Michiru cocked her head and smirked at Luna. The cat tired not to squirm.
"Have you met this 'Sea Knight'?" the girl asked. She glanced around at the others, including them in her question. There were no affirmatives. "And Luna only remembers him from the past." The cat nodded. "Where he served an evil witch."
"How do we know she's a witch?" Haruka asked in a nasal tone. Everyone stared at her. Michiru snickered as Haruka sighed and waved off their stares.
"The question is valid though, in spite of Haruka's obscure reference," Michiru said. "How do we know she was a witch? Luna can't even remember this person except that the Sea Knight served her. And that she refused to use her powers for Queen Serenity. So the Queen, in a fit of pique, banished them."
Luna protested. "Her Majesty had a very good reason for not letting such powerful people wander around without being subject to her laws."
"Yes, yes," Michiru agreed, "and I'm sure jealousy and fear never entered her mind as she banished some of the most powerful people in the kingdom."
Luna hissed, glaring at the woman. Michiru rolled her eyes.
"Don't get all uptight, Luna," Haruka put in. "Michiru is proving a point. You and Artemis have both admitted to not remembering that time well. And Artemis told Minako that someone had messed with Usagi's memories. So we can't assume that Kintaro-kun is even the same person as this 'Sea Knight' from the past."
"Kintaro-kun?"
Haruka smirked. "Yes. We've met him. I can certainly see why Usagi is head over heels for him." She gestured to where the blonde was 'sharing' a bento with Makoto. The younger girls stared at Haruka, and then slowly turned to Michiru.
Michiru nodded. "He certainly is handsome, and quite the gentleman. He was very polite to Hotaru-chan when he asked her on a date."
The stares became even more incredulous as they turned back to Haruka.
"We did a bit of research. It seems that Ryuzaki Kintaro was in line to compete in the last Olympics as a fencer and kendoist. Everyone was certain he'd take the gold if he went." She glanced around at her rapt audience. Even Luna was listening.
"He decided not to go. He didn't want to loose his enjoyment of the Art by making it his career. So he stayed home and went into politics and military history."
Michiru spoke, drawing attention back to her. "His mother is Ryuzaki Umi and his father is Mendo Shutaro. Both well known, and wealthy, politicians. Ryuzaki-san even took the silver medal in Olympic fencing about twenty years ago. Only a sprained wrist kept her from the gold. Both families have roots going back before the Warring States period."
"Here's where it gets good," Haruka put in, taking the thread of the story. "Kintaro-kun was recently attending the Hoshii-Asa Academy. There are a lot of rumors about his reason for leaving, mostly about one of the teachers named Taokuyamano Ayame. Some say he was having an affair with her. Others say she was teaching him evil magic." She paused for effect. "According to our sources he was actually expelled for breaking a professor's jaw."
The girls gasped.
"The man in question," Michiru said calmly, "had apparently said something very rude about his own fiancée. Kintaro broke his jaw when he challenged him to a duel. Apparently the school officials didn't take kindly to one of their professors being slapped around and they expelled Kintaro. The man never accepted Kintaro's challenge."
Haruka snorted. "If it had been me, I would have castrated him right there."
"We've got trouble!" Artemis arrived, panting from his run. "The Sea Knight is attending the same school as Hotaru-chan."
"What's wrong with that?" Haruka asked, feigning innocence. Artemis stared at her. Michiru laughed.
"If he finds out about Sailor Saturn…"
"I am fairly certain he already knows. Assuming that you're talking about Kintaro-kun," Michiru interrupted. "At least he knows there is something special about Hotaru-chan."
"What!" Minako jumped to her feet.
"Sit down, Mina-chan," Haruka said. "We've already verified his credentials. He's hardly a Youma general or a Dark Moon scion. He has some connections with the government, and he seems to be using those to help people like Hotaru."
"Yes," Michiru agreed. "The Hoshii-Asa Academy is known for strange incidents and stranger students. And it is sponsored by the Mammano family."
"They're the ones who train those Demon Hunters?" Minako asked. The others rolled their eyes. Recently they had been having problems with Demon Hunter girls trying to join them or recruit them.
"Yes," Setsuna said from behind her. Minako shrieked and jumped into Ami's arms. Unfortunately Ami wasn't prepared for the arrival of her blonde friend and they ended up in a tangled heap.
Haruka snickered as she helped them up. "You should have jumped into my arms… ow." She broke off as Michiru smacked the side of her head.
Setsuna smirked. "Flirt on your own time. Now what is this about Hotaru-chan encountering the Sea Knight?"
"He's attending Mugen-Gauken Academy now. If you're talking about Kintaro-kun."
