Disclaimer: I don't own Sailor Moon or Gundam Wing.
AN: I'm so sorry about not updating! I just realized I haven't updated in over a month so I spent all night typing up this chapter. Haha, not really. I had to fine-tune it some more was all. I have a longer AN/rant at the bottom if anybody wants to stick around and read.
Chapter 8
The translucent clouds billowed inconsistently in the pale sky, churning and somersaulting. They stretched apart as damp cotton fibers would in the mercy of a child's curious fingers. Shadows of light drifted in and out of negligent holes.
Transfixed, Makoto watched them. A storm was brewing, undoubtedly. She felt it in her bones, a sharp, cold chill that agitated the smudged clouds more and more.
The wind picked up. She pulled her coat tighter around her body and hastened down the street, clinging the bag of baked goods to her chest. She and the other ex-inner Senshi were having a meeting at the shrine to go over the details of what exactly had happened. Usagi would be there with her insatiable appetite. She smiled nostalgically, though it was a little fade a little around the edges.
The display in the hospital with Chisa Maruko was very familiar, Makoto was sure of it. She knew she had seen or felt or heard it somewhere, but that memory was as elusive as all the other answers to the questions she had. . .
Such as how Usagi was healing so quickly without the help of Hotaru.
Her fractured rib was healing thrice as fast as it should, which wasn't incredibly fast altogether, but enough to bring to their attention. She did count themselves lucky that the physicians had not noticed before Usagi's release from the hospital. It had been Hotaru who had first became aware of the situation when she had attempted to aid in the blonde's recovery.
But the blonde, as clueless as she was, was recovering perfectly fine without Hotaru's assistance.
Makoto sighed. It seemed as if everything strange that had been dormant during the two years of peace were coming at once to make up for its absence.
A drop of water spotted her nose, dispelling her thoughts. She looked up into the clouds. It was raining again. Spring should have been here already, yet winter seemed reluctant to let go.
But everything had to let go eventually.
- - - - - - - - - -
Her singular soft voice announcing near tangible convictions repeated again and again in his unyielding mind, even after he and Duo had made their way back to the hotel, even after he had dispatched a report of the day's work to Lady Une, even while he slept last night, and even now as he wandered empty, rain-filled streets to clear his mind.
The woman had explained the 'possession' as she had called it after her tears had subdued. A seductive voice had beckoned to her with attractive, empty promises. There was no physical body, just a voice by her ear, in her mind. That was how it used her, how it became her.
It wanted to help ease her pain. It wanted to assist the coming of the end.
But what was it? What was the coming of the end? he had pressed, hostile in his demands. She had shrunk back, eyes wide with ignorant honesty. She didn't know.
Whether they believed her or not was still debatable. As ludicrous as the idea had seemed, Duo had dwelled on it for much longer than he would have in ordinary circumstances.
Hiiro squeezed his eyes shut in a futile effort of barricading himself from the ever-present haunt of Usagi's speech. Everything would have been so much easier if she was as dimwitted as she sometimes acted, because then, he wouldn't be mulling over how she wasn't. Her words of forgiveness almost pained him—they had come so earnestly, not embittered by the broken rib or the ring of purple-black bruises encircling her slender neck.
She had even dwindled his offer for reprisal into a feature of entertainment. He did not joke, he was not funny, and he was not nice. She should have known this.
Another massive headache was drilling piteously into the back of his brain. The person who had been following him for the past five minutes was also not helping.
He rounded a corner and stopped at the edge. His gun was out and aimed, but Tenoh Haruka had expected it. She stood fearlessly in front of him.
"What do you want?" Hiiro more stated than asked, flipping his weapon back into back of his jeans.
"We need to talk."
"Hn."
"It would be in all of our best interests if you kept your nose out of our business," she said curtly.
His suspicions were correct—these women knew more than they were letting on. "What is going on?"
"It can't be explained to someone like you."
"I could have you arrested for failure to cooperate."
"There's no one here who will aid you. Stay away from what you don't understand."
