A/N: An important note here – I'm a more than a little disappointed with the number of reviews we receive. Jikkan and I work hard on our stories, and although it's fun writing them, it's funner seeing what others think of it. The first chapter got over twenty reviews, and the second got maybe seven? It drives me batty when I know there are plenty of readers and hits, but that less than five percent bother to review. Please drop a quick line on telling us which was your favourite part, who was written best or something. For us?

Anyway, thanks again to EightofSwords and Jonathan, who both left lovely bigarse, reviews. Domo, Swords-chan! Jona-kun!

Hey, speaking of which, Swords-chan… would you mind if we used your crazy!Asanuma? We're utilising a few other canon characters, but… /Arashi and Jikkan fall to knees and beg/ Onegai?

Now that plugging, thanks, demanding reviews and begging are all done…

Kakera ni Tsukiakari

A Bishoujo Senshi Sailormoon fanstory by Arashinobara Jikkankakyoku

II – Aisu Senshi wo Roken Shimasu!

The Ice Senshi is Discovered!

'Our hearts must be untouched by and immune to men, because men are distractions in our duty. Thus, we have lovers, but no beloved. Any man who loves us is doomed to love a woman of frost and disdain, for we are certainly incapable of loving any but our Princess.'

– Sailorjupiter of the Inner Senshi

Usagi was bone-tired. One of the side-effects of the mysterious 'incident' was that she had been too terrified to sleep that night, fearing a repeat. When she did drift off, it was into fitful dreams full of fire, pain and a loss so acute she was gasping for breath when she woke, tears still wet on her cheeks.

Rocking herself miserably to and fro, she glanced at the glowing numbers on her digital alarm clock, limbs trembling almost uncontrollably from a combination of terror and simple exhaustion. "Four thirty on the dot," she mumbled. Well, her first class didn't start until eight thirty. Shuffling into her school fuku and forgoing the bow and usual hairstyle completely, she stuffed the bow in question as well as her completed homework into her satchel before checking she had her keys and quietly exiting the house.

Usagi's feet took her down the familiar route, and within twenty minutes she was standing outside Mamoru's apartment, squinting at her Sailor V keychain in the annoyingly dim lighting and trying to decide whether or not the brass key on the far right or the second to the right was the correct one.

Sighing in exasperation, she chose the slightly larger one that was second-to-right and was finally awarded by the lock turning smoothly and the door opening. Closing it quickly behind her, Usagi dumped her satchel to the floor, took off her shoes – Mamoru was particularly adamant about that, Kami knew why – and padded silently through the dark to where she knew his bedroom to be.

Pausing and then deciding to raid the clean laundry hamper first, Usagi undressed swiftly and donned one of his smaller button-up shirts and a pair of black boxers that made her snort. "Bounce me if you've got a coin," she muttered, craning her neck to read the English words blazoned on the seat of them with some kind of luminous lettering that shone clearly through the gloom. When had he bought these? As far as she knew, Mamoru had never taken any time to go shopping for his own clothes. As a result, she was the one who took care of the contents of his wardrobe; if she hadn't he'd probably still be wearing that hideous green blazer and black turtleneck combo he had appeared in one day.

"Ah, what gives," she mumbled, slipping under the cool sheets and curling up next to him. Burrowing into his side, Usagi felt Mamoru wrap a strong arm around her and pull her closer to him. She drifted off to sleep with a tiny smile on her face. He always did make her feel safe.

A pair of warm lips pressing lightly to her forehead woke her and she opened disoriented eyes blearily to meet sleepy sapphire ones. "Ohayou," Mamoru greeted lazily, a corner of his mouth quirking up into a wry grin. "I didn't hear you coming in last night."

"Hai, I was pretty surprised about that in all honesty. I've never been able to come in without waking you before, let alone sneak up on you when you're awake. Must've been some day you had to put you in such a deep sleep." She paused deliberately before winking mock-lecherously at him. "Or perhaps it was the kind of dreams you were having that you didn't want interrupted?"

Mamoru shoved her off the bed and onto the floor, smirking at her indignant yelp as she was tumbled from the warm sheets and sprawled unceremoniously onto carpeted floor. "No hentai thoughts, words or actions in this bed, Tenshiko. Kenji-papa would have my head."

Usagi sulked and crawled right back underneath the covers. "I think you just made me get carpet burn," she complained, "and Papa doesn't care. He is so not subtle when he says that he'd like 'Mamoru-kun to be an official part of the family' or 'Mamoru-kun is a good man, I hope that whichever girl he picks is well aware of that'."