Setsuna raised an eyebrow at Michiru's choice of suffix. "About this tall, blue hair and eyes. Bishonen good looks with a narrow waist and wide shoulders. You may have seen a blue gem embedded in his left hand."
"That's him. Except I didn't see a gem, but I wasn't examining his hand." Michiru glanced at Haruka.
"Yeah, that's him. Handsome too. If he wasn't engaged, Michiru and I might have lured him in for a threesome, but I didn't see a gem either."
"That was way too much information," Minako muttered to a blushing Ami.
"How do you know he's engaged?" Setsuna asked.
"He had a ring on."
"You noticed an engagement ring, but not a big blue gem?"
Haruka studied the clouds. Michiru snickered.
"Who's engaged?" Usagi demanded, having just returned with Makoto.
Everyone found other things to look at. Haruka rolled her eyes.
"Ryuzaki Kintaro wears an engagement ring. He's also got a date with Hotaru-chan this weekend. I think you've missed the boat already Usagi-chan." Haruka glanced around as the others glared at her. "What?"
Usagi stared at her for a long moment then turned and walked away.
"She took that pretty well," Minako mumbled. Ami nodded. Makoto shot Haruka an angry look and followed Usagi.
Setsuna sighed. "Well that wasn't exactly how I'd have done it, but it seems to have worked out."
They had all relaxed slightly when the time vortex struck. Setsuna had time to scream once before she disappeared from the time stream. The others stared in shock.
Setsuna woke with a groan. She hated vortices. She was reaching for her henshin wand when a voice stopped her.
"Don't transform. It will only confuse things."
She glanced toward the voice and relaxed as she saw her future self standing by the Time Gate. She tensed up again as she noticed the Gate was closed. Two smaller figures were with Pluto. One had familiar pink hair. The other had bright blue hair, but it was long and braided. Both girls looked scared.
More groans alerted her to the presence and arrival of other Sailor Plutos. All except for her were in their senshi uniform, or some variant. Setsuna sighed as she recognized her alternate future self that she privately referred to as 'Smutty Senshi.'
The woman was from a timeline where the senshi wore sheer satin fuku, and used sex and tantric magic to defeat their enemies. The fuku was nearly see-through with a skirt so short, it didn't hide the thong backside.
The woman noticed Setsuna looking at her and smiled sensuously. She ran a hand through her hair and licked her lips with the tip of her tongue. Two of the other Plutos stepped up to her with glares. Setsuna noticed that one of them was wearing a variant of the Christian nun habit.
"All right. Let's get started." Everyone focused on the Pluto by the Gate. "I suppose you're wondering why I called you here."
"You hardly called us, Pluto," sexy Pluto said. "Somebody fucked up the main time stream and threatened all of these futures." She gestured around. "I'm guessing you know who and how and why."
Pluto nodded. "Allow me to introduce Chibbi-Usa and her cohort in crime, Ryuzaki Yuri. For those who don't know, Chibbi-Usa is the daughter of Usagi and Mamoru, or Serenity and Endymion."
"Interesting," one of the other Plutos said. "In my future she's the daughter of Sailor Moon and Sailor Mars." That remark brought a moment of silence.
"At any rate, it is Ryuzaki-san who is the important one. She is the daughter of Ryuzaki Kintaro and Ayame."
"So they finally do get together. And here I was hoping to claim him. Ah well." Several of the Plutos sweatdropped at the comment.
"Go for him anyway," advised sexy Pluto. "He never objected to a threesome in my future."
"Ahem."
They all turned back to Pluto.
"Ayame is a Pillar Knight and Kintaro is a sorcerer supreme. His actual father is Clef, from the side Realm of Cephiro. Contrary to Luna's belief, he isn't the Sea Knight. He has similar powers, and I suspect he may be related somehow. He must be our ally."
She glanced around. Many of the Plutos were nodding.
"His daughter, Yuri, has a great deal of power as well. I will let her explain the whole plan that set this off."
The blue haired girl winced as attention focused on her.
"Uhm, actually it started as a joke. Usa-chan and I look very similar and if I put my hair up, you can't tell us apart unless we're standing together. So the idea was to fool someone into thinking there were two Chibbi-Usa's. The only person we could think of was Setsuna. So we staged a fake vision in the time gate and I came back and pretended to be an alternate future Chibbi-Usa. We didn't know this would happen."
"Which is why it was a dumb idea in the first place," Pluto snapped. "Even I didn't know some of the things that are coming out of this mess. We have got to straighten this out or none of us will have a future. Now let's hear the details so we can decide what to do."