They were very much alike, he and her; neither liked meddlers and neither suffered fools. But he was here on business and business involved permanent peace. This woman was very much in the way of his responsibility.
Holding her at gunpoint again was out of the question—the adverse consequences would surpass the benefits.
Hiiro schooled his face and decided to approach her from another angle, albeit slightly underhanded. "What is Usagi to you?"
Her face twisted into a scowl. "Stay away from her."
"I could have every file that even mentions her pulled up. If I find anything remotely suspicious, I could have her taken away," he said with a frown. Why hadn't he done this sooner?
"Oh?" she responded with mock surprise, retreating into contempt. "Are you a private investigator, too?"
"The skill is not lost to me." He warily noticed her sudden change in disposition.
"You can find people?"
"If necessary."
Haruka weighed his words, lips sliding into a grave line. "Anyone?"
The tables had turned. His arctic eyes were dead serious. "Anyone."
There were so many things wrong with this meeting. Warnings told her to step away from Yui and not give him anymore loose information she had managed to disclose. There was, however, the curiosity that needed to be contended with and so far, curiosity was emerging the victor.
She needed to know, for the sake of the future, Usagi, and herself, just where the hell Meiou Setsuna had disappeared to.
Haruka smiled wryly and said, "What would it take to find someone?"
- - - - - - - - - -
As expected, Usagi had dug right in to Makoto's goodies without any encouragement. Not even Rei could have stopped her, if she had even bothered to try. The priestess had picked up a muffin, but it continued to sit on her plate untouched.
Worried, Ami gently touched her shoulder. "Rei-chan? Are you okay?"
She nodded inattentively. "Usagi. . ."
"Hm?" she mumbled, swiping off the crumbs around her mouth.
"I think you should stay away from Yui-san."
Her hand fell slack, dropping the half-eaten cookie. "Why?"
"We don't know what he's after and we can't find out unless we give ourselves away. It's too risky."
The blonde suddenly snapped up to her feet, fists curling at her sides. "He's not a bad person! Why are you acting like he was the cause of all of this?" she demanded shrilly, eyes sweeping from person to person. They stared at her with the same shocked expressions.
Luna shook her head in disbelief. "Usagi-chan—do you like him?"
She flushed, lowering her eyes. It was all the evidence they needed.
"Maybe it's just a crush," Makoto suggested feebly, instantly regretting it when Usagi gave her a look of unfathomable misery and melancholy. Her heart plummeted to the pit of her stomach in sympathy.
The tears were coming, fast and without preface. Her eyes were stretched long to keep her bitter tears from crawling pathetically over her cheeks. They meant it for her sake, and she knew this, but today, the tears were coming and they would not stop.
Usagi turned around, stubbornly refusing to wipe her eyes. The door was slightly open—a sign.
She ran.
- - - - - - - - - -
It had to have been hours later that she stopped, doused to the bone with cold rainwater and breathing so hard and fast she felt like she wasn't breathing at all. She slumped weakly down against a hard backing, ignorant of what it was or where she had fled to. Usagi buried her face in her knees and held herself tightly.
She cried again for herself and for Mamoru.
- - - - - - - - - -
He remembered who Tenoh Haruka was when she mentioned Kaioh Michiru, the violinist at Quatre's social gathering and the enigmatic woman he had bumped into at the library. How he had reacquainted with these people he had never expected to see again was a mystery to him, although there was one point where everything seemed to link back to—the fateful day he had Usagi, or put more simply, Usagi herself. She knew all these people and they knew her. The fact that they were also intimate and named after satellites of the Milky Way Galaxy was not lost to him.
He dragged windows upon windows of files, pictures, and names. From employee records, Meiou Setsuna had worked and resided in Tokyo as a laboratory research assistant up until two years ago. She resigned one week before she mysteriously vanished. All documents stopped there. Hiiro did have one hunch to locate her, however; Meiou was an uncommon surname, one he was sure to hold significance.
Meiou was the planet Pluto.