Mamoru groaned. "Him and the rest of the world," he sighed. "Despite what you think, I know that he'd be downright dangerous; I've seen him handle that shotgun before, remember? Hell, I helped him practice!"

"Coward," she sulked, burrowing further into the blankets.

Mamoru sighed in exasperation, ripping them off of her. "Get up, Tenshiko, it's nearly seven thirty. No wonder people are wondering about us. You walking out of your own place at night to spend time at mine –" he paused then, turning to stare intently at her. "Speaking of which, when did you go out last night?"

"That's none of your –"

"I'm making it my business. What if you got hurt coming to my apartment? Not only would I never be able to look your folks in the eye again, but…" he trailed off before turning on the glare again. "When did you go out the door?"

"I can defend myself –"

"Not against a rapist dragging you into a dark alley, you can't, or a mugger with a knife. What if he or she had a gun? What if –"

"What if you'd just let me finish," Usagi sniffed, touched in spite of her outward irritation, "I went out at about quarter to five and I –"

"That late?" Mamoru, Usagi had discovered early on in their friendship, had a tendency to get this particularly persistent tic in his jaw whenever he was furious.

There was a muscle working in his cheek right now. Usagi stared fixatedly at it. Maybe if she looked long enough, it'd stop the incoming explosion…

The tic throbbed with wild abandon.

Usagi bit her lip as Mamoru stalked past her, stiff-legged, tight-shouldered, and wearing nothing but a pair of lilac briefs with 'Right On!' inscribed in spiky burgundy script on them. She resisted the insane urge to laugh and handed him his house robe as she passed him on her way to the fridge instead. After all, she could hardly tease him for wearing underwear that she bought for him, could she?

"Can we take the motorcycle today?" Usagi begged, setting the cup of unsweetened black coffee in front of him as he returned from doing his normal morning routine. It never hurt to butter him up, although he'd never refused her or stayed angry at her for more than a period of thirty seconds before. "Onegai, Mamo-chan?" she batted her lashes at Mamoru and watched his stony expression melt into a reluctant smile before he reached over to give her a warm hug.

"That's playing dirty, Tenshiko," he whispered into her hair. "Fine, we'll take the motorcycle; now go get dressed unless you want to go to school in my shirt and boxers."

Usagi grinned impishly at him. "Speaking of which, Mamo-chan, when did you get these ones? 'Bounce me?'"

His furious blush made her laugh, but she felt a little twinge of something uncurling in her gut. Later, she would look back and recognise it as jealousy, but for now, her hands fisted and she wondered miserably just which of his many admirers had gotten it for him.

Jadeite came to with a hoarse yell as the viciously-searing cuts on his back, arms and legs made themselves known. Two sets of hands held him still as someone else continued to clean the wounds.

"Back to the world of the living, I see," Zoicite's voice was full of grim humour as he sterilised a needle. "How do you feel, brother?"

"Like shit," Jadeite rasped, his throat hoarse from screaming. "Which is as good as anyone under that bitch can be."

"Careful," Nephrite cautioned calmly, pressing a cool cloth to his brother's fevered brow. "The walls have ears."

"And the Queen has at least given us a chance to regain our honour," Kunzite snapped. "We should be grateful for that."

"What honour is there in draining innocents?" Jadeite snarled, trying to sit up and swearing as Nephrite held him down. "I opened the portal, brought Iibarujueru through, set up the operation and watched as civilians who have no place in our squabble with the past collapse as their very life energy was taken from them! What honour is that, I ask you?"

Kunzite's eyes narrowed, but he did not answer. It was Zoicite who spoke next. "We will just have to wait and see. Hold still," he added, as he began to stitch up the deeper cuts. "Jadeite, it was Beryl who found us, who helped us regain our memories of the Silver Millennium and those she-demons they called the defenders of the solar system. Now, we have a purpose where we were lost before. The death of Iibarujueru shows that there is at least one of the sailor senshi still out there – we will confront and defeat her."

Nephrite sighed. "I do not understand it, though. There was never a Sailormoon, or – that other one up in Europe? – Sailor V. From some examining of the world's present culture, I believe Sailor V is simply what they call an idol, someone who is an example for today's society and suchlike. There are plays and picture books enacted and written about her –"

"In other words, she's a blonde bimbo who meddles, only with an ego," Kunzite sniffed. "Exactly like one of those damned senshi."

"Well… yes," Nephrite admitted reluctantly.

