"Satoshi-san!" Usagi gasped, surprised someone was there to catch her fall.
He lifted her back onto her feet.
"Sorry, it looked like you needed some help." He said calmly.
He walked passed her to the soda machine, balled one of his fists, and gave it a swift bang before the drink finally dropped into the bin. He picked it up and handed it to her before browsing through the different selections on the machine trying to appear indifferent about her presence next to him.
"Th-thank you." She said to him.
He replied with only a smile to her before turning back to the vending machine.
There was an awkward tension between the two of them that was never there before. Even on the first day they met with that disastrous encounter, they never felt more like strangers to each other.
"I hear you had some sort of injury, are you feeling any better?" Was all Usagi could think up to strike up a conversation.
"Oh yes, much better." Demande replied while pressing one of the buttons.
"And everything is alright between you..and your brother?" She asked with a hint of nervousness.
The first drink fell into the bin with a loud thump.
He looked back to her with a bewildered expression momentarily before immediately returning to his stoic demeanor, for she was watching him closely.
"Why yes, of course everything's fine between us. What makes you ask that?"
"I don't know. I just had the feeling that something more was going on that day and…" she trailed off but was at a loss for words to say as he continued to eye her.
"Never mind, forget I said anything." She said waving it off.
He looked back to the machine again, selecting a juice for Umino.
"How about you?" he asked. "Any word from your boyfriend?"
"No. I still haven't heard from him." Usagi replied in a defeated tone.
Again, the drink landed with another loud thump.
A devious grin spread on Demande's lips.
"That's a shame." He said while retrieving the two drinks from the bin.
He turned back to her while trying to appear concerned and hide the absolute delight he was feeling inside upon hearing that.
"About the other day. I hope I didn't offend you in any sort of way, I was just trying to help, but I'm afraid I'm not particularly good at these things so-"
"No, not at all!" she interrupted. "I admit that it is hard to face you after embarrassing myself like that, but I've just been dealing with some stuff here recently."
She started to tense the grip of her drink.
"You shouldn't let them push you around, you know?" He told her.
Usagi jerked her head up towards him.
"What?"
"I hate seeing a girl who used to be so cheerful and full of energy, allow herself to become so miserable and paranoid. All for a few shallow girls that have nothing better to do than to obsess over a sub-par singing group and spread lies around when they feel like it."
"I'm not letting them push me around, I'm just not used to dealing with this kind of confrontation." Usagi replied defensively.
"But you are. I can see it by the defeated look on your face. And by the way you nervously looked over your shoulder when I came up to you just now. You're giving them exactly what they want." He said.
She didn't respond.
"You're a strong girl that has probably faced problems much worse than this. What happens beyond high school will all be a distant memory and you'll go on to do extraordinary things that they could only ever dream of." He continued.
She raised an eyebrow at him suspiciously.
"How could you possibly know something like that?" she asked.
His resemblance to Prince Demande was never so apparent and in the forefront of her mind as it was now. Could it be possible that he and this man were one in the same?
He shrugged and gave a nervous chuckle. "I don't. But, isn't that the sort of thing you're supposed to say to someone whose feeling down? I told you that I'm not good at this."
Before she was able to respond, she became distracted when she noticed he was holding a drink in each hand.
"Are both of those for you?" she asked, pointing to each one.
He looked to his hands, almost forgetting why he was there in the first place. "Oh, right. I've got my student assistant with me in the library right now. I believe he's a friend of yours, Umino?"
Usagi giggled and said sarcastically, "Oh yeah, that's right. I'm sure he's been great company to have."
"He has..in his own unconventional way." Demande said returning her laughter. "He's waiting around right now until Miss Osaka gets out of drama club, so it's just me and him in the library. We're beginning to run out of things to talk about so if you wanted to stop by for a bit, I promise you won't be met with a pack of pointing and jeering females."
She had reservations and thought about what Ami or the rest of her friends would say if they knew she was with him after admitting that she was developing her own suspicions. No doubt they would think it irresponsible and reckless.