- - - - - - - - -
Hiiro had been confusing Duo more so than usual lately. It had started with the little things such as the preoccupied expressions Hiiro had been more used to wearing. At first, Duo had attributed it to the circular nature of their case—every lead always led back to another clue that they thought they had already exhausted, and then that clue would lead them even further back. It was frustrating to begin with, and Duo was not one who fell to frustration very easily.
He strolled through the damp streets languidly. They, now reduced to himself, had had an appointment with an owner of a small shop in the center of Tokyo. According to some maps and blueprints of older Sailor Senshi phenomena, a pattern had arisen that encompassed five points in the heart of the city. At the time, one had been a cosmetic store, but the owner had not been very useful in aiding them. Another had been a shop that sold lucky charms and fortune-telling paraphernalia. The store had since closed, however, the manager had indicated he knew some information regarding that incident over the phone, inviting Duo to his house for further details. That was where he was headed to now.
Duo blew at his bangs, shoving his hands deeper into his pockets. Hiiro had ditched him to 'take care of some business.' He had no idea what his volatile partner was up to, and any attempt to interfere had been efficiently thwarted. He had expressed his anxiety to Trowa and Wufei, who were both busy with their own troubles regarding the Vice Foreign Minister to be of any great help. Trowa had offered one piece of advice, and that was to let Hiiro be. He had always been better at doing things by himself.
"Well," he muttered to himself as he stood before a plain door, "I guess Trowa's right. Not even Hell, or Earth freezing over for that matter, would deter the Perfect Soldier from getting his job done." Duo grinned reproachfully to himself and gave the buzzer a firm push.
- - - - - - - - -
The plan had been to reach Haruka at a private number and rally whenever he finished gathering the information she sought. She would then, keeping her part of the bargain, reveal to him all that he needed to know, although he believed she would manage to avoid questions if she was as cunning as he suspected. He had to choose his questions carefully.
The first part of his schedule had been more than half finished when it opened to accommodate for an unexpected event. Since Duo had taken the car to continue with an interview later that day, Hiiro had been stuck with the simplest mode of transportation. The quickest way to reach his destination was to cut across the park where the chaos had begun.
Several streetlights had turned on, though the light of the moon was enough. He had been cautiously aware in the forthcoming dimness when he instinctively turned his head. Even when he saw her, he couldn't understand why he had done it at that precise moment to the direction in which she was situated. He saw her and knew instantly who she was.
The rain had ended a few minutes ago, but she was drenched with water when he approached, shivering like a leaf in a malicious gale. Her slender arms were crossed over her knees, dark blonde head bent into them. The bandage on her right arm was soaked through the thin blouse.
He glared warningly at her lack of commonsense. His hand touched her shoulder roughly.
Usagi lifted her head, slowly, disoriented. Her wounded eyes were rimmed with red.
"Hiiro-san?" she croaked, giving her shadowy surroundings a confused sweep. "What are you doing here?"
His electric eyes were trained on hers, but he noticed how her pale face was smudged with an unhealthy flush. "You were crying."
"Something in my eye," she lied half-heartedly, curling tighter into herself. It seemed as if she had just realized how cold she was. Hiiro continued to loom above her dauntingly. She looked at him uncertainly.
"You don't look well," he said finally, extending his hand. He scowled when she gave it an empty stare. He did not offer help to have it rejected.
She placed her clammy hand in his after a prolonged period of tumultuous indecision. Usagi did not know how he had found her here so conveniently, how he always seemed to be there at her greatest vulnerability. Her legs wobbled as he pulled her to her feet, nearly giving out at the last moment. He caught her, large hand spread across her narrow waist. The contact made her breath catch, and she flushed, staring quietly at her feet when she regained balance.
The brevity of silence stretched on longer than welcome. She fidgeted, then broke the oppressing hush with an overdue, "Thank you."
Her abject temperament made him remember the beginning with Usagi. She had been filled the brim with something contradictory that made her strange and unforgettable. He deliberated this and the beginning. The answers were before him, but he was too blind to grasp them. "What were you doing on the bridge?"
Usagi, stunned at his lack of discretion, could only answer honestly. "I was remembering."
