Chapter 23

Broken glass littered the floor, sparkling in the late afternoon light like so many tiny gems. The stained glass windows of the great library had been smashed in. The windows had been the work of Mercurian glassmakers, who harnessed the power of the sun to create the fabulous colors which had enthralled so many first-time visitors to the moon.

Dozens of bodies, both enemy and friendly, lay strewn across the room. Serenity's forces had made a fighting retreat through the room, sustaining horrendous losses in the process. The fighting had been brutal, hand to hand at times. But the senshi had managed to orchestrate a reasonably coherent retreat, using their powers to beat back the heavy assault forces of Beryl's army.

The soldier poked his head around one of the pillars, his procured sword held close to his body. Beryl had committed her elites to this battle, knowing that a decisive breakthrough might rupture the Lunar lines. Her largest and strongest youma had been thrust into the battle and subsequently consumed in the frantic melee.

He crept slowly across the side, listening carefully for any noise out of the ordinary. Suddenly, the Retainer froze and ducked behind a table near the stacks of books. In his tan armor and battle uniform, the Retainer would stand out terribly amidst the stacks.

Three men wearing the officer's uniform of Beryl's army strode in, laughing as if they hadn't a care in the world.

"All that I'm saying is that if we could just find a quiet spot...there's one hole for each of us."

The Retainer's curiosity perked up at those words and he maneuvered quietly to get a better look at them. The three trotted easily across the room then stopped to look at something on the floor. "Wow, she's more beautiful than I imagined."

"Yeah...the senshi were supposedly the most beautiful women in the galaxy. Too bad the youma couldn't take her alive."

"Well, they're no better than animals. I don't ever get a good feeling when I'm around them."

"Do any of us, really?" One of them knelt down. "And she's still warm. Look, I saw a bedroom a little--"

The officer never finished that thought as the Retainer picked the man up with the power of his thoughts and hurled him upwards against the stone ceiling. The unfortunate officer crashed into it at full force, as if testing whether the stone or his skull would give way first. Gray matter and bone fragments fell back onto the room in a gory shower. The other two gaped at their friend's fate before drawing their swords and uttering a simultaneous battle cry.

They never stood a chance. The soldier had never been taught a chivalrous manner of fighting and relied upon his own instincts to guide him. He lashed the nearest with a psionic attack, tearing the very life force from the officer's mind and scattering it to the winds. The man crumpled without a word. The next managed to get close enough to swipe at the soldier with his sword. The soldier dodged easily, letting the blade fall short and battered the officer's face with a savage back fist before driving it into the marble floor with a terrifyingly casual maneuver.

After making sure his opponents were dead, the soldier slowly made his way to where they had been standing. Sailor Mars lay on the floor, her hands still rigid in the stylized gesture of a senshi attack. The soldier shook his head before dragging her unceremoniously to the side and out of view. He gently massaged her arms until they loosened enough for him to fold across her chest.

He bowed his head, whispering a prayer for the deceased. As the soldier stood up, the wind through the broken windows picked up and his cape fluttered in the wind.

He moved on.

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Kevin's eyes fluttered as he was hit by a wave of warmth and delicious smells. His nose picked up the mixed hints of food and flowers, and Kevin smiled broadly.

The apartment was small but cozy, a tribute to the one who lived there. A small living room lay before him, stuffed to the brim with a worn sofa and two comfortable looking recliners. There was a small, flat screen TV on the wall and a cabinet filled with various knickknacks and curios. His nose told him that the kitchen was beyond the living room, likely filled with delectable goodies to eat.

But the most curious thing about the room was the fact that there were photographs everywhere. Dozens of them were hung on the walls, depicting scenes of friendship and happiness. He could spot Minako and her friends in almost all of them, smiling with reckless abandon.

It was the home of someone who had lost one they had loved dearly and was determined never to let it happen again by filling their mind with the others who they cherished. And, in a way, it was the home of someone who could love unconditionally and who was loved by others in the same way.

"There you are!" A loud female voice hailed them from across the living room. "I've been putting off the final touches of this meal waiting for you guys!"

Minako rushed forward to hug Makoto with all her strength, beaming happily. "We had to convince Bin-kun to let me skip my tutoring session. We bribed him with a meal."

Kevin looked betrayed. "That's not how I remember it. I seem to recall you just dragging me here against my free will...all the time saying 'You'll thank me later!'"

"Same thing."

Kevin stood there uncomfortably for a moment before sticking his hand out. "Hi, it's nice meeting you again."

Makoto looked at him as if he were insane, then gave Minako a dirty look. "Haven't you educated him on how to act in my home?"

Minako shrugged sheepishly. "Give him a break."

Kevin raised a finger to inquire as to what the proper conduct was, but before he could Mako wrapped him in a monstrous bear hug. "Rule number one. No formality. We're friends."

She released him. "Any friend of Minako is mine as well. And I'm sure we'll get to know you better during dinner. Speaking of which, everyone's in the kitchen already. Come on!"

