Act 2

"It's a beautiful day today!" Ms. Winters, the eternally chipper young painting teacher, announced as soon as her class began. "I've decided that we can work on our ceiling tiles tomorrow. Let's go paint outside!" The class cheered at the news of not having to paint ceiling tiles, which involved filling all of the little crevices with paint and occasionally dirtying clothing with the dust. Ms. Winters set off gathering watercolor kits and special watercolor paper, nodding her head and making her mane of chocolate-colored curls bounce about.

'Looks like today's gonna be a good day,' Mary mused as she put away the tempera materials she fetched before the change in venue. She quietly followed behind the rest of the class, with the more excitable, talkative people producing more than enough noise to balance her silence out, outside the school building.

"The garden is so overdone," Ms. Winters said, waving her hand at it dismissively as she passed by. She cast her glare on the front area of the school, featuring the athletic complex, the front gate, and the road running parallel to the school itself, and a look of pure inspiration crossed her face. "To the front of the school!" she cried out, pointing to the front area as if she was discovering a new continent. The kids chatted excitedly about this snap decision and eagerly followed Ms. Winters to a grassy field within sight of all three landmarks.

Mary took a watercolor kit, a piece of paper, a cupful of water, and a paintbrush and found an isolated place to sit so she could concentrate on the task at hand. She took a fleeting glance over her shoulder and saw that nobody was around.

"That's more like it," she commented quietly, sighing and looking around for something to paint before noticing the way that the foliage across the road seemed to peek through the wrought-iron bars of the school's gate. Smiling contentedly, she dipped her brush into her water and began to paint.

As Mary painted, becoming engrossed in her task, a woman with long black hair walked by, thoughtlessly attempting to light a cigarette with a malfunctioning lighter. She was dressed in business casual and muttered a stream of obscenities at her lighter, which made Mary perk up. She looked over and immediately recognized the cursing woman as Ms. Kurosawa, her guidance counselor, so she decided to greet her.

"Hi, Ms. Kurosawa!" Mary said cheerfully, waving, but Ms. Kurosawa didn't reply. Instead, she turned back to the lighter, which flickered for a few moments before finally lighting and allowing a victorious Ms. Kurosawa to light her cigarette.

"Hi, Mary!" Ms. Kurosawa answered. "Skipping class?" she pseudo-joked.

"No! My painting class is out here today," Mary explained.

"That's nice," Ms. Kurosawa replied, artfully blowing a ring of smoke into the air. Mary looked in amazement at the ring for a moment before turning back to her work in progress. As she got back into her painting mood again, she noticed the presence of an earthworm near her feet. The way worms looked gave her the chills, so she withdrew her feet closer to her body for protection, an act that seemed to anger the creature. Shrugging off the oddity, she returned to painting, thinking everything was normal. This illusion was quickly shattered.

Within the blink of an eye, the earthworm grew to nearly 100 times its original size, a stature that terrified Mary. She dropped her painting and quickly lamented as it landed wet side up in the grass, but her lament ended in a hurry as a cut seared through the earthworm's face and opened to reveal two rows of sharp, gleaming teeth, something earthworms usually never had.

"Wh…wh…what is that!" Mary squealed, pointing to the freakish creature. Ms. Kurosawa frowned, dropped her cigarette, and stamped it beneath the sole of her shoe before frantically digging around in the pocket of her dress slacks. She looked nervous for a moment before finding what she was looking for—a grey-colored object that looked like a novelty pen.

"This isn't fair," Ms. Kurosawa muttered. "It wasn't meant to happen this way…" She sighed, momentarily shutting her eyes before opening them again, tightly grasping her grey pen, and raising it to the sky. "Charon Planet Power, Make Up!" Her fingernails sparkled and turned metallic grey as she took the pen and drew a glowing grey circle around her feet. The circle shone grey and engulfed her in mist for a moment. This whole time, though, Mary hadn't noticed a thing because she was busy trying to fight off the giant earthworm using nothing but her wits and painting supplies. She had already thrown the contents of her water cup at the horrendous thing, which seemed only to antagonize it even more.