"Remembering what?"
"My fiance. . ."
He looked at her sharply.
"He killed himself," she said, unconsciously touching her injured arm.
"Why?" Hiiro asked, more interested than concerned. Why would he have killed himself? It was obvious to even him that Usagi had loved him very much, and that she still did enough to sit ridiculously in the rain to cry about it. Why was it that these rarest of events occurred to Usagi? Why was it that the world seemed to revolve around her? Why was it that she was always hurt in the process?
She didn't answer immediately, but considered him with an unbridgeable distance to her eyes. "He went to America to study at Harvard about a year and a half ago and when he came back for vacation, he was different. He kept avoiding me. His roommate in America thought Mamo-chan was depressed because his grades were slipping. He jumped. That's the story anyway."
A pathetic reason, he thought darkly, that a grown man should seek death over a sheet of letters that meant absolutely nothing in real life. "Hn."
Usagi gave no indication that she heard him, continuing softly. "I went to remember him. My friends have really helped me, but I can't forget. And I still want to remember. I think being forgotten is the worst; if you're forgotten, it's like you were never alive."
"Forgetting will only facilitate a future full of the same mistakes of the past."
"Does your past chase after you, too, Hiiro-san?" She pushed her wet hair out of her face to look at him better.
He gave the slightest admission of a nod.
She smiled faintly. "But you have friends, right? Like Duo-san to help you. My friends are very important to me. They've taught me a lot of things school couldn't teach."
"What things?" he continued to inquire, perplexed at himself with this sudden desire to speak. Perhaps it was the full moon—it brought out the other side of him.
Usagi sighed and looked up. Her left hand fisted by her side—it still felt funny without her ring. She hadn't worn the modest diamond ring for two years and it still felt strange without it on her finger. "To believe in myself and to try and stop blaming myself. I thought it was my fault." Because he killed himself. "I thought I could have done something." Because he hadn't been controlled by by Queen Beryl or Nepherena. "I still do sometimes." Because he left me on his own.
There was a silence, strained, but not uncomfortable.
"Hiiro-san, where did you come from?"
"L1."
"What's it like up there?"
The word was out of his mouth before he could think. "Artificial," he said, and frowned. It wasn't untrue, but the word was unkind.
"But you like it up there, right? Because it's your home," she said softly, squinting her eyes just to see whether or not she could spot a colony. Inky black and silver blurred between her eyelashes.
'Home' seemed like such an alien word to him. It was a word that insinuated the intimacy and warmth of a family to which he could return. He had neither of those. "Space is tangible on the colonies. The moon doesn't look. . ." he trailed off, "the moon doesn't look like the fantasy it does here. It's a dead rock."
"A dead rock," she echoed weakly. "Do you think it might have been alive once?"
"There are people residing on it, if that's what you're asking. It's a tourist attraction."
Usagi's eyes widened a touch around the edges as if she had just realized something terrible. "Oh, but it's okay."
He narrowed his eyes, not quite sure what she meant. She giggled unconvincingly before he could reply and waved her question away.
"Nevermind! I—" she trailed off when a cold drop of rain splattered on the tip of her nose. She shivered involuntarily. "Oh no, please don't let it—"
Lightning screamed across the sky, and the ear-splitting thunder came roaring after it. The world lit up fiercely and dimmed, casting eerie silhouettes all around them.
Usagi shrieked and dropped to a shivering ball at Hiiro's feet, hands pressed so tightly to her ears he was sure it hurt.
"I hate thunder!"
Her wail was muffled by another sharp crack, but he heard it nonetheless. The manila envelope clasped between his right arm and his side was already soaked through. He shifted it, pulling off his jacket to drape over her sodden head.
"Come on." He lifted her to her feet, one hand at her elbow to guide her with him. She slipped in the clinging mud and slick grass, but he caught her and steadied her against him. They hurried deeper into the park with her glued to his side.
"I'm sorry," she murmured when they were out of the rain. He had led her into the shade of a recreation building that stood along the outskirts of the park. Usagi clutched at the sides of his jacket, knuckles turning white in the process. It smelled like him—warm. She shut her eyes.