"I'm not sure I should.." she replied.
"It's your choice, I understand. I should be getting back now so, take care, Miss Tsukino." He said politely before turning to walk away from her.
The way he said her name like that, so detached, so formal, it made her feel a tinge of guilt. The truth was that she did want to go with him and had been missing his company this past week more so than she could have ever imagined. In fact, standing there with him now, made the possibility of him being their former enemy insignificant compared to the loneliness she had been feeling all this time.
"Wait!" She called out to before hurrying her step to catch up with him.
"Change of plans?" he asked.
"Sort of" she said as she looked up to him with a content smile.
The gesture was enough to make him feel a sort of happiness that he hadn't felt in quite some time.
As they walked together down the hall and towards the library, it was quiet between them at first until Usagi said to him out of the blue, "Thank you."
"For what?" he asked.
"You were right about what you said back there and I appreciate you telling me the truth. I just wish I were stronger sometimes and not let what other people say affect me so much." She sighed.
"You already are a strong person, but you just also happen to be very kind and empathetic to the point where sometimes you shortchange yourself for the sake of others."
"I suppose." She said glumly.
When they entered the library, Umino stood diligently in place at the front desk and gleamed when he saw Usagi walk into the room.
"Hi, Usagi!" he called out.
"Hey, Umino." She smiled.
Demande handed him his juice and looked up at the clock.
"Looks like it won't be much longer until club activities let out." He commented.
"Good, the moment I've been waiting for is almost here." Umino squealed anxiously.
"What do you mean?" Usagi asked.
"Well, I've been keeping this secret for a while because I wanted to catch her by surprise when I give her…"
As he rummaged through his pocket, Usagi and Demade looked at each other, then curiously back to Umino perplexed on what he would pull out.
"These!" he held out two strips of paper in front of them.
"Two tickets to the Fantastic International Music Festival featuring the Three Lights who will be performing alongside Mugen Academy's Michiru Kaioh!" Umino exclaimed while holding the tickets in one hand while signaling a 'V' with his other.
Usagi's mouth dropped open.
"Did I also mention that they're third row seats?" he added.
Usagi ripped the tickets from his hand to examine them closer.
"C-Careful!" Umino called out.
"I don't believe this! How were you able to get tickets, and with such good seats!?" She asked astonished.
"I called in to the radio station that was giving them out last week. I was surprised that the first time I attempted to call, I managed to get through the line. I can't wait to see Naru's cute face light up when I get down on one knee and present them to her in front of everyone." He said while gradually turning a shade of red.
Usagi pouted and handed him back the tickets. Her, Ami, Rei, Makoto and Minkao tried every night that week calling the radio station but, the line was busy every single time and none of them were successful in getting through.
Demande couldn't help but feel bitter in the fact that Usagi wanted to see Three Lights that badly, not necessarily the Three Lights but that obnoxious, Seiya. He wasn't sure if that's what her exact reasoning was, but even just thinking about it began to irritate him so he grabbed his drink and took a huge swig from it, trying to drown out the rest of their conversation as much as he could.
"Naru-chan will have to forgive me now." Umino continued on to say to Usagi.
"I can never keep up with what you guy's bicker about but, I've got to ask, what was it about this time?"
Umino explained, "She was going on and on about how I don't do romantic stuff for her enough and that I should since if she wasn't dating me, no other girl would want to. But, then when I disproved her, she got all mad and hasn't really forgiven me since."
"How did you do that?" Usagi asked.
"Well I reminded her of that time when you begged me to go out on that date with you, so that just goes to show that I'm not as undesirable as she thinks." He said while beaming with pride.
Demande having a mouthful of liquid upon hearing this, immediately spit it out without warning as his gasp in shock caused him to choke.
"Umino, how many more times do I have to tell you that, that was not a date!" she said defensively.
"That's what she kept saying, but she didn't see how desperate you were about it at the time. I mean, you practically dragged me to that café and we even shared a soda."