"Charon Halt!" a woman who looked somewhat like Ms. Kurosawa, but who was wearing a completely different outfit, cried out as she leapt in front of Mary and held out her right hand. Immediately, the earthworm stopped moving, which allowed Mary to look at her rescuer for the first time. She had the same hair and eyes as Ms. Kurosawa, but she wore a shockingly skimpy sailor outfit with a grey miniskirt attached. Snow white gloves protected her hands, big grey boots protected her feet, she had a fancy grey bow jutting out from her chest, and she wore a gold tiara on her head with a grey jewel in the middle.

"Ms. Kurosawa?" Mary suggested, confused.

"Charon," the woman corrected. "Call me Charon."

"Can do…um…Charon," Mary said, still confused. "What on Earth is going on here? That's what I want to know!"

"Mary, do you have your cell phone with you?" Charon asked, looking progressively more nervous as she kept her eyes locked on the worm. Mary nodded yes and instinctively searched in her purse for her phone, bringing it out into the open.

"Good. Now, open it up and dial this number. Ready?" Shizuka waited for Mary to open her phone. "5, 4, 1."

"That's not a valid number," Mary pointed out.

"It doesn't need to be. Just dial 5-4-1 and hit send," Shizuka commanded calmly. Mary nodded slightly, dialed the three numbers in the correct sequence, and pressed send. Instead of the screen obediently telling her that it was dialing the number, it began to flash blue.

"What the…?" Mary began, dropping her phone just as a burst of water flew out. She clutched herself tightly, afraid that the water would be cold, and held her breath for a moment but felt nothing unusual. She let go of herself, tentatively opened one eye to see what had happened to her, and was shocked to discover that she was wearing gloves that were not on her hands before. Confused, she opened her other eye and had a good look at herself.

She was now wearing nearly the same outfit as that mysterious Charon woman, but with a few changes in color. Her blue chest bow was attached to a sea green circular brooch and she was wearing a blue skirt with two sea green lines. Her gloves were bordered with sea green bands and she wore blue ankle-length boots, but the most obvious and shocking change was to her hairstyle. Mary was, unfortunately, presently unaware of the short black hair that now graced her head.

"What happened to me?" Mary asked, her voice shaking.

"You transformed," Charon explained. "Using the magic within you and the cell phone to trigger it, you transformed into your guardian form. Mary, you probably won't believe this when I say it, though it's true. You are the guardian of a faraway planet called Sedna."

"Sedna…somehow, that name sounds familiar," Mary whispered. "How do I remember it, though?"

"Perhaps your past memories are returning now that you are in your Sailor costume," Charon replied.

"Sailor? Like in the Navy?" Mary asked, puzzled.

"You could say that," Charon said, chuckling slightly.

"So, what do I do with this outfit?" Mary queried, tugging at the hem of her short skirt.

"You use it to fight evil," Charon explained. "You should feel the magical power you have coursing through your blood now."

"But I don't know what to do! Do I just kick and punch?" Mary asked fearfully.

"I would recommend against kicking and punching. I would recommend using the powers you know how to use," Charon said. Right as Charon finished giving her sage, yet strange, advice, the earthworm broke free from its curse and let out a terrible roar. Cursing quietly, Charon leapt aside, leaving Mary vulnerable to attack.

As soon as Mary saw the worm roar and look in her direction, she swore her heart stopped for a split second and her blood ran cold. She crouched down and shut her eyes, and in that moment it occurred to her that she knew what to do. Confident in herself, she stood back up and put her arms behind her, as if she were pretending to have wings. Charon stood nearby, smiling, as Mary slowly brought her hands forward.

"Sedna Drench!" Mary shouted, bringing her hands down forcefully. A wave of water rushed forth, overpowering the worm and making it disappear from sight for a moment. When it was gone, the worm lay writhing on the ground, obviously weakened by the attack. "Wow…I did that?" Mary asked in awe, taking a moment to do a victory dance. During this moment, however, the worm recovered from its weakened state and lunged out at her again.

