SMM The Perfect Vacation! Autumn appears.
Ginhoshi nibbled on a chocolate bar as she sorted through the day's mail. She had been eating anything she could find since Hunger had attacked her.
"Anything interesting?" Espe asked lazily.
"No… yes." The red and green haired girl said, "There's a letter here for me. Ginhoshi pulled a letter out from under a magazine. Quickly she opened it and read,
Attention all girls 6th grade through 9th grade,
The city of Tokyo has arranged a weekend vacation for
all girls who get this letter. From the Friday of September
12th to the Sunday of September 14th, the beach resort,
Cumba has been rented out for these girls. I hope to see
you there! Remember to bring a bathing suit and a towel.
There will be other activities available.
Signed,
Andy Fisher
"That sounds fun." Espe commented, "If you go can I come with you?"
"Why not?" Ginhoshi said, "I'll have to let my mother know that I'm going, but there's no reason she'd say no."
"Good." The cat said, "I want to get out of the city as soon as possible. The smog in the air is driving me nuts!"
Ray put the letter down. "So can you all go?" she asked.
"Yes!" came the unanimous reply.
"Artemis and I'll stay and see if we can find out more about Sailor Christmas." Luna said.
"I felt really bad for her!" Mina said sadly, "I watched Hunger touch her it was awful! She was thin to begin with but as soon as Hunger touched her I could see the fat melting away into nothing! You could see every single bone in her body because she was wearing a tight uniform like ours!"
Serena shuddered. "That sound's terrible!" she exclaimed, "Are you sure that you got rid of Hunger completely?
"Yes, we did." Amy said reassuringly.
Ginhoshi put her small duffle bag into the bottom of the bus with the others. She kept a green backpack with her though. Then she walked onto the bus. There was no talking there. Every one was silent. Looking at a sheet of paper that said who was leaving on each bus, Ginhoshi figured out why. This bus held everyone who was home schooled. Being home schooled herself, Ginhoshi knew the down side of the certain way of school. You never met anyone.
She chose a seat that no one else was sitting in and took off the backpack. She opened it. Espe crawled out. "It was really hot in there!" she exclaimed quietly. Just then another girl slid into the seat. She had brown hair that went to her shoulders. Her eyes were a strange orange.
"Hi!" she said happily, "I'm Allison. What's your name?"
"Ginhoshi." Ginhoshi replied.
"That's a pretty name." Allison said, "I'm not home schooled but I just moved here from England and I don't know many people so they put me here."
"How do you speak such perfect Japanese then?" Ginhoshi asked confused.
"Well my parents were always planning to move to Japan so I've spoken it since I could talk." Allison replied. "That's interesting." Ginhoshi said.
Just then Allison noticed Espe. "Is that your cat?" she asked.
"Yeah." Ginhoshi said stroking Espe's reddish fur.
"She's really pretty."
"Thanks." Ginhoshi said, "Do you have any pets?"
"No." Allison replied. "My apartment doesn't allow pets."
The rest of the trip was traveled in silence.
"I can't wait to get to the ocean!" Mina exclaimed happily.
"I wonder why they're having this vacation just for girls." Ray said, "It's pretty unfair to the boys. They're not getting any free trip out of a city."
"Darien was going to be out anyway." Serena said, "He went for a vacation in England, so he's gone for two weeks."
"Why didn't he take you?" Ray asked.
"School." Serena said unhappily.
"I sort of feel bad going." Amy said.
"Why?" Mina asked.
"What if Sailor Christmas didn't go on the vacation?" the blue haired girl asked, "She won't be able to fight very well because she lost so many pounds! I think we should be there to help her."
"Most likely is that she came on the trip." Ray said reassuringly, "And if anything happens during vacation that has to do with that guy that attacked her we'll protect her. OK?"
"Alright." Amy said pulling a book out of her carry on bag.
As each girl got off the buses a councilor gave them a necklace. Ginhoshi examined hers. The necklace piece was a black ribbon. There was a red rock attached to it. "It's pretty." Espe commented.