All the color from Demande's face drained when the image of the beautiful Neo-Queen Serenity sharing a soda with this boy came to mind. Not only was this inconceivable to him, but also a direct blow to his ego.
She grabbed Umino's collar and began to shake him.
"Take it back!" she growled.
Demande bent down to wipe away the wet spot on the floor before either of them noticed the barbaric behavior he just displayed.
The bell then sounded off which caught all of their attentions.
"It's time!" Umino said in excitement, breaking away from Usagi's grip.
"See you all tomorrow!" he called out before disappearing out the door in a matter of seconds.
"Oh…you!" Usagi called out to him while making a fist.
Suddenly remembering Satoshi-san was in the room, she walked over to where he was hunched over cleaning and for some reason felt the need to explain herself.
"We didn't really go on a date, you know." She told him.
Beginning to find humor in the situation now, Demande started to chuckle, "I don't know, he sure seems to think you did."
"I only asked him to that café so that I could spy on Mamoru and Rei's date. I couldn't really blend in with everyone if I went in by myself so I had him come with me." She blurted out.
He lifted his head, "You mean, your boyfriend, Mamoru? And your friend, Rei, dated?"
"Um, yeah. Very briefly though. They only went on a few dates, and they weren't even really dates, just them hanging out." Usagi mumbled trying not to sound resentful. It had been so long ago that she hadn't had to hear the stomach clenching ring it had to it when someone said the fact out loud.
"Oh, so this is before you knew him then?" he asked.
"No. We had actually known each other for a few months by that time but, we hadn't realized our feelings for each other yet. Funny how it all worked out." She ended with a forced laughter.
"Yes, funny indeed." He said while trying to suppress another grin.
The bustling of students letting out, started to fill the hallways now.
"I should probably try and find my friends before I end up having to walk home by myself." Usagi said.
"Thank you again, Satoshi-san." She smiled before turning to leave.
"W-Wait!" he called to her.
She turned back to him.
"Your book. Have you finished it yet?" he asked.
"I've managed to almost reach the end and have been taking notes for when I write my report just as you suggested." She said.
"That's great, I just finished my copy." He said. "Stop by sometime and let me know what you think of the ending."
She smiled and told him "You'll see me in here tomorrow."
Just like that, the awkward tension between them seemed to disappear and things were back to where they left off last, he could feel it. If only Saphir could show signs of forgiving him, then he could truly feel at ease again.
When he returned home later that evening, Demande opened his door to a dark and empty apartment. Just as he suspected, Saphir went out before attending his night classes just as he had been every evening. He wasn't even sure if Saphir was still continuing on growing the power of the black crystal, but under the assumption that he hadn't, Demande had been working on it harder than ever, channeling his power countless hours into the night. While he felt that his strength was nearing the point it had been back on Nemesis, he hadn't felt any trace of Rubeus and Esmeraude's energy inside the gems in weeks and it was starting to make him worry.
He opened the drawer of his nightstand that held the shiny, black crystal earrings and placed them on each ear. The dark energy began to course through his veins creating a surge of power inside him, preparing him for the rigorous night ahead. He placed his hand on the panel that activated the doors to slide open and stepped inside the vast room whose shadowy walls spanned infinitely with shards of the Jakokusuishou covering almost every square inch. The doors then closed behind him, sealing him inside the dark chamber.
Hours Later:
Feeling completely drained, Demande staggered out the room polluted with negative energy and went straight into the bathroom to splash cold water onto his face. He looked up into the mirror to see the white haired man with violet eyes reflect the upside crescent moon symbol on his forehead back at him. In his new life on Earth, he had grown to despise the sight of his family symbol for it was a constant reminder of how he failed to protect his people and branded him as an enemy with the woman he wanted more than anything.
He will win her love no matter what it took. The threads that bound the fate of those two were more fragile than he could have ever imagined. The King is an even bigger fool than he originally took him for and it'll only be a matter of time before his carelessness will cause him to lose everything, and the beauty of it was that he would never even see it coming.
