Chapter One
Tsukino Usagi's life had made a full turn-around over the past year. She realized this as she smoothened out her orange T-shirt, carrying her hat and apron in a shopping bag and watching her tall, long-haired and pigtailed shadow grow larger on the sidewalk. As peaceful as it was, this summer couldn't be any more boring by comparison to what she and her friends had been up to a year ago.
The downtown air was stagnant even as traffic whooshed by at a green light. She missed the signal at the crosswalk, nearly on purpose, stopping to look at the reflection of herself in the glass window pane of an office building across the street. At eighteen years old she hadn't grown an inch in the longest time. Maybe her figure had filled out some, and she thought she might just stand to have her hair trimmed. The large buns, her signature hairstyle, that looped into pigtails, were significantly bigger than the little handfuls they used to be.
Knowledge of her distant future didn't seem like enough to convince her that this surging, hidden power within her couldn't dry up or fade, just because it was unused. Nonetheless, she still hid her massive, heavy golden heart-shaped brooch close to her heart, even when she couldn't pin it to a school uniform anymore. By now she'd gotten used to the rough irritation when she kept it in the front underwire of her bra.
What brought her back to full consciousness, when the stares of bypassers couldn't, was the sound of car horns blaring in a chain just a little past the intersection.
"Hey! Yooooohooooo!" she heard, watching something yellow and pink swish and weave in between cars, with an arm extended out. Usagi smiled and suppressed a chuckle. Aino Minako's clothes were only more and more strikingly outrageous as another weekend passed. The other blonde waved furiously at her, not making the time to bow curteously to the citizens who nearly ran her over.
Minako panted when she reached Usagi, though basking in the delight of confused gazes from sharply-dressed businesspeople, bending down and pointing her frizzing pink tutu-like skirt into the air. At least she'd found a hobby. This summer Mina-chan fell deeply in love with the Tokyo fashion scene, as Usagi noticed in her friend's carnation-colored Elmo T-shirt, tutu, pink-and purple striped knee sock on one leg and half a pair of hot neon-pink netted stockings on the other, a gangster-style diamond monogram necklace, wiry butterfly wings at her back, glitter smeared on her cute freckled face, and what should have been an elegant pink pearl necklace and another knee sock on the girl's arms.
"Kawaii desu ne," Minako said through her gasps for air, pivoting on one high-heeled boot and twirling for her. She nearly hit a gaping little boy with her shopping bags in doing so, and Usagi held a few fingertips to her mouth in awe.
"How do you afford these outfits?" Usagi asked her for the millionth time. The question was itching wildly by now. Here Usagi was volunteering at a hospital, taking the night shift at a small restaurant, and still not close enough to comfortably buy Minako's same Hello Kitty boots. All she knew of her friend's spare hours was shopping in the daytime, and submitting maybe fifty portfolios at a time to modeling agencies at night.
"Masayoshi-kun and Tsuyoshi-kun let me participate in plays and stuff in the park, and we rake in big-time yen," Minako gloated, flashing a toothpaste-commercial smile. "I heard from Mako-chan lately. Have you?"
"No, I haven't. What's she doing?"
"It's so cool! She's a part-time co-instructor at the martial arts center and she also tutors little kids in English."
"This summer's been so busy for all of us, I guess." Usagi sighed, looking up at the sky and hoping to find traces of an afternoon moon peeking at them from behind a cloud. "Every time we try to get the four of us together, it seems like we get awful timing." Even with her two jobs, Usagi still felt the summer lag on much too slow, with no action, no way to keep her mind occupied no matter how much she used her hands and feet.
The two of them plus the mentioned Kino Makoto and another friend named Rei Hino were the only four of their once-grand immediate circle of friends still left in Tokyo, but Usagi and Minako were the only ones as thick as thieves now that there was no reason to fight for a huge cause together. And that was only because of location. Usagi went to the same places every day, and Minako was everywhere, but shopped within basically the same distance.
"It sure does feel weird that everyone's found something to do. But I think we just each got a ball rolling real fast for the summer, and in two months or so, we'll be wishing Ami-chan was here when we think about universities. How about if I come over and we can play video games again? I don't work, so I'm not going anywhere."
"I'm working double today. I have to do the waitressing thing again tonight, but I can get off early. I'll bring us home some french fries."
"Sounds good!" Minako exclaimed, clapping her hands together once and pointing at a sign indicating a bus stop just down the street. "Let's just catch the bus and take a little longer to catch up with each other."