"It looks nicer than what they usually give out for souvenirs at camp." Ginhoshi said frowning.
"They've probably have a smaller crowd than usual so they could afford something better." The cat said.
Ginhoshi walked up to her assigned cabin to find her stuff all ready outside of it. "Good service." She said pulling her bag out of the pile.
When she entered the cabin Allison was already there. She smiled. "Are you in this cabin?" she asked.
"Yeah." Ginhoshi replied. She looked around. The cabin was the normal size. There was four bunk beds attached to the walls. Allison had selected the bottom bunk of the bunk bed closest to the door on the right. Ginhoshi took the one across from it.
"What are you going to do first?" Allison asked, pulling her sleeping bag out of its carrying bag.
"I think I'll find the dining hall." Ginhoshi said, "I'm famished!"
"You look pretty skinny." Allison commented, "What did you do? Was it an extreme diet that went a little too far? You know, things like that aren't good for you."
"I didn't do an extreme diet." Ginhoshi said, "You could say that I exercised a little too much in one day." Allison looked skeptical, but didn't say anything else.
As Ginhoshi entered the dining hall she saw five other girls. Four were eating and the other one was studying. Ginhoshi grabbed a yogurt and lemonade and walked over to the table they were sitting at.
"Hi." She said to the group, "Can I sit here?"
"Sure." Amy replied smiling.
"Where do you go to school?" "Mina asked, "I saw you at the park in the middle of the day a few days ago."
"I'm home schooled." Ginhoshi replied, "How about you? What were you doing out around that time?"
"I was collecting caterpillars for science." Mina said.
"How many did you find?" Ginhoshi asked.
"Twenty two." The blond replied proudly.
"That's not true!" Amy protested, "I found twenty of those!" Ginhoshi laughed.
"So what's your name?" Ray asked. "I'm Ginhoshi Yoshayama." She replied.
"I'm Serena Tsukino." Serena said, "The black haired one is Ray Hino, book worm over there is Amy, blondie is Mina and the one with a pony tail is Lita."
"I love you descriptions." Mina said dryly, "You know blondie usually applies that they're stupid."
Ray and Lita exchanged glances and cracked up. "Was it something I said?" Mina asked confused.
Amy shook her head.
A counselor walked into the hall and pinned something up on a corkboard. "Do you want to check it out?" Ginhoshi asked.
"Sure." Ray said getting out of her chair, "It's probably some activity that they scheduled. I bet no one will go because they'll be all so tired from attracting boys on the beach."
"There's not many of those around this weekend." Serena commented.
Mina checked her watch and ran out of the room. "I'm late for the boys on the beach!" she yelled. Ray rolled her eyes.
Ginhoshi walked up to the flyer. Ray and the others followed her. "Sounds interesting." She commented.
"Night Riding." Ray read aloud, "Tonight come to the beach at 9:00 PM and rid till10."
"I think they've got to learn how to advertise more." Lita commented dryly, "That wasn't the most convincing flyer I've ever seen."
"I agree." Serena said.
"So we could go all together if you want." Ginhoshi suggested, "I bet they're expecting a big crowd so a few more shouldn't change anything."
"I've never ridden before." Amy said nervously.
"It's easy!" Ginhoshi reassured her, "All you do is pull the reigns the opposite way you want to go and you go the right way."
"Why?" Lita asked. "It's sort of like using a rudder in a boat." Ginhoshi explained.
"Oh." Lita said smiling, "I get it now."
"I've ridden a donkey before." Ray said, "Is that the same thing?"
"Easier." Ginhoshi said, "Donkeys are really stubborn and annoying, horses aren't."
"I've ridden before!" Serena announced, "Last year for vacation my parents brought Sammy and I to some ranch in China. It was really, really fun!"
"You know how to do something that Amy doesn't?" Ray exclaimed in amazement.
"NOT FUNNY!" Serena yelled at her fiery friend. (Bad pun intended.)
After dinner the sailor group and Ginhoshi made their way down to the beach. Espe had chosen to return to the cabin. "I don't get why you had to drag me along." Mina complained, "I don't know the first thing about riding and I'm tired!"