"Charon HALT!" Charon commanded again, freezing the weakened worm again. She placed her hands overlapping on top of her chest, closed her eyes and exhaled softly. After exhaling, she opened her eyes again and balled her right hand into a fist, which she then used to remove what appeared to be a sword from within her body. Instead of having a blade like swords do, however, this sword had an oar for a blade. Mary looked thoroughly shocked and confused, wondering how on Earth Charon was able to do such a thing.

"Acheron Crossing!" Charon shouted, holding out the oar end of her sword to the worm, who was bathed in a shining light before turning into a tiny diamond-shaped object that flickered before disappearing altogether. She then turned to Mary, smiled warmly, and effortlessly placed the oar-sword back in her chest. "Well, that was quite a first battle, wasn't it?" she asked casually, pressing the brooch in the middle of her bow. She was enshrouded in grey ribbons for a moment before re-emerging as Ms. Kurosawa.

"Ms. Kurosawa!" Mary cried out. "You're…"

"I also have magical powers," Ms. Kurosawa casually explained. "This is why I knew so much about your own powers, Mary." She paused to allow these words to sink in and turned to leave the scene. Mary looked down at her hands, then at her outfit, feeling a sense of awe. The awe was soon interrupted, though, by a stream of questions that she desperately wanted answers for.

"S-so, is the monster still going to attack the school?" Mary asked quietly, pointing to where the worm once stood.

"No. Now, thanks to you, it won't attack anyone," Ms. Kurosawa replied.

"But you did most of the work," Mary protested.

"You were just as important as I was," Ms. Kurosawa said, wagging her index finger and turning to leave again.

"Wait!" Mary called out. "Why did this happen in the first place?"

"You don't need to know that yet," Ms. Kurosawa said rather coldly, both shocking and disgusting Mary.

"I don't need to know why my cell phone shot water at me and changed my outfit? I don't need to know why I can suddenly throw streams of water at giant earthworms with sharp teeth and the ability to roar? I don't need to know why you can apparently extract a sword from your chest without any pain? I don't need to know any of this?" Mary asked frantically, gesturing wildly whenever needed. "I think I need to know—and am authorized to know—everything!" Ms. Kurosawa stopped in her tracks, stared at the sky for a moment, and turned back to Mary.

"You do have the right to know some things, I guess," Ms. Kurosawa replied quietly. "Press that button in the middle of your bow, okay?" Mary nodded and complied, watching as blue shining ribbons covered her body and she returned to her normal clothing and hairstyle.

"Tell me what I have the clearance to know," Mary said with a hint of bitterness.

"Now, Mary, I explained in brief what you are when your outfit changes. When your outfit changes, you become Sailor Sedna, the guardian of the planet Sedna, and you gain both her looks and her powers. Your hair changed color and style, you know. It looked really good." Ms. Kurosawa did not elaborate on exactly how the hair changed, but Mary touched her head anyway. "It's normal now." Mary looked disappointed. "Mary, there are a few other girls like you at Seaside, just waiting for their own powers to blossom. You know what your job is now?"

"No, what?" Mary asked.

"You are going to be their leader," Ms. Kurosawa announced. "Lead them, help them grow, protect them in battle…" She trailed off. "You'll see me a lot, though."

"Why so?" Mary queried, raising an eyebrow.

"Well, you see that attack I just did with my sword? I have to use that every time a monster comes along so it can go away forever," Ms. Kurosawa explained. "That's the short explanation and the only one you need right now." She paused.

"I…I don't know if I can lead them yet," Mary confessed. "I'm not very good at leading people to do anything," she added shyly. "Not even in group work during class."

"You're better than you think, Mary. You suffer from an inability to give yourself enough credit for anything," Ms. Kurosawa observed bluntly. "Besides, you won't be alone. As I just explained, I'll come along to your battles. I have to." Seeing that Mary still wasn't assuaged, she walked over and patted her shoulder. "Please don't worry, Mary. You'll never have to face this alone." Suddenly, her face darkened. "Like I've had to." Mary bit her lower lip nervously in response. "I'll tell you the names of the girls who have similar powers and what they look like. From there, it'll be up to you to recruit them. Is that okay, Mary?"

"Um…" Mary began. "Yeah. Yeah, it'll be okay." She smiled wearily, hoping for a good future and wondering if she had any other as-yet-undiscovered powers.