Jadeite snorted in spite of the searing pain in his back. "I still think that we could regain our honour some other way. We cannot do it under Beryl, because she herself has no – ow! Watch where you stab that needle, you buffoon!"

"Sorry, brother," everyone present could hear the smirk in Zoicite's tone as he inspected the neat stitches and sighed before moving onto the next one. "In any case, you should be fine by tomorrow, provided you don't move at all today, or the stitches will tear and you'll end up with even more scar tissue."

"I don't understand why you had to use the needle in the first place," Jadeite complained. "We heal almost instantly –"

"Jadeite, the entire point of this ordeal is punishment. Beryl is the one enhancing our strength until we redeem ourselves and come back into our own power. Part of that strength is directed into healing, which explains why you are still bedridden. What Zoicite is saying is that the stitches will hold your wounds closed and stop you from dying of blood loss until Queen Beryl allows them to heal – she isn't exactly very happy with you right now, so you are, essentially, a mortal," Nephrite lectured.

"A mortal with power," Jadeite contradicted arrogantly before flinching again. "Agh! Watch it!"

"Sorry."

She finds herself in the strange void, faintly registering voices and thoughts through the darkness as deep water would register sunlight from the surface far above. She is drowsy, and wants to go back to sleep and dream.

She dreams often, really. Sometimes she sees herself laughing with Endymion, urging him to take a sip out of her milkshake, scolding him for studying too hard. This puzzles her slightly, as she cannot understand the world her imagination has spun; one teeming with engines deadly to the Earth's atmosphere and full of clutter and noise. What is a milkshake, anyway?

More recently, however, she dreams of herself in an immodestly short skirt, like those that her protectors and sisters wear, a golden blade she wields and the air whistling past her ears as she leaps forward to end her enemy's life, the sword coming down –

– and there is Endymion again, in the formal garb of his people, defending and protecting her, just as he had from the very start. She wonders again at her subconscious' imagination; although she was skilled with a blade, the staff, and the discus, her mother would never let her fight, least of all on this strange mutant of the beautiful blue planet.

She sighs a tiny sigh at this thought and curls into herself a little more tightly before allowing the dreams to take her away again. Dreams were all she had in this confusing limbo, and so she would dream until she awoke once more.

Ami was lost.

She looked around the crowded entrance hall with something approaching desperation – class started in twenty minutes and she hadn't the foggiest as to where to go or what to do! She knew she should have double-checked everything, as was her usual approach to anything unfamiliar, but…

For some reason, her eyes were drawn to a couple that had just entered the building. The young man was tall, strong and nothing short of gorgeous, his stance and every movement indicating protectiveness of the girl by his side, who was radiantly beautiful and laughing at something he'd just said. For a moment, her sparkling cerulean eyes met Ami's solemn turquoise ones, and Ami inhaled sharply. Suddenly, everything was somehow right and she wasn't standing lost in a crowded building full of strangers.

Ami took a step forward, instinctively drawn to the golden-haired teen, but the blonde looked away first to say something to her ebon-haired companion and the bluenette's courage wilted. So much for asking directions from her then… what was she thinking? The girl was probably the head of some snobbish clique of cheerleaders just like the ones that had teased Ami in all of the other schools she'd been to, and her boyfriend could only be the traditional counterpart; some kind of sports team captain who was all brawn and no brains. You didn't get a build like that by sitting around and studying all day.

The bluenette let out a startled cry when she was jostled forcefully by a few juniors in football jerseys and knocked over, books and stationary spilling everywhere as the seams to her beloved satchel tore with an audible rip. Suppressing the tears that threatened to choke her, she knelt clumsily and attempted to retrieve all her books and binders. Ami nearly jumped out of her skin when a bell-clear voice sounded out right next to her ear.

"How dare they!" the blonde from earlier spat, handing Ami her graphing calculator and reaching for a heavy text on microbial genesis. "Running over you like that and then not even bothering to help you up!"

Ami blinked, unsure if she'd heard right. "I beg your pardon?" she inquired politely.

The boyfriend knelt to examine some of the titles in Ami's arms, eyes almost glowing. "No way! Mathematical Methods of Quantum Optics? The Conceptual Foundations of Quantum Field Theory? Where did you get a copy of that? It's not a rare book or anything, but every bookstore I've checked is restocking or something and there's some mess up in the shipping, so I couldn't buy one online…"

Ami blinked before a small blush spread across her cheeks. Obviously, she was wrong about the boyfriend, considering no jock would have any kind of interest in quantum physics. "Would you like to borrow them, then?" she offered, feeling it was the least she could do for judging him even before she'd met him. 'He's also very handsome…' she blushed again before hastily adding; "I'm nearly done with them, anyway –"

"Really? Domo arigatou gozaimasu…" he looked positively giddy but sighed with regret. "Demo, I'll let you finish it before I snatch, ne?"