"That's your problem." Ray said, "And they'll teach you how to ride."
When the group got down to the beach there was two councilors waiting and a large group of horses, untacked. "Is this all that are coming?" The first counselor asked the group.
"Yes." Ginhoshi replied.
"See I told you that it's no fun riding with girls this age." The first counselor said to the second, "They go boy hunting all day and then they're too tired to do anything else."
"OK." Lita said, "What do we do first?"
"Saddle them up." The second councilor instructed smiling. Serena, Ginhoshi, and Ray did as they were told, while the others had instruction from the counselors.
"This is going to be fun." Ray said mounting up.
"Yeah!"Serena said excitedly, "I loved this at the ranch but I haven't done it since."
"My family goes to this ranch in America called the Lone Star Ranch each year." Ginhoshi said, "All I ever do there is ride, so I'm really good."
"What do you like to do?" Ray asked Ginhoshi as they set off down the beach.
"I like to play the piano." Ginhoshi said smiling, "I'm really good. I also like to study, but not so much that I don't have another life."
"Have you ever felt that you would never give up on something?" Serena asked.
"My, you like to ask a lot of questions!" Ginhoshi exclaimed. Serena blushed.
"We like to get to know our friends."
"Well yes once." Ginhoshi started, thinking about Hunger, "There was this, 'bully'. He just would stop beating on me. I wanted more than anything else to beat him."
"We've had quite a few 'bullies' like that too." Ray said thinking about Black Moon and the NegaVerse, "We, got rid of them though."
"That's good." Ginhoshi said cheerfully, "I didn't get rid of the bully, though. I guess you could say that a 'friend' got rid of him for me."
"That's nice of them." Serena commented.
For a few minutes they rode down the beach in silence. Then there was a clatter of hooves behind them. They turned to see who. Mina was hanging on for dear life by a stirrup of the run away horse. The counselors were riding as fast as they could behind her.
"Let go!" One of them yelled.
"NO!" Mina screamed.
"Hold on to my reigns!" Ginhoshi instructed Serena who was the closest. She took them. Carefully but quickly, Ginhoshi stood up in the saddle. As Mina's horse ran by she jumped strait into the saddle. With someone back in the saddle, the horse seemed to calm down a little but it still ran as fast as it could. Ginhoshi rubbed the horse's neck and whispered comforting words in its ear, always watching where they were going. In a few seconds the horse was under enough control that it wouldn't rear when Ginhoshi took it's reigns. In another few seconds the horse had stopped.
"I owe you big." Mina gasped to Ginhoshi.
"Nonsense." Ginhoshi said pulling a sugar cube out for the horse.
"Yes. I do." Mina insisted, "What do you want?"
"Bring me to restaurant that has food with the most calories." Ginhoshi said, "God knows I need them."
Mina looked at how you could see every bone in her face. A flash of an image of Sailor Christmas went through her head. "You remind me of a 'friend'." Mina said frowning.
"How'd you learn to ride like that!" the first councilor asked in amazement.
"Years and years of practice." Ginhoshi said, "Now we've got to get back. It's almost ten. Mina, you can ride with me. Does anyone have a lead rope?"
"I do." The second councilor said pulling it out of a saddlebag.
In a few minutes with the help of one of the councilors, Ginhoshi had gotten everything back into order. She was sitting in her saddle, with Mina sitting behind her, hanging on around Ginhoshi's waist. Ginhoshi was holding the lead rope that was attached to Mina's horse.
As Ginhoshi walked into the cabin Espe lifted an eyelid. "Anything interesting?" she asked sleepily.
"Sure," Ginhoshi replied, "If you consider me saving my new friend Mina from a run away horse 'interesting'." "Yes, that's interesting." Espe replied, "Now get to sleep, it's late." Ginhoshi rolled her eyes, but did as the cat said.
Later that night Espe opened an eyelid again. This time it wasn't a person that had woken her up. It was a feeling. A bad feeling. There were grey wisps of smoke entering the cabin. As one touched a sleeping girl the necklace that the councilors had given out flashed red. The girl got out of bed with a haunted look on her face. She slipped on shoes and then a coat and left the cabin.