"How are your injuries?"
"They're okay. I guess I'm just a fast healer."
He frowned—her movements were not at all restricted by her wounds. The bruises were gone as well. Could they had healed that quickly? "The offer still stands."
She tilted her face up, calm and solemn. "An eye for an eye will make the whole world blind."*
A heavy curtain was pulled partly away from his eyes, a profound weight that had been sitting on his chest liquefying. It was a realization, not exactly the one he had been pursing, but a realization nevertheless. The sense of familiarity came back, powerful this time, and much more striking. She spoke like someone he knew; she spoke like—
"Relena," he muttered in fascination.
Usagi raised her eyebrows, perplexed. "Relena Darlian?" she wondered softly. "Do you know her?"
"Yes," he muttered, staring out into sheets and sheets of greyest rain. The resemblance of mentality between the two women was remarkable, and he had to wonder why he hadn't established the correlation earlier. Usagi's reluctance in wounding an innocent, her philosophy of life and war had been so memorable to him—it was baffling.
"What's she like? She seems like a very kind person."
"She is."
Usagi lowered her eyes, swallowing the cruelly thickening lump in her throat. His answer was quick and concise, but from such a predictable response, she knew there was more to it than his empty voice would allow. She half-questioned herself how he knew her, one so prominent in the world, and then half-berated herself for falling so easily to jealousy.
She didn't like feeling jealous. It only led to revenge and revenge only lead to hurt.
Jealousy wasn't green like the storybooks said. Jealousy was black with anger and repulsion. Jealousy would eat up a person whole, and spit out her shell when it was done with her soul.
Jealousy also meant too that the premises on what her all-too-smart cat had inferred were true. Usagi liked Hiiro. Usagi was also still in love with Mamoru.
Her head swam as her stomach lurched. Her heart had hurdled into the back of her throat, choking the precious breath out of her. Usagi's fingers dove from the jacket into her chilly hair, stringy and dull from water and her tears. His coat slipped off her frail shoulders, landed on the ground dismally.
How had it happened? She couldn't remember, didn't know when or why she could be torn over two men who seemed to be follow her everywhere she went. And maybe she didn't want to know why.
Sometimes, Mamoru's shadow would cross over Hiiro's and other times, Hiiro's would cross over Mamoru's. It made her sick and guilty, that she could even compare the two completely different men to one another, that she felt the same with Hiiro when she had been with Mamoru.
She breathed deeply, vying for composure. He had noticed her sudden lapse of state, she was sure of it, because that was the type of person he was. He said her name, and it shook her to the core.
With effort, Usagi unclenched her frozen fingers from her skull. Her knuckles creaked loudly so close to her ears. They threatened to unhinge and fall to the filthy, upturned ground; her entire body threatened to unhinge. "I-I don't feel well," she whispered, which was not a lie.
Hiiro fetched his jacket and covered her with it again. "Put it on," he commanded patiently to the mousy child-woman. She had strained a reassuring smile to her face.
She forced her leaden arms to move, though he steered her uncooperative limbs when she made a struggling sound of exasperation. Her face colored.
"Do you think I'm childish?" Usagi blurted out compulsively.
He studied her before answering. Her pretty blue eyes lined with red were clear enough to reflect his image. "Sometimes."
"Is it bad?"
"No."
Usagi pressed her lips together, looking down at her muddied shoes. They were ruined. "Why are you so nice to me?"
The query, as innocent as it was, caught him off guard. It was impossible for her not to have noticed how different he was from any other male she had ever come across. He had to wonder, however, aside from the guns, the private organizations, and his lack of social skill, just how much she did notice. He had never thought of himself as kind or compassionate, and it seemed now that this frail-looking girl knew this as well. "Do you even understand your own question?"
She seemed to think on it, tilting her head to side to roll the idea around in her mind. Her hand raised, paused in front of him with smooth white palm inches from his heart. "You are who you are," she said quietly. At the blank look, she pulled her hand away, tucking them behind her. "Am I strange?"