"Mamo-chan, really," his girlfriend chided. Turning to Ami, she took some of the bluenette's load into her own arms. "I'm Tsukino Usagi, and this is my best friend, Chiba Mamoru. Are you new?" she asked kindly.

Ami blinked again.

'Best friends?'

She felt her face growing hot again before she nodded. "Hai, I am," she responded embarrassedly. "I was going to ask someone for directions, but –" Ami shook her head again, realising how rude she was being. "Gomen nasai, I'm Mizuno Ami…"

"Nice to meet you, Ami-chan!" Usagi chirruped cheerfully. "Some of the people here are real brutes. Here, are you still looking for a locker? You can take one near mine and Mamo-chan's, if you like?" Without waiting for an answer, Usagi bounced gaily down the crowded hallways, the crowd parting easily before her bright spirit as she passed by, calling out greetings to those she knew and smiling warmly at those she didn't.

"Don't take her informality as an offence," a husky voice whispered in her ear. Ami blushed in spite of her self and refused to look Mamoru in the eye. He merely smiled. "Tenshiko – that's Usagi, gomen ne — is very cheerful. Telling her to be formal to a stranger is like telling a hawk to play nurse to a crippled rabbit. I just wanted you to know that before you judged her. Too many people do that before even meeting her properly." He straightened and strode over to Usagi, who was waving impatiently at them.

Ami paused for a moment, more ashamed than ever at her train of thoughts when she had first seen them. 'Ami-chan,' the bluenette thought, moving towards them. Her lips tilted upwards into a wide smile. 'No one's ever called me that…'

Maybe this year would be different to all the other ones.

Ami could hardly stop smiling the entire day. She had made an instant friend and at least three friendly acquaintances in Mamoru, Osaka Naru – another one of Usagi's friends – and a funny boy named Umino Gurio that had a huge crush on the oblivious Usagi. Sure, the students in her classes had not been very receptive when they had found out that she was Mizuno Ami, the Genius Bluenette.

Sometimes she seriously considered dyeing her hair and playing stupid.

Ami laughed softly at her ridiculous train of thought. It must have something to do with the strange up swell of happiness in her breast. As Naru and Mamoru had claimed the lockers on either side of Usagi's, Usagi led Ami to the free locker to the left of Naru's and then promptly introduced the two. That was when the tardy bell rang and Usagi and Naru, upon finding that Ami also had English with Haruna first block, bid farewell to an amused Mamoru before hustling her to the class in question and then into a seat between the two of them at Usagi's insistence.

Right now, however, Ami had Psychology, Usagi Science class and Naru Gym. Ami reached the psychology classroom only to find a note written on the whiteboard informing her that the first lesson was to be held in a computer lab. Shrugging, Ami went to ask for directions from the teacher next door and then set off. She got lost twice, and the bell for class had long since rung, much to her dismay. Nevertheless, she knocked quickly on the clouded glass pane of the door to announce her presence and then entered.

Closing the door behind her, Ami bowed hastily. "Gomen, gomen, gomen nasai, Kawasemi-sensei," she apologised, straightening. "I got lost, you see, and – EEEK!"

"I think you've mistaken me for someone else, dear," the overly endowed female monster informed her, all saccharine sweetness as she brandished an uncommonly sharp teacher's pointer at Ami. "Kawasemi-sensei is currently… indisposed; I will be your substitute." Blood-red lips smiled widely, revealing fangs. "I'm Iibarutiicha and your energy now has the honour of belonging to the Dark Kingdom!"

Usagi was going up to the teacher's desk to get pondweed for the lab they were setting up when suddenly everything went black.

She woke to see Hachidori-sensei's small, lined face directly above her. His eyes were curious as his squeaky voice piped his concern for her; "Tsukino-san, daijoubu?"

"Dai…joubu?" Usagi's voice felt like it was coming from far away, and it wasn't her who pushed herself to her feet, body humming with adrenaline. "Hachidori-sensei, I still feel a little faint – may I go to the washroom?"

Hachidori blinked rapidly at her. "Are you sure you don't need a trip to the nurse's office? It's not very often I have students collapsing in my classroom on the first day of school."

"Iie, iie… I'll be fine," that other Usagi brushed herself off briskly and exited the science lab, making a beeline towards the computer wing.