Not having enough energy make it to his bedroom, Demande instead, crawled onto their living room couch and passed out.
When morning came and the sun started to peer into the windows, he opened his eyes and was surprised to find himself still dressed in clothes from the day before and not in his bed. He sat up and rubbed his eyes, then ran his fingers through his lengthy hair and suddenly became aware of the fact that his black crystal earrings weren't in his ears anymore when he was sure he fell asleep without taking them off. He leapt off the couch in a panic, almost tumbling down to the ground as his legs were entangled in a blanket that wasn't there before as well, but managed to catch his fall when he grabbed onto the edge of the coffee table. There, on the surface of it, lied the missing earrings that were neatly placed next to a glass of water. He let out a sigh of relief and sat back on the couch, pushing the blanket aside, then grabbed the glass and downed it, not aware of how dehydrated he was. There was only one way these things could have gotten there.
'Saphir.' Demande thought as he looked towards the closed door of his brother's room.
Afternoon:
The final bell sounded off followed shortly by the bustling of students could be heard throughout the hallway.
"Thanks for the hard work, Umino, you're free to go now." Demande said dismissing him.
It was Umino's last day assisting with things in the library and he was anxious to start preparations for his date night at the concert as he reiterated to Demande over and over that "tomorrow night had to go absolutely perfect."
"Thank you, sir!" he called out before leaving.
The few students left sitting at the tables, dispersed since club activities were about to begin, leaving the library to just the two of them when she would finally arrive.
Just as they walked out, Usagi came through the doorway, just as he anticipated her to do.
"Glad to see you could make it." He greeted her.
"Hello." She said in a shy manner.
"Help yourself to whichever table you wish." He said.
As she went to pull out a chair for herself, Demande intervened and pulled it out for her, motioning for her to sit.
"Thank you, Satoshi-san." Usagi said, slightly taken about by the chivalrous gesture.
When she took her place on the chair, he leaned in close to her.
"Please, call me Tohru. We agreed to drop the formalities when no one's around, remember? " He said into her ear in almost a whisper.
Her cheeks began to turn red and her blue eyes now stared into his green ones.
"Thank you..Tohru." She said, smiling when the word escaped her mouth.
"Much better. So, you said you're getting close to the end now?" he tapped his hand on top of her copy of Romeo & Juilet.
"Yes, I'm about to begin Act 5 and once I finish that, I'll be ready to start writing my essay." She said excitedly.
"Well, I'll let you get started then, I've got some paperwork to fill out so just call out to me if there's anything you need."
She gave a nod to him and each of them began their separate tasks.
As the quiet minutes passed, Demande found that he couldn't really concentrate and would find himself, instead, looking over to her studying each and every one of the delicate features on her face.
Act 5 was the climax of the story where the two lover's meet their tragic end as they both end up taking their own life under the false impression that the other was already dead. A twist that he could see coming, but how would an empathetic person such as her take such an unhappy ending?
When he finally forced himself back to his work, he heard a high pitched gasp escape from her.
He jerked his head up.
"Is everything alright?" He asked.
She was sitting straight up and not looking down at her book anymore but straight in front of her, without giving a response.
"Usagi?" he repeated before getting up from his seat.
As he stood beside her, he saw that she didn't seem to be looking at anything in particular and that her eyes seemed unfocused and blank.
Something wasn't right.
"What's the matter?" he asked again as he waved his hand in front of her.
Again, no response or change in her vacant expression. Something was very wrong, here.
"Usagi!" he called out before he grabbed her shoulders to try and shake her out of it.
The moment he touched her, a pain surged through his head and just like back on the rooftop, he was once again met with a barrage of images until it settled on a single, coherent memory.
He could see two figures running down a long corridor. One was a young girl whose white gown and blonde hair flew behind her alongside a dark haired man wearing armor and a cape. As the scene began to pan out, he could now see a large crowd of people armed with swords and other weapons chasing the couple.
This was different from the experience on the rooftop since not only was he able to hear what was going on, it was as if he was witnessing the unfolding of events in person.