One floated towards Ginhoshi. It came closer and closer. Suddenly in a flash of greenish red light the wisp was pushed back. It tried again with the same result. As it came around for the third time Espe slashed it with her claws. It disappeared. A third went towards another girl. She too put on her shoes and coat and left.
A fourth wisp went towards another girl. The fifth went towards Allison. As it got a few feet away a brownish light pushed it away, like what had happened with Ginhoshi. Espe jumped onto Allison's bed and clawed it, making the wisp disappear.
The cat then jumped back to Ginhoshi's bed and woke her up. "Is it morning already, Espe?" she asked sleepily.
"No!" Espe said, "It's the enemy. They're gathering children. Something about you kept the thing that's gathering them away. Now we're going to follow the kids wherever they're going and save them."
Ginhoshi slipped on her shoes and a coat like another girl in the cabin was doing at the moment and followed her. The girl led her to the dining hall. Ginhoshi gasped as she saw the entire camp there.
"Slip into the kitchen and watch!" Espe instructed. From a small window on the kitchen door, Ginhoshi saw more kids arriving. She even saw Mina and the others. But there was something different about them. They were fingering short sticks and didn't have a blank look on their face.
A man walked into the front of the room. It was Adolph. "I have brought you together to find out which of you is Sailor Christmas!" he announced, "Now whoever she is must stand up here."
No one moved. Adolph's face grew red. "Come on!" he yelled. "The door to the outside swung open as
Allison lumbered in. "Sorry." She said, "No one woke me up and I didn't know there was a gathering tonight."
Adolph chuckled. "So you're little Christmas."
"Yes, I'm Christian and I celebrate Christmas, but that's not my name!" Allison said nervously.
Adolph disappeared and reappeared a foot in front of Allison. "Confess you're Sailor Christmas, you little brat!" He yelled.
"I'm not Sailor Christmas!" Allison said, she was now crying hysterically, "I've never even heard of her!"
Ginhoshi took out the candy cane transformation stick and quietly said, "December Season Power!" Sailor Christmas pushed the kitchen door open. "In the name of the month of December, I am Sailor Christmas and I'm here to protect anyone who believes!" Ginhoshi yelled.
Adolph pushed Allison away and walked towards Ginhoshi, smiling evilly. "I'm going to get you!" he said quietly, "I'm going to kill you and feed you to the wolves."
"Well, I'm going to cut you up again!" Ginhoshi said, "CHRISTMAS HOLLY BLIZZARD!" She threw one of the leaves at Adolph. He dodged it.
"Do you think we should help her?" Lita asked.
"Yes." Amy replied. The four slipped off their seats and silently left. No one noticed them.
Espe looked at Allison who was lying on the floor. Espe took something out from under one of the many seats in the room and ran towards her. "Take this!" the cat told the girl dropping a golden stick with a small leaf on the top in front of the girl.
"You- You're Ginhoshi's cat, aren't you?" she asked carefully picking up the stick and looking at it, "How can you talk?"
"Long story." Espe replied, "Now say 'Autumn Season Power'."
"Autumn Season Power!" Allison repeated. In a flash of brownish red ribbons Allison stood dressed in a fuku. "This man wasn't that far off when he called you Sailor Christmas." Espe said, "You're Sailor Autumn!"
"A Sailor Scout? Me?" Allison asked amazed.
Sailor Christmas narrowly missed being hit by a large mace that Adolph had pulled out of somewhere. "No more chit chat, Sailor Autumn!" Espe said, "Say Autumn Leaf Blast'!"
"AUTUMN LEAF BLAST!" Allison yell positioning a golden ray of light that distinctly looked like a bunch of leaves, at Adolph. It hit him and made him fly across the room. Sailor Christmas looked Sailor Autumn's way and smiled before fainting.
The Sailor Scouts hurried out of their hiding spots to Sailor Christmas. "She seems to end each fight by fainting." Sailor Moon commented, as Mercury checked Christmas's pulse.