That was when the blinding light took her, exhilaration racing through her veins before she was lost to it.

It was happening again.

As was his duty as head of the Moto Azabu student populace, Mamoru had been in a meeting with several other class representatives when it came upon him. Power, intoxicating and heady, flooded him even as the demanding bond yanked him to his feet. Through the throb of two distinct heartbeats, he heard very distantly someone talking to him.

"…do you think, Chiba-senpai? Chiba-senpai?"

Midnight blue eyes flashed a molten gold, silencing the persistent sophomore who had spoken. Mamoru, at this point desperately fighting whatever it was trying to take control, spoke tersely, striding towards the door to the conference room. "My most sincere apologies for leaving you like this – continue as you were. I'll be right back."

As he left the room of confused and somewhat shaken students, Mamoru slipped into a small niche before doubling over. As the dual pulses reached a crescendo and synchronised, his school uniform melted into the disconcertingly familiar tuxedo and cape.

Tuxedo Kamen ghosted silently through the school halls, eyes darting to and fro behind his mask as he followed the pull of the bond. If he squinted just so, he could see it faintly, gold and silver threads braided intricately together and streaming from his heart to Sailormoon's.

Suddenly, he was almost bowled over by what seemed like emotions cut and chiselled into an unmistakable question.

Are you there?

He picked up the pace, sending a wave of reassurance down the gold and silver link.

I'm coming.

A block away, a black cat's head snapped up and she sprinted through the near-deserted streets and through the open gates of the school gates, the golden crescent moon insignia on her forehead glowing as she responded to an unspoken call.

Ami blinked.

Her first impulse was to ask what this 'Dark Kingdom' thing was, exactly, but then she realised that she was about to be skewered by a teacher's pointer of all things, and so kept her mouth shut tightly. Iibarutiicha looked irritated. "Well, aren't you going to say something about that?"

"Nani?" Ami was really confused now.

"Aren't you going to… I don't know, scream or beg for your life or something?" Iibarutiicha asked hopefully. "I was hoping for some grovelling…"

Ami sweatdropped. "Anou… I don't know." She looked apprehensively around the computer lab and winced. Each student was bound to their chair with scotch tape and slumped over his or her keyboard in some kind of lethargic trance. The real Kawasemi-sensei, she assumed upon seeing a sturdily built redhead in his fifties, was also there, profoundly unconscious and pinned to the desk with several paper cutters.

"What do you mean 'you don't know'?" Iibarutiicha sighed. "Ah well, it was nice talking to you…" She threw a large, thick roll of tape at Ami, who ducked and ran back towards the door. A pencil with a frighteningly sharp point thudded into the lock, effectively discouraging the bluenette from moving further towards it.

Iibarutiicha frowned at Ami. "If you're going to keep moving, this is going to hurt more than if I just used the tape," she snapped. "Hold still!"

"Iie!" Ami shouted, darting around the classroom as Iibarutiicha levelled a staple gun at her. The stream of staples missed the bluenette by inches, and Ami bit her lip, truly terrified as she ripped a keyboard clean out of its socket and threw it at the teacher-youma. A bottle of calligraphy ink from Iibarutiicha flew past the bluenette's nose and smashed on the wall, the dark liquid immediately beginning to eat a hole through plaster and stone.

Ami sweatdropped again and threw a mouse pad, which didn't do much except float to the floor uselessly. Diving out of the way of yet more staples, the bluenette found herself falling into the way of another hurled pencil. Flinching and about to close her eyes, Ami was understandably surprised when a disk of what appeared to be solid light disintegrated the missile only two feet from her before boomeranging around to knock the stapler gun out of the youma's hand.

"Nani?" Iibarutiicha gaped at the hunk of twisted metal that had once been her weapon before turning furious eyes on the petite, sailor-suited young woman standing behind her, who merely raised her eyebrows mockingly in response.

"Ai to seigi no, seerafuku bishojou senshi! Sailormoon!" Sailormoon caught her still-glowing weapon casually and shoved it under her bangs again. She leapt away to avoid another pencil missile and took up a defensive position in front of Ami, the tiara on her forehead glowing golden as she poured energy into it. 'I've only got enough energy left for one or two throws before I start slowing down,' she guessed, and bit her lip hard.

"Sailormoon? My master warned me about you and that crazy boyfriend of yours… how did you get in here!"