The two people seemed to be gaining distance from the angry mob, but suddenly had to halt their desperate attempt at escape when they reached a dead end. That is when they finally turned around to face the blood thirsty crowd and Demande recognized the two figures as Neo-Queen Serenity and her husband, King Endymion. But they both appeared much younger and as he looked around at his surroundings, it didn't look that they were in Crystal Tokyo. In fact, this place was unlike anything he had ever seen. He soon realized that the girl that stood before him was not the Queen or even Usagi, but rather, her past incarnate, Princess Serenity.
Fear reflected off of Serenity's face as Endymion took out his sword and made one final stance toward the one leading the bloodthirsty mob, a woman with auburn hair wearing a peasant dress.
"Please, sire, don't be deceived by this witch, she is the enemy!" She said as she directed her sword toward the princess.
"Stop this senseless violence while you still can! I know our kingdoms can coexist if we just try!" the Prince.
A dark aura that had been hovering over the women began to seep into her body as it did the four generals at her side and onto the rest of her followers. Their faces deemed inhuman at this point and they merely laughed a twisted laugh upon hearing his plea.
"Never! We will never join forces with the likes of them!" one of the generals shouted with disgust pointing at Serenity.
"Kunzite. Zoisite. Nephrite. Jaedite. How could you betray me like this?" Endymion asked appearing almost heartbroken.
The general with long, white hair responded by throwing a spear at his direction that Endymion was able to avoid by ducking at the last possible second. However, this was used as a means to distract the prince as the woman ran towards the princess with her sword held above her head, ready to slice into her with all her might.
Prince Endymion managed to shield the princess by jumping in front of the sword just as the woman brought it down and tore through the flesh of his back. With his arms wrapped around the princess, blood gushed from the deep gash, staining the front of the princess's white gown.
The Prince looked deep into the young woman's horrified eyes, and placed his hand onto her cheek.
"Serenity." He spoke in his last breath before collapsing dead at her feet.
"Endymion!" Demande heard her call out.
She cradled the body in devastation as she called out his name over and over.
"This is all your fault!" the woman shrieked. "None of this would have happened if it wasn't for you!"
She advanced toward the princess a second time, "Your existence is an abomination!"
Just as she attempted another attack on the girl holding onto her lover's dead body, a wall of fire formed in between them, knocking her back as Sailor Mars and Sailor Jupiter jumped to either side of the Princess. Sailor Mars called out another attack toward the enemies as Sailor Jupiter quickly grabbed Princess Serenity, threw her over her shoulder and carried her away as fast as she could.
"No we mustn't leave him! Go back!" Serenity called out trying to break free of Jupiters's hold on her.
"It's too late for him!" Jupiter yelled back to her.
When they managed to get far enough away from their enemies, Sailor Jupiter shoved Serenity inside a room in the palace and immediately shut the door and locked her inside.
"No!" Serenity shouted as she tried to open the door.
"I'm sorry for this, but we have to keep you safe at all costs." Jupiter said back to her.
"Let me out!" Serenity screamed at the top of her lungs.
Mars, who was able to escape the possessed crowd, made her way to Jupiter's side and informed her, "The Queen is on her way."
"Good, hopefully she can make it in time." Jupiter sighed in relief.
"Serenity, your mother will be here soon. We must go now, Mercury and Venus can't hold them all off for much longer." Jupiter said.
"We'll try and come back as soon as we can!" Mars yelled back before they left her alone.
Serenity banged the door with her fists and cried out over and over again, but without there being anyone on the other side of the door to let her out, she eventually exhausted herself and collapsed to the floor.
As the girl silently wept, mourning the loss of her lover, Demande wished there was something he could do to help the poor girl, but was only allowed to simply watch her.
Princess Serenity finally rose off the ground and looked around the room she was in.
It was spacious but bare, filled with white columns, floored with marble and had very little furniture. In the center of it, stood a glass display encasing a sword. She seemed to take notice of it and began frantically searching the room for something, but, he wasn't sure what.
