook her head, a little dazed and waved off the apologies before laughing.

"Oh don't worry about it." She said loudly. "I do that all the time." She'd recovered her cheerful ditzy demeanor again now that her melancholy mood had been dispelled. Usagi backed up on that thought. 'What did melancholy mean?' Kotori smiled weakly and bowed ever so slightly in apology before lightly ghosting around her and hurrying away down the path. Usagi just shook her head and continued on before she looked down at her watch and finally registered the time.

"WAAAAA!!! I'M LATE!!!!"

Ryoga and Ranko sat in the arcade waiting for Kotori to come along. The girl had mentioned that she needed to tell them something, and the pair had agreed to meet her. Well, only Ranko was supposed to be there but she guessed that Kotori would understand. She just couldn't keep any secrets from her husband, not if they were going to escape Nabiki's notice successfully. The snacks they'd ordered had just been delivered to their table when the girl they where waiting for slipped into the building behind the loudmouth, Usagi from one of the other classes in their year. The two martial artists could easily see that she was trying to be discrete about entering although they where the only ones who noticed her. Her footsteps so quiet as she slipped in unobtrusively, that even then, Ranko had trouble following her progress.

'She's so used to walking in the background.' The red head noted mentally. Kotori finally reached them and slid into the chair across from Ryoga.

"Ranko," she started in a low voice. "I think I know who some of the planetary Senshi are." Ryoga's eyes went wide and Ranko's expression was a mix of amusement and curiosity.

"How did you find out so quickly?" she asked eagerly, "I can read Auras and even I haven't had the time to scan for their normal identities yet." Kotori tensed up and looked around, her eyes lingering on a small crowd around the Sailor V games before returning to Ranko.

"I've been seeing these…" she looked for the right word, "fairies." She admitted when nothing else came to mind to describe the little people. "They keep doing these strange things but in the end there's always a reason, like the day before last they made me late so I would run in to you and yesterday they tripped up a boy trying to sneak out of the girls locker rooms who had one of the girls necklaces." Ranko had a glint of recognition in her blue eyes.

"So it wasn't an accident he was caught after all?" Kotori nodded.

"Uh ha," came the sound of agreement. "they gave it to me and I returned it without a fuss. It belonged to that girl, Naru, you know the one that hangs around with the meatball head?" Ranko mirrored Kotori's moves and put a small hand over her mouth to hide her smile. Then the nickname struck a chord.

"What did you just say?" she asked urgently. Kotori realized what she'd said and red tinted her cheeks.

"I was getting to that." she admitted. "This morning I was out in my earth garden and Usagi was walking there." Just out of Kotori, Ranko and Ryoga's notice, Minako Aino suddenly caught on to the conversation at the mention of her friends name. Inching closer she listened in closer. "I bumped into her and we both fell over and my little friends went… well they went crazy." Kotori's voice was drowned out by noise as she leaned closer to her friends in order to explain. Seconds later Ranko slammed her hands on the table and shot from her seat shouting in outrage.

"WHAT?! THAT…DITZ IS THEIR LEADER!??" Heads turned toward them in curiosity but Ranko had the grace to blush and hurriedly sat down in her seat before she could draw anymore attention. Minako however was slightly worried the implications of what the three had been saying. They had mentioned Usagi before and that could have meant only one thing.

THEY KNEW!

Mina turned around and had got up from her seat when another loud shout caught her attention.

"DON'T CALL ME MEATBALL HEAD!" The blonde looked around in alarm to see Usagi facing off with a haughty looking Maramu. "Hey! You got to admit, that girl really did make you mad last night. Who'd imagine! I can't believe I didn't notice it before, it's Spaghetti and meatballs!"

"GGGRRRR!!!" Needless to say Usagi wasn't happy with Maramu's teasing. Moments later though Minako couldn't help but wince slightly along with most of the arcade as the dark haired collage student squeaked. Everything was quiet as Usagi withdrew her knee from where it had struck Maramu in the lower regions. The other blonde took a step back and folded her arms over her chest frowning. "Don't call me meatball head." She said calmly. "You've been acting like such a jerk lately and it's not funny anymore." A thrill of some emotion Minako couldn't quite place ran down her spine. Uh oh, hear it comes…

"I don't want to see you again Maramu." She turned her back on his bent form. "At least not while you're acting like this." To Minako the world just seemed to crack. It was almost as if someone had smashed a pane of glass in front of her face. People began talking again and no one seemed to be paying attention to what had happened. The scout of Venus crossed to the arcade games where her friends where all gathered around Usagi, comforting her as she burst into tears. As the four of them ushered the other blonde outside they didn't notice Dante' walking in and Minako forgot all about what she'd heard.

Ryoga and Ranko still had vague looks of pain on their faces as they stared across the room at the scene the planetary scouts had made. They where also startled when Dante' appeared from nowhere, standing at Kotori's shoulder like it was one of the most natural things to do.

"My sister was crying when I entered." He stated in his usual calm, flat tone. "What happened?" It was Kotori who answered him.

"She broke up with her boyfriend." The blonde said simply earning a sharp look from Dante'. "He repeated the insult Ranko used last night and earned himself a kick for good measure." Even if he was a time transcending all-powerful being of the stars Dante' was still relatively human, he to winced, making the only true girl in their group giggle. The silvery haired teen cast Ryoga a look and then looked at Ranko with a raised eyebrow before he sat down beside Kotori. Although he kept his thoughts to himself, something Ranko was glad for in spite of everything. She'd been afraid of the prince rejecting Ryoga after all…

"So the discord caused by Pluto is already turning on them." He mused to himself, gaining curious expressions from the others. When he didn't explain they just shrugged and went on with their conversation. Eventually the topic came back to the Heartsnatchers.

"It's a pity you can't predict where they are going to strike next." Ryoga voiced his thoughts on the matter. "That would make it a lot easier in combating those things." Kotori nodded looking determined. "Of course, but we don't have anything to go by yet…" The newly revealed princess of the earth had already developed a link to the earth and its people.

'It's a good thing.' Dante' thought to himself. 'If she does end up on the throne she'll need all the support she can get, by actually caring she's already much further than her brother already.' He tuned out the conversation once more as they went on to discuss Kotori's little constructs and turned his thoughts back to the future. 'When she does make a bid for the throne Pluto wont just let it go. She'll use whatever she has against us…' he stared absently at the table top before him and nodded to himself as he made up his mind.

"We're going to need help."

Well that's it for now. I am proud to say that I have finished all my exams and for a good long while I'll be the only person at home during the day so there will be no one to stop me from writing like they usually do. YIPPIE!

Annnyyyyy way, I gotta go now, it's nearly midnight here.

Don't forget to review!

Cya.