Four hours left till Crystal Tokio meant another two hours of sleep. His inside, especially the mental side, felt better sleeping than being awake right now anyway.

SunTzu woke up, got ready again and packed some stuff to take with him in a bag.

Thank the maker, that there were service droids cleaning the rooms and doing the laundry.

He didn't feel well enough to fly so he called AICA up.

"Hey, I'm sorry. But I won't fly you to the hangar, you'll fly on your own."

"No problem. Hotaru is here, she will accompany me." The A-Wing answered.

"Wait, what?"

"Hotaru is sitting here. Don't worry she won't fly. But she said, if you don't take her to space it's just fair that I take her to Crystal Tokio. Her mom says it's okay."

That's fair actually. Cunning little thing.

"Okay, but fly cautiously. I don't want Setsuna to have a reason to be mad at me."

No, training with her was painful enough already.

He sighed and took his stuff. Twenty minutes till touchdown, let's see this from a different view than usual.

He moved over to the observation deck, that was pretty packed this time. They just passed the moon.

On one of the benches the Inner Senshi were sitting, observing the last few houndred-thousand kilometers home.

They waved him over, made some room for him and together they watched the approach to earth and Crystal Tokyo. The atmosphere was rather quiet and depressed, although the room was full.

A few minutes later they passed the Selene and two of her squadrons did a flyover in a missing man formation, a detail that not everyone noticed.

Thanks Comrades.

SunTzu had to fight a lump in his throat seeing this.

He was sitting between Rei and Mako and the Infantry Officer saw that he was moved. She put a hand on his shoulder.

"It's okay, he was a friend. Even I liked him and you know my opinion about most pilots." She said, trying to comfort him.

"It's okay, I just need a moment." SunTzu responded, thankful for her empathy.

Heads were turning to him commiserative.

SunTzu got up, lighted a cigarette and walked up to the window, looking down at earth. Did Marvin had family? Were they living on earth? And what about himself, he still didn't have much infos about that either. His head started throbbing again, so he tried to take his head off to something else.

Smoking didn't taste good yet too.

He sighed and went to the nearest ashtray.

Makoto came over to him.

"Dude, you look so lost right now." She shook her head. "I have a suggestion. You come over to my place tonight and have dinner with me and my husband. A good meal works wonders."

He thought about for a moment, when was the last time, someone not getting paid for it, cooked for him. He couldn't remember.

"Sounds great. But I have to warn you, usual very bad things happen when I do something with Senshi in my leisure."

And that was no joke.

"Then it's time to change that. I'll take that challenge." She said with a crooked smile.

"Tonight at seven, I'll send you the adress. And come hungry."

Outside the Voyager passed them, flying out of the lower lying hangar, closely followed by AICA. It was strange to see her flying in space without him piloting her. His eyes followed her till she was out of sight.

They get autonomous so fast.

The descend to earth was a beautiful sight to behold but didn't live up to doing the same with AICA. The Far Side landed on it's spot and the central ramp was lowered.


The first to actually leave the ship was Taego on a hospital bed escorted by doctors and nurses. He was still unconscious and they moved him into an waiting ambulance, that brought him to a special clinic in Tokyo. The ambulance was escorted by two of the kingdom's SUVs, manned by guards in suits and a Tokyo Metropolitan Police Escort was waiting at the base gate to lead the convoy as fast as possible to it's destination.

SunTzu didn't need to rush, he kept sitting for a while, while the room emptied. The Senshi said their goodbyes too and left.

They still worried a bit with him but he again told him, he would be alright.

He left the ship as one of the last, rucksack with his stuff thrown over.

He had an idea what might made him feel better, so he went to the flight center, that was pretty much empty except the duty guard, locked his stuff and changed and went into it's gym. The next two hours he absolutely smashed himself in there, as if he needed to punish himself. To be honest, that was how he felt.

The pilot actually pushed himself so much, that he had to use Jedi Techniques to not fall down but after letting out all his anger and frustration he felt better.

He changed back and with a short stop to get a gift for Makoto and her Husband he left for home.

God, was he looking forward to some home cooked food.

Also he was eager to meet Kenji, the man that tamed Sailor Jupiter.


It started to rain before he left for the address that Makoto had sent him over the course of the afternoon.

The UBER brought him a to a nice house near the Argentinian embassy.

It was a typical Japanese single family house with two floors and a small garage.

He rang at the front gate and waited. A busy sounding Makoto answered. She opened the gate and he got inside. Bit of garden, middle class limousine in the parkway. It really looked like that the Sailor Senshi with the Power of Jupiter and Commanding Officer of Crystal Tokyo's Special Forces lived an absolute prissy life.