The question was strange, but she? Given her background, she was as normal as normal could be. "No."
The blonde gave a sigh in the way a troubled ancient would. "But I'm not," she said, more to herself than him. The topic changed again abruptly. "Do you believe in destiny?"
"I believe in making my own destiny."
Her heart skipped a beat. It must have been the thunder. A genuine smile spread over her face, her preceding fear sliding off of her like the rainwater that streaked her skin. "Thank you, Hiiro-san."
Maybe she was a little strange. "Hn."
The rain had stopped, and with it, the air changed very delicately. The atmosphere became thick and suffocating, advancing slowly like death. Something bubbled hot and dark up within him, a black shadow shrouding his eyes. Hiiro involuntarily decided he didn't like it, though the more he pursued it, the more the sinister apparition became.
It wrestled with him aggressively, though he hadn't the words to explain it even to himself what it was. Through his torso and into the warm, beating muscle situated in his chest it sought to enter. It crept up through his nerves and his blood like icy hot wriggling fingers. For Hiiro, only a moment was needed to send his apathy down like cruel blades upon the intrusive appendages. The presence cowered and slithered away into dry smoke as he scowled in the bewildering aftermath.
Usagi touched his arm, a well-known alarm unnerving her to no ends. He rounded at the contact, face dark and unforgiving.
"What happened?" Her eyes were wide, infinite.
"How do you know something happened?"
Her pale ice pink lips parted. "You got a look on your face. A painful look."
It had been painful. Had he really made an expression to betray it? "Nothing."
"Are you sure?"
She was trying to tell him something—unconsciously from the uncertain tremor in her voice, with her large depthless eyes, eyes that were too large for her face. Usagi sat before him in his mind, prim and unruffled perched in a white wooden chair against a black, stationary void. Twin stars of glowing blue stared at him, called to him, beckoned him, and tormented him with questions to which he had no answers.
Do you remember? Do you know?
You should.
"Hiiro-san?"
The spell broke and he was back in a reality that didn't seem real. His mouth moved on its own accord, voice rising and lowering. "Usagi, tell me something."
"What is it?" she ventured cautiously, lost in a haze of thought. Dread touched the back of her neck and made her hair stand on end. Whatever he was going to ask, she didn't want to answer. She hadn't the heart to lie, but the truth would be stinging salt on a reopened wound.
"Why did she call you 'princess'?"
The pallor of horror that came over her countenance was subtle. "I-I don't know."
But she did know. He knew she did, and it angered him. The unquenchable blaze rose through his blood to his head, intoxicating him, made his thoughts slow and sluggish. He spoke with exertion. "What are you hiding from me?"
Her protest, driven by fear and desperation, bubbled out of her throat. "Don't."
"Tell me." He jerked at her wrist when she retreated two steps. She was shaking visibly, tugging at her trapped arm fruitlessly. It only made him grip her harder.
The stressed silence stretched on, only disturbed by sharp taps of rain. Her world spun. Only pain had enough power to ground her and force her to remember who she was and what she needed to do.
Her wrist was throbbing; there would be bruises there tomorrow, and then they would be gone the next day. Usagi held herself still. He didn't let go, nor did he lessen the strength of his fingers. Her eyesight blurred a little, thinking how she should have listened to Rei, that she had been right after all. It wasn't because she didn't trust him, but because she wanted to protect him; not because of destiny, but because she cared for him in a way she didn't want to explain to herself. Honesty was a dangerous creature, and there was no reason to drag him into their mess, especially one that had allegedly originated from her own mistake.
She sighed almost inaudibly. "You'll regret it."
"What?" He pulled her a little closer. She didn't look scared—in fact, she never had. It was then that he realized how hard he had been holding her, how easily breakable she was, and how she had not said a thing about it. He let his fingers relax enough to allow her circulation again.
"You'll regret it."
"How do you know?"
"Because," she murmured distantly, "sometimes I regret it."
"I don't understand you."