"She's not the only one." Mars replied.
"Mars!" Moon whined, "That was mean!"
Espe and Sailor Autumn hurried over. "She'll be fine." Mercury said, "She just used up too much strength. Really she shouldn't be fighting until she regains all the pounds she lost from the last fight."
"What happened at the last fight?" Autumn asked.
"That man that attacked tonight went after her with some youma. It touched her and we're guessing she lost about sixty pounds."
"Oh, no the manuscripts you stole last year from ten B.C. weren't enough huh?" a husky voice yelled, "Now you had to go and steal a mace from the twelve century!"
Sailor Moon frowned and looked towards the voice to a very strange sight. Sailor Pluto had appeared out of nowhere and was chasing Adolph with the time staff. Finally Adolph disappeared and Pluto stopped.
"Pluto!" Sailor Moon called happily.
Pluto looked over and smiled. "Hello Sailor Moon." She said, "Did I come in during a battle? I'm sorry, but that man just stole something through time."
"That's perfectly alright." Mercury said, "The battle was finished."
Pluto walked over to the group. "Who's this?" she asked seeing the fainted Sailor Christmas.
"Her name's Sailor Christmas." Jupiter said.
Pluto looked shocked. Looking over to Espe, she asked, "Have you found the princess?"
"Sorry, Pluto." Espe replied, "She hasn't shown up yet."
Pluto sighed. "Well I've got to go back to the gate." She said, "Say hi to Darien for me."
"Will do." Mina said. Pluto smiled and disappeared
"Did you know her?" Autumn asked Espe.
"Yes." The cat said, "I'll explain at the right time. But now we've got to get Christmas back to her cabin."
"What about the other kids here?" Autumn asked.
"We'll take care of them." Sailor Mercury said.
"You'll be able to pick her up." Espe said.
Autumn did as she was told and was surprised to see how light Christmas was. "How heavy is she?" Autumn asked as the two walked back to the cabin.
"Last time she weighed herself she was fifty pounds." Espe replied.
"That's too light!" Autumn exclaimed.
"I know." The cat replied, "But luckily Hunger, the one who did this to her was destroyed so it can't do it again."
"That's good."
When the two and Christmas walked up to the cabin Espe said, "Put her on Ginhoshi's bunk. "Are you sure Ginhoshi won't mind?" Autumn asked nervously.
"Believe me," the cat said, "She won't mind at the least."
Autumn put Christmas down on her bunk. As soon as she did this Christmas groaned. "Espe, where's my transformation pen?"
"Right next to you." Espe replied.
With her eyes still closed, Christmas's hand closed around the pen and she thought about herself as Ginhoshi. In a sigh of relief she untransformed.
"Ginhoshi!" Autumn exclaimed in surprise.
Ginhoshi's eyes snapped open. "Who are you?" she asked eyeing the new scout.
"It's me, Allison!" Autumn said happily, "Your cat told me that I'm Sailor Autumn after you saved me. Thank you."
"Two lives saved in a day, not bad." Ginhoshi said sitting up.
"Two?" Autumn asked curiously.
"I saved my friend, Mina from a run away horse tonight."
"Oh." Autumn said, "Ginhoshi, how do I detransform."
Ginhoshi explained and in a few moments two normal girls sat on the bunk bed.
"Do you think that the dining hall is still open?" Ginhoshi asked, "I'm hungry."
"How does a moon cake sound to you?" Allison asked opening her duffle bag.
"Really good." Ginhoshi said, "That thing has to have like a hundred calories."
"So there's two Season Senshi now." Amy said typing on her computer. They were the only ones left in the dining hall.
"Funny," Ray said aloud, "I didn't see Ginhoshi when I was bringing everyone back to their cabins.
"Maybe she didn't have her necklace on." Amy said, "My computer says that that was how they were all possessed.
"Do you think it had something to do with those little wisps of smoke we saw before everyone came here?" Serena asked.
"No." Ray said sarcastically, "I think they were just random bits of fog."
This was finished 11/24/03