That was somehow shocking. Who ever drank with Mako would have never thought so.

She already waited at the house door and received him with a warm smile, while wearing a bun and an apron.

Behind her was her Husband Kenji, a regular looking brunette man, who was smiling although seemed a bit reserved.

They welcomed him in and he was immediately lead to table.

Mako just finished cooking for what looked like it was for her whole platoon, the whole table was packed with food with the main dish being a Japanese Roast Beef.

Exactly what he needed right now.

The dinner was excellent and he compliment Makoto on her cooking a many times. At home no one would think of the tall brunette as a fierce warrior no matter as Senshi or as Special Forces Operator.

She really seemed to enjoy the whole moment too.

"Because of work, we don't have much opportunities to do something like that lately. I'm very busy and often away and Kenji works a lot too. He's an chief engineer at a telecommunications company." She told, proudly admiring her husband.

Was that really the Heavy Repeater Blaster packing, lighting throwing woman he knew?

"Oh really, sounds interesting. I can imagine with the alignment to the Galaxy a whole new options opened up for your sector." SunTzu said to the rather quiet man.

"It did. Right now we're working with the tech institute of Crystal Tokyo to find ways to align our communication signals better with the Galaxy Standards." Kenji told him, he seemed to open up a bit, when he was talking about his job.

"Problem often is, that the Galactic Standards are way diversified than ours. And of course the transmitting power. Right now we're trying to send an Internet-Signal at least till the next Hyperlane Beacon."

"Kenji helped me and Dish immense with coming up with an Interface that makes our comms into being able to transmit and receive from both parts, Earth Standard and Galaxy Standard." Makoto explained, yearning at her husband.

"Oh, that was nothing. And I'm glad I can help, make my wife's duty a bit more safe. I worry a lot with her. Although I know she has to fulfill a duty." The married couple glanced at each other and began holding hands.

"Always having someone like you around would come in handy. I bet my starfighter's AI wouldn't mind helping either." SunTzu told.

"Ah yes, the talking spaceship. Hats off to you that you made Makoto take a flight in a small ship like that. She told me she loved it actually. I guess it's fascinating to work with a machine like that." Kenji told him.

"It is, although she has her own head. But I wouldn't trade her for any other fighter in the Alliance."

"He saved countless people with that ship already." Makoto told her.

"Except for one." SunTzu chimed in and Makoto immediately became silent for a moment.

"And there was nothing you could have done against it. Not without risking someone else's or your own life. And you pretty sure safed a lot of my men's lives at that beach. If Marvin would be her he would tell you the same. And then he would tell you to rather enjoy this dinner than to be sad about the loss." She reproved him. And she was right.

"Sorry. I…." He answered, struggling with the words.

"No need to say sorry. The loose is still fresh but it doesn't help to not go on anymore. Trust me I know what I'm talking about, I'm in this fight since I was 15." She told with a warm, understanding smile. "And now let's get back to this dinner. I hope you still have room for dessert." She smiled and got up to take care of the dessert.

Dessert was a Matcha Creme Bavaroise Cake and it was so good it brought one to his knees.

"I thought Creme Bavaroise would be fitting for you. Being from Bavaria, at least that's what you think." She told after the two man exuberant complimented the cake.

"Yeah. But you already, it's just a at least I think I am." They shared a laugh and explained the unknown background story to Kenji.

After dessert Makoto served an espresso to finish the whole experience.

The good food and even better company made him feel way better. And when Makoto made a Selfie for the Senshi Group he was even able to smile again.

Shortly afterwards SunTzu got ready to leave and they said their goodbyes.

"That was the best meal I ever had, as far as i can remember at least." SunTzu told her in honest.

She answered with a proud smile.

"Glad you liked it, don't forget tomorrow's training with us, I'll see you at 6:30 at the Barracks."

"Yes Ma'am. Have a good evening and thanks again. That helped me."

"Good to hear. I'll make you pay for it tomorrow." She said with a wink.

"Kenji, nice to meet you. Oh and think about if you're expertise wouldn't be a big gain for the Taskforce." SunTzu told the Engineer.

"Never thought about it. But it's not the worst idea." Kenji said.

"And we could probably spent more time together." Makoto chimed in, with a smile.

"Makoto, I see you in a few hours. Kenji, have a good night. Thanks for the invitation."

He left and took an Uber home, he had to get some sleep in before the Commandos would fuck him up in the morning.