"I'm pleased to hear that my reputation and that of my ally's precedes me." Sailormoon cocked her head to the side in mock-gratification, hoping to buy more time until Tuxedo Kamen might arrive. "As for how I came in…" Sailormoon half-smiled and gestured toward the flattened and splintered door, the glass pane still, amazingly, in once piece, "Why, the same way everyone else does — through the door."

Ami watched apprehensively as Sailormoon stalled for time – for some kind of reinforcements, perhaps? – and let out a startled exclamation when sharp claws dug into her thighs. "Nani? Go away, neko-san!"

"Certainly not!" the cat hissed.

Ami blinked. Once. Twice.

'I'm unconscious and hallucinating,' she thought hysterically before muttering to herself aloud. "Wake up, Mizuno Ami."

"You are not hallucinating," the cat hissed, correctly guessing the thoughts going through the dazed girl's head. A startled cry had both the cat and human look up sharply, and Ami gasped as she saw Sailormoon choking as a grey-uniformed blonde man held her aloft by the neck, squeezing viciously as Iibarutiicha cheered him on. He had obviously caught Sailormoon off guard, and she was now paying the price. Black fire streamed from his hands and into her body, angry red blisters appearing on porcelain skin as she screamed in pain.

"Sailormoon!" Ami gasped, and as sudden images flew through her mind – a beautiful silver-haired young woman kissed her tenderly on the forehead before pulling her to her feet and telling her never to kneel to anyone again – a blue insignia blazed to life on Ami's forehead.

Luna sighed in relief, glad that she had been right in her hunch, and did a quick backflip, using the momentum to reach into her subspace pocket and fling something small and blue in Ami's direction. She caught the pen-like creation automatically and raised it above her head, a fierce expression forming on her face.

Luna began to speak, "Say –"

"Mercury Power, Make-Up!" Ami roared, and everything erupted in a blaze of blue-white light.

As her school uniform dissolved away, bands of frosty fire wrapped themselves around her naked form and solidified into a bodysuit, skirt, boots and gloves much like those Sailormoon wore, a gold tiara studded with a sapphire flashing into existence to cover the glowing symbol of Mercury.

As her henshin phase finished, Sailormercury didn't even bother to announce herself; she cupped her hands, willing the energy boiling in her to find a release. 'Shabon…Shabon…Shabon…damnit, I know this…' "Shabon Spr –"

"How dare you!" a tenor voice hissed furiously, and the incantation bubbling in Mercury's mouth died as a heavy computer monitor sailed through the air and hit the uniformed man squarely in the side. There was an audible crunching noise as he let go of Sailormoon and doubled over in pain. A dark shape – a man in a tuxedo, Mercury realised incredulously – covered the distance between him and the grey-uniformed person in two bounds and cursed fluently when his adversary vanished in a flash of black fire and reappeared on the other side of the room.

"I am Jadeite, Shitennou of the Sun," the uniformed man snarled. "Rest assured, we will meet again."

A long-stemmed – razor tipped? – rose thudded harmlessly into the wall as Jadeite disappeared again, this time not reappearing. Once again, profanities blistered the air as Sailormoon's rescuer expressed his extreme displeasure.

"The youma, Mercury!" Luna hissed, and Mercury took a deep breath, feeling the unabated pressure and rage still welling up from deep down…

"Shabon Spray!" she shouted, and a thousand tiny ice crystals hurtled towards the forgotten Iibarutiicha, digging into her soft flesh even as the icy fog they travelled in froze her nearly to the core, cutting her off mid-scream.

Sailormoon struggled to her feet, limbs trembling uncontrollably and a glazed look in her eyes. "T-T-Tuxedo Kamen," she whispered. He was at her side in a flash, scooping her tenderly into his arms and pulling a white glove off before pressing a bare hand to the moon senshi's neck. Golden tendrils of energy caressed her petite form and she shuddered slightly.

"Itai," Sailormoon mumbled hoarsely. "By the sun, moon and stars, I ache…"

"Hush and hold still," Tuxedo Kamen told her gently, watching the blisters shrink and fade, the reddened skin fading back it its usual pale tone even as sweat beaded on his brow from the effort of healing her. "I believe the best, and safest, course of action would be to remove ourselves from this scene as soon as possible –"

"Iie, Tuxedo Kamen-sama," she shook her head dizzily, beating her fists weakly against his chest in a plea to be let down. "I must finish this."

He shot a dark look at the frozen youma and lifted his bare hand from her neck for a moment, sparks still dancing about his fingers. He made a sweeping motion; a torrent of red-gold flame blazed from his palm and obliterated the hapless Iibarutiicha.