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Makoto deftly tossed the seared beef into the sukiyaki on the stove, showing the dexterity of a much more experienced chef. She covered it up quickly and flashed everyone at the table a charming smile. "Sorry for taking so long, but the sukiyaki only tastes good if you eat it right after it's cooked."

Rei chuckled softly. "Mako-chan, you're making us dinner. I'd think it would be unpardonably rude for us to complain."

"Ah, but a hostess always needs to look after her guests." Makoto dried her hands quickly with a dishtowel, then reached into the refrigerator for another dish. "I think we're about ready to start!" To Kevin, in an apologetic tone, "I'm sorry, but I'm afraid I don't know much American cooking--"

Kevin interrupted her smoothly. "And I eat almost anything. I'm very flexible with food."

Makoto beamed before turning back to her cooking. Minako spared a glance at Kevin for perhaps the twentieth time that night. He had such an easy, joshing way with everyone. He fit in with her friends wonderfully without the tenseness that had begun to creep into their conversations.

Artemis, in the few chance times he had seen Kevin and her interact, had commented that it was odd that someone as well adjusted and articulate as Kevin was always a little tongue-tied around her. The cat had also remarked on how odd it was that he was still single. Had the feline's observations not been so on the mark, Minako might have thought he was implying something.

There were so many strange things about Kevin that she'd never quite gotten a handle on...and never really noticed until recently. Increasingly, Minako had begun to carefully select her topics around the American so that fewer of her thoughts were exposed to him.

And that thought annoyed her. If he was the one acting weirdly, why was she doing the same?

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The spicy sukiyaki broth brought droplets of sweat to his forehead, and Kevin breathed in the wonderful smells before sitting back uneasily. Makoto looked at him with a slight bemused expression. "Is there something the matter, Bin-kun?"

"I think I'm going into 'food shock.'"

"Well, I haven't heard of the condition...but I think I might have a remedy to it." Makoro quickly scooped a heaping ladle full of the broth into his bowl and filled his plate with anything she could reach on the table.

Kevin stared at the plate for a full minute before spearing a piece of seared yellow tail and popping it into his mouth. He chewed at it cautiously for a moment, closed his eyes as if having experienced divine rapture, and then wrapped Mako in a hug. "Oh, my god, I love you."

Rei responded sarcastically. "If you truly love her, you had better finish everything on your plate."

"I'll try my best. No promises though."

The rest of the table laughed at his mock seriousness, drawing him closer into their circle. The girls he dined with were an interesting bunch, a tightly bound together clique. Kevin had the strangest suspicion that he had just been adopted, as one would a stray cat or chihuahua. It was a position he was comfortable with for now.

Kevin could easily peg Ami as the smart one, Rei as the brash one, Makoto as the homemaker, Usagi as the drama queen, and Minako as the leader of the bunch. Yet, even those cliquish identifications defied his instincts.

First, he could tell that they had been together a long time. That they connected so easily indicated a long friendship, unfettered by suspicion or minor deceit. Even the oldest friends are suspicious of each other. It is often one's oldest friends of whom one has greatest reason to be suspicious.

But there was nothing devious about the banter being tossed around the table, no cattiness, no suggestions of any sort. Just good clean laughter and friendship.

It was not the sort of thing you encountered often with a tight knit group of rather attractive girls. There was no malicious sense of schadenfreude in that thought, just the clarity brought on by four homely years in high school. Within such circles, he always noticed a trace of self-destructive competition, a known willingness to undercut friends and acquaintances in order to promote oneself in the social sphere.

And when the tensions grew too great, the debutantes fractured and reformed into other groups of beautiful, popular people. That these girls did not indicated a depth that most high schoolers did not possess.

Which in turn made him wonder how they had gotten that way.

He shoveled another bite of rice into his mouth and chewed thoughtfully. It was in the middle of his ruminations that he realized that Minako had been staring at him for the past five minutes. The second that he noticed her, she began babbling to Usagi about something or another, pretending as if nothing had happened.

And that smallest of exchanges summed up his entire relationship with the blonde girl. Ever since that terrible evening, everything had seemed a little bit more on edge with her, less friendly and more civil. He had the strange suspicion that she didn't really feel all that comfortable talking to him anymore.

All the indications pointed towards that stupid charity ball. Somehow their signals had been crossed, and everything that they had delicately built up over the past several months had crumbled about them. It seemed as though his valiant effort at the end of the night had been ignored, and they were suspended in that uncomfortable limbo between friendship and attraction.

For perhaps the millionth time, he cursed the convoluted nature of women. But, he thought with slight hope, Minako was better than most women. If something bugged her, she would come out and say it, consequences be damned. It was that refreshing frankness that Kevin treasured above all, and he knew that he could not rush something as delicate as that.

The only path of action, therefore, was to simply be the person he had always been, and wait until Minako felt ready to open up.

All would be solved then.