She smiled dimly. "Let's keep it that way." Usagi tugged his jacket off and carefully pressed it back into his arms. "Thank you for reminding me something I had forgotten. Good-bye, Hiiro-san." She turned toward the entrance and left.
He watched her walk into the grey abyss and away from his life in the same manner she had come in.
*A variation of Ghandi's infamous quote: "An eye for an eye only ends up making the whole world blind."
AN: Fohk. What am I doing? -_- Blame it on the miserable mood I've been in lately. Sorry for it being completely boring, but I gotta develop their relationship some more, confuse and angstify (I love making up words) them, and in the process, confuse and angstify myself. Next chapter will include more pilots, more confusion, and possibly some mobile dolls. . .once I know how to utilize them in my fic. _ Anyway, I can't wait for the end of this fic. X_X I have a lot of it written out; I just need to write the chapters that fill it in. Heh, bad Gackt Camui. .
Just out of curiosity, does anyone else think Sagara Sousuke from Full Metal Panic is like Hiiro? ^^; I just finished watching Full Metal Panic? Fumoffu like last week and the realization struck me! Sousuke = Hiiro! Except Sousuke is a lot more humorous than Hiiro. . . Hehe :D Fumoffu is the most hilarious thing I've seen in a good while. *starts laughing just thinking about it* XP
Interesting "SM/GW" crossover fact: Ail (dub: Alan from the Doom Tree Arc) and Fiore, the alien in the Sailor Moon R movie who played Mamoru's semi-gay lover, were performed by Hikaru Midorikawa. . .AKA Hiiro Yui. O_O *bursts into hysterical laughter* I finally got to watch the subbed version of the movie—non-Chinese dub this time—and I was thinking, 'Fiore sure sounds familiar. . . o_o!! No, it can't be!' So, I did a little checking up and I was right. XD Ail had a crush on Usagi in the series. In the movie, Usagi ended up teaching up the cold-hearted Fiore who was bent on destroying her a thing or two and softened up his heart at the same time. ^_^ Aww. . . Is that a coincidence or what? =P I swear it's like a sign or something.
And Midorikawa-dono plays some awesome characters: Zelgadis and Schuldich. . .and *begrudgingly* Tamahome. Can it also be a coincidence that I wrote a semi-romantic Usa/Schuldich? *raises eyebrows* Or am I just reading too much into this? ^^;;;
Thanks to all the people who've been sticking around since the beginning. ^_^ I really owe you for giving me the strength to carry on. (Did I just quote a Celine Dion song? X_x) Hehe. ^^;
Fangboy: *gasps* Fangboy as in Tasuki/Genrou?! I love him! XD Seriously, he's like my favorite bishounen! ^^ Thank you so much for reading and understanding! ^_^
the Desert Fox: Neither won. Mwahaha, it was a stalemate. rofl! Maxwell House. . . I really laughed maniacally out loud when I read that. Sorry about the introductions. I totally forgot about Duo's infamous line. I know, I know, how could I forget about Duo?! Heh, also sorry to disappoint, but Relena's bodyguards are gonna be good guys. Minor characters though, so I won't have them do too much. Thanks again for all the info! You have no idea how grateful I am for it. I've been searching online for more GW technical. . .stuff. . .and it takes a long time to go through all of it looking for the one thing that I need. ^_^ You're like my savior. *worships* Just out of curiosity though, are you female or male? _ Not to say that you are one or other when you're not, but I can't tell! And it really doesn't matter at all, but I'M VERY CURIOUS. O_O Yeah, yeah, the cat was murdered, but I'm not a cat. XD Well, you don't have to answer if you don't want. ^^; I was just wondering.