Usagi stuffed some leftover yen inside the pocket of her brown shorts, sitting down beside Minako in the stifling heat of the bus. They continued some small talk, but Usagi let her subconcious handle the conversation while her mind wandered to all the people she missed dearly, cherishing their little personality quirks and the memories they shared together, even if they weren't part of what the tightly-knit five called themselves, the 'Inners'. She closed her eyes and leaned her head back against the bus seat, sighing in calm reminiscence as she envisioned the brooch inside her shirt, shining, angel-winged, and beaded, and wishing with all her might that she could say the words that would shoot pink light out of it and bring her back to that wonderful glory that was Eternal Sailor Moon.
It was 11:25 in the evening and the day still wasn't going by fast enough.
Usagi closed her bedroom window and rested against the wall, toying with a loose thread in her favorite purple bunny-patterned blanket on her bed, not bothering to touch the cheeseburger in the styrofoam 'to-go' box. Minako had been over three days in a row, and tonight she was sprawled out on the carpet, watching TV and singing to a J-pop video. Her company made Usagi really happy for the most part, but tonight the pigtailed blonde gazed repeatedly at her black cat who was half-asleep.
In the drawer of her bedside table were four beautiful lockets and brooches, permanently closed, with varying heart and moon designs on them. She held them at angles to the light, admiring their brilliant shine, although they really were just empty shells that once sheltered many chapters in the beginning of her life as Sailor Moon.
But the one thing that really caught her eye this time was what looked like a fat pink ballpoint pen, glimmering extravagantly like a cheap plastic novelty…
"Usagi-chan? Do you have any Pocky left?" Minako asked, looking up at her from over her shoulder. She was such a funny sight to see just now, in a T-shirt and panties with cartoon puppies on them, a lollipop stick poking out of her mouth.
"Yeah, in the kitchen, I have chocolate and strawberry," Usagi said, smiling, blushing as she thought of how close she had come to getting caught looking at these favorite artifacts of hers. "Go help yourself, and bring up some candies too."
Her friend nodded and padded her way out of the room in socks, leaving her alone with this fabulous pen. She hadn't used this thing in the longest time, and wondered if it still even worked. And when she did put it to work, it wasn't for nearly as serious missions as her big golden brooch was. Usagi had been wanting to cut her hair lately anyway, and see what she looked like in something new---
"No. No, no, no."
Usagi jumped nearly two feet in the air, clamping her hands over her mouth so as not to shriek. Luna really was awake. The black cat stretched out and threw Usagi a cold scowl.
"You know better than that!" the cat reprimanded her, and her own crescent-moon mark on her forehead created a blinding spot in the lamplight. "You don't need reminding of what that's for, Usagi. Put it away somewhere that you won't be tempted to find it or use it."
"But Luna," Usagi whined, "I have no reason to use it anymore."
"My point exactly!"
"So what's wrong with trying out a new hairstyle and outfit?"
"I understand that you're still not satisfied with your new jobs, but abusing the power of your Disguise Pen is not any way to get a few good thrills over the summer, do you understand me?"
Usagi's large sky-blue eyes widened and her mouth upturned into a naughty smile as she held the pen up to the light.
"Usagi, you are not doing this!"
"MOON…"
"Stop this foolishness!"
"DISGUISE…"
Luna leapt at Usagi, sinking her claws deep into the girl's forearm, causing her to cry out in burning pain just as her cordless telephone rang. With tears in her eyes, Usagi shook off Luna and blew gently on the claw-marks in her arms as she made her way toward the phone. Behind her, Minako stepped back inside with a confused look on her pretty face, listening in and tiptoing with sweets in her arms.
"Moshi-moshi," Usagi uttered, raising an eyebrow and wondering who on earth would want to call her so late at night.
"Usagi-chan!"
"M-Mako-chan?"
"Heyyyyyyy, I'm calling from Rei's house," Makoto said on the other end of the line, sounding positively ecstatic. "Is this cool or what? Did you get your tickets yet?"
"Tickets to what?" Usagi yawned. "There a concert coming up?"
"No! You mean you don't know yet?"
"About what? Going on some dream vacation?"
"Well, yes!"
Usagi squinted a little in confusion. Luna stared at her, not knowing how to react, but curling herself over the disguise pen on the bed lest Usagi still wanted it. Minako shrugged her shoulders and turned the volume down on the television.
"Where?"
"Haruka and Michiru just invited us to come visit them at their new house in Okinawa!"
The blonde's mouth hung agape, then formed an ear-to-ear grin as she soundlessly jumped up and down on the balls of her feet. Luna's eyes followed her as she bobbed, and Minako stared on with twenty questions written all over her face.
"Okinawa! Wow! You're kidding!"
"Not at all!" Makoto laughed. "Rei and I just bought our tickets today for the August 10th flight. You and Mina-chan should too, and we'll call Ami soon. I'm sure she'll want to try her best to make it."
In bubbling glee, Usagi slammed the phone down by accident and hugged Mina tightly around the shoulders.
"I'm going to drop you off early tomorrow so that we'll have time to pack our bags. We're going to Okinawa!"