His question was answered soon enough when a small statue flew into the case causing the glass to shatter into a million pieces around it. With her hands trembling, she took the sword from its casing and examine it in it's entirety, tracing the sharp end of the blade with her fingertips.
'What is she planning?' Demande wondered.
Within seconds, all was made clear as she held out the handle in front of her and pointed the sword to herself.
Fresh tears began to fall down her face as she called out Endymion's name one last time before driving the blade into her abdomen.
'No!' he attempted to call out.
The door to the room burst open at that moment her lifeless body fell to the ground and the last thing he could see was the distant silhouette of a woman who let out a horrific scream before the vision left him.
He looked around, and saw everything had returned back to normal.
Usagi's eyes blinked as life returned to them, but was oblivious to what had just happened.
She looked up to see her librarian's hands on her shoulders.
"Did I doze off or something?" she asked him.
Still in shock over the scene that had just played out for him, he ripped his hands away from her before he would be forced to endure anymore, and simply gave her a nod.
She closed the book.
"I think I'll stop for today, my eyes are starting to feel heavy." She said while rubbing them.
"Of course." He said, panting breathlessly.
As he tried to piece together what he just witnessed, it occurred to him that what he saw must have been a memory from her former life that is hidden deep within her subconscious.
In the time he was from, it was common knowledge to the people of Earth and Nemesis that Neo-Queen Serenity was reincarnated from an ancient civilization that ruled in the time period known as the Silver Millennium that was located on the Earth's moon. However, beyond that, not much more is known to the public since the people on the interiors of the Crystal Palace consider the information of their former lives highly classified. Even using his most talented sources on hacking into their database, it was always impossible in finding out any more about it.
These memories could be suppressed so deep inside of her that even she may not even be fully aware of them, but were triggered when she read the part in Romeo & Juliet that paralleled so closely to her own demise.
He felt like an idiot for recommending a book such as this one to her. All it did was reaffirm her feelings for the king even more and he knew that was why she was so attracted to the story. He needed to make her forget about him while their relationship was at such a vulnerable stage before it was too late.
While she gathered her things, he began to try and make small talk with her.
"So, the weekend's finally here. Any exciting plans?"
"No, not really since I was never able to get any tickets to that concert." She pouted.
"You really want to go to it that badly?" he asked.
"Yes, someone very important to me is going to be on that stage tomorrow night and it would have meant the world to me for me to have seen that performance." She sighed.
He began to feel that pang of jealousy that grew so intensely, it caused him to take desperate action.
"Usagi?" he asked.
"Hm?" she answered.
"Remember how you were planning on giving me that tour of an arcade on the day all that disarray happened?" he asked.
"Oh, yes, that's right. I had forgotten all about that." she said.
"Would you still be interested in that? I'm afraid I still haven't made any new friends in Juuban yet and with my brother going to night classes during the week, I don't have anyone to accompany me to these arcades and you seem to know so much about them."
"You want to go with me?" she asked in disbelief.
"Only if you really want to, I'll understand if you'd think it too weird."
"No, I-" she stopped, unsure of what answer to give.
Ami's warnings, Luna's nagging, even her own doubts and reservations were gnawing at the back of her mind.
But here was something reassuring in his eyes that made her feel like she could trust him, that she would be safe with him. Aside from that, it just wasn't in her nature to turn down a trip to the arcade no matter what the circumstances were.
"I'd be glad to." She said with a smile.
"Tonight?" he asked.
"Alright." She answered.
"How about you head there now and I'll meet you when I'm done closing the library? We wouldn't want us leaving together to cause anymore unnecessary rumors." He said with a slight chuckle.
She nodded and said to him before leaving, "I'll see you shortly then, Tohru."
Author's Note- Just a reminder that although this story mainly follows the anime adaptation, it will sometimes contain events which occurred only in the manga in case there was any confusion. Hope you all enjoyed this chapter and I will try and upload the next one as soon as I can.