Sailormoon clenched her hands in his jacket as she felt him tremble – obviously, the attack had taken quite a bit out of him, and she opened her mouth to inquire –

"Sailormoon!" a similarly-clad senshi in blue appeared at his elbow and a cat at his ankle. Tuxedo Kamen resisted the urge to blast them and instead levelled a cool glare at the senshi of ice. "Is she alright?"

"She is strong," was all he said. He tucked his glove into his breast pocket and adjusted his grip on Sailormoon, turning to leave.

"If she would consent, I have a few questions to ask of her –" the cat began hesitantly.

"And you will get your answers another time, if you get them at all," Tuxedo Kamen's eyebrows knit angrily. He wondered briefly why he was not more surprised at the presence of a talking animal, but dismissed the thought almost as soon as it came. "A healing takes energy mainly from the healed, and she will need rest."

Sailormoon said nothing, having fallen into an exhausted sleep, and he gave them a pointed look from behind his white mask. "Sarabada," he nodded curtly, and, in a whirl of black and red, was gone, and the sleeping senshi with him.

Tuxedo Kamen brushed aside a few golden bangs even as he continued to channel more of his energy into the exhausted senshi. His search for a secluded, quiet place to tend to her had led them to a small grove behind the basketball courts, high in the branches of an oak tree. The spirit of the old oak was friendly enough, if not a little surprised to be addressed, and was more than willing to share a bit of its ki with a needy human. Tuxedo Kamen made an absentminded note to find some way to thank it later.

He tilted her head back to examine her throat, and was pleased to find only the faint, rapidly-fading touches of pink on creamy skin. It was his fault she'd suffered those terrible burns; only proper that he should be the one to erase them. Too slow, too damned slow, and almost too late — he'd thought his heart had stopped when he heard her screaming —

'Jadeite.' His lips curled in a silent snarl, his grip on the tiny blonde tightening possessively. He'd been right to run as quickly as he did; only let Kamen get a hand on him and he'd find far worse than his ribs shattered for him, the black coward —

Sailormoon whimpered a little, fretfully, and he forced his hands to relax, himself to calm. Unconsciousness did not block a bond, and she did not deserve to be hurt by his rampant emotions when she'd already been so injured by his absence.

He pulled her a little closer, arranged her more comfortably against his shoulder and chest. "Shhh, shhh, sleep a little longer, take your ease another moment, bishoujo senshi," he soothed her.

'Give me this little time before you wake and banish the poor failure who dared call himself your cavalier.'

She gave voice to a sweet little sigh, as if in answer, and cuddled closer, a cheek resting contentedly against the heavy silk of his vest while her free hand came up to clutch at his lapel.

He didn't deserve to have her so close…

'Hush,' he said again, this time to his whirling mind. 'There will be time enough for thoughts like that when she is awake.'

Better to enjoy this while he could: the quiet music of the breeze as it danced through the grove, singing to itself; the dappled sunlight; the warm solidity of the trunk at his back and the limb under his legs, shelter and sustenance both at once.

All of it so familiar…

The oak had been content to cradle them in silence, until now, but at last it raised its voice.

: Once, long ago, men spoke to us. :

He let a bare palm rest on smooth bark. 'As I do to you?'

: Not all men. A select few, who wielded a golden power unlike any other in the universe. :

A golden power… 'Did they stop? Are they all gone?' The thought saddened him. He didn't know why; perhaps it was the idea of being completely unique, a thing to be grieved for as much as celebrated.

: It has been a long time. :

Almost certainly a yes, then. 'Long ago', as a tree called it…

He sighed and relaxed against the trunk, closing his eyes.

From the direction of the basketball courts, a shrill whistle sounded; a man's voice began to shout.

: Your lady awakes. :

He opened his eyes and looked down, and it was so; crystal blue met sapphire. 'So she does.'

"…I give you good morrow, my lady."

"And has it been so long?" she smiled up at him. "Has the gentleman been so kind as to be my couch for a night and a day, until the sun has again reached such a height?"

"Would that it were so," he said instantly, "But I fear you give me too much credit; it cannot have been more than a half-hour, though I would swear it were only five minutes."

"Say you thus? Then you are a great healer as well as a great warrior and a great gentleman, for I feel quite as if I had slept the clock 'round." She reached up to lay a gloved hand against his cheek, but he turned his face away.

"Not great," he said in a low voice. "Only guilty."

She put a hand to his other cheek, made him turn back to her. "And for what could you possibly feel guilty, Tuxedo Kamen-sama? Is saving a foolish woman from the consequences of her own hubris a deed of which one should feel shamed?"