Liquid Ice: I'm glad you're better now! I thought I was getting sick last week 'cause I was feeling pretty crappy. I think I actually had a mental/emotional breakdown on Thursday or something. _ Anyway, I'm very glad you're not dead and I hope I didn't jinx you. -_-;; Lol, how about we pretend the maid is dead? XD She's not ever gonna show up again so she might as well be, right? Minako has always been an awesome character, though there are some crazy-ass Minako fans out there who are not too friendly. _ I shall not name any names. But yeah, she's very good at taking action and falling into the role of the leader. Lol, Hiiro and female problems. Poor guy. I'm female and I have enough female problems. x.x Ohh, bingo! Maruka, of course an OC, will play some parts. I was really sketchy on "creating" her because I don't normally like OCs. x_x You're right though—she's more muse than a character. XD I like that retribution part, too! It's practically taken from GW, you know, with the killing of Noventa and whatnot. LOL, what am I going to do with those plans?! Seriously, I haven't thought this all the way through. . This is bad! What to do with him! *glomps LI-san* Ahh, you're so cool!
JeRee: Thankies! ^^; I try to let everyone take some sort of role. Originally, it was supposed to be Usagi-centered, but it didn't work out too well that way. Thanks for reading!
Heero's Bunny: Aww, thanks Bunny-san. ;-; Your review did cheer me up. I agree; sometimes people really do need to hear that once in a while. ^_^! *hugs*
Black Aura-Sama: XD Lol, silly BA-Sama!! God, I just love you. You're so adorable. ^^
Suki: WHEE!! I love you, too! I love everyone!! Yah, yah, puzzle some more!! :D Puzzling is good! It's like playing with a rubix cube! I hate rubix cubes! xD;; ;-; Itai! I'm happy that you think it's believable!
Usagi Asia Maxwell: Doumo! I think I have the manga where they die, too. Ehh, I forget actually. I have the one where Demando slaps Usagi. _ Man, that pissed me off. And the one where Mamoru slaps Usagi, too. WTF is with these guys?! Domestic abuse! Though Demando is much hotter than Mamoru. :D
Lady Light: Okay!! Thanks for reading. ^^ I sorta meant for it to be confusing. I was really planning on not continuing, but I've come this so far so I might as well finish it. ^^
Hyper Bunny16: Thanks! I can't wait to see what'll happen next, too! Hehe, hopefully it'll continue evolving in a good direction and you'll continue to read. ^_^
Crystalstorm21: Thank you! Lol, poor Hiiro. XD Poor Usagi, too, ne, after getting shot and all. It's okay! Haruka and Hiiro will sort of get along. . .at least tolerate each other. =)
NessaBunny: Thanks for the sweet review! I'll need the luck!
Sailor Grape: Questions, questions. . .! I think this chapter answers part of the question concerning the relationship between Relena and Usagi. . .there's more to it, however, lots more. I absolutely adore MSWG!! That chapter gave me the creeps. You can count on me to bug you about updating if you end up taking a long hiatus again. ^^; Don't worry about Quatre, though. I hope. He'll play a bigger role. . .maybe. _
Krista Hopes: Heheh, sorry! I'll try to update faster. ^^;;
themoonmaiden: *nods* Hiiro got sloppy XD after promising never to kill anyone again after EW. Haha, never make a promise. That's what I've learned. HEHE you're so full of questions, tmm-chan! XD I don't know if I want to answer them all! Ahh, I did mean for Usagi to be Serenity III, though. I've always considered Serenity I to be Selene, the real moon goddess, Serenity II to be her incarnation and Usagi's moon mother, and Serenity III to be Usagi. *scratches head* I don't think I did too well on explaining that, but it's something to that extent. x.x YAY you made the connection between Relena and Usagi! I'm glad! ^^ They're not exactly the same, but their ideals do overlap in certain areas. Where IS Pluto? Heh heh. It'll be a surprise. XD Poor Quatre. He's being forced to rebuild the gundams. *cackles*
Angelight: Lol, thanks xD;; Yeshes. . . YOU must get to working on Paper Snow. _ Uh, my review also cut off last time but I was too lazy to fix it. I think I said something along the lines of super cute and I love it and continue, continue, continue! ;; How were finals, btw? ^^;;
CrystalBlueSeraph: Thanks for reviewing! ^^;; Lol, I'll try to update often or regularly. It's a hard job, though! And since it's around Christmas now, I'm just super lazy. ^^