The need to defend her from any and all comers swamped his guilt immediately. "Forgive the dissent, my lady, but being unexpectedly outnumbered is hardly what I would consider a fault one can attribute to the victim."

Her eyes were mischievous. "And yet there was no cause for them to be unexpected; where there is one monster, there may be two, and something to direct them. If I — a soldier, dear sir, not a 'helpless victim' — was injured because I failed to watch my back, that is no one's fault but my own."

"And what of the one who should have been watching it for you?" he asked bitterly. "I was almost too late —"

"But you were in time."

"But what if I hadn't been?"

"Such is not for us to know."

: The lady is wise: said the oak. : Both have been wrong; both shall do better. :

Tuxedo Kamen gave the tree an irritated look; Sailormoon laughed out loud.

"Oh, well said!" she applauded. "Tuxedo Kamen-sama, am I correct in thinking that was the tree?"

How could anyone be irritated when she was smiling? "Quite correct, my lady. He's been very hospitable, if a trifle opinionated — without him, I could not have been nearly so thorough in your healing."

"Then I give my dearest thanks, to you and to Gentlesir Oak Tree, and my admiration of a greatly-envied talent." She reached over his shoulder to give the oak's trunk a gentle pat. "I fear I must leave soon; there is something telling me I am not to be here when… when I sleep again."

Tuxedo Kamen felt his heart throb almost painfully in his chest. "You do not have a life beyond this?"

"Nay, I am awakened when it is my time to fight," Sailormoon looked solemnly at him. "I am glad I do not have to do it alone."

He shook his head slowly, disbelieving that the sweet-faced seraph before him was called into being merely for the concept of violence and death. "As am I, my lady. How long have you been –?"

"Aware? Yesterday - the first time I saw you – and now, today. I feel like a newborn in the world, yet my abilities, pardon any immodesty, and the knowledge I possess of things about me, speak differently."

"That they do," he frowned, eyes closing briefly in thought. "I am in much the same… situation as you are." They lapsed into a comfortable silence, and Sailormoon giggled suddenly.

"Although I cannot quite understand why exactly you decided to throw a computer monitor at that – Jadeite, was it? – rather than one of your own roses," she grinned impishly up at him, a teasing light in her eyes.

Kamen flushed lightly. "My roses, swift and deadly as they are, will only make so much of an impression unless they are very correctly 'placed'; much like the effect a thrown blade has against that of a hurled anvil, for back of a better analogy." He ventured a sheepish smile. "Also, I do not think I was in quite the right mindset."

Sailormoon nodded in understanding and winced suddenly. "The call grows ever stronger," was all she said as she stood gracefully. "I must leave now –"

"As must I," he replied softly, also rising. "But –" he was abruptly silenced as her soft body pressed intimately against his and a pair of silken lips brushed tantalisingly against his cheek, dangerously close to the corner of his mouth. As sudden as the contact came, it was gone, and she saluted him gaily before leaping away and out of sight.

Stupefied, Kamen brought a gloved hand to where she had kissed him. The gentle breeze that shook the tree's branches sounded very much like a fleeting chuckle.

: She is quite the lady. :

Tuxedo Kamen shot an ironic glance at the tree trunk before shaking his head ruefully, limbs feeling strangely languid as he stared dreamily into the distance. "That she is," he replied softly.

Glossary

fuku — uniform. Jikkan-chan generally calls the 'battle uniform' a 'seerafuku' to distinguish it from the school uniform.

domo arigatou gozaimasu — the most formal, earnest thank-you Jikkan-chan knows. Mamo-chan must've been looking very hard for those books, ne?

gomen nasai — a more formal apology than 'gomen' or 'gomen ne'; 'I'm very sorry'.

sensei — 'teacher' or 'doctor'; literally 'one who is born first' and therefore wiser than the speaker. May be used as a name suffix.

-senpai — one who has been in an organisation of which the speaker is a member longer than the speaker, and therefore a superior; in this case, an upperclassman.

neko — cat.

Shitennou — 'The Four Heaven Kings', aka the Dark Kings/Generals of the Dark Kingdom/'Negaverse'. Jadeite, Nephrite, Zoicite and Kunzite ('Malachite').

sarabada — 'farewell'. Tuxedo Kamen's favourite word.

A/N: Also, the titles Ami carried around in this chapter... well, they're real. So this will be some kind of disclaimer: I don't own the titles on Quantum Physics... Now, review please, or we shall feel very unhappy and neglected and you don't want that, now, do you/grins/